Anabeth Blighted

Gaah, nasty blurry pic!

Sorry. Hi. Kipin needs a scanner before her camera IRRITATES her to death. RAWR! *smacks camera*

Anyway, that's Anabeth, drawn without a picture reference, though I did look at my arm in the mirror while drawing her. Does that count? *smug grin* Thought not.

Never really got the mouth fixed, or the bust... oh well. I like how the back of her head came out, and her braid, and her Blighted arm! Gaah, I was so happy I got that right. I like her fist too.

Story behind this one: The Blight is spreading, but she doesn't want to tell anyone, especially Thaelen, Ellian and Necrea, because she knows they'll all freak out... which they should, really. Stupid macho Anabeth... *swats* Just let them fix it already! I mean, I know it's supposed to be incurable, but Lady Arin had a stroke of genius the other day and figured out how to get her out of it alive! Huzzah and cheers! *hugs Lady Arin* Preen yourself, my Lady, for you have done the world of Irlica (and Thaelen) a great service.

Commander Kip, Lady Arin's Biggest Fan

Normal is overrated!

Seek

Good Day to you, fellow krazee writing fiends!

Here be a random short story thingy to keep you occupied until Kipin gets around to writing the next part of Savvy (might be a while, unfortunately... busy busy, you know.) It's a TRUE story that happened at my cousin's house. Kipin actually brought herself to write something besides fantasy or science fiction for once! *grins madly* Happy day. Enjoy the randomness!

Seek
Voices. Drawing nearer. Nearer. And a light – no, two lights, growing brighter. A soft, red glow. Any second now, they will find me, and all will be lost.
I press my cheek to the dank-smelling tiles. I don’t know what color they are. When I entered this room, the lights were off, the blackness complete. It is hot in here. Too hot. I shall be roasted alive. Something is digging into my shoulder, something hard, rounded, protruding from the wall. Something else brushes my legs, rough and bristly. I worry that the narrow ledge I am standing on will not hold my weight, although I don’t weigh that much. I shuffle my cramped feet a bit, trying not to slip, and wrap my wrist around… something, keeping the trunk of my body close to the wall for balance. All too soon, however, my leg muscles are quivering with strain. My ring clinks against the tile, then my watch. My jeans rustle as I bend my knees to relieve the pressure.
The glass door to my left glows red. They have arrived. I still my breathing, listening to their conversation.
“Check the closet. Is she in there?”
“Probably not. That’s where she was last time. But I’ll look anyway… Nope, not in there.”
“She’s not in the bathtub, or behind the toilet, or in the sink cabinet, not that there’s room under there. Check the shower, she might be in there.”
The door is jerked open, and a hand appears, holding a lantern high. I keep very still. I hold my breath.
“Nope. Not in there,” says the voice, and withdraws the hand, and the light.
I wait for the footsteps and voices to recede, then I breathe a sigh of relief. They’ll probably be back, but I can relax for now, as I hear their voices getting farther and farther away.
My ankles itch. Can’t imagine why; perhaps my hiding place is actually a nest of mosquitoes that are now attacking my ankles.
Shouting from outside. My compatriot has been found, and most likely turned against me. I squirm deeper into the stifling shadows, wishing for a breath of cool air. Now there are three voices instead of two, coming towards me again. Surely, this time, I will be discovered. My partner in crime knows I came this way – not which room, but this end of the hall, definitely. I hear them right outside the glass door: “Did you look in the closet?”
“Yeah, we looked, but we might have missed her. Better check again.” Scuffling noises as the three of them search the closet. “Nope. She’s smarter than that, hiding in the same place twice. Ooh – maybe she flushed herself down the toilet!”
“Nooo!” squeal the others delightedly. “That’s gross!” Without warning, the glass door swings open again, and the lantern is held aloft by my traitorous partner.
“Already looked in there,” says one of the voices, a hand reaching in to draw back the arm holding the lantern. “Let’s go over the bedroom again. She might be under the bed…” The voices fade a second time, and the bathroom door closes behind them, throwing the room into total blackness.
Again I blow out a sigh. This is getting tedious – not to mention stressful. A glance to the left by the searchers would have revealed me pressed into the corner by the dim lantern-light. Lucky for me they are so careless. I can still faintly hear them bumbling around in the next room, knocking things over and barking their shins, no doubt, on the furniture in the semidarkness.
“We give up!” shouts one, muffled through the closed door. “Come out, come out!”
“Ollie-ollie-auction-free,” calls another, farther away than the first. They must be leaving the bedroom and going out into the hallway. Not wanting to reveal my excellent hiding-place, I wait, heart in my mouth, until I can barely hear them, then carefully step down to the damp floor, stumbling a bit on tired legs, then quietly push open the glass door. The hem of my jeans are slightly soggy against my burning ankles as I step over the threshold of the shower stall, and I stand still a moment, breathing deeply but softly and brushing a few strands of tawny sweat-dampened hair off my forehead. Then I grasp the doorknob and slowly open the bathroom door, hanging on to mask the click, and creep out into the bedroom. A little light leaks in at the window from the streetlamps outside, illuminating a king-sized bed, rocking chair, chest of drawers… and there, the doorway. A bit of luck: the door is open. Allowing myself a private grin, I prowl through the doorway, into the hall, on the balls of my bare feet, treading noiselessly on the soft carpeting.
My nemeses are gathered at the far end of the passage, whispering conspiratorially. Straightening up, I approach them candidly and announce, “I’m right here.”
“KIP!” yelp my two cousins, whirling to face me. My turncoat brother spins as well. All three of them shout in unison, “Where WERE you?”
“Nope. Not telling,” I say with a grin. “Not if I want to use that spot again. It’s practically the only good spot in your house.”
“Nuh-uh, mine was good,” my youngest cousin objects. “You guys couldn’t find me, and I DID tell you where I was – sitting on that blue suitcase in the bedroom closet.”
“Yeah!” says the older of my cousins. She’s a few years younger than I am. “I told my hiding spot, too, so spill.”
My little brother pipes up in his shrill voice, “Yeah, Kip, spill!”
“Oh, fine,” I grumble good-naturedly, “Since I won the game anyway: I was in your parents’ shower.”
“But we looked in there!” they cry, disbelieving. “Like, twice!”
“I know,” I reply smugly, crossing my arms. “I was standing on that ledge in the very back. If you guys would have looked around the corner to your left, you would have seen me.”
“But, dude, we had the lantern in there and EVERYTHING,” whines my younger cousin incredulously. “How did we MISS you? That shower is TINY!”
I nudge him affectionately. “I guess you didn’t really look.”

