pris, donnie, and the plans to buckle swash ][ a log

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there had been a lot of things that had kept pris from seeing doctor donnie duck. doctor's visits, dommy, and the dunderheads at school who were making her take things called benchmark tests but there wasn't a single bench anywhere in sight and they always got irritated when she asked about that and wouldn't answer her questions. tests were the worst for pris. having to look hard and words and numbers on pages and hope that they would behave and not move so she could answer things in a finite amount of time, it was the worst. but those were over. and now pris was banging down donnie duck's door. it was almost eleven at night. she was dressed in a dress that looked like it was made of slick raincoat material. shiny apple red. she had on her red wig too. but her eye make up was blue. and her tights were white and blue. and she had on her blue mary janes. over her raincoat dress she had a blue button-up sweater. and she had her big black shoulder bag too of course, never went anywhere without it. pris' banging was like a gigantic hammer pounding a nail through a piece of wood and through a second piece of wood under that - she wasn't going to stop until the door was answered!

And the first knock is what jolted doctor blake up from his having fallen asleep while watching TV. "be right there!" and then after a rumble of him tripping over his walking stick the good handsome doctor blake opened the door with his nice bright smile. "pris! hello there, s'been a while. are you alright? everything okay?"

and there was that look. her head canted to the side, and there was that curious brow-knit gaze that said without words, 'are you crazy?' which coming from pris was a very ironic look to get wasn't it. if she knew that, it wasn't showing - but chances were, she knew. "i'm fine," she said that very matter-of-factly, and maybe a bit slowly like adults did with kids when they were worried the kids weren't going to get their point. "i had to be tested by benchmarks and the doctor make me come in so he could write rude things on his lap while he thought i didn't notice." her emerald eyes had looked into his that whole time, amazingly, before darting away to look in his room as she added in her dreamy, detached way, "your room was growling." the stumbling she'd heard.

"oh I remember those benchmarks... completely useless those ones. they really don't show much of anything." smiling a bit and then inviting her in. "come on in, you can help me find the growling. I'm absolutely certain its not going to hurt you." stepping back into his room and plopping down to sit on he edge of his bed, "do you know what sort of things he was writing?"

"i don't think they have anything to do with benches. but i tried to mark benches on my papers as much as i could. that was hard to do during the math section." pris' poor teachers would have quite a hard time grading her test papers, it looked like. the eccentric teenager seemed to effortlessly point out to people that the concept of 'right versus wrong' wasn't as black and white as they thought it was. pris nearly answered about the growling, but just as her lips parted he asked her a different question entirely and she was derailed. "i don't, i just know he was writing, maybe he was writing price tags for all the drawings he asked to see...." as she gave that answer, pris wandered her way to the wall she'd been painting on, pressing her palm flat against it and stroking her fingers over it as her green eyes darted to look over what she'd done so far.

"I wouldn't be surprised, those stupid doctors trying to take advantage of your condition." said with a bit of a tone suggesting he hated that idea. when she walked over to his wall his eyes followed her as she examined it. "I really like the designs you've started with there."

"mmmm," was all she replied to that doctor comment. at first. her fingers continued to trace over her paint strokes, her head canting slightly to the right as it often did when her gears were turning nice and hard. the 'mmmm' evolved into a little hum, this one very very soft as she started to rock a little bit back and forth as she traced, "so many drawings that i never get to see again, like the letters they used to tell me to write to santa, but the drawings don't send toys back home like those did. at least not for me. maybe for mom still maybe she gets toys. i haven't seen her since before my birthday. but this drawing will stay right here, glued to your wall until you leave forever and ever amen. i like that thought. or are you going to leave too?" pris turned around suddenly, her hand dropping from the wall as her green eyes fixed on him.

"um, well I don't plan on leaving this general area here for a long long while. I'm learning far too much about the mystical creatures here... and I have far too many friends to just abandon them..." smiling big to her and giving a nod, leaning back onto his palms. "no worries then right? and i have your cell phone number too, so i can call you also."

pris was staring him down. staring at him like she was trying to peel away his onion layers with the power of her eyes. to see if the words still looked the same if they came from his deeper insides. and she kept staring and staring, as if she expected the words to change as those layers peeled down and down. did she hit the bottom of his layers? no. even right now when she wanted to check his answer she wasn't brave enough for that, even if it was her most precious donnie duck who wouldn't put her in danger. everyone, even most precious people who cared for her and kept her safe, had things in their most central layers that pris couldn't bear to look at. "okay," she said finally, softly. just that single word. something about the girl had turned somber. she'd made a mistake mentioning her mother, someone she didn't really want to think about. especially the fact that her mother left but still might be reaping the 'toy' benefits of her drawings getting sent off. she knew dommy had contact with her mother sometimes. she just never ever asked. she didn't want to know.

