And in the sea there is a fish, a fish that has a secret wish

serpentpixie @ 2019-11-27T00:05:00

2019-11-27T00:05:21Z

The sacrifical lamb is always feckless.

I should have byed out the week we had the extension.
I haven't actually voted yet.
I gave it a shot.
Life won.

Here's a life for someone else :)

Week 6

2019-11-14T23:26:18Z

The Book of the Emissaries
Retold from the manuscripts of the Underworld.

Four.
Mercatilla

The human footprint is a peculiar thing.
In the crypts and corners of the libraries, we have carved our names upon the walls. In reproduction, we have renamed our children after the ancestors of old, in hope of renewing their blood.
A squiggle of an initial, and a date - and a thousand years from now such letters are lost to all but the stone in which they were made.

After death, Evelyn had forgotten Mercatilla.

During a brief soujourn in the ancient British city of Bath, she had found the gravestone of the dead child quite by accident. She supposed that the museum had found it by accient, too, having recovered it from the middle of the ancient city walls.

Our ancient ancestors, it would seem, were much better at acting upon the mantra: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Chuck the gravestone of that baby into the wall. Baby ain't gonna know.

Bath was not quite an ordinary city. It held, she knew, a great deal of historical status, but those who lived there often criticised it for being nothing more exciting than 'nice'. The quirk of the hot spring was certainly interesting.
Mostly, she had seen, it was full of tourists on tour buses (25% of whom asked if Jesus had ever visited the baths).

"Sure," Evelyn wanted to say, "He bathed here with the hobbits and Harry Potter."

        "Did they really bathe in the nude?"
        "How deep is it?"
        "How hot is the water?"

Never mind, she had thought, roaming the streets of a long-dead city, that they'd bothered to place glass in their windows.

        "That's a lie."
        "Glass didn't exist back then."
        "You don't know what you're talking about."

Tucked far below ground, the gravestone of Mercatilla was displayed upon a wooden plinth.

Freedwoman, foster-daughter of Magnus. A girl who was born and died when the art of glassmaking was already a millenia old.

One Year, Six Months and Twelve Days old.
A slave given liberty.
Why?

As a living woman, Evelyn had wondered how such a thing had happened.
As an emissary, she decided to discover the answer.

Thus it was that Eveleyn - three-hundred-and-fourth emissary of the reaper - crept across the boundary between the world as if she were naught but shadow and dust.
She cut the boundaries of time and the universe in search of Mercatilla.

Mercatilla: one dead among the millions dead.
One dead, preserved in a museum.

Evelyn learned to walk across the boundaries of time for Mercatilla.

The Stealing of Excalibur

2019-11-05T23:40:31Z

The Book of the Emissaries
Retold from the manuscripts of the Underworld.

Three.
The Stealing of Excalibur.

Evelyn Fairchild did not come upon the sword by chance. It was a gift - a gift from the air, from the dark, and, of course, from the stone.

Time, in the afterlife, exists in the same way as a ball of unkempt yarn. It isn't neat, and human linearity, once lost, takes with it all expectations of heroism.
Humans, it seems, have a tendency to dream of glory for only one purpose: to mask the perpetual mutiny of mankind.
Evelyn supposed that religion existed for a similar reason.
Humans are ... cruel.

The first time she met King Arthur, he was preoccupied - tossing the guts of Guinevere over a telephone wire as a companion to a pair of rotting sneakers.
She paused, and asked him why.
Why not?

You living human souls. You always want an answer. Evelyn had not quite lost that trait.
Why?
She was mine.

The second time, she found him plucking out the eyelashes of his father.
What will you do with them?
Send them to Merlin.

Why?
Why not?

The third time he was carving Lancelot's heart.

Why?
Why not?

The fourth and final time she met King Arthur, he was a boy, tugging at sword in a rock.

"Does this sword have a name?" He whispered to her, but she had already seen what was to come.

"Mine," she said, and walked away with it.

Later, the tales of these meetings ricocheted back into human existence. Weaving themselves into the mythology of the living, she realised that they did not quite end up as honest as she had expected.
Or, she thought later, perhaps the living did not want to see the truth in those they loved.

Of course, this is fiction: Evelyn exists only in your head.

