|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 8:32 pm
 eureka
The spring viewing was less than a week away. He had until then to make a choice.
Had he known the focus of his father's newest hobby, he might have run to Ursula with this instead. But he had jokingly vowed that Shawn would be the first to know if he ever got it in him to move forward, so it was to his father's he went.
His apartment complex was only just down the block from Fisher's own, but the building was newer with larger living spaces and an inner courtyard where tenants could rent plots to do with as they wished. That was where Fish found Shawn on this brisk Saturday afternoon, kneeling in front of a number of neatly labeled piles of seeds and placing them into evenly spaced holes. Gardening. Fisher hated gardening.
"Hey, dad."
Shawn squinted as he looked up. "There you are! How're things?"
"All right, actually."
"Good, good." He smiled down at his future tomatoes. "That's always nice to hear."
"How've you been?"
Shawn scooped some dirt over the next hole in the line. "Just fine. I finished an octopus crib for some kid to be traumatized by the other day."
"Made of octopus?"
"No, wood. As usual. I don't know how to carve octopus, do I?"
Fisher smirked, crouching near the seeds and holes. He didn't want to be rude. He didn't want to get his pants dirty either.
"I also decided it might be nice to have a garden," Shawn continued while he waited for Fish to settle himself. "I've got tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers to start. Our super vetoed corn, but at least I'll still be able to make one hell of a salad." He scooped his fist through the air in the hokey but universal sign for 'hot diggity'.
"In July."
"In June, actually. You can come taste it if you want."
Fish snorted, then relented and took a seat on the ground.
"I came here to get your opinion."
"On?"
"My kid."
"Mm. All right. Lay it on me."
"I got an invitation to come to a spring party... thing... at the Lab. The last time they invited me somewhere, I didn't go. And it's taken me, what, almost a year to get back to them with my bottle? I thought that would be the last time they invited me anywhere." He gestured at a cucumber seed, picking it up when Shawn nodded. "I realized I probably shouldn't be giving up if they haven't given up on me."
"Probably not." Shawn pointed at the hole he'd dug and Fisher popped in the seed. "So, what do you need me for?"
"I have to find a soul."
Shawn looked at him askance, brows knit with the confusion he was trying to hide.
"I know. It wasn't in the brochure."
"What does that mean, a soul?"
"The Lab gave me an essence... the cat-repellant catnip I brought over at Halloween. Half my kid, right? In order to become a Raevan, it needs a soul too. I have to capture one."
"You have to kill someone?"
"No! No. Well..."
Shawn leaned in close, resting his spade on the ground. "They can't make you do that, can they? You didn't sign some assassination contract. We can find a way out, I'm sure of it."
He was touched. He was also pretty sure that wasn't what he wanted. "Actually, I think I'm finally ready to commit."
"Okay..."
"I don't have to murder a person or anything. I think that some guardians didn't even use animals. So soul might be the wrong word... maybe?"
"Hm."
"I promise I won't kill a dog or the pizza guy or anything."
"I know you won't." Shawn picked up his spade again and dug another small hole. "How do other people manage it?"
"By accident, I hear? Or out of mercy, if something's dying, you know."
Shawn nodded.
"I don't live the kind of life where I regularly come across dying things that I want to be half of my kid, so..."
"That's where I come in?"
"Yeah."
"You don't know what to kill."
"No. And I've thought about it a ton I mean, not murder, just..."
He fell silent. Shawn was quiet for a time too, clearly continuing his gardening more to hide his apprehension than from any happier impulse. Fish helped for a bit, but he mostly sat back, waiting for his father to come to terms with what he had said or, well, that was it. He couldn't imagine him having any other reaction than acceptance, to be honest. Shawn dug, planted, covered holes, pulled weeds, and when the last seed was in the ground, he turned to his son.
"All right. Tell me what you've ruled out and I'll see what I can come up with."
- - - - -
An hour later they were inside, a plate of cookies and a notepad between them on the coffee table. Fisher had gone over all the reasons why he had nixed nearly every brown and white animal under the sun while Shawn had sat there, attentively and patiently, waiting until the list of cons had finally come to an end.
"That's it," Fisher said, making one last decisive note on the pad. It was still disheartening to be so negative, certain that he had nothing more to suggest, but this time he was hopeful too. He had fresh eyes on the problem, and those eyes happened to belong to the one person he trusted more than anyone in the world.
Shawn turned the list to face him and skimmed it once more. "Okay. You kept mentioning how none of these matched the essence, but I have no idea what that means. How don't they match. What does the essence do?"
"Oh. Right. That would help." Fish chuckled under his breath as he swung the pad back around and started writing.
cat-repelling catnip
repels cats and butterflies
minor stimulant for humans
attracts mosquitoes, flies, squash
bugs, aphids, termites, and roaches
As soon as Shawn took a second look, he honed in on the last couple of things Fisher had written.
"Yeah, that's..."
"The frog thing."
"Mmhm. It would attract what it ate. It's perfect, but..."
Fisher had never really come up with a valid reason to dismiss frogs, but he had done so anyway, despite everything that pointed to their inherent suitability. Maybe he didn't want to kill one. Maybe he didn't want to doom a kid to lifelong slime skin. Maybe it was a little of both. Whatever kept him from choosing it appeared to be a deterrent for Shawn too.
"It just doesn't seem right."
"I agree. But there's something else."
"What?"
"All these bugs. This." He tapped the word aphids. "I know that whatever you end up picking has to be brown and white, but I can't help getting stuck on ladybugs. They eat aphids and..."
Shawn went on, explaining his reasoning and reluctantly admitting he'd be more comfortable knowing all his son had to kill was some bug, but Fisher barely registered any of it. All he heard was the steady thump of his heart. All he saw were spots. Spots. He'd considered them important early on, but there had quickly come a time when he'd stopped seeing them at all. The colors had been vital. Why not the pattern? The answer had been right there in front of him the whole time.
His father was still speaking, but Fisher had only one thing on his mind. He reached across the table and retrieved his phone, inputting his password and loading up Chrome.
He typed "brown and white ladybugs". He squinted at the results.
"Dad?"
Shawn had gone silent when Fish made a grab for his phone. Now he was watching and waiting. "Yes?"
"What do they call ladybugs? That snooty name people use?"
"Snooty? Ladybird?" He bit back a smile.
"Yeah, that..." He tried it, grinning broadly at the screen as it began to load.
There. Perfect.
The spring viewing was less than a week away. Fisher had finally made his choice.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 8:33 pm
 lab 305 spring viewing x x
Birds, high winds, and nudity punctuate this springtime visit to the Lab.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 8:34 pm
the shortest planning session in the history of the universe As it turned out, making the decision to capture the soul of a ladybug and actually doing so were on two entirely different levels. Fisher spent several weeks following his epiphany making lists of popular Gaian parks and strolling through them on the weekend, soul bottle in hand, searching for clusters of beetles he might suck the life out of. He found plenty of them, buzzing in bushes and crowding wild roses, but not a one was brown or white. Mother Nature's trolling was all that he deserved, to be honest, but that didn't mean he wasn't sick of it.
