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 Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:43 pm
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 4:36 pm
Dear Mama,
Halloween is approaching, so I thought I'd get in the spirit this year and actually do something, seeing as Kiba is here now. The guild seems pretty enthusiastic about making this scary house even scarier for the holidays, though I don't see why. I doubt we’ll get that many trick-or-treaters. It's not like we live smack dab in the middle of Durem or anything. Oh well. I promised them that if we didn't get too many trick-or-treaters that they could share the rest of the candy amongst themselves, so I suppose that's what's got them going. The twins seem quite excited about the whole thing. You'd think I banned Halloween here. (Which, I haven't, I just made sure to warn them that it was no reason for them to be extra stupid. I wonder if that really put them off that much?)
Anyways, Kiba and Beatz are working on the decorations as I write this. They're colouring little Halloween colouring pages I found on the internet and printed off. I avoided printing off any of the cat ones – just in case he's sensitive to that sort of thing, I don't want him to start crying – and just stuck to the haunted houses and Frankenstein's monster. Hopefully by the end of next week Twitch and Spark will have finished scouting out all the people selling pumpkins and found the cheapest one to buy for. I've never really been into pumpkin carving but Beatz insists that it's good for the children. I hope she's included the twins in the "children" group since they seem to want to do it. As long as nobody cuts themselves with the knives then I'm fine with it. I made Beatz promise me that she'd take good care of them while they did it, and she swore she'd make sure nobody got too injured. I supposed that's best I can expect from a bunch of hooligans.
Anyways, I'm off to go join the colouring crew. Kiba keeps looking up at me expectantly, and I can only deny him for so long. Write to you soon and thank you for the peanut butter cookies! Kiba absolutely loved them.
~ Bantu
P.S. Kiba apparently wants to send you a couple of his colourings. I hope you don't mind, he seemed to really enjoy his crayons. You can put them up on the fridge. Our fridge is full of his drawings anyways.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 4:44 pm
  "Frankenstein's Monster" + "The Haunted House"
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:55 am
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:02 am
Dear Mama,
How are things at home? Things here are getting a little hectic since tomorrow is Halloween. Beatz and I took Kiba out costume shopping yesterday. Beatz said that she wanted to make him one, but after several failed attempts at the sewing machine, she eventually agreed that it was best to just go out and buy a costume. He seemed to enjoy looking at all the different costumes, even if he didn't know what half of the stuff was. I managed to steer him away from the Gaia animals section – I mean honestly, who wants to be a Grunny for Halloween? – and into the more traditional section, if you will. In the end, he decided he wanted to be a pumpkin, and that was that. He's actually pretty darn cute in the costume, so I'll make sure to send pictures with my next letter. (If my brother goes as anything interesting, please send pictures of that too. If he's just going as a rap singer or something unoriginal like that, don't bother.)
Surprisingly, Halloween seems to have helped him stay focused on his lessons with Gyp. She says it's because once they're finished she lets him colour all kinds of Halloween print-off sheets. I don't really care what she does to get the kid to focus. Whatever bribery she's using it's working, and it makes communicating with him ten times easier. He knows the names of everybody in the house now – there's still some pronunciation errors but most of the names are recognizable – and Gyp even taught him yes and no. I was thinking that we should wait a while before he learns no, seeing as there's huge potential to abuse the word, but Gyp said it didn't really matter. After all, when has Kiba really said no to anything? I had to agree with her on that one. Still, knowledge is power. I hope that just because he knows how to say no to things now that he'll just start saying no to everything. Not that he's ever been a difficult child, but you know what I mean.
Anyways, we're off to buy some more Halloween decorations since the twins don't think that the house is decorated enough. I don't know why they want it to look substantially creeper than it does on a regular basis, but who knows. Just one quick question for you – since I figured you would know. What do kids these days use for trick-or-treating? Bags? Buckets? Pillowcases? I'm not sure what to give him when he goes out with Beatz.
Cheers
~Bantu
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:11 am
Dear Mama,
Thank you for your advice. The pillow case worked out really well, and he definitely enjoyed decorating it. I don't think we're ever going to be able to use it as an actual pillow case anymore, but that's okay. It was an old one anyways. Not like I don't have tons more lying around the house or stashed somewhere because one of my guild members is playing pranks on their bunkmates. (Believe me, that happens a lot. I'm not sure the significance of stealing your neighbour's pillowcase, but apparently it's very serious business.) But, so long as Kiba got some enjoyment out of drawing spider webs and rainbows in his pillowcase then that's all that matters. At least it will be easily identifiable next year.
