A beautiful day at the end of fall requires family time out of doors.
Everet is here working on another casual relationship. He's dating his brother's wife's sister, Abigail Best. Sounds like the setup for a sitcom, a romcom, or some other kind of com (if there are any others).
Jyo has pent up energy from working so hard lately, and is looking forward to seeing the results from her efforts in a social setting.
Her (comparatively) lazy son is excited to laze around out here.
Dustin and Meghan as always prioritize doing things with each other.
...and the Shifts are here as well. Jyoti is excited to share about her life with one of the few people that have known her forever.
Kevin, for some reason always finds her entertaining. Of all things, she's a pilot now. He can fly, but not so high as to where he would risk running out of oxygen, at least not without some elixir here or there. The amount of effort needed to beat his wings in higher altitude just wouldn't be worth it, even if his wings don't rely on their physical properties alone to work. It's not like Fae can coast on thermals like birds of prey can, so they stick closer to the ground. Humans were always concerned with the things they shouldn't be able to do, maybe that's what he loves about them? Their sense of stubbornness. Fae give up so easily. Just like, so long ago, when he gave up on her. Thankfully he doesn't think about that so much these days.
When she asks him to play some outdoor sports, he cannot refuse a challenge from an old friend.
Caz is cute, wanting to play any game that he can sit down for. He's been told that the building over there is scary, and some kids are afraid to come close enough to it to ride the dragon spring rider, but he just thinks of it like a game and enjoys his surroundings.
Kevin squares up with Jyo, sure that she's not going to go easy on him at all.
Dannigan and Darla are over there doing some dumb human things, so why shouldn't he enjoy a little human activity too?
Jyo lines up and whips the Frisbee at him as hard as she can without being inaccurate.
“Can you handle it?” She taunts.
He catches it lightly and sends it back. Noemi loves this game too. “I can handle it.” He assures.
Dustin always wins their sparring matches, but Meghan makes it look so cool.
“I'm so glad we came here,” Dustin says, after his heart rate slows. “It's been good for all of us.” Meghan has been having so much fun just being a grandma and putting the house in order that she's practically forgotten to do scientific research of late. “Do you think we're finally done moving now?” She asks him. It's been five years, six? Things are settled for the most part and life has been peaceful.
He nods. “I hope so.” She pauses for a second and says one of the things they both think, whenever the family is out together. “Do you think... we'll ever find him?” She asks. “I hope for that, too.” Dustin admits without wavering.
They will never stop looking for their missing son.
Kevin is confident that he's gotten good at human games by now.
So it's hard for him to admit the brief feeling of embarrassment when he drops the disc.
But he's quick to recover.
He spends the rest of his time at the park with his sister and dad. Jyoti sees Caz competing for the eating contest, so she wants to watch that.
Everet has no qualms about competing with a child to eat pie even though he's twice the child's size. Kids have to learn to compete even though life is not always fair.
It was not bad weather at all for Spooky day.
Dustin hasn't been feeling as energetic lately. He thought the festival was nice, but he's noticing a distinct difference from the days when he could go all out to advertise the fairs back at Starlight, take the family out during the afternoon and then turn and pull an all-nighter practicing his craft. It's not pleasant, feeling his age.
Meghan tells him that he can't fight getting older, so it's time to just embrace the season of life that they are in. Neither of them wants to admit it, but it was hard to get through the martial arts kata today too. They are beginning to really feel their age when it comes to doing some of their favorite activities.
“You always do very well at keeping up with me though Meg.” He tells her proudly. “I want you to know that I love the way we've spent our time together. Every moment has been incredible.”
“Even when I'm not... all there?”
“I wouldn't have you be anything other than what you are.” He smiles at her.
“What a nice thing to say.”
“Isn't it though?” Dustin is still not above giving himself a compliment. “I'm a nice kind of guy.”
Casimir sits down, then gets back up, feeling unwell. It's either the affection of his grandparents right in front of him or the fact that he ate more pie than he's ever had in his entire life in one sitting. He didn't even win, which was actually a huge disappointment. He hates losing more than anything. Cousin Everet just won that contest because he was older than him.
