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 Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 9:33 am
The snow was melted, the yard was clear, and the day was warm. Somewhat. At least it was warmer than it had been last week, warm enough for Dixie to take advantage of it. She was bent over the ground, the cuffs of her father's overalls rolled up to her furry shins, and she was painting. The winter weather had almost completely wiped out the bullseye, and even though she didn't really need it anymore to know where the ships would land, she still liked to see it there.
She swiped the brush once more over the outer ring, declaring it done for now, before swapping her red brush for a white one. It might have been best to wait for the first ring to dry, but Dixie was impatient. Another baby was coming today, and she was a little apprehensive about this one. Why was it late? She hoped it wouldn't be another Sentient Virus fiasco. She didn't have a free pass to a spa, after all.
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 9:52 am
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:11 am
"Oh, hey," Dixie said, dropping her brush next to the ring. "Are you Nyx?" She tiptoed around the wet paint and came to stand next to the woman. "I shouldn't shake... my hands," she held up a paint-splattered palm and smiled. "I'm Dixie. Your kid should be here soon. Do you want anything to drink?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:01 pm
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:40 pm
"All right, follow me." Dixie entered the house, careful to open the door with her clean fingers, and opened the crowded refridgerator. "Coke, orange juice, cranberry juice, milk, or water," she said. "I really shouldn't make any hot drinks. I might burn down the house," she said with a grimace. Darcy Kofer had eaten his meat raw and even though she wasn't him anymore, she still didn't particularly like fire.
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:49 pm
" Coke sounds nice" Nyx replied. She didn't want to burden the girl with attempting hot things. While Nyx herself was an ok cook there were many things beyond her skill level and since she had a gas stove never never pushed her abilites, an explosion was only one accident away. " So exactly how hard do these things land?" she inquired thikign of the target which was obviously being repainted.
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:13 pm
A few minutes later, Dixie had wrangled a paper cup out of the cabinet, wrapping her hand in a towel before grabbing it. She scooped the cup through a ziploc bag in the freezer, filling it with ice, and poured some Coke for the other girl. "There you go." She looked out of the big kitchen window, listening for the telltale whirr of a landing pod. Nothing.
"Not hard," she answered. "There's a bit of a bounce, but the pods have parachutes and they're pretty well lined too."
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:02 am
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:07 am
"You're welcome." Dixie started to sit down at one of the tall bar chairs strewn around the area when she felt something. Perhaps Nyx's goosebumps weren't only from the excitement of receiving a new child.
"What the hell?" Dixie whispered. She glanced at the window again and then approached it and leaned her head down almost into the sink so she could see more of the sky. There was something coming, but it was really quiet. Completely silent, in fact. Dixie turned toward Nyx, a confused expression crossing her face for a moment. "It's here. We'd better go back outside."
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:02 am
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:30 am
Dixie held the door open for the new guardian before making her way out near the still-wet bullseye. The pod had reached the right height for parachute deployment, and as scheduled, a pretty purple parachute flew out of the backside and sprung open. There was no smoke, no faulty chute clamps, nothing. It was just really quiet and really fast. Dixie had never seen anything like it.
"Humph," she said. It was certainly a 'humph' of awe. One of these things could land in the middle of the night and no one would ever know. She and Archie definitely needed some sort of alert system now. At least their neighbors would be pleased.
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:41 am
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:46 am
"Yeah, honestly," Dixie said with a smile. "They've never been so quiet before."
Less than a minute later, the little ship had bounced to a stop, skidding through the wet paint. The door on the side hissed open, also much faster than usual. Someone probably should have come up with this technology sooner, she thought as she approached.
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:10 am
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:24 am
"The last two were pretty well-behaved, but yeah," Dixie confirmed. "It takes a while for them to accept their fate, and I've heard some of them never do." She had jumped back at the kick, but she inched forward again now. She felt sort of bad; a pissed off horse wasn't something she would ever want to deal with. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked Nyx.
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