"Hey, you've reached Marco. If that's who you wanted to reach, great, leave a message. If not? Still leave a message. I'll probably reply."

[ooc: In creating this journal, the author has assumed the identity of a fictional person for use in the role-playing game [info]fandomhigh, for the sole purpose of entertainment, without intending to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud either the person who created the fictional person, or any reader of this content. The author does not purport to be the creator of the fictional person, or to be affiliated with the creator, or with any person or entity with an interest in the fictional person. The author does not claim to be the person who is being used as the graphical representation of that fictional person, nor intend to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud that person by use of their image.]

"Aw, come on!" Marco scowled at the television and flipped through a few channels. "It's all re-runs!"

Marco's mother stuck her head into the movie theater where Marco was sitting, a giant tub of popcorn in front of him. "It's all new, it's not their fault you've already seen it all."

"It's re-runs for me!" Marco whined.

"Go outside, read a book." Eva suggested, having absolutely no pity for her son's predicament.

"Moooom!" Marco whined some more. Eva simply shook her head and moved out of the room.

Marco clicked through a few more channels before giving up. Apparently, large amounts of money did not buy you good entertainment at a click.

But it did by him a very futuristic cell phone that he was now twiddling with.

[ooc: Open to phone calls! *looks at clock* *looks innocent*]

After two weeks of vending machineness, Marco had quite a few voice mails stored up. Almost all were either from his parents or Cassie which gave him an idea about their contents.

Twenty minutes after de-vending, Marco had stuffed random clothes into a bag, left a few messages, and left a note for his roommate informing her of his departure and had taken off for a taxi.

[ooc: And Marco is gone for the summer for a variety of personal reasons. If you think he left you a message, he probably did.]

At some point Marco realized that he had running out of junk food. This was a nightmare that could not be lived with, so he decided to run back to his room for food.

He didn't even get a chance to think "Not again!" before being turned into a vending machine.

[ooc: I'm home for a week, Marco is a vending machine. Vending machine is moddable.]

Marco had not noticed anything odd at prom, though he was curious as to where his date had disappeared to. But it was Saturday, so he had more pressing matters - like sleeping in till noon.

Of course, the silly boy had forgotten to lock the door.

[Open!]

In the hallway, stood a vending machine, all alone. It did have a name tag though that proudly said "Probably Marco. Don't vend me, biznatches!" It also said that soda was 1.25 a bottle and that everything was out of stock.

And it just stood there. Standing. Like a vending machine.

When you took away the animals and the aliens, Marco was really a normal teenage boy deep down inside. A hungry at 3 am teenage boy. Had Marco been a more observant teenage boy, he might have realized that he was standing in the exact same spot where he had turned into a vending machine last time. But he wasn't.

So now there was a non-functioning soda vending machine standing on the fourth floor.

[ooc: Open if you wanna gape at the new vending machine at three am or ooc. I've off to Vegas for a few days, Marco will be humanized once I get back. Modding of the vending machine allowed, though it will not dispense free product.]

Marco had pizza. Marco had soda. Marco had spent fifteen minutes in the lobby trying to get ready to go talk to his best friend and hopefully get more than a yes/no/fine sentence out of him. Marco also had cheese. Don't ask.

But now, here he was. Knocking.

It's been a long, long time since I've done this, so ... a quick primer on the random animals.

Every once in a while, Marco gets bored or decides to torment students, or whatever and he turns into an animal and goes to stalk a common room. He prefers chimps because they have hands, but there are other options as well.

While it is not a big secret that Marco can do this, very few people actually know it's him.

Things of note:
*In canon, Marco has a time limit of two hours as an animals. I've translated this to about 80 comments. I've never actually gone up this high, but if he's getting close, he's going to leave the CR and come back a human boy (or not come back at all...which ever). I don't actually count comments, I do a "comments in post/2 - 15" kinda thing.

*Thought speak! When Marco is in morph, he can talk via thought-speak. It's...exactly what it sounds like. The character will hear his (Marco's) voice in their head. No, Marco can't read minds. It only works one way. Thought-speak will appear < like this > in text.

That's...actually it. Any questions, shoot my way.

The fourth floor corridor was the same as it was a week ago. Doors, floor, pain, two vending machines. Nothing unusual. At all. Really. Until the two machines began to shake a bit, and their buttons began to light up in random combinations. And suddenly, there were two boys where the two machines had once been. Two confused boys who swore to never speak of this again.

[ooc: Vending machine 2 modded with permission.]

Marco had stepped out of his room, half to see if there were any newbies to scare, half to see if there was any food. If he got both, he'd consider it a good deal. As he walked to the end of the hall, he felt a familiar jolt run through him and found it very difficult to move his legs.

