THE YEARS START COMING | open, looking for jerseyboy

[melody]

[div style="margin: 0 auto; width: 55%; font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;"]There was no sight quite like watching a fluffy little kitten pad furiously up to a border and sternly sit and wait. Melody had been left at a group or something by her uncle, and she did not like that one bit. So she followed him - yes, she just straight-up trailed her uncle all the way to the Ascendants. "Zio!" She called, her tiny baby voice inflected with a hint of Italian. Her little paws scuffed at the ground, mumbling angrily to herself as she watched the horizon for signs of her uncle, or just anyone, really.

In any case, Jerseyboy was in for a world of angry kitten when he arrived.

[trojan g.]

do you believe you could change me? the way i changed you.

It had been a while since Ro had seen a kitten come over to the border of their own accord, so when he saw a perfectly healthy one there, furious instead of hyper or happy, a confused look washed over his face. The last time he had seen a kitten this angry it had been due to some silly little thing, but he had the feeling that this was something more serious than someone not getting their way - she seemed to have come from somewhere far away. "Can I help you?" Ro would ask, getting down closer to the ground so that he was closer to the height of the smaller creature. "I'm sure you're tired or hungry..." He'd trail off. He wasn't sure what there was to eat around here quite yet, so he'd have to go searching, but he was sure that he could go and find something if need-be.

[JERSEYBOY]

JERSEYBOY

Responsibility? Not Jerseyboy's forte. Perhaps he could be given responsibility over something miniscule and relatively minor, but as for other people? Yikes. He had, at one point, been responsible for looking after Jacob and now the guy was out in God-knows-where, doing whatever. Not getting killed, hopefully. He'd find out where his little brother went eventually, but for now, he was focusing on him. Not anyone else. This was his time.

Well, that was until a fuming kitten had showed up at the Ascendants border.

It seemed that the tuxedo tom was responsible for yet another child, though this time, she was small. This had been his brother's kid, who had just been born a month or so ago. Jerseyboy had been entrusted with the baby molly (for some reason), and what did he do? He had left her in Snowbound. Those eskimos had taken care of kids before, so why was Melody any different? It was much better them than him; he had little to no experience with young kittens whatsoever. Had she followed him around in his travels, she probably would've gotten hurt within the first fifteen minutes.

"Zio!" No fuckin' way. How did she even manage to find him? God, this was a living nightmare. Children, following him to the ends of the earth to climb all over him and drive him up a wall. (Un)Fortunately, Jersey had just so happened to be in the area when the tiny voice rang out, and he clenched his jaw. Did he go to meet her? Did her not? God, she was his niece, after all. He had to bite the bullet and get it over with. The tuxedo tom emerged, blinking his eyes and looking down at the kitten. "Ey, kid, I thought I told you to stay put." The older male grunted lightly, slightly frowning before asking, "How'd you even get out here, anyways?" He had to give her credit: she was pretty lucky to have survived this far on her own.

© MADI

[melody]

[div style="margin: 0 auto; width: 55%; font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;"]The kitten's ears flattened as the stranger approached, and as soon as he offered her something, she hissed and spat, "No! Go away!" She was deathly afraid of this stranger that was so much bigger than her, but when her uncle arrived, she was too angry to even act like she was happy to see him. "Stronzo!"* She said to Jerseyboy accusingly, fur bristling. "You left me! Didn't know those people! Why'd you do that?" Her simplistic tongue could barely comprehend what she was thinking, so she just had to settle for sounding more childish than she'd like - of course, she was only a moon or so, so maybe she was too young to be trying to sound older anyway.

At his question, the calico could barely even understand what kind of question that was supposed to be. She didn't have a grip on sarcasm yet, but if she did, it would have been a hell of a response. "Walked! Obviously!" For a moment after releasing her childlike wrath, she just glared up at her uncle, before sniffling. "I was scared! Couldn't trust strangers." She muttered, wiping her eyes with little fluffy paws.

*stronzo = asshole in italian

[adomania]

[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 55%; line-height:115%; text-align: justify;font-family: calibri;"]To say that Lirim was a good parent was a lie. They had at least ten children in their life, all generally healthy in physical terms, but after about six years they'd lost track of more than a third of them, and knew the others only because they had died. The only two that Lirim could say they even vaguely recalled were Twilight and Haiiro, but even that was spotty and in all honesty the latter could have very well been Kairo and Lirim would have been none the wiser. They were awful, not at being responsible but at being there, for half of their existence was them trying to find themselves and they had very little energy left to spend to take care of tiny children and help them develop in positive ways.

