Alchemy Alice

Onlookers would state that the branch had let out a crack like thunder when it broke but still fell too fast for anyone to react, let alone get out of the way. She would state that the falling branch, still thick with autumn leaves, did not so much bash her over the head as whisk her up into a tiny arboreal village in crisis after the fall. The discrepancy between the adventurous weeks she experienced and the frantic minutes onlookers spent freeing her unconscious body from the tangle were not something she could explain, but by then, she was more concerned with getting back to her newfound leafy home than with the petty reality from which she came.

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LL#1338

If nothing else, it being a short week improved matters. Work did dump some foolish nonsense on me, because no one can plan properly. But they’re going to get whatever they get in the time available, and I am not going to stress about it. Also, the building decided to have various crises, such that it was down to the wire if I would have to stay late on Wednesday and then again if I would have to come in on Saturday. *sigh*

On this, the last day of the month, I find myself disappointed with my NaClYoHo Month progress. I did get some good work done on the piano, which had been my priority. But I never got around to doing anything in the bathroom, which needs attention whether I want to deal with it or not. I do like the spirit of the event--little bits of progress daily--but this did not end up being a very compatible November for daily things. I’m just going to try to continue picking at things as I can over the course of the winter.

I recently acquired some soundtracks to various video games, and it has given me a craving for some old friends. So I dusted off my PS2 and got it reconnected to the TV so I can play the .hack series from the beginning. This seems to be a less well-known franchise (games, manga, light novels, multiple anime series), but it was my absolute favorite around end of high school/college age. It’s a near-future scifi story of a game within the game whose events are bleeding into the offline world in dangerous ways. This first series (as compared to .hack//G.U.) is very glitchpunk, if you will.

The downgrade in tech (and my janky ass controller) cannot dim my enduring affection for these characters and their world.

It’s been increasingly cold. Not much by way of frost, yet, as things are rapidly drying out after the rain and no real chance of more in the near future. Everything is developing a thick layer of grass or moss, to each according to their tendencies. Mum reports multiple sightings of a fox in the fields, which is a rare visitor for us.

Lewisia: 3 new pieces written

Day job: 25.5 hours

Cooking: (apart from the many Thanksgiving foods) udon noodles from scratch

Cleaning: hunting unsuccessfully for my spare PS2 controller...man, I’ve got to get to the oldest storage someday...

Gardening: gathered some seeds, pulled excess ice plant

Reading: the Andy Serkis production of The Silmarillion (the part of me that grew up reading books of mythology really enjoyed it, while the part of me in charge of memory wants to strangle JRRT for all these fucking names)

Watching: Knives Out (what a fun movie! holy shit, that’s the most pure fun I’ve had in ages)

Listening: The Longest Weekend by TWRP (what a perfectly lovely album--a song about critters! a song about breakfast! a song about not wanting a vacation to end! “It’s been a heavy year//It's been tough, it's been weird”--I feel you, bro)

Playing: .hack//infection

Clock Mouse: 1315 words

Other: ordered pretty much everything I’m giving mum for the holidays

No wind stirred the lake that day, as the last autumn leaves fell, crisp and cupped, to the water. They scudded across the surface, shivering the glass of it, toward the oddly solid reflection of a tree on the far bank. No one could see the tree spirits captaining the little boats, but there was an invisible migration underway as they left the trees of this dimension in peace to sleep away the winter.

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LL#1336