Inner Mind

[Erlind]

I hear a soft purr coming from a darker part of the room and smile. I pull some large comfortable pillows up near the fire and lay down. I enjoy the warmth only a wood fire ever seems to be able to give. I flip through a history book I've been slowly reading. There is still plenty of room in the pile of cushions.

 

[choklatekoneko]

She watches as he adjusts the pillows and wants to go over, but waits for a long moment. She waits, before peeking out of the shadows, crawling towards the pillows and getting comfortable.

 

[Erlind]

I watch her approach out of the corner of my eye, but let her take her time. I love how strangely timid she can be around me sometimes. I wait until she has made herself comfortable before I speak.

"Good morning, Neko," I say softly, "warm enough?" I find myself running my hand along her hair without meaning to, it just feels natural.

 

[choklatekoneko]

She purrs softly, blushing a little bit, nodding after a long moment. She's in human form but still has tendency to purr. She lays on her back, looking at him, smiling.

"Good Morning. And yes...this is great. I was freezing. I needed some warmth. I hope you don't mind me being here." She says softly.

 

[Erlind]

"I certainly wouldn't send you back out into the cold. You are more than welcome here."

I pick the book back up and flip another page. Slowly taking in information as my eyes scan the words. A good book by the fire with good company, not much better than that.

 

[choklatekoneko]

She smiles softly.

"Thanks. You're sweet."

She curls up a bit more, and watches as he reads. She bites her lip softly, and sits up, getting closer to him, purring a bit, laying her head on his shoulder as her fingers walk up and down his thigh.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

I wander to the home of my friend. I know that he is far away, far from his family, far from all that makes his life stable and secure. It is his choice, it is his will. I am grateful for him, to him.

SO my footsteps are quick and I find his abode soon enough. Slipping inside, I leave a small bit of fluff propped upon his mantle piece. I know that he will see it whenever the real world releases him.

A sentence~

My wish, my resolutions, for you...

With that, I retreat. He will find me, when he can.

 

[Erlind]

I begin settling into my false home, the place I always return to when my world isn't quite real. As I move about adjusting things to my liking I notice a note left just for me. The words seep in and make me wonder.

 

[choklatekoneko]

Slowly she lurked, looking around, shivering a bit from the cold. She didn't see him about, she she walked by the fire, sitting down and getting a bit of warmth.

 

[Erlind]

Normally I'm a fairly discordant fellow, but I can't manage to interrupt sometimes even if its possible that I should. Instead, tonight, I retreat to my shadows, my haven, my inner mind. If people find me then the find me, but I need to write, or at least really should.

A sign is hung on the front door.

"Maniac at work. Please Interrupt!"

I snatch a familair notebook and special pen off my desk and flop myself up on a couch tucked against the wall. Its darker here than the rest of the room, but I've always worked better in the dark anyway. I begin scratching away at the blank pages not sure if the words jotted here will ever find anywhere else and not sure if I care.

 

[Erlind]

I keep trying to put more here. I keep getting distracted. Reading, rereading, trying to write, reading again, watching, waiting for things to load, sandwich.

Distracted.

 

[Erlind]

Shadowrun Returns!

I rarely plug anything anywhere, but this is pretty freaking cool. Shadowrun Returns is a project that got kickstarted a while back and while exciting for me as a fan of Shadowrun I didn't expect anything out of it. Well now there are preorders for it and it should be coming out this summer. I am so excited this is actually happening. Thought I'd share the joy.

Shadowrun Returns

 

[Suzuha]

She feels like she's a thousand posts too young to even look at this place but her random wanderings of the wild the owner's name kept popping up. It's not as if she's stalking him. Really! So she finds herself at the door hesitating whether to knock or to keep on moving. It's not as though there's no other place they'll meet, and the last thing shed want is to be a burden hanging around tapping her foot or otherwise being ungrateful... But she's still here. Perhaps he wouldn't mind a small, brief intrusion?

 

[Erlind]

I should have returned here a lot sooner than I did, but what's done is done. Unfortunately I wasn't present for my last guest. It would have been wonderful if I could have been here. My schedule is an odd thing however and did not allow it that night.

For though, my place is lonely and dark, which while not completely disagreeable, is something I decide should be changed. I begin hanging and lighting old style kerosene lanterns about the room. For some reason tonight the electricity is out. I add wood to the fire until its burning quite brightly and sit back in a big red chair to admire my handiwork.

One down, but not much to do about the other.

 

[Erlind]

Desert of Sin

I step through the doorway and dry heat is forced down into my lungs. I consider turning back when I hear the door click shut behind me. I came here for a reason and its too late to turn back now.

I have to do my best to use my hand to shield my eyes from a glaring oppressive sun as I survey my surroundings. Wide cracks in hard dusty brown earth extend out in an endless web across the landscape. Distantly, waves of heat ripple off the land as if the earth itself is cooking. I look down and notice for the first time the sun bleached bones half buried in the baked earth beside the door. They belonged to some kind of grazing animal, a cow or antelope maybe, but I'm not sure which.

