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Post by Miss Jack on Apr 20, 2008 0:00:04 GMT -5
The sun was shining, bluejays were singing; it was a very miserable, Dreamlike day. Enough to make the miniscule traces of vampire in his blood cry out in protest as he cut through the acres of farming in the Woodland pastures. It was almost disgusting how well he was beginning to know the area.
He came to a familiar wall and hoisted himself up. Not high enough to swing over, but just enough to rest his elbows on the top and lean over, searching the pasture grounds.
He heard a 'Baaa! and turned, grinning when he saw a herd of familiar colored sheep. "Hey-- Clementine!" he called.
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Post by Princess Katie on Apr 20, 2008 0:50:16 GMT -5
Nellie looked up from the daisy chain she was braiding. She looked around from her perch on her swing, trying to locate the source of the voice. When she saw Alexander peeking over the wall, she let loose one of her Pollyanna smiles. She had apparently forgotten the not-so-distant ‘Dragon’ scenario. Her voluminous, beribboned pigtails bounced something fierce as she hopped off of the swing. “Alexander! Guess what!” She, of course, did not give him time to even consider guessing. “Mama said I can help watch the produce stand today. Inn’at great? Tha’s why I ‘ave me hair done all pretty and me good dress on.” Nellie gestured to her ‘fancy’ clothing, which was more or less exactly like her normal attire, but with even more floral print (if it was possible).
“Jus’ wot brings ya out here anyway?” She asked, hauling herself up on to the wall, and continuing her daisy chain as if talking to the very-Nightmare Prince of the Isle was a totally normal thing.
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Post by Miss Jack on Apr 20, 2008 1:03:20 GMT -5
He'd been wondering if she would be in a friendly mood, considering their last fiasco together, but apparently he needn't have worried. He smiled at her. "You look even more eye watering than usual, my darling," he said, blinking at the all the grand sunny, flowery-ness of her. "I had to do myself the pleasure of visiting you, of course. And um... what, exactly, if you don't mind my asking, is watching the produce stand?"
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Post by Princess Katie on Apr 20, 2008 1:55:16 GMT -5
Her toothy grin was quickly replaced by flat look. “Watching the produce stand? Liiike, Imunna be in charge of the stand where we sells the cotton candy, the candy apples, the candy corns, the caramels, the licorice allsorts…ya know?”
Nellie finished the chain and joined it into a crown. She placed the crown atop her head (because, clearly, she didn’t have quite enough flowers yet) and started on another chain, this one made more of leaves than flowers. “This one’s fer you okay?”
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Post by Miss Jack on Apr 21, 2008 1:14:47 GMT -5
He eyed the leafy flowery mess and then the crown upon her own head that barely left any room for her hair to poke out. "Goody."
He leaned his chin onto his folded arms, crossed against the top of the wall. "So a big job, I guess. You're moving up in the world." He heard himself talking, but he wasn't really caring what he was saying. She was such a nice, oblivious distraction. And as always, oddly fascinating.
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Post by Princess Katie on Apr 21, 2008 1:32:59 GMT -5
Nellie nodded vigorously, sending some of the less steadfast petals flying from her garland. “It is! I’m almost roight proper adult now. Nearly seventeen, now, in a month er so. Mum says it’s time fer me t’ start gettin’ hitched, but daddy says there inn’t any hard-working man who wants to marry a ‘kid loik me’.” Her lip curled and she plucked another flower to weave into the crown.
“But whatever, I fink gettin’ married would be borin’, it would. Married folks can’t play games, you know? And wot ‘ud ‘appen to me sheepies wiffout me to watch over them, li’le angels? Married gals don’t get to be shepherdesses. They ‘ave to be ‘homemakers’.” To illustrate her disgust, she stuck her tongue out and crinkled up her nose.
“Wot about you, then? Yer parents wantcha t’ marry some fancy-pants, Princess-Grade girl?”
