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 Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:30 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:32 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:33 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:34 pm
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Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 10:57 pm
Zim strutted along the rocks, Priprikan in tow as he surveyed his domain. The cliffs were still littered with the feathers and smell of the flock that had nested here before, but they were long-since gone and this location would serve his purposes rather well as a base of operation.
"You will find that you made the right decision, you hideous fool." Zim said conversationally, his insult holding the same lilt as a term of endearment. "For when I, at last, shed the sundry bonds of this tiny body, I shall rise to power. And all will tremble at the name of ZIIMMMM!!!"
The proclamation of his name echoed off of the rock and, as it so happened, pierced past the newborn barriers of Priprikan's ears as the chick flinched, feeling them flutter open and unfold. What a thing to be welcomed into the realm of auditory stimulation with....Zim's voice was nearly as offensive as his scent.
"One day you will learn to appreciate the glory that is my exquisite leadership..." Zim went on. "I promise, of course, to be a fair dictator. Floggings will only commense twice a week and you will be allowed your standard four hours of recharge."
Pri winced, and in doing so, felt a barrier give way on either eyelid as he hesitated and then cracked them open, the world swimming into view in a haze of blurs and colors. Ah, THAT'S what colors looked like...!
He ignored Zim's prattling as he examined with great interest, his surroundings. He had hoped, of course, that the first sight he might see upon opening his eyes would be the face of his loving mother...or even the denmothers that had tended to him in her absense. As it was...well...this was not quite the same.
"Are you paying attention??" Zim demanded, turning an accusing look on Pri as he reflexively snapped his eyes closed again and folded his ears back. Zim examined his minion closely before snorting. "Well, then...since you INSIST on being blind and deaf, I have decided that you shall be my appointed advisor! Wear this honor well, little balogna ball. And never forget who it is that you serve."
Pri was unable to suppress a shudder at this. He didn't know what exactly he was serving but knew already it couldn't be anything good...
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Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 2:04 pm
Fool. That....INSIPID fool!!
Tak had never once stopped cursing Zim as she picked her way down the cliffs, a bit at a time. Her tiny wings were flared behind her reflexively, though they were far too small to save her, should she fall.
It was fortunate that she naturally-good balance for just such emergencies.
So...Zim thought he was superior simply because he'd kidnapped and corrupted a young mind? Was THAT what it took to get ahead these days? Fine...she was just as capable as he was of such idiocy. After all, what sort of skill did it take to convince a gryphling your flock was better than their parents'? Unless the gryphling in question had been promise that alpha status had been reserved for them, of course...
There had also, of course, been the matter of him "recruiting" Lilly, however he'd yet to gloat on this fact. Perhaps even he, in all of his overzealous idiocy, could see that Lilly was not a challenge and likely would have followed home the first warm body that was colorful and noisy enough. And what purpose had she served other than her ridiculous reverance of Zim's not-yet-formed flock? With any luck, her blood would remain out of the future lineage.
Tak's eyes narrowed, barely noticing as her footing slipped and she nonchalantly caught herself again. Zim was utterly unfitting to be an alpha and it escaped her as to why no one else saw this. He was impulsive, he was violent, and he practically had "Will Lead Us All To Our Deaths For Fun And Profit" stamped on his blasted forehead.
By the same token, though, no one...not even Zim...had ever challenged her when she had threatened to rule alongside him. Zim likely thought she wouldn't have the nerve to attempt to rise to his status, but she would prove him wrong...at the very least, the flock would be run by two alphas if she was unsuccessful in overthrowing him.
In the meantime, however, she was about to even the odds and did not intend to come home until she'd found and converted a recruit of her own. Zim had resorted to stealing a newborn, but she wouldn't sink to such paltry tactics....SHE would find someone perfectly capable of both thinking and acting for themselves and use her powers of persuasion to lure them back.
A small smile touched the corner of her mouth. They would just SEE who the superior being was...
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:26 pm
Failed Attempt at Recruiting Jenna was learning to count. Well, that was the theory. Malcom taught her about toes and that they could be used to count things with. So that evening she was left to her own devices, studying the vast mysteries of the cosmos with pebbles and toes.
"Ooooonnnn... thooooo......" she said, counting pebbles from a stack of them.
This counting was intense stuff. Two was a really difficult concept. And this three business seemed unfathomable. If smoke could arise from the ears of a little hippogryph, it was going to very soon - and probably smell of carmelised sugar."As blissful as your silence is, you can't just go on not speaking to me, Zim." Tak growled as they strode into the clearing, Zim slightly ahead of her."Hmf." was the smaller green gryph's reply to her statement. Lowly pig, he wouldn't give her the satisfaction of being personally addressed by the great Zim ever again."It isn't MY fault your little puppet took off with Denis, all right??" she growled."IT IS!!" he snapped suddenly, whirling to point at her accusingly. "IT IS AND YOU KNOW IT!!" .....whoops, so much for the silent treatment. Well....well, he was sure he'd gotten his point across anyway...Persephone stumbles upon Jenna, blinking as she sees the other young girl seeming to be focused on a tower of pebbles. She tilts her head as she walks forward, tail wagging back and forth behind her.
