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[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Apology Workshop
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2 of 2
Word count (story only): 1238
[Monday, midmorning, 13 November of 2017]


:: Jules slips into a “workshop” announced on the embassy’s employee group chat, and gets several shocks in a row. Part of the Lodestar story arc within the Polychrome Heroics universe, this story was written for the May of 2026 Magpie Monday, from a prompt by [personal profile] wispfox, with my deep thanks! ::


Back to part one
:: Thanks for reading! ::




Conversation bounced and flowed, rushed and rumbled. The first real snag came after one of the participants argued, for the third time, for a more formalized ‘standard apology’ to be used in the embassy.

“Why are you so stuck on this, Filia?” Troy snarled at the woman who seemed to be typing notes on the tiny device lying on the table in front of her. “We don’t need the verbal equivalent of black tie manners for everyday use!”
Read more... )

Apology Workshop (part 1 of 2)

May. 16th, 2026 10:30 pm
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Apology Workshop
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 2
Word count (story only): 1080
[Monday, midmorning, 13 November of 2017]


:: Jules slips into a “workshop” announced on the embassy’s employee group chat, and gets several shocks in a row. Part of the Lodestar story arc within the Polychrome Heroics universe, this story was written for the May of 2026 Magpie Monday, from a prompt by [personal profile] wispfox, with my deep thanks! ::



At two minutes until ten in the morning, Jules stepped into the dining room, surprised to find extra chairs crowded around the long table, except for the far short end, which had been left free. Pitchers of water stationed along the gleaming rosewood surface like sentinels. The thing that shocked him still, however, was the sight of Loudmouth near the empty end of the table, pacing in front of an easel holding a pad of presentation paper. Her lips were moving soundlessly, but even as he watched, she rolled her eyes, spun on her heel, and seemed to begin again.

She caught sight of Jules and beckoned him in. “Are you here for the workshop? It’s encouraged, and no, you don’t have to make up the hour and a half. Did you see the note about an early lunch, starting as soon as the workshop ends? It’ll run an extra half hour to allow more casual conversation and decompression time.”
Read more... )
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Interference and Apologies
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 3 of 3, complete
Word count (story only): 1143
[[Late Monday night, 13 November of 2017]


:: This falls after the ‘acceptable apologies’ class earlier the same day. I am writing and posting them out of order for reasons of clarity-- the apology class is important, and covers a great deal of information from different viewpoints. This is, in contrast, JUST about Loudmouth and Griffin, and intensely focuses on their emotional needs and reactions. Also… Loudmouth was NOT prepared for any of this conversation. Part of the Lodestar story arc, though Jules is there more as a neutral party and support. This story is a consequence of [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith’s prompt, and is definitely part of the Magpie event for May of 2026. ::


Back to part two
:: Thanks for reading! ::




Loudmouth burst out laughing, though the sound was so soft that it barely reached the two young men across the rug from her. “Kid, whether it’s a fixation or just a plain old guilty conscience, does it matter? I think that I hurt you, and I want to --”

Griffin’s laughter interrupted her. “You didn’t,” he insisted, shaking his head. “You ticked me off, which is a very different thing. You weren’t the worst of the gossips, and you didn’t say anything terrible. Sure, you lionized Cash, and implied that Dad’s screwup had nearly gotten everyone killed, but… It didn’t feel personal.”

The redheaded woman’s mouth hung open. “It didn’t feel personal?” she repeated.
Read more... )
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Interference and Apologies
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2 of 3
Word count (story only): 1069
[[Late Monday night, 13 November of 2017]


:: This falls after the ‘acceptable apologies’ class earlier the same day. I am writing and posting them out of order for reasons of clarity-- the apology class is important, and covers a great deal of information from different viewpoints. This is, in contrast, JUST about Loudmouth and Griffin, and intensely focuses on their emotional needs and reactions. Also… Loudmouth was NOT prepared for any of this conversation. Part of the Lodestar story arc, though Jules is there more as a neutral party and support. This story is a consequence of [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith’s prompt, and is definitely part of the Magpie event for May of 2026. ::


Back to part one
On to part three




Stiffening, Loudmouth raised her mug and sipped at it in complete silence for more than a minute. Finally, she said, “I’ll try the floor thing. This isn’t going to be an easy conversation for any of us.”

