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 Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 9:14 pm
It was a couple of days following Len's birthday, and there was a commotion outside of her room. Sabriel looked on as Chin arranged their gift by the door, trying to find a way that it would be seen and not stepped on...and not doing a very good job, it seemed. Pacing in closer, Sabe crouched down and shuffled the paper and present around until it was to his liking, shooting agitated glares at Chin.
She never did anything right. If she had her way Lenore would be smirking and petting her OWN Prince/bird plushie thing, and that wouldn't do at all. Oh no. All of his plans would be ruined and the Bird would be happy and...he muttered furiously, still fussing away at the gift.Chin let him push her aside, more amused than anything. When the toddler looked to be satisfied she reached out and knocked gently on Crow and Lenore's door, letting anyone inside know they were out here, and then scrambled out of sight. Sabriel waited, curious if anyone would open the door...and when nobody did, followed suite. What was left:  And a letter: Quote: Happy Birthday Lenore! Okay, we're a little late. Word travels slow. But anyways, a very happy birthday to you! Here's something we picked up on the way here - it's clockwork. If you wind the key up it bends over and pecks at the ground. You could stick Sadako underneath it. ...or not. Don't worry about the creepy green eyes, either. They totally don't follow you around the room. Not at all. With luff, Chinchillie and Sabriel heart
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Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 10:03 pm
Newsflash
"I don't get it."
Lenore sighed and pointed to the brightly colored, rather evil looking game piece on the board.
"It's easy, Doll," she said. "I roll the dice once, an' then I take my turn. Once I land on a square, I take a card, like so-" she picked up a card and exhibited it for Doll to see. "-and then I read the card, and follow the instructions. Like, this one says...'A rogue goblin has savagely torn you limb from limb. Wait two turns for the Full Moon of Blood to shine it's evil power onto your pathetic corpse.' See? Easy."
Julian, reading a newspaper on his couch, lowered it and stared at Lenore.
"Len, sweetheart, what the hell kind of game are you playing?" he asked.
Lenore held up the game's box to exhibit to Julian.
"It's 'Creatures of the Shadows and Graves'," she said with little-girl glee. "Best freakin' boardgame in the history of forever, duh!"
"Ah. Sorry I asked," Julian said, returning to his paper.
"Says the guy who put a human rib in my lunchbox."
Julian flinched, the deep worry for Erishi that had been bothering him for days flaring up again in full force. He hadn't told the others about her, and the internal debate over keeping it secret was torturing him.
"...shush, Len," he said finally, returning to his paper.
Lenore snorted and turned back to Doll.
"HEY! Dammit...Doll, don't eat that! Take that out of your mouth! MUUUUM!"
"Doll, whatever you're eating, spit it out."
Crow, busy in the kitchen by turn examining the rib and attempting to cook (a failing lesson she'd yet to fully learn), glared at Doll. She glanced then at the TV, which Ethan was currently glued to. The nightly evening news, never an interesting watch but one the family paid obsessive attention to anyway. There was a picture of the Rijani flag showing on the graphically-overcrowded screen that instantly caught her eye.
"Ethan, turn it up, I can't hear it," she called, hoping to hear that the entire country had quite suddenly been sucked into a black hole. Ethan obliged, and a hoarse news anchor's voice carried effortlessly through the room.
"-and in world news, a startling crash in one of Rijan's top companies has resulted in a disatrous effect on the nation's economy. AlchemOil, the miracle fuel used in Rijan and more widely in the less-developed countries of Fisk and neighboring Gurga, has been in a steady decline for months. Today, reports of the owner Yagadath Haderka's apparent disappearance have rocked the board of executives-"
Julian slowly lowered his paper, eyes fixed on the television screen. Crow watched with her mouth slightly agape. Ethan, Doll and Lenore shared communal "huh?" looks and watched with interest.
"-also reported missing is former chief executive's wife, Feriska Haderka. Neither had made public appearances in some time, and are now feared to have been the victims of foul play. Their assets, properties and the company itself have been seized and are now under Rijani goverment ownership. The Haderka's only child-" Crow made a derisive snort here, "-has also been reported missing. Representatives of the Haderka estate have declined to comment."
Exchanging looks, Crow and Julian turned back to the television as the anchor continued to speak.
"The company itself has since declared bankruptcy and closed its doors, displacing thousands of workers and ceasing production of the fuel an entire continent has, for nearly two decades, been increasingly dependant upon. The fuel, an unidentifiable compound whose production was a closely guarded secret, has been rationed out as emergency resources are tapped by the Fiskan and Gurgan goverments. Use of the AlchemOil product is relatively low in Rijan, due to the widespread use of a biomechanical hybrid christened the Vehilii - for more information on this story and Rijan's history, visit our website at-"
"Ethan...turn that off."
Ethan obeyed, anxiously looking from Julian to Crow. Both had bizarre expressions on their faces. Crow emerged slowly from the kitchen and stood next to Julian, bracing herself on the couch and trying to remain upright.
"Mother and Father are gone," she said.
"Gone. Maybe dead," Julian replied.
They exchanged long, slow looks.
And Crow burst out laughing.
"Dead! DEAD! Son of a b***h! They're ******** gone!" Crow shrieked. Julian laughed and jumped up, hugging Crow and twirling her around.
"Gone! They're gone, the company's dead! It's finished!" he howled, eyes blazing in hysterical happiness.
"Do you know what this means?" Crow asked, clinging to ********' PARTY!"
The siblings laughed maniacally and lapsed into rapid-fire Rijani, looking ecstatic. Ethan, Lenore and Doll simply stared.
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Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 8:34 pm
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Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 8:35 pm
Reserved.
(Aki dinner party event)
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 8:40 pm
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Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:36 pm
{Miniplot part I}
It was a dull day, and Lenore was bored out of her skull. She was wandering around the city as usual when her family was away with their (she snorted derisively at the thought) lives, though she steered clear of strangers and the dark, isolated places. Sadako rode on her shoulder like a hissing, bad-tempered velveteen parrot, mumbling complaints about the chill of early autumn air. Lenore ignored her, hands shoved into her jacket pockets and walking with a slouch.
