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 Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:47 pm
[crime of passion]
Gaian fashion had been overrun with strange capes and cloaks in the time that Raven was gone. There was one brand in particular that was achieving notoriety with the masses, but knockoffs were abundant for those who couldn't shell out the necessary gold. When Raven returned, the brand had come out with blue-white coats, embroidered with silk and trimmed with fur, that were especially popular. One couldn't go anywhere without seeing at least a half dozen of them in the crowd.
Raven bought one anyway. A real one, of course, purchased from the brand store itself. The garment was well made, and had a feeling of luxuriousness about it. Furthermore, she had a set purpose for it. Even if she only used it that once, it would be worth it. But once the trend died down, she felt that she would use it many times.
The next morning, she set out before dawn, wearing the new coat. Underneath she was clad in a long white sleeveless robe, one of her favorite garments for light magic rituals. There was an elaborately bound book tucked under her arm, and a silver pen behind her ear, but other than those objects she took nothing with her. Kyrie even stayed behind, sleeping soundly in her mistress's bed.
The ritual required a place of solitude, where one could be in touch with nature. The forested area around D-Corp worked well for this, especially in the pre-dawn hours. A light dusting of snow covered the trails, but that didn't matter to her, since she wasn't aiming to follow a trail in the first place. After a bit of wandering she found a small hill, little more than a bump in the ground, and deemed it perfect.
With the silver pen, she drew a circle around the hump, and then five interconnecting lines inside of it to make a pentagram. Once that was finished, she sat in the very center, opened the book in her lap, and closed her eyes.
~safety save
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Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:06 pm
[resolution]
It was the first time that Anoki had been allowed to stay up until midnight for New Year's. Of course, "allowed" wasn't strictly accurate- if Raven had known he was up, she would have punished him and sent him to bed. But she was at the lab for another night of research, and Mahou was willing to look the other way. But not Anoki. He was sitting on the couch, knees to his chest, staring at the analog clock on the wall.
"Two minutes and f-forty seconds l-left," he whispered.
Myung-Ki lazily lifted his head off the pillow he had been resting it on, and yawned. Half because all of this was boring him silly- it was just another day, really. Half because it was far too late for him. He liked sunshine and warmth and sleeping through as much of the night as possible. Which meant, of course, that he woke Anoki up at the crack of dawn most days. If he was going to be awake, his attendant should be too. And attendants certainly did NOT keep their dragons up at insane hours!
As if understanding Myung-Ki's impatience, Anoki shrugged. At least the dragon was being quiet for a change. He was tired too, but with just two minutes and fifteen seconds left until the new year, he wasn't closing his eyes for anything.
Mahou, who was sitting in an armchair with her knitting, chuckled. "Relax, Anoki. You won't miss it." Still, in a way, she could understand his excitement. Even if the calendar they followed was a trivial, human invention, the thought of putting the past behind oneself and forging a new road was exciting, no matter what inspired it.
"Say, Anoki..." Mahou put one knitting needle against her chin, thinking. "Have you made any resolutions yet?"
Blinking, Anoki shook his head. Not only had he not made any, he'd never heard of them. "What's th-that?"
Had Raven never introduced him to New Year's resolutions? Mahou clucked her tongue disapprovingly- something she only dared do because Raven wasn't there to see it. No wonder the girls hadn't known what she was talking about before. "It's a decision to try to do something. Usually something to better yourself somehow. Something you want to change about yourself. It's a new year, so it's a chance to start fresh."
Setting down her knitting, Mahou picked up a notepad and pen from the table next to her and passed them to Anoki. "Here. You can write them down if you like. But hurry up- there's only a minute or so left!" Of course, one could make the resolutions on New Year's Day, but that was too much information for Mahou's tired brain to process.
With trembling fingers, Anoki took the pen and paper and set them in his lap. A quick glance at the clock told him that there was a minute and twenty seconds left before midnight. He had to make his decision quickly. There was a lot about him that he wanted to change, but where was he supposed to start?
The clock struck the minute with a soft tick. It was 11:59. One minute left, one that could potentially change his life. If he made the right choice, that was.
Down the hall, he could hear people shouting. "59! 58! 57!"
He hated that he stuttered, but that wasn't something he could actively work to change. Raven had tried getting him to repeat words until he got them right, but that hadn't helped any. If any, it had just made him nervous, and made him even more unintelligible.
"45! 44! 43!"
He hated that he was so nervous all the time. There was no reason for him to be scared of meeting people. It wasn't so much that he was scared of them as he was afraid of them not liking him. He was afraid of doing something wrong, something stupid, and losing any friend he might have made. That wasn't changing anytime soon, though. He still desperately wanted to be liked, but he didn't know how, without bending to everyone else's will.
"31! 30! 29!"
But did his will have to be that weak? Moreover, did he have to be weak? He worked so hard on so many things that it was deeply disappointing to be good at none of them. He was what Raven called "passable." He was okay. Average. But not good enough, either for her, or for him. He wanted to be better. Faster. Stronger.
"14! 13! 12!"
Maybe that was it. He'd been working on all of those things to please other people- mostly Raven, but there were exceptions. But he really hadn't worked hard on anything that he wanted to be good at. Maybe if he did- if he just chose one thing to focus on, something he wanted to really excel in- he'd have more luck. It was a good theory, at least. And he could probably stand to work harder on some of the other things. Not just to please Raven, but to please himself.
"9! 8! 7!"
Quickly Anoki scribbled a note on the pad, then leaped up and ran to the window, throwing it open. Outside, the sound of shouting was even louder, and he joined in. "Three! T-two! One!"
Fireworks exploded in the distance, and Anoki felt his heart soar. If this was any indication, it was going to be a beautiful year.