"We should go camping," Ursula said on a Thursday afternoon, sipping at one of the peanut butter and pomegranate smoothies she insisted were going to be the next big thing. "You, me, Shawn, and Lina. The cool ladybugs are probably more exclusive, and what's more exclusive than the actual forest?" She had finally started her maternity leave three days ago, despite having been unable to get around with any speed for at least two weeks prior. With no one in her monkeysphere willing to rub her feet, she'd spent a lot of time since at the nail salon, indulging in a loop of the rubdown section of an average pedicure. Her expectant expression was punctuated by a blissful smile as the technician hit a tense spot.
Fisher didn't want to go camping. It was bad enough that he'd been forced into the wilderness in search of some cheeky, never-sober grapes. Hanging out in the middle of nowhere with his dad, a heavily pregnant friend, and a woman who barely knew him was the first on a long list of things he didn't want to do this week.
"You can't go anywhere like this." He realized his egregious mistake as soon as the words were out of his mouth. He tried to mitigate them with yet another faltering, "It'd be bad for the baby?" but Ursula was already fuming.
"I can and will, Fisher Gridell. We're going ******** camping."
And that was that. They were going camping.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 9:32 am
sunset swarm By the time the four of them chose a date and Fisher was granted time off from work, another three weeks had gone by. He had unintentionally alluded to Ursula's delicate state no less than six times over those twenty-one days, the last mention just this morning as they'd settled into the car. Every time he'd opened his stupid mouth since, her frown grew slightly more pronounced, her silence a little longer. There was no getting around it. Ursula was pissed.
He hoped that she knew he meant well, that he was worried for her and any comments he made were meant to be caring check ups, not jabs at her self-perceived uselessness. It was just... what if she gave birth to her fairy baby in the middle of nowhere, the only people there to help a carpenter, a theme park paper pusher, and a... what had Lina done before she'd retired? He'd have to remember to ask the next time they were accidentally left alone together. Whatever she had been, chances were slim it was a doctor, and without one of those, they were screwed.
"Urs?" She hadn't uttered a word for ages now, not since right after they'd left. If she wasn't over it by now, this trip was probably headed for disaster. Fisher watched what he could see of her profile from behind, and deciding that she appeared unfazed by his opener, he added, "Do you think the lightning hands will still work once Moeth is here?" He flexed his fingers, smirking as Shawn mouthed lightning hands? from his spot across the backseat.
"They should." Ursula's tone was mild, tolerant. He was forgiven, for now. "Thinking about taking down a bear? Or maybe a hyena? Or a lion?" She snorted.
"No," Fish replied, the single syllable drawn out in a clear indication of duh. He directed a soundless tell you later at his father. "I just wanted to make sure we could protect ourselves on the off chance any of those animals wanted to start something." Camping wasn't his strong suit. It was a believable lie.
"Yeah, as far as I know, it should work just fine. Commence with your lightning."
"None of that in the car, please," Lina said, voice light and amused. "But we're almost there, and you can try anything you'd like once you're outside. Six miles."
He wondered how she knew, considering she'd opted to make the drive the Old Fashioned Way, sans GPS, but then he saw the road sign she had referenced for himself.WHITCOMB PARK - 6 MI. Six miles until he could start his search for the perfect ladybug. Or any ladybug, really. He couldn't imagine he was going to be able to tell what made one better than the other anyway, and if he let himself implement a ranking system now, he'd be soulless for another year. Fisher inhaled slowly, filling his lungs to capacity, then held his breath until he saw spots. It had to work. There was no other way this could end.
"So, what should we do when we get there? Build tents? Light fires? Hunt for our dinner?"
"Considering it's only going to be about..." Shawn looked at his watch, "eleven o'clock in the morning, I think we should just wander around, get our bearings, simple stuff. We can eat some sandwiches in a bit, or wait until we find a clear spot to set up our table."
"Yeah, sure. I—" The car jostled over a bump in the road and Fisher's hand shot out to secure the familiar black briefcase resting on the seat between them.
"Nervous?"
He shook his head in tight, controlled denial. "This is gonna be easy. I'm fine."
Fisher had been surprised to learn that the motley citizens of Gaia hosted no fewer than eight websites dedicated to the habits of local insect life, and every one of them concurred. Whitcomb Park was the place to be if you were looking for cream-spot ladybirds. A veritable dotty bug hotspot. If he didn't make it out of here with his soul bottle filled, it would only be because he hadn't understood what it wanted in the first place.
So, yes. Nervous wasn't the half of it.
- - - - -
It took most of the rest of the day for those nerves to even out, but eventually Fisher convinced himself that this whole endeavor was more of a camping trip than a dire, life altering event. After they'd unpacked the car, Shawn and Lina found a quiet spot to camp and everyone helped set up tents, some more effective at it than others. By the time they'd eaten their sandwiches and taken several hundred pictures between them, the sun had begun to set. Fisher was as relaxed as he was going to get, surrounded by friends, family, and a pair of magical bottles that would soon hold his future.
"This is... nice," he said, content but cautious, peering up through the trees at the darkening sky. It was a mix of blue and purple, streaks of orange slashed through like smears of ink. Fisher leaned back on his palms, a sleeping bag pooled beneath him and Ursula lying at his side. She was curled around her stomach, reading The Order of the Phoenix by the glow of a pocket flashlight. Thirty minutes ago she had been regularly addressing her son, whispering a summary of Harry's adventures in the wizarding world, but both she and Fish had gone silent since. It was warmer than most other Mays he could recall, and they were floating in that pleasant void between waking and sleeping.
"It is. I knew it would be the perfect spot," Lina said, voice low and oddly proud. She was smiling at him when Fisher looked her way, and for a moment he wondered if there was another loose essence around, one that made them syrupy and agreeable. Even if there was, he supposed it didn't matter. Not tonight. He smiled back.
A shroud of silence enveloped them.
Time passed, Fish wasn't sure how much, only that he was roused from his thoughts by a faint rush of sound, the crest of the tiniest ocean, and he sat up just as Lina whispered,
"Fisher. Look."
Someone had started a fire at the center of their ring of tents, and beyond its circle of warmth a hundred bright pinpricks of light blazed and cooled in the dark. The soul bottle was in his hand in an instant, and he barely drew breath as he crept up on the swarm, arm held out to one side and eyes wide. The odds that there were any ladybugs just hanging out in a throng of fireflies were probably slim, but something in Lina's voice, in the buzz of these tiny wings, told him that was not the case tonight.
He held his breath as he reached the edge of the cloud, but the bugs parted upon his arrival, fluttering curiously in a halo around his form. There were ladybugs here, about half as many as the fireflies, but their spots were black, the red that surrounded them a dark grey in the night. The soul glass remained empty, but Fish felt a smile break across his face even so.
