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 Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:25 pm
**Vegetable Divination is a Lost Art**
Dama handed Prosper a wooden mug of tea and sat down across from him. "You look well, my friend," she said, smiling warmly at him from the other side of the rough-hewn table. "How is your daughter?"
"Flourishing," replied Prosper. "Her kind grow so fast. I've been teaching at the school where the other children like her attend, and they all grow so fast." He sipped his tea. "I am a bit worried, though," he continued, blanching a little. "She already looked like she was about a year and a half when she was... born... and she's got the appearance of a teenager in under a year. If she keeps growing at this rate, I'm scared she'll be old and gray inside of four or five years."
Dama nodded sagely and swirled the leaves in her cup. "I think," she said, "That you will find that children such as her mature, but do not age."
"I hope you're right," said Prosper. Dama raised an eyebrow at him.
"Something else is troubling you about her," she declared.
Prosper massaged his temples and then took another sip of tea. "The Council wants her to take the Apprenticeship exams next month at the Assembly," he explained. "She's painted inhabited worlds, but I feel like she's too young to test for that. She's learned it all fast enough, but she's so young..."
"It's a chronological issue," replied Dama, like she understood. "I wouldn't fret over it. Her physical appearance, mental capacity, and strength as a painter are all at the level for the Apprentice-level exams. But there's something else bothering you."
Prosper lifted his satchel onto the table and laid it sideways. Out of it he slid a large, leafy cabbage. Dama raised an eyebrow at it. "It's from the same lab as Ophelia," he explained. "I want to know what's in it. I know you can do it, Dama."
The woman smiled and extended a hand towards the cabbage. "This isn't a vegetable," she said.
"It's some kind of biocomputer," agreed Prosper. "I don't fully understand it."
"The spirit of the ocean is in this," she said, rubbing her fingers across the leaves. "Masculine," she continued. "Ocean magic."
"How specified?" asked Prosper.
"Water alignment. His powers have already been decided."
Prosper nodded. "He won't be able to paint," he said, sounding a bit dejected. But then he brightened a bit. "One apprentice is enough," he declared. "Thank you, Dama."
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:22 pm
**The Meaning of 'Master-Class'**
Ophelia raised an eyebrow at the cabbage that had spent the last few weeks hanging out in the studio. Was that what she thought it was? Nah... "Still life?" she asked her father.
"No," said Prosper. He was at the sink, rinsing out some brushes.
"I know that I came out of a cabbage, but I really hope that's not what this is," she replied, frowning at it and trying the idea of having a younger sibling on for size. She guessed she could get used to it, but still she watched Prosper, waiting for him to deny it.
He nodded, which was not the response she had wanted.
"Why?" she grumbled.
"Curiousity," shrugged prosper, flicking excess water out of the brushes and turning them upright in a cup to dry. "I already asked Dama what's in it."
"Oh," said Ophelia thoughtfully, investigating the cabbage. Its leaves were oddly thick. "Like a sonogram for vegetables?"
Prosper laughed. "Something like it," he said passively. She couldn't see what he was doing, but she heard him pick up something off the counter and come up behind her. It was a spray bottle. He gave the cabbage a few spritzes of water. "She said he won't be able to paint."
"No magic?" asked Ophelia. Most of her friends had come out of cabbages, she was pretty sure. A lot of them had magic.
"Specialized magic," corrected Prosper. "Focused from birth. You can't learn world painting if you've already specialized in other forms."
Ophelia played with one of her stars thoughtfully. She supposed that made sense. She was a bit nervous about the apprentice tests she had coming up, but Prosper had been making her do extra training.
"Dad?" she asked. "The messenger from the council called you Master-Class. What does that mean?"
Prosper sighed and set the bottle down. He rubbed his temples and pulled out a chair next to her. He sat down. "There are worlds - dark worlds - that no mortal being should ever try to paint. You can lose yourself to the painting, fracture your soul into tiny pieces, or die from exhaustion before you even come close to completing the painting. There are worlds that should never be painted."
Ophelia watched him expectantly.
"I was much younger than I am now, and in the proper state of mind. I painted a world no one should ever try to paint. I should have died, and instead they made me a Master."
"When we go to Bellamaria," he continued, "You will find it is a title that demands respect and fear, but it is not a title anyone seeks to earn for themselves unless they seek power above and beyond what is ordinarily afforded to painters. It is not a title I would ever want you to have to earn. No good can come from painting that world."
"What world is it?" asked Ophelia, drawn into the story.
"I will not tell you its name, but the world is Death itself."
A hush like the grave came between father and daughter. Prosper got up to go start dinner, leaving Ophelia to stare at the cabbage and wonder what would have possessed him to try to paint Death at all.