There you goes. Happy Late and Belated Hannuchris!

Commander Kip the Happy because she got the rest of the Twilight books for Christmas!

Normal is overrated!

Ellian portrait

Good Day to you all! Brr, Kipin's freezing over here! She got up this morning and her atomic thermometor said it was ZERO POINT FOUR degrees outside! *faints* Gaah, that's, like, nasty.

Here be the Ellian portrait of which Kipin is so proud. Just felt like posting it, since the lovely Lady Arin got me on a Portals kick again with all her clever poking and prodding over the speakerphone. Many thanks, my Lady! And Anabeth's death has all been figured out most satisfactorily.
Oops, the close-up got put in first. My apologies, that's not the whole thing, it's just the eyes, of which Kipin was so extremely proud of. Here's the rest of it.

Done in study hall at school after the Chemistry Test of Death a few weeks ago. Kipin was so brain-dead that she couldn't bring herself to do the homework just then, so she drew a much-needed portrait of Ellian instead. Her eyes are a bit off-kilter, and there seems to be something wrong with her ear, but Kipin loves her anyway. :D Done in mechanical pencil, as usual.

Commander Kip

Happy Hannuchris!

Normal is overrated!

In Progress

Happy Hannuchris to all!

Kipin is in the middle of several projects at the moment. She will list them for you so you don't think she's gone and died:

1. Soap. They're actually done, but I only have pictures of one design, and I need a pic of the other before I give it away. So that's coming up soon, if I remember...

2. Anabeth picture! YAY! I finally was able to draw her without another artist's reference! Kipin must be improving. I'm not quite happy with her mouth (or her bust), but as soon as I fix it, that's gonna be up here as well.

3. I know Lady Arin celebrates Hannucha (or however you spell it), but have you guys ever heard the Christmas carol 'Angels We Have Heard on High'? It's a pretty little French carol and it goes 'gloooooooooooooooooooooooooria' in the middle... ringing any bells? Anyway, Kipin was really bored at the piano the other day when she was supposed to be practicing Haydn, and she was playing that on the piano and accidentaly came up with a very nice arrangement with lots of nice juicy harmonies. Kipin was very proud of it, yes she was. *preens self, sheepish glance at Lady Arin*

4. Umm...umm... I know there was something else... umm... Oh yeah! A random short story fragment thingy that Lady Arin's already read. You remember that short story that I wrote in my brand new notebook after playing hide-and-seek at the cousins' house? I finally got that typed into the computer, so once I change everybody's names, I'll stick it up!

Commander Kip the insanely busy because she put off all her Christmas shopping as long as possible and now she only has like two days to get it done! Gaah!
Happy Hannuchris!
Normal is overrated!

IUB maps

Hey, dudes! Kipin's back! Winter break is officially here! HUZZAH! *freaks out for a few minutes* So... here are a few more IUB maps.

The TFA Office

The Character Lounge



















The Character Lair

Fun stuff, yah? I advise you not to try to decipher these. Go read the Picnic Club forums if you really want to understand. The one labeled IUW is the one you want, I believe.

Commander Kip

Normal is overrated!

Savvy, Part the Fourth

Hey again. I know I already posted today, but I got Part Four of Savvy done, and I wanted you guys to see it. Hee, Kipin had way too much fun inventing QUIET's biometric security system. Enjoy, dahlings!

Savvy, Part Four: Derec
Disclaimer: You remember this, I only own Timo, Baeli, Derec, Jakky and Cricket, and NOTHING ELSE. Okay, on to the story.

I was still in the shower when the alarms started going off. Grumbling under my breath about random fire drills, I shut off the water and exited the shower stall, pushing the cheap waterproof curtain out of my way. I snatched up the towel hanging on a hook nearby and began vigorously toweling myself dry. The alarms blared all the while. A voice was talking over the ear-shattering horns, but it sounded far away. I didn’t think twice about it. Dumping the towel in the canvas hamper by the bathroom door, I scooped my techie coveralls off the bench and was shrugging my way into them when my cell started beeping. I only had one arm through my sleeve as I flipped it open and answered, “Derec here, and who’s there?”
“The Nasties are attacking,” said Baeli’s curt voice. “Get down to the Hub as soon as you’re decent.” And just like that, she hung up on me.
I guess I was pretty shocked, because it took me almost a full minute to get my other arm in the sleeve and do up the zipper. I wasn’t really thinking about getting dressed. My mind was occupied with thoughts like, Snap, the Nasties are attacking! How did they get in here? We must have an insider planted somewhere… that’s the only way a Nastie-pants agent is worming their way into national QUIET HQ. I mean, come on! We have some of the best security in the country! Anybody trying to get in here is gonna have Doc Von Gizmo and his not-so-silent booby traps to deal with. You’d have to be invisible, room temperature, and weightless to make it in… not to mention stupid. Either that, or extremely clever.
Hmm, seeing as we’re talking about Nasties here, I’ve got my money on stupid.
The Hub was always a busy place, but today it was just crazy. What with all the alarms going off and the backup and emergency security being armed, almost everyone in QUIET HQ was piled into that one room. Thank goodness it’s the biggest room in the building. Not to mention the safest. If the Nasties were to somehow manage to get past the booby traps, there was no way they were getting into the Hub without some kind of army tank. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the Hub are triple-reinforced titanium alloy, threaded at regular intervals with x-ray-blocking lead. Each surface is several feet thick. The massive doors, one in each of the four walls, are protected with several various locking mechanisms and retract into the floor when open, so if they get jammed (which has only happened once in QUIET history), it’s still difficult to force your way in. Each entrance requires an ID chip swipe, pinky finger scan, retina scan, and voice recognition. You are also swept for bugs by an automatic laser scanner the minute you get within ten feet of the door. And if anything is a mismatch, or you’re even a little bit bugged, the ball-bearing sleeper cannon mounted above the doorframe will knock you into the next millennia.
See why the Nasties would have to be stupid to try and get in here?
Once I had gone through the appropriate debugging, chip swiping, password-saying, pinky scanning, and eyeball scanning, the plethora of locks inside the mammoth door clicked open and the three-foot-thick slab of metal retracted into the floor with a loud rumble. I rushed into the Hub to find Baeli.
Like I said, it was a madhouse in there. Agents were running back and forth between the doors with big scary-looking weapons, waiting to unleash them at the Nasties the minute they poked their smelly faces in. A swarm of techies like myself were banging away at the joysticks and keypads that controlled the external cameras mounted in the hallways of QUIET HQ. There was a programmer at every console, sending out the commands to seal off all unauthorized entries and exits and initiate the lockdown sequence. The six-foot-wide holographic globe in the center of the room was glowing in a dozen spots. S.P. Onage, the new Headmaster in charge of training cadets and also the Chief of Operations, was studying the globe intently, flanked by a tawny-haired young cadet a year younger than myself. Her codename was Cricket, as far as I could recall. I yelled out to S.P. over the noise of chattering QUIET personnel and security alarms.
“Chief Onage! Sorry to interrupt, but have you seen Baeli?”
“Console fifteen,” he called back, not looking up from his analysis. The cadet, Cricket, glanced at me over her shoulder, eyes sparkling with excitement. Great, I thought. Another Proffesseur Le-Boum-Boum. She probably thinks it’s cool that the Nasties are attacking. Well, she’ll find out soon enough. They aren’t called the Nastonians for nothing.
“Derec, get over here!” shouted Baeli from a console several yards away. I ran, bashing into a few miffed-looking agents on my way, and skidded to a stop just before I did the same to the console. “Yeah, what’s up?”
She pushed her glasses farther up on her nose, throwing me a harried glance. “I can’t figure out where the alarms originated. How did they get in, and where are they now?” Her fingers were a blur over the keyboard. “I mean, they must have tripped a sensor at some point, obviously, but which one?”
The programmer at console sixteen next door stood up and dashed off. I reached over and snagged his chair, yanking it around the partition on two of its six wheels. Plopping down in it, I scooted closer to the monitor and examined the screen. “Well, what I’d like to know is, how are they planning to get in the Hub? We have stuff the Federal Reserve banks don’t have.”
She didn’t look up from the screen as she answered, “I’ve researched every possible weight-bearing point and weak spot on the floor plan, and there really aren’t any. The only way they might be able to get in here is to accompany a QUIET agent in right through the door. That would mean they could only come in one at a time. And actually, that wouldn’t work, because we just initiated lockdown.” Her eyes glinted mischievously behind rectangular lenses. “The sensor-equipped cannons are programmed to target any unauthorized personnel within their blast range. So, if the Nasties try to walk in the door…”
“Boom,” I supplied, grinning.
“Yeah, boom,” she agreed, grinning back.

