Leto_Bucher

Things

2007-11-21T18:07:32Z

65% Geek

Charlotte Dating

Fuckin' memes.

*hugs a katster. And aio, joii, Sal.*

Oh yeah, and I'm going to Holland as of Jan 6th.

PPPBBBBBTTTTTT

ME TOO

2007-09-20T17:41:19Z

Your Score: Dr. James Wilson

65% Eccentricity, 25% Confidence, 60% Kindness

Congratulations, you're Dr. James Wilson! You've got the tough role of being the conscience and best friend to Dr. Greg House, which proves that you must be secretly (or openly) insane. You're always a good person for providing advice, witty remarks, free lunches, lectures, and (wanted or unwanted) psychoanalysis. You are about as confident as the average person, but you have some big issues with yourself, and may have problems living up to the ideals you have in your head. You do really care about other people, though, even if you sometimes express that caring by trying to get into their pants.

Link: The House, MD Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Holy shit, this makes so much sense. ANNA.

Summer Work

2007-07-16T02:15:41Z

(I'm sure y'all have heard me rant about this on IRC, but)]

1000 people from 150 different countries
For 2 weeks
Being fed 3 times a day

Gasp, and I work in food services, and once again I have the pleasure of being a dishwasher. Free food is nice, and free caffeinated beverages is excellent, but gor-fucking-ramit, kill me now.

Since work is, normally, only nominally busy, I've been working part time, a few days a week, sometimes less. This has obviously been the cause for much stress/financial worries. As much as I'm stressed to the limit now, cleaning up after all these bloody people pays well, and I've been banking on this period as my primary cash cow for the summer. Granted, and thank heaven for it,most of the meals are "throw away", meaning paper and plastic. Enviromental concerns aside, the sheer workload of feeding (it's not actually a full 1000 each time) that many people and having to was all those dishes is almost, literally, impossible to do and keep people sane. The dinner service alone is probably close to 12,000 pieces of dishware, plates etc, alone.

(The other big hallelujah here is that I work the 9-5 day shift and don't have to do the dinner service- again, most of the meals have been throw away. I nearly broke down and laughed hysterically when I realized that I got off before the dinner service.)

Last week nearly killed me. I'm used to working hard, but even on a slow day, 8 hours in the dishroom is a test of sheer endurance and will. I know I'm not in the best of shape, but geez...at the end of the day my feet hurt so bad it takes I get sharp little pains up my ankle and it takes two hours before I'm able to do more then hobble. All I was looking forward to was Friday night karaoke at the bar where the bf (Porter to you online folks) helps out. A pint of Guinness would make my bloody night.

Turns out the *bleepity bleep* bar didn't have Guinness. >_< I figured that's what I get for ordering a pint on bloody Friday the 13th. Still, I got some beer, and a shot of Jamieson's, and had fun, so the night was still win. Then, just today (Sunday) I was at a barbeque with the bf again, which was a blast, and even got to try illegal Finnish vodka. 50%, 100 proof.

Then I decided to jump in the pool.

There were a couple of little girls there that I was getting along with, and about an hour or two after dinner I decided to splash around in the pool these folks had. Not one of those big ones, just a shallow 4 foot deep, not to terribly long either. I jumped in, knowing it was shallow, and guessing it'd be okay with a cannon ball...curled up, etc, not pencing diving right for the floor or anything. Still a stupid decision, though. I misjudged how shallow it actually was, ended up ramming and wrench my left foot on the floor of the pool. It hurt like a bitch, enough to send me into tears/shock, and as of this writing, still hurts.

What really sucks about this is that I hurt my foot late in the evening, around 7 or so, and I have work tomorrow at 9. There wasn't really any swelling, but I really don't know at this point if I can work like I've been tomorrow. Which, under the circumstances, really sucks. We're busy as hell, they've actually stated they need me because I work well in the dishroom, and we've already had issues with being understaffed. I hope like hell I can work tomorrow, or, at the very least, that it's slow enough that they don't need to call in someone else to cover for me or get strapped for help.

Auuuuuuugh...well, know that I've vented that bit, I'm off to bed, and with any luck, the ankle won't be an issue tomorrow.

*crosses fingers*

Whee fun

2007-04-27T15:01:45Z

I am also a sucker for the meme.

Also, it's been a while since I posted. I've got a job and a place to live, so yay me.

Whee fun Illness

2007-02-22T20:58:44Z

So, I've been struggling with a sore throat the past week.

Not so much my throat, really, as my tonsils, and as it turns out I was correct. I was finally pushed to go see the doctor today, which I really should have earlier (Thank goodness for the kind ladies in Student Life).

Said ladies gave me cab fare, with extra in case I needed a prescription. And yeah, I VERY much needed to go. At this point I am/was having trouble speaking, let alone swallowing. I arrived at the walk-in clinic, waited two hours, and got to see a doctor.

I told him what was wrong, my temperature was checked, my ears, and then he looked in my throat. Seriously, his reaction was somewhere along the lines of "Holy shit." (but not literally, obviously). He went "wow" after looking in there for all of a second, and gave me a prescription for antibiotics. Official problem was tonsilitis with a tonsular abcess.

I was very stupid for not listening to earlier advice and getting this checked out earlier. One of the things the doc told me was that untreated, what I had could cause serious problems. Which he *wouldn't* go into detail about. Enough said. He also said I had really high pain tolerance, because the right tonsil was so badly swollen and abcessed. Left was only moderately so, but yeah.

But, lesson learned. I'll be on these antibiotics for about 2 weeks, which is of course when we're starting the main bulk of rehearsals for the play I'm in. As it stands, I'll probably sit through or just watch the rehearsal tomorrow, and I'm gone anyways Saturday, which was another rehearsal time. Ah well.

CRIT HIT FTW

2007-02-10T03:18:36Z

Alt-Eisen: Jenn
Ash: (nope, -4, not -5)
Jenn: (for rocket default?)
Ash: *nod*
Jenn: k
* Jenn readies the rocket at a bot and grins nastily.
Jenn: 3d6
* Damn-Bot throws the bones for Jenn (3d6) and gets 3.
Jenn: ....holy SHIT
Ash: (CRIT!)
Derek: (SHITE!)
Jenn: (made that fucking crit, with the DEFAULT, BITCHES)
Jenn: (pass by 10. eat it!)
Alt-Eisen: (You'd better have something cocky and action heroish to say)
Ash: (critical hit table, p. B556)
Martel: (Hoodyhoo! Go Jenn!)
Jenn: "I am harm incarnate sir. You have nothing to worry about."
Alt-Eisen: *explodes fantastically. The three legs fall to the ground, twitching*
Jenn: (wait for it....:D)
Jenn: "Sneak attack, bitch!"

Best frigging game night, evar.
quotes from Schlock Mercenary and Order of the Stick

The Burqah (If that's how it's spelt)

2007-02-01T22:33:50Z

So, today I wore a burqah.

Most people will probably know what I mean by this, even if it isn't spelt right. Burqahs are those somewhat controversial garments you see a lot of women in the Middle East wearing, the full-body covered dresses. Everything is covered, and your eyes are stuck behind this little screen, which is the only semi-opening on the entire thing.

The reason why I even managed to wear one isn't too complex; there was a 'mission fest' at our school, and one display had a lady who's travelled around the Middle East. She brought a bunch of Pakistani, Arabic, etc clothes with her, including the burqah. She was encouraging people to try them on, and let me borrow the burqah for the afternoon.

The reasons why I did it...well, first off, I was curious. I've never worn anything like that before, and I've heard a lot about it, obviously. Secondly, I love unusual clothing, and most people here at the school are used to me wandering around in medieaval garb now and then.

But why a burqah, really?

I know it's a controversial garment. The burqah has become, for a lot of people, synonymous with female oppression. I had a friend of mine come up to me and ask why I was wearing something that he found "So oppressive", somehow implying that I was supporting that kind of behaviour. I wasn't. To be honest, I initially just thought it was pretty and I enjoyed putting it on. I wasn't trying to support anything, even though I knew what a burqah was for and it's reputation, and I knew exactly what I was doing in wearing it.

As the afternoon progressed, I started to feel a lot more self concious. As I've said, people are used to me wearing weird things. But when I pulled the veil and eye screen over my face, the looks I was getting weren't as casual or as casually amused as they usually are. Most folk, unless they were close friends, didn't recognize me, and I wonder if they were thinking "Why would you want to do that to yourself?"

I don't really know if there's a point to all this. I was experimenting in a way, I *chose* to do it, and quite frankly I enjoyed wearing it. It was a personal thing. But it did make me realize that there is a huge barrier that you create between yourself and the world in putting one of these things on. It's not just a matter of not being able to see one's face, it's conciously making that decision to do so, and you are, in a sense, sealing yourself off. I felt more private, a little safer in a way, but still closed off and seperated from others. When I finally took it off, I even felt a little naked and exposed.

Now, I didn't wear the burqah all that long, only a few hours, and when I was sitting down in class or playing on the computer for a while I kept the veil up. Those things are bloody *hot*. They're gorram stifling at times. If I'd been outside, with the wind and the cold and the snow, it would've been *great*, but inside with the heated building, it was bad at times.

That's about all I got to say. I'm thinking about buying one or making one, for costume purposes, which some people might think of as a little bit strange. Especially since I'm not even Muslim or even all that conservatively Christian. Perhaps I'm treating the subject too lightly. But I like wearing it, or at least wearing a head covering or veil, and that's purely a personal choice I'm making. I'll probably look into it more before actually doing anything, but yeah...

XD

2006-12-15T20:50:22Z

CHORUS GET! CHORUS GET! CHORUS GET!!!

XD

Memeage. Well. Erm...

2006-12-04T16:59:13Z

I wonder how true this is...

Nano Section 15

2006-11-20T23:02:49Z

Here's a new chapter, and hopefully this and the next will be fairly amusing. Getting more into Manny's character as well, digging up new secrets, etc...

Oh! Right, I've decided on a way to organize these chapters. Given that the goddess tales and Manny's story are two different narratives, divving things up into 'books'. Makes some sort of sense, goes with a theme present in the whole story, and, heck, it looks cool. ;)

BOOK III: The Library
Return to Real Life

Manny quietly finished reading the story and set them aside. He reached for a glass of water for his throat- he'd been reading for a good hour and it was getting pretty scratchy. He also looked over at Eppy.

She was very still, and he could see a tear sliding down underneath her sunglasses. She suddenly seemed to notice his presence, gave an overly dramatic sniff, and reached for a napkin to wipe her eyes and cheeks. "Oh m'goodness! That's such a sad story!"

"Yeah, it can be." He gathered the notes together again and neatly stacked them in place. "Like I said, it reads more like a love story then an actual official account."

There was another loud sniffle as Eppy wiped her eyes underneath her glasses. "So, what happened?"

"Hmm?" Manny looked up owlishly as he began to pack things away.

"Y'know, with the Pharaoh and all. And those other gods that you mentioned." She set the napkin down and scowled at him. "Ya can't just leave a girl hanging like that."

"Oh well, erm..." he blushed and fumbled. "The story doesn't really say what happened after the Seer punished the harem girl. She literally…disappeared off the map, as it were. There's some mention of the Pharaoh 'seeking comfort in the arms of another' after both the Seer and the harem girl disappeared, but..."

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" Eppy practically shouted in outrage. "No fair!"

"Shhh." He motioned, as one of the cafeteria staff gave them a look. "The documents just kind of…die out after the incident. I do know that the war between the gods some sources mention ended in victory for the 'good guys' as it were."

"Huh." Eppy settled back and looked grouchy. "So Baal and all those guys...?"

Manny got some notes out again and flipped through them. "That was interesting...compared to Biblical sources, it seems that the supposed 'fall' of the Eastern pantheon occurred not long before the Israelite tribes began conquering the area. It's impossible to know the exact date, of course, but..." he muttered to himself, almost forgetting Eppy again. "I'm guessing before the conquest...but when these things say 'soon' they can mean anywhere from immediately before or centuries before or who knows what. Drat. Well, there was a definite decline in the cultures around that area after the point mentioned in the story, but that'd easily attributed to the conquest period. They'd been some of the oldest civilizations on earth, small wonder they started to decay..."

Eppy rolled her eyes and rattled off questions. "Okay, so that's two questions answered. What about the goddess? What happened to her? What about those godly laws you mentioned?"

He shrugged again. "Like I said, she kind of fades from history for a while after that. The nearest documentation I've been able to find dates to at least fifteen hundred years after the last mention in Egypt."

"Oh," Eppy said a word that made Manny look up and blink. He was sure even *he'd* never heard of that one, and he'd studied a variety of ancient languages.

"Greek?"

"Yeah, I was bored one day and looked it up." Eppy scowled some more. "So, is that it?"

He finally put away all the notes into the vast dimensions of his backpack. "Yeah. That's part of the reason why I'm so excited by the research I'm doing…I'm hoping one day to find some clue as to what's happening here...what happened to her. These implications of godly law are just incredible, it could rewrite..." he looked up as Eppy began gathering her stuff together and moved off the seat. "Huh?"

"Sorry, mate, I've got stuff." She grinned and spoke briskly.

"Stuff?"

"Yup!" She flashed another quick grin and ran down the aisle and out the cafeteria doors.

Manny sat very still for several moments and briefly wondered if a hurricane had just come in and ran over him. He turned and looked out towards the cafeteria doors, trying to determine if he had, indeed, spent the last couple hours eating and rambling on with the young woman. Well, yes, he'd gotten all his notes out and told the entire story…not the entire story.

He sighed deeply and took a piece of paper from his pocket. It was another scribbled series of notes, these ones dealing specifically with what he'd discovered in the Library here at the university. He was going to mention it to her, but she'd taken off before he could bring it up. And now he didn't know when he'd see her again.

The paper was carefully unfolded and placed down on the table before him. On it were the most pertinent bits of information he'd gotten from the scroll, and more information from other books and documents at the Library and in the Archives.

So far, this was the largest collection of information dealing with the goddess that he'd found.

Granted, it wasn't *much*. As usual, just snippets all over the place, but still...when he'd had to send away for copies from Europe and tapes from Japan, all these little bites in one place at one time added up. He smoothed out the note. Here, there, all written down neatly. Nothing on what happened during the Judgement, not yet, but he truly believed that it was out there somewhere. It had to be.

He read over the notes again. Okay, so maybe he was being a bit over enthusiastic with Eppy. But if she had gotten that worked up about the ending, maybe she would've liked to know a few clues. He sighed. On this bit of paper were more mentions of 'judgement' and 'gods' and more referrals to a 'Queen of Demons'. There was also talk about words...odd, that. It just mentioned 'words', as if they were some kind of object or power. At least, the context of the quotes from which they came gave that implication. He pushed his glasses up his nose and peered closer at one batch of scribbles, already getting distracted again. Yes...yes, right there. he'd missed it before, some mention on a 'collection of words', the grammar was funny...

Manny grabbed his backpack and walked out of the cafeteria, tapping the note paper against his lip.

***

The Archivist grumbled quietly, no surprise there, as he put away books on the upper shelves. There were still 4 heavy ones stacked in his other arm, and he had to strain to slide the latest one into it's place. Predictably, the ladder shifted and swayed alarmingly as he slotted the book in.

"Gods be DAMmmmit...!" there were a series of blasphemies as the ladder thunked back into place against the book shelf. The Archivist *glared* at the books so hard there were several chances that they could've burst into flame, and then tromped down the ladder to find their spot. "Fucking hell…bloody rubbish, getting caught of balance by these gorram *books*, what the hell next…" He kicked the ladder over a few paces and scowled up at it.

"Gods, I hate my job."

He had gotten half way up the ladder when there was the sound of a slamming door. The Archivist could also almost hear the wince that followed it, and peered down the aisles, setting his face into his best "who the hell are you" look.

Manny creeped meekly through the aisles, and jumped a little as he almost ran into the Archivist's ladder. Looking up, all he could see were a pair of frigid blue eyes. He gulped.

"Well?" the 'L's' were drawn out precisely to convey the maximum amount of irritation while still remaining faultless.

"Ahhh...I was wondering if I could spend some time down in the vault again?"

"Catch." Manny held out his arms automatically and grunted with pain and effort as several books were dropped into his arms. The Archivist smiled with malicious glee as he moved upwards a few steps and put one book away, then reached down for another. Manny, again, obediently reacted without thinking. The Archivist snorted quietly as Manny suddenly blinked and opened his mouth again.

"Sir?"

"I'm busy." He reached down for another book and Manny handed it over.

"I can't get in?"

He was treated to another look as the Archivist bent down and grabbed the final tome.

"Ah. Sorry."

"I never said you couldn't get in, kid." The Archivist grunted as he slid down the ladder and loomed over Manny. "I needed to finish putting away that lot." He thumbed in the direction of the upper shelves and dusted off his hands. "All right, what do you want, specifically?"

"There's a bunch of books I need to look over again, so I'll probably be spending a while down in the vault."

"Huh." The Archivist turned and marched to his office. "This way. What books?"

"Umm, well..." Manny dug the note paper out of his pocket, unfolded it, and ran his finger down the list as he followed the Archivist into the office. "That scroll I was looking over, for one, and..." he rattled off a list of books. The Archivist's ear twitched as he heard them all, then gestured for Manny to sit down as he took his place behind the desk.

"You know you're only allowed a certain number of books, scrolls, or any other documentation when you're down in the vault, right?"

"Yessir." Manny looked meek. "But sir, this is intrinsic to my work. I need to have all these documents readily available."

"Does it look like I care?" the Archivist scowled. "There's rules for a reason, not the least of which is that I simply don’t like pushy college kids. Another would be I'd have to be nuts to let *you* down there till the gods know how late with a stack of books so old the make the Librarian look like a teenage super model."

Manny, despite the Archivist's surly comments, had to struggle very hard to bite back his laughter. "Err, Yessir. I can see how having so many books might be a problem, but I don't understand how having them late might be a problem..."

The Archivist raised an eyebrow. "Late, huh? For one thing, you ever consider that some people might want to be heading to bed?"

"The Library's open twenty four hours a day!"

"Irrelevant. If I sleep, this place sleeps too. I don't want someone around if I can't keep an eye on things." He grunted again. Manny started to look desperate.

"Sir, if I can..." there was a knocking at the door, and the Librarian stuck her head in. the Archivist scowled even more at her, then at Manny.

"I'll be back in a minute. Don't touch anything." He got up and left, and Manny could here the shouts starting on the other side of the door.

Nano Section 14

2006-11-17T01:32:11Z

Well, this wraps it up for the first tale of the goddess. And, as predicted, writing her story really allowed me to burn through the word count. Now I'm finding that, like katster, this story may go way beyond the word count I predicted. The whole goddess tale here ate up a fair chunk of the word count, and the second one will too, most likely... how much over depends on what I can cook up for Manny and co in the interim, and really how the boy is getting involved in...something or who knows what. To be honest, I'm not really sure what he's up to or going to do.

But.

Hopefully I'll cook up more plot and try to weave some threads together in Manny's time, maybe make some sense of this rambling cock-up of a story. ;)

Exile
It wasn't a place she'd been before.

The Lady stood tall, in the centre of a room that was plain, grey stone. There was a seat in front of her, and some tiers of seats to the side.

It was the room of Judgement, to this point, a room which had not been used before. The minor spirits of the world, the demi gods, the small deities, all were dealt with by their respective regions if they broke the Law. Minor crimes were rare, but not uncommon, amongst the lower levels of the divine. But this…this was where the gods themselves were tried. None had broken any laws seriously enough to warrant it yet. Granted, some of the Law had been created because of the actions of some, notably the Greeks, but this would be the first time they were applied.

"Sister..."

"Do you come to sit in judgement against me, Brother?" the Lady eyed him coolly as he appeared, sitting in the Judge's Seat. He wore a deeply sorrowful look.

