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Post by Satra on Jul 10, 2008 1:45:08 GMT -5
Of course Heilyn was furious at her daughter. The girl ran off without so much as a 'goodbye', let alone say anything about where she was going. Midori Beach! By the Suits, how did the girl get that far?!
However, the joy over the fact that Rhiannon was alive overrode her fury with the girl and her antics. It felt like a stab to the chest the way the girl retreated. Were things really that bad between them? She pushed her anger down further. Heilyn knew she was not well-equipped for being a Mother and expected her to have to learn a few things the hard way. Heilyn, however, refuse to know one thing: what it was like to lose a child. She would have to override her sense of discipline and take it easy on the girl if she ever wanted her to stay.
"Rhi, please..." she stretched her fingers to the girl, but didn't want to get any closer. Rhiannon needed to come to her of her own free will.
--
Hadrian gave a playful snarl and tried to snap at the hands picking him up, but they were just out of his reach. Tail wagging he made another snap at his father's hand as the man pulled it away from his messed up mohawk.
He was about to make a rather ballsy bite on Seth's chest when what the man said registered. This lady...
...made that dragonfly?
Stopping with his mouth open, inches away from the Bat's pectoral, Hadrian looked up at Zuberi. Ears up, his head snapped to get a better look at her. He smiled and wagged his tail.
"HI!" he yipped a touch over enthusiastically, "I like the dragonfly! So does Rhi an' Mommy!"
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Post by Nako on Jul 10, 2008 3:54:25 GMT -5
"Oh! I'm glad everyone approved..." Zuberi said softly. The young one was trying to engage her in conversation, but she couldn't help but have her stomach lurch at the tense moment between mother and daughter before her. Zuberi tore her gaze away from the two of them and looked towards Hadrian and Seth instead. She felt... awkward at that moment.. out of place. "I like to make things.. in my spare time. I haven't made anything like that in a while, though." Zuberi was never one to worry much about eye contact or staring at someone too much, but she found herself.. evaluating the young pup. Maybe it was because she was trying to pick out the different traits and which parent they came from. It was always tricky when it was between different species and regions.
Her gaze then flicked to Seth. She was trying to read his expression. With the events unfolding as they were, she wanted to know his take on it.. if this was normal for his family. Was there something wrong? Would everything be alright? If she had done something irreversibly bad to his family she may very well never be able to forgive herself.
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jul 16, 2008 23:49:56 GMT -5
The hair along Rhiannon's back bristled ever so slightly. Open anger, she would have been able to deal with without a problem. Disappointment, maybe. But this... In all honesty, she wasn't entirely sure what this was. Her ears flipped back, yellow eyes peering out at her mother questioningly, as if she was seeking out the answer to that which she just didn't know.
When Heilyn moved, Rhiannon flinched - she had never been hit by either of her parents, but then... She'd never done anything quite this bad, and was half expecting some kind of spanking or other punishment to come from this. When her mother simply opened her arms, Rhiannon froze, eyes wide. "Mom..." she finally said, voice soft, but she made no move towards the woman. "I-I don't... I don't know what to do," the little hybrid whimpered. "What do you want from me?"
~~~
Seth was completely oblivious to Hadrian's attempt at his pec, but that was most likely a good thing. The bat simply set his son down again, now aware of the tension that was spreading between his daughter and his lover. His brow furrowed slightly, and he glanced at the squirrel.
"Zuberi... Did anything... strange happen while Rhi was with you?[/b]" he asked softly, a note of concern in his voice. He knew that there was something about the girl that just wasn't quite right. He had known it for.. a long time now, in all honesty, but he'd never known what. From the eyes of a father, it was difficult to make such judgements. He needed... an outsider's opinion. "I need to know.[/b]"
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Post by Satra on Jul 17, 2008 0:43:08 GMT -5
Her entire body tightened as Rhi flinched. Was she... expecting her to hit? A mixture of odd feelings flooded her. In a way, she did want to hit the girl. Make her feel physically the pain Heilyn had been feeling emotionally all this time, and yet... she felt something of a monster for thinking it. Heilyn felt it was her fault in the first place for the girl running away. It would've been outright unfair of her, but at the same time what had she done wrong? She felt her rage boiling, straining her patience as she struggled to keep it down. She felt disappointment in herself and, in a smaller way, Rhi. And there was always the tearing pain that the girl didn't recognize a gesture of affection from her own mother when it was so blatantly obvious.
Heilyn suddenly felt sick.
"I want... I need you to come here, Rhi," Heilyn croaked quietly, body starting to shake just slightly. This encounter was started to be much more of an emotional burden than she could handle.
Hadrian, on the other hand, was a touch oblivious. All he saw was he was being put down. He didn't really pay any attention to his dad as he spoke to Zuberi. He just bounded up to the woman, tail wagging and nose sniffing.
"You smell... like..." Hadrian had never been to the ocean before, so this scent was completely new to him, "Like weird stuff..."
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Post by Nako on Jul 22, 2008 1:16:53 GMT -5
At Seth's question, Zuberi's face told it all. Her mouth formed a thin line and her eyes grew distant... thoughtful. Finally, she turned her guilty eyes toward Seth. She felt as if she were.. ratting the girl out, but then again it was best she talked with Seth about those issues and see if he knew anything at all about her condition. "... Do you know what... whatever happens to her is?"
