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Sticky: "Good as Gold"

The ~~journal~~ COMMUNITY! where

keaalu hopes to post her effort for NaNoWriMo this year (2008).

This story will follow on from events in "Thunder Daughter" (

thunderdaughter), which was Keaalu's 2007 effort at NaNoWriMo - first year, first win, woohoo!

This is all assuming, of course, that she manages to distract herself from those three Seekers for long enough to plan it and write it...

Roll on November!

Edit: and now 2012! ~~My 2012 progress widget. I plan to keep the red as low as possible.~~ 2012 Nanowrimo is over! Got off to quite a bad start, but managed to keep up with the rest.

Edit@2013-05-04: I have finally converted Good as Gold on LJ to a community (it's SO much easier to keep up to date), with a less clunky name (as "good_as_gold" suddenly became available, and "0good_as_gold0" was really getting to me)!

Good as Gold, Chapter 19

NB: There is some very odd formatting going on here, and for no good reason I can determine. I might have to repost this later.

( After what felt like a very long night of staring at the ceiling, tussling with her emotions, Mirii spent much of the early morning in a distracted, fidgety haze, pacing back and forth across the dining area in the rear of the property. It spoke volumes about her state of mind that she did not even go out to greet the morning. )

Chapter: 5688 words. | ★ 78140 out of 100,000 ★

Entry tags:

long chapter

Chapter 18

( Yannis didn’t dither long in the factory after speaking to his contact; it wouldn’t take the man long to package up a sample of the virus (or so he’d promised), and the eumin didn’t want to spoil the unexpectedly good relationship by keeping him waiting, down there. He returned to his apartment to change his clothes, wanting something lighter to wear, so he didn’t feel like he was baking in his own skin in the scalding noontime sun. )

Chapter: 8884 words. | ★ 72452 out of 100,000 ★

Chapter 17

( An inky, moonless night had claimed the city of [Lanali]. Stars dusted across the cloudless sky, the smoky white band of the galaxy starkly visible against the velvet black, but not ~everyone~ in the dormant city was asleep. While Yannis and his crew slept, Sei moved quietly through the dark corridors. Outwardly he was a picture of dedicated calm – the obedient servant, with no thoughts except those related to his work. Inwardly, the cob was a seething mess of conflicting emotions. )

Chapter: 6207 words | ★ 63,568 out of 100,000 ★

Chapter 16

( Expecting to be flown down to the city in a little shuttle of some sort, Mirii was surprised when Yannis instead led her to a rickety old lift that plunged all the way down through the old factory and its associated mine workings. The doors opened to a great cavern which had probably once contained a whole fleet of mining vehicles but now was home to only a small cargo transporter and Yannis' private conveyance – a bright, sporty little red parked close to the tunnel that led to the outside. )

Chapter: 6915 words. | ★ 57361 out of 100,000 ★

Chapter 15

( In spite of Yannis implied threats to the contrary, threats that he'd be abandoned down here (wherever 'here' actually was) for months until he broke... Sei had to quietly endure only just over one day of humiliation before the vindictive eumin finally decided to go and revisit him. )

(6092 words)
★ 50445 out of 100,000 ★

14

(Written 2008, just never posted, for some reason.)

( Brennan had remained deeply sedated the entire trip back to Yannis’ base, and slept his way through the protracted job of removing all the skeins and strands of thick, sticky polymer that had wrapped him – it had necessitated sacrificing his top layer of clothes, and some of his hair, because the thick adhesive bonded far too well with the fibrous materials. )

42,436 out of 50,000

13

(Written 2008, just never posted, for some reason.)

( The sky had flushed with the brilliance of encroaching evening and the streets had grown dark fairly quickly. The traders had remained out on the cobbled lanes until the street lighting came on; it was an incongruous mix of modern and traditional that blended together strangely well. )

41,238 out of 50,000

12

(Written 2008, just never posted, for some reason.)

( Yannis virtually bounced into the control room, glee seeming to seep from every pore. ‘Ha!’ He clapped his hands together. ‘My bright little firebird is coming along quite nicely. I now anticipate that you will NOT spoil my mood by giving me ill results, yes? How go things in here?’ )

38,874 out of 50,000

Chapter Eleven

(Written 2008, just never posted, for some reason? Oh well, I’m posting it now!)

( Mirii found herself unable to engage her dormancy protocols. After she had bathed, she had sat in front of the mirror combing non-existent tangles out of her short, damp hair for what felt like… hours. She wasn’t really paying attention. That is, her chronometer dutifully tracked the passage of time, but she didn’t really notice it. All she noticed was the sad whirl of grim thoughts that now plagued her – why did they lie to me, why did I not notice, how could I have been so STUPID? )

35,641 out of 50,000

Ten

(Original post date: Nov. 17th, 2008 at 1:48 AM)

...okay, so my effort at writing a spy thriller has kinda gone *pfut* and turned into the usual load of weirdness. :P O WELL. At least I'm catching up on my word count.

