DotCom

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

I will, too! Because I was going to paint but it's raining so...

Animorphs

Things look good to me, CJ, so I say welcome aboard!

As to meeting with Mario and Max at the GameStop, I say go for it. It's a mall. Someone could easily no have seen a friend until closing time. =]

Animorphs

For the record, Max is open to being friends with literally everyone.

Animorphs

I'd double check with Vivid, but no? I think since Olivia never made an official appearance, you can go 'head and just enter your character as is and say he/she ends up running into Mario and Max as they leave the mall.

And yes, 2014. =)

Animorphs

By all means, apply! We'd be glad to have you. Check out the application on the front page and shoot Vivid, our lovely hostess, or myself a PM if you need anything. Thanks for the interest!

Never Lose Your Hat!

Not to worry, I'm a bit behind myself. =) Should have something up tomorrow.

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

Daisy had been wrong about Max...Thad...fucking SchizoLock, or whatever his name was, and that scared her.

She still didn't think the formerly-dead-man-walking was going to hurt Veti -- whatever he/it was, he/it was in love with Veti, and while that was totally gross, it was also sort of a relief -- but it still put her on edge. She'd killed a man, and he'd come back a different man, and she hadn't even noticed. Granted, none of them had really noticed, or not at first. And Daisy had been busy making sure a small handful of their number, namely SchizoLock, the wight, and herself -- didn't get sucked right back down the drain. But still. This was sort of her realm, sort of literally. And she'd missed a big tell.

So, danger or not, she had to stay. Right?

Tiny Vamp was cuddled up with Abacus on the other side of the room, giving her a look Daisy preferred not to read too deeply into. Like she'd done Tiny Vamp a favor. As if. They weren't friends, just teammates. Playing doubles. Only instead of tennis, the game was keep-Veti-alive-just-one-more-day. And if MaxThad's appearance was anything to go by, the game would go on. So, Tiny Vamp could keep brooding, and Daisy could keep sulking, and Veti would get to do a little fucking, and life/death would go on. Right?

Right?

Except, somehow, Tiny Vamp looked sulkier than usual. And Veti wasn't alone anymore. And Daisy...Daisy couldn't stop shaking, even though she'd hardly touched Death.

Artie was curled up, asleep, against her chest. LifeBird had done that much right, anyway. For all her perfumed breezes and bullshit, Artie wasn't bleeding anymore, and it hadn't cost Daisy anything. Well. Almost nothing.

She was about to quietly retreat into her own space two things happened.

One, a decidedly not hipster-wolf wandered out of BossMan Wolf's quarters and immediately commenced being all...wolfy and shit. And while Daisy had never been up on wolf daily news, the newcomer reeked of old age...and maybe a brush with Death. Daisy shivered again as the werewolf made her way to the wight and Old Guy...ducking her head to take a sip out of the latter's tumbler. Daisy would have laughed allowed if she hadn't caught a single word passed between the unlikely trio.

Ragnarök

Daisy was almost certain she'd never heard the word -- was it a word? A name? A curse? -- in her life, and yet hearing it made her almost convulse with a violent shiver and gasp for the first time in maybe years. If she'd been holding something (aside from a hellhound), she'd have dropped it, shattered it probably. As it were, Artie yelped quietly and nipped her arm.

"Sorry..." she muttered distantly. The word had faded. The cold had faded. The shivering...she was beginning to wonder about that.

Thank God for Henry.

And his face. And his voice. And his body, sans clothing...

But mostly just Henry.

Okay, Henry and body.

He appeared in front of her sort of without her realizing it at all, and it wasn't until Artie wriggled to take the treat out of the proffered hand and dropped to the floor to go find his favorite rubber duckie/manservant, Daisy realized the Siren was there in front of her at all.

And then she smiled. It was odd, and only sort of forced, but it was better than...

The word echoed in her head, and she quickly shook it free.

"'Max' removed himself," Daisy said, matter-of-factly, with only a hint of bitterness. "But tell me more about Brazil. I hear clothing is optional, nationwide."

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

Igraine said
First random hitchhikers, now a serial killer marathon. Dot... >.> <.< I am... Concerned?

Well, when you say it like that...

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

I was also whisked away for the last part of the day...though not for Easter so much as binge watching documentaries about serial killers on Netflix into the wee hours of the morning. Because reasons.

Anyway, I hope to post after work.

