It was easy to ignore the figure standing in the shadows that hovered around the door; impossible to miss, certainly, but easy to ignore. It wasn't that the boy was bad at going unnoticed, Ivy reflected, he just always seemed to stand out in the Guild. Like he belonged somewhere else- somewhere far, far away. He had the look of one who'd seen things- not that you didn't get a lot of those in the Assassin's Guild, but these were things that most people didn't even imagine seeing. Secrets. Painful ones.

Of course, it could have just been that he was do blessed shy- and who ever heard of a shy assassin? And that would be why he isn't an assassin, now wouldn't it? She chided herself silently while absently plucking a beaker of quirim oil from young Renler's hands. The boy looked up at her with wide, innocent green eyes, the barest hint of mischief glittering at the corners.

"Back to your seat, youngling. You'll finish that tincture without cheating, or I'll have you cleaning out the compost bin for the next three weeks." The Master Poisoner kept an eye on her students as they played with the various powders, oils, plants, and solvents that made up her specialty. They were children, none older than ten, but they would be highly trained and highly paid assassins very soon. "And stop sniggering, if you would, madame Catherine. Lady Coralin would be most displeased to learn that you received low marks in my class, of all classes. You would do well to strive towards mastering your mother's sense of poise."

The girl in question, oldest of the group at eleven and a half, made a face and went back to measuring out the appropriate amount of quirim root. Her partner at the table, a short but stocky girl child with a mane of red hair, was gnawing on her own supply of the deadly poisonous root as she boiled down the leaves of the plant, which contained a somewhat less deadly variant of the poison.

The portly assassiness sighed and eased herself onto a battered and slightly scorched looking stool. Her chin sank to her heavily beringed hands. "Master Blaine, I've been sniffing out thieves since before you were born. Do come in and take a seat- perhaps you can explain to your Foxbird the particular qualities of raw quirim root on an empty stomach."

The thin healer slid into the room, slightly shamefaced. "Good evening, Lady Ivy." His face was downcast, tilting his dark hair across the scarred half of his face. Ivy smiled kindly at the young man.

"Come, sit, sit. Children, pay your respects to the healer. Foxbird, spit out that root before your insides decide to view the world from outside your body by way of your mouth. I've heard that the regurgitation of the lungs is particularly painful, though I've never seen it myself. Generally the victim either dies or passes out well before it reaches that stage- but you seem to have a rather hardy constitution."

The redhead in question leapt up from her seat and launched herself across the room, squealing something that sounded vaguely like "Papa!" Blaine took the assault rather well; he managed to catch the ballistic ball of red hair without falling over. The other children took the more reserved route and murmered their greetings.

Ivy noted in her usual detatched manner that the healer boy only smiled when around his "daughter". Quite a remarkable pair, the two of them; one considered himself a monster, the other was considered by most others to be a monster. The children cared nothing for the rumors surrounding either the man or the girl; they saw both as friends, interesting and valuable ones, at that.

"Since I'll never get Foxy back in her seat now, why don't you explain to these children the medicinal values of quirim, Master Blaine?" It wouldn't hurt to try and bring him out of his shell; even the children sometimes made him tense. Evidently the only place Blaine was completely comfortable was the morgue; and the morgue of the Assassin's Guild gave even the High Master's pause.

The healer looked up through his concealing curtain of hair with an expression that bordered on panic- until Foxbird bit him. She was all innocence and amber eyes, but thankfully he could take the hint.

"Well...Lady Ivy was right about the poison- we get a few victims in the Wards every now and then, and it really isn't pretty. The root and leaves are what you're working with now, but the healers use the flowers to make an antidote for most conventional poisons..."

He would have made an excellent teacher, Ivy reflected. It was a shame about his face- and that mess with the thieves guild. Still, his parents would be proud of him, were they not haunting the Guildmasters right now. Certainly, he was well known and well liked, even with that fae animal child attatched to him. It was easy to ignore the rumors about her and accept the fact that she really was just a little girl- so long as you ignored the tail and the claws, too...
------------------------------------

I'm just trying to distract myself from the concept of Discworld slash right now. I wasn't even looking for it, honest! But you find the most random things in the strangest places...

What box do you get put in?
brought to you by Quizilla

Hmph. I almost take offense to that- it's not that I have no box, it's that I have many boxes...many, many boxes indeed.

Question:

Does anybody actually know what the hell that thing on Legato's shoulder is? Did Vogue get their claws on him? Modern art? Traumatizing accident as a child with a bit of fencing? Knives get his panties in a bunch and take it out on him? A mishap when learning to use his telekinesis?

