December Daily Little Things

Well, here's the last one. I've been doing this all year but only started blogging it in the latter half.
I kind of want to change the name for the new year. I'll still tag it under the same tag though, for consistency.

1. Mario Karts, food...
2. Colored with gimp, made hero logos
3. Wrote a story
4. Pride and prejudice, worked on projects
5. Gave last speech!
6. Way too much free time.
7. Saw Bethany, air was nice
8. Too much sugar, sang in the car
9. TARDIS! (can be seen here)
10. Speech class over
11. Finished a book
12. Finished plush
13. Last day of classes
14. Friends over
15. Games, games, games!
16. More games, was basically in charge all day
17. Slept past noon.
18. Worked hard on story
19. Came up with beginning
20. Saw the Hobbit
21. Great evening skies
22. Put makeup on movie & tv show people
23. -I did not write anything this day but it was Josiah's birthday-
24. Skirt
25. Moustaches, TARDIS, Shakespeare
26. Shakespeare rap battle, pride and prejudice, splendid sunset
27. Les miserables, chai latte, potato soup
28. Villains, good tea (thanks, Josh)
29. Read a lot of homestuck.
30. Almost done with drive thing, IM'd Shadow and Emma
31. Starting off the new yearwith a clean room and desk.

You may notice that there are a lot more links in this one than usual. Well, that just means that I've been blogging more often about the things that make my day, which means they've been slightly bigger things. :D

New Year!

I'll be starting off the new year with a clean room and a clean desk.
The room wasn't so hard. I hadn't touched my desk pretty much all break. But now it's clean and my computer is back out of my room, so productivity might be increasing soon.

My desk display has gotten a lot more timey-wimey:

Does this make my doll the companion and the orange guy the Doctor?

 I don't think I've ever shown my desk. It's super cool. Standing height. People sit too much. The desk itself is basically a counter top. The sides are book shelves. I have the fun stuff in the right corner, the "inbox" in the left, and my computer plus some space (that is not empty at the moment) in the middle.
The stool is for if I can't stand anymore. XD

I said my room was clean. By that, I mean it's organized and everything is put away.
Take a look at that picture above. Yep. The right side is my black carpet's usual unfortunate state. The left side is after I attempted to vacuum. Can you see why I gave up?
I've never liked a vacuum since the big old noisy bag vacuum that stopped working. This one especially is cheap and hardly holds anything before it needs to be dumped. I can literally SEE it spitting dust out, and it obviously picks nothing up without a million and one passes. Plus it was making a funny noise. Oh well. I'm used to the chaff.

BUT ON TO MORE IMPORTANT THINGS.
New Years Resolutions. Ah, yes. Those things.
This year I resolved to not drink soda and to sit under trees more. Here is the result.
I probably sat under less than ten trees (mostly it's because bugs.) However, that's more than the nothing that I had in previous years!
I succeeded in not drinking a single can or bottle of soda. It wasn't bad at all. However, I did allow myself some cherry limeades from Sonic despite the fact that they are /mostly/ soda. I also had a swallow of some mostly-soda punch at a party before I realized what I was doing.
I think I'll continue not drinking soda. I didn't really miss it--just like I haven't missed meat since becoming a vegetarian-minus-bacon. (happily, I'm starting to savor bacon less. My dad is appalled; it was the only thing we had in common anymore. /sarcasm)

THIS YEAR I RESOLVE TO.

a) Quell my use of useless speech fillers, such as "like."
b) Use correct grammar and punctuation in general on the Internet, even when I'm being silly. (However, I will still talk in all caps and use run-on sentences.)
c) Move to Austin. More and more I'm needing to be closer to school, good jobs, etc. Plans are forming.
NEWS FLASH IT IS RAINING. HARD. It just started.
OH MY WORD.

YEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
listen to that beautiful noise. -listens-
Did I have any other resolutions?
Ah yes.
d) Get back on track with eating healthy and being active. Walking more; eating whole grains and lots of vegetables and fruits.
Oh and
e) Make some substantial and concrete progress on Fledge Fighters, hopefully launching it.

Ways I have changed this year?
I've entered spheres of the world that I am not entirely comfortable in. Rather than turning tail and running, I hope to keep my mind and heart pure by giving my troubles to God, and perhaps I can claim a small area of the wayward places for Him.
I've learned a lot about myself and why I am the way I am. MBTI is really fun. I've come to appreciate all the characters that God has made.
I've grown into my geek world, I think. No longer am I only a fan of anime and manga; my horizons have expanded. I'm also definitely a member of the God fandom. (I once saw someone use that term to mock Christians but I think it's true and not a bad thing. I love finding out new things about the story He's writing, even if I get apathetic at times.)
I've developed my own drawing style; this relates to manga/anime not being my only genre anymore.
Wow, I've blogged a lot!
I've affirmed the direction I want to grow in.
I've come to appreciate semicolons.

