[Nexus] Mithar Keep

[Halae]

[Baby Room]

Harnel, oblivious to Telly's exhaustion, is merely holding Bastion and continuing to feed him. He's rather fat - enough so that he'd probably roll around on the ground rather than crawl, and he just keeps on drinking milk, until Harnel eventually cuts him off., at which point Harnel gives the fat little boy a teddy bear out of a nearby chest - one of the many, many toys that he got from Mintbalm. Bastion is absolutely delighted, forgetting all about his milk.

Cora, on the other hand, immediately starts pulling at Cessie's dress and rubbing her face against her mother's nice outfit, which should make everywhere touched wet from a combination of drool and milk. Ah, parenthood. At least Cora doesn't seem to be puking yet, though Harnel has had to deal with that a couple times.

[Shadowcaller]

[Baby Room]

...of course. Just give me a moment. Cessie holds on tightly to Cora, ignoring the droll she get on her dress for a moment to sit up. "I'll show them to their room dear. I'll take Cora with me." She brings up the baby to chest-level and smiles at her.

"Let's help aunt Telly and Ariel to their rooms shall we Cora?" She asks the baby with a smile on her face.

[UncleWolf]

Baby Room

As tired as she is, Telly can't help but feel better at the sight of Cessie with the twins. Even if it wasn't her Cessie, or her children, it brings up memories of her time with baby Ariel. "You two should be proud of them." She tells Harnel and Cessie. "You're going to make great parents." She says before following Cessie's lead, Ariel in tow.

[Halae]

[Baby Room]

Harnel waves to the women as they go, just entertaining bastion for the moment.

Cora will grab on to whatever she can and start giggling and pulling with all her baby strength. Which is far from a lot, draconic or not.

[Shadowcaller]

[Baby Room]

Trying to keep the baby from squeezing her too hard she holds out Cora in front of her as she walks and allows the infant to grab her hand instead. "I hope so." She replies with a warm smile, trying to keep the conversation brief considering how exhausted they were.

That got her thinking though, were two mom's as good as parents as a mother and a father? Now that she thought about it, she had seen a wolfen father and a human mother making great parents together. If two different species could make such great parents she doubted two of the same species (daemon or not) could make much worse. Besides, at least partly this other Cessie was very like her. Suddenly she couldn't see anything wrong with this idea.

She couldn't help to be curious about one thing though. "So how was Ariel as a child?" Cessie asks as they are about to reach the door.

[UncleWolf]

Baby Room => Guest Room

"Fussy." Telly admits with a slight smile much to Ariel's distress, making her groan in embarrassment. "Fussy, messy, ornery, and I couldn't have loved her more." She tells Cessie warmly. "Music helped keep her quiet and peaceful, so we had some playing as much as possible."

[Shadowcaller]

Guest Room

"Oh." Cessie replies, not very familiar with radios and the like. She figures if you can make sound come out of one thing (like her council communicator) you can make it come out of another though.
"I didn't have much interested in music when I was young honestly. I did sing i the choir though but that was before my eldritch studies. It's hard to keep up such hobbies at the same time." She would like to know more about where Ariel studied but she figures she can ask that later. Now they should just take it easy.

"But why don't you lay down a while and we can talk more later? This must have been exhausting for you." She opens the door and guides them into the guest room which thankfully have two beds.

[UncleWolf]

Guest Room

The two women give Cessie their thanks before Telly leaves to take her shower in the bathroom. Ariel will step towards Cessie a bit cautiously, almost to hug her, but pauses. After a moment's thought, she gives a curtsey. "Thank you. This means a lot to us. If there's anything we can do to repay the favor, just ask."

[Shadowcaller]

[Guest Room]

"Don't worry about it Ariel." Cessie replies with a smile. "You can stay here as long as you want. It's no problem at all. The elementals and Kirin help us with everything so you don't need to worry about being a bother.Let's just go and rest for a while now will you? You have been through a lot."

[UncleWolf]

Guest Room

"Thanks, Cessie." Ariel tells her sincerely before letting the mage leave. Once she's gone, Ariel shuts the door and collapses onto the bed, utterly exhausted and waiting her turn to get cleaned up.

[Shadowcaller]

[Guest Room==>Baby Room]

As Ariel have left Cessie returns to Harnel and Bastion in the baby room with Cora. "I'm afraid she drooled a bit on my dress but it could have been so much worse. It's something to tell her when she get's older hm?" She asks her husband while stepping inside the room.

[Halae]

[Baby Room]

At this point, Harnel is holding a sleeping Bastion in his arms. Cessie's voice doesn't wake the baby boy up, however, "Or tell whatever boyfriend she tries to get when she's old enough for that," Harnel grins

[Shadowcaller]

[Baby Room]

The mage frowns slightly as the idea of a boyfriend pops up in her head. "Well... let's how we have forgotten all about it the day she get's a boyfriend. I really hope she knows to wait until she is mature enough to have one." She says with a glance at Kora, smiling slightly at her daughter.

