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 Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 8:52 am
Located in the French Goreter of the heart of New Goreleans lies one of the most hexclusive beauty salons known to monter-kind -- Scarie LeVeau's "Savage Beauty" or if you're a native to this part of town... "Beauté Féroce".
Scarie LeVeau is a hair artiste' known world-wide, and her work and salon has been featured in countless monster fashion magazines such as Harpies Bizarre and Morgue. Scarie has herself personally styled the tresses of famous fashion supermodels as Cindy Goreford and Nagloomy Campboo, not to mention Fangio and Mark Vanderboo, at Boo York Fashion Week.
Although Scarie and her voodoo doll employeeks specialize in women, they also are able to fashion the hair of mansters. They also style the hair of children.
Do not bother attempting a walk-in styling! Scarie has a waiting list over a month long!
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 11:20 am
The hexclusive, nigh end salon known as the "Beauté Féroce" was as it always is, a force of nature from within, with clients being moved about and serviced to only the finest talents of the proprietress, Scarie Leveau hrself, and her assembled staff of living voodoo dolls, a werecat, and yes, three zombies who seemed faster than was the norm -- for zombies, that is.
It did no good simply walking into this salon and asking for an immediate appointment, because it was not unheard of for there to be a waiting list more than a month long in advance!
Hence these lucky monsters, mostly female, were the lucky ones as they allowed themselves to be pampered to the best of the staff's abilities, and that was saying something!
And Scarie LeVeau herself? She was not one of those high-profile stylists who avoided getting her claws dirty! No sir! She was right in the thick of things, styling and designing these monsters' tresses via her famed voodoo 'art', thus continuing her legacy and why her reputation was so well earned.
"Hey, Scarie!" The werecat stylist called out to her employer from the next station over. "When are your nephews and their friends due to arrive?"
"Dey left jus' dis mornin'." Scarie answered. "Bit of a drive from Salem to New Goreleans but dey will arrive in plenty of time to help me get t'ings ready for Fangsgiving."
"You have family flying in?" The young client in Scarie's chair asked timidly.
Scarie smiled as she paid close attention to her client's hair and worked the voodoo doll's own locks to sculpt it to something unique and lovely. "In my family, day could usually be taken literal!" Scarie answered. "But since dey bringin' deir friends down here, it'll take a bit longer. De one wanted to be comin' by way of de mirror, but dey old enough to handle a road trip like responsible young mansters."
Sme of the monsters did not notice one slightly older female lift the hair dryer from her scalp and listen closely...
"You excited?" Another client asked from the other side of the salon.
Marie turned her head and gifted the young manster with an uncharacteristic smile. She said, "I s'ppose so. I never hosted a Fangsgiving celebration before an' my nephews an' deir friends are bringin' in their families to New Goreleans to celebrate wit' us."
"Girl, you best start cookin' now!"
Some scattered laughs and continued chatter follow and the aforementioned older woman slowly slipped out of her seat from the hair dryer. She started to head for the front entrance when a scathing voice cut her off.
"Excuse me! Where do you t'ink you goin'?"
The woman turned around timidly to find Scarie staring across the salon at her, waving a hair brush.
"I'm not even close to bein' finished wit' you yet!" Scarie scolded the woman. "Get yo' backside back in dat chair!"
"Oh, I'm sorry!" The woman responded with a shivering voice. "I-I just needed a little breath of air? The fumes..." She looked sheepish and hopeful and Scarie rolled her eyes.
"Fine." Scarie dismissed her. "Ten minutes den I need you back so I can take out de foil for your color."
The woman nodded eagerly and headed out the door quickly.
...
With curlers and foil in her hair, the woman moved just out of sight and opened her purse and removed a cell phone, no... NOT an iCoffin or anything the like. She stared at it with a quizzical expression and shook her head...
"Land sakes! How in tarnation is a gal s'pposed to make sense of one of these high falootin' doodads?"
She started typing in the desired number and held the phone to her ear, stealing careful glances toward the salon window to make sure she was not being observed. Then the call was answered.
"Hello? Paw? Paw! You are NEVER gonna believe what I jest found out!"
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 2:46 pm
On the road to New Goreleans....
Following what could only be categorized as an 'unprovoked quack attack,' Kai and Nero had swapped places and now Nero was behind the wheel as Kai worked on clearing feathers out of his eyes, nose, mouth and clothes.
"You know the way to go, right? You turn left at the next fork."
"Right."
"No, left."
"Right, I got it. Ain't no thing." Kai raised an eyebrow at Nero, but then shrugged and went back to getting feathers out of his collar. Sitting in the back, Glen was trying to convince Rory to drink his first ever Red Ghoul.
"I can't BELIEVE you've never had Red Ghoul! The Mirrorverse must be a SCARE-IBLE place to unlive!" Glen waved his can of the fizzy red elixir incredulously, taking care not to spill a single precious drop. "What DO you drink in there? Rock Scar? Normster?"
