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((>> Ooookay... I was sure that I had posted a "finding Gantu" post way back when I got him... Hmmm. Oh, well. *posts it now* Just act like it's from the Halloween Town time frame, 'kay?))

What a week. What a long, confusing, toy-filled week. I... don't know where to start, diary. I honestly don't... There was a toy store, then some psychic speech, a fountain, scary people...

...

Ah. Wait a minute. That's where I can start. The toy store. That's where this series of confusing events apparently began, so I'm going to begin my story there.

It was a crisp October day, and thanks to my tendency to procrastinate, it was also a mere two hours away from a friend's birthday party. The wind whipped through my hair, the leaves scattered as I trudged through them, the smell of wet foliage and gas assulted my nostrils, and so on and so forth. To put it bluntly, it was fall, and I was walking through the downtown area looking for something to buy.

It really shouldn't have been as hard as it had turned out to be. I mean, c'mon! My friend's a toy fanatic, so all I had to do was find a toy store and take my pick of anything off the shelves. However, life seemed to want to kick me in the butt that day. As it turned out, most of the "toy store area" of downtown was closed off, due to a broken sewer main. What luck, eh? So, there I am, trudging around downtown, trying to find somewhere to shop when... it appeared. Seemingly out of nowhere, this toy store just pops into my line of vision. Now that I think about it, it all seems a bit suspicious... Well, anyways, my sense of relief overpowered my suspicion, and I went in. Fate, destiny, or maybe the slight precognition that I've gained from being dead drew me over to a bargain bin, full of Disney related toys. Like any time-strapped shopper, I ignored the suspicious "linked by fate" feeling and started to browse through the bin. After five minutes, I came upon something completely... Well, completely unimpressive, actually. It was a toy gun, that seemed to be modeled after a gun used by a character in a space-related movie. It wasn't something that my friend would have liked, but instead of putting it back, I started to turn the thing over in my hands. The "linked" feeling returned, and this time I couldn't ignore it. So, I put the little blaster into my shopping basket, without thinking twice about it, went off to find something for my friend, paid for both items and left.

...And that should have been the end of it. Of course, my innate ability to get myself in trouble saw to it that that WASN'T the end of it.

A day or so later, I sat in my living room, once again turning the gun over repeatedly in my hands. The "linked" feeling that I had felt when I had first held it still bothered me. There was something there... Some intangible connection, and I hadn't been able to figure it out. What was the connection? What did this children's toy have to do with me. I sat there while the thoughts grew slowly more intense in my head. After a few moments of intense pondering, my curiousity and intensity seemed to come to a head... and at that exact moment, BOOM! Feelings, some history, a face, and a name suddenly implanted themselves in my head. I reeled as the onslaught of anger, sadness, obsession, images of something vaguely koala-like and of something vaguely shark-like, and the name Gantu slammed into my brain with the force of a semi.

I sat for a moment, panting and turning the gun in my hands with renewed vigor. It had started to shake and shiver in my hand, as if it were alive. I sat there, pondering the flood of life, and the movement of the gun for a minute. So, this thing wasn't just a toy. It was a being. Or, inhabited with a being, most likely. I'd seen it before, in my current line of work... Inanimate objects containing the souls of living things. It wasn't new to me, but I had certainly never been the intended recipient of such an item before. I thought on the subject for a few minutes more, before I gave up and set the toy on the table. My brain had fizzled out at that point, and I needed some time to collect my thoughts, and maybe run an inquiry at the SIO to see who or what was in the gun.

I would not, however, get the time to do that. A mere half an hour after I had put the gun on the table, something else happened. The silly thing opened a dimensional portal in my living room. You can imagine my reaction, as I watched my TV Guide slide from this plane of existence into an unknown dimension. You can also probably imagine my reaction when the thing decided that it wanted me more than it wanted my TV Guide, and sucked me into a nightmare world.

...I fell on a fountain. I think one of my vertebrae is still dislodged, though I can't feel it to be certain.

Then other stuff happened. We met people and did things, and Gantu made a new, ha, "friend", who happens to be a being stuck in a mirror. And I met a nice pirate girl who FINALLY helped me figure some things out about this new dimension, and what it has to do with these items. Then, just as I was getting used to the scary, nightmare dimension we were in, it changed (reverted back, from what I can gather) into a beautiful, cheerful, happy dimension. Ooookay. Well, at least the pretty caslte and the flowers are better then the ramshackle houses and the pumpkins.

I'm relieved to know that there are other people involved, and that the magic, dimension-breaching power that's affiliated with all this doesn't appear to be malevolent, but now that it's all done and over with, I still have one question...

Where the heck did Gantu go? The last time I saw him, he was at the castle...

((Whoo! Crappy intro post! Heh. xd ))

Journal Entry #20060401:

Well, things have certainly been... odd since Gantu arrived... Not bad odd, but interesting odd.

For one thing, he seems to be some sort of alien child. (Which I should have guessed from his item of choice... A ray gun? I mean, c'mon! How could he not be an alien.) His body structure is similar to that of a human's (arms, legs, etc.), but his race seems to have developed other limbs and organs that we haven't... Such as those little skin-tusk-things on the sides of his head. I haven't gotten a chance to overshadow him yet, so I'm not quite sure what they do... Breathing underwater would be a logical guess, though, as he seems to be rather fish-like, and they are in the appropriate place to be gills.

...I think...

...Anyways, other than his appearance, the other odd thing is that... his personality isn't odd at all! He acts like a regular, human 4-year-old! He's hyper, but polite, can talk, but not with proper english, and he tends to cry easily... It's amazing! One would think that an alien would some form of unique personality quirk that would distinguish them from a human child... Maybe it's the way I'm raising him?

No, no... wait. He has one personality quirk that I haven't really observed in most human children... He's got MPD. Not to the extent that the other personality can completely take over, but... enough to freak ya out sometimes. For example, you'll be sitting there, playing with him, and he'll suddenly give you this overwhelmingly adult look and say something (in this rather creepy, bass voice), then after another minute- POOF!- he's himself again, and acting as if he didn't do anything at all. He doesn't even know what he said or did, and from what I've gathered, he only seems to notice that he can't remember anything from the past few minutes. Weird.

Well, other than that, Ganny has been an exemplary child. Like I mentioned before, he's a little hyper, but he's always, always polite... By himself! I don't even have to remind him to be polite! ...And he gets along well with the other children. Mika adores him, Gir... well, loves everyone... Even Havelock seems to enjoy the boy's company, and he doesn't like anyone. (Including me. crying )

Everything just seems to be perfect at the moment.

Journal Entry #20060616:

Well, thankfully both Gan and I made it out of that crazy Wonderland in one piece... and ended up bringing a pair of new trapped spirits with us. One is polite and helpful, like his new older brother, while the other one could, uh... be a problem.

But! That's a subject for their journals, now isn't it? And I have the perfect subject for Ganny's...

Through little, hands-on lessons, Ganny's english has been improving and, even better...

Ganny's learning to read and write!

I'm just so... so... proud. crying My little shark-baby is growing up... He's doind it rather quickly, too! He's progressing swiftly with his reading (He's a real natural!), though his writing could definately use some work... I mean, he's great at spelling the words (for a young child), but his actual writing needs work. He seems to have trouble forming the letters correctly...

Hmm... Curious.