Sunshine Secrets [Finished!]

[Dark]

Iskra looked around what she could see of the apartment with genuine interest, taking in the mismatched furniture, the impressive amount of flora placed on every available surface, the heating beaker that was currently bubbling over, and the lone sock that sat in the middle of the nearest hallway. In imagining Thalia's home--if she'd time between dissuading angry mobs and worrying--Iskra couldn't have thought of anything so fitting. She liked it.

Still, keeping in mind that it would have to take some very...unique...individuals to create a child like Thalia, she decided to tread carefully as she followed Thalia deeper into the abode. it never hurt to be too careful.

---

Minh was in the kitchen when she heard her youngest bellow, her first response being the urge to beat a strategic retreat. Thalia was a good girl, but she could be quite a handful sometimes, and when it came to dealing with her Mnem was maybe better equipped. But it didn't sound like anything potentially terrifying--just a standard hello--and she couldn't get out of the kitchen without being seen anyway. She headed for the front entryway, pulling up short when she got there.

Thalia had brought home a friend, apparently.

[Bee]

"Mama!" Thalia thrust the plant onto a nearby inn table and threw herself at her mother, giving her a cheerful hug. "I brought the plant home for Mom, see? I can't wait till she comes home tomorrow and sees it. She's going to be so proud. It's not demolished or anything, though we did sort of get accosted by these weird people and...Oh! I brought a friend too. This is Iskra. We vanquished bad guys together and she's amazing. Miss Gecko, this is my Mama. Her name is Mama."

Thalia took a moment to breathe. Sometimes she got a little carried away with excitement. "Anyway, I just came by to drop this off and say hi and also that I'm gonna be out for a while with Iskra and I will come home sometime later, okay?" She looked around, frowning. "Where is my Monty?"

[Kiki]

Bee and Dark receive 2 tokens each, to be redeemed in Ashwin's Shoppe. This will automatically be added to your recorded totals in the shoppe. Congratulations, and keep up the good RP!

[Dark]

Minh listened to her daughter's steady stream of dialog absently, the bulk of her attention on the plant Thalia had bundled home. It looked harmless enough, but you could never be too certain when it came to Mnem's collection.

"Monty? Oh, s/he's around here somewhere, I imagine."

She glanced at Iskra with a smile, "It's nice to meet you, dear. I'm Minh. Don't let Thalia get into too much trouble, would you?" It wasn't surprising that Thalia would befriend a Lowlander; Minh's own experience with them was limited to the lab, but if anyone could look past the rough exterior, it would be her daughter. Too bad about the rot, though. There wasn't anything to do with it besides cut it off, and even then there was no way to know if the rot when deeper.

Iskra, still hovering just inside the door, was a little slow responding to such a warm welcome. Thalia had seemed an oddity; that her mother would be as civil, if not as psychotically friendly, was surprising. And extremely welcome. She found herself smiling in return.

"Thank ya, ma'am. I will."

[Bee]

Liar, liar, Thalia thought happily, but did not say it out loud. There wasn't much chance that Mama would actually care if she got into trouble, but it never hurt to be cautious with parents. They got worked up about the strangest things. Maybe Mama would finally draw the line at what she and Iskra were planning on doing.

She couldn't decide if she wanted to take Monty with them or not. On the one hand, her faithful bander was a mean little killing machine and could be quite convincing; on the other, her faithful bander was a mean killing machine that might...actually kill someone. She decided on no.

"Okay, well, nice talking to you, Mama. Have fun in the lab and try not to make a big mess, okay? Mom will be mad when she gets home and it'll spoil the plant-love I'll get. And oh, by the way, do you happen to know where any of the bad kids around here hang out? One of them owes me money."

[Dark]

Minh smiled bemusedly at her youngest child, her thoughts already miles away with the mention of her lab. She'd been rather lazy as of late when it came to gathering up stock for her more lively experiments. Maybe she was getting old, but it just seemed like too much effort. Instead, she'd started up her bander breeding program with renewed interest. She'd always wondered if she could recreate the conditions that had resulted in Monty, and maybe even avoid whatever had made the bander sterile. So far, she hadn't been entirely successful.

"Bad kids, hn? Try your cousins," she turned towards the lab, "and don't get caught, dearest. I don't want to bail you out; your brother is in enough trouble already."

Iskra watched the woman leave with mixed feelings, not at all certain how to react to the relationship between Thalia and her mother. She couldn't even begin to grasp what the rest of the family might be like.

"What did she mean? 'bout yer cousins, I mean?"

[Bee]

"I have no idea," Thalia said, blinking in bemusement at her mama's retreating form. "My only cousins are Mama's brother's kids and I've never even met them." She shrugged. "She's probably just really wrapped up in an experiment right now and not thinking about what she says. She does that sometimes. Um. So do I."

Thoughtfully, she added, "Maybe she wants us to see my brothers? Most of them are crazy, you know. My brother Hadyn ran away years ago a little while before Mama got all knocked up with me. My other brothers are loony and one of them's a fairy princess. And my sister's a rapist!" Thalia had historically had little difficulty telling people about her family. Like most children, she had a very distressing lack of mental filters, and saw absolutely nothing wrong with sharing aspects of her family life that most people would find disturbing. "What do you think?"

[Dark]

Iskra licked her eye, and thought rather uncharitably that maybe Hadyn had the right idea. From what she'd just heard, Thalia's family made Iskra's family look golden in comparison. She gave herself a mental shake; considering her own familial history, she really wasn't one in a position to judge. Not to mention she only had Thalia's uncensored gossip to go off on--she didn't know any of the circumstances, or even what Thalia constituted as 'crazy.'

"I think...they sound like interesting people." It was the most noncommittal reply she could come up with off the top of her head. Though she was rather curious to meet them, in a morbid sort of way.

"Do you really think they'll be able to help us find the people you want?" Iskra wasn't too sure, but she hoped Thalia knew what she was doing.

[Bee]

"Maybe," she said cheerfully. "Se and Ira and Eir mostly run around in the Court, so I don't think they could help us very much at this stage in the game, and neither could Helena or Elyse really. Ven is always off doing something-or-other and V kinda stays away from us 'cause I don't think he likes us very much. And I feel like Iphis probably wouldn't approve....We can talk to Hadyn, I guess, if we can hunt him down. I've only met him a few times."

That was an understatement. She saw magical troll beasts from the underworld more often than she saw Hadyn. Magical troll beasts were notoriously difficult to find. But it shouldn't be that hard to get a hold of him, if she really wanted to find him. "He seems pretty hardcore, though. My mom calls him a little asshole. Maybe he even runs the gangs around here!"

[Dark]

Iskra didn't feel it particularly wise to hunt down someone who seemed to have so distanced himself from his entire family. People had their reasons, and Iskra wasn't about to question them. She could, and would, however, make a business out of them. Thalia's brother, however, was probably best left alone, and she told Thalia as much.

"If we run into yer brother, ya can talk to him then, but fer now I think it's probably best ta leave him well alone. He might not like ya butting in, yeah?" They didn't want to stumble into something over the top of their heads, and if Hadyn was as much an asshole as was implied then they definitely did not want his ire directed at them. Better to avoid the potential catastrophe all together.

"Now, about these hoodlums--" she paused to gather her thoughts, "Is there anywhere specific they might hang?