Kelvir had gotten used to Tisha, his lovely little Hallowed handful. She was developing an affinity for technology and games, to the point that she was bemoaning her tails’ inabilities to play extra controllers with her. That was something that Kelvir was actually kind of glad for; he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to clean Shade tail drool off the controllers and devices in the house. It would probably happen sooner or later, but Tisha was a smart kiddo. She was surprisingly able to reel them in, and once again Kelvir was glad about that. He had no idea how he’d handle one body part with a mind of its own, let alone two.

Today, he took a peek into Tisha’s room to see her frantically button mashing at some game or another. Kelvir had tried to be careful with what games he picked out, but even “cartoon violence” and “comic mischief” seemed to be everywhere these days. She had been very particular about one of those crossover fighting video games, and the two had even had a little argument. Kelvir said that it was too violent for her, and Tisha insisted that she “wasn’t dumb” and that she “wasn’t gonna start beating people up because of a game.” Maybe his little girl was growing up?

In any case, Tisha had snuck out a back of cheese puffs (extra-crunchy!), and she was alternating between playing the game, eating a puff herself, or feeding some to one of her tails. “Having fun?” Kelvir asked, stepping into the room. “You know those cheese puffs get everywhere. You should wash your hands, and I’ll clean your controller.”

“I’m not at a save point yet!” Tisha’s claws made clacking noises against the buttons. “Hang on, pa!” The way she addressed Kelvir seemed to rotate at random, from “pa” to “dad” to “Kelvie,” but “Kelvir” only popped up if she was particularly angry at him. Soon, she reached a stopping point and scooted to face Kelvir. “What’s up?”

“Just stopping in,” Kelvir said. “Though I do have a question I’d like to ask you.”

“What’sit?”

“What do you think about having another kid in the house with you?” Kelvir sat down next to Tisha and gave her hair a ruffle. “Probably not adopted. One from a stone I imbued myself.”

Tisha made a long thoughtful hum, tapping a claw to her chin. “I dunno, I don’t think there’d be a problem. Just so long as you don’t, like, start acting like the other kid is better because you made them or they’re not a mutant or whatever.”

“I’d never do that.” Kelvir tried to hide the mild offense he felt. If he were one of those snobs that were against mutants, he’d never have picked up Tisha. Still, the point was valid. “Don’t worry. I’ll love both of you all the same.”

“Good! I know I can trust you,” Tisha said with a toothy grin. “Now I’m kinda excited! I wanna see who the new kid is.”

“Well, it’ll take some time, but hopefully we’ll see soon, hmm?” Kelvir looked to the game screen. “Playing the adventure mode?”

“Yeah,” Tisha said. “It’s more… relaxed? More relaxed than the battle mode.” She paused, then added, “Kelvie, good luck on finding my new sibling.”

“Thank you, Tish. I’m glad I have your approval. I wouldn’t do this if you didn’t think it would be okay.” Kelvir rested his chin in his hands, mulling the next steps over. Head to a stone bank, inquire about stones that had been donated as half-imbued, and go from there? Something like that. He had a feeling that this new child would be a step in the right direction for the family, and he’d be in a good place from here on out.

[WC: 631]