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 Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 7:23 pm
"Now, you be nice to Irelia and Asher, okay? No climbing on things or eating anything you're not supposed to..." Calder held Taki's hand and the boy sighed loudly.
"I said I wouldn' climb stuff anymore, papa..." he mumbled, and took half a step towards Calder. Calder watched him for a moment longer, then knocked on the door, straightening and tucking his hand in his pocket. "Papa... Do they got anything to eat?"
Calder looked down at the boy and let out an exasperated sigh. "I told you to eat something before we came over!"
Taki stared right back up at the Sidhe and in a blatantly honest voice, he stated, "We don't have anything good to eat. All the crackers taste funny an' you said I can't have cookies."
Calder sighed, then fished in his jacket pocket where he kept a store of granola bars, handing one over to the young boy. Taki let out a happy noise and munched on the granola bar. Amazingly, all this took place in a very short time, and before the door opened.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 8:03 pm
"Irelia, get back here!"
There was a loud squeal and a giggle and the shrieking, naked, sud-covered Irelia skidded across the linoleum floor of the kitchen. Asher, soaking wet from their "bath" (which, unlike other things, had NOT settled down and was now like a water god gleefully creating a Tsunami) raced after Irelia, holding a large towel out in order to capture her.
Irelia shrieked as Asher captured her, scrubbing the water out of her hair.
"We need to hurry, Irelia. Taki and Calder are coming in five minutes and you need to be dressed."
Irelia tore out of Asher's grip, the towel trailing behind her as she raced in to her bedroom.
She came out a couple of minutes later, wearing a combination of clothing and colours that would make any normal person's eyes bleed.
"Aren't I be-a-u-tiful!" Irelia crowed and twirled around, releasing multiple feathers from her electric blue boa.
Asher sighed, "Yes, Irelia, you look like a pretty little princess."
Irelia stopped twirling and looked cross.
"I don't care what you think, it is a pretty dress! And its not too small and I am an artist!"
Asher raised one eyebrow and steered Irelia on to her chair in the kitchen.
"Sit down. Your sandwich is ready."
Asher schooled his expression to one of bland nuetrality and placed a plate in front of Irelia. She scowled, and Asher looked away as the doorbell rang.
Asher opened the door, and as he was about to greet Calder and Taki a sandwich flew across the room, smashing in to the doorframe and leaving a sticky, gooey cheese mess as it started making its way down the wall.
"Irelia!!!" Asher turned from the door, and yelled at Irelia.
"What are you doing?"
Irelia was sitting at the table, her eyes full of tears.
"Don't close you brain. It makes me sad."
Asher sighed and looked at Calder with an expression of exasperation.
"Yes, it may make her sad but I have no privacy anymore. She has learned way too much about things that no toddler should know."
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 8:19 pm
Calder flinched backwards from the cheese explosion, and offered a smile that showed as much empathy as he could manage. "Well, at least she's not climbing up on your shelves because she likes to jump off things."
Taki paused in his granola bar eating to stick his tongue out at his papa. "Your own fault cause you leave me alone."
Calder winced slightly at the words. "He's got a point there. Kids can be so harshly truthful..." He strengthened his mental blocks--something he hadn't had to do since he'd left Faerie--and stepped through the door, tugging Taki along behind him. "This one's quite precocious himself."
"Whassat?"
"It means you act older than you are."
"Oh..." Taki went silence, not really understanding but not wanting to admit it. He shoved the last of his granola bar into his mouth and tugged free of Calder as he scampered over to where Irelia was sitting.
"So, how's the parent's life been going?" Calder asked, chuckling and eyeing the cheese dripping down the doorjamb. "Other than the chucking of cheese sandwiches across the room, that is."
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 9:09 pm
Asher grinned uneasily.
"Its been... interesting. We've gone through so many babysitters that I wish we had the ability to call down Mary Poppins. I think that even she wouldn't know what to do with Irelia at this point. Now I have to bring her to my pottery classes... and she happily plays with the "mud" but is such a caked mess when we get back that it's almost better if i just let her harden and chip the clay off."
Irelia stared at Taki with wide eyes and edged closer to him with glee in her eyes.
"Daddy has really tall shelves in his room. And there's a big bed too. Let go jump!"
Irelia raced out of the kitchen and in to Asher's room.
Asher shook his head at his daughter's antics, and grabbed her as she was clambering up on to the spindles of Asher's large bed.
"Don't play shoulder demon with Taki. You know you must'nt climb on things. Go play with your dolls or something less... dangerous."
Asher walked back over to Calder and formally invited him in.
"The only good thing about her strange ability is that she understands; I've never heard her ask why and she probably understands the why of whatever she finds out better than if I told her."
Asher groaned.
"Until I can teach her to not pry in to every aspect of people's minds and to keep some things private... there isn't a chance for me to get romantically involved in anyone. I do NOT want to even think about things like that with Irelia around. i do not want to explain about that sort of thing to a child who looks like she's three."
