Happy Times [Nanalie, Flynn, or Invite][NR]

Demi was wandering through the streets of Edge City at random. She still looked the same: purple hair, white shirt that hung off of her shoulders, random lizard tattoo on her back shoulder, and white cotton pants, and of course very bare feet. She figured her father was around somewhere, or else listening carefully to her thoughts to ensure she was still safe while she wandered around. She was mainly getting used to this new feeling of power that coursed through her: so much power that she gave off a slight electrical feel, like a constant static hung around her, though it would've been much worse at this point if she hadn't learned quickly to reign it in.

She could feel Nanalie growing closer to her location, and so decided to pause in the park she had just entered. She rested her back against a large nearby tree, glancing about in the dark: there was nothing else around, thankfully. Though, any human who wanted to play the lurk in the dark game... well, they'd get a nasty surprise trying anything with her anyway. She was a creature of the night, and night it was...

Nanalie had offered her father perfect directions as she mentally tracked her mother. Finally, she spoke one last time, "She's in the park down the block! By the tallest tree!" Nanalie suddenly giggled, the sound happy and free again as it had been before all of the chaos had happened. "She's hiding in the dark!" This amused Nanalie greatly, the fact that her mother seemed to be playing some sort of game of hide-and-go-seek.

She couldn't wait to see her mother again.. but something... yes, something was far different. "Daddy... mommy's... mommy's almost herself again! I can feel it and hear it!" So Niala ha done it, or so she could only assume. Her mother would probably verify how it was done: but given the way she was, and the new power she could sense coming from her mother, she was sure Niala had come through and somehow changed her mother back to the way she had been: she could only hope everything had changed... and that Niala was alright...

He'd followed her words as precisely as he could; the city was strange to him and he knew little of it. But street level travel; basic left, right, walk, turn.... he could do that. There was no point in him trying to track her using his own skills; too many beings packed too closely together to use his sonar; not unless he got nice and high above it all; which he had no intention of doing. He wasn't about to put Nanalie down for any reason; so climbing was out of the question. He felt less tired then he'd expected; the healing Ghost had given him truly helped; he'd have to thank him later; but all the wasted energy in the encounter with Snow, carrying his daughter for as long as he had... in his state he should have been exhausted and weak.

He felt amazing, really. Strange.

Or, not so much; when Nanalie spoke and said that Demi had recovered... that explained it all. Boosted his mood right over the moon as well. Relief was in sight; a happy reunion; until he had to explain his actions away. But, knowing them; that would not happen for a long time yet. He was all together extremely curious as to what had happened; and to see just how much she had recovered.

Feet moved faster; he wasn't really running; although compared to a human he might as well have been sprinting; long legs moving easily over the level ground. Flashes of green in the distance; the park was in sight now. He couldn't see her; but that meant little; darkness was her world, and while his eyes saw perfectly well in little to no light; that didn't mean he could see her when she hid. Asphalt and concrete gave way to grass and dirt; a nice change on his bare feet; cooler and soft and slightly damp and oh so comfortable.

Now he would let her down; let her play the game and hunt her mother down. Fun for both of them; a needed laugh after the stress of the day.

Demi had heard their approach, more from Nanalie's mental echo than anything else. A playful grin spread across her face as her gaze latched on to them from the darkness in which she hid. She didn't come out, she felt far too playful for that. No, she would allow either Flynn or Nanalie to find her, and then she would step out. It was as simple as that. Given how happy Nanalie looked at the moment she owed her that much: though she wondered if either could feel the electrically charged air around her, but she didn't dwell on it.

She just simply waited... and waited.... and then she couldn't wait. No, waiting would take too long. Cost too much time. She didn't want to waste any time at all. She remembered them, she wanted them to know it, all of it.

So, she flung herself out of the shadows she had been hidden in and rushed over, snatching up Nanalie since Flynn had put her down. Arms wrapped around her in a gentle but firm hug and she buried her face in her hair for a moment. "My little Nanalie... my little, little Nanalie...", while the words were murmured she stepped over to Flynn, the spark of remembrance clear in her gaze. "And my Flynn...", she added with a smile. She would truly have to find a way to thank Niala for this... somehow, some way: she felt she owed her more than the little psychic could possibly imagine.

