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 Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 7:25 pm
[ f i n d i n g ]The Finding (transcription in progress)
Participants: Kay, Elina, Taylor and Diacyn
---
A day later, after two of the other wands had been found and claimed, Coailiann was yet again stuck behind the desk while her mother was out of realm taking care of her elder sister.
Really, four wands at once really took a toll on the Ancient and Coailiann didn't blame her much, either. Having one piece of her soul had to be bad, but four at once?
That couldn't have been good.
Still, Kay was incredibly bored and had taken to trying to open the giant book. It didn't work very well.
---
Elina was fiddling with her messenger bag while walking on the crowded street, not paying attention to where she was going. Where was that darn notepad... Aha! Grinning as she brought it out, the dark-haired girl paused, did she take a wrong turn?
Glancing around her, Elina did a full circle and groaned. Just great... She had no idea where she was! Chewing on her lip, she walked a bit further and paused before a shop. It peeked her curiosity for some strange reason, and of course she was unable to supress the urge to check it out.
Stepping into the shop, Elina looked for anyone inside. Tentively, she called out, "Hello...?" Walking in further, she caught sight of a door. Now just where did that lead to? Tugging on it, she opened the door and poked her head in, calling out again, though softer this time, "Anyone here?" Maybe she shouldn't have intruded...
---
"For the eighty-seventh time, no. You can't have a sword!"
"But Iamel's getting me ninja stars for Christmas... why can't I get a sword too?"
"Because I said NO! I don't care if you're nearly as old as I am, I'm still your mother and I don't want you waving dangerous pointy things around."
The first speaker was a young girl, around 19, with a loud, sharp voice, pale features, and shaggy brown hair. She was wearing a grey hoodie and clutching an enormous pile of textbooks. The second one, who was still muttering about swords under his breath, was a muscular, bald teenager with tribal tattoos and snowy white wings. These were Taylor and Diacyn, and they made a strange sight walking down the sidewalk, arguing at the top of their lungs.
"Ooh! What's this?" Diacyn's golden eyes went wide as he spotted a sign: The Wand Shoppe. "Wands?"
"What, like magic wands?" Taylor raised an eyebrow, her voice distainful. "That's dumb."
"I want to look," Diacyn muttered, stepping past her and striding boldly into the store. Taylor sighed, rolled her eyes, and followed her adoptive "son" into the room.
It was dull and dusty inside, not the bright, sparkly, glitter-laden fiasco she'd imagined when she'd seen the sign. In fact, the place was on the verge of falling apart. And it seemed empty.
Wait- no, there was another girl there too. Taylor gave her a smile before looking around the shop, her nose wrinkled in disgust. "What's the deal with this place, anyway?"
---
"I'm here!" Kay called. Goodie! Boredom would be alleviated and she could finally stop trying to do the impossible and open the book when she wasn't a guardian or her mother.
And ahh... a second person? Well, this would make her job so much easier! They both had to be guardians. Nobody ELSE came in the shop, lately. Now, the question was which was which and how would she...Oh. Wait. There were three people in there?
Great. Make her job harder!
"The deal? It's just my mom's shop." To play a bit or get to the point? Well, it was always amusing to see people's reactions.
"Do you like books?" It was a general question, to all three.
---
Loud voices suddenly caught Elina's attention. Turning, her gaze fell upon an odd pair entering the shop. They sure were noisy... And different. Though being different didn't surprise Elina as much. Gaia was a diverse place.
But when another voice voice spoke out, Elina looked back. "Oh!" she squeaked, surprised that someone was actually in the shop. Making room, Elina scooted to the side next to the pale girl and winged boy. There was something different about the shop... But what she couldn't quite figure out, exactly. And the child only made her question the oddness of the shop even more.
At the question, the bespeckled girl grinned. "Oh I love books!" she said, her hands clutching the notepad to her chest. The child was so cute! "What's your name?" Elina inquired, always wearing a smile.
---
"Your mom runs a magic wand shop?" Taylor muttered, casting another glance around the dusty corners. "Okay then. What's she doing leaving you here alone?"
But the girl's next question made her smile. "Books? What do you think?" she said, nodding towards the pile in her arms. "Can't seem to get away from them, really."
"Books are for wimps," Diacyn growled, rummaging among the shelves. There was a loud crash as he knocked a pile of boxes to the floor. The winged boy shrugged and ignored the mess. "No point in reading, really. What's in here?" He started to open a box but stopped as Taylor shot him an icy glare.
---
"She's taking care of my sister," Coailiann said, leaving out the fact that her sister's soul had been ripped apart. They didn't need to know that, "So she left me in charge."
The girl hopped off her stool and went over to them, sending a glare over toward Diacyn when he knocked over wands. Now SHE had to pick them up? Harumphing she picked the dusty boxes up and put them on the highest shelf she could reach.
Coailiann really did NOT look her age and she hated it. Way too short for her liking, in any case. "Just stuff."
