[Halloween 2019] Full House

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It was a nice house. It really was. It was big, but not too spacious. Each room had its defining feature, such as a stove for the kitchen, a fire place for the living room, and doors into everyone's rooms. The wooden flooring didn't have some annoying creak, the walls looked sturdy and none of the windows were shattered or broken. It was a nice pleasant little house in the suburbs of Grassveil, if you could call it a suburb given that Grassveil was a small yet busy town.

She woke up in the mornings on a comfortable bed, had access to food to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner with, and had all the time in the world to spend with...kids who weren't really all that interested in sticking around it seemed. Chance liked to wander off, resulting her needing to chase him down if he didn't come back at a certain time, and Emmelyn either was dragged off with him or at the library.

Which meant Mirage was left home. Alone. To do...well, that question bothered her every day for the past two weeks. At first she waited for Sova. After she told him about the kids, she kind of expected him to show up. As each day passed, however, she began to lose hope. Instead, it began to anger her. It started to feel like she was more of some pet waiting for their master to come home. After the first week, she decided that perhaps it wouldn't hurt to wander Grassveil a little. She kept up disguises, of course, but every time she went out she worried about Sova coming back to find nobody home. She couldn't bring herself to have the courage to speak to any pokemon either.

What was the point of it? She was just going to be someone else tomorrow. There would be trouble if she tried to establish an identity. She'd have to upkeep it, maintain it, and if the disguise ever broke, she's done for, Sova's done for, and even the kids. She had no choice but to resign herself to the house and...do nothing. What could she even do? She was a wanted outlaw who didn't do outlaw-y things anymore. She was a fugitive who had no choice but to stay in the same bland empty looking house she didn't really know how to go about decorating.

In a way, it felt almost like a prison to her. A prison that held the door open, but every time she left it was a roll of the dice whether she'd be thrown into an even worse one. It was demeaning.

At the very least, each day brightened up a little when the kids came home. Emmelyn would have something new she learned while Chance would have some wild tale of adventure to tell everyone. It was nice to hear from them, but whenever they asked her about the world and what to do...she was lost. She gave the best answer she could, but she knew it wasn't enough. She didn't know anything about the world. Everything she did know was a lie, that was made very apparent to her.

Now, she was stuck with two kids at dinner on a Friday night pretending everything was absolutely okay.

Chance popped back up onto his feet in an instant. The time it took from him to go from his graceless flop to standing upright was inhuman...inzorua? Abnormal. It was almost like he just spawned right back to his proper position. Little blue eyes focused on the glaceon as he looked him over, scars, injured paw, cloak, and all. Of course, Chance was the fearless first to step up and say something.

The zorua happily bounded closer to the glaceon, completely oblivious to Sova's apparent fear. He stopped just a few inches away from him. His fore-paws papped against the floor lightly as he gave a sort of play-bow to the ice type. His tail wagged to much, that his whole body seemed to wriggle with it...or was it just doing that naturally? "Hiya! I'm Chance-but you can call me Kibakoru! Are you our dad?" he questioned almost obnoxiously with the biggest dumbest grin he could manage, as if he already knew the answer.

He didn't get much of what was being talked about, but he at the very least heard what his mother shouted when this glaceon was thrust into the room. She seemed upset, but his mind veered off into the excitement of finally meeting his dad, leaving him complete unconcerned about Mirage.

----

Each breath was deep and heavy as she held the knob shut, just in case Sova tried to immediately come back out. She could feel her cheeks getting wet, which prompted her release the door with one arm and wipe her face with it. When she pulled the arm back, she looked at the dark streaks. She was crying. This simple fact only prompted her to deep breaths to become interrupted with quiet sobs and hiccups. Her ears pinned back as she tried to regulate her breath and swallow the lump that formed in her throat, but she just couldn't.

The zoroark released the door all together and bolted off back down the hall into the living room and kitchen on all four legs. She stopped only to open the front door and slam it shut behind her. The sound of the slam rattled the house, making her apparent departure very much clear to the occupants inside.

