The Chimera

October 4, 2013 Look for Meg’s face!

Yay for the second issue of the Chimera in this semester!

We survived a swimming relay and our towns and families

being destroyed by Titans! Well, most of us did. And yes,

I am using Comic Sans. Get used to it.

UPCOMING EVENTS

GYGO (Get Your Geek On)

When? October 25th, 10pm-2am

Where? Blanchard Great Room

How? BY WORKING YOUR SHIFT (also

in costume)

How much? $1 for full costume, $3 for

geeky attire, $5 for regular wear

Submission Guidelines

1. Any written work must be five pages or less. You can submit a segment at

a time (i.e. serial publication).

2. All work submitted must have been created by the person submitting it, or

with expressed written submission of the creator.

3. One submission per medium per person.

4. Only current students may submit to the Chimera. If you are not a

current student, you can submit to the Bellerophon (the Tumblr counterpart)

Prompts

1. Imagine your OTP: playing pool

2. AU: The government shuts

down!

3. Misc.: Someone has invented a

machine that manipulates

memories.

Editor Introductions

I’m Lauren Tilley, Mother of All Monsters (i.e. Head Editor). Last year, I resurrected this little

project (IT’S NOT LITTLE). I am technically a junior, but my class color/animal is red Pegasus and

no one can stop me. I am the Mistress of the Chimera (that’s my librarian title). I’ve been a Bella

librarian for 3 years now, and I’m also President of Renegades. My top three fandoms are Fullmetal

Alchemist, Code Geass, and Game of Thrones. I write fic but can’t draw worth crap, and I’m

responsible for making sure Meg’s face shows up in every issue. Because we have two Laurens, I am

old Lauren.

Hail, fellow Bellatricians! I’m Lauren (‘16), and excited to be working on the Chimera again this

year! I’m looking forward to seeing all sorts of submissions and sharing them with the community.

I’m interested in animation, science fiction, and strategy games. A few of my fandoms include

Avatar: the Last Airbender, Touhou Project, and AKB0048. Alternate universe stories are my

favorite! I’m not a writer or an artist, but I love, love, love to read. You can find me regularly at

Bellatrix (Thursdays and Fridays) and Renegades.

Hey guys, my name is Whitney. I’m a senior and my main fandoms are Star Trek, Sherlock, and

Homestuck. I’m a Bellatrix librarian (the illustrious and mysterious Science Bard) and one of the

editors of the Chimera. I will also be one of the people in charge of the Bellerophon, which is the

Tumblr blog of the Chimera. The Bellerophon accepts any submissions that can be submitted on

Tumblr.

Hello, there, I’m Erienne. I’m a sophomore and Head Librarian. My major fandoms are Star Trek,

Lord of the Rings, and currently, Sherlock. My favorite actor in the world is Martin Freeman and

I’m on a mission to watch everything he’s ever been in. I also write fanfic, novels, short stories,

and a webcomic.

Rachel Sutton, ‘16, will introduce herself next time because I’m an idiot - old Lauren

The Bellatrix Library,

located across from the

elevator in the basement of

Wilder, is open on Saturdays

from 12-6 p.m. Feel free to

stop in and say hello!

The Bellerophon is the Tumblr blog

associated with the Chimera. You may

submit digital/scanned art and written

work. The url is

thebellerophon.tumblr.com, and is a

joint effort of the editors.

Next Issue: October 17

Deadline for submission: October 15th

Submissions

Webcomic Recommendation for

Cucumber Quest

Recommended by: Camilla Yohn-Barr, ‘15

Cucumber Quest is a cute, colorful webcomic that cheerfully turns the traditional

hero story on its head! The Nightmare Knight has been summoned and is threatening

life as the residents of the Doughnut Kingdom know it... again. Follow Cucumber (who

really just wanted to start magic school no matter how much his dad made fun of him)

and his sister Almond (who thinks this is AWESOME and is pretty boss with a sword)

as they set off to collect the necessary orbs, defeat the Nightmare Knight, and save

the world! ...For the 100th time in history. But hopefully for the last time, because

this is ridiculous. A wide cast of characters, imaginative lands, new friends, and a

world-class thief and her silent butler await them!!!

Overall Rating: 10/10 would recommend.

Art: Bright and colorful, and very imaginative character design! These guys aren’t

named what they are for nothing – Sir Carrot actually looks rather carrotesque.

Writing: Well done and very, very funny. Bonus points from me for the

deconstruction of the Hero’s Journey.

Update Schedule: Currently updates on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and

Fridays.

Perfect if you like: Adventure stories, humor, an element of mystery, well thought-

out villains that aren’t just doing things “becuz teh evils lol,” and puns.