After she had finished the sidhe turned to look at Elina, "My name is Coailiann, but you can call me Kay. Everyone else does." Now it was up to her to figure out which would touch the book first. Considering Elina seemed more excited and easily swayed, she turned on the charm, "Can you come look at my big book over here?"
---
It took Elina all of her willpower not to say something to Diacyn as he knocked down some books. Precious books, how dare he! But she kept silent, seething as her smile faded. Oh yes, she thought there was nothing better than a nice thick book and a comfy place to read it. And anyone who thought differently obviously knew nothing.
Elina's anger soon melted away though as Coailiann introduced herself. "Oh well it's a pleasure to meet you Kay," she returned, a smile creeping back onto her bright face. "Of course, I'd love to!" Elina said, glancing at the book Kay mentioned. Wow, it was awfully big!
---
Diacyn returned "Kay's" glare with equal force. As the young girl placed the boxes back on the shelf, he took them right off and put them as high as he could reach. Take that! This, unfortunately, was only one shelf higher then Kay could reach, but it was the thought that counted. He remained oblivious to Elina's angry looks- he got enough of those at home from Taylor, so he was good at ignoring them.
"Hello, Kay," Taylor said, shifting her grip on her pile 'o' books so she could look over Elina's shoulder at the larger tome. "Cool. What's it about?"
---
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Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 10:24 am
[ w r i t i n g ]Back home. It was funny how Taylor was starting to think of her dorm room, that cube of concrete no larger then a closet, as more of a home then her parent's house had ever been. There had been nothing for her at that house, nothing but dull stares and vague nods along the lines of "yes, that's really great that you won the science fair, now will you please stop reading and get some actual work done?"
And there had been Liam. He'd been the smart one. He'd run. She didn't know where. Nobody did... but she wished she did. She missed his stupid infectious smile and the way he played guitar upside-down on the couch and-
But that was then. And this was now. Now, curled up in her computer chair with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders to ward off the sharp autumn wind from the open window, with all her math homework finished, with Diacyn snoring softly in the corner, the TV still playing "The Seven Samurai" with the sound off...
And this long sharp pointy thing lying on the desk next to her.
This whole thing was making her head hurt. Shaking her head slightly, she opened her laptop, pulled up the word processor, and started to type. She had never been much for the whole diary thing, but this certainly was a time to start.
There were a few false starts.Taylor
Dear diary
journal
computer
bits and bytes
invisible nonexistent person who I am suddenly writing to for no apparent reason
diary,
Damn. I've got a wand. Thing. With a kid in it, apparently. Patrick's got one, and now it's a fox guy who dresses like a girl... at least, that's what Diacyn told me. This thing....
It's going to turn into a vampire. A "psionic vampire," if that freaky book was right. I don't even know what that IS.
Then again, I don't know what Diacyn is either, and he's here. And I love tolerate him enough. He likes this wand thing, too. He thinks it's a sword. It took me ten minutes just to get it of his hands. Maybe he'll like the kid just as much, if I'm lucky.
But damn. A kid. I can't have kids. Nobody has kids this young and still gets through college. I'm doomed.
On the plus side, at least I didn't have any the normal way. That would suck. It would hurt, too, I think.
This thing has bloodstains on the point and it looks dangerous and it's really ******** scaring me and I don't know what to do I think I can handle this.
Sighing, she jammed Backspace until all her ramblings vanished, then closed the laptop and ran her fingers gingerly over the sharp steel of the wand. She stopped suddenly with a sharp gasp as it bit into her skin, drawing beads of bright blood. Her swear was only muffled by her popping the injured finger into her mouth.
"I hope you're happy, vampire thing," she murmured to it around her finger. So many questions. Did it even like blood? What did it eat? Was it going to be nice? Was she going to keep cutting herself on it? Damn, damn, damn.
The wand was placed softly on top of a chemistry book. Her mind still whirring, Taylor wrapped herself up in the blanked and finally drifted off to sleep. One final thought still hovered in her mind.
I wonder what Liam would think of all this...
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Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 10:25 am
[ m e t a p l o t ]
So it begins...
No, I'm not transcribing this whole damn thing. >.<
Basically, important stuff regarding Taylor and Ako: Ako's wand turned out to be a very effective weapon, but it didn't stop Taylor from getting a shadow-whip to the ankle and a pretty bad wound. And she met Rouge, who promised to take her to an interplanetary spa after the whole thing was over. And. Um. Yeah.
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Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 2:17 pm
[ r o l e p l a y ]Spa Trip (transcription in progress)
Participants: Taylor and Ako, Rouge ([Dg]), Shira (w.a.s.t.e.d e.n.t.i.t.y)
---
Rouge was quite glad to be back on Gaia, safe and pretty much unharmed. The woman practically fell on her face when she returned to the currently desserted wand shop.
But now, the blonde had a promise to keep. While in the realm of In Between she had made a promise to Taylor and Shira. She had promised to take the two to Gamacon so the three could have a nice spa day. And it was well deserved. They'd lived through that experience hadn't they? Even if they hadn't completely deserved it the woman had promised and she would keep that promise.