You likey? Drop me a comment if you please, Kipin likes those.

Commander Kip, over and out!
Normal is overrated!
P.S. SNOW!!! *capers about madly*

kelp forest (homework)

Aw, didn't it come out pretty? This was a project for my art class. We were working with text in images, and my lovely teacher told me to pick a theme, tear a couple pages out of an old book, and find a way to use the text in the picture. How did I do? My teacher was very pleased with this one. Yuss she was. I like the sunbeam thingies and the leaves on the kelp. My friend Amzi helped me with the leaves.

I like it. All my favorite colors... except purple, that it...

Kipin might be posting some Savvy here shortly. Part Four is almost done. Yay!

Commander Kip, over for now

Normal is overrated!

Thaelen Losing It

Poor Thaelen. I'm so mean to him all the time.

Ahem, what anatomy mistakes? *blushes about fifty different shades of tomato red* Lemme explain. He is not wearing his cloak or a shirt because it's the middle of the night and the shades are harrassing him again. He doesn't wear his steel-toed boots to bed, but I cannot draw feet, so he's wearing them to make it easier for me. I am rather happy with how his lower half came out, but I swear, muscles hate me. Gaah. Next time, he will be in his cloak, and I'll only have his face to contend with. THAELEN'S HAIR! *makes grabby hands* My madre doesn't like his hair, though. She says there's waaaay too much of it, which there is, but it's in his character description, so there, and she also says it doesn't look like hair, which is also true, but Kipin doesn't know how to draw convincing hair. Meh. Collarbones, by the way, escape me. I stared at my brother's for like ten minutes, and I still don't get them, rawr. Hey, I might do a remake of this one sometime, since I'm learning how to draw people now. My art teacher said that the upper portions of his arms were a little too long, which made his whole upper half look funny, and she said that his chin was bugging her. That makes sense, I think, since it was kind of an akward angle. I am very happy with his left hand, however.

All the text around him are notes to myself, along the lines of everything I just told you. Ignore them, if you please.

Thaelen is one-hundred-percent MINE (although my madre did come up with his name; impressive, isn't it?) IF YOU TOUCHIE, COMMANDER KIP WILL SMITE YOU WITH HER WRATH! Kipin is very protective of Thaelen, yes she is.

Commander Kip, ov!er and out. THAELEN'S HAIR! *dies*
Normal is overrated

Savvy, Part the Third

Hiya peoples! Kipin has some more Savvy for you! This fragment is from Jakky's POV. He has a surprise phone call from Timo in the middle of a dangerous chemical experiment. Wish him luck!


Savvy, part three: Jakky
Disclaimer: Jakky, Timo, Baeli and Derec are mine, but Proffesseur Fluide Le-Boum-Boum is not. I don't own QUIET either. Just for the record.

