Magic's Life and Shape

Every hair on the back of the animal stood on end. It slightly loosened and retracted its claws, leaving eight little crevices in the pliable brown dirt. Musicals in its sleek black hind quarters were tense, waiting for that one second reaction to come.
A quiet rustle, of the brush was heard, the quiet, tense forest was pieced with a cry of help then followed by a quiet thud as life rejected its flesh home and left it former figure of a deer lying on the ground, under the weight of a magnificent black leopard.
The cat grabbed the dear and dragged it behind the bushes of its former hiding place.
From here it devoured it food and cleaned its self of any sign of the food’s devourment. The figure left the brushes and made its way to the edge of the forest. When it could just see the clearing, it sat down, stretching its head up it stood up on its hind legs, black back legs rolling with moving strong muscles.
The figure started to get taller and taller, leaner and more delicate. The front and back legs (but mostly the back) of the animal got longer, bones and musicals changed place or shape so the in two-three minutes the form of a girl stood in that dark forest, tall and strong, with a black mane of hair flowing down hair strait back to the wear it stopped in level with the small of her back.
The final changes were finished as her eyes gave a flash and turned from black to dark deftly blue. Looking closely you could see, the pupils in her eyes go from a cat diamond-oval shaped to the round centre that we humans have.
…
Amelia screwed up her face, at the taste left in her mouth. She hated eating then turn back, first because, it gave her terrible stomach aches (which is understandable, humans aren’t suppose to eat a whole fresh dear). Secondly it left her with a taste in her mouth that had the dryness of stale bread and the bitterness of off milk.
Amelia pushed the eye level branch away that was between her and the outskirts of her home. Now standing in the green close cut silver Shimmering clearing, Amelia stopped to fix herself up. She hoisted up the black knee high leather boots that had started to slip down her leg (being still a little too big for her). She pushed the black strands of hair that lay across her eyes, behind her ears. With a slight leap forward, she ran forward at an inhuman speed and stealth.

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

Moira swept the credits into the cash register drawer and removed a lengthy sword from beneath the counter.

"I would be pleased to have any help you can provide. It's time I tried being a little more proactive and doing something besides just warning."

Malcolm shook his head and shrugged when Nikolas questioned him.

"I have no clue what my final destination is. My homeworld was a weird mash-up of different pantheons all claiming to be deities. Supposedly there's something out there bigger than all of them, but nobody really knows. Never gave much thought to whether or not my afterlife would depend on which universe I was in."

"You can just worry about that some other time," Pandora interrupted. "Because you are not going to die. This is Ditto Town. Jack is completely outnumbered."

-----

Sylvia yawned and idly flipped through a book on vampires. She was utterly bored. The damage caused by the flying suit of armor had resulted in the store shutting down for a short while. Now it was reopened since Matthias had mostly healed the damage, but the customers were lacking. At least until now.

"Never heard of the guy," Sylvia replied to the newest customer. She vaguely noted his cuteness and considered flirting. This wildly uncharacteristic thought would both amuse and annoy her for at least the next three hours.

"Be nice to the customers," Cordelia shouted from the cavernous depths of the bookstore's back rooms.

"Yes, Mother! Should I turn him into a rabbit or a bear? I'm leaning toward badger, now that I think about it," Sylvia shouted back.

"Very funny! Transmogrify the first customer and you're fired on the spot."

-----

"Oh, I'm sorry, dearie. I didn't even think about you trying to get your beauty sleep. Though I'm sure you don't need it at all. I've come to make a little business proposition. Is it just you or do you have some little friends?" Miss Lucinda shouted at the door.

-----

"Alcohol?" Master Vendar said and sniffed haughtily.

"Are you coming down with a cold? You seem to be having trouble with your sinuses," Ana said with wide-eyed innocence.

"Hardly. We need to speak in private if you are not willing to leave this ... establishment yet.

"Why? This bar stool is comfy."

