Escape! First time out of the room. (Wei, now open)

[Titian Snow]

(It is now open to others. Please read the rules (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=637132#post637132) before posting. Thanks.)

Titian wakes up, stirring and rolling onto his side. His mother is still asleep. He can see her, sort of, hidden under the sheets of her bed. He has a sheet, too, but he always loses it when he sleeps. If he cares to look towards his feet he'll see it, covered with images of cute little animals…however, he wants to see his mommy. He's hungry, and he smells funny, and so begins to cry loudly. Lillian startles awake, sitting up with a surprised cry, and throwing back the sheets.

"Sweetheart, I wish you wouldn't scream..." she whispers as she changes him. "It's still early, and people are sleeping. C'mon, let's have breakfast." Titian burbles as he's lifted up and carried away, watching his crib recede as he's moved into the kitchen. Lillian prepares a bottle, making sure that it's not too warm for him, and sits him on the counter to feed him.

"Today you go see Mister Wei, while Mommy learns to use the Force. You be good, okay?" She pauses to kiss his forehead. "Be good, and help mommy not to be afraid anymore." Titian burps. "Let's get you dressed, boo bear..."

He's placed into a little hooded shirt with bear ears on it, a pair of cream-colored sweatpants, and little black sneakers and is carried across the hall to Wei's room. He shouts loudly at the door, pre-empting his mother's knock, and waits expecantly for the man with the big poofy green shirt to come out.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Ah, what a morning! The window was cracked slightly to allow the breeze to flow in from outside and Wei was sprawled on the floor exercising. A shout and then a knock on the door said it was time to call it quits for the morning, so Wei retrieved a shirt and put it on as he headed to the door.

"Good morning!" Wei said with a smile. "Lillian, it's good to see you this morning. And little Titian, too. I like the shirt, little guy. You're a regular teddy bear."

[Titian Snow]

Titian squeals and leans forward, reaching clumsily for Wei's brightly-colored shirt. Lillian balances him carefully, trading him to Wei's arms and handing over a few supplies.

"This should be enough to take care of him until my lesson's done. If you need any more, I left a spare key in the bag, so you can go get whatever you need."

She's too busy worrying over her little boy to fret much over Wei. She's never left him alone before.

"Be good, boo bear..." she whispers again, giving his forehead another quick kiss. I'll see you this afternoon."

And with that she's walking away, trying not to look back at her son. Titian watches idly, clinging to Wei's shirt. Where's she going? Is she going to be back?

[Wei Wu Wei]

"There she goes, pal. Off to learn a little something about the Force."

Wei gave the little boy a hug to settle any nerves, and stepped inside, shutting the door with his foot.

"So, let's see here. We got daipers, formula, a change of clothes, and some toys. And then the key to your room so we can get more if we need it."

The Jedi Knight set the things down on the small counter in the kitchen and then went over to the rocking chair Wei had in the corner. The rocking chair was used mostly by his father, but Wei felt it necessary to sit in it today.

"Hey, buddy. Let's see what we got going on here."

The young adult set the baby down on his knees, supporting Titian's back and his head with his hands so the two were looking at one another. Wei leaned the little boy back a bit, and shifted Titian forward so that the baby was now being supported by only one of wei's arms.

"Lemme see..." the Jedi Knight said playfully, whirling his finger in the air to get Titian's attention. "There's a nose..." Wei lightly tapped the baby on the nose. "And a pair of ears...and there's two little hands...and two little feet...and a little tummy!" Wei pointed to each of these in turn, tickling Titian's stomach on the last one.

[Titian Snow]

Titian's hands wave about as his eyes follow Wei's finger, trying to grab it with little success. He squeals as his tummy is tickled, and by a stroke of luck grabs onto Wei's finger and holds on with a tight grip that his mother has begun to call the "baby vice grip". Things that move quickly or have bright colors are almost impossible to pull from his grasp, at least for her. Wei will probably have better luck breaking his grip than she does.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei chuckled. "And that," he said with a smile, "is a finger."

