Author Topic: The Avyan Immortal Dynasty - The Word Unsaid (9/25/20)  (Read 83652 times)

Offline Deme

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Re: The Avyan Immortal Dynasty - A Sweet Feeling (8/2/19)
« Reply #165 on: August 31, 2019, 03:14:46 PM »
Aw such a sweet post! I also really love her side of the bed. That mug is super cute!! I'm a huge fan of clutter CC for sure.
Also RIP Akira, aka my favorite townie :'(

He's surprisingly sweet. Actually, the whole tray arrangement is a fine bit of clutter CC from a CC stuffpack (that also contains a lot of the CC in this particular update), but I thought the mug would be a good part for its place in the narrative.

Also! Before I post it, apologies for the whole month it has been since an update!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses happened, you see.
Stories In Progress:
The Avyan Immortal Dynasty

Offline Deme

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Re: The Avyan Immortal Dynasty - The Open Sky (8/31/19)
« Reply #166 on: August 31, 2019, 03:16:13 PM »
Chapter 53: The Open Sky

Time’s arrow, my dear friends, hangs not still in the vault of heaven, nor may it reverse upon itself! It advances ever forward! So, too, my darlings, the heart:


As I gave a valiant video game battle with my sister-in-law in all but law, I had time to reflect on this basic truth, perhaps because someone I might name kept blasting me, yes, moi, with so many shells I couldn’t even move! And I had time to reflect on this with that immortal treasure of my heart, Reiko.

Surprised? She aged up phenominally! Splendidly! Enough to make a man go weak at the knees with instant passion, speechless with beauty!

I’ll confess that I have never been speechless a day in my life, of course. But I am considering the atmosphere at play here, darling.


When the game was done, I pulled her to the side. It is a completely other nature of thing, to fall comfortably into the arms of one of your dearest companions, compared to the way you’re a-light with love when you see someone beautifully hurt, tender and injured and full of grace! It is not the weaker for its comfort or is its ease!

We did not in that moment say what passions blossomed in our hearts! We spoke, of course!

“How fare the scouts without my brother or I’s radiant and guiding light?”

“Fine.” A smile I think a touch sly played upon her lips. “Honestly, it’s not like you guys were den mothers or anything.”

“You wound me!” I collapsed, hand over forehead, onto the backrest of the couch. “But surely, you miss the adornment of my presence! Scout activities were hardly an essential feature of scouting.” This is my honest view of the experience; the drama club is at least truly about the drama. Which I bring in suitable measure!


“It’s certainly a bit more boring, anyway...It’s nice, though. Having you to myself.”

Well, a comment like that stirs the heart into a myriad of troubles. She, beautiful red-haired rose that she is, holds a treasured position in my heart...However, it is not a heart that can be held in whole by one person! But if she wished it so, do I leave her? How did your intrepid hero get out of this?!


Well, wonder no more. Remembering a certain wisdom bestowed upon me, I took her upstairs. I might have done so under the pretext of a teen makeover, but pay that no mind!


“Reiko...I consider this a matter of the utmost gravity. je t’aime, my darling, I think… That you’ve always been my precious rose. And every time I see you, you are more beautiful.”

“Awww….That’s some flattery. I thought I’d have gotten used to it by now.”

“I am glad you have not! I will be ever more inventive, just to prevent this!” I waved a finger before her, though. “However, and I say this firmly… My heart is not a bird to be caged; rather, the open sky is the place for birds… There are other people I do love, can love, will love. And if that’s…” I will admit, for a moment, looking at her face, that for a moment, my heart wavered. I only wished to comfort her… However, my heart must endure! Being cruel to my spirit would only make me resent her. “If that’s not something you’re comfortable with, then I think it’d be best to simply remain friends.”

“Hm. Well. I don’t think I’d want to see you with other girls --”

“Or gentlemen?”

“Or guys.But I kind of knew that about you to begin with, right? I like you for you, not just...My ownership of you.”

“Ha ha ha! Delightful! Yes!” What can a man do in such an occasion, his heart alight with joy as a magpie, but hold his rose to his heart and shower her with kisses?


Sending her into the most delightful peals of laughter as I tickled my way in a flurry across her lips, her neck, the hollow of her neck. For us, an evening of sweetness beyond the exquisite discretion of your dazzling host to tell!

But evening must sink into dawn eventually to dawn, and so we leave our hero to enjoy his youth!

My dear brother’s painting has been going quite well; I’m told he managed to complete his mastery of paintings. I’m quite proud!


The next day saw many of the house at our own business -- I to school, disappointingly, and my brother to his work, and while that was underway…


A few more had as their destination a place out on the town! The cafe played host to Kacie’s little soiree, as a date unfolded elsewhere on the grounds.

“You know, people are saying you’re pretty good to know,” Kate Munch told my almost-sister-in-law, over coffee.

“That’s funny. So I managed to get a good reputation before Kite, huh? My Kite?” Kacie couldn’t help but grin into her hand.

“He’s nice to everyone, but not much of a go-getter. His name sometimes sort of floats vaguely out of reach. You market yourself a bit more, don’t you think?”

“Well,” she said, taking a sip, “You’re not wrong. I’ve always wanted to be very well-liked by everyone. He’s content just if others are happy...Sort of.” I am quite in agreement -- sort of about describes the contentment he can have from only caring for others, whatever his opinion on the matter. “So I get it, I get it. It’s just funny.”

“You’re not wrong,” Kate answered.

And up the hill sat Salim and his dear Justine, deep in a grave conversation indeed.

“...I received my second notice,” he told her; I’ve heard from those who were eavesdropping (my mother, of course) that his voice was soft. He didn’t seem afraid, but he did seem heavy-hearted about it.

“That soon?...It doesn’t really seem fair, does it?” She sighed, with the saddest of smiles on her face. Not for her, the open grief! Does it not bring tears to your eyes, my precious audience?!

“It really doesn’t...Sometimes, I think I spent my whole life lazing around. It was fun for a while, but.. I think I might have wasted a lot of time by not meeting you sooner.” He sighed, shook his head.



 “But then, maybe I could have only met you when I did.”

“Hah. Just imagine! I think if I hadn’t seen how bad you were at flirting, I might not have liked you quite so much?”

“Doesn’t that make those the perfect lines, then?” The gravity of the moment was briefly wiped away, and they could smile at each other.

“No.” Cold, insistent, immediate. “But it did meant I could see what sort of guy you are.. And that’s a person who I think shouldn’t regret his life. Everything brought you here, right?”

“You’re very right about that,”he said thoughtfully.

“...But. I think for someone you should meet… You should meet Norma. She’s very nearly a toddler, you know.”

He beamed at her, bashful and apologetic and truly thrilled. And so they headed to her home in Oasis Springs, his young daughter for to see.


She is, or so I was told, quite a fine little girl. And her father held her very close then. It must be a wonderful and sad feeling, to know something so perfect and so brief!

