The SSSS Scriptorium

[Lallicat]

Aaand double posting because I was having way too much fun writing this. :'D

Spoiler: Kitty Part 7: Names • show

"You know, I don't think we know cat-girl's real name." Sigrun, Tuuri, Emil, and Mikkel were cooing over the small child as she played with Reynir's braid.
"I don't think I've heard her speak," added Emil.
"Can you tells us your name, child," asked Mikkel. Kitten just looked at him, confused.
"Maybe she doesn't speak Danish," theorized Sigrun. "Do you understand Norwegian, little kitten?" This kindled a spark of understanding in Kitten's eyes. She nodded. "What other languages can you understand?" A shrug. "Can you speak?" A small mew escaped Kitten's mouth, followed by choking sounds. Frustrated, she shook her head.
"Do you know why?" asked Tuuri. Another shake.
"It must be because her vocal cords have had little use when she was on her own," explained Mikkel. Kitten suddenly heard a cough. She wiggled around, trying to detect where it had came from.
"Can you say your name?" asked Sigrun. Kitten scrunched up her face in concentration. "El- Eli-" she paused, as if to think. "Kitty," she finally proclaimed. "Kitty." A wave of questions started pouring out of everyone's mouths. Overwhelmed, she ran off to the edge of camp, covering her ears. She didn't know how long she sat there. She only looked up when she heard a frustrated grunt.

***

Lalli was upset. He had been out for two days, and no one showed any sign of being happy to see him. Not even that Swede. Tuuri hadn't even bothered to tell him if he missed anything. All of a sudden, he was attacked from behind. He had almost drawn his rifle when he realized it was just that little girl they had found. She was hugging his legs, on account of her being to short to reach any higher. She was grinning from ear to ear with a sparkle on those stupid blue eyes of hers. He pushed her off roughly. "Go away," he told her. "Go and play with the others or something. You'll have more fun with them than with me." She just smiled even wider and grabbed his hand. He recognised that look. It was the same look the Swede gave him sometimes. An "I get the gist of what you're saying, but I don't speak the same language as you so I'll pretend I have no clue to what you just said" look. He yanked his hand away from hers. If I just ignore her, she'll go away, he told himself. But she didn't leave his side for the whole day. She delighted in offering him some food from her plate, reveled in sneakily following him while he was scouting, and stubbornly decided she wanted to sleep on the end of his bed, instead of Tuuri's where she usually slept. He refused the food, grudgingly let her follow him without acknowledging her, but in the end gave in about the bed. Purely because he was to tired to argue anymore, he told himself. That was the only reason.

[Mirasol]

I finished the next part! (sorry, it turned out a little long)

Spoiler: part 5 • show

“Fine. You protect the helpless ones while we check it out.” Sigrun pointed at Emil, before starting to walk towards the building with Mikkel.
“Protect the helpless ones?” Tuuri mimicked quotation marks with her hands and chuckled. “Oh, what a noble task…”
“Shut up… You should rather thank me, you know.”
Tuuri pretended to bow in front of the Swede. “Thank you, oh hero, for keeping us poor damsels in distress safe.”
Tuuri saw with satisfaction that their “brave guardian” was grinning. Even Kisu, now awake again, smiled. Though most likely just because she had heard the others laugh, not because she had understood what they were talking about.
The child was standing between Tuuri and Reynir, holding one of each of their hands and drawing wiggly lines in the snow with her foot. She was wearing (or drowning in) Lalli´s boots. He wouldn´t need them for the rest of today. Probably not for longer. Tuuri hoped he would wake up soon. She felt bad for yelling at him and really wanted to apologize.
Only Reynir didn´t laugh at the joke. Which was fair, they had been talking Swedish, but that didn´t excuse the utterly terrified look on the Icelanders face. Tuuri fixated the window where he had supposedly seen movement. But there was nothing.
“Are you ok…?”, she asked in Icelandic.
At that moment, Sigrun looked out of the door and signaled that they didn´t find anything. But Reynir still pointed at the window with a face as if he had seen a ghost. Sigrun gestured him to come over and show her where. Reynir didn´t look like he wanted to do that. But apparently Kisu had seen the sign and took the matter into her own hands. The kid let go of Tuuri and started to walk towards the building, dragging poor Reynir with her.
“Should we really let the cat-girl go with him?”, Emil asked out of the corner of his mouth while they watched the bizarre sight of a gigantic redhead and a tiny redhead slowly making their way over a snow-clad site while an impatient redhead was waiting for them.
“Lalli said there is nothing dangerous here. And even if, she´s immune. And can run fast. She´ll be fine.” Tuuri wasn´t about to doubt her cousin again. He was always right. When he said the place was safe, it was safe.
“Ok then…”

***

“Kisa wait! We shouldn´t go there, I´m not immune!”, Reynir whispered. The girl looked at him and resolutely shook her head. Then she started walking faster (which was still not “fast”, since her oversized shoes hindered her quite a bit).
“You… understood me?” He asked. Kisa looked at him in confusion and cocked her head. “You probably just saw that I´m scared…”, Reynir answered for her. “Thank you, but I don´t think this is the right moment to be brave.” The kid didn´t react. Walking required all of her concentration.
When they finally reached the building, Kisa immediately started sniffing it. Was there a weird smell? He sniffed too… until he saw Sigrun giving him a look as if she was asking him whether he just lost his mind. Right, breathing the virus could kill him. And he was here to show the others the thing that moved.
Wait, how did Sigrun and Mikkel not see it? One of them was standing right between them. Or floating… He wasn´t sure.
“… I-I´m sorry. It´s just… ghosts?”
Some Danish or Norwegian was spoken. Now Mikkel too seemed to assume Reynir had gone insane.
The Dane sighed. “Do the “ghosts” appear hostile?”
“Uh… no? They just kinda sit there and flicker a little.”
More Danish or Norwegian. Mikkel and Sigrun started to inspect the room. It looked like an old hospital. Lots of dead people. Maybe Kisa shouldn´t see this. But right now the girl´s focus was on the wall anyway. Wait, could she…?
“Do you see them? You don´t think they look dangerous, do you?”
A perplexed “Mju?” was all the kid responded. He really should start teaching her Icelandic…

