Lin

[Kara Winters]

{:Hard Lessons:}

Donovan knew something was up, if Miyu and Toshiro’s absence from the dinner table hadn’t tipped him off, it was the fact that Lin had trouble eating that did. It seemed normal enough at first; she appeared at the dinner table wearing a long sleeved shirt, a normal one instead of her usual wear. The practical man, figured she just wanted to wear something different, that was normal wasn’t it? Well, it was until Lin showed she had trouble picking up her chopsticks, every time she tried to hold them properly she would winced and drop them.

“I think I’m going to need a fork,” she murmured to one of her siblings.

The dinner table always kept both chopsticks and forks, in case there was someone who couldn’t use them, it also made it more convenient for serving food from the main dishes. He watched carefully while eating as she moved her fork to her other hand, the one she didn’t generally write with to eat. That made him suspicious, which only made him watch her closer. As the meal ended his suspicions were confirmed as his eyes caught a flash of white against her wrist. Satisfied that he knew why she had been acting strange, he would wait until after the meal was over.

“Lin.”
Lin flinched, she knew that tone coming from her father, and turned slowly to meet his glaze, “Yes Daddy?”

He gazed down at her from behind his glasses, letting a tense silence descend on them. She looked back, not moving, not looking away and after a minute of this he smirked. The former assassin couldn’t help it, he wasn’t so impressed by the flinch, but she still had the ability to meet someone in the eye. Normal parents were happy with good grades; Donovan was far from a normal parent.

“What happened to your wrist?”

She didn’t look surprise at that statement, then again she should have been smart enough to know that there was no way she could hide an injury like that. Not when it was hampering her daily activities. Donovan silently wondered if he shouldn’t just get it healed by Yukito, something like that was going to put her back a week in training. Then again… his mind thought, this would provide an excellent chance to strength the use of her other hand. Though it was going to set back any actual mental learning if she couldn’t write…. He waited for her answer as he debated this in his head.

“I injured it.”
Her father rolled his eyes, “Well obviously…. How did you injure it?”
“…” Lin sighed and held out her wrist, “Pressure points.”

Give the girl credit he thought, she was being honest about it, something he knew was instilled into her when she was little. More gently than expected by people who weren’t his family, he took her wrist and unwrapped it. Sure enough there were several bruised spots where certain pressure points had been pressed… hard.

“Who did this?” he asked keeping the tone like as if he could have been asking about the weather.
“I don’t know his name, besides I was being stupid,” Lin ground out, “I let him get too close.”

Donovan could already see what happened, it was her writing hand. She probably had a blade in that hand, so applying pressure to make her let go made sense. Though, she was right, that put whoever it was far too close to her. His eyes narrowed, she wasn’t telling him everything though. At least he didn’t need to beat it into her head that she had done something stupid, but now the question was… was why.

“Obvious,” he stated in a low voice, “But why did it happen? You don’t pick fights, you were raised better than that, and I know you better than that. So what happened? Everything Lin, not just bits and pieces.”

So she did, she explained everything from the picnic to the mistaken identity to the meeting with the man with cold blue eyes. She described the way he moved, he didn’t move like a predator, but he could have been too angry to do so at the moment, but he did move like something dangerous. She told him how, he acted like no Second she had ever met, which probably what threw her off. Lin expressed to him her confusion over the way he acted, simply the fact he treated children like threats that he didn’t seem to care. In her possible, and all because she met a Second she had never interacted with before.

“And what did you learn from this?” Donovan asked with great patience.
Lin looked up with him, in a mixture of frustration and defeat, “That anyone could be a danger, no matter where you are.”
“And…?”
“To treat people with a weapon like the threat they are….”

At least she wasn’t stupid; he couldn’t imagine having a stupid one though. He could beat it on her, she could have been killed in something like that, but she was doing a good enough job as it was. Besides, as much as Donovan hated to admit it, it was a lesson he wished she didn’t have to learn.

“I can’t blame you for getting between them, you are the ‘older’ of the three and they could have been in danger,” Donovan told her quietly, “But you need to trust people less to talk things out calmly. Keep your wrist bandaged, I have something for bruises and tomorrow you get up early. We’ll work with your other hand while that heals, I’ll get you out of school until it heals, but you have to go to Shiro for learning.”

He paused for a moment thinking how he should handle this; it wasn’t the kids’ fault really. Though he pity Yue and Jaseth at the moment, any work that was done to get Miyu more out going probably just went down the toilet.

“In the meantime….” Donovan murmured, “Don’t let those questions in your head drive you crazy. You think too much.”
“Because people just do not make any sense,” Lin replied.

Donovan paused in thinking about that, people made sense to him, but he supposed if he held Lin’s beliefs it wouldn’t make much sense to him either. He nodded at this as he went to arrange things with Kara, and calm her down once she realized that Lin was hurt by someone. Damn, that man, whoever he was just made his life easier and harder at the same time.  

