Cataclysm Cafe - The Viewing Room

[some dark thing]

yeah, well, I was certain this time it's an update! but it's just fans making some noiiiseee! *said in rap concert style*



where are you, oh mighty writer?

[Pippa]

Where the frilly heck indeed!



As luck would have it my brand, spankin' new laptop went kablammo! Maybe it's me. Maybe I have the magic touch of Death when it comes to the puter world....and maybe...just maybe...something is trying to send me a message from the other side:



Pippa Wiccachica Francis O'Ryan-Trolloskovic...stop writing fic and come into the REAL world!



I thought about it for all of ten seconds... before tossing my withered husk of a very expensive computer-now-coaster aside and dialing up the service center to fix it.



First thing I did when I got back on the saddle? Check my trillion waiting emails? Update my graphic novel? No. I came here...where I can read back and find out where the FRILLY HECK I AM in the Cataclysym Cafe. (ahem...I'm going there now)



Drinks are free all week! Even the frothy ones!



(Opening the kissing booth to drum up business again)



Hey...anyone here adverse to walking around wearing a sandwich board With a sign that reads: (FRONT) THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING....(BACK)...JUST KIDDING...BUT CATACLYSM CAFE IS BACK OPEN... WHICH COUPLED WITH BIRDS FLYING THE WRONG WAY FOR WINTER AND TOILET WATER IN THE LOWER EQUATOR TURNING THE WRONG WAY MIGHT MEAN THE TOTAL ANIALATION OF OUR PLANET AND SPECIES AS WE KNOW IT.

---

“ Not instant, dahling. Not instant. Grind some beans for God’s Sake. Instant coffee: beans that’ve been cremated…I don’t want them! I want them entire, full with life force today. Would you not pull that face while you grind? I don’t really want to drink a cup full of your anger…”-Edina

[sabina]

Yay, yay the cataclysm cafe is open again



I'm sorry to hear about your laptop, that was bad luck... Stupid electronic things always malfunctioning somehow!! I mean nobody ever complained about wood and candles not doing what they were meant to do



*stops for a second, looks around and sees two lamps, a computer, a CD player, a Playstation and a couple of heaters working*



Ah... I mean... Huh...



Ok so now joking aside I'm really happy to see you back, I miss the cafe terribly

And I hope you won't have anymore problems with your laptop.

---

"I know I was born and I know that I'll die.

The in between is mine.

I am mine!" - Pearl Jam

[Pippa]

Channel Five: Pacific Tides Channel



The Beach



“ Like Sands Through the Hourglass…”





<>



I sat forward in the living room chair…trying to get my bearings in the darkened house.



I must have dozed off sitting there, thinking. I wasn’t sure if it was late night, or early morning.



<>



The sound was coming from the kitchen. It was the soft sound of someone trying to be a sneaky creature of the night. I turned my head slowly, still dazed. A dim light was coming from that direction, nothing more than the vague glow of the refrigerator.



It was enough light to see by as I got out of the chair and stood quietly…waiting for the little mouse in the kitchen to show himself.



<>



The sound of the refrigerator closing…a quiet rustling of a bag…



It didn’t take long before the mouse came through the kitchen doorway…creeping more like a burglar than a mouse. I stayed stock-still…arms crossed.



He didn’t see me until he came within five feet of my motionless form. When he caught my shadowed face in the dark, he balked…nearly dropping the paper bag under his arm.



I reached over to the ill-repaired lamp next to me, and bathed the room in light.



Keoki squinted and reached to shield his eyes.



Keoki? What the ….?



“ What’s going on?” I demanded…still too confused to find a nice way to say it.



Besides…I wasn’t feeling very nice. I was feeling hurt and betrayed…and all of my brothers had disappeared before I could take it out on them. Now Keoki would be the unlucky and undeserving benefactor of my ill-placed wrath.



Keoki looked like a cat…STUFFED with gourmet canaries. He looked at me out of the side of his eyes…which I always recognized as guilt.



Pure, unadulterated guilt.





“ What’s going on.” I asked again…this time with a new inflection in my voice. The sound of knowledge of something awry. I kept it ambiguous…



Maybe I knew what he was up to…maybe I didn’t. If he lied at this point maybe he would be caught in it…and maybe he wouldn’t….



It was the greatest weapon in my arsenal. I had learned it from our mother at a very young age.



He looked past my red nose, to my suspicious puffy eyes…saying nothing. I could practically HEAR his gears churning for something to say that I would believe. His hesitation was all I needed.



I narrowed my eyes to mere slits…



“ Keoki…what’s with the food?” I asked. He cradled the bag closer to him.



“ Picnic.” He said.



(Ohh…and here come the lies!)



“ Picnic?” I looked at the clock on the far wall. “ At three in the morning?”



