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 Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 11:40 am
Caroline gently placed an elaborately wrapped object adorned by a gold bow by Cere's front door. She placed a note by its side before she left.
Quote: I know one day you shall rule the world, but the first step is playing the part. So here's your crown Sir Circe, I know you'll wear it well. Sincerely, Caroline R. <3
Inside the wrapping lay a golden crown with Circe's name engraved.
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 11:48 am
What are we gonna do tonight? || Same thing we do every night... It had been another delightful day at the Eden HQ -- Circe had gotten to see Madeline again! He had brought her pretties, too -- a fan to make cold with so warm people wouldn't scare her again, and a shiny bug to give her in exchange for the emerald beetle she'd given him before. She was happy and a small part of him was so very pleased with himself for giving such happy-giving pretties. He would have to give more, yes.
"'Lo," Lethe greeted them at the door as he and their mum entered into the small hotel room. "Gone," She continued haltingly, "Long." And she gave Cerena a stern look.
Cerena opened her mouth to stammer an apology (she asked Koyuki to keep an eye on her, not being able to afford a babysitter) but Circe promptly cut in. "Long fun!" He explained excitedly, letting go of Cerena's hand to do a twirly sort of dance around the shiny pale girl.
"Fun?" Lethe tried to track his movement but gave up and fell down on her tush.
"Yes," Circe confirmed, "Fun. I keeng now," He explained, gesturing wildly, "'n have qween!"
Cerena sighed and shook her head, beginning to move off to put away her coat while paying half-attention to the children's conversation.
Circe caught sight of Lethe's confused look and decided to explain further: "Keengs and qweens rule. They make rules and stuff, 'n people follow them. 'Cause they love them." He nodded emphatically.
Lethe considered this carefully. "Rule what?" She asked finally.
Circe opened his mouth to answer her but realized he didn't know either. Wrinkling his nose, he turned and ran off to find his mother. "Ceeeeerererecereere," He chanted the name people seemed to call her a lot, tugging on her long skirt. "What keeng and qween rule over?"
Cerena blinked down at him. "The world, I guess." A pause. "I think there's already a king and queen for the world, though..." She blinked confusedly to herself.
Wait, already? That would not do! "How do I become keeng?" Circe demanded crossly. How dare someone take his position!
"By, um... taking over the world, I guess." The brunette smiled apologetically to him, shrugging her shoulders to indicate that she couldn't help any further.
Circe looked at her and then wandered away to his bed, pulling himself into the sheets and pillows bunched up in a circle just so to resemble a bird's nest. Taking over the world in order to become keeng, hmm? Well, he'd have to do just that then!
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 11:49 am
Millions of boxes || Boxes for me Circe sulked quietly in the corner where he had been placed on an evil, horrible thing called Time Out. Why, when he was keeng, there'd be no Time Outs ever!!! (Except for maybe the people who annoyed him, but since he would be Keeng, the rules wouldn't apply to him anyway!)
He glared at the blank white walls in front of him. They were so boring! And white! And blank! And ugly! And not worthy of his presence! He was only trying to help, covering them in pretty scribblings with crayons! He made them better!
He did his best to ignore someone, whoever it was, as they passed behind him and went to the door. He heard it open, and then there were strange scuffling noises. Who cared! He was ignoring them! Still doing his best to ignore them, he tilted his head backwards in a stealthy attempt to sneak a peek at whatever was happening.
"You can come out now, Circe," Cerena smiled at him like nothing had ever happened, oh the insolence! But she was carrying two small brown-paper square-things, and they were ugly too. Circe got up long enough to toddle out of the corner before flopping down again, lower lip sliding out in a sulk.
Cerena sighed. "Don't do that," She stuck her tongue out at him. "Look!" She walked over and put the boxes down in front of him. "These are for you. See this?" She pointed to a black scribble on the square-thing. "It says 'Circe'. That means they belong to you." She beamed at him.
Circe eyed them critically. "Ugly," He declared, pushing them away.
Cerena sighed again. "No, look..." She kneeled down in front of him and began to tear carefully at the paper of one of the packages. Circe watched as it magically opened to reveal a white cat-like plushie and a piece of paper. He wide-eyedly reached for the plushie, vaguely noting that it smelled like cherry blossoms, and clutched at it protectively.
"It's from Shouko," She informed him, scanning over the note and smiling at it. "She made it for you all by herself. No one else has a plushie like this."
"'Course not," Circe scoffed, "I special so gifts for me are special too!" He would have to give her something in returned, but couldn't decide what. Something he had to make, of course, but he couldn't think of anything he could make aside from scribbles on a wall.
Cerena pushed the other package towards him.
Not letting go of his plushie (he was gonna name it Vivre, 'cause Vivre was a cool name just like him and the plushie!), Circe shifted it into one arm and cautiously reached out with the other. Gift-wanting instincts kicked in though, and soon enough he was ripping away at the paper and gawking at what lay inside.
A crown! For him?! It was so shiny and -- he immediately snatched it away and put it on. It was a little big for him, and it tilted lopsidedly on his head, but he imagined it made him look very handsome and prettier than before. He grinned wildly. "More?" He asked hopefully.
Cerena briefly read over the note attached to this one too and mentally noted to teach Circe how to write thank-you notes one day. "No more. Don't you like what you have?"
Circe thought about this and nodded. "Like lots," He declared, "Now I am keeng and have..." He blinked at his plushie. "...Guardian! To protect me!" He stood up with a giggle and ran over to show Lethe his new things as Cerena good-naturedly rolled her eyes and began to clean up the mess he left behind.
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 11:50 am
Boy in the market || Finds the girl alone Circe had never paid much attention to the smallness of the place he lived in -- in fact, it was good 'cause it made finding things much easier! Like that pale shiny girl he lived with!
He found her in the next room sprawled out on the floor, a bowl of water and a white square-thing with dots of lots of colors to her side and a piece of paper in front of her. He watched for a second as she dipped the brush she was holding into the water, then into a color-dot, then made a color-streak across the paper, and decided that he was much more important than anything she was doing. "Leeeeeeth!"
The young Fa'e calmly dropped the brush onto the paper and, propping her chin up with her elbows, glanced curiously up at the bird-boy. "Whut?" She remembered to reply a moment later and blinked at the shiny thing around his head.
"Got things!" Circe replied joyously, trotting over and falling down in a sitting position next to her. He shoved Vivre in her face, allowing her a good look at it before pulling it away. Then he gestured in the general direction of the crown on his head.
Lethe tilted her head to the side. "Good," She said finally, "Good things. What?" She then pointed to the golden circle on his head. "Look like halo... angel?"
When Circe just gave her a look of confusion in response, she grabbed the brush and drew a quick rendition of an angel, complete with an 'o' for a mouth, wings, a white dress, and a bright yellow spot above their heads.
"Oh," Circe pretended to understand, deciding it must not be important if he didn't know what it was, "No. It's a crown! I'm keeng now." He nodded.
Lethe made a small 'hm', recognizing the word from one of the stories Cerena read to her. "Who is queen?"
"Madeline!" Circe nodded. "And Shouko," He added a few seconds later. "Both qweens."
Lethe 'hm'ed again, turning back to her sketchbook. "Only one queen allowed," She explained idly.
"Oh." Circe wrinkled his nose. "Madeline then... She says so first."
Lethe nodded, quite understanding the fairness of this logic. Unsure of what to say next -- and maybe just a little disappointed that nothing had come for her -- she began to draw again.
Circe peered over her shoulder at the paper. "Mum says we are brother and sister," He finally blurted out, "Does that mean you qween too if I keeng?" He wasn't sure how he felt about Lethe being a queen.
