|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 2:27 pm
date: 6 october 07
time: 23:21
mood: irritation
dear journal
There are many reasons to seek a nine to five, Monday to Friday job. One of them is that you don't have to work Saturdays, which is God's way of telling you that you suck at life.
Being a music manager for a CHR station is a pain in the a**. All the music is crap- My Chemical Romance?- but you still have to listen and guess whether your audience would like it. Then you have to deal with pain-in-the-a** underage deejays who think they should be allowed to pick the music they play. Like hell we're going to let them do that. We'd lose all our listeners, advertisers, and profit. But I did finish three days of music today, so that's two days off that I have. My glorious weekend... I am required to be in on Tuesday for a music meeting.
Sometimes I wonder if the late nights are catching up to me. I've been thinking a leaf has been stalking me for the past three days, and today it actually made it through the door with me (usually it gets stuck outside). I didn't notice until several moments ago because, as usual, there was Charity. Her smile makes the vast majority of the day improve, large debt or not.
It seems, though, that Charity likes the creepy little leaf. She hasn't tried to put it in the closet, like everything else new that I bring home. As a matter of fact, she put it in her own room, next to a majiturtle. I wonder if that means I should bring home more random foliage?
This leaf, though, is slightly creepy. It always started following me when I passed the funeral home a few streets from the station... then I'd pick it up there again later. It's a morbid leaf, and Charity doesn't like morbid jokes, but she likes the morbid leaf. I feel rejected.
How strange.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 4:04 pm
date: 7 october 07
time: 07:02
mood: Happy!
dear diary
Rowan is very happy with me to-day. I don't know why because I woke him up early because I couldn't find the milk. But he sat up and helped me find it, and seemed quite pleased when I did as he bade and did not put the kitchen-broom in the closet. Sometime, I do think he does not like me because I can-not speak, but other time I think he is quite content. That is good, because I am doing as well I can.
This past night, he brought home a pretty green leaf. It reminded me of jade, as the lovely necklace which he gifted to me. I thought it seemed a bit dry so I placed it next to Heathcliff my majiturtle. It seemed to be pleased with that position so I shall let it stay there. I shall call it Alexis, for that is a lovely name for a lovely leaf. Perhaps I am writing lovely too much for I feel that it is beginning to sound awfully silly.
Actually I think that the leaf's name shall be "Alexis Cassian". I shall tell Rowan straight away!
Love,
Charity
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 8:07 am
a lily by any other name
Charity was humming. This, in itself, didn't strike Rowan as unusual; though she couldn't form words, she was prone to little outbursts of tuneful humming. She was, after all, a singing plant doll (as opposed to one of the dolls who had to be arduously taught how to sing). It just bothered him today, for some reason. Perhaps the thing that bothered him was that she wasn't singing for him. She sang for the leaf.
Perhaps it was some kind of foliage kinship that made Charity so happy with the leaf nearby. Could she sense what kind of leaf it was? That would help him concentrate on how to get rid of it... Rowan sighed, and rotated his wrist. The wine glass he held (filled with grape juice, because otherwise Charity would give him that sad look that she always gave when he had alcohol in the house) spun, the liquid inside lapping up over the edges. He swore, leaning forward and uncrossing his legs to get at the spots on the white carpet, but Charity was already there.
"Aah," she said, dabbing at the fluffy rug with a wet rag. The leaf, set on the coffee table where she could see it from anywhere in the house, vibrated. It drifted off the edge of the table, wafting to the floor as if it were a little feather. The fact that Charity finished with whatever she did to lose purple stains before retrieving it gratified him a little.
"It's going to wilt, you know." The heartbroken look on her face made him feel horrible, like he'd just kicked a little girl's pet kitten. He put the glass aside and crouched next to her in front of the coffee table, with one hand on the leaf and another on her shoulder. "Charity, not all plants are like you. They don't grow up. If you want me to preserve the leaf, I'll take it out next I go and we'll get it encased in something, okay?" She didn't answer, but her eyes were full of tears. "Don't cry," he said, feeling like he was begging. It grated, but this was Charity.
She looked down at her lap; one tear fell, turning to a dark colored gemstone that matched Rowan's hair. "Ahh," she repeated.
"I'm surprised you haven't put it in the closet yet." It was horrible joke- perhaps not even one. But he was trying, right? "Er... how about we name it? Like with Heathcliff?"
Her head shot up and she immediately hurried to her room, returning quickly with the little diary that Carlisle- Rowan's cousin- had gotten her for a welcoming gift. Unlocking it and fluttering through the pages to a page covered with her calligraphic writing, she pointed to two words.
