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[Jul. 5th, 2008|05:16 pm]

tampabayscene
[modularparallel]

The Voice

[Jul. 5th, 2008|12:46 pm]

sisterdanger

[	Current Location	\|	Iberian Hall	]
[	music	\|	The Voice; Celtic Woman	]

I hear your voice on the wind

THE FOREST WAS DARK.

And I hear you call out my name

Far darker than the desert wilderness, with its open spaces and endless horizons. Here the trees crowded close together, standing shoulder to shoulder as if holding their secrets close. The road they followed lead ever deeper into the woods, into the dark arms of this place that was so very different from where they awoke that it could not have been more striking.

Pretanama kept a vigilant eye on their surroundings, worried about what might be hiding among the boles and branches that reached, claw-like, but his companions seemed not to share his concern. Devony was composed, even distant seeming to exist in both the present and the past at once, memory overlaying experience and intermingling.

"Listen, my child," you say to me. "I am the voice of your history.
Be not afraid, come follow me. Answer my call, and I'll set you free"

The trees opened up, presenting the three Kindred with a view of a large clearing set against the sloping side of a mountain ridge blanketed with evergreen trees. Central to this view was a large and sturdily built lodge composed of three wings, one central and two adjacent, all faced with cedar shakes and inset with windows on both the first and second floors. A central mortared chimney dominated the middle wing and a scattered layer of green moss lined the roof with a patina of the same evergreen that surrounded them on all sides.

I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain
I am the voice of your hunger and pain

Pretanama scaned the building carefully but saw no sign of life or immediate danger. Hefting Cash once again, he set off after Devony, who had drifted closer to the building only moments after laying eyes on it, as if drawn irresistibly.

I am the voice that always is calling you

Pretanama, ever vigilant, noted the care and maintenance that had been put into the upkeep of the grounds. The grass has been cut within the last week. That alone put him into a high state of alert, and his stony head swiveled back and forth as he tried to keep ready for any sign of danger.

Devony seemed to labor under no such concern. Something about this place spoke to her, as if it were a living thing, beckoning her to enter. Layers of past and present shifted and surged. One moment the deck was crowded with passionate Kindred debating some point, the next it was silent and deserted, awaiting their return.

Ghosts. She was seeing ghosts of Brujah, fighting, talking, laughing, posturing, being themselves, their glorious Brujah selves, and something in her hungered for it as surely as she hungered for vitae.

I am the voice, I will remain

She was only peripherally aware of Pretanama, still carrying Cash with all the effort of a grown man lifting a puppy by the scruff of the neck, as he followed her into the lodge.

I am the voice of the past that will always be
Filled with my sorrow and blood in my fields

Inside the main wing is a large open area, still set with tables and chairs where so many gatherings were once held. So many voices, so many echoes. Her eyes drifted to the hearth, a massive stone edifice built into one wall, and her fingers throbbed with an ache to allow its rough texture to slide under her fingers as she was once wont to do.

Pretanama shifted uncomfortably, noting the lack of dust on the tables and the window sills. To one side was office and meeting space; to the other, rooms for group or individual accommodations.

She remembered them being secured from sunlight and the other banes of Kindred existence. She remembered the rustic furnishings, the simplicity of the place as one of its defining characteristics.

I am the voice of the future, bring me your peace
Bring me your peace, and my wounds, they will heal

Here the Brujah were themselves, taken out of the context of cities and praxis and sects. Here they were able to be just Brujah. Pretanama looked on, outwardly impassive but inwardly wondering at the ruddy liquid that welled in his companion’s eyes.

Cash was unmoved.

I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain
I am the voice of your hunger and pain

Devony unerringly homed in on one office with the air of a sleepwalker drawn inevitably towards something in a dream. Pretanama looked on with an inward smile as she ran her hands over the bookshelves, then took first one and then several texts from the built-in bookshelves, flipping through them as though they were picture albums of family long absent.

