Post by Callypso on Mar 25, 2011 18:57:03 GMT -5
Characters: The Price Family
Words: 2,126 (not including the magical item blurb)
Blurb: Marvolo sticks his nose where it doesn't belong and ends up replacing something important... aka, Marvolo stumbles upon the Mechanical Heart.
Erm, still on "hiatus" but Marvolo's muse wouldn't shut the hell up... so yeah. Enjoy! <3
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He was bored.
It was a rather dreary, drizzling sort of day and he’d been cooped up in the house for the entire weekend. His younger sisters were curled up in front of the parlor fireplace reading. Kendra was visiting with them on holiday, their parents having kept her room as it was when she had left, and she was busy poring over her own research.
He had already poked and prodded and teased until all three of his sisters threatened to call one of the adults, so he ambled along the house in search of something or someone more interesting than his currently bookish sisters.
Albus was busy learning iron-craft from their father, which was just as well since he hadn’t a Corvie interest. He simultaneously pitied and coveted his brother’s heritage. Why, oh why, couldn’t he have been born exactly half and half? What fun it would be to have both the genius of Corvistowne and fear-fueled mystery provoked by the Tulgey! Alas, he was stuck only with genius. Better that nothing.
His father offered to let him help and watch with his brother but Marvolo merely rolled his eyes and declined. What did he care for pretty iron trinkets? They had no nervous systems, beautiful networks spread throughout the body issuing sensation, thought, feeling… The Tulgey goat leveled a look that suggested he either say nothing or move on his way, and since the boy wasn’t looking to elicit a cold rage from his sometimes-gruff father, he loped along on his mismatched limbs to procure other entertainment.
Beloved Auntie Polina was found in the kitchen baking something delicious (as always) but had shooed away her adoring nephew for fear the soufflé would fall should he make too much ruckus.
His inky mother was at the dining room table grumbling angrily while writing a nasty (or so he assumed by the barely audible phrases whispered under her breath) to someone. When he complained of not having any distractions she snapped at him to go play with his siblings – she was busy writing to a greedy duck who couldn’t calculate interest correctly.
He trotted away from the kitchen, slightly miffed but rather amused as his mother continued her muttering, “For the love of Spades… four siblings and he’s managed to find himself with nothing to do?!”
Marvolo sighed dramatically as he padded down the hall. How could he be cursed with such a mundane brood such as this? Actually, he was generally tickled by his odd family. A Tulgey goat for a father and an ink-clan horned ferret for a mother? And all his siblings nearsighted with horns to match their mothers! It was delightful, really, but he would never say as such. It would really go to their heads and then where would he be? No, no. Much better to hem and haw and hope they never noticed how fond of them he was. Well, most of the time, anyway.
Intending to go to his room and do horrible things to his ant farm, he found himself drifting into his parents’ room. There was bound to be something of interest in here. Marvolo was naturally curious and belonged to the school of if-it’s-not-locked-it’s-fair-game school of thought. Even then he would find ways to break into locked diaries or boxes. He’d been chewed out on more than one occasion for reading his sisters’ private thoughts. He never intended harm, unless it was purposeful plotting for vengeance for some sibling transgression or because he just liked winding his siblings up, but mostly he simply didn’t much care for other people’s privacy or personal belongings.
It was with some distress that he began rummaging through his mother’s night table. He’d already checked it once but now he was becoming discouraged that there wasn’t some havoc he could wreck, or some tome his mother didn’t want him to read. A tinkle sounded in the very back of the drawer he had opened. His ears perked up and probed with his strangely-long ferret digits until he fished a set of tiny keys from their hiding place. They were the keys to his mother’s laboratory. Excellent.
To avoid suspicion, he tucked the keys amongst his feather wings and ambled through the house, continuing to complain about how bored he was, though inside his heart was singing. They were never allowed inside the lab without their mother present. He couldn’t see for the life of him why – his mother was really brilliant and they were surrounded by other Corvies – he sincerely doubted there was anything in the lab that couldn’t be repaired. Had his mother been interested in poisons or explosions he might have been more wary. But no, she was interested in muscle generation. Alas.
Once he arrived in the front hall entryway he looked behind him to see whether he had been followed. His sisters hadn’t even looked up from their books as he passed the parlor – they were so used to him kvetching or making a nuisance of some kind. All the better for him.
Grinning widely to himself, he gingerly placed a key into the lock and turned. Nothing. Frowning, he looked at the key ring and rolled his eyes at himself. Of course, this silver key would not fit into this brass lock. How foolish. He selected what he thought was the right key and turned the knob once again. Success!
