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 Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 7:41 am
Of eggs and...doors?
Vlad watched with crossed arms while the door to the apartment was kicked open, and Meep entered with her arms full of something and a few choice words on her lips. "I would offer my assistance," he said, "But alas, I am currently unable." As if to demonstrate, he waved his hand through the white-painted door, flashing a charming, albeit fanged, smile.
Struggling with keys and a large, cloth-wrapped something, the black-and-green-clad woman finally tossed the former in the direction of the coffee table (and missed), before kicking the door shut behind her. Ignoring the fallen keys, she marched across the room, past the spectre, and plunked herself unceremoniously on the couch, where she unwrapped the odd thing she carried. "Hey," she greeted him belatedly, distracted by what was now resting in her lap.
"Now what have you dragged in? That is...most curious."
"An egg." Or at least, it bore a vague resemblance to an egg. Lit up, wired, and mechanical-looking as it was, not even Meep could be entirely sure that's what it really was...but she certainly wasn't going to admit to that. It was an egg, and that was that.
"Where do you acquire all these strange things you always seem to be bringing back with you? Whatever that thing you call an egg is, it can't have come from this 'Edinhburgh' you travel to; you weren't away long enough to have gone there. For that matter, where are Amarth, Luminita, and the others from? Never before I awoke here had I seen their like." He was deep in curious thought, eyebrows knitted as he looked at her hard.
Long moments passed, which she spent gazing thoughtfully at the egg (though, in truth, she was more looking past it than at it), before she answered him. "Remember when I told you once I was going to Gaia, and when you asked where it was I just told you it was closer than Edinburgh? That...wasn't entirely true." She worried at her lip now, trying to figure out some sensible way of putting what she was about to say, and not quite coming up with one. "It's, ah..how do I put it? It's not a city, it's not even in this country. It's another world, and there's a door of sorts to it in the basement of this building. Things like this egg, the pooka, the 'kii...there, they're not all that strange. There are all kinds of strange things--and people--in Gaia."
For an instant, there was a trace of skepticism on the vampire's face, but all it took was a look at the creatures ranged around the room to dismiss it. "So anyone can go through this door, to this Gaia? If that's so, then why are there not more 'strange things' that have been brought here, or 'strange people' who have come to this world?"
"Well, you see, it doesn't work like that. There are only a handful of people who even know about the door, and it's not the sort of thing you could just go through on accident, because it's not a real door..that's just the easiest way to talk about it. And even if you know it's there, it doesn't do you any good; only certain people have the, um...ability or means to use it." She stopped and bit at her thumbnail, shifting uncomfortably. Explanations just weren't something she was very good with.
Oblivious to or ignoring her discomfort, he moved closer, deeply interested. "Then only you, and those few who share this ability of yours, can go through the door and enter Gaia?"
"Ah, you see, it doesn't go to Gaia directly. It goes somewhere else, and from there you can get, well, just about anywhere else. And, um, I don't exactly have the ability. I have the means." Another shift in position as she tapped lightly at the blinking face of the egg, trying to look preoccupied with it.
"You have the means, do you?" A dark eyebrow came up. "And how did this come about?"
"Let's just say I have some friends." There was then a long, long silence which she spent staring at anything other than Vlad. "Can we talk about something else now, please?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 11:13 pm
When Meep's away...
In the dim, curtained living room, a curly-horned, capran figure sat facing the door to the hall outside. He'd been sitting there, at attention, for nigh on half an hour. Finally, he gave a decisive flick of his bushy tail and stood. There was a mischievous gleam in his golden eyes as he turned from his post and marched purposefully in the direction of Meep's bedroom. This, clearly, was a creature up to no good.
Already in the room as Malmoren entered were the two pooka, locked in an argument of chirrups and chitterings. At the impatient stomp of a hoof, however, they quieted instantly, fixing shining gazes on their fellow four-foot.
Now that he had their attention, the kyd hiked himself up onto the bed and got comfortable. She's gone, and she took it with her.
