Ch: 16.5 Love and Coupons
Day zero of the festival of War was fun. Otho’s gang was moving through the crowd, spreading the good word with drums, flute, guitar and violin. Gary started strumming along, the rest just jumped aboard without needing any encouragement. It almost felt like Tallum and Liam folded his gift around themselves, that was impossible of course.
Shai was already in motion, tugging at him with the strands of her special gift. Gary could feel Dannyl somewhere in the mob, trying to keep his end up, a little thread of magic was all it took now. Binding his band together tightly, even though Tawny was at the pianoforte in the showroom, halfway across the guild yard.
Sadly, Ginger Dreadnaught was running out of gas fast, it had been an exhausting morning already. Holding in the second pool that long made Gary’s insides spin in odd ways that he was not enjoying.
Most of the rest were fit, but in different ways. Tallum was holding it down with a craftsman’s tireless energy, while Shai was always an endless font. Liam and Dannyl were visibly sagging, mental exhaustion betraying their healthy bodies in the end.
Ivy was still solid, honed by a lifetime of steady rockin, before she ever knew what rock was.
Tawny had little trouble staying in the groove, since she had missed most of the events, only appearing on scene shortly before Tony.
Shai danced him by the hand inside when she saw him flagging and pointed him to the now vacant bath. “In ye go before ye drop. I shall join, ere too much longer.” It turned out, ‘too much longer’ was hours of helpless bobbing.
Sergeant Becky came by to visit for a while, mostly to tell him what an awesome party he was missing. “I love you too, you scrawny little guttersnipe.” He grumbled at the laughing girl. “If I could stand up right now…”
She pulled a recorder from her pocket and started to play a silly childish tune, mocking him with her dancing feet and ability to stand erect. “You've been practicing…” He whispered, deeply moved.
“Yeah, Liams’ teaching me ukulele as you teach him. He's pretty slow, since he doesn't read.”
Gary made a comfy sofa appear by the pool and she settled in. “Wanna join the lessons with the others? I swear, I’m learning more from Otho than anybody ever could from me.” She nodded with a smile that made his wobbly insides settle down nicely.
“Tell ya what, the gang is going monster busting soon, when we come back, real lessons in a real classroom, every day. You wanna play, you get your shot kid.” He fixed her with his strange, half mad eyes. “We all get our shot sergent Becky. None of my brothers or sisters gets enslaved. Starting here and now, it’s a revolution up in this bitch.”
He smiled weakly, “Really, I started it a few weeks ago, it can't be stopped now.” He could feel them outside, a few toy instruments, the work of his hands, responding to Shai’s gift as she danced. He could feel the music rise and fall, guided by Otho’s Joyous, supported by Shai as she spun those magical hips.
Those simple toys, utterly mundane and given away freely, were hammering at the walls of his mind, asking to join the remnants of his gift lingering around Shai. Too exhausted to resist, he simply let it take over, riding a wave of half heard, half felt music into dreamless slumber.
Becky and Shai were curled up together when he woke, sleeping on the sofa under conjured blankets. He carried Becky to a room and tucked her in, before leading a groggy Shai upstairs. Once she was properly sprawled across him, taking up way more space than she should be able to, he could really sleep, though not for very long.
When his girls awoke Gary was already downstairs, floating in the pool, recovering. Even through the closed workshop door the scents of hot machines hot lumber and sawdust made their way upstairs. “Mornin ladies, I had some things to do, hope I didn’t wake you.”
Shai looked at him suspiciously. “I did have strange dreams, I dreamed a place o ice and snow, small men in green coats did labor tirelessly, pointy ears and feathered caps did they have, and slippers whose toes did curl up to jingling bells.” She glared at him with new vigor. “What do ye build down there boy?”
He huffed. “Don’t be greedy Shai, I gave you your birth day gift early, there is no other like it. Becky, go down to the shopfront and pick anything you like, if you don’t see what you want, let me know, then bring the little ones over. Whatever they want.”
The Bathers really only slept about four hours a night these days, the crafters were way ahead of their schedules across the board, thanks to Gary’s ridiculous gifts.
That left a lot of time to bounce ideas off of each other, Tallum in particular was a font of useful tips and ideas that had accelerated several of his ideas from prototype to production very quickly.
Tallum also did not mind helping with some production with no questions asked. Rings of bearings, wheel hubs and casters, all manner of small parts slowly filled bins on Gary’s workbench and those bins emptied just as quickly.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
He had been steadily working on his secret projects for a couple weeks on the sly, but now was the time.
Dressed and with coffee in hand they went down to the shopfront, into a scene of madness.
Children were everywhere, the more advanced instruments were gone, replaced by a crazy collection of things unlike any she had ever seen.
Dolls in wood and cloth, depicting people and animals both real and fanciful filled the shelves.
Strange painted wooden planks with small wheels were whizzing the more adventurous boys and girls around the courtyard, as if propelled by the wind. Others wore boots with wheels instead of soles, gliding and skating in the courtyard as though on a frozen lake.
Flutes, drums, ukuleles, small scale guitars and even a few harps were scattered around, receiving attention from no small number of kids. The noise was incredible.
Toy weapons and armor filled racks against the walls, as kids kitted out in full panoply, dueled on the patio, under Becky’s firm guidance. She had an irish harp slung across her back like she was born to it.
“Everybody decided? Cause it’s time to bathe. Happy birth day brothers and sisters” Becky called out, hugging Gary and Shai before leading her troops off, to battle the forces of stank.
“Help me change out the goods before the older kids come over.” Gary wheezed, gamely tucking away toys and dolls and replacing them with weapons, armor pieces and shields.