Why does grandpa always talk about getting old? Getting old is going to be the best thing I ever do.
Adults are so funny... and I think I have to throw up. He manages to hold it in though. The last time he had to throw up one of the dogs ate it and he threw up again because it was so gross. Gotta hold it in, get a glass of water or something.
They're just enjoying their moment, oblivious to the turmoil of the child who is watching them so closely.
Until Dustin dances a little too freely and feels a sharp pop in his lower back. He excuses himself and limps away, saying he's going to be just fine, he's just going to lay down a bit. The pain is excruciating, and he is not about to let his wife hear him grumble about it if he can help it.
Meghan frowns as he slinks away and very slowly makes his way upstairs to their bedroom. “Don't tell lies when you grow up, okay son?” She says to Casimir. “I didn't!” He complains immediately. “I know, but your grandpa is, in a way right now. He said he's fine, but he's not. If you ever get hurt or anything, you can always come and tell us okay? Never hide it.”
“Oh. I can do that.” He says agreeably. If he remembers this conversation though.
Meghan has followed him upstairs, certain he's not going to easily be able to sleep this one off. She had heard that crack too. “I really am fine,” He tries to stretch his back a little to show her, but that was a huge mistake. He sharply inhales a breath and freezes in place.
“Are you unable to move, now?” She asks her husband.
“Think. So...” He admits.
“So are you done trying to show off now?”
“Yes?” His words have an uncharacteristic pitch to them.
“Good. Thank you for admitting that, now let me help you lay down and I'll go get a heating pad for you.”
He grunts. “Thanks.”
He makes more awkward hissing sounds with every movement and shuffles his way to the bed. It takes several minutes for him to lay down finally.
Meghan sits down with him, resisting the urge to give herself over to one of her other personalities. She hates seeing him be in pain, especially when he's great at hiding things like this normally.
“Don't you... change on me. Right now.” He tells her.
“I won't. She promises. “I'll be right here for awhile okay?” She really hopes that it's a promise she can keep.
“Oh. Kay.” He rasps.
After a long while he closes his eyes and his breathing evens out, a steady rise and fall of his chest tells her that he has finally fallen asleep. She remembers to breathe a little more herself then.
Loki had stopped over after finishing some business in town, hoping to see Jyoti and Casimir. It was a bit late, and no one answered, so he decided to try another day. He gets halfway down the walkway and stops, looking back up at the house. Something is wrong. This time, when he gets to the door, one of the dogs decides to bark for awhile, and Casimir comes to the door.
Not two minutes later he's upstairs, checking on the situation. Meghan resists the urge to yell when he follows Tiger Lily up to their room, who acts as if she needs to show him that Dustin is hurt. “Casimir let me in.” He tells her quickly.
“Is it bad?”
“I don't know but he just fell asleep, you shouldn't be here right now.” Meghan tries to keep her voice even, but she's wavering.
“It seems like there's a fair amount
of pain...”
“No, his back just gave out a little. He'll be
alright.” She sighs and gingerly gets off the bed so as to not wake
Dustin.
She watches, for a few moments as Loki studies her sleeping husband.
Finally, he speaks, and it's more garbage that she does not want to hear, even though he uses a mild tone. “Don't you think if you had more time, you would be able to better help him?”
“You know that's not for you to decide.”
He turns to her finally and speaks as if to himself at first. “Why should I have to watch as your life slips away? Can't you make... a more careful choice? This is no time for pride, Drea.”
She frowns. “That's not a name I use in my home.”
He reaches out. “I'm sorry, that's a mistake then. Meghan, please-”
“Watch or don't, it isn't about you, Loki.” She answers him in the same callous tone that she used for years now whenever she sees him. “I'm tired of repeating myself.”
Dustin somehow is still asleep despite the tense atmosphere being exchanged. Meghan has always been stubborn, but she loves life and would do anything to experience more of it... how has she changed so much in so many short years? Seeing her now Loki wonders, if time really is just frozen for him in a way. He can't let her go like this. She doesn't know it yet, but there is not much time left.
