Post by jmc on Apr 22, 2016 12:16:31 GMT -5
OOC NOTE: There are several characters and backstories I glance over in this RP; if you're interested in knowing about them, the following link has a cast list that'll be crucial for the next month of JMC RPs: t.co/qyFGQDb8Qp
Also, and I can't even believe I have to bring this up, but all JMC character development RPs are considered OFF-CAMERA; no one outside of the characters written in the scene is supposed to know anything about what takes place in JMC's personal life UNLESS he brings it up in a promo. You'd think that'd be common sense, but I've had a lot of people try to do stuff like that to me before, so consider this your friendly warning.
That said, thanks for reading, and I hope you all enjoy!
[Cornett Mansion, North Manchester, IN; April 22nd, 2016, 11:33AM]
[Mood Music: "Eye On It" by tobyMac]
Well this definitely wasn't the typical cookout.
After the rains had slammed Indiana for most of the evening, things weren't exactly in prime mode for outside cooking. As usual, however, Dad always had a backup plan--indoor grilling. The kitchen of my place had a venting system on the side of the wall, so Dad just used it to start up the fire and go berserk.
That being said, I was still upstairs with Keeley putting the final touches on our outfits. I was adjusting my white zip-up while she was putting the finishing touches on her makeup. She wasn't sure how to dress at first, what with it being my family and whatnot, but I'd told her not to worry about it.
At this point, her appearance was the last thing I was nervous about.
It'd been a strange few days to say the least, not the least of which would be announced with at the start of this event, but everyone in the family was here.
EVERYONE.
Between my dad, my siblings, their significant others, my kids, THEIR significant others (at least when they had them--Ashtyn's idea of a date would end up being my opponent in a month and D.J. was still too young to date, not even by my opinion but her own)...what we had to announce was either going to be very well-received or hashbrown what-the-fucked for weeks afterward.
And with this being my family, there was no easy tell.
I looked over to my fiance (I still felt a swell of pride and ecstacy upon thinking of her in that way) as she put the last touch of liner on her eyes. "You ready to make your debut to the family, love?" Technically, the kids had already met her, and Ash had noticed my interactions with Keeley....
Right, rewind.
When last I left you guys, most of you thought I was living a happy ever after with that ring announcer Bryony. Well, shortly after Gene's death (he got T-Boned on the way home from school with D.J., who was driving at the time--we thought she was going to be paralyzed for a while, but that turned out to be false, thank God), Bryony just up and left me without even so much as an explanation. Depressed and hurt, I went seeking company and ran into a couple friends of mine, which was a mistake because somehow they had Shadow Chaos inside them. Five minutes later, guess who was back in my head plotting sick and twisted revenge. Thankfully some friends found me and got me into a more stable frame of mind, but the fact is I was back to default JMC after everything.
Which meant I REMEMBERED everything.
Vittoria's betrayal.
Txanton's manipulation.
Chaos's creation.
Gemison's systematic destruction and disambiguation.
Jamilyn's torture as a toddler and Vittoria allowing Txanton (who by this time was her husband) to get away with it.
Karyn's kidnapping disguised as a death.
The creation of my surveillance/intelligence organization, The Desolation Network.
Ashtyn's abuse at the hands of her husband.
Lisa McKnight's death.
Misty Donimari's erasure of any relationship I could've had with our son Randy.
Nicole's years of manipulation.
Mom's murder.
Scarlett's assaults, which turned out to be Karyn.
Finding out Jamilyn had been raped again only to lose the baby she was carrying three months later from the same asshole.
Txanton's abducting me.
Hearing Juliana kill both Txanton and an expecting Nicole (who, as it turned out, was knocked up by Txanton).
Twenty-five years of psychological, physical, and emotional torture flushed back in one moment.
Now you tell me how a man's supposed to deal with all that and remain mentally sane.
So I was already dealing with a lot to begin with. But then I met Chelsey Garvey on a visit to Cornett Enterprises' music studios after the producer assigned to her had made very lude sexual offers to her. Needless to say, dude got fired quick. For the following several weeks, it seemed like a guessing game as to how interested we were in each other and how fast we really wanted to go with things, but then, a couple nights prior, we realized exactly how much we really meant to each other. I won't go into details here (I let you all into my head, but I still have respect for my woman, come on), but it prompted me to ask her right then to be my wife.
Now, keep in mind, this firehaired Irish bombshell of a goddess is turning 26 this year, and I'm turning 40 four days after my final match ever, so that's astonishing in itself that she and I gel that well together, but to see her...her entire body is a canvas of art, with all sorts of tattoos that are both beautiful and incredibly detailed. Her light green eyes and full pouty lips never got old to look at, and she had a figure that...well, in the words of Patrick Swayze, try to pick a word to define this girl and NOT use the word "statuesque" at some point in your thought process. But what attracted me to her most was her personality--she was equal parts confident but reserved, social but shy, daring but understanding, fierce but loyal. It was almost as if she was specifically meant to be with me.
And, as you're about to see, she somehow seems to fit perfectly in my little Multiverse.
She was looking lightly nervous while getting ready. Fixing her hair for the tenth time. She was not the nervous type in general, but today was important.
"Ready is too much to say. But we will manage."
She took my hand, where her diamond ring was shining bright. And the center were two hearts going in opposite directions, one an emerald to represent me (obviously), but one a ruby to represent her.