Gently closing the door behind him and stepping as quietly down the stairs as his hoofed hind-legs allowed, he arrived at the bottom of the narrow stairwell into his mother’s precious laboratory.
Oh, it was glorious.
Rows of worktables, shelves, giant industrial sink at the back. Oh, and his mother’s work desk where she kept her most important notes locked away. Perhaps he should look there first? Who knew what goodies his mother was working on now, and no better way to find out! (Besides asking, of course, but why bother when he could find out himself?)
As he meandered down a row lined with bookshelves he slipped on a puddle that hadn’t been mopped up and banged solidly into the nearest structure. He hissed softly to himself, hoping the noise hadn’t been loud enough to alert anyone upstairs, and made to get up when a heavy object rolled from the top shelf directly onto his head. Gritting his teeth and rubbing his sore noggin with a paw, he cast about looking for the object that hurt him so. He would make it pay – most likely via destruction of some sort – when his eyes lit upon a gleaming object.
Marvolo snatched up the object, prepared to chuck it across the room in anger, and stopped short as he took in the marvelous thing in his hands. Light gleamed along the orangey-gold of well-tended copper. It was a very precise model of a Card heart – no, working replication? Tiny pipes jutted from the piece’s side and softly puffed steam as the heart seemingly pulsed with life. It was beautiful.
What on earth was it doing in his mother’s lab? Unless she was working on a way to regenerate heart tissue? No… it didn’t look like anything should could have made. Mother Price didn’t have much luck when it came to arts and crafts, and daddy-dearest preferred iron. This was someone else’s project. But why was it here?
No matter. Marvolo had long-since learned that the top-shelf of any bookshelf or cabinet were graveyards for his mother’s forgotten, discarded or unsuccessful projects. He wasn’t entirely positive that it had come from the top shelf, but judging by how hard it had cracked upon his skull… Really now, he was just making excuses to keep it. Mother’s trash was a Corvie boy’s treasure!
He turned the mechanical heart over and over, trying to determine its source of power and how it worked. Though he was not an engineering sort of scientist, the model fascinated him. He couldn’t explain why, but he was entirely enthralled with this creation. It was now his - provided his mother didn’t find out and snatch it back from him, of course.
Mimicking the tone his auntie reserved for children younger than he, the boy brought the device (for that appeared to be what it was) close to his face to coo, Aren’t you just the prettiest thing? I want to take you apart and figure out how you work. Who loves their new toy? I do, I love you –
He had been about to continue his mocking recitation of his adoration for his shiny new contraption when it suddenly shuddered and began pumping more steam out the side. Without warning, the mechanical heart slid – Marvolo found himself staring in fascinated horror – up his arm and shoved its way inside his chest.
Gasping, Marvolo grabbed the nearest table leg (as he was still spread out upon the floor from his fall) and tried to pull himself up. He couldn’t. He could feel his own heart, throbbing in his chest and then warmth spread throughout his insides. Was that a muffled whistle that he heard?
The boy groped hopelessly at his chest to try and pull the device back out, but his skin had remarkably resealed itself. It was the oddest thing, he wasn’t in pain, but he felt that any moment he would die. He felt lightheaded. Clutching at the table leg with both paws now, the ferret/goat looked up and blinked blearily at the light fixtures. They seemed to blend into one another and they were overbright. His eyes rolled up into his head before everything went dark.
He awoke to his mother standing over him, a stethoscope around her neck and what appeared to be smelling salts in her paws.
Don’t move.
She looked perturbed, probably because he wasn’t supposed to be here, partly because his siblings had all trailed after their mother to investigate.
As yet unknown to Marvolo, his mother had tired of correspondence and decided to burn off some team by running some experiments in the lab. The horned ferret had found her key ring missing along with her troublesome son. Her other children, noticing her silent fury as she rushed down the hall, quickly followed after her, hoping for an opportunity to see their pesky brother punished.
Instead, they found him passed out on the floor with an organ resting messily upon the floor.
Once his mother had determined her son was functioning normally, she leveled a steely gaze at him.
Where, exactly, did that come from?
Marvolo sat up – he felt surprisingly energetic – and found what his mother was gesturing toward. Oh. How interesting.
He knew her calm to be the icing on a very stormy cake, so it was important for him to answer this correctly. Unfortunately, he didn’t think she’d like the answer.
I think it’s mine…
Excuse me?
