Summary: Violet's first steps come at a price as she discovers one of her powers.
Okay, here's where things get interesting. Still pretty cute, though.
Chapter Two: Baby Steps (Part Two)
Violet wrote in her glittery pink notebook, as her father explained and demonstrated a basic addition problem on the blackboard hanging on the wall of his office. (A sentence on the bottom of the board read, MLGV GL HVOU: GVZXS ERLOVG SLD GL FHV XLWRMT.) Their lesson was interrupted by a banging on the door.
"I got it," Tad assured, already flying to the door. "You guys keep doing what you're doing." Tad opened the door, and Larman ran in excitedly. Tad closed the door, rolling his eyes. "Come on in. Don't be shy."
Larman stopped in front of a startled Ford and panted, "Dude, dude...gnomes...bunch of… I'm outta shape…"
"Larman, what are you talking about?" Ford asked.
The large gopher arched his back in a stretch and responded, "I know the town's been paying you to research the creatures that show up in this dimension, so I thought you'd like to know about the gnomes."
Ford perked up at the mention of gnomes, but his daughter didn't notice. "What's a gnome?"
Tad answered, "It's a really short guy with a beard and a stupid-"
"Hat!" Ford practically yelled. The others looked at him, and his face darkened. He coughed into his six-fingered fist. "They, um, they have pointy hats as well." Suddenly, he grinned and rubbed his hands to together. "And, who knows what secrets those hats hold…"
An awkward silence followed, broken when Violet asked, "Papa, did you get bit by the cuckoo fairy?"
Ford chuckled sheepishly. "N-No, Little One." He patted his daughter's head. "Not since last week. Sorry. I've just always wondered what's under those ha-"
Tad and Ford were hiding in the bush. A group of what must have been gnomes scurried by, and Ford threw a chocolate bar to one. It quickly noticed the food and broke away from the others. It sniffed the snack, picked it up, and stood there nibbling on it, facing away from its observers.
"Okay, we've got him alone," Tad whispered. "Now, what? We just kinda observe him or something?"
Ford shrugged noncommittally. "Sort of. But, I'm going in for a closer look."
"You're not gonna try to take off its hat, are you?"
Ford didn't answer. "In order for this to work, we're going to have to be very quiet. Any loud noises may scare him away." The gnome lifted his hat slightly and hid the candy inside. Ford leaped out of the bush, shouting, "Pointy HAAAAATTT!" Before the gnome could react, Ford tackled him, and the two immediately started wresting. "What are you hiding, you bearded little twerp!?"
Tad could only watch in disbelief. "This is not in character."
At last, Ford managed to yank off the gnome's red hat. Various snacks tumbled out of it.
Violet blinked rapidly and shook her head clear. What happened? The forest and the gnome were gone. She was back in her father's office. But, he and Tad were gone. It was just her and Larman. She looked up at him. "Where'd everyone go?"
Larman pursed his lips. "Well, your mom's at the art show, selling her work, Tad and your dad - oh, man, dude, that totally rhymed - they're out gnome-hunting, and Starclops… Oh, gosh, I don't know what she's doing. Dude, is that bad? Shouldn't we, like, know what she's doing at all times or something?"
So...Larman was her babysitter? "What happened to the forest?"
The gopher raised an eyebrow. "Forest? What forest?"
What did he mean, "What forest?" "The forest! The gnome! There was here and then there was a forest and a gnome and Papa beat it up and-and its hat was full of stuff and then there was here again!"
To her dismay, Larman started laughing. "I have literally no idea what you just said." Violet pouted in annoyance. Obviously, her friend wasn't going to listen to her. But, she knew that she saw something! "Anyway, why don't we continue with your lessons, girl-dude?"
Violet sighed. "Okay."
"Sweet! So, where'd you leave off?"
"Depends. How much do you know about the periodic table?"
"...The period-what?" Larman awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh...how about we just play some games or something?" He ruffled her brown curls. "Let me find some games. You stay put, lil' dawg."
