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 Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 11:13 am
The skull fixed an eye on Azumi as the other stared blankly at the colorful television screen.
"She stole me away from the once-great city of Tenochtitlan, from the tomb of the long dead Aztec noble Camatl co Azcatl. Not that its any of your business, Missy Dog-Ears."
The skull clicked it teeth at Azumi insolently, watching as the book quivered under the woman's touch.
Lenore held up the vial for Osso to see better.
"Dei gave Len a p'sent, 'cause we f'ends," she said solemnly, admiring how the light reflected off the dark red liquid inside. She instantly had the urge to give Osso something, and reached back to her tail of feathers. Before she could pluck one out, she remembered Crow's warning against giving other people her appendages. Wondering what on earth she could give Osso, she let her eyes wander around the room.
A couple Sprockets floated here and there around the room, chattering in Binary or hovering in sleep mode. Lenore knew she couldn't give away one of Crow's little robots, but perhaps she could pester her into buying one for Osso the next time they went shopping?
"Len get a p'sent fo' Osso, 'cause we f'ends." she told him happily, wondering what she could find that he would like.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 5:19 pm
"I'll Missy Doggy-Ears you, you brainless skull!" she snapped back before continuing her reading once more. One wolf ears twitched in annoyance from this thing's comments and remarks.
Osso leaned over to inspect the crimson filled vial as he listend to Len. When she said 'p'sent' Osso sat back and cocked his head in comfusion. "What's a p'sent?" he asked as he tried to think of the definition himself.
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:21 am
"No need to snap," the skull replied mildly, obviously enjoying the effect of its own disrespect. "Just havin' a little fun. Mistress never talks to me - I think I annoy her a bit."
Lenore hesitated for a second, trying to sound out the word.
"A p'sent is a...prrrresnt, no, ummmmm...." she said, struggling to complete the word. Looking up at the TV screen again, she watched as nightmarish creatures made toys and wrapped them up. Pointing at the screen, she turned to Osso.
"That! That's wha' a p'sent is! Some'ting you give sommone 'cause, 'cause..." she trailed off for a second. Why did people give presents?
"'Cause you like 'em!" she nodded resolutely, smiling and toying with her pendant.
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 4:05 pm
Azumi rolled her eyes as she spoke in a sarcastic tone,"hmm, I wonder why..."
Osso looked to the screen and noted the things and boxes that the characters were making,"p'sent?"
He finally understood somewhat and when he heard Len say why presents were given, his expression lit up,"Osso give Len p'sent too!" For pretty much the first time that night Osso looked around for his mother to tell her the news. He soon spotted her in a chair talking to what he thought was thing air...Mama's weird..."Momma! Osso git Len p'sent!"
Azumi heard the word 'momma' but nothing else as she moved her attention to her charge on the couch. She nodded her head absentmindedly as if she udnerstood the words Osso said,"yes, dear."
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Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:19 pm
The skull clicked its teeth at Azumi again.
"Hmph. Just trying to make conversation. T'isn't the most interesting life in the world, sitting on a book shelf collecting dust."
The skull quieted down as it watched Azumi read with one eye, the other ivory sphere fixed on the television screen.
Lenore thought hard what to get for Osso as she watched the movie. Toying absently at the exposed bone at the tip of Cole's tail, she sat quietly as time ticked by and the film finished. She sat up and stretched as the screen flickered to black as the credits finished, yawning a little.
"Movie done," she said loudly to notify Azumi. As she prepared to slide off the couch to restart the DVD, she heard the door open and slam shut. Turning and staring in surprise, she saw a disheveled and angry-looking Crow straightening her clothes and fixing her goggles back onto her helmet with a sour expression on her face.
"Just because I went out with him for coffee doesn't mean that gives him the bloody right to try to rip my clothes off!" Crow snarled angrily to her pilot's helmet, tearing off the antique goggles and polishing the glass furiously. Peeling off her coat (which was inside-out) and placing her helmet delicately on the hat stand, she blushed as she remembered that Azumi and two children were in the room.
Shuffling out of Lenore's view and trying to fix her twisted clothes, she blushed violently and held out a bag of movie popcorn and gummy worms for Azumi.
"Uh, thanks for watching Len while I was out, Azumi." she mumbled, looking down at the floor in acute embarassment. Not that anything had actually happened besides Crow delivering her, ah, overexcited date a swift kick where it counted, but she felt embarrassed to be seen even more out of sorts than usual.
Fixing its dizzy eyes on her, the skull burst out laughing and yammering in Nahuatl. Crow gave the skull a dirty look and removed her helmet from the hat stand, placing it on top of the unruly bit of calcium instead. With a resolute nod and a smirk as the skull's protests were muffled by the helmet, she turned to Azumi.
"I'm sorta tired so I'll see you guys in the morning, okay? Thanks again for helping me out, Azumi."
And with that, Crow despondently made her way to the bathroom, jumping into the shower in a brave attempt to wash off the nasty stink of her date's cologne.
