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 Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 3:07 am
Once the very last snows of winter had evaporated into spring, Cee had thrown open all the windows of the old house to the elements. It didn't matter how cold or windy or rainy it might be outside, or how her odd little family muttered and grumbled about it--she wanted the wind and the sunlight and the rain in the house, and the rest of the household marched to the beat of her whimsy, and so the windows were left open. Most of the Mozou, and Entropy, being primarily feline in temprament, migrated in toward the more sheltered inner rooms, and began the long process of scaring out the dust bunnies and reorganizing the glorious Mess into something more livable. Only Albedo was content to drift around the cold outer rooms, and even then he ignored the mistress of the house for all intents and purposes, seeking his own amusements in the wind and shadows.
Being as it was that the old house was hunkered down with a forest behind it and a garden before it, it wasn't uncommon for leaves, flowers--even whole twigs and tossed birdnests, like wandering life preservers bereft of a shipwreck--to collect in drifts against the lintels and the furniture. It was Cee's custom, when she remembered to sweep up the litter and return it to the outdoors, to pick out the prettiest bits to make pressings from. Those that she didn't lose in her absentminded way, to molder forever in the largest of her books, went into homemade papers and bookmarks, charming but never really professional.
The day the leaf blew into her study, though, she hadn't been expecting any such thing. The air outside was dead calm, the sun bright and warm (no condition for a zombie to venture out in), and for all intents it was a perfect day for writing. Or procrastinating on writing, as the case might have been, for the dead woman was just as happy to sit at her computer and doodle around on the Internet instead of getting her op-ed pieces done. All in due time, she told herself. All in due time. For now she was just as happy to laze about in the slatted sunlight from the open study window, playing nonsense games on her laptop.
Such was her concentration that when the leaf drifted in front of her screen, she thought for a moment it was a part of the game. When it landed on her keyboard, though, she blinked once, twice, and shook her head rapidly in a spray of dredlocks. The leaf was still there when she looked back at it, all brilliant greens that glowed subtly in the light from the window. She stared at it for a long moment in abject wonder; it seemed too impossibly vivid to be real. Mere objective reality--the computer, her desk, even her hands--paled by comparison.
Cee shook her head again, and the leaf was an ordinary leaf once more. "I haven't been sleeping enough," she confided to it. "Even the smallest things are looking extra-special today." Carefully, she lifted it off her keyboard by the stem, adding: "You'd make a lovely pressing, though..."
Her voice trailed off into a whisper of startled breath as the leaf attempted to curl around her fingers by its own volition, bringing with it a surge of brilliant, indescribable--joy. That was not something leaves normally did. Forgetting her game and the sunlight and her op-ed pieces, she rose from her chair, cradling the leaf in both hands, and darted out in search of her eldest Mozou.+++ "Albedo? Albedo! Oh, drat it, where could he have gotten to..."
It usually wasn't THIS hard to find him, as stealthy as he was capable of being. Sooner or later, Cee had noticed, Albedo would grow bored of skulking about in the shadows and start ambushing people (or things) in the interest of garnering attention. No such luck this time, though, albeit with the fragile burden in her hands Cee was rather glad she had yet to be ambushed on the errand. It was, nevertheless, frustrating. She stopped at an intersection of hall and breezeway, blowing a huff of breath out through her nose and looking down at the leaf.
Quite placid now, it gave no more sign of unusual behavior. Cee gave another sigh; maybe she'd been imagining all of it. It wouldn't've been the first time, and it was probably best to go find a suitably heavy book and make a pressing of the thing instead of chasing shadows on a fool's errand--
"Did you want something, woman?"
The voice was right at ear level, all oiled silk and hissing smug amusement. Cee froze, a shiver working its way from the base of her spine to her shoulders in an unconscious start. "...Albedo," she managed in a small, self-conscious squeak. "I thought I told you not to do that."
The Mozou--for that's who it was--gave a rumbling laugh low in his throat. "The world is full of mights and maybes and thou-shalt-nots, woman, but it doesn't mean anyone follows them. What did you want? I thought you had 'better' things to do today."
Cee squeezed her reddened eyes shut and quietly reminded herself that turning around and smacking Albedo would only encourage him. She did turn around then, holding the leaf up in front of her as an offering, and somehow managed to keep her voice level. "This. Tell me what you think of it."
Albedo's tail essayed a slow arc behind him and he narrowed dusk-purple eyes at her, his ever-present grin growing all the wider. "You mean, tell you you aren't crazy, don't you. Tsk, you're a horrible liar," he teased, but the jibe had definite teeth in it. "'O, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive--'"
"Cut it out," Cee huffed, no longer in a mood for poetry or wordplay.
