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Post by scoobnick on Mar 31, 2019 23:01:44 GMT -5
Nora sliced off pieces of the bread and put them on the plates, each slice covering most of the plate. " enjoy, everyone' Nora smiled, as Cruny took a small bite of his slice . ' mmm. very good, cherries are rather tart, walnuts are crunchy, and the banana is very good ' he said as he munched on the bread. Creola passed around the bread slices as Dixie went into the next room. an ivory laden piano sat in the corner, a pair of music pieces laid resting on the standing ' songs with titles like ' down the river' and ' sailing by Mobile" all southern songs , I take it' Dixie said as she took a look at the music pieces. " not all of them ' Nora said as she came in.." theres some bread on the table for you, when you get hungry' she smiled. ' as for the muusic, theres lots of dance music, waltzes and such.. my uncle would play waltzes on his days off" Nora said as she went over to a shelf nearby and pulled off some music sheets. " do you have Blue Danube?' Dixie asked ' yes it came out in 1867' Nora said ' It became popular across the world almost overnight, wherever thee was waltzes there was blue Danube.. he toured the country during the 1870s and I was fortunate enough to have an audience with him and his wife Henrietta, who was a talented mezzo soprano , which is between soprano and alto in terms of range. She performed a few songs for me at my request, and she was superb. Both of them had seen my turn as Titania in my tour of a mid -Summer nights Dream, and they enjoyed my work. My touring for that play, lasted nearly 3 years, as we were such a big hit, that our stays kept getting extended- in England and France , Berlin, Rome, even spent a month in Moscow. Every time they extended our stay we asked for a bump in pay for the later performances, and there were times where we'd make 4 or 5 times the pay for performsances later in the run than we did for the early performances. this was largely to make up for lost opportunities elsewhere, you see' Nora said, as she pulled our Blue Danube and set it on the piano and began to play. the familiar, light notes soon filled the room, and Dixie tapped her feet in time to the music. and dance to dance lightly across the floor. ' Nora chuckled " make sure you dont bump into that work bench over there..' she said in a warm voice. ' Creola did that once and face planted into the ground. [poor dear spent hours cleaning up the dirt from her face and dress. the floor wasnt wood at the time, it was dirt. My uncle put in the wooden floor you see later..
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Post by scoobnick on Apr 1, 2019 1:25:22 GMT -5
Good thing I have good balance then " Dixie said with a smile as she danced around the room in tune with the music that Nora was playing on the piano. Creole poked her head into the room as she listened to the music that the piano produced. Nora's claws flew over the keys as she played, a big smile on her lips as she moved in time to the notes on the sheet. "Come on in, everyone! Let's have some fun with our feet" she laughed merrily as Marybelle and Cruny entered the room. "Pair up and move to the music, I'll play the notes and Dixie will sing for us. I will join in after a few stanzas and we'll do a duet. Let's see you belt out this tune Dixie! Let's hear your pipes and see what range you have vocally, are you an alto or soprano?" Soprano, " came the reply as Dixie took a copy of the song and began to sing.
It soon was clear that Dixie had a formidable musical talent and could easily hold high notes for a long time with ease. As she sang. Marybelle and Cruny waltzed together, and Creola and Missy did the same moving around the room in time to the music the 4 trading partners every so often, so that Cruny could dance with the other ladies . Nora kept playing with a grin on her face growing with each new page as Dixie kept singing. Finally Nora joined in the singing and for the rest of the piece the two sopranos blended their voices together beautifully, moving between keys octaves and flats with the ease that is the hallmark of experienced and gifted singers.
When the duet ended with Nora lifting her claws from the keys, the others broke into applause and Missy wiped away tears from her face. "Ladies, THAT was amazing! You both are fantastic " she grinned. "Thank you Missy, and you were right about Dixie being talented at singing, she didn't miss a single note! Completely in pitch and key the whole piece! Well done my dear" Nora said to Dixie with a huge smile on her face "thank you Nora, that was a lot of fun and I would like to do that again sometime "
"of course. that was a great duet. There haven't been many singers that I have seen that have shown that level of musical control, only someone who has a powerful voice and a wide range can do that piece justice, and here you have done it in a single take. Remarkable, just remarkable " Nora said " well done Miss White" Marybelle said and Dixie blushed . ' Thank you everyone thank you. "I haven't waltzed in a long time' Cruny said, 'brings back a lot of good memories. then again, with such fine ladies for company, how could I keep myself from dancing?" he chuckled.
