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 Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:33 pm
Reserve-ish for RP links.
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:41 pm
 As it is with the rest of the world, time passes and seasons change-- and as the old story goes, the best laid plans o' mice and men often go awry.
In the past while Mouse and Sylvest have experienced all sorts of interesting adventures, as a too-young single mother and child often do. This is just one of those that can be properly elaborated upon...
It was a week before Halloween, and Mouse, desperately wanting to be a younger age so she could get free candy without looking weird, invested in one of the many devices she had invested in since accumulating her gene-harvesting millions. This particular one was the X-23 Discombobulator-Transmogrifier. According to the flashy text on the box, it would allow her to change her age, gender, and all sorts of other traits while causing a "negligible amount" of permanent damage.
The device was fired up, and the woman got her wish- within five agonizingly painful (yet simultaneously delightfully ticklish) seconds, she had been transformed from an 18-year-old skinny brunette woman to a 13-year-old skinny blonde boy. It obviously came with some new discomforts, but those are things which should remain undescribed.
Which leads to the story of young Sylvest's first Halloween scare.
It... was still a week before Halloween, obviously. Just later in the evening than before since the X-23 Discombobulator-Transmogrifier required a great deal of assembly. Sylvest, the octopus boy, clad in a stained-beyond redemption apron, was in his home fort in the kitchen as always. Tonight's meal was a succulent-smelling clam chowder, boiling and bubbling with heat and flavor. The boy's human arms and half of his attention were being used on a newly-acquired Nintendo DS, so it had slipped his mind that his mother (now brother?) was violently allergic to shellfish.
(On a totally off yet slightly amusing note, the previous week the two had bought a PSP and subsequently smashed it to pieces with a sledgehammer. Mouse had done this to make sure that Sylvest would grow to be a smart gamer.)
Now, Mouse is a short woman, so turning into a 13-year-old boy had no effect on her height or the sound of her footsteps. When s-he entered the kitchen, Sylvest suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be cooking. And that he enjoyed cooking very much. Such things can be difficult to remember when one is entranced by Star Fox Command, after all.
In any case, hearing his br-mother enter the room caused the thought process just described. This resulted in the Kraken suddenly saying a bit too loud "Hey mom, give this a taste, would you?" and bumping a tentacle into the pot, causing it to fall over.
Mouse got quite a taste of that clam chowder. Her-is bloodcurdling screams of agony from being splashed in the face by boiling liquid confirmed this. The actual "curdling" was caused by her throat and face swelling up from the allergies.
Seeing a strange young man about his age was rather unsettling to Sylvest, of course. All he could do was echo that scream, arms turning white and flailing about uncontrollably. The chowder slopped about on the floor and the two skated about on it amidst their throes of pain and terror and all sorts of kitchen paraphenalia being knocked about. Gyiyg and Gingerbread observed the spectacle from the wide doorway leading to the kitchen; both agreed then and now that the whole thing was very amusing. The only shame was from lack of a camera.
Eventually Mouse managed to catch whatever of her-is breath that s'he had left and... well, babbled haphazard explanations to the entire situation. Sylvest managed to calm down as well, plopping down on the soup-slicked floor and clutching his chest like an old man.
It was all too fortunate that the X-23 was able to fix the injuries and return Mouse back to normal, though it fell apart and became useless almost immediately afterwards.
Truly, the more alarming spectacle was how long it took the Mighty Kraken to catch his breath.
