[Fate] Rain's Nano

[♥ Rain]

Well, it has no title. So it's just named after one of the characters. Which is confusing. Oh well.

See, my main character is named Lein. She does not have a last name, and I am very sad about that.

Anyway, I'm not even sure how to describe this novel. Most of what I have is character backstory and the end of the book. I sort of know how I'm going to begin it then so help me, I have no clue what I'm going to do next. I sort of know the main plot... which, by the way, is about zombies.

But at the same time.. the story isn't really about zombies, because I don't write thrilling things as a general rule, I write character interaction.

So I might as well tell you about my main characters, as that's about as close as I'll get to explaining the plot anyway.

There is, well,

Fate, to begin with. She... sort of decides who dies. But doesn't. I'm going to try not to get into specifics in the book because I have no clue how this exactly works. But she was born around 1800, died in her teens, took up the job of Fate from the previous Fate (they have job tenures of around a quarter of a millenium) She’s blonde, blue-eyed, always wears dresses. Always. If/when she wears pants, it’s basically like us walking around in our underwear. Utterly indecent. And she’s all about decency. …well, now she is. Because when she first died, she was very put out. Very. And you know, killed a few million people. >__> But then she got the smack down and was basically told “you do that again and you will be in big trouble” and… so she hasn’t killed people not on her list since then. But she’s very snarky and bossy and somehow people deal with her. I’ve written a lot of drabbles with these character sets, thankfully, so I know I love her. I really really do.

Death is next, I guess. He’s Fate’s husband. :3 He was born in the 1950s, the early part, and died when he was six years old. He was terminally ill and utterly adorable. There is no question that he is one of the nicest characters I have ever made ever. They got married when he was six years old still, so they sort of had to dupe a preacher. Um. That was with the help of Destiny, who can just do those sorts of things, though. …I’ll get to him in a moment. Anyway, Death is.. he just… he loves Fate, and she loves him, and they love each other with all their might. They spend a lot of time on relationship. Not to mention he’s one of the only people who can deal with her. She may sound like she bosses him around a lot, but he does enjoy doing things for her… and if he really thought it was unreasonable, he wouldn’t do it. He’s bigger and stronger anyway. XD But so meek and intent on keeping the peace. Oh I love him.

Destiny was one of Fate’s contemporaries. He had a crush on Fate back in the day and she rejected him again and again. =D When she died he was totally crushed, but he only had to live like.. six years longer or whatever before he died at the age of twenty-two anyway! And seeing her again he was like “wait wait wait I don’t want to die please” and so she’s like, “mmmm. I guess there’s a job for you.” He just wanted to hang out around her, mostly. xD; Sort of backfired on him, but. He doesn’t really care. He’s strange. White hair (because he chose it and likes it, haha), ponytail, smokes a lot. And wears vests. Because men in vests are so awesome. He can get away with smoking for long time because, as he put it in a drabble I wrote, “I’m Destiny. Do you really think I’d be a cancerous wreck who smelled bad? Of course not. It’s the image.” …yeah, so he can get away with it because he’s already dead and it doesn’t effect his health. Or his own personal smell. That is to say, he can put down his cigarette and not smell of it at all. :3 I love him. Though he’s a terrible role model.

Lein comes next, I guess. She’s my main character, but she’s sort of hard to explain had I not explained Fate and Death first, because… Lein may be the POV character, but the story is mostly about everyone else… and her own private angst, because angst is fun. Lein has no backstory really. …she’s just… well, it’s because of her that this plot makes me cry and cry and cry every single time I start thinking of it. Angsty music is horrible. xD

Erive is Lein’s best friend! And she lives right next door. I mean, Lein is naturally antisocial, but Erive is better than that because she really doesn’t care. She can make friends at the drop of a hat, really. She’s peppy, airheaded, and a video game freak. I can say that she really doesn’t care about other people that much. She’s smart, which she uses to blow through her school so she can get back to her games. She’s pretty and slim, so she would use that as a way to more legitly cosplay. She’s brown-haired with a lime green streak at the front because she thought it looked cool. She much would rather live in dream land. She is, incidentally, magical, which basically means she’s able to interact a bit, if she so chooses, with what I have badly named the “second dimension” which is more a different plane of existence that exists immediately on top of this current Earth, but only in some places. Anyhow, Erive doesn’t really know she’s magical. Frankly, she could care less about one thing or the other. She just likes her games. Life is easy, life is good. …well, until the end of the story. :3 But then everything is bad.

Mrs. Perry is Erive’s mom! And she is also the bad guy.. ..girl… whatever. She’s the administrator of a magic school. Only one in existence, actually. …Erive doesn’t actually know this even though she’s, what, sixteen/seventeen because as I said previously, she’s airheaded and doesn’t care to find out. But Mrs. Perry is… from the same town Fate and Destiny are from (I think it’s in Europe somewhere. I don’t know.) and is also really really old. Except she’s still alive, still looks young. …she got rather obsessed with death and, though she herself would probably be loath to call it this, necromancy. When her own parents died, she wasn’t able to bring them back to life and, as a magical human, she was rather distressed and sort of dedicated the rest of her life to learning about these sorts of things. After a person is dead for a certain amount of time, actually, they can’t be brought back, which is why she wasn’t able to bring her parents back. Anyhow. She’s generally dedicated to family and… after all this time can get rather nasty about things if she doesn’t get her way. She’s quite decisive.