"Sister, I have no choice. I am Protector." He sighed. "But I cannot...I cannot say the words myself." He got up, eyes sad, and walked towards her, holding out his hands. "Please, Sister, understand. You will be Judged fairly, by a group of your peers. Even as Protector, I…just can't make the decision myself. I am too close to you." He cupped her cheek with his hand and tried to smile. "I would not want to."

"But you have no choice." She met his eyes without flinching, of course, and sadness crept a little into her own. "I understand."

"Forgive me, Sister."

"There is nothing to forgive."

He paused, unsure of how she meant her words. His Sister was like that...lately she'd seemed to be full of secrets, layers of meaning. Not deceitful, just more...complex. Not that it was easy to understand a goddess.

The Protector shook his head, then clasped one of her hands. "Thoth will declare Judgement against you. Your peers will discuss the case with him, and whatever the verdict, I must approve it."

"I know." She said simply. He sighed again.

"Sister..." he bit back the words. Asking her if she truly felt nothing, if she felt no regret or concern at this point would not be helpful, and it wouldn't answer any questions whose answers were already obvious. "...ready yourself."

The Lady nodded briskly, drawing herself with all the dignity and coldness she could muster, her face a mask reflecting this poise. Inside...she was almost the same. It didn't matter what the Judgement was, she knew their could be only one outcome. Did she really regret what she had done? Not really...not now. Was she ashamed of what she had done, manipulating the humans...

She didn't know.

The others began to filter in, gods of various pantheons, representing the different regions of the Earth; North, South, East and West. Her youngest Sister, the third of the siblings, Danu, entered first, her plump and kindly face etched with deep worry.

"Sister! I..."

"Not now, Danu. Please." Danu bit her lip at the Lady's words, then glanced at the Protector. He nodded in resignation and motioned for her to sit down.

Next came Odin.

This time the Lady's façade cracked a little. "Son!"

"Mother." Odin strode forward, ignoring the others, and wrapped his arms around his mother tightly. "Mother! What has happened?"

The Lady finally, finally felt tears form, and it took all her will not to let them fall. She briefly rested her head on her son's shoulder...he was tall, very tall, much more then her, and broad, and full of comforting strength. "You will find out, Odin. Please, go sit with your aunt."

"I won't be put off, Mother, I need..."

"Obey me!" her tone was sharp as a slap, and Odin grunted in pain. Her voice softened. "You will find out your mother's sins, my son, don't worry. Please." He stood still and looked down at her grimly, his one remaining eye unblinking. After a few moments, he nodded in understanding. The Lady sighed, feeling oddly comforted. Of all the gods, perhaps her sons and their kind would understand best what...what had happened.

And then the other gods came in. Quetzalcoatl and Olorun represented the South, Glooscap (along with the Dagda) the North, and then Brahma, apparently representing the East…the Hindi god, one of the most ancient of them, bowed his head to her. Which was puzzling. By all rights, he should be here, but he was one of the ancient gods, and at least one of the…

Anubis entered next, armed and armoured, and stained with blood and dirt. He stopped and stared at the Lady, standing alone in the centre of the room, and growled something uncomplimentary. He then violently ripped off his helmet and kicked it across the room.

"Damn it, woman, what have you done?"

The Protector nearly rose from his seat. "Lord Anubis, you will be SILENT." There was a distant growl of thunder, and an equally distant growl from Anubis, who then stomped over and stood with the other gods. He glared at them, and in particular the Protector, who sighed. "What has happened, god of the dead?"

"Marduk has fallen, and Baal and Ashtoreth were captured. The rest of the pantheon is fled."

The silence was so thick the proverbial pin would have merely rebounded. Several of those assembled gasped softly, and even Brahma looked surprised. The Protector nodded, a grim look on his face.

"And Lord Thoth?"

"Here, my lord." The deep voice rumbled, and a somewhat bedraggled figure limped into the room. Thoth, in war gear and looking distinctly uncomfortable, handed a blood stained scroll to the Protector. He winced. He was just as rough looking as Anubis, but with more blood. "Forgive our appearance in the court, but we understood time was of the essence…the battle has only now finished, and in there," he nodded at the scroll, "…you will find my initial report. Marduk has indeed been meddling with human affairs, and Baal has been encouraging the lesser gods into rebellion. Molech himself had been keeping alive the human sacrifice."

There was some uncomfortable silence here. The practice of human sacrifice had been, by mutual agreement, only outlawed recently. And there were still exceptions. No god was allowed to issue anymore precepts or encourage the practice, but if the people chose to do so anyways, it wasn't their responsibility. And in some cases, if the person truly wished to be sacrificed, the gods were allowed to give a blessing…but it was a tricky, difficult, and ethically diverse problem to work through.

"Children?" the Protector didn't look pleased.

"Yes, lord. In particular children, to be fed into the flames. The people seemed cowed by the threats of his priests." Thoth spat on the ground in a rare display of emotion. "The gods of the East are dengenerating into disgusting criminals, given to all manner of violation of even human decency..." there were winces at that. "...and blatantly plotting to overthrow our Laws. If they weren't so stupid they might've proved to be a larger problem, but as it is they've...bah!"

"There Judgement will come, Lord Thoth." The Lady spoke calmly from the centre of the court. "Now, if you will?"

The bald headed god bowed his head, and turned sad eyes toward the Lady. "Forgive me, my lady."

"There is nothing to be forgiven. I have sinned, stand in judgement against me." She said with the same calm demeanor.

"And what are your sins?" Anubis half shouted, rising from his seat. "Sacrificing yourself for some..." he was jolted, firmly, back into his place by the Protector. Who, this time, had risen from his seat, his eyes shining a fierce blue.

"I will not speak again, Anubis. Stick to the guidelines of the Law in judgement, or forego your place."

Anubis glared, smoke curling up from his coat. He shook his fur like a dogs and the blood and armour disappeared, and he appeared as a normal human, Egyptian male, dressed in a white kilt. Still tall, but lean and wiry. "I will keep my place, lord."

"Indeed."

"Enough!" the Lady shouted from her spot, eyes blazing as well. "I will NOT be bantered over and spoken of like my presence is not required! I have my honour, and my right to speak, and I will claim both! Stop this useless bickering and Judge me, fairly or no, so that I may take my punishment. End this!"

"FINE." Anubis shouted, then sighed. "Peace, my Lady...forgive me."

"I won't. I have no right to." She said stubbornly, bleakly, and stared straight ahead. "Speak your Judgement, Lord Thoth."

Anubis opened his mouth and closed it, then turned to Thoth, who nodded. The assembled gods gathered in a semi-circle in front of her. Quezalcoatl, Glooscap, Brahma, Olorun, Dagda, Anubis, and Thoth in the centre, with the Protector behind them. The only other spectators were Danu and Odin.

The Lady raised her head proudly. Yes, she had her honour, and her pride, but inside...could she admit she was wrong?

The Judgement was quick and grim. Questions were not asked. She spoke the words, repeated what had happened. Lying wasn't even considered...gods couldn't lie. Oh, they could bend the truth, and twist it, and they were famous for doing so. But they couldn't outright *lie*. The Lady smiled again. That was a odd gift to have, wasn't it? the gods couldn't lie, but humans could, and who was the more deceitful of the two? Any man could tell a lie, but it took a rare kind of intellect to not tell the whole truth...

Anubis' face grew more and more pained as the evidence and events were spoken coolly and without emotion by the Lady. At times a faint, odd smile could be seen on her face. He groaned inwardly. How could she be taking things so well? Or was she? Why did she have to bring herself to this?

"Lady, we will discuss the matter now." Thoth spoke, finally. She nodded, waiting patiently, her arms at her sides. Thoth turned to the others and their eyes closed. Time passed slower now. The Lady could watch, of course, but the gods' outward forms gave no indication of the discussion within.

An hour.

And another.

And one more.

The Lady sighed deeply, something loosening inside her as the third hour passed. The Protector bowed his head, and Odin and Danu, to the side, closed their eyes.

And Thoth opened his.

There was a sharp cry of anguish from the Lady, and she fell to her knees, eyes filled with tears, gazing up at the gods who had Judged her. Tears, yes, but firm resolve in her face. Anubis looked away. She flinched.

Anubis finally turned his back entirely and strode from the room. He paused once on the threshold before looking back at her. "It *was* your sin. It was the punishment I said was best."

"I...know..." she gasped out, and he walked away.

Nano Section 13

2006-11-14T22:38:55Z

Judgement

The Lady gritted her teeth as a slight, tearing pain occurred inside her. So this is what the vision meant. This was the pain that she was meant to feel. The sorrow, the heartache, yes, that was real, but so was this…it hurt. She gave up a piece of her energy, a piece of the divine, to give life to the dying Pharaoh. He couldn't hold it all in, not even that, so she had to balance the flow of power like an acrobat balancing on a spider's web.

His wounds began to heal.

Time, for him in a way, was flowing backwards. She could make him well enough to live, she could...there was a gasp of air. Teshmet was breathing again. The Lady closed her eyes, willing herself not to give too much, not to let him be drawn in by the power. Just…enough…

She slowed and withdrew the power as he began to breathe normally. It was hard, but she had to leave him partially wounded, or else too many questions would be asked. She looked around…Meryt was too terrified to look up, the Pharaoh was largely unconscious, and the few humans remaining in the room looked like their heads were bolted to the floor.

The Lady smiled again. Her rage still burned, oh yes, very much, but it was now the tightly contained, white hot rage that comes when one is pushed beyond the edge of red-hazed anger. She looked down at herself. Well, having her face exposed wouldn't do, but she wasn't any taller then before, and her skin colour had been white…she shrugged, flicked a finger, and a white shroud suddenly appeared over her head, much like the black veils of before. Her outfit was simpler, obviously, just a plain white shift…ah well. Let the Help interpret that as they will, she really didn't give a damn.

"Meryt!"

Reality asserted itself with a snap. She was manifest, yes, and that was breaking the rules with humans around like this, but anger was making her reckless just generally.

The princess looked up. The Seer was there, but she was…different again. Dressed all in white, instead of black, and her arms and feet were bare. Her face, though, was still covered, also in white cloth. Her voice was different, lighter, but accented strangely. And there seemed to be a faint…haze around her. She could tell, without trying very hard, that there was something very, very strange about the Seer now, and the overall effect was far more chilling then her previous, black robed form had been.

"Yes?"

"In light of your father's attack, I am taking control for now. Summon the High Priest, go get your brother the Prince. Guards! Grab the woman Anash and restrain her for now. You lot, priests, get hot water, hot wine, soap, and as many *clean clothes* as possible." The tone of her voice suggested that disobeying was not so much forbidden, as not even conceivable. "I'll arrange the Pharaoh on the bed." From the looks of it, the little bitch had attacked before he'd even taken her to bed. It was still neat and clean. "Also, summon the Minister of Justice. This…foul creature has committed a blasphemy so great that it must immediately be dealt with. And why hasn't the High priest been summoned yet?!"

The assembled people broke into a flurry of activity. Meryt, flinging her a desperate look, rushed out the door, calling for her brother. The priest left and returned with what the Seer had asked, and the Guards took up station around the bed, some guarding Anash. They all looked deathly angry and ready to kill, and the Seer approved. She lifted Teshmet with no trouble and gently laid him out on the bed, motioning for the hot water.

There were several minutes of tense silence, broken only by the arrival of the High Priest, the royal physician, the princess, and the prince. Their voices were immediately shushed as the Seer worked on the Pharaoh. After a few moments, she laid aside the bloody bandages and rose from the bed.

"He will live."

There was a palpable sigh of relief, and Meryt collapsed on the Prince's arm, sobbing. He supported her, and eyed the Seer. She was...different. But now was hardly the time to be questioning her about it, and he got the feeling it might not be wise to do so.

"O Seer, we have heard that..." the High Priest of Re stepped forward, and the Seer held out a hand.

"Silence." Again, absolute obedience. "We will hold court right here, right now. A crime of this…magnitude must be addressed immediately." Her words snapped like whips in Anash's direction.

"O Seer, who are you to order...us..." the Minister of Justice clapped his mouth shut. He couldn't see the woman's face, but he had no doubt she was nailing him to the wall with her gaze. The High Priest, a very odd suspicion creeping in his mind, said nothing.

"There is no words for the level of this...blasphemy! A lowly harem girl, a pretty gift from a foreign land, laying hands on the son of the god, the boon of Horus!" The Seer clenched her fists. "Speak girl! Why have you done this!?"

"My lord Marduk commanded me too!" Anash screamed back. "Unlike you arrogant, high handed Egyptians, I worship my god in true faith! He himself commanded me, and..!" The Seer narrowed her eyes and Anash's words came to an abrupt halt. In fact, she was pressing herself against the wall in fear even as the vitriol spilled from her lips. The Seer motioned for the Minister to move forward.

"Minister, what is the punishment for striking down the son of the god?"

The man gulped. "My...my lady...this situation calls for an execution, of course. To strike the pharaoh unto d…near death is treason and should be punished accordingly."

"Only death?"

The clear, ringing tone of her voice sent more chills down people's spines. Of course, only death, because the accused would face horrible torments in the next life. Their body would simply be cast to the sands and not mummified or given any spells, and Ammut, the devourer, would eat their soul. What worse...punishment...

They looked at Anash. She was not Egyptian, but she knew their practices by now. She might not *believe* them, of course, the Babylonians had their own ways, but belief was a funny thing when you were in a foreign land and staring in the face of destruction. That was it. Destruction. The Seer didn't want to *punish* the girl, she wanted to destroy her…

The Seer walked down the steps from the bed, each step soft but echoing, with all the finality of a funeral procession. "What, O Minister, is worth then death?"

"Destruction, O wise one."

"You are correct." There were a few more steps, and the Seer stood, tall and terrible, at the bottom. Her head held high, she extended a hand towards Anash. "What curses exist, High Priest, that can ensure desctruction?"

"M-m-my lady...!" the High Priest opened his mouth and then shut it. Everyone was too terrified to gainsay the Seer, too frozen to speak their peace or protest what she was doing. She had no authority in the court, she had no right to call judgement or take control, yet she was doing it all the same.

And no one *was* going to say anything.

The Priest gulped and spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. "There is only...my lady, to destroy the soul while the body exists. To not tread the heavens, nor hell, but to be tormented in this world..." his voice dried up even suggesting it.

The Seer's eyes seemed to glow from behind her white veil, and an smile formed underneath it. One finger pointed towards Anash as she started to raise her voice in a chant. Those assembled moaned, covering their ears. It was a terrible thing, this chant, it burnt through joy, happiness, love, everything, and left only misery in it's wake. There was sorrow, there was sadness, there was pain. There was sacrifice, too, great and awesome sacrifice, but appalling…Anash quivered and screamed, flinging herself to the ground, pleading, holding out her hands for mercy. The Seer only continued, her voice raising in pitch.

She was weeping.

***

I give my everything to this.

I know what this will cost me, and I give my everything to it.

God forgive me, for I cannot forgive myself.

My rage knows no bounds, my reason is fled. I cannot think but for the song of blood. I cannot sing but for thoughts of vengeance. My hatred is a tide, and it casts away the good things of life.

This soul is no more, this soul is destroyed. Through my actions I have ended it, through my will I have caused its utter anniliation. It is final, it is over. There is no turning back.

God forgive me, for I do not deserve to be forgiven.

Let the price be paid, let it have never been. There was no soul; there was only nothingness. And nothingness is what is inside of me. It is all of me.

I cannot regret, for I have gone too far for regret. I cannot know peace, for it is denied me. The cost of my vengeance is the cost of punishment, the cost of the final desctruction.

God forgive me, for not being able to forgive

***

There was a final scream, and the Seer dropped to her knees, clutching her head. Anash was...gone. Simply gone. Not that she had disappeared, she simply had never been.

The Seer, unknown to the others, had not simply *destroyed* Anash, she had simply made it so she had never been. Oh, they'd remember her, they'd remember everything, but who she was, her soul, had failed to exist.

She looked up again. The priests and officials and royals were all shouting and pointing, frantically running around and trying to understand what had happned.

Now she simply didn't care. The human mind was so astoundingly resilient, she murmured to herself. You could have Hathor herself, large as life and then some, come strolling down the main street and they'd simply forget about it. too much for tiny minds to handle.

She felt so weak. So empty. There was no pain, there was no…power. She felt…she couldn't understand it. there was fear though, oh yes. Chilling fear. No regret, though, no regret…she had broken the Law.

And the Law claimed her.

Nano Section 12

2006-11-14T20:13:19Z

Things are coming to a head now...this section of the story should be finished in the next couple chapters or so. for the most part, I've found this story deals with the darker part's of the Seer's past, and some of the darker aspects of her personality, so hopefully the next tale about her will be a lot more light hearted. :)

Revealed

She walked around the room, several times, checking all the wards and making *absolutely sure* that no one could overhear her. The Seer closed the curtains over the balcony, shutting out the only way to see in her room from the outside. Besides, with the night coming in, the desert air cooled off rapidly, and a chill was starting to settle in the room.

She wandered over to the brazier and knelt, poking at it and adding a few more small sticks. Light flared and flickered, suddenly illuminating a handful of creeping shadows behind her. Hustling, bustling, and then...

"My Lady! My lady!" she got up and turned as the imps squeaked and chattered.

"Silence, little ones. What do you have to report?"

The small, winged creatures hopped up and down, bobbing their heads. "Lady, Lady, we bring the report on the woman Anash."

"Yes, yes, good. Now get out of the light of the brazier, you're casting shadows all over the curtain." The Seer spoke curtly and strode to the other side of the spacious room, stretching out on the couch. "Now, tell me, imps." They hopped over, out of way of the light, and clustered around her couch. Not many of them, only 5, but enough to suit her purposes.

The largest one, a redskinned beastie with jackal ears got out a scribbled on bit of parchment, and handed it to her. "This, O Lady. We have found it in her room. We have been following her as instructed. She does not do much."

Another imp butted in. "I have followed her in the daylight hours, O Lady. She dresses, she eats, she treats the servants with indifference. She fights with the other harem girls." Here he leered, then wiped the expression of his face at the Seer's look. "I have seen her in her own rooms, as well. There she sits and writes."

"Writes?" the Seer glanced down at the scroll in her hand.

"Aye, Lady. I have been in her rooms." Another imp squeaked. This one was small and yellowish. "She writes often, my Lady, when she is not with the Pharaoh or in the harem."

"She has not been in the harem much for the last three months." Another imp bowed. "I have talked with a household spirit. It said that this Anash does not respect the gods of the house."

"That is her own decision." The Seer frowned and began to read. For a girl bred to be a rich man's wife or concubine, the girl was fairly literate. Her frown deepened as she progressed through the letter, the imps settling down and waiting expectantly at her feet.

I hate this place!

Apparently it was some kind of diary.

They say it is the glory of the world, the richest and most powerful nation on earth. HA! All I see are preening peacocks and sand. And the dirty, disgusting Nile. I want to go home, to the cool waters of Babylon...

Ahhh. Now this was interesting. Not Syrian after all, maybe she'd been traded along to there…

The gods have said that this is my duty. I pray that they will guide me back safely to my homeland, when I am done this onerous task. Please, lord Marduk, guide me home.

The scroll snapped and crackled like dried firewood in the Seer's fist. She hissed. So! Baal and his whore weren't the ones to watch, it had been…Ahhhh yes.

"Lady! Lady!" they all turned as an imp popped out of nowhere, leathery wings flapping, in midair. "Lady! I bring news from the East! From lord Thoth and lord Anubis!"

"What? Already? Thoth could not have left earlier then yesterday morning! And Anubis...quick, creature, speak!" the scroll fell to the floor as she started to pace. The flying imp gulped.