[Kara Winters]

{:Vincent:}

The artificial waterfall bubbled merrily as water tumbled from the carefully crafted mini cliff into the small fish pond below. Summer winds brought cool air into a garden already kept sheltered from the sweltering sun by the century old trees growing there. It was in this background of cared for nature that Vincent liked to do his reading. Reading had become a luxury for Vincent in the wake of his ascension as clan head. So he never failed after a long day of listening to clients, family members and other clan members to spend a while and read in his favourite garden. In truth it was not a garden part of the main house but one that was part of the training facility close to the main house. He liked it because no one expected him to be there, not when he had his own personal gardens and training grounds back at the main house. Not when someone as ‘important’ as him could be spending time with people other than young trainees who probably couldn’t hold a stick the right way. Vincent scoffed at the idea of him being important, it was no wonder why some of his cousins had actually on purpose made themselves unappealing choices for clan head. In this job, you couldn’t do what you wanted, be what you wanted (unless in private), and worse yet you couldn’t do the job you were trained nearly your whole life for. Instead he was stuck at a ‘desk job’, call it all the fancy titles you would want, it was still a desk job as far as Vincent was concerned.

This need to get away from all signs of his position was the very reason why he sought out his favourite garden in the training grounds. So it was much of a surprise to him to find that on this day, when the trainees had a day off to rest with their families that he found the garden occupied. Just one person other than himself, he could hear wood cutting through the air and the soft sound of breathing the moment he stepped into his sanctuary. He lifted his eyes from his book, expecting to see one of his cousins, aunts or uncles there. Probably someone back from a job, or preparing for a job, they didn’t have breaks after all. To his surprise however this person was none of those, in fact he did not recognize the person at all.

She was too young to be anyone in the family business, though he would not be the first to admit nearly everyone in the family looked younger than they really were. She dressed like one of theirs; dark clothing was always preferred by those in the business or training to be. Her hair was black with a few brown highlights, but he wrote that off as the result of her being in the sun too much (or perhaps she swam in those pools for a hobby). The most startling thing about her though, was her wide green eyes, which told him without even thinking about it that she had lineage outside of the clans. Otherwise she looked just any other Lau practicing on spinning her staff.

Despite what a lot of people thought, there was no finger twirling with a staff, it involved having the staff rest between the thumb and pointer finger. The movement was the result of smooth motion with the arms turning the staff until it got to the point where it looked like the person was spinning it. She was going slowly though, so he could see the movement very clearly as she went from side to side. Her focus was so completely on her task that she had not heard him yet. Vincent smirked, she was still green then if she hadn’t noticed she was being watched. He didn’t mind though, it gave Vincent the time to figure out who this girl was. After all he had been (by force) to every one month celebration in the family. He had (not by choice) given the yearly speech to all the trainees every September. So why could he not place her, eyes like hers did not happen that often and he was not going senile yet. At least he hoped not.

It had occurred to him that maybe she was from another clan, but dismissed it. Other clans except for the Darke clan did not like to have their children trained by them. The other clans had felt that the Lau clan was a bit extreme in what they expected of their children, and she lacked the telltale tattoos of the Darke clan.

Nope, she had to be one of theirs in some shape or form. Finally, after bashing his brain mentally for every single name he could think of he gave up and cleared his throat. He was grateful she stopped at that one sound, and was even happy when she looked on guard facing him. He wasn’t so impressed when she went to at ease stance that was less than formal, two of three, maybe he won’t whack her.

Yet.

“Who are you?” he stood on the walkway giving her a hard look, pleased to see she didn’t flinch, “Full name girl, I don’t have all day.”
She blinked, as if not sure what to make of his man, “Lin… Winters.”

Winters… Winters… his mind came upon the answer he was looking for. He looked her up and down, until deciding looking for family traits was pointless. There were so many races, so much diversity in that small clan that only someone well versed in them would know who was a Winters.

“You’re related to Lau Donovan?” he asked making his way towards her.
She stiffed, watching him warily and he was mentally chuckled at that, “Yes, he’s my Daddy.”
“Father, no childish talk around me girl,” he corrected her instantly.
Her jaw tightened as she stared back at him, “My name is Lin.”
“I heard you the first time.”

Trust his cousin to name her well… none of these English names that had plagued him, and more than half his cousins of his generation. Though he sort of wished Donovan had chosen a less delicate name, but it suited her eyes. Maybe that’s why he chose the name; at least Vincent assumed it was Donovan and not his wife who named this one. He snatched a staff from its rack as he got closer to her. The girl he noted moved back into a defensive position, she was wary. Not a bad thing, he wondered if she was because Donovan pounded lessons into her head or if she learned it the hard way. Winters were infamous since Daemon Winters for getting into a great deal of trouble. The thought made him grin like a predator as he tucked his book away. His eyes noted how she gripped her staff until her knuckles turned white.

“Relax… I’m not going to break anything.”
Lin was not so convinced, “You look like you are going to eat me.”
“Unless you’re actually a lamb under that brave face I think not,” the clan head laughed, “Now what are you doing here?”
“Training.”
“But it’s the trainees’ day off.”
“I’m not a trainee.”

Well he couldn’t argue with that, if she was he would have heard about her a long time ago. Which begged the question, why hadn’t he heard of her if Donovan was obviously training her? The answer was also obvious; she was one of those fast growing brats. He stopped two arms length away from her, not wanting to make her feel too uncomfortable. Besides, it wasn’t every day he got to talk to someone who didn’t know who he was.

