Fun at the Water Park

[littlekreen]

Both of her whelps were with their mother for today on the city bus now that she had a replacement husk. Flynn even invited Molly and/or friends to come with them and help Flynn mind the rambunctious things. It was likely the first time Molly had seen Flynn's new husk though some parts Flynn had to keep covered as she added features. The excitable pairs' glamours hadn't changed at all however despite growth spurts. As they really were they'd grown in their slate-colored down were still absent any real feathers but for faint sprouts about their heads. Their whelps needed to be water-resistant nearly in the first week so they preened constantly when she had them off the glamours at night.

Instead today both were in little flipflops and swim trunks the weaker Quinn sleeping on her lap as Thebus stared at others. They really didn't understand clothing much less shoes but let Flynn dress them anyway. While she got eyed once or twice with them both on leashes it kept them from racing off in public. Whenever she saw them dart around a park or the forest the thoughts of cars came to mind nowadays. Didi would make weening hope and noises seeing her now caring for whelps for once. One of her husk's tanned human hands caressed Quinn's head as her unfeathered touch then caused Thebus to wark in response. Far too young to talk but inordinately more mobile as infants than human babies.

Their trip today now that she had the money together ended at a water park within Dallas as Quinn faced backward in their seat with a fluted titter. They could hold their breaths for several minutes as infants so hoped the humans wouldn't bother too much about their antics underwater. There was a good chance they could already outswim some human lifeguards underwater. Though the little fins she got them would help explain how they could move so fast or at least she hoped that would make a good excuse. The goggles weren't necessary, they had third eyelids, but that didn't exactly make them blend with humans well.

The bus rolled to a stop in front of the water park as she looked for the three tickets on her phone. In standing Quinn's eyes shot open and leaped down on his little flipflops to the bus floor. Flynn whistled at them and both whistled back as she led them by the leash off the bus. While she politely nodded to the curious didn't answer their questions it was better that way not to draw more attention.

Two leashes in her hand Flynn looked about to see if Molly decided to arrive. The two Whelps intermittently deciding to have a slapfight in lieu of access to their tails. Or just circling around her where she had to whistle at them and untangle herself. They'd stare up at her as she tugged on their leash to circle back around her. Two pairs of thwaps quickening as Thebus restarted a slapfight and Quinn dodged in place.

[demikara]

Molly recognized that whistling and headed over grinning. "Flynn!" She looked very different than the last time she had seen her, but that was probably a good thing. Looking at her twin had been incredibly weird. She was dressed for the park herself, in a pink one piece with a cover up 'dress' that was mostly see through over it. She had plans after all and that included actually getting into the water. The whelps could probably swim after all. They weren't actually human.

She could see the boys though and smiled "I see Thebus and Quinn are still at it. The leashes are probably a smart idea." The two were incredibly mobile. They didn't talk yet, unless they had just started, but they were definitely hard to keep up with. She had watched them enough to know that. "How's the glamour holding up for them?" If she needed to change it, she might as well learn now so she could start planning. After the water park though. She planned on having fun today.

[littlekreen]

Energetic and pleased to see Molly the tanned youthful skin once possessed by one venerable cedar ridge matron waves to a familiar face calling over. The slapfight ends by two noses huffing air then whistling squeals as both leap in place. Both leashes wisely let go as the abnormally light toddlers whumped into Molly. Quinn clung at a leg and Thebus to Molly's abdomen. Both the endless energetics and strength of a toddler but barely half the weight and far more coordinated. The weaker sibling only barely so but it was more being pelted by two velcro dodgeballs than something that would topple Molly.

Flynn made a wide grin, "They'll only get worse with a feather coat grown in and some hard nails to climb! The cold nights slow them down so at least I can sleep!"

She waggled a finger at one about Molly's stomach, "Quinn's holds up well. I think Thebus has a call to the dreaming like his mother but not to go there. He tries to leave me notes but far too young for writing. If the glamour keeps drifting it might need changes to suffer a channeler. The glamour had red hair and an army helmet the other morning."

A finger reached over to pull the shorts pocket open a bit to show a small piece of heavy fungal wood that wouldn't come out, "Now it's just a spoon."

