The appleman can!!! - The official SEQUEL!

[Suzy]

So you have a thing for monkeys in general? Or just ones with mod powers?

 

 

Oh hello, Scut. *feeling jealous vibes from her other monkey*

It's just that you've been away all day....

I have been quite observant this evening. *Notices this is Scut's first post of the day and feels some silly satisfaction that she's been addressed to first*

[sariflor]

Umm...what?

 

I feel a kind and fine wizard quote coming on.

 

I was thinking along the same lines there

 

Call me crazy, but you (ilovehats) remind me of another member here named jackiexx the way you carry the confidence to storm into a thread and make your statement. But of course you can't be her since your gender symbol says you're a "he". Hmmm...

Still kind of strange though that when I look Jackiexx up on the member list, I don't see her name anymore. But maybe I just can't get the name exactly right...

And the fact you just registered in December...maybe you're her virtual, fraternal twin, opposite gender.

 

But what's wrong with his hat? Your user name is "ilovehats" ? *scratches head*

Ah Suzy how funny is that!

I had thought the same. They write in the same style, and there's just something that is very similar about their style, enough to make me also notice that.

Hmmmmmmm....maybe we should open a PI business together, I'm sure we'd discover a number of things....Let's give it some thought:roftl: I can totally see us doing a Magnum (minus the tache)

[babspanky]

Do I miss things by being (busy) at work?

Whaa

[greta]

*butts in*

 

Hey Suzy, et al ... Freddie banned jackiexx a few days ago. Not sure what

happened exactly, but I know I had warned her a few times about

some things...

 

As for ilovehats -- not sure what to make of him. His user profile says

he's from NYC, the myspace page he points to says he's in California,

and yet his IP address indicates that he's in London. When I asked him

about it, he says he's living in London at the moment with his aunt, and

that the myspace page is his uncle's... He's all over the place... FWIW

 

 

 

That sounds like you've made Jack a "buddy" -- you know, if you go

to the user profile, and click on "add as a buddy" then that person

shows up on your list with that little plus sign.

 

Not that I wouldn't give Jack special powers -- I surely would!

 

dcdeb

hurrah for the privacy!..Ip stalkers..

[JackViolet]

So I'll be doing the section you sent me? By when do you think we should get the done by?

 

As soon as possible?

 

I just wanted to thank everyone again for enjoying the story, and violet_sky, your age approximation was the closest to how I think of Luna. In my mind she started out as 14, and is closer to 16 now...

 

Christine, I can't really knock these out as easily as you may think... I wanted to get it all finished tonight, but I'm quite tired now, so I'll just post what I have. Also afraid I do not like the writing on this last part as much. Oh well!

 

III. Stolen Happiness.

 

The fire was only barely flickering in the hearth by the time Luna stepped through the door of the small cottage. Her mother, wrapped in an old afghan, lay sleeping on her stoop near the fire. She coughed weakly as Luna came in, trying vainly to sit up.

 

"You are back so late, Luna dear," she started in concern, and then fell silent as she saw Luna's fine clothes.

 

"It is all right, mother!" Luna reassured her, smiling. "It will all be all right now. Look, I brought you this." The apple shone in her hand with an insistent warmth, immediately banishing all chill from the room.

 

"Goodness, child!" Luna's mother exclaimed. "What shall I do with it?"

 

"Take a bite, and you will get well again," Luna said, and she told her all about the wizard and the apple that would keep their happiness.

 

Luna's mother bit into the golden apple, and as they both watched, strength flooded into her limbs, and color into her cheeks. And again, as they watched, the apple immediately replenished itself and shone as whole as ever. Rising by itself from her mother's hand, the apple floated in the midst of the cottage, cloaking the cracked bare floors in woven rugs, girding the windows with fresh linen curtains, furnishing the spare beds with soft thick coverings.

 

Luna hugged her mother, and they laughed and cried. Even though neither had anything to eat that long day, they felt neither tired nor hungry.

 

"Bless you, child!" Luna's mother said at last. "May we deserve our fortune. You have brought a miracle into this house."

 

Another pair of eyes was watching the miracle in the little cottage, and watched it with far less goodwill. They belonged to Taina, the kitchen girl, and they watched the scene in the cottage with dark bitterness and envy.

 

As soon as she felt she had seen enough, Taina ran back to the palace, and went straight to the cook and the head palace maid. "Mistress," she cried, "I have cause to believe that good-for-nothing girl Luna is a grievous thief. Not only did she steal the silver apples she brought back tonight, but I have been to her house and saw it full of all sort of ill-gotten goods and luxuries, and heard the wicked girl exulting over her deceit. You have taken her in out of charity, and she repays your kindness by robbing you and the palace!"

