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 Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 7:51 pm
____{ overcome and completely silent now } _______________________________________________________ beginning
It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time to create a golem. Golems didn’t need to be fed, didn’t need to use the bathroom, couldn’t speak. Their father had always told them to be resourceful, and it wasn’t as if their mother would particularly miss the several pounds of dirt they had dug up from her garden and lugged up a flight of stairs to Cianan’s closet.
Nor was it actually difficult to figure out how to make one. Lord Penn, as their father was formally called, did so for a living – could create armies at a time – and the lock to his workroom wasn’t particularly hard to pick. All that was required, it appeared, was a little mud, the ability to write in the Divine Language (which Cianan knew a little of, anyway), dedication, perseverance…
And some artistic ability, apparently. Currently their weekend project, quickly shaped in a corner of their “secret lab” on some spread-out newspapers, was being threatened by gravity. Its crooked arms could hardly be distinguished from the rest of its crookedly lumpy body, which had already swallowed up most of its legs and feet. In a flash of brilliance, Rhine had sprinkled some grass on top for hair, but most of it had long since jumped ship and scattered over the newspaper along with chunks of the thing’s skull, leaving it inappropriately balding. Its facial features were non-existant.
“Good thing it doesn’t have a soul,” Rhine decided, “If I looked like that I think I’d jump in a lake.”
Cianan, not quite ready to give up, desperately attempted to reshape the body into something more human-like. One of its arms fell off in protest. He groaned and swiped a hand over his sweaty forehead, leaving streaks of dirt in its wake, “I don’t know, maybe we should make a cat instead…”
“How is a cat going to be able to clean our rooms?” Rhine narrowed his eyes, and finally conceded, “Alright, I suppose it’d be alright at shoving things under our bed, but mother always finds out about that eventually and it wouldn’t able to put clothes away into closets or anything.”
“And this would?” Cianan winced, jabbing a finger at the short, squat figure and then scrambling away to a safe distance, fully expecting it to give up on ever having a peaceful existance and collapse upon itself. It didn’t.
“It would be a start,” Rhine sighed. “We spent four hours on this, we don’t even know that we could get it to so much as blink. We can worry about aesthetics later.
--to be continued. Please be patient with me; I had all of this written up in a Word Document that recently got corrupted, so I'm having to rewrite all of this.--
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Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 7:52 pm
____{ nobody knows what's gonna happen tomorrow } ___________________________________________ beginning ii
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Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 7:53 pm
____{ we'll try not to show how frightened we are } ______________________________________ beginning iii
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Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 4:41 pm
____{ please understand we're never alone } ________________________________________________ rp
Coming home with a lost puppy or kitten was one thing -- their family house was relatively big and the newest previously-homeless acquisition could probably be easily concealed.
Coming home with a baby girl was something else entirely. Especially one that, in the few hours the twins had gotten to know her, had shrieked her head off nonstop. Anxious not to let their parents find out about their 'mistake', both boys had promptly fled the house with her and were wandering restlessly through one section of Gambino's large marketplace.
"D'you think she's ill?" Cianan asked worriedly, glancing sideways at his twin. Rhine huffed in response.
He was piggybacking the star spirit, with her arms around his neck and his arms underneath her legs, and not used to his new role of beast as burden, was constantly having to shift her back up every few minutes. The girl ("Thingy" as they both called her) had gotten into the habit of letting out a particularly happy squeal everytime this happened, attracting more than quite a few stares each time. Cianan shrugged apologetically for his brother.
"It's not our problem," Rhine ventured at last. "All--" He stopped to shift her again, and waited for the Thingy's squeal to die down before continuing, "--we have to do is find a cardboard box in a particularly busy corner with people that look like they're desperate for a baby and then... Write 'free to a good home' on it and leave her there. That's all. We just need a box."
Noah's mother, Ruth, a particularly old, I mean young, woman, was strolling along the busy pathway that led to the marketplace in Gambino. She held a cloth bag tightly in her grasp, protecting it from purse snatchers. She occasionally stopped to look at the various fruit and prodice stands, throwing a few things from each stand into her bag.
