Snippets and WiPpets

So I've been kind of badly behaved this week*.  Though I've not written anything I've still rewarded myself for it.  Well... not rewarded, exactly, and not exactly for that, but the upshot is, to distract myself from the fact words mostly seem like a forlorn hope I've treated myself.

I've wanted a Playstation Vita for a while, despite not being the biggest fan of Sony as a company and having never owned any kind of Playstation in the past.  It wasn't the price of the console or the games that put me off either, but the extortionate cost of the proprietary memory cards.  But since the price of them doesn't look to be changing much, now seemed as good a time as any.

As a result, I find myself with a surprisingly nice handheld console, more games for it than I had a week after buying my 3DS, and something to retreat into when my brain wants to escape.  In short, I'm enjoying it a lot.

It's also been a good week stationery-wise.  I saw this calligraphy / stamp set when I ordered the games and couldn't resist.  The box is very attractive and I'm not going to say no to another nib, dip pen and bottle of ink.  The paper base comes out and it has a velvet inner so I'm probably going to keep my other pen and nibs in there as well.

Today also heralds the arrival of my new Lamy Al-Star in Copperorange (their name for it, not mine) along with two extra nibs (one F black, one calligraphy) and a bottle of Ocean Blue J. Herbin 1670 ink with actual gold flakes.  I'd intended to use it with dip nibs but I might just look at the pretty bottle instead...

And when I say I've not written anything, that's not entirely true.  The Vita, its memory card and a wired Xbox 360 controller (not for my Xbox, ironically enough, but my PC) were all dispatched from Amazon on the same day, but in three separate packages (bear with me).  Last month K. S. Norton wrote something about "the what-if scenes of life".  I don't really get them in relation to family life, but I do get random story snippets that relate to absolutely nothing, and as such I usually ignore them.  This time, however, faced with the sudden, abrupt idea that it'd be incredibly embarrassing to mess up and deliver each item separately, I did my best to pin it down.  At around 1am.  ...It may not entirely make sense but hey, for once I actually managed to write something.  And you're getting it right here, or I'll end up forgetting all about it.

He stared down at the package in his hands.  One package.  One last package and his round would be done.  But why did it have to be here?  Of all the places...

Nothing for it.  Heart in his mouth, he knocked on the door.

Wide eyes greeted him.  Wide brown eyes and a tentative smile.  "Yes?  Can I help you... again?"

He proffered the package, squinting against the expected tirade.  "Your delivery, sir.  Your last delivery." 

The expected tirade didn't materialise.  When he looked up, the tentative smile had become a full-blown grin.  "My third one today.  I am lucky.  Or... did you just not arrange your deliveries properly?" 

He again cursed his stupidity for telling his coworker about the handsome young man on his round who always opened the door with such cheerfulness.  "I..." 

The man leaned in to take the package and simply didn't move from there.  His breath tickled his lips.  "Or would it just be easier to give you my phone number?" 

His heart skipped a beat; he didn't let go of the box.  "I could... warn you about deliveries beforehand..." 

The grin widened.  "How about you warn me of the delivery I really want.  Say yourself, at six o'clock?" 

Phrased like that, how could he refuse?  After all, he'd always been told the customer was always right...

And that's not even today's WiP.

Oh, and there was a very short exchange between Fayth and RQ too, but you'd have to ask nicely for that one.

* I've started to notice that my weeks no longer run from Monday to Sunday, but from Wednesday to Wednesday...  Don't know whether to be amused or worried.

WiPpet Wednesday

First off, WiPpet Wednesday is K. L. Schwengel's fantastic idea, a blog hop where participants post sections of their works in progress and relate it to the date.  You can read the other posts (which are always brilliant) and take part yourself over here.

What with The Rose Queen not being originally intended to be my main canon, so to speak, I've run into a bit of a problem.  There's the snippet I want to post, which makes no sense without context you didn't get, and there's the context, which is from the first chapter and thus isn't in chronological order.

In the end, since it explains both what was going on with RQ when Fayth arrived as well as just why he's so lost the second he leaves the habitat again, we're flicking back to Chapter One.  Sorry about that.  Normal(ish) service will be resumed next week.

Since it's the 18th February 2015, this is 1+8 for a total of 9 paragraphs and has a profanity and content warning.  Fayth has just arrived on the ship and is trying to blend in with the crew while he finds his way toward the habitat, though not all the crew seem worth blending in with.

It was a fucking rabbit warren.  He’d expected neat, straight corridors that mirrored the rigid, austere lines of the ship, but no.  Someone had decided that twists and turns were the way to go, and just when he thought he was heading towards the habitat he realised he was off in completely the wrong direction for the fifth or sixth time.  For all of its massive size, the giant dome seemed to be the last place they wanted anyone to go, and it had taken him an embarrassing twenty minutes to reach this conclusion while spectacularly failing to reach the dome itself.  In desperation he swung around a corner into the crew quarters, and straight into a group of men huddled around a single small screen.

“Sorry,” Fayth said, as nonchalantly as possible despite his pounding heart.  Shit, worst possible timing; all it’d take was one person to notice he’d never been there before...

The expected anger never materialised.  It was all the injured party could do to lift his eyes from the screen.  “No problem, mate.”

Fayth shrugged and resumed padding down the corridor while the men resumed their conversation.  “I always figured ‘Ice Queen’ was a better name,” one said, snorting back a laugh, “but shit, looks like I was way off the mark there.”

Pausing ostensibly to look at a overstuffed noticeboard, Fayth suddenly found their inane conversation the most interesting thing in the universe.

“No kidding.”  The second whistled appreciatively, never taking his eyes from the flickering display.  “Certainly opened up for him.”

“They’re not speaking now, but it’s not stopping everyone else having a go,” the first said.  “Maybe even you’ve got a chance.”

“Chance?”  The third said, licking his lips.  “From what I hear, all you gotta do is ask and you’ll receive.”

“Ask?”  This time the first speaker’s laugh was ugly; Fayth crushed the urge to stride over and punch him.  “I don’t remember saying anything about asking.”