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 Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:32 am
Sylvester
Smerdle's Apartment, Barton Town, Gaia
Monday, May 16th, 2005 | 4:47pm GST
Sylvester thought Mallory was weird. But the show she brought was super cool. Veronica was a detective and she ran around spying on some people to help some other people out. Her dad was cool too. There was a biker gang and Veronica's best friend was taped to a flagpole. Or did he become her friend after she cut him off the flagpole? Mallory was playing the episodes out of order, so he wasn't really sure.
Mallory leaned over and pressed a button on her laptop. The screen froze on the face of Veronica's enemy/kissing guy, Logan. Mallory kept covering his eyes during the kissing scenes but Smerdle had let him watch enough of the same kinds of scenes that he knew what was going on.
"You want something to eat, Sylvester?" she asked in that weird voice she used when she was talking to him. He nodded.
Mallory stood up and pressed the same button again. The screen started moving and Mallory left the room.
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:14 am
Mallory
Smerdle's Apartment, Barton Town, Gaia
Monday, May 16th, 2005 | 5:06pm GST
Lettuce, lettuce, lettuce. Mallory hated salad, but Mrs. Smerdle had told her over the phone when she took this job that Sylvester rarely ate anything else. So, Mallory made salad.
Carrots. They were all that was missing. She reached over, grabbed one from the counter and began slicing. She could hear Veronica telling Mac she was switched at birth. Not the best episode, but at least it wasn't violent.
"Ow," Mallory gasped. She stared at her palm, now beaded with blood from a shallow cut. "I totally need to stop daydreaming," she muttered. Reaching over to grab a paper towel, Mallory looked up to see Sylvester standing in the doorway. He wasn't looking at her, he was staring straight ahead and not blinking much. His ears were pricked up as far as they could go and they twitched now and then like he was shooing flies.
"Honey, are you all right?" Mallory asked, syrupy sweetness just beating out concern in her tone. Sylvester slowly looked up at her and after a few seconds began a slow, shambling walk in her direction. What was wrong with him? She wrapped the towel loosely around her hand and met the boy halfway. Leaning over, she felt his forehead with her wrist. He was a little warm, but nothing to worry about. It might even have been his normal temperature for all she knew.
When she pulled her hand away, Sylvester's gaze followed it. Mallory moved her arm up and down and his head trailed after it in a way that would have been funny if he hadn't otherwise been stock still, his hands clenched at his sides.
"Sylvester, stop it," Mallory said, waving her hand in front of his face. She reached for his shoulders, intending to shake some sense into him when she suddenly found her injured hand clutched in both of his. Mallory pulled back, but Sylvester only held on tighter, a low growl emanating from his throat.
"Sylvester," she said. "You're gonna be in, like, so much trouble..." She trailed off, looking on in interest and quite a bit of shock as Sylvester lowered his head and swiped his tongue across her open palm. Now he was just being weird. Mallory yanked her hand away and turned on the most stern face she could muster.
"That is, like, totally not funny, dude! You can't go around, like, licking people's cuts for fun! That's so grody! I'm going to have to tell your mother how, like, bizarre you've been today, and I had better get a bonus or, like, Uncle Chucky is going to hear from me! Crazy old people and their crazy kids!" She turned back to Sylvester just in time to see awareness return to his expression.
"Mallory?" he said softly, looking up at her, confusion evident on his face. He reached out a hand to her, lost his balance and crumpled to the floor, his eyes rolling back in his head. He was unconscious.
Oh s**t.
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:03 pm
Smerdle
Smerdle's Apartment, Barton Town, Gaia
Monday, May 16th, 2005 | 6:15pm GST
Smerdle returned home in a considerably better mood than she could have predicted she would have been in a week ago. Yes, the Gaian Charity Commission had predictably told her she had to move out of her once-spacious apartment, but that didn't seem like as big a deal as it was before she had thought about it a while. She had Sylvester now and had given up her room weeks ago so the Tale could have a comfortable place to sleep. There was also the matter of this house she had found. It was a half an hour outside of Aekea, not five minutes from a lake, and best of all, it was near to abandoned. The realtor had been forced to set the price so low he said it was criminal. Maybe for him, but for Smerdle it was perfect. She pulled off her fancy flats in the hall before pushing the unlocked door open.
"Mallory? Sylvester? I'm back!" The apartment was very quiet. Could Syl already be sleeping? "Mallory?"
Smerdle rounded the corner to the living room and almost smacked into the girl. Mallory looked surprised and a little guilty.
"Mrs. Smerdle!" she enthused. Her hands were shaking.
"Is something wrong?" Smerdle asked.
"You'd better come in here," Mallory said.
The girl led Smerdle into the living room where Sylvester lay on the sofa. His breathing was steady and his eyes moved under their lids like they did when he was dreaming.
"He looks fine," Smerdle said, crouching next to the sofa and pressing a wrist to Syl's forehead.
"He passed out in the kitchen," Mallory clarified.
"Oh." Smerdle was at a loss. Weren't you not supposed to let people with concussions fall asleep? But Mallory had said he'd passed out. All those other kids she had seen that had come from that book seemed to have special characteristics and abilities. Maybe Syl's was unconsciousness. That's just stupid, Smerdle thought. She turned to face Mallory. "Did he hit his head?"
"I didn't see..."
Sylvester let out a soft sigh mixed with a bit of a groan. "Mama?" he said.
"I'm here, kiddo," she answered. Smerdle stood. "He looks all right for now. I think you should get home."
"Yes, Mrs. Smerdle. He didn't hit his head, I don't think," Mallory said. It was amazing how normal she sounded with the Valley Girl scared out of her.
"Here's what I owe you," Smerdle said, handing the girl a roll of small bills she had wrapped up earlier.
