Wheeling Gull Isle just you and the moon on my skin
you ain't seen nothing like me yet
391 Posts
Ooc — Sonia
Botanist
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recent titles have mostly come from Eavesdrop 

Hemlock was exhausted - whoever would have imagined just nursing and laying there could be so draining but it was literally and figuratively. Still, her eyes roamed over Droman and Reed's forms eagerly in a near constant manner - if there had been any changes she would have known. She could have responded quickly. She could do what was needed to be. She still ate borage relatively to keep her milk up although she hadn't noticed any lacking and the children kept nice full bellies. She had caught Ceallach's scent nearby with offerings for her to eat but most of the time it was Artruo's that stayed predominant. She assumed he left, because he had not stepped inside the den and had she she would have snarled and demanded him out. She didn't want to share them right at that moment. 

After a couple days, however, the moon was shining big and bright and Hemlock briefly exited the den to relieve herself and to stretch beneath the moon's rays. She looked back to the two puppies nestled next to one another, Reed and Droman curled into one another in a way that could only bring a smile from her. She felt smaller, moving now only in a ginger fashion given the work she had just endured. The woman paused as a sound caught her attention, posture still dominant though she was lower on the totem pole so to say than any of the wolves there save the puppies. She peered into the darkness and wondered which would intercept first, her or @Witchdoctor. She had been present when he had rushed in anxiously to be present for the birth of his and Lotte's children but he had not done the same with hers - and she had been so defensive it made sense. All she could do was give a soft sigh, nodding almost to herself as she broke the silence that had become too normal between them. "Do you wish to see them?" She asked quietly, standing at the mouth of the den. 


available for naturalist and medical threads just tag her!
i grew a human and unfortunately as a horrible side effect lost an organ - as such will be slow from time to time.

[Image: naturalist_master.gif] 12/20
he's raised on the edge of the devil's backbone
630 Posts
Ooc — Phi
Master Guardian
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#2
It has been a few days since Hemlock had given birth and Witchdoctor’s silence about it, his lack of pushing to see his ( proxy ) spawns is far from selfless. He does not doubt that Hemlock would tear his face off if he gives her the reason to but he is perfectly happy with guarding the den from those that would dare intrude so he can figure out what he’s supposed to do with them. With this. To figure out if he even cares. He’s still a bit disoriented, his compass is wonky and his timeline is a chaotic tangle of knots. He’s still trying to figure out what happened to Blackrock Depths and it’s handsome Leviathan had disappeared to and attempting to puzzle out what Arturo had done while he’d been dormant. Of course, Witchdoctor is capable of putting two and two together ( even with questionable sanity ) and has pieced together a rough crime map: founded a pack, took two wives one of which is dead and whose death was his what had woken him from slumber ( he’d really have to thank her someday if he met her in the afterlife ), had spawns the girl …and that boy ( their names escape him ) and knocked up Hemlock and then other things had happened, Witchdoctor killed the gangster, took over and they relocated to the coast. A lot remains unknown and missing and disjointed.

And it’s not as if Witchdoctor can just ask. No doubt, by now, those close to the gangster had begun to realize that something was …all wrong. This night the voices are blissfully muted. Never silent of course …he’d almost fear silence in his mind but as Witchdoctor’s discovered Hemlock is a “silencer” — like a soundproof wall that …well doesn’t exactly silence them but gives him a reprieve. He’s never sure what will trigger them, what will quiet them. It’s a bit of a lottery. She’s standing at the mouth of her birthing den: a small sun: blazing fiery colors against the greedy, grasping shadows of the night, illuminated by the softened glow of the large moon where it hangs overhead. Witchdoctor takes the opportunity in the silence to study her with new eyes …well, old eyes but new personality, new opinions, and new thoughts. spoilers!

Witchdoctor’s ears pivot as she breaks the silence between them, after leading with a soft sigh and inquires if he wants to see them. He knows who she means: his spawn. Arturo’s spawn? But were they? It was the same body that aided in their conception and they would never know the gangster ( except perhaps in stories but such a thing he would not partake in because who wants to have their previous self put on some kind of pedestal when you know this edition is so much better? ) so therefore they were Witchdoctor’s children more than they would ever be Arturo’s. “Yes.” The Witchdoctor answers because he’s curious about them and she’s offering.
wreathed in iron and in fire
i bare my bloody teeth
and only pity makes my strike so clean
you ain't seen nothing like me yet
391 Posts
Ooc — Sonia
Botanist
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#3
 


Hemlock might have made him wait longer, protective as she was of the tiny things that she had brought into the world. If there was anyone she shouldn't have had to defend them from, it should have been Arturo, but she had been suspicious of her husband since they had left Lotte's grave. In the days since he had seemed different - this sharp and abrasive thing she was utterly unfamiliar with. Of course, she had not been present to see him in his grief, selfishly she had fled for vengeance so that she was not swallowed up and failed the pack. She still had, of course, but it had been in another way entirely. 

