Erin's Serials

Bingo Card for Camp Nano 2017

2017-04-03T15:14:50Z

3 of Wands	11 Justice	6 of Pentacles	Page of Cups	Knight of Wands
4 of Swords	Page of Wands	10 of Pentacles	5 of Cups	8 Strength
Page of Pentacles	7 of Pentacles	7 of Wands	4 The Emperor	3 of Pentacles
17 The Star	10 of Swords	10 Wheel of Fortune	9 of Pentacles	3 of Cups
13 Death	8 Strength	2 of Cups	12 The Hanged Man	5 of Wands

Word Prompts Part 2

2012-12-03T06:54:31Z

The responses to word prompts I get. Please give me more here

Here is what I have gotten so far. Two from Dien and one from L.

Orders - Sanctified

Orders stumbled over a helmet. He turned to see the owner, wrapped in a blanket. When he reached to tap him on the shoulder, the flesh was cold.

He could not tell what had killed the man. The boy, really; he couldn’t have been seventeen. His face was white, framed by dark curls and his hands were clean. A blow to the head? Internal injuries? Perhaps it had been the flu.

Aside from the ghastly pallor of his skin, he looked as if he could have been sleeping. Someone had closed his eyes.

Orders squatted down beside the boy. It was a hard thing, to see the peace and sanctity in death in a place like this, but this boy, this poor devil, looked so restful. He was beyond all this.

“Rest in peace” Orders whispered. He wondered, sometimes, if death was the only peace any of them was ever going to get.

Brier - Bravery

There were things that Brier had been afraid of in Sweetwater; wolves and bears, the house on the hill with the collapsed roof that Emmett said was haunted, the cold look that Father Martin could level in your direction if you said the wrong thing at dinner or coughed during a sermon, her father or Albin in a rage.

The palace had given her more things to be afraid of. Here you could offend a person of importance with your eyes, your voice, the way you set your shoulders. A person offended could cause you to lose your job, your freedom or your head. There were other dangers. Captain Little warned her against being sent home for a lack of decorum, of drinking with men, of getting yourself with child. The lingering looks and smiles of the other guards had begun to give her the shivers.

Now she stood in front of a threat which was much harder to grasp. The danger was in her own head.

The prince could not be wrong. He could not wrong. The thought that he might be was the most terrifying thing that Brier had ever faced. And she was not sure she had the courage to allow herself to think it anymore.

Gabe - Brave

“Brave is another word for stupid.” Gabriel had told Geoff Tanner when the older boy had told him about walking across the river via the half collapsed tree and dared Gabriel to do the same, calling him a chicken.

As he sat in the cellar, nursing his black eye and thinking what to tell his mother he mused that perhaps snide was also another word for stupid.

Hope you like them. Just quick exercises so no biggie if you do not.

Please go back and give me some more to work with!

Prompt Request

2012-12-01T22:46:16Z

I am going to try some word prompts this week to get myself back on track with writing.

This is not a new idea, it has gone around circles I travel in on LJ time and again. I copied my last request from DA, from nearly two years ago

The concept is that you give me a character name and a word. (Like: Dimitri - earring or Fisher - Shoplifting) A phrase is also acceptable (Such as Arisa - Man twice her age who needs to shave) I will then write a short bit of fiction about the character using the word as inspiration. I will be writing characters in the cast of my swashbuckler novel and other pretty period pieces so keep the prompts things that are in some way relevant. No ipods or space aliens, please.

The super minor characters are fine, even ones not listed. If you aren't familiar with them, that's ok, just pick a name you like. The choices are:

Swashbuckler Characters: Arisa, Albin, Brier, Copin, Dimitri, Eliza/Elizabeth, Emmett, Fisher, Gabriel, Hearst, Isme, Imogene, Lillit, Nicoli, Pierce, Quirnia, Rosalie, Stuart, King Virgil, Xanti

"Nice Girls" Characters: Evie, Pierce, Toby Moline, Will Moline, Amelia Winters, Mama May

Goddess Characters: Aloni, Filina, Susaru

Shipwreck Story: Amari, Genric, Jinto, Kai, Ten

WWI Characters: Caroline, Cora, Emery, Locke, Orders, Ribs, Patrick

Looking forward to your suggestions!

Oops

2012-07-23T12:06:05Z

I posted the charloft prompt here. Go me.

Falling Behind

2012-03-31T13:09:20Z

I know I haven't left you guys comments. I am behind on Charloft and Writerverse.

It has been a bad week. A busy week. I have just not had time for anything. Not for writing, not for LJ.

Sorry I am behind on my f-list.

If you miss me IM me ;) I will be trying to get things back together by next week.

Lunch hour woes.

2012-03-19T18:52:01Z

I wrote out times on my to do list. 5 hours with of stuff which absolutely must be done today. 3.5 hours left in the day.

Oh well. Back I go.

Romance

2012-03-11T05:38:25Z

Sap, written for the writerverse prompt "romance"

Dimitri heard her before he saw her, as he emerged from below deck.. To one side he could hear her ladylike voice making a most unladylike guttural sound. He turned to see her, her thin frame hunched against the side rail. Bits of dark hair had fallen from the ribbon she had used to tie them back and were hanging in her face.

“Hey, Lil?”

Lillit raised her head from where it was, half hanging over the side of the ship to regard Dimitri with glassy eyes.

"Sea not agreeing with you?” he asked

She closed her eyes and lowered her head again, to rest it on the rail. “That’s one way of putting it, I guess.”

He reached down to brush a bit of hair out of her face. His fingers lingered there, for a moment, the back of one finger brushing the soft hair by her temples.

She reached up and waved his hand away. His hand fell away and he regarded her in silence for a moment.

“Why did you come, Lillit?”

She raised her head again, turning to glance up at him. She opened her mouth to speak, but paused there for a second too long. The ship dipped. She raised her hand to her mouth and hurried to lean over the side again.

He frowned and patted her back. “Better out than in, love.”