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Post by Miss Jack on Apr 21, 2008 1:44:42 GMT -5
For the briefest moment, he was tempted to compare Nellie to his mother, someone who'd also held marriage and motherhood as a binding, undesirable role at first. But the comparison was too laughable, and he quickly abandoned it.
"Well, what if you married someone who liked that you herd sheep, and who liked to play games? A nice, handsome candy-apple-picking farm boy. That wouldn't be so bad." Gag. The thought of Nellie married disturbed him. Mostly for the nauseating mental images, he told himself. And then wondered who he was trying to convince.
He laughed uneasily at her last question. "I don't think so. I doubt they'd wish me upon any girl, not to mention the lingering horror that I might spawn and recreate little replicas of myself."
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Post by Princess Katie on Apr 21, 2008 2:06:44 GMT -5
The crown finished, Nellie bound it off and placed it lightly atop Alexander's head. She evaluated it, deemed it suitable, and went right on talking as if flower-wreaths were the 'casual chat' uniform.
"A 'andsome, 'ard-workin' farmer 'oo loiks to play games, loiks sheeps, and wants to marry a 'child'? Find me 'im, and you'll be the best friend ever." Nellie twirled one of her blonde ringlets around her index finger, daydreaming a little. "Oh. And 'e 'as to be a Dream, too. Me parents'll never approve of some Nightmare lad, noice, 'andsome, 'ard-workin, or not."
She nodded as if she understood, but really, she had never found anything too terrible about Alexander. Any of his rudeness, sarcasm, or sheep-burning, she chalked up to the fact that he was a Nightmare. Clearly, not his fault. "Oh. And I bet Her Majesty wouldn't be so keep on bein' a Grandmum, whatchathink?"
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Post by Miss Jack on Apr 21, 2008 2:17:51 GMT -5
That last comment took him by surprise, as so many of her comments did, and the sharp bark of laughter that escaped was purely instinctual. It felt nice to laugh without meaning to. He entertained the thought for a moment, a mischevious grin stretching over his features. "Aheh... Maybe I will get married, just to see her face when someone calls her Grandma Pia..."
He chuckled once more and then came back to the matter of finding her a worthy suitor. "Well obviously, if he likes sheep and games, he would have to be a Dream," he said, pointedly. A flower fell down into his eyes and he felt a bit like a hypocrite. He blew it aside from the corner of his mouth. "But I'll definitely be on the look-out. You're not really a child. You're the same age as my sister, well... appearance-wise, anyway." He paused. "Maybe that's the problem. Your dad doesn't think you're a kid, he's just worried about letting you go. After all, you regularly consort with Nightmares and forgive them for siccing dragons on your sheep. Not at all practical behavior."
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Post by Princess Katie on Apr 21, 2008 8:53:35 GMT -5
“No, no,” she corrected fervently, hopping off of the wall in her excitement (also, she had been sitting still for far too long). “I don’t consort wiff Nightmares! I consort wiff a Nightmare. Just you. ‘Old on.” With that warning, she cartwheeled over to where her apron and hat lay in the clover, her crown miraculously staying in place. She picked up her apron and hat, the latter of which was lined with a handkerchief and filled with lemon drops, fresh off the vine. She skipped back to the wall, hauled herself up, and offered the hat’s contents to Alexander, after popping one into her own mouth.
“Anyhow, why’d he be afraid of let’in me go? ‘S not like I’d move away. Every Peep and former Peep live wiffin a farm’s distance from each other. Eh, there innit any explainin’ them, parents. They’re so strange.” Without even pausing to breathe, she added, “So, you think I’m an adult, then?”
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Post by Miss Jack on Apr 21, 2008 11:35:34 GMT -5
"I'm fla..." I'm flattered, he started to say, but she had already cartwheeled off. Cartwheeled. Like a mini happiness tornado. She came back and he eyed the lemon drops suspiciously. He cautiously placed one against his tongue, half expecting it to suddenly blister and swell, like his mother's skin in sunlight. But it did no such thing, and actually tasted good. He sighed and popped a few more in his mouth. Another strike against his dark side.
