Foreword: I'm a little late...but not as late as usual, I think. :) BESIDES I have half of 32 written. That's amazing.
I know Friday technically started last chapter, but now we're actually getting INTO it. All the good stuff. (Like fluff! And action! Depending on which storyline you're reading!)
Disclaimer: For the first time in a while, none of this chapter is a gift; it's all my crazy crazy self. Except for the characters...and all the important stuff like that. That belongs to Nintendo.
"Sire!" Kammy shrieked, hobbling down the hallway after Bowser. "Sire! The meeting was not over!"
"Kamek promised me that the meeting would be short. And by short, he had better have meant less than ten minutes. I sat around for FIFTEEN. I am NOT missing my woman any longer," the koopa king shouted in reply, rushing down the hallway. He pushed past a few koopatrols, knocking them into Kammy's path.
"Get out of my way!" Kammy hissed, pushing past them with far more difficulty. Bowser's tail whipped around the corner, and Kammy knew it wouldn't be long before she lost sight of him completely. "Bowser! Bowser! Stop right now!"
"You can't command me around, hagface!" Bowser roared, outraged. "I'm going to breakfast!"
"Your impatientness!" Kammy screeched, trying to get his attention without angering him again, "You don't understand! You shouldn't go to a meeting and then leave."
"I got what I went for. I wasn't even going to show up, y'know. Stop wasting your bat-breath and let me go, granny!" Bowser grabbed a railing, looking down into the atrium below. It would save him time…and guarantee that little-miss-tattle-tail wouldn't catch up with him…
However, in that time of questioning his options, she almost did catch up. Noticing Bowser's gaze, Kammy stopped in her tracks. "What are you doing, sire? Are you thinking about…about…"
"Jumping?" Bowser finished, looking madly over at his assistant. "Sounds pretty awesome, huh?"
"You can't!" she shrieked, her voice cracking as she leapt for Bowser's leg. He was too fast for her as he swung his heaving mass over the railing and down two stories.
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"Mama Peach?" Bowser junior crooned, batting his eyes at Peach from across the table. "Would you pass me the sugar?"
Roy looked at his youngest brother with raised eyebrows. "F'you put any mo' sugar coatin' in ya, we'll all get diabetes from assoshiashun."
Peach laughed and lifted the sugar, but accidentally dropped it when the table…the walls…and especially the chandelier shook.
The room went silent…except for Ludwig, who was humming notes to himself as he scrawled all over his paper. They stared at each other. "Well," breathed Iggy, "that was weird."
The koopalings murmured in agreement, then returned to their breakfasts. "Wait," Peach paused, still staring up at the jingling chandelier. "Aren't any of you…bothered by that?"
"By what?" Lemmy asked, eggs falling out of his mouth.
"By the freak-of-nature would-be earthquake that just came from the ceiling!" Peach exclaimed, staring in disbelief at the unfazed koopalings.
"Ehh, you totally get used to it after, like, a while," Wendy added.
"Oh, is it the volcano? Erupting or something?" Peach offered, cautiously picking up her fork again.
"THAT would be cool!" Larry shouted. "But naw, it was probably just…I dunno. Doesn't really matter."
Morton grumbled, "You don't matter, you big ninny-face ugly butt!" When Larry just rolled his eyes in reply, he turned to the other younger brother to his left. "And you stink, stinky-face foot-butt!"
Peach looked over towards Morton and Junior, tiredly scolding, "Morton, you don't need to say that to your- Junior! What are you doing?"
Junior had his face covered in grainy white sugar dust, slopping up whatever was left inside the sugar bowl with his tongue. He looked at Peach with wide, innocent eyes. Morton looked at Peach's horrified expression and back at Junior. Maybe he hadn't realized Junior's antics were worth mocking before, but Peach's reaction sure got him rolling.
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Bowser looked over his shoulder again; no one looked at him suspiciously at all. And Kammy was nowhere to be seen. He was just a hallway away from the breakfast room where he would get to see Peach. He had just seen her hours ago…but those intermission hours between the best day of his life and what he hoped to be just as wonderful were torture.
Almost at the black door with his engraved image, Bowser could hear the familiar bickering of his children. From what he could tell, they were all there, which would have been strange, had it not been for that ninth voice. Peach's laugh as she kindly chided one of the koopalings was like the sweetest morning bell in all the kingdom.
