CG's Preview Thread

[CG]

I write quite a bit. So below are two previews of two coming pieces I'm working on. If I get enough feedback I might finish - who knows?

~*~

Currently Untitled

The summer holidays were just around the corner. You know that feeling that time was beginning to enter a no-go zone? That time decided to not just stop, but take a few steps backwards? That was the feeling worming itself through the Grade School down Marcus Avenue. The school children were a week away from finally fleeing the grips of education and teachers to three whole months of . . . well, the possibilities were endless really. Many were going on family holidays, camping, others were stuck at home with their parents . . . as said, possibilities for a whole three months of freedom were astronomical to the young children.

Even if thoughts of the summer holidays took up most of their attention spans, there was something else that was floating through whispers and stories shared underneath the jungle gym. There was an old creek bed that snaked itself through the suburbs, and for the past few nights a lot of children in the vacinity had heard horrible noises echoing in the night air. They hadn't been anything to think about at first, but they were slowly esculating to the point of even parents stopping their daily talk about eating your greens to ask themselves if they heard that noise or not. So now the story of a hiddeous monster was being traded at the crafts table by Bobby.

"...'n then I heard it ate the neighbour's DOG!" he exclaimed to his audeince of a handful of girls.

"Golly, must be real big ta eat a dog." mumbled one of the girls, whose name was Alice.

One girl merely scoffed, glancing at her friends. "There's no such thing as monsters," she said confidently, poking at her arts and crafts. She shook her red hair out of her eyes and huffed, trying to get the yarn to cooperate with her pot holder design.

"Yes there is!" Bobby shot back, "Blake saw it! S'got horns 'n everything!" stupid girls, didn't know nothing. Even how to get the blue yarn in her hands to glue properly to the paper.

"He saw it wrong, THAT'S all," the girl insisted. The child beside her sneered.

"Oh yeah, Fraaaaaances, I bet if you'd seen it you'd be scared, too. NotthatI'mscared," he stated.

"I would NOT," she insisted. "Because it doesn't exist."

"Oh yeah?" Bobby asked, frowning at Frances then pointed to her. "I triple dog dare ya to proove that!"

Cue a collected gasp going up from around the table.

Frankie blinked at that, eyes wide with surprise. She then pouted. "Fine," she stated with finality. "I'll go out there and prove to your chickens that it's total nonsense."

"Take a camera or sumthin," Alice said.

"So ya know. If it eats ya we can find it 'n show that it is." Bobby added quickly, much to Alice's annoyance.

Frankie glared at Bobby and snorted in a most unladylike way. "Fine, I'll take a picture of the so-called 'beast'," she agreed. "But I can't wait to see your faces when you're all proven wrong."

Later that day, the school bell having rung loudly and noisily as usual, Alice hurried after Frankie as she pulled her backpack onto her shoulders. "You're not really gonna go after it, are you?"

Frankie gave her a sideways glance. "I said I would," she stated after a moment. "Can't go back on my word, you know."

"Yeah I know. But Bobby's not gonna remember tomorrow. He's stupid like that." Alice stated the obvious, but you know. In case Frankie forgot that Bobby had an attention span the size of an ant.

The redhead just grinned. "Nah, I kinda just wanna put an end to all the rumors floating around, you know? It's probably some racoons or a deer or something."

She puffed out her chest and grinned. "Frankie Foster, Myth Buster." She snorted. "Nah, that's a stupid title."

"Yeah it is." Alice agreed, nodding her head.

Frankie grinned and waved goodbye as she ran ahead. "See you tomorrow, Alice," she shouted, waving furiously. "I'm gonna go get ready for tonight. You'll all see tomorrow how ridiculous the idea of monsters really is!"

How ridiculous it was. Frankie had neglected to take into account the weather for the night before agreeing to go 'monster hunting'. It was painfully humid, one could almost taste the stagnant water in the air. She flicked on her flashlight and started tromping through the woods, more than a little annoyed that her sneakers were getting muddy and gross.

The trees around her were doing a fabulous job of adding atmosphere, their thick leaves restricting any moonlight that could possibly light her way easily without the flashlight. The enveloped darkness also seemed to be full of not just the humity and dead leaves; but you'd swear you could smell 'wet dog'. If that dog happened to be ten times the normal size.

