New digs

We are in an apartment complex now... I don't know who lived here before we came, but everyone who is staying here now is part of the Family. I'm not sure if the owner of the building is one of us. Maybe, but probably not.

All the apartments are furnished. It's nice to have a bed, though I'm pretty sure it was a boy's room before it was mine. There was some... "stuff" under the mattress. 'Nuff said. I haven't touched anything aside from sleeping in the bed, though I'd love to take down some of the posters. Whenever we end up leaving this place, it's best not to leave a mark or have to waste time putting them back up again. :/

Oh, and we have air conditioning! And we can leave the curtains down, since it's summer and it's not suspicious at all. Who doesn't want to keep the heat out? And then we can leave our masks on because anyone who wants to come into the building has to be buzzed in or has a key so no one will see us. :3

Inquisitor has set up his "offices" in the basement. The storage area for each of the apartments is convenient for keeping prisoners, even though there's only two down there right now. I have been trying VERY hard to be obedient and careful, considering the epiphany I had at the campsite. I think he's noticed. It was very hard this morning... because we had to work on a twelve year old boy, but I did everything as I was instructed. At least Inquisitor has yelled at me less and hasn't had to punish me at all.

The other prisoner just sits at the back of his cage and doesn't move. He was there before Liger and I arrived. So maybe Inquisitor had time to work on him before I got there. I'd think he was dead since he's always in the same position, but I can see he has an aura of sorts, even if it looks like crap. So I know he's still alive. Inquisitor hasn't asked me to heal him either, so I don't know what's going on with him. Creepy guy though. I felt like he was watching me every time I passed by. Inquisitor would probably have laughed if he'd noticed, but he was busy putting away his tools. He's very tidy.

Why masks

I know lots of us have different reasons for wearing a mask. Some I've talked to wear a mask simply because they've been told they're supposed to, and someone once told me that we should wear masks so that we know each other when we meet. That's just stupid since ANYONE can pick up a mask and pretend to be one of us, and only a few of us would be able to tell the difference if it came to that. I mean, even the Assassin apparently wears a mask. So there's no sense in thinking a mask will let you know who to trust.

A lot of Anunnaki I've talked to wear masks as a sign of respect for Father because of what was done to him. You know... his face. So they wear masks to hide their own faces out of sympathy for Him. I don't know if Father really cares, but it's a nice thing to do anyway.

And then there's a few of us who know the truth about what was stolen from us, and we wear masks that show the form we would take if we could. There have been very few shapeshifters since medieval times. A lot of them got burned up with the witches the Inquisition managed to pin down. But I've heard rumors that there are a few werewolves and others who've managed to regain that power, and they don't wear masks because their human form IS their mask.

So jealous. :3

The Darklings can also shapeshift... but I've never met any, and what I do know about them gives me the creeps.

Depressed

I've been kind of sad the past few days. First it was Sarah leaving, and obviously she had to go with her parents, but I liked having someone follow me around who wanted my attention. Then the thing with Naomi.

I'm not angry, but Naomi, if you're reading this, I really do believe you've made a mistake. Don't you know, deep down, where you belong? Father is always busy, busy, but he would have killed you by now if you weren't one of us. If we ever met, I would try my best to show you the truth, and I would do everything I could to make sure you weren't punished too severely for betraying us. It was just a mistake on your part. That's all. Considering how much of what we were is kept from us by what the Igigi did, it's not surprising so many Chosen rail against father and try to fight or run.

Come visit me anyway if you can Naomi. I won't be here much longer, but we could talk if you came. Secret-like. No one will know but you and me, and if you don't like what I have to say, you can go away again. I won't try to keep you, even if I want to. There's such comfort in knowing where you belong. I just want to make you understand. You would be happy. We could be sisters.

I know what really scares people, what turns them away from their instincts... the deaths, the murders. There's a reason for it, but I can't talk about it yet. :( Besides, Liger thinks I don't know what kind of work he does for father, but I've read the blogs. I'm grateful for how he takes care of me and protects me, but sometimes I think he tries to shelter me too much. Maybe that's why Inquisitor hates me. He's the only one who doesn't baby me even a little bit. Maybe he resents how sheltered I am. Maybe he's a better friend than I give him credit for and just wants me to live up to my potential.... not that I'm looking forward to working with him again. I hate watching people suffer and not being allowed to stop their pain until he says so.

We leave in less than a week. This time I won't say where we're going aside from further west and south.

Mischief

I swiped some hotdogs from a BBQ some people were having. They never even saw me walk away. People are so blind... I feel sorry for them sometimes, but things will get better for them eventually. So I just have to be patient.

Sarah and I had a picnic inside a pine tree on the soft needles, a cave of bare and green branches around us, hiding us from view. When we saw her brother walking past, we threw pine cones at him, but he never saw us and ran away crying. Sarah had both hands over her mouth to smother her laughter. We went to find find some water to clean the sap off Sarah's clothes and found a beehive. The bees were easy to charm, and I got us both some honeycomb to chew on, which made Sarah stickier, but there was a stream nearby.