Loki offers her something that she refuses to take. He tells her what's in it, repeats that she could be like him. He wouldn't have to bite her, the change isn't the most comfortable thing at first, but it would undoubtedly, prolong her life. He is sure, even now, that she could withstand the change.
“I don't want to see either of you like this.” He tries to reason with her. “You could be strong enough to care for him if-”
Meghan recoils angrily now. “I thought I answered you about this already.” She says without raising her voice.
And quicker than her words, she reaches for something off of the bedside table.
Loki sees it for what it is, but doesn't know the effects of the purplish bottle she wields at him. He grips the red vampiric induction solution in his fist for a second, unsure of what to do. He has just been trying to hand it to her nicely.
Without hesitation, Meghan throws hers first.
Loki doesn't know this, but the expression on her face is that one that thousands of beetles, fish and small mammalian creatures have seen just seconds before she irradiated or killed them to prep their tiny bodies for for dissection. She is studying him right now.
If he was looking at her face Loki would probably be able to appreciate the moment. But needle thin shards of glass rip through the soft suede of his shoe and he is distracted by a sting of pain as the glass cuts the side of his foot. A magical concoction is released over his skin and into the air around him.
To say he is surprised would be an understatement. He is stunned. The carpet is littered with glistening pieces of the bottle.
“Why would you do something like this!?” He sputters.
Meghan's a little disappointed he didn't just disappear from it. “Do you feel any different?”
His foot bleeds where it was cut, the blood quickly crystallizes before it can soak up into the carpet. Interesting. Meghan is totally going to collect that later and sample it.
He is afraid of her now despite himself. “H-how did you expect that to effect me?”
“It's supposed to change your personality. That's what it looked like the label said whenever I researched it. Not that I know what the language is, exactly.” She shrugs. “It's not like arcane nonsense is in my field of study.”
She fixes him with a hard stare. “So do you feel any less inclined to come uninvited into our bedroom now? I have others, I'm sure something in this room can teach you to have manners, at least.”
Crystals of vampire's blood that had dropped to the ground (ie, bloodstone) will grace the living room after this.
Loki doesn't feel any different. He's thankful right now for the policy the apothecary has to keep the potent elixirs behind the counter and only offer what is dangerous to people like him, who would know what to do with it. They will sell items to 'regular' people, but only the novelties, which essentially are placebo and help keep business thriving enough for the few mystic creatures that actually need something with potency. It's rare for the general public to get their hands on anything vaguely useful.
And to think he only meant to come up here to check on Dustin. This is more than he bargained for.
“I guess, I'll leave you two alone to rest.” He says, resigned. Even if this is the last time I see one of you alive... He walks straight to the door, determined to leave this time and not come back.
As he trudges by however, Dustin says his name quietly and he whirls at the door with a growl. “What!?”
Having been threatened and now in an unexpected emotional state, Loki's vampiric instincts kick in and his human nature is suppressed. He hisses out threats under his breath that can barely be made out but carry with them the sound of cavernous echoes. It sounds like more than one voice rolled into one. This would probably be a terrifying experience if one were to encounter a vampiric creature in some cold enclave full of more of them, or deep underground where it would echo through expansive stone mazes thick with fog. Here, however, in a room full of pink plush curtains, wallpapers, and carpeting, the effect is decidedly less intimidating and more out of place.
The chaos has woken Dustin up. He is not happy. “Calm down,” He tells Loki. “Are you sure it was a good idea to throw that at him?” He asks his wife. “Actually, maybe throw another one, see if you have one for sleep or something!”
But before Meghan can act, Loki is right in front of her, breathing on her neck.
“Loki! Wake up, you moron!” Dustin calls to him.
Loki snaps his teeth at her, but she's decided to go completely crazy for a few moments, so it just makes her giggle.
“LOKI!” Dustin finally yells, his voice booming through the room with all the power he can muster from his days on stage, having to be heard over a live audience.
The impossibly young man straightens up suddenly, closing his hands into fists a few times. When he speaks again, his human nature is back in charge. “I've had this thought several times, but it is truly impossible to reason with either one of you. I can't even tell which of you enables the other more.”