That was all they needed to hear. In moments, Dilare was up on the desk, clambering over piles of books, food and all manner of other things the human woman not only seemed to hoard, but seemed not able to keep organized. After a misstep that sent a half-empy bottle of lemon soda falling to the floor, where it emptied what yet remained in it, she had reached her goal...
...that large, blinking, forbidden, wonderful something that Meep had brought home the other day. Large, indeed, to a two-pound pooka, but this was overriden by the blinking and forbidden parts of that description. Backing up as far as she could on the cluttered surface, she gathered all the strength in her small body and charged.
Whack. That painful sound of skull hitting skull when two people bump their heads together...very, very hard. While Dila reeled back, head spinning and seeing stars, the egg wobbled. And wobbled...and wobbled some more, until at last it wobbled just far enough to send it over the edge.
It landed right next to Alavere (uncomfortably close, as a matter of fact), in a pile of pillows filched from the bed and placed on the floor for the express purpose of cushioning the egg's fall. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun broken, now, would it?
What were they going to do with it, anyway? They hadn't quite figured that part out yet...but gee, those blinking lights sure were fascinating! Mesmerizing, even.
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Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:43 pm
Event! Your Egg has been removed from the incubator.
 With a noticable air of worry- or perhaps, unease- Zaxzi steps into the room you have currently occupied and folds his wings. There is no time to question how he entered the room, your home, this secure location- he is simply there, and he begins to speak. "The eggs have begun to emerge from the incubators. This is the second stage your egg will reach- it is still impressionable and easy to damage, but the shell is harder and the cub has gained the ability to take care of itself, somewhat. It no longer requires the artificial heat of the incubator, but it is also no longer protected by it- be very careful what you subject it to. Strong magic of any kind should be avoided at this stage...and may your God help you if I find you've mistreated it."With that...optomistic message, the Seer turns and leaves your presence.
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 4:05 pm
((The following took place before Zaxzi's, ah..reassuring speech.))
Oops.
Meep sat on the floor of her bedroom, in the midst of the havoc wreaked by the destructively curious pooka. She was actually sitting on the squishy, sticky, soda-wet patch of carpet, but she didn't really care about that just now, or about the various things scattered (some in pieces) all over the place. Her attention was all on the incubator-encased egg she held cradled in her lap.
Ala and Di had, eventually, decided what to do with it, and what they'd done was to pull one of the wires loose. Now, she hadn't any idea what that might do, but it couldn't be good. Pulling wires was never good. The perpetrators had been duly yelled at and sent sulking away, and now she just sat, stared, and ran over in her mind all the things this could possibly mean for the egg and what it held.
It was a long time before she even noticed Vlad, 'leaning' against the doorframe and cultivating a look of innocence that Meep didn't believe for a moment. Her head snapped up, and and her eyes lit with accusation.
"You! You knew, you could have stopped them! What's more, you TOLD me you'd watch them and make sure they didn't do anything like this!"
"Did I?" He smirked. "Well then, I suppose I lied."
"Why?"
"So surprised? Come now, my dear."
"Forthe love of-- if nothing else, you OWE me!" Meep was standing now, clutching the egg close.
His eyebrow arched disdainfully. "What makes you say that? Why would I owe you anything?"
"Because if it weren't for me, you'd still be stuck in that stupid spear! You owe me, Drac," she growled.
"Do I?" He leaned in close to whisper in her ear, "We'll just see about that."
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Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 5:49 am
'Let me go too..'
Zaxzi was going to kill her; that's all there was to it. The egg, they'd had to go for the egg, of all things! 'May your God help you if I find you've mistreated it,' the pard had said. It looked alright, sure, but who knew what would happen when it hatched...if it hatched at all. Oh, she was going to be so very, very dead.
Oh lord, she'd never been so screwed in her life. What was she supposed to do? It wasn't her fault! Vlad had let it happen, it wasn't her fault...no, it was her fault. She should have known better, she shouldn't have left it alone in the partment. But what was she supposed to do? Carry it with her everywhere?
