Writing: Trinity's Prompt // stolen moments

    Well, hello there.

    Obviously, I did not get anything posted throughout November, but guess who finished NaNoWriMo for the first time. 

    If you guessed Siani, then you would be correct. 50,052 words got put towards Anomaly, Not Prodigy and I finished on the 29th, a day ahead of schedule. Despite the craziness that has become a part of my daily life. So that's pleasing to me.

    My family is now planted in South Carolina and will be for the next couple of months. Which is nice, because we get our own space again and will be able to keep warm through the coldest part of winter.

    And how did everyone's Thanksgiving's go? Hopefully you all made some good memories and ate way too much rich, fattening food, as the tradition goes. 

    At any rate. Trinity, would you look at this! I haven't given up on your prompt altogether. It's really quite an intriguing idea, I just need the brain power and will to put words towards it, as always.

    I did Jade this time, however, instead of Jandy and Dech. Not sure when this drabble falls into the storyline, but I'm going to go with before the mission to kill Sean and Lindsey. Because Jade would never risk a visit in the middle of an operation.

    And... yeah. The rest is self-explanatory. 

    Jade entered the quiet room on soundless footsteps, her hands already deep inside her pockets. Even though she’d been on edge since she’d gotten into the atmosphere, she prowled around the small space, checking for transmitters and receivers.

    Only once her examination was done did she let soft breaths draw her in.

    The crib of the past had been replaced by a toddler bed but Jade could no longer determine when the switch had been made. It’d been years and she’d visited so rarely. 

    Dark eyes fell on the golden-haired child, her gentle profile illuminated by patches of moonlight. Vivian hated the darkness, always wishing to sleep with her curtains open so she could see the stars and moon if she should happen to wake during the night.

    The irony never escaped the hunter. Vivian might’ve disdained the dark, but in the same turn she embraced one completely swallowed in a black unlike the child would ever know.

    Jade’s ruminations were interrupted when Vivian awoke with a start, bolting upright and sending loose curls into further disarray.

    Her green eyes searched the room, noticing after a delay the woman standing at her bedside, unmoving and silent.

    It didn’t surprise Jade when Vivian began to cry. So similar to Ruusan, even after years of separation from her mother. 

    Longstanding routine kept Vivi from being loud when she cried, “I didn’t think you were ever gonna come back.”

    Jaydn bent at the waist when the child held up her arms, tears still leaking from the corners of verdant eyes, and kept her hands buried deep in the pockets of her coat. She would not draw them out until long after she had departed and left the innocence in this room behind.

    Years of practice had given them a routine that they were well-used to following. The small girl clung to Jade like a monkey, arms clamping around the hunter’s neck so that she cleared the gate at the side of her bed designed to keep her from falling out.

    Jade’s nose was filled with the gentle scent of laundered clothes and floral bath soap that came off of Vivian. It made her heart twinge with homesickness.

    Once reassured with Vivian’s hold around her neck, the woman straightened, easing upright and watching as Vivian wrapped her legs around her hips. She took a couple steps backwards and then settled the two of them on the floor, crossing her legs to create a place for the child to sit.

    Vivian’s little hands loosened from their grip on the back of her collar but then curled into the front of Jade’s shirt as her weight settled onto the woman’s lap. A quiet sniffle rose from her before the little girl buried her face in Jaydn’s chest.

    Bowing her head over Vivi, Jade breathed her in, eyes fluttering shut as she felt knots of tension begin to ease as they only did in these sheltered moments, so far from the bloodshed of the hunter’s day-to-day business.

    Vivian trembled against her, a hiccup escaping her. If she’d looked at her face, Jade knew the toddler would be nearing full-on waterworks again.

    A soundless exhale leaving her, Jade rested her cheek against her niece’s mussed curls, eyes still closed. It had been some time since her last visit, but she hadn’t felt it safe enough to come until just a handful of days ago. And security was everything, because if he caught wind of Jaydn’s attachment to this faultless, elfin child—

    “I want you to stay,” Vivian burst out before Jade’s razor sharp mind could envision an even blacker future. Clinging close, Vivi pressed her damp face closer to her aunt’s shirt, seeking comfort.

    Jade pressed a kiss to the crown of her head, amongst loose, golden curls. “I can’t.”

    A long sniff came from the five-year-old. “But I love you and it makes me sad when you’re gone.”

    “I know. But I cannot, Vivian.” Too long, she’d been striving to bury any hint of emotion. There was little trace of sentiment in her low, modulated tone as she sought to reassure Vivian.

    However, that she spoke at all seemed to be enough for the child who was so desperate for Jade’s consistent presence in her life. Even though a muted sob wracked Vivi’s small body, she gave a tremulous nod.

    “Because you’ve gotta rescue Momma, and Gramma, and Grampa, right?”

    Smooth, deadly hands curled into fists. There was no other external reaction. “Yes.”

    Dad and Ruusan. Vivian didn’t know about her grandmother yet and would not for a significant portion of time if Jade had any say in the matter.

    “But when you bring them home, you’ll stay?” Vivian pleaded, tilting her head back to look up at the hunter—killer—green eyes still watery. 

    Jade stared back, dispassionate even in the face of this whole-hearted, trusting emotion.

    This small child, who loved her so guilelessly, oblivious to the danger that every stolen moment brought to her. When Vivian’s lower lip, one half of her rosebud mouth, wobbled with her upset, Jaydn relented.

    “I will visit.” It was all she could offer. There was no telling what would happen when she was able to leave this nightmare behind and put it to rest. The blood staining her soul would be inescapable by then.

     Vivian nodded several times, reminiscent of a tourist’s bobble-head and then buried her face against Jade’s chest once more. “I love you, Aunt Jade. So, so much.”

    “…Aa,” the woman breathed, bending her neck to inhale the calming fragrance of flowers and a hint of Charle’s cologne from her niece’s hair. 

    This was the most she could offer—the most she would ever be able to offer. Moments in the dark, stolen meetings while the rest of the world slumbered.

    Anything else was too dangerous. She shouldn’t have been coming at all, but Vivian was the one thing she had been unable to give up. Everything else had been sacrificed—friends, attachments, choices, morals—but not Vivian.

    Sweet, little Vivian with her elfin visage and soft, gold curls. The only light twinkling in Jade’s black sky, not untouched, but as of yet untainted by evil.

    

    Puir, wee Vivi. I put her little heart through so much. But her Momma goes through way more than she does. Poor Ruu.

    At any rate, there were some allusions to the situation Jade finds herself in, and I can't remember if I explained it in a previous post, so allow me to expound.

    Some big, powerful evil baddie captured Novarr, Sarris, and Ruusan (somehow missing Vivian) back when Vivian was just a few months old, and used the three of them as leverage to get to Jade and use her for his own devices. She's made an effort to find them so she can rescue them, but it's slow going because if the darkness-shrouded he realizes what she's up to, he'll just kill one of them.

    Sarris didn't make it, though. Probably between Jade initially digging in her heels and Sarris' own resistance to be used as a pawn, Evil Puppetmaster knocked her off both to keep Jade in line and so he didn't have to deal with Sarris anymore. 

