![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Personal Information
Name: Chicklet
Age: Adult
Personal Journal: Chicklet
Email / AIM / MSN / Plurk: Plurk - ChickletLARP
Current Character(s): Gabriel Agreste/Papillon, Guru Cleph of Ceiphro, Me
Character Information
Character Name:Spark
Fandom: Dominic Deegan
Character History:
Spark is what is known as a Talker - an animal who speaks one or more human languages. He adopted Dominic at some point between Dominic's childhood and his adulthood. When is not known, but he is not there in the flashbacks of when Dominic was a nerdy pre-teen/young teen, so sometime after that. Details if the adoption remain unknown.
We know he was fixed, and that at one point he was able to look into Dominic's crystal ball and see that in his own past.
Beyond that, we don't know much about Spark until the start of the story. He is the "pet" of a grumpy Seer, an Oracle for Hire by the name of Dominic Deegan. Spark mostly helps Dominic blow off stress after a long day of dealing with the idiots of Lynnsbrook, where they had been living for some time.
Then one day, Spark's greatest wish he never knew to have came true. Dominic was cursed by a crone named Travoria so that every time he smoked - which was habitual and constant - a fish landed on his head. Spark, who could out eat Garfield, was in fish heaven, and constantly tried to talk his "boss" out of undoing the curse.
He was left behind when Dominic went to check on the thieves he had forced into stealing the cure for him, but that was fine, because Dominic asked him to keep an eye on the fish stew he had been making for dinner. When Dominic returned, the fish were gone, and sadly so was the curse.
A few days later, Spark talked Dominic into taking him fishing, which is when Spark met Luna, Travoria's daughter whom Dominic had rescued days before. She had tried to kill herself and wound up propped against a rock in the middle of the lake. Dominic went to save her, and then had to be saved by Spark.
Dominic took Luna in and made her his assistant, which freed up Spark from a job he never bothered to do, but meant that Dominic stole his pillow. The jerk.
After she had been there a short while, Dominic and Luna rushed out to find Gregory, leaving Spark alone for three whole agonizing fish-less hours. It felt like days. He destroyed some of Dominic's things while he waited.
Greg came back with them, and that was fun, because he made great couch forts, and enjoyed Spark's alluring alliteration.
then there was some drama, something about Jacob, a lynch mob, some corrupted knight named Siggy beating up Spark's humans, but Luna stopped them before Spark could get involved. He watched from inside the house. Dominic had a horrible vision about Jacob, blah blah blah.
Or as Spark put it - "So Dominic Deegan is angry at Gabby Greg, who nearly got Luna Lynched because he's still sore from the Sightless Satanist?"
Good news though, the people of Lynnsbrook wanted Dominic out, which meant no more idiot customers! So they packed up in some enchanted knapsacks, "So we wear the magic bags, till the magic wears off then we buy a wagon to cart our stuff around in?"
Jokes put aside, they headed for Barthis, where Dominic had seen the visions occurring and were stopped by Siggy's friends, Jayden and Milov, one of which had a similar vision. Failing to talk them out of going to Barthis - where Dominic saw them dying, Dominic took a detour to visit his and Spark's friend, Dejah, for advice. They were looking for Dejah's view. Spark got to lick Deja - he tastes like jelly - they talked, and Dejah hurried them on to Barthis via a slime geyser spell.
The Chosen were there in force, and they used a despair spell on pretty much everyone. The vision Dominic had of them hanging a town full of people had been slightly off, they were using the spell to make those people hang themselves. Milov and Jayden showed up - with Siggy. The head of the Chosen could not be scryed, because he had a glyph in his head, and things kept getting worse. The Chosen sent an imp to spy on Dominic, and Spark learned one really awesome thing when he found the imp... it made an awesome splatter pattern on the wall! Later Dominic asked if he had questioned the imp before killing it. Pfft.
Then the despair spell hit. Oh, yeah, Vilrath - the head of the Chosen - he kind of crucified Siggy, but no one cares about that maniac, so Spark didn't pay much attention. So anyway, the command runes hit, and everyone started feeling depressed, listing all the reasons why they were failures and useless. Spark got into the listing thing... but... cat. "All I ever do is eat and sleep. I'm not... Wait! I'm not sad about that at all!" As I said, cat. Since Dominic was the only non-cat not affected by the spell, it was up to him to save everyone again. Must be so cool to be him! Spark elected to stay in the room and guard it from any other splattable imps.
Suddenly Luna and Greg broke free of the spell and seemed to recover themselves. Though, low self-esteem is kinda Luna's game at this point, so Spark wasn't sure how he noticed a difference. Kidding. Sorta. Luna and Greg went tearing out of there with Milov and Jayden to save Dominic. Spark kept guarding the room. A job he could do in his sleep.
After they returned, they told Spark everything, how Vilrath was actually Jacob Deegan wearing Vilarath's skin after having killed him, detailed accounts of how he killed the chosen and vanished into the ground. Spark found it "COOL!" where apparently everyone else had either puked or cried.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2003-08-22
Spark was there when Dominic had a nightmare, and when Dominic fell asleep in the chair. And when he slept in and didn't wake up to feed him... Spark was there to remind him. Even if it meant laying despondently on his head.
He then got to snark at Dominic while he was helping Luna recover from her own nightmare. And then as they packed up to leave, there was a thank you party in the Inn ti celebrate the great heroes of Barthis, sponsored by Siggy of all people. Spark stayed with Luna happily providing plot summer alliterations about he backstory, and snuggling up against her warmth.
Dominic was offered a job as a Seer. He refused. He was very down, so Spark helpfully informed Luna that a tunafish pie would make Dominic feel better. It made one of them feel better, anyway, and it was yummy.
Dominic got another creepy vision and they were off to Erossus, Sin City.
(I will be skipping most of this section, mainly because until the end, Spark's entire contribution was a running gag of his misunderstanding if dirty slang to mean cats.)
He did get sent to spy once, which lead to some minorly useful information and more rated X jokes. Then while Dominic was negotiating with another Seer - Celesteo Morgan - Dominic's childhood friend Szark attacked Spark and Luna in their room, going on about how Dominic is plotting to kill him and his wife (Luna's sister) for their money. Szark threw Spark out a window, which could have been painful, even for a cat, but he was saved by a portal that opened up and dropped him at the feet of two of his favorite people ever. Miranda and Donovan Deegan - parents to Dominic, Greg, and Jacob.
Spark filled in the elder Deegans, and was privy to their plans as Donovan, and an illusion of Miranda went to Sin City to fix everything and stop the infernomancer. When things started to fall apart, and Miranda went in person to save Dominic's life, Spark went with, stopping a demon-possessed Szark with a DEATH FROM ABOVE attack. That let them tie Szark up long enough for Dominic to go into his soul to banish the demon - Karnak, demon of wounds.
Dominic banished him, Miranda banished the infernomancer, someone killed Szark's wife, Szark was on the road to recovery, and the rest of the villains of the day were arrested. Szark decided to fix his life and he and Dominic renewed their friendship.
They all headed to Quiral, where the elder Deegans live, where Miranda is headmaster of a wizard academy. Her students had been attacked by the infernomancer when he was looking for Miranda. On the way, Dominic was hit by a vision that put him in a coma for a week.
This began the storm of souls issue, when someone was trying to create pure chaos, and Dominic had to stand against their champion - Celesteo, as the champion of balance.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2004-09-28
Spark got to eat Dominic's Delicious Dinner when Dominic mouthed off to his mother about how she always defended necromancers, getting him sent to his room Sans Supper.
Listening to Luna and Dominic theorize after supper, Spark came to an undeniable conclusion. Clearly... they are both nerds. Spark left when their sap and mush got to be too much, but came back when he was hungry, letting Dominic know that either he got fed or there would be a hairball in his shoes.
Dominic had more creepy visions, Luna decided to attend some lectures so she could be of more use in the future, and Spark who had done nothing in the combats she was worried about, other than one Death from Above, agreed that she had been rather useless. Nothing like the tact and grace of a cat. Of course, when Dominic tried to cheer Luna up and it turned into a mutual admiration society, Spark asked them to pick up more sap at the store, because they were using it all up.
Blah blah blah. Creepy visions. Spark alone in the house. Dominic becomes addicted to mavple candy. Blah blah blah. Dominic sent Luna out to save Nimmel's life. Blah blah blah. As none of this involved feeding him, Spark slept through and/or ignored most of it.
Basically: http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2005-02-25
An Acibek sphere caught Spark up with everything Dominic had learned about the storm of souls, and Helixa and Rillian. Woke him up from a perfectly good nap too. Dominic left them with important tasks.
"Okay, so we need to find the Sylvan Oracle, and ask her how to make Acibek's cage strong enough for Dominic to teleport the storm of souls into the Elemecca" as Spark summarized.
Spark headed out with Luna, Jayden, Milov, and Donovan to dace what was coming. What appeared to be Dejah met them, offering guidance. Spark was happy to see his friend, flung himself over, licked.... an imposter! Spark was the one to figure out this wasn't the real Dejah when everyone else was ready to trust, saving them all. Because he didn't taste like Jelly, and got mad at Spark for licking him.
They left Milov fighting the imposter, rushing on to find the Oracle. The next fight left Donovan and Jayden to fight Jacob, his patchwork golem, and his army of death from below zombies.
Luna and Spark raced onward.
Following a path of blood and corpses, Luna and Spark found where Dirk the Mighty was making his stand to protect the Oracle and the nymph whom he loves from Helixa. As the necromancer aimed a killing blow at Dirk, there was a mighty shout of "DEATH FROM ABOVE!" as what appeared to be Spark launched himself down at her. But it was only an illusion of Spark wrapped around a trap spell. Which was triggered when Helixia met "his" descent with a raised clawed hand, impaling him. Spark was very impressed with how realistic his corpse looked.
The Oracle said her goodbyes all sad and touching, naming the nymph as the next Sylvan Oracle, so she could send the souls that created her into the storm of souls to strengthen the cage Dominic was building. Spark noticed that Helixa was freeing herself and warned them all. Luna sent him with Dirk and the Nymph while she stood to fight the necromancer.
But Spark was overjoyed even as they fled. "Lovley Luna and Hellish Helixa Are All Alliteration."
Klo Tark stepped in and helped them finish their battles as the forces on Dominic's side came together again. Donovan won over the golem with bad puns "Let's see what you're made of" and talking about how Jacob "made a friend". Jayden tried to explain to Jacob that how even though his golem changed sides, he was a success, because Jacob had been able to create a creature that could feel joy. As Jacob was about to kill her...
"DEATH FROM ABOVE!"
Spark, on Dirk's back, dropped down onto where Jacob... had been standing. Dirk pointed out that the reason he got away was because he heard them coming, to which Spark calmly replied, "the battle cry is essential. It instills fear into the enemy."
As they were celebrating their victory, Klo Tark explained how they had only minutes left if they wanted to save Dominic's life. He made them sit in a circle and focus on Dominic. He used their energy to save Dominic from certain doom and unmaking... by swapping places with him. Dominic was missing the lower part of one leg, but he was alive, and back with them.
After Dominic witnessed Klo Tark's death, Spark summarized the situation for everyone. "So the Elemecca Ended the Storm of Souls... but it Killed Klo Tark, Truly a hero for the Self Ssacrifice that Saved Dominic Deegan." Spark then suggested a feast in Klo Tark's honor, with lots of fish.
They were able to heal all of Dominic's wounds, except his leg, which they could heal over into a smooth stump, but not rebuild. Spark thought this was a wonderful thing! Dominic lost a leg in a great battle, clearly that meant it was his destiny to become a pirate. To help, he started singing sea chanties in his ear while he slept. He pointed out how many fish they could have if Dominic was a pirate, then left the room as they got mushy, to complain at Donovan.
Domovan had brought home the golem, who had a horrible sense of humor. Which meant he fit right in. They called him quilt, which about covers it. Spark finally headed back into Dominic's room for some rest, and promptly got thrown out - physically, by Luna - for making another bad sap joke.
So Spark teamed up with Quilt, to become pirates, in hopes that Dominic would be compelled to join them. Spark found an eyepatch and a banana with holes cut out for his kitty ears. They had a great time making pirate jokes until Dominic wanted to deck them. Finally they tied him up as their prisoner, so they could make him walk the plank. After all, he always did like to make a splash.
Dominic was put into a sleep spell while they took an impression to make his artificial leg, during which he had a vision about Szark. Spark woke him up just in tine for "Captain Quilt's Quiche." Dominic sat up after dinner to write a letter to Szark, then realized he had forgotten about Gregory and fell down the stairs. Because he had also forgotten he was still about a foot (and half a leg) short.
