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 Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 4:48 pm
Fancy violin music drifted through the air; swirling around the beautiful gold display cases; floating past the crystal racks; and finally, it wafted through the open window and into the beautiful bay of Gambino. The small chocolate shop was nothing short of pristine and high-class.
So what the hell were Ioyla and Ilistala doing there?
The mother-daughter duo quietly browsed through the section of tasty, but expensive, treats, eyes shining with greed, mouths dripping with saliva. Ioyla spotted a delicious looking truffle and snatched it off the shelf; she would have greedily tore off the package and stuffed it into her mouth, but a haughty sniff and a snooty glare from the cashier, and Ioyla put the truffle back onto the shelf.
However, with Ilistala being so young and so impresionable, the moment after her mommy took a little chocolate ball thing, she did, too! And with Ilistala being so tiny, the smarmy cashier didn't notice the little Shattered baby peel the gold-foil packaging off the chocolate, and neither did her mother. Ilistala popped the sweet into her mouth and, very satisfied with the taste, ate another, and then another, and it wasn't until until the toddler's pleased squeals reached both demon and cashier's ears that they realized what had happened.
"Oh, dear God," Ioyla said. There was no way she could pay for those! The young demon offered the cashier an apologetic smile, but he would have none of it. Ohhh, if only a miracle were to arrive!
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Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 5:11 pm
Could this miracle perhaps be in the form of a tinkling bell that sounded as an opening door collided with it?
Perhaps this large-eared purple mouse girl and her masked companion was a godsend to Ioyla and her chocolate-smeared toddler?
Regardless, the cashier huffed audibly at this new arrival, positively exasperated that more children were entering this gourmet chocolate establishment.
The mouse girl's left ear perked in response to the cashier's sound, and she turned around to speak to him. "Oh, hello! You have such a pretty shop- I hope you don't mind me and Mirorim looking around!" she said, hand clasped to her chest and an adorable smile on her face. "I've never bought chocolate from a store, you see... I've always made my own!"
This statement caused several unbelievably cute images of this unbelievably cute child making chocolate flood the cashier's mind, but he soon snapped out of it and continued the strenuous activity of glaring menacingly at Ilistala and her fire-demon mother. Chuu made the conclusion that the cashier was busy and it was alright to take a look around.
"Oc... chocolate." Mirorim observed. "Store... chocolate store."
"That's right!" the treeborn responded, clapping perhaps a bit too loudly in approval. "We're in a chocolate store... oooh, look!" Her attention turned to a tin of chocolate-covered cherries. Giggling to herself, she said, "I could never get the cherries right... maybe if we tried some?"
"Try...?"
Chuu nodded and smiled. "Okay! We'll try-- aww..." The treeborn's ears drooped slightly as she noticed the price tag. "We don't have enough... but that's okay! Let's get something else and I'll try to make them again when we get home."
Mirorim would have said something in response if something just within his peripheral vision didn't catch his attention. Turning all the way around, he saw a child who looked just a bit younger than him, face and hands smeared with the residue of several different chocolate truffles. He slowly approached the toddler, for some reason drawn to her.
The treeborn looked back at her little brother just when he reached Ilistala. Thrilled as always to meet someone new, she caught up with him and looked at the fire demon and other Shattered before smiling wildly and introducing herself.
"Oh, hi~! I'm Chuu, and this is Mirorim... Do you like chocolate, too?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 7:17 pm
Ioyla was, at first, too distracted to notice the chipper Chuu and Ror. Ilistala was having a bit of a tantrum, as her mother had snatched the rest of the truffles and placed them atop a higher shelf, a shelf Stala couldn't reach. The toddler stamped her foot and pouted; chocolate smeared across her face puffed out with her lips.
"WANT IT! WANT WANT WANT! NUMMY!" Stala shrieked and screamed, until she felt someone was staring right at her. She stopped, suddenly, and turned face-to-face with Ror. Something about him...something about him seemed so...familiar, so good, soright. She gasped, if toddlers could gasp, and wiped her arm across her mouth, effectively spreading chocolate across her mouth and arm. "Ohhh..."
Ioyla, both perplexed and greatly frightened by her child's sudden change in personality, looked up to find a purple mouse thing talking to her. ... Kay. "Howdy," she greeted after a moment or two of studying Chuu. Of course, Ioyla wasn't exactly your cookie-cutter person: her horns peeked through her messy brown hair; extremely bright gray eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep; her fingernails and teeth were exceptionally sharp. She blinked, hard, and said, "Yes, I love chocolate. I'm Ioyla," she said after a pause.
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 2:25 pm
Mirorim had his eyes locked with Ilistala's for a good few seconds before he did anything else- really, the whole thing could have been insanely suggestive if not for the fact that they were both very young children. The mirrorchild took his cat's cradle after seemingly nowhere- among the beads that were magenta like his eyes and others colored after other Shattered, a new one had become a fiery orange.