[demikara]

Molly hugged both, easily picking Quinn up as well. They were both so light! It got her every time. "I can adjust the glamours after the park, if you like. I still have my notes on the original one so it won't be too hard." They were also a bit bigger, so she should adjust for that as well. though she had given them some room to grow in the glamour, it wasn't a lot. Physical glamours were complicated beasts after all. She was proud of them, but there was a reason no one else knew how to make them. They were complicated. She wasn't about to share the secret of magic that could go that wrong.

"So they can climb now? That must make keeping track of them so much harder. They're already so mobile." They were tough to keep up with. Every time she had watched them was an adventure and a half. Still, a feather coat grown in and some hard nails. That sounded like they were growing quickly alright. Keeping on top of their glamour was going to be interesting, especially considering they were non-verbal. Well. They didn't speak. They were certainly not quiet that was for sure.

[littlekreen]

Flynn looked at the tall rides seen within removing her waterproof hiking hat to a human-style pack, "Just after their nails harden! Keepers have to mind two dozen at least I only have two. I would be thankful if you can keep their glamours intact they get themselves into enough trouble!"

Head in her hands Flynn laments, "Hikers nearly got us caught at night once when they spied Thebus staring at them from a tree. I had to hide us for three days until they called off the search."

She wandered toward the gate stopping to gesture at a fountain, "We have artificial land like you have artificial water you know. Whelps that can't swim or climb are fish food. We have wall cities or fluid deeps within often painful lung pressures of ocean boulder voids. I hope to bring them home to see my Didi someday once they are old enough to pass safely. I should be able to find an entrance of Grandfather Teeth's underworks if I can find my way back."

The two had an impressive grip and held tightly to Molly as she hugged them. Doubly so when Flynn scritched one Quinn and Thebus on the head and they both trilled. The glamors strained slightly to cope with the hyperflexibility of their natural heads. Both switched from staring chin-flat to Molly then at 5 o'clock high to Flynn without much strain.

Flynn waved her new personal phone, "I like these. It has our tickets! Not safe to bring in the dreaming though. Do you have yours?"

[demikara]

"I don't know how anyone would manage two dozen." These two were more than enough. The need for the kids to be able to escape was something she understood at least. It was pretty common in the world after all. Even the youngest had to be able to move after birth. It was rare for species to be rather helpless after birth. She knew hers and the humans were like that. Though her species was also much longer lived than the humans were. And much less fertile, unfortunately. She knew how important every child was to her people.

"I have both my ticket and my cell phone though. We should be able to go straight in." After they just showed them of course. But it did mean they wouldn't have to buy a new ticket. "They won't let the boys go on the rides. They may be able to handle it, but humans their size couldn't." They be at the splash pad for the most part, or maybe the edges of the wave pool. Otherwise, people would freak out. "If we put on the little balloon wing things we can probably manage some of the other areas though." She had gotten two pairs, just in case Flynn didn't think to do so.

Molly had looked up what was expected of human toddlers at a water park.

[littlekreen]

"Keepers leash siblings with suited temperaments together in rings." Flynn circled with her hands then smirks with one mock tug on the ring. "If they cannot agree then they don't get anywhere! It teaches teamwork since the strong ones cannot drag if all in their ring are strong. I wouldn't want them on those large contraptions anyway - they are likely to both jump."

"Don't your minders get lazy only having to stare at infirm babies in cloth buckets?" Asks Flynn with a jerked cant of her head at a local child in a baby carrier.

Moving up the prepaid entrance line as they went had a close view. The canting of her head an unavoidable tic born of her own body's immovable eyes at close range. Then promptly eyed her own clung to Molly whom looked down where their mother had and stuck their tongues out at the baby. While a friendly gesture by whelps to each other compared to toothy stares it was a little different here.

Little floaties with Molly made as much sense for Flynn as the whelps.

While showing a cell phone to the ticket taker carefully censored her words, "They know not to use their fingers and don't pick fights. How do plastic bags protect them?"

[demikara]

"It's supposed to keep them from drowning." At least, according to the package. "I'm not sure how, but people swear by them." She handed her ticket out and followed Flynn in. "I doubt these two would do anything but float, but appearances, you know." They had to make it at least look like they were human, whether that was the truth or not. Looking mundane was one of the key things you learned to do in the Unseen. That meant looking human as possible and for kids at a water park, that mean the arm balloons.