Greg, it turned out. had nearly gotten killed saving the people of Barthis. AGAIN. But the houses were destroyed and another of Luna's sisters and a horrible man she was teamed up with were trying to buy Barthis out from under the townsfolk, by any means necessary. Including trying to get Greg arrested for destruction of property and to claim he owed for all the damages.
With Dominic unable to go, and Luna busy with her new job working for Miranda, who also had to stay close to the students, the heroes that had to go forth to Barthis to bail out gloomy Greg were Donovan, Captain Quilt, and Swabby Spark. Quilt and Spark were excited to see Donovan beat this fool out of harming Greg with his swordsmanship, but Donovoan knew this had to be won by the law and by numbers, so he recruited Szark's father - an accountant named Lars - to join their adventuring party.
On their way to Barthis, Spark discovered that Quilt didn't have a brain... he could see through one ear and right out the other! They marched dramatically into town at the perfect moment - Donovan is a noted Bard after all - looking all grim and intimidating.
The Battle for Barthis had Begun!
Donovan did get to show off some Zorro like swordsmanship, and they Backed Brakkis down for the moment, so they could regroup and plan.
But in the end it wasn't swords that would save Barthis, it was axes. Specifically Donovan on lead guitar, and Greg on harmonies. They formed a band called Oblivion Folder and raised enough money in a concert to save the town, while Dominic politically destroyed Brakkis, and Szark got to redeem himself.
Spark, however, didn't care all that much about any of that. He had found a pirate treasure in the rubble, and kept trying to get people to see so they could be in awe of what a great pirate he was, and so Dominic would want to be a pirate with him. But no one had time for his treasure until after the concert, after Brakkis was arrested, after it was all resolved. Apparently the treasure Spark had found was the ring that Dominic had been hunting for, and was worth more money than the concert raised. Nurse Pam, now Mayor Pam was given the ring and told to use it for the good of Barthis, to rebuild. Dominic had other concerns.
A war had begun in Hell.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2006-02-10
But Dominic couldn't sit it out after all, because the war was affecting anyone who had contact with a demon... including Szark. But on the plus side, Dejah came to visit to help consult with Dominic and Miranda and Luna and Milov.
Of course Dejah was the one who made Dominic realize why the war started... they were fighting over the souls of the Chosen that had gone to the infernal realm after the storm of souls was destroyed in the Elemecca.
After having a prophecy that someone he knew was going to die soon, Dominic wore himself out working with Stonewater to make protective charms for everyone to wear. Then he went with the others right into a vision to peer into the heart of the infernal realm to track the war. And it was worse than he expected. Much worse.
But Spark was spending his time helping someone else who needed it. Szark was suffering whenever the demon who wounded him got hurt. Since Karnak was one of the leading contenders in the fight, that was often.
Of course, that was about when Siggy showed up and arrested Dominic, taking him to the capitol, away from everyone who needed him.
Without Dominic there, even knowing someone he knew was fated to die soon, Miranda decided the only way to help Szark was to use a demonic gauntlet she had turned angelic. She knew this could likely kill her and had confided that in Donovan and Luna. So when Szark knew what her plan was and refused to let her take a stupid risk, she rounded on them, angry they would betray her confidence. But they hadn't.
Spark had. http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2006-04-29
They survived a lot that without a Seer of Dominic's strength they could neither expect nor understand, but they survived. When Dominic made it home he looked worse than they did. He told Jayden and Milov that Siggy was dead.
Grench, freed of demon possession came to make Dominic fake teeth for the ones he lost in the fight that killed Siggy.
Things started to calm down, and Luna and Dominic decided it was time to stop living with the elder Deegans and get their own home, and they chose to make that home (or rather have an Elemental named Rocky make their home) in the newly rebuilt Barthis.
Of course this timed out when Stunt and Bumper were trying to take over Barthis, because Stunt is a misogynist who couldn't stand that the mayor was a female, and that the local law was good at arresting him.
Spark was happy enough, especially when he found sparkly things in Rocky's crevices. Unfortunately, the sparkly stuff was TNT. Stunt's friends were trying to kill Rocky for his treasure. Luna turned it into fish to get Spark to jump down in time for Rocky to vanish into the ground to smother the rest of the explosives.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2006-10-05
Bumper, who was really named Ilario, befriended them to inform on them to Stunt's friends Urban Eddy and his mob. this lead to Stunt holding Spark hostage to create a diversion, belted with TNT. Luna rounded up the thugs, while Bumper slipped Spark free from the TNT belt, wearing the worst disguise Spark had ever seen. Spark wanted to testify for him, but his testimony is inadmissible in court because he was willing to change it for fish.
Dominic came back to Barthis to help scare the thugs who were captured into talking. A few weeks after that settled out, Rocky finished building the house and Spark, Luna, and Dominic moved in. With both of them working in another town all day at the academy, Spark had lots of time home alone to mope. Thankfully Barthis is a town full of people willing to feed a talking cat, or keep him company. Plus Dominic left him an important task, he had crystal balls set up for watching three people he needed to keep an eye on - Jacob, the Infernomaster, and Celsto. Spark, being a cat, got distracted by chewing on his own tail, and probably begging fish off of Dex, Greg, ad Quilt.
Things went on that way for a while. When Miranda asked Dominic to use his second sight to screen potential candidates to take over as headmaster when she retired, Spark was able to reclaim his assistant title, and was tasked with destroying the applications of people who would lead to a disaster if they were promoted.
When Melna would get depressed over realizing she was in love with the man who was her husband on a technicality, but was in love with a friend, she would get drunk and crash at their place, and since she liked to sleep in Spark's spot, he would sleep on top of her.
Spark got to watch as an Elemental Changling tried to kill Nimmel on their front lawn, and as Nimmel held his own, then Luna stepped up, then Dex took him out for the finish.
A while later, Dominic started rushing around to try to get to Cassafin to warn her she was in great danger. Spark tried to get his attention several times and finally had to grab him by the scarf. One of the crystal balls was showing something. Jacob was on the move. Jacob was about to kill the changling who had attacked Nimmel as part of a necromantic experiment. So Dominic asked Jacob for help with Maltak instead, to distract him and hopefully save Cassafin in the process, she she was about to take the food drive donations to the orcs of Maltak now that the storms had cleared, leaving the plains a wasteland.
Spark almost had Dominic calmed down about Cassafin going when he had another vision and ran out, leaving Spark who had been leaning on him, face planted on the sofa.
Jacob came over to help with the Maltak scry, and the house that withstood Nilen attacking it withstood his rising up from below, forcing him to knock on the door like a human being. The horrors.
After three hours of this Spark headed into the kitchen to find Luna sulking and eating all the muffins. He pointed out that if she was hiding because she was scared of Jacob, she wasn't where she could protect Dominic from Jacob. Horrified she ran in to the other room to join the Deegans, leaving the muffins for Spark.
Of course, Luna's entrance provided the distraction Jacob needed to use a mistform spell and slip out the window with his new found knowledge, and the sample from Maltak that they'd been scrying the death magic of.
A few days later after comparing notes with Luna and Miranda, Luna and Dominic were getting cozier than usual. Spark popped up to teach them all his new song, "ode to fish", for some reason Luna got mad and threw him out of the room hard enough to crack the wall. Didn't damage Spark in the least. Considering all things we've seen try to break the house and fail, that says a lot about her strength and his durability.
On to Snowsong! Spark was there for the while incident, as he lives in Barthis, but had no part to play. Snowsong was the last of the chosen, she arrived to destroy Barthis but thanks to Dominic's puppet mastery, didn't. She nearly killed Greg, Quilt, Rachel, and Dex. Didn't. Everyone survived. Not all of the relationships did. Pam's punishment for Dominic was a brief stint in jail and then community service - as an unpaid Oracle for Hire.....
On to Shadow of Sigfried!
Milov sent a message to Dominic via crystal ball that he needed him in the Winter Archipelago ASAP. Since Nimmel was about to enroll in the Coldfire academy there in a few months, Dominic took him along. Luna and Spark also came. Luna was shocked that Spark, being a cat, wanted to go to a chain of islands. Surrounded by water. But Spark had his reasons... "And you know what lives in water? Ahem... FEEEEEEEEEEESH!"
Of corse, Spark had to dress for the boat ride... bandana and eyepatch in pirate jokes aaaaarrrrrr a go!
Once they arrived, Milov wanted one night as friends before they looked into the issue, and gave Spark a huuuuuge fish. The entire time they stayed with Milov, who was the head of a noble family of spellwolves, his clan kept Spark very well fed. Meanwhile Milov and Dominic learned that Siggy was a lieutenant of one of the few demon lords to survive the war - Karnak (Dominic already knew this and had kept it to himself to protect Milov and Jayden's memory of him) and that the thing that sent his spirit below when he had been on the path of redemption was having an affair with Jayden behind Milov's back.
Milov told them all that they were welcome to stay at the Lunarian Church, but they were no longer welcome in his home. Spark cried loudly about the loss of his fish, begging to be allowed back in. When Jayden and Dominic explained why Milov was so angry - Dominic's lie, Jayden's betrayal, and his own temper lashing out at her physically (thank you Luna for a very convincing illusion) - Spark sighed. "Seesh. It's a good thing cats aren't so dramatic."
After getting attacked by Katya (who would later become his best friend, and possibly more than a friend) when they heard Milov's agonized howl, Nimmel met them at the church and told Spark everything that had happened to him. Spark dozed off in the middle, and when called on it explained that Dominic had already dumped a bunch of drama on him. Spark gets used as the therapist by pretty much everyone.
Deciding they needed something to lift their moods, Spark convinced Nimmel to take him fishing. He of course made one terrible miscalculation - how far north they were... http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2007-09-30
Which lead to Nimmel learning about Siggy, and worrying about Spark.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2007-10-01
Pfft.
By the way, he wasn't seeing double, there was someone behind Nimmel. No clue why he kept saying Pfft for a while after that. Possibly just to be more of a cat. Katya had come up behind Nimmel and apologized to him, Nimmel forgave her. She was told to join them in the church so she would be safe.
Luna and Nimmel, acknowledging that they are the two most emotionally damaged and broken people either of them knew (both had formerly attempted suicide) had decided that despite that, it was up to them to save the day and fix things between Jayden and Milov. Spark offered to talk to "... Eh. Nobody. This is WAY too depressing for a cat."
When they went off, Spark went to check on Dominic, despite saying he wasn't helping with this one. He was worried enough that when Dominic was eating his sandwich and wanted some alone time, Spark left without asking for even a bite.
Dominic and Milov had to fight Siggy in the mindscape again, and Spark tried to protect Dominic when he was dragged inside and left to rest in a bed.
And then Siggy managed to attack inside the church, which was sacred ground, when Milov and Nimmel were at the Moon Dance, and Dominic was just barely sitting up on his own. Siggy managed to take Jayden's pain and hurt and guilt and twist it, turning her evil to fight at his side. Nimmel had to use Dominic's signature spell "See The Truth" since Dominic was too weak to. Everyone was treated to a view of the kind of racist callous murderer he had been, even as a child, and that fury and hate was enough to break his spell on Jayden.
Realizing that Siggy was now strong enough to attack sacred ground, Dominic called in reinforcements. Miranda.
Once she put up wards to make the archipelagos safe, it was time for Milov to cleanse the land of the influence of Jayden's people. They safely evacuated the church, now that it was no longer the only safe ground, so it could be blown up. Milov had Katya give them all gifts (Jayden got a letter) as she sent them on their way, back onto the boats home.
Meanwhile things had progressed back home, and the royal knights were disbanded, replaced by the king's own battle casters. Dominic back slid into being a grouch, and Luna had enough self esteem this time, where she didn't when he was one before, to be fed up with it. The house was very tense for a while. Spark knew what secret Dominic was keeping from Luna, and why, but she was furious at him for keeping any secret at all. Things got worse and worse until one day when they were outside, and finally Luna got her answers. He was knocking stones together, wouldn't tell her why, only said he was talking to Rocky. Then suddenly as she was stalking off, he fell over. Rocky had taken his prosthetic leg as payment for a very rare Lunarian Solarstone. The kind used only in very special rings. Dominic, on the ground, proposed to Luna, who got up and walked away, leaving him devastated. "Oh cheer up, you grump," she said, "I'm just getting a running start." She tackled him, made him ask again, and said yes.
Enter the Oracle Hunter. And congratulation noogies from Gregory.
Spark was concerned at how worried and surprised Dominic was, reading his paper. Apparently someone was going around targeting oracles and had attacked one of his friends from school, but he never had a vision to warn him.