"It's Jedi business. I have no intention of speaking of it in front of all of these people."

"All right already. There's a private room behind the bar," Ana said and turned to Caedan. "Sorry about this. I'll be back as soon as Tall, Dark, and Stuffy gets finished telling me whatever pointless thing he's worried about."

Restart

"Oh, you've been here that long?" Samantha asked, looking surprised.

----

"Ugh, whatever," Elena said, figuring he could do what he wanted since technically they hadn't even been hired yet.

((Sorry so pathetically short. ))

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

Peter's eyes widened when he saw the sword. "Nice blade," he said, nodding appreciatively.

Nikolas looked somewhat disappointed in Malcolm's answer.

"That's the spirit," Hero said to Pandora, doing her best not to sound sarcastic.

----

The door to the crypt opened and a white-blond head peered out, a scowl on the pale face.

"There may be more, there may be none. What's the proposition, love?" His eyes skittered across them both rather hungrily, but he held back. For now.

Katie stared at the vampire with intense interest.

----

Caeden shrugged. "I gotta get these back to Jones anyway. He's probably wondering where I got to. I'll catch you later. Don't kill anyone." He grinned and gave Ana a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before picking up the drinks and making his way to the back where his superior sat glowering in the boy's general direction as if the man knew Caeden had been talking to a Jedi.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A (Slightly) Less normal life

In the outer reaches of the Ditto Galaxy a small freighter was emerging from transwarp anomaly, the same one which brought the first Jedi to Dittotopia. It had re-appeared for a limited time and a ship which had been damaged in a fire fight had taken an easy way out once it showed up. Now the ship had to make an emergency landing on nearest planet around, this is where we begin a new chapter in this story....

“Domino, locate the nearest livable planet! We need to make a landing quick!” Yelled Jassan West at the OOM pilot battle droid next to him, one of the many left over and unused droids he had found in a droid garbage pile on Geonosis. "Found one sir" said the droid as he pointed at the screen "What a scrap heap... It will have to do... Set our courses to, Dittotopia" he said in disgust.

As the closed on the planet he began briefing his elite droid assassins... Including units such as a Magna Guard and Commando Droid, along with a rebuilt version of General Grievous, known as N-K Necrosis and several others "Listen guys" yes he referred to his only companions as equals.

"We are stopping at a planet known as Dittotopia... Honestly we may have hit a stroke of luck, that Nalume fellow often comes here for an unknown reason... Maybe we could get some info about him... I gotta beat Fett to someone just this once, so anyways I need you all too lay quiet and stay in the ship. If I need help I'll radio you, N-K your in charge and Domino make sure to be ready to take off if I say so"

Jasson continued like this until they arrived on the planets surface and then said goodbye, slid his helmet on and walked down the gangway.
---
Kevin nodded "I see... I'll just look around in here then..." he said and turned to scan the walls, he located the history section and walked over to it. Nate glanced up at his brother "What the heck do you think she meant by 'Should I turn him into a rabbit or a bear?' I mean... Was she joking or crazy?" he asked.

Kevin shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'I don't know' when Nate pulled out a book which I would pull out not to long after “Oh, here’s something, the complete history of the families of Dittotopia… Who the heck named this place Dittotopia?” Kevin shrugged again and grabbed the book, flipped to the B section “Ah… Here they are"
---
Matthew nodded "Yeah I do have a drink once in a while Vendar" he said smugly, knowing the arrogant Jedi master would have a cow over him not using the title 'master' "Now am I going to be included in this Jedi business or shall I be excluded as always?" he asked.
---
Kale leaned against Scrappy "She's right you know... This is Ditto Town, every third person here does have some weird power... So who is this Jack fellow?" he asked spining her lightsaber hilt around.

((There is a non canoical easter egg in this post, if you find it I'll take it out and you win a prize, if not I get to keep the non canon easter egg ))

Hidden Away

"Right." Stephanie nodded at the empty space where her sister used to be and headed to math. Twenty minutes passed and Mrs. Gibbons didn't appear from the back room. She was probably in the closet, staring off into space, not aware she had a full classroom in the front.