Violet slumped in her seat as her sitter left the room. This was stupid. She was telling the truth! There had been a fore-
"Okay, you listen, Guardian, and you listen good!" Larman snapped into the phone. "I did exactly what you asked. I let Ford stay at my place. He's out of your way. Now, when are you gonna hold up your end of the bargain?" Violet didn't hear the answer, but the scowl on Larman's face and the shaking of his body told her that he didn't like it. "Guardian, you sick son of a bitch!" Wasn't that one of the words Violet's father told her to never say unless she was completely alone? "I did your dirty work! Ford's here! He won't bother you or your stupid plan! Now, I demand immediate payment from you!" There was a pause. "Guardian? Guardian!?" Larman growled and threw the phone across the room.
Violet nearly fell out of her chair. What was that?
Larman walked back into the room, carrying a small, tan, hairy thing. "Okay, so I didn't find any games. But, I did find this hairy misshapen ball. It was locked in a cage for some reason."
"Who's Guardian?"
The question almost made Larman drop the "ball." "Uh, w-what?"
"I saw you on the phone. Who's Guardian?"
Larman laughed nervously, making Violet even more suspicious. "Guardian? Who- I don't know any- You- Your eyes and ears are broken! Wait, do-do you actually have ears?"
"And, why did you let my family stay here?" He was getting nervous. Her father said that if someone gets nervous when you ask simple questions, it usually means they're hiding something. Violet hopped off her chair and walked up to him. He backed away from her, only confirming that he was up to something. "What's going on, Larman? I saw the phone and you did dirty work and you said a bad word and I wanna know who Guard-"
A startled, "Violet!" snapped her out of her trance. Her mother had returned from the art show and was grinning at her, purple eyes filled with pride. "Oh my goodness! Look at you!"
Violet tilted her head, and it dawned on her. She had been walking. Not crawling. Actually walking. Paranoia temporarily forgotten, Violet let out a little squeal.
Nadia laughed and picked up her daughter, spinning her around. "You're walking! You're finally walking!"
"Yay!" Violet cheered. The door closed. Larman was gone. That guy was up to something, but what was it? Maybe it wasn't anything. Larman was a really nice man. He wouldn't do anything to hurt her family.
Would he?
The door opened. Larman held up the hairy "ball." "Oh, sorry. I forgot to give you back this ball."
Nadia eyed it warily. "Larman, that's not a ball. That's a creature Ford's been studying."
The creature uncurled itself, revealing a face and pudgy arms and legs. It squealed and jumped on Larman's face. The gopher screamed and tried in vain to pull it off.
Ford scrambled to jam the screaming creature back in its cage, exhaling in relief when he finally did so. He arched his back and said to his wife, "So, let me get this straight. I missed her first steps!?"
Nadia shrugged. "Well, I missed her first word, so I guess we're even."
Starclops was holding Violet upside-down and squinting at the toddler's feet. "They're just little stumps. They don't even have toes. How do you move around?"
"I don't know," Violet stated, feeling a little nauseous, "but the blood's rushing to my head." Starclops dropped her, and she plopped on her back, even dizzier than before. But, at least she wasn't upside-down anymore. "Thank you." She slowly got to her feet, her head swimming slightly less, and remembered. "Oh yeah. Something weird happened."
Tad was sitting in Ford's desk chair. "Weird things happen all the time, kid. Just today, your dad went insane and killed a gnome."
"I didn't kill it," Ford argued. "He was just unconscious. Probably. But-But, I did find out what gnomes hide in their hats." He chuckled. "They keep snacks up in there. Who knew?"
But, how did he know that all gnomes put food up there? Violet voiced this thought. "But, you only beat up one gnome. Maybe other gnomes-"
"Violet," Tad interrupted, "please don't get him going. And, how did you know he only attacked one? We didn't say how many."
"I saw it. Papa threw chocolate and the gnome ate it and Papa beat him up and the hat came off and snacks fell out! I saw it and I told Larman and he didn't believe m-"
"Wait, wait." Ford pulled his pen and journal out of his trench coat and opened the journal to a new page. "You say you saw it? How, exactly?"
