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“Death Of The ‘Cyberverse’”
or
“The Day The ‘Cyberverse’ Died”
by Jade Griffin
12-16-98 to 1-15-99
December 31st, 1999 ( 23:56:58 ) –
It was time to let the child side out. Jade Griffin opened the drawer containing her PASS card, her ‘key’ to the fae- and human-created tangible realm of friends known as the ‘cyberverse’. She took the card out and placed it words-up on the low table in her sitting room. Instead of the immediate bright greenish glow produced as the card transformed the tabletop into a portal to the ‘cyberverse’, it slowly produced a duller glow. Frowning as she prepared to jump into the portal, Jade Griffin catalogued the incident and decided to ask Comp about it. He was the one that gave her the card. Maybe it had to be recharged or something.
Normally, almost like a signature, Jade Griffin was expecting to be dropped into the night air outside the castle—her most frequented spot. It let her in near the castle, all right. Seven feet from it, which caused her to slam up against it in her diagonal descent after appearing in the air!
Taloned hands striking quickly into stone, the dark green gargoyle scrabbled up to the window. She had no time for a dignified entrance. Her child side really wanted out now. Unable to contain it, she was forced to oblige, her body glowing the dull purple as mind and body reverted to that of the child form.
The child’s second thought—her first being that she wanted to play tag with someone tonight—was ‘Where is everybody?’. There wasn’t anybody in here! But there was water splashed outta the pool. And when she looked on the counter, there was a soda there. And one on the little table by the couch. But that one was broke. There was soda on the table and the floor. . She looked around again, hoping nobody was gonna blame her for that when they saw it. Maybe if she cleaned it up before anybody got here, they wouldn’t get mad.
The child side grabbed some paper towels and started mopping up the fresh Pepsi, wondering why the person who did it didn’t –
The child side glanced at the fallen can, and saw why it spilled all over. It had a perfectly cubed square chunk missing from its center. It was all gone! … Weird.
To pass the time, the child decided with a sigh that she could color while she waited for people to come in. She reached under the couch to pull her book and crayons out… and her hand met empty space. When she tried feeling the floor for it, she found she couldn’t feel any! The child flipped up the couch skirting and, on her belly, squeezed under for a look. And almost fell through the very deep hole in the floor! She scrabbled back quickly. It looked like it went forever! Just black all the way down…
That’s when she noticed other stuff had holes, or were completely missing around the castle. And right before her eyes, another square of empty black took the place of a section of wall.
Jade Griffin, adult, repeated unheard, Go. Go back home. Right now! The child was beginning to think that was a good idea, and may have retreated back to the semi-dormant status it kept in Jade Griffin’s brain.
A flash of light had the child looking in that direction, startled. A blue male gargoyle she had never seen before glanced about casually and spotted her.
He smiled. “Hello. Are you the only one in here?”
The child side nodded, planning to ask this adult why there were square holes appearing in things. One happened to come into being under his left foot. Springing back quickly, a little off-balanced, he stared at the hole in shock.
“What the heck happened??”
“I don’t know.” the child answered, starting to get scared. The ‘fridgerater even had holes in it…
“C’mon.” the blue male said. “Let’s get outta here.”
“Okay.” The child followed him to the balcony, also acquiring holes. When they looked out, both saw deserted streets and buildings. All were getting more and more holes. Even the sky…
“Where do you live?”
“I livVvVv~-“
The child side couldn’t finish. A great shaking started that had them crouching for balance. It was like the whole place was falling apart. Even the air was shaking! She… She could feel it!
“Look out!”
The child had no time to. The blue gargoyle pushed her back inside on a dive, sending them both for a role on the castle floor seconds before huge chunks of stone crushed the balcony, sending it street-ward with a booming crash. Cracks began in the floor around them, then healed!, only to start again. All the lighting—candles, lamps, all of it—disappeared or went out just as half the ceiling and rafters fell through because of the holes. The child could only stare in utter shock and horror as the castle disintegrated around her.