It was time.
We headed downstairs where everyone was already out and about enjoying themselves. Rune, Ross, Ash, and Tish were all at a card table discussing something important, Dad was still in cooking mode, taking bacon cheddar brats off the grill and ready to put some port steak on, Karyn was chatting with D.J. about the upcoming prom...
I need to point out here, since Karyn got reset back to her normal self since her time under Txanton's brainwashing, she was basically like a teenager again, never aware that Txanton had...actually, not even WE knew what he did with the baby Karyn was pregnant with by her then-boyfriend. All we know is that there was never a sign of them afterward. But that's how Karyn can relate so well to the kids--to her, she's about the same age as them.
It was the triplets and Karyn's half-sister Vittoria that I was concerned about.
While the three girlfriends of the triplets had been talking over wine coolers near the open window, Taryn and Astacia explaining something to Talindra (your guess is as good as mine), the triplets were talking to their mother, and from Jamilyn's expression, it wasn't a pleasant one.
"All I'm saying," Tori was venting, "is that you could have put yourself in serious issues, Lynn. Your brothers were right to be concerned about you."
"Yeah, but did you have to go all Degrassi on her?" Etienne spat out. I don't know if it was a result of Astacia's influence, but he hadn't been using his Tienne persona as much and focusing on his Twain side. He had actually cleaned himself up nice, something I was going to ask tips for later.
"Seriously, Mom," Sage joined in. "Even by your usual standards, you picked a VERY bad time to start in on her." Sage, meanwhile, looked much happier now that Tali had accepted his own marriage proposal three weeks ago. We thought it was an April Fool's joke, but it was real. Then again, when your son is dating your lawyer's daughter, you start asking questions early on.
"Can't I be a concerned mother for my children?" Tori started to get defensive.
"The last time you tried that, didn't work out so well," Jamilyn sneered. Miri had always had a problem with her mother because of what she allowed Txanton to do to my little girl, but the animosity between them had been searing back up after it seemed to have calmed down for a while.
And I didn't need to even look at Chelsey to be able to tell she was getting pissed at Tori. I squeezed her hand gently as if to indicate to try to be nice, but I had a feeling that was going to be minimal in this situation. Chelsey looked at me, trying to breath herself into a calm mode. From a far Miri spotted her, making it over to where they were located. She hugged the little red head, relaxing. None of the rest had spotted them yet.
"I can do that," I could hear Keeley telling herself, and while Miri may have not understood, I did.
"My wonderful family," I began, looking town at Vittoria and adding a snide "and a few guests..." before I resumed my chipper tone, "I wanted to introduce you to someone that...I can't even find words to describe." I put my arm around Chesley and brought her beside me. "This is my fiance, Chesley."
You would think I just told them I was butt-fucking Santa Claus with the antlers of a teal deer for the reaction I got.
Almost every jaw in the house dropped except for the triplets and D.J., who all four ran up and hugged the both of us, giving us various forms of congratulations. Only Vittoria, in her usual swarm, decided to comment immediately.
"Let me guess...another attempt to fill that hole in your head?" She waved her hand around and continued, "Look, I may not have gotten along with Nikki, but even I can see you're trying to replace the poor girl."
"Poor girl?" Karyn stood up. "The bitch killed our mother, you heroin-infested tramp!"
"Kari, calm down," Ross stepped forward to get in between them.
"Why'd you invite that broad here in the first place?" Karyn continued. "All she's done is cause us nothing but trouble from the start."
"Not to mention I have this weird avoidance of using the term 'Uncle Daddy' all of a sudden," Miri snidely uttered, causing both Chesley and I to laugh loudly.
No doubting who she takes after in this family!
Chelsey gave a deadly look to that girl he introduced as Vittoria. She felt her muscles tense but decided to go against her nature, smiling.
"Better a hole in the head to fill, than one between your legs."
DAMN! You see why I love this girl?!
She gave me a deep kiss in front of everyone and hugged Miri close, this time in front of everyone. Paying Tori no more mind, she went toward Dad in the kitchen, making polite conversation along the way as if she had always known everyone. Meantime, Vittoria stood with a shocked look on her face as Ross stormed toward me.
This was not going to end well.
"What the fuck is her problem?" Ross started to demand. "Can you two get along for long enough to get through one day without--"
He immediately stopped.
Because he saw my eyes start to change color in front of him.
"We are not amused by the idea of you dating your sister's half-sister, Andross," I spat out his full name, "nor are we happy with her disrespecting Mistress Chelsey."
"Ah-ah", Chelsey must've heard me as she turned before talking to Dad. "Not here, my dark knight." Instantly, my eyes switched back to the chocolate brown they had been before glaring at Ross, who was now getting nervous.
"You and I will discuss this in private, brother, after everyone else has left." As I went to follow Chelsey, I could overhear my siblings.
"Did that woman just tell Shadow Chaos what to do?" Rune asked, his jaw agape.
"And he LISTENED?!" Ash was probably freaking out even more. "No one's EVER been able to control that side of him!"
"I think I need a change of pants," Ross exhaled as I finally reached Chelsey.
"Well, it's very nice to meet you, my dear," Dad shook her hand politely. "Mitchell didn't tell us he'd been dating anyone lately, so you'll have to forgive Kain and Tori for their behavior. They're normally a lot more behaved than this."