"What, my tongue? I'll do my whole head, if it will make you happy, and present it to you on a silver platter." He held out a gloved hand. "Give it to me."
Not for the first time, Cee found herself staring at her eldest Mozou and wondering if it was a good idea to give him anything. At length, though, she placed the leaf in the palm of the offered hand, prompting another low and worrisome chuckle. Cee hoped vaguely that he didn't intend to eat the leaf, with the oddly intent way he held it up and stared at it. But he was, unlike any of her other children, sensitive to the basic natures of things, and maybe she wasn't crazy after all...
The irony of getting a mimic of a madman to confirm this for her didn't escape Cee. "Huh," Albedo said at last, ears drooping. He took the leaf by its stem, holding it up to the light as Cee had and squinting at it. More softly, then, "Huh." With a caution Cee had never seen him use, he cupped the leaf in his hands, scarcely breathing on it.
"Well?" Cee asked at length, more than a little disturbed by his sudden silence. Silence meant nothing good when it came to Albedo. He pricked up one ear, then glanced up at her, before pushing the leaf back into her hands.
"If you press it, or dry it, or do any of the other stupid feminine things you do with leaves, I'll kill you." The Mozou turned with no further words to stalk down the hall away from her, leaving Cee standing there, bewildered, the leaf absently curling around one of her fingers once more.
She blinked once, stunned. "Oh," she managed. This--this would warrant a journal entry, and a trip to the kitchen to get a cup of water for the leaf, and... So much else.
One step at a time. One step at a time, no matter how much things seemed to be tumbling down a very steep--and strange--hill.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 12:41 am
Diary Entry - Cee
I didn't get much done today, but really, when do I get anything done around here? Well, that's not true--I did clean out my office, and I rooted around in the garden until it got too hot outside. I suppose I technically got another paragraph done in the book, but I'm not really counting it since it was sort of slapped together from things I'd copied and pasted from elsewhere. (From one source it's plagerism, from many it's research...) There is, of course, this journal entry but I don't think I can count it unless I also count the new high score at solitaire...
The weather has really been lovely lately--clear skies, warm temperatures, low humidity--even if the sunlight is a little hard on my eyes (and my poor skin!), it's been enjoyable. I think winter has ruined the kids on the outdoors, though if they were really upset about it, I imagine Entropy would have complained by now...he's good about that. I haven't seen too much of them in the breezeways, but there's been all kinds of commotion from the inner rooms and Solly stopped by to ask about featherdusters and glass cleaner, so I can only assume that they're cleaning up in there.
Maybe I'll go help them once I'm done with this. I feel a little bad that they're the ones who're bothering to clean out the inner rooms, but the last time I was in there to clean I dropped Lalala's egg--and that ended in mild catastrophe, once the Thoughts found it. (Sprog hasn't quite been the same since her adventure with it, but Lalala is none the worse for wear--so far as I can tell, anyway!) With no new Dream eggs in the house, though, and especially none with the Katamari mutation... I don't really know why I'm postponing this except that I'm being profoundly lazy again. Resolved: I will go help the kids clean out the inner rooms once I'm done writing this journal entry.
So, what else has happened--oh! That's right; I found the strangest thing today, or I guess it found me, while I was not working on the book doing research. I'm not really sure what it IS, but it appears to be a leaf. A creepy, slightly possessed leaf that flits about under its own power. I'd considered pressing it, but Albedo started acting strange around it--the same kind of strange he acts about unhatched totems, which probably means it's...important, somehow. So I put it in a glass of water in the kitchen with good light, and I suppose we'll do some reading to find out what it might really be.
Actually, he threatened to kill me if I did anything stupid and thoughtless and feminine (thank you, Albedo) with it like press it. I'm not sure I'm ever going to get used to having a serial killer around the house--but at least I don't worry about burgalers anymore!
But as for the leaf...well, it's sitting next to me right now and if a leaf could look smug, I'd swear this one does. (Probably because it managed to get out of its cup of water and hitch a ride on my shirt back up to the study! Goodness.)
I think that's all I have to say for now. I'm going to go put it back in its water. I wonder if it will sprout--I don't know of any deciduous trees that start from single-leaf cuttings, but this is assuredly not an ordinary leaf...ahh well.
Signing off,
Cee
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 7:22 pm
The new baby is a what?
"What IS it?"
"It looks like a leaf!"
"I think it just moved."
"Eww, maybe there's bugs on it!"
"Dare you to touch it."
"No way! Entropy, YOU touch it!"
"No. Do you think I want Albedo to kill me? You guys have the death wish, you touch it."