She looked him over in the moonlight, taken as she ever was by his appearance. Still full of roguish charm and the fire in his sun-kissed eyes, still strong enough to stand tall despite all that had come to pass in the mere week since their hearts had been broken. In that shared anguish Hemlock could only cling to whatever strength was left between them but at some points it still didn't feel like enough. She swallowed back the rush of words, as ineloquent as she tended to be, wordy, yes, but those weren't woven with the same care as Lotte's stories nor spoken with the skill of Arturo's tongue. She wanted to curl against him and yet she could not move, rooted for a time in the sands before she looked back to their children. She gives a brief nod, drawing back into the den and allowing him to follow her. 

She returns to her place coiled around them, wrapping her body to blot out any chill the night might have brought with her. The were so small, after all, and could not keep themselves warm but the kills that had been left for her she had stripped clean of fur to line the area that they slept upon. She would protect them as best as she could - even from those that she held dear. Hemlock ran her tongue across both children before she looked up to Arturo again. "You have a young son and daughter." His newest litter, despite the many he had sired before, and the unwitting last to truly bear Arturo's touch. It would be another even if Hemlock did not know - who looked upon them now with different eyes and a different being. 

Hemlock watched him closely and tried to take in his reaction. She did not know if in his grief he might break the darkness to grace them with a smile, or, if that time had come to pass, too. The darkness that had touched them had not receded in the light of the children's birth and they would bear too much of that pressure even if they did not know it. 



available for naturalist and medical threads just tag her!
i grew a human and unfortunately as a horrible side effect lost an organ - as such will be slow from time to time.

[Image: naturalist_master.gif] 12/20
he's raised on the edge of the devil's backbone
630 Posts
Ooc — Phi
Master Guardian
Offline
#4
Witchdoctor watches as Hemlock gives a nod and recalls back into the birthing den and follows after her with the silent permission she offers him. His eyes adjust to the darkness of the birthing den, ears pivoting and swiveling as he hears her settle back down around the newborns. He’s heard them during his vigilant “protection” of the den: their mewls, squeaks, cries and the suckling as they eat. They are tiny and fragile looking, Witchdoctor deduces as his fiery gaze lowers to study them. It would take a blind man not to see that the pair of children are a blend of them in coloration. This feels like a moment. One of those “defining” moments where the suspense should build and something should happen. A shift in the universe, perhaps, where the villain’s stone heart cracks and his redemption ark is revealed. Witchdoctor does not get one of those moments. There is no dramatic redemption ark waiting to happen. There is only a primal gratification at laying eyes upon his spawn; that confirmation that he’s spread his genetics. He’s a madman, a villain. Utterly underserving and uninterested in being saved. “They’re beautiful.” While his words are genuine they are purely narcissistic and vain: spoken because he sees himself and he sees her — the fiery sun given flesh and blood — in the babes.

A son and a daughter.

Just like the older two. The nightingale’s children with him — because as far as Witchdoctor is currently aware there is only two older children ( he is not aware there are three wayward children because as he’s not yet been told about them they don’t even exist to him ). “What’re their names?” Witchdoctor asks Hemlock, fiery twin sun gaze lifting from them to her as he wonders if he’d be able to remember. In his quest to fill in the massive, gaping holes in his timeline names aren’t a priority for him to retain — truth be told he has not lost Hemlock’s name because she bears the name of a deadly plant and as it falls in line with ( one of ) his passion(s) of poisons it is effortless for him to remember it.
wreathed in iron and in fire
i bare my bloody teeth
and only pity makes my strike so clean
you ain't seen nothing like me yet
391 Posts
Ooc — Sonia
Botanist
Offline
#5
 

Hemlock searches his gaze for something - anything - of the man that she knew. The man she loved. He wears the same skin but he looks different, acts different, responds in ways she did not expect. Perhaps it is the second place wife feeling; knowing that she saw the fierce love he had given Lotte and their children and knowing that she will forever live in Lotte's shadow. It is a place that she had placed herself. It is what she feels is 'right' - but this is not what she had expected of their children. Not when Arturo had wanted them too, had wanted to be present for them and with them. He comments on their looks and she knows it too, her viridian gaze shifting down to tenderly bask in their son and daughter as he did. "They are," She comments quietly, kissing the skull of one child and then the other. The question of their name brings about a slight hum of contemplation, this is something they'd only spoken of briefly. It almost seemed oddly superstitious to her now but she was worried all the same; it still astounds her that their children were here and nestled against them. 