Resolution- be stronger and work harder.
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Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:09 pm
[The D-Corp New Year's Party can be found here.]
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:31 am
[After Hours (Damaris and Anoki) can be found here.]
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:10 am
[morning glories]
Anoki was lying on his back, his arms and legs tickled by blades of bright green grass. It was hard to believe that it was winter back home when the weather in this pleasant retreat was almost summery. If he didn't know better, he might guess it was May, or maybe September. Certainly not November. But then, nothing was as it seemed.
In truth, Anoki wasn't really sure what was going on. Raven was planning to go on a short vacation, in which case he and the twins would be left in Mahou's care. Which didn't mean much for him. He saw less and less of Raven these days, unless she had something to fault him for. Mahou had said that she was just tired, and busy with another project, but those words had failed to comfort him.
Then she had suddenly gotten sick, and it was as though his world had fallen out from under him. It wasn't just that he suddenly had to follow her to an off-Gaia retreat for her to recover. In fact, that was kind of nice. But that event made it clear to him just how important Mama Ray was to him. Even when she neglected him, even when she scolded him, she was still the closest thing he had to a mother. And he really, really did love her.
"Anoki?" Mahou peered down at the boy, holding a small bundle in her arms. "You remember that your Mama Ray was working on a project, don't you?" She shifted the bundle in her arms, looking around uncertainly, as if afraid of being spotted. The retreat was completely private, of course, the only reason they were there. But still, one could never be too careful.
Without really sitting up, Anoki nodded. "Y-yeah. Why?"
"She wanted you two to meet earlier, under better circumstances. But, well..." Mahou sighed and set the bundle down on the grass, next to Anoki. "Anoki, this is Eirinn. Eirinn, this is Anoki."
A white fleece blanket fell away, and Eirinn could finally see- and be seen. Most people wouldn't expect a little girl who seemed to resemble a four leaf clover as a "project." But then, neither would they expect a human/ibex hybrid to be a "project" either, and he was.
Not that Eirinn knew that. The first thing she thought was that he looked like a tree. He was all brown, and his branches were curly at the top. Except he moved. And he was lying down, so he couldn't be a tree, could he?
If Anoki hadn't already been a stutterer, he would have sounded even more confused than he was. "Sh-she... that's wh-what Mama Ray w-was w-working on? B-but how c-come I never s-saw her? I d-don't-"
"Shush, Anoki." Mahou smiled, but her eyes showed that she was being firm. "Eirinn is a secret. The people at D-Corp can't know about her. So she lives somewhere else, and that's why your Mama Ray's been travelling so much for the past several months. But with her sick, we've gotten permission to move everyone here... for a couple of weeks, anyway." The whole thing was stupidly complicated, in Mahou's opinion, but it was Raven's plan. Even with her mistress indisposed, she couldn't disobey orders.
None of what Mahou was saying made sense to Eirinn, so she just tuned it out. She was more interested in the tree-person anyway. Crawling over to his head, she pulled on one of the curly branches. They felt so smooth, and really sturdy!
Anoki started to sit up, but found that he was being held by the strange clover-girl. Not that he couldn't jerk out of her reach easily enough, but that wouldn't be very fair. Instead he continued to sit up, but slowly, and was curious to see what she would do.
When the branch started to move, Eirinn's eyes widened, and she held on tightly with both hands. It was an interesting feeling, really, as if she was being lifted off of the ground. She was, in fact, as was noticeable when she couldn't feel any part of her on the ground anymore. It was so startling that she let go, and fell back down with a bump.
But where other toddlers might have cried, she didn't. There was a gasp, and she looked sad for a moment, but then she laughed. That was fun! She liked this tree-person!
"Y-you liked that?" Anoki asked, both surprised and amused. He would be lying if he said that having her tug like that didn't hurt at all, but it wasn't too bad. And moreover, he could tell she wasn't doing it out of spite, like Bian sometimes did. She was doing it out of curiosity, probably. And well, he was plenty curious about her.
Mahou stifled a laugh, and patted both kids on their heads. "You'll have plenty of time to get to know each other while we're here. After that... well, we'll see."
"See!" Eirinn chirped, parroting Mahou. It was what Raven had been working on with her last. She was curious what happened to the big purple lady, but the one with weird white petals was nicer anyway, so she didn't mind too much. And this tree person was cool!
"I s-see," Anoki nodded, tickling Eirinn's tummy, delighted when she laughed and tried to bat his hands away. He couldn't play with the twins without lots of whining and crying and hair pulling. But this girl was nice, and he liked that.
"I'll... leave you two alone for a while then. So you can get to know each other." Truthfully, Mahou had to go attend to Raven, and didn't have time to be watching Eirinn. But she wanted to make Anoki think that she trusted him to look after someone who would basically be his "younger sister."
Anoki blinked in surprise, and he looked from Eirinn to Mahou, and back to Eirinn again. "I... I'll l-look after her g-good. I pr-promise!"
"Pomish!" Eirinn echoed, poking Anoki in the leg. She could play his game! She just had to figure out what the game was, first.
"I know you will," Mahou replied with a smile. "Take care."
"I will!" Anoki called back. Then he looked at Eirinn, and stroked one of her strange leaf-like appendages with a finger. "S-so, Eirinn, do you like st-stories?"
"Like!" She thought she remembered what that word meant. Stories was a new one though. The purple lady had never been one for recreational activities.
"Th-then you and I are g-gonna get along g-great!" Now, where was that book?
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:05 am
[reserved- this post will link to a) a summary of why Raven's been gone so long, or b) a thread with the story put up, when/if I get around to writing it. in the meantime, moving on!]
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 4:54 pm
[reserved- fountain of youth]
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 4:55 pm
[reserved- the way life used to be]
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