Chatterbox: Down to Earth

The hot, late-summer breeze ruffled Arwen's hair, lifting it and brushing the ends against her face. She closed her eyes against the sun and lazily raised a hand to sweep the hair off her forehead. 

Arwen's legs were stretched out in front of her on a purple lawn chair by the side of Leafpool's (ahem) pool. The sun sparkled on the blue chlorinated water and palm trees swayed gently on the other side of the pool. It was all very pretty; Leafpool had made sure of that. Maybe out of guilt.

The large pool was surrounded by a wide cement strip, and beyond that, trees and beautiful flowers filled the yard. The house behind Arwen's back--more of a mansion, really, or an expensive hotel--was three stories tall and covered in a fresh coat of white paint and carefully cultivated vines. Yes, it was beautiful, this exile of theirs.

To Arwen's right was Jarnen. He had his hands behind his head, green eyes open and staring off blissfully into the dark blue sky. He slouched in his chair with music playing loudly, tinnily, through his earbuds. A layer of crumpled sticky notes and candy wrappers surrounded his chair in a three-foot radius. He wasn't normally messy, unless he was trying, so maybe the heat was affecting him. He had a peaceful yet roguish grin on his face as if he was enjoying plotting some fiendish new trick.

Serene, her brown hair up in a ponytail, was curled up on her lawn chair reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the ninth time. She was wearing a pinkish scarf, the color of strawberry yogurt. It had green accents on it. Swirls or something. Serene had acquired more freckles over their…"vacation", but still, she looked the same as she always had. Her green-rimmed glasses glinted at the sunlight as she moved her head slightly.

And Hazel was swimming around and around in the pool, as completely soaked as you might expect anyone who had been swimming for hours to be. The CAPTCHA had felt extremely lofty and above Leafpool's Æs for these past months, acting very smug about the fact that she got to exist in two dimensions all the time, both here and tagging along with Leafpool, still blurting out the CAPTCHAs on Leafpool's posts as she always had. In fact, Hazel had been getting very much attention lately. It had gone to her head and the seven-year-old had a perpetual smug expression on her face.

Arwen frowned and took a deep breath of the warm, flower-scented air. She took one last glance at the hazy sky, then rolled off her chair and stood up, going to stand behind Jarnen's chair. She tapped him on the shoulder. He didn't seem to notice, so she yanked out one of his earbuds and said his name.

"Jarnen!"

He turned around. "'Sup, Arwen? Can I have my earbuds back?"

Arwen coughed.

"Jarnen, do you want to go back to the Chatterbox?"

The smile faded off his face. He tilted his head at her and shaded his eyes against the sun.

"Would you like to?"

Arwen bit her lip and looked away, at the pool, at the sky, anywhere but at him. "I...want to go back, Jarnen. I don't know if there's anything there for me anymore, but I still....I mean...I don't want to stay here any longer."

Jarnen suddenly grinned and leapt up. "Let's go then! We'll go back."

Over to the left, Serene closed her book and gently placed it on her chair. She looked over at the two Æs. "You're talking about the Chatterbox, aren't you? I would like to return as well. I miss it."

Arwen sighed, and said, "But it'll be so different, won't it? I mean, we haven't been there since...January or February? Half a year. It must have changed so much, in many ways and…well...you know. It's all different now. It's going to be hard to fit in."

Jarnen grimaced, then shrugged. "But it'll still be the same. Mostly. And if it's not, we can just pretend it is. And we'll be there! So that'll be like old times. In any case, I'm going back. I'm bored to death with playing video games and listening to music."

That instant, the breeze, which had--even though it was called a breeze--been sort of still and muggy and humid--picked up. It started swirling around into a mini tornado of flowers and leaves. A sudden burst of color left the Æs blinded for a moment, and when they could see again, a girl with wind-whipped  brown hair and brown eyes stood before them.

She was short, and dressed in a pink sleeveless ballgown with a long skirt. It was ripped and torn, in shreds. She wore a pair of tall brown boots and a crown of leaves, and had a sword strapped to her side. A long, red scrape ran down the underside of her arm, to her wrist.

The girl bent over for a moment, panting, and then straightened up and looked around at her Æs. "Does anyone have water?" She asked.

Wordlessly, Arwen passed Leafpool a bottle of water, while Serene asked worriedly, "Are you okay, Leafpool? You're late. You were supposed to visit us...two days ago?"