Lethe didn't look so thrilled either. "Brother? Sister?" She repeated with some difficulty, giving up on her drawing and sitting up. "What?"
"Like..." Circe shifted uncomfortably. "We have the same mum."
Lethe nodded carefully, understanding the first word to be another name for her One, who seemed to have quite a lot of them. "And?" She prompted.
"And so we are special together!" Circe tried to explain from what little he knew. "Together and no one else! Other people are brothers 'n sisters too, but not like we are brother and sister. Sort of like friends.. but not. 'Cause we live in the same place." He shifted, clinging more closely to his fox-plushie.
Lethe felt a frown tug at her lips as she tried to absorb this information. A few silent moments passed and she felt that it was her turn to talk again. "So... brother and sister... but not friends?"
"We can be friends," Circe remedied quickly, "I think. If you want." He gave her a questioning look.
Lethe blinked back at him, not quite understanding this feeling in her stomach that felt like she had swallowed a wriggly thing. "Okay," She said finally, "Brother and sister. Circe and Lethe. Circe king, so... that makes Lethe princess."
Circe beamed at her, completely forgetting his previous question of friendship. Lethe was smart, to know such difficult things! "I am not keeng yet, so you are not pwincess yet either. But... But! I am going to be keeng! When I know how. You help?" He asked hopefully.
Lethe paused again, wondering why it was growing so increasingly difficult to speak to him, and finally nodded wordlessly.
Circe cheered, leaping to his feet. "Okay! I ask mum how to be keeng and pwincess again, maybe she know now!" After flashing her a warm grin, Circe turned unsteadily on his feet and fled to find his mother, leaving Lethe staring uncertainly at his rapidly retreating back.
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 11:51 am
tightly || lock the door It wasn't something that happened very slowly, and it surprised Lethe that it happened at all. --But over the course of the next few days, their old home became just a small hotel room, and boxes began to mysteriously appear where none had been before, and their things began to mysteriously disappear around the same time.
Cerena had, of course, taken both children aside and explained to them about Moving Day. Moving Day was a very special day, one that would happen anytime now, one where they would no longer see the inside of this room or play or sleep within the walls of the Hotel Lilithia but instead do everything they did before in a different place.
Lethe had told Circe about the new house, and Cerena had showed him pictures, and it was mutually agreed upon that Moving Day would be an exciting happy time.
"Hey, guys!" Cerena called out into the next room, trying her best to ignore the several heavy boxes she was supposed to move out into the trolley in the hallway and hoping that, if she didn't watch them, they'd somehow get there on their own. "Are yours toys all packed up and put away?"
Circe looked up from the Rubix cube he'd been playing with, one of the few mildly entertaining things that hadn't yet been taken away to put into a box. He looked down at it, and then several of his toys still scattered on the floor where he'd left them last, and then at the nearby box. "You do it," He told Lethe.
"No!" Lethe immediately hissed back, angrily dropping one of her own things into the box she'd been neatly packing her stuff into. "Lethe is all done now, maybe if Circe wasn't so... so bad--"
She was interrupted by a rather loud sound that sounded vaguely like someone sweeping a bunch of toys off the floor and dumping them into a box. This was because Cerena had shuffled in and did just that. "There!" She said cheerfully, trying to resist the urge to pack both Lethe and Circe into boxes too. "Are we ready to go? --I'll get a bellhop to help me move all these packages into the taxi. Circe? Lethe? Could you guys take a quick look around and make sure we're not leaving anything behind?"
Lethe made a small sniffling sound and immediately shuffled off, quietly inspecting nooks, crannies, cupboards and drawers. Circe, however, merely took a long look underneath his bed and proclaimed himself done.
And maybe it was a good thing that neither of them had any problems with saying goodbye -- Cerena because she liked the new house much better, Circe because he didn't really care, and Lethe because she didn't see the point -- and a better thing that the Hotel was soon left in the distance to become nothing but a distant memory.
Besides, Cerena thought to herself, they were destined for greater things.
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Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 7:20 am
And claim || What's mine "Circe!" Cerena groaned exasperatedly, making a mental note to check her hair for gray later. It was hard enough trying to do a gazillion things at once -- dusting, straightening, moving things into place, unpacking and organizing -- without the green-and-blue-haired child running around and practically throwing himself underneath her feet.
"Mine! Mine!" The peacock Eden sang happily, skipping down the length of the dark-wood floors before turning and running back. He hadn't been with his mother or his adopted sister Lethe when they looked at houses (why should he have been? He had more important things to do!) and though he felt his trust in their sense of taste was rather misplaced, even he had to admit that they did a fine job of picking out their new home.
The house was oriental in style, simply huge, with paper sliding doors and vast gardens and fountains and a gazillion rooms and all of it was partly his now.
It was a castle, he thought, fit for a king.
He turned his attention back to the brunette long enough to catch her calling to Lethe -- something about a 'room' -- and with that he ran up to her and tugged on her skirt. "Where's my room?!" He demanded, jumping up and down and generally pestering the poor girl until she gathered her wits enough to answer.
"Why don't you pick one out?" Cerena said finally, beginning to wonder if she was going to have to Circe-proof the house. "Um. See? Along that hallway there?" She gestured vaguely towards the sliding-doors that opened into the atrium, and then again towards the line of doors that he could see Lethe making her way towards. "That's where our rooms our, so--"
"'Kbye!" Circe yelled gleefully, turning on his heels and darting out into the odd no-ceiling-garden-in-the-middle-of-the-house area. The doors were all already open so it was just a matter of finding the right one; Circe blinked at the sheer number of them, noted the one that Lethe had already entered, and began to inspect them all.
The first was too small (for good reason, as it turned out to be a closet.) Circe thought it was a rather nice closet, but it didn't have any windows and that was Very Important. He rushed off to the next one, which was bigger by far and did have windows, but it was rather uninteresting otherwise. The furniture was kind of childish and looked like something Cerena would enjoy far more.
He passed over the next one as it was now Lethe's, and went through the rest of the rooms, assigning each one a grade in his mind. That one had a bathroom but it was rather shady and dark with not enough sunlight, that one felt more like a school than a room, this one had monsters living underneath the bed...
But finally the young boy found one that suited his tastes -- with good reason, as it turned out to be the Master bedroom for that particular area. It was unusually furnished (and in retrospect it was probably somebody else's room by now but they weren't here and he didn't see their name anywhere so finders keepers!) with ivory-colored furniture trimmed in gold, and it was far more spacious and wide than any other room. There was a large rug covering the floor and several paintings and statues occupied the far wall to make a sort of miniature gallery; the bed was huge with a pretty feathery-looking lamp next to it, and next to that was a large bookshelf stuffed with difficult-looking books that would probably make him look smart to have in his room. There was a skylight in the middle of the ceiling, and windows all along the wall opposite the door with little nooks to sit in and read or just sit there and look pretty, and all in all, Circe was pleased.
It was fit for a king -- and thus he was fit for this room.
"FOUND MINE!" He ran to the door and yelled out, ignoring the muffled shrieks and thumps as his clumsy mother probably dropped something. He grinned at the thought and couldn't help thinking that nothing had really changed anyway since they moved.
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Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 10:51 am
Modern || Crusaders
a meeting at the arcade It felt good to be back. The sounds, the lights, the smells -- she missed them all. .. well, maybe not the smells. They were still weird. At least she had someone to share her pain now, though. "Come on, Kokoro!"
The Ieldi looked up from the snack counter, where many sugary things lay underneath a glass counter. "Hi!" He said and skittered off towards Angie.
