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Post by Shadaras on Nov 1, 2008 11:39:16 GMT -5
Sighing, Tuan pulled his hand back. “But this isn’t the time or place for torment. This is a time of celebration, especially for this young genius.”
“I’m not a genius!” I protested, but I was smiling. This was why I loved them. Tuan and Kaz could set me at ease better than anyone else. Few people understood why I’d willingly spend my time with an Uranite and a Venusite in a time of war, but they didn’t know the people in question. How could I help but love them, when they treated me more like a person than anyone else?
“Come, Kaz, help me out here,” Tuan begged. “He’s going to cut me to shreds, saying things like that.”
“You’re on your own with this one,” Kaz said. “He’s right. Compared to --”
“You will not say that.” Tuan’s joking disappeared, and his glare wasn’t like anything I’d seen before. “You will not reference him. Especially not here.”
Kaz sighed. “You can’t run forever.”
“Neither can he.”
“He doesn’t need to.” Kaz turned away. “He can outla --”
“Shut the hell up.” Tuan strode over to Kaz. I watched them silently, hoping that they’d say something that’d let me understand what they talked about. Tuan placed his hands on Kaz’s shoulders. “I hate this too. So shut up. It’ll be over soon enough.”
“That’s the worst part.” Kaz sighed. “You know that.”
“You hurt more because of it, though.”
“I know that. You know that. But does he know what he’s doing to us?”
“We have no choice but to hope,” Tuan said softly. “Without hope, we cannot live.”
“I know. I know.”
They were silent. I waited, hoping they’d speak, but when the silence persisted for a minute, I finally spoke. “What was that about?”
“Nothing you want to know,” Kaz said as they both turned to face me. I could see lines on Kaz’s face that tears must have traced. I hadn’t heard any sign of them in his voice, though.
“If you ever find out...” Tuan sighed. “I don’t know what you’d do. Your father entrusted us with this, you know. This was originally his secret to keep, but since he died, it falls to us.”
“What’s it about?” I asked, trying and failing to keep my curiosity under control.
“Nothing you want to know,” Kaz repeated.
Tuan nodded, face surprisingly serious. “You’ll find out, though. It’s just a matter of time.” Tuan and Kaz are nice. Note that I didn't expect this to happen at all, okay? Tuan and Kaz weren't supposed to be Adrian's friends. But this works. Also, that secret they're talking about? The him is Lucifer. The secret Adrian's dad had? The breeding program and the Angels. Which means that Adrian's dad is an Angel of some sort or another. This makes sense. It also bothers me. Eh. Whatever. Kaz and Tuan are fun to write. Even if I fail at actually describing them. xD ..I don't need to, though. They're going to show up all throughout Angels, I suspect. |
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 1, 2008 23:48:38 GMT -5
“Shut up,” I said. “One of you tell me what we’re going to do, please?”
“I don’t know,” Kaz admitted. “Planning what we’ll do when we leave for Mercury would be useful.”
“But that’s boring,” Tuan protested. “Can’t we do something fun?”
“Such as?”
“A tickle war?”
Kaz laughed, and I leapt up before Tuan tackled me. I glanced at Kaz and grinned. He grinned back, and I leapt at Tuan while Kaz grappled him, trying to hold him down. I knew his weak spots and targeted them, tickling his armpits and his sides, while letting Kaz hold him relatively still. Tuan was squirming and laughing, but it was only when Kaz let go to try and tickle him himself that Tuan got his revenge, first going after Kaz, and then after me. He was fast, faster than I expected, though I knew he was. He still surprised me with how he could turn around as quickly as a snake, and as accurately.
By the time we called a truce, we were all panting and laughing and just lying in a heap. I looked at the ceiling through half-closed eyes, watching the phoenix spin around and around in a slow circle. I sighed and closed my eyes, letting myself start falling asleep. Kaz and Tuan didn’t seem inclined to move, either, and they were curled up around each other and me. I was warm, safe, and reasonably comfortable, and that was all I needed.