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Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:46 pm
Teen Quest, part 1.Mouse's Rarely-Read, Almost Nonexistent Diary It's amazing how the simplest, most trivial of things can end up spiraling into a life-changing event. Incredible, really, how what someone would think of as the sensible actions of a parent can lead to... well, what happened yesterday. I never would have thought that the traits of an animal soul could go so far in these kids. Even here and now, I can't help but be absolutely fascinated by this. Somewhat disturbed and completely worried about little Andrhimnir in there, but still fascinated! I never would have dreamed to guess any of this! Poor kid was almost shocked to death... I hope to hell he's alright. It was stupid of me to go and do something like that. I'm a terrible parent sometimes. ...He'll come out just fine in the end, I'm sure. Sylvest is shyer than a rabbit and more awkward than a five-legged mule sometimes, but he always manages to bring up powerful bursts of courage when it's needed most. Like the deal with Evarobby-- I still have trouble trying to wrap my brain around that one sometimes. That must be an octopus for you: many spend most of their time hiding, but when they're out and about they get things done. That better kick in here, or... I don't know what I'll do. Never forgive myself, probably. And with a worried, impatient, uncomfortable sigh, Mouse closed her diary (currently disguised as a crossword puzzle book) and tried in vain to make herself comfortable on the stiff, too-perpendicular cushions and backing of the florally-patterned chair in the row of stiff chairs that are more than common in hospital lobbies. There was a couch in there, but it was unhealthily discolored and reeked of all brands of bile. The young mother didn't exactly want to risk it. Instead she turned to the aid of a magazine rack and mechanically stared at an article on E. coli that she has already read several dozen times in the past howevermany hours.
Her thoughts drifted back to why she was here in the first place-- well, not the event itself, but her giving the recollection to the orderlies and doctors at the front desk after screeching into the hospital grounds in her filthy Jeep.
"He's always doing all the cooking... I-I thought it would be a good break for both of us to go get some fast food..." she was whispering in disbelief, staring intently at a cracker crumb on the floor. "We hadn't had any in over a year... I didn't think anything harmful would come of it."
"Well, I don't think it would, if it'd been that long-- what does this have to do with how he is now?" the doctor had asked scrutinizingly. He had seemed more interested in poking and prodding at the tentacles growing out of the unconscious boy's back than even taking a glance at the gauze medically taped to his forehead, which was stained the wrong color.
Guiltily drifting her gaze to make sidelong eye contact with the physician, she continued: "He tripped on something on our way out... I think it was a ketchup packet on the floor. It made him lose his balance and he hit his head on the corner of the counter." She signed and rubbed her forehead for a few seconds to make sure her loose bearings stayed at least somewhat together. Then, she had said, "That's where he cut his head up... there was blood dripping all down his face... it scared him half to death, and then he passed out."
"Well, some kids are timid like that."
"'Some kids' don't have BLUE BLOOD, Doctor. He would have been fine if it were a normal color. He knows everything about biology that I do. It wouldn't have scared him a bit, but..."
"But?"
"I think he might have had a heart attack."
It was all too lucky that this doctor was considerate enough to at least give her opinions some thought...
"Miss, uhhh..."
"It's 'Pachinkorelli', doctor, and not really that hard to pronounce." She was getting irate and impatient, but justifiably- her son was in danger, dammit!
"Of course, er... sorry. I suppose you want the results?" And seeing the quickly forming death glare on the short green-clad woman, he decides that she means "yes". "Well, it's odd. You were most definitely, correct, but..."
"But what?!"
"Your son has three hearts."
Mouse's facial expression would have proved unreadable to the doctor: she was deep in thought for a few seconds, and being in deep thought always made her look a little... well, crazy. Finally, she had responded, "I'm not surprised. He has the soul of an octopus. I suppose now you're going to tell me that he has the blood pressure of someone thrice his age and ten times his weight?"
"Well, yes... you're right," was the response, the physician not seeming to be taken aback at all at the octopus-soul statement. Hey, it was Gaia; anything was possible. It took a good doctor some getting used to. "You can imagine that that sort of food, plus that kind of shock..."
"Yeah..." Mouse sighs again and gazes at the floor. "Is he conscious yet?"
"Well... no. We would have told you if he was. That's the baffling thing..."
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Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:31 pm
Part 2: Song of the Octopus
Everything was drifting, and everything else was swaying, or sweeping.