They were no stranger to leaving children in more capable hands, and they understood to some extent where Jerseyboy was coming from. Wasn't it objectively better to leave affairs as delicate as these to people who were actually suited to the job instead of trying and failing miserably at raising a child and having it become some fucked up version of yourself because you could barely handle your own problems and responsibility?

It was all a complicated matter, and sometimes they wished that children could understand that it was for the better. Or maybe they were just an awful parent and you seriously weren't supposed to leave them somewhere even though you were incompetent. They were the void, what the fuck did they know about actual parenting to begin with? They created, they destroyed, and everything took care of itself in between that. There was no parenting left to be involved in.

Something akin to an amused half-smile was on the small dragon's face when they padded up, inspecting the scenario with no lack of said amusement in their black gaze. For now they'd remain silent, waiting for things to either get better or completely out of hand -- both versions would be equally interesting to watch.

[JERSEYBOY]

JERSEYBOY

Well, this kid certainly had colorful vocabulary. Probably picked it up from her father, or even him, no doubt. Jerseyboy had started learning all of these "terms" when he was young as well, but if he called any of his family members by them?He'd be in for a beating for sure. Melody was just lucky that her parents weren't here, because he wasn't going to deal her any corporal punishment for her prissy mood. Instead, the tuxedo tom scolded, "Ey! Don't go around callin' me that, you hear me?" She could go around calling others that, but him? She wasn't going to get away with it.

She had left Snowbound because she... couldn't deal with strangers? Hell, they were more suited to raise children than he was, that was for sure. She would have had a better chance there, instead of following him around. "That was real stupid of you. Coulda' gotten picked up by a hawk or somethin' out here." Jerseyboy growled, twitching his white-tipped tail and frowning. "Great, now I gotta' find people that can look afta' you here." He muttered. He didn't want to be on constant babysitting duty.

A presence was detected by pointed ears, and he craned his neck to look over his shoulder at the stranger. What was wrong with these people? Couldn't they mind their own business? He huffed, "Whadda' you starin' at?" Jerseyboy knew that this "conversation" with his niece wasn't exactly private, but that didn't give everyone excuse to come over and watch like it was some sort of drama.

© MADI

[MirrorEdge]

[align=center]

"Ooooh, I can!" The bright voice of Thea could be heard, and she bounded over, eyeing the kitten for a few moments, as if sizing up her opponent, and turned to Jerseyboy. "I can teach her to fight! Then she won't have to worry about hawks!" Eyes looked up pleadingly towards Jerseyboy, then to Melody. "You want to learn to fight, right? Maybe also hang out? Oh, wait. Uh, I'm Thea!" She chirped, as if suddenly, knowing her name would fix her blunder of bombarding the young kitten with questions.

Who knew? Maybe Melody would be driven back to Snowbound, and never set foot out of their territory again, in fear of seeing the hyperactive leopard cub. Jerseyboy was probably hoping that, but Thea was very unaware of how unsettling she might seem.

[melody]

[div style="margin: 0 auto; width: 55%; font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;"]Mels' ears flattened at Jersey scolding her, frowning at the ground. At his second statement, though, Melody livened up again. "But I didn't!" She responded indignantly, grimacing furiously. She couldn't understand why Jersey didn't get it - she could look after herself, she just didn't want strangers near her all the time.

"Staying with you! Don't need to be looked after!" Melody said with certainty, huffing at her uncle. At his outburst toward the dragon, Mels glanced over at Lirim, and stuck her tongue out at the dragon. "Go away!" She mimicked her uncle's tone, hoping that would please him enough to make him stop being angry at her.

At the suddenly loud, bright voice, Mels jumped, and skittered behind Jerseyboy to peek out at the leopard cub from a safe distance. Thea was a lot bigger than her, and she wasn't sure about the painfully cheerful voice. She didn't want to talk to this leopard, but she was with her uncle now, and he'd protect her. Learn to fight... Hang out...? Melody wasn't sure what those things entailed. But she did know introductions. "M'name is Melody." The calico mumbled warily, unsure how to even start to answer the questions. A sure fix? Hiding behind her uncle again and hoping the leopard would go away.