With the lights out, it was easy to see the bright green glow of a magical teleportation. A yellow-skinned, green-haired fey appeared, along with another strange gargoyle. Jade Griffin, adult, aware of everything the child side experienced, recognized the fey as Comp, who was now very clearly trying to hold the place up with his magic. His body glowing green at the amount of power he exuded, she could still see his face straining.
The child side didn’t know Comp, but it was the dark green female gargoyle with the black wings whom she immediately decided was bad. The child couldn’t see her face, because the stranger’s back faced her as she worked with some hand-held machine, but there was… something… that told the child not to be around her.
She tugged at the blue male’s pant leg. “I wanna go. I don’ wanna be here.”
Comp’s concentration faltered at the voice. Correcting quickly, he paused to touch his companion’s face before she turned to look at who was in the castle. “Mask!”
“What are you doing??” was her startled exclamation.
“She’s here!”
The dark green female gargoyle garbed in black looked… And saw the child side staring warily at her. Comp had obviously just disguised her face but Jade Griffin’s child side looked like it knew exactly who and what was staring back at it.
“I … I think she knows. Somehow.” was the black-clad gargoyle’s quiet revelation of surprise.
“’G, get them out of here!”
At Comp’s reminder, she acted; replacing her chondromus device and running toward the two other gargoyles, dodging space as she made her way.
The child shrank against the blue male at her approach. The female’s face was very beautiful but the child would not be swayed.
“You’d better get out of here. This place isn’t going to hold up very much longer.”
“Do you know this child?” the male asked, a little nervous before such a gorgeous female. “I… I don’t know where she lives.”
“I do. Go ahead. I’ll take her.”
“I … don’t wanna…”
“It’d take too long to tell him. Come with me.” she told the unbudging child side. ‘G then pushed the male outward. “You go.”
He went, if reluctantly, disappearing by teleportation just as he’d come.
‘G’s biggest concern, besides the safety of Jade Griffin, was that of being found out by her dimensional counterpart. If she wasn’t already. Less time talking, the safer her autonomy was.
“Now, c’mon. There’s no one else to take you.” She picked up the rigid child and ran back to the opening caused by half the ceiling caving in on the destroyed balcony.
“Go!” Comp strained. “This isn’t easy, you know!”
‘G jumped out, carrying the child side. She knew from observing Jade Griffin exactly where she entered the ‘cyberverse’. If she arrived as the adult, she came through here… But the portal didn’t open as they got close. ‘G dove quickly back into what remained of the castle.
“We might have a problem, Comp.” she said upon re-entering. Running to the front doors, the child side’s entrance into the ‘cyberverse’, no portal appeared. “Yeah, we have a definite problem. It isn’t opening!”
“Put me down. Putmedown!”
‘G had no choice as the child contorted in her grasp. Once down, the child side put a good fifteen feet between them.
“I don’t like you. You feel funny.” announced the very uneasy child side.
‘G just stared at her. ‘Feel funny’? She could ‘feel’ what ‘G was? But ‘G didn’t feel anything weird—not even when touching her alter-dimensional double’s body (albeit in child form)… The child… It was made from magic, and the very essence of the original Jade Griffin. So maybe it could sense what ‘G was. And with luck, Jade Griffin couldn’t.
“I’m… losing this one, too.” Comp told them, great strain in his voice. There were more holes than anything now, their only protection being Comp’s efforts to stop or even just slow the destruction down a very weak ally against whatever was causing this.
“I’m ready when you are.” ‘G told him.
All three blinked out of the castle in a flash of green light. Without Comp inhibiting, it fell in on itself and began acquiring new holes again until there was nothing left.
The child side found herself in the sitting room of Jade Griffin’s home, alone, confused, and just plain mixed-up about everything. The castle was destroyed, and that lady was so weird. An’ there was nobody to tell her what was going on… She couldn’t help her tears.