“I’m mostly here to keep within the rules of polite engagement,” Jules answered, laughing. “No biting, no throwing shoes, and so on.”

“It was one time!” Griffin protested, even as his lips quirked up in half a dozen flashes.
Read more... )
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Interference and Apologies
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 3
[[Late Monday night, 13 November of 2017]


:: This falls after the ‘acceptable apologies’ class earlier the same day. I am writing and posting them out of order for reasons of clarity-- the apology class is important, and covers a great deal of information from different viewpoints. This is, in contrast, JUST about Loudmouth and Griffin, and intensely focuses on their emotional needs and reactions. Also… Loudmouth was NOT prepared for any of this conversation. Part of the Lodestar story arc, though Jules is there more as a neutral party and support. This story is a consequence of [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith’s prompt, and is definitely part of the Magpie event for May of 2026. ::


On to part two




Torrin sighed as he stood up from his sprawl on the sofa. “I’m going to chat on the pastures for half an hour and then go to bed.” He paused, backtracking. “If you don’t mind, Aunty?”

Loudmouth waved the matter off. “You’ve looked at the studies about blue light messing with your sleep schedule. If you go to bed at ten tonight, do you think that you’ll be asleep by ten-thirty?” She waited a beat. “Honestly, please.”
Read more... )
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[personal profile] fox_in_me


📝 Оригинальный текст записи
Приветствую тех, кто всё ещё помнит меня.
Выдалась минутка снова что-то написать.
Я всё ещё хочу рассказать историю, связанную с атоллом Бикини, но, наверное, позже. Сейчас внутри совсем другое состояние. И хочется оставить здесь не события, а ощущения. Что-то живое. Что-то человеческое. Во мне жиыут мгновенные истории момееетов, сидя у моря вместе с ежиками, прогулка по городу сквозь уличных музыкантов, вид на море из маленького кафе, но оставлю это:

Не так давно я снова вернулся из другой реальности.
Я вернулси из Евроы. Из мира, где люди живут обычную жизнь. Планируют отпуска. Покупают билеты. Спорят о мелочах. Думают, какой ресторан выбрать вечером. Радуются выходным. Устают от работы, а потом отдыхают от неё.
И, наверное, именно этого мне сейчас хочется больше всего. Не денег. Не славы. Не каких-то великих вещей - ф обычной жизни, простых человеческих забот,тех мелочей, которые почему-то стали роскошью. Несколько дней назад я встретился со своим старым знакомым. В 2022 году мы вместе таскали мешки с песком, разгружали гуманитарные фуры, помогали волонтёрским штабам и почти не спали сутками. Тогда казалось, что все мы существуем внутри одной общей боли и одного общего движения вперёд. Пишем истотию, приближаем, живем чем-то общим.

