Shirt and Pants Optional

Posted on 13 Feb 2024 @ 4:16pm by Chief Petty Officer Ibis Xeri & Major Porter Wallace & Olivia Winetrout
Edited on on 25 Apr 2024 @ 4:11pm

Mission: M4 - Falling Out
Location: Obsidian Command, Wallace Residence
Timeline: Following "Permanence" & "Splish Splash"
995 words - 2 OF Standard Post Measure

Following bathtime, Ibis was not the quickest about dressing Ikemba, letting him tumble and playing at chasing him around the room.

Jalaine stood outside the children’s bedroom door impatiently waiting while Ibis acted childish with the little earth child. That’s what this was for Ibis, Jalaine continued to think. Games. She’d gone through so much pain and difficulty and now her little one was reverting to her games.

Ikemba was squealing wildly with tickles as Ibis ‘caught him in a shirt and spun him around. He got away and rushed out of the room shrieking at an ear splitting pitch, Ibis following after.

“Get back here mister! We wear pants now!” she said, waving the article of clothing in question at him.

“No pants!” Ikemba screeched back before putting up his play flight by running circles around the couch.

The door opened as the rest of the family returned from their own adventure and Ikemba climbed onto the sofa to avoid Ibis diving at him with the pants. But Ibis caught him by the feet and was holding him underwear end up.

“Tell him Walla! We wear pants now!” she rasped, her face glowing from the game.

“Pants are overrated,” he said in response. “In fact, I may never wear pants again myself.” He plucked Ikemba from Ibis’ grasp and twirled him around before putting him gently down on the couch and started tickling him. Ikemba screamed with laughter. He saw Jalaine standing by the doorway. “Hello, Jalaine. I didn’t see you.”

Following last behind Wallace and Olivia, Irwin came in through the door and before his wife could begin to berate him the two shared looks, the sort in which a silent conversation was taking place until Jalaine rolled her eyes at him as he pecked her on the cheek.

“Well I’m only staying until Ibis has cleaned up and is ready to go.” She motioned at Ibis’ wet and disheveled state from bathtime turned playtime. “You’ve had your turn shopping, now it’s to be a mother daughter outing.”

“Look!” Olivia couldn’t contain herself, she held out her forearm with the twisting waves to show proudly to Ibis. “It’s permanent!”

Surprised at the new body art, Ibis covered her mouth.

“It’s my gift! I got to pick one of my symbols, and it’s never going to wash off!”

For a moment Ibis’ wide eyes darted between Wallace and her father. Somehow she knew though, that it had to have been her father’s idea, and the gleam in his eye gave him away.

“Oh come now, how did you know?” The old man chuckled.

Ibis started to laugh, and then cry, and then hugged Olivia. “If you love it, I love it,” she said.

“I love it!” Olivia declared, accepting the smothering hug.

Jalaine’s head was spinning with the unruly scene. “You got a tattoo for a child?” she berated her husband out loud.

“Olivia is a young lady with experience beyond her years. Furthermore, the tattoo is a ritual marking, in the Korix School-of-One.” Irwin defended, his spirits not at all dampened as he basked in all of the joy in the room.

“Altha and all of her sisters!” His wife swore. “Irwin, you’re the biggest child of them all!”

Irwin put an arm around Jalaine and for some reason beyond her, she allowed it. He was simply incorrigible.

Seeing the fun on the sofa Olivia stood on it too and bounced up and down as she gave the recap of the adventure. “I got the best gift that doesn’t fit in a bag! The green giant can draw on your skin with a special marker, mine didn’t hurt, but then Wallace said,” She tried out her best impression of a grizzled old man and pounded a fist on her chest. “‘Gimme the real ink! The kind that hurts’, so—” she said confidently, “I held his hand.”

“You got a new tattoo?” Ibis asked, curiously. It wasn’t on his arms or neck. All the usual faded art was there, but nothing new.

“Yeah, it’s…” he pointed to his chest, right above his heart. “You know, it’s…” He glanced over at Jalaine and finally just shrugged. “I suppose Betazeds parade around naked,” Wallace muttered under his breath, before peeling off his shirt.

The skin was bright red and smeared with mineral oil. He’d had Buster retouch Elizabeth’s and Emily’s names making them the same dark black as Ibis’s, Olivia’s, and Ikemba’s names that circled his deceased wife and child’s names like a wreath. “This’ll do before I get one of those knot things Irwin has.”

Ibis, dropping into Wallace’s lap, blocked Ikemba’s flailing limbs while admiring the script. It was the boldest thing on him now, making everything else on his torso seem even more faded away. She put her hands around Porter's face and kissed him. “I love it.” She kissed him again.

*I’m not going to wait around all day.* Jalaine said telepathically to her daughter, irritated by the whole scene. She was not making progress on this entire entanglement at all. In fact, she started to wonder if she herself was getting taken in by it. *Are we going shopping or aren’t we?*

For a while Ibis didn’t seem to remember her parents existed, not even letting her mother’s telepathic interruption sour their moment. Between small kisses she updated Porter. “I was planning,” another kiss. “On going shopping. For a dress. If maybe you. Can feed the kids. Dinner.”

“Sure,” Wallace grinned. “Ice cream it is.”

At the menu announcement, Ikemba rolled off the sofa and declared his approval with a shout to register his choice of flavor. “Choca!”

“If that’s the case," advised Ibis, "then he might need a second dunk in the bath before bed.”