The world may never know...(but, one must admit, that as villains go, Legato takes the cake for sheer eeeevilness, even with a stylized hedghog on his shoulder. Hey, anybody who can get away with wearing white after Labor Day like that has a certain kind of style...)

Jambalaya IS
a tasty combination of rice and various other odds and ends, namely andoulle sausage, shrimp, crawfish, onions, peppers, and a great deal of tabasco. Typically found in Louisiana or, if you aren't that lucky, Boudreaux's in Blacksburg. If you still aren't that lucky, I don't know how to help you.

Jambalaya IS NOT
fried rice with peanut butter and an egg, topped with soy sauce. NOT. Bad brother. Very BAD.
*gagging*

*evil chuckle* Running the newspaper is a fair amount of work, but an equal amount of fun, I suppose...they all seem to think that I know what I'm doing! Oh, I pity those poor, gullible fools! Wahaha! I think I need a sign to carry around..."This is me pretending to be organized."

Meh. Since I've been a retard and haven't checked my comments lately...hello, Heather, whomever you may be. Also, my box of random men and other things is public property; I'm always willing to share. :)

Also...whoever was looking for me on the 16th and the 26th, 'fess up. I'm right here; if you've got sumthin' to say, say it. (Or, you know, at least say hi...) And if you're Kaitlin, *hugs*!! Miss you girl!

Um...lemme t'ink...that's it, for now. I swear that once I evolve out of being Swamp Thing (thank you, Bo...*much rolling of eyes*) I will update Vera Dicere...but right now I'm just too damn lazy, and fairly tired to boot.

booto, bootere, bootsi, bootus: 3rd conjugation verb, to boot; the act of booting; to apply a boot to an object, ie someone's head, eg "Boottothehead*whump*"

...yes, I just made up a Latin word. Shush. Everyone knows Latin is just English with "us" on the end of every word.

You know, I had a very long and nonsensical post about yesterday (McCarter! Loot! Dead tragic gay playwrites of the sixties! *squeal*!) and today (Band...football...damn O...movies! Sweet Home Alabama! Cuteness and gay and Reese Witherspoon! Drunken southerners and that damn song! *giggle*) and how the culmination of the past several day's events have led me to feel quite lonely, but then the power went out and I lost it all. I was watching YYH at the time, anyway. So it didn't really matter that much.

And I was feeling sorry for myself, which I really need to avoid. I don't know if I'll go to yoga tomorrow; mumsy dearest and daddy darling are going to the shore, but I am not. I think I'll sleep in for once. (was up at 8 this morning. Watched Yugioh. Squealed. Went to band. Wept. Ain't that just the way it is?) I've determined that my general misery and sick-ishness of the past week or so was directly related to my lack of sleep. Sleep is goooood. I still don't understand insomniacs. Getting closer on the anorexic thing, but insomnia is still a concept that escapes me. (Not that I'm ever going to be close to being anorexic, mind you. I'm just starting to understand it better.)

I need to get off my lazy ass and start writing again...I think I'll write that round robin we did on the bus back from a competition freshman year...I wonder if Sonya will remember it? I feel a little guilty (all the time) about (everything) writing a story that's only one fourth mine, but if no one else wrote it...well, all's fair in art and war.

You'll have to excuse me. It's late and I'm still recovering from an excellent episode of Bebop and from finally kicking Elmdor's ass and stealing all of his clothes in Tactics. That full set of Genji armor looks so sexy on my Lancer. Mmm, there's something about a pixelized sprite in armor...Of course, now I have to kill Zarela, and that's really, really difficult when everyone is asleep and death sentenced. No matter. That's a task for another day; it's taken me several months to get that set of armor, I can wait another day to get out of that damn castle. (Two mastered thieves, one level eight theif, Beowulf as a Temple Knight with Excalibur and throw item, Orlandu as himself and able to lightning stab. Take out Celia and Lede first; Beowulf can put them to sleep or can don't act them while Cid lightning stabs them. If they stop bracelet Beo-beo, bring him back with a phoenix down and have him Shock! them. Fry the bitches first, then chicken the Marquis. Twice. It's so much easier to steal from someone with no brave. *evil laughter* Nevermind that Beowulf has only 45 brave and 62 faith. With Chicken and Shock! he doesn't need anything else. *further evil laughter, squared*)

Dealing with undead in the basement should be a piece of cake, but I'm a retard. Magic users are so very overrated in that game; all you need is a competent items list- phoenix down the skeletons and the knights and they'll be out immediately...until they resurrect. I've played this game so much that I've got a dozen little tricks up my sleeve...*glomps Tactics* I love this game...

