Phases of the Moone: Gen 2 Intro

Meet Ashe Augustus Moone 

Occult Type: Fairy

Traits: Good, Adventurous,Brave, Loves the Outdoors, Snob

Lifetime Wish:Seasoned Traveler 

Summery: Ashe Moone grew up in a huge family and struggled to find his own place within  since both he and his twin brother, Oberon were always stuck in the middle of six kids. To get himself noticed he was always a bit of a rebel( although his intentions were never malicious) and did things like date an older woman and refuse to go to college with his twin, at least at first. His protectiveness got the better of him and he chose to join Oberon  after all. There he meets a woman named Nina who forever alters his life's direction.  His story begins Monday, August 1rst. 

Phases of the Moone 1.14

            Towards the end of the pregnancy we put the finishing touches on Basil’s bachelor pad.  Like his nursery and bedroom before that we painted most of it orange. We also added an extra bathroom in it since he needed one and one simply wouldn’t be enough anymore after the new baby arrived. 

Around the same time Ashe and Oberon turned thirteen. Since the house was a mess after the construction we decided to celebrate their birthday  in a nearby park. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones, maybe not, but I cried when they blew out the candles.  A few days after the party my water broke and Jasper rushed me to the hospital. 

    

As soon as the car started going anxiety crept into my skull. According to the doctor we were expecting twins again, two girls, but he also warned me that my advanced age of near forty meant  that  a C-section was almost guaranteed. Before this moment building Basil’s room had kept my mind busy so I didn’t worry about everything that could go wrong or worry my kids about it, now nothing was holding them back.

            Jasper grabbed my hand and held it until the paperwork was signed and I was in my hospital bed. I wished he could have stayed throughout the entire birth, but as my doctor expected, I needed a C-section.

            The rest of the labor is a blur of anesthesia  and Epidural until one phrase cleared the fog, although the voice that said it was distant. “There’s one more’

            A few minutes later a nurse held two little girls and Jasper held a little boy. I grabbed at the air trying to get a hold of at least one of my kids, but a nurse was pulling me away.

            “Mrs. Moone," she said in a cold, stilted voice, “You’ve lost a lot of blood, we have to get you a transfusion immediately.”

            In my medicated state I tried to stand and my head spun. The nurse gently pressed me back down onto the bed and I didn’t fight her.

**********************

            The triplets and I spent an extra three weeks in the hospital just to make sure everything was okay. When we returned home I was greeted by Jasper and three handsome young men. Wfen I saw them  a thousand stresses melted away. There would be a lot of growing pains, but for now I was relieved the triplets were alive and healthy.

            The oldest of them a werewolf like me, Like Basil she should no signs of being an occult, but by them we knew better. We named her Maribelle Jane Moone.

 Next in line was another little girl with wings matching Jasper’s, Ashe and Oberon’s, we named her  Posie Olivia Moone. Like Ashe she took after Jasper in many other ways as well.

            Lastly there was our last boy, he was a fairy and we named him Jack Michael Moone, after my boss who passed a couple  years after he retired.  He helped we a lot when I first moved to Moonlight Falls a lifetime ago. 

 I looked from the miracle triplets to the older kids to Jasper and tears welled up in my eyes.

            “Are you okay, Mom?” Oberon asked.

            I didn’t say a word, just nodded, no words would fit.  This was my legacy and I couldn’t have wished for a better one. 

Phases of the Moone 1.13

Before I knew it, Basil reached his thirteenth birthday. It was a bittersweet moment because he had grown into a wonderful young man, but I knew that in just a few years he’d be out of his house and on his own.

 With his birthday I was positive that he’d forget about Mystery completely, but he didn’t and instead asked for a chemistry set so he could create the potion needed to bring her to life. I didn’t want to get him the set at first because he was much too old for us to encourage his frankly delusion behavior. However, strange things started to happen around the house. For instance one day I swore I saw a plate moving towards the dishwasher on its own, when I moved in to get a closer look it was right back on the table where it was left earlier. 

