Melrick

I think Willow will be able to take care of herself, to be honest, so I doubt that’ll be too much of an issue.  I just think we’re in a bit of a holding pattern until things are able to be advanced a bit more.  Although I’ll think about if there’s something I can come up with in the mean time.
Sydney I’ve been to numerous times, Melbourne I’ve been to once and never been to Cairns or New Zealand.  I guess what to do in Sydney would depend on what interests you have.  I’m a big history nut so the last time I was in Sydney I took a ferry to an island in Sydney harbour called Cockatoo Island, because it has convict era structures there that you can go into and inspect as well as more recent ship building facilities.  But that history might bore to tears anyone that isn’t into history.

I was actually waiting for further posts to write because there wasn’t really too much that I could really do at the moment.
Also, @KassX , I forgot to ask, where abouts in Australia are you visiting?

@CloverReef Scat is big one that really turns me off like a light switch.  I’m not really into WS either.  Rape I just can’t write about, although I’ve tried.  I end up feeling so sorry for the woman that I simply have her enjoy it instead.  There’s no point in telling myself that she’s not real, that I just made her up, because it doesn’t matter.  I guess because rape in the real word repulses me so much that I just can’t bring myself around to writing about it.

Yup, I definitely wouldn’t want to cover many of the tags in the archive, that’s for damn sure.  I like challenging myself, but that only goes so far!

I think Willow will be able to take care of herself, to be honest, so I doubt that’ll be too much of an issue.  I just think we’re in a bit of a holding pattern until things are able to be advanced a bit more.  Although I’ll think about if there’s something I can come up with in the mean time.
Sydney I’ve been to numerous times, Melbourne I’ve been to once and never been to Cairns or New Zealand.  I guess what to do in Sydney would depend on what interests you have.  I’m a big history nut so the last time I was in Sydney I took a ferry to an island in Sydney harbour called Cockatoo Island, because it has convict era structures there that you can go into and inspect as well as more recent ship building facilities.  But that history might bore to tears anyone that isn’t into history.

While Foe and Bronx were discussing terms with a third party, movement in the rafter’s caught Grim’s attention. A grey cat perched on one of the beams stared intently down at them. Many people dismissed the intelligence of cats, considering them as dumb, selfish creatures. Grim, on the other hand, thought they were smart enough to appear dumb. Okay, they could be selfish, there’s no denying that, but they weren’t all that way.
When Grim was younger, he used to own a cat. He named her Jennifer. Jennifer would accompany him everywhere, perched proudly on his broad shoulders, although having a preference for his right shoulder. She was devoted to him, but never lost her independence. Sometimes she’d disappear for days, but would always return. Except for the day she didn’t return.
Grim suspected it was an odd sight, seeing a big lumbering half-orc with a pussy cat on his shoulder, but Grim never cared. Brenvan once asked him why he didn’t get a dog, since that was apparently a more appropriate pet for an orc, but Grim told him that if an animal wasn’t smart enough to bury its own shit then he didn’t want it.
The grey cat in the rafters watched them with interest, but appeared in no hurry to come down for a scratch under the chin.
As long as it doesn’t drop onto my head, he thought as he returned his attention to the matters at hand.

@CloverReef Scat is big one that really turns me off like a light switch.  I’m not really into WS either.  Rape I just can’t write about, although I’ve tried.  I end up feeling so sorry for the woman that I simply have her enjoy it instead.  There’s no point in telling myself that she’s not real, that I just made her up, because it doesn’t matter.  I guess because rape in the real word repulses me so much that I just can’t bring myself around to writing about it.

@CloverReef Scat is big one that really turns me off like a light switch.  I’m not really into WS either.  Rape I just can’t write about, although I’ve tried.  I end up feeling so sorry for the woman that I simply have her enjoy it instead.  There’s no point in telling myself that she’s not real, that I just made her up, because it doesn’t matter.  I guess because rape in the real word repulses me so much that I just can’t bring myself around to writing about it.

Yup, I definitely wouldn’t want to cover many of the tags in the archive, that’s for damn sure.  I like challenging myself, but that only goes so far!