Мы не виделись больше двух лет.
Он старше меня, творческий человек. Со временем наша связь просто растворилась где-то в жизни. Но недавно он снова написал мне.
Я отправил ему несколько своих интервью и видео — хотя бы чтобы объяснить, чем я живу сейчас. В ответ он прислал свои. Я смотрел их поздно вечером. Большой круизный лайнер. Тёплый свет палуб. Океан. Бокалы вина. Улыбающиеся люди. Португалия. Испания. Италия, Пальма де Майорка, . Видео с узких улиц, фотографии завтраков у моря, случайные счастливые кадры жизни, в которой человек просто живёт.
И пока мы разговаривали, я в молчал и слушал.
Он рассказывал про путешествие так легко, будто это что-то совершенно естественное. И это правильно. Люди ведь и должны жить именно так. Платить деньги за отдых. Смотреть на море. Не думать каждую секунду о плохом.
И я поймал себя на очень честном чувстве.
Зависти.
Не злой. Не чёрной.
Скорее тихой человеческой зависти к возможности жить нормально.
Потому что я тоже был в красивых странах за эти годы.
Только на моих фотографиях почти нет меня.
Есть море. Есть красивые улицы. Есть окна гостиниц, аэропорты, вечерние города, редкие чашки кофе где-то между дорогой и очередной задачей.
Но меня там почти нет.
Потому что я был там совсем не за этим. Не ради отдыха. Не ради воспоминаний. А как будто мимоходом, пытаясь урвать хотя бы несколько часов ощущения нормальной жизни перед возвращением обратно.
И в какой-то момент мне захотелось рассказать ему, что произошло со мной хотя бы за последние полгода.
Насколько изменилась моя жизнь. Насколько изменился я сам. Но я вдруг понял, что не смогу собрать всё это в связный рассказ. Слишком многое внутри уже не переводится в обычные слова.
И дело даже не в том, что человек напротив плохой. Нет. Я искренне рад, что у него есть эта жизнь. Что он может улыбаться на фотографиях и помнить поездки, а не бесконечные тревоги и телефонные звонки.
Просто мы уже живём в разных реальностях.
Наверное, сейчас мне больше всего не хватает не помощи и не советов.
А простого человеческого интереса ко мне самому:
К моим мыслям, страхам, сомнениям, тому, как я на самом деле держусь.
Особенно — к страху неопределённости будущего.
Хотя я сам постоянно повторяю одну и ту же фразу: опыт находится там, где страшно. И продолжаю идти дальше.
Иногда ощущая себя тем самым пингвином из мемов — нелепым, уставшим, но всё равно идущим куда-то вперёд.
Самое странное, что людей, желающих что-то рассказать именно мне, становится всё больше.
Выпить вместе. Поделиться переживаниями. Выговориться.
Потому что я умею слушать.
Наверное, слишком хорошо.
И от этого иногда становится тяжело дышать.
Сегодня утром я снова проснулся от телефонного звонка.
Очередная просьба «спасти» человека, которого поймали и пытаются заставили пойти в армию.
Потом ещё звонки.
Сообщения. Чужие страхи. Чужие проблемы. Чужая боль. Болезни.

И в какой-то момент я понял, что перед тем, как сесть писать этот текст, я больше полутора часов пытался объяснить человеку, как ему действовать дальше, куда обращаться и что вообще делать.
А своих разговоров у меня почти не осталось.
С каждым месяцем мне всё тяжелее открывать кому-то собственный сундук с мыслями и переживаниями.
Всё чаще я остаюсь один.
Всё реже звоню кому-то просто так.
Наверное, потому что рядом почти не осталось человека, которому можно позвонить ночью и просто помолчать рядом. Без объяснений. Без необходимости снова быть сильным.
Мне тоже хочется однажды стать человеком, которому есть что рассказать не только о тревогах, усталости и внутреннем выгорании.
Я умею говорить красиво. Умею держать лицо. Делал это в интервью, продолжаю делать каждый день.
Но это только внешняя часть меня.
А внутри остаётся искренность, которую сейчас просто некуда положить.
И, наверное, даже здесь я не готов до конца превратить её в электронные ряды слов.
В последнее время мне всё чаще не хватает самых простых вещей.
Тишины.
Нескольких минут без звонков.
Свечей вечером.
И моих котов, которые почему-то понимают больше многих людей.
Они молча садятся рядом, смотрят на меня своими глазами и просто остаются рядом.
И иногда мне кажется, что сейчас это и есть самая настоящая форма поддержки.
Потому что всё чаще хочется просто сидеть в тишине.
Смотреть на огонь свечи.
Гладить котов.
И хотя бы несколько минут ничего никому не объяснять
И, может быть, сейчас мне действительно нужно не так много.
Просто немного тишины.
Немного тепла.
И, может быть, когда-нибудь,
на моих фотографиях снова появлюсь я сам.
И кого-то рядом,
рядом с кем не нужно ничего объяснять.

Note translated in assistance with AI GPT

Greetings to those who still remember me.
I found a moment to write again.

I still want to tell a story connected to Bikini Atoll, but maybe later. Right now, there is a completely different state inside me. And I want to leave here not events, but sensations. Something alive. Something human.