Sova wasn't sure why his immediate reaction to the children was fear. He wasn't scared easily, as he had told Mirage, and it wasn't as if two children posed any threat to him... but he felt terrified. It felt like if he did anything, it would be the wrong thing; he felt like he was wrong for even being in here so close to them. He heard the front door slam and assumed Mirage had reached her limit and run off somewhere after throwing him into this. His heart was racing. One of the children gave an introduction, saying his name was Chance but wanting to be called... Kibakoru? The other one followed shortly after, seemingly gaining some confidence affter the zorua had gone first.

"I'm Emmelyn," the eevee stated simply, "And... you can call me whatever you want." She approached with more hesitance than her brother, nervous about meeting the one who was supposedly their father. She wasn't stupid and had heard Mom just as well as Chance had, and she was just as excited as he was, albeit shy.

Even after both children had directly addressed him, Sova still lay practically paralyzed on the floor, eyes flitting between the two. What was he supposed to say, or do? Mirage had left him here to sort through this all by himself, knowing he had no idea what he was doing and could end up doing something very wrong...

...And that was what he had done to her, wasn't it? He had left her all alone with this, when she probably felt much the same way he did. Considering this suddenly made the situation seem a whole lot simpler. He was still terrified, but he slowly got up, back still pressed against the wall for comfort. "I'm..." he hesitated, so scared that he would say something fundamentally and horribly wrong, "I'm Sova."

He didn't know what more to say, but this was a start. He thought about acknowledging that he was their father, but he got the feeling they both probably already knew that after Mirage's... whatever that was. They certainly seemed to understand who he was, and were getting too comfortable far too fast for his liking.

"So you're our dad, right?" Emmy reiterated Chance's question, seeing as her brother had been ignored. It was pretty clear, but she wanted to hear it from "Sova," plus... she didn't really know what ele to say.

Sova visibly flinched at the repetition of the question, having it made clear to him that he wouldn't be allowed to simply brush it aside for now. They wanted answers... He looked down at the floor as if he was about to say something shameful.

"Yes."

...That was it? Even he knew that was a pathetic introduction, but it was all he had in him. He couldn't handle much more and his mind felt blank anyway.

As excited as he was, the glaceon's hesitation caused him to hesitate. His smile quickly faded as his body ceased its energetic movements. Why didn't Sova seem happy to see him and Emmelyn? His mind set to work on all sorts of over-complicated equations and formulas that were far too vast of concepts for his brain to handle. Eventually it all somehow dumbed itself down to "Zorua = Bad. Chance = Zorua. Chance = Bad." Therefor, if he got rid of the zorua, then it'd be better right? His mom told him before that wasn't the case, but why else would he be so uneasy?

The form of the zorua was replaced in the bat of an eye with a few struggles here and there to keep up every part of the illusion. No longer was he a zorua, but an eevee. With the desperate hopes of his plan working, he stepped up to the plate again and closer to the Glaceon. The energy he had before resumed at full speed.

"Cooooool!" he gushed without restraint, "You look sooo cool! Where'd you get that cloak? Can I have a cloak? Would I look cool in a cloak?? It's called a cloak right? Em?" A paw reached forward to touch the cloak, perhaps bat at it a few times if Sova permitted him.

Sova recoiled further as he recognized the zorua's Illusion, but his body visibly lost tension when the illusion was revealed to be... ane eevee. He cocked his head in confusion, but didn't get much time to comment before the disguised zorua was all over him. "Um- I-" he struggled to keep up with the semi-coherent slew of questions, shocked at the shere extroversion. He was afforded no chance to speak once the disguised zorua was done, as the real eevee came wandering up behind him, seeming just as interested in the cloak.

Seeing as how this was now confirmed to be Dad, Emmy felt more comfortable coming up next to her brother and observing the clothing. "Yes," she answered idly, more focused on her own questions. Very important, plot-related questions. Questions such as... "Why do you have a cloak?" followed immediately by "Are you a supervillain?" Extremely important questions.