I just saw Hard Luck Woman; I am now, naturally, listening to "Call Me, Call Me". With my Ed skin. My next DVD will be volume six. No argument.

I can't believe I'm going to finally see the end of the series in two weeks. Gods...it'll have been almost exactly one year- I saw the first episode of Bebop on my birthday, and I'll be seeing the last just three days before it this year.

Yes, I do get overly attatched to anime series. Escaflowne turned me into a weepy obsessive for a while; I watched Trigun for eight hours straight without a break for anything, even though it was very badly subtitled; even Fushigi Yuugi had a semi-profound effect on me (though that was probably only due to certain other factors that were involved at the time). Bebop is, without a doubt, my favorite anime to date. My Squall wallscroll has been ousted in favor of the Spike/Julia/Vicious scroll that James gave us- much less colorful, not half as nifty an image, but still able to take the place of honor on the wall. I haven't watched anything else that can compete in terms of numbers the times I've stared at the screen open mouthed and whimpering, or the times I've cheered or squealed. (YYH may begin to compete in terms of cheers and squeals, but it has yet to bring me to gaping shock even once. Bebop did it twice in one episode and made me squeal today.)

So. Hard Luck Woman- now my favorite episode, up there with Black Dog Serenade and Pierrot le Fou (which actually managed to make me cry. obsessive. completely.) Even if Bebop isn't proper anime, and even if my loving it so much clearly reveals my appreciation for American television, I still say it's my favorite.

Can't wait until next week...*anxious*

(Coincidentally, next week is the Hiei-centric episode of YYH that I have missed. Next week will be some good TV, no mistake.)

I want Villains by Necessity. And hot apple cider with cinammon sticks, and butter cookies and yellow-orange leaves in my hair. I want to learn to write something that isn't a memory told in third person. Something that won't hurt like a broken razor across my soul in the telling.

Oh, stop the drama already, I know, I know. Yeesh. I've got homework to do.

Dammit. All of it. I can sit here and stare at the screen and listen to all the damn music that I want and will the words to come as hard as I possibly can, and nothing will happen. Not a thing. Not one shining drop of liquid cool refreshing inspiration, not one grain of brilliant truth or brightness to lighten the darkness around me, not even the beginnings of a very bad poem.

I think I'm going to dig out Bird by Bird again and read it. No, not because Cesi reccommended it, why on earth would you think that? *shameless* And cryptic, don't forget cryptic. *pulls out hair* I hate this. Hate it hate it hate it. Maybe I'll read more of Poetry as Persuasion. Maybe I'll write an article for the Beacon. Maybe I'll shadowbox until my arms fall off.

Maybe I'll just shut up. *screams*

Pardon me as I bludgeon my moodswings into a slightly less damning shape.

If I weren't feeling so trashed right now, I'd write something inspired. I haven't been sick in a while. I've forgotten quite what it's like. And the lights in this room are way too bright.

And for the sheep: 50 you're welcomes for the remaining unspoken 45. The sentiment is quite understood.

How Emotional Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Uh...that, and my elbow hurts. *waaaaahh*

I really must find the Great Expectations soundtrack, if only to be able to listen to "Wishful Thinking" in the car or on the band bus...such a wonderful, melancholy song.

Must convince the other brother to buy me Daylight for the birthday...since all he ever gives me are CDs, this should not be too difficult...*plots*

I would just like to say that the box under my bed filled with random people/characters is getting very crowded. *grin* Because I just added Vimes, Carrot, Rincewind, Death (the Discworld incarnation), Death of Rats, Angua, Susan, and Lord Vetinari. Hell, I added Vetinari twice because he's just that wonderful.

Terry Pratchett, I *heart* u.
*giggle*

*ahem*
*SQUEAL* VIMES!!!!!!
...that is all.

Quiz
created by Polly Snodgrass.

WATER OF EARTH. Mommy! Well, you could be. You are good with plants and small creatures such as children. You're very generous and basically great hearted. You probably make mad whack cookies and are good at managing the household; also businesses. You'd make a good tax person, book keeper, gardener, massage therapist, etc. The ever domestic and practical one, you can stretch a penny and make ramen noodles go a long way.

