Winter home. (Dar and Nornir)

Skiing or skating? Annie thought she might like skating; though to be honest she had never done it before...but she was willing to try it. She watched Jemmy get some money from a drawer, and when they went off to go to the car Annie left what was left of her tea in the sink. When they got the the car Annie stopped to look at it. It was a really nice car. She then blinked and looked at Jemmy when she asked if Kasha had a travel size, and Annie couldn't help but notice that she confused Kasha for a girl again. She nodded, "Yeah...Kasha can change. And..um...he's a boy.." She blinked, and before she really thought about that too long she looked at Kasha. He looked back as she said, "Kasha mekt t'see?" which basically meant: "Can you come climb into my pocket?" Kasha mentally confirmed and suddenly vanished in a puff of shadow; then a familiar looking black and blue kitten suddenly poked it's head out from Annie's front overall pocket, and gave a telepathic message to Annie that Jemmy would also hear: "I'm going for a ride! Where are we going?"

Jemmy would feel that by shifting down to a kitten, Kasha's mind and personality actually changed somewhat, becoming smaller and cuter like his physical form; though the depth of this change was limited. He was still the same Kasha underneath. Annie looked down at him and giggled, smiling as she petted his head. He was always so much cuter like this...both in appearance and in the way his mind felt. Kasha looked around eagerly, purring as he felt Annie stroke his head softly. It made Annie want to hug him and kiss him and snuggle with him for hours, but she could always do that later. Right now they were going somewhere. She looked up to Marleigh now, seeing what she would do; and if everyone else got in the car she would too.

Leaving already? It was just like Jemmy to get right down to business as soon as snack time was over. If Jemmy was quick, so was Marleigh. The moment she had announced they were about to go, the maid was already halfway done with washing the used dishes and putting them away in the dish dryer.

"I shall only be a moment."

Finishing up with her superhuman speed, she then made her way to the garage where a shiny red car was waiting. A quick appraisal of the vehicle was enough to tell Marleigh that the original owner must have been a collector or at least an enthusiast. The car was well-maintained but it looked like it was meant more for show than casual driving.

She started up the car and brought it around the front where Annie and Jemmy were waiting. She pulled over just in time to see the creature accompanying Annie vanish in a puff of shadows. A small kitten then appeared in the little girl's front pocket. It was a handy trick.

Marleigh stepped out of the car and opened the passenger door for the two. She reminded them to put on their seatbelts. Once they were safely inside, Marleigh adjusted the rearview mirror and then they were off.

"The car has quite the useful GPS device installed. Should I just follow the directions it gives to the nearest bowling alley or do you have a particular place in mind Princess?"

It would still take a minute or two before they were got to the main road going downtown and that would be when Marleigh would need instructions as she had not yet visited any bowling alleys in the city.

Annie reminded Jemmy that Kasha was a boy. Jemmy nodded. "Of course she is." Kasha turned into a little kitten that fit in Annie's pocket. Now the familiar was cute, both on the inside and the outside. "Oh, she's so adorable." Jemmy reached over and petted little Kasha on the head. "We're going to do a bunch of fun things."

Marleigh opened the door for them. As the two little girls got into the car, Marleigh reminded them to buckle their seat belts. Jemmy grabbed the strange strap and looked at it curiously. She had actually never worn one of these before. It took a moment, but she was able to figure out how to connect it.

The car had a GPS, and Marleigh asked if she should use it. Jemmy nodded. "Go ahead. That's why it's there, right?" Marleigh was a good driver, and Jemmy leaned back and relaxed.

This was a good time in her life, she decided. With Marleigh and Annie here, it was like she had a family. For the first time in her life, she belonged somewhere.

"You're going to stay with us, right?" Jemmy asked Annie. She knew that Annie was concerned with Jemmy's activities, but she hoped that Annie would overlook that.

Annie blinked as Jemmy, again, referred to Kasha as a girl.  Twice!  "Uh...h-he's not...."  She paused.  "..."  Kasha purred as Jemmy petted him, and Jemmy might feel that petting Kasha significantly increased the effectiveness of his ability to read her mind and feelings.  It made Kasha a bit dizzy, but for the most part he just shook it off.  Kasha looked up to Annie and grinned, giving a meow and at the same time giving a double-layered telepathic message.  The first layer was simple, "Don't let her bother you at all.  She's just being silly.   "  The second layer was a little more deeply constructed, and basically informed her that Jemmy was most likely doing it on purpose.  She was a chaos incarnate after all, and it only made sense that she would deliberately do what she could to mess things up, confuse people, and..well..create chaos!  Didn't she just say that was her job?  To spread chaos?