"Thanks," Mallory said. She didn't offer to sit for Sylvester again, she just grabbed the money and booked out the door. Smerdle got the feeling there was something she wasn't being told, but short of witholding Mallory's money, Smerdle doubted she was going to get anything else out of the girl. After all, it wasn't like she had beaten Syl, and Smerdle always knew where to find Chucky's dimwitted niece.
"You feel okay?" Smerdle asked her son. Syl nodded. "Stay right there and I'll get you something to drink." Smerdle tousled his already messy hair and headed for the kitchen. Her news about the move would just have to wait.
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:07 am
Sylvester
The Chapel at the Barton Inn, Barton Town, Gaia
Sunday, May 22nd, 2005 | 1:27pm GST
If feeling like he had been run over by a train for the past few days hadn't been enough, now Sylvester was being forced to stand quietly in a smelly room with ugly, smelly people in it. Worse still, he had to wear some sort of fancy, tight-necked black and white thing. It was gross. Just... gross. He pulled at his collar.
"I'm sorry I couldn't find you something that actually fit you," Smerdle said. She leaned down and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt. "There. You don't have to look as pretty now as you did when you were coming down the aisle."
He almost shuddered at the memory of carrying that little, stupid pillow with the dorky rings on it in front of all those people. Wait, he could shudder in front of Smerdle. He wanted her to know how much he hated this whole thing. He tried to look miserable. Too late, shudder averted.
"Why don't you go sit over there?" Smerdle suggested. "It won't be too much longer now before we can go." She leaned down and gave him a short hug, then stood and looked over his head. "Mr. Brown! So good to see you!" she said. "He didn't come to Chucky's first wedding," Smerdle muttered as she flounced off.
Sylvester moped off into the corner and hopped up onto a folding chair. He knew he would feel better if he could just get away from all these people. His stomach growled and he closed his eyes, curling his legs up into the chair with him.
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 1:40 pm
Sylvester, Lance, Lyris and Vidya
The Stationery Store
Barton Town, Gaia
It was raining buckets outside, and as much as Dragonfly was enjoying the cool water, Lance was becoming more and more irritable from it. His shroud of a shirt was clinging to his scales, and his tail swished violently behind him. His hand wrapped tightly about the hilt of his wooden sword, and he pushed open the door of the stationary shop first, cutting in front of Dragonfly to get into the sheltered store.
Dragonfly laughed softly at the irritable tale, but couldn't help but frown. Lately she had hardly seen hide nor hair of her dragonic child, except for at night when she came to tuck him in. Sometimes she would read to him, but the stories always seemed to cause the tale to seem so far away, and distant. She had started reading Eragon to him, and he seemed to be enjoying it, since more and more often he would take it from her, and read to her, though some words were difficult for him to comprehend, and form.
"So mature..."
She frowned and bit her lip. Could Lance really be forgetting to live his childhood just because of some silly book about a knight slaying a dragon? Surely Lance's entire frame of mind didn't revolve around this thought...
But it did.
She followed after her child, into the cozy stationary shop's main room, and made her way over to the fire, pulling her coat from her form, and dropping it on the floor next to her seat.
Lance hadn't brought a coat. He hadn't wanted one. it had been nice when they had left... How quickly things seemed to have changed.
He hunkered down in front of the fire, setting his sword beside him, and lifting his hands to bask in the warm glow it emitted. His tail continued to swish behind him, and he sighed, his red eyes focused on the twisting flames before him.
Enoh had the hardest time ever attempting to keep her sea monster from running off on her. The girl was more energetic than normal, if that were at all possible. And believe me, it was. The poor shapeshifter was trying to keep the child under the umbrella, and away from the rain. Unfortunately, this was failing miserably...and currently, both Author and Tale were soaking wet. One was happy about it, and the other was, well...not.
"VIDYA! Dont---....Well then. Nevermind."
Vidya, grinning mischeviously up at her mother, tugged her hand away and ran the short distance to the shop entrance, splashing in EVERY puddle she saw along the way. Pushing the door open with both hands, Vidya jumped inside, and quickly ran over to the fire, having seen a green tail escape over in that direction.
Giggling like a mad fiend, the blue child pounced on Lance.
"LANII! Hello, Hai!"
Enoh wandered in some few minutes later, grumbling about being so wet, and definately considering tying an umbrella to the child's back and feet.
Lyris frowned as she skittered into the shop, the hood on her robe thrown up over her head and her sleeves laced together, her staff pushing out on either side and causing the elbows of the sleeves to be more pronounced. Luna was running on Lyris's heels, sopping wet. Neither of them liked rain, they never had. But that's what happens when you spend half your life exposed to the elements.
Luna mewled pathetic, shaking herself as she dashed over to the fire, flopping down in front of it, not even noticing the other being there until her tail happen to flick over onto his. She mewled, looking up at the dragon boy with curious eyes. But only for a second, because after her vision seemed to clear, her eyes lit up with delight.
"Lyris, slow down!" Kira called, stumbling in after her daughter nearly a minute later.
"You walk too slow," Lyris said, sniffling.
Lance was entranced in the shifting gaze of the fire, and he was shocked out of his stupor as Vidya pounced him. He shifted enough so that he would not fall over, and had he he would have crushed the cat that had brushed his tail. He blinked at the wet, blue child, and huffed at her, pouting that her hug had made him all wet again.
"Hullo Vidya," he said with a small smile, before tilting his head to the floor where the cat still lay before the fire.
He blinked as he looked down at Luna, and reached a hand down to pet her soaked form.
"Hello," he said, smiling softly.
Dragonfly had several cats at home, and Lance had grown attached to animals of the feline persausian. He couldn't say much about dogs though. He had seen a couple of the slobbering, annoyingly happy animals, and hadn't liked them.
He scratched between Luna's ears, keeping one eye on the black cat, and the other on Vidya.
