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Note that using the forums for stories is now considered for experimental projects or for new authors who want some feedback from other authors before exposing their work to the reading community. Of course, anyone is welcome to continue to post their material here... but we hope authors will take advantage of the site features for displaying their stories to more than just the forums community.
Question Spectral Shenanigans: An Apparitia Story
8 years 8 months ago #1
by Insane Hiker
Posts:
189
Gender:
Unknown
Birthdate:
Unknown
Friday March 1, 2007
Dickinson Hall - Whateley
9:46 PM EST
Dear Diary
Hello my name is Heather Bridges although this wasn't the name I was born with I like it just as much when my new mom Rebecca gave it to me, and I like it a lot more than my birth name of Gretchen. I admit that my first week at Whateley was relatively easy; despite my now ex-roommate Estelle, or as she goes by around campus Clover, being a bit of a pest...okay a lot of a pest.
Apparently she and her friends Irene and Bethany are obsessed with obtaining mystic essence so that they can jump start their magical abilities prematurely and do cool stuff. Now since they know that my older sister Randi is a mage being trained personally by one of the new teachers, namely the Phantom Queen of the Wild Fae herself Morrigan, they figure that I might have some cool artifacts that they can borrow essence from or have some hand-me-down super magic tomes.
Unfortunately for them all that I have are my homemade belt of holding, my uniform bracelet (that Morrigan taught me how to make at the same time that she taught sis how to make her choker/collar), a few stray changeling baubles and some assorted trinkets that I keep in my belt. Okay, so I also had some leftovers from my days as Plagiat's servant like my mystic aura detection pendent, a tracking charm and a few odds and ends that were harmless, thank goodness I left the Bug-Out Bag with mom's relatives back in Tricoma. Still this didn't stop Clover and her friends from 'borrowing' a changeling bauble to see if they could appropriate some essence from it, by trying to split the stone with a jeweler's kit and doing all of this without the basic precaution of laying down a containment circle.
I understand their detention for that little fiasco is to sand down and repaint the walls of the room that they tried to do that in then replace the carpet, after the mystic explosion that their stunt triggered, I mean it scortched a bald spot in the carpet. What makes this worse is the side-effects from the explosion Clover's hair now turns hot-pink whenever she sneezes, Abracadabra is turning weightless when her mind wanders and the whites of Palantir's eyes change black every time she blinks. Of course Ms. Grimes is working on the cure to this burst of unfocused faerie magic, when she isn't busy laughing about the craziness of the whole situation.
Someone who wasn't so amused though was Mrs. Selkirk, she took a dim view that one of her girl's was caught red-handed stealing from her roommate, and after talking with Ms. Grimes as well as Sherrie and Mirabel it was decided for the best that Sherrie and I swap rooms since Sherrie didn't have and magic artifacts to tempt Estelle and her friends. I just hope that she doesn't take this the wrong way, especially since she and Mirabel have been friends for a lot longer than either of them have known me.
At keast the day after tomorrow is the start of my first real week at Whateley, fortunately I've heard that Crystal Hall will reopened for everyone tomorrow in time for Breakfast. I admit that I'm far from picky about food, two years as a nameless slave eating stale bread and dog food will make you look at normal cafeteria food like it's gourmet fair, but the fact is that Dunn Hall is packed like a sardine can during mealtime. Although from what sis has heard from the other students the food used to be a lot better in Crystal Hall compared to Dunn Hall since the ovens are better; there's also some talk about getting better ovens and stoves for Dunn's soon to reopen student restaurant being a future senior project.
Now since classes don't begin until Monday and everyone was coming back in from the Winter Break this was the perfect time to make some more friends. That is if I can find some people outside of Sherrie and Mirabel in my own age group that are not crazy- okay to be fair the three little witches are crazed not crazy, maybe the other Underclassmen who hang out with the Underdogs. At least the cafeteria won't be crowded as all get out as it was last week.
Saturday March 4, 2007
In Front of Crystal Hall
7:27 AM
Well Crystal Hall was open for business- almost. Since this was the senior legacy for the Class of 2007 Kodiak, the new head of the Alphas was determined to make a big show about it with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony. Still it was interesting seeing every bleary-eyed and starving student salivating in front the newly remodeled cafeteria while we were waiting for Kodiak to finish. Finally the Alaskan senior wrapped up his speech on student solidarity and the end of the dark legacy left by the now banished student Hecate, right before cutting the ribbon to the cafeteria and letting us line up for chow.
Now given that everyone was here for the ribbon-cutting, the line was long and we were near the end of it, it appeared that today at least admittance was by Class and we were 2012. While I admit that I already wasn't too much a fan of the Three Little Witches we might as well sit together for lack of options, there arn't many Junior High students at Whateley and some of them hang out with other groups.
Little Bee for example always hangs out with the other Martial Arts Cheerleaders clique, there's also Lucille, Sue, Glass and Barry who hang out with the Underdogs (and are likely going to be at the tables next to us), and a couple of kids who never leave Hawthorn. Besides, it's just eating together and there is nothing more than that. Well I could ask if we could eat with sis and her friends, but I bet that her friends would end up receiving a lot of flak for letting some junior high students pretend to be big kids. I didn't want to do that to any of them I already liked Kerry and Jamal when we met them in New York, and most of her other friends were just as cool and nice- except for Konrad that jerk reminded me way too much of Plagiat with his Eastern European pride streak.
Well to tell the truth Konrad acts a lot like Plagiat did, and I've been trying my best to forget those days. Well not everything, a lot of Plagiat's other indentured servents I considered good friends, or at least as much a bunch of friends that a mutant could have with a few fae, minor daemons and other mythical creatures. Unfurth the dwarf was always good for a story when neither of us were busy, and he had more than a few good ones. Deliolindë the elf loved to sing and I always loved to listen, well I also would braid her hair when she let me. Kredje the gremlin had a good relationship with me, he loved to mess with and tried to fix any piece of junk that I could bring him, so whenever Plagiat had me raid a home I always tried to find some piece of broken technology for him to tinker with and try to fix. Curunír the demi-alp on the other hand, well she was interesting and loved to tell dirty jokes whether I wanted to hear them or not.
True in some ways I missed my old friends but now I was starting to make new ones, and I already had two new friends that didn't have ridiculous faerie laws that they were required to obey at all times. Okay my new sister Randi was half-faerie but she could choose when to apply those laws when she wanted to do so, and for Randi friends and family were the exception. Although I had heard she did tease Kerry about having to pay her in accordance to faerie law once, in return once mom heard that she told Kerry just where Randi was ticklish.
"Move it runts, high schooler's coming through!" As our group was about to walk into Crystal Hall we were shoved aside by a brick who trailed by this evil looking kid, who shoved Clover and I out of the way as he tried to muscle his past us. He didn't make it far when Sherrie grabbed him by the collar and threw him thirty feet away like he was a lawn dart.
Naturally, this action didn't go over too well with the thug's friend who tried to grab Sherrie, only to fall over asleep thanks to Mirabel's power putting the sandman wammy on him. Now we couldn't pat ourselves on the back too soon as mister lawn-dart was back and starting to look like a sawed-off version of Randi's old head ache the wolf-monster Carcharoth. He quickly backhanded Sherrie before she could sucker punch him again and held me up by my throat. "Now listen here you stumps, I'm Bloodwolf and you just made the last mistake of your lives, but since I'm in a hurry I'll just-"
Bloodwolf's words were cut off as the silvery blade of a very familiar knife was pressed against his throat and began to burn the skin under it causing the brute to drop me. "Think twice before threatening my sister and her friends ever again Alex because the next time I promise that I will neuter you!"
My sis held her mithril knife to Bloodwolf's throat a little longer until he finally passed out from the pain. Letting the monster drop to the ground she frantically looked at the rest of us and asked, "Are you girls all alright?" Seeing us nod as Sherrie had gotten up no worse for the ordeal Randi continued, "You have to be careful Bloodwolf and Maggot are both sociopaths on the Ultra-Violent list, you might get a repeat attack just for standing up to them."
"Understood sis," I said more than a little embarrassed, I mean from what Mirabel's parents told me in New York the major point of this school was about teaching you how to survive and succeed in the real world, and sis just had to save me from a couple of bullies. Still I had five and a half years to get what I needed, I just hoped that I could last that long.
"And you will be taking into custody for using a knife on another student Faolan," Stormwolf said as he charged the scene. "Really I would have thought that someone given the status of an honorary hero would know better!"
"You're right Stormwolf I do know better," sis smirked as she blew on her mithril knife and which was quickly revealed to be a common table knife. "I know that ever since getting on Generator's bad side Bloodwolf here has made it a point to keep track of everyone on campus who carries mithril, so in his case a little glamour goes a long way, I'm just glad Mrs. Redstag has been giving me pointers on it after practice this week. I admit I still have a long way to go in using them, but it isn't hard to make one knife appear to be another especially if someone knows that you have it and that you would use it if you saw them threatening someone- especially if they're family."
"Then what about the burns on his throat, is that knife silver?" Stormwolf inquired as Randi turned the knife over to him.
"Nope just you normal stainless steel flatware dinner knife from the cafeteria, really Ironknife given how much you idolize Champion you should remember about what happened to the second one." Sis chided away at the leader of the Wild Pack, "It's a major weakness of avatars with mystic spirits, and they are as vulnerable to what the spirit originally was and react psychosomatically to anything that they think is that same weakness."
Sis walked back inside and our group followed leaving Stormwolf to enjoy the taste of crow, and no I don't mean Jane. Once inside the newly unveiled Crystal Hall we made our way through the breakfast line, our group and the three witches sat down at the same table. "That was awesome, what kind of powers did you use on those two?" Clover all but squealed.
"Well I'm a power mimic; although I can only use the abilities of animals and only those that I've actually touched, not people or other mutants." Elaine started to explain, "Still Mother Nature has been running an arms race for a very long time and some pretty cool abilities are out there if you look for them. Most ants for example can easily lift about twenty to fifty times their own body weight and move as fast as thirty-five to forty scale miles per hour. However some beetles like those I had the opportunity to handle in an exotic pet store in New York last week can lift well over two-hundred times their own weight and are sturdy as a tank."
"And I can make people fall into a deep sleep with a little effort," Mirabel chimed in while hiding some of her other tricks, "not comatose mind you, just really hard to wake up until they are ready to that is."