“Hey, honey… What a beautiful girl.” Norma squirmed uneasily, but Salim found it in him to laugh. “Shh, it’s okay… You’re probably not going to remember this at all, huh? I’ll have to do it for both of us, and my books, and your mom.”

Ah! Such woe! What man can be kept forever, but by his works and those he loves? He bore a smile, of course -- how could he not, I ask of you, my precious audience?


And he retired to enjoy the afternoon sun with this woman who, having stumbled into his life at my mother’s grandiose and strange request, made it a jewel! Such is love, my friend, such is love!

By comparison, these trite notes which I am obligated to mention feel so petty. Miniscule! Really boring! The worst crime of all.


But Mom’s vampire research has been going well; I am told she has unlocked the power to snatch a vampire away from their dark power and lust for blood, bringing them back into the light!

“One of these days, it might come in handy. Most of the local vampires are trash, but the Vatores aren’t terrible,” as she put it.

“Scheming, oh matriarch?”

“Always.”


Kite’s career is going well; that’s level 6, isn’t it? It’s nice to see his success hurrying along.

And, I should attest… Those cretins in the drama club lack any inspiration. Any drive. Any soul!


I’d had it with them! And their objections to hiring a sequined crane for a school play!

The plan was to begin my vacation once all were at home, and I tell you now: I was so incredibly ready for it. And, perhaps in many ways, I wasn’t. And, most of all -- perhaps they were, those other young lovers. But enough of that for now! You, my friend, will have to listen onward, and hear the tale in another voice!
Stories In Progress:
The Avyan Immortal Dynasty



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Offline Deme

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Re: The Avyan Immortal Dynasty - We're back and away! (7/27/20)
« Reply #167 on: July 27, 2020, 08:47:02 AM »
Note: Yes, we're back! I'll be trying to hurry things along a little, and catch up, but...In the chapters probably *after* this and the next, but for now! Welcome back! I've missed the family and missed you.


Chapter 54: We're back and away!


Sos, we hit the road an’ end up just driftin’ on to Granite falls. Biggest place there is, but there really aint a whole lotta space there in terms a right-sorta beds. Not when we got the rents, Kace an’ Me, Magpie, an’ Salim, Justine, an’ Norma. See, he was thinkin’ on mebbe stayin home, bein’ with his baby girl on her birthday an, y’know, f’r what time there is… But when he learned we could send’em a vite, he didn’t want t’ delay the trip none.

“Kite, honey,” Kacie asks. “We should probably get a tent or something, right? There’s only two double beds.”

“Oh, heys, tha’s how it be, innit? You don’t mind spendin’ some time under the stars, huh?”

“Not at all, if it’s with you.”

“I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to letting you two have the twin --” Magpie almost says, but then Kace is shootin’ him the deathest of gaze-beams, dig? “...Ah. I will gladly take a twin bed, my apologies. Oh, young lovers!”



“Man, playing cupid there really played some dividends,” Mom says when she gets to chattin’ up the local Rick an’ Justine.

“I mean, you didn’t really do anything,” Justine righteously lays out that truth, you dig?

“I set up Akira to set you up, and I’m quite pleased. I’m not taking unnecessary credit, or saying you owe me your firstborn, or secondborn, or whatever level of children -- you and Akira, right, so anything else would be third born, right?”

Justine flushes.

“That’s none of your business, Kestral. And didn’t you make my relationships unnecessarily complicated? So thanks for the free vacation, but… I’m hoping this doesn’t make my life harder.”


“...I just came to welcome you guys to the park.” Poor ranger-man, gettin’ caught in this.

“Don’t worry. He’s been a good soldier; why don’t you two just have fun for a while?” Mom smiles. “He and your little girl seem to be having a good time...A good use of vacation, that.”


“C’mon, let’s fly to the moon!” Seems a kinda sci-fan game here; I dig it. She laughs, puttin’ a grin on his face. Even o’er the sound a’ his back strainin’ for it.
“Moon! Moon!”
“We can play among the stars!”

‘S a sweet thing, pullin’ up a groovy beat like that to yell about a kid.


Kace an’ I spend about half the evenin’ just explorin’. Fishin’ fer a while. Just watchin the lines drift out over the river, man, that’s just the stuff, dig? An sometimes she’d butt up against me, leanin’ her shoulder on my arm, an’ laugh.

“What’s happenin’, Kace?”

“Nothing,” she’d say, an, trip, man, if that don’t just mean everythin’ outta this world. “I’ll race you to see who will catch some bugs first!”


She takes that one, at least at first, takes off tearin’ through the forest. Gotta take my own pace, y’dig, so a race just aint my bag, man. The moms mostly got t’ play horseshoes, an’ we settle down, spinning spook tales w’ Magpie.


“So, there’s this square, y’dig, never made a step wrong. Did what erryone said was th’ thing, went t’ a good school, married a nice chick down the road -- not groovy, just nice, y’dig? 2.5 kids, fence, dog, votes the way his folks votes, goes on’ thinkin’ anyone could have his life if they tried harder. An’ he didn’t make a wave ‘r nothin, not ‘till the day he died. He was scared, deep down, that if he flipped his lid, like he was really achin’ fer, well, trip, man! He’d spew the ever-world puddin’ all over the bruncheon, ‘r whatever scene he was in, you dig? They sky’d darken, the earth’d shake. So he kept his wig on tight, never said nothin.”

“...And?” Magpie asked me when I was done spinnin’ this yarn.

“And nothin. Trip, man, scariest story I can think of.”

“My dear brother, you are woefully insufficient in drama! Yes, the idea of a man living in the shell society binds him into without question into a repetitive grind is a portrait of woe, the bleak despair of midwestern values!”

“Yeah, you dig it.”


“ But how utterly lacking in panache! How lacking in dramatic stakes! You must present your man with moments in which he might have turned down another path, which his fear denies him!”

“...You boys are weird sometimes. Can’t we just do man door hand hook car door?”

“Arright, spin us a one!”

Tha’s why we were out, see; inside, Salim was dealin’ with the bed sitch, which had, like, some issues.


“She really is precious,” Salim said with a sigh.

“She is… I wish this place had had a toddler bed, though. Poor dear.”

“It is rather a shame, but...I just have to wonder at it. How peaceful she looks. How perfect. I...I’m happy you came with us. I’m happy I got to be here with you. I grant the tongues of man or the vaults of heaven no greater poetry than this: the whine of cicada, the total abandon of sleeping children, the love I feel.”

“That was rather nice, though, say what you will for the tongues of men.”

“But of course; men must try, or else why would they want to send a poet?”

He stood, but his legs just fell out, man.



“Oh, my dear...It’s a little too soon, isn’t it? I didn’t see...I… Goodnight.”

Man, his little girl, Norma, got her Z’s broken up by the noise; woke up just in time to see somethin’ she probably didn’t dig one bit.