Further away an owl released a harsh screech into the night, and took to flight and vanished up through the trees.

Frankie eeped briefly -- monsters, most assuredly, did not scare her, but owls and rats and snakes and other such vermin gave her the heebie jeebies. She continued into the woods cautiously, trying not to slip in the mud.

The creek wasn't too far away now, and the closest she got, the more pungent the air became. 'Wet dog' turned into 'wet buffalo' in a few short steps, and it was uncharacteristically quiet for a woods known to be full of birds and night animals.

She looked around, trying to shine her flashlight everywhere -- while doing this, she slipped in the mud with a shriek and fell into the creek. Admittedly, it was not deep, nor was the current at all fast, but it was still annoying all the same. She stood up and shook the water and algea from her hands with a loud groan. It was then that she noticed that she dropped her camera with a gasp. "Ooooh, my mom is gonna KILL me," she muttered, feeling around in the water for it.

(tbc)

[CG]

In the darkness, and preoccupied by trying to find the camera, Frankie didn't realise that she wasn't by herself anymore. Something massive, something horned, and something with glowing yellow eyes had suddenly began rising itself from the muddy creek bed directly behind her. She had landed not two feet from this form, and her shriek had startled whatever it was awake. The yellow eyes blinked cautiously before they glanced down. He could see the camera she was looking for. A mud covered arm-shaped object reached down and picked it up before holding it out to the small girl, nudging her with it's edge.

Frankie looked up and gratefully took it. "Oh, thanks, I would have ne--" She stopped herself, letting her eyes follow the arm upwards, until she could see the creature's horns, its massive, furry form, it's glowing eyes. She paled immediately and dropped the camera, taking a few steps backwards before she tripped and landed butt first into the creak. "M-m-m-m-mon...m-m-mo..."

The monsterous shape watched her drop the camera, and automatically picked it up again in it's muddy hands; before offering it to her again. But stopped, seeing the fear in her eyes as well as how white she'd gotten. It's massive teeth vanished slightly, it having bitten it's bottom lip over it's top; hiding only three teeth while the two canines almost as big as Frankie were remained glistening in what light they had. The mud beneath its feet squealched as it took a step back then it's mouth opened again. But this time it spoke. "P-perdon," he (obviously now, given how deep the voice was) said, voice shaking almost as much as Frankie was. "I, I no mean to..." he trailed off before he stepped forward again and held out her camera again.

Frankie lifted her hands from her face and stared at him, observing him for the first true time. Shakily, she reached for the camera. "Y... you're not ... bad," she stated, her voice still a little raw. She got to her feet, her legs feeling like jell-o. "You're... what... ARE you?"

The massive teeth pulled into a grin, happy to see the little girl wasn't going to run screaming like the other children had. He put a muddy hand to his chest, "I es imaginario amigo!" his deep rumbly voice declared proudly, but took another step back and tapped his hands together. An odd muffled 'clack' filled the air as he did, "Mi nombre es Eduardo." he mumbled, suddenly seeming self concious for being such a mess.

"Eduardo... huh," Frankie said, cocking her head, trying to get a good look at this creature in the dark. Her flashlight did little to help, seeing as how this beast was so large. "Im... imaginario... what?"

"Oh, perdon." Eduardo bowed his head a bit, "Imaginary. Imaginary friend." he clarified, smiling as shyly as someone with teeth who could bite through a bus with little effort could.

Frankie stifled a chuckle. "But I can see you."

He grinned boardly now, muffling his own laugh. "We is not always invisible. My little girl - she make me, she make me to be scary and chase away monster in closet. So I am is meant to be seen." Eduardo thought this made perfect sense. At least to him. How can you protect someone when you're invisible?

This only confused Frankie further. She, herself, had had an imaginary friend as a child ... but no one else ever SAW her creation. "But I ... well." She held out her hand -- which, admittdly, was now covered in mud and gunk. "My name's Frankie."

Eduardo paused, and shook his right hand free of the mud. Sure, her hand was covered but why would he make it worse? Instead of fingers wrapping around her hand, a hoof did instead. "Is pleasure to be making aqquaintance Frankie!"

