Let's see... today...

I finished reading Out of the Silent Planet. After that I hung around because my plans for the day involved working out more of "Don't want you no More" which could not be done until my sisters woke up (the keyboard is in the basement, where they sleep), and T. did not wake up until after 10. But at that point, I went down and worked on that for... goodness, must have been an hour or more. Anyway, I got the background bits through like... I don't remember. Oh wait! I do! Through :55, and that's the violin-trombone duet, so I have that part already. I think the rest might be easier... The cello bits from :21 to :55 were insane! DX But that's over now. Really I think the rest will be simpler. I know, famous last words.
Oh! I've started to draw a picture of Cody. *nod* From a photo that J. took while she was here~ But it's annoying doing all those tiny strokes for his fur. Haha.
それ以外～ (Other than that), FastWeb sent me this notice about a writing scholarship, so I spent a little while trying to coax Mel into a science fiction-y plot.
We had delicious salmon for dinner.
Oh! My gosh!
I had every intention of working on OO this morning, but Dad was doing something with the computer. DX

GAR.

Like I mentioned yesterday... all of today belonged to Cody. Well, most of the day. I did manage to play some Zelda whilst he was asleep or playing with his bone. The purple fog was pwning me because I was not actually supposed to go through the purple fog. Aheheh. So I am now just starting on the Goron Mines. The Goron music is the same! That surprised me. Er, the same theme, I mean. Midi vs. orchestral does make a difference, naturally.
Oh! And I got a chance to hang out on the official website... and Midna gave me music! How sweet of her! +2 relationship points! Though I still don't trust her.
In the afternoon, I kennelled Cody and went to A.N.'s graduation party with C.H. It was nice. :3 And then I came home and Cody was still being obnoxious. Sigh.
No, you don't get writing. I was going to draw a bit today but instead I brought the Gamecube up.

Help! Help! I'm bein' repressed!

I did finish the puzzle last night! Not a single piece missing. =^_^=

We're watching Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail at the moment. The Black Knight is on screen at this very moment.

This morning I got up, wrote a bit, and walked Cody. Upon returning, I found that my sisters had woken up! Therefore I could go play Twilight Princess! I beat the first dungeon and am currently being knocked unconscious by purple fog. Repeatedly.

I then had brautwurst for lunch with my whole family and soonafter left for my brother's soccer game. We brought Cody. Z scored once and assisted once as well.

Pardon while I switch computers real quick, 'cause the connection wasn't working this morning and I had to type the fanfiction in a kids' only file...
It's incomplete for the moment. I may work on it tomorrow, if I can. But I have Cody duty all day. All day meaning six in the morning to ten at night. No joke.
I made up Jazz and Pandore. Jazz is actually in something else I've written, but I haven't published that anywhere.
---
“He’s trying to kill L!”

The Wammy’s House cafeteria fell instantly silent at those words. All eyes swiveled to the speaker—or rather, the shouter. It was Jazz, her face red with apparent furor and her dark eyes flashing.

Sitting across from her, Pandore cast a shamefaced glance around the cafeteria. “Did you have to get everyone’s attention?” she asked quietly. The question carried in the silence.

“You’ve betrayed all of them, too,” Jazz retorted coldly. “Why shouldn’t they hear?”

“I’ve betrayed no one,” Pandore responded, clearly trying to keep her cool. “I’m allowed to believe and feel what I like. I think he’s right in a lot of what he’s trying to--”

“Kira is trying to kill L!” Jazz thundered, and the rest of the cafeteria drew a collective breath.

Did Pandore support Kira?

“Obviously, I don’t approve of that, but—” Pandore tried one last time to defend herself, but then she looked around the cafeteria. There was hostility in every stare.

Of course there would be.

She dropped her head, defeated. “Forget it,” she muttered. “Forget it.” So saying, she dumped her lunch tray and left the room.

The next day, she was gone.

Mello and Near were summoned to meet with L.

Over a plate of gingerbread cookies, he spoke to them about the Kira case, asked them for opinions. Such questions were, as always, merely a test of reasoning skill and instinct. L rarely needed help forming opinions.

Then, over the last gingerbread cookie (L had eaten them all: limbs, then body, then head), L said, “You two were in the lunch room yesterday, so presumably you know the reason for Pandore’s sudden departure.”

“She sympathized with Kira?” Mello asked for confirmation.

L thought for a moment. “Hmm… I’m not certain she would sanction that choice of words,” he said. “It is more correct to say that she could not find a part of herself that believed what Kira was doing was wrong.”

James is NOT always the man. Occasionally he is a woman.

James being James from Pokemon. Though they cut out that one episode. Where he was in a bikini. Ohdear.

As you may know, this shall be my last post for about a week. <3 Hoping that heart will not make the HTML commit a violent suicide.