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Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 6:07 pm
Azumi started a little as the disheveled Crow came in. Her ears perked and she tore her widend eyes from the book as she listend to the hate words towards her date. When she saw how red she was she chuckled and put the book down,"I trust you gave him the good one two, yes?"
The werewolf then rose from her chair and smiled at the thankyou,"you're welcome, anytime!" and watched as her friend made her way into the bathroom. Another chuckle escaped her lips as she went over to where the children were, but not before tapping on the helmet that was put over the talking skull.
Osso was about to say something when he stopped as Crow burst in. He turned around where he sat and gazed hollow eyed as Len's mother got red and went over to where his guardian sat. When she left he was just about to starting speaking again but was soon caught eye of his mother coming towards him.
"No!" He cried firmly before Azumi even got to him.
"It's time to go dear, Crow is very tired and I think Len is too," she cooed as she plucked the bone-child from where he sat against Cole.
"No! no no no!" He kept repeating that word as he tried to crawl over the werewolf's shoulder and get out of her grasp. It was NOT time to leave yet!
"Osso, cut it out! We're going home. You can see Lenore again soon and give her a present" the last words were a little jumbled as she tried to keep her charge from falling over her shoulder.
At the mention of the word "present", the wiggling child stopped and soon sat calmly in his mothers arms, hollow eyes almost covered by blonde locks still continued to peer over Azumi's shoulder and down to Len. "Osso get Len p'sent!" he was able to say before the apartment's door closed and clicked shut.
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Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 6:30 pm
As Lenore sat alone in the room, looking at the door where Azumi and Osso had just gone through, a strange feeling took over her
She felt her wings tingle, where her blade feathers sprouted, and a funny feeling in her bones, specially in her arms and legs. It was more like a tickle than anything else but it was strange none the less. Then without warning she felt her body muscles tighten ans stretch with a jolt, as her arms, feathers and legs grew longer. Some of the feathers fell off with this suddent reaction (including the ones covered with blood stains)
Just as suddent as this started, the feeling vanished completely. And as she opened her eyes she could see her wings were now much longer and wider than before
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 6:34 am
__Part 15
Crow was still in the shower when she heard Lenore scream. Jumping in surprise and swearing loudly as she got shampoo in her eyes, Crow stumbled out of the shower and wrapped herself up quickly in a towel, blindly shambling out into the room as she dabbed at her stinging eyes.
"Len, what's the matter? Did Cole eat Azumi or something?" she asked, wiping the stinging froth from her eyes. Lenore's only reply was another scream. Squinting around the room, her eyes met a deeply unfamiliar sight. Where her baby had been sitting not five minutes before was a much larger, lankier, and...sharper child, screaming in delight and jumping on a deeply startled Cole.
Lenore turned to look at her guardian, waving her new, longer arms and laughing wildly. Around her stamping feet were the silky tail feathers she had shed, along with discarded and dulled metal feathers that glimmered and rang like bells as she kicked at them. Picking up a silvery feather that bore a faint red stain, Lenore turned and smiled at Crow.
"Len a big girl now!"
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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 8:41 am
__Part 16
Crow held her arms out as she knelt on the floor, smiling encouragingly.
"C'mon, Len, try again."
Lenore cautiously let go of her support on the coffee table, standing knock-kneed and wobbling. She waved her arms to keep her balance, taking a shaky flat-footed step forward.
Fomp.
"Len go boom, Mama."
Lenore lay on the floor with her face buried in the plush carpet, her bottom sticking up in the air. Her feather tail twitched and fluffed out in amused exasperation as she pushed herself up, sitting and rubbing her slightly carpet-burned nose. Crow frowned and sat down too, leaning against the couch. She'd gotten over the shock of Lenore's sudden, well, explosion from baby to toddler pretty quickly. Now that she knew how fast Mishaps matured, she was determined to help Lenore develop as best she could before her next spurt.
"Huh. Is the carpet hard to walk on, Len?" she asked, idly playing with a winged kangaroo rat that was nestled in her lap. The rat gave a happy squeak and nibbled at her fingers, fluffing its wings and hopping up and down on her knees.
Lenore looked at her long feet and waved them from side to side.
"No, is soft and scratchy, not hard," she replied. Her ability to speak had improved tenfold, something Lenore was extremely happy about. No more pantomiming and struggling to vocalize now!
Watching the winged kangaroo rat bounce on its impossibly big feet, she frowned at hers and curled her toes.
"It hurts, 'cause I gots a toe in the middle of my foots." She gave a grumble and started waving her feet again. The extra toes made shoes very painful, socks deeply annoying, and walking practically impossible. How on earth could she walk like Crow did with this useless extra appendage?
Crow bit at her lip thoughtfully as she tickled the kangaroo rat's tummy, making it chirp and wiggle. Looking at Len's feet, she had a sudden idea.
"Maybe you're not supposed to walk like me, Songbird. Maybe...." she trailed off and got up, forgetting the kangaroo rat. The winged rodent gave an affronted squeak and took flight, knocking a couple of Crow's Sprockets out of the way as it flew off.
"Crow, what the hell are you doing?" asked Lypiphera, Crow's ever loyal and sneaky Pain Sprocket. Crow shushed Lypi and picked Len up by her waist, smiling as the girl giggled and kicked her feet as she was raised in the air.