"Gee and to think all you can do is jump into mirrors," Clover turned and looked at me as I sank into my seat. It wasn't like I didn't know that my powers seemed totally lame when it came to combat, unless someone tried to use a blade or a varnished weapon on me, then I'd just flow into it when it made contact, I don't even need to think about doing it I just do it on instinct in those cases. Not that it helped me against the child snatchers all those years ago, those goblins used raw leather and dull wood as weapons. Any blades that a child-snatcher had were old and rusty, not that they used them they were mainly for scaring kids like me into going along with no fuss while they drug them off to the holding pens at the local goblin market to await the wastrel action at the next New Moon.
No mustn't think about that, the past was the past; just remember what Plainswalker told you, it's okay to learn from the past but don't let it rule your present or you'll just ravage your future. I wonder how mom and dad were right now, I knew that dad was thinking of reenlisting with the army, and the attack by that group of zealots on our home might cause rumors to spread that they were attacking to capture a mutant. This could lead H1er to conclude that it was the home of a mutant, ironic that it was the home of two neither of whom were the one that the mob was after.
Part of me was worried that my dad might have his job taken from him, I mean he did work for the city and with children at that, never mind that he was a three-time employee of the month at the library and had received the I Love My Librarian award. I mean Arlington might be a big city but plenty of backwards people had a lot of influence, the reason that they didn't have public transportation was because senior citizens were worried that it would let the 'wrong sort of people' get around town, and Texas had one of the largest presences of hate groups in the country.
Not that the H1 lot would act too freely on that, they were too afraid of what Erzabet Scratch would do to retaliate, especially after the Camp White Lake Incident, how people would react if they heard that the Friday the 13th sequels had a real life parallel. During July of 1980, the campers headed for a month at Camp White Like to experience The Hangman throwing the mangled corpse of one of their councilors through the windshield of the first bus to arrive.
Later the state troopers came to investigate and found every councilor dead and from brutal injuries and strangulation, officially the reason behind the attack was never known. Of course as a fly on the wall in the Grand Hall, I learned that Erzabet ordered the attack because one of the children that had been there the previous year had manifested as a mutant during camp, and was brutally murdered by his fellow campers- at their councilor's instructions. While officially these paramilitary anti-mutant camps didn't exist, despite that they have been around for over thirty years ever since retaliation arose among H1 in response to groups like Eugenix and Blood Legacy during the sixties and seventies.
Oh, man was I mentally rambling, this was embarrassing I was starting to pick up Randi's habits that Jane told me about, but that made part of me smiled though- somehow it made me feel more like her real sister. Maybe Badb would start poking fun at me as she did sis about it before she left home. Why was I wasting time anyway and why waste time when delicious mouth-watering strawberry pancakes were sitting in front of me? Apparently, the cafeteria decided to go all out on the breakfast spread for the Grand Opening and though I was tempted by the omelet station, I have always loved strawberries and strawberry pancakes were one of the best ways to have them.
"Hey thanks for the flapjacks twerp," One rather large high school student said as he swiped my plate. Sherrie was about to stand up when Irene grabbed her sleeve to stop her, as she turned to look at the eighth grader Palantir shook her head as if to tell Animalia that this was a very bad idea.
After the bully walked off she asked Irene, "Why'd you stop me?"
"That's Buster," the manifester of the Three Little Witches explained, "he's a energy absorber, the more you hit him the stronger he gets."
"Great Perses Junior is one of the school bullies." Mirabel stated as she saw me get up from the table, "Hey Heather, where are you going?"
"To get some breakfast," I said as I walked back to the lunch line.
Buster sat down at his usual table with his fellow campus muscle-heads Tee-Kay, Nitro and Truck (on the second floor) and got to work cutting up his pancakes, stolen food was always sweeter and ever since those bitches in Team Kimba declared the Underdogs off limits, he had to look elsewhere. Fortunately, the Cape-wannabes that normally protected the junior high kids were busy elsewhere, so it was time to dig in.
Now done cutting up his stolen pancakes Buster turned to add the syrup to find the disposable syrup packs missing, he briefly looked around the table for it only to find that when he turned his gaze back towards his stolen meal, all that he found was a clean plate. This was weird he knew that he would have seen someone sneak up and swipe the plate for one from the line even if it was a speedster like Aries he would feel wake once they went by. Maybe it was a time warper, yeah that had to be the only explanation, and as soon as he found the one that did it, he would pulverize them. Of course, if Buster had been paying attention he would have noticed my hand emerge from the napkin dispensor and swipe the syrup packet and then switch out the plates through the knife in his hands when he was looking around for the syrup.
Meanwhile unbeknownst to Buster, I was walking away from the breakfast line with cup of orange juice, stopping only briefly to toss a handful of napkins and an empty syrup packet into the trash, after turning in my plate, knife and fork to the dishwashing station. Okay I know that I got my breakfast back from that jerk and got to enjoy it without this Buster realizing it; but I would have to do something to avoid being a victim in the future, as Kredje would say 'It's time to have a little fun!' and for once I would agree with my old gremlin friend. It was time for a prank war and the target was Buster, the poor thug had no idea what he was in for after all what I appears to lack in combat ability I made up for in spades when it came to stealth and infiltration.
But first I needed some information, so after I finished my OJ I headed over to the table where sis was sitting with her friends. "Hey Heather, so how are you liking the new cafeteria so far?" Kerry asked as soon as I walked up, "Hopefully what happened earlier hasn't sullied the school in your eyes."
"Somewhat good although I might need some help with a bully," I said as I turned to Jolt, "Um Jamal, Buster is in Emerson with you, am I right?"
"Yeah, what did he do?" Jamal asked as he looked at me with a serious expression.
"Isn't it obvious?" Steve spoke up as he added his two cents. "Buster's a bully and Heather's a little junyah high kid, he took something from her and now you want some payback."
"Just a harmless prank," I said with a smirk. "It's nothing that would affect a power absorber, but I just need to know Emerson's layout in order to pull it off."
"So the young maiden would wish to engage in a fair pursuit of mischief." Bob Rose piped in, "Would young madam care for an ounce of assistance from this humble gentleman in her endeavor?"
"Um no thanks Mister Rose sir," I waved off still unused to a gentleman treating me like a lady. "I need to take care of this myself, not that I don't appreciate your offer but I need to pull this off myself otherwise I'll never be able to do this."
"Tis perfectly understandable young madam, far be it from me to chance my chivalrous nature injuring a fair lady's pride in such a way!" Rob Rose said with a smile before continuing. "However know that should you ever need assistance in such an act of chicanery you need only inquire; I shall be glad to render my assistance even were you not the sibling of a friend, for ruffian's such as the troglodyte known as Buster need learn that their true place is not being forced upon the backs of others."
"Believe me Mister Rose sir; I plan to cool off this hot head in my own way." I smiled before turning to my big sister. "So I heard that they made you change rooms too sis."
"Yeah no offense to Bladedancer but something about that Tao connection that she has was wrecking my concentration for carving new spell shells, and it was giving me trouble sleeping." Heather sighed as she stared back at her Western omelet, "They are going to have her rooming with a new girl who's moving in tomorrow and I'm switching to the Northwest-side and rooming with that Quikvix girl that we met in New York. It's not so bad, Bugs and Riptide are my new neighbors and I don't have Goodkind's obnoxious ear slaughter aggravating the hell out of me in the morning.
"Well I'll talk to you later sis," I said before I walked back to my normal table.
Sunday March 4, 2007
Buster's Room - Emerson Hall
5:48 AM
I stared through the dorm mirror in Buster's room in Emerson, I had to be careful about this I had only one chance to do this otherwise Buster would wake up and then I would be in real trouble. From inside the Place of Smoke and Mirrors I took out my chosen weapon a changeling bauble at the end of some fishing line. Now although changeling baubles were originally made to swap a changeling with a child there are rules to using them to contain someone, you see you can only place someone inside one if they lack the willpower to resist.
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule someone can be put into a changeling bauble if they agree to it or in this case if you get them while they are asleep. Thankfully most faefolk who kidnap kids like this have trouble making it through the thresholds of modern homes, there is something to be said about a place beginning to reflect the personality of its owners after all, fortunately I wasn't a fae and had no problem getting around any barrier provided my medium lie within.
I double-checked my target; sure enough, Buster was one the bottom bunk as plain as day. With my target confirmed, I used the slingshot to take aim, and fired at the wall next to Buster while keeping a hold of the string, I fell about three feet short of the bed. Somewhat disappointed I reeled the enchanted pendent back in, once I retrieved my ammunition I gave the string about four and a half feet more slack took aim at my target and then fired for a second time.
This time my shot paid off, the pendent sailed towards the wall until the string went taunt and allowed gravity to take over. The changeling bauble landed on Buster and I sent the command along the string-causing Buster to be sucked into the pendent. Again, I reeled in the changeling bauble once the captive Buster was well in hand; I strolled back to the mirrors leading to Dickinson and tossed the pendent through the mirror of the senior's shower room. I waited a little bit checked my watch and then released Buster and reeled the pendent in while running for Mirabel and my dorm room.
Once in sight I jumped through the mirror and back into my room, Mirabel was waiting for me grinning with anticipation. "Well how did it go?"
"Mission accomplished!" I said with a smile and thumbs up. "Now Sonique is an early bird and usually the first in line for the showers right?" Seeing Mirabel nod I continued, "So the rest of Dickinson should find out about Buster any-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH PERVERT!" The whole dorm almost seemed to shake with Sonique's scream, as everyone including ourselves opened our doors to see what was going on in this case in a few minutes we were treated to a motley collection of junior and seniors chasing Buster who was fleeing Dickinson while clad only in his boxer shorts down the south stairwell.
"Are you sure that was the best place to put him?" Mirabel asked as we drifted back into our room.
"Well I wanted to dump him in the pool, but they drained that after the swim tests were over with." I replied, "Although I could have dumped him in the snow outside Hawthorn, but he'd probably catch a cold on the way back to Emerson from that far away." What can I say this was a prank not a malicious act, besides Dickinson and Emerson weren't that far apart especially since it was downhill.
Crystal Hall
12:47 PM
Well yesterday was obviously the chefs going all out over having their normal facilities back because today was normal cafeteria fare; although the quality and creativity when up leaps and bounds, take today for example Cajun-grilled catfish, Italian olive salad and oven-baked four-cheese macaroni, and that was just what I picked out. Apparently sis wasn't kidding about the kitchen in Crystal Hall going a long way towards the quality of the food, and from what I heard Dagda was helping out in the kitchen too although his cauldron was currently on loan to a soup kitchen on the bad side of the Bronx.
