Creative Thoughts

NaNo WriMo 2009

2009-10-19T15:41:17Z

A little late in posting this, but I am participating in NaNo WriMo again this year. So far a lot of my energy in preparing for November has been preparing events as co-ML for Gainesville, Fl. This year we have 2 sister-cities/regions in Peoria, IL, and Fredericton, New Brunswick. In addition to making plans for cross-regional events, building appropriate calendars and webpages, and seeking authors to join us via chat for our mid-month "Big Event" (and yay, can I just say we're rocking it with J.V. Jones; J.C. Hutchins and Mur Lafferty. I'm so excited!!!) - but off point - in addition to all this prep, I sent out a call for someone who wanted to learn the ML ropes for the region. Amanda has stepped up to plate, and has already been a big help in suggesting events, preparing goody bags, and such. Alison and I are lucky to have her.

Well, in addition to all the planning that goes into events, finding venues and what not, I have found a little time to puzzle out my novel for this year. I started with one idea, based on a physical journal I have. I started creating characters to go with the story, but realized the plot was lacking for what I wanted to do (2 novellas of 40,000 words each - the same story from two perspectives using a journal as a vehicle). The characters morphed, and fleshed out, and I've been getting more and more ideas for my new storyline.

So far it seems to be taking a YA kind of perspective, and I'm seriously considering writing it in 1st person, though to be honest that really scares me. I'm mostly a 3rd person, omniscient kind of gal.

I've spent time (read procrastinated) doing research on things that mostly relate to my character's back-story, but it should help make her more real. At least, that is what I tell myself. Research topics so far have included meanings of names, foxes, lions and pedophilia. Still on my plate to research: shape-shifting lore from various cultures, making soap, and laws regarding kidnapping.

Should be interesting :-)

Oh, and as it stands, I do plan to post my story here, friends only, so if you'd like to read along, and you're not already on my friends list, just let me know, and I'll add you.

New writing project

2009-08-28T03:20:45Z

So, edits on Divine Madness are not going very well. I'm stalling, I think, and I feel just all around uncreative. So I came up with an idea for a new writing project to help me get unstuck. I hope it'll get me back into writing, and give me a breather to get excited about the story again.

So, my goal is to write a short story every day, one that exists on the front and back of a single sheet of lined paper. No longer, no shorter - [though I can adapt my handwriting if I feel I need a small cheat ;) ]

Today I was mostly successful. I feel the end could be tightened up a bit, but I ran out of space, so it was kind of abrupt. I'm happy with it though, a story I had no ideas about before I started writing. I created a new thing from nothing, in less than an hour.

Perhaps, when I have some time, I'll add some of my better stories from this experiment here.

A new spin on things

2009-08-03T02:36:31Z

I've hit a wall with my Divine Madness re-write. I sat down tonight with the goal of writing something completely different, to get myself unstuck. I'm actually still supposed to be writing (15 more minutes of what was an hour writing session), but I've taken this about as far as I think I'm going to get. 1441 words, and I didn't manage to get quite as far away from DM as I was thinking. Instead I took my main five characters and visit them. In a modern high school. Posted here for pure fun, and because I need to kill the next 13 minutes anyway.

Very first draft -I haven't re-read it even.

Kail shifted the straps on his back pack, hefting it so the weight sat higher on his back. The old Eaglecreek was showing wear, a hand me down from his older sister. Luckily Rena* hadn't insisted on a pastel color pack when she had started high school four years earlier. The vinyl pack she'd carried in middle school had a unicorn on the back, and while he had tried to cover the rainbow and sparkly image with stickers, the pink straps were always present, and a point of ridicule.

Darah slammed her locker closed, and pivoted on her heals away from Royce. He laughed, and though the hall was packed with between class chatter and shouted conversations, she could her his steps, persistently behind her as she wove through the crowd, dodging lip-locked couples and locker doors. She swatted away his hand when he placed it on his shoulder, and ducked into her Spanish classroom. Royce tried to follow, but Senora Gonzolez did not tolerate visitors to her room. Most of the decorations she had were personal items from her time in Central America, and she was always afraid of student thieves walking off with her totems and tapestries. He called her name from the door, waving "Catch you after class, Darah," he said with a smile, and Darah sighed. It really did sound like a threat.

Chandra smiled at Frank, then turned her attention back to the lecture. She managed three lines in her green spiral bound when a folded sheet of paper landed on her desk. Chandra unfolded it with one hand, and tucked it under her notebook. A few more notes on the political tensions between the US and Russia during the cold war, then she slid the torn-out sheet to the side. The handwriting was spread across the page, ignoring the lines all together. An invitation to the homecoming dance. On torn out notebook paper. Classy. Frank wasn't a bad guy, as far as Chandra could tell, but she was already determine to go solo to the dance. That way she could be unattached and dance with Frank, as well as Henry, David, Sol and Mike, who had all already asked her. Mike had even given her a flower when he asked. Maybe she'd dance with him twice. She was penning her apology when Mr. Tracker called on her to answer a question. Her hand still moved as she explained the ramifications of the cold war on international trade.

Garret watched as the argument between Nick and Larry escalated. He picked up his lunch tray, and moved to sit at the far end of the table. Nick was accusing Larry of trying to steal his girlfriend, while Larry was shouting that Nick didn't take care of Patricia, and she deserved better. Garret was halfway through the personal pizza when the first punch was thrown. The lunchroom was in an uproar in an instant, space clearing as kids left their chairs and lunches abandoned, making room for the sophomores who were now shoving each other around the room. Nick's foot caught a chair, and he started to trip, his arms wheeling around, and he stumbled dangerously close to the tight circle of kids chanting "Fight, fight." Garret caught him, and with a deft motion, had spun him, and landed him in an orange plastic chair. Larry was quick to close the distance, but Garret was quicker, and he got his shoulder under Larry's stopping his punch in mid-swing. A foot behind Larry's, and the dazed blond was also sitting in a chair, facing away from Nick, the crowd of students calling and cheering still, not fast enough in the turn of events, when the teachers stormed in. Garret walked quietly between the two fighters, and resumed his seat, taking a large bite of the pepperoni slice.

Sebastian smiled to himself, and watched as Trisha walked up to the blackboard to solve for X. She was cute, her curls bounced as she strode through the rows, confident in the dress-code forbidden heals. Well, cute enough, Sebastian mused. And though the boys room wall said to call her for a good time, she was anything but easy. A challenge, really, and the daughter of Senator Wilks, to boot. Uncorruptable Senator Wilks. It was probably part of the reason Trisha was so straight-laced, have to be the good girl and not ruin daddy's chances to run for president in a few years time. But Sebastian had her measure. She pouted when she was told the answer was wrong, and flounced back to her desk. Martin was called on to fix her mistake, and Sebastian slipped Trisha a note, offering to help tutor her after school. She turned, caught his eye, and nodded, her eyes gleaming. He smiled back at her, already assured of the outcome – once he was alone with them, he could seduce anyone. Martin finished the problem, and Mrs. Porter thanked him, and moved to put the next problem on the board. Martin gave a smug smile in the direction of Trish, but she was absently twirling a curl on her finger and didn't see. Sebastian did, though, and smiled back as the class genius retook the seat in front of him. Martin had a good smile, and an athlete's body. After he was done corrupting the senators little angel, Sebastian would know who his next challenge would be.

Kail slid into his seat in the back row of the class. Honors English, and the topic was Othello. He'd done the reading, and when Miss Black asked what were Iago's intentions in turning Othello against his wife, Kail raised his hand. Miss Black acknowledged his hand with a short nod of her head, then called on Oliva for an answer. She stumbled through the cliff's notes interpretation of the classic villain, never raising her eyes to meet the teacher's. Throughout the class, when a question was asked, Kail raised his hand. He'd been called on a few times when the class first started, but it seemed Miss Black delighted in stumping her students – making them think. It was clear that Kail was already thinking, if he raised his hand to answer. Some of the other students tried raising their hands after the first few weeks of seeing Kail's hand being ignored, and they somehow blamed him when the trick failed, and Miss Black called on them for answers they didn't have. As it was, Kail was the only one to raise his hand anymore, and was the only one never called on. He was tempted to not raise his hand, just so he could give an answer, occasionally, but he felt that it was dishonest to not raise his hand when she asked who could answer the question. Not quite a lie, but nearly so.

Darah had her bag over her shoulder by the time the bell rang, and was already out the door to by the time the tone finished. She turned right in the hall, instead of the left that was the most direct route to her next class. With a few seconds of nearly empty hall, she was sure she could still make it across campus to the portables where her civics class met. She turned a corner, and almost ran into someone coming from the other direction. She didn't need to look up to see it was Royce, who had supposedly been in the band room across campus in the other direction. His cologne was enough. She quickly held her breath, and delivered a quick elbow to his stomach as she bulled her way past. He tried to grab her arm, but she darted across the hall, in front of a student pushing a TV and VCR combo back to the library. "Common, it won't be that much work, I swear. And I've already got buttons and a slogan and everything. If you win, you can just delegate the work, and think of how it will look on your college resume." Darah ignored the pleas until Royce raised his voice. "Vote Darah for Student Government President – Because Darah care-a-s." A freshman shrieked as Darah slammed her fist into the locker in front of her. She turned, preparing to call Royce an ass, but he had managed to cross the crowded hall faster than she expected, and his face was there, inches from hers, grinning. "It'll be killer," he said with a smile. She gave him a tight smile in return, and kneed him in the groin. The freshman shrieked again as he crumpled into the lockers, but Darah pushed past, and stormed off to Civics.

Writing Update

2009-07-19T14:23:43Z

I have just caught up to current listening to I Should Be Writing, a podcast by author Mur Lafferty. I still have a few of her video-casts and journal entries to catch up on, but since I can't consume those while doing the repetitive stuff at work, they're taking a bit longer.

This past Tuesday, July was announced as Writers Month in Alachua county. Members of 3 writing groups in Gainesville were present. None from my group, though. I was out of town on a work conference, and didn't think to send anyone to represent us. When I saw this article on one of the other writers group's site, I got really down on myself for that.

I came up with a grand scheme to create a portal page that links to all writing groups in Gainesville, as I know of a few that have been formed on the erroneous belief that none already existed, because they couldn't be found on the web. I figure the site will be a place to match writers and writing groups. I've chosen Drupal for my platform, but now that it is installed on the server, I have to learn how to set up a site using Drupal. I feel like perhaps I've gotten in over my head.

I also had a grand scheme, shared with not only my writing group, but also another, to have writers learning workshops, like go horseback riding with an expert, or talk to a lawyer of a certain kind, to help authors learn things they need to make their stories more real. And I've fallen flat on that one, too. Too boot, the other writing website has posted a blurb, and I haven't given her more information, which I promised to do before I left for vacation in early June.

I have a writer's group meeting today, and I don't know who will show up (last one canceled due to lack of attendants, and my just being back from vacation.) Had anxiety dreams about that, last night. I don't know if there is anything on the table for critique for today's meeting, either. I am woefully behind on my critiques (again, I claim vacation when they were sent out, but I've been back long enough that the excuse kind of falls flat.)

I have heard from my sister-city ML for NaNo WriMo, and the preparations she's already done for this November have blown me away. I haven't started thinking about it yet, but we are starting dialogue this week.

I've signed up for a single day of a local writing conference (all the time I was comfortable asking off work after my vacation and conference attendance), and I'm started to get worried about it. Will it really be worth the money? Am I, a single day participant, entitled to the meals of the day? Where do I sign in? How am I going to get there? Whatever there is to worry about, I'm finding it.

I haven't submitted anything to my writing group lately, because of the phase of where I am in my writing process. Wrapped up in re-writing a novel - I don't want to pull out old short stories for critique, because they aren't something I'm really actively working on. I don't want to take away writing from my novel, because this is the project I think is most important right now. So I feel like I'm not contributing.

At ALA I had the chance to talk to many authors, including Margaret Weiss and Neil Gaiman. I asked each what their writing advice for amateur authors would be. I have it all jotted down, and will compile a list to post. And yes, I got to talk to Neil Gaiman (nerve-racking but oh-so-cool!)

For November, and NaNo WriMo 11 (my 8th year participating), I have 3 ideas in mind, one is pulling ahead in the ranking right now, and if I do it, I'm going to try to shoot for 80k, I think, since that is the shortest length for the good first-novel range.