“Da...Da? Wakey!”
But kids catch on quicker than you’d think, y’know? She cried an’ cried, seein’...him like that. Kids understand stuff like that, if you don’t flinch. Is all a part a the big turn, part a’ day an’ night an’ all that.

But trip, man, that death, like, got far out, you dig?


“I am the ghost of the wooooods~ Here to welcome you to --”




“Oh my goodness is that a dying man, Oh, I am so sorry! I shouldn’t be here!”

Well, he shouldn’ta been -- maybe I shoulda left him out ‘n all, seems like it lacks the kinda poetry he mighta liked, Salim.


“...You both will be coming with me,” the reaper said, when he came, shootin’ the ghost a glare for crimpin’ his groove.


 “Ahh...But you didn’t accomplish all you might have, is that not so, Salim Benali?...Well. You left memories, all the same.”

He lived a kinda life I gotta snap, man, livin’ to his own rhythm, you dig? Mighta seemed lazy, but, trip, man, isn’t that his t’judge, not yours? Everyone’s gotta go by their own way.

Justine ran in to Norma fast as she could, ‘cause, like, trip, man; imagine Mom tryin’ to comfort a kid that young… Trip. One a’ these days, that’s gonna be my job, huh, with some little somethin.

“Mama! Dada!” Her little chubby finger jabbed urnsward “Make no go!”

“I would if I could, honey,” Justine told her, like, the best she could. “Sometimes… You can’t bring people back when they go away. You can only…Only remember them with love.”

Norma wouldn’t dig them hard truths f’r a long, long time. She cried, an’ Justine started cryin’ up a storm, too.

When she’d gotten Norma tuckered out, cryin’ til she slept, snifflin’ on the couch, I knew I had t’ say somethin.

“Hey, I, uh… If you wanna, like, riff or somethin, you don’t gotta hold nothin’ back, you dig?”

“I...Thank you.”

“I’mma miss him, too, you know? Like, he was a far-out cat.”

“...He was so shy at first, it was… Really funny, seeing him open up, but before I realized it, I’d… Fallen in love.”

“An’ he loved you, too, man. Like, maybe he didn’t write all he wanted to write, or nothin, but, like, maybe that wasn’t all there was to his bag, you dig? He loved you, an’ he loved Norma, an’, like, that’s the kinda thing that goes further an’ further on, far-out an’ wild an’ undyin’, more than anythin’ else. Love don’t die, you dig me?” An’ you, too; you’ll remember him, an’ I’ll remember him like that, too, you dig? We’re, all, like, a part of this thing, man. Love’ll change, sure, but it don’t die. It’s a word that lives on forever, a groovy story burnin’ since the start’a life.

“Yeah… I...Won’t forget him, not ever. I’m glad, that of all the things he could have done with the end, he spent them with me...I hope Norma will remember him; they had so little time…”

“Hey, if she ever needs it...He did, like, write somethin’, you dig? His words’ll reach someone.”

He had his thing, you know? An’ he lived a life as good as anyone’s, man.

Stories In Progress:
The Avyan Immortal Dynasty

Offline Deme

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Re: The Avyan Immortal Dynasty - Everything Beautiful in its Season (8/26/20)
« Reply #168 on: August 26, 2020, 05:29:55 PM »
Chapter 55: Everything Beautiful in its Season

‘S hard, bouncin’ back from summin’ like that, you dig? I think Magpie had one doozel of a trip, away fr’m home, an’ pals, an’, like, big entertainments. So all’sat’s left to him...Man, that may notta been the cool thing, the trip, I mean. Least not without more prep; that was kinda a selfish call, but, like, one f’r the chick I’m totally gone over, so maybe it aint that selfish? Nah, still probably was, but I’ll own it, y’dig?


“Oh, the sorrow! Oh, the despair!” Magpie wailed inta Mom’s shoulder.

“Is this about the lack of a good easel?”

“This is about the lack of a good easel, and also the ongoing condition of men, too soon to pass, with so much undone!”

“Ah, yeah. That’s why I don’t put up with that whole dying stuff...Doesn’t make losing them much easier, though,” Mom told him. “C’mon, I’ll beat you in horseshoes, that’ll make you feel better.”

“...It likely will,” Maggie said, an’ I hope he aint just sparin’ her.

The next day, we jetted on out into the big woods, Kace an’ me. Got lost a while, ‘til Kacie found somethin’ in the shrubs an’ vines.



“Kite! Kite! There’s something over here.”

“Aint there somethin’ all over the place, man?”

“Yes, but this is better, because I found it! It’ll be fun to see!”


“Whew. You aint lyin’; far out, man!” This is a thing that coulda been a thing, y’know? OK, like, it was someone’s thing: it was their pad, f’r one, though I didn’t get, like, a good look at the cat. We checked out what was happenin’.



What was happenin’ was: The wind was delivering a smooth riff through the trees, man. Wild herbs gobbled up sunlight, smellin’ sweet as daisies. ‘Course, some of ‘em were daisies. Waterfall layin’ out a cool beat, sendin’ up rainbows. All the happenin’ a scene needs, you dig? Once y’add Kacie and me, sittin’ ‘round a fire.

“It’s nice to finally get away from everyone for a while.”
“Aww, but they’re cool cats.”

“I like them too, but it can be crowded,” Kacie laid it out for me. “There’s always someone around, but right now, I’ve got you all to myself, and you’ve got me all to yourself.”

“Aint you got you to y’rself, too?” I asked her, kinda teasin, but. Havin’ you f’r you’s the kinda thing I’d want f’r her, you dig? It aint the kinda thing I can get a hand on, but I don’t mind too muchly.

“I always have that. I will allow you to share me.” She goes magnanimous with it.


“That’s pretty hip of ya, Kacie,” I tell ‘er. “Lettin’ me share the best thing in the world.”

“Well...It can be tiring, being the only person who has you,” she’s got a flush on from that; don’t think I didn’t catch it, man. “This is a lovely break: just a small number of people having each other, for a little while, before going back into the fray.”

“Yeah, I dig it. A fray’s got me frayed, you dig? Rat race’s a total drag sometimes,” I lean back f’r a tick an’ took it easy, feelin’ her warm by my side.

“I’d love it if we could decorate with more flowers, that sort of thing. Maybe keep a few things just...For posterity, I suppose. When I was little,” she said, sitting back, “The apartment was always a different one. What I could grab on the way to school was my best decoration, and could change just as fast!”

“Yeah? That’s what a pad needs, y’know, t’be a pad. Somethin’ you put on y’r own way an’ all.”

“I like that,” she said, smiling. “Sometimes, though, it’d get hard to hold onto, and it wasn’t like I was especially interested. Now, though…” She gave me a nudge. “Now I want to plant things and see what they come from. I want a more beautiful world, my world, for my kids and grandkids and...Well, you.”