"How are you today Viddy?" he asked politely.
Dragonfly watched as the child, and her guardian walked out, and could only raise an eyebrow. She waved Enoh over, and grinned lopsidedly.
"If you had told me you were coming here we could've come togethor!" she said, laughing softly and grinning lopsidedly, "I'll be heading home with you for sure though, oh umbrella'd one,"
She laughed softly, and shook her head, her wet, currently red hair falling in sopping whisps about her face, and sticking to her cheeks and forhead.
Luna mewled happily, purring as she leaned into the scaled hand. Mmmm, yes. He knew what he was doing. But he would, wouldn't he? He was one of the brothern.
Lyris eyed the two unfamiliar faces, blinking a bit as she pulled her staff out of her damp robes, leaving her hood up as she toddled over to them, staying silent, just watching.
Kira sighed, closing her umbrella as she wandered over to the nearest chair, just flopping over.
Vidya grinned at Lance, her side wings giving a little twitch. She had scared him! In her mind, at least. And that, girls and boys, was good enough for her. "M'all wet" She stated simply at his question, as if he didn't even notice that. Little miss obvious over here!
"Hullo." She smiled happily at the other girl tale here, waving. Of course, she was still flopped on her dragon friend. "M'Viddy...n'you gots pretty hair n'eyes! S'red...like mommie's eyes. And oh! Staff! Viddy gots one too! Sat home though" she nodded, smiling still.
Enoh groaned as she shuffled over towards her co-worker, leaning her forehead against the other woman's shoulder. If it were possible, the shifter was probably more water-logged than Dragonfly. "I blame you for this, Dee. Vidya saw Lance's tail go out the door, saw it was raining, dragged me off the couch, and made me go out in the rain..."
She then handed her umbrella to her friend. "Here...take it. It obviously didn't help me much..." She groaned again, though she giggled softly.
Lance looked over at Lyris, and smiled faintly, waving his unoccupied hand to her, and gesturing his hand towards the fire.
"Come over and get warm. You look just as cold as I feel," he smiled.
Being a dragon, the cold made Lance sluggish, and it showed. His movements were slower than normal, and he seemed tired, and slothish.
Lance laughed softly at Vidya, and shook his head violently, green hair shaking some of the water trapped in it free, sending droplets about the room, and his grin widened.
"We're all wet Vidya. I'm staying by the fire to try and dry off," he poked her feathered ear gently, "And your wet hug isn't helping me much,"
He chuckled good naturdly, and shook his wings free of water, before folding them across his back once more.
He looked down to Luna, and smiled, continuing to stroke the black cat's back, and scratch her ears. He reached to scratch beneath her chin a moment, before returning to petting.
Dragonfly laughed and shook her head, retorting, "It is SO not my fault!"
She stared at the umbrella for a moment, before shaking her head, and chuckling more.
"Nah," she said, wafting it away, "I like the feeling of the rain. S'nice,"
She smiled and looked towards the doorway, her eyes sliding shut a moment as she concentrated on listening to the sound of falling water, before opening them once more, and looking over to Kira.
"Allo~" she greeted.
Lyris waved slightly to both of them before wandering over, settling down across from Lance, next to Luna, "Hi," She said, her voice a bit hushed as she sniffled a bit and then coughed. She really didn't like rain. "I'm Lyris... And that's Luna," She said, pointing to the black and white cat.
Luna didn't even notice anyone else, really. She was too blissed out from all the petting.
Kira smiled softly at Dee, raising a hand weakly and waving, "Hey." It had been quite a week.
Smerdle didn't own an umbrella, a fact she now lamented as she trudged down the street toward the Stationery Store. What she did have was an oversized yellow coat, dubbed her d**k Tracy coat, which was now wrapped around her and Sylvester's lower half as she held him tightly against her. He had been out of sorts since his day with Mallory, the no-brained babysitter, and Smerdle thought the shop would make him feel better.
Sylvester tried to identify the places he passed through the clear plastic bag that was tied around the top half of his head, but they all just looked like dark blobs. He hadn't really wanted to go out, content to sit in front of the TV for the rest of his natural life, but Smerdle had insisted. He sighed and closed his eyes, leaning the side of his head against his mother's wet hair.
Smerdle opened the door to the shop and unzipped her coat. Sylvester slid to the floor and she helped him untie the bag from around his eyes and head as well as the ones around the parts of his neck that had been exposed.
"You look like Homer Simpson," she said, smoothing her fingers over the darkened, wet parts of his muzzle the bag hadn't covered. "Go on," she said, smiling and gesturing toward the other kids before taking off her coat.
The Tale approached the group around the fire and sat down a little to the side, waving slightly to everyone, even though he didn't know most of them. "Hey."
"I am happy to meet you Lyris, and Luna," Lance said, smiling brightly to Lyris, still petting Luna's form.
He shrugged Vidya from his form, setting her beside him, before turning at the new arrival. He blinked at the strange creature, and raised a curious eyebrow. He'd never seen anything like that which was Sylvester!
"Hello," the dragon boy greeted politely, lifting a scaled hand to wave to the other, before dropping it back down to continue petting Luna.
Lyris smiled at Lance slightly. Luna seemed to really like him, and he had been pleasant, so he was all right in her book for now. As she turned towards the new arrival, she was a little startled. She'd...never seen anything like that...or anyone, for that matter.
Sylvester looked up, not having noticed any strange looks cast his way. "Hey, cool sword," he said to Lance. The only swords he had seen had been in movies. Lance's looked less sharp than those, but that didn't make it any less cool. "Is that your cat too?" he asked.
Lance smiled again to Sylvester, moving over so that the other had more room to sit.
"Thanks," he replied to the remark about his sword, "I hope to get a real one someday, but for now D-chan will only let me have this,"
He blinked a bit at the comment about Luna, and shook his head.