"Pris, are you sure you're alright?" he was concerned, she had gotten all somber and she was pounding on his door like she was being hunted down. and she had said she was fine like she was chiding him sort of for asking. a few red flags for the good doctor donald blake who was looking at her eyes this time maybe searching for something himself.

she didn't like it either. she didn't plan for any of the words she was saying to spill out, they just started to when he opened the door, sentences tumbling out like a canister of beans kicked over. or dribbling out like sand through an hour glass. maybe these were the things she'd wanted to say while she was at the doctor's, the real answers she said only in her mind to his questions, but because she knew he was taking notes and besides that she hated him anyway. and her mind fixated on questions until she answered them. maybe she was finally answering. still. still. she didn't like it. it was too much, she was saying to much and it was starting to make her squirm. her eyes darted away from his, and she rapidly switched where she was looking, as if she was nervous about settling on any one thing. "i came to talk to you about poof. and the ching a ching cave." she said that firmly, nearly blurted it out. a very forceful change of topic. it was why she came. and that subject was better. not about her.

he noticed that. it was part of his job to notice things like that. he did give a nod and he sat up, scooting back onto the bed, motioning for her to join him on the bed, patting next to him while her eyes wandered. "what do you want to talk about them..." questioning look before a nod... "about?"

a brief faint pout. in her head, she was thinking one sustained high pitched note. a whine. she wasn't letting herself do it, though. so the whine came out in a different way, with a shift of her body and a little stomp of her foot pris finally dragged herself over to the bed where donald patted. she turned around like she was going to sit next to him, but then rather suddenly she flopped down on it it was very dramatic, like a deflating. the girl sighed at the ceiling. this really really big sigh. maybe she was trying to get the mood she didn't like out so she could stop saying things. because rather suddenly she sat up.

"poof. maker poof. i was trying to get to the ball and i didn't know there wasn't a bus that went all the way up there. i had to call for a taxi. i yelled taxi and there he was. with a taxi. but i knew he wasn't a taxi driver. because at the cave he just went poof. and then reappeared. and people who poof aren't taxi drivers. he'd taken cerulean and canary. he told me to get in and he'd give them back. but i wouldn't. i was nervous. i texted dommy the oh shit code and he called and he came to get me. but there were ten minutes and i had to keep my poker face. so i talked about cerulean and canary and what you use them for. and then asked him to tell me a story, the story of how he got the taxi and he said he was a maker and could make things and that he could make....parts of you go away," she couldn't say fears.

here pris took a very deep breath and continued, "and i didn't believe him so i gave him alizarin too and told me to draw me a sky that never fades to prove it. and later in the car dommy said pirates were 'killers, thieves and scoundrels. and when they find a cute, sweet little girl they love to steal them away so they can share her with the whole crew', and you told dommy that poof was a child molester so." yes. pris mimicked dommy when she quoted him, and the mimic was good enough that donald would notice it. "so that's it, isn't it donnie do-good, i think maker poof is a pirate and he's hiding his loot in his cave and i want to go back there and see if it's true. because if it's true dommy said he'd get a job as a swashbuckler for the inn, he said they fight pirates sometimes...."

he smiled a little bit when she went all dramatic in laying down on the bed, and he turned to face her, sitting on the bed sideways now, and leaning over onto an elbow while she spoke. listening very closely and offering a bit of a nod and a smile from doctor blake after a few moments of thinking... and then a nod. "well...I'm glad that Dominic came and got you... I don't like poof he unsettles me... but I agree that he may be hiding things in the cave... did you want to go tonight or wait until morning?"

[Guest]

"well...I'm glad that Dominic came and got you... I don't like poof he unsettles me... but I agree that he may be hiding things in the cave... did you want to go tonight or wait until morning?"

"he did. he came and got me and he took me to a fancy restaurant where the table was covered with flowers just like i wanted and then we went to the cemetery where bren and i waded in the big mud pile and we visited charlotte and put the flowers on her grave so that she could feel like she was beloved forever again, and then we had a prince charming cinderella dance in the moonlight just like i wanted at the dance, and i even ran away after it and dropped my shoe, but dommy made me pick it up before we left because he said that shoes shouldn't be wasted..." a teeny tiny pause as pris looked away and all around at nothing in particular and she added quieter, "i've never been invited to a ball. and i don't know who invited me. i think that's why they did." because they didn't know any better. she'd implied the same thing to her brother that night when he picked up up. donald had said too many things on too many subjects, and pris' mind went spinning off on dominic picking her up, and forgot about the rest. even the cave.