    Now I feel bad for Novarr, because last time Sarris died before him he just kind of faded and then died as well before too long. Very sad.

    Anyways. Charles, who some of you might recall as an informant friend of Jaydn's who originated in the Steampunk Storyline way back when, is now raising Vivian. They're holed up on some backwater planet under a pile of aliases and no doubt moving often to keep Evil Puppermaster off their scent, just in case.

    Jade visits occasionally, but it's dangerous.

    And, yeah. It's a mess. Woot woot. 

    I have no idea when I'll post next. My brain is quite burnt-out after NaNo and I'm attempting to give it a break before attempting any more serious writing, along with continuing on Anomaly, Not Prodigy. Because, of course, 50,000 words was only scratching the surface. ::sigh::

    Thoughts are welcome, as always. I hope you all are doing well and that life isn't too stressful as the Christmas holidays approach with concerning rapidity.

    Thank you for reading!

    Ad astra per aspera.

    To the stars, through difficulties.

Writing: Trinity's Prompt // motionless

    Alright, now the apocalypse can begin, because not only two posts in one month, but two posts in one day.

    It does help that I have some built up writing, but still. Keep an eye on what occurs outside your window today, just in case.

    As the title might suggest, this is more for Trinity's prompt from forever and a day ago, where Jandy and Dechlan are bodyguards for Lindsey and Sean, who are being hunted by Jade and Jase. It is, predictably, a bit of a skip from my last (and only other) post for this prompt.

    The idea for the events preceding this scrawl occurred to me, and then the actual motivation to write came when I considered the aftermath. As usual.

    It's going to be a bit confusing, but Dech helps clear things up near the end, so bear with me.


    He was there, Jandy could feel him, feel every fiery hot emotion burning in him, through him, through them, but she couldn’t reach back. Couldn’t find him. Didn’t know where he was.
    Wrong. This was wrong. Something was wrong.
    There was fog everywhere, filling her mind, causing her thoughts to mire, helplessness rising when she was unable to touch Dechlan and calm his chaotic thoughts.
    Even her body was unresponsive to her wishes. Her fingers wouldn’t twitch and her eyes wouldn’t open. If there hadn’t been a tube down her throat helping her to breathe, Jandy thought her heart may have just stopped beating.
    It felt like she was suffocating and she couldn’t lift a hand to do anything about it. Pleasepleasepleaseplease—she felt like panicking in a way that she hadn’t in years. Not since Jane.
    “Hey, it’s alright,” Dechlan’s voice reached her, but it was as if through a window. Muffled, fuzzy, muted.
    Jandy didn’t know when he’d approached. Had he been there the whole time? Why wouldn’t her eyes open?
    There was a gentle caress across her forehead, fingers sifting through her hair. She felt the brush of blunt fingernails on her scalp. “Calm down. It’s alright. You’re okay.” Unchanging, soothing, quiet.
    She didn’t want to listen but she did, drawing her consciousness together to focus on Dechlan, his touch, the contrast of his racing thoughts to his calm presence, the safety just knowing he was close brought.
    “I’m right here, Jandy. You’re not alone.” There as a slight pressure against her brow, momentary and mystifying. “The doctors gave you a paralytic. You can’t move until you’re on the mend.”
    Mend from what? Panic rushed back in almost as quickly as it had fled. Choking, consuming, asphyxiating. There was nothing. Nothing in her memories. Nothing, nothing, nothing—
    “Jandy.” Dechlan didn’t shout—he never did, not at her—but the force behind her name was impossible to ignore.
    She struggled to breathe with the ventilator, her racing heart wanting faster lungful’s of air that she couldn’t draw in on her own.
    “Don’t fight it. Just breathe. Okay? Breathe. You’re alright. I’m right here.” Dechlan’s voice was low and even, and Jandy could feel the tips of his fingers sifting through her hair in a repeating but calming path.
    It was hard to dismiss the way his thoughts seemed to batter against the bubble, unruly and anarchic. There was too much fog to make out what was upsetting him. Too much fog. She couldn’t reach him. 
    “It’s the painkillers, Jandy. It’s okay. There’s nothing wrong. You’re going to be fine.”
    Jandy would’ve gotten mad at him if she’d had more presence of mind. Nothing was wrong, her drugged and immobile backside. She felt adrift on a choppy ocean, with no sail and no paddle, knowing where she needed to go but having no way to get there. It was maddening and exhausting and she just wanted to move. 
    “You can’t, Jandy. Okay? You can’t. The doctor said if you move too much at this point there’s—there’s nothing he’ll be able to do to save you a second time.” Emotion crushed his words, causing jaggedness like she’d never felt from him before.
    Helplessness choked her. He need her, her partner needed her, her Dechlan needed her. 
    Compared to some of the feats—a few of bravery, most of stupidity—that she’d accomplished in her time, breaking through the hold of the painkillers on her mind wasn’t difficult once she gathered herself and shoved. 
    Her senses were still dulled, sounds distant and movement impossible and her vision dark, but the clarity that washed through Jandelyn’s mind helped compensate. Dechlan was suddenly very there, and the return of the usual precision and transparency of their bond flooded her with relief.
    The reason for his wayward emotions, usually so under control, became painful in its clearness.
    Jandy’s blood was still on his shirt. In his hair. Under his nails. 
    The memories that had eluded her in her drugged state came back… from Dechlan’s eyes. The impenetrable glass that wouldn’t cave under a heavy blow from his booted foot. The chaos of the fleeing hotel guests. That alarm, every wail sending fresh waves of hysteria. 
    Her, slumped against a wall, blood seeping from an innocuously small wound to her chest. Too close to her heart. Staining her white button-up red.
    A dark head of hair bent over her, a hand grasping her chin, forcing her head towards him, but not stemming the flow of her life-force. Culprit. 
    Desperation. Uselessness. Rage. He was on the outside, but he was the one who was trapped.
    Finally getting back inside. The offender having disappeared. Easing her into his arms, one hand clamping down over the bullet hole. Lack of any response from her. Shouting for an ambulance to be called now.
    Stay, stay, stay.
    Don’t go anywhere.
    Blast it all, Jandy.
    Jandy didn’t realize she was crying until Dechlan’s touch against her cheek brought her out of his memories. He smoothed away the moisture, lingering. She could feel his exhaustion now. The staggering relief. A lingering desire to hunt down whoever had done this.
    Wishing she could do more, she soothed her partner’s mind with her own, seeking relief for him through the reassurance that she was alive. 
    I’m not going anywhere. I’ve got too much to live for.

    Mwuahaha. Ha. Ha. 

    I am so sorry.

    Yeah, so, Jandelyn got shot with some futuristic, high-tech sniper round that tore her up pretty good. We can thank Jade for that, and then, if it wasn't clear, Jase was the one who approached her. I think he was questioning her, but I'm waiting for Jandy to get her and her partner's sensibilities back and remember what happened.

