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 Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:32 pm
Niko was out and about in town, Fell walking alongside her with an almost dog-like harness around his torso, a little leash attached to the angel's waist. Necassary precautions, with his butterfinger hands slipping into random pockets, but still... She sighed slightly, looking down at her son in amusement as they walked down mainstreet, heading for the park playground, the raven boy's favorite hangout.
As they entered the park, Fell started fluttering his wings, the fabric of his t-shirt rippling slightly in the wind from them, and he ran forward, straining at the restricting rope tieing him to his mother. Giving her a sad puppy look, she let him off the hook, and he immediately took off for the swings, letting out a delighted laugh as he started pushing himself off, sitting on the swing on his belly and flying like a plane.
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Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:59 pm
Alex was barely visible behind the precariously perched motley of boxes and bags in his arms. After the initial shock of finidng the infant, Tahira, he'd realized that his home wasn't equipped to suit a baby. A, not so quick, stop at a couple of stores had fixed that. No, they'd more than fixed it. Alex had plenty of money to throw around and in his haste and anxiety he'd gotten way more than he needed to make sure he had enough. As he walked along, some of the bigger items, such as the furniture were being delivered to his house. The things he determined as in more immediate need were carried with him. He had no experience with being a father, so the things of "more immediate need" had turned into absulotely everything light enough for him to carry. Tahira was on a sling on his back. He'd wanted to put her in the fancy new stroller he'd bought her, but that would require a good bit of assembling before it would be useable to him.
Alex felt immensely worried that he wouldn't be able to properly care for this new child. He'd hoped for his sister's help--she'd been stopping by everday to check out the wisp that had formerly been trailing him, but now it had turned into this child. He'd been amazed at how angry this had made her. The woman obviously wanted children of her own and was infuraiated that her useless brother was getting one instead. But, Alex comforted himself with the knowledge that she'd come back soon enough. She wouldn't feel right leaving a helpless child in his incompetant care.
Alex was planning on heading home, but stopped abruptly at the entrance of the park when he saw the winged child. In one mad rush, he dropped the contents in his arms and ran into the park, his infant bouncing in the sling on his back and giggling. Even in his state of hurried, emotional turmoil, Alex had sense enough to approach the mother first instead of the child.
"How?", he asked the women, his eyes begging to know. "Your child is different. Like mine." He slipped Tahira out of her sling and held her out for the woman to see.
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Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:38 pm
Niko looked up, startled, as she heard a question adressed to her. She turned around to face the man, a confused frown on her face. "Uhmm, how what?" She asked; the angel was definately confused. "Well, yes, he's different, but..." She looked over her shoulder at her son, who was still on the swing set.
Fell looked up as he saw the man approaching his mother with a baby, stopping mid swing. Funny looking man and kid. Hopping off the swing, he approached at a trot, his wings fluttering behind as the fabric from his shorts slapped his legs. "Who's he?" He asked, tugging on Niko's skirt.
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Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:57 pm
Alex suddenly felt very foolish. It'd been a stupid idea to go up to a stranger and expect an explanation for the infant's appearance. He wouldn't normally do such a thing. The day had been so frantic and unreal that he could barely grasp normalacy anymore. Obviously the wings must be mechanical . . . or something. The woman had a pair too. He shouldn't jump to such conclusions. Another part of his mind contradicted, Shouldn't jump to contradictions?! A baby appeared from a floating image for christsakes. After that, nothing is ridiculous. He really hoped he was dreaming, that seemed the only explanation now, but he knew undeniably that he wasn't.
"Look", he replied in a snappish, impatient tone. "It hasn't been a good day. This baby here appeared to me this morning from a floating image that's been following me. Either you know why or you don't. Does this kind of thing happen all the time and no ones bothered to mention it to me, or what? " He was quite prepared to believe that this was normal, simply because the huge shock of something so abnormal for him had thrown him off balance and made it so that, at the momment, he had no idea of what was "real" or "sane"
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:44 pm
Niko looked blank for a moment, before realization lit up her face. "Oh! Now I get it. Sorry, it's been almost two years since I got him." She said, her expression turning more apologetic. "But no, it doesn't happen all the time. At least I don't think so. But it's normal for your child; it happened with Fell, too, though it took a long while for him to appear instead of the image. He used to be a little flower bubble that followed me around!" She said with a laugh, counting up the days in her head. March 28th, 2005... Wait. Today was the 27th. Of March. Her eyes turned a little round, but she then stooped down to hug Fell.
Fell was caught a little off balance at the sudden, enveloping embrace. "Mmf, was a bubble a lonng time! That's why I can speak good!" The raven-boy said proudly, a broad, childish smile on his face.
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:17 pm
"Is it?" Alex replied manicly to the 'It's normal for your child' comment. Just his luck that he'd managed to acquire a child through such strange circumstances. It was terrible to think that it was a spot of chance that had caused him such a problem.