Sova gave a frown that was more confused than upset as he watched the two children play with his cloak... and... make fun of it? He couldn't tell if that was genuine enthusiasm or not, but he couldn't help but assume the worst.

Then he was called... a supervillain. At first he thought the eevee was joking and gave a nervous laugh, but she seemed serious. "W-wait, seriously? I'm not a- look, I have this to... cover... my scars," he for some reason chose to admit to the ravenous children. Then he glanced down at the zorua, something in particular that he'd said having drawn his attention. "You... really think I look cool?" he asked.

Despite being merely an illusion, the "eevee" remained just as expressive as he was before. He seemed taken aback by the question. Wide eyes looked back at the glaceon with shock. "Uh-Well, DUH!" The eevee huffed in annoyance, "Why would I say that if I didn't??"

As quickly as he was offended, he jumped right back into the interrogation. Without a word of warning, he jumped onto the glaceon...or rather into him. Sova was knocked back onto his side with a zorua-eevee walking all over his side...and his cloak, "So where'd you get it? Huh? Huh??" He circled around to face the glaceon, fore paws right on the ice type's shoulder. Before he even got an answer, he caught sight of something underneath the cloak right around the glaceon's neck.

"Oooh what's that? Is that another scar-hidey-thingy? Did you get bit real bad there or somethin???" Without hesitation or question, a paw reached out to touch the scarf as well.

Sova was... surprised, to say the least. He hadn't expected such an adamant reaction from the zorua and hardly knew how to respond. "Um, I-I-" he began, only to be interrupted. The eevee off to the side made a comment that should have served as a warning, and within an instant, Sova was suddenly being tackled by the zorua.

"Oh boy..." Emmelyn remarked in a slightly exasperated manner, immediately recognizing the spike in Chance's energy implying he was probably about to be... Chance. She nodded to herself affirmatively as she watched her brother assault their father and then throw a barrage of questions at him, but on the bright side now she could observe more of the glaceon's scarred form. She circled around him and stopped at his front legs, where she noticed... something.

Sova was too distracted by one child practically mauling him to notice the other one snooping around. "I- what? W-wait," he struggled in futility at the zorua's rapid-fire questions before finally mentally catching up enough to give a proper response to something. The kid was getting handsy with the ribbon, which Sova decided to allow since he had no reason to believe it would cause problems, but he felt increasingly uncomfortable with every passing second. "No, that's for... something else. J-just don't tug on it, it doesn't come off," he explained without really explaining anything. It was then that he recoiled as he felt the eevee pawing at him as well, this one seemingly more focused on his leg than his neck.

"What about this?" Emmy questioned as soon as her brother's question had been answered, polite enough to wait her turn. She couldn't help but poke at the white fabric wrapped around one of the glaceon's legs as if to see if there would be some reaction from it... or him. She got a bit of the latter in the form of him flinching again, which made her flinch a little as well as she suddenly realized she might have hurt him. Fortunately, he recovered quickly and didn't really seem to be hurt. "Is something wrong with your leg?" she continued, relatively unfazed by his averse reactions to the both of them beyond a moment of visible concern.

Sova didn't know how to answer this one's questions any more than he did the other's. Both were asking such odd and specific things, and there were so many questions being thrown around that he had no idea what he was supposed to say or do, plus they were both just all over him. He took a moment to think about this one, mostly just to gather his thoughts, before giving the simplest explanation he could: "It's... broken. I have that there to keep it out of the way." Technically this was mostly true, with "broken" just seeming like an easier explanation than... whatever was wrong with the leg.

"Really??" he gasped with a sense of awe. Using his excellent skills in the art of listening, the zorua decided to put a test to the Glaceon's claims. His paw poked at the ribbon once, before his claws suddenly hooked out onto the fabric and began to tug. It was a light pull, but still not exactly what the glaceon instructed of him.

"Did it get broken while you were gone? Is that why it took you so long to get back? Oooh it must have been really hard to walk with a broken leg!! How far out did you go? Did you beat someone up?" His slew of questions continued excitedly, but at the very least he ceased his pestering of the scarf with one final tug before he released it and hopped off to the side of the ice type.

