[OTA] such a nice way to start people

[st_ubby]

The past few days had been at least a year's worth of emotions and exhaustion, and Vex... and Vex didn't even know how to finish that thought. What she did know was the suite was starting to feel way too small and constricting, and if she didn't get out of their rooms for a little while, she was going to go batty.

She'd finished feeding Elaina and changed her diaper – thank Pelor they no longer looked like something a black pudding left behind – and by the time the baby was dressed in the light layers all the books insisted were the only way to go, she was sound asleep again. And even more miraculously, the rain that had been falling all day decided to take a break. Vex grabbed one of the ever-present towels she was using as a baby blanket and draped it over Elaina where she slept tucked against Vex's chest. If she needed anything that wasn't already in her bag, she could always call Percy or Vax over the earrings to bring it.

Vex took a deep breath of rain-fresh air when she stepped out of the suite, and then paused, waiting and hoping she hadn't disturbed the baby's sleep. Elaina nestled closer, but didn't seem to wake, and Vex started a slow stroll, falling into an almost instinctive movement that lightly rocked the sleeping baby. She tipped her head up toward the sky, smiling at the sun peeking out from behind grey clouds. It felt so good just to be out and moving around, but it wasn't long before her attention turned once again to the bundle she carried and how her heart filled with warmth and love.

Who cared if there were dark circles under her eyes? If there was still a carefulness to how she walked that hinted at some hidden discomfort? There was an easy smile in the curve of her mouth that didn't fade, but got brighter and wider whenever she got to introduce someone to the youngest de Rolo.

Eventually she headed to the cafe. Maybe she could find out what those bug-things were the chef was cooking today.

[ooc: Meet Vex and baby Elaina either walking outside or in the cafe.]

Comments

[st_everybodylives]

It was JUST possible that there was a truly MASSIVE teddy bear sitting at a table in the cafe with a cup of tea and a curly haired companion.

The bear wasn't really holing up its end of the bargain conversationally so River was reading a book, but she still occasionally made comments in her stuffed companions direction.

"I don't know why all the girls go mad for Darcy. Wickham sounds like far more fun." She did know of course, her father was a Darcy (after he'd stopped being a prig). The Doctor was sort of a Darcy (depending on the face). She paused and glanced up at the bear, eyes catching sight of Vex and the baby to smile and nod before she continued. "Yes, I know. Scoundrel. Bad lot. Nothing but trouble."

It's possible she's a Wickham herself.

Vex & River Song

[st_ubby]

Of course the first thing Vex noticed coming into the cafe was the stuffed bear. How could she miss it? It was bigger than Trinket. Vex had been talking to Trinket all his life, long before she could understand his responses, and she knew how easy it could be to talk to him, and other people felt the same. So the fact River was talking to the giant toy didn't see all that odd.

She nodded back in greeting, considered a moment, well maybe not quite that long, and then she had to give in to the question that was puzzling her. "Where in the world did you find a bear that size, darling?" she asked, voice pitched low so as not to disturb Elaina.

Re: Vex & River Song

[st_everybodylives]

"The carnival midway," River had her voice pitched low as well. She might speak baby but really they weren't great conversationalists so letting this one stay asleep seemed reasonable.

"When we were let out of our bubble here to roam a bit a few weeks back. They'd rigged the guns at the duck shoot so it was really their fault I felt compelled to take them for their biggest prize."

She gestured and shifted to allow Vex to join her (and the bear) if she was inclined to do so. Plenty of tea for everyone.

Re: Vex & River Song

[st_ubby]

"As well you should have." Rigged games were asking to be beaten. "I didn't do much exploring of the last world. According to the signs posted everywhere, I wasn't welcome much of anywhere. For safety reasons, obviously."

Vex took the offered seat only the least bit gingerly. "A bear to cuddle and talk with is a wonderful thing. Although I can't imagine trying to carry your new friend around. Fortunately Trinket can carry himself, and even with him there can be difficulties."

