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 Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:58 pm
As it turns out, there was a reason for the orb's ridiculous behavior. Apparently, orb is Goblin King speak for "egg from which a small being with a torso but no lower appendages will hatch after freaking out the roommate". But orb is much faster to say, so I can understand, perhaps, why he decided to shorten it. Besides, if he had given me its translation, I probably would have looked a lot harder for a return address.
I told my roommate that it was not only new technology, but an experiment in bionics as well, and so it was supposed to simulate life processes, and that I have to record what it does so that my dad's company will see how it works. I don't know how much of this bullshit she's buying, but at least she doesn't ask me to go more in-depth, because I feel a little guilty telling such blatant lies. On the other hand, what else can one do in my situation?
So, anyway, from the "orb" came a small being which, in all honesty, looks a little like a Christmas ornament. He (I think it's male, though, as it lacks any recognizable genitalia, it's hard to tell) has red hair of the sort usually only found in a bottle or on an Irishman, and very fair skin. And pointed ears. And he seems to have a toddler's mentality, since he parrots words and picks up concepts very quickly, as a child in the acquisitive stages of learning (see: a toddler) will do.
If he is a toddler, he will need a name, but I've never been much good at that, so I hope he'll develop some personality to go with his growing vocabulary, or else he'll be stuck with the name Red, which is the first thing I notice about him when I look at him.
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:41 pm
Ewan came to visit me shortly after my as-yet unnamed toddler-creature came out of his orb. I've determined that the creature is, indeed, male. He's developed distinctly male mannerisms, including a certain disregard for his own well-being and a penchant for risk-taking. Earlier in the day, before Ewan came over, I had to stop him from climbing into the toilet bowl.
When Ewan came over, he first checked to make certain-sure that my roommate wasn't around, peering around the door, he didn't see her, because she wasn't there. Had she been there, I would have met him outside the room and suggested that we take a walk, as she hates him as much as he hates her. Angela the Crusader, according to Ewan, pretends to be in support of alternative lifestyles, but is really a homophobe, and it shows when she deals with him.
The next thing he saw was my floating creature. My creature glared at his intrusion, bared his teeth, and said, "Go away. Koree can't play with you. She's playing with me."
Oh, yeah. He calls me Koree. I know he can say Korea, but he chooses not to. He likes to call me Koree. I have to say, I don't mind the name. It doesn't sound like a country or part of an apple. I'm definitely in favor of that.
To his credit, Ewan didn't ask me any questions about my creature's origins, though I'm certain he found him unusual. He just played with my creature absently as he talked to me. My creature was not nice when he played with Ewan, making every excuse to do him small injuries, like throwing things at at him from different vantage points. Ewan, not being very coordinated, got hit a lot.
When he left, Ewan bid me farewell and said to my creature, "Hasta luego, Fiero Corazon."
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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:54 am
As it turns out, Fiero likes the words "fiero corazon." He repeated them constantly after Ewan left, to the point where my roommate (may she change rooms next semester) asked if he was broken. She, of course, still thinks that Fiero is some kind of bionic toy. I don't know how people that gullible get into college. Really, I don't. Fiero doesn't behave like any kind of bionic I've ever seen, and I've had some experience with the things. If he was a bionic, he'd be decades ahead of what we are currently capable of producing.
Oh, yes. I've decided to call my creature Fiero Corazon, because he really likes the combination of sounds, I think, and because it does suit him. He is a very brave, passionate little thing. I can't really deny that, even if I wish he wouldn't be quite so very brave and passionate. It makes life difficult at times. Well, awkward, at any rate. Anyway, it was the constant repitition that made me decide to call him Fiero Corazon.
Did I mention that already? I'm so sorry. It's finals week, and my brain is mush. It was fine taking nineteen credits when all I had to do was go to class and do the work in another class, but now I have to study for six classes' finals. I think my brain is turning to mush, really. Fiero is not particularly useful when it comes to studying, but he provides me with ample opportunity for distraction.
