pictures really quick

Just throwing these out here before we leave tomorrow morning for Colorado YAYZ!

I was experimenting with the b/w setting on my camera, and this came out. Pretty!

It was so pretty outside, with one of those epically blue skies that's so intense it hurts to look at it, you know?

The moon through the trees at night. Without flash. Muaa.

Since there was no flash, everything was bllllluuuuuurrrrry. It was windy that day.

Moar blurrrrry goodnezz.

PUMPKINSES!

Appropriate for Thanksgiving, no?

Random photo of my Spanish teacher's dog, Gretchen. I officially proclaim her the Cutest Dog Evah. *squee*

And now you see my comparitively hideous gerbils. Well, Katie is the more hideouser of the two.

Well. That's not awkward at all...

Little lurker.

D'aww. I can't believe I was fast enough to get that picture.

DEMON GERBIL!!!

Kay, off to finish PACKING blaargh. Was in desperate need of a break from that. Yurgh.

Leaving tomorrow at eight in the morning for Colorado, be back next Saturday! Gotta play da piano for the proffessor person at CU Boulder and do a crudload of homework in the car on the way. Blasted ten-hour drive. We are ALL GOING TO DIE. I just know it. Hopefully, mi hermano brought enough books to keep him quietly occupied...

Happy Early Thanksgiving!

Commander Kip

He's supposed to pass out. Dude, pass out!

Normal is overrated!

OYAN banner

A banner I made to put in my sig on the OYAN forums. Don't you just love Morwyn?




Commander Kip
Hey, look, it's a falcon! Or maybe a hawk, or... aw, it was just a leaf.
Normal is overrated!

the epic guts-spilling dialogue

Mah OYAN homework this week. Way too much fun. XD

“So... why?” I asked Fable, keeping one eye on Alethia as we circled around her. The net Fable had thrown over her shimmered with magic sparks. “Why did you kill Kaden? What did he ever do to you?”
His face was twisted in an expression that was part sneer and part scowl. “I killed him because I knew it would hurt you.”
It hurt, all right. The pain was like a hot poker in my chest. I felt tight, stretched, burned. “Okay, so you wanted to hurt me. Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” he spat, hatred smoldering in his eyes. “It isn’t just about you, it was never just about you! I wanted to hurt you in order to hurt Memory. She was far too easy on Mourn, who ruined me. It’s her fault he survived that Council meeting! She was given the chance to finish him, and she chose mercy! Mercy, for the one who should have had none!” The heels of his boots clicked on the tiles as he prowled around the edge of the Inner Sanctum.
Mourn. He always came back to Mourn, even though it was Memory he was after. “Mourn didn’t survive the meeting,” I pointed out. “You killed him.”
“Yes, I killed him, but only because Memory would not! She tried to stop me, you know.” A bitter laugh fell from his lips with the weight of a stone. “She tried to save your father. But I beat her to him, and he finally got the end he deserved.”
Alethia stood, paralyzed, between us as I moved to stay opposite Fable, glancing at the sword he held. Eran’s sword. The sword that stole Kaden’s life. “I still don’t understand what you had against my father,” I said, fighting back the anger that wanted to come broiling out. “What did he ever do to you? From what I can tell, you hated him more than you hate Memory.”
Fable’s eyebrows crashed together as he shouted, “I have everything to hold against Mourn! He beat me! He stole from me! He betrayed me! How could I do else but hate him?”
“I said the same of you, once,” I said. “You’ve done terrible things to me, Fable. Horrible, unforgivable things. But I’m still trying my hardest to forgive you, though I think it might kill me to do it. I think you had a pretty messed-up childhood, but there are better ways to deal with that than revenge. Lashing out probably feels like the natural path to take, but it certainly isn’t the best, or only, one.”
Fable’s snarl rang loud in the vaulted space. “Don’t lecture me!” He looked like he might leap at me and tear me apart.
My knuckles whitened on the hilt of my dagger as I shouted, “Just forgive Mourn already! He’s dead! Why do you go on hating him?”
“I hate him because hate is all I have.” Fable’s voice dropped to a low growl. “I can’t forgive him. And I’m willing to bet that you can’t either.”
“I already did,” I retorted, standing up straight on my once-twisted leg, imagining the scar fading. “It took me long enough, but I did it. We’ve both been hurt by Mourn. I forgave him. Can you?”
He staggered back as if struck. “You’re – you’re not limping,” he whispered. “Why aren’t you limping?”
“I don’t have to. The weight that was crippling me is gone.”
Eran’s sword clattered to the tiles. I felt a flash of compassion for Fable as he slumped to his knees. He looked weak. Weak and alone, and crushed by his own hatred. His brow was knotted in pain. He closed his eyes. “So now it is my turn to ask, ‘Why?’ Why did you try to stop me?”
I still held my dagger, but I feared little from Fable at this point. “Stop you from turning Alethia to stone, like all those other poor Leondreans? I did it because Mirano asked me to... but more than that, it was the right thing to do.”
The laughter was bitter even now. “The right thing? Don’t tell me that was your only motivation, Andra. There must have been something driving you, something inside yourself that kept you after me, even as I stacked up the odds against you. What was it?”
I thought about this as I crossed the Inner Sanctum to stand before Alethia, still frozen in the net. “You might say it was a need to prove a point to myself. I needed to know that I was capable of doing good, and that my father’s evil had not touched me. That was what pushed me out the door in the first place, more than any obligation, although obligation was a part of it.” I knelt and began untangling Alethia from the magic net. “I think I’ve sufficiently proven that point.”
Fable bowed his head. “You have.”
Alethia squirmed in my arms as I tossed Fable’s net away and got to my feet. “All right then. Now that we have that settled, I’m taking Alethia back to her parents. I think they will be very happy to see her.”

