Clarisse McClellan's Daughter

That situation when you've been drawn in by a cast of characters but are still utterly canonblind (yes, obvious puns go here), so you're left wondering just where three of them were in the lead-up to a certain day in June of 1944...

We know Ginger was well out of the invasion itself, unless I missed a detail somewhere, and as for Erich... I'm deliberately not lingering over that one. :( Marie's potential whereabouts and actions are a whole other story in themselves.

That doesn't even get to the stealth crossover I've been contemplating on and off, involving a cameo by a genteel American lawyer who's trustworthy enough to be an OSS contact when he travels. I will not drop his surname just yet. XD

I sniffed this out while looking for another entry. I found what I was looking for, but also couldn't resist the memery. If anyone can guess who these characters are, or to which universes they belong, feel free to say so! I suspect sovay might recognize the fourth... :)

If you happen to be working on some creative writing project, fanfiction or NaNoWriMo or what have you, post exactly one sentence several lines from each of your current work(s) in progress in your journal. It should probably be your favourite or most intriguing sentence several lines so far, but what you choose is entirely your discretion. Mention the title (and genre) if you like, but don't mention anything else -- this is merely to whet the general appetite for your forthcoming work(s).

1:

Nerellan almost scoffs at the summons, almost laughs, almost turns away but what is he going to do, go hide somewhere? He has some pride left, hasn't he, says a voice in his head that sounds very like Grandmum Lessa, and he sneers at that, too because shut it, it's more than pride he has, shaff it, it's some measure of basic dignity and that, that's what keeps him on a march to the flagstones. He feels like he's setting himself up for a wingless drop over a cliff, but he stays.

That dignity rolls itself up, in his head, shrinks into a counters game stone that's heavy and misshapen, flattened on one side, coal black and not quite as cold as Between. He keeps it. He all but ignores it.

2:

She has seen goldrider Celina being casually decent to M'tok and shells, by this point, she's fairly certain goldrider Celina is decent to just about everyone, but a junior weyrwoman absolutely does not count as one of Cona's peers no matter how well they get along in the everyday.

As for M'tok himself, she'd spotted he and J'ralt in a free patch of weyrbowl ground only the day before, Gather dancing a fast step to nothing at all with Palanth as a blue-eyed witness. They'd been laughing as much as they talked, words indistinct from distance, and a laundry-laden D'wer had definitely given them - she's got a few important gestures committed to memory now, because dragon or no dragon, some things are simply important weyr vocabulary - the flight signal for 'affirmative' with his unoccupied hand as he passed by. The whole lot was frankly adorable.

3:

"Concerned," chuckles Tall Bear tiredly. "He is. Ever so terribly worried. Campbell!" she adds more loudly. "You look worse than I; what have you been doing?"

"Sle-eeeeee--!" Terrence Campbell's cut off, mid-word, by a jaw-cracking yawn of his own. "... Eeeeeeping," he finishes muzzily. "Pardon. I was asleep, and I wish I still were. Biologic sciences exam revision. Blasted horrible botanical details," he mumbles. "Oh, my head--someone put the lights out in here, or wake me when the... bells go off in the morning. You know. Breakfast prelude sort of... but I'm not for choir practice yet, when that happens. Pardon me, Molly. Móran taing. The bell at the gate's gone jangle, but I can't... the plants everywhere. Someone else get the door, aye? Catriona, tell the ferryman... green leaves on the floor. Chlorophyll content... the formula, one by thirty'n seven. Over to you." He wavers, dazedly, from one foot to the other, head nodding lower by degrees. Cass the Silver splutters a laugh too quick to hide.

"Has he fallen asleep standing up?" Lili inquires, sounding somewhere between concerned and amazed. "And who is Catriona?"

"His sister," Curtis supplies. Then, with an exhale through his nose that isn't entirely divorced from a snort, "Green leaves on the floor, in choir practice? I ask you--" He's grinning. Merélie Barilleau forces the knuckles of two fingers unashamedly between her own teeth and bites down, trying hard not to giggle.