I was nervous about this new chemical. I had already seen what it could do to a tile floor. Proffesseur Fluide didn’t seem too worried, though. That woman has no fear.
Unlike me.
“All right, Jakkee,” she instructed, “I seenk we are very close to somesing. Grab me zat beaker zere, ze one with ze yellow stopper een eet.”
I obligingly handed her the beaker. She must have noticed my hand shaking, because she said lightly, “Come now, Jakkee, you must seenk like a chemist, no? Eef you are afraid off ze chemicals, how do you esspect to conduct ze essperiments?”
“Sorry, Proffeseur,” I mumbled. My hand still shook. I’m sure she noticed, but she was most likely concentrating on not blowing us up to say anything. At least, I hope that was the case.
Half of the pale powder in the yellow-stoppered beaker went into the vial she was holding before I registered the label on the side of the beaker. “Um, Proffesseur?” I asked tentitavely.
She kept her eyes on her pouring. The vial was beginning to fizz. “Yes, Jakkee?”
“Um… that’s baking soda.”
“Yes, eet ees. Adds a very nice… how you say… nice bubbles,” she replied happily. “Bubbles, zey are good.”
Huh. Nice bubbles, nothing. Those bubbles might be the death of us.
Sometimes I can almost swear that Fluide is a mind reader. “Do not worree, leettle Jakkee, I know what I am doing, yes?”
“Yes,” I said, not really convinced.
The cell phone in the pocket of my lab coat vibrated suddenly. I jumped about two feet in the air, startling Proffesseur Fluide and causing her to spill a few drops of the caustic stuff we had created.
“Sacre Bleu!” she shouted in excitement, bangles tinkling. The stainless steel countertop was dotted with sizzling burn marks.
I fumbled the cell phone out of my pocket with an apologetic grimace. She waved me off with one hand, carefully holding the vial upright with the other. Still grimacing, I retreated to the storage room and flipped open the tiny phone.
“H-hello?” I stuttered into the mouthpiece.
Timo’s voice answered, “Jakky? What happened? You sound freaked.”
Am I really that transparent? Or is Timo just uber-perceptive? “How d-did you know?”
“You only stutter when you’re really freaking out.” Oh. That’s why. “So what happened?”
I thought of the ruined countertop and grimaced yet again. “Chemical sp-spill. What’s up with you?”
“Weeeeeeell…” He drew out the word. I knew it was bad.
“Well, what?”
“Weeeeeeell… I kinda blew up my computer and now the entire data center is sorta full of smoke. I think Baeli’s a little bit mad at me.”
Well, no duh. “You th-think so?” I asked scathingly. I can be really sarcastic when I’m nervous. “Is if fixable?”
“Derec plugged it up with a fire extinguisher.”
He did what? “Timo,” I said slowly, “Just how b-big of a hole did you m-make?”
“No, he didn’t stick the actual fire extinguisher in it, he sprayed the foam all over my cubicle to seal up the breach. Buried my gadgets too. I am so gonna make him dig them out – “
“And how exactly d-did you make this breach?” I interrupted. This sounded like a full-blown fiasco.
He hesitated before answering. “Ummmm… I kicked out the cooling fan. At least, that’s what Baeli says. I didn’t know it was the cooling fan… if I had, I wouldn’t have kicked it.”
Proffesseur Fluide’s voice called from the lab. “Jaaaaaaakkeeeeeee…”
“Listen, Timo, I have to g-go,” I stuttered. “You can t-tell me all about it in R-rec this evening, okay?”
“Jaaaaaaaaakkeeeeeeee…” called the Proffesseur.
“Okay, bye – wait. Wait, what’s going on?” Timo sounded agitated. I heard alarms going off in the backround.
Confused, I asked, “What did you d-do, set the fire alarm off?”
Then the alarms started going off in the chem lab as well. The noise was deafening. I had to shout into the phone.
“Timo! Why are all the f-fire alarms going off?”
I detected a tremor of worry in his answer. “Those aren’t the fire alarms, Jak.”
Before he finished speaking, I knew which alarms they were.
“Security breach. (HONK.) Security breach. (HONK.) Please proceed to the Hub immediately. (HONK.) All personnel to the Hub immediately. (HONK.)Thank you. (HONK.) Have a nice day,” said a pleasant woman’s voice. She was punctuated by a HONK from the alarms every sentence or so.
Slamming the phone shut, I hurried out of the supply room and through the chem lab. Near the doorway, I almost ran into the Proffesseur, who was still clutching her lethal beaker. Her eyes were wide, and her short, curly blue-black hair was in disarray.
“Jakkee,” she shrilled, “Ze security alarms are goink off! Come, we must run to ze Hub, where we will be safe.”
“W-what?!” I near-shouted. “Safe from w-what? I’m not g-going anywhere until s-somebody explains -”
She seized my arm with her free hand and ran with me out of the lab, pausing for an instant to swipe her ID chip and seal the door shut.
“We need to get to ze Hub, Jakkee,” she repeated as we tore down the deserted hallway. “Ze Nastonians are attackink.”

Rawharharharr. *makes piratical face* What thinkest thou? Hit the pretty little comment button and tell me what you think. Jakky makes me laugh, by the way. He's a mess of nerves, he is.

Hee, bubbles.

Commander Kip the Happy
Normal is overrated!

Map the First... Of Many

Hear ye, hear ye! The First Cycle of the Most Esteemed Inter-Universal World is coming to a climactic close! All Hail the Supreme Excellency of the Picnic People! All the denizens of said IUW are converging on the ALMA, or Antagonistic Location of Mutual Attack, to witness the Duel of Tooth, Tail and Claw! The mountains and plains of the IUW have become vastly overpopulated, and it's up to Cairi's character Kirin to put all to rights! Our friend Spader is going to have to reverse direction if he wants to make it to the ALMA before the Duel commences! RUN SPADER RUN!

Hi guys. Kipin's back. That Narrator person is now lying in a tangled heap on Kipin's boring gray carpet. He was annoying her, so she turned him into a pretzel and tickled him senseless. Ha! Winnie's over here cracking up like crazy. I luvz her, hee, and she helped Kipin with the tickling, she did.

You might see a few IUW-related maps in the next week or so, until we get everybody cleared out. We have so many characters in there, they're like, packed in like sardines. So we've commenced Operation: Clean Slate, to be started as soon as Amzi's computer decides to let her in. This map is a bird's eye view of the northern portion of the Inter-Universal World, at least, it USED to look like this, until the ALMA got involved, and some other major geographical features got added. So, not entirely up-to-date. But I was so happy with my prettyful lopsided compass rose, I just had to post it anyway. Oops, it looks like I cut off the River Hoist when I took the pic with my camera. Doormat. But oh well, because we actually haven't sent anyone up there yet. Feel free to comment with questions involving geography or plotline, and I shall answer them as quickly and thoroughly as my krazee life allows.

We don't own a lot of of the characters and places in the IUW, for the record, but all origional locations and charries belong to their respective Picnic People. Titi is MINE. ALL MINE!

Commander Kip the So Happy Because She Finally Got Unstuck on Portals! Huzzah!
Normal is overrated!

