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 Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 8:26 pm
Monkey See, Monkey Do.
Ranza would have been content to remain in her bedroom forevermore, rereading Twilight (utter trash but fittingly depressing) over and over again and sulking, but her mother wouldn't be. The final straw came when Cat bit the dust. He'd been on the way out for months, and there was no denying that Cat was ancient and pathetic, and no one liked Cat, anyways, but his passing left a strange air of sympathy around Eshaa.
A week after Cat died, Eshaa gave Ranza some money and told her to go to the animal shelter.
"Pick out a nice puppy or whatever," she instructed. Never mind that Orli already had a unicorn. If Ranza was going to get a pet, she was going to make sure it was a truly fantastic one. The offer was tempting, so she took the money and headed for the pound. However, a puppy was the last thing she had in mind.
"Show me the exotics," she told the woman at the front desk, having seen the sign on the directory.
"Certainly," nodded the woman, one of those generic human types you found occasionally on Gaia. She was cheery enough, if a bit bland, thought Ranza. "Right this way," she said, showing Ranza into a side room.
Exotics, unfortunately, turned out to mean mostly hamsters and guinea pigs. This disappointed Ranza greatly. She paced the lines of cages, looking for something that looked even the least bit fantastic, and was about to give up when--
"Is that a monkey?" she asked the woman, motioning to a little creature huddled at the back of a cage. It looked so scared! But it was a goddamn monkey, for sure!
"It is," said the woman, "But aren't you sure you don't want a nice rabbit?"
"No, let me see the monkey," demanded Ranza. The woman opened the cage. Ranza extended a cautious hand forward. The monkey inched cautiously toward her. Ranza offered it a finger, which it took between its little hands and shook.
"He's well-trained," said the woman.
"I see," replied Ranza. The monkey had moved from shaking her finger in greeting to climbing up her arm. He looked a bit like Barbossa's monkey from Pirates of the Caribbean. "Has he got a name?"
"The family that left him here called him Valeri," said the woman. There was something about the pronunciation that differentiated it from Valery, which was decidedly feminine.
"I like that," nodded Ranza. "I'll take him."
She paid the woman and registered her monkey, all the while thinking that this was probably not what Eshaa had in mind when she told Ranza to get a pet.
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Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 11:00 am
Quest time!
Armed with her own shoulder monkey, and the courage of a true pirate, Ranza is ready for adventure. But, that being said, is adventure ready for Ranza?
As modern day pirates hit the shores of Gambino really hard, pillaging and plundering and taking crews and vessels ransom, news is buzzing far and wide for the call of any and all help to stop these troublemakers and send them to the gallows prison. But, as Ranza will discover, they aren't so much looking for everyone as they are looking for able bodied men. What a piss off!
However, the docks are exploding (sometimes literally) with activity, and a girl like Esperanza cannot pass up an opportunity such as this one, to be involved in one of the biggest pirate heists in Gaia history. Which side she takes is, obviously, up to her! Lucky for this girl, owners of ships and other sea faring vessels are very willing at this time to hand them over for a largely discounted price, to save their skins from losing the vessel's worth all together to the hands of pirates. Other provisions are, similarly, very discounted. In fact, Ranza will discover that, as she ventures down by the docks, a hunched and cloaked figure has snuck a hefty amount of gold and silver pieces into the girl's possession. (Exi loves to encourage adventurers!)
The adventure at hand is potentially dangerous. Which side will Ranza take? Is she ready to set to sea, with her fear of open waters? Will the "real" pirates laugh at her just as the Gaian Guard did, as she either tries to join their pirating efforts, or foil them? How will all of this be resolved? Will her shoulder monkey prove useful? Will she make friends and allies along the way? Are there possibly other children and teens like her who have gravitated toward the action and excitement, as well? How will Ranza cope with her fears and with the toll that hard physical labour puts on a child's body?
If Ranza gets into trouble, she's allowed one free "Help me!" card from Exipotic, who (you control her) will come to her rescue in any form you so choose.. a handsome rugged pirate, a foul mouthed seaman, or a cleancut port guard.. even a seagull, perhaps! Exi will disappear after she's not needed anymore.
Good luck, young Hiccup!
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Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 8:50 am
Quest part one: Seize the day! Make your lives extraordinary!
“I can fight pirates!” Ranza declared to the Barton Regular guarding the docks. “I know how to use a sword and climb ropes and solve puzzles and everything else you need to do to fight them!” The movies made it look so wonderfully dashing and exciting. She felt fully prepared to take part in something like that. Valeri the monkey had finally snapped her out of her awful Twilight-reading funk and Ranza Cooper was back in full hurricane-strength force, ready to take on the world.