[Halae]

[Baby Room]

"Children are like their parents, no matter how much or how little we may wish otherwise," Harnel says, "I wonder how much they'll take after me; to afraid of what might happen to confess feelings. I certainly hope not."

[Shadowcaller]

[Baby Room]

"That's would be good but I have experience with the opposite actually. Especially when it comes to the teenage years." Cessie replies. "And you weren't that shy, you simply didn't know I liked you until that point. You had been raised in a society where half-dragons were seen as unattractive, Bastion and Cora will not."

[Halae]

[Baby Room]

Harnel smiles widely at that, "They're going to have a much better childrhood than i ever had, I'm sure. In either of our worlds they'd get stares and bullies all the time, but here they'll just be... normal," Harnel runs a hand along Bastion's wing, causing it to twitch, "for the most part, anyways."

And because this moment is in danger of getting more sappy, an aroma begins to emanate from Cora's diaper. It is not a pleasant smell. Harnel doesn't seem to have detected it just yet, and neither has the now napping baby in Cessie's arms.

[Shadowcaller]

[Baby Room]

The mage winches as she feels it, suddenly wishing Kirin was nearby. Changing diapers wasn't something she was used to. It still seemed like something undignified for her to do, more like the work for a servant.

Her second instinct is to simply turn her over to Harnel, perhaps he could show her how to do it. Just in case. These were her children after all. Changing them was pretty much expected of her. Not that she could ever recall her mother changing her or her siblings of course. The servants had always done that.

"I think she... needs changing." She tells her husband with a grimace.

[Shadowcaller]

[Guest Room - Ariel and Jezebel]

About a day later there is a knock on the two women's door. "Hello, may I come in?"

[UncleWolf]

Guest Room

Telly answers the door with a small smile, looking much better than before. "Ariel is out getting us some more clothing." She explains as she gestures for Cessie to come in. Telly is dressed in a slightly patched up summer dress for now to remain decent.

[Shadowcaller]

Guest Room

"I see, well I was just checking in how you were doing. Is there anything you need?" Cessie asks gently.

[UncleWolf]

Guest Room

"I couldn't dream of asking for anything more from you." Telly quickly replies. "You've been more than generous enough already."

[Shadowcaller]

Guest Room

"Well, could I come in for a bit then if you don't mind?" Cessie asks. "I mean, I understand if you are still recovering from what happened so I can just go back to my projects."

[UncleWolf]

Guest Room

"Oh, please. Come right in." Telly says, stepping inside and taking a seat on the edge of her bed. It's fairly easy to tell the difference between her and Ariel's sleeping arrangements as Ariel's is somewhat messy compared to Telly's well-made covers.

[Shadowcaller]

[Guest Room]

The mage takes a seat, "So did Ariel turn out every way you expected? She seem to have grown up to be quite the woman." She says as she glances at Ariel's bed.

[UncleWolf]

Guest Room

Telly scratches her arm, looking a bit nervous. "In many ways, she did. Only recently has she started to truly grow up though." She admits. "I'm always going to worry over her, even when she finally decides to settle down and everything." Telly says with a sigh. "Mind if I ask for your help with something? It's not with Ariel, but with me."

[Shadowcaller]

[Guest Room]

"Well, of course. Just tell me what you need." Cessie replies.

[UncleWolf]

Guest Room

Telly bites her lip and gets a somewhat tired look to her eyes. "I...I'm wanting to break away from my God. For Cessie. My Cessie. But I'm really afraid and I don't know how. All I know is that I'll lose so much." She says quietly, as if she's scared that something is listening.

[Shadowcaller]

[Guest Room]

The mage blinks, she wanted to break up... oh Artaris. SHe was really willing to do that? She had no idea what it involved...

"...are you sure you want to do this Telly? I must ask because I realize it must be a major decision even if i have no idea what in entails." She asks gently.

[UncleWolf]

Guest Room

"I want to." Telly reassure Cessie. "I'd lose everything that I look and sound like, but I know she's worth it." The woman says, fiddling with her tail in uncertainty. "I know it's rather vain of me, but I wasn't particularly pretty or attractive or nice before I started worshiping Slaanesh, and I don't know if Nega would be able to break his connection to me. At the least, even if I didn't lose anything else, I know I'd lose my immortality."

[Shadowcaller]

[Guest Room]

The mage looks quite astonished by all this, it wasn't like she exactly understood what kind of bargain Jezebel had made with her god but it was clear this was big.

Could women really love each other this much? Apparently they could, the evidence were right in front of her. Would she give up all that for Harnel? She wasn't even sure.

"I... she asked this of you, or are you doing this on your own? Because if you had two children together I'm sure she love you either way. No matter what god you believe in."