Pie twisted rough cloth into braids, then plucked a needle from her teeth and began attaching it to the doll head she’d been making for weeks. This at least was something she knew she could do. In and out, the motion of the needle soothed the pained knots in the back of her head and neck. Abandoned books, the cause of the pain, still lay open on her bare wooden desk. Pie had retreated to the floor, not bothering to put her studies away before starting on her project. She needed it done by…..she counted weeks in her head, closed her eyes and let out a hiss of breath, then stabbed at the doll with renewed vigour. She promised herself she would have it finished in time. Meanwhile, one step after another. Stitch. Stitch. Reposition the braid, more stitching. Her mind slowly cleared, relaxing into the simple creation. Yet when her mind was clear, that’s when the nightmares appeared. They never really left, but she could ignore them some of the time. Scorching heat, and ash, and -
She flung the doll across the small room. It bounced against the wall then flopped to the floor, seeming to grin up at her with a flimsy smile. Her heart pounded, body heat rising until she was gasping for air. No no no no no no no why did this keep happening? She was going to die. She was going to die. Her hands trembled, and all she saw was flame. The gong sounded, signalling the end of a particularly boring class. The teacher paused, hand poised in the air as if to continue his unintelligible scrawl across the blackboard, the he seemed to deflate a little, flapping his hands at the students. “On with you then. I want a paper by next week on the effect of the introduction of silk in the 5th century. Three pages.” Ritchie grimaced, sliding some papers into his satchel and shouldering it in one smooth movement. Hooray. Another assignment he could do in his sleep. How long till the actual learning started? He slipped into the corridor and was halfway to the courtyard when he noticed he had a shadow. He flicked his long hair from his eyes, let an easy smile drop to his face, then turned and leaned against the wall, causing the small woman behind him to stop in her tracks. She muttered something rude, then stepped around him and kept going. Ritchie swept the crowd, but didn’t see anyone paying particular attention to him. Not quite sure if he was happy with that or not, he turned and kept walking, feeling a light flush of embarrassment for standing in the hallway like an idiot. Suddenly a woman was in front of him and he nearly tripped on his feet to avoid stepping on her, managing to skip backward without quite losing all of his dignity. He ran a hand through his fringe, looking down at the short woman standing before him. “Richie of the green feather!” she said, and he smirked. She must have been at the party. He gave a quick bow, meeting her gaze. “My apologies lady, I really should pay more attention to were I’m going.” That was usually enough to charm a woman. A bow and a smile and they melted before him. “That would make it so much harder to trip you,” the woman said. Ritchie blinked, taking in her folded arms and sharp eyes framed by short hair. Had he seen this woman before? He flashed her another smile. “Whatever would make you happy.” “Is that so?” “Of course.” He gave another quick bow, aware of his slightly too fast heartbeat. “So sorry to hold you up.” He dodged around her, only to find a small hand slipped around his arm and a small presence at his side two steps later. “The thing is,” the woman said, “I went to all that trouble to trip you up and here you’re leaving before I even have a chance to have my say.” Ritchie swallowed softly. Who was this woman? “Of course, that was inexcusable of me.” Was she going to introduce herself, or was he just supposed to know her name? He had definitely seen her somewhere. “Please speak.” She laughed softly, the sound mostly swallowed by the thinning group of students chatting as they left class. “The problem is, what I want to say can’t be said yet. Not here, not now.” Ritchie raised an eyebrow, asking a question that didn’t need to be vocalised. So what’s this all about then? She smiled, almost a dangerous kind of smile. It was hard to know what she was hiding behind that friendly face. Silence hung in the air for a moment, then suddenly the gears all clicked into place. Richie threw his head back and let out a bark of laughter. “I have to give you credit,’ he said, “most people are particularly boring when they’re looking for an invitation. You’re interesting, I’ll give you that much.” But that wasn’t all of it. Why go to all this trouble for a party? Did she intend to bring a friend to swoon over him? Was it the status of having been invited to a Rich event? He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment, then internally shrugged. “Of course you may come. I look forward to seeing you Thursday night.” “Thank you kind sir,” she brushed his cheek with a kiss, then dipped into a courtsey before whirling on her heel and heading off. “Wait!” Richie called after her. “To where do I address the invitation?” “Lu” she called over her shoulder. He waited for her to give an address, but she was already gone.
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Whispers nagged at the edge of Li’s brain, interrupting her flow of thought. She scrunched her forehead. “After the deaths of tens of workers, the Andredal company opened an investigation into working conditions in the mines in Ra Tetak. Workers were adequately, if not well fed and apparently there’s going to be a party next week and did you hear who’s coming?”
Li sigh and glared at the girls chatting opposite her. Could they at least have the decency to pretend they were studying? Or leave? “Workers were adequately, if not well fed, their water supply remained unpolluted and yet there were still dying. Richie was wearing an actual something had to be done hat with a feather something had to be done.” Li slammed her book shut, feeling vague satisfaction mixed with her irritation as Lu and Pie jumped in surprise. Apparently she was so invisible they hadn’t even noticed she was there. Lu jumped to her feet but Li was already halfway out the door, messenger bag slung over one shoulder, heavy with books and hitting her thigh with every step she took. Darkness welled up in the bottom of her throat but she swallowed it down. If she did nothing else, she would learn. That’s what she was here for after all. Pie glanced at Lu, her face a question mark. Lu settled back into her chair, grimacing. “We must have been louder than we thought.” “So what? This is our library.” Lu gave her a strange look. Pie shifted in her seat. “Well anyway, so Richie had this feather in his hat, it was so exotic! Have you ever seen a green feather? Imagine what animal it might have come from, I bet it could camouflage itself really well!” “It didn’t quite have the same effect attached to a hat though, did it?” Pie let out a peal of laughter. “So tell me,” said Lu, “I have a class with Richie. Should I be worried I’ll have crowds of his followers hunting me down in fits of jealousy?” The corner of her mouth quirked in a smile. Pie matched the smile. “He wishes he was that popular. Turn up with something exotic though, and you might be in trouble.” “Is that why you don’t like Li?” “Li?” Pie tilted her head, long black hair swinging with the movement. “Oh you mean -“ she jerked a thumb towards the door. “She’s not exotic, she’s just weird. Have you tried holding a conversation with her? It’s like talking to a fortification, all silence and hostility and like she’s waiting for backup to attack you from behind.” “I just feel bad that we were disturbing her.” “Nah, she’ll be fine.” Pie flapped her hand in the air, closing the matter. She was pleased when Lu shrugged in agreement. Hi!
This is an experiment for me. I'm thinking of this blog as fan fiction for my OC's, basically a playground where I can write them into existence, bounce them off each other, and try out different settings without worrying about an overarching plot. Your feedback is welcome and appreciated! If something is really working or really isn't, let me know. For now, the characters, and basically everything have placeholder names so please bear with me. The working title of this project is Chameleon, for reasons that shall remain mysterious for now. To be perfectly clear, these characters/settings are mine, and cannot be used by anyone else anywhere without my explicit say so. Happy reading! |
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