Except the world was not rising to her battle cry. The Regular, who had already shot her an ‘I don’t have time for this bullshit’ look, rubbed his temples and sighed rather tersely. “Look, kid,” he said.
“Ranza,” she corrected rather fiercely.
“Ranza,” he sighed. “It’s dangerous around here. Between the pirates and the animated we can hardly keep this under control. It’s certainly not a place for a kid to play—
“I don’t want to play,” objected Ranza. “I want to help!”
“You can help me by going home!” replied the armored man. He pointed back up the road. Ranza made a face. “Come back when you can see over the top of the kitchen counter.”
“No one ever said I couldn’t!”
The guard leaned down to see eye to eye with her, which meant he meant serious business.
“Go home,” he said, softly yet firmly. Ranza swallowed her pride, and it caught in her throat and hurt all the way down.
“Okay,” she nodded. The guard straightened up and waved her off. Dejected, Ranza kicked a shell along the boardwalk and stroked Valeri’s tail. Stupid Barton Regulars. They thought they were so cool in their armor with their rings and their PDAs. They’d regret turning down her help. She knew they would. Or, at least, she told herself that much.
“Dummy chauvinist pigs,” she proclaimed. Valeri chattered something that sounded vaguely like an agreement before leaping from her shoulder and taking off down the boardwalk.
“Hey!” called Ranza, chasing after him. “Where’re you goin’?”
Valeri scampered between two empty vendor stalls – abandoned, presumably, due to the recent wave of pirates – and took a flying leap off the boardwalk and onto the beach. The parrot girl was quick to follow, jumping off the boardwalk, landing in the sand with a deafened thud, and running after her pet.
The monkey was headed back towards the dock that she had just been so unceremoniously dismissed from. He scampered about halfway up a ladder and chattered at her insistently. Ranza studied the situation and grinned. “You’re so smart, Val!” she said happily, grabbing hold of the ladder and following the monkey up. “Dunno why I didn’t think of this first.” The monkey scampered back down to perch on her shoulder as she climbed the rest of the way up and pulled herself onto the dock.
The scene that greeted her was almost like something out of a movie, except without the period costumes. People running back and forth frantically, carrying all sorts of supplies, shouting in all sorts of languages ranging from French to Chinese to Newbspeak to Leet, none of which Ranza could understand very well. Of course, enough standard English was tossed into the mix that she could get a grasp of what was going on – there were ships coming in in need of repairs, and ships going out in need of stock and crews, and all sorts of other things to do!
“Bloody awesome,” said Ranza, and Valeri chattered enthusiastically. “Let’s go join the fight, huh?” she asked the monkey, and assumed the answer was yes. A reassured swagger in her step, Ranza stepped out into the hustle and bustle of the docks.
To Be Continued
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Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 3:28 pm
Quest part two: The obligatory part where the heroine dresses up like a boy.
There was something exhilarating about just being here, surrounded by the audible buzz of excitement and adventure. Sure, all the people around here – grown men and women, some teenaged boys her brother’s age or less – seemed a bit nervous about the thread of pirates, but they were so into it! So ready for adventure!
She was, however, beginning to sense that she was a bit conspicuous. The only people she had seen so far even close to her age were boys, and while her clothing was more or less unisex, her long hair-feathers were blowing her cover. Darn it! (Wings were, however, a totally normal and accepted part of everyday Gaian life, so whatever.) She looked over at Valeri.
“What do you think?” she asked. “Do I need a hat?”
The monkey tugged on one of the feathers sprouting from below her ear and nodded. Ranza winced.
“Alright, alright,” she said. “I get the message. You didn’t have to hurt me – ouch!” She reached up and gently pulled the monkey’s hand away from her feathers, and then scanned the immediate area. There was a little structure not too far away that advertised restrooms, and there was a row of cubbies outside it where sailors had stashed their clothes. She could see what looked like a beanie sticking out of one.
A plan formed in Ranza’s mind. She scanned the immediate area and found no one was paying particularly close attention to the cubbies. Cool as a cucumber, the girl strode forward and nonchalantly pulled the beanie out of the bag it was emerging from. She grinned wickedly to the monkey and ducked around the corner into the women’s restroom, which proved to be abandoned.
“Am I smart or what?” she asked Valeri as she tucked her head feathers into the cap, which had weird red, yellow, and green stripes that totally clashed with the rest of her and was oddly fragrant to say the least. She leaned forward and checked herself in the mirror. An utterly androgynous bird-child blinked back at her.
“What do you think?” she asked. From her shoulder, Valeri gave her a thumbs-up. Smiling and satisfied with her own craftiness, Ranza gave the hat a final adjustment and strolled out of the restroom, doing her best not to attract any stares at the sight of a boy of perhaps twelve or thirteen years of age walking out of the women’s lavatory.