"You want to name a leaf Alexis Cassian?" He pursed his lips. If it made her happy... but... Alexis was a girl's name. Maybe it was a girl leaf. Rowan wouldn't know these things. "Alright, alright," he said, seeing that she was about to cry again. "Alexis Cassian it is."
She smiled radiantly and hugged him tightly. Ah, he thought, this is why I bought her. He smiled back as she got up and bustled to the broom she had left in the kitchen, resuming her self-assigned work. The floor was already spotless. Rowan used his time to contemplate Heathcliff and Alexis, careful not to spill any wine in his contemplations.
The broom swept across the tiled kitchen floor in a steady, rocking rhythm. It was really quite calming.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 2:20 pm
During the day, Shouko stopped by with a flowerpot. She stared at the door for a while, hoping this was the right one, and set the pot down. As she headed back to headquarters, she couldn't help but wonder... what would this leaf grow up to be?attached... Hi, Rowan!
I heard you found one of our leaves, so I guess I'd better explain myself! We're an organization called The Eden Project, and if the leaf has been acting a bit un-leaflike, DON'T PANIC. That's a perfectly healthy sign! It means that it is growing and developing in preparation for its metamorphosis into a child! All that's left to do is plant it in the specially provided soil and pot I have left with this note and you'll be on your way.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to send me a message or visit our offices in Barton!
Sincerely,
Shouko
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:58 pm
not mad
Rowan linked his fingers together and leant against the ornately carved back of a cherrywood heirloom chair. Tomorrow he had to return to work, a place of supreme misery because of the sheer misconceptions about it. He loved his job. He just didn't like the people or the misconceptions it generated like a computer and binary (or a tree and leaves). With a depressed sigh, he leant further over the table and sipped at a carefully watched glass of wine. Surely Charity wouldn't be too bothered if he had just one small glass, like this. Rowan looked around furtively, then returned his gaze to the new music sheet in front of him.
To add more My Chemical Romance, or some Timbaland? Well, MCR was still top in the alternative charts, and Durem was an alternative city. But then there were all those conservatives who would say to play more The Fray and such... but that just wasn't a contemporary hit, and DJHT was a contemporary hit radio station.
Just as he was bumping Avril Lavigne down from the power rotation and into D rotation, he heard something tap against the door. Glad for the distraction, Rowan jumped up and walked towards source of the sound. It wasn't often he had unplanned interupptions, and this one was a welcome one. His dark skin turned a bit pink, and he coughed into his hand. The last time something had happened like this, well, he was in a bit of a-
Better not to talk about it. He opened the door and looked downward to find a pot, full of dirt, and a note. With a sour face, he bent over to pick it up. At least it was a distraction from angsty teenage bands... Or so he thought, until he read the note.
...if the leaf has been acting a bit unleaflike...
He clenched his teeth and turned into the entre-sol, stomping into the area that was called the 'living room' and putting the orange pot down on the low coffee table. Perhaps he was a little too loud about, because Charity appeared nearly a second later. "Aah--?"
...in preparation for its metamorphosis into a child!
"Not now, Charity," he snapped. A small, pale hand clamped onto his wrist. The pale green polish on her tiny fingermails made her look like a little girl waif. Rowan shifted to look at her, mouth open as if to shout, but he clamped his lips closed. Her eyes looked up at him with concern.
"Aweh..." In her other hand, she held the green leaf. "Hu?"
He sighed. "It's going to become a kid, Charity. A kid." With a world-weary sigh, he put his head in his hands. "I don't have time, and we don't have room, and you couldn't take care of her..." She brightened. "Did you know?"
With a bright blush, she nodded enthusiastically. His mood darkened again. She had known and she hadn't told him? As if sensing the change in his mood, she tugged on his arm and looked at him through her thick lashes.
How could he be mad at her? It was obvious she'd thought to please him. But... the room... the price of living. Rowan would have to move, and then pretend to care about the kid, and hopefully he could learn to like whatever it was... But it'd be worth it. Her smile. If she was happy, he could be happy.
"Ma?" She looked at him uncertainly.
With of a shake of his head, he said, "No. I'm not mad at you- I never could be. Let's plant this leaf, okay?"
Charity smiled brightly and leant over the pot, digging a vaguely leaf-sized depression in the dirt with her fingers and pressing Alexis into it. She shuffled the dirt into the space between him and the dark sides of his hole, making sure he was covered quite well.
"Ma?" She smiled at her repetition.
He shook his head. "Nope. We'll survive, darling."
