544. Notes as Motes

ed note: sometimes I get stuck. usually because I'm taking myself and The Story too seriously. sometimes because I read great authors and upon the reading feel as if I've completely forgotten how to write or that what I write is such tripe as to waste the time it takes to write and wastes the time of those who attempt to read. sometimes I'm just out of ideas, interesting ideas, of where to take the story. when this happens, you get a chapter like the one below. each of the snippets could and perhaps should be a full chapter in its own right, and one or two just might be expanded. forgive my stuckness and feel free to skip the tripe below although I'm not promising tomorrow's tripe will be any better.

"So, tell me more about his message?" asked Kyra.

"Don't really know anymore than I've told you," said John. "What's wrong with your nose?"

"Nose bleed. Can't seem to get it to stop."

"Let me see."

__________

"Is there a chapel?" asked Von.

The servitor displayed a virtual map of a building a few hundred yards away. Von took note, nodding his thanks. A few minutes later, standing in the courtyard, his eyes sore from the sight, sore of memory forgotten, the chapel stood, an object, as chapels should he thought, with a gravity and presence beyond stone and mortar, wood and banner. Creed mattered not. He opened the door and walked into the expanse, tradition and ritual breathing, him, breathing life into soul, stoking memories of Tao sanctuaries back on Hyneria, reminding him of what was and what was never to be again.

__________

Em motioned and Trev followed. "I've got a problem," she said.

"Look, this is not what it looks like."

"You ever notice that when you get nervous you repeat the same word."

"I'm not nervous. I'm concerned."

"You should be."

"I don't know what your problem is but Mairi was there when I needed her and I fully intend to be there for her now."

"I'm not talking about Mairi."

__________

"Rog, you wanna get your message? You know, we haven't heard from anyone since we landed."

"No, not really."

"Well, I think I will."

"No, I don't think so."

After a short and playful wrestling match with Yul on top, her knees on either side of his chest and his comm to her ear, Rog noticed a change in her demeanor. "What's up?"

Handing him the comm she said, "I think you need to listen to this."

__________

Kyra held her head back and removed the bloody cloth. John webbed his hand to the back of her head, looking, looking a little too long without speaking.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure, but I think we should head to the hospital."

"Are you serious? For a nose bleed?"

"Yes. How quickly can you be ready?"

543. Ochlesis

Trev took Mairi to the back bedroom and laid her on the bed facing the ocean. She had felt lighter in his arms than he remembered, her hair more faded, her skin paler. Gently, he took a wet cloth and wiped the dry blood from her lips. She looked at him as a puppy looks at his master long gone, now returned.

Em stood on the other side of the bed, watching, as much Trev as Mairi. To her eye, he seemed different. His face looked different and his voice sounded different. She wasn't asked to help and as if an invisible wall existed between her and the two of them, she felt oddly out of place, no real reason, just an uneasy feeling, a tightening of gut, a stirring of intuition.

With tender strokes, Trev wiped her forehead and then her cheeks. Mairi looked up, her eyes on Trev as were his on hers. Em felt like jumping up and down. Yelling hey. I'm here too. She resisted. With effort. Strained ugly effort. The kind of effort to surpress nausea. A temporary fix.

Mairi spoke first. The back of Trev's hand resting on her cheek. "Just like old times, huh," she said, taking his hand in hers, holding it tight to her face.

Em's eyes locked on Trev, big as owls, the skin on her face tight. Trev looked up, a feeling not so different from a vise gripping his chest, from hand to eye, from Mairi to Em. He shrugged.

Mairi continued. "Remember the time?" Her voice but a whisper. Em leaned. Mairi repeated the query. "Remember?"

Em looked at Trev. The kind of look found in the courtroom. A look expectant. A look that had all day for an answer.

Trev remained silent. Em exploded. "Answer the question!"

__________

Ed note: Mairi is referencing three previous chapters in particular:

With Considerable Effort

First Time

Outtake #2: Ministrations

542. Revenant

John opened his duffel bag, feet solid on the ground, shoulders squared, back straight. His hair was cropped short, his face shaved, nails clipped military neat. To the left, he re-folded his underwear, tucking the cloth neatly into the corner of his bag. Socks along the sides like tires on the outside of a tugboat. His pressed shirts took second tier, one laid upon the other head to toe and toe to head, rising in equal measure by design.

Ariel sat to his left on a stool and watched. This was her dad. His routine was him and what was him was a part of her. His attention to detail, care, organization, neatness. All of it. "Daddy, why do you pack like that?" she asked, not so much to know the answer but to hear him say it; and not so much to hear him say it, but to hear how he said it, the tone, the sureness, the confidence in 'his way.'