More advanced instruments, like bass and full sized acoustic guitars, a few violins and a cello appeared.
Finally more of the strange wheeled boards, these were larger and more robust to support larger riders. Shai held one up. “I did see some kids using these, whae be the magic spell?” She asked.
“No magic, just balance, grace and athleticism, you should be fine.” He gave her the same sketchy and feeble instructions he gave Dannyl and his other experimental subjects.
“Step onto it in the direction you wanna go, kick off and lean into it. The rest is all balance.” He said confidently.
After a short whoop of joy, a short scream and a thud, Shai said the same thing all his other subjects did. “Yer instructions be shite boy. But I see the trick of it.”
“I have a magic bathtub that heals minor injuries woman, stay on my good side if you want that bruise to come off your good side.” He said while brushing the dust off her bottom.
She kissed him, and was soon skating around with greater confidence than even Dannyl had managed. “You are a natural board rider of course.” He shouted out to her; “Wait til I build a bicycle woman! Then you will see!” He staggered off to the bath, feeling shaky.
Within a few steps she was there helping him along. “Sorry, still wobbly, you are gonna have to party without me, I think I need to sleep in the pool.”
He drifted in and out for the day, there was always a Bather there when he woke, usually Shai. Even when she was not there, he could feel her dancing nearby at one of the many places he could feel his instruments being played. He woke for dinner, feeling steady and more in control, also ravenous in a healthy way.
Shai dragged him off to the orphanage dining hall to eat with the whole mad family, from little ones in boosters, to grizzled veterans in town for the festival, to the familiar retirees, enjoying the bustling and activity.
Otho and his acolytes were present, since Otho was an orphan, the administrator and beloved of Joy, he got them all to come down to the orphanage for the feast.
The Dering twins, Myrna the violinist and Caleb the guitarist, were clearly awkward and distressed by the rowdy commoners and orphans celebrating around them.
Daniel the harpist had latched onto sergeant Becky and was deep in conversation with the precocious girl, harps in hands and fully engaged.
Tallum, smith Harlan, Shai’s adoptive mother Adelia, and a pair of cousins Gary had yet to meet, Harlan’s new apprentices, were all present.
The male smiths and the warriors fell in together and mingled seamlessly. Enthusiasts discussing mutual interests, they could always be relied on to entertain themselves.
Shai and her mother held court with the youngest children. Gary sprawled out at their feet, amongst the younglings and let them maul him while he listened to mother and daughter sing songs and tell stories.
Everyone was polite enough to pretend not to notice when he fell asleep, silent tears and just a little snot, making a mess on the floor.
Gary came down from the bedroom in the dream house, sleepily confused by Shai’s absence. If he concentrated really hard he could feel her, awake and telling a story. That was an odd feeling.
Even stranger, there was a screen, like the one he had conjured in the garden. It was in the living room, with a comfy couch and a big box of Gary’s movie and tv memories.
Each one was a tiny jewel, at a touch he got a sense of what was inside. They could be tossed onto the screen to play, but in a highly concentrated form. The magic of memory uncoupled them from time, space and natural senses, allowing the information to be consumed rapidly and completely. Shai had been getting nosey.
He pawed through the box, hoping to figure out how much she had seen and where she left off. It was hopeless, her fingerprints were everywhere.
In the garden, Thirp and Secret were there, directing the Notgarys and Shai-lites in their seemingly endless repairs. The constellations of bubbles filling the sky did seem a bit more organized, and the garden was doing great.
Velvet rope Notgary was still stationed at the garden gate, with the aggressive black clad Shai-lite backing him up as he faced down something amorphous and dark, save for four golden masks. Each one, depicting a different face contorted in horror and agony.
The masks were constantly subsumed and then reappearing from the indefinable cloud of colorless dark haze. Each time they reappeared it was a new person, in endless variety, though always with expressions ranging from dread to horror.
“Take your ziggurat, shine it up real nice, and shove it wherever things like you shouldn’t shove things. Aclintherios reincarnated a half dozen of those shits this week, you clowns never learn… Oh, too late, and he looks pissed.”
Gary had only glimpsed occasional flashes of the cosmic vastness and terrible power that was Aclintherios. Now he dominated the vicinity, his power radiating in a subtle psychic pressure that seemed to compress and evaporate the misty horror at the gate.
Its ziggurat, looming nearby, was a nightmare of contorted flesh and conjoined half living tissues. It moaned piteously in the presence of the spider god and began to shudder and wilt. Golden webs began spreading over the structure, tiny spiders crawling over it leaving their glowing silk in intricate patterns and runes.
In moments the hideous thing was enrobed in a cocoon of golden silk, glowing with an inner light and glory. With a soft cracking sound, a pillar of golden light evaporated the whole thing while a chorus of angelic spiders played instruments like Thirp’s in glorious worship.
The misty figure itself was now half its former size and its masks displayed hope, eagerness and vengeful joy at the creature’s discomfort. Aclintherios turned his many eyes on the thing and it simply was no more. The masks tumbled to the ground with a tinny sound before disappearing in golden light under the spider’s gaze.
“Gary,” The spider said, its voice soft and gentle despite now seeming larger than his entire house. “you should have Thirp summon me immediately if another of those appears. If one gets inside you with its filthy ziggurat, two entire realities will be lost.”
“Noted, thanks for the assist. Can they push their way in? Is that a worry?”
The spider was already fading away, growing to the size of a mountain and becoming more diffuse. “They cannot without your permission. Thirp will explain if you need more.” Then he was gone.
Gary felt himself waking up too, someone was shaking him.
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