help help help
i don't want to be here
One of my professors is from Hungary, and today I spoke with him in Hungarian for the first time. I haven't had a chance to speak with him since school started, but today we actually spoke, and he guessed my name right. I guess it's hard when there are so many students.
What is everyone going to be for Halloween? Brother, are we still doing a party?
[ For dearest elder sister's birthday, he ships her a couple of things: this, this, and this pendant. They're delivered in a plain brown box with a HUGE PINK BOW (like it takes up nearly all of the top), the box full of shredded newspaper and a creepy card on top reads on the inside in his slanted writing:I'm about to get sentimental, and no, you're not allowed to laugh. Last year was a shitty year, but I had you to get through it. I don't ever want to go through that again, though if I have to, I know no matter the crap I pull, we're still us. And we'll never break. This year, I'm glad things have been different. Better.
]
Thanks. Have fun being older.
- Fam
[ filter; raven ]
So if you were thinking of having an animal, this is not the time to think about one. Three animals is two animals too many. You can have the skinny cat. Gaunt and Beast are mine, unless you feel you could win a battle for joint custody.
[ filter; mordred ]
Make time on Friday.
[Every penstroke of the letter pained her physically. Somehow, Hebe held in tears for as long as possible, but a few tears escaped toward the end, splattering on the paper. Pondering if it was best to burn it and rewrite it, she worried her lip to the point that it bled. She felt like the worst person in the world, just the worst. Was someone's love really worth abandoning her family, if only for a little while, to be happy?
You're so selfish she chided herself angrily, pausing with the letter before a lit candle. But rather than burning it, Hebe set to folding it up in a nice envelope. The letter would find itself on the kitchen table later on, but before venturing downstairs, she snuck as quietly as possible into her brother's room to kiss them goodbye. Neither stirred, thankfully, and so on quiet feet, she left. With the kitten stowed away in her handbag, she bid her house farewell and disappeared into the night for Raven's house.
The letter reads ( as follows: )[ filter; menelaus & demeter ]
I'm so so so so sorry
[ filter; raven ]
I'll be there in fifteen minutes.
[ filter; hyacinth ]
I'm making a horrible mistake, but I need you to tell me it'll be okay.
[ War was something interesting to Percival. It wasn't the battle he feared, not when he believed in his own strength and knew he'd taken lives before -- rather, it was the prospect of the war taking so long, he wouldn't be able to see his brothers or attend their weddings. Maybe if his brothers hadn't existed, going to war might've been less difficult, but they did, and this was his duty. He wouldn't give it up, not for his own selfishness.
Asking Daphne to station him away from the front lines and being approved of it had been a blessing. He owed it to his brothers not to die that fast, and though Daphne had been spared that information, he understood she trusted him. That was enough. The expedition into Camelot had gone well in the first two days. It was on the third day that Iriy caught on with open fire.
So he guessed it was time to report in.]
[ filter; daphne, visible to tenjin and agravaine ]Daph Marshal, we're in a bit of trouble. We got into Camelot, and they've got no one stationed along the border so getting in wasn't a problem -- but Iriy caught us. We're waiting them out, but I lost about two dozen men. We took out as many as we could, though if they haven't reported us in by now, I'd be really surprised.
[ filter; hyacinth & raven ]
I'll come back to you, I promise.
[It was about seven o'clock when Hebe woke from sleep disoriented. The alarm clock blaring at her side was to remind her school was in two hours, which was a bizarre realization considering how it was her first time seeing an alarm clock in months. Or so she'd assumed. Everything started flowing back, like how she had a test that morning, how she was invited to lunch with a boy (needed to cancel). Normal, daily things.
Following school, she crawled onto her laptop for a few tentative messages.]
[Filter: Zeus]
... daddy?
[Filter: Raven]
Can we... have coffee sometime?
[Filter: Public]
Um. Hi.
That cat from earlier came back for one of my paintbrushes and ate it. When I reached for it, he hissed at me.
[filter; raven]
I have something to give you. And the books as well! I'll give them to you when we are back in Mictlan.
My merry band of musicians at The Damned Watcher will be joined by my friend Euterpe, who hails from the beautiful Camlann. But we will also be performing just her and I. Euterpe is a wonderful musician, and everyone should come hear her play. How often do we get musicians from other lands?
There is something else I would like to bring up. Someone is missing. His name is Kokabiel, and his hair is fair. He is handsome and prone to laughter. Has anyone seen him?
[written in a little later] Samyaza, look down.
[filter; raven]
It's been some time. Come to the tavern some night?