Inside me live instant stories of moments — sitting by the sea with hedgehogs, walking through the city among street musicians, a view of the ocean from a small café… but I will leave all that for another time.

Not long ago, I returned again from another reality.
I returned from Europe. From a world where people live ordinary lives. Plan vacations. Buy tickets. Argue about small things. Think about which restaurant to choose in the evening. Enjoy weekends. Get tired from work, and then rest from it.

And maybe this is exactly what I want most right now. Not money. Not fame. Not anything “great” — but an ordinary life, simple human concerns, those small things that somehow became a luxury.

A few days ago I met an old acquaintance. In 2022 we were carrying sandbags together, unloading humanitarian trucks, helping volunteer centers, and barely sleeping for days. Back then it felt like we all existed inside one shared pain and one shared movement forward. Writing history, getting closer, living something collective.

We hadn’t seen each other for more than two years.
He is older than me, a creative person. Over time our connection simply dissolved somewhere in life. But recently he wrote to me again.

I sent him some of my interviews and videos — at least to explain what my life looks like now. In return, he sent me his.

I watched them late in the evening.
A large cruise ship. Warm deck lights. Ocean. Glasses of wine. Smiling people. Portugal. Spain. Italy. Palma de Mallorca. Videos from narrow streets, photos of breakfasts by the sea, random happy fragments of a life where a person is simply living.

And while we were talking, I was silent and listening.

He spoke about travel so easily, as if it was something completely natural. And it is right. People are supposed to live like that. Pay for vacations. Look at the sea. Not think every second about something bad.

And I caught myself in a very honest feeling.
Envy. Not angry. Not dark. More like a quiet human envy of the possibility of living normally.

Because I have also been in beautiful countries in these years.
But in my photos, there is almost no me.

There is the sea. Beautiful streets. Hotel windows, airports, evening cities, rare cups of coffee somewhere between one road and the next task.

But I am almost not there. Because I was not there for that. Not for rest. Not for memories. But as if passing through, trying to steal a few hours of normal life before going back again.

At some point I wanted to tell him what has happened to me at least over the last six months. How much my life has changed. How much I have changed myself.

But I suddenly realized I could not put it into a coherent story. Too much inside is no longer translatable into ordinary words. And it is not even that the person in front of me is bad. No. I am sincerely glad he has that life. That he can smile in photos and remember trips, not endless alarms and phone calls.

We just live in different realities now. Probably what I lack most right now is not help or advice.
But simple human interest in me as a person:
my thoughts, fears, doubts, how I am actually holding on.

Especially the fear of uncertainty about the future.
Although I keep repeating the same phrase: experience is found where it is scary. And I keep going.
Sometimes I feel like that penguin from memes — awkward, tired, but still walking somewhere forward.
The strange thing is that more and more people want to talk to me.
To drink together. To share their worries. To unload themselves.

Because I know how to listen.
Probably too well.
And sometimes it becomes hard to breathe because of it.
This morning I woke up again to a phone call.
Another request to “save” a person who was caught and being forced into the army.
Then more calls. Messages. Other people’s fears. Other people’s problems. Other people’s pain. Illnesses.
And at some point I realized that before sitting down to write this text, I had already spent more than an hour and a half explaining to someone what to do next, where to go, and how to act.
And I have almost no conversations of my own left.
With each month it becomes harder to open my own chest of thoughts and feelings to someone.
More and more often I remain alone.
Less and less I call someone just like that.

Probably because there is almost no one left nearby I can call at night and just stay silent with. Without explanations. Without the need to be strong again.

I also want, one day, to become a person who has something to talk about beyond anxiety, exhaustion, and burnout.

I can speak beautifully. I can keep my face steady. I did it in interviews, I still do it every day.
But that is only the outer part of me.
Inside remains honesty that currently has nowhere to be placed.
And maybe even here I am not ready to fully turn it into electronic lines of words.
Lately I miss the simplest things more and more.

Silence.
A few minutes without calls.
Candles in the evening.
And my cats, who somehow understand more than many people.

