Warhead On Legs

All right. Back to this. Also, I need icons. Also, holy shit I left off on page 49 of 84. Oi. Also, um. Something. I need icons. Possibly of Valerie/Ran, or ... well, those are the only two I have cast, so hey.

Anyway. More.




"I'll be in my office."

No one asked. No one blinked. No one looked around beyond the moment it took to nod and register her presence, acknowledge it, and get back to their work. Valerie moved into the tiny office adjoining the bridge and sat down, trying not to punch anything.

Corporate police. Corporate court.

The biggest problem she had with the corporate court is that they weren't interested in justice. They weren't interested in fair and balance except as it applied to a balanced set of books, and preferably one that wasn't identifiable as doctored. They were interested in punitive damages, remuneration and recompense, equal columns and a good tally. They weren't interested in human beings. They weren't interested in keeping people safe except that safe and healthy employees, satisfied employees, was good for their bottom line.

It was a theoretically good system. If they did everything to protect their bottom line they would do everything to keep their people safe and happy. The problems cropped up when people decided that what they needed to be safe and happy was money, and the bigger corporations had more of that than the smaller. They had the luxury of buying off problems, setting that precedent, solving things by throwing cash at them. Whether the them was a person, a group of people, a grieving family, or a smaller company.

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She was back in bed by dawn, but it was only half an hour later when the alarms woke her. Not her alarm for waking, either. Ship alarms. Harsh and blaring and sending wave after wave of adrenaline pulsing through her body.

"Unauthorized access," the computer shrieked. Of course it didn't shriek, it was a computer, the voice calm and even at all times, but it sounded panicked to her. "Unauthorized access. All security personnel report to the umbilicus hanger immediately. Unauthorized access."

"Shut up," Valerie muttered. "Shut up and give me a status report."

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[From: Al-Ran Tamerlane, Traveling Operative, Bryce Securities
To: Luella, Personnel, Bryce Securities
Re: Recruitment of Valerie Reynolds

I haven't yet broached the subject of our methods and our more specific goals, but she is already balking at the secrecy involved and the clandestine nature of our operation. She is working under the assumption, at the moment, that the reason she hasn't heard of our operation to begin with is because of the name change, which is at least partly true. However her first assumption was the idea of secrecy and clandestine dealings, and that doesn't sit well with her.

I know what you're going to say, and you may be right. She may not be possessed of the flexible mindset and morality you require for the group. But she is resourceful and she is far more clever and intelligent than most of our prospective employees, and we need every quick mind we can recruit right now. The company's forces are moving to consolidate their positions, and in another year or two they will begin moving if their propaganda proves ineffective.

I would like to read her in on some of my missions, the ones within her posted routes. I believe that if she has a clearer picture and more willing disclosure presented to her that she will be a well-placed asset to our operation. And if she refuses, I trust her discretion.

May it be peace in our time,

Al-Ran Tamerlane.]

[From: Luella, Personnel, Bryce Securities
To: Al-Ran Tamerlane, Traveling Operative, Bryce Securities
Re: Recruitment of Valerie Reynolds

Permission denied.

Luella]




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( And an end scene that may or may not be deleted )

Jadies and lentilmen, I give you an excerpt from my Nanonovel, The Long Road, of which I am particularly amused.

He'd been born before a lot of things. Like indoor plumbing. One calloused old hand flushed the shiny chrome handle of the not-so-pristine toilet with the kind of grinning satisfaction that only comes from centuries of using outhouses in the middle of a stormy winter.

So, yeah. That's coming along, then. I still can't believe I forgot to give my main character for Corsair a last name. I knew I was going to forget things but I didn't think I'd forget something that important! Refuge in snickering side references got me through. Yes.

These sniffles are not inspiring me to want to go out and dance. Neither is the fact that I can't seem to concentrate. I can pound out some words with an effort but my head is all stuffy. Meh.

RIGHT. Focusing. Things I mean to write today: Nanowrimo, at least The Long Road since I already got a head start on Corsair in the wee hours, and Theatrical Muse prompts. Neither of these should be very hard. If I sit my dumbass down, stop chatting, start writing, and focus. Argh.

OOF. And, three and a half hours before Nano starts, I finally finish all my prep-work. Or at least, everything that I absolutely have to do. There's still bits and pieces to be done, and I may wind up shoehorning in my Space Fairy Elf Mecha Porn somewhere later, or at least into that universe, but it's done. (Hah, anyone remember the Space Fairy Elf Mecha Porn? It might just wind up becoming Space Elf Porn, but hey.) I made a donation to the Office of Letters and Light, which I highly recommend doing if you can spare the money, because now I can spare a little bit of money for it and I've only been doing Nano since... maybe two years after they started. But for a long time. At least since '02.

Tired. Halloween was pretty shite, not for any particular reason but mostly because it was raining and we had a total of four trick or treaters. A group of three ninjas and some sort of black and red devil princess thing. I'm sure there was something, but I don't remember what she was. And now I have a pile of Halloween candy 'cause the boy said we'd have more trick or treaters 'cause Halloween was on a Saturday. Bah.

That said, I'm getting a bit better at resisting the siren song of chocolate.

I haven't finished listening to my music, but I think I will tonight. If anyone else has soundtracks to recommend or that I can borrow or steal that would be lovely? Is anyone else writing to soundtracks or music? I can't write to most things with lyrics, I either get them stuck in my head or get the urge to write the lyrics into the text or something like that. It has to be instrumental, and I have zilch in the way of actual classical music because I always grabbed other people's. Which is kind of silly, but hey. Soundtracks are what I have. As soon as I get Red Dragon Tattoo out of my brain. Oi.

And... generally, I feel pretty confident about this year's Nano. I've got extensive outlines for everything, and even if I don't meet my word count scene for scene I should make 50k words easily. I've answered all the questions I can think of to ask at this point, anything that might come up in the course of writing and make me stop and go AUGH WHAT DO I DO ABOUT THIS. Most of those answers, anyway. Some questions refer to plot points that I have yet to write, so if something comes up I can fill that in later. And... Yeah. I'm as prepared as I'm ever going to be.

I'm still staying up till midnight to write some in my nanonovels. I've got an extra hour of sleep, that means I've got an extra hour to write! And then we'll see what I get done tomorrow. ... Damn, I thought I would lose my bouncy for this, but it's just getting bigger. So there's that.

This is also the first Nanowrimo in a while that I'm not even entertaining the idea of publication for anything I write. I'm doing this to write, to practice writing, and to tell stories. To that effect, if people want to read what I write, I'll be posting it here (and in one case, cross-posting to the character journal possibly). And if you guys don't want to read it I can stop. I'll also be posting it on my web page, so there's that.

Right! Taking the next couple hours off to not think of writing, do ritual, relax. Maybe have a bath or something. Curl up with the boy, kick back, watch TV. And then, full speed ahead!

Only two novels this year. I feel like such an underachiever.