Loma Shade (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
poreiavian) wrote2001-11-13 10:35 am
poreiavian) wrote2001-11-13 10:35 am
memswap event 11/2017
INDEX:
IS Report 00: Adoption
IS Report 01: Rocks
IS Report 11: Honey
IS Report 27: Jewels
IS Report XX: Coat
Diary of Earth: Megan
InterSpecies Report 00: Adoption
"Number 13, come up to the front."
You are Number 13. You haven't been named yet, but that's going to change today. You were told early today to pack up your belongings because a Metan couple has decided to adopt you. Of all the Avians, your file appealed to them the most. It's no surprise - you're one of a kind. You rush up to the stage past the others. Some of them are Avians like you, others are not. There's a lot of displaced kids it seems. The parenting test must have been really difficult if so many parents failed, yours included. But it's ok now. You have a new family, a new life, waiting for you.
The couple, a man and woman who look nothing like you, are very clean looking. Styled hair, expensive clothes, and satisfied smiles. They seem nice. You hope they're nice. They take your hand and you gawk up at them as they lead you to the official for release.
"She's so feathery. Is that normal for an Avian?" the man, your father now, asks. Is there something wrong with being feathery? You like your feathers a lot - they already clipped your wings, so you really hope they don't take away anything else.
"Will we have to worry about the roaming?" the woman, your mother now, asks. Why worry? You love to roam, to explore, to search out whatever you can find. Everything gets boring so fast, you always want to find more.
"A firm hand will get you through. They don't fly. Still, all young Avians are clipped per orders from the Department of New Species." The official explains as she clicks through her touchpad. "Please assign a name for Number 13."
"Loma."
Your name is Loma. It has a good sound to it. Loma, Loma, Loma, Loma, Loma. Loma. You are Loma.
InterSpecies Report 01: Rocks
This is beyond frustrating. You didn't do anything wrong. Being in your room was boring, so you decided to go out through the window - ground floor level of course - and head to the park. No one is around because it's so early in the morning, and you were just having a good time by yourself playing with your imaginary friend Igor the Feline. Then you found the prettiest blue rock and kept looking around for more. You found a few and wanted to take them home.
Then this low-level park officer called you out. You tried to run from him, but he caught you fast and brought you back home.
"We found her in the park collecting rocks." He tells your parents, huffed and angered. "You must keep a better eye on her. Next time she will be punished."
Your parents look exasperated, both at the officer's attitude and clearly at you. Whatever the big deal is has flown over your head. It's just rocks.
"Avians collect things. We're working on it. Thank you for bringing her home."
The officer removes the handcuffs - so excessive these dumb Metan brutes - and lets you go back to your parents side.
"We'll file a proper report with the Interspecies Department."
Of course there has to be a report. Your parents are bureaucrats working for the state, so they always follow proper procedures. Always tell you to do the same. It isn't that you want to be a troublemaker - you just don't get why you're in trouble. What's the harm in roaming, in collecting, in following your nature? If those are the rules, then the rules are dumb.
You decided you won't follow the rules anymore.
InterSpecies Report 11: Honey
♫ There may be no warning, when the bombs start a-storming! So when you see the flash, don't try-to-fall-out shelter dash! You must duck and cover. Maybe say goodbye to your lover! Just don't look up at the sky, that's the quickest way to die! ♬
You're laughing like a maniac. This episode is pure gold. Honey and Carmen try so hard, but people just don't get their quirky ways. The How To Survive The Bomb meeting at the General's Club is going so terribly now despite their best efforts to impress the others.
"I thought the Life with Honey craze was over?"
You overhear your father whispering to your mother. They never were very good at being secretive. Or rather, never good at hiding their disdain for anything you liked. Mother said this show wasn't worth your time. That Earth was primitive and so was this broadcast from lightyears away. Those things are what makes it worth your time, far more than anything on this planet.
"Well, at least this one is a harmless obsession."
The song comes to an end, and everyone predictably looks horrified. The others begin to pester Edgar with so many questions. Would duck and cover actually work? No, of course not, unless the bombs on Earth aren't as powerful as they are on Meta.
Honey looks dismayed, near tears.
Edgar, I thought the truth would be a laugh and make everyone less scared.
Edgar just laughs.
Oh, Honey! Life Lesson Number One: In love and war, you never tell the truth.