    There's your dose of daily drama, hope you enjoyed it!

    Off to either work on math or sort through other recent-ish writing projects. We'll see.

    Thank you for reading!

    Ad astra per aspera.

    To the stars, through difficulties.

Greet + Writing: Prompt Challenge // Trinity (pt. 1)

    Hey, hey, look who's keeping with a monthly goal of at least one blog post. I'm really proud of myself right now, to be honest. Sort of. The "part one" is the reason for the sort of.

    You know, when you cram in a lot of television, a horde of people visiting, and a transcontinental move into a couple of months, brain power really starts taking a nose-dive on you. 

    But. Two new followers to my blog in the last couple of weeks. I have no idea where you two came from, but welcome aboard and be prepared for an erratic schedule. ^_^

    To catch people up, last month (at least, I think it was last month...) I posted a prompt challenge here on my blog for my followers to get a little bit of dream world alternate 'verse reward and as a challenge to myself and lovely follower Trinity sent me the following prompt.

    "Okay, so Jandy and Dech play bodyguard to Sean and Lindsey, because Jaydn and Jasen are trying to kill them. Then use, "Where did it go?" she mumbled over and over again, sitting on the floor, back against the door, half empty bottle of wine in one hand and a handgun in the other." And I want to know who snores."

    I have been slowly (slowly) working on this prompt since then and am just now hitting four pages/2,912 words. Since I anticipate a continued slow productivity rate, I'm going to post what I've got every three pages. So today is the first three pages, then the next post will be pages four through six, and so on and so forth.

     Hopefully that makes sense, and if anyone has questions, leave a comment on any of my posts. I don't bite, will get an email heads-up, and get back to you as soon a I can. Which could either be hours or days, depending on when you catch me. Cough.

    Also, all characters within the following writing excerpt have been featured in previous posts. You can check the tags somewhere off to the right of your browser for the name of the character in question and read up on them. The world(s) this prompt is situated in has not been before featured. Brand new 'verse for alternate 'verse characters. But, just for a quick run down, J&J are Jasen and Jaydn. They're complicated. D&J are Dechlan and Jandy. They're mentally linked. S&L are Sean and Lindsey. Her parents are recently dead and he's a childhood friend. Check previous posts for further explanations. 

    With that said, forward ho!


// J&J //

    A face. A news report. A government file. A single word.
    Eliminate.
    Too young. Too relatable. Too close.
    She switched off the tablet and picked up her comm. to send a message with a meeting point. They had work to do. And the sooner it was done, the better.
    
// D&J //

    The rap was added into her odd mixture of a dream, featuring a mind-numbing club track playing through her old apartment but there was a wheat field growing in the middle of it that wasn’t in any portion of her own memories. There was another sharp knock and this one roused Jandy a bit, but she elected to ignore it in favor of a few extra seconds of sleep. 
    They’d been in high demand as of late and thus their work schedule was hectic, equating to less sleep than she preferred getting. And judging by the clarity and insistence coming across her link to Dechlan, they were in even more demand than they had been ten minutes ago. Perfect time to bury her head under her pillow.
    “Hey, no, we got a call,” her partner’s voice came from somewhere overhead. Another soundless approach. Gold star to him.
    There was amusement with her train of thought that she poked at and then ignored.
    “G’way, Dech. Sleeping.” She managed, bleary and disoriented as she tried to roll over and away from awareness.
    The bed dipped behind her and the air felt very close all of a sudden. Wrapping her arms tighter around her pillow and burying her face in it, Jandy squeezed her eyes shut tighter. “No. No charm. No cajoling. I’m tired.”
    “And we have work to do.” There was a firm, albeit gentle, tug on her pillow.
    Relinquishing it without much fight, Jandy flopped onto her back again, reaching up to push her hair out of her eyes and blink at Dechlan.
    He was dressed and ready to walk out the door, no doubt having shaved and maybe even cut his hair while she slept, on top of eating and the rest of his morning routine. His brows raised under her scrutiny and a hint of a smile formed on his features. “Morning.”
    “I look like crap, don’t I?” she croaked, blinking sleep from her gaze before going after it with one trimmed nail.
    “No comment,” Dechlan shrugged, retaining his place on the edge of her mattress, leaning back on one hand. 
    Jandy felt him searching their link and reached back out of habit, trying to ascertain what he was after, staring at a spot on the wall as her attention drifted inwards. A memory of long hours lying awake, not hers, watching dreams of her life with her sister back in Kaido was open to her perusal. A rueful smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
    Sorry, she offered, turning her head to look at her partner again, realizing his initial investigation had been an attempt to find out if he’d overlooked anything that would’ve caused the vivid imaginings of her subconscious. It happens when I’m tired. Like I sleep too deeply to keep up some barrier against them.
    It’s fine. I don’t mind. Tells me where your head’s at. One of Dechlan’s shoulders lifted in a half shrug. 
    She didn’t have to voice her mild amusement and acceptance with this, letting Dechlan feel them for himself over their link. Scoot over so I can sit up and tell me about this job.
    Her partner obliged, shifting further down the mattress without protest, mind already turning to the phone call he’d gotten earlier. Jandy followed his thoughts with her own, picking up details as they went, while she pushed herself upright. Pushing her fingers through her hair again, except in an attempt to tame it this time, Jandy pulled her knees up to her chest to get past Dechlan, resisting the urge to poke him, then let her legs drop over the edge to the rug on the floor.
    The cool air that inhabited the foot of space above the ground of her room caused gooseflesh to rise up along her arms and legs. Blowing out a long breath and trying to rub it away, she glanced over to find Dechlan already watching her.
    You’ve got that look again.
    Sorry.
    Jandy smiled, shaking her head a little. There was that grey area again, with that line they danced around, and that usual uncertainty about it. But she let it roll off her shoulders, straightening a bit and moving on. “Come on, you moved too fast through the call. What did Canton have for us?”
    “A couple in witness protection.” His focus was slower to follow hers, which was growing less unusual. She woke up sometimes with his residual thoughts from the prior night echoing through both their minds. It’d taken some getting used to but now, for the moment, she’d learned to just push past it. They couldn’t go there. Not yet. Even if it was on both of their minds and they both knew it. 
    “Doesn’t that make them the government’s responsibility?” She needed to move and so did, getting up to go rifle through her set of drawers, making sure the hem of her shirt was falling where it was supposed to. It was a curious case, though, and that made it easy to focus on.
    “Technically.” There was a muffled whoof and Jandy didn’t have to turn around to know that Dechlan had fallen backwards across her bed while they talked. “But they’ve already had two near misses and they want some extra hands on deck, so they reached out to Canton and he saw we had two free weeks.”
    “Two free weeks that were supposed to be just that—free.” Clothes, clothes. She needed clothes so they could go. Easier said than done. Being busy meant little time to do laundry. Or to get laundry done, more often. A lot of her stuff had to be dry-cleaned.  Company dress code policies be darned.
     Despite her train of thought, which tended to coax some amusement from her counterpart, Dechlan felt tired, though not with her. Pausing, she investigated. It was… their job, their schedule, their life.
     You know we’re almost done. Our contract is almost up and then we should be set financially to get out of here. Jandy dropped the button-up shirt and pinstripe pants—both of which she often entertained thoughts of burning--in her hands in a heap on the ground, going to crawl up the bed beside her partner again.
     He watched her progress, arms crossed behind his head, then leaned into her when she stretched out at his side, folding out one arm. Jandy settled into the dip between his forearm and bicep, cheek pressed against his skin as she sought eye contact. Those hazel green eyes that helped make up the person who embodied home for her now.
    What they shared allowed her to feel the gratitude in response to her thoughts, the reciprocation of the sentiment, the heavy weight of weariness they both carried, both their thoughts and emotions tangling and swirling together in an intangible and unexplainable mix. It was harder than ever to distinguish where her mind ended and his began with this proximity. Their connection worked over a distance, but the closer they were, the better the clarity. And here, inches from each other’s sides, with a large portion of their thoughts already in alignment, that clarity was crystal. Almost painful in its clearness, except not. 
    Jandy could feel his heartbeat echoing her own, beating near in sync with her own, and she drew in a quiet breath, unconsciously doing so in the same moment as Dechlan.
    Almost five years, they’d had this bridge between their minds. Five years, learning the inner workings of each other’s hearts and minds to the point of not being able to imagine anything else. Not being able to imagine anyone else. 
    She searched Dechlan’s face and he studied her in return, the arm that she’d rested her head on coming up so his fingertips could brush her hair. They were both so far past the human difficulty to hold eye contact by this point; those early days were fading memories now. No, it wasn’t perfect. They weren’t perfect. Sometimes their connection made her – both of them – feel as if their souls had been laid bare to each other. Which they had, but sometimes it hurt more than others.
    Her dark eyes stung with tears as she studied the thin, white scar leading down from his hairline to be just visible on his forehead. A mark that meant he could’ve been lost to her long before they’d ever crossed paths in Warren’s program. Jandy’s breath caught in her chest.
    The piercing ring of Dechlan’s communicator from the other room caused the pair to jerk, his head lifting in an instant to ascertain the situation and hers burying into his shoulder with a muffled grumble. 
    “That’s probably Canton telling us to get over there.” Dechlan commented, sounding far more at ease than he was actually feeling at that moment.
    Jandy stifled the urge to groan again, resigning herself to a sigh, and tilting her chin up so she could see his profile again, contemplating an attempt to plead for a day off. One brow rose as he glanced back in his peripherals.
    “No. We have to go.” He voiced his reply aloud instead of keeping it enclosed in their link, hoping to clear the weight in the air around them and get her moving.
    She didn’t want for it to work, but it was. Plus his comm. was still going off in the other room, which was doing nothing to keep the moment from slipping away, so Jandy resigned herself to another day of professional babysitting and sat up. Dechlan aided her effort with a hand on the small of her back as he got moving as well. 
    Following his silent request to clear off of the mattress, Jandy went to grab her dumped clothes—no doubt sporting a few wrinkles now that she could’ve cared less about—letting her partner shake out her comforter and leave it looking a bit more orderly before going to tend to his device.
    Jandy glanced a warning to Dechlan before going about getting ready for the day ahead, finding herself to be in the same place he’d been in just ten minutes earlier. Tired of this life and tired of having to put off shedding some light on their grey area. Very tired of it.
    As she sat down on her bed to zip into her short boots, they were both in silent agreement on that point.