She pulled it off without a hitch and was soon walking unimpeded down the wharf in search of an outbound craft. The response she received now that she was guised as a boy was far different from when the guard had turned her away without so much as a by-your-leave. Sailors were at least willing to give her the time of day before informing her their crew was full or they weren’t leaving for another few hours.
Finally, at the end of the line, she found a rag-tag band of young men who looked about ready to set off. They were working the rigging of their sailboat and prepping the motor, but the craft was still tied and gang planked to the wood.
“Room for one more?” called Ranza. A sandy-haired young man, perhaps a bit older than her brother, looked over from his work on the sail.
“Got any skills?” he asked.
“I can use a sword and tie about a zillion different knots and I’ve got a bloody awesome monkey,” replied Ranza, flashing her fiercest grin, which the older boy returned.
“Got any rings?” he asked.
“Those are only good for fighting Animated, I thought?” asked Ranza.
The boy hopped down from the mast and leaned over the side of the boat to talk. “Well, if you wanna get technical they are. But you can sure as hell make a lotta flashes and bangs and get the pirates all disoriented and it gives ‘em a harder time out there.”
“I haven’t got any,” admitted Ranza.
The boy dug around in his pockets for a moment and then leaned out to hand her a ring. “Basic solar flare shebang,” he explained. “Won’t really damage any pirates, but it’s pretty easy to figure out how to use, and it makes a lot of light and noise when it goes off.”
Ranza slipped the ring around her thumb, where it tightened to fit. She looked back up at the boy, who was now offering her a hand.
“I’m captain Rodgeys,” he explained. “Who’re you?”
“Cooper,” answered Ranza, consoling herself with the fact that it wasn’t really a lie. She pointed to the monkey on her shoulder. “And he’s Valeri. He’s mine.”
The boy nodded, and laughed when she finally took his hand. “Coop. Val. Awesome. Welcome aboard.”
To be continued
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 6:18 pm
Quest part three: In which Ranza makes a friend and learns about rings.
Ranza felt an initial surge of panic when she stepped onto the boat and felt it bobbing beneath her feet. The old fears of drowning came back, and for a second, her lungs felt tight. But then, Rodgeys gave her a happy, laughing slap on the back and called out to his crew, “Hey, gang, this here’s Coop! He’s gonna help us out! And he’s got a bloody awesome monkey!”
Ranza breathed a sigh of relief and laughed along with him, starting to feel better. He was totally buying that she was a boy. This was good. This was going to be great. Rodgeys sent her to help one of the other boys to help tie down a crate of supplies.
“You ever been in a fight before?” asked the other boy. He had glasses so thick you could set a fire with them and a bit of an effeminate twist to his voice.
“I’ve fought my older brother,” answered Ranza. “He’s part jaguar.”
The boy nodded like this was pretty cool. “I’m Sandy,” he said, offering her a hand. Ranza shook.
“Cooper,” she replied, returning to the knots. “And the monkey’s Valeri. But he answers to Val.”
Val chattered and stuck out a hand for Sandy to shake. Sandy, bemused, offered a finger in response, which Val found to be satisfactory. Behind them, the engine revved up.
“You ever use a ring before?” asked Sandy. Ranza shook her head.
“Captain Rodgeys said it was easy to learn, though,” she answered, showing him the gold band wrapped around her thumb.
“Yeah, they’re pretty cool,” nodded Sandy. “Just, like, aim and pull the trigger with your mind. Chose your target and think ‘fire’.”
Ranza looked around, trying to select a target, but found nothing suitable. The boat was beginning to pull away from the dock. Feeling it bob, Ranza instinctively clutched the nearest railing. Sandy gave her a peculiar look.
“You scared or something?” he asked.
“No,” said Ranza, a bit too quickly, forcefully removing her hands from their assumed grip. She stared out at the water, trying to calm her heartbeat. The water. The ocean. So big. So deep. So much water.
“Okay,” nodded Sandy. “So, uh, where’d you get a monkey?”
“Animal shelter,” answered Ranza, grateful for the distraction. “The cat died and my mom told me to go pick something out. I think she meant a dog, but Val’s way smarter.”
“Does your mom know you’re here?” asked Sandy.
“No,” said Ranza. “Does yours?”
“No.”
“Fair enough,” said Ranza, and sank down to a sitting position. The whole crew seemed to have fallen into a bit of a lull since they’d left port. “So, how do we find pirates to fight?”
“Usually they find us,” replied Sandy with practiced nonchalance. Ranza nodded and inspected the ring on her thumb. She tried to remove it, but it seemed to be bonded to her skin. Sandy noticed her fidgeting with it. “They tend to do that,” he explained. “You can take it off if you hit up a null chamber. But they’re hellishly useful – You’re pretty much immortal while you’re wearing one, because if you take too many hits they sweep you away to null before anyone can land another one. Give you a healing factor like Wolverine’s, too.”