Of course, that was when the bell sounded, chiming through the house. Tuan groaned. “She would show up now, wouldn’t she?” Nobody bothered to answer him. “Someone else get up. I’m under both of you, after all.”
“Fine, fine.” Kaz rolled to the side. “I’ll go answer it. You’d better move before she gets here, though.” With that, he stood and walked out.
I didn’t move. Tuan sighed. “Move, Ri. You know you don’t want her to see us like this. She’ll make assumptions, and neither of us want that.”
I sat up, combing my hair back into reasonably good order. “I know. But I wish she weren’t here.”
“So do I, Ri.” Tuan stood, but only for as long as it took for him to get to his bed. He sat down heavily on the blue fabric, and I watched the golden designs rumple under him. “But this is the way of things.”
I nodded, scooting over to lean against Tuan’s bed. He ruffled my hair, and I stuck my tongue out at him, brushing it back into place as I heard Kaz’s footsteps, along with the lighter ones of Rhianne. “Here it comes,” I whispered. Tuan laughed, and Kaz stepped through the doorway, Rhianne right behind.
Upon seeing me sitting there innocently, she stopped and opened her mouth, ready to begin a tirade.
Tuan stopped her with an upraised hand. “Before you begin to shout at us, know this,” he said quietly. “This was his idea, not ours. He didn’t need to come find us, after that dance. We didn’t expect him to.”
I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes, and I saw Kaz’s smirk. They had. I knew they had.
“He came of his own free will, and we let him come because we love him.” Another raise of the hand. “And no, not in the way your perverted mind seems to think. Kaz and Aaron were good friends. You know that. When Aaron and Lilianne were still alive, we acted as uncles to Adrian. Why would you expect less of us now that his parents are dead?”
I watched Rhianne’s face morph into a mask of outrage. “You --”
“No shouting,” Kaz said wearily. “Please. And if you’re going to curse us, do it when Ri isn’t around to hear.’
“You— you—”
“Yes, I know, we’re impudent freaks. Or scoundrels. Or whatever you’ve decided to call us today.” Tuan shrugged. “Look, Rhianne, we’re better able to protect him than you are. You know that, don’t you? It’s why you hate us.”
“You—”
“Look, stop saying that.” Kaz sat down on my other side. “Rhianne, I know you want your nephew back. But I can’t help but wonder if your suspicions about us are due to you having those desires yourself.”
Rhianne screamed. I couldn’t make out any words in her scream, but it didn’t matter. She turned and stalked out of the house. I looked up at Tuan and Kaz, watching their expressions. “That wasn’t nice.”
“What she’s told us over the years was worse,” Tuan said. “Now shush. We may as well sleep now. The excitement’s all over, anyway.”
I smiled and climbed onto the bed, sandwiching myself between Kaz and Tuan. It’d been a long time since I’d been this happy and secure. This was my home, I decided, and here I would stay. I even doubted I’d have nightmares while I slept. Perhaps my dreams would even be happy for the first time in long years. I sighed, content at last. My characters fight dirty. *is amused* ..anyway, that's the end of a chapter. I like that chapter. It's full of weird stuff. Like plot. End of first day: 7,166 words. ^_^ |
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Post by Kathleen on Nov 2, 2008 1:24:24 GMT -5
I feel pathetically behind. xD Ah, well, no matter. ^^
.. Rhianne. :3 That's very close to my oldest sister's name. =D
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 2, 2008 9:57:12 GMT -5
I feel pathetically behind. xD Ah, well, no matter. ^^ .. Rhianne. :3 That's very close to my oldest sister's name. =D That's how I felt last year, when I watched Xivvy and Rain just completely rule. And Carrie, I think. And Wolf. And.. yeah. I think that's it. xD ..so don't feel behind. You're ahead of the minimum, after all. It's a pretty name. ^_^ ..even if it is an odd spelling. But then, so is Lilianne. |
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Post by ♥ Rain on Nov 2, 2008 19:28:33 GMT -5