"Oh not again!" A minute later, a vending machine stood where the boy had once been.

It rocked once, twice, and fell over, turning back into said boy.

"NOT FUNNY!" Marco yelled at the ceiling from the floor. "Not funny at all!"

[ooc: Open. I have no idea.]

I don't think I've done this in a while so...bandwagoney! Totally a word yo.

( Sir Alanna of Olau and Trebond and Faithful )

( Marco )

( Princess Cimorene of Linderwall )

( The Mun )

... I need to update my ooc icon again.

( See the title )

If you're missing a kid, or have a kid you don't have, or there's some other really odd mistake, drop a comment. The only kids on this are the ones who've been active in the past day. I'll post up another version tomorrow night if there's changes to this one. Yes, I'm insane.

Marco was doing exactly what he would do on any Sunday...sitting in front of his TV and playing video games by the hour. He had stuffed most of his dirty laundry in a side closet in the small chance A.J. actually remembered his room number and name. He was hopeful. Hence the actual clothing. But mostly, video game playing.

[ooc: Locked, la.]

After the funeral, Marco became the center of the world’s attention. Everyone wanted to know the full story. After two appearances on Leno, one on Oprah, and a dozen interviews with reporters from around the globe, Eva and Peter put their foot down. When Marco got back from talking to Steven Spielberg about movie ideas, he found himself holding two bags and being shoved through a portal back to school on a planet where he wasn’t the world hero.

With an exaggerated swagger in his step, Marco made his way to his room and was glad to see that it was still a single. The door was open. It was quite possible that he was looking for more people to brag to.

[ooc: Come play with the somewhat arrogant boy!]

Rachel’s funeral was in the middle of the media frenzy. Every single major news station in the world wanted an interview and Marco was more than happy to provide. He had gotten everything he wanted. The Yeerks were no longer a threat, he had his family back, and he was more famous then the President.

The funeral itself was very well attended. To Marco’s shock, General Doubleday had survived and was in attendance. Marco gave a speech, along with Jake and Cassie and Ax. So did the President of the United States. Marco only made three snarky remarks during his speech.

Still riding the euphoria, Marco’s explanation to his parents was only to meet up at the hotel the United States government had decided to shell out for. The clerk was too busy gawking at the boy who fought with aliens to realize that he was also the boy who died three months ago.

His mother had hugged him so tightly he was afraid that he may have busted a rib, but he clung on anyways. His father had a small frown on his face, but he waved it away as general worrying.

He wasn’t there when Cassie told Rachel’s mom that her eldest wasn’t coming home. He wasn’t there when Jake’s parents were found and returned no longer Yeerk controlled. He wasn’t there when they found out that their older son was dead and there would never be a body.

It was two am when he woke up, covered in cold sweat. It was two am when the day caught up to him and left him. Violently. It was two am when his mom – not dead, not now, he was the lucky one – came in to the bathroom and held him as he threw up everything he had ever eaten. It was two am when it caught up to him that while Jake had been the one to give the orders, it was his idea. Always had been his idea. It was two am when his brain coolly informed him that all of the deaths, the thousands of deaths, were his fault. It was two am when his mom held and comforted him and reassured him that he had pushed Jake in the right directions.

“They won’t understand.” He meant the other adults, the parents who no longer had children.

“No.” Eva agreed. “But they haven’t lived through what we have.”

“I hate belonging to clubs.” Marco said, still clinging as his mom wiped his hair out of his face.

“Me, too.” Eva said softly. “Me, too.”

By morning, Marco only had a cheerful grin for the world.

( The beginning of the end ) [ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC welcome, TBC, FBI, NPR, void if prohibited.]

Marco had been dozing for most of the night, interrupted only by the coughing of his neighbors. By morning, he had fallen asleep. Which is when the dreams began.

( The Adventures of Marco and the Ship of Doom )

Marco screamed and woke up. "Ugh."

[ooc: ...I've got nothing. Including sanity, apparently.],

A slightly terrified and covered in blood poodle ran through the hallways of the school. It screeched to a halt outside of room 412 and realized it had a small problem. Well, big problem seeing as how it had no thumbs or keys and a locked door. So there was a small, yipping, very unhappy poodle outside of room 412.

[ooc: Open if you wanna stare at the yipping poodle!]

So as most people know, I'm at my parents house which means two things: allergies and crazy internet. Allergies make me stuffy and wacky (er, wackier than usual) and allergy medication makes me either hyper or brain dead. On top of that, our internet has two settings: uber-fast and not working at all. The two change every five minutes. On Friday nights, the internet speed falls to "none existent". This will be continuing until August. *crawls under a rock*

So. I am around. Marco is around. However, if I suddenly vanish for anywhere between fifty minutes to five hours between pings, you know why. And if Marco suddenly sprouts wings and starts singing opera, you also know why.

