Would this be an essay...? I'm not sure. But I'm fairly positive it counts as creative writing. This is more of an exercise in imagery, than anything.

People can be like rain, once you really think about it. Rain begins in the sky, born of evaporation and accumulation in dark clouds, each raindrop born like the one next to it.
The same could be said of people; we're all born in roughly the same manner, like the person next to us. Rain ends on the ground, splashing surfaces and gathering with it's brothers and sisters, joining in puddles and soaking back into the earth. People die much like this as well; we fall to the ground, are returned to the earth to lay with our brother's and sisters, to nourish and renew our world.
But the events in between is what makes raindrops - and people - different, and gives them their individuality. Rain falls from the sky all manner or forms; snow, mist, hail. It's journey can be a short fall to a mountain top, or it could be a long trek to the a thirsty desert. It's shaped by the conditions around it to form something beautiful. Rain is like crystal beads falling from gray velvet, nourishing the greenery it lands on. Sometimes they‘re large drops, falling from the sky, wavering with the wind that whips them about, sometimes they are mere droplets. Snow falls delicately to the ground from a white pervasive, it's intricate design blending to make a insulating blanket of sparkling diamonds. Snowflake can float to the earth by themselves, or attached to other snowflakes, making big goose feathers that float to earth. Mist descends slowly to the earth, gently moistening the ground and all it touches, leaving small, clear gems to rest on the smooth surface of leaves, or on the time consuming complexity of a spider’s web.
People are shaped by the conditions around them, too. Some people’s lives are arduous, having to toil every moment of their lives to simply survive. Others’ lives are easy, having been blessed with good fortune, living comfortably. Some are strong in the face of adversity, learning lessons of humanity, while others crumble under the pressure, and turn in on themselves. Some are lovely to look upon, and others aren’t.
Like rain, we are all born alike and end up the same when our lives end. But it’s the journey in between, how our environment shapes us, and how we interact with it and other people - or raindrops - that give us our beauty and individuality.

So a friend of mine suggested that I start a blog with stuff that I write. I figure that rather than starting a separate blog, I'll just post 'em to here. So, without further ado, here's what I have written of a short horror story that popped into my head one night while jockeying a mop at Haskins' Steel. Tell me what ya think. I'm more than aware of how rusty my writing might be with me slacking off for so long. I don't have a coherent direction with this, just a few rough ideas.

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Her eyes were empty.
That was the first thing that struck me when I first saw her. Her eyes were like great empty pits; dark, sunken tunnels in her skull. I could nearly see myself falling into them the more I stared, mesmerized. Then her mouth grabbed my attention. It was also dark, too big for her face. It was then when I remember to scream.
Her scream matched my own, then over came my own noise. It was a terrifying noise, like the sound of a hundred people screeching all once, her jaw unhinging to accommodate for the sheer volume of the noise. I felt myself shake as I pressed myself against the wall, seeing nowhere else to go. She was blocking the door. The clever bitch was blocking the door.
All at once she blurred, and suddenly she was in my face. Her stench was overwhelming, smelling all at once of wet dirt and sickly sweet decay. Her hair might have once been blonde, but now was matted to her skull in rusty clumps, glittering with what I could only assume was blood. I flinched and screamed again, so sure that she was going to consume me in no more than three bites with her enormous mouth.
Why do I always ignore my gut? Why? I frantically chided myself as tears streamed down my face. I screeched again as her hands pinned my arms to the wall. Her hands felt spongy, but strong; too strong for something that looked like it would fall apart if given a good jostling. I struggled, but the undead waif before me was somehow too strong. I shook my head in disbelief, crunching my eyes shut and turning my head from her.
"What do you want?" I found myself whispering. I quickly shut my mouth after uttering that. I let it slip, I didn't want to speak to her, I didn't want to anger her.
"Nothing," a voice hissed from that gaping chasm on her face. I squeezed my eyes closed again and let out a desperate cry, trying in vain to wrench my hands free.
"Then let me go!" I cried, my body wracked with sobs. The thing squeezed my wrists painfully, making them pop.
"No." she hissed at me again. Her grip was iron as she lifted me up, letting my feet kick and dangle above the floor, smearing the blood from the back of my head up the wall. I could feel splinters from the aging wood paneling lodge themselves into the wound, making it throb and scream in pain. My shoulders stretched and threatened to dislocate.
"But why?!" I shouted, my voice raising as the pain spiked.
"If I suffer, than others must suffer," she rasped.
"Why are you suffering?!" I screamed. I could feel my nose was running, but I could have cared less at that point.
Something peculiar happened. I fell as she released my wrists, landing in a painful heap on the dusty hardwood floor. Panting, my eyes darted from side to side, looking for a way to escape.
Wait, something's-
I looked up, and the terrifying visage had disappeared. It was replaced by a rather unremarkable looking woman, medium length blonde hair falling over her shoulders. The only way I recognized her was by her eyes. They were still empty, dark pits in her face. Still trembling, I sat up against the wall, panting wildly. Those empty pits stared at me, her face tilted to the left at a gentle angle. Blood pooled at her feet where she stood, running down her legs from under her skirt.
"W-what's going on?" I stammered from the floor. My chest hitched as I continued to cry, finally wiping my face and nose on my sleeve.

