Disclaimer: I do not own Legion. I do own Ebony Dent.
Yes, another scary, holiday story. I decided to start this one earlier than the last one. This is in case I'm not able to post many more stories for the Christmas track list II before Christmas. I actually have a couple of gift stories to work on. But here.
Chapter title comes from one of the Donkey Kong Country games.
Chapter Two: Decking The Floor
The inside of the Fair Weather Inn was well furnished, spic and span, if not old. Wooden furniture and plaid fabric on the pillows and covers. They actually still used working televisions in the rooms and cordless telephones of all things. There was a sauna, a gym, a pool, a kitchen, three dining rooms, a movie room, an arcade, a library, four sitting rooms, a walk-in freezer, bathrooms in all the guest rooms, a lounge, a living room, and a front desk.
"Well, the inside isn't so bad..." Ebony said, still by Garth's side, carrying his bags and hers.
"I figured it'd be right up your alley." He said. "I mean, I know how much you love old things."
"They're not old to me." Ebony said. "I mean, not that old." She corrected herself.
"Eh, why quibble with semantics?" Garth asked. "So, I gotta go help the other Garth pick out a tree for the lounge in a little bit."
"We're getting a tree?" Ebony asked.
"Yep. We even brought decorations. Or we could make them ourselves." Garth explained. "Where else are we gonna stick the presents?"
"I've never really had the chance to decorate a tree before. Marcie never had a very partial touch when it came to holidays."
"Poor baby. Before I leave, need help picking out a room?" Garth offered.
"Yeah, I guess. I don't wanna walk around this place by myself." She said.
"Not to worry, Monkey Boy's here to keep you safe." Garth told her, sticking out his chest.
"Oh I feel SO safe." Ebony swooned. "Whatevah would ah do without you, good suh, for ah am just a dainty Southern belle, and with the Spring Cotillion on it's way?" She spoke in a mock Southern accent.
"Well mahm, ah reckon ah don't kindly right know ah tell you." He replied in a bad Southern/Western drawl, trying to sound like a cowboy and pretending to tip an imaginary cowboy hat. The two exchanged a fit of giggles.
"Ayla, come on! I'm gonna go look for a room." Ebony called.
"Coming!" Ayla said, grabbing her bags and catching up to the two as they walked up the stairs. As she walked beside them, she watched her brother and his girlfriend kissing under mistletoe. The cheesy display of romance made her stomach turn. As it did the man watching from the window at the end of the hall.
...
"And here we are, ladies."
Garth opened the door for the two young girls to step in. The room had two beds on both sides of the room, and a bare wooden floor. The quilts were faded, but sewn by hand. There were four pillows on each bed. There was a dresser drawer, a closet, a desk, two night tables, a TV, and a bathroom.
"Cool." Ebony said.
"Very lumberjack chic." Ayla said.
"I'll leave you two ladies to get settled in." Garth said. "Were you able to remember how to get back to the main lobby from here?"
"Yes." Ebony replied.
"Good." He kneeled down to speak to them. "Now listen, we don't want either one of you wandering around here by yourselves, at least until we show you where everything is." Garth explained. "Promise you won't make a mess, you won't leave any uneaten food or dirty clothes lying around, and promise you won't break anything."
"We promise."
"Okay then." He said, standing up. "M'am." He said, to Ebony.
"Suh." She replied, and he left.
"You two are weird, you know that?" Ayla asked.
"Such is the curse of a devastatingly beautiful woman." Ebony joked.
"Now, I need your help." Ayla quickly said, now that they were alone. "I need you to keep the ice queen busy for most of this trip so Garth can spend it with me." Ayla had a scheming look twinkling in her eyes.
"Ayla what the heck is your problem with Imra?" Ebony asked.
"I can't stand it! I can't stand her being with him!" Ayla shouted. "I know he doesn't really like being with her."
"Yeah, by the way the two kiss and hold one another by the fire you can really pick up on the animosity." Ebony rolled her eyes.
"It's true!" Ayla claimed. "She's a mind reader. And that means he has to be nice to her or she would know."
"Wouldn't she also know if he was faking it if she was reading his mind?" Ebony used that needle to poke a hole in Ayla's logic bubble.
"Yeah, but he can fake those thoughts too." Ayla pointed out. "Now, I just need to figure out what I can do. Hmm, I can probably fake a heart attack at dinner but I'm guessing they could tell if I'm faking..."
Ayla began wracking her mind with possibilities. Ebony climbed on the bed and looked out the window to the blowing snow and freezing cold. The dark. This place. She felt a familiar coldness that she didn't want to remember. Then she looked at Ayla, plotting the downfall of Imra Ardeen, and somehow, she felt warm again.
"Maybe if I called and said that Imra's great great uncle died and she had to go to Titan for the reading of the will. She could be gone for months!" Ayla happily imagined. Ebony rolled her eyes.
"You say I'm weird?"
"Yeah, well, I make it work."
"Word."
...
"Geez, this place is like a museum." Tinya moaned, slumping down in an armchair in the lounge, by the fireplace.
"I know, isn't it great?" Young Rokk Krinn asked, ecstatic.
And now, we pause again for the benefit of you readers to establish the difference between the young and old Rokk Krinn.
*The younger one had short black hair and purple eyes.
*The older one had even shorter black hair and blue eyes. (Yes that's it)
"No, you see, I didn't mean that in a good way." Tinya replied, but he wasn't listening.
"Forget about him, he's in his own personal heaven." Imra sighed.
"Would you look at this place? Handmade wooden furniture. Hand stitched upholstery. Actual flat screen televisions. And look at this rooster lighting fixture!" He was actually fawning over a hand carved rooster light on a table in the front lobby. "Such perfect, hand carved detail!"