2019-10-07T20:47:27Z

The Book of the Emissaries
Retold from the manuscripts of the Underworld.

Two.
The Cabinet of Thoughts

Murder, Evelyn learned quickly, was not quite as glamourous as one might otherwise have assumed. The exciting murders were all committed by the most senior Emissaries: the ones she imagined sat in chambers, chanting and polishing their guns.

Such creatures were little more than a rumour among the newest recruits – there was a perpetual whisper that the Emissaries of Sudden Violent Death wore red cloaks and the faces of little girl ghosts.
Evelyn had certainly never seen one of them.
Although, she supposed, seeing anything when you were already dead was likely to pose something of a challenge.

Evelyn, the newest of Emissaries, had a simpler and entirely more uninteresting task.

She was sent to collect ideas.

Unbound from the ordinary limitations of physics, Evelyn wandered freely through the minds of living souls. The simple ideas were ones she snatched from the brain like butterflies: they were not missed, and their absence posed no threat.

The complex ideas: the ones they kept in jars, were the ones for which she was required to kill.

“Dig,” she was told, and she learned that obedience can be simple.

Evelyn first kept the quarried thoughts in a green plastic lunchbox, all tangled up. Later, she would transfer them into clean pickle jars, topped off with formaldehyde. It is a challenge to quantify the size of a cabinet in the absence of time and space, but it would be far to say that the collection of thoughts, memories and ideas dug up by the Emissaries was rather large.

After a week, she discovered the purpose of the ideas for which she had so diligently mined. A leaflet found its way to her imaginary post-life front door.

Welcome to LiveFlix [The Cabinet of Thoughts]: the Afterlife Entertainment Catalogue.
For Romance: press one.
For War: press two.
For Children Falling Over: press three.
For Erotica: press four…

She wondered what was wrong with a good book.

Idol Week One: Resolution.

2019-09-29T18:54:49Z

The Book of the Emissaries
Retold from the manuscripts of the Underworld.

One.
The Recruitment of Evelyn Fairchild.

Right now, in the very moment you are reading this, a story is beginning somewhere in the universe. Slimy and squalling, and quite possibly covered in shit – life begins.
In polite company, we seem to avoid talking about the inevitability of the end.

        This is not polite company.
   This is the story of the messangers of Death.

We meet Evelyn Fairchild at the end.
        The circle of life shall not be resolved.

Last night, you see, Evelyn tiptoed along the bank of the river with a pound coin in the pocket of her dress. Unsure how to summon the ferryman, she took the most direct approach.

   Drowning is never quite as elegant as the poets would have you believe.

Later, she would describe death as the simple absence of time. It was, she realised, much the same as being alive, without the hassle of corporeal toileting habits.

She missed the taste of gin.

Without time as a constraint, her thoughts became entangled.
        Linearity is the preserve of the living.

Of course, Evelyn had been born and lived a thoroughly unremarkable life. Like you, she entered the world as a slimy, squalling babe, layered in blood and shit. Like you, she has already died.

                Most people die covered in blood or shit.
                                  Is the beginning an echo of the end, or does the end follow the beginning?
                                            Drowning seemed cleaner.

By the time she was pulled into the boat and clothed in the cape of the night, the memories of her life had faded. No matter. She had actually been, until now, quite dull.

“Miss Fairchild.” A whisper from everywhere and nowhere. “Welcome.”

There was a scythe propped against the trunk of an ancient oak.
        She was faintly surprised to see a tree in the afterlife.

                                                       It is ...
        This line does not work in the absence of
                                                                                                                                  time.

She was given one instruction. It began as this:

“We have a murder for you to commit.”

LJ Idol: Sign Up and Week 0

2019-09-18T19:59:09Z

Half a decade has passed.

I am interested to see that I can remember my password, but not quite how Livejournal works. Writing this post would once have taken mere minutes: today, it takes longer (although I confess that the sluggish nature of my typing might be a result of the injury I sustained on Sunday, when the breadknife I was wielding went rogue and mistook my finger for a loaf of crusty white).

I wonder, as I write this, how much time has passed since I first signed up to Livejournal.
The answer is this: 14 years and 4 months.
Three fifths of the students I now teach weren't actually born at the time.