The man bent his finger slightly and with a small tug pulled his finger free. "My finger. You have ten of your own."

Wei turned Titian around so the boy leaned on Wei and held out the baby's hands in front of his face to see.

"Look here," Wei said, gently opening Titian's hands to show ten small fingers. "These are your fingers. There are ten, see? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten."

[Titian Snow]

The baby bends his fingers as Wei points to each one of them. Ten fingers? Titian doesn't get it.

"Buh!"

He curls his right arm and puts his hand in his mouth. That's what hands are for. They're also for reaching out for Mommy, or Toys, or a Bottle. He knows Toys are in the bag that Mommy brought, and reaches for the bag with his left hand, mumbling around his fist.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei looked over at where Titian was reaching.

"The bag? Ah, yes. Let's see what's in that bag."

Wei floated the bag over to him and fished out a toy: a yellow ring with 5 brightly colored keys. They were blue, red, yellow, green, and black. The Jedi Knight handed them to the baby to play with.

[Titian Snow]

Titian screams at the keys, taking the red one and instantly putting it in his mouth to gum it to death. With the red key taken care of, the others dangle from the keyring and click together quietly. He reaches down towards the floor, wanting to get off the chair.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei chuckled. This was getting to be fun. Titian was full of energy, and the Jedi Knight enjoyed watching the tot explore his world.

"Ok, I'll let you down. But don't go too far," Wei said jokingly.

Wei sat back comfortably in his chair, keeping an eagle eye on Titian.

[Titian Snow]

The baby squirms, trying to look around at the room from where he lies on his back. There's a loud sound from another room in Wei's living quarters, and he squeals at it, having recognized that sound. When he hears that sound, it means Mommy's going to go talk to someone that isn't there. Sometimes if he's loud enough, they can hear him from where he is.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei turned to the sound. "Ah yes. That thing right there," Wei said to Titian. "Is bothersome."

Wei got up to see who was calling. "One moment...silly thing..."

Wei finally got to the phone, and picked up the recieving end. "Hello? Wu Wei residence."

There was a small pause, then Wei could be heard heaving a heavy sigh. "No, Angelica Shin is no longer at this residence."

Another pause. "No, I'm afraid I don't know where she is now."

Third pause. "No, that's all right. I'm sorry I could not be of any help. Have a good day."

Wei put the reciever back, and gave a second heavy sigh. Then the man collected himself and headed back into the other room where Titian was.

"Ok, pal, I'm finished with the phone."

[Titian Snow]

Titian, with a bit of struggle, manages to turn his head to see Wei, as well as the door out of the quarters. He reaches out to it, kicking his feet with a slight whine. Outside! He wants to go outside.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei smiled as Titian lay on the floor, kicking his feet and moving his arms.

"Trying to get around, eh?" he said. "Well, I guess you gotta crawl."

Wei stooped over and picked up Titian by his sides so the baby's knees came under him and his hands were placed firmly on the floor.

"See? This is what you do when you want to crawl." Then the Knight let Titian go, so the infant settled on all fours.

[Titian Snow]

The keys fall from Titian's mouth as he looks around. This is good. Everything's right side up. He bends his elbows rapidly, bouncing a little, but can achieve no forward motion. His face begins to frown as he tries to move, then he begins to cry, lowering himself onto the floor abruptly as his arms tire from supporting him.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei bent down and picked Titian up, bouncing him lightly. "There there, little one. No need to get discouraged. We'll try again later."

The keys floated up to the Knight's hand, and he handed them back to his charge. "Here you go," he said, holding out the slobbery red key.

[Titian Snow]

He waves the key away with an upset scream, reaching for the door instead. He doesn't want the keys anymore, he wants to go somewhere! This room isn't any different from his usual one, except for the moving chair.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei sighed, and went back to bouncing Titian in his arms. "What's the matter pal? Do you miss your mother? Oh, don't you worry, she'll be back."