The leaf had gained quite a following among Cee's children, owing in no small part to its having pride of place in the kitchen. Not a day went by that one or two or many of them didn't come downstairs to peer at it. So far nothing untoward had happened to the little bit of plant in its cup of water and puddle of sunlight, but some of that might have owed to Albedo's threat to eviscerate anyone who so much as looked at it wrong.
None of them as yet could figure out why their mad brother even cared, not even Entropy. Cee wasn't forthcoming on why he'd do such a thing, though she had chided him publicly for threatening his smaller siblings.
It didn't keep him from doing it, of course. He was just more careful about making sure the mistress of the household wasn't around before making his threats. As was the way with children, though, this only made them increasingly fascinated... Though no one was quite brave enough to touch it.
"Pff! What he doesn't know about can't hurt him! YOU'RE not gonna tell him, are you?"
"Yeah! Besides, it's not gonna hurt a silly old leaf if we just touch it!"
Entropy frowned from where he was carefully assembling a sandwich of monumental proportions at the island in the middle of the kitchen. Noumenon, Sprog, and Seraph had dragged a chair into the kitchen between the three of them, and Nou--the oldest of the eternal children--was perched precariously on top of it, stretched out so she could peer at the leaf from a distance of inches. Entropy was dreadfully certain that this was only going to end in disaster... But had no intention of doing anything about it, while he had a sandwich to make.
"No," he admitted in a whisper. His sandwich needed more pickle slices, and he slunk over to the silverware drawer to retrieve a fork. "But that's only because he'd rip off my wings if he was in a bad mood."
Sprog snickered, Nou stuck out her tongue, and Seraph rolled his eyes. "So if you're not gonna tell him, nobody will know if we DO touch it!"
"It moved again! I swear it did!" Nou declared ecstatically. Seraph ducked under the sweep of her tail, before scrambling up onto the chair himself. "Stupid! Bet it didn't; you're just crazy!"
"Am not! You're the stupid one!"
Entropy fished two slices of pickle out of the jar, layering them onto his sandwich. Over by the chair, Sprog had lost interest in idre siblings and begun batting around idre katamari absently. As if by magic, the sound of the sticky ball rolling about summoned another troublemaker to the kitchen, skittering across the tile on unsteady legs and waving her wings with excitement. "Roll roll roll!" Lalala shrieked, making Entropy fold back his ears in irritation.
The appearance of the weird naked Dream made Sprog start to attention, idre eyes widening at the sight of the feathery bundle charging at idre. "No! No rolling for you!" id stammered, grabbing idre katamari in both paws and backing up.
Right into the chair, already off-balance with two squabbling Mozou on top of it. It teetered for a moment, Seraph and Nou clinging to each other comically in sudden horror--then it went over all the way, accompanied by shrieks of terror from all three of the kittens. Someone's tail caught the glass with the leaf in it, sending it flying in a spray of water and a crash of shattering glass.
"Now you're going to get it," Entropy whispered, not looking up from stacking more pickles onto his sandwich.
Dead silence reigned in the kitchen. Lalala picked her way across the floor carefully, bypassing the pile of shocked Mozou to leap onto Sprog's katamari. "Roll roll roll, yes let's roll!" she shrilled, completely unaware of the terror that paralyzed the others. Three sets of eyes followed her as she began to dance back and forth on the katamari, rolling it toward the broken glass all over the floor.
Entropy screwed the cap on the pickle jar and reached over to catch the leaf as it drifted lazily down. "Sorry about that," he remarked to it, before setting it on a spare plate. It squiggled in place as if to say "no harm done", then settled down to immobility. The monster nudged the plate out into better light.
From the awkward pile of Mozou limbs, Noumenon whimpered. The sound was taken up by her siblings, until all three of them somehow managed to unknot themselves and flee with shrieks of unmitigated terror. Entropy picked up a knife and sliced his sandwich into neat quarters, before looking over to the kitchen entryway and raising a hand to wave absently to Albedo.
The pale Mozou narrowed his eyes at the leaf on the plate, Entropy, and Lalala, who had by now amassed most of the shards of the glass and was looking for more to add to her collection. He put one ear back, then the other, then took two steps into the kitchen and punted the katamari, Lalala and all, back out into the hall. Something outside shattered, accompanied by Lalala's overexcited shrieking.
"Sandwich?" Entropy asked in a whisper, turning around to offer a piece to his brother.
"Let me guess," Albedo said, voice somewhere between a laugh and a growl. "When the cat's away, the mice will play."
"Something like that. Sandwich?"
The pale Mozou blinked, shrugged, and ambled over to investigate Entropy's sandwichcrafting.
Punishment could wait.
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Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:03 am
Tyyne growled slightly. She had wanted to go to the next shop and buy the new edition of her favourite magazine, but no, she wasn't allowed to, she had to deliver Edens. Well not really, but the pot and such...
