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lettersofsky · 4 years

Text

An Agreement

Ok, so I have two characters that I’ve been fleshing out and developing on their own and decided to try writing them together as they’re supposed to be for once! So I wrote something to try playing around with the two of them and another of my characters in a fun little thing to actually get myself back into writing. Especially to make myself try to describe characters more as I write them which I’m pretty awful at XD

Mihal, Duelek and Orrin are all mine This is a kind of mythical creature/monster au of sorts! Mihal and Duelek are both kinda finned snake people things. Enjoy!

Ko-Fi

“Ya shouldn’ta bothered with ‘im.”

“He needed help though.”

“Ain’t no problem a ours none.”

“I be known but still… ain’t wanted ta leave him out there like that.”

“Woulda been his own fault.”

Orrin groaned, alerting the two arguing voices to the fact that he was returning to consciousness from the empty darkness of rest accompanied by a vicious pounding in his skull. He lifted his hand to his glass-covered clenched shut eyes, trying to further shade and protect them from the weak spring sun above him trying to pierce into his skull aided by the lenses that usually assisted him in the task of perceiving the world around him, only to find his path blocked by a different pair of hands, cold and wet and… off in a way he couldn’t quite make sense of.

“Ya real shouldn’t be touchin ‘im.”

“Hush yaself,” the snap was soft, distracted and from somewhere directly over Orrin’s face, contrasting the rougher voice that sounded a bit further away. Then there’s an odd cooing accompanied by the feeling of thumbs rubbing the skin of his cheeks, nails of some kind as well. “He’s needin help, we should be givin it.”

“I tried.”

“I said hush,” a sharp edge entered the voice above his head and Orrin flinched ever so slightly, drawing attention back to himself and a shadow over his face. “Ya alright?”

“I… do not believe so,” he groaned again, blue eyes squinting open so he could see exactly who was above him. “My head feels—” He cut himself off as the individual shading him from the shadow over his face came into focus.

A human face, skin dark in colour than Orrin himself was, if not for the purple scales lining it, settled around eyes that were dark and empty similar to that of a snake and fanning across sharp cheeks and their forehead leading into long, dark brown water-soaked curls. There were a set of fins to either side of the face above him, fluttering and fanning out in rapidly increasing motions.

This certainly wasn’t a human.

The creature drew it’s hands back towards itself at Orrin’s silence and inspection, curved fangs biting into it’s bottom lip as Orrin looked to them itself of the face over his. While humanoid at a glance it was obviously that instead of fingers it had claws, each one ended in a chipped nail far longer than any Orrin had ever seen before and covered completely in scales in every shade of purple from the elbow to the joint of it’s fingers.

“Told ya ya was better off leavin ‘im be.” The voice comes from somewhere behind the individual over Orrin and it turns back to hiss at the other voice, a short, low sound reminiscent of an annoyed or irritated snake.

“Shut up!” The fins on the side of it’s head flared out in a striking contrast of colour against the darkness of it’s hair. “S’just a little scared, s’all.”

“Scared and gonna tell people ‘bout this shit.” The other shot back, sounding much calmer than there was any right to be whilst implying that it was better to dispose of Orrin than not.

“If I could interject,” Orrin spoke around a pained noise as he forced himself to sit up, finally getting a better look at the first individual as well as his first on the other in the scenario, carefully pushing himself back from their proximity ever so slightly. The other was very similar to the first, if a bit sharper in it’s face and the sharp line of it’s shoulders, or what Orrin could see of them from where it was reclining on the shore of the nearby lake, arms folded and chin resting upon them. It’s hair was shorter than the first’s as well and closer to a black than the deep brown of the other. Both of them had long tails where their waist and legs should have been, bright scales glittering and shifting in colour tone before his eyes as they twitched and shifted gently, tipped with a pair of fins similar to those at the side of their heads.

Wholly inhuman and nothing Orrin should have ever involved himself with. Though how he had come to do so was a mystery to him.

“I will not—”

“Nah.”

“Excuse me?”

It was the other one that had spoken and cut him off, chin rested on scaled claws, nails scoring into the wet soil at the edge of the lake. It’s eyes were half-lidded, hair fallen into it’s face and remaining stuck there in clumps of water-soaked strands. It rolled empty eyes at him, lips pulling back just enough to show off rows of needle-sharp teeth.

