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 Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:51 pm
Amazement. The look upon Lewis' face exemplified the word as he looked wide-eyed around the comic book store. This place was better than almost all of the previous places Bug had taken him. So many things to look at! So many things to touch. A hand reached towards a hanging, cased action figure of a popular superhero, the golden sticker on the case proudly proclaiming "Limited Edition!" It was a toy and it had a sticker on it; touching was imminent.
Another hand deftly slapped away the boy's hand as it neared the collectible. "No touching" The pouting lips rolled out as Lewis looked up at his admonishing parent, but his hands did not stray towards the action figure again. For now. What was the point of coming to a place filled with toys and picture books if you could not touch any of it?! It just did not make sense. Bug had been researching these things called...."stair-e-oh-types," whatever they were, and had brought Lewis to the wonder-filled store to observe "nerds."
Of course, Bug looked almost like a cosplaying nerd himself amongst the comic covers with their alien characters. The Zurg glared with non-amusement at the nearest comic and its cheesy "The Attack of the Alien Invaders!" title before retrieving his observation tools from his particle compressor bag. Time to get to work!
Assured that his guardian was now busy with a divided attention, Lewis reached again for the action figure, his dirty hands smudging the plastic case. Touch!
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:00 pm
Harper was hovering in one corner, frowning at the comic in her hands. Longwei, after many admonishments and threats about what would happen if he broke anything, was sitting moodily next to her.
"This is sort of ridiculous," she said, showing him the picture. "I mean...how many times does he have to say 'goddamn' in one sentence? Seriously?"
Longwei gave a sigh that made his whiskers whuffle out, and Harper shook her head as she read on.
"...this is the dumbest thing I've ever read."
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:11 pm
Deciding that the toy was not all that interesting if you could not actually touch it, Lewis dropped it on the ground and proceeded down the row. Every few steps or so he would reach out a hand and touch the merchandise on the shelves. Some of it fell to the ground, but he was far too busy touching the next bit of things to notice.
Nearing the corner, the curly-haired boy saw something that he really wanted to touch, but the small sliver of common sense that he had was telling him that touching it was probably not such a good idea. A dragon! It was big and pretty and had shiny scales. Big pretty!
His thoughts were distracted from the dragon by the comic-reading girl. Gasp! "Hey, you said a bad word!" Taking a single step forward, he crossed his arms and peered up at the older person.
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:14 pm
Harper looked around, then down. Ah. Small child. She nodded, pointing at the book.
"Not my fault the writer has Tourettes," she said blandly. "I just wanted a good superhero comic. Not literary proof of encroaching angry senility."
Longwei gave another whuffling sigh, slinking around the boy and planting his nose right into the kid's mop of curly hair. New thing. Must smell.
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:30 pm
Lewis stared. That was the bad thing about most grown-ups. They were so confusing! They used so many big words. It seemed like the bigger you were, the bigger words you had to use. The child held onto the faint hope that he would be not-big forever, because he did not know any big words. "Tourettes? Whazzat," he asked, leaning forward on his odd feet to get a closer look at the comic.
Before he could see the comic any better the dragon curled around him, sniffing his hair. "That tickles!" It was a nice dragon, just like from the TV show with the singing dragons! Giving a squeal of delight, Lewis wrapped his arms around the dragon and hugged it. "Dragons say to never say bad words," he said, pointedly looking up at the big girl again. Maybe she had never seen the cartoon!
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:24 pm
Putting the offensive material up on a shelf away from innocent eyes, Harper gave a shake of her head.
"It's a grown-up thing, don't worry about it," she said. She gave Longwei a highly surprised look - he never warmed up to anybody. "He likes you, kid."
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