He gave a derisive snort of approval. Strange was the understatement of the century. "Sure do, Sheep Gi--- er, Sheep Woman I guess." It sounded weird and he wrinkled his nose. He'd stick to Clementine.
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Post by Princess Katie on Apr 22, 2008 0:00:10 GMT -5
Sheep Woman? Nellie wrinkled her nose in dislike. At least they could agree that it wasn’t a nickname that should stick around. She had gotten over her initial displeasure at ‘Sheep Girl’ and ‘Clementine’, she didn’t need a new nickname that she didn’t like.
“So, yer sister then. Y’said that she’s me age, roight? And y’ said that, in yer eyes, at least, I’m and adult. So, y’ think yer sister is at a proper age to tie the knot? I bet she ‘as suitors bangin’ down the door day ‘n’ noight, hm?” Nellie drew her knees up to her chest as she talked. This whole marriage thing was bringing her down. So, to counteract the intolerable serious of the ‘adultness’ talk, she pulled out a worn deck of cards. “You know Go Fish?”
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Post by Miss Jack on Apr 22, 2008 0:15:11 GMT -5
"I'm the master of Go Fish," he told her distractedly. He frowned and tried to choose the proper way to voice his opinions on his sister marrying. "She's the proper age, I guess. And there's plenty of guys interested, but they're all a bunch of... um. They're not good enough for her. I mean, she's really pretty and she always gives people the benefit of the doubt, and I just don't want her to get hurt." He paused, replaying his words in his head. It was true, but it made him sound more like Armand than himself. He tried again. "We're really weird, my family. We're each of us independent and self-absorbed, but we're so close to each other... It's hard to explain. Maybe I just don't want to break up what we have." He stopped, suddenly feeling very weird, and a little bit scared. Again! What the hell? He should have known this would happen. Stupid Sheep Girl. "Clementine, I have to tell you: If you ever tell anyone we're having this conversation, I might have to sell your sheep to the Nightmare butcher."
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Post by Princess Katie on Apr 22, 2008 0:59:44 GMT -5
Nellie’s face dropped and she grabbed Alexander’s arm, nearly upsetting the hat-basket of lemon drops. “No! You can’t! They’ll taste all funny, like mutton wiff Sweet Tarts on top, it’ll be gross!”
With one hand over her heart, she adopted the most solemn tone that the easily-distracted shepherdess could take. “I promise I’ll never tell a soul, so long as I shall live.” Her sheep’s lives now safe and secure, she could leave that strange seriousness behind. She delt him his seven cards as she pried onward, “But whatcha embarrassed fer, hm? I fink it’s cute that yer worried about ‘er. Innit that wot big bruvers is s’posed to do? Got a seven? I’m not so sure she’s as vulnerable as you fink. I mean, she innit no sturdy farm girl or nuffin, but she’s prolly not as fairy-tale-sensitive as you’d expect.”
She crunched casually on a lemondrop, “Not that I know hers or nuffin. But I lives in the Woodland Pastures, remember? I know me quite a few fairy-story princesses, and you can tell they’re less sturdier than candyfloss from a stone’s-frow away. Yer sister seems strong enough. Now what about that seven?”
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Post by Miss Jack on Apr 22, 2008 18:40:09 GMT -5
He shrugged. To not call his sister strong was to say she wasn't an Ira, and she most definitely was. As she and his mother both loved to remind him, shopping was not a sport for the faint of heart.
"Go fish," he said, and then fanned out his own hand. Oh, wait. He did have a seven, hiding behind that nine. Oh, Sheep Girl, I can't even cheat against you. "Nevermind, I just found one." He held it out to her.
"Okay, so maybe she's not just a pretty face, as they say. Actually, she's probably going to be running the show before me or Armand. But that's just the point! No guy can measure up to that." He picked up a lemon drop and set it against his tongue. "Guess how fast I can melt one of these in my mouth?"
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