She had been about to go running right up to her mother after her father put her down when she saw her mother running over to her. A giggle escaped her as her mother scooped her up and hugged her. She felt the static like feeling and giggled even more. "Mommy, you feel like static... it tickles." Another giggle escaped her, happiness pouring out of her.

More happiness bubbled forth as she realized that her mother fully remembered them both. She placed a hand to her mother's cheek, as words were not enough for how she was feeling: allowing all of her emotions to go flooding into her mother's mind - happiness, pure and simple, dominated all of the rest.

"You are.. yourself again, then?" The hesitancy was unintentional; a hiccup in his entire being as he realized that truth for himself and everything wrong with his world was set right again; perfectly so. There was going to be some serious celebrating done fairly soon; but for now he just wanted to spend time with his family again; talk and play and forget the world for a bit. They would have plenty of time to talk; for apologies to be made and hurt to be worked out. This was their time. This was happy times.

He moved toward them both; long arms perfect to encase them both in a crushing hug; the kind that was tight without hurting and the closest he could get to an emphatic exchange without speaking; something he felt would ruin the moment somehow. That didn't stop him from purring however; the meaning easy to discern; happy, loving, family. Powerful, complex, and oh so simple concepts; things he'd spent much of his life searching for and finally was ready to have. No more letting go; no more stupid binds holding him back; his own mental and the physical ones of his youth. He'd make sure they stayed a proper family as long as he could; he owed it to them, and to himself.

Demitria was completely happy in the embrace with her family around her. This was how it was supposed to feel: happy and complete. No sadness or heartache. It took her a moment to respond, and the smallest of insane sounding giggles escaped her. "Well, mostly. Niala was able to give me back my memories, make me a vampire again... but I still can do everything I could do as a spirit. Plus, she gave me a few of her abilities on top of that... But, I remember everything again. I just hope Niala's alright.. she lingered in my head just a little too long, and began to drown on everything that goes on in there.."

She fell silent, content to listen to his purring for forever, while still worried about Niala's welfare. She liked the girl a lot, Niala had done some great things for her and her family.. and she would do what she could to ensure she was mentally and physically fine.

Nanalie was being quiet, just enjoying the happy feelings and the purring. At least... until her mother mentioned something happened to Niala. Eyes which had been closed, since her head had been resting on her mothers shoulder, opened wide. If her friend was hurt she would find some way to fix her, any way. It didn't matter what she had to do to do it. She didn't want to lose her friend.

"Where is Niala?"

She wanted her, she had to see that she was okay, that nothing bad had happened to her friend. Niala had helped her just as she had helped her mother. Niala had been the reason Nanalie was as calm as she had been when going to find her father, instead of the ball of emotions and confusion she would have otherwise been.

That girl... he was going to have to find a way to thank her properly one day. Her powers were astounding; her generosity more so. "She is strong, that one. Do not worry, Nanalie. She will be alright. We can check on her in a bit, yes?" A nuzzle to her hair; an increase in his purring; soothing, or attempting to be.

"I am just supremely relieved that everyone is safe, now. The hunter is dead; you have returned to us; peace has returned. Mostly. I would not be surprised if there are to be more shouting matches between some of the adults over safety measures and such; but that is nothing to be concerned with now."

Demi chuckled softly and nodded. "I expect a very loud shouting match, possibly with weapons being pulled and shoved into people's faces." That was what she expected anyway, whether or not it would actually happen would have to remain to be seen. She placed a hand on top of Nanalie's head and grinned. "Don't fret about Niala, if anything your friend will just think outside of the box a little bit more than she already does... "

She still couldn't believe the amount of power that little girl had, and found herself thinking for a moment, while she rested her head against Flynn, if Niala truly knew what she was capable of: Demi had seen a great deal of it when their minds had been joined, perhaps later, when everything died down and all of the anger subsided, her and Niala would go have a nice long talk about what Demi knew she could do. "I saw lots of hidden potential...", she muttered.

Nanalie nodded in agreement to going to check on Niala. She could only imagine what sort of things her friend saw, and only hoped she didn't end up crazy or something worse from all of it. But, she was happy Niala had returned her mother back to her self... well mostly. Her mothers suddenly purple hair was going to take a moment to get used to and she found herself reaching out and playing with it as she listened to her father purring.