Ranza was not entirely sure who this Wolverine fellow was, having not yet gotten around to seeing the movie, but nodded in agreement. This Sandy kid seemed pretty okay. Maybe even worth being friends with. Even if he was a boy.
“I think I see a ship coming this way!” shouted a boy from up in the rigging. “They’re flying pirate colors!”
All at once and very loudly, all hell broke loose.
To be continued
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Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 7:38 pm
Quest part four: The situation rapidly declines.
The air buzzed with energy as a few of the boys set off explosive ring effects over their heads. Ranza felt a strange tingle run down her spine that made her feathers stand on end. Noticing her discomfort, Sandy leaned in to explain.
“They’re buffing us,” he explained, pointing to the multicolored rings of smoke that still hung in the air. “Purple for enhanced stamina, bluish white for healing. Orange is adrenaline, so you can move faster.”
Ranza nodded and looked down at the ring on her thumb. “Will the pirates use rings?” she asked.
“Some will,” he said, “Because they’re cheap – you can find them lying around all over the place. But they’re not very effective unless you’re fighting Animated, which we’re not. The pirates will have swords and guns, too, and those are bad news.” He looked at the ring on her thumb. “That’s solar flare. It’s got a really good range. You can target things with your mind and make them explode, or target pirates with it. Careful about the recharge time, though.”
“Recharge time?” asked Ranza, sounding woefully unprepared.
“You can only use it once every few seconds, or it’ll overheat. Once you use it you’ll see the timer. It places them at the bottom of your vision when the ring is active.”
Ranza squirmed a bit, not sure how she felt about something that could mess with her mind and perception.
“You get used to it,” Sandy assured her. “Come on! Captain’s giving us orders.”
He pulled Ranza along down to the main deck, where Rodgeys was perched above the crew on a large box. “Use ranged attacks first,” said the captain. “Then melee. If you have a sword, even better, just don’t ever let go of it. It looks like they outnumber us, but we might be able to take the ship if we storm it.”
The crew cheered. Ranza cheered as well, finding herself caught up in the excitement and the spirit of adventure. Next to her, Sandy was proclaiming the greatness of the captain. As the crew dispersed, Sandy caught hold of her arm and said, “Stick with me, Cooper. I’ll show you the ropes.”
“Right,” nodded Ranza, following him up to the bow. When they got there, they crouched down below the railing and peered over the top. The ship on the horizon was drawing closer at an alarming rate. <********,” said Sandy. Ranza flinched. “********,” he said again.
“What?” asked Ranza.
“They’ve got cannons, like, coming out their a**,” explained Sandy hastily. “We are going to get raped so hard it’s not even funny.” He tapped his glasses. “Keen Eye buff,” he said, for her benefit. “I can see stuff way far away.”
“Oh,” said Ranza.
“What’s up, Sandy?” asked Captain Rodgeys, crouching next to them.
“It’s not good, Captain,” replied Sandy. “We’re outnumbered and outmatched. Either we turn back or they take us.”
Captain Rodgeys looked torn. Finally, he said, “We keep going. I owe it to the crew’s honor not to retreat.”
At that moment, a puff of smoke rose into the air from the pirate ship and the boat rocked wildly. Ranza, Sandy, and Captain Rodgeys all clung to the railing to keep from being tossed into the water. Ranza’s stomach dropped. She remembered that she was afraid of drowning, and that her feathers became horrifically heavy in water. Sandy looked at the pirate ship again.
“They’re getting a lot closer,” he observed, a not of fear creeping into his voice.
“I think they mean to take us,” said Captain Rodgeys. Ranza swallowed. This was not like in the movies.
“Captain!” called a boy from behind them, absolutely frantic. “We’ve been hit! We’re taking on water!”
“s**t!” exclaimed the captain, and jumped up to go handle the situation.
Ranza and Sandy looked at each other, both noting the uncertainty in the others’ face.
“My mom doesn’t know I’m here,” they said in unison. It was a totally stupid thought to have, given the circumstances.
“If we get hurt, we’ll just null out, right?” asked Ranza.
Sandy hesitated. “I’m not sure,” he said. “I think there are some kinds of attack that won’t null you. Some things can kill you outright.”
“I don’t want to die,” Ranza said, feeling cold. Her great adventure was quickly turning into a disaster.
To be continued
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 1:15 pm
Quest part five: Into the drink
As the crew tried frantically to save the situation (which was quickly and clearly beyond help), the pirate ship drew even closer. A magnified voice boomed out from it, declaring: “If you surrender without struggle, you will not be harmed. Any dissenters will be shot.”
