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 Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 7:50 am
 The sand glittered as it ran through Pacha's fingertips, the bright sun catching it and making it sparkle. The little alpaca girl didn't seem to notice, however. She was far more intent in packing it into place along the sides of the hole she was digging. Occasionally, she'd lift one sand-covered hand to impatiently shove her hair out of her eyes, and then she'd be right back to it, as grains clung to her thick bangs. There was no real purpose to her work in the sandbox. She knelt in the middle of the hole, turning in a patient circle as she packed and packed and turned and packed some more.
Her sweatshirt was a loose, baggy thing, an unlovely sort of grey beige that didn't really compliment her. On the front, the washed out dirt color was broken off by a bright smiley-face in the center, its bold yellow drawing the eye. Her jeans were a dark blue, but already they were showing signs of wear at the knees and cuffs, and they looked a touch too long for her. The cuffs might've once been rolled up, but her activity in the sandbox, turn and pack, pack and turn, had long since unrolled them.
Periodically, she glanced up from her work, her eyes alighting for a moment on a blue-skinned young woman with white hair who sat on a nearby park bench. Their eyes would seem to meet, though it was hard to be sure given the veil of hair over Pacha's, and Annora would lift a hand in acknowledgement before going back to her book. The breeze ruffled her skirt, but it didn't cut through Pacha's sweatshirt, and Pacha would simply watch a moment more, then go back to packing sand as she did her best to keep her hole nice and even.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 10:12 am
"Two!" Troy declared happily, and reached out toward Mason's hand. After a bit of hand flailing, he managed to get ahold of the two fingers held out.
With a small laugh, Mason nodded and said, "Yes! Two fingers..." He wiggled his hand which was now being gripped intently. Similarly, Troy's snake-like body was wrapped around Mason's chest, and the little one was leaning over Mason's left shoulder as he walked down a park path.
On this particular day, Mason's hair was colored to be dark green to match Troy's natural hair color. His outfit was actually rather boring, otherwise. Pants, a shirt, sunglasses. He pushed his fingers against Troy’s grasp, slowly getting closer and finally poked the little one right in the nose, eliciting a giggle, and the release of his fingers.
As they walked along, Troy suddenly tightened up around Mason and wrapped an arm around the man’s face. “Look! Look! That kid over there! He’s got big ear thingies! And a tail!” The snake was clearly excited by this, so Mason pulled the arm away from his face and looked over.
There was indeed an unusual looking child in a sandbox digging intently. Mason wasn’t so sure ‘he’ was the right word to use, but it didn’t seem that important. “You’re right, Troy...do you want to go over and meet her?” Even as he asked, he turned to walk over. Troy gave a big nod to say he agreed.
Moments later, they were right by the sandbox. Mason focused on figuring out who the child belonged to--he concluded a woman on a nearby bench. Troy’s attention, though, was entirely on the kid. He didn’t actually say anything at first, but wrapped as much of him as he could around Mason’s chest, and dangled off to the side to look at the one playing. Mason let him, although leaned slightly to keep his balance.
He approached the woman and said, “Hi there. Would I be correct in guessing that the little one playing in the sand there is yours? Troy here really wanted to see him.” He patted the side of the snake, even though Troy was facing away from the woman.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 10:32 am
Annora looked up from her book, one hand automatically going to her skirt and tugging it closer to her in what appeared to be a purely habitual gesture to give Mason more room to sit, though he certainly had plenty already. Brushing a couple of errant locks of white hair out of her face, and revealing what almost seemed to be white fins buried in her hair, she smiled at him. "Hello. You are correct, yes. That's Pacha," she said, nodding over to the alpaca girl. "But... um... Pacha's a 'she'," she added after a moment, as she closed her book, one finger stuck within the pages to keep her place. Though one more glance at the sandy girl, and even Annora had to admit that it was nigh on impossible to really tell that Pacha was a girl.
Pacha, however, was oblivious to it all. While the adults talked and Troy stared at her, she continued her excavation with meticulous care. She brushed her hair out of her eyes again, and a bit more sand stuck to her thick hair, and then she finally looked up and paused. Seeing Annora with someone else wasn't part of the pattern, but more than that, there was a kid watching her. A very... pretty kid, she decided, as she carefully clambered out of her hole, dusting her hands on her jeans and sticking one hand back into her bangs so that she could see clearly. Below the hair now sticking every which-a-way, deep brown eyes looked over Troy curiously. When she reached them, she stopped just in front of Annora's knees, avoiding the skirt that brushed the ground, and made her opinion known. "You're pretty."
Annora blinked, and her cheeks darkened to a dusky purple as she chuckled at Pacha, one hand reaching out to brush a bit of the sand away. She somehow suspected the girl had brough half of the sandbox with her when she'd approached.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 10:56 am
“Ah, ‘she’, I’m sorry,” Mason said, and then watched as the girl walked over, all the while Troy remained wrapped around Mason, watching, a look of wonder and interest on his face. When the girl spoke, Troy looked up at Mason. “You can talk to her, it’s okay,” he assured the little one.