Those are sadly all the characters I have set in stone. So… there are a few others things I suppose I could mention, but.. as it stands, let me put the plot this way:

It starts happy if slightly off. The middle is more off and starts to get weirder. I don’t know if it’s happy or no. Then end makes me cry every time I think about it. I leave most everyone broken or horrified or dead. =D YES. I don’t know if I’ll get that far by the end of November, though, because I’m only planning on writing 50-60k, and this will at least span that if not more. I just want to write these people.


Ah, so, that was a wall of text. I might as well post up a drabble or so because Lein is so funny. ...at least, she is to me. I like her. This is the drabble that Destiny's quote came from. Because. I like it. ....though it doesn't have any of Lein's peculiar euphemisms. Not really.

SPOILER: Click to show

“This isn’t my idea of fun,” I muttered, garbage bag hefted over one shoulder and trash can pulled with the other. Fate had sent me to take the garbage out to the street corner where it was usually picked up and today it was particularly important, as the zombie corpses she and Death had eliminated the night before were growing musty. Destiny had decided to accompany me—though I wasn’t sure if it was out of his own good will or if Fate had asked him to come along to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid.

Destiny was really only laughing at my state of affairs. “It’s no one’s idea of fun,” he said. “Trust me. I’ve done it before and if you think twenty bags is a lot of garbage, then you should have seen Russia. Zombies out the wazoo. That was the one time she called me in. Fifty-three bags worth. Death didn’t want to handle it himself.”

I listened to Destiny prattle on about Russia. Was it just me or did Destiny and Fate have a sort of creepy resemblance to each other? They called each other brother and sister, but from what Death had told me, they weren’t related in the least. They certainly talked like one another, though that could be explained away by the amount of time they had spent together. Not all of it was voluntary, I’m sure, but it was like they had twin ESP or something. They smirked the same, they talked the same, and I’m sorry to say this, but they walked pretty much the same too. It was this sort of swagger-step-step-swagger movement characterized only by people who were very sure of themselves. And I have never seen people as sure of themselves as Destiny and Fate were.

“By the time we got those all cleaned up, the police were on to us, even though they couldn’t see us. They were stalking the drop zone, all suspicious like. And if people are suspicious, well.” Destiny shook his white head. “They can see crazy things. I don’t ever want to get caught up in a Russia syndrome again.”

I set my garbage down on the curb. I had already carried out most of the trash—only four bags left, which meant one more heavy trip. “You could at least have helped me,” I said, “seeing as I’m a fellow sufferer. I mean, what’s the point of you coming along anyway?”

“Exercise,” Destiny said in a way which really didn’t make me believe him. He snickered. “Okay, okay, it’s because I want to make sure nothing like Russia happens again, even with this little load. Just be grateful I’m along. If I didn’t some strange things could pop up.”

I twirled around on the balls of my feet, my sneakers grating harshly against the sidewalk cement. Above me, the streetlight hummed, brightening and darkening as swarms of insects landed and then flew away in throngs. “Strange things,” I said, half laughing. “Like what? We cut up the corpses. Don’t tell me they sneak away by their fingertips.”

Destiny cocked his head to one side. “Well, not quite,” he said. “There was one incident where some stuff left unattended was mysteriously sewn back together. I can’t say that was quite a normal case either, though, because I wasn’t involved in the least. Fate blamed me for it, though. She always does.”

“What else?” As we walked down the street back to Erive’s house, I blew on my sore hands. I’d been dragging bags back and forth for about twenty minutes now and my hands were red and irritated. Trash bags weren’t kind. “You can’t just be afraid of things walking off, because you aren’t staying with them.”

“I suppose burglars, kidnappers…” Destiny trailed off. “To tell the truth, I don’t know. Fate said your mother would throw a fit if she knew you were out here all alone.”

“She might,” I said. “Though I think if she knew what I was doing she’d throw a fit anyway.” Destiny’s words were comforting, though. Perhaps Fate thought about me more than I knew. Or maybe she just wanted to avoid a lawsuit and keep the free labor. I rubbed my hands together, wincing as I went. It was chilly out and despite the exercise, I was beginning to feel it. We had just reached Erive’s house and I sighed. The last four bags had been dragged out to the corner while we had been gone. I quickly plopped three of the bags into the trash can and hefted the last one over my shoulder. A finger from the bag poked me in the back and I sighed, moving the bag to another, more comfortable position. “I guess,” I said, “my question is, why did it have to be zombies? I mean, I don’t have a problem being the whipping boy in this situation—“

“Yes you do,” Destiny said.