Presently, Pretanama's attention was drawn to Cash's emotionless stare. Following its direction, the gargoyle noted a small framed picture on the wall near the desk. Moving closer, he bent down to see it more clearly in the dim light from the hallway.

I am the voice that always is calling you

In a small wooden frame tacked to the wall, Pretanama saw a picture of a young girl, perhaps six years old. She was looking down at a book on her lap. The sunlight captured her in aching detail, lining the edge of her profile with brilliance – ethereal youth. Her dark hair fell over pale skin, and dark eyes seemed far older than her years. There was something indefinably precious about the image.

Devony caught sight of the picture and froze. When startled, humans often shake, but centuries of living among the undead had the opposite effect on the Brujah. Her steps were uncannily steady and controlled, she did not breath and moved in virtual stillness toward the picture.

Reaching out, her slender hand seemed whiter than normal if that were possible, tracing the frame of the picture with her fingers. Gently she lifted it from its hook on the wall, touching the glass as though it were the living embodiment of the small child pictured within.

For the first time since entering the establishment, her hushed voice whispered on the air, "By the gods...she's alive."

I am the voice of the past that will always be
I am the voice of your hunger and pain
I am the voice of the future
I am the voice

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Hope your 4th Rocked

[Jul. 5th, 2008|12:44 pm]

Happy_Bday_USA (8), originally uploaded by Rene10.

I hope everyone who celebrated it had a great 4th of July (or Canada Day a few days ago).

Still recovering but almost there. Hope to be back among the living soon :)

Later peeps!

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Being sick is boring

[Jul. 4th, 2008|08:00 pm]

I kept dreaming this one happen to me... the first 57 seconds gets you the point:

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Fare Thee Well

[Jul. 4th, 2008|01:20 pm]

sisterdanger

[	Current Location	\|	America	]
[	mood	\|	melancholy	]
[	music	\|	Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore	]

Devony travelled with Pretanama, crossing the ocean back to America. Cash was with them, in tow. She'd called him forth from the Catacombs - there was a 50/50 chance he would be reasonable. He chose the 50% that ended with a stake in his chest. Now, as she stood looking down over his body, her mind roamed.

Fare well to old Ireland, good bye to you Banna Strand
No time to look back, facing the wind, fighting the waves

They were returning to the Iberian Hall and there was a tangled knot of emotion twisted within her when she thought about setting eyes on the place again - just like with the land of her birth upon which she had never set foot since she left. Why?

May heaven protect us all from cold hunger and angry swells
Pray I won't be lost, winds in the sails carry me safe

Peculiar, she thought, how one could never escape that place of their roots. Run the world over, yet when one smells the land on the wind, sees a fleeting color, hears an accent in the tenor of voice, there is an infinitely deep connection whether one wishes to acknowledge it or not. The Tzmisce understood this more than any of them, herself included. There was a part of her that respected this deeply.

Out now on the ocean deep, ship's noise makes it hard to sleep
Tears fill up my eyes, the image of you won't go away

Cash had reiterated to her time and again how he had no loyalty to any here, no respect, no ties - he knew none of them so why should he? This desperate clambering amidst a sea of isolation was something she understood and sympathized with, at least privately. How many times had she felt as though her arms were flailing, egg-beater feet churning simply to keep herself from drowning in a sea of lonliness? Too many, too many.

New York is in sight at last, my heart it is pounding fast
Trying to be brave, wishing you near, by my side Astor

And so she hoped to bridge that gap. He didn't know who she was, nor she him - or any of them for that matter. Some had woken with others of their own but not her and there was a profound emptiness inside. There was nothing for her but to find the tatters of one of the greatest legacies among kindred - the Brujah. It made her feel only remotely comforted to know that this very task was that which she had been designated to accomplish for millennia. Returning to a place that held some relics of that past which was only stored within her mind, who's only evidence of existence were the artifacts of some bygone age, sweeping the reality of their once great community like so much dust in to the annals of legend. They were like a civilization that rose and fell leaving only the mystery of what they had been in forgotten items with silent histories.