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 9:59 pm
Calder watched in horror as Irelia prompted the catboy to follow her after a cursory glance towards his papa as if to say 'ha, you can't stop me'. His cheeks were still puffy from his granola bar as he skittered towards Irelia's destination, but he stopped the pursuit when Asher started towards them, slinking in a remarkably cat-like manner back out to the other room, ears down as if he expected a spanking, or something like that.
Calder laughed aloud once, then stifled it with a hand closed into a fist against his lips. When he finally subdued the laughter, he waved Taki after Irelia, and the young boy scampered off, grin renewed on his face. "Well, I don't pity you in that. Taki sleeps a lot, as might be expected, but it is quite interesting more often than not... Sometimes I'm not quite sure if he's making a cat noise or a child noise, and we've had our fair share of troubles about baths..."
He ran fingers through his hair. "It's odd to me that he doesn't like water; but he played in the pool the other day with another little girl who actually got him to get in. It's almost a miracle. She calls him a chicken, and in he leaps. It took a couple tries for him to actually swim, but he's quite adept."
He glanced at the couch, then raised a questioning eyebrow at Asher. "Can I sit?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 10:22 pm
Asher nodded, and arranged himself so there was room. His couch was small, something called a "loveseat", probably because of how close one sat together, to the point that it felt like you were sitting on one another.
"i haven't mustered up the courage to take her swimming. She hasn't asked either, so at least she doesn't feel like she's missing out. I can just imagine how many children would be crying from her throwing toys and water at them."
A loud screech came from the kitchen, and Asher stood up quickly.
"I put the kettle on for some tea. Would you like some?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 10:42 pm
"I would love a cup of tea, thank you." Calder chuckled, then glanced off towards where Taki and Irelia had disappeared as he sank into the seat. "So, what does she do for fun? Taki likes to color, but it seems that's not enough to keep him occupied while I do my work... I left him alone the other day with coloring books and snacks, and I hear a blood-curdling screech about an hour in--you may have heard it--and I come out to find him wailing and crying because he's gotten himself stuck on the top of the bookshelf in the living room..."
"Irelia?" Taki quested, peeking his head into Irelia's room a few moments after she'd disappeared into it. His tail twitched as he scooted over to stand most of the way in the doorway, shooting a brief glance to where his and Irelia's papas were talking.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 10:52 pm
"She's very secretive about what she does. Most of the time, I know she's talking to her dolls and creating odd stories about them and she draws as well. Most of the time, she clings to me and does whatever I'm doing," Asher paused and looked up from pouring the hot water, "sugar and cream? I put about 10 cubes in mine and people hate when I take the initiative and do it for them without asking."
***
Irelia looked up from her seat on the floor and grinned.
"Taki! Come play. Look, I have sparkles!" Irelia held up a shiny tube of glitter paint.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:03 pm
"Well, Taki doesn't have dolls, but he does sometimes have the most fantastic stories..." Calder paused, wondering what exactly Taki did do when he wasn't about. Sometimes he couldn't even fathom what the boy was thinking of; sometimes he was more cat than boy, and vice versa. He glanced up when Asher offered cream and sugar, and smiled politely. "I'd like two sugars and just a bit of cream, if you don't mind. I'm old fashioned with my hot beverages, I suppose. Comes with the age, or something of the like."
~~~
Taki didn't have to be asked twice, grinning and scampering in to plop on the floor beside the little girl. "What's it for?" His eyes were fixed on the shiny tube, something inside him completely entranced by it, and his tail twitched like a cat watching a bird through a window, sometimes just the end, sometimes the entire thing lashing to and fro. "I like sparkles," he finally said, tearing his gaze from the shineys.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:17 pm
Asher laughed.
"I think my taste buds have deteriorated to a point where more is much much better. I have a tendency to make everything far too sweet. Have you ever added ice cream to your coffee? Lets say its an acquired taste to anyone but me, it seems."
Asher brought the two cups over and offered one to Calder.
"Irelia is half sheep but I think she's more ram than sheep, in my own opinion. Stubborn isn't even the half of it. But the few times where she's listening and just happy... it makes all of the other times where I want to pull out my hair worth it."
Asher laughed suddenly, and rubbed his hand over his face.
"You realize we talk like two old ladies where our children are concerned."
***
Irelia had decided that she was the queen of Egypt and was liberally applying the glitter to her face.
"I am a goddess, more powerful than anything!! What do you want to be?" Irelia turned to Taki and a couple of clumps of glitter fell off of her face.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:30 pm
Calder chuckled at Asher's commentary, and grinned at his commentary on their observations of the children.
"I suppose we do. But it's better two old women than trying to muddle our way through... Well, I suppose we do that, too. It's probably that we've got much more patience than we thought we had to begin with, and the quiet moments let us relax that patience, hmm?"
He went quiet and sipped at his tea thoughtfully. "Well, anyway, thank you for the tea. And for letting me vent my frustrations about Taki. Of course, there's enough of that going around for both of us."
~~~
"Huh?" Taki looked up at Irelia after a moment, blinking a few times as his pupils widened again from the slits they'd become, watching the glitter like a thing posessed. "Uh... Uh... I wanna be..."
His brows creased in childlike intensity, ears swiveling back to rest partially against his head. Then, in a moment of enlightenment, he straightened up, ears pointed straight up. "I wanna be a soldier! But not like the ones that fight with guns, I wanna sword, like the Romans!"