"Er...Croak-a Cola, mostly." Rory replied. Apparently, he had been missing out on a world of different beverage choices, because Glen's jaw dropped and he let out the most unbelieving gasp Rory had ever heard.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASP. Rory. Rory, Rory, Rory. You haven't unlived at ALL, have you?!" Glen knew his cousin had led a sheltered existence on the other side of the mirror, but it was only just now, this revelation about his lack of ever having tasted the nightmare nectar that was Red Ghoul that opened Glen's ruby red eyes to just HOW sheltered that existence was. "Well. Time to fix that! Here."
Glen opened the cooler underneath his seat and pulled out an ice-cold can of Special Edition Pitch Bleak Red Ghoul - the kind that had DOUBLE the flavor hexperience of original Red Ghoul. Glen had been saving it to drink with Fangsiving dinner, but this seemed like a much better use for it.
"G-gee, thanks." Rory accepted the can, almost hesitantly. Why was Glen giving it to him on one knee, palms upturned? All the while humming like a fangelic chorus?
"Go on! Open it." Glen re-took his seat and put his seatbelt on as Kai looked back and gave Glen A Look. Rory gingerly grabbed the tab on the top of the can and pulled it forward.
*ksh!*
"Ah, the sound of impending refreshment." Glen sighed, nostalgic for the last time he'd opened a can of Red Ghoul four minutes ago.
"Is a cloud of noxious black fumes supposed to come out of the can?" Rory asked, leaning away a bit.
"Sure!" Glen replied. "You just lean in and take a deep whiff of that, see? That's how you check to see if it's fresh, though to be honest even expired Red Ghoul is good stuff."
Rory hesitated for a moment, then followed Glen's prompting to lean in and smell the vapors. It stung in his nose, and for the briefest of seconds he feared that what Glen had handed him wasn't a delicious soft drink but instead some sort of caustic, canned acid accidentally grabbed from his Mad Science stash.
Once he exhaled, though, the burning sensation was gone, leaving notes of strawscarry, booberry, and about eight other flavors he couldn't readily identify.
"Well, that's....interesting, to say the least..."
"Drink!" Glen commanded, bouncing up and down in his seat. "Chug it! That's the beast way to enjoy a Red Ghoul!"
"Isn't chugging a drink in a moving vehicle sort of dang-"
"RoryyouKNOWthatwordisforbittenonthistripnowCHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!"
Nero and Kai instinctively chanted along with Glen.
"CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!"
What else could he do? Rory took a breath, held the can up to his lips, tipped back his head....
And chugged.
"YEAAAAHHH!" Nero held up one claw for a bro-fist from Kai, turning on the right blinker for the fork in the road ahead of them with his left claw. Kai, for his part, was too distracted watching the happenings in the back seat to notice Nero taking the right path instead of the left.
"C'mon, Rory! You can do it!" Glen shouted encouragement from his seat as Rory gulped and gulped, the hextra-long special edition can rapidly emptying. At last, Rory pulled it away from his lips and held the can upside-down - completely empty!
"What do you think?!" Glen clasped his hands together in glee, trying to gauge Rory's reaction to his first ever Red Ghoul. Rory turned, looked at him....opened his mouth....
"BuuuuUUuuuuuuuuuUUUUUURRRrrrrrrrRRRPpppp!"
"Yes!" Glen gave Kai and Nero high-fives. "I knew you'd like it!"
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 9:52 am
Glen sat back in his seat in the van as it sped down the road with Nero behind the wheel. Kai was catching a few Z's after the much heralded duck attack. Glen cast a sidelong glance toward his cousin and linked. Rory didn't seem to be ale to sit still, pulling against his seat belt and looking ... everywhere. And maybe it was just Glen's imagination but he also appeared to be... vibrating? How very odd. Maybe another Red Ghoul would settle his cuz down. Glen unfastened his seat belt and leaned in to the cooler when his iCoffin went off. He pulled it from out of his pocket and gave it a look-see and his face brightened. "Wellll...!"He answered it and listened in... "Hi Aunty Glinda! ... Uh huh! ... Yeah, we're on our way to New Goreleans now! ... You are coming there for Fangsgiving, right? ... Sweet! ... Hm? ... No.No, we weren't planning to, why? ... No. ... Really?"Glen leaned over toward the window and had a glance up. "Uh huh. ... Okay, I'll let him know. ... Love you too! ... Boodles!"Glen then hung up and reached up to the front seat and tapped Nero on the shoulder. Nero pulled out his ear bud and cocked his head back. "`Sup?""That was Aunty Glinda on the phone. She thinks you took a wrong turn somewhere.""A wrong turn? That's ridiculous. How would she know if I...?"Glen tapped him on the shoulder and pointed again at the road ahead of them. "...Oh."
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 8:07 am
Nero shrugged and flashed a grin.