...that wasn't such a bad idea, actually. What if something happened to it, though? Hah! Nothing worse than what could happen to it here. Right, right..that was that, then. Wherever she went, it would go as well.
Running her hand over the shell, Meep gave a small nod and reached for her backpack. "Well, little one...what do say to a movie, hey?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 12:13 am
((*ditches headings for now, totally lacking interesting ones*))
It wasn't like carrying the egg around with her was much of a burden--she always took her backpack with her most everywhere she went anyway. It made for a slight inconvenience, given that she couldn't put much else in with it, though. Couldn't put groceries in it, couldn't put this in it, couldn't put that in it...and really, it was probably better that she not open the backpack to begin with. People were likely to wonder what the heck someone was doing with a large, colorfully-striped egg.
So in the end, Meep found herself a good-sized purse and started carrying the egg around in that instead. That way, it was with her and safe, and she could still throw everything else into her backpack. She was terribly afraid the egg would get broken somehow, though, so she padded its bag as best she could and hoped.
She'd thought about ways she might be able to leave in the apartment, maybe locked up in something in the spare room, but that didn't seem like a terribly good idea. For one, while the pooka couldn't open doors or unlock things, Vlad could, having recently become quite solid. Most importantly though, what if it hatched while it was locked away? Sure, it would be that way to keep it safe, but that wouldn't be a good thing at all for the emerging pardling. So, lugging it around everywhere was just how it had to be, unless some better solution presented itself.
That wasn't looking very likely.
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 8:11 pm
Event! Your pard egg has hatched!!
Gender: Female
Personality: Quiet
P.S.: Be sure to PM a name to Brit so she can get them certed!
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 1:16 am
((Yeehee, pardling! Pretty pardling! heart heart ))
Apparently, this...was just turning into one of those nights. It wasn't a bad 'one of those nights,' it was just..full of surprises, you might say.
Iden had just flopped down on her bed, with a supposedly magical stuff animal tucked under her arm, when the bag still slung over shoulder started to wiggle, just a little. She dismissed it the first few times, but when the wiggling persisted, she remembered just what was in the bag; and if it was wiggling, then that could only mean...
Oh s**t! Iden jumped to her feet, quickly shedding the still-shimmying bag and setting it on the bed. She'd barely opened the flap when the brightly-colored egg rollled its way right out of the bag. Apparently, the pard within had decided now was as good a time as any to come out and say hello, as it were.
While the egg gave another shiver, the suddenly frantic girl ran to grab some towels.
---
By the early hours of the morning, Iden was curled up around an armful of towel-wrapped pardling. The newborn feline had fallen asleep shortly after emerging from her egg, all worn out from her efforts to extricate herself from the shiny shell, and Iden hadn't been far behind. It had been an eventful night for both of them, and they needed their rest.
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 2:00 pm
Event! Your pard has grown into a gorgeous adult!
Large image can be found here.
Magic: Mage
Specialty: Song
Your pard may now begin studying to control the magic that it has been gifted with. Soon, Zaxzi will be posting questions for your pard to consider and answer; eventually, this series of questions and exersizes may guide your pard to their human form! If you do not wish for your pard to gain this magic, please inform Britain immediately.
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 5:18 pm
Moving..
"Toby! Little brother, hanni is looking for you," came the sweet mind-voice of the Velvet's pard sister as she squeezed through the door of Iden's bedroom. Apartment doors were a difficult fit for the large, black-winged cat.
"I know you're in here, Toby. I heard you, rustling around like a the breeze in the leaves. Only much, much louder."
Once through the door, she hopped up onto the bare mattress that rested atop the dark bedframe and peered down at the few remaining cardboard boxes. "Let's see...with only boxes three, where could my brother be?" she rhymed with a silly lilt, before reaching out with one large paw to give one of the boxes a gentle thwap.
She tipped her ears forward, listening carefully to the sound response of the box. "No, no, not in that one...let's try again, shall we?"
A second box was tapped, producing nothing but the sound of paper and fragile things. Whoops. Better hope she hadn't hit it hard enough to break anything.
