reluctant_gargoyle

So I think I'll be sharing some specific memories of various events in my life for some of the next few entries. No promisies to keep them in any kind of chronological order... But I'll let you know if I start to trail off in one direction or the other. So I guess, first, should be the night it happened. When things changed forever. When I became a Gargoyle. I've been told there was an episode of the cartoon show a lot like what happened. I haven't seen it, but I can only assume it really veers off in the last few minutes.

***

The people of Manhattan, myself included, had been turned into Gargoyles. The real Gargoyles had been turned into humans. All thanks to Demona and Puck. And the worst part? Memories were screwed with too. People who were transformed believed that they'd always been that way. It took strong evidence to the contrary to break that and restore your actual memories. The guys and I were lucky to have had that.

We'd beaten them. Both were restrained in heavy chains. Goliath demanded that Puck put everyone back to normal. The little freak leapt into action.

"First the Gargoyles shall I mend..."

Magic flashed, and the Clan was back to normal.

"Now to the humans shall I attend!"

More magic flashed, seeming to cover the entire island, practically blinding us. And when it faded I could still feel the weight of wings on my back. Feel the tail twitching ever so slightly. Feel the ground beneath my bare, three-toed feet. I was still a Gargoyle.

"Why... why didn't Elisa change back?" Brooklyn asked.

"Yes..." Goliath growled, grabbing Puck around the neck and yanking him up to eye-level. "Why?"

The trickster looked away guiltily. "I can't. Okay? Magic has rules. And I already used up the only loophole Red there gave me. She said to rid her of that human forever! I couldn't exactly kill the detective, now could I? Where's the fun in that? Not to mention upstairs management's probably already going to have my hide over this..."

He wilted a little more under Goliath's penetrating stare. "She said "forever!" I had to do what she wanted! You think I like playing genie of the lamp for a stick in the mud like her? I just can't!"

It was too much. I snapped. Eyes glowing red, I leapt at Demona. "You!" I snarled, and launched a punch that snapped her head around. "You did this to me! I'll kill you!"

Demona snarled and struggled against her bonds. "You think I would want to give you the gift of being a Gargoyle? You were supposed to die!" The she smiled, a cruel, mirthless thing. The smile of a predator. Of the schoolyard bully. "Still, if I cannot have you dead, making you an outcast from your own kind is a small consolation."

I should have seen what she was doing, pushing my buttons. But I didn't, not then. I was still too much in shock. An animalistic growl ripped its way from my throat and it was all Broadway and Hudson could do to hold me back.

"She's not worth it, Elisa!"

"Lass, calm yuirself! Please!"

Goliath too, was having trouble holding in his anger. I could tell it was taking all his willpower not to simply tear the two of them apart. Instead, he let Puck drop, snapping his chains in the process. "Change her back!'"

Puck scooted backwards, frightened out of his wits. "Listen, big boy, I can't. End of story. And all your yelling isn't going to do any good. And if you won't play nice..."

He lifted up, in flight, and grabbed Demona. "I'll just take my ball and go home!" In a flash of blinding light, Puck, Demona, and the mirror were gone.

I felt myself growl limp and my eyes grow wet as I felt everything, all my plans, my future, my whole life slip away from me.

I honestly don't remember how I got back to the Clock Tower. I assume Goliath carried me, because I was certainly in no condition--and no degree of training--to make it back on my own. Muddled memories had helped me work my new body, but now it was crystal clear that I had been changed. New sensations, new body parts with a mind not wired for them, sharpened senses, and instincts I'de never experienced before all preyed upon me.

I sat, on the edge of the balcony, looking down at my hands. Four fingers, all ending in sharp talons, heavier than human hands. I kept feeling a strange twitch, like my little fingers were jerking, but I didn't have those anymore. I could feel my tail swishing, the tip of the tail tapping a staccato rhythm on the stone.

"Goliath, either come out here or stop staring at me." I could tell, my new sense already working to feed new information to me, that he'd been watching me from the dooray. Trying to give me space, but wanting to be near.

"Elisa... I... I did not know what I should be doing..."

"Goliath... what am I going to do? I can't live like this. I'm human!"

It was a stupid thing to say. Looking back, I can see how much that must have hurt him. I'd just told him that I couldn't stand being what I was, being like him. What he must have thought...

He was... torn, I realize that now. So confused. Like I was. Wanting to comfort me, realizing for the first time how we both must have felt, but daring not to speak of it, yet not wanting to appear distant either. "We shall do everything in our power to see you restored, Elisa."

"You can't do magic, Goliath. And would you trust Demona, if you thought you could force her to?"

"I... Surely..."

"No."

I heard more footsteps--the others, coming out. And I saw that the sky was beginning to brighten. Sunrise was coming.

Sunrise was coming.

Sunrise was coming.

I was now a Gargoyle. I would turn to stone!

"Goliath...!"

The world froze around me, my body growing stiff, taking everything away...

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From:

ghoulcouture.livejournal.com

"I'm so glad that the situation turned out for the best, Elisa. I'm sure it must have been horrible at the time. I suppose the alternate situations you mentioned must have hinged on a difference in the compulsion. Not to detract from the trouble it caused you, but I do feel slightly sorry for the fairy. Compulsion can be a dreadful thing, sometimes." Jack looks a bit odd.

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New Wings

Memories

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