Baby Blues

[dray]

As was beginning to become the norm, Agate had shooed Kay out of the house to get some fresh air while he took charge of their child. Casey wasn't a particularly helpful or docile child, but one thing she was, was hungry... so while weening didn't go without its hiccups, the girl was taking to the bottle and beginning to use up the reserves of baby food that had been packed away for almost a year now. Food was food in Malton, which was something that everybody had to learn. Casey was just getting an earlier lesson of it.

This particular feeding session hadn't taken too long to get through -- Agate had made a wisecrack or two that only the baby had heard, and Casey had given a squall or two and then given in in sullen (if hungry) resignation. Lukewarm bottle-food wasn't nearly as good as breastmilk, which Casey had congenially pointed out... but she'd taken it, this time, and Agate had just finished the unseemly process of burping and feeding and the impromptu changing of the diaper. Casey, Agate said, liked to punish her parents for doing things against the grain... but what the infant didn't realize, Agate would add, was that he'd long since lost his sense of smell. That didn't stop him from talking about baby poo, it just meant that he would tease his daughter that her tactics didn't work on him. He didn't care if she understood or not. Deep down where nobody could see or hear about it, this was bonding time and Agate enjoyed it.

So he'd finished up all of the baby-attending duties and had the girl swaddled sleepily in his arms as he left his and Kay's shared room. The hallway here was decidedly more hospitable than it had been before the redhead was born -- people had been pitching in to keep the place clean, and in fact, Rio seemed to be out here and doing that right now.

Normally, Agate didn't pay much attention to the braid-headed yodeler. If he could barely stand Fa's blonde moments, Rio seemed a notch or two down the evolutionary ladder... but he had to admit that the woman had been more than helpful around the hotel, and when John had stumbled in with most of his age shaved off, she'd been the first to take him in. In fact, the way that she looked after him and coddled the not-really-toddler was a little creepy.

"Hey, Rio," Agate greeted the wall-washing-woman. "Where's John?" Casey cast the blonde an eyeball full of lazy curiosity; being just fed, she was less prone to leap into the fray.

[Marmalade Boy]

Before Agate had shown up, and probably woken up, John had decided to go off on his own around the city, and although he didn't say so Rio knew that he was out looking for scientists that could help him with his 'problem' or so John called it. Rio hated this, not the scientists but the fact that he had gone alone around a city without telling her first, just leaving a crudely-written note on the dresser by her bed. She had told him about the perils and dangers, especially now he barely came up to the zombies's waists, but John was one stubborn thing and had taken no notice of her, and he was now out alone in the City.

Of course this sort of thing wasn't the first time it had happened, so Rio tried to make the best of it by cleaning out the room they shared in a sort of pre-spring cleaning spree, taking out bedding and trash to be cleaned or thrown away, stacking items, putting things where they belonged et cetera. By now she was mostly done on the tidying matter, but she had gotten to the hard part of cleaning everything, which was what Agate had caught her doing: Washing the grime off of the walls outside of the room with an old teatowel and a bucket of lukewarm melted snow-water,

"Oh hey Agate, hey Casey!" Said Rio, putting the towel back in the bucket and waving her grubby fingers at Casey with a smile, "Where's John? Oh, he's out looking around, told him not to go off on his own but he wouldn't listen. He'll stop this when he finds out that I have a bath lined up and ready for him every time he scoots off like this!"

Rio laughed, before shaking her hands to dry them,

"But enough about me, how are you? How's Kat and Casey? I haven't talked to you in what, ages now!"

[dray]

((XD Kat = player, Kay/K = character!))

Agate twisted his already marred mouth in a look of mild disgust. Rio had leapt so suddenly into a mothering attitude that he wasn't sure he trusted her. Agate and Kay had had to work for months to get in tune with Casey, and were still working on it, in fact. Maybe it was different when a person's charge was five-ish with a mental equivalent that was older than Agate himself. That thought made his skin crawl. If Kay or Fa had stumbled across him in the situation that'd befallen John, he would scream bloody murder at being coddled like a child.

"Uh, Kay's happier than a hunter in an abandoned PD," he replied, "she's out with Fa, catching up on the outside world. Casey here was stuffed to the ears before she shed half her weight." He hefted her, she gurgled in reply, though her gaze went to roaming. "So what, you're planning on washing down all the walls?" He tried to crack a grin, though the scars over his mouth made this difficult and lopsided to boot. "You're... ambitious."