"Let's sit down," she said, and lead the boy to a bench. "Just until Cere gets here, and then you can go play in the arcade with Lethe, alright?"
Kokoro stared blankly, but nodded nonetheless, kicking his legs while he waited.
"I WISH I WAS AN OSCAR MEYER WEINERRRR~" Came the mating cry of a -- oh, wait.
Cerena was currently humming at the top of her lungs, ensuring a five-foot berth at all times around her and her.. charges. You could hear her coming from a block away, and those who had nothing better to do immediately fled, while the rest of the saner population continued, in all of their sagely wisdom, to not even notice.
Lethe sighed but endured the noise anyway, clinging to her guardian's arm as she carefully toddled down the sidewalk. Her other companion, on the other hand, felt quite comfortable singing along with Cerena, skipping, tripping, and getting back up to do it all over again. The young Fa'e wasn't quite sure what this feeling of wanting to run away and pretend not to know these people was, but nevertheless she felt quite relieved when she caught sight of Angie and Kokoro. "Koru!" She called out, letting go of Cerena and quickly making her way as fast as she could over to the Ieldi, letting herself lose her balance and fall down only when she reached the pair.
She then promptly scooted beneath the table and eyed Cerena and Circe warily through the chair legs of Kokoro's seat.
Angie perked up as soon as she heard the song. "That's Cere," she said cheerfully, standing up and running to meet her.
"Leetie!" Kokoro cried, reaching out to grab her.. but she fell before he could. He blinked and peered beneath the table, tilting his head confusedly. "Leetie play fire drill?" He asked, frowning in confusion. "Koko play, too!" With that, he slid off his seat and scrambled beneath it, grinning proudly at his friend. He didn't even seem to notice that she had grown last he saw her.
Meanwhile, "Cere! I've been waiting to talk to you.. who's this?" Angie blinked, looking down at Circe confusedly. "Let's sit down and we can talk.. I have some coins so the kids can play inside.. and us, too," she said, with a little laugh. She turned to talk back to the table, but stopped mid-step. "OH MY GOD!" Angie cried. "THEY RAN AWAY! CERE, WHAT DO WE DO!?"
Kokoro blinked confusedly at the sound of his mother screeching. "Peekaboo!" He said cheerfully, popping his head out from underneath his seat and grinning at her.
"Huh?" Cerena only appeared to have heard the 'playing games' part. "Really?! Where?! I want a llama can we play the llama game and win llamas?!" She looked around frantically for said llamas and briefly thought of sueing the arcade for emotional damages when she didn't find any.
"Lethe play Cere-drill." The young girl informed her feather companion solemnly.
"There they are!" Circe said excitedly, gesturing dramatically to the pair beneath the table. "I win," He quickly added with the beginnings of a smirk on his lips.
"Cere-drill?" Kokoro repeated slowly, traces of confusion starting to surface in his expression. "Koko never hear of Cere-drill. Cere-drill secret name for Fire Drill?"
He looked up when Circe 'found' them, mouth twisting into a frown. Couldn't the feather-boy see that Leetie and him were playing a private game together..
.....
Pretty feathers..
Angie looked confusedly at Cere for a moment, but was effectively distracted by Circe's gesturing. "Thank goodness!" She breathed, kneeling down next to the chair to pull an out-of-sorts Kokoro out from underneath it. "Thank you, uhm.. I don't think I caught your name.."
The hummingbird boy began to squirm in Angie's hold, trying to get to Pretty Feathers. "Escalator! ESCALATOR!"
"Circe!" The young boy declared, tailfeathers puffing out proudly. "The magne..ni...fifi..licent." He peered critically at the feathered boy held in Angie's arms and decided that he was prettier than three of these boys together.
Lethe let out an almost inaudible huff, indignant at having her moment with Kokoro interrupted, and remained beneath the table.
"Well, the Beneath-the-Table game is not fun..." Cerena decided. "So why don't you kids run off and put the shinies in the thingies to play the flashies while Angie and I have a grown-up conversation?" She seemed proud of this somehow.
"Aren't you cute," Angie cooed, letting a smile slip out. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Circe."
Kokoro frowned and tried to make sense of his name. "Sirse?"
"... yes," she said forcedly, kneeling down so that Kokoro could climb off her back. "We'll talk like nice grown-up people who pay bills and drive big cars and stuff while you three go play games and do stuff that kids do. Even though we're not much older than 'kid!'" She said indignantly, then begun to shake her fist at her sister. "Damn you, Cere! You've labelled us for life! Liiiiiife! And unless you have a bottle of nail-polish remover, those things won't come off easy!.."
Kokoro calmly stepped off his guardian's back while she threw a tantrum and raised his head to Circe, beaming. "Name.. is.. Kokoro," he said slowly, stringing together the words that he had learned. "You.. Sirse?" He said, once again becoming distracted by the other boy's tailfeathers.
They were staring at him.
"... Sirse tail not polite," he mumbled, eyes widening as he staaared back.
Circe only stared back at Kokoro, his tailfeathers spreading out behind him haughtily. "Circe is--" But he was soon interrupted by the sudden appearance of a very, very good thing. Many good things, in fact.
Cerena had been ignoring Angie the entire time she was making her little speech, instead exchanging money for sporks for waffles for fluffernutters for peanuts for gold coins. The whole thing was very amusing to her, and she proudly came back a few minutes later to place a few, tall neat stacks of coins on the table. "Now," She began, "I hope that this can teach you a little bit about responsibility, wisely spending money, and not wasting it on the stupid games like stomp-on-the--"
Circe was having none of this morality. "Shinies!" He cried happily, pushing past Kokoro and grabbing for the coins greedily. He couldn't hold more than a few in his small hands, and thus tried to stuff them down his toga. He looked vaguely confused when they wouldn't stay and instead fell down, with rather loud clinks, onto the ground. The insolence!
Lethe grumpily reached out for a coin and snatched it away, deciding that she'd rather keep company with one of these shiny pretty brainless thingies than -- well, actually, this description also applied to Circe as well, except at least the coins were quiet.
"Okay, well, shoo-shoo," Cerena nodded towards the two boys, vaguely realizing that there was something missing but couldn't figure out what (a milkshake, maybe?) "Have fun and don't leave the arcade, okay?"
Angie didn't seem to notice the absence and instead wore herself out yelling at.. nobody. She seemed to enjoy it. A lot.
Kokoro's eyes widened as Pretty Things were dumped on the table, not noticing his being shoved to the side that much at all. He immediately scrambled up on a chair to grasp at the coins, when most of them were snatched up by Circe. He stared blankly at the boy for a moment as his grin failed.
Once she was done with her rant, she flopped down at the table and glanced at the coins. "He-ey, why'd you get coins? I had plenty in my bag," she whined, slipping her backpack off her shoulder and rummaging through it. After a moment, she pulled out a coin purse and put it on the table. "Uh, I come here all the time, so I almost always have tons of coins with me.." She hesitated. Then again, it was Cere's money, and if she spent it on coins then.. more money -- uh, coins -- for Angie!
Then she noticed that Kokoro was coinless. "Here," she said absentmindedly, scooting the purse towards the Ieldi. "Don't spend too much, okay?"
Kokoro looked down at the purse, then back up at his guardian. What.. was it? It looked kind of like a Taco, but it was black. Was it a Bad Taco? He cautiously reached out and touched it -- it didn't feel like a Taco.. it was a lot softer. Nonetheless, he took it in his hands, examined it briefly, and stuck it in his mouth. "Fay," he mumbled, climbing down from the chair, purse in hand -- er, mouth. "Leefee home ah e hate ofer 'cae," he said proudly, taking the girl's hand. He, apperantly, did not notice all the Shinies on the ground.
