Chipmunklicious

Chip's Diner

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Newest art:

Quick Chip scribble! C:

Appetizers [Introduction]

You find yourself in the midst of a meadow, grass and flowers dancing before your eyes. Wouldn't it be nice to just sit down somewhere, take a rest? You decide to sit down. Then your eyes quickly search for the horizon, where at last the sun seems to be setting. You're kind of sleepy and it's been a long, long day...

Then a figure creeps up to you, a hint of a smile upon her lips. Hi, she says, looking eager to meet you. Her smile grows even more wider until she looks almost scary. Her eyes have a indistinguishable twinkle in them and she has a bounce to her step as she edges closer. Get up, lazy, come with me, she says. You must be famished.

You don't hesitate for a second to follow her, as you realize that you are, indeed, starving. With a light shrug you follow her up a hill and down again. She walks firmly in front of you, marching on as if every second is as dear as gold to her. Sometimes she peeks over her shoulder and you can still see that radiant smile when she says: Come on now, a little faster.

Finally you reach your destination. A diner that lies literally in the middle of nowhere. You don't see how anyone would ever find this place on his own. Well, you think by yourself, maybe that's the whole point: This beautiful young lady's job is to look for potential customers that are passing through the area.

The diner is decorated tastefully and simple. It has a tiled floor and cocoa colored wallpaper. The tables each have a vase containing a single red rose. The diner may be small but it's very busy, you notice to your utter surprise. The whole room is filled with the sweetest of aromas.

Welcome to Chip's Diner. I'm Chip, by the way. Why don't you take a seat? Says the stunning young creature with a mischievous wink. She pretends she's never seen you before. You decide to accept her invitation to sit down and smile back at her, picking out a table. All you can think of are the lovely smells that come out of the kitchen and how they seem to envelop you in a warm blanket. Chip hands you the menu, and when you have ordered, you keep chatting with her throughout your whole meal.

First Course [About Chipmunklicious]

Name: Chipmunklicious
Alias: Chip
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Height:
Weight: A lady doesn't disclose that information :S

Species: Usul
Hue: Chocolate! :3
Eyes: Dark Brown
Fur: Umm...Chocolate?
Residence: Terror Mountain
Current Occupation: Owns a diner
Philosophy: "Blaze with the fire that is never extinguished.." ~Luisa Sigea
Personality: Laid-back, alluring, playful, relaxed, joyful, temptress.
Companion: Missy

Likes
Vanilla
Shopping xD
Stargazing
Usuki dolls
The sound of the ocean
Violin music

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Anything Jelly
Small spaces
Loud music
Hot places
Greed
Dislikes

Companion: Missy the Kiiyak

Name: Missy
Gender: Female

Missy the Kiiyak is Chip's friendly compatriot. While Dasellia keeps a herd of Edible petpets (because she feels sorry for them, basically xD), Missy is a regular Kiiyak that nobody would dare sink his teeth into. She assists Chip in raising the petpets and sometimes she even helps out in the diner as well.

Missy is a loud little critter, unlike her owner. Fortunately, she is still a very loyal and reliable companion. Missy has a very keen sense of smell, which is very useful sometimes (like when sniffing out the kidnapper of a member of the edible petpet herd), but it can be destructive too (like being distracted by the scent of brewing stew).

Main Course [Chronicles]

Chip grew up in a small town just north of the Pet Central/Terror Mountain border. Her father was a well respected blacksmith and if he hadn't been such a conservative, Elli would've liked to have followed in his footsteps and taken over the family business when she grew older. Her father however didn't think it fit for a lady of a certain 'standing', as he called it, to be forced to work. There was no mother around to protest this opinion because Chip's mother had left behind their little family a long, long time ago. The only thing Chip could remember of her was her smell: an almost tangy whiff of vanilla.