And she was there, with his children, on her own accord. To meet him. To spend the day with him. Because she wanted to.
Bowser had all the pride he needed to swing the door wide open.
With the diners in breakfast room so engaged with each other, no one noticed Bowser at first. Then Junior, the only one facing the door, squealed, "Daddy!"
Peach pulled her attention away from wiping Junior's face to Bowser, standing in the doorway. Her eyes lit up as they met Bowser's, her mouth spreading into a wide smile without any effort on her part at all. Her countenance was absolutely glowing…enough to catch Wendy's attention as she began to squeal in approval.
But she seemed to be ignoring everyone in the room but Bowser. In fact, Junior had to struggle to get out of the chair that Peach had accidently pinned him in. "Good morning, Bowser," Peach chirped.
Bowser was grinning, and pulled himself upright, clearing his throat before he replied, "Good morning, Peach." She giggled at his obvious determination to be proper. He continued, "Did you sleep well?"
"Very," she answered with a smile, getting up to approach him. "Very good dreams, too."
"Hey, me too!" Bowser said excitedly. "I dreamt about you!" Peach blushed red in reply.
Lemmy's mouth had formed an 'o' as he stood, listen to the two adults. "Hey Larry, what's wrong with Mama Peach and King Dad?"
"Nothing's wrong with them, Lem!" Larry hissed, smacking his brother lightly on the arm.
"Yeah," cooed Wendy, running over to stick her head between the two mowawked brothers. "They're just in looove."
"Wendy," Peach cautioned, now standing next to Bowser. "Just because two people are talking to each other does not mean they're in love."
"A very accurate axiom, your highness," Ludwig duly noted. "However, what I believe Wendy has perceived from your miniscule, yet portent conversation falls far deeper, and rests in veracity as well."
Bowser looked at his eldest blankly, and Peach stuttered for an answer. "Believe what you may, Ludwig," she finally answered, looking away from the koopalings and messing with her glove, "but I still think that two people should be able to have a conversation without subtext being interpreted every which way."
Iggy elbowed Roy, muttering out the corner of his mouth, "It's only subtext if it's subtle." He smirked, waiting for Roy's reply, but he just stared at him blankly through his sunglasses. Surely, his eyes were rolling.
Peach shook her hair out, her face still a slight pink as she ignored the snickering koopalings. "So, Bowser, what are our plans for today?"
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The customers of Madame's Inn sat in the main room, huddled together in the tense quiet. Lights shined overhead as if nothing was wrong, but the tight lines around Mme Clearmont's face seemed to tell otherwise.
She assured the customers that 'everything was fine', and Mario, Luigi and Daisy attempted to return to their breakfast activities unfazed…and were just as successful at hiding their fear as everyone else.
Madame sighed, distressed at her likewise distressed customers. She approached the travelers and leaned in to mutter under her breath, "you'll have to take your business outside, if you wouldn't mind."
They looked up silently, unsure how to answer in the confusion. "For the peace of mind of my customers and the hasty conclusion to this situation, please take yourselves-" she pointed to Daisy's purse, "and your business…outside."
Meredith ran over to join them as they stood up to leave, but her mother put out her hand and stopped her. "This isn't your battle, Merbear…" Madame muttered.
Her daughter gripped her mom's arm and looked nervously into her aging eyes. "Mom, is it really that bad? You haven't called me Merbear for years."
"I don't know," Madame answered, looking from her daughter to the plumbers and the princess, "but I have faith that it won't be, soon enough."
The trio thanked Madame Clearmont once more before pushing through the door quickly into the dark morning.
The experience was ethereal to say the least; all around them, it was dark as the dead of night, but light was visible on all their horizons and morning birds still sang. The sun, shrouded in the mysterious darkness, shone ineffectively.
Mario gulped, wringing his hands. "Well-a, let's get-a this on." He weakly smiled, awkwardly aware he didn't know where to go next. There was no path of dropped treasure, no power star glittering in the distance. "Maybe the gems know-a the way."
He held out an expectant hand. Daisy looked around, seeing no one but the darkness, and fished in her purse. She pulled out a gem and placed it in Mario's glove. "Well, mystic? What do you see?" she asked dryly.
Mario's mustache twitched as he pondered. "Maybe we should-a look at-a two at-a once."