Lethe blinked at her cousin as he took her hand -- she wasn't sure what he had just put in his mouth, but she was certain that it was not made for that purpose. She obligingly crawled out from beneath the table, pulling against Kokoro and standing up, and was just about to open her mouth to say something when --
"OHMYGODWHOAREYOUANDWHEREDIDYOUCOMEFROM?!?!" Cerena freaked out, before realizing that she looked completely stupid. She revised: "LEEEEEETHE?!"
This confused the Fa'e girl, and she briefly wondered how to respond to this before realizing she had no other option: "Bye!" She squeaked and pulled at Kokoro's hand, wanting to see the display of stuffed animals against the wall in the distance.
"Moooooom!" Circe whined, yanking on Cerena's skirt. "Coins won't... stay!" He glared at them and hoped they felt ashamed of themselves.
Cerena blinked at him. "Oh." And then she blinked at Kokoro and his 'taco'. "Well, why don't you share?" She beamed, reaching forth to wrench the purse from between the Ieldi's teeth and then leaning down to pick up the fallen coins and shove them into the purse. She held the purse back out to the Ieldi when she was done.
Angie winced visibly and covered her ears as Cere shrieked. Just.. wow.
Kokoro jumped as well, eyes widening at his aunt. Did she do something wrong? Before he could even take the purse out of his mouth to ask what she did, he was being tugged along by the fa'e in the other direction.
And then his taco was stolen. Okay, that was mean. He contemplated crying and stamping his feet and throwing a tantrum like all the little children like him did on TV when things were taken away from them, but then she.. she.. opened his taco.
She was going to eat his Taco!
And then she put stuff in it. .. that wasn't eating.
He blinked confusedly as the coin purse was offered back to him, and took it carefully, examining it. He paused, then did the same odd slidey motion that Cerena did to open his Taco and opened it himself.
He gaped.
There was a mountain of shinies. A paradise of shinies. The Taco? The inside? It was so shiny. And there were so many Shinies, he discovered, so many shinies that not even Circe could have more! He was the King of Shinies! He had a gold Taco!
"Lessgo Leetie!" He cried happily, dragging her off.
Angie watched in slight awe. She really needed to teach that kid more.
Cere watched proudly as the three went running off somewhere into the arcade, before turning towards Angie and sliding into a seat. "So what's up? I got your phone message... of course. Else I wouldn't be here... I think... Unless it was destiny, in which case I'd be here anyway except.. uhm... so what'd you want?" You could practically hear her brain breaking.
Lethe allowed herself to be dragged off, just briefly, before taking charge and running forward so as to lead the way to the place she wanted to go to.
"Wait!" Circe complained, chasing after them and feeling quite upset that he was no longer the center of attention. Something more important soon attracted his attention though -- the sole reason Lethe had led them here.
The lady at the prize counter looked a bit like the witch from Hansel and Gretel, Lethe thought, except she tempted children with stuffed animals and shiny things and things that went bloop and useless trinkets which were, really, so much more effective than gingerbread.
Said lady stared down at them boredly. "What do you want?" She sighed and shifted her weight from one elbow to the other, propping her chin up and gazing cross-eyedly and longingly out towards the pretzel booth just outside the arcade.
Lethe considered her words carefully, even as Circe babbled excitedly behind her. She looked up at the wall, trying to decide which would be the perfect thing to eat have before she was forced to shove the witch into an oven and stuff. Her gaze settled on a bunny plushie at the very top. "Want..." She struggled for the right vocabulary, gesturing to it frantically.
Circe didn't care, as long as he got to keep some of the shiny coins. He was interested in one of the lamps with the colors that went everywhere but -- no -- coins were better. "B'nee," He told the lady importantly.
The lady sighed and wonder what kind of stupid, self-indulgent parent let their kids wander off to pick their own prizes. Really. Especially ones that didn't even talk right. "One thousand tickets." She proclaimed the fee to them without looking -- these kids all wanted the same thing, really, and it didn't matter to her.
"..well.. you know.. I just wanted to.. ..talk," she finished lamely, absentmindedly twirling a strand of hair around one of her fingers. ".. and, er, something kinda.. happened.. ..and I wanted to talk to you about it. So I might feel better. Or .. something."
Kokoro was in a little birdie heaven as he dragged Lethe along, and then was dragged along himself. He was rich! He could buy anything! He could buy a treehouse and a private island and make it Circe-free! Well, maybe not Circe-free, since he hadn't really done anything bad but - he could buy anything!
.. except for.. "b'nee," Kokoro repeated, looking up at the giant wall. There were lots of pretty things to distract him, but Lethe had gestured to something at the top, so he looked there -- and there was a little bunny.
He paused, then looked at his cousin, then at the bunny plushie. Maybe he could try and get that for her, and then he would be her Hero and stuff and maybe get lots of desserts and be King of Circe and make him cut off his rude feathers. That would be nice.
He blinked at the lady at the counter as she said something about tickets. He didn't have any tickets. Especially not a golden one. For a moment, he felt sad, but then he remembered that -- duh -- he could just buy a golden ticket. Silly him. He put the Coin Paradise on the counter and begun to dump the contents on the counter. "B'nee?" He asked, beaming up at the lady. Surely that would be more than enough, and then they would even have some left to play Flashies like Cerena told them to!
Cerena stared blankly at Angie -- so far, so... boring. "What happened?" She asked suspiciously, taking note that she normally never twirled a finger in her hair but decided not to comment on it for now. "Did you run off and join the circus?" This last question came out a little more hopefully than she'd meant.
On the other side of the arcade, the lady sighed exasperatedly at the young feather-boy's -- what was he anyway? -- actions. Their parents didn't even show them how to play right! "No, look." She quickly grabbed the purse away from him and, steadying herself against the glass, leapt over the counter in a show of agility that surprised even herself. She turned and swept the coins back into the purse before heading over to the nearest game.
"You play these, okay?" She told the three small children, secretly thinking that she wasn't getting paid enough for this. "Like this." She put a coin into the machine, which immediately lit up and began to hum. She took the mallet attachment and boredly swatted at the gophers that came up out of their little holes, briefly imagining them to be her boss, her coworkers, and these kids' stupid parents. The game lasted a minute before howling in defeat, spitting out a few pieces of paper.
Lethe looked wide-eyedly on as the lady held up the tickets. "See? For winning that game, I got 11 tickets. We can count to 11, right? Okay." She didn't even let them answer. "You will need 1000 of these tickets to get the b'ne--er, bunny." She handed the purse and the tickets to the nearest kid -- some weird green-and-blue-haired one -- and stalked off towards the soda machine.
Circe blinked. "POWAR," He suddenly proclaimed, and just as suddenly seemed to change his mind. "Okay. Mission! Get b'nee for Lethe! Then happy go shiny and all will love me and want to make me keeng!" He looked expectantly at his two companions as if thinking they were supposed to agree with him.
Well, they were.
"No.. at least, I don't.. ...think so," she said stupidly, blinking. Maybe she did and she never knew. Or something.
She hesitated. Okay, this was going to be hard to explain. Was it even possible to explain? She begun to panic silently as she looked around for something -- anything -- to give as an excuse. She spotted a dirty-looking stray cat near the table.
A moment later said cat was on the table. "I adopted a kitty!" She said hopefully, grinning pathetically as she looked from Cerena to the cat, who looked like it wanted to unadopt her -- or, better yet, scratch her face up with its dirty nails. The cat stuck its butt in Angie's face and daintily knocked over her drink before jumping off the table and running away as fast as it could.