Leafpool unscrewed the bottle of water and poured it over the cut on her arm, shifting her feet so she wouldn't get wet. "I got sort of...sidetracked," she said. "But let's not talk about that. I couldn't help hearing your voices...you want to go back to the Chatterbox?"

The Æs nodded.

Leafpool ripped off a piece of her tattered dress and patted her arm dry, saying, "Well, I'm not surprised. I know you've been stuck here for half a year. I'm not even going to pretend I had some sort of a mastermind plan to somehow bring you back in style and...I….You know. When I sent you here, I thought…."

"You thought we weren't good enough," said Arwen.  Leafpool looked away in shame. "You wished you had different Æs, more original ones, Æs that had wings or cat ears or psychic powers, or that had been part of everything when you first joined the CB! You wished were were like Pinkie PIEper or Mewfour or Hemin or Puck! Well, we aren't. But we're your Æs. We've been through everything with you, wars and Æ ships and roleplays and all that. You know you can't get rid of us." Arwen looked rather sternly at her CBer, who sighed.

"I know. I know. You can come back to the CB now. I'm not going to be able to stop you--I've seen it coming. I've just always wished I had different Æs. But I like you. It's just...it's just...nevermind. I'm never going to get rid of you."

Jarnen grinned and said, "At least we aren't inherently evil, with world domination plans. And we don't throw pies, we don't have cat ears or tails or wings...." ("I'd like cat ears," said Serene quietly, but nobody paid attention to her.)

"Stop! Stop! Look, I'm sorry I ever doubted you. You can come back now." Leafpool groaned and turned her back to the Æs, silently contemplating her annoyance and resentment. Still turned away, she waved her hand and the Æs suddenly staggered under the weight of full, packed suitcases, stuffed with all their belongings from the trip. Hazel's landed on the side of the pool.

"There you go," she said. "I don't know how I'll manage having you all back suddenly, but we'll work it out. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got other things to do…." She looked down at her hands, then raised her chin and, throwing a quick, surreptitious loving glance at her Æs, disappeared.

Arwen, Serene, and Jarnen looked at each other, smiling in the realization that they were going back to the Chatterbox. They set their suitcases down at their feet and took each other's hands. Hazel scrambled out of the pool and ran to hold Serene's hand.

They stood there--Arwen, her back straight and long blond hair flying in the breeze; Jarnen, a smile on his face; Serene, her suitcase full of books and scarves next to her; and Hazel, dripping chlorinated water into a small puddle around her feet. Then they disappeared, finally going back to the Chatterbox.

A breeze rippled through the empty place. And then it disappeared too.

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Here are the character sheets, and after that are a few notes about shipping and stuff.

 

Name: Arwen (Æ)

Age: Ageless. She's your typical teenager-appearing Æ.

Gender: Female

Appearance: She has longish blond hair and deep blue eyes. She's average height, I guess. She wears a black choker necklace and Zeon's first shark necklace, and anything purple. Her hair is a little wavy but mostly straight. She likes cozy sweatshirts.

Personality: She's generally boisterous, but not a known troublemaker. She's a feminist. She's completely in love with Zeon, now and forever. She tries to be kind and fair to everyone, and usually stands up for people, or tries to help them with their problems. She generally has decided to enjoy life, and she's cheerful most of the time, but she keeps up a façade of happiness to try to please everyone. Inwardly, she sometimes struggles with a feeling of loneliness and isolation, even though she's surrounded by people. She's maybe going to be a vegan. And she has an uncanny amount of knowledge of almost every famous person on the planet.

Hobbies: Cheering people up, listening to music. I'll have to work on this section at some point.

Weaknesses: Depression and hopelessness, sometimes, and a fear of...I'll also work on this. I have to take a look at some of her old character sheets.

Strengths: A sense of determination, or maybe it's duty to other people, I...don't know.

Relationships w/ other Æs/CAPTCHAs/CBers: Zeon. She loves Zeon. Otherwise? She pretty much gets along with most people, but she still has a grudge against (and honestly, she still despises him) Evil Devin.

Other: Speaks in bold.

 

Name: Serene (Æ)

Age: Serene is the only one of my Æs that ages. She's fifteen and her birthday is on September 16th.

Gender: Female

Appearance: Serene has shoulder length straight brown hair, (a medium-ish shade) and brown eyes. She wears green-rimmed glasses and has just a few freckles on her nose and cheeks. Serene almost always has, and in fact is never seen without unless in the most dire situation, a scarf wrapped around her neck and a book in her hand.