She glared at him. Then she closed her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said. His voice was soft now. He moved his hand from her back to her shoulder “Should I get you some water?”

She opened her eyes.

“This? You are sorry for this?” She gestured over the side of the ship.

“Lord, Dimitri. This is the least of my problems.”

Dimitri squeezed her shoulder, where he held it.

“I know you can’t go home, but maybe if we found you a convent…”

She sighed and straightened up, removing his hand again. “I don’t want to go to a convent.” A smirk played at her lips. “Besides. You would starve without me.”

He snorted. “Glad to see you are feeling better,” He muttered. He rose to go.

“Wait.”

He turned back to face her. “Yes?” He looked down. Her face was flush with the sickness and she had an acrid smell to her as sweaty hair clung to her forehead. She was hardly the beauty she was when she was clean and combed and dressed.

He reached into his pocket and extracted a handkerchief, which he pressed into her hand. As she wiped her face and mouth he pulled out his flask. “Chase it with some rum?”

She sighed and accepted, taking a small swig.

As she handed it back to him, their fingers touched. She froze. Looking at his outstretched hand.

“What if they catch you?” she whispered.

“They won’t catch me," he assured.

She turned her face up to look him in the eye. Despite the acrid smell, and the smell of rum, despite the blotchy coloring and the sweat on her face he found himself reaching for her other hand. Her lips parted as she began to reply, but she stopped there.

“Why did you come with me, Lillit?”

She shook her head, very slightly, a movement so slight it did not break the spell. He leaned in, a little closer. Her hair, at least, still smelled good.

She ducked her head, pulling away.

“I’m going to go lie down.

He let go. “Good idea,” he said.

New and less new LJ developments

2012-03-10T21:08:22Z

I know. Two entries in as many days. What is the world coming to. Don't worry. No one is roiling today. I am at a coffee shop, and I am supposed to be writing but I am not exactly. Instead I will update the internet as to my current LJ and creative movements.

1. charloft-

As most of you know I am a long time member and, as of now, a mod at Charloft. Charloft is a daily prompt community. You answer the daily prompt in character (except for Monday, which you answer as an author.) My goal for the coming months is to answer a prompt a week as well as posting them when it is my turn. There is an rp com and a chat room to go with this com, so I encourage folks to check it out.

2. writerverse

Writerverse is a "land" type comuntity. I am not sure exactly sure what that is, but I followed L over in that direction. It also has writing prompts which you answer for points. It is a lot of fun. Phase 2 has just started, and L has provided me for a nifty new sig tag for the occasion, which I keep forgetting to use. It can be seen here:

It is from a print of Murasaki Shikibu writing, which makes it awesome. Also, a friend made it which makes it extra awesome. I feel bad that I could not get her a high res version of the pic but it turned out well, considering.

Someday I will get graphics software of my own and start collecting icons and sig tags like no one's business. For now I am happy to have a nifty new one for phase 2 to go with the one I have.

I got 205 points last phase. My goal this phase is 300

3. Chapter 2.

I need to keep working on chapter 2. Please people. give me a hard time about this. I need all the harassment/encouragement I can get.

4. inkstainederin

I made a new journal. See!

Originally this was supposed to be a journal just for nanowrimo. for ONE nanowrimo, five years ago. I am not sure about it right now, but eventually I will probably start moving things over there. For now though, I will be doing writerverse and charloft from this journal...and there is not much else I do so we shall see. Still, go ahead and friend me twice and maybe I will start posting there. ;)

Thats about it, I guess. No more procrastinating, I better go do some writing...

Pirates!

2012-02-26T01:20:21Z

Chapter 2 is officially underway.

Here's hoping it stays that way!

Art Dump.

2012-01-29T02:23:23Z

I am trying to get back on the proverbial horse insofar as drawing. It makes me very depressed to look at my folder on my computer and see all of the very pretty, almost well done things. I am not sure what happened when I moved home. I just...lost it all.

I kind of suck still for the time being but here is what I have managed.

Gabriel, the main character of the swashbuckler novel. He is a shoemaker and can be seen here...making a shoe.

Brier, another character in the pirate novel - who I have been writing about and playing a lot of late.

And lastly, a bust of Emile, L's RP character.

About Me

2012-01-25T04:01:52Z

I realized today that there really is not any current information about me on the profile of this journal. The only stuff there is outdated from add a writer years and years ago, so I am gonna follow the lead of a couple of the folks on my friends list and post an All About Me post.

Those of you who already know All About Me can skip this, of course. And probably some of those of you who know very little about me too.

I am not so thorough or honest as some of you, so this is probably going to be less interesting as a result. Sorry about that?

Basics: My name is Erin, mostly I go by Inky or Inkstained on the net. But most of my screen names are even older than that. I will be thirty next year. I just moved back from four and a half years in Japan. I am a writer and an artist. This is my writing journal in fact, which is a misleading title as I do not have another journal. I used to when I was...oh...18 or so? I also have a travel journal for my time abroad, which I will give to anyone curious

I am single, and live in an apartment with a cat and "grandma chic" decor.

I work as an "Office Lady" at a company that sells process gas compressors for the energy industry. Someday I will not do this. More on this bellow.

"Real Life": In my real life I grew up in Texas, lived in Pennsylvania from middle school through the end of college, came back to Texas, worked as a teacher here and then went abroad to teach English. As a result, when you ask me where I am from sometimes I can get very confused.

I went to school for English Writing - Nonfiction. I am not sure what I was planning on doing with that degree - I started out as an Engineer of all things. Calculus kicked me around and left me bleeding in an alley until I switched. I worked retail, in a laundromat, at amusement parks and movie theaters and even food service in my formative years. After college I went back to retail, until I decided to go back to school and get certified to teach. I still am certified to teach in Texas, Special Education, EC - 4 and 4-8. I hope to go back to it when the economy improves a little and there are more teaching jobs available.

I also love to travel and live abroad. My ultimate goal is to some day set up or run exchange programs. Either from here or from on the ground somewhere else!

I do speak conversational Japanese, if you were curious.

