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 Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 11:51 pm
"Nah, we don't need to drive to get there," Murphy scoffed, grabbing his sandwich and better-than-root beer with a bright and impish smile towards the mustached man behind the counter. "It's in walkin' distance."
Seamus snagged his own meal and drink, hooking an arm around Tepin's shoulders to quickly scoot her out the door before the owner got testy. "Plus, he doesn't like us to stay long. Not since that day."
"Quite grudging of him, really. It's been what, five years?"
"I know! Like a woman, he is. Holding a grudge that long. And over some spilled coffee!"
"Some ruined sandwiches!"
"Some broken machinery!"
"And who could be pissed so long over chickens, really?"
"We was doing it as a favor to the chicken farmer."
"I wonder how that woman's surgery went?"
"I bet her face went right back to normal! Honestly, no reason to hold a grudge."
As they talked, they walked. And as they walked, they dragged Tepin between them, leaving the rusting hunk of junk and little hoagie shop far behind.
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Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 10:14 pm
She dared a glance back as they led her out of the shop, her terrified eyes meeting with the shopkeepers for only a moment. It might of just been her imagination, but she felt a strange, unspoken bond with the man.
“I still don’t get it.” She admitted, both hands gripping her coffee tight as her sandwich was gently balanced between her arms and her chest. “Why do we have to climb? I can’t climb with this!”
As if to prove her point, she lifted the coffee, only to nearly drop the sandwich in the process. In order to keep the sandwich from falling, however, she had to sacrifice a small coffee spill as she reshuffled her arms.
A messy lid, some lost coffee, and a flustered Tepin later, she was righted again.
“We’re not gunna try to climb another crane, are we?”
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Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:33 pm
Both twins moved to free her hands, Murphy snagging her sandwich and Seamus taking hold of the coffee, grinning identically.
"Not exactly!"
They turned the corner, and were met with a building. A great, brick building, rusty red with an emergency stair winding back and forth up the side of the ugly building. At the top was a strange glinting - sharp and shiny beneath the sun, with refractions of light dotting the building across.
"Up we go!" Murphy encouraged, taking to the stairs and hopping up the steps.
"Don't get tired on us now," Seamus nudged her back, following his brother. "It's not as cool as the prince's castle, but cool enough! Come on, slowpoke."
Easy for them to say. Their long legs were more than handy in propelling the two energetic young men up the stairs, arms full or no.
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 12:04 am
The building looked like any other in town, aside from the strange light that seemed to shine at the top. She had to squint against it, blinking whenever the light hit her directly in the eye. Whatever was up there, it must really be worth it for the twins to go out of their way to bring her up.
Just like the day at the site, they were forcing her to look at things from completely different perspectives.
“I’m not slow!” She chided, her hands gripping onto the railing as she bounded up the stairs as best she could. For each of their long strides, it took at least two of hers, yet with hard work and effort, she managed to be only a bit behind. She stared up at the two, watching as their dark-haired heads bobbed with each step.
Somehow, they had come across such a place, just as they had found the sights from the construction site. It seemed that no matter what, these two boys always seemed to see things from another point of view, as if they lived in an entirely different reality.
She watched as they got to the roof of the building, putting the lead on to catch up. As she climbed closed and closer to the roof, strange sounds seemed to reach her ears. It sounded almost like… the flapping of wings…? And chimes. Something was up there, something far more interesting than just a pretty view.
Red eyes peeked over the side of the building before a pair of tan hands pulled herself onto the roof. It was only then that the source of the sounds caught her eyes.
She could simply gape in amazement.
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 12:30 am
The Look probably wasn't the only of its kind in the City.
It happened, someplaces. Someone gets tired of the cement, of the narrow confines, of the hustle and bustle of the city. No space, nothing green to see, everything ugly and busy and tightly-packed.
They moved up. To the tops of buildings, to the roofs. Space there, plenty of space. No dividers or walls to be found. The more cunning managed to cultivate a tiny plant or two to add life to the open space.
Human creativity had to vent in other ways. One day, some years ago, an old man began to build. He knew how to carve and bend metal, and his wife knew how to sew wonderful patchworks of colored cloth.
Together, they created the Look atop their apartment building. The rooftop was a strange and clustered temple to all the plants that had once existed, now carved out of metal and stone and rising up from the cement of the floor as if naturally planted there.
Some trees were decorated with the green of summer - thousands upon thousands of hues of green cut from cloth into individual leaves, woven into the branches. Still others reflected the colors of autumn, of winter. Reds and yellows, oranges and silvers. Everywhere upon the floor their shadows flapped and danced in the wind, sending light scattering in spots like fairy lights.
The prize of the metal and cloth garden, however, was the willow tree. Large, sturdy, it rose from the center majestically, branches decorated with hand-made windchimes in place of leaves. Beneath it were scattered chairs, blankets, pillows and quilts where people came to lay and relax in their park.
The twins more than eagerly ran around the trees, making a strange bee-line for the willow. Knotches had been carved into the metal wood, and there they climbed like a pair of lemurs to the lowest branches, legs swinging in the air and pushing each other for the prime seating under sun and shade.