"No, she's not mine. She's cute, though. My name is Lance, what's yours?"
"She's mine," Lyris said, still a little confused. "Her name's Luna, and I'm Lyris," She said, nodding slowly before pausing. "What are you?" And innocent enough question for someone who had never seen or heard of a giraffe before...even if it wasn't phrased as well as it could have been.
"I'm Sylvester," he said, still looking at Luna. "Nice to meet you."
He looked up at Lyris when she asked her question. "I'm a giraffe," he began. "They're locked up in zoos." He seemed quite proud of this fact for some reason. "I don't walk like them, though. I've got hands and feet," he said. He was always a little vague on the subject of what he was, primarily because he had never actually seen a real giraffe before. Smerdle had promised to take him to the zoo, but she'd been busy lately.
Lyris blinked again, even more confused now, "What's a zoo?" She asked, a small frown forming over her face.
Luna mewled softly, noticing the new attention and slinking forward, sniffing delicately at Sylvester, investigating. She certainly hadn't seen anything like him before, and she had seen a lot of things in her time.
A giraffe?
Lance would have to look that up later. After all, knowledge was power...
"It's nice to meet you Sylvester," Lance said, smiling and extending a scaled hand to shake the others, "And you two, too, Lyris and Luna,"
Lance grinned, before flopping down onto his stomach so that his form was closer to the fire.
"It's freezing outside. Find yourself a place by the fire to dry off," he offered to Sylvester.
"They keep mean animals in zoos so people can see them, I think. I've never been there," he said. He secretly hoped giraffes were mean, but from what he had seen of them on Animal Planet, he doubted it.
He inched closer to the fire and reached out to shake Lance's hand before letting it hover above Luna's head, waiting to see what she would do. He'd never seen a real cat before either.
Lance listened to the thread of the conversation, shaking Sylvester's hand before his gaze focused into the fire once more.
Giraffes were kept in a zoo? Probably because they were dangerous... Well, at least that's what he got out of what Sylvester said. If a giraffe was dangerous, did that make them monsters?
Dragons were monsters...
Lance was brooding, and the flicker that had been in his gaze previously went out as dark thoughts posessed him.
He wasn't a monster! He might have been a dragon, but that didn't make him a monster! Sylvester was a giraffe, and that didn't make him dangerous, or at least he didn't seem to be...
Was Lance a monster?
Lyris nodded slowly. This hurt her head. She wanted the easy stuff back...forging in the woods for herbs, reciting scriptures, and learning calligraphy. Slowly, she turned to look over at Lance. His face had darkened in the last minute or so. Slowly, she reached out and settled a hand on his shoulder, "You ok?"
Luna blinked slightly at Sylvester's hand, leaning up and sniffing it slowly before taking another step forward and pushing her the top of her head up into his palm, purring. He smelt fine, and he was furry. Furry was good.
Sylvester ran his hand down Luna's head and stopped on her shoulders for a second to feel her purring. Pretty cool. He resumed petting her head, looking over at Lance to hear his response.
Lance blinked as he was pulled out of his stupor, and sighed a bit, smiling weakly to Lyris and Sylvestor.
"Yes," he replied softly, "I'm fine. Just a little tired, and sluggish is all..."
"I could see if I could get you a towel to dry off with," Lyris said, holding out her hand and concentrating on it. Slowly, it started to glow a bright red and suddenly, that was a POP as the color faded.
"WHO! WHO!" A flutter of wings and there were two large golden eyes staring down at the three of them.
Lyris shuddered and growled at herself, "Towel, not owl..."
Luna mewled softly, looking back at Lyris and looking up at the owl before rubbing against Sylvestor's hand once more and turning back to curl against Lyris.
Whoa! Sylvester froze as Lyris' hand started to glow. No one he'd met could do that! He gasped as the owl appeared and stared up at it, waiting for it to leave like it had come.
"How'd you do that?" he said with awe.
Lance blinked in surprise at the sudden existance of the owl, and his mouth hung agape has he stared.
He let out a laugh as Lyris voiced her mixup, but couldn't help but grin lopsidedly.
"That's so cool," he grined, "But, I'm fine. Really. I don't need a towel. Or an owl, for that matter."
Smerdle looked up from the book of special order papers she was looking through at the newly-created owl. That was weird. She could have sworn it hadn't been there when they came in. Sufficiently distracted, she looked at her watch. Oh crap, she had to get home.
"Sylvester," she said, approaching the kids while sneaking glances at the owl. "I know you're probably having fun, but we've got to go. We'll be back another day," she said apologetically to the two other children.
"Okay," he said, the excitement of watching Lyris' magic wearing off at the mention of his house. He rose and waved again like he had when he came in. "Bye Lance and Lyris. And Luna," he added.
Smerdle bundled her son up, less so than when they came here since they were headed home where they could dry off, and they left the shop.
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Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:17 am
Chucky
Smerdle's New House, Outside Aekea, Gaia
Monday, June 13th, 2005 | 5:51pm GST
"Hellooooooooo," Chucky howled. With the place unlocked like it was, Smerdle and her spawn must be nearby. He grabbed hold of the odd pole that ran from floor to ceiling to the right of the door and spun around it like some twisted, suburban Tarzan.
"Don't do that," Smerdle said, coming down the stairs.
"What? You've seen the upstairs in this place." He circled the pole again. "It's not holding anything up," he added in a conspiratorial stage whisper. "Where's the kid? I brought him something."
As if by magic or professional eavesdropping, Sylvester came running down the back hall. That was the living room, if what he remembered about the empty house was correct. Chucky had made a point of not coming around during the move. Wouldn't want to do any heavy lifting, after all.
"Uncle Chucky!" Sylvester laughed. The kid looked infinitely better than he had the last time Chucky had seen him a week and a half ago. Chucky smiled.
