#post xcom

[soldiersandshitposts]

Sophie, happy!

Emra was still out taking care of the animals, so Sophie was covering making dinner for her. She wasn’t the best chef in the world, but she could at least make spaghetti. Caleb was in his play pen, or at least was supposed to be. However, when she went to check on him he was missing, her goat also notably missing.

“Any idea where they went?” She asked the dog laying on the couch, who just sighed. Freyr wasn’t good for much, other than warming a seat. Even then, you were lucky if you could get him to give it up.

“Pwincess!” She heard Caleb yell, at least she had something to follow now. Then there was laughter, she could only imagine what the two were up to.

She checked his room first, it was completely empty. It was then she realized where the laughter was coming from.

The door to her and Emra’s room was propped open, she pushed the door the rest of the way open to find Caleb and Princess jumping on the bed together. She could only laugh.

“Mommy! Look, she wants to play!” He was clearly excited, the goat gently head butting him.

“I see, but you were told to stay in the living room.”

“It was her idea!” Of corse he would try to blame the goat, she was having a harder time now trying to be serious.

“Caleb, come here.” She went to grab him, her goat choosing to shove her away. Sophie fell on the bed, Caleb bouncing over to her. Rolling onto her back she pulled him on top of her chest, where he happily sat. “Shouldn’t be listening to a goat bud.”

“I sowwy.” He said, laying down on her, the goat settling next to Sophie.

“Hey, it’s okay, I just gotta keep an eye on you. Can’t have you getting into trouble.” She kissed his forehead, causing him to laugh. One of her hands finding its way to scratch the goat in between its horns.

They laid there for awhile, until Emra came in the house.

“Weren’t you making dinner.” She asked, standing in the doorway.

“Oh shit.” Sophie muttered, without thinking. Emra staring blankly at her after that, it took her a few seconds to realize. “Fu- right, uh, I mean. Darn. We kinda… forgot.”

“Pizza!” Caleb yelled, jumping up, the goat following him as he ran off.

“You know, it is awful he atomically knows that.” Emra said as she watched him run around with the goat frantically following him.

“Em, it’s fine. He’s happy. Pizza is… healthier than… other things. It’s fine.” She sat on the edge of the bed, picking up a phone to call in an order. Emra sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her.

“Whatever works I guess.” Emra said before kissing her on the cheek, then leaving to go follow Caleb in his path of destruction.

Maybe a kid wasn’t the best idea in the end of the day, but they made it work. They were both happy, and so was he. It kept Sophie moving, which gave Emra a bit of a break. It was hard to believe it, but having a kid made her happy, and proud. Even if he got excited for his mom to forget to make dinner so they could order pizza. It was all good in the end, things couldn’t be better.

[soldiersandshitposts]

Sophie wasn’t talking, or really doing anything now for about two weeks. Emra wouldn’t say she was frustrated, worried maybe, but it did make things harder when Sophie got this way. It was to be expected, and Emra didn’t exactly know how hard to push to try to get her to act normally again. Figuring out how to deal with emotions was something that Emra knew Sophie was bad at, and dealing with all the left over feelings from the war wasn’t any better.

The idea of taking a baby goat away from its mom came to mind, but they all seemed to be doing fine every time she checked on them. That was until one mother gave birth to twins, and the one was weak and sickly, the mom refusing to look at it. Emra wouldn’t say she wished for it to happen, but it seemed as it would be a good idea to keep Sophie happy.

She wrapped it up in a blanket after cleaning it off, the poor thing was shivering. The thought of it dying came to mind and she didn’t exactly want to put Sophie in that situation, especially not with her current mind state, but the goat didn’t seem that unhealthy other than it wasn’t able to eat right away.

She got more nervous as she started to prepare formula for it, the goat now running around the kitchen floor. It was loud, she was surprised Sophie hadn’t come down to check yet. Once she finished she picked the goat back up, grabbed the bottle, and carried it to their room.

It was only four and Sophie was already in bed and seemed to have no plans on leaving. Emra knocked on the door before walking in, the sight of Sophie staring blankly at the wall wasn’t much of a surprise anymore.

“Hey.” Emra spoke quietly, trying not to alarm her. Sophie looked up at her, casting her a confused look when she noticed the goat. “Her mom had twins, she didnt want this one.” Emra dropped the goat in her lap.

“Em, I can’t.” For someone who hadn’t been talking much her voice was extremely hoarse.