"Come on, Tepin!" Seamus waved her over, offering up her coffee to tempt her to climb the branches. "It's not hard to climb! See that little branch there? Just your height."
"Maybe she needs a step-stool, Seamus," Murphy teased, beginning to unwrap her sandwich as if to eat it himself. "Mm! Roast beef and swiss - my favorite!"
"Since when?"
"Since I stole it from her!"
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 12:14 pm
She couldn’t do anything but stare at this strange forest. Colours swirled in front of her eyes as the ringing of music hit her ears. Even with just a slight wind, it seemed that the world around her transformed into the forests of old, complete with nymphs and fairies fluttering around.
It was amazing. As if the city had simply melted away from the world, leaving such a beautiful thing behind.
But her thoughts were interrupted by the teasing of the twins, and she hastened to catch up to them. Standing at the base of the tree, she glared up (red-faced) at them in a bratty pout. They were totally not being fair! She was taller than she had been last time they met!
While she lacked the deftness of the boys, she made up for it with tenacity. With ever slip of her feet, she only had to grab harder with her hands, it seemed like in no time at all, she was perched on the branch, glaring sullenly at them with outstretched hands.
She wanted her goods. Now.
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 3:41 pm
Seamus grinned and obediently handed over her coffee. Murphy, on the other hand, decided to steal a bite of her sandwich before offering it back, taking his sweet time chewing that bite.
"You know, Murphy, one day she's gonna bite your ankles off," Seamus commented idly, swinging his leg around to more comfortably sit on the branch and leaning back against the trunk.
"Still gonna need that step stool!" he snarked back amusedly, pulling himself up to a higher branch with the jingle of chimes, waving his feet teasingly. Seamus scoffed, flicking some hot cocoa off his fingers in Murphy's direction.
"Jerk."
"You love me!"
"Right."
"And I love you!"
"Of course."
"Which is more than I can say for your ex-"
If there was any one topic to trigger Seamus' ire, it had to be that.
"That bint!"
"Forgive and forget, Seamus," Murphy chuckled.
"I got her flowers! You know how expensive those buggers are? And what does she do?"
"Breaks up with you?" Murphy prompted helpfully.
"The bint breaks up with me!" Seamus' frustration was on a roll, hands moving wildly to illustrate the sheer disbelief he'd felt at the situation. "In order to date her cousin!"
Murphy laughed.
It was clear these two were insane.
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 10:39 pm
She pulled herself onto the branch, mouth scrunched in concentration as she tried her hardest not to tilt too far one way or the other. She really did not feel like falling onto a hard cement roof anytime soon. She found the best way to not fall was to simply slump across the branch on her stomach, legs wrapped carefully around as her head bobbed up and down as she tried to reach for her lunch.
Sure, it was not the most graceful position, but the girl really didn’t want a concussion.
Her glare was unmatched as she grabbed her sandwich back from Murphy. She’d kill him with that look if she could. Stealing food was the ultimate sin to that child.
But, idly chewing her food, she listened nonetheless, letting the two continue their word pingpong that would go on indefinitely. Only one comment caught her ears, whether or not it was intended to do so.
“Did you get the flowers in that weird shop in Middling?” She raised the coffee to her lips, drinking carefully with one hand as her eyes stayed focused on Seamus, “The one with the vines growing all over it?”
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 11:06 pm
"You know it?" Seamus asked, biting into his sandwich and balancing the cocoa between his legs, atop the branch. "Yeah, I bought 'em from there. Kinda creepy place."
"Seamus reckons to be a psychic, he does," Murphy winked, blissfully ignoring the glare in favor of taking a swig of his sarsaparilla.
"I never said that, Murphy!" The other twin shot a similar glare towards the antagonistic one.
Murphy coughed, and adopted what he felt was an accurate representation of Seamus' voice: prissy and sounding like a little girl. "Murphy! Don't walk into that alley - there's something bad down there! Don't spill the salt, Murphy, it's not good! Something bad's going to happen this week, be careful! That shop has demonic spirits screaming out from the windows!"
"You twit! I don't sound like that!"
"Do too, mate. S'fact of life."
"And I'm not that superstitious!"
"Seamus, you gloated when those ghosts showed up," Murphy heaved an exasperated and long-suffering sigh. "Wouldn't let us live it down for weeks! Always reminding us who was right, and who was wrong. I almost threw you to one of the monsters, honestly."
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 11:20 pm
“The scorekeeper of the Game lives there,” She uttered it so nonchalantly, as if this was common knowledge that everyone should know; even the bint-people who had no powers, “So he’s not all off.”
Tepin continued to eat, grinning between bites at their playful banter. They were amusing, like watching some type of comedy group on TV.
Finishing her sandwich (It was easy after the GIANT bite Murphy had taken) she licked at her fingers a bit before shoving the wrapper into her back pocket and holding her coffee with both hands.
“You know, I never really thought about it, but that prolly had something to do with the Game, too. …Geez.”
