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 Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 6:37 pm
Vane here, presenting you with a little story about the events that led up to the creation of
stardust cafe. Please keep in mind: while the chapters are based mainly on real events,
some exaggeration may have been used to keep them interesting. In an attempt to keep
things organized, I'm going to ask that you refrain from posting in this thread. You can, instead
head to the main thread, or the chatterbox section of this guild to post ideas, comments, etc.
Now then: a key (updated after each new chapter) so you don't get mixed up.
Main narration , as well as character actions will be written in black text.
Characters (all based off real gaians associated with stardust cafe) are as follows:
Vane (aka Aryvane)
alternate form : small white kitty (Bibbles) standing under a mistletoe
position : older sister of coff, and owner of stardust cafe.
personality: Vane is slightly evil, very greedy, short-sighted, impatient,
and always ready to believe that she's better than everyone else.
speech color : royalblue
Star (aka stargallrevived)
alternate form : yet to be revealed to us mortals
position : vane's friend, darth's sister, and deliverer of stardust cafe
other : cheerful and random with a hidden dark side, star is often left
with the tasks that vane would rather not do, out of laziness.
speech color : grey
Darth (aka Darth_vader2)
alternate form : small, deadly green bunny (Grunny)
position : star's older brother.
other : darth is a grombie with a raging sweet tooth, and a weapon
speech color : limegreen
Coff (aka coff coff)
alternate forms : flying bunny and tiny mochi (Hermes Moon), tiny dragon (Fallen Wish)
position : owner of her own shop (the Eternal Cross), younger sister of Vane
other : slightly hot-headed, coff is allergic to peanuts and somehow... her appearance
always marks another attempt at the destruction of Vane's cafe.
speech color : crimson
Miso (aka WyvernMiso)
alternate forms : small dragons (smok and later fallen wish)
position : chatter in shop. originally mistaken for female (thanks vane >.>)
other : random, cheerful, and funny, miso never fails to entertain XD
speech color : orange
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Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 7:36 pm
PART ONE: the shooting star
A warm july night finds a catfish sitting at the edge of a river, dangling her tail in.
Questions in her mind flickering like the stars in the sky, she sighs and turns to stare
at her own reflection.
A sound in the bushes startles her for a second, causing her to change into her
other form. Sharp fangs and claws, white like ivory. Eyes slanted and wide,
hungry for blood. She opened her mouth and let out a horrible, blood-curdling sound...
Mew?
It surely startled the intruder, because she heard an immediate clanking sound that
could only signify weapons being dropped, and then a crunch of wings hitting the ground.
And yet the stranger, followed by a half-dozen animals approached her, obviously
not heeding the warning signs. Vane signed, and placed her trademark mistletoe
above her head, just in case. As the footsteps came closer, and she felt a shadow
on her back, she whirled around, claws unsheathed, ready to pounce. She was
ready! She was prepared for anything!
"Awww! Kitty <3 what are you doing here Vane?"
Except that -.- Wriggling herself loose from the arms that were obviously intent on
picking her up (almighty catfishes didn't cuddle), she turned to face her friend Star.
"I was bathing naked in the moonlight, of course >.>," came the answer, though the
sarcasm seemed a far cry less powerful when it was coming from the mouth of a tiny
kitten. "What about you?"
Obviously not paying attention long enough to hear the answer to her own question,
Star stared up at the sky. "They're pretty tonight, don't you think? Did you know that
you can make wishes on falling stars?"
Vane's eyes, glowing in the near-darkness as only a cat's can, seemed glint with an evil
light. Lost in her own thoughts about how she could go about bending this strange new
power to her own will, she failed to notice the meteor streaking across the sky until she
was covered in grey dust. Irked that her perfectly fluffy coat had been ruined, she
turned around to swear at the sky, only to catch another mouthful of this rapidly-falling
debris. After getting past her initial outrage, she found that it had a peculiar flavor...
one that she could exploit for another of her world-domination schemes.
