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 Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:18 pm
Gryff paced the length of The Lair. He was supposed to be in Bite-ology right now but he had to duck out. He wasn't sure if he'd make it to Dead Languages II either, but that class was easy for him so he could afford to miss it. He'd spent lunch laying down on the vintage 60s Mad Monsters couch he'd recently up-cycled from the city processing facility, barely able to keep his eyes open after the caffiend crash, but now he was filled with restless, irritated energy.
What could possibly have possessed Lin to throw away coffee?! He'd found the to-go cup crushed in a puddle of salty caramoan, the hexuccino weeping gently onto the Monster High tiles. Gryff's name had been written on the side in big blocky troll letters. Obviously the little gremlin had almost completed his errand when something had happened.
Surely Lin wouldn't have dared to speak to Gryff as he did, let alone discard a hexuccino, unless something had happened to him. Did he get zapped a little too hard operating the arc welder in Chop Class that morning? The tinny tang of inferior factory magic had lingered in the air. It could have come from any one of the students, but it was such a powerful smell...
Unconsciously he reached for a cup of moanca hexuccino but his talons closed on empty air. He shut his eyes and suppressed the urge to shout for Lin to get the hexpresso machine working. He'd take Atomica with him to Lin's house tonight after whatever static electricity had infected his brain had a chance to discharge. He'd give Lin a chance to apologize. But for now he was going to have to brew his own coffee.
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Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 8:02 pm
That evening, after school....
Atomica clomped into the Trouble Tribe hideout with a dejection cycle running full force on her hard drive.
"UHHH-N. BELIEVABLE." She ranted to Gryff as the two of them stalked into the room. "I can NOT believe Lin's parents endorsed his running away to the circus! If they weren't made out of stupid ol' meat, I would have recommended wiping their hard drives and reinstalling their mainframes."
Atomica knelt down in front of Sweety's little ramshackle house that Lin had built for the skunk. It was neither delicate nor completely structurally sound, but Sweety wouldn't sleep anywhere else. Atomica filled Sweety's bowl with Skunk Chow.
"Yes, I know that his mother unit AND his grandmother unit were actors, but the circus is SO not the same thing as vaudeville. I don't care if his mother is-" Atomica modulated her voice to imitate Lin's mother perfectly "-SO glad that my little manster has finally discovered his true calling in the world of grimtertainment!-" And then swapped back to her own true silicon valley accent. "-It is TOTALLY BOGUS. How could this have happened?!"
Atomica kicked over a pile of stuff that was in the middle of the hideout and started sorting through it.
"Why was there no hints? I'm totally a brilliant analytical detective, Gryff, if there had been ANY indicatio-OH. MY. GHOUL." Atomica reached into the pile and pulled something out. "GRYFF. LOOK."
It was a CD. A CD entitled '9 Tales; Catty Noir.' "It's Catty Noir's last album! How in the name of HAL did this nonsense get in the hideout?!"
Atomica's eyes began to run a crying subroutine. "Lin must have sneaked it in here...oh, this was the beginning of it all, wasn't it, Gryff? Lin, listening to common tween pop! And hiding it from us! Oh, if only I'd known! If only I'd known!'
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Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 1:13 am
Vinnie Lovecraft The sun was just beginning to set over Salem, casting a golden light through the trees and dancing across the rickety wooden fence surrounding the tent. Vinnie slithered up with just enough light to read the bright orange signs slapped all over the fence.
"DO NOT ENTER" they warned. And to Vinnie, that was an invitation. She flexed her fingers briefly before jamming her sharp claws into the wood, establishing a foothold and scaling the fence with about as much grace as a gargoyle ballerina. She barely landed on her feet on the other side, her Doc Scartens absorbing most of the shock of the landing. She stood, but then quickly ducked back down again as she heard approaching footsteps...
Crawling on her hands and knees, she set up camp behind a shrub close to the tent's entrance flap. That sphinx boo from Monster High was approaching the entrance, the gold chain around his neck dimly glowing and his eyes glazed over. He gently pushed aside the flap and walked inside, and Vinnie could see the tiny gremlin boo toddling around inside wearing full clown gear.
Vinnie's brow furrowed in complete confusion. From what she was seeing, these monsters were, quite literally, running away to join the circus! All these monsters ever babbled on about was how much they LOVED Monster High, so why would they leave it? But, from here, she couldn't discern much more; and frankly, she was intrigued. She quickly rose to her feet and stormed into the tent... And in a flash of magical light, Vinnie found herself down in the catacombs, teetering on the very brink of the Pit of Eternal Body Odor...
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Vinnie Lovecraft rolled 1 20-sided dice:
12
Total: 12 (1-20)
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Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 4:53 pm
Vinnie lunged forward through the tent flap... and caught herself just before diving headfirst into the Pit of Eternal Body Odor! She curled her toes around the edge of the pit, desperately flailing her arms to stop from falling in, but it wasn't looking good for her!