Molly really doubted the things worked however. They may keep the arms up, but what about the head, after all.

"These two aren't quite the same temperament though. One is much quieter than the other." Calmer too. And honestly, just a little bit physically weaker, though both were still leagues above humans of a similar developmental age.

[littlekreen]

A curious reacher pondered quietly trying to be nice about the human form while gesturing about her own head with a similar concern, "Well your heads are too... bulbous for those things to be collars."

She squeezed Quinn's arm whom tittered as Flynn rubbed it with a thumb, "It must go on the arms. They shouldn't pop. I got them swim clasps for their feet the baloons may at least keep them from shooting about the water. Toe membranes in blue bloods are less pronounced but don't come in until later."

A tan thumb rubbed Quinn's head whom stuck his tongue out at their clutch mother but he made no noise as she spoke, "Even a quarter yellow should burn brightly. I do not know what his nature might be the gumdrop tree he made was... odd. I was not sure what to feed it. Once his sense of self comes in his traveler's antics should quiet at least."

Picked up Quinn fluted happily as Flynn held him up chest first by the shoulders, "Oh, Molly! I noticed if you listen to his chest closely the inside sounds like a broken music box. Healthy enough. An odd heart but nothing I recall by our doctors. He eats well now even if he has nothing but those stubby teeth."

If an ear pressed to the bare chest one would indeed hear a faint tinkling noise off-key and discordant but to some inner rhythm quite stable. Tones and tinkling notes behind the glamor of the chest where his heart lay. Their kind had hearts only slightly less a metal thing than industry the Sanguinary produced. Both in that it perpetuated the life it served. Once discovered after long funeral studies Ganblood Steel's inspiration ignited the Sanguinary's rise to power. Thus noises in the chest thing not unusual to hear it was the melody. The endless ticking of Grandfather Teeth's deepest parts in their dreaming quite familiar but simple rhythms as a beating heart.

[demikara]

"I think so. Hopefully the boys will tolerate them." she didn't think that they'd actually enjoy having the balloons on their arms, but she'd take them putting up with it and not taking them off constantly. It wasn't like she could tell them to keep them on. Communicating with the boys was basically something only Flynn could do. She was still pretty certain they didn't know what it was that she was saying when she spoke to them. "And those stubby teeth mean vegetables." Molly pointed out. "Has he been eating those?"

Or had Flynn actually figured out how to feed Quinn meat? Because those teeth said herbivore all the way. She carried Thebus and headed to the splash pad. "They can play in the water here while I add air to the air balloons." No one would question a toddler playing on the splash pad. She actually expected significantly more questions once they hit the wave pool.

Hopefully the boys would enjoy the water. She wasn't convinced that they would, but the only way to find out was to try and if they didn't, that was fine too. They could probably be taught.

[littlekreen]

Flynn didn't put Quinn on her shoulder as much flipped him around and lobbed him at it. Quinn squeaked happily midair and wrapped his arms tightly around her shoulder and neck. Head angled a bit as Flynn rubbed Quinn's back with one hand as she walked alongside Molly.

The tanned face shrugged with an inhale through her teeth as Flynn answered, "I tried to give him fruit and roasted potatoes but..."

An exhale of breath she closed her eyes then looked in the distance, "Quinn stole some of his brother's food to share it and they both got drunk. Quinn was only a little drunk so maybe he is more human. We don't ferment the juice where I am from. Alcohol is for medicine and your bars smell like Sear from the Sanguinary."

A thumb indicated one A&W stand nearby with a wince, "His bubbly water wasn't medicinal roots either. I was worried when he passed out after so I've been chewing his meat and tasting his water. Some of the sauces on cooked ribs here make even me tipsy."

A warbling whistle indicated to the whelp on her shoulder to get down as they made the splash pad. A leg out to make it easier Quinn scampered down her leg then poked an inquisitive leg toward the wet pavement. Satisified at solidity after leaning weight let go and ambled over to Molly. Gesturing with both open hands at his brother with warbling attempts at new noises mother used on them. It wasn't something resembling speech to Flynn's ears but the musical warble had that telltale repeated imitation.

"They won't have the right throat to make your noises until three our four of your years at least. I try to teach them ours." Whispered Flynn to her conspirator.