The two rather shaken females were standing together when Rouge walked over. Softly she smiled. "Come with me. I have to call Steve to let him know that the crew won't be going on routine business again for a while and that we're taking a trip to Gamacon, but other then that we're ready to go. You don't really need to take anything with you." Rouge hoped that was so anyway. The two may not want to go to the foreign spa after their experience with the last other world they were in.
---
It wasn't too ago since Shira and the others had been sucked into the world known as the In Between. Their "adventure" was finally over, them being able to escape from the world of the spirits back to Gaia.
She felt like kissing the ground.
Well, if it had been less dusty anyways...
"G...Gamacon?" Shira recalled their conversation they had earlier in their troubles, something about spas and other worlds...It never really ended did it? But she couldn't completly deny a good pampering, and to another place compeletly out of these bounds no less. How many times was her logic going to be proven long?
Shira laughed a little shakily. "That...s-should be nice." She let out a breath. "Wait...crew?" Shira didn't really know to much about Rouge, regardless of what they had went through. "You have a crew?"
---
Rouge turned back to Shira, raising a brow. "I take it I didn't tell you. Yes I have a crew. I am the Captain of the spaceship the Samadueanna. We're space pirates-or rather, what our world calls space pirates-This realm deems pirates as theives and bandits who travel through space or the high seas. Which is very off of our definition of space pirate. But anyway, that is another matter."
With a grin she explained more. "Recently our ship crashed and had to be repaired. So we've all been stuck on various worlds-I've been here. The ship was just repaired and sad as we were to leave our now comfortable positions we'd taken up on those different worlds we were going to reunite and set off once again. However, I can't captain properly after an experience like this without taking some serious rehabilitation time-which for us is going to a spa- therefore we can all go back to being on holiday and we're going to a spa."
Now out of danger Rouge was free to ramble as she pleased. Which was a lot.
---
Taylor's poor mind, still rattled from the excursion, took a few moments to wrap around the words.
"Space pirates?... wait, SPACE? As in outer space?"
It was going to take more then a spa to reassemble her temporarily broken sanity, but she was willing to try. "Is this that spa that you were talking about? Is it... safe?"
She gasped suddenly, her throbbing ankle giving way, and she found herself leaning heavily against the wall. "And can they fix this?"
Sure, she was talking a lot now, and her conversation had resumed its normal plethora of question marks. Things were normal. Hopefully. But she couldn't quite stop staring at the walls and floors to make sure no shadows were going to ooze out of them.
---
"Yes. Space pirates. Yes outerspace. It's a planet spa. Yes it's safe and yes they can fix that and your sanity. And yes they have cucumbers." she answered before the woman could ask again. "As long as you two are ready to go we can head out."
---
"Cucumbers! ALL RIGHT!" Taylor thrust a fist in the air (luckily, it was not the one holding Ako's deadly-sharp wand o' doom). "Let's do this!"
"I've always wanted to go to space," she mumbled quietly to herself, blinking away some of the threads of stress-induced hysteria that laced her mind. "This is going to be cool... you ready?" she added to Shira.
---
Shira guessed that things weren't gonna get any worse- or at least any stranger- than things already were. Hell, if she could take the shock of wandering into a completly different universe and evil soul-eating shadows, then she could certainly handle a simple travel through space right?
....Maybe.
"Space Pirates..." She attempted to look slightly cheerful, gaze aimed at the ground and a hand brushing her bangs out of her eyes. "Well, no doubt they've got some pretty hi-tech stuff going on up there or something right?" She muttered to herself. "The spa's gotta be a whole lot better than here right?" Anybody watching her would've deemed her slightly crazy for talking to her self this much. Though it's not like it was unreasonable.
She started to get a little excited, almost forgetting her previous troubles. "Hell, a vacation! In space no less!" She turned towards Taylor and nodded. "Let's do this!"
---
Rouge smiled. "Then this way." she said, turning and walking outside.
A small silver object the size of a compact car was in front of the building. It looked rather like a giant silver egg. Reaching up the woman pressed a small button on her collar and the top of the egg opened from it's seemless closed position.
The front had a strange control panel on it and then a large high backed plush seat with tanned leather covering it directly in the middle of the forward area. This was obviously where the person flying the creation sat. Behind that was a circular area with plush bench/booth like seats that all connected so it looked like a giant plush donut that you sat in and put your feet in the middle of. The contraption looked rather comfortable actually.
A door opened up next to the driver's seat and part of the 'bench' seat from the back also opened out. Obviously these were the way into the vehicle.
"Get in. This will get us to Gamacon." Rouge said calmly. She'd been doing this for years so it wasn't a big deal for her.
---
"Well, I've never been to a spa here, so I suppose I won't appreciate the difference," Taylor said, shruging slightly. She was not the type for cucumbers on the eyes and polish on the fingernails, but in a situation like this, she'd go for anything. And a spa was a lot better then a shop full o' demons.