And I have decided that my goal is to finish re-writing Divine Madness (my 2005 NaNo WriMo novel) by the end of October. That'll give me a clean slate for November. And besides, I wrote the first draft in a month, no reason I can't finish the second in three (and some change) months. Honestly, part of the reason that I've been falling flat on all the writing community stuff is because the past few weeks, Ive been spending my free time writing. Yesterday is an exception (ran errands, watched HP6, cleaned the house and hosed a "good-bye" party for friends who are moving to Texas), but today I'll jump right back in to things.

Friday I had to go out and seek reassurance that my decision to write was right. That the other stuff is fluff, because how can I really claim to be part of a writing community if I am not, first, a writer. Luckily I had friends and family there to support me through self-doubt. Even got a cool picture of a WordWeaver from my sister.

And that is a "brief" update of me, with regards to writing.

Divine Madness- a question

2009-04-10T19:15:44Z

A traditional fantasy setting / pseudo-medieval world.

The pantheon is full of demi-gods (half god/ half mortal). They are all the equivalent of 8 years old. They find they suddenly have more of the divine power than they used to.

What would an 8-year-old do with that power? Suggestions?

Divine Madness - the trouble with names

2009-03-13T19:55:56Z

So I decided, after my writing group had a workshop on names, that I was unhappy with the names of my characters in Divine Madness. Of my 5 main characters, 3 of them had names starting with "C." After some looking around I found the nifty table I'd done earlier (nanoweylyn.livejournal.com/53281.html), and decided to revisit some of the names I had when I was dealing with the original creation concept.

My quintet went from being:
Darah, Sebastian, Cail, Chandra and Chase
to:
Darah, Sebastian, Kail, Chandra and Garret

Honestly, I'm still a bit iffy on Garret (Garrett?), but that's the one that made the biggest impression on me.

Deciding to rename those characters and choosing new name was the easy part. Not so easy: Renaming the 2 pantheons of gods (now complete) and renaming the countries (my current task at hand).

I don't think I would have had such a problem with the gods, except that I was looking a renaming all the child gods (both from the living pantheon, and the pantheon that were destroyed in the Purge). That was a total of 40 gods. There were a few names I particularly liked, and was able to reuse, but for the most of them / the big picture I figured my best bet was to come up with some sort of criteria for each pantheon of names.

Both pantheons consist of 10 sets of twins. Each pair of twins consists of one male, one female. I did some adjusting as to what their titles were (getting rid of Theon's Scent in favor of Theon's Generosity - to pair with Theon's Greed - formerly Fury), then decided that each pair of gods would start with the same letter, and have the same number of letters (this was really a hard choice, and I'll tell you why in a minute).

I decided to end names in a vowel for the female gods, and end with a consistent for the male gods. Finally, I decided that the first pantheon of gods I'd use 4 letter names, and for the second pantheon (the living gods), I'd use 5-letter names.

As I previously mentioned, I had some names from the first draft that I really liked, and fit the new criteria. Some names got reassigned to the opposite pantheon (for length) or to a different god, if the gender was wrong. I was able to take one or two names I liked that were too long and adapt them to shorter names that fit my new criteria.

The only problem was that I was dead set on the eldest male of the first pantheon being named Krys. It was a non-negotiable name, and part of the reason behind some my my criteria decisions. I also really liked his twin sister's name as Leal. But that didn't fit the criteria. I struggled with it for a while, so much that I almost considered leaving it, and setting the criteria for the 38 OTHER gods, An exception to the rule it because it was the first set of children born to the father-god, and perhaps HE didn't have a naming scheme then. I finally came to terms with how that would weaken what I was trying to do, and decided on Kyra for her name. It means light, and is appropriate to the character, though I still lament the loss of the name Leal. (I retired the name, rather than see it on some other god of her pantheon.)

After naming 40 gods - 2 pantheons of 10 sets of twins, you must think the hard part is over. I did. Then I realized it had hardly begun.

Naming characters is a cake-walk when compared to naming countries.

Break-down. 10 countries existed when the gods were born. In the current time of the story there are 7 countries (after wars, royal marriages, natural influences making lands uninhabitable, etc). Part of the challenge for my questers lies in the fact that they don't know much about the 3 countries that are gone, so those countries which no longer exist still need names.

I had 10 names, 3 of which are passable, I think, as country names. The other 7 stink.

I mean, I named one of the countries Bort.

I have been agonizing over renaming these countries for over a week. I give my self headaches trying to figure out what makes a good country name - should I base it on geographical features (if yes, then I'd better flesh out my map); names of rulers past (founders); names of the gods which were born there (each country has 4); or something else entirely?

With my sister's help, I have a new map - one which does not make me cringe, and it even has some topography (though, admittedly, it needs more). The biggest help was the country lines - past and present. Once I had those, I was able to sit down and start doing brief descriptions of the different countries - which ones failed and why - who go their lands, etc. All with the hope those would lend themselves to names.

So far I have 3 countries named - one which is no longer in existence called Prativ, and two current countries: Grenul and Ardway.

Only 7 more to go - and I've set Sunday as my deadline to get them done.

Let's hope I still have hair on Monday.

Dogs of Pompeii - draft 1 - done

2008-12-07T19:16:03Z

I just penned the last lines of Dogs of Pompeii. One week after NaNo WriMo finished, the (first draft of the) novel is done.

NaNo 2008 - won, but not quite done

2008-12-07T15:24:09Z

I've been really bad at posting this November. Chalk it up to a combination of my writing my story by hand in a trusty spiral-bound notebook (thus not being on my computer as much), and all the fun events we had going on in the Gainesville Region for NaNo.

We finished up things with the TGIO party / potluck on Friday night, and as some of the participants left, thanking me for the past 3 years, knowing that most of them are graduating and not going to be in Gainesville for next Nano, I almost started crying.

A great group again this year, and the TGIO party was lots of fun. *sigh*

So, on Sunday, Nov. 30th I reached and passed 50,000 words - validated, and then set back to writing - as I had not yet finished the story. I just stopped keeping tabs of how many words were on each line and doing mad-math at the bottom of each page to keep my running total.

When I stopped on Sunday, I had 3 and 3/4 chapters left to write. I met my regular writing buddy on Tuesday and knocked out 1 and 3/4 chapters. Same with meeting her on Thursday, knocking out the last short-story chapter, and starting the epilogue chapter. Since that one goes back to first person, and back to the characters I had in the first chapter/prologue chapter I stopped writing to read that first chapter written oh-so-long-ago. Today, (she says hopefully) I finish the novel.

Then I just have to see about inputing it in to my computer - combination of speech recognition software and typing, I'd wager. I'll post the story here as I get it in the computer.

Plus, my mind is already spinning with other writing projects, and all I can really think is *good*

Day 9 - Dogs of Pompeii

2008-11-10T01:17:27Z

Well, I'm a little behind where I want to be on word count - I'm at 14,973 words currently, and chapter 7 seems to be dragging on. The problem is that I finally got to the main climax of this short story, and I am bored. I enjoyed it much more when I was doing the character development for the story. I hope to knock out the story tonight and get started on chapter 8. If I'm really on my game, I hope to get to 18,000 words tonight.

I've also started to worry that Neal is more cardboard than he his, because of how I'm telling the story, or rather, how HE is telling HIS story. But I will overcome. I won't let my insecurities stop me now.

As for local events, lots of good turn out, and I'm generally pleased. I wonder, though, if I have enough energy to get through the month.

Nov 1 - Dogs of Pompeii

2008-11-03T00:58:46Z

Friday night, while hanging out at a Halloween party, I finally arranged the index cards of chapter ideas into what I considered a workable order. Perhaps the enlightenment gained by my costume helped. I was dressed as a NaNo WriMo Muse.

Saturday we hosted two write-ins, one from 10 - 2, during which we also held a word war vs. our sister region, Peoria Il. They won the war by average words per person, we won in sheer volume of participants (16 to their 5).

The second write in was from 9 pm until just after 2 am (the second time) - taking advantage of the change from daylight savings time to standard time, we wrote the hour from 1 am - 2 am twice. I got 16 more words when I wrote the hour a second time.

At the end of the night, I had two chapters done, and started the third. (I was originally planning once a day). My pre-midnight word total was 2088 words, and I am now hovering at 3714, but am just sitting down to write for the evening, hoping to knock out chapter 3 (which takes place in the Netherlands) and then move on to chapter 4, in Denmark.

Regional Word War Widgit

2008-11-01T23:59:17Z

Gainesville vs. Peoria, baby.

NaNo 2008 - planning

2008-10-29T00:21:33Z

So, the outline for this year is going. Slowly, but going. I started it 3 times, but finally found a format I think will work (each chapter on index cards).

I guess it is due to everyone who may be following along with this year's novel to tell you a bit about it, and a bit about how I am writing it.

1) I am writing this year's novel by hand, and then inputting it into my computer using ~~often frustrating~~ really awesome speech recognition software. The result: I WILL be posting my story here, and I will start posting it in November, but I will be writing much faster than I will be able to post, therefore, if you are reading along, there is a good chance the entire story won't be posted until sometime well into December.

2) Once again I am friends locking my story, so if you want to read along, drop me a comment, and I'll friend you.

3) And now, for the story: (I.E. the ideas I have so far)

My main character, Neal, finds himself going on a long-anticipated trip to Europe alone. Which was not his plan. Neal, who has always considered himself secondary to, well, everyone else in his life, is now in a situation where he is the main character of his own life. Only, he doesn't see himself that way.

The format: most of the story will be told in the third-person, by way of Neal's travel journal. My hopes are 28 stories (caped on either end by a first-person segment). One story a day, trying for 2000 words (or there-abouts) per story, to get to the 50K goal. And note I did say "stories" not "journal entries", for Neal, the only way he can conceive of relating his adventures abroad are in a removed, third-person story telling kind of way.

Really, this year, my big challenge is with writing the outline, and with the format. Can I develop my main character through his stories? If you'd like to find out, feel free to follow along. Oh, and also fictionalizing some of my own travel experiences to act as a base for Neal's travel, of course changed, altered, beat into submission of my story line, and sprinkled generously with events that DIDN'T happen, in order to make this Neal's story, and not my own ;-)

Oh yes, and the title of this year's masterpiece? Dogs of Pompeii

Nano 2008, and more

2008-09-26T15:55:18Z

It has gotten to be that time, again. National Novel Writing Month is coming up, and once again I am participating. Once again, I am taking on duties as Municipal Liaison for the Gainesville, Fl region.

Of course this year, like every year, is a bit different from the last. With regards to being an ML, this year is different in that we have already arranged for locations for all our events, baring the TGIO party, as we are planning to poll our participants about what kind of event to have.

We also have a webpage for our region - chock full of information: gainesvillenano.wordpress.com And we have a sister region - Peoria, IL. We will be competing against them in regional word wars, matching up buddy/enemy pairs, and other fun stuff.

For myself, I have a personal challenge this year, and that is to write from an outline. That means writing an outline. I am traveling for the first half of October, and plan on crafting my outline on the planes and trains were we will passing a lot of time.

I have an idea, and will try to stretch my writing fingers by making 30 chapters, one for each day of the month, and a minimum 1,667 word count expectation for each chapter (round up to 2k for giggles). We'll see how well I manage to plot out the story, and character development (which has me most worried) in advance.

And finally, I'll be writing Dogs of Pompeii (working title) by hand. Yep, good ol' pen and paper pad. Once written, I will transcribe my story to my computer via speech recognition software. Why all the hulla-balloo you may ask. I'm having problems with my hands, arms, fingers, again. I still want to write, but I need to do so in moderation, and wisely. So, wish me luck, and lots of icepacks.

Once my story is transcribed (and cleaned up from the speech-recognition version - first draft of those is always entertaining, to say the least, if not what I intended to write), I will be posting it here - friends only. So, while it might not all go online in November, if you'd like to read my story, drop me a line, and I'll friend you.

Psyched about Divine Madness

2008-08-14T03:03:10Z

We just had a Worldbuilding workshop with the Gainesville Fiction Writers, and though it ran a bit late, I think it was a lot of fun, and very productive. Giving Rick a ride home, I got to chat with him some more about Divine Madness, which I have been editing and working on world building for. Have a lot of great ideas swimming in my head, and I only hope they manifest in the story. Oh, and it looks like I've got a lot more to consider about the world before I really work on editing the story. Even had the suggestion to just start writing over, which I may take. Overwhelming, maybe, but excited about the story again!