Unfortunately when we got to the stream, Sarah fell in and added mud to the sap and honey. There was no cleaning that off, so we went back to the campgrounds where her family was packing up to leave. :( I didn't know they were leaving today. Apparently her brother was looking for her when we beaned him with the pinecones.

I feel bad that I got her in trouble with her parents. Her mother wrestled her bag back out of their car and dragged Sarah into the cabin to wash her off.

But I guess it's better that she goes. She's not one of us and I don't want to see her get hurt because of me.

Camping

The campgrounds are nice. There are cabins and places for tents and RV hookups, which is where we are. Least we're in some "mountains," though they don't seem much like mountains to me after moving around in the Appalachia for so long. I'm glad at least for the trees. I'd heard Oklahoma was all grasslands.

There are some siblings here, but also some humans, which means I can't wear my mask. I feel naked without it. We could take care of them, one way or another, but this is a public place. So chances are, more humans would move in once it looked to the admin as if they'd gone. Just really not worth the effort when we'll be moving on in a few weeks.

I could hollow them. That doesn't really take a lot of skill. But they'd just be a bunch of drooling bodies, sitting around in the Oklahoma heat. I'm not practiced enough to be able to fill them up with something else, and I haven't got permission either. Just because Inquisitor isn't around doesn't mean I can't still get in trouble.

There are some other kids here. The eldest girl is a snob and only talks on her cell phone about how bored she is and how hot it is and how she misses whoever she's talking to soooooooooooooo much. It is to gag. :P I almost want to kill her cell phone battery so she SHUTS UP. But I am being good and not calling attention to us with any "unexplainable phenomena." Her brother likes to poke things with a stick and climb trees and thinks girls are "dumb." So he's pretty boring, too.

Their little sister is nice though. They don't have much use for her, being only ten to their eleven and fourteen. And their parents ignore all three and just sit and drink and fish or play poker with some of the other people in the cabins. They remind me of my parents, never noticing ANYTHING. Sarah, the little one, has been following me around the campgrounds since I'm the only one who pays her any attention. I've been showing her how to weave grass and what plants are good to eat and what animal prints go with which animals... nothing too weird.

I want to ask Liger if I can keep her. :3

But I'm pretty sure he'd say no :(

So I won't ask until right before we're ready to leave here. Otherwise he'd probably make me stop playing with her as soon as I asked, and I hardly ever have anyone close to my own age to play with.

HiHi! :)

Sorry it has been a week since I last posted! We broke camp and moved three states away. We broke up into smaller groups too, and me and Liger and a few others are in RVs now and not making do with tents and lean tos (and I do LOVE being able to take a shower once in a while). We move around a lot, just to be safe. And Inquisitor isn't with our group! :D  Not right now anyway. We meet back up with him in a month somewhere out west. D:

I heard some people talking though. Apparently the Assassin has appeared after decades of silence. He commented on his Acolyte's (SP?) blog, only I'm not stupid enough to link to the post (since it seems the Acolyte recently discovered the novelty of trackbacks, a-der!). I did follow him anonymously though, and the Assassin's blog too, though there's nothing on it. The Acolyte's name is Dodgy, which is a stupid name. I mean like I have room to talk, but anyway. How can anyone willingly follow the Assassin? He serves the gods who bound us and crippled us and stole the power that was rightfully ours! I can hardly wait the year and a half until we get our chance to put the Igigi in their place and take back this plane for our own. I want to be a real cat then, with claws and teeth and no one will ever hurt me again. Not unless they want to get their face ripped off.  =^*^=

Liger was mad when he found out I knew about the Acolyte. He wanted to know who told me. Apparently it was a secret? He was still angry when I told him I'd just overheard some siblings talking, but it's not like anyone specifically said, hey Ty, we're moving because some body-stealing idiot named Dodgy might be sent to wipe us out. Side note... having read his most recent post, I think Dodgy might be Hispanic this time around. Just guessing on the Speedy Gonzales references.

I had to promise Liger that if it ever happens that the Acolyte comes around, or the Assassin for that matter, I'm to run. I AM learning to fight whenever anyone has the time to show me anything, but Liger says I'm too valuable for my skills to get myself killed trying to fight someone like this dimwit Dodgy or his master. Well... I don't feel valuable, whatever Liger says. Most of the time I feel useless. Most of the time, everyone else thinks I'm useless too, I think, or at least they get annoyed when I ask questions or ask to be shown something. Most of the time I think I'm just important to Liger, and everyone is too scared of him not to humor him. Maybe Liger was my father in another life, so he's paranoid I might get hurt? I'd just be reborn like everyone else if I did die though, and sure it would take time for him to find me again, but it's not like I'd be erased forever.