Four-a-hundred!

Blogger tells me this is my 401th post but IT IS A LIE because one of those posts has been a draft forever and I haven't ever published it.

So post number 400 is about...
A MOVIE (what else, really? :P)
I watched Despicable Me with my siblings. I wasn't expecting to like it. But it was actually really sweet. c: The minions were cute, the important things were important, etc. It definitely could have done without the crude humor though. I don't understand why people feel the need for this kind of thing. ANYWAY, all in all I liked it.

Another thing I did today was to make up villains with a couple siblings, color pictures with Judah, etc. I saw Bethany briefly as she drove through my neighborhood. I didn't get a whole lot done, though, because I've been staying up too late and sleeping in too much and so I didn't get up until the morning was gone. But hm.

Uneventful 400th post. -shrug-

Five hundred will have to be something awesome. Five and its multiples are my favorite. :D

Les Miserables

I really liked the movie. It was really intense and gritty, and had some not children appropriate content, but the message was overall hopeful and I think really well executed.

Wow, that was shorter than I thought. Oh well.

Afterwards, Mom, Dad, and Josh were all craving STEAK. So we went to a steakhouse. .__.

I managed to find a couple things that the only meat in them was bacon (I am a cheater vegetarian).

However, I found upon eating this that I DON'T ACTUALLY LOVE BACON AS MUCH AS I THOUGHT which is kind of nice because it's not the healthiest thing in the world. (Don't worry, Emma, if you make bacon I will still eat it with you as long as it's the nice crunchy strip kind. :D and I like those fake bacon soy pellets for salads. So.)

But man, that potato soup was gooooood. Both the stuff from the steakhouse and the stuff from Central Market beforehand which I only had a little bit of because it was Mom and Dad's, and Dad and Josh had sushi, and I had a cup of fruit which Mom ate out of, and I had a chai latte that Dad and Josh tried and it was sharing all around.

IT WAS A GOOD DAY.

Yesterday was pretty swell.

Yesterday I slept until 2 PM. WHOOPS

After that I woke up and immediately ate tater tots with mustard on them and joined my mom in watching the BBC's version of Pride and Prejudice. I doodled all the while and forgot to actually watch, as is my usual. (I often follow movies by ear rather than sight, especially if I've seen them before. That's one reason going to the theater is so cool--the movie is everything, all your attention.)
Eventually, Dad got home and said it was okay if we kept watching. (We had offered him relief from the period drama-ness.)
We broke for dinner and returned, and by the end, Dad was making comments like "that woman's voice is annoying" (the mother) and to my mother "I didn't wear a hat like that when we got married!"
He said he didn't understand how we liked it so much. I said it was a classic (because honestly romance isn't my thing... I like it out of familiarity I guess?). Mom tried to compare it to his science fiction "classics." He expressed his perplexion at the fact that there are three versions of it that we've watched within two months. There aren't a million interpretations of Star Wars.
"But what about all those fanfiction spin-offs?" Mom asked.
"Those are different stories!" My dad replied.
"There are lots of interpretations of each Shakespeare play." I said, finding a reasonable comparison.
"I don't care for those either." my Dad said.
"Well, good for you." was all the reply I had. When something comes down to a difference in basic opinion and there is no harm in disagreeing, I don't see why I should argue him into changing his mind. The movie was over, anyway.

While the movie was still going on, but paused, I happened to glance at the windows, and they were PINK! This was the sign of something awesome going on so I ran out front in my socks and TAH DAH

 Usually the iPod washes things out and I have to edit them back to how I actually saw them but NOT TODAY! These are untouched originaaaaaaaaaals
Not fantastic photos, but fantastic sky art. Cool beans, God! Seven thumbs up! 8D (I'll borrow some thumbs from other people like Emma.)
The only awkward part about sunsets is that they're right above my neighbor's house, so it's not uncommon to see me just taking pictures of their house (but actually of the sky right above it). At least on a day like this, even if I was observed, it would be clear what beauteous wonder I was shooting.

After dinner I tumblred and TWIGed and facebooked way too many times just WAITING FOR MY BROTHER
who was playing a video game. But once he was done, we had SHAKESPEARE RAP BATTLES.
I would post our better one but it's um.
Ten minutes long.
Hee hee.