            Things got even stranger when we got a call from the Science Lab mentioning that they saw Basil talking to an invisible  being on one of the class field trips. They requested he come back to their lab with 2000 simoleons and a rainbow gem. I couldn’t help but wonder if there something to be said about Basil’s claims. 

            Jasper seemed to feel the same way. “Perhaps we should get Basil chemistry set and see what happens.”

            “I think you’re right.” I said.

As soon as we got him that chemistry set, Basil’s life greatly improved. While he still had few friends and talked about Mystery constantly, he did join both The Science and Shop clubs to help improve his chemistry skills. I had high hopes that he'd make actual friends in the his  clubs. 

***

            Life became pretty routine after that. The boys would go to school and their clubs , I would go to work and Jasper would  tend to his plants  and manage the house. One spring morning, Jasper and I decided to change up the routine after the boys left for school. I didn’t have work for a few hours yet so we decided to take advantage of our alone time. What started with a simple  dance to shake up the morning routine  ended in the shower and  most people could guess what happened after that. 

            I was older than I was when the boys were born, so I figured that my child birthing days were over, but a few weeks later I woke up feeling more nauseous than I ever had before.  I had my suspicions, but refused to believe I was expecting any more kids, until I puked my guts out shortly after the boys got home from school. The one bathroom we had was occupied so I spilled basically everything I’d consumed that day on our front lawn.

 I pulled Jasper to the side and told him about my symptoms. “What are we going to do?” I asked him in a hushed tone.

            “We’ll be fine. What’s one more kid? We’ll build Basil his own personal bachelor pad outside the house and give his room to the new baby. Not to mention Ashe and Oberon’s thirteenth birthday is just a few months away, we’ll have plenty of help,” Jasper said.

            At the time I believed every word he said and even looked forward to the new baby, but sometimes life isn’t quite as simple as you’d like it to be. 

Phases of the Moone 1.12

The next morning a got a notice in the mail informing me that Mr. Blainstreet had named me the new fire chief starting in January with a nice bonus included. Jasper and I used a chunk of it to remodel the living room, but even after we had painted the walls among many other things there was still plenty of it left.

             “I guess we’ll put the rest of it in savings,” I said to Jasper.

            “I have a better idea, “he said, smiling ear-to-ear. I asked him what he had planned and he answered, “Let’s take the family on a vacation to celebrate your new promotion.”

            For once I didn’t worry at all and just agreed. “It might help Basil to get out of town for a while too.”

*** 

            After about a week or two of planning me, Jasper and the boys were on our way to Al Simhara, Egypt. The only requirement I had was that Basil had to leave Mystery at home, he complained, which concerned me a little, but got over it as soon as me reached our base camp. The moment our plane landed his eyes lit up and he started exploring the base and even talking to some of the other explorers staying there.

             I let out a relieved sigh and grabbed a book to read. The original plan was that we’d spent most of the day hanging around base camp and settling in and then maybe we go eat at the marketplace later. Basil, Oberon and I were perfectly fine with that idea, but Ashe and Jasper couldn’t sit still and were running around and casting fairy pranks on each other and a handful of other  tourists like ourselves.

            I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “If the two are bored, why don’t you go somewhere instead of disrupting the peace here.”

            Ashe’s eyes widened with excitement. “Daddy, can we go explore a tomb like  Appaloosa Rones or something?!”

            “Sure thing Kiddo,” he said and the two of them were gone in a flash .

            The rest of us didn’t join them and they returned within a couple hours. According to them they tried to explore the Sphinx, but due to some obstacles that included fire among other dangerous things they didn’t get much farther than the entrance.

            I got one look at their photos and decided that no one in the family was going to raid anymore tombs this trip because hospital bills were expensive. I didn’t say it aloud, but those pictures made my heart race from anxiety. The Sphinx wouldn’t be the last tomb my kids explored, but by the time they tried “tomb raiding” again they would be much older.  