She looked down on his hand then leaned in, giving Dad a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek instead. Even Dad was impressed with how personal she was, a trait he saw as critical. But for Chelsey, this was just her being her typical self.
"I can deal with bad behaviour Sir."
Her smile was friendly and open, forgotten was the little situation from seconds ago. I wish I had that much self-control! But then, that was part of what worked between us--the areas I lacked, she picked up. How she managed to get through my social awkwardness to see the real me, I'm still trying to figure out. She even called my nervous moments 'cute' one time...never had THAT happen before...
"A proper lady, too. Glad you got yourself a keeper this time, Mitchell. That drugged-out woman back in December gave me the willies," Dad remarked, referencing Bryony.
"I'd rather forget that mistake, Dad," I admitted.
"Mistakes have to be made in order to evolve, son. We both know that all too well." Turning his attention back to Chelsey, he eyed her for a second, as if analyzing her. Finally, he nodded and put his hand on her shoulder. "Welcome to the family, Chelsey. I'm glad we finally have some good news in the family after...recent events..." he said somberly, remembering Mom for a moment.
"Hey, what about my engagement?" Sage asked, his arm now around Tali.
"Kid, your engagment to Tali was a foregone conclusion," Ash laughed. "You two have been nearly inseperable since you were five. This kinda came out of left field a bit." She came up to Chelsey and gave her a hug. "You have no idea how much you being here means to this family right now, Chels. We were starting to wonder about Jamison here, what with the kind of things going on lately."
"Do I wanna know?"
Chelsey for the first time turned her attention away from me and looked around at everyone. Considering she grew up with only her grandmother, she seemed a little overwhelmed at just how big the family really was. Whenever her eyes fell on the brat, which was her name for Vittoria, however, they became dark green.
Yeah, that was another thing I found out over the last few days--while I don't have an exact answer for you right now, it turns out Chelsey has some ancestry from what she calls "the old folk". I'm still learning about what all it entails as far as her talents and abilities, but from what I'm to understand, her normally bright green eyes somehow turn to more of a darkish forest green under certain conditions. I've even seen them turn sky blue before, but she has to be in a very blissful state for that to happen. She can change them on command, unlike me, where jet-black sclera is the only way you know Chaos is about to play.
Anyway, Tori must have sensed something change about her, because she started to keep to a very isolated corner of the living room. Everybody else was back to enjoying themselves instead of her. Then again, thanks to me explaining Tori's role in the creation of Shadow Chaos to begin with, Chelsey was already going into the meeting with a bias.
"It's just been a long stressful year for us," Ash sighed. "I'm sure Jamison's explained all about it, but yeah, we're lucky he's even here right now. Hell, we're lucky even D.J. is here with us." D.J. then stepped closer to us, her pleated skirt flowing as she pulled on her hair a bit.
"Please, don't remind me," D.J. spoke sadly. No matter how many times I tried to tell her she wasn't, she still held herself responsible for her brother's death. While she was still excited about going to Cambridge next fall (an impressive feat considering she just turned 16 over Thanksgiving weekend), the events of the crash had left her with a sense of loss and guilt none of us could understand.
None of us, that is, except Chelsey.
For a long moment she didn't say anything, her loveley face was losing color. She would look over to me, remembering a discussion we'd had just days before. She seemed like she was unsure if the world would crash down, her hand immediately going to her stomach, her eyes conveying a sense of nasuea. But somehow she nodded and put her arm around D.J.'s shoulders.
"It's never anyones fault," she said to D.J. "Sometimes life just is a cruel thing, but we gotta push through, remembering that one day, we meet again."
I could tell Ash wanted to say something about the remarks, but I held out my hand, shaking my head. Ash got the hint quick as D.J. processed what Chelsey said. With Ash's own miscarriage, she treated my kids as her own, so she tended to get very defensive.
"May I excuse myself a moment, just need the bathroom." I nodded to her without a sound, knowing why. As she went to the bathroom, Tish suddenly popped up from across the room. Tish is a very contemplative person, and justifiably so--being a medical doctor with Parkinson's can be a stress to begin with, and being the personal doctor of the Cornetts, including your jackass husband, can be a bit draining. Luckily, Rune had calmed down in his older age (he's four years older than Ash and I), mostly thanks to Tish.
"Okay, James, spill it."
"Spill what, exactly?" I shrugged.
"You know what I mean," she narrowed her eyes.
"What are you talking about, hun?" Rune asked his wife.
"Amd I the only one that can see there's something else going on here?" Tish asked everyone else.
"Well, she was able to control Chaos earlier," Ash spoke up.
"Exactly. As volatile as that entity is, she shouldn't be able to do that!" She turned back to me. "So obviously there's something more to this than you're letting on. And I bet..."
Oh PLEASE don't let her expose it before I can tell anyone...
"...it's your health."
FINALLY, something in the Multiverse works in my favor!
"What?" I asked.
"The last time Chaos went this under control, you had that tumor scare ten years ago. We were lucky enough to get that taken care of. So serioulsy, what's up, James?"
"Tish, you did my checkup three weeks ago so I can make my challenge for next month," I pointed out to her. "If I had any abnormalities in my system, you'd have caught them by now."
She raised her finger to attempt to argue, then put it back down. "Fuck, you got me there."