"Here, look. I got you something." He held out his hands.
"Me and Helen went to the carnival. Lord knows why since she wouldn't let me play any of the games." He shrugged. "I snuck on Whack-A-Mole while she was on her cell, though. Won him for ya."
"Wow, thanks, Uncle Chucky!" Sylvester said, grabbing the doll.
"Of all the things you could bring, a clown is your first choice?" Smerdle scoffed. "He'll have nightmares about it staring at him for weeks!"
"It can't stare, Mama. It's got no eyes."
"Hah!" Smerdle turned around and walked away, her arms raised in defeat.
"He's got eyes, they're just..." Chucky tried to explain. "Forget it."
Sylvester grabbed Chucky's hand, his new creepy clown dangling from his arm. "C'mon, I'll show you my room!"
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Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:19 am
Sylvester
Smerdle's New House, Outside Aekea, Gaia
Monday, June 13th, 2005 | 8:22pm GST
Sylvester jumped up the stairs, his new clown plush bouncing against his forearm. Mama and Uncle Chucky had wished him a good night downstairs and Mama had told him to tuck himself in, which he was currently doing. He didn't like tucking himself in, especially in the new house. It was dark all over and sometimes Syl heard bumps and scraping through the walls. But he understood. Mama and Uncle Chucky had grownup things to talk about.
The door to Sylvester's room was open a crack, not closed like he thought he had left it, but he paid it no mind. He climbed onto his bed by the light of the moon streaming through the window and changed his shorts for his SpongeBob PJ pants. He had never been able to figure out how to pull a shirt off by himself without stretching it terribly, so he left his dirty t-shirt on and lay back on the mattress.
A muffled chirp and the sound of crackling paper met his ears at the same time something cold and hard poked into the side of his neck. With a start of surprise, Sylvester sat up again quickly and spun around, crouching on his hands and knees where he had been lying seconds before.
In the center of his bed was a note, pinned down by one of the strangest things Sylvester had seen in his short life. It looked like it was made of some sort of metal or plastic, but when Syl pulled the paper out from under it, the clinking noise it made didn't sound like either of those materials.
"Every kid needs a pet..." he read haltingly. "'Kay." He briefly wondered why he was able to read these letters but not the ones Mama tried so hard to get him to.
As if responding to his voice, the creature stirred, the strange jewels on its head lighting up. It opened its eyes and said in a melodic female voice, "Hello Sylvester. My name is Montmorency."
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Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2005 9:48 pm
Quin
Smerdle's Yard, Outside Aekea, Gaia
Wednesday, June 15th, 2005 | 1:14pm GST
A fat drop of rain fell onto Quin's hair from the trees above, and he scowled darkly. Life hadn't been that great recently, despite Nan's protests that things would come around soon. Quin had finally managed to get his blood filtration system to work, but not without experimenting on a lot of his own blood first. Quite a lot actually, and it had never seemed to cooperate unless it was outside his body. As a result, he felt weak and irritable all the time, even more irritable than usual, he admitted sourly. It certainly didn't help that Nan was grating on his last nerve with her overly concerned glances every night at dinner. At least she had managed to open another portal closer to this Smerdle woman's new home. That was where Quin found himself more and more these days, hiding in a tight knot of evergreens on her property, watching his queen's salvation... playing.
Today the boy was running around without an umbrella in this dreadful drizzle, and he was talking aloud to someone Quin couldn't see. The first characteristic was one that Quin shared; the Guaxan palace was so sprawling that one hardly needed an umbrella to get around. The second concerned him somewhat, because Quin himself could not remember ever having had an imaginary friend and he saw Sylvester's acquisition of one to be rather, to put it mildly, insane.
Quin bent his head over a small notebook and began to write.
No, no. That wouldn't do at all. He flipped the pencil over, intending to erase the offending sentences, but it slipped from his fingers and landed on the bed of pine needles at his feet. He sighed wearily and pressed his fingers to his temples. After close to a minute of personal pity, Quin quickly bent over to retrieve his rogue writing implement.
"Uggphh," he grunted as he fell to his knees. Perhaps things that required blood pressure weren't things he should be doing when he had none. Quin sat back on his folded legs and looked up to see Sylvester throw a pebble in his direction. There was no fear of discovery since the boy was too far away to see him, and Quin was about to record this bit of rock-throwing idiocy when his eyes were drawn to something at the level of the child's neck. It looked like a small section of the boy's skin was bouncing excitedly. I'm going insane, Quin mused. He couldn't tear his eyes away, so when the bobbing skin detached and flung itself toward him, Quin had a front row seat. He very nearly threw up right then, but instead he leaned forward on his elbows, staining his expensive coat with mud, and braced his forehead on clammy palms.
Quin had no idea how long he stayed like that, hunched over and breathing deeply into the dirt, but when he finally looked up, it was into the eyes of a tiny metal animal with no forelegs. It cocked its head at Quin in a way that Nan would probably have described as 'cute,' and despite being on the verge of passing out, Quin was nothing if not intrigued. He reached out a finger toward the creature and it trilled as it bounced closer and briefly turned the color of the needles around it while nuzzling the offered digit with its cold, smooth head. Quin was about to pick the thing up, when...
"Morry?" Sylvester's voice rang out over the yard and the creature pulled away from Quin's finger. It turned around to make sure the pebble it was retrieving was firmly held by its tail, and it hopped away.