"Well, well. I guess that means Toby's in...this one!" As she spoke, she extended her paw one more time and gave the last box a sound thwack, to the sound of rustling paper and something more solid.
And finally, after a muffled bark, Toby's head popped up from between the cardboard flaps, then he wriggled himself halfway out, paws folded over the edge. That accomplished, he stared adoringly up at Tori with a panting, doggy grin.
"Aha! So there you are at last!" With a fond shake of her head, Turmali descended from the bed and very gently picked her brother up in her mouth, carrying him as many a predator mother or 'nanny' might. "Come with me, little brother, and we will go to our new home with our hanni. There will be plenty more boxes there for you to play with, I promise."
As Toby dangled comfortably from his sister's jaws, he boggled at the idea of a 'new home,' but all worry was eclipsed by excitement at the prospect of more boxes to explore.
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Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:11 am
((Iden journal entry, July 5th.))
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Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:12 pm
Turmali lay on the living room rug in front of the unused fireplace there, where she was doing her best to puzzle out the workings of Iden's portable CD player. Well, it wasn't so much that she was trying to figure out how it worked, but instead how to work it. With no hands, only very large paws, the pard had something of a problem on her hands...err, paws. Whatever.
Finally, extending her claws, she used one to give the 'play' button a gentle, experimental tap. After a moment of anticipation, she was rewarded with the faint sound of music coming from the headphones on the floor. She frowned inwardly and peered closer at the contraption, trying to figure out how to make it louder.
Tori hadn't gotten this far to be thwarted now; she'd even managed to charm (or maybe just annoy) Vlad into loading the device for her, with a particularly promising-looking dark blue CD. Enticed by the promise of sweet music, she searched the surface of the CD player eagerly.
And then, at last, she discovered the cleverly hidden volume control on the side. But instead of a button, this was a ridged..disc? She did poke at it with a claw, just to be certain it wasn't really a button, and lo and behold, it moved! And the music became even harder to hear.
Sighing, Tori glowered at the volume control. She supposed she had to make it spin the other way to make the music louder. After a few moments more of deliberation, she settled for licking it in the proper direction.
Suddenly, sound blared to life from the headphones, in a chorus of sweet male voices. Tori closed her eyes in victorious bliss, starting to bob her head and swing her tail in time.
"Baby don't mis-understand (don't misunderstand)
What I'm trying to tell ya
In the corner of my mind (corner of my mind)
Baby, it feels like we are running out of time
Let it go
If you want me girl, let me know
I am down on my knees
I can't take it anymore..ohhh..."
Then, just as the pard was beginning to dance, the door opened, the refrain started...
"It's tearin' up my heart when I'm with you
But when we are apart, I feel it too..."
And Iden walked in, to the sound of N*SYNC in her living room. Red eyes went wide, and she stared at Tori for a long moment, speechless, before just shaking her head and escaping into the hall way, murmurring a disbelieving, "Oh my god...did it have to be a boyband?"
"And no matter what I do,
I feel the pain with or without you..."
Turmali blinked, pausing in her little dance long enough to witness Iden's reaction. "...what?" she inquired of the room at large, then shrugged her wings and went back to enjoying her music.
"Tearin' up my heart and soul
We're apart I feel it too
And no matter what I do, I feel the pain
With or without you..."
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Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:13 pm
That's what sisters are for...
Iden cradled Toby gently in her arms, shutting the door of the house with her foot before carrying the dog, who now and then whimpered faintly, into the living room. Distractedly, she shooed a few pooka and nyokiir off the couch, looking out the window at the gradually fading dark.
Forgetting entirely to sit down now that the couch was clear, she chewed at her lip. It was getting late; she'd have to sleep soon. Toby was hardly deathly ill, or at least she was pretty sure he wasn't, but..she didn't want to 'abandon' him when he was sick.
Rocking herself, and him, worriedly back and forth, she stroked his head with one cool hand. She couldn't even keep him warm...