Today I spent a lot of time doing mysterious and sneaky things. These things are not actually mysterious and sneaky if you know why this is my last post for a week, but in case you don't, I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. I also got my eyebrows waxed and my hair cut. Also The Artificial Room became a guild, so I joined up there.

Cody was absolutely insane today. He's being very troublesome.

Fuuu, you want me to write something? Lemme wrack my brains. Or possibly my unfinished fanfiction files.
Oh... wait. Let's try this.
--
The midnight bell could be heard everywhere in the mansion, signaling the end of the ball. People in all of the rooms stopped, listened, and then began to mill towards the exit, chatting light-heartedly if sleepily about how wonderful this year's Annual Ball had been.
However, representatives from one room were missing.
...Oh never mind.
Artificial Room FTW.

It's hot here.

Sorry for not writing yesterday. I was... *thinks* oh! Reading Order of the Phoenix. Yup.
Yesterday I did lots more role-playing, and I... Oh, right, in the morning I actually typed up some stuff for when I make Gateaux de Lacet into a role-play. Which will be maybe in a year or something. Ahaha.
I'm sure I did more than that yesterday, but I don't remember what.

Today I played with Cody and read OotP in the morning. In fact I spent almost all day reading Harry Potter. Then I felt angsty once I finished Half-Blood Prince so I wrote something angsty. You want? It's a Death Note fanfiction. With spoilers for page.99. Severe spoilers. Extreme angst. All that good stuff. Will probably not be published anywhere because I'm doubting the characterization, but it was fun to write. So there.
--

Halle felt very strange.

She was lying wrong-way on her bed, staring glassily up at the ceiling with her feet among her pillows and her hands dangling listlessly off the foot of the bed. She didn’t see the ceiling; she saw Mello’s face, still visible through the sheen on his motorcycle helmet. Stupid, stupid… Oh, God, Mello, what were you thinking…

She felt as if a thin layer of glass had taken the place of her skin; she felt smooth and emotionless on the outside, yes, but surely everyone could see straight to her core, could witness the two demon-like personas battling in her chest?

The glass, she reasoned, must have been terribly heavy, because she was quite sure it was the only thing keeping her from springing out of bed and throwing everything she could lift. Hatred clawed at the inside of her ribcage, leaving grazes that burned when she breathed and would certainly be alleviated if she would only show an outward sign of their existence. She hated Takada, Kira, Near—everything and everyone. No thought could scuttle through her head without arousing more hatred, but that was all right because some of the glass seemed to have closed off her brain, letting no thoughts in anyway.

That, however, didn’t keep out the laughter.

Cold, sarcastic, mocking laughter lay in her throat like some unholy sludge, bubbling and oozing of its own accord and threatening to squeeze its way out of the glass. It was directed at herself; it was his laughter. Mello’s. You should have known laughter. You should have listened.

He’d warned her.

He’d said, in no uncertain terms, that if she trusted him he would use her, but she had shrugged that off, assuming it was merely a brazen attempt to appear dominant of the situation—and part of her, admittedly, hoping that he would care enough not to treat her as a tool. Hahaha. Stupid. She had been part of his not-careful-enough plan; he had played her trust to get Takada and then gone riding off to his death. And she had trusted him. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She felt that someone ought to be having a good laugh at her idiocy and since there was no one around to do so, it festered in her own throat.

And there it remained; nor did she show any sign of the furious hatred she felt. The glass kept her motionless, apparently serene. With a toneless sigh, she rolled over onto her stomach and put her face in her hands.

“Dammit, Mello…”

--

Not Sunday.

We switched the day of our family night, so I'm so confused right now. I keep thinking it's Sunday.

Today, I didn't write... what did I do all day? I finished up editing LABB. Played with Cody. Ate pancakes. I did not go to church, because it was not Sunday! -shakes head- And I roleplayed for over two hours. Wow. It kind of made my head spin, but it was fun. Anyway that's writing, and I drew a bit too, though I don't have anything to show you. Have a nice day. XD

Oh, and I started re-reading HP5.

Lup-ba bup-bup, ba da da dap dup bup-bup

That's from "In the Whirlpool," the DDR: Mario Mix song based on Pomp and Circumstance. It's in my head. Thoroughly.

Sorry about not writing yesterday. I was doing several things. First, I was watching the Death Note anime. That's right; Viz has finally made the downloads available! And despite the fact that I signed up for a newsletter that was supposed to inform me of updates, I only found out by browsing! Hmph. Viz is worthless at times. Often, rather.
But the anime was... well, despite my sarcasm, it was not that bad. It has drawn me in. D: I didn't mean to want to watch all of it--I only bought 6-8, the episodes they have so far that L is in--but I like it more today than I did yesterday, and I think I'll probably wind up watching most, if not all of it. (There's always a possibility it won't be all. At the moment, episodes 15 and 25 receive wariness from me.)