Fable be pwnd. I like him more and more as I get to know him, isn't that weird? I keep finding out all these interesting things about him, like the fact that he knew Andra's father when he was a child on the streets of Amren, and killed him later, and was Memory's apprentice for a while, and used to be called Briar... all sorts of interesting stuff.

Commander Kip
Missed it by THAT much...
Normal is overrated!

Savvy, Part Five (at long last. Yeesh.)

Yes, I finally sat down and finished this. It's... long. Very long. And it was going to be even LONGER, but then I realized that I had three pages and counting and I was like O.o... never mind.

This time: We get to follow Timo as he demonstrates his ninja skillz and saves Baeli from Certain Death! Muaa. And then Baeli, being her awesome self, turns around and saves his butt right back.

Part Five: Timo
Disclaimer: Derek, Timo, Jakky, Baeli and Cricket (and the briefly mentioned front desk lady) are mine... but nothing else is.

Even though I ran all the way from my cube in Data Central, I barely made it into the Hub ahead of the lockdown sequence. By the time I got there, slightly out of breath, the doors were closing. Drat. In an unorthodox maneuver that I hadn’t had the chance to rehearse previously, I completely skipped the authorization phase and dove over the door, rolling into a crouch on the other side. Behind me, I heard the whistle and bang of the sleeper cannons firing. I ignored them and made for Baeli’s station, grinning to myself. Ha. Missed me, cannons.
Derec had miraculously beaten me there. He was already peering at Baeli’s computer screen, head cocked in confusion.
I jogged up and peered with him. “Hey, guys, find anything?”
Baeli scrunched her nose up in a frustrated scowl, fingers flying over the keys. “No. Derec was just asking me the same thing. And the answer, unfortunately, is the same.”
“Where’s Jakky?” Derec asked suddenly, twisting in his seat to look at me. “Last thing I heard, he was still in the chem lab with the Professeur. Did he get here or no?”
I conducted a quick visual scan of the Hub. Nowhere in the confusion of technicians and agents and humming machinery did I see my friend or his mentor. “Guess not. I don’t see him.”
Derec made a face. “Darn. I thought he could’ve made it. The chem lab is pretty close to here.”
“Well, I don’t see him,” I repeated. He must not have made it in. I frowned, worried. “Maybe I should go look for him.”
S.P. Onage jogged up to us, his new cadet trailing behind him. “Timo, do me a favor and keep an eye on Cricket for me. Show her the Hub. Don’t let her get into trouble.”
The cadet pouted and crossed her arms. “Trouble? Me? Since when do I get in trouble?”
I rolled my eyes at Derek behind the cadet’s back. This was not going to be fun. “Sure. Stick close to me, Cadet, and I’ll show you around.” I am definitely going to regret this.
Onage strode away, barking orders to various technicians and the more lowly agents. I got the feeling he was glad to be rid of his new cadet for a while. Blowing out a sigh, I beckoned Cricket toward Baeli’s tech station. Derek scootched his chair over so she could see the screen. Baeli ignored us all, clacking keys at a furious speed.
“Cadet, this is Derek Andy and Baeli Jones. I’m Timo,” I said. “Baeli’s our software specialist. Find anything, Bae?”
“Actually… yes,” she said slowly. Her eyes grew wide behind her glasses. “The one place I didn’t think to check…”
“Guys! G-guys!” Jakky ran up to us, puffing for breath and waving his arms. “Get under the d-desk! L-like, n-n-n-now!”
The cadet gave him a critical once-over. “Who’s the nutcase?”
“That’s Jakky.” I flapped a distracted hand in the cadet’s direction, then addressed Jakky with some concern. “What’s up? We didn’t see you and the Professeur come in. What kept you?”
Jakky’s eyes were even wider than Baeli’s. He stuffed the cadet under Baeli’s desk, stuttering, “W-we ran into the f-front desk lady on the w-way h-h-here –“
“The ceiling!” Baeli screamed. “They’re coming in through the –“
All of a sudden, the Hub exploded.
The ceiling fractured into a zillion pieces that began to fall the dozens of feet to the floor. The world shook. I was hurled onto my face. People were screaming as large chunks of ceiling came hurtling down towards us, along with a swarm of men in black jumpsuits on rappelling cables. I rolled onto my back in time to see the giant slab of concrete that was about to land on top of me.
Acting on instinct, I reached out and grabbed Baeli, who had landed near me, and hurled both of us out of the way. The debris crashed down behind us, the shockwave of its impact knocking us flat again. I lurched to my feet, Baeli’s stiff, frightened body clutched to my chest. The long row of desks, just a few feet away, was largely buried under ceiling detritus, but I staggered to it anyway and crawled under Baeli’s cubicle. Cricket was there, cowering back into the cramped space, her small face pale. I set Baeli down.
“Baeli, are you okay? Baeli!”
Her glasses were broken. A shallow cut scored one cheekbone. She wiped away the trickle of blood with a shaking hand. “I… yeah. I’m okay. Where are the others?”