The rest of the first day went as planned; everyone stuck around base camp to the point where we didn’t even go out for dinner. However, that didn’t mean that we didn’t sample the culture a little bit, there were some interesting meal around base camp, including camel brain which we all tried. The dish, for lack of a better word, had a rubbery texture and tasted like a leather shoe. I took one bite and opted for some toast and jam instead. Everyone else seemed to feel about the same, except for Oberon who actually had seconds.

            After that the jet lag caught up to us ,we crawled into the tents and instantly fell asleep.

***

       The  next morning we took our time getting ready and planning how we would spend our first full day in Al Simhara.  By the time the boys had gotten bored enough to start playing in the sand we decided to just explore Al Simhara a little (avoiding the tombs of course).

Everywhere we looked was another beautiful landscape, but the real pieces of paradise were off the beaten path.  My favorite place we found was small, jungle oasis we came across. The little piece of green was so thick and overgrown that Jasper and I managed to steal a moment for ourselves to snuggle close and kiss which was just getting harder to do as the boys grew older.  Ashe ran over to us a few moments later to show us a bug he caught, a big smile on his face. 

          The sun set far too soon and we returned to base camp. 

***

            The next day was our last full day. At Breakfast some shady people who said they worked for a company called MorcuCorp came to our camp and started offering anyone who wanted it a job. No one took it and we quickly herded our family to the Marketplace to get away from them. We spent the day enjoying the pool and everything else the Marketplace had to offer and then night fell.  I’d forgotten what time of month it was due to the time difference and as usual as soon as the moon rose Basil’s and my wolf sides came out.  Jasper assures me that I behaved myself and actually spent most of the night playing chess with Oberon.

 Basil on the other hand was a little more of a terror. He did a lot of damage to the furniture and even tried to attack some of the locals, they were zombie locals, but it was still bad behavior. We booked the first flight home the next morning.

Phases of the Moone 1.11

As Basil and the twins grew, I started to notice that Oberon was easily frustrated. If he didn't take the exact amount of steps he needed or didn't quite get a word he would start over from the beginning. Ashe on the other hand owned his mistakes and if he fell he dusted himself and got right back up from where he hit the ground. I was relieved he had such confidence and hoped that some of it would rub off on his twin.

            Because of Oberon’s apparent perfectionism their toddler days were bitter sweet and I also didn’t take as many pictures as I should have, but I did have a few, including one where Ashe mastered the art of walking.

Although my hours weren’t bad, in those days I still worked a good chunk of the day away and Oberon worked best on his own, so I wasn’t able to be around enough to capture his milestones and while I  love Jasper, he wasn’t much of a shutterbug . I did capture several great  perplexed  Rasputin expressions as he observed the three small occults running around the house at all times. If it got too much for the cat he'd go play with what Jasper and I nicknamed his “therapy wall dancer”. Despite the fact that our boys annoyed him sometimes, Rasputin never hurt them.

***

In what felt like the blink of an eye the toddler days ended first with Basil’s sixth and just a few short years later the twins’ birthday of the same age.   Even though they were older, they were still the cutest boys I’d ever seen. One of my favorite pictures of Basil was on his sixth birthday and he started tapping on his leg and humming, as if his legs were a drum. He never did anything with instruments, but it was still cute at the time .

Ashe did something completely different when he turned six, instead of pretending his leg was drum he immediately started experimenting with the magic he inherited from Jasper. One of my favorite pictures of him is one where he’s full of curiosity about his abilities and would go on to use it for both good and mischief, although he never seriously harmed anyone with it.

             Oberon aged up as quietly as he was born with no fuss or noise. He wasn’t as eager as Ashe  to use his magic either ,but that didn’t stop him from getting into mischief with it later.

            Any worries I had about his perfectionism or quiet nature were quickly overshadowed by worries about Basil. At around eight-years-old his childhood doll, Mystery vanished, but he constantly talked about her coming alive and becoming his imaginary friend. 