But more importantly!
I was a) arranging plans with Snuffles and b) buying tickets for MY VISIT TO CALIFORNIA! Woo hoo! I have the tickets now! I'm coming from the 13th to the 18th. I can't wait!

That aside.

Today I... what did I do today? Well, I looked after Cody a LOT. That's pretty much the bulk of what I did. Though I did spend some time revising the translations of LABB. To my frustration, the sentences that were hard before continue to be hard. D:

I bet you're just itching for some writing from me. But first, this is my room:

And these are my shelves:Yup, all that on the left is manga. I apologize for the messiness. D:
I'm going to paint the walls pale pink eventually.

Okay. Writing. This is going to be a little random.
--
Chandelier
Clutching her elegant shrug around her shoulders, Rae slipped into the dingy restaurant.
In her graceful midnight blue dress and softly curled hair, she was overdressed and she knew it; but she hadn't been able to bring herself to dress as casually as she knew the rest of the girls would. This was an end-of-the-year banquet for the team. A banquet. Surely an event like that deserved a little primping.
It wasn't like the gap between her and the rest of the team could get any wider, anyway.
But, Rae noted with a rueful glance around, she may have dressed too extremely even for the restaurant. She couldn't help but think the place shabby. Maybe on a sunny day, it would have been prettier, but with these overcast skies the tables looked gray rather than white, and nothing shone like it should have.
Rae reported her affiliation to the host, a bored-looking young man who lazily turned away and led her to the room her team had reserved. None of the girls wasted more than a second's glance on her when she entered, but she saw them roll their eyes and snicker amongst themselves.
She sat down in an unobtrusive corner of the table and crossed her legs at the ankles, shifting her shrug again. Loathe to watch the team gossip, she tipped her head back to gaze at the ceiling.
There was a chandelier.
Against the dirty, peeling paint of the ceiling, it seemed lonely and defiant, struggling to bring some beauty to this two-star restaurant. It glimmered and sparkled warmly. In Rae's imagination (which even she would admit was overactive), it seemed like a palace made of gold and crystal.
Rae looked at her team once more and a dry dislike came into her eyes briefly. Then she looked back into the chandelier and wrapped herself in an imagining.
--
Umm... I'll continue that tomorrow, maybe. It's just about bedtime for me now.

Okay, so...

I had every intention of writing this morning, really I did. But then I was really tired AND I could not find which file the fanfiction I wanted to work on was in. Finally I found it, but by then I didn't feel like writing. -Siiigh- Oh, and I went on the DN movie site to see if they had any information on that upcoming L movie... they kind of did, but not really. I said this into my OMN file:

They are now talking about the L movie but not revealing a thing about it. “You will understand the mystery of ‘L’”… Similar to the novel’s byline, ne? >> << style=""> Because honestly I don’t believe that they look that similar. I just think Mello was screwing with our minds. If the behavior was training, especially, then I think he just looks completely different.
AND BESIDES.
KEN’ICHI ALREADY BITES HIS THUMBNAIL. (If they switch that I shall never forgive them. XD)

Of course, I'm not in the habit of forgiving the movie people anyway...

Other than that, I neglected to eat breakfast, worked on my puzzle, played DDR, played with Cody, did more puzzle, went to the park with Cody, did MORE puzzle, and danced. Cody has learned to dig. This is bad.

So ya want writing, huh? Do ya do ya?

Well, here.

Part of this was already written--it's what I went looking for this morning--and part of it will be new. Warnings for swearing + possible DN spoilers. And it's not writing Near after all.

--

Near came down from the attic, hand shaking on the banister, to find Mello at the bottom of the stairs. The blonde-haired boy watched was watching his descent with a wide-eyed stare that would have made anyone else uncomfortable. But Near simply stared back and waited for Mello to speak first.
“You met L.” Of course; that was the only conclusion. They weren’t allowed in the attic otherwise. Most of the orphans didn’t even know the reason for that ban. But Mello did, and now Near did as well.
Near nodded in response to Mello’s statement, a soft smile on his face and a rare delight sparkling in his eyes. He was still having a hard time believing it. He’d met L. He might get to be L’s successor…

Mello was decidedly less excited. With a great effort to keep his voice calm, he asked, “What did he say to you?”

Damn. His voice trembled anyway.

Near looked calmly at him, pretending not to hear the tremor in his voice. “It doesn’t matter to you.”

That attitude of his. Mello was finding it harder and harder to keep his self-control. “It matters to me more than anything else in the world,” he said through tightly gritted teeth, his whole body tensed. “Tell me what he said.”