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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:09 am
As I was saying before, Fiero provides a great deal of distraction while I'm trying to study. My finals are all scheduled on the last three days before break, so I've got more time than most to study, but I've got three finals on my first day, one on my second day, and two on my last day, and one of those two is my lab final. I mean, in a practical sense, I've got nothing to worry about for my lab final, since it's just Bio 101, but I have no idea how I'm going to remember all the reagents and solutions. So far, I've been stuck with memory devices. For example: Benedict's Solution measures sugar, because Benedict Arnold was a traitor and traitors have to be sugar-coated to be successful. I envy people who are good at acronyms (or whatever those kinds of pnuemonic devices are called).
And Fiero has been no help. He hides my pencils, he hovers over the books I want to read and trails his ribbon-things over the line I'm trying to read as I read it. In this, he's like a cat, but he's like a cat that really ought to know better, since I'm constantly remonstrating him for it. Well, remonstrating is putting it nicely. Remonstration implies a civil tone of voice and mature behavior. I admit it: I yell at him. I'm too stressed for this s**t right now. I simply don't have time to deal with Fiero.
I wish I could just leave him with a baby-sitter, but I can't. Obviously. I can't even imagine trying to explain him to a baby-sitter. If this is what it's like being a parent, I'm never having sex, and I'm never getting married, and I'm never having kids. It's too much. I really just want to run away and leave all of this behind.
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Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:30 am
As I write this I am glancing over at Fiero on my bed as he glares at me reproachfully. I deserve it, I suppose. No. There's nothing to suppose. I deserve it.
What happened was, I was studying really hard at the last minute for bio, and Fiero, as I've mentioned, was being an utter nuisance, and finally my temper got the better of me. I picked him up and put him out, like he was a puppy or a cat or something. For a while he cried and pounded at the door, and I ignored him and put on headphones. When I took them off, I didn't hear him anymore, so I went back to studying.
Hours later I went to my bio exam, and afterward I was fairly certain that I'd done well, and I'd forgotten completely that I'd put Fiero outside my room. I remembered soon enough when I got back and he wasn't there. I called and called for him, and I looked all over the room, making a complete wreck of the place, but he wasn't in the room, obviously.
Only then did I recall putting him out of the room. I felt like a jerk, and I felt even worse as I went around the dorm looking for him. He was still missing even after my exhaustive search. Finally, five hours later, I was forced to give up because it was too dark for me to see and I had my last final. I'm fairly certain I bombed that exam. I was too sick with worry for Fiero.
This morning I had to go home, but I delayed for as long as I could, to the point where my mom was ready to throttle me. At the last minute, when I was afraid I would be forced to leave Fiero at college, he appeared from under a bush, all covered in dirt and shivering with cold. He floated into my arms and we all got into the car. Mom grilled me about him the whole drive home, and I don't even remember what I told her, I was so glad to have him back.
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 5:50 am
I'm back at college now. Joy and rapture. I'm still overloaded with classes, but they're more agreeable now that I've got most of my required classes out of the way. Fiero is in fine form.
During break Fiero was a little hellion, taking full advantage of how guilty I felt for losing him temporarily. He mostly spent his time chasing the dog and scaring Mom's bird. Of course, the bird's a rotter, and thoroughly deserves to be scared, but the dog - Pepper - is really sweet. She's like ninety in dog years, too.
But, other than being a terror to our pets, he got along well with the family. I blamed him on Dad, which is easy enough, since he's not around to dispute it and it doesn't surprise the others in the least that Dad would give me a gift that eats and not bother to include some sort of instruction manual with it. My family takes a very dim view of my dad, obviously.
My cousin, Robbie, who came over for Christmas and is just a little scary actually really liked Fiero. Understand, this is totally out of character for Robbie. Robbie's one of those emo-skater-goth-punks who basically wears a lot of black and scowls a lot, but never seems to be happy or like anyone or anything. He listens to really wierd music.