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Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:32 pm
**A More Dignified Nickname**
The cabbage was blooming. Her father had just vanished down a canal, she had orders to go to bed (go directly to bed, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars), and the cabbage was blooming. Ophelia had no idea what to do.
She evaluated the situation. The cabbage was blooming, but it didn’t look like it was fully open yet, nor was it making any noise. She went to her bedroom, changed out of her party dress, washed up, and put on pajamas. She checked the cabbage again. It was making some progress.
The couch was comfortable enough. She went back to her room, pull the quilt and pillow off her bed, and made herself a nest on the couch. She turned off all the lights except one of the lamps, and felt clever. This way, not only would she know if anything happened with the cabbage, but she would also know when her father came home. Within minutes of settling in under the blankets, she was fast asleep.
*
She wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep when her father shook her awake. He smelled like smoke and cheap alcohol. She wrinkled her nose at him.
“Where were you?” she asked sleepily.
“Shhhh,” he whispered.
Ophelia turned and looked at the cabbage. More of the leaves had peeled back. It was glowing faintly in the lamplight. As she paid closer attention, more leaves fell away, flattening down from the center. Ophelia gaped at the figure revealed when the cabbage had completely opened.
“It looks like I got back just in time,” said Prosper, joining her on the couch. Ophelia nodded. Prosper considered the sleeping child on the coffee table. “I think he looks like a Phineas,” he declared.
The child yawned once and blinked awake. He sat up and looked at them with pupil-less blue eyes.
“Phineas,” repeated Prosper, nodding.
“Fiss,” replied the child, in a fair approximation of his given name.
“Fish,” said Ophelia, smiling. Prosper began to object. She nudged him. “It’s a more dignified nickname than Squishy.”
“Fish,” nodded the child.
“I think he likes it,” said Ophelia. She got up from the couch, picked up her blankets and pillow, and trudged across the room. “I’m going to bed,” she announced. “For real this time.”
She disappeared into her room. Prosper nodded contentedly. She had to be well rested for the exams. As for the child…
After the evening’s events, it was something of a relief to know that this boy would never be able to paint worlds. Ophelia he would always have to struggle to protect from the Nevermore, but it would never be able to touch Fish.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 9:02 pm
**Homeward Bound**
The courier came by the townhouse later that day. He was a crisply groomed red-haired young man wearing a uniform that denoted he worked for the council. A single gold paintbrush insignia indicated that he was an apprentice-ranked painted. As Prosper had explained the insignias, a single brush was apprentice, two brushes were journeyman, crossed brushes were artisan, and two brushes over a palette disk was master. He’d told her because she’d noticed the pins at the ball and asked about it.
The courier asked to speak to Ophelia, and when she went to the door, he handed her a scroll and smiled at her. Ophelia looked down at the papers she held in her hands. They were wrapped in a rich red ribbon that was pinned by a single gold paintbrush clip.
“I take this to mean I passed,” she said, undoing the clasp and pinning it to the lapel of her coat. She smiled at the courier. “Thank you,” she said. When he didn’t move, she dug one of the heavy Bellamarian coins out of her pocket and gave it to him. He bade her a good day and left. Ophelia went back inside and unfurled the papers.
The thicker, outermost paper was an official-looking certificate stating that Ophelia Prosper had passed her Apprentice-level exams and was recognized as an official member of the World Painters Assembly. The inner paper was a thin slip of personal stationary. Printed on it, in neat, masculine handwriting, was a message.
I shall watch your career with interest, miss Prosper. Congratulations on your successful examination. –Anatoli Baccaria
When Prosper saw the note, he swore and stomped around the house before resuming packing at furious pace. Ophelia, who had already put her things into her suitcase, amused herself by playing with Fish. Like Dama had predicted, he was rather aquatic in appearance, and had already proven that he could breathe underwater in the bathtub.
“When we get home,” Ophelia told him, “I’ll take you down on the beach and teach you how to surf.”
Maybe she’d introduce Levi to her little brother (it was funny to think of him like that). Maybe they’d have a lot in common. And they could all go surfing together! That would be a lot of fun.
“Beach?” asked Fish, who had not yet fully grasped that this was not their normal home. Prosper, meanwhile, finished shoving belongings into bags and began work on a portal home to Tidewater. He asked Ophelia to lock up the house, so she balanced Fish on her hip and checked all the latches on the doors and windows. For some reason, you could only paint in to Bellamaria from certain places, but you could paint out from almost anywhere. It was magic Ophelia didn’t quite understand yet.
