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 Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:14 am
 Hunting for Antiquities
Benjamin plopped his spoon in the bowl watching the warm, steaming mush splash the side and drip out over the edge. He was annoyed to say the least. His father had drug him out of bed at the crack of down, along with his brother, who he than discovered had been clinging to him and drooling. He didn't feel much like warm cereal this morning, "Why can't we have eggs and gravy biscuits?"
"Making eggs and gravy biscuits would take too long, Benji," Hayden smiled, seating himself at the table to partake in the breakfast he made for his family. "Afterall, if we don't get out to that antiquities store early, we might miss a slew of fascinating things!"
"You mean boring things," Benjamin muttered, playing with his food some more. He peaked over to his quit brother only to find that Canté had not even touched his food, and had in fact fell back asleep sitting at the table. He quickly jabbed him in his side, starling the poor child.
"HUH, WHAT?!" Canté yelled, giving a really big yawn before rubbing his eyes groggily, "I...I wasn't sleeping."
Hayden frowned at Benjamin, "Benji stop bothering your brother. And what we're going to see isn't boring things, it's history! It's important." Hayden shoved a spoonful of food into his mouth and chewed on an apple slice before lightly nudging the groggy Canté who was once again falling asleep at the table. Poor kid was gonna land in his oatmeal soon.
"Canté wake up!" Benjamin yelled, startling the white haired boy awake once more.
Canté gave a snort as he woke up a teeter-tottered in his seat for a moment. He rubbed his eyes before grabbing his spoon and lazily started eating his oatmeal, "I wasn't sleeping..."
Hayden shook his head at his boys and smiled, "Let's just finish our breakfasts so we can get on our way, shall we?" He knew today was going to be one eventful adventure, if only he could get his sons to look on the bright side and wake up. Oh well, he might as well let them finish eating first.
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Hayden had a hard time getting the boys ready for their trip. Canté and Benjamin were a little less than cooperative, but Hayden knew it was to be expected. He woke growing boys up early from their daily beauty sleep so there was bound to be resistance, crankiness and possible sleep walking.
He hadn't counted on how much of it he would have to deal with though. Regardless, even if he was an hour late departing they were still departing and he was still utterly excited to share with his sons what bits of history they could find. Gathering their belongings in a shoulder bag, Hayden grabbed Canté and Benjamin's hands and they left their home.
The sun was up and it was beating down warmly upon them as they made their little pilgrimage to the Antiquities store. Light breezes kissed the faces of the three making the warmth from the sun easier to bear this summer day. The early birds in the town were already up and starting their daily routines as the father and son trio passed, waving to them and smilling.
The journey took the short legged boys, and their relatively tall father about half an hour before finally reaching its end in front of the tinted windows of the antiquities shop. The dark chestnut wood beckoned the trio in, and the gold laden window frames and doorknob glittered as if sealing the deal with a dare.
Canté tried to peak in through the tinted windows as Benjamin simply stared down at the cobble road, kicking little pebbles around to amuse himself. Hayden smiled as he took hold of the doorknob and turned back to his boys, "Now when we get inside we keep our hands to ourselves, alright? This is a store and we can't be treating the merchandise like play things."
Canté nodded his head to his father vigorously and Benjamin simply grunted, still unhappy with the predicament they were in. Hayden continued to smile, shrugging off his son's dislike for their adventure. So long as one was happy and interested, he himself would have an enjoyable time. Facing back towards the door he turned the handle, a small creak emitting from the door as he opened it along with the tinkle of a small bell hanging from above it to alert when customers had entered.
Upon entering the trio were met with the cool musty scent of old things, like you would upon opening an attic door for the first time in several months. The dust of the air filled their noses and caused Hayden to sneeze while Cante and Benjamin waved their hands in front of their faces attempting to bat away the pesky irritants. The store was brilliantly lit, the natural sunlight shown through the large amber window from the front of the store and lit the whole room with an uplifting golden glow.
As they looked around they noticed the trove of treasures they had stumbled upon; large wooden clocks laden with gold, porcelain dolls with sweet rosy cheeks and ruffled sleeve cuffs, small sets of china, all sorts of little trinkets giving off an aged sort of shine, but a shine nonetheless.