But he liked Fiero. He said Fiero's pure. Whatever that means. He also refused to touch him, using Fiero's purity as an excuse. I'm pretty sure that Robbie's wierdness isn't likely to rub off on Fiero (at least, I hope it won't), and he's not as dark and evil as he thinks he is. I'm almost certain that no sullying will occur.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 5:03 pm
Last time I mentioned that Robbie was afraid he'd somehow pervert Fiero or something, yes? I don't think he needs to worry about that. I think that I've already achieved that, quite by accident. I can't believe how stupid the whole thing is, really.
See, my roommate was out rushing some sorority or other. I have no idea which one, and I don't care. I hope she pledges and decides to move into the sorority house and leave me with a single for the rest of the semester. Anyway. She was out. So I thought it would be an opportune time to indulge in my guilty pleasure: yaoi on the internet.
So I logged onto my favorite site and was reading quite happily one of the stories by my favorite authors. It was a new one-shot fanfic about some anime show I'd never watched before. That's not really the important part, now is it? Fiero was sitting (after his fashion) in my lap. He doesn't read, as far as I know, so I figured it was safe. He was enjoying watching the movie I had playing on the right side of the screen, which was Shallow Hal.
Then I got a phone call on the dorm phone, which is beyond wierd, because I don't even know that phone number. So I went to answer it. The dorm phone's attached to the wall and to the receiver. It's positively ancient. Anyway, it was my roommate. She was really drunk because part of the initiation process had involved a large amount of liquor and she wanted to know if I could come get her. Ordinarily, this is not my sort of thing, but she is my roommate, and at least she wasn't driving or something equally stupid.
I went to go get her. Not that I have a car, but she said she just didn't want to walk back on her own, and I don't blame her for that, really. It's never fun to walk campus when you're alone and drunk. I know from experience. That's why I have Ewan. I guess none of her sorority sisters felt like walking her back, though. I wouldn't join a sorority like that, but that's just me. What do I know about popular people?
When I got back from dropping her off at her boyfriend's place, which is where she wanted to go, I found Fiero had turned off Shallow Hall and was looking at an online yaoi comic he'd found (I guess) by clicking on one of the Author's Favorite links. He looked fascinated, and I hoped really hard that he didn't understand what was going on. However, he did see some hardcore stuff. It's not that I have a problem with homosexuality - obviously - but it's not like I really want to raise up this gift from the goblin king to be gay, either.
Maybe he'll forget it. Toddlers tend to forget most things, right?
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 12:14 pm
The good news is that Fiero's made no mention of the pictures he saw. I haven't mentioned them either. I'm hoping he forgets. I mean, I got into yaoi when I met Ewan. He was always reading these comic books and I thought it was really wierd and immature of him, but he was totally engrossed in them, so I asked if I could borrow one. This was before I knew he was gay. (Yes, such a time did exist.)
So, he agreed to lend me one of them, and I read it, and I couldn't believe that I was hooked on gay man porn. But I was. Of course, it became obvious that Ewan's tastes ran toward the male of the species soon after, but I could hardly be bothered by that since I enjoyed the same reading material. It was my discovery of yaoi that mde me and Ewan such good friends.
I'm worrying too much. Nothing's going to come if it, and even if it does, Fiero will still be Fiero, just like Ewan was still Ewan.
In other news, my classes are going well. I'm much happier with this semester's schedule, and I'm seeing a lot less of my roommate. She's out doing more rush-y, pledge-y stuff. It suits me fine. She hasn't been as drunk as she was that night, and when she is, she tends to go to her boyfriend's.
There's this guy in my literature class, for example, who's really great. He's not really boyfriend material - for one thing he's already got a girlfriend - but he's smart and funny. He sits next to me and whispers scathing things about this girl who sits in the front row and is such a total brown-noser. She raises her hand all the time to ask questions, but her questions aren't really questions. They're all in the form of "Isn't it true that...?" Twit.
I know, I'm harsh and probably my prejudices are baseless and they're certainly unfair, but it's who I am. I'm not a nice person.