"Ohhh...?" he said, slipping into Ilistala's voice. Looks like old habits died hard.
Chuu smiled as widely as ever as Ioyla introduced herself. "Ioyla? That's a nice name!" she said- although she found niceness in all names, really. And really, Ioyla could have been made from the scraps that the cookie cutter always left behind and there would be no difference in the treeborn's thoughts. "I'm glad you like chocolate... is this little one yours? What's her name?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:25 pm
Ilistala moved a tad closer to Ror, extremely interested in him now. He sounded just like her! If she could talk, Stala probably would have said something along the lines of: "Holy s**t!" His beads and his mask and his scary way of mimicry was so cool! The little Shattered took Ror by the hand, intending to lead him away to show off her special talent, too. Mommy wouldn't let her do it in public; she said it was too dangerous. Stala began to pull Ror along and away from the two conversing adults, when suddenly, she was up in the air. Hey--! What's this?
Ioyla, however, was not impressed by the dead-on Stala impression. If anything, she was a little weirded out, and her patience had been running extra thin that day. Ilistala struggled and squirmed in her arms like a fish gasping for water. "She's Ilistala," Ioyla replied, grumbling. "Stop noodlin, kid, I'm gonna drop ya!"
And indeed the demon did. Stala whined and fidgted enough for her to slide right between her mother's arms, where she landed on her feet. The toddler snatched Ror's hand and gave Ioyla a pleading look: Let me play with him, mommy, he's just like me! Ioyla gave Chuu a glance, asking for her permission to her child take away her own, probably to do crazy kid stuff.
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Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:01 pm
Mirorim felt the distance between himself and the other toddler close, a chocolate-covered hand grasping his... being led away somewhere... and then his arm being pulled upward as Ioyla picked up the fire-hair girl and she tried to hang on.
Chuu registered Ioyla's look of irritation, and decided it would be best if she quieted her voice down a little bit- not like she could stop being happy, though. "Ilistala? She's so cute- oh!" she said, as the toddler fidgeted enough to drop back onto the floor.
"Il...i-sta-la?" Mirorim tried, in his own whisp of a voice. Wow, that name was a mouthful! And now his hand had been grabbed again. "Hand?" he said, though with a questioning tone. What did Il-i-sta-la want with his hand...?
"Hmm...?" Chuu vocalized as Ioyla gave her a glance. What did that mean... "Oh! I don't mind. They'll be okay!" Smile.
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Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 4:59 pm
Ioyla nibbled her bottom lip in distress. She didn't want Ilistala running off with some random toddler she didn't know! Although, he did kind of...fit with Stala. But what if she set something on fire? Something the poor demon girl could't afford? Ohh...screw it. She gave Stala a little tap on the back with the heel of her foot, moving her child along. "Don't kill nothin," she muttered.
Ilistala's visage brightened immediately, grabbing Ror by the hand once more and dragging him to the back of the store. She babbled all the way there, in her secret toddler language that was reserved for children her age and mental patients.
When they reached the desired destination (although Ilistala had no idea where she was going, but where she was seemed like the appropriate place to stop), Stala turned back to her new friend. She giggled and clapped her hands together, and in the space between both palms, a tiny fire erupted. Oh dear.
Meanwhile, Ioyla chewed her nails, obviously nervous. "Think they're gonna be okay? I mean, I know Stala isn't the best behaved kid, but she isn't...naughty enough to...do something. You know?" The frustrated young mother sighed, leaning against the chocolate counter. The cashier glared at Ioyla, but she ignored him.
"So...how'd you...y'know, get him?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:25 pm
Chuu wasn't sure why Ioyla seemed a bit worried. Did she think that Ror was strange? True, it was strange that he had actually approached someone... that hadn't happened since the Halloween party. It must have something to do with the odd trace of- not magic, but something surrounding them. The something was a sort of feel that a lot of people in Gaia possessed, but it seemed that Chuu had seen several people with a similar mark. Regardless... "Have fun, and try not to get lost!" she said to the toddlers.
Mirorim let himself be grabbed and dragged off by the shorter girl, walking in his awkward, marionette's gait. The toddler language she spoke was something he promptly bounced back at her in the same voice, creating an eerie and slightly annoying quiet dissonance in the shop.
And as mimicry goes, he also stopped when Stala did, waiting to see what would happen. As she giggled and clapped her hands, so did he in perfect sync. But, as one would expect, no fire appeared for him. Which was probably for the better.
Chuu kept a reassuring smile as Ioyla nibbled away at her fingernails and stated her worries. "I think they'll be okay! They seem drawn to each other, so I think it's fair for them to play together for a little bit. Ror likes to copy people, so maybe Ilistala can teach him something new," she replied optimistically.