“ Yeah.” He said…thinking the smaller the amount of words in the lies…the better.



“ Just you?”



“ No. Some friends…” He said…not looking me in the eye now.



“ Friends good enough to feed, but not enough to bring home? Sound like bad friends to me.”



He hedged…he shifted from foot to foot…I heard the bag crinkle under the strain of being cradled too hard beneath his arm.



I waited patiently…poker-faced…



He sighed explosively. I watched his shoulders drop.



I had broken Keoki in under a minute. A true record in my books.



“ You won’t like it.” He said.





“ After last night…I’ll be hard to surprise.” I said sitting down…waiting.



“ You have to hea dis out.” He said…



Was he inching towards the door? By heaven he was inching!



“ I’m ears all ovah.” I said using our father’s favorite saying.



(inch-inch-inch)



“ It’s foa Rosey and Angelo.” He said quickly.



I stood up. Keoki nearly feinted to the door…but managed to hold his ground.



“ Rosey! And….WHO???” My voice rose terribly high at the end…almost screechy.



“ I said you had to hea dis out!” He piped.



“ I’m done listening.” I said between my teeth…gathering the anger back into myself…coiling it down into my belly. It surged back…like an ocean of rage pulling away from the shore…building…building…into an uncontrollable wave that even I felt afraid of…



“ You’re being stupid. Rockheaded you!” He said bravely.



“ I’m being ….rockheaded?” I blinked at him, my voice surprisingly steady.



I was…I was being stubborn…I didn’t want to hear excuses…lies…things to placate me…make me feel foolish and stupid…Maybe I just wanted to feel this kind of anger…maybe it felt good to FEEL…



To finally FEEL…something…



I walked over and opened up the door.



“ Go…feed your friends…” I said evenly.



“ Kali…?” Keoki asked…looking warily at me. He had seen something change. Something shift behind my features.



I nodded him out and he went, turning once on the porch to look at me worriedly.



I shut the door. I walked slowly into the kitchen and pulled a pen out of the pen cup on the counter I found a piece of paper in the utility drawer.



I suddenly realized how wasted this rage had been for so long…dammed up where it was useless. Here I was all this time keeping it all for myself… the blame…the guilt… the rage… the self pity…



All of it…MINE to own.



When much of it belonged to another.



This newly discovered hate now had a destination. It had a name. It had a face.



I wrote a short note and pounded it to the refrigerator with a magnet. I slammed the pen down on the table.



I started out of the kitchen… but not before catching sight of something I was going to need.



I placed one foot on the wall of the kitchen for leverage…not ignoring the dull ache in my hip, but letting it fuel my already raw anger.



I pulled Lopaka’s hand spear free from the wall where he had failed to retrieve it. It came loose with a



<>.



I left the house before even an iota of this rage could dissipate.



I put no thought to how my brother’s would react to my irrational behavior…or to the short and cryptic verse from a fable our mother used to tell us that I had left fluttering on the refrigerator:



"Does revenge against the shark that took its mother serve a young turtle? Will the shark have learned its lesson? Will such a creature recognize the wrongs it has done, or will it merely ask the young turtle for chopsticks to eat HIM with?"



TBC…



Next...NINE WEST...

---

“ Not instant, dahling. Not instant. Grind some beans for God’s Sake. Instant coffee: beans that’ve been cremated…I don’t want them! I want them entire, full with life force today. Would you not pull that face while you grind? I don’t really want to drink a cup full of your anger…”-Edina

Edited by: Pippa at: 12/12/03 11:11 am

[TexanZeppo256]

Update! YAAAAAAY!!!!!!



***Reads update***



Vengeful Tara! GASP! Oh no!



I found it rather strange that Tara actually gave in to her more violent emotions: The Tara that I'm used to (well, the human ones anyways) has always been the most gentle of people, and this sudden lapse into anger kind of feels to me... i dunno... forced? No, that's not right. New! Very definately new, because I've never seen this side of Tara so pronounced. As a writer of a fic once said in his/her fic, (I believe that it was Unparalleled Love) Willow and Tara's innate personalities are such that where Willow would explode and lash back at the world that wrongs her, Tara would implode and withdraw completely from the world.



Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy reading about all of the different facets of Tara (so long as they are believeable), its just that this certain facet kinda took me by suprise.



I suppose my discomfort with this new development doesn't have quite so much to do with the fact that Tara is venting some anger as it does with the fact that she's going to vent it out on somebody else through physical violence. Granted, that is an assumption, but its not the most difficult of assumptions to make given the facts that

1. Tara is in a rage-induced haze...
   
   
2. Has a MAJOR bone to pick with Mr. Rosenburg (as she rightly should- the man is a... well... something really not nice )
   
   
   
   
3. She took Lopaka's hand spear...
   
   
   AND
   
   
   
   
4. She left the note about the turtle(tara) taking revenge on the shark(Mr. Rosenburg) for killing the turtle's mother.

Please tell me that I'm wrong, and please tell me that Tara is NOT going to try to hurt Mr. Rosenburg, but most importantly, PLEASE update again, and soon!!!