 

"Is that true?" the head maid demanded of the cook.

 

"You can see for yerself," the cook replied. "The wench came in tonight all dressed in gold and splendor, carrying over a dozen of silver apples, and she gets but 12 martens a day as pay."

 

And so when Luna came in to work the next morning, she found herself dismissed in disgrace.

 

"No matter," she assured her mother when she got home. "So long as we have the apple, we will be well. Now I just have all the more time to take care of you."

 

Sure enough, their luck seemed to continue charmed. Neighbors who heard the news came by to offer gifts of eggs, bread, and butter to tide the old widow and her young daughter over, for Luna was always well liked in the village. The butcher came by with spare cuts of meat, and the pewter-merchant's wife came to ask Luna if she would like to take some work around the shop. Luna thanked them all kindly, and hardly knew how to decline the charity, for each morning she found several coins in her mother's cooking pot.

 

But Taina continued to watch with gnawing bitterness how Luna, even having lost her position, lived in luxury. She watched where Luna placed the golden apple on top of the stove each evening, and soon one night she stole into the cottage and stole the apple away with her.

 

Luna woke up that morning shivering with cold. The fire had gone out overnight, as it had not since their new fortune let it burn perpetually without firewood. Her mother coughed in her sleep, with a deep thick cough. Winter frost chilling her veins, Luna ran to the stove, but no matter how she looked, she could not find the wizard's present.

 

A harsh knock on the door interrupted her search. A brigade of palace guards came into the cottage, letting snow and wind along with them. The captain of the guards cast a brief rough look at the fine rugs that still lined the cottage floor, at the gold-sewn coat that Luna had placed over her mother, and the gold coins glittering in the cooking-pot. With hardly a word and a chance for Luna to bid her mother good bye, the guards drove Luna away, and with hardly more words she was thrown in prison.

 

----------------

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--Jack

[violet_sky]

 

III. Stolen Happiness.

--Jack

 

Thanks for the dark part Jack, I'm looking forward to the rescue now

 

 

hurrah for the privacy!..Ip stalkers..

I didn't dare to comment on it myself on the spot, as I didn't (and don't) want it to be taken personally. But yes, it was something in these lines I thought when I read that. Also posting content of PMs on a public thread is not quite what makes me feel comfortable.

[dcdeb]

Also posting content of PMs on a public thread is not quite what makes me feel comfortable.

 

There's no PM content posted, violet_sky -- what I shared was posted

in a different thread, very public.

 

Sorry you see us trying to keep order on the forum as an issue, though --

guess we'll never please you, no matter what we do or say

 

dcdeb

[violet_sky]

There's no PM content posted, violet_sky -- what I shared was posted

in a different thread, very public.

 

Sorry you see us trying to keep order on the forum as an issue, though --

guess we'll never please you, no matter what we do or say

 

dcdeb

 

Nooo.

See, this is why I hestitated to express my thoughts at first.

First of all I want to apologize for what I said about the PM content. That was rushly judged, I have to admit it. I could have checked but it was much more convenient to just moan without stalking posts to verify my suspicion.

Your moderation is very much appreciated, you know that.

I just think that trying to keep order on the forum might work without making information public that is (probably for a reason) not open to the public but accessible to mods/admins only. That's all.

So I think your last sentence is a bit unfair because it makes things look as if I had it in for mods in general and you in particular. Please believe me, this is not the case. Honest! I know that you are doing a great job and this (the IP ad hint) was just something I stumbled over and that I didn't like. It was not meant as an accusation. I'm sorry if I sounded harsh. Please don't take it badly, after all we're discussing everything and anything on the forum and this was not meant as criticism of your person. It was just the act I (personally) didn't approve of. It's only an opinion, no more no less. Others may and will think differently about it.

[Haeschen02]

Hi Apples!

Seems like a few exciting things have happened in here during the last few days. So we had an intruder? To tell you the truth, I didn't know at the beginning whether he was serious or not. Is he banned now? At least that's what his user title says.

 

@ Vally: I'm really happy for you. Its good to hear that you started the new year in such a great way .

 

@ Christine: I love the wizard . When I first saw your comment on myspace I choked on my water and almost spat it all over the table :rofl: Arndt was a bit worried though .