"I got him from a piece of glass near a mask shop! I thought it was a part of this broken mirror, but a while later while we were at home, it turned into a portal and Mirorim crawled out of it," Chuu explained as though it was perfectly normal. "Where's Ilistala from?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 6:02 pm
Ioyla leaned farther on the counter, now picking at a loose thread from her shirt. She just couldn't seem to keep her fingers still, huh? "From uh..." the young demon cleared her throat, a little embarassed, "from...my oven. I dunno. She just, uh...she must've been blockin somethin up, or whatever, right, and I pulled her out one night a few months ago, and I put her on my kitchen table, and I left her there, but she must've fallen off or somethin, cause she ended up under my table and she came out of this piece of glass and set my ******** table on fire! My only table, all ashes'n'embers now, y'know? And she's been such a hassle! She won't do a thing but run 'round the house screamin and annoyin the neighbors, and her favorite word is somethin she shouldn't even know! Gawd." She took her first breath since the beginning of her speech, flushed.
And suddenly, a giant weight was lifted off her chest. It felt good to spill about Stala, for some reason; it felt really good. Now that someone knew of the pains that Ioyla was going through, the pains of young motherhood, maybe she could cope better. Or maybe she sounded crazy and over-worked. Either way, Ioyla felt damn relaxed, if anything.
And while her mommy was really opening herself up, Ilistala was busy dancing a tiny flame across the wrinkles of her knuckles. She forced the small blaze to hover just above her left middle-finger knuckle, then knocked it to her pinky, her ring finger, back to her middle finger, her index, and, finally, her thumb.
The young Shattered child expectantly held out her fire-ridden hand, as if anticipating Ror to snatch the flame from her hand and play with it, too. Mommy could touch fire, she could touch fire, so that meant Ror could touch fire, too!
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Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 8:30 pm
Chuu stood intently, paying attention to every word that Ioyla had to say- she didn't so much as flinch at her language. Whether it was because she simply didn't mind, heard worse once, or was unaware that it was offensive to some people remains a mystery. As she saw that the demon looked relieved from being able to talk, she responded, "I'm glad that you decided to share that with me!" Bright smile, and continuation: "That sounds like how a lot of people with fire magic where I'm from acted when they were little. It's a powerful, active force, which can make powerful, active children! Maybe you should find some challenging things for her to do?"
This statement and suggestion probably made young Chuu sound a bit older than she looked- which she was, as with many people on Gaia. But how she seemed didn't matter. She just wanted to see if she could help her new friends, somehow.
Mirorim watched as the younger toddler made her little bit of fire dance. His fist was held up in the same way, though no fire was dancing at his hands. And when Stala held out her hand, so did he- but recognizing the gesture, he began to reach out towards the little flame-
That's fire, Ror! It's really hot, so don't get too close to it or you might get hurt!
-and suddenly pulled back, remembering something just in time to save him from injury.
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:33 am
Ioyla shrugged her shoulders at Chuu's helpful suggetion. "I don't have alot to--to give her. I'm not all that rich." She plucked at the thread of her shirt; it finally unraveled, and Ioyla idly rolled it up into a tiny little thread-ball. She flicked it over the counter at the cashier, who held back a snort of disgust.
"We like the park alot, but after a while, she just gets bored. Nothing can keep her interest. Christ, she can be such a brat!" Ioyla scrubbed a hand over her face. "But I love her lots and lots, and she's my little babydoll. Do I look overwhelmed?"
Ioyla's so-called 'babydoll' whimpered sadly at Ror's refusal to play with her and her fire. Aww, come on! It couldn't be that bad. Well, if he didn't want to touch it, he could watch it! Stala turned her back to Mirorim, really concentrating now: the flame grew and grew, until it was as big as her head. It mirrored her wild hair, much like Ror mirrored everything else, and then with a cheery giggle, Ilistala threw the fire on a box of chocolates.
FWOOM! was the noise. The stench of burning chocolate and shiny foil was strong. Stala watched the flames dance across the box, gathering other chocolates, fire everywhere, spreading fast, burning.
This elicted a tiny gasp from the Shattered toddler. "Oops," she whispered.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:34 pm
Chuu the Amazing Child Psychologist, upon hearing this, thought for a bit and piped up a suggestion. "If you don't think it'll be too much trouble, try to make a game out of a lot of things you do with her! Try to teach her something new everyday- that's what I do with Ror!"
The treeborn looked a little shocked at the fact that someone could get bored at a park, but she soon put her these-things-happen smile once again. "I think everyone's a little overwhelmed when they have someone they have to take care of. It's wonderful that you love her so much, though!"
Mirorim's eyes squinted a bit at the brightness and heat of the fire, and then jumped a little bit when it leapt at the chocolates, causing them to burn. The stench began to fill the room as the fire filled the display, causing a window-shopper or two to stop in their tracks and see what was going on.
