From: novagreys@aol.com (Nova GreyS)
Date: 12 Feb 2000 12:51:36 EST
Nova Grey Shadow was mortally tired. He had spent the past two days and nights trapped in his home with a hyperactive daughter (and when this daughter is starting to show signs of having inherited Nova's great speed, "hyperactive" takes on a whole new meaning) and a rapidly decreasing amount of things to keep her busy. And the snow was still falling. By the end of the first afternoon, Kaylan had already built a city
of building blocks and peopled it with dolls of many shapes and colors. By the end of that evening, the city had been razed by "The Great Goddess Kaylan" and its doll peoples were sacrificed to "Fuzzy Tiger" (it should be noted that Tiger, Nova's-brother-trapped-in-the-form-of-a-tiger-"long story", appropriately enough, rather liked the taste of plastic and nylon ... but the synthetic hair was a bit binding).
By the morning of the second day of snowfall, Kaylan had taken to playing the drums. On her aunt Miror's best pots and pans. Nova spent a lot of time in the basement. He wasn't sure what was worse, really - the incessant tinny pounding or the sound of his sister screaming for it to cease.
"We can't hinder Kaylan's need to express her emotions through music," Nova had said to Miror as he closed the basement door and locked it behind him. He could just barely make out the string of profanity directed at him as he hurried down the stairs.
Nova's train of thought was derailed by a strange noise. Quiet. He strained to hear anything from upstairs.
"Hmm. Maybe I've gone deaf," he said aloud. "Nope, wouldn't be able to hear myself then," he reasoned, ever so bright.
Once again, he listened. Still nothing. Then, footsteps and a pounding on the basement door.
Nova cautiously made his way back up the stairs. The knocking was muffled and low on the door. Nova unlocked it and opened it a crack to see Kaylan standing before him, clad in her pink snowsuit, mittens, and a knit cap that was far too big for her head.
"Finished our music career, have we?" Nova asked the little girl.
"Auntie Miror wants to build snow-women outside," Kaylan said, in her typically cute fashion.
"Snow ... women?" Nova was treading on ground he did not want to get into.
"She says it's not fair that men ..." and she continued on, verbatim, exclaiming every idea her aunt had put into her head. For ten full minutes. The look of horror on Nova's face can not be appropriately portrayed through words.
The doorbell rang and Miror strolled by the doorway in which Nova and Kaylan were standing.
"I'll get it," Miror said as he walked past.
"What are you doing to my daughter?!" Nova cried, following Miror out into the foyer. Kaylan waddled after them, hindered by the snowsuit.
Miror was about to answer when she saw what was waiting behind the front door. Her head tilted quizzically and, for a long moment, it appeared she would either laugh or slip into a state of shock one rarely sees these days. Words were mumbled from beyond the threshold.
"It's for you," Miror said as she turned back to Nova, taking Kaylan by the hand and leading her into the kitchen before bursting into laughter.
Nova narrowed his eyes before moving to the door. Before him hovered a small, chubby ... person. The small, chubby person looked about as pitiful as a small, chubby person could when hovering on wings that were way too small and could do with a good preening.
Now, it should be said that Nova's eyes are naturally wide and quite flat. Not unlike the proverbial saucer. But upon seeing this snow-covered, small, chubby, hovering person, Nova's eyes could be seen clearly from RhyDin air space. For perhaps the second time in his life, Nova Grey Shadow was absolutely speechless.
"My name is Cupid ... and I need your help," the small, chubby, hovering person said, gripping his tiny bow tightly in his stubby little hands. Cupid tipped forward in mid-air, as if bowing. Tiny arrows slipped out of the quiver on his back and fell to the ground. Cupid cursed a string that would make any sailor blush before hovering down to pick them up.
"Hell no," Nova said before slamming the door closed. If it were possible to underline spoken words, he would have done it perfectly.
There was a knock at the door almost immediately. Nova opened it. There were tears in Nova's eyes and his lips were trembling as if he were in the middle of a good cry. One of those sorts of cries that lets out all that pent up rage and frustration of your entire lifetime. A good, therapeutic cry. In truth, he was trying to keep from bursting out into helpless laughter.