He turned to Lina a little too quickly, the insects momentarily fanning away in protest as he carefully waved her over and she obliged. They stood, silent and barefoot, in the wilds of Whitcomb Park, and when Fisher finally surrendered to sleep that night, it was dreamless and worry free.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 4:46 pm
don't worry Someone was smacking at Fisher's back through the thin wall of his tent. It jostled him out of a sound sleep, and though he kept his eyes firmly shut through the disturbance in the hopes that it would end before he had truly awakened, he knew from the start the point was moot. At least he was mostly sure it had to be unintentional. If someone was doing it on purpose, he was going to... send them a strongly worded letter. All right, fine. He couldn't be truly mad at anyone who had accompanied him here. That didn't change the fact that he had only managed about three hours of sleep the night before, despite whatever serenity he had found amongst the fireflies.
Raking his fingers through what he imagined could only be described as the most flagrant case of bedhead ever witnessed by man, Fisher unzipped the canvas flaps protecting him from the untamed outside world and crawled into the morning light. Brushing off his pajamas, he rose to his feet and made his short way around the tent, a sarcastic reprimand on his tongue. It died there.
"Urs?"
His best friend crouched on her hands and knees in the dirt, the strong whacks she'd delivered minutes before weakened to dull taps.
"What's wrong?" he asked, sighing at his own idiocy as soon as the words were past his lips. Why was he even wasting the breath? Cupping his hands around his mouth, he shouted, "Dad!" in the direction of the last remaining occupied tent, then kneeled to help Ursula up.
"Moeth."
"Yeah, I know. It was a stupid question." All it took was a moment for Fish to figure out there was no way he was moving her on his own, but in that short span of time, Shawn and Lina had hurried over, dazed but awake and running on adrenaline. "We have to get her to the car." Ursula was shockingly pale, but that wasn't a surprise once he had considered the blood. Shawn noticed it then too, throat bobbing at the sight of it.
"You stay at her shoulders and I'll support her midsection."
"I've got her feet."
With utmost care, they carried Ursula out to their rented SUV, settling her in the cargo area as quickly as they could manage while keeping her comfortable. Fish took her hands while his father and Lina went around to the front.
"Here with you or in the back seat?"
"You're not coming." Her reply was nearly lost in the roar of the engine, but Fisher could read her lips easily enough, and he frowned before he could stop himself, shaking his head in stern refusal.
"I should've put my foot down when you insisted on being here instead of caving like I always do. I knew something like this was going to happen. We should've stayed in Gambino. A couple more weeks—"
"No, Fish." She squeezed his fingers and smiled up at him. "We're meant to be here. It had to be today. Everything's fine." In direct contradiction to her words, Ursula winced, her grip tightening. "And you're not coming."
"I am. Move over."
She laughed, her joy an almost inappropriate flare of normalcy, like she wasn't lying in the trunk of an off-road vehicle trying to keep her insides where they belonged.
"Everything's fine. Don't worry." Ursula was trying to get him to look at her, he could tell, but he turned away, closed up the back of the car and circled around to its side rather than give in. He was poised to enter when he felt another presence to his right, heard a second voice.
"You really shouldn't come." Lina's diminutive form stood tall beside the front passenger's door. Her tone was low and calm, something about it catching his attention and holding it in a way that Ursula's had not. How dare she tell him to abandon his closest friend! He might never see her again and some woman who he barely knew was denying him the right to stay by her side. His anger rose, turning dark with frustration, fear, and something he couldn't place. It felt almost like the emotion was being manufactured, like he couldn't possibly be this upset when she was only making a suggestion.
"You don't get to say anything about th—"
Fisher truly looked at her then, deep into Lina's eyes. They had darkened to a fathomless black, pale flecks of green the only color within their depths. His breath caught in his throat and his head felt light, free of panic and doubt, and he stepped aside without further argument, watching her as she climbed into the car and it sped away.
Everything would be fine. He had work to do.
- - - - -
He burst through the trees near their campsite with an unerring sense of purpose, grabbing his phone and the soul glass from his tent and nearly forgetting his shoes in his haste to move on. Ursula was in good hands. They would get her to the hospital in plenty of time. He didn't have to be there at all. All he had to do was find a damn bug.
Fish was already breathless as he set off in the direction where he had seen the fireflies the night before. They weren't around now, but it was the best lead he had. There was a path here as well, one that had disappeared in the dark but was now almost too clear, a scattering of pale stones leading down a steep incline. He could hear water rushing ahead, and as he drew closer it deepened into the deafening roar of a waterfall. He watched it with wide eyes as he passed, wondering how none of them had known something so immense had been so near all along.
It grew warmer and Fisher slowed as he went, navigating rocks and puddles and stands of trees that grew so close together he nearly had to climb them to get past. He traipsed through several spots where he would have sworn bugs might gather, but their buzzes were absent, that was... until they weren't.
His phone declared it was slightly past one when he heard it, a low, monotonous susurrus not unlike the waterfall. This time, however, it was wings. He rounded a boulder into a clearing full of bugs, and for the second time in twenty-four hours he rushed forward, soul bottle outstretched. The insects pulsed away from him, nowhere near as accommodating as the ones from last night, most of them completely vacating the area once he had invaded their space. He really should have seen that coming, but he was tired and sweaty and he just wanted all of this to be over.
"s**t. Come back. I didn't mean to bother you."
His phone buzzed in his palm, quickening his heart and souring his expression as he looked down. Two things caught his eye near-simultaneously.
The small, pristine, pink piece of paper nestled in the weeds at his feet, and the text from his father that read she's gone.
He tapped back what? and within seconds received she was in her room and now she's not. we're coming to get you.
Fisher found himself sliding to the ground, forever careful of the bottle even when he couldn't feel his legs. Why hadn't he gone with them? Where had they taken her? Who had taken her? Was she all right? Numb fingers brushed the pink scrap next, and as he lifted it out of the grass, he was already squinting in confusion at what it said.
A sigh shuddered through his nose as Fish's vision went briefly blurry, a single tear plinking onto the surface of the soul glass. Inside, it swirled with the life force of his cream-spot ladybird, much larger than its physical form would have suggested. The bug's body remained perched at the edge of Ursula's note for a second longer before it fell, and he caught it, cradling it in his hand as, slowly, the other insects returned to the clearing around him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 6:15 pm
finally His father found him a couple of hours later, teary, disoriented, and kneeling alone in the dirt. Or mostly alone, at least. Shawn helped him to his feet, but when he tried to take the soul glass to give his son less to concentrate on while they walked, Fish held it even tighter, stubborn refusal clear in his eyes even before he spoke.
“No, dad.”
His petulance might have been amusing were they disagreeing over anything else, but Shawn found Fisher’s protectiveness only fitting after all that had happened this past year. He conceded without a fight.