“—but I’d so much rather it not be zombies. They were a bit too real for my tastes. Why corpses at all? I could be out and about being a janitor, cleaning up more sterile messes than this, and making money. Why am I even doing this?”

Destiny grinned that annoying smile of his. “Adventure. You could be poor all your life as long as you got adventure.”

“Adventure doesn’t pay the bills,” I said, surly. “I don’t need adventure. I need a good life.”

“Oh, you need adventure,” Destiny said. “If you didn’t have it, you’d want to die. You can bet your life on it.” He seemed to think this very funny and started to laugh to himself. After a few moments he recovered and said, “Money doesn’t pay the heart, doesn’t pay the soul.” Then he glanced at me and said, “The only bad side effect of this is that you’ll be trying to live up to it the rest of your life.”

I rolled my eyes, trying not to think about what he had said. He was right, really. Perhaps what I was doing now wasn’t very practical, but it sure beat cleaning out toilets. The trash bag had somehow rolled around on my back so that the finger was poking me again. Maybe it was equal to cleaning toilets. My practical side said that toilet cleaning would be more socially acceptable however, and I was feeling quite practical. We had at last reached the corner again and I set my bag down and began to unload the trash can for the last time. “I still think that money could be awfully handy.”

Destiny stuffed his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “Live in denial as long as you like. Fate’ll break you yet and you’ll never want to go back, but then you’ll have to go back and you’ll hate us and yourself for ever thinking that you didn’t want it.”

I set the last trash bag down and brushed my hands off as well as I could. As soon as I reached the house again, I would wash them in every nook and cranny. I grabbed a hold of the trash can again and began to haul it back over the familiar sidewalk cement. “Adventure,” I said with a grunt, “and zombies somehow don’t equate. And don’t most adventurers get paid just a little at one point or another?”

“The best adventurers do good deeds out of the kindness of their heart.” Destiny spread his arms wide as he said this, hitting me in the head. The heroic look on his face was enough to make me slap his hand down and away from me with all the force I could muster. Destiny raised an eyebrow. “Not to put too sore a point on it, but you aren’t much of an adventurer with that sort of spirit.”

“Or you,” I snapped. “Mister man, letting the lady do all the work.”

“My bad,” Destiny said. “I thought I was doing you a favor by not making you breathe second hand smoke for a whole half hour.”

We reached Erive’s house again and I set the trash can down. I turned on Destiny, finger pointed accusingly. “And that’s another thing. Who do you think you are to be deluging us all the time and not even getting any side effects. I ask you, is that fair?”

“Lein,” Destiny said, ruffling my hair as he strode past me, “I’m Destiny. Do you really think I’d be a cancerous wreck who smelled bad? Of course not. It’s the image.”

“My image of Destiny wasn’t even a man!” He didn’t seem to be listening. No, he was whistling now, going for the house door in Erive’s garage, which was left open to air out all the zombie smell. I stood there in the driveway, perplexed and quite abandoned. With this sort of stench on my hands, I couldn’t exactly go back to my house. However, from the sounds of it, Fate was really playing things up inside the Perry’s house. I could hear her and Erive laughing as Destiny opened the house door. Most likely they were playing poker over a pot of tea and a plate of cookies.

I sat down on the curb and stared down at my feet. “I’m unfit for anything now,” I said under my breath. “I hate limbo.”

I sat there for I don’t know how long, pitying myself, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I startled then turned around. Death jerked his head toward the house. “It’s cold,” he said. “Come on in.”

I held up my hands. “Zombie breath,” I said. “I shouldn’t.”

“There’s a garden hose out back,” Death said simply.

I sat there blankly, trying to think of a reason to say no, to sit there and continue to pity myself, but my mind was blank and empty of resentment. I swallowed, almost afraid to say it, but then said, “Okay.” I got up, though my legs were shaking with relief. Relief that someone remembered and even more relief that I had accepted. I followed Death to the back yard, still trying to think of something to say. Something irritating, something angry. But it was like my tongue was numb. No words came. Instead, quite the opposite of what I wanted, I began to cry. Before Death could see, I rubbed the tears away on my sweater sleeve. Destiny had been wrong for once. Fate wasn’t the one who would break me, and I was grateful for that.

...I've been eager to write these people for quite a while. A lot of the early drabbles are outdated because I've learned more about them and whatnot. It's been quite a bit of fun. =D I just... sort of enjoy the way they interact with each other.

Yeah. Uhh. Whatever happens, it'll be cool and it will definitely have tea and zombies.

[Zylaa]

0_0 Holy cow your characters sound EPIC. I love when people take personifications of concepts like Death and suchlike. Everyone's so fleshed out, this is fantastic. <3

I'll read the drabble when I have a bit more time.

[Chao]

Wow, I love Destiny! There might come the day (after you've written the story) where I ask if I may borrow him. Not that I like smokers, but he is cool!

[Rikku]

Ooh. That is some nice interaction. <3 And, of course, personifications are always win.