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Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2005 9:49 pm
Chucky
Smerdle's House, Outside Aekea, Gaia
Friday, June 24th, 2005 | 10:12am GST
Chucky quietly whistled "Sweet Child O' Mine" as he bounded up the steps to Smerdle's porch. He sighed. The early 90s groove lived on in Chucky Fredricks, and it was good. He jiggled the front doorknob, but it was uncharacteristically locked. Okay then. Maybe they were in the backyard. Chucky jumped off of the porch, windmilling his arms in a rockin' air guitar solo, a sudden gust of wind blowing dust from the driveway into a cloud around him. After a few dry wheezes, Chucky started around to the back, his muddy Vans swishing through the grass. He picked up his pace as he recognized the muffled voice of his nephew. He couldn't make out what the kid was saying yet, but as he got closer, certain words stood out from the slur.
"I know! I don't wanna bite him really! He's my uncle!" Sylvester hissed, his voice a little softer than conversational. In fact, Chucky wouldn't have been able to hear Sylvester at all if he hadn't been so close to the corner of the house. He stopped. As far as Chucky knew, he was the only uncle Sylvester had, and he had no intention of getting bitten any time soon. He stepped forward, about to interrupt, when he heard a mechanical cat-like whirr, like R2D2, which halted Sylvester's whispered protests. Chucky slid out from behind the corner of the house and Sylvester turned to look at him, a badly-concealed look of guilt on his face.
"Sorry, Uncle Chucky. Didn't hear you." Sylvester pulled a hardcover book from the weathered picnic table into his lap, as if to imply that a preoccupation with reading had interfered with his uncannily good hearing. Well, Chucky supposed, it probably wasn't uncanny for a giraffe, but whatever. He had heard enough whining from Smerdle about Sylvester's developmental problems to know that he couldn't read anything but his own name. What was the kid, the equivalent of four? Chucky didn't think you were supposed to be able to read by then anyway.
Smerdle pushed through the back door, an apple in one hand and a sandwich in the other. "Oh, you found him," she said, smiling. "I told Syl to wait in the front for you, but he wanted to sit back here." Sylvester kept his gaze on the hem of his shorts as he worried it with the fuzzy pads of his thumb and forefinger. "Here," Smerdle continued, oblivious. She plopped the apple down in front of the Tale and he looked up at her.
"Uh..." Chucky spluttered. He wanted to tell Smerdle what he had overheard. He wanted to inform his best ******** friend that her son was acting a little weird (even now -- couldn't she see it?), but in the silence while all this whirled through his head, Sylvester looked over at him. The kid wasn't going to bite him. Hell, he was a bipedal giraffe that had been spewed out of a book, for crap's sake. He probably just had a particularly creative imaginary friend... and a gift for robot mimicry. Sylvester just needed some fatherly influence and Chucky was going to be the one to reluctantly give it to him. "...d'you have a sandwich for me?" he finished lamely. While Smerdle was rolling her eyes, Chucky sighed dramatically and gave Sylvester a quick thumbs up. The kid actually grinned back. He couldn't be that close to satanism yet.
"Make your own damn sandwich," Smerdle said. "I left everything out. Just don't make a mess."
"Yes, mom," Chucky said. Smerdle pointed a scolding finger at him and Chucky stepped forward, grabbed her other be-sandwiched hand, and shoved it into her mouth, which had just opened in protest.
"Ha ha," Smerdle mumbled around a mouthful of ham and mayonnaise. "Fine, I'm going. It's an open call, so who knows when I'll be back." She swallowed. "Thanks for doing this."
Chucky sobered. "Yeah. Anytime." He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "I'm really sorry about Mallory..."
"Yeah. It's all right." She patted his arm and waved at Sylvester. "Don't cause any trouble," she said unnecessarily. Smerdle kept waving as she disappeared around the side of the house.
Sylvester jumped off of his bench and ran over to stand in front of Chucky. "You were going to tell on me," he said. Chucky couldn't help but think that it was his mother's smile, which was disturbing since Smerdle didn't have a muzzle.
"You did say you wanted to bite me, kid," Chucky said.
"Heard it on TV," Syl chuckled, as if that was all the explanation he needed. Chucky supposed it was. For now.
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Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:48 am
Sylvester
Smerdle's House, Outside Aekea, Gaia
Friday, June 24th, 2005 | 2:58pm GST
"I'm getting something to drink. You want anything?" Chucky set down the guts-tweezers and stood up. After an exciting morning of watching TV, they had ventured back outside, deciding on Operation because it was the only game Smerdle owned that didn't have pieces that would blow away. Sylvester shook his head and Chucky went inside.
Syl couldn't understand why Uncle Chucky hadn't asked what he was talking about before. He knew he wanted to, and Syl wanted to tell him, despite what Morry said. She'd said Uncle Chucky wouldn't understand, but Morry didn't know him very well and Syl did. Chucky would help. It was just that Sylvester didn't want to be the one to bring up the whole biting thing again.
The other Tales he'd met had cool things. Wings, magic, swords, cats. All Syl had was the desire to suck people's insides out and pretty soft fur, if Viddy was to be believed. He wasn't even jealous, really. He just wanted to feel normal again.
Sylvester sighed. Maybe it wasn't as bad as he thought. He'd seen a bunch of movies where these vampire people had awesome lives down in the sewers and in theaters and stuff. Maybe he should just give in to it. Would his skin come flaking off in the sun and his teeth get all pointy? Without thinking, Sylvester leaned forward and touched his tongue to the scuffed metal around the Funny Bone.
"Ow."
"Told you so," Morry said in a monotone. "You feel bad things." She hopped off of his shoulder and over to Uncle Chucky's iPod. "What's this?" she chirped.
"iPod." He didn't much want to talk to her right now. He might feel itchy and blood-sucky around Uncle Chucky, but at least his uncle would make him laugh instead of telling him he was bad.
"Watch this," Morry said, pulling out the headphone jack with her foot. She thinned one of her tail points, stuck it in the hole for a few seconds, pulled it out, and hopped back up Syl's arm and neck to nestle near his ear, her new favorite place. Sylvester reached over and plugged the headphones back in as Morry began to play a song Sylvester had never heard before.
