Third Host: Amitiel

Amitiel sat in the cold water. He wasn’t quite sure what angle the ship had finally come to rest at, but nothing had broken the runes. He had slowly circled around, following the faint glow to search for gaps, but everyime he drew too close to a wall or possible door, the flow would flare and throw him back. Time was difficult to track in the darkness, but he had the feeling hours had past. Enough that it might be morning by now with no further signs of life since the ship settled.

Maybe that was it. Maybe they just wanted him out of the way. He carefully rubbed his hands together. At least there wasn’t any chance of fire down here. That was either a point against their intel or a point in favor of this just being meant to hold him. Keep him busy until something was finished.

Amitiel was trying to work out what that could be. He certainly didn’t feel like he had done anything in the mortal world that would have elicited this kind of response. So it was going to be something supernatural and nasty and possibly filled with lies. He tapped the bit of machinery in front of him. NOt enough details.

Suddenly, he was startled free from his circling thoughts, noticing that the room was starting to glow steadily brighter. A pressure built up against his ears along with a faint whining noise. Amitiel cursed and threw himself to the machine, struggling to cram himself into a small gab in the machinery that would give him the most protection from every direction.

The world glowed a piercing violet-red and pain shot through his side as he was smashed tighter into his hideing place. The world swirled and rumbled, loud noises echoing through the water. Amitiel braced himself and waited for quiet to return.

Cages and Demons

Nathan made it back to his sisters without further incident. Linda was already moving quickly around the house, gathering up tools of the trade for her trip. One bag for books with her padded case of tools, a second back for clothes. Nathan closed the door and quirked a brow at his sister.

“Going somewhere?”

Linda nodded, settling the bags next to the door. “Yes, I have a client. I need to fly out and examine the item more closely to verify what it is.”

“Must be something pretty interesting to get you packing this fast. I wasn’t gone all that long…”

Linda shook her head, “Some of us work for a living, Nathan. I have a client with a piece that I can’t correctly verify or identify without examening it in person. It is too valuable to just ship back and forth across the country. I leave in the morning.”

“Oh,” Nathan frowned a little, then shrugged and walked past her. “Well, good luck with that.”

“Stop. I need the stones from earlier,” Linda said.

Nathan pulled them out and tossed them too her. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said and started walking away again. He stopped after a moment, “but you should know, there’s an old guy. Transient sort. He knows something. He was going to try a spell on me.”

Linda closed the gap with several quick steps. “What?”

“He tried to steal the stones and the started a binding incantation. I ran. Lost him in the city. Spent some time in a bar and circled wide on the way back…” said Nathan.

Linda bit her lower lip, going quiet and thoughtful, “Damn it. I don’t have time for this right now. I need you to just… lay low, stay away from the town until I get back and then we’ll figure something out. Practice your enchanting while I’m gone. There are some spare stones in the waterfall in my office.”

Nathan nodded slowly, “Ok. I’ll keep my head down until you get back. But if you know something about this, I want to know when you get back.”

“You don’t… Fine. We’ll talk when I get home. I’m going to bed,” Linda turned and walked quickly off to her room.

Nathan pulled out the bit of concrete from his breast pocket and turned it over in his hand slowly. Sometimes he really hated hiding this from his family. Being treated like a child just because he didn’t do the sorts of magic that they did. He shook his head slowly and crossed over to his room to settle in for the night. He set the enchanted bit of concrete on the bedside table and tucked the extra bits into a drawer. Much as he hated it, tomorrow was looking like a research day. His sister had the sort of books that might tell him something about what was going on so he would know what they were getting into before she got back.

Cages and Demons

Snow swirled around Nathan and Jason as they stepped out of the door. Jason pulled his coat closer and shot Nathan and his lack of coat a concerned look.

“Aren’t you cold?” said Jason.

Nathan blinked, then huddled in on himself a little to feign chill. “Oh, I should be fine.”

Jason frowned and sped up slightly. “Maybe you should stop at my apartment and warm up?”

Nathan grinned a bit, then paused, putting a hand to the little bag of stones. The grin faltered a bit and he sped back up to keep pace with Jason. “I actually should get home before it gets to much later, now that I think about it. “

Jason glanced at him, “Are you sure? I’ve got coffee and cocoa?”

“Maybe next time,” Nathan offered a smile. “I’ll be calling soon enough.”

Jason blushed a little and paused in front of an apartment building. “Oh. Um, well, this is me…”

Nathan swept a slight bow. “I’ll talk to you again soon.”

“I hope so,” Jason grinned shyly.

Nathan winked, then turned and slid back into the shadows of the night.

Jason watched him go, then gave his head a shake and turned to walk inside. He couldn’t help but wonder if he was just rebounding into this rather then thinking. He’d barely met the guy and he was already getting all fluttery even after the nastiness of the shouting and screaming earlier that same day. He chewed his lip and took the stares up to his apartment, giving himself a little time to think.