"I like your hair...can I have purple hair too?"

For the moment she'd ignore the idea of another shouting match and more anger: there was no anger here, and that was what she wanted to concentrate on.

"This surprises me little... she so very young; her latent abilities have had little time to even begin to manifest. That she can do so much already... she will be a powerful, that girl."

For a moment his face constricted; quickly turned away and sneezing harshly; feet almost lifting off the ground from the force of it. Oh boy; there much have been a flowering Dogwood tree nearby. Oh well; he could handle the tickle in his nose for a while longer; that he'd sneezed at all was nothing more then a trick of the wind and a concentrated burst of the pollen in his nose.

Words, a request by his daughter; she wanted colorful hair as well? When he thought about it; purple hair would likely look wonderful on her; she was very much like her mother in appearance; and the purple coloring worked well there. "I do not see why you cannot, love. In fact, if you wish for it hard enough, you might just wake up in the morning to purple hair."

A bit of coded misdirection; he wasn't lying per say, just skirting the truth. The Daoine have natural abilities to alter their appearance; rarely by much; but something as small and simple as a color shift shouldn't be above her abilities. It was the natural power of the shifting ability focused over centuries that had allowed him the humanoid form he sometimes used, after all; it was not even close to truly natural.

Demi tilted her head a bit and shrugged to Flynn's comment. "When our minds were linked the way they were I got an inside look at exactly how her abilities work - or well, the main one. It's like whatever she imagines, whatever at all, manifests. No matter how hard it should be, or how big, or even how tiny: if she wants it it's hers to create. As if the only thing that limits her is her own creativity. It makes me worry about her, power like that either tainted or in the wrong hands is very dangerous..."

She looked to Nanalie at her daughter's question and smiled before reaching over and lightly ruffling the girls hair. "You can have whatever color hair you want..." She found herself pausing for a moment, glad she'd taken out the majority of her piercings and kept the majority of her tattoo's covered up - she could only imagine what sort of other things that Nanalie would want if she knew they had been there, and there was a certain line she had drawn long ago - at least until Nanalie was older.

She blinked and giggled as her father sneezed. "Bless you."

A grin swept across Nanalie's face as the go ahead. The idea of having hair like her mother's made her giggle.. but maybe, just maybe, she'd do some sort of combination of the two. Keep her mostly silvery white colored hair and just have some purple put into it. She'd seen it before, or something rather close anyway, and had thought it was very pretty.

"I'll do just that then!" she said excitedly. She would wish as hard as she possibly could before she went to bed so that her hair would change and become a perfect mixture of both.

"Hmmmm..." He was inclined to agree; sad as that was. He'd long ago come to realize that the humanity in the biskmatar linage was both a gift and a curse; it allowed them survive, even thrive to a degree; but it left them open to the taint of darkness in a way that was never intended. He'd seen more then one "holy warrior" turn dark; the fabled paladins of the humans that where nothing more then quarter biskmatar with no knowledge of their history or their people; corrupted by the 'holy cause' of the human religion; fanatics lost to the world of reason and judgement.

"A guiding hand is all she needs; people to ground her and keep her safe; and the knowledge of who and what she is given properly. To know her people is to know herself; and to know herself means that she can never be tainted, never be used or turned or made to fall from grace; as they would say. She is strong, both in ability and will; I do not foresee much of an issue."

An idea came to Demitria's mind, it was one she had played with for a while in the back of her head. Niala really didn't have any family, save for what had been killed - and given how much the girl had gone through already there really was no reason not to include her in their growing family.

"Hm..."

Demi bit her bottom lip for a moment, seriously contemplating the whole idea, a spark coming to her gaze as it always did when she was planning something big.

Nanalie looked between the two, blinking, before her gaze remained on her mother. She had seen that look before, it was the look that said her mother was planning something and probably something really big, too. She tilted her head a bit, curiosity shining in her face as she kept starting at her mother.

"Mommy, what are you thinking? You've got your thinking-of-something-big look."

She giggled before suddenly yawning, covering her hand with her mouth like she was attempting not to: attempting to fight off the tired feeling that was creeping up on her faster and faster.

