rainbowlounge | RP Time? You betcha!

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RP Time? You betcha!

"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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Isshiri looked up to answer, and stopped.

He'd never met anyone else with a pretend leg before, and this man's was so obvious that--don'tlookdon'tlookit'smeantolookIhateitwhenpeoplelook.

He dropped his eyes and shook his head.

...gotta show him so he doesn't think I'm mean... Isshiri shifted a little, trying not to look too awkward, so his pantleg moved and part of his pretend leg showed.

That hurt. It was different for Bill, he'd known the risks when he'd enlisted and he was an adult besides, but this boy seemed so young, and like it was a new thing besides with how he looked... not exactly embarrassed or self-conscious when he pointedly didn't look at Bill's leg.

"Hey, that's pretty cool," he said to the boy. "I bet you're going to get really good at walking with it soon. It didn't take me too long. My wife made me walk all the time once I could wear this." He gestured to his prosthesis. "You can look if you want," he added gently. "My kids do all the time."

That was a big relief, that the man didn't think he'd been staring 'cause he was mean. Isshiri peeked up again and didn't exactly look away but it was more polite to look not at people's legs pretend or real when you were talking to them anyway. He smiled. "I'm getting faster," he admitted. "It still feels weird, though, like standing on clear-glass only feeling instead of seeing. Not as bad as the first time, but still a little bit."

Bill nodded. "I've gotten more used to mine since I first got it. I've had it for about a year now. How long have you had yours?" He'd leave it to the boy to decide if he wanted to talk about why they each had them. "My name is Bill, by the way. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Isshiri. It's nice to meet you, too," he said. "I've had it for 'bout six months. Um." ...it was probably a rude question, but they'd said he could take as long as he wanted, and he was curious if he was the only one who wanted to wait before getting the pretend leg. "But...I didn't get it right when they said I could." Maybe Bill would understand the question even if he didn't say it out loud. Mamma and Riluke and Daddy and sometimes 'Lani were all good at that, and other people, too.

Bill gave that the attention it deserved, turning over his answer in his mind before saying anything. "I was far from home when it happened," he said at last, "and I had to stay in a hospital for about a month before I got to go home. Near the end of that, the doctors tried to get me to start using a temporary one, just to get used to the difference, but I didn't want to." He shrugged. "It didn't feel right. It wasn't mine. Brenda, my wife, she's a nurse. She told me it would be better if I started getting used to it sooner, but she also said I should wait until I was ready. So it took me another few weeks before I decided to see about getting one fitted." He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "And sometimes, it still doesn't feel like mine, so I don't put it on at all those days for as long as I'm at home. I just hop."

Isshiri nodded. "I do that too, sometimes," he said, very very quietly. "Mostly I try to put it on so I can go outside and play with my baby sister, but sometimes I just stay in my room so I don't have to." It was nice, to know that it wasn't bad that he did that sometimes. And to hear that from someone else with a pretend leg, not just Daddy and 'Lani and Riluke.

"I go down the stairs without it some mornings," Bill confided. "Brenda's given up on telling me not to. It's not a good idea, and you shouldn't do it. Some mornings, I can't handle--I can't face that I don't have my real leg anymore. Usually it's because of a dream or something the night before. Those days, I get the kids to school, then go back home and take it off right away."

Isshiri knew those days really well. "Do they...do bad days, do they come...come less, after a while?" Bill had had his pretend leg longer, he might know.

Bill nodded. "They do. It was a lot worse at first, but it's gotten easier. I think it helps if you have people you can talk to--not just people like us, but anyone, like your family and friends--if they'll listen and let you be sad or upset. It's grieving. It's like when someone dies, how it gets easier when they've been gone longer. You still miss them, but it doesn't hurt as much, and you adjust to life without them."

That made sense, sort of--Isshiri had never known anyone who died, except Uncle Ulore who did not count, but it helped to think like his real leg had died, not just disappeared. "Talking with Daddy helps sometimes," he agreed. "And my big sister, and my cousin Riluke." And Mamma, too, but that was different and not the kind of helping he was pretty sure Bill meant.