When Daisy placed the second gem in Mario's hand, the two accidently touched. Slowly, with a twinkling hum, the two began to turn white, a bright light seeping out of the gems. Mario's gloves, though they were already white, began to be as blindingly white as the gloves. "Turn it off! Turn it off!" Daisy shrieked, grabbing one of the gems out of Mario's hand. Quickly, the light seeped away and the gems returned to their normal color. "You know what these do," she hissed. "Even without all four, we can't risk anything."
While she was stuffing the gems back in her purse, the darkness seemed to lift. The group watched where it seemed to form the apex of darkness, strangly forming what looked to be a person made completely out of dark.
The figure stood with a curving, smoke-like body that reminded them more of an apparition than anything else. Plumes of what seemed to be naught but darkness trailed off what formed its arms, hair, and robes. The figure smirked at its audience.
"A pleasure to meet you all, I'm sure," it said, its voice high and low at the same time, echoing around their heads ever-so faintly. "Though I do wish we needn't meet under such…despicable reasons. Why, I believe you have something…something that belongs to me."
"Who are you?" Daisy sneered, hastily hiding her purse from view.
"That doesn't matter. Names are such trivial things. I'm not sure I even have one, really. A better question would be what am I. And the answer to that is a real tickler, I assure you. Why, unlike you matter-hogs, I am living poetry. I strike fear into the hearts of children I have never even met. I have the power to bring you night under the watch of the sun. I am Darkness. And those gems you're trying to hide, young lady, are mine."
"No they're not!" Daisy yelled, praying her shaking legs be still. Luigi, unable to speak next to her, was an absolute wreck already. Mario, flanking the princess on her right, finally seemed interested and not the least bit frightened of their opposition.
"Not yet they're not," it spoke, "but you see….I already have quite the collection." It absorbed its arms into itself, the blacker-than-black center of the creature. When they came back out, he held the two missing gems in each of his solid-darkness hands.
Mario ran up to him, looking to slap his hand and retrieve the gems, but the creature held them high above their heads. "Uh, uh, uh! These are look- don't touch possessions." A gem disappeared into his hand itself and the spectre of darkness brought it down to sweep through Mario's chin lazily, tauntingly. "Much like everything about me, you see-"
Mario interrupted the darkness's speech with a swift fireball through its center. The darkness gasped, cut off from both his monologue and the lower half of his body. He slid away a few yards, filling in his center with darkness again. "So that's how you want to play this game, matter-hog? Alright, but watch out; those who play with fire tend to get BURNED." Suddenly, they were thrown into the sheet of darkness again, the spectre absent from their view.
They looked around, but the darkness was so thick it was hard to see each other, let alone their opposition. With a flash, the light returned as the darkness solidified around Daisy's purse, one greedy little hand of darkness fishing in her purse, the other pressing against her face.
A sudden wave of bravery hit Luigi as he yelped in disapproval. He spun a flashlight out of his belt and yelled a war cry as he shone it at the creature's face.
The darkness immediately dissipated, spreading thin and thinner. Daisy shone in happiness and rushed to Luigi to thank him liberally. "Not-a so fast…" Mario warned, looking around suspiciously. "That was-a too easy."
"Oh Mario, just because Luigi got him and your little fire-trick didn't doesn't mean you need to be all-"
"Where is-a the bag?" Mario interrupted.
With the rate the darkness had dissipated, none of them noticed it had formed the darkness creature again until his eerie voice sounded in their ears and heads. "You idiots," it laughed, floating around them and lingering on Luigi. Like gaseous ice, it ran its dark fingers along Luigi's shoulders. "Though not as pathetic as you look. Admirable job, indeed. Anyway," it continued, sweeping to a rock far away from the three of them. "Are you all looking for this?" It dangled Daisy's yellow bag for them all to see, smirking. "Well, that's too bad. I've got a date with destiny, and I hear she likes pretty gems. Don't worry, though; I'll take good care of- what the-?"
Mario had thrown a fireball just as Luigi shone his flashlight on the creature's arm. The bag fell to the ground and Mario ran towards it, chucking fireballs to keep the spectre from it.
Fighting against the light, the spectre put out the light of each flame with difficulty. It seemed less able to darken an area and remove light as a figure, but it was certainly trying. Luigi shone the light in his face, blinding it from seeing Mario as Luigi could move his light to wherever the creature moved its face.
