#255 words

[asheewrites]

Doctor’s Visit (part 3)

What Raphael did was sitting there, calmly, feet bare and looking entirely at home with the wind sometimes pulling at the strands of hair. Patiently waiting.

Heh.

“You are the doctor. Go on then, I came all this way already,” Asmodeus shrugged with one arm and offered his empty, open palm. Raphael tilted his head at it, eyes leaving his ‘patient’ for only a second. Still, the reaction was there.

Raphael cleared his throat, took a breath and then asked: “… do I actually have your permission to treat you like a patient? Asking questions I usually would not? It’s not exactly pleasant. Everything you say stays in this room, but I will know. And for a person of your status that is a risk. Talking o me requires trust. I assume you are aware I am almost physically unable to betray any trust put in me, I am the safest option possible. But even so… you give me permission? Limited to this room and this room alone?”

The angel held his own hand close to his open palm. Calm as anything.

With a chuckle, Asmodeus raised a bit from the chair, leaned forward while he took the hand and squeezed. Once. “Show me what you can do” He said, only one eye watching the healer, smirking,

He nodded solemnly, squeezing back before he released his – apparently – patient now and said: “Thank you. I will not disappoint”

“I certainly hope so,” Asmodeus said, smirking, his eyebrows wagging almost without consulting him.

“So, how are you?” - he said, looking pleased as anything...

HAH.

[turkoftheslums]

Fear; Failing to keep your partner alive because you had to complete a mission

Tell me what you think my muse is afraid of and they’ll rate it 1-10 based on how uncomfortable it makes them.

Please enjoy, this wasn’t supposed to be so long @_@

Silence as Mako hues narrow into fierce slits, staring into the soul eyes of the person before them. The gentle squeeze of a red stress ball. The slight twitch of an eye. Stiffened posture. Nerves struck.

“Never.”

Reno takes his time sitting up straight, facing the stranger head-on. The harsh squeeze of a red stress ball, compressing it as far as it can go. Arm raises. Nerves alight. “Gonna.”

Room tension raises as fierce gaze hardens, static filling the air. The ball flies past the stranger, hitting the wall. The calculated catch of a red stress ball. Head nodding. Stranger leaving. “Happen.”

Hands dropping into lap, Reno slides back down in his chair and takes a moment. The ball is returned to his desk and fingers press into sore temples as eyes clench shut. Great, migraine. A passing thought. It couldn’t be an actual fear, right? Details and contingencies were always planned out.

But there was always something that could go wrong. Fucking. Always.

A weary sigh passes through parted lips as a gloved hand rubs absentmindedly at covered wrist. Maybe he should take a break. Nothing was going to get done anytime soon anyway.

The blue PHS is pulled out in one fluid motion, quick text fired off to Tseng, and dropped back into its designated pocket within ten seconds.

Weary body rises from comfy chair, pacing towards the door. Pause as thought to leave door unlocked flits through mind and is agreed upon. The light needs switched off. Fingers linger. Softly spoken.

“...Seven.”

[asheewrites]

Rice to the occassion

Twelve people was not a bad turnout. Everyone had their own workplace. Ingredients were plentiful. And we had exactly one man in the group. I was not sure about his disruptive influence yet.

Up to now, he had donned an apron (white, nondescript), put out a notebook (new, lined), set a pen (filled with actual ink) next to it and now looked around with pretend confidence. I could seem him take deep breaths in between greeting the other participants.

For now, that was acceptable behaviour.

He took out and set the different kitchen utensils we provide his way. So, he might actually have some experience. Not a bad sign.

But I still decided to watch him. Our last participant just arrived and took the place next to him:

“Hello, my name’s Janet Dunn… it seems we are neighbours tonight,” she smiled, and he took her hand, looking away just a moment to shake it.

“Ah, hello Janet, name’s Enoch Loew, pleased to have you at my side” and returned to rearranging everything with a bit of a frown.