"My Lady, lord Thoth has said that things are worse then they appear. The gods of the East are calling for terrible things from their followers, and Baal and his consort have conspired with Marduk. There are rumours that they have been manifesting, and walking amongst..." the imp squawked in terror as the Seer's hand shot out and clamped around it's neck. All it could see was a pair of burning blue eyes.

"Manifest? With the humans?" The other imps flew up in the air and began to fly around nervously, squeaking and whimpering as the Seer's power seemed to leak out. Little arcs of static flickered between horns, around wings and tails.

"Y-y-yes my Lady! Thoth says the Lord Marduk has broken the Laws at Baal's bequest, and is trying to break the power of Egypt for political ends!" The words must've been planted there by Thoth himself, or else the imp would never have been able to repeat them so clearly or coherently, especially with the Seer glowing with anger.

"He would not..."

There was a great, terrible silence as the Seer looked down at the scroll, crumpled on the floor.

Marduk. The girl. Manifest.

The imp was luckier then it knew when it was able to break free from the Seer's grip while she was distracted and dive for cover.

Hatred. Nothingness. Cold. Empty eyes.

The imps shrieked and dived as the energy battered them, hiding together under the couch and shaking like frightened cats.

The Seer closed her eyes, trying to regain control. She'd been in here too long..to long a human, too long without a home. Perhaps she shouldn't have pushed herself the other day. She couldn't think, her own divinity was straining at the seams of her body, pushing it beyond it's limits because of her anger. Her brother had always warned her temper would get the better of her...but the vision...

The control strained and shuddered violently as an echoing scream ripped across the night, loud and terrifying. It was Meryt, screeching from several balconies over, screaming about her father, shouting for the royal guards.

The robes began to snap and snarl in the maelstrom as the last of the Seer's control snapped. Her own power practically lifting her off her feet, her rage began to grow to epic proportions. She didn't hear the pounding at her door, the shouts of the servants that the Pharaoh had been attacked on his wedding night. All she heard was the sound of screams, and blood, and pain.

How could the vision be *wrong*?!

What was going on?!

"LEAVE ME!" She screamed at the imps, who shot out the window in a cloud of wings and tails, not caring if they were seen or not. Thunder rolled in the distance, clouds gathered rapidly up the Nile, and the pitch of the wind increased as the Seer disappeared from her room in a flash of light. The resulting sonic *boom* shattered every vase, cracked every pot, and blew all the furniture to the side.

***

The servants and slaves were scurrying about in terror, shouting. The priests were screaming at each other and for the high priest. Meryt was screaming at the royal guards, some of whom were attempting to stop the bleeding, others who had roughly pinned the girl Anash to the wall. Meryt held her father's head in her lap, frantically trying to plug the wounds in his body with scraps torn from her own dress.

"BeGONE! ALL OF YOU!" The doors of the chamber exploded outwards, shattering against the walls and sagging as their joints cracked. The guards ducked, the slaves fled, and the priests bowed with their heads to the ground as a corona of light flared briefly in the doorway. Meryt shaded her eyes with a hand as the Seer marched forward. There was...something different about her. Something absolutely terrifying. She was too panic-stricken and frightened to really understand it, but later all she rememberd was white hot, terrible anger, and eyes she'd never seen before burning holes right through her.

The guards holding Anash winced and tried to fall to their knees, and Anash gathered her strength to escape, but it was no use. Suddenly, neither she nor the guards holding her could move, held rigid by some awful pressure that emanated from nowhere. The Black Seer, not even looking at them yet, headed straight towards the Pharaoh, and Anash felt a small, acidic tendril of horror creeping up through her stomach. Somehow, she was very glad this...this *creature* was not yet directing it's gaze toward her. And even though she knew her life was likely now forfeit, she didn't feel quite like she wanted to be martyred anymore...

The Seer knelt in front of the Pharaoh, her veils whipping in some unseen breeze. Meryt kept shading her eyes, tears running down her face, as she tried to avoid the woman's gaze. "My...my lady..."

"Silence."

And there was silence.

A still, dead silence, like the air itself had taken a breath and was holding it. Meryt blinked as the robes seemed to drift in slow motion, waving and flowing like streams of water.

The Seer leaned forward, reaching with her hands to take Teshmet's. She drew in a soft, pained breath, tears forming. She wasn't mad, not now, but a terrible fear was rising in her, another awful feeling she hadn't felt before...a very human feeling. The wounds...there were vicious stab wounds in his chest, slashes on his arms, even a savage cut right by his neck. From the looks of Meryt, holding him, there were wounds in the back as well, for her once beautiful linen night gown was drenched in blood.

The tears started to form, and fall, little jewels falling from her cheeks and getting the veils wet. "Teshmet...oh, Teshmet..."

"M...mery..." he moaned and tried to form words. Meryt huddled over him, still crying.

"Papa, papa, please hold on. The physicians will be here, they'll make you better!"

"Move, girl."

The princess looked blankly at the Seer. The plain blankness of her veiled form suddenly took on new terror, but she resisted. "He's..."

MOVE.

This time, she didn't have a choice, and the command seemed to hit her brain without bothering with sound or ears. Her body was simply lifted up and away from the Pharaoh's, and she watched in partial disbelief from a few feet away.

The Seer tenderly held the Pharaoh in her arms, letting the veils slip from her face so she could cry freely. "My lord...your wounds..."

"And here...I thought...I'd die in battle..." he chuckled painfully, a shuddering sigh rising through his body. The Seer gripped him, drawing his gaze so she could lock gazes with him.

"No. Please no. Teshmet, don't. Please." Nothing she said or did, it seemed, could stop the inevitable. Teshmet's soul hung on a fine thread, and that thread was bout to break. Not even as a goddess could she bring him back from death...

Was this what it meant to be human, she thought? To be able to lose everything in the world in less time then it took to blink? To be riding on emotions so strong it felt like it could tear you apart? To live so fast, so briefly, experiencing everything through a tumult of emotion and sensation as you sped through life. It wasn't a matter of longevity, not exactly, it was a matter of spirit, of feeling. So much feeling. She'd lived for countless ages and she'd never felt like she had recently...all this awful, horrible pain, this intensity.

Intensity, that was it. Her sons had understood it, what it was too be human, when they took their role as stewards, letting the other gods laugh as they exposed themselves to the human spirit. And now she understood, too, because she had lived with them, walked with them, talked with them...lived like them, even.

Meryt really did have to cover her eyes now, because a burning bright light seemed to flicker around the body of the Seer. It was like all the dead air in the room was releasing itself through that body, and the dark robes began to flicker upwards like flames. The light even made her hair, which was longer and finer then Meryt had thought, burn like white flame, twisting up. The veils had come off then, and she was almost curios as to what the Seer's face was like…no. No, she wasn't…

The Pharaoh was almost beyond help, and the glow before him, he assumed, was the spirit of the god of the dead, coming to guide him through the underworld.

No.

"N..."

I am not that spirit. I have lived beside you for countless years. I am holding you now, my lord.

He blinked and tried to focus through the haze. A beautiful woman looked back at him, a beautiful woman with blue eyes that crackled like lightening. She seemed to smile, but it was the saddest smile in the world, a smile that made your heart break to see.

Forgive me, Lord.

"Wh..?"

The Seer could feel her spirit straining at the edges now. Lines of light spread like lightning across her skin from her eyes, her divinity cracking the human mold. Her sorrow increased too, it seemed, sorrow overshadowed by a blood-curdling anger as the humanity began to fade away.

Godly retribution was always said to be the true divine state...

Her body disappeared with a snap, the light faded, but Teshmet felt himself still being held, Meryt still couldn't force herself to go to him, and Anash and the guards were still stuck.

And then she was back again.

Afterwards, no one could claim with any certainty what they saw. All anyone remembered was the eyes, of course, because a god could never hide their eyes...

The goddess looked around her. Her mortal form had been completely shattered, or consumed might be more accurate, breaking under the strain of a divine form. She was now in her natural state, a being of pure anger, a tall, white haired woman who looked like she was in her late thirties. High cheek bones, almost a Northern look, hair that lay greyish white down her back.

Anash quite literally felt her blood run cold as the being looked at her. The guards gasped and jerked away, letting her slip to the floor, and took on the same posture as the priests, foreheads down.
The Lady smiled grimly at her, and Anash felt all hope, all joy, all peace drain from her body. Absolute despair came over her. She wasn't going to live, she wasn't going to die, she was…

I don't like you. I like you even less now. In fact, I didn't like before you did this sacrilegious deed. Now I hate you. Now I am ANGRY.

Anash cracked, and curled up on herself, splattered with blood, crying and moaning. The Lady turned away, and bent down beside Teshmet once more, smiling. But still sad...

Lord, do you know what I am, now?

It was no use, she saw. His eyes were fading fast. The Lady sighed. There was no helping it, then, was there...she didn't hesitate for even a second, but opened herself up and out, towards him.

The Law is sacred.

Without it, we are no better then beasts. We would be like untamed animals, no sheperd, no fences, prone to wander at will and wreak havoc and destruction. Upon others…and ourselves.

So we gave ourselves the Law, a Word, telling us our limits, creating boundaries. In this, we created our first link with humanity, for like them, we too need guides.

Our guide is the Word we created for ourselves, though. We set this thing before us, this Law to guide us. In this we are ultimately responsible, for if we cannot be beholden to the Law that we gave ourselves, we are no more then common hypocrites and liars. To break the Law is to break the divinity, and to break the divinity is to become less then even human.

Beware, though, the influence of humanity. For all though we can be like them, although we can think like them, there are fundamental differences. A human cannot be a god; a god cannot be a human. It is a contradiction in terms. They cannot think like us, they cannot see like us, they cannot feel like us. Their lives are lived on the edge, their laws a mere reflection of the Law that binds us.

If a god is too long in the form of humanity, it taints the divine soul. It becomes corrupt, weakened, decayed. That mortal form, whether possessed or created, will eventually break, and it cannot be returned to. But.

It will linger on in the soul of the creator, this humanity. Years cannot be taken away, but a change will occur, and the divine becomes…something else. What this is, none can say, for in all the long history of our kind no god has ever risked this. We hold ourselves too far above the humans to risk becoming too much like them.

The question is, however, whether or not we are already at that point.

Nano Section 11

2006-11-13T18:40:22Z

Well, here's two entries. Both are a bit shorter then previous chapters, which is why I'm lumping them together...anyways.

One thing I've noticed as I've progressed is that characters often go places or do things you didn't originally intend, but this is a bit of a given. I've also noticed that things in future chapters are starting to tie in with what I'm writing now...Yes, this is kind of obvious, but since I'm writing evrything right off the top of my head for the most part, and not really planning anything, this is...kinda creepy. It's like the story is writing itself sometimes ;).

Of Visions.
The Seer gritted her teeth and went cross-eyed as her physical body was briefly racked with pain. Say what you will about the resilience of humans, it bloody *hurt* packing untold levels of energy that could morph into anything at will into a solid form that couldn't. The other side effects of living in human form might be frightening, but she hated this part the most. It bloody *hurt*!

The pain eventually passed and she was able to breathe again, and she was aware of guards entering, of guards leaving, and she was pleased to see that Meryt had followed her instructions and prevented Teshmet from touching her. If he had…well, he'd be out in the Nile by now, and not through the opening here either, probably the back wall.

Lights danced in front of her eyes as she struggled to control and form the energy within. It was getting easier each time, of course, almost too easy, and while she did want to have some of vision for the Pharaoh, she was hoping that it would probably be all right this time...

Her back arced and the words began to pour out of her mouth, rapidly, almost nonsensically. Memories, so many memories...too many. They had to be spoken, they had to get out…she could see her life flashing before her eyes, as cliché as it was, draining out of her like water through a sieve as her physical form adjusted itself like a rubber band snapping back into place.

The princess and pharaoh jumped a little at the incomprehensible words. The Pharaoh himself was startled. He had expected something, but not this. He wasn't even really expecting a real attempt at a bit of fortune or foresight, maybe just a blessing on his union…this he had only heard about from the priests. It was given as a sign of great portent, whether for good or ill. In fact, the high priest of Re had said that the importance of the vision was often so great, that it was hard to tell if it was in fact good or bad.

The Seer didn't give a damn what anyone thought at this point, she was trying to prevent the time space continuum from ripping her a new arsehole.

There seemed to be a surge in the air, a crackle of static and the faintest whiff of ozone as the Seer seemed to tense and then slump forward. Meryt wrinkled her nose as the lightning-like smell tickled it, but shook her head st her father as he got up again. "No, not yet. We're not to move until she wakes and speaks to us."

"But she's just sitting there."

"Father." Meryt gave another exasperated sigh, and they both waited...

***

Nothingness.

Perhaps that was the best part of the ordeal, that little breath of time before everything snapped back into place and before the future moved like smoke before her eyes.

Everything and nothing.

She could see things start to come now, like the tendrils of sand that snaked across the temple steps, like the dust clouds in the palace courtyard.

Something and watching.

It was like the softest breeze in the spring, the gentlest puff of smoke, but strong enough to carry her soul and let it drift on the current. Colours coalesced and took on real shapes.

Things and emptiness.

Now the smoke became stinging, the breeze a gale. Gentleness gave way to harshness, the images glaring and flickering in her mind's eye, assaulting her vision.

Divinity and humanity.

But there was nothing solid, nothing clear, just vague feelings of despair, of desperation, of a tumult of emotions she had never experienced and didn't know where they came from.

Hatred and blood.

She didn't understand, she was confused. And her confusion made things all the more terrible. She had never been confused, she had never not understood, what was going on, she didn't know, she didn't know what was happening why couldn't she think oh no it was coming back…

***

There was a harsh, drawn in gasp of breath and the Seer's body shuddered and slowly came to life again. She groaned and lifted her head, gingerly removing her hands from the armsrest. Her nails had dug right in and that part of the chair was at least ruined. "Gods above..."

The Pharaoh nodded to his daughter, not getting up himself, and she hurried over to the Seer's side, bearing a cup of wine. "O wise one, please, drink this."

"Th...thank you, Meryt-Neith." She didn't have the strength to bother with formal titles, and gulped the rich wine down. "Ahhhh, much better. All the more sweeter to be served by a daughter of the god."

The Pharaoh relaxed. So, all was well. The Black Seer's voice took on rapid strength and she sat up straight, sipping from the goblet. Meryt returned to her seat, looking relieved.

"Are you well, O Black Seer?" the Pharaoh asked formally.

"I am well, my Lord." She set the goblet aside. "Your taste in wine is excellent as always. The vision caught me off guard, but it doesn't take me long to recover."

"Good, good!" Teshmet smiled at her. "What did you see?"

The Seer stirred uncomfortably. Teshmet, bless him, was a good man, but his one major failing was that he could be completely obtuse when it came to women and sometimes their feelings as well. She'd been badly shaken by what she saw, and now she had to be careful. The Seer had no doubt that her temper was rapidly fraying, because she hated being shaken, and the experience of the vision, not just the vision itself, had been deeply troubling. She had to be very careful she didn’t snap out at him.

"My Lord...you must forgive me. The vision itself was very unclear. But…" he didn't have to see her face to know she was frowning. "But, well, I can..." there was a long moment of silence, and both the Pharaoh and Meryt looked at each other, wondering is she had drifted off again.

The Seer struggled with the words. It hurt, it hurt so damn much, but the *feel* of the vision had been true. Teshmet would be happy, in the end, but there would be a lot of pain…so much pain, for him and...for her. She shook her head. The meaning had been meant for her, not him, and she wasn't bound by any sacred law to let him know the details...but, but! All she could see was that Teshmet would be happy, she would be hurt, and she supposed that meant that he would marry his young bride and be happy.

She sighed deeply and addressed him. "Peace, O Pharaoh. I see great happiness in your future."

The Pharaoh gave a great sigh of relief. "Ahh, that does give me some peace! If such words come from your lips, O Lady, then I trust them absolutely." She started a bit at the way he addressed her. "Now! Dear daughter, and Lady Seer, I must take my leave and prepare for the ceremony tomorrow night." He got up, and they rose as well. There was a brief kiss on the cheek for Meryt, a brisk nod for the Seer, and the Pharaoh strode from the room, snapping off orders to the guards outside.

The Seer and the Princess sank back to their chairs, both reaching for wine. Meryt spoke first. "Gods! I love my father dearly, but does he have to be such...such a man!"

"It is unfortunate, my royal lady, but such things happen." The Seer spoke dryly. She refused to give in to the creeping depression and firmly told herself she was going to have nothing to do with it. Ha! Falling in love with a human, what nonsense. And this is what she got in return...well. She was going to enjoy herself, enjoy the damn wine, and enjoy the discussion with Meryt.

"Unfortunate indeed." The young woman grumbled, shaking her head and causing the beads on her wig to clack together. "There's nothing I can do about it...bah. Well, I hope the old fool is happy at least. But if that two faced Syrian harpy breaks his heart I'll..."

"Peace, lady, she'll have enough problems to deal with then." Meryt shivered at the cool edge in the Seer's tone.

"I am glad I have you as an ally, Seer. I'm making my own contacts for when I am Queen, but…"

"Aye, one always needs an intelligent friend." The Seer lifted her goblet and Meryt could imagine the sardonic smile.

"Of course." She smiled in return. "Well, I'll get my own anyways. There's to be a dance tonight after the feast. I'm supposed to compete against the witch." And the smile disappeared.

"Then compete, and prove that true strength and beauty will out over her shallow heart!" the Seer raised her goblet again, and Meryt returned the gesture, and they spent the rest of the time in quiet discussion.

The Court
The place was already hopping.

The Black Seer twitched her lips as she watched the feast progress from her vantage point in the shadows. The Pharaoh has asked her to attend, but she had formed enough excuses to escape the chore. Mostly by promising to be around for the after dinner entertainments, but still.

Even for a goddess, she mused, there needs to be time to rest. She found it very amusing that for the most part the humans had picked up on this. You didn't find a lot of stories or religious texts where a god just kept going, without need for food or drink or anything. And they were right, too. Of course, there was also some other things about the gods that humans very much did not and should not know. Ah well…she nibbled idly on a bit of honeyed chicken. Gods most certainly needed to eat, she thought, and besides, with all that Greek foolishness aside, ambrosia didn't taste *half* as good as old Ammet's honeyed chicken.

She carefully put the bones down a potted fern and slowly drifted towards the royal dais from the sides. No time like the present to join the group, and Teshmet would be pleased to see she had arrived earlier then she planned. And it would give her time to plant a few more words of advice on Meryt's ears…well now. She observed the dais for a few more minutes. There was the Pharaoh, Meryt, the Prince (heir apparent) Thutmose, a gaggle of harem girls and attendants, and surprisingly, the High Priest of Amun-Re. The Priest was perched to the back and left of the Pharaoh, behind the Syrian girl that was to be the new Queen. Meryt was on the right, and kept glaring daggers at the girl.

And so she drifted slowly in from the side, silently and almost invisibly, as usual, approaching the steps. Teshmet, wearing the more formal dress of his station, looked over at her and winked, placing a hand on the Syrian girl's shoulder, whispering in her ear. Meryt looked over with a definite feeling of relief, and the Royal Prince shifted uneasily. The High Priest remained indifferent, flicking his eyes over to her and then back to the front.

"My lords and ladies." She murmured, bowing briefly before the throne.

"Ah! Black Seer, come, here at my feet." Teshmet gestured below him, and some other ladies of the harem shuffled over, eyeing the woman in black warily. "Please, I would like you to meet my new bride, Anash. My dear heart, this is the Black Seer, a most gifted woman of the court."

"Your court magician?" Anash asked in a bored voice. "I've seen so many already. Or does she train the concubines?" her voice was gently teasing, but the Seer had to bite her tongue at the hidden acid in it. Oh yes, this girl had grown up in a harem. Most of those women were trained in the arts of love, beauty, and vicious backstabbing. It was almost second nature to some to debase any other female when in the presence of a man.