Snow hazard

Good Day and SNOW! SQUEEEEEE! I love snow! And I have a funny story about snow, that happened in the snow. I was over at Lady Arin's house, before I knew her as Lady Arin, actually, and there was like a foot of snow! Squee! And Lady Arin lives in the WOODS! Gaah! So she, her little sister, her little sister's friend, and I were traipsing around in the snow for, like, five hours. We were following the little creek thing along the front edge of the property, and sliding on it in our boots because it was frozen. We also pretended that we were faeries in Dreamdark, because that was our current obsession (there's always something we're obsessing over) and we gave each other pretend names. I named myself Andra, after one of my characters, and I don't remember what everyone else's names were, Lady Arin's was way cool, but almost inpronounceable... Anyway, we were following the creek, and we came to a log that was leaning out over the frozen water, from one bank to the other, about three feet high and covered in snow. I, being the fearless krazee person I am, decided to walk on it. Lady Arin, being the sensible person SHE is, warned me against it. And, of course, I did it anyway. I was like, "Don't worry, I'll be careful. I won't fall!" And I really tried to be careful, holding my arms out for balance and prodding along under the snow with my foot before I took a step. Then, when I was about halfway across, my boot hit a patch of ice under the snow and I slipped sideways, falling off to the left of the log and slamming the entire right side of my body on the side of the log on the way down. I landed rather hard on my hip, on the ice under the log. Oh yeah, that hurt. I kinda laid there in shock for a second, like I couldn't believe how stupid I was... and then there were a bunch of nerve endings getting mad at me, and my leg hurt like the dickens, and my hip felt cracked, and I probably did some thrashing and screaming and such. Lady Arin was totally freaking out, yelling things like, "OMIGOSH, ARE YOU OKAY? IS YOUR LEG BROKEN? ARE YOU DEAD? ARE YOU CONSCIOUS?" and other sentiments of that nature. Her sister and her sister's friend just stood there with their eyes bugging out of their heads. Eventually, I got some of my wits back, enough to answer, "Maybe..." As in, 'maybe I'm okay, maybe my leg is broken, maybe I'm dead, and maybe I'm conscious... I really have no idea... I'm in too much pain to think straight...' But I guess I was okay, becuase after a minute of nasty intense pain, I was able to stand up a walk a bit, albeit with a pronounced limp. I then proceeded to limp around the woods for another three hours or so, quite enjoying the spectacle I was making out of myself. When we finally retreated to the warmth of Lady Arin's abode, I peeled off all six layers of snow clothing and beheld the most massive bruise I had ever laid eyes on, blooming across the top outside portion of my leg. Ow. Not fun. But I maintain that it was all worth it, to be able to tell the story afterwards. Makes a great story, no?

Commander Kip the Snow-crazy

Normal is overrated!

Savvy, Part the Second

Good Day, ye prestigious peepuls!

Here be Savvy, Part the Second, Timo's POV. Enjoy, dahlings!


Savvy, part two: Timo
Disclaimer: I only own Timo, Baeli, Derec and Jakky so far. Everybody and everything else is NOT MINE. Got it all from a puzzle box. So yeah, don't sue me.

Dang it, Timo, dang it. You know better than to beat up the equipment. I shook my head, watching the smoke pour out of my cubicle. Stupid, stupid. If only I had waited for Baeli to come deal with it. Then my office wouldn’t be full of fumes, and my computer, and my ego, would be intact. Grr.
Baeli ran up, dragging Derec behind her, as I was scrubbing at my smoke-blackened face with my sleeve. “Hey, there you guys are. S. P. was here a minute ago. He wanted to know why the entire data center smelled like smoke.”
Derec never paused. “Just a sec, I can fix it!” he called over his shoulder, charging into the roiling smog.
Baeli shook her head despairingly. Wisps of acorn-brown hair had fallen free of her customary messy bun, and her rectangular glasses were smudged. “He had the entire tech lab in an uproar. Holy mole. I swear, he’s going to be the death of himself and everyone within a five-mile radius someday…”
I let her rant. She needed to blow off steam sometimes. I always tell her she works too hard, but of course she won’t listen to me.
Within five minutes of Derec’s arrival on the scene, the smoke died down and I was able to enter my cubicle to assess the damage. The first thing Derec had done, apparently, was douse the entire room with a fire extinguisher. The chilly white foam was everywhere. Gobs of it stuck to my shoes as I looked dubiously at Derec’s hasty patch job. “Um, what exactly did you do, Derec?”
He grinned at me impishly, his spiky blonde hair sticking up in every direction. “I plugged it up with fire extinguishing liquid, of course! Handy and effective. Excellent sealant.”
The glare I skewered him with must have cowed him sufficiently, because he added, “It’s only temporary, until I can get back to the tech lab and find you a new cooling fan. That’s what you kicked, by the way.”
“Oh, brother,” Baeli groaned at my apparent stupidity. “You kicked out the cooling fan? Ugh, Timo, do you have any idea how hopeless you are? No wonder it exploded.”
Actually, I wasn’t so concerned with my computer, since I hardly ever used it. But my spy gadgets, sitting on my desk, were currently buried beneath a mountain of fire-extinguishing foam. I began scooping the gooey stuff off my desk, where it fell mostly onto Derec’s head.
He was naturally indignant. “Hey! Watch it, dude! You’re messing up my hair! I just saved you from a very painful death by smoke inhalation, and this is how you repay me?” He scooted backward, under the protective cover of my desk.
I took no notice and continued flinging foam off of my desk. “You covered my office in foam and buried my gadgets, so however messed up your hair gets, it’s your own fault.”
‘Guys!” Baeli shouted. “E-NOUGH! Somebody needs to go find S.P. and explain to him that we didn’t really blow up the entire data center… it just smells like we did.”
“Okay!” Derec made a dash for the door, eager to escape my wrath. Well, too bad. I snagged him by the shirttails. “Derec, you look like the Abominable Snowman or something…” I glanced down at myself. My clothes were sooty, and foam clung to my shoes. “…Come to think of it, so do I. That leaves Baeli.” We both looked at her expectantly.
She frowned at us like a mother berating naughty children. “Yes it does. If S.P. sees either of you like that, he’ll think there was an explosion.” She marched out of the decimated cubicle, calling over her shoulder,” Go clean yourselves off!”

And there you go. What thinkest thou? Interesting? Funny? Hmm?
Commander Kip, over and out.

DarkChild and Spader!

Okay, before I explain this one, I have one thing to say.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Sorry, I'm done now. On the the explanation.