Animorphs

[[Dedonus/DotCom Collab]]

There was an awkward silence of which Max was blissfully unaware as she stood on her toes to peer around Mario's shoulder. Someone had hired something that was probably supposed to be a clown to stand in front of the OK! Toy Store and hand out balloon animals for kids. Ironically enough, Max had never feared clowns (she didn't really understand why people thought they were so scary...they were grown-ups in face paint and technicolor wigs. It inspired more hilarity than fear, but to each his own...), but she was terrified of balloons. More specifically popping balloons. But they were pretty, and the twins loved them. She stood there, just staring for a moment, until she looked up and realized Jason and Iikka must have ditched, for pants or a wine aerator or something. She'd forgotten now.

She looked over at Mario, still standing there, shell shocked or bored or both.

"Don't you have to go, too?"

"Well, I could..." Mario began to answer Max. Mario thought this could be the perfect opportunity to get away from Max because usually when you get her attention, she sticks to you like Gorilla Glue. However, if he were to leave Max there, he could not meet up with his track friends because they would probably want to wander around the mall for a little bit. Mario would feel bad if he told Max he had to leave and then later have her see him with his friends still at the mall. He felt that was dishonesty and he would never do such a thing, or he would like to think that he would not. On the other hand, if he would leave and actually go home, what would entertain him on a Friday night while he was at home?

Then another thought popped up in Mario's head. If Mario would leave Max her, she would probably have to walk all the way home in the dark. While crime was not as much of a problem in Bradbury, there was always that one off-chance that some wacko might do something stupid. Mario's conscious just could not live with that. Maybe Mario could stick around for a little while and walk her home so that she did not have to head homeward alone. Or they could go to his parent's house and see if they would give her a lift home. Or something along those lines. Mario would think of something sooner or later.

"...but I don't really have anything important to do tonight."

Max stared at Mario for a moment, head tilted to the side, her eyes studying his face. She'd been called naive and gullible and idealistic (and lots of other, less nice things) for as long as she could remember, but no one could say she was stupid. She hadn't missed the long (well, "long" for Max was more than a single heartbeat, but that was neither here nor there) silence before Mario answered, in that way that usually meant people were thinking, and even more usually meant people were thinking about something they didn't want to tell her.

Which meant it could be a surprise!

...it just normally wasn't.

"Oh," she said, then let the single syllable hang in the air between them in an effort to give Mario a chance to talk. Then, bored, she piped up again. "Well, I think I'm gonna go by that GameStop downstairs to see if I can find a discount copy of that Kirby game. You wanna come? OH! Or we could go to the donut place over there," she pointed to neon sprinkles painted on the wall a few storefronts down from where they were. "It's almost closing time, and sometimes they give the leftovers away!"

While Mario did not have anything against donuts, he did not have the appetite for them because he had eaten several slices of pizza back at his father's pizzeria, Nova Roma. However, Mario did not want to explicitly state that he was full because he had a little too much pizza since he thought that would be almost too stereotypical for someone of Mario's background. The best way to approach this situation was to give some information, but not all of it.

"Well, I just ate not so long ago, but I'll come with you if you really want to get a bite. Just as long as you don't get hyperactive from having too much sugar in your system." Mario said the last part with a laugh.

Suddenly Mario's cell phone rung. When he checked to see who had either called or texted him, Mario discovered it was his younger brother, George. Unlike Mario, George was more into video games and more indoor related activities. Apparently, Mario's brother wanted Mario to go and get him some Xbox points for some reason or another, if Mario was still at the mall. Mario rolled his eyes. Why could George got the points himself earlier in the day? George promised to pay the money back to Mario. While George was usually good on this promise, Mario would prefer getting the money up front so he would not have to worry about not being paid back.

"Well, looks like my brother wants me to pick something up for him for his Xbox. Looks like we're going be heading in the same direction."

With anyone else, the trip through the mall, back down to the first floor, past the Donut Queen, and through the GameStop (half a dozen donuts heavier), would have taken the better part of an hour. But Mario was stuck with Max, and Max was stuck with an idea, and way too much sugar. That, and the mall was closing.

They'd just stepped out of the GameStop, purchases in hand, when the warning chime for the mall closing went off over their heads. Most of the other stores were already closed. The kid who'd helped Max find Jason's Kirby game was locking up the store behind them. Max had nearly had a heart attack when Mario's phone had rung. The ringtone was nothing like hers, but she'd long since trained herself to expect bad news when someone called after dark. The thought had her itching to get home, and as Max turned to Mario, there might have been almost a hint of nerves visible in her expression.

More excitement, though.

"Hey, so I live over in the apartments on the other side of town. Um...I know this short cut out past the main road." Then she realized how weird that sounded, and tried to fix it.

"It's through that abandoned construction site, y'know? I bet we could find, like...giant metal piping there."

Or not.