Prosper put the finishing touches on the portal and waved them over to it. “I would like to spend as little time here as possible,” he explained, and ushered both children and their bags through the painting before following. Once back in the study, he whispered something to the portal, causing it to close. Ophelia eyed him curiously.
“Well,” said Prosper, in a tone of voice that said, I’ll tell you about this some time that isn’t now, “That went as well as could be reasonably hoped.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:35 am
PRP Soggy Adventures - Ophelia and Fish meet Crowley and take Ophelia's surfboard out for a spin. Fish talks to dolphins. Ophelia doesn't believe him. Crowley does. Everyone gets wet. Fish makes a friend.
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:11 pm
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Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:49 pm
PRP Petit-Juane - Fish meets Vox, an inexcusable brat. Fish wants to play. Vox has other plans. Fish gets bitten, and displays his stubborn side.
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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 3:32 pm
**Meanwhile in Atlantis**
Somewhere in the hustle and bustle of the evacuation, Under-Chancellor Thadeus and Representative Chryssa had managed to misplace the prince. This was not as big a disaster as one might think: he was a rather small and unimportant prince, and there were seventeen other legitimate heirs to the throne of Atlantis in line before him. His mother was not the king’s favorite and had, in fact, been caught up in the destruction of the city. And seeing as the king had a government in exile to establish, it might be days, weeks, or even months until the prince was even missed.
While this might seem like a blessing, for Thadeus and Chryssa it was hardly an excuse to slack off. Were they to fail to locate the child, or even worse, were it to be discovered that the child had died in the sinking of Atlantis, the King would see to it that both their heads were severed from their bodies in orderly fashion.
Ordinarily, sinking would not cause too much trouble for the people of Atlantis. Atlanteans as a whole were said to be descended from the god Poseidon, and were ideally suited for habitation of their watery empire. However, the entire greater metropolitan area was currently underneath some seventy feet of magma and ash, and that magma and ash was under another fifty fathoms of water. Consequently, survival was slim to none. You could not drown an Atlantean in clean water, but you could sure as hell suffocate them.
Still, provided that even one of the other heirs had survived, Thadeus and Chryssa had quite some time until their blunder would be discovered. Which meant they had some time to begin a search for the child. They argued over who had seen him last: Thadeus believed the boy had been with them on the boat. Chryssa felt certain that they had lost track of him when they arrived in the kingdom of Ares.
In fact, neither one was correct, though Thadeus was closer to the truth.
His Royal Sogginess, Prince Phineas, had fallen overboard on the ride out of Atlantis (as small children are wont to do). Being Atlantean, he had been a strong swimmer ever since emerging from the womb, and unlike normal humans, all Atlanteans retained their gill slits. Prince Phineas swam about for a while in the quickly dirtying water until he felt tired, and that was when he encountered a strange phenomenon: a glowing patch of water.
Being a small child, he investigated it. At that moment, Prince Phineas ceased to be. The mass of cells that had been Prince Phineas found itself inside of a cabbage, on a world called Gaia, which was rather far away from Atlantis. He slept inside the cabbage for several weeks before emerging anew, reclaiming the name Phineas, and finding all his memories of Atlantean finery, fire, and brimstone seemed no more consequential than the foggy dreams infants dream while still in the womb.
Of course, Under-Chancellor Thadeus and Representative Chryssa have no way of knowing what fate befell their royal charge, and so their search begins.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:27 pm
PRP Little Boys Blue - Fish meets Darsh, a budding graffiti artist. Together, they set out to redecorate the walls of their classroom.
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Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 6:50 am
PRP Inter-Dimensional House Calls - Prosper and Fish visit Antanasia Howl about a painting. Fish discovers they have wound up at Crowley's house. Crowley teaches Fish how to play soccer. They all wind up up a tree. Middle names are used, so you know it's serious business.
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:39 pm
PRP Jumping Through Paperwork Hoops - Fish meets Mari. Both become confused over what exactly is a fish, what is a Fish, and what is neither. Mari mentions a mysterious "Dutchman" which manages to intrigue Fish, but she doesn't know anything else about it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:50 pm
**One Fish Two Fish**
Library time was one of the better parts of school, because they got to leave the nursery classroom and walk across the building, passing all the mysterious sights and sounds of the hallways as they went. There were closets with funny noises in them. There were classrooms full of older students. There were janitors pushing carts. There were bulletin boards full of bright, shiny art projects and poster boards about the Gaian government. Other electives, like art and music and PE, happened in the nursery room or in the yard, but for Library time they actually got to go on adventures.
Being in the library was exciting, too. It was so big! With so many shelves! Fish was starting to learn his letters and what sounds they made and how to spell his name – Eff Aye Ess Aeche, F I S H. This meant he could try to read some of the books, at least the littler ones; like the ones on the low shelves with the bright covers and happy pictures.