"Bye-bye, kitty," Angie said sadly, waving to the cat, and then sniffed fakely. "How will I tell Kokoro?"
Kokoro blinked and followed the lady confusedly as she leapt over the counter and took his shinies. What was with everyone taking his Shinies? Were Shinies in short supply? He contemplated whining at her as she lead them to a big plastic box thing and stuck one of the coins in there. And now she was spending his money? Not Spiffy.
His eyes widened as the box thingy came to life. And that -- that was -- that was kinda freaky. He momentarily feared for his life as the lady picked up a gargantuan hammer and whacked the crud out of some poor moles who came up out of holes in the Box. This was.. not good. How did he turn it off? How did he make it stop? What about the children?
He jumped a little as a strip of odd papery stuff came out of the machine. Kokoro tore a bit off the end and stuck it in his mouth, chewed thoughtfully, then made a face and spit it out. That wasn't tasty at all. He wanted his coin back.
But he did hear the lady tell them that they got eleven tickets from the game and they needed a thousand for Lethe's bunny. Well, actually, it was ten now, since he .. ate one. He tried to figure out how many games they would have to play to get a thousand tickets, but gave up after fifteen billionty. "Bye scary lady!" He called, waving to the employee before turning back to Lethe and Circe.
And frowned. "Nuu," he whined, stamping his foot. "Koko get b'nee for Leetie and happy and shiny and all will love me and make me king!" He hmphed and crossed his arms, stalking off, then came back and took his Coin Paradise back from Circe. Rude Feather boy did not deserve to even touch his Taco.
Cerena watched this display blankly, and finally opened her mouth to say something before apparently deciding against it. It took her a few moments, but her overworked brain finally thought up a few choice words for her to say: ".....moosebumps?"
This didn't quite work as she'd expected so she simply stared at Angie in hopes that her uber psychic skills would force the other girl to break down and tell her everything.
Circe scowled at Kokoro, digging his nails into the side of the purse and yanking back. "My shinies!" He demanded -- how dare this stupid blue boy-thing try to steal his shinies! He should go on that show with the Judge Judy, so she could go "YOU'RE OUT" and make him give all the shinies back plus he'd get to be on TV where everyone could admire him!
While Lethe didn't agree to the principles of sharing, she quickly saw that this would only get them nowhere in their quest for the bunny. Snatching the purse away from both boys, she quickly went to grab soda-cups from the machine and divided the coins among them. There were still a lot left over even when both cups were filled, so she simply kept them in the purse and decided that these were her shinies now. "Here." She shoved the cups at both boys.
Circe simply grabbed his before Kokoro could try to take it away and hopped over to the whack-a-thingy machine. He put a coin in like the lady had done, and stared blankly as the machine began to whoop and whirl and make bright shiny lights go off. He only remembered about the mallet after a few gophers came out, so he grabbed it and began to pound on the top of the machine with it. He was quite proud when the machine spat a few tickets at him afterwards -- did they have enough yet?
Angie blinked. Uh oh. She seemed to have ... broken Cere. What was she supposed to do? Cere was supposed to be a guardian. Panicking on the inside, she held up a peace sign. "How many fingers am I holding up?" She squeaked.
Kokoroo narrowed his eyes when rude-feathers boy called Koko's shinies his own. That was even more uncool than the whack-a-mole game! He scowled and tugged harder at the purse, heels digging into the floor..
When his coin paradise was snatched away by Lethe. Oh great, now she was teaming up with rude-feathers? He whined slightly as she walked over to a Sticky machine and put some of the coins in two cups, but stopped when a cup was shoved at him. He took it gratefully and then grabbed LEthe's hand, dragging her over to a whack-an-alligator-as-they-came-out-of-the-machine game. "Play with me?" He asked her, gesturing to the machine.
"Three 'n a half," Cerena replied indignantly, just a bit miffed that her intelligence was apparently being questioned. "Okay, stop dancing around the issue, Angie. I can tell something happened, and I didn't come here just to watch you try to pretend nothing happened. Otherwise you wouldn't have called me. So what did you want to tell me?"
She had noticed, through the course of her conversation with her adopted-sister, that there was something just slightly off about Angie. For some strange reason, her supernatural senses had been kicked into activity ever since she found Lethe, and she felt now as if she were recieving the equivalent of "404" signals from Angie. She wouldn't tell the girl yet though -- no use trying to freak her out anymore than she was already. At least for now.
Lethe blinked as she was dragged along but didn't resist, only giving Kokoro a curious look when he asked her to play something with him. What, exactly? There was some sort of strange machine with little blue tunnels in it, and a sign above it that had strange blue markings and a picture of a Bad Beastie with Sharp Teeth on it. Hn. She didn't quite feel like playing the let's-get-eaten-by-a-beastie-and-wait-for-the-woodcutter game.
Still, Kokoro had asked nicely, so... The Fa'e let out a soft sigh and dug a coin out of the purse she carried, jamming it in several places in the machine before finally finding the coin slot. She jumped back when the machine roared to life, sending multple Bad Beasties with Sharp Teeth out at her! She wailed and whacked the nearest one with her purse, wishing that she had an axe or an oven instead.
Circe, meanwhile, had carefully folded up his tickets and shoved them into his cup before wandering off into the arcade to find another game to play. He seemed to find a good one a few moments later -- one of those games were you had to hit the center of a target with a water-gun and propel the barbie-on-a-boat all the way to the finish line as fast as he could. He put in the required amount of coins and eyed the water gun dubiously, first trying to shoot the water at the barbie directly, and looked annoyed when nothing happened. So he started shooting other things instead, like the ceiling, other games, and other people.
He didn't quite understand when he was forcibly removed from the game -- he'd been winning, too! The peacock Eden indignantly stuck his tongue out at the arcade employees and ran off to find another game to play.
"Well, I, uh.." Angie began to stammer, trying to find the right way to break the news to her sister. "..well.. you see.. I, uh, can't really take alcohol.. and I can't remember anything.. and.. well.." She took on a blissfully blank expression. "..well, when a man and a woman love one another, or just get drunk out of their minds, they.."
Kokoro jumped slightly as the game jammed into life and started banging on random parts of the machine -- the alligators, the holes in which the alligators came out of, the coin slot, and the lighted game sign. In his frenzy, he accidently got his hand stuck in a plastic alligator's mouth.
"Leetie!" He wailed, flailing his other arm as fast as he could. "Big mean green thing eating me! Koko no want be eating! HEEEEELLPP!"
Several people had stopped to stare at the two.
"They square dance?" Cerena wanted to know, placing her elbows neatly on the table and propping her chin up. "Or... or, wait, I know! Don't tell me! They go bowling! Right?"
...Or randomly somehow managed to acquire a second life-signature?
Lethe continued to beat back the mean green beasts as best as she could, trying to ignore the cheerful-but-awful noises the machine was making. It was almost as if it was supposed to be a game -- how rude!
When her cousin cried out, the young Fa'e turned and stared wide-eyedly at him. Oh... "Oh no!" Lethe cried desperately, dropping the purse onto the snout of an alligator and running over to Kokoro. "Um... think happie thoughts!" She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and began to pull back, trying to free him from that horrid alligator-wizard before he ate him alive!
"CIIIIRCE!" She wailed for her 'brother.'
To his credit, the Eden-child immediately dropped what he was doing (looking and reaching beneath machines for dropped coins and tickets) and ran over to help, Tarzan-yell and all. Taking the hammer conveniently lying next to the machine, he braced himself and swung mightily towards the alligator that held the annoying-blue-boy captive.
