diversified | Do you want to build a snowman? [ closed. ]

Entry tags:

Do you want to build a snowman? [ closed. ]

WHO Shannon Vaughn (

privatematter), Eli Delacroix (

aspectional), Alyssa Vaughn.
WHAT surprise water powers!
WHERE Delacroix-Vaughn abode.
WHEN Summer of '93.

It had started with the Americans With Disabilities Act in '91. Someone had clapped Shannon on the shoulder and jokingly asserted that he could go and adopt some little Vaughnlets without worry. Shannon had, of course, related it to Eli with amusement but not much thought, and that had somehow led into more serious discussion about whether they would actually ever want children someday. The idea had simply sat there in the corner of their minds, waiting and growing while they went about their lives, moving in and coming together in all senses except legal.

Then they remembered that someone in their little group of reincarnated weirdos was actually a high-profile lawyer. Things had snowballed from there and by the very end of '92, the cogs turned in a miraculous way, and Shannon and Eli found themselves the fathers of a very precocious and amazing little girl named Alyssa.

Currently, it was a weekend which meant Shannon had the day off with his family. Because he wasn't officially a cop, he actually managed to have a normal schedule despite working for the Chicago PD. Sometimes he went in anyway, but nowadays he tended to lounge around at home and try his best to keep up with a three year old. That in itself was pretty challenging, especially when she forgot to put her toys away and Shannon ended up stepping on all the sharp, hard corners of her dolls or cars. Those cars were going to be the death of him, he just knew it.

"C'mon, Lyssa," he said, shaking his foot free and trying not to let the pain poke holes in his tone. "It's time for lunch. You wanna get cleaned up for lunch?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"No! Wanna play more." As if to prove her point, she banged her toy against the floor so Shannon could hear how serious she was about wanting to keep playing.

"I told you that we'd never hear the end of it once she learned no," Eli said cheerfully as he walked over and picked up the toy Shannon had stepped on and went on to pick up anything else in his way. "If you're not going to get cleaned up, Lyssa, I'm going to give your lunch to the dog."

"And whose fault is it that she learned that particular word?" asked Shannon. He could hear Eli shuffling about and figured out what he was doing quickly. Instead of commenting on it at all, he moved to sit down next to Alyssa, legs crossed and getting himself comfortable.

"Dad's right, you know," Shannon said in a stage whisper. "Chase just loves PB&J. Sure you don't want to hand that over and go with Dad to wash up?" He held a hand out, palm up, waiting to see if she would change her mind and give him the toy.

He really should have known better. Alyssa whapped his hand with the toy to try and push the offending object out of the way. "No. Chase eats doggie food, not samwishes!"

"We're not playing the blame game in front of our daughter," he answered with a huff. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't Eli's fault as far he was concerned that Alyssa had learned no. It was to expected that she'd learn it anyways, but it was still not something to cheer over. Especially once she was a teenager.

"Super smart dogs like Chase love sandwiches." Eli came over and knelt down in front of her. "And we don't hit people with our toys, so what do you say?"

"Sorry, Papa." She still doesn't seem to want to give up the toy and go get lunch, but one step at a time here.

Shannon merely rubbed at the spot where Alyssa had struck home, putting on a pathetic face to try and help things along. It hadn't hurt all that much, but at least he knew that kids reacted better to things they could perceive and hurt was one of the bigger ways to get them to notice you. From all he knew about children, he really didn't feel bad trying to manipulate a three year old when it was par for the course in getting her to give up her current activity.

"Ow," he said plaintively. "I forgive you, sweetie, but aren't you hungry? We should take a break for food so we can keep playing today."

Alyssa hemmed and hawed, tiny little lips put together in a tiny little pout. She continued to play with her horse figurine as she thought, not particularly hard, but as if the mere action would buy her time forever.

Eli had less problems manipulating a three year old than Shannon did and he had no issues going straight into overkill with her.

"Well, Papa and I are going to eat lunch together. If you're not going to eat, then we're going to leave you all alone with no one to play with."

That seemed to knock the kid into gear. "Don't leave me alone! Want you and Papa here, Dad."