[♥ Rain]

It turns out that I have a prologue. And it's just... ...well, it wasn't the quickest writing I've ever done, but it was lots of fun and awwww.

Anyhow, little excerpt.

SPOILER: Click to show

“I just—“ and his voice broke again. “I don’t want to die,” he said in a very quiet voice. “I don’t want to be like… to be like Geoff or… or… or worse even, because at least he’s still here.” His voice grew even quieter still, if that was still possible. “I hear, sometimes you get worse than Geoff, and they take you out of the hospital. I hear…” He frowned. “I’ve heard about it all,” he said, “from Mother and Auntie. They didn’t know. But…” He looked up, realizing he had been looking at his hands. “If you help me, then—“

“Then you won’t be sick any more,” the figure said. “In fact, though you’ll need to leave your mommy and daddy for a while, they’ll join you eventually.”

The little boy’s big brown eyes grew wide and the figure in the chair drew back slightly at the intensity. Henry sat up in his bed. “I’m going,” he said at last. The figure reached out a hand again, up to his forehead, and he grabbed onto the hand like a death grip. “Take me with you,” he said. “Please,” he murmured. “If I have to leave the hospital, then take me with you.”

“I—“ The figure paused. “I generally don’t do that,” she said finally. “I’m sorry.”

“No!” Henry’s voice was raising slowly. The figure shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Take me,” he said. “If you don’t, then I’ll finally leave and they’ll put me in the ground. They’ll pray all solemn and sad over me like Grandpa Michael and everyone will cry. Please…” he said. “At least… at least if you take me, I won’t be alone. No one will cry, because I’ll be with someone, right?”

It's rather odd, because... I really didn't know I would start the novel this way. And then I realized that... I wanted to write that, and it made sense to write it. So there it is. And then soon after this people die and ressurect within... about ten minutes in-story. Oh yeah. And it all makes sense. ...at least to me!

[♥ Rain]

I will definitely reach 10k tomorrow. ...well, if I don't get to 12k, I'll be rather dissapointed. I really like this 3k a day pace. >__> Just five hundred more words for tonight and I'll call it a day.

I'm rather glad I'm writing some in the morning even if it is horrible to get up and I keep staying up too late and I'm going to be wrecking myself. It's just sort of nice to write when no one else is around. I don't like writing while it's light out, I guess? XDD So early morning, late night, what does it matter?

Anyway. I think everything's going at a comfortable pace. I'm just having to work doubletime to not let my main character get too cynical. She'll be getting really angsty later, but I want her to lighten up in the middle. She's just really whiny. Which I can totally understand, and it's odd, because no one else is having to listen to her whine but me and herself for the most part, but even so. She's a quick trigger. Lein, my girl, let yourself have some fun. Do you even have hobbies? @____@

...I don't think she has many. Maybe she's a writer, which is why her internal dialogue is filled with such weird things. One can be at least summed up as "She consumed video games like men eat potato chips while watching the Super Bowl." ....it's just the weird details that I love and still go "what in the world" at as well.

............back to writing instead of quibbling over such things! >____> It's too late to be thinking this way. Nano's invading my mind.

...for the record, this board is a great place to think out loud.

[♥ Rain]

Oooh, snap. I'm killing lots of people today. And reaching 13k. Huzzah!

I found a new song that I can totally write this song to. Aha! by Imogen Heap. Mmmmm it's creepy. And despite one particularly lousy scene that I didn't like writing and felt really flat, I like how this story is shaping up. The music really helps.

So either way, as a happy "I passed 10k" sort of thing, another clip.

SPOILER: Click to show

I found Erive in the game room upstairs, just like I had for as many days before as I cared to count. I knew she sometimes did other things, but it seemed that this summer was not one of those times. She looked up at me as I came in.

“Lein!” she said, pausing the game and jumping up. Great to see you over! I’m just about to defeat Eris.” I looked skeptically at her game. She was always beating bosses of one sort or another. I wasn’t quite sure how she thought it was interesting after months of obsession.

“Great,” I said. “Who’s Eris?”

Erive hugged me enthusiastically, talking all the while. “Have you never read mythology? God of Love! I’m playing that one Mythos game again.” She drew out of the hug, frowning a bit. “I’m… not really quite sure what the plot is, but the graphics are okay and the abilities are really inventive.” She grinned. “I cannot get over how cute I am.” She sat back down on her beanbag and I pulled another beanbag over to sit on myself. “See?” Erive said. “You weren’t here when I started this game yesterday, but you get to customize your look a little.” She put her head to one side, pursing her lips. “I mean, it’s not like super customization, but you can change skin color and hair color and I think eye color too, though I didn’t change mine.”

I looked at her character. White hair down to the waist, dark skin, golden brown eyes. “What gender is it?”

“Oh, um,” Erive said. “Man. But he sort of yells like a girl, so take your pick.”

“Who is he?” I said. “In the context of the game.”

Erive picked up her controller again and unpaused. “It’s rather awkward, really,” she said. “He’s a time traveler from modern day Tokyo come to fight another time traveler who invaded Mt. Olympus and turned everything evil.”

