Charlie's Meme, Part 2
Oct. 2nd, 2005 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsContinuing Charlie's Meme, this time here are all the Journal Entries that are more or less finished, but that I haven't yet posted to my website:
Kaede pushed open the steel door onto a a darkened foyer plastered with garish posters describing all manner of visual, auditory, and other sensory pleasures in drama black and femme pink. The wall of enticements prevented her from seeing the rest of the bar. The woman sitting on a stool by the door looked her up and down, nodded appreciatively. Kaede grimaced, then walked around the barrier and into a large rectangular space where the bar sat square in the middle. She shook off her raincoat and dropped it over the halfdoor to the coat check. An invisible hand picked it up and hung it thoughtfully. [Connected Electricites]
"Why can I be so stupid?" Brighide asked the falling snow. The snow did not answer her, although in some parts of the universe it may have. She looked down at her empty wineglass and remembered that it was her fourth. Her head was spinning as she tried to remember the conversation they'd been having, the six of them. Whose stupid idea was this, anyway? [Connected Responsibilities]
Pasha Hideko Colodor leaned back into his well-worn leather chair and pressed his fingertips together, smiling to himself in smug satisfaction. The day had gone very well indeed; already four hours out they were nearing the safety limit for Hawkwind drive and would soon be away from the law enforcement that still threatened to turn his pleasure into destruction. [The Taking of Gabrielle]
"Unbelievable," David commented quietly, feeling the raw power of the Ohadi-Thoriso-Ohadi drive, commonly called for reasons David couldn't fathom the "Crowley" drive. The stars slid by, the ship passing them at the rate of 18 light years per day, almost twice as fast as anything else presently sailing. [Gabrielle's Rescue]
"Mommy, are you going away?" Ayna Kaffar looked down at her four-year-old daughter who held herself up to the bed with her two small paws digging, probably claws first, into the calico bedspread. Her eyes scanned over the tiny form carefully, taking in the black fur with the two wide stripes running down each side of the spine, the bushy tail sprinkled with white strands giving it a soft, greyish appearance. Ayna wondered momentarily if such close examination was caused by her fear that she might never see Miyako again, or by her slipping back into that mental mode she used for the work she did. [The Kemper Assignment]
I had found the perfect place for my office in the new house. There was a dropdoor in the ceiling of the hallway on the second floor, just outside our chambers-- for the first week of our moving in, I giggled every time David called them "your chambers"-- and if you pulled it down, stairs slid out and upstairs was an a-framed attic space just perfect if I would be spending most of my time seated. Even better, it had a pair of near-the-floor windows that hinged outwards and opened on the courtyard. [Residents]
My footsteps echoed on the beautiful grey flagstones restrained to the floor with fine mortar. I took a deep breath, panned back and forth with my flashlight, tried to rid myself of the feelings that coursed through me. An unidentifiable ache lived behind my breastbone, and tears threatened to well up in my eyes if I let my emotions loose for more than a second. [Razing Castles]
"Commander Nantonly? I have an anomalous blip on long range, sir." The ensign sitting in front of the main sensor display panel turned to the chief officer on the bridge. "Metal." [Water Out Of Fish]
Captain R. Chihuro shouted. "Hello? Raven?" [Molecules In A Vacuum]
"Welcome back, Ladies and Gentlefen of the Class of 1016 from the Stormwater Decanting Facility." Blah, I thought as the robot at the front door welcomed people to the large convention center in the heart of Seattle. We were nearly twenty miles from Renton and the Stormwater Decanting Facility. [Glass Reunion]
Stepping off the shuttle, I felt the breeze and heard the river and felt as complete and whole as I knew I ever possibly could. The very knowledge that I was standing on Terra, and that this time we owned the place, that it was mine to dictate its future, sang through my mind. "What benefit it a man," I whispered to myself quietly, "If he gain the world?" I appreciated that phrase in its severity, but I still had my soul, and I had gained the world. More importantly, I had saved the Earth from her impending self-destruction at the hands of the sentient species ejected from her bower. [On Ida's Shores]
She was at play and her heart was lifted to the heavens. A corona of bliss caressed her oiled skin at every gleeful step as she lightly tripped across the ground. Her bare feet barely touched the moist soil and the air made merry on her nakedness. A voice, deep and xhandsome, carried itself through the wind. "Nymph! I shall find you!" [We'll Always Have...]