Soon the bag was back in Mario's grasp, and he ran back to Daisy. With a squeal of frustration, the creature dissipated, instantly putting out Mario's flames and Luigi's flashlight. Cast into the darkness, Daisy could still see her burnt bag in Mario's hands. "You'd better be getting me a new one of those, bucko," she snarled.
He moved to bring it to her when the darkness figure reappeared between the two of them. It was taller this time, its plumes of hair waving down directly above Mario. The plumber skidded to a stop, just barely avoiding the wall of darkness. He whistled and threw the bag to the left, Luigi leaping in the air to nimbly catch it.
Luigi held the bag in the crotch of his arm, running down the way towards the inn, but saw the darkness floating to tackle him. "Go-a long!" He yelled, throwing the bag to Daisy. She caught it and immediately went for the inn again…until she tripped over a solid darkness bar in her way.
The bag tossled high into the air, the spectre stretching out to reach it. Mario's wall-jump off the inn proved more successful, and soon the bag was securely in his arms. But Mario was himself soon in the arms of Darkness.
The creature held Mario, forming a disk around him with just a thin layer of darkness keeping him held, taunting the other two. Darkness smirked, teasing, "if I can't have just my bag, I guess this will do. I think he makes a lovely consolation prize…don't you? Yes, he'll do quite nicely as I rule my new dominion; by my side, at my feet, on his knees…whichever suits us best."
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"So, where are we going now?" Peach asked, following right along with Bowser as he led her down the snaking corridors.
"Town, Peach. The same place we were going two minutes ago," Bowser threw Peach a half-smile as she smacked his bicep.
"Geez, Bowser, you know that's not what I meant! If we're really just going to the down-town right outside the Palace…why aren't we going out the front door?"
"Oh!" Bowser replied, blinking. "I never go out that door."
"Why not?"
Bowser gestured towards the outside of the volcano with his thumb-claw. "Keeps them guessing." He chuckled, continuing on his way. "Not to mention this works exactly with what Kamek set up for us."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well," Bowser began, looking pleased, down at the Princess. "Yesterday was a very special holiday. Probably the most important holiday the entire year."
Raising an eyebrow, Peach said, "your birthday."
"Right!" Bowser cheered, turning Peach into what looked like a subway terminal. The terminal looked about the same as the rest of the dungeon floors of the palace; rustification on the stones and lit by torches in the image of the koopa king. "A time to celebrate me. AND my peons get the day off. Obviously the best day ever."
Bowser and Peach stopped when they reached the crowd of night-shift workers and delegates with suitcases packed and at hand. The king continued, "It also happens to be a very convenient time for a bunch of people to take off work and celebrate me…so Downtown Darklands is going to be packed with people wishing me Happy Birthday for the weekend."
Peach froze, staring up at Bowser. "I thought you said Kamek set it up so we wouldn't be bothered. Bowser…you know if the paparazzi sees me…if word gets to Toadsworth…the mushroom kingdom at all, I'll be-"
"Don't worry," Bowser appeased, putting a claw on Peach's shoulder as he ran through her hair with his other. "No one is going to know. No one is going to care. Not even the paparazzi."
"What are you talking about?"
Perhaps Bowser began to answer, but the squealing and screeching of the subway drowned him out. It lurched into the station, designed, of course, to symbolize Bowser. The doors slid open and the commuters piled into the subway. Bowser roared for them to get out of his way, and led Peach onto the subway. She took a seat and Bowser took the two next to her, smiling.
"So I guess I should just trust you, Bowser?"
"Do you trust me?" Bowser honestly inquired.
Peach looked into his eyes and thought long before answering. "You know, with all the kidnappings and destroying my country and ruining afternoons, I probably shouldn't. But I'm learning more about you…and you're learning more about me…and yeah, I think I do." She smiled, grabbing Bowser's hand to look at it instead of his eyes. "Of course, I'm not sure I trust myself right now, but…at least I have a little faith in one of us."
Bowser laughed, pulling Peach's face up back to be level with his. "I love you, Peach."
Peach's eyes were wide and blue, hearing new meaning in those words every time he repeated them. "I know," Peach smiled, holding his claw in place on her cheek, "and I love that."
"Excuse me," an old koopa maid interrupted. Instantly, Peach pulled her hands and eyes away from Bowser, looking away sheepishly from the koopa maid.
"What," Bowser growled.
"Do you know where this train gets off, young man?"