“Ain’t caring ‘bout whatever ya have ta ‘interject’ with,” it said, tail moving lazily in the water, a blur of formless purple. It’s lips pulled back further, baring more of it’s teeth and the stark white of it’s gums. “So shut yaself ‘fore I drag ya back under.”

“… that is incredibly rude of you.”

It’s all Orrin can really think in that moment and it’s far from what he wanted to say to the thing that was threatening him. It seemed that the two of them weren’t expecting to hear anything like that either if they way they both turned to stare at him in question was to go by, fins fluttering and head tilted similarly to a dog’s.

“Tryin ta be amusin ain’t helpin ya much.”

“We can’t just be makin threats afta savin ‘im!”

“I can,” the farther one dropped further back from the inquisitive lift it’d taken up at Orrin’s words, placing it’s chin back onto it’s folded arms, peering at Orrin from the corner of it’s eye, face turned towards the other. “I didn’t save ‘im.”

“Ya can’t—!”

“What if I swear myself to silence?” Orrin questioned, cutting off the softer of the two off as he felt that things were taking a turn for the dangerous. “Swear to not saying anything about either of you to anyone? Would that be enough?”

“Shake on it.”

“He doesn’t need ta—”

“He does.” The words rung with finality and Orrin felt his heart freeze in his chest, unsure of wht exactly what the rougher of the two was suggesting entailed but not sure he liked it either way. “If he don’t then Imma drag ‘im back down. No matta what ya want.”

“But…”

“I will do it. I will shake on it.”

The two creatures turn back to him, the sharper looking pleased with his decision while the other’s face fell. His decision made Orrin chose to focus on the sharper of the two, meeting half-lidded eyes as levelly as he was able.

“Good. Go on bro, he’s wantin ta make the deal.”

The softer of the two looks between Orrin and the other, fins fluttering before they pressed close to its skull and it turned back to Orrin, face turned towards its own hands.

“Ok.” It breathed, tail stretching out as it shifted closer to Orrin, offering it’s claw towards him. “Promise not ta be speakin’ ‘bout us ta no other and shake.”

Orrin hesitated a moment, just a moment as he looked at the outstretched hand, offering his own when he heard the noticeable sound of water moving and taking it, the tone of his own skin a lighter contrast to the creature’s own.

There’s a sting, a bite where the tips of its nails sink shallow indents into Orrin’s skin, his eyes move away from the one watching the proceeding to see something like ink curl from the indents into a band at his wrist, cleanly encircling the flesh in a brand that would lead to nothing but question.

“Is that all?” That didn’t really seem to have much of any kind of purpose really, aside from the ink on his wrist that the creature holding his hand had raised his captive arm towards its face to inspect.

“S’alright,” there was an air of contentedness about the onlooker’s voice as Orrin’s hand was releasing, the creature stretching it’s torso out on the edge of the lake in a lazy sprawl. “Ain’t gone be able ta get ta chatterin with that, free ta do what ya want now.”

Orrin blinked, opened his mouth to say something only to stop as the one closest to him spoke up. “So he can stay, yeah?”

“What?” “Excuse me?”

It wilts a bit at both of their attention focused onto it, shoulders hunching up closer to the fins pressed tight to the side of it’s skull once more, voice losing volume and becoming shaky as it continued. “Iffin… Iffin he wants a course… ya said he could do whatever he wants now that he’s…” it trails off into mumbling that Orrin can’t catch and catch be sure that the onlooker didn’t.

“… suppose yeah.” Orrin’s attention snapped back to the onlooking creature who seemed uninterested in the situation once more, inspecting the nails of it’s own claws with a languid pace. “Iffin he be wantin’ ta.”

Remaining here for any length of extended time did not really sound too appealing to him, but saying so outright might be rude and he didn’t know how either would take such an abrupt and clear dismissal of his continued presence on their lakefront.

Even more so when the softer of the two turned back to him, a gleam in it’s eye and small, hopeful smile on it’s face. “Mayhaps… ya could stay a bit? S’not… S;probably s’not real good ta move too soon, yeah? Ya should stay here a bit and rest, yeah?”

