The Festival

"Rukia and Mshai will," Runi said. "They're only three, but they're smarter than they look. It's not so much the case for Aodan though, he just likes to pounce on and wrestle anything that moves. He knows not to bite humans though."

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Copy-Runi turned back toward the house when he saw Jan leave and considered going back in to bring back some other evidence than just his memories. He could probably bring back some of the skin and hope that Jan wouldn't notice. Then again, who would he think took it? His real self was playing with the girls.....but now that Jan knew what he was he probably wouldnt put it past him. He turned towards the lake to see if it looked like Jan would be in his house before he could complete the act of theft.

((This is starting to get frustrating. You seem pretty determined to expose Jan, and I seem pretty determined to keep everything a secret. X3))

"Are they actually three, or are they one and just look like they're three?" Tory asked semi-sarcasticly.

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Jan sighed as he went back inside. He made a quick peek out the window to make sure Tory and Geary were alright. Seeing that they were still playing with Runi - if you could call sitting around playing - then went back into the basement, locking the door behind him. He had a few other things he needed to do, some projects and calculations that had been due to Rotti sometime last week and whatnot.

((he's going to give up))

Copy-Runi sighed and turned back into the forest with a huff. Then he decided What the heck, there's one last thing I can try. He took the spell off of himself, making him visible again, and ran up to Jan's door after rolling in some mud and dry leaves. Now he could pass for a stray mutt instead of an African wild dog. Sitting at Jan's front door he lifted a paw to scratch at it. If Jan didn't have any other meat in the house...maybe he would give a stray mutt some of the human meat he had on hand....

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"Rukia's actually three," Runi said. "Mshai's a little under two. But he's not growing anywhere as fast as I am, mentally or physically. You're talking like I like the advanced growth, but think what you would feel like if you never had a childhood"

"Childhood?" Tory echoed. "Screw childhood, I'll never have an adulthood!" Her childhood hadn't been very adequet either. For the first couple years of her life, she had been very ill and sheltered by both her mother and her father. Then as she got a little older, and realized she was smarter than the kids her age, they hadn't wanted to play with her. She wasn't used to childish things.

"Okay, if you two are going to start trying to one up each other to see who has it worse, I'm leaving right now!" Geary huffed. Tory mumbled something incoherent and rolled her eyes. She really couldn't see this friendship working out, even if she honestly gave it a shot. Her personality was just so much different from Runis.

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Jan paused for a long moment before he finally opened the door, looking down at the funny dog sitting on his porch. It was probably hungry, but if he fed it, it would just come back for more food. He shut the door and started to walk away. Feeling bad, he grabbed a few slices of bread from the kitchen and threw them out to the dog. Dogs liked bread, even if they liked meat more.

"I'm not," Runi said to Geary apologetically. "I'm sorry if it seemed like it. I have more than I ever could deserve, even if it's less than what I want. But now hopefully I've gotten one thing that I wanted - friends." Suddenly he whirled around as something sprung at him from the bushes, missing by a mile thanks to his quick reaction. Runi realized what it was and let down his defenses with a sigh

"Rawr rawr rawr rawr! Imma eat joo!" Aodan crouched to spring again and latched onto one of Runi's ankles. He had learned that Runi, Nathifa, and Mshai were the most fun to attack because he could bite as hard as he wanted and his teeth never even broke the skin.

"Aodan, goddammit, where'd you go?" A voice shouted after the little wiger from a woods. Birch appeared and picked up the squirmy little fuzzball. "Well, at least I know his tracking skills are developing if he followed you out here," he said with a shrug. "Did you make some friends, Runi?"

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Copy-Runi let out a frustrated, angry bark at Jan and picked himself up to leave without even taking the bread.

"Dogs are supposed to like bread," Jan grumbled, closing the door without taking the bread. The birds would probably come and get it anyways.

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Tory raised an eyebrow at the crazed two year old, guessing him to be Aodan.