Jade Griffin couldn’t even try to comfort her child side. There was only one thing running around her mind right now. Who was that strange female? Beautiful though she looked, the only word Jade Griffin could describe her with was… creepy. And too familiar. Never mind that she had the exact same skin and hair color, and even a tuft on the end of her black-tipped tail; just like herself. No. She knew that she was no relative to that weird gargoyle. Nobody ever gave her the chills like that.
Oh yeah, she could ‘feel’ the weirdness of the other just like her child side could, but not near as strongly. What erked Jade Griffin was that it was a familiar feeling. She’d ‘felt that same… whatever it was… before. Several times. So if it was that gargoyle she was somehow sensing, then that gargoyle had been spying on her for a long time. Years.
And then there was Comp. What did he have to do with that weird female? Jade Griffin had caught a lot more between those two than the child side. He’d called her by a name. Gee. A nickname? A full name? So many mysteries abrew! And when she sees Comp again… Comp. He’d been trying to hold up the castle—the whole ‘cyberverse’—together. What happened? What could have caused all that? She had to consider the possibility that… that everything was destroyed. And Comp and the weird female, too? She had to go back as soon as possible to see.
“No.” The child side had stopped crying and had actually been listening to Jade Griffin’s thoughts! “I don’t wanna see her again. She’s bad.”
Now, she knew that her child side didn’t mean that the stranger was evil. It just didn’t have any other way to classify the weirdness of the stranger or its uneasiness around her.
“She looks like us… but she doesn’t feel like you.”
The child side’s statement was a big shock. It rarely acknowledged Jade Grififn’s presence and never believed that she and it were one and the same brain and body. And here it was implying just that. This was something so new and unexpected, she smiled from within. Placing the matter of Comp and ‘Gee’ aside until the child side ‘slept’, Jade Griffin tried asking it a question.
“Uh-huh. Will you fix me something?”
She’d known it was hungry. She just didn’t know it would answer, and not like that! Guess it didn’t see her as a part of it, or vise versa, after all. Jade Griffin was also aware of how much it wanted an adult around right now. Maybe that’s why it was listening to her. How about I tell you how to make something, okay?
“Okay.”
First, we need to make a fire outside. Do you think you can do it if I tell you how?
“…Yeah.”
Jade Griffin instructed her child side and a fire was produced. The adult decided a simple soup would be good, and would take enough time to keep the child occupied. Enjoying the task, it forgot quickly what had happened only a few hours ago, but as time passed and the soup became ready, Jade Griffin found that it was increasingly harder to be heard by the distracted child side. By the time it was ladling out some, she couldn’t get any answer and knew by its unresponsive thoughts that she wasn’t reaching it. Well, this was the longest she’d ever been able to talk to it since it found out she left the Canada Mountain clan. And with food around, there was no contest. She admitted that it was a distraction herself. As the child eagerly blew on a spoonful for her first bite, Jade Griffin adult mentally settled in to wait, and savor the child side’s responses to the meal.
Next night, Jade Griffin once again in her adult body, she decided to see Malcom and the Lady Epona.
Settling on the window ledge of Malcom’s bachelor pad, the female gargoyle didn’t expect to see him within. But this was the only way into the home he and the Lady shared, thanks to the Lady’s self-appointed fey guardian, Comp.
She pushed open the unlocked window and jumped inside. The gargoyle walked to the closet and opened the door.
For all those who opened the small area, a closet is all that they’d see. To gain access to the magically-created second home, one merely had to want to find Malcom and the Lady. Jade Griffin did just that and a greeny glow flowed over the closet space. Even through that, a door waited on the other side.
She was about to knock but it was opened by a grinning Malcom.
“Jade Griffin! Hi! Thought I heard someone gaiting in.”
Heard? Going here made a noise? Interesting. “Yep. How’s it going?”
