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 Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:15 am
(You're fine, Anon.) Alashia (Redhead)Quest Part 1:
Dracula's Wife "And in other news, it seems-"
Click.
While her sibling was terrified of it, Noharu adored television. Not so much the shows, but the fact you could change the channel or turn it off with a few simple buttons. Whatever the reporter had to say, she clearly wasn't interested.
With her eyes averted from both the screen and her newspaper (she really liked keeping up with things, apparently), they were free to wander else where--mainly, the kitchen. Damn that garbage can. It was getting full every three hours since two families started living here.
"Hey, Dracula! Go and take the garbage out!"
The Eden appeared from her room within seconds, but didn't seem too pleased with the idea. "B-but, Mommy, it's darrrk outside!"
"Hold on." After those words, Noharu paused and made a variety of rather hiddeous faces.
"Mommy?" Karoko questioned, concerned. "Arrrre you okay?"
"I'm trying to care," the guardian offered. "And it's not working, so get your a** outside and take that bag with you." A defeated sigh, and the bat girl didn't dare protest further. In fact, that was probably the longest and only time she'd ever refused her mothers word at all.
Dragging the bag behind her (which luckily didn't break scratching against the ground like that), she took but one step outside before noticing something on the door as she closed it. Taking the note down, she squinted her eyes at the fancy writing.
"Dearrrr... Shouko... a..." Ah, so complicated! Who WROTE like this? Giving up for now, she stuffed the letter in her pocket and made a mental reminder to ask Noharu when she was back inside.
One might think a bat would be naturally attracted to the dark, but not this one. It was... well, dark. You couldn't see anything--or more scarey anyone who might be sneaking up on you! Slowly but surely, she edged to the garbage can.
When she finally made it, the question was then how to put the bag in it? The thing towered over her by a foot at least. A moment of thought produced no logical answer, but ever trying to gain her mothers good grace, she decided to do what didn't seem like a good idea, but was an idea: Jump.
Swinging the end of the bag over the top, she struggled to pull herself up to the lid high enough to stuff the entire thing down. Unfortunately, gravity had something to say about that, and the (thankfully empty) can toppled over and onto the toddler.
A minute passed and there was no movement. Who knew how long before she'd have dared to push it back over herself if someone hadn't lifted it up for her and tossed it carelessly aside.
Glancing up, she expected blue eyes to meet blue eyes, but those gazing down at her in amusement were the color of grass. "Well, little girl, vhat are you doing out here alone, hm?"
Fearfully, Karoko took in the strangers appearence. Green eyes, red hair, and a completely white gown she'd never seen someone wear anything like before. Scarey.
Still answerless, the woman prodded, "Are you deaf, child?"
"N-no, ma'am," Karoko said more nervously than politely. Her blue eyes followed the green ones as they examined her ears and wings.
"You are a bat," she said simply, and in response got only a nod. "That is very interesting."
"Dracula, hurry up!" called Noharu from inside. Suddenly, the currently nameless woman looked and sounded insulted.
"Surely your name is not Dracula, child?" Fast as she could, Karoko shook her head.
"No, ma'am, it's just...a...a nickname. My name is Karrroko."
"I see." The redhead made a thoughtful 'hm' before she kneeled down, placing a hand on the toddlers head. "Tell me, Karoko, do you KNOW who Dracula is?"
"No, ma'am," she answered automatically. Why wouldn't Noharu come out and see her? Get this scarey lady away! She was careful not to even glance toward the door. It was doubtful she could run fast enough, anyway.
It wasn't that the woman was speaking in a particularly threatening way, she just had an accent Karoko had never heard before, was dressed oddly, and something just... didn't seem right. "Why, the true Dracula is my husband, you see." Her two sisters husbands as well, but she always conviently skipped that part. Unworthy worms.
"Oh," was all Karoko could manage.
"My name is Alashia," the vampire provided suddenly. "We will meet again."
Karoko watched Alashia go, noting how much creepier she was walking away than talking to. Tossing the bag with all her strength into the garbage, she wasted no time darting back inside and slamming the door behind her.
In response to the racket, Noharu raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong with you?"
"Mommy!" the toddler wailed, frantically waving her arms about. "Therrre was a scarrey lady outside!"
"Oh?" Leaning back in the chair, Noharu gazed outside and found nothing but a garbage can moved out of place. ....Yeah. "I think it's bed time for you."