Another explosion rocked the Hub as damaged electronic equipment blew. On the desk above us, the computer monitor sparked out with a startling bang. The cadet jumped and screamed, high and shrill. “I’ll be back,” I said, and ducked out into the chaos again. Immediately, I dove for the nearest pile of shattered concrete as a Nastonian in a black jumpsuit aimed a projectile weapon at me. I heard the bullet slam into the other side of the pile, and dashed towards the center of the Hub. The six-foot holographic globe that normally dominated the space was flickering precariously, sparks flying from the projectors beneath it. A hand clamped down on my arm and yanked me down beside the projector base.
“What’s going on? Where’s my cadet?” Onage demanded, crushing my upper arm in his steely grip. “Is she safe?”
“For now, sir,” I replied, trying not to wince. “She and Baeli are under Baeli’s desk. I don’t get how all these Nasties –“
Onage jerked me to the side as another bullet shattered the plastoid next to my head. Chips of it stung my face. “The roof,” Onage said briefly. The robot half of his face looked no different than normal, but his human eyebrow was hooded in a fierce scowl of… pain?
I noticed the dark bloodstain marring the leg of his pants. “Sir, you’re injured…”
“Same darned leg,” he grunted with the barest trace of humor. “Now get on back there and keep Cricket safe. Go!”
He hurled me away from him, out into the melee. Glancing over my shoulder as I dodged flying bullets and broken concrete, I saw Onage grappling with a Nastie, the two of them rolling over each other in the mess of papers and debris that blanketed the floor. I debated for a split second, then decided that Onage could handle himself. I turned back around and ran smack into a Nastonian.
The man grunted and swung the butt of his tri-mode rifle at me as he stumbled back. I ducked under the swing and knife-kicked him in the knee, then flipped out of the way as he toppled with another grunt. “You Nasties don’t have a very big vocabulary, do you?” I said, relieving him of his gun.
As I ran back to the desk, I fiddled with the Nastie weapon and set it to sleeper mode. The next Nastie that took aim at me was gonna get knocked into next week.
Baeli had gotten hold of a laptop somehow and was clacking away at it with a fury. Cricket peered over her shoulder. I slid into the space beside them, still clutching the rifle. “S.P. wanted me to come back here, so I didn’t get the chance to look for Jak and Rex. You two okay?”
“Fine, thanks,” Baeli replied, squinting through her cracked glasses at the screen. “I’m trying to get the internal sleepers online… but the password’s changing every thirty seconds… so every time I’m close to cracking it –“
“Whoa, every how many seconds?”
“Thirty. It’s security protocol.”
A spray of bullets hammered into the side of the desk. “Just a sec,” I said, and crawled out of the space.
A pair of Nasties were firing slugs into the desk frame. I nailed one with a sleeper burst from my rifle and sailed into the other feet first. He went down with me standing on his chest. The first guy snored beside him.
I was so busy feeling good about myself that I failed to notice the gun barrel poking me in the back of the head for a good five seconds. “Where is it?” demanded the Nastie standing behind me. “Tell me where it is, or I’ll shoot!”
I may have some skills, but I’m not stupid. I dropped my rifle and watched it clatter on the floor. “Where’s what?”
“The Specimen!” the guy shouted. “Where is the Specimen?”
I wondered if I was going to get any help getting this guy off me. Glancing around, I realized that the fight was as good as over. Black suits were everywhere, herding our people into groups, gesturing with rifle barrels. I was very conscious of the barrel jammed to the base of my neck as I carefully answered, “I have no clue what you’re talking about, I swear. Seriously. I’ve never heard of this Specimen thing.”
I heard a click. “Tell me where it is NOW.”
Oh, crap. Clicking is usually not good. It usually means a weapon is being cocked, or something equally frightening. I felt my shoulders tense.
The next thing I knew, there was a whistle and a bang behind me. The Nastie grunted, and the cold metal of the gun barrel fell away from my neck. I twisted around in time to see the black suit slump to the floor, unconscious. Confused, I scanned the rest of the Hub… and watched in complete disbelief as every single Nastie on the premises crumpled to the ground.
Baelie scrambled out from under her mangled desk with Cricket on her heels. The cadet punched a fist into the air. “Yeah, take that, stinking Nasties!”
Ah. That explained things. “I take it you got the internal sleepers working,” I remarked to Baeli, prodding the senseless black suit at my feet with a toe. She nodded, straight-faced, pushing a few strands of hair out of her eyes. “How’d you guess?”

*danves* Go Baeli, go Baeli, uh-huh, what now! Does she not pwn you all with her madskillz? Anyway, this is only a slight cliffie. What Specimen was that Nastie yammering about, I wonder?

Yo, Lady Arin... would you happen to know when Miss Jasper's birthday is?

Commander Kip
We're gonna need a bigger jail...
Normal is overrated!

