That was nice
Apr. 10th, 2026 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessSF, one of our wildlife profs stops me on the way to lab to tell me our mutual friend PQ was here to do a guest lecture. He was partially the inspiration for Josh in These Haunted Hills PQ was a naturalist in the Hocking Hills (which is how SF knows him) and is part of my steampunk group and also loves ghost hunting and beer making (how I know him) I didn't get to hear the lecture because I had lab but I did get to talk to him about our upcoming Steampunk con in Lousiville.
The cheater finally came to lab pretending like it's all alright. It is not and I do feel a little bad that she doesn't seem to know how much trouble she's in. Ah well.
Any of my British mystery fans know Whistable Pearl? I'm starting it tonight.
My coffee shop has this month a new latter Almond Joy. This one is very good. I'll need to make it myself.
So The Amazing Digital Circus dropped a teaser trailer today for the 9th episode which is the last one and it will also be released in the theater early. this worked out horribly for Hazbin, just saying. I didn't know where to get tickets because I'll be traveling at that time. I dicked around and by the time 3 hours went by Pittsburgh was sold out. However, Huntington barely sold ANY tickets. So yeah I have tickets now.
I did a little writing. This was forspikesgirl58's 6 words challenge. It's a potential chapter in my new novel. It may or may not happen. I'm thinking about it. It has seen zero editing so be warned.
Speaking of warnings, there is a minor mention of drug addiction, also mentioned (in no detail) child sexual abuse and PTSD. Also minor blood, mentions of sex work
the six words: Strap, Straighten, Simplicity, Judge, Shame & Activate
Ezio straightened the strap across his chest, distracted or maybe embarrassed by the way he was dressed lying in a hospital gurney waiting on the doctor. “I don’t need to be here,” he groused, his yellow-stained fingers dancing. The faint color betrayed his habit of smoking. He doubtless wanted one now.
Liliana sat across from him in the curtained off ‘room.’ “The uniformed officer though you did. That was a helluva hit you took to the head, Ezio.” She flicked her gaze from his bloodied face to her wristwatch. It was nearly two in the morning. Thankfully, the nurse was happy enough to let Rosa sleep on a chair in front of her station where she could keep an eye on it. Asha and Dajana had gone to Dajana’s brother’s place three train stops away in the rural town of Oak Hill or she’d be the one sitting in the hospital trying to get answers out of the head-scrambled Ezio.
She studied his outfit which was little more than bondage straps across his chest and torso. She hated how the pattern of leather against his muscled body activated the desire in her. Even knowing it was an autonomic response, she judged herself for it. Not that he’d be the least bit interested in you and if women cost extra, and you don’t make in a month what he charges for an hour, it’s a moot point.
Moot or not it was hard to wrest her gaze from his chiseled body. Grateful the thin hospital blanket covered his leather-clad legs, Liliana forced herself to meet his eyes. The gratitude continued to flow when it was obvious he hadn’t paid attention to her distraction.
He sighed heavily. “I’m a healer, Liliana. I don’t need a doctor.”
“Can you properly heal yourself if someone bashed in your head?”
Ezio snorted and let his hands fall to his sides. “I’m fine.”
“You’re still oozing blood so I’m going with no you can’t properly heal yourself.” She circled a finger around her head to indicate the tear in his scalp.
“Fuck me,” he grumbled.
“Is that where you were coming from?” she asked and his expression morphed into one of confusion. He was definitely too concussed. “Were you meeting a client when you were attacked,” she clarified.
“You think this isn’t my street wear?” The little shit smirked at her.
“Ezio…”
“I think you’re right. I have a concussion. Sorry. Yes, I was going to meet a client who I’ll have to have Aarre send an apology to. I was outside the Rose Garden. It’s not a client I feel comfortable going to his place. You know how you get a sense of people?” When she nodded, he continued, “He’s barely still on my list. He makes me uneasy. Anyhow, I was just out of sight of the guard stations when I heard someone call me vermin and smash me in the head.”
“Did that knock you out? Did you see who it was?”
“No to both. I was seeing stars and I did go down. I don’t remember hitting ground but that’s where I was when that uniformed officer found me. Did he see someone?”
She shook her head. “Couldn’t be that easy. He must have frightened the man off.”