As she reached a stand filled with fresh fish, a elderly, plump man said, "Care to have some delicious, fre--" Ruth walked away. "Wait! Ma'm!" She started to walk faster, trying to avoid the smelly fish man. But as she started to walk as fast as her shoes could take her, she bumped into two twins, who looked to be around 11 or twelve, and one was holding a child on their back, pushing her back up every once in a while. All Ruth could think of was, "Who let these children take care of that poor girl?! It looks like she's terrified!" She obviously didn't notice her occasional squeals. She sighed and before she knew it, she had bumped into another woman, who seemed to be having a bad day.
Immediately, heads turned and soon all eyes were on the stumbled woman. Ruth got up, dusted the back of her skirt and apologized to the older woman, who didn't seem to happy. She started screaming at Ruth, causing a commotion among the shoppers.
"Excuse us, lady," Rhine hissed beneath his breath at the disappearing figure of the older woman who had just bumped into them. "Ebat-kobat, old people nowadays, no manners whatsoever--OW" He cursed again and attempted to jerk his hair free of the Thingy's sudden and relentless tugging grasp. "Cianan, get this thing off me--"
Cianan, noticing the sudden rise in volume, had slowed down and turned back to peer at the crowd of onlookers gathering behind them. Craning his head back to look at the other two, he grinned and called back, "Sounds like you're not the only one having the worst day ever."
Rhine stumbled forward, still battling the Thingy for control of his hair, and managed to spit out, "What's going on?"
"The lady who bumped into us... I think she bumped into someone else too. Someone a lot bigger and louder than you are. Seems like they're having a screaming match."
"...Think a baby would make her happier? Either of them?" Rhine peered into the crowd hopefully. The Thingy, not pleased with this sudden shift of attention, began screaming again.
Ruth didn't even notice anyone surrounding her, or even the twins who she bumped into, all she was thinking about now was how rude this "big" woman in front of her was being. She did say sorry afterall.
Ruth started to yell back, getting angry at the unessecary attention and yelling. "I didn't mean to bump into you! I was just rushing to go home to my kid, who is probably breaking the house since he is home all alone..." Ruth caught herself saying that she left poor Noah, her son, at home -- alone! Her eyes started to widen as she realized that might be illegal in 50 states, including Gaia!
She quickly grabbed the fruit that had fallen out of her bag and ran off to her house, leaving a trail of dust along the way, and hitting those twins once again, on accident though.
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Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 4:42 pm
____{ would it be lonely if you were the only star in the sky? } ______________________________________ beginning iv
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:51 pm
____{ you've got to believe it'll be alright in the end } ______________________________________ beginning v
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:52 pm
____{ another chance encounter } ____________________________________________________ rp
Ruth went walking down the street, with Noah holding one of her hands, and baby Ashe in the other. They were planning on going back to the Gambino marketplace to finish their shopping, and to buy some new things for Ashe's room, and for her. Ashe was very excited and started to wag her tail back and forth.
"So Mom, can I buy some things there? I really want some candy and chocolate milk!" Noah exclaimed as he drooled at the thought. Ruth looked over at her son and said, "Sure Noah, but not too much, since we don't want you to get another cavity!"
"I know..." he said as he stuck his finger in his mouth, trying to find his multiple fillings. Ashe looked over at him and stuck her thumb in her mouth and started sucking on it.
"Noah! Get your hand out of your mouth! You're being a bad example for Ashe!"
"Humph!"
It was only a few minutes later when they passed a very large mansion. It was sparkling in the sunlight as the windows glared onto the group's face. Noah put one hand above his eyes to block the sun and exclaimed, "Mommmm, it's too sunny!"
"I know I know." she said as they continued on, not noticing who the mansion actually belonged to. "Well, we're almost at the market!"
"Do we have to?"
Though Rhine was sulking with practically everything he had, his mother had long since become impervious to his efforts. She calmly lifted a happily babbling Taji from the floor, where she was acquainting herself with the front gallery's rug, and strapped her into the old carriage they had found in the attic. It was a bit roomy -- meant for two babies, not one -- but they could always buy another one if it proved too impractical.
"You don't have to, you get to. Excited, aren't we?" This last part was addressed to her other son.
"No, I don't mind," Cianan shrugged, folding blankets and crouching down to slip them into the pouch built into the underside of the carriage. At his mother's direction, he stood up and tucked one around Taji, who promptly started a game of How Much Of This Can I Fit In My Mouth.
"I'm too old!" Rhine continued protesting, arms folded over his chest and hunched over, glaring at the carriage. "I can't be seen shopping for baby stuff. I have homework this weekend."
