A Matter of Conformity [End]

[Nako]

So, once again Zuberi found herself conforming to what was expected of her.. bowing to the whim of the man. She frowned at that thought... but it was for the best. There were plenty of ace thieves out there, and Zuberi wanted her property to be protected. She would be.. most heartbroken to find her little chicken stolen and killed for his feathers... or put into a cage in the dark never to be seen again. Reflexively, she ran her claws through the feathers of the chicken ace in her arms, ruffling the feathers there to elicit a happy series of clucks and croons. Darling little thing, he was.

She wandered down the hallway for a while before finding herself absolutely lost. She'd came down to visit and brought her ace along.. She'd had reservations about committing to this new method of dealing with aces, but finally relented and decided to leave the comfort of her guest room and seek this place out. Of course, feeling awkward about asking the servants or bellboys questions and finding Heilyn to not be in her room when she went by... she committed to merely wandering around till she found the place.

Of course... being in ones first trimester of pregnancy made one quite -tired-. "There you go, Charlie. Don't wander off. I need a moment to catch me breath.." Charlie.. that was the little guy's name. She'd found it out completely by accident... her mother had come in to offer baby name ideas. She'd went through quite a list before coming across that name, which to Zub's surprise, the ace chicken had looked up and gave a most inquisitive chirp!

At the order, Charlie gave a most affirmed crow before settling down next to her. Funny, now that the ace knew when she was talking to him... he seemed quite a bit smarter than before! Certainly not as smart as a normal card... but certainly an improvement. The guy seemed so much happier now that his name had been found out. Had his former family named him? If so.. that Morganberry certainly hadn't wanted to reveal it. He'd said the thing didn't have a name at all. It was up to sheer speculation as to who actually named Charlie.

A distracted hand rest on her belly, which had grown large enough to become visible through her dress, protruding almost oddly from her lithe figure. There was no movement yet, and from what her mother explained to her, there would be no movement for weeks to come... which was a shame. Perhaps if she felt the creature moving within her... she'd start to feel a love for it.

[Kari Muffin]

Everything was boring. The little squirrel found herself without a single thing to do. Everyone she went to was busy. Daddy was doing paperwork, Mommy Xiven was in one of her meetings yet again, Grandma Heilyn was busy too and all the other kids were older than her and didn't want to play. So she was left playing with herself.

But playing by herself got old fairly quickly. After a great deal of debate she found herself wandering around the palace. Everyone tended to ignore her anyway. She wasn't quite sure why they did, but when she tried to get someone's attention it always ended in failure.

Boring.

And then she spotted something bright and pink in the distance. That normally wasn't here. Linnea scurried closer, doing her best to stay hidden from sight. Who was that strange person? Where had they come from? And why did they have a chicken with them?

She'd finally found something that wasn't boring! The little squirrel moved closer, peering around what she was hiding behind. "Hello!" she said cheerfully.

[Nako]

Oh, someone was speaking to her? A young voice, at that. She closed her eyes for a moment as her eyes slid into the correct position to see the girl, the black pool of an eye replacing the rolled back, sightless one on the side she approached.

What she saw was a delightful little surprise. "Why hello dere!" A weird little creature she was, with those pages sticking out of her back, but she was adorably bog, and even -more- adorably squirrel! Her gaze trailed down to the marking on her chest with a surprised raise of her brow. Another club scandal baby? It obviously wasn't Heilyn's.. unless she'd made it with a rather strange squirrel recently... but she'd have heard of that, right?

Crouching down to one knee, she regarded the child with a bright smile, offering her webbed hand. "Ah don't t'ink I've seen you around during my visits before! I'm Zuberi; a friend of Heilyn's." Perhaps that would give them some basis of knowing each other? She hardly thought there would be a Bog Dweller running about that Heilyn didn't at least know the name of. The only ones Zuberi had ever seen were those of Heilyn's bloodline.

--

Charlie peered from around his owner, feathers fluffing a bit as he regarded the odd looking thing... And it stunk! Giving a soft sneeze, he was content to stay behind Zuberi for the moment. It certainly didn't smell of sunshine and rosepetals...

[Kari Muffin]

The little squirrel watched as the woman turned to look at her. Oh, her eyes were really weird. She hadn't seen anyone like that before! The little squirrel edged a bit closer out of curiosity. When the chicken gave a sneeze she jumped slightly.

The smell was something she didn't notice. And it was forgotten when the woman started speaking. Her ears flew forwards at the mention of Heilyn. The girl seemed to almost bounce as she reached out a paw for the woman's hand. The woman may have spoke in a funny accent, but she knew Grandma so that probably meant she was safe. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Linnea." She gave the woman the brightest smile she could. "You know Grammy Heilyn?"

Even though technically the woman wasn't her grandmother, she still called her that. After all the woman was helping to raise her and in honesty the little squirrel didn't know any better. The squirrel looked the woman up and down. She really was quite strange, but fascinating.

[Nako]

Well! There was obviously -some- sort of relation! Zuberi's mouth split into a bright smile. It was always a pleasure to meet one of the family (even if said relation wasn't as simple as it seemed).