Charity turned pink and hugged him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 12:48 pm
date: 10 october 07
time: 15:40
mood: graaaaah
dear journal
I am in a horrible mood. Being able to be home early usually translates to <******** YES they don't hate me today! but seeing Charity carry around that pot of dirt like a baby just makes me sick. I try not to be annoyed with her, just as a matter of pride, but... What if she has a greater rapport with whatever comes out of that thing, compared to me? God, I've done more groveling recently than I've ever done with her, and it's not her who should be in control of the relationship. She's a doll, not human or even close. She just looks that way.
Even worse, I think, will be this kid. If it's born out of a leaf and a pot of dirt, what the hell is it going to look like? Some kind of sickening monster? Will it have green skin? Green hair? Or worse, green eyes. I suppose the less it looks like me or Charity the more likely that I won't get fired for it. But I don't want it to look like a freak. That'd just be cruel- and while I don't want this thing I have to deal with it. For Charity.
Its name is Alexis Cassian, according to Charity. I don't have the heart to argue with her or try to change it, and since she'll be spending the most time with Alexis ********, she can suffer with the name. It's quite possibly the only vengance I'll get, ever.
All I want is a minute's peace, you know. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have just left her there in the shop- compulsory purchase or not!
Now I feel guilty. I'm sure we'll both survive, even with a little brat of a kid. At least, what's the worst that can happen?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 7:17 pm
Alexis' leaf is is paling, a bleaching whiteness spreading over it's surface. In response to this change his leaf seems to be determined to unpot itself. What's going on and how are you responding?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 7:39 pm
what now
Charity swept the floor. Her routine seemed simple, and that was the way she liked it. It pleased her to be able to please Rowan, even if it meant paying a little less attention to the leaf and more to him. Thinking of hte leaf, Alexis Cassian had been sending her weird thoughts lately, and it made her a little uncomfortable. Even if it was another lily talking to her, no one had been inside her head since she had been given this body. She knelt and swept up the nearly nonexistent dirt into a piece of scrap paper, then put them both carefully into the empty trash can. With a happy little bounce in her step, she padded over to the sink and washed her hands and face before returning to the living room. Alexis was talking to her in her head again.
The leaf was pale, nearly white, when she got to a point where she could see it. She gasped in shock and stepped over a footstool to sit on her knees near it. "Mu?" He seemed to be struggling to get out of the dirt. This was different than what she'd been imagining from what she remembered of her own birth from a blooming asiatic lily. Worried, Charity patted the dirt tighter about Alexis. Was it supposed to be doing this?
She clung to her knees with a frightened look on her face, resolving to watch Alexis until Rowan got home. This was scary.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 7:50 pm
Fully white now the leaf continued to try and struggle out of the dir t despite charitie's attempt to keep him in the pot. the time for growing was over, alexis needed to blossom now. His leaf began to grow and bulge unaware of the stress his actions caused.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 7:57 pm
don't stop me now
Eventually Charity had stopped trying to get the leaf to stay still and just watched it with wide, frightened eyes. Several perfectly spherical gems, the colors of Alexis's leaf as it changed to white, littered the floor around her. Even with her eyes red from crying, it was clear that her worry was for the leaf, rather than herself.
The second the door opened and Rowan entered the room, she was up and clinging to him. She tried to tell him what was going on, but he didn't have the same sort of rapport she had with Alexis, so he was left to see what was going on as his own.
"Relax, Charity," he said, though she thought it clear he didn't like what was going on either. "Let's just sit down and watch it. If it goes on too much longer, darling, we'll call this Eden Project place right away." He gathered up the gems from the floor and dropped them into a basin that was full of similar jewels. The two sat down on the couch opposite Alexis's leaf and waited.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 8:03 pm
They didn't have to wait long. The blooming process was over and in the blinked of an eyes the white leaf split in six and peeled away to reveal a small pale boy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 8:17 pm
alexis cassian abidon
Charity gave a delighted cry, jumping to her feet and picking up the little boy. "Aweh," she said to Rowan, smiling at him. Feeling a little sickly, he returned the smile, wondering again what she was thinking. Hopefully she couldn't tell he was faking the expression to cover his own worry. He'd heard it was about twelve thousand dollars to raise a child, giving them only the barest necessities. That was pennies compared to what he'd paid for Charity... Perhaps it was time to start selling those tears. His eyes slid to the basin of gems.