// S&L //

    “We’ve been talking with Miss Angelo and we’re going to set up an apartment a couple of districts over for the two of you under an alias we’re building. ” Maximoff Canton explained to Sean, who sat with his hands clasped together as he took in the security firm’s director’s words. “Before then, we have you two  booked at a hotel downtown.”
    As he always was nowadays, Sean remained aware of where Lindsey was at as best he could. She stood by the window a handful of paces away, watching the outside through the cracks in the shades. It’d been a better morning for her. And he hated to have to think in those terms, but Lindsey tended to ricochet from catatonic to temperamental to just plain broken depending on the day. Today she’d just been quiet. Responsive, but only when asked pointed questions.
    “Wasn’t Miss Angelo supposed to be here?” Sean asked, resisting the urge to scratch the back of his head, tamping down his mild frustration. No need to give an even greater dead giveaway that he had no idea what he was doing in this situation. Television and a year of university life didn’t do much in the way of preparing one for witness protection. And wasn’t the lawyer supposed to be in touch with him about all this?
    “She said she had something to attend and would be running late,” Canton wasn’t put out, though he did glance at the clock on his desk. “My people are behind schedule as well, so it should be fine.”
    “You said they weren’t your standard fare team. How did you mean?” If they had to sit here until everyone decided to show up, he might as well get as much information he could.
    “First, most of my teams of two or three are all male, for effectiveness and professionalism’s sake. If I need a female and the few on my payroll are otherwise engaged, I usually contract with another firm. Scott and Sparks are one of my more successful teams, despite her lack of professional military training.”
    Sean was pretty sure he heard an unspoken “which I still don’t understand” hanging off the man’s sentence, but didn’t say anything about it. He leveled his stare at the older man instead and said, “We appreciate whatever help you can lend, sir. She—“ Sean glanced at Lindsey, who had turned to listen to the conversation and was staring off into space. “She’s been through a lot and I’m really hoping to get through the hearing without any more incidents. Having a team on board whose purpose is to stick close will be welcome.”
    Canton took in his statements and then nodded once. “We don’t hire people who don’t know how to do this job, Mr. Becket. You both will be in good hands.”
    A sharp knock interrupted the conversation and Sean rose when the sudden noise startled Lindsey out of her reverie with a quiet gasp. 
    “Come,” the CEO called, standing and allowing the young pair a moment while the door opened .
    Lindsey was quick to nod that she was okay when Sean reached her, managing an unsteady smile. He caught her elbow to keep her close, seeing the glassy shine of tears in her eyes, and shifted to see who had come. 
    “Nice of you two show up,” Canton remarked with a disapproving downturn to his mouth that was noticed by all present.
    They had to be Scott and Sparks, as Canton had called them, Sean surmised after a few moments. Which was which, he didn’t know, but the man had a definite military aura to him and stood almost a full head taller than the woman at his side. Her dark eyes and darker complexion suggested different origins than her partner, and although she bore none of the trained professionalism of her counterpart, they both had an ease at each other’s side that bespoke a strong bond. 
    “Sorry, sir, we got back in late from our last engagement. It was a bit slow going this morning.” The male said by way of greeting, casting a glance towards Sean and Lindsey’s direction but then refocusing on his boss.
    “Just be on time next time.” Canton took his seat again. “Scott, Sparks, I’d like you two to meet Sean Becket and Lindsey Donovan, your next clients. Mr. Becket, Miss Donovan, this is Dechlan Scott and Jandelyn Sparks.”
    Sean towed Lindsey over and shook the hands of the bodyguards. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
    “Call me Jandy.” The woman said with a slight smile and a calculating gaze that rested on both him and Lindsey for a few beats before she exchanged a quick look with her partner. 
    “Shall we get down to business?” Canton addressed the four of them and Sean let his attention turn to the man behind the desk once more.