"Which you finished, your father checked it over yesterday." His mother reminded him, checking her pockets to make sure she had everything in place before wheeling the carriage out of the front door and through the outside loggia. Both twins trailed after her, one more reluctantly than the other.
"--And I'm not feeling well! You wouldn't want to make the Thingy sick, would you?!"
"Rhine, darling, the day you cease rambling is the day I know you're truly ill."
"Well.. well..." Rhine groaned, hanging his head. They were halfway down the front court by now -- it would only take them a fifteen minute walk to get to the marketplace. Maybe once they reached the front gate he could make a run for it, or something, but then his father would know... "I.. I have a bee."
This made Madeleine stop, turn, and observe her son with one eyebrow slightly raised. "Where?" She asked bemusedly.
"In.. um..." He rubbed the back of his neck and grasped wildly for the first answer that came to his mind, "...my pants."
Cianan sighed and thumped his brother on the back. "Just buck up, Rhinny, you're only making it worse for yourself."
"Wheeeeeeeee," agreed Taji from the carriage.
"Whew! We're finally here!" exclaimed Ruth as she, Noah, and Ashe were finally at the marketplace in Gambino. "Hopefully I don't run into that woman again." said Ruth as she remembered what happened a few days ago. It seems that the market was more crowded than usual, maybe it was time for Christmas shopping? Or maybe Thanksgiving shopping, though it is too late to buy Thanksgiving decor since Christmas was just around the corner.
"Now what do we need?" Ruth said to herself as she reached down to grab the list from Noah's hand. She uncrumbled the paper and flatened it to see if it was still readable. And it wasn't. "Noah!" he whined as she let out a deep sigh. "I guess I'll just have to remember what was on the list..." Ruth started to try and remember some things in her head and lifted up a finger when she remembered.
Noah was getting bored, and so was Ashe! Noah reached for Ashe, and suprisingly, his mom let her go while she was thinking. Noah held Ashe's hand and they started to walk, or crawl, away, leaving a trial of dust behind them.
"What about these bracelets?" Rhine asked, pausing and rifling through an open display of them as they passed a stall. He never figured out what the whole appeal in shopping was -- especially when it was so much easier to do it online with no wait or other people who rarely bathed -- and the sooner they could finish, the better.
"Mm.. Probably not." Madeleine offered her son an apologetic smile. "Especially with beads like those -- babies can chew through the strings and choke on the pieces."
"Wheeeeeee," Taji repeated happily and inappropriately, bouncing in her mother's arms. Beside her, Cianan was pushing the empty carriage along.
Which tilted over onto its side a few minutes later, thankfully missing another display table, with wheels spinning squeakily in the air. Cianan yelped and jumped back, "I think I just ran something over!"
"Awesome, roadkill!" Rhine cheered, immediately finding this more interesting than stupid chokable bracelets.
"WAHHHHHH!!" cried Ashe as someone ran over her tail. Her tail started to soak in ink and created a black puddle of ink beside her. It seems that when her tail was ran over, she got scared and let out some ink, like a squid or skunk!
Noah suddenly jerked back as he was still holding little Ashe's hands as they were trembling. "C'mon Ashe!" he exclaimed as he turned around, to find tire tracks all over her tail. "Huh? What happened?" he said as he looked up at a boy who was pushing the carriage. "Hey!" he yelled. "Why'd you hurt my sister?!"
Noah knew that Ashe wasn't his sister, but he felt like she was since he was always taking care of her. People obviously could tell that they weren't related since they didn't resemble each other at all, but Noah always wanted to be a older brother!
Noah let go of Ashe's hand, and ran up to kick the boy in the shin. "That wasn't very nice of you!"
In other news...Ruth looked around for some blankets and said to the Noah she though was there, "Do you think Ashe will like this?" she questioned as she heard silence. "Noah?" she asked again as she turned to see that her kids were missing! "Noah!? Where did you go?! Ashe?!"
She started to look around her area for her kids. Yes, Ruth thinks of Ashe as her daughter too. She started to run, and bump into a few people, again, and you would have never guessed who she reunited with. It was the old grumpy lady from before! "Uh oh..." she whispered.
"I am so sorry--!" Cianan wanted nothing more than to melt into a puddle and evaporate in the fall sun; he settled for wringing his hands and looking extremely (and genuinely) apologetic. "Is she alri--OW!"