“I think I should leave.”

It’s smile drops and its fins droop, arms crossing over it’s torso as blank eyes turned away from Orrin to focus on some point at the ground.

“Oh.”

“Lookit you bein all heartbreakin afta he saved ya ass, rude.”

“I am completely soaked,” Orrin continued, ignoring the cold near snarl from the water. “I more than likely have an untreated concussion and I need to go be looked over and change before I freeze to death.”

The closest of the two perks up at his words, brows furrowing and mouth twisting as it splayed it’s claws out towards him, missing Orrin’s flinch even if the further of the two creature’s didn’t, motioning him off with small, quick motions. “Ya right! Ya warm blooded ones get cold and sick from the water, ya should go, it’s bein for the best.”

“Ya just—”

“It’s for the best.” It repeats, tail stretching out more from the curl of it Orrin had yet to notice as it pressed closer towards him, putting it’s face only a scant few inches from Orrin’s own as if to inspect him better. “Ain’t wantin ta waste hard work by ya gettin sick on us, yeah? Then ya really wouldn’t come back.” It chuckles the last little add-on but it rings hollow and aching, accompanied by it’s fins fluttering and flaring away from the side of it’s head.

Orrin looked between it and the other, teeth biting into his bottom lip and considering what to do now. It would be simply enough to take the opportunity granted and leave, escape and never come back. It wasn’t as if these creatures could really come and track him down, at least he certainly hoped they wouldn’t, whatever they were.

He was free to go, free to stand up and leave the lakefront and never look back on or think about it again. It was so easy to do.

“I will… try to return when I am… able to stay longer.” Or perhaps he could put his foot into his mouth and give another promise to these creatures, as if the first hadn’t been enough to cement how awful an idea it was to do so into his head.

It brightens up the creature in front of him though and it grins at him, showing off the odd backwards curve of it’s teeth towards the back of it’s own throat.

“Then we’ll be waitin ta see ya again!” It pauses, brow furrowing at Orrin. “Ain’t real knowin’ what ta call ya.”

“Orrin,” he doesn’t mention anything about his last name and that seems to be more than enough for the creature to return to grinning at him.

“Orrin.” It repeats, the name sounding a little off on it’s vocals. “Ya can call us Mihal and Duelek, yeah? For next time.”

“I will… keep those in mind for when I return.”

#Skyee Writes #Original Work #original writing #original characters #Mihal #Duelek #Orrin Mysnia #In Regards to Making Promises to Fresh Water Naga #I enjoyed writing this!#Mihal and Duelek are fun beans that I wanna get more into writing because I love them #I'll probably do a write up of their differences in appearance at a later date

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peppurthehotone · 4 years

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I was in the midst of finishing a Deepak Chopra 21-Day Abundance Meditation Challenge my friend Tanya started, when a bit of tragedy struck.

On November 29th, Matt and I were returning from Thanksgiving in Chicago on a four-hour flight into LAX. We had finally landed around 11:00 pm and is Matt is prone to do, he immediately pulled out his phone and turned it on. I always give him the side eye for this because I feel he does it before the lady says it’s okay to turn on electronic devices, and then I berate him for not being able to just sit, take in his surroundings and passenger people watch (as I do), rather than have his nose in his phone.

Thank God he turned on his phone.

The first text he received was from a friend that said, “Call ASAP. 911”. Unusual. Strange. We looked at each other and thought maybe something could be going on with her husband.

I quickly turned on my phone to a text from my brother that said, “Call me when the dust settles.” I’m like, “What dust?”

The next text careened us into a vortex of which we have not fully emerged nearly two weeks later.

Now, we all react to things differently, right? We are different people and that’s what makes us tick in this world. Remember this as you read on.

My brother’s next text said “Tina has been shot.” Tina?! My breath got caught in my throat, my stomach dropped, I slumped forward in my chair with my head smashed against the scratchy seat in front of me and I wanted to throw up. Matt cradled me and we were in “Oh my God” mode on repeat while trapped by all the passenger people.

The next text was, “And your dog Vivian is missing.”

When I tell you Matt read that and jolted backward in his chair and ricocheted off it and nearly fell in the aisle, I’m not fully exaggerating.

I stared at him like he had two heads.