The Daisy Eden wasn't angry for long though as she put a flowerpot, a package of soil and a letter in front of the stranger's house. Silently she wondered if she was ever going to meet that Eden. A letter from Eden
Dear Cee,
I'm the manager of an institution called 'Eden Project' and I've been informed that you found one of our leaves a few days ago. This leaf isn't possessed, but still a bit freaky : A child will grow out of it. Please don't throw this letter away now, because I can give evidence for this fact. Please come and without our institution in Barton Town and I can show you some pictures and even living Edens, as we call them.
For the development of the child it's important to plant the leaf. I provided you with a special kind of soil and a flower pot.
Have a nice day
~Lena
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Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 2:03 am
And one to grow onTyyne's car had scarcely cleared the old house's driveway before Entropy poked his head out to investigate what all that had been about. None of Cee's children were social creatures (outside of their siblings) by any stretch of the imagination, and the Little Monster was not particularly fond of light, but he did have a curious streak a mile wide. People didn't often come up this way, and when they did, it was inevitably interesting.
Pots of dirt and mysterious notes were not his forte, though. The monster leaned forward to sniff at the clay pot cautiously, before reaching out to hook it and the rest of the package with one hand. Hauling it back inside, he shut the door behind him, then disappeared down the hall with a flick of his blue-tufted tail, leaving the pot on the mat just inside the door.
It sat there for a mere handful of minutes before another resident of the old house, drawn by the sound of the door opening and shutting, came to investigate. "Is someone there?" Mutamuta poked his head around the corner, peering into the entryway hall and seeing nothing whatsoever except an empty pot on the door mat. "Helloooo?" he called, then slid out into the hall, ears at full attention.
A moment later he was bounding over to the pot, satisfied it was the only other person there. "Hello, little plant!" he greeted it, before noticing that the pot was empty. "Aw, no little plant." His ears drooped, and he hunkered down to investigate the pot--by simple expedience of sticking his entire muzzle into it and snuffling noisily. Solanum chose that moment to walk into the entryway, taking one look at the scene before bursting into laughter.
Mutamuta pulled his muzzle out of the pot with a sticky pop, shooting the other Mozou a look. His webbed ears went back as he did, and he groused, "You'd do it, too." Somewhat guiltily, and decidedly crestfallen, he set the pot back on the doorstep.
"Such a ridiculous thing?" Solanum wiped the tears from idre eyes, still breathless. "I would not! What is that?"
As it was now the instrument of his embarassment, Mutamuta didn't want to talk about the pot. He shoved it behind him with one foot, plumes drooping. "Just a pot. There's nothing in it." After a moment of thought, he added in a mutter, "I guess there's a note on it."
It took Solanum a moment to decide how curious id wanted to be, and id finally arrived on "not very much". Id wasn't intentionally cruel, and knew Mutamuta tried very hard. "Mm," id said. "Well. I am making lunch; you should come and eat some, yes?" The olive, or holly, branch thus extended, id turned to return to the kitchen. After a moment, idre sibling followed, ears already perked up at the sound of lunch.
"What are we having?"
Chang-E was quick to escape from the kitchen table with lunch in the offing, clutching a crust of bread in one of his talons and looking for a place well away from the open chaos of mealtime. The pot provided a good perch, and he landed on the edge of it to enjoy his own snack, noticing as he did the note. Stuffing the bread into one corner of his beak, he craned his head, reading Lena's writing upside-down. The note explained a lot of things, and once Chang-E had puzzled out the message, he felt enlightened.
The Nightmare tossed his head back, catching the bread and swallowing it whole. He certainly couldn't plant the leaf, nor was he terribly interested in tempting its protector into another attempt at eating him, so he decided it best to go right to the person who could defy Albedo's certain wrath and plant the little bit of vegetation. Besides, Cee had taken the leaf with her on a walk, so it would need to be brought home to be planted, wouldn't it? He leaned down, peeling the note off the side of the pot and rolling it carefully into a tiny scroll. It fit neatly into one of his claws, quite secure as he launched himself and made for the nearest open window.
His Dreamer would be at the park. It wouldn't be hard to find her there and pass the message along.
+.+.+
"So this is really all we needed to do?" Cee sounded faintly disappointed as she gently buried the leaf in dirt.
The leaf in question wiggled self-importantly. It was perfectly happy to be the center of attention, and besides, it was finally getting what it had wanted all along! Though a little warm saltwater and some coral might have made things infinitely better, but it really had no idea why its guardian was sounding so blue when it was so happy!
From where he leaned against the counter, supervising, Albedo snorted. "Planting a leaf? Oh, it's only blindingly obvious, so of course you wouldn't notice," he retorted. And got a clot of dirt flung at his head for his troubles. "That was mature."