"I shall make a cafe!" she declared. "And people shall come from all over the earth
with gold in their pockets to taste my cuisine. I shall be rich. Rich beyond my
wildest dreams!"
Star, who had collapsed in a fit of uncontrollable laughter following Vane's predicament
had managed to calm down long enough to catch a few words. "A cafe? Ooh! Can
I help?"
Vane hesitated, wondering if this foolish mortal who called her a friend would indeed be
helpful. Finally, with the realization that, though powerful, she was only 10 inches tall,
she consented. "We shall call it... Stardust Cafe!"
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:38 pm
PART TWO: construction, and baking attempts
Still in her powerful cat form, Vane retreated to the shade of the trees as the sun glared
overhead. She closed her eyes, relaxing for all of five seconds, until she felt the
bright light on her face again as the trees were chopped down. Cracking open an eye,
she glared at the kiki, bento, and bani who were hard at work felling another unfortunate
tree. Deciding that her energy would be better used elsewhere, she picked herself off the
ground and padded over to where a masked man with a red scarf and tell-tale grombie
skin was hacking away at bamboo with a katana.
Her's ears perked up at a resiliant pounding nearby. Further investigation revealed a
silver-haired girl in butterfly wings attempting to whack at a tree with burnt toast and
subsequently shouting at it when no effect was seen. At a loss for words, Vane attempted
to slink past, only to be grabbed by the tail and swung bodily in the air at tree bark.
Snarling at the offending material, ivory claws again shot out as the trouble was swiftly
dealt with. If looks could kill, Star would have been reduced to a pile of smouldering ash.
Deciding that the place was dangerous, Vane quickly placed her blueprints down
besides the one who had just thrown her against a tree and backed away.
Finding a box of brownie mix, with a post-it stuck to the side reading 'for later,' she
quickly jumped at the chance to practice baking. However, opening the box proved
nearly impossible. It resisted all of Vane's threats, even going to far as to bruise her
delicate paws as she attempted to kick it in frustration. Deciding that she'd had enough,
Vane grabbed a piece of cardboard and ripped with her teeth. A clear container with
brown powder was quickly revealed. That was more like it.
Sneaking over to the construction site, she stole a few stray branches and started a fire.
Or tried to. Apparently, it was harder than it looked, because no matter how much she willed
it, the giant glowing ball in the sky would not give her any more power. Having long since run
out of patience, Vane utilized the diplomatic approach, and blasted the thing with her
trident. The resulting explosion not only blew a 50-foot-wide crater in the dirt, but also
obliterated the brownie mix. If it could be called that, for all the brownies it made.
To make matters worse, Star appeared to have discovered in that exact moment the
redundance of beating a tree with uneaten pieces of her breakfast, and came looking for the
box she'd laid on the ground only moments before. Instead, she found the wreckage
from Vane's attempts at cooking, and a shaking-like-a-leaf kitty.
Attempting to salvage the situation, Vane drew herself up, put on a Draco-Malfoy-worthy
smirk, and ground out, "what? it's harder than it looks!"
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Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:55 am
PART 3: enter the tiger.
Three explosions, a ton of cake mix, and several ... incidents (the majority of which involved to
some degree blatantly dangerous stunts, death and disfigurement, screaming children, mobbing
by ferrets, and employees driven to the brink of insanity) later found a very proud kitty sitting in
front of a tray of koi-shaped cookies. Chest puffed out, Vane waited patiently for her audience
to get over their obvious states of shock and reverence and applaud her for her achievement.
Carefully inching her head from out under the nearly-demolished counter, Star's face went from
took on a look of pleasant surprise that she wouldn't have to bribe and blackmail any more people
to keep them from taking legal actions. Getting up and gingerly picking her way through the
rubbish, she waked over to where her kitten friend sat. Reaching a hand to ruffle the fur on Vane's
head, she exclaimed...
"OMAIGOSH! A kitty!"
