rinue | Freewheeling

hipgunslinger has told me that I sound somber when I'm ailing. He's right, of course. Since my throat hurts, I talk more softly; to compensate, my pitch drops even lower than usual. So that people still take me seriously, you understand. But it gives me the air of a high religious figure. Amusing to watch the reactions of clerks.

When I was driving at dusk, there were blackbirds everywhere. They covered the ground until it looked like roiling ink; they encompassed the winter trees with feathered foliage. Power lines looked thick as my arm, sheathed as they were by bird bodies; clouds of birds that couldn't land for lack of room wheeled back and forth across the intersection.

I keep forgetting to mention that Patrick has gotten a livejournal.

thanecawdor. He's using fake names to amuse himself, and because his last journal was hacked by an ex-girlfriend who was trying to kill him. (Patrick somehow manages to attract homicidal maniacs in the same way I accumulate manic-depressive slackers.) So in the profile at least, he'll be using an alternate name. Ten bucks says he discloses the real one within the week.

::checks Patrick's journal:: Yep.

He tried to call me Rinue for a bit, but this made me anxious. Rinue is just code (on a QWERTY keyboard, move your right hand one key to the left, and then type Romie), but it's not a character I've ever identified with. It's a pun, it's a joke, it's not my name. It doesn't resonate. I took him to task, because this is what I do. He is, after all, My Erstwhile Squire Who Is Always Drunk When The Attack Happens And Why Do I Keep Him Around Anyway Because Surely He Is More Of A Danger Than An Asset To My Attempts To Protect The Princess I Serve.

"Sum you up in a word other than Romie?" he said. "Impossible. She Who Cannot Be Named? No; sends the wrong message." He pondered. We went to Waffle House. There was more pondering.

"I think I'll get more hash browns," I said.

"Nimue, then," he replied as though it was a sensible response. "The Lady of the Lake. Defeater of Merlin, adviser to King Arthur, and survivor of the whole debacle."

Smarmy bastard. He'd better come over soon and commiserate with me over my lack of pants, not that he'd understand since he has perfectly serviceable brown corduroys.