"We're taking the scenic route. This is an adventure, minibro! There are no wrong turns on a bro'ad trip, only new opportunities. Whenever one van window closes, another one opens. Take our new friend, Quackford."
He pointed a thumb to Glen's right in the backseat. Rory twitched slightly at the motion, but he was twitching a lot of things right now and would probably continue to do so for at least another three hours. In his lap sat the duck, now Quackford, who was doing a little twitching of his own after two Red Ghouls.
"After that ill-conceived introduction, we've got a righteous new duck bro to keep us company on our hexcellent adventure."
The duck honked softly so as not to wake Kai and passed Nero a bag of MANticore, the manticore jerky for men, scary-aki flavored.
"Thanks bro," he said, and he and Quackford bumped bro-fist to wing.
"So you meant to do this?"
"Well nooooo," Nero replied, biting the bag open, "But oo an't et all upthet aaout is ind o ing."
"What?"
"Minibro, relax. The road is our bro, our bro'ad. It won't take us anywhere we don't need to be."
Nero hung a u-turn that caused the back tires to squeal. Kai grumbled a little in his sleep and his tail rattled. Quackford and Rory froze and then became entranced with it.
"Whooooa....Have you ever noticed Kai's tail rattles just like your pulse?"
"Quuuaaaack."
"No more Red Ghoul for you bros today."
"If the Bro'ad is taking us where we need to go then why'd you turn?"
"The Bro'ad need help sometimes, and don't tell Kai."
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 8:38 am
"Hwuah!" Kai suddenly snapped awake.
"AUGH!" Rory shouted at the sudden movement.
"Augh? Huh?" Kai blinked and looked around. They were back on the normal open road, him none the wiser to the minor trans-dimensional detour they'd just taken.
"Sorry! You startled me! Don't do that! I'll get fractures! Stress fractures! I don't want that! Augh!" Rory twitched. Kai raised an eyebrow.
"You know, I think maybe you should switch to drinking just water, Rors." Kai stretched and yawned. "How far along to the hotel are we? I bet we'll be needing to stop for gas soon."
"Gas?" Nero asked, just as the engine suddenly sputtered and gave out. "KNEW I was forgetting something!"
"Augh! We're out of gas! Stranded! In the middle of nowhere! We're all gonna un-die!" Rory spasm-ed. Glen rolled down the window on his side and poked his head out.
"OooOOooooooo." He turned to Nero and Kai. "Look!"
Kai and Nero crowded the driver's side to look out the window. Off to the side of the road, following a dirt path, was a sign reading 'Cloverfield Mystery Spot - Tourists Welcome.'
"Clawesome!" Nero shouted, and hopped out of the van. Kai groaned.
"Guys, that's a tourist trap. Mystery Spots just exist to bilk money out of unsuspecting tourists who-hey, where are you all going?!"
"Bathroom!" Rory shouted as he took off like a shot.
"Gift shop!" Glen called out as he ran in the opposite direction.
"World's Largest Ball of String!" Nero gave Kai the double thumbs up before running in a third direction.
Left by himself, Kai sighed. He opened the back of the van and pulled out a gas can. He pulled out his iCoffin.
*No Signal*
"Dad's gonna ground me for this..." Kai murmured to himself. "Guess I should try to make it worth it, then."
Hauling the gas can, Kai followed Nero's footsteps to get a glance at the world's largest ball of string.
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 4:30 am
*ding ding
The little bell over the door to the gift shop chimed as Glen entered the small store that seemed to be over flowing with all sorts of goodies for the weary traveler to remember their trip by; from t shirts to coffin coffee mugs and the random food and beverage item, there was something for everyone -- or so the proprietor hoped, for any who felt the need to spend a buck. And truth be told, Glen never was very good at holding back when there was shopping to do!
(Hence why he and Cleo de Nile were always shopping at the maul together!)
"Hiya!" The older normie woman said from behind the counter, wearing a checkered apron and her graying hair done up in curlers. "Welcome to... well! It ain't too often we get monsters travelin' thru! That's a right nice change of pace! Maybe we can unload some of their items..."
She gifted Glen with a toothy smile and he returned the beaming gesture with a wave thrown in for good measure. "Hi!"
"Travelin' through with the family?"
"No. On the way to New Goreleans with my bros! They're off checking out the Mystery Spot."
"Not interested in it yourself? It's a sight to see!"
"Oh I'll go see it after. I just can't resist a good boovenir shop!" Glen almost vanished in the mass of t shirt racks and shelving units. (BOO was it a good thing Nero didn't come in!) "Going to have Fangsgiving with family down there!"
"Fangsgi... Thanksgiving?"
"No, Fangsgiving!"
The woman chewed on that one a bit, then nodded in understanding. Monsters used to travel through Normieville here allllllll the time, but their monster tourists slowed down over the past year or two. Shoot, this here was a treat! If it didn't mean abandoning the shop she'd run up the hill to the house to fetch the kids and her husband so they could see the monsters!
