Good Timing / Bad Timing (FOTD, Vanilla, Chocolate)
Master Work: Sparksong
Challenges/Toppings: FOTD: “Genethliac” (of or pertaining to birthdays or to the position of the stars at one's birth), Vanilla #9 (mother used to say), Chocolate #16 (pride),
Rating: PG-13 for epic pronoun fail + child endangerment if you tilt your head the right way.
Title: Good Timing / Bad Timing
Summary: All he wanted was a name fit for an angel. Instead he got the Feuding Adventures of "Whale Woman" and Skinny Dipper.
Notes: I’m in the process of binging on Pickle (eww), so there’s more stories about this particular event on the way. You can find out more about the River (who is, in fact, Meivu’s mother, even if the process is… different) in these three parts.
“She’s beautiful.” Côme smiled down at his newborn daughter. “My darling- Oh. Right. What should we name her, love? We never did get around to making a list.”
“Mostly because I couldn’t hear anything over the sound of me puking,” Irene grumbled from the bed. She threw her head back in frustration. “I still feel like a fair attraction. Come see the a-ma-zing whale woman! Never again. Never again, you hear me?”
“Yes, yes, love,” Côme said absently, stroking his (his!) still-unnamed child’s peach fuzz. “Really, though. Should I just throw ideas at you until one sticks? Hmm, what do you think about-”
Meivu burst through the dividing curtain; it was only by sheer luck that Côme tightened his hold instead of dropping his precious bundle in fright, and a true miracle that said bundle only scowled briefly instead of starting to cry. Côme found himself standing between Irene and the intruder - who radiated righteous indignation - and turned slightly away, without conscious thought directing him there. Where had that come from? He didn’t have the slightest protective instinct before!
“You are not naming that baby yet. I haven’t done the star-reading. Without that you’ll probably name it something entirely inappropriate and there’s no going back from that.”
“What?” Irene shrieked, sitting up so fast she turned slightly green. “Oh…” But in that way of hers, she soldiered on through the vertigo and Côme had to hand her the baby (great, it’s still just “the baby” - are we going to put off names until we can’t think of her as anything else?) to keep her from clambering out of bed and strangling their only healer on the spot.
Côme took a deep breath. “Meivu, please at least don’t call our child ‘it’, all right? She is not an object. Now, what is this about stars?”
Meivu studied him for a moment before giving a sharp nod. “Very well. The River Tallulah’s wisdom to Her many daughters is multi-faceted; however the only rule for those living away from Her Abundance is that, when overseeing or assisting in the entrance of new life into this world, the river-daughter in question must do a star-reading for the new life.” She quirked a smile, indicating the lesson was over. “Something about the story of when the star-child and the river-daughter fell in love in old times, I think. Which is also thought to be the origin of the star-showers on Midwinter’s Night, when the world is cold and bright, oh… if you care at all.” She coughed. “Anyway, I’ll need that baby.”
This time, Côme had to snatch his daughter back from Irene before she was lost in a melee of squawking water-spirit and blonde mama bear.
Challenges/Toppings: FOTD: “Genethliac” (of or pertaining to birthdays or to the position of the stars at one's birth), Vanilla #9 (mother used to say), Chocolate #16 (pride),
Rating: PG-13 for epic pronoun fail + child endangerment if you tilt your head the right way.
Title: Good Timing / Bad Timing
Summary: All he wanted was a name fit for an angel. Instead he got the Feuding Adventures of "Whale Woman" and Skinny Dipper.
Notes: I’m in the process of binging on Pickle (eww), so there’s more stories about this particular event on the way. You can find out more about the River (who is, in fact, Meivu’s mother, even if the process is… different) in these three parts.
“She’s beautiful.” Côme smiled down at his newborn daughter. “My darling- Oh. Right. What should we name her, love? We never did get around to making a list.”
“Mostly because I couldn’t hear anything over the sound of me puking,” Irene grumbled from the bed. She threw her head back in frustration. “I still feel like a fair attraction. Come see the a-ma-zing whale woman! Never again. Never again, you hear me?”
“Yes, yes, love,” Côme said absently, stroking his (his!) still-unnamed child’s peach fuzz. “Really, though. Should I just throw ideas at you until one sticks? Hmm, what do you think about-”
Meivu burst through the dividing curtain; it was only by sheer luck that Côme tightened his hold instead of dropping his precious bundle in fright, and a true miracle that said bundle only scowled briefly instead of starting to cry. Côme found himself standing between Irene and the intruder - who radiated righteous indignation - and turned slightly away, without conscious thought directing him there. Where had that come from? He didn’t have the slightest protective instinct before!
“You are not naming that baby yet. I haven’t done the star-reading. Without that you’ll probably name it something entirely inappropriate and there’s no going back from that.”
“What?” Irene shrieked, sitting up so fast she turned slightly green. “Oh…” But in that way of hers, she soldiered on through the vertigo and Côme had to hand her the baby (great, it’s still just “the baby” - are we going to put off names until we can’t think of her as anything else?) to keep her from clambering out of bed and strangling their only healer on the spot.
Côme took a deep breath. “Meivu, please at least don’t call our child ‘it’, all right? She is not an object. Now, what is this about stars?”
Meivu studied him for a moment before giving a sharp nod. “Very well. The River Tallulah’s wisdom to Her many daughters is multi-faceted; however the only rule for those living away from Her Abundance is that, when overseeing or assisting in the entrance of new life into this world, the river-daughter in question must do a star-reading for the new life.” She quirked a smile, indicating the lesson was over. “Something about the story of when the star-child and the river-daughter fell in love in old times, I think. Which is also thought to be the origin of the star-showers on Midwinter’s Night, when the world is cold and bright, oh… if you care at all.” She coughed. “Anyway, I’ll need that baby.”
This time, Côme had to snatch his daughter back from Irene before she was lost in a melee of squawking water-spirit and blonde mama bear.