As you can probably tell by the date on this letter, Halloween has come and past. Kiba received more candy than I thought was possible from this neighbourhood, and managed to fill his own pillowcase. I guess it must be because he was cute that the neighbours felt the need to give him extra sweets. I never understood that logic. Why give a cute kid more candy so he can rot his teeth and then end up with cavities at a young age? Doesn't really sound like you like the kid all that much, in my opinion. Regardless, he decided that he wanted to share his candy with the twins, and that got rid of a good chunk of it. The twins won't get sick on too much candy, and if they do then it's there own damn fault. They're old enough to know better.
What candy he had left, Beatz traded him for a jar of peanut butter cookies. He got to keep some of it, but he decided that he liked the cookies better, and didn't fancy eating hard candy too much. I think it hurt his teeth. The overall experience seemed fairly enjoyable for him. Puck went with him, and we painted her so she looked like a bumble bee. Kiba made sure that she got her own little bucket too, so we've been trying not to let her eat too much candy in one go. She wouldn't know better despite her obvious intelligence.
Kiba made it through the night without any major incidences, which was nice on my nerves. He only tripped on the edge of his costume once and scraped his elbow, but that was about as injured as he got the whole trip. All in all, a good Halloween.
Hope to hear from you soon,
~Bantu
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:07 pm
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:10 pm
Dear Mama,
I'm very sort for the long wait since my last letter! Christmas incredible crazy over here. Apparently having a kid around means we have to spend extra time preparing for all these holidays that we never really did before. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Like I said in my phone call, my congratulations to Chagina and her man! I'm hoping to bring Kiba down some time this week to have a look at her. I'm sure they're all doing very well down there with you and Baba to watch over them.
Anyways, back to the topic of Christmas. Normally I let the thieves handle it if they want to do something, but usually they're too busy out doing other things. Gyp decided that she and Beatz would take control of Christmas this year and boy did they ever take control. Gyp organized all the decorating both inside and out and managed to get her hands on a pretty nice Christmas tree. Beatz cooked up a storm and had most of my old thieves coming "home" for Christmas, I guess you can say. It was quite fun to see them all again.
Kiba had such a blast though. Beatz told him all about Santa so he – with the help of Gyp – wrote a really sweet letter to Santa. His writing is getter better these days, mostly simple sentences and creative spelling whenever nobody is around to help him out. He was quite proud of himself for writing it down. We all chipped in to get him some gifts, and thank you for the ones you sent. He got from all of us and Santa some new clothes, a cute little hat that he adores, a snowsuit and mitts, some more crayons and paints, and some clay for modeling. He's a very spoiled boy! But he's happy. He drew pictures for everyone as his presents to them so I'm attaching yours to this letter.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
- Bantu
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:47 am
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Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 3:15 pm
The Proposal
"Hey Fluffy, can we talk to your for a sec?"
Kiba looked up from his colouring books at the nearly identical white ermine teens that were sitting in front of him. Twitch and Spark had been his friends since he was just a little baby, and while their involvement with him often got them all into trouble, the ratling had never once found their games unpleasant. Thus, he set down his brown crayon and perked his ears intently. "Listening!" Grown-ups liked him to use his human-words, and the twins were no exception.
"Good, 'cause it's very important," Twitch started, doing his best to look serious.
"Very important," Spark emphasized. He even glanced over his shoulder as though to make sure nobody was listening to their conversation. Kiba was intrigued. It was rare that the twins ever included him in anything serious. Part of the reason was because of his age – he was excluded from many things in the kitchen for that same reason – and the other part was Bantu. His mother scared the thieves, and he would be lying without reason if he said that he was completely unafraid of her. But he was not yet at the age where fear alone could stop his curiousity, and so he listened.
After checking twice to make sure they were not being overheard, Spark leaned in closer to the young ratling. "We're thinking about starting you on the training program," he whispered, his brother hunkering over too, "Soon, not now of course, but soon. Once you get bigger and you’re more aware of yourself I think you'll be perfect. Do you think you'd want in on our secret training?"
