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 Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 12:24 pm
S-D was fumbling with the laces of a brand new pair of shoes for Damaris, Taylor and the little skink girl were busily getting aqcuainted with each other over a large pile of plastic dolls. S-D couldn't help himself as he overheard their conversation.
"How come none gots tails?" Taylor asked. "Or ears? None of the dollies Momma gets for me look like me..."
"S'okay," Damaris stroked Taylor's hair in sympathy. "Don't gots stripes, eeder."
"Hey, yeah!" Taylor noticed, blinking as she pulled the clothes off a male doll and looked for markings. "How come they all look jus' pink and shiny?"
"Dunno," Damaris shrugged, picking up a plastic comb and brushing the hair of a blonde, blue-eyed girl doll.
It occured to him then that they were more observant than he'd previously given either of them credit for in the past. They were not only self-conscious but concerned about their appearance and were beginning to worry that they weren't... normal? To hell with normal! To hell with what other people thought! But... how do you explain that to two little girls when one is an anthropomorphic filly and the other half a skink? He chewed on the end of his thumbnail thoughtfully.
"That's it!" he said, snapping his fingers. He hurried up and grabbed the car keys.
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 12:44 pm
Granted it's been ages (centuries even) since I've dusted off the cover of this old handsewn book and written within its pages. It was a gift from "The Baker", one of the original three who helped rid me of Sterling Talonfaust once and for all. He's been a friend and a father when I had none, without his patience and wisdom I don't know where I'd be now.
I can't help but think back on The Baker and wondering if he's got hidden connections with the D Corporation. Somehow that wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. He taught Hakan for a time and having a trained assassin living next door to me for so many years has definitely changed my perspective on quite a lot of things involving the "everyday" and the "mundane" - I prefer it over the secrets and the underworlds. People don't know how good they have it sometimes.
But then D-Corp brings all that back to me and yet grants me the opportunity to be domestic and civil, an odd duality to be sure. I'm wondering now how and why they chose me to care for this girl. It doesn't make sense to me on many aspects. For one, out of all of us it's been my mother Syrcaid who's been the most giving and compassionate. I am not too proud to admit that I lack a lot of things required for raising a child whereas my mother's raised quite a few children and creatures since their birth time and time again.
Today Damaris met with Taylor, my mother's little girl and the first sister I've ever known. It's hard to explain that Taylor is Damaris' aunt when they are both near the same age. They were going through a large plastic bin of miscellaneous dolls and clothes and playsets we've collected over the years for kids to play with and when they've grown out of them we simply put them away as opposed to getting rid of them. Mother's opposed to getting rid of old toys unless they're so fargone and destroyed that there's no hope of salvaging them.
But today I was the one who did a bit of salvaging for them today. Damaris and Taylor were discussing the differences between the clearly human dolls and themselves. Although some dolls were of different skin tones, none bore the markings or parts that they did. None had tall ears like Taylor or the long whiplike tail of Damaris and they realised it. It shocked me. It hit me in a way that I hadn't noticed before. Zizzi never played with dolls so of course I could never know this until I saw little girl's play.
Without another word, I grabbed the two up and threw on their shoes. We went to the... dear god, it's almost too embarassing even to write in the secrecy of this journal. We made a trip to the craft store... I bought pipe cleaners, an airbrush kit, hot glue, super glue, bags of colored beads, feathers, fabric, buttons, faux fur. I grabbed everything I could think of to the utter confusion of the two girls.
Tonight now I write this, my hands covered in airbrush enamels and nontoxic paints. I've airbrushed and modified two dolls for them so far - made to look like a horse and a skink. What's posessing me to act this way? I don't know, but my guess is it's the same thing that drives my mother.
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Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 8:02 pm
Karma_K and I did this over AIM, so I'm reposting it here (and fixing my own typos in places X___x) as quotes.05/17/06 Syrcaid Whatever time of day he would've chosen would not have spared them from the sticky heat of that day, it had been raining the day before but since he'd pretty much made an appointment of this little trip with Lumbars' he had to endure the mosquitos on the nature trail. Damaris seemed keen to try and smoosh them in her hands and then wipe the bug bits on a pair of Zizzi's old toddler khakis. She had refused to leave the house unless he let her wear one of his old office shirts and of all of them it was the lime green one Meka had given him one Christmas. After a morning of sifting through his closet, she had picked it for this outing, hoping to impress the company by its blazing lime-ness. Oh, well... at least she'd be easy to see.
He stood against the car in the parking lot, Damaris swinging her legs off the side of the back of the car and swatting mosquitos cheerily. They waited for the company to arrive. In desperation, S-D double knotted the laces on Damaris' little hiking boots and made sure her socks weren't sagging, the last thing he needed was a lizard girl with chigger bites. Karma_K It was not long before another car pulled up, choosing a space a respectful distance away from the one already parked. It idled a moment, and before the engine could shut off, the side door exploded open as an energetic puppy hopped out.
A very VERY energetic puppy.
"Sharika, wait! Shar!!" a female voice called after her as the young girl bounded on the open pavement. Being a weekday and just after school hours, hardly anyone else was here and there was plenty of room for romping.
The engine was killed and an adult couple, presumeably the girl's parents, fell over each other to get out of the car and track down their hyperactive child.
"Sharika, don't RUN!" Felix called after her in as authoritative of a voice as he could muster...which sounded every bit as threatening as a wet baby fawn. "There's cars, you'll get run over!"