Her smile faded, and she gave Rowan a pleading look. The white-haired boy stared at him, with a bit of an unsettling... smirk? It faded quickly into a vapid baby smile. "Alexis," he said, to identify the child to himself. Rowan's mouth thinned into a line, before noticing Charity's face and quickly pretending to smile again. "We'll have to get the family together, Charity, darling. They'll want to meet their nephew and cousin, won't they?"
She smiled, making a satisfied sound. All was right with her world now, but Rowan couldn't get the look on that child's face out of his head. Instead of dwelling on it, he thought instead of the family he'd need to contact. Carlisle, of course, she was his closest relative and knew the most about plants. Constantine... For a moment, he pondered the dominance of the letter C in his family. Constantine's wife was named Chihime. He supposed that it would be inevitable that he invite Edward as well.
Beginnings, he thought darkly as Charity disappeared into her room with Alexis, were such delicate times.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:58 pm
a lily by any other name
His first clue that the little brat was awake and in his room was when he felt a cold hand on his ankle. Rowan's eyes flew open (ohgodeisenheimwasrighttherearezombies, he thought) he opened his mouth to shout. But it wasn't a zombie at his feet, it was the little white-haired boy staring at him from the bottom of his bed. The child's hair was disturbed, wild, and his blue eyes almost seemed to glow. He sighed at Alexis and then frowned. "What are you doing up?" Nothing. The child didn't open his mouth to speak, just smiled. Sometimes he thought that the child was retarded, but then something the child would do wouldn't strike him as the action of a disabled child. Rowan stared for a moment longer.
"Ave-hoo-mm," Alexis sigh-hummed. He and Charity had their own language sometimes, and it irritated Rowan. At least Charity focused on him more than the toddler, who seemed content to sit on a couch, limp like a little doll. Sometimes he felt guilty. Mostly, he was pleased. Charity did love him best, his darling.
But he still didn't know what the child wanted. Rowan sat up reluctantly.
"Ave-hoo-mm," Alexis sighed again. In all this time, he hadn't blinked.
Now Rowan was getting grumpy. "What," he said, getting out from under his warm covers. The kid grabbed his hand and dragged him out into the frigid cold of the living room, stopped just in front of a window, and pointed outside. Obediently, Rowan looked, and saw--
Nothing.
There was nothing outside the window, but Lexi stared through the glass, stared at something, and he smiled, a tiny smile that sent shivers up Rowan's spine. The boy giggled, and walked quietly back to the room he shared with Charity, leaving Rowan alone in the living room, staring at an empty window.
---
Well, she couldn't say he hadn't told him, Alexis thought as he climbed into bed. The Ave-hoo-mm was just invisible to both of them. Did they think he was lying? As he settled back under Charity's arm and curled into a small ball of cold child, he stared out the window with a knowing smile. A blue face stared back at him, wide black pits that might be eyes with eight arms that gripped with windowsill. It glowed in the light of a pale sliver of moon. Charity's arm tightened around him, perhaps sensing his need to be protected even if she didn't quite understand what he needed to be kept safe from. The monster cocked its head.
And it watched him. Alexis giggled again. It watched him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 7:13 pm
date:
time:
mood:
dear journal
I met a girl with dog ears.
The girl was nice.
I do not like the see-saw.
I do like the slide.
I do not like heights.
I love Mama.
I love Rowan.
I do not love Aunt Carlyle Carlisle.
Aunt Carlisle is mean.
She sees the monster and she laughs at it.
The monster is angry.
I do not like the monster.
I like Alice.
Alexis
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:53 am
The second odd thing:
Early Tuesday morning, Alexis slowly drifted up from sleep, thinking it was just the monster at the window scratching again. But it wasn't; he slid out from under the covers and felt (rather than heard) Charity sigh and shift about to make up for the sudden chill. He wondered for a minute why she did that, then he walked out the door into the living room. The light was on in the kitchen, so he went to investigate.
He found a young woman sitting in an overturned chair. Actually, all three chairs were upside-down, resting on their edges. The table had been flipped over too. Why wasn't Rowan awake? This lady was ruining their house.
"It's Holy Tuesday," she said. She offered him a cookie from the tin on her lap, and he didn't take it. The girl frowned in dissatisfaction, then ate the cookie herself. He wished he'd taken it. "How are you, Alexis?" That unsettled him.
Quickly, he beat a retreat back into the room and he stood there, staring for a while at the monster outside the window. It whispered something softly to him- Dangerous, dangerous, be aware of that one- and he nodded. Then Alexis wiggled back under Charity's arms and tried to go back to sleep.
But he didn't. Not until Charity tried to shake him awake at seven.
But even then, his dreams were only nightmares.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