Later

---------------------------------



There she is! There she is... ahh... Not so wounded as we were led to believe... So much the better. --Khan, "Star Trek II: WOK"



From The Land of Tolerance,

---The Texan Zeppo

[Pippa]

TexanZeppo256,



I'm so glad you saw through that tricky little ploy!



You know my Characters (as well as the "real" characters) too well to be tricked by this shameless attempt by the demons-that-be at bolstering the readership/watchership of the Cafe!!!



I personally am a pacifist and I think most if not all confrontations can be taken care of without physical harm to another. You must have noticed that most of my fight scenes had an eerie Three stooges quality to them...



I kept thinking to myself...'now...what would Kali's wrath acted out look like?'



Oddly a Scorcese/Tarantino bloodfest didn't come to mind.



I think you will find the next installment where the turtle finds the shark...much more...err...interesting... than violent.



Thank you for your acute eye! Keep the Demons on their cloven toes!



Wiccachica

---

“ Not instant, dahling. Not instant. Grind some beans for God’s Sake. Instant coffee: beans that’ve been cremated…I don’t want them! I want them entire, full with life force today. Would you not pull that face while you grind? I don’t really want to drink a cup full of your anger…”-Edina

[sabina]

Hi there



It's really great to see the cafe back

(I had already said this and I sound like a broken record but I feel like doing a happy dance... The cafe is back )



I was a little puzzled by this update... What happened to Rosey? Hadn't she just escaped from the party when she met Kali's brother?

I thought that she would run after Kali to explain to her that what she hadn't seen wasn't what it looked like.



But she didn't... And now I'm left hanging on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what happens next



Oh well, I'll just have to wait patiently

---

"I know I was born and I know that I'll die.

The in between is mine.

I am mine!" - Pearl Jam

[ambersagoddess]

OOOooOOOooOOoO three cheers for Pac Tides!!!!



Ahhh, good ol' CC back again.



Just a tip, always works for people having computer troubles- bitchslap it. Just bitchslap the crap out of your laptop, you have to teach it who's boss. Laptops are tricky like that.



I feel all calm and sedated now that I've read the update. I feel as if I've been injected with mass amouts of morphine. CC morphine- the best kind, and all natural too



I do so dearly love Pac Tides...



Cheerieos for Nine West up next!!



-Rei

Spero eorum amo donbit tu animus magnamus



Why yes, the rumors are true, I have patted the Great One's ass...

[thebardgirl]

oh, joy to the world, cafe is updated! Okay....like texan dude person above...i'm totally enraptured in the crazyness of what's gonna happen now. It's a lil' suspiscioius to me, mind you, just a little, that she leaves with a spear.



Now, i know spears are good for fishing, perhaps she has a hankering for some good polluck, i don't know. But, it is a little alarming to hear her thoughts on anger that deserves to be placed on some one else's head for once...that's never a good thing.



Oddly enough, I'm more worried she'll threaten Rosey, in that sort of, "i kill your boy-toy here because you don't love me" sorta way. I mean, she's got the whole resentment thing going, which is all wrong as we know; she didn't hear out the whole story of what Rosey actually went through. (that still burns me, i mean, she was beaten and then gets rescued when she didn't need it....this reminds me of another failed rescue attempt leading into lovers' angst from buffy...wierd...)





But yeah, i like the fact Tara's taking charge. It's cool. However, a spear: not so cool, kind of painful actually, well, i wouldn't really know, i've never been goared in my life, but there's always a first time for everything i guess...





all in all i give the cafe update 50,000,000,000 stars out of 5...



great fun to read!

-elizabeth

[Grimaldi]

yay, an update



Kali grabbing the spear and running out like that can't be good, i really hope she doesn't do something she will regret later

I'm not stealing, I'm just taking things without paying for them. In what twisted dictionary is that stealing?
They think she's innocent and sweet, but I know she's an evil bitch

[wiccachica]

(Stretching…trying this Wiccachica suit on for a minute.)



Pippa is nice….but Wiccachica is ….well….NAUGHTY and I miss The Naughty.



Let’s take The Naughty out for some drinks…get her up on a table… and let her go crazy for the next few installments shall we?



The wanted to assure the Pac Tides Channel watchers once again that pulling a spear out of the kitchen wall and using it to injure another human being… are two totally different feathers of a separate bird altogether.



Trolls also are not known for their violent natures (okay maybe some bum-biting back in the day…but hell…it was the 1760s…everybody was biting them…) So, worry not. We think that Kali won’t be doing anything that she (or the benevolent Demons-That-Be in the Studio) will regret.