"Creative Life": This is the important part, right?

I have been carrying around sketchbooks and stringing together pencil written novels since childhood. I wrote my first finished novel when I was fifteen. It was horrible. I have only finished two others since, so I should have been a lot prouder in retrospect!

I majored in Nonfiction because my fiction has always been a little too upbeat and campy to be literary. This bugs me sometimes, but I figure, writing fantasy novels is a skill, just as much as writing Hard Hitting Gritty Stories Of Horrible Things Happening to People is.

My current project is a swashbuckler set in a fantasy world, commonly referred to as "the Pirate Story" by me. There are a couple of other projects I have going as well, but this is kind of my baby.

Other: I love Japan. Japan and I have this relationship where I shout affection at it and it ignores me to play video games. It's great. But I don't JUST love Japan. I love history, art,cool architecture, new tasty foods and learning about other cultures, so I am very fond of a bunch of other countries. I think Italy is the closest runner up to Japan right now, but I would also like to spend time in Greece, Spain, India, The Philippines, China, Ireland, The UK, Peru, Mexico....

Ahem. You get my point.

I am Liberal? I am Catholic but I don't really go to church often and I am not weird about it. In Japan I spent a lot of time praying on mountains, at temples and shrines etc.

I like: Books: The Mouse that Roared, The Thief, anything by Lloyd Alexander or Dianna Wynn Jones, Juniper by Monica Furlong (and the two other books in the trilogy but not as much), most things by Jane Austen, The Deryni books by Katherine Kurtz, Inkheart, Harry Potter, much of the works of Elizabeth Peters, much of the Sci Fi and Fantasy Genres, Haruki Murakami....I think I have to stop.

Movies: This is harder. Hm. Star Wars, Star Trek (s), Serenity, Dead Poets Society, Welcome Back Mr. McDonald, Stargate, Atlantis (shut up. Milo Thatch is my dream man) I will watch just about anything once, actually.

TV: Don't have one or watch much, but I am not too picky when I do watch things. I am fond of Dr. Who, Castle and Warehouse 13 at present.

Anime: I kick it old school. Slayers, Fushugi Yugi, Escaflowne, Kenshin. I am getting a little into some more modern stuff, mostly Full Metal Alchemist but I don't really have time for anime these days, like TV. it can be a lot of fun though.

I guess that's about it. Thanks for friending me. I hope to get to know folks better as we go!

Drabbles and Charloft Posts

2012-01-20T13:34:48Z

I have one new friend and others who have come back to posting after a while so I think I will actually post. No one have a heart attack.

I have been writing up a storm this week. None of it is very good, but anything is worth something, right?

I wrote a drabble with the Pirate characters for writerverse. I will post it for now and make a nifty post with the warnings and stuff when I finish the other drabble I am working on.

In the shadows

Arisa paused. She looked up from the basket she was carrying and called, “You can come out, Imogene.”

The young girl crawled from her hiding place, making a face. “You never let me have any fun.”

“Been learning tricks from Fisher?”

Imogene huffed, affronted that it was implied that she needed any instruction at all in being sneaky. Never mind that Arisa had seen her coat and caught her..

“Well either way, you should quit it. It's not safe. Jumping out to scare people on deck” Arisa added, as she brushed past. When she had passed the girl she looked back and winked.

“Besides. The hull has better shadows.”

***

Other than that I have done a whole lot of charloft prompt responses. Like. 3! Here are the latest two:

http://charloft.livejournal.com/3621856.html

http://charloft.livejournal.com/3611228.html

Charloft Winter Bingo

2012-01-05T05:02:07Z

I am gonna try this this year. with mini stories, not drabbles but still


hope	toys	lie	receiving	coat
leg warmers	bare	curve	fizz	balloons
tradition	birth		virgin	freeze
pose	footprints	lawn ornament	green	horse
fairy lights	snowed in	open	skis	bell

Get your own CharLoft Winter Bingo Card at http://www.labarc.com/Bingo/

Word Prompt Stories

2011-06-18T00:49:15Z

Some stories I wrote with word prompts given to me by people in charloft and DA. If you want to offer a word prompt, all you need to give me is a character name and a word.

==============================

Fisher – Take a Bath

"I can't go in there!" Fisher insisted, bracing both hands against the door frame connecting the two rooms on the men's side of the public bath. With one glance at the young man's gray skin and matted, oily hair, the two bathers already in the room elected to stand up and move to one side to give the pirates entering a wide berth.

"Don't make me! I'll drown!" Fisher whined.

Dimitri rolled his eyes as Copin gave the back of his shoulders a slight push to move him forward.

"No soul ever drowned in a two foot deep bathtub with half a dozen other men looking on," Dimitri assured.

"Unless it was intended." Copin said. Fisher's fingers slipped after another gentle shove and he stumbled into the tiled room containing the baths.

"Right." Dimitri agreed. "Unless it was intended." He handed Fisher a towel now, and a cake of soap.

"So go in and clean yourself before the smell of you makes us murderous."

Quirnia – Wistful

Jonathan was the sunny, laughing kind of baby who was a pleasure to be around. Almost every time Quirnia entered the nursery he was sitting up, babbling and reaching for objects to gnaw. He grabbed tight to hanging hair and offered fingers. His eyes were bright and blue, an anomaly within the royal family. Quirna herself had one blue-eyed parent, which helped to explain the mystery.

For the most part, the servants who helped care for the young prince did not seem to notice his natural charms. They preformed their duties perfunctorily and eyed "Jonny" as if his babbling was further plots against his sister's throne. The exception to this rule was the wet nurse, a girl of nineteen by the name of Helene. Helene was a dowdy girl, with dark hair and eyes whose own child had died.

Sometimes Quirnia would watch the way Helene would caress Jonathan's head as she gathered him up to bring to his real mother, and wonder. Helene, she was sure would have been a decent enough mother for a woman of her station. Why, of the three sons of the two women only the unwanted child, the child who everyone assumed to be a traitor because of his blood, survived?