Calder had just finished telling him tales about the Roman Empire, and the coliseum. He had heard enough about the gladiators to decide that he'd rather have shiny armor, like the real Roman soldiers. "One with a big hat, with the fur!"
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:42 pm
"YEAH!" Irelia cried and leapt to her feet.
"I saw those on TV. But they said there were some that fight naked... that's gross. But Daddy made me one of those hats out of cereal boxes. I have it here somewhere..."
Irelia raced to her closet and began throwing out different things from her closet. Gauzy scarves, fake money, clothes, etc. all flew around the room. Irelia finally found the hat, much dented and the gold paint coming off but still looking like a hat.
"Here. You can be, uh, Pa-lo-nee-us. I was watching that show with Daddy. i don't think i was s'posed to but it was neat!"
"I will be Clio, Queen of DeNile! You can be a Roman soldier man. I think Daddy has a sword somewhere. He show'd it to me."
Irelia stopped and threw another boa around her, just for good measure.
"Lets go on a quest!"
***
Asher could hear thumps coming from Irelia's room, followed by giggling.
"At least they aren't quiet. When they're quiet, you know they're up to something."
Asher finished his tea and fixed his hair, which had become ruffled when he was chasing after Irelia.
"How's wo-"
Asher stopped mid-sentence as there was a knock at the door followed by a quiet shriek.
"Ah, I think i might have some other guests. They weren't supposed to come for another hour though. My apologies."
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:55 pm
"Puh-lone-iz." Taki stumbled over the foreign name, but grinned widely, and suffed the helmet on his head. It squished his ears a little, but he could live with that. He was a Roman!
"I need a sword! An' a shield! I'm a le-jean air!" He bounced happily, and then bit his lip, fang-like canines visible. "I dun think papa has anythin' so interesting. He said he knows magic though. He promised he'd show me, but he hadn't yet." He stared for a moment at Irelia, then resumed bouncing again. "What sorta quest?"
~~~
"I just hope she doesn't talk Taki into something stupid..." Calder murmured. The boy was terribly gullible sometimes, intelligent as he was. And sometimes a little jumpy. Calder's own teacup was set down not long after Asher's and he glanced sharply towards the door at the knock. "Other guests..?" Calder repeated dumbly, making it a question.
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:16 am
Irelia's eyes sparkled. "Magic? I wish your Daddy could teach me that would be so cool!" Irelia grabbed a magic wand and waved it around. "Poof! You are the best soldier in the entire world!" Irelia said this in a very run on manner, like she tended to and rushed in to her closet. "I know where the sword is! Its in Daddy's room so we will have to be very quiet otherwise he will catch us. He will be an evil monster!" Irelia growled and bared her non-existant fangs. She saw Taki's and ran her fingers over her teeth. "Why do you have scary fangs and I don't? I want to be scary monster queen!" *** "Irelia? Well, I can't say that she won't get crazy ideas because she's very imaginative but there's nothing that she can get in to in her room." Asher ran his hands through his hair nervously. "Yes... She's Irelia's current babysitter and she waives her fee if she gets free pottery classes. Its working out well, but she called me earlier today and asked if it was ok if she came over. She sounded a bit frazzled and well, uh," Asher blushed furiously. "I'll get the door." Asher mumbled and raced to the door. A woman with long brown hair and pale blue eyes was standing at the door. A little plump, her usually smiling face was contorted in to a frown. "Hello Asher," She rubbed her head and sighed, "remember how I told you I worked for a biochemical company, and I was taking care of a plant? Well..." The girl forced a little girl in front of Asher. Her hair was pale green and her skin was grey coloured. "This is Rune. She's-" The girl was interrupted as Rune was suddenly reduced to tears. "Sorry. She's been doing this all of the time. I can't turn off the waterworks and she won't speak to me." The girl noticed Calder. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Rihanna Natsube. I work at the Biochemical facility about a couple of miles away." ((Here's rune, BTW)) 
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:21 am
"I bet he'd teach you something if you asked." Taki wiggled cheerfully, and stared at Irelia. "I'm good at being quiet. I hafta be quiet when papa's working!"
He glanced towards Irelia when she asked about the fangs, and he reached a finger up to poke at the longer teeth. "I dunno, I always had 'em. Maybe when papa teaches you magic you can learn how to get fangs too!" Always optimistic, Taki was.
He turned and tugged off his helmet for a few moments when he heard voices, and crying, from the other room, ears perking, eyes bright. "Hey! Now's our chance! They're distracted!" he said in a loud whisper, stuffing the hat back over his ears, and grinning over towards the feather-bedecked girl.
~~~
Calder just sat and watched the scene unfold, looking from the woman to the little girl, and back again, until she noticed him. He stood, nodding his head in a slight bow. "Calder Quiole, pleasure to meet you... I work with Asher at the Liberty Center." He ran fingers through his hair, not quite sure what to say but feeling like he needed to be helpful. "Plants turn into people all the time around here..." Not so helpful as it had sounded in his head.
He glanced over towards Asher. Taki had never been a crier.
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