Szark, however, had encountered the oracle hunter and had come to talk to Dominic. Quilt was already there, trying to solve the case in a rather... patchwork... way... But Dominic's research, teamed with Quilt's lessons in the dramatic finally gave a plausible theory, the oracle hunter was the daughter of one of Donovan's old Girlfriends who belonged to a cult called the Blinders, who had specially made weapons that hid them from Visions and Second Sight. Quilt's theory was of course, that the hunter was Donovan's long lost daughter, seemingly substantiated by the hunter appearing and calling Dominic "brother" while stabbing him.
Greg was able to heal him physically, but even Miranda couldn't pull him out of his trance. He fought his way free, wetting himself and puking out a virus spell. Trying to scry the spell he hit a trap and the jar of puke, and the monster, exploded, coating the room in vomit.
The hunter attacked again, beheading Quilt. Dex threw his head to the house to warn them. Heads up, he went on ahead. Miranda and Szark managed to trick and disarm her, capturing her, and they finally discovered why she called him Brother. She saw the engagement announcement in the paper. This is another of Luna's sisters.
But more importantly, Donovan made a couch fort out of Spark's sofa. Leaving him nowhere to sleep.
Then they went off and fought with people, or something, Spark wasn't paying attention, but when they came back he had his sofa back, and Dominic was sent to his room to recover. Spark made the mistake of asking everyone what he missed and after hearing everything went in to Dominic's room and slept on him, making them both feel better.
But better didn't last long. Celesto killed a man to try and make amends to Dominic, proving he didn't understand the other Seer at all. Stress at work started to pile up, worry over Maltak and the infernomancer, and Jacob, and anything else he might miss... Luna asking about the wedding...
The stress was building in Dominic, making him need his furry little buddy more and more often, but Spark was able to help less and less. things kept getting worse. Luna bought him a gift that helped a little, but also made things worse a little.
Luna turned to Spark, as they all do, to fret about how she tried to make things better and failed. How this was like how she tried to help Jayden and failed. And what was all the progress she made on her self confidence worth if she felt so low now? Spark... was not as much help as usual. But then most people don't make a habit of throwing him into walls. Plus his patience for self pity has always been low.
But Spark, in his own furry way was worried about them, so he gathered Dominic's students in an appeal for help. In a very Spark way.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2008-05-06
Of course one student, Prento, thought of a "brilliant" idea after that conversation and threw himself into researching stress contagion and mind break, hoping to cure their beloved professor.
Dominic had finally started to feel better after reading the book Luna got him, but then Prento, meaning well, undid all that progress with a well intended but completely depressing comment about how even though no one likes him and no one wants to take his class, the students he has now (all eight of them) are behind him all the way...
And then the final straw. With the Winter Archipelago being less friendly with the Callain kingdom, the local store was no longer carrying Mavple candy. The stress reliever that had taken the place of smoking for Dominic after Greg had accidentally healed his lungs and tobacco addiction. Dominic had a public melt down in the store and Luna had to get him home.
"I knew it, the boss is starting to crumble. There goes my dinner time. I should've used the belly rub strategy. Stupid Spark. Now you're gonna starve." (Spark's thoughts on the matter.)
Prento, sure he needed to save Dominic, combined some seriously powerful spells and threw dominic through several of the previously nigh unbreakable walls. Prento explained himself, and the idea that Dominic might have been heading for mind break, was apparently funny enough to send him and Luna into peals of laughter. Very appealing.
Dominic felt better for a bit, but by bed that night he was back to moping. And Spark was getting fed up. "You're an unemployed cripple who just had a nervous breakdown. How else would you cheer someone like that up?"
Unfortunately he was unemployed, as the parents forced Miranda to fire him after his meltdown. So he and Spark watched the graduation ceremony together via crystal ball. But the students surprised him, they had ben doing fundraisers and had their own plan for helping him deal with the stress (Prento did help with their plan, he was just sure his was right.) They bought him and Luna a trip around the world.
Of course they left Spark home. Pfft. He stayed with Greg and Quilt for a while. But almost as soon as Dominic and Luna got home, Pam broke up with Greg and fired Dex. Greg and Dex left BArthis to visit Rachel in Lynnsbrook, but after the town was attacked, Greg and Dex came home - Dex badly wounded and unable to be healed by magic, and Greg stripped of all his magic.
So when Dominic started having visions drawing him to Maltak, Greg couldn't go. Dominic was going. Luna was coming with him. Donovan has a Kelsheen mark and is famous among the orcs, so against Dominic's better judgement, he was going.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-01-15
Spark also argued to be allowed to go.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-01-16
Because for all he acts gruff and solipsistic and uncaring sometimes, he does love Dominic, and missed him.
So Spark proved his worth, to make Dominic take him along.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-01-19
He won the argument and rode along in his usual place in Dominic's pack as they set foot in Maltak. They weren't there long when someone started shooting arrows at them, just as Dominic said that the journey was likely to be dull.
After Donovan's brilliant negotiations: http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-02-05 the battle was joined.
When none of her usual battle spells would work, Luna suddenly busted out some very impressive water magic, turning one of the bandits into her devout follower and scattering the rest.
Spark figured if the orc was that impressed by a water spell, he'd be over the moon about a talking cat. The orc freaked out and hit the talking affront to nature with a rock.
They started off again after a brief rest, Spark still irritated hid in the pack, peeking out here and there. Luna started speaking in some odd tongue, making everyone flip out, and possibly starting up the horrible windstorm that hit Maltak. Dominic theorized that she stopped them, rather than starting the winds.
Making camp one night, they were attacked by two members of the most closed minded of the orc clans who was looking for the blasphemer (Luna's use of the old words was heard over all of Maltak.) Not knowing which was which, they decided that it had to be Donovan, because clearly no human should have a Kelsheen mark. They attacked.
Luna used her odd new magic again, this time to make the stone hand that was restraining Dominic fertile and teaming with new green growth. One of the attackers was awed and stunned, the other went into a rage and cast a spell that seperated the party, spreading them all across Maltak. Spark, of course, wound up with Mowhawk - the Orc that tried to kill him.
The Orc chased Spark around Maltak, trying to kill him... in the Watercaller's (Luna's) name. Spark was talking tough while running for his life until an Orcish hand reached down and grabbed him by the scruff. Stonewater. A friend from several chapters back.
Spark filled in Stonewater, then got all but called a racist because he couldn't tell the tribes of Orcs apart visually. Stonewater did explain it to him, however. When Spark asked where Grench was (Stonewater's love) and Stonewater got depressed. Spark cheered him up in his best Spark way... demanding a belly rub and acting like the center of the universe.
Stonewater didn't take him up on his "offer" but did continue the exposition, and came to a conclusion. Other than the Chandarks who use a very specialized sort of magic, and whatever weirdness was going on with Luna, no magic worked in Maltak. But... Spark could still talk.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-05-06 (I will address this later in the app)
Linked by Spark, Stonewater and Dominic could communicate and shared a vision of Grench being used to keep a patch of land alive, looking herself mostly dead. The vision ended when someone on Dominic's side hit him to get his attention. Mowhawk and Spark went back with Stonewater to the small tribe he was building of the cast offs of all the other tribes. When Dominic's group came too close to their camp, they were shot at by sentries... until Spark vouched for him.
They went before the chief of the tribe to ask for permission and people to march against the Bikta tribe to rescue Grench. The chief agreed, but had to play a prank on Dominic first that somehow inadvertantly allowed him to see visions again, briefly.
Once again, spark provides the exposition, and talks Dominic into letting him go with him when Dominic is preparing to go off on his own.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-08-19
Of course, he wasn't the only one who forced their way into the party. So one former knight, one Orc who was confused as she was coming out of her brainwashing, one grumpy Seer and one talking cat headed back into the worst of the wastes to find the Crone.
Dominic summarized things pretty well after they'd been walking a while. "Something's wrong, something's very wrong." They had come to where the Crone's mountain should have been... but she wasn't there. It wasn't there.
And then with a sudden rumbling of the ground, it was. Dominic was suddenly sure they had to get to the top first, but had no clue who else was climbing, or why. But Dominic couldn't move fast enough with his artificial leg, the ex-knight isn't skilled at climbs, and the orc wasn't athletic. So Spark was sent on ahead.
Or rather, he decided he was going and no one tried to stop him. He got to the top, found whoever else was climbing and decided to stall him as best he could. Spark leaped from the top of the mountain shouting "DEATH FROM ABOVE" as he descended... and was easily smacked away by the ascending Orc. But he landed in the arms of the Orc's companion, Donovan.
Spark explained the situation quickly, and Donovan offered to help him get another shot at distracting the Orc. He launched him up the mountain at the Orc's back... a CATAPULT!
That worked long enough to let Kiya, Dominic and Reinholdt get to the top first, but the Orc Spark had been delaying got up there just in time to knock out Kiya and see the Oracle on the ground. The fight was on.
Donovan got them all to shut up and stop scrapping and everyone had a moment of shock as they realized who else was there...and awake. The unknown Orc was called Roki by the Crone... who he called Azazia.
It was touching for a moment, Roki called her his love... and then she tried to kill him. Some magic of the cave let them all understand each other, so while Reinholdt restrained her, Dominic explained that there was a sickness in the Crone - not just the woman, the whole lineage, and that had Roki arrived first, she would have attacked him... and she would have died by his hand. Apparently, she was fated to be killed by someone else.
Roki did not take this well, and when he finally seemed like he might believe that Dominic was trying to stop it, he made a connection "You're that filthy necromancer's brother." Azazia, herself again for the moment, implored Roki to stand down. He and Dominic bonded for a bit over disgust at Jacob. Then Azazia dumped her job as the Oracle and savior of Maltak in Dominic's lap. Time for some Diviner Intervention.
Dominic went into a trance, and when he came out, he repeated a prophecy that all the tribes had to come together as one and dance at the base of the last mountain. Which they were standing on. Which was nowhere near any Orcs that weren't in that small cave. So Dominic moved the mountain, underground.
They were nearly there, as best Spark could tell, when Reinholdt was stabbed through the chest. Neilen the Elemental Changeling was back and worse than ever. And he was determined to kill them all to keep them from fixing Maltak. While he was gloating to Dominic, Spark got him with a Death From Above, that distracted him long enough (spark was clawing out his eyes) for Kiya to stab him with Roki's Hukthak (a sacred speak with the powers of life and death).
Neilen was shattered, but trying to put himself back together, Reinholdt and Donovan were down or going down from their wounds, and Azazia had lost her mind to the madness again. Dominic declared it time for a dramatic entrance and thrust the mountain back out of the earth.
They came to the surface to see the aftermath of another battle, many of their own injured or dying, all the tribes in the same place, members of each on one side against the bulk of the other side. One of the chiefs saw the shape the Crone was in, and was sure this was all some trick of Dominic's, he was ready to order his people to attack the humans when... it started to rain.
Rain is special to the Orcs. Water and Ice are both seen as purifying elements. And the rain that fell now healed the wounded that it fell upon, it helped the crone fight the illness within, it made plants sprout.
Neilen made one more attempt to kill them all, Reinholdt managed to stand enough inside the dry cave to throw the Hukthak through his head.
"That was awesome!" was Spark's contribution to that part of the battle. Roki caught the Hukthak and used it against the Orc that had started this mess in the first place before he could attack Dominic and Luna. He fell down the mountain, and bounced. A lot. The rain did not see fit to heal him.
Things seemed to be wrapping up peacefully at last. The closed minded racist chief who wasn't actually the villain of this piece was thanking Luna for her part in things... when the Crone lost her mind again and attacked. Stonewater tried to call Ice to kill her and the corruption inside her, once and for all, but for some reason his ice went to Melna, who was prophesized to be the one who had to kill her to break the cycle. But Melna was done with prophecies and myths and fate. She was ending this HER way. Instead of stabbing the crone with the ice, she used it to pull out the corruption within her, flinging it away. Roki ceremoniously destroyed the demonic poison clump with his Hukthak.
As soon as he did, the rain stopped. Green sprouted everywhere on the plains around them and... Luna collapsed. The rain came again, and it seemed like she was dead when suddenly she sat up with a painful gasp. She told Dominic that the dead were returning life. Not to life, but life. They were becoming the life that would give this broken land a rebirth. And she told Dominic that he should thank his brother.
The rain fell harder. It washed away the hair dye and skin dye that were the visible distinction between the clans. It washed away more than that. More than wounds. The Kelsheen mark on Donovan - a tattoo - washed away. All the Orcish magic washed away. The Crone's sight, the Chandak's connection to the elements, the Nakta (power of death) and the Akta (power of life). All gone. The former Crone was the one who realized, and shared with them that the rebirth clearly needed all the power. All the power of the dead, all the magic of the living, to make the plains anew.