“I think he was Quartz Heart,” he said and Liliana widened her eyes. “And I’m the one who frightened him off. I reached for him out of reflex and lit him up.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Healing magic is intricate, knitting all the torn bits together. But there is another side to it. I can jar your nervous system as sure as you putting a fork in a light socket.”
Ezio reached over and touched his finger to her. The electricity made her yelp.
“Damn it, Ezio. I would have believed you.”
“There is a simplicity to demonstration. And I’m used to people not believing what the addled headed whore thinks. How did we ever equate a lack of intelligence with sex work? Are we too stupid for other jobs?”
“You have other jobs and I suppose to some people it is as easy as that.” Liliana wrote in her notepad about Ezio’s ability to turn his magic inside out. “Even if I had my doubts – which I don’t – Asha and Dajana think highly of you, Ezio. I’d have believed you.”
He scowled, shifting on the bed. He gasped a little, putting a hand on his head. More blood trickled down his head. His movement must have cracked open the forming scab. Liliana stood and took some of the gauze from the nearby shelf and pressed it to his head wound.
“Thanks. Would you believe me if I say I still think it’s a Gatherer? Mother Lia says I’m biased and I most certainly am but…I remember him ranting about how he was going to release me from my shame. Not too many people find shame in what I do. I don’t!”
Scribbling that detail down, Liliana spotted something in his dark eyes. He’d just lied to her. “You don’t feel shame at your line of work but…about something.”
He turned his face away. “I don’t want to talk about that. What do you think about my idea?”
“It makes a certain kind of sense,” she replied. “And it’s about what happened to you when you were young.”
He snapped his head back around, groaning. He pressed a hand to the gauzed over wound. “What do you really know about it, Liliana?”
“I know you had a night terror about it when you were snowed in at my place. I’ve picked up enough to realize you and Phoenix and several others were child sex slaves. No one is coming out and directly saying it. You were too protective of Rosa and her friend, hypervigilant. I understand why you don’t want to talk about it so I’ll leave it there.”
“You’re not wrong,” Ezio replied.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of. You couldn’t have stopped what happened.”
“I know but the shame doesn’t give a fuck.”
She nodded, saying nothing else to that. In the back of Liliana’s mind, she wondered about the disappearance of Goran Jarven and Ezio’s ability to hurt with his healing magic. Had he killed the predator or at least incapacitated him and finished him off more prosaically? She refused to care if he had. Vigilante justice was rarely the answer but Asha had said he’d escaped his captor. She’d never said how but now wasn’t the time to ask.
“We’ve been looking at the Gatherers, Ezio, which is all I can really say about it. You’re sure he was saying something about shame?”
“Yeah or at least, I think so. It’s hazy. You know how it is with head wounds. Sometimes you lose time.”
As a cop, Liliana was far too familiar with traumatic amnesia. “I know but it doesn’t look like you were robbed. You have your wallet.”
“I have these too.” He flicked his finger against his opal ear studs. “And my ring. It wasn’t a robbery.”
“No, it most likely wasn’t. Whoever this is, is getting bolder. You are not an easy target, Ezio. You’re a tall, strong, man in good health. There are plenty of others that work for you and entertainments like yours that would be so much easier to attack so why pick you?”
“My battered head wants to know that too but I have ideas.”
“I’m listening.”
“I’m rich. I’m powerful in Ancono. I am one of the city planners whether or not they like having a whore there or not and they know it. I have the ear of the other businesspeople and by extension the politicians. If someone wanted to rid the city of entertainment or turn it all to things for children only, I would be in their way. It’s exactly why the damned Gatherers have taken up residence in front of my door.”
“That is a compelling argument but also it could mean that is why you were targeted and not that you caught the Quartz Heart killer’s eye,” she replied.
“I can’t argue that.”
“Do you want me to flag down a nurse and see if she can bring you something for pain? You look miserable.”
His dark eyes widened wild as a frightened dog. “No!”
“Nothing addictive,” she replied hurriedly, remembering that detail of his past. “Maybe some willow’s.”
“I’ll be fine but if a nurse comes around, we can ask. Those are fine.”
Ezio hitched himself up on his elbow, looking past her shoulder. Liliana turned to find Remo hustling up with his lover. Was her name Cass? Liliana thought so.
“You look rough.” Remo flipped his raven black hair back out of the way as he strode right up to Ezio’s bed and examined him.
“Tell them to let me go home,” Ezio whined. “Liliana thinks I need to stay here but I’m fine.”