Ashes

Aaaand it's done!! This pic has been eating my life for the last few days. I was gonna put Tears in there too, but he's eluding me at the moment. Picture-shy. I'll keep working on him to cooperate. Ashes is my current favorite character. I just love her attitude. Here's the latest bit from the rp:

The cell door clanged shut. “And stay there!” the guard groused, and turned to leave.
With an unconcerned shrug, Ashes produced an eyepatch from her shirt pocket. It was a black, piratical number equiped with a cord for tying it around one’s head. Ashes fitted the patch over her left eye and leaned back against the dingy stone wall, crossing her clawed feet out in front of her.
Tears shot her a miffed glnace as he used his sleeve to dab at the blood on his forehead. “Seriously, Ashes, why do you wear that thing?”
“It makes me feel cool.” Ashes wiggled her uncovered eyebrow at him. “You should try it sometime.”
“What, feeling cool?” Tears shook his head and winced. “Overrated.”
Ashes laughed.
Glaring at her, Tears kicked out at the bars of the cell. “I fail to see the humor in this situation. We’re stuck in a crusty old jail cell under the city with no mist in sight. You lost the gate key, and those guards could be back to drag us to our deaths any minute. I can’t believe you’re not worried.”
“Why should I be?” Ashes retorted, closing her eyes. “This isn’t bad. At least we don’t have to spend the night in the marsh. And if you’re serious about kicking those bars out, I’ll have you know that you’re going about it the completely wrong way.”
Tears grunted and gave the bars another solid kick. “And how would you go about it, O Mighty Mentor?”
“I would kick the door, for one, not the bars; and I would use my heel and kick it in the middle, where there’s the least resistance,” Ashes drawled without opening her eyes.
Sitting back with an irritated flick of his forelock, Tears gestured to the metal mesh that made up the cell door. “Care to demonstrate?”
Ashes rose in a fluid motion and grinned. “Thought you’d never ask.” Her bare foot shot out, clawed heel connecting powerfully with the center of the mesh. Tears leaped to his feet as the door ripped free of its hinges and clattered to the stone floor.
“Okey dokey, time to go.” Ashes pulled a speechless Tears out of the cell. “Everybody in the building must have heard the clang.”

Uh-huh. FTW. Pwned. And all those other cool words. XD

Commander Kip
Funny... but not okay.
Normal is overrated!

Blood!! Kipin drew blood!!!

And it looks like blood and everything! *leaps about squeeing* Plus, Thaelen. Poor guy. PLUS I'm getting better at hair. XD That was AWESOME!! I was just drawing Thaelen's face in profile, and I got done and thought, Hm, it's kinda plain... lemme see... ooh, I know, let's practice drawing blood and give him a scalp wound or something. And I did. AND THERE WAS BLOOD!! Startling, I know.

Then I had to ruin it by adding color. This just goes to show that Kipin desperately needs a tablet:

*laughs at self* I am such a dork. But I couldn't help coloring it. That was fun. I'm going to bed now.

Commander Kip

BLOOOOOOOD!!!!

Normal is overrated!

my awesome OYAN name card

I love this thing. It has the Tower of Inspiration, the Flying Lobster, the Amoeba of Doom, the Seal of Death, squeefaced Hattie, Stewey being angry, and Kip with her wingses and earses. All that's missing is the chibified Black Pirate of Doom, and maybe an SPNG or two. Hmm. Maybe I'll put Spenga on there later. Epic, no? Here's a closeup of the SoD:

And one of Stew, cuz he's awesome.

Stewey: For the bazillionth time... DON'T CALL ME STEW. It makes me sound like something to eat.

Kip: Well... in some parts of the world, to some people... you are. XD

Is it weird that my charries and I have conversations in my head?

Yeah, he's a little bit funky. Oh well. I stuck him in the Villains Only lounge on the OYAN forum so he could argue with me in public. He and Cerulio both. *shakes head*

Speaking of OYAN, it's going awesome. I love love love it. Everyone who wants to write a novel should take it. The only thing that bothers me is the forbiddenness of adverbs and the near-forbiddenness of adjectives. Then again, I was trying to write Chapter One for IEW, and it felt weird to be allowed to put in as many adverbs as I wanted. I kept going, "O hey, I could actually use an adverb there, whaddaya know?" whereas for OYAN I'm always like, "Adverb time!... wait, no..." So this will be interesting, writing my novel twice, in a different POV each time. When I was writing Chapter One in third, it was like talking about myself in the third person, because I'd only ever written Andra in first, and I always think about her in first, so it was as if I was saying, "Kipin got out of bed and put on her clothes and..." etc. Very strange. After writing in first all the time for three months, my third-person muscle is atrophying.

Commander Kip

English doesn't borrow from other languages. It follows them into dark alleys, knocks them over and rummages in their pockets for loose grammar. XD

Normal is overrated!

Black Ribbons, part 3

Part Three! Wasn't that fast? Be proud of Kippy and her increasing mad typing skillz.