"They can't run over me if they're *parked*!" she challenged, grinning hugely as she kept out of their reach, dodging between the few vehicles there were before, at last, ducking behind S-D's car, poking her head around the rear to stick her tongue out at them and giggle.
Though the couple appeared to be rather young, they moved with the shambling gait of tired old parents....or perhaps zombies. Clearly, this was a normal routine for them. Syrcaid Damaris squealed and stuck her reptile tongue out at her back.
"Damaris, don't encourage her," S-D said watching Sharika raspberry at them. He took one look at the little girl and blurted, "Mother was right, it could've been worse."
Damaris spelunked off the car's trunk and ran after Sharika to get a good look at her, the sleeves of her shirt going past her hands and practically dragging like a gayly colored straitjacket. Had he put it on backwards, S-D mused with an oncoming grin, he could've tied the sleeves behind her in a knot. He shoulders shook as he laughed and watched her. Then he looked to Sharika's parents and went to introduce himself. Karma_K Sharika recoiled slightly as the strange little youngster approached her and then immediately grinned, dropping slightly in imitation of a normal dog's invitation to play. Still grinning, she bounded toward a patch of nearby grass, waiting for Damaris to join her just as Felix and Ajhira reached the car, both of them panting slightly and looking all-in-all flustered.
Seeing the young raven-haired man approaching them and that Sharika was currently playcated by another child, they slowed their gait to a walk, both sharing a sheepish expression.
"Hi there." Ajhira ventured first, smiling at S-D in what she hoped was a pleasant way as she unconsciously attempted to straighten her hair from the muss it had become. "Sorry, she's a little...um..."
"High strung..." Felix finished, shaking his head faintly, as though in disbelief. He'd agreed to being a parent, not to hard labor. Syrcaid "She's charming," S-D said though it was hard to tell whether or not he was being sarcastic. He'd never met either of these two until now and suddenly he was plotting revenge on his mother for setting this meeting up. True, she needed "exposure", but dragging them all out to the far end of civilisation into a forest full of bramble and insects on a muggy day was going to prove to be an experience for all the parents present.
Damaris watched with wide eyes as Sharika -moved- like a dog, -acted- like a dog, but also ran on two legs and spoke like a person. It was kind of like how it was when she had first met Taylor, her cousin. Which reminded her! It took a moment with the skirt she always wore being over her khakis to get to the spacious cargo pockets to pull out her Harpy doll. S-D had made both Taylor and Damaris dolls and had so dubbed them as such. This one was a lizard woman like Damaris and she had brought it along to play safari. It was a green haired apparition of plastic, paint, and glue but Damaris adored it.
"I brought Marba!" Damaris said, showing the doll to Sharika. "She'd a hot Am-a-zon lub pin-cess! She don' wear clothes!!"
S-D choked as Damaris parroted what he had said about the doll the day before. Karma_K Sharika's eyes lit up as she examined the doll that the smaller lizard child held. "Oh COOL! Where'd you get it??" she asked. The only dolls she'd ever seen at the store had all been human since, apparantly, that was what Gaia's main population was comprised of. She hadn't thought it was particularly fair, but then again, dolls never survived long in her care. Her last one, a delicate china doll that had been a birthday gift from her grandmother was currently in about eight pieces that were hidden strategically about her room.
Realizing that the situation was quickly growing awkward (well, more awkward than it already was...) Ajhira extended a hand in greeting. "You must be S-D. I'm Ajhira, this is my husband Felix, and that over there is Sharika..." she quickly rattled off.
Felix offered a wave and then looked toward the head of the nature trail that led off into vast amounts of scrub and field with a bit of a fearful look in his eyes. This man's realm was clearly in front of the computer, not in the wilderness. "Nice of DCorp to set this up for us..." he ventured, trying to make it sound like he was eager. "I mean...to make sure the kids get a chance to meet each other and all..." Syrcaid "There's no need to be afraid of me, I'm certain my mother Syrcaid told you what I was over the phone, yes?" S-D's hands were warm and he gently shook Ajhira's hand. "You must be Ajhira and this must be Felix?" S-D gave a bit of a bow and smiled, green eyes glistening. "Personally, I think it's nice that all of us are humanoid instead of totally human. That's at least one thing we all have in common."
Damaris laughed and offered Sharika to hold Marba. "My daddy made it!" she piped. "He took me an' Tayla to tha store an' he bought a whoooooooole lotta stuff an' then he took tha dolls from tha box an' made Marba an' Tayla gots Daisy!" Karma_K Felix lit up a bit at this. "Yes...yes, she explained." he nodded. Personally, he was intrigued...it must have been the repressed geek in him that had never grown out of his late-night high school sessions of Dungeons and Dragons. It was not polite to ask, though....or to stare. Given that he was a mutt of two very unlikely species, he was in no place to be staring anyway. "And yes, it IS nice...it makes me wonder if its one of DCorp's prerequisites to being a parent, really...to not be entirely human, I mean..."
Sharika eagerly accepted Marba and looked her over closely, her black nose quivering. She didn't look MADE, she looked like a toy you'd buy in the store. That was awesome! "Can I come over and play sometime?" she asked, wanting to see this Daisy Damaris spoke of. "I don't gots any dolls, but I have Gir!"
