A New Friend

[xifeng]

Work was not worth writing about, other than to say that if you have enough money to own three different pieces of property, you should be sure you have enough money to PAY YOUR FUCKING MORTGAGE on three different pieces of property. When you don't, and I have to get full copies, meaning the complaint and judgment, which usually evens out to about 10 pages and thus $10 per file, on every single last one of your foreclosed properties, I come to the conclusion that you deserve to die. Thxsomuch for your attention to this matter.

Today, a skinny little black-and-white cat clambered about on the porch. (I learned about this the same way I learn about all potential cats: I caught Callice screaming at him/her/it.) Initially, I wasn't sure if it was a kitten or if it was just an extremely small and malnourished adult cat, and put out some food and water for it; it let me pet it, though didn't purr discernibly, and puttered into the yard to thrash around and heroically climb the bushes. It turns out that the grey cat who is Callice's archnemesis is the black-and-white kitten's mommy. She allowed it to get up on the porch and eat some of the food I put out for it; the kitten's response was, basically, "nom nom nom i has many kibbles" and the momcat's response to my being there was closer to, "Well, okay, you might be all right even if the Ferocious Parti-Coloured Beast doesn't want us here."

Callice was Not Happy about the fact that I petted the kitten and then petted her with the same hand, but she graciously condescended to receive pets anyway.

Thus, we disprove m0mmy's hypothesis that Callice mightn't be threatened by a kitten (her theory is that a kitten could show Callice how to use the litterbox, and my theory is that Callice, if left alone with a kitten, could kill and eat it and then destroy the Midwest with a flood of pee).

I may be going to Bloomington tomorrow. I may also be waiting until Monday, since that's when the books are actually due and the odds of my having work for then are pretty slim, but I'd rather do it when class isn't in session and there's a place to park.

Also, because it is Friday, here is a meme I stole from dethorats! This one is behind a cut, in case you don't care about my rich fantasy life, which is not of general interest. :D


1. Pick one of my characters, any one.
2. I will tell you the origin of his/her/its name. [WARNING: With me, this is liable to be "it came to me" or "it felt right".]
3. I will tell you some random facts surrounding his/her/its creation.
4. I will give you a brief summary of his/her/its backstory, if you desire. Indicate yes or no.
5. You may ask me up to ten questions about the character.

Characters I am at all competent to discuss:

RP Madness
Saul Varthema
Tsai Sin-feng
Meredith Lynch
Akita Yukichi
Fujioka Shirôzaemon

T3h n0v3l OMG [WARNING: Spoil0rz may lurk in the darque troubled waters.]
Ketau
Salki
Teigu
Elina Vandel
(If there's a minor character who intrigues you, go for it, but be aware that the answer may be, "Duuuuuhhhhhh...")

Other Shit What I Done Wrote
Anna
Miadhán ni Míbhain
Taren Derai


Have fun. :D

Comments

One!

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

Being a dissertation on Miadhan. Acute marks left out because LJ hates that when you reply via e-mail D: I've no clue how much of this will be familiar, since I still keep working on it intermittently and it's evolved like whoa in the intervening 12 years or so. XD

Onomastics: I think I got the name, loosely, from Liadhan in Mark of the Horse Lords by Rosemary Sutcliff, which I read part of when I was around 11 and never finished. XD The acute mark was added in about 1999 and indicates the stressed syllable. "Ni" is a particle gacked from Irish Gaelic which means "daughter of", and Mibhain, of course, is her father's name. Internally, the name is derived from the name of the Dunlean indigenes' moon-goddess.

Amazing Origin!: Gym class in 1991, during the archery unit. At 11, I thought it was a pity that there weren't enough ass-kicking female archers. XD Mia has become more of a swordswoman in the intervening years, but she began as an archer. She was originally supposed to be someone's distant ancestor who died mysteriously, but I liked her, so I kept her alive for much longer.

As for appearance: at the time, I liked black hair and green eyes, not realizing that the Mary Sues would overrun this particular coloring many years later. XD In my defense, among Mibhain's people Mia's looks are not considered particularly exotic, and just to be sure of avoiding the Sue Curse, I've also inflicted upon her small breasts, a large ass, and an, uh, extremely prominent nose.

Career Highlights, Extremely Abridged Version: When Mia was a young child, her mother and younger brother died of plague, and she was raised first by her paternal aunt and then by her father's guest-friend, one Prince Andrel. She was inseparable from young Taren Derai, with whom she tasted warfare for the first time (she had more fondness for it than he; Taren missed his calling). Married rather too young, to an eccentric and well-meaning Elf who just didn't get her; had their only child; and quickly came to find domestic life stifling, so bolted back to Evis to return to Taren. They were inseparable, as before, for another ten years until they had a falling-out, which was never resolved.

Returning to Dunlea resulted in massive upheaval: a writ of divorce (privately) and the growing civil strife due to the country's unresolved ethnic issues and political vicissitudes (publicly). When said strife erupted into out-and-out war, Mia reluctantly took up arms again and led a faction, like her father before her. Eventually, after a whole bunch of crap that I haven't got straight in my own mind, she emerged victorious, and was summarily crowned queen--not a job title she'd particularly wanted, but one she'd proven strong enough to hold. Reigned ten years, died peacefully in her sleep.

Damn, two paragraphs for a character I've had 16 years. Go me! I am the mistress of condensation! XD