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 4:49 pm
KotokiTwilaVioletQuest Part 2:
Cousins Know Everything
Sigh. A thoughtful look across her face, Karoko sat at the desk kicking her legs back and forth. Her elbows rested on the wood surface and her face on her palms. So Dracula was... another real person? She'd never thought to ask Noharu why she always called her that--and, come to think of, she couldn't remember being adressed by her real name out of her mothers mouth.
A blur of blue wandered past her doorway, and she nearly knocked the chair over jumping to the ground so quickly. Hurrying to the hall, she clutched the door frame just into to keep herself from falling. "K-Kotoki!"
When he looked at her, she cowered back a little out of habbit. "Yes?" the boy prodded flatly. It had been a few weeks since Noyama's family had moved in. Never once had he spoken with this small girl or her mother; he had no interest in either of them. However, he would honestly say she was tolerable. Her mother... not so much.
"You'rrre rrreal smart, arrren't you, Kotoki?"
"That's right," he responded. A compliment would make most shift their tone at least a little, but the dull voice he spoke in refused to wavier. "Do you need something?" It was clear just by the look on his face if she hesitated he'd lose interest and go.
"I wanna know about Drrracula," she blurted.
"What about him?"
"Who is he?"
"Mm. Dracula's a vampire," Kotoki offered. "The king of them, I guess you could say. Most believe so, anyway. At the very least, he's the most famous."
"Is he rrrreal?"
"I'm not certain," he answered truthfully. "Is that all?"
"Mhm." It didn't take long to learn Kotoki lacked much patience with others, in particular those younger than himself. Once he had vanished into his temporary room, the Eden tip-toed down the hall, peering into one of the doors on the right.
"...Twila?"
"Hey, Karoko!" a voice called back cheerfully. "Come in, I'll fix your hair, too!"
"Um, sure." Really, her interest was more in asking questions than fixing hair, but...
"Twila, isn't Violet a vampirrre?" Karoko asked a few minutes later, now sitting infront of her blonde cousin as she fiddled with her black hair. Only a foot or so away a baby dressed mostly in purple was babbling happily and clapping her hands together, her own hair tied up in messy pigtails.
"You're hair is so pretty, Karoko," said the Star Child absently.
"Um, thank you, but I asked isn't Violet a vampirrre?"
"Huh? Oh. Yeah, but she's only a "half-vampire" Noyama says. I guess that's why she hasn't gone all crazy and started biting us all and eating our brains--oh, wait, that last part is a zombie thing."
Discarding the zombie part, it was still scarey. "And...Dracula bites people?" Karoko asked a bit fearfully. Her cousin raised an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, he's a monster, of course."
"A monster?!" It was more of a squeak than anything.
"Uh, yeah. In all the movies I've seen he's the first vampire who goes around and bites people in the neck, and drinks their blood and turns them into vampires. In some of them he can turn into fog and a wolf or something, but in all of them he can turn into a bat. Creepy, huh?--Hey, are you okay?"
"Y-yes." Lie. Had she ever lied before? But... A BAT?! Like her? She was a bat! "I'm gonna go play with Onoway, Twila." Pulling away, the toddler dashed out into the hall, stumbling twice.
Mostly, leaving a very confused cousin behind. "O..kay..?" She blinked, then turned to Violet. "What's up with her?"
The answer came in a happy gurgle sound. "Baaaat!"
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 6:26 pm
AkilahQuest Part 3:
Karoko Under the Bed "I really need to kick them out," muttered Noharu once in her room. She yawned broadly, exposing her sharp teeth for a second or so. Gazing at her reflection, she tilted her head and twitched her ears. "Looks like I've aged ten years since those annoyances moved in!"
Truth be told, a few of them provided little or no problems. That Kotoki boy, for example, tended to keep to himself, and spoke only when spoken to. But.. then there were the one's like Akilah. That little brat was a terror! She had no idea how her sister put up with it.
She herself did only because most of the fighting she did was with Lockee, who Noharu herself wasn't all that fond of. Her hope was that one would kill the other off--well, considering Lockee was dead already, maybe Akilah could cast some spell and trap her spirit somewhere or something.
Another yawn arrived, and lazily the teenager fell back onto her bed. Just as quickly, she shot back up, ears lifted high. What the hell was that? Leaning over, she lifted the sheets, peered under the bed and got an answer.