"So how far away is this? How do we get around light speed? ...am I asking too many questions?" she added, remember Rouge's quick dismissal of her earlier queries. "Oh, never mind. TO SPACE!" She slid into the seat, gazing with wide eyes at the technology surrounding her. Her ankle was propped up in the center of the donut, her mind completely off her troubles. This was incredible.
If only she could take notes...
---
Shira stared at the ship incredulously. It took a few seconds for everthing to register before saying anything.
"Hoooooly s**t." She walked up to the craft, not exactly entering yet since Rouge wasn't inside, but she stuck her head in and looked around at the gadgets and seats.
"This is Amazing!" She turned back towards Rouge. "And this is yours? How far are we going in this thing?" Slight excitement was edged in her voice.
---
Rouge, smirked. "Yes it's mine. And we'll be going over 300 billion light years from here. But I know a lot of shortcuts so it won't take too long. Go ahead and take a seat in the back section. There are little comparments that have refreshments and random other stuff in there. I think I left a notepad or two in the back there in case you guys want to play a game or two while we ride."
After Shira and Taylor were in and situated she got in. These types of transports didn't require seatbelts so they were fine just as they were. And in a few moments the 3 were off. It'd take about an hour to get where they were going so till then they were free to get to know eachother and whatnot.
---
Shira had been amazed at the simple thought of going somewhere in space- much less somewhere lightyears away! But she had been a little scared as well. Her jitters increased as they climbed inside the small craft, though she didn't let it show too much.
She rubbed her poorly bandaged hands in a nervous jesture as they boarded and was soon well on their way. Shira bounced on the seats lightly and stared out into the inky blackness for a bit. She was abnormaly silent for a time, before getting up and looking through compartments for drinks.
"Thirsty?" She directed the question to no one in particular.
---
Taylor was already rummaging in the back before the ship lifted off. Finally she emerged triumphant, a pencil in one hand, a notebook in the other. The lead skidded across the paper, scribbling out hasty notes like "300 billion?" and "shortcuts- possibly wormholes?" It was a few seconds before she remembered that there were other people in the ship.
"Erm.. sure," she said to Shira. "What do they have?"
She figured she had better start up some kind of conversation with her sudden companions as well. "So... how did you guys find the Headquarters?" she asked slowly. "Do you have dead people wands too?"
---
"No I just wandered in by accident. Though I do wish that I had one of the 'dead people wands'" Rouge said, turning around. She'd set the computer on auto-pilot for a little bit. She wouldn't have to fly till they'd both broken this planet's atmosphere and gotten at least a bit closer to her first shortcut.
Leaning over she looked at Taylor's notes. "And no, worm holes are a bit too unstable I prefer chinchi holes." the woman teased. Then, realizing they'd never been to outerspace before she added "And don't panic. It's on autopilot for a few."
Thinking again she decided she too wanted a drink. "Sure, I'm sure I have something from Gaia there to drink. I have pepsi in there I know that. That stuff rules."
Randomly the woman wondered if-now that she was blonde again and in color- she would still look good with a perm.
---
"Chinchi holes. Right." Taylor gave up on the notes for a minute. "Autopilot? Goood." Her heart had skipped a few beats when Rouge turned away from the controls.
"And a Pepsi sounds good," she added, closing the notebook. "And trust me. You don't want a dead person wand."
She looked down at her own wand, which she had mindlessly brought along on the trip. "If they do what they're supposed to, this thing's going to turn into a baby. A psychic vampire baby. And I hate kids!" She frowned angrily at the wand. "I didn't plan to get this thing. It just happened."
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:18 am
Oh, holy crap.
Taylor was not in her happy place. In fact, she was so far from her happy place that, had it been a location on an actual planet, she would have circumnavigated the globe a few times in the process of being dragged away from it.
Damn it. Damn it all. She didn't want this. She was a biologist, for crying out loud! A biologist in training. Somebody normal. She was not a mother, and she certainly was not a fighter. Not an explorer of other dimensions.
People were DEAD. People had died, she could have died, and instead she'd been whisked away to a spa on another planet, and now she was back at home and things were supposed to be normal and she just. couldn't. TAKE IT.
"s**t!" she yelled suddenly, slamming the top of her laptop shut with nearly enough force to fracture the screen. She'd been typing. Or surfing the net. Or something, she couldn't really remember. "s**t s**t s**t!" Uncreative, but effective.
Fuming, she grabbed the stupid pointy wand lying next to her, jammed it an inch into the drywall, shouted "Get that stupid thing out of the house!" to nobody in particular, and stormed out.
Why couldn't things make sense anymore? She used to pride herself on being able to reason through any math problem or chemistry lab, but she couldn't make heads or tails of the mess her life was turning into. Even quantum mechanics, her old standby for explaining weird stuff away, were failing.
She did not want to deal with any of it.
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Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 3:42 pm
[ r o l e p l a y ]
A Case of the Mondays (transcription in progress)
Participants: Todd and Ako, D and Faolan (Disinclined)---
D hadn't been there when . . .things went wrong. In fact, Faolan hadn't been back to Headquarters for quite some time and D had thought that the little boy should be around others like him.