She frowned, a look of concentration dawning on her face as the hamster wheel of her brain cranked into gear. “Maybe he’s onto something,”
She commented offhand, taking another sip of her coffee, “Heck, maybe he’s a player and he just doesn’t know. We’ve got a sixth sense, too.”
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 11:29 pm
Seamus laughed at her comment. Murphy didn't.
"You b*****d!" He looked accusingly down at his brother, shoving the sarsaparilla bottle at him with a slosh and a splash. "I thought we were brothers, Seamus! Brothers! Twins, even! How could you do something like that without me?"
"I'm not-"
"After all these years I've looked after you, fed you, clothed you, protected you!"
"You didn't ever-"
"Betrayal! Treason! Treachery!" Murphy sobbed.
"For the love of-" Seamus was getting annoyed.
"I disown you, Seamus! You and your little god too!"
Now, Seamus wasn't much prone to violence as his brother was. But sometimes, you just needed to shut a man up. Sandwich and drink ditched upon the branch, he leapt off, grabbing onto Murphy's leg and dragging the other twin down from his perch to the floor below.
"That's it! I disown you back, and I am going to beat it into your skull!"
They both fell in a tangle of swinging fists to the layers of blankets and pillows and quilts below, a roughhousing mess and insults flying.
"Twit!"
"Idiot!"
"Pig-lover!"
"Still the prettier one!"
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 11:39 pm
Sneakily, stealthily, she wriggled like a caterpillar, coffee in hand, to Seamus’s discarded lunch. With an evil glint in her eye, she pounced upon the meal, grinning deviously at her new claim.
Now in her hands, she had both coffee and hot chocolate! The gods could be appeased as well as the child’s unending desire for sweets! She was a genius! Taking a small sip of the hot cocoa (with girly caramel) followed by the coffee, she found herself in complete ecstasy! Whatever this strange mixture was, it appealed to both Tepin and Mixcoatl-- therefore, it was the epitome of greatness.
She smiled down at them, watching as they participated in good old fashioned butt-whopping. That was normal for siblings, right? Soon Varu and Sydni would do the very same thing!
“Heeeeeeeeeeeey~~” She called down to the fray, smiling quite proudly, “If you’re gunna do that, I’m gunna help myself, ‘kay?”
Yes, the old saying was true after all.
While great dogs fight, the small dog gets the bone.
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 11:49 pm
"Hey! That's mine!" They both broke off. Even when fighting, they had the uncanny ability to synchronize their shouts. The heap of limbs quickly untangled itself, with Murphy up and moving the fastest. By the time Seamus had pushed himself to his feet, the other twin had monkey'd his way up to the branch, sitting next to Tepin and stealing his goods right back.
He left Seamus' meal to her tender mercies, however.
"So, Tepin, now that we're alone," he began, suavely, even as he used his foot to push Seamus off the notches in the trunk, sending his twin falling back to the ground below, "Shall I teach you about snogging?"
He grinned the grin of an evil man, even as his foot sent Seamus flailing once again. He didn't wait for an answer, instead seizing the day during one of those precious moments when she was not occupied with sandwich or drink.
Swiftly, he struck, leaning in - and the kiss, it was stolen! Brief and chaste, but nonetheless: he had it.
It was about that time Seamus chucked a pillow at his brother, pushing Murphy off the branch to crash back down upon the ground.
"Prince is going to kill you!"
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Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 12:16 am
Her eyes followed the boys with disbelief-- after they had gone and stolen her food! How dare they? They followed Seamus and his many attempts to climb the tree, only to be forced down. They quickly darted to Murphy as he moved in-- wha-!?
His lips felt warm and a little rougher than she imagined boys’ lips would feel like. Even despite how fast that was… It… Wow. Kissing was nice. It just felt good. Even though only her lips were involved, it felt like her heart was beating a mile a minute, and her face felt so warm!
And then the object of such emotions was beaned by a pillow and somehow knocked off of their metal bench.
She frowned at the two, her heart finally slowing its pace as her face returned to it’s normal colour. Boys were boys, after all. That was what older boys and older girls did-- it was like it was the law.
“No,” She frowned at them, watching as they seemed to seep hatred for one another, “He doesn’t care. I think he knows I’m trying to find a boyfriend.”
If he didn’t… She shuddered to think of how he would react if he found out.
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Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 12:25 am
Seamus was not smothering his brother with a pillow. Seamus was not committing fratricide. He wasn't. He was padding Murphy's face. That was all.
He pressed the pillow down harder, ignoring the flailing limbs grimly.
"He does. We know he does. He warned us away from you from the get-go. It's kinder to let Murphy pass away peacefully," he added around the muffled yelling. "You hear that, Murphy? I'm doing you a kindness, you ingrate!"
Murphy must have choked out something particularly vile, because Seamus started to pile more pillows upon the struggling twin.
"Shh, now. Sleep the sleep of kings, Murphy," he hummed brightly. "Wait! My cocoa!"
He released Murphy, standing beneath the branch and holding a hand out expectantly for his cocoa.
"Be a good lil' lass and pass it down to me, will ya?"
Murphy coughed, and heaved breath after life-giving breath into his sore lungs, complaining all the way.
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