The Villa Is Open

[shipwreck_light]

Zephyr had a plan. "We are gonna make you the best electric milkshake that ever was!"

"Or will be!" Pip joined in, clapping her hands over her head as she danced along before him and Roa and generally got in the way of where they were trying to walk.

This gave Zephyr plenty of excuse to pause at the end of the hall and make himself a sweeping gesture. "In the historya... ah..." one that should have ended with him banging his hand on the wall.

Except for the part where the applicable wall had disappeared and not in the usual behold the busted drywall kind of way. It was just gone. Likewise, the hallway and the entirety of Sky Plaza.

Zephyr stood on some low, sweeping stone steps. That happened to be outside, while just a moment before been /inside/ and headed to the kitchen. "OK, what the hell?"

Roa took in the sudden sky all golden up the flanks of the villa before them and held her finger to her lips in curiosity. "I don't know, actually." Then, she attempted to walk down the way they had come. This got her over the steps and almost to the spray from the fountain in the drive before it became quite apparent merely turning around wasn't going to accomplish much besides dampening her shoes. Back up she went. "This *looks* like where they held the last Court of the Manor."

"You dunno?" his next sound was an odd one, not a moan and not a laugh, and awfully feline besides. "Yeah, that's not freakin me out or nothin. Dun you know everythin?"

"Zephyyyr. Same to you."

"You guys," interjected Pip, her bare toes rapping on the stone. "Think this's kinda the same thing happened to Seb."

"Hm?" Zephyr craned himself her way, and their hands tangled together, wires all a-flash.

"Mm!"

"Mnhn."

"Nnn~."

"Well, I like your theory so far," Roa nodded. Mostly, she wasn't being silly right back at their latest ridiculous display. Mostly. "Happened to Siebenkas...?"

"Yeah, he had this dream," the elder of the two evokers almost began to explain, digits working.

Whatever he meant to coax out of the recollections between them, Pip took over, swaying as she did. "He thinks was a dream, but is totally notta dream. I know. I touched him thinkin about it an it was all wrong fora dream. Still didn't make any sense, but not the same kinda way dreams do."

"Also, Seb never dreams he's nekkid. Fun fact."

("So useful, too," Roa remarked, quite to herself.)

"But, he walked outta his bathroom an alla a sudden, he was in this bar in Old New York an there were all these other people an he was almost kinda sorta mebbe flirtin with this mob boss lady over gin an tonic and then there was this real cute muddy guy. Seb didn't think he was so cute, but I did. He got way more distracted by the other lady evoked with her eyes and the booze was good an there were pretty blond polyamourous peeps bonkin in the restroom an... an... an..."

Her not so little description might have gone on another few hours, except that Zephyr reached around with his unoccupied hand and tickled her. The way they'd tangled up together, she must have known it was coming.

Which left Roa to conclude Pip wanted tickled more than she wanted to discuss any washroom adventures. "On one hand, that sounds very much like a dream to me. On the other, if there's some sort of precedent for people in our manor suddenly disobeying all known laws of physics. And you're not playing some sort of elaborate prank."

"Hey! I had my heart set on givin you your first electric milkshake an that's not somethin I'd go back on for any money." Next thing she did know with any certainty, Zephyr had play staggered over, clutching at his shirt, "'m so disappointed it /huuurts/."

"Well, you can make it up to me when the universe goes back to normal."

Grin for the time being, too.

"It is going to go back to normal?"

"Did last time. 's why we still gotta Seb an notta portal to someplace called Dan's," said Pip.

"Alright, so why don't we...?"

"Make the besta it?"

"Yes!" Roa swung from Zephyr's grasp. He only then reached for her, trying to find that place in her moments where the best meant [concrete] he could play after and with her. As it was, he missed her as she skipped the villa steps instead, swirling her skirt in her hands and calling back after: "We're going to get company, right?"

"Woul, that'd be nice, but if not," he shrugged. "We get blitzed an watch the stars come out." A quick little sigh and a pop of his shoulder after, he followed.

Pip watched the space in the sky where the clouds should have been. The end of her nose twitched. "We're so gettin company. Can smell it, almost. Somethin's zactly not right out there." Laughing then, she blew past them both and straight through the doors.



Stuff you actually need to know available in this direction:
http://rainbowlounge.dreamwidth.org/18653.html

Have fun!

ETA: This post has not been up thirty-six hours and we officially have more than 500 comments. SO I SUPPOSE THIS ISN'T FUN AT ALL AMMIRITE? XD

ETA II: I am really, really touched that everyone wants to take care of the deceased fellow in the pool. I'm sure he appreciates it (he didn't even have a name in the story where he first appeared ;_;). But, alas, there was only one of him and he's currently being handled. He may be installed in a bedroom shortly, and should that happen, I will give him his own thread for poking purposes.

Comments

[zach_meyers]

"Right," Zach said with a nod. "They were brought to us at nine at night because another foster home burned out on Jessica. At nine at night, they couldn't even wait until the next morning. And they had to be certified for disabled kids if she was staying with them at all. She was five, and he was seven, and their biohazards, as Ivy would put it, made him be her caregiver except when he was at school. She's profoundly autistic, and that's what was going on in that house."

(*hugs* Let me know if I can help somehow.)

[bookblather]

Gina was speechless for a good few minutes, then silent for a few more. "I apologize for that," she said, finally, "but I don't have a very large profane vocabulary, and I didn't want to bore you. They're certified for disabled children and they turned a profoundly autistic child out of her bed at nine at fucking night?"

Somewhere, Gail wanted to kill someone and did not know why. Gina planned to fill her in.

