The Park; Monday Morning [04/15].

[special_rabbit]

Amaya had woken up that morning to a blessedly quiet and empty forge, which she assumed could only mean that this whole nonsense was over, and she could get back to her life as normal and child-free, with with a few new started weapons that she could maybe have Fjord finish for practice, hopefully with being able to blatantly ignore the fact that some of them were started by their apparent son.

There was the issue, though, that she'd blown through all of her coffee trying to survive a teenager and preteen with a proclivity for weapons and hitting things, so she was on her way to Turtle & Canary to get some more when she passed by the park and discovered that her two impossible children were not in fact gone, but, instead, were in the park, with crossbows, in the process of taking paces away from each other.

...how was that for timing?

"Zounds, what in the world do the two of you think you're doing?"

Both stopped abruptly in their paces and slowly turned their heads toward her. "Nothing," said Djodge, which was piggybacked by Zephyr's, "Duelling....er, I mean, nothing!"

"Since Zephyr's father is a coward and a no-show," said Djodge, ignoring the offended gasp that came from Zephyr, "she decided we had to duel each other as proxies instead."

"My father is not a coward!" Zephyr protested. "He is the strongest, bravest man in all of Daventry and Modesto! And he is merely doing your puny half-orc of a father a favor by letting him live!"

Amaya rubbed her forehead for a second, though it would do nothing to get rid of the dull pain that was all too swiftly returning and she held out her hands pointedly. Reluctantly, rolling their eyes, groaning and mumbling about it, they placed the crossbows in them. "Zephyr," she scolded, "don't duel your brother. Djodge, stop listening to your sister. Both of you just....I don't know...run around or something or whatever it is kids do until you get tired, and if you manage to not kill each other by lunchtime, I'll let you two pick whatever you want for food."

But she already knew it was going to be something on sticks. And these terms seemed agreeable to the two of them, and Djodge was already offering Zephyr a little crooked grin and heading over to the other side of the park. "Come on! I'll show you the tree where my dad left a big old scar from that throwing star up on the wall! Then you'll really see, he's not nearly as puny as he looks!"

And so then Amaya was left with two crossbows in her hands and two kids who didn't seem to know whether they hated each other or were best friends, and a very strong desire for this to be over with real soon.

[[because sometimes I have ideas. Open park is open for all your park-related needs!]]

Comments

[mages_suck]

Fenris had no idea what to do with Kia other than feed her, water her, make sure she was clean, and take her to the park. He brought more knives this time, differently sized so she could get a good handle on adjusting for balance.

Kia was skipping and excited! She had more knives to throw! She was getting really good at this! Her glance strayed to the other two children long enough to notice at least one of them was green like her, but they were bigger kids and she avoided them out of habit. Heading to the tree she'd used the other day, she paced back a count-off and then began her throws. She stuck the first one on her first try and beamed at Fenris.

Fenris smiled down at her, "Good job, Kia. Now see if you can get the rest of them in the same area."

[special_rabbit]

Was it bad that Amaya was thinking, as Djodge and Zephyr seemed to be contemplating something like a competition to see who could climb trees the fastest (good luck with that in your full suit of armor there, Zeph), it would be nice if one of them managed to break something in the effort? That was bad. Parents should not be thinking about their kids breaking limbs just to get a moment's peace and quiet, should they?

But then along came Fenris and a wee little green one stabbing trees, and almost felt a little better because it was a nice reminder that she was at least not suffering this entirely alone. So, standing there still with two crossbows, one in each hand, she gave the elf a wry sort of long-suffering grin and nodded.

"Fenris."

[fjord_hybrid]

Fenris eyed the crossbows and then the children speculatively for a moment before answering. "Amaya. How are you handling this.. child.. thing?"

Kia walked to collect her knives, paced off her lane studiously and began throwing again.

[special_rabbit]

"Oh," said Amaya, sucking in a deep breath that seemed to be the only thing bolstering her against insanity, "about as well as can be expected, I suppose. They're still alive, at any rate, which...."

She let out that sigh and took a second to consider those crossbows in her hands herself.

"Is saying something. How 'bout you? Just the one, then?"

Lucky.

[daggerdaggerdruidcraft]

Lin hadn't abandoned Keyleth, exactly. She was just stealthing ahead!

. . . In broad daylight out in the open, sure, but if her father could manage ridiculous stealth rolls of like 45 do it, she could too, right?

Her hand went to one of the daggers at her belt, and then her mother had to go and ruin her sneaking by yelling, "Please tell me you're not going to throw that at a person? Please?"

Lin sighed and turned around, looking as broody as possible. "No, Mom, I wasn't going to."

[fjord_hybrid]

"Just the one for me," Fenris said, giving the little green boy an amused look, "Seems Fjord got two. Kia's been ok. She's a clever little monkey and she's pretty used to taking care of herself. I don't think we've screwed her up too badly. Well, me. I haven't. Fjord's been ducking her. I'm dropping her off at movie night so he can have a turn."

Fair was fair.

"What's his name?" Fenris asked with a nod at Kia's..brother?

[crumble_and_shine]

Well, that definitely caught Zephyr's attention, curious especially as to what it was that might be being thrown, and by whom, and if there was anything she could do that might somehow get her involved in it.

And since she had mostly decided to ignore the really little one with all the knives due to her greenness (and there was nothing wrong with that, of course, but Zephyr was working on a vendetta sort of situation there), she wondered if it was the other girl.

If anything, it was another girl, that wasn't green (again, nothing wrong with it; it was a vendetta thing), and wasn't her brother. Yes, please, some on save her from annoying quarter-orc half-brothers.

"Zephyr can do it!" she chirped brightly, squaring her shoulders to show off her excellent crafted breastplate of her shining armor. "You can throw it at me! My armor can easily handle any missile!"

[special_rabbit]

Fair was fair, but Fjord had expressed concern about dropping his eleven year old son who had no business being in a position to even be dropped, so...yeah. She was just going to adjust her gloves and do what needed to be done.

"Djodge," she offered. "Djodge Bjuick Blackstone."

And the discomfort in her voice was, surprisingly, for reasons that had nothing to do with the fact that no one should have ever done that to a kid.

"Seems a good kid, though. Fairly smart, kind of quiet. Seems like he'd be content left to his own devices and working if it weren't for the other one stirring up trouble and stringing him along."

[fjord_hybrid]

"Sounds like ours," Fenris said with another sigh, "Which.. don't even ask how that whole 'ours' thing happened because I don't know. I thought she was maybe just Fjord's, but then.."

Kia missed her throw, hitting with the hilt instead of the blade. It bounced right back at her and she phased, knife passing right through her and landing in the grass. She solidified and went to pick it up.

"..that happened."

[special_rabbit]

Now there was something to raise Amaya's eyebrows right into her bangs, for sure.

"That an elf thing where you're from?" she wondered. "Or a Fenris thing?"

[fjord_hybrid]

Fenris sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "It's a Fenris thing, and it's a thing my progeny - god forbid I ever actually have any - should not be able to do. Nor should they be blonde. It's the lyrium in my skin that caused both and Kia doesn't have any." He gestured at the metal tattoos.

"I'm your progeny," Kia piped up cheerfully, sinking another knife into the tree with a tiny cheer. "Yours and Dad's."