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Rivener's Diary

DAY THREE: Tuesday

Hi Diary!

I am still here all by myself. I hung out in the room lots today, watching TV. Then I went out and bought some cheap paint and a flat canvas and some cheap brushes and I came back and painted something. Then I went out to the beach and sunbathed again.

A bunch of kids were playing nearby and kept kicking sand at me accidentally. It was really annoying but I kept my temper and just came back to my room instead of trying to poison them or scare them away.

Aphi just called a few minutes ago and said that everything at home is normal, and Eiry is still gloomy, and Isi is normal. Nothing new.

...I'm starting to get a little bored here. Maybe because I don't have my camera and my computer, so I have less to do in a day... Maybe tomorrow I'll try walking around the town instead of just staying in here. Well, I'm going to go watch a payperview movie. Maybe, erm... i dunno, some kind of horror film if I can find one. I know I shouldn't eat people food, but some popcorn would be good with a movie... I'm going to go get some.

Rivener's Diary

DAY FIVE: Thursday

Hi Diary

Okay, Eiry, if you ever sneak a peek in my diary and read up to here, DROP THE BOOK. Seriously, don't read this. You're too young.

...

Okay. So I thought about things all today, just sitting on my hotel bed clutching a pillow. I even rented a different movie to see more-... Um. S-sex. Sex movies. Between people, humans obviously. I mean, I knew there were bits down there that people did things with when they like each other, but to actually SEE what that is... It's so WET and SLOPPY and WEIRD! But they all seem to like it SO MUCH. It makes me curious to know what it feels like, but I don't have those parts. Does that mean I don't even know what kind of feeling "Lust" is? Or even "Love"? I Love! I love Aphi, and I love Eiry, and I love Roux and er... I guess I do kinda love Isi too, now.

But that's NOT the same, is it? I mean I'd never do THOSE things with Aphi or Eiry or Isi!! ...Maybe with Roux, MAYBE. I'm not sure. Right now it doesn't feel like I would.

But anyway, I wonder if we Raevans will have the same bits down there as humans. Girls have breasts just like human girls, and apparently it feels REALLY good to touch them there. I mean I knew there was some reason why we can't just float up to a girl and like, molest their chests, but... Those girls in the movies REALLY like it. So if we get the same bits below, that means I'm going to have a, er... Well it's a dirty word so I won't use it here in case Eiry is still reading (YOU BETTER NOT!).

And that guy part is SO WEIRD! At first it looks like a dead fish on top of some weird peach or mushroom with hair on it! But then when the girl pays attention to it, it gets all big and hard like magic! ...It looks really uncomfortable and awkward. I couldn't imagine trying to fit one into a pair of pants once it's big, it'd be all smushed and painful, wouldn't it? Anyway, goo comes out of it after playing with it for a while, and that looks just plain gross. I gotta say, while I AM curious about what makes people scream like that, I am NOT looking forward to having those parts.

I'm really curious about why people do this. It feels good, so is that the only reason? And why did the guys in one movie put on condoms when the other guys in the other movie didn't? It's to protect yourself, that's what the commercials on TV said, but protect from what? And girls don't need one that covers them all over inside their bodies, then, to protect themselves from whatever the boys are protecting from? Maybe some girls have poison in there! SCARY!

...Anyway, I think I might have to er, ask someone all these questions. Probably Aphi. Probably once he sees the movie bill I won't have a choice anyway. Ugh. This is going to be so damned embarrassing.

Rivener's Diary

DAY SIX: Saturday

Aphi's coming tomorrow. I tried to paint one of those bits that I'm going to have later, but no matter how I tried it, it looked gross. I'm really starting to think it'd be best if I didn't grow one of those. I threw out all those paintings, ripping them up first cause I don't want the cleaning people to find them. I'm bored. I can't watch TV or go outside to the beach because I just keep staring at people's AREAS.

.....Oh my god. I just realized that Aphi HAS ONE OF THOSE. And Isi too!!!! gonk Holy shiiiit!!! H-hhow am I supposed to face them again without staring!??

[.Name] Aphismet
[.Raevan Name] Rivener
[.Date] November 2008

[.Title] Rivener’s Growth So Far

[.Report] Um, hello Doctor Kyou. I realize that I never really reported to you about how Rivener was growing; I’d been treating him like some new pet, or an adopted son, instead of an experiment. I realize that I should have kept better track of what Rivener was doing, but, erm… Well, better late than never, right? I’ll do my best to remember when everything happened, although it might not be very accurate.