Kelp and lost leaves drifted two and fro on the gently rocking, salty waves, sweeping up, back, and forth, deposited and picked up again. Nearby and all around, palm trees were swaying, seeming to be the ones wafting the breeze of the sea to and fro, back and forth again, commanding the waves to drift across the sand and guide the debris to shore and away again.
Paradise would not be complete without a lovely, white-sanded beach, with the wind and water in an endless waltz offering shells and sprays of salt. The only thing breaking this scenery was a terribly large yet unseen octopus, for the sand's color was the same as he. The cephalopod mimicked it cleverly, so it should have been no surprise he was hidden to less observant eyes. However, it was a skill with little flair, as no indulging eyes were there. This place, in fact, was eerily bleak, with naught a creature for which to speak. In retrospect it was unsettling. However, then, there were no meddling thoughts that would ruin this lovely place. Why worry oneself with a stranger's face? Along with the ocean's gentle spray, discord was easily slipping away.
Perhaps the octopus would always stay? It was quite nice here, after all, and to be perfectly honest he was having trouble remembering where he was or what he was doing before all this. Not that it mattered. It might have been the small bout of complete amnesia doing its magic, but the giant could not remember a moment where he had been more content. Sitting here as well as he could without the body parts needed for it, watching the sun make the ocean dance with sparkling light in the distance, was something he could easily do forever, he found. Three of his arms idly started work on a small sandcastle while the rest of them opted to dig in the warm sand. The feeling that came from that was wonderful. It made the octopus a bit amused to think he had never ventured to the surface before this... he'd never left the ocean and visited the beach, right? That seemed the correct and logical memory. Those above Eden's waters were always good at maintaining relationships with their marine brethren, but actual visits were few and far between.
The cool water before him seemed to call to him.
Eight suction-cupped arms drained back to a reddish-gray, and the rest of the giant's body followed suit. If he had lungs and a throat, he would have been grunting with the effort to carry himself the few feet back into the water, each of his appendages undulating in an odd dance, trying to mimic the crawling motion those with bones were more capable of.
Eventually, though, the sea's timeless sway was more than enough to lift him away. He propelled himself deeper until every hue seemed to give way to a familiar blue. It was no surprise such contentment was here. The color alone made the ocean adhere to an enchanting feeling of peace. Surely, this atmosphere would never cease. Beneath the world of the sun and the sky slept a different, yet equally great paradise. Instead of the forests with mushrooms and leaves, Eden's sea boasted spectacular reefs, with a full spectrum of colors to be seen. Certainly, more of a sight than a few shades of green. However, like the beach, there was an odd air: it seemed that none of the marine folk were there.
But that wasn't enough to stir up a scare. There could be a perfectly rational explanation for the complete absence of the octopus' kin. It was difficult for many of these people to stay in the same place sometimes, and for many different reasons (the joke that often floated around concerning this was that they were all easily distracted and subject to random whims, and perhaps they should all be placed in small glass bowls somewhere for their own sake). However, things became more and more odd as the octopus took a good look around this collective niche of sea creatures. All of the living places that were normally immaculately kept were very... decrepit. Some of them looked utterly torn or thrown apart, and still others were simply gone, with only a decorative shell or two showing that there was once something more there. Giant tried to remember how or why this might have happened, but trying to pry open his memory proved entirely worthless. All that he could recall was the sound of something bubbling, and, for whatever reason, the color orange.