It wasn't the wisest idea to be so rough with someone with a broken leg, but he failed to really think of the potential consequences of his actions like his sister did. He was far too excited about actually seeing the glaceon for the first time in forever, he wanted to hear every little thing he could about this mysterious glaceon!

Emmelyn, being such a thoughtful and cautious child who carefully considered the consequences of her actions, immediately prodded the glaceon's leg again more forcefully. "Does it hurt?" she added to Chance's most recent slew of questions as she poked the leg yet again with no sense of personal boundaries.

Sova recoiled from the eevee poking at him, but couldn't do as much with the zorua standing atop him. The questions were getting progressively more personal and harder to answer, and they both seemed prone to making assumptions. It almost would have been a relief to know his kids seemed so... normal, if not for the circumstances. "It's been like this for a while, and I... don't feel much there anymore," he responded, trying to avoid the more uncomfortable topics like beating people up... or-

"Then... why haven't you been around?"

Fuck.

"Um... th-... that's... c-complicated..." he responded in as immediate a fashion as he could, stumbling profusely over his words as he tried to get out a competent excuse to not explain. It ended up not being very competent, but he was banking on them not being perceptive or bold enough to pursue it. He figured the zorua especially was much too busy asking him a thousand questions to stop and focus on something.

While originally he lacked any amount of attention to the little silver fuzzball that was his sister, the question she asked seemed a little...important. Why hadn't he been around? Chance's rump fell to the ground in a sitting position as he waited for the answer, shutting up for once. Unfortunately, his sudden five seconds of good behavior went unrewarded. Complicated? How could it be complicated?

His eyes widened as the energy bounced right back, "Oooh I bet you were like-rescuing people and fighting super big bad guys!" he exclaimed, "They musta like-been a thousand of em if it took you that long to deal with them? Maybe even a hundred!" he spoke with complete ignorance that one thousand was bigger than one hundred.

"Tell us what happened! I wanna hear it all! C'moooon!" he begged.

Sova looked between the two children who were both so very focused on him. The zorua wasn't letting up, and the eevee was staring intently and clearly expecting something more. He wasn't going to be able to get out of telling them... and he didn't want to lie. These were his kids, right? Did he really want his first interaction with them to be full of lies?

He continued to shift his gaze between the two... Chance... and Emmelyn... He gave a defeated sigh and slowly stood himself upright, directing his eyes to the floor and away from the children. "No, I'm... I was... scared. Of..." he looked around at the room and gave a half-hearted chuckle, "This." He didn't know how else to say it. Everything about this reality felt so fragile, and he was so very scared of hurting someone, breaking something, doing something wrong.

"So you... didn't... wanna see us?" came Emmelyn's response, eyes already tearing up. She stared at the glaceon who was supposed to be her father with drooping ears and an increasingly concerned look on her face. The glaceon's words coupled with how Mom had literally thrown him into the room yelling at him to talk to the two of them just made it seem like he... didn't want to.

Fortunately Sova had enough sense to immediately correct this. "No no no, it's not- p-please don't cry I'm sorry that's not what I meant."

Nailed it.

Knowing that simply begging the small child not to try probably wouldn't help much, his mind frantically searched for something better to say. "I-... I was..." he hesitated and visibly shuddered, for some reason unable to just say that he was scared of being a bad dad.

....

Red alert.

The eevee was crying. The eevee was crying. All prior excitement was tossed out the proverbial window. His smile fell into a look of shock and concern. Well, she was about to cry, but it constituted as full on tears for her. The zorua's eyes snapped to the glaceon. His immediate reaction was to declare retribution for the crimes the ice type committed against his sister, but then came the a certain problem. This was his dad. Was he supposed to act any different to this? He...wasn't sure. Was he going to get in trouble with this?

Only one way to find out.

