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Exactly Where You'd Expect to Find Him. (Mandrake)
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Post by ricochet6-Mandrake on Sept 29, 2021 1:27:55 GMT
"No offense but you ended up in worse shape than the Flymon you sent scurrying away. And I never said you shouldn't stand up for your daughter but you should show more caution when doing so since you are a human and very vulnerable to digimon attacks." Lothar growled staring Zack down and since he towered over most humans at eight feet tall he was an imposing sight indeed.
Lilly, not liking the feeling of the anger coming from the adults, started whimpering before she began audibly sobbing. Seeing and hearing Lilly, Mandrake stepped between both Zack and Lothar and rested a hand on Lothar's arm before he somehow calmly said "Knock it off you two. Lilly seems to be able to feel the emotions around her and you two are only upsetting her not to mention making fools of yourselves."
Lothar stopped growling and looked at Lilly who was still sobbing and he said "You mean Lilly is...."
"Yes, old friend, it seems our daughter has inherited empathic abilities from my father." Mandrake said causing the anger to disappear from his place only to be replaced by shock.
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Post by supesman on Sept 29, 2021 1:40:13 GMT
"Don't lecture me about what I should or should not do in defense of my own daughter. Honestly it makes you look like a real hypocrite because I know for a fact that if Lilly was the one who had been tossed out like garbage, you'd be the first one IN the fight and the last one OUT." He said, breaking away from the confrontation at Mandrake's insistence, steaming a little bit as he sighed and ran his hands over his face. He did seem to relax and even let out an audible little smile as the two of them made that discovery about their daughter.
"Oh wow, she can do that? That's so cool!" Marigold said, shrinking down to her rookie FanBeemon form and buzzing up to the baby, getting in a few "coochie, coochie, coos" with her glittering black leg parts, tickling the baby around the neck, armpits and stomach. Whether it was a genuine reaction or a deliberate attempt to break the tension was something that not even Zack would be able to guess. She was a fascinating mixture of her own pragmatic survivalism and his glowing idealism so figuring out whether she was genuine or just imitating same was often a fool's wager.
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Post by ricochet6-Mandrake on Sept 29, 2021 1:55:21 GMT
Lothar sighed and rubbed his free hand over his face as he took a couple deep breaths before he said "You're right, Zack, I would do the same for all of my children though not just Lilly. Sorry I growled at you. Though what you did was reckless you were only doing what you did in defense of your child."
As things started to calm down Lilly's sobbing calmed as she looked at everyone making unhappy faces at Zack and Lothar causing Mandrake to smirk at her quiet way of telling the two of them off. Then Marigold returned to her rookie stage and began tickling the little Jyarimon causing Lilly to scrunch her face before bursting out laughing while wiggling at being tickled. Seeing this Mandrake used his telekinesis to lift Lilly out of Lothar's hand and placed her on the ground.
"Marigold seems to have become quite strong since we last saw her Even though Lothar and I have sons at the champion and rookie level respectively I doubt the instinct to protect ones offspring ever fades no matter how independant they become." Mandrake said as he watched Marigold and Lilly.
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Post by supesman on Sept 29, 2021 4:12:27 GMT
Zack crosses his arms as he bonds with the two other fathers, seeing their girls bond in turn. Marigold making nonsense noises and blowing raspberries for Lilly, really getting a kick out of seeing the tiny digimon girl giggle and screech with laughter.
"Yea...stronger every day." He said, an undescribable but still instantly recognizable melancholy coming over his face as he looked down, sighing. "God, do they always have to grow up so fast? She used to be so small and now she's the kind of lady that anyone in the world would be lucky to know." He says, caught up in the swirling vortex of emotions that came from the sudden realization of his limited time where Marigold would need him as a father, at least as their relationship is now.
Marigold picked Lilly up, placing her on her broad, shimmering gold head, buzzing up off the floor and flying slow, gentle circles in the field in front of them.
"Won't be long before she realizes what I realized day one. How much smarter, braver and stronger than me she's always been. And soon after that she's going to have dreams of her own to live." He sniffs, trying to discreetly wipe a tear from his eye with the heel of his hand. not so much to hide the emotional gesture from Mandrake and Lothar but to hide his sadness and trepidation from Marigold. "I'm all she has, so she thinks I'm some big, grand guy who can do no wrong...and I don't know if I'm strong enough to let her go when she finds out she's wrong."
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Post by ricochet6-Mandrake on Sept 29, 2021 5:08:18 GMT
"Yes they do. Seeing as digimon mature faster than humans it's an understatement. Humans take anywhere from eighteen to twenty years to mature while a digimon can be a rookie in a matter of months." Mandrake said as he watched Marigold play with Lilly. His daughter squeaking occasionally along with her laughter.
When Marigold lifted Lilly Mandrake watched carefully as the young dragon was not as resilient as his and Lothar's older children though he knew Marigold wouldn't harm the baby it was just instinct to protect ones young driving him. Then Lilly stopped giggling while riding Marigold looking confused at the sadness she was feeling. It wasn't like before which made her scrunch her face in confusion.