Laughter from nowhere bursts from Edgar's statement and you laugh along with it. This show is so educational. In your heart, you keep hoping to see Earth someday. It's a silly dream, one that will never come true, but at least you have Honey.
InterSpecies Report 27: Jewels
It's late-night in Meta City, and your parents are still out on the town. Mother has so many necklaces, surely she won't miss a couple? Screw Yunica, no good half-wit, jacking up the price on that Life With Honey video. It's one of your favorite episodes and one of the hardest to get a good recording of - Rads Fashion, when Honey and Carmen dressed to a big party in stylish radiation suits! You stuff the necklaces into the black leather jacket, pat on the pockets to make sure they're in tight, and take a quick look the mirror. Hm - might need to go in for a feather fluffing soon.
You head down the elevator to the main floor of the high-rise penthouse, the floor reserved only for your parents, ready to head out to meet that damn con artist--
"Loma?"
--crap, they're home. You were certain they were still going to be out, but here they are in the main hall shrugging off their coats.
"Loma what were you doing on our floor? You know that's off limits," your mother speaks once more, voice equally concerned and suspicious.
"I- I left something of mine up there. Sorry, but I gotta go meet my friends!" you quickly explain, walking up and making a move to dart quickly around them. You almost make it too, but your father takes a firm step back and blocks the path to the door. He's always more frustrating to deal with than mother, more suspicious of your Avian nature since childhood.
"Empty your pockets, Loma."
"--No."
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Empty them, now."
You don't speak, frozen on the spot. Then your turn and run for your room. You can escape outside through the window if not the door.
"Loma, stop right there!"
"I will have order in my home!"
You almost make it, solid door opening automatically at the sensation of a body trying to get inside. However your mother grabs your arm before you get in and pulls you back. Your father immediately rummages his hand into the leather jacket pocket and pulls out the gold jewelry stolen from your mother's vanity collection.
"We don't steal. We have rules on Meta."
"Don't make us file another ministry report."
You thrash in your mother's grip, squawking indignantly. They just don't understand. They never even tried. Why should you care what they have to say, when they never once listened to what you were saying.
"I don't care! What's one more incident to an overstuffed file?"
Your mother releases you once your father grabs all the jewelry out the pockets, and immediately you go into the room, locking it from the other side. Yet from behind the door you can still hear their muffled voices.
"How much longer are we going to put up with this? She's almost 17. They said this was a phase."
"Don't worry. She's going to the boarding school in a couple weeks. They will teach her discipline there."
InterSpecies Report XX: Coat
"Come on. Override security so I can touch it."
You feel so bad, you really do. But, you know this is what has to be done. You can't keep a job. You owe some bad people a lot of money. And this isn't going to work out in the long-term, because it never does. You never cared to stay in one place long enough, too bored, too listless. Madness is the escape.
And Madness is here, behind glass. Lepuck has sneaked you to the Museum of Alien Curiosities after hours, where he works his low-level security job. He knows you love Earth and thinks this will impress you, and it has. Lepuck is more impressive than he gives himself any credit for. He chooses to remain insignificant; you refuse that.
Behind the glass is the M-Vest or "Madness Coat" belonging to the former Rac Shade. You were so crushed when he disappeared all those years ago. You thought there wasn't anything left of him but the poetry he left behind for mass consumption. You're so lucky Lepuck relented on letting you come here for an up-close look. Now it's time to do what you do best: be you.
"You'd better make this worth my while." He huffs, taking the keys you pilfered off him and unlocking the case.
"I will. You know, Rac Shade is kind of an idol of mine," you start, feeling light just from saying his name. "We both were adopted because our parents failed the Parenting Test. I've read his poetry. Seen his biovid."
"I didn't know that about you."
Oh poor Lepuck. There's a lot about you he doesn't know. For the better. Nobody has ever accepted your ways. Not your parents, not society, not the planet. Only Rac Shade has ever understood. His poetry spoke to you from a young age. It became your guiding light. Your star in the night to follow. Something brilliant and close to the bone.
You slip on the coat. It's beautiful, majestic. You feel him through it, feel the Madness. And so it begins. It seeps into your heart, through your skin, and starts to carry you. You start to feel your body slipping away, being moved by the stream to somewhere new. To where it senses you desire to go. To Earth.
Lepuck looks distraught. Poor thing. You really feel bad, but can be done? You take his face in hand and smile for him. "Goodbye Lepuck."
