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 Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 7:21 pm
The Train
There was only the soft chugging of the train beneath a stream of raucous music, and it was peaceful. Taryn leaned against the armrest, watching the scenery chug by. They had gone through a city and then back out to suburbia, flanked on either side by trees and vague shades of cheap plastic siding. There was a warmth in the chimera's chest as she rubbed a finger over her new eyepod and remembered Amityville. She couldn't wait to get home and tell everyone about what a fantastic time she was having. Sun streamed in on the ghoul's face, and she was not even aware of the gruff zombie that sat beside her. Life was good.
The train approached the Webwood stop, a buzzing station maybe five minutes out from her hometown. Taryn's heart was doing somersaults in her chest as she eyed the waiting crowd. Among them was a tall red man with a bushy beard and stocky build, a wild-eyed snake peering over his shoulder. The young chimera gave a whoop and leaped to her feet as soon as the train stopped, pushing her way rudely into the stream and up out of her car. She jostled her way through the crowd, shouldering people out of the way as she approached the faces she recognized. It was bolder than she had known before, but they were right there--!
"Kopelia mou!" came an excited, booming shout as Taryn's father rushed forward and wrapped his strong arms around her, swinging her in a wide circle and entirely disregarding those around then. Taryn didn't smack anyone in the head, and so when she was placed down she could only hug the man again. She felt the plates on his back and gave a happy little noise, her cheek pressed into his broad chest. She giggled.
"Baba! I've missed you!"
Then a woman emerged from a crowd that even a stranger could pick out as family. She was a thin woman and of more traditional chimeral features with peach-colored skin and a thin, lithe snake for a tail. She was more harsh than the wild man, her hair pulled up into a tight bun and a pair of wire-framed glasses sitting above her sharp cheekbones. The hug she gave her daughter was softer, but received no less warmly.
"Mana, hello! How have you been?!"
"Well, my darling. Well." Her voice was soft and unassuming, easily lost in the din of the station, and her smile was subtle. Taryn grinned broadly as her father took her suitcase. The unlikely trio began out to the parking lot and Taryn continued babbling. "I have no much to tell you! Is Shannon coming? She must be so big by now, she was growing so fast and-- AAAAAAAH!"
Around a car stood her aunt Rena and uncle Christo, grinning and flanked by their toddler son. The young boil squealed the same as Taryn and flew into her arms. It was the ghoul's turn to swing the boil around, laughing wildly. This was so warm, so... perfect.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 7:27 pm
Dinner Time
Taryn handed a small plate of Christmastival cake to the young Shannon, now of walking and babbling age, and she dove in with both hands. The ghoul giggled and offered her a fork, which was promptly ignored. She sat at the middle-end of the long dining table flanked on either side by mostly-chimeral relations as far as second cousins, perhaps 25 in all. Dinner had gone deliciously, and Taryn couldn't help but notice how amazing everything tasted after being removed from it for so long. She had tried but failed at chatting about her time at school beyond her grades. The conversation was dominated by the elder relatives and children who had already moved on to universities or recently gotten married. Taryn wouldn't dare interrupt any of that.
She had noticed fleetingly that she was treated a bit differently than her peers. The question had come once, generally asking about how school was going, and before she could even begin to explain her engaging social life and new hobbies the group had moved on. GPAs had come up later, and all eyes expectantly turned toward Taryn. She mumbled her response and her mother jumped in to begin her bragging, stemming from early childhood development. The ghoul had sighed deeply and smiled, knowing that she had changed and her family would need time to get used to it. Now came dessert, though, and the chatters had worn themselves out. Waiting for her cue, Taryn scooped a large forkful of cake into her mouth and looked around the table. Everyone seemed involved in their sweets and coffee... she opened her mouth to speak, but her mother cut her off.
"Don't speak with your mouth full, darling."