"Good afternoon, Milady." She said, standing up straight and presenting the infant, who was babbling in a much less disciplined manner, to his mother.

"Would you like to hold him, miss?" She asked. The baby put one chubby finger in his mouth and gurgled, producing a near waterfall of drool. Quirnia looked down at her dress. From here she was going to tea with three of the duchesses.

"Not today," She said. If the wet nurse was surprised or disapproving of her answer, she did not show it. She merely nodded and put her other arm around the prince. The baby laughed and took his fingers from his mouth to take hold of a bit of lace on the woman's bodice. For a moment Quirnia felt a stab of longing, to stay here and play with the laughing baby while Helene went and had tea with duchesses. But there was nothing for it.

"You are dismissed." She told Helene. The girl thanked her and returned, with the baby, to the room in the nursery they had come from. Quirnia waited for a moment, watching them go. Then, in a swish of skirts, she turned to go back to her duties.

Dimitri – Scared

As she slept, face buried in his neck, arm around his waist, Dimitri could not help think about how different she was from every other woman in the universe. He breathed carefully and, much as he wished to, did not touch the skin of her shoulders. So many years living on the Rebellion, being on call at all hours had made Lillit a very light sleeper.

She sighed and curled slightly, exposing her back to him. Dimitri caught his breath at the sight of the crisscross of the scars. The scars from the flogging Xanti had ordered to hurt him through her. She didn't seem to notice them anymore. She wore dresses sometimes where the top of her shoulders was revealed with no concern for the concept that others might see them. She didn't seem to care.

Dimitri still cared. Every time he saw them he felt hot and angry. He wanted to wring Xanti's neck. As he looked at them now, his grip on his wife tightened. She moaned a little and opened her eyes, rolling slightly to face him.

His grip relaxed again and he turned his head to kiss her on the forehead, then the lips.

"Dimitri…what…"

He smiled and kissed her neck, shaking his head even as he did so. "No, I didn't intend to wake you."

She took her arm from where it rested, around his waist and instead laid it on his chest.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

He looked at her face and swallowed. If Xanti were ever to return, what would he do to her? This beautiful woman before him with the soft skin and the taut muscles. He'd scarred her. Where would he stop the next time?

Dimitri knew that both he and Lillit would die for Isme, but it was Lillit who awakened this raw, raging panic in his stomach and chest.
He closed his eyes and his grip on her tightened again.

"I love you," he said aloud. It was in his head that he promised her than no one would ever lay a finger on her, ever again.

100 Drabbles of Summer

2011-06-11T22:49:59Z

16 - Umbrella

Quirnia held out a hand. While Ian sat in the fountain, making snowflake-like forms, a summer storm had moved in.

“Ian? It's raining.”

He turned from the beautiful construct in his hand and looked up. “Oh! Excellent!”

“We must go in! It's getting worse.”

“Why?”

Quirnia lifted her hands to protect her hair. “I haven't an umberella!”

“Oh”. Ian turned and looked at his wife's face. The crystal melted as he released it back into the fountain. He put his hands on her arms. The downpour started in earnest but she couldn't feel it now.

He smiled. “You don't need an umbrella.”

*notes - Ian belongs to Jen. This is a funky AU verse where they are...married

Leaving home

2011-06-06T00:57:27Z

Flash fiction with Brier

“...and you be sure to keep your feet warm when the cold comes. Winter comes down in the city the same as here my girl, only difference is you will be sleeping alone without a fire in those barrack houses.”

Brier waved her mother's little wrinkled hands off of her cheeks with a little wiggle of the nose. “I'm not a little girl!” She said, but the laugh in the back of her throat undermined the severity of her tone. Her mother sniffled and swallowed to hold back a sob.

“And watch out for those city men.” She paused. “ Are you sure you won't marry Anton? He's a good boy, I'll talk to his mother, Brier and you won't have too...”

“Leave her be.” Her father snapped, cutting in. He waved his wife off and took her place by her daughter's side. “Her brother will take care of her anyway,” He leaned forward and tapped Brier on the side of the head, smoothing back a lock of her hair as he went on. “You listen to him and keep your wits about you. He'll lead you right.” With this he grinned, turning to Albin who was standing on the road, patting down his horse. Albin did not smile back.

“We need to be off,” he said, looking away from his father and towards the road.

“Albin, come back and give your mother one more look at you before you go off for another seven or eight seasons.”

Albin turned from the road to his mother. Focusing on her face he shook his head, and took a step closer. She left her husband and daughter on the doorway and closed the gap. Albin allowed her to reach out and stroke the side of his face once, but before a second caress could follow he reached up and caught her hand.

“Brier and I need to go, mother.” He looked to his sister. “Are you finished?”

Brier looked at the gaggle of other siblings collected by the fence. Only Darys and the twins had come down, Emmett had complained of a head cold and Cerise was away with her in-laws down in the next hollow. The three boys by the fence waved wildly and hollered with the volume of the missing siblings as well as their own.

“Bring us back presents!” Darys shouted.

“Chocolate for me!” Luke put in.

“You ought to go yourself, if you are so keen!” Brier yelled.

“Brier. We need to go.” Albin repeated.

She looked away from the three smiling faces, her mother's tears and her father's pride to Albin's stone countenance. She sighed and nodded. He turned away and began to walk down the narrow path to the road some thousand feet bellow. Brier stole one last glace back as they rounded the bend past the trees. Her last glimpse of home as a country girl, she thought. When she saw it again she would be a lady guard. A creature of stone like Albin.

I win

2010-12-01T10:37:42Z

I win Nanorimo.

That is all

Nano Announcement

2010-11-01T22:41:53Z

From here on I will be posting the nano in Arisa's journal: seenthree unless it strikes me as a very well written or dramatic scene. If you would like to follow along, friend her and she will friend you back, but the posts are not locked.

Nano Again

2010-10-25T05:35:45Z

Ok, so I am having trouble deciding what I am gonna do for Nano, and I would like you guys to help me decide.