Her train of thought though, was rather hastily redirected. She looked down at the little blue maned coyote with a grin that she was surprised she could muster, crouching down to be eye level with the young lad. Leaning forward, she gave him an experimental sniff before giving him a good scratch in his mane between the ears. "Well, I hate to break it to you little guy, but you smell a little weird too! Then again all little boys smell kind of weird." Ahaha, striking self consciousness in the hearts of others one sniff at a time!
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jul 22, 2008 4:15:06 GMT -5
Rhiannon's paw raised slightly, a clear sign of her internal conflict. She was torn. Part of her mind screamed at her to run now, run fast, and never look back. This was the part of her mind that had been yelling at her before she had left to Midori. It was, in fact, what had caused her to leave in the first place. It was a very convincing voice, especially when she was this cofused.
The other part of her, the softer and more quiet part, won. All it took was one glance at the look on her mother's face.
"M-mom.." Rhiannon whimpered, throwing herself into her mother's open arms, tail wagging weakly. "I'm s-sorry.."
~~~
Seth scratched his head absently, then ran his hand across his mowhawk. It immediately sprang back up, and he turned his gaze to glance at Zuberi. The doctor's words echoed around in his mind, and he was still confused by them. "We... took her to a doctor a while ago.[/b]" the man began somewhat warily, turning his attention back to his circling son. "He says that she's showing early signs of... uh... paranoid schizophrenia? Apparently, mental diseases are rather common in those of Bog blood..[/b]"
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Post by Satra on Jul 22, 2008 23:36:52 GMT -5
Her eyes went wide as the girl threw herself in Heilyn's arms. They were slow to close around the girl, as if not believing it had actually happened. Her ears went back and her tail tucked itself under her. At the apology, Heilyn broke. A harsh sob escaped her and her entire ribcage convulsed. She held onto Rhi tightly as she cried, unable to stop herself. She felt like an idiot, breaking down like this in the middle of a crowded public street. She was a NOBLE for crying out loud! But pride didn't staunch the flow. She just held on to her daughter; vowing, praying for this to never happen again as she pet the girls' mane and held her close to her body.
~~
Hadrian frowned at Zuberi and was about to make a snappy comeback when Heilyn broke down. He yelped "Mommy!" and raced to his mother, nuzzling her and worming his way into the hug to lick Rhi and Heilyn's facing while whining. It unnerved him to see his mother so... vulnerable.
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Post by Nako on Jul 23, 2008 22:25:30 GMT -5
Zuberi's eyes grew a little distant when Seth spoke up, getting up from her crouched position to look him in the eye. It explained so much. It was terrifying yet somewhat calming to actually have a name for this... dementia that seemed to have settled onto the girl. Hadrian had scurried off away from them, and before them a touching moment was unfurling. Noticing some people were stopping to look, Zuberi took it upon herself to give rubberneckers a good glare to send them on their way.
"I'm not going to complain.. I don't mind dealing with things like that.. but it was frightening not knowing what was wrong. It's... sometimes hard not to fall back into the old ways and chalk it up to bad juju." She continued to watch the proceedings before her; the touching moment. It caused a pain deep within her when she realized just how badly she wanted that for herself. No, not a mother... she'd went through that stage of her life and she was an adult. Now it was merely a realization of how much she wanted children of her own. Mother and children in an embrace.. and the father? Zuberi glanced to Seth. What would he do? If he needed to go to his family she would not stop him.
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jul 23, 2008 22:46:11 GMT -5
Rhiannon buried herself in her mother's arms, trembling tongue flickering in and out of her mouth to smooth the fur of Heilyn's cheek, kissing the unexpected tears away as quickly as she could. She knew her mother well enough to realize without a doubt that such a display of emotion would be somewhat embarassing once the moment had passed. "Don't cry, mom, please." she said softly, pawing at her mother and then licking at Hadrian's nose as well, as soon as he had wormed his way into the hug.
"I missed you too, mom... but I'm not better yet," she whimpered softly, expression soft and concerned. She needed to say this. "C-can me and Hady go back with Zuberi? Just for a little while... Y-you told me once we all needed a vacation sometimes, right?"
~~~
Seth reached out, pulling Zuberi close and wrapping a secure arm around her shoulder, reassuring her. He could see that this just wasn't his place. Not yet. Heilyn needed this time with her children, this chance to reconnect. "She'll be okay, Zubs.[/b]" he said softly, smiling down at the squirrel. Maybe the woman was right. Maybe the illness was connected to the bad juju of the Bog. It was a strange and terrifying place, truely. "You don't need to worry, eh? But thank you for it. I don't know what would have happened to her if you hadn't found her.[/b]"
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Post by Satra on Jul 24, 2008 15:57:50 GMT -5
Now that that was out, Heilyn began to calm. Save for her during her pregnancy, she'd never been one for extended periods of emotional out pouring. She had relieved the stress she needed to and was quickly calming down. Sobs were devolving into nothing more than shaky breaths. She gave Hadrian a small lick on the end of his nose to reassure him. Then she nuzzled the side of Rhi's face.
"I'm sorry, Rhi. You just scared me," she muttered quietly to the girl. The next words caused her to freeze.
...yet...
She held the girl closer. No, she would never be 'better' and it was because of the blood she inherited from her mother that she would never be fully sane.
"I'll ask her for you, okay? She seems like a nice lady." She would ask in private. No need to guilt the woman by asking in right in front of two hopeful children. Hadrian lit up and wiggled in his spot. He wanted to go on a vacation with his sister to the nice Squirrel lady's house! and then he frowned.
"But Mommy! She said I smelled!" he said a bit loudly than was generally accepted by etiquette.
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