"well that all sounds very fun, I'm glad that you two went out and had a good time... I didn't get to go to the ball either.." he didn't say that one he wasn't invited, and two Thor ended up going. but he did give a nod and turned his head to see her eyes. "Pris, when did you want to go see the cave? in the morning?"

her head was turned away from him. so when he popped his own into her field of vision there was a little shriek of surprise. and then a silly short laugh that was kind of a quick nervous but quiet cackle. she didn't expect him to do that, that was part of the reason she laughed, and the other part of the reason why she laughed was what popped into her mind when he did. "oh. oh um," pris' struggled with that decision as her eyes were bouncing between looking at doctor duck's eyes and his mouth, like she did the last time she saw him. eyes mouth eyes mouth. no nose, she didn't need to look at his nose. "morning, better in the morning, things don't go bump in the morning and poof is grandmother what big teeth you have what if he comes it'd be worse if it was at night, he poofed the taxi at night..." but her other encounter with him had been in afternoonlight. that made pris frown thoughtfully, and fall silent. -

and he noticed that look again glancing, but he didn't know what it meant, but he did give a nod and a smile before standing and going to his closet, to grab more blankets. "well does that mean you're going to be sleeping over again then? and then we can go after breakfast in the morning?"

"yes. yes yes yes. we can tell each other ghost stories and bob for apples and cut out paper hearts and color eggs and hide them under each other's pillows." said as she fell back on his bed, her eyes directed up at the ceiling again, darting here there an everywhere as she managed to blend activities for five different events together all in one evening. "and then in the morning we can dress like swashbucklers and stuff ourselves full of breakfast potatoes as we shiver our timbers, and maybe if poof comes if he's really a pirate he'll be too intimidated by us buckling swash. i'll swash his buckles all over the place. he stole cerulean and canary." a huffy sigh was the conclusion of all those words, before she rolled over, squirmed up his bed to the top of it, and buried her face in one of his pillows. she breathed in deeply. it smelled like the duckie doctor. that meant she was safe, and she'd be able to sleep when the time came. "this pillow's mine," said her muffled mouth.

"that sounds like quite an adventure, unfortunately I don't have a swashbuckler outfit, doesn't mean we can't go buckling swash though and I highly doubt that poof would come around me... he's afraid of boom." a smile and he spread out his blankets on the couch. he was going to be using it again tonight.

"you're afraid of boom." did she even realize she said that? it was very factual, like a diagnosis, even if it was still muffled in the pillow. but then pris turned her head to see him putting blankets on the couch, and her mind jumped to a different place entirely, "do you always sleep on the couch?" pris sat up and folded her legs underneath her, before the hardness of her shoe bumping against her leg made her change her mind. she unfolded her legs so he could kick off her mary janes, which each hit the floor with a plop. instead of folding her legs immediately, pris gazed down at her stocking feet, giving her freed toes a wiggle.

"well I'm not really afraid of him... I've no reason to be, keeps me from being killed....and he protects everyone else. most everyone, good people. and no, I usually sleep on the bed, but I have company, and she gets to have the bed because I'm a gentleman." plopping onto the couch and giving another great stretch, he was wearing his captain america shirt, one that read. "Steve Rodgers, Captain america, 1919-2007" and his sleeping pants.

when he started talking about fear, or lack of fears, he'd notice pris eyes darted upward. she stared at him. rapt attention, her entire posture looked like she was on the edge of her seat. maybe she was even holding her breath. her young green eyes were intense, like she was picking through his insides with her stare. the stare lasted longer than his talking did, and she said finally. "i don't like to talk about fears either." she managed to say fears. because she didn't put the 'my' just before it, making her comment general even if they both knew it was specific. "you can sleep in my bed when you come over next time. i'll make sure there's cake and tea." sleeping in pris' room, that would be a trip for him. it was a visual mind-bender. as for the cake and tea...she was trying to think of what people had ready when guests came over. "and fancy bath soaps."