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Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 6:52 pm
Gryff froze as Atomica found the 9 Tales debut album, the imported version with a cover of Eartha Werekitt's "C'est si Bone." The techno beats were surprisingly well-matched with the sampled trumpets and synthetic roll added to Catty's voice." I can't believe this! I totally canNOT believe this!" Atomica trilled, her vocal processors modulating higher and higher with each intonation.
He snatched the CD from Atomica's hands and with only barest pause, snapped it in half. If he made a little whimpering sound in the back of his throat as he did this, it was surely only because a shard of the disc pricked his finger." Clearly the only course of action is to save Lin from himself. We must pull him back from the brink before he is lost forever in the depths of common low-brow jockulation," he said fiercely. He dropped the disc shards in the wastebasket and pulled a match from the box used to light the ancient Angelo Morte-iondo Hexpresso machine, rebuilt from 100 year old parts. There had been four missing pieces and Lin himself had crafted them out of brass and copper to match the originals." This sort of behavior taints us all," he spat, emphatically striking the match at the same time.
He dropped the lit match into the trashbin been where where the balls of of used coffin filters and spent grounds easily caught the flame, slowly filling the lair with a bitter, almost spiteful, smell." I will give Lin another chance to apologize before his consigns himself forever to the level of public spectacle, no better than any helf-witted pop performer or trained normie." He did not mentioned how when Lin's mother had taken Atomica into the house's back den that housed all her old film strips and posters to brag about her career, that Lin's grimma had grasped his talons in her papery withered hands. He did not mention how she said she was proud of Lin, but he hadn't spoken to them at all since he'd joined the circus, that she was worried and couldn't Gryff see to it that Lin at least come home for dinner? Gryff had difficulty looking her in the eye but nodded his head, digging his hoof into the living room's faded shag carpeting.
He watched the disc slowly blister and burn in the wastebasket." We'll give him one more chance," he repeated.
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Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 9:18 am
Hellene Harpie If she could just....get.....closer....
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Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 10:58 am
"EEEEEEEEEK!" Hellene shrieked, swerving up wildly to avoid the Pit of Eternal B.O. and nearly cracking her skull on a stalactite.
She glided down slowly, trying to take deep even breaths as her pulse buzzed like Flitter's. She kept blinking her eyes, waiting for the afterimage of the light to go away. She'd just managed to poke her head through the tentflap and suddenly she was in the catacombs. This was NOT a normal circus.
As she assembled her thoughts into coherency, she realized she was tightly clutching the camera to her chest. She'd managed to take four pictures!
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Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 1:02 pm
"Ia! Watch it!!!" A voice shrilled as Hellene swerved out of thin air.
A few hours earlier, Vinnie had narrowly avoided tumbling into the Pit of Eternal B.O., but not without sacrificing one of her boots. She hoped the smell would buff out, but was content to acquire a new pair if necessary. Once she had herself on solid ground again, she realized she had gotten herself transported into the catacombs... and had no idea how to get out. And so, for the remainder of the evening, Vinnie explored the catacombs, in part to learn what was down here, but mostly in search of an exit. Each time she'd reached a dead end, she'd back track to the pit; she had stopped to think for a moment when Hellene flew out of the darkness and straight into her, knocking her toward the pit again!
Vinnie desperately scrambled to get her bearings, her other boot sloshing through the green sludge in the pit before she stopped herself. Heaving a sigh of relief, she rose to her feet and turned to face Hellene."Just what is your damage, ghoul?" She snarled. "Where the hex did you even come from, anyway?!"
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Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 1:39 pm
Hellene took a moment to check over her hat and scarf, in case anything had gotten snagged on a low hanging rock formation." No damage at all, thankfully, but it was a close one. I'm not entirely sure how I got here but I was at the circus tent across town just now, trying to get the scoop of my high school unlife-time especially before Spectra can get her hands on it I don't know how she does it or well I can guess anyway. I'd just managed to finally get a peek inside the tent and all of a sudden I end up here right at the Pit of Eternal B.O. and thank goth I can fly because I don't like to think what would have happened to me otherwise and one shock at a time is quite enough thank you." Hellene watched her Marsala Die tea blurp once and then sink down into the pit. She sighed but figured after a surprise like that she wasn't going to sleep anytime soon anyway. She turned her attention back ghoul." What are you doing here? Where is here? What is going on? OHMIGOTH I have to develop these photos!"
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Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 2:04 pm
"Wait, wait, wait... rewind a sec," Vinnie sidestepped in front of Hellene before she dashed off to develop her film. "So you tried to go into that circus tent, too? And, like me, you ended up here. That makes me wonder..." Perhaps it was the several hours of solitude, but if something was going on in that tent, she felt she had an ally in Hellene. She extended her claw to the harpie. "I'm Vinnie, by the way. And what is this about photos?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 3:02 pm
" Charmed, I'm sure, I'm Hellene," she replied, briefly clasping Vinnie's claws in her talons.