[Marmalade Boy]

((That's what happens when my brain stops working! Durr! XD))

Rio caught that look of disgust, well enough to suggest something, maybe it was the fact that her hands were dirty from the wall-washing, and by waving them at Casey he'd made the link between germs on fingers and ill babies. Without a second thought Rio stuffed her hands into her pockets, hiding them from view and coming up with a reply for Agate,

"Great to hear!" Rio said, in response to the first part of what he had said and grinning at the gurgling baby, "And I'm not planning on going that far! No, just around here, make it look better for anyone who walks around here. It's not really well-traveled this hallway, so I'm hoping that it'll stay cleaner longer..."

[dray]

"Considering we haven't had shamblers pouring in either end for, what, a few months now? Shouldn't be too hard." Agate shifted Casey's weight, watching Rio jam her hands into her pockets as if she'd been caught red-handed... in the sense that other people used the term, not because she actually had dried blood and grime on her fingers. Hell, if Rio's hands had touched water they were probably cleaner than most of the residents' were, these days. Hygiene came shortly after eating and sleeping and staying alive, after all.

After a moment's pause, the man tilted his chin up, revealing pink and ugly scarring al across his throat, but more importantly, gesturing at Rio to explain something for him. "Wait, John still pulls his loan-wolf gig? Do you know what he's up to? He still with those army jerks -- no offense or nothing." Agate recalled that Rio had been in the same force as the bratified John, though the... what were they? NAPD? MDP? SOB? Whatever, he hadn't seen the group making a try for establishment, like most military factions that tried to regroup in the city. If the group was calling the kid -- er, John -- out, then something really weird was going on.

[Marmalade Boy]

"None taken"

Rio replied to the 'military jerks' comment, she thought a little the same, except for the fact that the job gave her some supplies, and gave John some sense of belonging. She'd thought that the NSD (to get it correct!) was part of the composite glue of NSD and her that held John together at times, that and those precious guns he had. Well, gun now, he could only manage one and the other was kept under the sofa for protection, not of them but of the gun itself. He loved those old guns a little too much thought Rio,

"I think he's trying to find someone to help him explain about his recent condition" Meaning the CATSing, "You know, like to try and get him old again? He'd scour the city if I let him, luckily I keep him on a short leash! And by that I mean he wouldn't last long on his own, goodness knows how he lasted this long before I arrived..."

[dray]

Rio might not've taken offense at Agate's statement, but Agate did in return. "So he's trying to find some help and you're trying to keep him from it? If you're so worried about him, why don't you watch his back while he goes out?" Agate was starting to see why John might disappear into the night...

And no skin off Agate's back if John stayed small or didn't come back at all. The youth-anized soldier ate less in his current form, swore less, generally caused less dissent... and if he didn't return, those factors would be cut out completely. Still, the Cosway's oldest slouch-about deserved a grain of respect. If only, that is, because he was so damned stubborn.

Agate held Casey a little closer, the move instinctive rather than conscious. Rio was unhinged in a very special way. It was one that was more unsettling than, say, Tony or Eddie or that alcoholic who dropped by from time to time. Rio seemed to snap in the opposite direction.

"You'd rather the guy stay a kid, huh?" he asked conversationally... his light tone covering the weight of the implications. Rio seemed to want someone to control utterly. The thought was disturbing.

[Marmalade Boy]

"What? No, of course not!"

Said Rio with a little shake of her head, of course this was far from the real truth. She didn't want the control over anyone, that was true, it was that she preffered the young John than the older one. The young one was much easier to handle, never got into fights, didn't insult others, come home drunk or was on the verge of snapping from post-traumatic stress disorder that had robbed Rio of the man she once loved. That was the truth, not the one she showed or talked about, but it was the one she kept to herself,

"What I'm saying is that he's gone off on his own, before I woke up so I couldn't go after him. And he knows how to keep himself safe, just, I can't think of what would happen if he got hurt" Said Rio, bowing her head a little, "He probably wouldn't want me to go with him anyway, he thinks I cramp his style!"

She added with a little chuckle, trying to cheer herself up...