And then, a brightly-colored figure uncurled itself, and Tori rose from her spot on the rug. The winged pard gazed up at her sick little brother with concern, and bumped her head against Iden's hip. "Give him to me, hanni. I will watch over him, and take care of him for us both."
Iden breathed an audible sigh of relief, smiling faintly. "Thank you, Tori."
"What is a sister for, if she cannot help the family she loves?" She moved now to the corner of the room, beckoning with her tail for the vampire to follow, and curled up on the large ottoman there, which was just the right size for a pard like herself. "Here. He will be fine with me."
Nodding slightly, she lay the little dog next to Tori and bent to give him a kiss on the forehead. "You'll be okay, babe. Tori's got you now." With that, and another grateful smile for Tori, Iden turned and went from the room, to escape the coming dawn in the basment.
Toby watched her leave through half-closed eyes, before slowly wriggling himself closer to his sister's comforting warmth, before he shut his eyes to the horrible feeling from within.
Moving one dark wing to shield him from any bright light that might disturb her brother's sleep, the mage began to croon softly. There were no words to her lullaby, only her voice, low and sweet and full of her love.
Go to sleep, Tobler, little brother. Sleep, and let your sickness go; you are safe with me, always. Her thought and will gave her song power and purpose, and with it she chased all conscious thought of his sickness gently away, lulling him into peaceful sleep.
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Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:11 pm
'Yesterday it was the dust, the sunshine, and the rains..'
It was early in the day, still cool and still, when the risen sun hadn't yet had time to warm the colorful figure perched on a porch railing, bare feet dangling high above the dewy grass.
The pard sighed, drumming her fingers against the white wood of the baluster she'd curled one hand around. Despite the vantage point, the view was still wanting.
Tori was getting tired of the bleak garden with dead flowers. She liked pretty things, and the yard was just plain ugly. The only real color it had was from the grass, as well as the numerous pooka who came and went amidst the bare, crackling bushes; but animal life aside, there wasn't much redeeming about the garden.
Before, there hadn't been much she could do; at first because she'd had no hands, and then because of winter, but now that those weren't problems anymore, she fully intended to do something. No one else was going to, that was for sure. Iden had yet to do anything about it, and the thought of Vlad gardening was enough to make the shifter break out into laughter.
Once the sweet sound had faded from the morning air, Tori considered the final remaining obstacle to her plan: she didn't actually know how to garden.
Well, she'd just have to learn...it couldn't be too hard, right?
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Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:05 pm
First thing was first -- the dead things had to go, she was pretty sure.
Problem was, there were a lot of bushes...or former bushes, anyway. Tori didn't know much about plants, true, but it stood to reason that getting those out of the ground wasn't like pulling up a flower; more like a tree, maybe.
So at first, she ignored them, concentrating on uprooting the simpler things, as well as all the weeds (the only things managing to thrive in the otherwise lifeless beds that ran up both sides of the path to the house). It was slow work, but some time and a pair of sore and scratched hands later, the way was clear accept for those silly bushes.
She was not looking forward to those. Just on the off chance that she was wrong in her assumptions, she gave one of the smaller ones that lined the path a good tug, but all it did was creak, crackle, and leave her with a broken little branch in her hand. So much for that.
Absently patting one of the curious pooka she'd attracted, a little green leaf one, she considered the stubborn plant before her. Maybe she could get it out with a shovel?
- - - - -
If her hands had hurt before, they really hurt now. Shoveling was harder work than she'd thought it would be. But it worked, at least, even if it took what felt like forever, and now she had quite the whole in the ground where the bush had been. The bush itself now lay discarded in the grass, the spidery ends of once thriving roots stirring in the faint breeze, clumps of dirt still clinging to it.
Staring down at her raw, dirty palms, Tori frowned. This was going to take a long time, but at least it was progress. Question now was...what to do with a load of dead bushes when she was done?
- - - - -
It was that night before anyone other than the garden critters and Toby found out about the landscaping plans; and even then, it took Iden tripping over the shovel to notice.
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