Re: Vex & River Song

[st_everybodylives]

"He is a bit unwieldy," she admitted with a quiet chuckle. "But there are a few strapping young people around to help relocate him when need be."

She was also stronger than your average human.

"But you, your new cuddly companion seems much more interesting." It was a congratulation of sorts.

Re: Vex & River Song

[st_ubby]

The smile that hadn't faded except from exhaustion over the past few days brightened, with Vex confident it was more on the doting side than anything soppy. She hoped.

She shifted the blanket-towel so said cuddly companion was more visible, but didn't make any suggestion of sharing. "River Song, may I introduce Lady Elaina de Rolo. Elaina-love, this is River Song." Elaina continued to sleep right through the introduction, but that didn't matter.

Re: Vex & River Song

[st_everybodylives]

River smiled both at the sleeping baby and then at it's mother.

"Lovely name, does it mean anything?" Names, and choosing them (or letting them choose you) were certainly a theme in her life.

Re: Vex & River Song

[st_ubby]

"Oh, yes. Names are very important when you're a de Rolo." Vex, of course, was only a de Rolo by marriage, but she knew how much care their mother had put into naming her and Vax, believing they needed elven names to reflect that part of their heritage when they were being raised by an entirely human mother. "As anyone who's gotten the full introduction to Percy could guess. Names from the past carried on into the future. Remembering where they come from."

Vex gazed down at her daughter, love and remembrance softening warm eyes. "Elaina is named for her grandmother. Our mother." Hers and Vax's.

Re: Vex & River Song

[st_everybodylives]

"I don't know that I've ever had the entire introduction," but that mattered less than the way Vex's voice changed as she answered. "I'm sure your mother would be very proud to have her name carried on."

River had been named after.. well, herself. Time travel.

[st_illfleshandblood]

Jackson was just coming into the café to see what was on today's menu, when he spotted both of his latest patients heading over, and waited by the door, holding it open for the new mother. "Lady Vex," he greeted her with a tip of his hat, as had become his habit - when he wasn't just calling her darlin', that was. "It's good to see you out and about. Both of ya."

Vex & Jackson

[st_ubby]

"Captain," she answered as she slipped through the door. "It was time. At least for a little walk. Any longer and I would have been climbing the walls." And not in the often useful way of Percival's boots.

"Besides, Elaina should get to explore her environment." Elaina, who was currently sleeping the sleep of the full-bellied newborn, and who was far too young to really see anything beyond her mother's face.

Vex & Jackson

[st_illfleshandblood]

"'Course," he agreed easily, mustache twitching with amusement as he followed them into the café. "And we would want the little darlin' climbin' the walls either."

Re: Vex & Jackson

[st_ubby]

"Not yet anyway." The ever present these days smile turned slyer. "I think it's unavoidable she'll be sneaking out with Uncle Vax to do just that and worst as soon as she's able."

Vex chose a nearby booth and slid carefully onto the seat, nodding for Jackson to join them if he wished. "Right now, I think we're all stuck on holding her and staring in dazed wonder, until someone else just has to have a turn at holding her."

Re: Vex & Jackson

[st_illfleshandblood]

Jackson took a seat across from Vex and little miss Elaina, looking amused. "Babies tend to have that effect."

Re: Vex & Jackson

[st_ubby]

That was something Vex was just now learning. "None of us have really had much experience with babies. Children sometimes, but not really babies. Let alone our baby." Yes, her gaze drifted down to settle on Elaina again.

"Vax and I didn't even know we had a little sister until she was old enough for us to be bad influences. And Percy had younger siblings, but he was just a child himself when they were born."

Re: Vex & Jackson

[st_illfleshandblood]

"Nothing wrong with learnin' as you go," Jackson remarked. "You've all been puttin' in the work." He'd seen it, through the months of her pregnancy. And more work, by far, than people in his time generally put in before their kid was born. They had all the time in the world, here - and the resources.