I could see Chelsey taking advantage of the distraction and making her exit towards the garden. Knowing her, she was likely connecting with nature by taking off her shoes and touching them to the earth. I didn't want to make the announcement in mind without her by my side, but at the same time I couldn't keep stalling for long.
Almost as if on cue, Tori decided to run her mouth again.
"Isn't it obvious, guys?" she rolled her eyes as she put her finger to her temple, her elbow resting on the steps. "It's a conquest thing."
"What in the actual fuck are you talking about," Rune turned to her, folding his arms angrily.
"Look at the girl! She looks barely old enough to be Jamilyn, for crying out loud!"
"Oh, right," Miri started getting upset, "let's somehow connect this all back to the daughter you wish never existed, is that what you're up to here?" She had started to advance toward Tori, but a hand stopped her.
"I got this one," Taryn's Brooklyn accent cut through the air as she stepped in front of Miri. "Look, lady, I don't know you from anyone else here, and quite frankly, I don't give a shit. You are persona non-exist to me." She pointed to Miri and continued, "But this gorgeous woman here? You have no idea how many times she's saved my life in the last nine months alone. And I'm not going to stand here and let you bring up the girl I'm in love with while trying to discredit a woman that, let's face facts here, everyone I know is JEALOUS of James for!" She looked Tori up and down before adding, "And based on what I've seen, I think you got some of that jealousy too."
"How dare you talk to me like that!" Tori yelled.
"You know what, though..." I raised my hand up to stop Tori, "...Taryn's right. Aside from trying to make me jealous of my brother, why are you trying to discredit my relationship with Keeley?" Since the raised hand happened to be my right, I put it right into her face. "Or have you forgotten who caused me to be a misshapen freak to begin with?"
Tori pushed my hand out of the way. "Look, just admit that you're looking for nothing more than a sugar-baby out of the--"
"Fuck...off..."
Jamilyn stood up, her normally much darker eyes taking on the familiar tone of sky blue that Juliana and so many other people had seen. She stepped toward Tori slowly, making sure her words were understood.
"First of all, she's the lead singer of a very popular metal rock band that just got done with a national tour while you're playing superintendent in the local school system and nearly letting my little sister get raped by my half-brother, so I don't even wanna HEAR one word from your mouth about sugar-babying it up. Second of all, she's actually been there for me when I was having the worst meltdown in years and never once judged me for anything I did. What were your first words when I told you your husband was fucking me when I was four years old? 'Better you than me, shut up!'"
"I was messed up on drugs at the time," Tori tried to defend herself, but Miri was done.
"NO, you don't get to make that excuse anymore! I lost the only chance I was ever going to have to have a baby because of that man years later, and your response was 'Maybe you shouldn't have been advertising yourself.' So yeah, Chelsey may be a few years older than me, but I have no trouble with considering her more of a mother to me than your waste of space ass has ever been!"
THAT caught my attention.
"You KNEW about this?!" I turned to Tori, Ross and Rune quickly jumping to hold me back. "You KNEW she'd been knocked up by that psychopath before WE DID?!?!"
"James, come on, calm down!" Ross tried to pull my hand back. As luck would have it, Tori fled from me during my restrictions long enough for Ash to get into my face.
"You need to chill, bub! Ross, get her out of here now before this gets even worse."
Unfortunately, Ash was too late.
Because in the process of getting out of the way of me...
Vittoria had gone out the same way Chesley had.
"You may back off girl," I heard from outside. "I don't know you. And be honest, I got no desire to. But I tell you this face to face and one time. Shall you ever insult me again, I will rip your tongue out and feed it to the dogs. So careful what you do with your life." Chelsey smiled the kind of smile I would only see on videos of Shadow Chaos, which means she was being devious about it. It didn't take Tori long to back through the door, still unnoticed by everyone else, and head straight to Ross.
"Um, hun, I'mma be in the car...." was all she said before bolting out the door like a hyena afraid for its life. Rune and Ross finally managed to let go of me as I tried to compose myself.
"Ross...don't you ever bring her to one of these events again...." I said quietly. I began to take deep breaths as I zened out for a moment. "But Tish wasn't technically wrong..." Everyone else looked toward me for a second. "There is something else I need to tell you guys...but I can't until Chelsey comes back in."
"What did I miss?" Chelsey popped in beside me with a huge smile. The rest of my family stood there questioning where she came from.
"Is she like a female James or something?" Rune asked aloud.
"For once, I'm inclined to agree," Karyn added, "and I usually don't agree with you at all!"
Laughing, I turned to my fiancé. "You want to tell them this time babe?"
"Nah. You go for it, I have to just smile my high off."
I put my arms around her and looked at everyone. "It's not confirmed yet....we still have to make sure...but there's a good chance that Chelsey and I are expecting a baby."
"HA! I fucking knew it!" Ash jumped excitedly. "Alright, pay up, boys!" Rune and Ross groaned as they started fishing money from their pockets.
"This is unfair, you two got that twinsynchronization thing going on!" Rune protested.
Ironically, the first of the kids to give her a big hug was D.J., who was crying tears of joy as she nearly toppled Chelsey over. As the rest of the family swarmed around, I couldn't help but notice how Chelsey seemed to beam with smiles and laughter as everyone started asking her questions about her and us.