With that, the ability to understand each other faded. And Dominic's second sight returned. He informed Reinholdt that since he was so close to death, the healing magic of the rain had tied him to Maltak. When the next Crone rose, he would be her protector.
They spent some more time there, after the rains stopped, celebrating. Spark got to rock out with Donovan to some Orcish drumming. Luna learned she could never have a baby, but didn't care anymore.
Skipping a lot now, because this is getting huge and long, even for one of my apps, and the next chunk hardly has any Spark involvement. He was there for most things that happened on the physical plane, but most of what follows happens in other planes or reality. So in summery:
The beast that Celesto fought is not dead. The king of Callan is a great mage who is in league with the beast. He enslaved all of the Magi of the highest order except Miranda who he tried to recruit - he prefered not to enslave/kill humans. In a comic full of racists, he was the worst. He wanted the world to belong to humans and only humans.
The battle was long and brutal. Many died, including Bumper and Quilt - two of Spark's friends. Jacob found that necromancy was not about mastering death, but overseeing it, and about balance. He rejoined the family and fought to save people from Rillian's magic when the king enslaved the first Necromancer. When Rillian fell, Jacob took his place.
Greg learned to use his music to heal the heart since he could no longer heal bodies. Nearly dead, Jayden and Milov came together again. Dominic did in fact experience mindbreak, but harnessed it to end the battle sooner. In the middle of all that, with only Greg and a priest for witnesses, Luna and Dominic got married, because they didn't know if they'd survive the fight.
Ultimately they took losses, but the good guys won. Klo Tark's people returned to the world and helped tip the balance. Magic itself shifted, which was apparently natural and what the King was trying to stop. Humans would be in the decline magically for decades while Orcs would ascend. But again, that would take DECADES. Other kingdoms came together to decide what would be of the Callans. Dominic lost his magic. Completely. Got a job as head librarian in Barthis.
Spark was filled in whenever someone deigned to return to the mortal/physical plane, as was Greg and everyone else whose mind wasn't a fortress and who wasn't on team hero.
Epilogue:
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2013-05-13
Miranda retired not just from being the headmaster of the school, but as the only remaining archmage, she found new archmages to guard the worlds, and handed that title to Luna. Greg pointed out as they all spiraled towards depression in the aftermath, that they never had a wedding party. They used it to celebrate the lives of those they loved who had fallen. Quilt. The Arch mages. The Royal Battlecasters. The Maestro. Bumper.
Szark has a new boyfriend and they adopted the child that the Boyfriend had been protecting/serving before the parents died in the King's plot. Katya gained second sight and it made her blind, Nimmel is staying at her side. Milov is one of the new archmages. Spark got the weirdest ever death from above at Dominic, thanks to Bort.
The epilogue goes on from there, to show that Dominic and Luna have kids and are old (presumably they adopted) but I am taking Spark from between the Wedding party and the last page, so about a week after the wedding party, when life is starting to settle in to its new routine.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2013-05-24
Three thousand comic strips and 12 years, summarized through the eyes of the talking cat.
Character Personality:
Not to sound like a musical based on T. S. Elliot, but Spark is the cat, by the Seer's door. His phrase as I ought to have told you before, is death from above, but that's such a fuss to pronounce....
Sorry, couldn't help myself, and it is kind of in keeping with who Spark is, to descend into parody and humor. Spark was raised by the Deegans and lived with them for most of his life. There are certain traits that are inescapable with prolonged exposure to them - especially Greg and Donovan. Bad puns, and a flair for the dramatic are among the first two.
Spark's love of humor comes from them for sure. His style of puns and bad jokes are in line with Dominic's, Greg's, and Donovan's. While he will usually leave the punchlines up to one of them, if there is no Deegan to get to it first, he may well beat anyone else to the punch... Some are obvious and in your face, some are the type you miss at first, some are the ones you've said and then realized what you said and just have to face it. You're a punster.
Now there is a variation with Spark's humor. Often, rather than taking the easy joke he will go for alliteration. It is not constant, (else RPing him would be nigh impossible without my poetic dictionaries on hand) but it happens often enough to be a trademark of his, and he gets super happy whenever anyone else uses Alluring Alleteration.
Spark mostly indulges in his love of alliteration when it comes to recaps and summaries. He will take pages and pages of dialogue and sum them up into the reader's digest version of events. He seems to enjoy this. And others seem to appreciate it. I can't wait to see how that works out when he does it to characters not of his canon. They might just launch him out of one.
His flair for the dramatic shows in his battle cry, in how he will physically fling himself at things, and in the way he will sometimes enter a scene or how he sums things up building to what would be a crescendo. You can almost hear the dundundun behind him sometimes as he speaks. He will launch himself off tall things. He WILL yell DEATH FROM ABOVE. The battle cry is essential, after all.
Everyone likes to use Spark as a therapist. They all talk to him about pretty much everything, and sometimes he comes off as though he doesn't care. But he uses selfishness and solipsism and demands for pets as a way of helping people. And while it may seem like he really means it when he says he's only doing it for belly rubs or to be fed, it's clear that whenever his demands for food or pets fails to lighten the mood, he's depressed and irritated, even if he got what he said he wanted. He grew up raised by Dominic - a grumpy Seer who hates most people he meets, but still wants to save the world. Add that to being a cat... and you have Spark.
Spark loves his friends, loves his family, but would sell his own soul for a sole. the boy has a massive Fish Fetish. He loves fish, he will do very nearly anything for a fish. He goes after fish the way garfield goes after Lasagna. Except that Spark Savors all the Fresh Fishy Flavors.
Tipping the scales against his Fish Focus, and his Meal Mania, and his Horrible Hunger, we go back to how much he does care. When he gets left behind, he plays it off like he doesn't. He is very much a cat that way. The not seeming to care that you're back, maybe you won't see him for a bit until he comes sauntering up demanding food. But anytime Dominic seems about to leave for a long adventure after just having gotten back, Spark does whatever it takes to go with him. Even if that means scheming, even if that means hairballing or worse in Dominic's clothing.
When it comes to THINGS, however, Spark doesn't care. He steals Dominic's crystal ball, the ring only mattered to him because it fit his pirate game, he knocks things off shelves... People matter. Stuff is just Stuff. Dominic even has to explain to Spark the correlation between his crystal ball and Spark's food. And Spark is smart enough that you know this couldn't be the first time they had this conversation.
Yes, let's get this off our chest. Spark is a cat. He is a cat who was friends with a necromantic golem, who flung himself off a mountain to stall an angry orc, who will attack anyone and anything that tries to hurt Dominic, Luna, Greg, Miranda, or Donovan. We see him very early on hiding on top of a bookcase shaking. Why? Because while Spark will happily lick slime molds... he is afraid... of a mouse. Friendly enough with a squirrel (unclear if it was a talker or cats just understand rodents) but afraid of a mouse. Go figure.
Spark will put up with water, so long as the water has fish. On long boat rides he gets mildly sea-sick but he wants to be a pirate. He will get into the middle of any fight with his own sort of flair, and he has a pun-nishing sense of humor. And he is hungry. Right now. He wants to know why you're reading this when you could be getting him a fish. Are you still here? Pfft.
Powers and Abilities:
He's a Talker. This means he is a talking cat. When I started testing him, I forgot that was said in canon to be a magical effect, and I almost didn't app because I'm not sure if he is playable if no one can understand when he talks. At least not in any way I would find fun. But one of the other players pointed out that the world's magic should make communication work anyway? IF he can talk, for either reason, he will not notice or care why. He's a talker. He's always talked, humans have always heard him,
He can scry. Maybe it's an effect of living with Dominic so long, maybe it's just a thing he could do, maybe it is an artifact of the crystal balls themselves. But he can see things in Dominic's crystal balls. Even things Dominic didn't pre-program them to see. Like when he was fixed. Not sure why, not sure if he would actively try to Bend that ability back if he came across a crystal ball that wasn't itself inherently magical. Honestly do not know. He might, to try to get in contact with Miranda or Luna.
(Edited upon request for clarity: Basically, in canon we have seen him scry the present and the past. While Dominic can and often does see the future, we have never seen any evidence that Spark can. In his canon, crystal balls can be used as communication devices, so his device coming into the game would either be a newspaper (Dominic is always leaving them lying around) or Dominic's crystal ball, because he's a cat. He pretty much owns nothing of his own. So that would be the only way he could use the network. I could go with the paper if you prefer him not to have the crystal ball from the first. Again, not sure he would ever put in the effort to learn to scry at all. but in canon he could only see the past and the present. So even if he did, he is not used to having any abilities in this way that could be game breaking.)
Durable and long lived. We have seen things done to this cat that should have killed him, not a scratch. He really only takes a wound when the Orc hits him with a stone, and even then we don't see a wound, we see bandages, so he could have demanded them even if they were not needed. They live in an Elemental built house that withstood attacks from Neilen and Jacob. Yet he was thrown into a wall so hard it cracked, and he was perfectly fine after. As to long lived, in the epilogue, we see Dominic and Luna old and grey, and they comment on how old Spark is, and he points out that Dominic knew when he adopted him that Talkers lived a long time.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2013-05-24
This long lived and durable thing seems to be a Talker trait, rather than magic, but then Talking is magic, so... not sure how that would work. I'm fine with him being less durable if that is the mod ruling, so long as I know. If it is left to me, he'll keep the durability, because otherwise the first time someone he choses in game is threatened, I'll be learning the death mechanic a little too well.
Samples
[Spark blinked sleepily at the screen. He had his own communications magic thing of course, but it was more fun to steal someone else's. Besides, the phone thing was warm. Whatever a phone was. He turned it on and gave whoever was watching a very serious look.]
"It has come to my attention that there is a very serious issue in this world that needs to be addressed, and I can't beleive no one has been brave enough to address it before now."
[A beat to build tension.]
"Well, I'm brave enough, I'll address it. But I am counting on all of you to fix it. And fast! The situation could get really bad, really quickly."
[Another beat, a narrow-eyed kitty glare.]
"This world is suffering from a serious lack of"
[One more beat.]
"Fish."
[The word was said as serious and deadpan as the rest of the delivery.]
"Clearly this is a crisis of epic proportions. I have been awake for three whole minutes and have not eaten. We need to figure out this fish crisis and fast. Before we starve to death. Let's get on it, people."
Third Person:
(For the sake of this, posting as though he winds up living with Adrien, since the other person likely to adopt him is Ace and I don't know what Ace's home is like)
A yawn and a stretch. That was a good nap. Felt like months. Maybe longer. But now he was hungry. And he needed to catch up on whatever drama was going on. At least here people kept it quiet enough that he could sleep through it. Another stretch and he stood, shaking out his tail. He would go find Adrien, get some food, listen to his troubles, recap them and put them into proper perspective, which hopefully would get Adrien to forget that he had already fed him, so he could eat again. After that, maybe they could go fishing.
But first... he had to find Adrien. Well, he had fallen asleep... right. Under something in the foyer he had... oh yeah. He had been planning to spy on Gabriel to tell Adrien what his father was up to. Then he had been distracted by his tail. Then he fell asleep. Oh well. At least he hadn't told anyone he was going to spy, so this time no one knew he messed up.
Not that he would mess up so often if anyone ever fed him once in awhile. Seriously. How hard is it to remember to feed the cat? He didn't ask for much, just a dozen fish two or three times a day. But did he ever get it? Nooooooo... So it was time to go find Adrien and remind him that a certain orange cat needed a certain blond cat-boy to get off his black leather tail and feed him. Which brought Spark back to the issue of finding him...
Spark looked around the house, tail twitching. He didn't like this place. Too big, too open. Too empty. Most of the rooms smelled stale. Like no one had been in them for years. If ever. Certainly no one had done anything fun in them recently, like cooking fish. Some of them did smell like cheese, though. If he wasn't a cat, he was sure that his footsteps would echo. He padded up the stairs, disgusted. Who needed so many stairs in a home? He sniffed until he found the room he was looking for. Adrien was on his sofa, sulking or reading, or doing something boring like that. Whatever it was, he was sighing, his eyes down. And worse, he wasn't feeding Spark. Clearly this situation needed to be fixed.
Spark climbed up carefully to Adrien's second floor. What bedroom needed a second floor? He got onto the upper wall and looked down at Adrien. The boy still had not noticed him, still was sighing, still was not feeding him. Well. There was one way to fix that.
With a feline smirk, Spark settled back onto his haunches and launched himself through the air at Adrien.
"DEATH FROM ABOVE!" was the loud and shouted warning, it came before he even started the jump, giving the boy time to catch him or get out of the way. Either was fine because either meant not sulking and sighing. And besides, the battle cry is essential.
Ready or not, kid, incoming Furry Feline Friend!