Personality: She's really introverted and would much rather read than socialize. She has an encyclopedia mind, sort of, sometimes she rattles off unrelated facts or quotes a book passage or uses long words. It doesn't show up that much on the CB but maybe it should. She will pretty much read anything you throw at her, whether it's Harry Potter or nonfiction or a math textbook. She doesn't talk a lot, but when she does it's usually something worth listening to. She always has an opinion. Serene tried romance once, and actually had a date to a party once (8-Piece [*sniff*]) but it's really not her thing, so she doesn't do romance, crushing, or dating. She may have fictional crushes but no one knows, and no one will ever know. She's emotional sometimes but doesn't have much of a temper and she loves her fellow Æs.

Hobbies: Reading. Thinking. More reading.

Weaknesses: She's shy and doesn't have a clue how to start conversations unless it's about books, and can't really lead conversations either, she mostly just says yes or no. And she's not that sure of herself.

Strengths: She can be very brave when it comes to it and she's a deep thinker, not shallow. She sometimes has a calming effect on other people, when she's calm herself.

Relationships w/ other Æs/CAPTCHAs/CBers: She sort of relies on Arwen and Jarnen and Hazel.

Other: Speaks in italics

 

Name: Jarnen (Æ)

Age: Ageless but appears 14/15/16

Gender: Male

Appearance: He has messy black hair and green eyes. He's medium height and he sometimes wears a trench coat, in which he totes around various prank-ish stuff. He's usually grinning. And I totally forgot about this, but he has black tattoo things under his eyes...y'know, the ones from the Mega Anime Avatar Creator….well, I haven't used that in a long time, maybe there are some different ones now. But they're basically triangle things under and over his eyes--I don't have the original picture I made of him, but I made a couple new ones a while ago that I could post. Anyway, he's hardly ever seen without his earbuds and iPod.

Personality: He's a little sensitive, I guess, but is good at acting impassive and he doesn't really care that much...about anything. He's impeccably polite until he's tricking you into saying or doing something you don't mean, or he's shooting fireworks off in your face. He revels in chaos and enjoys annoying people. He dislikes tourists, bananas, mobiles, squirrels, and YouTube ads. He's not sure where to put his feelings, these days, having had some trouble with relationships in the past. He's a good actor, as mentioned at the beginning of this lovely paragraph. He's calm in stressful situations. But then sometimes he reverts to the depressed-teenage-boy sort of stereotype thing.

Hobbies: Scheming, having fun, wreaking havoc, charming people, reading, listening to music

Weaknesses: Insecurity, confusion about girls

Strengths: Quick thinking, acting, sneaking around, treachery, flattery, and wits.

Relationships w/ other Æs/CAPTCHAs/CBers: Don't mention Chilly. Don't mention Gem. But especially don't mention Chilly. Thank you.

Other: Speaks in bold italics with a bit of a British accent.

 

Name: Hazel (CAPTCHA)

Age: Eternal seven-year old

Gender: Female

Appearance: She has short poofy brown hair, green eyes, and a cute smile. She's a short, adorable little kid. She likes to wear pink...sometimes.

Personality: Hazel is very selfish and self-absorbed. She goes crazy around candy and is obsessed with KitKats. And she has a rare disease that makes her only able to speak in four-letter words. She also has developed a serious obsession with tofu. Lots. And. Lots. Of. TOFU. (if you were not present for when this happened, feel free to ask. It was pretty recent.

Hobbies: Eating KitKats, pestering people, helping others.

Weaknesses: Selfishness

Strengths: She's adorably cute, which makes her able to charm people into whatever she wants.

Relationships w/ other Æs/CAPTCHAs/CBers: Nice to everyone, unless they don't have candy for her.

Other: Speaks in asterisks

 

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So. Shipping and stuff.

-My Æs are most likely not going to be participating in shipping, because 1) Serene doesn't do that and 2) Arwen is not likely to ever want to date anyone else and 3) Jarnen is (currently) deeply scarred by his experience with Chilly. Before that, he was super free. But now, he might not want to participate in shipping...yeah, I know. My Æs are ruined. :/

-Unfortunately for a lot of people, my Æs have inherited my beliefs about LGBQT/gender issues/romance with that and while they will try to be polite to everyone, and respectful, I'm not sure exactly how it will work. I'm going to be pretty uncomfortable with it--they haven't been here since the beginning of the year, and a lot has changed since then--they kinda stopped participating in things in the aftermath of the many wars we had.