Her attention deviated suddenly to slight movement in the tuft of grass next to her and she grabbed with her free hand, capturing the little yellowish grasshopper before it could make its getaway. "GOT IT!" she declared triumphantly, making her mother wince.
"Please, Shar, no bugs....not today...." she groaned. Syrcaid "Yeah, you c'n come an' play with me an' Tayla!" Damaris hopped up and down. "Maybe daddy c'n make you a doll, too! Daddy, make Shar a doll, tooooo~!"
S-D turned and watched Sharika catch the grasshopper and raised an eyebrow. "Would a doll survive?" he sighed. "Okay, angel, Daddy will make her one... we've got a whole bucket of old thrift shop dolls I've been working on anyway."
Then he realised what he'd said and his eyes went wide. His secret was out, he'd been making dolls for his niece and his daughter ever since he saw their sad little faces over the pale, blue-eyed blonde dolls they were forced to play with one day. He noted Felix's intrigued look and decided it best to change the subject. "Don't be afraid to ask me anything, I'm used to being poked and prodded," he moved to take Damaris by the hand and led her to the greeting area of the nature trail. He waved for the two to follow and added ,"I'm gay, after all."
This was also one of those things he said that was hard to recognise as a joke. Karma_K Felix and Ajhira reflexively exchanged a look....it was not a look of scorn or a look of horror, moreso a look of bemusement at S-D's apparant lack of shyness as they moved to catch up with him and Damaris.
"I'm gonna get a doll too, Daddy!" Sharika declared proudly as Felix took one of the wild dog's hands and Ajhira took the other, half as a show of endearment and half to keep her from bolting off again.
"Are you, now?" he asked good-naturedly as the gravel crunched beneath their feet.
"So...did Dcorp choose you or did you choose DCorp?" Ajhira inquired of S-D, keeping the conversation going. Syrcaid "D-Corp chose me, through my mother," S-D explained as he stopped to look at the painted wooden "map" of the three nature trails to choose from. "You'd think a large corporation like them wouldn't be intimidated but they must've known my headmaster or something, is all I can figure. They seem so keen on training up humanoids, you'd think they'd know how to handle someone like me, but they called up my mother instead and told her the situation was that they'd like me to raise a little girl and could she please drop Damaris off with me? So she did and here Damaris is."
He shrugged and ruffled Damaris' hair affectionately as she squealed at him but didn't move away. She liked it when he messed her hair.
"And what about you two? No offense, but you two aren't exactly Ozzie and Harriet to me," he chuckled. "And Shar's certainly not your average child." Karma_K "They found us online." Felix put in. "They had one of their representatives pose as an investigator or something that wanted to nail me for ripping off others' HTML codes, which sounded fishy from the get-go. Somehow they had gotten ahold of Aj's and my personal records and found out we wanted kids but couldn't have them. But we went and...um...well, that's our story."
Sharika gave a mighty pull on her parents' arms as she tried to break free, wanting to escape into one of the path's bordering meadows to pull up flowers and assault the various butterflies that hovered in mid-air.
"Shar, -easy-...." Ajhira admonished gently.
"Mo-om...!!" she complained, flattening her ears.
"Now I mean it. Behave or you're going to go sit in the car." It was a threat meant to strike fear into the heart of any child about to be deprived of a fun experience. Sharika, however, lit up.
"Can I drive again??" she asked eagerly, making both Sharika and Felix noticeably cringe.
"No. No driving. NEVER again." Syrcaid "Ah, that D-Corp," S-D said, picking up Damaris suddenly and placing her riding on his narrow shoulders. "Why can't they just go out and -say- that they need parents? Like half the people in Barton or Durem wouldn't jump at the chance to gather up a child. I don't understand why they're so keen on assigning them to people like me. Do I honestly look like the kind of man who could responsibly raise a little girl, seriously?"
He turned to face them both with Damaris on his shoulders smiling at them and hugging the back of her father's head. He almost wore her like a hat.
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Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 8:59 am
"Ready for a song, Damaris?" S-D said, tuning his acoustic guitar and sitting at the edge of the stout kitchen table.
Damaris laughed and clapped her hands. "Whatcha gon' sing?"
"Okay, listen..." S-D strummed the first chords and then.
"Or-ange bar-rels, or-ange bar-rels, ev-ery-where I SEE!...!"
"S-D!!" Syrcaid interupted. "Don't sing THAT one!"
"Oh, come on. It's cultural," S-D said still strumming the tune as Damaris started dancing to it. "Isn't it, pumpkin?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:16 pm
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Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 7:35 pm
A child is expected to know certain things at certain ages. In order to obtain rights to their Dragon(egg), they must prove they can meet these requirements. The following sheet is for your child to fill out, with mild help from their guardian, then sent back to D-corp. (PM ot the mule) Also any changes, even minor such as haircuts, should be reported to the D-corp to be logged and filed.
Thankyou,
The Boss.
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Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 11:11 am
"Wha's this?" Damaris said as her breakfast cereal was pushed aside and a marker put in her hands.
"I'm not sure, but we got it in the mail," S-D yawned, still in the shirt and shorts he slept in. "I guess it's for you, can't imagine it'd be for me. Put your name and stuff on it, hon, then we'll mail it back."
"'Kay," she said, despite it getting in the way of her morning cartoons.
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:07 pm
DTech459's Revisitation
There were disclaimers all around the room... CAMERAS MAY BE ACTIVE AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT. She didn't remember those being there before, Syrcaid mused as she fidgeted with her newly cropped hair. So like... she couldn't pick her nose or anything in privacy?