July 2006 – I received the vial and bottle. I had no idea what it was or how to really use it, and I admit I didn’t really read much of the literature that came with it… Cuddles, my scorpion, died and his soul flowed into that bottle. I brought the Soul in, met Dr Tsu, and a few weeks later (still in July), I met Rivener. He seemed like such a subdued, well-behaved Raevan at first… Rivener matured quickly, learning to speak at an incredible rate and developing quite a, er… independent personality. I was pretty sure he hated me. He learned everything from television since I had to work so much, and while I did try to take him to work with me sometimes he only developed a fear of girls (they mobbed him more than once). July was also the month he met Roux, and kissed for the first time. That was quite a shock, but the two Raevans didn’t seem to think they’d done anything wrong. That seemed to be the start of a beautiful friendship?

August 2006 – Rivener’s first poisoning of people. He poisoned some pizzas for clients where I worked, and used a truth poison on ME while I slept! That was the first time Rivener actually scared me.

October 2006 – The Raevan slumber party. Rivener seems to have affected Melisande somehow at that party, although I still don’t know what he might have done to her. This is also the month we saw Roux and Chloe again. Riv was very happy.

November 2006 – I tried to get Rivener interested in learning things, and I learned that he was interested in painting, like I was. We also began studying together, in school books while I tried to convince myself that I might maybe attend University. Rivener was very good at that stuff, he was actually better than me! (embarrassing)

December 2006 – This was the first Christmas Riv and I spent together. I bought him his Digital camera that year, and he LOVED it. He still does. It’s his favorite possession. At the end of the month is when we met Isikoro for the first time, chasing Beauregard the whale. Rivener wasn’t overly fond of Isi right off the bat, but he did love Beaubeau. This month was also when I got a job at the Crystal Carafe, although at first it was only as a busboy… Really, this month was the start of all the changes in our life.

January 2007 – This was the major change in Rivener’s life. We followed Isikoro to his grandmother’s house and a lot of things happened, but after all that I adopted Isi. We moved to the large Victorian mansion in Durem Caves North, and Rivener’s life changed forever. He was really not pleased with all this…

February 2007 – At the Partie D’Amour, Rivener has to man a booth and basically deal with the public at large for the first time. He did alright, I suppose… It was near this time that Eiry was born, and although I was worried Rivener would hate Isi’s Raevan on principle, it was quite the opposite. Riv took to Eiry right away, and vice versa. The two have been a very typical pair of brothers since.

April 2007 – Rivener and Eiry run into the dangerous ghost “Edgar” for the first time. This is also the month that Chloe and I, erm… k-kissed. At your combined birthday party, yours and hers. Since then we’d been kinda a couple, although we don’t see each other as often as I’d like… I had a heart-to-heart with Riv that month, coming from the party. We discussed things and ended up being a little bit closer, I think.

May 2007-June 2007 – These two months were rather calm, and Rivener and I just got to know each other a little better. There’s a walk in the woods involving me hugging him, but he made me promise not to ever tell anyone about that, so…

July 2007 – Riv and Eiry run into Edgar again. Also, the Summer Festival for the Lab! Rivener mans a booth right next to Lazarus, and he was talking about it the whole week before and after. He really idolizes Laz for some reason. We also went to Gambino Beach for a vacation this summer; Riv doesn’t like water, but he does like sunning himself on the sand.

September 2007 – I learn that Chloe was kidnapped. Rivener seeks out Roux. Edgar possessed me and turned my hair white… Rivener brings Roux to our house, until Chloe is found the icy Frei stayed with us.

October 2007 - Rivener and Roux kiss in the woods (I learned about this later)… Riv kisses people too much!!! Also, I get a letter in the mail from Chloe’s kidnapper. At the end of the month, our house becomes the party headquarters for the lobotomy Gala, the lab’s Halloween party. I didn’t participate much, but from what I hear Riv and Roux had a decent time.

December 2007 – Chloe is rescued and Roux leaves our house to return with her. While Riv is sad to see Roux go, he’s also glad that his friend’s guardian is back. Roux had been upset, and that in turn made Riv upset.

January 2008- February 2007 – These few months were actually quite blissful, after all the hectic trouble of Chloe being resolved. We all felt much happier, and a heavy cloud had lifted from our collective hearts, Riv included.

March 2008 – This is when IT happened. Rivener’s skin was peeling and cracking, and he lost his temper and ATTACKED Isikoro!!! I was away on a week-long business trip! Isi almost died, and Riv lost his powers for a while… Thanks to Julian Sweet Isi was saved, although I still think his methods were questionable at best. Anyway, Riv isolated himself from us after that…

April 2008- June 2008 – Rivener was losing his skin this whole while, and he hardly spoke to us anymore. He seemed so regretful for what he’d done to Isi, even though Isi forgave him readily enough. Gradually he began to open up to us again, and when we went to the Beach Blowout he seemed almost okay. Although since it happened, Riv has been much more careful with his temper, which is a good thing.