After that I tumblred and IMd and TWIGed and stuff some more and then it was 1:30 and I figured I should sleep. But having only been awake for twelve hours, I wasn't tired! It took me longer to go to sleep than it has in years. I kept getting up to check things like that my iPod was definitely going to turn off the music, to turn DOWN the music, to update my calendar, blah blah blah.

This morning I got up at a reasonable eight o clock hour and considered eating pie for breakfast but gave into healthier options called mashed potato and rice and cheese and carrot.

And I'm seeing Les Miserables today!

CHRISTMAS IS GREAT.

In addition to the wonderful introvertedness, I got some cool stuff

(Highlights would be the complete works of Shakespeare, the FIVE MOUSTACHIOED DRINKING APPARATUSES, the TARDIS cookie jar, and the Inigo Montoya shirt)

Plus I saw Brave.
Merida's hair was brilliant and awesome. The 3D was cool, too. And I related to the theme, too... I emitted about seven tears and then my mom immediately wanted to start a discussion about what the moral of the story was (this reminded me about how we look at things SO differently which was the WHOLE REASON I WAS TEARING UP) and so I had to go up to my room and have a short cry and then I had to come down and give her a hug because well YOU DON'T JUST NOT WHEN YOU'VE SEEN A MOVIE ABOUT MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS NOT GETTING ALONG
(I love you, Mom)

okay sorry. I just had some feels. I know this may come as a shock, dear readers, but I am not a robot and sometimes I get emotions. o__o

A one half introverted christmas

The introverted part of my holiday is coming to a close. I slept until nine, stayed in bed until nearly eleven, drank tea outside, and decided to stay out a bit more.

I took a good walk and threw my apple core in a culvert because heck, it can decompose, and there were PEOPLE at the park (good on them) and that was the only dumpster on my route.

And I WALKED THROUGH a bigger culvert and prayed a good bit and enjoyed the chilly windy weather and frowned upon Texas for still being warm enough for a bit of sweating. Bluh.

But my grandparents will arrive any moment or perhaps have just recently come and I will be forced to partake in the crazy food and stuff scrambles with thirteen other human beings yay.

The Hobbit

POSSIBLY SPOILERS MAYBE

I saw the Hobbit a few days ago. It was nice. The cinematography style seemed to carry from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I liked. Martin Freeman played a good Bilbo. I liked that. One of my favorite lines was Gandalf saying something like "I am seeking the company of the only person here with any sense--myself." I liked how, in the battles, the environment came into play; however, my dad said it was kind of unrealistic with no good guys getting wounded. I hadn't noticed. Whoops.

However, the thing annoying me about the film is:

I wanted to put his head on some famous statue but it is hard to find one decently clothed. Blah.

Okay, I admit, Kili was attractive. BUT NOT IN A DWARFY WAY.
Come on, are they scared that without some man candy, they will lose their girl audience?
I'm sure I can speak for more than just me in saying that I was going to be seeing the movie regardless of the characters' attractive-ness or lack of it.

-S I G H-

At first, upon seeing promotional pictures, I thought it was funny. Now I'm just kind of disappointed in whoever made this happen.

25 days of fic days 16-21

I realized that I forgot to update. Whoops.

16.            Fireplace

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire… Hmm. Rock Lee wasn’t entirely sure he had ever seen a chestnut before. But it was snowing outside, and he knew that it couldn’t be a classic Christmas without the roasting chestnuts. Surely, in the spirit of the season, there would be some at the corner store. It usually had a festive air about it.

So Lee adjusted his leg weights and challenged himself to make it to the corner store so fast that he did not even have time to get cold.

Well, he did so, but once he was inside, he forgot about chestnuts. There was Kurea, buying a bunch of Christmas cookies!

“Kurea!” He called. “It is a great surprise to meet you here!”

“Lee!” said Kurea. “It is not a great surprise to meet you here because I saw you coming.”

“Is that so?” Lee didn’t know what to say next.

Kurea bought her cookies and left. Lee started to remember why he came. Just then he remembered something more important. Kurea wasn’t supposed to have sugar! He dashed outside. Where was that girl? He dashed all around town. Finally he found her swinging off of trees from her toes.

“Calm down!” he said. “How many cookies have you eaten?”

“A half.” Kurea said, her fingers twitching.

“You had better relax a bit.” Lee said, taking the rest of the box of cookies out of Kurea’s reach.

“Aw but”

“Nope.”

It was a sad day for Kurea, but a relieved day for everyone else.