Of course, when he'd actually stepped into the shop, he'd been most perplexed. There were piles of glass shoved in the corner - new furniture and a T.V. bolted in to the wall. There always had been one though, hadn't there? D couldn't remember. The bar completely disappeared, there was no chandelier - though he suspected that's what sat in the corner - and there were some new additions to the place. . .
Like blood.
Blood and a strange sort of feeling that sent the hairs on the back of D's neck on edge.
"What happened. . ." He murmured, eyes wide as he looked around. The place seemed to be falling in on itself, though it was obvious that it was still inhabitable. Faolan, the fussy wolf child squirmed in his arms, looking around nervously with his golden-brown gaze.
"Nuh-uh, Faolan," D whispered, planting a small kiss on his sons head, though his eyes never left the sight of the demolished headquarters. Go missing for a few weeks and everything gets turned upside down.
Great.
Cautiously, the pink haired man made his way around the headquarters. Maybe he shouldn't stick around. . .? The place surely didn't seem particularly hospitable, much less sanitary.
The blood in particular was very disconcerting.
"Blahg!" A little grunt from the little man that was bundeled in D's arms. A soft wolf toy, covered in drool marks, was being held onto by one of Faolans hands but his eyes were large as plates. The boy could sense that something had happened here. . . but what?
The feelings, the dark energy, made Faolan very edgy. And not exactly the most happy of children. D would protect him, the child knew, that was what D did. But the darkness that radiated throughout the room. . . .
Oh no. Not a fun feeling at all.
A little whimper, a little crinkle of his features.
D winced. Maybe they'd visit later. He didn't need Faolan sobbing here! "Oh no - it's okay, baby. It's all right. See? It's okay here - really." The pink haired man set the baby carrier down on the couch. He leaned forward, trying desperately to reassure his little wolf child reborn. "That's right - give me a smile. Flash me those pearly whites, there's a good one! Whose got the prettiest ears in the world, huh? Is that you? Is that you??"
Yes, it was a disgusting display of paternal affection. But D couldn't help it - he dripped like a leaky faucet with love and adoration for his children and h didn't care who noticed.
---
"What the bloody hell happened in here?"
The speaker was a young boy, blonde, rather short, and cute. Deceptively cute. Deceptive, since no boy of this age had the right to be carrying three or four knives and a straight razor hidden away in his pockets, or a foot-long bloodstained blade in one hand.
The blade in question was a wand from the Headquarters, but Todd didn't really care. Sharp objects were sharp objects.
The destruction didn't seem to unnerve him much. He picked his way carefully across the floor, avoiding any remaining glass.
"Oy! You!" he shouted to the pink-haired man with the baby. A wierd inhabitant for a weird place. "Did you see what happened? I heard somethin' about shadows and stuff, but..."
Taylor had not been very descriptive in her tales of the Headquarters and the Other Place.
---
Still oozing reassurance and affection for his Faolan, D all but jumped when he was shouted at. Back turned, he hadn't noticed Todd's entrance to the . . .mutilated headquarters. But the sharp shout, the order, did cause D to jump.
Turning around, blue eyes wide, Faolan in his arms, he stared. And continued to stare. Who the hell was that!?! His surprised was reflecting in a pink brow arching upward. If the blonde was only wearing leather and mesh, D might feel more assured. The knives - a smidge disconcerting - were nothing compared to some BDSM night clubs he used to inhabit.
And yet . . . Part of D wouldn't be surprised at all if Todd were the one to cause the blood smears on the wall. How did the saying go. . .? Beware the cute ones?
"Uh," he stammered, trying to figure out exactly what words had slipped so violenetly out of the boys mouth. "I - I really haven't a clue what's gone on here. One day it was headquarters, the next it was like this." Broad shoulders shrugged helplessly. It seemed both of them were lost in the dark.
Foalan, who had been enjoying his attention, glanced at Todd. His downy ears perked forward, a display which meant curiousity and interest. It lasted but a moment, before the baby was distracted by the dark energies. The feeling of the place was disconcerting, and made Faolan a smidge uncomfortable.
Something wasn't right. . .
And Faolan gave a soft whimper of reminder. D naturally cuddeled the small one close, offering the baby a kiss on the top of his head. "Shadows. . . .? That's - that's more than I know."
If the area wasn't safe, though, then why was headquarters still open to the public? Would Ianna ever close down? Who knew. A little note of explaination might have been nice, of course.
Foalan stared at Todd, and the sharp things that he held. Some were shiney. Shiney pointy things. "Grwah." He stated, reaching a clawed hand out.
Leave it to Faolan to want to play with knives.
---
D was right to be a little wary. Todd hadn't ever used any of his knives... yet... but he did have a liking for sharp objects and a knack for putting them where they didn't belong. He was currently inspecting the blood smears with more then a little interest, so he didn't really notice D's distress.
"Hm," he said absently. "I guess you had to be here. The nerd I live with says it went all bloody shadowy and some people died. All I know is she came back limping and and and jumpier than ever. This place does look pretty dodgy..." he added, kicking at a piece of rubble on the floor.