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Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 8:12 am
Part 3: The Many-Armed SirenMouse's diary I'd say that I feel like I'm in a fine kettle of fish, but I just finished off the last of Sylvest's leftovers and don't want to think about seafood much anymore. Wasted sarcasm aside, is it possible to have too much Omega-3? It has been quite a few weeks since this little incidence, and there seems to be no change in his condition besides that I was given the go-ahead to bring him back home. I bought a bed and partitioned off a part of his room to put it in; for some reason it doesn't seem like a good idea to put him in the water. He seems to be holding up without having to keep hydrated, though. Maybe it's time I wean him off of his water dependence. Despite these circumstances, I find myself liking the idea of having a large indoor pool. One thing that's been happening, though, is that although my kid's completely still, his arms have been changing color on their own. It happens often enough as an involuntary response (and when he's sleeping, I imagine), so here's to hoping that means Sylvest is still swimming around in there somewhere. Giant's attempts to decipher why the color orange was inexplicably buried in his memory were cut short suddenly and abruptly by a flash of periwinkle. After the initial shock of noticing this soft lavender blue, he was able to realize it was not something imagined, but something that had physically flashed before his eyes. Nonetheless, he found that he had changed his own color to the same shade... which, really, was the most irrational fight-or-flight response he ever had. As odd as it was, there were more important things to worry about, like why he suddenly wasn't as happy as he had been mere minutes before. Allowing himself to sink the few feet to the sea floor, he idly picked up a few empty shells in an arm and clacked them together in thought. Nope... nothing.
And the periwinkle flash happened again, with a clearly audible rush of water. Obviously this was a cause of confusion to the large cephalopod, so he darted around the undersea ghost town for a brief period, trying to find anything remotely that shade big enough to flash before his eyes like that.
Eventually the massive marine creature found himself at a scattered rock garden. There standing at the middle of it was something resembling a girl - though somehow at the same time, it also appeared to be a cuttlefish, with a billowing fin across her head and long swaying tentacles on either side of her body. With one of these (and simultaneously with a human arm) she gave a cheerful wave to the giant. She also proved herself to have a cheerful, pretty voice: "Oh, Giant, you're back! And here I was afraid they'd taken you away."
The giant octopus was a bit confused by this remark, as well as the sudden appearance of this periwinkle cuttlefish-girl. After staring for a few seconds, he was able to respond: "Hello... I'm sorry, but I don't know what you mean. What's going on, why isn't anybody here?"
"You mean you don't know? What... but... you were..." Cuttlefish began to sputter sadly, suddenly equally confused. "The fire, and..." With every broken remark the girl's composure began to disintegrate, arms and tentacles trembling in disbelief and rising anger. "It happened to you too, didn't it? It only happened to just about everyone else."
"Wait, what fire? How could a fire..." ...burn in the ocean? was the rest of Giant's thought, but he didn't want to further upset the child before him. Instead he gingerly extended an arm to rest on Cuttlefish wherever it would be comforting - he would never remember whether that was on top of her broad mottled head or over her pale shoulder. "Please don't be mad, I..."
"It doesn't matter anymore, you were taken away just like everyone else!" is the outburst from the girl, authoritatively flailing her arms so Giant wouldn't touch her. "Tiger shark... Seal... Sea-dragon... and now even you! There's nobody left, not even up on the shore... you left me alone!" And, outburst complete, she had nothing better to do than sulk to the bottom of the rock garden, scattering jagged pebbles around in swirling patterns. A second look across it would prove that it wasn't as wrecked as it seemed: it looked as if this girl had been here for a long time, taking the time to find stones of different shades and arrange them into childlike portrayals of the once-citizens of the undersea Eden. The ones she had mentioned were all there, and so was Giant, who managed to outsize quite a few of them. Amongst the murky clacking of rock, the girl had calmed down enough to speak again. "At first I just thought it was some monkeys on the beach joking around, but somehow..."
Giant found his thoughts drifting - no, being forced - back to that flash of orange buried in his memory as the cuttlefish recollected the events surrounding it. There was also a flash of panic, and a searing agony... and an unearthly roiling noise. In the distance he could see trenches opening up throughout the ocean floor and spewing out boiling water and magma, and the unforgiving flames above the surface combined with it to bathe the entire scenery in that color.
A fire could indeed burn in the ocean, if it were hot and rageful enough.
"But how did you--?" How did you survive all of this? was the incomplete thought from the octopus.