New Project- Summer Writing

2008-06-25T19:20:39Z

I am working with my sister-in-law to arrange a summer of writing exercises for myself and my 9-year-old niece. We will talk on a weekly basis, and have an assignment each week. The idea is that we are each creating a character the first week, and then our characters will be presented with challenges to write about (that can then weave together into a longer story).

bookshelf_elf was kind enough to give me a shorter character development worksheet (than the normal 100 question interview) I use. Below are the results of my character creation. I will probably update weekly with the "assignments" that I've written for my character. I was going to put my story, and Tessa's on my webpage, but she is worried that if it is on the Internet, people might see her idea, and steal it.

Name:   Meribel Greene

Age: 11 years old

Gender: female

Birthday:   June 12th

General physical description: She is skinny, tan, and has no freckles
-How tall? 4'5" tall
-What color hair? Blond hair, in a short, boyish cut with bangs. It used to be long and a bit curly, until someone cut it while she was sleeping. Now it doesn't grow back out.
-What color eyes? Hazel eyes
-Any birthmarks or scars? She has a birthmark in the shape of a star on her lower back, right side. There's a scar just above her left thumb from an accident on a swing set

Hometown: Green Glenn

Type of neighborhood: She lives in an orphanage in an area that is made up mostly of businesses in churches. There is a ridge behind the buildings with a fence on top, behind the fence are the houses where the rich people in town live

Short description of the character's house: The Happy Home orphanage is a three story building. The first floor has the kitchen, eating area, the play room, the study room, and offices. The second floor and third floor each have 6 bedrooms and two large bathrooms, and a room (suite of rooms) where an adult also lives. The second floor is for the boys, and the third floor is for the girls. Children are divided up into the 6 rooms on their floor by age.

Who is the character's Father? What is he like? What is his occupation?: Meribel's father is Jordan. She has never met her father, and doesn't know him. He is a faerie, past the age where he can return to earth. He is a prankster.

Who is the character's Mother? What is she like? What is her occupation? Meribel's mother is Joy. She has never met her mother, and doesn't know her. She is a faerie, past the age where she can return to earth. She is serene, calming, but has a good sense of humor.

Brothers and sisters: How many? Names? Descriptions?   None that she knows of. She has an older brother, named Tristan, who already has his faerie powers and has come back to keep an eye on her. He takes the form of a ferret. He worries a lot. He's afraid Meribel will be too influenced by human life.

Position in family: She seems alone. She is the youngest child of two, a favorite and only daughter. Her parents had to let go until she grows up and is able to join them in the faerie world. (Or until she decides not too.)

Other close relatives: She considers the people in the orphanage family. She doesn't know that Gayle, one of the owners is of the place, is her true aunt, a faerie who, when she came of age, decided to stay in the human world. (A handful of faeries make that choice, but the decision is harder to make now because the two worlds are drifting apart as people on both sides stop believing in mystical or practical things [refusing to see that there is another way]).

Family relationships:   She is estranged from her parents, but speculates about them. Gayle keeps her mouth closed, didn't none more so than when Meribel is right in her speculation. Gayle tries to not show favoritism with Meribel, that it still comes across as special attention for her (and the other faerie children at the orphanage). Meribel thinks her brother, Tristan, is just you very clever pet ferret.

Best friend:   Her best friend is Max. He is a shy boy a who gets picked on a lot of the orphanage because his eyes are two different colors, in he has a lot of birth marks, especially on his neck and face. He loves coming up with stories, but Meribel is the only one who listens to them. She helps him to believe that they just might be true.

Worst enemy:   Susan, who dislikes Meribel for her good looks and is jealous of her imagination. She thinks orphans should not have so much pride or as much fun as Meribel has. (Her own parents are going through a divorce) Susan is in Meribel's class, and is spiteful of Meribel's place as leader of the class.

Influential person or event: When she was 6, she rescued a hurt ferret, and snuck into the orphanage. It has been looking after her since. She finally found out that Gayle knew about it, but didn't seem to care. - Mrs. Rutgers, her first grade teacher, encouraged everyone to develop their own unique features (Meribel uses the same techniques on Max)

Grade in school:   fourth grade. She is a year behind because she refused to go to school in kindergarten, until she rescued the ferret.

Attitude toward school: It's okay. She likes interesting topics, but hates sitting still.

Favorite class:    P.E. and science.

Least favorite class:     Math

Grades:   average. She's good at Math, but hates it.

Hobbies:    Drawing, painting, making things.

Favorite sports:   Tether ball

Favorite foods:   strawberries

What does your character like to wear?   Pretty, frilly dresses, but she doesn't own any that fit. So she settles for plain shorts, and shirts that she has painted.

How does you character get along with boys?   They're OK, but are weird to talk to. Fun to climb trees with, though, and build things.

How does you character get along with girls?   She gets along better with girls, enjoys story telling and playing dolls.

Leader or follower:   She is in natural leader. There is no one she cares to follow. She doesn't want to be leader, but her charisma make her standout, as does her age (the oldest in her class), so people look up to her.

Ambitions:   To become an artist, and draw for children's books. She thinks more stories need pictures.

Strongest positive personality traits:   Loyal, kind.

Strongest negative personality traits:   Willful, selfish, gets into mischief.

Sense of humor:   She likes weird things, and laughs at normal stuff (when something is too "real" it seems unreal, and that makes her laugh.)

Temper:   She is slow to get angry, but hold to grudge.

Consideration for others:   Little, unless it is her close friends.

How other people see him/her:   Others think she has a big imagination, quiet (her teachers think so), constructive, stubborn.

Opinion of him/herself:   She thinks she's brave, creative, and beautiful.

Other traits, especially those to be brought out in story:   She is a faerie, but does not know her history yet, and hasn't had to decide what to do (to go to faerie world, or stay a human, in human world). She puts on a brave front, but is really unsure of herself. She wants to be liked, or left alone.

(Optional) A photo or drawing:

Simon and Millie Bonus - Character images

2008-05-28T02:39:16Z

Her are some images that Alison and I made for our characters early on in the story using the eLouai's Candybar DollMaker 3

I think we have some later ones, but I don't have those readily available to post.

Simon and Millie bonus - Simon Soundtrack

2008-05-28T02:19:13Z

As a bonus to the Simon and Millie story, here is the playlist I created to use when I wrote Simon's letters. It runs about an hour, which is the length of my normal writing sessions.

Always On My Mind - Pet Shop Boys
Go Home - Barenaked Ladies
Somebody's Miracle - Liz Phair
Today - Smashing Pumpkins
It had to be You - Harry Connick Jr
Closing Time - Semisonic
Just My Imagination - The Cranberries
Free To Decide - The Cranberries
My Doorbell - The White Stripes
Who Needs Sleep? - Barenaked Ladies
Baby Got Going - Liz Phair
I Can't be With You - The Cranberries
The Emperor's New Clothes - Sinead O'Connor
One Last Time - Veruca Salt
Learning to Fly - Tom Petty
Dry Your Eyes - The Streets
Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins

Gainesville Fiction Writers

2008-03-17T00:50:39Z

Well, some or many of you may know that I participate in the Gainesville Fiction Writers group. Sadly many of our members have moved away from the Gainesville area, and our group has grown small (or rather, has refused to grow beyond the steady number of 4 members). I am happy to say that this morning at our meeting we finally came up with an action plan. We are going to hold an "open house" type event here in Gainesville to see if we can drum up more members from the region interested in participating in the group.

Also, we are going to move a bit more online with our work. We have created a Yahoo group for the group, and use it to announce meetings as well as post stories and chapters of books for critique, and discuss what our next anthology will be. Since we have such wonderful tools available to us, we have decided to turn our attention a bit more to the virtual world. We are reaching out to our former members who have since moved away, and to other interested writers, and try to provide a place where they can participate in a writers group, receive feedback for their work, and provide a place for them to talk about their writing woes. To that end, I have posted a link to those who are interested in joining our writing group. Please feel free to sign up directly, or you can leave any questions for me here, and I'll be happy to answer them.

Click to join gvwriters

Editing Log

2008-01-21T02:16:17Z

Simon and Millie
~2 hours last week
1/20   1.5 hours
1/27   45 minutes
2/3      1 hour 10 minutes
2/3      30 minutes
2/7       40 minutes
2/14    1 hour 10 minutes
2/21    40 minutes
2/23    1 hour

-- 9 hours 25 min for first draft (minus epilogue) 1st edit

Oversight
time?
    - to completion for draft

Final Exam
Original version: 1 hour
re-write version:
    2/2    4.5 hours

Divine Madness
2/24    1 hour 15 minutes

Moleskin Project story
~15 min re-write

Editing

2008-01-14T02:12:11Z

This year I have decided to seriously undertake editing as part of the writing process. I have several editing goals this year. These include:

Edit a Nano novel (most likely Divine Madness)
Edit my two Mr. Smith stories for the GFW anthology
Edit the Simon and Millie story with Alison
Participate in NaNo EdMo in March, logging in 50 hours of editing in March
Read books on writing and editing interspersed with my "for fun" reading

I have edited and resubmitted one of Mr. Smith stories, and made a fair start on the second.

Tonight I worked an hour and a half on some formatting and spelling (and correctly spelled but wrong word) errors in the Millie and Simon story.

I think I might start a log for hours towards editing, maybe set a goal for each week (which would be adjusted during March, of course).

But it's only the second week of January, and I feel I've already got a good start.

And thanks to Allie for switching one of our regular writing days to an editing day. It'll help keep me on track, I know.

About writing - current thoughts

2007-12-12T19:05:32Z

Now that November is over I’m falling back into the routine of sitting down to write 3 times a week with my writing buddy in Arizona. We hop online into a chat, and set a time limit to how long we’re going to write based on how we feel.

It took me a few sessions to get back into the swing of things, and the first two days I journaled, as well as turning out a single 500 word story. The last two sessions, however, I have gotten back to my current work-in-progress, Fallen. Aside from managing to accidently delete what I had written on Sunday, and have to re-type it (luckily I had managed to print it before deleting the file), it has been going well (Is it too early to say that?)

To the ends of trying to make my characters consistent, I have been re-reading what I had written before November. I had managed to jump back in okay, on a quite emotional scene for me to write, actually. Last night was a little harder, but I found that my characters are at a point where they have their lives, and I just need to pick a time frame and observe.

Other works-in-progress that I have include the Simon and Millie letter project. We are 4 letters from the end (including the epilogue) and one of those is already written. I am waiting for the next Millie letter so I can write the last Simon letter of the main story. Part of that is waiting for the author I am collaborating with to also recover from National Novel Writing Month, and find her “Millie-voice” again.

I am also long over due in writing a letter for one of my friend’s D&D characters from one of mine. These are characters that are pretty much retired unless we meet with members from our old gaming group for epic level games; but there was a storyline going on between her and my character, a problem which to resolve, and her character sent her apology. It’s up to my character to reply (long over due, like 3 years in real time) and finally resolve the situation.

Aside from that I have decided that I am going to try to read books about writing, or technique, or other things from my personally extensive writing library. I say extensive, but in reality takes only a shelf and a half of the 6 book-cases we have filled. But I have only read about 3 of them, and referenced a few others. My goal is to read what others have to say on writing, and summarize the parts that I think are valuable in my journal – ready reference, if you will. But I will read other books, fiction, fantasy and so on, in between the writing books. I don’t want reading them to seem like a chore, but I figure I have the resources, so I might as well see what these authors about writing have to say.

Oh, and I think I’m going to try to sign up for NaNo EdMo, whenever it may be, try to get some editing in on a previous NaNo WriMo novel. I just have to pick which one. So that is a brief “here’s where I’m at” about writing.

Nov. 30

2007-12-01T03:19:04Z

Well, here it is. The end. A different end than I had (sort of) envisioned. I didn't have a clear idea on how it would end, actually, but I feel like once again my characters stopped being characters - stopped being themeselves, near the end. But then maybe that's just how I feel after 30 days of writing mayham.

Laurallynn looked at the members of the high council and the high dean of the school who looked anxiously at her. "All right, I'll do my best."

Pyter gave a sigh, and Baleish collapsed into her chair. "Thank you," he said.

"If you'll allow me a few moments to get ready?"

The group of men left her room, and she gave a sigh of her own. She changed into her most unassuming gray gown, and frowned at how it still clung to her form. Not ideal, but it would have to do. As she left her tower room, she thought through all the pleas and logical arguments she could to get Marcus to stop, to convince him to step down and let the governing body resume it's duties. A quarter of the way down she admitted these were likely to fail, and started focusing on spells that she could use to quickly incapacitate him.