( The island that the particle trail led them to was one of a chain of several similar islands, set in a smooth, perfectly blue ocean. It was relatively small, but extremely verdant, and apparently once volcanic, if the cinder cone that rose above the exotic trees was anything to go by. Brennan carefully set his small craft down on the narrow strip of beach at the side of a lagoon, where Sei had seen what looked like the remains of buildings. )

Nine

(Original post date: Nov. 16th, 2008 at 10:32 PM)

( Yannis sighed, tiredly, and allowed her to take her hand back again. ''I was outspoken against him. I said their testing, their experimenting on such a gentle undeserving soul was unfair. They believed me to be meddling in the outcome of the experiment, and forbade me further contact with the project. Why do you think your guardian was so vehement in his description of me?'' )

Eight

(Original post date: November 09, 2008)

( The Boss had a broad smirk on his face. ''Things are going beautifully to plan, friend,'' he observed, swigging on the bottle of fruit juice he had pulled from the fridge. ''The female is primed, and ready. Now we need to work on our other guest, such that he is, ah… properly trained… when we finally arrive back at base.'' )

Seven

(Original post date: November 08, 2008.)

A/N: Arrgh dammit Skywarp get out of my brain for JUUUUST another 19 days so I can finish this...
Late late late, omg! :(

( Sei headed down to Ardea’s little docking bay the instant permission had been given for Brennan and Victora to come aboard. ...Tora was exactly the same as he remembered – no matter that her hair had been artificially straightened and her clothing was more modern, she behaved just the same. It was almost as if she’d not seen him for years! She gave a squeal of delight at seeing him, launched herself bodily of the ship’s loading ramp and attached herself around his chest. )

Chapter Six

(Original post date: November 07, 2008, 22:00.)

( When distressed, the obs lounge had always been Sei’s favourite hideaway, during his first protracted visit to Coalition territory – it was usually dark, and quiet, because unless there was something particularly unusual outside worth looking at, no-one really visited. Ergo… the lounge was a good, peaceful, private place to lose oneself in one’s emotions, Sei had always considered. The shadows let him blend into the background with very little fuss, and his black skin and dark clothing made him very easy to miss, in the gloom. )

Five

(Original post date: November 06, 2008.)

This is actually day 6's. It am grossly belated, because I are crap. But here we go anyway! Still playing catchup. Shouldn't keep going out, ah me.

( As Kolek had said, the second – quite unexpected! – windfall had been tucked safely away in the empty servants’ quarters. The Boss had ambled his leisurely way down there to inspect it – well, it wasn’t exactly going to be going anywhere – and considered what significance it might have in the grand scheme of things )

Four

(Original post date: November 05, 2008, 22:00. This is the ACTUAL chapter 4...)

NB: ...it's really hard to just write "deception" and not "Decepticon" some days. *froths*

( Mirii HAD hoped that the longer she sat on her own, the calmer she’d feel, but it didn’t seem to be working as she’d hoped. To start with, not knowing what was going on just made her MORE edgy. Anyone could be sneaking up on her! They could be preparing to do all manner of unpleasant things to her, and she’d have no inkling of it until they did it…! She had to find somewhere safer to hide, or at least somewhere safer to guard her back… )

Three, belated

(Originally posted on Nov. 4th, 2008. Also originally posted as chapter 4, because I apparently can't count.)

This is a smidgen late, because I forgot to post it last night (woo, go me.)

( Mirii DID enjoy shopping! She and Iios had opted to go to Waystation Six orbiting the second moon, rather than go completely planetside; Tas-umskel was a nice enough little world, certainly, but the population was very tactilely oriented, and had the tendency to ‘speak’ through touch as well as speak verbally. Iios had decided that as Mirii was inexperienced in just meeting alien life, let alone having the population mauling her, keeping her in a more Coalition Normal environment, where folk politely ignored each other for most of the time, was safer... )

Two

(This originally was titled "Day Three" but that messed up my knowledge of where my chapters had got up to. I was quite confused at how I could possibly have two "chapter 15"s.)

( Sei had never been the sort to just sit and grieve. Once the shock had worn off, he had thrown himself into answer-finding – if only to distract himself from the darkness that threatened to consume him. He had to know what had gone wrong, it couldn’t just be an accident, not when he was so utterly sure it must have been sabotage – so there had to be clues among the wreckage. There had to be something, SOME tiny clue however small to chase down that would at least give him a lead, a head start! A chemical trace, an inorganic signature that might lead him to the manufacturer of the explosives, a piece of hardware not obliterated. Because right now? He was totally, utterly stumped... )

Chapter One

Original post date: 2nd November 2008, 17:02

A bit late, but this is two days' worth! Rock on, people.

( Well! What can I possibly say to quantify the significance of this date? I should confess this is one of the stranger diary entries I have felt compelled to write, but only because I had become convinced this day would never come! But at long last, here we are, back in Coalition Space. More importantly, at long last, Mirii and I are to be guests of honour at my brother’s Day of Union with Eri... )

Would have been sooner, but my neighbours had fireworks. Woo!