(no subject)
Title: Delight & Defeat
Email: tori.siikanen@gmail.com
Fandom: Tanith Lee's Biting the Sun
Rating: M
Content: Delight and Defeat. I know, I'm no fun.
Disclaimer: This is fanfic. You should read the original books. They're good. This post is a glossary to the slang, and this post is the first chapter.
9.
Delight & Defeat
And he didn't go to the History Tower, either, though I did, and the holo-glars drilled me though the moves of slash and block, counterattack and press. After a while I would forget to listen for him and get lost in the whirling glow of twin lightswords, controlling the distance between me and my holo-foe, who gradually got smarter and smarter, learning my gambits so I'd have to learn another, the analyzers finding and exploiting my weaknesses mercilessly enough for me to guard against them.
Junaya did marry Argent, and I tagged along with them while they whispered ooma-kasma at each other for meals, but mostly they just made me ache for my change even though I didn't know if that was the right idea at all, after what Bel had said. Never more than an afternoon? Should I wait for him to decide to be female, then, and offer the ten rings?
Because I did try a marriage.
With a girl who wore her hair black and to her waist, with skin like crushed pearls and a penchant for black smoke-gowns and brass. She still lived with her Makers (she said) and I still lived with my Makers (I said) and so we took up a suite at the Delight Palace and fell to on a bed of silk, but when she sighed beneath me and said, "oh, derisann ooma, yes," her voice was wrong, and it wilted me. (But only inside, mind - I manfully strove to ensure her happy afternoon.)
But the Delight Palace suited me, and so I stayed there, even though it meant paying day and night. I drew up elaborate plans to renovate House, and fed them to the computer and used that as my excuse to stay in three rooms clad all in white and silver while I "waited out the disruption at home."
And I went to the History Tower and fought my opponent until I sweated and gasped.
I thought I saw the girl I married, but I didn't see Saz. But since she was on the arm of another Jang male (and because I didn't know what I would say to her, I went the other way) and my wandering steps took me to Ilex Park, to where the lightsword players sported.
He wasn't there, hadn't been there, had eschewed the park for as long as we had met, but I walked up to the circle of watchers and they rippled apart enough for me to join the ring, and who was fighting but the one Saz had called Yana, and -- Kina! who was getting a trouncing at Yana's hands, because the floop didn't have any interest in anything but beating him like a dog, picking off the perimeter lights on Kina's harness until the neuro-feeders made him limp like he'd been pinked a hundred times, and Yana played to the part of the crowd that cheered him.
When it was over, no one stepped forward to reset Kina's harness, so he just lay in the purple-jade grass while Yana received his adulation. I broke out of the circle and slapped the reset, so Kina could at least get up, and offered him an arm.
"Thanks, old ooma," he said, and we walked to the edge together until Yana noticed our departure.
"You know how to use that rig, or do you just prance in it?" Oh he was high on his victory, the thralldrap, and I turned to coolly appraise him--and then dismiss him with a glance.
"I suppose," I replied, "That I have a tolerable acquaintance with its use."
"Tolerable," he mocked, stiffening his posture in a caricature of mine. "Will you flee, then, and leave all these people in doubtful suspense of your... acquaintance?"
Anger pulsed bright and hard over the back of my skull, but I stood still and straight, in contrast to his arrogant slouch. "Am I to assume that your manhood needs to trounce another novice in order to serve its fears?" My sneer was delicate and perfect. Yana rushed me, even though both my swords were firmly holstered.
I crouched and dove for his knees; he swerved and I only managed to catch one ankle. I held it long enough to leave him windmilling for balance as I rolled and sprang to my feet. The left sword loosed and a beam of light slid forth, blue-white from my hand, but the right clasp stayed put.
Yana used one sword, and he came at me with an overhead slash. My left blade came up and batted his away almost negligently; if I'd had my right blade out I could have slashed at his throat and won the contest there, but I danced back and tried to loose it, fumbling into my hands. A bit of purple grass had jammed in it, fouling the release.
The crowd shouted now while some wit glimmered in the echoing depths of Yana's mind and he considered that perhaps I was a real opponent. Therefore, the floop wasn't going to let me get my second blade out, in case that would hamper my style.
And to be true, it likely would. I slipped into the ready stance to meet his charge, blocking his cuts--low, high, low, high--I knew this one. He'd lull me into a rhythm and then break it, and he wouldn't pink at me as he did Kina.
On the low, I swept his blade with a riposte, stepped inside, and took his sword arm. The Neuro-feeders rendered it limp, and with no defence, I stepped back, bowed to him mockingly, and walked away to rejoin Kina.
Promok.
Saz had told me, the holo-glars had told me: A fight's not over until it's over. I looked over the crowd, and was surprised by the sight of the girl that I married, who watched on the arm of her swain. As I wondered just what I should do (she was smiling at me, a gesture that quirked up only half her mouth) Yana had dropped the blade from his right hand and grasped it with his left, and ran straight for my back. The expression on her face--outrage, and her arm, lifting to point gave me the warning, but as I whirled to face him unarmed he swept his light-blade across the body of my harness and scored the kill.
My first official lightsword match had ended in ignominious defeat.