As always I probably will not actually go with what people tell me hehe. But your input does really help me figure out what I want.   Anyone who wants to talk about nanos on AIM, gchat, or in the charloft I am open to that too.

So here are the ideas:

1. Plague - Working title. Part two of two of the Arisa story.   It's about people dying of smallpox and typhus.    And starving.   There is some starving too.   Oddly enough this is the front runner because I have done the most prewriting for it, but I am also reluctant to do it because it is about everyone dying.   Actually what it is about is the main character losing hope.   She gets it back in the next book.

2. The Hearts and Minds of Emming - Revolutionaries! Kind of.   This is the story of the Emms, a bunch of siblings.   The oldest boy is a revolutionary.   This is the story of a few months of the winter which tells some of the problems facing each of the siblings which eventually get swallowed by the revolutionary plot.   The things this one has going for it is that I know a lot of the characters really well and I really love a few of them. Also unlike the Arisa story, none of it is written at present.   There is sorrow and terror but nothing on the scale of the Arisa story.  It still has a lot of low points though.

3. High Fantasy. - not even a working title or characters for this. Watching Tara play video games made me want to write high fantasy.   Quests, swords, sorcerers. I should probably not give in to this urge.

4. Regency Romance Fantasy...again - I had ridiculous fun writing last year's novel. It makes me think that a world like that, where there were Regency Romance type rules in effect and magic was either illegal or taboo could make for a very intersting story...a story I may have read before as a teenager.   But still!

5.  Eternal Autumn - Cheesy romance.   Autumn thinks that her twin sister, Summer's fiance was her lover in a past life.   Also, he might be a vampire.    This is not a real suggestion.

6.   Sir Ind's Squire - Ind takes on a commoner and a girl as his squire in a fit of trying to make his father and the rest of court mad.   Then he finds out she has magical powers and falls in love with her.   Also I think some people are trying to kill her or something.    Sometimes it is better to only sort of know where a nano is going.   I made this story up when I was 17 and it has been on the back burner for 9 years. I should write it someday?

Three of these are romances.   Ugh.   But only one of them is REALLY a romance and that one will not be written...

Opinions anyone?

Nano 2010

2010-10-17T22:51:21Z

I am editing the Nano Friends cut. If you want to read my nano please let me know. If you do NOT want to read it and you think you might be on the list let me know that too.

Ten Takes Charge

2010-07-20T22:41:09Z

I think a minor character is taking over my book....and I am ok with this?

(page break. since I do not trust LJ formating)

The second time I woke, I was lying on a canvas cot, which was swaying. For a sickening moment I was sure I was at sea again, but I turned my head to see the surf on the other side of a stretch of rocks and sand

Someone took my hand. I turned to see another tan skinned man, a younger one than the man with no shirt who had tried to keep me from sitting up. This man was, and wearing a robe. His hand squeezed mine, with light, cool hands and he whispered something to me. Of course I did not understand, but his voice was so soft, so gentle, like his hands, and I was so tired that I allowed it to comfort me. I did not try to raise my head. Instead I focused my eyes on him and attempted to close my ears to the sound of the waves.

He put my hand down, patted it twice and reached over touch my face. I turned into the touch, letting him cradle my cheek in his cool, gentle hand. I closed my eyes again.

(page break!)

It made sense for us to go to our house first, before the clinic. It was on the way. It was the first house we came to on our approach to the town, in fact. I convinced myself that our stopping there was not a concession to Ten, but one to myself and Orino, who were doing the work of carrying.

Kai ran ahead and informed the maid, who set up one of the rooms below grounds, in the old servants quarters, to hold the woman for the time being. This would probably allow Ten less room than he might have liked to preform his duties, but most of the unoccupied bedrooms were on the second floor, which was very hot at this time of year. The stretcher would not fit through the narrow door, but one of the butlers was strong enough to gather the woman in his arms and carry her through to lie on the bed.

Ten called for things as soon as he had entered, as if he owned the place. “I need water. Hot and cold,” he said. “And soap. Is there juice? I need to speak to the cook.”

Around this time, when Ten began to take control of my house I realized my mistake. Now, of course, it was too late.

Father, Sayri and her maidservant stood back and watched this spectacle for a moment until the girl had been laid on the bed and what small bit of control of the situation we held passed from Orino and myself to rest completely on the doctor.

“I thank you for your hospitality on this woman's behalf,” he said.

Father bristled. Ten, however, was no longer paying any attention at all to father. He instead focused on my sister.

“Lady Sayri, You are much smaller than this woman, but if you could see about finding something for her to wear, other than what your fine brother has provided, I would be very much obliged.”

Sayri looked at her feet, the picture of feminine submission. “Of course, Lord Doctor.”

“May I also beg the services of your lady, if she herself is obliged to give them?”

“Of course, Lord Doctor,” my sister said.

Ten turned to her maid, the nurse, a woman named Riset.

“I beg your service, madam.”

She could not politely do anything but follow him to the room. Orino and I followed as well, and Istas.

“Doctor, am I to understand you are going to undertake caring for this girl in my home?”

Ten did not look up from the woman. “I wonder if this discussion could wait,” he said.

“No. It cannot.”

At this Ten did look up. “There is not time for this.”

“If I let you begin this nonsense there will be no removing her!”

“And would you have her moved again at the expense of her life?”

“My permission should have been asked before she was brought here.”

The woman moaned. Ten turned from father, to lay a hand on her face. Father had to wait a minute for Ten's answer, which did not improve the old man's temper. Finally Ten looked back to him.

“I know that this house runs on your word, Istas, but the world does not. She is dying while we argue and she will not to wait to do it at your convenience. Or would you like to try to ask her to wait while I search for a place for her to be ill that is not offensive to you? ”

Orino covered his mouth. It looked like he was covering shock, but I knew he was hiding a smile. I wondered if he recalled my advice about cheeky servants. Father gritted his teeth, but did not reply.

Ten's tone became less abrasive. ”May I continue and speak to you when I have tended to this?”

