Author: Lucian Rose, Posted: Fri Feb 3, 2017 7:30 PM, Post Subject: Jigsaw [R,P]

“We’ve tried that, if you may recall”, Raeguel said with crossed arms as he watched his only daughter hang high up in the air like a ragdoll. Normally the sight of his children being endangered would unravel his temperament, but there were two precise reasons why he was rather calm about this. One, the one doing the endangering was their child-like mother and two, he had been around Angela for a little bit now in this state and he saw worse things she had done at the temple.

Fortunately he caught Nerezza with ease and placed her down and gave a pitiful look towards his son. Lucian, while happy to have his mother back, was still in surprise over all of this. His mind was still fresh and too young to understand how this happened and the more he looked at her, the more confused he was.

Nerezza got in her little snips, though her brother thought that she should have been more careful with her words. She wasn’t like this back in the day before they had a pint size mother, and he had a feeling that she would rue this day later on. “This has to be a dream…”, he muttered to himself as he reclined against the throne. “Yes, that’s it. It’s all just a dream, right.” His hand served as a container for her to pluck piece by piece of candy for her leisure. “No, of course not.” He tried to rationalize it any other way, but it was too strong to ignore the truth. Upon her request, he stroked at her hair as she told them everything. The whole thing could only happen among gods, even senseless things like being put into a crystal and coming out as a child by a force greater than her or Dalanesca. He kept looking to Raeguel for reinsurance and every time he glanced towards his direction, his father nodded.

“So you’ve been alive for a while now? Why…didn’t you come back here sooner?” Lucian’s eyes stared at her with some frustration leaking from them. “Please tell me you weren’t just stuffing your face with candy.” Raeguel responded to her wish and summoned a teddy bear of hers to land on her lap. It was to keep her from having another temper tantrum; heaven knows none of them wanted that to happen.

Lucian wasn’t in the mood especially as he rested his head on his hand, pouting at her. “I swear if you keep getting into these situations and keep coming back as a child or something, I will run away with Episcia and not come back, Mother. You are not allowed to do this again, not as long as I’m bigger than you anyway.” Hell he had second thoughts about not letting Aunt Toya come here and do as she saw fit with her- this stupid conflict with her and Dal shouldn’t had happened nor should it again. Sure his words were petty, but he cared about her deep down and wasn’t keen on losing her again.

Author: Angela Rose, Posted: Thu Feb 2, 2017 10:44 PM, Post Subject: Jigsaw [R,P]

Angela’s green eyes met Raeguel’s and she lowered the paddle. At least he respected her and the savages were her children. “Teach the savage some respect.” There was no doubt in her mind that Nerezza hadn’t gotten her attitude. “I promise I will leave the savage alone.” The paddle disappeared and so did the vine as she mercilessly dropped Nerezza from the high ceiling so her father could catch her.

Distracted now Angela turned her attention to the candy in Lucian’s hands. She wiggled her little fingers as she sorted through the various flavors in his palm. It looked like she had a method to her madness as she lined them up from her favorite to least. She was eerily quiet as she did this.

“I guess I have to respect her,” Nerezza said as her father put her down. Angela snapped her eyes up just for a moment but the candy was too important to loose. Raeguel would take it away from her if she decided to punish the little savage. She took the piece she lined up at the top and gently chewed on it as she snuggled into Lucian’s lap.

“I wish for my hair to be pet. I shall tell you the story of how we are here.” Suddenly her attitude had calmed down and she was lost to the candy she was trying to demolish. “When Dalanesca killed me… I got trapped in limbo… rather a gemstone. Not dead or anything just lost.” She found bits of the candy hard so she used her thumb to crack it with a large cracking sound in the air, the force had to be immense. “So I got kept in this gem for a week right?” She looked up at her son and shrugged. “And suddenly I get pulled out of it and stuffed in a little body and told that I have to have a punishment. That Dal and Drae have to raise me for a week. I get my powers but my reasoning will be mostly gone.” She began to lick her hand so she could eat the dust from when she smashed the candy.

She took a moment to take the next piece. “Only person with that power is the World Tree’s Voice. Voice is what we call it. Generally takes the form of whatever the hell it wants. It deals with the gods directly and tells the Triune what’s what. It is what made the Triune after all. So here we are. I’m stuck as a little savage for a week. Apparently once the week is over I’ll start to age but if the Voice thinks Dalanesca has screwed up it will make her start over.” She found herself having better luck with the second piece of candy and she made a satisfied noise towards Raeguel. “Thank you.” She said with her mouth full as she enjoyed the bit of candy.

For a moment she looked shocked. “We forgot my teddy bear.” It was like a life changing thing and she took a moment to shy a bit. “All well.” Her attitude seemed better as she ate the sweets. “My patience gets tested because of the amount of responsibility my spheres are. I apologize for my behavior though I won’t say it won’t happen again. That would be lying and lying is bad.” She wiggled her finger at Lucian.

Author: Lucian Rose, Posted: Thu Feb 2, 2017 10:29 PM, Post Subject: Jigsaw [R,P]

Lucian was…stunned to say the least when the girl overreacted to his nickname for her. He hardly expected such language from a child, especially one that seemed familiar of him. Too familiar for his taste. But truly he wasn’t sure who in the world she was, well not until Melina came and announced her by name. Many people of the court gasped with wide eyes at the realization, and Lucian looked dumbstruck as he further gazed at her. “N…N…No.” It couldn’t be her, it just couldn’t be. There was no doubting that she looked like his mother, only shorter and far younger. But was this really the truth or some sort of cruel jest? Nerezza seemed nearly as confused as he was and the girl was starting to show off in a manner that would normally have a parent whup her rear end to correct. He looked to his father who merely sighed and nodded, concluding the mystery of the girl to be the goddess and queen.