((Muse died. I'm bringing in Yoko/Rabbit sometime today. ....Eventually...))

((XD nice. Do you know the song Lux Aeterna? I've gotten so addicted to it lately))

"Change back to say hello, Aodan." Birch said. Aodan changed back so he was in his regular form. "Hewwo!" He said to the two girls excitedly. "Imma eat Wuni!" He squirmed out of his father's arms and jumped onto Runi's shoulders.

"Hi?" Tory replied awkwardly, simply watching as Aodan jumped up on Runi.

((Feels like going on iScribble. And Yes, I have that song on my IPod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYU6brXkt0k&feature=channel_page

You should listen to that song there. It's really funny, and it's got one of those inspirational messages. ...Je suis whore. :3

Hey, the forums being really gay for me right now, so I won't be able to rp until later. I'll be on iScribble if you wanna join me.))

"Hewwo!" Aodan jumped off Runi's head to scamper over close to Tory. "You're pwetty!" he said. "Can I bite you?"

((I don't really have time to get on iScribble right now, but if you're on late tonight then there might be a possibility))

((Okie dokie then.))

"Umm...thank you," Tory mumbled as if she wasn't used to compliments, even ones from two year old boys. "And...I'd rather if you didn't. I don't like things that hurt, but it's safe to bite me if you really can't contain yourself."

Geary giggled as she watched Tory grow increasingly uncomfortable, knowing that her sister wasn't used to social interaction outside of family.

"Oh, I pwobably shouldn't bite joo then." Aodan looked disappointed, but his face lit up a couple of seconds later. "I can bite Wuni though! He's wike a wock!" Aodan lunged at Runi's legs again and sank his teeth in.

"Oh hey, that reminds me of a joke!" Birch said, the word "wock" bringing it to mind. "What's the difference between going for a stroll and stealing from a Chinese kitchen? Nothing! Either way you're taking a wok." Birch cracked up, but at the same time felt a little sad. Quill always used to tell that joke to him.

((Sorry, was replying to something else. I'll have a post up in a sec.))

"Uh-huh," Tory replied. She got the joke, but she didn't really think that it was funny. "Okay, I've got one. Two eggs boiling in a pan, one male and one female. The female egg says "Look, I've got a crack". "No good telling me" replies the male egg "I'm not hard yet"."

"I don't get it," Geary replied. Tory rolled her eyes mischeviously. She knew Geary didn't get it, but Birch probably would.

Birch laughed. "That's a good one," he commented.

"I don't get it either," Runi said with a confused look on his face. "How does cracking and being hard-boiled seem funny?" He at least got the first one.

"Wow, no scolding for telling a dirty joke?" Tory asked with a smile. "Did you say dirty joke?" Tory flinched as Jan came out of the house. He was wearing different clothes, and his hair looked a little damp. "Which one did you tell this time?" he asked. "The one about the eggs," Tory mumbled, afraid that her father was going to yell at her like her mother would have. Jan rolled his eyes. "That's hardly dirty," he replied. "Here, What do a gynocologist and a pizza boy have in common? They can smell it but they cant eat it."

"Eeewww....." Tory whined, scrunching up her face in disgust. "That's nasty."

"What's a gyno...gyno....thingy?" Runi asked, getting more confused by the minute. "And why does it eat pizza?" To him the question sounded like the gynocologist ate pizza too.

Birch made a face. "That one is pretty disgusting," he said. "And Runi, don't worry about it. You'll learn all this stuff when you get older." The rate he's growing that should be in about a week he thought to himself. Then the thought struck him and he wondered when gods got fertile. The thought that Runi might be a little over a year old and able to father children seemed very strange to him.

"I could always tell you the one about the fat guy who lost weight by chasing after hookers. Or the time I once treated a woman with persistant sexual arousal syndrome. I'm no orgasim specialist, but hey." Jan held his hands up in surrender.