17.            Stockings/socks

The Teen Titans woke up to find that they each had a brand new pair of thigh high fuzzy socks in interesting patterns. Star Fire’s were purple and had polka dots. She immediately put them on. They were perfect! And oh-so-cozy! Which mysterious friend had left them?

Raven’s were an inky blue, almost black. She thought them atrocious, mostly because of the fuzz. But due to the fact that her outfit was basically a leotard, she was secretly glad for the warmth. She wore them under the guise of “making Star Fire happy.” Which it did.

It was even weirder for the guys. But Star Fire insisted that everyone wear them.

Beast Boy actually didn’t mind. His were green and covered in white shapes that were probably /supposed/ to be various animals, but they just looked like fuzzy venus fly traps. He soon began slipping and sliding around the newly clean floors of Titans Tower.

Cyborg was very perplexed. His were pink and had stars. He was pretty burly, so they wouldn’t even fit over his legs/boots (not that he wanted to wear them). What could he use them for? The answer became clear. Oven mitts! He tried to bake pies for everyone. But the socks just caught fire. Oh well. He didn’t really have a use for them anyway.

Robin’s socks were green and gold striped. He had to admit they looked pretty cozy, but there was no way he’d wear thigh high girl socks. So weird! So uncool. Star Fire was insisting, but she just /didn’t understand./ It was no good. He secretly “lost them” by giving them to the delivery girl when she brought a package. The delivery girl felt honored to get something from the super cool Robin of the Teen Titans, so she wore the socks a lot.

18.            Cookies (milk)

Once upon a time, there were so many cookies at the house of my house. I did not eat a single one of them.

That was it; that was the fan fiction; I am a fan of cookies and the fiction was that I didn’t eat any.

19.            Santa

Pootnic was on a predicament ledge. It was a special sort of ledge on which one stood when one wanted to be in a predicament. The predicament was not, predictably, the height or crumbliness of the ledge (though those should have been taken into account since the ledge was made of pop tart and was going to fall apart any second). The predicament was whether or not Santa was real. This really was a very pressing question. It was like when you took a playdough and put it in the play dough mold and smashed it, pressing it. Pretend the play dough is  question. Pressing question. Have you got it yet? In any case, Pootnic pressed the play dough I mean the question while he pondered it. If Santa wasn’t real, then why was Pootnic’s long lost brother Buddy the Elf? If Santa was a fake then so was Buddy, and Pootnic knew that Buddy had been there when he was born. That was because they were twins, born at the same time. Their werewolf father hated Buddy for all his Christmas cheer and banished him to the north pole.

Since Pootnic heard the story straight from Buddy, it was undeniably, undoubtably, indubitably, unquestionably true and right and not fake at all. There was no question about Buddy and Santa’s friendship either. Buddy and Santa were such good friends that it was almost frightening. They knew EVERYTHING about each other. Like even what deodorant they hated. It was because one time they were in the military together, and everyone is in close quarters there. The quarters were closer than the quarters in a roll of quarters that you bring to the washing machines in public washing machine rooms like laundrimates, and those quarters are pretty close. In any case, the close friendship of Santa and Buddy made Pootnic a little jealous sometimes. Hero was good friends with Gangster and Obi the White was good friends with Gandalf Kenobi, but Pootnic was not close with anybody. He wished for a best friend. His wish was granted when he realized he was STANDING ON A GIANT POP TART. It was kind of ridiculous how awesome the concept was. Then the pop tart crumbled.

Betrayal wrenched Pootnic’s fragile ice cream heart into two perfectly shaped paper cranes. The two cranes nuzzled and cooed and kissed and it was almost adorable until they melted because they were ice cream and they made the large pop tart crumbs soggy and so when Pootnic finally landed, it was on a giant slab of soggy white enriched bleached flour. It was the grossest thing of all grossville, and that was saying a lot since Pootnic lived there for six days without even noticing. Even Pootnic knew that if he came home like this, Buddy the Elf, Santa Claus, his werewolf dad, and Hero and Gangster and both the elderly wizard buddies would crush him in anger and rage.

So Pootnic did the unthinkable. He took

A BATH

In peanut butter.

20.            Sled

A young man was sledding down a big hill with snow. The hill did not have snow, just the young man. The young man was holding the snow. But it was still with him.

21.            Snowman

“You’ve never built a snowman?!” Erica grabbed the sleeve of Thor’s big comfy sweater (a gift from herself) dramatically. “That’s it, we’ve got to build one now.”

“It sounds most enjoyable,” Thor agreed.

