Subject: Well, I'm in the navy, so...
Author:
Posted on: 2016-05-04 15:15:00 UTC
I'm on a ship, actually, rather than having been on a specific base over there or anything. It was normal to not see land for weeks while we were out at sea for this deployment!
To which I'm sure a large group of people are going 'you left'?
The answer to that is I've been out on deployment in the ocean for the last several months, and now I'm finally back on actually solid ground, that doesn't have camels in large quantities.
In the last few months I've stared at the ocean lots and have seen sharks and dolphins, swam in the granite ringed pool of a wadi, gotten lost in a Middle Eastern castle (or two), haggled for goods in open markets, accidentally bought silver, stared at the tallest buildings in the world (they're really tall!) and tromped through the ancient city of Petra. All that, and a lot of small boats, some with guns attached to them! Very exciting. Not much sleep. Lots of reading books in line to wait to eat. I've also lived off Chex mix and coffee.
I've also wrote a lot, and have found loads of inspiration for getting back into writing PPC things, besides original stuff.
And on the topic of writing PPC things, since I've been gone I know a few people had/have contacted me and expressed interest in doing PPC cowrites for me- I remember for sure that Silentthunder is one, and that Scapegrace is another.
I can't put forth a massive claim that I know for 100% certain that I'll be able to be a fast coauthor, but if anyone's interested in doing a cowrite for a mission or just something set in HQ as well, feel free to hit me up, since I'm definitely available and have internet on a far more regular basis.
-July who apparently is salty now?
WE MISSED YOU!
Yo!
Dude!
I missed you too!
I had a suspicion that you were past the seventh month mark.
Thank you muchly.
Hopefully you can get a good night's sleep now that you're back on dry land.
Oh, and speaking of which, have this feather pillow. I stole acquired it from a lovely market in Buckland.
And then I spent at least 18 hours out cold so I think that counts as a good night's sleep?
Certainly longer than I've had in actual months.
Glad you made it back safe and sound, even if you're not quite back home yet. :D
Yay sleeping on something bigger than a breadbox and not confined on three sides.
Hmm. I'm trying to remember the cowrite we had going... I'm blank at the moment.
You expressed interest in doing one with me at the beginning of deployment and I said it'd have to wait until after I got back.
On my last flight right now so feel free to shoot me an email as far as things of interest go as far as what you want to do mission wise.
From the noose!
Welcome back, July. For the purposes of the song I am listening to, I hope you're wearing some form of black clothing.
If you're not, then your gift is black clothing.
Fun fact, I have a forever incomplete mission that starts off with this song.
Love me some Acca Dacca.
*dons black as needed*
We are blood-brothers, you and I.
(this is a post-modern society, women can be brothers.)
*Larfen doesn't actually listen to AC/DC that much†, he just likes that one song.
†We can still be blood-brothers, though.
So, what did you do in the Navy? Besides sightseeing and getting drenched, I mean. Officially. Or is that top-secret?
--Key the Nosy
When I was just a regular ole deck seaman, I'd chip paint off things and then repaint them. And sand things, too. Along with standing lookout and manning the ship's helm- driving it!
But I've been an OS now- Operations Specialist- which means when we're out to sea I stare at radar screens and track things that we find, so we know what they are and what they're doing. I also do fancy things on paper with pencils to do calculus problems so we can find out what track things are going on against us, so can tell whether something will be getting too close to us, and how fast it actually is going.
This means I sit under blue lighting and we all look Very Dramatic while trying to not fall asleep.
Currently however I'm cranking- which means I'm working in the galley and messdecks to help feed everyone. I have over the course of the last month or so because of this worked for 21 hours straight, cut hundreds of melons into smaller pieces of melon for people to eat, and cracked a few thousand eggs.
I have become so skilled at egg cracking that when I started, I could crack eggs one handed.
Now I can crack eggs one handed in the air against each other without breaking the other egg. My high score on this egg brutality is a dozen eggs against a single egg.
...As you can guess it can get pretty boring, cracking that many eggs.
I feel for you. KP is the worse thing ever. Except for maybe guard duty in the dead hours.
...new melon trauma aside.
Melons look like lamprey mouths inside.
I wish I could unsee it.
I'm so green with envy that you could mistaken me for a Grass-type. I've always wanted to go to that amazing place! Dangit, July, you have all the fun!
Anyway, I would be interested in co-writing with you as well, but sadly I kinda have too many plans for my agents as it is. I'll keep you in mind for the future, though, just in case!
It was raining the whole time and by the time we were heading back it was flooded so I was walking in floodwater the whole way back.
Floodwater filled with camel poo and and donkey dung. Yes.
Hit me up anyways, I'm sure something can be worked out.
