If I ever do regain the desire to write in this fandom, I'd really like to broach the subject of Cherish; watching Promise explaining their late half-sister to Panos and Calla (when they're rather older than they are here) would be fascinating and difficult. In the meantime, Cal's still pretty good for filling in talk of monsters.
Go Fish
"You're not a monster. You're Uncle Cal," he replied, frowning. His skin might've been paler, but that expression was Niko the whole way through. Funny how shit like that gets passed down. He had his mother's subtle smiles, but when it came to disliking an answer, Panos was his dad completely. Calla watched in silence, biting her lower lip.
"Yeah, but--" I mean, how do you explain to a kid who's half-vampire that him being half-human is okay but you being half-human isn't? I lived in something coming close to peace with my Auphe half for the most part these days, but the occasional comment about it still slipped out sometimes. Usually not in front of the under-ten set, though--when I fucked up in front of them, it tended to involve the word 'fuck.' "Forget I said that, okay? I didn't mean it."
"But--"
"I didn't mean it!" The last thing I wanted was to pass down some shit of my own and land the kid his very own I'm-a-monster complex. Niko'd kill me, and I couldn't say I wouldn't beat the hell out of myself first for making Panos and Calla wonder if they were the kind of freak their good old grandma used to call me. I resisted the urge to curse and hoped that they'd let it go with a subject change. Holding up my hand of playing cards, I asked, "You guys want to finish Go Fish, don't you?"