Father muttered something, which Ten took to mean his acquiescence, and went upstairs. The doctor turned to the woman and began to cut off her dirty, waterlogged clothes with Riset's help. He paused before he removed the bulk of the undershirt. “Kai, Please go upstairs and help your aunt.” He looked up and into my son's eyes “Do not return until someone tells you so.”

Kai nodded and left without argument. The water arrived, hot and cold, as well as the juice and liquor. Ten directed Riset to make sure the woman drank some of the three cool liquids. He took the soap and the hot water himself as he unwrapped the arm wound scrubbed the outside clean and slathered it with a salve from his bag. I was edging towards the door to escape this seat of medical arts when Ten said my name.

“Genric? Take her shoulders please. Orino, hold her knees. Miss Riset, stop giving her that juice for a moment.” He waited until we had followed his orders, then sliced the half healed scabs on her arm open. The woman made a little strangled sound. Her shoulders shuddered and she squirmed , though she did not wake. When the convulsions were over I loosened my tight grip, but Ten shook his head.

“We're not done. I still have to clean it,”

It was an agonizing half an hour before Ten sent Orino and I away, after cleaning both wounds. It was another hour before he came upstairs, looking tired, blood on his sleeves, bag in his hand and entered the library where I was reading.

I say reading, but what I mean of course is sitting with a book on my lap, thinking of the events of the last several hours. When Ten entered and said my name it was more of a relief than an interruption.

“How is she?” I asked.

“Bad news for your father. I think she will live.”

I smiled at this.

“Still, she is very ill,” he said. “She has a bad sun burn and the beginnings of a fever. she still needs to take in more fluids. I am going to plead her case to him now. I don't suppose you know where he is?”

I shook my head.

“I don't suppose you care to accompany me?”

“I think it will be hard to watch. Like watching a lion tear apart a gazelle.”

He smiled. “Ah, but who is the lion?” He clapped me on the shoulder and nodded to the door. “Come. You might help me make my point.”

“You would do better asking Kai,”

He chuckled and walked out. I closed my book and got up to follow him despite myself.

style

2010-07-16T07:41:08Z

Badges!

So, I started with the Amari story. When I am in Genric's voice....

I write like
Jack London

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

...That was surprising.

Then I plugged in Amari

I write like
Neil Gaiman

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Yay! Go me. So I went back in time and found some pirates

I write like
Arthur C. Clarke

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

...hm. Finally I found some of the Evie story.

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

...This made me cry. I have a very hard time reading Lovecraft. I was hoping Dashell Hammitt!

So either I am very versitile. Or the thing doesn't work?

Ten!!

2010-07-14T21:43:04Z

Next part. It comes directly after the last thing I posted, and it has Ten the doctor! ahem. sorry. What can I say? I have a thing for doctors...

I came back towards the edge of consciousness in the middle of a fit of coughing, followed by the sensation of myself coughing up seawater. There were hands beneath my armpits, dragging me backwards, but they eased and lowered me to the sand. Someone lifted my head and began to whisper gibberish to me. Every inch of me hurt, and I felt as I couldn't catch my breath properly. Breathing was like gargling. I heard the voice again, and tried to move free of the hands beneath me but I felt weak and sluggish. I opened my eyes.

Above me there was a man with a red-brown skin, as if he had a deep summer tan, with dark hair, slightly gray around the temples. He was not wearing a shirt. The expression on his face could be most accurately be describes as shock.

I tried to ask where I was, but the sounds came out garbled. My tongue was swollen. Even I didn't recognize anything intelligible in what I said. He did not go of my head but, with his other hand began to gesture wildly and babble at me. I assumed he was trying to get me to be quiet and stay still, but, if my vocal cords were not serving me to communicate I needed to gesture. I at least needed to get upright. I shook my head at him and waved my hand for him to clear the way. Then I tried to sit up again, despite the pain and the weakness all over., but I only got to the point of bracing my hands for the motion because a quick sharp feeling reminded me that my arm too was wounded. I cried out in pain, but stopped moving. The man leaned in and fussed at me, putting his hand on my shoulder to hold me down. I closed my eyes and did not disobey him.

I coughed a little more, then drifted back to the limbo I had come from.

(page break here. LJ likes to screw up my formating)

When she had passed out again, or gone back to sleep was when I began to really worry that she might die. Before she had woken up, before I had seen her eyes, she had only been a little better than a corpse anyway. A breathing corpse. Even that short exchange, however, made me feel more vested in her continuing to exist long enough for me to hand responsibility for her over to Ten. She had become real to me somehow.

I lowered her head to the sand and, for lack of anything better to do, began to pull away the seaweed tangled in her hair and stuck to her person, careful not to pull at the hair close to her head. I am ashamed to admit I was at this when Kai came running down the beach. Far behind him, but visible, were Ten, the doctor who I had sent him for, and Orino who I had not.

“Is she still breathing?” He asked, as soon as he was close enough to do so without screaming. I nodded and tucked the robe around her closed a little more tightly, as she had knocked it open in her struggles. I did not wish to inspire the kind of jealousy that telling him that she had, in fact, woken up might so I did not speak further as to her state of health. He scrambled to a spot beside me to examine her.

“You put a robe on her.” He said.

“She was indecent.” I said. “And probably cold.”

“She looks funny in it” He said.

She did rather. Before I could offer further commentary on the subject, Ten arrived, Orino behind him with his medical bag. Ten only offered me a nod in greeting before he threw the robe open and began to examine the woman. He lifted her wrist, put his index and middle fingers to it and counted for a moment, his lips moving slightly as he did so. He removed his hand and stared at her wrist for a moment, then moved on to watch her breathing. He frowned and leaned in to put an ear to her chest

“Kai said she was coughing?” He ssid when he sat up.

“Yes. She woke up for a moment and tried to sit up, but she seems to be out again” I said

“She woke up!?” Kai said.

“Briefly” I said.

“She won't die, will she?” Kai asked Ten. Ten made no reply or other remark as he continued his examination, other than to motion for Orino to bring his bag. He took his scissors from it and sliced open the bandage on her arm, revealing a swollen, pink, pus covered mess.