“Well then,” he murmured his feet moved into an attack formation, “Not trainee Lin Winters… let’s see how much you’ve trained.”

Without warning he brought his staff down upon her head, Lin raised her staff barely in time to prevent a crack on the skull. Wood hit wood in a resounding crack that echoed throughout the garden, Lin could feel the shockwaves travel down her arms. He put a lot of strength into it, and the girl knew from that alone that he was deadly seriously. Vincent smirked; it was refreshing to have someone who was not asleep on their feet. His staff whirled around taking a strike to her left only to have it blocked, and then to her right only to have that blocked. So she had the basics down, now could she attack?

“Stop defending and come at me,” he ordered her coldly, “Otherwise I’ll dump you into the pond.”

His manner confused her, here she was just minding her own business when this man comes in, questions her and then attacks her. He had put enough power into his strikes to make her take him very seriously, but there was something missing. Lin had the feeling he wasn’t out to kill her, at least she hoped not. Being beaten to death by a staff cannot be pleasant, nor was being dumped into the pond.

Drowning didn’t sound good neither.

As his staff moved to create another strike, Lin took one step forward and whirled around with her own staff. She had to make it fast; otherwise she would never get an attack in. The jarring feeling of her staff hitting against his told her two things. One, he was just as fast (if not faster) and he was strong. She was almost afraid of breaking the thing in two. Vincent grinned like a wolf that was more like it! The two went at it, Lin was often forced onto the defense, but every once in a while she would have him blocking. The most brilliant move (by a greenie) was her downward strike, which he blocked, but she flipped her staff around to give him an upward strike, which he barely avoided being hit in the chin with.

“Tell me girl, what do you do for exercise?” he shouted out over the cracks of wood.
“Huh?” Lin couldn’t believe he was asking her a question.
He feigned a right attack, instead hitting her left hard, “Answer the question.”

It was a bit hard to answer a question when being hit hard in the ribs. Lin felt the air knocked out of her as she stumbled, forcing her to duck instead of block Vincent’s next strike. Lin glared at him, he was playing with her! He could have hit her a long time ago and he knew it.

“You don’t have glaring eyes girl, stop trying. Now answer the question.”
“I run, I climb when I can, I do my katas…”
“Sit ups? Push ups? Anything like that?”
She shook her head.
Vincent tsked as he side stepped her hitting her squarely on the back before she could turn around, “Not good enough. Add twenty of each to your regiment.”
Lin tried not to trip over herself as she whirled around to block another attack. Did he just order her to do twenty push ups, pull ups and sit ups every day? Was he serious?
Vincent sent another jarring strike against Lin’s shoulder, “I’m serious, you do that. How can you be so under trained? What’s your weapon?”

He was a bit disappointed in Donovan, he knew his cousin was as strict as they come so why was her regiment so lax? Then again, he had to remember she wasn’t training to be an assassin perhaps that was why. Adapting to the values of the clan he had married into, wasn’t his wife more of a scholar? Vincent was sure of this.

“Knife, but I want to take up sword.”
Vincent raised a brow striking down three times, each time blocked but her strength seemed to weaken by the third blow, “Why?”

It was a good question to him, not many people these days took up the sword. Knife and guns was the preferred weapon of his clan these days. Even though he himself still used a sword, that’s why he was so versatile. Vincent in his assassin days could go to places where a gun would stick out, and a knife wouldn’t be enough. She didn’t answer him, Lin’s reasons for learning was her own. He glared at her, that cold hard glare that she had seen on her father before a few times. Two strikes to the right and he whirled around to kick her in the mid section. It sent her flying to the ground, Lin rolled to the side to avoid another hit from his staff.

“Answer the question girl!”

She kicked out her feet at his legs, he moved back giving her the room she needed to get to her feet. Lin was getting very annoyed at being referred to as girl, like it killed him to call her by her name. The thing was, every time she glared at him, he smirked. The kind of smirk that made her certain that his man and her father were related by blood.

“Where I’m going I need to learn a sword, knife and preferably bow and arrow.”
“Where?”
“A place that doesn’t have electricity,” she shot back.

Give the girl credit, at least she wasn’t stumbling half near as much as some of the greenies, and she still had her wit with her. Not to mention she was a determined brat, the more he hit the harder she fought. He kind of liked that if he didn’t have the urge to teach her how to control her expressions.

“Now why in the hell would you want to go to a place without electricity?”
“You talk like my Da-“
He whacked her a good one on the leg, “Try that again girl.”
She stumbled, glared and whirled around and kicked him in the side, “You talk like my father!”

He didn’t winced, but he felt it and damn did it hurt. Yet he was grinning like a maniac, she actually hit him. The move had been so smooth, so quick that she actually hit him! For her troubles he did a fury of strikes, four she managed to block but the last two she wasn’t so lucky. Lin felt she was going to have new bruises to heal after this.

“I’ll consider that a compliment, now why are you going to a place without electricity?”
“I want to travel there,” she ground out.

Vincent thought about it, didn’t her mother travel or something of the sort. Ah… now he remembered, her mother had been quite the traveler back before she began adopting and then eventually marrying. That made sense to him; she probably was going to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Well… he mused giving her a few easy strikes to block, almost. She was like Donovan, obsessive about being good and serious to boot.