"Shit, Loma!"
And you are gone, bright colors invading your eyes, your senses, your spirit, you, you, you. You are one with the Madness now, with the insanity, with the cosmic power. And it is taking you far far far away--
Not dead. But almost. You push what's left of her out, and make way for yourself. It's... snug. But you can manage.
You raise up your arms. Skin is cream colored. Five fingers on each hand. Arms are bit wider, fatter, than your Avian ones. You touch your face, your head, and breathe in and out. You have hair and it's long and blonde. No beak. This is strange. Horrifying, strange and exciting.
Time to get up--
DOCTOR! DOCTOR!!
Oh shit. Earth is weird.
Diary of Earth: Megan Boyer
Give me back my body. Now!
"What the [xxxx]?! Stop following me!"
Fuck this crazy bitch. She's been following you for days now. Haunting your every goddamn waking moment and even your dreams. Always demanding the same thing. "Give me my body, give me my life, I'm a huge fucking toxic bitch who makes everyone miserable." Why doesn't she fucking get that she's brain dead. Even if she got her body back, she would just collapse into nothingness again. What the fuck is her deal? She can't use this body, and furthermore, she made everyone's lives a living hell.
You're not giving back this body. It's yours now. This is you.
My house. My town. My friends. My body. My life.
She grabs your neck and chokes you. Why the fuck does this hurt, she's not even physical. Is she growing stronger, or are you growing weaker? All you know is you've spent a lot of energy fighting her and nothing is working.
You punch her off - well she's real enough to punch - and she snarls.
I want my flesh. I want my blood. I want my senses.
"Let me explain this again clearly... if I let you in my body, you'd be brain dead! You're better off in this state of being!"
She launches herself at you again, pulling at your hair. You push her face back with a hand, trying to get her to back off. You can hear some of the girls, Megan's so-called friends, mocking you. They can't see Megan, nobody else can see Megan, and so she is left with this monster. The monster whose body she took, whose life she never wanted but now has.
And truthfully, if she gets this body back? You can't go back to yours. You already tried. Being evicted would be tantamount to death, or even becoming some raging spirit like her. You're fighting for your life. It's exhausting, and... and you're crying.
"Why am I so helpless?"
This has to stop. You have to make it stop. Even if it means destroying her once and for all.
IS Report 00: Adoption
IS Report 01: Rocks
IS Report 11: Honey
IS Report 27: Jewels
IS Report XX: Coat
Diary of Earth: Megan
InterSpecies Report 00: Adoption
"Number 13, come up to the front."
You are Number 13. You haven't been named yet, but that's going to change today. You were told early today to pack up your belongings because a Metan couple has decided to adopt you. Of all the Avians, your file appealed to them the most. It's no surprise - you're one of a kind. You rush up to the stage past the others. Some of them are Avians like you, others are not. There's a lot of displaced kids it seems. The parenting test must have been really difficult if so many parents failed, yours included. But it's ok now. You have a new family, a new life, waiting for you.
The couple, a man and woman who look nothing like you, are very clean looking. Styled hair, expensive clothes, and satisfied smiles. They seem nice. You hope they're nice. They take your hand and you gawk up at them as they lead you to the official for release.
"She's so feathery. Is that normal for an Avian?" the man, your father now, asks. Is there something wrong with being feathery? You like your feathers a lot - they already clipped your wings, so you really hope they don't take away anything else.
"Will we have to worry about the roaming?" the woman, your mother now, asks. Why worry? You love to roam, to explore, to search out whatever you can find. Everything gets boring so fast, you always want to find more.
"A firm hand will get you through. They don't fly. Still, all young Avians are clipped per orders from the Department of New Species." The official explains as she clicks through her touchpad. "Please assign a name for Number 13."
"Loma."
Your name is Loma. It has a good sound to it. Loma, Loma, Loma, Loma, Loma. Loma. You are Loma.
InterSpecies Report 01: Rocks
This is beyond frustrating. You didn't do anything wrong. Being in your room was boring, so you decided to go out through the window - ground floor level of course - and head to the park. No one is around because it's so early in the morning, and you were just having a good time by yourself playing with your imaginary friend Igor the Feline. Then you found the prettiest blue rock and kept looking around for more. You found a few and wanted to take them home.
Then this low-level park officer called you out. You tried to run from him, but he caught you fast and brought you back home.