“Well thank you very much.” Andrea answers him cheerfully.
“I have to go pee.” Dustin announces, swinging his legs carefully over the side of the bed. “Don't do anything stupid Loki, you know she's not Meghan right now.” Not that you should do anything stupid to her either...
Andrea proceeds to tell Loki how she believes Meghan feels about him, and how his presence in this room stinks up the whole of the house. Loki remains unphased as he can see her motivations clearly enough. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause you so much stress. I just noticed Dustin's heartbeat and his mental energy were disturbed so I only meant to check on him. Will you pass on that message for me? To Meghan.”
“No!” Drea answers back. “No she doesn't want to see you right now.”
“I understand. I'll leave now, please get some rest too.” The words leave a bitter taste, he wishes he could get her listen to him, to think about the future a little bit more.
Loki leaves without ever getting a visit with his son. He doesn't want to push the issue now.
Dustin makes it back to the room and after a few days is going to forget the shooting pain. For now though he just needs more bedrest. He thinks back over the incident and sighs.
He hopes nothing happens like this again.
Meghan spends the next few days as one of her other personalities, usually Andrea, sometimes one of the feisty children. When she finally comes to, she is mortified. Not that Loki saw her change, but that if things had gotten worse for Dustin she would not have been able to help him. He is just glad to see her come back to herself.
“Can't win 'em all, Meg.” He tells her pragmatically.
Casimir has no idea that his dad was in this house for so long, acting annoying.
This thing's broken, this game is too hard, is what he cares about right now.
Dustin finds it so easy to hang out with him. “You'll get better, just keep trying at it.” He is not willing to discourage the boy in any endeavor, no matter how insignificant. This downtime works out for Dustin too, as he is going to be taking it easy on physical activity for awhile.
The local Science Center has asked for Meghan to travel to some far off place, searching high and low for an extremely rare species of butterfly. So she accepts an exorbitant upfront payment, and like any good genius scientist, journeys up a single flight of stairs to scan the one she already has, and clone it for them. Thank you, Roaring heights!
In times like these it is clear that Casimir is a Sparrow like everyone else in this house.
Dustin stays, to watch over him of course.
He's sure nothing else weird is going to happen for a long while.
Jyo, when she can, keeps an eye on her dad to see if everything is alright. He doesn't mention Loki and his craziness, just gets her onto a tangent of humor that she cannot refuse.
Followed by some quality time with his wife. He doesn't have to thank her for not abandoning him, but they waste no time in reaffirming their already very strong bond.
The feeling of being loved in return, unconditionally, is incomparable to anything else.
Leila and Tiger lily are both tired of all the random clowns that keep showing up in this story. Sorry, ladies.
Oh wait, they're dogs. Sorry, b*tches.
Meanwhile, our heiress...
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Loki was never going to throw that thing. 'He doesn't want to force it one her- the choice to become like him, she's got to be the one to make it, otherwise the amount of regrets she could have would make her a calamity, as a denizen of the night. Something he was close to becoming at one point or another.' - scrapped part of the story, but still somewhat relevant as context.
I also may have gotten the bottles I used in the story wrong, I couldn't tell by the photos alone but Loki did have the Bottle Vampire's bite and I think Meghan used the personality changer, but I may have had her just throw the vampire's bite back at him in game. I never really play with them, so I couldn't tell if the bottle was activated when she threw it, or it was actually different. His personality didn't change ultimately either way, so I just wrote about my own lack of knowledge. lol
Bloodstone is actually a cool looking green and black stone with red spots on it that look like blood was dropped on them in reality. The story goes, that the stone was below Christ when he died on the cross, and his blood dropped on it and it stayed that way. Kind of funny how it's only bright red in the game, but it makes for good imagining I guess.
The heiress was in the blog a little bit this time. Mostly she stands around doing strong and brave idles, then goes to work and maybe helps Caz with his homework a little bit before jogging or working out. In this way she leads a quiet life, but I think it's because her parents being with her and so on top of things allows for her to relax and take life as it comes. There is less worry for the future now though, and that's always good.