"Please, I'm begging you. You've got to help me. I can't handle this RhyDin job alone. It's like everyone in this damn place is just one big hormone. I can't keep up. Help a guy out, will ya?" Cupid pleaded. The door slammed again.
There was another knock. The door swung open.
"Could you at least point me to someo*" Cupid began. He was interrupted by the living room sofa punching his small, chubby, hovering body from the air. The door slammed shut.
"That was cruel," Miror admonished Nova, though she was smiling.
"Yeah, I feel bad. I've had that couch forever. It was a good couch," Nova said, adding a moment of silence for the dearly departed piece of furniture.
"Who wants to build a snow tiger?" He then exclaimed, which was followed by Kaylan cheering and Tiger lifting his great head from his paws and staring at his brother. If snow so much as touched his freshly cleaned fur, blood ties or not, someone would get mauled.
Mid-winter Interlude
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From: novagreys@aol.com (Nova GreyS)
Date: 12 Feb 2000 12:54:32 EST
(And now, because no one demanded it, the return of an old character:)
Later that day:
"You're my only hope," Cupid said to the cloaked and cowled figure across the table from him. The figure inclined its head in acknowledgement. Cupid was disturbed by the fact that he could not see the figure's face through the shadows. For a moment, he was touched by a pang of regret before the sensor he carried on his bow went off. The small, chubby person sighed heavily.
"Pardon me," Cupid said as he hovered out of his high chair and turned away, rapidly winging two arrows in the direction of a couple that was committing a massive PDA(N1). He hovered down into his high chair and jotted a few things down in his notebook. "We like to keep track," he explained as he looked back to the shadow-cloaked figure.
"So, will you do it?" Cupid said, just about at his wits end (N2). Cupid's eyes widened as the shadows within the cowl of the figure parted to reveal a bright, ivory smile.
"Of course. I'd love to," the figure said. It was then that Cupid noticed that it wasn't shadows that cloaked this man before him.
"Well, then," Cupid cleared his throat, suddenly troubled. "Here's the list. I appreciate this. Maybe we could discuss payment at a later date?" Cupid said cautiously as he passed the list across the table.
"Don't worry about paying me, little guy. I don't need the money. Let's just consider it a favor," the figure said, standing to signal the end of the meeting.
"Well ... I suppose we could do that. Do you have a bow?" Cupid asked, perfectly willing to give up his own, small means of firing arrows.
The cloak of the figure parted to reveal a hand holding a bow of red metal. The string appeared to be barbed wire. The skin of the hand was as black as pitch. "I sure do," the figure stated.
"Okay, then. I suppose that's that. Here are the arrows you'll need to fire. Good luck!" Cupid said cheerily. And with that, the small, chubby person hovered shakily out of sight, pushing his way through the crowds of the Red Dragon Inn. The figure stood there for a moment, holding the 'love' arrows in his free hand.
The 'love' arrows were quickly discarded on the table. An arrow of glittering red starlight appeared notched to the string of the figure's bow.
"Excuse me," the figure called to the room, which wasn't about to listen. "Is there a Gerina Vampeal and Xerlo Garou in here?" the figure asked over the din. Another couple engaged in a PDA that would offend the sensibilities of many adult film stars paused to look at the figure.
"Don't you know Vampires and Werewolves shouldn't breed anyway?," the figure asked them. "The offspring always end up as lawyers." As if on cue, the cowl fell back from the figure's face.
Nova Red Arrow leveled his bow on the already shifting couple, a wide, white grin parting his dark, dark features. And, for the fifteenth time that day, the Red Dragon Inn erupted into a mass brawl from which only one, dark figure would emerge(N3). Score one for the Deliverer of True Love, as fleeting as it may sometimes be.
(N1): PDA - for those not in the know, means Public Display of Affection. It is frequently considered illegal in many cultures and punishable by several hours of sex education taught by a grandparent or close, elderly relative or, should the elderly be unavailable, an out of shape man or woman dressed in an ill-fitting purple dinosaur costume. However, in a commentary on RhyDin's curious social norms, PDAs are perfectly acceptable. Indeed, they
are expected.
(N2): The length of Cupid's wit is legendary. It was once said that one could never find the end of said wit. However, three weeks working the RhyDin beat brought this myth to a crashing halt.