"Normieville...." Glen said as he read the 'I Lost My Fanny In Normieville' tshirt. It said XXL, and a smile crossed his face. That seemed perfect for Nero! It wouldn't hurt to get his beasties a treat as well as a few little doodads for himself.
Couple more t shirts ... a hat for Rory ... oo! Keychain for Kai! Little statues of local normie points of interest... what's this? Snowglobes with 'monster' buildings in it? There was one with the Emerald City! Must have! And that one... that one looks like King Arthur's castle! And the snowflakes are red and gold, and look like fire!
Hmm... Drakie did seem awfully down. Glen figured that prezzie might cheer her right up!
He continued browsing, holding his iCoffin wand up to 'carry' his goodies along with him. Hmmm... are those TEDDY BEARS!? Boo was tucked safely away in his luggage, but what was one or two more? OoOOoo! They have food! Coca... Cola? Hunh! And jerky made out of something called... BEEF?
Oh well, nothing tried, nothing gained! Glen brought his goods up toward the counter...
As Nero posed in front of the World's Largest Ball of String and Kai took the picture, Glen approached from behind...
"Oo! I'm next!"
Kai and Nero turned to take in the spooktacle that was Glen, arms laden with chopping bags, a ball cap that seemed two sizes too big on his scalp, and shades over his eyes with little randomly flashing lights along the frames.
"What?"
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 8:58 am
In the bathroom, which was startlingly clean, Rory finished up by washing his hands. He looked in the mirror and smoothed back his hair, which immediately flopped back into place. His eyes were twitchy and bloodshot. Rory leaned in closer to check his cracks and make sure all of this rambunctious travel hadn't induced any more stress fractures.
"So. How is your trip going?" Rory's mother appeared next to his reflection, her arms crossed in front of her. Rory nearly jumped out of his socks.
"Mother! The trip! It's going! Fine!" Rory stammered. He reeled back a bit and accidentally hit the automatic hand dryer, which blew his hair all off to one side and sent several paper towels fluttering through the air.
A normie walked into the bathroom...took one look at the scene, turned around and marched right back out.
"I can hold it till the next rest stop!"
Rory winced a bit and looked back in the mirror at his mother.
"It's going just great..." Suddenly, he perked up, looking through the mirror at where his mother was standing, over a hundred miles away. "Hey, you're still at the school! You're in the ghoul's bathroom there!.....not that I'd know what it looks like...."
Mary sighed.
"Yes, Emeralda and I are...staying late." Rory raised an eyebrow. Was that good, or bad?
"How, er, how did conferences go? You'll still let me go to Monster High, right? I'm not grounded for eternity, right?! You'll let me keep seeing my friends and classmates and ghoulfriend, right?!!!!!"
"Yes, Rorrim, relax. Goodness, you're hyper today. I was pleased with the reports from...most of your teachers. Especially in Mad Science. Mr. Hackington seemed to be very uhh-mazed at the project you and Glen completed. He wouldn't even let us look at it, he was so protective of it."
"Yeah, we got an A-triple-plus on it! I didn't even know that grade existed!"
"Yes, it's very-" Mary suddenly turned her head. Rory could hear someone shouting, muffled.
"Bloody Mary! Return to your seat at vunce! Or else you shall have to write 'I vill not dawdle in the bat-room' one thousand times on the blackboard!"
Mary jumped.
"Sorry, Rorrim, I have to go. I love you, see you tomorrow, and be SCAREFUL!"
And with that, Mary vanished. Rory wondered just what the heck was going on there...but at that exact moment, the normie from before burst back in, hopping on one foot and shouting.
"I don't care if you curse me, I gotta GO!" And with that he dashed past Rory into a stall. Rory shrugged and walked out to rejoin the rest of the boos.
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 9:48 pm
"Bro'ry!" Nero called as the mirrored bro walked out of the main rest stop building, "get your chromium butt over here!"
As Rory trotted over to the World's Largest Ball of String, Kai and Glen kept trying to get normies to take a group picture. A little old lady was backing away from Glen as fast as her rolling walker would take her.
"It'll just take a sec I've got all kinds of aunts and grannies you don't h-"
The little wheels on her walker practically smoked as she scurried into the rest building.
"Nosonnysorryhavetousetheladiesohsomeonehelpgetapitchforkbye."
"Kai, why can't I just cast a spell on the camera..."
"NO! It's my dad's and he made me promise nothing would happen to it, and your camera spell always cuts our heads off."
As Kai approached yet another load of tourists, at least two of which appeared to be clutching religious symbols, Nero spotted the perfect group. Teen aged ghouls....girls. Whatever.
"Ladies," he called, "my bros and I are in trouble and you are the only fair maidens who can save us! Would you lend a guy a helping cl...hand, if you had his eternal gratitude in return?"