    Alright. So. I think that's all I have at the moment. I need to go help my mom find her brain, attempt to remember how to do a Spock-style mind meld, and act as a translator in general. Woot woot.

    As always, thank you for the patience, and all comments, thoughts, and critiques are welcome in the comments below.

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

Who Does What: Jandy & Dechlan

    As a tide-over until I get my thoughts gathered and channeled into the writing prompt that Trinity submitted to my blog a couple weeks back, I scrawled out a mixture of the "who does what" prompts for Jandy and Dechlan. 

    It's not much, but I think they're kind of humorous, so it should suffice until I find a spare minute/brain cell for the full blown prompt.


       // shops for groceries //
    They do this together more often than not. Dechlan can cover the essentials on his own, but Jandy has some peculiar tastes that change almost weekly, and so it’s hard for Dechlan to do the shopping without forgetting something. At the same time, she can’t be trusted to remember the basic staples such as milk, eggs, or bread, so they go together and that way they’re both content.

    // kills the spiders //
    Jandy hates anything with an abnormal amount of legs and shouts for Dechlan whenever she comes across a creepy-crawly. He fulfills his duty as bug-killer with humor and great efficiency. And Dechlan always gives her a hard time about it, because she was able to mouth off to Warren, who would’ve killed her in a heartbeat, but when it comes to any sort of insect, she’s standing on top of the highest object nearby and waiting for him to rescue her. He wonders how she ever survived with just her sister to kill the bugs.

    // comes home drunk at 3AM //
    They both know the cost and effects of too much alcohol and Dechlan is too disciplined to allow himself to be that lax, but Jandy might, if it were the anniversary of her sister’s death and Dechlan wasn’t there to stop her from going out in the first place. 

    // makes breakfast //
    That would be one of Dechlan’s things he does in the morning, if they don’t have work. He’s up anyways and knows Jandy likes the slow wake-up call that she gets from him bumping around in the kitchen. Though she complains about her dreams featuring quite a few breakfast foods on the mornings that he puts together more than just cereal.

    // remembers to feed the fish //
    It’s usually Dechlan, unless he has a lot on his mind, then Jandy will quietly picks up the slack around the house that slips his memory. Those are the few times she will remember to get the staple items from the grocery mart as well. He just gets caught up in work and some things have to let, so Jandy just takes care of the things he normally does in their routine until he’s sorted everything out and is back on his a-game.

    // decorates the apartment //
    That’s a Jandy thing, to some extent. But it’s only when the urge really strikes. She and Jane lived week to week and didn’t have the money for much extra paraphernalia around the house around their apartment, so it’s hard for her to get over that and decorate. But Dechlan’s learned to pick up on when she really like a piece of art or décor and then eases her into a decision about getting it or not. They don’t have a lot, but their living space is tasteful in a somewhat eclectic manner as a result.

    // initiates duets //
    Good heavens does Dechlan not sing. Jandy will, if the mood strikes. Whatever song she’s heard on the radio lately is usually her song of choice and then she just sings it on a loop when she doesn’t know many of the lyrics. She’s usually too distracted to notice, but if she’s singing a catchy tune in the shower, Dechlan can sometimes be caught humming along. And that’s the closest they ever get to doing a duet.

    // falls asleep first //
    After so many years of working long hours with little sleep, Jandy values every extra hour of sleep she can get, so she’s usually the first to crawl into bed at night to sleep. Dechlan tends to stay up later on purpose,  because he likes being able to lay awake and listen to the whispers of Jandy’s dreams. It lets him know where she’s at emotionally in her subconscious and it brings him peace to know that she’s resting and is safe. Jandy’s aware of his habit and lets it continue unimpeded because she watches over him too when he’s stressed out and isn’t sleeping much. 

    // which one is abysmal at roller skating and has to hold onto the other //
    Jandy’s balance sucks when she’s not on her own two feet, planted on the ground. Jandy and Jane tried it once and they both ended up with bruised knees and scraped hands, so when Dechlan dragged her out to try again late one night when they both couldn’t sleep, she made him promise not to let her go because she was hurting too much from a rough two days already to add bruises from skating on top of them. He didn’t.

    // which one gets hiccups every time they drink something fizzy //
    That would be Dechlan. After Jandy worked as a serving girl at a night club for so many years, she’s pretty much immune to any weird side effects of the many weird drinks out there. But Dechlan, being the soldier he is and working off a pretty strict diet, has learned to steer away from anything carbonated. He made the mistake of drinking a soda in front of Jandy once. She didn’t stop laughing for an hour.

    // which one listens to new songs on loop until the other can’t stand it //
    It’s not always even new songs, but if Jandy finds a groove that she enjoys a lot, it can be put on replay for a couple of days until she has her fill of it. Which is two days too many for Dechlan, but they’re learning how to compromise. Two days of music in exchange for two days of quiet, depending on the situation. On very rare occasion, he enjoys the song too and doesn’t mind having it on a running loop. There is always the bonus of how very alive Jandy becomes when something loud and with a good beat comes on. 


    And so, yes. I have to run now. Memorial Day stuff. Thanks for the patience!

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

The Sunshine Award + Prompt Blurb

    Wow is this late. It's been a crazy two weeks playing pseudo-mom while real mom is out of town and blog posts just don't factor into running a house.

    So the various blog awards continue to go around and I got nominated for the Sunshine Award by Hannah from Sister Sketches.

    The Rules for the Sunshine Award:
    - Thank the person who nominated you
    - Answer the questions they asked you on your respective blog
    - Nominate another batch of bloggers (eleven being the standard)
    - Question them (evil chuckle)
    - Notify them that they have been nominated
    - And post the award image on your blog

    I highly doubt I will fulfill all the rules, as I don't intend to spend very long on this post so I can try and work on other stuff this evening. 

    Thank You to Hannah for nominating me for the Sunshine Award over at Sister Sketches. It really means a lot to me that you nominated me for this award!

1. Which number (1, 2, 3, etc.) is the best, based on it's personality and morals? (Example: 7 is best because of his wise and patient personality.) I honestly do not know what to do with this. Really don't. I like the number 62 but I've never tried assigning personalities to numbers.
2. Fruit-flavored candy or chocolate? Ehhh... perhaps dark chocolate. 
3. Under what circumstances would you jump on a shark's back? Very, very extreme circumstances involving either my siblings or small children.
4. Would you rather grab a handful of cow poop or drink milk straight from the cow? Grab the cow poo, because I have no idea what type of bacteria might be in fresh, fresh cow milk.
5. Batman or Iron Man? Iron Man, all the way. I don't really like anything related to DC.
6. Fantasy or sci-fi? Sci-fi, but I'm not adverse to fantasy.
7. Three years of famine, three months to be destroyed by your foes, or three days of the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of the land? Uh.... maybe the three months, but I don't quite understand what's being destroyed by my foes. So I'll go with that one.
8. Favorite season? Spring/early summer.
9. Is the Lochness Monster real? Not in my opinion, no, though it does make for really cool story ideas.
10. Death by fire or death by ice? Death by ice. 
11. Out of any animal, what would be your dream pet? Recently, it's been a German Shepherd, maybe even an MWD, because you can adopt retired MWD's and that sounds like a really special experience.