His mother’s eyes flashed dangerously, daring him to play games with her. She must have thought he’d murdered some vagabond Ace and decided to dissect him. Well, that was silly. There weren’t any other body parts lying around, now were there?
Well, I slipped in a puddle and crashed into this bookshelf here. A replica heart, or device of some kind, fell down and hit me in the head. It was made from copp-
The gasp from his mother caused him to pause. Well, she certainly didn’t seem very happy. He could see her resisting the temptation to snarl or yell, her lips had drawn tight against her teeth and her eyes were ablaze. Her head whipped toward the direction of his siblings who were staring wide-eyed at the lifeless heart by their brother’s side.
Ariana, fetch your father and auntie. The rest of you – upstairs. NOW.
There was a scrabble of hooves on linoleum and padded feet pounding up the stairs as his mother paced to and fro, cursing under his breath.
Marvolo didn’t really see what the fuss was all about. He felt fine, really.
The rest of the adults showed up, Polina gingerly making her way down the stairs, to convene with his inky mother. After a brief and heated discussion, Polina went back upstairs to tend to the others as his mother and father prepared to take him to the Bazaar.
Luckily for you I know who made that heart. We’ll see if nothing can be done, she snapped as she ushered the boy up the stairs. Marvolo knew his mother was acting so beastly because she was scared, but by this point he was grinning uncontrollably. Did this mean he had a cooper heart now? Would it pump forever? This was so cool.
As he ambled up the stairs, another thought came to him.
Hey, Mom?
What.
I’m not bored anymore…
Mechanical Heart: Wow...cool!This mechanical heart looks like a perfect replica made from copper.
Small pipes that jut out from the side exude steam slowly and gently
with each pulse motion of the heart.
As the man who just gave it to you said, "Just tell it that you love
it, but only if you want it.", the heart just needs to be told
it is loved to be equipped.
If this is done, it will slide painlessly into the SD's chest and over
the course of 30 exhausting minutes, replace their own original heart.
With this heart, they will be able to, once a week, cause another SD
ranked King or lower to suffer a heart attack at the whisper of
"Convulse". This painful episode lasts for a full minute and
will leave the victim alive, but clutching their chest and in paroxysms of pain.
The owner cannot be harmed by normal weaponry or weapons with magical
equaling 50p or less, these weapons will simply slough off of them of
bounce off ineffectually. Any spells that have to do with the heart no
longer affect this SD.
Words: 2,126 (not including the magical item blurb)
Blurb: Marvolo sticks his nose where it doesn't belong and ends up replacing something important... aka, Marvolo stumbles upon the Mechanical Heart.
Erm, still on "hiatus" but Marvolo's muse wouldn't shut the hell up... so yeah. Enjoy! <3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He was bored.
It was a rather dreary, drizzling sort of day and he’d been cooped up in the house for the entire weekend. His younger sisters were curled up in front of the parlor fireplace reading. Kendra was visiting with them on holiday, their parents having kept her room as it was when she had left, and she was busy poring over her own research.
He had already poked and prodded and teased until all three of his sisters threatened to call one of the adults, so he ambled along the house in search of something or someone more interesting than his currently bookish sisters.
Albus was busy learning iron-craft from their father, which was just as well since he hadn’t a Corvie interest. He simultaneously pitied and coveted his brother’s heritage. Why, oh why, couldn’t he have been born exactly half and half? What fun it would be to have both the genius of Corvistowne and fear-fueled mystery provoked by the Tulgey! Alas, he was stuck only with genius. Better that nothing.
His father offered to let him help and watch with his brother but Marvolo merely rolled his eyes and declined. What did he care for pretty iron trinkets? They had no nervous systems, beautiful networks spread throughout the body issuing sensation, thought, feeling… The Tulgey goat leveled a look that suggested he either say nothing or move on his way, and since the boy wasn’t looking to elicit a cold rage from his sometimes-gruff father, he loped along on his mismatched limbs to procure other entertainment.
Beloved Auntie Polina was found in the kitchen baking something delicious (as always) but had shooed away her adoring nephew for fear the soufflé would fall should he make too much ruckus.
His inky mother was at the dining room table grumbling angrily while writing a nasty (or so he assumed by the barely audible phrases whispered under her breath) to someone. When he complained of not having any distractions she snapped at him to go play with his siblings – she was busy writing to a greedy duck who couldn’t calculate interest correctly.
He trotted away from the kitchen, slightly miffed but rather amused as his mother continued her muttering, “For the love of Spades… four siblings and he’s managed to find himself with nothing to do?!”