 

I think I'll finally read Jack's stories now. I have one of those trays that you can use in bed since yesterday so I guess I won't leave my bed ever again . I have my laptop, Arndt who supplies me with food (he already made me a plate full of fruit and yogurt this morning - he must be an apple at heart) and something to drink. I only fear I have to take a shower soon . Anyway, what I wanted to say is that I'm in the right mood to read Jack's story now .

See you.

[Haeschen02]

Thanks for the story Jack. Its great. I wish I only had a spark of your talent. You should write a book . Will there be other parts? I'm so longing for a happy ending .

[JackViolet]

Thanks for the story Jack. Its great. I wish I only had a spark of your talent. You should write a book . Will there be other parts? I'm so longing for a happy ending .

 

Thank you so much, Haeschen! Heh, this last part actually IS inspired by Mika, for a change. Silly Mika.

 

Finale.

 

 

While Luna sat sick with worry in her small stone cell, another girl found herself equally sick with misery.

 

The golden apple did not bring happiness to Taina, neither wealth nor success. It glowed so bright it burned as she carried it, and Taina had a long night walking back to her house along dark winding out-of-the-way roads lest its light in her pocket cause her to be discovered. Several times she tripped over ice and branches, and each time the apple would fall out and roll away, making her go still further out of her way to retrieve it, till she was well and properly lost. Finally, tired and bedraggled, Taina found herself in a small clearing with a smooth frozen lake in the middle, shining clear as the moon. The apple rolled out of her hands and came to a stop before a snow-covered rock just to the side of the lake, and no matter how Taina tried she could not pick it up again. It would burn her hands whenever she tried to touch it, but would grow heavy and cold as soon as she let it be, providing no help against the sharp chill of the night, and the gusts of wind and snow that buffeted the unprotected clearing.

 

Frustrated to distraction, Taina finally knelt down in the snow and attempted to take a bite of the apple by force. Its flesh was bitter and sour in her mouth, and it stung as she swallowed it. Rather than comfort or warmth, immediately it sent spasms of pain to her limbs, and Taina found she could not move. So chained to the ground by invisible bonds, Taina was covered by drafts of snow till by morning, she appeared to be part of the rock formation herself.

 

Night descended into the cell where Luna sat, though it made small difference. Night always came early and morning late in a place where dark and despair was the rule. But Luna could see a sliver of the moon through the bars in the small window under the very ceiling if she sat just so, and that was as much of the outside as Luna had seen all day.

 

"Dearest Moon, my namesake!" Luna pleaded softly, "Go watch over my mother. Keep her from harm for my sake. You have always been my comfort and companion in the cold nights I would walk back from the palace, and the dark mornings I would walk there. Don't deny me a last favor."

 

But the moon made no answer, only wavered dimly through the tears that slipped down Luna's cheeks of their own accord.

 

Luna closed her eyes and thought of the wizard, and the apple that was his gift, and the inheritance it had brought her.

 

"I shall always answer you, Luna, though you may not know what to ask," a voice said in front of her, and Luna's eyes opened to see the wizard standing where the moonlight was before. "But I have no more favors to grant. It is time I claimed the other favor that was due me."

 

"But what can I do for you?" Luna asked, shamed. "I can't even leave this cell. I have lost your gift, and have let your kindness turn to waste and misery."

 

"You can do anything, Luna," the young wizard smiled. "Come with me, and you'll see that." He held out his hand.

 

Luna held out her own in return, and as he took it, the prison walls faded away, and Luna saw that she was again in the clearing where she had first met the wizard.

 

"It's so cold and dark here," Luna remarked, looking around her with surprise.

 

"Make it warm and light then," the wizard told her. "It's you who makes things shine, Luna."

 

Luna wanted to protest, but before she could, the clearing lit up with a radiant light, painting the trees and the lake and rocks in shades of gold. The shine emanated from a snowdrift at the base of the rock. "My apple!" Luna cried, rushing to retrieve it.

 

"Yes," the wizard smiled again. "Your happiness cannot be easily lost, you see." He indicated the snowdrift, and Luna realized that what she had first took to be piled snow was in fact a familiar girl, frozen solid. "She tried to steal it, but one person's happiness is not always fit for another. You cannot take someone's happiness for yourself, you can only share it. Those who try often find that what constitutes another's happiness changes to misery in unfit hands. No one else can have your happiness, Luna."

 

"But... is she... is she dead? What will happen to her?" Luna asked, horrified by the frozen girl.

 

"Why, that is up to you. I gave you your gift so you could use it, and you can do so much more than you think, Luna."