Cookies and a Story

Liger's mask :) Isn't it pretty?

Liger's home! 

<3

He brought me sparklers and Oreos! I shared the cookies with anyone who said they'd like some. Inquisitor did not want any, and I didn't expect that he would, but it would have been rude not to ask. He just stared at me like I was an idiot. As if to say, you know I hate you, why would you offer me cookies? Well, I don't care. He's mean, and I'm not. If he doesn't want any cookies, the more for me and everyone else. I'm not going to be mean just because he is. Then he'd win.

I put the sparklers away. Maybe when Inquisitor goes away the next time, I'll bring them out and play and share with anyone else who wants to play. There's no sense aggravating him by being "a silly little girl without the sense to keep quiet and out of sight unless she's wanted" as I heard one of Inquisitor's "friends" say to his buddy. Inquisitor doesn't have any friends. He just has people who kiss his ass in order to get favors and I won't. I refuse.

X, I asked Liger if it was okay to write about the Igigi, the Anunnaki, and humans. He said I couldn't tell the whole story yet. :( He says it's not time yet, and the Assassin might step up his game if he realized how much we knew, but I can say what the difference is at least!

In the beginning, there were the Igigi who had no bodies and were from a place where only spirits lived. One day the weakest of the Igigi discovered Earth and being curious, got stuck in the material world like quicksand and couldn't be taken back out again. So some powerful elder Igigi came to earth because they decided the little ones needed to be cared for since they couldn't be freed. 

Before they came to Earth, the Igigi created children by "budding." (I'm guessing like cellular fission or like micro-organisms.) But when the guardian Igigi came and created bodies for themselves, they paired up and gave birth to the Anunnaki, the gods of the earth, and Father was the first! 

Everything has an Igigi soul, even rocks, but these are usually of the weakest kind of Igigi, and they barely know that they are even a rock. The Igigi try to keep any more spirits from coming to Earth, except if they are exiled for whatever reason, which Liger says still happens sometimes. So that means that souls are constantly reborn, though they mostly forget their previous lives. So when I mention humans, they're technically Igigi (or even Anunnaki) but they probably don't know it unless they were around when Father was born or they're our enemies like the Assassin.

My mask... not as pretty :(

Knowing My Place

Liger has been gone for days and days, and I miss him terribly. Maybe that is selfish of me, as I know we all have our work to do and also because I miss him because I am more afraid when he is away. Inquisitor hates me because he was forced to give up breaking me by others who were concerned my gifts might be ruined if I was driven mad rather than remembering. Some things I can do, only Father can do, so I am very valuable to the cause of the Anunnaki. While I serve our people Father may spend his important time on other matters.

I would hide and wait for Liger to come back, but if Inquisitor needed me for his work, and I was nowhere to be found, I would be punished even worse than I already have been. With me there, Inquisitor is able to go further in his tortures than he ever would be able to on his own. He is horrible, and I hate him, though I know I shouldn't. But he is a monster, even if he is Family. He enjoys his work too much.

I am nearly healed from my punishments. The day after Liger left, I was punished with lashings for not being quick enough when Inquisitor summoned me, and again when I tripped and made him accidentally cut himself instead of the Chosen he was trying to break. It wasn't my fault as the cables from the car battery were lying underfoot. He alternated holding my hands over a boiling pot and plunging them into ice water until they were red and blistered as bubble wrap. This I was finally allowed to heal later that night so that I could feed myself and so that whenever Liger returned, he wouldn't see.

Liger is Very old, centuries, and Inquisitor is not even one hundred. Liger could be a leader if he wanted, just based on his age and experience, but he doesn't want it. Still, there are very few as old as him and if he decided the Inquisitor had overstepped himself, things could go very bad for him. Which is why I was allowed to heal myself and why I've been forbidden to tell Liger what he did. I wish Liger liked computers but he calls my laptop a toy. He wouldn't understand the internet or blogs at all. I wish someone would tell him about Inquisitor, but I know none of you will because I have been barred from speaking about it and so therefore have you. Still... I wish...

There are good things about being Anunnaki though. Don't think I am complaining. Everyone complains once in a while, so that's normal, right? I do love the Family so very much.  My former parents never loved me or noticed me much... They weren't Anunnaki or Igigi, just human. They barely noticed when I disappeared. There were no pleas for my safe return, no newspaper articles about what they found of the bastard who tried to rape me behind the school when Father came and saved me. Father does not like people who do such things, not after what was done to HIS parents. What he did to that boy was horrible and I had nightmares for months, but he deserved it. I really thought Jeff was my friend but he was a liar. The only good he did was making me so scared my powers kind of kick-started and Father and many Anunnaki heard me screaming in their heads (as far away as Texas I was told). It's weird being grateful to someone for almost raping you, but I wouldn't be here with Liger and the rest of our Family otherwise. Even the things Inquisitor does when Liger is away are bearable if it means I am where I belong.