"Free period!" Noah Dutton yelled from the back of the room, throwing an eraser into the air.

Heh heh heh.

Steph reached into her bag to reach for some Skittles, but something told her that senile as her teacher was, she wouldn't just abandon her class. Forget it, said the voice inside of her that desperately wanted something to eat.

Fine, grumbled the truly curious side of her. But when I'm done, we're going to the back room.

Restart

Well, that's it, the priest thought as he watched the elevator swallow up his only hope of a second chance.

Closing his eyes, he lifted a rosary bead to his lips and bowed his head.

It's out of my hands now.

~~~~~~

Dotty didn't remember falling asleep. Or waking up for that matter. But there was a lost memory of what happened between the time when Father Jacobson came and when he left that she couldn't fill in the timeline. It would have helped to remember, for more than just to relieve this hazy phase she was feeling, so she could know what time it was when Tyler suddenly appeared and how long it took for the priest to go see him.

Light was filtering in through the window blinds, so the sun was rising.

Dotty did not turn her face from the empty seat beside her bed to look at Tyler. Just sighed, haggardly and long-winded. It had been a long night and it showed on her face.

"So what did he say?" she asked, closing her eyes briefly to let a relapse of fatigue drift her senses away. For a moment she forgot he was there, until she swallowed hard, with some effort, and rubbed her eyes with her bandaged hand. "C'mon, Tyler," she muttered groggily, "I'm not an idiot just because I'm in the hospital. I know he went to see you."

~~~~~~

At that question, Mary Jane smiled. "Chinese food," she replied, and then sighed longingly. "Although I don't get a chance to it eat some very often."

~~~~~~

Halfway underneath the bed, Shane's legs kicked around as he tried to retrieve something underneath his bed. "Getting my gear. What does it look like?" he grunted as he shoved miscellaneous articles out of his way. Mostly dirty close but there were a few questionable magazines in the pile.

"Hurry up and get his stuff ready!"

Restart

Ty leaned in the doorway, crossing his arms. "He said I shouldn't judge you for what you did, because I don't know the whole story. So I'm here for you to tell me the story because, honestly Dotty? I'm sick and tired of being jerked around."

----

Chase wrinkled his nose faintly. "Oh. You know, I asked for an Asian sister once. We could have had Oriental food all the time then. But we got Jenna and Peyton instead. And all Peyton knows how to make is frozen pizza. And not even that sometimes. She burns water."

----

"What 'stuff'?" Layla asked helplessly, staring with some disappointment at the magazines. "Shane, you're acting like a crazy person. I don't understand."

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Restart

There was a pause that left the air dry and constricting, and Dotty wondered if it was because she had enough trouble breathing as it was, or if it was because Tyler's honesty pained her.

She sniffed loudly. "Would you believe me if I said that I don't like jerking you around?" she asked in a quiet voice.