When she arrived on the hill where Marcus had positioned himself, she knew immediately that he was waiting for her. Of course she was the logical choice, the only choice now that the council had failed to win him over. As she climbed the slope she took note of the trees that blocked the hilltop from the nearby region. The field he had set up further out had not escaped her attention either. He wanted to assure they weren't interrupted, or ambushed.

As she neared, Marcus smiled at her, the predatory smile that always put her on edge. Laurallynn chanted a quick calming spell, and told herself that he wouldn't have that power over her today. She could not afford to be drawn in to his ego, too many people, an entire way of life, were depending on her strength.

When she reached the top of the hill, Marcus simply stood there, looking at her, is grin spreading. She wouldn't give in. She would make him speak first. She had a spell ready in case he started casting, one that only had a single word needed to implement.

His eyes took her in, lingering on the spots where her dress clung to her. Laurallynn steadied herself, told herself to ignore the feeling of her skin crawling, and focus on getting eye contact. Finally his eyes made their way up to meet hers.

"No fun," he said, when he got no reaction from her, and his smile was gone, as easily as a removed hat. Marcus took a single step towards her, and Laurallynn had to fit the urge to retreat that was filling her mind. "So, they finally got around to sending you. I wondered when they would. I was getting bored."

He started pace, a slow circle that would take him behind her, his eyes dropping towards her hips. Laurallynn matched his speed, turning to keep him in sight. He chuckled, and the feeling of her skin crawling returned with vigor. "No fun at all," he said, stopping to face her.

"Well, here we are then," Marcus said, "And you already know the way to end it all, don't you Laurallynn. But you are going to be stubborn, I can tell."

Laurallynn gritted her teeth together, biting back the scathing comments. Her own ego would be a detriment to her as much as his was at this point, especially given the stakes.

"So beautiful, so powerful, and so stubborn," Marcus said with a sigh. "Am I really so horrible as all that, that you won't consider my proposal?"

Laurallynn couldn't hold back her reply. "Yes."

This surprised Marcus, and his eyebrows arched, "Really? That hurts, it really does."

Hoping that Marcus wouldn't cast while she spoke, she decided that the best chance was to try to negotiate with him, to make him see reason. "You have broken the rules of the university, the laws of the society, and are simply using your power to feed your already over-large ego."

"At least you didn't say I wasn't attractive."

"Oh, you may be physically pleasing, but underneath, you are a vile creature, and that seeps through. I, personally, abhor you."

Marcus tsked. "Why don't you tell me how you really feel, Laurallynn? No since in holding back at this point."

In anyone else, Laurallynn would believe that such a line was hiding a deeper hurt, but she simply couldn't believe her words would affect him like they would any sane person.

"There is your mistake," Marcus said, replying to her unspoken thought, "Assuming I'm like other people, when really, I am so much more."

Laurallynn was unnerved by his none-too-gentle reminder that he was different, that he had natural sources of power she couldn't even imagine. What she said was "So much more arrogant."

"Speak of arrogance," Marcus said, resuming his slow circle, and waving his hand. Something in the distance rumbled. Pre-cast spell, waiting for the final element. Laurallynn cursed. He really had been preparing. "You won't step down off your high and mighty horse and grant my one request. If you did, all this," another gesture, another explosion, "would end."

Laurallynn straightened her shoulders, stood tall. "You will not have the satisfaction. If I agreed now, you would always know it was fear that had driven my decision, not anything resembling free will."

Once again an eyebrow arched. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Bastard."

Marcus stopped. "You hurt me." He took a step closer to Laurallynn, lowered his voice. "But just think of if. I could rule this planet, with you by my side. You might even temper out some of the mean streak that I've developed."

Laurallynn narrowed her eyes. "Arrogance again. You don't mean we could rule."

Marcus once more looked surprised. He gave a small chortle, as if Laurallynn had just told a fantastic joke. "You always were clever for a human. That's why you were able to match me. But you are just a woman. You could never be fit to rule, though I promise if you join me, I would listen to your opinions, and consider them above anyone else's."

"Except your own."

"Of course. You can't expect that you would ever know better than me, really," he laughed again.

"You underestimate us, that is your flaw," Laurallynn said through gritted teeth, her chest tight with anger.

"I know the power of humans, I have seen it over many of your generations, and I admit some of you are formidable."

"Not humans, women."

Marcus laughed again, and lunged toward Laurallynn. She was ready, knowing her words would provoke him, but his movement was quick, faster than she expected. He had grabbed her arms by the time she had summoned a spell, and was pulling her close as it was cast. A flash of light speed the short distance from her hands into Marcus's chest, the force pushing him off of her, and sent Laurallynn sprawling back.

Anger had made her choose the spell, and she watched with grim satisfaction as Marcus curled up, clutching his stomach, and writhing in pain as it took effect.

It was over in a few seconds, and Laurallynn watched in satisfaction as Marcus regained his feet, anger twisting his transformed face. "You'll be week for a while, I aged you quite a bit, I think. Surely not enough to kill you, given your lifespan, but enough to make you think."

As Marcus stood, eyes drifted down over body, and Laurallynn's foe cried out, "What have you done, you harpy?"

Laurallynn let the remark roll off her, and tried to bite back a laugh. She found her calm center, and spoke from there. "I don't think I aged you that much, but I do want you to live the rest of your shortened life learning respect for what we are capable of."

Laurallynn turned around and started walking away. "I hope you learn to enjoy being a woman."

She heard the now-female Marcus cry out in rage, and allowed herself a smile. She wasn't expecting the spell that hit next, knocking her to unconsciousness.

****

Margot still stood in the hall, her eyes bright with anger, or maybe fear. The bell rang again, and Dresden moved to open it. Kyle was on the other side, in the company of the pilot Dresden had met and a brown haired fellow. Dresden noticed the woman looked wary, and the man had an expression that matched Margot's.

"Dresden, I found I have a sister," Kyle said, and pointed at Lacey. Before Dresden could reply, he heard Margot's steps behind him. The man on the front step went wide-eyed.

"It's you," he said, his breath suddenly growing ragged. Kyle's supposed sister turned to look at her companion, then back toward the house. By that time Margot was trying to get through the door, knocking Dresden and Kyle out of the way.

"You've come back to taunt me again. Come back to see how weak you made me. Well congratulations, you'll have your wish granted, you will finally get to see the end of me."

Against his better judgment, Dresden grabbed Margot as she passed him, shouting at the stranger. The man was standing on the step, but when Dresden looked up it looked like his focus was elsewhere. Lacey moved to his side, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Logan, Logan, snap out of it."

His eyes regained focus, and went dark. Suddenly he was lunging at the still-restrained Margot, and Lacey was the only barrier between them. The girl stood her own, however, shoving a shoulder into his chest, and planting her feet against the movement even as he shouted past her. "You did this to me, you were too much of a coward to meet me face on, you had to wait until my back was turned."

Margot was trying to wriggle free, but Dresden managed to keep his hold. "You were the one with the low handed trick that made me weaker."

"I thought you explained later, before my first life was over, that I only managed to make you more powerful by aging you! You rubbed it in my face until you left, and left me to find out what exactly you had done to me."

"That's not what I meant," Margot practically growled.

Logan stopped struggling, and shot a scathing glare. "You still haven't learned humility or respect, after all these years, I see. I see again, I should say."

There was a tense silence, and Dresden was leaning back to keep his weight into keeping Margot from pulling free.

Kyle spoke then, surprising everyone. "Um, maybe we should do the shouting inside?" Margot finally stopped struggling, though Dresden still kept a firm hold on her.

"Fine," she said, and turned, dragging Dresden with her, until he let go of her. She stormed off into the living room, with Kyle close behind. Dresden turned back to the pair on the doorstep, and dragged his hand through his hair.

"Um, I guess you should come in?"

Logan nodded, took a deep breath, and went in. Lacey turned and looked up at Dresden, then to retreating form of her companion and back again. She shrugged. "I'm not quite certain what's going on..." she said.

"I've got a fair idea about part of it, but I'm sure we'll find out the rest soon enough."

****

Lacey looked around the room. Dresden sat next to Margot on the couch. Margot had her arms folded over her chest, and was looking dour. Dresden looked tired. In the chair next to her Logan was slumped back, also with his arms crossed. Kyle entered the room and handed out lemonade to the silent group. Finally she Lacey took a breath to break the silence. She felt three pairs of eyes turn to her; Kyle was oblivious, still handing out drinks.

"So you," Lacey said, pointing to Margot, "were turned aged, and turned into a woman to teach you a lesson, and in your anger made him," she said, pointing at Logan, "doomed to live life over and over."

Logan gave a sigh. "That's the short version, yes."

"And you didn't tell me before because..."

"Because I didn't remember it all until I saw her."

Dresden turned to look at Margot, and Lacey thought he was going to echo the question, but decided better of it.

Lacey sighed. "So you don't like being a women, I take it?" Margot glared at her. "Fine. Why didn't you do something to change it?"

"You don't think I tried? I've been traveling through time and space trying to find an answer."

Lacey shook her head. They had been here for several hours, and both Margot and Logan insisted that Margot was a dragon, that magic was real, and they were doomed to always be together on the same planet and time thanks to the spell Margot, then Marcus, had cast on Logan, then Laurallynn. It was worse than the lies that she told, but coming from Logan and Margot it seemed the absolute truth, grudgingly revealed through questions. And if she believed Logan had memories of past lives, if she believed the device he build worked as it did to collect dreams, why shouldn't she believe the rest.

She could tell Dresden had similar doubts, when Logan explained how they finally tracked Margot down, by having stolen his dreams. Some wordless exchange happened at that point, and Dresden stopped asking.

"What about sex change operations? Those are pretty advanced these days," Dresden was saying.

Margot shook her head. Dresden sighed. "Will you please speak out loud?"

Margot narrowed her eyes, but then spoke. "I tried. Several guises ago, before the process was that advanced. But once I dropped my guise to rest, I was a female dragon, and when I put back on a human form, it was female, as well."

Lacey rubbed her face, suddenly very tired with the whole thing. "So, if you both managed to screw each other with this magic, or power or whatever you call it, can you undo it?"

"You don't think I've tried?" Margot snapped.

"I meant, you undo his and he undoes yours."

Logan's voice was quiet, the first time he'd spoken in over an hour. "I think that's why I kept looking for you. To get you to undo what you had done."

Margot snorted. "You're just figuring that out this time? Usually you come storming up to me demanding I drop the spell on you. You're a bit slow this time around."

Logan narrowed his eyes. "Forgive me for not remembering things from one life to the next. I only just remembered how Laurallynn figured out, as she was dying, what you had done, and set up a way for her future selves to be connected to remember things."

"Because you always were clever, weren't you," Margot's voice was bitter.

"SHUT UP!"

All eyes turned to Dresden, who was now standing, his hands in fists at his side. He looked between Logan and Margot, and Lacey didn't envy his decision seeing the disbelief and anger respectively.

"Margot, if this has happened over and over, why don't you drop the spell you put on him? Her?"

"Because," Margot said through gritted teeth, "Then I'd be stuck like this forever. Remember, only the person who casts a spell of this size can undo it."

Dresden turned to Logan, who blinked up at him. Lacey picked up on the reasoning, and turned to Logan, putting a hand on his arm. "So, have you told yourself why you never undo the spell you did?"

Logan rolled his eyes. "I remember that she is always this arrogant, even now, insisting she is better than me, than anyone." He turned to glare at Margot. "Just because I was human."

Margot's temper flared. "Because you were a woman."

"See, even now she won't let go of that. Arrogant."

"And you weren't?"

"I had every right to be confident, if I remember correctly."

"Are you sure that you do? You seem to have trouble with bits and pieces - I guess your contingency was as perfect as you'd hoped."

"And you're just pissed because you have to remember."

Dresden stomped his foot, and the pair grew silent again. "This is more than just what it seems, isn't it. More than just a power struggle."

Lacey sat forward, interested, even as Logan and Margot slumped back in their seats in annoyance.

"Why do you say that," Lacey said.

"Because in fairy tales it always is. There is some underlying reason behind everything." Dresden turned to Margot, and said. "Why? You were the one who was rampaging all those years ago, threatening the country and infrastructure. Don't tell me because you can, I don't believe it. And I already know you think you can control humans, it's clear you knew it then too, so no need to do so, to waste your time with creatures that paltry unless you had an underlying goal. Why did this all happen?"