Cee huffed, moving the pot into better light nearer the window. "I was just expecting something more dramatic, that's all! I mean, souls trapped in leaves and crazy things like that, and all you have to do is plant them?" She gave the pot a wistful look. "Maybe when it hatches..."
Albedo's noise of disgust eloquently summed up his thoughts on that, but it didn't keep him from putting them into words: "Always looking for novelty, woman? You really have the brain of a gnat."
He was out of the kitchen before the next clot of dirt could hit him, laughing all the way down the hall.
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Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:47 pm
Halo of light (Diary Entry - Cee)
It's been a long time since I've written, and I'm sorry for that. It's been really busy--busier than I'd ever imagine, and troublesome, too. If only we could go back to the days where all I had to worry about was White and Black running off on me--!
I guess there's no use in wishing, though. They're gone, and Jenner is, too, as far as I can tell...and it's mostly my fault. Indigo seems to know that, and Jenner's other pets have all taken off before I could even get a decent inventory of them...I wish saying sorry would make it up to them, but it doesn't, it can't...I'm such a horrible person.
This doesn't really explain anything, though, so...I guess I should start at the beginning.
Maybe--two weeks ago, though I'm hardly sure on the date, Mutamuta called me out back to see something behind the house. I couldn't really tell what it was at first, but it proved to be a rift like the one that got us all to Gaia in the first place. I, being an idiot, decided the best thing to do would be to go through it (I suppose you could say I'm homesick, a little); Chang-E only managed to convince me to let him come along by actually going with me.
What was on the other side wasn't home, though, not by any stretch of the imagination. Unless "home" has changed an awful lot since I left--the place was a blasted wasteland, complete with radioactive glow on the horizon. It seemed safe enough, I guess--there wasn't anyone there to make things really dangerous, and neither Chang-E nor I saw so much as a bug in the first couple of miles we walked. That was... That was until we ran into the Walkers.
It's...hard...to describe what happened after that. I guess the best way to put it is that the Walkers--the Walkers in the Waste, or the Bonethieves, or the Fishspeakers; they're called a lot of things--steal bodies. If they see something or someone they like, they--take it, or parts of it, and add to their own bodies. They're--awful things, monsters, worse than anything I've ever seen or thought up myself. They'd seen dead things, before, but never a dead thing that could still walk about, so I suppose they were fascinated with me, and-- Chang-E got away from them in time to go back and tell the others what was going on, but they took me and--exchanged with me, was the way they tried to explain it. A horrible sort of explanation, forcing things into my mind--whatever, however they ended up taking my memories of what they did, or altering them, they broke the bloodbond with Jenner. Or maybe it was broken when I first stepped into the Waste; time there doesn't run like it does on Gaia, and...it's like a bad dream, with all the events mixed up and muddled over.
I think I'd still be there if it hadn't been for Aureole. My brain is so full of holes and scrambled I'm not sure where she came from, or if I'd found her egg and brought it into the Waste with me, or if she somehow came from that place, but--I've attached a picture of her. She's a Dream, a mutant like Chang-E--somehow, her magic, or if it can be called magic, stops other magics from working. She found me unaware of my surroundings and managed to break the Walkers' hold, before leading me back to the rift behind the Old House. She--couldn't take away the gills, though, or the extra eyes, though those seem to have...not receded, they're still there and I can still use them, but they're not as obvious now that I've been in Gaia for a while.
I'm sorry; I'm carrying on about things I don't even really understand myself. It was like a nightmare, the way all the parts run together and blur into a mess in my mind, so I'm not even sure what happened except for what Aureole and Chang-E have told me.
Albedo seemed frightfully relieved to have me back in one piece. I think it's the only time I've ever seen him afraid of something, though I suppose I knew he was...capable. It's in his make, but it's still scary to me to see it. Of course he tried to kill just about anyone he could conceivably blame for me going out there, but Chang-E is smarter and Mutamuta more resilient than to get caught easily.
Entropy's sitting under my desk as I write this, the poor dear. I've been trying to get him to go play with Indigo and her dragon to try and bring them a little more into the family, but he doesn't seem much inclined to leave my side, and she...I'm sure she blames me for what happened to her mother.
In...lighter news, I guess, we finally found out what the strange leaf was! We got a note from a group calling themselves the Eden Project. Apparently, the leaf has the soul of an animal (or plant, but we're pretty sure here that this leaf has the soul of an animal) that was sealed up in the Great Tree when the Garden of Eden was destroyed by fire. I know, it's not theology the way I learned it, but it's a charming story. We planted the leaf and we'll just have to see what comes of it when it grows up.