Outside, Nathan rounded a corner and stopped to lean against a wall, running a hand through his hair. It was already looking to be a long winter. Crazy homeless people who knew way too much in one part of the city and a cute boy uncomfortably near that same area. Nathan rested his head back against hte cold stone of the building, letting it soak into his head a little before pushing himself off and trudging back through the snow toward his sisters. He glanced at the phone number, commiting it to memory before snatching up some snow to scrub the number down to a faint black smudge. Hopefully his sister would stay busy enough to not notice that she was extracting the wrong promises from him.

Welcome to Austin

I have arrived in a new city. An actual new city, at least to me. The plane was delayed due to AC problems, which was unpleasent as it involved sitting in a very warm plane for a long stretch before it was ready to go. Then there was the noise. I have never been in a plane that was THAT noisy. It was almost concerning. Which was then balanced with a pair of GROWN WOMEN who GIGGLED LIKE SCHOOL GIRLS THE ENTIRE FLIGHT. Which I could actually hear OVER the horrible noise of the plane. Though I struggled to hear the very nice young lady I sat next to flying back from California. Bah.

Anyway, survived the flight, easy cab ride into the city. OH. And the sunset. A line of burning red in the distance just before we landed. It was very pretty. Like the horizon was on fire.

Back to the city. I like Austin so far. Not that I’ve dealt with it much. Checked into the large silly hotel and walked a few blocks up the street to get food at Katz’s deli, which was recommended to us on the plane and at the front desk.

I will also be attempting to do photos and such as I go over on my Zannel page. At least try it a little more. For now though? Time to sleep. Writing to be inserted as well tomorrow.

Wandering

Bouncing

cross-country,

hotel rooms,

fast food,

and hours

waiting.

Still,

those changes,

small differences,

from place

to place,

keeps me

moving on,

suffering children

on flights

and hotels

with shoddy

everything.

Third Host: Valoel

Val finally stirred awake sometime after nine, no longer able to ignore the light streaming in through the window. She rolled over and glared at the open curtains a moment, then gave in and climbed out of bed, stretching out lazily. She found her still damp clothes in the bathroom and moved to hang them over the back of a chair near the window to dry.

A little searching produced her duffle bag and a spare set of clothes. Valoel got dressed and settled on the end of the bed, brushing her hair. The noise of the day was a different sort of noise, subdued by lingering hangovers and regrets.

Val dropped her brush back into the bag and laid back onto the bed. Vegas. No money. No plan except to change everything. She stared at the ceiling, just letting her mind run for the next hour. Finally, she picked up the bag and slung it over her shoulder, heading to check out. Well, at the very least she could think on her feat. Maybe run into something to get her pointed in a direction. Val dropped off the key, signed her reciept and walked out into town.

Blogworld08, Part II

I probably should start off with finishing out yesterday.  First off, SO COLD. Spend a little too much time nearly freezing to death, especially durring lunch. I was also sad that lunch was very very established. No real options, but it was reasonably tasty and free, so I really shouldn’t complain that much. The lunchtime discussion, though, was actually fantastic to listen to. I appreciated Guy Kawasaki and Steve Rubel’s talk. Of course, as much as they may both have been interesting to listen to, I have to say Guy rather stole the stage. He has a great personality and is refreshingly straight forward. I loved hearing his perspective on the whole writing about things you may have been given or pitched or what-not. The gist was that of course he wrote about things he would invest in or like, thats what he WANTS to write about. It is a rather solid point on the matter of at what point you consider something to be a paid post.

There was also the very infomertial presentation. I really hate powerpoint, and I hate it more when people add goofyness to it. Bleck.

Actually hiked back to the hotel. It’s just long enough of a walk to kind of suck, but I still walked back this morning. Nothing too exciting over the evening. I seem to have argued the internet into submission. Stupid hotel. Stupid Windows Vista constantly working too har to do things it isn’t any good at doing.

Started out today with the booth crawl of the expo floor. I have to say, the booth crawling is often my favorite part of a convention. I like really getting down and talking with individuals rather then sitting through panels. Panels have some good ideas and all, but they never quite have the same sort of conversation that actually being on the floor has.

I need to interject a section on one of my favorite groups at the convention. The people at Cart-Away Supply win huge points from me today. These guys run a business offering francishe opportunities in concrete, rental and landscape stuff. They hauled a great, brightly painted concrete roller down from Oregan as a sort of PR push. I have to say, if I suddenly wanted to change course and shift into landscaping, I would have to work with these guys. I love the guts they have to show up at a blogging convention to generate buzz about a company that doesn’t have really anything to do with blogging. They’ve started a blog to keep people posted on the results of this little experiment. I recommend checking it out. And hell, if you have a minute, take a second to talk about the guys at Cart-Away. I chatted with them for a bit and they get my vote as good people. If nothing else, I hope they get something out of wandering around in bright green shirts. And you might see a picture of me with there cement mixer if you check out their blog.