Her words got a reaction from the others. Thutmose looked at her in stunned awe, Meryt hissed, and even the Pharaoh needed a moment to blink and stare. He coughed. "Umm, well, no my dear. She is a great prophet."

"Oh, well then." Anash shrugged and turned back to the entertainments that were beginning. The Seer, refusing to acknowledge the slight, silently to her place at the Pharaoh's feet, next to Meryt, who urgently began to whisper to her. The two heads, both dark, leaned together and the words weren't heard by anyone standing.

It was an interesting scene. Everyone was dressed in either white or shimmering gold, with flashes of colour from jewels, wigs, and other accessories. Perfumed and coned candles perched atop some of the females wigs, sending up sweet little streamers of smoke, and the Seer a silent black spot in the middle of it all.

After a while, Teshmet clapped his hands, gesturing at both Anash and Meryt, who got up and walked to the centre of the court room. People settled in on couches and pillows, whispering excitedly, and slaves with lyresm drums, and other instruments took their place to the sides. The Pharaoh gave a short speech, addressing the two, praising both their beauty and grace.

The Royal Prince knelt and whispered behind the Seer. "O Seer, if I may..."

"Yes, my lord Prince?" she idly fanned herself with her hand.

"I've noticed some odd things around the palace lately."

"Mmmm?" she watched as the two young women began to strip, slaves tasking their outer robes till they were down to beautifully designed scraps of cloth. The musicians began to play at the Pharaoh's nod, and the dance began.

"None of the other priests or magicians have noticed it, and I've spoke to them about it already. I keep thinking that I see shadows following the Lady Anash..." here there was a delicate snort, and the Prince grinned ruefully, "...and the priests just snigger and the magicians roll their eyes. Would you know of such things."

"I am a prophet, not a priest, my lord." The prince nodded, half watching the dance progress. The two women were doing well, but there was definitely an air of tense competition there. "But I do believe in signs of portent."

"You think an ill cloud covers Anash?"

"One would hope." To herself, the Seer made a note to speak to Anubis about the stealth of his imps. She didn't like that even the Prince could get hints of them. "Otherwise, I doubt it. I am not going to discredit your vision, lord prince, but I have so far seen nothing that will bring misfortune to this union."

"Ah. Disappointing." His face straight, he stood up again, still watching the dance. The Seer bit back a chuckle and observed as well.

It was getting heated, there was no doubt. Each women was straining to outdo the other, but she noted, Meryt was more concerned with performing well. Instead of sacrificing a move for blatant invitation, she stuck to subtler movements. Anash, however, was very skilled, and despite the refined tastes and eyes of the crowd, her less then obvious come-ons were swaying the general opinion. More people were watching her the Meryt.

The Seer let her own eyes drift over the royal dais, and sighed. The Pharaoh, to be fair, was trying to divide his attention between the two dancers, and the Prince as well, but everyone else...she suddenly blinked in surprise.

Anash was most certainly NOT dancing for the Pharaoh.

She tapped her fingers, noting that the dance had ended and Meryt had lost. She sighed. This didn't bode well for the girl, who angrily shook off her attendants, accepted the congradulatory pat from her father, and then stormed off back to her room. Anash, of course, received a far more intimate congradulations, laughing and hugging the Pharaoh, all the while with cold and snake like eyes.

She couldn't see the Seer's perusal, but more then one person had felt they were being watched by the veiled figure before. The Seer didn't like this. This wasn't just hate, this was...nothingness. There was nothing in those eyes. She grimaced. It was to similar to the feeling...then...but. No, not really. That creature was only human, after all.

Despite the vision, every instinct was screaming at her that the woman was trouble. Deadly trouble. But there was nothing she could do. As a goddess, even one without a region, even as a sister of the Protector, she could not raise her hand against a human being, not without a very, very, VERY just cause. And even then, there'd be some explaining to do. There was some grumbling. The good ol' smiting days were over, and more was the pity for that.

She offered the Prince a nod as she left, gliding quietly down the steps, the sounds of the court fading as she thought to herself. The imps had been following Anash around and hadn't come up with anything conclusive…she muttered to herself. She almost half wished this was just some stupid human politics and she didn't have to get involved….the Seer paused before she exited the court, looking back at the laughing, happy Pharaoh. A look of such sadness crossed her face that she felt her heart flip a little, and she hurried back to her quarters.

Nano Section 10

2006-11-12T21:58:22Z

Holy crap, I'm on a roll. ALl well and good, I was busy and stressed before and I'll be busy and stressed later.

The Princess
"Wise one!" the Seer stopped and turned at the sound of a girlish voice. It was one of the royal princesses, the Queen apparent, actually, calling to her from the harem gates. "O Wise one! Can I speak to you?"

She sighed and turned around, bowing from the waist. "I hear and obey, princess. What words would you have with me?"

The princess shrugged off, or tried to shrug off, some of her attendants and strode forward, undaunted by the Seer's cool demeanor. The Seer nodded in approval. The Princess was the one who bore the key to the royal line, the one who would be able to make the next Pharaoh. The first born son of the Pharoah was supposed to inherit the throne, yes, but because the kingship was passed through the women, he had to marry the royal princess, who could be his half sister, or at least some relation.

The Seer winced. Tradition or no, it was a disgusting practice in her eyes, weakening the royal line with inbreeding. Thank goodness the dynasties changed with the centuries, so usually Egypt had fresh blood come into the royal lines every now and then. Here, at least, it wasn't so bad. This princess was only a second cousin to the future king. It was sad, but the Seer was almost grateful that the original princess, the future Pharaoh's half sister, had died of a fever when she was still young.

"Oh, don't be silly, Black Seer. A messenger of the gods cannot be ordered about by a mere mortal princess." The Princess smiled ironically, ignoring the fluttering and shocked whispers of the eunuchs behind her.

"Ah, princess, how you debase yourself by implying mortal blood? Are you not a daughter of Pharaohs, the blood of the divine ones running in your veins?" the Seer liked this one, which is why she approved of her. She was smart, very smart, and tough, and she had her father's practical, no nonsense attitude. Were she a man, she'd have been out with the war chariots already, wiping out bandit clans and fighting off the Syrians at the northern borders.

"Divine I maybe, but I find myself most peculiarly bound to this mortal flesh and earth." The princess snorted. "Enough banter, wise one, I haven't the time for it. Please, meet with me in my private chambers for the noon meal. I wish to speak with you privately."

"So let it be done, O royal princess." The Seer bowed again, not bothering to keep the amused sarcasm out of her voice. The princess looked up at her sharply, her eyes lighting up.

"Watch your tongue or lose it, Seer. You are just a lowly fortune teller at my father's court and I shall not be dictated to by one so common, wise or not!" The princess sniffed in mock fury and spun around, walking so fast that the attendants had to run to keep up with her, palm fronds flapping.

The Seer grinned with delight. Oh, she really did like the princess. Most certainly. The woman had a tongue like an asp; poisonous and lightning quick, and she used it well. Her insults were rich, full of vicious ire, and completely without true meaning when they talked. Even though the princess was not your average human being, the Seer was greatly amused by her briskness, and even though the princess didn't realize who she was addressing, her bluntness was refreshing. The Seer liked being talked to like she was no different, or lower class, then the princess herself.

She arranged her robes and set off to leave, then eyed the harem gates again. There did seem to be quite a lot of bustle and commotion going on there…she wandered over, nodding to the eunuch guards. They knew her, and despite being female, she was one of the few aside from servants or visiting noblewomen who were allowed in. There had been a point where a bunch of harem girls and the like were found of summoning her to read fortunes or other nonsense, but that habit had been cut short…

The doors were open a crack, and she peeped her head in and winced as the noise spilled out. Dozens of chattering females were flocking around a slim, tall woman in the centre, who looked bored and indifferent to them all. She heard words like 'lucky' and 'pharaoh' and 'marriage!', which was more then enough…the Seer quietly slipped her head back out and shut the heavy doors, very still and silent. She nodded briskly once more to the guards and headed to the Princess' chambers.

But once she turned the corner, her calm demeanor cracked a little. And so did a few other things. Though she looked like an oasis of calm, lines appeared across some pillars, a few vases shattered, and several rush lights fell to the ground, flared unnaturally bright, and died.

"The little bitch!"

The Seer slowed as she approached the Princess' chambers, blinking in surprise. A row of grim-faced, tattooed guards stood at attention around the doors, and no doubt there were a few more inside. The personal body guard of the Pharaoh himself. She raised her nose and strode towards them, robes twitching in irritation. Not unexcpectedly, two of the guards stepped forward and blocked her path.

"Forgive us, Black Seer, but the Pharaoh..."

"Yes, I'm the Black Seer, as you well know, Amunket. I've watched you train for the court since you were a boy. And before you bloody well block my path you may bloody well use that brain of yours and remember that I never enter unless I'm summoned to! Out of my way, both of you!" her voice snapped angrily, and almost without their realizing it, the two guards' weapons raised and they stepped out of the way, wincing. The Seer must be angry today, Amunket thought, normally she wasn't quite this...powerful?

He nodded at her and turned, knocking on the large wooden doors. There was an return knock, and another guard stuck his head out. There was a few moments talk, and the other guard disappeared again. The Seer tapped her foot, growing impatient. After a moment, the guard reappeared, and stepped out.

"The Pharaoh and the Princess welcome you, Black Seer, and await you within."

"Indeed!" she snapped again, and pushed past him. Bother politeness, even to the servants and guards, she was pissed off.

The Princess' private chambers were beautiful, part of the palace complex that back right onto the Nile. Part of her room was built right up to the great river, a small pool-like bathing area where she and some of the other royal children would lounge, play, or where she could entertain guests. It was, of course, riguoursly protected against enemies and animals coming in from the Great River as well.

The rest of the room was airy, spacious, and beautiful, crafted from white marble and stone, hung with colourful, gauzy curtains and strips of cloth. There were gold and mahogany chairs, statues of the goddess Bast (the princess' favourite), and small kitty couches for her pets. And the pets, the royal cats, lounged about on the couches and on the princess' own bed. Not too many, but enough that the Seer managed a smile. She hand a fondness for the beasts herself, probably because they had so much in common.

"Ah! Black Seer, welcome!" She drew to attention as the Pharaoh got up. He and the Princess had been sitting on the area by the Nile pool. The Pharaoh, Lord of the Two Lands, waved a hand at the guards, who left them alone. He strode towards her, a large smile on his face, and the Princess got up behind him, her face set in a grimace.

"My lord." The Black Seer kneeled. "It is a pleasant surprise to see you here."

"Rise! I'll not have my favoured advisor kneeling before me on this joyous day!" the Pharaoh Teshmet took her shoulders and raised her up. He was tall for an Egyptian, though he just equalled her own height. He patted her on the shoulder once then motioned for her to sit down.

The Pharaoh was a military man, stocky and scarred, without a inch of fat on him, and he moved lightly on his feet. But he was open and friendly with those who were close to him, rare though they were, almost genial during informal meetings. But he had a quick mind, sharp as an edge of obsidian, and he could be hard as granite when dealing with court affairs and the business of either running a country or a campaign. And of course, there was the nose...the Seer sighed ruefully. She didn't know what it was with Egyptians and their noses. They weren't ugly, but they were large and noble, certainly a defining feature.

She nodded at the Princess, who returned the gesture with an expasterated look on her face, and walked towards the Nile porch. "Good morning to you, Princess Meryt-Neith."

"Good morning, Seer. I'm glad you accepted my invitation. Please, sit with us." The Seer bowed her head and took a place at the low table, pulling a chair forward. She waited till the Pharaoh and Princess Meryt were seated before sitting down herself.

The Pharaoh grabbed a goblet and took a deep swig. "Ah! Now, as I've already told my precious daughter, I've got some wonderful news to tell you, Seer. My daughter, so far has not approved..." he spared a stern glance at the young woman. "...but I am quite set in my choice."

Meryt gave the Seer a pleading look. Her eyes held a tight expression as she reached for her own goblet. "Father, it's not seemly. She's just a..."

"Silence, daughter!" Teshmet frowned. "You've made your views and opinion quite clear, and I do not need to hear them again. Do you question my judgement so much?"

"No, Father, but..."

He held up a hand. "Enough! I will not fight over this any longer. Now, Seer, I..."

"You've decided to marry that new girl from Syria." She responded coolly. "She's been here, what? Six months now?" sometimes, she thought, she was very glad of the veils. Had the Pharaoh and his daughter been able to see her eyes, they would've been out the door and shouting by now. Control over her voice and general demeanour was much better.

"Ah. Well, I see your gift serves you well, Seer." The Pharaoh sat back with a respectful smile. "I have not yet told anyone outside of my daughter, and no doubt some of the guards know…"

"And the servants. And the harem itself, and the eunuchs, and everyone else by now, my lord. I knew of the matter before I even entered this room, my lord, from the noise that was surging out of the harem itself. My gifts were hardly needed."

Teshmet raised an eyebrow. "Indeed, Seer. So? What do you think? Is she not a wonderful new bride?" he was grinning happily. The Seer ignored the little pains inside her and contented herself with a sigh.

"I am happy for your happiness, of course, my Lord. I pray that it will be a happy match for you both."

"Ah! Your words of happiness are pleasurable to hear!" the Pharaoh slapped his thigh and grinned even wider. "Come now, use your gifts and foresee the future for my new bride!"

Meryt gave the Seer another look, shrugging her shoulders. An unspoken message passed between the two woman, and the Seer turned towards the oblivious Pharaoh. There was another internal sigh. She didn't know what to say to him...she was a goddess, not a fortune teller, but that was her job supposedly at the court.

"My Lord, if you will give me a few moments. This may take some time." It was liking turning off a switch, really, and all the two royals saw was the Seer put her arms on the armrests, relax and…that was all. She seemed to go very still, very quiet, and relax slightly, but otherwise her back remained straight, her posture perfect. They both shivered slightly. The body was there but they felt that the Seer...wasn't.

And a goddess looked at the two from where she stood outside of her physical body, smiling grimly. She needed time to think and she was damned if, even for Teshmet, she'd spin off some fortune teller's nonsense.

Not even at the court was she usually known for that sort of thing. Really, he should've known better...for countless years she had gained respect and status as a prophet of sorts. Not because she had a gift, very few beings, mortal or immortal, did. But she knew things because she could speak to the spirits, the imps, contacts with the other gods, report things that were happening in far off lands faster then was physically possible.

There were times though…times when memory slipped through her mind like a sieve, scenes from the past millennia, when her thoughts seemed to fill her up and overflow her mind, when all she could do is sit still and allow the words to spill from her lips. They weren't in any language that the priests knew, and their desperate attempts at translation and divination were laughable. It was her own tongue, her original tongue, a language so old it predated a time when men could speak beyond a grunt. And then…and then…then her mind was empty, devoid of any memory or thought or dream, open to everything and she could...

The goddess shook. She'd been too long in this human form, she knew. Most gods had a physical form, of one type or another, or they shifted them every now and then, but they were always natural, adapted to their powers and strength. This...this was too human, too real. It was getting harder and harder to contain herself within it, which is why her own past memories would spill out. A human mind couldn't hold all that power for any amount of time. And while she couldn't predict the future, things would…happen in that inbetween time, the time when her mind and spirit lay open to all the earth and energy, and images would flash across her eyes…when she awoke, there was always a time when she was vunerable, incredibly so, and it was the most frightening thing she'd experienced as a goddess. Which took some doing.

It wasn't something she had control over, which was almost more frightening than her own weakness. And it couldn’t be summoned or controlled, and she wasn't about to do something like that willingly anyways. To induce that kind of state…she shook again, trembling metaphysically. Could she do that? Did she want to? For...for him...

She didn’t know if the humans present could feel it, but the rush of power, the feel of her own soul loose and free from the human form she'd constructed for herself was very, very good. Her energy flowed freely around her, unrestrained, and if she wasn’t careful, she might manifest herself. As it was, the goblets on the table were starting to tremble a little. The goddess smiled a little. All the better, the more show that went on, the more impressed or believing the two royals would be.

And the longer she was out, the harder it would be to return. And when she returned, as she knew she must...

The goddess sighed and steeled herself. It was foolish trying this. She had no call to do it for a human, no reason to lower herself like this for the desires of a lowly mortal. Especially when it wasn't for himself, but someone else. It'd be so hard to refuse though, and she couldn't...well she couldn’t say no to him. Not now, not ever, however long 'ever' might be.

She slowly drifted around the table, noting the alarmed expressions of the two royals as they eyed her unconscious physical form. Neither of them could see her, but if she moved in close enough, even if she didn’t' try hard, they might. Some humans were so blind to the other world, the in between world, the metaphysical, that they couldn't, or their subconscious wouldn't allow them too...but Meryt, now, her mind was open as free as a birds. A good queen she'd make, someday.

The goddess smiled gently and extended an incorporeal hand towards the young woman, brushing aside some of her hair so she could whisper in her ear.

The princess suddenly started and went rigid as she felt the faintest feather touch on her cheek, seemingly from nowhere. For the briefest of moments a voice, almost a dream, whispered to her, and then faded. Her father looked over at her in surprise.

"Daughter, what...?" they were both startled by a harsh noise from the Seer, and they both snapped their heads over to stare at her veiled form in the chair.

The black robes shifted and stirred almost on their own, and two pale hands gripped the armrests so hard they started to splinter. The Seer cried out once, sharply, almost like she was in terrible pain. The Pharaoh half got out of his chair, reaching to help, when an iron grip latched around his wrist. He looked down in surprise at his daughter. It took some strength to stop him that quickly.

Her voice was hoarse. "Father...don't. you musn't touch her. I heard a voice, just know, and it said she wasn't to be touched. I think it was one of the gods, warning us." Her face went several shades paler as another rough cry came from the Seer. "Please, father."

He nodded but called out to the guards as they burst in, waving them off. "No need, go back out and guard the doors. Go!" they hesitated, eyeing the Seer, but complied, and the Pharaoh and his daughter turned to look at the Seer again.

Nano Section 9

2006-11-12T19:33:17Z

Okay, moving on with the Egyptian set ;)

Worries

Anubis snapped his fingers and a bowl of fruit appeared from nowhere. The Seer snorted. "Pomegrante. Subtle."

He shrugged and offered her a piece. "Doesn't hurt to try, Lady."

She took it and primly began to nip off pips. "Indeed." There was a few moments of silence, and Anubis spoke again.

"What do you need to know, Lady?"

She sighed and nibbled. "There's a new girl coming into the harem. From the northeast, if you know what that means."

"I do. Would this relate to the Eastern problem at all?" If it was possible for a shaggy, jackal headed god of the dead to look innocent, he was managing it. The Seer nodded.

"It might. My sources over there are weak, as are most of the other gods I've spoken too. Baal and Ashtoreth have got the area nailed up tight."

"Hrm." Anubis rested his muzzle on her knee, sucking on the pomegranate pips and then spitting them across the floor. "I'll speak to Kabechet, and get in contact with Thoth. He's been wanting to get a closer study of the Sumerian law codes anyways."

"Thanks, but I'm planning on having words with Thoth later, so you needn't worry about that." The Seer eyed the muzzle on her lap, raising an eyebrow. "The concern with the Easterners is not my main purpose here today. I want to send imps and get as much information on her background as possible."

"Why such concern, Lady?" A great brown eye turned towards her. "We're not supposed to meddle in mortal affairs as it is."

She flushed. "I can concern myself all I damn want. My esteemed brother has yet to find a place within the orders for me, so how I spend my time is my own business. If I get involved with mortal affairs it's not my fault."

"Ah?" Anubis sat up and casually slipped around her shoulders. "Then why do you come to me, Lady? The other gods in this realm would no doubt be able to assist you if you're looking to spy on the east. And if you're concerned with some new harem girl, speak with Hathor."