"Big fire?" the mirrorchild said. This was bad, wasn't it?
The purple girl some display shelves away heard and smelled the commotion with, and her ears twitched as she sensed possible danger (and the waste of delicious chocolate). She walked up to the counter and tugged on the clerk's sleeve. "Excuse me, mister... but I think some of the chocolates are on fire!"
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 8:11 pm
The yound demon girl listened to Chuu with open ears and wide eyes. She looked so young! She seemed far too experienced, someone her age. But, really, you never knew...there were people, all over Gaia, who could've been older than God Himself. Ioyla sucked on her teeth in thought while Chuu continued to rattle off her suggestions. Ioyla liked all of them, but she liked how helpful the little purple mouse thing was the most. It mad her feel...safe, she supposed. Nothing to worry about, because someone was here to help.
She relaxed, just then, just the slightest bit. A goofy smile slowly formed on her face. Yeah, maybe things could get better...she could find a good job...maybe help Stala out...yes. She was going to beat this. Ioyla Infriti was going to rise to the top rank of mothers, and she would fear nothing.
Except the stench of burning chocolate, which was so strong. What the hell was that? Ioyla jerked her head from the left to the right, her heightened senses picking up the location of the quickly escalating disaster. It took her about three and a half seconds for the situation to set in: Something was burning, and Ilistala was nowhere to be found.
Ignoring the treeborn, Ioyla jumped from her spot at the counter, leeping over to the Shattered children. When she reached them, Ioyla nearly fainted.
Ilistala was at the head of the growing flames, dancing and jumping and screaming with glee. She had made this--little Ilistala, the baby of the Infriti clan, had done This. Stala kind of...enjoyed it. She enjoyed the feel of power, of her own work, doing something so strong as destruction. It made her skin tingle.
Stala backed away from the flames when they spread to another rack, incinerating rows of orange-flavored chocolates. She stood by Ror, then slipped her hand into his, smiling her all-knowing, none-fearing toddler smile. Ioyla only gaped at the chaos her child had created.
The clerk smelled the fire moments after Chuu tugged his sleeve and the dirty demon fled to the back of the store. He gasped, loudly, then bolted out the front door. Insurance should cover this!
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 11:22 am
Naturally, Ioyla's grin just made Chuu's smile all the wider, until the fire was noticed and she snapped into Danger Mode.
"Hey- wait!" she called, trying to get the clerk to stay. But alas, the clerk was a coward who cared more about his own skin than the welfare of a couple of small children. Oh well, not everyone had the courage to be helpful.
The treeborn quickly used a simple magic trick to tap her own life force, giving herself more balance and better reflexes. Her feet pushed off of the ground and took her across the tops of shelves until she reached the children and Ioyla. "Oh, are you all okay?" she asked worriedly as she hopped back on the ground.
"Okay." Ror responded pointedly, undamaged.
"Okay, we should get out of he-"
That brilliant suggestion was cut off by a shrill bell, and the sound of mechanized water spraying everywhere.
Thank whatever figures they worshipped for sprinkler systems.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 12:06 pm
Ioyla was silent. Something was working in her mind, the gears were shifting. There was something wrong with her little Stala. It was strange, to see her child dance and revel in the chaotic scence she had created, with the burning of chocolate, and, perhaps, if the sprinklers didn't go off, the annihilation of the entire store. But Ilistala seemed pleased with herself. She didn't look worried or scared or anything, just pleased.
She swallowed hard, and came to the conclusion that she, Ioyla Infriti, was afraid of her child. When the sprinklers turned on and water pelted the fire into smoke, Ioyla scooped up Stala, who whined and squirmed in her mother's arms. "Hush," Ioyla murmured, hefting the toddler's body over her shoulder, where Stala could see Chuu atop one of the candy shelves.
Ilistala stared at Chuu, her mouth working to wordless babble. She wiggled more and more until her top half was hanging over Ioyla's shoulder. Stala clapped and waved at Chuu, grinning, as if the smouldering ashes behind her she had created was just a funny part of the scenary. Ioyla rolled back her shoulders, Stala sliding back down where her ears were level with her mother's again. The demon turned to Chuu. She smiled, although it didn't reach her eyes.
"That was crazy, huh? I toldja she was a handful." Ioyla stepped over a blackened box of bonbons to offer Chuu a friendly wave goodbye. "We should get goin, I'm sure the cops're gonna be here any moment, and I do not have the money to pay for arsony." As if on cue, sirens, off in the distance, shrieked their accusing call.
Ioyla swiped a worried stare at Chuu, then suddenly dashed away, calling over her shoulder, "See ya! Nice to meetcha!" The tinkle of a bell over a door signaled that both mother and daughter had left, leaving Chuu to take the blame. Or leave.
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