"Hey Heather," Mirabel piped up, "I got a call from grandpa earlier, they're about to do a press release concerning Longhorn. It turns out he was a power gem user not a mutant after all, when the authorities made him turn over his costume and affects for an orange jumpsuit he turned into a 98-pound weakling. They looked through his costume and found two in that roper belt buckle medallion of his and another in that tacky bull skull bola-tie that he wore."
"No way! Are you serious?" I asked before digging deeper, "Just where did they come from?"
"Well originally Captain Cosmos's cosmic armbands," Mirabel said waggling her fork. "You know about the twelve gemstones that he had on there that were the source of his abilities right?"
"You mean the gems that were stolen and used to create the Zodiac Cartel in the Seventies right?" I said trying to take a grasp of the situation, "Wait I thought that they were recovered by the Justice Brigade." I should know Plagiat had me looking high and low for them until he uncovered intel that the Brigade had them in the vault at their Moon Base, and no matter how much he ordered me to I was never able to get there through the Place of Smoke and Mirrors. That of course was hardly surprising after all I had nothing to gaige the direction of the moon by the Place of Smoke and Mirrors and he was never able to come up with a single set of blueprints for me to use and picture the place.
"Well yes and know, you see as the Justice Brigade whittled away at the Zodiac Cartel, they began using the gems from the members that got arrested." Mirabel began to explain about what happened to them. "But when they finally arrested Scorpio and Libra, Virgo was MIA. It was two years before they finally caught her but when they did she was empty-handed, not only did they not find her gemstone but Taurus and Leo's gemstones were never found either. As it turned out Taurus and Virgo had a kid and they left him the three missing gems and a big fat Kardonian trust fund."
"Let me guess that kid was Longhorn?" I asked knowing the answer; she nodded in confirmation with a cold look in her eyes. Her grandfather helped found the Dallas Defenders and both of her parents had initially planned to join the team, it could be said that the Dallas Defenders were the legacy of her family, a legacy that Longhorn sullied then held hostage for a decade while he made a profit off of it. "Well you look at it this way your grandpa helped restore the legacy of Captain Cosmos, who knows maybe the next Captain Cosmos will be fighting alongside Champion or your parents in the Justice Brigade soon."
"I hope so because this bit of news is sure to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of a lot of folks back home." Mirabel said as she looked at me, "Say what is that you're wearing?"
"Eye of Eros, it's one of a ton of weird things that Plagiat had in his collection that he couldn't really sell, sis let me keep it and its sister artifacts after we raided his old stashes." I explained, "You look through this monocle at someone and it shows you a stream of energy over who they're attracted to, of course the color of the energy is supposed to mean something but I don't have the instructions and there are lots of different kinds of love. Jane asked me to help her play match maker so I'm giving her a bit of a hand."
"Hey sprouts lunch break is over," this blonde teen supermodel says as she stomps up to our table. "Ms. Hartford wants you to finish repainting that room before classes start tomorrow, or after you runts finally finish you'll be cleaning the bathrooms in Twain until maintenance finally gets around to replacing the linoleum."
The Three Little Witches scrambled to finish lunch and follow her, as I just stared at this faint almost flickering pink wisp that radiated from this girl to the next floor. Out of curiosity, I put the Eye of Janus on over that of Eros and I saw that it connected tenuously to an African American girl on the top floor. Up there was a group of mostly girls from my sister's cottage, I think their called Team Kenya or something like that, I might ask Randi about them later because for some reason that girl who just walked away reminded me of someone.
"Oh man Nate, I can't believe that you got chili and beans for lunch today," Aquerna from my dorm said in exasperation at her table nearby with the Underdogs. "J-Just do us all a favor and stay away from the clubhouse today."
"Anna what's wrong?" I asked as I walked over to her table.
"Oh hello Heather, everyone this is Heather, she and her friends moved into Dickinson last week."
"Hey!" "How's it going?" "Enjoying Whateley so far?"
"It's fine," I replied to the group. "My friend's coming here with me, and the fact that my sister's letters after she enrolled helped me out big time."
"What do you mean by your friends and your sister?" Rhiannon asked in confusion.
"Well my older sister is Faolan over in Poe, Mirabel and I were going to wait until High School to enroll when things got a little hot back home." I explained somewhat sheepishly and not going into details to avoid hurting Sherrie's feelings.
"It's my mother's fault," Sherrie explained. "I manifested during a track practice and some nutjobs from our church charged Heather's home during our slumber party to cure me by exorcizing the devil making me a mutant. If it wasn't for Heather's quick thinking and abilities we would have been swarmed by a mob, then who knows just what would have happened."
"Sherrie it's not your fault," Mirabel stated once again. "We keep telling you that there is nothing that you could have done to stop them, these were religious fanatics who were whipped up into a frenzy, you can't reason with people like that."
"I know but it still hurts that my parents are in lockup because of it," Sherrie said with tears in her eyes. "At least dad doesn't believe that I'm just a devil possessing his daughter, all he wants me to do is learn how to use my powers responsibly."
"Well that shouldn't be a problem here," Aquerna chirped in, "several of the teachers and students should provide lots of good examples of what to do, and some provide several examples of what not to do."
"Yeah," I piped in, "I heard all about the Bravo incident that happened the day before I got here from my sister. If you ever start acting like him or his friends Sherrie then you know that you're doing something wrong. However, about my earlier question, what's wrong with your friend eating chili, I mean other than it isn't a very good example of it? Especially if it's like what they were serving last Wednesday, maybe sis and I should give the family recipe to the cafeteria." I said as mused over that thought for a second.
"Heather your family's chili recipe is five-alarm," Mirabel said with a hint of caution. "It would put half the people here into Doyle."
"It's not five-alarm, that's just the version that we normally eat, we have variants all the way down to one-alarm." I argued, really some people could be such featherweights when it came to spicy food. "But what's the problem with your friend eating mediocre chili?"
"The problem is that Miasma is a walking gas hazard, let him eat anything that gives ordinary people gas and he he's producing the rankest smell imaginable and a lot of it." Bluescreen groaned, "During the swimming test he tried to motorboat after eating three helping of beans and hazmat spent a day treating the pool afterwards to get rid of the smell."
"I think I have a scent jar in my purse," I stated trying not to gag at the image that though conjured up, as I rummaged around in my handbag before pulling out a stoppered bottle. "Ah here it is! Now this will suck up all traces of the first smell that it samples after it's opened so be careful with it, just remember that after he's done he needs to do is put the stopper in the bottle otherwise after an hour it will expel its entire contents at once. I also want it back after he's put the stopper back in place."
"Oooh another prank planed already Heather," Mirabel said in a hushed voice with a smile as we went back to our table. "Are you sure?"
"Two pranks actually, you are such a bad influence on me!" I said in an almost singsong tone while playfully nudging her in the side. "But I think that one of the targets might actually welcome what I have planed."
"Oooh tell me all about it!" Mirabel as she rubbed her hands together and her face stretched in a grin that would do the Cheshire cat proud.
"Later, first I need to get that scent jar, then we both need to over to the campus store, they were out of a few of the supplies that we need for Intro to Magical Arts tomorrow." I said as I headed out the door and for the campus store.
On the way out that odd catbird-dragon girl that I saw arriving at school stopped me, "The girl that you wonder about is weeping within a cage of pain and anger; it will take more than you intend to shatter the bars of her self-inflicted prison."
Okay that was random and cryptic, I continued on my intended path to the school store after all, there were only so many hours in the day, and I had planned to hit a double before the sun came up. On second thought maybe I should talk to sis later before doing anything about Tansy.
Crystal Hall
7:24 PM
"That girl's bad news," Steve said after I asked Randi about Tansy Walcutt. "The day that Ah got here she pulled a gun on those three girls that your friends sit with, granted now Ah know that gun only fires non-lethal ammo, but still ya'll nevah use a gun to threaten someone."
"I hate to speak ill of anyone," Erza stated clearly, "But Tansy is a walking attitude problem with a massive ego on top of that."
"My first day in Dickinson she was screaming her head off because she didn't get a single dorm room after getting bumped out of Melville," Kerry stated clearly, "She was in a really bad mood all day and it's only gotten worse since she was kicked out of the Alphas. Although according to Dev she wasn't much better before she got kicked out; she even started the feud last fall between the Alphas and the Kimbas by using some Avatar-trait that she kept secret and kidnapped that ghost-girl Shroud from Poe to use her as a psychic shield."
"Not that I like Phase much but she is a good intel source, especially since I was rooming with her old roommate. Apparently Solange was a homely rich girl before she manifested and got bullied a lot because of that," Sis started laying out what she had learned from her now ex-roommate Chou. "once she manifested and grew into her BIT she used her powers to discover that what people really thought about her, and ever since she's been dead set on paying back everyone who was ever mean to her however she can do so, and making sure that it never happens again. "
"The sad thing is that the old her sounds a lot like me before I manifested, the only difference was that I decided to make a fresh start when I got here. Of course I suppose that when your dad goes through trophy wives like Uncle Roy goes through spare parts for his Ford Exploder you probably don't grow up in a very stable home, oh well the road less traveled and all that."
I know sis meant well, and oddly enough, her comment gave me an idea, and I knew just the old friend to help me with this. "Oh sis, how is your new room situation coming along?"
"Candace is cool for the most part, she spends most of her time with her friends and she gets along just fine with Jane, she is a bit of a tease though." Randi began to explain, "The only real problem is that walking attitude problem Tempest is in the same hall and has decided to dub our room the Furry Kennel, just because we both have animal ears and tails does not make us furries."
"I know sis," I briefly chuckled as I shook my head, "the correct term is anthros."
"Heather," sis blushed as she ducked her head while her friends got a good laugh out of that, while I went over to the Underdog's table to collect my scent bottle.
Dickinson - Heather & Mirabel's Room
9:44 PM
Mirabel and I sat on the floor I looked at the now used scent jar on my nightstand, I was prepared for my strike tomorrow before class but I still had one piece of mischief to pull tonight. I picked up the small canvas bag that I had set down next to the jar, which contained something that I collected over the course of my enslavement to Plagiat, markers each one representing an uncollected favor owed by a certain mystical being. As I have mentioned before my fellow slaves and I did have a little free time when Plagiat wasn't working us like dogs, the girls in the group did have our sort of slumber parties, but all of us that were able had a semi-weekly poker game when we were able.