They sit next to me quietly, look at me, and just stay.
And sometimes it feels like this is the most real form of support.
Because more and more often I just want to sit in silence.
Watch a candle flame.
Pet the cats.
And for a few minutes not explain anything to anyone.
And maybe I really do not need much right now.

Just a little silence.
A little warmth.
And maybe, someday,
I will appear in my own photos again.
And someone next to me,
next to whom nothing needs to be explained.

dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Cards and Flowers
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1052
[November 2017]


:: Not just cards and flowers. Loudmouth is confused, then intrigued. Written for the May Magpie Monday event, this story is prompted by [personal profile] readera, with my great thanks. ::




The meeting with the supplier of biometric locks was more circus than business, but it was finished in less than half the four hours allotted for the meeting. Loudmouth had taken a walk through the small town’s business district instead of carrying her terrible mood back to within a hundred miles of Torrin.

For a town the same approximate size as Mercedes, the commercial district seemed to be all of the shopping options, instead of the patchwork of parks, commercial and infrastructure spaces clustered among the residential units.

The store name caught her eye immediately. Loudmouth stopped, scanning the rows of tiny storefronts labeled in Korean.

Apologia.

She licked her lips, trying to dampen her suddenly dry mouth.

Loudmouth flicked her fingers, giving orders to the two pairs of bodyguards dressed as mid-level business workers. Two men offered business cards to the blonde businesswoman before the men continued on their way. The woman, who just happened to cross the street when Loudmouth did, ambled past as the redhead opened the door to the shop.

By the time Loudmouth’s eyes had adjusted to the soothing, yellow-tinted light in the store, a brunette woman entered the store and began quietly inspecting the four uneven quadrants of the narrow space. The runner carpeting lay only on the short crosswise aisle and the long central aisle, like the ribbon wrapped around a gift before the bow had been tied. The dark, reddish wood floor gleamed, marking out each quadrant.

A man with inky black hair just beginning to turn salt and pepper at the temples looked the redhead up and down, then clicked his tongue. “You need indirect apology. Look for green tag.”

Her brows puzzled together. “Wait, what?”

He beckoned, leading her to the smallest quadrant of display stands and shelves, which held a wild array of baskets in many shapes and sizes. Loudmouth bent to inspect the contents of a dark brown oval basket draped with an emerald green square of cloth the size of a bandanna. On the cloth, a smoky gray glass egg rested in the middle, with a leather thimble, a pair of tiny scissors meant to look like a stork, and a card of delicate sewing needles. Swirling letters on the card proclaimed that the needles were silver plated.

A simple bifold card stood on the far side of the supplies. Loudmouth lifted it to read the calligraphy. “Harsh words can break valuable things, like friendships. Mending requires the best tools, and are a sign of my heartfelt apology.” Inside, there was plenty of blank space to write a more personalized message.

She turned, studying the clerk’s serene expression. “What if I don’t like the sewing analogy?”

He flashed a grin that made him looks closer to fifteen than fifty. “To whom are you apologizing? What are their interests?”

Her shoulders tensed, twitched, then settled back in place. Loudmouth breathed out slowly, careful not to clench her jaw. “I have a person in mind, but part of the problem is that I don’t know their interests.”

He only nodded. “What can you tell me about them?”

“They’re male, somewhere between eighteen and twenty. Their family is small, only a few people, but incredibly important to them.” Loudmouth swallowed the rest of her thought, crossed her ams, and waited.

The clerk nodded, walking along the three tiers of slanted shelves that held the display baskets. One tanned, golden-tinted hand hovered over a natural willow basket shaped like a rectangle the size of a medium baking dish, but with sides as wide as her palm that sat at a sharp, flared angle. He lifted up a surprisingly realistic small, stuffed green frog, then put a tri-fold brochure into her other hand.

Curious, but cautious, Loudmouth read the front section of the brochure. “I jumped into something that didn’t turned out the way that I’d expected,” she read aloud.

