strangetrip | [OTA] such a nice way to start people

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[OTA] such a nice way to start people

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.]

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"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.

Edited 2019-03-06 20:47 (UTC)

"'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."

"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."

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

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."

"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.

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."

"People have been doin' it for thousands of years, books or no books," Jackson stated. "You just got a leg up in that department. And the family helps."

He wasn't sure he understood how much a bear could help, but hey. He wasn't one to judge.

"Some people have been fucking it up for thousands of years." Not that Vex thought she and Percy were in that group. Not really. She wasn't going to be like her father or anything.

"Don't mind me, darling. I just pushed a tiny person out of my body a few days ago – as you know, since you were there – and and discovering sleep and things like coherent thought are luxuries of the past. On the other hand," her gaze shifted again to Elaina, hand smoothing over her tiny head before taking off the equally tiny hat when she felt the slightest bit warm, and revealing the delicate points of her ears.

"No, no, your sleep-deprived self ain't wrong," Jackson assured her. "But I'm sure you'll do just fine."

She had good people around her, and she was a good woman, herself. That counted for a lot, even if their circumstances were less than ideal. Most circumstances were.

Vex hoped he was right. Still, she couldn't help but feel completely unprepared for any of this.

"She's just a baby. It can't be as bad as fighting dragons. Right?"

"Well, I've never fought dragons," Jackson replied, but his tone let that he thought the baby might be worse.

"I'm something of an expert." Vex had made a study of dragons, a way to focus her hate and grief, after they learned it was a dragon who had killed their mother. "And I don't recommend you try."

On the other hand, battles lasted only moments. Even when preparing for battles they had known were coming had only taken weeks. Being a parent, that was for life. That might have had something to do with Jackson's unconvinced tone.

"No intention of tryin'," Jackson assured her. "Then again, I never intended to fight off the undead either." Or to get hanged by extraterrestrials. And look what the Inn had brought them.

"Another thing best avoided unless you've some clerics around." Except Vex was a cleric now, wasn't she? "Powerful clerics, I mean."

Pike and Kash had both been here when the undead army had attacked the inn. Now they were both gone.

"But you come from one of those worlds that doesn't have things like dragons and undead and quarter-elves, don't you?"

"We got plenty'a stories about them," Jackson told her, and his gaze dropped to the infant, his lips twitching up. "Well, maybe not about quarter-elves. But the rest, yeah. Dragons, vampires, ghouls and assorted monsters. Not a one in the flesh, though, not that I know of."

"Maybe not about quarter-elves, but some stories of elves. Just none, I assume, where they showed the likely outcome of elves and humans existing together."

Vex frowned, a mask over the mask that hid the too real hurt she kept buried. "Real elves like to do the same thing. Ignore that any of us pesky half-breeds exist. But how anyone could say no to these perfect, tiny little ears, I do not understand." She traced a finger along the curve of Elaina's ear to the delicate point at the tip, utterly smitten with her little girl.

"Gotta agree with you there," Jackson stated quietly, watching the both of them with a smile. He shook himself out of it, looking back up into Vex's face. "I'mma go order some food. Want me to order you something?"

Edited 2019-03-23 22:45 (UTC)

"Have you found out what those bug things Emma is making are? I assume they aren't actually bugs – that doesn't sound like the kind of thing she would make or that others would be excited about. Maybe that... those? I don't know if you're supposed to eat them singly or not. If it looks like something delicious." Vex's head tipped down over Elaina's. "And if it's something that can be eaten one handed."

There were some places Jackson had heard about where bugs were delicacies, but he still thought Vex had the right of it. Wasn't like sweet little Emma to be cooking them, and most people wouldn't be getting excited. "Bugnes," he told her, mangling the pronunciation the usual American way, as he pushed up to his feet. "You're in for a treat, darlin'."

Huh. It didn't sound like 'bug' at all. There wasn't even a g-sound anywhere. More importantly, it sounded like Jackson knew what they were, and that they were good.

"I want to ask if they'd be good with coffee, but this little one's going to want to eat again soon, so I probably shouldn't."

"You can have a sip off mine, if you'd like," Jackson offered. That much couldn't hurt, could it? "Be right back, darlin'."

Vex had been right about Elaina, who started to wake up, fussy, just after Jackson went to get food. Vex, who'd never had much shame when it came to flashing her tits, certainly didn't think twice about baring them now for what they were made for, feeding her baby. She tugged the hem of her shirt up, and with a little nudging guidance, got Elaina to start nursing before she really started to cry.

Mother and child having a moment, focused solely on each other when Jackson returned not long after.

Jackson was a great lover of breasts, in general. But he was also a doctor, and he tried not to be an idiot, for all that he regularly failed. Still, it did not occur to him to have any kind of reaction to the bared breast, when it came to breastfeeding. It was what it was, and that was that.

He set down a fruit juice for Vex and a coffee for himself. "The bugnes will be right over."

It hadn't taken Vex long to realize she was going to have to get used to doing a lot of things one-handed, if she wanted to for example, eat.

Luckily the bugnes Emma brought out herself – obviously she would want a glimpse of Elaina, Vex decided – not long after Jackson came back were pillowy knots of fried dough and meant to be finger food.

"So what have you been up to lately, other than welcoming new life into the world?" Vex asked as she tapped a bugne against the plate to knock off some of the excess powdered sugar.

[OTA] such a nice way to start people

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