I'm a bit jealous of all that stuff you got to see. But I'm glad you got to do so much!
Oh, did you ever find your DS?
—doctorlit is off to feed some bisons, among other things
Well that was one of the plus sides, all these things seen and done, like getting lost in a giant bazaar.
Never found my DS, alas.
I'm still on plurk at Autistic_Ace if you ever get the urge to ping me there. :V
Since I forgot to check if anyone else asked: what did you do with that silver, and how much did it cost?
And I look forward to whatever missions are in your future - PPC ones, naturally. ;)
I was trying to buy gifts for friends. I picked out what looked to be cheap jewelry.
Get to the counter and they begin weighing it. This point, I'm going "huh?". Pull some items aside and decide to not buy them after all due to price- 70$ for a string of pearls.
Eventually I pull out one of the items I bought and inspect it later and go "... that is silver tarnish. This is a large silver bracelet. Oop.". The bracelet was about $50. Big chunky thing.
I also nearly bought a giant wooden camel for Huinesoron in defiance of sanity but thankfully for him I had no space for it anywhere.
Thank goodness the silver made the cut!
And that gift probably would have suited hS pretty well. XD
Gone over well at that size.
Which reminds me...
... is looking suitably haughty on top of the bookshelf. Which is getting very crowded - I'm going to have to pretend to be a grownup and put up some shelves. :-/
hS
The landless baron returned with a storm to her back, doing its best to tear the flame painted sails from their lines and the mast, but her skill by now outpaced that of the wind and rain, long enough that her small vessel made it to the enclosed harbor of Borrd in time enough for the storm to descend into a strong drizzle.
This did not aid her especially, as her companion was displeased with the rain in the first place and not particularly behooved to listen to her whatsoever.
With coaxing, however, in the form of strong words and threat of violence— she did, after all, still have her sword, bound though it was— eventually he followed her away from the harbor docks, and out of the town.
After all, she still had someone to find, to ask after the news of everything that had occurred during her long travels— much had changed, this she knew.
However, those very changes beguiled her and prevented her from finding her hopeful source.
Eventually she found herself outside of Vaekew, standing before marble steps. Between her appearance— salt still visible on her oiled cloak, her windblown hair half out of its braid, eyes shadowed, the sword ather side— and that of her companion, passerby kept a fair and healthy distance, until finally she lost her patience and grabbed at one of the staff members leaving from the hospital itself.
"I cannot find the baron Huinesoron," she said. "For him I have a gift, so I must leave it to his lady instead. Ensure the delivery. You do not wish this one to wander."
The staff member looked at her, and then her companion in disbelief before trying to protest. "But—"
"And be aware! He has a foul temper!" She paused a moment. "Not the baron," she added.
To her odious companion she said, "I am glad to be rid of you, you miserable thing. Mayhap Baron Huinesoron find some use for you!"
He tried to spit at her, which she dodged.
The wanderer-baron left the camel to the baffled hospital staff member. She had other things to deliver and news to learn, and to people who were less difficult to find.
"I've got a what?"
Baron Kaitlyn folded her arms. "You heard me."
Huinesoron stared at her, then stared past her at the humpbacked creature grazing in the courtyard of Bodldops Hospital. "... why have I got a camel?"
"Kanun only knows. Baron July brought it-"
"Wait." Huinesoron held up a hand. "Baron July?"
"Mm-hmm. She-"
"Wasn't she the one who kicked me out of Pankae?"
Kaitlyn blinked. "I'm pretty sure that was the Iric revolution," she pointed out, "which was started by Dann - Juliette, I mean."
"No, I'm certain she was involved." The baron chewed on his lip. "And now she's sending me lumpy horses. I don't think I like her very much."
"She's not so bad," Kaitlyn said with a shrug. "She's good for a game of cards when the Council's getting dull."
Huinesoron opened his mouth to reply, then paused. "I thought that only happened in that awful play."
"It's amazing what you don't notice when you're declaiming," Kaitlyn said, smirking. Then her face set into harsh lines. "Now get that foul-spirited spitting beast out of my hospital, or I'll remind you exactly why I went ^_^ back in the day."
"... got it."
I'd skipped a bit in my head. Since Baron July ended up leaving Iric herself, Baron Me would probably have spent a fair chunk of time commiserating with her. So while I doubt he's terribly pleased about being given a lumpy horse, he should probably be more bewildered, less grumpy.
Heck, he might even crack a joke. Maybe. I don't think he's ever done that.
hS
Plortwise.
If only subtle enough to allow for being ignored.
I thought it made sense anyways since Baron hS did get driven out of things again and is of sour grapes at the moment. Not to mention camels really are terrible creatures.
And the good baron totally deserves a lumpy horse.
That Baron Huinesoron is Plort's version of the Notary — nobody likes him and the feeling is mutual.