The Seer stirred angrily. "I came to you because I trust you as a friend, Anubis, and do not take it as more than that." He sighed and removed his arm, and the Seer continued. "I am uneasy with the girl. The current Pharaoh is doing a fine job, and I do have some concern for him continuing his reign."

Anubis nodded. "He's been doing a good job so far, and of course it's our duty as gods to ensure the safety of our realms. But how are you so concerned with him?"

"That little bitch has turned his head *completely*." The Seer gritted her teeth and hissed. "He has not neglected his duties but he is falling in love with nothing more then a pretty piece of flesh, and she knows it. This is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue, because there's no love in her eyes back for him, only hate."

The dog-headed god looked down at the goddess beside him, real concern starting to wrinkle his brow. It wasn't unusual for gods to take human lovers, in the past at least, but such practices had been outlawed by mostly mutual agreement between the different regional pantheons. But, past laws or no, it was even rarer for a god or goddess to actually fall in love with a human.

"Lady, forgive me for being forward, but you know the law as well as I do. Whatever your feelings are for this human, you have to put them aside. Not only that, but it sounds like you're prepared to interfere in the matter directly, and by your own brother's word…"

"Don't quote the law back to me!" the Seer got up and rammed her veils back on her head, pacing angrily. "I...I am not going to do something as foolish as fall in love with Teshmet."

"Teshmet?"

There was a pointed silence, and Anubis feared he may have gone too far. The Seer stood stock still, fists clenched, and it was taking all her control not to snap out at him.

"The Pharaoh. No matter." She briskly shook her head. "Perhaps I've been lingering in this region for too long. I've become mercurial in temperament of late, probably because I'm chafing here." She turned slightly and looked at him, her head held high. "Either way, I'd appreciate the information on the girl. If you can spare a few imps, perhaps…?"

He wisely held his tongue, but looked at the goddess with pained eyes. "Yes, my Lady. Do you need them for observing the palace?"

"Of course I do, don't be deliberately obtuse." She shook her head in irritation. "I just want them to watch. If anyone raises any questions about…interference, however, I'm acting as an objective agent for you at the court."

"As the regional gods are allowed to run some small manipulations in their own areas in the interest of keeping things in harmony, but that's a fine line to walk, my Lady." Anubis strode over to her and crossed his arms, looking down at her. In this form, he towered above even her tall figure. He looked irritated himself.

"And I do not have a region, and this sort of situation has happened before and I've had to do similar tasks before, on behalf of other gods. Don't worry." The Seer's voice was only faintly bitter. "If it bothers you so much..."

"No, my Lady. I'll inform Re about it, that is all. The Sun god won't care." He uncrossed his arms and grasped her hand. "Just be careful, Lady."

She looked up at him. Jackal from the head down in this form, he still radiated general good will and there was an odd expression on his doggy face. There was a deep sigh. "Thank you, Anubis. I take your care to heart, as always." She gave him a light peck on the cheek. "Now, I've got to see Thoth for a moment...and..."

The slow time around them flickered, briefly, and her eyes crossed. The power of the temple, of the great library below was putting a strain on her control. And because of the incident earlier, the Help, as it were, were generating a lot of fervent prayer and belief, which wasn't helping. Anubis supported her with one arm and they disappeared from sight as normal time resasserted itself with a pop.

The Seer looked up at Anubis crossly as he deposited her outside the temple area. "I was managing quite fine. And as I was about to say, I'm going to have a word with him about that library beneath your temple."

"You are welcome, my Lady." Anubis hid his feelings behind a lazy, doggy grin, his tongue half hanging out. "Just being the gentleman and showing a lady out."

"Hmph." She snorted and walked off, preferring to travel normally then snap from spot to spot. Anubis shook his head and popped out of existence again. He couldn't understand the female, sometimes.

***

A scene similar to what happened at the temple of Anubis was re-enacted at the temple of Thoth, though it was considerably more restrained. Thoth was one of the most patient gods in the Egyptian pantheon, and he had that kind of cool disintrest when listening to her that seemed to soak up all her words.

"...and I guess that worked out, but." The Seer set aside the neat mug of beer. Thoth was quietly working on some scrolls. "Anubis said he'll do what he can here. Aside from all that...bother. I forgot to mention it to the dog-headed one. My brother's been hinting to me that something needs to be done over in the east, so this isn't entirely an idle request from a bored goddess."

"Heavens forbid it, Lady." Thoth's voice was deeper then Anubis', and it rumbled out like gentle thunder rolling over the Nile. She glanced at him sharply, but it was impossible to get anything but a straight face from the Ibis God sometimes.

Unlike Anubis, who was much more lazy and easy going in personality, Thoth was more serious and deep thinking. He also didn't go for the animal headed form, unlike some of the others who did it for kicks. Or, and here the Seer snorted genteely, Anubis, who did it because he was a brat sometimes and thought it was cool. She sighed. It was almost cliché of Thoth, in a way, to have a personality that so suited his job. Granted, he was one of the few gods she knew who did.

"Very funny, my lord, but the fact remains. The Protector my brother is getting worried about that lot up there. Do you know of any moderates in the pantheon? Anyone who might be able to take control?" she leaned forward, her face urgent. "We've never had to deal with this sort of trouble before."

"There has been trouble in the past." Thoth rumbled again, turning back to his work. "Perhaps not to this scale, however."

"Hmmph. Can you do it?"

"I can." There was a slight motion as the large, dark skinned man dipped his quill into the ink well and continued to scratch out something onto papyrus. "Their god of law wanted to look over some of our precepts."

"Good, good." The Seer stretched out on the low couch. "I'm just acting as the messenger, as usual, but the Protector that you can inform me as to what's going on as well. If those sick bastards are really breaking Law up there, I'm probably going to have to be the one to deal with it."

"None better, my Lady." The Seer shot him another look, but he was still implacable. Yes, Thoth was an interesting character. He had the typical olive skinned, large nosed, dark eyed Egyptian look, and he wasn't very tall either, which belied his deep voice. And an incorrigible reader. And writer. And not very talkative, either.

"Well then, oh loquacious one, I'll be off." She rose from the couch and stretched again. "Oh, and about the library..."

"I'm well aware of it, Lady." He turned around again and looked up at her. "Is there any concern about it?"

"Oh no, not you too. Don't you play that game with me, sir." She put her hands on her hips and scowled. "Putting a bloody library underneath a temple, what kind of trouble you looking for, I don't wonder."

"The humidity is optimal for maintaining the scrolls."

"Hmph." The Seer's eyes sparkled as she reached for her veils and put them on again. "As I said, I'm off. Mind that you have someone to keep an eye on the Help while you're gone...I'll be at the Palace, as usual."

"Thebes?"

"No, Memphis." The Seer did prefer to travel by foot, horseback, or sedan chair, but for long distances, such as popping up in distant cities, she preferred more convenient methods of movement. She snapped her robes and disappeared with a faint smell of ozone.

Thoth bent back to his scroll writing, faint smile creasing his otherwise stern face. He was still motionless when the air shimmered briefly and another appeared, this time with the faint smell of fur.

"Hello, oh dog-headed one."

"She was here, wasn't she." Anubis sniffed suspiciously. "She tell you what's up?"

"Indeed. Sit down, brother, and stop pacing."

"I'm not easy about it. We've got a goddess freelancing in our region. There's got to be rules about that." He didn't stop.

"She has her rights. And she is not doing anything harmful, in fact she's been very helpful." Thoth put down his quill and looked thoughtful. "She is a goddess without a home..."

"In the north, I've heard. She has family there."

"Aye, but she is far more powerful than even them. She left because that was their region to rule, not hers." He tapped the quill against his lip. "Can you imagine what it's like for her, being stuck amongst the mortal because she does not want to burden her sons? The only reason she walks the earth is because there is no place for her in heaven, and she refuses to sully her feet in hell." He smiled grimly.

"Very poetic, my friend, but hardly accurate." Anubis fell on the couch and grumbled.

Thoth shrugged. "If you care for her like you do, and don't start like that, you've practically confessed it before, you'd realize, yes it's a little poetic but accurate."

Anubis struggled for a minute, then shrugged. "She's a powerful woman. Perhaps a little out of my league...but I can't help but be concerned. She seemed to be...overly worried about the Pharaoh."

"Ah?"

"She must be using this Baal problem as an excuse. It's doubtful this new harem girl has anything to do with it." Anubis looked thoughtful. "Come to think of it, I'll get the imps to report to me as well."

"Mmmm." Thoth turned back to his work. "And I've got to make a trip north…"

Nano Section 8

2006-11-11T19:36:47Z

Here's the next bit. Things have definitly taken off so far today, and I hope I can maybe catch up with katster by the end of the weekend. Then again, I don't doubt that she's writing too so that maybe an overly hopeful assumption ;).

You ever wonder what the gods do in their spare time...?

To a god

The temple of the 'dark god' Anubis was bustling already, various shaven headed priests scurrying about their morning duties. They bowed respectfully and moved to the side as she floated up the steps. The Seer decided on sweet politeness today, as she wanted to save up her considerable energy for speaking to the High Priest, and it didn't do to disturb the help, as it were. The priests, clerics, shamans, whatever the hell you wanted to call it were always, rather ironically, referred to as 'The Help' by most of the gods. Well, save those filthy buggers in the east, Baal and that lot. THEY were really the nasty bunch, and the things they did to their worshippers when most of them had already agreed not to… She shook her head and focused. THOSE lot could be dealt with later, and she'd already had a word to her brother about it. In fact...well, she was quite possibly the only real objective observer of all the world's gods.

She'd seen a lot of things, and in a lot of places in her lifetime. But she was still a wanderer, still prone to be 'exceedingly independent', as her younger sister liked to say. The Seer grinned. Three siblings, them, and three only, and between them held most of the other gods in terror...

Okay, not really in terror.

Sand swirled around her robes in whirly patterns on the stone, always off to the side and never touching as she swept into the open temple. There started to be gasps and mutters as she got closer to the inner sanctum, but any interference being run by either acolytes or priests were briskly swept aside before they even reached her. Even incense, thick and heavy in the air, seemed to part away from her passage. She really, really wasn't in the mood for it, despite her earlier jollity. Finally, one priest, a much higher ranking one by the looks of it, stepped in front of her and refused to be moved. His scowl went deeper then hers as he stood in the pathway leading into the innermost or holy centre of the temple.

"I am sorry, great one, but none may enter here except on holy days, save the son of the god himself." He crossed his arms and even his white kilt rustled in indignation. The Seer narrowed her eyes.

They were, by now, standing in a long, dark, cool hallway, offset by a row of massive pillars. The smell of incense was thick from the room beyond the priest, only partially visible as his stout body filled the doorway. There were a few nervous yaps from beyond but they were quickly silenced. The Seer could make some comment on the man's size, but it was interesting comparing the small doorway to the sheer size of the court in front of it, and really the man himself wasn’t so large. But.

She could feel the weight of ages here, better then the human fool in front of her. He didn't know, he *couldn't* know, the kind of power that could exist in the holy places of the world. This was a construct, this guided the power and the faith of the people, but it was only a place, a man made place. Even now there were spots more powerful in the desert then this magnificent monstrosity. But what gave the temple it's true clam to real power, it's right to be ranked as a place of reckoning?

The scrolls, of course.

She could feel the tingle of the massive collection even where she stood. Faith, she briefly mused, was all well and good, but even the most devout man has trouble believing sometimes in a god he never sees. And, even when the god is made visible to him, as had happened in the past, the human mind was so incredibly resistant to wonder that it shoved the experience to the unbelievable. But books, well, everyman believed what he read in a book. It was almost second nature to the race. Didn't matter if it was true or not, of course, it was still believed in more then the gods.

There were, rarely, very rarely individuals who did in fact have true faith in the gods, but the Seer mused that she hadn't heard of those in a while. And then there were those who believed both in the book *and* in the god, and those…those were a rarity that had not been seen by anyone, not god nor man. She idly wondered at the kind of power someone like that could have… not that it would, really, rival the 'power of the gods themselves', that was just silly *drama*, but there was a purity about true faith that…

"Please, great one, you cannot..."

"Oh, get out of my bloody way, would you? I was thinking and I certainly don't have time for your mortal preening and pride." The Seer sniffed and the high priest was jerked to the side, pinned against a wall, his face now blank and expressionless. "Now, I'm going into your bloody high sanctum, and there's nothing you can damn well do about it. I will go where I like and you're the last kind of twit that's going to forbid me otherwise. Only one other person can tell me what to do, and his power is so far beyond that of your puny temple political grip that it's not even comparable as a human is to a speck of dust." She paused. "As accurate as that analogy is…oh, fine, I'll let you down later. Don't expect to remember anything." She waved her hand again and the man seemed to be hidden by the shadows, in case anyone came by. The Seer leaned against the doorframe and continued her thoughts in peace.

Ah yes. The purity of true faith. She chuckled ruefully. She knew better then the humans did, for obvious reasons, that the gods weren't really gods, not like *that* god. The God they all knew existed and the humans were only now getting an inkling about. She and her fellow gods had be sent to do a job here on earth, and my hadn't they botched that job up. Well, there was no helping it. Things were the way they were now, and there was no use in trying to undo it.

She crossed her hands behind her head and waited for her own power to build before breaching the sanctum. It was hard enough coming here, in a way, and one's power was always…different when in the stronghold of another. She scowled. The purity of faith aside, it was a damn nuisance when two gods such as these collaborated together, and it was hardly fair at all. The scroll collection didn't even properly belong to the temple, in a way, it was under the jurisdiction of another god *entirely*, but the combined effect would give her a headache later, she just knew it. The one was one of the more popular gods, especially amongst the young, and there was nothing like the fire of youth to give a god power, that's why those sickos in the east were still going strong, and didn't they think that no one else knew what they were up to…she drew herself straight and strode into the sanctum, properly irritated now.

"ANUBIS!"

Silence. Even the sacred dogs were cowering in the corners, and the small group of chanting priests and acolytes had frozen in their prayers. The Seer moved forward, her voice ringing with indignation.

"Anubis, you dog-headed son of a bitch, I know you're there!"

The priests and scolytes squawked with terror and rushed towards her, waving their hands. She didn't move, but the air suddenly took on a tingling, electric feel, and suddenly her robes flared in a black corona around her, thrashing wildly from the simple aura of her power. There were shrieks as the priests tried to flee the other way, but their muscles were twitching with some strange energy and it was difficult to move.

The veils parted, and a pair of brilliant blue eyes burned from the darkness within.

Now there was a sound of rushing wind, and the humans were tossed aside and scattered like leaves, face down on the floor and immobile. They were unconscious by now. The dogs, however, were still very much awake, and they huddled and whimpered in a pile together, but otherwise unaffected by the tiny maelstrom.

There was a crackle of lightnening and the stench of ozone as the thrashing of the Seer's robes grew wilder. "I DO NOT have time for games, Anubis! You were drawn here by my power, so do not pretend that you are not present. As unconcerned as any of us are for the hollow prayers of mortals, I know you would come if another of your kind *trespassed* on your turf. Step forward!"

Oddly enough, despite the massive influx of power in the room, the building seemed to be holding up well. The Seer smiled grimly again. Buildings were just buildings, temples were buildings with an edge. Temples could last the longest, because even when other buildings crumbled with age, the power of faith could keep a temple going for untold millennia. Even if the worshippers were gone, the religion nameless, the power lingered, and as long as there were people to simply look and wonder what it might've been...

"Don't think you can summon me, wandering witch!" the low growl of anger came from the direction of the altar. "Am I a servant to be called and beckoned at your whim?"

The Seer's robes flattened and streamed behind her from the new source of power. Tiny arcs and flashes of light started to appear between her and the altar, and the smell of ozone intensified. Her eyes burned brighter from withing the whirling cloud of black veils, and there was an very definite tension in the air, a slight thickening of the atmosphere as she pushed back.

"Far be it from me to think such a thing." Her voice rang with irony. "But when I come calling I expect a prompt and honest response."

"You do, do you?" The growl grew louder in tone.

"Aye, that I do. Cut the crap, Anubis, I don’t have time for petty turf wars."

"Who's pushing?" The air practically solidified as his voice rang out, much clearer now. "Is this how we approach one another now?"

"Don't tempt fate, dog beast." The Seer's power, seemingly straining and being pushed down by the source emanating from the altar, flared outwards and upwards, slicing through the thick heavy air like a knife through silk and ripping it to shreds. Ritual items and sacred objects lying about began to rattle and move around, and even the altar itself began to vibrate.

There was an angry hiss, and some of the sacred objects fell off the altar and shattered. "In my own temple you'd try this?!" there was a push back, and the wild energy of the Seer's power flattened under the heavy thickness of Anubis' strength. The line between them was pushed right back onto the Seer herself, and her robes snapped and snarled, ripping till her head veils were blown away.

Time seemed to stop.

The voice behind the altar realized that, as usual, he'd underestimated the Seer's power. What he'd seen, or felt, was only the tip of the iceberg. And now, watching a very angry woman glide through air that had no meaning or time in the real world, he thought perhaps he might have just opened the bloody door when she knocked.

The Seer moved forward, the clouds of dust, the priests, the dogs, everything, even the flashes of static generated by their battle of will suspended in time. It was too easy. All she had to do was open the floodgates on her power and…silence things for a while. It wasn't hard to close them up again either, but right now she wanted some peace and quiet. The altar seemed to wait there, patient but not afraid, as she approached, reached a hand into what was supposedly empty air, and come out pinching a doggish black ear.

"Dammit, woman, there's no need for that!" Anubis, long snout and all, slipped through a crack in space, bits of his fur standing on end as the Seer scowled and pulled on one of his ears. He huffed and rubbed his nose. "Do you mind?"

"Sorry about that, old friend, thought you might need some help getting out." The Seer apologetically removed her hand and dusted him off a little, a grin appearing on her face.

"Yes, well, after you've battered my door like that it was hardly a trial." He rubbed an ear ruefully. "Didn't need to go through all that trouble, really."

"Ah, but where would the fun be then? It's gotten rather boring at the palace, and besides, I needed to get some exercise." She perched heretically on the altar and crossed her legs in a lady like pose. "Would you ever mind getting my veil back?"

Anubis shook his shaggy head and chuckled. "Indeed, my Lady. I hardly see how it's a problem though, it's not like *that* lot can see us now." He jerked a clawed thumb at the tableau of frozen priests. The Seer shrugged.

"Force of habit. To tell you the truth, I've gotten fond of wearing black veils all the time. I suppose I'm going through a fashion phase."

"Fair enough." Ever the gentleman, Anubis retrieved the layers of fabric, dusted them off, and returned them to her. "I do appreciate being able to see your face whenever we have these little discussions, my Lady."

"Well, I won't put it on *now*, of course." She sniffed. "It's good enough for some others around here…that reminds me, I need to address his Lordship about that little problem on our Eastern borders. I'd appreciate it if you could pass the word down the line as well."

"As you wish. He gave a deep, mock bow, and the Seer rolled her eyes. The shit-eating grin on his face wasn't helping. "Now, is that all, or was there something else you wanted, my lady?"

"Indeed, don't be foolish." She scooted over genteelly as Anubis hopped on the broad altar as well. "I need some information."

He sprawled out behind her, lying down and resting his head on his hand. "Oh? The funeral business keeps me busy, you know."

"Yes, I'm sure it does, especially since you've been stuck in the courts with Osiris all day, playing senet."

Anubis wore a look of innocence. "I'll have you know senet is a very ancient and noble game, allowing one to train the mind and focus..."

"Oh, shove off." The Seer fussed with her veils and then laughed quietly. "Enough of the verbal banter and let's get down to business, shall we?"

Nano Section 7

2006-11-10T21:26:59Z

Well, yay.