She started looking the camera over, carefully checking the casing to make sure that nothing had happened either in transit or the disastrous landing." A good photojournalist always has their camera ready, you wouldn't catch Philip Bones Griffin without at least two or three cameras about his person, just in case he ran out of film although really I should digital now but I'm comfortable with my Creepon. It was dark and I couldn't use the flash for fear of drawing too much attention to myself and that is now how a stakeout works but I have the zoom lens and I tried to fiddle as best I could with the settings and I managed to take whole four pictures when the tent door flopped open. I'm sure something must have shown up on them." She flashed a sharp-toothed grin at Vinnie." It looks like it survived impact! Now I just need to process the film. I think I can do that today during class. I'm the dark room monitor and no one would dare stop me." Hellene pulled out her iCoffin and began rapidly texting her beastie to let her know she had indeed found a scoop. Probably. Well maybe it would better to tell her in person. She stopped mid-text, finally fitting in Vinnie's dozen or so words into place between her two-hundred." Wait, you tried to go in the tent too!?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 4:13 pm
Vinnie nodded. "And had about as much luck getting in as you." She sat down on a ledge of slate and assessed her Doc Scartens, which even to a noseless illithid like her smelled horrible. She sighed, disappointed at the loss of her most withstanding footwear yet, and began to untie them. Vinnie now found herself channeling her childhood hero Moancy Boo, The Spectral Super Sleuth; in her head she was analyzing the evidence found so far and trying to come to some sort of conclusion... but without more evidence there was nowhere to go."So you think you got something on your film reel? Whatever's going on in that tent, it's gotta be in one of those shots." Vinnie ruffled through her bag and pulled out some very worn out flip-flops, slipping them onto her feet; she left her boots where she removed them with another forlorn sigh. "In any case, I'd like to see whatever you develop. Maybe I can find a way to... to, help you, in return." She fumbled over the word "help", having never offered to do so for another monster in her unlife. "In the meantime, do you know the right way out of these catacombs?!"
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Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 6:43 pm
Hellene considered this. She hadn't seen Vinnie around much except to hang around Dashner once in a while, and he was, well, a bit of a bird brain. But Hellene could get behind any ghoul that kept spare shoes about her even if flip-flops was really pushing it as "shoes."" I'll process the film today in class. I don't have a whole roll yet but I think it would be better to see what's on them now so sacrifices have to be made in the name of investigative journalism. You can meet me after school at The Looking Glass." She looked around the chamber of the pit, rising up a few feet to take in the surroundings. She'd never been this deep into the catacombs before." But...I'm afraid I don't know the way out at all. I don't tend to spend a lot of time underground," she said, landing, " for obvious reasons. It really is somewhat claustrophobic in here isn't it, without any sky above..."
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Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 7:12 pm
This was not a good week for Gryff. He had to get his own coffee in the morning, mid-morning, lunch, post-lunch, mid-afternoon AND after school. Atomica kept fritzing into her crying cycle periodically for the last day and he hadn't known how to fix it and so had resorted to texting pictures of LOLBatz to her throughout the day. And no one in town seemed to have the imported 9 Lives CD that he definitely wasn't interested in.
Now, to top it off, even though he'd come in early to listen to some Ramoans vinyl he'd recently acquired, a chitter-chattering sound had been echoing all through the catacombs. It nagged at him until he couldn't take it anymore and stalked out to discover what noisy plebeians were interrupting his personal obscure music time.
It did not take him long."I'm really going to miss those shoes, they've survived over 30 mosh pits."
SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP"I understand completely how you feel, I get very attached to my footwear personally and I take great pains when selecting it to make sure its survival is at least three seasons, no matter what the style trends say."
SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP "That's, er...reasonable."
SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP" Don't let these dainty heels fool you, harpy talons are nothing to sneeze at and before I learned how to pick shoes out I used to shred three or four pairs a week just by putting them on!" SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP
Gryff turned a corner and loomed as hard as he could over the two ghouls he found. It was that harpy that kept snapping pictures of everyone and some sushi gone bad wearing wretched flip-flops." What are you two doing down here that could possible warrant all the vapid noise exuding down the passageways?" he snarled.
The harpy fluttered back a foot, startled." Don't mind us we were just lost and trying to find the way out you wouldn't believe how we ended up dow~" " I don't care," he hissed, " as long as you leave so that I can listen to the grimophone in peace." This was Lin's job. To set traps and remark tunnels so they would lead away from the lair and to waylay any trespassers that came too close. Usually he would send Sweety to help discourage interlopers but the little skunk had crawled into his slightly teetering shanty and refused to come out, no matter what Gryff did. He'd resorted to leaving little nuggets of 100% Gorganic Woodland Critter Nibblets: made with real weresquirrels, in Sweety's dish.
SLAP SLAP
The sushi took a step forward and drew herself up high enough that she could speak to his shoulder if she tilted her head up." Didn't you hear her say we're lost, you jerk? If we knew the way out th~" " FINE. If you two will follow me I will show you the way out and you can not come back." To his dismay they did not stop talking on the way back to the catacomb's entrance.
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