Ranza and Sandy returned from trying to bail water and huddled under the railing of the bow, willing themselves not to be seen. “I wish I had a ghost ring,” said Sandy miserably, looking down at his knuckles. “I don’t see how any of these is going to be even remotely helpful.”
Captain Rodgeys vaulted over the wheel shelter and crouched next to them. “Yo, Sandy, Coop, Val,” he said, and held out his right hand.
“Damn, I forgot you had that!” said Sandy. A veil of white fog swirled around the three of them and the monkey.
“Ghost rings are god’s gift to troublemakers,” said Rodgeys.
“What about the crew?” asked Ranza.
“They know what to do. This is just to buy us some time. If they can’t find the captain, they don’t care about the rest.”
“What about us?” asked Ranza.
Rodgey jerked a thumb towards Sandy. “First mate,” he explained. “And you’re just here. Lucky you.”
“Yeah, lucky me,” said Ranza, looking at Val and thinking about what would have happened if she hadn’t followed the monkey. While she was terrified of a lot of things right now: of drowning, of dying, of getting captured or hurt, she was also secretly thrilled. This was an adventure like in the movies, wasn’t it? Except in the movies you had a guaranteed happy ending and here she wasn’t sure.
The ship shook. Ranza squeaked involuntarily as Val wrapped his spindly fingers around her neck.
“You can’t get captured,” Sandy said to the captain.
“How the hell do you suggest I do that?”
“You’re gonna have to bail out,” said Sandy. Rodgeys began to object. “Take Coop and the monkey and jump. They’re gonna start boarding and they’ll take the crew. I’ll hold them off. You jump.”
“They’re going to shoot you if you try to stand up to them,” said Rodgeys.
“If they take you then they’ll know why we’re here,” said Sandy. “The crew knows how to bluff that we’re here for fishing or something. If they take you it’s all over. The ghost buff’s only gonna last a little longer and then—“
The ship shook again. Something stomped across the deck. Sandy looked around.
“They’re boarding,” he said. “Captain, you and Coop need to jump.”
Ranza blinked. The fog was starting to clear. Sandy shoved them towards the edge.
“Go,” he said urgently. Ranza looked behind them – there were pirates stomping across the deck. They didn’t look like pirates did in the movies. They were dirtier, less art directed and more rag tag. “Go!” repeated Sandy, giving them another push.
Rodgeys hesitated, which made Ranza hesitate. This water – it wasn’t like the lake. She didn’t have a harness and a brother. This was the ocean. This was being pushed off a boat—
“Come on!” shouted Rodgeys, taking her by the hand and jumping. Ranza had no choice but to follow.
The water rose up, cold and unforgiving, and swallowed them whole. Ranza pressed her eyes closed and reached up to hold on to Val. She was scared – she could feel the whole of the ocean pressing down on her – and also someone pulling her up. Rodgeys was already swimming towards the surface.
Their heads broke through and they watched helplessly as the struggle on deck played out. They couldn’t hear the words, but Sandy was facing down a pirate twice his size – and then, suddenly, a shot rang out, and Sandy fell.
Ranza tried to scream, but Rodgeys clamped a hand over her mouth. She looked over at him – the pained expression on his face indicated he was trying very hard not to scream as well. And her feathers were starting to feel incredibly heavy…. She struggled to stay afloat. The pirates seemed to have decided the ship was empty and were now clearing it out, speeding off, and leaving it to sink.
Her feathers were clearly not made for swimming. Ranza kicked harder with her legs but couldn’t manage it. There would not be a happy ending. They would be lost at sea.
“C’mon, Coop,” said Rodgeys, pulling her up as she began to sink again.
Ranza thought desperately of any way for this to end well, and couldn’t think of anything. For all the tight spots and wonderful adventures she had read about, she couldn’t find a way out.
“Is that a dolphin?” asked Rodgeys.
Ranza looked up. It was.
To be continued
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 4:09 pm
Quest part six: The price of adventure.
It seemed almost like divine providence that the dolphin showed up and swam circles around them when it did. How could a sea creature – albeit a very intelligent one – know that there were two kids about to drown?
“What’s it doing?” asked Rodgeys warily.
Ranza eyed the dolphin and moved her arms feebly to stay afloat. “I think it wants us to climb on.”
The dolphin squeaked what she could only assume was an affirmative. Although she puzzled briefly over how the dolphin could carry two people and a monkey to shore, Ranza and Rodgeys both clung to its sides and shivered as the dolphin swam in a rather sleek, dolphinlike fashion back towards shallow water. It took quite a while to get there, and by the time they stumbled onto the shore, both she and the captain were sufficiently blue lipped. (The dolphin, meanwhile, disappeared without a trace. Ranza had a faint suspicion it had not been a dolphin at all.)
