World Refugees Final Mix

[The screen comes on to show Amy sitting on the floor of her room in Heatherfield, cuddling Eli in her lap while he plays with a small platypus toy. She looks a little worn down, but she's smiling]

Hey guys. Guess who woke up this morning? Mr. Grump is even grumpier when he's been out of it for a few weeks. He's doing okay, but the doctors want to keep him a few more days, since they're kind of going a bit nuts trying to figure out what happened.

[She rolls her eyes heavenward as she strokes her son's hair] Really, am I supposed to tell them that this evil bit- er, cow went into his dreams and locked him up? 'Cause that's what Jalen says happened. That might fly in Radiant Garden, but not here. Speaking of home, I can't wait to get back. Neither can Eli, huh baby? We need to glomp Song and Mabry to pieces.

[Eli pauses in his chewing of the toy to cock his head to the side, looking up at his mother. Then he grins, waving a hand at the screen. Amy laughs]

Yeah, so. I was reading Jalen something ridiculous about a heaving bosom or whatever and he said my name...I dropped the book. I'm so glad...He said he dreamed about me. [The smile fades as she sighs] I wish I could have done something to help, but-

[Amy pauses, as if she's about to say something else, then thinks better of it]

It doesn't matter now. I'll let you guys know when we're ready to get out of here. Say bye-bye, Ladybug.

[Eli laughs, waving the drool-covered toy] Bye! Bye!

[The video ends]

I've decided we'll be staying in Heatherfield for the time being. There's a hospital close by that's taking good care of Jalen (Too bad I can't tell them about any magical influence), and my grandparents want us here anyway. Gran says I need someone to mother me for a while. She might have a hard time doing it since I'll be with Jalen a lot.

Eli's happy to see them again. He's being spoiled already.

This thing with Meddie- Medrau being Song...possessing Song, whatever...

I don't-

I don't know.

Halloween was a blast. Everyone thought Eli was 'the sweetest little wizard!', and he got lots of candy. Of course, he didn't get to eat any of it. We went home and Eli got applesauce and smushed banana while I showed Jalen how to check the candy for tampering. Ah, the passing on of ancient skills. Yeah, I'm weird. But hey, the weird one remembered to save some candy for you Song! *cackle* I keep thinking of the pillow fort. We totally need to do that again once we have Rainbow's End back. I'm getting so excited, we might get to go home soon. We will go home soon.

Um, in other news. Granddad's been looking around the apartment, and he thinks we can expand a bit. There's supposed to be a storage room on the other side of the wall, next to the kitchen, and he wants to knock a doorway in so Eli can have his own room. Of course, then he had to point out that it'd work even better after he and gran were gone, so if we have another kid they'll each have their own space. I surprised myself by not crying/yelling at him/going mute. Yay me. Granddad's gonna call around tomorrow and see about having someone come out to take a look. Here's to hoping that we'll be home by the time construction starts. I'm not exposing Eli to wood dust and saws and god knows what else.

We have a Blizzard crystal. We are all happy. Except for Jalen, he's not as happy as he could be, because he was a tasty tuna. Plus, I am never going near talking sharks again. Or letting my kids near any. But Song pontificating is a wonderful distraction. (Even more so when she's a flying fish.)

I need to hug my kid to bits and pieces now. (Again.) Leaving him in Meridian with Miriadel was safe for him, but awful for me. The next time we have one of these 'field trips' he's going with us for sure. Unless it's dangerous. Which it will be. Oh hell.

Gran bought me a stuffed rabbit while I was gone. Um, okay?

Would someone please save me from the nightmare that's been haunting me all day? I was back home on Earth, and my dad was still alive, and there was this- bat demon thing that wouldn't leave me alone. It had these huge wings and was taller than me - taller than Jalen, even - and had gold eyes. It couldn't talk, just growl, but it wanted my soul, that was understood. Dad got me in the house and told me not to worry, that it couldn't come in, but it just kept clinging to the windows and staring in at me wherever I went. I mean, hell. I was stuck so far in that thing it didn't even occur to me that I could change it. What good is it being able to screw with dreams when you forget you can?

I'm never watching Pan's Labyrinth again. I think this was inspired by that faun. Or maybe Ofelia's stepfather. Blech.

Sorry I haven't been around much lately - or at all. Things've been kinda busy. A week or so after we got home (and showed Ray where to go in Meridian), Eli got sick. His first cold! I was kind of shocked, actually, I expected one before this. He must have his father's immune system. One can only hope. Anyway, I think he caught it from one of the other babies in the 'Mommy and Me' type class that Gran talked me into. I thought I wouldn't worry so much since it was just a cold, but every time he coughed or sneezed, I was right there. Jalen ended up arranging for Hay Lin to come kidnap me every evening so I could work on my magic. And stop driving everyone nuts.