Todd finally seemed to notice Faolan's gesture. "Oi, who're you?" he said, not unkindly, giving the baby a poke in the nose. "You want this? Knock yourself out."
The wand was handed over to the tiny werewolf. Todd didn't care if he wanted it or not- he had no special attraction to the thing. Taylor had just told him to get it out of the house for a while.
---
tbc.
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Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:28 am
[ q u e s t 1 ]
"Miss?"
"Mm?" Taylor's eyes slid open as she found herself shaken from troubled dreams. "Whazzat?"
"The library's closing, Miss. Are you going to check out that book?"
"Huh?" Taylor realized her face was pressed against something hard. A book. She'd been sleeping at the library, with her face pressed into a book. How dignified. "Yeah, I'll take it."
Still wrapped in the fog of sleep, she tried to convince herself that things were okay. Don't think about the bad things. Just the good stuff. The normal stuff. My name is Taylor Penrose. This is my last year at college. I have a calculus test next Wednesday. I just nearly got killed and then left the solar system. I have three children: one angry idiot with wings, one who likes to stab things, and one who's an alien baby from god knows where, and I have a wand that's going to turn into a vampire.
Damn. That didn't work very well.
Shaking her head, Taylor closed the book and took a look at the cover for the first time. Protecting Yourself Against Psychic Attacks: How to Keep your Aura Safe. Complete with rainbows, sparkles, and pictures of shiny crystals. How sleepy had she been to be looking at this crap? There were a few similar books on the table in front of her, although none were quite so obviously new-agey. A few looked positively ancient.
"Heck, I'll check out the lot," she said to herself, scooping the pile into her arms. "Nothing to lose."
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 2:21 pm
[ q u e s t 2 ]
Two hours and three espresso lattes later, things were not looking up.
At least Taylor now had a decent idea of what the hell a "Psionic Vampire" was. It was certainly different from the fangs n' capes blood-sucking variety, but not much pleasanter. As far as she could tell, these vampires fed on life force, not blood, sucking the energy out of another person through their chakras. (Taylor snorted at the mention of the chakra-things, but continued reading. She wasn't about to start doubting weirdness by this point.) As for the victims of the attack, they could be left exhausted, tired, and weak, with headaches, nightmares, or panic attacks. At least death didn't seem to be a common result.
The vampires, at least, got a few benefits out of the situation. Heightened senses (especially night vision), ability to sense auras and energy, superb reflexes, and the ability to warp people's perception of time and space... that wasn't a bad deal. They didn't like sunlight or mirrors.
Research on the behaviors of psionic vampires proved to be a little more confusing. Apparently, some psionic vampires, when in desperate need of energy, might feed completely unconsciously. In fact, many vampires weren't even aware of their status as a life-drainer. Others hooked up with a symbiotic partner who would willingly give energy. And others chose to attack their victims outright, preferring energy with a strong emotional charge. Taylor didn't especially like any of the options.
Damn. She was not going to have some reborn vampire thing sucking on her energy! This stupid thing had nearly gotten her killed. It wasn't going to get a free energy meal out of here. No siree.
So what the hell did you do against one of these things, short of a stake through the heart? Taylor ordered another latte and started reading again. She was beginning to feel a bit better then she had when she stormed out. She could look at things a little more logically now, and it was nice to be able to read again. She hadn't had much time to read when she'd been off fighting otherdimensional whatsits.
Ok. Right. Stuff to ward off psychic draininess. The books suggested visualizing a shield around your energy. The descriptions varied from a "shell of white mist" to a rainbow bubble, but the idea was the same. It sounded hokey, but...
Taylor closed her eyes, sitting cross-legged in her chair, and tried to imagine her body surrounded by a bubble. Immediately, she felt like an idiot. Her nose itched, but she didn't move. These sort of things probably took concentration.
Bubble. Opaque white bubble, like being inside a giant egg. Strong, keeping all her energy inside. After a few minutes, Taylor opened her eyes. The results, she decided, were disappointing. She didn't feel any different, and the "shield" had taken longer then she would have liked to put up. Was she supposed to keep thinking about being inside an egg all day?
Maybe there was something extra she could do. Back to the books.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 2:24 pm
[ q u e s t 3 ]The tiny store smelled like incense and sounded like windchimes. Taylor had to try not to sneeze as she fumbled her way past shelves of carved crystals, bags of herbs, gauzy scarves, statues to a dozen varied deities- in short, all the requirements for a trendy little New Age shop.
The owner had dyed purple hair and the biggest hoop earrings Taylor had ever seen. "Can I help you?" she asked.
"Uh.... I'd like to buy some crystals," Taylor muttered, feeling stupider by the moment. This was yet another idea from the stack of books she held in her arms.
"Any specific kind?" the owner pressed, raising one eyebrow.
"Something to, uh... you know... keep people from draining my energy?" Taylor's face went red. She did not buy into this kind of thing, not in the least. Crystals carrying their own "good" energy that could protect her? All she knew about crystals were that they were ordered lattices of atoms and molecules, and they produced electric current when compressed. So was the pizoelectric effect supposed to shield her energy? It couldn't do much worse then her mental energy egg.