In this half a decade of absence, I have bought a house, eloped to Las Vegas, qualified as a teacher and in my spare time run a half decent cadet unit in the South West of England. Not so bad, as adulting goes, although I have killed an alarming number of houseplants and still can't really cook (see earlier breadknife).

In spite of this sudden onset of adulthood (or perhaps because of it), I have written almost nothing in the five years since I bailed out of Idol Season 9. I spend my days buried in books and poems (and data, and detentions), but I am no longer sure that I know how to write.

I suppose I'd better give it a try.

So:
This is week zero, and this is a statement of intent.

The days, after all, are growing cruel.
The mantle of the night is drawing in.
The monsters of your soul are meandering home from a party in the gates of the abyss.

My oars are dipped.

Begin.

therealljidol Season 11.
Sign Up.
Topic: Week 0.

serpentpixie @ 2013-04-14T22:16:00

2013-04-14T21:15:41Z

Greetings, Livejournal!

I still exist!

This is actually a post requesting INFORMATIONS AND THE LIKE.

You see, the boy and I have booked ourselves a holiday (a "vacation", I suppose, if I'm going to translate into American). We're going to be visiting New York and Montreal at the end of May, and I came here wondering if you kids have any GOOD AND AWESOME SUGGESTIONS for things to do in either place. We're staying in New York for four nights and Montreal for eight nights (and being all crazy and taking the train from one place to the other).

To give you an idea of the kind of people we are, we both saw the website for Barcade Brooklyn, "a combination Bar and Arcade with a focus on classic Video Games and American Craft Beer." and thought it looked like the BEST PLACE EVER.
I like theatre (but hate commercial west-end stuff), art, vintage/second hand things, beer, books, sports/exercise and being outside. Boy likes comedy, live music, comics, books, beer, computer games and not having to exercise.

We're not rich kids, so free/cheap suggestions are definitely very welcome - although we do live in London, so we're used to things not really being so cheap. Good bars, restaurants, places to go, things to see?

Also, you know, any general advice for either city - transport, cultural things, all that jazz. I'd especially like to know how these places work with regard to tipping (My impression is generally that Americans tip for EVERYTHING and we totally don't, and I have NO IDEA how Canadians approach tips).

:)

serpentpixie @ 2013-01-05T19:10:00

2013-01-05T19:09:43Z

Odd, disjointed thoughts:

1. After five years of being vegetarian I've started eating meat again. Mostly it's weird because I never learned to cook meat for myself, so I feel a bit lost in all the recipes. I was never a "moral vegetarian" just... didn't like meat. Then along came an insatiable craving for a steak, and here I am. Tastes change, it seems. Although I still don't like bacon or fish. Controversially, I feel considerably healthier for it.

2. Also on being healthy, following the vast quantities of wine consumed in December, I'm having a dry January. My bank balance and my body both approve.

3. I got the dreaded "So when are you going to have children?" over Christmas. Twice. WTF? I'm way too young for those kind of shenanigans. Besides which, I am far too attached to my 8 hours of sleep per night.

4. I learned to knit. I already made one scarf and I'm half way through two more.

4a. I've started listening to Classic FM when I'm in the bath and when I'm writing. I'm visiting friends in Sheffield at the end of the month and I'm looking forward to going for a walk in the Peak District and drinking real ales. I also read the Guardian on a daily basis. When the fuck did I get so old?

5. I wrote a Mission 101 list that I started on the 1st of January. I don't know whether I will post it here or not, but I will try to follow it. I don't know. Do you people care about reading those kind of lists?

6. I should try to come here more often, really. I'll get on that.

serpentpixie @ 2012-12-05T22:12:00

2012-12-05T22:12:15Z

Evening Kids!

(Whoa, new updater? WTF?! I don't like change :O )

This is just a quick post to say that I'll be sending out cards at some point in the next few days, and to remind you that I have an open card post right here: http://serpentpixie.livejournal.com/196751.html

I'll happily send cards to anyone that wants one, however well I know you. Just ping me your address between now and the end of the weekend and I'll get them sent out!

I also should say that if you're not comfortable with snail mail cards for whatever reason, if you leave me your email address I'll send an e-card instead :-)

Holiday Cards!!