It had been fifteen days since I had headed out from the homestead. I had no plans, no arrangements, no real intentions. I just had to get away, you know? It tears, right, when you're stuck on a world with no more than a dozen people on it and one of them is your sister. I had watched the vids Dave had shown me of the Universe, the ones of Pendor and llerkin and all the spaces in between. I wanted to go to Terra, I wanted to see the Museum at Kessel in something more than a VR hologram. I don't care how much Dave tells we the difference isn't noticeable. I can feel that there's a difference. [Heather]
"Ken?" David asked as I sat in the left chair, reading a book. [Cotton]
"I was born wanting to be more than just a person," Bambi said as we drank our wine. [The Chorus]
Freya looked down, out the window of the interatmospheric shuttle, at the reddish-brown mottled surface of her world of birth, and tried to restrain her growing feeling of reluctance. She had started down this course of action a year ago, when she had approached Ken with her request. He had, to her surprise, agreed not only to support her decision but to assist in the financial arrangements, ultimately paying for much of it himself. [For A Song]
When Lilly met Zemery, he was going through the motions of applying suntan lotion to his entertainingly massive body on the beach where no sun had shone for a decade. She had chosen to walk out here among the withered flowers and frosted ponds because she had wanted to be alone. Instead, she had met Zemery and the first blurt out of her was, "Why?" [The Forever Promise]
Time had slowed to the customary crawl. The audience of small faces there to watch him die held perfectly still like a little lawn of voyeurs on a hot day. To his left, a crier held out a black-sheeted scroll on which silver letters described his crime and his fate. The crier's lips were moving in ritual form, listing out the accusations of treason, murder, piracy, even slavery for that fool Snaoia asha-usan's use of genetically engineered soldiers. He was offered the blindfold, rejected it. The rope was placed around his neck, the noose cinched tight, the line pulled taut. [A Place In History]
In the perfectly clear air of a summer day that hinted at Autumn xtomorrow, the sun shone down on the dappled surface of a lake high in the hills of New Hampshire (that's a place on Old Earth) at a late afternoon angle, making the shadows of pines that lined the shore stretch towards the tall house that Sasami, Ciit and I were calling home. The wind whispered by, a bare zephyr that wished for a storm when there were no clouds in the sky. [Petri Dish]
We had arrived at a Corridor outpost, a lovely planet with the unlikely name of Siberia. I think the name was something of a joke, as it was a lush and fertile planet almost from pole to pole. Siberians were mostly human, obviously, although there was quite a mix of the usual suspects: Pendorians, llerkins and a long list of others the names of which I could know if I bothered. From orbit, the world was beautiful, one of those classic marbles that hung in space and tempted one to come down and have a look around. [Growth Culture]
We hiked up the steep hillside alongside an icy stream that descended from some snowmelt not more than a kilometer ahead of us. My boots crunched in the grass. The air was fresh and shockingly cold, my backpack felt lighter than was reasonable. Despite the chill, I wore only a light sweatshirt and shorts, as did my companion. Mist filled the air under a leaden lid of sky that drizzled constantly. [Bridges Of Stone]
Kaede pushed open the steel door onto a a darkened foyer plastered with garish posters describing all manner of visual, auditory, and other sensory pleasures in drama black and femme pink. The wall of enticements prevented her from seeing the rest of the bar. The woman sitting on a stool by the door looked her up and down, nodded appreciatively. Kaede grimaced, then walked around the barrier and into a large rectangular space where the bar sat square in the middle. She shook off her raincoat and dropped it over the halfdoor to the coat check. An invisible hand picked it up and hung it thoughtfully. [Connected Electricites]
"Why can I be so stupid?" Brighide asked the falling snow. The snow did not answer her, although in some parts of the universe it may have. She looked down at her empty wineglass and remembered that it was her fourth. Her head was spinning as she tried to remember the conversation they'd been having, the six of them. Whose stupid idea was this, anyway? [Connected Responsibilities]
Pasha Hideko Colodor leaned back into his well-worn leather chair and pressed his fingertips together, smiling to himself in smug satisfaction. The day had gone very well indeed; already four hours out they were nearing the safety limit for Hawkwind drive and would soon be away from the law enforcement that still threatened to turn his pleasure into destruction. [The Taking of Gabrielle]
"Unbelievable," David commented quietly, feeling the raw power of the Ohadi-Thoriso-Ohadi drive, commonly called for reasons David couldn't fathom the "Crowley" drive. The stars slid by, the ship passing them at the rate of 18 light years per day, almost twice as fast as anything else presently sailing. [Gabrielle's Rescue]
"Mommy, are you going away?" Ayna Kaffar looked down at her four-year-old daughter who held herself up to the bed with her two small paws digging, probably claws first, into the calico bedspread. Her eyes scanned over the tiny form carefully, taking in the black fur with the two wide stripes running down each side of the spine, the bushy tail sprinkled with white strands giving it a soft, greyish appearance. Ayna wondered momentarily if such close examination was caused by her fear that she might never see Miyako again, or by her slipping back into that mental mode she used for the work she did. [The Kemper Assignment]