Lacey watched as Margot stared at Dresden, and felt her own sweat rising with the anger in her eyes. Finally the other woman turned her head, and apparently deigned to give Dresden an answer, albeit silently.

"WHAT? Are you...of course you're serious. All of these years of grief, all of the agony you've both gone through, all because he - she - he wouldn't go out with you?"

Lacey blinked in surprise, and turned to look at Logan. He was staring at the wall, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. She didn't have to ask, but realized that it was the truth.

Lacey gave a small laugh, and sat back in her seat, amazed at how long a grudge over a broken heart could last.

***

*I don't like it.*

"Of course you wouldn't," Logan said.

Dresden gave a sigh. "Common guys. Can't you stop arguing for just five minutes?"

It had taken Lacey and Dresden several days to get Logan and Margot to agree to help each other. During that time Margot had grown so weak that she had to spend long stretches of the day in dragon form. Dresden remembered the look on Lacey's face when Margot had first changed, as if everything they had been discussing had finally sunk in.

Dresden had offered to handle things, if Lacey needed to leave, given how her job would not be as lenient as his in allowing for time off. She shook her head, and said. "I'm not a pilot," and left it at that. Dresden called in a substitute for the week. Logan quit his job with a fatalistic air. "I never like it anyway. And if this doesn't work, well, I suspect this will be my last life, why waste it working."

Margot likewise quit her job, and lay in bed in pouting for several days, or rampaging around the house, breaking things.

Finally yesterday she had come into the dining room where the others were sitting, discussing what Dresden had found in his studies.

*I apologize. I see now, after centuries of being a woman, that women do have skills that are useful, and that just being born a female does not make one less capable than one born a man.*

If Logan had found her apology dry, or sarcastic, he didn't say anything. He merely nodded, and said, "I accept your apology."

They had waited, after that. In fairy tales, when the individual realized their fault, admitted it, they found the affect could be undone. To everyone's frustration, nothing happened. Dresden wasn't clear on what, exactly, they thought would happen, but Lacey had been animate that Logan's past selves would advise him on how to remove the curse he had placed, and that in return, when Margot was restored to her true gender and age, would have the power to end the vicious cycle of lives that was plaguing Logan.

But nothing happened.

Now Logan and Lacey had returned, with Lional carrying in an odd-looking night stand. Dresden's housemate had given him an odd look, but left when Lacey asked him to.

*We're not even sure this will work*

"It's better than any ideas I see you coming up with," Logan retorted.

"Guys!" Lacey was just as frustrated as Dresden at this point. "It'll work."

Logan nodded his head, and Margot gave a shrug.

Logan put on a necklace, and reached out a hand towards the small red dragon sitting on the floor glaring at him. "May I?"

*Do it now, before I change my mind*

Logan touched her briefly, and quickly pulled away. "And you say you dream memories when you are in this form?"

*Yes*

"Can you pick which ones?"

*I can try* Margot's thought voice was strained, and Dresden could tell the ordeal was wearing on her as well.

"Fine."

Lacey took the necklace from Logan and put it into the nightstand, fiddling with some controls on it. Logan lay down in Kyle's bed, then, grudgingly, Margot trudged off to her room to lie down.

Lacey finished with the controls, and looked up at Logan. "Now we wait."

****

The dream was more intense than any that Logan had experienced before. He wasn't experiencing a jumble of events put together by a sleeping brain; he was reliving the moment, an event that had played back from his own memories so powerfully in weeks past. But this time he was seeing everything from the perspective of his foe.

The events on the hilltop played out just as Laurallynn had remembered them, but the emotions there were Marcus's. Logan had to force himself to pay attention to the details of how it felt to cast magic, playing back the dream later would only afford a visual recall, and not the memories he needed. Lacey was unsure if they used Margot's dream if it would be captured, as Logan's memory had been, and inaccessible later, by either Margot or Logan.

Even as the events played out, Logan was more aware of himself, asleep, watching the events - he wasn't locked in with the dreamer, but was able to observe objectively.

He saw his past self through the eyes of Marcus, who had been her rival in school, and whom Laurallynn always knew as disingenuine and arrogant. He was surprised to see there was real love in Marcus, and was overwhelmed with the emotion as the real battle began.

*Pay attention Logan* filled his head, and he snapped to attention, watching the spell casting, most particularly that of Laurallynn, the memory of which was now denied him. As Marcus he immediately understood how the spell worked, the dismay it caused, and the pain and anger that shot through as he turned the spell on Laurallynn, on himself.

The dream ended, and Logan knew what he had to do.

***

Margot looked up at Logan. She was so tired now, she wanted to close her eyes and go back to sleep. More so, she knew that Logan had seen the events through her eyes. As Marcus saw them. She had forced Logan out of the dream, out of the memory, at the point that Laurallynn would have forgotten. She remembered the pain, she felt at hurting Laurallynn, even after what she had done, even after she had caused so much hurt herself. Because Margot knew that Laurallynn had been right. Even as she was waking, Margot let the edges of the memory, the tail ends of the dream replay in her mind, and it seemed that it was someone else, someone else who had stood over Laurallynn, broken hearted, someone else who had returned to dragon form and had sung a mournful song of loss and ache over her, standing guard until the council appeared. Someone else who had fled at the sight of the humans rushing to one of their own, chasing her away, and shouting praise for a fallen hero.

"You don't get off that easy."

Margot opened her eyes, and saw her room full of people. But wasn't she just on the hilltop? Hadn't Laurallynn just fallen at her own hand? What had she done?

A warm hand spread on her shoulder, above her wing. She heard a familiar voice asking, "Is she dying?"

The image of a blond boy caring for her flittered across her mind, but skittered away again. She realized the question was warranted, she was dying. She pushed down the question, the thought of her death. She wanted to remember Laurallynn, remember what she had done.

The warmth spread, and enveloped her body. A voice, deeper than it should be, but definitely belonging to Laurallynn said, "There you are. Don't give up just yet."

Margot wanted to listen to voice, wanted to open her eyes, to see Laurallynn one last time, to apologize for what she had done, but she was just too tired.

As she drifted into peaceful oblivion, she heard another male voice, familiar, "Now what?"

And Laurallynn answered. "Now we wait."

***

"But he was so mean to you, to Laurallynn. I watched it in the dream, both yours and his. How can you be certain that he'll undo your problem now that you have undone his?"

Lacey turned to look at Logan, and was irritated by the smile that crossed his face. Irritated by his soft reply. "I just know."

It had been three days since Logan had rediscovered the magic Laurallynn had, and had undone its affects. The dragon had lay back down to sleep, not looking much different, but Logan had assured that the process was done. "He's no longer aged, and I restored him to being, well, him," Logan had explained to Dresden.

They had left that night, returning to the townhouse, letting Dresden and Kyle take care of Marcus restored. There had been no more memories hounding Logan, and no more dreams for him either. They had left the entire device at Margot's, no Marcus's place. Lacey had protested that as well, but Logan had merely shrugged. "I found what I was looking for. What good is it now?"

There was a knock on the door, and Logan went to answer it. Lacey followed quickly behind him. "Let me get the door," she said, not caring if he thought she was being paranoid.

He nodded, and let her by. She looked out the peephole and saw a familiar face there. Dresden was running his hand through gray hair. He looked exhausted.

Lacey opened the door, and Dresden looked up. He gave a wan smile. "Well, he's recovered, though I liked him better as a girl." He looked beyond Lacey, to Logan standing in the hall. Lacey stood aside and allowed Logan to stand next to her, but still kept herself ready to close the door. It could be a trick, for all she knew.

Logan put a hand on her arm. "You see conspiracies everywhere, now-a-days," he said.

"Do you blame me?" Lacey said. Logan merely shrugged, and turned to Dresden.

"Mar- uhm, Marcus send me with a message," Dresden said, scuffing his shoes on the step.

"Yes?"

"He's not going to undo the spell."

Lacey cried out in outrage, anger flooding through her, but Logan put a hand on her shoulder again.

"I understand," Logan said, "Thank you."

Lacey shook his arm off. "No! No, that's unfair. He can't do that! Why should you have to live plagued with memories like that? He was the one who was in the wrong, He's a bastard!"

Dresden recoiled at the last which Lacey had directed at him, but Logan's hand found her arm again, and she noticed a sense of calm spreading from him.

Lacey turned to look at Logan, who merely shrugged. "I remember how to use the powers Laurallynn had," he said by way of explanation. "And I won't have the memories anymore - they were something Laurallynn did, something I added to the spell myself- Marcus wouldn't be able to remove them even if he tried."

Lacey narrowed her eyes at Logan, suddenly understanding. "So you'll just continue on, life after life for as long as Marcus lives?"

Logan nodded. Dresden gave a small cough "Um, last bit of the message?"

Both Logan and Lacey turned to face him. "Um, he says, well, he says he looks forward to, well, many years, and hopes that, um, well,"

Logan gave a laugh, "Tell him I'll work on forgiving him, and after I do, THEN we can discuss ways to ensure that I'm reborn as a woman."

4352 words today
Grand total: 78,192 words

Nov 29th

2007-11-30T23:41:18Z

I had to stop writing in the middle of a scene, so I'm omitting that scene from this post, and will start the next post with it.

Lacey called in sick to work, and was tempted to tell Rocky the real reason she wanted the day off was because she was actually sick, that a combination of tuna and peanut butter had sent her into a horrendous dream and a horrible stomach ache. When he answered the phone, however, she told him that her brother needed some help moving, that living with her parents had been too much on him, and he was stressed to the point he was considering enlisting for a second tour. Rocky asked if she needed a hand when he got off shift, but she said they should be done by then, but thanked him for the offer.

Logan was called in to go to work, even though it was Saturday, because professor Thomas was in a panic about not having tenure ensured. Lacey got up long enough to hold his hand for a few minutes, though he didn't really talk to her. She supposed he was mad that he had to take part of her insane dream from the night before, but she was thrilled that her experiment had worked. Logan WAS able to see her dreams, there was just some safety set up in the device to discourage it.

Lacey went to Dresden's house after Logan had left in a rush, Professor Thomas having called again to make sure he was on his way. She remembered Dresden mentioning he was a high-school teacher, and knew he would have the day off.

This time Guido opened the door. He looked as surprised to see her as she was to see him.

"My tattoo artist making house calls now?" he asked.

Lacey shook her head. "I wanted to congratulate you on your store. I stopped by the other day, but wasn't able to catch you. Do your subordinates run the store on weekends?"

Guido shrugged. "I was running low on stock, so I took the day to get more. Put signs up it was a store holiday, celebrating the birthday of the woman who donated the shoes."

"Is it?"

"Dunno. Would have to ask Dresden that, it was his grandmother."

Lacey perked up at the opening Guido had given her. "Oh, can you ask him?"

"Nah. He's not here."

"Oh," Lacey said, trying to not sound too disappointed or too interested. "Maybe next time, then."

"You have the day off, then? I called yesterday and they said you'd be in today making up lost time."

"Yeah, I traded with someone. I wanted to surprise Randall with a picnic lunch, and am killing time until he gets off."

Guido grunted. "How's the building coming?"

"Okay, the foreman is so pleased with Randall's work, though, they try to keep him around more hours. I put my foot down, and insisted he only work half a day today."

"That's good. Well, I was just headed out to get more stock, and I was thinking to get new ink, the store logo."

"Okay, well congrats on the store. I'll go find something to do for a few hours."

"Take care."

Lacey headed out and looked around. She needed a way to find Dresden, but didn't know where to go, so she headed towards the university. Along the way she realized the streets resembled streets in one of her earlier dreams, the first one where Logan had appeared. She knew she had seen them in passing on some of her bus trips, but this was the first time she had walked down them.

She closed her eyes and pictured where the cloaked figure had fled in her dream. She opened her eyes and turned down the street where he had disappeared. She followed the memory of her dream Logan, and found herself at the front of a house that seemed familiar. She noticed shuffling around in a front room a familiar gray-haired man.

She smiled, glad that her dreams were as useful, if not more so, than the ones the Logan had collected. She noted the street and house number, and headed to the university to gather Logan for what should be a very enlightening lunch break.

****

Margot watched Dresden pacing back and forth in the dining room. He was getting anxious for answers, and the hints she had given him about her past weren't satisfying him any longer. She let him have his rant, about how he was graciously giving up his weekend to help her; the least she could do was tell him what he was looking for.