I was actually waiting for further posts to write because there wasn’t really too much that I could really do at the moment.
Also, @KassX , I forgot to ask, where abouts in Australia are you visiting?

Oooh, a mini vacation, that’s gonna be great for you! I’m actually visiting Australia myself in May. Happy birthday to your mom!

Well I’m used to focusing more on her than me.  But I have a mini holiday booked in Sydney from April 8th to 12th and boy am I looking forward to having time away to myself.  I managed to nag my sister into taking my place, however reluctant she is to have her routine disrupted.  

Well I’m used to focusing more on her than me.  But I have a mini holiday booked in Sydney from April 8th to 12th and boy am I looking forward to having time away to myself.  I managed to nag my sister into taking my place, however reluctant she is to have her routine disrupted.  

For anyone who is interested:
It’s been stressful, but one piece of good news is that I’ve not long returned home from the hospital where I picked up mum.  Not because she’s all better, because she’s not.  They didn’t find anything with the tests they conducted, but there are further tests for her.  The figured though that since she hadn’t had any further episodes while in hospital, and because there’s a bit of a waiting list for the tests, she might as well come home and I’ll take her back in for the tests when they’re ready.  I really hope they find something though, because not finding anything means nothing gets fixed.
Good timing as well since tomorrow is her birthday, so at least she gets to spend that at home.

For anyone who is interested:
It’s been stressful, but one piece of good news is that I’ve not long returned home from the hospital where I picked up mum.  Not because she’s all better, because she’s not.  They didn’t find anything with the tests they conducted, but there are further tests for her.  The figured though that since she hadn’t had any further episodes while in hospital, and because there’s a bit of a waiting list for the tests, she might as well come home and I’ll take her back in for the tests when they’re ready.  I really hope they find something though, because not finding anything means nothing gets fixed.
Good timing as well since tomorrow is her birthday, so at least she gets to spend that at home.

“So...so does this mean you’ll do it?” the gnome asked hopefully. There was a certain glimmer in his eyes that made Foe cock an eyebrow. Admittedly, getting rid of a curse would make anyone hopeful, but at this point Foe and Bronx had been stabbed in the back so often that their clients were running out of places to put the next dagger. On the other hand, those were the clients they only tended to take care of once. After all, it wasn’t like a dead man could hire them twice. Still, it was a rare and welcome treat when one of their clients was entirely upfront with them from the get go. It wasn’t like there was a purpose to lying, not when they’d probably take the job anyway. ’Can’t remember the last time we didn’t take a job,’ Foe mused as he sipped his mead. ’No, wait. It was when that prat Corbalain was still king, wasn’t it? That circle of mages that wanted us to torch the orphanage. Would have done it, if only they hadn't wanted us to make sure the kids were still inside when it went up.’
Foe snorted at the thought. It wasn’t that he and Bronx were bad people, it was just...well, after you spent a long enough time on the road, things like morals and ethics just didn’t seem worth the bother half the time. They’d been murderers and thieves, pillaged graves and cities. Kidnapping, of course. Slavers, for a while. Though...not very good slavers. They’d never quite gotten around to actually selling any of the various damsels and pretty boys they’d ended up collecting. Granted, there’d been that small matter of the Brotherhood of Calain which had interfered. When the paladins from the local chapterhouse had decided to investigate why so many travelers had disappeared, they’d sent the better part of a brigade out to hunt the pair down. One thing had led to another, and the next thing anyone knew he and Bronx had somehow ended up conquering half the Ox Coast in the name of said Brotherhood...
’Really should look up Fartrras sometime,’ Foe thought as he set his mug down. ’See if the old battleaxe is any closer to tracking down the two “archdemons” he thinks were responsible.’
”Aye, we’re in,” Foe agreed. He glanced at Grim and Kassie. “And don’t worry about the extra bodies, we’ll stick to the price negotiated. These two will come out of our keep.”
He glanced at Bronx, who smiled, ’Well, more likely out of whatever we end up looting from the necromancer. Flesh golems aren’t cheap to make. Should be a few pretties laying around...but you’re not hiring us to bring those back, so why bother mentioning them?’
Though that did raise the question of anything else that they might find down there. Necromancers were always a troublesome lot, what with a tendency to kill first, and never even bothering to ask questions. The traps they were likely to face were going to be less inclined to giant stone blocks  and swinging blades of doom and more towards the sort of death spells that left behind useful body parts for later use. Why stitch a zombie back together again when it was so much easier to just choke the air from someone’s lungs? And if the spellcaster in question had enough resources to be selling flesh golems, that meant they likely had more than a few cold bodies to throw in the way…
’Though maybe she’s a cute necromancer,’ Foe thought with a smile. ’Haven’t gotten to play with one of those in a while… And I suppose if its a good enough looking he I can just let Bronx have him.’
He studied the newest members of their little raiding party. The thief was going to be a pain to keep alive, that much was obvious. The half-orc had the look of a fighter, but the way he kept fidgeting made Foe wonder if he was as green as the thief. Strong then, probably skilled enough that no one in whatever podunk village he hailed from ever bothered him much, but not so much used to all the batshit insanity their world truly held. Whispers of a spell curled through his mind as he clapped both newcomers on the shoulder. “Welcome to the team! Try not to get killed, we don’t pay for resurrections till at least your third trip out...”
 