The other slaves would bet markers and I would bet favors, those favors being retrieving things for them whenever Plagiat sent me out on raids. Usually it was an antique hairbrush or mirror for Deliolindë or liquor for Unfurth, or broken gizmos for Kredje- thankfully Curunir had an easy to read poker face, I admit I had a little trouble before Unfurth taught me the ropes at the game. By the time that sis finally set us all free I had a number of markers piled up and didn't have an idea of what to use them, when I told sis she insisted that I save them until I had a good idea on what to use them to do.
Today had given me one such idea, after asking around I heard that Tansy was a major jerk but something told me that maybe there was something more to the story. Now I admit my life when I was a lot younger wasn't exactly a happy one, but it did have its bright points, like Aunt Gertrude...well okay she wasn't really my aunt just an old lady that lived near to us who liked to babysit.
A year before I became a mutant and ran away from home, I asked her why dad was so mean all the time. She told me that deep down some people were unhappy with themselves and refused to see the problem, others were hurt a lot when they were younger and decided to make other people hurt, and of course there were some folks that were just plain mean.
Now I know that I'm young and not the smartest person in the world, but something told me that Tansy was in one of the first two groups. Of course, if someone was a good person deep down, maybe they just needed a push or two to help them on their way, besides who said a prank can't be doing something that someone might enjoy. I took out the marker with Curunir's symbol on it, now alp's were winter faerie with the power to influence dreams they could make them good or bad but it was all in mischief.
Curunir was weird for an alp she told me her mom was a succubus and that made her half-demon; it also meant that she preferred to make dreams and nightmares- naughty. If I read the line that went between Tansy and what was her name- oh yeah Toni sis said she was some sort of hyper martial arts girl, anyway if I was right Tansy was like sis and liked girls, but she was probably in denial about that. Well denial or not Curunir would probably get a kick out of doing this; I closed my eyes and blew on the marker.
As soon as my breath touched the crystal it turned to smoke that carried the dust that the marker had now become with it, Mirabel and I looked on as the smoke swirled on the ground before us growing until a very familiar figure appeared before us.
"Fetch," Curunir said as she emerged from the smoke. "It feels like forever how, have you been enjoying your freedom?"
"Just fine Curunir, and its Apparitia now, Faolan's family adopted me so we're sisters now." I said trying to pry the clingy demi-alp off me.
"Ah, and to think that if I was just a little faster with your new brother when your sister set me free, I could have been your sister-in-law with your niece or nephew on the way." Curunir sat mid air with a slight frump. "So how is your big sis enjoying that amulet of bicurious attraction that I gave her?"
"She isn't, mom confiscated it before we went home, she said that love needs no short-cuts." I stated to my fellow former slave.
"It wouldn't have created love, it would just cleave through denial, if they didn't constider her attractive then the amulet would have done jack squat. Also even if someone was attracted to her it wouldn't have forced them to act, it doesn't create attraction it just makes someone of the same gender who is attracted to the amulet's wearer aware that they are." The half-winter fae stated as she reclined mid-air, "So what can I do ya' for?"
"Well it's a bit of a prank; you see some classmates of mine are being supervised by Tansy Walcutt, a girl who's a bit of a jerk." I said as I began to explain the situation to Curunir. "I think the reason why she's a jerk is that deep down she's an unhappy person who decided to hurt people because she was probably hurt while she was younger, I also think that she might be like Faolan deep down."
"Alright I get it, one Sapphic fantasy special coming up, so what's the target's name?" The alp said with a wide impish smile.
"No I want to give a dream of the road less traveled, a might have been." I said as I corrected the naughty faerie. "I think that she needs to be shown her what her life would have been like if she took the high road, you know decided that the best thing that she could do would be to make a fresh start and rise above it all."
"Ah the something all too rare- it's sad really," Curunir mused as she reclined midair. "I can get a hint of her from here, a miserable soul who thinks that power will keep others from hurting her, as if power ever brought anyone happiness. I almost wish that I could do this as a freebie but you know how it is with the fair folk and unfortunately this would cost more than the minor favor that marker is good for. Hold the phone- Queen Morrigan is still here right? I mean if she is then I can make a deal with you, otherwise this request will cost about five markers."
"Yeah, she's here in her own body now." I answered her somewhat cautious, after all Curunir was Winter Court. "She and sis got pulled apart by a coven of wannabes witches who got confused over just what the Morrigna were."
"Good I'm thinking about jumping ship to the Wild Court, it's only a few decades till Queen Mab and Queen Titania have to abdicate and the crown princesses are a pair of completely spoiled immature brats. After taking that into account and the rumors that one of the Ancient Queens is reawakening, I want to jump ship before they destroy themselves trying to delay the inevitable." The alp stated earnestly as she rolled over to lay on her chest. "Especially once their subjects realize that the rogue court doesn't have to deal with the Hell Tithe, heck I would have done this earlier when your sis set me free, but I had my daughter to think about and I wanted to make sure that she would come with me."
"You look a little young for kids," Mirabel remarked with a raised eyebrow. "Besides if you are half-fae then you are able to lie."
"Fae are a lot younger than we look kid, I'll be having my centennial before you get into high school." Curunir stated as she glared at my roommate. "As for my daughter she's actually younger than you two, I'm just glad that my father didn't kick her out when I got enslaved, still I want a future for her that has a bit less back-stabbing, terror, and chance to be used as cannon-fodder or worse when my full-blooded siblings tire of using her as a scullery maid."
"I'll put in a good word the next time I see the Phantom Queen," I said before Curunir faded from view to wait for the right moment to get to work. "Well now that Tansy's as good as handled let's get some sleep so that I can nail our next target and not be a zombie during classes tomorrow."
"Okay, good night Heather," Mirabel said as she climbed into the top bunk.
"Good night Mirabel, pleasant dreams." I said as I tucked in for the night.
Monday March 5, 2007
Twain Cottage - Bloodwolf and Maggot's room
5:53 AM
I stared into the dorm room of the two jerks that attacked us last Saturday and tried not to vomit, these two were sick and their decor reflected that fact; I think one of their tamer posters was something by Rob Zombie. Still I had to be careful Bloodwolf was an avatar with a werewolf spirit and there was a chance that he could catch a whiff of my scent when I put my plan into action, and if that happened I would be in major trouble. So to be careful I washed the scent bottle in bleach to kill any smell of Mirabel, myself and anyone else on the outside as well as my hands after I put on three pairs of latex gloves.
It was now or never; ducking down so that I wouldn't be visible through the reflection in the dorm room's mirror I pushed the bottle into the room and then removed the stopper. When a scent bottle discharges, it only takes a second, so I withdrew the bottle and reinserted the stopper as I ran back to the mirror to my dorm room in Dickinson taking the timeout only to wash the scent jar with the bleach jug that I brought with me again before going back.
As I got back to the room I found Mirabel and Curunir waiting for me, "Mission accomplished!" I said with a thumbs up and a grin, "Part of me wishes I could have stuck around, but then they probably would have seen me."
"And your humble request to me was taken care of as well," Curunir said as she appeared sitting on thin air. "She's had a dream of living the last two and a half years of her life as if she tried to make a fresh start and find out who she really was- out of the closet and everything. I doubt that this will affect her too much as a person, but you never know what can serve as the foundation for change, now remember your promise to talk to Morrigan for me. If she agrees to see me just use another marker to summon me, I swear that I will replace it of course, so I do swear- so I do swear!"
"Only if you promise three times to meet her alone and unarmed." I stated, "The Winter Court has attacked Whateley before."
"And they will be unable to do so again until the Summer court has exhausted its three opportunities and the Autumnal Equinox has come, I'll also be bringing my daughter Ualea and neither of us will be armed- of this I do swear, of this I do swear, of this I do swear." Curunir stated clearly, "Besides if she approves our immigration we will both swear an oath of fealty to her- of this I do swear, of this I do swear, of this I do swear. Does that satisfy your requirements?"
"Yes it does, I will talk with her today after classes." With that, Curunir faded from the room and all presence of her was gone, I hope that I was able to help her; I know from experience that unless they are the offspring of human abductees that have been acclimated to the Faerie Lands cross breeds are not exactly welcome amongst either court as anything except servants. As for the children of crossbreeds, they are usually used given the mother's lot in life unless they happen to be taken as a favored mistress.
Oh well, pranks are one thing, but today is the start of classes. Let's see first period was Grammar 050 will be in Schuster Hall and second period which is the online math study program, have to take that in the computer lab underneath Beck since my laptop wasn't issued yet. Third period I'll be taking Intro to Magical Arts over in Kirby Hall with Mirabel and Irene, good thing Mirabel and I showed that we both knew enough to avoid having to take Basic Mystic Concepts with Estelle and Bethany. After lunch was Survival, Geography and Life Science, I might have wanted to learn self-defense but there was no way that I would be taking it right after lunch, oh well time to face my first day of classes.
- Insane Hiker
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Topic Author
Friday March 1, 2007
Dickinson Hall - Whateley
9:46 PM EST
Dear Diary
Hello my name is Heather Bridges although this wasn't the name I was born with I like it just as much when my new mom Rebecca gave it to me, and I like it a lot more than my birth name of Gretchen. I admit that my first week at Whateley was relatively easy; despite my now ex-roommate Estelle, or as she goes by around campus Clover, being a bit of a pest...okay a lot of a pest.
Apparently she and her friends Irene and Bethany are obsessed with obtaining mystic essence so that they can jump start their magical abilities prematurely and do cool stuff. Now since they know that my older sister Randi is a mage being trained personally by one of the new teachers, namely the Phantom Queen of the Wild Fae herself Morrigan, they figure that I might have some cool artifacts that they can borrow essence from or have some hand-me-down super magic tomes.
Unfortunately for them all that I have are my homemade belt of holding, my uniform bracelet (that Morrigan taught me how to make at the same time that she taught sis how to make her choker/collar), a few stray changeling baubles and some assorted trinkets that I keep in my belt. Okay, so I also had some leftovers from my days as Plagiat's servant like my mystic aura detection pendent, a tracking charm and a few odds and ends that were harmless, thank goodness I left the Bug-Out Bag with mom's relatives back in Tricoma. Still this didn't stop Clover and her friends from 'borrowing' a changeling bauble to see if they could appropriate some essence from it, by trying to split the stone with a jeweler's kit and doing all of this without the basic precaution of laying down a containment circle.