“Yeah. There’ll be flowers pokin’ outta the snow, an’ flowers blossomin’ out of every corner. The yard’ll be fun t’lie on, run in, an’ all that -- after, grab an apple from a fruit tree, juices on a chin. In winter, flowers pokin’ little heads outta the snow; in summer, just a riot a’ color. An’ everythin’ beautiful in its season, man,” I told her, feelin’ a summer all its own, here. I’d wanna see what she could bring t’ it, somethin’ I could hold and watch f’r ever.

“...Yes, yes. That’s just my sort of picture. I can’t wait to get my hands dirty for it!” She clenched her fists in excitement -- an it’s, like, a different sorta vibe from mine, but I like watchin’ it, man.

“Sounds like a far out thing, Kacie.” We smile together f’r a while, an I add, “You really got the gardenin’ bug off me, huh?”

“Apparently! It’s one of those you transmit by kissing, like a much more fun mono!”

“Trip, man, I was thinkin’ more, like, a little ladybug, mainly. They help gardens, so no hipper pick than that. Just livin’ with the plants, and that’s their thing, y’dig?”

“Like a little bug? Does it have a costume? Overalls, maybe, a broad-brimmed hat?”

“Could have a hat,” I tell ‘er. “But maybe it just chills in the shade you’re bogartin’ there.” I bat at’er hat. “An’ you can feel it crawl, can’tcha?”



 I commence th’crawling, all fingers up an’ down her sides.

“Oh, no you don’t, mister,” she puts on, but she’s laughin’. “If I have it, then you do, too, crawl-crawl-crawl!”

Trip, man, but I aint just tellin’ you this ‘cause I wanna tell you ‘bout her, or even cause it’d be just radical t’ get you bright from the story. I’m tellin’ you this, this riff, ‘cause it matters, you dig? Cause we’re sittin’ there in the sun, an it hits me. As she’s laughin… I know. I know everythin. I mean, I guess it aint a surprise. What it was gonna be. But I didn’t dig the jam here until then, deep-down, man.


I pull ‘er up.

“Hey, Kacie… I got somethin’ to, like, to lay on ya.”

“Oh. Oh, I didn’t --” she almost starts, but I gotta shake out some words ‘fore my heart jackhammers outta my chest.

“I aint the sort t’ care on books or papers or that kinda thing, but… Trip, man!” I laugh, a little helpless, ‘cause knowin’ what the future could look like’s scary, man, y’dig? Diggin’ y’r thing, just f’r you? Scary, scary, scary. “Stuff like cakes or parties ‘r, like, freaking joint tax returns, those don’t mean nothin’ to me. But you mean just the whole world. I love you wild, babe, an’ I don’t wanna be a drag on you, man, or a ball’n chain, like, that kinda thing, but… I want t’ always have you with me, always live in the warmth of y’r heart, share the whole thing of the world with you. I think that would be, just, y’know… A little slice of the world livin’ in peace.

“So, like, I gotta ask, man: you down t’ marry me?”


She had everythin’ in me in her grip, just then. Smilin’, almost cryin’, catchin’ her breath on her throat.

An’ then Kacie takes the ring an says, “I really didn’t think...You cared enough about that sort of thing.” But she says it so happy it throws me out into the stars.  “Heeehehee. I take you, Kite Avyan, to be my beloved husband, to love and honor…”

“Trip, we doin’ this now?”

“Is there a better time in the world?”

“…Yeah. Hold on.”


“That waterfall’s real nice.”

“I love you, you crazy hippie.”

“Like, see, man? What an outta sight vow.”

“Stop it, you… I had a dream, okay?”


Gotta put a lady down f’r her dream, course. You can’t be so big a drag on that, man.
 
“I take thee to be my beloved husband, to love and honor, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.”

“Nah, babe. ‘m lovin’ you much longer’n that.”

“…That sounds just right, then. How long is that going to be?” She asks, so warm an’ shinin’, she’s the one throwin’ rainbows in the mist.

“…I could love you til there aint no stars left, an’ it wouldn’t be enough. I’ve got a whole universe with you, one I’m going to keep inside me forever. Second I saw you, stars just, like, aligned, you dig? I thought you were just… I flipped my lid. Cause you were the prettiest thing I ever saw, an’ I wanted nothin’ but to see you get prettier every day, get happier every day, be wonderful an’ brave an’ smart, ‘cuz you are.”



“…I don’t think anyone ever loved me like you, or believed in me like you. I became a better person… Because you believed. And I just…can’t let go. I can’t let go of just being able to say something, and have someone hold it in their heart. I can’t let go of being beautiful to someone. I… I can’t let go of being around the most beautiful, wonderful man in the world. My prince. My funky, groovy, far-out prince.”

“Then don’t let go; you don’t ever gotta. That’s what makes us man an’ wife.”

An’ then we pause. “…Neither a’ us got a ring, huh? A second one, anyhoo.”
“We’ll have to wait until we get home…”  She shakes her head at, like, the whole thing, y’dig?

“But that’s married ‘nough, huh?”

“For now, anyway. I’m sure your mom will want a party -- I know I do -- so we can pretend ‘engaged’ for now… After you kiss me, my husband.”



Let it never be said your ol’ pal Kite don’t aim to please.


‘Course, we didn’t, like, get down to deliver the good news b’fore Mom got the total bummer t’ end all bummers on the newsfront. ‘Cause Ka-san got her first notice then, an’ all.



“…You’re not even lying, are you.” She held the words ‘tween her teeth, like maybe -- maybe if she put it like that, it’d be true, an’ Ka-san’d just be yankin’ her chain.

“I wouldn’t, you know that.” Ka-san smiled bravely. “But hey! It’s ok! Let’s just enjoy the moment, alright? And pressure those kids, ha ha! I want to meet a grandbaby!”

“…Yeah. Let’s just. Have a nice time. We’ll go on a date tomorrow.”

That got some real brightness onto Ka-san, now.

“Sounds perfect. You really are my soul mate, you know? It’s a red thread of fate, so it can’t ever be broken,” she declared.

“I know.”

“Don’t you Han Solo me, Mrs. Avyan!”


An’ the ‘rents had t’ take all the comfort they could together.


Trip, man, but I wasn’t far removed from them, there; Kacie came down t’ breakfast glowin’ the next mornin’.

“Kite! Kite!”


“What’s happenin, Kacie?”

“We’re expecting! I’m expecting!”

“Far out! You aren’t putting me on, are ya?”

“No, not at all! Honestly, I’m so nervous. And excited, too, of course. I don’t know anything about parenting, I wasn’t really parented!”


“Babe, babe, ‘s cool; We got this! We got all sortsa folks t’ help, an anyhoodle, y’learn more from your drags than y’r ups, right? So, like, you can dig some good tips on the renting, just, like, backwards, y’dig? Turn it around an’ see it all over.”

“...So don’t buy all the birthday presents a month in advance and resell them every time the kid’s loud up until their birthday?”

“...Trip, man. Yeah, see, that’s. That’s a start.”


An’, like, sure, she’s worried, but she’s hip to what Norma needs, lookin’ out f’r her, all that jazz. ‘S Sweet to watch. She’s gonna do great.