I feel pathetically behind. xD Ah, well, no matter. ^^ .. Rhianne. :3 That's very close to my oldest sister's name. =D That's how I felt last year, when I watched Xivvy and Rain just completely rule. And Carrie, I think. And Wolf. And.. yeah. I think that's it. xD ..so don't feel behind. You're ahead of the minimum, after all. It's a pretty name. ^_^ ..even if it is an odd spelling. But then, so is Lilianne. Your word count rocks. xD I'll be the one trying to catch up this year, perhaps? It would give me something to strive for.  |
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 2, 2008 19:31:27 GMT -5
That's how I felt last year, when I watched Xivvy and Rain just completely rule. And Carrie, I think. And Wolf. And.. yeah. I think that's it. xD ..so don't feel behind. You're ahead of the minimum, after all. It's a pretty name. ^_^ ..even if it is an odd spelling. But then, so is Lilianne. Your word count rocks. xD I'll be the one trying to catch up this year, perhaps? It would give me something to strive for. xD ..you're the one I need to catch up to right now. But yeah, having something to strive for is awesome. It engages my stubborness and competitiveness. |
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Post by ♥ Rain on Nov 2, 2008 21:30:36 GMT -5
Your word count rocks. xD I'll be the one trying to catch up this year, perhaps? It would give me something to strive for. xD ..you're the one I need to catch up to right now. But yeah, having something to strive for is awesome. It engages my stubborness and competitiveness. I'm counting on you to get ahead of me so I can battle to catch up to you. ^_~ Engages mine as well, as long as the gap isn't, you know, 10k or something. >_> I'm lame that way. |
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 2, 2008 21:37:51 GMT -5
xD ..you're the one I need to catch up to right now. But yeah, having something to strive for is awesome. It engages my stubborness and competitiveness. I'm counting on you to get ahead of me so I can battle to catch up to you. ^_~ Engages mine as well, as long as the gap isn't, you know, 10k or something. >_> I'm lame that way. Well, I think I'm ahead right now, so yeah. I'll do my best to stay ahead until the final week. Around then I might slow down or stop. I'll definitely stop on Thanksgiving, though. And I doubt I'll get a 10k gap. I really do. Anyway, excerpt from the chapter I just finished. Kaz didn’t talk to me, and I didn’t talk to him. No reason to, since Tuan would soon be back, bringing conversation with him. I did get off the bed, however, since it bothered me to be up higher than he was. I settled on the pillows, sitting cross-legged and leaning my head on my hands. Given that there wasn’t anything else to do just yet, I started trying to think of ways to convince Rhianne to let me go with Tuan and Kaz. Straight argument was likely what it would come down to, though I doubted it’d become a shouting match, especially since I’d suggested using a public setting for the discussion.
So we’d need to use logic. Not that there was much of that in what we were planning to do. I mean, what could we say? That we wanted to essentially kidnap her nephew and take him into a world inside the sun? Yeah, like she’d believe that. It’d just make her think Kaz and Tuan were even more insane than she already thought they were. But just saying that they wanted to take him to see his dad’s home wouldn’t really work either. She’d just say that she could do that just as well.
She’d be wrong, of course, since Kaz and Tuan knew Dad better, but she didn’t know that. She didn’t know much of anything, honestly. I shook my head slightly. She hadn’t known much at all about dance or theatre, though I still couldn’t figure out how. She was the sister of one of the most famous actresses of recent history, and the step-sister of one of the most famous actors, had friends who were dancers, and yet, even as a five-year old, he’d known more. It was ridiculous.
But she did have the right to insist that she come along with them if they went anywhere, which was the whole problem. “Did Dad ever give you any special privileges because of your friendship?” I asked, breaking the silence. “If he did, that’d probably make it easier to get Rhianne to leave us alone.”