"Lady, can't you read? Fourty-second and Spiny, like the freakin' marquees all over the train say."
The lady wobbled on her crutch, unfazed by Bowser's scalding remarks. "Oh, thank you very much, young man. Have a good day with your lady friend."
Bowser grumbled as he watched her wobble away, loudly complaining to Peach, "even if she can't read, she could have asked any of these dunders! Honestly, I don't know how you make it everyday being so dang nice to people like that."
Peach rolled her eyes, saying, "well, you're getting a little bit better. At least you helped her. So…we're going to Fourty-second and Spiny? Where's that?"
"It's in the middle of town. Wideway district. If we get off there, no one will outright assume it's really us."
"Um…Bowser…not sure if you noticed, but we don't exactly blend in. Even here."
"You'd be surprised…" Bowser mysteriously replied, looking down at Peach over the bridge of his nose. His smile cracked and they began to laugh at nothing particularly funny. He grinned. "I'd explain more, but you probably won't believe me until you see it."
"See what?"
"See why, of all the days in the world to go out among my people, today is the best day."
"I guess you're not going to tell me here, then."
"You guessed right, Peachy," Bowser commented, very lightly punching her arm. She giggled, punching him back.
Peach shook out her hair and looked around the full subway car. "So…all these people are going into the city just from your Palace?"
"Yep," Bowser answered, "a few of them work nights and are going home. Some were there for meetings and stayed the night so they can travel home in the day. Every once in a while there's someone who's taking a day off to sight-see or whatever…but really, the Palace is self-sufficient. The ones who don't live there and do have full-time jobs are the minority in the Palace. But there are enough of them all that a station in the Palace's basement is a necessity. Plus, it makes school field trips cheaper to shove all the kids on a subway."
"Field trips?" Peach asked, incredulously.
"Yeah!" Bowser laughed. "Why does that surprise you?"
Peach shrugged. "I've never hosted a field trip at the castle."
"You're not missing much," Bowser snarled. "Hundreds of tiny little trouble-makers, tipping over your statues, sticking their sticky fingers on the walls, getting stuck on the roller-coasters…mooning over your decorations…writing millions of thank-you letters with enough crayon wax to fill a vat…telling you how awesome you are every-time they see you…"
Peach looked over at Bowser, her expression a soft smirk. "You love them, don't you."
Bowser looked over at her. "What? Psh…no…no, of course not! They're so…annoying." He scrunched his face and shook his head as convincingly as possible. "You, though. You'd love it. You should try it some time."
Peach laughed. "I'll make sure to. Unless they're too annoying. I don't want to risk getting my walls sticky."
"Well…" Bowser mumbled, avoiding Peach's eyes, "they're not bad all the time…"
Peach snaked her arms around Bowser's, leaning onto him. She smiled, laughing very quietly as she held on to him. Bowser looked over at her, melting. He put his head on her hair and they sat like that, listening to the sounds of the subway and their steady breathing.
But soon enough, they had pulled into the station under Fourty-second and Spiny streets, elevator music in the minor key blaringly reminding Peach what world she was in- Bowser's. They piled off the train with a lot of the other riders, Bowser grabbing Peach's hand to lead her. The double-takes people took towards the royalty were few…and absolutely no one approached them.
It didn't take long for Peach to understand why…like Bowser promised, they didn't really stand out. Within their immediate eyesight alone, there were three girls of varying species dressed exactly like her, down to the blonde wigs, and five other Darklandians that seemed to be imitating Bowser's looks. Three of them looked nothing like him at all, sporting what was clearly just face-makeup or a cheap costume, but the other two could have been his relative.
Bowser beckoned Peach to follow him up the stairs, and when they emerged onto the street-level, there were even more copy-cats among the crowd of Darklandians. The street itself was bizarre to Peach…although it was mid-morning, the smog darkened the sky to the same light that they just had in the subway terminal. Buildings like sky-scrapers climbed into the heavens, piercing clouds of smoke high above their heads. Sounds blared all around them, and lights came from every source imaginable…the building windows, flashing marquees, car headlights, and even not-so-distant rivers of lava, running alongside busier streets.
"Bowser…this place is enormous!" Peach gasped, backing closer to her guide in intimidation.
"Oh, you just wait, Peach."
"And are you going to explain those…people…walking around looking like us?" she asked, glancing a group of seven copy-cats, all walking together.