“He’s in pain, still bleeding from his head and is probably concussed,” she replied. “His healing of himself was not very good.”
“Concussion will do that. The problem is Ezio’s head is always hard as fucking stone.” Remo shot his friend stink eye. “You stay until the doctor either stitches you up or scrounges up another healer.”
“We’ll watch over him now, detective,” Cass said. “You can go get some sleep unless you still need to talk to him.”
“Unfortunately, he was hit from behind and doesn’t remember too much. I will look into your suspicions though, Ezio. Do you want me to stay?”
“No, go round up your daughter. She’s probably not sleeping and asking the nurse more questions than you asked me.” Ezio smiled.
“No doubt. Okay I’ll do that. If you remember anything else, Ezio, call the station.” She pried herself up, rubbing her sleep-deprived eyes.
“I promise only…Lily, I hate to say this but something just bubbled back up. I could be imagining it but…I think whoever hit me wasn’t alone. The other person said nothing but I swear I felt someone else there.”
She let out a stream of air. She had held that suspicion for a long while now. “I’ll keep that in mind too. You rest up and listen to you friends.”
“I will,” Ezio said but Liliana didn’t miss Remo’s eye roll.
“Sorry, this happened to you.”
“Not the worse I’ve been hit.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“Not in the least.”
Liliana left him there, glad he’d be all right. If this was the Quartz Heart killer, he was their first known survivor. If it was another random attacker, things had gotten more complicated. It was the last thing she needed.
And the Friday Fannish rec for Fannish 50
Coming Back Inspector George Gently
Making A Splash Torchwood
Safe And Sound Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Miss Mabel Make Plans Teen Wolf
On His Level Hazbin Hotel
Eggsplanations Torchwood
Mysterious Messenger The Fantastic Journey
Curious Hazbin Hotel
Munch Ado about Cookies The Owl House
A Narrow Escape Inspector George Gently
I May Have Hurt Your Head, But You Hurt My Heart Hazbin Hotel
Multiple Signals Hazbin Hotel
no exit (huis clos) The Amazing Digital Circus
Belief Torchwood
Head Over Heels Starsky & Hutch
Gently Going Undercover Inspector George Gently
The Perils of Paperwork Teen Wolf
The Past Reconfigured Stargate Atlantis
Who Needs Sleeping Nettles The Owl House
Lost Souls MCU
Black/Blue Hazbin Hotel
The cheater finally came to lab pretending like it's all alright. It is not and I do feel a little bad that she doesn't seem to know how much trouble she's in. Ah well.
Any of my British mystery fans know Whistable Pearl? I'm starting it tonight.
My coffee shop has this month a new latter Almond Joy. This one is very good. I'll need to make it myself.
So The Amazing Digital Circus dropped a teaser trailer today for the 9th episode which is the last one and it will also be released in the theater early. this worked out horribly for Hazbin, just saying. I didn't know where to get tickets because I'll be traveling at that time. I dicked around and by the time 3 hours went by Pittsburgh was sold out. However, Huntington barely sold ANY tickets. So yeah I have tickets now.
I did a little writing. This was for
spikesgirl58's 6 words challenge. It's a potential chapter in my new novel. It may or may not happen. I'm thinking about it. It has seen zero editing so be warned.Speaking of warnings, there is a minor mention of drug addiction, also mentioned (in no detail) child sexual abuse and PTSD. Also minor blood, mentions of sex work
the six words: Strap, Straighten, Simplicity, Judge, Shame & Activate
Ezio straightened the strap across his chest, distracted or maybe embarrassed by the way he was dressed lying in a hospital gurney waiting on the doctor. “I don’t need to be here,” he groused, his yellow-stained fingers dancing. The faint color betrayed his habit of smoking. He doubtless wanted one now.
Liliana sat across from him in the curtained off ‘room.’ “The uniformed officer though you did. That was a helluva hit you took to the head, Ezio.” She flicked her gaze from his bloodied face to her wristwatch. It was nearly two in the morning. Thankfully, the nurse was happy enough to let Rosa sleep on a chair in front of her station where she could keep an eye on it. Asha and Dajana had gone to Dajana’s brother’s place three train stops away in the rural town of Oak Hill or she’d be the one sitting in the hospital trying to get answers out of the head-scrambled Ezio.