"That's good," Bill said. "I still talk to my mum when I need to feel better. And Brenda, of course, and sometimes our oldest kids or some of our friends. My best friend got hurt at about the same time as I did, but not the same way, so he understands a little better than everyone else. Do you know anyone who's gotten really hurt who can talk to you about it?" He glanced around them and added, "Do you want to sit down somewhere?"

"Sitting would be good," Isshiri agreed. "Um. My aunts and uncle, but it's weird with them. And sort of 'Lani, 'cause she still has bad dreams from when she saved me, I think, but it's...hard. I don't want her to think I think she didn't save me enough."

"Let's go by the stream," Bill suggested. As they walked over, he continued, "Is 'Lani your big sister?"

Isshiri followed him carefully--balancing on the ground here was different than on sand or glass or stone--and nodded. "She's twelve. Kira's our baby sister, she's four. Riluke's older'n 'Lani, she's my uncle Odaki's daughter, only he's not really my uncle 'cause he's Mamma's cousin, but we call him our uncle anyway."

"And how old are you?" Bill asked. He waited for Isshiri to sit on the bank, just to make sure he wouldn't slip or fall, then sat beside him. "I'm thirty-four. I don't have any brothers or sisters--it was just me and Mum growing up. We only saw any of our family on vacations."

"I'm eight," Isshiri told him. "Mamma grew up with her cousins, since her mamma died when she was a baby and her daddy died when she was six, I think. But we don't see Daddy's brother very much."

Edited (wrong icon) 2013-05-20 04:41 (UTC)

"I have a kid about your age--Zach's six and a half. Karen's going to be twelve next month. We also have two seventeen-year-olds and a baby on the way." Absently, Bill rubbed his thigh hard, pressing against a persistent tightness. "I don't remember my dad. He died when I was two. I think it was a lot harder on Mum to not have him around than it was on me." He smiled a bit. "But we went back to England every summer until I was fourteen, so I know a lot of my cousins well enough, and Mum's always kept in touch with all my aunts and uncles."

Isshiri's eyes widened. "Your biggest kids are almost big enough to be your baby's parents!" He couldn't remember where England was, and it was kind of a weird name for a country, but maybe it was the Plains name for it or something. He'd look it up when he got home.

Bill grinned. "I was just a kid when my daughter was born--she was born two days after I turned seventeen. My first wife, Dawn's mom, was a few months older than me. Dawn and Sam--Sam is Brenda's oldest with her first husband," and that phrasing turned sour in his mouth, "might have to babysit, but at least they won't have to wake up at three in the morning to feed the baby." He smiled broadly. "That's going to be Brenda's and my job."

So he was kind of excited about getting to experience an entire babyhood for once. He hadn't exactly had the chance before.

Isshiri made a face. "That does not sound like fun," he said. He had no idea why Bill was so smiley about waking up when it was hours and hours before the sun came up to feed a probably-screamy baby.

"It might when you're older," Bill said. "I didn't get to do it with any of my kids, really. I left for boot camp so I could join the army when Dawn was about a month and a half old, and my other kids are all from Brenda's first marriage. It's my first time being there for my kid's whole babyhood." He shrugged and couldn't keep a smile off his face. "And, when Brenda goes back to work, I'll be the one bonding with the baby all day."

"I guess," Isshiri said doubtfully. "At least when the baby's bigger, you get to play together more, just by yourselves. That'd be kinda nice."

"I'm looking forward to that," Bill agreed. "That won't be for about two years yet, though. I'll just make sure the baby wants my attention over Brenda's." That, he said lightheartedly, not meaning it in the least.

Two years seemed forever to Isshiri, but he nodded anyway. "Maybe he'll want to play with your bigger kids even more, though," Isshiri suggested. "Kira sometimes picks me or 'Lani over Mamma or Daddy."

RP Time? You betcha!

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