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Post by The Jenn on Mar 5, 2008 21:57:45 GMT -5
Thyme had found the old, dead lunar moth sitting in her aunt's attic one day after she'd gotten permission to hunt for one of the woman's old books from several years back. It had been her grandfather's book and she was honestly curious to learn more about the man, despite the fact that Dad hated him so much and Aunt Josephine had an absolutely horrible opinion of him for marrying into a Corvistowne line. She didn't manage to find the book after two hours of searching with her aunt's vague 'somewhere in the left with all the other junk', but she did find the dead moth and thought that it was absolutely gorgeous. She'd only ever seen one like it once before, alive and resting on the side of a building, but it had flown away before she could get a closer look. The thing was dry, powdery to the touch, and it made her sneeze once or twice. She wondered how long it had been up in the attic, left to die and dehydrate. It came down with her, wrapped in a piece of old cloth also found in the attic so that she could carry it safely in her mouth, and she put it on the floor to lightly poke and prod at it. Searching for the book unsuccessfully had wiped out her free time before bed and she was starting to get tired, but the moth was just so... pretty! She'd have to wake up early in the morning for her aunt's next lesson and without Conway around she would have to wake up by herself in time to notice the breakfast placed outside her door and eat it, else she'd have to go without food until it was lunch time. The dust coming off of the moth and onto her paws eventually started to take its toll and she yawned widely, only inhaling more of the powdery stuff. She made a grumbling noise in the back of her throat and settled on the floor. Maybe she could just sleep there instead of hopping up onto the bed. It was a soft carpet. And she was... sleepy... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The next morning, she woke at the knock on the door and yawned, slowly standing on tired legs. She'd slept on the floor last night? Must have been more tired than usual. A small noise made her look down in time to see the lunar moth falling to the ground, squished. Ah crap, had she rolled over on it in her sleep? That was disappointing. She hadn't wanted to ruin the pretty thing. That would teach her to stay up so late, she supposed. As she passed by her mirror to go to the door and pull in breakfast, a flash of green caught her eye and she stopped, looking at the mirror in confusion. Green? In her room? There wasn't any-  |
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Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 5, 2008 22:24:35 GMT -5
Josephine knocked on the door again. What was wrong with that girl? She was supposed to be downstairs an hour ago and this was just getting to be idiotic. The old woman muttered under her breath as she reached in her coat to produce her key ring. The door had been locked, per usual, but she always kept the spare keys just in case.
When she opened the door to see Thyme she stared. Wait... that was... wait.
The Highlander had lived too long to watch he dream shatter into a hundred pieces right in front of her. It looked like Thyme had magically developed Avington colors and... and... no this was just too much. A sound escaped her that was one of utter horror and shock, and probably couldn't be described to future generations.
Then she it the floor like a ton of bricks. Out like a light.
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 5, 2008 22:36:39 GMT -5
Thyme's head jerked to the side as she heard her aunt pull out the key and unlock the door, red eyes wide and terrified. She'd been hoping her aunt would just leave her alone in her room so she could figure out what to do, if there was any way to reverse this... this disaster that had befallen her. She didn't know what happened. She couldn't even hazard a guess. She just knew that she didn't look like herself, and she was smelling things with her tail, and this was far too surreal to actually be happening. She had to be dreaming.
Except that she wouldn't have dreamed Aunt Josephine collapsing on her floor, or that horrible, heartwrenching noise a second before that made her feel as though she was three inches tall and the most disgusting thing to ever be born.
What had happend to her? What... was she?! At first she'd thought the moth had somehow made her part Avington, but then she got to looking at everything closer and realized that just couldn't be the case, not with the specific shade of the colors or how they were set up. Half of her still looked pure Highlander. Did it... somehow change her region? Or was she still a Highlander with this horrible coloring on her fur? If it had been anyone but herself, she would have thought it pretty. As it was, after spending all this time doing her damndest to become a proper Highlander and make her aunt proud, it might all be for nothing if she wasn't even a Highlander anymore.
And how terrifying a thought was that? She started crying, more scared now than she'd ever been in her entire life.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 5, 2008 22:48:57 GMT -5
One of the servants came running, their canine nails tapped on the floor. In wide eyed horror one of the kitchen servants arrived on the scene to find his employer on the floor in a heap. He cursed softly before yelling down stairs for help.
He walked over to the old woman, carefully propping up her head and trying to untangle her from her own coat. Then he turned around to catch sight of a crying Thyme. "Holy...." He said nearly dropping the old woman's head on the floor with a thunk.
Right! Right! It was the woman's niece, wasn't it? What the hell happened? That must have been the reason why Miss Josephine was on the floor like this. "Uh... Miss Thyme?" he asked curiously. The Highlander canine was throughly confused by Thyme's change in coloration. "Are you all right? Do you... uh... need help?"
Two more servants arrived. Lovely mess indeed.
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 5, 2008 23:00:20 GMT -5
Thyme tried to stop herself from crying when the servant came into the room but it was like fighting a losing battle, especially when the man looked at her with that shocked expression, like he was staring at some sort of freakish curiosity. Or he was just surprised. But that thought didn't cross her mind just then. Would she be getting reactions like this from everyone for the rest of her life? Would she be a freak everywhere now? What was she going to do?!