2012-11-23T22:20:30Z

Hello!

I'll be sending out holiday cards this year, to anyone who would like one! Even if you feel you don't know me well or anything, I'd still like to spread some holiday cheer to you! If you'd like a card, leave your address as a comment to this post (comments are screened). Also if you have a holiday card post of your own, then link me to it 'cause I like cards too!

Here is a textbox you can use to reply :)

Hope you're all happy and doing well :)

<3

serpentpixie @ 2012-07-23T21:51:00

2012-07-23T20:52:51Z

Today? Oh, yes -- today.

Well...

I got paid to write for three straight hours and then paid to watch The Dark Knight Rises in the Imax.
My day job = fucking awesome.

And then, following this awesoneness, I went to sit in Hyde Park, in the sun, with a bottle of wine.
And now J is cooking my dinner for me as we speak. It will be waiting for me when I get home, he says.

My life = fucking awesome.

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

serpentpixie @ 2012-06-10T00:01:00

2012-06-09T23:02:20Z

Tonight I learned of some news that makes me want to share a thought:

Be always grateful for the things you have and for the people you love. Tell them often. Life is fleeting and death unmerciful. Don't waste your days away in self indulgent whining. Happiness is not given to you by magic, but is something you make for yourself.

<3

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

serpentpixie @ 2012-06-07T13:49:00

2012-06-07T12:50:24Z

Day one at New Job:

Dear Parents,

Quit teaching your kids to 'never tell your name to a stranger' - when they're howling their head off because they've lost you they'll refuse to tell the staff members their name which is kind of inconvenient in a 7 story building.

kthnx

Esta

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

Write All The Days is Open For Business!

2012-04-02T17:02:10Z

Originally posted by teaberryblue at Write All The Days is Open For Business!

writeallthedays

Write All The Days is a community for people who like to write and need some extra encouragement, support, structure, or accountability to meet their writing goals.

It is for anybody and everybody who needs a little extra something to keep writing-- whether you need to write for work or a class, and want to make sure you hit your deadlines, whether you want to be a more consistent blogger, write for fun/meditation, or want to finish professional writing projects (or things you hope may become professional writing projects).

We set goals at the beginning of the week, and check in throughout the week to keep ourselves on track. At the end of the week, we recount what we've done to meet our goals that week. There are no prizes and no requirements. You don't have to share your writing unless you want to. There is no goal too small or too large, and you don't have to set a goal every week.

Please join!

serpentpixie @ 2012-03-04T18:15:00

2012-03-04T18:16:46Z

I am on the train home from London now and all I want to do is go right back and be with J... I miss him so damn much :(
That is all.

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

serpentpixie @ 2012-03-03T19:04:00

2012-03-03T19:05:35Z

Bestest quote from J today at Westminster Tube station: "This is like being inside a Dalek"

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

A thing that amused me...

2012-02-23T12:41:12Z

So I am in the coffee bar of the national theatre grabbing a drink before I go to see Island. In front of me in the queue there were three American girls - i think on a school trip who were thoroughly perplexed by the choice of tea ("what's English Breakfast?" "What should I get?" "I'll have earl grey but what if they ask how I want it, then what do I say?" "what size do i ask for? Am I supposed to say 'small'?"). Honestly. It was like they had never seen a tea menu before!!

Now wish me luck. I'm going to a Thursday matinee of a kids show. It's going to be stuffed full of school children. Damn kids being allowed to go to see children's theatre!

:)

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

HOLIDAY CARDS!

2011-11-23T11:49:00Z

I swear I'll do a real life update SOON. It's been ages and my life has been, overall, pretty good the last few weeks.

Meanwhile, HOLIDAY CARDS!

If you want a holiday card from me then fill out the poll below and I'll happily send you one. I'll send to all countries!

If you're not happy about giving out your RL address, for whatever reason, then I'm happy to do E-Cards as well. Just put your email address down instead of your snail mail address!

View Poll: Holiday Cards!