Syrcaid couldn't help herself. They must've planted the things on the table there for people to play around with, despite that large one way mirror staring back at her and the obvious black camera within the stark, sparsely decorated interview room the place begged for it.
"Uhhh... what's she doing?" 459 adjusted his glasses and watched.
There was a hand bringing a cup of hot tea to lips, an the amused grin of someone else beside him. "A puppet show, it looks like," was all he said before he was gone to leave 459 to his task.
459 had walked in and it didn't stop her from trying to amuse him with the little paper drawings of herself, DTech459 himself, and S-D on little post-its. She had inked and colored it with the variety of pens, markers, and highlighters in the DCorp mug on the table.
"Please, ma'am, could you kindly put those down?" he cleared his throat, trying his best to force back the blush threatening to rise to his face once more.
"I can be S-D and myself and you can be you!" she insisted with the post-it aimed at him.
Begrudgingly, he took it and with solmen ceremony he stuck it over his nametag. "Will this suffice for today?"
"Oh, alright, you big killjoy," Syrcaid said and stuck her own on her forehead. "Why haven't you asked S-D to come in here yet?"
459 blinked from behind his goggle-like glasses, he looked through the various papers on his clipboard.
"I... don't.... know?" he said more to himself than to her.
"Someone ought to know," she commented and then began to mimic S-D with the post-it of him. "You'd bloody well CALL ME next time you stupid buggers want me to come in. It's not my mother's responsibility, dammit, why do you assholes insist on dragging her out when Damaris is my child!!?"
459 looked at the image of the little irrate S-D as though Syrcaid had been the underworld medium for the spirit of this very angry man.
"I'm sorry, sir," he responded without thinking. He shook his head. "I mean, ma'am, I don't know why you keep being called and it's obvious that is information not yet allowed to be made public."
"You lot are so -dodgy-," she muttered, though the look on her face was impish. "I'm okay with that."
"Ma'am," he began, trying to be firm this time. "Damaris has grown into a healthy young girl, all her educational levels are acceptable."
"I'd've said above average, myself, but I'm a proud grandmother," she admitted.
He hadn't thought of her that way, but technically the child your son was parenting would've technically made her a grandmother.
"Y-Yes," he took that into consideration. "She'll be required to be taught new subjects as she progresses on through her education."
"And that's another thing," Syrcaid cut in. "Why isn't she attending the standard public school system like her cousins have been? What's so special about this little private school you've all got going here?"
"I'm not at liberty to say, ma'am," he tried to keep his calm, but he always felt like the rabbit before the fox with her. It was all he could to not bolt out the door - his boss would've kicked him back in, besides.
---
Dtech459 entered the office, looking somewhat like he'd returned from the principal's office and back into another's.
"She's a live wire, isn't she?" said a voice over a stack of papers being read , signed, and faxed.
"She's asking a lot of questions I'm not allowed to provide her answers for," 459 admitted with a nod.
"That's alright, they all start to eventually, she's just a little more aggressive with demanding information. It's happened before. Don't worry, 459, the next time you'll no longer have to speak with her."
"Sir?"
"We'll be following her suggestion and requesting Silvain make an appearance himself."
Somehow that did not offer DTech459 any comfort.
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Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:32 am
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Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:04 pm
 DTech459's Re-Introduction
S-D was bored to tears, though at least he was in a better mood than he had been in a long while. Damaris had inevitably calmed him and his medication was a daily pill instead of a series of injections (and destroyed furniture). All that drama had been hammered out of him.
The trip to the D-Corp parent facility was... bizarre. It was Spartan and even the attempt at "cordial" was nothing more than a copy of a watercolor of trees and some obscure house in Barton that S-D suspected came with that faux wooden frame when it was bought.
"What's that supposed to be, Daddy?" Damaris pointed a greasy finger onto the pristine glass of the painting. She had to haul a spare metal folding chair over to get a good look at the picture. It was already graced with her nose print, though the finger print was giving it more charm.
"It's supposed to be a quaint little house somewhere, love," S-D yawned and leaned his chin on one hand. "I suspect it's to give us a false attempt at relaxation and a down-home feeling. But somehow the flatscreen nailed to the wall and the camera installed in the corner of the room just strip that blissful illusion away..."
Damaris had no answer for that, as she looked at the picture and noted the picture of the little watercolor dog within the painting looked rabid. Those strange images of what Taylor said about what they did to dogs with rabies entered her mind, though it looked more like that time she beheaded the modeling clay dog-horse-thing with the plastic butterknife in her head. She smiled to herself and bit her lip so as not to laugh.
DTech459 was terrified, but it was a situation between a rock and... another rock that was prone to fits of uncontrolled rage and lots of acidic spittle. This was the first time he'd talk to S-D as he saw them on the small monitor in the surveillance room.
"She looks content, at least," he noted to another technician.
"He looks sedated, or bored," the other DTech nodded. "It might not be so bad, after all. Just try not to provoke him."
"What would provoke him?" DTech looked at his clipboard again.
"Anything so I hear," the other DTech was pouring herself some coffee. "Did you hear the toilet paper story yet?"
"Erm..."
DTech459 pushed the door open, S-D hardly budged and Damaris didn't even grant him the time of day as she started using her finger to smear shapes on the glass of the picture out of creative boredom. She was pondering using spit to make the smears spread better at the moment.