Current Mood: contemplative

1. Who are you?

I am a pirate

2. Is Dungeons and Dragons the first role playing game you ever played? (If D&D was not the first role playing game you ever played then what is? And for OG D&D players: what is the second RPG you ever played?)

Yup. D&D 2nd Ed.

3. What year was it when you first played a role playing game? (D&D or other?)
Geez, I want to say it was the summer of '96, maybe '97

4. How old were you when you first played an RPG?

14, I believe.

5. What is the name, race and class of the first D&D character you ever played?

Ahdrianna, Elf Thief Acrobat

6. Do you still actively play the first role playing game you ever played? (or any of its newer versions?)

Kinda. Pathfinder is D&D 3.75, or the 4.0 people expected.

7. What is your favorite D&D campaign setting?

I like the campaign settings I create.

8. What other D&D campaign settings have you played in?

Eberon (Bleh :P) Forgotten Realms (It was alright) and Dragon Star (D&D In space)

9. What other role playing games have you played?

Big Eyes Small Mouth (BESM), Star Wars, old and new edition, Spell Slinger, Rifts, Seven Seas d20, RuneQuest, Grimm

10. Are you actively playing in any other games right now?

Yeah, Star Wars Legacy setting in the new edition. I'm bandying about the idea of running a Seven Seas style game in Pathfinder.

11. What other RPGS would you like to try that you have not had the chance or time to play?

Call of Cthulu

12. Have you ever played a gender-bender? (M player/F character or F player/M character)

Not yet.

13. What is your favorite class to play?

It's a tossup between ranger and sorcerer. Rogue is pretty fun too.

14. Have you ever been a DM, GM, or ST?

Yup!

15. Do you prefer running the game, or playing in it?

Just playing it at this point. I used to enjoy DMing, but drama kinda ruined that. I'm hoping that after taking an extended break, it'll be fun again.

16. Do you prefer small (solo-3), medium (4-6), or large groups (7+) when playing?

Medium to small. Large groups don't get much done.

17. Do you hack/slash/plunder, or do you actually attempt role playing?

I like to roleplay, but I haven't found a DM or a group (mostly a group) that's friendly to it. I mostly end up just hacking and slashing, with about 10 minutes of roleplaying in between. It's irritating.

18. Have you ever created a character that you felt was almost an extension of yourself? Name him or her and what part of you they embody (whole or part).

Kinda, but she wasn't a character I played much in any sort of table top RPG, I mostly played with her online. I designed her as more of a reflection of the child-side of me, the un-aging girl, Ryven. Melanie was the other, and she was a RP character before I made her for tabletop. She has a lot of traits that are a lot different than me, but I still feel really connected to her.

19. Escapist much? :P

Not as much as I'd like, though I truly escape through online RP

20. What class would you want to be if you (the real you ) were a D&D character?

Probably a bard, maybe a ranger.

Current Mood: irritated

Everyone hates this bill. I hope Dean and the other progressives have a trick up their sleeve to stop this atrocity. If this gets passed, we're all fucked. F-U-C-T Fucked.

Current Mood: nervous

Good movie over all, it seems like the movies keep getting better, teen angst aside The visuals were wonderful, the acting was awesome. Though, even as it was a 2.5 hour movie, it still felt rushed. It makes me glad that they're splitting the last book up into two movies. One of the series' strong points is the amount of interesting detail Rowling put into the characters and the world. It doesn't feel right seeing a lot of that detail pushed aside for time constraints.

