|
|
Post by The Jenn on Jan 11, 2010 14:59:11 GMT -5
Her breakfast company didn't really phase time. She thought she wouldn't be hungry but, like the previous night, she proved herself wrong about halfway through. After the food had enough time to sit on her palate, the bacon and eggs melting in good ways against her tongue, she wolf down two pancakes and two glasses of drink. She hadn't really eaten much the day before.
Seeing the Ace eat also made her feel better. She leaned over to stroke his head and he nudged at her hand with a garbled noise, food still in his half-toothless mouth. It made her miss her Waffles.
She helped Forge clean up automatically, not really thinking about it and ignoring his protests. Then she went into their father's workroom as her first point of business. Time to figure out what their brother might be able to use... which would take her at least two hours of curious and confusing picking. And that was only the stuff that looked useful to the squirrel. She had no idea what some of it was good for, or if there were any orders that Dad hadn't filled, or what. She would stop halfway through to go with Rose, making sure the old Ace was comfortably curled up in a chair with a blanket and readily accessible water before she left.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 11, 2010 18:06:24 GMT -5
Going to the next town over wasn't that difficult even if it was time consuming. Obtaining a horse and a cart took a good deal of bartering with the only person in the little village who had the supplies they needed.
It was a good thing money spoke volumes. Getting back home was uneventful, and leaving the horse with the neighbors went rather well. She was more than a little surprised as to how easy things were.
But then came the hard part. Figuring out what to do with all the stuff. Who got what. If Dad had left anything behind. What could be used. Who should they give the food to? Rosemary went to sorting the contents of her father's small book collection and paperwork. Maybe she could find something close to a will, or at the very least she could see the orders that he had placed and refund people who he hadn't completed orders for.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Jenn on Jan 14, 2010 1:23:52 GMT -5
Horses. Why hadn't they ridden horses here? Wouldn't that have saved so much time and bitching about their feet? But they could travel pretty quickly on foot in quadruped form, and they'd taken advantage of it. Sigh. Would have saved them money in the long run, though.
Thyme wished she didn't have to try and sort through her parents' belongings. She wished this very, very hard. Unfortunately, wishes didn't come true. Especially not wishes like this. She slowly packed her mother's dolls into boxes, storing them away and out of sight. Where they couldn't stare down anyone who walked in the room. One she kept for herself, a soft doll of a Highland wolf that their mother had ordered not long after their litter was born. Well, not long being a few years, but still. It was soft, and made of something like velvet, and she could maybe give it to Waffles.
Two were kept out to bring to Sage. One of them was a small little wolf, accurately sized to a six-year-old biped. It was dressed in one of her sister's childhood outfits and she figured the girl would want it. The other she knew she would want, since it had been her favorite porcelain doll ever since Mom had shown it to her so many years ago.
The dolls made for a lot of boxes. Mountains of them, stacked on the now-otherwise-empty shelves. The house felt a lot colder for it. She went to see what Rose was doing.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 14, 2010 21:10:32 GMT -5
Rosemary had been dealing with all of her father's books to keep money and his work in order. Thankfully he had no open orders to complete, but Rosemary was finding out that her father had quite a bit of money that he had been raking in. Well. His dolls were hand made, so she supposed he had a legitimate reason to charge people an arm and a leg, especially when they were so willing.
Of course there was the matter of finding where he kept all of this money. Subtracting the cost of groceries and so forth there was quite a nest egg. And she had found some of it in the lock box that he kept in the closet.
When Thyme arrived she was still sorting out a few of the papers and using the heavy metal box as a stool to reach some of the higher up places. "Well, there's some good news," she said as she slipped down with a stack of papers. "Dad doesn't have any open doll orders, so we won't have to pay anyone back. Though from what I'm reading of his notes he has a few unfinished dolls of his own. Think Sage will want to finish them for him? And how did the doll room go?"
|
|
|
|
Post by The Jenn on Jan 14, 2010 21:43:34 GMT -5
Thyme was so very done with dolls by this point. Staring at them for hours on end just made her want to curl up and tuck her head away like a turtle. Or maybe that was just because of what happened to Dad. It was hard to say. She walked up to one of his work stools and fell down onto it, resting her elbows on her thighs as she hunched.
"That's good," she agreed with a small nod. "I really don't want to have to find anyone and tell them why their doll can't be finished. Just... no. I'm glad to hear we won't have to. But I don't know if Sage really does more than dress up like a doll. I don't think she knows how to finish them. Maybe she could learn. I don't know."