Hayden had all but forgotten the small lecture he had given his sons only moments earlier about how the objects in the store were not toys, and that they should not be treated as such. His own excitement overtook him and he was already making his way to the back of the store to look over one of the older looking clocks that was in the establishment.
The thirty-three year old father of two beamed as he looked over the clock, noting the rich cherry wood used to construct the frame of the clock. He turned his head back to his children and beckoned them to come to him. Benjamin followed, knowing it best just to indulge his father than to banter with him.
Cante on the other hand had not heard or noticed his father call him over, he had spotted a small shiny bottle on his way into the store and wanted to check it out. It wasn't in his nature to ignore a request of his father's, but something about this bottle spoke to him. As his father talked to his brother about the wonders of the cherry wood clock, Cante was busy inspecting the wonders of the shiny glass bottle he had just managed to re-find.
Though the bottle was made of glass, and would be expected to be cool to the touch it was in fact a luke sort of warm. Warm enough were you could still be able to hold it, but not enough to cause any bodily harm. Cante starred at the orange and yellow within the bottle, and the alternating colors it gave off as he twirled it in his palm. He held it up to the sun, trying to get a better look at the inside of the bottle, he was surprised to feel that once he held the bottle up to the shiny sun that it got warmer, so warm he quickly placed it back down where he grabbed it from before it burned him.
"Cante, what are you doing? I told you the antiquities are not toys," A voice rang out behind him. Hayden had noticed his missing child starring starry-eyed into the pretty glass bottle and came over to see for himself the little trinket that had his son so entranced.
Picking the bottle up from its resting place he examined it. It was obvious to him why exactly his son was looking into it so inquisitively; the color, the surprising warmth it gave off, even the feeling you got from simply holding it. It felt almost comforting, almost protective, motherly. It made him reminiscent; almost as if his wife had never left.
Cante looked up to his father and smiled, "It's like having the sun in a bottle." Though the boy wouldn't quite know how right he was about that.
His father nodded to him, examining the bottle a little further, "Do you think it would look nice next to your mother's picture?"
Benjamin, who had been quite for most of the trip chimed in with a matter-of-fact like tone, "Anything looks nice next to Mama's picture. She's the prettiest lady ever."
Hayden laughed, his son's sentiments tickling the edges of his heart. The boys had never met their mother, but had always asked about her as they grew, and eventually understood the sacrifice she had made for them. It was nice to see that regardless of the fact she was not physically with them, they still loved and revered her as if she was.
"We should get it for Mommy. Mommy's like surprise gifts don't they?" Cante asked, looking up to his father.
Hayden nodded his head with a slight sadness in his smile, as he held onto the glass bottle. "We should buy this for Mommy. It would definitely make her happy."
Hayden took the bottle, and his sons to the front counter to pay for the little glass bottle. The pretty orange and yellow glass bottle, that felt warm to the touch, and comforting to the soul like a sunny day.
-------------
Later that day the trio returned home from their Antiquities adventure. They managed to take a pit stop at a local shaved ice parlor to sound off the end of the summer season together as a family, the little glass bottle in tow.
They entered the house and the boys stripped off their shoes, and their jackets and quickly made their ways to their bedroom to play with their toys, having forgotten about the little glass bottle for the moment. Their father had not, and shook his head with a smile at his children's rambunctiousness.
He took the small glass bottle from the box in the bag he was given by the woman at the antiquities shop, carefully prying the tape off the wrapping paper the woman used to insulate the bottle in the box and looked at it carefully.
"You have a new home now little trinket," He said, walking over to a cabinet closest to the living room window.
The cabinet was large, and made of cherry wood, a very dark variety. The doors were made of single panes of glass framed around the edges and hinged to the door, allowing all objects inside to be seen. On one side were various pictures and objects about the boys, on the other, pictures and objects about their mother, showing brightly on the side that was always in the sun.
Hayden opened the cabinet door, and scooted several objects around to make room for the glass bottle, deciding on a place next to the largest and prettiest photo of his wife in there. After all, a large majority of the items in the cabinet were things Hayden himself had given his wife, it was only fair that a present from the boys would be closest to her since they never got the chance to know each other.
He placed the bottle down in the cabinet, the sunlight striking it and making the brilliant colors shine brightly, like his wife's smile, full of life and warmth, "I hope you like it Beth-Anne, our babies picked just for you."