(damn… I love this Wiccachica skin! The inane thoughts just…. flow)



Next up: Nine West



And then the Random Channel Selection committee board is being reviewed this month…so they will be choosing the next few channels for the Café.



Thank heavens Wiccachica sits at the head of the board…hence the leaping into her skin…



(turns to look into mirror over shoulder)



I swear … has this backside has gotten smaller? What’s the secret? Squats? High reps? Low weights? I gotta know!



Going off to write the Next episode…



Tah!

"I told you. I said end of the world. And you're like, "Pooh-pooh, Southern California, pooh-pooh." -Buffy

"And I'd love a cup of coffee"- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

"Drink up. The world's about to end." - Ford Prefect

[xita]

Ah yeah, my first thought was Tara's going after the supposed boy toy. And yeah, where's Rosey? Now, yeah I am all about the bitchslapping of the computer. Give me five minutes alone with it next time, I'll make it work!

- - - - - - - - - - -
"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"

[Marilda]

Darnit!! Update now!! Come on! You can't leave it with Tara being all pissed off and with a spear, and talking about revenge!!



Ahh....need more soon.

[Grimlock72]

Well this updates wins the prize for MostConfusingUpdateInAWhile . Good to see you back though, even in your normal/naughty mode, heh.



Tara being angry/upset + Kali grabbing weapon => not good. Even if she were to harm/kill Mr. Rosewood it would be much better to calm down a bit. Being angry doesn't help very often. I'm more afraid of Kali doing something she'll regret for a long time, Mr. Rosewood can fall of a cliff for all I care : --> .



It is indeed confusing that we seem to be missing the time when they were walking back to the Kali house. Can't think of a good reason as to WHY Rosalyn didn't talk to Kali, who she knows is upset. It's not like Kali could have run away to avoid talking, heh .



Don't entirely get exactly what got Kali so pissed of either way. So Keoki is bringing food to Rosalyn and Angel, what is the big deal with that ? Why doesn't Kali talk to Rosalyn or Angel ? Seems to me Kali is assuming way to much and drawing wrong conclusions from it. Which is exactly why I fear she will do (or attempt to) things she'll regret later.



Guess we'll have to wait and see.... hmm... waiting... how did that work again



Grimmy

--
"You hurt Tara," Willow said too calmly. "The last one who tried that was a god. I made her regret it." -- Unexpected Consequences by Lisa of Nine

[some dark thing]

well, after the last post I decide not to check out the board like an addict, so I missed lots of the action. but I am so glad wiccachica is back. now I know this is gone be some ride! *wheee!*



why don't you complete this return to wiccachica skin and write some The Late Shift, hmm? lots and lots of it. that's still the no 1 insanity so far. *ha! challenge!*

[wiccachica]

Beck…beck…beck…



Marilda…Wow, you read this thread in a sitting? I bow to you! I wish I had been able to WRITE this thing in a sitting…it feels like I’ve been doing these shows for SEASONS and I don’t see an end in sight! Thank you for calling me deliriously quirky. I like that. I’m tattooing them… one on each shoulder. (I just have to figure out where I am going to squeeze them in between the words “raving lunatic” and “Babbling Amazonian”) Anyhoo…Marilda, welcome to the fold! We here at the studio are very glad you’re here!



tinnakaren…Now YOU! YOU read the Late Shift? In it’s entirety? Holy mosquito nets chock-full of flying angry octopus, Batman…even I haven’t read the whole thing! I blush reverently at your validations in your earlier post. It’s nice to hear that people appreciate a mildly psychotic tale or two. Or…err…ten…As for the Late Shift…between you and me…I think that The Late Shift is like #1 on the Random Channel Selection Committee’s list…and they have commandeered Wiccachica to help out now that we have our girl back on the Amazon Island Having fallen through a table full of food and still a little giddy on something akin to Coltsfoot...(Criminy…that was from memory…so don’t hold me to those facts) All of this being beside the point…Welcome to the Café…Thank You for reading me and my fic(s) and since you have recently read it, I may have to use you as one of the Gurus of the Shift. That means you get a special seat in the Café with all the frothy drinks you can imbibe.



ambersagoddess…On bitch-slapping one’s computer: “Dear Hell Computers, I have been having troubles with a recent laptop purchase from your company. Frankly…it doesn’t work. I have taken the advice of ambersagoddess, a computer expert in the field of malfunctioning computer hardware and so I just…bitch-slapped it off my desk. Oddly…the jolt of the slapping, coupled with a strange power surge in the Hollywood Proper area has resulted in a transient AI capability in my laptop. It has now acquired a working conscience, a can-do attitude…and now my credit cards and the unwavering loyalty of my dog, Chuck. Please let me know what I can do to stop it from taking over my life…that and…asking out that really cute girl I like down at the gym…I know it has designs on her- Sincerely, Wiccachica.” (hee)



some dark thing…Because you asked me. (shhh… this is our little secret) I will slather on a huge helping of the Late Shift…done completely in the Wiccachica skin and not bare-assed naked…which is my normal way to write…unfortunately I like to also write in public…I find it soothing…and now that I have a Wiccachica skin, I now am socially acceptable in the local coffee shops. Oh…and you know me too well….I LOVE a challenge!!! Let the games begin!



