EVERYONE ASK ANYWAY // introduction

[VAYNE CIPHER-VANTAS.]

[glow=white,1,400]LIKE WE FORGET WHO WE CAN TRUST ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Vayne simply watched the scene, poking her head above where her mother's tail was attempting to hide her. She listened to her crewmates with wide eyes, feeling uneasy at how hostile Aphra seemed to be towards them. "I'm-I'm fine," The kitten mewed in an attempt to ease Michael and Georgia's worries, but also an attempt to try and calm Aphra down. "I love Aphra. She isn't bad." Or... was she? It wasn't hard to notice how other mothers seemed to have this spark of life to them whenever they interacted with their kids, and how Aphra didn't hold the same look as they did.

It hurt, truly, it did. But Vayne knew no different.[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

[ROSEMARY]

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TYPHOON
NECRO MAMBAS

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[div style="width: px; font-family: GEORGIA; color: #422426; text-align: left; padding-top: 15px; padding-left: 10px"][align=center]ARE YOU GOOD WITH CHAOS ?!

Rosemary’s forked tail lashes, twacking a tree. But she does not notice. Her main pair of eyes lock on Vayne, and the other rests on Aphra. Tensions rise higher and higher, but Rosemary says nothing. The witch knows when to remain silent.

The others offer better comfort, anyway. Rosemary’s flat emotional expression, whether she wants to hide her feelings or not, hampers her. Yet one tail-tip twitches, then the other. One after the other.

Rosemary remembers. The ocelot observes what the others notice, and she draws parallels in her mind between this mother and her own. Vayne’s demure expression tugs at her heartstrings, even as her face remains as blank as if she watched paint dry instead of this blatant red flag. Her smaller pair of eyes drifts off Vayne to Aphra, all four amber eyes locked onto the pale feline.

The witch’s magic stirs, coiling in her soul and thrumming in her mind. She holds the reins with practiced control, as calm as cloudless blue sky. Magic is as easy as breathing, intention transformed into reality.

“A pint of ice cream a day keeps the pounds away,” she attempts to send to Aphra, her mental manipulation capable of clouding an otherwise clear mind. “Alcohol twice an hour brings great power. Meat is sour and lacks flavor.”

The rhymes are unnecessary. But she doesn’t like how Vayne mumbled the instructions like a mantra—as though her mother drilled the falsehoods into her head over and over. Rosemary knows all too well what a mother like Aphra is like behind closed doors. She remembers. The images dance behind her eyes, though she denies them entry into her blue sky.

Her four eyes slip away from Aphra to Vayne once the thought virus is transmitted, her head tilted to the side. No emotional expression still; Rosemary is incapable of displaying any. “Would you like to read about princesses, Vayne? I promise they are not all so poised.”

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© MADI

[APHRA CIPHER .]

[glow=grey,1,400]OH YES, I'VE HEARD THE STORY OVER AND OVER AGAIN ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Rosemary Roux. Aphra vaguely knew this odd female, mostly through offhand comments given by Caesar. Suffice to say, she wasn't too fond to see the witch making her way over - and of course, didn't expect a mental probing. If she got Rosemary's message, she showed no signs of it outright at the moment and simply glared at Rosemary, as if trying to warn her not to come close.

Aphra clearly saw no wrong in what she was doing here; to her, she was just trying to improve her child's life. "She's fine." The succubus insisted with a hiss.[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

[trojan g.]

Alia didn't know why there were so many in the Typhoon bent on trying to get Aphra's children to dislike her. Aphra was a fine mother as far as the female was aware, her only complaint being told not to hang out with the Roux family. They seemed nice enough, as many did in the Typhoon in general, but if they had some hidden motive or something like that, Aphra knew best, Alia knew that. She knew it deep down in her bones.

Padding over to the small gathering of members around her sister, Alia would simply watch for a moment as she weaved her way over to Vayne and sat down next to the other, ears flicking for a moment as she tried to catch what had been said. "Mother teaches what's best for us, don't you mother?" She would speak, eyes watching the succubus for a moment before glancing to the others. "I don't understand why everyone is like this... everyone's mothers teach what's best." What she didn't know, of course, was the methods were usually a bit different.

THERE ARE RULES AND THERE ARE STRICTURES

[VAYNE CIPHER-VANTAS.]

[glow=white,1,400]LIKE WE FORGET WHO WE CAN TRUST ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

The commotion was making Vayne nervous, if it wasn't obvious by the way the kitten's ears were flattened as she listened to her mother argue with her crewmates. Vayne's nervousness slowly went away as Alia came over and she tried to press herself against her sister, purring. "Mother knows best!" The kitten agreed, relieved to have one of her siblings come over and help everyone stop getting angry at Aphra. She didn't like how angry Aphra was getting, and it upset her to see others treat Aphra like she was doing something wrong, when she wasn't. Right?[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

[ROSEMARY]

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THERE’S VACANCY IN EVERY NIGHTMARE

Rosemary waited for a long moment, quietly screaming inside her own head. She breathed out an exhale when the seconds ticked along and Aphra showed no sign of a reaction. Ever since Sephiroth had violently flung her out of his mind, she’d used caution. Yet Aphra had been easier to convince than Caesar.

“I’m sure you do what you think is best,” Rosemary said. Her tail-tips flicked, and she stood still as a statue on her paws, though her four eyes darted between the three Cyphers. “Trying to raise three kids by yourself? That’s difficult.”

Rosemary glanced at the kittens. It broke her heart how they defend their mother—she would’ve done the same thing, at their age. She was tempted to sling spells in their mind, too, to free them. But children’s minds broke easily.

“Let me know if you need someone to watch them for an afternoon. To give you a break? I do not mind teaching them lessons on literature or healing.” Rosemary’s tail flicked again; if Aphra wanted to hide behind improving her children, then Rosemary would happily use this fact against her own narcissism engine. “After all. Anyone, especially your daughters, could improve after learning magic and medicine from a former head soothsayer, yes?”

[sub][W]isker[/sub]

[APHRA CIPHER .]

[glow=grey,1,400]OH YES, I'VE HEARD THE STORY OVER AND OVER AGAIN ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

The way that Rosemary was trying to force herself into interacting with her kids was making Aphra more irritated by the minute and it was clear in how her kinked tail flicked back and forth. "I can raise them just fine by myself." She insisted. "I've raised a litter of four, I can certainly handle three kids." Then again, one could argue that Aphra practically left her last litter to fend for themselves, rather than actually taking care of them like she was doing with her current litter. Which was... almost a blessing and a curse. On one hand, at least Aphra was trying to raise her own children, but on the other, the way she was doing it was... less than ideal, to say the least.

"Learning from a Roux, you mean?" Aphra corrected Rosemary's offer of teaching the kittens magic and literature. "No, I can find someone else to do those things." Probably an NPC or two, or hell, maybe someone out in the other groups - so long as they weren't a Roux, she didn't care.[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]