It was a very dull day.
"We go back to room, Sadako play board games with Len," Sadako suggested, shivering at a strong breeze and wrapping her stubby arms around herself."Leeeen. Sadako want go home."
"There's nothing to do, 'Dako," Len said patiently, pausing to peer into the window of a little hole-in-the-wall record store. "DisChord...that's a silly name for a record store."
Abandoning her peeping to continue her journey in no particular direction, Lenore let her thoughts drift at random. She thought about Chase and wondered where he was, and about Talee Latero, who she hadn't seen nor heard from since she was a toddler. Her thoughts made her feel terribly lonely, and before Lenore knew what was wrong she was starting to sniffle.
"What the..." she mumbled, knuckling her eyes and snorting loudly to make the sniffling stop. "That was weird."
Shrugging it off, Len continued on her way, determinedly not thinking of anything nostalgic. But try as she might her thoughts started to slip back into their melancholy state....but then she stumbled across the playground. She brightened at the sound of kids, laughing and shouting, and ventured a little further.
It was a rather nice playground, if not a bit aged. The swings were beaten but still perfectly usable, the slide graffitied and dinged, but there was still a line ten-child long to wait their turns on it. It looked like a nice place. Len stood on the outskirts for a few minutes, eyes wide as she watched the children around her playing.
It was then that she realized she didn't know what to do around these people.
Humans, she'd long ago decided, were much more difficult to understand than Mishaps. She'd had no practice talking with humans outside the occassional new guardian or Ethan, and they didn't exactly count. She glanced over at Sadako worriedly.
"Should I try?" she asked. The doll shrugged and nodded slightly. Thus encouraged, Lenore ventured towards a group of kids playing kickball, folding her wings back fully to keep them out of the way.
"Um," she said, slightly nervously, to one of the girls that seemed about her age. "Uh. Hi."
The girl, a scabby-kneed ten year old with messy pigtails, glanced at Lenore in blatant curiosity.
"What's up with your skin? You got a skin disease or something?" she asked with a child's bluntness.
Lenore blushed a darker gray and looked down at her ashy skin.
"No, that's just how my skin's colored," she said, stung.
"You've got funny hands, too. My mom says people with birth defects got funny skin and their linds go all funny-lookin'," the girl said. "Why your pinkies so long?"
Lenore's jaw set and her nostrils flared.
"I'm guessin' you meant to say limbs. Why you got an extra mutant finger when I get to have four?" she said coolly. "An' how come you got hair that looks like somethin' nested in it?"
The girl's lips thinned and her eyes narrowed.
"You should know all 'bout nesting, huh Birdie?" she asked vindictively. "I see those feathers comin' out of your butt. Pigeon girl!"
"Jeez, I'm really wounded," Lenore said icily, turning on her heel and starting to walk away. "Cripes. What a waste of time. C'mon, 'Dako."
Most of the other children, who had been watching the exchange with all the interest of a flock of vultures, went back to their game. The pig-tailed girl and two of her friends, however, had not taken kindly to the freak who'd interrupted their precious kickball.
"Nice doll," the pig-tailed girl said, catching up to Lenore. "Where'd you find her, in a trash can?"
"Gee, that was a zinger. Did it take you long to think up?"
The pig-tailed girl flushed and shoved Lenore's arm on impulse.
"Pigeon-face," she said. "My mom says people like you make Gaia a bad place. She said all you animal people, she said you should all be locked up an' put down."
Lenore sighed inwardly. Her first-ever attempt to befriend a human child was rather fantastically blowing up in her face. She ignored the girl and kept walking, fully aware the girl's two friends were following.
"Why dontcha just fly away, Pigeon? Huh? Huh? Dad says birds are always scared they're gonna get beat, that's why they fly away," the girl said smugly. "An' my dad likes to shoot birds. He's real good at it, he goes duck huntin' and everything."
Lenore said nothing, though she quickened her pace. Sadako hissed warningly in her ear.
Disappointed with the lack of response, the pig-tailed girl grabbed Sadako and held her by her hair, watching as the doll writhed in anger.
"Ugly doll, too. Ugly just like you," she said cheerfully.
Lenore bit back an angry cry and rounded on the girl.
"Give her back!" she said, trying to grab for Sadako. The doll was yanked out of her reach before she could get a decent hold. She glared at the girl, wings folding and unfolding in anger. "Put her down!"
The girl grinned and threw Sadako to one of her friends, who caught the doll easily. She made a horrified noise as Sadako writhed and tried to bite, and held her at arm's length by her hair again.
"Ewww, it's gross, Ellen! It's got pigeon-cooties on it!" the girl said, lip curling.
The pig tailed girl laughed.
"Throw it away, then!" she said. The other girl nodded, and drew back her arm. Sadako shrieked in protest and made a terrible noise as she was thrown into the garbage stuffed trash can.
Lenore shrieked in outrage and shoved Ellen, eyes blazing.
"What the hell is wrong with you? All I wanted to do was say hello," she snarled.
Ellen looked shocked, then repulsed.
"My mom says people like you aren't people. You're just stupid animals who like to pretend their human," she said matter-of-factly. "You're just a big fat ugly pigeon, and now your stupid doll's all dirty and gross just like you."
Hurt and bewildered by treatment she didn't know how she'd instigated, Lenore unfolded her wings fully on pure instinct. Trying to appear bigger than she really was, trying to be intimidating. A bird's instincts.
"I'm not a pigeon," she said, eyes teary. "I'm a person. I'm just different."
Ellen backed away slightly as she caught sight of the deadly sharp edges of Lenore's wings.
"You're a pigeon an' a can opener!" she said, laughing despite her discomfort. The other girls parroted her laugh, empty malice in their faces.