So I nbeed to catch up a bit on nano. My word count hasn't exactly been stellar the last few days, but hopefully I'll make it up over the weekend...anyways.

Here's the new story bit! What I found vaguely amusing is the way I rambled off a bit here, but it's nano, more filler the better ;). So, yeah, this is what might be eating up a good chunk of word count and what I was so excited about getting too. I actually know entirely what the story'll be here better then the entire nano :).

Old Lady's Story

This was one of the great lands.

An old land, a very old land, full of history and time and culture.

And dust.

Princes and princesses wandered the palace corridors, idly chatting and giggling to one another, palm trees waved in the breeze blowing down the Nile, and the scent of lotus blossoms drifted in from innumerable ponds and gardens.

"And I'm bloody well stuck here. Gods, the dust." The Seer snapped her robes with a poof of dust and spun on her feet. If she'd been human, she'd also debate the wisdom of wearing all that black in the heat of Egypt on a sunny day. She strode through the courtyard, officials and all giving her a wide berth.

She was tall for an Egyptian, standing a head above some of the princes even. No one could see anything of her eyes, because she was covered head to toe in layers of gauzy black material, standing out in crows almost uniformly dressed in white. She seemed to drift, but her stride was purposeful, and even pet cats or other animals seemed to shy out of her way when she came near. Except camels. The camels just eyed her. And she eyed the camels. They hadn't been able to win a staring contest yet, which had the herders and handlers making signs against evil when she came by.

She was the Black Seer, and that was her only name, and the name she had been known by for almost two centuries here. Most assumed it was a title, passed down from woman to woman, an omnipresent creature hovering near the edges of the court and occasionally close to the Pharoah himself as time went on. And oh, the politics...the Black Seer held aloof. She knew better than to get involved in the political machinations and backstabbing and gods knew what else that went on in a royal court and harem. More then once, however, nobles or whoever had try to manipulate her, acquire her talents, or out right force her to show support for their 'side' or use her for their purposes.

It had never went well for them.

The Seer tucked her hands inside the voluminous sleeves of her robes and smiled dangerously under her veil. Of course, to avoid suspicion, she sometimes let things pan out as they would, and had, once or twice, allowed herself to be assassinated or caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. Hells, if she was bored, she even pretended to take ill with some gods-forsaken plague, or die of old age. Once she'd even let herself…well, okay, that was her own blind stupidity. BUT she was only admitting to it because it was, really, so hilariously funny in hind sight that even she had laughed.

A tall pillar and porch provided momentary relief from the sun. Not that it really affected her, but she could still feel uncomfortable in this form…her lips curled upwards again as she watched the activity of the outside and remembered the incident.

She'd been sent to a war camp to perform some predictions or rituals or some other such nonsense for the cavalry general. There she'd been, hunched on her knees, no shade or comfort offered at all from the gruff and slightly nervous generals that hovered around. It had taken her almost three hours to get any useful results, mostly because she was furious with the lack of hospitality and wanted those damn army pigs to feel as bothered as she was.

The dust was getting in her nostrils, there was the smell of sweat, horse, and camel shit and she was rapidly getting annoyed. So, she muttered some dire curses against the idiots that'd gotten her into this mess, nevermind it was mostly her own fault, and flung a hand towards the camel ring, smiting one of the posts and allowing the beasts to run free.

Of course, it would have been optimal at that point to remember that she was a- in human form, and b- was angry. Things always…slipped a little when she got angry. The smite had more power than she intended, and in typical arrogance or disinterest to what was happening around her, she'd ignored the screams and warnings as the camels panicked and broke free, stampeding over the camp.

And, predictably, over her.

She'd had to endure *years* of sniggering from her relatives, especially her older brother, damn him, after that event. The mortal form at the time had been destroyed, and she'd had to stomp back in court the next day, the new 'Seer', and rebuild from there...dammit! It wasn't any fun rebuilding from the bottom. But, well, okay, it was. Starting off as the new guy and watching the generals piss themselves with fear was so incredibly, wonderfully, very much worth it.

The poor bastards had been a hundred different kinds of terrified after her 'death', and had huddled together for hours. They'd been trying to figure out a way to tell the Pharoah that his private prophet had been...had been...oh, the way they had tried to form the words had warmed the cockles of her heart on many a cold night afterwards. But only years, years and years later.

And then they'd walked into the Pharoah's court, a week later, after the exercises had been done, and she'd waltzed out a side passage and took her place sitting at the Pharaoh's feet, as that incumbent had liked during important ceremonies. Oh gods. The look on their faces…

The Seer shook with silent laughter, causing a few passers-by to shuffle along faster then normal. Oh ho ho, it *had* been worth it. It didn't matter that *everyone knew* that her position was either hereditary or simply passed down, certainly not to a bunch of practical military men. Sometimes, when she died and came back, she at least gave a hint that she was much younger or someone new underneath the veils. This time she didn't even try, and had stared straight at the generals and said 'camel'.

She had to cover her mouth to prevent a giggle from escaping. Laughing like that in public wouldn't be acceptable, no matter how funny the memory. But oh, those men. The Pharaoh had looked down at her, puzzled. As far as he and ninety nice percent of the court knew, she was still the same person. But the generals, and even some of the soldiers, had seen her trampled to death in a camel stampede. And she'd had undisputed control over them for the rest of their lives.

Oh, not that she'd acted on that. No no, that would be against the rules. She'd let the generals live their lives, make their own decisions, etc…but the Pharaoh, who'd been one she was rather fond of, had enjoyed a rather long and peaceful career afterwards.

The scents of the court turned her nose, and the Seer shook herself from her memories and stood upright, striding forward again. She hrmed over her previous thoughts…she wasn't stuck here, not exactly, but she had been bored, and a bored goddess was a very dangerous thing to have around. Almost as dangerous, the Seer thought, as having a bored witch or magician. No end of trouble, that's what it was.

There was a deep sigh. And she couldn't be bothering her sons, now, could she…enough trouble back north that the lads were dealing with, and no small part of because of her. So she'd come here, after one point, and had idled for centuries amongst the humans. Not doing errands or being their plaything, oh no. But one had to keep one's self occupied.

She emerged into the sunlight once again, a black dot in the chaos of the great outer court. Dignitaries, slaves, merchants, preists, beasts, so many *people* bustled around, shouting, clanging, farting, and in general making as much noise and mess and stink as they could. She simply glided through the chaos, unnoticeable when she wanted to be, and headed towards the temple district. Business, that was what, the Seer thought. She'd been out on business. There were people that needed talking to, a few beasts that needed tending, and oh yes, the sacred alligator in the temple of the Nile God that was irritating her. Vicious creature had snapped at her robe the other week.

Another grim smile formed on her lips underneath the veil. There were things stirring in the palace recently that she wasn't happy with, and she needed to take it out on someone. Or something.

Nano Section 5

2006-11-08T16:19:15Z

Here's another huge chunk of story. Of course, this had to come first before I could move on to the good stuff, but this bit puts me over the 10,000 word mark. 10,077, to be exact...but I'd twiddled and added some more lines, removed them, wrote some more in, so the original count when I first finished was *exactly* 10 grand. Awesome ;)

So, this chunk, and then the next posting will be an entirely different bit of story.

Cafeteria
Manny emerged from the lecture with a peculiar sense of satisfaction. He, at the very least, had gotten the attention of the freshmen students, and shockingly enough, had held it throughout the class period. They were still staring and whispering at him as they filtered out of the classroom. He grinned shyly to himself. Well, the eraser thing had certainly made them blink…

He stuffed everything neatly back in the bag and locked the room once the last of the students had left. He'd return the keys to the professor when he was well again, otherwise he owned them for now. And it didn't seem like that strange young woman was around anymore, but that was hardly a surprise, no doubt she'd walked off again….he fiddled absentmindedly with the key, pulling it from the lock, and turned around…

"Gods in pantheon!" Manny jumped, stumbled, banged the back of his head against the door and slipped to fall on the seat of his pants. Eppy looked down at him, her floppy hat shadowing his face and a curious expression on hers.

"Huh. You really don’t pay attention much, do you?"

"Geez, what the…."

"And nice blasphemy. I haven't heard one that creative in ages." Eppy put her hands on her hips and grinned. "So, c'mon, you gonna have lunch or something now?"

"Bwah…huh what?" Manny stared wide-eyed at her from the ground. "Where did you…?"

She rolled her eyes. "Uh, let's see, I've got my own thing and I wanted to explore. Besides, like I said, you're kinda neat. You busy?"

He kept staring as he pushed himself off the ground and got up, ruefully rubbing the back of his head. Eppy didn't back off, just stuck her face close to his. "Umm, well, I…no, not technically. I don't have to do anything for any classes today but I've got more research to do."

"Research? What kind of research? For what? And you can tell me over coffee or food or whatever." She wrinkled her nose, waiting for an answer.

"Well, I guess…"

"Good! C'mon, let's go to the cafeteria." She spun around and began to walk down the hallway in a purposeful manner. Manny blinked several times and pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Umm, miss?"

She stopped and turned. "Yeah?"

"What's your name, again?"

"Eppy."

"Okay. The cafeteria's this way." Manny pointed in the opposite direction, and Eppy spun around again and strode in the appropriate direction without the least degree of embarrassment.

"Thanks!"

He shook head and followed her, not entirely sure why. He wasn't really used to girls…well, sure, he knew that some of them liked to flirt, but most of the women who approached him tended to glaze over 5 minutes into any conversation. Then they ignored him. Eppy…seemed a little different. She wasn't hitting on him, she was just…he wrinkled his brow. She was… this train of thought kept him occupied all the way to the cafeteria.

***

Eppy waved him down again when entered the eating area. He plonked down in the seat opposite her, eyeing her with some confusion. She seemed to be greatly amused by it, because she kept on grinning. Her floppy hat was off by now and bleached blond hair greeted him.

"Cool, you can find your way around."

"I thought I had to point this place out to you?"

"Yeah, well, I'm new here. I've seen you run into things twice already today and I get the feeling you've been around a lot longer then I have. " She grinned broadly.

"Both incindents you were responsible for, I may add."

"Doesn't change the fact that it happened. Geez, you ever bring your head out of the clouds?"

"Quite frequently. It's rather cold and damp up there."

"Yeah, you don't seem to see much better down here either."

"You're saying there's better things to look at then a class of snarky, uneducated freshmen?"

"Yeah, pig bladders for one."

"I'm rather found of soccer, myself."

"Now you're just avoiding the issue."

"What issue? You're the one who instigated this verbal ballet. Your performance so far has been excellent, I may add."

"Wow, you're fairly well read. I haven't heard this precise a diction since I picked up one of the Bronte sisters." Eppy rested her chin on her hands and smiled beautifically at him. Manny chuckled shyly.

"All right, I'll give. I tend to get a little wordy around strangers." He shifted his backpack over onto the bench next to him. They both ordered food and drinks, Manny being an gentleman and offering to pay for Eppy's meal and Eppy shutting him down, shoving him out of the way to do it herself. Once the manager was assured Eppy wasn't a problem, they returned to their seats.

"So." Eppy chewed on a fry. "Whaddya do here?"

Manny shrugged, shyly poking at his meal. "Oh, this and that. I'm a TA for the mythology prof, I do some research for a history prof. I get hired to tutor a lot too."

"The eternal student, huh?"

"I guess so." Manny nibbled on some salad. Eppy eyed him and shrugged.

"Hey, no biggie man. I think it's great. You're obviously earning enough to keep yourself alive and decent, hold off student loans…"

"Enh, I got lucky there. Scholarships conditional on my grades remaining high." Manny blushed.

"Ohhh, lucky bastard." Eppy looked impressed. "So, if you're not working at the school, what do ya do?"

"You're pretty inquisitive, yet for some reason I'm not as worried about it as I probably should be, considering you're a complete stranger I've met out of nowhere…" he let the sentence trail off and looked over at her, questioning. She grinned, which was all he was able to really see of her face since she never took off her glasses.

"Well, y'know serendipity, right?"

"The Brothers Serendip." Manny said distractedly. Eppy chuckled.

"Holy cow, man, didn't think you'd get the origin…well,yeah, it's that. Serendipity. I can't tell you how many people I've met and just automatically gotten along with. Happens all the time." She chomped merrily down on her hamburger, then swallowed. "I mean, hell, what's the point of not doing it? Make friends, spread the love, make the world a better place." She waved her hand around, almost losing hold of her burger.

"Serendipity, huh…." Manny took a few more thoughtful bites of salad. It wasn't something he'd encountered in his life so far. But she was a fairly interesting female, at least unique from the few girls he'd gotten to know in the past, and he had a gut feeling that she wasn't some crazy. Okay, not entirely crazy. "I guess that works."

"See, it's great." Eppy smiled happily and began to slurp on her drink. "So, what else do you do?" she started to wonder if it was a safe question to ask, because Manny's eyes lit up and…"Oh, wait, forgot something."

"Wait, what?"

"What's your name?"

Manny hesitated. Eppy grinned. "Manny Andersen."

"Cool. What's Manny short for?"

He rolled his eyes. "My mom's idea...it's not Manfred, it's Manannan. She was a bit of an Irish/Celtic culture freak." He put some sugar in his tea. "Yeah...I love my mom, really, but she's not exactly the type to consider the socio-historical cultural implications when naming things, y'know?" He idly swirled his spoon in the tea.

The other girl blinked severeal times. "Riiiiight. But interesting name, all the same."

"Sure, I guess." He shrugged. "So, you really want to hear what I do?"

Eppy mock groaned at the eager look on Manny's face. "Sure, why not?"

"Well, this..." he pulled out a thick, stuffed folder from his bag. A bag already stuffed with who knows how much stuff from classes and other things…Eppy clambered over the table and spread the edges of the opening wider and stick her head in. "Hey! What're you… get out!"

"It's like a black hole in here! Holy cow, what do you got, some dimensional L-space shoot off?"

"Pratchett references aside, no." Manny gently pried her out of the gaping maw of his backpack and she slid back into her seat. "I do think books have, well, I dunno, some kind of special…thing. But, that's just fantasy, so…" he opened the folder excitedly. Once he got started on his research it was very, very hard to get him off track it.

Eppy steadily kept eating as he began to talk. She had the feeling it wouldn't do much good to try and interrupt him at this point.

"It's hard to explain how I got onto it, but…well, I was reading up on stuff for a class one day, and I found this weird reference to a goddess in a Sumerian text…" he shuffled over some notes, apparently for her to read. "I figured it was probably just some misspelling of some minor deity or some stuff, but then other signs kept popping up when I investigated the name." And Eppy glanced at the papers and shuffled them back. He continued.

"It was so strange, the way the name just came out. There were certain characteristics, no stories, all pointing towards some kind of goddess or minor deity that could have existed. It was intriguing enough that when I was done with that project, I kept my notes on the name. And then… and then…" His eyes gleamed excitedly behind his glasses. "It came up in *another* culture. And another. I mean, even taking in the spread of civilization, one could account for this goddess getting passed around, but that wasn't the case! I found her in Egypt, and then Greece…but from totally different eras! And then in the northern myths, though there were far fewer traces there. and then…" he took a breath. "It was extraordinary. Not a idea or myth that spread through what's considered standard means, but a repeated, varied, random being in a multitude of cultures world wide! Just recently, I've even been able to trace her to China and Japan. And surprisingly, they're showing the highest reference counts for mentions of this goddess…"

"Reference counts? Don't you have anything more then just notes in the margins of old books or an actual, solid account?" Eppy leaned forward, puzzled. "I mean, you can't seriously tell me you're putting this much effort in tracking down and putting together the background of a goddess that gets no more then a name drop, hoever varied it is."

He raised a finger. "Ah! I was just outlining the basics for you…"

"Oh, gods..."

"Here's the good stuff." And Manny dragged out another folder, which really made Eppy look twice at his backpack. Okay, now it was getting ridiculous. He thumped the thicker folder on the table, shoving his forgotten food aside, and began to page through it, chattering excitedly.

"You know, it's..."

"Fascinating, isn't it? I've actually been able to compile some accounts or actual myths surrounding this figure. Just a few, but so far they seem to be the most telling as to this goddess' character and who she was."

Eppy sighed. "She got a name?"

"Name?" he blinked owlishly behind his glasses. "No, why?"

"You mean to tell me there's this goddess showing up all over the place and she hasn't got a name? since it's obviously not that ancient Earth Mother creature…"

"Oh no."

"...then what is it?" Eppy flopped back in the seat and scowled, pushing her hat up.

"I...don't know. The only thing I've gotten so far are, well, titles. Descriptive names. Pretty typical, but for some of them there's almost so similarity in 'job description', I guess you could call it." he got out a bundle of papers. "Here are the two most common. One's really old, the other appears to be more recent..." Manny scanned through them, brow furrowing as he tried to dig up more details. "The Black Seer is an interesting figure, actually..."

"Huh say what now?" Eppy nearly grabbed the papers out of his hand. "Geez, with the lead-ons you are all the time."

Manny waved a distracted hand. "Yeah... yeah, no, this is cool. An Egyptian myth, or record, or I don't know what…thank goodness for their love of writing things down." He spread the sheets out before him. "Okay, so The Black Seer is someone who was either connected with or was in fact this goddess. The legend's very vague, but I think it might've been her."

"Cool..."

"That's the oldest name so far that's stuck. The other, newer one is usually something to do with demons. I've just been looking at a scroll that mentions a Queen of Demons, and since it represents the variations of the name well enough I'm using it as her other title." He ran his finger down one sheet, muttering to himself. "This…and this…"

Eppy took off her hat, set it on the table, and crossed her hand behind her head. She also ordered more tea. "I take it this is going to be a good story, huh?"

"What? Oh, yeah." He looked up at her again and grinned a little. "There's not much on her, but it's just...I can't describe it." He spread his hands outward. "For the first time in my life I've felt like my life had some meaning, some purpose. It was a like a fire lit under my ass, pardon my language." Eppy chuckled and grinned at his pure enthusiasm. "I was content with acadamia. But this…the thrill of discovery, of the hunting down elusive clues, of uncovering such a rich and yet unknown part of our world heritage…" Manny's grey eyes lit up. "I feel like I can affect something, change something. It's so minor, but it's so consuming. If I can dig this goddess out, reveal her, even if it's in some little article in a historical magazine, it'll be a dream come true."

"Wow." Eppy paused thoughtfully. "What dirt you got on her, then?" Manny pulled out a couple of stapled pages, then laid them next to the spread out folder in front of him.

"Those are just the outline, but it's handy if you're trying to follow along…anyways, the Black Seer. It was an actual recorded story, translated around the late 1800's or early 20th century, I'm not sure. It was puzzled over because the Egyptologists didn't know whether it was some fictious love story or an official report. The language made it kind of a love story, but certain hints, the way things are laid out, and ome outside support give evidence that something may have really happened."

"And? How's it connect to this goddess?" Eppy pulled the outline forward and looked it over. Her eyes, if Manny could see them, softened a little behind her glasses as she read over the outline. "Wow, this is like something out of a movie or something."

"It seems that way, doesn't it? I tacked it down to an over-excited Victorian imagination but I've been able to get better translations of the text since I looked at the original. As to it's connection, the story mentions the Seer addressing a god…it's in here somewhere…but yeah, her actions through out give hints. There's also talk about godl law, some talk in the pantheon. It is, at the very least, an interesting glance into mythology. And well…" He paused for a long moment. "There's so much more to it. This story was just the Egyptians point of view. I was able to find sources that, by themselves, were stimulating, but when applied to this…!" He clapped his hands together and was barely able to keep still. "They're mostly Greek, and of course, it's just myth, but you have to wonder what exactly went on..."

Nano Section 4

2006-11-06T17:09:12Z

Here's some more 'filler' stuff...I really want to get to juicy stuff that will be the second 'part' of the story ;).