For the next several hours, Fisher sat in the back of the SUV while Shawn and Lina cleaned up the camp, the bottle still clasped between his fingers. He had a soul. He’d done it. But for the life of him, he couldn’t recall how it had been done.
It seemed to take forever to get home again, though the sun had yet to set when they did. Shawn got Fish settled in his apartment with a donut and some coffee, the swirling bottle always within sight, propped in its padded briefcase. Once his first donut and several of its friends were gone, he finally asked about Ursula.
“She disappeared from the hospital,” Lina explained. “No one who had seen her on our way in could remember her at all.” She didn’t seem terribly concerned, but to be fair, neither did Fisher. He dug in the pocket of the jacket that hung on the back of his chair and pulled out Ursula’s note. Don’t worry. He was trying desperately not to.
They reluctantly left him alone once their conversation had petered out, promising to return in the morning, once he’d gotten some rest. But instead of doing as they suggested, Fisher pulled a piece of blank paper out of his neglected printer and penned a letter to one Zeke Farris.Quote: Zeke,
After a year of searching, I have finally captured a soul. Looking back, I realize I was probably a little too obsessed with making the perfect choice, but in the end, I’m glad things went down the way they did. In my soul glass you will find the important parts of a Cream-Spot Ladybird, a very stylish bug, if I do say so myself. :) I look forward to meeting my Raevan in the future and I want to wholeheartedly thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Fisher
The next morning, he nervously called the Lab’s courier service, handing the briefcase off to the young woman who came to retrieve it with a broad grin. He doubted she met many actual future guardians, considering how few Raevans there were, but she seemed to take his giddy mania in stride anyhow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 6:16 pm
thirty At the start of June, after the initial shock of Ursula's disappearance had worn off, Shawn took to regularly grilling Fish on what he might like for his birthday, as if by encouraging his son to focus on fancy gifts and fancier meals he might eliminate that hollow ache that gnawed at Fisher's chest whenever he dwelled on thoughts of his closest friend. That tactic might have worked had this been any other year, but this birthday would see him turn thirty, and that only served to depress him further. The one person who might have reliably cheered him up was gone, off doing heaven's knew what. Maybe she was even dea—
fisher
He froze in place, fingers curled around the handle of a mayo-laden knife. He wanted to flip out, to fling his dull blade into the neck of whichever sort of otherworldly being had invaded his kitchen, but he stayed his hand. He would have missed entirely, and the voice was too familiar to stab anyway. Fish raised the knife slightly even so, and it loosed a blob of creamy condiment onto the countertop at the same moment that a grinning, ghostly specter flickered into view.
hey, birthday boy!
"Wyahahaha!"
Fish started violently, the knife joining its former mayonnaise in a messy clatter.
"Holy... pig... ********, Urs!" He clutched his chest, wondering if this was how he was fated to end. Ham sandwich heart failure sparked by a Skype call from fairyland. Fisher chuckled, the sound mostly breath. Even if this resulted in a trip to the hospital, he had to admit it was wonderful to see her again.
"Sorry!"
She didn't sound very apologetic, though judging by the way she was grinning, she might have been too giddy for it to register. Fisher knew how she felt. Ursula's form stuttered and froze, as if she was having trouble finding a wifi signal, but when she reappeared in full she was a great deal more solid, almost as corporeal as she would have been were she standing right in front of him.
Fish shook his head, waving away any responsibility she might have claimed for his heart palpitations. "No worries." He paused, then added, "So, where are you now? Where's Moeth? Are you guys okay?"
She started to nod even before he had finished speaking. "We are! This place is wonderful! Better than I could have ever made it in my head. I wish you could see it!"
"Someday, right?"
On average, Ursula had always been a decent liar, but in this instance, she just looked equal parts guilty and pitying, like she had been caught enjoying a decadent chocolate dessert in front of a lactose intolerant child. "Yeah! Maybe." It was convenient that he had given her something else to talk about, so when she changed the subject it didn't seem forced. "You've gotta meet Mo though! I can't describe how perfect he is." She glanced down as if she expected to find the baby cradled in her holographic arms. "I'm glad. After being unsure about so much, it's nice to finally feel like I did something right."
Fisher nodded automatically, but underneath his carefully cultivated customer service exterior, jealousy prickled. If only life's great mysteries had been revealed when he had chosen a soul. Instead, he had been left with a million more questions and just as much anxiety over what was to come. But that was hardly Ursula's fault. Fish smiled, focusing on happier topics again.
"You know, we met a year ago today."
"On your birthday? Really? I was such a mess! The worst present."
"A Lion King quoting mess. The best one I'd ever met."
"The only one."
"Still." He chuckled and they stood silently for a few seconds after that, enjoying each others' company. "I miss you, Urs."
"Miss you too, hon."
Fisher opened his mouth, poised to ask her more about how Moeth was growing up or what sorts of food she was eating there or anything else just to keep talking, when Ursula's expression changed, going from happy to harpy in a breath.
"It has not been ten minutes, Yfael! Don't you da—"
She disappeared, and Fish was alone.
- - - - -
He had finished his sandwich and was just on the verge of getting up to wash his plate when there was a knock at the door. When he opened it, his father stood in the hall on the other side, looking slightly sheepish.
"Hey, dad." Fisher drew the words out like a kid with a secret.
"Happy birthday?" Shawn smirked and shook his head. "What are you up to?"
"I'm patiently waiting to see what you got me. You've been hinting at something big for months, and I can only assume it's completely outrageous. So, cough it up. Where's Manny?"
"Who?"
"My dancing bear. Keep up, man."
Shawn snorted. "What's got you so giddy?" He waved a hand. "On second thought, I don't want to know. At least let me come inside before I unleash the wildlife."
Fisher nodded and moved aside, peeking out into the hall as his father passed. If he was really getting a bear, it certainly wasn't here now.
- - - - -
The bear thing was clearly a joke. Fish and Shawn laughed and curled their fingers into claws and growled at each other in increasingly stupid ways at least eight times over the next twenty minutes.
The car, however, was not a joke at all. Its key was a shiny, electronic marvel, and when Fisher peered through the blinds with his heart in his throat, it winked back from its spot out front like it had something to tell him. A black 2015 Kia Sedona. Practically a house on wheels, at least from where he was standing.
"I know you don't like to drive any more than you have to, but being able to get around when you've got a family is important."
Fisher knew that his father included Ursula and her son under that label as much as his own mysterious future Raevan, and while a small, catty part of him wanted to argue that Moeth wasn't his and car seats in a minivan were out of the question, he soon realized that any rules he might set on any of those fronts didn't matter. He had bowed to ninety percent of Urs's whims for a year now, and he doubted he would stop now that she had a kid.
"Yes." It was all he could manage. He wondered if he might be in shock, but the thought seemed very far away.
"You okay?"
