RP:Sweet Child O' Mine
Part of the Through The Looking-Glass: Return To Wonderland Arc
Summary:Things are still like walking on eggshells between Khitti and Brand regarding Brand's very obvious cave PTSD... until Dominic shows off yet another new magical ability.
The Tranquility, Cenril Wharf
Brand was on kid duty. Which was fine, really. He could put up with Dominic’s antics for a day or two. Dozla was away on well-earned leave, and Khitti was off doing Khitti things, and Brand… well, Brand would be just fine dodging his son’s battering-by-chicken-plush for long enough for them to come back. The two of them were in the depths of the ship, where Dominic could hide amongst the cargo and Brand could pretend to have trouble finding him. One of these days, he was gonna have to teach the kid how to -really- play hide and seek.
Khitti was certainly doing those Khitti things, but those Khitti things were solely to get her away from the ship and the ensuing fight between her and the captain of said ship. So where did she go? To Vailkrin. It was quiet. There wasn’t a kid to deal with. There wasn’t a Dominic to deal with. Yes, I just referred to Brand as a child. It wasn’t his fault after all that he was acting this way, but it hadn’t meant that Khitti had the patience to deal with it. The trip to Vailkrin hadn’t quite ended up the way she wanted though. She’d wanted to seek out the solitude of the cemetery. Maybe go to the Grand Temple of Vakmathras there. That happened eventually but not before she ran into Bradyn Mahara and Lorkain, a dark magic teacher for several of the guilds. It went as well as can be expected when dealing with the vampire and the lich, but something good had come of it. Khitti wouldn’t linger long in Vailkrin sadly. It wasn’t supposed to be a day and night trip. She’d come home eventually, hauling along the book given to all entrants into the Necromancer’s Guild. That book was now being set down not so gently on the table in Khitti and Brand’s quarters and its keeper sat down in the chair in front of it, staring at it.
Brand was doing a great job of “not finding” Dominic when a pallet attacked him. It -attacked- him! How dare it! And, of course, he cursed up a mighty storm, which led to the kid coming out of his hidey-hole and shouting “Frak!” at him in gleeful solidarity. Brand sighed, and beckoned the kid forward. Dominic toddled over and hugged his freshly bruised shin (ow). “Yeah, kid. ‘Frak’ is right.”
Khitti || Eventually pages in that book were flipped through, stopping on the section about the Black Tides. Shadows, shadow-ice, and shadow-fire. Khitti had not forgotten about that black electricity she’d conjured up in Chartsend, that day they’d ambushed He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named. Had no one else been able to do this since the Minor Book of the Dead had been written? Maybe the book was outdated. Or maybe no one had considered attempting any other possible shadow-elemental magic. Well, that didn’t matter now because Khitti wasn’t practicing it on this ship either way. The ship saw enough dark magic as it was because of her. So, the book was tucked away for now, and the kitchen sought out. Because Khat wants chicken. Mowrowr.
Brand heaved his child up into his arms and limped his way out of the cargo hold. “Alright, kiddo. Let’s go get somethin’ to eat, yeah? Hide n’ seek is hungry work.” And thirsty work. He could use a drink. Drunk Brand can still watch Dominic, right? Kids are basically miniature drunk adults, anyway. With that thought dancing in his head, he headed to the galley. Once there, he set the kid down and went straight for the alcohol, until -- “Mommy!” Oh. Awkward.
Khitti was in the middle of stuffing a huge piece of cheesecake into her face--look she needed something to tide her over while she cooked!--when Dominic spotted her. She’d shoved waaaay too much into her mouth to be eaten like a normal person, so of course all Khitti could do was just stare at Dominic, and then stare at Brand, with mild confusion written on her face as she tried to choke down what was likely Brand’s favorite food. There’s an awkward cough, a side-eyed glance at the wall, and an attempt to hide a slight amount of blushing for being caught red-handed--there was strawberry ooze all over one hand, so it was literal in addition to figurative. “Hi, you,” she said at length after cleaning off her face, hands, and anywhere the Cheesecake Monster might’ve left evidence of her crime.
Brand || Well, that settled it. If Khitti was gonna get caught eating giant gobs of cheesecake, she couldn’t very well make issue of him grabbing a drink, now, could she? He poured himself a gratuitously large glass of whiskey and settled into a chair. Dominic was still grabbing onto Khitti’s leg, oblivious to any tension. “Hey, you.”