Marvolo sighed dramatically as he padded down the hall. How could he be cursed with such a mundane brood such as this? Actually, he was generally tickled by his odd family. A Tulgey goat for a father and an ink-clan horned ferret for a mother? And all his siblings nearsighted with horns to match their mothers! It was delightful, really, but he would never say as such. It would really go to their heads and then where would he be? No, no. Much better to hem and haw and hope they never noticed how fond of them he was. Well, most of the time, anyway.
Intending to go to his room and do horrible things to his ant farm, he found himself drifting into his parents’ room. There was bound to be something of interest in here. Marvolo was naturally curious and belonged to the school of if-it’s-not-locked-it’s-fair-game school of thought. Even then he would find ways to break into locked diaries or boxes. He’d been chewed out on more than one occasion for reading his sisters’ private thoughts. He never intended harm, unless it was purposeful plotting for vengeance for some sibling transgression or because he just liked winding his siblings up, but mostly he simply didn’t much care for other people’s privacy or personal belongings.
It was with some distress that he began rummaging through his mother’s night table. He’d already checked it once but now he was becoming discouraged that there wasn’t some havoc he could wreck, or some tome his mother didn’t want him to read. A tinkle sounded in the very back of the drawer he had opened. His ears perked up and probed with his strangely-long ferret digits until he fished a set of tiny keys from their hiding place. They were the keys to his mother’s laboratory. Excellent.
To avoid suspicion, he tucked the keys amongst his feather wings and ambled through the house, continuing to complain about how bored he was, though inside his heart was singing. They were never allowed inside the lab without their mother present. He couldn’t see for the life of him why – his mother was really brilliant and they were surrounded by other Corvies – he sincerely doubted there was anything in the lab that couldn’t be repaired. Had his mother been interested in poisons or explosions he might have been more wary. But no, she was interested in muscle generation. Alas.
Once he arrived in the front hall entryway he looked behind him to see whether he had been followed. His sisters hadn’t even looked up from their books as he passed the parlor – they were so used to him kvetching or making a nuisance of some kind. All the better for him.
Grinning widely to himself, he gingerly placed a key into the lock and turned. Nothing. Frowning, he looked at the key ring and rolled his eyes at himself. Of course, this silver key would not fit into this brass lock. How foolish. He selected what he thought was the right key and turned the knob once again. Success!
Gently closing the door behind him and stepping as quietly down the stairs as his hoofed hind-legs allowed, he arrived at the bottom of the narrow stairwell into his mother’s precious laboratory.
Oh, it was glorious.
Rows of worktables, shelves, giant industrial sink at the back. Oh, and his mother’s work desk where she kept her most important notes locked away. Perhaps he should look there first? Who knew what goodies his mother was working on now, and no better way to find out! (Besides asking, of course, but why bother when he could find out himself?)
As he meandered down a row lined with bookshelves he slipped on a puddle that hadn’t been mopped up and banged solidly into the nearest structure. He hissed softly to himself, hoping the noise hadn’t been loud enough to alert anyone upstairs, and made to get up when a heavy object rolled from the top shelf directly onto his head. Gritting his teeth and rubbing his sore noggin with a paw, he cast about looking for the object that hurt him so. He would make it pay – most likely via destruction of some sort – when his eyes lit upon a gleaming object.
Marvolo snatched up the object, prepared to chuck it across the room in anger, and stopped short as he took in the marvelous thing in his hands. Light gleamed along the orangey-gold of well-tended copper. It was a very precise model of a Card heart – no, working replication? Tiny pipes jutted from the piece’s side and softly puffed steam as the heart seemingly pulsed with life. It was beautiful.
What on earth was it doing in his mother’s lab? Unless she was working on a way to regenerate heart tissue? No… it didn’t look like anything should could have made. Mother Price didn’t have much luck when it came to arts and crafts, and daddy-dearest preferred iron. This was someone else’s project. But why was it here?
No matter. Marvolo had long-since learned that the top-shelf of any bookshelf or cabinet were graveyards for his mother’s forgotten, discarded or unsuccessful projects. He wasn’t entirely positive that it had come from the top shelf, but judging by how hard it had cracked upon his skull… Really now, he was just making excuses to keep it. Mother’s trash was a Corvie boy’s treasure!
He turned the mechanical heart over and over, trying to determine its source of power and how it worked. Though he was not an engineering sort of scientist, the model fascinated him. He couldn’t explain why, but he was entirely enthralled with this creation. It was now his - provided his mother didn’t find out and snatch it back from him, of course.