 The roughest incident for Basil happened on the Snowflake Day after Oberon and Ashe’s seventh birthday. Basil was almost nine and after much debating (we still hadn’t forgotten the Bachelor-Bachlorette incident) Jasper and I decided to throw a gift-giving party since we thought it would be fun for the boys. It was intended to just be a family party with us and the boys, but I let the plans slip during my shift and Baylee and Larry (who were together) guilted we into inviting them as well.

            “We have nowhere to go on Snowflake Day, surely two more wouldn’t be too much of a hindrance on you,” Baylee had said and I caved. Jasper, being the friendly type, didn’t try to talk me out of it when I got home on Snowflake Day Eve.

            Right before the party the next night I got a call on my emergency beeper that the heating system in the Fae Ray Gardens was out and needed to be fixed or else the plants would die. As a fireman I couldn’t say no, so I rushed to Fae Ray Park to get the problem solve as quickly as possible. 

It took a little longer than I thought and by the time I finally got the heating mechanism started, I was late to my own party. When I got there Basil had transformed into his wolf form and the other three boys in the house were casting spells like Chattering teeth and Hot Head on Larry and Baylee. The two of them immediately stomped out of the house.

            Baylee paused just enough to turn back at me and shout, “The fire chief will hear about this and we are never coming to your parties ever again!” She was out the door before I could respond.

             “What exactly happened?” I asked my family while my thoughts were running a million miles an hour, worrying about whether I would have a job in the morning.

            Basil, Ashe and even Jasper stood around looking guilty, Basil even whimpered like a kicked puppy.  Oberon, on the other hand, calmly explained the whole incident to me. “Basil was building a snowman with Mystery and talking to her. Mrs. Baylee saw that and started whispering mean things about him to Daddy with Basil right there, so Ashe cast chattering teeth on her and then things esc..es…What’s the word?”

            “Escalated is the word you’re looking for.”  I crossed my arms and turned to the boys. “Please go to bed, your father and I have to talk. “Immediately the boys vanished into their bedrooms.

            Jasper and I didn’t fight often, but when we did the boys knew from an early age what we looked like when we were about to have a serious conversations. “Did you have to cast spells as well?” I asked Jasper.

            “I know, but Basil has enough people picking on him already, he didn’t need a grown woman doing it as well, so I shooed her out of the house and Larry followed her,” he said.

            “Your childishness could have just cost me my job.” I said.

            “I doubt it, you outrank those idiots by a lot and isn’t Mr. Blainstreet about to retire anyways? I think he’s more interested in finding a successor than petty squabbles between his employees.”

             “I suppose your right, but what are we going to do about Basil? He has no friends and…”

            Jasper cut me off. “You’re worried , I know, but he has his family and Mystery for as long as he needs her.”

            “Maybe we should put him in scouts or something like that. He can’t keep his imaginary friend forever.”

            Jasper grabbed my hands. “We’ll figure something out, for now I say we go to bed and get a fresh start on that tomorrow.”

            “You’re right.” Jasper pulled me into an embrace and we stayed like that for five or ten minutes before we let go and headed to bed.

 Despite all his optimistic words I slept little that night. If only I knew that things would get easier for Basil, much better than I could possibly imagine.

Phases of the Moone 1.10

It took a few weeks, but we found an affordable house somewhat close to Moonlight Falls’ graveyard. It was a modest place, but the perfect size for our future family and we immediately started remodeling to make the place our own.

            The first room we remodeled was me and Jasper’s. I still have the pictures and it amazes me how little our room has changed since we first moved there. 

            The next room we remodeled was Basil’s; unlike ours it has changed many times over the years. However the version that was his nursery still holds a special place in my heart. In hindsight the sheer amount of orange may have been a little much, but the color looked good on him and still does to this day.

 Other items we added during those first couple days including extending the house a little so Jasper had a place for his plants and our unborn twins would have a room. We didn’t do much else to it until a few doctors’ trips down the road when out doctor swore that both of them would be girls. In response we made the room purple and pink.  By the time all that was finish we had a lot of spending we had to make up for and things were a little tight for awhile. Even after the twins were born and we found out they were in fact both boys, there was no money left to change the room, so our newest boys were stuck in a pink and purple nursery.