If anything, he's Plort!Nume. He doesn't really like anyone except for his wife, and people are more willing to make excuses for his 24/7 Oscar The Grouch impression because he's been around forever and is alright once he lets you get to know him.
Ye Scape-Grace is Plort!Notary. Tolerated at best.
A lot of Plort people have expressed negative emotions about Baron Huinesoron.
Who, aside from (IIRC) said Baron have expressed negative anything about Ye Scape-Grace?
Since he's the one who knighted her and all. Then again, Lady Ix is a bit naïve and likes to think the best of everyone. :P
And she's always getting annoyed with Ye Scape-Grace but keeps her around because 1) she likes her and 2) she's an asset to her barony.
Plus, on occasion, Baroness Iximaz. Besides, though, who has anything nice to say about the Beggar Witch of Critta-Kalthin?
:(
At least if you make them yourselves. Child friendly project unless power saws are involved!
Those do sound very exciting. Where were you stationed, exactly?
I'm on a ship, actually, rather than having been on a specific base over there or anything. It was normal to not see land for weeks while we were out at sea for this deployment!
Welcome back to terra firma! It's actually a bit soggy at the moment, but hopefully that will clear up soon. And maybe it's actually dry where you are, I dunno.
Anyway, *hugs*.
~Neshomeh
It rained on us coming in, which resulted in a real of sogginess in my dress whites while we manned the rails. (Which means nearly everyone on the ship was standing outside at all the barriers on the edges of the ship looking out while we pulled into port.)
And then it rained on us getting sushi, too.
I've got a package to send to you and Phobos anyhow, I kept getting busy while on board.
-July
It rained on us coming in, which resulted in a real of sogginess in my dress whites while we manned the rails. (Which means nearly everyone on the ship was standing outside at all the barriers on the edges of the ship looking out while we pulled into port.)
And then it rained on us getting sushi, too.
<3
I've got a package to send to you and Phobos anyhow, I kept getting busy while on board.
-July
Sounds like you picked up more than your fair share of stories. I'm honestly a little jealous that you got to visit Petra. It's one of many sites on my historical nerd bucket list that I hope to eventually see in person.
Glad to hear you've been keeping up with your writing, too! I hope to read some more of your stuff soon.
Petra was super cool. I got rained on and soaked but the sights were super neat. I can try catching you tomorrow some time or another when I'm back home home and can start uploading all the photos I took so you can see some. Shoot me an email so I'd know when would be good for you?
As for writing, I've got a rather large PPC thing almost done that I'd actually love to have you be a beta for.
-July
I'm also totally down for betaing something. I'm having problems with the email address you probably have on file, though. Send everything instead to poorcynic AT me DOT com (substituting symbols where appropriate).
Have a tiny hamster in an even tinier teacup as a welcome-back gift.
Thanks!
I'm still sorry we changed ports at practically the last minute, I would've loved to have met up with you.
We take what we get and don't try to change what is out of our hands.
Welcome back, Val. We missed you, and we're all glad you're home safe. =]
Since you're technically a returnbie at this point, please accept this NG+ starter Pokémon!
Iiiiiiiit's Clawitzer!
And your starting item is:-
Pyromaniac from The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth!
And no, I didn't fudge the rolls. Pyromaniac's a really, really good item on Clawitzer thanks to how Mega Launcher works: the item makes you immune to bullet, bomb, and pulse moves, and makes you heal off your own ones for 50% of the damage dealt. Combine that with Mega Launcher boosting the damage of pulse moves by 50%, and you have yourself some serious power. In singles, try a Modest one with EVs in Special Attack and HP, with Aura Sphere, Water Pulse, Ice Beam, and Dark Pulse in your move slots. Doubles, however, is a different story; you want to go for Heal Pulse over Ice Beam, I think. Heal Pulse with Mega Launcher heals 75%(!) of the target's maximum HP... and thanks to Pyromaniac, YOU get healed for half that! Team it with a Chansey or something and watch yourself become unstoppable! Just remember, though: have fun. =]
Well I'm not quite home yet.
We definitely need to talk shop about cowrites, though.
Have a pot of black-hole coffee please. And a self-updating guidebook of all the deathtraps in the multiverse. Could be handy for these cowrites.
Now, that seems to have been a interesting times for you. Hope you'llbe as much lucky the next time.
The book, that is.
Coffee is a thing.
Ad for deployment, I dunno. It sucked really hard at times and I've been horribly sleep deprived for roughly half of it. Saw a load of cool things though, so I dunno how it trades off.
*nervously scuttles forward*
.
.
.
.
Higoodtoseeyouback! *runs away to keep his urge to glomp on the leash*
Yeah, it is!
Hi. ;D