    And I think that's all I'm going to do of the Sunshine Award stuffs. Which I apologize for.

But I need to work on some other things tonight as well while I still have a brain.

    In the lines of those other things, Trinity, I am working on your prompt. And I even have a small blurb to prove it.

// J&J //

    A face. A news report. A government file. A single word.

    Eliminate.

    Too young. Too relatable. Too close.

    She switched off the tablet and picked up her comm. to send a message with a meeting point. They had work to do. And the sooner it was done, the better.

   

// D&J //

    The rap was added into her odd mixture of a dream, featuring a mind-numbing club track playing through her old apartment but there was a wheat field growing in the middle of it that wasn’t in any portion of her own memories. There was another sharp knock and this one roused Jandy a bit, but she elected to ignore it in favor of a few extra seconds of sleep.

    They’d been in high demand as of late and thus their work schedule was hectic, equating to less sleep than she preferred getting. And judging by the clarity and insistence coming across her link to Dechlan, they were in even more demand than they had been ten minutes ago. Perfect time to bury her head under her pillow.

    “Hey, no, we got a call,” her partner’s voice came from somewhere overhead. Another soundless approach. Gold star to him.

    I went with a whole new setting in order to get everyone in the same spot more or less in the same time stream. Futuristic, almost sci-fi, with some inter-planetary travel going on. At least, Jandy and Dech are saving up to go elsewhere, and Jase and Jaydn have been everywhere. 

    With that, I believe I shall close.

    Thank you again for the nomination, Hannah!

    Ad astra per aspera.

    To the stars, through difficulty.

Prompt Challenge, from You to Me

    Alright, so I'm trying something new and exciting. The title might give you an inkling of what it is, but I'll give you the ten pages of backstory before clarifying further.

    I was poking through Tumblr the other day and wandered across several prompt challenges on people's blogs. Usually, they're used as prompts for fan fiction. But I always enjoyed the thought of those alternate universe prompts, even though I don't write fan fiction. 

    This led me to consider, why not just collect a bunch of prompts of various types and then pose them to you guys, my awesome followers, to pick and choose from. Let you guys challenge me as a writer and have some fun while doing it. 

    I have no idea whether or not this'll take, but figured it couldn't hurt. 

    In that line of thought, everybody is game. Character-wise. Whoever you'd like to choose, with whomever. Then you can choose any combination of the prompts I've dug up. There's a few different types, so yeah. I'm actually quite excited right now, despite being rather exhausted.

    And as a disclaimer, none of the following prompts are mine. I found them on Tumblr and just did a little editing.


AU!Setting Prompts:

• space au
• law enforcement au 
• historical au
• military au 
• bodyguard au 
• college au 
• supernatural beings are known au
• office au 
• high school au
• restaurant au 
• circus au 
• western au 
• sports au
• coffee shop au 

AU!Situation Prompts:

• pretending to be married
• game night
• handcuffed together
• snowed-in
• next-door neighbors AU
• fantasy AU
• apocalypse fic
• sharing a bed
• road trip
• kissing to save the day

AU!Who Does What Prompts:

• who controls the netflix account and what have they dominated the suggestions with by watching
• who snores
• who has an embarrassing ringtone that the other calls them in public just to get it to go off
• who sleeps on the top bunk if given the chance
• who plays the piano at 6 in the morning to wake up the other 
• who has accidentally set something on fire by attempting to cook a birthday meal 

One-Sentence Prompts from veiledinspiration.

1. Often times he would glance up, make sure she was still there, exhale a sigh of relief, then go back to work. 
2. She took one deep breath, accepted the fact that this party was going be a total train wreck, and walked in with a smile. 
3. He walked into the room only to find a dead body on the floor and two people sitting casually on the couch.
4. I turned the corner in my car and immediately slammed on my brakes as he was standing in the street, his arms crossed angrily.
5. Ordinarily this late at night, I would gently close the door so I wouldn’t wake anyone, but there was a psychotic killer behind me, so I slammed it. 
6. I reached under my jacket to feel what was wet and my hand came out from under my coat covered in my own blood. 
7. I would have said something different had I known it was going to be the last time I was going to see her alive.
8. In all the universes, in all the galaxies, on all the space stations, on all the docking bay substations, of all the gin joints on the promenade, she had to walk into mine.
9. Awkwardly enough, him tied and gagged to a chair was ALSO how they first met.
10. I was tired, had been tired for quite some time, and was going to continue to be tired until I killed that sick psycho.
11. If I had a nickel for every time I got turned into the feds by a bitter ex-boyfriend, I’d have 15 cents. 
12. In time, he, too, would come to hate her and loathe her very existence, but tonight she was a wondrous ball of light and happiness in a sexy, black, cocktail dress. 
13. After about three or four go’s at it, she gave up and went home, realizing she wasn’t destined for a life of crime. 
14. As I looked around the room, the smoke, the laughing, the cynicism, the lies, masks, I realized that I was in the wrong place.
15. Twisting off the cap, taking a deep breath, I leaned back and chugged, hoping to come out the other side in one piece.
16. Obviously, he was going to kill this man by the end of the night, but for now they had good brews, good ambiance, and he was good company. 
17. If I walked forward, I would walk out on stage, but if I stayed still, the man would pull the trigger. 
18. I didn’t see the attack coming, but I should have known it would come from her.
19. Somewhere along the road, at exactly what hour into the road trip I’m not sure, I began to realize how little I needed him in my life. 
20. Ostensibly, I would have to burn everything, kill everyone in the office, and and move across the country in shame if she said no, but I think it was worth it to ask her out on one date. 
21. Had I not seen him myself, I would never have believed he was alive. 
22. I read it over and over again until I was 100% sure that I just been given the order to assassinate myself. 
23. Obviously I was going to have to take matters into my own hands, and that involved a prison break.
24. "Where did it go?" she mumbled over and over again, sitting on the floor, back against the door, half empty bottle of wine in one hand and a handgun in the other.
25. Over the course of the semester, she would come to love him, but right now she wanted to stab him in the neck. 
26. In that moment, I could see it all, I can feel everything, and I knew I was about to die.
27. As I glanced over, the road zooming by, I could see the train was coming, but instead of slowing down, I pushed the gas pedal to the floor. 
28. He was dead, but that didn’t seem to stop him from standing in front of me, waving awkwardly. 
29. If I stayed, I’d most likely die a painful and horrible death, but if I left, he would suffer that fate for me.

    And then that's all I've got stored up, but if you've got a preferred genre or some other alternate setting or scenario you'd like to see, I am glad to oblige.