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:26 am
Dawn At Midnight Hayden awoke around midnight, the clanging of his rotary telephone going absolutely nuts for what seemed like hours though it was only minutes. He didn't understand who in their right mind would be calling him at this hour of the evening with everyone supposedly in bed and sound asleep. Picking up the phone, he rubbed his eyes with his free hand a tad before speaking groggily, "Hello? Who is this? It's midnight an-"
Hayden was cut off by the cranky voice of a little old woman who he recognized as his neighbor across the street. He was slightly startled as he had never heard her in such a tone before, she was generally a very sweet and mild mannered sort of woman, "I know it is midnight Mr. Lightner but do you?"
Hayden wasn't quite sure what she meant by that as her rubbed his temple slightly to get over her annoyed and cracking voice, "Ma'am of course I know it is midnight, for you have awoken me at that time. What exactly is the matter that you have decided to contact me so?""
The old woman huffed, scorn resounding in her voice as well as annoyance, "The matter, Mr. Lightner, is the fact that you have that blasted light on so brightly that it is shining into my room and our neighbors, keeping us up at such an hour of the night!"
Light? What light? This woman must surely be losing her mind as Hayden had no lights so bright it would shine into other people's homes. Sitting up in his bed, Hayden slipped his feet into his whool-lined slippers and stood up with the phone, "Ma'am I assure you there is no light on. I will even go downstairs and check if it would put your mind at rest."
Before the woman could answer, Hayden had plunked the phone onto the bed and headed down the stairs of his home on his way to the living room. He felt annoyed at this wild goose chase, but decided the only way in which this would be resolved is if he actually went and checked like he had said. There was a phone downstairs after all so he could easily speak to the woman from there and show her there is no light emitting from his living room.
The heavy thumps of Hayden's descent to the living room echoed loudly throughout the quiet house, momentarily waking his sons though their wakened state did not last long as they quickly drifted back to sleep. Once he got downstairs he reached around looking for the doorknob to the living room doors. It took him several minutes to find it in the dark, and he had forgotten a light upstairs to show his way, granted he was not about to go back now.
Gripping the doorknob he gave it a haphazard turn, only able to pry it open ever so slightly before he was hit with it. Light so bright it nearly blinded him. Hayden quickly closed the door attempting to regain his sight, his heart racing at what had just happened. It seems the old woman was right in her accusations. What in the world was making such a bright light?
Hayden ran back upstairs quickly to find a dark sheet in order to shield himself from the extremely bright light, so he may find its source. Succeeding, and returning back downstairs with dark sheet in tow, Hayden threw it over himself and once again opened the door to the living room. The sheet helped, but the light was still awfully bright.
He looked around for the source of his blinding plight only to discover the light was emanating from the small bottle him and his sons had bought in memoir to the boy's mother. He was taken quite aback by this. How in the world was the tiny glass bottle glowing so brightly? He starred at it for a moment perplexed before realizing exactly what brought him down here in the first place. His neighbor, the bright light, this bottle.
Thinking quickly, he plucked the bottle from the cabinet, threw the dark she around it and quickly retreated back to his room where he made sure to rip down the blinds so no light would escape. The dark sheet certainly helped cut down the light, but it was so very bright. He wasn't going to be able to sleep this way. Looking around he decided to house the bottle in the closet for the evening and revisit the situation in the morning.
Plopping down on his bed he grabbed the phone to alert the old woman that the problem had been taken care of, but when he placed the receiver to his ears all he heard was dial tone. Taking this as a sign, Hayden hung up the phone and laid his head back down to sleep. This would be thought out in the morning, when the bottle could no longer wake everyone in the neighborhood. In the morning.
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:27 am
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:28 am
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:30 am
Indian Summer; Broken Nose It was hot, so hot. No matter what Hayden and the boys did they simply could not beat the sweltering heat that had overtaken their home. Every window was open to let in the cold night air and alleviate their circumstances, but it did no good. For three days it had been this way, warm to the point of sweating, not to mention light.