(N3): He didn't so much emerge as run. There's only so many times you can put an arrow through the head of a demi-god and have the guy come back to life before it becomes monotonous. This event did, however, answer a question Zen Buddhists in RhyDin had been mulling over for quite some time: What is the sound of many people simultaneously resurrecting? Apparently, the answer is "Bzzzz-pfft" followed closely by a sound that can only be described as
resembling a flushing toilet.
(To Be Continued in sixty days in the Outback)
Date: 12 Feb 2000 12:54:32 EST
(And now, because no one demanded it, the return of an old character:)
Later that day:
"You're my only hope," Cupid said to the cloaked and cowled figure across the table from him. The figure inclined its head in acknowledgement. Cupid was disturbed by the fact that he could not see the figure's face through the shadows. For a moment, he was touched by a pang of regret before the sensor he carried on his bow went off. The small, chubby person sighed heavily.
"Pardon me," Cupid said as he hovered out of his high chair and turned away, rapidly winging two arrows in the direction of a couple that was committing a massive PDA(N1). He hovered down into his high chair and jotted a few things down in his notebook. "We like to keep track," he explained as he looked back to the shadow-cloaked figure.
"So, will you do it?" Cupid said, just about at his wits end (N2). Cupid's eyes widened as the shadows within the cowl of the figure parted to reveal a bright, ivory smile.
"Of course. I'd love to," the figure said. It was then that Cupid noticed that it wasn't shadows that cloaked this man before him.
"Well, then," Cupid cleared his throat, suddenly troubled. "Here's the list. I appreciate this. Maybe we could discuss payment at a later date?" Cupid said cautiously as he passed the list across the table.
"Don't worry about paying me, little guy. I don't need the money. Let's just consider it a favor," the figure said, standing to signal the end of the meeting.
"Well ... I suppose we could do that. Do you have a bow?" Cupid asked, perfectly willing to give up his own, small means of firing arrows.
The cloak of the figure parted to reveal a hand holding a bow of red metal. The string appeared to be barbed wire. The skin of the hand was as black as pitch. "I sure do," the figure stated.
"Okay, then. I suppose that's that. Here are the arrows you'll need to fire. Good luck!" Cupid said cheerily. And with that, the small, chubby person hovered shakily out of sight, pushing his way through the crowds of the Red Dragon Inn. The figure stood there for a moment, holding the 'love' arrows in his free hand.
The 'love' arrows were quickly discarded on the table. An arrow of glittering red starlight appeared notched to the string of the figure's bow.
"Excuse me," the figure called to the room, which wasn't about to listen. "Is there a Gerina Vampeal and Xerlo Garou in here?" the figure asked over the din. Another couple engaged in a PDA that would offend the sensibilities of many adult film stars paused to look at the figure.
"Don't you know Vampires and Werewolves shouldn't breed anyway?," the figure asked them. "The offspring always end up as lawyers." As if on cue, the cowl fell back from the figure's face.
Nova Red Arrow leveled his bow on the already shifting couple, a wide, white grin parting his dark, dark features. And, for the fifteenth time that day, the Red Dragon Inn erupted into a mass brawl from which only one, dark figure would emerge(N3). Score one for the Deliverer of True Love, as fleeting as it may sometimes be.
(N1): PDA - for those not in the know, means Public Display of Affection. It is frequently considered illegal in many cultures and punishable by several hours of sex education taught by a grandparent or close, elderly relative or, should the elderly be unavailable, an out of shape man or woman dressed in an ill-fitting purple dinosaur costume. However, in a commentary on RhyDin's curious social norms, PDAs are perfectly acceptable. Indeed, they
are expected.
(N2): The length of Cupid's wit is legendary. It was once said that one could never find the end of said wit. However, three weeks working the RhyDin beat brought this myth to a crashing halt.
(N3): He didn't so much emerge as run. There's only so many times you can put an arrow through the head of a demi-god and have the guy come back to life before it becomes monotonous. This event did, however, answer a question Zen Buddhists in RhyDin had been mulling over for quite some time: What is the sound of many people simultaneously resurrecting? Apparently, the answer is "Bzzzz-pfft" followed closely by a sound that can only be described as
resembling a flushing toilet.
(To Be Continued in sixty days in the Outback)