Status: In Progress?
Date: December 4th, 2006 |
Location: Ioyla's Apartment |
Participants: Eki, Ioyla, Jerava
No sooner had Eki accepted the fact that he was now stuck on the mainland than he was sent to wander through it, once more forced to be a glorified delivery boy. He moved carefully through the people wandering Aekea's streets, giving them all a wide berth; that earned him more funny looks than his reptilian appearance, but he didn't care. He carried precious cargo, and his delivery was certainly more important than the stares of people he didn't give a damn about. Eki found his destination--another apartment building--with relative ease, made his way inside and up the stairs, and stopped before the appropriate door. Lifting one clawed hand to the door, he knocked.
While entertaining company wasn't exactly her strong suit, Ioyla had little choice in the matter when, earlier that morning, Ilistala had demanded she invite Jerava and Elena over. Ever since mysteriously growing, Stala had found her voice (in more ways than one), and it had become increasingly difficult to say no to her. As soon as Jer and Elena were inside the cramped apartment, Stala whisked away her close friend to her own bedroom, shut and locked the door, and hadn't come out since. Ioyla was...a little weirded out, to say the least.
With one hand gripping a luke warm beer and the other wrapped around the point of her elbow, Ioyla sat atop her formica counter, swinging her legs and chattering on and on about something pointless.
"I'm tellin ya, Jer, crabs! CRABS! They're scary and eerie and they got lil pointy claw thingies. And they pinch out your eyes, from what I heard." She paused to bend her and cough into the crook of her elbow. Opening her mouth to continue, the demon was (thankfully) interrupted by a knock on her door.
Resisting the urge to ask who it could have been, Ioyla settled for waggling her eyebrows at Jerava and hoisting herself up and off the counter. She shuffled across the small walkway to the door, changed the beer from one hand to the other, and opened the door to find...
...a lizard kid. Kay.
"Uh," she said stupidly, pursing her lips and looking about the apartment,
"I don't vote, I already have a religon, and I'm not interested in buying any workout machines." Ioyla promptly began closing the door, but would have stoped if either Jer or Lizard McScaleyFace had anything to say about it?
"Crabs, right," Jer said in a bemused tone of voice, unsure of when exactly this converation had taken a sharp turn towards the bizarre when the door was knocked on, providing a much needed distraction to the young demon.
As soon as Ioyla was no longer paying attention to her, Jer let her look of stunned horror fully blossom on her face.
Why had she agreed to stay here? Why hadn't she just dropped Elena off and fled, or, better yet, why hadn't she just let Elena come alone?
Then again, this was Aekea, and Elena was Elena, and she'd never hear the end of it from Dyran, Rasalus, and the rest of the Tale's entourage if anything had happened to her.
So, here Jer was, slowly but surely becoming convinced that someone in this room belonged in an asylum (hint: it wasn't Jer), and was that a lizard standing in the doorway? With a barely audible groan, the elf placed her arm over her eyes, leaning her head back to hit against the wall. Could this day
possibly get any weirder?
As a matter of fact, Eki DID have something to say about it--figuratively, anyway, as he pushed back against the door with the same hand that had just knocked on it. Why did everyone assume the worst? Granted, they were right to, but.
"I'm not a politician, I don't believe in god, and," he paused, giving the presumptuous woman a quick once-over, "you probably should be interested in some kind of workout machine. Just saying."
Ioyla was aghast. Shocked! Appalled! Monocle!
"Hey!" she whined, dropping her head to stare at her slightly pudgy belly,
"are you callin me fat? That's not a very good business tactic, mister." She narrowed her eyes, leaning her arm against the frame of the door and staring at the scary lizard kid.
"Whaddya want, huh?" Her tone was snappish and suspecious, and for all the right reasons! This kid...thing...looked like some punk b***h that would steal his own grandmother's purse.
