11th October

Now playing: It Matters To Me - Karmine Alers

If you go down burning what do you have to lose? You're so scared you can't see the truth, but I see the rainbows that you can't see. If it don't matter to you, it matters to me. Remember the times, we laughed till we cried...

Haven't really posted much here lately. I've been too busy enjoying the freedom of not having to write much at all. Today I tried out Holly Lisle's How To Beat Writer's Block, which was actually pretty effective. It got me working through the issues in the trilogy, and then proceeded to make me want to write another character sketch. The one I've written today is shorter than the first one, and from AC's point of view. It's a more general thing, not an actual scene from AC's life, but I sort of like it anyway. <3

As for school, it's busy as all hell as usual, but it's okay. Today I worked my way through the biggest piece of history homework ever, and I felt so good for it all of today, then. So I was then free to do whatever I wanted for the rest of the day. I read a chunk of The Hound of the Baskervilles for my enrichment book club, had a nap, and surfed the internet for the rest of the day.

Now, despite it being only midnight, and me not getting up until 11:30 today, I feel so tired I could literally drop to sleep right here at my keyboard without much effort at all. In fact, it would be less effort to sleep here than to do anything else. And yet, I can't sleep because I'm talking to people. I like talking to people. >_o

Anyway. I'll put the sketch here, because it's only short. Enjoy. (Or not, whatever).

RAINBOW DISASTER

The rainbow of brightly colour candies lined the walls of the sweet shop on 57th street. They could be seen even from across the street, lit by neon strip lighting across the front of the shop that read “Madam Butter Rum’s Sweet Emporium”. Every morning from the day I got the job working at that place I would feel an unexplainable desire to get inside as quickly as possible, since without the lighting, even early in the day, the street looked empty and barren. The cold greet streets were washed out and dull, and the only thing I knew would bring brightness and beauty back to the street was to get inside and turn those fantastic neon lights on.

Even when I had been working there for weeks, months, I still found myself drawn to the lights on top of the building. After much pestering I managed to get Madam Butter Rum herself to agree to add a new light to the outside of the shop. It was a classic candy wrapper image, bathed in wonderful rainbow glory. In the winter it shone like a bright light in the darkness, like the story of the Goddess Aeve coming down to Exos to bestow upon the good believing people good fortune, luck and happiness. In the summer, during those hot, sultry summer nights in the city, the lights were like a guiding beacon, showing the children that there was an end in sight to the mad heat. They would come here in there hundreds- not all at once, but they would roll into the shop in a steady stream of bodies, each with money that they couldn’t wait to spend.

Inside the shop there was always air conditioning. I had asked for that to be installed as well, since beforehand it had been too warm, and all of the staff could barely cope without passing out, never mind smile and act happy as we were ordered to. After the air conditioning unit it was easier to be happy though, and the bright lights inside the emporium made the candy glow. Sometimes I used to think on it as a disco ball, throwing out those lights of all different colours. Sometimes I wondered whether it was right for us to be exposed to the colour for so long, wondered if it would desensitise us to the beauty. But after six years of working there, I still wake up every day with the desire to run into the shop and turn the lights on. I love to bring the children into the shop, I love to hand them their candy, watch as they climb onto stools and reach up into the glass boxes for their bags of Pick ‘N’ Mix. I love to be the one who can tell them “You’ve got two more grams if you’re going to give me that much money. Why don’t you go and get some more candy to fill your bag?”

I guess I was just born to work in a sweet shop. I was born to work alongside the rainbows and neon lights that feel like religion. And that was why I felt like my whole life had been turned upside down, when I woke up one morning to find our precious sweet shop, our home in the city, was no longer there. I can tell you now, if Danger hadn’t been there with me that morning, I do believe I might have died from the shock. It was devastation. And you know what the worst part of it was? The worst part of it was that for the first time since starting work in that place, I couldn’t turn on those neon lights and watch the city come to life. This is what death must feel like, I thought. There’s no way a person could live if they were to feel as dark, and cold, and empty as this. The prophecy, then, and the resolution that was made to bring Madam Butter Rum, and her sweet emporium, back to Central City, seemed like the most logical conclusion in the world.

Words written today: Five hundred and something, plus writer's block stuff which doesn't really count.

Lines for today: I like most of them, actually.

Borrow my faith, borrow my heart..