The Jedi Knight tried to remember all the things that his mother had taught him about dealing with babies.

"He's not dirty, not hungry, and I don't know what he wants."

So what was Wei to do with this screaming baby? Aha! That was it! "Come on pal, time for you to take a nap. You're just plain grumpy."

Off they went to sit back in the rocking chair. The Knight sat down and put Titian in his lap with the baby's ear to his chest to hear his heartbeat.

"Now now. You calm down."

[Titian Snow]

Titian just yells louder, squirming and wriggling and waving his hands at the door. He just wants to go outside! Why is he getting put back in the chair?

[Wei Wu Wei]

"What is with you?" Wei asked, trying to contain him.

Titian was crying and screaming and reaching for the door.

"What do you want? Is there something in your room you want?" He paused for a moment to think about what he had just said. The idea had merit.

"Ok, we'll go across the hall and see what you want there."

Taking the key from the baby's bag, the two went out the door and into the hall across to the room where Titian stayed. "Ok, let's see what we got going on here."

[Titian Snow]

Titian leans down towards a circular toy with a seat in the middle. It's made of two large rings. The one on the bottom has wheels, and is connected to the top one by a number of rods. The top ring has a variety of little activities to it, and the seat in the center spins so the baby can see everything as he needs it. Titian goes immediately for that, leaning over to it with a shout.

[Wei Wu Wei]

The young man soon found it hard to keep Titian in his arms, despite all his strength. "You certainly are a slippery youngster. Let's see if we can get some of this extra energy out of you."

Then he saw what the baby wanted. "Ah, yes. That looks like a good idea. You can kick your little legs and play all you want."

Wei held Titian out at arms length, and lowered him into the seat, guiding the baby's feet so they made it through the little holes in the bottom of the seat.

"There it is. Have at it, little guy."

[Titian Snow]

Now it's on. Titian begins to kick his legs, shuffling the rolling toy forward. The baby is mobile! The door is cracked open a bit, and he begins to slowly putter in its direction, reaching his arms out and leaning over towards the other toys littering the path. In the other room comes the call of the comm unit. It doesn't distract Titian in the least.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei sighed when he heard the comm ring in his room. "Great. Titian, stay in here."

Wei opened the door to Lillian's room wide, and then did the same to his door so he could keep an ear out for Titian while he took care of business on the comm.

"Yes, hello?"

A pause.

"No ma'am, I'm not interested in your credit card offer. Thank you though."

Another pause, and then the Knight's voice cut in real quick to cut her off. "No thank you. Please take me off your calling list. Thank you. Good day ma'am."

Wei sighed as he set down the reciever. What was the world coming to when even Jedi got calls from telemarketers? But there were more important things to focus on at the moment. Like making sure Titian was ok.

"Titian, where are you? Are you being good over in your room?" Wei called, walking back out to the hallway to check on the infant.

[Titian Snow]

Titian gets to the door, finding a toy leaning there by the wall. It's a long arm, with a trigger to activat the gripping pincer at the end. Lillian had it when she was a little girl, and now it is Titian's to grab things with when he sits in this toy. He reaches forward and gets it, struggling to change it around so he can pull the trigger. Now he waits for something to get a grip on.

As Wei begins to ever so politely tell of the telemarketer, a tiny cleaning droid scuttles by, pausing as it tries to decide which way to go; into Wei's room, into Titian's room, or straight down the hall. Titian squeals at it and immediately grabs it. The machine makes the human equivalent of panic, tearing off down the hall and dragging the baby behind it. Titian lifts his feet and rolls effortlessly behind, giggling as it whips around a corner. He's out!

[Ruth Leofsiege]

Ruth had just moved in the night before. She was exploring the corridors, trying to get the lay of the land. Suddenly an infant in a wheeled circular seat rounded the corner in front of Ruth, almost hitting her.