Lenore opened her mouth to argue but all that came out was a particularly filthy curse that made the girls gasp and their eyes go wide. She pushed past them and dug into the trash can, digging Sadako out and fleeing the playground.
She'd never hated herself more than at that moment.
---
Lenore was crying by the time she'd gotten home. Sadako tried to talk to her, but Len wasn't listening. Kicking the door open, she sniffled loudly and tried ineffectively to wipe her face clean as she caught sight of Ethan.
Ethan, who'd choked on his greeting midword, got up abruptly from the table and tried to approach her.
"Lenore, what-"
It was all he had time to say before Lenore pushed past him, dropping Sadako on the floor and running into the bathroom.
Locking herself into the bathroom, Lenore switched the light on and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She hated her face, hated her eyes, hated her downy hair that flew up in all directions. She hated her ash-colored skin, and her wings. She hated her ugly hands and her ugly feet, and she hated the long tail of feathers that sprouted from her tailbone.
She was ugly. A freak. Everyone hated her because she was different.
"Ugly, ugly, ugly," she shouted, enraged. "Ugly, ugly, ugly!"
She grabbed hold of her tail feathers and pulled hard. It hurt, like yanking out a handful of hair, and half the feathers came loose. She flung them on the floor. She spread her wings and grabbed at them, yanking razor feathers out in twos and threes. They rang like bells as she tossed them aside. She pulled her wings off bit by bit, the chant of ugly, ugly, ugly ringing in her head.
Though her own feathers couldn't cut her, Lenore's hands were bleeding when she finally gave up on pulling out her wings. Dozens of razor feathers lay on the floor, though many more were still attached to her body.
Outside the bathroom door, Ethan was doggedly pouding on it and shouting to Lenore.
"Len, please, open up! Tell me what happened, please!" he shouted. There was no response, and he kicked at the door to see if that would help. It didn't. "Lenore, open this door or...or I'll call Crow! I'll call her!"
There was no response. Ethan fidgeted, then went for the phone.
"I'm dialing," he called. No answer. He dialed. "The phone is ringing!" No answer. The line picked up on the other end. "I'm calling your mother home!" No answer.
"Gambol and Proctor, may I help you?" a polite voice asked. Ethan hesitated.
"Len?"
No answer.
"I need to speak to Crow Adyamaur, please...."
---
Crow was home in an anxious state, utterly certain she was going to walk in on a scene of utter destruction. What she found was Ethan pounding at the bathroom door and Sadako in the kitchen sink trying to wash grape juice stains out of her dress.
"She still in there?" Crow asked. Ethan nodded, pounding at the door again. "Wait, wait. Lemme handle this. Len? Honey? You alright?"
"No, I'm NOT alright! I'm an ugly freak and I'm never leaving this stupid house ever again. EVER!"
Crow winced.
"Sweetheart, what happened?"
"I'M what happened! I'm not a person, I'm a stupid ugly animal and I'll never have any friends and everybody hates me and I'm ugly!" Lenore screamed.
Sighing, Crow rattled the knob.
"Len, open the door," she said. Lenore made no response, and with a grumble Crow ripped the knob clean out of the door. Ethan sighed slightly.
"I should have thought of that," he said. Crow shushed him and tossed him the knob. She pushed the door open gently and went inside, looking around. She made a small sound of horror as she saw the mess of feathers littering the floor.
"Oh, Len, what happened?" she asked again.
Lenore had taken refuge in the tub and pulled the curtain around so she could hide. She sat in a corner with her head on her knees, sniffling.
"All I did was say hi," she said, voice scratchy and tight with tears. "I was just trying to be friends. She called me a pigeon an' said that her mom said that she said people like me should be...be put down."
Crow growled viciously, eyes narrowing to slits and her pupils disappearing.
"Miserable little runt," she muttered. Taking a breath and drawing the curtain back, she felt her breath catch in her throat. Lenore looked up at her dolefully, her wings battered and tail mangled.
"I'm ugly," she said miserably.
Crow stood outside the tub for a few moments, then climbed in and scooted up to Lenore, taking the girl in her arms and hugging her tightly.
After a few minutes, Lenore hugged her back and started to cry.
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Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:20 pm
{Miniplot part II}
"Len, you have to come out of there sometime."
"No I DON'T!"
"Len-"
"Leave me alone!"
Crow sighed and threw herself onto the couch, colliding with Julian. They both stared at the bathroom door as though trying to will it open (the knob since then being haphazardly screwed back in), with little success.
"How long has she been in there?" Julian asked. Crow sighed again.
"Two days, off and on. She comes out for food occassionally."
"And what set this off?"
"Some little snot-nosed bint at the playground that teased her and threw Sadako in a garbage can."
Julian scowled.
"Brat."
"Mmhmm."
"And she tried to rip her wings out?"
Crow winced.
"She did, mostly. They're startin' to grow back but she took a ton of feathers out. And her tail...I'm surprised she didn't try to cut 'em off. She tore the feathers out."
Lenore, who'd basically moved into the bathtub, listened to her family's conversation sullenly. Sadako sat on the showerhead above her, busily poking Lenore's shed primary feathers through the back of her dress and making makeshift wings.
"Len not be sad anymore," the doll said comfortingly, still struggling with the feathers. "Sadako will find mean girl and kill her. Len can watch!"
Far from comforted, Lenore shifted in the tub and lay on her side, reading the shampoo bottle labels. She heard Sadako sigh in discouragement and closed her eyes.
"It's easy for you, y'know," she said without opening them. "Your a doll. It's easy for Mum and Julian and Ethan too, they look normal."
"Len-mommy has big tattoos an' claws an' sharp teeth an' creepy eyes. Jul-yan has psychotic brainses. Ethan....er. Ethan has glasses," Sadako argued. "And Sadako was not always doll! Sadako was mean ghostie before she met her Len, and Sadako does not mind being doll now. Sadako loves Len, just like Len-Family."