Mimicking the tone his auntie reserved for children younger than he, the boy brought the device (for that appeared to be what it was) close to his face to coo, Aren’t you just the prettiest thing? I want to take you apart and figure out how you work. Who loves their new toy? I do, I love you –
He had been about to continue his mocking recitation of his adoration for his shiny new contraption when it suddenly shuddered and began pumping more steam out the side. Without warning, the mechanical heart slid – Marvolo found himself staring in fascinated horror – up his arm and shoved its way inside his chest.
Gasping, Marvolo grabbed the nearest table leg (as he was still spread out upon the floor from his fall) and tried to pull himself up. He couldn’t. He could feel his own heart, throbbing in his chest and then warmth spread throughout his insides. Was that a muffled whistle that he heard?
The boy groped hopelessly at his chest to try and pull the device back out, but his skin had remarkably resealed itself. It was the oddest thing, he wasn’t in pain, but he felt that any moment he would die. He felt lightheaded. Clutching at the table leg with both paws now, the ferret/goat looked up and blinked blearily at the light fixtures. They seemed to blend into one another and they were overbright. His eyes rolled up into his head before everything went dark.
He awoke to his mother standing over him, a stethoscope around her neck and what appeared to be smelling salts in her paws.
Don’t move.
She looked perturbed, probably because he wasn’t supposed to be here, partly because his siblings had all trailed after their mother to investigate.
As yet unknown to Marvolo, his mother had tired of correspondence and decided to burn off some team by running some experiments in the lab. The horned ferret had found her key ring missing along with her troublesome son. Her other children, noticing her silent fury as she rushed down the hall, quickly followed after her, hoping for an opportunity to see their pesky brother punished.
Instead, they found him passed out on the floor with an organ resting messily upon the floor.
Once his mother had determined her son was functioning normally, she leveled a steely gaze at him.
Where, exactly, did that come from?
Marvolo sat up – he felt surprisingly energetic – and found what his mother was gesturing toward. Oh. How interesting.
He knew her calm to be the icing on a very stormy cake, so it was important for him to answer this correctly. Unfortunately, he didn’t think she’d like the answer.
I think it’s mine…
Excuse me?
His mother’s eyes flashed dangerously, daring him to play games with her. She must have thought he’d murdered some vagabond Ace and decided to dissect him. Well, that was silly. There weren’t any other body parts lying around, now were there?
Well, I slipped in a puddle and crashed into this bookshelf here. A replica heart, or device of some kind, fell down and hit me in the head. It was made from copp-
The gasp from his mother caused him to pause. Well, she certainly didn’t seem very happy. He could see her resisting the temptation to snarl or yell, her lips had drawn tight against her teeth and her eyes were ablaze. Her head whipped toward the direction of his siblings who were staring wide-eyed at the lifeless heart by their brother’s side.
Ariana, fetch your father and auntie. The rest of you – upstairs. NOW.
There was a scrabble of hooves on linoleum and padded feet pounding up the stairs as his mother paced to and fro, cursing under his breath.
Marvolo didn’t really see what the fuss was all about. He felt fine, really.
The rest of the adults showed up, Polina gingerly making her way down the stairs, to convene with his inky mother. After a brief and heated discussion, Polina went back upstairs to tend to the others as his mother and father prepared to take him to the Bazaar.
Luckily for you I know who made that heart. We’ll see if nothing can be done, she snapped as she ushered the boy up the stairs. Marvolo knew his mother was acting so beastly because she was scared, but by this point he was grinning uncontrollably. Did this mean he had a cooper heart now? Would it pump forever? This was so cool.
As he ambled up the stairs, another thought came to him.
Hey, Mom?
What.
I’m not bored anymore…
Mechanical Heart: Wow...cool!This mechanical heart looks like a perfect replica made from copper.
Small pipes that jut out from the side exude steam slowly and gently
with each pulse motion of the heart.
As the man who just gave it to you said, "Just tell it that you love
it, but only if you want it.", the heart just needs to be told
it is loved to be equipped.
If this is done, it will slide painlessly into the SD's chest and over
the course of 30 exhausting minutes, replace their own original heart.
With this heart, they will be able to, once a week, cause another SD
ranked King or lower to suffer a heart attack at the whisper of
"Convulse". This painful episode lasts for a full minute and
will leave the victim alive, but clutching their chest and in paroxysms of pain.
The owner cannot be harmed by normal weaponry or weapons with magical
equaling 50p or less, these weapons will simply slough off of them of
bounce off ineffectually. Any spells that have to do with the heart no
longer affect this SD.