***

Meanwhile back at the tank, Tuuri and Emil were starting to get bored. Watching one of their superiors walk by a window every now and then wasn´t exactly the most interesting pass of time. Tuuri let her eyes wander over the pompous building and the statue in the middle of its courtyard again.
“Do you think this place was like a castle? You know, where a king or a queen lived?”
Emil followed her view to the statue. “No. Kings and queens lived like… ages ago. They didn´t have those anymore in the old world. I learned that in school.”
Tuuri giggled. “Interesting school you had, then. Of course kings and queens still existed in the old world. Sweden for example had a royal family. Not sure about Denmark, we didn´t have a lot of Danish records in Keuruu.”
“I´m pretty sure I would know it if my country had a royal family.”
“Come on Emil, I´m a skald. Knowing about history is my job. Would I lie to you?”
Emil seemed to seriously consider it. But before he could answer, Tuuri noticed that the others were on their way back. Reynir was carrying Kisu on his shoulders. But the girl was looking… scared? Her eyes were wide open and she clutched Reynir´s head with her arms. Her hair looked like it had been electrocuted, but maybe Tuuri was imagining that.
Sigrun noticed it and immediately went into what Tuuri sometimes called “Defense-mode”.  Mikkel made the Icelander put on his mask. Quickly Tuuri followed suit and went into the tank.
But the three others kept walking. Maybe it was false alarm…
At that moment a small troll jumped out of nowhere and right towards Reynir. Then everything seemed to go faster. Sigrun jumped in and the thing sunk its teeth in her arm. She fell on her back and started hitting it with the other end of her rifle. Mikkel grabbed Reynir and pushed him away, so fast that Kisu lost her balance and fell down in the snow with a panicked cry, right next to where Sigrun had dropped down.
“Kisa!”, was all Reynir could say before Mikkel pushed him into the door of the tank.
“Get it! Don´t let it hide again!”, Sigrun barked to no specific person, her face wreathing in pain. Emil started shooting vaguely into the direction where the troll had disappeared under the snow. A sobbing Kisu tried to crawl away. Sigrun grabbed her foot and pulled her back.
“Oh no, Kitten, you stay right here where I can make sure it doesn´t get you! Now where did the stupid critter go!?” The girl pointed in a direction with a shivering hand, while covering her head with the other.
“Hold on!” This was Mikkel, looking at Reynir´s arm. The fabric on his sleeve was torn.
Oh no., Tuuri thought. The medic inspected the Icelanders skin with a trained look. There, a small scratch on his upper arm. The skin had turned red at the spot.
“Hm, alright”, the Dane murmured and quickly closed the tanks door. Suddenly it was silent. A muffled order by Sigrun every now and then was the only thing that pierced through the tank´s walls.
“… Am I alright?”, Reynir asked with a shaking voice.
“I… don´t know”, was all Tuuri could answer.

[Lallicat]

Mirasol, I love where you are taking this!

Dreamworld shenanigans!   

Spoiler: Kitty Part 8: Dreamworld, Part I • show

Lalli woke in his dreamspace. Everything was fine so far, no sign of the spirits from earlier. Well, that wasn't quite true. He felt the energy signature of that flickering form that had helped him close by. Lalli knew that it wasn't wise to neglect thanking spirits for assistance, no matter how small, no matter if you asked them to or not, for fear of angering them. So he tried to pinpoint the location the waves were emanating from. It was definitely close by. He walked briskly in its general direction, feeling the signature growing stronger. Finally, he knew he was in the right place. He took a step forward, and smashed his nose against a dreamspace barrier. So it wasn't a spirit that had assisted him, but a mage...
"What is it boy? What are you trying to show me?" Lalli bit back a curse. It was that annoying Icelandic mage with the stupid hair. "Lalli! Hiii! Do you know where we are?" he asked.
"Dreamspace barrier," Lalli replied, gesturing in front of him. "A mage must be here." Reynir looked at him quizzically.
"You mean Onni?" Lalli shook his head.
"No. It's another mage. I don't recognize their energy. They helped me hold back some evil spirits while I was out a few days ago." Reynir gasped.
"You saw the ghosts too? They attacked us as well! That's why we had to leave your campsite. They almost killed us. We should go thank that mage! Without you holding them back, I think we wouldn't have made it." Lalli hmphed, but was slightly less annoyed at the braided boy.
"I can't go in. You can't enter another mage's dreamapace without an invitation." Reynir grinned.
"That's not a problem for me! C'mon!" And he dragged Lalli into the dreamspace.
"It's very rude to that to do that," grumbled Lalli. But he wasn't too mad. He wanted to meet that mage as much as Reynir did. He examined the dreamspace. It was a forest, with lots of boulders. A waterfall tumbled down a cliff, snaked into a stream, and created a small lake. The temperature was cool, with a light drizzle falling. Then, the breeze that had been blowing since they stepped in, carried the sound of a clear laugh to their ears. At the top of the cliff, the flickering figure was twirling with their arms extended, laughing hard, a sound of pure happiness. When they caught sign of Lalli and Reynir, they scramble down the boulders that formed a staircase to the mossy ground.
"Lalli? Reynir? What are you doing here?" they asked. Lalli gasped. The strange mage was Kitty.