Interesting Tidbits:

I totally mistook the actor who played Slughorn for Colin Mockery at first.

The actress who played Narcissa was originally slated to play Bellatrix, but she was pregnant and opted out.

Which brings me to my big bitch of the movie (and the last one too, really). I fucking HATE how they portray Bellatrix in the movies. FUCKING. HATE. IT. Narcissa's actress would have made such a better Bellatrix, as she had the right physical features for Bellatrix, with her strong jaw, thin lips and heavy lidded eyes.

Bellatrix was much cooler as a stone cold killer with a bit of madness, rather than a Sweeny Todd ripoff. Movie Bellatrix was annoying, childlike, and in my humble opinion, a disastrous character assassination. Waaaaaaaay too chaotic evil for what the book characterization called for. Just because it was a movie doesn't mean you have to make it all extreme and shit. The fans would have been happy with Bella as she was supposed to be portrayed.

It's like they fucked with her character just because Helena Bonohme Carter was playing her. Look, just because you got the crazy goth movie queen to play a character, doesn't mean you get to basically change the character's entire personality. Carter, at least to my observation, is a competent actress. She could have handled playing a character that was outside of her "norm". And if she couldn't, then maybe she wasn't right for the part. Don't just shoehorn a big name actress into the part because she's famous for dark movies.

STOP FUCKING WITH THE COOL CHARACTERS. YOU MAKE A PART OF MY SOUL DIE.

Current Mood: cold

Cold, but true. He's being a coward, there's no getting around that. If he weren't a coward, he could have talked to me about it to my face. If I were truly important like he says I am, he would have made time. If he "cherishes" the 15 years we spent as friends, he would have joined me in trying to work out this tangled, but untie-able knot. But he chose not to speak to me, he sent me impersonal text messages. He chose not to make time for me, instead he took snipes at my husband, then turned, ran and hid for months. And he chose to tell me that the 15 years we spent as friends wasn't important enough to fix. That it was "convenient" to break ties with me when he fought with Chris. I'm so glad that my best friend, whom I considered a brother, had to find a "convenient" time to break ties with me. So sorry I was "inconvenient"' to you.

I'm beginning to think that I deluded myself about what kind of person he is. I certainly remember the kind of person he was years ago, and I can say that I prefer that person to the disloyal coward he is today. Perhaps I did love him like a sibling for who he was in highschool, and a little afterward. But you know what? I prefer that. He's become a worse, weaker person since then, and if you want him this way, fine. I remember spending time with him when he was a stronger, better person, and I will always cherish that. And actually cherish that, no empty platitudes there.

He went on and on and on and on about loyalty, yet drops his friends not at the drop of the hat, or at the whim of his spouse. It seems that within the last few years, loyalty is only important to him if it means we remain loyal to him, but he holds no loyalty to us.
He says it's because a couple is a unit, that they form a third person. I disagree. A couple is a partnership, both sides giving equally into building trust and commitment, but without losing their individuality and personal rights and freedoms. I don't have any right to dictate what Chris does, and nor does he to me.

We did not get together and form into an amorphous ChrisandVicky being. We hold hands and support each other. We don't become each other. You can't, you really, really can't do that and still maintain your individuality and your sanity. Sure, it feels good for a while, even the first few years, but slowly you start to yearn for your own space, your own time. You and your spouse are two different people, and changing each other to be like one another isn't being true to yourself. Besides, you can't take care of other people, spouse included, if you can't take care of yourself. And if you're constantly giving in and making concessions and compromising your time, space and self, you can't take care of yourself. Sacrifice has to mean something, it's not something you do just because you sleep with someone and share a house with them. And if you find yourself sacrificing a lot, all the time, mostly of yourself, you should probably look into what's going on.

And if this is what he really wants, then fine. More power to him, I guess. But if he's going to keep dumping friends over not liking his wife, then he's going to get awfully lonely as he finds himself isolated with few friends. Sure, you might think it's noble, but the novelty wears off, let me assure you, as the relationship goes on, and reality sinks in. You're setting yourself up for heartbreak, pain and general strife in the future if you continue this precedent.

Keep that in mind next time you have a friend on the sacrificial altar of your "unit".

Current Mood: depressed

Secular Humanism is fucking awesome. Just because one doesn't believe in the supernatural doesn't mean that we think our actions in this lifetime are useless and meaningless. Even with the knowledge of death, we should work to make the world a better place for future generations.

Current Mood: geeky