Sabina…So as not to confuse you I will explain. (This is like a DVD sneaky Easter egg kind of talk so huddle close) I skipped a little time to get to the important part…even this last episode was really to get you guys to have a bearing on how much time had passed since the party. Not that much time has passed. Rosey and Angelo did not go directly to the La’akalani home…mostly because Keoki in his wisdom knew how to handle his sister (giving her some time to cool off…so he has them “shacked” up in a little surf shack down the beach a ways and has snuck home to bring them some food to “tide” them over until morning when his sister will be more understanding and apt to listen) Now…the next scene will most likely be Rosey and Keoki and Angelo…I say most likely because I haven’t written it yet…and one can never tell…stay tuned!!!



thebardgirl…You soooooooooo don’t have to worry about Kali hurting Rosey…Angelo…or a fly for that matter. My theory is: Even we pacifists are capable of just spurring the moment…taking charge… and VENTING once in a while. It usually never comes to anything more than some irate stomping around in the sand or a strongly worded letter to the editor…what have you. Bottom line here is…. You don’t have to worry. All matter of things will be well….



Grimaldi…Have I mentioned how I ADORE your spear-like analysis of a situation. I’m picking you on my debate team!



Xita…Five minutes alone with my laptop? NO way! You’d corrupt it! It would start going around…beating up on the other smaller…weaker… laptops…chaos would ensue…Bedlam! Mayhem! Brouhahas abound! (Okay…the underlying neuroses has to be that now it has a mind of it’s own…and it might think you’re nicer than me, and won’t want to come home)



Grimlock72… I’m hoping that everything will become more clear for you after the next installment of Pac Tides…stay tuned!

"I told you. I said end of the world. And you're like, "Pooh-pooh, Southern California, pooh-pooh." -Buffy

"And I'd love a cup of coffee"- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

"Drink up. The world's about to end." - Ford Prefect

Edited by: wiccachica  at: 12/19/03 6:55 am

[tinnakaren]

Quote:

---

Welcome to the Café…Thank You for reading me and my fic(s) and since you have recently read it, I may have to use you as one of the Gurus of the Shift. That means you get a special seat in the Café with all the frothy drinks you can imbibe

---

Woo and hoo - one question though. Do I lose my privileges if I tell you that I had to go to dictionary.com and look up imbibe?

--------------------------

Tinna Karen

-tölvunörd í fyrsta ættlið

[LeatherQueen]

Oh, most wonderful wiccachica, how remiss I have been in my absence from your Cataclysmic world. But I have popped in every once in a while to check on your updates. The evil Lord of the Graduate Schooling has kept me away, trudging through reams of papers and tests.



But behold! I am free from their torment for a month, and in my splendiforous freedom, I have come to seek you out to provide infinite amounts of scritches and cafe with mucho foam.



So my lovely scritchee, I am all caught up now with your updates and they were fabulous! I love the visceral emotion you gave Kali in the last update. What a wonderful image it would be to see her stomping off in a fury carrying a spear.



Ahhh... many scritches to you, and chocolate espresso beans for everyone!



LQ



ps: How lovely is it to see you in your wiccachica suit once again, eh?



pps: Bring on The Naughty!

Edited by: LeatherQueen at: 12/18/03 3:18 pm

[wiccachica]

tinnakaren The fact that you DID look up the word imbibe impresses me actually…so many people would just pretend that they knew what a word meant rather than look it up. Knowledge sought are the stepping stones to divine wisdom.



LeatherQueen…My DOVE!!! Long time no see! Welcome back to the wild-wild world of crazy fic writing!!! I’m so glad the Grad demons have let you loose for a sabbatical…I will try to write as much as I can while your out from under the Yoke, my little scritchee!



Channel NineWest



[/i]The Wraith[/i]



Crickets Wy could handle. She’d seen and heard her fair share of the tiny evening musicians in her time to be able to single out their gusty chirrups from the orchestral din of the night.



Wy concentrated on the inky blackness just beyond her vision. She could swear that there was something out there…something large…something even inkier than the unfathomable black of the night…shifting from one spot to another one. A CLOSER one.



Stubbornly, Wy stood her ground. She refused to call out to Maclay. No…she would just give her that wry, knowing smile that she was so good at…She’d make her feel silly…and bare to the bone…(which, wrapped in a thin blanket while her clothes drip dried on a branch, she practically was)



No…she didn’t need Treena Maclay’s help.