She studied his outfit which was little more than bondage straps across his chest and torso. She hated how the pattern of leather against his muscled body activated the desire in her. Even knowing it was an autonomic response, she judged herself for it. Not that he’d be the least bit interested in you and if women cost extra, and you don’t make in a month what he charges for an hour, it’s a moot point.
Moot or not it was hard to wrest her gaze from his chiseled body. Grateful the thin hospital blanket covered his leather-clad legs, Liliana forced herself to meet his eyes. The gratitude continued to flow when it was obvious he hadn’t paid attention to her distraction.
He sighed heavily. “I’m a healer, Liliana. I don’t need a doctor.”
“Can you properly heal yourself if someone bashed in your head?”
Ezio snorted and let his hands fall to his sides. “I’m fine.”
“You’re still oozing blood so I’m going with no you can’t properly heal yourself.” She circled a finger around her head to indicate the tear in his scalp.
“Fuck me,” he grumbled.
“Is that where you were coming from?” she asked and his expression morphed into one of confusion. He was definitely too concussed. “Were you meeting a client when you were attacked,” she clarified.
“You think this isn’t my street wear?” The little shit smirked at her.
“Ezio…”
“I think you’re right. I have a concussion. Sorry. Yes, I was going to meet a client who I’ll have to have Aarre send an apology to. I was outside the Rose Garden. It’s not a client I feel comfortable going to his place. You know how you get a sense of people?” When she nodded, he continued, “He’s barely still on my list. He makes me uneasy. Anyhow, I was just out of sight of the guard stations when I heard someone call me vermin and smash me in the head.”
“Did that knock you out? Did you see who it was?”
“No to both. I was seeing stars and I did go down. I don’t remember hitting ground but that’s where I was when that uniformed officer found me. Did he see someone?”
She shook her head. “Couldn’t be that easy. He must have frightened the man off.”
“I think he was Quartz Heart,” he said and Liliana widened her eyes. “And I’m the one who frightened him off. I reached for him out of reflex and lit him up.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Healing magic is intricate, knitting all the torn bits together. But there is another side to it. I can jar your nervous system as sure as you putting a fork in a light socket.”
Ezio reached over and touched his finger to her. The electricity made her yelp.
“Damn it, Ezio. I would have believed you.”
“There is a simplicity to demonstration. And I’m used to people not believing what the addled headed whore thinks. How did we ever equate a lack of intelligence with sex work? Are we too stupid for other jobs?”
“You have other jobs and I suppose to some people it is as easy as that.” Liliana wrote in her notepad about Ezio’s ability to turn his magic inside out. “Even if I had my doubts – which I don’t – Asha and Dajana think highly of you, Ezio. I’d have believed you.”
He scowled, shifting on the bed. He gasped a little, putting a hand on his head. More blood trickled down his head. His movement must have cracked open the forming scab. Liliana stood and took some of the gauze from the nearby shelf and pressed it to his head wound.
“Thanks. Would you believe me if I say I still think it’s a Gatherer? Mother Lia says I’m biased and I most certainly am but…I remember him ranting about how he was going to release me from my shame. Not too many people find shame in what I do. I don’t!”
Scribbling that detail down, Liliana spotted something in his dark eyes. He’d just lied to her. “You don’t feel shame at your line of work but…about something.”
He turned his face away. “I don’t want to talk about that. What do you think about my idea?”
“It makes a certain kind of sense,” she replied. “And it’s about what happened to you when you were young.”
He snapped his head back around, groaning. He pressed a hand to the gauzed over wound. “What do you really know about it, Liliana?”
“I know you had a night terror about it when you were snowed in at my place. I’ve picked up enough to realize you and Phoenix and several others were child sex slaves. No one is coming out and directly saying it. You were too protective of Rosa and her friend, hypervigilant. I understand why you don’t want to talk about it so I’ll leave it there.”
“You’re not wrong,” Ezio replied.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of. You couldn’t have stopped what happened.”
“I know but the shame doesn’t give a fuck.”
She nodded, saying nothing else to that. In the back of Liliana’s mind, she wondered about the disappearance of Goran Jarven and Ezio’s ability to hurt with his healing magic. Had he killed the predator or at least incapacitated him and finished him off more prosaically? She refused to care if he had. Vigilante justice was rarely the answer but Asha had said he’d escaped his captor. She’d never said how but now wasn’t the time to ask.
“We’ve been looking at the Gatherers, Ezio, which is all I can really say about it. You’re sure he was saying something about shame?”