I couldn't tell you for sure...but if I didn't know any better, I'd think it was the first time she'd felt like she was a part of something she never got to fully experience.
A family.
Also, and I can't even believe I have to bring this up, but all JMC character development RPs are considered OFF-CAMERA; no one outside of the characters written in the scene is supposed to know anything about what takes place in JMC's personal life UNLESS he brings it up in a promo. You'd think that'd be common sense, but I've had a lot of people try to do stuff like that to me before, so consider this your friendly warning.
That said, thanks for reading, and I hope you all enjoy!
[Cornett Mansion, North Manchester, IN; April 22nd, 2016, 11:33AM]
[Mood Music: "Eye On It" by tobyMac]
Well this definitely wasn't the typical cookout.
After the rains had slammed Indiana for most of the evening, things weren't exactly in prime mode for outside cooking. As usual, however, Dad always had a backup plan--indoor grilling. The kitchen of my place had a venting system on the side of the wall, so Dad just used it to start up the fire and go berserk.
That being said, I was still upstairs with Keeley putting the final touches on our outfits. I was adjusting my white zip-up while she was putting the finishing touches on her makeup. She wasn't sure how to dress at first, what with it being my family and whatnot, but I'd told her not to worry about it.
At this point, her appearance was the last thing I was nervous about.
It'd been a strange few days to say the least, not the least of which would be announced with at the start of this event, but everyone in the family was here.
EVERYONE.
Between my dad, my siblings, their significant others, my kids, THEIR significant others (at least when they had them--Ashtyn's idea of a date would end up being my opponent in a month and D.J. was still too young to date, not even by my opinion but her own)...what we had to announce was either going to be very well-received or hashbrown what-the-fucked for weeks afterward.
And with this being my family, there was no easy tell.
I looked over to my fiance (I still felt a swell of pride and ecstacy upon thinking of her in that way) as she put the last touch of liner on her eyes. "You ready to make your debut to the family, love?" Technically, the kids had already met her, and Ash had noticed my interactions with Keeley....
Right, rewind.
When last I left you guys, most of you thought I was living a happy ever after with that ring announcer Bryony. Well, shortly after Gene's death (he got T-Boned on the way home from school with D.J., who was driving at the time--we thought she was going to be paralyzed for a while, but that turned out to be false, thank God), Bryony just up and left me without even so much as an explanation. Depressed and hurt, I went seeking company and ran into a couple friends of mine, which was a mistake because somehow they had Shadow Chaos inside them. Five minutes later, guess who was back in my head plotting sick and twisted revenge. Thankfully some friends found me and got me into a more stable frame of mind, but the fact is I was back to default JMC after everything.
Which meant I REMEMBERED everything.
Vittoria's betrayal.
Txanton's manipulation.
Chaos's creation.
Gemison's systematic destruction and disambiguation.
Jamilyn's torture as a toddler and Vittoria allowing Txanton (who by this time was her husband) to get away with it.
Karyn's kidnapping disguised as a death.
The creation of my surveillance/intelligence organization, The Desolation Network.
Ashtyn's abuse at the hands of her husband.
Lisa McKnight's death.
Misty Donimari's erasure of any relationship I could've had with our son Randy.
Nicole's years of manipulation.
Mom's murder.
Scarlett's assaults, which turned out to be Karyn.
Finding out Jamilyn had been raped again only to lose the baby she was carrying three months later from the same asshole.
Txanton's abducting me.
Hearing Juliana kill both Txanton and an expecting Nicole (who, as it turned out, was knocked up by Txanton).
Twenty-five years of psychological, physical, and emotional torture flushed back in one moment.
Now you tell me how a man's supposed to deal with all that and remain mentally sane.
So I was already dealing with a lot to begin with. But then I met Chelsey Garvey on a visit to Cornett Enterprises' music studios after the producer assigned to her had made very lude sexual offers to her. Needless to say, dude got fired quick. For the following several weeks, it seemed like a guessing game as to how interested we were in each other and how fast we really wanted to go with things, but then, a couple nights prior, we realized exactly how much we really meant to each other. I won't go into details here (I let you all into my head, but I still have respect for my woman, come on), but it prompted me to ask her right then to be my wife.
Now, keep in mind, this firehaired Irish bombshell of a goddess is turning 26 this year, and I'm turning 40 four days after my final match ever, so that's astonishing in itself that she and I gel that well together, but to see her...her entire body is a canvas of art, with all sorts of tattoos that are both beautiful and incredibly detailed. Her light green eyes and full pouty lips never got old to look at, and she had a figure that...well, in the words of Patrick Swayze, try to pick a word to define this girl and NOT use the word "statuesque" at some point in your thought process. But what attracted me to her most was her personality--she was equal parts confident but reserved, social but shy, daring but understanding, fierce but loyal. It was almost as if she was specifically meant to be with me.
And, as you're about to see, she somehow seems to fit perfectly in my little Multiverse.
She was looking lightly nervous while getting ready. Fixing her hair for the tenth time. She was not the nervous type in general, but today was important.
"Ready is too much to say. But we will manage."
She took my hand, where her diamond ring was shining bright. And the center were two hearts going in opposite directions, one an emerald to represent me (obviously), but one a ruby to represent her.
It was time.