            Just like Basil’s I remember their birth like it was yesterday.  We were experiencing an Indian summer. Fall leaves danced with a gentle wind. While it wasn’t hot, the breeze was warm and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. On that same day, Basil took his first steps.

 Hours after that my water broke, unlike last time the hospital bag was already packed and we got to the hospital in just a few minutes. Ashe Augustus Moone was born first and even then he looked just like his father. My labor with him was about double the length of his twin and when he finally decided to come out he immediately burst to tears, but just for a few seconds and then a cute little frown appeared on his face and would stay there for most of his childhood.

            Oberon James Moone quietly followed a few minutes later. For a few seconds me, Jasper, the doctor and the nurses held their breath, unspoken worries clouded the air until  he finally cried and cleared his lungs, but only for a few minutes. When he stopped a little smile filled his face and then he drifted to sleep. I held them both, speechless, but happy. It still amazes me how opposite the two of them are, even in appearance. While both of them had Jasper’s skin-tone and wings, Oberon had dark hair while Ashe had light. Oberon’s eyes were darker, although both sets were a mix of both Jasper’s spring green and my yellow. I glanced quickly from our two newest additions to Jasper and indulged in a moment of pride; we made beautiful babies together.

I stayed in the hospital a little longer than I did with Jasper because I’d just given birth to twins firstly, but secondly the nurses were concerned by the fact that Oberon reacted a little slower to things like my face , than the other babies including Ashe. He moved less, looked at people less and cried less.  I started to worry a little more myself with each shot and blood test he went through without results. Finally, after a month the doctors decided we could go home when there were no other tests they could do on my newborn. I eagerly took them home, worries firmly planted in the back of my mind.

            “Oberon is fine, he might just be a little slow,” Jasper assured me.

 His words and gestures of comfort didn’t make me feel any better and for the next year of Oberon’s life I studied manuscript after manuscript about babies and  what phases they needed to hit and when. Ashe was always ahead while Oberon was just a little behind.

            “Babies learn at different rates, he’s fine.” Jasper always assured me and I worried, but tried to put it aside on their birthday. I let them make a mess of their cakes and toddle after Basil wherever he went and I was happy and relaxed but a mother can never put her concerns away  for too long.

Phases of the Moone 1.9

For the longest time Basil showed no signs of being an occult. He didn’t have wings like Jasper and he didn’t transform during the full moon like me. I hoped that meant it was impossible for him to inherit my furry problem. That changed when his first birthday fell on a full moon. The moment the moon fully rose into the sky, just like me he transformed. His first target, our brand new love seat, and then he filled the apartment with a shrill, feral howl.

The rest of the night, besides that reveal, is a blur. I don’t even think my wolf side cared.Giving birth to a new werewolf meant it had the beginnings of a pack. Jasper assures me I never made plans like that, no matter what I thought the next morning. I’m not so sure, but I never acted on them. I  wish I could write my past self a letter assuring her that all the worrying she would do for the next several years was a waste of time, but I couldn't. 

Anyways, the next day Basil seemed unaffected by his transformation, but the next moon was always in the back of my mind in those days.  

Because the full moon interrupted any type of party we could have set on his actual birthday, we had a quiet family celebration the next day.  Jasper also wanted to get something really special for his first birthday, so we went to the Consignment shop of all places.

“There’s this really popular doll sold there that everyone is getting. Basil will love it!” he exclaimed like a child about to spend their Christmas money.

“If you say so.” I said.

It was a nice fall day and the Consignment store wasn’t too far away, so we walked. Basil rode on Jasper’s shoulders the entire time. At the time, that was the sweetest thing I’d ever seen.  Watching them together melted away my worries, at least until we got to the store and saw the dolls.  At the time there was a whole shelf dedicated to them and they all looked like differently colored clowns of the same mold and there was just something strange about them.

Jasper looked up towards Basil. “All right Bud, point to your favorite color." 

“Daddy, I wants that one.” Basil said and pointed to one that was some sort of off-salmon color.