~*~

So yeah, an interesting twist on just how Frankie came to hang out at Foster's. Seems her parents wouldn't acknowledge her own imaginary, thus making Frankie to believe they're just imaginary. Plus explains how she 'n Ed came to be at Foster's the same year.

[CG]

And now for the second piece I'm working on.

~*~

To say the day was boring would be the understatement of the week. The weather had been bright and sunny up until a day ago, when a rain storm decided to suspend itself over Foster’s home for Imaginary Friends and just not let up. Or leave, for that matter. The dark, heavy rain clouds blocked out any chance of sunlight and the gardens were soon nothing more then mud puddles aching to be jumped in. But given the last time Bloo had occupied himself with such an activity that he had became seriously ill, he opted for just complaining around the house about how bored he was.

“Man it’s so BORING!” He cried in disdain for the unknown time that hour. Right now he was hanging backwards on the back of the sofa in the lounge, whilst Wilt was busying himself with the television. Channel surfing wasn’t really that much an ideal pastime but it beat complaining by miles.

“Aw c’mon Bloo the weather ain’t that bad!” Wilt said with all the perkiness of someone who seemed to have inhaled a lot of coffee. But he hadn’t done that. “The flowers need a good watering, after all.” He added optimistically.

“Pft! If flowers want water they’ll get em in watering cans!” Bloo snapped back rolling over onto his stomach to stare at the television screen as it jumped from one program to the next. A news conference, a footballer ended face down in the mud, nature documentary about insects, television commercial for a brand new (and improved) shampoo… “How can something be new AND improved at the same time?” the small blue Imaginary suddenly asked.

“What?” Wilt asked, turning his head slightly even if he didn’t need to as his eye swivelled on it’s stalk to stare at his friend.

“Well if it’s new it’s never been out here before. So, it’s never been around to receive bad criticism so then how can it be improved if it’s never been new to begin with?” Bloo asked without taking a breath.

Wilt was at a loss for words. Coco though, who had taken a seat on the other end of the couch seemed to have the answer. Her personal language filled the room with a long string of ‘Cocos’ so insanely long a flower could have forced itself up through the floorboards then die via lack of natural sunlight.

“Oh!” both Wilt and Bloo exclaimed at the same time. How enlightening that was. If but for a while.

“…BORING!” Bloo suddenly shouted again, causing Coco and Wilt to jump.

Growing annoyed Coco turned her head to stare at the doorway and ask something she had been wondering mentally for the last few moments.

“I don’t know where Eduardo is,” Wilt replied, his lone eye looking to the doorway too. “He was right behind us last I checked.” And he did indeed check on his friends whenever they did walk throughout the house, or outside for that matter. Eduardo especially so, given his usual way of falling prey to a lone leaf falling from a tree, or a shadow that looked especially terrifying.

So where was the Hispanic, minotaur-like Imaginary friend got to? Well first he had to made a stop at the little boys room, or in this case, the large Imaginary room. By the time he had exited the room he found his friend’s hadn’t waited for them. That’s funny, since he had told Bloo he had to dash into room for a quick visit and Bloo had made some kind of grunt noise in response. That normally meant he heard him, and that he’d wait. Maybe he hadn’t heard him at all. Or just ignored him.

Eduardo continued on his way down the long hallway, stopping to glance outside one of the large windows at the world outside. The storm was still raging, the rain still batted against the glass like pebbles that just couldn’t break through into the house. Eduardo had mixed feelings about rain storms. Sure they were pretty when it was just rain falling, but when it was accompanied by thunder and lightning… that’s when it became a terrifying event. When lightning would light up the darkness, and thunder would cause the very foundation of Foster’s to quake is when Eduardo would normally hide under the bunk beds he shared with Wilt and Bloo. Wilt never complained when Eduardo would end up all but crushing him in the darkness, but Bloo would complain since the bed was suddenly wobbling back and forth given Eduardo’s massive size suddenly being beneath the bed.

Lucky for everyone’s sakes, this storm was just rain and nothing more.

~*~

It'll pick up I swear.

[koosie]

Some rich Eduardo stuff in both. Very nice. Keep it up.

[Kzinistzerg]

Aww, eduardo! These are very well done. I like you explanation for frankie better than the standard more depressing ones, and it's nice to see her as a small child. of course... "I sawwy Mr Herriman..."

[KazooBloo]

looking good.