She turned her head away from the people in the room, trying to make the crying silent at least, though her shaking shoulders gave her away quite nicely. She didn't know what to do. What was she supposed to do?
Did her aunt hate her now? Would she kick her out because she wasn't a Highlander anymore, or even if she was, because she didn't look like one? What was going to happen to her? She could always go back home to her parents... but she didn't want to. She wanted to stay here with her aunt. She liked her aunt, for all that she was a bossy old woman with lots of issues! She would even go so far as to say that she loved her aunt, or at least think it silently. The woman was proud of her. She was doing well at what Josephine taught her. In the two years since she'd managed to scare information out of that low-ranking bird in the basement, her lessons had only continued.
More than anything, she didn't want her aunt to hate her...
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Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 5, 2008 23:52:02 GMT -5
Aunt Josephine didn't hate her, she was just a little shocked to see the niece she prized so dearly covered in green. Well, she hadn't gotten past the green. If she had she probably would have realized that her region hadn't changed, maybe not. The shock was more than the woman could bare either way.
The servant just nodded to himself as he told the others to help pick up Josephine and put her on Thyme's bed. They weren't going to risk taking her up the stairs, even if they had a biped Club on staff they weren't going to run the risk of hurting their employer anymore. She did pay them.
One of them fetched water while the other two simply slipped out of the room. They didn't want to deal with the crying girl or Josephine when she woke up. Oh no, that would be a disaster waiting to happen.
It took a while for Josephine to wake up, she shifted on the bed, throughly confused as to why she was not on her own bed. Was she in... Thyme's room? She didn't move to see the girl. She just hoped that whatever had just happened that it was a dream and she had just woken up from a nightmare.
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 6, 2008 0:15:22 GMT -5
Thyme avoided meeting any of the servants' eyes, not sure whether to just be horrified or shamed as well. What was she now? Did she even belong in this house anymore?
She watched with worry and unease as they settled her aunt on her bed. Half of her wanted to hop up there and wait by the foot of the bed until she regained consciousness. The other half of her was far too scared that she would just pass out again because of what a horrible sight her niece now was. She settled for resting her chin on the edge of the bed and watching one of the servants tend to the woman, trying to get her to wake up, which she gradually did.
"Aunt Josephine?" she whispered, half afraid of what would happen when the woman looked at her again but needing to know so badly. "I'm... sorry. I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"
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Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 6, 2008 0:27:11 GMT -5
Josephine shifted her weight and propped herself on her elbows. When she saw her niece again she felt lightheaded. Oh for the love of all the Highlands it wasn't a dream. This was actually happening. She shudder briefly before sitting up completely.
"What the fuck did you get into?" She said without a second thought. "What... you... I need to tests on you right now." The woman said as she fixed her hair a bit. This was such a terrible mess. What was going on?
"Er... just... before we do any tests to see what happened I need to get my bearings back," Josephine said as she clutched the bed covers. She was dizzy, and could feel a bit of a headache coming on. Biting her lip she took another long look at the girl. Green, Yellow, Blue things coming from her tail.... what in the name...? Oh lord. What had she gotten into in the attic?
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 6, 2008 0:35:41 GMT -5
Thyme swallowed hard and let her eyes slide away from her aunt and back to the floor when she sat up and spoke. It was as bad as she'd feared. Her aunt had to resort to cursing and looked almost dizzy from the shock of how horrible she looked now. The once-pristine white coat with its Highland markings was now sullied by the other colors, the green covering her like a slimy blanket and the spot of yellow and blue feelers only adding insult to injury.
She continued to stare at the floor, not noticing when her aunt bit her lip or looked back at her. She could feel the gaze of the woman and the servant as if they were acid eating away at this patterning and she wished fervently that they were. Maybe then they would go away! She'd tried getting it wet, but that didn't wash away anything, only made the powder on her fur more troublesome.
What... was she supposed to say to that? Tests for what? To see if she was a freak in blood as well as body? She could understand that. Oh dark, what if she wasn't even a Highlander anymore?! "Whatever you think best, Aunt," she whispered, unable to bring her voice up to a normal volume. "I... it was... an accident..." Not like that made any difference to the end result.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 6, 2008 0:46:12 GMT -5
She slipped her feet of the bed. An accident. A lot of things were accidents but didn't result in this. The woman sighed and shook her head. "Let's go to my study," Josephine muttered as she stood up on wobbly legs. She had been shaken rather nicely by this entire ordeal. She was getting too old for this. Not like she would ever admit to it.
The study on the third floor was reserved just for Josephine's particularly complicated stuff. She quietly waited until Thyme had taken a seat on the chair she had pointed out before shifting through some of her papers.
She paused for a moment before turning to Thyme and placing a hand on her coat.
Dust... dust came off of it. And those blue things on her tail... what exactly? "Thyme... those things on your tail. Do they do anything in particular?" Oh this... better not have been her brother's fault. If that bastard had hid something in her storage space she would bring him back from the dead to kill him again and again and again.
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