“Well if you want to travel,” he began pushing forward, he used the tip of his staff to prod her, she obviously didn’t know how to dodge or block that, “You my girl are going to have to be much better…”

He hit her on the shoulder, her arms must be getting tired from taking all that abuse by now he noted. In a final blow he used the staff to knock her completely off her feet. Lin hit the hard dirt finding the tip of Vincent’s staff pressed against her chest.

“Than that,” he finished.
Lin glared up at him, “Would it kill you to use my name?”
“I’ll only use it when I think you’ve deserved it…. Girl.”

That and the sadist part of him enjoyed riling her. It reminded him a lot of Donovan when he was taught by his father. He wondered if Donovan tried the same annoying tactics on his daughter? Probably not, the man was way too serious at times. Not that he was one to talk about being overly serious. After a minute or two he backed up before turning his back on her to put the staff back. She didn’t strike him as the foolish type to strike back when his back turned, even if she was he would teach her not to do that again. On her part, he could hear her quickly get to her feet, which was good. She wasn’t going to be languishing on the ground or anything people doing that annoyed him.

Lin for her part studied the person who interrupted her training so suddenly, unexpectedly and in a way that left her plain confused. He obviously wasn’t trying to kill her (though it felt like it), and he offered advice (even if it was unasked). Her brain was going to break trying to figure this out, fortunately her thoughts were interrupted by the stranger.

“Catch.”

She looked up only to have a bottle of murky brown liquid thrown into her hands. It was a small bottle, and when she uncorked it, it let off a strong smelly odor. The young woman wrinkled her nose as she corked the contents once more. Curiously she looked back at the man who stood there with his arms folded across his chest.

“For your bruises, you’re going to have quite a lot of them,” he motioned to her arms and shoulders.

There were probably some on her legs, side and back she mused as she looked down at herself. She looked back up to see him smirking at her. Lin wished he would stop looking at her like that; then again she also wished to wipe that smirk off his face. That sort of determination made Vincent’s choice for him. Despite that rumour had it, clan heads did not pick on people just because they happened to be there, which might explain why the training grounds were empty on the ‘trainees’ day off’. They also picked on people who happened to have qualities they liked.

“Do you know where the main house is?” he asked her.
Lin nodded warily, at least she knew for certain from that question he was part of her father’s family.

She probably still had school… then again she probably did not. It did not matter, her mother was supposed to be the headmistress right? She could rearrange her daughter’s timetable without a problem. Vincent chuckled at that, it had been a long time since he’d done anything like this, but it was going to be fun. He pulled out the book he had originally meant to read.

“Report to the training grounds there at….” He thought about it for a moment, “Eight in the morning, and don’t complain I could have made it six.”
She wasn’t even going to think about it, then it clicked it, “What?”
“You heard me girl,” he grinned wolfishly at her, “You report to the training grounds, every day at eight. There you will run… let’s say ten laps, and then do those twenty of everything I told you about during our spar?”

That was a spar? Lin was half tempted to point out that was more like a beating, but she didn’t dare say so. Somehow it didn’t sound like the brightest idea, but she looked at him like he was nuts. He took her silence in stride that was a good sign; she was a bright girl then. One more point in her favour.

“My father-“
“Will be informed,” Vincent cut her off, “Whatever school timetable you have can be rearranged.”
“You’re joking right?” she finally could not help but ask.
“Do I look like I’m joking?”

No, he looked like the image of her father only without the glasses and had long hair kind of like Grandfather Long. She didn’t mention that neither, only because she knew her Grandfather wasn’t the most… Lau like of the whole family.

“You will report,” he told her firmly, “Otherwise I will track you down and drag you here by the nape of your neck.”
She gave him a dirty look, but didn’t say anything. This was a clan of assassins, she didn’t doubt he probably could do that to her.
“A servant will show you where to go, try not to be late. I will be there at nine, if you don’t have your assigned warm ups done I will double them.”

Sadist she thought in her head, she had no idea how long it was going to take her to finish those warm ups. Viciously she really, really wanted to hit him hard with her staff, unfortunately common sense held her back. Lin watched as he opened his book and turned to leave, only for him to pause and add.

“Go soak now, there’s a bathhouse not far from here, tell them Vincent sent you. Otherwise you’ll be sore when you get back home.”

Without another word he left, leaving Lin to wonder whether this man wanted to kill her slowly or help her.  

[Kara Winters]

{:Vincent the Sadist:}
August 9th the year 2008

Whoever thought my Dad has a whacked out sense of humour has never met Vincent. Vincent, my ‘mentor’ is without using any swear words the most sadist, annoying man on the face of this world. Unfortunately not being able to fully describe how much he annoys me makes it very difficult to explain how bad he is.

He makes my Dad’s need to push buttons look like mere jokes compared to Vincent. In the past weeks since I’ve been offered (forced) to become his student he’s tried his best to make me swear, made me do double workout after I came an hour early to finish them on time (he was watching the whole time!). Not to mention he’s really testing my patience!

