Angela sighed, for what she knew had to have
been at least the twentieth time. She was bored, plain and simple.
Absolutely, no-denying-it bored.
"There must be something to do," she declared
as she stood up from the overstuffed chair that usually held
Hudson. From her previous perch, she sauntered over to the kitchenette
where she hoped to find something
- anything - to do.
As she walked over to the refrigerator, to
get a piece of fruit, her eyes saw the Harley-Davidson calendar
that the clan used. The square that indicated the twenty-first of the
month was crammed with writing. Without reading
it at all, the gargoyle mentally recited everything it held: Trio,
Monster Truck show, arena, 7:30; Hudson, MacBeth in
the park (which meant Bronx was out too) with MacBeth, 6:30; Goliath,
dinner at Elisa's. Everyone was gone. She
considered checking with the Xanatoses, but remembered even they were
out - even Owen.
She pushed the calendar from her mind and opened
the door of the refrigerator. She pulled out the apple she
had originally sought. Task accomplished, Angela headed back for the
chair. She resolved if she was going to be
bored, she may as well be bored AND comfortable.
"You've got mail."
The young gargoyle's head snapped around into
the direction of the voice. It was flat and emotionless enough
to have been Owen's own.... He was gone, though. Plus, she didn't
see anyone. A series of clicks told her who
it was. The voice had been from Lexington's computer; she recognized
it now.
Angela eyed the device while she chewed a bite
of fruit. She recalled that her fellow clan member checked
his electronic mail and - what did he call them? - WebPages before
the Trio went out. He must not have turned
his computer off before he left. Still thinking and chewing, the clan
leader's daughter walked over to the computer.
Once there, she continued to stare at it. The
multi-colored squiggles that danced across the screen almost had
a hypnotizing effect. They made her think of those weird bendable glowing
tubes that Brooklyn brought back from
the rodeo a month ago.
She didn't know why, but Angela found herself
sitting down in Lexington's adjustable chair. At first it was much
too high, adjusted for Lexington's smaller frame. After a few entertaining
spins that lowered the chair, she was at
just the right height, although she didn't know what she was at the
right height for.
Lexington used his computer every night, and
from time to time Angela watched him. However, her visages
weren't enough to be considered lessons. She did remember the small
gargoyle putting his hand on and moving
the - it was some kind of rodent: rat, gerbil, rabbit - mouse. That
was the first thing she tried.
As soon as her taloned hand brushed the mouse
the dancing squiggles disappeared; a bikini-clad model
lying in the surf on some random beach instantly replaced them.
Angela gasped at the picture that was displayed
on Lexington's screen. She was certain her father did not
know of this, otherwise it wouldn't be there. She sighed, for the twenty-first
time of the night, this time at the male
gargoyle's indulgences. However she would not be daunted, and so she
continued.
Doing her best to avoid the image that took
up most of the screen, the young gargoyle examined the screen.
At the top of it she noticed a blue bar; it was filled with a long
series of words and word fragments. Then beneath
the blue bar was another series of words. "File, Edit, View, Go, Window,
Help?" She read aloud. "Well, I do
need help. Maybe that will work."
She put her hand back on the mouse and carefully,
with unskilled care, moved it until the corresponding
arrow was above the word "Help." Another of the three things that Angela
learned from Lexington, through
observation, was that to get the mouse to work, you had to press its
buttons. So, with the arrow over "Help" she
applied the barest of pressure on the button.
Again, immediately something happened. A menu
"popped" down from the word help. "Help contents," Angela
mulled. She figured, maybe if the best place to find something in a
book is the contents, it would be the best for a
computer too. She clicked on the choice.
Thirty minutes later, after reading through
all the help information her brain could process, Angela decided it was
time to test out her knowledge. Her first choice to make was what website
she should try out her newly gained skill
on. She pondered her choice for a second.
"Well," the female gargoyle said with a smirk,
"there's no place like home." She figured that clicking on the Home
button would take her to the manufacturer's homepage, but it was still
a good place to start. With new certainty
Angela moved the mouse pointer over the icon-button with the little
house and clicked it.
Almost instantly - "Because it's most likely
in the cache," she thought, proud that she knew why - a webpage
came up.
"Welcome to 'Lexing-Town,'" Angela read aloud.
This was Lexington's webpage, she realized. The smaller
gargoyle never mentioned that he had a webpage, but for that matter
he never mentioned he enjoyed looking at
half-naked women.