“You don’t have to get one of the dolls if you don’t want it, Basil,”

Basil crossed his arms. “I do too wants her. Her name is Mizteree”

Jasper picked the doll up. “Mystery is a great name.” He handed the doll to Basil and paid the cashier. I didn’t argue anymore because Basil wanted it so badly and we were celebrating his birthday, but things only got stranger from there.  Anytime Basil had free time he was playing with or singing to the doll.

At one point I got so concerned I asked Jasper, “Do you think he’s lonely? Does he need siblings?  I mean I know you work from home, but I am gone a lot during the day...”

“ I’m sure it’s just a phase, plus you should be proud of how far you’ve come, you’re the Assistant Fire Chief now. Plus I wouldn’t call working noon to five working a lot during the day,” Jasper said.

I agreed to stop worrying about it. It was common for toddlers to attach themselves to a certain stuffed animal or blanket. In hindsight I'm glad we bought him the doll, but it never stopped being unusual. 

***

Months went by and Jasper and I worked on teaching Basil anything we though he might need to know. When he learned most of his basics I started wanting more kids for  entirely different reasons.

One day, near the full moon  I randomly burst into tears after work.

Jasper immediately pulled me into a hug. “What’s wrong, Ramona?”  he asked after we ended the embrace.

“Basil is growing up so fast! In just a couple years he’ll be starting kindergarten and then middle school and…”  I blubbered.

Jasper hugged me again and then whispered in a husky voice,“ Does this mean you want to try for more?” 

 My tears stopped and I whispered back, "Sounds fun to me.

***

            It didn’t take long before a familiar wave of nausea woke me up a few mornings later.  The doctor’s visits that followed confirmed it, I was pregnant but this time we were expecting twins.

            The car ride back home was quiet. Basil was asleep in his car seat and both Jasper and I were reeling from the news.

            “Jasper, I think we should buy a house,” I said breaking the silence.

            “I was thinking the same thing,” he said. 

Phases of the Moone 1.8

When my “stomach bug” didn’t go away I took the day off of work and went to the doctor’s office with Jasper. When the doctor told us that I wasn’t sick, but rather pregnant I remember Jasper breathed a sigh of relief and then his cheek-to-cheek grin filled his face.

“Can I feel your belly?” he asked

“As soon as we get back to the apartment,” I said.

Once home I obliged his request and a look of pure contentment filled his face. “What do we want to name our child?” he asked.

I smiled." We don't even know the sex yet, we should figure that out before we start brainstorming baby names.  

What I didn’t tell Jasper at the time was that I was far more concerned about my child’s species rather than their sex. What if they were a werewolf like me and lived in fear of themselves every day? What if a hybrid was born and the fairy and werewolf genes didn’t mix well?  Could I even give birth to a fairy if the baby took after Jasper?  I should have voiced my concerns, but I didn’t. Jasper just looked so happy and excited about the new baby and I didn’t want to kill the mood.

            I kept my issues to myself until the day my water broke. It was a grim, gray, autumn day. Fog hung over Moonlight Falls and by then most of the trees were bare. We were sitting on our couch and a booming thunderclap filled the air.

            Moments later I felt excruciating pain in my abdomen. “Jasper. It’s time.” Adrenaline pumped through my veins as the worries I’d been having surfaced all over again.

            After that  the car ride, hospital lobby, serious-faced doctors and pain  blurred together until I held Basil Windstone Moone in my arms and then everything crystallized into a single moment of elation as I looked into my son’s face.  The elation faded and I burst to tears.

            “What’s wrong?” Jasper asked and all my worries came flooding out. After a few soft assurances by Jasper I felt a lot better and a few days later we returned home with our brand new son. 

            Rasputin regarded him with wary acceptance and all my worries seemed to have gone to bed. I wasn’t even worried about the full moon, because I knew I would never hurt my own child. He didn’t even cry when my wolf side came out once  as I was putting him down for the night. 

 A year later I would realize that his lack of fear foreshadowed a whole new issue that Basil would have to deal with his entire life.