There was a knock at the door and Crow gently pushed it open, creeping inside. She glanced up at Sadako, who shrugged and shook her head hopelessly.
"Len?"
"What."
"D'you wanna go an' do something?"
"That would involve leaving the bathroom, and I gotta tell you I'm not gonna be doin' that anytime soon."
Crow nodded sympathetically, sitting on the sink. The shunned razor feathers still littered the floor.
"Well...how about we do somethin' here?"
"Like what."
Crow frowned thougtfully, twirling a lock of hair in her fingers. Inspiration struck and she hopped off the sink, rummaging in the cabinet beneath. She drew out a box featuring an airbrushed-to-perfection model and exhibited it to Lenore.
"Wanna dye your hair?"
Lenore turned over and cracked an eye open. It was a box of "Inferno Crimson" hair dye, a color Crow had experimented with but shunned in favor of the blue.
"You said I couldn't 'til I was a teenager," she said reproachfully.
"That's true, I was plannin' on it bein' a birthday...or...y'know, growth spurt present, gettin' it done professionally," Crow countered, setting the box on the edge of the tub. "How about we do it a little early? I'll cut your hair too, if you want."
Lenore hesitated, then sat up and nodded.
"Alright," she said, sounding resigned.
---
'Hon, you gotta sit still or I'll cut it the wrong way."
"I wanna see the color!"
"You'll see it in a couple minutes! Now hold still before I cut your ear off. Then it'll really be red."
Feeling more cheerful, Lenore tried to force herself to stillness but found it next to impossible.
"Izzit pretty?" she asked. "Do I look okay?"
"Gimme a second, it still ain't done," Crow said patiently.
She snipped at a few stray hairs and blowdried the drenched and dye-smelling mop with a vengeance, scissors clenched between her teeth. Julian and Ethan were the audience at the table, watching attentively. At last she finished and presented Lenore with the mirror, looking pleased with her own work.
"I missed my calling in hairdressing," Crow said, looking proud.
Lenore looked into the mirror hesitantly and gawked. Her hair striped brilliantly with red, and the unruly downy mass had been cut into something spiky and shorter.
"I look..."
She ran her fingers through her hair, tugging at a thatch of it.
"...pretty."
Crow grinned.
"Feel better?"
"Yup."
"Anything else you need?"
Lenore deeply considered the question.
"Well...there's one thing that'd help a whole lot..."
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Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:04 pm
{Miniplot part III}
"This the place?"
"Yup."
"See her anywhere?"
"Still lookin'....wait. Over there. See her? She's got the pink shorts on."
A growl rattled in Crow's throat as she caught sight of the little monster Lenore pointed out. She, Ethan and Julian lounged on a park bench while Lenore sat on the ground, Sadako settled in her lap. The family glared at the child, and the glare doubled as a stringy woman with a pinched mouth called her over for lunch, presumably the mother.
"Dried-out b***h," Crow muttered.
"Miserable hag," Julian growled.
"Jerk," Ethan supplied helpfully. The siblings glanced at him sidelong, then nodded in approval.
"So, whatcha guys gonna do?" Lenore asked, peering up at them through her newly red-streaked hair. "Kill? Massacre? Burn?"
Crow smiled slightly.
"Nothing illegal, hon. Just maybe shake 'em up a bit," she said, hopping off the bench and striding forward. She beckoned Len to follow but shook her head as the boys made as though to get up.
"Y'all stay here. This is a mother-to-mother thing," she said. Julian looked disappointed and Ethan made as though to protest, but Crow shook her head again firmly. Looking resigned, the boys retook their places on the bench.
"Not our fault if they come runnin' over here and into our line of fire," Julian said. Ethan nodded.
"I'll keep that in mind," Crow said. Taking Lenore's hand she walked across the playground with a pleasant smile firmly in place.
Lenore gulped and kept up with Crow's confident pace, but inside she was very nervous and felt slightly sick to her stomach because of it. She had no wish to see this girl again, no matter what she'd requested of her family the night before.
"Maybe this isn't a good idea," she whispered to Crow. But it was too late - they stopped a couple feet away from the picnic table where the girl Ellen and her dried-out looking mother sat eating their lunch.
"Pardon me, ladies," Crow said cheerfully, closing in on the table. The child paid no attention, but the mother looked up. Her eyes flicked from Crow's own animal-like eyes to her tattoos to her claws, and made an uncomfortable sound.
"No thank you," she said shortly, biting into her sandwich and looking down. Crow sat on the table's edge, releasing Lenore's hand and smiling widely.
"I was hoping I could talk to you about a little fight our kids had the other day," she said. The woman eyed Lenore with ill-disguised distaste and shrugged.
"I'm listening," she said.
"Good!" Crow said cheerily, still sitting on the table. "Now, and I'm sure she must be mistaken, but my little girl came home cryin' the other day and telling me that a nasty snot-nosed little rat had teased her and threw her doll into the garbage, callin' her names like 'pigeon'. With such an upstanding lady and mother to boot as yourself raising the little creature, I just can't begin to believe that," she said smoothly.
The woman's lips pursed even further and she glanced at Lenore again.
"There's a difference between children teasing one another and a child chasing off pigeons," she said delicately. Crow heard Lenore audibly wince and she had to choke off a growl.
"Listen, you b***h," she started, but then collected herself and took a breath. She looked down at Ellen, who was still piggishly involved with her sandwich. "Hey there. You're Ellen, right?"
Ellen looked up at Crow slowly, giving her a once-over before nodding haughtily.
"Yeah," she said finally. Crow's pupils slitted into nothingness and her lips twitched over her fangs.
"Why were you teasing my girl?" she asked in as light a tone as she could. Ellen looked 'round and spotted Lenore, who was clutching Sadako and looking deeply uncomfortable.
"I don't see no girl. All I see is a tall skinny rooster," Ellen said plainly.
"Rooster?" Lenore said, eyes cast down. She'd thought her hair was pretty...
