Useless Information

Tonight was a UI escapade with mi padre. We discussed everything from the origination of the term "hooker" to SKSes/Vietnam War to how customs will confiscate a bayonet but not a semi-automatic weapon to the history of several major narcotics to, eventually, the course of The Illiad. I love my pappy.

In other news, that I had meant to deliver differently to Terri, I finished SoS on Sunday. 330 pages, 42 chapters. I MADE IT!

Broken

I'm in the last chapter (chapter "Broken", FYI). Two more have died in this chapter, and at the end of chapter "Sacrifice" I killed one more (have I mentioned that Ciria is dead yet? She is). Right now Maric is suffering from the loss of two loved ones and another close acquaintence, the most immense, total muscle pain that could ever be imagined, and skin that hurts so bad that he would rather enjoy it if all of it fell off. But that's okay, because soon the last two will disappear. I'm so close I can taste it. *licks her outlines* Yes, precious, nearly there.

In other news, today I wrestled with a slimy, moldy, evil hose that saw fit to attack me with soiled water and its own mildewy self. Ewwwww. I hates it, I do.

Sabotage!

So there I am, striving to make a battle scene worth reading. I'm certainly not in the mood, but there's hardly anything for me to skip to instead. I mean, the end of the battle is the End, so I can't skip to the scene I feel like doing. I've resorted to mood music. In short, that means I'm desperate. Not so desperate as to make me walk down and up the stairs though, so my mood music was the Pirates of the Carribean soundtrack instead of Lord of the Rings. So I'm at the computer, struggling with what I want to say, what Maric wants to say, and what Rehde will say whether he or I wants him to or not. I'm tussling with formations, with how Sferesh will charge, with how Kumei will answer, whether Kumei will answer in time to save the front rank, whether half the pikemen will be dead before the armies even meet, how in the world Maric is handling this, and how to work this all into the part of the battle I've already written, and my dad decides to sabotage me. He gets on his computer, picks the stickiest, most repetitive pop queen song that I haven't expressed complete dislike for, and blasts it on his compuker! It's been stuck in my head ever since. Grrrrr. He's not helping the stress of the scene. When it comes out flat and lecturish, I'm blaming him. Nyeah.

Bonding

EFY was freakin' amazing. 'Nuff said.

Since then, I've been bonding with the fam. Not many people can say that their bonding time with their dad consists of rocking out to Green Day, Simple Plan, and Good Charlotte, especially when he knows the words better than you, but I can. When we went boating on Saturday, Little Bro #1 did disco moves/beauty queen wave/picked his nose/other assorted goofing off-ness while wakeboarding, and Little Bro #2 was schooled in the art of taunting Padre. We also constructed an interpretive dance to the song "Toy Soldiers" that we perform on an hourly basis now. Today, bonding consisted of taking a noodle lightsaber and bashing Sir Droolio (Little Bro #4) in the face with it, all the while discussing Seasame Street. Currently, I am disguised as a Valkyrie, with uneven braids and a Viking helm to prove it. I've decided to stay this way from dinner to bed time. Now all I need is a Goblin King. *begins singing his theme song* Hmmm, definintely a day worth remembering. I told Sir Droolio to start a journal with it. "Today, July 10th, I bonded with my sister. She whacked me in the head with a noodle stick while telling me how awesome Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, and Grover are. I tried to steal her Oscar slippers, but that resulted in being whacked with those instead of the noodle. In the future, should I wonder what is wrong with me and why, I will remember this day."

Slaughter

It's begun. I killed a slew of scouts the other day, and today Heth was impaled by an arrow shot by Eyend'sal, Endrea's and Elyste's guard. Next chapter, Eyend'sal dies, at Elyste's hand. I doubt Elyste will see that, but that's to inform him anyhow. He does get to kill a named character (though, I won't grant his wish of killing Endrea; I like Zefran too much to do that to him). In the following chapter, my favorite character croaks (being my favorite is the bane of any character's existence, whether I'm writing the story or not). In the next one, at least three other named characters keel over (more of them might die). So really, I'm not that gruesome. I only have five scheduled deaths that anyone really cares about, and one of them should have some people rejoicing. So there.