Fairy and the Appy Tales - Chapter One

[Appy]

„Welcome, welcome! Gather ‘round…. Gather ‘round, please!” The elaborately dressed woman gestures to the pillows that lie spread all over the floor in front of her.

 

The sight of her puts you in mind of a crossing between a shaman and old-fashioned fortune teller. Her clothes seem to be random pieces of cloth sown together to a wide dress, and her necklace has little bird skulls and soft animal tails hanging from it. Her face is wrinkled like an old apple, and her hair most resembles spider webbing, it’s so thin and white. But her smile is genuine, and her watery eyes seem deep as wells, and just as alive.

 

The room you’re in is dressed in much the same way as she is. There are colorful carpets on the walls and floor, many depicting animals, but animal or human, all of the eyes seem to follow you as you look around. The ceiling has drapes hanging from it, making you feel as if you’re in a tent, instead of in a small backroom somewhere in the Pen Keep.

In the right corner behind the woman, big skulls have been stacked on top of each other, making it resemble a totem, but not one you’ve ever seen so far. It has been covered in bright paint almost randomly, but your mind keeps insisting that there is a pattern through it.

 

As everybody sits down, the old woman surveys the crowd with her eyes, as if she’s trying to determine who would want to hear what, and why. For stories is what she sells, or so you were told. But there is no bowl for donations, nor does she seem to be the kind of person who cares about such things.

Once everyone who fits into the small room has been seated the woman claps her hands together once, to get the attention. “Now… what would you like to hear?”

 

I will need ideas for 3 fables, 3 fairy tales, and 3 myths (or, when all you can come up with is for me to rewrite something; 9 stories). I will keep count of them in here. The stories will be posted in a separate thread in the Assembly Room as soon as I have the first one finished. Thank you, and have fun!

 

PS: You don't need to reply in here in rpg-style, but if you feel the need to, be my guest!

PPS: The original starting thread and explanation is found under Fairy and the Appy Tales

 

- The Elephant and his promise; Any Form (Sweetcherrie/Sven)

- The Moon Goddess; Myth (Venefyxatu)

- 'Thief' Story; Any Form (Gwai/Myth)

- Impossibility; Fable (Wyvern) ;-)

- Shaping Change; "Legend"/Myth/Fairy Tale (Tanuchan)

- Cheese, from hence art thou; Myth (Patrick/Louis)

- Gyrfalcon and the Seven Keys; Fairy Tale (Katzaniel)

- Mr Bean On Mount Olympus; Myth (DL-Snake)

Edited November 8, 2005 by Appy

[Sweetcherrie]

With his cheek lying on his arms, and his hoodie drawn over his head, Sven was drowning himself in self-pity. His test results should’ve been there ages ago, but they simply hadn’t come. The teacher had promised to call him when the results were there, but he’d only called to say that they couldn’t find them back, and that Sven would probably have to wait till tomorrow, but that they would then surely have them.

 

Sven had hated each and every day of high school, not because he didn’t have friends, but simply because the studying had been hell for him. He simply wasn’t an easy learner. When he was around the age of twelve they had discovered that he was dyslectic, and that on top of his very short attention span, had made each and every homework assignment living hell.

 

He turned over, and lying on his back he stared at the Marilyn Manson poster at the ceiling. He wished he could’ve gone to the last concert, but his parents wouldn’t let him go because he’d just scored an insufficient on math.

 

The rest of his room went with his personal style. The walls were painted black, and instead of electric lights he only ever used candles, and most of those were skull-shaped. He drew the black hoodie closer around him. He hated waiting.

 

Downstairs the phone rang, and his heart started beating a little bit faster, but no scream from his mom came up the stairs. He wondered if he should go to this story telling thing he’d heard about. It had sounded rather lame at first, but when he had also heard that it was the audience that gave the storyteller the subjects, he'd thought that he might as well go, and try and make it as hard as possible on this person.

 

He stared at the poster some more, and then made up his mind. The least he could do was try and share his misery with others. He flaunted down the stairs, and yelled to his mom that he would be out. He took the piece of paper that had announced the story telling out of his pocket, and followed the path that had been indicated on the flyer to this thing called ‘Pen Keep’. He wondered what idiot would ever call a building this, but then he shrugged it away.

 

When he’d finally found the room, he was disgusted with the very brightness of it, but since he’d decided to this he was going to stay as well. He settled down, and noticed the skulls in the corner, they looked pretty real; maybe this wasn’t such a bad place after all.