Name: Chicklet
Age: Adult
Personal Journal: Chicklet
Email / AIM / MSN / Plurk: Plurk - ChickletLARP
Current Character(s): Gabriel Agreste/Papillon, Guru Cleph of Ceiphro, Me
Character Information
Character Name:Spark
Fandom: Dominic Deegan
Character History:
Spark is what is known as a Talker - an animal who speaks one or more human languages. He adopted Dominic at some point between Dominic's childhood and his adulthood. When is not known, but he is not there in the flashbacks of when Dominic was a nerdy pre-teen/young teen, so sometime after that. Details if the adoption remain unknown.
We know he was fixed, and that at one point he was able to look into Dominic's crystal ball and see that in his own past.
Beyond that, we don't know much about Spark until the start of the story. He is the "pet" of a grumpy Seer, an Oracle for Hire by the name of Dominic Deegan. Spark mostly helps Dominic blow off stress after a long day of dealing with the idiots of Lynnsbrook, where they had been living for some time.
Then one day, Spark's greatest wish he never knew to have came true. Dominic was cursed by a crone named Travoria so that every time he smoked - which was habitual and constant - a fish landed on his head. Spark, who could out eat Garfield, was in fish heaven, and constantly tried to talk his "boss" out of undoing the curse.
He was left behind when Dominic went to check on the thieves he had forced into stealing the cure for him, but that was fine, because Dominic asked him to keep an eye on the fish stew he had been making for dinner. When Dominic returned, the fish were gone, and sadly so was the curse.
A few days later, Spark talked Dominic into taking him fishing, which is when Spark met Luna, Travoria's daughter whom Dominic had rescued days before. She had tried to kill herself and wound up propped against a rock in the middle of the lake. Dominic went to save her, and then had to be saved by Spark.
Dominic took Luna in and made her his assistant, which freed up Spark from a job he never bothered to do, but meant that Dominic stole his pillow. The jerk.
After she had been there a short while, Dominic and Luna rushed out to find Gregory, leaving Spark alone for three whole agonizing fish-less hours. It felt like days. He destroyed some of Dominic's things while he waited.
Greg came back with them, and that was fun, because he made great couch forts, and enjoyed Spark's alluring alliteration.
then there was some drama, something about Jacob, a lynch mob, some corrupted knight named Siggy beating up Spark's humans, but Luna stopped them before Spark could get involved. He watched from inside the house. Dominic had a horrible vision about Jacob, blah blah blah.
Or as Spark put it - "So Dominic Deegan is angry at Gabby Greg, who nearly got Luna Lynched because he's still sore from the Sightless Satanist?"
Good news though, the people of Lynnsbrook wanted Dominic out, which meant no more idiot customers! So they packed up in some enchanted knapsacks, "So we wear the magic bags, till the magic wears off then we buy a wagon to cart our stuff around in?"
Jokes put aside, they headed for Barthis, where Dominic had seen the visions occurring and were stopped by Siggy's friends, Jayden and Milov, one of which had a similar vision. Failing to talk them out of going to Barthis - where Dominic saw them dying, Dominic took a detour to visit his and Spark's friend, Dejah, for advice. They were looking for Dejah's view. Spark got to lick Deja - he tastes like jelly - they talked, and Dejah hurried them on to Barthis via a slime geyser spell.
The Chosen were there in force, and they used a despair spell on pretty much everyone. The vision Dominic had of them hanging a town full of people had been slightly off, they were using the spell to make those people hang themselves. Milov and Jayden showed up - with Siggy. The head of the Chosen could not be scryed, because he had a glyph in his head, and things kept getting worse. The Chosen sent an imp to spy on Dominic, and Spark learned one really awesome thing when he found the imp... it made an awesome splatter pattern on the wall! Later Dominic asked if he had questioned the imp before killing it. Pfft.
Then the despair spell hit. Oh, yeah, Vilrath - the head of the Chosen - he kind of crucified Siggy, but no one cares about that maniac, so Spark didn't pay much attention. So anyway, the command runes hit, and everyone started feeling depressed, listing all the reasons why they were failures and useless. Spark got into the listing thing... but... cat. "All I ever do is eat and sleep. I'm not... Wait! I'm not sad about that at all!" As I said, cat. Since Dominic was the only non-cat not affected by the spell, it was up to him to save everyone again. Must be so cool to be him! Spark elected to stay in the room and guard it from any other splattable imps.
Suddenly Luna and Greg broke free of the spell and seemed to recover themselves. Though, low self-esteem is kinda Luna's game at this point, so Spark wasn't sure how he noticed a difference. Kidding. Sorta. Luna and Greg went tearing out of there with Milov and Jayden to save Dominic. Spark kept guarding the room. A job he could do in his sleep.
After they returned, they told Spark everything, how Vilrath was actually Jacob Deegan wearing Vilarath's skin after having killed him, detailed accounts of how he killed the chosen and vanished into the ground. Spark found it "COOL!" where apparently everyone else had either puked or cried.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2003-08-22
Spark was there when Dominic had a nightmare, and when Dominic fell asleep in the chair. And when he slept in and didn't wake up to feed him... Spark was there to remind him. Even if it meant laying despondently on his head.
He then got to snark at Dominic while he was helping Luna recover from her own nightmare. And then as they packed up to leave, there was a thank you party in the Inn ti celebrate the great heroes of Barthis, sponsored by Siggy of all people. Spark stayed with Luna happily providing plot summer alliterations about he backstory, and snuggling up against her warmth.
Dominic was offered a job as a Seer. He refused. He was very down, so Spark helpfully informed Luna that a tunafish pie would make Dominic feel better. It made one of them feel better, anyway, and it was yummy.
Dominic got another creepy vision and they were off to Erossus, Sin City.
(I will be skipping most of this section, mainly because until the end, Spark's entire contribution was a running gag of his misunderstanding if dirty slang to mean cats.)
He did get sent to spy once, which lead to some minorly useful information and more rated X jokes. Then while Dominic was negotiating with another Seer - Celesteo Morgan - Dominic's childhood friend Szark attacked Spark and Luna in their room, going on about how Dominic is plotting to kill him and his wife (Luna's sister) for their money. Szark threw Spark out a window, which could have been painful, even for a cat, but he was saved by a portal that opened up and dropped him at the feet of two of his favorite people ever. Miranda and Donovan Deegan - parents to Dominic, Greg, and Jacob.
Spark filled in the elder Deegans, and was privy to their plans as Donovan, and an illusion of Miranda went to Sin City to fix everything and stop the infernomancer. When things started to fall apart, and Miranda went in person to save Dominic's life, Spark went with, stopping a demon-possessed Szark with a DEATH FROM ABOVE attack. That let them tie Szark up long enough for Dominic to go into his soul to banish the demon - Karnak, demon of wounds.
Dominic banished him, Miranda banished the infernomancer, someone killed Szark's wife, Szark was on the road to recovery, and the rest of the villains of the day were arrested. Szark decided to fix his life and he and Dominic renewed their friendship.
They all headed to Quiral, where the elder Deegans live, where Miranda is headmaster of a wizard academy. Her students had been attacked by the infernomancer when he was looking for Miranda. On the way, Dominic was hit by a vision that put him in a coma for a week.
This began the storm of souls issue, when someone was trying to create pure chaos, and Dominic had to stand against their champion - Celesteo, as the champion of balance.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2004-09-28
Spark got to eat Dominic's Delicious Dinner when Dominic mouthed off to his mother about how she always defended necromancers, getting him sent to his room Sans Supper.
Listening to Luna and Dominic theorize after supper, Spark came to an undeniable conclusion. Clearly... they are both nerds. Spark left when their sap and mush got to be too much, but came back when he was hungry, letting Dominic know that either he got fed or there would be a hairball in his shoes.
Dominic had more creepy visions, Luna decided to attend some lectures so she could be of more use in the future, and Spark who had done nothing in the combats she was worried about, other than one Death from Above, agreed that she had been rather useless. Nothing like the tact and grace of a cat. Of course, when Dominic tried to cheer Luna up and it turned into a mutual admiration society, Spark asked them to pick up more sap at the store, because they were using it all up.
Blah blah blah. Creepy visions. Spark alone in the house. Dominic becomes addicted to mavple candy. Blah blah blah. Dominic sent Luna out to save Nimmel's life. Blah blah blah. As none of this involved feeding him, Spark slept through and/or ignored most of it.
Basically: http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2005-02-25
An Acibek sphere caught Spark up with everything Dominic had learned about the storm of souls, and Helixa and Rillian. Woke him up from a perfectly good nap too. Dominic left them with important tasks.
"Okay, so we need to find the Sylvan Oracle, and ask her how to make Acibek's cage strong enough for Dominic to teleport the storm of souls into the Elemecca" as Spark summarized.
Spark headed out with Luna, Jayden, Milov, and Donovan to dace what was coming. What appeared to be Dejah met them, offering guidance. Spark was happy to see his friend, flung himself over, licked.... an imposter! Spark was the one to figure out this wasn't the real Dejah when everyone else was ready to trust, saving them all. Because he didn't taste like Jelly, and got mad at Spark for licking him.
They left Milov fighting the imposter, rushing on to find the Oracle. The next fight left Donovan and Jayden to fight Jacob, his patchwork golem, and his army of death from below zombies.
Luna and Spark raced onward.
Following a path of blood and corpses, Luna and Spark found where Dirk the Mighty was making his stand to protect the Oracle and the nymph whom he loves from Helixa. As the necromancer aimed a killing blow at Dirk, there was a mighty shout of "DEATH FROM ABOVE!" as what appeared to be Spark launched himself down at her. But it was only an illusion of Spark wrapped around a trap spell. Which was triggered when Helixia met "his" descent with a raised clawed hand, impaling him. Spark was very impressed with how realistic his corpse looked.
The Oracle said her goodbyes all sad and touching, naming the nymph as the next Sylvan Oracle, so she could send the souls that created her into the storm of souls to strengthen the cage Dominic was building. Spark noticed that Helixa was freeing herself and warned them all. Luna sent him with Dirk and the Nymph while she stood to fight the necromancer.
But Spark was overjoyed even as they fled. "Lovley Luna and Hellish Helixa Are All Alliteration."
Klo Tark stepped in and helped them finish their battles as the forces on Dominic's side came together again. Donovan won over the golem with bad puns "Let's see what you're made of" and talking about how Jacob "made a friend". Jayden tried to explain to Jacob that how even though his golem changed sides, he was a success, because Jacob had been able to create a creature that could feel joy. As Jacob was about to kill her...
"DEATH FROM ABOVE!"
Spark, on Dirk's back, dropped down onto where Jacob... had been standing. Dirk pointed out that the reason he got away was because he heard them coming, to which Spark calmly replied, "the battle cry is essential. It instills fear into the enemy."
As they were celebrating their victory, Klo Tark explained how they had only minutes left if they wanted to save Dominic's life. He made them sit in a circle and focus on Dominic. He used their energy to save Dominic from certain doom and unmaking... by swapping places with him. Dominic was missing the lower part of one leg, but he was alive, and back with them.
After Dominic witnessed Klo Tark's death, Spark summarized the situation for everyone. "So the Elemecca Ended the Storm of Souls... but it Killed Klo Tark, Truly a hero for the Self Ssacrifice that Saved Dominic Deegan." Spark then suggested a feast in Klo Tark's honor, with lots of fish.
They were able to heal all of Dominic's wounds, except his leg, which they could heal over into a smooth stump, but not rebuild. Spark thought this was a wonderful thing! Dominic lost a leg in a great battle, clearly that meant it was his destiny to become a pirate. To help, he started singing sea chanties in his ear while he slept. He pointed out how many fish they could have if Dominic was a pirate, then left the room as they got mushy, to complain at Donovan.
Domovan had brought home the golem, who had a horrible sense of humor. Which meant he fit right in. They called him quilt, which about covers it. Spark finally headed back into Dominic's room for some rest, and promptly got thrown out - physically, by Luna - for making another bad sap joke.
So Spark teamed up with Quilt, to become pirates, in hopes that Dominic would be compelled to join them. Spark found an eyepatch and a banana with holes cut out for his kitty ears. They had a great time making pirate jokes until Dominic wanted to deck them. Finally they tied him up as their prisoner, so they could make him walk the plank. After all, he always did like to make a splash.
Dominic was put into a sleep spell while they took an impression to make his artificial leg, during which he had a vision about Szark. Spark woke him up just in tine for "Captain Quilt's Quiche." Dominic sat up after dinner to write a letter to Szark, then realized he had forgotten about Gregory and fell down the stairs. Because he had also forgotten he was still about a foot (and half a leg) short.