Out of habit, the ghoul snapped her mouth shut even though it had been empty. She was thrown off, and for the first time in a long time felt her ears go hot. It was such a strange way to scold a grown ghoul who had learned her table manners in the first few years of life. The chimera's heartbeat picked up and she nervously worked her napkin, looking down. Why did this bother her so much? She sucked her teeth to be sure and swallowed mostly for show before continuing.
"I, um. I made some new friends. At school."
There was a strange silence and several heads turned toward Taryn. She felt their gazes and pushed her hair behind her ear.
"There's Tset, she helped me pick out my dress for prom," she began, her confidence growing with each word, "She was really my first friend at Amityville. The boil I went to prom with, though, it was a blind date. His name's Joachim? He's nice too. Xiu's super sweet too, we bake together, and Mort showed me some video games. My best friend, though, his name is Roch. He's... he's done so much; introduced me to music, he takes me places, he--" Oh, what else could she say? He protected her, he made her feel warm, he gave her hell butterflies in her belly, he held her hand and gave her hugs... "He's really neat."It was lame, but it was true. Taryn looked from face to face around the table, and everyone had taken pause. Forks stood half-raised, lips slightly parted... the only ones who had not reacted in some way were the small children, gleefully tearing apart their cake in search of the hidden toy.
"It's pretty cool, with everyone there together. The dorms are separate, but you can see anyone every day. I mean, there's monsters and reapers, but there's undead and ghosts and demons too. It's so... eclectic! I really do love it." Cousin Agwin, an oft-alienated patchwork undead, smiled broadly in the ghoul's direction and she smiled right back. "It really is ridiculous to try and shut Amityville down, I mean really. It's such a nice place to just... learn! Your subjects aren't the only things, there's so many different people and cultures and so many things to do!" The poor ghoul did not notice her mother's expression shifting.
"What happened to change that, anyhow?" an uncle piped, and Taryn shrugged and turned to him.
"We all banded together. We took the Standardized Testing Examinations and passed with flying colors," she nodded, her smile broadening as she drizzled a bit more honey on her cake, "It's a good school. Some... weird things happen, but we're really learning there. There's no reason to shut us down, we've done nothing wrong." There was no way that the ghoul would continue and elaborate on what kinds of weird things went on. She'd be pulled out of Amityville if they knew that she had battled, had killed, and put in peril, watched her classmates mauled and a professor lose her mind. She didn't know what she'd do without Amityville. To tactfully exit the line of conversation, she took another bite of cake. It was a barely-elder cousin that saved her.
"Is there a boil in your life? Maybe that Roch?" Giggles ran up and down the table, and Taryn turned redder. [#cc0000]"No, no... I mean, not yet. Not now!" She took another bite of cake and gave a soft 'oh'. From between her teeth she pulled a plastic toy car that had been nestled in her slice. She peered at it a moment in shock, She had never, not once in her life, been the winner of the night. She was a bit old for it... but just look. She studied the toy, turning it around, and then gave it a second thought and rolled it to the child across the table from her, and he squealed with glee. Taryn grinned.
"Do you have any pictures from prom?" As if she couldn't believe it. Taryn laughed and nodded again.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 9:03 pm
An Incident
Come late evening, the celebration had died down and Taryn was spirited away by oddly rushed parents. She had been sitting with some of her first and second cousins at the time, actually enjoying a board game with them. In previous years she'd kept to the kitchen, watching them with complete disinterest. Thinking back, she simply hadn't known how fun was had. It was goofy, innocent fun that she felt she had missed out on for so long. She did not notice the silence now as her family walked home, instead lost in her thoughts.
It wasn't until they reached their own living room that Mana Procopio spoke up. She headed for the kitchen herself, her lips drawn into a thin line. "Why don't you go study?"
Taryn stopped in her tracks, blinking rapidly. What?
"I didn't bring my books with me," the ghoul said, and already didn't like the slow, menacing way her mother turned. "I thought we would just spend some time together? Talk about school, life... I mean, I can study at school..."
Her mother's jaw was set. "What has become of you?"