I got the barrier spell to expand to the size of my hand again, and I can do it without fainting as long as I don't try to sustain it for more than a few seconds. Nifty. ^^ I'm also making a little progress in that area of the dream magic I wanted to focus on. Jalen hasn't figured out if he's annoyed or amused yet. I know exactly what I am. >__>

Soooo, Song...I hope you're still breathing out there somewhere since I haven't heard from you lately. You know, just buried in your experiments, forgetting about this thing called time that marches on. 'Cause you know, if anything had happened to you during your little meeting with our new 'friend'...Bah, ignore me, I'm kinda cheesed off today. Things sorta went slightly boom yesterday and someone is making me stay in bed. Geeze, it wasn't that bad, and I told him and told him it was an accident, but nooo, let's not listen to me, obviously I was trying to scare the crap out of him for lack of anything better to do.

Yeah, okay, what happened. Right. Last night I got invited over to Irma's for movie night with the girls. We were in the middle of this horror-comedy when Hay Lin threw some popcorn at Cornelia. Well, she wasn't standing for that, and it kind of went from movie night to 'Hey let's have a popcorn war and get it all over the house' night. It was actually pretty fun, with all of us jumping on/over furniture and flinging kernels at each other, some of them with little um, magical boosts. Like I sorta charred this one piece I threw at Will and it went to ashes all down her front- anyway. At one point Cornelia was really close and threw a handful right at my face, and I brought my hand up to block it, and I dunno. The popcorn didn't hit my hand, it hit a barrier almost the size of it. I did it! I made something bigger than the salt shaker without even trying! Only enjoyed it for a second though, 'cause um.

I kinda fainted. When I came around Jalen was there, and my grandparents' house is ten minutes away. -_- Granted, he probably ran. So I've been getting lectures and watching him hover and tell me how foolish that was, and never mind I didn't do it on purpose. He hid the book from me too, the brat. Like I'm gonna screw with it right now anyway. In any case, I'm gonna have to go back to doing things really small again. But he made the comment I should go back to working with safer forms of magic Excuse me while I laugh at him and that made me think about the Dream magic, since I haven't really been working on that too much lately. Anyway Song, want to come stay a few days and we can poke at stuff? I should be much better in a couple days, I'm only a little tired right now anyway. Or we can wait another week, whatever.

Jalen's back in here, leaning against the door frame and telling me to quit writing to be rescued. I am not.

[The video comes on to show Amy sitting cross-legged on a sleeping bag laid out on a stone floor. There are a few small stacks of books surrounding her. She's grinning.]

I have a genius child! Okay, so it was luck, but let me be weird. Vathek's been down here looking through the stuff we can't make heads or tails of, and Jalen and I have cleaned out two whole bookcases already, but no dice...but then there was this.

[She holds up a fairly old, thick book with a green cover.]

Jalen was holding Eli up to the books, asking him 'Which one should mama fall asleep on now?'- You know, I only did it twice, and both books read like my old algebra textbook, so- anyway. Eli reached out and touched this one, and what do you know, it's got something useful in it!

[She flips the book open and holds it closer to the screen, showing pages covered in ornate script.]

Looks like Swahili or something, doesn't it? Yay calligraphy. I had to stare at it awhile before it started making sense. I found- hang on.

[Amy lowers the book to her lap and begins paging through it while she talks.]

There's a barrier spell in here. It looks like it might work similar to Bubble, but more like a box. Could probably work as just a one piece thing too, I dunno. I'm gonna give it a shot. Well, several. It could be useful later on. Hell, it could be useful now, but...

[She trails off as she finds what she's looking for, then studies the page in silence for a few moments before shaking her head and looking up.]

Eh, sorry. Thinking again. So that's it. Promise to be careful and not blow anyone up.

[There's a sudden thumping noise off-screen, then Jalen's voice.]

We need to ask Elyon about the book, remember? Shouldn't you finish that?

[Amy nods as she closes the book, addressing the laptop again.]

Need to get permission to take this thing with us, we're going back home for a few days. Jalen doesn't think I should be spending my birthday Sunday like a mole.

[Jalen mutters something that the audio doesn't quite catch, and Amy laughs as she shuts off the video.]





ooc: Already got mod permission for this. ^^

I'm going out soon to get a couple sleeping bags and some supplies, we're leaving in the morning. Will's gonna portal us to Meridian, and after we meet up with Caleb, he'll take Jalen and I (And Eli of course) down into the Infinite City to the Mage's old dwelling. We're gonna camp out in her library and do some research. Part of me is absolutely gleeful about it - Yay reading! - but the rest? Jeeze, so many books to go through. Caleb's been in there before, he says it isn't small. Not as big as the palace library (Which we'll need to go through eventually), but more than a few bookcases.

Hopefully we'll find something useful.

So Ray, any idea when you're coming by so I can be somewhere else for the lecture clean up around here? Unless you don't mind a mess. No, I'm not trying to stall, why do you ask?