The cuttlefish's expression then takes another turn, adopting the tiniest of smiles. "Oh, I don't think that matters now either," she answers, in the midst of an epiphany. "'Cause now you're back, and now you can stay here. Forever." The last interjection didn't seem as cheerful as it should have. Giant would recall this almost sounding manic, while at the same time desperately authoritative, as Cuttlefish's face warped into a desperate, giggling grin. "Nothing's going to take you away again."
As strange as her tone was, Giant had difficulty finding reason to disagree, though something in his three hearts suggested that something was wrong. That memory was still incomplete, he still had no idea what had happened before or after it. Why was everyone else gone, and who or what had taken him away? Pondering this, he tentatively said, "But maybe I was taken away for a reason... and if everyone else was, maybe you were supposed to, too."
This is met by a sharp gasp of disbelief from the cuttlefish. "No! If that's true, why did you come back?"
Giant finds himself gazing morosely at this poor girl, feeling inexplicably drawn to her again despite her disturbing nature. And as he contemplates, he notices blackened scorch marks across her body, both tentacles and arms and leg. Trying to extend an arm again, he asks, "Have you ever even left this place and gone up to the beach?"
Reluctantly, and with a bit of nervousness in her voice, Cuttlefish responds, "No... I never have."
"Then let me help you get there."
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Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:13 am
Part 4.
The corner in the partitioned part of Sylvest's room was where Mouse had been spending a great deal of her time lately.
At first she had been confident that things would turn out alright, but now she was kicking herself for her frivolity over the situation. It had been weeks since she had taken him to the hospital, and more weeks since she had brought him back. In the past two or three of those weeks the domineering emotion known as 'worry' had finally found out where she lived. The corner was so important because that was where the young mother spent her time fighting a nervous breakdown. The dye in her hair had long since faded to reveal dull, unwashed brown locks that now fell around her shoulders, which were constantly vibrating due to her shaking hands.
"Dammit," was the most common word in her vocabulary these days, whether it was just to say something to break the crushing silence or because her disobedient limbs made her shatter yet another glass. She rose from that corner so she could staggeringly pace across the house in order to get something to eat. Not that food was ever very high on her priority list - it especially wasn't above her son - but what rationale she still had told her that starving to death would only complicate her problems even more. A loud growl-sigh that really wasn't any word at all echoed across the unkempt rooms as she remembered how much she missed her son's cooking.
She returned to Sylvest's room clumsily stabbing a microwaved enchilada with a fork in a vain attempt at making it seem more appetizing. A glance across the room to check her son's condition proved to be fruitless: yeah, his arms were periwinkle. They had been periwinkle forever now, and it wasn't doing a fat lot of good for the octopus lad.
Her eyes became interested in the gourmet frozen food she had made just split seconds before she could see the arms flash another color, and then twitch ever-so-slightly. Mouse probably wouldn't take notice of anything short of her son leaping out of the bed and starting to dance; she was getting closer to simply giving up every minute. She found her mind drowning in thoughts of the beach where her son was born.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 8:21 pm
It happens gradually, over the course of a few weeks as Sylvest's condition shows no change, that the boy's body lengthens and fills out. And then in a night a final set of changes occur, and it becomes clear that childhood is very, very far behind him now.
It would seem that his eyelids flutter every so often, but it's not clear if he's coming out of it or not.
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:59 am
"Mmmrmghmgnh..."
It had been so long since that strange incident; soon enough it would be Halloween. One would think that the boy would have more words to greet the world with as he awoke, but as it were, all he had were groans and mumbles as he tried to get accustomed to his voice. It felt and sounded very strange, definitely indicating that he wasn't so much a boy as he was a young man-- or at least a teenager.