Vane's mouth, open to rant about the redundance of acknowledging her presence again, quickly
snapped shut as three chanhos tore into the (wreckage that had at one point been the) cafe.
They bounded towards the tray, and Vane's hard work disappeared in three quick gulps. Three
thud's were subsequently heard as the tigers keeled over in rapid succession.
"Well," said Star, getting up to add 'food poisoning' to a list that was already getting far too long,
"let's hope those chanhos were strays, and that this'll clear up in a couple of minutes, huh?"
But this was not the case, as demonstrated by the obviously frantic expression on the face of
the (freakishly dressed) girl who had just barged in amonst a flurry of leaves and flames and
fabric and cranes and bunnies beating milk barrels with tiny hammers. Catching sight of the
motionless, but nonetheless colorful, bodies on the floor, she whipped around and glared at
Vane, who... unfortunately... still had her claws out and dyed from food coloring.
"YOU! YOU DID THIS! YOU HAVE HURT MY CHANHOS AND WILL NOW FACE
MY WRATH!"she yelled. "I will burn this place to the ground!"
True to her word, she morphed into a dragon and promptly laid waste to what had been
hours of hard work on the parts of Star and Darth. Seeing red, the former's face morphed into
an expression of insanity as she grabbed her weapons and launched herself at the offender.
Sitting by, Vane watched the fight for all of five seconds before she herself was grabbed by the
scruff and tossed into the fray like a rag doll by an evil, popcorn-holding, masked grombie.
"STOP!!" she screeched, reverting to her more humanoid form. Both girls, breathing hard, turned to
look at her like with increduality, their eyes demanding a good excuse for the interrupted fight.
Vane swallowed. "Er... well. First off, I'd like to say:
DARTH! YOU WILL DIE FOR TOUCHING ME!!
Now. I believe some introductions are necessary, before I find myself responsible for cleaning
up bloodstains? Star, this distastefully-dressed stranger is none other than my dearest
little sister. Coff, do you have anything to say for yourself, after destroying my cafe?
At a loss for words, Star settled for looking between the two, in hopes of finding some sort
of family resemblence. Coff, however, had no such problems, and proceeded to (loudly)
defend herself.
"Well. From what I've seen, you've done more to it than I have. I mean, the thing was
basically a pile of rubble before I even came within 50 feet of it. " A general gesture in
the direction of 'pile of rubble' brought to her attention the reason for the argument.
"And there's STILL the fact that my precious chanhos are lying DEAD on the floor!
What in the world did you DO to them????"
"I was baking," said Vane, looking affronted at Coff's dawning look of horror. "Besides.
Star thinks that it's food poisoning. They shouldn't be dead. They wouldn't even be like this
if you would just feed them, so they'd stay away from my cookies!!" As if to prove her point,
she bent down and poked at the furry mounds with her hand, watching them twitch and jerk.
Blinking, coff watched as the tigers picked themselves off the ground to totter over into her arms.
"Well. Ehem. Ehehehehe... This has all been... A small misunderstanding! Howabout..."
Looking at the murderous look on her older sister's face, Coff pointed off into the distance. "
oh hey look! a distraction! " she exclaimed. When Star and Vane turned back around,
there was nothing in the spot where Coff had been, exept for a very small piece of paper.
In small, untidy script were the words: "have fun cleaning. i.o.u. one store." Love ya both, Coff.
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Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 7:30 pm
PART FOUR: the dragon girl.
Following what had come to be referred to as "the coff incident," the staff recovered from their
shock and went about the painstaking task of rebuilding. After several cups of tea on Vane's part,
and several dozen hours of blood, sweat, and tears on the parts of Star and Darth, Stardust Cafe
was well on its way back to its former glorious self. So caught up in their work, they failed to
notice the structure taking shape on the other side of the woods. Soon, two shops stood in the
small woods: a cheerful gold-and-purple cafe (in front of which stood one proud, tiny white kitten,
and two panting, exhausted siblings), and an ominous indigo trinket-store (whose ribbon was
proudly cut by one coff coff, by whose side stood an artist sporting cerynitian's blessing, and a
bleach fan with an obsession for cats).