Kiba blinked, reaching up to scratch his head uncertainly. Secret training? He didn't understand what they were talking about. "Don't know," he whispered back, as he curled and uncurled his tail from around the chair leg. "Trainin' fer what?" The ratling was taken aback by the gasps that followed his question. It became apparent quite quickly that he was missing out on a vital piece of information. Clearly, it was something he was supposed to already know, otherwise the twins wouldn't have approached it about it. Still, now that he was in the circle of trust, he felt he had a right to know. "Fer what?"
"For becoming a thief, obviously!" Spark exclaimed before his twin could shush him. "That's what we all are. Thieves and vagabonds." He gave a frustrated huff, however it was Twitch who continued on from there. The elder brother seemed to have thought up a better way to explain the situation to the young wererat. "It doesn't look like Bantu's told you about what we really do here. What has she told you about our jobs?"
The ratling thought hard on that. "Don't know," he replied again, giving a small rush. "Busy lots, work lots, not get into trouble lots." That was virtually the extent of his knowledge on the subject. Bantu hadn't been willing to divulge as much as he'd wanted, even when he asked with human words. He knew the job of every other major player in his life. Bantu, of course, was the boss. Gyp had told him that she was in charge of selling magical things and making people happy. Beatz had said that she was the cook. He had been in her kitchen enough times to know that this was true. But the twins? Bantu had only said that they did outside work and they tried to stay out of trouble. It didn't sound like a very fun job.
Twitch gave a soft chuckle. "Well, all of those things are true, but we do more than just that. We get things for people. Things they've lost, things they want, and sometime things they need. And then we get paid for it. We get to see lots of places and things that people don't normally see. Have you ever been down in the sewers?"
The wererat shook his head, though his interest was renewed.
"If you agree to let us train you then you'll get to go to all those places and see lots of things. You don't have to decide now, but you gotta promise to keep this between us." He held out his pinky, a gesture that Kiba knew immediately. Without hesitation the ratling took the offered pinky in his own.
"Promise."
"We look forward—"
"—to working with you."
And with identical grins, the twins were gone.
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Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 3:48 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:22 pm
The Corridor in the Basement
"Don't you ever get bored of doing that?"
Kiba paused in his colouring to look up at Puck, who was sitting in the chair next to him. He'd offered to give her some of her own colouring book but she had said she'd grown tired of the taste of crayons in her mouth. The ratling didn't blame her. Crayons tasted icky. "'course not. I like colouring!" He flashed her a wide grin.
Colouring was his favourite activity, with painting coming in a close second. Puck enjoyed painting whenever she got the chance, and had taken to resting her head on the table whenever he was colouring. It seemed today, however, she was not going to sit and watch until he was finished. Getting bored more easily was part of growing up, Bantu had explained. Since she was a creature of obvious intelligence, she was bound to get tired of watching a toddler colour much faster now that she was the human equivalent of a teenager.
"You don't want to do other things?" The Jivvin sighed when he blinked owlishly at her. "Like active stuff! Running and playing hide and go seek or exploring! Haven't you ever wondered what kind of stuff is downstairs?"
The wererat tilted his head, appearing to be thoughtful. The living room with his little table was his current domain whenever he was let out of his bedroom. His mother never liked him to go where she couldn't see him. He had received more privileges now that he could use human-words with some fluency, and had been bumped up to being allowed to go any place that she could still find him. "The house was easy to get lost in", she had told him, "So you're not to go anywhere alone. You'll get scared." And since Kiba didn't like being scared he had heeded his mother's words very well.
"Don't go down there. Not alone. 's scary," he protested, frowning a little as he tried to go back to his colouring. Puck, however, did not seem to want to give up so easily.
"But you won't be alone! I'll be with you! And I'll protect you from anything that's down there. Promise!" She swished her tail, green eyes staring pointedly at her fellow 'cub' until he looked back at her. "It'll be an adventure Kiba! Pleeeeeaaase?" There was something vaguely Simba-like about the way she grinned at the wererat. He didn't seem to have any other choice but comply.