"Hello." she said, stopping the infant's progress with her foot. "Where did you come from? I'm sure someone is looking for you." Ruth knelt down in front of the infant, smiling at him. "Why don't we go back to your room, hm?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Titian?" Wei asked, poking his head into Lililan's room. "Titian? Are you hiding?" Wei asked in a mock-angry tone. "You better come out, wherever you are."

Wei walked around the entire room, and even into the refresher. Titian was not to be found.

"This is grand. Where could he have gone? Well, this is a Jedi facility, so he wouldn't have been kidnapped. He can't have gotten far. I just need to figure out which way he went."

Just as Wei got to the hallway, the little gold droid Titian had grabbed hold of had done an about face and proceeded to zoom down the hall the way it had come.

"I wonder where it came from? Never seen a little droid move so fast."

Compelled by curiosity, Wei headed in that direction to see what might have frightened the little droid.

[Ruth Leofsiege]

Smiling at Titian, Ruth picked him up. Titian squirmed and twisted around in her arms until he saw her necklace. Grabbing the pendant, he slid it back and forth on the chain, babbling away.

"Well, I see you have good taste in jewelry." Ruth chuckled. "Let's go back this way and see if we can't find your parents." Ruth rounded the corner, looking at the infant in her arms and not where she was going.

[Titian Snow]

He tugs the necklace sharply, and when it refuses to give way he screams, reaching back for his original rolling toy and the grabbing arm. His robot got away, and now he isn't happy in the least.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei turned the corner just in time to see Titian begin to cry and reach for his toy.

"Ma'am, please put the baby down."

He pushed his glasses onto the bridge of his nose before continuing. "His name is Titian, and I am taking care of him today. Thank you for finding him. I think I can handle things from here."

[Ruth Leofsiege]

Ruth carefully put Titian on the ground. "He's a feisty one, isn't he?" she asked Wei. She looked down at Titian. "It was nice meeting you, Titian." Nodding to Wei, Ruth turned the corner and continued her exploration.

[Titian Snow]

Titian leans forward his little hands stretching almost to his toes as he cries. His robot ran away! He can see it scuttling down the hall, far out past the reach of his tiny arms. It rounds a corner and he screams louder. It's gone!

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei immediately dove on Titian and gave him a hug to try to comfort him. "Shhh.....shhh...it's all right."

Wow, Titian was an angsty one. He sure did like to cry a lot.

"Titian, come on. Let's get back in our toy, and get our pinchy thing, and we can go back to your room and play."

He picked the baby up and placed him in the toy, then using the grabber claw, grasped the edge of the thing and began to pull Titian back down the hallway.

[Titian Snow]

Titian yells indigantly, forgetting the lost droid as Wei takes his pinchy thing. That's his pinchy thing! The baby leans forward and grabs the end of it, shaking it with all his might and shooting off a long string of babble at Wei with a look that would indicate a scowl.

[Dae Jinn]

*BAM*
Wei is knocked off his feet by a blur of orange, followed by a laughing and half-running Dae Jinn.

"Kwiet! Watch what you're doing!!" She yells after the boy. She crouches down beside the fallen Jedi knight, offering him a hand up.
"Are you alright...Mister..er?"

[Kwiet Ideya]

Kwiet turns, slipping onto his stomach as he does. But rather than focus on Wei, he sees the little baby sitting there next to him.

"Hey, cool!"

Kwiet goes and squats in front of Titian, giving him a scrutinizing look.

"He's not much, is he?" asks the boy, taking the pinchy arm toy to look at it.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Jedi Knight Wei Wu Wei, at your service, he says."

His glasses have fallen from his face, and he reaches to get them. "I think they're bent."

Wei sets them on the floor to see whether they sit on the four points they're supposed to and begins to ever so gently bend them back into shape.

"It's not the first time it's happened. I'll be all right."

Titian is squalling still, and reaches for the pinchy toy that Kwiet holds.

"And you're Kwiet. You used to be in the care of my cousin."

