Trev, prone, naked and secured by ankle and wrist, swallowed the fifth sip, with a little help from Lil’s firm hand fisting his hair. Sal moved to his prostrated rear and slapped her tight and taut boy like a farmer slapping a side of beef. His flesh was warm, unlike her own species; and he had an instrument, full and ripe, alien and exotic, that seems to pulse and throb and hang with a certain sense of living heft as if his heart were in his arse rather than his chest. Mairi sat with the quiet patience of a weary cat in a sunny window, content to let Yul sleep as long as she liked. The operation, the doctors had said, somewhat nervously, had gone better than expected. More tests would be run later, they said. So she sat and rubbed her head but succor eluded the feeling of being sunburned from the inside of her skull. Dr. X promised she would heal, fully. She still thought he was a complete bastard.John played the signal again. Rog listened. John looked. Rog listened some more with the look of a school boy trying to convince his teacher he knew the answer when he really didn’t. John played it again. Rog, blessing his own hide, yelped for effect, and did a little dance; his eyes shown with recognition fueled by hope. John just shook his head.Ariel crawled into Cait’s lap, the soft light of a reading lamp holding the pair in the warm repose of mother and child. Cait held back a sigh as Ariel nestled in tight to her chest, pushing her little head and primrose hair into the twin softness of living pillows. Turning the page, she read slowly, trying to lose herself in the story, trying to crowd out the anger in her heart until she heard her daughter sigh and she realized she had not turned the page for quite some time.+My dear friend, we meet again.+Kyra opened her eyes as one to light after many days in a cave. There was a voice, but no one was there. She looked for Em and Von but they were not there either. The room was white and rather bright, the edges fuzzy and from somewhere in her heart, she would later swear, was a taste of things past and a remembrance of things to be.“Kieran? Is that you?”Categories: Story, Kyra, Trev, Mairi, Yul, John Discovery, Rog, Lil’ Twilight, Ariel, Cait, Sal
Yul drifted into sleep, her head turning softly away from Mairi on the pillow as if, from slumber, she sought separation, distance, a final act of submission. Mairi looked up in supplication as those who prostrate themselves look down in mercy, her lower lids as dams staining to hold back her own doubt and fear and anger and regret. As Yul’s hand fell slack, the dam burst. +My Janus, I can’t do this. Damn you! Do you hear me, I can’t do this.+Mairi cried and to the extent her countenance betrayed torment and dismay, Yul’s placid pale visage paid homage to lakes calm in twilight. Taking the back of her trembling fingers, Mairi brushed Yul’s silver hair from her cheek. Bending over she kissed the crest of her dimple and whispered words neither recorded nor remembered.Three hours later:+You did well my dear Chatelaine.++Frail you, you frailing whore of children forgotten and abandoned.+ Mairi sobbed uncontrollably, her head pounding from the inside out as she shook as patients burning with fever shake from cold.+You did all I could have asked, all anyone could have expected. And soon, you will love me again as only a Chatelaine can love the art of grace and execution, of passion controlled by mind and whipped by heart.++You lie with daggers dull and crooked; and if I had my wits I would hurl venom and hatred as the unkind do in confrontation with difference. I will never forgive nor forget, my liege, the obligation I owe to one so blessed with duplicity and greed.+Dr X smiled. +I knew talent when I saw it, and you, my dear, are a gift beyond my dreams.+Mairi lay on the ground, soaking wet, her eyes blurry, her immaculate makeup smeared almost beyond recognition.+Rest my darling Null.+Doctor #1: What happened?Doctor #2: I have no idea. What does the tape show?Doctor #1: You’re not going to believe this.Doctor #2: What?Doctor #1: It’s blank.Categories: Story, Yul, Mairi, Dr. X
With heavy eyes and slurred speech Yul spoke through the early stages of the anesthesia, surgery approaching at the top of the hour.“Mairi. Are you there?”“I’m here darlin.” Squeezing Yul’s hand she repeated, “I’m here.”Yul tried to smile. “Do me a favor. If I don’t make it—““Don’t say that. You’re going to make it. I—““Please, let me finish.” Yul’s voice seemed distance and getting weaker by the moment. “Tell them I understand. Tell them I forgive them. Tell them I love them.”Mairi leaned over and kissed her forehead as Yul gave in to the persistence of her leaden eyelids. “I will.”Categories: Story, Mairi, Yul