“Of course,” I said. “I suppose that’s obvious.”

“The time traveler thing isn’t,” Erive said, scrolling through her items, “but I guess, yeah, the rest is pretty obvious. Particularly the evil. They went over the top with designs.” She stopped on an item. “It may be an RPG, but I will say I really like the shooter aspect.” She turned to me, eyes sparkling. “You get a bazooka.”

I closed my eyes and smiled. Maybe I could take a little nap while Erive played. That would be ideal. She wouldn’t even know I wasn’t paying attention. Probably. At any rate, I wasn’t going to miss much. I had watched her play quite a few games before this and she always picked the magical RPGs. Always. Preferably with vampires, because she had a current fixation on becoming a vampire hunter, but they followed the same general plot line.

It was always relaxing for me, coming over to Erive’s house. I didn’t often do much unless Erive was insistent on me learning how to play a game with her, but I had helped make lunch, clean toilets, water the garden. It was always a lot more fun with Erive. Her energy was infectious. I wished I could find out where she got it. I always had to work hard to maintain my enthusiasm.

When I next opened my eyes, it was to Erive screaming with delight. “I got it, I got it, I got it!” she said. “I got the orb.”

“The orb?” I said, rubbing my eyes and eyeing the clock. Eleven thirty. I had slept for a while.

“The time travelling orb,” she said. “Now I’ll be able to capture the main villain in it and get us both back to our own time.”

“What’s his name?” I said. “The main villain.”

“I actually don’t know yet. They keep obscuring it under some ridiculous filter in the dialogue,” Erive said. “I hope they stop that soon, because we’re nearing the end of the game.”

I've written this scene before, actually, but it was completely different. It was before Nano, to boot, so of course I had to rewrite it... last time was amusing, but I think I like this time better. I would totally play that game if it had decent music. I bet it has cheesy dialogue.

...but right now, I'm off to go kill a random five-year-old with the flu. Exuse me. >______>;;;;;;;;

[♥ Rain]

Okay, so... I keep falling asleep in the middle of school, but that's okay! Because I've learned that I can write on my iTouch. And then e-mail what I write to myself. And then I did so and... I thought I was just writing piddly stuff, you know, to keep the story going in my head... and I found out I wrote 444 words. ...I mean, seriously? Awesome. Awesome socks indeed. It's not the fastest writing either, but I haven't really been writing this novel fast. I didn't prepare and so I'm suffering writing rather slowly. But that makes 1.5k so far today, and I had totally had it in my mind that I'd written a thousand and... then a little more. ....so I dunno. It was just here and there, but it doesn't seem to be hindering me all that much (writing on paper is a lot different) and this means I can write in the car. ...and with the wi-fi off, I could write for a long time!

....I feel so much better now!

Anyway, with these extra words I guess I'm somewhere around 14k now? Something like that. ....phew, this is definitely changing my sleep patterns, though. I've been having the craziest dreams while falling asleep during school, too. ...it's sort of nice. My dreams are no longer so creepy, generally. Unnerving, perhaps, but a lot more normal.

And I can deal with that if I'm writing up a story like this, anyway.

And I felt terrible with that kid, by the by. She was so cute.

I'm not really into Nano this year, though. I'm into my story. But I'm not into Nano, I guess. I don't feel that crazy drive that says "but it's NANO and of course it's going to feel painful every once in a while." It's more like... "if I don't write this story as fast as I can I am going to feel awful" because... I want to write it. I'm really scared about writing it even still. But I want it. I want it really bad.

Though I'm sort of waiting for Lein to smile more. >__> She's smiled like... two or three times. ...almost everyone else has smiled at least as much and have only appeared for a scene or two. Even Lein's mom. She's sort of weird, though, and bouncy and peppy anyway. Adorable. I haven't written her much, but I like her. I think I'll include her a little to ferry people around. Like I think I want them to take a trip to the park. Hmmm.

Ahhhh crazy, I love writing this. ...but I'm going to have to edit it a lot because this beginning is not at all how I feel it should be, though I don't exactly know what I want. But I know that it's not exactly this. The attitudes are wrong, just slightly.

Nnn, musing, musing. Well, I'm definitely curious to see what happens next. Should that happen much in a story? XD I don't know.

I keep wanting to draw things, though, which isn't exactly good for writing. All the stuff I want to draw, though, I'm not good enough yet. ....this will be remedied. >3> My characters deserve better than boring poses.

[Sq]

Ooh, writing on iTouch-- that is such a good idea! I should try that, 'cause I have a lot of downtime where I'm not really doing anything but don't have a computer around.

Nnn, musing, musing. Well, I'm definitely curious to see what happens next. Should that happen much in a story? XD I don't know.

XD I feel exactly the same way with my story.

[♥ Rain]

Nov 5, 2009 14:23:46 GMT -5 Sq said:

Ooh, writing on iTouch-- that is such a good idea! I should try that, 'cause I have a lot of downtime where I'm not really doing anything but don't have a computer around.

