I just wanted to post an updated so you can know what’s going on.

Mikenna got really sick yesterday and scared us half to death. She seems to be ok now, though.

Today I feel like absolute crap. No particular reason. I’ve been struggling just to stay awake. I started an Aery story this morning when I was still 95% here, but I’ve been feeling progressively worse as the day has dragged on.

In the future, I’ll try to have posts queued up to avoid this sort of thing.

She hovered around him, singing softly into the air he breathed and keeping his mind full of melodies. Her patience was boundless, and after some time passed, he began to return her songs — simple renditions in the beginning, but growing more complex as he grew older. His progress brought her joy, so she continued to pour her songs into him.

But something happened. It was slow — even she, in her diligence, scarcely detected it. His daily practice with his instrument grew shorter, though he spent more time humming and tapping his feet than before. Rather than sacrifice rest for his art, he began sleeping longer hours and spending more time in the company of others. But despite his growing distance, she continued to pour her songs into him.

Eventually the day came when he stopped pretending. He claimed new responsibilities, new interests, and a lack of time, and so kept her music to himself, where it died. She grew angry, and hid her voice from him, hoping to scare him into returning to her. He carried on with life as he had been — completely unaware that anything had changed. Hurt, she drew on her powers to craft her most beautiful song yet and unleashed the full force of it upon him. Immediately, he stopped what he was doing and ran for his instrument. As soon as his fingers made contact, she closed her mouth and flew away. He sat in place for a moment, fumbling to recover the melody. It was useless — the song had left him.

“All right, well, I think you’ve got some potential,” my new boss said, rising. I stood as well and shook his hand. “I think you’ve got a good skillset here that we can really work with.”

“Thank you,” I said. “This certainly beats the retail and fast food circuit.”

He laughed. “We’ll see what you say after you’ve been making the drive for a year.”

“Well, Andy said you guys were going to implement telecommuting in the near future, so that should help.”

“No, we’re talking about that. We have some things to work out, so don’t plan on that.”

“Oh.”

Keep reading ‘The Carrot’

My D&D character is a paladin named Corvus Lux. In 3.5 he was aasimar (a person with celestial ancestry), but now that we’re on 4.0 he is a human. For the purposes of family lore, I’m not sure it really matters.

In this installment, Corvus’s father has just left on a mission, and Corvus asked his mother about the family sword.

That’s a very special sword, your father’s. It once belonged to a Celestial named Remiel, who came to this world to fight injustice, and the story of how it came to belong to mortals is the story of the Lux family.

Keep reading ‘The Sword of Remiel’

Two centuries ago, driving a car was a sign that you were a man of wealth and success. The less fortunate would gaze in wonder and envy, and when you had passed, they would whisper about you. It must have been something.

Keep reading ‘Class distinctions’