He showed her into his home, sort of a cross between a castle and a house, before he took a seat in a padded chair. “Good. You?”
“Better than average.” She smiled and took a seat on the couch.
“Did you come for a visit or did you need to talk to one of us?”
“Little bit of both.”
“I'm asking because Lady’s not here.”
“She isn’t?” It was a rare thing when the Lady Epona wasn’t home. The half-gargoyle, half-ki-lin seldom went anywhere except the lands about this wonderful home and, occasionally, the ‘cyberverse’.
“Nope. She had to teleport to China for a ki-lin gathering. She left yesterday and won’t be back for three more days so I have the kids to myself.” He smiled paternally.
“You don’t think the egg is gonna hatch soon then?”
“I sure hope not!” Malcom grinned. “Would you like to come with me to check on it? It’s time to turn it again.”
She had been at the egg’s first-birth and had seen it several times since that night five months ago so his invite was no a surprise. But still she followed reservedly. If their roles were reversed and it was she who had an egg, she wasn’t certain if she’d let him see it. It was the gargoyle way. Humans were never allowed into the Rookery; not even those most-trusted few in her adopted Clan.
Malcom led her to the small Rookery, which had only a light door and two wide steps before settling to a rock floor. And there in the center, cushioned by various natural things, sat the egg.
Malcom lit a wall torch so he could see in the darkness and rotated the large egg onto a different side.
It wasn’t exactly like a gargoyle egg. In shape, yes, but not in color. It had very few, very tiny speckles of a silvery color but was mostly a mix of light red and blue mottling. And it was very large for it’s age. Only five months old and it was nearly the size of of a ready-to-hatch gargoyle egg. Indeed, it would take a lot less than the gargoyle rate of ten years for this child to hatch.
“Lady’s mother was here a month ago. She was amazed at how big this kid’s getting!” Malcom commented, echoing her thoughts. “She said she didn’t think it’d be more than a year. Man, I’m glad I don’t have to wait ten years for my second child to be born. Oh… I’m sorry, Jade Griffin.”
The gargoyle smiled a bit, not wishing him to feel bad because he had a family and she did not. “It’s okay… Where’s your first child at? She didn’t go with the Lady; did she?” The other ki-lin were excited about how ‘ki-lin’ Malcom and the Lady’s first child was but they wouldn’t ask to see her yet. Would they?
“Oh, no! They’ll just hafta wait. She’s sleeping. Boy, I can’t believe how fast she grows! Lady says it’s the ki-lin part of her. Did you know that their kids can be all grown up and paired when they’re about ten years old? By a human calendar, that is.”
Jade Griffin’s brow ridges rose.
“And ki-lin grow out of the baby stage quickly. I think Meisá’s starting to slow down, growth-wise. She’s the human equivalent to a four-year-old.”
And she was born just a year ago?? “Wow.”
A curious clip-clopping started that both adults recognized.
“And that would be her.” Malcom rose just as a child’s voice spoke a query in a foreign tongue.
Before the human father could answer, the unusual-looking child had rounded the door edge to the Rookery and, upon seeing Jade Griffin, let out a terrified squeal and instantly disappeared.
“There she goes again.” Malcom said on a sigh.
The gargoyle was on her feet in a blink. “She can teleport??”
“Yep. A lot better than mom can, too. She started two weeks ago. I’m sorry I didn’t warn you. If you’d been here last week, I don’t think she’d’ve taken off like that…” He sighed heavier. “The ki-lin side of her says to go away from any stranger and she doesn’t seem to remember you. I’m afraid that if she doesn’t see me for a week she might do the same thing. Don’t worry. She goes straight to our room. I’ll be right back.”
