(no subject)
Oh jeeze, I haven't updated in ages. Not that I've had a lot to update with, but still... Visited with dollie people, went to the aquarium... took a crapload of pictures... >.>; Yeah.
Work is fairly slow. Summer is the busy season for every department in the store except mine. Lighting is busiest when the sun is least. ^^; So it's been tedious. I've been half tempted to ask for hours in another department so I can learn something new and not twiddle my thumbs so much, but... meh. x.x I'm stuck cashiering this Saturday. I hate cashiering. *sigh*
Have my badge for Kumoricon. All set. ^.^ Just need fabric so Mikey can make our costumes, and hopefully I can find some wigs that aren't insanely priced. x.x Ugh. The best one I've seen so far is $70. *siiiigh*
I should mow the lawn, since the weeds are now taller than Shaial, but... meh. I'm feeling rather blah. So I've been spending the day catching up on a bunch of Talya Firedancer's original fiction. Mmm, purr. Last week I caught up on the Morgan Vale 'verse (Willow Key, Morgan Vale, & Swept) and this week it's Reaver'verse. Talya is like... I guess my ultimate slash-writer idol? I've been following her works since the old YSML... '98 or '99 maybe? Or was it earlier... Long time, at any rate.
She has a LJ: fyredancer and her own ML which I'd have to go look up even though I've been on it for years. ^^; 'tayfic' if I recall right...
Also been RPing a bit with a friend. It's rather nice. I'd forgotten how amusing it can be to get plot input from two sources when neither source has any concrete plans of what should happen next. *laugh*
I did write out a bit of a pre-RP scene for my character, trying to get a good feel for him:
Rain. Of course. As if this trip couldn't possibly get any worse, of course it up and decided to rain. Pour, more accurately. It was the First Gods' way of scolding him for leaving home, he was sure of it. He could practically hear his sister Aia's voice, telling him that the Gods had plans for seventh sons and he should gracefully accept his fate.
Fuck the Gods. He hadn't asked to be born the seventh son. Why couldn't it have been seven siblings instead? Then his sister Fir could be the special one and everyone would just forget about Tea, the un-special ninth child.
Irritable, he kicked a stone into the underbrush and contemplated the effort it would take to hack off a few branches, finally deciding that, while it would make him feel better, it wasn't a good idea to have a blade out in the rain. He had no way of drying it off again after it got wet, and he wasn't about to let one of them rust.
Stupid weather. Stupid prophesies. Stupid father with his stupid tendency to marry off his children to stupid, ugly, fat, slow, cow-faced old nobles who only wanted to schmooze with the Emperor and could care less about the person they were marrying.
Two months ago it had been Sam, the youngest brother other than Tea. Three months before that it was Fir, and Tea would have felt sorry for the goat she was marrying considering that Fir's temper was a thing of legend, but he knew for a fact that the man more than deserved it. If there was one reason he wished he'd stuck around home, it was to see Fir thoroughly trounce the man. But he was not about to be the next in line to be saddled with some witless bimbo who was only after Tea's family connections.
So he'd left. A little over a month ago, taking only what he could carry. He'd walked until he'd found someone leaving the Imperial City, and ridden with that merchant as far as Timbalu, then walked again until he found another ride. Eventually, he'd managed to make his way right out of the empire itself and into the unaffiliated kingdoms. More dangerous, certainly, but also much less chance of anyone recognizing him as Prince Thymeriavaantea.
He was perfectly happy just being Tea. Even if it was pouring rain and his good boots were soaked through and getting muddy and he hadn't eaten since yesterday.
Between one step and the next, Tea's entire body tensed. Someone was out there, watching him, sneaking through the wet brush and trying to use the pounding of the rain to cover the sound of their footsteps. Multiple footsteps. Sounded like five, maybe six. And the distinct schnick of a weapon being unsheathed.
Tea swore. Now he really was certain the Gods were pissed with him. Well, they could all go fuck themselves. He wasn't going back.
Waiting, he continued walking forward through the squelching mud, outwardly oblivious to the threat while inwardly taking stock of where all of his weapons were hidden and which ones would be the best to use in this situation. No sense in getting any of the good ones out for mere bandits, especially if this rain made them rust. So one of the long daggers and possibly the-
Before the would-be bandits had even managed to break cover, Tea was in motion. His long dagger drawn, he eliminated the first weapon coming at him by cutting off the wrist that held it. The second threat went down much like the first, and the third wound up with numerous bleeding holes in his body.
Three down, three to go. They were more wary now, having seen an easy mark and gotten anything but. One man made a feint that Tea ignored, while the one attempting to slip around behind him made the fatal mistake.
They always went after his hair. Even after he'd proven that he wasn't some pretty, defenseless traveler, they still seemed to think his hair was a weakness. None of them ever stopped to think about the fact that he was traveling alone, was obviously skilled in the art of warfare, had thigh-length hair that must have taken years to get to that length, and was still alive.