"You must be, Sylvain," DTech tried his best to keep from wanting to turn and run.
"You must be... a clone? I don't know why they don't just give you names. You were born with a name, right?"
"Mrs... Umm... Miss Syrcaid," DTech doublechecked the hardcopy. It wasn't much help, either, Syrcaid didn't seem to have a title or a last name. He groaned and instantly assumed her one of those "artist" types. Great, pretty soon they'll start be signing their name with a symbol. He looked up and blinked from behind his goggles. How was that different than being assigned a number? Now he just felt hypocritical.
"Syrcaid recommended we talk to you in person, since you two seem more adjusted to each other than you previously were," DTech459 explained.
"Yes, I kept telling Damaris wandering gypsies put a curse on me and that's how I got her," S-D chuckled, watching with inner glee as Damaris defaced the watercolor print. He tried not to laugh as she licked her finger to mark on it some more.
"Sir?"
"She doesn't believe me, of course," S-D went on, turning back around to face him fully. "She's of the kind that when I told her about Santa Claus she went and wiki'ed him."
"I'm sorry, she wik-?"
"-She looked him up," S-D started again. "Damaris doesn't like the idea of tiny little deer carrying such a large man around in a wooden sled. I think one of her friends is a deer?"
"Uhm, we have an Elk, a Clydesdale, an Ibex... a variety of Cervids and Eq-"
"-And you don't ever bother telling them the difference, do you?" S-D went on, sitting upright in his chair and staring DTech459 in the face.
DTech459 thought for a moment that this must be what they meant about when the dragons were being fed and the small woodland animals they were sometimes fed went paralysed, despite their mind screaming "Run, you sod!"
"P-Pardon?" 459 was cracking.
"You don't TELL them a damn thing," S-D hadn't yet raised his voice, but his eyes were starting to narrow. "You expect the guardian to break it to them that, no, we don't know why we got them. That we don't know why they're different, not quite an anthropomorph but not entirely human. How do you explain genetic manipulation to a six year old, praytell?
You can only say 'Everyone is different' so many times until that's not good enough. They're children, not stupid little things you can throw at people to record data off of. I've seen it done time and time again but with no purpose that I'm aware of. Why are you holding back on things we need to know?"
"So you care for her?" DTech needed confirmation of the obvious. Mostly because that was one of the questions he needed answered for the file.
"What to you bloody think?" S-D threw up a hand. "You're the technician here. What's the labcoat for? Are you going to squeeze her into little vials and shake it up for god knows what? Don't you think we all need to grow up out of that?"
"So, that's a 'yes'?"
"Yes," S-D's voice suddenly lost life, and his look went cold and calculating. He nodded.
Time to throw the rest at hm, DTech459 thought, before he goes for my throat.
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:10 pm
Diary,The trip to DCorp was uneventful. It wasn't surprising nothing got answered, but I had to try and let them know. Damaris is asking me questions I have no answer for and I feel just as helpless about it as she does. It's unfair for her and enfuriating for me. The DTechnician never gave me his name, but I'd know him anywhere now by his scent alone. "Fee fie foe fum, I smell the blood of a technician!!" Mostly he smells like a frightened little man someone else is pushing and pulling about. I knew he wasn't the one to ask for answers from, but he was their ear and I was speaking into it. He looks like a Stephen to me, but with how bad I am with names his name is probably something like Ignaceous or something horrendous like that. Then again, with a name like that, he's better off with a set of numbers for his name anyway. It feels like only yesterday Mother brought her to my home and just left me with her. I remember screaming at her as she left, leaving my little Damaris there only to stare at me. You'd've thought a child that small would be terrified of a pale monster like me spitting mad, but the first thing she did was laugh and insist she be picked up. I remember rejecting her even then, how coldblooded was I then? But persistence was born in this one, she simply followed me on all fours and waiting for me to hold still long enough to attempt to climb her way into my arms. The moment I gave in and held her, she cooed, patted my chest, and fell asleep. Her little hand on my chest, her tiny heart next to mine... It was as though the curse within was tamed in one little touch. I had no bed for her, so I let her sleep in mine while Mekakushi and I planned and... Well, that's neither here nor there, but needless to say she was instantly family. She has her own room, her own set of dishes... and she insists it all be sky blue instead of pink. She somehow convinced Meka and I to go to great lengths to paint glowing stars on her ceiling, and a sun and butterflies on the walls of her room. She could tame a pit of lions and make them sit down for tea. She and her "cousins", Taylor and Tabansi will be here for Christmas dinner. She has children her age who can sympathise with being one of a kind, so there's no cause for her to feel lonely. Together we'll have a tree filled with ornaments she made herself and garlands of paper she made from last year's old christmas cards. If they dare take her away from me now... Heaven save them all.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:09 am
Damaris' Journal Dadda says to write down stuff like when we go on trips. I don't think this was a trip but Dadda says it's like a trip to the doctor cept you don't get any shots. That's better than a doctor only after I didn't get a lollipop. Dadda bought me two anyway and said to save the other one for after dinner. Dadda says that Granma sometimes goes but today it was Dadda's turn. It was boring and we were supposed to be on the TV cause Dadda says he saw the camera but it was so small. I don't think it could get both of us at the same time and I thought we were gonna get to see a pretty report lady. The doctor was not really a doctor. Dadda says he was a tec tekTECHNICIAN I had to look it up on the wiki. Dadda says he was gonna say he wished he had wiki when he was growin up cept he never growed up. I think that's like Peter Pan or something cept Dadda dosn't like tight girl pants.