You little bint, Crow thought savagely. I oughta twist your neck-
"My. What a bright, witty child you have," she said blandly to the woman. "I suppose she takes after you?"
The woman took a bite out of her sandwich, chewing it slowly.
"What I wonder," she said, pausing briefly to swallow, "Is how a mangy cat-breed freak like yourself managed to conceive and...dare I say lay a bird child. I am correct in saying you're a cat-girl?"
Crow flinched, then bit back a growl.
Alright.
That was the last straw.
"Madam, you are one of the most uninformed bipedal tumors I've ever had the displeasure of meeting," Crow said politely. The woman turned an ugly pasty color, and Ellen giggled with all the little-girl stupidity such a creature as herself was full of.
"I've half a mind to call the police on you," the woman said. Crow smiled.
"I ain't lookin' for trouble," she said sweetly. "All I want is for your little snot-eating brat to apologize to my daughter."
Ellen choked and spat out a wad of sandwich.
"I'm not gonna 'pologize to an overgrown rooster," she said rudely. "You animal-people got no right bossin' real people around."
Crow felt her gorge rise at the look of pride on Ellen's mother's face. How could people like this bear to live with themselves?
"You called my daughter a freak, you know," Crow said, sliding off the table and leaning in close to Ellen. The girl nodded, looking indifferent.
"Mum..." Lenore said, "It's not worth it...let's just go."
Crow looked over at Lenore kindly.
"Songbird, these people need to learn from their mistakes," she said firmly. She looked back over at Ellen and her mother, brushing her hair away from her face.
"So. No apologies?" she asked, tucking every last strand behind her ears and sweeping them away from her face. She'd never done this before...she wanted everyone to have a clear view.
Ellen shrugged and bit into her sandwich. Her mother curled her lip at Crow and made no reply.
"I suppose that's a no," Crow said, voice resigned. She made as though to turn and leave, but then spun on her heel and leaned over to Ellen again, down at her eye level.
"What?" Ellen said rudely, her mouth stuffed. Crow smiled brightly.
"Would you like to see a real freak?" she asked the child cheerfully. Ellen swallowed, unsure how to respond.
"What?" she asked finally. Crow decided to take this as a "yes".
"Watch closely, now," she told the girl. Reaching up to her face, she dug her claws into her flesh and with a smooth, precise motion...
Crow tore her own face off.
Ellen screamed in horror, bits of sandwich flying everywhere. Her mother gave an unearthly howl and pointed at Crow in terror. Where muscle and blood and bone should have been was a withered, fleshless monstrosity, lidless eyes roving around madly. A long, long tongue waggled out and flicked like a snakes from behind savagely pointed, jagged teeth.
"Mommy!" Ellen screamed.
"Run!" her mother shrieked.
"Hot damn," Lenore said, smiling.
Crow leapt up onto the table, snarling. She cleared her throat then, trying to compose herself. Ellen and her mother sat frozen in terror as she looked at them.
"Boo," she said. There was a terrible twinning shriek from the pair of them, and they bolted. Crow burst out laughing, then yelped as she slipped off the table and fell.
"Owww," she mumbled, pushing herself back up. Pushing hair away from her face, she sneezed and cracked her jaw as her face seemed to repair itself and revert to normal.
Lenore stooped and helped Crow up, laughing hysterically.
"How'd you do that?" she asked over and over, giddy. Sadako made a hissing sound of approval, eyes glinting malevolently.
Crow puffed out in pride, lacing her arm through Lenore's and strutting back towards Julian and Ethan.
"The Marque hides my demon side," she told Len cheerily. "But just because you can't see something doesn't mean it ain't there."
Lenore nodded in fascination.
"Neat," she said finally.
"Isn't it, though? Now, you feelin' all better?"
"Yup."
"Good."
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Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 6:00 pm
Science Class
"When's she gonna get here?" Björn asked, perched on the arm of Liam's couch.
"I dunno."
"When'd you tell her to be here?"
"I dun' remember."
"...Ike...first you ask me to teach these ********' kids--"
Rabid looked up from her newspaper, eyes full of evil Vampirey-glarings.
"...friggin' kids..."
Rabid returned to her comic page.
"...and now one of 'em ain't even comin'."
"She'll come."
"Dethy come?" Desiree suddenly peeked out from beneath her and Clemmie's bed.
"No, honey. Only big kids like Fuzzwad and The Dangerous Kamikaze Bird can blow things up."
Dezzy huffed and disappeared back beneath her bed.
"Quit followin' me."
"Sadako want come to school with Len!"
"No."
"But-"
"No. Now go an' bug someone else, alright?"
Sadako glared up at Lenore, who glared right back.
"Len is mean molty b***h today," she said plainly, skittering away.
Lenore, with her wings mangled and tail missing, snorted.
"I'll remember that when I get back from class, y'know," she called after the doll. She turned on her heel and knocked on the door, hoping she hadn't gotten the time wrong.
Ike immediately leaped to his feet and ran for the door, throwing it open. He grin suddenly turned to an expression of confusion.
"I didn' know razor-feathers molted...?" he spoke more to himself than anyone else and then shrugged, "C'mon. Björn's gettin' annoyed, and it's either him or the math teacher's brother, there."
Björn arched an eyebrow and nodded to Len, which was just about as sweet a greeting as one could get from the likes of him.
"Heya, Malachi," Len said, throwing her arms around him in a brief hug before looking down at her wings. She gave a wry smile and shook her head. "They don't. Don't worry 'bout it."
She waved at Björn, though she made a distasteful face at the mention of that accursed math teacher.
"Pfeh. I like Björn. Let's stick with him," she said, creeping into the room.
Ike scratched the back of his head.
"Mmkay."
"Come, you walking deathtraps," Björn nodded and dragged the portal out from behind the couch, "We're going to make you significantly more dangerous by arming you with various chemicals."