He hopped away from the younger boy on one leg, hissing and grabbing his other, stinging leg with his hands.
"Hey!" Rhine protested, immediately lunging forward to shove Noah. His mother, a step quicker, shifted Taji in one arm and grabbed Rhine's arm as he ran past, jerking him to a stop.
"Excuse me!" Madeleine said sharply, "Step down! And hold your sister, I don't want to hear a peep out of you." Rhine grudgingly backed off, still glaring at Noah as he accepted Taji from his mother. Taji made inquisitive noises, tilting her head back to peer at the two new people upside down. The littler one made a meeee~eess!
"Excuse me," Madeleine repeated a bit more gently to the younger boy and his sister, crouching down to pick up Ashe. She pursed her lips as she inspected her for wounds -- the poor girl's tail had been caught beneath the wheels of the carriage, unfortunately, and she quickly checked for other scratches or bruises.
"My son didn't mean to harm your sister, it was very honestly an accident and I am sorry that it happened." She offered Noah a smile that was meant to be reassuring while Cianan simmered down to a good sulk in the background. "Is your mother here?"
"Aieee!" exclaimed Noah as he closed his eyes as he was just about to be hit. But nothing happened. He peeked through his tiny fingers to see that the boy's mother was scolding him! All Noah could do was giggle a little.
Madeleine, the mom of the two boys, apologized to Noah even while Ashe was still crying. She swung her arms around, as if she wanted the strange woman to let go, but she just wouldn't let go! The mom of the two boys looked over to Noah as asked him, "Is your mother here?"
Noah looked up and said, "Yeah, she's right her--...Huh?" He turned around only to find his mother was gone! "Where is she?!" he exclaimed as he kept looking around. "I thought she followed us...!" Noah started to get teary eyed as well, and he too, started to cry. Poor woman.
In the other part of the market, Ruth found herself staring right at the very plump, old woman that she ran into before. She knew that she couldn't avoid her, and the only thought that came across her mind was to run. And that's exactly what she did, but the woman was much faster than her and held her by the collar as Ruth was about to run, choking her. Ruth coughed.
"You're not getting away that easily." she said in a deep, deep voice, sounding like it belonged to a man. Ruth squeaked and turned around to find the woman's face right in front of hers. "Sorry...?" she said in a high-pitched voice. "Waita minute. Have I seen you before? the woman said with her right eyebrow almost touching her hair line.
"Um..No?" she lied.
"Wait...I have! You ran into me the other time before too!"
"You must be confusing me with someone else!!" Ruth was now starting to sweat.
"Yes you are. I remember!" the woman's face, who we'll call Helga, Helga's face started to turn red with anger. "Ohh...you'll be getting it this time!" she yelled as she started to bring Ruth closer.
"Eep!" squeaked Ruth.
"Oh dear..." Madeleine murmured to herself, truly perplexed with Ashe's behavior. "Calm down, little one, I don't mean to hurt you--" And, just when she thought things couldn't get any worse (and she thought she'd learned her lesson by now, having two rambunctious boys), the little boy started to cry too.
Straightening, the woman took a deep breath and mentally counted to three. It was only after she herself had calmed down that she could smile effortlessly at the two young children. "Please don't worry, we'll find your mother, okay? I'm sure she is looking for you right now."
"RieohirMUUUUU," Taji demanded, placing both feet squarely against Rhine's chest and pushing off as hard as she could, stretching out her arms and making grabby fingers at Ashe's still distant tail. This was not working, this boy was obviously not properly trained!
"Hey -- no -- OW -- stay! Down! Sit! Do anything that doesn't involve causing me bodily harm!" Distressed, he wondered just how much trouble he'd be in if he dropped her. ...This was a very hard decision.
Meanwhile, hearing a commotion everyone else was too busy to notice, Cianan (still limping pitifully a little, though truthfully his ego hurt more than his leg) wandered over to where a crowd had started to gather.
Suddenly struck by a sense of deja vu, the young boy squeezed through several ranks of people and peered curiously at the two people in the center.
Hunh. No wonder. One of the women seemed to be the same that had run into them days earlier, back when they had first wondered what to do with Taji. Also, she was apparently going to be beat up, though she clearly wanted nothing to do with the whole affair. Frowning, Cianan stepped forward, very clearly expecting all others to stop what they were doing and maybe bow down before his majesty.
