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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Jan 5, 2014 19:14:10 GMT -5
Downstairs, Dare was boggling that there wasn't any more explanation than he already had. "And she doesn't even have a name?" he asked for the second time. He unzipped his coat as he followed Lyric upstairs, looking around the shop as he did. He'd never actually been in, and judging by the work on the walls, it might be a good idea to do so. He had a thousand drawings of the kids, and plenty of smaller photos, but this was a different level.
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Post by Trent Frey on Jan 5, 2014 19:16:17 GMT -5
"Dare says Rhys ought to be on his way," Lyric said when he walked into the kitchen. He looked worriedly over toward the cabinet, where he knew the kid was. "She's scared of everything," he said, as though even a whisper wouldn't be audible in the kitchen. At least she wasn't crying.
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Post by Keith Evans on Jan 5, 2014 19:27:25 GMT -5
"She threw a crisp bag when we mentioned one name, to give you an idea," Keith said from his post just outside of the cabinet. He glanced over his shoulder to give Dare a nod in greeting. "I think she's slowed down on eating, though..." It was hard to tell when he could mostly only see her outline and brief flashes of other things.
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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Jan 5, 2014 19:36:07 GMT -5
Dare gave a nod. It made sense that the kid would be scared and angry. Though he was still defrosting and it was chilly in Lyric's flat, he made himself start peeling off layers, hanging things on the back of a chair where they wouldn't get into the mess.
"I brought a present for whenever she comes out," he said, knowing she could hear. Three years old. The twins were talking, so surely the child in the cabinet could understand them. He peered toward the opening. "She'll need to wash her hands first, though." What kind of rags was she wearing?
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Post by Trent Frey on Jan 5, 2014 19:41:58 GMT -5
Dare seemed to know what he was doing, and that made Lyric feel better even if he had no clue where any of this was going. He looked from Dare to Keith, who the kid was already tolerating. The kid itself had hidden away its necklace when they walked into the room and was now perfectly still.
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Post by Keith Evans on Jan 5, 2014 19:52:30 GMT -5
"Dare's pretty cool," Keith said. He shifted in his spot to leave plenty of room for the uncertain child to exit when she wanted. "I mean, he's got blue hair, and that's about as cool as you can get." Thankfully, whatever part of him that may have wanted to bolt earlier had been hidden away again, and it was easier to at least kind of understand the kid.
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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Jan 5, 2014 20:08:14 GMT -5
Dare squatted down between the table and the cabinet to see what he could see of the kid. She was small, not much bigger than the twins, and she didn't look healthy at all. "If you eat too much you'll feel sick," he advised, for whatever good it might do.
He brought out a toy he'd taken from Isolde's room, a fluffy stuffed demiguise with long, silky fur. Isolde had gotten two of them for Christmas, and the second had been sitting unhugged on a shelf in her room. "It doesn't have a name yet. Maybe you can both get names today." How could a child three years old not have a name? Dare hoped that Rhys hurried, and hoped more that something he'd studied would prepare him for this.
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Post by Trent Frey on Jan 5, 2014 20:13:44 GMT -5
The child looked at Dare with wide, mistrustful eyes, then looked at his offering with a spark of greed. It was obvious she wanted the present, but she suspected a trick of some kind. After a tense moment, she stuck her hands out and wiggled her fingers in demand. She made no move to leave safety, though.
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Post by Keith Evans on Jan 5, 2014 20:24:57 GMT -5
Keith took care not to move suddenly, thinking it would likely spook the girl all over again when they were close to getting her out. Still, he couldn't help but glance over at Lyric. He was far from ready for anything involving a kid, but he also didn't want to leave Lyric, but the girl obviously had issues, but so did Lyric. It was a mess of a situation.
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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Jan 5, 2014 20:52:09 GMT -5
Dare held the toy in one hand and brought out his wand with the other. He balanced the end on his knee to show he wasn't going to use it. "Do you want to clean your hands in the sink, or clean them with magic?" he asked. It was the kind of question that always ended in success with the twins. They got to make a decision, so they were happy, and he got what he wanted either way.
The child pulled her hands back and sucked a bit of tuna salad/crisp mixture off her thumb, and Dare repeated himself. "Do you want to clean your hands in the sink?" he asked again, glancing up at it, "Or with magic?" He nodded down to his wand, then looked pointedly at the demiguise.
Finally, the child pointed at the wand and stuck her hands out again.
Dare nodded and picked up his wand, then did a quick cleaning spell the twins knew well. A flick to the side and the rest of the kitchen started cleaning itself too, but Dare kept as much of his attention directly on the child as he could so that she'd keep her attention on him. The moment the cabinet was cleaned out, he tucked away his wand and caught up the toy with both hands.
"I cleaned you up nice, right?" he asked. "The toy is yours. Come on out and get it."
The child still looked suspicious, but he hadn't made up any new rules, he'd said the toy was hers and she didn't have much that was hers. She only stayed still a moment, then launched herself out of the cabinet and snatched the toy out of Dare's hand. Dare reached past her to push the cabinet door closed.
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Post by Trent Frey on Jan 5, 2014 21:46:19 GMT -5
This was the first clear look Lyric had gotten of the child. Her hood was back, and her cloak was pushed aside as well so she could wrap her arms around her new toy. There was orange hair, brushed, but lifeless and ragged, eyes the same rich brown as his own, and stick-thin limbs poorly wrapped in worn clothes that might have been new when he was a kid.
Lyric didn't dare move and ruin whatever was going on. Somehow Dare had gotten the kid clean and gotten it out of the cabinet, all in less time than it had taken to get upstairs.
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Post by Keith Evans on Jan 5, 2014 22:25:06 GMT -5
Keith was surprised at what the girl looked like, and the rest of his reservations flew out the window, not that he suddenly wanted to keep a kid. "You could name that after your necklace. I'm sure it's a more appropriate name for a stuffed animal than a little girl." He could easily see bits of Lyric in the little girl, making it hard to continue believing she didn't belong to him. A distant knock signaled Rhys' arrival.
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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Jan 5, 2014 22:33:45 GMT -5
Dare could see bits of Lyric as well, though it had been ages since he'd drawn the man. He flicked a glance toward Keith, wondering what he thought of all this. Shock, obviously, but it had been Keith sitting beside the cabinet, Keith talking to the child while Lyric answered the door.
"Is it okay if we find a name for you?" he asked. The child didn't say anything, but there had been no argument. "We'll do that as soon as your dad gets back."
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Post by Trent Frey on Jan 5, 2014 22:36:11 GMT -5
"Dare said you'd be coming," Lyric said, closing the door behind Rhys. "Everyone's up in the kitchen." The photos he'd been looking through earlier were forgotten on the counter, but the wind the door had let in hardly ruffled them. "Uh... how much did he tell you?" Lyric almost wanted to stay in the shop. Maybe saying everything again would make it more real.
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Post by Rhys Moreau on Jan 5, 2014 22:40:55 GMT -5
"He said someone left a little kid with you," Rhys said, putting his hood down. "He mentioned bringing books and things that might help, so I grabbed a couple...What's going on? I mean, it sounds like something out of a story, really, just someone leaving a kid with you." He hadn't worked with young kids in a long time, since he was a teenager, as far as he could remember. He pulled off gloves and shoved them into a bag that hung against his hip.
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