After they coughed and shivered and strutted about trying to get warm for a bit, Ranza finally asked the question she suspected had been on both of their minds.
“What about Sandy?”
The captain looked pained. “He’ll null out,” he said. “I’m sure he will. Come on.”
Even though they were both exhausted, they ran up the beach towards a glowing purple crystal jutting out of the sand. When they got there, Rodgeys surveyed the area anxiously. “I bet he’s already here,” he said.
Ranza did not see Sandy’s familiar bespectacled face anywhere. She felt her stomach drop. Time passed slowly as Rodgeys alternated between staring anxiously at the crystal and pacing the area. Ranza crouched in the sand and scratched Val’s head, watching intently but with quickly-fading optimism.
“He got shot,” she said lowly.
“He was wearing rings,” replied Rodgeys. “He should null out.”
Ranza swallowed. “Sandy reckoned that- that there were some things the pirates might have had that could kill you, instead of just nulling you.”
Rodgeys was quiet for a long while. He then aimed a flying kick at the nearest palm tree. “Damn it,” he howled. “Cooper, I am a total ********. I lost my boat, my crew, and my best friend is dead. How the hell are you here?”
Ranza stared at her boots.
“Dunno,” she said. “Good luck.” The reality was slowly sinking in – Sandy, who she’d just met earlier that morning – was most certainly gone for good. He was the first person she’d known to die.
She pulled her sodden beanie off, and her lank feathers drooped in front of her face. “I just wanted an adventure,” she grumbled.
Rodgeys seemed unsurprised by the removal of the cap – maybe her disguise hadn’t been as good as she’d thought. “We all did,” he replied sadly. “We’re young and stupid. Mostly young.”
“This sucks,” said Ranza, getting up. “Captain, I—“
Her voice caught in her throat. Today had been absolutely terrible.
“Thank you,” she stammered, and turned to go. After all, her mother didn’t know where she was.
Complete.
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:35 am
Only a Matter of Time
It was seldom that the entire Cooper household could be persuaded to sit down and eat dinner together. Eshaa usually had meetings after the dig finished for the day, and Nahuel would take the bus back into town rather than wait for her, so he ate early with Orli. Ranza usually wandered in around midnight and raided the fridge before going to bed. However, tonight the stars had somehow aligned that all four Coopers were sitting around the table at the same time eating spaghetti.
“How was school?” asked Eshaa, eyes panning between each one of her children in turn. It was summer, but Liberty still had classes. Attendance typically dropped during the summer months and the teachers were a bit less zealous about the subject matter, but when children were growing as quickly as the students did, they needed all the instruction time they could get.
“Good,” said Orli.
“Okay,” said Nahuel, who was adamant that he only had a few more months of it before trying to pursue university studies.
Ranza grunted noncommittally. She did not, nor had she ever, attended Liberty and since her growth, her schooling had been largely a matter of self-instruction. She had money, which Eshaa was a bit unclear on the origins of beyond that Ranza assured her it had not come from prostitution.
They went back to eating in silence. Eshaa had never been good at this parenting thing, particularly once her kids were too large to carry around on her hip. Nahuel was close with her, but it had been more professional than familial as of late. Ranza had been steadily withdrawing from all aspects of family life for the past year and a half and it was probably only a matter of time until she made the point of moving out.
Which left Orli. Tiny, glowing Orli. The odd child out, some sort of magical being where her siblings were clearly animal based. If Orli knew what she was, then she hadn’t told her mother. Still, the youngest sibling seemed to be likewise withdrawing from the family, as if certain that she would be leaving it shortly to fulfill some greater destiny.
“My grandfather is coming to visit for a few weeks,” said Eshaa eventually.
Orli dropped her fork and looked up happily. “He is? Sweet!”
“Okay,” said Nahuel, who hadn’t been impressed with Nat Cooper the last time he’d visited. Orli, meanwhile, worshipped the ground the man walked on.
Ranza got up. “I’m leaving,” she announced. She picked up her plate and put it in the sink. “I’m moving out.”
She left the room. No one made any move to stop her. The remaining three Coopers blinked at each other. A moment later, Ranza walked past dragging her ‘Trunk of holds damn near everything’ behind her. No one moved to stop her as she stomped out the front door.
Eventually, they went back to eating. It had only been a matter of time until that happened.
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:31 am
New Digs
She rode the trains all night long. It was something you read about in books, or saw in a movie, or maybe they sang about in a Decemberists Song - or was that buses? It didn't much matter. She rode the trains all night, and they were empty. Mostly. Sometimes a hobo got on with his shopping cart and rode for a few stops. Sometimes she shared the compartment with other wide-eyed teenagers and they shared stories about running away from home, about mothers who didn't love them, cruel fathers, and siblings who just didn't understand.