If you’ve ever done the 21-Day Abundance thing, then you know it’s full of all these exercises that get you to a place of gratitude toward all the feels about yourself to help you realize how amazing you are so that you can go out into the world and start killing it. One of the exercises teaches you to not judge others. Because when you judge, you’re not in a loving place of compassion but in a rude place of lack.

I was trying really hard not to do that because my guy and I are two unique beings in the cosmos trying to live our best life but I couldn’t help myself so I yelled, “Matthew! Calm down!”

He didn’t.

We couldn’t get off that plane fast enough and once in the open terminal, I pulled to the side with my suitcase and started to hyperventilate. Because while trapped in the plane, I was literally constricted to keep it together and I was focused on trying to calm Matt, but once I was in open space, panic had room to swell and it hit me hard. I lost it. So while Matt was swirling around like he was possessed, trying to communicate on the phone with his sister who was in town from Colorado to visit us and was picking us up, I was doubled over the handle of my suitcase unable to breathe. We were a mess.

Somehow we made it outside to the car and the three of us sped (as best you can in LA traffic) 30 minutes downtown to where the incident had occurred.

Even in chaos, the universe acts in mysterious ways.

My friend Tina is a goddess of light, and once again, I’m not exaggerating. So, when I received another text from Crescent that said not to come to the hospital because the waiting room was AT CAPACITY of all our friends who were there to support her, it was a blessing because otherwise I would have had to make a Sophie’s Choice of do I go to the hospital to support my friend who’s been shot or support my fiance’ and our dog who was now lost for five hours, alone in the dark in the big bad jungle that is Downtown LA?

And thus began our search for little Vivian.

For seven full days she was missing. We did everything we were told to do in order to find her. Flyers. Flyers in English and Spanish. Flyers in plastic sheathes so they don’t get ruined. Go to the shelters – every day. Post on NextDoor, post on PawBoost, post in Facebook Groups in Downtown LA, in Lost to Found, in friend groups. Post on Craigslist. Talk to the homeless. Make a scent trail. (That was the hardest because Vivian was lost in a neighborhood unfamiliar to her and in a place that was industrial, transient, collegiate and corporate. Anything but single-family residential. There was no, “Make sure you put her bedding outside in your yard so she can smell her way back home.” There was no yard. But we tried. During one day that we walked we tied ripped-up pieces of Matt’s t-shirt to parking lot fence railings and street lamp bases hoping her little nose would find the strips and lead her back to Tina’s place, the last place she’d known as home.)

We were out for twelve hours the first day and eight the second and posted nearly 100 flyers. Matt’s FitBit thing said we walked almost fifteen miles. Matt��s sister was there right along with us. A dog mom and a human child mom, she not only knew what we were going through emotionally, she also knew time was of the essence and she spent her entire two days of visiting us out in the streets of LA seeing the muck of the city rather than any of its tarnished glitz.

I visited Tina on the second day and once I saw her face and heard her voice, I knew she was going to be ok. Because she believed it to be so.

We got our first real break on Day 2 which came in the form of a 10:30 pm call from Harvey, a car salesman at the Kia dealership on Figueroa. He was with a customer and had seen Vivi dash across Figueroa, red leash in tact. Thanks to flyers posted outside his job, he called immediately. That night we jumped out of bed, drove the 20 minutes from our flat in North Hollywood to where he saw her and walked the streets calling her name until 1:00 am.

We came home with nothing but more anxiety and sadness.

On Day 3 we hit the streets again. This time focusing on the homeless population; we knew the homeless had their eyes and ears to the street, quite literally…someone had to have seen her! It’s already in my nature to see people who are invisible to others, so it wasn’t a huge stretch to step into the sphere of someone’s street home to ask for help. Yet, I felt a bit of a hypocrite approaching people because I needed something, rather than the other way around.

We went up and down the encampments between 17th & Figueroa up to 23rd & Main, calling out hello to those who would answer and handing out flyers to those who’d pop their heads out to accept.

At the St. Francis Shelter for homeless and low income, on a block full of tents and make-shift shelters, we came upon a woman waiting for services. She was taller than me, black, about 20 or 30 years old and had a truly wonderful smile on her face. She told us, “I just got some good news today.” I took a moment to assess where she might go with this, and if she was on my side of crazy or her own and once I determined I could engage, I did. I said, “Oh, that’s great!” and smiled the smile you make when you want the person to tell you more, but you don’t want to intrude. She continued, “I just found out I’m pregnant!”