“Th-thank you,” Troy said to Pacha after he’d twisted back around to look at her. “I’m Troy. Dad says I’m pretty ‘cause I’m a snake.” He nodded once, and then spun around Mason twice, lowering himself down the body enough to drop off and sit on the ground. He then put his tail in a circle around him, and kept his head at the same height as Pacha’s. “What’re you?”
“So, I suppose,” Mason said to the woman after being satisfied that Troy was okay with talking for now, “That Pacha here came from D-Corp...? They have quite the collection of oddities.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:15 am
Annora nodded, her lips quirked in a wry smile. "Yes, she did," she agreed, brushing away a few grains of sand that had fallen on her. Her look at Pacha was fond and no little amused. "I was able to bring her home with me just a few days ago, so we're still getting used to each other. She doesn't seem to mind it at my house much, though, thankfully."
"I'm a lolpaca," Pacha said, pronouncing the word carefully, and then turning to peer through her bangs, for she'd dropped her hand to her side again, as Annora started snickering. She waited silently while Annora finished chuckling, and then nodded as Annora corrected her. The moment Annora was finished, Pacha turned back to Troy, and said, as though he hadn't been able to hear the whole thing, "A alpaca." She considered Troy for a minute, then reached out with one blunt-fingered hand to poke at his arm. "Do they come off?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 4:27 pm
Mason smiled. “I was...invited to take home Troy not too long ago.” He shrugged. “It’s been a very unique time so far. Most people seem to have no idea what they’re looking at with him.” He surprisingly didn’t mind having the little snake around all the time. It certainly made things more interesting, if trying at times.
“My arms?” Troy asked, confused. “Nah, my arms don’t come off...I need them to hold stuff.”
“I think she meant your scales, Troy,” Mason offered helpfully, a hand on the boy’s head.
Troy looked up briefly, the explanation not registering at first. “Oh! ...Uhm...” He faced Pacha again and said, “They don’t come off, either.” He poked at one. “I tried pulling one off one day...it hurt!” He looked down at the hand that poked him. “What’s on your hand?”
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 5:23 pm
Annora nodded, a fond smile on her face as she looked down at Pacha. "Yes, I came across an ad that invited people who wanted to be parents to apply. The questions were quite thorough... enough that I wasn't sure whether I would even see any results. I was surprised when they called back to say that I had been approved as a guardian for her. We're figuring each other out, but I must say that it's slow going. She and I are quite different, so far."
Pacha completely ignored Annora's explanation in favor of looking long and searchingly at both of her hands. She couldn't see anything on them, really. Well, nothing but the remaining grains of sand that stuck in the fringe of fur around them, and under her nails. She waited to answer, looking first at the palms individually, careful to inspect each crease, and then at the backs, where the fur held the sand so nicely embedded, catching the light enough that she knew Annora would insist on a long and thorough bath that night. Finally, she shrugged, looking up at Troy curiously. "I dunno," she said, brushing her bangs out of her eyes again to examine his face. He didn't seem to be laughing, so it probably wasn't a joke. Her bangs stuck up in places, messy as could be, but offering her a slightly better view for a while. "What's on them?"
She had to admit, now that she'd turned her attention back to him, that she was honestly a little sorry his scales didn't come off. They were so very pretty. She'd hoped to maybe take one home and put it in the small box she called her treasure box. It was really nothing more than an opaque tupperware container that Annora had given to her, but it was suitable enough, and she was always on the lookout for something new for it. Those scales would've been just the thing...
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 1:27 pm
“An ad, huh?” Mason ran a hand through his green hair, looking thoughtful. “I wonder what makes them decide to pick people? I have no idea why they picked me, at least.” He shrugged. “I didn’t even apply, ask, or anything. They called me one morning, completely out of the blue. I’d have figured they’d call my brother for this type of thing over me. But, whatever, here I am.”
Troy reached out, paused a second, then grabbed one of Pacha’s hands. “This stuff,” he said, using the pointer finger of his other hand to brush some fur. “It’s all fuzzy and stuff...” After a moment’s pause, and some more brushing with the finger. “Hey, *you’re* fuzzy,” he said, realizing it, watching as a few light bits of sand fell to the ground. Troy hadn’t met many kids from D-Corp yet, although this wasn’t actually the first fuzzy-person he’d met...it still was something he wouldn’t think of. After all, his hands were smooth & scaly, and Mason’s hands were smooth & soft.
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:23 pm
"Does your brother have a way with children or something?" Annora asked, tilting her head a bit as she did. Her hair drifted lightly over one shoulder, then settled into place, obviously tickling her neck a bit. She reached up, flicking the strands away impatiently.
Pacha blinked as Troy brushed her fur a few times, an odd look on her face. "Of course I'm fuzzy," she finally said, as though he were odd to even ask such a thing. She didn't pull her hand back, though. Instead, she took the opportunity to poke very lightly at his scales once more. "You're not," she finally observed, not realizing that her own observations might seem strange to him.