A badly-folded (but nonetheless effective) paper bird flew through the air and fell to the ground three
feet to vane's left. Padding over, she gave it a cautions sniff and deftly unfolded the paper to reveal
the words written inside.
Dearest sister. After seeing your shop, I decided to build one of my own. After all... you're
always telling me what a failure I am -.-. Well this time, I'll prove you wrong! Yours truly, coff.
Annoyed at the prospect of competition, and relishing the challenge, Vane at once began the
preparations to destroy her sister's business. Scaling star's leg, to use her face as a spring-
board onto darth's head, Vane (holding the paintbrush in her mouth) proceeded to paint in large
blue letters... "STARDUST CAFE! HIRING CHATTERS."
Heading inside, and giving herself a pat on the back for a job well done, Vane was very pleased
with herself. Star, of course, followed her in using the set of keys she'd made for herself the day
before. Darth promptly disappeared without a trace, grumbling about dictatorial fluff-balls and
how chopping wood ruined the shine on his katana.
Almost immediately afterwards, a drunk man tottered through the door, muttering incoherently
and wearing a badge bearing the letters "justin bieber hater." Obviously attracted by the large
lettering, he stumbled some more before collapsing on the floor. It was quite some time before
the disgusted staff members managed to comprehend him. After gently prodding him with a
long rake towards the application forms, they retreated to the back of the kitchens and began
muttering among themselves about the man's "n00bishness." His application, where legible,
seemed to be declarations about his unearthly good looks and godly abilities. He was evicted
on the spot, and then bitten on his way out by a small green blob.
After detaching itself from the drunk's foot, the little grunny promptly transformed into a
chuckling darth. Vane, who'd reached out to cuddle the cute bunny stopped short, and promptly
turned around and headed back into the kitchen. This only elicted a fresh bout of laughter from
the siblings.
"Hey look!" cried star, pointing at an approaching figure in the distance.
Peering from underneath his mask with difficulty, and still shaking with laughter, Darth managed
to speak. "Another girl? I hope she's better looking than the two of you -.- Oh look! Is that her
pet dragon there? How adorable! Ahem, if you'll excuse me. The dark entities have called
for my help, and it is with greatest sorrow that I must leave before meeting this lovely young
maiden. Do introduce us next time, dear sister." Transforming back into his alternate form,
Darth proceeded to make another dramatic exit, this time involving leaping through a chimney,
and grabbing onto a ladder dropped by a passing helicopter. Vane and star, watching the antics
of the adorable, fluffy critter, failed to notice the newcomer until the door was broken down, and
a panting figure was revealed. In the horizon were three flying ninja monkeys, obviously after the
half-eaten poptart in the stranger's hand.
With a mutual glance, the two co-owners decided to act first, and ask questions later. Pulling
out her staff, star proceeded to beat the monkeys unconscious, while Vane dragged a hose over
and unceremoniously sprayed the body in an attempt to wash away the sweat and blood before
it reached her carpet. After the last of the flying nuisances were beaten off, star returned with an
angelic smile plastered to her face, along with two bags of bacon in her hand.
The two girls' attentions were soon drawn to the prone form littering the ground in front of them
as it made a choking sound. After some hearty pounding on the back from star, a soft alto voice
said... "[hack]Hi. I heard you were [cough] hiring? I'm [hack] miso"
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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:32 pm
PART FIVE: morning schemes
The effort required in uttering those few sentences seemed to drain the stranger completely, and
he fell back into what was from Vane's point of view his preferred state of being. Deciding that a
seeming-dead body decorating the ground was going to be bad for business, she grabbed one
booted foot and motioned to Star to take the other. Together, the girls dragged him to a small,
dark storage room in the back of the cafe and headed to bed. It had been a long first day.