The light! That awful light. After the midnight complaint by the neighbor, Hayden had wrapped the little glowing bottle up and had stuck it many places in his room in attempts to find one that would block out all the light being produced. That, like with attempting to cool themselves off at night, was nothing more than utter failure. Each place Hayden put the little bottle, it'd grow brighter in something akin to protest and would leak out of all available crevasses until finally nothing could stop it from shining.
Eventually the light simply managed to overt-take the house. There was no safe place to shelter yourself from both the heat and the light without having to contend with one or the other. Hayden didn't seem to mind this too much, sure he was slightly irritated with it but there was no presentable solution at this time for him, the boy's on the other hand were not pleased. Benjamin complained constantly about the heat, and Cantè simply couldn't sleep with all the light. They all were hot and tired.
"My chest is cold and my butt is warm," Benjamin commented, his rear protruding in the direction of the very bright and warm bottle, while his chest was facing the open window. Benjamin had taken to wearing his tighty whites around the house in the evening because he hated the feeling of clothes sticking to his body.
Cantè on the other hand was a little more put off by the current temperature state in the house than his brother was, wearing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts as he did not want to go galavanting around the house nearly nude. After all his mother was watching them from heaven and he was sure she would disapprove of being clothes-less. Crossing his arms over his chest, Cantè patronized his brother's behavior, "If you wiggle your butt any close to it, it's gonna scorched your underpants off!"
"Nuh uh!" Benjamin retorted, backing up some to prove his point, only to back up so far that he ended up running into the bottle and slightly burning his leg on the bottle's heat, "Ow!"
"Told you," Cantè snickered.
"You both stop it," Hayden interjected, "Benjamin stop taunting the bottle with your butt, and Cantè stop taunting your brother about his butt. In fact no more talk of butts, understand?"
Hayden was becoming thoroughly irritated, though it didn't sound so in his voice. Sure he had just addressed his children sternly, but his stern was nothing compared to other people's version of stern. In fact, his version of stern was actually quite soft; regardless, it had caught his children's attention and they had quieted themselves in an effort to keep their father from foaming at the mouth.
Hayden rubbed his temples, the lack of sleep, sweltering heat and bright light causing him many physical woes. Over the last several days he had the phone disconnected as he kept receiving more midnight calls complaining about the light that he was unable to do anything about. That coupled with the heat and the brightness was giving him a monstrous headache.
As Hayden heaved a heavy sigh a violent knocking erupted from his front door, causing him and the boys to jump, "Who in the world could this be?"
Hayden quickly retrieved his robe from his bedroom dresser and slipped it on, all the while the violent knocking on his front door getting louder and louder until he could have sworn there was a mob outside waiting to lynch him. Little did he know when he finally went to answer the door there, standing outside within the cold of the night, was indeed a mob; an angry mob, a mob specifically come to talk to him.
Hayden blinked slightly before speaking, "Uhm...Is there anything I can help you with this evening?"
A gentlemen older than Hayden stepped out of the crowd, a sour look on his face as he addressed the father of two, "We want the damn thing that keeps making that blasted light!"
Several people from the crowd reiterated the man's words in their annoyance as they demanded the object that was causing the bright blinding light. Hayden figured this would happen sooner or later, but didn't anticipate that half the neighborhood would be at his doorstep reading to charge inside in attempts to find and destroy this object. Benjamin and Canté overheard the frustration of the people outside and talked quietly amongst each other about it.
"They want to destroy mommy's present," Benjamin whispered, his brows furrowed with resentment at the people's endeavor.
"I know it's mommy's...,"Canté began, "But it's making the whole house warm and upsetting everybody. Maybe we should give it to them.
Benjamin shot Canté a nasty look as Hayden argued with the ever agitated mob downstairs. Regardless of Canté's feelings, the mob outside's feelings and his own feelings towards how bright the light was and how warm the house was there was no way he was going to let them destroy something that he and his brother picked out for his mother to buy.
"You're the one who picked the bottle out, Canté." Benjamin hissed at his brother, "You're going to let them destroy your gift to mommy?"
Back downstairs Hayden had been contending with his extremely agitated neighbors the best he could, though his progress with trying to get them to disperse was not going so well. He attempted to explain to them about the bottle and how he was unable to control what it did; however, his neighbors were being less than receptive to the idea of a magical bottle controlling light and heat and protesting to being locked in various degrees of darkness.