Re: Vex & Jackson

[st_ubby]

Percy was a nerd, and proud of it, and Vex loved him for both those things. And while she had hated school in Syngorn, she liked learning when it was something important. And here they had nothing but time to read the few books the inn had on the subject until they had them all but memorized. But book learning was never the same as practical experience. Yet one more reason to miss Zahra and Kash and hate that the inn had taken them away, when Vex's initial worries about becoming a mother had been eased by the thought she could 'practice' on her gods-babies first.

"At some point it's all 'learning as you go'. And I do have memories of our mother to guide me. And Percy and Vax and Trinket, and others here to help."

Vex & Snow

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow White had seen only a single baby up close in her life, and even then, he'd been born on the other side of a mirror to a stepmother she'd hated who had only been pregnant in her reflection.

While Snow had watched.

She'd been eleven at the time, it had been more than a little traumatic.

So while she'd missed Vex very much, Snow didn't know how to actually... exist around her right now. And when Vex came into the cafe, she froze, unsure of what to do. Though knowing she'd been spotted, 'flee' became an option that wasn't going to work.

Re: Vex & Snow

[st_ubby]

Snow had been worried from the moment Vex first told her she was pregnant. And she could be so skittish around people at the best of times. So it hadn't been much of a surprise when Snow hadn't come to visit since Elaina was born. Vex wasn't hurt by it, but she did hope Snow could warm to Elaina in time. It was hard enough when the different parts of the family avoiding each other were adults who could choose for themselves and be on their own. But Elaina was unlikely to be far from Vex – or Percy or Vax or the others, but mostly Vex while she was still feeding so often – for months, at least.

Vex smiled at Snow as she crossed the cafe, "Hello, Snow darling," once she was near.

Re: Vex & Snow

[st_arkcrowblack]

"H'lo," Snow said, so quiet it almost wasn't there at all. Her eyes remained focused on the tiny bundle of a person. She chewed her lip and made herself ask, "How are you?" clearly.

Re: Vex & Snow

[st_ubby]

"I'm fine. Really. And I'm still me." With the way Snow couldn't take her eyes from Elaina – and okay, Vex and Percy and Vax had a hard time doing that too, but it read differently from them – Vex thought that was maybe part of the problem for Snow. Wondering how the baby would change her, and their friendship. And it would change things, of course it would, but Vex was still Vex.

"I'd been in our rooms too long, decided it was time to get out for awhile. And thankfully, the rain has stopped for now. If you'd like, you could grab a couple of beers for you and Trinket," no alcohol for Vex yet, unfortunately, according to the books they were all relying on for advice, "and we could go for a walk? Enjoy the sunshine?"

Re: Vex & Snow

[st_arkcrowblack]

"Don't gotta drink," Snow mumbled. She had recognized of course that Vex had been and was abstaining, and having a drink without her felt... rude. Still it wasn't a refusal of the entire proposal. "But... okay."

Re: Vex & Snow

[st_ubby]

"Only if you want one, of course. But Trink will happily drink with you." Or any of his friends, and he still missed his other drinking buddy, Kash, but Vex wasn't going to bring him up now.

"But he'll be glad to see you whether there's beer or not. So. Up to you."

Re: Vex & Snow

[st_arkcrowblack]

"No beer," she said, more clear and certain now.

Snow wouldn't lie, part of her kind of wanted a drink right now, but it wasn't right. So she wouldn't. It was as simple as that.

Re: Vex & Snow

[st_ubby]

"All right." If Snow was sure, she was sure, and Vex wasn't going to push. Pushing worked about as well on Snow as it did on Vex, although in very different ways. That was one of the reasons Vex liked her so much.

She nodded and stepped aside for Snow to join her, but didn't say or do anything else until they were outside. Even then she glanced up at the sky to judge how likely it was to start raining again soon, as her hand came up to make sure Elaina's hat – how was it so tiny and so cute, in the inn's signature pink? – hadn't slipped.