*But you are getting free labor out of it* Margot said, and indicated at Kyle, who sat in the corner, surrounded by papers and a grading key. Kyle was unaware of the conversation, as he was gleefully clutching the red pen that Dresden had given him, and going through the papers one by one, looking for errors.

"But that's not the point. You promised, it was part of the deal that I would work with you only if you told me more about WHY you need my help."

Margot curled her head on her paws. She was in her golden retriever form because it was still too exhausting to keep her human form for long stretches of time. If she could smile, she would. Apparently her attempts to hold power over Dresden in means not connected to her magic were not as effective as she hoped. It did mean, however, that this pet of hers was smart, and that was something she could use right now.

*Okay, if you'll sit down, I'll tell you. I get dizzy watching you walking back and forth and back again."

Dresden sat in the nearest chair with such force that he almost knocked it over. He quickly realized that he couldn't see Margot from that seat, and moved to one closer to where she was curled on the floor near Kyle."

*As I have told you, I am loosing power. This is because of a person in my distant past. I told you that she cursed me, and that because of it I have grown weaker. *

Dresden nodded, but didn't say anything.

*Dragons are very long-lived creatures, if we put our mind to it. My kind developed the ability to travel in time and space to prevent us from outliving the planets we occupied in a handful of generations. Needless to say that in our travels have taken us to places of a variety of levels of civilization. One of the worlds I found myself on had a power that worked well for the young dragon that I was, which I can best describe as magic.*

*So I took human form, and joined one of the institutes that honed these particular skills. I excelled at it, and eventually surpassed even my teachers. Only one person was able to match my skill, and she became my rival for every challenge I undertook in my training.*

"Is she the one who cursed you?" Dresden asked, unable to stay silent any longer. He leaned closer to her, putting his elbows on his knees.

Margot picked her head up, and pushed herself up on her front paws. She shook, and settled into sitting so her eyes were closer to Dresden's. *Yes. There was an...altercation, and she cast a curse at me that reduced my power.*

"How, if she was as good as you?"

Margot paused, wondered how much would be enough to satisfy his curiosity, and how much she would be able to keep from him without seeming to. *Our skills were strong in different areas. Some of my weaknesses were where she had her strengths and vice versa. When she inflicted me with the curse, I wasn't prepared for it, and it was something that was not my forte.*

Dresden nodded. Margot noticed the sound of shuffling paper had also ceased, and Kyle was now listening in to her conversation as well. She let the pause draw out long enough that Dresden finally asked, "What did she do to you?"

*So hard to put into words the actual process, the curse, but I can tell you that as a result of her power I was, well, aged significantly. I had been a youngling for a dragon, only three hundred years old. As a result of her spell my age was equivalent to that of a dragon of two thousand years. Unfortunately for her that put her at the peak of my biological capacity for use of power, and magic. Unfortunately for me, it has been all downhill since then. I am now so drained of power, due to the accelerated aging, that it is getting harder and harder for me to maintain a human form.*

*As you have realized, most of what I have you searching for is stories of people who have been affected by some outside force that has changed them biologically, changing shape and such, looking desperately for any clues as to how such processes are reversed. It is urgent, now that my own power is waning.*

Margot waiting for the hesitation, the doubt of her explanation, and it was all she could do to not send out her power, to influence the man before her to believe her story as she told it, and not ask questions. She could tell from the look on Dresden's face that he was thinking through her explanation, and that he felt there was something missing from it. Before he had the chance to speak, however, Kyle had crossed over the papers he was grading, and had thrown his arms around Margot.

"I didn't know all that. I'm sorry it happened. That woman was really mean to make you so old."

*Thank you, Kyle.*

The youth buried his face in her fur, and she sat still, and put her head on top of his. She was surprised to find he was crying, and she asked him why.

"Because I can't help you get younger again."

Margot looked up to the sound of Dresden standing. He still looked a little uneasy, but she was pleased to notice a determined look on his face, as well. When he finally spoke, he turned to Kyle. "Go get the leash," he said, and Kyle hugged Margot tighter, suddenly worried.

*It's okay, Kyle. I think Dresden has a lot to think about, and he wants to go for a walk to do it.*

Dresden nodded. "Yes, I think a walk would do us all some good right now."

****

Logan followed Lacey through the streets. He didn't really have a choice as she had one of his hands in hers, and he feared if he stopped she might make off with his arm, even if he stayed put. To be honest, he was glad to be out of the office. Professor Thomas was in a panic, and giving him instructions that contradicted each other, and yelled at him if he pointed it out or failed to complete both, mutually exclusive, tasks.

Lacey came in and proclaimed that it was time for their first visit to the obstratician, to make sure their baby was out to a healthy start, and that he had promised to be there. The look on his bosses face changed to one of panic, to worry. He clearly wanted Logan to stay, but also was torn, having missed the steps leading up to the birth of his own children in the mad dash to earn tenure. Finally he said "Go, don't come back until Monday, and skulked off to his office and slammed the door behind him.

Logan had expected Lacey to gently point out what a lie had earned them, and feel self justified at him, but instead she hurried him out the door. I wasn't until they were several blocks away from the university that she finally offered any sort of explanation.

"I found that teacher, the one with the dream that you were so interested in."

"Really?" Logan was impressed that she had found him so quickly, but before he could ask how she managed it, or what exactly she was planning in going to where he was, she was dragging him down the streets.

She suddenly slowed. "It's around the corner here, third house on the left, that is, across the street from us, we'll turn left, and it's across the street."

"Okay," Logan said, still uncertain if Lacey even had a plan at this point. She fell into step beside him, tipping her head to his shoulder, and caught her breath.

"Just a couple going out for a leisurely stroll," she explained.

Logan didn't bother telling her again that he didn't like being part of her lies. This time he was interested to see what she had found. They turned the corner, and saw another group of people out for a walk in the middle of the afternoon.

Approaching up the far side of the street were two men and a dog. Lacey gave a small gasp, and Logan had to force his feet to keep moving. They had both recognized Dresden in an instant, his gray hair in contract to young features a dead give away even at the distance. The younger blond boy was also familiar, from the dream they had witnessed.

But it wasn't the familiarity that almost stopped Logan in his tracks. It was the sense of deja vu. It was as if each of the past life memories suddenly hit him with the instant the past hims had finally found the foe they had searched for all their lives.

He knew that the person who had doomed him to life as he knew it, over and over again, was mere meters from him. Lacey clutched his arm in excitement, pulling his awareness sharply to the present. She slowed their pace and hissed, "I don't want him to recognize me."

But Dresden wasn't paying attention to them, neither was the blond youth. They appeared to be in a heated discussion, though only Dresden seemed upset. The other man must have been responding very calmly, as practically no emotion showed on his face in the breaks between Dresden's ranting. They weren't quite close enough to make out the words. It seemed a private conversation, that while heated, was still under control of volume by its participants.

The men and dog crossed the quiet street and went into the house that Lacey had indicated she had seen the man. She kept their pace slow until the trio was in the house, then picked up the pace to get them to the far side of the street.

"So, now what do we do," she asked.

Logan was tempted to turn the question around on her, but found he was speechless.

"What's wrong," she asked.

"I got this feeling..."

"Yeah?"

"I just saw the person who did this to me."

Lacey turned to look back at the house. "Really? Dresden? He didn't seem like the mean type, more, I don't know, pathetic, actually."

Logan shook his head. "No, I had him in my dream file from before you did. I met him some time in the past, touched him and collected him as a subject. I would remember this feeling."

"Ah," Lacey said. Logan was so lost in thoughts of his own that he didn't notice she was equally quiet the rest of the way home.

****

Three days had passed since Margot had revealed that she had been made older by the curse. Kyle was still sad every time he looked at her, and he could tell that Dresden was more determined than ever to help now.

Kyle looked at the note in his hand, Margot had left a grocery list for dinner. He had finished his cleaning chores and had eaten lunch. He was supposed to go get groceries before Margot got home, so he left, making sure to lock the door on the way out.

When he got to the street he saw a familiar car. But instead of Dresden driving, there was a tall man with black hair, and another man in the passenger side of the car. Kyle got to the sidewalk, and saw there was a bird on the lap of the man in the passenger seat. The man waved Kyle over, and he walked up to see if they needed help.

"Get in, ya bum."

Kyle blinked, and looked at the bird. It cocked it's head and looked at him, then said again "Get in, ya bum." The man in the seat shook his finger at the bird, which squawked in protest, but then said "Please."

Kyle got in the car.

***

Lacey rushed out when she got the call from Lional that he had found, and collected her mentally ill "Little brother" from her newest venture in to the Big Brother/ Big Sister program. She had made it in to work early, and had worked through lunch, knowing that Lional would be fetching the blond youth for her. Logan had assured he that he would be okay without a lunch session, as his memories had pretty much ended the day they saw Dresden and his friend.

Rocky thought she was headed to take her mother to a yearly exam, and was more than happy to trade the opening shift for the one that stayed into the evening. Lacey took the bus to the community center where she told Lional to bring the boy. She warned him ahead of time that he blond boy had a schizophrenia, and might react violently, though she truly hoped that Lional didn't have too much of a fight to get him. She worried that if he had strong-armed the boy that her prize might be of no use any more to Logan.

They had agreed that Lacey should be the one to get him, because if he realized too soon that Logan was who he was through time, then this life might be terminated as suddenly as the past ones seem to have been. Lacey had assured Logan that she had sufficient means to subdue the youth, and wondered what powers he had retained through the various lives he must have lived to plague Logan through the years.

When she got to the community center, she saw Lional sitting in the car with two other men, and an odd looking bird. As she approached she looked for signs that the blond was unconscious. He appeared to be arguing with Lional, and she wondered if perhaps they had bound him, instead.

As she got to the car, however, she heard what he was saying. "It'll be okay, I'll still have enough for the groceries. I know gas is expensive right now. Dresden complains about it a lot."

Lacey got into the car, taking the seat next to the boy. He turned and looked at her, a pleading look in his eyes. "Tell them to take the money for gas."

Lacey blinked, and looked at the boy more closely, wondering if her story of mental illness was not just a story. "That's okay. I'm paying for gas today. You can keep your money for groceries."

"But we drove a long way, and gas costs so much," the boy protested.

"But I already paid for the gas," Lacey said. "So if you give him money, then it won't go to gas, since it's already been bought."

"Oh. Okay."

Lacey looked up to Lional, but he seemed unfazed by the boy's proclamation. The bird in the lap of the other man, Lional's other roommate no doubt, gave a squawk. "Shut up, please."

The boy nodded, and sat back. Lacey asked Lional to take them to her townhouse where she could make dinner for her little brother.

They were halfway there when the prisoner turned to Lacey, his face scrunched in concentration. "You're my sister?"

The bird squawked "Shut up."

Lacey gave him a smile. "Yes."

They made it the rest of the way to the townhouse in silence.

***

Dresden shifted the stack of papers in his arms as he headed out to the parking lot. The students were glad that he had moved to multiple choice quizzes on the reading, and he found that Kyle liked looking at the little bubbles better than essays, though he graded both equally well.

Dresden slowed as he approached his parking space. He cursed under his breath, and lost his grip on the papers. He managed to gather most up from the empty spot where his car should have been, but had to spend about fifteen minutes catching the others which had been carried away on the breeze and were dancing around the empting lot as if to taunt him.

He took the papers, trying desperately not to loose any, and headed to the bus stop.

***

Logan hesitated outside the door. Lacey should have gathered the blond boy by now, and he would be waiting on the other side. It was hard to gather one's courage when uncertainty of future presented itself like this. Would simply meeting Marcus after all these years end this cycle? In the past lives, did he have to battle with Marcus, and lost, thus being forced to start all over again. He wished he knew what was going to happen, or that he had some guidance from his past selves. The silence over the past few days, the absence of potential for the memories, had bothered him. Even when Lacey managed to keep the memories away, he had always felt them pressing at his mind, waiting to overtake him.

But that pressure was gone.

He took a sigh, and straightened his shirt. If he was going to face his fate today, again, the least he could do is ensure he looked good.

Steeling himself, he opened the door. Lacey was in the living room, and there was the blond boy, asleep on the couch.