Wei stands and dusts himself off. "I'm taking care of this little guy today. He's a lot of trouble. I'm recommending his mother for sainthood for being able to keep him under control."

[Dae Jinn]

"Are you sure? I'm really sorry. Kwiet can be quite the handful himself," Dae said, smiling as Kwiet crouched down beside the baby. She gently took Wei's now-semi-back-to-normal glasses from him and slipped them back on his face.

"Hi, I'm Dae. Nice to meet you, Wei."

[Titian Snow]

The baby boy quiets down as he gets his hands on the handle, pulling back as hard as he can to take it from Kwiet. His little arms tremble along with his bottom lip, and he grunts with the effort and determination of getting back his pinchy thing.

[Kwiet Ideya]

Kwiet lets go of the toy as the baby pulls it, whirling indignantly to face the adults.

"I'm not a handful!" he protests. "I was really good in my classes, and I practice them every day! I do my chores too!"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei smiled as a pretty woman came into focus. "Well, thank you. Children are a lot to handle. It is nice to have met you too, Dae."

Without turning to even face Titian, the Knight quickly shot out a hand to keep Titian from falling over. The effort of trying to get back the toy from Kwiet threatened to knock the baby over. That wouldn't be good.

"Keep still, youngster," he said to the baby. "You got to be careful. This has got to be the most upset baby I've ever seen. All he does is cry. It makes me sad too, to be honest."

[Titian Snow]

Titian jerks back, stopped short by Wei's protective hand, and blinks surprisedly. He has his pinchy thing? That's great! He squeals delightedly and jams the handle in his mouth, burbling up at the people around him. Kwiet didn't wash his hands well after breakfast, it seems. The baby can taste a bit of jam on his toy, and gums it a little as he rolls his eyes way back to see everything.

[Dae Jinn]

"Aw, the poor thing." Dae frowns at Wei, starting to straighten out his shirt, which is dusty from being on the floor. She starts brushing off his chest as she talks. "I'm sure it's just a phase, though. He'll grow out of it, into a fine Jedi."

Kwiet meanwhile, has positioned himself behind the walker, and is pushing Titian around making speeder noises. He barrels by the two adults, knocking Dae off-balance and into Wei's arms. She squeals a bit, burying her face into his chest as Kwiet turns the baby around and goes back for another run.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei tenses up a bit when she starts dusting him off, but soon gets control of himself.

"Thanks."

Just before the two could get up, Wei quite suddenly found himself holding Dae tightly to keep her from falling over. He has a decent grip on her, for only using one arm. He's doing his best to keep her steady without bruising her sides by holding on too tight.

They sat there in this manner for a moment, as Wei tried to figure out how best to help the two of them up. At last, the Knight manages to figure it out. He shifts his weight onto the hand that's keeping him up and places his feet flat on the floor. Then with a quick Force boosted push, he manages to bring himself, and Dae into a standing position.

"There we are."

There is one more brief pause, and Wei finally lets her go to stand on her own two feet. He pushes his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose and turns away from Dae to look down the hall. For one, he has to figure out where Titian is, and secondly he's bright red from the whole interchange. He was just a little embarassed to say the least.

"Which way did they go?"

[Kwiet Ideya]

Kwiet comes flying back into view from another hallway, slipping and falling on his stomach.

"Ow!"

The baby's toy continues to roll away down the hall as Titian hauls himself to his feet, rubbing his chest where he fell.

[Dae Jinn]

"Kwiet!" Dae rushes over, kneeling down to check on her son, leaving Wei to follow the baby toy down the hallway.

[Titian Snow]

Titian squeals and giggles, having a great deal of fun zooming around like this. He coasts down the hall, still sucking on the pinchy thing's handle, and rolls to a stop at the end...which is the open turbolift door. It shuts behind him as he spins around, spotting something that's operating the lift. A tiny little cleaning droid has plugged itself into the ports by the floor and is moving downstairs to the first floor. Titian screams at it and pinches it, spooking it early and zooming outside two floors below.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei dashed off towards Titian, but was too late to get to the door in time.