    Any combination or any of the above. One AU setting with a single character or one item from each list with three different characters. Anything you've got, I will give it my best shot.

    And because I just realized it might make life easier to have a short review of what characters I have written and posted in the past (collected by story):

• Breen and Garrett (concentration camp survivors, alternate verse)
• Cameron Armstrong, Ruusan Schaefe/Armstrong/Vhander (kids: Vivian, Ellora, Connor) Jaydn Schaefe, Jasen Drouais, Novarr and Sarris Schaefe (Zephron verse with Penny Kearney)
• Dechlan Scott, Jandy and Jane Sparks, Teagan and Gage Daxton (mentally linked dyads, Shattered Cage)
• Gil and Lorelai (sci-fi undercover)
• Jaz O'Haire, Haydn, other teammates (amnesiac black-ops captain turned leader of Busan)
• Ianthe and Isra (twin sisters, elder taken, desert land)
• Jaq and Alec (dragon-shifter, desert land)
• Kadin (futuristic professional fighter)
• Lane and Tess (amnesia, long-lived characters)
• Anastasia and Caesar (far more established long-lived characters)
• Sean and Lindsey (neighbor kids, her parents killed in a shoot-up of the house)
• Kelsey Delanie and Sergeant Alexander Marks (military verse; soldier and nurse)
• Nuada and Argyros Sylvester, Maggie, Carson, and Max (modern fantasy)
• Tatsuo and Shard (fantasy, dragon kind and elf)

    I added some taglines for what story the characters belong to, but if you're still confused, check the tag box off to the right for the name of who you're looking for. First name and it's alphabetized, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

    Well, then. I hope this makes sense and that it piques your interest as much as it has mine. If it does and you get this incredible urge to see Jandy and Jane Sparks in a college setting, drop me a comment (or send me a message if you're connected with me elsewhere) and I'll type you up something. I will be attempting to do five-hundred word minimums, but I never know when inspiration will strike, so there could be some long ones.

    As always, thank you for following my blog and taking an interest in my writing. See this as a way of my thanking you. ^_^ 

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

Writing: 30 Prompts - Untitled

    I cannot begin to express how bad I feel for not having posted in what feels like weeks now, but life has been life and schoolwork mountainous, as it always is.

    To make up for my lack of posts, I found another set of prompts I wrote out some time ago while digging through my hard-drive this evening. (Also known as, not quite listening to my SWI lesson.)

    I was relieved to find that the prompts needed very little editing and decided to go ahead and share them with you all. The idea was one I had a long while ago and never got anywhere productive with, but I still found myself smiling rereading these blips.

    Everything should be pretty self-explanatory, so I won't hold you any longer.


    1. Frost
    When he woke up, she was already out of bed, standing by the window, which was touched with frost. He rose and went to stand behind her, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders to ward off the cold. She smiled up at him in contentment.

    2. Wing
    She felt like a bird that had lost a wing without him; unable to fly. Grounded. But when he rode up the driveway that evening, she flew to greet him.

    3. Glass
    When he went to see her a few days after her aunt’s death, his first thought was that she looked like glass. Sitting in a corner of her room in the dark, alone and crying, all he could see was a glass doll that he would never let break again.

    4. Tea
    Her first reaction to the over eager suitor-wannabe was to throw her still warm tea in his face. She was so angry with him she wanted to scream. But a distracting hand on her shoulder kept her from following through and she watched as her husband made his claim known to the other man.

    5. Star
    He wondered why it was that she mirrored the brightness of stars in his eyes, no matter what state she was in.

    6. Poem
    She disliked most poetry. It was dull and repetitive, but there were a few she enjoy. Those were the ones she found while poking through the drawers of his desk.

    7. Spot
    He enjoyed the afternoons where he could find her curled up in one of the library’s cubby holes, soaking in the sun. The one she frequented most was dubbed “her spot” in his mind.

    8. Kiss
    She loved surprising him. Popping out from small places and catching him unawares. While he probably didn’t like that part, she would bet he did like the impromptu kiss that followed a scare.

    9. Hand
    He would find himself fascinated with her hands some days. The small, dainty fingers and soft palms. So unlike his own, and downright amusing when he found them covered with mud.

    10. Scarf
    She always made sure he had a scarf on the cold, windy days, going so far as to order him to a height she could reach so she could wrap it securely around his neck.

    11. Leaf
    Once when he was flipping through one of her books from home, he found a leaf pressed between the pages. She explained it was from the tree in her parent’s front yard. There was a bit of longing in her eyes that made his heart clench.

    12. Scar
    When she first saw the scar on his leg, she nearly burst into tears, imagining a highly painful occurrence, until he told her that it was from his childhood, when his brother hit him with a stick. She wasn’t sure how much she believed that.

    13. Fire
    He enjoyed evenings in front of the fire on the settee, with her back to his chest, and her peals of laughter at something causing him to smile as well.

    14. Emotion
    Sometimes, she wished he would show more emotion, but with one of his wordless gestures of affection, she would forget all about that wish, and thank God for making him the way he was.

    15. Book
    Every day he would finally say – to himself – that he could read her like a book. That was, until she said or did something entirely new, and he had to start all over again to fit this new quirk in.

    16. Bell
    She thought her hearing might be going bad until he looked at her with one of those looks of his that said she was being foolish again, and found that his message came across clear as a bell.

    17. Whisper
    He loved it when night fell, and she crawled under the covers to curl up beside him, whispering “I love you” and how the rest of their lives would be right because they were together.

    18. Illness
    She hated being sick. She couldn’t move, couldn’t barely breath, because when she caught an illness, it was usually bad. Now she hated it even more because she could see the worry and fear in his eyes while he sat beside her.

    19. Logic
    Logic was like a weapon when used correctly. You could always use it to corner your opponent, assuming they didn’t outwit you first. And he’d always used this as his fallback. Until now. She darted away from him, skirts trailing behind her, laughter filling the air, with his boots in hand.

    20. Laugh
    The first time she truly heard him laugh, she was enchanted. All she’d done was slip on the polished wood floors and fall with a loud “oomph” and he had started chuckling. From that moment forward, she made it her life’s goal to make him laugh more often.

    21. Child
    When they’d first met, he’d thought she was like a child. Some days, he still thought that. But there were moments where he would be knocked off his feet and left wondering where his sweet and innocent wife had gone to.

    22. Breath
    Winter was one of her favorite times of year. Because when she’d been outside for a long time and he came to find her, he would bend down to nuzzle her cheek, and his warm breath would ghost over her skin, warming it.

    23. Eyes
    He’d never particularly liked it when people stared at him, because it was downright unnerving.  But when his wife leaned over him, eyes alight with mischief as they perused his features, he didn’t quite mind it so much.

    24. Bag
The day she had to pack her bags to go back to her parent’s house was the day her heart felt like it would break in two, even though she knew it was for her own safety. She’d just never imagined she would have to leave his side.

    25. Time
    Everything seemed to stop when she left. Not only time, but also his heart. Like her presence alone made the world go round. It was terrible, and he wished the war would end so she could return to his side.