Without thinking she simply speaks up, "Whatcha doing?"
And behind the two is Gir, singing and dancing as he bounds through the fields.
"Tra-la-la-la!" he shouts, tongue hanging out of his mouth.
Black ears twitching as he then takes a leap forward to land on top of Zim's head.
"Let's ride!" he screams before falling forward onto the ground, giggling to himself.
He rolls onto his stomach and is up to his feet again, taking off ahead of them.
Jenna looked up at Persephone with her mouth hanging open and breathing out through it instead of her nose. That was probably on account of massive overheating within her gummi bear brain. Caramel was probably on her breath, as well.
"Counen..." she said, never blinking and staring so fixedly at Persephone that she was almost going cross-eyed.
Zim gave a grunt as Gir trampled his head momentarily before shaking off the green gryph's attack and loping after him. Why was it that the only people he could invest any amount of trust in were morons? "GIR!!" he barked, trying to get the smaller gryph's attention. "I need to talk to--hey! HEY!!"
Tak watched them go with narrowed eyes. Perhaps it was something within all males to behave like fools. How fortunate that the remaining two gryphs in the vicinity appeared to be female. Turning abruptly from the trainwreck that was Zim and Gir, she puffed out her little chest and approached Jenna and Persephone, calmly and with purpose. Her methods of conversation were gentler....certainly a counterpoint to Zim's sorry attempts at intimidation and bombast.
Persephone picks up the strange scent coming from the girl's mouth. She blinks, sniffing and then smiling.
"Ooh, what's that smell! What did you eat!" She wanted some of whatever it is even though her parents had probably told her to never eat it before and she's simply forgotten.
Then she tilts her head. "What is 'Counen?'"
By this point she has sat down and also turned her head to notice an approaching older filly. Her ears perk up, blinking those blue eyes as she watches.
"Hi!"
Gir does not give any indication of stopping, whooping and giggling with the fluttering of wings behind him as he flaps them, and they're also accompanied by the desperately following Piggy.
It won't be for a few minutes before Gir turns around and runs back to Zim, fully force, and leaps at him. If he hits him, he tries to pin him down and proceeds to hug.
"YEEEEEEEES?"
"Buggiesss..." Jenna said, though that was off-tangent. She promptly lay on her back and lifted all four feet in the air, pointed them at Persephone and exclaimed...
"COUNEN!" she wiggled her toes with enthusiasm. "Onnnnn.... thooooo...."
She was stuck again. DAMN! What was the one that came after two?
"Uhhhh...." she lagged. The RAM on a gryph with an attention deficit was horrendous, imagine if you would Doom3 trying to run on an Apple iie. She stuck her toes at Persephone's face, prompting for help.
Zim glared disdainfully at the green ball of pudge perched on his chest and latching onto his ribs. "Get OFF of me!" he demanded, pounding one tiny defiant fist on Gir before shoving at him.
Something tickled at his nose, making him sneeze as he glared down at the offending artifact. An obnoxiously-colored feather rested around the wall-eyed gryph's neck proudly, as though it belonged there. "And WHAT is that??" he demanded. "It looks stupid."
"Hello." Tak smiled, careful not to make it too wide. She appreciated being noticed without having to announce her presense. It was a good show of respect. "And how are you..." she trailed off a moment, eyeing the little sparkly infant shoving her toes in the other's face uncertainly. "...ladies doing today?"
A female version of Gir...hurrah. Just what this blasted world needed.
This ivy colored female looks confused at Jenna's answer. Her ears flag down against her head, staring, wondering what bug would actually taste so sweet.
"But... what is counen?" she murmurs again sounding vaguely defeated and confused. She recoils her head when those paws stick out at her and she quickly changes her attention to Tak, "Um. I'm fine. Thank you." Her parents had taught her to always be polite! "How are you?"
He only hugs tighter even as Zim pounds at his chest. When the older Hippogryph notices his rainbow feather, Gir sits up, but he does not move off of Zim.
He grabs hold of the feather hanging from a thin piece of leather around his neck and gives it a shake.
"Why this is mah feather! A big ol' bird gave it to me!"
"Thweeeeee....!!!" Jenna said with revelation! She bicycle kicked with all four legs and squealed in very high pitched laughter before getting up and bolting in a wide circle around the other two girls. "Onnn, thooo, thwee!! Thwee thwee thwee!! Eeeeeeeeee...!!"