It did not help that, as his hand was stuck in its jaws, the alligator could not retreat according to its programming; nor did it help that Circe swung so hard that the alligator snapped off its support, still attached to Kokoro. The machine flashed wildly, and for a second Lethe thought they might all be sacrificed to some evil witch now, but then it spat out a "HIGH SCORE" and a lot of tickets at them.
Circe immediately lost interest. "Wanna play the ball-in-holes game now," he said, throwing the mallet over his shoulder and onto some unfortunate soul's head.
"Neither," Angie replied, leaning back in her chair a bit and folding her hands in her lap. Inwardly, she felt like pulling her hair out and then throwing it at passing cars or something.
She sighed, rubbed her forehead with her thumb, then looked back up at Cere. "Uh. You get one more guess," she said, wrinkling her nose. "And if you don't get it right, you lose and I won't tell you."
There. That was easy. She awkwardly begun to mop up her spilled drink with a napkin. Her fallen glass rolled off the table and shattered on the ground.
"Oh," Angie said faintly, looking at it hopefully - she wanted it to get up and put itself in the trash, but apperantly it didn't feel like it. "..oops."
"Hapee thoughts?!" He cried, then screwed up his eyes in concentration. "Nuhh.. sugar.. bnees.. bumbliebees," he said desperately, wondering how this would help him get not-eaten.
Kokoro whipped his head around to stare at Circe and watch as he picked up a hammer. "DUN WHACK ME!" He cried, flailing a bit to try and protect himself. He squeezed his eyes shut before he could see that Circe was aiming for the alligator.
And then he stumbled backwards, nearly falling over on top of Lethe.
Whimpering, he cautiously cracked one eye open. Then shrieked.
"CIRCE NO GET RID OF LIGETOR!" He wailed, flailing both his hands and looking for all the world as if he was about to hit the peacock-boy. "KOKO NEVER GET LIGETOR OFF! Koko handicapped for LIFE," he sniffed. He reached up to wipe a tear from his eye, but felt the cold plastic rubbing against his skin and immediately dropped it with a disgusted look on his face.
"Koko hungry," he said softly after a moment.
..She would lose?! Never! Cerena scowled immaturely, tapping the bridge of her nose in thought. Let's see. It couldn't be brownies -- it was never brownies. And obviously those weird signals had to do with this. Oyy -- Angie was a tough nut to crack, but she could never stand up against her almighty, er, awesomness!
"They make a baby!" Cerena declared suddenly, remembering this small flash of insight from the Discovery Channel documentaries. "Right there!" She clarified, jumping up in her chair and pointing dramatically to Angie's stomach. "It is orange and smells of white rabbits! --Do I win?"
"Neat!" Circe looked enviously at Kokoro's new 'handicap'. "Koko-nut like a pirate now. Arrrr. I'm still cooler though," he quickly added this last part in case there was any question.
Lethe managed to step quickly to the side, briefly turning her attention away to gather up the tickets and grab her purse. Turning back to both boys, she regarded Koko's situation for a minute. "Lessgo see Crazy Lady and An... andy.... an.....jee.... Crazy Lady Numar Two." She said finally, "Will banish ligetor away to dungeons and get food!"
If Angie was drinking something, this would be a very good time to spit it out. Or choke on it.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, A BABY!?" She wailed, standing up suddenly. "I'M NOT HAVING A BABY! I -- YOU'RE HAVING A BABY," she stuttered angrily, squeezing her eyes shut. "I'M TOTALLY BABY-FREE. TOTALLY.
".. I think." She paused, then wrinkled her nose again. "No, you lose! No babies!"
"But I don't wanna be pirate," Kokoro whined, shaking his hand weakly. It ached a lot. "Pirates mean and steal stuff. Koko not mean nor steal," he said matter-of-factly, though he looked slightly doubtful as he looked at the alligator attached to his hand.
He looked up at Lethe, though, and blinked. "An-gee," he said, then nodded. "An-gee will kill ligator dead! Or.. or something."
"Huh? I am?" Cerena blinked confusedly and looked down towards her own stomach. No... No baby hiding there. "Nuh-uh!" She protested, bringing her gaze back to her 'adopted sister'. "You're not baby-free anymore! You're infected! With babies!!!"
A pause.
"Well, only one. One baby. There." Another pause. "...How did it get there? WHAT DID THAT GUY DO TO YOU, ANGIE?!"
"What if," Circe said in hushed awe, "The legator eats Koko's hand and Koko has only one hand?"
Lethe scowled and moved to whack her brother with her purse; her aim was shoddy, though, and she missed him only to whack the alligator instead. It promptly broke down the middle vertically, sending both halves falling loudly to the floor.
Lethe stared at it. "Hmf," She said finally, trying not to betray her fascination with her own newfound power of Killing Legators, and turned on her heel. "Food now, then!"
"INFECTED?!" She wailed, flopping back into the chair. She stared wide-eyed at Cerena for a moment, then, "how could that have happened? Unless an alien ship came down when I was sleeping and --"
.. s**t.
"I'm not pregnant," she huffed, slouching slightly. "Maybe one of the shrimp I ate last night was still alive and kicking and you're picking it up. Or your baby-radar is broken," she added, looking hopeful. "When's the last time you had it checked?"
Koko just stared at Circe, horrified. Then he stared at his tailfeathers, which were staring at him. ..Where was he supposed to stare? He weakly raised his new hand-igator and couldn't help but let out a small, pitiful-sounding whine.
And then the alligator cracked in half.
Kokoro blinked stupidly.
"LEETIE SAVE KOKO HAND!" He cried, throwing his arms up and grinning widely. "WE CELEBRATE!"
He then attempted to smack Circe.
And so it went for hours on end, but the three valiant young heroes managed to save up enough tickets to get Lethe her bunny and get candy besides, and Angie managed to not kill anyone in her suddenly-pregnant rage, so all was good in the land of CerAngiLetheCirKoko.
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Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 10:53 am
Prepare for trouble || Make it ... more than that
It's like an episode of the Brady Bunch, except more colorful and violent. "C-circe?"
The voice came from the shy Dante. Well, not really shy. She was terribly, horribly commanding in the safety of her own home, just like how Koyuki was when she was a child and sane.
Saner than now, rather.
"Yes, Circe. Remember him? Multi-color and green and blue and looks like a Greek person?"
"... Don't think so," she mumbled stubbornly. She did, of course, remember the toddler. She just simply refused to admit that her mother was RIGHT. For once.
Koyuki chuckled and went on, "I read you many Greek myths. Surely you remember. And this crown?"
She held up the glittering object, reminding Dante that she had an obligation to return it to Circe for Madeline.
"... yus," she mumbled finally and sat down on one of the chairs in the large mansion. They all lived together, but for some reason, Dante never saw Circe after her 'birth'. Nor did she see Cerena, the woman that Koyuki allllllways yabbers about when it comes to 'friends'.
Yeah, sure. Pfuit.
The reason for this was because the house they had recently bought was enormous. Not just big, or huge, or giant, but enormous. Cerena had once gone off on an expedition to the kitchen and only managed to find her way back five hours later, unexplicably with a litter of kittens and a couple of rolls of toilet paper. To this day, she still refused to talk about it.
Dante's brother, a young self-absorbed Eden named Circe who made even the most vain of cats look modest, was currently pestering his sister. No, not Dante herself, but her 'half-sister' -- a young girl named Lethe who was firmly of the mind that she did not like this game.