So fare thee well my own true love, I'll think of you night and day
A place in my mind you will surely find, although I am so far away
And when I'm alone far away from home, I'll think of the good times once more

"So who were you before Gehenna? What did you do?" the upstart Gangrel had asked and she huffed, considering her answer.

He lay limp as their transport bumped over the road, wind rushing beyond the dark windows. She knew that Cash could hear her, despite his immobilized status and so she contrived to introduce herself by way of showing him who she once had been. Who they once had been.

"The last thing I did before Gehenna was assume control of the Ex Sangue as the Navigator."

He was probably too young, and too disconnected (despite the Sabbat connections of the XS) to know what that meant, which was fine by her. For all she knew, he wouldn't give a...fart in the wind (as he might say)...about any of it - but maybe he would, and that was worth the attempt to reach out.

It wasn't his clan, but then half the Brujah weren't Brujah anyway, she thought with a wry humor - and that was the love of it: that they had been bound by more than blood. Tied by an untouchable commraderie that could never be destroyed or hunted or stolen, even when they were at odds.

And so the three of them crossed the land, headed west to return to that storehouse of history which she had amassed with fervent dedication. All along the way she remembered them.

Until I can make it back someday here, to Paddy's green shamrock shore

Riley Connor, Jonathan Vandermeer Joshua Ewan Brent, Tifa Brent, The Knucker, Charles “Blitz” Kendrix, Alexander Kincaid, Alastair Faust, Antonia Livilla Faust, Francois Clement du Faust, Matthew Gunn, Paulo Delgado Lexerot, Razor, Alena Borisnovna, Lev Alenavich, Raia Khepera, Bithiah Khepera, Deothan, Doran Windsor, Dietor Schuman, Caius Scipio, Tyler el Solanos, Jasmine Brent, Alexander Constantine, Silvi Danoff, Thomas Jones, Christian Proust, Frobisher, Derek, Drake Moir, Malcom Downing, Geoffrey de Montaine, King, Isaac McKinney, Michael McKinney, Tanith the Lexor, Daniel the Lexor, Hose el Solanos, Samanta Hunter, Liam Kelly, Cormaig Iberian, Alder, Cromwell, Zippo, Cougar, Liam Sinclair, Drake DIamond, William Roberts, Dante, Dodger, Alistair Faust, Dr. Wilhem Sebastian Bass, William Knight, Genevieve Lemure, Kett, Mongoose, Edward Solomon, Stryfe, Jude, Artemis Mondragon, Alexandra Lexington, Sean Ryans, Fret Ryans, Lawrence, Knuckles, Ian Faust, Iruka Faust, Drega, Tiny, Sparta, Jack Harley, Wilson, Loco Dantes, Tommy and Valencia Ciccioni, Marcana "the darth" Vader, Don Mendez y Cavalera y Faust, Joey Grant, Jayden Gunn, Thomas Lexington, Jared Lexington, Nicholai Pavlovich, Boris Pavlovich, Jamin D`Madrid, Edward Solomon, Mary, Jarrod Banner, Karl Draven, Captian Kovacs, Kaleigh Keegan, Harbin Sennet Faust, Arthur Daedelus Faust, Anton Renaud, Lt. Wallace, Brigid O'Barr, Aldolphus Gilmartin, Victor Cairo, Malachai Khepera, Tabia Khepera, Deacon Saint, Ritter, BJ Vargas, Robert Parks, Matthew Lock, Jeremy Black, Oscar McNeil, Lola Stevenson, Max Henley, Nicholas Cave, Don McConnel, Dagmar Rexes, Dylan Diamond, John Smith Diamond, Fletcher Stuart, Draco Faust, Logan Petrovich, Liam O’Donell, Valkyrie, Clash, DJ Violent, Jezebel, Gorgon Redstreams Diamond, William Bedford, Butch, PJ Faust, Joe the Brujah, Bryan Miller, Gambler Tyr, Gretchen Savage, Markov Nicholovich, Rohan, Donovan Roivan, Mara, “Dirty Harry” Callihan, Teren Kahyll, Christopher White, Raia Khepera, Conary McPherson, Froggy, Antoine LaRouche, Lev Alenavich, Jason Alexander, Anna, Anya Baby, Arkemedies, Jared Banner, Father Michael Barnaby, Benny, Carolyn Blake, Ravyn Blaze, Gague Carter, Lark Ciccioni, Dominick Ciccioni, Angelo Ciccioni, Marcus Ciccioni, Mia Ciccioni, Malcolm Black, Vanya Nornitski, Dakota, Paul Delgado, Dmitri Diamond, Louis Faust, Caesar Fratelli, Cait FitzRanulph, Collinsworth Frederick, Josh of London, Grinder, Bronson, Iolo Edwards, Danton, Swanlana Grey, Garion Gunn, Nero Guy, Josh Shred, Troy Kalesti, Donavan Kane, Seneca, Devin, Ophelia Kane, Garrison Kane, WarChylde, Jade Verchados, Katie Diamond, Joleen Savage, Jet Quan Wu, Frank Johnson, Aaron Demeter, Raymond Black, Justin Sammuals, June Spencer, Marion Corinthos, Joleen Savage, Eric Greatheart, Sax Adonis, Grifter, Callihad, Mara Lei, Elias Montgomery, Stephen Walker, Aleksandr Danilov, Brody, Nick Summers, Ward Rutherford, Tony Cesario, Mike O’Reilley...