Logan was angry that Lacey hadn't taken his foe seriously, hadn't done something more to secure this version of Marcus. Unless she had drugged him, and thus neutralized the threat that way. He stepped into the room, and George hopped up from where he had been curled up next to Marcus, and walked over to rub Logan's legs.

The blond boy stirred, and Logan felt a shock of panic course through his veins. Then, nothing. He turned to Lacey. "This isn't him," he said, and realized it was true. The boy in front of him had none of the power that he had felt and recognized.

The boy looked up at him, and rubbed his eyes. "Hi. I'm Kyle." he said, and extended a hand to Logan. "I'm Lacey's brother, but we only found each other today."

Lacey gave a small shake of her head, and a look indicating that she would explain later.

Logan was relieved that he was still intact, but frustrated that he had failed to secure his foe. Unless the boy had realized who he was going to see, and had suppressed his aura, somehow. But even as he considered it, he knew that it wasn't true.

"I have to go soon," Kyle said. "I have to make dinner for Dresden and Margot."

Both Logan and Lacey looked up at the statement, and Logan realized she had the same thought as him. "No worries," Lacey said. "We'll pick up some food on the way."

****

When Dresden got to Margot's house, he found her pacing the house, her heals clicking on the wooden floors. "My car was stolen. Again," he said, and dumped the papers on the dining room table. "Any luck with your search at work?"

"Kyle isn't here," Margot said, not breaking stride.

"Maybe he got lost. Or forgot he wasn't a student again."

Margot shook her head. "No, this feels different."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. It's just different. I knew as soon as I came home."

"Was there a break in?"

"No. Everything in intact, and he even remembered to lock the door."

Dresden looked around. "Did you give him any chores outside the house?"

"Grocery shopping, but I told him to be back before we were. He was going to cook."

Dresden sat down at the table behind the stack of papers. "Maybe there was a long line at the store or something."

*No* Margot's voice rang through his head with such vehemence that he started, knocking some of the papers off the table.

"Okay, maybe not."

"I've been having those dreams again, but I'm not ready this time."

"What dreams?" Dresden said, leaning over to pick up the spilled papers. "What aren't you ready for?"

The doorbell rang.

Margot stopped pacing. "That."

4529 words today
73,840 words total

Nov 28th

2007-11-29T12:02:05Z

I got a load of suggetions tonight - makes up for some of the quieter sessions, I'd say. And makes for one insane dream :-)

Dresden was looking through the books Margot had left stacked on the table for him. When he had arrived after work, he was excited to finally learn about Margot's past. Unfortunately that past had caught up with her, and she'd had to come home during the day to return to an easier form. "She's been working too hard," Kyle confided in Dresden when he arrived, and told him that Margot would be available later. He mentioned that she was in a bad mood because of being forced to change earlier that she expected, and suggested Dresden sit quietly until she was ready "That's what I always do."

So Dresden tried to ignore the crashing and banging that was coming from Margot's room, tried to ignore the ranting that invaded his mind as loud as a shout. When she finally quieted down, he wondered what new repair project he would have in the near future. *Kyle, please come here* came the request, and Kyle got up without hesitation.

A few minutes later he emerged with Margot, in her dragon form, on a harness at the end of a leash. Dresden looked upon the situation with a mix of fascination and horror. "You aren't, you aren't going out like that, are you?"

Margot's voice rang irritably in his head. *I'm projecting an image of a dog, and that's what people will see -except for a select few, and I can't be bothered to find out if more of you are out there before I go out.*

"Oh," was all Dresden said, but Margot snapped at him *I need space, and air, when I'm in this form. Being in this house is like being in a jail cell to a dragon.*

Dresden held up his hands to show he didn't question her reasons, though the thought had crossed his mind. Kyle seemed to be oblivious to the exchange, and only perked up when Margot started to pull him towards the door.

Dresden turned back to the books, idly flipping the pages, and wondered if it would just be better to go home for the day, rather than deal with Margot's bad mood, which watching her as a dragon, was really quite frightening. He decided to stay, partially to ensure her ire didn't turn to him for abandoning her, partially because he still hoped that she would delve into her history, and finally explain what her searching was all about.

A knock at the front door interrupted his thoughts, and Dresden went to answer it. It was a courier with a package for Margot. Dresden explained she was unavailable, and she gave the pen for him to sign for the package. He took the box from her, and wondered if it was more books when the red-haired girl spoke up.

"You're the one who got that big box a few weeks back," she said, and Dresden realized that he did recognize her.

"Yes," he said.

"I hope whatever it was, it was a good thing," she said, still standing on the front step.

"Actually, my roommate took all the shoes from the box, that's what it was, and opened a shoe store."

"Oh. Um, I don't suppose Kyle is here?"

Dresden recognized the look that played across her face, adolescent love; he saw it enough in his classes to see the telltale marks. He gave a small smile, and shook his head. "Sorry, he's out walking...the dog."

The look on the courier's face shifted to one of panic, and she hastily took a step back. "Right, sorry," she said, and quickly scurried down the sidewalk to her vehicle.

Dresden shook his head, and took the package inside. He set it aside for Margot's inspection upon the completion of her walk, and wondered what she had done to make the girl so nervous.

***

Lacey stopped by Dresden's place after work. She was surprised when Lional opened the door. He was equally surprised when she asked for Dresden. She quickly explained that she heard about him from a friend of hers who was a principal, who had asked her to do an informal evaluation of him, as a favor. She explained that parents wanted assurances that the teachers of their children were decent community people, and thus had taken volunteers to talk to teachers at random.

She quickly found out he wasn't home, and returned to her townhouse. When Logan got home, she explained that Dresden had an after-work job that left him out of the house most days of the week. "It may be a little trickier than I thought to find him."

Logan shrugged, and plopped down in the chair, George quickly hoping into his lap and settling down with a rumbling purr.

"Are you okay?"

"Long day at work. After lunch the news came in that the professor I work for hadn't actually completed all the paperwork to achieve tenure, and there was a great fuss the rest of the day, most especially from him. He practically went into hiding, using me as a shield to keep people out."

Lacey felt her heart sink, "I suppose that means you aren't up to review dreams today."

Logan put a hand over his eyes. "Not really. I just want to lay down."

Lacey smiled, and sprung up from the sofa. "Can you make dinner, I want to try something with the device, but it will take some tinkering."

"Don't break it."

Lacey bounded out of the room, and up to Logan's bedroom. She fitted the necklace into place, and started playing with the controls from the list of dreamers. She was still at it when Logan came in with two plates with sandwiches. He watched her tinkering, and sat down to eat, but didn't bother to ask what she was doing.

It took some adjusting, but she finally figured out how to do what she wanted. Only then did she take the sandwich, and settled in to eat.

"Are you done?" Logan said, indicating to the device. "I want to go to sleep soon."

Lacey nodded, and took their plates, she used the last bit of crust from her bread to mop of the stray bits of peanut butter from his plate, and the few flakes of tuna that remained on hers. She found after she had opened up to Logan, she felt comfortable telling him about more than just her past. He had been hesitant to the Jiffy and Star-Kist sandwiches at first, but she made him try one, and he had agreed that the combination was a satisfying meal.

"Don't worry, I want to get to sleep too. Hopefully we'll both have a good dream."

"After that meal, I'm not so sure," Logan joked, but he lay down and fell quickly asleep.

***

Lacey stood in her townhouse, but it was different from the real world one. Remnants of the apartment she and her mother had lived in after her father had died were overlaid in the rooms. She wandered into the townhouse kitchen, which was decorated with the colors from her mother's kitchen, rather than the sterile white of her current house.

There were two sandwiches at the table, and Lacey sat down, wondering who the second sandwich was for when her mother walked in the room. It didn't seem strange for her to be there, though. "You need to eat up, dear," her mother said, pushing one of the plates to her. Lacey saw the telltale texture of the peanut butter, and realized that it was the brand her mother insisted on buying, Peter Pan, not the Jiffy she had come to prefer. She suspected the tuna to be bumblebee, and not Star-Kist, as well. She looked at the other sandwich, and told her mother "This one is not mine," Lacey reached for the other sandwich, and had almost pulled the plate to her when the sandwich hoped off and skittered back towards her mother.

Lacey pushed the plate with the offensive sandwich away from her, and the sandwich likewise skittered off it's plate, this one towards Lacey.

"Eat your sandwich, dear," her mother said, but she protested that she didn't want that one. The sandwich in front of her said "What, I'm not good enough?"

The sandwich in front of her mother said "Of course not. You shouldn't exist, mother is gone."

"Don't say that," said the bumblebee sandwich, and it leapt across the table, engaging the Star-Kist sandwich in fierce battle.

Lacey watched, enthralled, and she realized with horror that the Star-Kist had gained the upper hand, and was gnawing at the other. At that moment, Lacey's father's typewriter landed with a thud on the table. It typed furiously, and words appeared on the page. "Can't we all just get along?" It protested, but the sandwiches wouldn't stop. The typewriter finally succeeded in pulling the Star-Kist off the bumblebee, and Lacey turned to her mother to see if she had seen the oddity of the fight, only to find her mother had been replaced with a giant peanut butter and tuna sandwich herself.

"What's wrong? I my brand not good enough for you Lacey?" The sandwich spoke with her mother's voice, and was waving generic peanut butter in one hand, and throwing cans of off-brand tuna at her like throwing stars with the other. Lacey managed to dodge the first, but the second one struck her in the head. She shrieked, and the typewriter hoped up to intervene, but it was knocked down by the next can of tuna.

A flood of smaller sandwiches piled into the room, and started their own battles. Lacey tried to escape, but one of the sandwiches won over the others, and blocked her way to the door. The sandwich took the form of her mother, and said, "I'm hungry Lacey, and I'm tired of tuna and peanut butter."

Her mother's hands were covered with peanut butter, and Lacey felt as if she were shrinking as she tried to run away. Sticky hands picked her up, and thrust her into a slimy, fishy mouth. "Albacore!" Lacey yelled, certain she faced her final doom. A rumbling shook the floor, and shook her free from her mother's hands. The earthquake split the floor of the kitchen, and Lacey fell in, hitting her head, and blacking out.

She sat up, and saw that she had been in bed the entire time. She slipped out of bed, and fell through the crack in the bedroom floor. She fell and fell, but landed on something soft after a while. It took her a moment to realize it was a creature, a mammoth to be exact. She looked around, and noticed the mammoth was equipped with some sort of device on its sides. She was looking at the gun-like devices when she heard a loud roar, and saw the form of a giant t-rex over her. She mashed the trigger on the gun, and a laser shot out of the barrel, stunning the dinosaur. She went to move away, and saw another T-Rex behind her, "Now that wasn't very sporting of you, lassie, was it?" Lacey wondered at the English accent on the beast, wondering why it sounded like Cary Elwes from that Robin Hood movie. As if he could read her thoughts, the dinosaur said, "It makes us sound sophisticated, doesn't it? It's hard to kill in cold blood a creature that sounds as if it is from your mother land."

Lacey shook her head, and shot this t-rex with a laser. "I never liked that accent" she said, and found that the dinosaurs were reviving. She directed the mammoth out of the area as she tried to figure out the controls on the laser, to make them deadly. Many English voices cried up in protest, but she ignored them, mashing buttons at random now.

The mammoth made good time, and soon they were far enough away that Lacey could take the opportunity to see that the creature was taking her through her hometown. Then, on the roof she saw a familiar figure in black, watching the proceedings. And she knew that she had to reach him, that the fighting, the dinosaurs and sandwiches, even her mother, had been distractions to keep her from noticing him. Flinging herself off the mammoth, she ran closer to the mystery man, whose face was still hidden, even though she knew that she should know what it looked like.

As always the man seemed to be getting further away from her. She cried out in frustration, and woke up to her own scream.

Logan woke up from the dream, and was shaking. He made his way to Lacey's room, and saw her just sitting up herself. He could see the relief on her face as she saw him, though she was clutching her stomach.

"I guess the sandwich didn't sit right with you?" Logan said, and watched as she turned slightly green. He fetched a bottle of Tums from her bathroom, and handed them to her.

When she had taken one, and a big sip of her water, she looked at him. "I still couldn't reach you."

Logan shook his head. "Are all your dreams that weird?"

Lacey shook her head, still looking slight green around the gills. "No, but I did it, right. You saw the dream, and I kept it. We should check if the device caught it."

Logan blinked down at her. "I'm not sure I want to ever experience that one again."