Linnea. Such a darling little name. And that mane! It was so familiar.. but she couldn't quite place it. Who were this little squirrel's parents?

"Aye! I do. I've known your grandmother since before you were born... Back when Hadrian was just a sparkle in Seth's eye!" Letting out a soft laugh.

"But tell me, Linnea. Are ya parents be livin' in the Courts as well? What are their names? I'd imagine I'd know them too." Because goodness knows she knew most of the Heilyn/Seth sprog by now... Which of Heilyn's offspring had this little one? Certainly it wasn't Mikael... What about that girl that resembled the angler fish with all those dangling glowing antennae? Then again there was always Tegan.. which would explain the club marking.. but the child didn't look a -thing- like her.

[Kari Muffin]

She tilted her head at the joke, as it completely went over her head. What did she mean about Hadrian being a twinkle in Grandpa's eye? That didn't make any sense. The squirrel shrugged the comment off, focusing on the next question.

A grin spread across her face. "Yep! My parents mostly live here! My Daddy is Apocalypse and my Mommy is Xiven. My other Mommy doesn't live in the courts though. She only comes to visit every once in a while...her name is Rosemary." It didn't seem like an odd notion at all to the girl that she had two mothers and one father. No one had told her it was supposed to be any different. Not like anyone was going to argue with the little girl when it came down to it.

The squirrel gave the woman another curious look. "Why does your stomach look funny?" The manners that she was taught had completely flown out of the window.

[Nako]

Zuberi gave a surprised raise of her brows. Apocalypse... had he mentioned he'd had a kid? She'd just about forgotten. But Xiven's kid? No freaking way. She called bullshit on that one immediately. She was -pretty- sure there wasn't an ounce of squirrel in that woman.

Ah.. so another mother? That made sense. She was pretty sure she'd never met this other individual. But she knew Apocalypse, and had at the very least, seen Xiven from afar, even if they hadn't been properly introduced. After all... it wasn't as if she was more than a passing friend to Apocalypse, which would be essentially her only link to getting to know the woman.

When the girl mentioned the roundness of her belly, she was almost taken aback. Her smile slackened, and a self conscious hand quickly went to her stomach. Goodness... how little did she actually converse with such a young creature? She hadn't been asked that question yet, for with how often the people in her village got knocked up, most children of all ages were well aware of what a pregnant creature looked like.

Was she offended? Despite the shock.. it was still almost endearing. Zuberi found herself smiling at the situation. "It's because there's... a baby growing inside." Yes, she was actually able to call it a baby. Not a hellbeast.. not satan's loinspawn. A baby... one that could grow up and be just as sweet and naive as Linnea, perhaps? Would she even have enough squirrel in her so that Zuberi could see a facet of herself? Or maybe some Midori pink?

[Kari Muffin]

The little squirrel's eyes widened briefly. A baby growing inside? She knew babies came from a mommy but beyond that it was baffling for her. How was it possible for a baby to grow inside of someone?

"Really?" She asked tentatively as she moved a bit closer to stare. "That's really amazing!" She didn't reach out to touch it. That would be going to far, wouldn't it? She gave the woman a curious look before looking down at her stomach.

And then her eyes caught the bright color of the rooster. She tilted her head at the creature and looked up at the woman. "Why do you have a rooster with you? Is he your pet?" She was still quite curious over the woman's pregnancy, but a tangent here or there was only natural with her curiosity. Not everyone was so willing to answer her question. She was, after all, a Club amongst a sea of Hearts.

[Nako]

The girl looked quite baffled, which amused Zuberi to no end. Leave it to Pale to -partake- of baby making like a madman, but be unable to explain it to his daughter! Then again.. if there hadn't been many people about the Court who were pregnant, it's not like the need had arose till now.

"... Ah-ye. I suppose it is a bit amazing." Zuberi finally agreed after a few moments of hesitation, giving her stomach a thoughtful pat.

Ah, but a subject change! And most certainly in the right direction. "Ah.. yes he is! His name is Charlie. He's actually not just a rooster..."

Slowly, the ace came from around his master at the sound of his name, tilting his head at the squirrel curiously. For all that she smelled retched... she didn't seem dangerous.

"See there? He's actually an Ace. I actually brought him along so that I could get him registered."

[Kari Muffin]

"Ooooh!" Linnea said, her eyes lighting up. She had seen Aces before, but none of them had been that tiny. Fluffy was a big kitty after all. The little squirrel edged a bit closer. "Charlie? That's a nice name. My Mommy Xiven has an ace named Fluffy. She's really nice and smells pretty all the time."

The little girl's tail twitched as she continued to eye the rooster. It didn't seem to like it much. What if she reached out a paw to touch it. It would probably snap at her right? Mommy had always said that not all Aces were as well tempered as the sweet cat with the bright blue tail.

"Why does he have a chain?" She asked when she spotted the metal. Most Torquehelms wore bindings... but that wasn't quite like the stuff that she had seen. Mer had a ball and chain, so did Eldy, and Othello had a set of manacles. A chain seemed a little weird.