We headed downstairs where everyone was already out and about enjoying themselves. Rune, Ross, Ash, and Tish were all at a card table discussing something important, Dad was still in cooking mode, taking bacon cheddar brats off the grill and ready to put some port steak on, Karyn was chatting with D.J. about the upcoming prom...
I need to point out here, since Karyn got reset back to her normal self since her time under Txanton's brainwashing, she was basically like a teenager again, never aware that Txanton had...actually, not even WE knew what he did with the baby Karyn was pregnant with by her then-boyfriend. All we know is that there was never a sign of them afterward. But that's how Karyn can relate so well to the kids--to her, she's about the same age as them.
It was the triplets and Karyn's half-sister Vittoria that I was concerned about.
While the three girlfriends of the triplets had been talking over wine coolers near the open window, Taryn and Astacia explaining something to Talindra (your guess is as good as mine), the triplets were talking to their mother, and from Jamilyn's expression, it wasn't a pleasant one.
"All I'm saying," Tori was venting, "is that you could have put yourself in serious issues, Lynn. Your brothers were right to be concerned about you."
"Yeah, but did you have to go all Degrassi on her?" Etienne spat out. I don't know if it was a result of Astacia's influence, but he hadn't been using his Tienne persona as much and focusing on his Twain side. He had actually cleaned himself up nice, something I was going to ask tips for later.
"Seriously, Mom," Sage joined in. "Even by your usual standards, you picked a VERY bad time to start in on her." Sage, meanwhile, looked much happier now that Tali had accepted his own marriage proposal three weeks ago. We thought it was an April Fool's joke, but it was real. Then again, when your son is dating your lawyer's daughter, you start asking questions early on.
"Can't I be a concerned mother for my children?" Tori started to get defensive.
"The last time you tried that, didn't work out so well," Jamilyn sneered. Miri had always had a problem with her mother because of what she allowed Txanton to do to my little girl, but the animosity between them had been searing back up after it seemed to have calmed down for a while.
And I didn't need to even look at Chelsey to be able to tell she was getting pissed at Tori. I squeezed her hand gently as if to indicate to try to be nice, but I had a feeling that was going to be minimal in this situation. Chelsey looked at me, trying to breath herself into a calm mode. From a far Miri spotted her, making it over to where they were located. She hugged the little red head, relaxing. None of the rest had spotted them yet.
"I can do that," I could hear Keeley telling herself, and while Miri may have not understood, I did.
"My wonderful family," I began, looking town at Vittoria and adding a snide "and a few guests..." before I resumed my chipper tone, "I wanted to introduce you to someone that...I can't even find words to describe." I put my arm around Chesley and brought her beside me. "This is my fiance, Chesley."
You would think I just told them I was butt-fucking Santa Claus with the antlers of a teal deer for the reaction I got.
Almost every jaw in the house dropped except for the triplets and D.J., who all four ran up and hugged the both of us, giving us various forms of congratulations. Only Vittoria, in her usual swarm, decided to comment immediately.
"Let me guess...another attempt to fill that hole in your head?" She waved her hand around and continued, "Look, I may not have gotten along with Nikki, but even I can see you're trying to replace the poor girl."
"Poor girl?" Karyn stood up. "The bitch killed our mother, you heroin-infested tramp!"
"Kari, calm down," Ross stepped forward to get in between them.
"Why'd you invite that broad here in the first place?" Karyn continued. "All she's done is cause us nothing but trouble from the start."
"Not to mention I have this weird avoidance of using the term 'Uncle Daddy' all of a sudden," Miri snidely uttered, causing both Chesley and I to laugh loudly.
No doubting who she takes after in this family!
Chelsey gave a deadly look to that girl he introduced as Vittoria. She felt her muscles tense but decided to go against her nature, smiling.
"Better a hole in the head to fill, than one between your legs."
DAMN! You see why I love this girl?!
She gave me a deep kiss in front of everyone and hugged Miri close, this time in front of everyone. Paying Tori no more mind, she went toward Dad in the kitchen, making polite conversation along the way as if she had always known everyone. Meantime, Vittoria stood with a shocked look on her face as Ross stormed toward me.
This was not going to end well.
"What the fuck is her problem?" Ross started to demand. "Can you two get along for long enough to get through one day without--"
He immediately stopped.
Because he saw my eyes start to change color in front of him.
"We are not amused by the idea of you dating your sister's half-sister, Andross," I spat out his full name, "nor are we happy with her disrespecting Mistress Chelsey."
"Ah-ah", Chelsey must've heard me as she turned before talking to Dad. "Not here, my dark knight." Instantly, my eyes switched back to the chocolate brown they had been before glaring at Ross, who was now getting nervous.
"You and I will discuss this in private, brother, after everyone else has left." As I went to follow Chelsey, I could overhear my siblings.
"Did that woman just tell Shadow Chaos what to do?" Rune asked, his jaw agape.
"And he LISTENED?!" Ash was probably freaking out even more. "No one's EVER been able to control that side of him!"
"I think I need a change of pants," Ross exhaled as I finally reached Chelsey.
"Well, it's very nice to meet you, my dear," Dad shook her hand politely. "Mitchell didn't tell us he'd been dating anyone lately, so you'll have to forgive Kain and Tori for their behavior. They're normally a lot more behaved than this."