Annie understood this and nodded.  After a bit, it even made her giggle a little.  Jemmy was just being silly...that was an easy way to think of it; though of course she understood the second part too.  She looked up to see Marleigh, and got into the car along with Jemmy as Marleigh buckled them in.  She was a very good maid...  Where did Jemmy find her?  

Annie sat back and relaxed as Kasha hopped out onto her lap and the other two talked over the whole GPS thing.  She could feel what Jemmy was feeling.  How things felt good right now, how she felt like she had a family, and how she felt like she now belonged.  As Annie thought with Kasha, it only made sense for her to stay.  She gave Jemmy someone to love her and be her fiend, and in return Annie not only got a friend back but also had someone (in addition to Kasha) to take care of her.  It was a win-win situation.  Why would she walk away from that?

Hm...a good question...  Why WOULD she walk way from that..  Annie didn't know if after some time a problem or issue with staying with Jemmy would come to light.  She would, probably, stay for at least a month.  After that she would have to see; but right now she couldn't see much of a reason not to stay.  

She looked to Jemmy and verbally replied, "Yeah...I'm staying.  For at least a while anyway.  I'm not sure how long exactly..."  She looked out the window; watching the cars and trees and buildings go by as she rode along.  It had been a while since she had been on a car ride; it was kind of nice and relaxing.

Technology was amazing. That was what preoccupied Marleigh's thoughts. Of course this was not the first time she had driven a vehicle with a GPS guide. But it never failed to impress her how far along mortals have gone since she first ascended. A lot can happen in 200 years. Though she tried her best to keep herself up to date, there was always something new to discover.

Behind her, the two girls were talking about Annie's stay. Marleigh was delighted to hear that it would be an extended one. She had gotten quite fond of looking after the two of them. There was something about seeing little girls smiling that warmed her heart. At this point she would probably do anything within reason for them.

It did not take too long to get to the bowling alley. As Marleigh steered the car into the parking lot, the building came into full view. It looked pretty fancy. The volume of cars parked outside indicated there were a fair number of people today. It wasn't packed though so there still ought to be a place for them. She parked next to a lamp post so that it would be easy to find the car later.

Shutting off the engine, she then stepped out and then opened the door for the two.

"It looks like it will be rather lively inside."

Annie said that she would stay, at least for a while. Jemmy smiled. She was usually not one to make long-term plans. All she cared about was the immediately foreseeable future.

Marleigh parked the car and then opened the door for the two girls to get out. Judging by the number of cars here, Jemmy had to agree with Marleigh. It would indeed be busy inside. Hopefully they would still be able to get a lane.

Inside, the bowling alley was very busy. Multiple birthday parties were going on, and a large group of teenagers were having a tournament. As luck would have it, though, a family was just leaving their lane after bowling a game. Jemmy pulled Annie along and rushed up to the counter. She pointed at the open lane. "We'll take that one, please." The man behind the counter nodded and asked them what size of shoes they all wore. Jemmy made sure that Marleigh got some shoes, too. "You have to bowl with us."

Jemmy put her bowling shoes on. They felt a little strange, but she didn't let it bother her. She looked through the selection of bowling balls and picked up a six-pounder with both hands. Looking over at Annie, Jemmy tilted her head for a moment. Annie had grown up homeless. Had she ever gone bowling before? Probably not.

"Hey Annie, don't worry about how many points you get. It's not important. We're just kids, after all. We even get bumpers." Marleigh was a grown up, so she would probably be much better at this game than Jemmy. She might not even need the bumpers.

Jemmy walked up to the line and rolled her bowling ball down the narrow alleyway. It bounced back and forth between the bumpers a dozen times before reaching the pins.

"Boom!" Jemmy said as 5 pins fell over. The ball returned to their station and she picked it up to go again. "It's like a mini explosion," she said to Annie. She watched in awe as a teenager threw a bowling ball really fast and got a strike. It would be cool to be able to do that. If she wanted to, Jemmy was sure that she could change into an adult. That way, doing something like rolling a strike would be much easier. She decided against it for now. She wanted the contest between her and Annie to be pretty even.

She threw the ball again, and it went in a gap between the pins. Her total score was 5 so far, which was pretty good for her. She walked behind one of the chairs at their station and started bouncing on the tips of her toes. "Your turn, Annie."