Spoiler: Notes • show

I'm going to take a risk and try to draw Dreamworld Kitty. If it isn't an abomination I'll try to post it here. Wish  me luck!

[Mirasol]

Thank you, Lallicat, and yes, please do draw dreamworld-Kitty! I hope you are aware of posting pictures here being a little bit of an art in of itself. If you need information on how to do that, you can find it here.

Also, next chapter:

Spoiler: part 6 • show

On the same evening, after the troll was finally caught, the crew was getting ready to have dinner. Tuuri found Reynir and Kisu sitting under the table in the office, both looking absolutely miserable.
“Heyyy… Mikkel said that you won´t die. Come on, lighten up!”
If anything, Reynir reacted to this by becoming even more miserable.
“But I was much too close to dying, twice today! What if things continue like this? I might not be that lucky anymore next time.”
Twice? Oh yeah, the wash-water-incident.
“And Kisa fell down in the cold snow and hurt her arm! And nearly got attacked by a troll!” The girl, who was lying curled up on the Icelander´s lap, snuffled affirmatively. Tuuri pondered whether she should be worried that these two might be fusing together soon, if Reynir now even took it upon himself to answer for her.
Then he started talking more muted. “And it was all my fault because I let her go. I brought her in danger. And I can´t even apologize because she doesn´t speak my language!”
Ah, so that was it. Tuuri sighed. “It wasn´t anybody´s fault. You were just scared and surprised when Mikkel tried to get you out of the situation. And look, in the end nothing bad happened. There is just a little bruise on Kisa´s arm. And if it makes you feel better, we can ask Mikkel to translate your apology.”
Reynir let out a slight smile. “Yeah, I think that would make me feel better. And thank you for saying that… But I know-“
“Let me stop you right there.” Tuuri had had enough. “Should I help you to wash your hair? I think you´ll see things in a different light when your head doesn´t stink like something died in it anymore.”
Reynir snuffled too, then nodded. Seriously, it was like talking to a toddler… two toddlers.
“We´re going outside!”, she let the others know, while towing Reynir out of the door. He was now holding Kisu extra-tight, as if to make sure he wouldn´t drop her again.
“Hm-hm”, was all Mikkel answered while stirring in the dinner-pot. The rest of the crew was too busy inspecting their wounds. Emil had a pretty bad-looking bruise on his leg. Tuuri wondered how that happened.

***

As soon as Kisu spotted the tub, she started fidgeting in Reynir´s arms.
“Don´t worry, not for you”, the Icelander tried to calm her.
About five minutes later, he was lying on a blanket on the snow-free ground around the tank (Sigrun had made them remove all the snow five meters around it so nothing would ambush them again) and held his now open hair into the water. Kisu sat on the other end of the tub lurking over its edge and putting a finger in it every now and then, followed by an angry “Mrii!” because the water was so cold.
Reynir´s hair alone took pretty much the entire space in the tub. Tuuri was seriously impressed.
“You know, Kisa even warned me that something was coming”, the Icelander began once again. Slowly but surely, Tuuri started to get annoyed.
“Oh, come on Reynir… Wait. What do you mean with she “warned you”?”
“She was hissing and her hair got all fluffy. Even before the troll jumped out. She did that before, when we were in the tunnel with the flesh-blobs. Maybe that was when the thing started following us. Do you think she can sense trolls?”
Tuuri looked at him skeptically, though she had to admit that Kisu had seemed scared even before the troll attacked.
“Maybe she just did see it. I mean, she grew up in the silent world as far as we know, it´s probably quite necessary for survival to be able to spot critters early. And the tunnel just was really scary.”
“Hm, yeah that makes sense. But she also was able to show Sigrun where it went.”
“Again, she probably saw it.”  Where did the shampoo go? Tuuri only found Emil´s in the bag where it usually was, and she was sure the Swede would kill her if she sunk that into Reynir´s hair-masses.
“And what about the odd ghost things in the building? I think she could see them too. And nobody else could.”
“Oh, was that the movement you meant?”
“Uh-huh. Do you think your cousin knows what they were? Can you ask him when he wakes up?”
Maybe the Icelander was a mage after all. Lalli had been talking about some spirits around the palace before he fell asleep.
“Mmh, Lalli mentioned seeing something like that earlier. I doubt he´d know, he calls things “weird” when he has no clue.”
“Well, that´s a pity.”
Oh, there the shampoo was. It fell into the washing pan where Mikkel usually did the dishes in.
For a while Reynir just stared to the sky. Kisu took a little snow and put it into the water to watch it melt.
“I think Kisa is a mage!”, he suddenly exclaimed. Well, there it was. Tuuri had half expected this to come next.
“Reynir, mages are rare. And Kisa is Danish, there are no Danish mages. They don´t believe in the gods.”
“Our Danes don´t! I mean the ones that live in Bornholm. But Kisa grew up here. Maybe she does believe in something.”
“Huh.” Tuuri hadn´t thought of that. She looked at the little girl, who was just about to drop another handful of snow into the water.
“Mju?” Kisu looked up.
“You know, we should really teach her how to speak.”