 
 

“Mercy, kind sir,” said the girl who’s throat Grim clutched tightly in hand. The urge to kill everything that moved, and stab everything that didn’t just to be sure, began to ebb.
“Drink for you, sir, from Bronx over there,” said someone else. It was the non-threatening voice of a male, and might have been the bartender, but Grim was finding it difficult to focus on anything other than the girl. But it helped to further remove the desire to skewer her like a butchered pig. The bartender’s waved hand indicated the direction of his liquid benefactor. The bartender’s further instructions – a gnome, he now noticed – proved to be the final soothing balm that prompted him to remove his sword and lower the girl back down to the floor.
A drow, presumably the one the gnome called Bronx, was talking to another person at a table, before getting up and approaching the bar. The tiny woman gently admonished him, having the affect of making him feel a little ashamed.
“You, on the other hand,” she said, finally turning her red eyed gaze onto him, “would be worth paying, I think. How do you feel about necromancers, hedge wizards, and flesh golems?”
“Not a big fan. Do you want to see what they look like inside? If so then I can help you there.”

“Mercy, kind sir,” said the girl who’s throat Grim clutched tightly in hand. The urge to kill everything that moved, and stab everything that didn’t just to be sure, began to ebb.
“Drink for you, sir, from Bronx over there,” said someone else. It was the non-threatening voice of a male, and might have been the bartender, but Grim was finding it difficult to focus on anything other than the girl. But it helped to further remove the desire to skewer her like a butchered pig. The bartender’s waved hand indicated the direction of his liquid benefactor. The bartender’s further instructions – a gnome, he now noticed – proved to be the final soothing balm that prompted him to remove his sword and lower the girl back down to the floor.
A drow, presumably the one the gnome called Bronx, was talking to another person at a table, before getting up and approaching the bar. The tiny woman gently admonished him, having the affect of making him feel a little ashamed.
“You, on the other hand,” she said, finally turning her red eyed gaze onto him, “would be worth paying, I think. How do you feel about necromancers, hedge wizards, and flesh golems?”
“Not a big fan. Do you want to see what they look like inside? If so then I can help you there.”