"It's a doctor for wo...girls," Tory said, trying to keep it simple for Runi. "And they don't eat pizza. Well, I mean they could but that's not what Dad's trying to get at."

"Hookers? Sexual arousal syndrome? Orgasms?" Runi was getting more lost in the conversation by the minute. "I'm really confused"

"Like I said, you learn when you're older," Birch repeated. "Soon things will start happening to your body called puberty and you might get some sexual ur- Frick, it's your mom or dad that should be talking to you about this. But it'd probably be best not to say where you heard these words or they might not let you play with these two anymore."

Runi was even more confused then ever...but now kind of wanted to eat some pizza.

Jan laughed halfheartedly as Birch attempted to explain puberty. Geary looked up at her father with a curious look on her face. She couldn't tell exactly what, but something seem wrong. She'd ask Tory about it later. Tory would be smart enough to figure it out.

Tory could see that Runi still looked confused, but she didn't bother trying to explain it. "I'm going on a cupboard raid," Tory said as her stomach growled slightly. She couldn't stand being hungry. "Heh, good luck with that," Jan added sarcasticly.

"Iwanfoodtoo!" Aodan said excitedly as he released his hold on Runi's still unmarked leg. He changed to his wiger cub form and followed after Tory.

"Hold it buster, you can't just take food from anyone that you want." Birch said, grabbing his son by the scruff of the neck so he could pick him up. Aodan instinctivly went limp as he was lifted off the ground. Birch then turned his attention to Runi, Jan, and the two girls. "You can come down to my house to have some lunch if you want," he offered. "I have plenty of food."

"Pizza?" Runi asked.

"No, but we could probably make some."

Tory rummaged through the cupboards, finding just about nothing besides some bread, a melon and......

"Dad! Why do you have someones lower intestine in a jar in the food cupboard?"

"Lower intestine?" Jan echoed, thinking for a moment. "No I don't know why that's in there," he called back to her. "Oh dammit!" Jan swore suddenly, dashing back into the house. He reached into the open cupboard and pulled out the jar with the S.P.A.C. label on it. "Shit!" he cursed, setting the jar on the counter. "Rotti's going to have my hide. Tory, take Geary and go have lunch with Birch. I have to go for a little bit. I'll be back tonight." There was one more thing he needed to get though. He kissed Torys forehead and grabbed the jar, then dashed down to the basement, coming out through that door a moment later with a bag and the jar. "GearyI'llBeBackBeGood!" he called from behind the house.

"He does that a lot," Geary mumbled.

((Added an extra detail that I forgot.))

When Jan was out of sight the Copy-Runi appeared from the woods and advanced toward the group, gaze fixed on Jan and lips pulled back in agression. He stalked forward to Real-Runi's side and looked up at him, asking permission to merge back.

"Do...you know that dog?" Birch asked Runi, noticing the Copy-Runi's strange behavior towards Jan.

"He's me," Runi responded simply

"Oh yeah, that's right. You wear an African wild dog's head to pantheon meetings."

Runi simply nodded. He tried to avoid connection with his pantheon form as much as possible. It seemed that people liked him less when he was more connected to his father and the animal head was definitely a connection.

"Why didn't you tell us you could copy yourself?" Geary asked. "Then we could've had a bunch of people for our game!"

"Why did he...you...whatever, growl at him?" Tory asked, guesturing in the direction Jan had gone to with her head.

"I don't know yet," Runi said truthfully. "And right now the most control I have is making one copy." He held his hand out to touch the nose of the Copy-Runi and it looked like the tips of his fingers were sucking the copy back into himself. At once, his mind was flooded with the knowledge that his double had gained. Runi gasped and had to drop into a crouch with his hand over his mouth to keep from throwing up. He had worn her skin?! He was so absorbed in this new information that he didn't even notice Birch asking him if he was feeling all right.

"What's up with you?" Tory asked as she noticed the sickened looking face on Runis face. "Did your copy say that you couldn't have any pizza?"