EDIT: (And by the way, I polished the parts up to here a bit and uploaded them on AO3 in case someone wants to read them in one go: Kitty)

[Grade E cat]

Here's the latest batch of mine. I don't know how far I'm going to go with it, but I'd like to get at least to the end to Adventure I before I properly publish it. However, I am insisting on a one-chapter backlog to avoid locking myself out of too many options, so this being here means that I've actually already written the following chapter.

Spoiler: show

Silent Child 1

-Well, at least that one came with a care package. And food.
In Sigrun’s eyes, that little girl brought the number of people who shouldn’t be sharing the already-cramped space to two. The other excess body occupying the dormitory and mouth to feed was currently in the driver’s cabin with Tuuri. Neither of them was leaving until the girl and a set of her clothes were properly decontaminated. The ledgers and journals that Sigrun and Emil had found in the half-built outpost explained how the girl had come to existence, and that the recently-dead woman they had found had been her mother. They had also revealed every single other member of the team of builders, including the girl’s father, to be dead. There wasn’t any sort of official protocol for situations like this, but if measures were good enough for a young non-immune man hiding in their food crates, they were good enough for an orphaned child found in the very last place they had expected. The other relieving piece of news had been that that the child had to be immune, considering who her parents had been.
xxxx
In an ideal world, caring for the girl would have been a good way to keep Reynir busy. In reality, the fact that Danish was the only language she understood resulted in her having a clear preference for Mikkel’s company. Right now, the only reason Reynir was able to keep her on his lap was that she was both too tired and too hungry to keep up with Mikkel’s morning bustling. When breakfast was served, she made a face. If what little Katja – it was the girl’s name according to Mikkel – had been eating so far was better than their breakfast, Sigrun felt the right to be a little jealous, if for just a moment. Both Reynir and Tuuri, who seemed to have suddenly become his best friend sometime in the last twenty-four hours, gave the little Katja a sympathetic smile before digging in. Fortunately, the girl seemed used to just eating whatever she was given. Emil, meanwhile, went to the far-off spot in which Lalli was hanging out, carrying a couple of steaming bowls.
Reynir watched as Lalli was doing what Tuuri called “mage stuff” at the top of a tree, and thought of something he had meant to tell Tuuri:
-Did I tell you I think there’s like a 99 percent chance that I’m a mage too?
Tuuri immediately reacted:
-No, what, really? What can you do?
Reynir confidently answered that he didn’t know yet, but that he was sure he would figure something out soon. Tuuri’s response to that made it clear she didn’t believe him. If it had been just about him, he wouldn’t have care much. But there was a question he really needed Tuuri to ask Lalli for him, and he was quite sure she wouldn’t bother asking it if she didn’t deem it necessary. Just as Reynir was trying to figure out which element of the previous day’s dream would convince Tuuri he was telling the truth, Sigrun asked her to do something that required her to be inside the tank rather than sitting on its doorstep. A little disappointed to lose Tuuri’s company so fast, Reynir briefly buried his face in the little girl’s hair before continuing to eat his breakfast. Maybe it would be worth trying to ask Onni if he could get to that dark sea again.
Tuuri opened the door of the driver’s cabin, but didn’t immediately go inside. She turned in Lalli’s direction:
-Come ride in the front with me this time. You can do it! Don’t be scared of new things!
Lalli let out a groan. Of all days to ask him to do this. Caring for the dog-beast on top of his shift had taken what little strength he had left.
-I’m tired.
-You can still sleep! But you have to be close by in case I need to consult you on the path! Your scout notes aren’t always the clearest!
He did not need to be reminded of that right now. He groaned in protest.
-That’s the spirit! Hop in!
She definitely wasn’t in a listening mood today. Hopefully, neither the braided idiot nor the little girl would bother them, this time.
xxxx
Katja, who had slept through a lot of the morning’s agitation, including the tank going both downhill and uphill at angle Reynir was quite sure it wasn’t meant for, suddenly woke up as they were driving to the new campsite that Lalli had found for them. Lalli was currently in the dorm room, being cared for by Mikkel and Emil. Almost as soon as she woke up, she pointed in the direction of the upper part of the windshield. Reynir explained, hoping she’d understand:
-We’re in a tunnel.
As they continued advancing, the direction in which Katja’s finger was pointing  moved to the part of the tank’s roof under which she and Reynir were sitting, then moved until she was apparently showing Reynir a random spot on the dormitory room’s back wall that was between Tuuri and Sigrun’s bunks. By that point, Reynir had shuffled her in such a way that it was easier for her to keep her arm in the proper position. She was still pointing when the tank stopped, and Tuuri went to check on Lalli while Emil left the dorm room, and almost got his eye pierced by the tiny index finger. Emil looked at her for a few moments, then told Mikkel something. Mikkel first seemed to be refusing some sort of request from Emil. Emil insisted, and Mikkel’s resigned sigh was followed by him taking Katja off Reynir’s lap. Reynir gave Mikkel an inquisitive look, to which the latter replied:
-Tuuri, Lalli and Emil had to take a night train through the Silent World to get to our departure base. The train’s roof was breached by a giant at some point, and Emil remembers seeing Lalli pointing at the train’s roof and glaring at a nearby train guard right before the breach. He thinks it could be worth taking her outside. If we must do so, I might as well be the one carrying her. By the time Mikkel was out the door with Katja in his arms, Reynir realized that his question about Katja had been answered in a quite unexpected way.