"I give you stuff!" Circe whined, nearly slapping the older girl in the face with his tailfeathers.
Lethe looked insulted. "Cannot pay for art!" She insisted, "Art come from soul! Book says so! Circe have soul?!"
Circe considered this with all the depth of a young child who was more interested in candy than books. "No." He finally replied sulkily.
Lethe tilted her nose up at him, a gesture she had learned from picturebooks, and returned to her painting. This was soon made impossible -- much in part because Circe decided to 'kindly' relieve her of her paintbrush and run off with it like a mad cow (or some other furry woodland creature that she couldn't think of at the moment, 'cause cows didn't have green things sticking out of their butts.) She paused, just for a moment, trying to consider the best course of action, and decided that a Big Loud Noisy Fuss would best convey her sentiments of the "I am very upset that you have stolen my paintbrush. Please return it right away." kind.
Circe giggled madly and dashed off, often tumbling down to the wooden floors and having to get up again, and made his way deep into the heart of the grand castle (or so he liked to think of it as) that he lived in. That would show her, not doing what he wanted her to do!
He was quite surprised, though, when a sudden turn made him stumble into a room that had people in it that were neither his mother or his sister. He vaguely recognized the white one, but just barely. He squinted at the two and hid the paintbrush behind his back with one hand, just in case. "Maids 'n stuff?" He asked hopefully, recognition gleaming in his eyes.
"No, Circe, more like your sister and your aunt," Koyuki scoffed, indignant that she'd been called a maid. Recently, she has been growing more and more sensitive about comments like that, for reasons she didn't know. Leastways, she remembered Circe from that meeting in the HQ, even if he didn't.
"... Maid? Duchess and maid same thing?" Dante squinted and stared. Wait a second... she remembered! From those stories of princesses, maids waited on people! They did the work! They scrubbed the floor and washed the laundry and did all kinds of stinky things that she will never, ever touch, or so she decided.
Hearing that, she hopped off the overlarge seat rather clumsily and put two hands on her hips, "No. Duchess NOT a maid. Dante will not wash your dirty clothes!"
Circe nodded understandingly -- the part about his sister (Lethe? But she wasn't here, he hoped!) and 'awnts' went right over his head, but he could understand the part about no dirty clothes at least. "Okay." He said agreeably, "Mum wash clothes."
He approached Koyuki, keeping his gaze on Dante as he circled around her and helped himself to her previous seat. "I'm Circe!" He said as if this explained everything, and in his mind, it probably did. "You are?"
"Mum...?" Dante mumbled... that was for 'mom', right? So many words for one person! There was Ma, Mama, Mom, Mother, Mum... or so people said. Personally, she prefers 'mom'. Because that's what the TeeVee usually said.
"I'm Koyuki," Koyuki replied, matching his attitude. One would think she was too old to act immature like a kid, but around kids, that was exactly how she felt she should behave. Dante rarely went along, Selene never did, and Artemis was the baby that argued with Koyuki all the time. Better than nothing.
"... Circe! Keeng!" Dante cried suddenly, as if to stop her mother from embarassing her too much. Her memory was good, she remembered Circe and Mad'line [and forgot everyone else]! Oh, and the crown! She went over to her mom and reached in the pocket that she saw Koyuki stuck the crown in a few moments before.
"...pocketbig."
She couldn't find it.
Circe blinked at Koyuki and tried his best to look regal and Bigger Than You but this didn't work when he barely came up to her knee in the first place. He decided that something would have to be done about this later. He felt unexplicably proud of Dante though, for remembering that he was more important and all that, and decided that she wouldn't make a bad sister.
"Better than Lethe," He told her in a hushed tone of voice that seemed better suited for prophecies and royal decreements than games of favorites.
A high-pitched shriek from the doorway made him wince and scramble off the seat, instead choosing to hide behind Koyuki as she was not only bigger than him but bigger than the young girl standing in the doorway looking like someone kicked her puppy.
Circe might as well have.
"'Yuki-mama!" Lethe began to wail, catching sight of her 'other mother', "Circe take brush of Lethe! 'n now Lethe can't paint!" She made sure not to be too loud in her tantrum, because that usually led to time-outs. The key was to be tearful and to place as much blame on the other person as possible.
"Wouldn't listen to me!" Circe protested hotly, peeking out from behind the chair. "'n I'm keeng!"
"Lethe princess!" The Fa'e countered, "Just as good! 'Yuki-mama say so?!" She had paused, just slightly, in the middle of her retort to blink and almost smile in greeting at Dante, and then it was back to scrunched-up-face-and-looking-very-blue (literally.)
"Lethe?" The young Eden looked confused, then horrified. MORE people to greet her? Ever since her birth, it's been unfamiliar faces flying in and out of her life. Especially that time in the HQ. While she enjoyed the attention, being mauled wasn't one of her favorite hobbies.
A screech, however, announced the arrival of Lethe. The Fa'e was bigger than Dante and obviously a lot more vocal about troubles. When someone took her things away, Dante merely bullied the other until she got it back.
Her mom seems delighted to see this "Lethe", at least.
"LETHE!" Koyuki grinned, suddenly a lot happier. Circe was way too snooty for her, she had decided, and was glad someone much better showed up.
"Princess?"
"Yes, Lethe is a princess, dear. In fact, my favorite princess, so --- Circe-the-King, give back her brush right now, or I will be forced to tickle you. Or take away your shinies."
She reached easily into a pocket [Dante had fumbled through the wrong pocket] and took out the crown.
"Lethe." Circe confirmed with another wince, jabbing a finger towards the dark-haired Fa'e in the doorway. He also showed Dante the paintbrush, just briefly before hiding it away behind his back again.
He looked vaguely betrayed at Koyuki's sudden proclamation of her affiliation with Lethe. "I'll disown you!" He started to confusedly protest towards his older sister, before a sudden flash of gold caught his eye.
His crown.
His crown.
He immediately shrieked, louder than Lethe was previously if that was possible, and immediately chucked the paintbrush away and dived for it. How dare she--!!
Lethe quickly scrambled to pick up the paintbrush again, clutching it protectively to herself and taking a few steps closer towards her other-mother and the strange-white-furry-one. "'nk you." She said quietly to Koyuki, wiping at her eyes with a sleeve. Crying was more exhausting than she thought.
"Pffft. Like Cere would let you disown Lethe anyway," Koyuki snorted, and raised the crown higher, "Na-uh. What do you say to your sister, Circe? I can't let you have this crown after you were so mean to her."
Dante felt that an explanation was needed, and quickly said, "Mad'line-qween said sorry because she thought you mad at her!! She told Dante -- uh, me -- to give back crown to Keeng! Then MOM took it."
She pointed an accusing finger at the woman with the crown.
Koyuki grumbled, "What is this, a conspiracy? No problem, Lethe, not your fault that you have to live with a brat. Maybe two brats."
She eyed Dante.
"Just don't cry anymore, okay?"
Circe squawked indignantly. First this mean person took away his crown, and now she was calling him a brat?! (He was not a hotdog!) Who did she think she was, his mother?! "Not mad at Mad'line." He protested hotly, before turning his attention to other things. Like conspiracy.
Lethe let out a few sniffs, just to prove she wasn't acting (though she was, for the most part, but she really was upset!) and slowly shuffled over to the young woman. "'Kee," She said agreeably, almost too perkily for someone who was just crying a second ago. "Who fuzzy white One?"
"Dante!" Circe proclaimed loudly, feeling superior -- even if only for a second -- for knowing something she didn't. "My sister! And Duchess!"
