Saturday morning: odd dreams abound.

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After this exchange of comments, Angie shows up for breakfast at Jamie and Doug's. They wake Doug up with the assistance of the small and mischievous, and proceed to talk about the Weird Askani Dreams.


Marie-Ange poked her head through the door to the boys' room. One Miles, still in bed, with what appeared to be issues of Amazing Spider-Man. One Artie, still buried under his blankets, One Jamie, which was below-average for numbers of Jamies, but was awake and at his computer, and one Doug, sprawled in a heap on his bed, still dead to the world. "Morning." she said. "I .. do not suppose you have any clever Wake Doug Up ideas? He sleeps like a corpse."

"S'pose actually kicking him is out of the question?" Jamie grinned. "Well, there's amusing things to do with water."

Angie frowned. "Damp Doug is cranky Doug." She shrugged, and headed for the bed. "I suppose stealing his blanket will work. Or will end up in a blanket fight.."

"Or I could look the other way and you could overtly display affection. That'd get him up." Jamie snickered. "In a manner of speaking."

"Or would make him or me die from blushing." True to her statement, Marie-Ange blushed. "I never expect those jokes from you." Nonetheless, she sat down gently on the edge of Doug's bed, and tugged the blanket down from where he'd clutched it to his face. "Wake up, sleepyhead."

Doug, for his part, tried to tug the blanket back to where it had been, and mumbled a short incoherent phrase, nuzzling further into his pillow.

Angie wasn't having any of that. "No, you are waking up." she said, and pulled the blanket back down. "There are too many boys in this room with cootie obsessions to wake you like Sleeping Beauty."

"Don't think I'm above dangling you by your ankles so Miles can reach your armpits, Doug. You gonna sleep all day?" Jamie shot a rubber band at Doug's ear, and missed.

Angie shook her head and grinned impishly. "If he is stubborn, I will get his feet. He is ticklish."

Doug stretched, catlike, and made a noise that sounded like 'mrple'. Sensing Marie-Ange sitting close by him, he wrapped his arms around her waist and lay his head in her lap, humming happily.

"Note how he is not yet awake" Angie said affectionatly. "Of course, now I am stuck, and cannot tickle his feet."

Doug grumbled. "Am too awake."

"Am not."

Miles, who had been watching the interplay with interest ever since the subject of armpits came up, grinned, hopped down off his bed, crawled to the foot of Doug's, and attacked his feet.

Doug jerked upright with a yelp. "You little...!" Giggling, he bent down to grab Miles around the waist and tickled vigorously.

Marie-Ange simply giggled. There wasn't really much more else she could do.

Miles screeched happily and tried to wriggle away, which he managed when Artie, now awake, staged a surprise attack on Doug's ribs. Both children whooped and ran out the door in pursuit of cartoons.

Doug shook his fist in mock-anger. "Sneaky kids! You'll get what's coming to you later!" He grinned and leaned his head against Marie-Ange's shoulder. "Morning, love."

Angie continued to giggle for a few more seconds. "Morning. Jamie's obsession with marshmellow cereal is contagious." she said, once over her snickering.

Doug chuckled as his stomach rumbled. "Ooh. What's on the menu?"

"Well, there's always Lucky Charms. Can't go wrong with the classics. And Angie's dreams are contagious now, so it's only fair."

Marie-Ange huffed in mock-irritation. "That is not my fault. Unless we get a batch of weird time babies in the next month, it was not one of my dreams." She paused. "Ooh. Lucky Charms. I like those."

"Got a dupe on the way." Jamie grinned. "And hey, weird time babies would not be out of place here."

Doug maneuvered his pillow so that he could sit back against the headboard, and gently pulled Marie-Ange against him. "So, wait. You guys had weird dreams last night, too?"

Jamie cocked his head curiously. "We had weird dreams. 'Too' is a new one. What was yours?"

Angie snuggled up close, next to Doug, and frowned. "I am not contagious." she said, more hoping the statement was true, and starting to worry that is was not.

Doug looked thoughtful. "It was...they were speaking Nathan's future language. Askani."

"Erp?" Marie-Ange frowned. "That is ... too similar for comfort, I think. Was there singing?"

Doug nodded. "I was...a soldier. They were marching, and singing as they marched."

"I didn't get sound." Jamie scratched his chin. "Everybody was dressed weird, though."

"I had singing, but it was small children, in .. I think in a cave, or maybe a basement.. I am not sure still." Marie-Ange frowned, and tried to remember the tune, humming to herself.

"I had little kids playing, and babies being born. Indoors and not. Was very odd." Jamie cocked his head. "Angie, didn't you say there were words to that?"

Marie-Ange nodded. "I am not sure of what they were. Something that sounded like .. elan, or ehan.. there are a lot of vowel sounds. " She frowned. "And a word that began with d. diya, maybe. And then something that began with 'no' that I cannot understand."

Jamie shrugged. "Greek to me. Doug?"

Doug nodded. "Counting. Eyan, diya. One, two. Probably part of some child's song."

"So anybody want to make a bet this has something to do with the Natequake last night? I hope the guy's okay. And not permanently leaking."

Marie-Ange shook her head. "I think that is a safe bet. We have an earthquake, and then we all have crazy dreams with singing in Nathan's future language. Two and two make four, no?"

Doug nodded again. "It definitely seems connected. I was planning on going down and checking on him anyway in a while if he's allowed to have visitors, maybe I can talk to him about it all."

"What, if you can get past the trained Scots watchdoc?" Jamie grinned. "Yeah, I . . . damn, I just hope he's okay. I like the guy, but face it, he's pretty messed up."

Doug chuckled. "And the rest of us aren't?"

Angie frowned. "The rest of us do not have the future attacking us and making us have heart attacks."

Doug shrugged. "Still, it's not like Nate has the monopoly on weird shit happening to him."

Jamie frowned. ". . . You're sure that's a different kind of precog than yours, though, right? I mean, if you faceplant into your cereal, that'd suck."

Marie-Ange nodded. "Mine does not come when I am awake without warning. It never has. Just when I .. ah.. " she shrugged. "When I am asleep, or when I try to use it."

Doug wrapped an arm around Marie-Ange and snuggled against her. "So, Jamie, did that dupe get lost on the way to the kitchen, or what? I'm hungry."

Jamie stuck his tongue out at Doug just as the dupe arrived with the food.