She reinvented herself. She made the Cooper household sound as terrible as it could possibly be, exaggerated her mother's apathy, her brother's mocking easiness, and her sister's strangeness: if she made it sound as bad as it could be, and convince herself it had been like that, then she would never want to go back. She only had what was in her trunk or on her person. She had her hat with the peacock feather. She had some clothes and some books and a kicking sweet pair of boots and her life savings and a shoulder-monkey named Val. She did not need anything else.
She rode the trains all night, all the way back to the Barton Coast, that place where childhood innocence had given way to cynicism. It was morning. She had not slept. She ran on adrenaline and coffee and headed to the marina. After some haggling, she strode out onto the docks, the proud owner of a sailboat.
She found the boat and went aboard. It was the sort of craft that one could circumnavigate the globe in, if you really wanted to. Poking around, she found it was equipped with two small cots, stacked bunk style, opposite a small kitchenette that consisted mostly of a miniature refrigerator and microwave oven. A table folded out of the wall. Behind a sliding partition door was a tiny bathroom consisting of a low toilet and a shower.
She turned to Valeri and smiled before going back up to haul her trunk aboard. It wedged neatly beneath the kitchen appliances.
"I like it here," she said, and the monkey nodded in agreement. In the next few days she'd learn how to actually sail the thing, but for now she was content to have a space of her own.
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Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 7:05 pm
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Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:38 pm
Dance Anthem of the 80s
She was waitressing these days. The pay was lousy, but she made good tips if she wore her uniform tight and let the lonely old men look down her cleavage while she took their orders and didn’t give them trouble for copping a feel when she turned around. It made her feel dirty, but they would never have her, so what was the harm? At night she went to the clubs and let the hipsters and punks and gangsters and drunks buy her drinks and then it was just a question of your place or mine? Let them screw themselves silly and then slip 20s from their wallets while they were passed out in post-coital bliss, and it made her feel dirty (so dirty) but they would never have her, either.
In the morning, they wouldn’t even remember her name.
By noon, she wouldn’t even remember theirs.
And she didn’t care, didn’t care, didn’t care, lalalalala.
Some nights there were women, girls who envied her curves, who bought her rounds of red bino and rum for a chance to run their hands over her breasts or to learn what her body moved like- And they wanted to possess her, but they would never have her.
No one would ever have her. Even Ranza did not have herself. She had abandoned herself to books and dreams and the rocking of the waves, and to booze and smoke and sex. She was so achingly sober, so achingly aware of the world, but nothing had ever felt right since the day the garden fell.
Some days she slowed down long enough to wonder if she should be scared, scared of catching something or being caught, but she was just as scared of finding out as she was of actually getting anything that she stayed quiet. And there was magic crackling through her veins – she didn’t think she could. She didn’t think she was even human. Such a ******** weird concept. No one in her family was human. Nahuel was a Jaguar and Orli was some kind of ******** Star.
She didn’t miss them.
They’d probably forgotten all about her.
And the boys bought her drinks and called her beautiful and she went home with them and nothing mattered and nothing hurt and she didn’t feel a thing for them. Let them ******** themselves silly; let them pay tribute to her body. She had power over them, and it felt damn good.
And the old men who copped feels, she had power over them to. Every time they grabbed her a**, they were sad for themselves, that they couldn’t get it up.
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:41 pm
Twenty Years of Snow
It was winter now, a full half a year since she’d left home, and it was all a blur. Ranza was still waitressing, still letting the old men stare at her tits while she poured their coffee and served their eggs. There was snow on the ground now – it crunched under her boots when she left for the night. She went to the clubs less – the alcohol was stale and the air was bad and the music was repetitive and they were all so many ******** scenesters. It was bad juju and she didn’t need that s**t. Instead she worked on her boat, and read more books, and dreamed of the day she’d sail away from everything.
She didn’t troll for men anymore, but there were some regular callers, some boys and girls who showed up at her door a few nights a week with that hungry look in their eyes, and she had their fix. It wasn’t prostitution if they weren’t paying her wittingly, and if they knew she was stealing from them then they never let it on, because they kept coming back for more.
She’d gone off the grog a month ago, and the cold air made everything crisper. Every gasp stung her lungs. The orgasms were starting to hurt, or maybe it was just a trick of her mind. There was still that nagging gettestedgettestedgettested but she made it go away – who knew if human diseases were even compatible with her body? There’d been a few times she’d thought she was pregnant, but it went away – either just nerves or her body realized she wasn’t the same species as the boys she was ******** was grateful for the bleeding, for each month’s reprieve from the nastiness of the weeks before, but it also made her feel alone, because there really was no one like her. She was her own species.
