Broken Boulder maybe spit some blood at the camera, just stay alive

por mi @Mali <3 tags for ref

queenie's absence has still not resolved in his heart -- he knows better than to expect her return, but his heart aches all the same, that familiar longing hope he's never quite been able to squash down. seabreeze came back, after all. anatha and jomyo have come to see him. queenie could --

but she's not here now and his children are. 

he's grateful for the sanctuary now more than ever, with @Eris and @Lily both helping him with the children, grateful they're finally past the stage of needing queenie's milk so desperately. grateful for alarian too even if they're still working out the kinks. (maybe especially because of that).

with a sigh delight lays in the mouth of the den, watching his children as they nap, wondering how he let things get so bad.

As they got older, naps became shorter and less deep, partially because the world outside became fascinating and there was much for them to learn.  It wasn't like that was unexpected.  Mali was starting to wake from the pile, eventually rolling off to one side, stretching and getting to his feet.

Mali was too young to really process what had happened to his mother -- it wasn't like she was dead as far as anyone knew, but since she was just gone to a certain point the response was similar.  He was expecting her to come back, even though he hadn't said anything about it at this point.  As he blinked blearily towards the great bright outside, he eventually focused on the fact Delight was here, which was pretty cool since he was pretty sure that any pup could get away with a lot more with dad around instead.  So Queenie being gone wasn't all bad, was it?  Heck, they got to see several people now instead of just mom, but he was still far more familiar to them than any of the others.

Even though he theoretically had full command of his limbs at this point, there was still a certain amount of galumphing worked into his movements as he barreled towards Delight without a sign of slowing down before impact.  It wasn't like Mali would necessarily do much, the pups were still pretty small in comparison to an adult, but after his attempted-tackle said, singsong, Hayyy, whatcha doin'.  The answer totally better be entertaining him or he might wake up his sisters and then there would be three of them, horrors!

they're getting so big, so quickly -- it feel like only a day ago they could not make words at all and now they can to a cute, stumbling degree. mali's sudden appearance does not particularly surprise him -- he has sired three very noisy children, it turns out (or in solomon's case, nosy more than noisy) -- and he shifts as the tiny spotted body bounces off his, lifting his head and offering a smile. "just hanging out," delight answers. 

he is probably not a very fun parent in all honesty. he is much to maudlin for play and the idea of modifying his behavior (beyond using smaller, simpler words) for their sake is a little beyond him. still, he's not a depressed asshole at the moment (or more than usual, anyway) so he'll make the effort. "whatcha doing yourself?" the chancellor asks, cocking his head down at his son playfully as his tail thumps the ground behind him.

He snapped at a few wispy bits of his father's fur that had poofed up from the pounce right in front of his nose.  The kid had energy, that's for sure.  I'unno.  Pause.  But that wasn't very exciting.  Boooooreeed.  Do a thing!  Insert flailing buttwiggle here.  Yeah so, his dad wasn't really into roughhousing -- not that Mali would win any awards for that, as his mother would have likely found disappointing -- but certainly there had to be some way for him to entertain the kid or Delight was gonna just get chewed on by the shiny pointy puppy teeth.  But what would he do?  Who knows.  Mali just wants some entertainment, dangit.  Without Queenie around and more willing to bully the kids into behaving, Mali was maybe getting a little unruly -- way too happy to take advantage of the new (or just more frequent) pupsitters.

do a thing? oh no. what is do a thing? what is a thing children want to do? delight is -- well. he's not playful or particularly energetic, that's for sure. but he does not want to disappoint his son, so --

"hmm," he says, "do you want to go on an adventure?" (read: i will briefly walk you around the territory but pretend it's an adventure, but mali doesn't need to know that).

Mali jumped in place, which pretty much just had the effect of slamming his oversized-but-not-weighty paws into Delight again. Oooo.  Adventure!  Then the volume kicked up a few notches, Will there be monsters and uh... stuff.  Though Mali was definitely getting the hang of sentences, he definitely had problems knowing all the right words to use to finish a thought.  Good thing "stuff" and "things" were such useful words, right?  Where we go?  Um.  Um--!  To the sky?!  Ah the joys of a limited world view...

oh thank god it worked. relieved he rises to his feet, ushering the boy to his side as his question gets a chuckle out of him. "not exactly," delight answers, meaning all of it, "though i'm sure there'll be some cool stuff around to check out." with that the androgyne starts to walk, slow enough that mali might keep up with him, more or less taking a meandering path around the sanctuary. a slight twinge in his belly accompanies thoughts of the vale and the forest: he loves alarian but the boulder itself is not the most idyllic of the places he's lived, and he wishes he could show his children the intriguing beauty of the vale or the fraught aura of the forest. still there are cool rocks and some small prey animals out and about, plenty to keep the boy entertained, he hopes.