[Jitter]

I love these, and the way you keep up with the stories! Keep it coming! (Of course only as ling as you like doing it)

[Mirasol]

Oh, nice one, Grade E cat!

I finished another chapter too:

Spoiler: part 7 • show

“I just have zero faith in your battling skills”. How was Mikkel supposed to not take this personally? Sure, he was no professional troll-hunter or cleanser, but unlike other people he was still in one piece. And had a soldier-training too, as well as years of field-experience. Still, Sigrun preferred to take the injured Nineteenyearold with her instead of him, on top of herself being wounded too. The captain´s recklessness would get someone killed at some point, he knew it. He threw the laundry into the tub as angrily as he allowed himself to be and started working. If he already had to stay behind, he wouldn´t let that time go to waste.
Splat! Misse slipped on the tank´s doorstep and fell headfirst into the mud around it. Yesterday’s snow had melted quite a bit overnight and turned the entire courtyard into a puddle.
Mikkel looked up from his chores. The child pushed herself up from lying flat on the ground and spit out a bit of dirty water. They shared a look, both equally irritated that this had just happened. For a while, nobody said anything.
After a few seconds, the Dane found his voice again. “Are you alright? Have you hurt yourself?”
The girl looked down at her clothes, now covered in mud. She shook her head. "Not hurt."
Mikkel took a wet towel out of the tub in front of him and cleaned her hands and face. She made a hissing sound but let him proceed.
“Wait here for a bit, I´ll give you dry clothes when I´m done with this.”
As soon as Mikkel concentrated on his work again, Misse started playing in the dirt. He rolled his eyes. What did he expect?
“Where have you left your other half?”, he asked, demonstratively not looking at the child who had just comfortably seated herself and her formally white pants into the dirty water.
Right as he said that, Reynir was already peeking his head out of the door.
“Hey Mikkel… Oh, Kisa, there you a-aaaaah.”
The girl happily waved at him with her brown hands.
“I´ll handle this”, Mikkel said, nodding in the direction of the content child. “Just don´t let her inside like that.”
“Oh, uhm, ok… So, what I came here to ask is… We, I mean I, Tuuri is working…”
“Yes?”
“I´m attempting to teach Kisa Icelandic, but I think she doesn´t get what I want from her. She understands you, sort of, so could you maybe tell her that this is what I´m trying to do here?”
Mikkel paused his chores again. “This is… actually a really good idea.”
Reynir smiled. “Really?”
“Yes, of course. We´re planning on taking her home with us, so learning to communicate verbally is definitely useful. Especially with you, since you´re the one she trusts the most.”
The Dane looked at the child again. “Misse?”
She looked up. “Mikkel?”, she stammered after thinking for a bit.
This was the first time she had said anyone´s name. Mikkel was flattered that it was his.
“Yes, I am Mikkel. Do you know who this is too?” He pointed at the Icelander.
The girl nodded. “Kisa.”
A slightly embarrassed “Oh”, was all Reynir said to this. Mikkel couldn´t stop himself from chuckling a little.
“Hm, not quite. His name is Reynir. He calls you Kisa sometimes.”
“Oh, yes. Reynir.” The Icelanders name sounded funny in the girl´s accent.
“Have you noticed that he speaks different than you?”
It took Misse a while until she had deciphered that sentence. Then she nodded again.
“He would like to teach you his language. Then you can talk to each other. Does that sound good?”
Ok, this was too much. The girl didn´t seem to be able to follow what he said anymore. How could he phrase it simpler?
“He wants to show you the words, so you can talk to him.”
A glimpse of understanding appeared in Misse´s eyes.
“Do you want to learn that?”
The girl smiled and got up. “Yes!”
“Wait! First we´ll wash you.”

[Quetanto]

Perhaps a place to write stories or poetry almost but not quite in relation to the stories already told?

Mine first:

Now learn all parts and portions of this play,
Embrace that which you love, and that which seems
A gadfly ‘pon your crowns, that brings dismay
Know both of what does harm and what redeems.
No work is perfect; every story told
With lack of lustre hides a secret sin,
Some element that authors overlooked,
Some mess it does not pay to look within.
Ignore them as you will–but if, inspired,
You wish for works a higher standard held,
Rejoice! For there is much to be admired,
So watch and learn and think! You are compelled
To love the work not less, but seek new thought,
To see with eyes unclouded what is wrought.
–Sonnet No. 4, Dorian Kaneff

[Grade E cat]

Manged to wrap up the the third proper chapter of my Human Kitty story before it started cooking over here, so here's the second one.