While his classmates gathered around a computer that let them fingerpaint by touching the screen and read animated fairytales aloud, Fish made his way over to one of the low shelves with bright colored books. He stared at the mysterious covers, pictures of bears and princes and princesses and astronauts and mermaids, and all the words he didn’t know, until he spotted a word he actually understood.
That book had his name on it!
He eagerly reached forward and picked it up. He sounded out the words on the cover. “One Fish, Two Fish,” the book said. He opened it, and quickly realized he was in over his head. He took off into the maze of shelves in search of someone who might be able to reveal to him the secrets of the book. His sojourns brought him across a girl.
She was petite, scarcely larger than some of the bigger kids in the pre-school, but her shape and bearing declared her to be one of the older students. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, a book in her lap and a pair of heavy leather boots lined up neatly beside her (her feet were bare.)
Fish approached with caution. “Can you read this t’me?” he asked, holding up One Fish Two Fish. The girl looked up and examined him with bright yellow eyes.
“Dr. Seuss?” she asked. She motioned for him to join her. Fish hurried to sit down next to her, feeling extremely cool. “This is kiddy stuff.”
She held up the book in her lap. It had a werewolf on the cover. “You want this. It’s better.” Fish’s eyes went wide. She laughed. “What’s your name?”
“M’ Fish,” he answered.
“Orli,” she replied, offering him a hand, which he shook. “And this is Goosebumps. Welcome.”
*
Ultimately, Goosebumps wound up oscillating from utter nonsense to wildly terrifying to blatantly goofy. Orli laughed in weird places, especially when Fish was scared, and that made him laugh so he wouldn’t feel left out. In the end, Dr. Seuss was left forgotten on the ground, and Fish resolved to learn to read better so he might further explore the truly bizarre world that the girl called ‘Goosebumps’.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 6:39 am
PRP Can you do this? - Fish meets Miles at the park. They play with static electricity on the slide. They climb the jungle gym. (Boys will be boys.)
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Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 3:11 pm
**Treasure from the Sea**
It was easy to get antsy when you had the ocean in your bones. Fish supposed this was the case with him, because he’d been up all night listening to whale song and understood every word of it. Sometimes the whales sang solo, or in a small group, but last night had been like a symphony. He could hear every sort of whale, and a few he couldn’t quite identify. The low bellows, those were humpbacks. And the clicks were dolphins and orcas and purposes – they were like the percussion section or a metronome.
Later in the night, rain and wind blew in off the ocean. Fish could hear it rattling off his windows.
It might have been mere coincidence, but sometime after he drifted to sleep, carried on a lullaby of whale song, his bones and muscles elongated, as if propelled by some supernatural force. He awoke early the next morning, while Feely and Dad were still asleep, and decided he wanted to go down to the beach and explore on his own. He got out of bed, inched the door open, and tiptoed across the living room and into the kitchen. He unlocked the back door and gave it a few good nudges to slide it open, stepped quickly through, and slid it shut as quietly as possible.
And then, alone for the first time in his life, he made a mad dash down the path for the beach.
At the end of the path, he paused and quietly contemplated the scene before him. The storm last night had washed up a great amount of debris onto the shore, bits of wood and glass and such. Well, maybe he’d find some cool trinkets or something! That would be neat. Stepping carefully, he picked his way down into the wreckage. He selected a large stick from the first pile he came to and began to poke around, investigating under planks and such.
About ten minutes searching turned up four sharks teeth, a rounded sliver of green glass with gold flecks in it, and a pretty cool looking length of rope. He was about to turn around and head back up to the house for breakfast (growing made you hungry, apparently, but his stomach was just now catching up to him) when something silvery caught his eye from under a board.
He nudged the board away and crouched down to investigate. Brushing sand out of the way, he unearthed a glittering metal arm cuff carved with a squid and seashells and all sorts of other undersea wonders.
“Neat,” he breathed, and pried it out of the sand. He dusted it off with his fingers and held it up to his face for a closer look. It was way cool, whatever it was. He could almost imagine this floating up from some great underwater civilization. Maybe it had belonged to a prince!
“Well, it’s mine now,” he said smugly, and buffed it on his t-shirt before sliding it experimentally onto his arm. It fit like it had been made for him.
Exceedingly happy with his finds, Fish headed back to the house, a bit of a confident hop in his step. Today was going to be a good day. He had a feeling about it.
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Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 3:13 pm
PRP Question! - Fish and Crowley's first day of school. Crowley shows his athletic prowess. Fish makes weird sounds with his gills. They find their classroom.
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