Lacey hit him, "That's not the point," she said, and excused herself to the bathroom. Logan stood up and headed back to his own room, confident in the fact that their supply of tuna would quickly be disposed of, and perhaps all the peanut butter as well. He lay back down in his bed, and reached over to pull the necklace from the holder on the nightstand. He was ready for a night of dreamless sleep.

***

Margot got back to the house in as foul a mood as when she had left. Margot had spent too much energy on the database project for work, only to find that Rose was back, and was now filtering the records that were being used in the trial. Rose had also been assigned to supervise the temp workers and interns when they started on the project, meaning that Margot's actions were hindered.

Dresden met her at the door, but she pushed out some of her mood on him *Not now* she thought at him, and he retreated into her room. She curled up on the bed, but it was no good. She kept hearing the voice of the first intern who had arrived, a friend of Rose's named Trevor. He had a way of speaking that made his breath seem uneven. He also had poor control on the pitch, each sentence rising at the end, as if he was an endless question. Everything else he spoke was in his breathy monotone, interspersed with snorts and wheezes. Just thinking about it made her mad again.

She stormed out of the room, and went to find Kyle. Usually he had a way to make her feel better. She found him sitting at the table across from Dresden, looking at a box on the table.

*What's that* Margot asked, walking over and putting her head on the table. Dresden looked up, but didn't startle this time, as he had when he saw her earlier. She considered that a good sign. With the way things were going, she couldn't afford for him to be scared of her in this form.

"I don't know. Courier dropped it off while you were out. Did you get more books?"

Margot shook her head. *No*

Kyle spoke then, "Don't be mad. I order them for you."

Margot turned her small eyes to the blond youth. He looked ashamed, and she wondered what he had managed to do this time. *Well, I can't open it in this form, so will you do it for me?* she said, and Kyle was bouncing off the seat to reach the box.

He tore it open the box, but held his body between Margot to hide the contents. He turned to look down at her again. "Are you sure you won't be mad?"

*What is it Kyle?*

And then he was holding his hands with a box set of DVDs, awaiting her approval. It was season four of Xena. Margot blinked at him, then looked at the set again.

*Does that one have Ides of March?*

Kyle nodded, and Margot sent out a wave of warm feelings to him. *Thank you*

"Do you want to watch it?"

*Yes, that would be nice.*

Kyle left the room. Margot could feel the disbelief radiating from her other pet. She turned to look at the gray haired man. *Yes?*

"You... You watch XENA?"

She glared at him, and turned her head away. *Let's just say I started to study them for my own reasons, but found that I can really relate to some of the episodes*

"You watch Xena?"

*Look, I'm in a bad mood. You can either stay and watch with me, or sit here and work, or you can go home. But don't expect me to humor any more stupid questions.* she thought at him, and stormed off to the living room where Kyle was waiting.

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Nov. 27

2007-11-28T03:42:14Z

...I feel like a bum. I was getting suggestions (and questions) tonight as I was writing, but I failed to notice my comments box had stopped refreshing. So it looked like I was ignoring the person who had come and was graciously making suggestions :-( I'll be adding it to my scene tomorrow.
___________________________

Dresden's mind was reeling. Margot had accepted his terms with little resistance. He was glad for that little, however. If she had flat-out agreed to them, he knew he would have doubts about her sincerity of keeping them, especially the part about using her power on him.

When Kyle had arrived with food, they had all gone inside. Dresden asked the young man if he would be willing to help grade papers for his class. Kyle had stared at him for a moment, then his eyes got wide. He had turned to Margot, who nodded her approval, and then turned back to Dresden. "If you're sure... I mean, I don't want to mess them up."

Dresden had told Kyle that he would show him what to do, and double-check his work periodically, and Kyle was practically glowing the rest of the night.

Margot had kept their conversation light, and Dresden could tell she was still uncomfortable with revealing exactly what it was he was looking for. She mentioned a new project at her job, and managed to steer the conversation to safer places most of the night. When she sent Kyle to fetch a pitcher of tea, she turned to Dresden with an apology. "I know I promised to tell you everything, but I hope you'll allow me a day to gather my thoughts? To find the best way to explain it to you?"

Dresden looked at her across the table, and for the first time he felt he was looking at an equal. He hadn't noticed the submissive feeling that had persisted in all their past interactions; an effect of her inherent power, Dresden now knew. He had relented. "Tomorrow, then?"

"Yes, tomorrow. I will tell you, though, that the matter is urgent - so I really don't dare wait any longer. My power is waning, a result of events I'll reveal to you tomorrow. But if I don't find an answer in the next month or two, I'll loose all my real power, and be stuck in dragon form forever."

After dinner, Dresden went home. Lional looked up as he passed the living room. "You working for that woman again?" his roommate asked.

Dresden nodded. He had been ranting about his situation for the past several days, and his housemates had even taken the time to listen from time to time. To Dresden's surprise, they seemed to have a sympathetic ear between them. Guido thought he should ditch working for Margot, and Lional had insisted that if he thought they could work around the personality differences (Dresden hadn't elaborated on this, because he knew his roommates would think him insane if he said his unease lay in the fact that Margot was a dragon); Raul had been quiet on the issue, nodding in sympathy when Dresden explained his predicament, but only shrugging when Dresden asked what he should do. Sally, on the other hand, had voiced her opinion with a squawk "Get outta here, bum".

"I start again tomorrow. I figured a bit more money could never hurt."

Lional gave a chuckle at that, and shook his head. "I really hope you're in it for more than the money. With women it always gets more complicated, and if it's just the money as your reward ... well, even I'm not sure it's worth it, then."

Dresden excused himself, and headed to get a shower. He was exhausted, honestly. It had taken a lot of energy to gather the courage needed to confront Margot. But it had paid off, and he was looking forward to the next day, if with a little trepidation.

What was it exactly that was affecting Margot, and why would it cause her to loose her power?

Dresden slipped on some pajamas, and crawled into bed, not minding his wet hair. His thoughts whirled around, and he knew even as he slipped into sleep that he would definitely be having some weird dreams tonight.

***

Lacey watched Logan sleep a while, and was amazed at how still he was as he was receiving dreams from other people. Every once and a while he would sigh, and shift, but Lacey noticed it was those times that the device was searching for a new subject, the previous dream having ended.

Lacey looked at the controls on the nightstand, and wondered if she could affect which dreamer he got. She waited until the device indicated it was between dreams, and she began playing with some of the controls. Light flickered behind her, and she saw the visual output device had been activated, and looked like a screen with small images on it, some of them grayed out, some of them in vivid color. She looked over the images, and realized they were people she had touched during the day while wearing the necklace - people she had collected.

Some of them had stats next to them, and she wondered if Logan knew about this feature. It seemed to keep a log of the number of dreams collected, as well as date they were collected. She presumed the grayed out images were those subjects not currently asleep. She looked over the images, and saw that one of the men she had gathered that day already had a dream file, but all the dreams were from a while ago. She figured out how to navigate the screen, and selected that dreamer. Logan gave a soft sigh, and slipped into the dream with the gray-haired fellow she had met at the shoe store.

Dresden, that was his name. He had seemed a bit strange, and said he was the housemate to Guido, one of her clients. She had been surprised when the smaller man had opened the shoe store, and had decided it would be the perfect place to gather more subjects. As Logan slept, she scanned through the images, until she finally found her own. It was ringed in orange, and there were statistics of when she dreamed, but indications that the device was unable to hone in to them. She tried to explore further, to see if the device could give further insight as to why her dreams were inaccessible.

She hit mis-navigated, and suddenly a dream appeared in place of the list. Lacey looked over the image, and realized that it was the dream that Logan was currently collecting. She found the sound controls, and turned them on low, so she could hear what was going on, as well.

The dreamer, both Logan and Dresden, Lacey realized, though Logan was a hitchhiker on the dream, was standing in front of a classroom. The students there were an odd mix of actual students, and a mob of people waiving plastic swords at him. They were all laughing as he tried to give a lecture on the appearance of mythical creatures in Shakespeare.

He looked down, and he was wearing very flashy shoes, a pair that Lacey recognized from the shop, a showgirl had worn them in a famous show in Vegas decades ago. The dreamer looked up, looking for escape, but he was surrounded by laughing faces. Lacey was surprised when the dreamer turned, and faced a blonde haired woman with green streaks in her hair. She was wearing a flight attendant outfit, and had a captain's hat under her arm. "Just fly out," the dream-her was saying. "I'll give you a lift."

The dream shook his head. "No thanks, I'll fly on my own." He looked down again at his shoes and his feet had turned into scaled claws. The dream her looked down at the new form, and said, "Okay, have a good flight." And the four-legged dreamer pushed off, just missing the grasping hands from the people who surrounded him. But the ceiling was gone, and replaced with open sky. The form took flight, and spiraled higher and higher, then swooped down towards the sea. In the imperfect reflection of the waves, it could see it's new form, a great scaly dragon.

Voices still called to him, laughing at him, but he simply breathed fire at them. "I told you to pay attention to the mythical beasts in literature." he said. "They were important all along."

The dream faded out, and Logan stirred. Lacey turned back to the device, shutting the sound off again. She set the subject selector to random, and went to bed herself, shaking her head. It was amazing the crazy things that happened in people's dreams.

***

Dragon dreams invaded Margot's sleep again, even though she had gone to bed in her human from. Memories from her distant past, that she had hoped had been buried with the passage of time, were now coming back to haunt her.

The worst of them echoed pain over the centuries, and she felt it as though she were in the moment. Anger overtook her as she relived the day the curse had been set - the blasted spell that had set in motion a vicious spiral, that had marked the beginning of the end of decent.

Memories replayed emotions as well as the facts of the events, as she slept, Margot was puffing with righteous anger. Her own words echoed in her mind, spoken with distain and arrogance "You are small and squishy. Please cease and desist or I shall be forced to crush you."

The laughter that had answered those words, the flash of magic, and the sudden loss of senses. She remembered it felt as though she had been cut from her power, and that scared her more than anything. The dream was unforgiving, and didn't fade blissfully away at that point, but rather thrust forward to the revival of senses, hearing regained first carrying the smug tone of the spell caster. "You claim to be so powerful - let's see how you handle this."

Vision followed quickly after, then the sense of the body. And the sudden realization of what had happened. The anger, the fear and distain. The rage to get vengeance. But she'd had to walk away at that point; the spell had also weakened her own power.

But she vowed to return, to get retribution. In her dreams, however, the moment of her humiliation was revisited over and over. When Margot finally awoke, she was exhausted from the emotional tempest that had swept her in her sleep. She gathered herself, and managed to put on a smile, but underneath she was seething.

One way or another, this time it would be the end of it.

****

"So, did you have any interesting dreams last night? Anything useful?"

Logan closed his eyes against the unforgiving daylight. Lacey casually held one of his hands as she served up breakfast. He didn't understand how she could be so chipper in the mornings.

"Maybe," Logan said, stifling a yawn. He reached with his free hand for his orange juice, gulping it down.

"I learned something interesting. Did you know that you can view dreams on the visual output while they're being collected?"

"Um, no," Logan shook his head. "But then I'm usually asleep when they're being collected, so how exactly should I have known that?"

Lacey shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe the past yous build it this way because they, you, knew that you would have someone helping you. Someone who could use the interface and select which dreamer you got, for instance."

Logan arched an eyebrow. "Another feature?"

"Yep. Pretty cool, actually, though I only used it once before I went to bed. I think I'll go in to work today."

"Which dream did you see, then?"

"One with Dresden, the gray-haired guy. I was in it, actually, and then he turned into a dragon and flew away. What?"

Logan stared at the toast. Something about that dream had bothered him, but he couldn't pinpoint what. "I remember that dream," he finally said.

Lacey let go of his hand, and picked up a piece of toast and the butter knife. Even as her hand moved away, her bare foot reached out and touched his under the table. But she didn't say anything.

"It was one of the ones I wanted to review again," Logan admitted. "I've seen his dreams before, but this one was different. The other ones...they were just as weird, don't get me wrong, but they, they felt different."

"Do you think he could be the one you're looking for?"

"I don't know."

"Well, I know where he lives, if it helps."

Logan found himself surprised again. "Really?"

Lacey merely nodded, and bit into her freshly buttered toast.

Logan gave a sigh, and picked up his own toast. "Well, it might be worth checking out, I guess." As he finished breakfast, he wondered which he wanted more, for a lead to finally pan out, or for it to be a false alarm.

Given the nerves that were playing havoc on his stomach, he suspected it was the later.

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