 

He listened to the old hag without disrupting her, but when she was finished speaking he was the first to put his hand in the air. When she nodded for him to speak, he cleared his throat.

 

“How about something about keeping your promises…” Sven thought about his teacher, “Something with an elephant.”

[Venefyxatu]

Venefyxatu had heard about the storytelling lady that would come to the Pen, and had decided to go and listen to her. He enjoyed stories, and the fact that the audience would be giving subjects would add something extra to it. He'd put on a comfortable robe and arrived at the room right after Sven entered. The latter gave him an odd look, but Venefyxatu didn't really pay attention to it.

 

Because it seemed that the lady wanted to collect the topics before telling the stories, Venefyxatu spoke up next.

 

"Would you happen to know any of the myths surrounding the Moon Goddess? Which one, and of which dimension, I shall leave up to you ..."

[Gwaihir]

OOC: for those who know, this Myth is still a child. I dislike suggesting that stories are just for kids, but I sort of want to fool with Myth as a kid.

 

Really young Myth was just looking for an excuse to get out of the house. Mom had had another dramatic scene with her last boyfriend last night and the house was much too loud to live in. Anyone in the way tended to get screamed at or worse and Myth hadn't lived this long by being dumb enough to be in the way.

 

She didn't really care where she went and for a while she just roamed the streets aimlessly, but the gang on E65th were out and they weren't safe to be around, so she turned down new streets. "story telling at the pen" the sign said and it had directions.

 

Myth shrugged and headed over. Stories could be interesting and she was bored. Maybe they'd last for long enough that it would be safe to head home afterwards...unlikely. Or better yet, if she hung out hear long enough, she could head over to her brother's work afterwards...that was better.

 

As she looked at the pen keep, her eyes went round. Whoever owned this must be RIICH. Not the type of person who wanted her around for sure. In fact, she turned around, not without a remorseful look, rich houses had good food and maybe even something to nick, but they would never let her in. However, just as she was heading out, hungrily, she saw a pretty lady approaching. She was walking rather quickly, but when she saw Myth she stopped. "Hello dear, are you headed to our story time?" She reached out to pat Myth's arm reassuringly, but Myth had lived on the street long enough to know what an outstretched arm meant: She quickly jerked away before the lady produced her knife since clearly that's what was coming. Run to safety... but where? The lady was between her and the street.

 

Myth turned and sped the only way she could--into the pen keep. Once inside the twisting corridors she quickly outpaced her pursuer. Now where? She dashed past a kitchen and grabbed a basket of rolls. For a while she curled into the side of a staircase and wondered what person could need this much space. A tall man passed her, but he was lookign ahead of him, so he didn't notice the urchin in the shadows. After a bit she headed on leavign only a few crumbs and an empty basket in the c orner. (two more rolls were tucked into her shirt, but she didn't leave those.)

she continued on exploring for something interesting when she heard a boy asking for a story. Well, it looked like she'd come to story time after all. She slipped in the back, sure that none of the kids had seen her. In fact, she presumed she was safe from all glances until she saw the tall lady up in front smile and wink at her. "SH-t," she thought. Yet another person to throw her out. Myth decided the peculiar woman had a knife in her pocket (to cut the animal tails off and put them onto the necklace.) but really it could just as well been numerous things. Still, Myth thought she was clearly done for it and was about to break for cover again until the lady smiled. "So what kind of story would you like?"

 

Myth almost squeaked with shock. Taht had sounded almost welcoming! Well ,maybe the lady thought she belonged here. Best to act as if she was a normal rich kid not a muddy street urchin. "Umm, a story about someone sneaky and cool!"

[Wyvern]

The beautiful carpets decorating the walls of the reading room are practically torn from their holsters as Wyvern comes barging into the room. The lizard tosses the "Pen Fairy Tale Reading" flyer clenched in his claw to the side and sneers in the direction of the old woman dressed in expensive-looking clothing. He pounces onto a pillow and adjusts his position in a storm of scales and torn fabric, ignoring the feathers that fly in the direction of Sven and young Myth. Having successfully destroyed the pillow and found a comfortable seat, the lizard stretches out and hisses:

 

"This is the free publici- public reading, right?" Wyvern waves a claw in the general direction of the old woman. "And yer taking story ideas, right? Well, I got one for you that's a real kicker. It'll be a sure-fire hit with the campfire crowds and the leisure harem waiting rooms alike!"