"Björn...do you really think it wise to--"
"Honey? Dearest? Bloodsucking wench? Blast shields."
"Aaaah. I see. Carry on."
Björn obeyed and turned a dial; pressed a button. The innards of a dark, multi-story building flickered into existance.
"So they don't yell at me for endangerin' you two. Better equipment here."
One would not assume as such, though, seeing as to how the visible bits of wall were covered in layer upon layer of dust, and the windows were boarded up with what very well could have been solidified metal.
"Chemicals? I thought we were gonna do vol-oh. Oh, wow."
Having never before seen the portal at work, Len silenced herself and gawked. Grabbing onto Ike's arm, she clung to it and continued her unabashed gawking.
"It looks like a haunted house. That kinda got burned down," she said, immediately curious.
"Close. I went to school here and taught for a bit," Björn said, disappearing through the portal. He beckoned for the children and continued talking as he moved to a corner, running a hand along the wall to find his way.
"Yanno, a million and five years ago."
"C'mon," Ike smiled to Len and carefully guided her into the building through the portal. The picture flickered out behind him.
"Ah!"
The lights suddenly flickered on with a kid of horror-movie-like buzz. The room was much more appealing now. Although still dusty, there was a large desk up front, two smaller tables, and a cordoned-off plastic shield.
"The one thing Vavvians are good for..."
"Neat..."
Looking around in appreciation, Len ran her fingers through the dust and wiped it off on her skirt after a brief examination.
"Okay. I think I like school today," she said, picking dust out from under a claw.
"Good," Björn nodded, "Sit."
Ike obediently climbed into one of the absurdly high chairs at a lab table, whipping out a pen and notebook.
"Sorry, but I'm going to have to bore you for a bit," Björn said as he pulled down an odd shade-like-thing containing the periodic table of elements as seen in Gaia, "So. Whip out them notebooks or sheets of paper or whatever the Hell it is your parents sent you away with." He leaped onto the teacher's desk and simply sat atop it.
Len removed her much-abused journal and flipped it open to a fresh page, pen at the ready.
I wonder what he meant by 'making us more dangerous', she thought. Maybe we get to use arsenic on someone or somethin'.
"Alright," Björn nodded and pointed to the table, "I ain't gonna lie to you like all of the other teachers will. You don' need to ********' memorize this thing. Just know that everything from here [he gestured from a point to the left] over is a metal, here [he gestured to the right] to here are nonmetals, and these [he motioned to a column] are the noble gasses. They're assholes and refuse to react with anything. Ever. We don't like them."
Ike scribbled furiously, attempting to copy down everything that had been said. To his relief, a photocopied and much-abused periodic table appeared before him.
"Reactions are more fun than memorization any day."
Jotting down notes quickly, Len glanced from the big version to Ike's from time to time. Sketching out a rough copy of the chart, she labelled and added doodles to help herself remember. Drawing a stick-figure crown on the noble gas column, she paused and looked up at Björn, a questioning look on her face.
"Er...what d'you mean by 'reaction'?" she asked a little timidly. No matter how highly Ethan thought of him, the man did still scare her a little. "Like...um. Fizzing? Sparks? Something like that?"
"No," Björn said, slamming another photocopied table on the lab-desk in front of Lenore, "We force-feed you chemicals and gauge how long it takes for you to die violently." He stood straight again and shrugged.
"Or we can make stuff explode n' ignite. Your choice." He returned to the board, drew a finger down it, and grunted in satisfaction at the black line that appeared.
"Good. Still works." He then began to scrawl a chart with unusually neat handwriting.
Ike, still giggling a bit from the poisoning line, began to copy the chart down.
"I'll make this quick," Björn nodded, "Metals are shiny, good conductors of heat and electricity, heavy for their size, have high melting points, can be stretched to wire, and pounded into sheets. Which is fun." He moved to the next column.
"Non-metals are dull in hue, bad conductors, brittle, not wire-able or sheet-able, are generally light for their size, and have low melting points." He quickly moved to the last column.
"There's metalloids too, but I'm already pushin' with the high school s**t, so we'll just leave it at that." He hopped back onto the desk and waited.
"Is wire-able even a word? I thought it was...duck-tiles...or...uh..."
"Ductile. Shut up, Fuzzwad."
"Mmkay. How'd you spell that?"
"To Hell if I know."
"Aaaalrighty." Ike nodded, head bent, and wrote furiously.
Lenore jumped slightly in her seat and gulped. Okay. No more questions, thank you very much.
"Oh," she said, bending over her notes and scribbling again. She looked over the table in half-interest, though she decided showing any hint of bordom was extrodinarily out of the question.
Björn saw Lenore jump and felt a momentary pang of guilt.
But it was only momentary.
"Arsenic or explosions, Len? Whaddya say?"
Ike looked to Len, hand still writing automatically, as if he hadn't the slightest idea as to which option the girl was to pick.
Forcibly restraining herself from shrinking in her seat (she refused to be scared of Björn if Malachi so obviously wasn't), Lenore took a moment to consider the question before answering.
"Explosions sound good to me," she said finally, looking up at Björn through her hair.
"Look, kid," Björn snorted and smiled, amused, "I'm not gonna kill yah, alright? Don' worry. Now get behind th' shield."
Ike stood and went to the plastic wall in the back, completely unphased. He placed a hand against the solid shield.
"Um...Björn?"
"N'deth gandae. Ndeka," Björn half-mumbled, embarassed of his own accent and language, and the shield slid open.
"Oh. Okay. Thanks."
"No problem. Hurry up."
"Mmyep," Ike nodded and went in through the opening.
"I knew that," Lenore lied, smiling back. Skittering after Malachi then turning back to grab her journal, she went in and stood at attention.
"...I did know that," she said to Malachi, blushing faintly.
"Iss shiny..." Ike trailed off, "Izzit a metal or somethin'?"
"...pick one. Metal or 'something'?"
"Metal," Ike said, more as a question than a statement. He hated being wrong.
