Spring-cleaning 2010 - Original + APH
Seriously, where has the year gone?
Original:
The bird on the mountain builds its heart on hope
"What must I do for you to accept these feelings of mine? It's like a fairy tale, where the king orders the knight on a hopeless quest for the princess's hand. What will you have me do before these words of mine can reach you?"
She thought of heads on plates, of betrayal and politics. Perhaps the moon was too far, the sun too bright to capture and offer. She was not worth it, that much she knew, so she would not make the same mistake again. It was better to destroy herself than the heart in front of her.
"There is a story. I do not know if you have heard of it, but there is a bird who flies every morning to a mountain and pecks a stone from it to bring back to its nest. And every night the mountain rebuilds itself, yet the bird wakes every morning just to fly to it and back again. I would like to have that bird."
The next time they met he pushed a wooden box towards her and sat back, waiting, expectant. Opening the box, she found a single pebble inside.
"The bird told me the reason why it was building its nest of stones. I didn't have the heart to capture it after it was finished with its tale, so I brought you the mountain instead."
"And what was the reason it told you?"
"That its mate would only return to its side when it was done and the mountain was gone."
"Can you prove that this is from the mountain I spoke of?"
"Can you prove that it isn't?"
Question and Answer
What was the name of the country whose queen always laughed? Ah, Despair. Her sister in the north rules over Happiness and weeps for an eternity.
*
The girl traveled over mountains and hills, valleys and springs. To each person she met she asked the same question, and to her the same answer was given every time.
"Won't you please love me?"
"Only when you've learned to love yourself."
She dug her heart out and offered it up, whole and bloody and beating, but no one would take it. Someone gently pushed it back into her chest and told her to save it for herself while another stitched the hole up with silver needle and gold thread and sent her on her way. A blacksmith gave her a knife, and she used it to cut piece after piece of flesh from her body, thinking that she would get her wish if she could just cast away the bad parts of herself and leave only the good behind. The birds and wild beasts of the forest came to feed and went away satisfied, but always the next morning she would be whole and weeping again.
One day she entered a forest, and in that forest she found a person.
"Won't you please love me?" she asked.
The person did not look at her, but drew her into open arms and embraced her.
"I cannot love you," the person replied, "But this I can do. It costs me nothing to give and no price for you to receive."
And she realized that was everything she needed.
Original 3: Jack in a sack
Others:
PLEEZZZZZZZ
Dear thelovemafia, I want you to know that I still get a laugh out of that picture. Lots of laughs, actually. XD
Hetalia:
Hetalia 1: From the mouths of beasts (and other creatures)
Hetalia: EnglandJapan AKA Asakiku:
For people on my f-list who wish to reminisce about the day I caved in to social media, HAVE AT IT.
Asakiku 1: WIZARD INCENSE
Japan watches from the corner of his eyes as England take a drag of his cigarette. The smoke rises in the air, mingling with that drifting from the bowl of Japan's own long pipe, and he silently contemplates how tobacco from different lands burns in the same colors. A breeze blows in from the open window England is sitting next to and disperses the smoke into thin trails of white and gray.
"There is a story," England looks up and listens, cigarette held loosely between two fingers. "Of summoning the dead with spirit incense."
Japan tells of a lonely emperor in the East pining for a favorite concubine who had embarked on the journey to the other world before him, of how desperation had driven him to procure and light the magical incense and conjure up her face and form in smoke, and finally of how he tried to approach to hold her in his arms one last time, only for the spell to be broken and the spectre depart for good.
The air is clear again by the time Japan finishes his tale. He moves to lift his pipe, but his hand stills as England's gloved fingers close over his wrist.
"It's a good thing then, that there's no need for smoke between us."
Dark eyes half-closed as if in thought, Japan lifts the kiseru to his lips and takes a long, slow breath.
"Perhaps."
- The Kiseru is the Japanese long pipe. It would seem people say that it feels better smoking one rather than a cigarette, plus it's supposed to be faster and cheaper in the long run.
- The full wizard incense story. Scroll all the way down to Part 5 to read.
Asakiku 2: Slugs and snails and puppy dog tails
Asakiku 3: Mutsuki
Written for the anniversary of the Anglo-Japanese alliance.
Asakiku 4: On the choosing of oranges
Asakiku 5: Garaigo
Asakiku 6: Where's my Asakiku?
Asakiku 7: Mikado
Community spree contribution, theme was sweets.
Asakiku 8: The snow demon
Second spree contribution, this time for halloween.
Asakiku 9: Secret Santa Assignment 2010
So glad the requester liked it. <3
Looking back, it was certainly a very mixed year. I crawled out from the Hetalia fandom, only to fall head-first for EnglandJapan. I started working again after a long absence from it, and I met and befriended new people and got connected again with old ones. The island flooded! I experienced fake snow for the first time. My self-esteem took a couple of hits but rallied magnificently sometime last month. I got into social media, abandoned some of it and nursed a couple back to health.
It's about half-past six where I am now. To those going to party in the new year, to those counting down in front of their televisions and monitors, to those sleeping it in, send off the old year with a pat on the back and open your arms to the new one!