After a lot of tiring fights, Chip decided that she wanted to at least have a proper education. She set her mind on becoming a biologist. Though her father had enough money to keep the family afloat, he did not have the resources to send young Chip to a good University. But the young Usul got lucky one day, when a distant relative that she never knew she had left the family a small fortune in houses and apartments all over Terror Mountain. Chip spoke to her father about wanting to sell her share of the inheritance. To her utter dismay he forbade her to do that.

I want you to always have a place of your own. You are going to squander away this money on university courses while you could just be set for life? If you don't do much unnecessary spending you'll always have enough to keep you dry. You can sell a couple of those apartments to get food on the table for the rest of your days. I have worked hard and long to be where I am now, and I don't want my only daughter to lead that kind of life, to live through that kind of suffering. Not if I can help it.

While Chip pretended to agree with her father, she silently resented him for it. The first chance to escape from his clutches presented itself almost a year later, in the shape of a boyfriend. He agreed to flee with her and introduce her to some brokers in order for her to sell her houses. She was admitted to the best of Universities and enjoyed her life as a biologist-in-training.

Chip's good fortune of being in the right place at the right time presented itself to her once more as she heard of an exclusive expedition that one of her professors was planning to make. This curious old Tyrannian Aisha that thought Fundamental Marine Biology had been planning this travel excursion to Maraqua for nearly half his life and he had decided on taking some of his best students with him. Elli managed to be one of the lucky seven chosen. How she did that, she still has no clue. She didn't think of herself as the top of her class, nor especially gifted in the area of marine biology.

The Maraqua expedition turned out to be a complete and total failure, for nothing was found in the digging sites that were chosen. Chip did manage to find something of supposed value that she never shared with her professor, however. This was not out of greed but simply because she thought it was a very beautiful object that somehow reminded her of her mother. She could almost smell a bit of vanilla as she held it against her cheek. It was a small cherry shaped object that looked like it was some sort of talisman. Chip would forever wear it around her neck, on a small string. Years later, after doing some research, she found out that it was a basic amulet for protection that Jetsams used to wear in the ancient land of Maraqua. But when Chip found out who it had belonged to it baffled her more than anything else.

Carved neatly in the middle of the right gem-like cherry, only discernible when held under a microscope, were the words: Succurro Mihi. Succurro Mihi. Succurro Mihi. Having studied Latin for a good few years (she was a Biology graduate, after all), she knew that this meant someone was asking for help. Help me. Help me. Help me.

Before the young Usul could do more research of any kind, her financial situation forced Chip into looking for a job. Bitterly, she recalled her father's words and reckoned that he might have been right. She was totally and utterly broke and any jobs that were remotely connected to her biology expertise were scarce and severely underpaid. To make things worse, strange things were happening in Terror Mountain: a wave of political upheaval went through the whole area. Everyone feared a war. Rightly so, it seemed, when the current government finally announced on the radio that the country was currently in a 'state of emergency'.

Many of Chip's former student friends enlisted in the Terror Mountain National Guard to protect and serve their country. Her father still lived on the border of Terror Mountain and Neopia Central and the latest news had read that this area was the most vulnerable to alien sieges. Fearing for his life, Chip decided that she should visit him and convince him to go with her, to leave and go to a safer place. She wasn't all too sure that she'd succeed so Chip started her trek through the mountains with a fearful heart.

Chip arrived at her father's place safely though, and the reunion was both happy and tearful. After a short chat about what they'd been up to for all those years, Chip learned that her father had retired.

I still make jewelry for the villagers on occasion, though. Still a passion of mine. Like that little necklace of yours, there. Where did you get that?

Chip held her little talisman up into the light. She'd almost forgotten its existence until her father had noticed it. Without hesitation Chip handed it over to the skilled blacksmith for a quick inspection. He found the engraving fascinating but morbid.

This is ancient Maraquan, for sure. But the person wearing this couldn't have been a Jetsam. The Jetsam tribe back then loathed Latin and swore to never learn the language or teach it to their offspring. Some quibble they had a long time ago with the Usuls of Mystery Island. Incidentally they loved Latin. Have you never heard of them?