"Kay. But you promised!" He pointed a chubby pink finger at Puck, who only grinned wider. And with that the two were off on their adventure. Kiba rested his hand on the Jivvin's back as they descended the stairs into the basement below. At the bottom of the stairs was a long corridor, lined with wooden doors. It stretched on into what Kiba thought was the black abyss, the small ceiling light only casting so much light. Somewhere in the distance he could hear the rhythmic sound of water dripping. It was oddly comforting.
Puck gave her companion a deliberate nudge. "What are we gonna look at first?" she whispered, green eyes darting from door to door. So many possibilities!
Kiba, who was still trying to understand why being in the near dark was so reassuring, could only shrug his shoulders. "Don't know. First?" He pointed to the rotten wooden door to their left. On it, someone had written BEE CAREFULL in black marker (judging by the faint smell of it). Poor spelling was not uncommon at the Thieves' Guild, and thus Kiba thought nothing of it. Besides, he wasn't afraid of bees. Or carefulls, whatever they were. "In?"
The Jivvin nodded, and stuck her head in when the wererat opened the door. "It's awful dark in here. Is there a light switch?" She stood up on her hind legs and felt around on the wall. Within moments the room was lit up by a surprisingly bright green light. All three of the room's occupants blinked until their vision cleared. It was then that Kiba got good look at why the door had said "be careful." In the centre of the room was a bull, with big horns and even bigger teeth. The moment it caught sight of the 'intruders' it bellowed, before closing its mouth with an ominous "crunch."
"AAAAAAH!"
Both wererat and Jivvin bolted out of the room, slamming the door shut behind them. Kiba could swear he could hear the biting cow thing moving about in there, crunching on something that could have been them. It gave him the shivers. "No more!" He insisted, looking down at his Jivvin friend. "Wanna colour." The ratling started dutifully up the stairs back to his table. He was not going to be opening any more doors!
Puck stared after him with a rather mystified expression on her face. "... but we didn't get to open the other doors."
What she wouldn't give to have fingers.
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Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:37 am
Kiba and the Silver Spoon
After last night's scare in the basement, Kiba had decided to stay well away from dark corridors and wooden doors that said "bee carefull." As safe as he had felt down below Bramble Manor, there was nothing safe about that bull chomper thing. He was not going to go back down there to get his tail bitten off, and nothing Puck could say would get him to change his mind.
Finally, once he had had enough of her pestering him while he was colouring, he had started following Beatz around the kitchen. The cook had seemed quite pleased to have his attention again, and let him take up his previous role as kitchen help. He got to mix things, get the ingredients, dry dishes, and best of all, he got to be the taste-tester. Kiba was absolutely positive that Beatz was the best cook in all of Gaia, and she had told him that he had the best sense of smell and taste she had ever seen. It worked out pretty nicely.
He had been taste-testing for so long in her kitchen that he thought nothing of it when she asked him to try her new spaghetti sauce. The ratling opened his mouth obediently when she offered him the spoon, and swallowed the sauce without hesitation. He was just licking the spoon clean when his tongue felt strangely tingly. Kiba frowned, and gave the spoon another lick. The sauce hadn't been very spicy, so why did his tongue feel weird?
Added contact to the spoon, however, only seemed to worsen the effect. Now his tongue felt like it was getting bigger! Kiba felt tears starting to form in his eyes as he reached up to touch it. It was swelling! It was tingly and swelling and he couldn't feel it anymore! His panicked squeaking alerted Beatz to his predicament and she was at his side in a second.
"It's okay sweetie, let me have a look," she crooned, scooping him up and setting him on the counter. Judging by the appearance of his tongue alone, the cook would have guessed he'd had an allergic reaction to something in the sauce. But what? She hadn't put anything new in it. Or at least, nothing that he hadn't had before. How peculiar. "Let me get you some medicine, I'll be right back."
Kiba watched mournfully as she left, holding his tail tightly to his body as his sniveled. He didn't like this one bit! If his tongue stayed like this he wouldn't be able to eat or lick peanut butter off spoons! His life would be ruined! Fresh tears came to his eyes at the very thought. What he if couldn't help Beatz in the kitchen anymore because of this? He'd have to go back to playing in the basement with Puck.