"Droman and Reed." She said with pride, touching her dark son to anoint him his name and her bright daughter only a moment later. "Droman is a Gaelic name for Elder woods; Reed, well. It goes without saying." Arturo may not be as versed as she (though not many were if she was honest) in the subject of plant names but both her children would carry these names proudly. "I was thinking of having Ceallach or Eirlys give them names Lotte might have picked." This is barely above a whisper, speaking anything of their lost wife hurts her deeply. She was still worn out, a little shiver running along her spine as she looked up to him. "Would...would you stay close tonight?" She misses him - she misses her husband, his warmth, even the most simple touches from him. But she cannot command him here - and she cannot promise she will want him as close tomorrow either. She knows she has been distant and that their whirlwind lives have taken them far in the past week - how could it barely be a week

If only it was possible to go back to how things were not so long ago. 


available for naturalist and medical threads just tag her!
i grew a human and unfortunately as a horrible side effect lost an organ - as such will be slow from time to time.

[Image: naturalist_master.gif] 12/20
he's raised on the edge of the devil's backbone
630 Posts
Ooc — Phi
Master Guardian
Offline
#6
She agrees with his deduction and the Witchdoctor watches as she gives each of the children a kiss upon the top of their tiny, fragile skulls. She names them, gesturing to each child as she does so and while he will be sure to remember the names it might be some time before he can differentiate between the two. He almost rolls his eyes and scoffs when she mentions that Droman is Gaelic — of course even in his death the gangster would have his influence over things — and there is a perk of his ears, a small twitch when Hemlock moves on to explain Reed — though the doctor needs no explaining on that one and Hemlock does not truly offer one. It was as she said: it went without saying. She speaks then of letting the gangter’s spawn give them middle names that Lotte would have given them. He does not speak but instead offers an acknowledging hum. He does not feel the keen and unrelenting pain that had led the gangster to him: to and over the brink of insanity essentially killing the gangster and letting the Witchdoctor be truly born.

Hemlock manages to surprise the Witchdoctor as she makes her inquiry with an almost hesitation. His ears swivel atop his skull and his fiery, twin sun gaze flickers from their children to her face; and cannot help but wonder if she’s attempting to appeal to that which is dead and long gone. Or if she speaks to the Witchdoctor. It doesn’t really matter, in the end: the witch is the only one that will answer her now. “Yes.” He’d guarded the den so possessively and aggressively when she’d labored the children into the world that to deny her this wish would be blasphemy to him. Besides, there’s no guarantee she would want him this close to her in the morning and the Witchdoctor will greedily take what he can get while it’s available to him.
wreathed in iron and in fire
i bare my bloody teeth
and only pity makes my strike so clean
you ain't seen nothing like me yet
391 Posts
Ooc — Sonia
Botanist
Offline
#7

While she has never been one to find good ways to offer her feelings - not in words at least, her husband and wife had the silver tongues and she the clumsy cadence of a child trying to recite Shakespeare - Hemlock is still almost expectant that Arturo will stay silent in his emotions. She doesn't say anything to his quiet hum of agreeance (certainly not indifference to the grieving widow or widower, no doubt) but she lets out a near choked sound of relief at having him close. It's been so hard she can't imagine the whirlwind of what has been. It's not even two weeks and they had lost Lotte and been given their children, only to never have their Äiti gaze upon them with living eyes. "I know I have been difficult." And in this shame Hemlock did as she often did, her gaze falling from his eyes to their children where she didn't have to face his disappointment. "It is....it is like losing Palisander all over again. It is...it is more even, for all we had endured together." Hemlock had seen so many of the most poignant moments of their lives through - seeing the children born, watching them rule their pack, joining them at it's helm - watching as Lotte's form stilled and cooled and then ensuring she rested eternally. 

"I will not change my name this time. I will not lose the Hemlock you know in someone else. I left Isley in Palisander's grave but....but I cannot do that to you. Not again." Hemlock looked back up to him - ensuring that he knew she was sincere. That she was honest. She might have wanted this family more than anything but she could not offer them right then - she felt right then that she had nothing else to give. 

His silence is near damning and Hemlock wrapped herself around the children, nursing them as they needed more sustenance. After a period she dozed off herself as well, although her sleep was restless and uneven despite having Arturo close for the first time in so long.


available for naturalist and medical threads just tag her!
i grew a human and unfortunately as a horrible side effect lost an organ - as such will be slow from time to time.

[Image: naturalist_master.gif] 12/20