Nnn, musing, musing. Well, I'm definitely curious to see what happens next. Should that happen much in a story? XD I don't know.

XD I feel exactly the same way with my story.

=D Yes, definitely try it. I am generally around computers, but I've, ehm, been at church and written a fair amount for previously not being able to write anything at all. Teehee. ^__^

And yeah. ...still feeling that way. *fail*

So also, for hitting 25k (27k now! but that's beside the point.) I want to post another excerpt. Because I just introduced Destiny. And he started out even more of a jerk than I thought because normal people he really has no pity for.

SPOILER: Click to show

We reached Fate a little while later, and I found myself somehow still thinking about chocolates. She had the white-haired man by the collar and was hanging on as he pulled away vainly, though, as I turned my head, it didn’t seem that he was trying too hard.

“What do you want?” he said.

“I want your miserable hide and an explanation. I know it was you.”

“Me that did what?” the white-haired man said, stopping in his struggles, indignant.

“Robbed a house,” Fate said. Then she put her finger up to his mouth. “No, wait, don’t tell me. You didn’t rob it. I know. You helped.”

The man rolled his eyes toward the sky and sighed, a whimsical smile on his face. “Caught me again, didn’t cha’? Well, good sleuthing, but I was just doing my duty.”

“Next time, pick someone I dislike,” Fate said. She pointed at me. “And that? People don’t need help committing a kidnapping.”

“In my defense,” the man said, “I was too busy laughing to help.”

“Laughing!” Fate exclaimed. “You’re coming back with me. Back. And staying. I obviously can’t keep my eyes off you for a minute before you’re doing something utterly unacceptable.”

“Sis,” the white-haired man said, “even you made some mistakes in your day.”

“And I learned pretty fast that they were wrong,” Fate snapped. “But you… after this long? Seriously? Grow up a little and start taking your responsibilities seriously.”

“You act like I’m not doing my job,” the man said, pulling his collar out from Fate’s hands. She let him go, but her eyes dared him to run. “Fact is, this still fits. It’s like you expect me to find some robin hood, some great, brilliant guy to work on. What do you think I have? All the time in the world? I pick the first Joe I see.” He ruffled his hair distractedly. “If I spend too much time researching, then I get sort of bored, you know?”

“I don’t get bored,” Fate said. “And I live in respectable houses to boot. What sort of hovel are you using this time?”

“Well,” the man said. “It’s slightly hard to explain.” When looking at Fate’s face, he frowned. “I picked a high-rise, okay? I thought I’d room with—“

“Not him again,” Fate said flatly. “I’m sick of hearing about that man! He’s insane. Absurd.”

“Yeah, well,” the white-haired man said, “he also lets me crash there, and that’s worth a lot when I could also sit under a bridge or be some creep in a random house. I’m not that low, you know.”

“I—“ Fate clenched her teeth. Her next breath hissed as it passed around and into her mouth. “You know what? You can tell me later.” She looked up at the sky. “Lein,” she said. “What time is it?”

I groaned as Death set me down, feeling my legs wobble insecurely under me. I looked at my watch. “Um,” I said. “Only about one, actually.”

“Then we have plenty of time to walk home and talk all about this, don’t we?” Fate said, clapping a hand on the man’s back, the smile on her face rather dangerous.

The man closed his eyes and smiled slightly. “Ah, yes, the infamous midnight talks. Why is it always dark out when you give me these?”

“Possibly because many crimes happen late at night?” Fate said.

SPOILER: Click to show

I just laughed. “How far away is this stuff?”

“Not far,” Destiny said, extending a hand to me. I hesitated, and felt Death slip his hand into mine. I smiled up at him. Destiny sighed. “What is it? Do I look that bad? You don’t even try and they like you!”

I think this comment was directed toward Death, who looked rather nonplussed. “You can’t really expect more,” Death said.

“And besides,” Fate said, whirling around and hugging on to Death’s shoulder, “isn’t it said that people like tall, dark and handsome?”

Destiny tched.

For the record, Lein was busy getting... er... ...kidnapped and Destiny was laughing his head off. >__>

And as for the second one, Destiny is... about 5'8'' or 5'7'' or something... ...white haired, and well, handsome is relative. xD;

[♥ Rain]

Auuuugh I about cried. I about cried. That was horrible and in rereading it wasn't at all how I meant to say it, but what I did say is what happened... I just can't convey emotions as well as I want to. I totally didn't expect my character to react that way. Fate... I didn't think she would. But all the previous reactions I've written about her and zombies before Nano sort of makes sense with this one. I saw her after the fact, but during she gets mad. Like, crazy mad. But now she is breaking down and Destiny is being sweet and I don't know what to do.

This is all very perplexing. But I love writing this. It's like water. Just pours out and I have no clue why.

It was mostly the song I was listening to that gave the mood. But mmmm.

Anyhow. I guess I'm going to have to stop short at 2500 today. Today was just hard, I guess, but I'm slowly getting out of that angst pit, which is probably good. That was some awesome, emo writing there. X3 I'm proud.