"Kind of not?" Fisher grinned shakily, drawing himself up as tall as he could and pulling breath into his chest as he did. "But I will be. Thank you, dad."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 6:16 pm
faulty Fisher was nearly asleep at the wheel. Between his mind-numbingly boring day at The Crystal Forest—long hours filled with Christmas activity assessments and Halloween decor unboxings—and his lack of meaningful rest the night before, he was racing into a dangerous situation.
At least until Ursula teleported into his car.
With her arrival came a vacuum pull of the air around him that left Fisher yawning, not because he was still dozing but because his ears needed to pop. He jerked the wheel in surprise as she bounced into the passenger's seat, a baby who he could only presume was Moeth squealing in her lap.
He hunched closer to the steering wheel as he briefly chuckled his adrenaline away, very deliberately not glancing in her direction until he had pulled over to the side of the road. Once his car was safely stopped, he wasted no time pulling Ursula into a hug, the baby slapping experimentally at Fish's ribs. When he leaned away again, she was smiling.
"You're here."
"For good, yeah. Visiting Yestr will be more like going on vacation than being abducted from now on." He had thought she might be upset about that, considering how much she seemed to have loved it there, but he saw no indication that she was anything but happy. It took her wiggling her son higher in her lap for Fish to shift his attention away from her face, though when he did, both the man's and the boy's grins widened, the second a toothless mirror of the first.
"Moeth! My man! It's great to finally meet you!" He felt like the most condescending kind of idiot, but the kid seemed to eat it up, so his ego didn't smart quite as badly as it could have. Moeth kicked a warm brown foot as he laughed and laughed, and under the dim overhead light in his car, Fisher could swear it shimmered, like hundreds of the tiniest bits of glitter were embedded just beneath his skin.
"He's beautiful, Urs."
"I know." She let her goofy smile linger for a few seconds more, then flicked at Fisher's sleeve. "Let's go! Take us home in your Dadmobile!"
He groaned as he shifted the van out of park. "It was a gift!"
- - - - -
She teased him about the car all the way back to his apartment, but Fish didn't care. He was the happiest he'd been since the summer they'd met, and even though their laughter was accompanied by the nonsensical gurgles of a magical infant, he didn't feel nervous about that at all.
By the time they'd scrounged up dinner and their uproarious nostalgia had faded to warm amusement, Fisher knew almost as much about where Ursula had been for the past five months as someone who had actually been there. It was too bad that he would never visit himself.
"I'll be allowed back pretty regularly while Moeth's still small, but once he's old enough to get there on his own, I'll be locked out again like you. Not you personally, just anyone who isn't fae.
"You aren't upset about that?"
Ursula shrugged. "Even if I was, there's nothing I can do about it." For the briefest moment she looked like she wanted to say more, but she refrained.
"I see." They sat in awkward silence for a handful of seconds, their first since she'd returned. Then Urs drew in an exaggerated breath, made a face, and smiled when both Fisher and Moeth grinned in response.
"Enough about that utter tragedy," she said in a way that didn't sound tragic at all. "Tell me what happened after I left. How did you catch your bug?"
Fish's smile faltered almost imperceptibly, but Ursula knew him too well to ignore it. She made a curious face though she didn't pry, waiting until he volunteered the story on his own. It didn't take long.
"I'd tell you if I could, but to be honest, I don't know. There's a whole chunk of time from that day that's just... gone. I remember you were in labor and there was so much blood..." He swallowed. "And I said I was coming to the hospital. I was adamant and so angry about it, like I could have just... throttled someone. And then I was kneeling in the grass crying and my father was shaking my shoulder. I found the bug's body, but its life was swirling in my bottle."
"Did you find a note from me?"
"I did, yeah. I found it in my jacket pocket on the way home. 'Don't worry.' I tried not to."
Ursula watched him, unblinking, and the longer he held eye contact, the guiltier she looked.
"Urs..."
"I know what happened to you. But it's not my story to tell."
Fisher felt a little like he had been dropped, but rather than it resulting from a roller coaster or an ill-advised skydive, it was Ursula who had pulled the ground out from under him. He wasn't angry, just vaguely betrayed.
"Whose story is it?"
She looked down, fiddling with Moeth's toes. "Your father's girlfriend's."
"Lina?"
She nodded. "Lina."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 6:16 pm
an explanation The pair of them made plans to invite Lina to brunch a week later under the guise of catching up, but as the night drew to a close and Fisher was left alone in his quiet apartment with nothing but his thoughts, he began to wonder if he had it in him to wait. Ten minutes after that, he knew for certain he did not. The longer he left things, the more his mind twisted them. He imagined his father bewitched and bedazzled by some magical harpy, rather than the kind—if eerily observant—Lina he had come to know over the past year. He had to get to the bottom of it all sooner than a week from now, and if Urs got pissed that he'd gone snooping without her, well, that was a problem for Future Fisher. Besides, she only had her blabbermouth to blame. If she had wanted him to wait, she could have chosen a time to tell him about his amnesia that was more conducive to her tagging along. He decided to have a little visit with his father's girlfriend the following morning, if she'd have him. He already had the day off. Ursula did not.
Lina responded to his texted invitation with a speed that suggested she might have been sitting on her phone. Following a bit of negotiation, they agreed to meet up at Beans and Books, a coffee shop within walking distance of both Fisher's and Shawn's apartments, but not Lina's own. He had been inside her starkly beautiful studio all of once, its enviable water view one that he would never forget. Fish had openly marveled at what had to have been her criminal level of personal wealth the next time he had been alone with his father, but Shawn had been tight-lipped about it all, only warning him not to bring up such things in front of Lina herself. She didn't like speaking of her wealth, her past, or much of anything at all beyond what might happen in the immediate future. Fisher could appreciate that the woman lived in the now, if only because he didn't want his father dwelling on the past, but he couldn't help the occasional pull of curiosity, especially when leaving things unquestioned had the potential to harm those he loved.
Despite his apprehension, Fisher was all smiles as he slid into the booth opposite Lina the next morning, nodding at her spectacle of a beverage.
"Good?" If he wasn't mistaken, the whipped-cream-and-sprinkles laden concoction she had chosen left anyone who dared partake in it twitching for days. Lina was clearly more ballsy than he.
She nodded. "I'll have you know that I am thirty percent caffeine and sixty-four percent sugar. The Elated Espresso is water to people like me."
"Impressive. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a much simpler man." He waved at the nearest server, ordering an earl grey with milk when the man approached. They sat in silence once the waiter had gone. Fish was at a loss as to how to begin, but just as he was poised to make a quip about the weather, his Dadmobile, or some other random topic, Lina began to speak.
"Simple is good. It's stable and strong, and I greatly admire those qualities in both you and your father." The corners of her mouth lifted, her smile faint. "In my opinion, they will make you an excellent parent, though your tendency toward straightforwardness will make you an equally abysmal liar."
Fish's smile persisted, though as Lina spoke it settled into a much milder version of the one he had worn when he'd arrived here. It wasn't as if she was mocking him or making fun, after all. Lina was just... being Lina. Perceptive, plucky, a bit of a pain. "Am I trying to hide something right now? Do you think."