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Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:02 pm
Meeting Alex (PD with Karma_K, Alex) Syrcaid Classes were going as they usually did before the holidays. It droned on and yet the air was tense for mid-terms and anxiousness for the days off for Christmas. Damaris and some classmates of the same age had just herded out the door of one hallway as the older students slowly slipped into it. As usual, she wore one of her many buttoned dresses with the large pockets, buttoned at the sholder, and one of the various oddly decorated and colorful leggings. Her shoes were fashionably (as was the latest fashion amongst her and her friends) sloppy and her teddybear bow-biters were blinking red and blue with every step. Her backpack stared back at anyone behind her with a large, manically happy cat's face and some dozen clip charms from the local pizza place's prize bins clipped on the zippers in the mystic feng shui of little girls. Though, admittedly, sometimes she swore she saw her father wander off to work with a charm or two clipped to his belt loop. It was on one of these random salmon swim that she accidently bumped into Alex's elbow. She blinked as she was pushed and shouted at him. "Hey! Gee, at least say sorry!" she called after him. Karma Alexander immediately recoiled from the very loud little girl's voice, his hand reflexively going to the evil eye pendant around his neck which he clutched tightly and backed away a couple of steps. None of the other kids at DCorp really talked to him unless he was on one of his latest rants in the middle of class, so when someone DID take notice of him, he was immediately suspicious. ...even if he HAD bumped them with his elbow. Syrcaid Damaris stared at him. What was he doing? Was he scared? Maybe he was just confused at who was talking to him. Perhaps talking to him some more would make him realise he elbowed her? "Heeeelllooo...? You're supposed to say 'I'm sorry!'" she waved at him. "Are you even looking at me? Who made your elbows so pointy, anyway?" Her other little friends laughed and waved at her as they left to their next class. She waved them off and waited for him to respond. Perhaps most other little girls would have just let it pass, being used to the older children ignoring them, but Damaris was used to strange older men. This one wasn't much different. He had that same look in his eye that her father did when he was particularly squirrely. She wrinkled her nose and just had to ask. "Do YOU take med'cine?" Karma Alex took another step away from the little arm-flailing lizard girl, his eyes widened and magnified hugely behind his glasses. "Who--Who're you?" he asked at last. "How'd you know about the medicine?" His mom had only picked up those pills this morning! Was she some sort of spy?? He'd certainly never seen her in any of his classes before. Nevermind the fact she was clearly younger than him and all... Syrcaid Well, it didn't seem polite to say "You look just as crazy as my dad", but also it would be hard to tell just who she was insulting there. But she was right, at least, that was one thing at least she could understand. People who take pills were usually controlling something... people with the flu took medicine to fight off a virus, her father was taking pills so he wouldn't turn into a savage beast and devour people... and this boy was probably somewhere between those two points. Now she had a bit more to work with and she nodded to herself sagely. A look of determination and understanding came over her face. "Ooooh," she nodded. "So you DO take med'cine. It's prolly 'cause you're sick or somethin', right?" She started walking towards him, the bow-biters blinking playfully at her shoes as she adjusted her backpack slopping down her skinny shoulders. She pushed the hair from her face and introduced herself. "I'm Damaris Draque! What's your name?" Karma "They're a study aid, I'm not--" he shook his head forcefully to stop from talking. No, no, he had to stay calm. He couldn't panic or he'd tell them everything they wanted to know straight up-front. Not that he had any sensitive information, but what he DID have was HIS information and he would be damned before "they" would take it from him. In perfect cadence with her steps toward him, he matched them with steps away from her, keeping a distance between them as his eyes fell worriedly to the blinkie things on her shoes. GUH! What were those supposed to be?? Behind him, his tail unconsciously twitched and began to fan itself in defense. "Alex..." he told her warily. "M'Alex...." Syrcaid She thought THIS was funny. He acted like she was from another planet, she started giggling and tested with another step as she watched his tail begin to fluff. "Does your tail foof when ya get scared?" she giggled. "When I get scared I swish my tail around, like this!" She wiggled her long tail back and forth behind her. "Rrrrr, scary! Do you think I got cooties or something?" Temptation was too great, she took stomps toward him now experimentally. Karma With each stomp he gave a spastic little cry and another jump backwards. Two jumps and he'd dropped his books. Three, and he nearly tripped over himself. "Gahhh, what do you WANT??" he wailed, shielding his face with his hands. "Where'd you COME from??" Any minute now, he expected plasma beams to appear out of nowhere as more of her alien mothership race warped into the hallway and blasted him into nothingness. Syrcaid Now it was time to talk business. She attempted the kind of interaction she saw her father use at bank tellers, cashiers at the fast food places, and customer service. She knew THAT at least got some things done. "You HIT me, remember?" she looked up at him. "I was walkin' down the hallway and you GOT ME with your stupid, pointy elbow! When are you gonna say you're sorry? It's like you think I'm from Mars or something. Want me to be from Mars? Okay, I'm from Mars!" She took both hands and pointed her index fingers skyward with her hands at each temple, pretending to have antenna. "Beep beep, take me to your leader! This is illogical! Why have you inflicted harm upon me?" Melodrama seemed to work for her