I named it--her--Kaimana based on some of the rambling Albedo was doing before I walked into the Wastes. It seems appropriate, since he was going on an awful lot about oceans and waves--Kaimana is "power of the ocean" in Hawaiian. She's become his pet project even more than ever now; I guess it's his way of pretending he wasn't actually upset about the disorder in the house. That, and teasing Citrine to see if she lives up to her name--I swear...
Ah well. We'll just see what tomorrow brings, yeah?
--Cee
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Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:29 am
A smile for Kaimana(This was part of the Eden Project metaplot.)Coronaviridae Cee hesitated to call what she was doing "walking the leaf" because it sounded silly, but then, life had been turned on its ear and many things seemed a little silly after her encounter with the Walkers. She was still shaken by the whole thing, not to mention the sudden disconnect from Jenner...but taking her new baby leaf out for walks, now that they knew what it was, seemed to calm her nerves somewhat. The dead woman idylled through Barton West Field, wandering down the path in the general direction of the gazebo. It was a nice day, and while it had been going crazy before, the little green leaf tucked in one of Cee's buttonholes seemed quiescent now. As she walked, Cee murmured to it, telling it about the day's conditions, the people they passed... After all, talking worked with infants, didn't it? Ithiltari Elena sat on a park bench near the path, book spread across her lap, although she was really watching as Isilya and Capri played with each other on the ground below. "Watch it," the girl snapped, her temper already short as they tumbled across her feet. Marking her place with her finger, Elena bent over to seperate the kirin and the cat creature. "Where's Cer at anyway?" she asked, looking around for the older E-mouse who was supposed to be watching her and the younger pets. While looking around, she saw a woman who was obviously dead - this didn't particularly bother her, as Gaia was, if not filled with such, at least had a healthy representation of the undead types. What gave the Tall Tale pause was the fact that this woman was quite clearly talking to a leaf. She wasn't going to say anything to someone who was certainly crazed; she was talking to a leaf and Elena didn't know of anything that could come from a leaf. That decision was taken out of her hands as Isilya ran across the path and stopped in the middle of it, looking at Elena mischeviously and without any care for her imminent danger. Coronaviridae Assuming that Cee was crazy was probably not too far off the mark, though to be fair, talking to the leaf wasn't her at her craziest. She was in the middle of a narrative about the gazebo when Isilya zipped out underfoot, making the dead woman draw up short. "Oh, hello there," she said, no longer talking to her, err, leaf. "Where did you come from?" She hunkered down to be on a level with the creature, reddened eyes curious. The leaf at her collar twitched as if waving. Ithiltari Isilya chirped curiously at Cee, cocking her head to the side and flapping her wings in greeting. "Sorry about that," Elena said coming over to kneel next to Cee and Isilya. "She doesn't normally run away from me," the girl explained. Usually, she would have offered a smile to try and win Cee over, but really, she didn't feel like smiling. Eyes narrowed thoughtfully, Elena glanced at the leaf. Had she seen that thing move on it's own? Couldn't have, it must have moved when Isilya flapped her wings. Right? Coronaviridae "Oh, it's all right!" Cee hurried to explain, smiling up at the girl. "I've got troublemakers of my own at home; honestly, they've done a lot worse than running off to talk to strangers!" Albedo, for example, was notorious about being the stranger most mothers warned their children about. Getting up from her crouch, Cee looked down and dusted her knees off, then looked up again and offered Elena a hand in greeting. "I'm Cee, by the way, and this," she indicated the leaf, "--err, well, this is the leaf. We're calling her Kaimana for now. Uh, me and the kids that is--I know this will sound crazy, but apparently she's going to turn into a kid one of these days." The zombie gave a nervous sort of laugh. "--oh, and sorry if my hands are cold, uh--dead, and all. I don't eat brains, though!" The leaf gave another little wiggle as it was introduced, before doubling up and appearing to pull itself out of the buttonhole it had been stuck in. Ithiltari Elena looked relieved at the woman's statement, standing up as well, although she didn't bother dusting off her long skirt. "Um, well, that's good, I guess," she added with a little laugh, still unsure about this woman and her strange leaf. Isilya had no such problems, and chirped again, scooting closer to Cee in a clear attempt for petting. "I'm Elena," the Tale replied, dropping a curtsy before shaking Cee's hand, grimicing a little at the clammy cold of her hand. "That's Isilya in front of you, and Capri's," Elena's statement was cut off as the little cat-like creature darted between her legs, poofing the skirt up. "Right there," she finished, smoothing her skirt back down. Elena cocked her head to the side as Cee explained the leaf. "Well, then, hello Kaimana?" Elena said, still looking dubious and privately quite sure that the woman was completely bonkers and soon enough the nice people from the mental institution were going to come and take her back. Especially since she was dead. Well, that made sense. "How can you be dead and still walking around?" Elena asked curiously, not having heard of zombies...or realizing that the vampires who lived in the house were technically dead as well. And then the leaf moved of it's own volition and Elena jumped back a bit, startled. "Does it do that a lot?" she asked, holding a hand to her chest in a somewhat silly attempt to calm down. Coronaviridae Having freed itself--herself?