She looked down on his hand then leaned in, giving Dad a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek instead. Even Dad was impressed with how personal she was, a trait he saw as critical. But for Chelsey, this was just her being her typical self.
"I can deal with bad behaviour Sir."
Her smile was friendly and open, forgotten was the little situation from seconds ago. I wish I had that much self-control! But then, that was part of what worked between us--the areas I lacked, she picked up. How she managed to get through my social awkwardness to see the real me, I'm still trying to figure out. She even called my nervous moments 'cute' one time...never had THAT happen before...
"A proper lady, too. Glad you got yourself a keeper this time, Mitchell. That drugged-out woman back in December gave me the willies," Dad remarked, referencing Bryony.
"I'd rather forget that mistake, Dad," I admitted.
"Mistakes have to be made in order to evolve, son. We both know that all too well." Turning his attention back to Chelsey, he eyed her for a second, as if analyzing her. Finally, he nodded and put his hand on her shoulder. "Welcome to the family, Chelsey. I'm glad we finally have some good news in the family after...recent events..." he said somberly, remembering Mom for a moment.
"Hey, what about my engagement?" Sage asked, his arm now around Tali.
"Kid, your engagment to Tali was a foregone conclusion," Ash laughed. "You two have been nearly inseperable since you were five. This kinda came out of left field a bit." She came up to Chelsey and gave her a hug. "You have no idea how much you being here means to this family right now, Chels. We were starting to wonder about Jamison here, what with the kind of things going on lately."
"Do I wanna know?"
Chelsey for the first time turned her attention away from me and looked around at everyone. Considering she grew up with only her grandmother, she seemed a little overwhelmed at just how big the family really was. Whenever her eyes fell on the brat, which was her name for Vittoria, however, they became dark green.
Yeah, that was another thing I found out over the last few days--while I don't have an exact answer for you right now, it turns out Chelsey has some ancestry from what she calls "the old folk". I'm still learning about what all it entails as far as her talents and abilities, but from what I'm to understand, her normally bright green eyes somehow turn to more of a darkish forest green under certain conditions. I've even seen them turn sky blue before, but she has to be in a very blissful state for that to happen. She can change them on command, unlike me, where jet-black sclera is the only way you know Chaos is about to play.
Anyway, Tori must have sensed something change about her, because she started to keep to a very isolated corner of the living room. Everybody else was back to enjoying themselves instead of her. Then again, thanks to me explaining Tori's role in the creation of Shadow Chaos to begin with, Chelsey was already going into the meeting with a bias.
"It's just been a long stressful year for us," Ash sighed. "I'm sure Jamison's explained all about it, but yeah, we're lucky he's even here right now. Hell, we're lucky even D.J. is here with us." D.J. then stepped closer to us, her pleated skirt flowing as she pulled on her hair a bit.
"Please, don't remind me," D.J. spoke sadly. No matter how many times I tried to tell her she wasn't, she still held herself responsible for her brother's death. While she was still excited about going to Cambridge next fall (an impressive feat considering she just turned 16 over Thanksgiving weekend), the events of the crash had left her with a sense of loss and guilt none of us could understand.
None of us, that is, except Chelsey.
For a long moment she didn't say anything, her loveley face was losing color. She would look over to me, remembering a discussion we'd had just days before. She seemed like she was unsure if the world would crash down, her hand immediately going to her stomach, her eyes conveying a sense of nasuea. But somehow she nodded and put her arm around D.J.'s shoulders.
"It's never anyones fault," she said to D.J. "Sometimes life just is a cruel thing, but we gotta push through, remembering that one day, we meet again."
I could tell Ash wanted to say something about the remarks, but I held out my hand, shaking my head. Ash got the hint quick as D.J. processed what Chelsey said. With Ash's own miscarriage, she treated my kids as her own, so she tended to get very defensive.
"May I excuse myself a moment, just need the bathroom." I nodded to her without a sound, knowing why. As she went to the bathroom, Tish suddenly popped up from across the room. Tish is a very contemplative person, and justifiably so--being a medical doctor with Parkinson's can be a stress to begin with, and being the personal doctor of the Cornetts, including your jackass husband, can be a bit draining. Luckily, Rune had calmed down in his older age (he's four years older than Ash and I), mostly thanks to Tish.
"Okay, James, spill it."
"Spill what, exactly?" I shrugged.
"You know what I mean," she narrowed her eyes.
"What are you talking about, hun?" Rune asked his wife.
"Amd I the only one that can see there's something else going on here?" Tish asked everyone else.
"Well, she was able to control Chaos earlier," Ash spoke up.
"Exactly. As volatile as that entity is, she shouldn't be able to do that!" She turned back to me. "So obviously there's something more to this than you're letting on. And I bet..."
Oh PLEASE don't let her expose it before I can tell anyone...
"...it's your health."
FINALLY, something in the Multiverse works in my favor!
"What?" I asked.
"The last time Chaos went this under control, you had that tumor scare ten years ago. We were lucky enough to get that taken care of. So serioulsy, what's up, James?"
"Tish, you did my checkup three weeks ago so I can make my challenge for next month," I pointed out to her. "If I had any abnormalities in my system, you'd have caught them by now."
She raised her finger to attempt to argue, then put it back down. "Fuck, you got me there."