But I shall remember thee from one life to the next, for the memory of the living is the dwelling place of the dead.

3 comments|post comment

more slamish.

[Jul. 2nd, 2008|07:05 pm]

huxleys_keeper

I have posted anything. I don't really want to journal any more outside of my paper-and-pen one... but I wouldn't mind sharing bits and pieces of the more impersonal (?) stuff lately. So, Thank you, Bittersweet:
____________________________________________________________
Don't hug me gently. You might
crush me into a diamond, you might
squeeze out the red-hot blood and breath and anger
that keep me whole and combustible, and
I can't take that turbulent silence, not now.
I can open my mouth and the floodgates to sing about the in- or the
-Justices of the world, and I can
feel at one with a body of three-thousand; I can
take on that power in a million storms,
a word of the pope, the president, the homeless woman,
facing the mirror everyday
but I cannot take this.

I have no problem having my soulstrings cut and crying at your dying mother, at humans treating humans as inhuman, at the
state of the union address where boys and girls become
prostitutes to feel loved,
druggies to feel good, and violent outside to express the violence within.
But tears for myself, that I cannot do
leaving those strings between my heart and my head attached
to be plucked and grabbed and pulled, stretch and release
Rinse and repear an manhandled to the point of resilience.

So, don't hug me gently, touching my flesh. It
Shakes me apart, a 7.1 leaving parts of me pristinely standing
and other flatter than Florida roadkill--
and just like everyone else, there are countries and unclaimed
territories that suffer within me or
success differently when you hug me like that--
There are cities that crumble, caverns that collapse, pockets
of belief that rise to the top.
There are big bangs and revelations and flashfloods of
tears that assassinate my desire to be alone untame.

Then, as there was, stillness.
Besides, touching a still pool does more than kicking the ocean, so

Don't hug me so gently. Actually, maybe you should--
you might crush me into something pure and beautiful and transparent, and,
while I don't want that pressure, seeing through me is the
most important thing you can do.

Status Update 2

[Jul. 2nd, 2008|04:55 pm]

Still down with whatever the hell I have. I saw a third doctor today and no one is sure. They took more blood, more swabs, more pee, gave me a shot and changed my meds. I'm sort of over it. I'm also over my new diet of mashed plain potatoes, boiled chicken breast, ensure, jell-o, and juice. Will let you know more as I hear it.