But Wy wasn’t stupid either. She made sure to keep the sleeping blonde within her scope. Maclay lay on her side…facing away from her…her pale shoulders were barely visible above the bedroll.



Stubborn… Listening. Over the sound of her own heart thrumming in her ears, she could hear the crackle of the dying embers in the small fire Maclay had made earlier. She could hear Algernon…the freakishly clever horse…shift on his own personal bedroll. Never in all of her years would she have thought herself capable of being jealous of a horse’s sleeping accommodations…and there was NO way that she was going to climb into a bedroom with it…or a woman she had just met less than a day ago for that matter.



Stubborn... Listening. Wy dissected the quiet pit-a-pat of the river water dripping from their drying clothes…the hiccupping croak of a frog in the distance…a tiny mouse skittering into a bush too far away to be concerned with.



Again…something inky and intrinsically sneaky moved in her peripheral vision…Wy swallowed and sat stock-still against the tree where she has posted herself.



She refused to let some inky-creepy-thing force her to sleep with a big smelly horse…no way…no how.



Stubborn…Listening…alert...muscles bunched in ready-to-run mode…



Listening….



Stubborn…



Something rustled through the brush not far from where she sat. If it was a mouse…it was by far the biggest damned mouse she’d ever heard of.



Without taking her eyes from the source of the sound, Wy crab crawled towards the fire…and conveniently as it so happened…Treena Maclay.



By the time the second rustle in the bushes came…pride was no longer an issue…hell…pride was the last think on your mind when there was something inky and dedicated to having you for dinner creeping your way.



Wy reached out and clamped a hand down on Maclay’s ankle through the bedroll.



“ What are you doing?” Treena mumbled...still sleeping for the most part.



“ There’s something out there…creeping.” Wy hissed. Treena lay silent for a long stretch of time. Wy had almost thought the woman had fallen back to sleep…so she squeezed her ankle again…hard.



“ Ow…what??? I’m listening for whatever it is you think is creeping out there.” Treena groused…still sounding groggy.



Again the inky thing rustled.



“ Did you hear that?”



“Yes.”



“Well???” There was a static silence from the bedroll.



“ Sounds like a bear. A big…bear.”



“ B-big? Bear? What???”



“ Or a snake…one of those Bear-Swallowing Snakes…”



“ Snakes that swallow bears?



“And people too…when they’ve run out of bears.” Wy could hear the sly smile in her voice.



“ Damn you! What is itreally?” Wy hissed.



With a martyred sigh, Treena propped herself up on one elbow and looked pointedly at her.



“ It’s a coyote…TWO actually…”



“ Coyotes?? Are they dangerous?



“ Sometimes yes…not now…no.” Treena settled back down and closed her eyes.



“ Why not now, no?” Wy pressed. Treena sat back up.



“ Because they are too busy fornicating to be concerned with eating you, Miss Wy...” Treena picked up a stone and held it up to the redhead. “ You can throw a rock at them if it makes you uncomfortable.”



Wy was glad for the shadows…it hid her reddening cheeks well.



“ Oh.” She said…clearing her throat.



“ Aren’t you tired of sitting up?”



“ I’m fine.” Wy muttered.



“ Come on…two bodies are warmer than one.” Treena said reasonably…or at least seemingly so.



“ It has to be eighty degrees out here.” Wy countered. Treena looked at her for a moment…gears churning.



“Okay then…how about this…YOU…shuffling around…all that skittish breathing and ankle grabbing is louder than the coyotes…and if you don’t pick a bedroll, then I will personally tie you up and put you in one.”



Wy listened to the cricket chirping…the coyotes…well…rustling…and the frogs croaking.



“ Fine,” She said. “ but I get to keep my blanket.”



“ I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Treena said dryly, lifting the flap of her bedroll to allow access. Wy slipped into the roll and turned so her back was to her host.



“ Don’t get any ideas.” Treena said…her breath warm against the back of Wy’s neck. They were close enough for her to feel the redhead shiver.



“ I won’t.” Wy said, trying to sound defiant…and wincing when it came out sounding as meek as a mouse. Treena shifted closer still…more to pull the flap of the bedroll around them both. The proximity was merely an added bonus. They lay in silence for a long stint…listening to the sounds of the night.



Now, with Wy’s back pressed against her…feeling the woman breathing…and her warmth…. Treena was suddenly unable to sleep. In fact…she felt like she was more awake than she had ever been in her life.



“ Tell me something…about…well…you know…you.” Treena said quietly.



“ There’s nothing to tell.” Wy said softly.



“ How long had you been at the inn…”



“ Long as it took.” Wy said curtly. Treena went silent again…but not for long.



“ You really want to kill Rue Gillis?”



“ Yes. …You don’t think I can?”