Maia-hee
Maia-hoo
Maia-haa
Maia-ha-ha
"What's that?" Sylvester said.
"I don't know." She jumped off of him again and started bobbing on the table, changing colors to the beat.
Sylvester's lips twitched as he tried to hold back a smile. "Stop being silly. Uncle Chucky is going to come back soon." He couldn't help himself. A smile crept across his face and he scooped Morry up so she couldn't see it. He put her near his shirt collar. "Stay here." Syl kept smiling until Chucky came out of the house.
"Here, I got you something anyway. It's hot out here." He put an apple juice box on the table in front of Syl, the straw already sticking out of the top. "What're you smiling about?"
"I licked the game," Sylvester said.
As if Morry's dancing hadn't been enough, the look on Uncle Chucky's face made Sylvester dissolve into hysterical laughter.
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Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:50 am
Nan
Quin's Room, The Palace, Guaxa
Tuesday, July 5th, 2005 | 10:54am GuST
"Quin."
A muffled voice creeped from the limp body lying on the bed. "Mara, I'm working..."
"Quincy Pellas!" Nan blurted. "I am not, nor will I ever be your scheming ex-wife! I should find some sort of disfiguring spell to cast on you for even suggesting that, asleep or not." She hobbled over to the end of his bed, unable to stop her foot from stomping in disgust.
He twitched. She sighed.
"I brought someone here to show you." Nan heaved her dalmatian puppy into the air and dropped it on Quin's prone form. The man yelped and opened one eye, staring blearily at Nan through a veil of tangled hair. The dog just flopped into a sitting position, seemingly content to relax on Quin's back.
"You bought a dog?" Quin said into the pillow.
"Yes. If you haven't noticed, the castle is a lot more boring than it used to be."
"Lisa is dying."
"Well, yes... but she's going to be well soon and I doubt this place will ever regain its color. We all needed a pet."
"You have a pet. On Gaia. You should be taking care of that boy."
Nan smiled. "You do a very good job of that for me, Quincy."
"It's not as if I do anything more than peer at him from the bushes like a crazed madman. Can you get this thing off of me?"
Nan held back a chuckle as she lifted the dog and placed him on the floor. "Don't leave the room, Henry." She turned back to Quin, who was sitting up and pulling his hair away from his face. "He's a very smart puppy."
"Your Gaian experiment has a pet too," Quin said. "Although I think it's more of a spy."
"What?"
Quin didn't elaborate. "I figure Lisa has about two months left on the blood cleansing system I've come up with. That child had better have done whatever it is you think he will by then."
"When did you start calling her Lisa?"
"When she became my responsibility." He looked up at Nan, anger clouding his eyes. "I can't survive as a Peasant, Nan."
Nan dropped onto the bed beside him, her bad leg sticking out straight over the side. "You won't have to. We're going to win." She tousled his hair and he batted her hands away.
"For pity's sake, I'm not a child!"
Nan thought back to the hundreds of times she had played with Quin. She thought about the sickly, but carefree child he had been and the overworked, crabby man he had become. She thought about Sylvester and the burden he wasn't aware he carried. She frowned and pushed herself off of the bed, hand on Quin's arm. As she reached the door, she heard a shuffling sound and a sigh.
"Sorry."
"You are. And we're going to win." Clenching her hand around the top of her cane, Nan shuffled down the hall and back to her room.
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Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:51 am
Smerdle
Smerdle's House, Outside Aekea, Gaia
Saturday, July 16th, 2005 | 4:02am GST
"Mama?"
Smerdle held up a "wait-a-second" finger and kept reading. She suddenly realized she was only about a quarter of the way through her shiny new copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It must be ridiculously early in the morning! She closed the book and looked up at Sylvester's tired face.
"What's wrong, honey?" Smerdle asked. She sat up and put her hands on his shoulders, feeling the warmth of his skin transferred through his short fur to her palms. She felt a twinge of alarm before realizing there was nothing she could do at 4am except get him to sleep. Sylvester pushed up on his tiptoes and awkwardly hugged her.
"I dunno." He broke the hug and stepped back, looking down at Smerdle's feet. "Read to me, Mama?"
"Yeah, sure." She wasn't sure he would be able to follow the plot since she hadn't had time to read him the other five books, but watching the Tale as he climbed up onto her bed, she didn't think he would care.
"Do I have to come to work with you tomorrow?" Sylvester said softly.
Smerdle put her arm around his shoulders and said, "Nah. I'm sure Uncle Chucky would let you hang out in the back of the pawn shop if I tell him you won't touch anything." She reached up and brushed the hair out of his eyes. "You won't touch anything, right?"
Sylvester shook his head and Smerdle smiled. "All right, here we go."
She began at the start of Chapter Seven, even though she had already read half of it. She stopped and explained who all the characters were and gave them each as distinct a voice as she could. Not long after she had started on the next chapter, Sylvester was asleep, his skin surprisingly cooler than when he had arrived in her room. Smerdle shrugged and chalked it up to some kiddie bug before continuing to read, Sylvester's deep breaths fluttering across her arm.
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Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:53 am
Smerdle
The Barton 12 Movie Theater, Barton Town, Gaia
Thursday, July 21st, 2005 | 8:45pm GST
Smerdle slapped Chucky's hand away from the ticket window.
"I said I would pay, and I'm gonna pay!" she said, slipping some cash through to the waiting hands of the booth kid. "If you hadn't agreed to watch Sylvester, I wouldn't have been able to audition and I wouldn't have gotten the stupid gig. So, I owe you."
Chucky laughed sharply. "Fine." The cashier pushed the tickets through and before the kid could even suck in a breath to speak, Chucky had grabbed his. "I'm buying the popcorn." And with that, he sped off into the building.
"... theater one," the kid said.