Greg, it turned out. had nearly gotten killed saving the people of Barthis. AGAIN. But the houses were destroyed and another of Luna's sisters and a horrible man she was teamed up with were trying to buy Barthis out from under the townsfolk, by any means necessary. Including trying to get Greg arrested for destruction of property and to claim he owed for all the damages.
With Dominic unable to go, and Luna busy with her new job working for Miranda, who also had to stay close to the students, the heroes that had to go forth to Barthis to bail out gloomy Greg were Donovan, Captain Quilt, and Swabby Spark. Quilt and Spark were excited to see Donovan beat this fool out of harming Greg with his swordsmanship, but Donovoan knew this had to be won by the law and by numbers, so he recruited Szark's father - an accountant named Lars - to join their adventuring party.
On their way to Barthis, Spark discovered that Quilt didn't have a brain... he could see through one ear and right out the other! They marched dramatically into town at the perfect moment - Donovan is a noted Bard after all - looking all grim and intimidating.
The Battle for Barthis had Begun!
Donovan did get to show off some Zorro like swordsmanship, and they Backed Brakkis down for the moment, so they could regroup and plan.
But in the end it wasn't swords that would save Barthis, it was axes. Specifically Donovan on lead guitar, and Greg on harmonies. They formed a band called Oblivion Folder and raised enough money in a concert to save the town, while Dominic politically destroyed Brakkis, and Szark got to redeem himself.
Spark, however, didn't care all that much about any of that. He had found a pirate treasure in the rubble, and kept trying to get people to see so they could be in awe of what a great pirate he was, and so Dominic would want to be a pirate with him. But no one had time for his treasure until after the concert, after Brakkis was arrested, after it was all resolved. Apparently the treasure Spark had found was the ring that Dominic had been hunting for, and was worth more money than the concert raised. Nurse Pam, now Mayor Pam was given the ring and told to use it for the good of Barthis, to rebuild. Dominic had other concerns.
A war had begun in Hell.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2006-02-10
But Dominic couldn't sit it out after all, because the war was affecting anyone who had contact with a demon... including Szark. But on the plus side, Dejah came to visit to help consult with Dominic and Miranda and Luna and Milov.
Of course Dejah was the one who made Dominic realize why the war started... they were fighting over the souls of the Chosen that had gone to the infernal realm after the storm of souls was destroyed in the Elemecca.
After having a prophecy that someone he knew was going to die soon, Dominic wore himself out working with Stonewater to make protective charms for everyone to wear. Then he went with the others right into a vision to peer into the heart of the infernal realm to track the war. And it was worse than he expected. Much worse.
But Spark was spending his time helping someone else who needed it. Szark was suffering whenever the demon who wounded him got hurt. Since Karnak was one of the leading contenders in the fight, that was often.
Of course, that was about when Siggy showed up and arrested Dominic, taking him to the capitol, away from everyone who needed him.
Without Dominic there, even knowing someone he knew was fated to die soon, Miranda decided the only way to help Szark was to use a demonic gauntlet she had turned angelic. She knew this could likely kill her and had confided that in Donovan and Luna. So when Szark knew what her plan was and refused to let her take a stupid risk, she rounded on them, angry they would betray her confidence. But they hadn't.
Spark had. http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2006-04-29
They survived a lot that without a Seer of Dominic's strength they could neither expect nor understand, but they survived. When Dominic made it home he looked worse than they did. He told Jayden and Milov that Siggy was dead.
Grench, freed of demon possession came to make Dominic fake teeth for the ones he lost in the fight that killed Siggy.
Things started to calm down, and Luna and Dominic decided it was time to stop living with the elder Deegans and get their own home, and they chose to make that home (or rather have an Elemental named Rocky make their home) in the newly rebuilt Barthis.
Of course this timed out when Stunt and Bumper were trying to take over Barthis, because Stunt is a misogynist who couldn't stand that the mayor was a female, and that the local law was good at arresting him.
Spark was happy enough, especially when he found sparkly things in Rocky's crevices. Unfortunately, the sparkly stuff was TNT. Stunt's friends were trying to kill Rocky for his treasure. Luna turned it into fish to get Spark to jump down in time for Rocky to vanish into the ground to smother the rest of the explosives.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2006-10-05
Bumper, who was really named Ilario, befriended them to inform on them to Stunt's friends Urban Eddy and his mob. this lead to Stunt holding Spark hostage to create a diversion, belted with TNT. Luna rounded up the thugs, while Bumper slipped Spark free from the TNT belt, wearing the worst disguise Spark had ever seen. Spark wanted to testify for him, but his testimony is inadmissible in court because he was willing to change it for fish.
Dominic came back to Barthis to help scare the thugs who were captured into talking. A few weeks after that settled out, Rocky finished building the house and Spark, Luna, and Dominic moved in. With both of them working in another town all day at the academy, Spark had lots of time home alone to mope. Thankfully Barthis is a town full of people willing to feed a talking cat, or keep him company. Plus Dominic left him an important task, he had crystal balls set up for watching three people he needed to keep an eye on - Jacob, the Infernomaster, and Celsto. Spark, being a cat, got distracted by chewing on his own tail, and probably begging fish off of Dex, Greg, ad Quilt.
Things went on that way for a while. When Miranda asked Dominic to use his second sight to screen potential candidates to take over as headmaster when she retired, Spark was able to reclaim his assistant title, and was tasked with destroying the applications of people who would lead to a disaster if they were promoted.
When Melna would get depressed over realizing she was in love with the man who was her husband on a technicality, but was in love with a friend, she would get drunk and crash at their place, and since she liked to sleep in Spark's spot, he would sleep on top of her.
Spark got to watch as an Elemental Changling tried to kill Nimmel on their front lawn, and as Nimmel held his own, then Luna stepped up, then Dex took him out for the finish.
A while later, Dominic started rushing around to try to get to Cassafin to warn her she was in great danger. Spark tried to get his attention several times and finally had to grab him by the scarf. One of the crystal balls was showing something. Jacob was on the move. Jacob was about to kill the changling who had attacked Nimmel as part of a necromantic experiment. So Dominic asked Jacob for help with Maltak instead, to distract him and hopefully save Cassafin in the process, she she was about to take the food drive donations to the orcs of Maltak now that the storms had cleared, leaving the plains a wasteland.
Spark almost had Dominic calmed down about Cassafin going when he had another vision and ran out, leaving Spark who had been leaning on him, face planted on the sofa.
Jacob came over to help with the Maltak scry, and the house that withstood Nilen attacking it withstood his rising up from below, forcing him to knock on the door like a human being. The horrors.
After three hours of this Spark headed into the kitchen to find Luna sulking and eating all the muffins. He pointed out that if she was hiding because she was scared of Jacob, she wasn't where she could protect Dominic from Jacob. Horrified she ran in to the other room to join the Deegans, leaving the muffins for Spark.
Of course, Luna's entrance provided the distraction Jacob needed to use a mistform spell and slip out the window with his new found knowledge, and the sample from Maltak that they'd been scrying the death magic of.
A few days later after comparing notes with Luna and Miranda, Luna and Dominic were getting cozier than usual. Spark popped up to teach them all his new song, "ode to fish", for some reason Luna got mad and threw him out of the room hard enough to crack the wall. Didn't damage Spark in the least. Considering all things we've seen try to break the house and fail, that says a lot about her strength and his durability.
On to Snowsong! Spark was there for the while incident, as he lives in Barthis, but had no part to play. Snowsong was the last of the chosen, she arrived to destroy Barthis but thanks to Dominic's puppet mastery, didn't. She nearly killed Greg, Quilt, Rachel, and Dex. Didn't. Everyone survived. Not all of the relationships did. Pam's punishment for Dominic was a brief stint in jail and then community service - as an unpaid Oracle for Hire.....
On to Shadow of Sigfried!
Milov sent a message to Dominic via crystal ball that he needed him in the Winter Archipelago ASAP. Since Nimmel was about to enroll in the Coldfire academy there in a few months, Dominic took him along. Luna and Spark also came. Luna was shocked that Spark, being a cat, wanted to go to a chain of islands. Surrounded by water. But Spark had his reasons... "And you know what lives in water? Ahem... FEEEEEEEEEEESH!"
Of corse, Spark had to dress for the boat ride... bandana and eyepatch in pirate jokes aaaaarrrrrr a go!
Once they arrived, Milov wanted one night as friends before they looked into the issue, and gave Spark a huuuuuge fish. The entire time they stayed with Milov, who was the head of a noble family of spellwolves, his clan kept Spark very well fed. Meanwhile Milov and Dominic learned that Siggy was a lieutenant of one of the few demon lords to survive the war - Karnak (Dominic already knew this and had kept it to himself to protect Milov and Jayden's memory of him) and that the thing that sent his spirit below when he had been on the path of redemption was having an affair with Jayden behind Milov's back.
Milov told them all that they were welcome to stay at the Lunarian Church, but they were no longer welcome in his home. Spark cried loudly about the loss of his fish, begging to be allowed back in. When Jayden and Dominic explained why Milov was so angry - Dominic's lie, Jayden's betrayal, and his own temper lashing out at her physically (thank you Luna for a very convincing illusion) - Spark sighed. "Seesh. It's a good thing cats aren't so dramatic."
After getting attacked by Katya (who would later become his best friend, and possibly more than a friend) when they heard Milov's agonized howl, Nimmel met them at the church and told Spark everything that had happened to him. Spark dozed off in the middle, and when called on it explained that Dominic had already dumped a bunch of drama on him. Spark gets used as the therapist by pretty much everyone.
Deciding they needed something to lift their moods, Spark convinced Nimmel to take him fishing. He of course made one terrible miscalculation - how far north they were... http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2007-09-30
Which lead to Nimmel learning about Siggy, and worrying about Spark.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2007-10-01
Pfft.
By the way, he wasn't seeing double, there was someone behind Nimmel. No clue why he kept saying Pfft for a while after that. Possibly just to be more of a cat. Katya had come up behind Nimmel and apologized to him, Nimmel forgave her. She was told to join them in the church so she would be safe.
Luna and Nimmel, acknowledging that they are the two most emotionally damaged and broken people either of them knew (both had formerly attempted suicide) had decided that despite that, it was up to them to save the day and fix things between Jayden and Milov. Spark offered to talk to "... Eh. Nobody. This is WAY too depressing for a cat."
When they went off, Spark went to check on Dominic, despite saying he wasn't helping with this one. He was worried enough that when Dominic was eating his sandwich and wanted some alone time, Spark left without asking for even a bite.
Dominic and Milov had to fight Siggy in the mindscape again, and Spark tried to protect Dominic when he was dragged inside and left to rest in a bed.
And then Siggy managed to attack inside the church, which was sacred ground, when Milov and Nimmel were at the Moon Dance, and Dominic was just barely sitting up on his own. Siggy managed to take Jayden's pain and hurt and guilt and twist it, turning her evil to fight at his side. Nimmel had to use Dominic's signature spell "See The Truth" since Dominic was too weak to. Everyone was treated to a view of the kind of racist callous murderer he had been, even as a child, and that fury and hate was enough to break his spell on Jayden.
Realizing that Siggy was now strong enough to attack sacred ground, Dominic called in reinforcements. Miranda.
Once she put up wards to make the archipelagos safe, it was time for Milov to cleanse the land of the influence of Jayden's people. They safely evacuated the church, now that it was no longer the only safe ground, so it could be blown up. Milov had Katya give them all gifts (Jayden got a letter) as she sent them on their way, back onto the boats home.
Meanwhile things had progressed back home, and the royal knights were disbanded, replaced by the king's own battle casters. Dominic back slid into being a grouch, and Luna had enough self esteem this time, where she didn't when he was one before, to be fed up with it. The house was very tense for a while. Spark knew what secret Dominic was keeping from Luna, and why, but she was furious at him for keeping any secret at all. Things got worse and worse until one day when they were outside, and finally Luna got her answers. He was knocking stones together, wouldn't tell her why, only said he was talking to Rocky. Then suddenly as she was stalking off, he fell over. Rocky had taken his prosthetic leg as payment for a very rare Lunarian Solarstone. The kind used only in very special rings. Dominic, on the ground, proposed to Luna, who got up and walked away, leaving him devastated. "Oh cheer up, you grump," she said, "I'm just getting a running start." She tackled him, made him ask again, and said yes.
Enter the Oracle Hunter. And congratulation noogies from Gregory.
Spark was concerned at how worried and surprised Dominic was, reading his paper. Apparently someone was going around targeting oracles and had attacked one of his friends from school, but he never had a vision to warn him.