Spoiler: show

Silent Child 2

Thanks to the little girl pointing in the right direction, Sigrun had managed to stab the small troll that had followed the tank before it could hurt anyone. As soon as her mind had been able to fully comprehend that Katja could sense where trolls were to an extent, she had Mikkel carry the girl through every single corner of the campsite to make sure there weren’t any other surprises. During that round, Sigrun ended up entering one of the buildings surrounding the camp, but found nothing in it. She had Mikkel bring the girl inside in case the troll or the beast was further inside the building. As Mikkel patrolled what seemed to be yet another improvised sickroom from the time of the first outbreak, the girl would point at random spots on the wall right over where the beds were. Some of the spots being on the wall shared with the courtyard they were camping in, while the girl had found nothing outside of the first troll in the courtyard proper, allowed Sigrun to figure out what was going on:
-You can see ghosts also, uh? You don’t look particularly scared, so I guess they don’t care for us too much.
The godless Dane had a whole other interpretation of the situation:
-If there’s nothing here, we should take her back to the tank. There are a few interesting things here I’d like to look into, but I can’t do that with my arms full.
Sigrun escorted Mikkel and the girl back to the tank, in case the beings the kid still sensed weren’t all ghosts after all. The child was uneventfully given back to Reynir, aside from the fact that she tried to keep Mikkel from leaving again by keeping hold of his coat until the last second. For a brief moment, Sigrun wondered if the girl was mistaking Mikkel for her father due to having known no other man who spoke Danish. They returned to the old sickroom, where Mikkel picked up a box and a letter he had found on a desk. When Sigrun asked him what was so interesting about the items, he responded by reading the letter out loud: “If any of you wake up, don’t be alarmed, we didn’t leave you for dead! But the food has run scarce and we received word that the troops at Kastellet have decided to abandon their cause and move on. We need to venture further out to find supplies, but we’re not giving up on you, not now. We’ll return very soon.”
The explained why there seemed to only be sick people and no caretakers. The caretakers must have never come back after leaving that letter.
-And the box?
-It was sent from Kastellet, and the contents remind me of something that was brought back from the one salvaging spot we got to visit before getting Reynir.
That sounded like something to leave to those who actually enjoyed reading. The evening came without any further events, something that was helped by the fact that Lalli was apparently so tired that he was still sleeping when everyone else went to bed. Maybe it had been a bad day to make him add a few extra hours to his shift, after all. Though in the end, he had managed to do his job.

xxxx

That night, Reynir tried to reached Onni’s place in the dream sea, but was led to a place that looked just like their campsite by the dog from his own dream. Katja was there, this time holding a white-and-ginger kitten. Reynir walked toward her:
-Hi. Do you know where this place is?
-See later.
Hearing even those two simple words from her was jarring, considering how silent she tended to be in the real world. Maybe this was a good opportunity to ask her about that. After all, last time he had seen her in his dream, he’d had no idea that Sigrun and Emil had stumbled upon a little girl and her dead mother during a salvaging mission.
-Can you…
Katja pointed to a spot behind Reynir:
-Bad shadow from home.
Reynir turned around to see what seemed to be vaguely human-shaped shadows approaching the dream’s tank. One of them stopped right in front of Reynir:
-Uh… hi?
The shadow put its hand on Reynir’s face. Reynir suddenly felt like life was quickly being drained out of him. Just after the drain was done, he had a vision of the dog that had led him to this place telling him to “remember this”. As Reynir woke up he hit his head on Emil’s bunk, getting the painful reminder that he had very little space to sleep. He next realized the was a little whimpering coming from the little corner that Tuuri and Emil had made for Katja by sleeping as far down their respective bunks as they could. Reynir knelt on his mattress and looked for something to put his hand on in Katja’s corner, hoping he was touching the curled up Katja and not Tuuri. Not that he’d particularly mind the latter situation. What was he thinking? By moving his hand a little, he became sure Katja was the one he had made contact with, found her hair, and petted it a little:
-It’s okay, it’s just a dream.
Was it just a dream?

xxxx

The sun was shining, Sigrun and Emil were off to collect books in the spot that they hadn’t been able to reach the previous day because of the snow and Mikkel had bent a few rules to let himself check out Kastellet fort while leaving the two non-immunes and the two immunes who probably counted as an entire cat between them securely in the tank. Lalli would probably wake up soon after the long sleep he’d had, Tuuri had work to do and could always join the civilians in whatever they ended keeping themselves occupied with if she got bored. Mikkel took a few moments to bask in the fact that he got to not play babysitter for a few hours. His basking was interrupted by a small hand pulling on his coat’s hem. What was she doing here? Soon enough, both Tuuri and Reynir showed up, fortunately wearing masks. Tuuri grabbed Katja’s shoulder in a very half-hearted manner:
-There you are! Sorry Mikkel, we opened the door to… do something for just a moment, and she ran off without warning. Well, since we’re here, we might as well stick with you.
Considering his background, Reynir had every reason to be an excellent runner. If they had been serious about catching Katja as close to the tank as possible, Reynir would have gotten her before she had left the campsite. Having the idea in the first place and getting the two others to go along with it, however, sounded more like Tuuri than Reynir. Mikkel sighed. It looked like he was the designated babysitter whether he liked it or not.

[Mirasol]

I have another chapter again too. It took a while, I wasn´t really sure how to continue and had to move some parts around a bit.

Spoiler: part 8 • show

“Hold on! You are breaking the rules if you go! You can´t leave two non-immune people alone in the field without an immune person around for protection!”
Tuuri was sure she had gotten him. Nobody cared so much about the rules and the protocol as Mikkel. Either he would take her (and Reynir and Kisu too for all she cared) with him to check out Kastellet fort, or they all would stay home. Anyhow, it was her discovery with the possible cure, so she had the absolute right to look into it in her opinion.
Success! The Dane made a surprised face and thought for a moment. But then his expression went back to the usual deadpan, as he gestured first towards the sleeping Lalli, afterwards to Kisu, who was crawling around on the ground following and carefully watching a spider. Her motivation for learning Icelandic had faded for the day after “Hello” and “goodbye”.
“Guard number one, guard number two. Keep each other entertained during my absence.”
He smugly smiled at Tuuri and left. She couldn´t find any words to express her anger at being outsmarted. She looked at Reynir to find agreement, without luck.
“Come on”, Reynir said in an encouraging tone of voice. “We´ll find something better to do- ew, Kisa, stop that!”
The little girl had now caught the spider alive and was carefully holding it between two fingers. More precisely, she was holding it in Reynir´s face to show off her amazing catch. The poor thing wriggled with its legs, while the Icelander moved as closely to the wall and as far away from the child´s hand as he could.
Tuuri gave a disappointed smile. “Well ok, I guess we won´t get bored with Kisa around…”
At least for now she would be busy saving Reynir from Kisu´s prey.