"Only . . . I didn't . . . well", He started and then paused to align his thoughts. He determined it was probably best to come right out and say it."I didn't exactly want one."
As terrible as it was, it was what he was thinking. He'd proudly avoided the commitment tof parenthood for years. Hell, he'd been very proud that he'd been so careful. No woman had never become pregant with a child of his. Though there had been, well, plenty of chances. He didn't exactly abstinate. He partied, he got drunk, and by the end of the night some other girl was whorish or drunk enough to tempt him. From there things just . . . happened.
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:29 pm
Niko could understand some of his feelings. Blackfell was her first child, though he was still sort of the youngest. The other three grew so fast! But the second thing he said startled her.
"Not want one? Why? Children are like a gift. I mean, you were one for part of your life, right?" She said, her small smile crooked on her pale face.
Fell couldn't exactly tell what they were talking about, so he looked at the baby instead. She had dark hair and some funny markings, but she was pretty enough. He couldn't see anything shiny, so he reached his hands up to Alex. "Can I hold her?" He asked; he spoke pretty well for a toddler.
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 7:12 pm
"I suppose not planning for one might be a better way of putting it", he replied carelessly. It was a nicer way of putting it, but it wasn't, on the whole, nearly as honest. He'd never thought much about it. It had always been nothing more than an extra responsibility in his mind. When describing Alex, only a liar would use the word 'responsible".
When Fell asked to hold the baby, Alex hesitated, and felt embaressed to catch himself doing so. He was very attatched to the baby even if it hadn't been in his plans. Such things can often beome unexpectantly precious. He found that he was very protective of the new baby. Alex held her out towards the boy with exagerated care. "Just make sure to have an arm under her head as well as her body. Babies aren't able to keep their own head up. It's important to remember", Alex instructed, feeling further embaressment for knowing and hoping dearly that the boy's mother didn't notice the many parenting books and magazines scattered among the other assortment of baby stuff he'd dumped a bit away in his rush earlier.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:04 pm
Niko raised an eyebrow; she liked kids, so it was still difficult to believe another person couldn't. "Fell was pretty unexpected for me. I honestly don't even remember how I got him, or my other three." She frowned, thinking back. "They mostly just showed up on my doorstep. Not necassarily literally for all of them, though." She said, grinning slightly as he suddenly seemed overprotective of the "unwanted burden."
Fell took careful hold of her, his gold eyes wide. "I'll be careful." He said, cradling her carefully in his arms, taking a second to arrange her as the man specified. "She's pretty." Fell said, looking up and smiling brightly, gently bobbing the baby in his arms.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:21 pm
"She is", Alex agreed, nodding. It's been just this morning that she'd turned into an infant right before his eyes. He couldn't believe it. It seemed like more time than that. The day had been a bit hectic.
"Her name is Tahira", Alex told them both casually. He then paused, looking worried. "I don't know how I know that, but I do."
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:46 pm
Niko raised an eyebrow. "Well, sometimes kids have names that just seem to suit them. I named him-" She nodded to her son. "-Blackfell, because it just seemed to work for him."
"Tahira." Fell said, holding her in front of him, his hands under her armpits, watching her face. "She can't talk yet, can she?" He asked, looking up at Alex.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:58 pm
"Nope, she's just a baby", Alex replied.
His face grew worried as he glanced over at the infant, her eyes were unfocused. "She's oddly unresponsive at times. When I first saw her, I thought she was deaf and blind. She wouldn't respond to any noises I made and her eyes didn't follow anything that moved. She goes into her own little world and nothing can snap her out of it. I wonder what's wrong. She'll be perfectly fine and without warning she'll stop responding. Just like that. When she first appeared a terrble feeling of sadness preceeded her. It was horrible. The most horrible feeling I've ever felt."
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 6:07 pm
Niko frowned as he described this; nothing like that had happened to her with Fell. Not that could remember, at least. "Well, you said she appeared this morning, right? Not all babies are totally responsive right off the bat." She said, raising an eyebrow again.
Fell frowned, looking at Alex, and shook the baby a little, looking for some sort of something in her face. "Why?" He asked simply, before sitting on the ground, still holding Tahira under her arms. The raven-boy started tickling her belly.
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:53 am
"Darn, I was hoping it had something to do with the species. What was it you called them again? . . . Oh yes, illusionary."
As the boy started tickling her belly, Tahira came back to reality in a fit of giggles. Alex stared at the little baby, looking puzzled. "Now isn't that something . . . She won't do that for me."
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 3:57 pm
Niko grinned slightly at his phrasing. "Species? They're just like you and me. They breath, they talk, they eat. They have hands and faces, feet and bodies. What more do you need?"
A wide smile broke out across Fell's face as baby Tahira started giggling. "Hee hee, I got her to do somethin'!" The raven-child said proudly, hugging the baby to his chest.
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