"If you're not going to give us the blasted object in a reasonable manner, Mr. Lightner we'll take it by force."
Hayden looked at them stunned, "Excuse me? You'll do what now?"
"By force, Mr. Lightner, by force."
Hayden lowered his eyebrows, "You're all going to have to leave now. I frankly don't give a damn now that you've gone as far as to threaten me and my family. Now get the hell away from my front door before I call the police."
"We're not leaving without the object!" Someone in the crowd yelled, causing them to rallying in their agitation. It was only split seconds after the yell that it happened, someone had pushed someone and now a throng of people were attempting to force their way into Hayden's home.
Quick to react, Hayden tried to hold the people back, throwing punch after punch when need. Shoving younger men, older men, hell, he was sure there was an old lady in there with a cane he had managed to push back. This was not his proudest moment, but it would be a cold day in hell before he would allow angry people to storm his house and potentially harm his children.
Benjamin and Canté heard this all go down, quickly jumping to their feet to flee from the scene. Canté had already made it halfway up the stairs when he noticed his brother was nowhere to be seen, running back down he saw his twin quickly grabbing something to wrap around the glowing warm bottle to bring it with him.
"Benjamin leave it!"
"No!" Benjamin hissed, lifting up the very warm bottle in the wrapped cloth and bringing it with him, "Go upstairs! To mommy's room! There's a phone there!"
With haste the two boys managed to race up the stairs and into their mother's old room, locking and barricading the door behind them with anything they could find. The barricade was not the best or the sturdiest, but they did what they could in the circumstance.
Benjamin quickly dropped the brightly shining bottle on their mother's old bed, this hands becoming red as if they were soon going to blister. His brother was mildly freaking out about the fact their father was downstairs with a bunch of angry people. Benjamin tried to calm him, instructing him to call the police.
Trying to gather himself together Canté called the authorities, yelling at the phone the whole time the phone rang to hurry up, and threatening to throw it against walls. Finally, when someone did pick up the boy started running his mouth a mile a minute, causing confusion with the operator.
"Just give it here!" Benjamin yelled, grabbing the phone from his brother, "Hello? Yea! We need policemen here! People are trying to get into the house and are yelling with my Dad! Where we live? I DON'T KNOW WHERE WE LIVE. LOOK FOR THE BRIGHT LIGHT!! BRIGHT LIGHT!"
Downstairs Hayden was still fighting off people the best he could, taking hit after hit as they reamed themselves amongst him. He quickly grew tired, his efforts to keep the angry mob at bay quickly failing. Soon they overtook him, and the last thing he saw before falling to the ground was a fist, quickly coming in contact with his face, and the crunch of his nose before he passed out.
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Shortly after Hayden passed out and fell to the ground the police arrived, subduing the crowd and arresting all those involved. The boys were found upstairs, huddled on the other side of their mother's old room, clutching the bottle tightly to them, sweating from the heat of the house. The bottle, which had previously been shining so bright had dimmed considerably, almost as if it were remorseful for the harm it had just caused the family.
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:31 am
A Sunny Child, A Sunny Son It was a confusing last couple of weeks for the Lightner family. After having to call the authorities to their house, Hayden and his sons were in less than good standing with their neighbors. To top it all off, only a week or so after the incident with the neighbors, Hayden had woken up to be surprised by a golden haired child wandering his house, and the shiny bottle which had caused them so much trouble broken and shattered in the place he had stored it, out of sight, out of mind.
Hayden's mind was still spinning about the day in which his now third son, Allegro, had joined their family. At first he thought the child was a runaway, as he looked clean and well dressed so perhaps his parents told him he couldn't have something and to teach them a lesson he ran. It sounded terrible to assume the child before him was nothing more than a spoiled brat, but with what he was wearing it was an assumption that was logical.
The single dad was shocked when the child apologized to him for the trouble he caused with his glowing, explaining to him that he did not like the dark places. A simple runaway would not know of the situation with the bottle the family had purchased, or that to try and keep the bright light from bothering his neighbor's, he had shoved the bottle in a tightly locked, dark place.
- In Progress -
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:32 am
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:33 am
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:35 am
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:37 am
 Bad Dreams; Loud Screams
Solo RP; Allegro
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:38 am
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:40 am
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 10:59 am
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