***

So far they had been playing tic-tac-toe, cards, and taught Kisa the names of the cards. Even though Tuuri had gone about the situation with a sort of huffy enthusiasm that it would be a good day at first, she currently looked like the personification of boredom in the way she was leaning on the table. Kisa even more so, lying flat on her back to their feet. She was reading out the numbers on a couple of playing cards she had stolen from the table over and over in a completely random order. Reynir and Tuuri had just continued playing anyway. Kisa liked the red cards a lot and had preferentially taken those, so whenever heart or diamond was the trump color in their game, it was over very quickly.
After Tuuri had convinced the girl to release the spider outside, there hadn´t been anything too exciting happening. Reynir himself was actually really happy that this day had so far been completely event-less, but knew better than to say this out loud, if he wanted to keep the respect of the two girls. Still, he needed to do something to lighten the mood.
In that moment, the radio came to his rescue by sounding out some interference. Kisa covered her ears and sticked out her tongue in displeasure, Tuuri quickly turned it off.
“The radio is broken, huh?”, Reynir halfheartedly started a conversation.
Tuuri sighed. “No, it works. Nobody´s answering is all. I´m supposed to get us connected with the crew back at the home base.”
“Ah.”
“I don´t think they´re there yet, so it´s pointless.”
With that, silence fell over them again. The Icelander distributed the cards once more. A tiny hand stole one of the jokers that were lying on the corner of the table. After a while, the cards flew against the wall and Kisa started wandering around like she was trapped in a cage. Maybe they should take her for a walk or something. But Mikkel had told them to stay inside.
“You knooow”, Tuuri suddenly declared. “if you really wanted to follow Mikkel, being a bit unruly like that, I wouldn´t be able to stop you `cus I´m tiny. Neither would Kisa. (But I´d try my best so I´d follow you.)” She only whispered that last part.
“No thanks, I´m good. I´ve seen enough neat things for now.” As cool and important as Kastellet fort probably was, Reynir did enjoy living, and wasn´t exactly keen on jeopardizing his life for a sightseeing-tour in the Silent World if he could avoid it. Especially not alone.
Tuuri reacted to this more disappointed than he expected. Suddenly the penny dropped. She wanted an excuse to follow Mikkel with him, she wasn´t really asking whether he wanted to go by himself. Maybe, with friends… it was worth it.
“… Oh. Yeah, maybe I do want to follow Mikkel.”
The Finn´s face lit up, just to go back to the bored, disappointed state right after.
“Ah, actually, no. Forget it. I bet he´ll still get mad at both of us, no matter whose idea it was to go outside. We´d need a good reason for it.”
“Okay?” Reynir really didn´t want Tuuri to be sad.
While he was thinking, an angry “Mju!” cut through the silence, followed by a “Mjurr!” once all eyes were on the little girl. Kisa demanded attention.
“You know, I think Kisa should really move her legs soon, or she will annoy us for the rest of the day”,  Reynir put his thought from earlier into words.
“Yeah… And she´s really good at detecting trolls, Mikkel should have taken her with him, she could have helped him. I bet she could protect us.”
“Actually it puts him in danger that he left her with us, even though this spot is completely safe and where he is going probably isn´t.”
Reynir and Tuuri looked at each other. Both started smiling. Tuuri enthusiastically, the Icelander a bit unsure. But the Finn´s happiness was catching. There they had their reason. Tuuri opened the tanks door full of verve and showed the other two the way outside with a bow.
“Come on Kisa, we´re going for a walk!”

Spoiler: notes • show

In a German comedy book I read, it´s called “Die Känguru Chroniken”( = the kangaroo chronicles), a word for exactly that situation Tuuri is in at the beginning of this chapter is proposed. The word is “ratzupaltuf” (complete fantasy-word, it doesn´t mean anything), and its definition “you just noticed that someone outsmarted you”. It is surprisingly useful on many occasions and has fully entered my vocabulary. Too bad I couldn´t use it here... I wish official words for this would exist in other languages. Or do any of you know some?

[viola]

Hi, we already have a general writing scriptorium for posting original writing, if you want to post things in that thread: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=257.0

And we also have a writing discussion thread here: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=788.0

[Quetanto]

Hi, we already have a general writing scriptorium for posting original writing, if you want to post things in that thread: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=257.0

And we also have a writing discussion thread here: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=788.0

Many thanks for showing me the correct place to post!

[wavewright62]

In honour of the canon birthday of Mikkel and his twin Michael, a ficlet: A No-Bull Endeavour

Caution: Fluff with puns-a-plenty, but in English, bc I don't know Danish. 

[Jitter]

You’ll learn to not sass your bosses. Oorr... maybe not? 😐

[Mirasol]

Nice poem, Quetanto! We also have a thread purely dedicated to poetry here, in case you haven´t noticed yet and are interested.

And Wave, I really like your story too! Poor Mikkel, not getting a choice in joining the army. But at least he doesn´t (and didn´t) lose his humor because of it. And in not sassing bosses he might be a hopeless case anyway. :'D

Also chapter!