Kaz smiled slightly. “I was thinking about that, and I couldn’t think of anything. Tuan might remember more, of course, but I think we studied what he left us pretty carefully when he first died and the duty of getting you to Phoenicia fell to us. There wasn’t anything to make it easier.”
“Too bad.” I was going to go back to thinking, but Kaz started talking before I could.
“It isn’t so much that we didn’t get anything as that even if we had, Rhianne wouldn’t believe it.” Kaz sighed. “It’d be easier if she didn’t assume that since she’s of this planet, she’s better than we are. Tuan’s home planet doesn’t help, and mine doesn’t do anything to counteract that. All Venusi are in love with money, after all,” he said bitterly. “And we can be bought ever so easily.”
“She doesn’t understand you at all.” Tuan’s soft voice broke through the conversation. He strode in, holding three bowls of something that looked like fruit mush combined with chocolate syrup. “She doesn’t even make an effort to understand us. Lilianne did that much, even if it was for her husband’s sake.” He passed a bowl to me, still talking. “Rhianne won’t bother trying to understand our arguments. We’ll try, for the sake of peace, but if she doesn’t agree, I’m just going to take you anyway, and let her yell at us by retaliating at Uranus and Saturn.”
“If they listen to her,” Kaz said, accepting his own bowl. I began eating as they kept talking. “Have you ever tried to get the government to listen to you? It’s too difficult for their own good. But even if she got Ganymede to listen to her, they won’t be able to do much, in the end. Io is where all the warships are.”
“Mercs,” I said. “Ganymede has enough money for those, at least, and as you said, Venus has a reputation for good warriors that can be easily bought. Even if that reputation is wrong, it’s still there.”
“But bought warriors can be bought again.” Tuan shrugged. “It doesn’t matter yet. Let’s just wait for Rhianne and figure out how we’re going to argue with her then.” |
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 2, 2008 23:29:16 GMT -5
10,000th word: said ((“I’m not,” Tuan said. “I’m sorry, Rhianne. I know you’d love to be able to refute us, but you can’t.”))
Whoot. ^_^ ..so much fun randomness led up to that, too. Semi-civil arguments that make perfect sense are wondeful.
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Post by Rikku on Nov 2, 2008 23:51:57 GMT -5
This is very interesting to read and I do believe I am envious beyond words. ^_^
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 2, 2008 23:57:57 GMT -5
This is very interesting to read and I do believe I am envious beyond words. ^_^ ^_^ ..thanks, Rikku. Thank you very much for saying that. End of Day II - 10,450 words Excerpt from Chapter III (end of chapter III) “Shut up,” she said. “Shut up and let me come with you. Even with all this, you’re still going to be essentially kidnapping Adrian. You can’t lie about that.”
“Actually, we could, but there’s no point.” Tuan waved a hand. “We’re not kidnapping him, anyway. How could we, when he’s agreed to come along?”
“And before you ask, I have.” I shrugged. “It’ll be fun. I mean, Dad never talked much about Mercury, so it’ll be nice to see it for myself.”
“You’re evil,” she growled. “All of you.”
“So nice of you think so,” Tuan said cheerfully. “Will you let us take Ri or not?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“There’s always a choice,” Kaz said. “It’s just a matter of whether or not you see it.”
Rhianne stared at the table. “I suppose I’ll let you take him. But he needs to send regular messages, or I will accuse you of kidnapping him. And the same goes for if he doesn’t come back within a reasonable amount of time.”
“Good,” Tuan said, standing up. “We’ll leave as soon as we’re all packed. A day or two, shall we say?”
I grinned and looked up at him. “I can be packed by tomorrow.”
“Then it’s settled.” Tuan turned towards Rhianne and bowed. “So nice seeing you, Miss Baudouin. Please drop Ri off at our house as soon as he’s packed, or tell us so that we can come and get him. Have a nice day.” He turned and walked away, Kaz following behind him. I stayed seated, waiting for Rhianne to explode at me.