Yay, Kipin can finally post this! She couldn't before, because it's her friend's birthday present, and her friend sometimes reads CreativityIncarnate, so Kipin had to restrain herself in order not to spoil the surprise. (Difficult, wasn't it, preciouss, since we is so fond of this one...) It's my luvverly friend and Spader! DarkChild is a Pendragon nut like my goodself, and we're both somewhat obsessed with Spader, so I was like, 'Hmmmm....' And this is what came out. The gal with the peace sign is my friend, and the dude with the fishbowl thing is Vo Spader, the Traveler from Cloral. For the record, the fishbowl isn't really a fishbowl... it's a type of breathing apparratus for swimming underwater. The little silver harmonica thinger is an oxygen filter of some kind. Cloral, by the way, is a planet that is entirely covered by water. Lots of pretty fishes and so on. (If any of you are completely lost right now *cough cough DAINE cough* then I URGENTLY SUGGEST that you run to the library right now and read the Pendragon books. All will be explained in good time.)

Let's see, materials... a regular boring sheet of sketchbook paper, 0.7mm mechanical pencil, grainy old Prismacolors. The usual stuff.

I drew the art, but my friend has it now, so it technically belongs to her. And now for the disclaimer: Spader, sadly enough, is not mine. Mr. MacHale owns him, not me. And I definately don't own DarkChild, because that's illegal here in the good old USA. (Her screen name is actually DC, but that could be TRANSLATED as DarkChild... or DeliciousChocolate...)

Commander Kip the Obsessor

Normal is overrated!

Savvy, Part the First

Hey, peepuls! Notice thou the SNOW we had the other day?! Kipin was vurry excited, yuss yuss.

Kipin was feeling fragmental this morning. So, here's a fragment from my newest random sixteen-year-old-secret-agent story, Savvy. I think I might do semi-regular posts of this one. The first part is from Baeli's POV. Her field agent computer-clueless friend, Timo, just accidentaly blew up his computer, so of course he calls Baeli to fix it. She wasn't counting on all that smoke...


Savvy, part one: Baeli
I’m not so sure this counts as fanfic. I’m just using some charries from this puzzle box thing I got for my birthday. So yeah, I don’t own the official QUIET agents or QUIET itself or the Nasties. But I do own Baeli, Mattemio, Derec, and Jakky. And Tracie, the extremely blonde receptionist. Hee.

“Baeli, my computer locked me out again!” said the intercom unit on my desk.
I pushed the answer key and replied, “Just a minute, Timo!” Shutting down the search engine on my desktop, I threw my hoodie around my shoulders and ducked out of the cubicle, shutting the glass door behind me.
When I arrived at Mattemeo’s cubicle, I was startled, but not really surprised, to see smoke leaking out from under the door. “Oh, brother,” I muttered, slotting my ID chip into the reader embedded in the wall. The door slid smoothly open, releasing a cloud of smoke and a coughing Timo. His face was gray with soot.
I coughed and pulled him away from the stifling cloud. “Holy mole, what did you do?” I fanned away the smoke clinging to my friend with one hand as I pocketed my ID chip with the other.
He was doubled over, gasping for air. “Not sure… All I did was kick it a little bit…”
Timo always manages to irk me. “You kicked your computer? Are you stark raving bonkers? Machines have feelings too, y’know!”
“The darned thing wouldn’t let me in!” he pouted defensively.
“I’ll go see if Derec can fix it,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Wait here… and don’t kick any more expensive machinery.”
Timo is a great field agent, I mused as I hurried to the techies’ unit. Maybe the best in all of QUIET. Especially considering his age. Heck, he’s the first sixteen-year-old QUIET field agent in the history of QUIET agents. Not to mention the only one. But I’m sixteen too, so that makes me the second, even though I’m only a lowly programmer (a job otherwise and more commonly known as ‘hacker’.) Derec, our hardware kid, would be third, and Jakky the chemist-in-training, last.
Timo’s pretty good in the field. One of the best. But when it comes to computers, he’s utterly hopeless.

I ran smack into Professeur Le-Boum-Boum and Jakky on my way to the tech lab. As usual, they were both carrying vials of caustic chemicals.
“Sorry,” I said sheepishly as a circular section of floor tile was eaten away by the spilled compound.
“Ah, ze compound, eet works!” cried the Professeur, grinning hugely. Jakky just looked startled. He’s a pretty quiet guy.
“Come, Jakkee, let us go back to ze lab and refine zis lovely stuff. Come, come!” She hustled Jakky down the hallway.
“Sorry!” I called after them, and continued on my way, skirting the hole in the tiles.

The tech lab was in an uproar when I finally made it there. Balls of wadded-up notebook paper flew through the air, and shouts echoed off the walls. There was an alarm going off somewhere. Desks had been overturned. Mechanical parts lay scattered about. I picked my way through the minefield, waving at a slightly frantic-looking Doctor Von Gizmo, who was yanking wires out of a big silver box. “Ach! Diz new alarrm rrefuses to be silent!” he shouted, rolling his R’s in typical German fashion.
I gave him an encouraging thumbs-up and resumed my search for Derec.
He was holed up under a desk, poking at a mess of gears and bolts. “Hey, Bae, what’s up?”
“Timo blew up his computer again… what’s that?”
He threw me a proud grin. “My latest and greatest mischief-making invention, The Chaos Generator. It remotely sets off all security alarms within a twenty-yard radius by emitting a high-frequency pulse beam – “
I’m a software girl. I had less than no clue what he was talking about, and was more concerned just then about the mayhem it was causing. “Well, can you turn it off?”
“Um, eh, actually…” he rubbed the back of his neck with a greasy hand, refusing to meet my eyes. “That’s the only problem with it… I’m not really sure how to stop it.”
Ugh, boys can be so stupid sometimes. Especially when they’re geniuses. I was irritated. Why did everything always have to happen at once?
“Here, try this.” I plucked a gear from the grinding mass. It squeaked to a halt. The alarm fell silent. “There.” I gave him a scathing look. “That wasn’t so hard. Even I could figure it out.”
“Hey, gimme that!” he exclaimed, snatching the gear from me and trying to shove it back into his havoc-inducing creation. “You’re gonna break it!”
“Good,” I replied curtly, grabbing his arm and hauling him out from under the desk. “Now come on, before Doc Gizmo realizes it was your fault.”
That convinced him. We ducked out of the tech lab, leaving fifteen baffled techies to scratch their heads in confusion, and raced back to the data center at top speed.

Hmm, that was long, but kinda fun. Yep, I think you guys will be gettin' regular helpin's o' this'un.