In order to ‘help’ me, he came up with this bright idea to switch between Japanese and Chinese while training, and I have to answer back in the same language otherwise I get an extra whack for my troubles. Grandma Mi for once is no help, she’s utterly ecstatic that Vincent is teaching me that I’m pretty sure she brags it to her fellow grandmothers. After all she says, how often is it someone gets to be trained by the head of the clan?

The irony of this (and trust me it’s not lost on me) was that when I was little it was my dream to be taught by the head of the Lau clan. My stupid dream! The dream that, that idiot ninja told me I shouldn’t bother with because my family doesn’t have honour. That is probably the only thing that is keeping me from walking out, I still want to be the best, to learn everything I can, because no one tells me my family doesn’t have honour and gets away with it.

Now I just have to get through training in one piece. I hope Sir Valdemar doesn’t notice the results of my training sessions. (I really don’t want to be explaining that).  

[Kara Winters]

{:Rain Fight:}

In the abandoned streets where the overhead lamps flickered uncertainly, the dark rain poured down like arrows. The stinging cold droplets splattered across the paved road so furiously that the sound was a dull roar in the ears of the one standing in the storm’s path. She stood unsteadily in the rain as she watched her breath vaporize in the cold air. Her darkly coloured clothes were pitch black with rain as they clung uncomfortably to her cold skin. It did not help matters that her shirt left her stomach and one arm exposed completely to the elements; she was sure her right arm was going numb. She glared at the man before her, who stood unaffected for the most part by the monstrous weather. Despite the fact his hair was plastered against his skull, and he was equally as cold and wet as she, he was smirking.

The man, who was obviously her senior, watched her casually as he took a few steps forward. He removed his glasses, which had become a hindrance to him in the pouring rain. While Lau Donovan did need glasses, he was not blind without them; they had served more as a mask between him and the world around him. As he tucked his glasses into the safety of his coat she took that moment to strike. She cried out aiming a spinning kick at his head, which he dodged by moving backwards. His bangs tugged by the forceful wind of a kick that barely missed him. Not put off by her miss, the young girl pushed forward with strikes to his chest.

One… two… three…

An elbow’s sharp edge never made contact with the neck as the girl found her arm in a vice grip. Her green eyes looked up at him in shock as she found herself half dangling, their height difference being painfully clear. He gave a grim smile before he pushed her away, nearly throwing her across the street. His dark eyes gave little away as she skidded across the pavement, he hadn’t thought she would go that far, but he forgot how light she was.

“Come on Lin,” he sighed a bit as he pushed his rain soaked bangs out of his eyes, “This was your idea after all.”
“Actually this was your idea,” the girl, Lin pointed out as she rose shakily to her feet, “You drove us into the city, waited for it to rain and then said let’s spar.”
Donovan chuckled at that, “You said you wanted to be train for everything,” he motioned to their surroundings as he continued forward, “You can’t have everything if you haven’t trained in really crappy weather, or are you changing your mind?”

She glared at him, not because he was putting her down, but because she learnt why people claimed that her father was very manipulative. In a very twisted way, he was putting out a challenge like an encouraging father should do. However, she was sure the parental books did not endorse this way of encouragement.

“Manipulative b*****d,” she muttered though they both knew she didn’t mean it.
Donovan grinned a predatory grin, “At least you know when you’re being manipulated.”
“Like it matters, I’m still taking the bait.”
“Ah…” he wagged a finger at her as he stopped his advance, “It does not count if you do it on your own terms. So what are your terms?”

That had been a challenge if she ever heard one. Lin’s eyes narrowed as she took a leap forward bridging the gap between them. If there was anything that could be said about Lin, was that she was not one to back down from a challenge, even if it was one she was not going to win.

The storm broke just as the sun was setting in the sky giving off bright yellows and golden oranges over the cityscape. In the abandoned streets where a van of plain description was parked were two figures. The first was a tall man whose black trench coat was scuffled and torn; his black hair and dark eyes would have given him an ominous look had he not looked so waterlogged. Despite his soggy appearance he looked pleased with his arm around a much smaller figure who was trying to stay standing. She was much younger than his twenty some odd years, and she tried not to look annoy with those vivid green eyes of hers. After all, it wasn’t his fault that she didn’t land a decent enough hit, she just had to get better. She was just equally as waterlogged as he, her black pants felt like they were going to fall down, and her one bare arm was chilled and muddy from the rain.

“Did you always spar out in the rain?” she finally asked him when they got into the van.
Donovan snorted, “Hell no, but I’ve had enough jobs out in the rain to know it’s damn unpleasant.”

There was a pause as he started up the car, but not an uncomfortable silence.

“If you’re trying to change my mind it’s not going to work,” she crossed her arms and sat back, closing her eyes.
“Me? Never….” There was a bit of sarcasm in that, “Though I would suggest body guarding.”
“So you don’t care?”
“As long as you don’t get yourself killed, because that would mean I’d have to kill the a** who killed you and that would get messy.”
“So you do care.”
Donovan rolled his eyes, “If I didn’t care, we wouldn’t have sparred in the rain.”
“Thanks.”  