Lil’ handed Trev a clear v-shaped glass with a narrow stem. Five different liqueurs, five different colors, each maintaining horizontal integrity shimmered in the soft glow of Lil's quarters. “I’m not thirsty,” said Trev. "And--"Lil’ licked her crimson lips, slowly. “I think you are.” Placing her delicate and perfectly manicured finger under the stem, she slowly lifted the glass toward Trev’s parting lips. Neither broke eye contact with the other. “Five sips, sixty seconds apart, and then--“ Lil’ smiled with dimple and eye.“Then?”“The wonder of modern chemistry. The first liqueur, the sapphire one, drink up, massages the pain centers in your frontal lobe.” Seeing Trev’s reaction, she added, “No worries my sweet, before you feel anything, it will be time for the second liqueur, the golden one. Let’s just say you’ll experience something akin to warm honeyed aloe soothing the throbbing in your temples. Your mind will go slightly fuzzy, but only until the third liqueur, the emerald one.”“Is this safe?” I mean—““Trevor,” whispered Lil’, her nails tracing the outline of his reddening cheeks, “if your heart stops beating, I’ll personally get it started again. And Trevor, I’ve never failed in that endeavor.” She squeezed his thigh. “Oh.”“And Trev?”“Yes?”“If you interrupt me again I may just cut off your gonads before you get to the fifth.” Lil’ smiled, “Time for the second.” He drank the golden liqueur. “Good boy. Now, the emerald potion will make you feel warm, all over. You’ll feel on the verge of wetting yourself and that is where the fourth liqueur comes in, assuming, of course, you don’t actually wet yourself. Now, you wouldn’t loose control right here in front of me, would you Trev?”Trev started to speak but Lil’ stopped him with her finger. Nodding her head, Trev followed suit. “Good. Now, the fourth, the citrine one. Goes straight to the centers of fear and control in your brain, the very one’s the third elicits, and loosens, as they say, the ties that bind. Only once the fourth liqueur takes effect, will you be ready for the fifth.”Trev’s comm started blinking. Lil’ quickly slipped it from his waist to her pocket. “The fifth, my sweet friend, which by the way, only works in conjunction with the first four, is nothing less than a pure shot of adrenalin.” Lil’ paused. “To your agent of masculine surrender. How should I put this? At this stage, you’ll feel like a bull in the chute, or so it seems from my perspective, not that I’ll be complaining.”Trev was in stage two and his mind started to slip. Lil’ took his hand. He followed. There would be no china broken on her watch. Sal was waiting.“Mairi, is he on his way?” asked Yul, trying hard to keep her eyes open.“Yes he is,” lied Mairi. “Good. I want Trev here, by my side during the operation.”“Get your rest darlin’. I’ll let you know as soon as he arrives.”Categories: Story, Lil’ Twilight, Trev, Mairi, Yul
“Papa?” asked Kyra.“Yes, my dear?”“You never did answer my question. And you know what?”Papa played serious. “Tell me my precocious one, what?”“I’m holding you hostage, til’ you talk.”“Is that right?” responded Papa, trying his best to hold back a grin.“Right as rain off a pampus' back,” shot back Kyra in all seriousness.“Well, we can’t have that now can we. Repeat the question.”“You told me you painted because of Luin, but you didn’t say why?”“Didn’t I?” Papa smiled.“Oh Grand?,” called Kyra.“Hey, hey, now I didn’t say I wouldn’t tell you, but wouldn’t you rather I show you?”Kyra frowned.“Okay. How bout this. I show and tell?” Papa held out his hands.Kyra hesitated before slapping both her hands down on his aged palms, weathered soft with care and concern. “Deal!”“Come here child.” He motioned to a blank canvas. “Tell me what you see?”Kyra squirreled her cheeks into the dimples that would later melt hearts. “I see a Papa messing with my deal.”“How so?” asked Papa with false indignation, tilting his head and widening his eyes for effect.Kyra huffed, “You said show and tell.” Then matching him, for effect, she put her hands on her hips. “Not, tell and show.”Papa couldn’t hold back as laughter rolled from belly to cheeks. Then he lowered his voice and his face took a serious tone. “I paint because it makes you smile.”Kyra looked into his eyes and Papa returned the gaze. Then quick as lightning she leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I love you Papa.”“But I’m not finished. Don’t you want to hear the rest?”“No, not really. Got what I needed.” Then Kyra jumped off his lap and skipped away.“Zeke?” asked Grand, watching Kyra fly past her.“Yes dear?”“What did you do now?”“Whaaat? I was just educating the girl on the aesthetic philosophies of Luin.”Shaking her head Grand smiled.“See. It works.” Papa smiled and opened his arms. Grand folded into the embrace, warmth on warmth, her head on his chest finding comfort in the beating of his bottomless heart.“You haven’t told her yet?” asked Grand, her voice barely a whisper. “No.”Categories: Story, Papa, Kyra, Grandma Kyra