I also met some lovely ladies from a mother travel blog. I can’t find the card just now, but I will drop up a link to their site as well once I manage to find it again. Very great people, fun to chat with.

Another fun moment was the people from Zannel who decided they needed to put up a quick video about the goggles that I sell. I probably should have given a shout out to the etsy steamteam, but hey they ARE mentioned in the header on my page. So if people do check out the video, they should get some good words in. :)

Another great bit was stopping for lunch. Not so much the food, the food was sort of meh. Though they at least had the tea I’ve been drinking lately. The really great part was the cranky older marketing professor that sat down at the table. I think the best way to find a good person to talk to at one of these events is to find someone who looks like they’ve been around much longer then anyone else. They always have the best stories and some of the most sharp and accurate perceptions of the things people are talking about.

Ok. Think I’m good for the moment. More to come.

Third Host: Valoel

The city below glows and roils with life. Valoel took a slow drag from her cigaret and blew it out the tiny space the window opened. She wasn’t quite sure why she had wound up in Vegas. Her only real thought on it was that maybe with all of the noise she could loose herself for a little while while she figured out what to do next. She had crawled bars, threw money at gambling and maxed out her last credit card getting a room for the night. She couldn’t quite remember where she left her car, but it was on its last leg anyway. She sighed and leaned her head against the glass. At least her presence had been enough to calm down the argument next door. It seemed like the most she was able to do any more as mankind continued down the self-destructive path herself and Amitiel and known they would.

She winced back from the window at the flash of memory. Fire and pain and then… nothing. The pain centered in her head, bringing her to her knees with a whimper. She layed there for a moment, then pulled herself shakily to her feat and stumbled into the bathroom, turning the shower on full cold and stepping into it, not bothering to shed her shorts and t-shirt she had on.

The cold water slowly washed away the memories and as she let go of trying to fill in that ever-present gap in her memory the last of her discomfort slid away. She shivered a little annd slowly worked the head back up and pealed off the wet clothes, throwing them into a pile on the floor.

After steaming herself comfortable again, Val dried off, wrapped herself in a towel and drifted back out of the bathroom. She double checked the deadbolt and drifted back to the window, stairing down at the city again. For all the attempted glitz and glamour, she mostly could see the rot it covered. Greed and lust keeping a city alive in the middle of the desert.

Val snapped the curtains closed and threw herself onto the bed. None of this was helping. She was here to forget, not mourn a city and the people flocking to it. She found the remote and turned on the tv, flipping through the channels until she found an old black and white musical. She turned the volume up just louder then neccessary, just to make sure she was drowning out any other sounds drifting up from the city and settled in with a small content sigh. Now this, at least, was the sort of thing she could get behind. I nice happy, contained package with a happy ending nand silly coreography.

Val tugged the pillow in against her chest and bounced through old films until finally she drifted off to sleep, tv still blaring.

Vegas and Blogworld, Part I

Meant to write this last night, but that didn’t quite work out so well. I spent a large portion of the night arguing with the internet in the hotel. The flight in was quick and pleasent (points for Southwest), though the shuttle to the hotel torchered me with Blue Collar comedy. I’m still a little bitter about that.

The hotel? Not so bad. Not fantastic, by any stretch, but it has all the amenities I really need. Well, except for WORKING INTERNET. I finally gave in and called down to the front desk. They sent up some guy who more or less poked at the little box connected to the tv with a stick, told me I was screwed because Windows Vista is stupid and left again.

So, bah. Fought with things a little more, then tracked down the help desk number they had. They sent someone over to fix things. Which took, oh, probably an hour. Then they were around for another long stretch. Along with the stick prodding guy from earlier. There was a lot of “Vista, huh? Well, there’s your problem.” Which, though entirely probable, SO not helpful. They eventually reset the wireless access point and swapped out the wired cord, told me I was screwed, and left. Wow, impressive. So helpful.

They left, I ignored them, plugged things in, restarted and jumped on-line. Grr. If they had paid any attention to the fact that I had already tried a bunch of things, maybe they would have swapped in the new cable and left me be to do things.

Oh, and also? Seriously? Sucky service in the mexican restaurant downstairs. More grr.

I think that covers my annoyance. Sitting in on the first session of the day. Sort of mostly what I expected so far, which is kind of sad. But did pick up a great idea from an earlier session. Back into the trenches, more to come.

Turning

Touch of autumn

brushing leaves,

mercury drifing

down. Piles

of cast offs

line streets,

people preparing

to hole up

for winter.

Evening’s

fall quiet,

children back

at schook,

while businesses

get louder,

shifting gears

for holiday rushes.

Daylight lingers

a few weeks more,

while long nights

creep closer, along

with the snow.