She scrolled down to get a look at he rest
of the page. There seemed to be four main choices: My Clan,
Girls, Links, About Me. Each of the choices contained an image and
a description. The four were staggered,
one picture never directly under another. She continued to examine
the page. Below the four main choices were
four more, but instead of a picture and descriptions these were just
bracketed words.
"Chat, Sign Book, View Book, and Message Board?"
she mulled. So much of this was alien to her, having
never seen a computer before she left Avalon. Yet, her intrigue was
sparked, more now by interest in what her
clansman did than the computer itself.
Angela scrolled back up to the part of the
page about the clan. She was suddenly interested in knowing what
Lexington had to say about the clan. Moving the mouse over the blue,
underlined words "My Clan," Angela smiled
when the pointer changed to a hand. "Just like it's supposed to." With
a click, the page began to load.
The first thing on the page that loaded was
the same picture that was opposite the hyperlink. Below that was
a brief description of the clan in general.
Angela read it aloud, "Over one thousand years
ago my clan lived in Scotland. We protected the castle from
Vikings and other raiders. It was our job. Now, we protect the same
castle, but out territory has changed and
expanded to the whole island of Manhattan. If you're ever on the island,
look up."
The clan leader's daughter continued exploring
the page. Right below the line that divided what she previously
read and the clan members was Goliath's part of the page. Angela enjoyed
reading about her father. She was not
surprised, but still pleased, to see how well the small gargoyle thought
of his clan leader. She couldn't help but smile.
The next on the list was Hudson. Lexington's
first comments were on how good of a warrior the clan elder was;
it stated that he'd seen more fights than Lexington hoped he ever would.
The next few lines were praise to Hudson's grandfather-like nature. The
final part was a commentary by Lex on how Hudson hogged the television.
Angela
laughed despite herself at this part.
As she continued down the screen the female gargoyle enjoyed reading through her clansman's comments.
"Brooklyn's the best big brother a guy could
have," she read silently. "He's funny, adventurous, and knows how
to have a good time. I have to admit it's kind of funny the way he
thinks he's a biker dude. Ha! The first time he rode
the bike I built he got it blown up. I love the guy, but I'm not gonna
let him TOUCH my computer." Angela raised an
eyebrow at the series of punctuation at the end of the sentence, a
semicolon, hyphen, and a close parenthesis; she
made a mental not to ask the green gargoyle about it later.
Next on the list was Broadway. The lavender
gargoyle smiled as she read about her mate-to-be. "Broadway
is the loveable teddy bear that every family has. He's just learning
to read, but he learns fast. (He's already swept
Angela" - she noted her name was a hyperlink - "off of her feet with
some of his poetry readings.) He's also a
marvelous cook. My favorite dish of his is lasagna. I don't know what
he does to it, but it's great. Broadway's
a great guy!"
"I must ask Broadway what 'swept off her feet' means," another mental note was made.
Next on the list, to her surprise, was Angela
herself. She looked forward, with a bit of uneasiness, to seeing
what Lexington thought of her.
She cleared her throat and began reading, "Angela
is a BABE!!! Ok, now that I have that off my chest... Angela's
Goliath's" - her father's name was a hyperlink as well - "daughter.
She came back from Avalon when he and Elisa" -
another link - "went there to stop the Archmage. Angela's nice and
sweet and like a sister. I'm glad she's here in
Manhattan with us. But she's still a babe!" Again, Lex had used the
semicolon, hyphen and close parenthesis.
The girl gargoyle smiled at Lexington's comments
about her. She remembered when the Trio had competed for
her hand, and though she was glad they'd stopped, she thought it was
cute that Lex still had a crush on her. She was
extremely pleased that he didn't call her "Angie," however.
Three more remained on Lex's clan list: Elisa,
Bronx, and the Xanatoses - which included Owen/Puck. Angela
smiled when Lex commented on the relationship between Elisa and Goliath.
She knew about the feelings between
her father and Elisa but it was still funny the way he referred to
Detective Maza as "Goliath's Love Bird."
His description of Bronx was as humorous as
the others, but it was also truthful. Lex said the doglike gargoyle
was the most loyal and protective of them all. He also commented that
Bronx found a sick pleasure in making one
of the clan take him out for a walk when they'd just sat down to do
something - "...especially programming."
The last on the list were the Xanatoses. Angela
almost clicked on the link to take her back to the main page,
but decided to read Lex's interpretation of their current landlords.