Lypiphera turned to her ever-present Wrath Sprocket companion Lilith and repeated her question. Lilith buzzed in thought and gave a jangling reply in Binary, turning to watch. Crow's other Sprockets drifted out of their various nests and hiding places, hovering and watching curiously.
"Lenore's got a lot of features like a bird's, right?" Crow said to the gathered Sprocket audience. There was a murmured assent in English and Binary. "Well, what if Lenore isn't supposed to walk like a human? Her feet-"she lowered Lenore so that just her toes touched the carpet. "-are like a birds, too. So that means-" she cautiously let Lenore go, watching the child balance precariously on her toes. The extra back toe offered support, keeping her stead. "-that what I thought was her heel is actually a second knee. Aaaand-" she stood up and let Lenore take a shambling step forward, her eyes squeezed shut in case she fell again. "-that means that she walks like a bird."
Crow smiled as Lenore cautiously turned. taking tiny steps as she got used to the unfamiliar height as she moved. Smiling and waving her arms, Lenore walked around in circles and laughed as she reached up to grab at the hovering Sprockets.
Crow grinned and watched Lenore wander around the room. She could only hope that potty training would be this easy!
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:26 pm
Tori shuffled quietly up to Crow and Lenore's room, Wycliff in his arms. The little Mishap held something small, white, and squishy in his arms, although it was clutched so close to him that it was almost impossible to see what it was. The front of Tori's robe buldged slightly with something pointy, also rather hard to see from the outside.
The tall man reached out, gently knocking on the door in front of him. He hoped that this door was the right one; since the addition of so many new Mishaps, and so many occupied appartments, Tori had had a hard time finding his way around anywhere.
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Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 7:08 am
(__Part 17)
The door opened of its own accord for Tori, creaking rather overdramatically. The room was dark and quiet, with only ominous creaks and curious scratching sounds interrupting the heavy silence. The door opened wider for the pair, shrieking on its hinges.
"Do come in, my friends..." a raspy whispering voice breathed, making the atmosphere even more heavy and tense within the usually noisy and bright room.
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Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 3:01 pm
Tori started as the door opened, blinking several times. He leaned foreward, peering around the apartment, hoping to see a sign of Crow, or her Mishap. Unfortunately, he didn't spot either one, and let out a little yelp as the voice sounded from inside the dark room, it's owner unknown.
"Um..." He whispered softly, clearing his throat and stepping to the front of the doorframe. "Hello?" Tori's voice was a little louder, but not quite as confident as he would have wanted. The tall man was used to either a hearty welcome from Mishap owners, or nothing from an empty appartment; nowhere had he been confronted with an eerie darkness, and an even more eerie voice inviting them in. Tori frowned, took a deep breath, and stepped through the doorframe into the room.
Wycliff didn't seem to mind the atmosphere as much as his Guardian did. The little Rhino-boy had started to doze off while Tori was investigating the appartment, and his head had been buried in the soft cloth of his possession for the last few minutes. As his Guardian stepped into the room, Wycliff looked up, frowning at the darkness. He liked to see and understand everything around him, and this certainly wasn't the kind of place that was easy to understand.
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 5:49 am
The door slammed shut on its own, plunging the room into utter darkness. There was an ominous clicking sound as the door locked itself, trapping Tori and Wycliff. The room was chilly, light breezes drifting in through the half open windows. A dry scuttling sound could be heard all around, unseen things ambling around on the carpet and clicking tiny teeth. A slithery voice insinuated into the brisk air, dry tones making the room seem all the more cold.
"Speak thy business."
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:31 pm
Tori gulped, blushing slightly as he did so, as the noise was rather loud in the almost-silent room. He didn't like the atmosphere, but Crow and Lenore lived her, right? So everything had to be okay...
The tall man jumped back as the voice sounded again. "Ahh, well..." He panted slightly, trying to catch his breath from where it had escaped him a moment earlier. "I have a gift for Lenore, and Crow...If that's okay..."
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 5:07 pm
There was rustling and chittering, and suddenly the lights clicked back on. A horde of skittering and jaw-clicking winged kangaroo rats froze at the sudden illumination before fluttering off in different directions frantically. The owner of the raspy, voice slithered out from its hiding place under the unmade bed, arching its twin heads and raising its thick, sapphire blue body so that it reared up to Tori's height.
A giant, two-headed pit viper stared Tori down with four lidless golden eyes appraisingly, before rolling them in unison and flicking two long silver tongues at him in amused exasperation.
"No need fer an aneurysm, sir, just havin' some fun."
Seemingly oblivious to the fact that Tori might find being teased by a giant two-headed snake a bit odd, the enormous creature settled itself into the comfortable nest of Crow's blankets and looked at Wycliff with interest.
"Mistress an' the birdie are out. Yeh can leave the giftie with me, I'll make sure she gets it," The serpent said with its right head, while the left continued to observe Wycliff.
"Th' names Widdershins, by the way," it added, flicking twin silver tongues again.
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