I could see Chelsey taking advantage of the distraction and making her exit towards the garden. Knowing her, she was likely connecting with nature by taking off her shoes and touching them to the earth. I didn't want to make the announcement in mind without her by my side, but at the same time I couldn't keep stalling for long.
Almost as if on cue, Tori decided to run her mouth again.
"Isn't it obvious, guys?" she rolled her eyes as she put her finger to her temple, her elbow resting on the steps. "It's a conquest thing."
"What in the actual fuck are you talking about," Rune turned to her, folding his arms angrily.
"Look at the girl! She looks barely old enough to be Jamilyn, for crying out loud!"
"Oh, right," Miri started getting upset, "let's somehow connect this all back to the daughter you wish never existed, is that what you're up to here?" She had started to advance toward Tori, but a hand stopped her.
"I got this one," Taryn's Brooklyn accent cut through the air as she stepped in front of Miri. "Look, lady, I don't know you from anyone else here, and quite frankly, I don't give a shit. You are persona non-exist to me." She pointed to Miri and continued, "But this gorgeous woman here? You have no idea how many times she's saved my life in the last nine months alone. And I'm not going to stand here and let you bring up the girl I'm in love with while trying to discredit a woman that, let's face facts here, everyone I know is JEALOUS of James for!" She looked Tori up and down before adding, "And based on what I've seen, I think you got some of that jealousy too."
"How dare you talk to me like that!" Tori yelled.
"You know what, though..." I raised my hand up to stop Tori, "...Taryn's right. Aside from trying to make me jealous of my brother, why are you trying to discredit my relationship with Keeley?" Since the raised hand happened to be my right, I put it right into her face. "Or have you forgotten who caused me to be a misshapen freak to begin with?"
Tori pushed my hand out of the way. "Look, just admit that you're looking for nothing more than a sugar-baby out of the--"
"Fuck...off..."
Jamilyn stood up, her normally much darker eyes taking on the familiar tone of sky blue that Juliana and so many other people had seen. She stepped toward Tori slowly, making sure her words were understood.
"First of all, she's the lead singer of a very popular metal rock band that just got done with a national tour while you're playing superintendent in the local school system and nearly letting my little sister get raped by my half-brother, so I don't even wanna HEAR one word from your mouth about sugar-babying it up. Second of all, she's actually been there for me when I was having the worst meltdown in years and never once judged me for anything I did. What were your first words when I told you your husband was fucking me when I was four years old? 'Better you than me, shut up!'"
"I was messed up on drugs at the time," Tori tried to defend herself, but Miri was done.
"NO, you don't get to make that excuse anymore! I lost the only chance I was ever going to have to have a baby because of that man years later, and your response was 'Maybe you shouldn't have been advertising yourself.' So yeah, Chelsey may be a few years older than me, but I have no trouble with considering her more of a mother to me than your waste of space ass has ever been!"
THAT caught my attention.
"You KNEW about this?!" I turned to Tori, Ross and Rune quickly jumping to hold me back. "You KNEW she'd been knocked up by that psychopath before WE DID?!?!"
"James, come on, calm down!" Ross tried to pull my hand back. As luck would have it, Tori fled from me during my restrictions long enough for Ash to get into my face.
"You need to chill, bub! Ross, get her out of here now before this gets even worse."
Unfortunately, Ash was too late.
Because in the process of getting out of the way of me...
Vittoria had gone out the same way Chesley had.
"You may back off girl," I heard from outside. "I don't know you. And be honest, I got no desire to. But I tell you this face to face and one time. Shall you ever insult me again, I will rip your tongue out and feed it to the dogs. So careful what you do with your life." Chelsey smiled the kind of smile I would only see on videos of Shadow Chaos, which means she was being devious about it. It didn't take Tori long to back through the door, still unnoticed by everyone else, and head straight to Ross.
"Um, hun, I'mma be in the car...." was all she said before bolting out the door like a hyena afraid for its life. Rune and Ross finally managed to let go of me as I tried to compose myself.
"Ross...don't you ever bring her to one of these events again...." I said quietly. I began to take deep breaths as I zened out for a moment. "But Tish wasn't technically wrong..." Everyone else looked toward me for a second. "There is something else I need to tell you guys...but I can't until Chelsey comes back in."
"What did I miss?" Chelsey popped in beside me with a huge smile. The rest of my family stood there questioning where she came from.
"Is she like a female James or something?" Rune asked aloud.
"For once, I'm inclined to agree," Karyn added, "and I usually don't agree with you at all!"
Laughing, I turned to my fiancé. "You want to tell them this time babe?"
"Nah. You go for it, I have to just smile my high off."
I put my arms around her and looked at everyone. "It's not confirmed yet....we still have to make sure...but there's a good chance that Chelsey and I are expecting a baby."
"HA! I fucking knew it!" Ash jumped excitedly. "Alright, pay up, boys!" Rune and Ross groaned as they started fishing money from their pockets.
"This is unfair, you two got that twinsynchronization thing going on!" Rune protested.
Ironically, the first of the kids to give her a big hug was D.J., who was crying tears of joy as she nearly toppled Chelsey over. As the rest of the family swarmed around, I couldn't help but notice how Chelsey seemed to beam with smiles and laughter as everyone started asking her questions about her and us.
I couldn't tell you for sure...but if I didn't know any better, I'd think it was the first time she'd felt like she was a part of something she never got to fully experience.
A family.