Jade Griffin watched him go, sitting back down on the steps. Meisá was a strange one, for several reasons. Being more ki-lin than the Lady Epona, both parents were constantly revising how to handle her. The Lady knew the most about her relative species but she truly understood only so much. The instincts that seemed to drive their child were not wholely apart of the Lady. The instinct to fear strange things was the biggest one. There was that, and the child had more abilities, and some stronger, than her mother. And her appearance… She was quite unusual-looking. A centaur-like body covered head to rump in gray-silver furry hair. Her four-fingered hands, black hooves, horse-like appearance and eyes, and small, spiraled horn she inherited from her mother and the ki-lin race. With a semi-human head and shaggy black main of almost bushy human hair, the child was most definitely captivating, mysterious, beautiful… Yes. All of those.
She heard Malcom returning with the child but waited, avoiding eye contact. She knew enough about ki-lin ways for that. The gargoyle kept her eyes on the approaching child’s little black hooves.
Malcom stopped and kneeled in front of Jade Griffin, then looked like he was going to hug her. The surprised gargoyle froze but as their cheeks brushed, he whispered, “Ki-lin custom. Cheek touching.”
Okay. Gotcha. It must be to reassure Meisá, because she didn’t step forward next to do so. Standing shyly behind Malcom, shifting her weight between her four legs, at least she didn’t blink away or even look scared when Jade Griffin looked up at her.
Malcom spoke quietly to the child in the strange tongue of the ki-lin, a true gift he was able to keep after being a ki-lin for a night. Meisá was unable to speak human language. The child smiled shyly at something he said, flicking a glance at Jade Griffin. The dark green gargoyle recognized her name in Malcom’s ki-lin words and smiled back, encouraging. Then the four furry legs moved forward and the child stood within reach of her.
“Hganggi’in?” queried the sweet little voice in as close an approximation to ‘Jade Griffin’ as her pallet allowed.
Likewise, the gargoyle couldn’t quite project and stress the right nasally tones to accurately say ‘Meisá’ in ki-lin fashion but she tried anyway after nodding with a smile. “Mhei-sá.” She spoke quietly, inclining a hand to the child. Ki-lin disliked loud voices.
Her shy smile grew and she hid her face in her father’s arm. He chuckled, putting an arm around her and continuing with a soft voice. “I think she remembers you now.”
“Looks like it. What did you say to her?”
“Well, to get her back in here, I told her you weren’t a bad-people-monster. That’s one word and a direct translation. Then I convinced her you’d been here several times before by reminding her that the last time you played the hide-and-find game with her.”
Meisá interrupted boldly with a few ki-lin words of her own.
A frown of surprise on his face, Malcom stared down at his child. She looked back up at him. “You can understand us speaking?” he asked her in his own language.
Her reply was uncertain, because she was not sure if something were wrong, but it was most definitely affirmative.
Malcom shook his head, grinning. “It appears, Jade Griffin, that Meisá understands almost everything we say.”
The gargoyle’s brow ridges went up again. “Wow.”
“Hhauhh.” the child imitated quietly, then asked a question of her father.
“It means… “ and he filled in with a sound Jade Griffin wasn’t sure she could produce correctly, or even distinguish as separate from other ki-lin words. The language sounded a lot alike to her, with squeals and huffs all around.
“And you are very smart.” he told his child, then tickled her mid-section. The centaur-like child danced about and squealed, smiling.
Jade Griffin watched, smiling at their joy, but she secretly envied him this. A family of her own was still something she continued to long for. But not now. She still hadn’t made some very important choices yet. She turned her thoughts to how well Malcom, a human, had adapted to the radical changes in his life. It still amazed her.
As she watched father and daughter chase around, strangely she thought of her child side; and remembered why she’d come. But she didn’t want to upset Meisá any and so waited.
The child halted a dash as she came close to the egg. She lay a small furry hand gently on the shell and said something.
Malcom, grinning, explained. “She is impatient and would like to play with her soon-to-be brother or sister.” He spoke to Meisá then, probably saying something along the line of ‘You’re gonna hafta wait, Sweetheart’. When she spoke again, he sighed and took her hand, obviously explaining something.