Warnings: [None I can think of]

http://cucumber.gigidigi.com/

Amorous Tryst, Part One

Written by: Anonymous

FMA Fanfiction

Rating: PG - slightly creepy

He is slow, but he is not stupid.

He is with her all the time, on missions from their master. And when he asks to eat

someone, or something, she always gives him permission, or tells him softly that he has

already eaten enough for that day, or that hour, or that minute; there is never a

‘maybe you can eat this’ or ‘I’ll tell you if you can eat it later’, as their master

sometimes said, or Envy sometimes said, or Wrath or Pride or anyone else sometimes

said. And he is grateful for that.

A Smoke at Josie’s

By: Science Bard

Sometimes when Lust is talking to a victim or a friend, Gluttony stands in the shadows,

waiting to come out to devour or stare at him. Sometimes when Lust is talking to a

victim or a friend, Gluttony is standing right beside Lust, waiting to devour or just

staring at him.

Lust always seems to be talking to other men. Lust never seems to be talking to other

women. Gluttony is not puzzled by this. He just notes it as a fact. It sits in the

recesses of his mind.

Gluttony can fight. Lust can fight as well. They work well together. Lust usually pierces

the body of the man she is fighting. And Gluttony watches as the man trembles before

her, red ooze leaking or spurting from right upper corner of his chest. Lust tells

Gluttony this is where she likes to attack men best.

“In their hearts,” she says, “where even the strongest men fall. It is the weakest

organ of the human body. Here, eat it.”

And he does.

And he is grateful for that.

He just notes it as a fact, that Lust always likes to pierce the hearts of men and it

works well for her. Their master too is pleased with their teamwork.

Once, though, once Lust pierced the heart of a woman with her long, deadly nails.

Gluttony sat on the pipes above the two of them, sin and human, and watched with

hesitation. It was ugly. The woman screamed and screamed. She wouldn’t stop

screaming. If Wrath had been there, he would have wanted to kill the woman just for

her annoying sounds.

Then Lust ended the woman’s torture by ripping out her heart.

And the woman fell silent.

Gluttony was pleased, then. Lust threw the heart up to him, and he caught it in his

mouth, and he swallowed it whole.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lust takes Gluttony for walks, sometimes. And sometimes the other sins come along.

And sometimes the other sins don’t come along. And sometimes Gluttony likes that the

other sins don’t come along. Because sometimes, when Lust is in a bad mood, Gluttony

wants to walk with her by himself. And because sometimes, when Lust is in a good

Gluttony wants to walk with her by himself. He does not question his wants.

One night, they are watching the Elric brothers sleep. They are ordered by their

master to watch the brothers sleep. Gluttony does not know why they are ordered to

do such things, but he does not care. He is happy because he is with his Lust.

“Can I eat them?” he asks.

“No,” Lust answers, softly.

And Gluttony is satisfied.

They watch the brothers for hours. The metal suit of armor that the soul of one

brother lives in does not seem to sleep. The metal suit of armor stares out the window

for the longest time. His glowing red eyes with the white pupils are looking directly at

the two of them.

After some time, Lust says, “He can’t see us. He doesn’t know we are here.”

Gluttony doesn’t say anything. He is not sure why Lust would say something like that, as

the metal suit of armor is looking directly at the two of them.

It seems to Gluttony that the metal suit of armor should be eaten.

“Can I eat it?” he asks, pointing a fat finger to the metal suit of armor.

“No,” Lust answers, softly. She stands up. “We’re leaving, Gluttony. Come on, let’s go

get you something to eat.”

“Okay!” Gluttony does not question why they are abandoning their post, which their

master told them not to leave until Envy arrives with some important information.

But then Envy does arrive with some important information.

“Lust, where are you going? You were told to stay put until I came!” Envy scowls,

pushing his lightly tinted hair back from his face.

“Sorry,” Lust sighs, “I was growing bored.” She sits down again, crossing one leg over

the other and letting them hang over the edge of the building. Gluttony sits down too.

“Well, that’s not my problem,” Envy says. “Anyway, what were you able to find out

about those two?” Envy gestures to the hotel room window where the Elric brothers can

be seen. The short one is still sleeping, though the sky is turning a delicate shade of

pink. The metal suit of armor has moved his head forward. He is not looking at Lust

and Gluttony and Envy anymore.

“They’ve been in there for the past seven hours. I haven’t been able to conclude

anything.”

“You weren’t supposed to conclude anything, you were just supposed to watch them!”

Lust stretches back, arching her neck and looking upwards towards the sky. Gluttony

does too, but he doesn’t see anything worthy of notice. Just the dim pink haze of sky

brushing against fluffy, puffy puffs of white. It is pretty, but it doesn’t mean anything

to Gluttony.

“I was observing their every move. The metal one doesn’t sleep, and the short one,

after about seven minutes, fell asleep and will continue sleeping until he wakes up or

until his brother wakes him up.”

“Ah, okay.”

“Yes.”

Envy looks off to the side, and Gluttony feels an urge to devour something, anything.

He is very hungry.

“Lust?” Gluttony says, whimpering, “I’m so hungry…”

“Yes? Then we’ll go get you something to eat.” Lust starts to stand again, but Envy

stops her with a hand on her arm.

“Wait,” he says, and Lust stills.

Gluttony whimpers. He is so hungry.

“Father told me that these two are going to be candidates for sacrifice. And that’s not

all… they’re the primus and secondus candidates for sacrifice. So, never give that big lump an order to eat them. You can’t touch them either. Father wants you to watch them some more, get their daily routine down, all that. And make sure they don’t do anything stupid until it’s time.”

Lust wrenches her arm back from Envy, and Envy takes a step back from her. His ever

-present smirk is flipped, and, though Gluttony cannot read emotions well, Gluttony can

sense something odd about Envy. He’s… scared? That’s silly!

“Silly!” Gluttony bursts out, and the moment of tension between the two other sins is

broken. Lust glances at Gluttony and tells him to follow her; she bounds off somewhere.

Before Gluttony goes after his Lust, though, Envy stops him.

“Hey, Gluttony,” Envy says, and Gluttony leans closer to him so as to hear him better.

For some reason, Envy is speaking very quietly, like Lust sometimes does in her sleep.

“While you guys were watching those humans, did… did Lust say anything to you about

me?”

Envy stands to his full height again, and Gluttony thinks back, hours and hours back.

But his working memory… he was not designed with such an excellent one. So he cannot

remember. But Gluttony does not know that he cannot possibly remember. So he says

no. Why is this a matter of consequence to Envy?

Gluttony notices that Envy’s hands ball into fists and shake. “Thanks, Gluttony. Just

don’t tell her I asked, right?”

“Okay!” Gluttony’s smile is wide and pleased. He watches Envy disappear over the

horizon.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“What did Envy say to you, Gluttony?” Lust asks him after he finishes eating a couple

of stray dogs.

“Oh… Envy said…” Gluttony remembers his promise. But this is his Lust! He should tell

her everything. She’s his best friend.

“Envy asked if you talked about him while we were watching the humans,” Gluttony tells

her.

“Oh, really?” Lust says, and she tilts her head and smiles her beautiful smile. “That’s

interesting.”

“I’m hungry,” Gluttony tells her, but she turns her head away from him so that she can

stare at the blank, grey wall of the alley.

“Alright. Two more dogs… and then we’re on our way to Father’s sanctum.”

“Yay!” Gluttony cheers, and quickly he gobbles up more animals. More than two, but

Lust doesn’t seem to notice.

They leave for Father’s sanctum in Central.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After two days and many more snacks, they are walking along the underground canal.

Gluttony smells the chimeras lurking in the shadows, watching them. He’s not supposed

to eat these dogs. But he wonders what the difference is… between the dogs outside of

the underground and the dogs inside of the underground. Why aren’t they the same…

why can’t he eat everything he wants to eat?

Lust hurries Gluttony along by calling to him when he is distracted by his thinking

process.

“Lust,” Gluttony says.

Lust responds with a sigh and a silky, “Yes?”

“Why can’t I eat whatever I want to eat?”

Lust stops in her tracks and whips around to face him, her hair glowing faintly in the

dim lighting.

“Why would you ask such a question?” Lust says, and her low melodic voice is even lower

and more melodic in the cavernous canal.

“I’m hungry,” Gluttony responds, and his tummy growls to add helpfully to his reason.

Lust seems to deflate, and she says, “Because you obey orders from Father. You must

not eat whenever you want to eat because you are a dangerous creature and allowing

you to roam free and rampant would not be to the benefit of Father’s plans. You must

control your hunger sometimes, Gluttony, otherwise… you’ll end up devouring this entire

planet. And then where will you go, and what will you do?”

Gluttony accepts Lust’s explanation. He takes nothing with a grain of salt. He answers,

“I would go wherever Lust tells me to go, and I would do anything Lust tells me to do,

if I ever eat the Earth.”

Lust stares at him for a moment or two, not smiling. Her eyes look unhappy too;

creases form between her slanted, ebony eyebrows.

“Gluttony…” Lust begins, but then a chimera growls from somewhere, and Lust breaks

off, looking to the side where the chimera is.

“Let’s go,” Lust says, and Gluttony follows her happily.

They enter the large sanctum where Father is. When Father looks up to see them, his

eyes widen and he leans forward, but otherwise gives no signs of his surprise. He is

sitting in his throne, a large chair crafted from iron and steel. There are little tubes

and networks running from the chair to who knows where in the sanctum. Gluttony

doesn’t even know what the tubes carry. But he is happy to see Father, the being who

created the sins. (To be continued…)

Welcome to Night Vale Summer Reading Poster

By Erienne McCray, ‘16

Childhood Fears

By: Charlotte Kugler, ‘14

Original Fiction/Horror

Rating: PG (more than slightly creepy)

When my husband got deployed, I moved back to my parents' house with my daughter.

The house had been in our family for generations, and I was set to inherit it one day

when they passed on. It was a small farmhouse at the end of a long dirt lane among the

fields that lay on the edge of an old town in upstate New York. The trip from the city

took several hours, but the beautiful foliage distracted me from falling into melancholy

as I drove.

My daughter didn't say much from where she sat in the back seat. She was missing her

dad, as was I. I expected she would cheer up when we got to her grandparents' and

she was able to explore our new home for the next two years, and the cornfields and

woodland around it.

I was right - when we arrived, she jumped out of the car and ran up to the porch

where my mother had come out to greet us. She picked my daughter up, marveling at

how much she had grown over the last year, and I joined them, glad to be back at my

childhood home and hoping it would be a comfort to me in the months ahead.

My parents brought us upstairs once we had moved our small amount of belongings,

mostly clothes, into the house from the car. To my surprise, my daughter had been

given my room, and the bed in the guest room was made up for me.

"All your toys and such are still in there," my mother explained. "We thought she would

enjoy it. And the window has such a nice view."

I stepped into the room, past the bed where my daughter was happily digging through

the pile of stuffed animals that had once been mine. The wide window looked out to the

narrow lane below, framed on each side by tall grass and then rows upon rows of

cornstalks. I set my hands on the windowsill and peered out, but it didn't feel right, so

I dropped to my knees, and then it was like I was a child again, with my elbows propped

on the sill and my eyes focused on a point down the lane as far as I could see, where it

seemed a tall figure was moving, coming towards the house under the moonlight.

"What are you doing?"

I blinked, and looked again. There was nothing there, and it was still the middle of the

afternoon. When I turned around, my daughter was staring at me, confused.

"Remembering when I was your age," I said.

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

That night, I stayed up after my parents went to bed around ten o'clock. I had settled

with a book in the country-style living room, but I couldn't keep my mind on my reading.

Something was bothering me, something about what I had seen, or thought I'd seen,

from my old bedroom where my daughter now slept.

It wasn't the first time I had seen it.

I hadn't thought about my nights in that room when I was around my daughter's age,

not in many, many years. I had grown up, gotten past what my parents deemed a normal

phase for a child where I had recurrent night terrors. I had stopped believing in the

stupid stories repeated by and circled among kids at school.

And besides, it had only been for a month. Less than that actually. No matter how

difficult that span of time can be, a month is just a month in your lifetime, and as more

months and then years pass by with all the new trials and experiences they hold for you,

that one month during the autumn when you were six falls behind and gets pushed away

to the back of your mind, nearly forgotten.

Except my memories were still there, somewhere. Up in my old room earlier that day,

one had gotten loose, slipped up to the very front of my mind before I could realize

what was happening. I ran a hand through my hair, annoyed at myself. It was just a

memory. A reminder of an unpleasant time, yes, but nothing I needed to focus on. With

the exception of that month, my years as a child in this house had been happy.

I tried to read again, but only managed a couple chapters before I started getting

sleepy, so I decided to go to bed a little early after a day of traveling. At the top of

the stairs, I pushed open the door of my daughter's room, widening the small crack I'd

left for her the way she liked, and peeked in. She was sleeping peacefully, sprawled out

on the bed under a beam of moonlight. I smiled and returned the door to the narrow

crack it had been at before, and then I went across the hall to the guest room, my

room, that faced the fields behind the house.

As I got into bed, I felt an unbidden flicker of relief that I wouldn't be sleeping in my

old room.

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

A few days later, as we had begun to settle in and I was filling out paperwork for my

daughter to start school the next week, a package arrived in the afternoon from my

husband. He had sent it to us shortly after he'd arrived at his post overseas, having

explored the town he was stationed in and found gifts for us. For me, he had written a

letter describing his trip and his first impressions of his post, and sent me a couple of

books on the local art and traditions. For my daughter, there was a strange wooden

doll.

"It's not a doll," she corrected me when I handed it to her. "It's a puppet!"

"A marionette, actually," my father commented, watching as she worked on untangling

the strings and then deftly manipulated them with the wooden bars they attached to.

The marionette responded with jerky movements as she made it dance suspended in the

air, laughing.

I smiled, but something about it was tapping on the door to my nearly-forgotten

memories. Just to put myself at ease and prove it didn't matter, I tried to remember

what the puppet could be resembling, but could only draw a blank.

It was still bugging me later that night after dinner. For something that had terrified

me night after night as a child, shouldn't I be able to remember what that something

was? All I had as clues were the figure I had imagined seeing from the window on the

day we arrived, and the way the marionette's dancing limbs had unsettled me.

"Mom," I ventured as I helped with the dishes, "do you remember how I had night

terrors when I was six?"

"Night terrors? I think so. I remember you refusing to go to bed for awhile because of

some dream you were having, but then it stopped and you were fine."

"What was the dream?"

"Oh, I don't know, you never really explained it, but you insisted it was real and not a

dream. It was just something you'd heard at school, a creepy story about something

you thought was coming to get you. Why are you asking? Are you having those

nightmares again?"

She laughed teasingly, but I just shook my head and said, "No, I've just been vaguely

remembering it after coming back here but can't put it all together."

She shrugged. "It was a long time ago. If only we could have the problems we did as

children instead of the ones we have now, right?"

I met her sympathetic smile with a nod.

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

My daughter started school the following week. In the meantime, I hadn't had any

more strange feelings or remembered anything else, and I had begun to forget about it.

If it was something important, I would have remembered on my own, I figured.

But then she came down to breakfast one morning and said, "Want to hear something

weird?"

I wasn't paying much attention because I was on the phone with a friend from the city,

catching up and describing our move, but my father indulged her.

"What's something weird?"

She sat down at the table and said, "Well, this boy told us about the puppet man

yesterday in show-and-tell, and then I saw him last night."

My friend was talking, but when the words "puppet man" made their way to my ears

past her voice and the sound of my mother's clatter by the stove, I stopped listening

to her and instead stared at my daughter across the kitchen.

"You saw what last night? A puppet?" my father said, confused.

"No, a man, the puppet man. Because he walks all weird and funny like a puppet. That's

why the boy told us, because I brought my marionette and was making it dance for

everyone. Then the teacher told him not to scare us."

I slowly pieced together what had happened. The day before, she had taken the

marionette to school with her for show-and-tell in her first grade class, which had

prompted one of her classmates to relate the story of what she had called the puppet

man.

The same story I had heard when I was a child.

"That's it, that's what you used to have nightmares about," my mother called from the

stove. "I remember now, you said the puppet man was coming for you. Is that story

really still going around?"

By now my friend was repeating my name, saying, "Hello? You still there?"

"I - I'll call you back later," I told her, ending the call before she could respond. I felt

bad for a moment, but there was something more important going on, something my parents

didn't seem to have noticed.

"Wait. You said you saw this... this man last night?" I looked at my daughter steadily, not

wanting to alarm her, but a sick feeling was rising in my throat.

She nodded seriously. "Way down at the end of the road when I looked out the window.

Because the story said he came to houses where - "

"I know what it says." I was cold all over. The words of the tale I hadn't been able to

remember now echoed in my head.

He comes for children who live in houses far away from other people, at the end of long driveways and lanes. It's more fun that way. He'll start at the very beginning of the road, staring at the house in the distance, his presence summoned by a child who's looking out their window to see if it's real, if it really is just a story. He'll stand there, just dancing in place, watching until the child eventually looks away and falls asleep. And then he'll be back the next night, and the next, a little closer each time. It'd be over far too quickly if he went to houses with short walkways right on the street. He'd rather take a whole month to get to the house, and when the night comes that he's right below your window, dancing merrily and silently in the wind, he'll look up at you. Then, when you meet his eyes (because you have to, you've been checking for him every night and you can't just look away from something that's real even though it shouldn't be), he'll change. And with a sudden explosion of black wings and white claws and a screech that could never come from a human, he'll rush towards the window…

"Honey, are you alright?"

My mother was looking at me worriedly.

"Yeah," I whispered. "I remember, that's all."

I turned to my daughter, not caring about how it would sound to my parents. They wouldn't

believe. When I spoke, it wasn't my adult self saying the words but the six year old girl I

had once been, who I'd forgotten for so long. I spoke as one child to another, the only way

it could be.

"Don't look out your window tonight. Don't ever look out it again. As long as you keep

looking, he'll keep coming. Just shut the curtains and go to bed. You know it's real now, and

that's enough. That's more than enough."