|
|
Post by Rhys Moreau on Jan 6, 2014 0:15:07 GMT -5
"A psychiatrist is only part of my help," Rhys said. "I hear voices and have anxiety. My therapist gives me pills and listens to me rant when I need it. Most of my help comes from Matthew and Dare. Help doesn't have to mean professionals with glasses, a special notepad, and a fancy couch."
|
|
|
|
Post by Trent Frey on Jan 6, 2014 0:19:50 GMT -5
"The couches were crappy," Lyric said, as though that made any difference. Most of my help comes from Matthew and Dare. Somehow Dare had really managed to show up when he'd asked for help, something he hadn't been sure would happen. In his experience, promises of friendship or help were fragile things which faded and disappeared when they were no longer convenient for the other party. He still didn't know whether Keith would disappear on him. They'd had a year and whenever something came up he was on-edge waiting for Keith to disappear.
|
|
|
|
Post by Rhys Moreau on Jan 6, 2014 0:41:42 GMT -5
"A crappy couch is better than a crappy cot surrounded by crappy room mates in an orphanage," Rhys said. He didn't have his degree yet, but he knew that orphanages weren't exactly the epitome of convenience and comfort. It didn't matter if the couches they were talking about were those owned by therapists. "Giving a child up is the best option for many people, but I think that it is important to try. Having a biological parent who loves you is a wonderful thing, and you have plenty of friends who are willing to help you." Maybe he was making a bad decision by encouraging Lyric to take the kid, but really, there was himself and Matthew, along with Dare and Michael, to help.
|
|
|
|
Post by Trent Frey on Jan 6, 2014 0:54:06 GMT -5
Lyric wanted to argue that, but he did have help. Somehow two people besides Keith, one of which he hadn't even invited, had shown up to help him figure out what was going on. For some long moments it was quiet, Lyric obviously trying to put things together in his mind. Then he shook his head at himself. "Why the f~ not?" he said at last. "I've done crazier sh~."
|
|
|
|
Post by Rhys Moreau on Jan 6, 2014 0:59:34 GMT -5
Rhys smiled. "Well, take me upstairs, then." It was unfair, sure. He and Matthew wanted a kid badly, but his own mental issues made it incredibly difficult to adopt. It would have been easy for Rhys to refuse to help or to bitterly suggest adoption for the girl, but he hadn't. "No one is ever truly prepared for a kid, if that helps."
|
|
|
|
Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Jan 6, 2014 20:14:26 GMT -5
The child hadn't said a word while Lyric was downstairs. She'd picked a chair to sit in and was staring over her new toy at a glass of water, but they hadn't gotten much reaction out of her. She kicked her feet under the table and occasionally dipped one of her hands into the water, then sucked the liquid off her fingers.
"Good, you made it," Dare said when he saw Rhys. He gave a concerned look, but didn't say anything about the child in front of her. She'd been able to understand him well enough to get that toy, so he had to assume she'd understand other things.
"We were just waiting for you so we could find a name," he went on, looking at Lyric. "Well, two names," he corrected, at a grunt from the table. "One for her, and one for the demiguise. Between the five of us we should be able to come up with something that works."
|
|
|
|
Post by Keith Evans on Jan 6, 2014 20:31:44 GMT -5
Keith looked over at Lyric from his place leaning back against the counter. His expression was tight and he'd been chewing a lip, but he'd forced himself to keep his arms uncrossed. "Figure you should probably have the honor," he said to Lyric. How did you go about naming a human, anyway? Putting names in a bowl and drawing one probably wasn't the right way to go about it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Trent Frey on Jan 6, 2014 20:40:52 GMT -5
Lyric looked to Keith, but saw at a glance that he'd get no help there. In fact, if anything would kill what they'd had the past year, it was this. His gaze hardened as it turned to the child. If she'd just stayed with her mother, if she'd just behaved, or been quiet, or not done whatever it was she'd done that had gotten her dragged to Hogsmeade and thrown at him, he wouldn't have to worry about this. It would just be him, Melody, Shadow, and Keith, in whatever combination, whenever they felt like it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Rhys Moreau on Jan 6, 2014 20:51:12 GMT -5
"Hello there," Rhys said, toting the bag with him but free from much of his winter gear. "You're a pretty one, aren't you? That's a nice toy, too." He kept any stress locked away as much as possible. There was enough tension in the room, already, and he didn't need to add to it. "You really don't want one of us to name it, do you? A name from you'd be more special."
|
|
|
|
Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Jan 6, 2014 21:05:46 GMT -5
Dare wouldn't have called the child pretty at all, except for maybe her eyes. They seemed huge in her head as she watched Rhys, judging him against the rest of the men in the room and still trying to find the trick here. The child only hid her face further behind the toy and peered over at Rhys, kicking even harder under the table, as though she might run away without having to stand up.
Dare looked to Lyric. You need to help, the look said. He'd be surprised if the kid wasn't Lyric's, and if anyone should be naming her, it was her father.
|
|
|
|
Post by Trent Frey on Jan 6, 2014 21:08:20 GMT -5
Lyric's hard gaze only left the child because he could feel Dare's eyes on him. For a moment he glared, upset at the intrusion, upset at having to deal with any of this. He was going to lose Keith. "I don't know how to name someone," he said. He should have told Rhys no, that he wouldn't keep her.
|
|
|
|
Post by Keith Evans on Jan 6, 2014 21:20:39 GMT -5
"You named Shadow and Melody," Keith pointed out. "I mean, I'm so bad at naming things that if I had a dog it'd probably be Spot. I'm sure you can come up with something, though." He turned his head to look at her only to close his eyes and take a deep breath. He needed to relax, but right now had more or less no idea how to do so.
|
|
|
|
Post by Trent Frey on Jan 6, 2014 21:49:31 GMT -5
Lyric wanted to snap at Keith because he needed to snap at someone, or maybe because he was already trying to pull away. It had been a year though, a year of just him and Keith, and he couldn't convince himself that any wall he threw into place would hold better than wet parchment.
"Shadow is like, my shadow, he follows me around," Lyric said after a moment. He looked away, not meeting anyone's eyes. And Melody was an inanimate object. He wouldn't talk about her.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Jan 7, 2014 14:56:37 GMT -5
That sounded like good naming to Dare. "Do you like music?" he asked the child. There was no response, which was an affirmative as far as he was concerned. He'd picked up on the connection between Lyric and Melody, and any direction was better than no direction at all.
He'd just list off musical terms that sounded namelike until either someone stopped him or there was a positive response. "Harmony, Cadence, Allegro, Allegra, Madrigal, Reprise..."
|
|
|
|
Post by Trent Frey on Jan 7, 2014 15:03:40 GMT -5
The kid shook its head throughout most of the list and stopped on Reprise, of all things. "What's that one mean?" Lyric asked. He felt like he should know, but it wasn't coming up in his brain.
A repeated passage in music.
"So you want to be called Reprise?" he asked the child, and she deigned to nod. Then she held out the stuffed toy and shook it a little. Apparently Dare had been right, and it needed a name too.
|
|