The three gh...girls, looked at one another. They had blonde, brown and red hair and none of it writhed or hissed on its own.
"Pssst, don't do it, they look like trouble," the blonde hissed at her friends.
Nero had excellent hearing, finely attuned to catch even one flat note in a chorus.
"You wound me! WOUND! Look how wounded I am," he said, pouting and clutching his hands to his heart, and managing a not too subtle flex. "We're not trouble, we're just in trouble. It's totally different."
The other two girls giggled.
"Oh lighten up Tina. What do you need?"
Nero snatched the camera from Kai, flashed his most enigmatic but studly sphinx grin and the girls, walked over and bowed to them.
"Ladies, my bros and I are the most epic of road trips," here he gestured to the bros. Kai froze as he was smacking Glen upside the head for trying to stalk another grandmother, and Rory froze it terror as he realized a bunch of normie girls were starring at him.
"We're bonding over gas station donuts and coffee, experiencing adventure, thrills, spills, string! But we can't leave without proof. Who would ever believe that we were near a ball of string so big you could knit infinite sweaters out of it?" he held the camera up with calculated sheepishness, "so ladies...would you take our picture?"
Now they were all giggling, and the brunette was elbowing Tina for ever being so judgmental.
"Wellll..." the redhead began.
"No! Don't answer yet. You have no reason to trust us. We're strangers to you. I'm Jean-Nero Champollion de Sphinx, but everyone calls me Nero. The incredibly handsome bro with the horns is my best bro Kai, the little green bro is Glen and he who can only reflect your beauty back at you is Rory."
Rory managed to blush, which is practically indescribable on a mirror, and Kai's tail rattled. He grabbed it to make it stop. They all held the breathes for a heartbeat.
"Ok, sure, why not?" the brunette piped in.
"You are all our heroines!"
The bros got together in front of the ball of string, flexed as hard as the could and camera went off five or six times. They had to adjust when Quackford lept into the frame and sat on Rory's head. Then the girls took turns taking pictures with them, trying on all of Glen's gift hats, then all three posed with Nero, who managed to get her arms around all of them and still give a thumbs up.
"Ok, it's getting kinda late, we should all hit the road again if we're going to stay on schedule," Kai told them, gesturing at his watch.
"Ladies, you are perfection personified," Nero said hugging them all.
The bros all made their way back to the van, with Glen lagging behind as he carried all his trinkets.
"How did you get them to do that?" Rory asked, Quackford still stubbornly perched on his head, "Everyone else just ran away!"
Kai and Nero looked at each other and broke out into smiles.
"Nero's parents are archaeologists, he speaks all kinds of languages."
"But...he was speaking the same language as he usually does..."
"No bro. I was speaking the universal language."
And he and Kai fist-bumped before getting into the van.
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Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 2:04 pm
And it was time to get back on the road if they wanted to arrive at the hotel before dark and in time to still grab a bite to eat! Rory and Kai had to practcally drag Nero away from the three normie girls he seemed to be hitting it off with, what with that mesmerizing Sphinx charm of his.
"Glen?" Kai approached the driver's side door, spotting his diminutive bluddy just finishing tossing all his boovenirs into the back and conjured himself into the driver's seat. "What are you doing?"
"What's it look like?" Glen replied. "Before we started, we agreed everybluddy had to take a turn behind the wheel so nobluddy got worn out. Whelp! It's my turn!"
Glen smiled and made 'grabby' hands toward the keys in Kai's claws and poor Kai. He did remember that rule of his dad's... but he had hoped Glen hadn't. He rode with Glen once ... once! And had heard enough horror stories from Draconia and Hellene to boot! Nero never seemed to let anything rattle him... but Rory? Had Rory ever had the hexperience at being in the same vehicle that was being driven by Glen?
Kai looked again at Glen's 'grabby hands' and stole a quick glance at Glen's smiling, hopeful face -- and sighed. He couldn't hurt his feelings by not letting him have his turn behind the wheel. And it wasn't THAT far to the hotel, was it?
What's the worst that could happen?
Nero climbed inside of the back, followed by Rory who immediately triple bolted his extra seat belts around himself. Kai closed the driver's side and fastened his own when he said...
"Okay, let's get going. Just be..."
The ignition started... the van popped a wheelie... and Glen tore out of the parking spot!
"CAREFULLLLL!!!"
Nero was flung into the back, barely missing Rory who ducked low and Quackford flew up into the air, just missing the chance at being a feather sammich between Nero and the back of the van as it sped down the interstate!
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 9:10 am
To: Marceline
My darling Spookybee, I type these words fearing you may never see them, as I am positive that Glen is going to smash us all into a tree at about a billion miles per hour. If, by some chance you manage to find these words tapped into my mangled iCoffin, please know that I lo-
*SCREEEEEEECH!*
The van banked a hard right, causing Rory to accidentally delete the e-maul to Marceline he'd been working on. Dreading what he'd see, Rory looked up. Somehow, they were driving up a mountain. On one side was sheer rock face. On the other side, nothing but clouds.