When Juniper woke, she immediately wished she hadn’t. Her shoulder was throbbing fiercely and she was sore from head to foot. Groaning, she rolled from her side onto her back and stared up at a moist, rocky ceiling. Cave, her mind told her. I’m in a cave.
Where’s Jasmine?
“Jasmine?” Juniper mumbled, and sat up. Or tried to. The pain in her shoulder and the pounding in her head quickly convinced her to lie back down with a sharp intake of breath.
“They got you too, huh.”
Juniper almost sat up again, but settled for lifting her head to cast about for the owner of the voice. He was sitting against the cave wall with his arms crossed over his bare chest. Ragged, straw-colored hair nearly obscured his red eyes.
Tainted. Just like Jasmine and me.
“I’m Draith,” said the boy, shuffling his wings behind him. A curving pair of horns, much longer and thicker than Jasmine’s, gleamed in the light of a torch mounted on the wall. “What’s your name?”
“Juniper,” Juniper said, craning her neck to look for Jasmine. “Where’s my sister? Have you seen her?”
The boy called Draith gave an apologetic shrug. “They always separate the new arrivals. She’s probably in a different chamber, if she’s still alive.”
“You don’t think they killed her?” Juniper really did sit up this time, shocked and horrified. Her shoulder gave a forceful twinge.
“Auhh –”
Draith was beside her, catching her head as she fell back. She hadn’t even seen him move. “You might want to wait another few hours before you try sitting up again. And no, I’m pretty sure you’re sister’s fine.”
Juniper’s hand went to her shoulder. “Another few hours? How long have I been here?” She was expecting to feel a mess of broken bones, but nothing felt broken. The shoulder was stiff and sported a large, tender bruise that showed through the thin cloth of her nightgown, but that was all. “I know I was injured worse than this.”
“You were,” said Draith, setting her head down gently on the rough stone of the floor. “You got here last night. But Tainted heal fast. You’ll be fine by tomorrow morning, just like nothing ever happened.”
Juniper processed that for a moment, thinking back a few years to when she had sliced her little finger chopping vegetables. The wound had healed within the hour.
“It’s a good thing, too,” Draith continued, “because tomorrow night, we’re busting out of here.”
What? Why? Are they going to kill us after tomorrow night? Juniper’s head was spinning. “We are? What about Jasmine? I won’t leave without her.”
“Of course we won’t leave without her,” said Draith, leaning back against the wall with his eyes closed. “I’ll just find out which cavern she’s in, and we’ll grab her on our way out. Don’t worry, I’ve been planning this for a while now. Nothing will go wrong.”
“And now that you’ve jinxed us, everything will go wrong,” Juniper grumbled. She wrapped her wings around herself as a shiver of cold rattled her jaw.
Draith’s eyes opened. He shot her an amused glance. “Cold?”
“Yeah.” Juniper saw no reason to be sarcastic with him, like she was with the other humans in the village. Draith was Tainted, like her. She was fairly sure she could trust him. “Aren’t you?”
“Nah. I’ve been down here for ages,” he said. “I’m used to it.”
Juniper was quiet for a minute, listening to the clacking of a Darkling’s claws somewhere outside the cavern. She noticed that the only entrance was blocked with thick vertical bars made of some kind of dark metal. “So, why tomorrow night? Why haven’t you broken out already?”
“Never had the proper motivation.” He shrugged. “They haven’t seen fit to tie a black ribbon on me yet, so… I haven’t felt the need to escape yet either.”
“What’s so bad about a black ribbon?” Juniper twisted her neck to look at him. “As far as I know, there’s nothing horrible about those.”
“The ribbon means that the Tainted who bears it is marked for death.” Draith’s gaze grew unfocused as he stared at the opposite wall. “My father had one. The Darklings tied it around his ankle and turned him loose in the outskirts of the nearest town. Then the humans ripped him apart.”
Juniper frowned. “Oh. I’m… sorry.”
“Don’t be. I hated my father.”
Funny… sometimes, I think I hate my father, too. “Fine. So… why tomorrow night?”
“Because I get my ribbon the day after next,” Draith said heavily. “And I don’t want one.”

Muaa. Bit grisly, I know... but... DRAITH!! *muffled squeeing*

Commander Kip
I just love scanning for life forms...
Normal is overrated!

oh noes...

... I really really wanna go back and save my buddies but then the baddie will get away and it'll be all my fault! Heroism is overrated.