“Orino?” Ten said.

“Yes, Doctor?” He said.

“Please go get the stretcher. Livta will be able to guide you to it. Kai, please go help him.”

I noted, with some annoyance, that Kai listened to Ten with no trouble at all and followed Orino up the beach again.

“She may not make it.” Ten said.

“I understand that.”

“Do you think your father would have a spare room for her already, or will we have to send someone ahead to let the household know she is coming?” He asked.

I sputtered.

“She can't come home with us.” I said

He looked up at me, and fully away from her for the first time since he had arrived. “This woman is very sick. Where did you intend for her to go, Genric?”

“You 're the doctor!” I said.

He made a disgusted sound in his throat as he turned from me and began to bandage her arm again with clean cloth. “I need to get her someplace clean so I can dress these wounds properly. In the meantime I am going to try to rehydrate her a little. I will treat her for free, but I am afraid I have neither the room nor the means to treat her at my house for any length of time. I spend many nights away because of my practice. I haven't a spare room at all, only the bed in the clinic and only Livta for help, and that only during the day. Your father has twelve rooms and a live in nurse. If you deny her this I will take her and do what I can...”

“It's not my decision.” I said. “You will have to ask Father.”

Ten had taken out a canteen and was coaxing swallows of water down the barbarian woman's throat. “In that case, Istas, may be more ready to listen to you on the subject than me.” He said. He called father by his first name, which was his privilege as a doctor, but strange to me.

“I doubt that.” I said. The woman now interrupted our conversation with a fit of coughing, which interested Ten far more than arguing with me. He tilted her head towards him, so that if more water or seaweed came up she would spit it up on the sand and not herself, but none did. She moaned as she tried to catch her breath when the fit was over.

He took a clean cloth from his bag and wiped away the bits of gunk and salt collected around her nose and mouth.

“I am not sure it would be good for Kai to have her in the house.” I said.

“Kai could learn something.” Ten replied.

I quite agreed. I thought that Kai would learn a great deal but not necessarily lessons he needed at the age of fifteen.

Ten did not speak to me for the rest of the time we waited, his attention on the care the girls needed. From time to time he would make a polite request of me. “May I have that towel” or “Please put your hand here a moment.” I wondered if he was always so polite to his helpers. When Orino and Kai came back with the stretcher, he had gotten both bandages changed, and had managed to get four swallows from the one flask and two from another down the woman's throat. Orino and I loaded her onto the stretcher, under Ten's direction and walked back towards my father's house.

I will note that, though the girl was on the brink of staving she was in no way light. Perhaps it was because she was waterlogged.

Shipwreck Story- Amari Found

2010-07-13T07:16:11Z

This starts with Kai running up shouting. There is probably a bit of scene before it but it is not dramatic and therefore not yet written.

If you were wondering this is when the PLOT of the book actually starts.

...I am not sure what the actual procedure for what to do when you find a half dead person on the beach is but I am pretty sure that dragging them around by their arms is not advised. Luckily we know that Amari survives Genric's tender care or there would be no story

Kai's voice brought me out of my musings, and I looked up to see him running down the beach towards me.

“Father!” he shouted. “I've found something!”

“Found something?” I repeated. I smiled at him as he stopped in front of me, breathless.

“And what is it you have found? More bits of glass? A fossil perhaps?”

“A boat.” he said. “A boat, father! It's about my height and another half and two feet wide and there's a man underneath!”

“A man?” I repeated.

“A Barbarian!” Kai said. He was pulling at my hands and trying to pull me to my feet. “Please father! Come” He might be alive.”

I began to rise. He let go of my hand and set off at a run down the beach and frowned and jogged after him. Kai was not aware that he had grown faster than me in the last two years. When we had been running for some minutes I spotted the craft in question. It was cracked across one side, no longer sea worthy and the angle which it had been hurled up suggested that it had come up in the early morning's storm. Kai did not wait until I caught up with him but began digging under the edge of the vessel to get a finger hold to lift it. I caught up to him and reached down to join the effort, with somewhat less urgency.

“He is under the boat?” I said.

My son nodded.

“He's probably dead, Kai.” I said. “Perhaps you ought to wait by the...”

“I want to help.” Kai snapped, interrupting me. I gritted my teeth.

“Kai. You will address me in a tone of respect. I said.

“Hurry!” he said. “If he is alive he needs our help now!”

I frowned. “Stand back.” I said.

He opened his mouth to protest, then, seeing the set of my mouth, thought better of it and sat back. The shell of the old boat was heavy, and it was with some effort that I lifted it and looked underneath. There was indeed a figure there. I pushed the craft, half lifted back over the sand, shifting it away from the man before I attempted to flip it over. With one heave the boat was almost up on it's side. With the next it came crashing to the beach with a wooden groan of protest as bits of the broken boards creaked and cracked and splintered. On the spot of beach where it had been laid the prone barbarian who, incidentally, was not a man.

She was taller and broader than most Kislan women, but still more slender than most men. Her skin was an incredible bright pink, and her hair was curled and tangled with seaweed. She wore trousers in the Barbarian style, fitted through the legs and seat. She had a long shirt with buttons, but it was open and her undershirt was torn just below the breast. The missing parts had probably been used to make the brown-gray bandages now on her leg and arm.

Kai, forgetting my orders, ran forward at the sight of her and stood behind me as I bent over her. I planned to check her pulse and, after I had removed a clod of seaweed from her mouth, her breathing, The motion however, produced a cough and saved me the trouble.

“She's alive!” Kai shouted.

Her chest heaved and she went into another fit of coughing. I glanced from my son, to the barbarian woman, struggling to breathe. I reached down and straightened her neck, rolling her towards me. Her coughing paused for a moment as she spit up more water and seaweed. Kai scurried around to her other side and reached down to pat her back, as you do with a child who has breathed some water swimming. Finally the coughing stopped and she laid still, putting all of her effort into breathing.