I understand their detention for that little fiasco is to sand down and repaint the walls of the room that they tried to do that in then replace the carpet, after the mystic explosion that their stunt triggered, I mean it scortched a bald spot in the carpet. What makes this worse is the side-effects from the explosion Clover's hair now turns hot-pink whenever she sneezes, Abracadabra is turning weightless when her mind wanders and the whites of Palantir's eyes change black every time she blinks. Of course Ms. Grimes is working on the cure to this burst of unfocused faerie magic, when she isn't busy laughing about the craziness of the whole situation.
Someone who wasn't so amused though was Mrs. Selkirk, she took a dim view that one of her girl's was caught red-handed stealing from her roommate, and after talking with Ms. Grimes as well as Sherrie and Mirabel it was decided for the best that Sherrie and I swap rooms since Sherrie didn't have and magic artifacts to tempt Estelle and her friends. I just hope that she doesn't take this the wrong way, especially since she and Mirabel have been friends for a lot longer than either of them have known me.
At keast the day after tomorrow is the start of my first real week at Whateley, fortunately I've heard that Crystal Hall will reopened for everyone tomorrow in time for Breakfast. I admit that I'm far from picky about food, two years as a nameless slave eating stale bread and dog food will make you look at normal cafeteria food like it's gourmet fair, but the fact is that Dunn Hall is packed like a sardine can during mealtime. Although from what sis has heard from the other students the food used to be a lot better in Crystal Hall compared to Dunn Hall since the ovens are better; there's also some talk about getting better ovens and stoves for Dunn's soon to reopen student restaurant being a future senior project.
Now since classes don't begin until Monday and everyone was coming back in from the Winter Break this was the perfect time to make some more friends. That is if I can find some people outside of Sherrie and Mirabel in my own age group that are not crazy- okay to be fair the three little witches are crazed not crazy, maybe the other Underclassmen who hang out with the Underdogs. At least the cafeteria won't be crowded as all get out as it was last week.
Saturday March 4, 2007
In Front of Crystal Hall
7:27 AM
Well Crystal Hall was open for business- almost. Since this was the senior legacy for the Class of 2007 Kodiak, the new head of the Alphas was determined to make a big show about it with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony. Still it was interesting seeing every bleary-eyed and starving student salivating in front the newly remodeled cafeteria while we were waiting for Kodiak to finish. Finally the Alaskan senior wrapped up his speech on student solidarity and the end of the dark legacy left by the now banished student Hecate, right before cutting the ribbon to the cafeteria and letting us line up for chow.
Now given that everyone was here for the ribbon-cutting, the line was long and we were near the end of it, it appeared that today at least admittance was by Class and we were 2012. While I admit that I already wasn't too much a fan of the Three Little Witches we might as well sit together for lack of options, there arn't many Junior High students at Whateley and some of them hang out with other groups.
Little Bee for example always hangs out with the other Martial Arts Cheerleaders clique, there's also Lucille, Sue, Glass and Barry who hang out with the Underdogs (and are likely going to be at the tables next to us), and a couple of kids who never leave Hawthorn. Besides, it's just eating together and there is nothing more than that. Well I could ask if we could eat with sis and her friends, but I bet that her friends would end up receiving a lot of flak for letting some junior high students pretend to be big kids. I didn't want to do that to any of them I already liked Kerry and Jamal when we met them in New York, and most of her other friends were just as cool and nice- except for Konrad that jerk reminded me way too much of Plagiat with his Eastern European pride streak.
Well to tell the truth Konrad acts a lot like Plagiat did, and I've been trying my best to forget those days. Well not everything, a lot of Plagiat's other indentured servents I considered good friends, or at least as much a bunch of friends that a mutant could have with a few fae, minor daemons and other mythical creatures. Unfurth the dwarf was always good for a story when neither of us were busy, and he had more than a few good ones. Deliolindë the elf loved to sing and I always loved to listen, well I also would braid her hair when she let me. Kredje the gremlin had a good relationship with me, he loved to mess with and tried to fix any piece of junk that I could bring him, so whenever Plagiat had me raid a home I always tried to find some piece of broken technology for him to tinker with and try to fix. Curunír the demi-alp on the other hand, well she was interesting and loved to tell dirty jokes whether I wanted to hear them or not.
True in some ways I missed my old friends but now I was starting to make new ones, and I already had two new friends that didn't have ridiculous faerie laws that they were required to obey at all times. Okay my new sister Randi was half-faerie but she could choose when to apply those laws when she wanted to do so, and for Randi friends and family were the exception. Although I had heard she did tease Kerry about having to pay her in accordance to faerie law once, in return once mom heard that she told Kerry just where Randi was ticklish.
"Move it runts, high schooler's coming through!" As our group was about to walk into Crystal Hall we were shoved aside by a brick who trailed by this evil looking kid, who shoved Clover and I out of the way as he tried to muscle his past us. He didn't make it far when Sherrie grabbed him by the collar and threw him thirty feet away like he was a lawn dart.
Naturally, this action didn't go over too well with the thug's friend who tried to grab Sherrie, only to fall over asleep thanks to Mirabel's power putting the sandman wammy on him. Now we couldn't pat ourselves on the back too soon as mister lawn-dart was back and starting to look like a sawed-off version of Randi's old head ache the wolf-monster Carcharoth. He quickly backhanded Sherrie before she could sucker punch him again and held me up by my throat. "Now listen here you stumps, I'm Bloodwolf and you just made the last mistake of your lives, but since I'm in a hurry I'll just-"
Bloodwolf's words were cut off as the silvery blade of a very familiar knife was pressed against his throat and began to burn the skin under it causing the brute to drop me. "Think twice before threatening my sister and her friends ever again Alex because the next time I promise that I will neuter you!"
My sis held her mithril knife to Bloodwolf's throat a little longer until he finally passed out from the pain. Letting the monster drop to the ground she frantically looked at the rest of us and asked, "Are you girls all alright?" Seeing us nod as Sherrie had gotten up no worse for the ordeal Randi continued, "You have to be careful Bloodwolf and Maggot are both sociopaths on the Ultra-Violent list, you might get a repeat attack just for standing up to them."
"Understood sis," I said more than a little embarrassed, I mean from what Mirabel's parents told me in New York the major point of this school was about teaching you how to survive and succeed in the real world, and sis just had to save me from a couple of bullies. Still I had five and a half years to get what I needed, I just hoped that I could last that long.
"And you will be taking into custody for using a knife on another student Faolan," Stormwolf said as he charged the scene. "Really I would have thought that someone given the status of an honorary hero would know better!"
"You're right Stormwolf I do know better," sis smirked as she blew on her mithril knife and which was quickly revealed to be a common table knife. "I know that ever since getting on Generator's bad side Bloodwolf here has made it a point to keep track of everyone on campus who carries mithril, so in his case a little glamour goes a long way, I'm just glad Mrs. Redstag has been giving me pointers on it after practice this week. I admit I still have a long way to go in using them, but it isn't hard to make one knife appear to be another especially if someone knows that you have it and that you would use it if you saw them threatening someone- especially if they're family."
"Then what about the burns on his throat, is that knife silver?" Stormwolf inquired as Randi turned the knife over to him.
"Nope just you normal stainless steel flatware dinner knife from the cafeteria, really Ironknife given how much you idolize Champion you should remember about what happened to the second one." Sis chided away at the leader of the Wild Pack, "It's a major weakness of avatars with mystic spirits, and they are as vulnerable to what the spirit originally was and react psychosomatically to anything that they think is that same weakness."
Sis walked back inside and our group followed leaving Stormwolf to enjoy the taste of crow, and no I don't mean Jane. Once inside the newly unveiled Crystal Hall we made our way through the breakfast line, our group and the three witches sat down at the same table. "That was awesome, what kind of powers did you use on those two?" Clover all but squealed.
"Well I'm a power mimic; although I can only use the abilities of animals and only those that I've actually touched, not people or other mutants." Elaine started to explain, "Still Mother Nature has been running an arms race for a very long time and some pretty cool abilities are out there if you look for them. Most ants for example can easily lift about twenty to fifty times their own body weight and move as fast as thirty-five to forty scale miles per hour. However some beetles like those I had the opportunity to handle in an exotic pet store in New York last week can lift well over two-hundred times their own weight and are sturdy as a tank."
"And I can make people fall into a deep sleep with a little effort," Mirabel chimed in while hiding some of her other tricks, "not comatose mind you, just really hard to wake up until they are ready to that is."
"Gee and to think all you can do is jump into mirrors," Clover turned and looked at me as I sank into my seat. It wasn't like I didn't know that my powers seemed totally lame when it came to combat, unless someone tried to use a blade or a varnished weapon on me, then I'd just flow into it when it made contact, I don't even need to think about doing it I just do it on instinct in those cases. Not that it helped me against the child snatchers all those years ago, those goblins used raw leather and dull wood as weapons. Any blades that a child-snatcher had were old and rusty, not that they used them they were mainly for scaring kids like me into going along with no fuss while they drug them off to the holding pens at the local goblin market to await the wastrel action at the next New Moon.
No mustn't think about that, the past was the past; just remember what Plainswalker told you, it's okay to learn from the past but don't let it rule your present or you'll just ravage your future. I wonder how mom and dad were right now, I knew that dad was thinking of reenlisting with the army, and the attack by that group of zealots on our home might cause rumors to spread that they were attacking to capture a mutant. This could lead H1er to conclude that it was the home of a mutant, ironic that it was the home of two neither of whom were the one that the mob was after.
Part of me was worried that my dad might have his job taken from him, I mean he did work for the city and with children at that, never mind that he was a three-time employee of the month at the library and had received the I Love My Librarian award. I mean Arlington might be a big city but plenty of backwards people had a lot of influence, the reason that they didn't have public transportation was because senior citizens were worried that it would let the 'wrong sort of people' get around town, and Texas had one of the largest presences of hate groups in the country.
Not that the H1 lot would act too freely on that, they were too afraid of what Erzabet Scratch would do to retaliate, especially after the Camp White Lake Incident, how people would react if they heard that the Friday the 13th sequels had a real life parallel. During July of 1980, the campers headed for a month at Camp White Like to experience The Hangman throwing the mangled corpse of one of their councilors through the windshield of the first bus to arrive.
Later the state troopers came to investigate and found every councilor dead and from brutal injuries and strangulation, officially the reason behind the attack was never known. Of course as a fly on the wall in the Grand Hall, I learned that Erzabet ordered the attack because one of the children that had been there the previous year had manifested as a mutant during camp, and was brutally murdered by his fellow campers- at their councilor's instructions. While officially these paramilitary anti-mutant camps didn't exist, despite that they have been around for over thirty years ever since retaliation arose among H1 in response to groups like Eugenix and Blood Legacy during the sixties and seventies.