... says Andra. Poor dear. A snowflake landed on my cheek. I glanced up at the sky, which was crowded with thick thunderheads the color of soot. More snowflakes flurried around us. “Lovely,” I muttered.
“Don’t you think we should wait this out?” Arkady said, cresting the rise behind me. Nath turned to wait for us at the mouth of the pass, his eyebrows raised in a silent question.
Fable could be getting away as we speak. If we stop, we could lose him – and Alethia. “We have to keep going,” I said, wrapping my cloak tighter around myself. I almost had to shout over the whistling wind. “Surprise and speed are our only weapons at the moment.”
Kaden came up behind Arkady with our meager supplies. “It ought to be less gusty in there anyway,” he said, gesturing to the pass ahead. “We’ll make good time.”
“If you say so,” I grumbled, eyeing the narrow pass. I didn’t like the way the boulders hung over the sides, throwing shadows on the rocky ground. The whole thing looked like it could cave in any second. Taking a deep breath, I hoisted my pack and followed Nath into the shadows.
Before long, we were struggling to see our hands in front of our faces as the blizzard began in earnest. Wind and snow howled through the rocky corridor, slamming into us with enough force to knock me back into Arkady every other step. We ended up shoving on each other’s shoulders, moving forward one collective step at a time. Less gusty, my foot. “Nath, check the map!” I yelled over the storm. “How far until the end of the pass?”
Nath had a hard time keeping hold of the map as the wind tried to tear it out of his hands. He squinted at it, blinking melted snow out of his eyes. “Not long now,” he shouted. “Just a few more minutes and –”
Something rumbled. The ground vibrated under my feet. I cast an uneasy glance back the way we had come. “Did... anybody else feel that?” I asked.
My friends nodded.
I was starting to feel claustrophobic. The walls of the pass were closing in on me. The stones balanced overhead pressed down with a physical weight. “Guys...” I started to say. Just then, the world caved in.
A pile of rocks and snow thundered down on us. I opened my mouth to scream and got a mouthful of ice crystals instead. I was crushed to my knees, then my hands, by the weight of the onslaught. A stone struck my shoulder, and I yelped. Everything shook and rumbled. Panic seized me by the throat, stealing my breath. I was going to be smothered to death. Tucking my head, I did my best to keep breathing as the walls of the pass collapsed on top of me.
After a few endless seconds, there was no more rumbling. All was still and silent under the mound of icy rubble. I clawed the snow away from my face burst up out of the pile, gasping in the frigid air. Arkady’s head popped up beside me, and then Nath surfaced as well. “Everyone all right?” he asked as Arkady spat out a pebble. “Where’s Kaden?”
We looked at each other in dismay. Kaden did not appear. I reached down and started digging, scrabbling in the rubble with frantic hands. They helped me, and after a moment Arkady shouted, “I got him!”
He held up a limp hand. We kept digging until we had unearthed the rest of Kaden’s arm and his head. His eyes were closed. The snow around his face was stained crimson from a gash on his scalp. His spiky hair was sticky with blood.
“Kaden!” I shouted. “Kaden!” He did not open his eyes.
Arkady looked up from a boulder he was trying to shift. “He’s stuck,” he announced, pointing to the spot where the lower half of Kaden’s body disappeared under the boulder. “I’ll stay here and dig him out. You two go ahead and catch Fable.”
And leave Kaden here to die? “I want to stay,” I whispered, knowing full well that I could do no such thing. Alethia was the priority here. But Kaden...
“Let’s go,” Nath said, and pulled me to my feet. I steeled myself against the ripping wind and said to Arkady, “Please, get him out.” Arkady nodded, putting his shoulder to the stone. I turned away and followed Nath out of the pass, trying to put Kaden’s bloodless face out of my mind.
We weren’t two yards out of the corridor when the ground shook and a thundering rumble rent the air. Not again! We spun around in time to see the entire pass collapse in on itself. A great wall of ice and rock crashed down to bury the two figures within.
“No!” I screamed, and ran towards the collapse, heedless of the ice shards that stung my cheeks. Kaden and Arkady were in there somewhere, and Kaden wasn’t even conscious. I had to find them.
“Andra, wait!” Nath’s arms wrapped around me, holding me back. I struggled in his grip, frantic screams tearing out of my chest. Nath pinned me to him and shouted, “They’ll be all right! We have to go after Fable!”
I was utterly torn. My friends were buried under tons of snow and rock, and I was to leave them to their deaths to chase after Fable. I wanted so badly to go back, to rip away boulders with my bare hands, to save my friends. But Nath was there, whispering in my ear, convincing me. “Andra. We have to go on. We have to.”
Snow swirled around us in a sudden gust. The buried pass was hidden in a rushing wall of white. Taking a shuddering breath, I brushed the tears from my cheeks before they could freeze and let Nath tow me away.

Aww. Sad. You know what I noticed, after writing both my scenes last week? They both end with Andra getting dragged away. Oops. XD

Commander Kip

Over there, behind that sofa!

Normal is overrated!

Black Ribbons, Part 2

Part Two arriveth!