She didn’t. She just stood up and silently made her way out. I followed her just as silently, hoping that she’d wait until we were home before she started talking. Alas, we had no such luck. We only got to the bubble before she started talking, not at me, but to herself. “I shouldn’t have let them do that. I should’ve told them to bring me proof before I believed that they were somehow related to Adrian. I should have...” she glared at me. “I shouldn’t be talking right now.”
“That’s true,” I said. “But you are, so why stop now?”
“You’re infuriating,” she told me.
I grinned. “I know.” |
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 3, 2008 15:38:35 GMT -5
I woke to the sound of a shouting match. Rhianne and Tuan again. I groaned, sitting up and shaking my head to try and clear away the residual images from the night. As soon as I thought myself aware enough to walk without running into anything, I stood and made my way to the front of the house, using the noise to direct myself. I just hoped that Rhianne had had the decency to let Kaz and Tuan in before beginning to yell at them, because if she woke everyone nearby up with this, then she’d be getting some irritated calls before the day was up.
Entering the foyer, I found Rhianne and Tuan standing in the middle arguing and talking over each other. Kaz was sitting in a corner, pretty much ignoring them. I joined him silently, doubting that the others would even notice me. After listening for a minute or so, I sighed. “What’re they arguing about?”
“Everything.” Kaz shook his head. “But it started with her insisting on coming along. Again. And then it progressed to name-calling and other such wonderful things, and now they’re just arguing because they can’t be the first one to stop.”
“At least she let you inside first,” I said. “I didn’t think she’d do that.”
“They’re dumping rain everywhere, so it was only polite.”
“Forgot about that.” I tilted my head slightly. “So, should we go stop them?”
“Nah. Let them argue themselves out. It’s not like we need to leave at a set time.”
“We don’t?” I glanced at Kaz, surprised. “But don’t you need to reserve a space on a ship ahead of time?”
“Unless you have one of your own, yeah.” Kaz shrugged. “Tuan and I got one from the Angels when we started out. Most teams do, unless they know where they want to be and can get another team to take them there. We did that for Aaron, and then just stayed with him. So our ship is in the spaceport waiting for us.”
“Oh.” I fell silent for a while, listening to Tuan and Rhianne shout at each other, before speaking again. “Was what you told Rhianne all true? The part about you being my godfather and Dad’s blood brother?”
Kaz nodded. “I’d forgotten about a lot of that,” he admitted, “but Tuan hadn’t. He reminded me of it while you were reading. It’s all true, and I wish we hadn’t had to use it against her.”
I smiled, leaning over to hug him. “I’d hoped I was right and you’d told the truth, but I wouldn’t put it past Tuan to lie, even about something like this.”
“Neither would I,” Kaz answered, gently pushing me away. “But thankfully he didn’t need to.” Honestly. The amount of time Rhianne and Tuan spend arguing is ridiculous. But that will be at an end soon, for the transition into the next stage of the story is almost here. ^_^ ..finally we get to the part where Ri leaves Ganymede and goes to the Angels. I just need to finish this chapter, and then I get to write one that I can see quite well in my head. So much fun. ..and then I get to the angst-fest that Ri's nightmares are likely to be. Yes, I'm devoting a chapter to that, because he's unconscious and pretty much in a coma for a year as his body tries to adjust to Phoenicia. It should be interesting. |
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Post by Kathleen on Nov 3, 2008 16:36:36 GMT -5
*envy* I do believe I'm depressing myself, reading all these other amazing excerpts. xD You write so well, Shade. ^_^
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 3, 2008 16:47:48 GMT -5
Post a longer excerpt of your own. But thanks. ^_^ ..I think it's mostly due to the characters, in this case, since most of the stuff I've posted is the result of them changing who I was planning on having them be.
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 3, 2008 20:33:26 GMT -5
I feel superior right now. I really shouldn't, but I do. xD ..I think I'm ahead of most, if not all, people here, as well as Meagan. That's why I feel superior, by the way. Whatever. Also, I checked my wordcount at exactly 13,000, which I find awesome. That is all.
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