She didn’t want a baby, not really. It was just semantics, just her mind running away with her. The boys and girls who paraded in and out of her bunk were warm bodies to curl up with on the cold Gaian nights, and Val made for good company the rest of the time.
It was the monkey that kept her from disappearing entirely. Val had known Ranza before, and he would know her after, and the idea that there was someone else depending on her was the only thing keeping her from surrendering to the haze of drugs and alcohol entirely. Because without them the world hurt, but Val made it hurt a little less.
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 1:28 pm
One More Time With Feeling
"Cooper," said the man as she set down his coffee. He couldn't have known that, though, because her name tag on her waitress uniform said "Raquel."
"I think you're mistaken," she said, not looking at him. "Cream? Sugar?"
"Come on, Cooper," he said. "You were part of my crew."
Ranza looked at him and felt a pang of recognition in her chest. So she had been. "I get off in fifteen minutes," she said. "Meet me around back."
They met again by the dumpsters, ankle-deep in dirty snow. He was older than she remembered him, but then again, so was she. She told him her name was Ranza, Cooper was just her last name, and he told her his name was Oliver, and Rodgeys was just his last name. They went for coffee, even though he'd just had some and which she never drank, but she didn't drink much of anything these days and it seemed like caffeine was a perfectly legitimate addiction to develop (not like alcohol).
She told him about leaving home, and about work, and about her boat, but not about the clubs and the alcohol and the hookups. She'd finally gone and gotten tested and she was clean of everything and that was the end, he didn't need to know about it.
"Do you still have that monkey?" Rodgeys asked.
"Val. Yeah, I do," she nodded.
It was getting late. She invited him back to the boat, served him a dinner of ramen noodles and tomato sauce from a jar, and he said it was delicious but she knew better because she ate it too. They were sad and quiet for a little bit when she mentioned Sandy, whose body no one had ever found, and then he kissed her and she let him do more than kiss her, and for the first time in a long time, it was what she really wanted.
He held her after, which she thought was sweet.
"I was born from driftwood," he said, his breath warm against her neck, and Ranza wasn't sure if it was poetry or the story of his own birth or both. "And the sea was my mother and my father, who gave me to the couple who raised me, and I grew and I laughed and I loved, wrapped in the sea's arms, and it all happened at hyper-speed."
"How old are you?" asked Ranza.
"Almost three," he answered. "How old are you?"
"Two," she answered. She hadn't thought about it in a long time.
"We all grew up too soon," he whispered to her, and the ocean rocked them both to sleep.
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Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 10:03 am
Ghost of Corporate Future
Rodgeys was over a couple nights a week now, and she guessed she could call him her boyfriend. This, to Ranza, felt sort of weird, because she had never really had something she could call a relationship before. There had, of course, been repeat offenders, but there was no connection there, no conversation. Just sex.
Not to mention, she'd first met Rodgeys when she was disguised as a boy and he was in a position of authority, so it still felt a bit odd. But she did like him, she assured herself. Not to mention he was better and nicer and cleaner than anyone else she was ever going to get. She didn't like to think like this, didn't like to think like she was "settling" for Rodgeys, but for now it worked just fine, and she was tired of all the s**t she'd been doing.
She liked thinking about this while she worked on re-rigging the sails. The ropes on the mast when she'd bought the boat all had dry rot, and with Rodgey's help she finally had the gear and the man power (no pun intended) to fix it.
She was not really paying attention to what was going on. Out of the corner of the eye she could see an older sea-captain type strolling down the dock, but she was not all that concerned about it.
"Heads up," called Rodgeys. He was up on the crossbeam, dropping a canvas down. Ranza caught the leading edge and secured it.
"Looks good," she called up. "Toss me that rope."
He did. She secured it. "Hey, Ranza?" called Rodgeys, a note of discontent in his voice.
"Hey, what?" she asked. Rodgeys was already sliding down the mast, his eyes fixed on something on the other side of the deck.
"I think something's wrong with Val," he said.
"What?" asked Ranza as he seized her wrist and pulled her towards the bow. Sure enough, something was wrong with Val. The little monkey lay on the deck, dramatically spazzing, his mouth hanging open. Ranza kneeled beside him and peered into his mouth. "It doesn't look like he ate anything," she said.
"I think he's glowing," said Rodgeys.
"No way," said Ranza, narrowing her eyes. ********, he was glowing. She scanned the dock, looking for the older sailor, but couldn't see him anymore.
The glowing grew brighter, and then faded, and left no doubt that Exi had definitely been here.
"Holy s**t," said Ranza.
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