By the time they hit the seventeenth stone, Juniper’s legs were stiff and leaden. Jasmine had fallen asleep. Her slight body was a deadweight in Juniper’s arms, although she was small for her six years. Juniper remembered the birth. She had been nine then, crouched in a dark corner of the village birthing hut as her mother screamed and writhed. The midwife had refused to attend a Darkling birth, so Juniper had watched, helpless, as her mother labored, green-black skin slick with sweat. A nearly perfect baby girl had been born, pale curls plastered to her tiny skull. A pair of dark green nubs grew from the crown of her head. When she opened her eyes, Juniper saw the candlelight glint off her red irises. She instantly knew that that her sister was doomed to a life full of muttered curses and sideling glares, just as she herself was. The Darkling woman had only time to murmur Jasmine’s name before she died, and Juniper was left to carry her baby sister home through the drifted snow that buried the village. She couldn’t carry her mother. When they went back for her, she was gone, and all that was left of her was a heap of bloodied straw where she had lain.
Up ahead in a black stretch of shadows, something snarled. Juniper started, stumbling over a tree root and nearly losing her grasp on Jasmine. She peered into the darkness, trying to see what might have made the noise. She had excellent night vision, thanks to her Tainted blood, but the shadows were deep.
A pair of slitted eyes glared back at her. Another snarl ripped through the night.
Dead leaves rustled on the forest floor as Juniper unfurled her wings and lofted into the air. She hovered a few yards above the ground, her heart pounding. Jasmine was startled awake. “Juni, what’s going on?”
“Hush,” Juniper breathed. She beat her wings steadily and listened with sharp Tainted ears.
Snarl. Snarl-snap. Whoosh.
Juniper flung herself to the side as a dark shape hurled up towards them. Jasmine’s scream echoed shrill in her ear as she gave a powerful flap and shot up out of the tree cover.
The moon blazed down on them, illuminating the treetops. Juniper clutched Jasmine to her, casting about for the dark shape that had nearly knocked them out of the air. A branch creaked down below, then a figure burst up out of the leaves, green-black wings spread wide.
Darklings males are not nice to look at, and this one was no exception. His reptilian body was hunched and wiry. Two twisting horns crowned his skull, looming over an elongated face with narrow red eyes. Even in the moonlight, his dark green skin looked black.
The Darkling hovered, his tail lashing back and forth in the biting wind, and stared at the girls. Juniper prepared to bolt. “Min,” she whispered in her sister’s ear, “wrap your legs around my waist and your arms around my neck and whatever you do, don’t let go.”
Jasmine whimpered and did as she was told.
Four more Darklings emerged from the shadowed woods below. Two of them hefted bone clubs. All of them sneered. Needle-sharp teeth glistened in gaping jaws. Juniper’s heart sank down into her numb toes. She might have been able to evade one of the creatures, but five? She and Jasmine were as good as dead.
The Darklings rose in unison until they were level with the sisters. The one in the middle spoke, his voice grating in his throat as if it were rusted by disuse.
“Children of darkness,” he growled, pointing a long, talon-tipped finger at them. Juniper held herself as still as she could, wafting her wings to stay airborne, and did her best to quiet her racing pulse. Darklings detested Tainted as much as humans did. They considered the Tainted to be a dishonor to their culture. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if these five were sent specifically to hunt us. Oh, Papa, why did you have to marry a Darkling woman?
She had barely completed the thought when the Darklings attacked. They shot forward in an arrowhead formatting with the speaker in the lead. Keeping a tight hold on Jasmine, Juniper went into a screaming dive, folding her wings in close to her back and streaking towards the trees at a terrible speed. A split-second glance over her shoulder confirmed that they were following, wheeling in the air, then diving down in her wake. Jasmine’s slender limbs were clamped about her waist and neck tight enough to leave bruises. At the last possible second, Juniper gritted her teeth and snapped open her wings, wrenching her shoulders. The painful maneuver halted her descent a few feet above the canopy. She spun to face the oncoming Darklings, three of which streaked past to crash into the upper branches of a tree. The other two backed air furiously and came to a stop before the girls. One smacked the end of a bone club into his fist and grinned, showing his fangs.
“Let. Us. Alone,” Juniper growled, trying to sound braver than she felt. She wrapped herself protectively around Jasmine, glad of her sister’s firm warmth. Juniper’s nightgown snapped in the breeze. Her hair streamed out around her. Don’t attack, please don’t attack…
One of the Darklings snarled, lurching forward. “Tainted!”
Juniper tried again, raising her voice to a near shout. “Let us alone!”
The Darklings lunged. Juniper ducked under a whistling swipe of talons, only to catch the second Darkling’s club in the shoulder. She screamed as she felt bone shatter. Her instinct was to curl into a ball and hide, but they were in the air and there were no concealing shadows. A Darkling muzzle darted toward her face, teeth snapping. Barely staying aloft, Juniper jerked back and ran into the other Darkling. A pair of ropy, scaled arms crushed her wings to her sides. Jasmine was ripped out of her arms, her eyes wide and mouth open, too frightened to scream. Juniper tried to reach for her and realized that she couldn’t lift her left arm. The other three Darklings lofted up to join the melee, two of them producing lengths of coarse rope. Juniper screamed herself raw as they bound her arms and wings to her body, her shoulder a throbbing mass of splintered bones. Through the tears blurring her eyes, she could see them trussing Jasmine like a spider trussing a fly. Jasmine was silent throughout the entire ordeal. Juniper could only assume that her sister was in shock.
She was tossed roughly over a bony set of shoulders and the Darklings descended. Their flight was far from smooth; they lurched through the air, sometimes dropping several feet straight down without warning. Juniper gasped as her broken shoulder was jostled. Have to fight them off! Have to do something! She struggled against her bonds, feeling herself growing weaker and weaker as unconsciousness crept in. No… have to stay awake… save Jasmine… have… to…

OOH, CLIFFIE!! *cackles* Evil, aren't I? And no, Juniper doesn't spend the rest of the story with a shattered shoulder. I wouldn't know how to write it. XD

Leavin' fer Warrensburg for Missouri State today! Luckily I don't play till tomorrow morning, which is why we're driving up this afternoon. Wish me luck!

Commander Kip
Yeah, I'm cryin' about that...
Normal is overrated!

Black Ribbons charries

So here they are, mah prrrreciousses!

Draith got a redesign and awesome surfer dude hair. And correctly folded wings. This is Jasmine. Sorry for the messiness.

And here's Juniper. I really like how she came out. She has a lot of hair. XD

Part Two coming soon!

Commander Kip

Wasing the which of the chilling out.

Normal is overrated!

assorted stuffs

I swear I'll post some more writing here soon! There are a few doodles I have to clean up first.

OMG I LUVZ THIS! I got sick of looking at the ugly cover of my IEW novel notebook, so I fixed it. AND I REALLY LIKE MY BLOODY FEATHER!! And Andra's silhouette. I've never done a silhouette before. So I tried to draw Nath in my homework a few weeks ago, and his anatomy was so whacked that I couldn't bring myself to post him here. So you just get his head.

This is the sign that is currently hanging from my doorknob. I'm rather enamoured with it.

Droopy Beast Boy. I doodled and colored him in biology last week while the teacher was trying to learn us our muscles. *dies*

I just joined yet another roleplay on the Cricketmag forum, and I love the two characters I put in. It's an elemental roleplay, so there's elementals and their apprentices, who are trained to take over for them when they die. This is my elemental, Ashes. She can control mist. *wiggles fingers* Muaa.