“Just let me get my coat and gloves and all that.” Erica disappeared back to her bedroom. Gail was sprawled out napping on the bed, drooling some. Under normal circumstances, Erica would have let it slide, but the drool was unacceptable. She shoved her sister a little as she put on her coziest boots. “Hey. Go sleep on your own bed, or come outside and build a snowman with us.”

“Ugh.” Gail forced her eyes open. “I was having a nice dream.”

“You chose the wrong spot.” Erica chided her. “Now get dressed for going out.”

“Why.”

“I told you, we’re building a snowman. Thor’s never done it.”

“I was under the assumption that was one of two options.” Gail dragged herself off the bed and started towards her own, on the other side of the divided room.

“Nope, it’s decided now.” Erica said. “Boots, coat, scarf, whatever you choose.”

“Wow, I can choose my own clothes now.” Gail mumbled.

“Shut up. I’ll be expecting you in six minutes.” Erica wrapped a salmon colored knit scarf around her neck. It perfectly complimented her long, simple and black felty looking jacket with big buttons. Of course, nearly anything complimented black, but it was classic. She pulled a beige beanie over her ears and headed back out to the living room.

“I like the hat.” Thor had learned to compliment Erica on her fashions, because he could tell it made her happy.

“Thank you!” Erica skipped over to Thor and took his hand as she passed, pulling him to the door. They went out and immediately she began to show Thor the art of perfectly making big, round snowballs. He got the hang of it pretty fast and soon the bottom part of the snowman was as tall as she was.

Just then, Loki came back with the groceries. How had he been given this task again? Oh yeah, Gail was sleeping, Erica was too busy staring dreamily into Thor’s eyes, and Thor was too busy staring adoringly into Erica’s. Heaven forbid they… -gasp- GO TO THE STORE TOGETHER.

Loki dropped the bags on the floor in the twins’ kitchen. Inside were the fixings of a Christmas dinner. They were probably the wrong brands and the wrong sizes, but that’s what you get for sending an asgardian prince to the grocery store by himself. Loki reasoned that even if the small amount of thought he put into his choices led to the incorrect result, it would everyone else’s own fault.

He figured the best idea now was to sit by himself or go see what Gail was up to or what Thor and Erica were doing with that ridiculously large ball of snow outside. All three options had their merit. Just then, option two came out from the back of the apartment, still looking groggy and a bit annoyed, and in the most mismatched outfit she possibly could have been wearing. She either didn’t notice or pretended not to notice Loki there (the latter was more likely) and went to the grocery bags on the floor. The perishables found their way into the fridge or freezer, and the rest was lined up on the counter. Nothing was said about them. The air didn’t seem right for conversation.

Gail walked to the door and just before opening it, breathed in and out, preparing her countenance to face a more cheery audience. “You coming out?” She asked Loki, and stepped through the door without waiting for an answer.

It was now down to option one or a combination of two and three. Oh well. There would be time for sitting in solitude later. Loki went down to the lawn.

“Gaiiiiiiiiiil!” It was difficult to tell whether Erica was sobbing or laughing or both. Her sister who only wore hoodies now stood before her with a black and white striped scarf (which wasn’t bad) and a blue cat-eared hat (which wasn’t too bad either) and an orange and totally different shade of blue shooting-star sweater (which was never a very good sweater) and plaid pajama pants over bootcut jeans with sweatpants beneath (this was very puffy and painful to look at). To finish off, all the gloves and boots were mismatched.

“This is what happens when you don’t dictate my style choices, Erica.” Gail said, monotone.

“How long did you spend choosing the worst combinations ever?” Erica snorted. “I don’t believe you could have put that together even by accident.”

“Well of course I chose things that would make your stomach churn.” Gail said. “But I bet I’m more comfy than you.”

“Whatever.” Erica laughed it off. “Help us with the snowman.”

“Nope.” Gail said. “My work here is done. I want to go snuggle with a blanket.”

“Oh no you don’t.” Erica grabbed the back of Gail’s terrible sweater as she turned to leave.

“But it’s coooooooold.” Gail whined.

“When it’s hot you complain!” Erica said. “You’re always excited for it to get cold!”

“That’s because cold lets you get warm in blankets and fireplaces and steamy cocoa and cuddling.” Gail pouted. “Hot is just hot and it’s gross.”

“Loki!” Erica called over to the slightly bemused onlooker. “Stop her!”

Gail had made a dash for the apartment.

Out of pure obligation (only because he was asked to, really, that’s it), Loki’s arm got in the way of Gail’s trajectory and slung her around to face the other direction. It did become a sort of hug thing.