John stopped, a shirt in his hands. "Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Ariel twirled her feet, toes pointing down. With innocence or precociousness, John could not tell, she asked the question he left hanging. "What big thing are you worried about?"

John smiled. Ariel was a very intelligent and observant adult trapped in a six year old body, or if he closed his eyes this would be the impression created, namely, that talking to Ariel was not like talking to a child and he wondered if she had been quite this way prior to Kyra taking her into the divine or if, Janus forbid, he had just never noticed before, been gone too much as Cait was wont to remind him. Yanking the thought as a weed for fear of it rooting is his tender psyche, he quickly responded. "I'm worried that what I once knew I've forgotten and what I once knew is that everything matters, no matter how insignificant. I once knew that we paid for everything in the currency of time and nothing went without cost, a price, of money once exchanged that could never be refunded." John placed the shirt on the bed and leaned over, his eyes level with hers. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Ariel stared into his large deep eyes and without a blink of hesitation said: "You're saying if you don't hug me right now and tell me you love me, that my bank account of hugs and I love you's will always be one short."

John opened his arms to match his smile. Ariel wrapped his neck with little arms like vines. "And dad, one more thing."

"What's that Sweetie?"

"Mommy told me her bank account was full."

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Commentary and Reading posted on the Podcast page: Revenant

Audio can also be found on iTunes: Story Podcasts

541. Never

"Are you just gonna stand there?" asked Em. Trev hesitated. "Pick her up."

Trev lifted Mairi into his arms, her legs hanging loose, neck cradled in the crook of his elbow. Between lips dry and cracked she managed one word: "Never."

Zoe held Von's finger like a child to parent, lying in bed white with the eerie stillness of the infirm. Through lips dry and cracked, with eyes opened to another world, she spoke in a paper thin whisper. "If I see Ceru before you, I'll tell him how much you love him."

On the nightstand, Rog's comm blinked. Lost in the space of union divine, memories of one betraying the physicality of the other, eyes open, to the movies of his mind. Yul was too high to care, too lost in lust to wonder.

Kyra stood before the ocean, her chest matching the gentle swells. The watchet sky, endless as the hazy horizon. Licking her lips, an odd copper taste in her mouth. Reaching forth, her white fingers returned crimson bright, her gut tight in intuition.

"Dad?" asked Ariel. "Are you okay?"

John nodded, listening to the last message on his comm, sender unknown. "Your friends are in trouble. You've been warned."



---------

The head Chatelaine stood before the new class. We have, she said, many rules, and in time you will learn them all as the wind learns the path between the trees. However, as the full moon bows before the rising sun, we have one rule above all others. She paused, eyes glassing the room, looking through the new recruits. Mairi sat straight, hands placed evenly on her desk. The Chatelaine continued. Never become attached to a client. Placing her hands behind her back, she repeated. Never.

Audio on iTunes

A few folks have reported they are unable to listen to the new audio on my Podcasts site (see post below). In an attempt to offer an alternative way to listen, download and subscribe, all the new audio is now available on iTunes. Click the link below to go to The Story Podcasts page.

The Story Podcasts on iTunes

A Snowball and A Sennet

Picked up a new mic today: Blue's Snowball as seen above. To christen my new toy, a reading of Sennet and Theandric--click the links below. Enjoy.

Sennet

and

Theandric

I've also added an enhanced reading of Capiche?, which is to say, as I became Trev in the reading, I allowed him the freedom to embellish the prose--perhaps my favorite kind of reading and an insight into Trev like we've never really had before. Highly emotional.

A reading of Her Patroon added too. I feel like a kid at xmas. :-D

An enhanced reading of As If Janus posted. Worth the effort this one is. Powerful. Enjoy.

My first rough attempt at working in multiple sound tracks. Listen to Coin for a fun render of Taboodja in voice character.

Paintings and Sketches

Although all the paintings and sketches I've done are on this blog and can be found under the appropriate labels, I've created an album that groups them all together (along with a few variations not seen on this site) and can be viewed as a full screen slideshow or one at a time. To view, click on this link: Story Characters

I've decided to also build an album of non-sketched Story characters, which can be found at this link: Non-sketched Story Characters  (there are more of this images than I imagined so consider what you see a work in progress--I'll keep adding images as time permits until the album is complete)

Other albums are also on the drawing board such as Locations and Objects. Stay tuned.