[zach_meyers]

"That was approximately our reaction," Zach said. He mostly managed to keep cool because he'd been furious over it for months after it happened. "Jessica reacted badly to everything at the time, but given her background, she couldn't be blamed for it. Apparently, the previous foster parents, all of them, disagreed. CFS was on the verge of separating the kids and placing her in a group home. It would have destroyed both of them." And even that was an understatement.

[bookblather]

"For God's sake," Gina said, and rubbed both hands over her face. "There are times I despair of humanity. How old was she?"

[zach_meyers]

"Four," Zach said. He'd misremembered earlier and gone by when they were adopted, not when they'd come to them. "So Ben was six. He was probably the only reason she wasn't anymore...panicked is probably the best word. Hell, she didn't calm down for us for weeks, and we kept everything as calm and routine as we could with a baby in the house. It's just a good thing it was summer, or having Ben gone all day would have made it harder on all of us, her especially." He sipped her water and shrugged a bit. "We loved her from the start, but with their background, it wasn't easy. With either of them. Ben's still solemn and much more adult than he should be, and he still acts like Jessica is solely his responsibility sometimes."

[bookblather]

And how could he not? Gina nodded, slowly. "Grew up too fast, it sounds like. I feel like they all do, sometimes." Andy's too-thin face and too-wise eyes, oh, yes, she knew that. "I don't think it's ever easy with an autistic child, but they're still your child. They're still a child."

[zach_meyers]

"She's our baby," Zach said with a sudden, fierce pride. "And she's gotten so much more adjusted since she came to us, too. She has a few words, she understands smiling, and she self-soothes much better. Much less screaming. I just wish Ben didn't take it all on himself like he does, but I don't know how he can change it now, with how much he's taken care of her all her life."

[bookblather]

Gina shrugged. "Time," she said, "and care, and reminding him every so often that you've got his back. I'm sure he knows it, but he might not know it emotionally, if you follow me. Whatever helps him feel like a good brother, I guess."

[zach_meyers]

Zach nodded. "We're working on it. Tons of reassurance, positive reinforcement, everyone telling him he's a great brother for all five of them, that kind of thing. And it probably is helping him that Jessica is so much better than she used to be."

[bookblather]

"Yes," Gina said, and nodded. "My sister-in-law is a social worker-- did I mention that? I don't remember. Anyway, she mentioned that sometimes that's all you can do for a kid, telling them they're doing great and building up their confidence however you can."

[zach_meyers]

Zach shook her head. "You didn't. It's great to know what we're doing is social worker-approved, though. We just want him to have time to be a kid. He needs it, even if he doesn't know it."

[bookblather]

"She's how we got Andy," Gina said. "She saw his case and she made sure his caseworker got in touch with us." She sighed. "I'm glad he's doing better, though. That both of them are."

[zach_meyers]

"I'm glad Andy is, too," Zach said. "All of them deserve it, more than a lot of people understand."

[bookblather]

"You will get no argument from me," Gina replied. "At all."

[zach_meyers]

Zach smiled at her. "That leaves only Brenda and Julia. Brenda's named after my mom, Julia's named after Adamo's. Brenda's four now, and Julia's three. They're a year and a half apart. Great girls. Julia can incredibly stubborn, which I think she gets from Adamo. And Brenda's a little lost in the clouds. Both those things could be their ages, of course. They're so smart and so sweet, and it's amazing to see them grow from newborns to preschoolers."

[bookblather]

"Three-year-olds do tend to be dreadful at times," Gina said, dryly. "They sound like sweet kids, though. I'm really looking forward to watching this one grow." She smiled, rather wryly. "Not so much to the giving birth part, but it's sort of inevitable."

[zach_meyers]

Zach grinned at her. "I didn't envy our surrogate that at all, and she had an epidural. I don't imagine she would have agreed to be our surrogate for Julia if she hadn't."

[bookblather]

"I have heard from a reliable source that epidurals are the only way to go," Gina said-- Clara, who, since she'd had twins, would know. "And not a c-section unless you can't help it. Takes longer to bounce back from one of those than from a regular vaginal birth."

She hesitated, wondering if she dared ask, then said, slowly, "If you don't mind my asking, any particular reason you decided to go with a surrogate?"

[zach_meyers]

Zach waved that away. "It's fine. I'm genderqueer, male-assigned, so I wasn't an option." That bit was rather dry. "My sister, Karen, isn't exactly suited to pregnancy, and my stepsister lived in Germany when we were talking about having Brenda, and Adamo's sister had a total hysterectomy the year before. So surrogate it was."

[bookblather]

"Oh, I see, that makes sense." Gina nodded. "Sorry, I didn't catch on to the genderqueer bit. Surrogate makes perfect sense in that case." She grinned. "Since you can't sucker a female relative into doing it."

[zach_meyers]

"Completely okay," Zach assured her. "Most people don't." He grinned back. "If we could have gotten one of them to do it, we would have. And spoiled the life out of them during the pregnancy, of course."

[bookblather]

"Well, naturally," Gina said. "Let me tell you, I am so grateful for my best friend, my son and my brother- and sister-in-law. Ivy, my wife, she's amazing, but she doesn't always remember that you're supposed to pamper the hell out of the mother-to-be." She shook her head. "Tsk."

[zach_meyers]

Zach shook her head in mock disappointment. "I wonder how she'd feel if she was pregnant and not being spoiled by you. Not that I think you'd forget."

[bookblather]

"Of course I wouldn't! Caring person like me." She grinned. "I'll try telling Ivy that. See if I can get her to give me a footrub and an orgasm when I get home."

Oops. Gina blushed. That might've been a little too TMI there, but it had just slipped out.

[zach_meyers]

Zach laughed. "Oh, your face. You got passed through a wormhole or something into a muggy ballroom, while you're pregnant. I think you deserve an orgasm or two."