Oh, rapture! Jenna could count! Jenna was SMART! Jenna- .. Fell down headfirst into a badger's hole and laughed into it. Fortunately, her fat belly kept her from slipping in, but all that could be seen in the tall grass was the rear end of a little gryph and the ground beneath hummed as though her very aura of sugar induced jubilation made the whole world go "HOT DAYUM!"
After a while, realising no one was going to pull her out. She started singing (aka. making stuff up just to hear the echo).
"A big. Ol. Bird." Zim said slowly, giving special gravity to each word as though this might help him understand what the hell Gir had just said any better. When, after a few seconds, he found that it didn't, Zim gave a massive heave, tumbling Gir from his chest and immediately hopping to his feet. "PAY ATTENTION!!" he snapped. "This is veryveryVERY important, Gir."
"I'm well." Tak nodded, watching as Jenna took off and embedded herself in the hole. "A friend of yours...?" she tested, giving a sidelong look to Persephone as she continued to look in Jenna's direction.
The shriek of high pitched laughter forces her to leap up and back slightly, lifting up a paw and eyes widening. She winces when Jenna falls head first into the hole but she makes no move to go and help her; the girl seems blissfully unaware of her plight too.
She looks back to Tak, having to tilt her head up slightly to watch her face.
"Um, no. I just met her."
"YEP! A big ol' bird! Why it had feathery wingies and it was all rainbowy!"
He goes tumbling backwards, rolling a few feet and then sitting up. When Zim snaps at him, immediately Gir is on all fours, standing at attention. A forepaw lifts to slam against his forehead.
"YESSIR!"
A normal child who was stuck would've tried to get out. Jenna tried to squeeze -in-.
"Nnnngh!" she huffed, her stomach keeping her plugged like a cork. She started running in place until the ground began to make little grooves underneath her. "Nnnnnnnnggghhh!!!"
It was obvious when she stopped for breath, fat little backlegs sprawled behind her. But she perservered! With another shove there was practically a POP! as she fell in, laughing with triumph.
The badger was like all badgers, no nonsense and nothing but teeth and spit. You would've suspected a badger awakened by something sliding down upon it, meeting it nose to nose, and then washing it with furious joy would've made it go off like a bunker buster, but it stared.
Zim began to jauntily pace back and forth in front of Gir, as he usually did while delivering what he deemed to be crucial information. "As you are well-aware, Tak considers herself an alpha alongside me. I do not ENJOY this development, but I find it keeps unrest at a minimum to humor her fetid delusions. HOWEVER!!" he bellowed suddenly, raising his voice only for the single word
"As of late, she has compromised the safety of this flock by bringing in someone who has already revealed himself to be treacherous. And she has made it clear she intends to bring in more of the same. We cannot allow this to happen, Gir, do you understand?"
Tak tried not to look relieved that the spastic young gryph was merely a new acquaintence and arched a brow as the flailing back legs vanished from view. Turning fully to Persephone then, she reaffixed the warm look on her face. "My name is Tak, and you?"
Persephone can't help but stare a little bit at Tak. She was a Hippogryph she'd never seen before, and everything about her was strangely very intriguing.
"Um, I'm Persephone. I usually get called Percy though," she answers smiling though it's slightly wavering if only because she finds herself albeit intimidated by Tak's unusual appearance.
The sound of the pop is not ignored. She jerks her head to look, eyes widening as she sees just a dissipating cloud of dust where Jenna was. Confused she climbs up to her feet.
"W-w-where did she go!"
Gir's paw rests down as he stares at Zim's pacing form with the intensity of a true soldier. Of course we all know that won't last. As soon as Zim finishes, Gir's normal personality returns. With a howling laugh he tackles Zim and sends them both sprawling over to the badger hole and right into it with Jenna!
"WHEEEEEEEEEEE!" screeches Gir the entire time.
By this time Jenna was almost done rendering the badger's face sopping wet with spit, the badger was so lost at this point he'd allowed himself to be a soggy, muddy, mess. But when the other two barged in... that was a different matter.
Without another word it bowled over Jenna and squashed her underneath itself, as though unaware she was there at all. She made for very soft carpeting and she laughed as dirt smeared her face. Little rabid, glistening eyes looked at Zim and Gir, one furious eye was the MUR and the other was the DER as the horrid, wet thing began gnarling.
Jenna tried to tickle it from beneath. "Awwww, no mad..."
It wasn't having any of it.
Tak had to try very hard not to grow irritated that her attempts to gently approach the idea of Persephone joining the flock under her recruit were being trampled by the antics of the nearby idiots. "I don't know." she said, her brows shooting upward to feign concern as she looked back toward where, a moment ago, the little infant's legs had been flailing. Maybe we should--"
"NO, GIR! NO! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Zim wailed as they tumbled helplessly into the burrow, into the face of a rather angry-looking badger.
"--go see...." Tak finished with a sigh, trudging toward the burrow reluctantly, ears twitching as she tried not to lay them flat. Zim and his little sidekick always ruined EVERYTHING.
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