Episode: 4.11

--- Sol ---

“… and with that final blow the dragon let out a guttural death rattle, as it crashed to the ground with enough force to make the very earth shake.” He shook Ellie’s bed to emphasize his words, knocking down a number of the toys and stuffed animals from it as he did so.

Luna growled from her side of the room.

He gave her a curious look, to which she glanced under Ellie’s bed with a pointed glare.

“Oh right…” He bent over and glanced at the small village of Ragdoll’s under Ellie’s bed. “You guys okay down there?”

A number of ragdolls peeked out from behind their shoebox houses, before nodding. Though Britney the Brave did point an iron needle sword at him while Manfred the Meek hid behind said doll, actions he couldn’t find in his heart to blame either doll for.

“Yeah… I think it’s time for bed, Ellie.”

“Come on, Sol, one more story!” his little sunbeam pleaded as she began jumping on her bed. Something that explained why the Ragdolls of Ellicity were so unbothered by the quake that would’ve devastated Lunopolis.

“Ah, ah, ah!” He caught Ellie as she tried to jump off her bed. “It’s time for bed, Ellie.”

“One more story!” Ellie begged giving him the puppy dog eyes.

Completely immune to said look, since Nico and Sophie had already abused the cuteness out of it, he reminded her that, “The last story was one more story, and so was the one before that, it’s bedtime kiddo.”

His little cinnamon roll gave him a huff and a pout as she crossed her arms over her chest. This was not enough to keep him from unceremoniously dropping her on her bed.

Ellie glared at him for a moment, before grinning as she hopped to the side, and laid on the edge of her blanket. “Roll me up!”

Rolling his eyes in amusement, he tucked the edge of the blanket under Ellie’s side, before rolling over and over until her entirely too large blanket was wrapped around her three times over.

“Snug?” he asked once she’d inch-wormed into place.

“As a bug.” His little sunbeam grinned.

Chuckling to himself he leaned down and kissed her forehead before turning to the more immaculately made bed, covered in a purple spider patterned blanket.

“Book time ‘s over.” He told his darker child.

Luna glared at him from over her book, using all the willpower she could muster, trying to change his mind through sheer force of will, and let her stay up reading her book on the forbidden dark arts.

He reached out and ruffled her hair just to mess with her.

Luna hissed at him as she began straightening out her hair, something he couldn’t help but laugh at.

He leaned down before kissing his daughter’s forehead and tucking her in. “Love you too, moonbeam.”

Luna glowered at him for another moment, before reaching under her covers and pulling out her current ragdoll ringleader, a position that cycled daily and currently belonged to one Lady Agatha Abersteen the fourth.

He eyed the dark arts forged doll staring at him with wide innocent eyes, before giving a huff of amusement and kissing the it’s forehead too.

In response the living doll covered it’s face in embarrassment and buried itself back under the covers, though he did notice it occasionally peeking at him from underneath.

Shaking his head, he stood up and made his way to the door. “You girls need anything else before I go?”

Ellie opened her mouth, before- “No more stories.” -closing it with a pout.

He smirked to himself as he flicked the light switch, before closing the door behind him, being sure to leave it cracked so Ellie wouldn’t be scared of the dark.

(Okay… that just leaves the teenagers for the night…)

As he made his way to Nico’s room, some part of him couldn’t help but find it ironic that the two kids who could best take care of themselves were also the hardest ones to take care of.

Pausing outside a door covered in stickers of a fanged smile beneath a top hat a pair of mad eyes gazing out from beneath. He gave the door a gentle push, opening it just enough to catch sight of Nico sitting at her desk with her hair tied back as she fiddled with some half-built machine.

The desk itself was covered in a number of tools, parts, and half-finished machines, organized to some mad theory, that revolved around ease of access to frequency of use. An organization method he knew she somehow picked up from him, if his own work area was anything to go by.

Off to the side of said desk, away from the worse of the mess was the cursed doll Luna gave her last night, which he was only letting Nico keep because he trusted her not to use it on the (bastard) who upset her. Next to this doll was Felix the Fixer, another ragdoll that was dressed in blue overalls and a hardhat as it examined its lifeless counterpart.

Luna had given Nico, as well as the rest of her siblings their own living ragdolls after figuring out how to make the little things. At the time none of the other kids had the heart to tell her how much the things freaked them out.

In fact, now that he thought about it, Ellie was the only one to have an honestly positive reaction to the dark art derived dolls, (and even then, she just wanted an army of the little suckers to play rescue the princess with…)

He shook his head at the memory, before bringing his attention once more onto his second eldest as he gave her door a light knock.

Nico looked up from her work, before grinning a mile wide and waving at him. “Hey Sol! What’s up?”

Briefly he let his eyes dart to her prosthetic arm, noting how she’d already fixed whatever damage she’d taken. Knowing Sophie, she was probably overreacting to whatever damage her sister had taken, (then again knowing Nico she could’ve fixed it all already.)

“Everything okay kiddo?”

Nico blinked. “Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”

“It’s just you had a rough day yesterday…” (Which reminds me I still need to have a… talk with that boy…) “And I heard today wasn’t much better…” Luckily Sophie had already handled that talk, if a little violently…

He sighed to himself.

(Which is another talk I need to have…)

Nico frowned after a moment. “Sophie talked to you…”

He shrugged, mainly because he didn’t really need either of them to talk to him to know something was wrong.

Nico let out a groan of frustration as she rubbed her palms into her eyes. “L-look it wasn’t that bad.”

He gave that a dry laugh. “It’s never ‘that bad’ until it’s too late to actually fix anything.”