"Oh, yes. Will the magic never end." The older Ayla asked, mechanically.
"This whole place actually feels like a monument of some
"So what exactly is the history behind this place?" Young Brin Londo asked.
"Well, there isn't that much Fair Weather Valley is famous for, although it was the home of an obscure Wonder Woman villain." The older Rokk explained as the younger one started looking around the place. "An ice-themed villain called the Blue Snowman."
"The Blue Snowman? Really?" Brin asked.
"Yeah, she used some type of precipitation-device called-"
"Whoa. Hold it. You said 'she'?" Brin asked.
"Yes. The Snowman was actually a woman, a schoolteacher named Byrna Brilyant."
He received nothing but weirded out stares from everyone in the room.
"Can you say 'gender issues'?" Tinya asked.
"Well, it's not that bad." The older Imra said, a box of ornaments in her hands for when the two Garths would return with the tree. "There's a carnival in town. That should keep the girls busy."
"But there's nothing to do around here!" Tinya stomped her foot.
"Have you seen the pool?" Brin asked his irrate girlfriend.
"Pool?" Tinya asked.
...
"Oh my God what is with this place?" The older Brin Londo said, looking into the arcade. The room was filled with big, beeping, lighted machines with monitors and controls. All ancient with bad graphics and annoying music. Some had fake guns for controllers. Some, the racing games, had seats, wheels, and fake peddles. There were also pinball machines.
"Pac Man? Super Mario Brothers? Wave Race? Donkey Kong?" He began listing the names. "What the heck is this stuff?"
"Marvel Vs. Capcom! CarnEvil! Hydro Thunder! Guitar Hero! House of the Dead! Area 51!" Little Ebony was breathless. All her favorites were here. And, they were working. "It's like I've, I dunno, suffered some type of mortal wound and I've been displaced to a paradise that's been tailored to my liking!"
"Wow. That was really morbid and specific
"I'm beginning to see Ghost Girl's point." Brin said. "Unless you're a nostalgia freak or something, this place is weird."
"It's not all bad. They've at least got a pool table." The older Ayla said, her arms draped over his shoulders.
"Yeah, but it's not 3D."
"So what?" She asked. She walked over to the pool table, and picked up a cue stick. She held in a seductive way, pressed up against her chest. "Wanna rack 'em up?"
"Well when you put it that way..." Brin said, smirking.
...
Ayla was sitting at the top of the stairs when she heard the guys come back in. She eagerly rushed downstairs to her brother and jumped on his back, shaking off some of the snow on his person.
"Oof!"
"So, did you guys get the tree?" She asked.
"Yep, and it's a beauty." The younger Garth said as they were joined by the two Imras.
"Oh, it's gorgeous." Ayla said.
"Told you we could handle it." The older Garth said.
The two Imras began expecting it, when they exchanged dual glances with one another
"Uh, guys, not to nitpick or anything, but, did you bring an axe like we asked?" The younger Imra asked.
"An axe? Why would we need that?" The younger Garth said.
"To avoid something like this." The older Imra replied.
She pointed to the fact that the back of the tree was burnt and lacking any fir or needles.
"It's fine. We'll just cover it up with decorations. No one will notice." The younger Garth said.
"..." Was all the young Imra said.
"Oh, come on, Imra! It's thirty below out there!" The older Garth said.
"..." Was all that his wife said. The two Garths sighed.
"Fine, you win. We'll go get another one." The older Garth said.
"What do we do with this one?" The young Imra asked.
KRAKOOM!
"Problem solved." The two Garths said at the same time. The tree was vaporized.
"Can I come with you guys?" Ayla asked.
"I don't know, it's too cold for someone your age." Her brother said.
"Please? Please?" She said before breathing in deep, and going "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-"
"Alright! Alright!" They said. "Go get changed."
"Booyah!" Ayla happily cried, and she ran to her room to get changed, within a few seconds she was decked in winter gear when she saw Garth standing at the top of the stairs with Imra, also in her winter gear.
"What is she doing?" Ayla sternly asked.
"I decided to join you guys." Imra said.
"Apparently she has some problem with my taste in Christmas trees." Garth rolled his eyes. Imra laughed. Ayla fake laughed and then grabbed Garth's hand.
"No, that's okay, I have enough taste for the both of us." Ayla said.
Imra gently took Garth's right arm and wrapped it around her arm.
"Really, it's not problem Ayla."
"Really, Imra, you just go do whatever it is you were doing. WE'LL be fine." Ayla tugged at Garth's arm.
"Ow! Easy, Ayla." Garth told her. "I'm fine with Imra, coming."
"Well, I'm not. I mean, she obviously has better things to do." Ayla sternly said, and began pulling Garth towards the stairs.
"Ow! Ayla, slow down." Garth told her.
"Garth, maybe I shouldn't go." Imra said.
"Yeah, maybe you shouldn't." Ayla said.
"Ayla, that was rude!" Garth told his sister. She didn't let up on her cold stare at Imra.
"Sorry." She said, but Imra knew she wasn't sorry. "Come on, Garth." She said, trying to pull him down the stairs. "Let's-"
"Ayla, let go!"
He got out of her grip, surprisingly strong for a little girl but you know what they say about determination. Garth tripped on the rug.
"Gah!"
And before you know it was sent down the stairs.
THUD!
"Oh my God! Garth!"
He lay sprawled at the bottom of the stairs like a rag doll.
...
"You have GOT to be kidding me."
"They're actually making this easy for us."
"I dunno guys, I've heard stories about the black-haired girl."
"Seriously?"
"I heard she gouged out Silver Slasher's eye using her thumb."
"That is retarded."
"Can we get to the topic on hand? So, who dies first?"