Next! Maze and Guard
Email: tori.siikanen@gmail.com
Fandom: Tanith Lee's Biting the Sun
Rating: M
Content: Delight and Defeat. I know, I'm no fun.
Disclaimer: This is fanfic. You should read the original books. They're good. This post is a glossary to the slang, and this post is the first chapter.
9.
Delight & Defeat
And he didn't go to the History Tower, either, though I did, and the holo-glars drilled me though the moves of slash and block, counterattack and press. After a while I would forget to listen for him and get lost in the whirling glow of twin lightswords, controlling the distance between me and my holo-foe, who gradually got smarter and smarter, learning my gambits so I'd have to learn another, the analyzers finding and exploiting my weaknesses mercilessly enough for me to guard against them.
Junaya did marry Argent, and I tagged along with them while they whispered ooma-kasma at each other for meals, but mostly they just made me ache for my change even though I didn't know if that was the right idea at all, after what Bel had said. Never more than an afternoon? Should I wait for him to decide to be female, then, and offer the ten rings?
Because I did try a marriage.
With a girl who wore her hair black and to her waist, with skin like crushed pearls and a penchant for black smoke-gowns and brass. She still lived with her Makers (she said) and I still lived with my Makers (I said) and so we took up a suite at the Delight Palace and fell to on a bed of silk, but when she sighed beneath me and said, "oh, derisann ooma, yes," her voice was wrong, and it wilted me. (But only inside, mind - I manfully strove to ensure her happy afternoon.)
But the Delight Palace suited me, and so I stayed there, even though it meant paying day and night. I drew up elaborate plans to renovate House, and fed them to the computer and used that as my excuse to stay in three rooms clad all in white and silver while I "waited out the disruption at home."
And I went to the History Tower and fought my opponent until I sweated and gasped.
I thought I saw the girl I married, but I didn't see Saz. But since she was on the arm of another Jang male (and because I didn't know what I would say to her, I went the other way) and my wandering steps took me to Ilex Park, to where the lightsword players sported.
He wasn't there, hadn't been there, had eschewed the park for as long as we had met, but I walked up to the circle of watchers and they rippled apart enough for me to join the ring, and who was fighting but the one Saz had called Yana, and -- Kina! who was getting a trouncing at Yana's hands, because the floop didn't have any interest in anything but beating him like a dog, picking off the perimeter lights on Kina's harness until the neuro-feeders made him limp like he'd been pinked a hundred times, and Yana played to the part of the crowd that cheered him.
When it was over, no one stepped forward to reset Kina's harness, so he just lay in the purple-jade grass while Yana received his adulation. I broke out of the circle and slapped the reset, so Kina could at least get up, and offered him an arm.
"Thanks, old ooma," he said, and we walked to the edge together until Yana noticed our departure.
"You know how to use that rig, or do you just prance in it?" Oh he was high on his victory, the thralldrap, and I turned to coolly appraise him--and then dismiss him with a glance.
"I suppose," I replied, "That I have a tolerable acquaintance with its use."
"Tolerable," he mocked, stiffening his posture in a caricature of mine. "Will you flee, then, and leave all these people in doubtful suspense of your... acquaintance?"
Anger pulsed bright and hard over the back of my skull, but I stood still and straight, in contrast to his arrogant slouch. "Am I to assume that your manhood needs to trounce another novice in order to serve its fears?" My sneer was delicate and perfect. Yana rushed me, even though both my swords were firmly holstered.
I crouched and dove for his knees; he swerved and I only managed to catch one ankle. I held it long enough to leave him windmilling for balance as I rolled and sprang to my feet. The left sword loosed and a beam of light slid forth, blue-white from my hand, but the right clasp stayed put.
Yana used one sword, and he came at me with an overhead slash. My left blade came up and batted his away almost negligently; if I'd had my right blade out I could have slashed at his throat and won the contest there, but I danced back and tried to loose it, fumbling into my hands. A bit of purple grass had jammed in it, fouling the release.
The crowd shouted now while some wit glimmered in the echoing depths of Yana's mind and he considered that perhaps I was a real opponent. Therefore, the floop wasn't going to let me get my second blade out, in case that would hamper my style.
And to be true, it likely would. I slipped into the ready stance to meet his charge, blocking his cuts--low, high, low, high--I knew this one. He'd lull me into a rhythm and then break it, and he wouldn't pink at me as he did Kina.
On the low, I swept his blade with a riposte, stepped inside, and took his sword arm. The Neuro-feeders rendered it limp, and with no defence, I stepped back, bowed to him mockingly, and walked away to rejoin Kina.
Promok.
Saz had told me, the holo-glars had told me: A fight's not over until it's over. I looked over the crowd, and was surprised by the sight of the girl that I married, who watched on the arm of her swain. As I wondered just what I should do (she was smiling at me, a gesture that quirked up only half her mouth) Yana had dropped the blade from his right hand and grasped it with his left, and ran straight for my back. The expression on her face--outrage, and her arm, lifting to point gave me the warning, but as I whirled to face him unarmed he swept his light-blade across the body of my harness and scored the kill.
My first official lightsword match had ended in ignominious defeat.
Next! Maze and Guard