Commander Kip
Normal is overrated!

Gaia

Alaphia, fellow Homosapiens!
Look at that cute face. And that cute harp. This is Gaia, and she has KNEES! Huzzah! I is vewwy proud of those knees, yuss I is.

Mistakes... hmm... her tail didn't come out quite like I wanted, because the wire in it kept poking out the end... same with the wings. Eventually, after ruining the wings like three times, I took those wires out. That sculpting mesh must hate me! It's called Activ-Wire Mesh, and it really only works for vases and masks and model volcanoes and so on. Buuuut my well-meaning madre bought a ton of it last year, and it would be a waste not to use it, so I kinda just wad it up and pretend it's aluminum foil and stuff it in the middle. Used the wire mesh and some kind of beading wire for the frame and harpstrings, and Sculpey III on the outside.

Hmm, Kipin is not very happy with how the pics arranged themselves in this post. Rawr.

Ooh, Kipin just thought of a fragment she wanted to post...
Commander Kip
Normal is overrated!

Irlican Beasties

Hey, that worked better than I expected...

Hi. Just so everybody knows, I tend to talk first and say hello after.

These two horny beasties are creatures from my book, Portals of Irlica. The upper one is a muc-mhara adarcach (pronounced mook-WA-ra ah-AR-kach), which is Gaelic for 'horned whale', although it looks more like a spined whale to me. Many thanks to friend Amzi for the pronunciation. The muc-mhara adarcach lives in the Sea of Sighs that forms the eastern border of Zraeland. The Farshoreans hunt them for sport, and because their horns/spines are considered a great prize. They are very fast swimmers, very hard to catch, and when the hunters do catch them, they only take one horn and let the creature go. It grows another horn in a matter of months. The other one is a gaunt, a beast of burden with a skinny trunk and muscular legs. I think it has too many talons in this picture... it looks like some kind of messed-up bird of prey. But anyway, the Zraelanders use them as mounts and beasts of burden. Despite their fearsome appearance, they're actually quite docile. You can't really tell in the picture, but the gaunt's eyes have cross-slits, which I am rather proud of.

Commander Kip, over and out
Normal is overrated!

Happy Thanksgiving!

G'day, guys! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

To celebrate this momentous holiday, I rifled through my digital pics and found these suitably side-splitting ones:

That's my puppy, Marco. He's playing Big Bad Albino Dragon Attacking the Castle, and I just had to take pictures. Hee! The castle is Playmobile, and the poofy little doggie is a Bichon Frise.

Commander Kip

Normal is overrated!

And It Was Magic

Good Day, again. I know I already posted today, but I was inspired...

Lookie, it's Commander Kip in a coolio black cloak her madre lent her. The glowy ball of Magic was originally my bootiful dragon egg, Grover, but he looked cooler as a glowy ball, so the glowy ball it was. Me likey the spray-paint tool. Yay!

Gaah, we took such a funny movie at Lady Arin's house! Gaah! I laugh just thinking about it! I was walking and I pretended to trip and grabbed my wand out of my boot and then I whipped around and pointed it at my foe. Yes, the foe that wasn't really there... but hey, don't look at me like that... we had fun! And the sound effects were supremely special. I was like, "Whoops... AHA!!!" It was awesome indeed. Unfortunately, I can't stick it up here because it has my face in it. And you guys don't want to see THAT... Just kidding. My madre is very paranoid and doesn't want my mug shot all over the dangerous jungle of the Internet; neither does mi padre. And mi padre helped me make CreativityIncarnate, so I can't really complain.

Commander Kip

Normal is overrated!

Argh, Commander Kip's been Blighted!

Just kidding. Thank you, Lady Arin, for the body crayons. I had much fun with them, I did. *runs to take shower* Itches like the dickens, though...

Soooo, for all of you who are currently wondering what the Blight is, I shall enlighten you: It's a deadly incurable disease I invented for my book. Muahahaaa!!! Yes, I'm that evil, but every adventure story is more exciting with a deadly incurable disease in it, right? The Blight is spread through direct contact with another Blighted human or Fae, although it originated from a specific type of plant in the Blighted Basin. Yeah, something like that. There's actually a bit of text to go with this one:

After turning the campsite inside out, Ellian finally thought to search the stream bank for her sister. Sure enough, Anabeth was crouched by a small, gurgling waterfall about twenty yards outside the camp. The tiny waterfall splashed down into a clear pool, which Anabeth was crouched over, washing her arms in the cool water. Ellian stood silently for a minute, watching from the shadow of the trees. Her sister rinsed the mud from her arms with angry vigor. Her sleeves were pushed up past her elbows, and Ellian stared with a good deal of worry at a glint of green on Anabeth’s right forearm. Ellian had not noticed the green before. At first she assumed it was a leaf or some other foliage stuck to Anabeth’s arm by the mud, but as she continued to watch, she became convinced that it was not plant matter. For the mud slid easily off of Anabeth’s skin and was carried away down the stream, but the flash of green on her forearm remained, as clear as before.

Ellian could not suppress her gasp.

Whirling about, Anabeth reflexively yanked her sleeves down to cover her arms. “Ellian, I told you I wanted to be alone. What are you doing here?”

Anabeth shouted at Ellian often at home. She was used to being shouted at. Unfazed, she answered, “I came to see if you were okay, and you are apparently not. Have you looked at your forearm lately?”

“No, because there’s nothing to see,” Anabeth growled back. She tossed her braid defensively over her shoulder and rose from her crouch in a smooth motion. “You must have been imagining things. Come on, let’s get back to camp.”


If only Ellian was imagining things. Poor Anabeth, hee. Don't worry, she comes back to life later...
Anabeth and Ellian are Mine. No touchie, or ah will getchoo wid mah spork o'doom! Phear the wrath an' all that.

Commander Kip
Normal is overrated!

Hattie

Hey thurr, guys!

Augh, we had the Chemistry Test of Death in school this morning. Stoichiometry, rawr! I never want to see another mole ever again... but that's highly unlikely, since we have nine more modules in the textbook to get through. Blaargh!

I needed some cheering up after the Chemistry Test of Death, so... D'girl has returned! Mwahahahaaa! Phear her and the accompanying madskillz.