 

"Let me guess," sighs the old woman from her seat. "It's going to involve dragons, isn't it?"

 

"No no, no dragons. It's not that kind of campfire." Wyvern pauses for a moment. "Well, I mean, unless you count almost dragons, in which case there might be a certain-"

 

"Just tell me the damn idea."

 

"Right." Wyvern grins, letting his forked tongue hang loose. "Well, I' wanna fable, and I want the moral of this fable to be that the wyvern is the most charming, cunning, and downright successful specimen of a businessman out there. I would also like the story to revolve around Almost Dragonic Brand Aardvark Bobblehead Figurines™, like the one I've brought to this reading today."

 

With that, Wyvern reaches into his pouch and pulls out a tiny figurine of Aardvark, which he hands to the storyteller. The old woman turns the poorly fabricated toy in her hands for a moment, only to gasp in shock as its head comes flying off in a jet of steam.

 

;-)

[Tanuchan]

Tanny, sitting at the back of the room, looks at the old woman and wonders about the extent of her knowledge of stories long forgotten. Suddenly curious, she speaks in a very soft voice.

 

"Excuse me... I wonder if you know any of the shapechangers' tales that roam the world. Many of them are elaborated fantasies, but some have roots in our folk before our Land was closed to the Outside. I know some of those, and I'm always curious to learn of other tales that may relate to our folk."

 

 

OOC: I was going to say "legend", but if you're going to follow its strict definition, that would be really difficult. Although, as Tanny's from another race with their own history, the 'historically correct' part could be twisted to fit... So, either "legend" in this context, myth, or fairy tale.

Edited October 9, 2005 by Tanuchan

[Appy]

OOC: No problem Tanuchan, I might ask you a ton of questions if I decide on doing the Legend, but that could prove to be quite interesting I think...

 

Thanks already for so many ideas.. I don't really know where to start! Keep them comming anyways

Edited October 9, 2005 by Appy

[Patrick]

Louis had arrived with his parents from France three months ago, and ever since had had a hard time fitting in to his new school. He was two classes lower than he would have been in France, because one subject wasn't the same. So basically he was bored senseless every day in school, and to add to his pain none of the boys here wanted to talk to him, and the games they played were also different.

 

The first bright point ever since he had arrived here was the announcement of this "story telling at the pen".

 

He arrived just as Wyvern made his suggestion, and then had to wait for Tanny before it was his turn.

 

"So, what would you like me to make the story about?" - the lady asked him.

 

"I ave been sinking. You know I am french. I was wondering whezer you could tell me about ze mys of ze fromage, err... sheez I mean."

 

OOC: that is a bit exaggerated french accent in english. z or s=th and h-es are removed. sheez=cheese

Edited October 9, 2005 by Patrick Durham

[Katzaniel]

Sorry to interrupt the flow of IC requests. I wanted from the beginning to read this over and do it properly, but now I have neither read all the posts nor have a sufficiently creative response in mind, and know that I'm going to have less and less time over the next few days, so here's my request:

 

Fairy Tale: Gyrfalcon and the Seven Keys

 

Please tell it as a story that may have happened but been stretched out of proportion over time, and is no longer necessarily realistic to anyone who actually knows him but rather to those who have heard of his many deeds. (I'm asking this to make it easier, so that you don't have to be totally consistent to the character, but that we can still recognize elements of the Gyrfalcon we know - plus, in Gaze of Eternity he laments the larger-than-life image he has accrued over time, and I think it would be really neat to hear one of the stories that is part of that.)

[DL_Snake]

The little boy jump up and down in excitement!!

 

Myth

 

These stories generally deal with Gods, the supernatural, ancestors, and heroes, using them to explain everyday aspects of life such as the weather, customs, psychology, or society

 

oooh ooh! seeing as how we live in modern world of television can i have a "Mr Bean, the God/Genie who grants all wishes" myth? Or "Mr Bean on Mount Olympus"

 

please please? purdy please? *begs with beeg beeg eyes*

Edited November 8, 2005 by DL_Snake

[Appy]

I will close this sign-up for now. Eight out of nine isn't bad to start with afterall

 

The stories will be posted here.

 

Thanks for all the ideas!

[Appy]

Just in case any one is wondering, I'm working on the next story, but my muse is insisting that it should be long. And she's taking breaks inbetween as well.. sooo you'll just have to wait.