Aaaaaand 4

The second cat strolls in, via an open window's narrow sill and a leap to the low dresser beneath. Where the metal case with the half-dozen symbols - red cross, crescent, crystal, something that looks like a blue-toned leaf with a nearly fractal pattern of veins - debossed into its surface came from isn't clear. Neither is just where its owner stashes it with a practiced paw lift and nudge, beyond the fact that it must be somewhere outside local space; the thing vanishes into thin air.

Bon fete du Canada! :) 🍁

That rocks my heart with the monotonous languor. D Day is here.

I got to wondering, earlier today, how many of the people who were actually at Normandy on the day itself are still around, on the beaches or, for that matter, up to Résistance activities at bridges and similar slightly inland in the lead-up. I don't have an answer, but it can't be that many. That's a sobering thought.

It is so incredibly nice to be able to go to whichever panels, readings, parties, or other events you want, but then catch the city bus home, shower in your own shower, and sleep in your own bed. It's doubly nice when you can settle the two plants (one red geranium, one unknown volunteer who may be in the mint family) in on your balcony with very little fuss, save the fact that one corner of a copy of All Systems Red somehow got buried in wet soil on the trip home...! That book is now standing fanned out on my desk, and will stay there overnight. I sincerely hope it dries out with zero damage to the text. It's not for me! I have no desire to give a friend damaged books! Yikes!

So far, I've adopted those two plants (the unknown possibly-mint is Odo, because talk about your embodiment of Odo'Ital, while the geranium is Leeta, the often-underestimated pretty face) from the Gathering in a swap for two bottles of nail polish, spent too much in the dealers' room with no regrets whatsoever, chatted up a storm with friends old and new, drank too much caffeine, and ducked in and out of a couple Zoom panels. I already know tomorrow is going to be extremely busy, between panels, readings, the haiku earring party, and the Martha Wells book signing, not to mention trying to get writing time in.

Whew!

I did not fall off the stage while graduating from college. I still distinctly recall being so wound up and nervous that I typoed a line about my stomach being in a square knot to 'my stomach's in a square!' XD I didn't properly complete all courses until that August, lord help me, and oh the relief when that last pass grade landed! There was a solid, dreamless night's sleep after that, in the mountains of Colorado.

Kitty icon used because, on the day of graduation, there were post-ceremony snuggles with Daisy and many others at the cat shelter, which included introducing Daisy to my mother. I still miss this cat. I know she's happy as a purring torbie can be - she was adopted by a fellow volunteer, and the last I heard, had charmed that gal's entire family. But I still miss her.

I'll post about the End Racism in the OTW campaign later, because yes, I'm so very getting in on that. Already am, in fact. I just wanted to mark the day first.

It's a certain actor's birthday for a few minutes yet. See icon. Given who we've so recently lost, I had to say something.

Thank you, sir, for bringing a beloved helmsman-captain to life. :)

Oh my goodness. Come August, Wisconsin's Supreme Court will have its first liberal majority in fifteen years. This, with challenges to the 1849 abortion ban as well as possible redistricting reform on the line. Oh my goodness.

Here I was, expecting to be up all night waiting on razor thin margins to update, refreshing twitter like a fiend and tying myself in knots, and the AP race call hit at just about exactly 9 our time. On spotting the first news of the liberal win, which was then verified, I said, "Oooooh *already?!*"

:D!

I didn't think this would ever happen. I didn't honestly think we'd ever get here. I know what small towns and suburbs in Wisconsin are like. I well remember 2006's marriage referendum, to say nothing of 2016. And yet... here we are.

Semi-related, but not entirely so, ceitfianna, mind if I DM you about a thing?

Also spoilers and speculation up through S5 ep 9.

( Did I mention spoilers? )

Now if they'd spend more time on the plot relevant details of the storylines and less on the 'oh come on, you two/four!' love square shenanigans, I'd be happy. Ugh.

This post brought to you by it being -16F/-28C when I woke up this morning. Also by this apartment's baseboard heating registers, which means the heat's on in here, but it doesn't radiate nearly as well as it would in a place with wall-mounted ventilation. BRRRR!

Fortunately for me, working from home means no one minds if you're wearing fuzzy slippers. Or if you wrap up in a blanket between phone calls.