Oh, man was I mentally rambling, this was embarrassing I was starting to pick up Randi's habits that Jane told me about, but that made part of me smiled though- somehow it made me feel more like her real sister. Maybe Badb would start poking fun at me as she did sis about it before she left home. Why was I wasting time anyway and why waste time when delicious mouth-watering strawberry pancakes were sitting in front of me? Apparently, the cafeteria decided to go all out on the breakfast spread for the Grand Opening and though I was tempted by the omelet station, I have always loved strawberries and strawberry pancakes were one of the best ways to have them.
"Hey thanks for the flapjacks twerp," One rather large high school student said as he swiped my plate. Sherrie was about to stand up when Irene grabbed her sleeve to stop her, as she turned to look at the eighth grader Palantir shook her head as if to tell Animalia that this was a very bad idea.
After the bully walked off she asked Irene, "Why'd you stop me?"
"That's Buster," the manifester of the Three Little Witches explained, "he's a energy absorber, the more you hit him the stronger he gets."
"Great Perses Junior is one of the school bullies." Mirabel stated as she saw me get up from the table, "Hey Heather, where are you going?"
"To get some breakfast," I said as I walked back to the lunch line.
Buster sat down at his usual table with his fellow campus muscle-heads Tee-Kay, Nitro and Truck (on the second floor) and got to work cutting up his pancakes, stolen food was always sweeter and ever since those bitches in Team Kimba declared the Underdogs off limits, he had to look elsewhere. Fortunately, the Cape-wannabes that normally protected the junior high kids were busy elsewhere, so it was time to dig in.
Now done cutting up his stolen pancakes Buster turned to add the syrup to find the disposable syrup packs missing, he briefly looked around the table for it only to find that when he turned his gaze back towards his stolen meal, all that he found was a clean plate. This was weird he knew that he would have seen someone sneak up and swipe the plate for one from the line even if it was a speedster like Aries he would feel wake once they went by. Maybe it was a time warper, yeah that had to be the only explanation, and as soon as he found the one that did it, he would pulverize them. Of course, if Buster had been paying attention he would have noticed my hand emerge from the napkin dispensor and swipe the syrup packet and then switch out the plates through the knife in his hands when he was looking around for the syrup.
Meanwhile unbeknownst to Buster, I was walking away from the breakfast line with cup of orange juice, stopping only briefly to toss a handful of napkins and an empty syrup packet into the trash, after turning in my plate, knife and fork to the dishwashing station. Okay I know that I got my breakfast back from that jerk and got to enjoy it without this Buster realizing it; but I would have to do something to avoid being a victim in the future, as Kredje would say 'It's time to have a little fun!' and for once I would agree with my old gremlin friend. It was time for a prank war and the target was Buster, the poor thug had no idea what he was in for after all what I appears to lack in combat ability I made up for in spades when it came to stealth and infiltration.
But first I needed some information, so after I finished my OJ I headed over to the table where sis was sitting with her friends. "Hey Heather, so how are you liking the new cafeteria so far?" Kerry asked as soon as I walked up, "Hopefully what happened earlier hasn't sullied the school in your eyes."
"Somewhat good although I might need some help with a bully," I said as I turned to Jolt, "Um Jamal, Buster is in Emerson with you, am I right?"
"Yeah, what did he do?" Jamal asked as he looked at me with a serious expression.
"Isn't it obvious?" Steve spoke up as he added his two cents. "Buster's a bully and Heather's a little junyah high kid, he took something from her and now you want some payback."
"Just a harmless prank," I said with a smirk. "It's nothing that would affect a power absorber, but I just need to know Emerson's layout in order to pull it off."
"So the young maiden would wish to engage in a fair pursuit of mischief." Bob Rose piped in, "Would young madam care for an ounce of assistance from this humble gentleman in her endeavor?"
"Um no thanks Mister Rose sir," I waved off still unused to a gentleman treating me like a lady. "I need to take care of this myself, not that I don't appreciate your offer but I need to pull this off myself otherwise I'll never be able to do this."
"Tis perfectly understandable young madam, far be it from me to chance my chivalrous nature injuring a fair lady's pride in such a way!" Rob Rose said with a smile before continuing. "However know that should you ever need assistance in such an act of chicanery you need only inquire; I shall be glad to render my assistance even were you not the sibling of a friend, for ruffian's such as the troglodyte known as Buster need learn that their true place is not being forced upon the backs of others."
"Believe me Mister Rose sir; I plan to cool off this hot head in my own way." I smiled before turning to my big sister. "So I heard that they made you change rooms too sis."
"Yeah no offense to Bladedancer but something about that Tao connection that she has was wrecking my concentration for carving new spell shells, and it was giving me trouble sleeping." Heather sighed as she stared back at her Western omelet, "They are going to have her rooming with a new girl who's moving in tomorrow and I'm switching to the Northwest-side and rooming with that Quikvix girl that we met in New York. It's not so bad, Bugs and Riptide are my new neighbors and I don't have Goodkind's obnoxious ear slaughter aggravating the hell out of me in the morning.
"Well I'll talk to you later sis," I said before I walked back to my normal table.
Sunday March 4, 2007
Buster's Room - Emerson Hall
5:48 AM
I stared through the dorm mirror in Buster's room in Emerson, I had to be careful about this I had only one chance to do this otherwise Buster would wake up and then I would be in real trouble. From inside the Place of Smoke and Mirrors I took out my chosen weapon a changeling bauble at the end of some fishing line. Now although changeling baubles were originally made to swap a changeling with a child there are rules to using them to contain someone, you see you can only place someone inside one if they lack the willpower to resist.
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule someone can be put into a changeling bauble if they agree to it or in this case if you get them while they are asleep. Thankfully most faefolk who kidnap kids like this have trouble making it through the thresholds of modern homes, there is something to be said about a place beginning to reflect the personality of its owners after all, fortunately I wasn't a fae and had no problem getting around any barrier provided my medium lie within.
I double-checked my target; sure enough, Buster was one the bottom bunk as plain as day. With my target confirmed, I used the slingshot to take aim, and fired at the wall next to Buster while keeping a hold of the string, I fell about three feet short of the bed. Somewhat disappointed I reeled the enchanted pendent back in, once I retrieved my ammunition I gave the string about four and a half feet more slack took aim at my target and then fired for a second time.
This time my shot paid off, the pendent sailed towards the wall until the string went taunt and allowed gravity to take over. The changeling bauble landed on Buster and I sent the command along the string-causing Buster to be sucked into the pendent. Again, I reeled in the changeling bauble once the captive Buster was well in hand; I strolled back to the mirrors leading to Dickinson and tossed the pendent through the mirror of the senior's shower room. I waited a little bit checked my watch and then released Buster and reeled the pendent in while running for Mirabel and my dorm room.
Once in sight I jumped through the mirror and back into my room, Mirabel was waiting for me grinning with anticipation. "Well how did it go?"
"Mission accomplished!" I said with a smile and thumbs up. "Now Sonique is an early bird and usually the first in line for the showers right?" Seeing Mirabel nod I continued, "So the rest of Dickinson should find out about Buster any-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH PERVERT!" The whole dorm almost seemed to shake with Sonique's scream, as everyone including ourselves opened our doors to see what was going on in this case in a few minutes we were treated to a motley collection of junior and seniors chasing Buster who was fleeing Dickinson while clad only in his boxer shorts down the south stairwell.
"Are you sure that was the best place to put him?" Mirabel asked as we drifted back into our room.
"Well I wanted to dump him in the pool, but they drained that after the swim tests were over with." I replied, "Although I could have dumped him in the snow outside Hawthorn, but he'd probably catch a cold on the way back to Emerson from that far away." What can I say this was a prank not a malicious act, besides Dickinson and Emerson weren't that far apart especially since it was downhill.
Crystal Hall
12:47 PM
Well yesterday was obviously the chefs going all out over having their normal facilities back because today was normal cafeteria fare; although the quality and creativity when up leaps and bounds, take today for example Cajun-grilled catfish, Italian olive salad and oven-baked four-cheese macaroni, and that was just what I picked out. Apparently sis wasn't kidding about the kitchen in Crystal Hall going a long way towards the quality of the food, and from what I heard Dagda was helping out in the kitchen too although his cauldron was currently on loan to a soup kitchen on the bad side of the Bronx.
"Hey Heather," Mirabel piped up, "I got a call from grandpa earlier, they're about to do a press release concerning Longhorn. It turns out he was a power gem user not a mutant after all, when the authorities made him turn over his costume and affects for an orange jumpsuit he turned into a 98-pound weakling. They looked through his costume and found two in that roper belt buckle medallion of his and another in that tacky bull skull bola-tie that he wore."
"No way! Are you serious?" I asked before digging deeper, "Just where did they come from?"
"Well originally Captain Cosmos's cosmic armbands," Mirabel said waggling her fork. "You know about the twelve gemstones that he had on there that were the source of his abilities right?"
"You mean the gems that were stolen and used to create the Zodiac Cartel in the Seventies right?" I said trying to take a grasp of the situation, "Wait I thought that they were recovered by the Justice Brigade." I should know Plagiat had me looking high and low for them until he uncovered intel that the Brigade had them in the vault at their Moon Base, and no matter how much he ordered me to I was never able to get there through the Place of Smoke and Mirrors. That of course was hardly surprising after all I had nothing to gaige the direction of the moon by the Place of Smoke and Mirrors and he was never able to come up with a single set of blueprints for me to use and picture the place.
"Well yes and know, you see as the Justice Brigade whittled away at the Zodiac Cartel, they began using the gems from the members that got arrested." Mirabel began to explain about what happened to them. "But when they finally arrested Scorpio and Libra, Virgo was MIA. It was two years before they finally caught her but when they did she was empty-handed, not only did they not find her gemstone but Taurus and Leo's gemstones were never found either. As it turned out Taurus and Virgo had a kid and they left him the three missing gems and a big fat Kardonian trust fund."
"Let me guess that kid was Longhorn?" I asked knowing the answer; she nodded in confirmation with a cold look in her eyes. Her grandfather helped found the Dallas Defenders and both of her parents had initially planned to join the team, it could be said that the Dallas Defenders were the legacy of her family, a legacy that Longhorn sullied then held hostage for a decade while he made a profit off of it. "Well you look at it this way your grandpa helped restore the legacy of Captain Cosmos, who knows maybe the next Captain Cosmos will be fighting alongside Champion or your parents in the Justice Brigade soon."
