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Post by Lucca on Jun 18, 2010 17:10:28 GMT -5
 As she got older, and her lessons and Sprouts activities got more demanding, her list of friends grew, Mirriam had a lot less time for simply exploring the Palace, something she'd been so excited about in the beginning. To some, this might not have mattered. She'd lived here for years, surely she'd seen everything by now? That, Mirriam was sure, was just what they wanted her to think. There were certain places, the little Bat couldn't help but notice, where they never let her really look around too much. The kitchen, for example, or the offices of various Court nobility. They always gave her dumb excuses like 'You're in the way!' or 'That's not a good place for children!' Ha! Mirriam was almost a teenager, not a child anymore! Showed what they know. She knew it was because they were hiding something. Another one of those places was the library. She always got kicked out before she could really see much of anything other than books, and, come on, EVERYone knew you put secret passageways in a library! Or superhero hideouts. They always tried to force her out before she could find anything interesting, and here the excuse was always 'You can't make noise in here!' Mirriam had always wondered why that was. Her personal theory had always been that there was some sort of monster lurking amongst the books that would attack anyone it could hear. Of course, when she tried to explain this to Khushrenada, he'd told her firmly what nonsense that was, and that the rule was so that everyone would have peace to read their books. How silly. Today, Mirriam was going to find the truth! And to do so, she was being as quiet as a mouse. Her large ears were panned forward as she stalked down a row of books, when she caught a flash out of the corner of her eye. Something else was lurking about...something pink! |
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Post by Bee on Jun 18, 2010 18:32:00 GMT -5
 Nephy's tutors kept trying to push picture books on him, telling him that oooh, weren't they pretty little scenes of ducks and chickens, did he know what a chicken was? And Nephy had thrown the book down and told them that yes, yes he did, because he wasn't stupid, and he wanted books with more words than squirrels. He may only be five years old, but he was advanced, very advanced, and he needed things that were going to challenge him, like all these cool myths about people being turned into trees by their daddies because men were chasing them for some reason. And so he found himself on the floor of the library curled into a quiet, inoffensive little ball that couldn't possibly get punted out of the room, the book open in front of him, wondering how on earth one god could make that many babies. |
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Post by Lucca on Jun 19, 2010 10:50:19 GMT -5
As carefully and quietly as she could, Mirriam hopped toward the pink something, her wing-claws making no noise as they grasped the carpet on the library floor. Her face was twisted in concentration as she continued to advance toward what she now saw was a little ball of fur, with a book in from of it. A book? Was it another child? Her ears perked forward. She'd heard about there being some new children in the palace, but she hadn't seen them yet. Maybe he'd heard something about the library monster?
Mirriam stood up, walking more awkwardly with wings flailed out for balance on only her hind legs, and she now moved around the front so that she could see a large pair of glasses and a pair of tiny ears. She couldn't see the nose, as it was firmly buried in the book. Mirriam moved closer, and opened her mouth to speak. "Hey!" Then she remembered that she was trying to be quiet, so she covered her mouth with a wing and then tried again, in a stage whisper. "Hey, what are you reading?"
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Post by Bee on Jun 19, 2010 21:52:32 GMT -5
Nephy was so startled by the sudden intrusion of loud that he bolted half off the ground, bouncing his glasses askew and knocking his book aside, and landed rather ungracefully on his butt. "Eccch!" he said, and then, when he righted his specs and was again holding his book, "Just some stories. This one's about a girl who was raised by bears and was a really good hunter and wouldn't marry anyone who couldn't run faster than her. Then this other guy was a jerk and cheated with apples and married her and then they both got turned into lions and couldn't be together anyway."
He was proud of his ability to recount the story faithfully; he was going to rub it in his tutors' faces. Eat that, picture books.
It was at this point that he realized that he was speaking to an actual person, not a disembodied voice inquiring about his literary tastes, and formally recognized the existence of the girl in front of him. An Avington, all green and full of antlers. "I've never seen you before. Hi."
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Post by Lucca on Jun 20, 2010 10:59:49 GMT -5
Mirriam jumped a little when the little...boy? got startld and dropped his book. She was about to apologize when he started telling her about the story he was reading, and it sounded really cool! She loved stories! Especially is they had bears and magic. She blinked at the end though. That was just strange! "But if they were both lions then why couldn't they be together as lions? Lions can be with other lions. And why didn't they get turned into bears too like the girl's family?" Her tail wiggled as she waited for the boy to answer the questions. She was sure he would have an answer. He was young but he was obviously smart to be reading a book like that.