“Noooooooooooo.” Gail complained, but it was a half hearted complaint. At least it was a bit warmer being in contact with another human- well, not human, but another being… Not that it mattered.

She wriggled out of obligation, but soon gave up because OKAY LET’S FACE IT SHE LIKES LOKI HUGS EVEN IF SHE WON’T ADMIT IT IN FRONT OF HER SISTER.

“Aw.” Erica grinned. Then she made Thor hug her, too.

There were hugs all around.

Today, instead of being productive

I would dare say they speak for themselves.

Life is good.

My siblings and I are seeing the Hobbit today. o:

I was going to see it with my best friends last weekend, but tickets were sold out or something... in any case we couldn't get them.

The weather yesterday was AMAZING (windy) albeit a bit warm. Today it's colder so that makes me happy!

I've still been working on the story. I have the first part planned! I have to draw it and I have to make a website on which I can host it. XD

Break is so great. I have been sleeping in more than I ought to be and I have had so much time to work on projects. Ahhhhhhhhh. (That was a sigh of satisfaction.)

I'm so excited!

Now that I'm on break, I can really work on that story idea I've had forever and more recently have revamped.

I'm so excited for this thing. I spent a lot of today reading through a book from my parents' college textbook shelf and putting notes in it for reference. (It's one of those vastly useful and interesting facts books.)

So many good ideas! ^o^

I'm just really pumped for this thing. Of course, I guess there's the questions such as...

How will I do the coding that will set up my comic on the web how I want it?
How will I go about the illustration? (My plan is to do linework by hand and then color it however I want; it can vary throughout the comic.)
Should I go ahead and get a domain of my own and subhost it there? (I'm thinking yes but I ought to talk to someone who knows these things).

Meanwhile I've eaten probably half a dozen cookies.

The Author (short story)

This story is kind of a metaphor for God as a creator. c:
--------------

Once there was an amazing author with a big story to write. He developed far more characters than an average memory genius can keep track of. He carefully set each profile aside, anticipating the day he would introduce it to the intricate and enormous world of his story that literally spanned galaxies. The ideas were abounding, never ending.

But the Author decided to start with just two characters. Oh, he loved characters. He had a way of breathing life into them, so that they laughed and danced; it gave him great joy just to watch them and to talk with them and to guide their lives according to his outline. They were his most precious creation, and he loved them like his own children.

He got quite a few assistants to help him with the execution of it all—a few extra hands. He often sent them into the story to interact with it directly. One of his best helpers thought it was a pretty great story. In fact, it could be better if a few things were changed. The Helper started to believe that he could take on a lot more of the job than the Author was allotting him. He rallied a few of the other assistants, organizing a protest.

The Author fired him. This was not the Helper’s story. The Ex-helper became bitter. He wrote himself into the story without permission, determined to have a say in it anyhow, lying about the Author. Using a clever disguise, he tricked the first two characters into rebellion. They did not realize that in allowing any but the Author to guide them, they changed the fate of every other character to come.

The masterpiece was ruined. Meticulous sketches and pages and pages of notes were singed, blotted with ink, and soaked in water, tossed to the ground.

The Author mourned. But he would not give up his greatest work.

The story went on beneath the ink, and the characters were in pain. The original plans were all still in the Author’s head, unbroken and beautiful. He would create them again, but even better! And this time he would make them that much more real. Settings were replaceable.

Characters were not.

He had given a bit of himself to bring each character to life. He would not leave them broken. He turned through the pages of the original book, though every rip and stain caused him unspeakable pain. He spoke to the characters; he showed them again the way to go. But they had all become rebels, and few would allow themselves to hear him. They even bathed in and ate the inkspills, so used to the common stain. Couldn’t they see that it was poison?

According to the plan, the characters of this world would have died in the story, only to become alive in the Author’s world. But the ink bound them to the paper, and eventually this soiled book would have to be burned with all the remains of ruin.

To the characters who would listen, the Author told the truth. He promised that he would rescue them, each one of them, if they would only let him. But he could not put them in his new book with their stains. He could remake them exactly as they should have been, but they must allow him to do it and work with him, for in giving them life he had given them wills of their own.

The Author’s son saw his pain. He knew that the ink was so engrained in the lives of the characters that the only way to remove it was from below the stains. He offered to do it himself. His father could do it—could send him into the story. So the Author did.

The Son walked amongst the characters, telling them the truth, showing them the way they were meant to be, and many of them believed him. But many could not see past the ink in their eyes, and they shunned him for his strangeness. He could not be the Author’s son, bringing the Author’s messages! Nobody had heard from the Author for years!