~~~~~~

"Oooh, be careful," Mary Jane chastised him teasingly with a laugh. "She can hear you."

~~~~~~

"Ow!" Shane growled as he dragged himself out from under the bed, rubbing the top of his head with a wince.

He looked up at Layla with a slight frown. "Where's your sense of adventure? Or have you never acquired one and I'm going to have to hold your hand the entire time." This remark made him laugh, and he leaned down, grabbing what he was looking for and starting to pull it out.

Restart

"Could've fooled me," Ty said with a slight frown. "Well, scratch that. You did fool me. If what you're saying is true. And honestly I don't know whether to believe you're lying or not." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Dotty, I just wanted to be your friend. Hang out. Have things how they used to be. But you were so . . ." he floundered for a word. "I can't even think of a word to describe how horrible you were. And it broke my heart to see you like that. I wanted to help. I thought I could help. But I guess I was just wasting my time, because you don't want help. You never wanted it." He shook his head slowly.

"And I was fooling myself to think that you would let me through that hard shell of yours."

----

Chase shrugged. "It's not like we don't all know it already. It's been a family joke for years." He laughed and then suddenly winced. His hand flew to his head, and he bent forward slightly, hissing in pain underneath his breath.

"GAH!" he cried out involuntarily, squeezing his eyes shut.

Jenna dropped whatever she had been doing in the kitchen and ran out to the living room, dropping to her knees beside her brother, grabbing his arm.

"Is it the headache again? Do you want me to call Layla? Joseph?"

"No!" Chase snarled, peering out from behind his hand to glare at his sister. "I'm fine."

Already his body was starting to relax. He dropped his hand from his head and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. His face was pale and sweat beaded his forehead, but he attempted a slight smile.

"Really."

Jenna did not look convinced, but she let go and stood, frowning down at him thoughtfully for a moment with pursed lips before heading back to the kitchen.

----

"If you're talking about running away from home," Layla said, "don't think I'm going to let you take John Luke." She frowned. "Or MJ for that matter."

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Restart

Dotty's jaw clenched, and slowly she turned her face towards Tyler. Tears had filled her eyes, not with hurt, but with hot anger.

"You have got a lot of nerve," she said through clenched teeth. "How can you think that after all these years that nothing has changed?" Through her nose, she inhaled deeply in attempt to calm herself, but the damage was already done, and she exploded. "Hello! You're a freakin' rockstar! Of course everything has changed!"

She shook her head at him in mocked disbelief, as if he had forgotten that minor detail somehow. "I can't believe you can be so dense as to think that everything could go back to the way it was since you left. As if you can disregard everything that has changed, and not even think for a moment that it could affect me." A tear lost its hold and rushed down her face. She brushed it off in frustration, her hands shaking.

"You think I am being horrible and selfish? Well guess what—it takes one to know one."

~~~~~~

Mary Jane had been so stunned by Chase's episode that all she could do was sit there with a wide-eyed expression, almost as if she was waiting for him to collapse in front of her and . . .

But when he did not she gasped suddenly. She didn't realize she had been holding her breath. Unable to meet his eyes until Jenna left, she waited until she was more composed before speaking.

"I-I . . . maybe," she began softly and then swallowing, "I should go. You don't need vistors right now . . ."

~~~~~~

"What?" Shane stopped what he was doing and looked up at Layla, confused but incredulous that she would say that. "Why would I do that?" Frowning, he stood quickly, his posture taunt as he loomed over her with narrow defensive eyes. "You think I am capable of dragging my sister and brother away from their parents for no good reason?"

Restart

Ty stormed over to the bed and glared down at Dotty, fists clenched at his side. "Hey, I had no idea my leaving would turn you into a basket case. I figured, 'hey, I get my chance at a new life. I'm sure Dotty will too.' We were kids, Dotty! Kids don't always do the right thing. Okay? I'm sorry that you felt soooooo betrayed when I left. I'm sorry you apparently got so dependent on me. How the heck was I supposed to know you'd take my leaving so personally? It was a job. With people who supposedly cared about me. You don't think any one of those orphans in that home would've jumped at the opportunity?"

He took several deep breaths, trying to calm down before he burst a blood vessel in his brain. His head was already pounding.

"Look," he said, lowering his voice. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to fight the oncoming headache. "I've already apologized for leaving. I think I've actually apologized more than once. Why. Can't. You. Let. It. Go?! I'm here now. I want to be your friend now. Although now I think I should've stayed away." He opened his eyes again and frowned down at her, but this time the frown was of hurt, not of anger.

----

Chase looked surprised. "What? Why would you say that?" he asked, pouting. "Of course I need visitors. You think I want to sit here and be bored out of my skull? You're my only friend right now, MJ. Aside from my siblings, but they don't count." He stuck out his bottom lip and looked pleadingly at her.

"Please stay."

----

Layla backed up slightly. "I-I," she stammered. "I don't know what to think, Shane. You're rummaging around here for something, you want me to get John Luke's things. It sounds like you're running. I've dealt with runners before, and I know the signs. I just . . . need to know what's going on here. Please."

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Restart

This was probably the first time Dotty ever regretted keeping Tyler in the dark for so long. For in the beginning it annoyed her that he did not understand her meaning when she called him just as horrible and selfish as her. But now looking up at his pained eyes, she saw what she was doing to him. Of course he didn't understand, she was talking to him as if he knew the trouble he was causing by just his mere presence. If he had known he wouldn't still be going on about this stupid betrayal thing.

The trembling in her hands crept up to gently vibrate the rest of her entire body.

"Maybe you should have," she agreed quietly, treading on a careful tone of remaining unemotional. "Things would have been different. You would have gone on blissfully unaware with your dumb drama movies, probably a lot happier than you are now." She looked up at him warily, quickly diverting her gaze when she met his. "And I-I. . ." She was interrupted by a short, stifling sob, and for a moment she couldn't breathe. "And I would--n't be here," she finally managed to say, and renewed tears tumbled without reserve down her cheeks.

She couldn't hold it back anymore. It had been a build up of many years.