Szark, however, had encountered the oracle hunter and had come to talk to Dominic. Quilt was already there, trying to solve the case in a rather... patchwork... way... But Dominic's research, teamed with Quilt's lessons in the dramatic finally gave a plausible theory, the oracle hunter was the daughter of one of Donovan's old Girlfriends who belonged to a cult called the Blinders, who had specially made weapons that hid them from Visions and Second Sight. Quilt's theory was of course, that the hunter was Donovan's long lost daughter, seemingly substantiated by the hunter appearing and calling Dominic "brother" while stabbing him.
Greg was able to heal him physically, but even Miranda couldn't pull him out of his trance. He fought his way free, wetting himself and puking out a virus spell. Trying to scry the spell he hit a trap and the jar of puke, and the monster, exploded, coating the room in vomit.
The hunter attacked again, beheading Quilt. Dex threw his head to the house to warn them. Heads up, he went on ahead. Miranda and Szark managed to trick and disarm her, capturing her, and they finally discovered why she called him Brother. She saw the engagement announcement in the paper. This is another of Luna's sisters.
But more importantly, Donovan made a couch fort out of Spark's sofa. Leaving him nowhere to sleep.
Then they went off and fought with people, or something, Spark wasn't paying attention, but when they came back he had his sofa back, and Dominic was sent to his room to recover. Spark made the mistake of asking everyone what he missed and after hearing everything went in to Dominic's room and slept on him, making them both feel better.
But better didn't last long. Celesto killed a man to try and make amends to Dominic, proving he didn't understand the other Seer at all. Stress at work started to pile up, worry over Maltak and the infernomancer, and Jacob, and anything else he might miss... Luna asking about the wedding...
The stress was building in Dominic, making him need his furry little buddy more and more often, but Spark was able to help less and less. things kept getting worse. Luna bought him a gift that helped a little, but also made things worse a little.
Luna turned to Spark, as they all do, to fret about how she tried to make things better and failed. How this was like how she tried to help Jayden and failed. And what was all the progress she made on her self confidence worth if she felt so low now? Spark... was not as much help as usual. But then most people don't make a habit of throwing him into walls. Plus his patience for self pity has always been low.
But Spark, in his own furry way was worried about them, so he gathered Dominic's students in an appeal for help. In a very Spark way.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2008-05-06
Of course one student, Prento, thought of a "brilliant" idea after that conversation and threw himself into researching stress contagion and mind break, hoping to cure their beloved professor.
Dominic had finally started to feel better after reading the book Luna got him, but then Prento, meaning well, undid all that progress with a well intended but completely depressing comment about how even though no one likes him and no one wants to take his class, the students he has now (all eight of them) are behind him all the way...
And then the final straw. With the Winter Archipelago being less friendly with the Callain kingdom, the local store was no longer carrying Mavple candy. The stress reliever that had taken the place of smoking for Dominic after Greg had accidentally healed his lungs and tobacco addiction. Dominic had a public melt down in the store and Luna had to get him home.
"I knew it, the boss is starting to crumble. There goes my dinner time. I should've used the belly rub strategy. Stupid Spark. Now you're gonna starve." (Spark's thoughts on the matter.)
Prento, sure he needed to save Dominic, combined some seriously powerful spells and threw dominic through several of the previously nigh unbreakable walls. Prento explained himself, and the idea that Dominic might have been heading for mind break, was apparently funny enough to send him and Luna into peals of laughter. Very appealing.
Dominic felt better for a bit, but by bed that night he was back to moping. And Spark was getting fed up. "You're an unemployed cripple who just had a nervous breakdown. How else would you cheer someone like that up?"
Unfortunately he was unemployed, as the parents forced Miranda to fire him after his meltdown. So he and Spark watched the graduation ceremony together via crystal ball. But the students surprised him, they had ben doing fundraisers and had their own plan for helping him deal with the stress (Prento did help with their plan, he was just sure his was right.) They bought him and Luna a trip around the world.
Of course they left Spark home. Pfft. He stayed with Greg and Quilt for a while. But almost as soon as Dominic and Luna got home, Pam broke up with Greg and fired Dex. Greg and Dex left BArthis to visit Rachel in Lynnsbrook, but after the town was attacked, Greg and Dex came home - Dex badly wounded and unable to be healed by magic, and Greg stripped of all his magic.
So when Dominic started having visions drawing him to Maltak, Greg couldn't go. Dominic was going. Luna was coming with him. Donovan has a Kelsheen mark and is famous among the orcs, so against Dominic's better judgement, he was going.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-01-15
Spark also argued to be allowed to go.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-01-16
Because for all he acts gruff and solipsistic and uncaring sometimes, he does love Dominic, and missed him.
So Spark proved his worth, to make Dominic take him along.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-01-19
He won the argument and rode along in his usual place in Dominic's pack as they set foot in Maltak. They weren't there long when someone started shooting arrows at them, just as Dominic said that the journey was likely to be dull.
After Donovan's brilliant negotiations: http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-02-05 the battle was joined.
When none of her usual battle spells would work, Luna suddenly busted out some very impressive water magic, turning one of the bandits into her devout follower and scattering the rest.
Spark figured if the orc was that impressed by a water spell, he'd be over the moon about a talking cat. The orc freaked out and hit the talking affront to nature with a rock.
They started off again after a brief rest, Spark still irritated hid in the pack, peeking out here and there. Luna started speaking in some odd tongue, making everyone flip out, and possibly starting up the horrible windstorm that hit Maltak. Dominic theorized that she stopped them, rather than starting the winds.
Making camp one night, they were attacked by two members of the most closed minded of the orc clans who was looking for the blasphemer (Luna's use of the old words was heard over all of Maltak.) Not knowing which was which, they decided that it had to be Donovan, because clearly no human should have a Kelsheen mark. They attacked.
Luna used her odd new magic again, this time to make the stone hand that was restraining Dominic fertile and teaming with new green growth. One of the attackers was awed and stunned, the other went into a rage and cast a spell that seperated the party, spreading them all across Maltak. Spark, of course, wound up with Mowhawk - the Orc that tried to kill him.
The Orc chased Spark around Maltak, trying to kill him... in the Watercaller's (Luna's) name. Spark was talking tough while running for his life until an Orcish hand reached down and grabbed him by the scruff. Stonewater. A friend from several chapters back.
Spark filled in Stonewater, then got all but called a racist because he couldn't tell the tribes of Orcs apart visually. Stonewater did explain it to him, however. When Spark asked where Grench was (Stonewater's love) and Stonewater got depressed. Spark cheered him up in his best Spark way... demanding a belly rub and acting like the center of the universe.
Stonewater didn't take him up on his "offer" but did continue the exposition, and came to a conclusion. Other than the Chandarks who use a very specialized sort of magic, and whatever weirdness was going on with Luna, no magic worked in Maltak. But... Spark could still talk.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-05-06 (I will address this later in the app)
Linked by Spark, Stonewater and Dominic could communicate and shared a vision of Grench being used to keep a patch of land alive, looking herself mostly dead. The vision ended when someone on Dominic's side hit him to get his attention. Mowhawk and Spark went back with Stonewater to the small tribe he was building of the cast offs of all the other tribes. When Dominic's group came too close to their camp, they were shot at by sentries... until Spark vouched for him.
They went before the chief of the tribe to ask for permission and people to march against the Bikta tribe to rescue Grench. The chief agreed, but had to play a prank on Dominic first that somehow inadvertantly allowed him to see visions again, briefly.
Once again, spark provides the exposition, and talks Dominic into letting him go with him when Dominic is preparing to go off on his own.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-08-19
Of course, he wasn't the only one who forced their way into the party. So one former knight, one Orc who was confused as she was coming out of her brainwashing, one grumpy Seer and one talking cat headed back into the worst of the wastes to find the Crone.
Dominic summarized things pretty well after they'd been walking a while. "Something's wrong, something's very wrong." They had come to where the Crone's mountain should have been... but she wasn't there. It wasn't there.
And then with a sudden rumbling of the ground, it was. Dominic was suddenly sure they had to get to the top first, but had no clue who else was climbing, or why. But Dominic couldn't move fast enough with his artificial leg, the ex-knight isn't skilled at climbs, and the orc wasn't athletic. So Spark was sent on ahead.
Or rather, he decided he was going and no one tried to stop him. He got to the top, found whoever else was climbing and decided to stall him as best he could. Spark leaped from the top of the mountain shouting "DEATH FROM ABOVE" as he descended... and was easily smacked away by the ascending Orc. But he landed in the arms of the Orc's companion, Donovan.
Spark explained the situation quickly, and Donovan offered to help him get another shot at distracting the Orc. He launched him up the mountain at the Orc's back... a CATAPULT!
That worked long enough to let Kiya, Dominic and Reinholdt get to the top first, but the Orc Spark had been delaying got up there just in time to knock out Kiya and see the Oracle on the ground. The fight was on.
Donovan got them all to shut up and stop scrapping and everyone had a moment of shock as they realized who else was there...and awake. The unknown Orc was called Roki by the Crone... who he called Azazia.
It was touching for a moment, Roki called her his love... and then she tried to kill him. Some magic of the cave let them all understand each other, so while Reinholdt restrained her, Dominic explained that there was a sickness in the Crone - not just the woman, the whole lineage, and that had Roki arrived first, she would have attacked him... and she would have died by his hand. Apparently, she was fated to be killed by someone else.
Roki did not take this well, and when he finally seemed like he might believe that Dominic was trying to stop it, he made a connection "You're that filthy necromancer's brother." Azazia, herself again for the moment, implored Roki to stand down. He and Dominic bonded for a bit over disgust at Jacob. Then Azazia dumped her job as the Oracle and savior of Maltak in Dominic's lap. Time for some Diviner Intervention.
Dominic went into a trance, and when he came out, he repeated a prophecy that all the tribes had to come together as one and dance at the base of the last mountain. Which they were standing on. Which was nowhere near any Orcs that weren't in that small cave. So Dominic moved the mountain, underground.
They were nearly there, as best Spark could tell, when Reinholdt was stabbed through the chest. Neilen the Elemental Changeling was back and worse than ever. And he was determined to kill them all to keep them from fixing Maltak. While he was gloating to Dominic, Spark got him with a Death From Above, that distracted him long enough (spark was clawing out his eyes) for Kiya to stab him with Roki's Hukthak (a sacred speak with the powers of life and death).
Neilen was shattered, but trying to put himself back together, Reinholdt and Donovan were down or going down from their wounds, and Azazia had lost her mind to the madness again. Dominic declared it time for a dramatic entrance and thrust the mountain back out of the earth.
They came to the surface to see the aftermath of another battle, many of their own injured or dying, all the tribes in the same place, members of each on one side against the bulk of the other side. One of the chiefs saw the shape the Crone was in, and was sure this was all some trick of Dominic's, he was ready to order his people to attack the humans when... it started to rain.
Rain is special to the Orcs. Water and Ice are both seen as purifying elements. And the rain that fell now healed the wounded that it fell upon, it helped the crone fight the illness within, it made plants sprout.
Neilen made one more attempt to kill them all, Reinholdt managed to stand enough inside the dry cave to throw the Hukthak through his head.
"That was awesome!" was Spark's contribution to that part of the battle. Roki caught the Hukthak and used it against the Orc that had started this mess in the first place before he could attack Dominic and Luna. He fell down the mountain, and bounced. A lot. The rain did not see fit to heal him.
Things seemed to be wrapping up peacefully at last. The closed minded racist chief who wasn't actually the villain of this piece was thanking Luna for her part in things... when the Crone lost her mind again and attacked. Stonewater tried to call Ice to kill her and the corruption inside her, once and for all, but for some reason his ice went to Melna, who was prophesized to be the one who had to kill her to break the cycle. But Melna was done with prophecies and myths and fate. She was ending this HER way. Instead of stabbing the crone with the ice, she used it to pull out the corruption within her, flinging it away. Roki ceremoniously destroyed the demonic poison clump with his Hukthak.
As soon as he did, the rain stopped. Green sprouted everywhere on the plains around them and... Luna collapsed. The rain came again, and it seemed like she was dead when suddenly she sat up with a painful gasp. She told Dominic that the dead were returning life. Not to life, but life. They were becoming the life that would give this broken land a rebirth. And she told Dominic that he should thank his brother.
The rain fell harder. It washed away the hair dye and skin dye that were the visible distinction between the clans. It washed away more than that. More than wounds. The Kelsheen mark on Donovan - a tattoo - washed away. All the Orcish magic washed away. The Crone's sight, the Chandak's connection to the elements, the Nakta (power of death) and the Akta (power of life). All gone. The former Crone was the one who realized, and shared with them that the rebirth clearly needed all the power. All the power of the dead, all the magic of the living, to make the plains anew.