The clerk didn’t bother to hide a smirk as he lifted up the only other item in the basket and put it into her free hand. It looked like a small egg made of glass. Inside, an image of a golden egg yolk with lines encircling it like a misshapen target. The outer section marked soft-boiled eggs, the middle ring indicated medium-boiled, and the inner circle, full of the yolk image, held the word “HARD” in bold letters.

“What does this quite literal egg timer have to do with a stuffed frog?” Loudmouth narrowed her eyes at the clerk.

“The story is common in English,” the clerk protested mildly. “Frogs in a pot don’t leave, because…" he prompted.

Loudmouth rolled her eyes. “They don’t have even half a gram of brains,” she protested. “They stay because they’re idiots.”

Shaking his head, the clerk explained. “It isn’t a literal story.”

She picked up the card, only to frown at it. “There’s nothing on the card.”

“Because this situation is best handled specifically<’ the Asian man declared.

Loudmouth smirked again, and bounced the frog in her hand. “I’ll take this set,” she declared.

It took a moment to ring up the purchase. The clerk slipped a business card into the basket, tied it with a length of dark green ribbon. “Thank you for shopping with us.”

She nodded, waving with her free hand, and stepped outside.

Both male bodyguards seemed to materialize at her side. “Are you well, ma’am?” the one on the left began. “We didn’t see you in the bookstore.”

“Bookstore?” Loudmouth repeated. “I wasn’t-” She gestured over her shoulder, without turning, toward the shop she’d just exited. “The sign is even in Roman characters.”

The guard on the right cleared his throat. “Perhaps you should look again, ma’am?”

Loudmouth spun on her heel.

Apologia was no longer there.

The same blue-gray door now stood beneath an arch of painted Korean characters. She couldn’t find a single word of English, not even the outrageously inappropriate words used to draw patrons into a store. On the window left of the bookstore, a long arch of letters formed the word “Extra!”. What was ‘extra’ in a candle shop, Loudmouth could not name.

Scanning the street to either side, she stiffened. “This makes no sense.” SHe looked down at her bag, then peeked inside. “I definitely didn’t buy this in a bookstore, though.”


30













Magpie Monday for May 2026

May. 11th, 2026 08:21 pm
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
The theme this month is ”apologies,” for a very sad reason: the combination of internet outage and power outage scrambled the prompts that I was working on.

I have to start over.

So I’m offering an apology, and still asking for new prompts.
Read more... )
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Evening Update
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1b of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1113
[Late Sunday night, 12 November of 2017]


:: On the way home, chasing the last minutes of Sunday, Jules runs into Cold Cash on the way to pick up something from the grocery. Both end up at Bennett’s tattoo parlor. Part of the Lodestar story arc in the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::




“You look like a man trying to untangle a problem,” Cash declared. When Jules reached for the seat belt, he frowned at the shape of it, with the buckle sitting higher than in a standard truck. An extra section descended toward the floorboards, but Jules couldn’t tell much about where it was anchored. “Five point harness, with a crotch strap to keep you from submarining.”

“Sub-what?” Jules waved the question off. “Talk me through getting this fastened, then tell me what submarining is? I can tell by your tone that it’s bad, at least.”
Read more... )
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Evening Update
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1a of 1, complete
Word count (story only):
[Late Sunday night, 12 November of 2017]


:: On the way home, chasing the last minutes of Sunday, Jules runs into Cold Cash on the way to pick up something from the grocery. Both end up at Bennett’s tattoo parlor. Part of the Lodestar story arc in the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::



Every muscle in Jules’ back protested as he bent to tie his shoe. He felt like his skin had been starched and ironed, but tomorrow, he could start actually creating the filing system for the re-combined papers after their first sorting.

His watch chirped as he made his way to the gate. “You’re either running very late,” the woman at the gate declared in a deep Southern drawl, “or you don’t want anyone to know that you fell asleep in the Room of All Boredom.”

