From the mind of Aris Merquoni: "Dear Diary." A Gargoyles semi-short story. Aris Merquoni can be contacted at aris@sandwich.net Gargoyles and related characters are property of Disney and Buena Vista TV. I didn't ask permission(who has?), so I hope they won't hate me forever if I continue writing fanfic. All of the San Francisco Clan references are *MINE*(Not the references, the characters!), so don't use mentioned characters unless you ask pretty please with sugar on top first. ;) Don't ask me when this is supposed to happen. I put in dates, but they're pretty much meaningless... um, let's see. The beginning of this is about three months after *Hunter's Moon* on my wacky schedule, no matter what Disney thinks... This has nothing to do with any of my other stories, except the San Francisco Clan ones, and they haven't even been written yet. This is written in a very odd format. I wanted to do this like diary scribbling, so the dates on this may jump wildly. I don't include "Dear Diary:" In any entry other than the first, because I found it extremely tedious, and you get the idea, right? The dates are from my 1997 calendar, since I don't have a 1996 one, so you can just assume that my 'Gargoyles' fanfic universe is a year behind. You don't have to pay attention to the dates, but don't think that something is moving too fast because I didn't include an entry for every day. Oh, who's diary is this? Well(this is a sneaky way to start the story), it happens to be a few pages from: -=*# Margot Yale's Diary #*=- March 11, 1997. Dear Diary: Finally dumped Brendan. What a jerk. He has no idea about romance, and hasn't been the nicest guy either, but I digress. I'm staying with a friend until I can find an apartment. Hopefully my job at Nightstone U will last long enough that I can get one; I've heard Mrs. Destine is really bad at keeping people on jobs. She's creepy. -=*=- March 15 I bumped into someone in the park today. Literally. I was taking some office work out to work in Central Park(I don't know why, but I always get more work done there, even though I know those monsters could dive down and attack me at any moment), and I guess I wasn't really looking where I was going, and I knocked right into this guy. Tall, brown-black hair, not macho or anything but he didn't look like a couch potato either... *nothing* like Brendan. He apologized and helped my pick up my files... what a nice guy. We got to talking, too. His name is Chris and he's from San Francisco. Anyway, we were talking when all of a sudden he glances up and asks what time it is. It was around five-forty five, I told him and he apologised- said he really had to rush. He had just gotten in from the West coast and was experiencing jet lag... I hope I see him again. -=*=- March 16 I saw Chris again today in the park. We talked a bit. He's a software engineer and had come over to see if he could get some work with one of the big corporations, Xanacorp or Cyberbiotics or something. He said his friends told him to stay away from Nightstone, something about the head of the company being a real creep. I told him I couldn't agree more. -=*=- March 19 Got an apartment. It's small, but I guess it's big enough. Chris got hired by Xanatos Ent. We're meeting for lunch Friday. What a nice guy. -=*=- March 21 Chris paid for lunch. I offered to show him around the city. He agreed, as long as I agreed to stick to the 'nicer side of town.' He laughed as he said that. I agreed. His last name's Ricamp. Odd name, but I guess it's okay. -=*=- March 23 Today was fun. Chris and I went everywhere. It wasn't a date, really, but... He had to go to some night meeting at Xanacorp or something. I wish today had lasted longer. -=*=- March 30 Mrs. Destine fired me today. Yuck. Chris offered to help me get a job at Xanacorp... but people say weird things about Mr. Xanatos. There are even ties between him and those monsters. Chris got thoughtful when I mentioned the monsters to him. He must not have heard of them, or not believed the reports. I told him about the things that happened to me and Brendan. He said it sounded more like those things were protecting us, but he wasn't there. He doesn't know what it's like... those things wrecked our car and frightened us... at least muggers are human. -=*=- April 5 I got a secretary's job at Cyberbiotics. Good thing too, I'm almost off severance pay. I didn't know Chris liked Tom Lehrer. He was listening to 'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park' when I came over for our lunch date. -=*=- April 12 Chris took me out to dinner. How romantic! It was a wonderful place with great atmosphere, and it wasn't one of the places I'd shown him. It was wonderful. We left before the real crowd came, so there was no rush. -=*=- April 14 I was almost mugged today. I had been working late, and my car broke down. I was walking to the bus station, only a few blocks, and a gang jumped me. Well, almost jumped me. One of those monsters showed up. Funny thing, it didn't attack me or anything, it just went after the muggers. It was light gray, and had brownish-black hair. It distracted them enough so that I could get away. Frightened me out of my skin. I've got to tell Chris. -=*=- April 15 I told Chris what happened to me last night. He put his arm around me and I noticed he had a cut on his arm, covered by that nasty pink antiseptic. I asked him what happened and he joked that it was a nasty shaving accident that I probably didn't want to know about. I laughed too, but I wondered. He said the gargoyle probably just wanted to protect me, not scare me or hurt me. Well, he wasn't there. he doesn't know what it was like having a huge supermuscled gray *thing* come flying down out of nowhere to land in front of you. When I told him, he kind of frowned and turned away. Maybe he's one of those PIT people. I hope I didn't offend him, but I didn't say anything else or apologize or anything. I don't know why. -=*=- April 18 Chris and I had lunch again. His cut's almost healed. -=*=- April 26 OH MY GOD. You will not believe what happened