"don't forget the special guest towels..." doctor blake said with a smile laying down don't he couch before going back to their first subject. "Who does? Fears are silly things that only keep us from doing things we really want." that was his say on it and it was punctuated by a very firm nod.

pris went silent. dead scary statue stony silent. she didn't even blink, for as long as she didn't have to blink. and even though she was looking at him her eyes went vacant. there was something about what he said, maybe it was too doctor like. or maybe it was too true. but she echoed a line that she'd said to poof the night of the ball and the taxi. instead of being growled, this time it was very flat and almost robot. like he'd pressed a certain button on her and that button prompted the same response like a talking doll. "somethings don't change until you're dead." then pris hopped off the bed, taking her back with her and going into the bathroom. it was time for pajamas. she might have meant to say something about that to donald, about pajamas, but it didn't come out.

his smile faded when she went silent, watching him. and then her response, it made him feel a bit of unease. to the point where she sat up when she was in the bathroom and he went back to sit on the edge of the bed waiting for her to come back out.

pris took a while. but pris always took a while in the bathroom. there was lots of running water. she was washing her face with really really cold water. and he might hear the sound of humming. maybe even the sound of soft stomping. and then the sound of talking. she was reciting something that a teacher made her memorize once. a poem about a bee. she was trying to get her thoughts off the path they were on. finally, there was only one thing she decided she could do. look up. and in the mirror. the mirror would always make anything she was doing before come to a crashing halt. sure enough as soon as she saw her reflection the itch happened. all her clothes came off, even her tights this time, everything had to be new, and she yanked clothes out of her bag and put them on without any deep thought of what they looked like, keeping her eyes on herself because she really couldn't look away until there was enough change. but that wasn't good enough. off her wig came. off the snood came. out the make-up came. she normally washed her face clean like she'd already done, but now she needed make-up. purples and blues around her eyes. red liner on the bottom. she added a star to her left cheek. and used a little bit of lip gloss. and bracelets. and a belt. and she dunked her head in the sink, wetting all of her hair. it was enough change, after she did that, even if she was dripping wet. when pris emerged from the bathroom she looked vaguely satisfied, but also somehow like she'd been through a war. her bottoms were pajamas, her top was a frilly blouse that was obviously not.

[Guest]

when pris emerged from the bathroom she looked vaguely satisfied, but also somehow like she'd been through a war. her bottoms were pajamas, her top was a frilly blouse that was obviously not.

"oh, well... that certainly looks like very comfy bedtime wear there prissy" doctor blake thought that maybe dredging up an old subject would have been bad so he smiled big and bright again. remembering that he was pris' friend and not her doctor. he was supposed to help her stay happy and that's what he was doing now. "we all set to tell our ghost stories?"

and pris, looking like a well make-upped drowned rat, gave him a look that said, 'har har har' without saying it. bare feet shuffled their way to donnie do-good on the bed as she answered tiredly, "i think i want fairy tails instead." she'd had enough of ghosts tonight. she dropped her shoulder bag at the foot of the bed, and sat next to him. as soon as her backside kissed mattress she was already shifting positions. so that her head could rest on his shoulder. and her arm curled around his front. when she needed to feel safe and there was someone there who could make her feel that way, it was always the position she chose. she didn't close her eyes, though, she didn't want to close her eyes. instead her eyes moved to try and find every small spot or nick on the floor. hopefully doctor duck wouldn't mind that his shoulder was going to get real soggy from her wet look.

Donald wrapped an arm around her opposite shoulder and leaned his head down against hers before giving a nod.."okay, fairy tails it is... hm, well... I don't know many, but there is this one i know, about a fairy woman who stopped a giant. would you like to hear that?"

pris was silent. she wasn't sleeping or ignoring him or anything like that, she was thinking over the offer of the fairy woman and the giant. it didn't sound like a bad story, but the more she thought about it the more she realized there was another story she wanted to hear, and that this was probably a good time to hear it when he was close and she felt safe. her fingers curled tightly around his side to keep him near, to confirm for sure that this was a good time to ask for this particular 'story', and she replied quietly, "i think i want to hear the fairy tale of boom."

"the tale of Thor? I think we can do that... which one do you want to hear, the one of how Thor came to be thor or how Thor and I where bound together?" that was a good question at least he thought so. he pet up and down on her shoulder, before giving a squeeze. "or should i just pick one and get started?"

pris smiled. the smile started small, just a tiny upturn at the corners of her lips, but it grew into a full tooth display. she didn't know why donnie's answer made her smile like that, but she did. when she exhaled next, donnie duck would feel the tension in pris leaving and she relaxed against him. it was like that moment earlier had never happened at all - if one ignored the fact that she'd changed and put on new make-up and had wet-head. "i'm not tired," was her answer. "just start and don't stop for a while, okay? i want to hear you talk." then, pris did something that was rare unless she was very close to the person. she put her other arm around his back so that she was giving him a sideways hug, and she squeezed back. she was glad she came. and that tomorrow he'd go with her to the ching-a-ching gave to expose poof the pirate.

[end! for this thread, at least. =D]

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