He turned to Jade Griffin. “I’ve been trying to get her to understand for over a month now that the baby probably won’t be like her. It could look like me or the Lady, or you, or even something completely new.” He looked down at his daughter. “We didn’t know what you’d look like either. Or how beautiful you’d be.”
Meisá returned his smile shyly and hugged her body against him.
“Are you hungry?”
The child’s answering smile was a clear ‘yes’.
“Jade Griffin? There are some ripe apples outside, and blackberries.”
Enough said! The food-loving gargoyle was on her feet again and following them outside. This would also be a good opportunity to talk to Malcom alone.
As the child wandered not-too-far but uninhibited on the lands of her home, Jade Griffin walked with Malcom to an apple tree.
“Malcom, when was the last time you went to the ‘cyberverse’?” she asked, picking a tasty-looking apple.
“Oh, I’d say… Wow. It’s been over a year! Is that why you came over? To see if I’d gotten out any lately?” He grinned, taking her arrival as just that and thinking to tease her.
“Well, sort of. I was there—my child side was—last night; and something happened.”
His face grew concern. “Yeah?”
“It… It literally fell apart around us—me and the child side. These holes started appearing and… ate the place up!” She tried to keep her voice low, so Meisá wouldn’t hear. “But that’s only half of it…” Then she told him of Comp, and the strange female, and of being magicked back home when the exits didn’t open in the ‘cyberverse’. “There wasn’t anyone in the castle but them. I think they made it out, too.”
“Yeah…” The news was a bit of a shock. “If Comp were hurt or… worse, I don’t think you’d have been able to get in here.” Since the fey was responsible for creating this small alter-space pocket he and his special family called home, that made sense. Malcom didn’t even wanna consider the possibility that if the fey had died, or was hurt, that this small pocket would disappear!
“I think you’re right.” Jade Griffin similarly didn’t mention the clear possibility that the end of Comp meant that Malcom and the kids would be trapped indefinitely and lost.
“I also came by to ask if I could try your PASS card.” she said quickly.
“Sure. Hold on.” Malcom walked over to Meisá, munching on berries nearby, and probably told her they’d be in the house. He trotted back to Jade Griffin and they headed inside.
The human got up on top of the oak desk and reached behind the adjacent shelving. He retrieved the PASS card from its secret niche and got down, handing it to the gargoyle. “Go ahead and use the table, there.”
Jade Griffin took the ‘cyberverse’ key and placed it words-up on the large table. And… Nothing. They both continued to stare at it.
“Do you think this means…?” he queried lightly, knowing the ‘cyberverse’ was Jade Griffin’s only link to many of her friends. Then she was alone…
“Yeah…” She picked up the card and handed it back to him, hiding most of her feelings but taking a heavy seat in a chair. “I didn’t even consider the possibility before but now? … I think this proves it. The ‘cyberverse’ is dead.”
Malcom put a hand on her shoulder. He wasn’t sure what to say. “…You’re more than welcome to stay the day here. I’m sure Comp will show up some time soon. If anyone can tell you what happened, he can. And he promised Epona he’d be there for every birth so I’m sure he’ll show before then.” His cheering-up sounded a little weak, even to him. “…I’m sorry the ‘cyberverse’ fell apart. I know how much you relied on it. But they built it once, so who says it won’t be re-built?”
“That’s true.” she admitted.
Meisá clip-clopped in shyly and held her father’s hand, watching the female gargoyle with interest.
Jade Griffin had to smile at the attention. “I think I’ll take you up on your offer, Malcom.” She definitely thought she could use the company.
“Great!” He smiled, then told his daughter.
Meisá smiled, too, and stepped toward the gargoyle timidly. She spoke her language.
Jade Griffin looked to Malcom questioningly.
“She wants to play a game with us.”
“Okay.” The gargoyle stood to add to her willingness.
“Oh-ha’kay.” the child mimicked, holding out her little furry hand.
…………………………….. To be continued …