Cheers,
Mgmt

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'Jem' of a Lecture

[Jun. 30th, 2008|09:38 am]

spiffynoodle

You know your torts lecture is awesome when your instructor says someone is "truly, truly, truly outrageous."

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Update...

[Jun. 29th, 2008|11:19 am]

niko187

[	Current Location	\|	panera	]
[	mood	\|	numb	]
[	music	\|	some classical stuff	]

I want to thank everyone for their support through this really tough time and I couldn't have made it this far with out everyone let a lone the great distance I have to still go. I have been at the hospital with him every day and today I take a break. I have so much to be thankful for. The nurses have counted more the 120 people have stopped by to pay their respects and say their good byes. To say what has been going on my father had a heart attack the 25 and has been @ Ugh's heart unit. He body stabilized but his brain functions never returned. He body keeps going, he has always been a fighter. They pulled the tubes out for the ventilator. He body is now going all on it's own but there is no one there to drive it. It is so hard seeing this just unfold before my eyes for the man that has been my mentor,hero, and solid shoulder for me to lean on through all the hard times. I feel lost with out him and days are hard to care about. What can i d but be strong and do as i think he would want. There will be more to follow and if at anytime you have to worry or wonder about me think on what i am about to say. He maybe gone but fear not I won't let his memory go even if i have to kill him if he becomes part of the walking dead. =) I have my shot gun and my friends and i am not letting go.

Status Update

[Jun. 27th, 2008|08:37 pm]

Hi All,

I'm back but sort of ill. I got bitten by something, they're thinking a spider, and it got infected. I'm on meds which are keeping me pretty flu like which sucks. BUT it was still worth it!!!

My Peru pictures (all 1200 something of them) are on flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/rene10/collections/72157605850503716/

Later,
Rene

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[Jun. 26th, 2008|11:25 pm]

sunjestr

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

5 comments|post comment

where I am now...

[Jun. 25th, 2008|05:10 pm]

niko187

[	Current Location	\|	uch ccu	]
[	mood	\|	crushed	]
[	music	\|	law and order in the background	]

hello all I just wanted to give you a heads up if I seam to be off or distant. My dad had a heart attack this morning and I am still at the hospital. He is still unconcious and the nurse says he is doing good. All I can do is have faith.

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Apparently 'when it rains, it pours...'

[Jun. 24th, 2008|10:58 pm]

forestgrye

[

mood

content

]

applies to good stuff as well.

Time to clarify the short spastic post earlier...which was frankly the result of a good-news hyper on top of way too little sleep after a weekend of manual labor.

1) sore as hell, but helping to attempt to paint Lana & Jake's new house was fun... and it was really good to get out and be social with people for an extended weekend.

2) Promotion. I've known it was in the works for a little bit, but havn't really said much to most people because university system finances being what they are right now I didn't want to jump the gun. But today I got the official job offer. What's happening is I'm going from an HR assistant position to an actual HR Rep position... basically office grunt support to actual HR person. I already know how to do half the job, but learning to do the rest should be fun and challenging, especially as we're coming up onto the busy part of the year. I'm not sure on salary yet as they are waiting for some final approvals, but I'm making about 25k now and the base HR rep salary is about 30k, so i'm probably looking at a 5k raise.

3) as if this wasnt enough good news to overload my lack-of-sleep-addled brain, turns out that the boss lady decided to unofficially decide to let us work from home one day a week to help out with gas costs. Right now, unless something changes, I get to work from home on Fridays.

4) And, if that wern't enough, my duel kith application got approved.

and now...some well-deserved sleep.

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THE FLOBOTS THERE IS A WAR GOING ON FOR YOUR MIND TYPOGRAPHY

[Jun. 24th, 2008|05:00 pm]

saice

WHEE!

[Jun. 24th, 2008|11:14 am]

forestgrye

[

mood

hyper

]

More later when I have time to compose my thoughts and dont feel quite so much like a toddler on too many pixie sticks.... But wanted to share the news.

I got promoted!