Catching a bit of the conversation, Annora chuckled and reached out a hand to rest on Pacha's arm. "He must think you being fuzzy is very different," she pointed out, trying for an educational tone. Pacha looked over at her, chewing a bit at her upper lip as she considered that. Eventually, she looked back at Troy. "Do you think I'm strange?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 7:58 am
Mason considered the question a moment. “No...I suppose not. He’s just...always been into all the crazy-complex scientific stuff, and unusual things,” he gestured in the direction of the little ones. “And they certainly qualify as something unusual. Dunno. He just seems their sort.” He shrugged again. “Of course, I haven’t seen him in a while. Some kind of secret project, all hush-hush and stuff.”
With a big, childish shrug that he probably picked up off some TV show, Troy said, “I’unno...are you strange?” He tilted his head to the side, genuinely curious. If he were to be asked who he thought was strange, he would end up picking one of the grown-ups, if anyone at all.
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 6:17 am
Annora laughed at Mason's description of his brother, folding her hands back over her book and looking at Pacha again. "For children," she said quietly, something thoughtful in her eyes even as the smile remained on her lips, "I think it's less about someone into 'crazy-complex scientific stuff' and more about someone who can at least try to properly take care of them. And whatever these guys are, they're also children. My mother and I were about as different as I am from Pacha, so... I learned from her about letting children find their proper path."
Pacha decided, abruptly, that she wanted to sit, so sit she did, dropping down onto the seat of her jeans with a child's grace. "Maybe," she decided, frowning a little. Her lower lip stuck out when she did that, making her look like she was pouting, though she was really only thinking. "Being strange is maybe fun."
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Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 1:36 pm
"Well, yeah," Mason said, nodding slightly. "Children don't want the sciency stuff...usually. I just mean that," he shrugged. "It seems more up the company's alley to go with that sort of person. Though, I suppose they're not stupid." He laughed once, somewhat ruefully. "Finding a guy like me though. That's an odd choice, no matter who I'm being compared with."
"What does strange mean?" Troy asked, his head tilted slightly to the right. "I'm strange, you're strange, dad's strange...does it mean the same as 'person'?" It was a genuine question, if somewhat absurd from a more experienced perspective, but it was true. Everybody he was around with any regularity he'd heard called strange before. His confusion came mostly from the visible reaction he got out of Pacha, even though he was mostly misinterpreting what he saw.
Mason heard the question and laughed again, less ruefully, and put his hand on the snake's head, but didn't actually answer the question. Troy, for his part, just wrapped his little hand around Mason's wrist, while still watching Pacha.
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 5:13 am
Annora started to comment on Mason's words, but the question stalled her for a moment. She looked over at Pacha, and for a moment, seeing the stuck-out lower lip and furrowed brows of thought, her heart fluttered with dismay. But after a moment, her eyes, already trained to see what Pacha was like, registered the look as thinking, not pouting, and she settled back against the bench once more, content to let Pacha puzzle that one out.
Pacha looked up at Troy, thinking about it for a moment, then looked back down at the grass, tugging a blade out and tickling it over her palm as she thought. The small, constant motion seemed to help her better focus. "Strange is... not normal," she said slowly, choosing each word with care. Her dark eyes peered back up at Troy as best they could under the cover of her thick bangs. "Strange is... strange." She turned to Annora, her eyes pleading with the woman, and her mother took pity on her.
"Strange usually means not being like other people or things around you," she said, keeping her eyes on Pacha. "Everyone is different, true, but some people have more in common than other people. Being strange means you mostly don't have things in common with other people."
Pacha digested that for a long moment, really thinking about it, then turned back to Troy. "She said," she informed him calmly, offering a smile and holding out the blade of grass to him.
Annora watched her, chuckling, then looked back at Mason. "Now you were saying something about a 'guy like you'?"
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 2:41 pm
Mason shrugged. "Well, an old friend of mine once told me that I have about as much of a sense of responsibility as a hamster does." He looks off toward some trees for a moment. "Basically, I've never really felt obligated to do something, never sought responsibility, never felt I must do something." He looks down at Troy. "And I have a hell of a time getting myself to be responsible for this little one."
"Normal is boring," Troy declared. His intonation suggested that he was mimicking someone--Mason most likely--and didn't truly understand what it meant. Then he nodded as he considered the answer given by the lady.
He held out his shiny, colorful little hand and plucked the grass from Pacha's fingers and brought it close to his face, where he stared at it, then poked his nose with it. "What do you do with it?" he asked finally, after apparently deciding not to eat it.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 5:44 am
Annora digested that with no real comprehension. She understood everything he said, but the very thought of it was completely foreign to her. "You've... never had a goal in life?" she finally asked, frowning a little as her hands folded together once more. "Or... or siblings?" She hated the note of dismay that had crept into her voice, but the very thought of not having either just made her shudder inwardly.
Pacha grinned at Troy's quote, nodding right back at him. But when he asked about the grass, she blinked. "You tickle with it," she said, plucking another blade and reaching out to tickle the very tip of it just under his chin while still grinning. "She makes whistles out of them, but she can whistle louder just using her 'dangerous voice'."
When Annora heard the last comment, her cheeks turned pale indigo with a blush, and she looked away, keeping silent as she waited for Mason to respond.
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