"Right! Sodium, at that. It's number eleven on your tables," Björn then took a beaker and filled it with water, placing it on the desk nearest the shield.
"Now, volcanoes teach you nothing except that baking soda and vinegar go fizz for a bit, and then die out. That's not very amusing. Sodium, however, reacts explosively with water."
With that, he dropped the sodium-bit into the beaker. It began dancing about the surface immediately, emmitting an incredibly bright yellow-gold flame.
"Oooooh..." Ike mused, eyes wide, and scribbled down a few notes, along with a little diagram of what could easily be exploding pebbles atop a birdbath.
"Neat..."
Writing down chickenscratch notes, Len watched the fire in utmost interest. If she hadn't known any better she would've simply thought it was burning water...she smiled slightly at the thought. A beaker of that would be pretty handy to have around, really. Excellent cat deterrent.
"Also rather dangerous," Björn nodded, watching the sodium fizz its last flickering flame, "It makes better volcanoes, though." He nodded, and then once again instructed the door to open.
"And, no matter how pretty the fire, I know you don't want to be in school. After I give you your homework, you can go back home."
Ike gave a slightly disappointed sigh, but forced a smile and exited from behind the shield.
"What is it?"
Finding herself rather interested in any homework this class would provide, Len followed close behind Ike. She looked to Björn eagerly, hoping he'd bring out something more dangerous and impressive to watch..."react".
She almost felt sorry she only had to do this class once. Almost.
"Well...ah...hm. I hadn't thought about this..." Björn clicked his tongue. It'd been years since he'd been paid to tell kids things...but now...
"How about you find out some reaction...by research, not experience, and bring it back to me. If its sparkly enough, I may just show you."
There was a pause.
"Out of class, I mean."
"Okee," Ike nodded.
Sparkly, huh? Lenore pondered on what would be interesting enough...cherry bombs? No, no...something chemical.
She sighed inwardly as she realized she'd really have to research this. Her limited knowledge of explosives was based in the firecracker-roman candle region.
"Or...no," Björn spoke after a minute, causing poor Malachi to cease his writing and arch a brow.
"Just...don't blow anything up, and don't tell anyone about this. Try to spell cyanoacrelate. Thassit. I ******** hated homework as a kid."
"...you make me hate you," Ike said simply before erasing everything he's written and replacing it with the new assignment.
"Oh...wait...here," he said and handed the scribblings up to Björn.
'Siannoakrelate', it read.
"Cya...noa...cry...hrrm."
Deciding to just spell it a couple different ways, Len scribbled the word down and looked over the list. There. At least one of 'em had to be right.
"You're a good teacher," she said to Björn briefly. She offered no more opinion then, bending over her list and scribbling out "syah-noah-kree-late". What a neat word...
Björn carefully yoinked the kids' papers from them and looked them over. He snerked.
"Alright, you both got it phoenetically. C-y-a-n-o-a-c-r-e-l-a-t-e. It's superglue. You both get an A. Now let's get you back home so you can grow n' such."
Ike grinned and took his notebook back.
"Cool," he said and looked to Len.
Lenore smiled brightly and nudged at Ike's shoulder excitedly.
"Three down already," she said, nearly bubbly in her excitement. "We're not gonna be stuck as kids anymore!"
"Well, two," Ike nodded as he went back through the portal, "an' the friggin' research thing. Not lookin' forward to that. Art shouldn't be that bad, though."
He stopped the moment his feet met hardwood.
"Hey...Liam...?"
"Eh, two, three, they're all the same to me anyways," Len said, hugging her journal to her chest. Stepping through the portal cautiously, she glanced around to see if Sadako had broken in to come and sulk. Nope...Len shivered slightly. Sleeping with the lights on tonight seemed like a good idea.
"Heya, Liam," she said belatedly.
Liam made a kind of muffled speech-like-sound and rolled over to face the kids.
He had no idea why.
"Heya, Len. Ike."
"Liam?"
"What."
"Yah see, Len an' I gotta take an art class an'--"
"Nyeeeergh..." Liam groaned and rolled over again.
Lenore waved, then wondered briefly if Liam was still blind.
"An' what?" she asked Ike at Liam's peculiar reaction. "Does he know someone that could teach us or summat?"
"Liam drew your mum," Ike nodded and hopped to the dining room table, carefully snatching up Liam's sketchbook and flipping through the pages, "n' Julian n' my mum n'...hey. Thass' us...."
"Nyeeeeeeeeeegh..."
"He could teach us."
"Unf."
"Please?"
"Meh."
Lenore made admiring sounds as she looked at the sketches, recognizing vicious red eyes and curly hair and...hey... it was her.
"Jeez, Liam, you're really good," she said enviously.
"Shut up. 'M not. An' you're pointy."
"...what?"
"I'm so drugged uuuuup...leave me alooooone..."
"Okay. Next time, then! Len, come over next time, an' we'll strap the crip to a chair."
"HEY!"
"Either you or whassername's boyfriend."
"Myeeeeh...fine. Fuzzy thing and pointy girl get lesson from crip. Right now they let crip sleep. They shoo and go play in traffic." Liam waved his hand clumsily and curled into a ball.
Arching a brow, Lenore glanced down at herself for a second. Liam must've been drugged on something strong, to think she was still "pointy". For the moment, anyway.
"Well, glad that's settled then," she said, brightening at the prospect of art class anyway. She turned to go, but then glanced over her shoulder. "Oh. An' Mum says hi. An' that she misses you and stuff."
Liam made a sound that could have been a sob, could have been a gag.
"Tell 'er I..." he paused, unable to bring himself to complete his sentence properly, "Tell 'er I say hi too."
"Bye, Len!" Ike waved, "See you soon. Visit soon. It's no fun here any more."
"Dethy fun!"
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Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 9:59 pm
Graveyard
"Hey, 'Dako?"
"What?"