Happy 2011, everyone! I hope it's better than 2010, no matter how the old year was. :D
Original:
The bird on the mountain builds its heart on hope
"What must I do for you to accept these feelings of mine? It's like a fairy tale, where the king orders the knight on a hopeless quest for the princess's hand. What will you have me do before these words of mine can reach you?"
She thought of heads on plates, of betrayal and politics. Perhaps the moon was too far, the sun too bright to capture and offer. She was not worth it, that much she knew, so she would not make the same mistake again. It was better to destroy herself than the heart in front of her.
"There is a story. I do not know if you have heard of it, but there is a bird who flies every morning to a mountain and pecks a stone from it to bring back to its nest. And every night the mountain rebuilds itself, yet the bird wakes every morning just to fly to it and back again. I would like to have that bird."
The next time they met he pushed a wooden box towards her and sat back, waiting, expectant. Opening the box, she found a single pebble inside.
"The bird told me the reason why it was building its nest of stones. I didn't have the heart to capture it after it was finished with its tale, so I brought you the mountain instead."
"And what was the reason it told you?"
"That its mate would only return to its side when it was done and the mountain was gone."
"Can you prove that this is from the mountain I spoke of?"
"Can you prove that it isn't?"
Question and Answer
What was the name of the country whose queen always laughed? Ah, Despair. Her sister in the north rules over Happiness and weeps for an eternity.
*
The girl traveled over mountains and hills, valleys and springs. To each person she met she asked the same question, and to her the same answer was given every time.
"Won't you please love me?"
"Only when you've learned to love yourself."
She dug her heart out and offered it up, whole and bloody and beating, but no one would take it. Someone gently pushed it back into her chest and told her to save it for herself while another stitched the hole up with silver needle and gold thread and sent her on her way. A blacksmith gave her a knife, and she used it to cut piece after piece of flesh from her body, thinking that she would get her wish if she could just cast away the bad parts of herself and leave only the good behind. The birds and wild beasts of the forest came to feed and went away satisfied, but always the next morning she would be whole and weeping again.
One day she entered a forest, and in that forest she found a person.
"Won't you please love me?" she asked.
The person did not look at her, but drew her into open arms and embraced her.
"I cannot love you," the person replied, "But this I can do. It costs me nothing to give and no price for you to receive."
And she realized that was everything she needed.
Original 3: Jack in a sack
Others:
PLEEZZZZZZZ
Dear thelovemafia, I want you to know that I still get a laugh out of that picture. Lots of laughs, actually. XD
Hetalia:
Hetalia 1: From the mouths of beasts (and other creatures)
Hetalia: EnglandJapan AKA Asakiku:
For people on my f-list who wish to reminisce about the day I caved in to social media, HAVE AT IT.
Asakiku 1: WIZARD INCENSE
Japan watches from the corner of his eyes as England take a drag of his cigarette. The smoke rises in the air, mingling with that drifting from the bowl of Japan's own long pipe, and he silently contemplates how tobacco from different lands burns in the same colors. A breeze blows in from the open window England is sitting next to and disperses the smoke into thin trails of white and gray.
"There is a story," England looks up and listens, cigarette held loosely between two fingers. "Of summoning the dead with spirit incense."
Japan tells of a lonely emperor in the East pining for a favorite concubine who had embarked on the journey to the other world before him, of how desperation had driven him to procure and light the magical incense and conjure up her face and form in smoke, and finally of how he tried to approach to hold her in his arms one last time, only for the spell to be broken and the spectre depart for good.
The air is clear again by the time Japan finishes his tale. He moves to lift his pipe, but his hand stills as England's gloved fingers close over his wrist.
"It's a good thing then, that there's no need for smoke between us."
Dark eyes half-closed as if in thought, Japan lifts the kiseru to his lips and takes a long, slow breath.
"Perhaps."
- The Kiseru is the Japanese long pipe. It would seem people say that it feels better smoking one rather than a cigarette, plus it's supposed to be faster and cheaper in the long run.
- The full wizard incense story. Scroll all the way down to Part 5 to read.
Asakiku 2: Slugs and snails and puppy dog tails
Asakiku 3: Mutsuki
Written for the anniversary of the Anglo-Japanese alliance.
Asakiku 4: On the choosing of oranges
Asakiku 5: Garaigo
Asakiku 6: Where's my Asakiku?
Asakiku 7: Mikado
Community spree contribution, theme was sweets.
Asakiku 8: The snow demon
Second spree contribution, this time for halloween.
Asakiku 9: Secret Santa Assignment 2010
So glad the requester liked it. <3
Looking back, it was certainly a very mixed year. I crawled out from the Hetalia fandom, only to fall head-first for EnglandJapan. I started working again after a long absence from it, and I met and befriended new people and got connected again with old ones. The island flooded! I experienced fake snow for the first time. My self-esteem took a couple of hits but rallied magnificently sometime last month. I got into social media, abandoned some of it and nursed a couple back to health.
It's about half-past six where I am now. To those going to party in the new year, to those counting down in front of their televisions and monitors, to those sleeping it in, send off the old year with a pat on the back and open your arms to the new one!
Happy 2011, everyone! I hope it's better than 2010, no matter how the old year was. :D