By the time Beatz returned the ratling was clearly very distressed. After making him swallow antihistamine she took him into his arms and rocked him gently. "It's okay, your tongue will feel better soon," the cook hummed quietly to herself as she tried to calm the toddler. "I wonder what made your tongue to that though... you've never had an allergic reaction to anything before. And I didn't add anything you've never had into that."
Kiba made a woeful sound that sounded vaguely like "'poon."
The cook blinked. "You think it was the spoon? Now that you mention it, you've never licked that one before." Still cradling him she picked up the tasting spoon. Sure enough, it was a new spoon, that looked disturbingly like it belonged in her silverware cabinet. Somebody must have "borrowed" it and not put it back in the right location. She'd have to have a word with the guild. But first, she had to take care of Kiba.
With the medicine kicking in, the ratling's eyes began to droop. Beatz set him down in the little kitchen cot and tucked him in. He'd be able to sleep this off, whatever it was. In the mean time she would have to wash her spoons better. No telling what had gotten on her silverware.
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Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:38 am
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Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:39 am
Of Discussions and Doctors
"Kiba sit still please, or I'm going to take a chunk out of your ear."
The ratling stopped his fidgeting, though his ears twitched as though they too realized the threat. It was hair cutting day at Bramble Manor, when all of the thieves and youngsters who wished to have their hair (and often beards) trimmed. Gyp, being the neatest and most efficient with the scissors, had added guild hairdresser to the list of her duties. Bantu had agreed that she was the best person to be left in charge of such things, both because she was a perfectionist and because nobody would cross the vixen when she had a pair of scissors so close to your head.
Kiba was the last one to have his hair done today, having spent the morning watching Beatz cook. He hadn't been allowed to taste anything since the recent incident with the spoon, something he wasn't too pleased about. Still, the memory of his swollen, tingly tongue was enough to make him think twice about licking any spoon. Beatz had been unable to find out what it was that made him react so, and thus he had been temporarily banned from licking anything that was part of Beatz's arsenal of utensils. The call for hair cuts had almost been a welcome distraction. He was getting tired of watching and not eating.
He did his best to sit tall on his stool and not fidget, but every so often the urge to wiggle would get the best of him. Gyp only had to remind him of the peril his ears were in to get him to resume his statuesque pose, but being a toddler it would only last so long. It was then that something else distracted the pair of them.
"Is he almost finished?" Bantu stuck her head in from the neighbouring room, offering Kiba a quick smile before she returned her attention to Gyp.
The vixen nodded. "Almost. But while you're here, we might as well talk about a couple of things. Why don't you come in and have a seat." Only select view members of Bantu's guild could speak to her with such informality, and Gyp was one of them. She and Bantu had been friends for many years before Bantu assumed the role as leader of the guild, and the fox woman had not changed her ways when they were in private. Nobody would question her right to speak like this anyways. Gyp wasn't someone you wanted to cross. She always seemed to find horrible, sneaky ways to get you back.
Once Bantu was seated in a nearby chair, the vixen began. "I've been thinking we should take Kiba to see a doctor."
The Ajaba frowned instantly. "Why? He hasn't been sick," she grunted, and Kiba would have nodded enthusiastically if it had not been for the scissors neatly trimming his bangs.
"He hasn't had any common illnesses, no," Gyp paused for a moment to study the ratling's cut. "But he had that strange response to painting before he mysteriously grew up, not to mention his tongue swelled up like a balloon when he licked a silver spoon. That can't be normal, and I think we should have him checked out. Not to mention he could probably do with some shots."
"Shots?!" Both Kiba and Bantu exclaimed at the same time, looking horrified by the idea. The ratling knew all about shots. He'd been there when the doctor had come to give one of the thieves one. The thought of having something shoved in his arm was anything but appealing. He was sure he would rather lick another spoon.
Gyp, however, seemed unconcerned by the outburst. "You don't think so? He is only young. I wouldn't want him catching anything that the thieves get when they hang around the dank places in this manor." Judging by the look she gave him, Kiba was sure that she knew about his and Puck's adventure into the basement. He tried to sit up a little straighter to please her. With a final snip, the vixen gave him the 'you can go' nod and he bounded off the stool. Back to the kitchen!
"I think you should think about it," the soothsayer said quietly to her friend as she watched the boy hurry back to Beatz.
"I will," Bantu replied with a small sigh, "I will."
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