So, it’s, like, Summer Solstice day, an’ the folks up with the crackin’ were doin’ the roast festive, you dig?

“So, Kacie an’ I are gonna get married. Have a kid,” I drop into the riff.

“Nice, nice,” Mom grinned. “Generation 3 will be along shortly.”

“Congratulations! Do you have plans for the ceremony?” Magpie asked, leanin’ forward. “I have been thinking color swatches for some time now!”

“Eh, I think Kacie might, man, I’m just gonna go with the flow.”

“Ah, so I should go to her about my plans.”

“...Sure, bro. Thanks.”

“Congratulations, Kite,” Mom said. She ran the words over in her head a while, like she was still takin’ in what I learned a bit before. We were all kinda staggered, but -- Mom aint that style. Not, like, when she’s in her groove, y’dig? “Be sure to tell your mother, alright?”

“I dig, I dig.”

‘Course, like, that would be assumin’ I got the chance f’r it first.


An’ the chorus a’
“Oh, goody goody goody! My first baby and my unofficial third baby are having my grandbaby!”

“Oh. Um. Well, thank you,” Kacie said, probably kinda diggin’ bein’ Ka-san’s, well, you got the line. “I hope we’d be able to get the wedding done not long after we return home. Before this little one gets too big.”

“Oh, you’ll just be glowing! Oh, how wonderful! Are you hoping for anything in particular? Besides a baby, of course.”

“Definitely a baby,” Kacie said, laughin’ at the bit.


“Ka-san, hey.”

“Ooh, yes?”

“We kinda, like, did the marryin’ thing already. Kinda, like, y’dig?”

“Oh, how sweet! Just the way you’d want it, huh? I’m glad I’m still getting to see a full-on white dress and all! Oh, and a flower crown, don’t tell me you don’t intend to wear one~”

“‘Course I’m gonna. I aint that square.”

Man, Ka-san just digs it.

It bein’ summer solstice ‘n all, we thought maybe Aurora’d, like, swing by f’r grillin’ things, spread the news, that kinda thin’...But, trip.



“It’s a nice cabin. This is certainly a family with some money,” she said.

“Like, thanks, I guess; Mom says this, just, like, kinda collects an’ all; I’m not, like, the rat-race fan ‘nough to sweat it, dig?”

“...Sure,” she said, givin’ me like a drag of an eye. “Well, I think it’s a thing worth keeping track of, futures and all. Kacie needs to think about her future.”

“I have been, lately. We’re getting married and having a baby -- how’s that for a future?”


Trip, man, the bad vibe merchant dropped by. Air went cold.
“You’re doing what?”  She asked.

“Mom, we’re getting married, not selling the house for a yurt.”

“I could dig a yurt, man.” Gettin’ a full set a’ eye-arrows f’r the trouble. “Ahahaha, well, y’know, we were sorta, like, thinkin’ somethin’ like it, uh, like, f’r a while now, y’dig? Y’r invited to the bell-an-arch-an-all, course.”

“Kacie, you can’t be serious. You let this slacker knock you up?” She groaned. “You’re doing the same thing I did. Just out of high school, and already knocked up. Don’t throw your life away, Kacie.”

“I won’t be. I’ll be making my life better,” Kacie said, flat-mouthed angry, pullin in a breath. “There’s nothing throwing your life away in having a family.”

“You say that now, but when you’re alone and the screaming’s keeping you up and this deadbeat --”

“Don’t you start on him!” Kacie shouted, wig officially flippin. Man, this is not, like, what I planned, y’dig; it was such a downer, made a dude feel 2 feet tall.

“Hey, hey, let’s all, like, chill, y’dig? It aint like she got no right to be worried, but…like, I love y’r daughter, so, let’s not harsh the mellow an’ all.”

“...Well, it’s your funeral.”

“Wedding!” Kacie shouted after her mom, when she did us all a favor an’ headed to splitsville.

“...I think she knows, babe.”




An, like, as if the holiday wasn’t, like, kinda a wreck, the whole firepit burst to flames, man! Gotta get the toddlers out!


“There, see, mom, I can handle myself! Just fine! Not everyone can put out a fire while pregnant!”

Y’tell it, Kacie. I mean, like, Justine was also pregnant, so, like, maybe ev’ryone can? I aint really seen, like, a fire department’re nothin.


The luck f’r fishin’s right out, which just added an extra bummer, but she at least felt better, an’ aint that all y’need? I relaxed after that kerfluff, too. We’ll prob’ly come back sometime, ‘cause there’s stuff t’do, cats an’ bears to see.


A couple a’ summer fireworks burst an’ flicker overhead b’fore we beat feet to pad ol’ pade. Maybe a little trip like that’s what we need t’really, like, feel the heart a’ home, man. Gotta a lot to do here.
Stories In Progress:
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Offline Deme

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Re: The Avyan Immortal Dynasty - What's True, Official (9/10/20)
« Reply #169 on: September 10, 2020, 10:37:09 AM »
(Triple-posting without any other comments is a sad affair...While the next few updates have some key things in them, and so it's hard to compact them, I'll probably be trying to condense some stuff going forward, to catch up to my gameplay, which is nearly a generation ahead without getting into stuff I've played after picking back up.... We'll see if I can manage that, though. I'm bad at condensing stuff.)

Chapter 56: What's True, Official

Dear Journal, If I had more time to update you, maybe I would have figured out how to start these things. Anyway, more Kacie adventures for you. We got back, and I think the couple of days away was enough to make being back home refreshing.


And if it’s refreshing, then it’s a perfect opportunity for a date! The house is pretty well-equipped for a “night on the house.”

Even if that means sometimes you hear your mothers-in-law woo-hooing in the closet.


“Whew, that a was a trip! ...Now he’s got me saying it,” Kestral muttered to herself.

“Welcome home!” Miko chirped as she fans herself from the intensity.

“...I never left, with you around.” She took her in her arms for another kiss. It’s hard for anyone to say they aren’t Soulmates, those two. “Soulmate aspiration’s the best. Mixing pleasure and accomplishment, ha ha.”

“You would,” she said. “I”m glad we had the chance to see it done.”

“I’m sorry my end of things had to wait until I was done needing a best friend out of the house but… I don’t intend to leave you with just that.”

I want that sort chance for me and Kite one day. It’s a weird requirement, if you ask me!


“Hey, what’s swingin’ f’r my most happenin’ lady an’ my fave babe, huh?...Trip, man,” Kite told me on the morning of my official wedding. “I think tha’s a kicker there, man.” He sounded so choked up, feeling...My little one. Our little girl. That’s my feeling, you know? I’ve even been thinking of my favorite bird names, for the family tradition!

Kestrel took a bunch of us down to a new city that opened up on the line, a little desert community.


Some friend of the family or another -- Kestrel seems to have a million ‘friends of the family,’ but this one’s Jamie Faust -- works at the bar there.


“You know anyone interesting in this town?”