"Hey, lady, what's your problem?!" He addressed the bigger one, hands on his hips and somehow managing to look down his nose at her.
All Noah could do was cry and cry since he couldn't find his mother. Even though the woman said that they would find her, he still has very worried. "I want my mommmyy!!!" tears started to roll down his face as Ashe began to calm down.
She, too, reached for the other girl, Taji. She pointed to her with her fingers and tail, but Madeleine just wouldn't listen! She tried squeezing through her tight grip, but it was useless. It left Ashe breathing for more oxygen.
It looked like Madeleine was looking over to where her son was, looking at the fight. Noah stopped crying as he heard the commotion and thought her heard his mom's voice. "Mom?" he said as he ran to the crowd. He squeezed through and found that it was his mom! "Mommy!" he exclaimed, only to be ignored. Ruth was in trouble, and blocked out any noise but the big lady's voice.
But Ruth turned her head when Cianan yelled to the woman. He started to stand up to the woman, but she didn't feel a sense of ease, she felt like someone else was going to get it!
The large woman stood up to the boy, still holding onto Ruth and said, "What do you want?" she exclaimed, "Do you want me to switch you with her?! Hmmmm?" Ruth closed her eyes once again as she didn't know what was going to happen next.
"I'd like to see you try!" Cianan huffed, "Come on, lady, are you so insecure that you have to pick on people smaller than you are? Let her go, I can take you down--"
"Why does he get to fight?" Rhine immediately protested, turning to his mother, "And I don't? Where is the fairness in this? There is none."
Madeleine only sighed in response, lowly and suffering. "Here, please take this one," she directed firmly, passing Ashe off to her younger son as well. Rhine squawked at the sudden request but had no choice but to shift Taji to one arm so he could hold the ink spirit in the other. "What am I, a baby tree?" He started to protest, but by this time Madeleine had already set off for the crowd to prevent the possible murder of her other offspring, leaving him alone with the two girls.
"Great," he muttered discontentedly, sliding down against the hard wooden side of a stall to a sitting position with both girls in his lap. He stared at them both in turn, wondering what possible hard labor he could put two little girls to work at, and finally sighed and said in a squeaky voice, raising Taji's arm to wave it at Ashe, "Thingy One, meet Thingy Two."
Cianan stood up to the large woman, and she seemed to back down, not because of the threat that was given to her, but by the crowd. She didn't like to be the center of attention.
"Fine." she said, throwing Ruth to the ground. "Just don't bump into me again!" She walked off, throwing sand into Ruth's eyes. Ruth flinched, and began to rub her eyes since there was a lack of water. Eventually, she got back up and dusted off her now dirty dress, and went over to Cianan. "Thank you son. You are very brave and courageous."
Ruth walked over, and her eyes began to widen at the sight of her two kids. "Noah?! Ashe?!" she exclaimed, running over to them. Noah was still crying, and Ruth picked him up and said, "It's okay sweetie. I'm here." she said in a reasuring tone. "Mommy?" said Noah. "Mommy! It's you!" He hugged her tightly, and Ruth replied with a kiss on the cheek. She was so caught up in hugging Noah that she didn't even notice that Ashe was with someone she didn't know.
Ashe waved back to the little star girl, whose name was supposedly Taji. Her tail started to wag very quickly and she started to smile, she didn't care if she hit Rhine at all. She leaned over to touch Taji's hands, and squealed. She was excited to get to know this Taji girl, even if they would never see each other again.
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:53 pm
RP with Getsu MAN I HAVE SO MANY RESERVEDS :C
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Incantation Esprit Captain
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Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 10:10 pm
 When you wish upon a star, 'makes no difference who you are.. but it certainly helps if you're the spirit from the stars! Taji is a very unique child, with a very distant home. Take Taji out stargazing, or show her something to remind her of where she came from. Teach her something new, and perhaps, learn something from her in return. 
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:49 pm
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:51 pm
____{ on an adventure of the sun it's all awake } _____________________________________ joint quest with connor
She is not anymore, but she was once a star. Stars, stars -- she has not tried the word herself, hasn't gained much knowledge about the noises yet besides the very obvious fact that they are enjoyable to make, but she has heard it passingly on the tongues of others. No one else knows this yet.