The Ex-helper, lurking in the shadows, reveled in his success. If the rebels would not give up the rebellion (in fact, they had started to believe they were not really rebels), then the devastation was permanent, and all would be lost in the burning. If only he could manage to get a blot of ink on the Author’s Son, now that would be a crippling blow; the Son would be doomed as well.

But the Son knew of the Ex-helper’s tricks and would not fall for them. The best that the Ex-helper could do was to manipulate some of the rebels into killing him. At least to get his good influence back out of the story!

But there was something that the Ex-helper had overlooked. For a character who had never been stained to die—this would loosen the bond of the ink. All the ruined characters would be given a chance to escape, a lifeline to hold to as they slipped from beneath the blots. This had been forgotten, because there were no longer any worthy characters.

So the rebels killed the Author’s Son.

The jig was up. Back in his world, the Son had a knife to the throat of the Ex-helper, and he was bound to the doomed book. The Ex-helper feebly whispered into its pages that the Son had failed and all was lost; but the Son, now able to move freely into the book and out of it, spoke the truth. He would never let the hope die. And each character who was willing to discard the loosened ink, the Author and his Son polished clean, placing them safe in the new book, aptly named the Book of Life, for in it was every character who could truly live even after leaving the story. When they died, they would be free of the stains, for no longer was the ink soaked into the fibers of their beings. Alive in the Author’s world, they could truly meet with him in the new world the Author constructed, far from any ruthless ink or rebellion. And once the long, meticulous, love-driven task of restoration was completed, once everything that could and would be saved was, everything left of the doomed book would be thrown into the fire with the one who made it so.

The new story would be better. The new story would be bigger. The new story, would, heart wrenchingly, be many characters short, but not because of any lack of attention on the Author’s part. Those who wrapped themselves in their stains chose doom; those who chose the Author chose life.

And what a life it would be.

Remember that time I said I was growing my hair out?

Couldn't do it.

I might be getting better at cutting my own hair. One day I will be perfect at it. XD

Game day!

Today my besties and I played Cranium after finally figuring out how it works. That was pretty fun, except for the star performer cards. XD But it's a good game. You actually have to think.

All day long, my bothers were vegging out without doing their chores, so once my friends left and they finished their... I don't know, third movie of the day, we ate dinner and I made sure everything was finally finished. Then I got everyone together to play Telephone Pictionary. A certain bother of mine who hates writing and drawing both was being a grump face but I told him if he hated the game after the first round he could leave. (Nobody can hate Telephone Pictionary except Hellen Keller).
He started leaving once we passed the papers twice but I told him NOOO that the round was when the papers got all the way around and he brought a book back but at least he was participating and so I wasn't complaining. When we started reading the end results I watched him purse his lips trying to keep the scowl on his face when he wanted to laugh with the rest of us. But finally he admitted that he liked the result, not the actual playing of the game. And when we took a vote on whether we should play again or play Apples to Apples, he voted for Telephone Pictionary. >D

After the second round, we moved on to Apples to Apples. We played the version I learned when I played with Shadow and Sophie where everyone gets a green card along with their red cards and we got some pretty ridiculous combinations, such as "Deadly homeless shelters" and "Hostile American Babies." Oh, and "The Organic Little Mermaid."

I was so so so so so glad that I managed to keep my bothers off the computers and having fun for an entire evening. (This is a personal victory; they have some sort of screen addiction or something. o__o) Tomorrow we're going to play Murder In the Dark. Josh should be here, so I'm anticipating fun times.

25 days of fic days 11-15

11.            Eggnog

To be perfectly honest, Hikaru had never tried eggnog. But he was so eager to prove himself as “in touch” with Haruhi’s way of life that he had claimed it was his favorite. It couldn’t be bad, of course. He betted it was delicious. But there it sat in front of him, and there was something ominous about it. Maybe it was the fact that Haruhi would be watching him drink it and what if he didn’t like it?

She had already finished half of hers.

Pressure, pressure! Hikaru slowly brought the mug to his mouth, trying not to make eye contact with Haruhi.

The drink slid into his mouth like a slug or something, he didn’t even know. It was all he could do not to spit it out again. The grimace quickly disappeared as he forced himself to swallow and grin.

“You know, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to pretend.” Haruhi said.

“No, I- I like it.” Hikaru protested, but it was a weak argument.

He took another gulp. It slunk down his throat like a creepy uncle. That was exactly what it felt like. That creepy uncle you always keep an eye on and avoid being alone with. Slinking.