father, would it work in this situation? Karma What was left of the sliver of composure he had dissolved when she began her martian act. He knew it! HE KNEW IT!!! "ALIEEEEN!!!" he wailed, pointing at her and turning to flee. Instead, he managed to stomp on his own tail and collapse to the hallway floor in a heap. Not even pausing to lay where he'd fallen, he began to half-crabwalk, half-scramble away from her. "I'm sorry, okay?? I'm sorry! STAY AWAY! STAY!!" he commanded futilely, his voice high and panicky. One of his tailfeathers had come out from the force of the fall and laid limp and lifeless on the floor. It was DISINTEGRATING HIM WITH ITS MERE PRESENCE!! Syrcaid "Beep beep! Your behaviour is highly illogical, this does not compute! Explain!" She did her best not to crack up, this guy really thinks she's an alien? This couldn't be true! But, damn, this would be a total blast if it was! She was about to try her song and dance about terraforming Mars when her father came around the corner in the hallway. "Damaris? Aren't you a little too young to be dating older men just yet?" "I'm not dating! Boys are yucky and this one thinks I'm a-" "Well, you're refering to them as 'this one', so that's enough reassurance for the both of us," S-D said taking her hand and looking at Alex with suspicion as though it was HIM who was trying to impress her. "And YOU young man are too young to be breaking hearts." "He didn't break my heart, Dadda," Damaris said. "He says his name is Alex and he takes pills like you!" "Oh, really?" S-D looked at him with even more suspicion. "Does he turn into something terrible when HE doesn't take his medicine...?" Karma Alex curled into a whimpering trembling ball, grateful for the presense of an adult, but then immediately not trusting him when it was clear he'd formed an alliance with THE ALIEN. Was he controlling her or was it vice-versa?? Ohgodohgodohgod, he needed to get home and post his findings on his newsgroups! They had to know there wasn't much time before the invasion started! "Alexander...?" a professional voice with a warm edge that he quickly recognized said. Lifting his head to goggle at the DCorp counselor, Alex all but flung himself at the poor man. "Aliens!" he whimpered, clinging to his leg with his arms and legs in a crushing bearhug. "EVERYWHERE! They're everywhere! We've gotta get out of here!" "Oh, that again, is it...?" he said, trying to sound nurturing and also looking like he was trying not to roll his eyes. Over the past few months, he and Alex's outbursts had become quite well-acquainted with one another. "Then we'd better escape, I suppose." he said, attempting to walk. Having a panicked peacock on one's leg did not make it easy business, either. "Alex...you're getting too big for this..." he grunted, taking a step and then pausing to draaaaaag the leg with Alex attached to it across the floor. Step, draaaaag. Step, draaaaag. All the way toward and into the staff elevator. "Has your mother picked up that prescription for you yet?" was the last thing heard to be said before the doors swiffed closed on the ridiculous scene.
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Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 8:50 pm
Meeting Sharika Again (PD with Karma_K, Alex/Sharika) Syrcaid The following day, she had nearly forgotten about Alex until one of her friends at lunchtime brought him up again. They were all at the table with their various lunches in paper bags or boxes. Damaris was enjoying her usual blueberry muffin when she spoke up for herself. "He's not my boyfriend!" she protested, not even blushing. "He hit me in the hallway and he started acting funny. All I did was play with him." "You didn't leave, after," noted one of her friends. "When Marky tries to kiss you you hit him." "Marky tries to kiss everyone," Damaris rolled her eyes. The others started giggling. "I'm prolly not even gonna ever see him again, anyway." Karma Sharika cruised through the lunch line, grabbing a little of this and a little of that for her tray. She was SUPPOSED to have had lunch with the rest of the older students before the little kids' lunch period, but Logarth had decided he'd had enough of class and decided to take them for a fly instead. He was currently on time-out in the stables and SHE was starving. When she'd picked up everything she wanted, she scouted the tables, looking for any with a vacancy. Oh look! There was one! Right across from that stripey lizard girl talking to her friends! Trotting over, she took a seat. "Heya!" she said a split second before grabbing up her tuna sandwich and tearing into it. Syrcaid "Hi!" Damaris grinned. "Are you coming in for seconds?" Damaris and her friends watched her with curiosity, not many of the older girls so much as gave them the time of day, particularly older siblings. Damaris seemed to recognise her face from somewhere, but couldn't exactly remember where. She watched Sharika and then looked at all the things the dog girl had piled on her tray. "Wow, you really eat all that!?" Karma "Naw, my dragon decided we needed to go for a ride." she told them around a mouthful of bread and fish before swallowing. "I didn't get to eat when everybody else did. Ya know what I had to tell'im? I had to tell'im I'd go buy him some Slim Jims before he'd come back down again." She finished her sandwich in another couple bites and then went for her bread roll. How it was that she didn't gain any weight was beyond comprehension. "Who're you guys?" she asked good-naturedly. Age was not all that important to her, she, much like an overly-friendly dog, just liked meeting new people. Her nose quivered, picking up their scents. On one of them, she caught a faint whiff of something familiar. It almost smelled like that horrible pungent fear stench Alex gave off when he was in one of his panics. That stuff got in your clothes and didn't go away for days. Of course, only people with hypersensitive noses even NOTICED, but still... Syrcaid "I'm Damaris, this is Molly, Susan, and that's Jaynie," she said, plucking crumbs of muffin off her own shirt. "We were just talking about how dumb boys were." Damaris was admiring her spots and speckles. So many