Marco was walking along the fourth floor hallway. In the middle of the night. Personal reasons. Just as he was about to leave the floor, he found himself suddenly unable to move. Two minutes later, there was a soda vending machine. Any student who tried to use it would find that it unwilling to accept money and spit out drinks. Any students attempting to move it would find it unwilling to be moved. Kicking it would get not results either. All in all, it wasn't a very useful vending machine.

[ooc: The vending machine is 100% moddable and 100% kickable. Marco will return to Marco form when I get home. Credit for the idea goes to sith_happened.

So I've been kinda nuts the past few days and decided to make...glitter flags.

John/Aeryn, Jaye/Jarod, John/Zoe, Veronica/Cam and Bridge/Xander.

I'm taking requests in the form "A/B, their love is _____" and suggestions of pictures. Please note that these are all made on paint in about five/ten minutes so don't expect great works of art. I'll link back here to any more that get made.

And now? I stop spamming your flists. *nod*

Okay, he was stuck in a stupid cave. He'd been stuck in worse. All he had to do was think. The stupid bird had flown him in, right? So he should be able to fly right out. Eagle, that was the trick, morph to eagle and get out.

Plan made, Marco stripped down to his morphing clothes and quickly changed into a bird. He flew for what felt like an hour, but their didn't seem to be a way he out. He was fairly sure that he'd flown by the exact same cave more than twice. Cussing mentally, he settled down to morph and suddenly found it very difficult.

< NO! > It couldn't have been two hours, it was no where near two hours, he couldn't be stuck. The panic gripped him as he tried to shed the eagle's form and get back to his own, familiar shape. < Marco, I'm Marco the human with two feet, two hands, ten fingers, ten toes, one head, one uh, other important body part, human, I'm human > The mantra seemed to be helping, he was now halfway between bird and boy - his torso was still that of an eagle, but the wings had been replaced by almost human arms, except they ended in feathers instead of fingers, and the legs and head were almost perfectly halfway between bird and boy.

Marco gave another mental shove, and another, and another. But nothing budged. In his pure panic, he tried to go back to bird, but nothing changed. When it became evident after ten minutes that nothing else was changing, Marco began to scream. Human vocal cords and a bird beak made for an interesting scream.

Marco was back home. Los Angeles now, now, not Riverside. A huge mansion, with his own wing and butler.

"Mom? Dad?" His voice echoed across the empty rooms, full of things but not people. "Hello? I'm home? Mom?"

"In the kitchen." He heard her call out from one of the rooms and went towards her, a grin on his face as he dropped his bags on the floor.

He frowned when he came into the kitchen. "Mom? Are you okay?" His mother was facing away from him, but something felt off in her posture, and when she turned around, he realized it was because she was missing a good chunk of her left leg.

He whimpered and stepped back into the kitchen counter. His mother's face was covered with bruises, half of which were bleeding. Blood ran from a gash on her head, and from one on her side as well. Her right arm hung useless by her side.

"You did this to me." She said calmly.

"No." Marco whimpered. "No."

"You threw me down that cliff." Eva continued, ignoring Marco's reaction. "You let me stay a prisoner. You waited while they tortured her and knew it was my body they were mutilating."

Marco couldn't get a full breath.

"You sent me to die." Eva said calmly. "You may as well have dealt the killing blow."

"You sent us all to die." Said another voice from behind Marco. He whirled around and found himself face-to-face with Rachel, just as she was the last time he had seen her. Barefoot, a black leotard, and blond hair falling down her back. Blond hair that was matted with blood. "Brave little Marco, he figures out the plan. Figures out what to do, and then...sits back and lets everyone else die for him."

"A coward, just like always." Jake said, suddenly appearing in the kitchen as well. "Once the fight is over, you run. Never want to deal with the consequences. I would have never done half the things I did if not for you. All those deaths - on your head. And you didn't even stick around to make sure your best friend was okay. Because you don't care, you never did. All you care about is Marco."

"It's okay." Cassie's kind tone cut as much as the harsher ones the others used. "You can't change the way you are. I understand. You're a murderer, a self-centered, cowardly, murder. A leopard can't change his spots, and you can't change that."

Tobias didn't say anything, nor did his father. The accusations in their eyes were enough.

Marco tried to draw breath to deny it, to scream, to do anything but stand there and try to draw breath. But Ax's tail blade was at his throat. < The only punishment suitable for such crimes is death. >