Squiggles Leprechaun Lastname
Before you read this: Squiggles has a Facebook fan page! Go like it! NOW. [1]
File:Squiggles!.jpg (How do I put up a picture?!?! D:)
Contents |
Description
Squiggles is an up-an-coming Duke TiP East Term 1 relic, created in 2011 by a group of Term 1 third-years. They plan to pass it down in 2012 at the end of their fourth year to three deserving third-years. It is already revered amongst TiPsters of all ages.
It is a decisively non-gender, light green, baby hippo. It wears a diaper and a duct-tape bow tie that complements its skin tone, and hopefully in the future it will wear clothing created by the one and only Cheng-wei.
The History of Squiggles: 2011
The Founding
Squiggles was brought to TiP for the first time by Jakob Thorn (Jakob With A K), whose parents bought it for him thinking that it would "make him laugh." On the first day of TiP, June 13, 2011, Camila Liao, Matt Robertson, Kate Gibson, and Jakob went in his room (but of course there were NO threshold rules broken. NONE AT ALL.) and immediately Squiggles was a subject of admiration. Squiggles was given its first name (the name by which it is most well-known) by Camila, its middle name, Leprechaun, by Kate (due to its color and the fact that Kate has a strange fondness for mythical creatures), and its last name, Lastname, by Matt (who displayed outstanding creativity in this decision). It was soon discovered, however, that Jakob was extremely abusive of his child and had no right to custody of the hippo. Therefore, HCPS (Hippo Child Protective Services) was formed and removed Squiggles from Jakob's "care."
The Dark Days
For approximately a week, there were no issues whatsoever. Squiggles flitted from caretaker to caretaker, and was oohed and ahhed over by all. Jakob was even allowed certain visiting hours with Squiggles, although he was always closely monitored. But one dreary night, Jakob's wrath raged out of control. He began sticking Squiggles up vending machine slots and into trash cans. Horrified, HCPS and others (Ryan, who is not actually a member of HCPS but just likes to chill around nearby) attempted to retrieve the hippo, but in the struggle, Squiggles was severed, and a huge, irreparable gash was created in its neck.
Luckily, Kate had packed several rolls of green duct tape for Quadfest (although, living in Pegram as a third-year, things ended up slightly differently, but that's another story.), and one of them happened to be a perfect shade for Squiggles! As a temporary fix that night, HCPS was able to duct-tape Squiggles to a piece of cardboard, which was a less-than-perfect support system, but worked for a while. There are several pictures of this tragic emergency surgery on Facebook, ranging from Kate's mourning to Matt's apathy(suppression of emotions, not indifference; he simply was being strong to support squiggles promptly bawling his eyes out after lights out, much to the annoyance of his roommate, where Squiggles wouldn't hear) (impressive run-on sentence, Mattykins) to Ryan clutching his leg in pain from loss of leg hair. For a while after the first surgery, Squiggles was the butt of several paraplegic jokes.
The following day, Kate made a run to the good ol' Union store and bought their entire stock of cotton balls, which sadly only consisted of two bags. During free time, she, Matt, and Camila (well, she and Camila, Matt mainly just sat there xD) lovingly performed the second surgery, in which they stuffed Squiggles with cotton balls and used the conveniently-colored light-green duct tape to neatly seal the gashes, which there had become more of. The cardboard remained, as it was still necessary to support Squiggles.
The Growing Love of TiPsters
This, however, did not impact the hippo's social life; in fact, it seem to become increasingly popular, perhaps due to the new levels of sympathy which had arisen. Even more TiPsters were now wanting to hold, hug, and take care of Squiggles for a day, and HCPS found themselves having to turn down some sad TiPsters due to the fact that there were simply too many of them, and also that Squiggles was increasingly vulnerable and it simply was a bad idea to let Squiggles go wandering as it had used to. Duke East is a dangerous campus out there, guys. Increased enthusiasm for Squiggles may also have been due to the fact that rumors had began to circulate (which were, in fact, true) that Squiggles was to become a relic, and would be passed down to only the most deserving TiPsters.
The rest of the term continued quite peacefully for Squiggles, as Kate, Matt, and Camila speculated about which second-years seemed to be deserving. They, however, do not have to decide this until the end of TiP 2012, and have not yet made decisions. However, they plan to select a trio of TiPsters to form a triangle of Squiggles caretakers just as they did.
Other Notable Characters in the History and Development of Squiggles
Grace Yun
Koueun Pang
Viv Lu
Nicole Kim
Ryan O'Meara
Squiggles Through the Years
Younger TiPsters, please record the adventures and occurrences in the TiP life of Squiggles for years to come. :)
2012
Outside of TiP: Where is Squiggles Now?
2011
July: Currently, Squiggles is residing with Kate, who brought the hippo home with her. Upon return, she bought more cotton balls, removed the cardboard, and restuffed Squiggles again for a whole new level of fluff. Now only a small piece of cardboard is needed for support, and Kate has made it quite lovely and plaque-like, reading "Squiggles Leprechaun Lastname. Duke East Term 1. 2011-Forever." As she and Matt live in the same city, they plan to meet up and exchange Squiggles at one point or another (as well as just have insanely awesome downtown adventures with Robert), and don't worry Camila, there are definitely plans to mail Squiggles to you, and it will be perfectly safe as a number of packing peanuts will be involved. Squiggles is now a metropolitan world traveler and has been to Hungary.
August: Squiggles was mailed to Camila, along with various colorful letters, friendship bracelets for Camila and Cheng-wei, delicious cookies baked by Kate, and some cotton balls and lime green duct tape.
September-November Squiggles enjoyed a long and restful stay with Camila and also some times with Cheng-wei.
December Squiggles spent the entire month of December in a cardboard box at FedEx due to some package error thing....
2012
January Squiggles spent the majority of January still at FedEx. It remains to be seen when Squiggles will make it out.