“The plant zombies are interesting.”

“Less interesting than that,” she deadpanned. “That feels like a ‘someone else’ problem for the moment.”

“There’s the curio shop guy.”

“Wife’s already buying nicknacks and listening devices. I mean. Nicknacks. Only those.”

“...If I tell you where there’s some people kind of doing some bohemian stuff in town, will you let me leave this discussion, ma’am?”

“See, that’s not so hard.”

I’m not exactly sure what Kestral had planned exactly, but we ended up going to the house he told her to meet some people. Be neighborly, I suppose. For a value of neighborly that accounts for the vast interconnectedness of modern networking.


One of them in particular, his name is Mark, struck up a conversation with Kite.
“Dude. Are you...barefoot? Here?”

“Like, yeah, man. Just gotta let my feet see the world. They’re made f’r the earth to connect with, you dig me?”

“That’s bold. I like it, but I’m not sure I’d do it if you paid me,” he explained with a laugh. I, too, really want to know the secret of how Kite’s feet don’t blister.

“Eh, different strokes’n all. Sometimes, like, you’re just not the right cat f’r a gig, you dig? Anyway, tha’s a hip sweater, man.”

“Thanks! I can write out where to get one like it. It’s by this little paint shop --”

“Awww, yeah, man! That sounds like the scene!”

I, not being an artist, just had to smile as the two of them chatted away, stealing glances while I chatted with his roommate Alice. Housemate, really.


“So, do you kids have much money, or are you doing the starving artist thing?”

“Our folks were willing to put up some money. I feel bad about living off of them, but exploring the world, creatively, takes money -- and it goes a lot better if you don’t have to earn it yourself,” he sighed. “That’s why there’s a degree to which successful art is either made by privilege or luck, which only perpetuates things.”

“Understandable. I’m something of a patron of the arts --”

“So you made it to the top of the painting career? That sounds like a great thing!”

“I’m a mixologist who cares about people doing art, let’s put it that way,” Kestrel corrected herself, sighing. “Anyway, if you’d like to consider some options where you wouldn’t have to worry about what you owe your parents, talk to me sometime.”

It was a shame we’d already made the wedding invitations, and it was a bit too late to change things, or we’d have invited them. As it stood, we had to head home and get ready.

The guests had a lot of old friends of Kite’s, which is great, but...Well, it went a little strange sometimes.


Take Christian Bheeda, for example.
“I wanted to talk to you. You didn’t -- Kite’s not marrying you because of the...The child, right?”

“Of course not,” I said, sighing. I was expecting another round of my mother.

“Good, good. I was just, well, worried, and I mean... “ He gestured. “Kite would, you know, if you told him you were scared, or something like that. So I just worried, I mean, with you being…”

“Pregnant, yes, that’s the word for it.”

“And, well. He’s such a nice guy, and sweet, and funny, and, well, I just wanted to make sure your intentions were honorable.”

“Awww. Don’t worry! I’ll make an honest man out of him.”

“...Yeah. You will,” he said, with maybe -- oh, did I detect a hint of regret? I did. I can’t blame him. If I let Kite end up with someone else, I would have regretted it, too.



“No way! You’re really getting married?”

“Tha’s, like, what the weddin’ invite said, Diya.”

“It’s just surprising is all. A lot of doors close.” She stared off, wistfully.

“Nah, man; this is things openin. Like, dig this: we’re spendin’ every second, like, makin’ our life. Makin’ it peaceful, makin’ it accomplished, makin’ us rest, makin’ us free. We’re givin’ somethin’ to someone, even just us, like, all the time. Like a tree putting out air; we’re putting out love, or putting in somethin’ to ourselves. The things we can’t get back grows all th’ time. But so’s the things we get from all that. I wanna get all the happiness in her world, an’ I wanna put out into the world all the happiness I get with her. I’m openin’ myself up to, like, a whole lifetime t’ share. I was, like, kinda goin’ somewhere, but...I dunno where, man. You dig what I’m saying?”

“I’m not really sure I get it, but...Well, I’m happy for you,” she eventually answered. If he noticed what was in her little sigh, he didn’t say anything. I wonder what he would have, if he would have even realized that there were things she maybe was thinking about how her life went, and where he could have been in it. My prince really does not understand the sort of effect he has on people.  What a space cadet.

Miko and his brother followed him out onto the porch, right before the wedding itself started.

“Are you nervous, honey?”

“Nah? Nah, not really. Like, this is just, like, stampin’ stuff, if you really look at what it’s about.”


“Ah, how pedestrian! The bonds of matrimony, a mere rubber stamp of a form? The declaration of a love undying -- if tragically exclusive -- little more than a formality?” He clucked his tongue.

“Well, like, I mean, we already said we was cool gettin’ married, an’ all that that, like, means, right? So from there, like, we already signed up. We promised love undyin’ an’ that whole scene...There aint no room to doubt,” he explained. Helpfully leaving out the part where we technically decided we were married enough...Except this time, there’s a party. It’s a weird feeling, I guess. I know it. And he knows it. And we know we know it. And there is, as he put it, no room to doubt!

But I want everyone else to see that, too.


Magpie, for his part, staggered back as if shot.

“Ah! I am defeated! It’s too pure!”


“You, my brother, will make a fine husband! Have no fear! And the moonlight suits your colorings nicely, it will be a true vision.”

“Thanks, bro. Y’think she’ll mind it aint, like, a whole suit thing?”

“It’ll be fine! You look great, and it’s way more memorable than if you were wearing a tux! ...This is for the two of you, so you should do what makes you happy. Marriage is about meeting these things partway, understand?” It was her motherly advice -- maybe one of her last bits of it. For me, losing my mother’s sort of… Well, one, it’s far-off. She had us both very young. But I already lost her a million times, you know? When she eventually dies, it won’t be anything major. If I say that enough times, it’ll be true when it happens.

“Ka-san, it’s f’r her...Well, guess when you put it that way, ‘s like, kinda the same thing.” Smiling slightly, in a private way, he strolled off to wait for me beneath the arch.


It was showtime. I think that’s one of those moments that’s supposed to be nerve-wracking, but I was just thrilled.


We had a crowd of guests! We had a cake Kestral had made. We had the start of a family tradition becoming a tradition. And even if, in the interest of honesty, my dress shouldn’t have technically been white, I had a white dress all the same.


And I had a dream.

“Sos, like, I got sorta stuck on vows a bit. Feels like I already said everythin’ that wanted sayin’, you dig me?” he started, tone light and easy. Of course, they didn’t know we’d already basically counted that. “All we need’s a waterfall we can swap a ring at, this time.”

“Kite,” I told him, “Don’t think you’re getting off that easy! We came for a speech.”


“The chick asks, an’ I’ll deliver. There’s a bunch’a gab you gotta run through f’r weddings an’ the like, but… None a’ that matters,” he said, sliding the ring onto my finger. “You can’t fake love with an act or nothin’, an you can’t put a price on it. But y’can put a ring on it, so that’s hip enough. What matters is lovin’ someone, a whole world’s worth a’ love. A love that, like, makes itself a home inside you, where you can’t take it apart. A love that makes y’r heart a home t’ someone else.