She was quiet for a moment, her ears slanted to either side in an uncertain gesture. Red eyes flicked up to look at her sister and her brows creased. "Rose?" Another pause. Longer. "I... don't even know what I was going to say." Pause. "Sorry." She stood back up and rested one hip on a counter. "Do you need me to do anything in this room?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 15, 2010 18:28:21 GMT -5
Rosemary hadn't expected Thyme to say what she did. It was enough to completely throw her off as she watched her sister lean on the counter. Gee well. What was she supposed to say to that? The canine's ears drooped a bit as she looked at her sister.
She shifted awkwardly.
"I think everything is fine here. Maybe you should just take a break for a little while. Forge was taking care of packing things in the kitchen along with preparing another decent meal for us to eat. There's... still a lot to do but it wouldn't hurt to wait, you know?" She sighed. Was that even the right thing to say? "Hey Thyme... there's something I..."
It was probably wrong to bring up something like that. Especially if she wasn't positive yet. "Sorry, never mind. I'll talk about it once we're out of here and on the road again."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Jenn on Jan 17, 2010 17:14:17 GMT -5
Why did this have to be so difficult? So awkward? Death was never easy, but in this house of memories it became ten times harder for Thyme to handle. She looked at her sister with half-tilted ears, trying not to muster the energy to start leaking tears again. Good thing she felt pretty much dry. Dried up. Of everything. She was still so tired.
"I don't want to stop if you're just going to keep at it, though," she argued with a small sigh. "Then I would be lazy on top of everything else. I guess I should just... move on to their bedroom. Mom's doll room is done. I don't think we left too much in our old rooms. I have no idea what they keep in theirs, though, and we should probably check over all of it just in case."
Maybe they'd find some clue as to what was going on with their mother. Or something. Anything. She wished they could catch a break there.
Her expression went confused when Rose did about the same thing as her. Was that some sort of gentle mockery? Or had she actually aborted a statement in the same fashion? Hard to say... and she wasn't going to push. Not right now.
"I'm going back upstairs, I think. I'll be back down if I find anything..."
|
|
|
|
Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 17, 2010 17:52:55 GMT -5
Rosemary was simply working to keep her mind of things. If she thought about things then she would get depressed, and really she didn't want to be depressed. Not when there was so much stuff to be done. "No, really, you should probably take a break and I should take one with you." She said with a sigh.
But of course her sister continued after her awkward statement. Of course she was going to go and do more work. The canine's ears pulled back as she flipped through a few pieces of paper. Maybe she should just say what was on her mind? It would probably make the situation worse though...
"Thyme, I might be pregnant."
She had said it out loud far before her brain had processed the dangers of speaking the truth. She bit down on her tongue in frustration after a few moments of awkward silence that she needed to fill. "I mean... crap. I am pregnant. There's no way around it. I've never been late for this long, and I just guess all the sex caught up with me."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Jenn on Jan 18, 2010 22:21:35 GMT -5
Turning to leave, the words caught Thyme's ears mid-step and she froze, brows knitting in an almost comical expression of surprise and confusion. She turned back around and stared at her sister, head tilting slightly as her eyes went like a magnet to the apparently flat stomach. Then back up.
There were a million things she could have said to that, and she didn't particularly want to say any of them. Just stare in bafflement. "This is one hell of a time to share."
She could have bitten her tongue at the first words out of her mouth. She winced and held up her hands instead. "Didn't mean it like that Rose. I just- really? I... wow. I really have no clue what to say to that. Is this a good thing or a bad thing. Do you want more kids?"
Some part of her couldn't believe they were having this conversation. At all, much less now and here. But they very much were, and she'd put her foot in her mouth right off the bat. "Does anyone else know? Is it... safe for you to be wandering around the Wood right now? How far along are you? And please... please tell me it's not the Heart noble again. Please, Rose. Tell me this." Harsh, she knew. But she wanted it on the table right away. Her brain must have still been partially numb, because the reality of it was having a hard time sinking in. Too many surprises.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 19, 2010 15:07:59 GMT -5
Thyme really knew how to make a girl feel special, didn't she? The canine shot her a rather hurt look before staring back down at the book she was holding. Maybe she should have just kept her mouth shut the entire time and set a letter to her sister later?
She continued to give her sister a rather hurt look as she responded to her questions. The more she was thinking about it the more she should have just kept her mouth shut. Good going. "I don't even know. And I'm not too thrilled at the idea of popping out children. I think getting the other party pregnant is better." She sighed. "And no it's not a Heart noble. Who the hell would I be sleeping with? The Queen of Hearts? The woman wants me dead. Apocalypse wants me dead. Really I'm starting to think the entire world wants me dead. But oi. I'll be fine running around in the Woods, I'm only two... ish months in."
|
|