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Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:45 pm
Last night I went out with Ewan to watch one of the student theatre groups' performances. It was fairly standard. A musical by Rogers and Hammerstein. Maybe South Pacific? Might've been. I was totally distracted by the really hot guy sitting two seats away from me. He had shaggy blond hair and an aquiline nose and a strong jawline. I only saw him in profile, especially in silhouette, because of the stagelights. After the play Ewan teased me. I pointed out that he, too, had noticed the blond and he conceded the point to me.
We took Fiero with us. He loved it, even though he fell asleep near the end. I don't blame him. The play did go really late, and the theatre was surprisingly hot, considering that it was below freezing outside. I don't know how it gets so cold here. I mean, it's not exactly warm where I'm from, but it never seems to get this cold. Maybe it's the thin dorm walls. They let in all the cold air.
Fiero was too tired even to float back to the dorm. He was too tired even to protest when Ewan picked him up and carried him. I was glad to be walking back to the dorm with Ewan. There were some drunk frat boys who made me easy. They were too drunk to act on anything they said, according to Ewan, but I've some experience with frat boys, and I think they might've tried if I hadn't been with Ewan. Ewan laughed it off when I told him that, but I did feel safer.
My roommate was out for the night, so I tucked Fiero in and made Ewan a drink. Fiero sleeps in my bed. I'm not sure how that's going to work out when he gets older, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it I suppose. I don't know how fast he'll age, for that matter. He might age at the same rate as a human being, in which case I'll be safe throughout college as long as no one reports him.
Ewan and I had a little too much to drink. Too much rum. So Ewan ended up spending the night in my roommate's bed. It wasn't a bad night at all, and with the added advantage of waking up to real coffee, because Ewan's an early-rising coffee-maker. I'd totally marry him if he weren't gay.
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Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 4:52 pm
Good news. Really good news. The roommate is moving out. She's found a place in the same complex as her boyfriend and she's moving out. I was dancing for joy earlier, though I was politik enough to wait until she'd left to do so. She told me this after coming in and finding me and Ewan drinking coffee in my bed while Fiero continued to snooze. Ewan danced around with me. He can actually dance, and I can't, but it was a joyous expression regardless.
Then we had classes and so had to be more sober and grown up. It's so much more fun to go to class knowing that it's only a matter of days before one's roommate is leaving. Of course, there might be a replacement roommate lurking somewhere, ready to move in and be even worse, but I doubt it because it's spring semester and the university's not inclined to move people into new rooms after this last last-ditch effort my roommate was involved in.
In a way, I wonder if it was something I did, or whether it was just that we're totally incompatible and poorly matched and she sees it, too. I tell myself it's that. Even though I wasn't fond of her, I'd hate to think I actually caused someone to move out. It's not something one likes to have on one's conscience, after all. Makes me feel like an ogre if I think about it too long.
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Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:41 pm
Fiero picks up on language very quickly. He understands spoken English without difficulty, and he speaks it with more and more ease every day. He's becoming much clearer in his speech, too, to the point where his words are totally comprehensible and he hardly babbles at all. I'm proud of him.
I've also started to teach him to read. I'm not much of a teacher, but he's really smart. He picks up the written word as quickly as he's picked up spoken language. He knows the alphabet completely and I'm working on teaching him to sound out words. I don't know if he'll be staying with me forever, or if the goblin king will one day summon him back to his world, but as long as he's with me, I want to be sure that he's equipped to handle my world. Reading is part of that.
Ewan's been spending a lot more time with me since Angela moved out. I don't particularly miss her, but I haven't gotten around to decorating her side of the room yet, either, so it looks quite barren. I prefer to have Ewan here. He keeps the room from feeling so empty. And he's a much better teacher than I am, even if Fiero's still not overly fond of him. I can't imagine what Fiero doesn't like about Ewan. He just doesn't. I've got no right to say anything. I felt the same way about Angela.