 

"I think... I think I want her to go back," Luna said. "I don't want to hurt her. I just want my own life, without taking anybody else's."

 

And as she spoke, the snow melted away from Taina and thawed her out of her icy prison. She fell coughing on the ground, and spit out a golden pebble of the apple. Eyes wide she stared at Luna and the wizard in mute confusion.

 

Luna turned to the wizard for guidance, but he only hummed a melody and looked to the sky.

 

"Go home," Luna said finally. "Go home and forget all this, and may your heart be thawed along with you."

 

Taina disappeared.

 

"What now?" Luna asked.

 

"Now? Now that you know that you're the one who grants your wishes, it is up to you. You have no more need to ask me for help. Consider your favor paid, little Luna."

 

"But will I ever see you again?" she pleaded, panicked, as the wizard began to fade away. "Please, I don't want you to leave!"

 

"Oh my little Luna," his voice encased her, "you should know that I'm always with you. Who do you think watched over you all those cold nights you walked from the palace, all those dark mornings you walked there? I'm there with you each night, and each day, whether you see me or not. All those days, all those years, you were my helpmeet and companion, as I shall always be yours."

 

And with that Luna found herself in front of her cottage, with her apple in her pocket and the moon full and bright in the sky. She could see her mother inside, up on her feet, making dinner.

 

"Good evening, Luna!" the pewter-merchant's wife said as she passed by. "Back home early from the palace, are you? They must be occupied with that ball. It's good news about your mother feeling so much better lately. Bids well for the coming year. Well, have a good New Year's, and if you'd ever like to help me out at the pewter-shop, let me know, dear."

 

"I will, thank you," Luna said. "Happy New Year."

 

And she smiled at the moon, glad that it lead her home.

 

---------------------

---------------------

 

The End.

 

--Jack

[Suzy]

I've already printed your story....

 

1. Because I'm going to share it with my daughter tonight. (So I'm sort of glad Luna and the Wiz didn't have a make-out session)

 

2. Because I want a momento showing that I sort of knew you before you became famous.

[JackViolet]

Awwww, thank you Suzy. :blush-anim-cl: I'm glad I kept it very PG too, knowing now that you'll be reading it to your daughter!!

 

And hah, famous? I very much doubt that! I don't think there's much of a fame market for silly fairy tales written in a mock-olden style.

 

--Jack

[Kata]

Awww I love the story Jack

 

Wonder if I have a kind and fine wizard watching over me somewhere out there

[Suzy]

Reflecting on how the moral of Jack's story seems to hit home for me.

Lately, I've been more focused and attracted to things in life that I can't have. I need to learn to be happy with what I already have.

[JackViolet]

Reflecting on how the moral of Jack's story seems to hit home for me.

Lately, I've been more focused and attracted to things in life that I can't have. I need to learn to be happy with what I already have.

 

Oh was that my moral? It's funny how if you read it one way it says "be happy with what you have" but another way I think it can also say "you can have anything you want."

 

--Jack

[Suzy]

Oh was that my moral? It's funny how if you read it one way it says "be happy with what you have" but another way I think it can also say "you can have anything you want."

 

--Jack

 

You're right! Perhaps I'm more like Taina...

[babspanky]

I love Mika. I have just listened to Any Other World I think from the I tunes gig. Just brought it back to me what he's all about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apart from being hot.

[sienna]

Thank you so much for the story Jack, I loved to read it.

[Suzy]

I love Mika. I have just listened to Any Other World I think from the I tunes gig. Just brought it back to me what he's all about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apart from being hot.

 

Just thought I'd highlight the important bit..

I know what you mean babs...I listened to "Grace Kelly" today for the first time in a long time - and I remembered the excitement I felt when I first heard it. It must be because the MFC is celebrating its first birthday. We're getting all mushy and sentimental...yuck.

[Scut Monkey]

Jack, I've printed out the rest of your story, I look forward to reading it in the car later.

 

 

Suzy, you're right, everyone is getting all mushy and sentimental.

[Suzy]

Ok, everyone line up. Since it's MFC's first birthday, I'm giving out paddy whacks. One big one.

 

[babspanky]

Oh me! I deserve a beating after my last post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He is hot though. And so talented it hurts.

[Suzy]

Oh me! I deserve a beating after my last post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He is hot though. And so talented it hurts.

 

 

*Suzy looks up to read bab's last post* - Oh, yeah...the fine and kind wizard should do the honours himself then to ya. I should change his wand to a whip.

[Scut Monkey]

*lines up*

 

Just don't call the RSPCA.