"But we're hungry, Lyssa, so we're going to go eat." Eli paused as if he was thinking really hard about it. "You can come with us and once we're done eating, I bet Papa will let you play some more."

"Papa will definitely let you play some more," Shannon confirmed. He held his hand out once again for the toy while silently thanking Eli for managing to convince their daughter it was time to eat. Once the toy was in hand, Shannon passed it off to Eli and picked Alyssa up while he stood. It was something of a badge of pride to carry her around, since it was usually too cumbersome or dangerous to do so when outside of places he had thoroughly memorized.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and locked her knees around his side while he supported her with his forearm. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and he grinned. "What's that for?"

"'Caaause... I love you? Lots and lots?"

Shannon merely let his amusement through. She probably wanted something.

"Uh oh, she wants something," Eli said as he took the collected toys and put them away so as to save his partner from injured feet. He didn't have a problem with Shannon being the designated child carrier since he was usually the one carrying her around when they went out to the zoo or the park or just outside in general. Shannon could carry her around the house for all he cared.

"Do not!"

"I know that sweet talk little miss trouble, you want something."

Once again, Shannon could hear Eli shuffling about to make sure all the toys were in their place. Alyssa was fairly good at it herself when she had the inkling, but they were still working on making it instinct over afterthought. "Thanks, Eli," he said quietly as he passed into the kitchen. He set her in the high chair and made sure she was locked in before giving a very contemplative look.

"Now, if I were Lyssa... what would I be trying to get right now?"

"Nuffing," she answered sweetly.

"Uh-huh," he said, very obviously unconvinced. He moved to the cupboards to get her cup before heading to the fridge. "I guess we'll just have to get you lunch, then, since you clearly don't want anything specific."

He gave Shannon an amused huff at the thanks, almost as if conveying what else would I do, silly. Once done putting away the toys, he followed them into the kitchen and started helping out in getting lunch ready, well versed in staying out of Shannon's way while doing so.

"Well you heard her, papa, she wants nothing, so I guess we won't give her anything," he said as he moved in and tickled her belly.

"Dad!" She squealed with laughter as he tickled her. "Stop it! Don't want nothing."

"Aha, my interrogation skills work yet again." Eli stopped tickling and went back to work.

"I don't think her use of double negatives indicates anything here," Shannon said drolly, letting it draw out while he poured the milk into the sippy cup with his finger just at the edge to gauge the height. Alyssa started giggling and he thought nothing of it until the drink reached the top and promptly solidified under his touch. He stopped, startled, and set the jug aside with a thunk. He felt along the top with his finger, tapping experimentally.

Worried frown on his face, he turned toward Eli. "Come look at this," he urged. He was trying very hard not to jump to conclusions or otherwise get freaked out but something completely inexplicable was happening in his kitchen. Inexplicable things shouldn't be happening in his kitchen. "Make sure I'm not going insane here."

Eli stopped what he was doing and walked over to Shannon, sticking his finger in the sippy cup and expecting a liquid when he instead found frozen solid milk. "That? That is not you going insane, unless it's a shared madness. What we have right here is frozen milk and if it's not one of us who did it then--"

A giggle interrupted his thought and he glanced over at Alyssa, who had on her best innocent smile, though it really didn't fool him. "--then that means it was our daughter. I think I need to make a call."

"Our daughter could not have possibly... Eli," Shannon said, although it was almost a plea. This whole magic business was mostly beyond his ken and their daughter suddenly displaying all the right qualities for possessing it was not something he wanted to consider. As far as he knew, there was only one way for someone to possess magic and the idea that they had adopted one of eleven people in the entire world was daunting.

Putting a hand to his forehead for a moment, Shannon moved to place the cup in the sink to thaw and started to retrieve another one. He needed something to do with his hands while he let his thoughts run. "Thomas? Don't tell me you're calling him. No, wait, actually, if you do I want to talk to him, too. How in the—H-E-double-hockeysticks does this happen?"

As he got to the cup again, Shannon paused and turned toward Alyssa. She had frozen the milk, probably as a way to get out of drinking it. He could see no other reason for the obstruction. "Sweetie, why did you freeze the drink?"