"You're not gonna sell me or my buddy Jer here crack, are ya? That'd be bad, yanno. Crack is wack!"Jer had to let out a low chuckle at the lizard's comment about the exercise machine. At least he had a sense of humor? Sighing, she pulled her head back upright to watch what was bound to be an entertaining exchange.
"You don't need any anyway," Jer suggested dryly to the demon, still amused. Maybe this wasn't going to be such a bad time after all.
Golden eyes rolled upwards, asking a silent
Why me? "No, I'm not going to
sell you or your "buddy" anything; unfortunately, I've been sent to deliver something. Free of charge. All you have to do is take care of it for awhile. Do you think you can handle that?" Eki asked, speaking slowly, as if he was talking to a particularly dumb child.
"Oh."...
Good response!
While she was certainly older than a child, Ioyla seemed to have the mentality of a
very dumb child. She eyeballed the lizarddude for a few seconds, shrugged, and swung open her door for this boy to come in.
"What, uh, whatcha gonna give me? I hope it's not another kid." OH THE IRONY IT SLAYS ME.
Well, at least Eki had the right idea of how to speak to Ioyla. Folding her hands behind her head, Jer stared at the pair in the doorway, curious as to what Ioyla would be recieving. "You'll have to move soon if you get another one," the elf opined, looping her tail about the leg of the chair she was sitting in.
Eki hesitantly shuffled in, stopping a mere few feet inside the doorway. All the better to make his escape, of course. "Uh...no, no, of course it's not! It's a, uh..."
Well, damn. No one had told him what to do In Case of an Emergency.
"It's a Christmas ornament," he finished almost convincingly, which he hoped would be more than enough for this obviously crazy woman to buy it. "Yep. Spirit of the season and all that."
Ioyla lit up like the Christmas ornament she believed she was receiving.
"Oooo, an ornament? Awesome! What shape is it? Does it have pretty swirls'n s**t on it? Does it blink and vibrate when you shake it?" She suddenly stopped, shoving a finger in her mouth to chew on the nail. Once finished, she danced over to the chair Jer was sitting in and began pointing in her face, giggling and teasing.
"Iiii-ooooh-laaa gets a fancy oooor-naaah-meeehnt! Jeeeer-aaaah-vaaa duuuuz-int!" Ioyla continued with her Victory Dance of Victorious Victory until she was asked to stop, or until she got bored and quit on her own.
Something in his tone of voice made Jer suspicious, and she was about to say something when Ioyla pranced over to her, singing in that off key voice. "Well, you'll need it, won't you?" Jer said pleasantly, smiling and waiting for this erstwhile friend to knock whatever the hell she was doing off.
Shake it?
Sometimes he wondered at the ones who sent him on these deliveries, if they had any idea what they were subjecting these children to.
Shake it. Really.
"Well, it's shaped like a Christmas light, and it IS kinda swirly, but you can't shake it." He paused a moment, letting that sink in. "You just hang it on your, uh, tree or whatever, and leave it alone. Don't shake it, or open it, or do anything that might break it. At all." Another pause as the hamster picked up speed. "And if it's still whole and unharmed and intact, it'll hatch into, uh...some kind of awesome prize. On Christmas." Eki was quite proud of himself; such creativity was not his strong point.
His eyes finally moved towards the other woman at the mention of her name. It sounded unfortunately familiar. "I've got one for you too."
Ioyla clasped her hands together and batted her eyes at Lizardman.
"Oh, goodie, it'll be ready by Chrismahannukwanzakah! But you don't shake it. Okay, gotcha. Don't shake it." She nodded her head at Jer once it was revealed she was to be given a super awesome ornament, too.
"Ya hear that, you crotchety b***h! Don't shake it or you'll ruin the magic." Such a way with words.
Ohhhhhh, joy. "I don't celebrate Christmas," Jer said to the lizard in a matter of fact voice. Her statement was only partially a lie - she didn't celebrate an of the religious aspects of it, but her family had more or less coerced her into doing something with the material side of it.