"My name is Kibakoru Blackfang, you made my sister cry. Prepare to die!" "Hey, stop making her cry!" he suddenly sneered with an agitated growl. It was time to deliver justice. He rushed forward and snapped onto the scarf he was explicitly told not to pull...and began to pull on it much harder than he did before. He didn't stop.

Sova flinched once again as perhaps the most unexpected thing happened and he was suddenly attacked by the zorua in front of him. Fortunately, the child was pretty much harmless and he already knew that ribbon wasn't coming off, but...

Emmelyn gasped and stepped back as she watched her brother suddenly go on the offensive and assault their father... or... his... clothes. "Ch-chance! No, it's okay, stop!" she cried, this event managing to shake the tears from her eyes and down her face. She made no move to stop him, but fortunately, he didn't seem to actually be doing anything.

Sova had no idea what to do either. It seemed to him like the only one here who knew what they wanted to do was Chance, and what he apparently wanted to do was... bite dad. The glaceon held the weight of the fluffy little thing up as he stared down at him, giving an occasional regretful glance to the eevee who was just... watching. "It's fine. Look, both of you, I'm... sorry," he finally found the clarity to say something decent, and the slight tinge of relief on the eevee's face encouraged him to continue.

"I have a lot of problems, and I was afraid of... something going wrong. I'm not very stable, or safe, and it's been so long since I've had any family and I was... scared. So I took a while to get here. I'm sorry," he apologized again, this time with more confidence. Just being faced with these children was one thing, but upsetting them so much... that hurt. He wanted to fix that.

Adorable growls and snarls sounded as he pulled and tugged on the scarf, but it was futile. It only took one or two good tugs to realize it was useless, but this wasn't just about taking the scarf. He needed to send a message. The zorua tugged and pulled all through the glaceon's heartfelt apology. He certainly heard it, but he didn't really understand a word of it. Chance had problems too and at that moment he was dealing with it to the best of his ability. His sister told him to stop, but again, the message.

"Well-now-you-have-a-family-so-don't-make-my-sister-CRY!" he spoke with a mouthful of fabric between tugs. The zorua pulled and pulled with all his might. He waited for the sound of tearing followed by the sudden release of tension, but it never came. Man, this scarf was sturdy! Where did his dad say he got it from again? He'd need to get one of these...

Chance didn't seem too interested in accepting the apology. Normally Sova might have been mildly annoyed by a child trying to assault him and gnaw at his ribbon, but in this case... he was happy. These two seemed close. Already, they had something he'd never had: each other. After his parents were gone, Sova had been left with no family, and he couldn't help but think maybe he would have turned out better with a brother or sister to lean on. He was happy to know that even if something horrible happened to both Mirage and himself, at least they would have each other. He gave a more relieved sigh and patted the zorua on the back in a reassuring manner, ignoring the explicit aggression that he was taking as a good thing. "You're right. I'm sorry for that too," he agreed without a fight, trying to split his gaze between the two kids since he wasn't sure which one he should be focusing on.

By now Emmelyn's tears had already stopped and she really just wanted Chance to not be attacking their dad anymore. She stepped closer as he apologized yet again. "It's okay..." she spoke in a more timid, quiet voice than earlier, but still genuine. She hadn't meant for herself getting upset to end up being such a big problem. She hadn't meant to get upset in the first place either, but now here everyone was.

This dice is not existing.

He stopped his tugging as he attempted a harsh and lengthy pull. His eyes squeezed shut as he focused all of his effort onto pulling the scarf. A single eye opened up at the approach of his sister, though the illusion still looked quite focused on the task at hand. A single lengthy growl was the only response he issued before he finally decided to release the scarf with a disgusted, "Bleh." It tasted awful anyways. The scarf snapped back towards the glaceon gently while he had to catch himself from rolling backwards. The punishment was dealt, he was satisfied...and his jaw was starting to hurt.

The "eevee's" energy didn't quite return as quickly this time around, mostly due to the sheer amount he expended in the past few minutes. "...Mom was really angry with you," he noted suddenly, "I don't think I've seen her that angry in a long time, even when she catches me sneaking out. What did you do?" he questioned.

This dice is not existing.