"A small something. I would guess that you have a topic in mind that you'd like to discuss, something more serious than hot coffee and hellos, but I can't quite puzzle out what it might be. It's a bit of a shame. I used to be better at this."
"So there's no conceivable way I could have asked you here just to catch up?" He supposed this was a direct consequence of scheduling their little gathering for the morning after he had texted her out of the blue. Even if he'd shown up in a bathrobe and slippers, the meeting would have still carried a certain urgency. He should have waited for Urs like they had planned. He could have—
"You could have, but you didn't. I know that much for certain." She smiled another warm smile, a touch less sneaky than the last. "It's truly all right. We could be here to discuss some unpleasantness from my past or to brainstorm a Christmas gift for your father or any number of other topics of conversation and I would be open to them, despite what Shawn might have told you. I want you to feel comfortable with me. I want to be a part of your life."
It was as if her permission had opened a floodgate. Fish had meant to remain collected, but when he next opened his mouth, he found himself unable to stop the words from tumbling out.
"Ursula told me that you had something to do with my memory loss. The day I captured my raevan's soul." Despite his persistent concern over the outcome of this conversation and the very real possibility of false accusation, Fisher felt a prickle of satisfaction in response to her fleetingly startled expression. Lina's features smoothed again soon after that, her emotions hastened in their retreat by the arrival of Fisher's tea. Once their waiter had been thanked and was gone, Fish slumped a little, sighing heavily through his nose.
"Does this count as unpleasantness from your past?"
"Technically, yes."
"Sorry."
"Don't be. I said it was all right. I should be the one apologizing anyway." She paused, clearly searching for the smoothest path toward understanding. "The short of it is... I modified your thoughts."
If that was the least objectionable way she had of breaking her news, he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the rest.
"There was so little time. And you were in such a determined panic. It was important that you do what needed to be done without wasting your time worrying about Ursula's fate."
He had expected to feel angry, maybe even betrayed like he had in the brief moment he'd believed Urs was behind his amnesia, but Fisher found he felt nothing at all, his mind a curious void.
"I would have liked to have been there when Moeth was born." His voice was flat, barely above a whisper.
"You would not have been present even if you had been allowed to try, I assure you. And your child needed you, not hers."
"She could have died." Fisher's fingers twitched in toward his palms when Lina covered them with her own, but only a few short moments passed before a little of that tension siphoned away.
"Are you doing that?"
"What?"
"Modifying my thoughts. Again."
"No. No, I won't. Not... Not again. Ever. I promise. Even on that day I only meant to soothe, but I pushed too hard. I am as out of practice with magic as I am at reading people." Lina swallowed and pulled back to fiddle with her mug. "This is probably all terribly confusing."
"I mean..." Fisher inhaled slowly, allowing curiosity, concern, and courtesy to creep in once more. He had never been one to remain numb for long. "I don't even know where to start. Magic? Are you human? Not that it really matters, I just... Does dad know the things you can do?" And if he ever found out she had used her powers on Shawn... "Also... how do you know so much about Yestr?"
"Who?"
"The place Urs goes. Or Moeth's dad. Or... both. I've never really been clear on that, to be honest."
"Ah. That would be both." She sighed softly following that statement, almost as if she hadn't meant to utter it. "The halae name their lands after those who rule them, and Ursula is the consort to a prince." Lina swallowed. "And before you assume that I'm trying to trick you or am making things up, I know all of this because I was one too."
A slow wave of helpless discomfort rendered Fisher oddly wooden, not shocked exactly, just a touch unsettled. He gave her time because she was obviously struggling with something, but when the silence stretched on for a couple of minutes he gave her comfort too, reaching out to take her hand once more.
"My baby... died," Lina finally managed. "And I was cast out because of it. I didn't want Ursula to go through the same."
"Oh." He tried to come up with a neutral addition to the conversation, but he couldn't piece together anything more coherent. Fish had hoped to leave here with answers, but question after question kept filling his mind instead. His brain chose that moment to replay his first meeting with Urs more than a year ago, her tears mingling with the fountain's spray as she announced her pregnancy to a total stranger. Were these... princes kidnapping women and... well... he didn't quite know how to process the rest of that thought right now.
"I'm sorry. Truly."
"It was a long time ago." She squeezed his hand. "And I presume you'll learn more about it all when you least expect it. But for now I think I'd like to sit here and enjoy some quiet coffee time with my future son-in-law."
Fisher released her hands with a nod, his mind still reeling just long enough for him to miss her comment, at least at first. He couldn't help his grin once he processed it though, nor the giddy giggle that followed.
"Is that... Does my father know about this little development?"
"He does not. Which is a continuous surprise since he will be the one to ask. And I won't need mind control to get him to either."
For anyone else, her quip might have come too soon, but Fish just laughed again, leaning forward in conspiratorial glee.
"I know you won't. He loves you very much."
She considered him quietly, a small, exhausted smile on her lips, then put her cup down and reached out across the table again.
"I wasn't going to try this today, but I don't think it should wait. Give me your hands."
Fisher blinked, a little thrown by the rapid twists and turns this conversation kept taking, but he did as she said, taking her hands once more.
"Close your eyes."
He did.
"Now think of that morning. It was warm for May. Ursula... she had woken us because—"
Fisher's stomach dropped as the world changed. They were no longer in Beans and Books. The stood in the woods surrounding Whitcomb Park instead. By the door of the rental.
He was terrified.
"You don't get to say anything about—
Lina's pupils widened unnaturally, swallowing her irises in green and black and drawing his gaze away from everything else. This time, however, he wasn't completely captivated by them. He... remembered.
The memory ticked on, sharp and painful. Fisher stumbled into the trees, his ladybug found him, and he returned home, without Ursula. With that same burning terror.
He slumped forward nearly far enough to hit his forehead against the table, suddenly feeling as tired as Lina looked.
"Y... you didn't..." was all he could manage before he sat back and reached for his tea, gingerly sipping as he waited for his heart to slow.
"I had it all along. I remembered... all of that, really. It was just muddled. Stirred around. All you took was my fear. You made me forget how scared I was for her so I could do what I'd gone there for." He felt tears sting his eyes and he pushed them back. "I don't know what to say. 'Thank you for messing around in my brain' seems like an invitation to do it again."
"I won't—"
"I know. Plus, something weird happens to your eyes when you do it. I think I'd know what to look for next time."
She matched his chuckle with a breathy one of her own. "Good to know."
"And you can give the memories back too, so—"
"I wasn't sure if I could. It felt right to try."
"I'm glad you did." He sat back with a soft sigh. "So, about that coffee date with your favorite son-in-law..."
"Favorite, yes." She chuckled. "We should get back to that."
"I think I want a slice of pie to go with the rest of my tea. Can I get you one?"