The owner was already placing various chunks of crystal on the counter. "Protective crystals, eh? Well, here's black tourmaline and garnet. Those are good all-around protective stones. Now here we have onyx, that's another protector, and snowflake obsidian. That'll ward off nightmares and energy loss."
"Uh, thanks." Taylor poked the glittering stones with one finger.
The owner quirked another eyebrow. "May I ask what you're getting into, with all this protection?"
"Oh, hell," Taylor said loudly, fingers closing around a garnet. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Just gimme the rocks."
----
A short walk later, crystals in pocket, Taylor arrived back at her apartment and spent several minutes trying to unlock the door in the dark. She hadn't realized how late it was.
"Hey," Todd said lazily as the door opened, not looking away from the TV show he was watching. "It's three AM. Where the bloody hell were you?"
"Studying," Taylor mumbled, closing the door and nearly tripping over somebody's shoes.
"Whatever," Todd said. "I took your pointy thing out of the wall and went to go see the shadow death place you told me about, but nothing was there but a baby werewolf that tried to eat it. And then I took the alien for a walk and made him some dinner. And Diacyn left to go to the pet store and hasn't been back since. Nothing out of the ordinary." Shrugging, he turned up the volume on the TV. Onscreen, astronauts with laser beams blew aliens into piles of green ooze.
The wand was lying on the kitchen table, a few feet away from the gash it had carved in the wall earlier that day. Taylor felt a little bad about that. If she was going to be stuck with this thing, she might as well be nicer to it. That meant not letting Todd carry it around, if that resulted in werewolf drool. Making a mental note of that fact, she pulled one of the crystals from her pocket and waved it at the wand.
"Take that, vampire," she said under her breath. "I'll be your guardian or whatever, okay? And I won't stab walls with you anymore. Just don't try to eat my aura." And with that, she stalked off to bed and fell asleep with her shoes on.
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 7:14 am
[ g r o w t h ]
"Mornin', wand. Todd. Karl. Diacyn." Taylor stumbled sleepily into the kitchen, her hair sticking into the air as if she had just been making passionate love to a van de Graff generator.
"Diacyn's not here," Todd said around a mouthful of Lucky Charms. "Still off doing... whatever he's doing."
"Whatever." Taylor grabbed a bowl from the sink and tried to find a place to sit. She wound up having to relocate one of Todd's knives, somebody's left shoe, a few of Karl's paintings, and a thick book called The Chronology of Moths before she could sit down. The wand wound up balanced precariously atop the book. "That stupid bird thing," Taylor continued, pouring herself some cereal, "I wish he would just-"
She didn't get any further, because the a sudden wave of fatigue swept over her body. Her fingers suddenly lost all energy, nearly dropping the bowl. With the feeling of tiredness came a headache, persistent, throbbing behind her temples. Across the table, Todd winced and pressed his fingers to his head, and Karl cooed softly in distress, curling into a defensive ball.
s**t! Is that the stupid wand? Now what was she supposed to do? Okay. Shield. White mist sphere. Taylor tried to concentrate, building the shield mental atom by atom. In her pocket, one hand curled around the crystals, gripping them so tightly the edges bit into her fingers.
And it worked. Slowly, the pain lessened and her energy returned, until she could sit up and look around the room. Todd was still wearing a pained expression, and Karl didn't look too happy, but she felt okay. Were these crystals actually doing their job?
She didn't have much time to wonder, because something was happening to the wand. The thing was vibrating, threatening to fall off its perch, and it seemed to get smaller as tendrils of rusty red mist emerged from the tip, fusing and twining into a more solid shape- the word blood flitted through Taylor's head, and that certainly was an appropriate term for the color, nearly identical to the stains that marred the wand's length-
And it was over. Todd sat up straighter, fingers massaging his temples, swearing vehemently under his breath. Taylor let her grip on the crystals loosen, feeling her fingers ache where they had been clenched around the sharp edges.
The bloody red ghost floated in front of her, bobbing innocently in the air. She could hear its voice, the quiet nonsensical babbling of a baby, echoing in the back of her mind.
"Morning, ghost," she said dizzily.
It cooed softly at her, moving closer to her face. Taylor sighed.
"Nice to meetcha," she said, extending one hand to the smoky mass. "Hey, just 'cause you can't get at my energy doesn't mean you can steal from the other kids, okay? They're your brothers. You've got to be nice to them, right?" In her mind, the baby's gurgling laugh, whisper-quiet, bounced through her neurons.
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Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 5:59 pm
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:20 pm
"What the bloody hell is this s**t?" Todd stalked across the living room, fingers jammed firmly in ears.
"It's Mozart," Taylor said calmly, not looking away from her computer. Around her head, the ghost floated calmly, occasionally shifting as if to get a better look at the screen. "It's classic."