Khitti || “Hi.” Khitti wasn’t sure what else to say at the moment. Usually, in these situations of high tension--or even just medium amounts of tension… or… relatively small amounts of tension--Khitti was incredibly prone to make the situation worse. Dominic’s plucked up off the floor and made to sit in his mother’s lap, a hand lightly patting his head like the adorable anime child he was. “I saw Bradyn today. So… I rejoined the Necromancer’s Guild.” There was that small talk thing again. Awkward Khitti was awkward, and all that jazz. “I might even be able to get my teaching job back at some point.”
Brand || “Oh. That’s good.” Sip. It was very hard not to just chug this entire drink right now and go pour himself another. Alcohol: the best social lubricant. But he would resist as best he could… until he couldn’t anymore. “So when do you think that will be? Restarting the teaching job, I mean.”
Khitti shrugged, “Bradyn is… wary about the fact that I left the guild because I’d “lost” my magic. And now suddenly I have it again. So, I’ve got to work my way up again. Not entirely from the bottom, but…” Another shrug. “What have you been up to? How many times did you hit your dad with your chicken today?” Her words were for the kid, of course, to which he responded with holding out both hands as if to signify ‘a lot’ because he couldn’t exactly count higher than ten. Or even count to ten at all. Dominic would receive a smirk and Khitti would just get quiet again, absently playing with her kid’s hair. Look, he’s got a lot of hair for an almost two year old and it’s cute and she’s definitely stalling. “I’m sorry,” she said finally, her apology obviously directed to He Who Wishes He Was Drunk Right Now.
Brand || He Who Wishes He Was Drunk Right Now took another drink, this one heavier than the first. “Yeah. Me too.” Did he even know what exactly he was apologizing for? Not really. But it was SOP to apologize back to your woman when she apologized first, and so he did. All the better to cover his ass with, m’dear. “Kid’s gettin’ real good at hide n’ seek. Almost took me three whole seconds to figure where he was, this time.” Dominic was young enough that Brand’s tone would make him sound proud and impressed, despite the notably unimpressive content of his words.
Khitti really didn’t know what Brand had to be sorry for, but sure. “Well, it’s either you find him after three seconds or not ever find him because those days are coming,” she said with a faint smirk. “You remember how he was in that damn vision…” It’s a wonder that Dominic hadn’t fallen off the side of the ship at this point, though, thankfully, he wasn’t ever alone when he was on the main deck--there’s no way he’d be able to climb up all those ladders and stairs to get there anyway.
Brand || “Not the way he is now, nah.” Brand smirked back. “I say F-R-A-K and the kid comes runnin’ every time.” He’d used the age-old trick of spelling a word to avoid letting young ears know which word was being said, but… for the first time, Dominic caught on -- and immediately started yelling the word aloud. “Dammit. Guess it’s time for a change of tactics…”
Khitti just stared at Brand with a deadpan look as she put her hand over Dominic’s mouth. It worked a little bit. He’d realize soon that he couldn’t be heard quite as loudly as he wanted, then quieted down. Unfortunately for Khitti, since she hadn’t taken her hand off quickly enough, their son would get a bit fidgety and started licking her hand. “Ew. Okay, kid. Gross people sit over here now,” she said, setting him on the table between her and Brand. Well, it’d been a nice distraction, but now the awkwardness just sort of came back. Khitti wasn’t sure what else to say at this point, for fear that another argument would get started -somehow-.
Brand bust out laughing. “Look, you can’t stop the kid from cursin’. He’s -our- son, after all. Probably gonna teach all the other kids his ‘fun’ new words, too.” He grinned at her and for a moment the awkwardness faded, almost as if it had never been. Just two lovers enjoying the ups and downs of parenting. But Dominic broke the comfortable silence with a hiccup -- a hiccup that spewed forth a tiny little glob of shadow magic. It fell to the floorboards and made a worrisome crater before dissipating. Dominic stared in awe equal to Brand’s horror… then started shouting “Frak!” again.