“ Actually no…I don’t think you can.” Treena said honestly. Wy fervently bustled around in the bedroll until she was facing the blonde. They were nearly nose-to-nose.



“ Oh I can kill him so!” She argued.



“ You don’t have it in you. You don’t have a dangerous bone in your body.” Treena said evenly.



“ I have a body full of dangerous…err…bones.” Wy glowered. “ Besides…I would have shot him if you hadn’t interrupted me.”



“ I think what I stopped in Tall Water was a potentially deadly situation.” Treena said coolly.



“For him…” Wy challenged.



“ For you.”



“ What do you care either way? Even if he would have killed me…you could have given him your message and still been right here...in your nice warm bedroll…without me here bothering you…”



“ Couldn’t have that…” Treena said softly. “ You’re the heroine….”



“ The heroine?”



“ The good guy…” Treena said. “ And Rue Gillis is the no-account rat who deserves a much due fiery vengeance set down upon him.”



Wy looked at her wondrously.



“ So I’m the good guy… and he’s the no-account rat…” Wy deducted. “ Then what does that make you?”



“ All you have to do is say the word and I’ll be the fiery vengeance…”



“ For the right price…right?” Wy asked. Treena pretended to think about it.



“ For Rue I would be willing to consider financing.”



“ Thanks, but I’d like to do the honors.” Wy said. Then… “So…how did you come to know and hate Rue Gillis?” Wy was close enough to see a little furrow appear between Treena’s brow.



“ We go way back.” She said. “ Like I’ve told you before, Rue is dangerous and stupid…and that kind of mix in a man calls to someone in my profession like a moth to a great big evil lighthouse.”



“ That’s romantic.”



“ Yeah…Rue’s and my love…is positively timeless…” Treena drawled sarcastically.



“ And even more romantic is the fact that the little bitty moth carries two silver-plated colts.”



Treena Maclay raised her brow now.



“ Hey…if that’s your idea of romance…I’ll leave you in here with my guns for a little while…alone…” She teased.



She felt Wy stiffen suddenly.



“ Are you saying that the guns are in HERE…with us…right now…?” Wy asked, starting to squirm like the bedroll was filled with flesh-eating insects instead of a nice warm bounty hunter.



“ Of course…” Treena said.



“ You sleep with loaded guns???” Now her squirming had become an outright attempt to evacuate the bedroll altogether.



“ Since I was in pig-tails… Hey…where do you think you’re going???”



“ You can’t expect me to sleep with something that could go off at any moment!” Wy said…pulling free of the bedroll…scrabbling to her feet and cinching her blanket tightly around her haughtily.



“ Hey…I was minding my manners!” Treena said with an incredulous laugh.



“That’s not what I mean! I mean… I don’t sleep with loaded guns.”



“ Ah…that must be that ONE sensible…non-dangerous bone you have in your body…right?”



“ I’m not joking, Maclay. A loaded weapon could go off in your sleep. You could shoot a toe off…or a hand…”



“ And what do you shoot off if you carry a loaded Pepperbox in your corset?”



Wy looked down at her for several seconds. Treena felt the tension in the air like the thick smell of rain before a storm, and knew a fight was brewing. “ Look…can we call a truce. We have only a few hours left before our good friend Mr. Gillis is on the move again…”



“ I don’t feel much like sleeping.” Wy grumped.



“ Well if it helps…tomorrow we’ll be in Cordell. You’ll love it…Town with a lot of character. A nice room in a hotel… Something real swanky. A bath in one of those real bathtubs…and you’ll get to sleep in a real bed…” She watched the redhead’s face light up.



“ Promise?”



“ My honor as a Maclay.” Wy made her way slowly back into the bedroll…feeling around gingerly for a silver-plated pistol.



“ I’m going to take it on faith that the Maclays are a respectable sort.” Wy said warily. Treena shifted herself closer again to pull the top flap around them.



She leaned closer still. Her lips barely grazing the sensitive bridge of Wy’s ear.



“ Honest…always…but NEVER respectable…”



TBC…

"I told you. I said end of the world. And you're like, "Pooh-pooh, Southern California, pooh-pooh." -Buffy

"And I'd love a cup of coffee"- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

"Drink up. The world's about to end." - Ford Prefect

[ange04]

chica!!!! you're the absolute BEST! happy birthday to me! thank you for the gift of your over-active imagination!



if wy is almost naked, is treena in the same predicament? can i have another pressie? i want to be their bedroll, pleassssssse.



thanks again

ange



ps - BRING ON THE NAUGHTY!!!

[ambersagoddess]

NEVER respectful? Sounds like a come-on to me... Kudos for come-ons!



::plops down in the corner and wraps self in blankey anxious for the next updated::



Ah, yes, and very sorry about the bad advice but it always works for me, my computer knows who's boss



-Rei

Spero eorum amo donbit tu animus magnamus



Why yes, the rumors are true, I have patted the Great One's ass...