"How did we-"
"Shortcut!" Glen declared, turning the wheel hard and bringing the van around a perilous bend. Rory squeaked. "Gotta make up for all that lost time at the Mystery Spot!"
"The railings on the side of the road look like they're in terrible disrepair..." Rory commented as the van swerved unnervingly close to the rail. "Are you sure this isn't dang-"
"Forbitten word, remember?!" Glen cut Rory off before he could finish. "C'mon, cuz! This trip's supposed to help you un-live a little! Un-wind! Relax! Enjoy the ride! Spellebrate!"
"I know, it's just that I'm not as used to this as you!" Glen came from Oz, a unique land where no real harm could come to its citizens. An Ozian could be cut into a million pieces and still feel fine. This sort of invulnerability gave Glen a more reckless attitude than his cousin, even if the Oz invincibility technically ONLY counted if one was actually in Oz.
Rory, on the other claw, had unlived a very sheltered un-life in Mirrorverse, the dimension on the other side of every mirror. Having been crafted by his mother out of mirror-stuff himself, he was constantly worried about fracturing, cracking, chipping or shattering. It was only in the last few months that he'd really ventured outside of Mirrorverse and started to un-live. Getting used to it was a slow process, for as much as Rory envied his cousin's free-wheeling attitude, he had an entire unlifetime of overprotective programming to overcome.
"You're doing fine, Rory." Kai assured the mirror-witch. "I think Glen's making us all a little nervous. Could you dial it back a little bit, Glen?"
"Sure, sure." Glen nodded, and eased off the gas. The speedometer fell back under the 100 MPH mark. "We're almost at the foot of the mountain, anyways."
Rory pointed ahead at the road, where something very large and very furry was crossing in front of them. "Look out!"
"Whups." Glen slammed on the brake and the car started skidding.
"Oh no!" Nero braced himself, putting one buff arm out to protect Rory if the van lost control. "Scareful, chrome-bro!"
"No, no, nonononono-" Rory twitched and his eyes glowed. A puff of cotton candy appeared in front of the van, bouncing it to a perfectly soft stop.
The Bigfoot who had been crossing the road suddenly looked up from his iCoffin, blissfully oblivious that he had just narrowly avoided becoming a hood ornament. The Bigfoot shrugged and continued walking, playing his game of Fangry Bats.
"Whew. Good job, Glen. Way to conjure!" Kai wiped his brow and checked on Quackford. Quackford gave Kai a wings-up that he was fine.
"That wasn't me!" Glen turned to Rory with a grin. "Rory! You conjured!"
"I-I guess I did." Rory was all right at mirror magic, but practical magic like flight, conjuring or flinging energy bolts was woefully out of his league. He and Glen had been practicing with each other during Study Howl, teaching each other their respective magical techniques. This was the first time Rory had successfully conjured something. Glen held up a hand for a high five.
"See! This trip is already doing you good!"
"Hey, you know, I think it might be Rory's turn to drive!" Kai rolled down the passenger side window and started clearing away the fluffy pink cotton candy Rory had conjured.
"Already? But I'm making such great time!" Glen protested, a little crestfallen. "At this rate, we'll be at the hotel in about an hour!"
"You agreed we'd all take turns, right? And now it's Rory's turn." Opening the door, Kai waded through the pink candy and got the van door open to free Nero and Rory. He grabbed a puff and tasted it. "Mmm."
"Aw." Glen replied, a frown on his emerald-hued face. "Well, I guess that's okay. Your van is nice and all, but it just doesn't handle as well as my S-Boo-V."
"Yeah, the van doesn't have all of those magical charms your mom put on your ride, brutha. It's just a regular, normie-type van." Everyone got back in the van again and rearranged themselves. Rory climbed into the driver's seat.
"I-I-I only have my permit, you know..." Rory warned the other guys. "I'm taking Driver's Dread right now. Mr. Hack says I drive like a zombie grandmother after a turkey dinner...whatever that means."
"It's cool, bro-ry." Nero reassured him as he took a seat in the front passenger seat. Kai and Glen hopped into the back. Quackford sat on Glen's head. "If you want to take it nice and easy, it'll give us a chance to enjoy all of this...scenery."
Nero looked out the window. Cornfields as far as the eye could see. He sighed.
"Plus, with me in the passenger seat, I can control the tunes. You guys need to hear my latest jam sesh with Griminem! We got such a sick flow going on I thought we were gonna drown!" Nero twirled his iCoffin on an extended foreclaw and then plugged it into the van's radio.
"Zoomin' past the ghouls
Hottest ride in school
Wind in my dreads
Turning all they heads!"