"I think the best description of the Xanatos
clan can be summed up in the words of Charles Dickens. 'It was the
best of times, it was the worst of times.' What I mean is that they're
a contradiction in terms. One minute they'll be
trying to take over the world, and the next they offer us the castle
back. I think, finally, though, the three members
of the Xanatos family can be trusted, which, though not numbered, includes
Owen/Puck. I hope they can anyway,
because I'd hate to have to say goodbye to Alex. He's cute as a button."
Still amused by all of Lexington's opinions
of his clan and extended family, Angela clicked in the link at the
bottom of the page that would return her to the main page. If his views
of the clan were that comical and truthful,
she looked forward to seeing the rest of his webpage.
Back at the main menu, Angela pondered the
next section to examine. She thought about checking out the "Girls"
section of Lexington's website. However, if what she originally found
on the screen was any indication of Lex's tastes
it might be best not to view that portion. The gargoyle moved the cursor
around the screen in random patterns, trying
to make up her mind. She decided to check out the message board after
a few more loop-to-loops with the mouse.
Angela wasn't too sure what a computer bulletin
board was, really. She remembered the cork-backed board
down at the bar where she'd gone with the Trio a few times. That always
had advertisements and other messages
pinned to it. "Maybe that is what Lex's message board is like," she
thought while the board finished loading.
The message board's page was long, and quite
different than Angela expected. As she studied it, the gargoyle
realized that even though it was on a computer screen, this message
board was just like the one at the Trio's bar.
The only difference was instead of notes individualized by the pieces
of paper they were on, these messages were
basically divided by the color of the text - which ranged from bright
pink to pale green to champagne.
Angela began scrolling down the page, reading
messages. She quickly realized that the newer messages were
higher up.
She decided to start her reading over. Angela scrolled to the very bottom of the page and began anew.
The first post at the bottom, she noted was
put there just after midnight Sunday. It wasn't very long, just two
words: "I'm first!" Angela noted the same colon-hyphen-parenthesis
pattern. She continued reading.
She enjoyed reading through the message board.
All of the messages there were very nice and polite. Most
were comical, and some even made Angela question who wrote them. Some
of the writers claimed to be gargoyles
and others Children of Oberon. The female gargoyle made another note
to ask Lexington about his webpage.
After the mental not was made, she went back
to reading the board. "So, Lexy, what do you think about the
next season of DS9? I think Kira will be Dax's new host. U???" A Gargrrl
signed the message - for some reason
Angela liked the name.
She read up a few messages until she found
the response to Gargrrl's message. Lexy answered: "Grrl, you've
got a good guess, but I'm leaning toward Chase Masterson as the new
host. I'm probably wrong, but wouldn't it be
fun?" Angela didn't know what either person was talking about, but
thought that it was interesting that their
conversation went on over the span of a day and a half.
In no time the female gargoyle finished her
reading. She scrolled back down through the messages again, reading
a couple she particularly enjoyed over again. Lexington really had
some unusual friends. She couldn't help but give a
slight smile at her fellow clan member's on-line companions.
She was about to return to the main menu when
several thumps caught her attention. She turned around to see
what the noise was. After a minute of intent listening she heard voices
talking. It was the Trio!
Angela jumped up from her seat. She was a bit
nervous about Lexington seeing her at his computer. She knew
he wouldn't be angry with her, but for some reason she thought it better
to be elsewhere in the castle.
"I'm telling you guys," Brooklyn said to his
brothers as the three walked into the part of the castle that they used
as a living room, "that big blue truck is better than all of the rest."
Broadway shook his head at the second-in-command's
comment. He was about to reply to the statement when
he felt something grab him. The overweight gargoyle nearly leapt out
of his skin. "Angela!" he said when he turned
his head to see the lavender gargoyle giving him a hug.
She smiled and released the Broadway so he
could turn enough to hug her back. "Did you three have a good
time?" She glimpsed over her shoulder. Lexington was already headed
over to the computer.
"Oh, yeah!" Broadway answered with a smile.
"You should have been there. There was this one truck...." He
went on to describe the event to her.
Angela only listened with mild interest to
her beau's description. She was preoccupied by the smallest of the
Trio. Lexington was quite observant, and already, Angela noticed, was
inspecting his chair. She had no doubt that
he was wondering who had lowered it. Once his chair was adjusted, Lexington
hopped into it and moved the mouse.
"Hey," he said in a voice louder than normal. "Who's been playing with my computer?"
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