Tea spun, lashing out with his dagger and catching the man across the throat even as he started to feel his foot slip. Damn the mud! He attempted to recover, but one of the two remaining bandits took the opportunity to slash out at him again, forcing Tea to block it and ruin his balance. He fell, landing with a disgusting plop in the cold, wet mud, and swiftly rolled over with an even more disgusting squelching sound to avoid the blade coming down at him.
For the first time since he'd run away, Tea found himself missing the comforts of home. At least if he was home he wouldn't be covered in mud and bandit blood. And he'd be fed, and have a warm bath waiting for him.
Suddenly very, very irritated, Tea let go of his dagger and launched himself backwards, doing a handspring to flip himself upright and land on his feet. The moment he was vertical, he grabbed the end of his belt and gave a sharp yank to unwind it. The whip uncoiled in one long, sinuous arc, then Tea snapped his wrist out and cracked the end of it in front of the closest bandit's face. While the man recoiled, he snapped the end of the whip around the second bandit's feet, yanking his legs out from under him. He didn't waste a moment, launching himself at the first bandit as the second toppled, reaching up and efficiently snapping the man's neck. He caught the man's sword as the body dropped, twisting and plunging it into the remaining bandit's chest.
Everything stilled, save for the ceaseless rain. Tea watched as the water made brown rivers down the muddy length of his body, mingling with the bloody puddles on the ground that spread out farther and farther as crimson blood seeped out of the cooling bodies sprawled haphazardly across the road.
Weariness flooded him. This wasn't an exhilarating battle of skill that both sides walked away from. This was cold, emotionless, and final.
He wanted a bath. And a cup of steaming hot tea.
Numbly, he retrieved his little dagger and wiped it down before putting it away. It would probably rust, especially after its little dip in the mud. He recoiled his whip around his waist, and that wasn't going to like the soaking it'd gotten either, then listlessly poked around the bandit's bodies to see if they had anything worth keeping.
A handful of coins, a few bits of jewelry, and only one weapon that was worth anything more than a trip to the scrap pile. That was all.
Stowing away his finds, Tea turned and began squelching his way back down the road, trying not to think of the comforts of home or the scarlet life draining out onto the road behind him. Maybe he'd come to a town soon. He could probably afford a room at an inn for one night, and if he was lucky the innkeeper might need a few odd jobs done in exchange for use of the bathing room.
Not that he really had any hope of that. Luck was determined by the Gods, and Tea was quite certain he wasn't going to be getting any special favors from that corner for a very long time. Not without bending to his so-called 'destiny', and that absolutely wasn't happening. Not at all.
And that... is about it. >.> Okay, I'm all caught up again. ^^;
Work is fairly slow. Summer is the busy season for every department in the store except mine. Lighting is busiest when the sun is least. ^^; So it's been tedious. I've been half tempted to ask for hours in another department so I can learn something new and not twiddle my thumbs so much, but... meh. x.x I'm stuck cashiering this Saturday. I hate cashiering. *sigh*
Have my badge for Kumoricon. All set. ^.^ Just need fabric so Mikey can make our costumes, and hopefully I can find some wigs that aren't insanely priced. x.x Ugh. The best one I've seen so far is $70. *siiiigh*
I should mow the lawn, since the weeds are now taller than Shaial, but... meh. I'm feeling rather blah. So I've been spending the day catching up on a bunch of Talya Firedancer's original fiction. Mmm, purr. Last week I caught up on the Morgan Vale 'verse (Willow Key, Morgan Vale, & Swept) and this week it's Reaver'verse. Talya is like... I guess my ultimate slash-writer idol? I've been following her works since the old YSML... '98 or '99 maybe? Or was it earlier... Long time, at any rate.
She has a LJ: fyredancer and her own ML which I'd have to go look up even though I've been on it for years. ^^; 'tayfic' if I recall right...
Also been RPing a bit with a friend. It's rather nice. I'd forgotten how amusing it can be to get plot input from two sources when neither source has any concrete plans of what should happen next. *laugh*
I did write out a bit of a pre-RP scene for my character, trying to get a good feel for him:
Rain. Of course. As if this trip couldn't possibly get any worse, of course it up and decided to rain. Pour, more accurately. It was the First Gods' way of scolding him for leaving home, he was sure of it. He could practically hear his sister Aia's voice, telling him that the Gods had plans for seventh sons and he should gracefully accept his fate.
Fuck the Gods. He hadn't asked to be born the seventh son. Why couldn't it have been seven siblings instead? Then his sister Fir could be the special one and everyone would just forget about Tea, the un-special ninth child.
Irritable, he kicked a stone into the underbrush and contemplated the effort it would take to hack off a few branches, finally deciding that, while it would make him feel better, it wasn't a good idea to have a blade out in the rain. He had no way of drying it off again after it got wet, and he wasn't about to let one of them rust.
Stupid weather. Stupid prophesies. Stupid father with his stupid tendency to marry off his children to stupid, ugly, fat, slow, cow-faced old nobles who only wanted to schmooze with the Emperor and could care less about the person they were marrying.