I had found the perfect place for my office in the new house. There was a dropdoor in the ceiling of the hallway on the second floor, just outside our chambers-- for the first week of our moving in, I giggled every time David called them "your chambers"-- and if you pulled it down, stairs slid out and upstairs was an a-framed attic space just perfect if I would be spending most of my time seated. Even better, it had a pair of near-the-floor windows that hinged outwards and opened on the courtyard. [Residents]
My footsteps echoed on the beautiful grey flagstones restrained to the floor with fine mortar. I took a deep breath, panned back and forth with my flashlight, tried to rid myself of the feelings that coursed through me. An unidentifiable ache lived behind my breastbone, and tears threatened to well up in my eyes if I let my emotions loose for more than a second. [Razing Castles]
"Commander Nantonly? I have an anomalous blip on long range, sir." The ensign sitting in front of the main sensor display panel turned to the chief officer on the bridge. "Metal." [Water Out Of Fish]
Captain R. Chihuro shouted. "Hello? Raven?" [Molecules In A Vacuum]
"Welcome back, Ladies and Gentlefen of the Class of 1016 from the Stormwater Decanting Facility." Blah, I thought as the robot at the front door welcomed people to the large convention center in the heart of Seattle. We were nearly twenty miles from Renton and the Stormwater Decanting Facility. [Glass Reunion]
Stepping off the shuttle, I felt the breeze and heard the river and felt as complete and whole as I knew I ever possibly could. The very knowledge that I was standing on Terra, and that this time we owned the place, that it was mine to dictate its future, sang through my mind. "What benefit it a man," I whispered to myself quietly, "If he gain the world?" I appreciated that phrase in its severity, but I still had my soul, and I had gained the world. More importantly, I had saved the Earth from her impending self-destruction at the hands of the sentient species ejected from her bower. [On Ida's Shores]
She was at play and her heart was lifted to the heavens. A corona of bliss caressed her oiled skin at every gleeful step as she lightly tripped across the ground. Her bare feet barely touched the moist soil and the air made merry on her nakedness. A voice, deep and xhandsome, carried itself through the wind. "Nymph! I shall find you!" [We'll Always Have...]
It had been fifteen days since I had headed out from the homestead. I had no plans, no arrangements, no real intentions. I just had to get away, you know? It tears, right, when you're stuck on a world with no more than a dozen people on it and one of them is your sister. I had watched the vids Dave had shown me of the Universe, the ones of Pendor and llerkin and all the spaces in between. I wanted to go to Terra, I wanted to see the Museum at Kessel in something more than a VR hologram. I don't care how much Dave tells we the difference isn't noticeable. I can feel that there's a difference. [Heather]
"Ken?" David asked as I sat in the left chair, reading a book. [Cotton]
"I was born wanting to be more than just a person," Bambi said as we drank our wine. [The Chorus]
Freya looked down, out the window of the interatmospheric shuttle, at the reddish-brown mottled surface of her world of birth, and tried to restrain her growing feeling of reluctance. She had started down this course of action a year ago, when she had approached Ken with her request. He had, to her surprise, agreed not only to support her decision but to assist in the financial arrangements, ultimately paying for much of it himself. [For A Song]
When Lilly met Zemery, he was going through the motions of applying suntan lotion to his entertainingly massive body on the beach where no sun had shone for a decade. She had chosen to walk out here among the withered flowers and frosted ponds because she had wanted to be alone. Instead, she had met Zemery and the first blurt out of her was, "Why?" [The Forever Promise]
Time had slowed to the customary crawl. The audience of small faces there to watch him die held perfectly still like a little lawn of voyeurs on a hot day. To his left, a crier held out a black-sheeted scroll on which silver letters described his crime and his fate. The crier's lips were moving in ritual form, listing out the accusations of treason, murder, piracy, even slavery for that fool Snaoia asha-usan's use of genetically engineered soldiers. He was offered the blindfold, rejected it. The rope was placed around his neck, the noose cinched tight, the line pulled taut. [A Place In History]
In the perfectly clear air of a summer day that hinted at Autumn xtomorrow, the sun shone down on the dappled surface of a lake high in the hills of New Hampshire (that's a place on Old Earth) at a late afternoon angle, making the shadows of pines that lined the shore stretch towards the tall house that Sasami, Ciit and I were calling home. The wind whispered by, a bare zephyr that wished for a storm when there were no clouds in the sky. [Petri Dish]
We had arrived at a Corridor outpost, a lovely planet with the unlikely name of Siberia. I think the name was something of a joke, as it was a lush and fertile planet almost from pole to pole. Siberians were mostly human, obviously, although there was quite a mix of the usual suspects: Pendorians, llerkins and a long list of others the names of which I could know if I bothered. From orbit, the world was beautiful, one of those classic marbles that hung in space and tempted one to come down and have a look around. [Growth Culture]
We hiked up the steep hillside alongside an icy stream that descended from some snowmelt not more than a kilometer ahead of us. My boots crunched in the grass. The air was fresh and shockingly cold, my backpack felt lighter than was reasonable. Despite the chill, I wore only a light sweatshirt and shorts, as did my companion. Mist filled the air under a leaden lid of sky that drizzled constantly. [Bridges Of Stone]