Lenore shifted on her bed, rolling onto her stomach and pillowing her head on her arms as she regarded her doll. The question that had been nagging at her since, well, toddlerhood was prevalent in her mind. How to word it, that was the tricky part.
"What are you?"
Sadako, who'd been busy with a surprisingly cheerful coloring book and clumsily-handled crayons, twisted her head 360 degrees to look at Lenore in confusion.
"Sadako is Sadako," she said, as though explaining that one plus two did in fact make three. "Len knows that. Sadako is Len-doll."
Len made a dissenting noise.
"You know that ain't what I mean," she said patiently. "C'mon. I refuse to believe you're some kinda convenient coincidental creature that's exactly like the real Sadako. Those are just movies. What are you?"
Sadako set her crayon down abruptly and glared at Lenore, bristling.
"Len never cared before," she said tightly. "Len-family don't care. Why Len bringin' this up, anyway?"
Realizing she'd struck a nerve, Lenore plowed on resolutely.
"Because I was curious," she said. "Dolls don't just come alive for no rea- hey! 'Dako, wait, come on. Come back."
Sadako hissed a response and hopped off the bed, head twisting into its proper place again.
"Lemme 'lone," she snapped. Heading for the door and staring dolefully up at the far-away doorknob, she threw herself to the floor and wriggled under the tight space, making a break for it into the hall and away.
Lenore simply stared, mouth slightly agape.
"Oops," she said, rather guiltily.
---
Sadako wasn't a very fast mover, but she could get around when she wanted to. Stomping as hard as something made of cotton stuffing and velveteen could stomp (which really wasn't much), she stormed down the grounds and towards the bordering out-of-bounds forest. She wasn't scared of what was hidden in that place, and proved it as she continued her march into the twisting undergrowth.
"Jul-yan hunty-bones," she noted aloud, spotting an old fire-whitened deer skull under one of the bushes. She rather missed his insanity - he'd been more fun when he was mentally unstable.
She scuttled through the carpeting of dead leaves and scattered patches of grass moodily, ignoring the sounds of creeping, hissing, chittering, and chirping things.
"Aw, shut up," she said finally. The sounds picked up in volume as though to spite her, and Sadako grumbled irritatedly. Stupid wildlife.
After an hour or so, Sadako plunked down under a twisting oak tree and craned her head back to look up. Brushing silken hair out of her eyes, she watched the sunlight bravely trying to break through the thick canopy of leaves, with little success.
"None Len's business," she told the tree grumpily, settling against it. "Sadako is Sadako's business. No one care before, no one should care now."
The tree, being logically nothing but a tree, made no response. Sadako huffed and stood again, marching in a very specific direction.
It was another hour before Sadako found the little burial ground. The little stone wall that surrounded it was falling apart, moss-eaten and crumbling. She hopped over it and ventured into the overgrown graveyard casually, eyes flicking from stone to stone as she wandered.
"There it is," she said to herself after a little while, making a beeline for a row of small headstones that leaned back perilously far. They were all very old.
"Hello Mumma," Sadako said, a out-of-place respect in her voice. "Hello Dadda."
Toddling past the two bigger headstones, she stopped in front of a tiny marker and stared at it unblinking. It was weather-worn and cracked, but the name was still visible. "Abigail Carter" was carved deeply into the cracked stone.
"Hello, me," Sadako said, plunking down in front of the stone. She read the whole inscription on the stone, though she knew it by heart anyway. She even remembered the parts that had long since been worn away. Especially the dates - she'd always liked numbers, she'd made sure to memorize the years, few that there were.
"1703 to 1708," she told her gravestone solemly. "Sadako was little-little when she goes into the ground, before she was Sadako."
Settling up against the stone, Sadako shifted uncomfortably and then rolled over, scuttling in-between the gravestones marked Constance and Nicholas Carter.
"Sadako go back to Len later," she said. "Maybe Sadako stay here a little while first."
Curling into a tiny ball, Sadako, once Abigail, closed her eyes and dragged her silky hair over her face, falling asleep between the graves of her parents.
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Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 7:29 pm
Anniversary
"You okay?"
Julian looked up with a start. Crow was watching him from the armchair, looking unwontedly serious. He shifted, shrugging slightly.
"I guess so."
"You look mad."
Julian shook his head, pushing his hair back out of his face.
"Not mad. Just thinking."
"About what?"
Wishing rather wholeheartedly that Crow would leave him alone, he shrugged again.
"It's been a year."
Crow blinked, then sank into her chair as the realization slowly dawned.
"Since the thing with We-"
"Don't say their name."
The interruption was sudden and sharp, and Crow closed her mouth instantly. Julian looked embarrassed at his tone and gestured somewhat helplessly with his hands.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that," he said. "It's just...yeah. Y'know."
Crow, wary of setting off her brother's temper, nodded slightly.
"You never talk about it."
Julian looked away.
"There's nothing to say about it," he said roughly. Crow shrugged.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. Meeting his confused gaze as Julian looked up at her, she held it for a second before looking away.
"There's nothing to be sorry for," he said eventually. "It's just taken a long time to...get over, I guess..."
Crow drew her legs up to her chest, resting her head on her knees.
"Are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Over it?"
Julian paused, then thought on the question. Silence spiraled between the siblings as he thought... his memory was in pieces of those awful days, but things still stood out in sharp detail...
His guardian, Jeddeth.
The fiery, terrible fall of Sehletah.
And then...
Brief flashes of consciousness. Feeling as though he'd woken from a nightmare...walking towards the Audience Chamber the day he'd been brought back home, ever-dying and coughing up blood...
There were so many things that were missing. He'd spent a very, very long time there....to remember so little wasn't right at all.
"...Nahalthes?"
Julian jolted again, and looked up at his sister. Her expression was worried, and saddened, and even guilty. Julian pushed his thoughts away, determined not to dwell on them anymore.
"I'm fine," he said.
Crow said nothing, and looked away.
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Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2006 11:15 am
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Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:58 pm
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