"Oh, no. Where are they going?"

Wei looked up above the turbolift door and watched the monitor blink a number 1. Well, that was no good.

"Hope you guys are ok! I gotta run!"

His discomfort with Dae forgotten, he tore the door to the stairs open and ran down them as fast as he could to the first floor. He burst out of the door at the bottom and began to look around frantically for the baby boy.

"Titian!" He called, even though the baby probably wouldn't answer.

[Titian Snow]

A delighted squeal resounds from far down the hall. The little droid zooms around corners, weaving through the legs of Jedi and bowling them over as little Titian comes flying in behind it. In the droid's panic it zooms out the door of the dormitory, flies down the handicap ramp, and zooms into the garden.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"No! Don't go out there!"

The Knight hung his head and sighed. "I thought the droids weren't allowed out of the building..."

He shook out the cobwebs of frustration and mental exhaustion and shot down the hallway and out the door before it had time to close.

Force Boosting was alway something Wei had excelled at, and he was very happy he was good at it. It allowed him to check numerous pathways and the skill also allowed him to enhance his hearing to listen for the youngster.

Wei took a few wrong turns, but managed to off-road his way though the garden to get back on the right track.

"Child, your mother is going to have conniptions if she finds out about this!"

Wei knew about Lillian's distrust of men, and had been hoping that by taking good enough care of Titian he might be able to break down that wall that kept her from associating with men. But if he failed, it might make things worse. Women could be very difficult to negotiate with concerning matters involving their children.

[Titian Snow]

Titian hears Wei, but doesn't understand. He's having lots of fun, and he's seeing all these new things! The garden is very bright, with lots of green and yellow and white. His little eyes track around as quickly as they can, seeking his favorite color. He wants to find the red spots that visit him at night sometimes. The droid whips around the corner and mows through a bush of red petaled flowers. Red! He screams at the flowers, reaching out with one hand to try and snatch one. He comes out of it with tons of them jammed in his rolling toy, and one short-stemmed flower clamped in his little fist.

[Wei Wu Wei]

The sound of a happy baby could be heard to Wei's right, and he turned to face it, but only found a violently shaking bush with red flowers.

"That's odd," was all Wei could say before a happy baby covered in red blossoms came shooting out of it and between the Knight's legs.

Needless to say, he was caught completely off guard and found himself once again flat on his back. At least his glasses stayed on that time. He got up, dusted off his bum, and went chasing Titian once again.

"Titian, come back!"

[Titian Snow]

Titian's droid whips around and zooms back at the knight, turning to his left as it detects him and dodges. Titian waves delightedly at his caretaker as he flies by, zooming away through the varying trees, bushes, and people, towards the garden's exit.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei had only taken but a few steps when he saw the droid turn back the way it came. The Knight dug in with a solid stance so as not to get knocked over and waited until Titian came close. Once he saw the infant get near, he reached out to grab a hold of Titian's toy...and grabbed nothing but air.

"No! Stupid droid! NOT OUT THERE!"

This was getting to be a big deal. The droid was making things go from bad to worse, and Titian didn't look like he would be letting go any time soon.

Wei jumped, leaping over bushes, around trees, and hurdling over surprised Padawans. He excused himself as best he could, but kept on bounding after the baby he was supposed to be taking care of.

[Titian Snow]

The droid's wheels squeak as they fly off the cobblestones of the garden and hit the durracrete of the path outside. Titian squeaks back, not knowing where he's going, but not caring either. The droid is currenly flying towards the Academy with all haste, pulling it's passenger along with it.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Well, at least they were still in the compound. The droid was headed to the Academy area. Wei could only hope that with all the classes and other Jedi practice sessions that Titian wouldn't get hurt.

"Stop that baby!" He yelled, breaking once again into a solid sprint. Wow, those little droids were fast.