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Animorphs

^ Love it. I'm in. =)

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

If anything could have pulled Daisy's attention from venting this seemingly unending font of annoyance and frustration, it was Veti. Of course it was Veti. Daisy didn't even know why she bothered being surprised anymore.

The Reaper didn't really bother with friends. Most of her kind didn't. She found birthday parties annoying and anything but ogling attractive men took entirely too much time and energy. And yet she'd willingly gone to live with Veti -- and even Siya, forming a silent, yet seemingly unbreakable bond with Tiny Vamp -- just to ensure her lupine friend didn't do anything regrettable. Because she would have regretted it. Daisy was certain of that much. Death was never what anyone expected. In most cases, that was a pleasant surprise. For Veti...

Anyway, it wasn't she was upset about it. It was sort of nice to put down roots somewhere, even if it was under the constant pall of death. And it sure felt like she did fuck-all to keep Veti from taking that final dive, but she seemed to like Artie, and Artie loved her. And Daisy and Tiny Vamp made a...team, no matter how ineffective. And now Veti was alive and smiling and laughing and joking, and it hadn't cost Daisy anything at all, or hardly anything, so why did she feel like roadkill? No pun intended.

It probably wasn't fair to direct all her ire at the Wight. It wasn't like he was the one who'd hauled ass out of Death, all secretly different and clinging to Veti -- and not sharing Veti, not like that fucking mattered to Daisy at all. But he had clawed his creepy way out of Death, really just fucking up loads more shit than he ever could have imagined. And then he had the nerve to walk around all innocent and polite, like he was doing everyone a favor, yet another of Death's inmate's glomming onto their group and pretending not to know why she hated him.

Daisy was just deciding that maybe Veti was okay, and maybe she'd be better off somewhere that was anywhere but here, when -- wonder of wonders -- she felt the werewolf squeeze her hand. She'd have blushed if she could, for no real reason at all, or none that she could understand, though it felt strangely close to shame...or pride. She looked quickly up at Veti, ready to intervene, though the older werewolf didn't seem threatening at all. In fact, the way she wagged her tail like that made Daisy more than a little nervous that Artie would try and play tug of war with Aislinn and Cornelius, and half considered telling the werewolf to just stop.

But then it appeared Veti was alright, smiling again, and when Daisy looked back...the wight was there in front of her.

She started visibly, and if Artie had been there, he'd have growled. As it were, Daisy had to make do with folding her arms imperiously over her chest, her scowl deepening with actual irritation at having been caught off-guard. Especially by this...thing.

Oh, and how decent of him to pretend he didn't know what he could do to her.

"Miss nothing," she snapped. "Do you want the short list, or the long?" Then, before giving him time to answer, "Look, just get the fuck out of my breathing space, Moldy. I don't share my air with zombies."

Or anyone, really, given that neither of the two were given to actually breathing. But that was neither here nor there.

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

Oh, you folks are so much nicer than I deserve. After a decent amount of roommate drama, our internet issue has been resolved, so I'll have a post up tonight.

~ Juxy, lovely to see Jay-Jay back. Daisy will be thrilled. =D

Oh, and well done, New Yorker. Lovely to have you.

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

Hello/goodbye, players, new and old!

Just a quick heads up, my internet is in financial flux. Things should be worked out soon (Sunday at the latest), but I won't be able to post unless I can get to the library Saturday evening. I'll try and get something up tomorrow!

Animorphs

Max had been ten and in fifth grade when she missed a solid three months of school and was subsequently held back for a year. She'd always been one of the oldest in her class, and despite her tendency to doodle, whisper, and daydream in class instead of paying attention, she was a decent enough student, she'd more or less caught up by the time she reached high school, so not too many people knew it. Because Max loved people and loved talking, but there were some things she simply refused to talk about, and fifth grade -- the year she and her pregnant mother had left her lawyer father in the city and moved to Bradbury -- was one of them.