Lina smiled, relief clear in her eyes. "Yes. Apple, please."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 8:44 am
the tiniest costume The strangest thing about Moeth, at least from Fisher's point of view, wasn't his subtly sparkling skin or the way he sometimes looked at you like he knew far more than an infant should. It was the smaller things, like his ability to sleep through literally everything, including vigorously loud "aw"s and a number of unnecessary outfit changes perpetuated by his overenthusiastic mother.
Today he was ignoring more distractions than usual, having already been a dragon, a rockstar, and a clown over the past forty-five minutes. Fisher had played photographer during these quick-changes, snapping shots of the boy despite his own misgivings. He couldn't help thinking that it was probably a bad idea to take future blackmail photos of a child who might one day wield the power to set his head on fire.
Ursula eventually changed the baby back into his normal jumper and booties for lunch, and soon after they had taken seats in the food court, Moeth awoke on his own. He smiled blearily at the first person he saw, which just so happened to be Fish.
"Hey, kid! Have a good nap?"
Moeth burbled and grabbed his nearest foot.
"So. If you had to pick one out of all the outfits he was in today, which would it be?"
Fisher didn't hesitate. "I liked the cheeseburger, mostly because I looked realistic holding him."
"Why's that?"
"Because I'm fat."
"You're not fat. You're... thirty."
"So, just old. Got it."
Ursula sighed. "If you don't want to be thirty anymore, I can get you an exercise bike for Christmas?"
Fisher made a face. "No thank you."
"Then stop complaining."
He put his fingers to his lips and mimed zipping them.
Urs chuckled. "I like thirty-year-olds just fine, if it's any consolation." She drew in a breath and sighed out her next string of words. "One vote for cheeseburger then."
Fish nodded.
"I'll have to get Shawn and Lina's opinions too. I'm not feeling it."
"Dress him however you like. He's your son."
Throughout their banter, Moeth watched the adults like he was at a tennis match. Back and forth. Back and forth. After his latest proclamation, Fish turned to the baby and wiggled his fingers, prompting a squealing laugh.
"Why's it so important that he be dressed up at all? We have enough pictures to embarrass him well into his fifties. It's not like he's going to remember."
"I'll remind you of this conversation when your raevan gets here." Urs reached into her voluminous bag, pulling out a small glass container full of bright green slop.
"Fair enough."
"And besides, even if I wasn't giving in to some desperate urge I've got as a parent to see my kid in cute clothes, he's got to be dressed up for the haunted house."
"You're taking him to a haunted house?"
"We're taking him to one."
Fisher looked at her, sarcastic disbelief etched in every line of his face.
"We are, are we?"
"Relax. It's not even supposed to be scary. The Happiest Haunted Castle in Durem's the tagline."
"Durem?" Fish went silent for a second. "Okay, fine. Nothing ever happens in Durem, scary or otherwise."
Ursula snorted, stirring her slop with a Big Bird spoon. "You'll have to dress up too."
"You're talking to the man who put a costume on a jar of opposite-world catnip last year."
"Oh yeeeeeeeeeah!" she said, drawing out her realization. "I can't believe you even questioned Moeth's outfits after that." She smirked and shook her head as she held a pea-laden spoon to the baby's lips, pushing it inside when he opened his mouth.
"So, you'll come?"
"I didn't realize I had a choice." As Ursula narrowed her eyes and visibly prepared a retort, Fisher added, "Yes, yes. You know I'll go anywhere you want."
Her smirk returned as she turned back to her son. "That's what I like to hear."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 8:47 am
Fisher is out and about this Halloween and Ursula definitely had a hand in it. There's parties to go to, costumes to see, and many things to eat so why stay home and miss all of that?! Of course, you cannot go out without a costume (it's blasphemy otherwise! ) and after all that rigamarole Fisher finds himself in another town in a place he definitely is not too familiar with. It would be or is fine until something goes amiss and the power goes out. It's dark, it's kind of dank (or maybe more rank...someone's either drunk or did NOT shower before this), and when you're stuck in a haunted house-themed party how on earth do you get out?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 11:53 am
haunted Compared to last year, the weather on this Halloween afternoon was positively beachy. Fisher squinted up at Durem Castle, the top half of his Ghostbusters uniform draping at the waist, its cuffs brushing the ground. Ursula stood beside him, effortlessly intimidating as Season Six Cersei Lannister. That was what she told people when they asked her who she was. I'm Season Six Cersei Lannister. That paired with a particularly intimidating glare had guaranteed her nothing but compliments on her costume so far today.
"The Happiest Haunted Castle in Durem," Fisher said with a single chuckle. If he was being honest, this place didn't look half bad. It even had gargoyles. "Shall we?"
He carefully pulled up his jumpsuit when she nodded, and once his plain white t-shirt had been covered with taking-care-of-business taupe, Fish bent to don his proton pack as well. Moeth wriggled from the comfort of his mother's arms, the fuzzy antennae atop his headband bobbing as he jammed a fist into his mouth. Ursula had vetoed the cheeseburger, dressing the baby as a ladybug to show support for Fisher's brewing raevan instead. The three of them entered the castle smiling, unaware of the enlightening turn their afternoon was about to take.
Just past the mock drawbridge, a tall woman in a fluttering white gown took their tickets and waved them farther inside, through another set of what appeared to be ornate doors, at least until Fisher rested his hand on the frame and felt worn wood instead of gold.
"Its an illusion," he whispered.
"I wonder what it looks like underneath," Urs whispered back. "Probably some abandoned mall or something."
They moved forward at a relatively leisurely pace, their speed hindered by the darkness. From what Fish could tell, beyond a handful of humans and elves clad in pale, flowing robes, there wasn't much here besides a few knee-high pumpkins and a maze of interconnected rooms. He was less than a second away from suggesting they turn back and go Trick or Treating like normal people when the hall ahead widened into a long, high-ceilinged room, dimly lit by five or six ornate candelabra. The space's more prominent feature was the table stacked with candy and snacks that spanned its center.
"This is more like it," Fisher said under his breath, smiling at Urs and glancing down at Moeth. At some point during their circuitous walk, he had nodded off.
They didn't wait to advance this time, but that was mostly because there was no one there to slow them anymore, no white clad spectres to push them forward. Even the small crowd of costumed visitors they had entered with had thinned away to nothing, though it was not immediately apparent where all those other guests had gone. Fisher shrugged as he reached for an intricately iced cupcake, shifting his hand to shield his eyes instead as the room flared brighter than the sun.
"What the hell?" Ursula muttered into Moeth's hair as she ducked her head.
Fisher shuffled in the direction of her voice as he waited for his vision to clear, but a rotting, meaty stench reached him first: the scent of decay. What the hell, indeed.
The first thing he saw as his eyes readjusted to the relative darkness was the table of food, just as impressive as it had been before, only in an entirely different way. Festering meat pies surrounded a bowl of candies that might have been appetizing had they not been floating in a pool of what looked like sewage. Fisher swallowed and looked away, only to find that the room had conveniently lost all of its windows and doors.