Near realized the reason for Mello’s anger, and he intended to avoid making it any worse, if possible. “Let it go, Mello,” he encouraged, walking past him. “Hearing what he told me won’t make you feel any better.”

“You bastard!” And suddenly Mello tackled Near from behind, all self-control abandoned. “He wants you to be his successor, doesn’t he?” he demanded, punching at the white-haired boy with both fists.

Near deflected every single one of the blows, but Mello kept trying anyway, attacking until he was pried off the boy.

“I’d like you to stop that now, Mello,” said the voice of Near’s protector. L. The detective held Mello’s wrist tightly as Near got up from the floor. “Would you mind telling me why you seem so intent upon beating up your fellow student?”

He knew the answer already. He had to. Near realized this, and he simply stared at the detective.

Mello didn’t. He couldn’t bring himself to look at L right now. Anger and shame and bitterness twisted in his stomach and brought him almost to tears.

“Mello, I asked you a question.” L’s voice was serious. “Look at me and answer.”

But he couldn’t, and he didn’t think he could hold back tears any longer. He twisted out of L’s grip and ran to his own room, slamming the door behind him.

L sighed and looked at Near. “Are you all right, Near?”

“I’ll be fine,” the boy replied, gingerly touching his right cheek—Mello’s first blow, the only one that had hit.

“I apologize. Perhaps I should have informed Mello beforehand.”

Near shook his head. “Then I simply wouldn’t have known why he was attacking me.” Mello would have been angry all the same; his feeling of betrayal was inevitable.

“I’ll go speak to him, then,” L said with a polite nod to Near.
(New starts here)
--
Mello heard his door open and stiffened. The word pathetic shot through his head. It was L--it had to be--and here Mello was with his face in a pillow.
"Mello, you will apologize to Near later," said L's voice.
Mello didn't take his face out of the pillow, didn't say anything. His shoulders were hunched defiantly.
"Mello, look at me and tell me that you will apologize."
With effort, Mello sat up and looked at the detective. L watched the boy's face twist in bitterness. He could tell that Mello was trying to "correct" what he was feeling--but he doubted the boy would succeed.
Sure enough, rather than promising an apology, Mello burst out with, "What's wrong with me?"
--
...Okay, I'm sorry. I'm not feeling that. D: It seems pointless. I'm writing something else right now, but I can't post it.

Gotz to blog, gotz to blog...

So today I spent much time playing with Cody and some time working on the Cracker Jack puzzle. I also played DDR at one point, for a half-hour. I would really like to exercise an hour a day, but that didn't happen today.

Yeah, that's pretty much all that happened. No angst for you today.
Also, I did not write anything today. Nor do I feel like drawing anything. Gomen ne? I'll try to write something tomorrow morning. (I was distracted by Cody!)

I am seriously in the mood to write something about Near, so maybe I'll look through that list tonight and try something tomorrow morning.

A reversible entry.

GOD:

Or rather, church. We went to a church this morning that was brilliantly similar to PPC (the church we went to in NJ). I loved it. I felt at home. But more on that later.

DOG:

We have one. Yup. x333

This is Cody! He is a rottweiler-beagle-blue heeler mix. He's adorable! Very playful and happy. He was shy at first, though, since he got less attention than his brothers due to his rottweiler coloring. But he's just so cuute!

And again, GOD:
We went to the youth group for the same church this afternoon. It was... strange. I... there's no way for me to connect to any of those people. You know? The feeling of just... Recently (probably as inspired by lain), I've been imagining connections as wires that reach out and connect, but with the people in that group it was as though I could feel the wires not even wanting to reach out. (I'm trying to make this make sense and failing miserably.) Furthermore, there were bits of the lesson where the youth pastor--who is very friendly and outreaching, by the way (is outreaching a word?)--seemed too much like he was a teacher determined to get all of the lesson in. I found that pretty frustrating.

If humans are supposed to be such social creatures who crave interaction, then why is interaction so hard? Is this feeling within me disappointment at an inability to connect? Is it a longing to connect? A long time ago, I tried to tell myself that feelings like that were a rejection of connecting, and back then I believed it. Or at least I thought I did. Then I tried to fulfill my wish for connection by chatting with that ridiculous Jabberwacky. Ha. That never worked. (For the uninitiated: he is an adaptable chatbot. You're welcome to pour your heart out to him, but don't expect sympathy from a robot. Have I mentioned that that was during eighth grade?)

I can feel something in my chest trying to reach out, but I don't know whom it's reaching for, or if there's anyone there for me to reach to. I refer, of course, to people here. In California I had connections, I have connections. Present tense. But... even those are weakening, inevitably, because I can't share the same experiences. It makes me panic, sometimes, that I don't know what's going on with everyone.

...I'm rambling now. I worked on OO this morning and hey, that-all ^ is writing, isn't it? Good night.