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Post by scoobnick on Apr 1, 2019 15:14:50 GMT -5
Nora put the music away and got up from her seat. ' now, let me show you around the rest of the house' she said and she picks up a candle from the table. Dixie walked back into the kitchen and grabbed a slice of the banana bread that had been put out for her. she then went back into the room, nibbling at her bread piece. ; there are stairs in the corner, leading up to where my uncle and other family members would have their sleeping quarters. the workers had their own sleeping quarters, but that building isn't in as good a shape as this one, you open the door to the place and it might collapse on you. I phased inside upon coming here last night, and that is a mess. broken stuff everywhere, mixed with weeds. Comes with leaving a place alone for 100 years ' Nora said as she climbed the stairs, Missy and creola right behind her. ' My uncle's room was at the far end ' Nora said, as the candle lit up the dark corners of the floor" i haven't had time to clean up this part of the house, so it will look as it did when we pulled up stakes ' Nora said. " 12 years my uncle tried to make a ago of it, from when i was 5 until 17. 12 summers spent with my best friends, 12 years of exploring our own 'secret garden', as we called it. its funny how memories just flood right back, doesn't it., ladies?" i was told you went boy crazy in high school' Missy said with a grin. ' yes, i did. It was expected of us back in those days. find a man, marry him , have a family, ideally a big one. I didn't end up doing that, because of stage and music career. far too busy to have a serious relationship, for gosh sakes we are traveling for weeks on end between engagements " nora sighed. ' not that there weren't guys i would have like to have had on my arm, like Shiloh ...' shiloh, you're kidding? Creola giggled, the lad coulee barely get into a saddle, and his folks were fisherfolk.. we nicknamed his ' fishy'; because he always smelled like fish. don;t get me wring, nice chap, you'd see him every so often at parties. But Nora i thought you had your eyes on a state senator or some other notable fella. i mean you did date nearly every guy in school at one time. and I mean nearly EVERY guy.Why else did the other girls nickname you " nine second Nora?" because the average time your date with a guy would last was about 9 seconds.."
_ very funny Creola very funny." nora's smile faded briefly as she opened the door to the master bedroom. " did you ever get to go to the University of Tennessee like you wanted?" No i didn't sadly Creola said.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2019 15:49:06 GMT -5
Baxter after having gotten confused about which location he went to had been teleported to the correct one by Chris.
"Eh sorry about that Tana, ladies, I didn't mean to wander off this morning, i forgot where I went." Baxter apologizes. "Though when you meet Madelyn, you'll find she's quite friendly, though she's a bit doe-eyed. Did I miss another one of those stories about somebody being able to eat as much as Shaggy and Scooby and not be able to retain it?"
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2019 19:13:17 GMT -5
At the fort...an unexpected hand arrives in the form of a golden retriever wearing a red bandana with a peace medallion on it from the strange residue. "Is this where I can find a Mr. Scoobert?" The retriever inquires. "Scoobert?" Daphne asked kind of shocked despite knowing the name. "Amber, nice to see you again." "Nice to see you too, Daphne, sorry about the alien slime, i didn't mean to startle you with it." Amber replies. "Hope i didn't get any on your outfit." "You didn't, and even if you had, our friend Chris has given us all a magic wardrobe should we need a quick change." Daphne remarked. "You might know him better as Flim Flam."
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Post by scoobnick on Apr 1, 2019 20:20:14 GMT -5
ah Baxter. glad to see you made it Dixie said as Baxter appeared on the steps. ' you must have gone with the wrong group. it happens ' she shrugged ' Nora here is showing around the cottage,. and shes made banana bread for us, so please help yourself to as much as you like " she said with a smile. " for now, follow us. Nora this is Baxter.' Nice to meet you Baxter ' Nora smiled.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2019 20:25:05 GMT -5
"Nice to meet you Nora." Baxter greets taking a piece of bread. "Though I will tell you this, next time you plan on having Shaggy and Scooby for dinner, make sure that you have fungus fudge, toadstoal tea, swampwater brownines chalk full of mosquitos and poison ivy punch. Also finger sandwhiches with actual fingers. Keeps them away."
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Post by scoobnick on Apr 1, 2019 22:10:33 GMT -5
"Now now why would I feed the boys such foods? That would not be very nice, and further, I enjoy having folks eat my food . It means that I have done a good job cooking if they like the food that much ."Nora said, with a chuckle. "Dixie and Missy have told me about Scooby's, ahem, talent for devouring food. That he and Shaggy have eaten entire buffets in a single sitting. How those boys aren't 500 pounds each is beyond me ." Nora shrugged as she continued the tour.