The knowledge is a heavy, immaterial thing Taji is not quite used to. She knows this much: once upon a time she looked down upon this world and never touched the ground. She also did not have fingers and toes then, little squishy stick-like things on the ends of her lower-four extremities, or a large head in which thoughts and voices alike bounced emptily around in. She is grateful that she is still vaguely properly-shaped: five points. The rest of the stars are very far away now, little white holes in the sky that look nothing like they ought to.
There is more to that, though, things about castles in the sky and cows sauntering gently over moons and grand flying fish and all sorts of things she hasn't seen yet; she hasn't quite gotten the hang of being self-contained, having to think in words and pictures instead of merely being. It is hard, sometimes, to deal with these strange fingers and toes, to adjust to having five separate things all capable of moving separate ways on the ends (hard, but interesting!) It is a very difficult task, she thinks, to be a Thingy instead of a star, but it was a challenge Taji was eager to overtake.
She wriggles her toes in the grass. The Con-Thingy is squirming next to her, making noises more purposeful than her own. The realization would make her wrinkle her nose if she knew how to do so or what the gesture really meant; instead she tells him "Oooogabooga."
Belatedly, she remembers to blink.
There is another, bigger Thingy behind them that immediately catches her attention afterwards, who neither moved as much or made as much noise. Taji makes an effort to turn and stare at him, and can't quite decide which way to tilt her head -- to the left, or the right? She finally decides on backwards and, falling onto her back and kicking her legs up into the air in an exaggerated baby 'oomph!', finally sets to her task of observing Trance at last. The Thingy is not her Thingy, the lady with the quiet voice or the man with shiny hair or either of the two lookalikes that brought her here; but, she decides kindly, he is a very nice Thingy, and it is ok with her that she is shared for a while (as long as her own come back, of course.)
Con begins to interrupt her staring however. Kicking her legs again into the empty air energetically, she tries to peer around them and at her companion. He clearly deserved a good long stare himself for interrupting her visual interrogation of his Thingy! Why won't these bigger-stick things of hers get out of the way anyway, she can't see-- and then her legs part in a shallow 'v' and she can.
She can see the stars tumbling down out of the sky, streaking wildly across invisible paths as they plummet to the earth. Taji pauses, eyes wide, and balls her hands and rubs at her eyes before spreading her fingers across them and peering through at the sky, in vague disbelief.
She wriggles in delight and begins to warble, waving her hands in the vague direction of the sky -- hey, hey, hey guys! guys! the stars are falling! do you see that?! -- but when she looks, Con is already watching. that's me, she tells him incomprehensibly, the corners of her lips separating so widely she feels as if her face is going to split, that's what I am. stars!
"Uuuhii-ki-ki-waaaaaa!" She immediately sets to singing, wanting the Bigger Thingy's attention now, or maybe she wants the attention of the stars. She waves her arms at them and flails her legs again until they somehow curl under her and propel her upper body forward so she was sitting upright once more.
The stars! They are missing her by miles though, all of her siblings, they obviously have no idea what they're doing -- but that's alright, neither did she! She can show them. Immediately she reaches forward to the sky, fingers curling over each shooting star that she could manage to track, but when she pulls back and opens her hands, there is nothing there.
What! What! This is silly! She chatters wildly to herself, eyes darting between each streaking arc, and it is not until a few moments pass that she mentally puts a few pieces together and notes at last that they are all falling in a uniform direction, all seemingly from the same place. So if she can get there, she can go and do the star dances and sing the star songs and star star star star star!
Billions of them!
Her mind is set. She falls forward onto her hands and knees and uncoordinately stumbles on all fours, tilting her head back to track her (very, very slow) progress so often that her neck was beginning to hurt. She promises it that she will cry and cry and cry until the dark-haired one gives her cookies to be quiet later, if it will allow her to ignore it for a while longer.
It takes some time, but finally she gets the hang of it, and more and more trees and rocks pass by, more quickly than they had been before. (She has even found, with some regret, that she has passed the snail that had been travelling in her company for a while.) The number of falling stars has not decreased, but they don't seem to be getting any closer either.
It is very hard to be such a small, slow thing.