“Hikaru!” Haruhi snatched the mug away. “You’ll make yourself sick.”

“I like… I promise… creepy uncle…” Hikaru’s head was buried in his arms on the table.

Haruhi shook her head in disapproval. “I’ll get you some cocoa.”

“Thanks.” Hikaru gave up on pretending. It was stupid anyway. He didn’t have to be just like Haruhi. He just had to like her.

12.            Cider

さくらの大好きなのみものはサーイダです。さすけの大好きなのみものもサーイダです。さくらはレストランへいきます。「すみません。サーイダはありますか。」でもサーイダじゃありません。さくらとさすけはスーパーへいきます。スーパーにサーイダがあります。スーパーは学こうとしょくどの間にあります。さくらのアパートに近いです。くるまで２分ぐらいです。とてもべんりですよ。スーパーは大きいです。「すみません。サーイダはどこですか。」

「二かいです。」

「ありがとございます。」

なるとはスーパーにあります。「おはよう！」なるとのかばんは大きいです。「かばんのなかになにがありますか。」

「サーイダです！」

「なるとはサーイダが好きですか。私とさすけもサーイダが好きです。」

「ほんとうですか。」

「ええ。わたしはサーイダが大好きです。」

いまごぜん１０じです。あさです。このスーパーは有名です。にぎやかです。なるとはつまらないです。「じゃまた、なると。」

「サーイダおおねがいします。いくらですか。」

「３００円です。」「これ、３００円です。」「ありがとございます。」

さすけとさくらはえいがかんへいきます。デエトです。えいがかんはぎんこうの左にあります。スーパーから遠いです。ちょっとふべんです。さくらとさすけはえいがかんへあまりいきません。

さくらは日本人です。日本語おはなします。さすけも日本人です。さすけも日本語おはなします。アメリカのえいがが好きです。でも、えいごは分かりません。

きょうはどようび。えいがかんはしずかじゃないです。おおきくないです。どんあところですか。やすい、いいところです。さすけとさくらはきんじょが好きです。２３８人はえいがかんにあります。

13.            Peppermint

Autumn sat in her room and wondered what to do about this spinny glowy thing that was apparently a kernelsprite. You had to put something in it, right?

Well, better not be too hasty. These decisions must be made with precision. What was that timer counting down to? Thinking under pressure was stupid. It made the actual thinking stupid, and stupid things resulted. Meanwhile, she messed with her cruxite dowels and the totem lathe and the alchemiter. Taking her mind off of the subject would allow the best answer to present itself quite clearly. But the clock kept ticking. With thirty seconds left, Autumn was ready to play that cruxite pinball machine. But of course, she /had/ to prototype something, or so said the online walkthrough. In a frenzy, she dug through a pile of her dad’s books. No books. Never! She touched something plastic. Whatever it was, it was going in.

She flung the wrapper (and the candy cane inside of it) and it landed right in the kernelsprite.

Nice. She didn’t even like peppermint.

Wasn’t Christmas six months ago?

14.            Gingerbread

Amy Pond was making gingerbread men. She also made a gingerbread time lord. “That’s brilliant. I’m finally ginger!” The Doctor exclaimed.

15.            Presents

“Don’t you have any presents for me?” Kaito Kid stood on Hanabi’s balcony with a smirk.

Hanabi ignored him.

“Come on.” Kaito jumped in through the window. “Not even a firecracker?”

Hanabi creased her brow and leaned into the wires she was assembling. Kaito picked up a bunch of her long hair. Hanabi didn’t seem to notice… or care.

“Is that for me?” Kaito leaned over Hanabi’s shoulder. To her, he wasn’t there. There was nothing but the fragile system of the wires.

“Hanabi!”

Her arm acted of its own accord, her focus not breaking. She snatched a small package from her desk and shoved it in his face.

“Thanks, Hanabi!” Kaito grinned, sweeping his cape dramatically as he turned to lean against the desk. “I’m going to open it.”

Hanabi didn’t even expend the effort to grunt in acknowledgement.

Kaito knew there could be any sort of thing in here. It was probably a grenade or a self-lighting match or something. How would he evade it? The anticipation coursed in his fingers. He was ready.

Kaito opened the corner. Nothing happened. Another corner. Nothing happened. He took all the wrapping off. It was just a lighter.

It was definitely rigged. Cautiously, holding it away from himself, he flipped it open and lit it.

Nothing happened. It was just a lighter.

Kaito laughed quietly. Just a lighter. How useless. Thanks, Hanabi.