Spoiler: part 9 • show

He would never not be a babysitter. Not only did Reynir, Tuuri and Misse follow him against his strict orders under some dumb excuse along the lines of Misse being able to “sense trolls” (“Not sensing, seeing!”, as Tuuri phrased it), but then they had spent the entire detour bothering him. Especially Reynir, who had gotten scared at the walls again. But in the end, Mikkel couldn´t really blame him, that entire maneuver had “Tuuri” written all over it, she probably just didn´t want to go alone.
At least he got what he came for, some of the test cures and on them the address of the hospital where they were developed. Now all they had to do was get home before Sigrun…
“…Uh.”
The surprised captain who was balancing some books on her head (and had definitely not been careful with her injured arm as he had advised) looked at him… and Tuuri and Reynir and Misse behind him. Mikkel prepared for the worst.
“Mutiny.” She practically spit that word out.
Mikkel spent the rest of the way back explaining himself and his intentions that were definitely not motivated by wanting to overthrow Sigrun. She threatened to leave him behind in a ditch regardless, but luckily refrained from it because her arm still needed medical attention.

***

Their employers at the home base had finally answered the radio calls. Most of the crew was happily talking to them right now. But Emil couldn´t concentrate. He and the Cat-girl were both cowering next to Tuuri´s bunk under which her cousin had been sleeping completely motionless for… two days now? Emil was pretty sure that this wasn´t normal. And no one else except for him and the kid seemed to care. And she had only realized five minutes ago that something was wrong! Anyway, the two of them were literally the people the least qualified to help (Well, maybe the stupid Icelander would be even more useless at the moment).
Tuuri had said that Lalli was somewhat sick, and just needed to rest up. But two days! That was a long time to be unconscious. Emil touched Lalli´s cheek and forehead to check whether they were warm. Hm no, not really. At least he didn´t seem to have a fever. But he still wouldn´t wake up.
“Hm”, he said to express his concern and shared a look with the Cat-girl, who was looking equally unhappy.
“Hm”, she repeated and pouted.
The kid poked Lalli´s face with her finger. Now if Lalli had been okay, he would have at least tried to bite her for this. But Emil´s friend didn´t react at all. The Swede was starting to get seriously worried.
“Come ooon. Wake up already”, he murmured.
“Mrr”, the Cat-girl assented. Funny, it was the same sound Lalli sometimes made when he was really annoyed by something. Though, out of the mouth of the little girl, it sounded more like a sad purr.
Exited chatter in a mixture of Swedish and Icelandic came from the other room.
“Really? Nobody else cares even a little bit?”, he shouted into the conversation. Everyone ignored him.
“Looks like it´s up to us, then.” Emil was absolutely ready to care for Lalli alone if he had to… Or with the Cat-girl, if she was willing to help. He would not leave this spot until Lalli would wake up.
“EMIL! C´mere, we´re making a detour, gotta fill you in! The pipsqueak won´t run away if you don´t look for a few minutes!”
Or at least not until Sigrun called. Alright, he didn´t want to end up on the captain´s new mutineer-list. But still, leaving Lalli completely alone again (like Tuuri and Reynir did earlier!) didn´t feel like a good idea. He glanced at the kid who was still sitting on the ground. He pointed his finger at her, then to Lalli. “You. Look after him for me until I´m back, okay?”
Her eyes followed where Emil´s finger was pointing. They rested on the scout´s sleeping face for a bit, then she looked back at the Swede.
“Mju!”, she said.
Good enough. Emil decided to interpret this as that she understood him. He nodded in her direction, then went into the main room to the others.

***

Dinner was served. Reynir was keeping Tuuri company in the tanks front, where she planned out the new route to take. Kisa was eating in the back of the tank with Emil and the sleeping scout today. For some reason not even the temptation of warm tuna could make her leave Lalli´s side. Well, she was probably just worried about him. Reynir understood that, he was too, but Emil would just snap at the Icelander if he dared to come closer, so he stayed away.
He looked at Tuuri who was eagerly drawing lines on the map. The crew would check out the place at the address on the thing Mikkel found. Tuuri believed it could be the starting point for an actually working cure. That was neat, sure, but Reynir couldn´t help but wish they were already on their way home. Those ghosts in Kastellet fort looked very much not friendly. And then there was his vision…
“Just think about all the people we might be saving! We´ll be heroes!”, Tuuri broke him out of his thoughts. “You too, you´re one of us now.”
Once again Reynir couldn´t help but be infected by her joy. Yes, heroes. That would be nice, probably.
“And then think of us! If there was a cure, non-immune people like we are could just go anywhere they wanted, without having to worry. And no scaredy-cat-family-members can hold us back. I can go out into the world and you can finally look for those palm trees you want to see so badly.”
“You´re right, that does sound good. Actually, it sounds really good.” He could go away from Iceland, or join the army and work together with his siblings. Or actually travel! His parents could even come too, the cure would work for them just as well. Or he could go with some of his friends back home.
“Just… the palm trees might be a bit unrealistic… Mikkel said they grow really, really far south.”
Tuuri shrugged. “There are other nice things to see.”
“I suppose… Is Keuruu a nice place?”
“Uh… Kinda boring. I guess if you enjoy looking at city walls.”
“Hm.”
Reynir looked out the front window. A fog had started to form when the sun went down. Now everything was covered in white clouds and sprinkled with red light. It was actually kind of pretty.
Except for those floating black smoke-figures in the distance.
“Remember this.”
 The dog´s voice was echoing in his head. Reynir felt like he was living through his dream again.
“We need to… go.”