An’ once they got that home, everythin’ else is makin’ what’s true official, man.”


“Thank you for making that official,” I said, laughing just a little. “And thank you for giving me a home. It’s a lovely heart -- it’s a heart I always want to be with. And getting to rest in your heart, which is such a kind and delicate one, feels like a fairytale castle to me.

“I never want to be anywhere else.”


OK, we had kind of said everything that needed saying before. And I meant it. But the kiss we shared in the light of the full moon was still something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.


Kestrel brought out the cake so we could feed each other a piece. Another argument in favor of an actual, in-person wedding: cake. On the other hand, love means someone forgiving you when you miss their mouth a little end up with chantilly cream all over their face.


Afterwards, we all headed down to the bar for snacks, drinks, that sort of thing.

“Ah, I think everyone’s heading home...Thank goodness. I need a break,” I say with a sigh.

“You did great!” Miko adds. And then, a little softer: “Thank you both for this. I’m sure you could have done something smaller, or waited until you’d had the baby, at least. All that fuss must be hard on you.”

“Well, we couldn’t elope in the woods --”

“I heard the tourist industry in Granite Falls is doing something about that lately. Makes sense -- why have a romantic getaway you can’t elope on?” Which is one of those interjections that makes me wonder if Kestral doesn’t have some sort of romantic streak, after all.

“So this was just the right thing. We thought you’d want to be here, as well.”

“Of course I do! I’m so proud!”

“Hey, it aint no drag to share happiness, Ka-san,” Kite said, waving his hand. “...’m glad, too.”

“Well, I’m glad you did this as well. That’s gold event #4 for you, my boy. One more to go.” And then Kestral totally dashes that impression. Who knows, with her?

“Ah, yeah, that’s sure a thin’, aint it?” He sighed. “Wait a bit on somethin’, ‘kay? I’ll find a scene that’ll be just far out f’r a last one.”





It’s not exactly a wedding present -- the fish pond in the garden’s maybe more of a wedding present -- but we did think that it was a good opportunity to start decorating the nursery. The hope is we’ll eventually use the same space, on the second floor with us, as her room, but for now, we wanted something cute and bright. And even if I have my instinct, we didn’t want to commit to any particularly gendered scheme, so a nice minty green as the core.


And then, it’s just the two of us.

“Three a’ us,” he corrects me, when I say something to that effect.

“You’re right. I’m glad we all got to be a part of the official ceremonies, as a family.”

“Tha’s just what it was, wasn’t it? Somethin’ f’r a family, man. I can dig it.” Kite sounds very contented when he says that, into the growing quiet of the night.
Stories In Progress:
The Avyan Immortal Dynasty

Offline Deme

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Re: The Avyan Immortal Dynasty - The Word Unsaid (9/25/20)
« Reply #170 on: September 25, 2020, 12:27:35 PM »
Chapter 57: The Word Unsaid

So, the kids had gotten married, and it’s not time for our third generation heir to be born yet. It’s the morning of Miko’s second notice -- that she could be gone at any moment. The clock was not so much ticking -- unless you get out of the whole dying game, it’s always ticking -- as it was winding down. I think the suspense would actually kill me, if it were me, and save old age the time. Of course, that’s why it’s not me, but somehow.

I still held my breath, and decided to make this day as much about her as I could. A full day out on the town. In that sense, I guess there’s something nice about the chance to make arrangements. It’s just the rest I don’t like.

“Alrighty, first things first!” She told me. “Rooftop karaoke at the Starlight Lounge!”

After all this time, she can still be so bright and energetic, hurrying out to the edge of the roof to beam at the sun-drenched city below.

She did her first couple of songs alone, and Kite did an excellent -- if morbid, geeze, kid  -- rendition of “When The River Meets The Sea.”

And then, of course, my wife gets up and pulls me over for a duet.

She’s great, but I haven’t caught up, musically. Probably sounded fine to anyone else, though. Music’s mostly confidence, except where it’s technique. Most things are mostly confidence.


“You’re still quite the siren,” I tell her when I pull her aside. “Some things never change.”

“Thank you, dear,” she answered. “Heart’s the really most important thing for karaoke!”

“Not confidence, huh?”

“Heehee. Nope!” Shot down just like that, huh? “I do think everything changes, though,” she says as she leads me over to the side, to relax in the sunlight like a pair of old cats.


“The kids have grown up and become happier, too,” she points out.


“Things that were rare when we were kids are common and ordinary, now, because we’ve shown the world something just by living! People come into our lives. We have new ideas, and we become better people. It’s what makes life exciting, don’t you think?”

“It’s certainly interesting. But you’re as sweet as ever -- and lovely, of course.”

“But in a different way. ‘Everything stays, but it still changes,’ you know?” She half-sings, half-speaks the lyric from one of the cartoons she likes. If we’re counting on changes that stay the same, there’s that: there’s always something new on her horizon, the seasonal anime chart, the cartoon schedule, the latest book about dragons. But she brings her heart to it, too. “The way that sweet side you’ve always had has gotten braver. I’ve loved seeing that.”

“It’s because I’ve had you. And I mean that. If you’re with me until the end of the line, I’m especially sure I can do anything.”

“I’m with you. There ain't no getting off this train we’re on!” She tells me with a voice full of love. “Even as things change.”

In the momentary silence as we cuddle, she ends up singing that song. A private karaoke session just for me, made of little, half-hummed lyrics that stir the air gently.
Everything stays right where you left it
Everything stays, but it still changes
Ever so slightly, daily and nightly,
In great and small ways
When everything stays.”




I want her to stay here with me, I think then.

What I do instead of saying that is just kiss her. And it’s as good and sweet as it ever has been. Maybe more.

“It’s hard to imagine, looking at the water and the city, all the noise, that anything could happen,” she said, just a little dreamily. But that was apparently an absolute jinx. Because my thoughts were pulled away by the sound of Kite weeping…


And saw him by some stranger’s urn, the grim reaper casually singing karaoke. He looked up, and looked past me -- right at Miko.

”Someday, I’m gonna find you, I’m gonna get ya get ya get ya!” He rasped. I bet he thought that was cute.

“...Miko, we’re leaving.” My opinions on Memento Mori are on record. But if it’s my wife, I don’t care for remembering she will die, either. Not if we’re already taking care of her affairs.


So we hurry on to a fine dining lunch. Linner? Well, either way --

“If it’s not too late by the time Magpie’s out of school, text him! He can come join us!” Miko suggests.

“Yeah, yeah; Doubtin’ Mag’s’d turn down somethin’ sweet right after class,” Kite says as he sends a quick text, which didn’t end up producing Magpie in time, but through no fault of the text’s or Magpie’s.