[dray]

If anything that came out of Rio's mouth was more than pure bullshit, Agate would have liked to know. She said the guy went out often, then contradicted herself to tell him that John's disappearance was a first-time occurrence. Not only that, but she was pulling a Fa as far as Agate could see. That 'oh, I'm so worried, but I have to be strong to keep trucking on' tone of voice always pissed him off in Fa, and Rio wasn't going to get away with it, either.

Shifting Casey (who was growing bored with being held, was squirming just enough to let her father know that she was considering revolt) Agate lightly bounced the baby. The fatherly gesture was counteracted by the vaguely predatory smile on his face. "Maybe you do," the scarred man suggested. "Ever tried listening to him and letting him have his space without him having to run away or drink it off?"

Maybe the last bit was too cruel. Agate wasn't too worried about that at the moment!

[Marmalade Boy]

Rio frowned at this suggestion of Agate's,

"What are you suggesting exactly?"

She didn't like his tone, nor that smile, it was like he was trying to pry into her or something, to try and grab the secrets stored away in her brain without her noticing. It was, uncomfortable, to say the least of it...

[dray]

"Well, maybe you oughtta re-think what you're doing and what affect you're having on other people, is all I'm saying," Agate explained, his voice modulating to concerned-friend. "I mean, Kay and I fought like magpies for a while. Then she kind of got me to realize that not talking trouble out and trying to make her do sh*t was doing more damage to our relationship than fessing up to... I dunno. Problems. sh*t that was bothering me."

He paused, tilting his head and thinking about it. "Not that I'm trying to call you a kid-twiddler or nothing, but if John's still got the same brain, maybe you should figure out what the both of you are thinking, y'know? Get so you're on the same... playing field? Level ground? Coddling the f*ck out of him and putting a choke-hold on his leash isn't gonna do you any good, probably." Agate looked down, distracted by Casey, who was finding his sweater interesting to gum at. He pulled the grimy and frayed article of clothing out of his daughter's reach and wiggled a finger in front of her nose to torment her, gaze returning to the other blonde. He'd love to see what kind of reaction she'd have. She'd probably toss all his words out the ear they'd come in and go back to air-headed idiocy, but it was worth a prod now and a again to see if people changed.

[Marmalade Boy]

Rio sort of stood there for a while, swaying a little like a shambler, as Agate's words sunk in. She took them as some kind of warning, the way that she treated John like a child, they thought she was, well... one of those sorts of people? That she had snapped in the head? Did the others really think of her as that? She took a step back, snapping out of her trance, and put a foot in her room, like it was some kind of safe haven she could absorb power from,

"Wh-What are you saying!?"

She said, sounding a little panicky...

[dray]

The look on her face was something Agate might expect from someone facing an attacking zombie, which was surprising, to say the least. He'd expected annoyance or mild anger, but Rio looked like she was about to disappear out the nearest window or into the nearest wall. He cast her a blank expression, one that he used to cover his surprise. Casey squirmed a little harder in his arms as if the moment was too awkward, even for her.

"I'm just saying, is give the guy more of a line," he suggested, backpedaling. "Figure out what's on his mind instead of treating him like your long lost son. He probably doesn't appreciate being kept like a pet, sorry to say it."

[Marmalade Boy]

"But I'm not treating him like a pet"

Said Rio, her emotions changing from being in a trance to sounding mildly annoyed. Things were breaking in her head quickly, she could see everyone seeing every little secret she kept, and inside something a little darker awakened. She was feeling as if Agate was challenging her, and with her already damaged mind it felt as if he would try and rip John away from her or something, after all, he was saying that she was treating him badly, wasn't she? Well she wouldn't let that happen,

"Well, I've spend more time around John than you have, and I know what's best for him"

[dray]

Agate attempted to raise a brow, and managed to shove a clump of scarred flesh a little higher on his forehead. "Oh, well in that case don't let me interfere. I'm not an expert on kids or cranky men or nothing, after all." Grimace-smiling again, oblivious to Rio's cracking mind, Agate jiggled Casey to keep her from wiggling out of his arms. "Anyways, if he's being a pain in the ass for you maybe you're pissing him off, too. Maybe you just need to actually sit down and, you know, talk things out with him? Instead of threatening him with baths and then getting neurotic when he runs off?" His shrug was barely visible between the jiggling of his shoulders.