[tinnakaren]

Uhm, for future reference (I'm doing the wisdom-gathering thing)...how do fornicating coyotes sound?



This was wonderful, as always. Thank you.



I've read that last line over and over (not the TBC... - but the one above )

Quote:

---

“ Honest…always…but NEVER respectable…”

---

It's very 'mmmm and shiver running down your back' worthy...delicious.

--------------------------

Tinna Karen

-tölvunörd í fyrsta ættlið

[xita]

woo hoo, Treena is sure hot. I love that bravado she's showing. And to heck with respectable!

- - - - - - - - - - -
"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"

[sabina]

Hi there



Great update



I was LMAO for a while after I read the part about the two coyotes



Is futopia next?



Or maybe pac tides?

---

"I know I was born and I know that I'll die.

The in between is mine.

I am mine!" - Pearl Jam

[Betinha]

Hail to your over-active imagination.



I have finally been able to read the whole thread and now that I caught up, I was wondering if there is any space for me in the cafe? I've been out all day and I'd love to sit down to a nice hot drink and while I get to watch a bit more of these entertaining channels.



Just wanted to let you know how much I'm loving this and twitching in anticipation for more!!



Take care

Betinha

[Kieli]

how do I adore thee, let me count the ways....it's been a long time, dearie. FAR too long...what with me and Diana sick with this hideous flu for several weeks and working a damning job about two hours away, I've had no time to collect my agent's fee from you in favours However, it seems you've beaten me to the punch and gave us just enough to keep from giving you a wedgie *EG* You're forgiven, btw, for telling Matt Damon I would be his sex slave at Elton's party in Manhattan. No worries, though, dear. I gave Angelina a ring and told her you give the best massages

[Grimaldi]

great update



fornicating coyotes and bear eating snakes was too funny

I'm not stealing, I'm just taking things without paying for them. In what twisted dictionary is that stealing?
They think she's innocent and sweet, but I know she's an evil bitch

[Sassette]

Wiccachica, I've >missed< you!



And now I'm all caught up - I'm terribly sorry about your computer difficulties ... but delighted to have had so much neat stuff to read.



Could you and this fic be any more wonderful? *sigh* And could I be any later for work?



Gotta' go!



-Sass

[Kieli]

And Sass! *sigh* I've missed your work too. I really need to update my website and add your latest vignettes...i am such a loser.

Time flies by when the Devil drives.
It's not the pace of life that concerns me, it's the sudden stop at the end.

[wiccachica]

Ohhh...I'm heading out on my vacation right now...but I will procure a secure line at the resort (yes I said resort!!!) and send in some naughty ficcy fun!



Beck and Call…



Beck…beck…beck…



ange04…Happy birthday to You! My over-active imagination is not so much a gift as it is a curse, methinks. Tell you what just for old time’s sake…we’ll name the bedroll ange. (wink)



ambersagoddess…SOUNDS like a come-on??? Well I must be doing something wrong! I was going for chaste, sisterly innocence. (goes back to read the episode again…) Gah! I lost the chaste part! And the Sisterly part….and darned if the innocence is slowly leaping out the window… (heh)



tinnakaren Coyotes mating sounds like….uhm… (damnit) Rustling! They rustle! Okay? I feel like I’m about to launch into a birds/bees/coyotes discussion here…stop me. (please… stop me)



Xita..To heck with respectable you say? What’s left when the respectable rubs off? Bare freakin’ skin…that’s what…



Sabina…Hi there. Glad you liked the update. The coyote thing was completely spontaneous. If I told you about how that came from a biographical source…you have to swear not to tell anybody! (blushing)



Betinha…My imagination bows to you! Welcome to the café, Dearheart…of course there’s room for you…A free drink for the new victim…err…café member… (heh) I’m very glad you’re here.



Kieli!!…My agent! (breathes a sigh of relief) Oh thank heavens! I’m so sorry that the flu got you two! I have been staving it off with all my Amazon powers. I wish you a speedy recovery! Keep me updated on the Angelina thing. She’s fickle you know…(primping at my hair and checking my lipstick) I’m so glad to see you back at the Café! You were sorely missed! Pull up a chair and I’ll order you a tea for your flu. We have to take care of my favorite agent!



Grimaldi…A little weirdness goes a very long way…



Sassette…Sassy…DOVE of my heart! Where have you been??? (heck…where have I been???) Just know that for every ounce of how much you missed me…I have three ounces of concentrated missing YOU!!! I hope you made it to work on time!

"I told you. I said end of the world. And you're like, "Pooh-pooh, Southern California, pooh-pooh." -Buffy

"And I'd love a cup of coffee"- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

"Drink up. The world's about to end." - Ford Prefect