--of the buttonhole, the leaf gave another gleeful squiggle before squirming off of Cee's shirt and fluttering toward Elena. As the dead woman was leaning over to give Isilya the requested petting, she didn't immediately notice her "child" running away. "Oh! It's...well, uhm. Sort of a long story and a little embarassing, since I really wouldn't be dead if I weren't being stupid last Halloween. Uh, I'm--well, a zombie basically--aww, who's a cute little ki-rin?" The last was directed at Isilya, before Cee straightened up to look at Elena again. "And--oh, not again!" She took a hurried step forward, reaching out to try and catch her wayward leaf. The leaf, on the other hand, steadfastly refused to be caught, slipping between Cee's fingers and forcing the woman to juggle it. "Oh--all the time, she was really--erm--hey! Don't do that, come back here!" Squirting between its guardian's fingers once more, the leaf gave another noble lunge toward Elena, only to get captured between Cee's two hands. "--gotcha!" The leaf managed to poke a tip out from between two of Cee's fingers, wiggling in a decidedly sassy manner. "Don't you take that tone with me, young lady," the zombie told it, struggling to keep a straight face. Ithiltari Elena kept a perfectly straight face at this somewhat nonsensical explanation - she hadn't left the House on Halloween, and the zombification of large portions of Gaia's population wasn't exactly a topic of dinnertime conversation. Isilya, however, was paying very close attention to Cee and arched her back to meet the woman's hand, chrring happily at the compliment. Well, darn, no petting. Isilya quit her noise making and went to hide underneath Elena's skirt, poking her head out to watch as the zombie tried to catch a leaf. Elena watched as well, entirely taken aback. Right, that was decidedly not something leaves were supposed to do, and if the people from the nut house did eventually show up, the fact that it was waving and trying to escape would surely keep her out. "I hope mum never gets a leaf like that," Elena murmured, blinking in surprise as Kaimana wiggled at her. "Um, did you name the leaf? And how do you know it's a girl?" Elena asked, trying to think if she'd ever been an inanimate (well, not that Kaimana was inanimate, but the idea was the same) object. She didn't think so; mum said she'd come from a book, which was an inanimate object, but it wasn't like she'd been the book or anything. Arya had been a glass shard though, the thought of her sister making Elena wrinkle her nose unhappily. Coronaviridae Once more, the leaf began working her way toward freedom, though in much smaller spurts now that Cee was watching. For her part, the zombie eyed her handsful of disobedient vegetation for several seconds, before looking up at Elena and offering a relieved smile. "It's a little crazy, I admit. I think I like it a little better than having my kids pop out of books or gems or--well." She smiled a little sheepishly. "Totems. Not that I don't love them still the same, but the leaf is living--oh! I did. I, uhm." Now her expression was a little guilty, her eyes straying away from Elena's face. "It's sort of a long story, but Albedo--one of my other children... He's got a feel for these things." As if the mention of the insane Mozou had been some sort of sign, a dark, winged shadow flickered low across the path, before swooping up to perch unannounced on Cee's shoulder. "But trusting him with these things? You should not be," Chang-E croaked, rustling a wing and eyeing Elena thoughtfully. "New friends?" "Oh! Yes--well, I guess." Cee glanced sidelong at the Nightmare, before smiling at Elena and her companions once more. "Elena, this is Chang-E--Chang-E, Elena and Isilya, I think it was." As she gestured to each of the named people in turn, her leaf took the opportunity to leap from her hands once more, making a determined--er--flutter for Elena. Ithiltari Hey, she knew someone who had come from a book. "I came from a book," Elena offered during a slight pause in Cee's speech. Maybe this other person who'd come from a book was a Tall Tale too. That thought brightened Elena's disposition a bit. Meeting Tales was...interesting, to say the least. About to ask if Cee knew a Tale, and mostly ignoring the bit about totems, whatever they were, Elena didn't even get a chance to open her mouth before Chang-E showed up. Elena curtsied to Chang-E, wondering if Olorin, who looked slightly similar in a general sort of 'oh, they're probably the same species' sort of way, would ever be that big. "Yup," she said in confirmation of Cee's guess at the name. "It's nice to meet you," the girl said before attempting to catch the leaf. "There she goes again," Elena said in a belated warning. Coronaviridae "Oh!" Cee clapped a hand to her forehead, the very picture of embarassment. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean--it's just that...oh, it's a long story." She stammered to a stop, rubbing at her face with her free hand. Chang-E snorted at his dreamer's behavior, ducking across her shoulders to avoid getting a faceful of forearm. "A grandchild, my dreamer has, who came from a book," the Nightmare explained--then paused to watch the curtsy with undisguised, if mild, amusement. "To meet you as well, it is good." The leaf's daring escape got a more open look of amusement, one that turned into a low, grating chuckle as Cee slapped her other hand to her face. "Oh, I give up!" she declared. "I guess this means she likes you!" Indeed, it did seem like the leaf had taken a liking to Elena, as it pointedly made itself easier to catch for the Tale. And appeared to do the plantlike version of a victory dance at its achievement. Ithiltari "That's okay," Elena said reassuringly to Cee. "I've been told that there are a lot, well, not a lot, but quite a few other kids who have come from the same book," she continued, trailing off while she tried to figure out what the point was of that particular statement. Elena caught the leaf, rather more easily than any of Cee's attempts and gave it a small, rather smug, smile. "At least you have good taste," she said in a lighter, more teasing tone. Coronaviridae "Oh," the dead woman said, a little muzzily. "Maybe you've met him then?" For some reason, this mention of her "grandchild" caused her to look startlingly guilty, then shuffle and glance away. Elena's comment to the leaf made her look back, though, and smile herself. "I know, I'm such a spaz. Somebody calmer must be a relief." The leaf gave an almost-shrug at this comment, before wiggling cheerily at Elena. Oh, she smiled! That seemed to make it, if anything, happier. Chang-E cleared his throat after a moment, a startlingly loud sound from such a small creature. "To interrupt, I hate, but a message for my Dreamer, I have." He raised a claw, displaying the rolled-up note clutched in his talons. "Back home, we will, probably, go." Cee blinked, reaching up to retrieve the note from her Nightmare--he relinquished it willingly--and unfurled it to read. Chang-E snorted and bit her on the ear in response. "Ow! What--" "Attention to your company, you should pay, Dreamer." Ithiltari "I might have," Elena said noncommitally, privately sure she'd never run across this woman's grandson. Then again, Tales didn't exactly resemble their parents or other relatives, so who knew. With a mental shrug dismissing the matter, Elena looked startled when Chang-E spoke. "I should probably be going home as well," Elena said as a cell phone began to ring, the noise coming from the bag she'd left on the bench. "That's probably my mum calling to remind me," she added with an eyeroll. "I'll have to see you again once you've come out from your leaf," Elena said to Kai with another smile as she opened her hand to let Kai flutter her way back to Cee (or whatever), while making a mental note to never allow her mum to find a leaf such as this. Coronaviridae "Owww," Cee whined, rubbing at her offended ear. Chang-E merely gave a bob of his head to Elena as she turned to pay attention to her cell phone. "Keep in touch, we will, if lose her mind, my dreamer does not-- again." Despite the harshness of the Nightmare's voice, there was something fond in it as he rested one of his multitude of wings on Cee's head. "Care you should take, on your way home." Cee snapped out of her moment of petulant hurt, mustering up another smile for Elena--and leaning far forward to catch the leaf as Kaimana made her triumphant return. "All right! It was very nice talking to you and the others; take care of yourself on your way home, okay?" Even as she echoed her Nightmare's words without really thinking about it, Cee busied herself with tucking the leaf back in a buttonhole for the ride back home, safe and sound. And hopefully not likely to jump at anyone again.
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Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 3:28 am
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:36 am
Well, leaves don't stay leaves forever at the Eden project. However, if sprouting is part of turning into a child, that you're not so sure. Whenever you next check on Kaimana's leaf, you will notice that a few feathery shoots have begun sprouting at the base of the leaf, where it meets the soil. The leaf seems agitated.
Maybe you've done something wrong?
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Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 1:44 pm
Oh no, I broke it!
"Something's wrong with the leaf!"
Though it had been more than a year since the strange vegetative visitor had arrived in their household, the leaf was still the subject of a lot of curiosity among Cee's children.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 11:40 am
As you watch, the feathery bits grow upwards and turn brilliant colors. The leaf itself curls up upon itself and appears to bubble for a moment as it turns orange, and then begins to swell. There is a gurgling noise and a salty smell coming from somewhere.
Before you can take cover, a tower of briny water and steam erupts from the leaf, soaks the ceiling, and rains down on you. When the fog clears, a giggling, salty, wet toddler sits in the center of the cracked pot, seemingly overjoyed with the commotion she has created.
Well, she certainly took her time, but she really knows how to make an entrance!
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