Okay, it was either this or Queen of Swords- and she's the arsenic poisoner; the black widow; the heretic queen; the evil, crazy, aloof, scheming bitch. Dammit! It can't be healthy to be this conflicted...because heaven knows I would not make a good mother, even if I do make mad whack cookies. I don't do the finance thing, either...Air or Earth, Air or Earth...not as bad as being fire/water, I suppose...but it's still irritating.

(I'll be Janus, looking both ways but going neither, I'll be the twilight at the edge of dawn...)

I always did love the Song of Aeolus. Especially the beginning part, with the ethereal voices just singing the random notes...
La la so fa mi so la ti do ti la so fa
la la mi la la ti la
re re do ti la ti la
But then they sing it as a round, and it just sounds three times cooler. Then, of course, there's the rest of the song, which is full of random lower horn music and sound ve'y coo' indeed.

The prelude is sort of hypnotic, though. Something you can get lost in, listening to. I do love Adiemus, I do...

"Burlap, the fabric of tomorrow! It's not a skin rash, it's trendy!"

"You know, a bloodbath is usually really good at getting rid of unnecessary tension. So long as you don't get caught, of course."
"But I'd have to find someone to blame it on, and I'm not good at that."
"Ask ****. He'd have a list of people for you, I'm sure."
"I guess...but it's still so messy. I'm a little bit neurotic about cleaning things, you know. I see a dirty dish, I clean it."
"When are you visiting next? But seriously, if the mess bothers you, just use a blunt object."
"What if I crush their skulls? Then you get splattered brains, and that's even worse than blood."
"In that case, I'd suggest you use poison."
"Ehhh."
"Or napalm. There wouldn't be anything left to clean. It even gets rid of dust bunnies."
"But the dust bunnies would retaliate with tactical nukes!"
"Generally things that are napalmed don't retaliate with much. They might run around in circles a bit, and fall over, and maybe even twitch, but there's not much retaliation."
"The survivors would come after me."
"Widen your target range."
"And take out the house? There's stuff here that I like! I've got books here!"
"If you don't get them, the dust bunnies will."
"Silly, everyone knows dust bunnies don't read."
"Yeah, but the squirrels do."
"Well we got rid of them a while ago."
"Really..."

Yesss, we are deranged. Yes, that did put me in a much better mood. Woo. Happiness. Or some reasonable facsimile of it.

Aw, I'm having too much fun with winamp right now. It pulled Moxy Fruvous' "Sad Girl" on my dancer skin. That would be a fic bunny if I wrote fanfic, it would. And now it did it again with "Hey Jealousy". And "Yellow". But that's only amusing because the skin is yellow. Yellow skin, yellow song, almost amusing if you're really bored...(This is me just skipping through my playlist to see what gets pulled on what, of course. I'm supposed to be doing homework. Or college aps.)

"Walking on the Air" on Yue. Now that's fitting. "Don't Bother None" with Folken. Now that's not fitting. Amusing, certainly, but not fitting. "Drops of Jupiter" on Gene. *giggle* "No Such Thing" on Auron. *cackle* (Would've been more apropriate with Tidus, but I dun have a Tidus skin.) "Save Me" on Vincent. Aww. He's Superman in disguise! (I really should be doing my homework...)
And earlier it actually pulled Gene on "Losing My Religion", which made me giggle. The only reason that skin is so inappropriately titled is because the damn song was always playing when I was working on it.

My general thoughts on both skins? I like Gene's repeat button better, and I'd like his shuffle but better if I'd made it shiny; the little yin-yang thingy ought to glow like the quartered circle does when it's on. I like the fact that Gene doesn't have any volume or balance buttons- the ones on Dancer irritate me, as does Dancer's posbar. I do like the way the equalizer came out, though. And Dancer's playlist is better. Gene's got a much better color scheme, though, and the image was so much easier to edit. Dancer has better buttons, or she would if you could see them...and I like her equalizer/playlist buttons better.

I think I like Gene's overall effect better, but Dancer was much more work and it shows it, I think...I need to get to work on some more; any requests? (After I do my homework, of course...)

Let's see if this works...

dancer.zip
starwind.zip

WinAmp skins! The first one is of the Dancer from Final Fantasy Tactics, the second is of Gene from Outlaw Star. Gene with handcuffs, no less. :) I'm hoping the download will work- I really wish I had screencaps of them, but that option wasn't working well with my stupid computer, so you'll just have to download them to see how they are. Should you choose to download, pleaseplease tell me what you think!