After a minute, she blinked and asked: “Ah it doesn’t seem to have started yet? What… are you doing?”

“Ah…” He changed some things around once again. “I try to find my home-order of things. Otherwise I will find nothing while we are cooking. For now, it’s a wok in progress.”

Inwardly, I facepalmed.

But his neighbour giggled: “Well! Don’t sweat the small stove.”

They both laughed. And I prepared myself for a very, very long evening.

[twowug]

Vocabulary Limitations

My conversation partner, Emma, has shown herself to be very resourceful when it comes to finding the right words to say. She has trouble coming up with English words sometimes, but she is very good at getting around this problem. She manages to get her meaning across just fine.

We talk about cats a lot (about 99.9% of the time, possibly even more), and one word Emma can never seem to remember is 'kitten.' Instead, she often substitutes the word with 'little cat' or 'baby cat.' From the first time she did this, I still knew what she meant given the context.

Though I think this is an important skill for language learners to develop, it can also get in the way of expanding their vocabularies.

I'm guilty of doing this a lot in my German class. I am more interested in learning about German syntax than German vocabulary. I am more likely to say junges Kind (young child) instead of worrying about learning the German word for 'toddler.' This bad habit leaves serious gaps in my vocabulary of German words, and I rely heavily on my German dictionary as a result.

What can new language learners do to alleviate this problem? First of all, acknowledge it is an issue that needs to be fixed. Then, come up with a measurable, time-bound goal to slowly learn new vocabulary words. I'll take my own advice and work on expanding my own German vocabulary, starting with Kleinkind, which my handy dandy dictionary tells me is 'toddler.'

[littlemaryflanagan-blog]

Costume Store : Open Para

Dancing on a big stage was always fun, but one of the most fun things about being at the competition was that she got to wear pretty outfits and dress up with hair and make up just like the big girls did all the time. As she waited for her rehearsal to start, Mary found her way to the costume store. This trio with Lizzie and Scarlett was lyrical so she knew that the costumes were going to be super pretty like the ones that Maddie and Chloe wore all the time. In these costumes they would really look like big girls. Mary really wanted to see her costume and try it on so she could pretend to be a big girl. If they did well in this competition, Miss Abby would think that they were big girls too.

The costume store was full of hundreds of costumes, some old ones and some new ones. She could spend hours in her looking through all of the costumes and trying them on, pretending to be the person who wore them. With a smile, she skipped down the aisles of costumes spotting Maddie's angel dress and Mackenzie's polka dot the party starts right now costume. Mary could remember playing around in that costume with scarlett, both taking it in turns to wear the party hat and try and copy Mackenzie's tricks. Once her and Scarlet had tried on Maddie and Chloe's black swan tutu's and pretended to be ballerinas. They could always play in the costume store.

[aspirewriter]

Simple Decisions

A knock at her door, and she straightened in her chair, brushing off her jacket.

“Come in.” She said, maintaining a pleasant tone.

The man who entered wore a barely formal button-up shirt and dress pants. In his arms were countless stacks of papers.

“Here they are!” He said, unceremoniously dumping them on her desk. She sighed as he went through the pile, drawing out a few papers at a time. “Five… eight… twelve… fifteen! These right here.” He removed the rest from her desk and set them on the floor. “These are the drafts for the cover design.”

“I see.” She rolled the chair up. “Well, these three are definitely out.”

“Why—well, okay.” He rolled his eyes and took the papers off the desk. “What about the rest?”

“Hm…” She leaned back in her chair, surveying the remaining designs. After a few minutes, she picked up a single sheet. “This one.”

“Really?” He blinked. “What about that one?”

“No. This is the one.” She handed him her chosen design.

“Well, okay…” He took it, scribbling something in its margins. “Guess I should’ve expected you not to take too much time deliberating…”

“That’s all I have to do today.” She said. “I’m leaving.” Right after she said that, she got up and grabbed her messenger bag. “Have a good day.” She said over her shoulder.