A cold shock ran through the young chimera's heart. Her lips fell open, her brow furrowed, and her eyes grew wide. What...? Shock kept her silent a moment before she could verbalize. "Mana, what do you mean...? Mana approached, eyes narrowed.
"First you come to dinner talking about boils, taking extra helpings ... and you haven't brought your books!"
"Mana... Ma, this is vacation for me. I work nonstop at school, I barely have any time for friends, and--"
"Don't you talk back!" A clawed hand, likely thrown in shock, laid hard on the side of Taryn's face, and the ghoul gasped. Never before had a hand been laid upon her. She lifted her hand to cover the growing welt and could only give her mother a betrayed, questioning look. It didn't stop there.
"Who are you? Get to your room! Find something productive to do!"
Frightened, Taryn ran up the staircase just in front of her and disappeared, slamming her door behind her.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:09 pm
The Escape
She was done. Mana had come and apologized or half as much when she'd noticed Taryn was so upset. Holding her tearful daughter, she had insisted that she had simply lost herself, but that the ghoul should probably study anyway lest her grades fall. Having nothing to study from, she'd taken to going through her old things. Really, they weren't that old. Taryn had not been gone even a year yet, but she felt a strange disconnect to the objects in her old room.
The setting itself was painfully bland. There was only a bed with grey blankets and a light wood dresser. There was a bookcase stuffed to bursting. Impulsively, Taryn began to over-stuff her suitcase with clothes she was sure would still fit. She couldn't name why, but she felt the need.
What had happened to her family? The others had seemed so proud of her when she'd gone on about her new life, but her parents? Her mother... she had seemed upset. Who was she to decide who her daughter became? It was stifling, it made no sense. She had finally come into herself, she was finally comfortable and confident, and it was her own blood that had turned her down. The more the ghoul thought, the more she realized that she had been stuck. As long as she had been home, she had been told to study, to do well, and do nothing else. A taste of freedom was all she had needed to change, and it was suddenly wrong. With a little ribbon of anger, she knelt beside her bookcase and started to go through it. There was not a single pleasure-read not hidden behind one reference material or another. From the bottom began her childhood, learning to read, learning your numbers and colors, growing up into chemistry, calculus, history. So much wasted time...
All of a sudden, a smile ghosted across Taryn's face. Nestled between ABC 123 and 10 Little Golems sat Pat the Batling. That had been a good book. She pulled it off the shelf and scratched the slightly matted fur on the cover. Her mother had been a mother back then, allowing playtime and story time like any other small child. Deadie had come to read to her at night, holding her and letting little red fingers run over the pages. What had happened then? Had age made fun inappropriate? The chimera's face fell and she sighed softly.
It was time to go.
Taryn stuffed more clothes into her bag, some of her books and then moved to her closet. All of her nice clothes had come with her, but there were still her teddy and some shoes she'd left behind. She found a canvas bag and began to stuff that as well, taking with her whatever held some sentimental value. This wasn't her room any more, this was... a cage. Her room was off at Amityville, surrounded by other ghouls and boils who supported her and helped her through her inadequacies. She didn't have the money to buy another train ticket, but there had to be a way. With a bag in either hand, she thumped down the stairs and traveled to the family's change bucket, mushing her mouth to the side when she saw the paltry offerings. She couldn't steal, what was she thinking? She was no rebel, just a ghoul wanting to be herself. Her consideration made her paranoid, and so a soft shifting behind her made her jump.
"Kopelia mou... do you need a ride?"
Taryn looked toward the floor, brushing her hair behind her ear as her father sat in an arm chair. Had he been waiting for her? She sighed softly and nodded, and the large man approached, cupping the side of her head and running his hand through her hair as he kissed her forehead. "I don't blame you. Come on, let me bring you back. Your mummy, she'll come around. You know how she is, love." Again, Taryn nodded. She pressed against her father's side as he took one of her bags and began to lead her out of the house. This wasn't a home any more, and it may not be again for quite some time.
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