Two months ago it had been Sam, the youngest brother other than Tea. Three months before that it was Fir, and Tea would have felt sorry for the goat she was marrying considering that Fir's temper was a thing of legend, but he knew for a fact that the man more than deserved it. If there was one reason he wished he'd stuck around home, it was to see Fir thoroughly trounce the man. But he was not about to be the next in line to be saddled with some witless bimbo who was only after Tea's family connections.
So he'd left. A little over a month ago, taking only what he could carry. He'd walked until he'd found someone leaving the Imperial City, and ridden with that merchant as far as Timbalu, then walked again until he found another ride. Eventually, he'd managed to make his way right out of the empire itself and into the unaffiliated kingdoms. More dangerous, certainly, but also much less chance of anyone recognizing him as Prince Thymeriavaantea.
He was perfectly happy just being Tea. Even if it was pouring rain and his good boots were soaked through and getting muddy and he hadn't eaten since yesterday.
Between one step and the next, Tea's entire body tensed. Someone was out there, watching him, sneaking through the wet brush and trying to use the pounding of the rain to cover the sound of their footsteps. Multiple footsteps. Sounded like five, maybe six. And the distinct schnick of a weapon being unsheathed.
Tea swore. Now he really was certain the Gods were pissed with him. Well, they could all go fuck themselves. He wasn't going back.
Waiting, he continued walking forward through the squelching mud, outwardly oblivious to the threat while inwardly taking stock of where all of his weapons were hidden and which ones would be the best to use in this situation. No sense in getting any of the good ones out for mere bandits, especially if this rain made them rust. So one of the long daggers and possibly the-
Before the would-be bandits had even managed to break cover, Tea was in motion. His long dagger drawn, he eliminated the first weapon coming at him by cutting off the wrist that held it. The second threat went down much like the first, and the third wound up with numerous bleeding holes in his body.
Three down, three to go. They were more wary now, having seen an easy mark and gotten anything but. One man made a feint that Tea ignored, while the one attempting to slip around behind him made the fatal mistake.
They always went after his hair. Even after he'd proven that he wasn't some pretty, defenseless traveler, they still seemed to think his hair was a weakness. None of them ever stopped to think about the fact that he was traveling alone, was obviously skilled in the art of warfare, had thigh-length hair that must have taken years to get to that length, and was still alive.
Tea spun, lashing out with his dagger and catching the man across the throat even as he started to feel his foot slip. Damn the mud! He attempted to recover, but one of the two remaining bandits took the opportunity to slash out at him again, forcing Tea to block it and ruin his balance. He fell, landing with a disgusting plop in the cold, wet mud, and swiftly rolled over with an even more disgusting squelching sound to avoid the blade coming down at him.
For the first time since he'd run away, Tea found himself missing the comforts of home. At least if he was home he wouldn't be covered in mud and bandit blood. And he'd be fed, and have a warm bath waiting for him.
Suddenly very, very irritated, Tea let go of his dagger and launched himself backwards, doing a handspring to flip himself upright and land on his feet. The moment he was vertical, he grabbed the end of his belt and gave a sharp yank to unwind it. The whip uncoiled in one long, sinuous arc, then Tea snapped his wrist out and cracked the end of it in front of the closest bandit's face. While the man recoiled, he snapped the end of the whip around the second bandit's feet, yanking his legs out from under him. He didn't waste a moment, launching himself at the first bandit as the second toppled, reaching up and efficiently snapping the man's neck. He caught the man's sword as the body dropped, twisting and plunging it into the remaining bandit's chest.
Everything stilled, save for the ceaseless rain. Tea watched as the water made brown rivers down the muddy length of his body, mingling with the bloody puddles on the ground that spread out farther and farther as crimson blood seeped out of the cooling bodies sprawled haphazardly across the road.
Weariness flooded him. This wasn't an exhilarating battle of skill that both sides walked away from. This was cold, emotionless, and final.
He wanted a bath. And a cup of steaming hot tea.
Numbly, he retrieved his little dagger and wiped it down before putting it away. It would probably rust, especially after its little dip in the mud. He recoiled his whip around his waist, and that wasn't going to like the soaking it'd gotten either, then listlessly poked around the bandit's bodies to see if they had anything worth keeping.
A handful of coins, a few bits of jewelry, and only one weapon that was worth anything more than a trip to the scrap pile. That was all.
Stowing away his finds, Tea turned and began squelching his way back down the road, trying not to think of the comforts of home or the scarlet life draining out onto the road behind him. Maybe he'd come to a town soon. He could probably afford a room at an inn for one night, and if he was lucky the innkeeper might need a few odd jobs done in exchange for use of the bathing room.
Not that he really had any hope of that. Luck was determined by the Gods, and Tea was quite certain he wasn't going to be getting any special favors from that corner for a very long time. Not without bending to his so-called 'destiny', and that absolutely wasn't happening. Not at all.
And that... is about it. >.> Okay, I'm all caught up again. ^^;