Seeing Zack wiping his eyes Lothar knelt down placing a hand on the tamer's shoulder before he said "I doubt even when she is able to live on her own that she'll think any less of you. You said it yourself she's smart. That and she seems to have a good heart. Just like her father."
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Post by supesman on Sept 29, 2021 15:38:37 GMT
Some of Zack's sadness melted away as he wiped away the last ghost of a tear staining his face, nodding and swallowing, he didn't want his voice to break around the lump he felt in his throat where the two of them could hear him, he generally wasn't the kind to be overly embarrassed but he wanted to avoid giving them the ammo to rightly rib him about it.
"Aww come on, big man. You're supposed to be the gruff and serious one and you're out here making a grown man cry? Gotta stick to your brand!" He said, his sadness turning into laughter as he bantered with the towering digimon. He did catch a glance at Mandrake watching Marigold who was softly moving through the air, slowly sliding back and forth and making sure to never make a motion too sudden the Lilly might end up losing her grip, her two back legs bent backward so that she could grab Lilly if she wobbled. "I wouldn't worry about it, Mandrake. She's responsible and she definatley knows the limits of what is or isn't safe. She'd better, she gives me a lecture on it every chance she gets. On that note uh...how many kids do you actually have there, superdads?" He said, figuring he might as well try to grow closer to the two of them while he could, recent events showing that their families might end up more intertwined overtime.
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Post by ricochet6-Mandrake on Sept 29, 2021 16:05:07 GMT
Lothar smirked at Zack's comment about him being the serious one before he said "I guess I've been around Mandrake so long he has rubbed off on me. I guess I can't be the serious one all the time." Hearing this Mandrake chuckled softly.
Lilly, meanwhile, had begun laughing again as the strange sadness she felt coming from Zack faded. Good thing Marigold was holding on to her since Lilly had no limbs to hold on with. Zack caught Mandrake's attention when he told Mandrake not to worry and the Wizardmon turned his head and looked at Zack. "I get Marigold is responsible but, as you can understand, it's a parent thing." Then Zack asked how many kids he and Lothar had. "Lothar and I have three kids. Lilly is our youngest and her older brothers are LJ and Kshin. I know you met Kshin the day he digivolved to his rookie form."
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Post by supesman on Sept 29, 2021 16:13:00 GMT
"Three kids huh?" He said, his mind wandering, looking off into the middle distance as he imaged having three kids of his own, which in his case amounted to three different Marigold all buzzing around at the same time. he visibly snapped out of the short daydream, a shiver running all the way up his spine. "Mmm, you guys are better equipped for that than I am. I'm barely able to handle one kid who's stronger, smarter and more responsible than I am." He said, rubbing the back of his head and looking down at himself. "it also says something about how prepared I am for this parenting thing when the only thing I can think looking at that scar and how much blood is soaking my pants is that my mother is going to kill me for real this time." he laughed.
Marigold settled down to the ground again, marching up on all six legs to offer the giggling girl back to her father. She was panting a little bit, evidently getting a case of her own medicine as she tuckered herself out for Lilly's sake.
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Post by ricochet6-Mandrake on Sept 29, 2021 23:21:42 GMT
"I guess it also helps that when we adopted Kshin that LJ was more indenpendant and at the rookie level." Lothar said looking over at Lilly while she and Marigold played.
"That and Kshin was at the rookie level himself when we had Lilly. Good thing rookie digimon are fairly independent and that Lothar and I have had only one kid at a time to manage. I don't think I'd know what to do when it comes to twins." Mandrake said as he watched Marigold come to a stop and Lilly hopped off the Fanbeemon giggling and started bouncing around both Mandrake and Lothar's legs.
When Zack said his mother would kill him Mandrake chuckled before he said "I assume that's just a human expression since I seriously doubt your mother will kill you over suffering such injuries. However if the scar worries you then maybe I know someone that can at least hide it to your mother's eyes. As for blood I'm not sure what to do about that unfortunately."
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Post by supesman on Sept 30, 2021 3:33:26 GMT
"No, I wouldn't want to hide something like this from my mother. Even if she is going to totally freak when she sees it." He says, reaching down to pat Marigold on the head, wincing at the pain that was still soaking into that portion of his side, even the mild exertion of bending over just a second too fast leaving him with a slightly lightheaded throb in his temple.
"Dad can't lie to my Grammie, cause she taught him to tell the truth and he taught me to tell the truth. So even if he lied, I would just tell her anyway." She said, beaming up with pride at her father as if she was a student rattling off a high level answer in the middle of the classroom. Zack could only shrug at that.
"Yep, she's mostly right. I haven't been good at keeping secrets from my mom even when I was little and I only got worse at it the more I respected her as a person as I grew up." He said, Marigold devolving to her tiny, comfy Pururomon form and buzzing clumsily up to her father's shoulder, sitting to face Mandrake and Lothar.
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Post by ricochet6-Mandrake on Sept 30, 2021 3:50:40 GMT
Seeing the pain Zack was in when he patted Marigold on the head, Mandrake looked concerned as he said "Perhaps you shouldn't exert yourself so much Zack as you did just have a near brush with death not long ago." So Zack's mother was familiar with digimon so this perhaps made things a bit easier. "Your right about not lying to your mother. I didn't know she was aware of digimon as not all humans are aware of such a thing you know."