In the rafters of the tavern a sleek grey cat arched his back and stretched until his tail was practically touching his nose, then he leapt silently across the beams, looking down at the patrons. The orc barbershop quartet had moved, again, so he had to get up and move again. They stank too bad for his nose to tolerate it, so it was worth the bother of getting up and finding a new, warm beam to rest on. Although, he had to admit, they were some of the least smelly orcs he had come across since he found this lovely tavern. 
Yawning he made his way over to the table where the dark skinned drow and her disguised companion were sitting, grumbling with some gnome with a curse in his pants. The cat walked back and forth on a beam, deemed it unworthy and jumped to the next one, then made his way back to the end which was right above the drow’s table. She smelled nice. Kind of reminded him of the embers in the hearth back home, and the fragrant wood they used to burn, when humans came to visit. He lay down on the dark beam, grinning a little at the silly little thief that the drow had caught. The newcomers were always fun to watch. Silly little things. 
Settling on the beam, he perked his ears to listen to the ridiculous story of ruby cocks and hedge wizards with a necromancer fetish employing flesh golems… No, wait, was it the other way around? A hedge wizard with a flesh golem fetish? What did the necromancer have to do with anything? What was a necromancer again. The grey cat chuffed softly and lay his head on his paws, only opening one eye when he heard the door open and the young thief made a rude remark about the orcs… and the half orc who had just come through the door. 
The cat sat up with a start as the barbershop quartet started to move again, obviously they had heard the little thief. But then the half orc grabbed the little thief and slammed her against the bar, his sword aiming between her legs. 
Cat licked his lips and bared his teeth in a hungry grin, and wondered if he would be getting to taste man-meat again tonight. It had been a long, LONG while since the last time there had been a fun fight at the tavern. They were such sticklers for the rules here, made it almost no fun to hang around in the common room, honestly. So, a bit of mayhem would be fun… 
But no, the barkeep stopped the half-orc, and the cat settled on top of the beam again, letting out another soft chuff as he mused. Man-meat wasn’t too bad. A bit chewy if you cooked it too long, or too little, and kind of bland. And the thief wasn’t much of a morsel anyway, as little as she was. Nothing but skin and bones. Humans also had a very annoying inclination of being crunchy. But, they did taste good with that sauce… what had the little boy called it? Katsup? Kyatsup? Kyatchap! That was it! He had tried it, and the little boy had been right. Human’s did taste good with a bit of kyatchap on the side. 
Dwarves were also chewy, and for some reason, they always tasted like old shoes. Stinky old shoes. No matter how they were braised, there was always that faint hint of old, soggy shoe. Elves weren’t chewy, not at all, but he’d decided it was less bother to eat chickens. The bones, you see, not as crunchy as humans, just fine boned, they’d get stuck everywhere, and it was such a pain to be coughing for a decade because of some damned elf bone. Plus, elves always had relatives enough to populate a small nation, so there was always some idiot who would come around, shouting about reparations and revenge. One would think that as a long lived race, they’d just shrug it off, but… meh. He had tried to eat a drow once. That had not gone well. Drow apparently don’t need more than one arm to fight, or cast spells. Slippery little buggers. And surprisingly tasty for elves, but still, not worth it. The scorched part of his tail still showed, and could not be erased. And his coat was such a lovely, lovely shade of dark silver grey, forever marred by that one little mistake. 
Now, orc… inedible. He had tried. Often. there was just no way to eat an orc. He’d known a gnome once who had worked for decades to find the right way to cook an orc. A dead orc, of course, cat wasn’t stupid enough to ask a gnome to cook a live one, but still, no luck. Even if you got close enough to eat one, and got over the initial smell, the meat was just inedible. He had given up on orcs, they definitely weren’t worth it. 
But now, he wondered, what would a half orc taste like? Would he be edible, like a human, or would he take after the inedible part of his parentage… 
The cat grinned a little when the drow got up to bring the half orc to their table, and he got comfortable up on the beam, tucking his paws under his chest as he lowered his head a little and pretended to be asleep, while listening to the conversation at the table. 

You may need to remember a little more to narrow it down some.

Thanks.  And I’ll write my next part as soon as I can.

Thanks.  And I’ll write my next part as soon as I can.

Thanks all. I'm home now and she's at the hospital.  I'll make an attempt to look after myself.  Although i can see dinner being breakfast cereal for a while 

to you and mum…
If it is a constricted vessel, then in hospital is the safest place for her. Hopefully, they’ll be able to place a stent to relieve the constriction. But make sure you eat and drink something, because you need to take care of yourself as well.

to you and your mum, Melrick. Remember to take care of yourself too, so you can be there for her. And I really hope she’ll recover well and soon.