How? How…? That was a good question. Violet shrugged. "I don't know. When you left, I saw you in the forest. Then, I stopped seeing the forest, and I was here again."
Ford jotted everything down, as Nadia asked, "So, you saw that before it happened?"
Violet tilted her head. "I don't know. I think."
"Hm…" Tad folded his hands, thinking. "Nadia, you're the only other mutant here. Do you think Violet might have developed one of her powers?"
Nadia blinked twice, as though she hadn't considered the possibility. "I-I suppose it's possible. Though, from what I hear, non-corporeal powers are pretty rare. But, come to think of it, I was around her age when I developed my healing abilities."
Violet tilted her head. "Um, what's noncop-cop-peel?"
"Non-corporeal," Ford corrected. "It means 'intangible.'"
"Intan-huh?"
Ford clicked his tongue. "Okay. Think of your mother's powers. Other people can see when she's using them, so they're tangible or corporeal." Tongue dangling from her mouth, Violet nodded. "Well, let's assume that you do have an ability. If you're the only one who knows you're using it, then it's intangible or non-corporeal. Do you understand?"
Violet nodded. "I think so."
"So, you're clairvoyant?" Starclops asked her. "Can you tell me if your dad's butt will ever get less appealing? My guess is that it'll only get more appealing."
Blushing furiously, Ford snapped, "What? Are-Are you serious?"
Starclops shrugged. "Hey, it ain't my fault if your kid's clairvoyant."
Violet frowned. "Clair-vee…"
"Clairvoyant. It basically means, you have visions of the future," Tad provided.
Violet grinned. The future! She could see things before they happened! So...that vision with Larman… She didn't know when that would happen. But, Larman was a nice person. He played with her and babysat her after Starclops got banned from doing it. Sometimes even before she was banned. No, Violet wouldn't tell them about that vision. It probably wasn't anything to worry about. He'd probably just been talking to someone he didn't like.
Larman's mansion was more than big enough for other people to live in. So, he'd figured, why not let others live there? Hey, he was only one gopher. He didn't need much space, and his parents had left him all their fortune in their wills. Plus, he'd gotten a steady job anyway, so it wasn't like he was low on money. The other residents paid rent, so that helped a lot. Unfortunately, letting others stay there meant that it was harder for him to find a secluded area to make this phone call. Violet's suspicions still left him uneasy. For a toddler, she sure seemed to know a lot. Not that he had done a very job of hiding it. He really needed to work on his lying.
Finally, he decided to retreat to his bedroom. It wasn't sound-proof, but no one would bother him. Especially since he'd went into his connected bathroom and locked the door. No one could know about this. Especially not the Pines's and those demons. He genuinely like them, and, if the circumstances were different, he still would have offered to let them stay.
Larman dialed the number and waited, as the other line rang...and rang...and rang… Finally, the man on the other picked up. Larman swallowed thickly. "Uh, hey, Guardian. So, uh, it's been a few, y'know, years. I was wondering when I'd-"
"Let me stop you there," the man on the other end said. "I don't appreciate you trying to rush me-"
"Rush you?" If Larman had clenched his cellphone any tighter, it surely would have shattered. "It's been three years, dude."
"I also don't appreciate being interrupted! You'll get what you want, when I'm good and ready to give it."
"Okay, you listen, Guardian, and you listen good!" Larman snapped into the phone. "I did exactly what you asked. I let Ford stay at my place. He's out of your way. Now, when are you gonna hold up your end of the bargain?"
NZPRMT Z WVZO DRGS TFZIWRZM RH ORPV NZPRMT Z WVZO DRGS YROO. RG ZODZBH VMWH FK YRGRMT BLF RM GSV YFGG.
More interesting, yes? Oh, I forgot to mention before that all the codes are in atbash. Also, the thing Ford's studying is the thing from "Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained: Candy Monster." Review!