Meanwhile Lilly was hopping around near Lothar making various reptilian squeaks as she made her way to her Leomon father. The little Jyarimon had caught sight of Lothar's tail swishing back and forth lazily. It was a feature her other father lacked so naturally the youngster was fascinated by it as she moved closer. When she got close enough she opened her mouth at snapped at the oncoming tail catching hold of it and surprising Lothar causing the Leomon to look down at the child who was now tugging on his tail and began laughing.
When Marigold dedigivolved to her in training form Mandrake smiled before he said "You think hiding secrets from your mother is hard then try that with a parent who is telepathic like mine. I could never hide anything from him it seemed."
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Post by supesman on Sept 30, 2021 3:58:35 GMT
"Mandrake of course my mother knows about Digimon. I've called Marigold my daughter since the first moment you and I met and I meant it. My mother wants pictures and status updates every day because this..." he said, holding up his hand to point at the little golden bee on his shoulder, she waved to him realizing that she was the subject of conversation. "Is her grandbaby." he sighed and shook his head, though with a bit of a rueful smile on his face. "The longer I hang around digimon folk the more I get the feeling that Marigold and I don't have the kind of relationship that people expect. So I suppose as should make this as clear as possible." he said, placing his hands on his hips and raising one of his eyebrows, studying Mandrake's face just to make sure he was paying perfect attention. "I'm her FATHER. Whether I'm a human or not is totally immaterial." he said, waving his hand off to one side as if trying to physically banish the notion. "I will care for her, fight for her and treat her the exact same as I would any human child of my own blood or any digital child of yours. The fact that I'm fragile in this world doesn't matter, the fact that most digimon are a secret doesn't matter, nothing matters more than the fact that this right here is my child. Might take people a little bit of time to adjust to that idea but I won't hold back or stand down on any responsibility that raising her right entails."
Eventually Marigold got distracted, buzzing off of her father's shoulder and watching Lilly sway from her father's tail before she joined in on the "game" two, swaying back and forth like a headfirst swing set each time his tail swayed.
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Post by ricochet6-Mandrake on Sept 30, 2021 4:16:37 GMT
Mandrake smiled at Zack's words as he nodded in understanding of Zack's words. "I understand what your saying, Zack and I wasn't expecting you not to fight for your daughter. Family is more than just blood or data after all and since you are there for Marigold when she needs you most then that's the most important thing. Even if you have other children that should not change." Mandrake glanced over at Lilly briefly before turning back to Zack and continued "Just and Kshin is mine and Lothar's child even though he wasn't created from our data like LJ and Lilly were."
Lothar looked down as his tail had gained more weight as it seemed Marigold had gained a second wind and was also swinging on his tail along with Lilly both girls looking quite content and it didn't seem to bother Lothar at all as with his great strength it was as if he barely felt them even though they were on his tail.
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Post by supesman on Sept 30, 2021 19:31:26 GMT
"It's not just the fighting thing that surprises me, that's not even the real thing, Mandrake. The thing that really threw me off guard is that you would assume that my mother doesn't know about her." he said, gesturing to Marigold as she and Lilly swung back and forth, all giggles and squeals of glee as she hug, batted back and forth, from Lothar's tawny tail. "It's an...assumption that I'm thinking of her as a digimon first and a member of my family second simply because she's a digimon and I'm not." he said, trying to lay out a thought that had evidently been on his mind for a while now, thinking of a good example in that moment. "Mandrake, if Marigold had been a human girl would you have assumed as readily or as quickly that my mother didn't know about her?" He said, broaching and granting the question honestly, he wasn't trying to trap the magician in some kind of bigoted corner, he just wanted to help the pair see things from his point of view.
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Post by ricochet6-Mandrake on Sept 30, 2021 23:29:26 GMT
"It's not that I assumed you didn't think of her as family first and a digimon second as she is both. You are not the only human I've seen with a parent/child relationship with a digimon. It's just most tamers tend to keep their partners a secret to most of the human population which sometimes includes their parents unfortunately." Mandrake explained hoping it would clear things up for Zack as he had not meant to confuse the hero in that regard. Then at the mention of pictures Mandrake quirked an eyebrow before he said "How many pictures do you have? Lothar and I have taken some of our older children but have sent them to their grandparents for safe keeping. I still don't have any of LJ as a champion form yet though he became Leomon X awhile ago."
Then when Zack asked his next question of 'Mandrake, if Marigold had been a human girl would you have assumed as readily or as quickly that my mother didn't know about her?' it made Mandrake stop and think about his next words for a moment before he said "You bring up a good point, Zack. That is like asking if Kshin was a human boy would Lothar and I of still adopted him?" Mandrake then smiled before he said "Good thing your mother has taken the whole digimon thing well and seems to love both you and little Marigold."
Meanwhile Lilly had let go of Lothar's tail and it seemed Lothar was playing by swishing his tail in different directions and the young Jyarimon was giggling while pouncing at it as if trying to catch it again.
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