"That is why I have to remember to give Kamek a raise or something. Obviously, we're amazing. So people want to copy us…literally. Have you heard of look-alike contests?"
Peach nodded. "I've been to a few for Mario, but…are you saying there's a look-alike contest for you and me? And don't know about it?"
"Peach," Bowser slowly began, looking at her comfortingly, "we're in the Darklands. There's a LOT you don't know about." He laughed and nodded. "They've always had this big contest for people who wish they were me on my birthday here…attracts a lot of weirdos, actually. But hey; they like me, so how weird can they be? A few years ago, they started to add you in for the ones who look more like you, are girls, or are too wise to think they could match up with me. But everyone who dresses up like you sucks."
"Bowser!" Peach scolded, worried for the ears of the koopa Peach-double with a lopsided wig and too-bright lipstick that just walked by.
"Well, they shouldn't be surprised they suck! Nobody could ever be as beautiful as you! No matter how similar they looked. Anyway," Bowser continued, not catching Peach's hidden smile, "they have this big thing yesterday. Usually, everyone packs up their bags and goes home today or whatever, but they never stay in costume. It's a one-day thing…and except for the lucky stiffs that actually DO look like us, most people are ready to go back to their little holes they live in. But Kamek…he was actually smart for once in his life.
"He contacted all them big names and put out a new competition for look-alikes with bigger prizes, more rankings, and better motivations. And the ticket price to get in is real cheap…like twenty-five coins or something. The contest yesterday costs one hundred just to get in! Plus, what Kamek isn't having go towards the jackpot prizes, he's advertising to put into one of the charities around here. There's lots of charity things competitors can do that goes towards that same charity…I think he's calling the contest 'Cause-Play'. So basically, everyone that went to that one yesterday and everyone who lives nearby is sticking around an extra day because of something Kamek set up to let us walk around town unnoticed."
Peach rubbed her head, thinking about all Kamek's rigging and hard work just to keep her conceited little desire to not let the news know how she spent her vacation. "Yeesh…you'd better give him a raise."
Peach and Bowser walked down the street a bit, Bowser's eyes glued on Peach's face. She surveyed the buildings, the roads, the sights, smells, and people in this new experience. The town was dingier than any of those in the Mushroom Kingdom not on the "poverty watch" list, but it had a class that wasn't found anywhere outside the "high-salary zones". And the mosaic of citizens itself seemed more vast than that in her entire kingdom. Surely, many of these people from every walk of life and every personality and moral standard wouldn't hesitate to contact the nearest paper to report Peach's tourist state. It would be the biggest story of the year, and the biggest money-maker a tabloid could afford. But Bowser was right…among the hundreds of Peachs walking around that morning, Peach was hardly noticed.
She could enjoy herself completely, as if she was in the safety of VolcanoPalace, but out among the people. It was an experience she longed for even at home, and exactly what she had left her normal plans for. A chance to enjoy herself in the public without being in its eye. And better yet, she got to spend it with a person whom she really…enjoyed being with.
Peach grabbed Bowser's hand and looked up at him. "Thank you."
Bowser smiled back at her, running his free hand through her blonde waves of hair. "You're welcome, Princess."
Author's Note: I actually moved a bit faster at the end than I hoped. I was going to drag Bowser's explanation and Peach's reaction to the city out a bit more, but I kind of like it like this. Fast-paced...like the actual situation. :D
Next chapter resolves the action (but not the explanation) for Mario, so definately look for that. :) The other half, with promised fluff, isn't quite written yet.
I have to mention that sweet Mikari has found lots of y'all being extra cute about this story for me...extra comments, recommendations...all sorts of things. I'm SO FLATTERED. There's something extra crazy amazing about finding people talking GOOD about you behind your back. This is such an awesome fandom we have. C: I hope you guys feel as FAMILIar as I do with y'all.
Speaking of that, mariosonic has an entire oneshot written in CoH's honor, which I plan on canonizing very very soon. Maybe in 32, maybe in 33. :D (I'll remind you when I get there) For other examples of love, I implore you all to check out the fanart (now including fanfic!) section for CoH on the ebtwisty website. Link in profile! Pretty soon, I'm going to have a picture up of MY IDEA of the shadowy spectre, too. If you're curious.
That was longer A/N than I hoped. :[ guess you guys are just too awesome. ;)
-Razzi