"I hope so because this bit of news is sure to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of a lot of folks back home." Mirabel said as she looked at me, "Say what is that you're wearing?"
"Eye of Eros, it's one of a ton of weird things that Plagiat had in his collection that he couldn't really sell, sis let me keep it and its sister artifacts after we raided his old stashes." I explained, "You look through this monocle at someone and it shows you a stream of energy over who they're attracted to, of course the color of the energy is supposed to mean something but I don't have the instructions and there are lots of different kinds of love. Jane asked me to help her play match maker so I'm giving her a bit of a hand."
"Hey sprouts lunch break is over," this blonde teen supermodel says as she stomps up to our table. "Ms. Hartford wants you to finish repainting that room before classes start tomorrow, or after you runts finally finish you'll be cleaning the bathrooms in Twain until maintenance finally gets around to replacing the linoleum."
The Three Little Witches scrambled to finish lunch and follow her, as I just stared at this faint almost flickering pink wisp that radiated from this girl to the next floor. Out of curiosity, I put the Eye of Janus on over that of Eros and I saw that it connected tenuously to an African American girl on the top floor. Up there was a group of mostly girls from my sister's cottage, I think their called Team Kenya or something like that, I might ask Randi about them later because for some reason that girl who just walked away reminded me of someone.
"Oh man Nate, I can't believe that you got chili and beans for lunch today," Aquerna from my dorm said in exasperation at her table nearby with the Underdogs. "J-Just do us all a favor and stay away from the clubhouse today."
"Anna what's wrong?" I asked as I walked over to her table.
"Oh hello Heather, everyone this is Heather, she and her friends moved into Dickinson last week."
"Hey!" "How's it going?" "Enjoying Whateley so far?"
"It's fine," I replied to the group. "My friend's coming here with me, and the fact that my sister's letters after she enrolled helped me out big time."
"What do you mean by your friends and your sister?" Rhiannon asked in confusion.
"Well my older sister is Faolan over in Poe, Mirabel and I were going to wait until High School to enroll when things got a little hot back home." I explained somewhat sheepishly and not going into details to avoid hurting Sherrie's feelings.
"It's my mother's fault," Sherrie explained. "I manifested during a track practice and some nutjobs from our church charged Heather's home during our slumber party to cure me by exorcizing the devil making me a mutant. If it wasn't for Heather's quick thinking and abilities we would have been swarmed by a mob, then who knows just what would have happened."
"Sherrie it's not your fault," Mirabel stated once again. "We keep telling you that there is nothing that you could have done to stop them, these were religious fanatics who were whipped up into a frenzy, you can't reason with people like that."
"I know but it still hurts that my parents are in lockup because of it," Sherrie said with tears in her eyes. "At least dad doesn't believe that I'm just a devil possessing his daughter, all he wants me to do is learn how to use my powers responsibly."
"Well that shouldn't be a problem here," Aquerna chirped in, "several of the teachers and students should provide lots of good examples of what to do, and some provide several examples of what not to do."
"Yeah," I piped in, "I heard all about the Bravo incident that happened the day before I got here from my sister. If you ever start acting like him or his friends Sherrie then you know that you're doing something wrong. However, about my earlier question, what's wrong with your friend eating chili, I mean other than it isn't a very good example of it? Especially if it's like what they were serving last Wednesday, maybe sis and I should give the family recipe to the cafeteria." I said as mused over that thought for a second.
"Heather your family's chili recipe is five-alarm," Mirabel said with a hint of caution. "It would put half the people here into Doyle."
"It's not five-alarm, that's just the version that we normally eat, we have variants all the way down to one-alarm." I argued, really some people could be such featherweights when it came to spicy food. "But what's the problem with your friend eating mediocre chili?"
"The problem is that Miasma is a walking gas hazard, let him eat anything that gives ordinary people gas and he he's producing the rankest smell imaginable and a lot of it." Bluescreen groaned, "During the swimming test he tried to motorboat after eating three helping of beans and hazmat spent a day treating the pool afterwards to get rid of the smell."
"I think I have a scent jar in my purse," I stated trying not to gag at the image that though conjured up, as I rummaged around in my handbag before pulling out a stoppered bottle. "Ah here it is! Now this will suck up all traces of the first smell that it samples after it's opened so be careful with it, just remember that after he's done he needs to do is put the stopper in the bottle otherwise after an hour it will expel its entire contents at once. I also want it back after he's put the stopper back in place."
"Oooh another prank planed already Heather," Mirabel said in a hushed voice with a smile as we went back to our table. "Are you sure?"
"Two pranks actually, you are such a bad influence on me!" I said in an almost singsong tone while playfully nudging her in the side. "But I think that one of the targets might actually welcome what I have planed."
"Oooh tell me all about it!" Mirabel as she rubbed her hands together and her face stretched in a grin that would do the Cheshire cat proud.
"Later, first I need to get that scent jar, then we both need to over to the campus store, they were out of a few of the supplies that we need for Intro to Magical Arts tomorrow." I said as I headed out the door and for the campus store.
On the way out that odd catbird-dragon girl that I saw arriving at school stopped me, "The girl that you wonder about is weeping within a cage of pain and anger; it will take more than you intend to shatter the bars of her self-inflicted prison."
Okay that was random and cryptic, I continued on my intended path to the school store after all, there were only so many hours in the day, and I had planned to hit a double before the sun came up. On second thought maybe I should talk to sis later before doing anything about Tansy.
Crystal Hall
7:24 PM
"That girl's bad news," Steve said after I asked Randi about Tansy Walcutt. "The day that Ah got here she pulled a gun on those three girls that your friends sit with, granted now Ah know that gun only fires non-lethal ammo, but still ya'll nevah use a gun to threaten someone."
"I hate to speak ill of anyone," Erza stated clearly, "But Tansy is a walking attitude problem with a massive ego on top of that."
"My first day in Dickinson she was screaming her head off because she didn't get a single dorm room after getting bumped out of Melville," Kerry stated clearly, "She was in a really bad mood all day and it's only gotten worse since she was kicked out of the Alphas. Although according to Dev she wasn't much better before she got kicked out; she even started the feud last fall between the Alphas and the Kimbas by using some Avatar-trait that she kept secret and kidnapped that ghost-girl Shroud from Poe to use her as a psychic shield."
"Not that I like Phase much but she is a good intel source, especially since I was rooming with her old roommate. Apparently Solange was a homely rich girl before she manifested and got bullied a lot because of that," Sis started laying out what she had learned from her now ex-roommate Chou. "once she manifested and grew into her BIT she used her powers to discover that what people really thought about her, and ever since she's been dead set on paying back everyone who was ever mean to her however she can do so, and making sure that it never happens again. "
"The sad thing is that the old her sounds a lot like me before I manifested, the only difference was that I decided to make a fresh start when I got here. Of course I suppose that when your dad goes through trophy wives like Uncle Roy goes through spare parts for his Ford Exploder you probably don't grow up in a very stable home, oh well the road less traveled and all that."
I know sis meant well, and oddly enough, her comment gave me an idea, and I knew just the old friend to help me with this. "Oh sis, how is your new room situation coming along?"
"Candace is cool for the most part, she spends most of her time with her friends and she gets along just fine with Jane, she is a bit of a tease though." Randi began to explain, "The only real problem is that walking attitude problem Tempest is in the same hall and has decided to dub our room the Furry Kennel, just because we both have animal ears and tails does not make us furries."
"I know sis," I briefly chuckled as I shook my head, "the correct term is anthros."
"Heather," sis blushed as she ducked her head while her friends got a good laugh out of that, while I went over to the Underdog's table to collect my scent bottle.
Dickinson - Heather & Mirabel's Room
9:44 PM
Mirabel and I sat on the floor I looked at the now used scent jar on my nightstand, I was prepared for my strike tomorrow before class but I still had one piece of mischief to pull tonight. I picked up the small canvas bag that I had set down next to the jar, which contained something that I collected over the course of my enslavement to Plagiat, markers each one representing an uncollected favor owed by a certain mystical being. As I have mentioned before my fellow slaves and I did have a little free time when Plagiat wasn't working us like dogs, the girls in the group did have our sort of slumber parties, but all of us that were able had a semi-weekly poker game when we were able.
The other slaves would bet markers and I would bet favors, those favors being retrieving things for them whenever Plagiat sent me out on raids. Usually it was an antique hairbrush or mirror for Deliolindë or liquor for Unfurth, or broken gizmos for Kredje- thankfully Curunir had an easy to read poker face, I admit I had a little trouble before Unfurth taught me the ropes at the game. By the time that sis finally set us all free I had a number of markers piled up and didn't have an idea of what to use them, when I told sis she insisted that I save them until I had a good idea on what to use them to do.
Today had given me one such idea, after asking around I heard that Tansy was a major jerk but something told me that maybe there was something more to the story. Now I admit my life when I was a lot younger wasn't exactly a happy one, but it did have its bright points, like Aunt Gertrude...well okay she wasn't really my aunt just an old lady that lived near to us who liked to babysit.
A year before I became a mutant and ran away from home, I asked her why dad was so mean all the time. She told me that deep down some people were unhappy with themselves and refused to see the problem, others were hurt a lot when they were younger and decided to make other people hurt, and of course there were some folks that were just plain mean.
Now I know that I'm young and not the smartest person in the world, but something told me that Tansy was in one of the first two groups. Of course, if someone was a good person deep down, maybe they just needed a push or two to help them on their way, besides who said a prank can't be doing something that someone might enjoy. I took out the marker with Curunir's symbol on it, now alp's were winter faerie with the power to influence dreams they could make them good or bad but it was all in mischief.
Curunir was weird for an alp she told me her mom was a succubus and that made her half-demon; it also meant that she preferred to make dreams and nightmares- naughty. If I read the line that went between Tansy and what was her name- oh yeah Toni sis said she was some sort of hyper martial arts girl, anyway if I was right Tansy was like sis and liked girls, but she was probably in denial about that. Well denial or not Curunir would probably get a kick out of doing this; I closed my eyes and blew on the marker.
As soon as my breath touched the crystal it turned to smoke that carried the dust that the marker had now become with it, Mirabel and I looked on as the smoke swirled on the ground before us growing until a very familiar figure appeared before us.
"Fetch," Curunir said as she emerged from the smoke. "It feels like forever how, have you been enjoying your freedom?"
"Just fine Curunir, and its Apparitia now, Faolan's family adopted me so we're sisters now." I said trying to pry the clingy demi-alp off me.