“Nothing needs to be fixed.” Nico growled.

Her watched her for a moment before sighing. “If you’re sure.”

“I am.” His most stubborn daughter nodded, refusing to back down.

(I really should have taught her the difference between determination and stubbornness…)

“Just so long as you remember you’re not alone anymore.”

Nico blinked, before letting her glare soften as she turned back to her latest invention.

“I won’t…”

He nodded, before leaving her to her own devices… (Actually…) He paused at the door, and gave the machine a once over, running through what engineering knowledge he’d picked up over the years, before nodding once more in satisfaction.

(Okay, this one doesn’t look like it’ll blow up.)

That was always a concern when Nico was left to tinker, especially when she was upset. He usually let it slide since kids need their creative outlets, namely the kid who would spark out and dismantle half the electronics in their house, as well as their neighbors’ houses.

(You’d think the M.A.D. would be the easy child…)

He gave Felix a glance, and when the doll was paying attention to him, a nod towards Nico. The ragdoll looked towards its mistress before giving him a determined nod and a thumbs up, with its non-existent thumbs.

(These guys beat nanny cams any day of the week.)

Somedays he wondered if Luna, (or any of the kids really), realized he was using their own minions to spy on them.

As he was making his way down to the first floor of the house, and thinking about the little spies, a sudden thought occurred to him.

(What if she’s using them to spy on us? And just having them play double agent for me so I don’t catch on…)

A normal parent might consider him paranoid for having that idea.

A normal parent hadn’t raised any of his kids.

He shook his head, already deciding to keep an extra eye on the spy network his daughter had built, fully intent on finding out if she’d realized they could be used that way. And if his ten-year-old had managed to set up a spy network without any of them realizing it… he was taking her out for ice cream, and this time she could have the triple scoop chocolate.

It’d make both a good reward, and a decent bribe to let him keep using them.

At the bottom most step of the stairs he glanced to his side where Sophie was hiding around the corner while playing with a butterfly knife.

“So, where are you off to tonight?” Some people might think his eldest was trying to intimidate him with that act. The fact she was still only using the beginner knife tricks he’d taught her, however made her come off with that adorable nervousness a kid got when trying to ask their parents for something, but were worried they’d say no.

“Bones’ Bar, got a meeting set up.” He told her simply enough.

“Need back up?” Sophie asked, just a touch too much enthusiasm in her eyes.

“No, nothing like that.” He yawned, to cover his grin. “Besides, Bones won’t let anything happen in his bar,” (even if it technically belongs to Jack and Memento… both of whom he’s tried to kill over the years.)

“Oh…” His little soldier flicked her knife closed with a downcast expression.

He watched her for a moment. Sophie was his eldest, and the one most like him when he was younger, (probably because she’s half the reason I cleaned myself up…) So, he had a pretty solid idea of what it was she wanted but was too nervous to ask about.

Having helped raise her younger siblings as they came into their abilities, she’d picked up something of an adrenaline addiction from dealing with all the chaos that they tended to bring. An issue that was somehow amplified by being the only one of her siblings who wasn’t a Deviant and knowing she could still keep up with them.

It was the same action addiction he’d picked up during his ‘soldier’ days. Back when he was the only one on his team who wasn’t able to throw fireballs, raise the dead, or otherwise break reality.

An addiction he’d kept until having the bitch slapped out of him by a border line god.

(Whatever you do… don’t blink.)

He shook his head of that thought and pointedly ignored the old ache that ran throughout his skull, before once more focusing on his daughter and anchoring himself from a lot of bad thoughts and memories.

(Okay… so she’s getting antsy from not doing anything…)

He thought about that.

(Well, anything outside of torturing a few bullies…)

(Which she probably wouldn’t have done if she wasn’t on edge…)

(Usually she just resorts to scare tactics, and maybe a broken limb… or two…)

(…)

(Why is Ellie, the one who breaks random bar hoppers’ arms, the only one who doesn’t intentionally hurt people?)

He purposefully ignored whatever that said about him as a parent.

(Okay, so ignoring the violent tendencies of my children… Sophie needs to get out of the house…)

(In fact, thinking about it, it has been a while since we did something just the two of us…)

(Huh, it’d probably do us both some good to get out.)

Having come to a decision he nodded to himself.

(Since Nico was planning just a sleepover with Blake and Maybell this weekend, I doubt she’d mind watching the girls…)

(Actually, it’ll probably do her some good having Ellie and Luna try to cheer her up this weekend, especially if they talk Maybell into helping.)

(Just hope Blake can handle that migraine.)

That thought brought a grin to his face as he turned his attention back to his eldest, “Oh, I just remembered. I meant to ask you a couple of days ago, but how about you and I head over to Z-Town this weekend?”

“Really?” Sophie’s eyes lit up once more at the mention of her favorite hunting spot.

“Yeah, we can have Nico watch the girls, and we’ll make a whole overnight thing of it.” He nodded. (It’ll also give us the perfect opportunity to talk about how you systematically tortured your sister’s bullies in public… again.)

Sophie’s eyes lit up with an entirely new level of enthusiasm, as she turned to rush to her room. “I’ll go pack my things.”

“Ah, ah.” He caught her shoulder, causing her to turn to him curiously. “You almost stepped on Lily.”

Sophie blinked before looking down at a little ragdoll in a white dress. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” She picked her personal doll up and hugged it to her face, “I didn’t know you were following me Lil’s.”

He couldn’t help but smile as his little soldier continued to baby the little ragdoll all the way up the stairs, bringing up memories of when he first became parent to her.

(She really is too much like me…)