[♥ Rain]

I HIT 40K. I TOTALLY DID. AHAHAHAHA.

So I'm quite tired right now. Have written about 4k today, little less so far, and I have been taking up the advice of the Nano people and just... have been doing short sprints to listening to this one song. And closing my eyes. Which, because I'm so tired, feels pretty good. I have never written so fast in my life. Ever. I know things even out in the end, but averaging out these sprints is still some of the fastest ever. My highest was 82.5 wpm tonight and it was... wordy and verbose and whatever you want to call it. But it was writing and it was sort of okay. xD I don't care that much. I'd rather have too much and have to cut a lot than have too little and have to think really hard and add stuff. This whole... escapade to the smoking bar that apparently serves alchoholic ice cream if you want it (and this was not during one of my sprints that I made that up, either. I don't know if I should be ashamed or not.) has basically been worth about 4k. ...4k of ice cream, bar fights, patching up, banal chatter. But though at times I was really bored (the bar fight turns out to be a daily event because the guys are so bored. ...I mean.. ...seriously... ...that's gonna' get taken out and I'm going to either make a proper fight or have this guy get hurt some other way. Him hurt is fun. That bar fight was MISERY. The ice cream had more suspense, seriously.) I've had a lot of fun tonight.

And I've learned that somehow I can take what should take two hours or less and make it take at least four. FOUR.

Somehow chatting likes to intrude. XD;

There is a chance now, anyway, that I can reach 50k by end of Monday. I want to write at least 4k tomorrow and on Sunday if I can manage. Then it's a piece of cake. Even if I write it on only one day... I'm hitting 50k sooner rather than later. I'm happy. Though my story feels like it's only getting started, I guess it's in the beginning of the center. The real plot should start taking over soon. ...should. >__>

[♥ Rain]

Hi 50k. It is good to see you. I am very very very excited.

My story is finally starting to get good. I'm going to have to cut back on writing. But. But I'm happy. And I just finished a scene that I think went really really really well. I hope I will feel the same way when I reread it, but how it went in my mind, anyway, was good and it creeped me out a lot.

Mmhmmm. I might post an excerpt tomorrow when I am not sleepy shouldn't have gone to bed an hour ago. Maybe then. Hopefully then. For now, I am content and 50kish and all that. Huzzah.

[♥ Rain]

This is really long and slightly convoluted, but this was my favorite scene that I've written so far, I think. =D So, it starts out with this guy dying, for the record. I would put the whole thing, but that would be... really really long. So yeah.

SPOILER: Click to show

Death put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Sleep well,” he said softly. Fate put her hand out as well, and they grinned at each other, and the man tilted his head back.

“See you later,” the hobo said. “I have a feeling I will, anyway.”

Feelings, I thought as I watched his head sag, often come true. Feelings like that, anyway, when you’re surrounded by such company. I had a feeling that his feeling was correct and I rather liked that, because he seemed friendly and like someone I could have sat down with and talked to for a while. He would have been interesting enough and I would have liked to hear his entire life story. But it would have to be good enough. I looked at him in the darkness and gave a short laugh. “If the people in my school knew half as much as him,” I said, “then the world would be a rich place indeed.”

“This reminds me to go searching down more back alleys,” Destiny said. “Though goodness knows that this would be a one time event and all I’d find are thugs. Thugs are so boring and they never get the hang of letting me help them out. They just use and abuse and end up in jail and it’s no fun at all. And it’s supposed to be to help people do amazing things.” He groaned and stood up. “People only will do amazing things if they let me help them out a bit. If they’re determined to go their own way and not listen to their gut and all that, then what can I do? There’s nothing.”

Fate had just gotten up when she stiffened, and Death did as well. “Something’s happening,” she said. “This isn’t right.”

“No,” he said, his voice low. “This is…”

I felt Destiny’s hands on my arms, pushing me back. “The way they look,” he hissed. “This is when we normal folks get out of the way and let the pros work their magic.”

“I thought they just did!” I squeaked.

“This,” Destiny said, “is a different sort of magic.”

And then, just over Destiny’s shoulder, I saw the hobo move, and my hearted dropped, and my throat thickened so that it was hard to breath, and suddenly the fire licked too close to me and its heat was stifling. I watched in horror as the man twitched visibly and Fate stood transfixed in front of him, her eyes wide and as horrified as mine.

“No, no, no,” I murmured. I could have sworn that I heard Fate say the same thing. “This is…”

“This is,” Destiny said, “resurrection.” We were out of range of the fire now, and he had stopped shoving me, now turning to watch the scene, his body still tensed, his cigarette burning out between his fingers.

Fate stood there a moment longer, hands clasped in front of her, now gripping looser, now gripping tighter, in horrified fascination. I saw the hobo’s body move, a jerky thing, and he pressed down on the ground, giving himself leverage as he shoved himself slowly up the brick wall. He looked at Fate and then at Death with a new sort of look in his eyes. He no longer looked peaceful, or old, or handsome. It was like the spark in his eyes, which is rare even in live humans, had changed into something completely different. It hadn’t disappeared, but had been perverted to something terrible and strange. It had changed to fear, a wild intensity that made shivers run up and down my spine even while I felt consumed with the heat in the small alleyway.