“Papa, why do you paint?” asked Kyra.“Luin. I never painted before Luin,” answered Papa without taking his eyes off the canvas. “Don’t tell your grandmother. She once accused me of having an affair with the great dame.” Papa turned his head to see Kyra’s eyes widen, the warm sunlight highlighting her sapphire blues. “Really?”“Well, I suppose we all have our obsessions and, well, now don’t tell your grandmother this either, but passion is planted by the mind in the heart. It doesn’t just come from nowhere and Luin, well, let’s just say she—“ Papa hesitated.“What? Tell me?” asked Kyra.“Well lets just say she had a mind as beautiful and seductive as any,” Papa mused. “In my opinion, of course, and don’t tell your grandmother I said this, but she was sensually stunning, as powerful in passion and provocative in form as any who has ever lived on Hynerian soil.” Papa paused again, as if lost in memory.“She must have been beautiful?”“Luin? “Kyra giggled as one with a secret. “Yes Papa, Luin, the one I will not mention to grand. Tell me of her beauty. Was she like a princess? Fair and regal?”“No, no my dear child, she was a Philosopher, of Aesthetics, the Second Order. I think I have a few of her books in my study, but—““I know, don’t tell grand.”Papa smiled. Categories: Story, Papa, Kyra, Luin
After finishing the last of Rog’s snoot . . . John: Amsec?Rog: Yea. Correction. Frailing yeah.John: (fills two glasses)Rog: (lifts and twirls glass)John: (takes a sip)Rog: (slams back the glass—immediately starts coughing)John: (starts laughing)Rog: (eyes and face turn red—clears throat)John: (laughs more)Rog: Damn.John: More?Rog: Does a pampus stink?John: What?Rog: Never mind. Just pour.John: You know—Rog: Hey!John: What?Rog: Captain, request permission to speak freely.John: Granted, high-near-Eee-Inn.Rog: Just frailing pour. That’s your job. John: (tries to keep from busting out laughing)Rog: (tries even harder to keep a straight face)John: Frail me.Rog: (holds up full glass to the light) Where did you get this shiott?John: Sir, permission to speak freely?Rog: Speak your mind captain. (Rog’s cheeks quiver as he tried to hold back a grin)John: Just drink. That is your frailing job. If I want someone ordering me around, I’ll comm. Cait.Rog: Damn straight.John: (sits and stares while taking another sip)Rog: Hey!John: What?Rog: Let’s do it.John: Do what?Rog: Call Cait.John: (sprays out his amsec with a cough) Call her what?!Rog: How bout (Rog hesitates) heartless betoch?John: Why?Rog: I dunno.John: (thinks for a second) Okay.Rog: Okay what?John: Okay, that idea sucks. Rog: You got a better one?John: Yeah, fill my glass.Rog: (pours both glasses full)John: Toast.Rog: (lifts glass)John: To, to—Rog: To the Royal Society of Idiots.John: (deadpans then clicks Rog’s glass)Rog: How does it feel?John: How does what feel?Rog: Being a charter member of the RSI? (can’t control a grin)John: Just like I’m back home. You know what?Rog: What?John: I think I’ve been a member for a long time.Rog: (raucous laughter)John: (spills drink laughing)Rog: Hey!John: Shut, how do you say it, the frail up!Rog: Ooooh, not bad.John: (pours another for both) You know what?Rog: What?John: You can serve at my side anytime?Rog: Oh Disco, I can call you that now right? If only I had known (winks)John: Well, you do look kinda cute. (blows kiss)Rog: Frail you. John: Not so fast, I’m not that easy (take a sip) yet.Rog: (lowers his voice) You know what?John: What?Rog: I would proudly serve at your side.John: No shioot?Rog: (rolls on the floor laughing uncontrollably)John: Whaaaat?Rog: It’s shiott.John: What is?Rog: No shiott.John: Yeah?Rog: The phase is “No Shiott” not no Shioot.John: Not in the Royal Society of Idiots it is not!Rog: Damn.John: What?Rog: I think you just graduated.John: You know what?Rog: What?John: We are going to frailing find them.Rog: (stands up) Lift your glass.John: (he does)Rog: You bet your frailing scrawny arse we are.John: (looks around at his arse) Rog: Don’t worry.John: What?Rog: I’ve got enough to cover that bet.John: No shiott.Rog: (smiles) Yeah, no shiott. (grins his best Rogesque grin)Categories: Story, Rog, John Discovery