“Yeah or at least, I think so. It’s hazy. You know how it is with head wounds. Sometimes you lose time.”
As a cop, Liliana was far too familiar with traumatic amnesia. “I know but it doesn’t look like you were robbed. You have your wallet.”
“I have these too.” He flicked his finger against his opal ear studs. “And my ring. It wasn’t a robbery.”
“No, it most likely wasn’t. Whoever this is, is getting bolder. You are not an easy target, Ezio. You’re a tall, strong, man in good health. There are plenty of others that work for you and entertainments like yours that would be so much easier to attack so why pick you?”
“My battered head wants to know that too but I have ideas.”
“I’m listening.”
“I’m rich. I’m powerful in Ancono. I am one of the city planners whether or not they like having a whore there or not and they know it. I have the ear of the other businesspeople and by extension the politicians. If someone wanted to rid the city of entertainment or turn it all to things for children only, I would be in their way. It’s exactly why the damned Gatherers have taken up residence in front of my door.”
“That is a compelling argument but also it could mean that is why you were targeted and not that you caught the Quartz Heart killer’s eye,” she replied.
“I can’t argue that.”
“Do you want me to flag down a nurse and see if she can bring you something for pain? You look miserable.”
His dark eyes widened wild as a frightened dog. “No!”
“Nothing addictive,” she replied hurriedly, remembering that detail of his past. “Maybe some willow’s.”
“I’ll be fine but if a nurse comes around, we can ask. Those are fine.”
Ezio hitched himself up on his elbow, looking past her shoulder. Liliana turned to find Remo hustling up with his lover. Was her name Cass? Liliana thought so.
“You look rough.” Remo flipped his raven black hair back out of the way as he strode right up to Ezio’s bed and examined him.
“Tell them to let me go home,” Ezio whined. “Liliana thinks I need to stay here but I’m fine.”
“He’s in pain, still bleeding from his head and is probably concussed,” she replied. “His healing of himself was not very good.”
“Concussion will do that. The problem is Ezio’s head is always hard as fucking stone.” Remo shot his friend stink eye. “You stay until the doctor either stitches you up or scrounges up another healer.”
“We’ll watch over him now, detective,” Cass said. “You can go get some sleep unless you still need to talk to him.”
“Unfortunately, he was hit from behind and doesn’t remember too much. I will look into your suspicions though, Ezio. Do you want me to stay?”
“No, go round up your daughter. She’s probably not sleeping and asking the nurse more questions than you asked me.” Ezio smiled.
“No doubt. Okay I’ll do that. If you remember anything else, Ezio, call the station.” She pried herself up, rubbing her sleep-deprived eyes.
“I promise only…Lily, I hate to say this but something just bubbled back up. I could be imagining it but…I think whoever hit me wasn’t alone. The other person said nothing but I swear I felt someone else there.”
She let out a stream of air. She had held that suspicion for a long while now. “I’ll keep that in mind too. You rest up and listen to you friends.”
“I will,” Ezio said but Liliana didn’t miss Remo’s eye roll.
“Sorry, this happened to you.”
“Not the worse I’ve been hit.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“Not in the least.”
Liliana left him there, glad he’d be all right. If this was the Quartz Heart killer, he was their first known survivor. If it was another random attacker, things had gotten more complicated. It was the last thing she needed.
And the Friday Fannish rec for Fannish 50
Coming Back Inspector George Gently
Making A Splash Torchwood
Safe And Sound Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Miss Mabel Make Plans Teen Wolf
On His Level Hazbin Hotel
Eggsplanations Torchwood
Mysterious Messenger The Fantastic Journey
Curious Hazbin Hotel
Munch Ado about Cookies The Owl House
A Narrow Escape Inspector George Gently
I May Have Hurt Your Head, But You Hurt My Heart Hazbin Hotel
Multiple Signals Hazbin Hotel
no exit (huis clos) The Amazing Digital Circus
Belief Torchwood
Head Over Heels Starsky & Hutch
Gently Going Undercover Inspector George Gently
The Perils of Paperwork Teen Wolf
The Past Reconfigured Stargate Atlantis
Who Needs Sleeping Nettles The Owl House
Lost Souls MCU
Black/Blue Hazbin Hotel
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Date: 2026-04-11 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2026-04-11 08:55 pm (UTC)Ugh I know exactly what you mean. I hate the whole will they/won't they trope. It's pathetically overused