[Kara Winters]

{:Kin:}
October 10th, 2008

If contradiction had a name, it would be Kin. Over a month ago at the end of the summer festival, I met a guy. No… not in the, I *met* a guy way, I simply met a guy. Who was obviously not human, the dog ears sort of gave it away. I met him at the dart game, he was already there completely ruling the dart boards, and when the stall owner asked if anyone was willing to try against him. I just had to try of course, darts are actually lighter than throwing knives but the need for a challenge was there. He was really good, not just good with darts, but good as a person. He didn’t demean me because I’m a girl or that I’m obviously smaller than him (he has to be tall as dad). Not only that he’s nice, not stupid, has no problem with just hanging out. No future mate or boyfriend sort of thing, just want to hang out as a person who happened to hold the same interests.

I found out Kin likes swords, and that’s really cool.

Unfortunately, even someone was nice, intelligent, (dare I say handsome?) and athletic as Kin as issues. His biggest one is that he has the self esteem of a mouse. They say that one’s faults could become one’s charm. I won’t deny there is perhaps something charming about Kin’s constant stuttering, but it is wrong for someone who has so much potential to think he’s not that good at all. He doesn’t out right say it, but you can tell he questions himself a lot, especially when you pay close attention to how he reacts. Thanks to Vincent who decided I need to understand people socially I had a lot of chance to observe.

The second time, I ran into Kin, was at his and his Uncle’s birthday party. By accident having being dragged along by Vincent to attend… for social reasons or so he told me. It was there I found out he does have esteem issues. Which is kind of weird, because his Uncle Nikki and his dad… and just about everyone else in his family are pretty out going from what I can tell. The third and the start of my continued meetings with Kin began when Vincent decided to socialize me to enter me into a school.

I have to admit, the idea appealed to me, this idea of people my age learning in school (though not everyone learns) and just simply interacting with people. Like Raven for example, unlike Raven the shoulder demon she’s very nice. Quite unexpected from someone who is the head of the Lord Kin Fan Club, but as I also learned the club is a base for people to interact as a club should. In otherwords most are not as insane as the radicals.

The radicals… how should I put this, they are the second biggest problem to an almost perfect guy. The other reason why I can’t figure out why he has such an esteem problem, a huge amount of girls like him… like really like him. In the case of the radicals it is an obsession that is scary because they have no concept of moderation. It is amazing they haven’t torn each other apart any girl close to Kin. The only reason why Raven hasn’t been on the hit list is because she is safely the girlfriend of Quinton. I have already gotten into two conflicts… three if you include cheerleaders threatening me (must left a bad taste when I got on the team). For some reason why assume any girl with him means that he must be closer than friends with, which is just bizarre to me, but that’s just me.

Over all… it’s a bit frustrating at times that Kin always stutters and always seems to give off this sense of nervousness or being unsure or like he did something really wrong. I hope to cure him of that… I mean, it’s sort of a shame seeing he has a lot of good qualities. Hopefully acknowledging what he says will help… well that and I hope to cure him of his habit of not eating enough. Hopefully the radicals won’t try anything while I’m doing so, and even more hopefully my family won’t traumatize more than he probably already is.  

[Kara Winters]

{:The Jonson Twins:}
November 13th, 2008

It doesn’t seem that long ago, actually it wasn’t that long ago, but only now have I been able to write it down without actually getting really angry or without needing to take an extra hot shower. For the first time I think I finally understand why other girls’ brains turn to mush at the sight of boys, or rather the shirtless types. Granted the idea still seems bizarre to me, but I have a feeling spending half my time growing up visiting the Southland and Borderlands has made me desensitized to men without shirts.

I mean, come on, we’re talking about elves (of the handsome variety) not wearing shirts because it’s too hot outside… and then there was the time when Celeborn was woken up after he took a night shift but that’s a completely old and different story.

At any rate, I would be just as happy not understanding that concept; in fact… now that I have a rough inking of the concept, I would be very happy to remain ignorant of it. Unfortunately that is not the case thanks to the Jonson Twins.

I’m pretty sure my promise not use adult words do not extent to the written word but if it does I apologize to Mikhail ahead of time.

I’m sorry Mikhail but the Jonson boys are damn bastards who deserve to rot in hell, or the very least they do deserve to have their lower extremities cut off (health education is very educational). It started out innocently enough; the school in which I chose to attend has self defense classes every Friday last period. Normally this would be quite boring as training as often as I do apparently is not normal as I thought it was. However Kin convinced the teacher to put me with the upperclassmen (he’s way too nice of a guy). Two of these upperclassmen were the Jonson boys, they’re twins and completely identical in every way, they even have matching piercings and tattoos. The girls were obviously ga-ga over them, so much so they concentrated less on the defense moves they were supposed to be learning and more on boy watching.

The boys seemed nice enough; they even talked to me before class started. Though thinking back on it, I wondered if that was such a good thing… I recall now that when I had to spar with them (had to, the teacher made Kin help him with something) one of the twins… I think it was Bill, was looking at me like he was going to eat me. I told him so, and he laughed, I wonder what was going through his head when he laughed.

I remember how it started… really it started with a trip, when I think back on it. I should have gone with my first observation of them, that everything they did was an act, maybe I could have avoided it that way, because when I think about it that trip wasn’t so accidental. But, Bill tripped and Will was the one to catch me, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it. Nor did it seem wrong that Bill suggested we catch a breather outside, after all the gym was getting hot and we had been working hard compared to the people talking (or in the girls case staring).