She grinned and pulled herself up a bit taller as he greeted her. After he'd already explained about the bears and the apples. She thought this was a little silly, but all she said was, "Hi! My name's Mirriam, and I've lived here for a long time. I've never seen you before either....though I did meet someone else who had the same pretty colors in her hair!" She wasn't sure what it was, but something about him reminded her of the other woman with the strange name. Although looking back on it, Mirriam didn't think that what the woman had told her was her actual name. It must have been her superhero name, to protect her secret identity. Though "Does-Not-Take-Kindly-to-Intruders" was certainly the oddest superhero name she'd ever heard before.
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Post by Bee on Jun 20, 2010 22:04:38 GMT -5
Ah ha! That was part of the introduction of the book: "They couldn't be together because people used to be really stupid and thought that cats couldn't make babies with the same kind of cat. Lions would have to be married to tigers or something. I dunno."
He paused and thought about hair. There were quite a few ladies with Gardens hair in the Court--all the Queens, his sisters, his grandma...His mean, crazy grandma...
"Maybe you mean my mom," he suggested. "Or my grandma, Madame Mnem." He called her that because she had threatened to bake them into a cake for calling her "Grandma." He felt weird calling her that anyway, like calling a venomous snake your best friend. Whereas Medea--already the favorite--could skate by with GrandMnem, Nephy didn't want to push his luck. "Don't go near her and ask. She hates kids and she'll eat you."
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Post by Lucca on Jun 21, 2010 9:39:05 GMT -5
Mirriam stared at the boy for a moment, very confused. That sounded nothing like what her tutor taught her about Biology. After a moment she laughed. "Well that was very silly of them, wasn't it? Have you ever seen a lion before? Not a Card one, a regular one. I haven't. I dunno where they live," she said, looking thoughtful and tilting her antlered head to the side.
At the quandary of what woman she was referring to, Mirriam scrunched up her little leaf nose in thought. "Well, I dunno, she didn't tell me her real name because she wanted to conceal her secret identity. She was a human." She shook her head at the description of his Grandma. That didn't sound like the nice woman at all! "Nah, can't have been her...this King was nice and made me a cake after I helped her with some Bandersnatches that were livin' in her thorn patch. But what's your name? Unless you have a secret identity too!"
She had read this one comic where a superhero disguised himself by wearing glasses. Of course, looking back on it, she thought that was a little silly. You could still tell who someone was even when they put on glasses, especially regular ones instead of the silly ones with a fake mustache attached.
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Post by Bee on Jun 21, 2010 13:29:06 GMT -5
This Mirriam girl was right, that didn't sound like his grandmother at all. It was suspiciously true that they were both humans and Kings, and she baked cakes, and his grandmother baked cakes, and she let Medea eat as much cake as she wanted...But no, it couldn't be. If Mirriam had met his grandma she wouldn't be standing in front of him today without physical or mental scars or deadness.
"Nah," he said. "I'm just Nephy." He looked at the girl curiously. She seemed awfully fixated on secret identities. Either she was some kind of paranoid nutbasket or she was trying to weed out...superheroes? It made sense, kind of, though those weren't the sort of things Nephy usually read. He wasn't sure. But she seemed lively, not crazy, so he was willing to not be unnerved and roll with the theory. If she was nuts, he could always yell for his mom, who was nuttier.
With genuine suspicion and wonder, he continued: "Is Mirriam your secret identity?"
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Post by Lucca on Jun 21, 2010 16:17:02 GMT -5
The only visible scar on Mirriam was a long one that stretched from her jaw all the way down her neck. But that she had gotten from a horrible Jubjub bird and it had nothing to do with the pretty woman who'd made her cake. It might be visible as she eagerly sat up straighter as the Skunk introduced himself.
"Well, it's good to meet you, Nephy!" She extended her wingclaw for a shake, as she was being taught was proper when you've just introduced yourself to another Card. "Oh! No, Mirriam is my real name. I don't have a secret identity." She paused and got a thoughtful look on her face. "Yet," she added, as it would actually be a rather nice thing to have once she really decided to break into the superhero business, so that she could avoid all the attention and celebrity that went with saving people. Although she'd also have to get a costume, and some cool powers...possibly some type of magic. Like the enchantment on her flower!
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Post by Bee on Jun 22, 2010 11:33:02 GMT -5
Nephy considered this for a long moment. He didn't have very high hopes for this hero business, if she wanted to get into it, mostly because everything he'd read indicated it was a crapshoot. Either you completed long, difficult tasks and got the shaft anyway; or your family died; or your lady friends were considered too beautiful by the powers-that-be and got turned into sheep or something. It was the powers-that-be that really made a muck of everything, all jealous and crazy and fighting with each other to prove who was the bigger jerk, as far as he could tell. He didn't want to have to deal with people that fickle.
Did your name end up in Nephy's books? Yes. Was it worth it? Probably not.
Though he supposed some people earned a happy ending. Maybe Mirriam would be one of those. "Do you save people?"
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