As the fast-paced, heavy-bassed song began, Rory turned the key in the ignition and s-l-o-w-l-y crawled the van back onto the road.
He gingerly touched the acceleration pedal.
"Here we go...." The van lurched forward...at a snail's pace. The speedometer hit 15 MPH and refused to budge.
"We be blazin' through the road
like a racecar on nitro
Haulin' hotties like a load
Wonderin' where we all might go!"
A nearby wereturtle strolled up behind the van on the sidewalk next to the road. As he passed the van, he gave the four boos a wave. Kai cleared his throat.
"Er-hrm, maybe you could pick up the pace a *little* bit, Rory. I mean..." Kai racked his brains, thinking of something that would motivate the timid witch. "We don't want to get behind in our schedule. If we showed up late in New Goreleans, imagine what Marceline's parents would think."
Rory's eyes got wide. Suddenly, the van started going faster. Nero looked at Kai and gave him a grin.
"They see us rollin'
They lurchin'...."
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2014 10:35 am
Rotten Booge, Booisianna...
The van crept to a halt (finally!) right outside of the ultra fangulous and hexclusive Bates Hotel. All the doors opened and Rory C-A-R-EF-U-L-L-Y climbed down from the driver's side and joined the other three boos as they stared up at the old three story Victorian style manor. The sky was clear and the sun was just beginning to set, but there was one large storm cloud, almost black with lightning striking down every few moments.
"Minibro," Nero started as he hefted a few of their suitcases from the back of the van. "Are you sure this is where we're crashing? It looks a little upscale for our budget."
"Of course!" Glen smiled, basking in the gloomy atmosphere. "We're almost to New Goreleans and Aunty Scarie had our rooms arranged with the manager. He's a.. er, 'client', of her's."
"Well let's get our stuff to our rooms and see if we can get some grub!" Kai announced as he started grabbing for some of their things as well. "I'm starving!"
The four boos each grabbed bags and suitcases (Nero more so than the others), and they proceeded to climb the rickety steps and enter the foreboding abode. (See what I did there?) They stepped into the foyer where the receiving desk was unmoaned, and Rory reached up and carefully tapped the bell.
"Yesssss?" Up popped the proprietor of the establishment, Normoan Bates, startling Rory who jumped back and was promptly caught by Nero.
"Good eeeevening." Normoan greeted them. "I'm afraid our fine establishment might be a touch out of your price range my boos. You might try the Moantel Hell just down the road."
"But we have reservations." Glen hexplained and gestured toward Rory. "Our Aunty Scarie arranged them for us."
The undead Normoan blanched an even lighter shade of ghastly gray and choked, "S-S-Scarie... L-L-Leveau!? Oh! Oh dear, why didn't you say so my fine young moan!? I-I-I have your reservations right here!" he hurriedly checked the reservation list and tapped the page. "yes! Yes, two rooms! Our very finest!"
"Are we too late to get something to eat?" Kai asked, his claws rubbing his audibly growling stomach.
"Oh dear, no! Not at all!" Normoan answered. "Our All-You-Can-Eat Boofet is manned and freshened up twenty four hours a day! You can eat all you wish!"
"Hear that Kai?" Glen preened. "A boofet!" Glen turned to Rory to hexplain. "Kai loves a good boofet!" Not noticing the twitch in kai's right eye.
Normoan rang the bell and a tall Golem-like monster, dressed in a suit, stiff as a board and standing a few inches higher than even Nero, popped up seemingly from out of nowhere.
"Uhhhhhh!" The golem looked at all four boos with sunken eyes.
"Boostav,"Normoan stated. "Be a good lad and show these boos to their rooms."
'Boostav' already had two armloads effortlessly of their luggage and groaned, "Walk this way sirs."
And off he went, kicking his legs up and down stiffly, his upper body rocking back and forth. Glen looked at him, then at Nero, Kai and Rory and shrugged, the proceeded to walk just like Boostav... as the other three followed suit behind.
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 4:42 am
Deep in the Booisianna Swamp...
"And you're absolutely sure?" Pa Murk said into that brand new, high-falootin' talkin' box he held in his hand. "Her nephews?"
"And his friends!" Ma Murk said from the other end of the tellyophone, obviously in a hurry to finish the call and return to her hair appointment before she incurred the wrath of Scarie Leveau. "They should be arriving tomorrow."
Pa said, "Well, if they're travelin' all the way from Salem, they'll probably stop fer a bit of a rest. Hold on..." Pa turned his head and called out, "Cletus!"
Another heavily bearded man stepped out of the shack and scratched his chest idly before he answered, "Yeah, Pa?"
"What's the closest monster hotel near New Goreleans?" Paw asked.
Cletus blinked, his eyes almost void of thought, as he froze to, what do they call it? ... Think?
"Bates Hotel!" Barked Granny Murk from her rocking chair as she watched the food cooking.
"Bates Hotel!" Cletus repeated, a dumb smile on his face.