Elli pondered for a while. Her face lit up when she thought she'd found the name of tribe her father was referring to somewhere in the back of her mind.

Do you mean the Loseli Tribe? But they didn't live anywhere near Maraqua! How would the locket have ended up there?

Her father shook his head.

Whatever the explanation, I feel sorry for this poor Loseli Usul.

When Chip finally returned to her home she felt that her trip had been twice as successful as she'd hoped it'd be: her father had decided to come with and she had also solved a new piece of the puzzle concerning the talisman.

The war raged on for a couple of years but Chip remained relatively safe. Her unemployment drove her to renovate the last little house she still owned (so her father's warning had had an impact on her, after all) and turn it into a diner. It was located in a desolate area, however, so Chip had a lot of trouble finding customers. Luckily she met Missy the Kiyyak, who was good at sniffing for the odors of creatures that passed by in a radius of almost ten miles.

The war ultimately affected Chip though, despite her trying to keep away from it as far as possible. One day a letter came to her diner in which the government called out to all inhabitants of Terorr Mountain that had finished scientific studies. They had to be assembled in a secret location to perform research on what they euphemistically called 'innovative defensive techniques'. Not knowing how to escape her duties, Chip followed the instructions in her letter. A mere two weeks later she had joined a group of about 50 people at the Icicle Pier. They were to be brought to their destination by way of submarine. The journey was long and harsh for Elli, who had never had to face this kind of danger before. A kind Usul saw that she was trembling and strung up a conversation with her. Vy, a graduate in Chemical Sciences became one of Chip's closest friends during the excursion.

Somehow he always managed to smell of vanilla, despite the tasteless and odorless meals they were presented with. Vy was also a deeply optimistic person who could find something good in the direst of situations. Chip genuinely liked him.

It was almost a month after the group had started their research project that Chip searched Vy's stuff. She had been asked by him to retrieve some papers he had supposedly put in his luggage. While rummaging through Vy's huge collection of Chemistry manuals and a stack of papers that contained various formulas that Chip had never heard of before, she found a dingy photograph. In it was a beautiful young Chocolate Usul who wore the same cherry-shaped talisman Chip herself still wore every day. Chip knew for sure that this Usul wasn't her, however, because the girl in the photo had almost caramel-colored fur opposed to Chip's milk chocolate hue.

Her heart pounding in her throat she confronted Vy with her findings. He had an almost guilty look on his face as he explained the origins of the photo.

That? That's...something deeply personal. But I at least owe you an explanation, I think. From the information I have gathered over the years, I can safely say that the woman in this photo is my grandmother. My mother never knew her because she fled during the previous war between Maraqua and the Loseli tribe. My family suspected that she had eloped with her Maraquan boyfriend because he was missing too. Madeline (my grandmother) loved him dearly and had vowed to him that she would follow him wherever he went. She was never seen again. My mother told me that the only thing she remembers of Madeline is that she always wore this cherry-shaped object around her neck. This was supposedly a gift from her boyfriend, who'd bought it in Maraqua. Although it wasn't a very valuable object, to her it was priceless.

Vy's eyes were wet with tears.

Although I am a graduate in Chemical Sciences I wasn't required to come here. My family is very wealthy and my father had already bribed an official to get me off the list. But when I heard somewhere that this research project was going to take place in Maraqua, I just had a feeling that I needed to attend. Look how right I was! The first thing I saw when entering the Sub was you! A gorgeous Chocolate Usul, wearing the same talisman Madeline wore! I was planning on telling you all this but I never knew how to bring it up. I thought you might get offended or even scared of me and I don't want that. You know, I really like you...

Chip was so absorbed in Vy's story that she failed to notice the affectionate tone in which he whispered the last few words. All she could think of was how this Madeline had lead a life that resembled hers: Defying her parents, eloping with her boyfriend, wearing the cherry-shaped necklace. Chip was as baffled as she was joyous about the fact that she was getting closer to solving the riddle of her talisman.

The pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place when Chip was summoned to attend a dinner with the highest-ranking Maraquan diplomats as a reward for her services. The war had ended. As ready as Chip felt to return to her diner, she knew the only place she could find out more about Madeline was Maraqua. When she entered the grand ballroom, dressed up in her most sophisticated clothes, her heart leaped. At the other end of the table sat a delicate Grey Usul. She wore exactly the same talisman around her neck. The state documents that lay in front of her all had a stamp on them in the shape of two cherries. A short inquiry later Chip finally learned the truth.

Madeline Zimmer? She was the wife of Senator Vermeer in the time of the Loseli-Maraquan War. She had a high-ranking job here, too. She was my predecessor in fact. You see, I'm the official Royal Composer of Perfumes. Don't look at me like that, it's an honorable position. I continue the sacred Maraquan tradition of making the finest perfumes. Madeline Zimmer had the advantage of having an influential husband, though. He made sure that all of us perfume-composers are recognizable by our Cherry talismans. Rumor goes that he insisted on it because his wife always wore something exactly like this.

But I don't understand why I have to tell you all this if you're wearing the same thing right now. And you want me to tell you that particular talisman's history? Well, I can smell a whiff of vanilla. Probably courtesy of Mallow, the former Royal Composer of Perfumes. Talk about being crazy for vanilla, that one... Anyway, I reckon that that was one of her dozens of Cherry talismans. Why are you asking me this? I'm busy, you know.

Alright, I've got time for one more question. ...What? Was Madeline Zimmer unhappy? Is that the question you're wasting my precious time with? Of course she was! Some say that while she valued her position as a Royal Composer, she had left the Senator many years before she got the job. She may even have been held here against her will. Who knows. Are you done?

Chip nodded and let the busy Grey Usul scurry out of the room. An intrusive lemony odor followed her out the door.

Several years passed before Elli stopped thinking of the Royal Composer of Perfume's words on a daily basis. Part of her felt content to have unraveled the secrets of her Cherry talisman but another part couldn't help but feel disappointed. Somewhere deep inside Chip had hoped that the vanilla-y scent of the object had some deeper significance to her personally. Although Vy had told her he was looking for answers on the mystery of his grandmother, who was probably too old to fit the description of Chip's mother, she had thought that maybe, maybe she and Vy were longing to know the truth about the same person. That Madeline Zimmer was in fact Chip's mother, who had fled to Maraqua and who had left behind a husband and a daughter somewhere in the roughest regions of Terror Mountain. That Chip had found the talisman for a purpose. Fairy tales weren't true, however, so she had always known that all of this was just random speculation and fantasy on her part. The mystery of Chip's mother remained intact while the fate of Madeline Zimmer was finally unveiled. Chip thought she owed it to Vy and his family to tell them the truth, so she did everything in her power to find him. Now, years later, Vy still dropped by her diner when he was in the neighborhood. Like right now. Chip looked up. Vy was sitting in front of her, a cup of hot milk pressed against his lips, a healthy shade of red coloring his cheeks.

What are you thinking of, Chip? Madeline Zimmer? Don't frown, I can see it in your eyes that you're thinking of her. Come on, you should let bygones be bygones. Enjoy the present for a change. It has its appeal too, you know.

When Chip locked eyes with Vy and saw his cheeky grin, she couldn't do anything other than agree wholeheartedly with this statement.

Want dessert? Chip asked with a playful grin.

Poem

Smell, a sense that brings pleasure,
Without it, how would I feel?
Smell, what a beautiful treasure,
Life without it would be almost unreal.
You know there must be an aroma,
your favorite food is being made.
If smell could be bought,
by now you would've paid.

What if you couldn't smell,
day after day,
You couldn't smell flowers,
but someone gave you a bouquet.