Waking up, Vane discovered a small, fuzzy green mound on her nightstand, complete with
twitching nose and a white, fluffy tail. Reaching across to cuddle it, she pouted when Darth
suddenly changed back, smoothing down his shiny new coat and picking non-existing pieces
of lint off his starched white gloves. It was all in very sharp contrast to his usual worn black
overcoat, bone demon mask, and large red scarf. Vane recalled the first time she'd seen the
outfit...
The windchimes jingled lazily as a breeze swept across the front of the shop. Vane had opened
Zypher Halls a few months back, but Star had only recently started helping out there. Currently,
she was in the back sorting through the order records. As a shadow fell over the door, she
quickly moved to open it, hoping to see a customer. Business had been slow for the past few
days, and she was quickly losing interest in the shop built into the mountainside. After all...
you couldn't find a candy store for miles, and Vane's hoarde of chocolate was slowly dwindling.
Peering under the ostentatious carpet she'd had imported from Chile, she lifted a section of the
floor to reveal her carefully hidden sweets storage. She shuddered to think of what whould
happen should anyone actually discovered her chocolate. No doubt they'd take it all for
themselves. That would not do! Just a few days ago, she'd barely stopped Star from
dripping blood onto it as she was accidentally hit with a sniper dart while attempting to scale the
ceiling. Having the carpet sent off to the dry cleaner's would completely defeat the purpose of
having it there in the first place. Silently, she vowed to hire security around it should she ever
open a new shop.
While Vane had been distracted by her justified rage, the person outside had evidently grown
tired of knocking, and standing outside in the freezing cold and just opened the door himself.
The shop owner took in his appearance: tall and thin, with gloved hands tucked inside a long
overcoat and a large scarf covering half his face and some sort of mask - was that... bone? -
beneath it, her eyes growing to the size of dinner plates. Fur on end with fright, she pulled the
emergengy alarms and screeched at the top of her lungs "BATTLE STATIONS!" before
changing forms and aiming a trident at the...
Blinking, she realized the eyes he could see behind the mask didn't seem to be completely...
human. They were almond-shaped, and a startling shade of blue, but looked dull, almost as
if he were... dead. Or... undead? A zombie? Or... Vane started. A grombie! Star had said
something about a grombie just the day before. Perhaps she'd had a bad encounter with one
before?
Before Vane could finish her train of thought, said employee came bursting from the storage
room wielding an angelic staff in one hand, and a stick of salami in another. The grombie
seemed more scared of the meat. For good reason.
Twirling both weapons above her head like a mad cheerleader, Star's momentum carried her
halfway across the room, smashing into the electricity panels and plunging the shop into
darkness. A blast from a trident, aimed at the candle hanging in a chandelier missed its mark,
ricocheted off the window, knocking the grombie back a few steps. He backed up further, gloved
hands held in front of him in the universal "I didn't steal your chocolate, please don't kill me"
gesture, mumbling something about being a gentleman not allowing him to fight ladies. Star
paused mid-attack at the sound of his voice (which reminded Vane of a German beaver, but
obviously meant something very different to her co-worker). "Darth?"
Grinning sheepishly as her mind replayed the flustered apologies she'd had the give after
attempting to murder Star's older brother, she turned her attention back to looking over the
grombie now stepping off her nightstand. He had obviously attempted to dress nicely today.
Vane couldn't help but hope that maybe...
"Morning, Vane," he greeted. The grombie shuffled nervously, as if unsure of how to ask his
next question. "Ah... The maiden from yesterday... Is she... still here?"
Vane blinked. Twice. Disappointment gave way to confusion, then to incredulity, and finally
understanding. Darth still thought that...
"Oh, no, I'm sorry. She's still sleeping! Maybe if you come back in a few hours?"
Nodding his thanks, and suddenly realizing that his boots weren't half as shiny as he'd originally
thought, he abruptly turned around and left the way he'd come in: hopping through the window.
Vane snickered. She was going to have a lot of fun with this...
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