Go figure the act of going outside is what they had been waiting for. We started talking, about me being home schooled, and about staying in that school. They told me I might be missing out on other people, being with family and friends that think all that alike. At first I didn’t understand and said so, what sort of people would I miss? I told him I wanted the answer, because I didn’t like to remain ignorant of what was around me.

Then Bill kissed me.

I could have remained ignorant a bit longer I think. It felt funny and I didn’t like it, after all he wasn’t my boyfriend, my suitor or my mate, he was just a boy I barely knew, so I told him so. Will laughed, so did Bill, they told me they bet my parents told me that, to keep me their little baby. It confuses me, because they acted like this was normal, but this isn’t what I was told, this is what I observed. It was like my mother, or my brothers, it was like Serenity or Elnara, was it not?

The problem wasn’t just the fact the boys weren’t listening to me… it was the fact Bill was touching me. What scared me more about the whole thing was that it felt good. It made my legs feel like jelly and that was simply from nuzzling and rubbing my back! I couldn’t even stomp on his foot like I threatened to. There is something frightening about not having control over how you feel, and I’ll admit for the first time I was utterly scared out of my mind.

Which might explain why I used my teleportation spell to get away I landed on top of Kin. I think he dislocated something when that happened, but he didn’t complain when I told him I wanted to go home right then and there. Mom got the whole story out of me, I don’t know quite how she managed that but she did.

There are rumours that Mom is going to get the boys expelled, that is if my siblings don’t get to them first. Quite frankly, after all the panicking is over… despite the possible embarrassment of my whole family going out after them. I can’t say I feel sorry for the Jonson boys in the least.
 

[Kara Winters]

{:Life Lessons:}
November 27th, 2008

Vincent once told me that the best way to learn is to live life, books are well and good but to truly understand you have to be experiencing it. It is a good piece of advice, when it isn’t used in the context of trying to ambush Dad as an exercise. Dad said I should be grateful it is him and not Vincent, this is true. Dad would restrain me when I get caught, I would get bruises if caught by Vincent.

I’m starting to think the two are in on making my life as difficult as possible.

Still, there is reason to that saying, because life has lessons that books don’t, and I have been very lucky in life. In the face of slavers, radicals are like bugs… annoying bugs, but bugs still. Radicals are only out to maim you should you piss them off, how successful they are in doing so is questionable; slavers on the other hand are out to kill you, and anyone else who gets in their way. Sometimes I don’t know who’s stupider the slavers or the radicals.

Gah… I’m too young to be a cynic like Dad!

Where was I? Oh yes, life, and learning. Life can be a harsh teacher, depending on where you live. While I learned a lot going to school, but I think there’s a lot about life I don’t understand. In a way, it’s a Gaia thing… Gaia is, despite the stupid people like the radicals, the unsavory types like the Jonson boys, or even the dangerous people like the Lau clan, Gaia is very safe. Yes, we do have our share of problems, the underground as Dad likes to call it (he says he’s never taking me there), but it is possible with the right resources to protect your family from that side of life. It is always possible, but there where the elves, the humans and the dwarves whom do not mix and for the most part do not get along live, it isn’t. Daeron Aldrich is proof that no matter how rich you are, no matter how important it is always possible to be lost.

Deep thoughts I know, but I’ve been kind of thinking about them a lot, generally in the terms of harsh reality versus the Radicals. The Radicals have always bothered me on a personal level ever since the nearly getting my face bashed in thing in the girl’s locker room. Something in which Elros reminded me, I protected myself and hopefully they’ll learn not to mess with me. I wasn’t so sure about that, but… he’s right. More than that though, beyond Elros being right about me needing to learn to defend myself (another life lesson) I’ve realized something else about my last trip to the Borderlands. What bothers me the most about the Radicals is that they are soft, spoiled brats who get jealous and possessive.

They treat anything that happens to Kin as a personal insult, not caring about what he thinks. If they spent at least a portion of their time feeling insulted to the injustices that happen in our world maybe something could be done. They certainly spend enough of their energy chasing people off and spying on the poor boy. It could be put to better use.

Everyone in the Borderlands do what they can to bring all the children home safe and sound. It is dangerous; I’ve always known it was dangerous, but nothing drives it more home how dangerous it is until someone doesn’t come back alive. This last visit, a little girl died, it was no one’s fault really except for the slaver who held her hostage. Timaeus, a childhood friend of mine, blamed himself for her death.

Timaeus is the son of Arthael and Halmir, both were in the military until they had to leave due to injury. I’ve known the two since I was very little and their mating, or marriage was the most unexpected thing ever. Probably because they were always arguing, or rather Arthael was always arguing and Halmir was egging her on. Both though are really good fighters, so it isn’t surprising that Timaeus is really good too, but when that little girl died he felt responsible. For the first three days, it was a bit touch and go, it was hard the first day to get Timaeus to talk, but I had to get him to talk.

Vincent had told me time and again how even the best lost their whole career because they couldn’t take the realities of the job. For some it was the killing, for others it was the failure.

Timaeus is fine now, he has come to terms with what happened and to the fact there was probably nothing he could have done. Even if he had not taken that shot at the slaver, he would have just taken the girl as a hostage and there are worse fates than death.