"Oh, I won't shake it," Jer promised Ioyla. There was plenty of equipment in her lab that could determine just what it was she was going to acquire that didn't involve any shaking at all.
"Hannukah, then. Kwaanza. Solstice, even." It was clear that Jerava was getting an "ornament" regardless of her religious preference. With a wary look at both women, he carefully swung the backpack off his shoulder, unzipping it and rooting around in it for a moment before finally extracting the promised "gift." It was indeed a Christmas bulb, and it was swirly--though that was due to the myriad of chemicals within it--and in the center was a small black form, curled up as if asleep.
Another brief dig through the bag produced a larger container that looked nothing like any kind of ornament. It too was swirly, but the figure resting in this bottle was larger, browner, and as different in shape as the bulb-shaped vial Eki held in his other hand.
These he held out to Ioyla and Jerava, respectively.
Although she had promised only moments ago to never shake the bottle, Ioyla couldn't stop herself from snatching the ornament from the boy's hand and jiggling it a little.
"The hell is that?" she asked, scrunching up one eye to peer inside.
"Looks like...looks like a bug or somethin! Is that a bug in my present?""Ah-hah. Fine," Jer said, standing up and walking across the room to recieve her 'gift.' I think we should all be glad Ioyla got the first bottle - who knows what she would have said to the second.
"Mmm, so what comes out of these?" she asked, trying to trick him into saying what, exactly, both women had gotten themselves handed.
"Don't shake it!" Eki snapped at Ioyla. "And I can't say. That's why it's a
surprise," he emphasized, answering both women. Apparently he wasn't done with his gift-giving, either, as a third venture into the backpack produced two sealed manilla envelopes. "Here," he said, holding them out to their respective owners, "these are, uh...instructions. For what to do when your
gift hatches. Don't open it until then." Better to be safe than sorry; they were probably less likely to come pounding on the Center's door, demanding to return their new kids after they emerged.
Ioyla made a face at Eki once she was scolded, squirreling her little Christmas bulb away into her pocket when she got the chance. When she was given the envelope, however, she waited a few moments before greedily snatching it out of the lizardkid's hands. It was pre-Christmas, yay!
"Fine, fine, I won't open it til Christmas day...jeeze, you're one aggressive lil dude. How old're you, 16?" Ioyla puffed up her chest and scrunched up her nose, trying and failing to look equally aggressive.
"Right," the elf commented, taking the envelope and tucking it into a pocket while holding the pod thing in one hand. "I hope that's got contact information on it," she added, tail idly lashing behind her.
"How old are you, anyway?" Jer asked Ioyla, privately sure she wasn't much older than she was accusing the lizard kid of being.
"Old enough to know better, but still too young to care," Eki replied automatically. Huh. Wasn't that a song? In any case, "That's got all the information you need. But don't open it. And now, if you--" poor saps-- "ladies will excuse me, I've got to be elsewhere." Quickly, before they caught on. Eki shuffled back the way he came, disappearing through the door.
A moment later, his head peeked around from the doorway. "And merry...whatever," he added, leaving the women with their "gifts."
Ioyla shot a look at Jerava that said
shut up, b***h. "Who wants t'know?" she grunted, shuffling in her spot next to her friend. It definitely wasn't Eki, though, since he had basically zoomed out of the house the moment Jer had her envelope.
When all was said and done, Ioyla puffed her lips, staring at the empty doorframe.
"...anyways. Crabs, Jer! POINTY!" She jabbed the air in front of Jerava's face with her index fingers, the bottle in one of her hands twitching and shaking.
Best mother of the year amirite?
"Not important," Jer replied with a sigh, waving her free hand dismissively. "I think we've just been suckered," she muttered quietly, before Ioyla resumed her diatribe about crabs, causing the elf to wince as the bulb in the demon's hands jittered and shook around.
"Aren't you supposed to be careful with that? Maybe you should hang it up somewhere," Jer suggested, slightly concerned about whatever it was in the container/gift.
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