Khitti had been smirking at Brand and his newfound excitement for corrupting children via their son and his swearing. -Had- being the keyword there. There was no smirk now, but neither was there a look of horror, like the one Brand had. “Don’t you dare.” Hiccup. Cue another glob. Khitti’s got that mom look of ‘If you continue to do this, you’re gonna be grounded from now until the rest of forever’. “Don’t you frakkin’ dare, damn it.” More hiccups. More globs. Well, if she didn’t do something soon, Dominic was gonna melt all of Brand’s precious ship! So she picked him up, shook him a bit--much to Dominic’s delight, as was evident by his laughter--and headed out of the room. Bye, Brand. And if Brand followed? He’d find his woman holding their child by his legs over the side of the ship, letting the globs fall into the sea instead. Dominic loved this too, of course.
Brand put up a “Caution: Wet Floor” sign over the location of the craters. Good enough for a temporary solution, he supposed. Later, he’d have to procure some wood and tools to patch up the holes. For now, he’d make his way to the top deck, where Dominic was still dangling by his feet. “So, uh. Thoughts? How do we fix this?” Not to imply that Dominic was something that needed to be ‘fixed’, but, well… they couldn’t exactly teach a toddler how to control their magic and not destroy everything.
Khitti || “Can we just throw him overboard for the mermaids and make a new one? Maybe it won’t happen next time.” She wasn’t serious. Maybe. Okay, Khitti was a little serious. Also, the thought of being pregnant again right now really didn’t sound like a good idea, but look, if it meant they didn’t have to deal with this… then maybe?. “I can’t keep going to Rachelle for more enchants on that bracelet of his. I don’t even know if she’s in that business anymore. She’s a bit delicate and did not come out of that Larket stuff well and last time I saw her, she looked worse than you do after a weekend-long drinking binge,” she said with a smirk. After a bit, it seemed like Dominic’s hiccups went away. At the very least, he stopped spewing up globs of magic. The kid’s turned right side up and eyed closely by his mother, “Why are -you-, of all people, the one with this problem?”
Brand || Dominic’s response was to laugh some more. As far as the kid was concerned, there was no problem. None whatsoever. Ignorance is bliss, and Dominic was one extremely blissful child. “I blame the original Dominic,” Brand said with a shrug. It was as reasonable an answer as any. “Kid didn’t want anything to do with magic, so go figure his namesake would get a full barrel-load of it.”
Khitti || “Yeah and meanwhile, we’re getting punished with it when we’ve got enough problems on our hands.” Khitti just stared at their kid as she thought things over, then finally shoved Dominic at his dad. “Good news, you get to attempt to teach him even if he’s not old enough. From what I’ve read, toddlers his age will repeat anything you say or do and I’m gonna assume that goes for magic too. If you refuse to deal with your own issues and want to continue to live in denial, then you get to deal with -his- problem instead.” It -had- sort of worked with things before, anyway. Brand had less time to worry about the original Dominic once Khitti started looking for a cure and Brand had gotten his ship--enough to the point that Dominic just faded away. At least, that’s what it’d seemed like to Khitti. Ignore the part where her and Dominic had fights aplenty. That didn’t factor into it at all. Nope.
Brand stammered his attempts at protest, but deep down he knew Khitti was right. If Dominic ended up having access to -even more- magic down the line, they couldn’t just keep trying to negate his abilities forever. Still… “Frak me. Fine. But if I die from shadow-pellet craters in me like he just did to my ship, I’m gonna haunt you forever. Just sayin’.”
Khitti || Sigh. “-I’ll- deal with the shadow magic. I’ll take his bracelet to the Temple of Loda in Craughmoyle. They deal with magical weapons and such. They can enchant it with holy magic to counteract it. It’s not like he’s a full-fledged necromancer, so it won’t hurt him.” Khitti paused, looked at Dominic, and poked him in the forehead, “Look, kid. There’s only room for one creepy person in this family and that’s me. So, you do what your dad tells you--or it’s straight to the fishies for you.” Dominic wasn’t sure why his parents were being so serious right now. Fishies? Hell yeah. He liked this idea. “Fishies! FISHIES!” Cue Dominic puckering up his lips and moving them like a fish would.
Brand could only shake his head in resignation. “What’ve we gotten ourselves into?” Dominic was scooped up and Brand started making his way toward the library, where he could watch the “fishies” and maybe be too distracted to spew up more shadow globs. But, just as he was about to disappear around the corner, he turned back to Khitti one last time. It looked for a second like he might say something meaningful, like ‘I love you’ or ‘I’m sorry about the thing with the cave’ or … something. But, no. He said, “smell ya later,” and then he was gone. The frak.