This here purdy picture is Hattie the glowy dustbunny. Ain't she preshus? I drawled her in Paint.Net, which really made me want GIMP... there are NO BRUSHES in Paint.Net! I was like, 'come ON!' Even my baby paint program that came with Windows has a spray-paint brush. So, I'll keep working on mi padre to try and get him to let me have GIMP. I hear tell that there's this thing called a fairy-dust brush. I wants it, I does! Had to use the wash tool for the glowy bubbles, which was complicated and so much harder than a spray-paint tool. Ni!

So, Hattie's story... she's the cute floating pet of my friend's character Lawrence (at least, I think that's how it's spelled; it might be Lorence, I'll have to ask her.) She comes from the Merry Moor where all the dustbunnies live. Hee.

Hattie and all Untitled characters are hands-off in the name of me and my school friend. If you touchie, Ah will getchoo wid mah spork o'doom! Bwahahaaa!!! *cackles fiendishly*

Charlette D'girl, otherwise known as 'The One and Only Girl'

Normal is overrated!

Spark and Dragon's Milk

Good Day and Salutations!

Check out the cuteness! This liddle beauty just had his first birthday on Halloween, so as a birthday present, I changed his name. He is now called Spark, and he is most adorable indeed. Originally, I had named him Squirt, which fit him perfectly when he was a dracling, but now that he's grown a bit, I decided he needed a more dignified name. Hee!

On a similar note, has anyone read the Dragon Chronicals by Susan Fletcher? They used to be my all-time favorite books. The first one, Dragon's Milk, is about a girl named Kaeldra (the coolest name EVER) who can communicate with dragons. Her foster-sister, Lyf, has some rare uncurable disease, Vermillion Fever, I think. Kaeldra goes up into the mountains to find a dragon and get some of its milk, the mythical cure for Vermillion Fever. The dragon, whose name is Flagra, agrees to give Kaeldra milk in exchange for some babysitting. Flagra has a new litter of draclings and cannot leave her cave to hunt, for fear of the draclings getting into trouble, so Kaeldra watches the draclings while Flagra goes out hunting in exchange for a month's worth of milk. Of course, the draclings are not easy to watch, especially when they start learning how to fly. The villagers are angry because their livestock is disappearing, and they kill Flagra, forcing Kaeldra to flee the village with the three draclings. She is pursued by a wannabe dragon-slayer who is after the draclings, and she must find a way to outwit him, escape the seething village, and return the baby dragons to their kyn. The other two books in the trilogy are Flight of the Dragon Kyn and The Sign of the Dove. Highly recommended!

Commander Kip

Normal is overrated!

Pendragon: Before the War

Attention, Pendragon fans! I have an announcement to make! *waves arms*

There are going to be Pendragon short stories! Yay! (Although I'd just as soon have Mr. MacHale hurry up and finish the tenth book before I go CRAZY.) Anyway, they're coming out early next year, and you can see the covers of the first two on the Pendragon website. They're about the Travelers' lives before they met Bobby and joined the battle for Halla. The first one has short stories of Kasha, Gunny and Spader! Yay, I love Spader! And if you look at the cover, there are pictures of all three of them on there. Spader doesn't look quite like I imagined him, but he looks a lot better than he did in the guidebook. Gaah, they butchered him in there! He had brown hair and looked like a cowboy! Blaargh! The guidebook messed up Kasha too. She looked like she was about to eat somebody... but I really like the picture of her on the first short story book. The little short story series is going to be called 'Pendragon: Before the War'.

Commader Kip the Obsessor
Normal is overrated!

Kyren

Good Day, CreativityIncarnate!

Okay, I have some illustrations of the novel I'm trying to write, and I can't help but stick them up here.
As always, please excuse the cruddy pic... *needs scanner* Maybe I'll ask my madre y padre for one for Christmas.

This is Llaelora ferch Diarbed (pronounced Tlay-LOR-a; the double L sounds like a TL), better known as Kyren the Bodyguard. My favorite li'l pyromaniac... She has a younger sister, Saabra, who looks almost exactly like her, and if their lives are in danger, they can switch places, kind of like Padme and her handmaidens in Star Wars, except Kyren and Saabra are both princesses... so neither of them are 'expendable'. I drew this pic before I learned my anatomy, so excuse any mistakes in proportion and so on.

Kyren is entirely miiiiiiiine. No touchie, or I will getchoo with mah spork o' doom! 4LL PH34R!

Commander Kip the Krazee

Normal is overrated!

Stalemate and Tango

Hehe, you'll never believe this... *falls about laughing*

Gaah, this is so funny! Did you know Kipin was a Star Wars nut in disguise? I was messing with my brother's Star Wars action figures the other day, and I came up with a few really nice poses, so I naturally had to take pictures...

The first pic is called Tango, and it was inspired purely by the coincidence of the two characters having the same-shaped hands. The dude in the tunic with the ponytail is A'Sharad Hett, and the alien lady with the horn thingers on her head is Shaak Tii (spelling?) They're doing the tango, obviously. And the other pic is entitled Stalemate, 'cause that's exactly what it is, hee. A'Sharad Hett again (I luvz that guy, he's got nice flexible limbs and an awesome ponytail, not to mention these coolio blue designs on his face, which you can't see in the pic) and another Jedi, the Dark Woman. You can't tell from the side, but the Dark Woman is wearing the coolest purple garment thing. Yay for purple! And they're holding lightsabers to each other's necks, so if either of them move, they both DIE. Fun stuff, that. I had another fun setup one time, where there were two Jedi back-to-back in the middle of a ring of like twenty
bad guys... gaah, it was so funny... didn't get a picture of it though.


Commander Kip
Normal is overrated!

Truffles and Rosie

Good Day, CreativityIncarnate!

Today, I was in a draconic mood. Rawr! So I give you... more dragons! These two have a story as well. The green one with the cake and the chef's hat is Truffles, and although you can't see it in the pic, he has little blobs of frosting all over him and is quite adorable. The story behind him is that my grandpa is a raw-foods chef, and he makes the most delicious little raw truffles, and he lets me mold them into coolio shapes. Two years ago, around Christmastime, we made partridges and pears, and we had sooo much fun and got sooo sticky... but of course it was worth it! Stickiness is always fun.

The pink one with the half-knitted scarf is for my grandma. Her name is Rosie, and she's holding a ball of yarn in her tail. My grandma is very handy with all that needlepoint and crotcheting and knitting business... in fact, she helped me knit my first scarf. Much luv to ya, Gramma dear.

Commander Kip, over and out.

Normal is overrated!