I swear to you the wind was punched out of me same as if she’d suckered me with her fist. I disappeared and pulled the emergency rip cord on my Hyper Peppy-Peppur Doll and she took over like Chatty Cathy. I watched myself give her a hug and ask all the questions you’d ask anyone else, “Did you know? Could you feel it?” (Yes!) “How’d you find out?” (Clinic around the corner). “Is your guy happy about it too?” (Yes! He’s right there.) She pointed to a guy waiting for her in the street and said he was her boyfriend. There were two guys waiting, one in some kind of a wheel chair and one not. I asked, “Is he happy about it?” She nodded yes and Hyper Peppy-Peppur Doll promptly strode over to the guy not in the chair and shook his hands in congratulations. If I’d a had a cigar, I woulda given it to him.

Matt and I handed off our Vivian Lost Dog flyer and left. As we walked away, the doll deflated, the smile I’d plastered on my face melted off and a burst of sadness howled from me. I don’t have to tell you what I was thinking about that girl, because you’re thinking it too (how, what, when, where, why?!?). But I was also was jealous. I was mad it wasn’t me. I didn’t understand. And then I … I had to stop myself.

Matt gently asked, “Are you alright?”

I wasn’t. I couldn’t look him in the eye. I didn’t want him to see how bad I felt.

I couldn’t stop those initial tears that rushed out, but I did stop myself from continuing. Because, 1) I didn’t have time to spiral; not now. We had a dog to find. 2) Did it really make sense for me to be upset? NO. I was going to a pain that was familiar and pain can often feel good, like for those who cut themselves. I lived in that pain for most of 2018. I didn’t need it anymore, so I chose to be happy for that young woman (like Deepak taught me) and then I had to swipe her from my mind (like my therapist taught me). I don’t usually do that to people, but this one needed a swift swipe right. She had her own life to live, and I had mine.

By Day 4, I was exhausted. We’d received a sort of ransom call from some Deep Throat guy that said we’d better negotiate a good reward or he’d keep the dog. (False). We’d had a hugely hopeful lost-dog photo match on an app that had us rushing to the Lacy Street shelter only to go through the kennels in the soaking rain to find out the dog that looked like Vivian online was in fact a male. Besides the ransom call, we’d heard nothing which meant she was dead in the street or someone had her. Either scenario meant we didn’t.

Matt needed to keep active. To keep putting up posters. To keep searching online. After that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad shelter let down on Day 4 ,I told him we’d done enough for the day and I needed to go home. He told me later that he couldn’t believe I was giving up. He resented that I wouldn’t do more for Vivi. I explained that repeatedly searching wasn’t helping me. I needed space to think. Space to mediate. Space to imagine. Space to visualize her running down the sidewalk to us.

I focused my energy on Vivian returning, Matt’s mind’s eye could only focus on her cold and dead in the street. We were Ying against Yang, night and day, hot and cold, black and white. Real.

Matt became unrecognizable. Or, his energy was. He would falter between moments of extreme grief to panicked despair. All with wrecking effects to my mid-western guy.

Around Day 5 or 6, I told him that I didn’t know who he was. I shouldn’t have said that. That hurt his feelings. Years ago when I told my dad he seemed like a shell of himself while he was going through a hard time, I should’ve learned my lesson to choose better words or keep them to myself. What dad heard me say was that I thought he was a shell of a man. Two very different things, but my words bit into him hard like that time when our other dog, Molly (a pit mix), chomped at my face when I tried to take her bone away. Dad hasn’t really forgiven me and it has easily been 10 years. Hopefully Matt will take less time.

Trauma, and for us, this was our own trauma, affects us all very differently. While Tina was going through her own trauma of being shot, I knew she had a tribe to support her. Matthew had only me — as he should, because we’re a team. And I’m not sure I was there for him in the way he needed, quite honestly. I wasn’t expecting him to be Thor and to sort of be this manly man in the face of pain, but I also wasn’t expecting him do what I interpreted as come undone. Matt usually isn’t one to show any emotion, (hardly ever), so to see this guy in the state that he was, was jarring. Therefore, I was left standing in the bedroom, staring at a stranger, and not being helpful. But I started to understand what was lying beneath.