"Now. To make myself very clear…I will only temporarily be teaching this course. The professor is sick for today, and I'm note sure how well he'll be tomorrow, so I can't really speak for him. I am, however, working from his notes and have been given considerable freedom in the time I do spend teaching. This course is about *all* European mythology, not just the ones that have been over used by popular culture." Manny opened a book. "So get around any preconceptions you have, and forget your usual habit of thinking that you already know everything about any given subject. As to the quiz, it's short enough to accomplish in the next 15 minutes, at which time I'll briefly take it up, and then we'll move on to the main part of the lecture."

He looked down and started reading something as the students looked at each other, then hurriedly began scribbling down answers. Manny smiled quietly to himself, and listened…it looked like that girl he'd met and who'd randomly decided to follow him around was finished laughing outside. He wasn't really upset at that, more surprised, and mildly irritated at the student who'd asked the stupid question. He couldn't quite remember the name of that girl, though…

Somewhere Else
It wasn’t hard to get into the archives, Eppy discovered. She'd decided it was probably bad form to re-enter the class room after laughing like that, and was trying to find the afore mentioned relative. And the Library was obviously open to the public.

She wandered around the aisles, randomly pulling over students and asking for the Librarian, and when she arrived, a plump, stern woman too used to dealing with university students, asked if she could get into the Archives.

The Librarian looked flustered for a moment, then scowled."I'm really sorry, miss, but it simply isn't that easy. I cannot allow just any student to wander in if they ask."

Eppy didn't elaborate that she wasn't a student. "I'm awful sorry, ma'am, I'm just looking for someone. I know he's into history, and I haven't found him yet…" She also noted she didn't give a damn about where he was, exactly, she just wanted to check out the archives and see what was there.

"I'm sorry miss. You need special permission from the Archivist to access any files in the old Archives." The Librarian clamped her lips together after mentioning the name. Eppy shrugged.

"Hey, whatever. I'll talk to him." And then the Librarian had guided her through a side door, and left her, muttering to herself.

Eppy now wandered a large, very quiet room in the back of the main building. The temperature her was different then the main library, the humidity changed to help preserve the much older books. She wandered down an aisle, searching for this Archivist guy the Librarian had been talking about. Wouldn't do to get caught in here without permission, and she snickered softly to herself at the thought.

There was a thumping sound from the far end of the room, and the sound of cursing. Eppy blinked, wondering how much trouble the person who was swearing was going to get in. From what she saw, as she emerged from the book aisle, all the other people present in the room were huddled in large study carrels, hunched over slightly, and a few of them had looked over their shoulders in fear at the noise. She turned and saw a man wringing his hand, standing by another carrel that had a stack of books at least two feet high, right next to the wide eyed student that was sitting there.

The man was older then most of the kids there, and looked faintly Nordic in background. He bent over the student and growled a few instructions, then straightened and looked her way, almost as if he knew the exact spot she was standing in before he saw her. She waved her hand and grinned, and he frowned, jerking his head to the side. A door, undoubtly an office.

"This way." He grunted, and turned without looking at her to enter the office. She followed, grinning bemusedly.

"Nice place. All these old books are pretty cool." Eppy stood in the centre of the office, admiring the antique carpet, the furniture, even the old tapestry. The man, apparently the Archivist, stopped by an old wooden bookcase and eyed her. She smiled pleasantly back, totally without menace, and the man stiffened briefly. Not bad, she thought, for someone who was in this line of work. A normal blue button down rolled at the sleeves, casual slacks, loafers, and a leather cord around his neck that disappeared into the collar of his shirt. A small silver earring, little more then a stud, was stuck in the tip of one ear, and she thought she could make out a tattoo on the side of his neck. She grinned again. A badass librarian.

"This is my personal office, students are only allowed in to ask permission to view the archives. Anything out there..." he jerked his thumb at the door and glared coldly down at her, "...you can get yourself. If you've got a specific text in mind from the older collection, you have to get a promissory note and recommendation from a professor."

"Oh, I don't need that." Eppy took off her sunglasses. It made sense in the dim light of the office. She looked up and smiled at him. "I just wanted to browse, really. I've got an interest in old books, and a friend of mine was talking about Irish stuff earlier and got me hooked. You got anything like that here? Oh, right!" she tapped her finger against her chin. "I was looking for a relative of mine, he's either a student or working here. I think he works here at the school, not sure where."

The Archivist flinched again as the young woman took off her glasses, and he was careful to avoid looking at her eyes. "Well, feel free to browse. You can't take any books out of the library building though."

"Oh, that's too bad. And you sure you haven't got any new people working here? My relative see, he's sometimes into books, and..."

"I have not had any applicants in some time." The Archivist spoke through gritted teeth. "I handle most of the archival collection business myself, as is required."

"Hey, now, easy man. I was just asking." Eppy held up her hands, then slid her glasses back on again. "Y'know, you should take a vacation or something. I bet your boss would sign off on it." she headed back towards the door and opened it, stepping outside and calling over her shoulder. "Oh, and don't worry about me, I don't think I'll browse right now. I just remembered I've got some other things to take care of." She bounced off, her bag rocking back and forth off her hip and floppy hat flopping.

The Archivist growled to himself for several more minutes, almost slamming the door shut and pacing the room. He was angry, and he didn't really know why, and badly startled, and knew even less about that. Well, for one thing, to have some flightly little idjit waltz in here and waste his time like that…and his damn hand still hurt from when he'd accidentally dropped some books on it. He glared at the books. They, of course, were perfectly normal, but…

There was a pause, and then more pacing. He'd have to go down to the vaults again, he knew, and make sure everything was all right down there. Books didn't just slip and fall on the ones that cared for them, certainly not when he put so much effort into making sure the damn things were safe and secure. And now he could tell there was some restless energy around. Something had stirred them up, disturbed them…he groaned, eyeing the closed door. It couldn't have been…no. That didn't make any sense. He knew the type, and new that great pains were taken to restrict and hide aspects…

There was another groan. The Archivist prayed that it wasn't rats. Or mice. Or some kind of unheard of mold that was creeping in because some idiot janitor had meddled with the humidity dial. Any one of these things could cause a dissonance, almost a fear, in the book collection, and if you were at this thing long enough you leanred to pick up on it. And quickly, too, or else the next thing you knew rats were making babies in an 18th century copy of the works of William Shakespeare.

Nano Section 3

2006-11-05T16:09:18Z

One keeps surprising me is how the story changes, how charaters develop and become moreinteresting, and how interesting little plot twists keep popping up as I go along. I knew it already, in a sense, but Manny has a lot more layers and is a lot more rounded a character then I had previously thought. Instead of just being a shy, absentminded little geek...well, I've underestimated the boy ;).

And so the next chapter begins, introducing the inevitable...

The Girl

As usual, in a rush.

Manny grabbed his bag, stuffed papers into it, grabbed books, rushed out the door with surprisingly less disaster then was his norm. The neighbours didn't even hear the usual bangs and crashes. Trip down the stairs was hazardous, to say the least, and he was still struggling with keys and a coat.

Of course, never mind the fact that he didn't really have any classes and he was just, currently, already graduated and simply earning money to survive and continue his research. His work at the school was functionally that of a TA, and he did occasionally work for the Library, as well as help curate the small, on campus museum. Today he was working as a TA, and of course the professor, the man who'd been supervising him last night in the archives, had called in sick or some other inconvience first thing in the morning. He'd gotten emailed all the documents and notes nessecary for the class lecture already, printed them out, and got them all in neat, precise order well ahead of time. No one said he wasn't concientous.

No one said he wasn't a bit of a geek, either, and he had lost precious minutes of travel time glancing down at his research notes and getting distracted by his work for the umpteenth time that morning. Now he was late, and also in mild pain because he'd bashed his toe on the step, scrambling onto the bus before it left.

"Dammit!" he muttered, clutching the bundle of notebooks that hadn't fit into his back and huffing as he sat down. Most of the other passengers just eyed him, and he spent the rest of the bus trip red faced with his nose in a book. Emerging from the bus with little difficulty, he bolted for the school, coat and scarf flapping behind him. He pushed up his glasses with a fair amount of dexterity and nicely crashed into a young lady just emerging from the front entrance to the school. "DAMMIT!"

They both went sprawling, and most of Manny's arm held school materials, of course, were scattered around them. He pushed himself to his knees, and frantically scrabbled after any loose sheets of paper, not knowing whether to leave them or see to the young lady, but oh dammit, here comes a gust of wind and I *need* these for class and...The young woman scowled and brushed herself off, then calmly sat up and faced him.

" 'ey now, 'ey you?"

"Oh, oh…I'm…I'm terribly sorry, miss, I'm in a bit of a rush and I didn't see you coming. Really, awfully sorry about that, I just need too…" Manny had enough presence of mind to look up and apologize, straightening his skewed glasses, but his hands were still scurrying about with the notes.

"It's all right, then." The young woman looked angry but faintly amused. She was…interesting. Broad aviator style sunglasses, straight brown hair, a broad brimmed, floppy hat, tanned skin, a normal t-shirt and cut off shorts, plain sneakers, and a large hip bag. Manny blinked.

"Who are you?"

"My name's Eppy. You gonna get me off the ground now or what, four-eyes?" She stared pointedly upwards as Manny had already gathered all his papers together and was stuffing them in his backpack. He blinked again.

"Umm, what? Oh, geez, sorry, here, let me help!" He shrugged the backpack on and graciously extended his hand, helping the young lady get to her feet. She took it, dusting her self off as she did so, and he was surprised at the strength of her grip.

"Nice to see there's some guys out there who're interested in a bit of chivalry…even if you did knock me on my ass running around like that." She wiggled her nose and adjusted her sunglasses. "You a student here?"

"Umm….no, not really, and actually..." his god manners said he should stay and apologize more, but his eyes kept looking at his watch and the door.

"What? In a rush, I guess."

"Uh, yeah, I've got a class to teach. Prof called in sick and I'm nominally his TA, so…" Eppy looked over her shoulder at the doors, then back at him.

"Uh huh, what class?"

"Western European mythology. Freshman class." He was already edging around her and heading towards the door. "It was nice meeting you. I've got to go, I'm late, see ya later." He pushed through the doors at a brisk walking pace.

Eppy shrugged and followed him, hip bag banging on her side as she easily kept up. "Freshmen, huh? I'm sorry for your loss."

"Mmm." Manny was somewhat surprised she kept following him, and hadn't noticed for a moment that she had. "They're not so bad."

There was silence, then a slightly hysterical series of chuckles. Eppy covered her mouth and shook silently as she walked along. "Okay, sure, whatever man. I've seen some of those classes, you know."

"You a student here?"

"Nope."

Manny risked a glance over at her. "Umm, then why..."

Eppy shrugged. "I dunno, I felt like it. 'sides, I've got a relative who goes here or works here or something. Not really sure. Just wanted to check up on him so I decided to visit."

"Does he?"

"Huh?"

"Go here or work here or stuff?" Manny asked distractedly as he stopped and started to shoulder a door open. Eppy was the one to stop and blink. Manny continued forward into the classroom, apparently the one he was supposed to be teaching in. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then followed him.

"Very funny."

"You going to sit through the class?" he started arranging books on the lecture table.

Eppy put her hand on her hip and eyed him with one eyebrow raised. Here was an interesting character, she thought. She watched Manny set up his notes and books in relative soltitude, since he'd apparently made the class on time and the room was empty except for the two of them. He didn't dress like a geeky old professor, but the attitude was there. He was quiet, absentminded, easily distracted, and yet absorbed in something that no one else could probably guess at. Sweet and gentlemanly to her, at least, which was rare enough these days, but he seemed completely unaware of the fact that she was, well, a good looking, interesting female.

Eppy hrmphed. It didn't seem like he was being rude, just that he was always like that, absorbed in something else. She got the feeling he treated everyone politely. And despite (she laughed to herself) being a careful kind of person, he had a habit of running into things because he wasn't careful.

"Yeah, I'm going to sit this one through. You look like you might be more interesting then most of the dweebs I've met so far." She hopped up on the desk and swung her legs. "Mythology, huh?"

"Yes."

"Why Western? That stuff's boring." She waved her hand dismissively. "C'mon, everyone's heard all these stories before."

Manny stiffened and looked at her. "I beg to differ, miss. There's a plethora of Western European mythologies that have gotten neglected or shunted to the side. I still find it astonishing how little anyone knows about the Celtic mythologies, despite them being one of the pre-dominant ethnic groups in northern Europe." He held up a notebook. "Here, for instance, the Cattle Raid of Cooley. One of the great adventures of northern European culture, the Trojan War of the Celts, and no one knows about it!" He slapped the papers down on the lecturn.

"Geez, man, cool down. I know about the Táin Bó Cualnge. Read it a while ago." Eppy shrugged and got off the table as students started to filter in, and took a seat in the first centre tier. "And someone must know about it, since Lady Gregory translated it."

"Well, I...huh?" Manny glanced over the snickering freshmen as they entered the room and took their places, then glanced at the young woman again. "You actually know it?"

"Uh, duh. I already said you were more interesting then the other people I've seen around here. " she grinned and crossed her hands behind her head. "You think I'm stalking you and trying to find out all of your secrets just 'cause I'm bored?"

This caught him off guard, and he actually began to pay real attention. "Excuse me, I just met you?" He looked at her over the tops of his glasses, now distracted from the fact that the classroom was almost full. She grinned right back into his grey eyes. It'd be a lot less disconcerting, he realized, if she would take off her damn sunglasses.

"Yeah, so? I do this. Okay, so maybe I am just doing it 'cause I'm bored. I'd like to hear a lecture on obscure European myths." She grinned cockily and put her feet up on the desk in front of her.

"Obscure? They're hardly obscure. Yes, people are, for the most part, unaware of any other mythos aside from the Greek and Norse, but..."

Eppy giggled.

"...but they're still there, I mean, really. It's not an overtly strenuous stretch of one's mental constitution to assume that..."

"Oi, TA? You gonna start the damn class or what?" A hunk of eraser was whipped forward from somewhere in the depths of the class. Manny, in the middle of his conversation with Eppy, simply reached out a hand and caught it in mid air. Eppy, guessing the private conversation was over, risked a quick peep over her glasses and smiled to herself, settling in for the rest of the class.

There was silence as the freshmen look in stunned awe at a TA who was more often then not a complete pushover. Or at least they had *thought* that...

Manny flicked the eraser away. "All right, if someone wishes to address me, they will do so in proper English. I'd rather be able to enjoy my perhaps previously asinine assumption that all human beings are capable of sensible cognitive thought, and thusly, clarity of speech. I realize as freshmen this may come as a stretch to your already heavily burdened and impressionable young minds, but grammatical functionality is quite often required and heavily preferred in an academic, university setting. Despite what the infallible and entirely accurate information that is passed over from our rich, varied modern pop culture may say."

There was a very long, very incredulous moment as almost a hundred minds tried to reboot and process the last few minutes. Manny looked down and casually shuffled some papers.

"Now that I've got your attention, we'll start the lecture. For those you who think that this will be your typical waltz in the park, I'll be handing out a brief quiz on Greek and Norse mythologies, of which no doubt all of you know everything already, and then we'll get on to our lecture on Celtic myth and religion, and it's impact on modern culture. We will probably also talk about the impact it made on Christianity as well and the signifigance of the symbol of three therein." He passed the papers to Eppy, who casually passed them over to the next student, and they began to filter through group.

"Uh, sir?" one student tentatively raised his hand. Manny looked up with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Last I heard, 'uh' was not part of formal address. Your question?"

The hapless student gulped. "Well, sir...I was wondering, why are we studing about Celtic stuff? I thought we were just studying about famous European myths and all that."

This time the silence was broken by a small, hysterical giggle of laughter. Eppy, in the front row, had clapped her hands over mouth and was red faced and squirming with repressed laughter. Manny, for once looking somewhat terrible, motioned for her to leave. She nodded, got up to leave, bent over and then roaring with laughter, muttering something about children and idiots.

They could faintly hear her bawling out in laughter through the door as Manny patiently pushed his glasses up his nose.

I still like his speech near the end.

Nano Section 2

2006-11-03T17:04:32Z

Well, I guess this is as good an excuse as any to regularily update my LJ. I know, I'm not the most consistent ;)

But while we're on the nano topic, I've got some things to say...panic sucks. I've got to realize it's just a fun writing thing, and not be as concerned about how many words in or stressing if I make the big 50. Kinda takes the fun out of it, and it adds more stress then I need. And I've determined that I can, in fact, do this thing and get other work done, so that's a bit of weight of my mind.

As for the story...biggest problem when I started was getting the story going. Ate up a bunch of words introducing our Hero, but I was at a bit of a loss of how to get that past that. I figured, and rightly enough, once I got into stride and started working on scenes that were more interesting or featured ideas I've already developed it'd be a good deal easier to keep up my word count. And it is, yay. :)

So, here's the next chunk of story. Introducing a new character, and then I might do some more Manny stuff, and then possibly get to the other part of my evil plan, the story-in-a-story idea. Here's to hoping, anyway.

And yeah, my front babble won't usual be this long, but I've got to get a few things out of my head about nano and writing and creativity, and then future entries will hopefully be detailed with only a quick synopsis of what's going on. ^^

Not a paticularily pleasant night, but it would do. Manny shifted the bag on his back, adjusting the straps so the weight didn't bite down so hard on his shoulders, and almost pouted at the Library building behind him. Sure enough, the Archivist was still awake, a little light flickering in a window a couple stories up. He sighed. It wasn't fair, really, the Archivist hardly ever left the place at night, so why wasn't he allowed to stay in a research some more? The prof was only partially right...sure, sleep was important, but when you were on the verge of an important discovery and you only had to study the scroll so much further and then you were almost done...! There was a heavy sigh.

The lights were misting up, the faint rain patter creating little halos around them as Manny trudged home. He ran through the notes he'd made, the translations of the scroll text he'd have to work on later...and practically quivered with excitement. Oh, there were so many clues! Just like all the others, really, all the documents and books he'd been studying over the past 3 years.

Here and there, he'd begun to realize, things were starting to come together. There was never more then a mention, or the barest hint, in any of the texts, but it was like a bright, shining thread throughout all of them. but there were so many...

"Ow!" There was a kthud sound, grunts, and a series of skids as Manny finally was made aware of his surroundings by being introduced to a lamp post at full speed in the rain. He blinked upwards, fuzzily, straightening his glasses and now gloomily aware of the water seeping through the seat of his pants. "Well, at least the books aren't wet." He got up, painfully, rubbing the bruise now forming on the bridge of his nose, and trudged off again, hands in his pockets, but still murmuring to himself over his notes.

***

Home was a tiny apartment, stuffed with books, archaeological regalia, artefacts, the kind of thing one would normally expect to find in the home of either Indiana Jones or someone at least over the age of 50. Worn carpets and sagging shelves and all. There was even a old cast iron woodstove, since the landlord was stingy about heating costs, and besides, in what was perhaps one of a very few indications of Manny's personal taste or inclinations, he just liked the look and feel of an woodfire.

The back pack was carefully placed on an old wooden table. Nothing in the room was new, save food and some clothing, and even the appliances were at least 10 years old or second hand, what there were of them. The fridge was of vintage value, and he usually used the woodstove as an oven instead of the tiny regular stove. Old lamps dotted the area, and there was even a few old oil lamps and a small candelabra hanging from the ceiling.

Slowly, and with care, Manny took out his own books from the bag and placed them back on their shelves, each within their neatly organized spot. He loved his books…he sighed, wiped some dust off a cover, and then grabbed a stick of wood to feed the fire glowing gently in the wood stove. He put a pot of water on top and got his evening tea going.

He sat down at the table toread over some notes and wait for the water to boil…and thought carefully.

Here is recorded a list of the gods of this region. Know, and make ready, for the Queen of Demons is watching, and will call all to account.