“I think I’ve worked out the sabotage in the old system,” Jules protested, but had to stop to cover a yawn with his closed fist. “Sorry. Liesl,” He blinked twice. “Anyway, the mess is now one step closer to being solved, and I can still get enough sleep if I’m in bed in the next three hours.”
Read more... )
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[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Unguarded Discussion
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1b of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1264
[Midafternoon of Saturday, 11 November of 2017]


:: Jules chooses to work on Saturday, hoping for peace and quiet to focus on re-filing the mess of printed documents. He doesn’t get it. Part of the Lodestar story arc in the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::




Jules followed Mister Sharpe to a small room that seemed to hold silence in it the way that other spaces held traces of air fresheners. The door hummed as it closed, and a square mounted roughly where a peephole would be installed lit up green. “Okay, this is a private, secure room, but it’s so small that the wingback chairs are the closest thing to a desk that we’ve got.” The older man waved. “Pick one.”

Taking the nearer seat, Jules rested his hands on the armrests. “Mister Sharpe--” Jules began, then interrupted himself with a sigh. “What’s going on?”
Read more... )

Unguarded Discussion (part 1a of 1)

May. 7th, 2026 11:17 pm
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Unguarded Discussion
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1a of 1, complete
Word count (story only):
[Midafternoon of Saturday, 11 November of 2017]


:: Jules chooses to work on Saturday, hoping for peace and quiet to focus on re-filing the mess of printed documents. He doesn’t get it. Part of the Lodestar story arc in the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::




“Box number nine, you have served well,” Jules intoned, starting soberly down at the now empty cardboard container. “Your service is now ended, and appreciated. May your next role be as fulfilling and offer you both peace and satisfaction.”

He finally laughed as he broke the box down to its flat state and set it atop the other eight that he’d managed to empty. “I am so glad that there aren’t any cameras in here,” he muttered.

Someone kicked the door to the file room.
Read more... )
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Overtime and Overreach
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only):
[Evening of Friday, 10 November of 2017]


:: Jules is working later than usual, when he has another encounter with the strange woman he’d spoken to at lunch meets him as he leaves the records room. It’s not a great time for either of them, but Jules is surprised to find supportive strangers. Part of the Lodestar story arc in the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::




At eight p.m., Jules’ phone alarm chirruped.

He groaned, straightening up from the small stacks of paper arrayed around him in a half circle on the floor. Two rows of thin stacks made a grid of the remaining floor space, with just enough space for him to place his feet, carefully, between them. Small blue scraps of painter’s tape showed which open places were large enough for him to walk.
Read more... )

Lunch Lurch (part 4 of 4, complete)

May. 5th, 2026 10:48 pm
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[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Lunch Lurch
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 4 of 4, complete
Word count (story only): 1206
[Midafternoon of Friday, 10 November of 2017]


:: During Jules’ lunch break, he receives an urgent call. His decision will cost him, no matter which choice he makes. Part of the Lodestar arc in the Polychrome Heroics Universe.


Back to part three
:: Thanks for reading! ::




Jules studied the older woman’s face for a full minute before he spoke again. “I’ll help you work things out with Griffin,” he murmured, but each word was crystal clear.

“Thank you,” Loudmouth agreed. Her throat worked, and after a breath, she said, “There’s a matter still to be decided between the two of us, though.” Her index finger flicked between pointing at him and pointing at herself. She smirked. “It’s nothing bad.”
Read more... )

Lunch Lurch (part 3 of 4)

May. 4th, 2026 11:00 pm
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Lunch Lurch
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 3 of 4
Word count (story only): 1021
[Midafternoon of Friday, 10 November of 2017]


:: During Jules’ lunch break, he receives an urgent call. His decision will cost him, no matter which choice he makes. Part of the Lodestar arc in the Polychrome Heroics Universe.


Back to part two
On to part four




It was nearly three o’clock before Jules could step away from the simmering pots on the stove. He checked on the biscuits rising in the oven, and finally, finally, poured himself a mug of coffee and leaned hipshot against the clean breakfast bar to sip at it, even though the counter hit him in the kidneys.

Jules’ feet felt like they were trapped inside steel cages. Each flex of his toes made fire burn a path from toes to heel, where it broke into dozens of burning embers that crawled up to the edge of his knees.

“You need to sit down before you fall down,” Loudmouth declared.
Read more... )

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