"Good work boy!" Pa said and returned to his phone conversation. "Okay Ma, the boy an' I are gonna take a bit of a trip to scout this 'Bates Hotel' and see what we can find. We just might have the tools take the old witch down!"
"And finally git on tellyovision!" Ma Murk replied hopefully. Then an indistinct shout was heard from her end and she stated, "I gotta go!" And with that, she hung up the phone, disconnecting the call.
Pa Murk turned around with a gap toothed smile poking through that monstrous beard. Yes, you were looking at the infamous Murks, who throughout history were once known as the most fearsome of witch hunters. Once they were the scourge of monsters who practiced the Craft ... only now? Not so much. Now, the Murk Dynasty just wasn't what it used to be.
"Boy!" Pa shouted. "Git the witch catchin' supplies! We're goin' off on a hunt!"
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 8:25 am
The Next Morning.....
As Nero hopped in the shower, Kai talked on his iCoffin to his dad.
"Yeah, everything is going great so far. We got a little lost yesterday...just a little teeny, tiny, itty bit lost but we found a great rest stop and they put us back on the road." Okay, that was a little bit off from the actual truth, but Kai didn't want to worry his dad with talks about little old ladies at Mystery Spots looking for pitchforks and torches. "So, you and Abyssa are going to conferences today, right?"
Kai paused to listen to his dad.
"No, I know you're not a fan of Mr. Hackington, but don't worry! I'm doing fine in his class. Even with Robecca Steam as my partner. No, no, it's not that I don't like her," Kai explained. "It's just that she has some glitch in her clockwork that throws off her ability to tell time and there's always a risk she'll show up late. And if she's late, Mr. Hack locks the door and gives her deadtention. She's managed to overcome it a bit, but now she shows up really, really early and- look, Mr. Hack will tell you all about it during conferences, I'm sure."
The bat-room door opened and swaths of steam lurched out, followed by Nero in a towel, singing full-blast into a bar of soap.
"No, that's not the radio, it's Nero. We're going to catch the Hauntinental Breakfast and then get back on the road. We're actually really close to New Goreleans, so we should get to Ms. LeVeau's in plenty of time. Have fun with conferences, okay? I'll see you guys tomorrow. A hui hou kakou!"
Kai tapped his iCoffin and slipped it back into his backpack. Nero was already halfway dressed.
"You hungry, brutha?" Kai asked his beefy bunkmate. Nero grinned.
"I could eat a were-elephant."
"Gnarly. Let me brush my fangs, if you wanna go page Rory and Glen's room, and let's get this day started."
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 8:58 am
Just a smidge earlier in the morning...
Glen rolled over in bed, something keeping him from being able to get back to sleep. No, it wasn't Rory's snoring. Rory seemed to be the absolute quietest sleeper this side of the graveyard. Glen fell asleep just fine, but now that he was awake, something was keeping him awake and alert.
How very strange. Glen rarely if ever, got up before noon. Perhaps it was the hexcitement of the broad trip? Perhaps it was the lingering sense of dread at arrival in New Goreleans? Who could tell?
Glen smacked his lips and realized his mouth was quite dry. He could use a drink. Glen quietly rolled out of bed and walked over to the mini fridge in his and Rory's room and popped it open to retrieve a Red Ghoul when horro of HORRORS! He was out of Red Ghoul! If he had been Skelly, his jaw would have hit the floor. What was a growing boo to do!?
Oh wait! He kept an emergency ration out in the van! But the van was locked. Glen looked up on the bed stand and there was his wand. Okay, locked door was no longer an obstacle. Glen slipped into his bathrobe and flying monkey slippers, grabbed his iCoffin wand and quietly left the hotel room.
Downstairs, Glen exited the hotel in the wee mourning hours, and headed for the van when he spotted something quite interesting: a large box propped up with a stick, and something shiny beneath it. Glen squinted his eyes and used his wand for a light and saw what appeared to be a Red Ghoul! Eagerly, Glen hurried over to the thirst quenching booverage, but upon closer inspection, it was something called...
Red Bull?
Hm, must be a normie thing. Were they still around Normieville? Oh well, beggars can't be choosers! Glen kneeled down and reached for the can, but it was just out of his grip. He then scooted a bit under the box, still just a bit out of reach... He shifted all the way under and grasped it...
When a string attached to the stick was pulled and the box came falling down over Glen...causing him to drop his wand outside of the box!
"Hey! Who turned the lights out!?"
"We got `im Pa! We got him!" Cletus Murk hurried from out of the hiding spot he shared with his Pa.
"I see that boy!" Pa Murk replied. "Now let's git that little witch boy back to the swamp!"
"Is somebody out there?"
Cletus and Pa Murk grabbed both sides of the box and started moving it...
"Hey! Let me out!"
The Murks never minding the iCoffin wand that was dropped, or that the fall set it to record...
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