closed log

[yourothermother]

WHO: yourothermother, more_surreal, zeronator
WHAT: A little less eyeball-nomming, a lot more action.
WHEN: Evening, Wednesday 28 June
WHERE: The Other Mother's apartment building
WARNINGS: Intended eyeball nomming. Violence.

Comments

[more_surreal]

The last few days should have been the best of Calvin's life. All he's ever wanted is what he wants, when he wants, exactly how he wants it- and that's what his new Mom has provided! Riding a velociraptor, real and amazing beneath him, was only the beginning of the things she could make. He should have been on cloud nine the whole time.

Instead, the feeling that something is terribly, terribly wrong that's been niggling in the back of his mind has only grown, as has his guilt for essentially ditching Harvey, and with him Billy, for someone who provided shinier toys. But those feelings don't stop him from running to the table when she calls- his new and improved parent never ever serves oatmeal.

"I'm here!" He yells. "What are we having tonight?"

[yourothermother]

"Something I thought you would like, dear," she says.

The Other Mother smiles and points to the table. As usual, it's just this side of a feast: juicy hamburgers grilled perfectly, with a table full of condiments, a casserole dish full of homemade macaroni & cheese, a fruit salad that went heavy on the whipped cream, homemade french fries, and cake for dessert.

She's gone all-out, of course. Their last meal is almost always the most splendid. It makes the process easier if they're happy. Her smile grows at the thought. After Calvin has eaten, her own hunger will finally go away.

And, at the head of the table--Calvin's place--there's a slim box, gift wrapped in shiny paper of Calvin's favourite color.

[more_surreal]

Calvin smiles as 'Mom' and chows down, rushing through the (fantastic) meal because ooh a present he's getting a present! A shiny one to boot! He wondered what it could be. It was probably something amazing!

...suddenly he remembered that he'd left Norton behind when he left Harvey's. And that robot dinosaur Harvey had gotten him after Billy had gotten his own animals. And that he didn't have Hobbes.

But then Calvin put those thoughts out of his head because whatever was in that box was sure to be great!

[yourothermother]

The Other Mother watched him rush through dinner with fond amusement. He must have been excited for his gift. She'd seen it before. She did not eat the way he did, but in the interests of appearance, she picked at the food on her plate.

She was just as happy as any child might be when dinner was finally over.

"Well, go on," she urged. "Open it!"

[more_surreal]

He did, enthusiastically ripping away the lovely paper and lifting off the lid.

And stared at what was inside.

With a very bad feeling beginning to grow in his stomach.

"Uhhhhh... Mom? What's with the buttons?"

[yourothermother]

"We've been having so much fun together that I thought you might want to stay." She smiled hopefully at him. "If you'd like, you can take the buttons, just like me."

She tapped a finger on her right eye a few tiems. The long nail made a clicking sound every time it touched.

"Don't you want to?"

[more_surreal]

Calvin stared at his 'Mom' and her 'eyes', not quite willing to comprehend what she was saying.

"You want me to put... the buttons... into my... my..."

[yourothermother]

She laughed, warm and genuine. As if his confusion really was funny and not, say, horrifying. "Not into your eyes! Over them! I'll just take out the ones you have now, and you'll sew the buttons over them."

After a pause, she added in a soothing tone, "It won't hurt a bit."

[more_surreal]

It took all his self-control not to bolt from the room right then and there. Part of him still clung to the idea that this wasn't all a horrible mistake, that he could still stay with his new and improved Mom and have everything his own way all the time and never have to worry about anything.

"Right! Right, over the eyes, I get it, heh-heh." He squirmed in his seat. "But I can stay with you even without them, right? I mean, they're just buttons, right? You're my Mom no matter what, right?"

[yourothermother]

"Of course I am, Calvin. But you can't stay with me forever unless you take the buttons!" She laughed again. "But it will all be alright. I promise."

[more_surreal]

"You promise, huh?"

If there was one, single constant in the universe, it was that whenever a grown-up promised you anything, it was time to be afraid. Even if the grown-up made dinosaurs.

On the verge of complete panic, Calvin fell back on his most basic and greatest defense: his imagination. The familiar rhythm of fantasy and self-narration allowed him to gain control of himself, if only in his own mind. Intrepid interstellar explorer Spaceman Spiff once again faces unimaginable peril! Lured into a devious trap by a supposedly-benevolent alien hungry for his ocular organs, how will our hero escape? What stunningly brilliant stratagem, what immensely cunning gambit, what incredibly original scheme will deliver Spiff from certain doom?

"Hey 'Mom!' What's that behind you?" And with that, Calvin was sprinting away from the table, heading nowhere in particular- but heading there fast, which was the important thing. Spiff escapes!

[yourothermother]

She made the mistake of turning to look. But there was nothing behind her, nothing at all.

He was leaving when she turned around. There was a moment of blind fury. And then every illusion in the house began to change, to become threatening. She chased after him, still human-like enough to pass.

"Calvin! Calvin, come back here!"

[more_surreal]

Spiff dashes towards freedom! Except as the house suddenly began to shift and warp around him into something dark and sinister, the question of where 'freedom' and where 'certain doom' lay became complicated. Where the heck did the door go?

Calvin ducked down a corridor that was rapidly becoming something too nightmarish to be a corridor, chillingly aware that he was running out of places to run.

/jumps in I hope this is the right tag

[zeronator]

It hadn't been easy to track 'Bel Jones' down, but after nearly a week of endless data streaming and checks, the search finally zeroed in on the apartment building he was inside now, in front of an innocuous door marked 104. His gun was in its holster, and its weight was a comfort.

Heero knocked sharply, three times on the door; there was a time when he would have just shot the lock and went in, Bel Jones was still, ostensibly, a civilian. He would give it five seconds before he did things his own way.

[yourothermother]

But the Other Mother was too busy turning the apartment building--or at least the part of it she and Calvin were in--into a nightmare to notice or care about one mortal child knocking at one of the "normal" flats. She needed to find Calvin, needed to stop Calvin from running. Needed to force the issue of the buttons.

She wasn't anywhere near apartment 104 to answer within five seconds. When Heero made his own entrance, he would find a bare apartment with the occasional rust-brown stain on the floor and a ladder that led directly to the second floor. Should he double back, he would find that the main stairway leading to the second floor was blocked. That ladder was the only access that didn't involve a window.

And the second floor was quickly becoming a hellish maze.

[more_surreal]

Which Calvin was currently a wholly unwilling inhabitant of. He was so completely lost and was on the verge of just breaking down from panic, of just curling up on the floor and sobbing until the thing in the shape of his mother came for his eyes.

But the sound of Heero knocking just barely reached his ears, giving him some small hope. So he did what came naturally at the moment and screamed as loud as he could, hoping that someone would hear him. Because right now, he needed an adult.