It seems I only update with the earth-shattering.

At least eight people have been killed and 33 others wounded in a bomb attack on a restaurant in India's western city of Pune, officials say.

It's walking distance from my parents' house. They are safe. My family is safe. I write this in thanksgiving and numbness because it brings home to me how weak I am and how unable to protect anything I love.

My friends have had their windows shattered. I hear the screaming was unbelievable.

Who would hurt so much in their hearts that they must kill others? What has been done to them that they must do this to me and mine? How can we stop this? Is there enough goodness in the world to counteract things like this?

Right now I'm praying there won't be riots, there won't be futile rage, but a coming together of the community as happened after the Bombay shootings in 2008.

Please, for me. Do one good deed today. Help a stranger across the road, put trash in a bin, buy a rose and leave it on a co-worker's desk. Small charms that woven together can lead to something greater. Pray for peace and understanding between our different selves.

Because if anyone I loved had been hurt, I might be asking something entirely different.

I can name all three Robins as well as the two who were not male. My comics collection outnumbers my books. I use the terms "fan fiction", "scanlation" and "pr0n" in ordinary conversation. The irony of being told to cover a story on "Geek Love, Geeks are Hawt!" does not escape me.

...For crying out loud, my Saturday night plans revolve around watching Bleach Movie 3: Kimi no na wo yobu. That's 君の名を呼ぶ。In the original Japanese.

mazal_ could use any good wishes or vibes on prayers you could spare on her behalf, as things just got a lot worse.
Please do not write in her journal yet, as she can't access it. Your thoughts and prayers are enough.

Thanks again.

Dearly beloved, it's been nearly a year since my last post and might have been longer except for the urgency of this.
My dear friend mazal_ and her husband desertstarlight are going through a very bad time.
Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers and send them lots of good vibes.

mazal_ requests that you please DO NOT post messages or wishes for them in their journals, as they have no way to access or reply to them. Just think of them kindly and lovingly and pray or wish or meditate (whatever floats your boat) for their lives and health.

More updates whenever I have them.

And more on me at a later date. This is for them.

Last Wednesday I was woken by a call from the newsroom asking if I knew any eyewitnesses to the Mumbai outrage.
That was the first I heard of it.

Then followed 50 hours of alternately rewriting copy posted by desperate correspondents in India and desperately calling, texting and e-mailing members of my family.

Those who share my blood are well. We've lost friends, however, and that hurts.

Too much now to write about. Too many thoughts jostling for space.
One thing is paramount - yes, something needs to be done.
But what?

I can't just join in the chorus screaming for blood. I'm trying to get together lists of recommendations to be sent via the High Commissioner - coastal security, higher salaries for those in the intelligence network.

And I don't want war. I don't believe we need war.
This is a suppurating infection that needs to be excised and military action will only make things worse, not better.

I've never felt this calmly furious in my life. No wait, I have. End 2001, when Lashkar attacked Parliament.

Wow. Just wow.

They've been learning English. Giving up water for farming so that Beijing can be green for their guests. Because it's a matter of "national pride".

And they were beautiful on stage. From calligraphy to fireworks, to the Confucians chanting "All are brothers" (I think), to the mascots named so that they sound like "Beijing welcomes you".

I have a lump in my throat right now.

The Olympics belong to all of us and China has done its best to show it understands this.

Boycotting the Games is not going to get China to better its human rights record - the only thing that might work is continued exposure to the world and economics. And insulting China at its coming out party is going to do no good and much damage.

Because the ordinary person on Beijing's streets only knows that he or she is presenting their best because the world is coming to their house to play.

Let's be good guests.

So I watched Hellboy II: The Golden Army. How I love a canon where the actors pencil in the subtext!

Hence, fanfiction! My first story in a while, be gentle. Or not :)

Disclaimer: The characters are not mine, but belong to the director, actors and syndicating company.

Rating: PG for language. R for theme


( Summary: Written after watching Hellboy II. Little snippets from the fae twins’ lives, from before the Golden Army was made to the time Nuala enters the troll market. Not twincest…but not not twincest either. )

Reviews, please?

quietus - noun
1.Something that serves to suppress, check, or eliminate.
2.Release from life; death.
3. A final discharge, as of a duty or debt.

Fantasy, original story.

But I'll swear it is true. Somewhere.

Rated R for language.

~*~

( He held out a feather and three pebbles. The immigration official stared at his palm, then looked up at him. )

Take an egg, the last of the butter and the ends of a brown loaf from the fridge.
Add a resolution to go grocery shopping soon.

Set water to boil for coffee and brush your teeth as a grey sky rumbles outside the window.
Add a clock that should be ten minutes fast but is actually slow.

Drink scalding hot coffee with milk gone slightly off as you fumble to find wrinkle-free clothes.
Look at your wristwatch. Add a curse.
Forget the ironing. Finish the coffee.

Make a fried-egg sandwich and dump the dishes in the sink. Grab the sandwich, forget your cellphone, wonder whether or not to get it as you bang the door and clatter down the stairs.

Slip and fall running for the bus. Save the sandwich from the mud. Miss the bus.

Add another curse.

Stand with a slightly soggy fried-egg sandwich in one hand as the rain pours outside the crowded bus shelter, as you wait for the next bus, and you can't even phone in to say you'll be late.

Realise that you can't even phone in to say you'll be late.

Shrug and try not to let the dripping umbrellas rain on your sandwich.

Oddly enough, it still tastes pretty good.

Woo me with grammatical honesty and passion.

Else don't bother.

~*~

To be a writer is to have the ability to be most content in your own world.

In other words, you bore me.

~*~

I'm a cynical romantic.

I'm cynical about you ever being romantic.

~*~

Yes, I'm heartbroken that we're breaking up, and yes, I do intend to turn the experience into a 5,000 word story. What else did you expect? And what do you mean THAT'S why we're breaking up?

~*~

Please ignore every Hindi movie you may ever have seen. When a woman says "No", she is NOT telling you to please try harder.

~*~

Yes, of course I heard you say you'd die for me. I was waiting for the sound of splashing as you dive into the freezing sea to prove it.


~*~

You wrote me a poem. How very sweet!

...

I could have written this a lot better.


~*~

The truest test of love is if I can show this to you and know you'll smile.