His tentacles had suddenly gotten very heavy. Not too long ago they weren't much bigger than his arms, but now each of them was longer than his entire body. At least they were a lot of help as Sylvest finally pushed himself out of his bed and into a wobbly standing position. The world from this new height was... well, it was blurry. Where the hell did his glasses skitter off too? Oh-- wait, there they were. He would have to thank his mom for having taught him the do's and don'ts of wearing glasses. Speaking of, where was that woman who adopted him, anyhow?
"Hey, Mom! You awake? What do you want for breakfast?" the teen called out tentatively, voice cracking awkwardly, walking across the rooms of their house in search of her. As disturbing as his experience in Eden had been, it was in the back of his mind right now. Probably for the best. His real life was more important than that place with the mentally deranged cuttlefish girl.
Of course, as these sort of situations go, Sylvest was halfway into the kitchen when he heard a surprised little yelp from behind. Quickly turning around, he saw none other but Mouse, staring at him with a look of surprise, disbelief, and... something else he can't quite place.
"Sylvest... you're..." she started slowly.
With a little awkward grin, the teen responded "Yeah. I'm awake."
"You're tall!"
Oh... so it was jealousy he was seeing in his mother's green eyes.
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Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 8:57 pm
Some time later..." --SYLVEST, DON'T TOUCH THAT!" The tall, inky-haired Eden teen was shocked at his guardian's sudden outburst, the tentacle she had grabbed still wriggling a bit from the shock (his human arms were busy handling a frying pan and a plastic container full of marinated catfish fillets). " ...what's the big deal? I've seen you carry it around the house all the time," he responded confusedly. Usually his mother welcomed curiosity - otherwise she wouldn't tolerate all of his little cooking experiments - so having her lash out at him like this was very unexpected. " It's evil," Mouse glowered. The item in question was a jar that was somehow containing a tiny rainstorm in it. Ever since she had brought it home, she had been getting progressively more... moody. " How... is it... evil?" With a sigh as though she had known it all along, she explained with a gesture towards the jar, " It's a Cloud of Despair. If you get too close to it, it'll make you depressed. Really depressed." Her mind was bluntly reminding her of the situation at an aquarium earlier in the day. " I almost frenched a guy before that thing kicked in, and now I'm still not quite up to speed. That thing's dangerous. I don't want you touching it." " Almost f...what?" the Eden asks, though he was already recoiling slowly back towards the part of the kitchen that was meant for cooking and preparation. He also seemed to not want to hear the answer to his poorly-formed question, tentacles turning a dark hue in awkward embarassment and suddenly being very interested in how straight his glasses were on his face. " Fine," he muttered, " I won't touch it unless I need to." and shuffled back to working on dinner. His reclusive nature quickly slipped back in as he worked, and Mouse knew that he was more or less convinced. It was later in the day, as they were eating the meal that Sylvest had been preparing, that Mouse was willing to disclose more about the 'Cloud of Despair' that she didn't want Sylvest to be touching. There was also something else she came with it she didn't want him to get too close to- it was a round little bottle made of thick glass, adorned with a mahogany cloth. " So that thing is a chaotic storm, and--" Mouse shook her head and interrupted almost instantly. " No, it was somehow corrupted by a chaotic storm. The head scientist of the Lab is trying to find more details on it with this experiment, so I can't really explain it beyond that." She can understand the confusion; it's no doubt an odd story and quite a lot of information to take in. " What you need to know now is that it's one half of a bio-alchemically-engineered being called a Raevan," she continued. " I just have to capture a soul in that bottle, and after a while you'll have a new sibling." A new... brother or sister? That actually didn't sound too bad; to Sylvest that potentially meant someone new to test his experimental recipes on! But... " You have to catch a soul? Doesn't that mean... you have to kill something?" At that, Mouse gave a bit of an unsettling chuckle. She was clearly just doing this to mess with her kid's head, but he still couldn't help but be a little disturbed. " Don't worry, I won't do anything that'll get me put in prison," she promised, excusing herself from the table and ruffling the teen's hair before going to the living room in order to pore over some books.
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