With that, the ability to understand each other faded. And Dominic's second sight returned. He informed Reinholdt that since he was so close to death, the healing magic of the rain had tied him to Maltak. When the next Crone rose, he would be her protector.
They spent some more time there, after the rains stopped, celebrating. Spark got to rock out with Donovan to some Orcish drumming. Luna learned she could never have a baby, but didn't care anymore.
Skipping a lot now, because this is getting huge and long, even for one of my apps, and the next chunk hardly has any Spark involvement. He was there for most things that happened on the physical plane, but most of what follows happens in other planes or reality. So in summery:
The beast that Celesto fought is not dead. The king of Callan is a great mage who is in league with the beast. He enslaved all of the Magi of the highest order except Miranda who he tried to recruit - he prefered not to enslave/kill humans. In a comic full of racists, he was the worst. He wanted the world to belong to humans and only humans.
The battle was long and brutal. Many died, including Bumper and Quilt - two of Spark's friends. Jacob found that necromancy was not about mastering death, but overseeing it, and about balance. He rejoined the family and fought to save people from Rillian's magic when the king enslaved the first Necromancer. When Rillian fell, Jacob took his place.
Greg learned to use his music to heal the heart since he could no longer heal bodies. Nearly dead, Jayden and Milov came together again. Dominic did in fact experience mindbreak, but harnessed it to end the battle sooner. In the middle of all that, with only Greg and a priest for witnesses, Luna and Dominic got married, because they didn't know if they'd survive the fight.
Ultimately they took losses, but the good guys won. Klo Tark's people returned to the world and helped tip the balance. Magic itself shifted, which was apparently natural and what the King was trying to stop. Humans would be in the decline magically for decades while Orcs would ascend. But again, that would take DECADES. Other kingdoms came together to decide what would be of the Callans. Dominic lost his magic. Completely. Got a job as head librarian in Barthis.
Spark was filled in whenever someone deigned to return to the mortal/physical plane, as was Greg and everyone else whose mind wasn't a fortress and who wasn't on team hero.
Epilogue:
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2013-05-13
Miranda retired not just from being the headmaster of the school, but as the only remaining archmage, she found new archmages to guard the worlds, and handed that title to Luna. Greg pointed out as they all spiraled towards depression in the aftermath, that they never had a wedding party. They used it to celebrate the lives of those they loved who had fallen. Quilt. The Arch mages. The Royal Battlecasters. The Maestro. Bumper.
Szark has a new boyfriend and they adopted the child that the Boyfriend had been protecting/serving before the parents died in the King's plot. Katya gained second sight and it made her blind, Nimmel is staying at her side. Milov is one of the new archmages. Spark got the weirdest ever death from above at Dominic, thanks to Bort.
The epilogue goes on from there, to show that Dominic and Luna have kids and are old (presumably they adopted) but I am taking Spark from between the Wedding party and the last page, so about a week after the wedding party, when life is starting to settle in to its new routine.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2013-05-24
Three thousand comic strips and 12 years, summarized through the eyes of the talking cat.
Character Personality:
Not to sound like a musical based on T. S. Elliot, but Spark is the cat, by the Seer's door. His phrase as I ought to have told you before, is death from above, but that's such a fuss to pronounce....
Sorry, couldn't help myself, and it is kind of in keeping with who Spark is, to descend into parody and humor. Spark was raised by the Deegans and lived with them for most of his life. There are certain traits that are inescapable with prolonged exposure to them - especially Greg and Donovan. Bad puns, and a flair for the dramatic are among the first two.
Spark's love of humor comes from them for sure. His style of puns and bad jokes are in line with Dominic's, Greg's, and Donovan's. While he will usually leave the punchlines up to one of them, if there is no Deegan to get to it first, he may well beat anyone else to the punch... Some are obvious and in your face, some are the type you miss at first, some are the ones you've said and then realized what you said and just have to face it. You're a punster.
Now there is a variation with Spark's humor. Often, rather than taking the easy joke he will go for alliteration. It is not constant, (else RPing him would be nigh impossible without my poetic dictionaries on hand) but it happens often enough to be a trademark of his, and he gets super happy whenever anyone else uses Alluring Alleteration.
Spark mostly indulges in his love of alliteration when it comes to recaps and summaries. He will take pages and pages of dialogue and sum them up into the reader's digest version of events. He seems to enjoy this. And others seem to appreciate it. I can't wait to see how that works out when he does it to characters not of his canon. They might just launch him out of one.
His flair for the dramatic shows in his battle cry, in how he will physically fling himself at things, and in the way he will sometimes enter a scene or how he sums things up building to what would be a crescendo. You can almost hear the dundundun behind him sometimes as he speaks. He will launch himself off tall things. He WILL yell DEATH FROM ABOVE. The battle cry is essential, after all.
Everyone likes to use Spark as a therapist. They all talk to him about pretty much everything, and sometimes he comes off as though he doesn't care. But he uses selfishness and solipsism and demands for pets as a way of helping people. And while it may seem like he really means it when he says he's only doing it for belly rubs or to be fed, it's clear that whenever his demands for food or pets fails to lighten the mood, he's depressed and irritated, even if he got what he said he wanted. He grew up raised by Dominic - a grumpy Seer who hates most people he meets, but still wants to save the world. Add that to being a cat... and you have Spark.
Spark loves his friends, loves his family, but would sell his own soul for a sole. the boy has a massive Fish Fetish. He loves fish, he will do very nearly anything for a fish. He goes after fish the way garfield goes after Lasagna. Except that Spark Savors all the Fresh Fishy Flavors.
Tipping the scales against his Fish Focus, and his Meal Mania, and his Horrible Hunger, we go back to how much he does care. When he gets left behind, he plays it off like he doesn't. He is very much a cat that way. The not seeming to care that you're back, maybe you won't see him for a bit until he comes sauntering up demanding food. But anytime Dominic seems about to leave for a long adventure after just having gotten back, Spark does whatever it takes to go with him. Even if that means scheming, even if that means hairballing or worse in Dominic's clothing.
When it comes to THINGS, however, Spark doesn't care. He steals Dominic's crystal ball, the ring only mattered to him because it fit his pirate game, he knocks things off shelves... People matter. Stuff is just Stuff. Dominic even has to explain to Spark the correlation between his crystal ball and Spark's food. And Spark is smart enough that you know this couldn't be the first time they had this conversation.
Yes, let's get this off our chest. Spark is a cat. He is a cat who was friends with a necromantic golem, who flung himself off a mountain to stall an angry orc, who will attack anyone and anything that tries to hurt Dominic, Luna, Greg, Miranda, or Donovan. We see him very early on hiding on top of a bookcase shaking. Why? Because while Spark will happily lick slime molds... he is afraid... of a mouse. Friendly enough with a squirrel (unclear if it was a talker or cats just understand rodents) but afraid of a mouse. Go figure.
Spark will put up with water, so long as the water has fish. On long boat rides he gets mildly sea-sick but he wants to be a pirate. He will get into the middle of any fight with his own sort of flair, and he has a pun-nishing sense of humor. And he is hungry. Right now. He wants to know why you're reading this when you could be getting him a fish. Are you still here? Pfft.
Powers and Abilities:
He's a Talker. This means he is a talking cat. When I started testing him, I forgot that was said in canon to be a magical effect, and I almost didn't app because I'm not sure if he is playable if no one can understand when he talks. At least not in any way I would find fun. But one of the other players pointed out that the world's magic should make communication work anyway? IF he can talk, for either reason, he will not notice or care why. He's a talker. He's always talked, humans have always heard him,
He can scry. Maybe it's an effect of living with Dominic so long, maybe it's just a thing he could do, maybe it is an artifact of the crystal balls themselves. But he can see things in Dominic's crystal balls. Even things Dominic didn't pre-program them to see. Like when he was fixed. Not sure why, not sure if he would actively try to Bend that ability back if he came across a crystal ball that wasn't itself inherently magical. Honestly do not know. He might, to try to get in contact with Miranda or Luna.
(Edited upon request for clarity: Basically, in canon we have seen him scry the present and the past. While Dominic can and often does see the future, we have never seen any evidence that Spark can. In his canon, crystal balls can be used as communication devices, so his device coming into the game would either be a newspaper (Dominic is always leaving them lying around) or Dominic's crystal ball, because he's a cat. He pretty much owns nothing of his own. So that would be the only way he could use the network. I could go with the paper if you prefer him not to have the crystal ball from the first. Again, not sure he would ever put in the effort to learn to scry at all. but in canon he could only see the past and the present. So even if he did, he is not used to having any abilities in this way that could be game breaking.)
Durable and long lived. We have seen things done to this cat that should have killed him, not a scratch. He really only takes a wound when the Orc hits him with a stone, and even then we don't see a wound, we see bandages, so he could have demanded them even if they were not needed. They live in an Elemental built house that withstood attacks from Neilen and Jacob. Yet he was thrown into a wall so hard it cracked, and he was perfectly fine after. As to long lived, in the epilogue, we see Dominic and Luna old and grey, and they comment on how old Spark is, and he points out that Dominic knew when he adopted him that Talkers lived a long time.
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2013-05-24
This long lived and durable thing seems to be a Talker trait, rather than magic, but then Talking is magic, so... not sure how that would work. I'm fine with him being less durable if that is the mod ruling, so long as I know. If it is left to me, he'll keep the durability, because otherwise the first time someone he choses in game is threatened, I'll be learning the death mechanic a little too well.
Samples
[Spark blinked sleepily at the screen. He had his own communications magic thing of course, but it was more fun to steal someone else's. Besides, the phone thing was warm. Whatever a phone was. He turned it on and gave whoever was watching a very serious look.]
"It has come to my attention that there is a very serious issue in this world that needs to be addressed, and I can't beleive no one has been brave enough to address it before now."
[A beat to build tension.]
"Well, I'm brave enough, I'll address it. But I am counting on all of you to fix it. And fast! The situation could get really bad, really quickly."
[Another beat, a narrow-eyed kitty glare.]
"This world is suffering from a serious lack of"
[One more beat.]
"Fish."
[The word was said as serious and deadpan as the rest of the delivery.]
"Clearly this is a crisis of epic proportions. I have been awake for three whole minutes and have not eaten. We need to figure out this fish crisis and fast. Before we starve to death. Let's get on it, people."
Third Person:
(For the sake of this, posting as though he winds up living with Adrien, since the other person likely to adopt him is Ace and I don't know what Ace's home is like)
A yawn and a stretch. That was a good nap. Felt like months. Maybe longer. But now he was hungry. And he needed to catch up on whatever drama was going on. At least here people kept it quiet enough that he could sleep through it. Another stretch and he stood, shaking out his tail. He would go find Adrien, get some food, listen to his troubles, recap them and put them into proper perspective, which hopefully would get Adrien to forget that he had already fed him, so he could eat again. After that, maybe they could go fishing.
But first... he had to find Adrien. Well, he had fallen asleep... right. Under something in the foyer he had... oh yeah. He had been planning to spy on Gabriel to tell Adrien what his father was up to. Then he had been distracted by his tail. Then he fell asleep. Oh well. At least he hadn't told anyone he was going to spy, so this time no one knew he messed up.
Not that he would mess up so often if anyone ever fed him once in awhile. Seriously. How hard is it to remember to feed the cat? He didn't ask for much, just a dozen fish two or three times a day. But did he ever get it? Nooooooo... So it was time to go find Adrien and remind him that a certain orange cat needed a certain blond cat-boy to get off his black leather tail and feed him. Which brought Spark back to the issue of finding him...
Spark looked around the house, tail twitching. He didn't like this place. Too big, too open. Too empty. Most of the rooms smelled stale. Like no one had been in them for years. If ever. Certainly no one had done anything fun in them recently, like cooking fish. Some of them did smell like cheese, though. If he wasn't a cat, he was sure that his footsteps would echo. He padded up the stairs, disgusted. Who needed so many stairs in a home? He sniffed until he found the room he was looking for. Adrien was on his sofa, sulking or reading, or doing something boring like that. Whatever it was, he was sighing, his eyes down. And worse, he wasn't feeding Spark. Clearly this situation needed to be fixed.
Spark climbed up carefully to Adrien's second floor. What bedroom needed a second floor? He got onto the upper wall and looked down at Adrien. The boy still had not noticed him, still was sighing, still was not feeding him. Well. There was one way to fix that.
With a feline smirk, Spark settled back onto his haunches and launched himself through the air at Adrien.
"DEATH FROM ABOVE!" was the loud and shouted warning, it came before he even started the jump, giving the boy time to catch him or get out of the way. Either was fine because either meant not sulking and sighing. And besides, the battle cry is essential.
Ready or not, kid, incoming Furry Feline Friend!