“Yes, you can, and you have to. Goats were your idea.” Emra sat next to her, letting the goat take hold of the bottle. It grabbed on simply enough. Sophie laid her head on Emra’s shoulder and sighed. She took the bottle from Emra’s hand, leaving Emra to wrap that arm around her, and then kissing her on the cheek.

“Was a twin and it’s mom didn’t want this one?” Sophie started to scratch the little goat.

“Yeah, I think it was too small, plus it started getting sick. The poor thing.”

“Geeze, might as well just name it Sophie.” She laughed, at least she was making jokes, even if they didn’t have the best intent.

“So think you can handle this?”

“Every two hours, might need some help.” Sophie had a tiny smile on her face, she sounded like she was cheering up too.

“Waking you up every two hours is going to be a battle in and of itself. Might be easier than the whole bottle feeding.” Emra kissed her forehead, them both laughing.

“Hey!”

“What, that is the truth? I think you should give it an actual name, and not something based off a bad joke.”

“...What about Princess?”

“Princess?” That was about the last thing Emra ever expected to hear out of Sophie’s mouth.

“It’s cute, deserves a cute name.”

“Princess it is then.”

Things seemed to have worked out, thankfully. At least Sophie seemed happier. That was all that mattered. They could take care of the goat together, that would be fine, but it at least gave her something to focus on. Even if it had already pooped on their bed. Is there anything more magical than the healing power of a baby goat?

[soldiersandshitposts]

Jr. Cryptid Hunter

alternative title: William Weir is a BAD influence

When Caleb came home today, he came with a book, one that he hadn’t put down since. He even brought it to the dinner table with him, reading it under the table. Directly after dinner he ran right back up to his room, not even really speaking. Sophie followed him up. She found him curled up, looking at his tablet.

“Hey bud, what’s up?” She leaned against the doorway.

“So grandpa gave me this book, it’s about things called cryptids“ He was so excited, but Sophie couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Look! They’re so cool! People go hunting for them and try to prove they’re real!”

“Caleb-“ She was trying her best not to laugh, it was hard.

“He even said he used to hunt them!” His eyes were sparkling as he handed her the tablet. “Look! This one’s called mothman, it’s a giant moth!”

“Yeah, I see!” She sat down on his bed next to him, him crawling into her lap. “Which one is your favorite?”

“I like goatman, cause he’s a goat, and I think that’s cool.” He said, lying on his back. “He throws people off his bridge!”

“That doesn’t sound very nice!”

“He doesn’t gotta be nice! He’s Goatman!” It was easy to see his excitement, the smile he had was almost as big as his whole face.

“Maybe if you ask Grandpa nicely, he can take you out hunting.” That made Caleb jump up, running for the phone instantly.

“You really think so? It could be dangerous, you’re okay with that?”

“I think you’ll be fine Caleb.” She watched as he called Will, a face of disappointment when he got his voicemail.

“Hey Grandpa? It’s me, Caleb. I was reading the books and mom found out and she said it’s okay for me to be your hunting buddy! Just wanted to let you know that, bye!” He was smiling when he hung up the phone.

“Oh, so you already asked him about it?”

“He said I had to ask you, but I was nervous, but you told me to! So it all works out!” He jumped onto the bed, bouncing. Sophie gave him a kiss on the forehead before getting up.

“Just make sure you have all your chores done, don’t want the cryptids thinking your a bad kid, then they might go after you.” She walked toward the door, shaking her head.

“They wouldn’t go after me for that! Maybe they’d go after a parent for making their kid clean their room.” Where did he even come up with this? He was getting too creative.

“Or moms could make their kids not go cryptid hunting because their rooms aren’t clean.”

“Ugh, fine.” The phone rang after that, Caleb jumping for it, disappointed to see it was just a random caller.

“Hey Caleb? Love you.”

“Yeah, yeah love you too mom.”

He curled back up with his tablet as she shut the door, she ran into Emra on the way out.

“What was that about?”

“You don’t want to know sweetie, you really don’t want to know.” Was all she could say as she started laughing, Emra looking at her confused. “I’ll explain later, let’s go finish up in the barns.”

“...This involves some weird thing with your dad, doesn’t it?”

“Doesn’t it always?” Sophie took her hand, kissing her fingers. “Come on, let’s just go.” She said, leading her towards the door.

There were a lot of situations Sophie imagined in her life, but explaining cryptids to her alien wife and her son begging her to go cryptid hunting really weren’t up there. Seemed every day was a new surprise.