2005-02-27 - 12:06 p.m.
Two little catbears in a cabin in the woods. Very bright colors in their house, and the boy is a subtle lavender and the girl is of course light pink. Big round eyes and big pointy ears and cute little green and blue and yellow other primary/secondary colored clothes.
In their house there are only a few rooms, but the only one we see is a main room. On one wall is a decently sized oval mirror with a wooden border. Besides that, the room is pleasantly and tastefully but sparsely furnished, a few pastel chairs, wooden tables, light carpet.
Everything was splendid, when one day the mirror begins to flip longways, and as it flips it reveals behind it a narrowing tunnel going upwards. The two catbears are awestruck, and Pink walks up and pushes on it once it stops flipping. Nothing happenes, so Lavender joins her and they both push. in the mirror flips, in they fall, and into the tube they go. Immediately they begin to accelerate upwards, as the tunnel narrows they go faster and faster.
The tunnel reaches its target circumference and cruising speed, a lightning quick traverse over ther hills and forest surrounding the Catbears' home. Their boom tube is transluscent but only the outlines of the sections of tube and bolts are easily seen, zooming past the two Catbears as they zoom over the countryside, staring gawk-eyed with those huge round catbear eyes at the blurred treetops on either side of their invisible tube.
Poomf, they are deposited in a strange complex with no roof, but buildings of all sorts are around. Huge white canvas tents, lone glass walls, white warehouses with interlaced steel decorations and one entire wall missing. Mirrors were everywhere, dark mirrors and fancy mirrors and plain ones, little tiny square mirrors and mirrors shaped like insanity. Where there wasn't a mirror, there was some hideouos painting of every sort, dead animals, weeping beauties in red dresses, still lifes of haphazardly placed subjects and so on.
There is an evil creature here. The Catbears know about him, and about this place at the top of the hills where he lives. Somehow a boom tube from behind their oval mirror had taken them a hundred miles in a minute or two.
They were terrified and immediately jumped back into the mirror from whence they had come, an identical oval mirror, and sped back to their own home. There they wept, and laughed, and made sweaty-furred catbear love in the growing twilight.
---
They went back many times, growing bolder and bolder with each trip. Each time they saw some new monstrosity, some new business, and they began to secretly envy the creature with his wealth and fantastical fortress.
On one day, Pink went alone, and arrived to find an assembly line had been erected and little toys were being worked along the conveyor belt. She watched a wooden santa claus doll start its trek down the line, and as it passed through those big sight inhibitions on any assebly line, it grew in size and livelihood. Little unspeakable creatures with wet skins worked tirelessly, adding buttons and face markings and covering joints until the santa began squirm slightly. As it reached the end, Pink saw him jump off the conveyor belt and spring around with a troubling grin, yelling "I'm alive! I'm alive!"
Peeking around a corner, Pink saw with terror that the evilest of all creatures was there, large for the small things working the conveyor belt and of many different darker colors, some fur around his face and head and a longer tail. There he was, with his little hands behind his back, smiling awfully at the rejoicing santa. "Here you are, Santa," in a deep, pleasing voice, "In you go!"
The new Santa hopped around from leg to leg, twirling, until he stood in front of the wall of one of the many buildings around. Pink Catbear could only barely see him, as he was facing her facing a wall she couldn't see. Up the Santa jumps into the wall, his gleeful cries ceasing immediately as he disappears from Pink's view. The evil little creature stands admiring with his hands behind his back for a few moments, then turns militaristically and disappears from view.
---
On their last trip to the awful place, a great party has been thrown, and crowds of people wander with red cups in their hands, bottles, sifters, wine glasses. It is night time, and the festive lights hang between all the different structures as the crowds of people walk below them. Music plays, and people dance, and get drunk and flirty and smile under the night sky and within each of the different themed buildings.
I, Paul, am there, and I see people I know at the party. I see Arturo, who's talking to Nicole, and accidentally call him Asterios as I run by. I hear Nicole laugh and explain to Arturo that Asterios is a friend of ours.
While the Catbears are enjoying the party, they notice in their hazing growing drunkeness one little bad creature seemingly following them around. They see its wormy little body here, glimpse its tail disappearing there, get a solid impression of his gaze before he again flits off into the crowd.
The Catbears enjoy as long as they can, dancing and drinking and stealing kisses and fondlings as they dance, when suddenly the little thing following them is no longer hiding, but standing in plain sight and staring at them.
The Catbears are terrified of notice, and as the little thing begins to chase them they run. In a whizzing flight through humans and creatures alike, the terrible paintings and the distorted mirrors hounding over them, mocking their terror.
The chase is narrow, but they reach their oval mirror and pink jumps in first. Without waiting for the flipping to stop, Lavender leaps up in terror and the mirror hits him as he jumps, carrying him right up and in through the top he goes. As Pink speeds through the tunnel, she wriggles to glance back at her partner, to see that he is badly hurt and bouncing around the inside of the tube in a fit of havoc. She can do nothing but look back forward with a steely resolve and hope that he comes out okay.
Out of the mirror she shoots, making a running stop. Close on her panting, bedraggled face as she stands with her hands out, back to the mirror. She turns. Can't see what she sees, but she freezes and does not move. Pan out as she stands with both stubby little arms with outstretched paws still out and and stares slack jawed and wide-eyed, and we see the mirror.
It is no longer a mirror, but a painting, of an x-eyed Lavender with his tongue hanging out, half sitting up leaned crookedly against the set of drawers just under what used to be an oval mirror.
As she stares and stares, she closes her mouth tremblingly and, without putting down those furry little paws, takes one tiny, shaky step towards the painting. That was all she needed. She breaks into a furious sprint and dives at the top of the mirror, and as it spins we see she has dug her claws into the wood at the back of the mirror in a spread eagle. As it begins to slow, at once she is not on the back but inside, and in the slowing shots as the mirror flips we see her reaching out her pink paw to her Lavender's body, as she hugs him and lays her head on his shoulder and closes her eyes.
Back at the party, in a little bubble of space, the dark little creature walks up with his hands behind his back. His entourage behind him, he looks up at the wall, nods, smiles, and turns quickly as before and walks off. We see what he was looking on his wall: A brand new painting, of two catbears in their home, frozen in that sad embrace on their floor, forever.