"We found her in the park collecting rocks." He tells your parents, huffed and angered. "You must keep a better eye on her. Next time she will be punished."
Your parents look exasperated, both at the officer's attitude and clearly at you. Whatever the big deal is has flown over your head. It's just rocks.
"Avians collect things. We're working on it. Thank you for bringing her home."
The officer removes the handcuffs - so excessive these dumb Metan brutes - and lets you go back to your parents side.
"We'll file a proper report with the Interspecies Department."
Of course there has to be a report. Your parents are bureaucrats working for the state, so they always follow proper procedures. Always tell you to do the same. It isn't that you want to be a troublemaker - you just don't get why you're in trouble. What's the harm in roaming, in collecting, in following your nature? If those are the rules, then the rules are dumb.
You decided you won't follow the rules anymore.
InterSpecies Report 11: Honey
♫ There may be no warning, when the bombs start a-storming! So when you see the flash, don't try-to-fall-out shelter dash! You must duck and cover. Maybe say goodbye to your lover! Just don't look up at the sky, that's the quickest way to die! ♬
You're laughing like a maniac. This episode is pure gold. Honey and Carmen try so hard, but people just don't get their quirky ways. The How To Survive The Bomb meeting at the General's Club is going so terribly now despite their best efforts to impress the others.
"I thought the Life with Honey craze was over?"
You overhear your father whispering to your mother. They never were very good at being secretive. Or rather, never good at hiding their disdain for anything you liked. Mother said this show wasn't worth your time. That Earth was primitive and so was this broadcast from lightyears away. Those things are what makes it worth your time, far more than anything on this planet.
"Well, at least this one is a harmless obsession."
The song comes to an end, and everyone predictably looks horrified. The others begin to pester Edgar with so many questions. Would duck and cover actually work? No, of course not, unless the bombs on Earth aren't as powerful as they are on Meta.
Honey looks dismayed, near tears.
Edgar, I thought the truth would be a laugh and make everyone less scared.
Edgar just laughs.
Oh, Honey! Life Lesson Number One: In love and war, you never tell the truth.
Laughter from nowhere bursts from Edgar's statement and you laugh along with it. This show is so educational. In your heart, you keep hoping to see Earth someday. It's a silly dream, one that will never come true, but at least you have Honey.
InterSpecies Report 27: Jewels
It's late-night in Meta City, and your parents are still out on the town. Mother has so many necklaces, surely she won't miss a couple? Screw Yunica, no good half-wit, jacking up the price on that Life With Honey video. It's one of your favorite episodes and one of the hardest to get a good recording of - Rads Fashion, when Honey and Carmen dressed to a big party in stylish radiation suits! You stuff the necklaces into the black leather jacket, pat on the pockets to make sure they're in tight, and take a quick look the mirror. Hm - might need to go in for a feather fluffing soon.
You head down the elevator to the main floor of the high-rise penthouse, the floor reserved only for your parents, ready to head out to meet that damn con artist--
"Loma?"
--crap, they're home. You were certain they were still going to be out, but here they are in the main hall shrugging off their coats.
"Loma what were you doing on our floor? You know that's off limits," your mother speaks once more, voice equally concerned and suspicious.
"I- I left something of mine up there. Sorry, but I gotta go meet my friends!" you quickly explain, walking up and making a move to dart quickly around them. You almost make it too, but your father takes a firm step back and blocks the path to the door. He's always more frustrating to deal with than mother, more suspicious of your Avian nature since childhood.
"Empty your pockets, Loma."
"--No."
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Empty them, now."
You don't speak, frozen on the spot. Then your turn and run for your room. You can escape outside through the window if not the door.
"Loma, stop right there!"
"I will have order in my home!"
You almost make it, solid door opening automatically at the sensation of a body trying to get inside. However your mother grabs your arm before you get in and pulls you back. Your father immediately rummages his hand into the leather jacket pocket and pulls out the gold jewelry stolen from your mother's vanity collection.
"We don't steal. We have rules on Meta."
"Don't make us file another ministry report."
You thrash in your mother's grip, squawking indignantly. They just don't understand. They never even tried. Why should you care what they have to say, when they never once listened to what you were saying.
"I don't care! What's one more incident to an overstuffed file?"
Your mother releases you once your father grabs all the jewelry out the pockets, and immediately you go into the room, locking it from the other side. Yet from behind the door you can still hear their muffled voices.