I watched her chest move with that effort for a moment, then glanced to Kai, who was doing the same. He saw me look at him and his face began to redden. Suddenly I realized just how much of this woman's Barbarian anatomy was clear to my son, in those trousers and a torn undershirt. I laid her down, back to the sand and began to take off my robe.

“Run to the village and get Ten.” I said.

“But, I want to help you.” He said.

I pulled the woman's wet outer shirt off and lifted her to wrap in my dry robe, leaving what was left of the undershirt in place. She started coughing again and I wondered how much water she had swallowed. “Neither of us can help her much, I don't think. I will drag her up the beach so she starts to dry out. You get Ten and bring him back here.”

“...but...”

“Now” I said. He hesitated for a moment before he nodded and began to run for the dunes. I bent to get the woman under her armpits and started to drag her up the beach.

The coughing started again and I let her down against the sand then sat down beside her and cradled her head so she could breathe more easily, beginning to mutter the nonsense you tell children when they are ill. “You'll be all right. Shh. Lie still.”

The coughing subsided for a moment and she moaned. I was struck by an abrupt fear that she might wake up and attempt to talk to me, or die in my arms, two equally alarming prospects.

I looked to my right and in front of me. There were less rocks in this stretch of beach than the ones further south, towards my father's house, but it still was some kind of a miracle that the little lifeboat had not been dashed to pieces. I surmised that it had probably gotten caught, right side up, on a slanting rock in my view and the waves had been unable to move it forward until a particularly violent one had caught it and overturned it, and it's human contents in the act. The woman had no doubt been knocked about a bit, I would not move her again if I could help it, I decided, until Ten arrived lest I aggravate a wound or a bruise.

“You are a very lucky little barbarian.” I said. The noise she made in reply was unintelligible, but it worried me in that it made me suspect she was beginning to regain control of her vocal cords. Surely other facilities would follow. “Shh.” I said. She rolled her head a little and moaned again.

Then, my fears were realized as her eyes opened and fixed in all their purple glory, on me.

Amari Arrested?

2010-07-01T22:02:19Z

A section from much later in the story where they attempt to arrest Amari for...well. for being an outsider. Genric sites other laws to attempt to weasle out of this...

“Wait!” I shouted. I got up. “Let her go! I saved this woman's life by God and she owes me her three years of service!” The men paused and looked at their commander who made a face.

“Sir. Please sit down.” He said. I sat down, but did not take my eyes from Amari. “You will be remunerated, but she cannot stay.” the man at the desk continued. “She is dangerous.”

“She's not dangerous!” I said. “Look at her hands. Just take one look at them.” I got up and motioned for the man to follow me.

“Still, Amari.” I whispered to her. “Be still.” She was shaking pretty badly, but she wasn't fighting them. I motioned for the guard on her right to let her go. The man's commander made a face, but a moment later nodded. I caught her hand in mine and gave the back of it a caress with my thumb. She met my eyes and shook her head. She couldn't stop the shaking, I understood.

“There you go. Be still.” I whispered. I turned to the man and offered him Amari's hand, repeating what Ten had told me those months before. “Look.” I said. “Look at the muscles here. This woman is not dangerous. She has done lifting and carving, which is why this here is defined. But her hands, look at them. She has never handled a weapon or gunpowder. See how soft her palm is? She's an artist.”

“An artist?” The man repeated. “And what use do you have for a barbarian artist?”

“That is my own affair. The law states that I am entitled to three years of her service. She is not dangerous.”

“An artist?” the man repeated.

I nodded. The other men in the office had their eyes on our exchange now. I motioned for the other man to let her go and, given the fact that we could hardly bolt, surrounded as we were. I took her other hand and squeezed. I wanted to promise that I wouldn't let them hurt her. That I wouldn't let them drag her away. If she went to Sanri as a slave she would never see home again, I knew. In this light, I couldn't promise that everything would be fine. I did not, but I tried to remain calm. “Amari, come here.” I whispered.

She took a step towards me. I led her to a seat and took a blank sheet to set in front of her on the table.

“What do you think you are doing?” The commander barked at me.

“Proving what I just said was the truth.” I said. I gave her a pen and an inkwell. She stared at me.

“Draw something.” I told her. She looked at the paper, the men, and back at me.

“Oh, yes.” the commander said “I can see now that she is very skilled.”

I bent beside her.. “Amari. This is important. Draw something. Please.”

She shook her head slightly, tilting it. “I don't understand.”

I raked one hand through my hair, and wondered why it was our intelligence failed us in times of our greatest need.

“I think we have seen enough of this.” The commander said, motioning to his men.

“Draw Jinto!” I blurted.

She looked from me to the guards and back to the paper. From the look on her face she was still unclear as to this being a good course of action, but she trusted me enough to bend and start to draw the face that now adorned such a percentage of the scrap paper in my father's office. She was still trembling as she sketched in the curved underside of the man's face, making for a few awkward lines, but soon the familiarity of the act calmed her and when she went over them again they were smooth. It was a quick sketch, with bold strokes only to indicate the features and expression and the men held back before seizing here to watch her finish.

It was, I was thankful, one of her best to date. Jinto, that mythical paper creature whom I had come to know so well, was, as always, not the most handsome man, but she conveyed as always, movement and emotion, concern in the eyes, the sorrow in the smile. Her rendering made him haunting and beautiful.

Amari's tender motions as she measured spaces with her fingers and sketched each line spoke as well, telling anyone who was reading the language of her body that this was not any man. This was a man that the artist knew, and loved. When she drew in the final line of the eyes that brought the light to them one of the men gasped. The commander shot him an glare. Amari finished a few lines, eyebrows and hair, then put down the pen and, for a moment. No one moved. Finally the commander took the paper in front of her in his hands and looked it over.

The man snorted. “All right.” He said. “She's an artist. I am not sure what this proves.”

“She is a woman of skill. She is in my service as law dictates for three years and I will not relinquish her. She is worth more to me than she would be to any Sanri trader.” I stood and inched, carefully between Amari and the men “She is not dangerous.”