"In the meantime, though, you and your friends should try to keep up, as after I've finished showing you the cottage, we will start looking for the tree with the jewels and other loot hidden in it. It's hidden inside a tree that has "Creola + Marybelle" carved into the trunk. You'll find that plenty of trees have "Creola+Nora " on them, as Creola spent more time together with me on this island than Marybelle did with me. Product of timing, really, rather than I preferring Creola's company over Marybelle's, it just shook out that way that Creola and I were together so much "Nora said.
"Long story short, look for C+M in the trunk then look for a hole in the tree big enough to put a hand through. We'll be tallying up the number of trees with carvings first, to see how many of them there are still standing. If I had to guess on how many trees had C+N carved in the trunks, I would say around 100, as we did that regularly. For C+M, I'd say around 20.
Now 120 sounds like a lot of trees, however there were around 15,000 trees on the island, Creola and I counted them many times. There were 15, 216 in all, although I would wager that a good number have fallen over since our childhood days." Nora said with a hefty grin.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2019 7:01:41 GMT -5
"It is a way of keeping them at bay." Baxter responds. "The idea is to scare them away from it so you can actually get a bite to eat, even when they have a high metabolism."
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Post by scoobnick on Apr 2, 2019 8:03:43 GMT -5
Scareobics " missy said ' googie did that to them before breakfast a couple days ago. I dont know about you but being constantly jump-scared like that would put me off food for awhile, among many other things." missy said ' Even shopping ?' Dixie laughed ' um.. no.' Missy said ' I could still enjoy shopping. which reminds me. we have to take Nora , Marybelle and Creola shopping in town for new attire." ah, a fashion girl after my own heart' Nora said ' do you have the Lady Hound collection? ' no, not yet. its pricey and haven't been able to keep it in stock..' Missy said. ' a dress goes for 15000 bucks. now i like buying stuff, but even I have limits. ' says the girl who spent 4000 buying stuff in town earlier..' Dixie said. ' Ladies , please. once we recover most of "belle's stuff, then we'll get our shopping done. ' Nora said ' I do well enough , between my earnings while i was alive and my ghost touring, that I have plenty of money to buy the things i like.. Yes I've been touring lately, with my girlfriend Mana, we were doing a European tour of " merchant of Venice", I played Portia, she played Portia's Maid and friend Nerissa. She's a German shepard, classically trained in singing and acting, and very attractive in appearance, she's rather tall for a female German shepard. She toured with me on our Shakespeare tour for a number of years, she would play Hippolyta, the intended of Theseus.
We had so much fun doing that, the dear is so funny that we had to do several scenes over in rehearsal because everyone was just laughing too hard at her jokes , director, actors, and even the orchestra. In another life she would have been a touring comic. I'll call her ghost face and you folks can say hi, she's heard stories about Belle and Creola before of course, although sadly she's never had the chance to meet them so far.. I think she's currently touring in a ghostly version of Falstaff. and yes, she's playing the good friar. her next stop is in new Orleans, and she'll be there for a few days. if i'm lucky she'll pop over for a short break and i can handle the introductions. she has a strong German accent, i must warn you.' Nora laughed.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2019 12:19:41 GMT -5
"I don't see what's so bad about deep shrieking." Baxter comments. "It prepares for enemy manuevers. You never know when.
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Post by scoobnick on Apr 2, 2019 12:30:21 GMT -5
well, in my case, we reserved shrieking and other noises to halloween time' Marybelle said ' keep the mortals thinking that we're part of the haunted house exhibit. theres several over Vicksburg during the season. ' but normally we don't shriek mister Baxter. You may have to as part of your training, but thats unique to you. " What other tactics do you use, Baxter?' Cluny asked " groans, semi-reveal, and chains and loud noises were part of my training."
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2019 14:42:12 GMT -5
"We use endurance through all terrains in addition to howls, groans, loud or soft noises, shrieks and even learning how to scare."
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Post by Doo on Apr 2, 2019 16:15:22 GMT -5
"No worries, h..honey." Tanis stuttered a tiny bit, still not completely used to her and Baxter's newly defined relationship.
-------- "Ramber?" Scooby's ears perked up, as he gleefully ran over to her. "Like, wow! You're right, Scoob. It is Amber! After all these years." Shaggy smiled.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2019 18:02:30 GMT -5
"Well, that's a sweet nickname, Cleo." Baxter remarks giving Tanis one of her own. ..... "Hello Scooby, nice to see you again, you too Shaggy." Amber comments. "Don't worry about catching me up to speed, my watchful eye has followed whatever our satelite can pick up." "Then consider yourself warned about our friends." Daphne said. "They are scary looking, but impossiboy sweet."
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