If you have a holiday card post that I haven't responded to yet then link me! I like cards!

serpentpixie @ 2011-10-15T22:55:00

2011-10-15T21:56:31Z

sitting in the departure lounge at Birmingham airport... off to Frankfurt - yay! anything important share with me here :) otherwise i guess see you all in a week :) :)

serpentpixie @ 2011-10-07T10:39:00

2011-10-07T09:39:01Z

Good Morning Livejournal!

Yesterday I booked a holiday! J, myself, and two friends will be visiting Frankfurt for a week in mid-November, to coincide with my birthday and my friend's birthday. We'll be staying with another friend who is currently living there, but she'll have to spend some of the time working, and so I'm looking for suggestions for things to do and places to see.

I like old places, very new places, theatre, shopping, quirky bars, bookshops, hiking, cycling, adventure sports, and interesting art-that-isn't-just-painting (exception Pre-Raphaelites).
I dislike following the tourist trail and visiting more than one museum in a day.

All suggestions welcome!

I would also appreciate recommendations for a good website or book or download that I can use to learn some German - I don't speak a word of German, and I don't like visiting a country without at least a basic grasp of the language.

Any and all suggestions are much appreciated!!

Esta :)

serpentpixie @ 2011-09-25T22:50:00

2011-09-25T21:51:31Z

SOMEONE SCARE ME.
I have ongoing, ridiculous hiccups.

serpentpixie @ 2011-09-22T20:17:00

2011-09-22T19:18:04Z

having spent all day teasing comedychick about being addicted to the internet, now that i am stuck on the worlds busiest train that is delayed by like an hour all i can think to do whilst waiting for something interesting to happen is to come here and tell you guys that i am on the worlds busiest train and i am bored.

at least, though, i had a wonderful afternoon with two properly cool people :) :)

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

serpentpixie @ 2011-09-07T19:58:00

2011-09-07T18:58:59Z

around 5 hours ago i handed in my masters thesis. i feel weird.

at least, though, pottermore is psychic - my welcome letter came through last night. tonight my treat is to play at pottermore!!!

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

LJ Idol!!

2011-06-17T14:33:06Z

Afternoon, kids!

Voting on this week's LJ Idol is ongoing until 8pm EDT (1am BST) tonight.

I'm here to remind you to read and vote!!

In truth, it looks as though I might be leaving this week: I'm trailing in the polls by a long, long way.

HOWEVER...

I'm not here to ask you to "vote for me." Not directly, anyway.
I'm here to ask you to read and vote for whoever you like. All I want is more readers across the 11 remaining entries.
It's a case of the more, the merrier. In this game, the more people reading & voting the better.

There are 11 brilliant entries over here at THE POLL. Take the time to read them: I promise you it's worth it.

:)

LJ Idol // Week 28 // Winding Up

2011-06-14T18:32:26Z

This weeks idol entry is brought to you from RAF Cranwell. I'm on limited internet connection via phone browser -- I wrote this over the weekend and typed it up on my phone - I've tried to get this all formatted right, but if you see something funny then let me know and I'll get back on and fix it asap.

At the very end is a question. I'd love to actually see your answers to it, if you are so inclined, but that's not obligatory.

A Journey Towards the Great Unknown

At the furthest end of the known universe there lie the ruins of a once-great city. It lies hidden amidst the trees and the thickets, far beyond the road and the taverns.

You came upon this place only by accident.

Place your bag on the floor beside a tree (any tree – it doesn’t matter which) and take a step towards the crumbled walls. Breathe.

Now.

Here you are.

You were never meant to come this way, but now you’re here, you find that you are inextricably drawn towards the city.

You could turn back.

Go on.

Turn back now and walk away.

You can’t, can you?

Standing upon the brink of a brand new place, you think: one quick look. One step across the threshold can’t hurt.

Can it?

You stand upon the brink of this once great city.
One more step and you will cross the city walls into the unknown.
Are you afraid?

Place your hand upon a dying piece of stone.
Run your hands across it.
You understand it's pain.
(Tell it so.)

Remember the feel of this stone and the tree where you left your bag.
Think of the moment when the sun hits a puddle in the road after the rain.
Recall first taste of the summer ice cream in the park on a Sunday afternoon.

Cross the threshold.

(Where do we go in the end? When we shuffle off this mortal coil, what next?)

Tell me.
What do you find?