"How much longer are we going to put up with this? She's almost 17. They said this was a phase."
"Don't worry. She's going to the boarding school in a couple weeks. They will teach her discipline there."
InterSpecies Report XX: Coat
"Come on. Override security so I can touch it."
You feel so bad, you really do. But, you know this is what has to be done. You can't keep a job. You owe some bad people a lot of money. And this isn't going to work out in the long-term, because it never does. You never cared to stay in one place long enough, too bored, too listless. Madness is the escape.
And Madness is here, behind glass. Lepuck has sneaked you to the Museum of Alien Curiosities after hours, where he works his low-level security job. He knows you love Earth and thinks this will impress you, and it has. Lepuck is more impressive than he gives himself any credit for. He chooses to remain insignificant; you refuse that.
Behind the glass is the M-Vest or "Madness Coat" belonging to the former Rac Shade. You were so crushed when he disappeared all those years ago. You thought there wasn't anything left of him but the poetry he left behind for mass consumption. You're so lucky Lepuck relented on letting you come here for an up-close look. Now it's time to do what you do best: be you.
"You'd better make this worth my while." He huffs, taking the keys you pilfered off him and unlocking the case.
"I will. You know, Rac Shade is kind of an idol of mine," you start, feeling light just from saying his name. "We both were adopted because our parents failed the Parenting Test. I've read his poetry. Seen his biovid."
"I didn't know that about you."
Oh poor Lepuck. There's a lot about you he doesn't know. For the better. Nobody has ever accepted your ways. Not your parents, not society, not the planet. Only Rac Shade has ever understood. His poetry spoke to you from a young age. It became your guiding light. Your star in the night to follow. Something brilliant and close to the bone.
You slip on the coat. It's beautiful, majestic. You feel him through it, feel the Madness. And so it begins. It seeps into your heart, through your skin, and starts to carry you. You start to feel your body slipping away, being moved by the stream to somewhere new. To where it senses you desire to go. To Earth.
Lepuck looks distraught. Poor thing. You really feel bad, but can be done? You take his face in hand and smile for him. "Goodbye Lepuck."
"Shit, Loma!"
And you are gone, bright colors invading your eyes, your senses, your spirit, you, you, you. You are one with the Madness now, with the insanity, with the cosmic power. And it is taking you far far far away--
FAR FAR FAR AWAY
Not dead. But almost. You push what's left of her out, and make way for yourself. It's... snug. But you can manage.
You raise up your arms. Skin is cream colored. Five fingers on each hand. Arms are bit wider, fatter, than your Avian ones. You touch your face, your head, and breathe in and out. You have hair and it's long and blonde. No beak. This is strange. Horrifying, strange and exciting.
Time to get up--
DOCTOR! DOCTOR!!
Oh shit. Earth is weird.
Diary of Earth: Megan Boyer
Give me back my body. Now!
"What the [xxxx]?! Stop following me!"
Fuck this crazy bitch. She's been following you for days now. Haunting your every goddamn waking moment and even your dreams. Always demanding the same thing. "Give me my body, give me my life, I'm a huge fucking toxic bitch who makes everyone miserable." Why doesn't she fucking get that she's brain dead. Even if she got her body back, she would just collapse into nothingness again. What the fuck is her deal? She can't use this body, and furthermore, she made everyone's lives a living hell.
You're not giving back this body. It's yours now. This is you.
My house. My town. My friends. My body. My life.
She grabs your neck and chokes you. Why the fuck does this hurt, she's not even physical. Is she growing stronger, or are you growing weaker? All you know is you've spent a lot of energy fighting her and nothing is working.
You punch her off - well she's real enough to punch - and she snarls.
I want my flesh. I want my blood. I want my senses.
"Let me explain this again clearly... if I let you in my body, you'd be brain dead! You're better off in this state of being!"
She launches herself at you again, pulling at your hair. You push her face back with a hand, trying to get her to back off. You can hear some of the girls, Megan's so-called friends, mocking you. They can't see Megan, nobody else can see Megan, and so she is left with this monster. The monster whose body she took, whose life she never wanted but now has.
And truthfully, if she gets this body back? You can't go back to yours. You already tried. Being evicted would be tantamount to death, or even becoming some raging spirit like her. You're fighting for your life. It's exhausting, and... and you're crying.
"Why am I so helpless?"
This has to stop. You have to make it stop. Even if it means destroying her once and for all.