colors! All OVER! All Damaris had were stripes and only just a few here and there. "Did you always have all those spots? They kinda look like you painted them," Damaris tilted her head at her. Karma "What, these? Nope these're mine." she grinned, polishing off the roll and finally cracking open her milk. She got the feeling she should know the stripety one. Had they met before? Maybe when she was younger...? ....hazy images of a nature trail came to mind. "Hey. You're gonna think this is dumb....did you ever have a lizard doll when you were younger? Like a Harpie Doll, but not really?" she asked Damaris. Syrcaid "Yeah!" Damaris thought with her mouth open, shoving an apple to her mouth and leaning on her cheek with her hand. "My Dadda made me one and one for my cousin Taylor! He painted human ones up and stuck feathers and things on them. I still got mine.... lots more, too... but the regular Harpie clothes don't wanna fit too good." She let her eyes wander and her eyes went wide as she recognised someone behind Damaris. Karma "I think I remember you!" Sharika said gleefully. "Didn't we go to a nature trail once? Like way back when? It was a long time ago, I dunno if you--" she stopped, noting Damaris's wide eyes. "What?" she asked, looking behind herself in time to see Alex taking a seat at one of the tables near the back of the dining area that was unpopulated. "Pfft, that's just Alex." she said with a dismissive wave, returning to her food like it was her job. Syrcaid "You KNOW him!?" Damaris was astounded that someone she remembered from when she was very small knew that strange boy who ran into her in the hallway the other day. "Hmph, tell him he owes me a 'I'm sorry' for hitting me with his elbow yesterday." "Yeah, she was just playin' with him an' he flips out," explained Molly. "And he started to spazz out 'cause Damaris said she was from Mars," Susan said. They all started laughing. Karma "Oh are YOU the reason Mom had to peel him off the ceiling?" Sharika laughed. "Yeah he lives with me. I dunno...he's like that all the time. He sees ghosts and aliens all over the house and spends all day in the closet with tape recorder sometimes. I keep TELLIN' him, though, I say 'Alex, the reason you don't have any friends is because you're a weirdo' and then he says something about Bigfoot and goes back to putting duct tape on the windows." She drank deeply of her milk. "Ma gave him some pills that're supposed to make him stop it, but I don't think they're working." she added, wiping her mouth on the back of one hand. Alone at his table, Alex meticulously went through his lunch with a spork, occasionally spooning something up, running his pocket scanner over it, and then putting it in his mouth when the readings appeared normal. Syrcaid "He's not gonna pick up anything with a stupid old tape recorder," Damaris replied with nonchalance. "I thought it was something more scary. I heard now there's better kindsa stuff for listening to ghosts. I don't hear anything except Dadda and Meka snoring at night with my digital corder." "Damaris said her house was haunted," Susan said, giggling. "But we had a slumber party to look during tha summer an' all we found were old socks under tha bed." "And dustbunnies," Damaris said. "Dadda said he ate all the ghosts, that's soooo not fun." Karma "Alex says he saw ghosts in the toilet once. He locked himself in the bathroom and wouldn't let anybody use it till he'd made them go away." A series of tater tots began to vanish into her jaws as she grinned toothily. "He buys all that ghost stuff from the internet. He's got scanners and recorders and a whole bunch of books." She told the younger girls. "I bet HE would've found ghosts at your house...he finds'em everywhere." there was a mingling of amusement with an undertone of pity in her voice. It was hard to tell whether Alex LIKED being weird or if he couldn't help it. Syrcaid "Dama thinks he's cute," teased Molly as she wadded up her paper lunchbag and was getting ready to take off to her next class. "I gotta go see my eggy, see ya!" "I did NOT say he was cute, I said his glasses were cute 'cause they made him look even more scared," Damaris spat out bits of apple as she protested. "Dontcha get sick eating all that stuff all at once?" Soon after Molly, Susan and Jaynie left for their classes. Damaris was stuck again in study hall. It was booooooring! Apparently getting certain classes was getting more and more difficult because of more students showing up, so every other student had strange scheduling. It didn't bother Damaris so much other than it kept her away from her friends. "The slumber party wouldn't a been so bad if Meka didn't start a fight over the dishes again," Damaris said more out loud than to Sharika. "Dadda's always grumpy before he eats and he forgot it was his turn to do dishes," she explained to the only audience she had though she paused to see Alex twitching over something in the large trashbin where the students had been throwing away what they didn't eat. "Why's he poking an empty bag of Cheetohs?" Karma Sharika looked over her shoulder again at her adopted brother and swallowed what she had in her mouth. "ALEX!" she barked at him, making him jolt and lift his head to goggle at her "Yer gonna be late again!" He looked like he was about to say something, but then caught sight of Damaris, a look of horror washing over his face as he turned and scuttled away, no doubt to go hole himself up somewhere, convinced the aliens had gotten to Sharika. "You live with somebody named mecha?" she asked, as though she'd never stopped the conversation. "Like....Mecha Gamora?" her eyes lit up. That would be COOL! Syrcaid The first bell rang and Damaris sped to put her lunchbox into her backpack. "I gotta get to study hall," she said to Sharika. "It was nice seeing you again, I'll ask Dadda if Meka's last name was Gamora, 'cause I don't know what that means." She waved to Sharika and sped past Alex, making Vulcan signs. "Live long and prosper!" she giggled, then sped away.
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Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 12:56 pm
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