[demikara]

"It would be difficult, with them both on such different diets." She noted and set Thebus down on the splash pad. "Hopefully they'll enjoy this." Molly had no idea. She grinned at Flynn. "We'll just call them slow developers, that's all. It's not too big of a deal. People might fuss a little, or treat them different though." She could make out that he was saying words now, though she couldn't tell what. At least it was something in their language, she assumed. Though it could be baby talk.

She pulled out the floaties and smiled. "Do they even like water?" She hoped they did. This splash pad would at least be interesting. There was a slide and a playhouse with water everywhere. Jets of water periodically spurted up from the ground. Given this was the one for toddlers, it wasn't that complicated and the water was incredibly shallow.

[littlekreen]

An eyebrow raised at a notion definitely from a livebearer grinned with her husk's white molars, "We are born from floating eggs so you'd think so! Quinn's nature makes him dislike baths."

Down to her knees, Flynn tested the warm water then with quick hands splashed it at Quinn. Wide amber eyes shift their fixation as he titters to raise a hand to cover his eyes. Hopping in place raising more splashes still. Flynn gestures to the faintly green footprint where algae had built under the warbling whelp when stood still. Both set off in troughs of strong boys playing all day in the forest. Splashing smaller ones nearby with as water fails to hold them back but only slow them down. The two whelps set out for the largest congregation of others their size. Unconcious flexes reach at the other's person from an implicit pack instinct to them to keep track of each other. Quinn's grip grows loose behind his brother as he slows with gasping breaths.

Flynn returns her waterproof hat to her head and leans to one side. One of the concrete geysers wets the top half of the black-blue two-tone bathing suit she wore here. The glisten rather than sop showed it as neoprene from the reacher's habits of function over glam. The husk was meat not an illusion after all even in heat it could get cold, sodden, or sunburnt. That and she needed something solid enough to cover the husk's tattooed-on power leads so she could cast her native spells while wearing it. She'd spent nearly a week vomiting after being bottled up in the Molly suit and still a little under the weather.

"Pha! Chemicals. Does this city water always smell so odd, Molly?" Flynn added after a sniff of her arm pondering the smell, "worse than the tap-water but I can tell it's clean like all the food. I'll have to make their muscle and organ meat meals for now. Hm. Maybe grandmother will let me borrow her blender for Quinn."

Thebus gives quiet barks of concern at Quinn wheeling around to stare with a bobbing head. Then his eyes noticed Quinn's labored breathing with a slower pace Thebus soon pulls at the lead as Quinn moves more slowly. Both brothers scale the small slide where a small line of children formed. Quinn flails a bit and spits out water as the small island itself gouts streams occasionally. Many children doing the same ahead of them. Thebus leaps at the small railing both feet clamped sideways to a rung. He bats at the holes in aggrieved tones with one hand where the water emerges.

A noise to get the over-inquisitive creatures to leave something alone was one thing she'd managed to teach them. Given how often she had to use it they'd caught on that much at least. After listening to Grandmother babysit them gave her the idea of what noises the humans could make easily. Something to get them to mind. Though a Syrinx making those noises the tone had a waveguide note more than a vibratory one.

[♫♪], Flynn whistled loudly at them in a descending two-tone and both immediately turned head in her direction.

Thebus stopped and got down and Flynn nodded to them rejoining the line leaning over to Molly, "I can't tell them to stop but they know what it means. Our tongue is tonal so you'll have to hit the right pitch. Could we tell others they are just mute? I haven't met any to know what they sound like."

[demikara]

"It's supposed to keep outbreaks of disease and stuff like that from spreading. So the chemicals have a purpose, but it does smell funny." She much preferred magic to do it but it wasn't like she had a choice on this. She considered the water. "We can say they're mute, yeah. Or if we says special needs no one will think twice. Though they might make this funny face that means they pity you." She knew that face. She had gotten it a lot in the 80s.

"You'll have to teach me that one for when I'm babysitting. It looks handy." Could she whistle that well? There was no telling. She gave it a try though, and wondered if she had managed to get it right.

Though it was probably confusing for the boys. There wasn't anything for her to tell them to stop doing. Then again, she may have gotten that note terribly wrong. She really needed to actually learn the language so she could communicate with the whelps. "Hey, maybe I can learn some of the whelps language. It would make watching them easier."