"Being classic doesn't mean it doesn't SUCK!" Todd complained. "Why are we being forced to listen to this wanker Moztard all of a sudden?" This was not an exaggeration, as the music was coming from the computer, which Taylor was guarding, giving Todd and the rest of the family no choice in listening material.
"It's supposed to make babies better at math and stuff," Taylor explained, bending over her computer. "I dunno if I buy it, but it's worth a shot. Seeing that Diacyn won't touch a math book with a ten-foot pole, and I don't even know if you can add two and two... I'm willing to do whatever I can to get the little ones grow up properly."
The "little ones" showed no sign of mathematical genius at the moment: Karl was more concerned with scribbling blue crayon on the wall then listening to music. The ghost, however, seemed very interested in the sounds, swishing quickly back and forth in front of the speakers in perfect time with the music.
Taylor watched it curiously. "How do you even hear it?" she muttered. "Do you have ears in that blob-o-smoke?" The ghost was silent, apparently absorbed in the music.
"We should teach this floaty thing some real music," Todd declared, shoving Taylor out of the way to get at the computer. But before he could change the music, the ghost flew into his face, trying to shove him back. It was silent, but Taylor could still sense the anger coming from the little creature.
"...you better leave it alone," she said, attempting to restore peace between the warring factions. "Todd, you don't want him sucking your energy again."
The Fable boy retreated in a huff, the ghost went back to its happy listening, and Taylor was forcibly reminded of why she'd never planned on having a family.
Damn destiny. Or whatever the hell it was.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:35 am
[ q u e s t 1 ]
"WHAT THE ********? IT'S GONE!"
Taylor dashed through the apartment, eyes wide, waving something sharp and metallic. The wand, sans ghost.
"I killed it! I ******** killed it," she gasped, her shoulders shaking. Karl, the only other kid in the house at the time, stared back, wondering what was wrong. Why was Shinee so upset? Had he done something to make her so frantic?
"What's 'rong?" he asked carefully.
"The ghost. Wand. Thing." Taylor shook the wand back and forth, trying to get her words in order. "It's gone." She could feel the panic washing over her, possessing her. This was not ******** happening. She didn't kill it. Did she? "I left it alone for a minute and I came back and it was gone. Don't know where it went."
Karl had understood maybe half of the panicked torrent of words, but he got the idea. Silently, he walked over to his guardian and wrapped his arms around her legs in a clumsy hug. Taylor sank to the floor, one hand on Karl's head, fingers coiling around his hair.
"It'll come back. Maybe?" the alien toddler offered. Anything to make her feel better.
Taylor nodded slowly, blinking back hot tears. "Maybe."
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:38 am
[ q u e s t 2 ]
Life, thus far, had been simple for the ghost. It had a vague idea that it had a family, of sorts. It liked music. It liked its guardian, the skinny one with the high-pitched voice that called it Ako. It liked its house.
This place was none of those things.
Dark sky loomed overhead, the stars drowned out by orange flickering light from below. Fire. Flames, consuming a house, silhouetting timbers charred black and crumbling into sparks.
"Eric! Hurry!" Two boys bolted from the flaming ruins, their faces smeared with soot. The speaker was obviously the elder, by three or four years at least, with black hair flattened to his face by sweat. He was dragging a younger boy, barely old enough to walk. The ghost felt a strange sensation, like he was partially inside the younger boy's head, torn between two places at once- no, he was inside this kid's body, looking through his eyes-
"Mom," he complained, the words forcing their way through his lips via a will not his own. "Where's Mom?"
"Just run!"
Behind them, timbers creaked and the roof collapsed in a swirling blaze of sparks, streaking through the sky like fireflies.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:40 am
[ q u e s t 3 ]
Blink.
The scene flickered and changed, dissolved in a whirl of images and sounds that flashed through Ako's mind before solidifying. A city, concrete and metal and brick, clogged thick with people and the strange electrical tension that comes before a storm.
"How much money do we have?"
Ako- Eric?- jammed grubby hands into his pockets, painfully counting out the quarters and dimes. "Five- no, six." The child was suddenly older, with gangly limbs and messy hair pulled back in a scruffy ponytail. His clothes were worn and dirty, both elbows and knees inexpertly patched. His stomach pinched with hunger. And his thoughts were older, more mature, nothing like the fuzzy infantile thoughts of the ghost. Ako was getting a brainache.
"Ok, and I have five more." This was other boy from before, now older as well, his clothes in a similar state. "Dammit," he hissed. "It's really hard to get a job or anything. Still too young, stupid work laws."
"What're we gonna do, Luke?" Eric hissed. "I'm hungry. Why can't we talk to someone? Get a real home?"
"You don't remember home, do you," Luke said dully. "From before. It wasn't- home's not a good place. We don't need another one."
Above them, the sky rumbled, dark and menacing. Fat raindrops splashed into their heads, and around them, staining the pavement dark and slick.
"We gotta eat," Eric whined, wiping rain off his face.
Luke's brown eyes were distant. "I've been talking to people. Heard some things." He gazed up at the sky, unflinching despite the rain. "Don't worry, I'll take care of you. I think I have an idea..."
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