Mali was eager to follow.  Adventures were cool, weren't they?  There was a ton of new stuff out in the wide world that he'd yet to see, and he would go and ask dumb questions about all of it, as children were apt to do.  What we gon' see!  There big things?!  As he looked up at his father, it meant Mali wasn't exactly watching where his big ol' paws were going, so after colliding with Delight's leg, he managed to trip and do a proper somersault.

And assuming he didn't get booted or stepped on in the process, honestly, Mali just seemed kind of confused about it for this instant.

so sorry for the wait!!!!

what were they going to see? he pauses to think of a good answer, just in time for the small boy to crash into him and bounce into a rather perfect roll. "oh, mali," delight says, unable to contain his giggling, "are you all right?" he doesn't look too worse for the wear but nonetheless the chancellor lowers himself briefly, nudging him with his nose to ensure he isn't shattered. still somewhat amused he says, "there's plenty of big things, but let's try not to trip over them, yeah?"

All fine, as you can see I am good at delaying too. XD

Little kids always seemed to bounce well -- or at least, well enough when they didn't realize that making a fuss would get them a ton of attention.  Mali was currently too wrapped up in adventure to really think about it, honestly.  He swatted at his father's nose with one ungainly paw, then continued to try to barge forward more, but only vaguely in the direction Delight had been pointing them both.

As he plodded on, he yapped, Wat we do then!  Eat 'em!  Fite 'em!  He was technically asking a question but was being rather loud instead of properly intoning the question marks.  He had the excuse of being a kid and thus failing at basic language skills still, right?

a short snicker escapes delight, following in mali's chaotic path. he's an interesting one -- loud like brilliance, but with a more ... joyful outlook, it seems. he's glad one of them in the singing-sunlight-st. clair family has a little cheer to them. he hopes mali never loses that.

"depends on what it is," delight indulges, stepping beside him. "we could see -- ah, look at that!" the androgyne pauses, gesturing toward a rather large grasshopper that's just minding its own business, surely oblivious to whatever fate is about to befall it. to mali, delight prompts, "whatcha think you do with one of those?" with a slight smile, curious how his son will react.

There was a pause as he thought about it.

But Mali was looking for monsters so what did one do to monsters?  EEAAAAAAAH! he screamed, bum-rushing the grasshopper.  Or trying to -- Mali closed his eyes for the last couple feet like he was afraid of a collision, hearing the bug's wings fluttering as it got the hell out of dodge.  Even bugs would have a hard time missing that show.  He ran a few strides past where the bug had been before he finally stopped and opened his eyes and spun back around, looking for it.  It gone.  He seemed to be some combination of afraid it was gonna show up and eat him, impressed it could disappear like that, and proud of himself for obviously defending the whole pack from the evil bug.  He looked back to Delight, canting his head.

well, that's ... that's one way of handling a problem, he supposes. delight can't quite surprised his amused smile as mali launches himself forward, screaming like a chicken with its head cut off. the lack of hesitation, the boldness -- yep, this is definitely queenie's kid, all right. the poor grasshopper makes a hasty exit. for a moment delight debates whether or not to send mali after it -- he's tracked absently the direct that it hops -- but mali looks so proud ? of himself for vanquishing the tiny evil that he decides to go along with it.

"you scared it away, brave boy," he compliments, ruffling mali's fur with one paw. "you gonna keep us all safe from the .. monster menace?"

It go pooof? he said, still a little uncertain.  But it wasn't going to last too long as he wandered back to Delight. Who was proud of him! Aw yea!  His tail wanted like mad.

We gonna find alla monsters! Go away, yeah!  It sounded like quite the adventure at least, and that made it cool.  What kid wouldn't want to go hunt monsters?  You find 'em?  Surely his dad had to be a pro monster catcher if he was able to spot that bug so easy.

gonna wrap this baby up if thats ok <3

mali seems happy which is good enough for del, who doesn't quite have the heart to tell his son that his father is a big ol' coward. no monster scaring here, no thanks. delight prefers to hide out in his den 'til the fuss is passed, thank you much. but that's not cool parent material. so he lies,  "of course, all the time," and flashes a slightly theatrical grin. from there he pulls them forward, trotting and keeping an eye out for another other potential monsters to present to mali -- maybe even giving one or two small things a chase of his own, so long as mali's attention holds. it's a nice way to pass an afternoon, delight thinks.