RP Time? You betcha!

[shipwreck_light]

"Lucien? What did I tell you about running off on your own?"

Somewhat unsurprisingly, his son didn't answer him with more than a grin. And a splash, once Claude had drawn closer.

Leave it to any child of his to throw off his nice new boots just to stick his feet in the first likely looking stream that came along.

It wasn't even as if they'd gone that far out of town, but away from the roads, from the other sorcer-sorts and Aethies, even the breeze felt calmer, though it had hardly caught to much all the while they'd been walking. Claude being glad they had any at all, as hot as it had been the past few days.

The storm the night before had left lacy scatters of twigs and leaves and knocked down spider webs. Clean and still damp, the leaves overhead and tangled in the grass, they looked pieces of stained glass. And the trees, when they nodded, they sounded clear as harp strings with nothing else to cut the sound.

Out of farmland use and the whiles of any humans at all, the stream had been left so clear, so delicious looking. Just begging for some little blond imp of a boy to come along and kick his heels in it.

Well, one already had. Claude didn't bother with another sigh. He pulled his shoes off and laid them in the stones at his side, stretching lazy as he reached his own toes towards the glittering surface.

And promptly jerked back with a yelp. "Child of mine? That's /cold/."

"I know," said Lucien. "I think it feels nice."

"Maybe if you're part bear. I've always halfway figured, you know."

They had some teasing hums between them and Claude crossed his legs, feet now on the warm pebbles along the bank where they damnwell belonged.

"I think I got that from your side of the family," his son suggested after a while. "Anyway, why do you think it's like that? I don't hear anybody around."

"That wasn't tagging along?"

"Well..." The boy knitted his fingers in his hair, tugging himself a wingtip curl along his temple. "I think I'd only notice Nene if she was /gone/."

"And as for our new friends?"

"They couldn't have gone far. They know we have candy." To which, he nodded. Ever so sure of himself.

Ah, children. Children had gotten him this far with their self-assured beings. And children had found him what was really a rather strange clearing on closer inspection. The stream wore deeper through some places in the grass than others, showing shifts of rock, glints of moss and tree roots sneaking by. It divided the clearing just about cleanly in half.

Besides, on the edge of the forest easing back into being, a great, old ash stood.

Covered in tiny flowers. Pink and violet and hints of white. All of them, growing in streaks as if the bark had long ago turned to soil, though the tree seemed healthy and strong otherwise.

Besides.

"Papa," said Lucian, voice hushed. "There aren't any birds here, are there?"

"No," Claude answered after a moment. "It's just you and I and /a bunch of stinkers who ran off from us/."

"Oh, so that doesn't include me?"

"Child of mine."

They had a few more hums, there in the quiet of the clearing.

There, before something very strange and very faint began to creep along Claude's Aether lines.

It felt like being tickled almost. Anyway, it made him smile. Lucien too.

And next, there his son darted off again, racing over the grass and into the middle of the clearing, where he stood staring into the sky and whistling. Expecting a giant Gust to come sailing down in the form of a giant bird? It might just be that.



Welcome!

Note that anything your characters do in the clearing may result in posts back of things happening around them, even if these aren't exactly invited. Something's lurking around here, and it wants a snack!

Feel free to bring your own fairies, ghosts, mages and seriously confused regular people.

Comments

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

"Well, usually you get your dad's last name." Andy shrugged. "But I don't have a dad, so I get both my moms' last names. And my mom didn't have a dad until she was five so she had her mom's name and her dad's, which is how me and my sister wound up with such a mouthful. How does it work for you guys?"

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

"We have our Clan name," Taz answered. "Most of the time, people marry their own Clan. Sometimes you marry into another, and then the babes have that Clan name. I'm Clan Hantree, so were both my parents, and some hundreds more people, Grandfather would know better. Dallu?"

"We don't typically do surnames," he said. "Descriptions, sometimes. I was sometimes called Dallu Longhands, because mine are." He held up his fingers to demonstrate.

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

"Oh!" Andy said, gleefully. "That's cool. Man, I want one of those." He looked down at his hands, which were not particularly long. "No idea what it would be though."

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

"I'm afraid I can't give you one," Dallu said, with a faint smile. "They usually just sort of...catch on, whether you like them or no."

"S'true," Taz said. "He wouldn't give me one, either, even when I batted my pretty eyes at him and begged."