She thinks maybe it would be faster to lumber forward on only two limbs like the Bigger Thingies do, and digs her feet into the ground, raising her tush high and straightening her legs while she prepares to push off with her arms. Something gets mixed up along the way though -- a rock gives way beneath one of her hands (a rather large rock she had been depending on), and her body has had the brilliant idea to follow it! So she somersaults a little, over an edge and into another patch of rocks that push against her and send her slowly gliding down and into a soft field of --
of wet. Of cold! It is everywhere, in her hair and her clothes and refuses to go away no matter how hard she beats against it! She sees the stars very clearly in its surface a distance away from her, and thinks confusedly that this is maybe the sky, so she stays very very still to see if they will aproach.
They do. But when she snatches at them, they crumble into more wet and cold into her fingers, and she stares at them in abject confusion. She has broken them? But-but-hey, she wanted to play with them!
She splashes indignantly in the shallow creek, wailing up an alarm at being denied her stars.
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:53 pm
____{ a shining star for you to see what your life can truly be } ____________________ joint quest with raife
And then, just as suddenly, the water is no longer there.
Taji does not know that she should keep still, that instincts never known should tell her that this is perhaps a very dangerous situation. She only knows that she was in the water and now she is somewhere else, and she knows this primarily because -- even though she still feels the wet -- she no longer hears the sound of her own splashing, but instead the dull thump of meeting earth and a regular breathing that is not her own.
She unleashes out a long, rolling mrrrrrr that reverberates through her body and sets it to turning, first onto her stomach, and when the new position proves not to be as advantageous as she'd hoped, onto her back again.
Oh! Now she can see the Con-Thingy! She waves at him with outstretched arms and wriggly fingers, and is immediately distracted by the presence of colorful smudges on her wrists, ones that match her companion's fingers.
Her eyes narrow slightly as her brain tries to unpreparedly process all of this information, and to assist, she helpfully shoves as many fingers in her mouth as she could and begins thoughtfully chewing. Of course, of course! She babbles excitedly around them, and if she had any free she would have pointed them at Connor, It was you! You saved me from the Big Wet. I remember now.
The stars are still streaking the heavens above, but unfortunately they will have to wait. The Big Thingy comes and drapes a blanket over her, and she obligingly sits up, crouched, on her feet, so that he can better tuck it around her until she is barely anything more than a tiny, quivering lump in the picnic blanket. She tries her best to stay still as he dries off her hair, but cannot help but to give out one big fitful shiver -- not unlike a dog shaking water off its body -- that causes even the ends of her ponytail, sticking out from underneath the blanket, to jump and wag like a tail would.
Presently, once all of her hair is mussed and sticking up every-which-way (but is dry, at least!) he decides he is done, and when it is that time, Taji leans forward until she falls to her hands and knees, and crawls over to Connor. Her 'halo' has picked up bits of seaweed and bunches of foam that lazily revolve around her, threatening to smack into her friend and newfound hero. Taji, with the blanket still tucked around her and trailing from her shoulders like a magnificent cape, regally sits up on her knees again and reaches forward towards one of the small stars entangled in the seaweed.
It takes a fair bit of tugging, and twisting, and mentally trying to persuade her halo to let go of it, but finally the small star spirit manages to wretch it free of its place. Looking very satisfied with herself, she offers it to Connor with a small, gurgled "Taa-daaaaahh~!" of a fanfare.
Connor smiles and accepts it, smearing paint all over it as he inspects it carefully in his hands. She wonders whether to tell him that its name is Sigfreid when he determinedly places both hands down, star still clutched tight, and crawls towards her. He says something to her and Taji, intrigued, obligingly sits her rump down on the grass with her legs spread out in front of her and watches as he paints a small heart on her ankle in red.
She tilts her head to the side, blowing frustratedly at strands of hair that fall in the way, attempting to see it better -- but before she can, she is picked up by two soft arms that end up belonging to her mother. Taji is treated to another dry-rumpling of hair, with soft words and chuckles, and she manages a glimpse of her brothers in between the towel passing over her face: they look at her briefly, but their attention is held mostly by the stars.
There is one word she recognizes in her mother's babble, though: home. Taji murmurs a reply and shifts in the towel to sit more comfortably in Lady Madeleine's arms, as she says the proper things to the Other Big Thingy (and Taji hopes he was properly thanked.) She then turns to Connor too, who Taji points to and declares, in speech no one else comprehends, that he is a hero. And then they leave.
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:56 pm
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:57 pm
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:58 pm
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