But it wasn't unusual for Max to befriend kids in the grade behind her, since about half her classes were with them, anyway. In this case, the new batch of freshmen. And several of them were new.

Then again, it wasn't unusual for Max to befriend anyone. What was more unusual was for those people to stay friends with her. Truth be told, she'd been a little surprised Mario had opted to the GameStop with her, though she'd assumed his brother had something to do with that.

Still, she was glad to see yet another familiar face when she turned. Her own expression brightened instantly, even before she could recall his name. And she did.

It just took a few seconds.

"Oh! Hi!" she exclaimed brightly, before immediately shrinking the distance between them to something any other person might have considered uncomfortable, but Max just considered hands-on mnemonics for name remembering. Not that peering at him up close really helped anything, but it was a useful stall, and Max hated to think she might hurt his poor feelings. He was taller than she was -- not a difficult task in the slightest -- but also younger, which immediately put Max in the mind of a puppy.

Max loved puppies.

Finally, she straightened and turned to beam at Mario.

"He's Theo," she announced victoriously. "We had a math class together earlier this year until I hadda drop it." She scowled. "Now I go to this tutoring center on Saturday mornings. Which is lame, because that's cartoon time with the boys, and now I don't even get home in time to see Sonic." She pouted for a moment, then immediately got over it.

"Anyway, what about fences? Oh...there are fences? Oh, yeah, I guess there are...I forgot about that." Max looked crestfallen for a moment, then brightened again and grinned at Theo. "Hey, does that mean you wanna walk home with us?"

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

Ugh, you guys are WAY too nice, I swear, this game gives me the biggest head.

Glad to see you back, Heroes! And LT, I LOVED that post. Siya is much nicer than Daisy would have been, if she'd heard all that from MaxThad.

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

Daisy wasn't going to rescue Veti.

Veti was a big girl -- and a werewolf -- and she was alive, and shitty as Daisy felt about everything Veti had said back in Oz, or wherever the fuck they'd been (had she and Tiny Vamp really been all that transparent in trying to keep her on this side of the line?), she actually sort of agreed with Siya.

Granted, she would sooner face Death and all the creepy crawlies that came with it before she admitted that. And let there be no confusion -- Tiny Vamp could be sulky and apologetic as she wanted. It wasn't like she and Daisy had ever been or would ever be close. But they had been a team. Maybe not the fun kind. No rosé-filled nights of liquor and cookies and rom-coms for them. The most talking they had ever done was to explain where Veti had gone when she went. Daisy hadn't liked team don't-let-Veti-do-anything-stupid...but it had worked. Not perfectly, or even well, but long enough, and now ShizoLock was a team of one and Veti was laughing again, so that was great.

But standing there at the cusp of Death, feeling the cold flow over her, feeling the darkness scream her name...she couldn't really blame Siya for not wanting to go. If Max hadn't come back...Veti wouldn't have, either. And Daisy...well, fuck it. Max was back. So was Veti. So, Daisy's job, if she could even call it that, was done and over.

So, no, she was going to ignore Veti and her desperate glances and furtive appeals. Veti had Max now. That was his job. Wasn't it?

Only...Daisy didn't trust whatever -- whoever -- had come back through half as far as she could throw him. Veti could only see what -- who -- she wanted to see, and the others were obligated to go along with it. But Daisy wasn't so keen to believe Death had just released its grip on Veti's prodigal beau. She knew better than that. This was the epitome of give and take, cause and effect, catch and release. This was the very worst kind of two way street.

And, yeah, maybe she felt better seeing SchizoLock leave Veti's side. She might have even relaxed enough to comfortably go back to ogling Henry, satisfied that Tiny Vamp was keeping only mostly biased eyes on ShizoLock.

And then Veti fucking failed at smoking whatever the hell it was the old dude pulled out of his Mary Poppins bag-o-drugs, and Daisy found herself moving toward the werewolf before she even knew she was walking.