today. I mean, it was awful. Horrible. I can't believe it... I'd better start at the beginning. Chris took me out to dinner again. It was nice, not as elegant as the first time, and there was a hassle with the check so it took an extra twenty minutes to get out. Then we were stuck in traffic... when we finally got somewhere close to where I live, the car started making weird noises, so I pulled over to the curb and we got out and checked under the hood. Well, Chris did, I held the hood up. BIG MISTAKE. A group of nasties surrounded us, and one of them had a gun. They herded us into an alley. It was just around sunset, and nobody was on the street. Chris was looking really nervous by now. Then, all at once, he sighed. looked over at me, and said "Margot, I'm sorry." I was going to ask him what he meant when he doubled over in pain. I rushed over to see if he was all right when he started to- to- to change. I don't know how to say this. His skin darkened and he grew wings and a tail... he was turning into one of those monsters! I backed up as fast as I could until I hit the wall. As soon as what ever happened to him stopped, he looked up and started attacking the gang. He was the same monster that saved me from the other gang! As soon as the muggers started attacking him instead of looking at me, I ran out of the alley and to my apartment as fast as I could. I can't believe it. I seriously can't believe this. The guy I've been seeing for a month is really one of those monsters! -=*=- April 27 Didn't see Chris today. I didn't go to the park, either. I don't know if I'm glad I didn't see him or not. -=*=- April 28 Nothing much. Contemplated calling Brendan. Contemplated calling PIT. Contemplated suicide. At this point all three seem likely. -=*=- April 29 Didn't see Chris. I have his phone number, but I don't want to use it... I wouldn't know what to say. I thought about suicide again. I could jump off a building... during the daytime. That way no doo-gooding monster could save me. I'm really decided against it, though. I can't fool myself that well. -=*=- April 30 I saw Chris again today... he dropped down in front of me. Literally. After sunset. He didn't even try to hide or anything, just dropped onto the sidewalk in front of me. He kind of looked away and said, "Hi, Margot." His voice is deeper when he's a mons- gargoyle. I was really too startled to say anything. Then I realized how hard it must have been for him to do that... to just drop in front of me like that. He must have known he had a 50-50 shot of me just dropping my armful of papers and running. I didn't, though. It seemed pointless. He looked up, and I saw how much he was hurting in his eyes. You know, he didn't really look like a monster at all. When I didn't answer, he sighed and turned to the wall and started climbing. I realized he was going to leave and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. I didn't know what I expected his skin to feel like, but it wasn't nasty or anything, just... a bit different than a normal person's. He looked down, startled. "Wait." I said. "I just wanted to say... I'm sorry." He nodded. "I know." He said. "Otherwise you wouldn't have stayed." I asked if he wanted to meet me for lunch tomorrow. He said yes. -=*=- May 1 I learned a lot from Chris today. He's only half human, for one thing. His mother was a gargoyle. I don't see how his father could have gotten involved with one of those... gargoyles. He's involved with a clan of gargoyles in San Francisco, and came here because of the news report he had seen. I could tell it hurt to talk about it. I hadn't been the most accepting person. Maybe I should call PIT and join. It might make him feel better about talking to me. -=*=- May 5 Got accepted into PIT. Met some of the other gargoyles, and actually liked them, sorta. I apologized for being such an idiot when they were trying to help me. I don't know if they believed me. I hope they did. -=*=- May 7 Chris and I patched up our relationship. I don't know if it's going to stay that way, though. I don't know if I can accept him as... Jesus Christ, he's not even full human! He's half... gargoyle. I keep thinking 'monster', even though I know that's not true. What am I going to do? I really like him, but... I don't know what to think. -=*=- May 10 Chris and I went to a movie today. We sat in the back row. I can tell you, my mind was on anything *but* what was showing on the screen. I didn't even think about his nonhuman side. Who cares about the night? He's human enough during the day, and that's what counts. -=*=- May 11 Romantic evening with Chris. He flew me home, literally. It was the most breathtaking experience I have ever had. Above the clouds... the city looked like a mass of stars beneath us. Oh, gee, now I sound like a poet... well, it was great. But the best part was when we got back. See, we were at my apartment for a while, mainly because we didn't want the evening to end. Well, there was a knock on the door, so Chris stood behind it so as not to spook whoever was there. It was *Brendan*. Can you believe? That idiot wanted to make up with me... Geez, that jerk actually thought I'd run back to him like a scared little girl. In fact it was so absurd I started laughing. He stood there, looking confused, and when I could talk I said "My new boyfriend wouldn't like it." I beckoned Chris over. Brendan was so scared of Chris he dropped the box of chocolates he was carrying(trying to win my heart through food?) and ran. The look on his face... We both laughed for an hour after that, and Chris and I shared the chocolate. Great evening. -=*# END #*=- End notes (Outroduction?): Well, wasn't that fun? ;) This, as I said before, has nothing to do with anything, but if you want information on the San Francisco Clan feel free to e-mail me (aris@sandwich.net) and I'll tell you as much as I know (No, even *I* do not know everything!). I'm coming out with an AGU (Alternate Gargoyles Universe) story about the San Francisco Clan titled "Silver Omens," just as soon as I get over my stint of Writer's Block.