"Ah, and to think that if I was just a little faster with your new brother when your sister set me free, I could have been your sister-in-law with your niece or nephew on the way." Curunir sat mid air with a slight frump. "So how is your big sis enjoying that amulet of bicurious attraction that I gave her?"
"She isn't, mom confiscated it before we went home, she said that love needs no short-cuts." I stated to my fellow former slave.
"It wouldn't have created love, it would just cleave through denial, if they didn't constider her attractive then the amulet would have done jack squat. Also even if someone was attracted to her it wouldn't have forced them to act, it doesn't create attraction it just makes someone of the same gender who is attracted to the amulet's wearer aware that they are." The half-winter fae stated as she reclined mid-air, "So what can I do ya' for?"
"Well it's a bit of a prank; you see some classmates of mine are being supervised by Tansy Walcutt, a girl who's a bit of a jerk." I said as I began to explain the situation to Curunir. "I think the reason why she's a jerk is that deep down she's an unhappy person who decided to hurt people because she was probably hurt while she was younger, I also think that she might be like Faolan deep down."
"Alright I get it, one Sapphic fantasy special coming up, so what's the target's name?" The alp said with a wide impish smile.
"No I want to give a dream of the road less traveled, a might have been." I said as I corrected the naughty faerie. "I think that she needs to be shown her what her life would have been like if she took the high road, you know decided that the best thing that she could do would be to make a fresh start and rise above it all."
"Ah the something all too rare- it's sad really," Curunir mused as she reclined midair. "I can get a hint of her from here, a miserable soul who thinks that power will keep others from hurting her, as if power ever brought anyone happiness. I almost wish that I could do this as a freebie but you know how it is with the fair folk and unfortunately this would cost more than the minor favor that marker is good for. Hold the phone- Queen Morrigan is still here right? I mean if she is then I can make a deal with you, otherwise this request will cost about five markers."
"Yeah, she's here in her own body now." I answered her somewhat cautious, after all Curunir was Winter Court. "She and sis got pulled apart by a coven of wannabes witches who got confused over just what the Morrigna were."
"Good I'm thinking about jumping ship to the Wild Court, it's only a few decades till Queen Mab and Queen Titania have to abdicate and the crown princesses are a pair of completely spoiled immature brats. After taking that into account and the rumors that one of the Ancient Queens is reawakening, I want to jump ship before they destroy themselves trying to delay the inevitable." The alp stated earnestly as she rolled over to lay on her chest. "Especially once their subjects realize that the rogue court doesn't have to deal with the Hell Tithe, heck I would have done this earlier when your sis set me free, but I had my daughter to think about and I wanted to make sure that she would come with me."
"You look a little young for kids," Mirabel remarked with a raised eyebrow. "Besides if you are half-fae then you are able to lie."
"Fae are a lot younger than we look kid, I'll be having my centennial before you get into high school." Curunir stated as she glared at my roommate. "As for my daughter she's actually younger than you two, I'm just glad that my father didn't kick her out when I got enslaved, still I want a future for her that has a bit less back-stabbing, terror, and chance to be used as cannon-fodder or worse when my full-blooded siblings tire of using her as a scullery maid."
"I'll put in a good word the next time I see the Phantom Queen," I said before Curunir faded from view to wait for the right moment to get to work. "Well now that Tansy's as good as handled let's get some sleep so that I can nail our next target and not be a zombie during classes tomorrow."
"Okay, good night Heather," Mirabel said as she climbed into the top bunk.
"Good night Mirabel, pleasant dreams." I said as I tucked in for the night.
Monday March 5, 2007
Twain Cottage - Bloodwolf and Maggot's room
5:53 AM
I stared into the dorm room of the two jerks that attacked us last Saturday and tried not to vomit, these two were sick and their decor reflected that fact; I think one of their tamer posters was something by Rob Zombie. Still I had to be careful Bloodwolf was an avatar with a werewolf spirit and there was a chance that he could catch a whiff of my scent when I put my plan into action, and if that happened I would be in major trouble. So to be careful I washed the scent bottle in bleach to kill any smell of Mirabel, myself and anyone else on the outside as well as my hands after I put on three pairs of latex gloves.
It was now or never; ducking down so that I wouldn't be visible through the reflection in the dorm room's mirror I pushed the bottle into the room and then removed the stopper. When a scent bottle discharges, it only takes a second, so I withdrew the bottle and reinserted the stopper as I ran back to the mirror to my dorm room in Dickinson taking the timeout only to wash the scent jar with the bleach jug that I brought with me again before going back.
As I got back to the room I found Mirabel and Curunir waiting for me, "Mission accomplished!" I said with a thumbs up and a grin, "Part of me wishes I could have stuck around, but then they probably would have seen me."
"And your humble request to me was taken care of as well," Curunir said as she appeared sitting on thin air. "She's had a dream of living the last two and a half years of her life as if she tried to make a fresh start and find out who she really was- out of the closet and everything. I doubt that this will affect her too much as a person, but you never know what can serve as the foundation for change, now remember your promise to talk to Morrigan for me. If she agrees to see me just use another marker to summon me, I swear that I will replace it of course, so I do swear- so I do swear!"
"Only if you promise three times to meet her alone and unarmed." I stated, "The Winter Court has attacked Whateley before."
"And they will be unable to do so again until the Summer court has exhausted its three opportunities and the Autumnal Equinox has come, I'll also be bringing my daughter Ualea and neither of us will be armed- of this I do swear, of this I do swear, of this I do swear." Curunir stated clearly, "Besides if she approves our immigration we will both swear an oath of fealty to her- of this I do swear, of this I do swear, of this I do swear. Does that satisfy your requirements?"
"Yes it does, I will talk with her today after classes." With that, Curunir faded from the room and all presence of her was gone, I hope that I was able to help her; I know from experience that unless they are the offspring of human abductees that have been acclimated to the Faerie Lands cross breeds are not exactly welcome amongst either court as anything except servants. As for the children of crossbreeds, they are usually used given the mother's lot in life unless they happen to be taken as a favored mistress.
Oh well, pranks are one thing, but today is the start of classes. Let's see first period was Grammar 050 will be in Schuster Hall and second period which is the online math study program, have to take that in the computer lab underneath Beck since my laptop wasn't issued yet. Third period I'll be taking Intro to Magical Arts over in Kirby Hall with Mirabel and Irene, good thing Mirabel and I showed that we both knew enough to avoid having to take Basic Mystic Concepts with Estelle and Bethany. After lunch was Survival, Geography and Life Science, I might have wanted to learn self-defense but there was no way that I would be taking it right after lunch, oh well time to face my first day of classes.
8 years 8 months ago #2
by Insane Hiker
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Captain Cosmos - Nelson Harner
A power gem user and late member of the Justice Brigade, captain cosmos was an amateur archeologist who came across the remains of a Southern Court ruin in Persia in 1953, his most notable finding at the site were twelve gems that granted whoever was in contact with them a certain ability. Noting that individuals such as the Champion and the Mystic Six were beginning to become more prevalent, as were the Super-Villains that they fought he decided to put the gems to use as a super-hero.
Nelson made his debut in 1956 as Captain Cosmos while not nearly as powerful as the Champion family, Captain Cosmos was very far up in the big leagues thanks to his versatility and the fact that he could actively use three gems simultaneously that he kept in two adamantium armbands.
While Whateley was being founded Captain Cosmos worked with other heroes at the time to create the Justice Brigade, by 1973 he was considered an irreplaceable member of the team, that same year he was murdered in his sleep in his home in Sarasota, Florida.
The Zodiac Cartel
The murderers of Captain Cosmos who used his gemstones to launch a five-year international crime spree. By 1980, the Zodiac Cartel was completely dismantled with the apprehension of Virgo however; her gemstone, as well as those of Taurus and Leo, were never recovered. Just who they were prior to their life of crime is unknown due to the fact that they destroyed all government evidence to their real identities early during their crime wave.
<U>Zodiac Gems</U>
Aries - super speed
Taurus - super stamina
Gemini- duplication
Cancer - invulnerability
Leo - super strength
Virgo - healing
Libra - murphy moment (Warning backfire from overuse causes all gems to become dormant for three minutes)
Scorpio - energy blasts
Sagittarius - psychometric-intuition
Capricorn - flight
Aquarius - telekinesis
Pisces - telepathy
Eye of Eros - Monocle like magic artifact that lets wearer see the links of love of someone that you're staring directly at with each type of love being color coded.
Eye of Janus - Monocle like magic artifact that lets wearer see through floors, doors and walls as long as they focus and are within the same structure.
- Insane Hiker
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Topic Author
Notes
Captain Cosmos - Nelson Harner
A power gem user and late member of the Justice Brigade, captain cosmos was an amateur archeologist who came across the remains of a Southern Court ruin in Persia in 1953, his most notable finding at the site were twelve gems that granted whoever was in contact with them a certain ability. Noting that individuals such as the Champion and the Mystic Six were beginning to become more prevalent, as were the Super-Villains that they fought he decided to put the gems to use as a super-hero.
Nelson made his debut in 1956 as Captain Cosmos while not nearly as powerful as the Champion family, Captain Cosmos was very far up in the big leagues thanks to his versatility and the fact that he could actively use three gems simultaneously that he kept in two adamantium armbands.
While Whateley was being founded Captain Cosmos worked with other heroes at the time to create the Justice Brigade, by 1973 he was considered an irreplaceable member of the team, that same year he was murdered in his sleep in his home in Sarasota, Florida.
The Zodiac Cartel
The murderers of Captain Cosmos who used his gemstones to launch a five-year international crime spree. By 1980, the Zodiac Cartel was completely dismantled with the apprehension of Virgo however; her gemstone, as well as those of Taurus and Leo, were never recovered. Just who they were prior to their life of crime is unknown due to the fact that they destroyed all government evidence to their real identities early during their crime wave.
<U>Zodiac Gems</U>
Aries - super speed
Taurus - super stamina
Gemini- duplication
Cancer - invulnerability
Leo - super strength
Virgo - healing
Libra - murphy moment (Warning backfire from overuse causes all gems to become dormant for three minutes)
Scorpio - energy blasts
Sagittarius - psychometric-intuition
Capricorn - flight
Aquarius - telekinesis
Pisces - telepathy
Eye of Eros - Monocle like magic artifact that lets wearer see the links of love of someone that you're staring directly at with each type of love being color coded.
Eye of Janus - Monocle like magic artifact that lets wearer see through floors, doors and walls as long as they focus and are within the same structure.
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