Annie picked up Kasha and set him in her front pocket again as they got out and made their way inside. Sure enough...there were quite a few other people here. It was a little noisy, but Annie didn't mind too much. After getting a lane and putting on her shoes, Annie went to go pick out a ball. She looked for one that was light, maybe one that was pink too if they had one. Hmm..seemed they didn't, but there was an orange one. As she started to pick it up she looked over to hear Jemmy speak to her. She smiled and nodded to Jemmy, understanding that the point of this game was to have fun. Not keep track of who was winning. "Okay Jemmy," she said before giggling; "But I'm still going to try and get as many as I can."

She picked out her ball, then watched as Jemmy took the first turn. She got five; not a bad throw. Then Annie took her own ball and rolled it in what's called a 'granny bowl'; where she held it on the outside with both hands and swung back under her legs before rolling it forward. It only bounced off the rails once, and she even got three pins! Smiling and happy that she got something, she eagerly awaited for the ball to return. "Marleigh will probably beat us both. She a lot bigger and stronger and has probably had experience.." she said with a giggle. Not that she minded at all, Marleigh being bigger. Points didn't matter in this game after all. "Have you ever bowled before Marleigh?" she asked before bowling her second time. Another three pins!

Marleigh was slightly surprised that she was actually participating in the game. She was expecting that she would just be watching over the two while they played. But she was not one to refuse a reasonable request from the girls, though she wondered if she should give it her all or tone down her game a bit.

After putting on her shoes, they walked over to the free lane and set the bumpers up. Marleigh watched Jemmy and Annie take their turns. What she saw was exactly the kind of scene one would expect when watching little children trying to play bowling: the ball bouncing on the bumpers and not really hitting the pins down the middle.

"It has been a long time but yes, I have played this before. I still remember the movements, and I have also had my eye on the people playing in the other lanes. It should not be too difficult."

When Annie was done, Marleigh picked up her ball. It was just a plain black one. She approached with the stance of an experienced player, her body mimicking the form she had been watching earlier. She released the ball and it rolled down the middle of the lane at high speed, crashing loudly into the pins. The result though was not as impressive as she would have liked. It was a 7-10 split.

"Oh dear. I guess this is karma for considering playing seriously against you two."

She rolled the second ball, knocking down just one of the remaining pins.

Overall, Jemmy thought that everyone had a great time with their game of bowling. She clapped and cheered as Annie and Marleigh took their turns. Marleigh was amazing, able to knock down almost all of the pins at least on every turn. Jemmy and Annie seemed to be closer in skill.

By the end, Jemmy had a score of 64, which she thought was really good. She had even gotten a strike on the 5th frame. For a while, she actually forgot that she was a Lord of Chaos. She was just a girl having fun with her friends.

And there was more fun to be had. After this they were going skiing and then out to dinner. Jemmy could hardly wait, but first Annie and Marleigh had to bowl their final frames.

"Come on, Annie, you can do it."

Annie had a lot of fun at the bowling alley; she and Jemmy were about equal when it came to bowling. She had 58 points right now. Let's see how many more she could get in two throws. She rolled once...and got a gutter ball. How the heck do you get a gutter ball with bumpers? Oh well, she had one more try. She rolled again, and knocked down 5 pins. That was pretty good! That meant she had a final score of 63. Just one point shy of matching Jemmy. Eh...to Annie that was close enough. She skipped back over and plopped down on her seat next to Jemmy. "That was a lot of fun...but now my arms a kinda tired." ^^ she said with a giggle. She then looked over, waiting and watching as Marleigh took the last turn.

"That was a good game. Congratulations." Marleigh clapped as they each took their final turns.

The score was pretty even between the two of them but Jemmy managed to pick-up the win. Annie said that she was a little tired. Bowling might have been a bit to physical for her. Marleigh wondered if she would be alright to go skiing afterward. She stood up to take her own last rolls.

Despite her less than perfect first turn, the following turns Marleigh took showed considerable improvement. At least half of them were spares and there were even a couple of strikes. On her final turn, she managed to get another spare, earning her one more bonus roll. She picked up her ball and released it, following the same form she had been trying to master since earlier. Eight pins were knocked down, bringing up her final score to 176.

In hindsight, it may not have been the best idea to go bowling in a maid uniform, but Marleigh had more fun doing so than she expected.

"We should probably take a short break before going if you are still a little tired. I think I saw an ice cream stand near the counter earlier. Is there anything you would like?"

Jemmy cheered after Marleigh's last turn. 176! That was amazing! It was more than Jemmy and Annie's scores put together. "Good game indeed."

