2nd Floor Common Room, Saturday Evening

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

Ulrik had had a nice entirely handwavy dance last night, even with all the sexual tension in various places amongst the spectrum of unresolved to resolved.

He'd also had a very nice Saturday morning and afternoon so far, especially once he'd figured out that the antsiness from the past week had vanished. Sure, the dorms seemed a little noisier than usual, but he was going to attribute that to the fact that many people probably went to sleep in rooms not their own last night. So of course there'd be some shuffling around come morning.

All of that was not on his mind at the moment, of course. Instead, he had Mexicoan Mexican takeout and TV, and was channel-flipping in an effort to find something more interesting than that episode of Dakota and Madison Work Stuff Out where Dakota lies to her parents and everything soon spirals out of control.

[ooc: open CR is open for bbs and others!]

Comments

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

Well, finally! Janneke had been looking for her parents all day! It was a good thing that she had followed some of the other kids from the park to this building, because otherwise she would have ended up going to the big castle. That, at least, was familiar.

"Daddy!" she said, a whirlwind of reddish curls. "There you are! I've been looking for you all day!"

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

Ulrik's first instinct was to look around to see if there was anyone else in the room... because surely this small child wasn't referring to him?

"Er, hello?" he tried. "... Are you lost?"

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

"Yeth," she huffed. Her diction was otherwise mostly excellent, save for a pesky lisp. Her brothers didn't have one, so they made fun of her a lot for it. "We fell through a blue hole in the air and then landed here and we were wandering around forever and now we're hungry and Frederik won't thtop inthithting that he come into view, even though he knowth it'th my turn!"

Her list of woes was long, Ulrik. Very long.

"You tell him to thtop it, Daddy."

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"Wh- " Ulrik stopped himself from asking where is he when the phrase 'come into view' finally sunk in, because the only other person- well, people- he'd heard use that phrase was Sholeh (and her sisters).

"Ooooh no," he said instead, looking at her wide-eyed. "This is not possible." He'd heard, of course, of things like this happening in Fandom, but that it could actually happen to him hadn't really occurred to him.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

"See?"

That was definitely a little boy's voice coming out of Janneke's mouth there and it didn't have a lisp. "Told you it should be my turn."

"That'th not what Daddy was thaying at all!" Janneke fumed. "Daddy, you tell him! He'th fighting with me!"

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

He hadn't even known that was possible. On so many levels.

"She's right," Ulrik said, because whatever his own feelings about whatever the hell was happening, he was also conscious of the fact that standing before him was a child- children- whatever. "I was just surprised to see you, is all."

"Frederik, your sister is correct. It is clearly her turn." Yes, two minutes and the part of him that wasn't just going "what what what what what" was already charmed by that adorable little face. And that lisp.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

=Thee?= Janneke said internally, smirking at her brothers. =Told you.=

*Tho what?* Frederik mocked. *My name'th Janneke and thith ith how I talk.*

::Daddy looks weird,:: Niko said, ignoring his siblings' squabbles. ::He looks all young. Where's Mamma? And Moster Kristina?::

=I'll athk,= Janneke said, mostly to rub it into Frederik's face that she could.

"Daddy, where is Mamma?" she asked. "And Moster Kristina? Where are we?!"

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

If they referred to Kristina as their aunt, that-

raised more questions than it answered, actually.

"You're. Well. Have I ever told you about the years I spent up-time?" he asked.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

Janneke nodded, climbing up on the couch next to her father. "That'th how you met Mamma," she said. "And thwept her off her feet, cause she wathn't thuppothed to fall in love!" She gave a dreamy sigh. "Tho romantic!"

Okay, both Frederik and Nikolaus were making gagging noises at that. Boys.

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"Right," Ulrik nodded. "Well, that's where you are. Up-time. In Fandom. But you're up-time at a point where I'm still in school, so you haven't been born yet."

It was a good thing he had experience with time travel, otherwise he'd have even more of a headache than he had already.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

"But that mutht mean that Mamma ith around here thomewhere!" Janneke gasped. "Becauthe you were only here for a year before you graduated. Exthept when you came back here to vithit becauthe you were in looooove." Janneke wore a dreamy smile.

::Mamma!:: Nikolaus reminded her.

"Tho, where ith she?" Janneke looked around the room, as if their mother had been present the entire time and she just hadn't noticed until now.

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"I'm not entirely sure," Ulrik admitted. "I could... give her a call?" because he really, desperately, needed to not be alone in dealing with this.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!"

To add to the surreal quality of the evening, that 'yay' came out rather buzzy, like a hive full of bees. It was the noise that happened when three voices tried to use the same throat.

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, this evening kept getting weirder.

One handwaved call to Sholeh later, and at least Ulrik was slightly closer to not having to deal with said weirdness all on his own? Although he hadn't had the courage to explain why he needed to talk to Sholeh in person, just that she'd better come to the common room as soon as possible.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Because Ulrik was both smart and evil. It wasn't fair that he didn't warn her about what she was walking into, but then, she might not have come if he had.

"Ulrik?" she asked, peeking into the common room door to make sure he was there. "Is everything okay?"

His vagueness over the phone had been worrying.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, Ulrik didn't have to break the news. Not when Janneke flung herself off the couch like a shot and hurtled towards her mother for a hug.

"Mamma! Mamma!"

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Sholeh hugged the little girl back, mostly out of automatic habit while she looked at Ulrik in confusion.

"What?" she sputtered.

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"Precisely," Ulrik said. "Sholeh, meet our daughter, ah-"

She'd never actually given her name, Ulrik realized.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

That's all right. Sholeh's squawk of surprise would have drowned it out anyway.

"Our what?!" she yelped.

Her sisters were having similar reactions, to say the least. Zeela, for her part, was going through every curse word she knew.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

"Mamma," Janneke said, pulling away to look up at Sholeh with big eyes. "You don't sound happy to see us!"

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Us?!" Sholeh hissed, glancing to Ulrik for confirmation that the child was saying what she thought she was saying.

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"Oh yes," Ulrik nodded. "She has a brother." And another sibling, from what he gathered about how this worked. And he gathered very little, to be honest, judging from the look he was giving Sholeh.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

*If they don't know us, they should get to see us,* Frederick decided.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

=But it'th my turn!= Janneke protested.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

::But I wanna hug Mamma and Daddy, too,:: Nikolaus said.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

*Two to one, you lose,* Frederik told Janneke. *You don't want us to tell Mamma Zhahar that you wouldn't share, do you?*

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

Janneke pouted, but acquiesced. Mostly because Mamma Zhahar would give her such disappointed looks if she found out that Janneke wasn't sharing.

=Fine,= she said. But then, before Frederik could claim he was going first, she added, =Nikolauth, it'th your turn.=

Take that, Frederik.

[3kidsalltrouble.livejournal.com]

::Yaaay!:: Nikolaus came into view, grateful once again that their parents tended to dress them in fairly neutral clothing, just so it wouldn't be weird when someone else surfaced.

"Mamma Sholeh!" he said, wrapping his arms around his still-flummoxed mother. "And Daddy!"