"You, estes, have never begged for a thing in your life," Dallu said mildly, and Taz laughed.

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

Man, everybody had a girlfriend except him. Andy kept that little observation to himself though. "I'll ask somebody when I wake up," he said, thoughtfully. "Not gonna ask my sister though. Brat. She can be Leah Bratface."

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

"A good name for all little sisters," Taz said, as solemnly as she could manage.

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

"See, you get it," Andy said, and gave Dallu a pitying look. "You'll never understand unless you have a sister, man."

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

"Sadly true," Dallu agreed. "I can't even share Kes."

"Not for this, anyway," Taz said. "You're lucky, you only get the good parts of sisters."

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

Andy made an exaggerated face of shock. "You mean there are good parts to sisters?"

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

"Sometimes," Taz said, laughing. "Rare's that might seem."

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

"Leah's okay sometimes," Andy allowed, thoughtfully. "And, you know, I'd beat up anybody who said something bad about her. Except my cousins, but they don't say anything bad about her, they save it all for each other."

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

"Pretty much how me and my sisters handle things. 'Course, most of the people who try and say bad sh-things about them are our cousins at one level or another," Taz mused.

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

"You can cuss in front of me," Andy informed her. "I know all the good cusswords anyway 'cause my Aunt Danny used to be in the Navy. Anyway my cousins are twins, so, you know, they got bigger problems than me and Leah."

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

"I'll keep that in mind," Taz said. "Navy, really? Sounds like fun."

"And by 'fun' she means 'target,'" Dallu said.

"Navy ships aren't worth the trouble, darlin', you know that."

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

"Aunt Danny would give you a lot of trouble," Andy said, proudly. "So would my grandpa. He was in the Navy too. Except then my Uncle Aaron's mom left so he had to come home and raise Uncle Aaron. And then he got my grandma and my mom came with her and there wasn't a lot of time left for the Navy. But he still has a boat!"

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

"Nice to see retirement doesn't mean staying away from the water," Taz said. "It sure as hell won't for me."

"What we were more talking about was the fact that some people--"

"Certain unkind persons," Taz corrected.

"Would call Taz a pirate," Dallu finished.

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

Andy stared at both of them for a minute. "Wait, so, you're a pirate? Like, board ships and take all their shit and burn them down afterwards?.... awesome."

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

Taz brightened. "It's not the accusations of piracy that bother me, so much as the other adjectives that come before it."

"Though we usually don't burn the ships," Dallu added.

"No," Taz said. "Well, sometimes. Depends on who I'm boardin'."

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

"That is friggin' amazing!" Andy yelled, forgetting himself completely and dumping his backpack on the ground. "Do you take the ships, if you don't burn 'em? Or do you like, just leave them? Did you ever make anyone walk the plank?"

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

Taz laughed. "Sometimes, sometimes, and no. Needless slaughter gives the wrong kinda reputation."

"She has other ways of punishing members of her crew when they act up," Dallu added. "And most of the time, it's better to ransom prisoners than execute them."

"And more often we just leave 'em driftin' if they don't die in the actual fightin' and we can't ransom 'em," she finished. "Sorry, not quite as excitin' as you were expectin', I'd guess?"

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

"No, it's great, I'm talking to an actual pirate, this is so awesome, I don't even care that all the myths aren't true." He bounced up and down on the balls of his feet. "Oh, man, I have so many questions. Do you bury treasure?"

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

She shook her head. "Nah, mostly I spend it. And what I don't spend I hide in my baby sister's house. I trust her to keep it safe 'til I have more ships of my own to spend it on."

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

Andy nodded. "I always thought that was a stupid thing to do but my friend Jeff insisted. He's always wrong anyway. What do you spend it on? And do you always get gold?"

Re: Taz and Dallu

[shadowsong26]

Dallu answered his second question first. "Most ships don't carry gold."

"True," Taz said. "A lot of it I spend on maintainin' the Glory, weapons, food, liquor, clothes--Dallu, if you make the joke you're thinkin' I swear I'll cut yours off again. Yes, in front of the boy."

Dallu grinned, but kept his mouth shut.

Re: Taz and Dallu

[bookblather]

Andy made a face. "Ew," he said. "I've walked in on my moms having sex way too many times to be interested in that, thanks."

Well, for the time being. He did like girls, he knew that.

Didn't mean he wanted to see any naked just then.