~~~~~~

Mary Jane looked hesitant to comply. "Are you sure?" she asked, not sure if that would be for the best all things considering.

~~~~~~

Shane stared down at Layla for a long while. Slowly, though, a small smirk swept over his features. "So you have had your share of adventures," he remarked, strangely pleased to be diverting off the topic. "Well, I don't think you will want to come then. It might be boring for you," he added as his foot slipped under the bed and discretely dragged a board out. A surfboard.

"Will you get John Luke's swimming trunks out in any case?" he asked, raising a eyebrow. "I don't know where his stuff is."

Restart

Ty's expression softened as he watched the tears run down Dotty's cheeks. Then a confused frown furrowed his brow. Kneeling besie the bed, he hesitantly placed a hand over the one of hers closest to him.

"Dotty," he said softly. "What do you mean? Is this about the cancer? What do you mean you would be dead if I hadn't come back?"

----

"Hey, you promised you'd stay for dinner," Chase said, trying a different tactic. "So, you'd better stay. You don't want to go back on your word now, do you?" He leaned back and smirked faintly.

----

Layla breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Yeah," she said, blushing faintly. "I'll just . . . go do that."

Turning away quickly to hide her reddening cheeks, she hurried into John Luke's room to get his swimming trunks, decided she would just avoid Shane for the next ten or so minutes.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Restart

At Tyler's guess, another sob broke out and shook Dotty. "No, you idiot," she said, wiping her face with her free hand ruffly. "I didn't mean that, not really. I meant here--" she nodded around the hospital room, "like this."

~~~~~~

Mary Jane smiled tightly, partly amused by his tactic and concerned by what he was ignoring. "Only if you promise to lie down," she insisted weakly.

~~~~~~

Shane snickered aloud when Layla left, shaking his head as he pulled the board out and looked around for the rest of his gear.

Hearing a commotion going on, very out of the ordinary in their home, John Luke stired on the couch. Groaning softly he twisted around, stilling laying on his back, to look for signs of life but he couldn't see anyone.

"Laaayla," he croaked, scratching his eyes sleepily, finding it hard to see still after a few rigorous rubs.

Restart

"Okaaaaaay," Ty said slowly. "What do you mean then? How did you get like this?" His eyes roved over her battered features with another slight frown.

----

"Pffft, not that I need it," Chase said, rolling his eyes. "But okay, if that's what you want."

He nudged his foot against her leg. "Gonna have to move off the couch though, if you want me to lay down here."

----

At John Luke's call, Layla came out of his room and hurried over to him, kneeling beside the sofa to get at eye-level.

"Hey baby," she said gently, stroking his hair. "How are you feeling?"

P.S."Brooklyn!"