“You’re… back,” Fate said. “Why are you back?”

“Back,” the man murmured. He touched his face, slowly inching to the side, trying to get past them. “Back. Yes. Yes, I am. This is… fortunate.”

His voice was the same crackly sound, rich and lovely, but for me it had changed. I had seen him die. And now I saw him live again.

“No,” Fate said. “It is not. This is evil.” And then she slammed the man into the wall, and I heard the crunch and grind as his thin shoulders ripped through his shirt and grabbed helplessly against the porous brick surface. “Tell me!” Fate said. “Who did this to you?”

The man looked to one side, then to the other, never looking her straight in the face. “Who,” he murmured. “Who indeed. How should I know?”

“I know your sort,” Fate hissed. “You yourself won’t be at peace until you’ve died. You. You. You know who I’m speaking to. This one who has done such evil to you.”

“Then perhaps I do know,” the man said. “But can I give away someone who has done a favor to me?”

“It’s no favor!” Fate was sobbing now, her face wrenched up into something so horrible, I could hardly bear to look at it. It was sad, so sad I didn’t know what to do, but it was angry, and it was the face of one who knew the right that must be done, and that right was such that I could barely understand. It was more than something that knew that he should be dead. It was something that knew… knew why he should die, and that it was for his good, our good, the good of every human, and how and why and when it should be done. It was the terrible face of one whose true justice has been thwarted. And I admired her for it. But I also was near tears myself.

“Tell us,” Death said. “We’ve seen your kind recently. They are now all dealt with. You shall soon be as well, but it would do your conscience well to tell us who it was.”

“I can’t, I can’t,” the man said. He was staring into the fire now, his eyes glistening, and a mounting panic breaking out in his voice. “She’d kill me. She’d kill me for good. She’d send me worse than you could ever do.”

“Don’t you know,” Fate said, this time rather softly, “that we are not here to send you to ill but to your rightful resting place? And you, the real you, was not the sort to…” She paused. “This is an irrational fear. Look back, cast your memory back, like a fisherman casting his nets. Surely, surely… please…” Her fingers clenched tightly into his shoulders, so that they sunk into his flesh and turned white in the light, so tightly were they clenched. “I can’t give you long,” she said. “I just… I can’t let this…”

The man shook his head. “I can’t tell you,” he said. And for a moment, I could have sworn he looked at her, straight in the eyes, sincere and the man I had met for just a moment. “I’m sorry.”

Fate looked back at him, her face wrenching up once again. “I am so sorry,” she said. “And though we two both stand here, miserable wretches, I think both you and I know what will transpire.” She glanced over at Death. “If you will, dear.”

Death nodded slightly, then reached over and into Fate’s dress pocket, drawing out a length of red string. It was something I hadn’t seen before, but it made Destiny straighten slightly. “I never thought,” Destiny said in a low voice, “that I would see that in the living light of this world.”

“What?” I said.

“It’ll keep him down, all right,” Destiny said. “Resist all that nasty stuff.” He stuck his cigarette back in his mouth, though it was mostly burned down.

Death took the string and put it around the man’s neck, gently tying it into a bow. He smiled slightly, and Fate released her hold. The cloth on the hobo’s shirt bounced back slightly while he slid slowly to the ground. Fate watched him go down, her lips parted in a silent “ah.”

He was on the ground again, in the same scrunched up position. The hobo’s hands twitched slightly and his breath came in ragged gasps. “I see,” he said. “I see, again. But I can’t leave. I can’t…” His voice was cut off in a choking sort of gasp, that sounded like it took in no air at all. He stiffened slightly and his head lolled forward, but, from what I could see, though the whole situation was uncanny, he had a smile on his face, and it was innocent once again.

Fate walked stiffly toward us. “That,” she said, “was a nasty business.” She passed me, not looking to the right or to the left. “Death once is okay,” she said, her voice drifting backwards over her shoulder. “Death twice is unpardonable except for a few. But better yet are those who die and rise and never die again. Not that I’ve had a chance to do that.” She laughed bitterly. “Don’t think I didn’t tell you!” She raised one finger to the night sky high above. “Lein, when you die, stay dead, unless you’re explicitly told otherwise.”

Death came up to us, stuffing the red string into his pants’ pocket. “Let’s not linger, Lein,” he said. “I wish you didn’t have to see these sorts of things.”

I gently, nervously, took his hand and clasped it tightly. Destiny stuck out a hand and took my other and I went walking out of the alley, Death on one side, Destiny on the other.

[Deleted]

Rah rah rah, go Rain-chan! *cheers*

And happy Thanksgiving, too. I'm Thankful you've continued to Give me your friendship. _{Assuming I haven't been taking it all these years.}