Monday

Administration
Hello to new readers __pandorapanic, gypsyjr, pogodragon, scarletazalea, skrawl, surreal_rebirth, and twinsmomwhoas

Hey, aussie_nyc and nnnslogan! Don't disappear again!

Medical
Exhaustion + nausea, am feeling a bit slow. This weekend was okay, medically, but I was visibly tapped-out enough on Saturday that my mother-in-law packed me off for a nap.

Mother-in-law
I feel like there's a constant interview process! I keep waiting to fuck up.

A way in which I am like my mother-in-law - her focus is intense.

I like her quite a lot, but a weekend was just about the right amount of time, particularly in my current state.

KoL
Description of the construction of the Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot under the cut! It's prohibitively difficult/expensive to get all the parts, so not many people make 'em, but I won the head, and had pretty much everything I needed for the rest, having adventured extensively in all of the Ascension areas.

( Description )

What should I call it?

Goals
Unnamed scary professional thing
Cover letter for epilepsy book
Laundry
Get to level 9 on KoL
Rest as needed.
Help Elayna pack for Florida

A prayer before battle

Shayara is divided into three acts. Act I is the search for Julia, and ends when she's found; Act II is her training, and ends with the battle between our forces and the Council. Act III? You'll see. :) (Of course, there's tons more to it all than that; I am grossly oversimplifying in order to give you a bare-bones idea of structure.)

The battle.

The Kirayth and their allies are outnumbered by the Hounds and the Council that controls them. Not just that... the Kirayth are warriors, but the Hounds are mindless killers. There's a psychological barrier the Kirayth have to get through that the Hounds just do not have. Altogether, this adds up to the Hounds having a bit of an advantage. (On the Kirayth's side? Well, they have Julia. But the plan, the only way to take them all out, cannot be enacted from a distance. Has to be up close and personal. And Capri and the Kirayth have to get her there.)

The Kirayth are not stupid. They know they're not all coming out of this alive.

Most of the Kithrayna are on the field. Only two aren't - Donna and Kieran. Donna, with the fighters of House Tarak, is holding down the fort at the Library. Within the Library, which is the second-best-shielded building in the city, are the city's children. And Kieran.

Why Kieran?

The gift of House Narsan? They see dead people, to borrow a hackneyed phrase. And as Kithrayn, Kieran's the strongest of them all. Getting overwhelmed on the battlefield would be *bad*. Particularly since he's considered a primary target for two reasons - the first, he's the soulbonded of the Lishaya. The second, they don't find out for some time yet.

Victor is an interesting character for me. Most of my characters are, in spc476's words, "the aristrocrats". Most of the characters in the city are Kithrayna or, like Capri and Fenris, very closely connected with same. Different outside the city, but the characters outside the city have almost an alien perspective - they don't have the same outlook, the same conditioning, as Dasaroi who were raised knowing who they are.

Victor is a Shayara-born Dasaroi who is very not an aristocrat. It's been interesting to me to write the beginning of his time with the Kirayth, and particularly the beginning of his relationship with Kieran, his Kithrayn, a man who technically has the power of life and death over him - which Victor takes very seriously, til Kieran gets him to relax. It is interesting the me to see how "normal" people see the city and its situation.

Anyway.

Victor unofficially joined the Kirayth during the Purges, and he is on the battlefield now, for this, and thinking of Capri - and then of Kieran.

It’s time.

If I fall…

If I fall, my lover, my Kithrayn – touch me one last time. Touch me, catch me, hold me, for one moment between this life and the next. I consign myself to you. I am yours.

Not just his lover, but his sworn liegeman... and if he falls, if he goes too fast to tell Capri he loves her... he has faith that, in the moments before he is born again, Kieran will reach for him. He clings to that, and gives himself completely. And the battle begins.

(no subject)

The answer to "How many times must 'song misspell Joseph's name before admitting that she's too tired to write?" is "four."

In case you were wondering.

I saw Boondock Saints on the big screen tonight with defying_gravity, though, and that rocked. I only wish photognome had been able to be there. St00pid work.

Joseph Joseph Joseph. Not Josepg. (That looks Czech. Or Polish.) I did find out that his Kithara's name is Jana, though.

(Kithrayn and Kithraya are the titles of the leaders of the seven Great Houses of the Dasaroi - the Talthar Kithrayna. The leaders of the houses of the second and third circles are Kitharn and Kithara. Joseph is of a second-circle house - Keleyn.)

Bed. Bed is good.