    26. Fear
    Her fear had been rising with every passing month that he wouldn’t send for her or even come for her himself when she turned around and her gaze was caught by a familiar tall and dark form. And in that instant, all her insecurities vanished.

    27. Table
    It did him a world of good to have her sitting across from him at the table once again, chattering about her day. Of course, it was a bit more chaotic with their twin sons there as well.

    28. Scream
    Her heart always pounded when she heard one of her children scream, but on this particular day, she didn’t mind the nerve attack as much, because she burst into the boys’ room to find their father tickling them on the rug.

    29. Flower
    No matter how many flowering weeds the twins might bring her per day, none of their plants brought the same look of heartfelt love to her face as his mere presence did.

    30. Smile
    She had it decided. The one thing she would never, ever tire of even if she tried. That was the soft smile on her husband’s face when he thought she wasn’t looking, one that radiated peace and contentment with his little family and that readiness for what tomorrow might bring.

    And now I must dash, because it is 10:30 PM and I have much yet to do before rising a bit earlier than normal to (prayerfully) talk with my bestie over Skype tomorrow morning.

    So, I hope you both enjoyed these and that you shall forgive me for the sudden quiet.

    Please feel free to leave comments or questions below and thank you very much for reading!

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

Writing: Cameron and Ruusan Prompts (26-50)

   And here is the second part of my Ruu and Cam prompts. I do have another set of fifty, but they were my first ones and need a rewrite that I am unwilling to attempt at this time, so. These shall have to do.

   Without further ado, prompts twenty-six through fifty.

   Jump
   For Ruusan, the jump into marriage was welcome, although unexpected. If asked even two months prior, she would have said she didn’t have plans to get married anytime soon; that she wanted to focus on her job for a while. Cameron hadn’t had that sort of time, so she didn’t ask it of him.

   Jester
   Cameron could be, if the fancy struck him, quite the jester. From chopsticks up his nose to a well-timed joke to lighten the stress weighing on her shoulders, his easy-going humor never failed to make Ruusan smile.

   Jousting
   Sometimes, it felt like jousting, their exchanges. He proved to have quite the competitive spirit, and Ruusan had already known she’d had one, but when one was pitted against the other, the results were, while in good humor, quite serious behind the congenial exterior.

   Jewel
   She was his jewel; the beauty that made the pain of passing days easier. Cameron knew that if it had been anyone else, he wouldn’t have been able to last as long as he had.

   Just
   Just promise me one thing, he’d asked one night. She’d replied with Anything, and he had told her to keep smiling. Always, always keeping smiling. And don’t be afraid to smile for someone else. Ruusan had understood what he was saying, but curled closer to him in an effort to ward off those thoughts.

   Smirk
   Ruusan had once said to Jaydn that one of her hunter counterparts had the most adorable smirk. Her sister had turned quite red, and refused to comment on the matter. Even after she married Cameron, she remained a staunch believer in her own words, because while she loved him very much, the man had no ability to smirk. Whatsoever.

   Sorrow
   It took months before the grief and sorrow lifted enough from her shoulders enough that Ruusan no longer felt weighted by it. The move to Norsha’ac helped in that respect, with the new surroundings and fast-moving Vhander family.

   Stupidity
   It was with some stupidity that Ruusan took in the veritable explosion of greenery in the new apartment she and Cameron had. Flowers, cacti, trailing ivy-related plants... they were everywhere, and all of a sudden, she wondered if she had any allergy problems.

   Serenade
   While Cameron never found a balcony, he did take to humming out a simple serenade if the mood struck him, much to his wife’s delight. He may have insisted his voice was nothing pleasant to listen to it, but Ruusan enjoyed it more than she was able to put into words.
  
   Sarcasm
   Sarcasm had never been either of their strong suits, although Cameron sometimes drifted towards it when his irritation had been roused. She would just hum quiet agreement and hurry him in the other direction.

   Sordid
   When Ruusan had told Cameron that she hated the sordid ‘love’ holovids of recent day, he had been initially surprised, then quite pleased, because he’d always wanted to find a woman who didn’t enjoy that form of entertainment.

   Soliloquy
   Ruusan wasn’t taken to soliloquies, as she wasn’t taken with being alone. If she had something to say, she preferred it be to someone, rather than to herself, with whom it would do little good.

   Sojourn
   During the beginning of their marriage, the Armstrong’s took several brief sojourns to different parts of Kahn, learning more about both the city and each other. Then they settled down, she in her work, he in his regular check-ups, but none of their curiosity with each other dimmed.

   Share
   Despite not gaining a sister until she turned seven, Ruusan found it exceptionally easy to share, especially with Cameron. She adjusted to sharing a living space with the ease of breathing, and he seemed to take to it easily as well.

   Solitary
   Ruusan could never be described as solitary; everything she was took joy in being near others and seeing their happiness, and that didn’t change even on the hardest of days after Cameron’s death.
  
   Nowhere
   Sometimes, Ruu would wake up from a dream, desperate to find him because he had to be somewhere; she had just seen him, only to remember that he was nowhere she could reach. The woman cried the most on those nights, wishing him back by her side once more.
  
   Neutral
   After a particular trying day at the emergency room, Ruusan would go into ‘neutral’ as Cameron tended to call it. The rest of her day would be spent in auto-complete, but when she reached home, he would do his best effort to pull her out of the abyss.

   Nuance
   She was surprised, really, at how quickly she picked up on his every nuance. The different ways he’d furrow his brows and the meanings behind each of them. Even the rhythm he tapped his foot to had a hidden purpose that she enjoyed finding out about.

   Near
   After he died, Ruusan found herself wanting Vivian to be near much more then she wasn’t. Sarris purchased a sling for her, and mother and daughter used it until the edges were fraying.

   Natural
   Falling in love with Cameron had been a natural instinct, as easy as breathing. Everything about him appealed to her tender soul, and all she wanted was to make him happy.

   Horizon
   He took an unusually strong interest in the horizon. When she asked him why it was, it was because he enjoyed watching another day set on his life and knowing that he had lived that much longer than expected.

   Valiant
   Ruusan’s ninth month of pregnancy came, and Cameron’s health continued to decline, but he held on with a tenacity that surprised the doctors and they pinned many titles on him, including ‘brave’, ‘strong’, even ‘valiant’.

   Virtuous
   Even before Cameron had begun loving her in earnest, he declared Ruusan had to be one of the most virtuous women he had ever known.
  
   Victory
   Ruusan felt they had scored a great victory over death as she watched Cameron, face drawn and almost gray but still quite aware, hold his baby girl in his arms and call her “Vivi” for the first time.

   Defeat
   It felt much more like death had defeated them, though, when she awoke the next morning to the doctors’ gentle grip on her hand, and the quiet information of Cameron having passed on an hour earlier.

   And, with that semi-depressing note, that's all I've got.

   Once more, I hope that you found these an interesting read and I shall poke through my endless documents for something more to share.

   Ad astra per aspera.
  To the stars, through difficulties