"Those stupid marshlights are going to get us killed," Tears muttered, huddling farther down in the reeds. Beside him, Ashes cocked her head, listening. "No, the soldiers took a left at the rotting log. They won't find us, no worries." She grinned at Tears.
One of the marshlights floated by his ear. He swatted at it. "And where, pray tell, is this rotting log? Was I supposed to have noticed it?"
"Nah," Ashes said. "But we are going to have to work on your awareness. Those guards are after us because of you, after all."
Tears bristled at her easy grin. "Hey now, I'm not the one who decided it would be a good idea to palm the sergeant's gate key. That was YOU."
"But you WERE supposed to let me know if the guards by the door turned around... which you didn't," Ashes replied. She ruffled her stunted wings, leaned back, and closed her eyes. "But never mind. We have the key, and the guards won't find us in this swamp. We can always use the mists to hide us."
A shout split the night off to their left. Torches wavered in the thick air. A curse hissing between his teeth, Tears wrapped his mind around a nearby trail of mist and yanked it towards him hard. "Gently, gently," Ashes reminded him, pulling a swath of vapor around herself. "Fast-moving mists always look suspicious."

Yup. I loves them. Pic of Tears soon, if I can manage it!

And I have another chunk of Black Ribbons and a few OYAN scenes in the queue too. Yay!

Commander Kip who needs to go finish the StuCo minutes

TEEN TITANS! (*knock, knock* *creeeeak - BOOOOM* Uh, Raven?... Sorry about the door...?)

Normal is overrated!

doodles and stuff

Hey, look. Kippy drew Thaelen again. Who's surprised? It even looks like him and everything. In fact, it looks more like him than any other drawing of him I've done. Wouldn't you know it - I can't turn it into a full-blown pic because it's just a doodle in a ACT-prep booklet, flame it. And this is an awesome OYAN joke thing. His name is The Black Pirate of Doom, and Mr. S created him to illustrate some important story concepts to us. *sporfles about the henchman thing*

Here's Auburnium again, in pen this time. GAWSP, Kipin drew something in PEN?! That explains why he's only half done... I lost interest in drawing tiny tiny scales over and over and over...

Ahem, yes. Remember Irk? Well. She needed some design development. Badly. I really, really like her socks. And her messy hair. XD

And since it's Kipin we're talking about here, we gotta end with a Teen Titans pic. I was watching Fear Itself on Youtube yesterday and wanted to draw this part because I loved Beast Boy's expression. THIS IS NOT A BB/RAE PIC. Raven just happens to be standing next to BB at this particular moment. I am still a devoted Rob/Rae shipper. So there.

Yaay for easy mirkanime shading!

Commander Kip

TEEN TITANS! (Who knew evil could taste so good?)

Normal is overrated!

Black Ribbons, part 1

TO THE TOWER!!!!! I just had a great idea. Everybody remember Morwyn? I think it would be awesome if, at some point in the book, she were to pop up knitting a cauldron cozy with rainbow yarn and like ten needles. That would be AWESOME.

So, that short story just isn't done. Flame it. (I love Auburn. So much.) So that means I'll just have to post the first part of it to keep you guys from eating me alive. It's kind of a heavily modified retelling of Hansel and Gretel, but... different. The only part that's the same is the white stones they use to find their way home. Here you go.

Juniper wrapped her ragged cloak around Jasmine, shivering. The moon was a glaring white orb that washed the clearing with harsh light and left the surrounding forest in shadow. A stiff, chill breeze tossed Juniper’s blue-black hair around her face as she crouched beside her younger sister. “Don‘t worry, Min, we’ll find our way home in no time. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“’M not scared,” Jasmine protested, brushing a curl of flaxen hair out of her eyes. “I just wish Mama wanted us.” Her lower lip trembled.
Sighing, Juniper lifted her sister in her arms and stood. “Come on. Let’s start walking, all right? Look, there’s one of our stones in the grass there.” The white pebble glinted at the edge of the moon-blasted meadow. Juniper started towards it. The wind blew again, slicing through her thin nightrail like a blade. The trees danced, shaking their heads with a thundering rustle.
“Juni?” said Jasmine, huddling into her sister’s cloak. “Wouldn’t we get home faster if we flew?”
“You know I don’t like flying,” Juniper said. “There stupid wings are the whole reason Mama doesn’t want us in the first place. If I didn’t have them, we would both be home in bed.” The wind ruffled the bat-like appendages that sprouted from her shoulder blades. She clenched them tightly closed.
Jasmine reached up to feel the tiny horns that hid under her curls. “Mama doesn’t like my horns either.”
“It’s her own fault,” Juniper muttered, stopping at the edge of the woods to poke at the first pebble with the toe of her boot. “She knew Papa’s first wife was a Darkling, and that we were both Tainted. But she married him anyway.”
The forest loomed before them, draped in swathes of deep shadow and patched with moonlight. Several yards in, Juniper could see a pale shimmer that might have been the next pebble.
“Are you sure we can’t fly?” Jasmine asked again, her wide eyes turned up to Juniper’s face. Juniper studied her sister’s features for a moment. Red eyes. Even if they hadn’t had the wings or horns, their eyes would always mark them as Tainted by Darkling blood. Curse you, Papa. Why did you do it? Why love a Darkling woman when there are so many humans running around? It isn’t fair to Min and me. Juniper kissed Jasmine’s head, between her horns. “I really think we should walk.”

So there's part one. It's short, but the next part is a LOT longer. Cuz there's a fight scene in it. X3

Commander Kip
TEEN TITANS! (See?! It's always the good-looking green ones!)
Commander Kip
Normal is overrated!