Annie said her arm was tired, and Marleigh suggested a short break before going skiing. At the mention of ice cream, Jemmy got excited. She was always ready for ice cream. "A strawberry cone, please," Jemmy said. Money wasn't an issue, they still had plenty of Jemmy's 'allowance' left.

Jemmy looked at Annie. "I hope you aren't too tired to go skiing, or out to eat later. This is your party. Remember that."

When Jemmy received her ice cream cone, she thanked Marleigh politely and started licking the cold treat. Marleigh had been helping Jemmy brush her teeth, so they weren't as yellow as they usually had been. She couldn't ever actually get cavities, which was a good thing since Jemmy loved sugar so much. Eventually she would be able to get nice white teeth. When she had white teeth, then she would look prettier, she thought.

Jemmy frowned for a second, thinking of a subject long forgotten. "Hey, Annie, what do you think of my eyes? Do they freak you out?" Her eyes weren't glowing or anything, at least not now. They were simply orange. Someone had hurt Jemmy's feelings a long time ago by making fun of her eyes. She hoped that Annie liked her eyes the way they were. If not, that wouldn't be too big of a problem. Jemmy had recently learned a trick to remedy the eye problem.

"Do they look better like...this?" Jemmy blinked, and her eyes turned blue. She had placed an illusion spell over her eyes, giving them a different appearance from reality. It had taken a lot of reading, but Jemmy had finally learned how to perform some very simple spells like this.

Both Jemmy and Marleigh sounded a little concerned about Annie being tired.  She wasn't sure if she was too tired to go skiing, but just the same an ice cream break sounded nice.  "Can I have a vanilla-chocolate swirl?"  

Jemmy said that this was Annie's party, and it may have been; but it was Jemmy and Marleigh's party too.  She didn't want to make them go home early just because she might have felt like it.  She could stay out a while longer.  Besides...it was only her arms that were tired and they would be just fine for skiing before too long.  After a brief communication with Kasha she said, "I'm fine.  I might have to sit once or twice, but I want to at least try skiing."

After they had gotten their ice cream and Jemmy asked about her eyes, Annie blinked and looked at her before responding.  "No...they don't freak me out."  Hadn't Jemmy already asked about her eyes once before?  Then her eyes seemed to change to blue, and Annie blinked.  She had to admit they did look better that way.  "Yeah...they do look prettier.  How did you do that?"

Marleigh nodded as she took their orders. Thankfully the line was not long at all and she was back with the ice cream in no time, handing the cones to the girls. For herself, she just got plain vanilla.

She sat down quietly, listening as they talked about Jemmy's eyes. Apparently the princess had learned how to change how they looked. It was a useful ability though in Marleigh's opinion, they looked better in their original color. Both were pretty regardless.

It was around this time that Marleigh remembered Jemmy asking her once if she knew any magic. Was it perhaps this sort of magic she was referring to? It made her curious as to why a lord of chaos would need to learn how to use it. As far as she knew, the power to change forms was practically a given for anyone associated with chaos.

In the end she decided to not to think about it too much. If the princess ever wanted an image change, Marleigh was perfectly capable of assisting in doing so even without magic. And it would not wear off either.

She finished her ice cream before the girls did as she did not participate in the talking.

Annie said that she still wanted to go skiing. Good. Jemmy smiled. Her smile grew wider when Annie said that her orange eyes didn't freak her out. After changing them, however, Annie admitted that they looked prettier. It was so shallow, but Jemmy didn't mind. She was literally the princess of shallow things. With just a little illusion, she could make people like her more.

Jemmy was certain that if she had taken a different form, perhaps a scary one, then Annie would have never decided to like her. Humans only cared about outward appearances, and Annie's friendship only proved that more. Annie knew that Jemmy was a Lord of Chaos, and nobody in their right mind would befriend a Lord of Chaos. But a little, innocent, blue-eyed girl? As long as Jemmy looked the part, Annie would like her.

And Jemmy was just fine with that.

"I practiced my magic and learned a few tricks. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I guess I'm just naturally good at that kind of thing. I can also do some pretty cool tricks, and I even found a way to fight someone without hurting them. I guess it's kinda inspired by you." Jemmy looked around to make sure nobody was looking, and then summoned a magical heart-tipped arrow to her hand. "I call it Cupid's Arrow. It uses love as a weapon. When I hit someone with this, they are forced to fall in love with me and do whatever I say." Jemmy shrugged and the arrow disappeared. "But don't worry. I'll only use it for the innocent advancement of Chaos."