“Some of the experimental stuff sounds really, really nice right now. I guess bacon love petals ought to join the list of cravings with peanut-butter pickles!”

“I can do much better for the mother of my grandchild than peanutbutter pickles!” I insist, to a round of laughs.

When the kids had made themselves scarce for one reason or another, it was just Miko and I.



“I can hear your foot jiggling under the table. You’re nervous today, aren’t you?”

“It’s not that odd. Dread is a feeling I’m not normally interested in. But I’m sure I can find something a little more fun to do with a restless foot,” I say, laughing. I don’t wear shoes you can slip out of easily, but I think my footsie game is nevertheless a masterclass in goofing around. Miko gives as good as she gets, though, waiting for our dishes with a laugh and a game where I tried to avoid getting my foot seized by her legs.

“Alright!” She says, when she bats away my hands. “I’m going to go see where those two are at, I’ll be just a second.”


It takes just a second.

“Sorry, it might be...A bit longer than that,” she says, as her legs collapse beneath her. She -- gently, like a flower tumbled down by the wind -- falls, with a smile on her face. That’s the thing that’s so cold.


I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I hear people coming over and gasping, and it feels like a million miles away. I can’t even pretend it’s a joke.

The Grim Reaper approaches slowly, dispassionately.



“Miko Ojo...I never miss my appointments,” the Reaper pronounces. “I admit, I did not anticipate a happy marriage -- one happy marriage -- from you when you first set out… But perhaps living life fully takes many forms, that don’t occur to humans at first blush. Because it was happy.”



“Oh, Ka-san…” Kite mutters into his hand. “‘M sorry…” That’s just like him, apologizing for nothing. Apologizing to something going.

And suddenly, there’s a scream. A sound like something snapping.


It’s my scream, happening miles and miles away from me. A single, terrible, keening wail as the shock breaks over my body like a wave.


Everything else is a blur.


I think Kite must have gotten the urn; I think Kacie must have bundled me off home. I can’t really say I remember.

I know that I should control that feeling. I need to, there’s no reason I shouldn’t. I’ve had plenty of people die on me -- and I’ll have many more.

But there was Miko only once.


So it’s Kite who tells his brother, when he arrives home too late to see her again.

“How cruel…”

“Sorry, my man.”

“No, no, not you. How cruel -- reality! To grant one a goodbye rendered so casually, so idly; to go through one’s day as always… To lose a treasure of your life, and you go on and sit in math class, unaware that you have lost, and unable… To say the goodbye you… You...”


“Yeah. It’ll be alright, though, really. Like, nothin...Nothin’s ever really gone, y’know? Just changed a little, ‘sall. You cry on me...An’ keep her with you.”
And so it’s Kite who comforts him.


And I’m left standing in the room she left behind, which still smelled like her perfume. Which felt a little rumpled and lived in and warm, just for having her in it for a while.

I didn’t want to be alone in it, looking at the bed she’d never sleep in again, the loveseat she’d never cuddle with me on again.
But I was, and there, I stood, looking and knowing she was gone, and knowing she loved me, and knowing that I…


Kite comes into the room very quietly, and all I can do and turn to him, ask him what I already know.

“Did I ever tell her...Did I ever, even once… tell her how much I love her?”

Across all these years, across everything -- I was too stupid, too proud, too afraid of being hurt.

It hurts.


“...She knew, Mom. She knew.”
Stories In Progress:
The Avyan Immortal Dynasty

Offline Deme

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Re: The Avyan Immortal Dynasty - The Word Unsaid (9/25/20)
« Reply #171 on: November 10, 2020, 11:32:36 AM »
Hi, you might have noticed that this went on a bit of another break. I want to put it not on a break, because I have fun and also I'd like to get into screenshots taken this year and relatively newer play. But I really do need encouragement and response, or my motivation to work hard on updates just bleeds away, and in this case, stalled it out. I'm sorry if this sounds entitled, it's just hard for me.

Has anybody been reading this since it got back and enjoying it, and would like to see it continue?
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The Avyan Immortal Dynasty



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Offline Trip

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Re: The Avyan Immortal Dynasty - The Word Unsaid (9/25/20)
« Reply #172 on: November 11, 2020, 09:48:36 AM »
Well I do wanna play catchup! Even knowing what the last chapter entailed :'( (scrolling up is a curse) Consider this encouragement but it's also your posting life.
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Offline MarianT

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Re: The Avyan Immortal Dynasty - The Word Unsaid (9/25/20)
« Reply #173 on: November 11, 2020, 12:32:28 PM »
Well, I knew Kestrel loved Miko, so I'm guessing that Miko knew it, too.

As for people reading. They seem to be commenting less; at least that's been my experience. And I haven't worked on my story in over a month now, but that's because life has been interrupting. And because I haven't been writing as much, I haven't been reading as much.

For what it's worth, I'm not sure that TS4 Sims prompt as much discussion as their TS3 counterparts? Or maybe it's just that there's a smaller population of writers and readers on the forum these days. You're a good writer, and I'd hate for you to feel discouraged.
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Offline Deme

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Re: The Avyan Immortal Dynasty - The Word Unsaid (9/25/20)
« Reply #174 on: November 13, 2020, 03:47:18 PM »
Well I do wanna play catchup! Even knowing what the last chapter entailed :'( (scrolling up is a curse) Consider this encouragement but it's also your posting life.

Thank you! And yeah, that's rough! (I have some stories I want to comment more on, myself, but catchup can be tricky)! I do feel much encouraged by this, and by starting to cross-post some to tumblr, where I have not gotten much response yet, besides from a friend, but then, a friend's response is more than I'd had in a long time. And also, in seeing Chapter 7 or 8 in review, how much I enjoyed this story.

Well, I knew Kestrel loved Miko, so I'm guessing that Miko knew it, too.

Probably, whatever she feels in her loss. But she never did say it directly; I thought of this very early on, and so was very careful about that in anticipation.

Quote from: MarianT link=topi=29850.msg506604#msg506604 date=1605115948

As for people reading. They seem to be commenting less; at least that's been my experience. And I haven't worked on my story in over a month now, but that's because life has been interrupting. And because I haven't been writing as much, I haven't been reading as much.

For what it's worth, I'm not sure that TS4 Sims prompt as much discussion as their TS3 counterparts? Or maybe it's just that there's a smaller population of writers and readers on the forum these days. You're a good writer, and I'd hate for you to feel discouraged.

Yeah, I've noticed all of these things myself (and did a lot more commenting when I was less tired and frustrated about it all, though I still needed and need to finish catching up to your writing), which are things that don't quite change much of the feeling of things, as it were. I considered doing some Sims 3 stuff, even started playing a challenge, but it's not holding my attention terribly well, and I kind of felt like doing something just for the comments while abandoning things I cared about would not be a recipe for good vibes.

Either way, these messages were encouraging, so I think I will pick this back up, though it might not show for a bit: I've got Nanowrimo to do.
Stories In Progress:
The Avyan Immortal Dynasty