Tina’s one-woman show last year. She was in the process of writing the second one and then this happened. She says, “I have SO much more to say now!!” #getready

Tina and I are friends and spiritual sisters because we believe in the moon and the stars and the powers above. We believe in good energy, karma and positive thinking. We both reject the negative. She is on a constant spiritual journey and I am constantly seeking the good in people and things. We see cosmic signs in everything, from a tangled string in the street to a receipt totally $3.33 (because three is a FANTASTIC number; I have two brothers and the three of us make the perfect Zodiac trifecta of Scorpio, Pisces and Cancer. When I see a three, I have immediate comfort because I think of my brothers and that fills me with love and a moment of peace.)

This kind of stuff — along with whatever spiritual faith you have, carries you. It holds you UP in times like these when you truly feel like you are out of control drowning in a dirty river of mucky water pulled into a bottomless LA drain.

I’m not saying I was the pillar of strength through all of this, but I had a dreamy well from which to draw and Matt, who is a die-hard realist, had reality. And reality was sucking pretty hard.

Matt and I are very different people. I learned I had to respect his process and not compare it to my own. I learned he loves our dogs. I love them too, but he loves them in a way that is connected to his soul and it was literally ripped out when he learned Vivian was gone. I learned my faith and belief system are strong and that this strength was something Matt is beginning to learn. I’m learning to be more vulnerable and open to other’s responses to grief, which make me uncomfortable.

Our amazing dog trainer, Adriana Barnes, who is a very spiritual woman and a dog whisperer joined us on our search. She lives forty-five minutes away and spent an entire day with us looking for Vivian. She is a believer too and we bonded over this knowledge that something else holds us and that through pain we grow. We knew all of this was happening to prepare us for something greater (she thinks for the two-legged family we will have one day). On Day 7, it was Adriana who helped us find and retrieve Vivian from a young homeless man (whom we hope we can help). She was found only a few blocks from where we had been searching, but where we hadn’t. Matt tells the full story here and here (why we now call her “Viv the Shiv”).

Our Heroes. Adriana and the young man who found and returned Vivian.

With lovely, smelly!, scared Vivian in our arms, our first stop was to Harvey at Kia. We wanted to thank him, because without him, we would have been really lost. We then took her home and after the vet for a few stitches and a day to recover, we took Vivian around to all the Downtown folks we met who helped us along the way. To say Thanks for their help and thanks for believing.

This is A. Phillip of Fashion Service Group – 1837 S. Main Street. 626,979.4614. He MAKES patterns. Want to start a fashion line? He’s the guy!

This is Kofi of Coffee by Kofi The Reef | LA Mart, 1933 S Broadway. Coffee is bomb and he also designs coasters and the tie he’s wearing out of fab buttons! https://www.coffeebykofi.com/ (He’s from Ghana. My new brother! #ancestry.com)

Cynthia loves makeup and lashes, so we brought her some.

JR is the MAN. We call him the Mayor of Main Street.

Cynthia loves makeup and lashes, so we brought her some.

JR is the MAN. We call him the Mayor of Main Street.

Cynthia loves makeup and eyelashes, so we brought her an early Christmas present. This is not the end of our friendship. If you’d like to help these guys, message me.

JR is the MAN. We call him the Mayor of Main Street.

Last things: I want to pay it forward and pay it back. If you want to help out our friends, message me. We have ideas and we’ll need your help.

Matt will start volunteering at the Lacy Street shelter and I will start volunteering at LATTC (helped us too) in their foster care department.

Thank you to Deonna, Carl, Tanya & Dodger, Karimah and Morenike + Kids & Maxie for driving, walking and biking around the neighborhood to look for Vivian. I’ll never forget your kindness.

Keep Tina in your healing prayers. Send every shade and beam of light that you can. She will receive it.

That’s all, for now.

#gratitude

When gratitude comes wagging I was in the midst of finishing a Deepak Chopra 21-Day Abundance Meditation Challenge my friend Tanya started, when a bit of tragedy struck.

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