Pensive; his thoughts where only partially there. He was remembering; not good, not bad; just memories. Things he had seen, experienced. Long life; lots of things to consider. He'd noticed Demi's expression, but he was leaving it alone until she felt like speaking. He'd yet to have a reason to worry about anything she'd come up with when she got like that; he wasn't about to start now.

"Something bothers you?" Only because Nanalie had said something; it pulled his attention back fully to the present, and his focus to them. Better to know then not; yes.

She looked up as Nanalie spoke and then Flynn and her thoughtful expression turned into a smile. "It's not exactly something that's bothering me, as much as it is something I've been thinking about a lot... Niala's just all up in Darkman Tower, all by herself. Sure, Alec's keeping a good eye on her... but it's not the same as a family, not really." Where was she going with this? Her thoughts were still racing, trying to cover the others for a bid for first place.

"I dunno, I've just playing with the idea of sort of adopting her... give her a real family, the family she should have had from the beginning." She already loved Niala, and she was sure that Nanalie did, too. That girl had done so much for them, it seemed like the least they could do for her... if she agreed, if they all agreed of course.

She turned her gaze to the sky as she waited for their opinions, comments, suggestions, whatever was to come. She knew it was sudden, especially with everything else that had been going on around them - including her own death - but why wait? If the world was as dangerous as it was why risk little Niala falling into the wrong hands and be harmed?

Nanalie blinked as she looked between the two. A smile slowly formed on her face, and from there it turned into a happy grin. She would love having Niala as a sister: she already was her best friend, and like a sister anyway. She kept herself quiet though, eyes almost glowing with happiness and agreement, as she waited to hear what her father was going to say.

While waiting she went back to concentrating on trying to wish her hair purple, figuring she might as well get a head start on the whole process encase it helped it work more.

Unexpeted; to some degree. Sudden? He couldn't say much there; after all it hadn't even been a full day really; since the start of all this insanity. Why not just keep the pace going a bit longer? It didn't take much to think on; why he wasn't as close to Niala as they where; he felt a kinship with her that Demi couldn't, and Niala wouldn't understand until she was older. It would be nice to expand their little family that way; he was sure of that.

"I would have no issues with this. So long as she agrees, yes."

Really; they where as close to blood kin as Niala likely had; from what he knew of her history; there was likely no living relatives left on either side of her parentage. She would be happy with them; well taught and very much loved; and Nanalie having a playmate was definitely a plus.

"We can give her a day or two to rest; then propose the idea. Or rather, a day or two for all of us to properly rest."

Demitria grinned as they both seemed to agree, despite Nanalie not saying anything - but her smile turned grin said it all really. "Good idea..." She glanced about the darkened park and then at Nanalie who she could tell was due for some sleep. "Perhaps it's time we leave here... city parks aren't the nicest places at night, and I'd rather not have to deal with some idiot tonight."

She nodded her head in Nanalie's direction. "Besides, she looks like she's about to fall asleep.", she added with a soft chuckle.

Nanalie grinned even more if that was even possible, overcome with happiness. She hoped that Niala agreed, then she would always have someone to play with, talk to, train with! Endless possibilities! Her and Niala could even go explore more of the island when they went back home.

Her mother's words brought around another yawn that she tried with all of her might to force back, but no matter how hard she tried it came out anyway and she giggled softly. Her eyelids were beginning to feel heavy, and sleep was starting to seem like a good idea, even though she was trying her hardest to stay awake due to all of the happiness and the good things that were happening. "Go away sleep...", she muttered softly.

"Yes; I do not wish to stay in these parks once the.... undesirables come out." The way he said that; it was obvious he meant thieves, gang members, the dangerous aspects of human society. The city was boring him now; boring him highly. That; and the smell... it was starting to get annoying to a degree. He wished to return to the island where everything was quiet and normal and happy. This place was... just not his style.

"Shall we return home, or do you wish to stay in the tower for the night?"

Demitria thought for a moment and then nodded in the direction of the tower before starting to walk, leaving the park and its eerie shadows behind for the light of the streets. "Let's head back to the tower, I'm not sure, but Alec might want to talk to you. Better to get it over with now then waste the man's time by him having to come to Sugure to find us." Or at least she hoped that would make things better: she was almost positive Alec would have something to say to Flynn, if not all of them.