Thinking back on Timaeus I am forced to question, will I be ready when it is my time? I know what I want; I have invested so much of my life into the Four Lands that I cannot imagine where else away from home I would like to be. So will I be ready the first time I would have to defend myself, the first time I would have to take a life, or when the day comes I might fail? Vincent is right, the best to learn is to live life, because only by living it will I know my own worth. Knowing this, and knowing what is at stake for myself, I find myself having less patience for those whom the students call the Radicals.
 

[Kara Winters]

{:Radicals Issues :}
December 30th, 2008

I never thought I would say this, but there are some people who should just have some sense knocked into them. Them, being the ‘Radicals’, I had already written at length many times about the brainless mob that calls themselves Kin’s fanclub, but they don’t seem to learn when it is wise for them to leave someone alone. As I had written before, I had gutted with my knee one of the Radicals who tried to punch my face in, it seemed as if that didn’t keep some from leaving me alone, despite what Elros said. Granted I’m sure Elros was referring to people who had some sense of self preservation.

Radicals seem to lack this, along with dignity and common sense.

It started on a Friday, because otherwise we would have never been able to go to the movies. I’m not sure whose idea it was, but it sounded like a good idea to go to a movie, though I had never been to one before. It was to be just me, Raven, Quinton and Kin, simple enough… if only that was the case. Suzanna, is part of the student council, which part I’m not sure, only that she is, and that she is a radical. The latter, I didn’t really believe Raven when she said so, because Suzanna was so nice when we first met, but that goes to show I really should listen to Raven next time. At any rate, she (Suzanna) was at the movies too, alone or not I do not know. Only that she was, and after the movies she confronted me, or rather she made nice to me and then suddenly decided to punch me in the gut. I was alone at the time, Quinton had said something stupid to Raven, which had her walking away from him, and him following, Kin after a while went after the two of them (my suggestion) because we couldn’t find them. So really it was no one’s fault but my own, for leaving myself alone and for not being on my guard. Not surprisingly a fight broke out, one I actually didn’t finish, Kin did. It was sort of amazing and weird all at the same time. I had turned on my cellphone (now I can tell Daddy there’s a good reason for one), and called Raven to get help (being arrested would have been really bad). Kin was the one who came to the rescue and instead of the normal shy, stuttering Kin, he pretty much took over and told Suzanna to get lost in the best do it or else voice ever.

Note to self to never piss off a dog demon, even if he’s only half.

Suzanna I think was a bit traumatized at the fact Kin yelled at her, and threw her away from me. I wish I could say that was the last of heard of a Radical (maybe hoping that knowing Kin was not going to stand for it to stop them), but no such luck. In fact… the Radicals kind of scare me, not in the same way a moor cat would, but in the way I wonder what sort of things go through their heads.

Seriously.

This… did not happen on a Friday, I believe it was a Monday, because that was the day the casting call was put out. Raven had convinced the lot of us to sign up to be part of the cast for The Labyrinth, it’s supposed to be a story where a Fae who’s called the Goblin King steals away a child wished away by his older sister, and then she had to run a maze to get him back. Raven, being the school president of course did her president duty to convince us to take part. Fair enough, Kin got cast as the Goblin King, probably from popularity and the fact the guy is tall, so he can be intimidating when he wants to be. Raven got cast as Sarah, the girl who wishes the baby away, probably because she’s the few… only girls who would not get ambushed by the Radicals for being the leading lady next to Kin. After all Raven is the president of both the school and the Lord Kin Fan Club (weird as it sounds), and she has boyfriend, Quinton, therefore completely safe and untouchable. I lucked out with a non speaking part, though I need to learn how to ballroom dance, I have no clue how to ballroom dance.

Getting back on the topic, Kin naturally had a nervous fit, he doesn’t like giving speeches, he can’t talk to his friends without stuttering, I can see why he was having a nervous fit, but this was a good chance for Kin to get over that. So I suggested he could come over to my place and practice, we have a lot of space at home and it’s nice to do something other than train (I can’t believe I just wrote that). Unfortunately, my invention by eavesdroppers was taken the completely the wrong way.

You see, the Radicals thought I was sleeping with Kin.

I think I had never been more insulted in my life, not to mention it’s kind of disturbing since it’s Kin. If there is one thing I do not allow (next to hurting my family, my friends and the innocent) is someone questioning my honour. Not that they had any honour to begin with since one of the radicals who confronted me (they decided to do so ah la mob) admitted she would 69ing Kin herself. I’m not sure what 69ing means, but I know it’s a term for sex, though really odd way of putting it. To say the least, I was very, very, ticked off, and began yelling at them. Everything that had bothered me about the Radicals, the fact that there are so much more serious things going on than simply a boy’s attention finally came out.

I will guilty admit I swore, but it felt good and they did deserve it. I will also admit to pushing one of the Radicals, but I wanted to get my point across, and over all it was like letting go of a lot of stress. Best of all they went away humiliated, hopefully because they realize how stupid they sounded. However it was more likely because the whole lunch room heard me and started clapping teachers included.

I feel so much better now.

I owe Mikhail an apology for breaking my no swearing promise.