A couple of years back, he recalled skimming a tech magazine while waiting at his dentist's office. One article in particular had focused on the absurdity of the Google interview process and listed a couple of the questions they commonly posed to prospective hires. One of them focused on how one might escape from a similar space—a room with no windows or doors. Fish huffed a laugh under his breath despite the smell. He drew in a little of the fetid air to speak, when...
Moeth awoke and began to cry. It wasn't the patchy wail of hunger or discomfort, but a weird meh-meh-meh-meh sound, punctuated by brief shrieks and a lot of tired gesticulating.
"What's he doing?"
"I don't know. I think he... sees something."
Sure enough, when Urs stepped in the direction her son had focused on, Moeth's cries and chirps of distress melted into pleased gurgles and excited wiggling. When she reached the wall, Ursula extended a hand, laughing a little as it passed right through.
Of course. This was fake too.
She turned to Fisher before continuing forward, a grin brightening her features. He hastened to follow, but not before he grabbed a festering meat pie and brought it along, curious to see if a spontaneous little experiment would bear fruit. As he exited the glamoured space, he founds one of the fancy cupcakes in his hand instead. Gotcha. In defiance of this place, he shoved it into his mouth, a part of him still anticipating the taste of rot and mold. Thankfully, it was actually delicious.
In the next room, four teenagers in matching blue jumpsuits greeted them, their smiles so wide Fish was tempted to invite them to apply for internships at The Crystal Forest.
"Thanks for visiting the happiest haunted castle in Durem!" The kid in front enthused. "You guys can buy pictures of yourselves from Erica over there, but to be honest, yours are kind of... underwhelming?"
"Toby!"
"Well, I mean, they are! Have you guys been here before? 'Cause you walked right out of the illusion room before any of our scarers could actually scare you."
"Oh. Um..." Had he not been looking at her, he might have missed it, but since he was, Fisher could tell the moment Ursula decided to tell this seasonal rando all about her son's new magical powers. In his mind's eye, he saw the boy's polite smile, his disbelief, but even though he would write the proclamation off as the ramblings of a self-important weirdo, he would still know a little more about Yestr than he had before. It made Fish nervous. So, he made a choice.
"Yeah, I came here last week! Sorry! I just wanted to show her the illusion stuff. It's really cool! How'd you get the smells in?"
Urs raised an eyebrow. "Yeah," she drawled, decidedly less full of perk than Fisher. He had the distinct feeling they would be discussing this later. Or maybe she'd forget all about it and he would never have to explain why he had interrupted in the first place. "How did you make the smells?"
The kid launched into a happy explanation of hidden scent pumps and trigger switches and Harry Potter jellybeans that only came to an end when Moeth started wiggling.
"Uh... sorry about this, but we really should be going," Ursula said in her best customer service voice. "I don't want him to ruin everyone's Monday!"
Fisher briefly wondered who this 'everyone' was, but that curiosity shriveled and fell away as another group of intrepid explorers emerged from behind a bat-covered curtain, their terror still clinging to them.
"D... dude!" the first one said. "That was rad!"
The rest of the teenagers followed suit, blabbering about ghosts and bloody figures in mirrors and a thousand other things Fish and Urs hadn't seen. In hindsight, he was kind of grateful that Moeth had led them out so quickly.
We should go, Ursula mouthed soundlessly. At Fisher's nod, they tiptoed past their souvenir photos and made an escape into the crisp fall air.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 11:54 am
market meetingxxx
Reuben and Fisher talk about Raevans in a supermarket.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 8:15 am
caroling "I don't really sing." And yet, for reasons he couldn't put into words at the moment, he'd agreed to do just that.
"Well aware. Y'know, this isn't an audition for Gaia's Got Talent or anything. Just give it your best shot and you'll blend right in. Wendy believes in you." Ursula smirked up at Fish, brushing a stray bit of fuzz off of his checkered lapel. It was nearly Christmas, it was chilly, and they were minutes away from belting out Christmas standards at the Crystal Forest's annual Winter Holiday Celebration. They stood on a curved golden stage with a cluster of their co-workers, a sparkling curtain all that separated them from the hundreds of park guests gathered to watch the festivities. Despite Fisher's misgivings about his voice, he wasn't nervous. He simply preferred to put his best face forward in everything he did, and croaking out Silent Night in front of his friends and family was most definitely not going to do that.
"I always do. Give things my best shot, I mean." He didn't feel the need to comment on blending in. She already knew that was never something he aspired to do. Urs straightened, preparing to reply, and she would have done so had their choir leader not raised a hand, calling for everyone's attention. The music swelled, swallowing the idle chatter around them.
"All right, everyone! The curtain is rising in one minute! Tighten up your lines and smile!"
"Wendy says tighten up your lines."
"Wendy says tighten up your lines."
"You first."
"No, you."
"You."
"You."
They kept this up for fifty-four more seconds, after which they grinned, tightened up their lines, and drew in a breath to sing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 8:16 am
a promotion It hadn't been that shocking of a surprise overall, considering that he'd been gunning for advancement ever since he had first set foot inside the park as an employee, but it was still incredibly gratifying to be rewarded for all of his hard work, even when he had long ago stopped expecting to be.
As of the next morning, February 18th, 2017, Fisher Gridell would rise to new heights. He would have underlings, a bigger office, a new phone, a closer parking spot, and at least a billion more meetings to attend every day and...
He was really looking forward to it. All except for the phone part.
Fish was comfortably seated in his current office, admiring its coziness for the last time, when Ursula came bustling in, eyes bright and smile wide.
"Did you hear? I heard about you, but did you hear about me?"
"You? No. No! You too? I didn't hear, but..."
"You're looking at the new Assistant Manager of Food Services, in the flesh. Bow down."
Fisher hopped out of his chair so quickly that it spun in his wake, twirling merrily as he gathered Urs into a hug. She put on a token show of smacking at his shoulders and rolling her eyes, but she never stopped smiling.
"Congratulations, Assistant Manager of Food Services."
"You too, Manager of Shows and Attractions."
They were quiet for a little too long after that, until Ursula broke their companionable silence with, "I was thinking I should take this as a sign. Maybe I'll be able to save enough now to afford my own place?"
"Do you think your mother would mind?" The way her words rose in a question at the end left him unwilling to share his opinion until he was sure of hers.
Urs shook her head. "I think she'd welcome the quiet, to be honest. She spends half the year away as it is. As long as I bring Moeth by to visit, she'll be fine with whatever." She paused, looking thoughtful then a little devious. "You should come by and meet her the next time she's in town. It would be the perfect way to distract her from overreacting."
Fisher smirked as he pulled away and retook his seat, an impressive bit of acting hiding his mildly panicked reaction to that particular suggestion.
"Yeah. Sure. I could do that." He swallowed visibly and Ursula bit back a smile.
"I see how it is. Wuss."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