The young lord would have fainted in his seat if he could, but he was able to stay conscious for the time as he watched the show continue. Whispers were passed around, some were still having a hard time believe her identity. Lucian felt all sort of conflicting emotions; he was happy that she was alive after all and yet he was curious to know why she was in that form and was fearful that he would be stuck dealing with her in this state for gods know what.

Apparently his sister struck a few nerves with her and soon their “mother” decided to punish her. But like a glutton, Nerezza continued to poke the bear right up until she was grabbed by a vine and the girl was wielding a paddle wildly. The doubters were silenced and Lucian sunk down and rubbed at his forehead. “Why is this going on?”, he said to no one in particular before Raeguel came back up to them. “Angela, put our daughter down now. And Nerezza, that is your mother, respect that please.” His hand slipped into the pocket of his coat and retrieved several pieces of candy. “Promise to put her down and you can have all of this.” He handed it to Lucian and then went over to stand underneath Nerezza with arms open.

“Mother, what the hell happened?”, Lucian finally mustered up the words to ask her. He was still clearly bewildered about this. His head was hurting from this turn of events. God help them if Aunt Toya found out about this…  

Author: Angela Rose, Posted: Thu Feb 2, 2017 9:49 PM, Post Subject: Jigsaw [R,P]

Angela had demanded to see her son. Her second youngest savage was a good boy, maybe she would upgrade him from savage to accomplice. She clung to Raeguel’s arms as he brought her into her cozy manor home in Sularia. Her eyes were big as they fell onto Lucian’s form. She was quiet while Raeguel tried to explain what was going on. Well not entirely explain. Surprise savage.

She got seated on Lucian’s lap and she reached up and grabbed at his shirt. “Who the hell are you calling Little One? I was thinking of upgrading you from SAVAGE to Accomplice but you got that thrown right out of the window.” She was snapping now. “I didn’t get my hair pulled and get undressed fifty billion times so I could come here and get told that you don’t know who I am.”

“ANGELA,” Melina popped into the room. “Behave yourself.”

Angela’s chest heaved upwards and she started to hold her breath. “That won’t hurt you, you don’t need to breath.” Melina crossed her arms as Nerezza came over and fell as the throne staring at the little girl. Angela was starting to turn a purple color. “Oh, I hope you pass out.” Melina snapped a bit as Nerezza reached up and smacked both of Angela’s cheeks. There was a puff sound in the air as the breath escaped Angela’s lips.

“THE SAVAGE HIT ME RAEGUEL,” Angela shrieked. “They are terrible beings. You need them over your knee. NO!” She faced forward and put her knee out and slapped at it. “Get on it. Nezzie get your butt over my knee.” She was ranting and Melina was rolling her eyes.

“…It’s stupid. Father… please tell me this is a joke.” Nerezza looked up at Raeguel. “And that Mother is going to step out of the shadows at any moment and make this… thing dis–” 

“I’ll show you a thing!” A vine came up from the ground and grabbed Nezzie. It hung her upside down and a paddle appeared in Angela’s handles. 

“LADY ANGELA!” Melina shrieked just a bit and Nerezza was letting her own cries come out as Angela waved the paddle about.

“Savages need to be taught a lesson! Respect your elder! I AM YOUR MOTHER.” Angela waved it as she stood up on Lucian’s lap. “Naughty. NAUGHTY savage.” 

Nerezza glared at Angela. “Respect a toddler maybe.” Suddenly Angela’s attitude came out full force in her daughter. “Weapon wielding toddler from hell!” Angela and Nerezza began to take shots at each other as they yelled back and forth.

Author: Lucian Rose, Posted: Thu Feb 2, 2017 1:51 PM, Post Subject: Jigsaw [R,P]

It was a typical day for Lucian as he was walking through the mansion like he always did in the morning before mustering up the will to get ready to face more rounds of his people’s problems. Fortunately he had the support of his family and love by his side to help in these testing times, but every now and then he thought back to his mother. In his hand was the head of a red rose, a symbol of his court and it reminded him of what he had lost. He still felt that it was cruel of fate to take away his mother, their Queen because of a misunderstanding. Still, it couldn’t be helped and they were left to pick up the pieces to the sad tale. He was still young when it came to the experience of the throne, but little by little, day by day he was working hard to do everyone proud.

He stopped walking as he reached a hallway, remembering that today was the day his father was suppose to come here with a surprise. He pondered what it could be as the letter he received days prior had been rather…cryptic but he was told to make sure that Nerezza and any other siblings around were there as well. Likely Episcia would be waiting as well for they were nearly inseparable these days, much to the displeasure of every other woman in the court that wanted to be with him. Looking down to the rose, he tucked it away into his pocket and proceeded to the main hall where he was to be seated for next few hours.

There was a crowd built up around the room already and as he took his seat, one of the servants approached him. “My lord, Sir Raeguel is here…and he has company for you.” Lucian nodded and sent her off to go get them. His guess was that of Melina, especially since he hadn’t seen her in quite some time though he reminded his father whenever he could feed her his blood. The crowd split and gave away to the servant coming back with his father and…a little redhead girl. His eyes widened slightly as Raeguel carried the girl in his arms and soon placed her into his lap. “Father, what’s going on?”, he asked with confusion obvious in his voice. The lord then lowered his gaze onto the child, who looked as if she was another of his siblings, only this one didn’t look like any that he saw in the family portrait. Raeguel said nothing but shook his head. “Not sure if you would believe me if I told you myself. So I brought her here to tell you herself.”

This wasn’t making any sense to Lucian, but he shifted his attention back to her, and smiled. Bring out the book that his mother gave him, he started to flip through the pages. Perhaps he missed her picture in the sea of siblings. “Little one, my name is Lucian, what is your name?”, he asked, still flipping through the book to find her.