Lethe narrowed her eyes just slightly, imagining herself like one of those bigbadwulves in the books. "Sister of Lethe too, then."
Circe thought about this. "No, just mine." He decided, before suddenly shrieking at Koyuki, "Gimme back crown! Or... or..." He took a deep breath and puffed his chest out, spreading his tailfeathers as far as they could go in an effort to make himself look bigger. "Or... off with your head!" He proclaimed.
All of a sudden, Koyuki was dreading the birth of a child. This house definitely does not need anymore notorious little creatures. That cry and wail and generally create havoc.
Dante blinked shyly, feeling like she was in the middle of something -- which she was, kind of -- and mumbled, "Dante... nice to meet'uu, Lethe," She stood just a bit taller and straighten out her skirt, in a very self-important way. Like an am-bass-a-door, she thought, thinking of Artemis's lecture to her the other day.
"Say sorry to Lethe, little man!" The pregnant-and-very-irritable-so-be-cautious-or-your-house-is-kaboomgone woman shot back, dangling the crown out of Circe's reach, "Or I keep your crown! See if you can find something to chop off MY stubborn head."
The toddler tugged at her mom's coat, embarassed because she was currently in the middle of a she's-my-sister-no-she's-not argument, and her mom wasn't exactly HELPING any, "Sorry, Circe-keeng. Mom like this all d'time. Artemis say because of evil fu'stering bay-bies."
"DISCRIMINATION! DISCRIMINATIONNN!" Circe yelled back indignantly, finding that big words like that usually made the bigger people confused. He looked around for something to throw, absolutely refusing to apologize to Lethe (it was an honor to even be breathing his air!), and finally tugged his socks off and, wadding them up, launched them harmlessly at Koyuki and missing horribly.
...This was not good.
"Dante!" Circe burst out suddenly, deciding that he was more of a general than a soldier. "Must take back what is not-'Yuki's!" There was a pause before he shrieked out "CHARGE!" and then sat and waited.
"Is okay," Lethe said kindly, sensing that this girl was much more New than she was (Even though they looked to be the same age which was confusing, but that was okay 'cause she was whatever-Circe-was and not Fa'e.) "Is nice to meet Dante too." Formalities over, the young girl turned to watch Circe for a while, wrinkled her nose finally, and dashed over to stand in front of the young woman with arms spread out as wide as she could (which didn't exactly work, with the ribbons in the way and all.)
"Circe will have to go through Lethe!" She announced bravely and tried to look as princess-like as possible.
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Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:25 pm
To protect the world || From devestation
secret secret circe has a secret! Cerena had never worked this hard.
At least -- not as far as she could remember, not for anything at all except this now. She frowned down at her eight page of scribbled notes, eyes trailing forward over stacks and stacks of all the brochures and travel guides she'd read, and finally to the table to the side where an envelope sat innocently.
She saw the edges of plane tickets peeking out from it and knew better. By this time tomorrow, they'd be halfway there.
It surprised her even now how little time it took her -- a few phone calls, a few minutes of stealing Koyuki's laptop to check some things, and here she was and she was the only one to know.
At least until the door creaked open and, startled, she looked towards it and began to try and kick everything beneath the couch but it was too late.
"Whatchya doiiiiiin'?" Circe sang out in the Someone's-In-Trouble way young children did all too well, peering mischeviously into her room with golden eyes glittering, and for a second Cerena had the urge to scream and cry and run off to the nearest adult to tell on him before he could tell on her first, and then she remembered she was bigger than he was.
She stood up. "Nooooothiiiiiin'," She mimicked his tone, gesturing at the same time that he should come in. He did, and she quickly went over to make sure no more interruptions would be had before sliding the door shut.
Circe looked down at the mess strewn about his "mother"'s room and immediately thought grumpily that she never really had the right to make him clean his own. "Dun look like nothing to me."
Cerena shook her head and said nothing -- not yet -- and quickly ushered him into a chair. Picking up a few books and placing it on the table before him, she helpfully drew her fingers across the title of one of them and read it aloud: "'A Traveller's Guide to Greece.' Greece. That's across the ocean. We're going to go there tomorrow, okay? You, and me, and Lethe. But it's a secret, okay?" She let her arm drop to the side and sideglanced nervously at him, hoping he wouldn't notice, and prayed to all the gods she didn't know that he would for once in his life be quiet.
Circe seemed satisfied with this explanation and nodded. This only lasted for a few short moments, though, for he soon wanted to know: "Why?"
"Um." Cerena began, interlacing her fingers together. "Well. It's... for fun. A family vacation. We'll go to the beach and everything, okay? --It's a surprise for Lethe. Kind of like a present. And..." She finally hit upon a brilliant idea. "...And I want you to help me."
As expected, his tailfeathers spread almost reflexively, and the young boy puffed his chest out at the thought of being Important. "What can I do?" He said eagerly, hopping out of the chair and beginning to pick up the books and papers and stack them on the table. He looked up towards his guardian for approval.
"Well, you could start by--" She realized with a start that the doors were paper-thin; this meant that she could hear tiny footsteps travelling down the hall that belonged neither to her or Circe, and furthermore that said tiny footsteps could potentially find out their plans. "--Hiding everything!" She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper, taking the stacks of books and shoving them beneath the chair.
Circe rather enjoyed making messes out of things, and in retrospect it was a good idea to clue him in on the plans because if he hadn't zoomed along scattering books and papers every which way like small children were often talented at doing, chances are that the secret wouldn't have been a secret for long. The end result was that the room was nearly spotless and thus free of all incriminating evidence when the door began to slide open.
Cerena looked around to be sure. Her gaze fell on the plane tickets, and a panicky rush, she picked them up and shoved them in the nearest hiding space: tucked against her by the elastic of the back of her skirt.
So when Lethe poked her head in, she saw this: Circe and Cerena standing around staring at her, with the former being unnaturally quiet and the latter having an unnaturally clean room. Her lips pressed together into a grim line, and her eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to ask nicely: "What Cere-na and Circe doing?"
"Nothing!" Both chorused together.
Lethe smiled then, and Circe feared for a minute that she had contracted the brainworms and somehow managed to figure out what they were up to anyway, but then she turned and left and he sighed in relief. "Too close!" He chastised his mother, bending down to gather up the pamphlets again.
"Yeah, too close." Cerena agreed, shaking her head.
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Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:26 pm
Sky || High
of airplanes and flying Circe fidgeted excitedly in his seat with both hands and nose pressed flat against the glass window of their taxi as this 'airport' slowly came into view. By itself, it really wasn't anything special (this he would have to fix when he became king of the world, all buildings would be required to be sparkly and interesting to look at!); it was flat and busy and gray and ewww.
Cerena squirmed besides him as the taxi rolled to a stop, and on her other side, Lethe stared blankly ahead at nothing at all. Circe heavily considered throwing something at his sister just to see what would happen, but decided at the last minute that it wouldn't be very king-like of him. He began to struggle with his seatbelt -- the tricky little thing simply didn't want to let go of him (not that he blamed it!) and he was just about to beat it into submission when Cerena reached over and pushed something which made it slacken and pull away from him with a kind of zipping noise.
Circe blinked at her. Cerena grinned and shrugged.
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Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:26 pm
--reserved-- Beach house!
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Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:27 pm
--reserved-- Lethe being a brat!
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Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 7:40 am
 ((Tell me if I've interrupted anything and this'll be deleted))
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Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:24 pm
--Lethe running away; Cerena chasing after her; Pandora showing up...--
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Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:25 pm
--Cerena being sick, flying back home, Cerena finally waking up only for it to become obvious that she's lost her memories.--
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