"Thanks." Smerdle stuffed the change back into her pocket and handed the two remaning tickets to Sylvester. "Here. And I know you've heard it a hundred times, but your uncle is a weirdo." Sylvester looked up and smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "C'mon! It's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!" Smerdle coaxed. "It's going to be fun!" Sylvester nodded and shuffled into the air-conditioned lobby ahead of his mother.
Ten minutes later, the three sat in the theater, waiting for the previews to start. Smerdle turned to Sylvester, who was seated between them for easy popcorn access, and tapped him on the shoulder. She started to ask him if he wanted some M&Ms, but when she got his attention, he started badly and fell/hopped out of his chair.
"No!" he shouted. He quickly climbed around her legs and ran into the aisle, nearly slamming into a tiny Japanese toddler with a band-aid on her forehead. The girl stumbled to a halt, looking up at the Tale with eyes that went from surprised to delighted in a matter of seconds. She held out her arms as if to embrace the giant moving plushie. Smerdle watched in horror as her son lunged forward, knocking the girl the short distance to the ground. The toddler giggled as Sylvester pinched her dirty band-aid between his thumb and forefinger and slowly pulled, like he was unveiling some delectable foreign candy.
Smerdle, shock overcome by the sheer oddity of the situation, shot up from her chair and hurried over, grabbing Sylvester off of the floor. He was rigid in her arms, and when Smerdle got him up into the air, he began screaming like she was ending his life.
"Chucky," she said loudly. They had to get out of there before more weird things started happening.
He joined Smerdle in the aisle, shooting the little girl's parents an apologetic look as they hurried out of the theater and into the streets of Barton.
This was, quite possibly, the last straw.
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Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:55 am
Sylvester
Smerdle's House, Outside Aekea, Gaia
Friday, July 22nd, 2005 | 11:09am GST
Pain. Gross, dull, throbbing pain. Everywhere. He tried to sit up, but tears sprang to his eyes so instead he stopped and curled his lower body into a half-ball thing.
"Sylvester?"
Mama. He had nothing to say to her. She was gonna ask too many questions, he knew it.
"I know you're awake."
He couldn't even answer her stupid questions. The last time he felt like this was after Mallory babysat for him. But this was worse. And he still didn't remember a thing about either time. He slitted open his eyes and gave his mother a brief glance before closing them again.
"What hurts?"
He gave one of those little huffs that would have meant Are you serious? if he had been older. All things considered, that was probably what it meant now as well.
"What do you remember about last night?"
"Nothin'."
"You were screaming. I... I don't believe you."
He opened his eyes a bit. She looked sad. Sylvester wished he could jump up and smile and do a little dance and say, I'm all better now, Mama! No screaming or guts-eating here, no way! But he couldn't.
"You stopped once we got out of Barton. You fell asleep right away. I think you might be agoraphobic..."
Sylvester stopped listening for a while. He really had no idea what Mama was talking about. After a bit, the ear that wasn't being smooshed by the pillow perked up at the mention of his hair.
"...I could cut it for you. I know you've been feeling warm lately. Maybe it would help." He felt her fingers slide across his forehead and some unexplainable store of anger bubbled up in him.
"NO!" he yelled. It made his head hurt more, but he didn't care. That was his hair and it was alive! "SHUT UP!"
She snatched her hand away and looked sad again. Great. First Morry had stopped talking all the time and now Mama would too. Sylvester closed his eyes.
"Just get some sleep," she said. "I'm going to find out what's wrong with you."
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Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:36 pm
Smerdle
Barton Pawn, Barton Town, Gaia
Thursday, September 1st, 2005 | 4:14pm GST
The bell above the door to Chucky's store jingled merrily as Smerdle entered and stalked over to the counter. She leaned forward until she was nearly nose-to-nose with her best friend.
"I want to strangle your bell."
"Good afternoon." Chucky smirked and looked down at a comic book or something Smerdle had seen him reading before she came in.
"Fine. Fine, I don't want to strangle it." She paused for a few seconds, staring at the top of his head. "Would you look at me?"
"What?"
"My son is home alone, okay! I need someone else to tell me what to do so I can get back to him."
"Brownie?"
"Look, here's how it is. Sylvester sleeps nearly all the time, and when he is awake, he's telling me to shut up or getting strange fevers or throwing a tantrum." She eyed the brownie basket. "Where'd you get those?"
"Someone left them."
"Outside? And... you just want me to eat one?"
"Well, no. Only if you want."
Smerdle closed the basket and stared at Chucky in silence. After a few minutes, he looked up again.
"He's still eating. I don't know what to do," Smerdle said.
"I've seen his tantrums, you know..."
"That's why I'm here, genius."
"... and they look like normal kid tantrums to me."
"You think you acted that way as a child? Ripping off people's band-aids?"
"And telling his imaginary friends he's going to bite his uncle."
"I don't think I want to know. So did you?"
"What?"
"Act that way?"
"My mom seems to think so."
"Well, I didn't."
"What about Russell?"
"We're not talking about him."
"Could he have acted that way?"
"Possibly. But, really, he's a special case."
"Is that what they call it?" Chucky began to laugh quietly. Smerdle punched him in the arm.
"I'm serious!"
"Take him to that store you got him from! Or a real doctor. Jeez."
Smerdle traced the darkened knots on the wooden counter with a finger. "Great."
"What?"
"I didn't want my second opinion to match my first. That's why you get a second opinion, so like, you can have... another opinion." She sighed. "A doctor isn't going to know what to do with him."
"A doctor'll know better than you."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, a**." Smerdle headed for the door, but turned around halfway to contemplate the brownie basket. "Take those home to Helen. If they're pot brownies, at least you'll have some fun for a change." She heard Chucky's sharp intake of retort-breath, but she was already out the door before he could speak.
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