August 2008 – I heard from Rivener that he met Melisande when he went to the mall at the start of August… The way he was talking, he didn’t sound very angry or annoyed with her. Has he actually made peace with her? This month is also when we went to Barton to visit a person Riv met at the Beach Party; she has a telescopic camera, and Rivener was completely enthralled by it. I’ve never seen him so child-like and happy, EVER. There’s another person Riv met at the Beach Party: Lucia, a lovely cat-girl Raevan who seemed to capture Riv’s attention very much.

Sept 2008 – Riv and Laz meet again at the Night in Vegas party. They’re getting along now! I don’t know when that happened!

October 2008 – Eiry finds something that makes him upset, and Rivener is in turn upset that he can’t protect his little brother. Riv is very protective of his little bro… This month is also when Riv has Lucia over. He’s acting like a teenage boy inviting his crush to his house. Are they supposed to be acting like teenagers?!

November 2008 – Rivener has just come back from spending a week alone in Gambino. This is the first time he was alone for so long, and it’s because we found out that Rivener can’t eat skies if he can’t see stars at all. It was really cloudy here so he had to go to Gambino to find skies that could “feed” him. While he was there he, um, accidentally discovered Adult Movies. He had lots of questions when I went to get him, but now he knows all about babies… But he’s somehow decided that he doesn’t want to grow those adult parts!


That’s about it for now. I think I reported on everything… Please let me know if you require anything else. Also, Thank you so much for Rivener. He’s difficult sometimes, but he’s like a son to me and I love him very much. smile

Rivener slept fitfully. He felt like he didn't fit in his skin! Everything hurt and was too tight and there was no way to get out of it! He was supremely unhappy and frustrated and remained huddled under the bed swathed in his overly large green sweater, hiding from the world. Even when Aphi had come in the next morning with a new mirror, the Raevan hadn't said a word, only growling unpleasantly the moment he heard his guardian take a step towards the bed to try and talk to him. Aphismet had just sighed and retreated, leaving the mirror where the old one used to be. The man knew Riv often came out to spy on himself last time this happened, checking and re-checking compulsively to see if his face was healing... But not this time. No, this time Rivener would wait this out until it stopped itching, stopped flaking, stopped hurting.

His body seemed to be in fast-forward this year, too: already the floor under the bed was covered in about an inch of skin flakes, and whenever Rivener scratched at himself he would send handfuls flying. Maybe I AM dying this time? he wondered, worried about the speed at which his skin was falling off.

By the second evening Rivener was sobbing under the bed, panicking. His hair was falling off! Long black and red strands littered the ground around him and he pulled all of those locks back to him, forming a small nest around himself, shivering. He didn't want to die! Or if he survived, he would now be BALD? He didn't know which was worse! And the discomfort in his own body was intense by then as well, as though trying to fit a large man's foot in a little boy's shoe. Rivener was clawing at himself almost constantly and it was a damned miracle when he managed to fall asleep, twitching and shifting in his dreams...



Where am I?... hunh, a field of stars. I remember this place. This is where I was when I nearly died. Inside me, then. It's pretty. I used to paint this place a lot, too. I haven't really painted it a lot recently, now that I think about it. Not since I first moved here...

Ah, I hated Isikoro back then. I remember painting myself stabbing him. But then when I actually did hurt him later on, it didn't feel good at all. ...I was so stupid. So juvenile. Thinking I could selfishly keep things to myself. Hmph. Just like some little kid.

But I'm not a little kid anymore, am I. I've grown... I understand things a little better. I'm a little more mature, I think. I'm ready. I'm ready to be grown-up.

And all around the Raevan, in his dream-place, the stars brightened to twice the strength they'd been, shining like diamonds on a velvet backdrop.



Rivener woke up the next morning feeling much better. His body wasn't so constrained anymore. He felt... free, fresh, rested, renewed. He stretched as much as he could under the bed, pushing handfuls of skin aside as he reached his arms up. Pushing many MANY handfuls of skin. Much more than last night. Red eyes opened wide, glancing around.

Oh god, there was so MUCH skin! How could there be that much?! Had Riv lost ALL his skin at night, was he nothing but muscle now!? Panicking, the Scorpion glanced at one of his outstretched arms-

-and gasped. He was perfectly fine! No cracks, no ugly red divots in his flesh, nothing! Frowning with confusion, Rivener pulled himself out from under the bed, shaking all the skin free of himself and yanking the sweater up over his head, turning to the mirror...

What he found was wholly unexpected.

A slow, sultry smile appeared on his face as he floated closer to the mirror. Both ring-laden hands lifted to touch at his new body, slipping over the abs, studying the feeling, studying his reflection, contemplating. He ran those hands all over himself, even shedding his clothes (he could remove his clothes!!) to admire his naked torso.

About an hour later, Rivener had his verdict. He grinned sultrily at himself. "Verrrrrry nice."