Lyssa grinned and raised her arms high in amusement. "Soda!"

Edited 2014-02-10 04:25 (UTC)

"Well, I can't freeze things and you can't freeze things, so that leaves our daughter," Eli replied as he put his hand on Shannon's shoulder and squeezed it a bit. He knew that chance had nothing to do with it and that it was a clever manipulation on Thomas' part. After all, out of everyone in Chicago, Eli had fallen for the one man in the city who had been a new Aspect. He expected nothing less from fate these days.

He stepped out of Shannon's way, letting him do what he needed to do while he thought about it. By this point, Eli knew very well how his partner functioned and knew better than to get in the way unless he really needed to. "Of course I'm going to call him. I'm sure that this is his fault to begin with and Michelle was probably in league with him, the traitor." This was the worst part about having gone to Michelle for help adopting a child. She was still the liaison between Thomas and the rest of the Aspects and helping them wasn't going to change her loyalty to Thomas. "I'll be sure to give you the phone so you too can threaten to murder him. He might actually take it seriously if it's from you."

Eli put on his best disapproving dad face and looked over at Alyssa. "You can't freeze your drink just because you don't want it, honey. Will you unfreeze it for me and your papa?"

Edited 2014-02-09 22:09 (UTC)

Shannon wouldn't have called it fate and especially wouldn't have said Thomas had any hand in the matter of meeting Eli. After all, no one had any fondness to spare for the person from who Shannon was reincarnated — Thomas was no exception to that. Why would he have had Eli meet with him if it weren't some freaky happenstance? "She's three," he said instead of the numerous other objections percolating in his brain. "How can she be doing this when she's only three? I don't do anything and I'm ten times that."

He shook his head, going about getting things ready for a simple sandwich. Eli seemed to have a better idea of how to handle this little revelation than he did, and so he let Eli take charge on that front. Whether they capitulated to her demands or not, Alyssa was still going to need something to eat lest she get incredibly cranky by the afternoon. "You think he'd need Michelle's help to set something like this up? Hah. Just let me at 'im, he'll think twice about trying to pull the wool over our eyes again."

Alyssa looked at her dad very seriously, very thoughtful. "Soda?" she asked hopefully. Maybe she could still end out on top of this!

It was more their meeting was fate and their later relationship being part of Eli's magical ability to screw up any and all planning Thomas had for the current group of Aspects. Thomas did, after all, want Eli to lead all of the Aspects, even if one of them was fire. "I was ten," he responded with a shrug. "Most of us gain our abilities when we're young. You're really more the exception here, not the rule."

He chuckled softly at Shannon, smiling as he did so. "On the legal part of things? Yeah, that was all Michelle, but locating her and putting her our way? That sounds like something the stupid bird would do."

Eli looked back at Alyssa with an equally serious expression, as if they weren't arguing over something so trivial as having soda. "No, Lyssa, you can't have soda. Wouldn't you rather have some juice or milk?"

It was a shame that the Aspect of fire had no intention of being led so much as walking alongside. That was another kink in Thomas' plan, but thankfully neither Eli nor Shannon gave a shit about what he really intended. He made a face at that information, then grunted. "Yeah, I know I am. Not that I'd want to, considering the price of admission, but what does that mean for Lyssa?"

Alyssa crossed her arms with a most grave expression on her face. "No milk," she insisted. "Soda."

"It just means there's one more thing we have to teach her and we'll have to watch out for her accessing her memories when she's older," answered Eli with a sigh. He then realized something and grinned. "Maybe this time she won't smack you."

Because he was a child at heart, Eli mimicked her posture and expression. "No soda," he said back. "Juice or milk. And if you freeze them, you won't get anything to drink."

Shannon thought about that, then shook his head. While Eli was in talks with their daughter about what she would drink, he was already making up the sandwich. "She's not Marie," he said. If they were to believe that, then Shannon would have been the same as Edward Shaw or Nate himself.

There was a moment of silence from Alyssa. "I think you make a compelling point," she said, tone of voice saying she had obviously heard it from somewhere else first. "Juice."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Do you want to build a snowman? [ closed. ]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject