A short chapter, but Kim still has a few good ideas to talk about. Including one idea of hers that I ignored from the previous chapter, ha,ha.

But first, here’s the summary:

After the confrontation in the Pinada wing of the Brinkland National Museum, Mean and her buddies use the hex door A.I. to search for Parlay’s house. They eventually find a promising result: a run-down mansion. The group pops on over.

Mean reveals that she can use one of Tenny’s arts to fly now, and she zooms across the garden with Dark. The two have a bit of a talk where Mean promises to reveal the secret of her origin. Of course she doesn’t get the chance since they’re interrupted by Darrow. Man, I hate it when that happens in OTHER stories but I’m sure I have a really good reason for delaying it.

The mansion, however, is locked. Forcing the door open will only bring doom upon them. So of COURSE the only option is to go to the Hardpan Police Department to pick up a sample of Parlay’s D.N.A. that was obtained with the help of a cryogenic root beer mug. What? I set it up in the prologue! It makes perfect sense!

First Mean asks the hex door to show her houses that belong to Parlay. When that brings up too many results, she tries to narrow it down.

• “Ah––good idea,” Mean said. “Okay: only show houses from this list with hex doors that have been recently used.”
• Kim – This kind of reminds me of Gwen’s job on Galaxy Quest.

What does this mean? I’ve only seen that movie once. Matt made me watch it as punishment for making HIM watch Project A-ko.

---

• A single image of a mansion appeared. Trisk gave Darrow a pat on the head.
• Kim – That’s all? No display info like an address?

Hm, yeah, that might be helpful to the reader. Parlay’s house is located near Droldragia, the field where Hardpan City was built. This is why he was able to notice the Jesians when they settled on the planet. I did express this information in a subtle way through weather patterns between the two areas, but I SUPPOSE one more clue couldn’t hurt. 😉

---

Now Trisk is impressed with the ideas coming out of Darrow.

• “It’s worth sitting through your inane comments to get to Tome’s useful ideas.”
• Kim – Is this Trisk speaking? So that was Tome speaking? Is there a way to differentiate between Darrow and Tome speaking?

This is what Kim brought up in the previous chapter. See, Tome is mentally speaking to Darrow, and then Darrow relays the message vocally. So it is always Darrow speaking. I agree it’s confusing, but in a wonderful, Darrow-like way!

But I’m open to ideas. Should I put “Darrow/Tome said” or some such thing? Or should I start all the dialog with “Hey, everybody! Tome here!” Remember, put your suggestions in the comments, or I won’t change a thing!

---

• A dirty path lead away from the hex door, half-concealed with dead leaves that swirled in the wind.
• Kim – Lead or led?

Ugh, I’m still getting this wrong? And you know it’s ‘led’ Kim! No question mark needed.

---

Now Mean helpfully levitates Dark across the garden to the mansion’s front door.

• Mean threw him a glance and he was flung from where he was standing, soaring over the path that lead to the large house.
• Kim  Re-word? Seems odd she threw him a glance and then literally threw him.

Oh no! That’s way too close to being a pun! How could I!? HOW!? Erase it! Kill it! AAAAAHH!

And I got ‘led’ wrong again!?

---

Here Mean shows off her new ability: THE POWER OF FLIGHT!

But Kim asks the real question on everyone’s mind: Is Mean wearing the correct footwear!?

• Her tennis shoes tapped along: taking her over a branch, a pile of leaves––then she bounded up one final time, leaving the ground altogether.
• Kim – Maybe re-word? sport shoes?

Kim made a comment about this in the previous chapter as well. “Is there tennis on this planet?” or something like that. I hate to give out spoilers, but yes there is tennis. It appears in a flashback in Abandonment Party 2: The Tennis Cup of Champions.

Oh, wait, the dictionary definition for tennis shoe is: “A sports shoe with a rubber sole (usually pebbled) and a stitched canvas upper that laces over the instep.”

Pebbled? Upper? I don’t know what any of that means. -_-

---

When Mean and Dark fly ahead, Trisk stays behind. Darrow runs after them, though.

• “Yeah, it’s my actual body; all me.” Mean took a backwards peek down the trail. From the far-off hex door, Darrow was running toward them as fast as he could.
• Kim – What about Trisk? Where is she?

I discussed this with Kim before I wrote this post. I told her that Trisk wanted to give Dark and Mean some space so they could reconcile. Kim wanted Trisk to wink at Mean or something so that her intentions were clearer.

But since Darrow is running after them ANYway I guess Trisk could just follow along for the exercise. Whatever.

---

And as Darrow comes over he runs right over the remains of tiny rory snails.

• “Man, there are some sort of tiny, crunchy things all over that path,” he said.
• Kim – Aw, is he killing baby snails?

Those are just the empty shells, Kim. Don’t worry. 😉

---

Okay! Kim already has 15 done so let’s keep going! See you next time!