Funnily enough, I now have to pretend to have liked her and to be sorry to lose such a nice, pleasant, likeable roommate so that the rest of the floor doesn't think I'm a b***h and that I'm the reason she moved out. In all honesty, I can be a b***h, and I might be the reason she moved out. I refuse to ask. But I also will not let them think I'm a b***h if I can help it. It's not asking too much, is it, to want the people you live around to think you're a decent person?
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Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 5:16 pm
I can't believe it. I simply cannot believe it. She was living with me a week ago, and now she's not living anywhere. I'm just in shock.
Angela Frischaft, aged twenty years, sister, daughter, aunt, activist, political science major, and roommate, died last night crossing the railroad tracks which run through campus drunk.
She was drunk, so was the driver of the car who hit her. Both of them thought the other would get out of the way, and neither one did. Predictably, the one encased in two tons of metal survived and the one in Coach shoes didn't.
The driver, reportedly, had a blood alcohol level of .13. I don't know how people let this happen to them. I've been pretty drunk. I've been so drunk I've woken up in my bed and wondered how I got there from the party. I drink, but I don't get so drunk that my judgment is that seriously impaired. I've never stood staring at cars as they drove toward me. I've never kept driving toward a person who wasn't moving.
Obviously there's going to be legal unpleasantness to go with the physical and emotional unpleasantness.
Fiero is staring at me. He doesn't understand. I can't explain it to him. I can't even explain it in my own head. I didn't know it would affect me like it has. I wasn't fond of Angela. That could have been me. Or Ewan. It could've been anyone. Oh, God. There are really no certainties in this world.
I want to go home and see my mother.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:38 am
Ewan is sometimes not the greatest person in the world, despite all the nice things I've said about him before. I mean, I know he and Angela got along worse than cats and dogs, but what he had to say about Angela's death was: "Hey, at least you get an A for the semester, because your roommate died."
And the worst part is, he's right. I do. She was still my roommate officially when she died, and so, by university policy, I get an A for all my classes for the rest of the semester. I feel like a horrible person for being relieved, since a girl died and I get rewarded with good grades. I feel even worse because when he pointed that out my first thought was, So I can relax about my paper for history? I should be shot. I'm clearly dysfunctional.
Fiero, on the other hand, is overjoyed. Not because Angela's dead, but because he's mastered reading and I've started him and Ewan on math. Ewan's some kind of strange math major which is crazily in-depth and mathy and incomprehensible unless you have the same major, but he can do normal math, too, and so I've got him working with Fiero on it. I can't teach math, even if I can do it.
Fiero's good at math, too. I wonder how long it will take him to age, because he seems to learn at the rate of a human child. I guess. I'm no expert on early childhood education. My major keeps me far away from children, which is as I prefer it.
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Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:53 am
Time passes. I'm more or less okay with Angela being dead at this point. The university required me to go to counselling. They say it's standard procedure. The counsellor said I ought to keep a journal to let some of my "poisonous feelings bleed out." That's a direct quote. That was the turning point in my therapy. Once a person starts talking about poisoned feelings bleeding out, I find it impossible to take them or their purpose seriously. So the counselling helped, but not as predicted.
Fiero's glad to have me back. He says it was wierd before, because I wasn't being myself, and that it was like someone else was using my body, and he didn't like it. I apologized for upsetting him and we moved on. Ewan's taken him into harder math concepts like fractions and multiplication and division and taught him to write with a pencil. I don't know how I didn't notice these things going on. I must have been more out of it than I thought.
Fiero still prefers to run around in the nude, rather than wear the clothing I've bought for him. I guess it's okay, since he has nothing to worry about people seeing, but nevertheless, I think it would be good for him to get into the habit of wearing clothes. When and if he gets older and less of his body is comprised of ribbons, I imagine that he'll want to cover it. Of course, he goes outside in the snow thus and claims not to mind the cold. Maybe whatever sort of creature he is is better acclimated to cold temperatures and so has no need of clothing. But I doubt it. He looks too much like one of Tolkien's elves, whom I recall wear clothing.
Maybe I'll bring home Lord of the Rings and see if he takes a clue from Legolas or something.
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