Of course, 'gods' was only a literal translation. A better definition of the term was spirits, regional deities that protected the home, or crops, or caused trouble. Fairly standard folklore for the area in which it originated.

Anyu, delver of wells. Tiira, lighter of fires. Mishu, protector of goats...

He chuckled. That one was so funny you almost wondered if the recorder was making a joke to relieve the boredom of his duties. It couldn't have been that fun listing all these down at the time, Manny admitted… some of these were a little foggy, though, or didn't make sense however he looked at them. He'd gotten multiple translations of the text, and with their help was making headway in translating them himself, but some of these names just didn't make sense!

Cor, pig boxer, Yira, bearer of marshes, Sola, the sun god's foot stool...

He tapped a pencil on the edge of table and idly chewed his lip as he thought. His studies indicated that the odder listings weren't just mistranslations, and he wondered if perhaps there were some form of slang, or perhaps a code. Either way, both excuses would be unusual in a document that wasn't even a literary work.

Demons without number, bearers of tidings to all the gods, imps and sprites, bring news to all the world. What wars and calamties would persist if her ears did not pass along...

Okay, that just didn't make any sense. Another mistranslation. Manny scowled at the note book. Such a very interesting clue about this goddess, and yet it was muddled up. If only it was clearer, then he could make connections to other aspects of his work that had the potential to be just *incredible*! Even so, there was a hint there that would allow him to tie in with at least one other far-eastern legends, one based in Japan. THAT had been one of the hardest to get, and he was still surprised that he'd even managed it. It was part of a series of oral tales passed down from ancient times, and not from traditional Japanese culture, but from the small, obscure aboriginal group called the Ainu. Thank goodness for open-minded friends in Japan; he'd been that close to buying a plane ticket to go over there and record it himself.

He was carefully arranging the photos of the scroll when the tea whistle began to scream. He'd finished arranging them 5minutes later, and when he realized that the whistle was going, rushed over to lift it off the stove. Of course, this entailed forgetting to use a oven mitt to lift the over-warm handle, and several minutes of cursing as he slammed the kettle down again and hopped around holding his hand in a cold cloth. Eventually the pain eased and he was able to make his tea and in fact bring it back to the kitchen table to drink while he perused more photos.

Manny sucked on a burnt finger while he pushed a particular photo around. This one was of a margin of the scroll, and it had been meticulously blown up and cleaned multiple times on several graphics programs on a compute till he'd been happy with it. So far, it was the only thing that could be called a 'sketch' of the goddess that he'd seen. Even so…it was a jumbled bunch of lines, largely over looked as a random symbols and almost impossible to decipher as an actual image.

He really shouldn't be surprised by this; it was common practice in ancient times in the West that ancient fertility statues were always depicted without a head or any distinguishing features. In the East, demons were commonly depicted, but dead spirits were sometimes feared and diverted with mirrors. Whoever wrote these obviously felt compelled to make some pictoral reference or definition, but was too afraid to do so accurately. At least he hoped so. He'd contemplate thoughts of murder if some 19th century geek pulled a retarded joke and scribbled on the margins to mess with future generations minds...

Well, there was no helping it. He didn't have close to the resources to get tests done, and to be honest, he suspected the scribble was genuine. Which was really, terribly exciting. He got out a sketch book and pencil. The photograph doodle was a very abstract definition of a woman, at least, but any details were fuzzy and there was a funny little scribble at her head, presumably, that just didn't make any sense...

The next hour or so was mostly silent, the only sound being the skrtich scratch of a pencil and the occasional clunk as the tea mug was raised and lowered. There were grunts of dissatisfaction and a few tossed papers, most of which in typical gag fashion, missed the waste basket entirely. Of course, this is assuming the thrower was even bothering with aiming… it was a pretty standard evening for Manny. Quiet, peaceful, academic, and from another's point of view, somewhat lonely.

The shape underneath the little margin doodle began to take form under Manny's pencil, with repeated effort. A final blank page was produced and he started over from what rough sketches escaped the waste basket massacre.

As the lines began to be drawn, excitement partially blotted out what was forming under his hand. He knew what he was drawing, a complete picture of what might be this 'goddess', a true visual for the first time. But he realized it was only a copy, his own take on what was a badly jumbled mess..but what was emerging...

It was definitely a woman, tall, but there was no indication of beauty, or ugliness, she simply was there. It wasn't a detailed, accurate sketch of a person, it was still just finely drawn curves and lines that together made her form on a two dimensional surface. Her eyes closed, her motion simple, her presence overpowering simply by existing. A hand spread out here, like casting out seeds, another looking like it was gathering something up...

Many finally set his pencil aside and looked at the simplistic sketch. He reached for his inking pen. He didn't draw much, and honeslty didn't believe he was very good at it. This, well, he shrugged. It was too simple, to childish maybe, just a basic drawing to help clarify some work. Interesting, but simply another page to add to his research. Granted, it wasn't that bad to look at, but...he narrowed his eyes and carefully inked the pencilled lines. This took some more minutes, and he sat back once again when he was done. The stark black against the white certainly...well, made the picture look different. It definitely stood out more.

He waited patiently for the ink to fully dry, and then, instead of stuffing it away in a folder, idly pinned it to the wall above his desk, which was already cluttered with tags and notes and pictures, most relating to his research work. He shrugged.

"Who knows, maybe I can use it as a motivational work or something. Very least, it's probably a more productive waste of my time." He yawned and glanced at the clock. It was already late…well, early. He teetered off to bed, hopefully

The Archivist
The Archivist grumbled.

He really was irritated with the students that came to the library, begging to look at the old books, not knowing proper procedure or how to handle them. The them, that lot of juvenile delinquents, the old books were just *books*, not rare and treasured artefacts that needed to be handled with skill and care. He rumbled some more. That one who was just in, now, he knew how to handle old books, and followed all the proper procedures, but he always stayed so *late*, almost to the midnight hour. The Archivist didn't like that. Books, especially old books, were powerful, with their own unique lives and energy, and some punk kid, no matter how good his intentions, should never be allowed to linger around them when the night peaked.

He closed the curtains in his office and turned off the light, leaning back in the chair as moonlight filtered through. The place was entirely silent, almost like a tomb, but the Archivist smiled grimly to himself. A tomb for him, perhaps, but a breeding ground for the books.

He laced his fingers behind his head and cockily put his feet up on the desk. Contrary to literary convention, like Manny, he wasn't what one typically expected a guy who worked in a library to look like. He was around 40, maybe, with straw blonde hair that stuck out in various directions and cold grey eyes. No classes, no bow ties, and certainly none of that ridiculous nonse with tweed jackets and patched elbows. But he was grouchy, almost vilely so, when dealing with students. He hated anyone who meddled with the books, he loathed large numbers of people browsing the collection, and frequently fought with the Librarian over what books to allow students access to.

He was semi-legend around campus. Most kids avoided him if he emerged from his office, and he had a fearsome reputation, deliberately cultivated, of making the ditzy, pretty co-eds cry when they came to him trying "To, like, y'know, get books and stuff for history class. I need, like, something on France." He usually grinned mercilessly and all but locked them in study carrels with massive tomes detailing entire spectrums of topics that dealt with whatever they were looking for. Male students received even worse treatment.

He briefly grinned with remembrance, but then quickly scowled at the opposite wall. He didn't go out often, oh no, life out there was to modern, to busy, to irritating for him to want to interact with it. And it's not like he could even stay away for very long either. But gods, it got boring here. Manipulating student, controlling the old books, archiving materials and recording information wore thin after a while. He slid his boots off the desk. But that one kid…he frowned. He didn't like him messing around with that scroll, a scroll he's been ordered to go through great pains to acquire and not so much store as hide here.

"The kid's nosing around. But it wasn't like I could do anything about it, oh no, I get stuck here and I still have to follow the rules of the real world. Can't blame me for something that's not my fault." He growled for a few more moments, the kind of noise that would have and did send the Librarian skittering out of the Archivist's office when he was in an especially bad mood. He got up, stomped around the room, and paced, stopping to stare with his arms crossed, at an old bookcase. This was his personal collection, and most of the books were not quite as old as the ones below, but still.

"Okay, so what? He's obviously taken pictures of the thing. He's already had translations done, I don’t' know how, not 3 days after getting in. Even I'd like to know the people he knows to get that done." More muttering. "Not that it'd be hard, it's just a bloody inventory list. The language isn't even all that obscure. Just find some bloke who's mildly proficient in Chinese and..." he groaned. "Of course, there's that thing…well, heh." He smiled, the same cold, wicked smile he used on co-eds. "That was so long ago I can hardly be blamed for it now. Spend how many years stuck in England, what was I supposed to do? Pretend I was dead, roll over and forget I ever had fun in life?" there was a long period of silence as he paced again, crossing patterns of moonlight that came in throught the curtains. "I don't care what you think, it's not like he's anything special. He's just a kid. Some bloody mess gets stirred up, you can't expect to pin it on me. I've done my job as best I can in this…this place. I'm not responsible for really guarding anything."

He stopped and leaned his arms on the desk again, looking around the room. No one was there. he sighed, grumbling again. "Okay, I wash my hands of the matter. I'm stuck here and I have to look after books, not some kid, not his interests, and certainly not anyone else's. if there's something that needs to be done, I'm not the one to be doing it. I've got enough responsibility to take care of as it is." There was a look of bitterness on his face. "For the rest of the time I'm stuck here."

There was nothing but the quiet in response, and the still sensation that the quiet itself had form and personality and was listening patiently. The Archivist gripped his fist. "It isn't fair!"

It was never meant to be.

"But..."

Do not question me. You know your own sins.

The Archivist stared straight ahead, glaring, then walked over to the window and jerked the curtains over. Moonlight flooded into the room, beaming down somewhat weakling from a half moon night.

"Of course I bloody well do, I don't bloody need anyone pointing them out to me."

Then be silent.

The Archivist clenched his fists. "This is ruddy *bullshit*. I can speak as I wish, I still have that right, and I damn well am going to take it. No one can say to me that I can't speak or that my silence is required. I can't believe the half-assed tactics I'm being subjected to! If there's words to be said, let them be said in the open, and not with cheap theatrics and hidden mystery. Speak them to my ears directly, or to my face!"

The quiet took on a special type of silence. Not the kind you could cut with a knife, but the tense stillness like silk stretched tight and ready to rip. It quivered.

Do you WISH ME to make my presence felt? You desire a more direct confrontation?

The Archivist flinched, and suddenly wished he hadn't turned his back on the room. The hairs on the back of his neck raised. He was no coward, time had taught him bravery, but it was never pleasant having your back to something. He didn't dare turn around. It wasn't that the quiet was being threatening, or even overtly threatening. It never was. It was simply stating a matter of fact. It's personality did all the work for it.

He grit his teeth and gathered his strength together. "As much as I hate to say it, that is a choice that is not my place to make. One can make the decision to appear as they will, and not any other can do that for them."

The tense sensation faded, a least to his perception, and there was a long silence. The Archivist finally worked up the nerve to turn around, but there wasn't anything there. There never was, or had been. He twitched a little. Not surprising, really, but it was far better then the alternative, and it was all too typical. He turned around again, shutting the curtains again, but a little more carefully this time, and reverted to his usual, grumbling, grouchy self. Encounters like this were rare, very much so, but he could hardly argue against them. Sins or no, he was responsible enough to take account for his actions, and he knew that…

You do not need to fuss so. There is nothing to be concerned about here. Be at peace.

He just about jumped and almost ripped a curtain as he clutched at it. The quiet was almost slyly waiting in the background, and when he spun around, it was gone again, a normal stillness that filled an empty room. The Archivist scowled again. He could almost, just barely, swear he heard a faintly amused chuckle. That raised some ire. He used to be able to do that, and the thought of having the same tricks played on him was just...Ah. He stopped and sighed deeply, rolling his eyes.

"Apparently I've learned something tonight. Well, I've always thought that the old say about how a leopard can't change his spots is a little ridiculous." It did take a bit of effort not to smile. He didn't want to, but, well, knowing that one's time in anyone place was limited was something of a boost. And despite his anger, his frustration, and his current grumpy personality, some habits were very hard to break, and you couldn't help but admire the work of a fellow master...of course, future thoughts of revenge were right up his alley, but freedom in general to do as he pleased was very appealing.

Well, this chunk was a bit longer then expected.

Nano!

2006-11-01T14:50:34Z

Well, here it is.

Like some others I've spoken to who are either involved with or, more commonly, are observing NanoWrite, I'm seriously contemplating my sanity in this affair. Not so much because of the madcap, gruelling process of churning out 50,000 WORDS in a month, but by the fact I've got umpteenth other things to do in the meantime. Most of this is due to homework, which I'm worried about.

Last year...was not good. I got abyssmal grades in most of my courses, failed at least one, and I really want to make an effort this year at writing papers that don't suck hardcore (I've heard to many horror stories from friends who are farther along in their schooling then I, and have the pleasure of marking n00b student papers and work). Fortunately, I've only got two papers due, though in unfortunately close proximity to one another, and both are for a history course that I deeply love. Also, the one paper, which is essentially an ISU that has to be based within the information covered by the course, is on Vlad Dracula (Yes, him), the infamous Romanian prince of legend. Balkan History rocks.

Anyways.

So, NanoWrite... as katster has said, embrace the suck. I'm not as good an author as some, but hopefully this won't turn out too badly. I've churned out large chunks of story before, but this will be a challenge. One thing I'm looking forward too, though, is the chance/excuse I get to write out a character I've never written before, but who has been indelibly imprinted on my mind since I first started writing. And, surprisingly, this is a story that contrary to my usual creative process, has actually formed plot first and outwards. Normally I just throw something together piece meal from a collected series of funny scenes and ideas that float around and insert a plot as I go along. So I'm excited to see how this will go...granted, having the plot worked out and knowing what I want to do is cool, but I really should try to cook up some scene ideas and write them down.

Here's what I've got so far...my startup writing didn't quite hit what katster and Cairsten managed, but oh well, it was already late when I started and I was pretty distracted.

"Manny. Manny. Maaaaanny!" it took some doing, but eventually the professor managed to get the young man's attention. The younger man looked up from the pile of books he was heavily engrossed in, a look of mild confusion on his face.

"Yes?"

The prof sighed and tapped his watch. "Listen, Manny, I appreciate your…devotion to you're work, but it's late and I want to go home. The library closes in a few minutes, so gather your stuff and let's go."

Manny looked down at the notes he'd been copying. They were in a special vault below the main library, a special area where temperature and humidity were precisely controlled. Each of the books piled around him was no less than a hundred years old. And the scroll he'd been studying was so old he'd had to get special permission not only from the Library Archivist to view, but he'd had to get a letter of recommendation from his professor, a note from the Dean, and several other layers of paperwork and campus red tape to work through before the Archivist would even consider it.

But it had been worth it.

The scroll was older then anything he'd ever been able to see, let alone touch, before. But even so, it wasn't all that special in historical value, just a very standard listing of gods from an Asian chronicaller. Compared to some of the other tomes that were in the old sections of the library, it was not very signifigant. Only it's age indicated it's worth.

Manny sighed again and painstakingly placed the scroll back into it's pressure controlled container, wearing white gloves. "Sir, really...there's still so much work to do, I haven't nearly begun to finish all my notes on this item, and…" The prof cut him off.

"Son, I appreciate your furvor, but you're not getting any good done trying to figure something out at this hour. You're tired and your REM cycle's thrown out of wack. Focusing is going to be that much harder to do, and you'll slip and miss something important…with whatever you're doing there."

"Yes sir…" Manny placed a glass cover over top the scroll and locked it into place. He looked so despondent the prof chuckled.

"Listen, the viewing order still stands with the Archivist. You can come back as often as you'd like, for now, you've got a full week to copy notes, take pictures, study as much as you want. I'd recommend using a digital camera." He waited patiently while Manny put the scroll away.

The books were piled up with precise neatness, and Manny grunted as he lifted them, placing each one with care in it's spot on the shelves. He returned, put away his laptop and notebooks, all with the same are and precision he'd treated the older tomes. He shoulder the back pack and pushed his glasses up his nose.

Manny Andersen was a nerd. Well, perhaps not strictly a nerd, as his interests and personality led him more into the geek category. He wasn't that bad looking a guy either, which on occasion threw off the co-eds who ran into him and tried to flirt. Tried being the operative word. Shaggy black hair, greyish eyes, glasses, and an open, honest face, he looked like your typical nice guy.

But he was a little…odd.

Does it Have a Name?

2006-09-27T19:02:28Z

Fair nymph…to watch thy sweeten'd breath
Arise from stone lips and waft
To see more than stars,
To feel more than a chill cheek
On the back of hand grown weary
With endless sighs, and tears wiped
Away from careless sight
No feeling, neither within nor without
None between these two hearts
Nothing that causes such happiness
Can then be expected to reside, and
Finish the story. No, the story ends as it will
Without being guided but by divine will
Providence even, and bleeding time
To wish that even these things may bind
Look then, what flows beneath, and what
Will ever tell. Fair wind, I grant you
Seek not the fair story, for to seek is to end
And to end…then will this love finish
Whether it will be for ill or good,
But more, tis certain, will it be for certain.
Flowers given, gifts exchanged,
Petty grievances forgotten in the name of passion
And now, only the cool, damp smell of earth
An odd frame of speech, truly, for one to speak of
Love and death, death and love, both an ending
But which is more desired?
Which is more desired by the watchers, or,
Do they even matter? Truly, the action exists
Independent of the ones that watch,
It is only between those that exist that love grows
A world of two people, a world in itself
There can be none other
A world within a world…an unending cycle
Perpetuated by two who in folly…in folly?
Sweet breath, sweet gifts, sweet speech…
All these are folly! What madness can be generated
By two people in love! What matter does it matter
That there are others
When there is a madness in front of their eyes
Surely, such things are of no account
For these two will live, or die, as they please
And in matters of love, death is all the more certain
We cannot expect more then that
Humour, yes, perhaps, in another lifetime
Where sunlight flows and love skips merrily about
But all that is discovered, for reality, is darkness
Ties unbound and forsaken, trust broken
And all that remains is, simply, not love
Nor joy, but only muttered remnants of memory.
Watch this! Tireless playwrights, actors on a stage!
See this universe unfold before you!
Count the very minutes, the seconds, so fleeting
The lifespan of love, hardly breathing
See how the watchers clench their fists,
Desirous of another ending! No more, no more!

Me and my gorram brain

2006-09-05T14:40:19Z

So, I finally saw a substantial portion of either the 2nd or 3rd Star Wars movies (By this I mean the really bad ones. If you don't know what I'm talking about, die). This being the thrid movie in paticular, since I refuse on a moral and intellectual basis to watch anymore then a few minutes of the second.
First, I'll say I was mildly surprised. I'd heard, I think, somewhere, that the 3rd movie wasn't quite as toxic as the second, and that it bore a lot in feel to the orginal movies. This is true. I had a very strong urge to go watch the original Star Wars IV, to the point where I suspected that there may have been strong subliminal messages embedded within the movie itself. The ships interiors were not the slick art nouveau I've seen in the other movies, but the chunky whiteness that's so familiar from before. And to be honest, I doubt it's subliminal, but an honest effort at making a transistion from the Old Republic to the Rebellion and Empire, and a somewhat successfully achieved effort at that.
THAT being said, I will state that Anakin is still a whiny little emo bitch, except now he's got DRAMA and evil on his side, which doesn't really make it better. At all. Not as bad as the 2nd movie, but...
And also, am I the only who saw the final battle between Anakin and Obi-wan, and when Ani lost both legs and his remaining fleshy arm, thought to themselves...

"It's only a flesh wound!"
"Well, what are you going to do? *Bleed* on me?"

And no, I don't feel sorry for thinking this, but laugh in glee.