If she could have blushed, she would have. It wasn't like she was keen to rejoin the presence of the wight, and maybe even less so the somehow-much-more-intimidating boss-man-wolf-sister werewolf. Particularly not for this subject of discussion.

But she'd looked away for a second -- a second -- and Death had crept in. Quietly reluctant, Daisy slid in alongside Veti, scowling imperiously at the wight, though she didn't remove her attention from the conversation at hand. Tiny Vamp was busy. ShizoLock was...skeazy. Daisy thought maybe she could find it somewhere in her to hate Veti. But then where would she go?

Animorphs

Not to worry! I'll have something up tomorrow, then maybe we can discuss a mini collab between the three of us en route to the construction site. Glad to see this back up and running! =D

Never Lose Your Hat!

Sorry about the wait. Ended up being a bit busier than anticipated...

Never Lose Your Hat!

Ivy looked at him with wide, earnest eyes, and had to bite the inside of her cheek hard to keep from smiling. There was nothing in any of her (admittedly shallow) pools of village learning that had said Jaegers would be sweet, or even charming, unless she had for a solid eighteen years now misunderstood the meanings inherent in the words 'horrible', 'hideous', 'monstrous' and so on. And yet she could not help but want to apologize for having offended her new friend.

"Oh. Did I say 'fleeing'? I meant 'fighting fiercely with our backs to the enemy while also moving quickly away to confuse them into thinking we were fleeing, but really, we were just very confident'. Or you were, anyway. And I -- "

Whatever she'd been about to add -- and even Ivy wasn't sure -- was lost in Jötz unexpected breakdown. For a moment, Ivy could only stare. In the last...well, how long had it been? It felt like ten minutes and ten years simultaneously, though, logically, Ivy had to guess it was more like a day, maybe a little less. Still, the idea that Jötz had saved her life at least thrice over was not exaggeration. Together, they had faced down an angry mob, the tail end of a homicidal firewood oven, a wild fire, a deadly swamp, and a horde of poisonous toads (though that last part, Ivy was certain, had been to their benefit. Jötz just didn't know that yet). And while they may have been doing a good deal of that backward-fighting-while-moving-away, Jötz hadn't really shown fear, or even very much distress.

But then they'd fallen into a hole, and now he was near beside himself. Maybe he was claustrophobic? Or afraid of the dark?

She felt almost bad for him as he curled up against the wall, stepping closer, wanting to help. He'd said something about a hat -- but surely this couldn't be over a dusty bowler? It hadn't even been all that nice of a hat, though Ivy didn't think it wise to mention that last bit.

Still. He'd saved her life. She was pretty sure she owed him, even if he was a Jaeger. After all, she was a Spark now. Outcasts and underdogs and all that.

She put her back to the wall and slid down beside him before awkwardly putting out a hand to pat his knee, the way she'd seen mothers comfort their children. It had never really been the sort of thing she and Mama Petra would do -- Mama Petra had not patience for tears and petulance -- but it seemed the sort of thing one ought to try first.

Now, what was she meant to say?

"Um....oh! Here, here," she muttered quietly. "I'm sure...you're very good at...erm...killing people. You killed all those toads back there, and some of them were big as people! There was a lady back in Motorhum who looked just like that big one when she got angry with me -- uh...I mean, with the other village children for setting her goldfish on fire...or something like that. I don't know, I don't remember, I wasn't there," she added quickly, blushing.

"Anyway, the point is, it was a very nice hat, and I'm sure we can find another very nice one for you. And then you can...kill...um...all the people you like. Alright? Cheer up."

There was a very long, awkward silence, during which Ivy contemplated trying to sing to Jötz, before deciding none of the songs she knew seemed appropriate for the situation, as most of them were about the dangers of trusting strange Jaegers, or leaving the village.

Instead, Ivy reached a gore covered hand very carefully into her apron and pulled out a bloodied fist.

"Do you want to see what I got from those toads?"