"...Dracula?"
"....."
"Dracula," repeated the female in a more forceful way.
"...Yes, Mommy?" a small voice echoed back.
"Why are you under my bed, Dracula?"
"Because..." Someone was obviously trying to dodge answering.
"Because why?"
"Because... because..."
"Because?" More obvious than that, someone else was clearly getting very, very annoyed.
"Because I'm a monsterrrr!" the Eden wailed. Her mother paused. Not from shock, but because she needed to give everything to resist laughing. Karoko hadn't been talking in a joking voice, and she was apparently truly upset over this, but... The thought of her being a monster was funny somehow.
Only when her voice was steady did Noharu continue. "Now, who told you that? Of course you're not a monster."
"Nobody told me, but I am!"
"What makes you think that? And come out from under there."
"I don't want to, monsterrrrs are suppose to stay under beds." Noharu rolled her eyes and carefully slid off the bed onto the floor. She didn't want to risk crushing the little runt.
"Fine," she hissed. "Stay under there. But, what makes you think you're a monster?"
"Because Dracula's a monster."
"That's true, but what's that matter?"
"Because you call me that! And-and Twila said he turns into bat! And-and-and I'm a bat!"
"...." Noharu hit herself in the face lightly, shaking her head with an aggravated sigh. Jeesh, how was she suppose to know a nickname would tramatize the runt? "Dracula--Karoko--Dracula turns into a vampire bat, and he's a vampire. You're an Eden, and you're a fruit bat. You're not a monster."
Perhaps it was being adressed by her real name, but something drew the toddler out from hiding. Well, partially. Two blue eyes, now visible, peeked out from the front of the bed. "I'm not...?"
"Nooo," Noharu assured her. "Dracula drinks blood. You drink blueberry juice. Dracula kills people. You hide from them. And, more noticeable, Dracula's a man, and you're a little girl. In no way are you like him, aside from the bat thing, and different kinds."
When there was silence, the guardian spoke again, "Will you come out from under there now?"
"...So, I'm not a monster?"
Noharu shook her head. "No," she confirmed sternly.
"Alright," the toddler mumbled, "I'll come out." With a few thuds against the wood floor, the bat girl crawled out from the bed and over to her mother.
Noharu lifted her up and sat her on the bed rather than under it. "Are you alright now?" Her answer came in the form of an uncertain nod.
"Look, I won't call you Dracula anymore," Noharu promised seriously, nudging her to the ground and a bit over to the door. "The closet thing to a monster in this house is your cousin Akilah, and she's not one. Now, go to sleep."
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 6:49 pm
Quest Part 4:
No Monsters Here Noharu I'm starting to think Lockee's view on children may be a bit more correct than the first time I thought it over. Children are terrors. They're too much trouble most of the time. Perhaps it's easier to agree with that because Noyama and all her damn brats are still running around. I really should kick them out.
Karoko got it stuck in her head she was a "monster" like Dracula. Oi. I sent her off to bed, she seems alright now. I think I'll follow suit.
Quietly, she got to her feet and slid out of her room. Mommy was so smart! She was right, no one here was a monster! With the paper in one hand and a sticker in the other, she made her way silently to the front door. A second later, she hurried back to her room, and really to bed this time.
--------
As always, Noharu was the first to rise that morning. If they had been birds, it's easily argueable she'd have time to snatch up ALL the worms before any of the rest of them got up. She could excuse the younger of them--like Violet and Karoko, for example, but the group as a whole were generally lazy.
In the kitchen, she gathered the trash bag and hauled it over her shoulder, heading for the front door. However, once there she stopped and stared blankly at the drawing staring back at her.
For the first time in quiet a while, Noharu laughed loud enough to wake the dead. The dead, maybe, but not the snoozing family. Shaking her head, she grinned and opened the door, stepping outside and closing it back.
The force of the door closing loosened the sticker, and soon it gave away, the paper it was holding up falling soundlessly to the ground. On it, was a simple drawing and three words:
The End
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:53 am
Karoko was sleeping well and content this night. She knew much about herself now and didn't have to be scared of her own origin anylonger.
She was woken by a tingling feeling in her toes, her ears, her wings, everywhere ! It seemed like she was stretched like a bouncing ball, everything felt different out of sudden.
She had grown into a child over night.
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Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 4:16 pm
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