Already sweat has begun to run down my face as I step out into heat that likely has spelled death for many before me. It is tempting to shed the long sleeves of my light shirt for even some small relief, but I know doing so would only allowed my skin to be exposed and it would take little time to char like that. I pull my wide brimmed hat lower not minding how it restricts my view. I doubt there will be anything to watch for soon and I relish the little shade its able to provide.

I am slowly getting used to the heat, minding less and less each time I draw the torrid air inside of me. There are times I thrive on hardship and times I simply crumble. I wonder if I'll find what I'm looking for out here.

 

[Erlind]

Desert of Sin

The door that led me here is gone, left far far behind me. The landscape is the same as it was, but has gained some form. I walk along what could have been a riverbed once, dead brush dotting its sides. I stop and take another drink of water, but it has turned from the cool refreshment to something hot that taunts my dry mouth. The last drop passes my lips and I toss the empty canteen away. It will do me no more good out here and should someone ever see it, it will only have become another sign of death to them. One of many that I have already seen here.

I walk on. Sun beats down and eyes grow heavy, but I continue to walk. It has been a long day and a long night, but I continue to walk. I'm not sure what lies ahead of me, but how I need it.

 

[Erlind]

I leave the river bed behind for a nearby rise in the landscape. Being out here so long perhaps it will show me something new. I climb the hill of dead land, sliding once and nearly losing balance as part of it crumbles beneath me. At the top nothing new presents to me out on the horizon. So expectant am I of something further out though that I nearly step into a hole just the other side of the crest. Three feet wide and instantly gratifyingly dark, I can see nothing of what waits inside.

I kneel by the edge, careful not to let it fall away and send me tumbling. It isn't natural. The lair of a long dead beast or the last refuge of a man so foolish to come out this far? I gaze into the dark, gratefully to have something other than painful light to look at.

What am I looking for out here? What is there to find? Quiet death fills the expanse and nothing else, so why am I here?

 

[Suzuha]

Her attention coalesces and her form with it, the one inextricably tied to the other. His home is much as she saw it earlier but now brighter, more welcoming than before. She smiles; he must have recognised her passing, or at least someone's passing, and lit the lamps and fire accordingly.

It is apparent that he's not home, she knows it before she even steps towards the door. Besides, her summer dress and sandals are no clothing for the environment nor weather. Sure, a change is but a thought, an effort of primal will, but she resolves that she'll save that for another time, one where the owner is around to greet her, or send her on her way, whatever should result.

The wind blows and she allows herself to discorporate leaving only dainty sandal prints and a brief scent of cinnamon.

 

[Erlind]

I never manage to be online when anyone else is. This is really annoying.

 

[Suzuha]

(I have been trying to figure out your hours, but I admit they baffle me. Try not to fret, though!)

 

[Erlind]

I chuckle at my visitor's confusion.

"That would be because the days I work cycle oddly and I can never sleep on my nights off. Hell, sometimes I don't sleep when I have to work that night. That and I have remarkably bad timing at times."

 

[Suzuha]

She takes on a little more substance, a little more presence in this plane of existence.

"See, not so entirely missing everyone after all," she chuckles. "I really hope I'm not intruding! I was just wandering around and I kept stumbling across your name. I think it was a discussion on Firefly. I forget exactly. I thought it'd be friendly if I stopped by. But I can leave you be if you'd prefer?"

She doesn't exactly look apologetic but she is quite sincere nonetheless.

 

[Erlind]

I shake my head before flopping down on a couch and tossing my feet up on a nearby coffee table, which currently has a distinct lack of coffee on it.

"It is friendly of you to stop by, you aren't intruding, and I was at one point discussing Firefly," I rapidly explain before slowing down a bit.

"Visitation is what this place is for ultimately. I had decided I wasn't social enough and set up shop hoping to cure myself of that at least a little. I'd say it half worked. Gives me a place to ramble at myself too."

 

[Suzuha]

She finds a chair to settle in and forms almost to actual solidity. Forgoing the summer regalia of the world in her dreams, she's dressed much more for the actualities of winter, bundled warm and woolly.

"Not social enough, eh? Yeah, I can see how a place like this might help. I've noticed a few floating about the ether here. I guess it's a bit like how those old prose oriented adventures could also give you the opportunity to build your own place. Might be showing my age there, though."

She winks and grins.

"If you don't mind, I'll just settle here for a little while and maybe get some writing of my own done a little later. Just kick me out when you're busy or whatever."

 

[Erlind]

"You're more than welcome to sit and write. Let me know if you'd like something to drink or a snack and I can provide."

I dig out an extraordinarily nondescript book and page through it before finding my place.