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Ralyn Longs commented on the post, retrieve 12 months ago
Not much to say about retrieve, do have an interesting tidbit from Dutch politics: Recent austerity accord arranged for less subsidies on traveling, ‘in order to cut down on paying people to travel long distances […]
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Ralyn Longs commented on the post, pins 1 year, 1 month ago
I don’t know much ’bout pins, Sir, but ’tis not pins I’m ‘ere to talk to you for.
Unintended consequences, however… side-effects, positive and negative externalities, now those are fascinating. Everything ties […] -
Ralyn Longs wrote about the word dozen 1 year, 4 months ago
An emotional moment As I breathe you into me Holding you closer Gentle in the dark My eyes are filled with tears The beauty of silence Can’t hold back the rain Even though I try Can’t help myself Let the rain come down on us Let this moment through I see the beauty in you [...]
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word failed 1 year, 11 months ago
I should have scribed my final reports by now but I failed on that count, horribly so. I always thought my job, my future would hinge on this chance, but since coming to this country it all seems so… far away, so unreal, unimportant. Failing in my job is surprisingly relieving, I always thought it [...]
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word beloved 1 year, 11 months ago
The choice between my beloved would-be wife and my beloved country really wasn’t much of a choice at all, or so I thought all those years ago. Looking back on it, I stepped into this country blindly. My wife is still the centre of my universe, of course, it’s just that… the universe got a [...]
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word radio 1 year, 11 months ago
“The old man is always chained to his radio nowadays… shouldn’t we do something about that? Is he even listening?” A sigh. “It’s his life, his choice. You know he hasn’t been the same since… you can’t really force him to pretend to be.” “But it’s not healthy!” she insisted. “If he likes listening to [...]
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word remember 1 year, 11 months ago
It’s sometimes hard to remember how it is back home. I mean, I know in my heart that back home people are less fickle, and that they don’t have radical ‘seasons’ like here, and that we do things for the long-run instead of… well, this. But it’s hard to pin down specific memories. It’s as [...]
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word sideburns 1 year, 11 months ago
He looked like a gruff man, black sideburns framing his face. It was a weird contrast, seeing such a dark-looking commander in a nation of care-free men. Then again, it might well have been just the looks, it’s not like he was any less jovial than the rest of his men…
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word despair 1 year, 11 months ago
Despair was a foreign emotion in these lands. A person might feel a fleeting sense of despair, but it never lasted long and was instead overtaken by other fleeting emotions. They were fickle like that. I guess it was both a blessing and a curse. The people here did not stand still when faced with [...]
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word canteen 1 year, 12 months ago
Canteens of water made a hefty profit in the war season. Local boys would fill up any they could scrounge up, and sell them to the troops with ridiculous mark-ups. Well, it seemed ridiculous to me, it seemed to be a sort of tradition for the people here. Sell your canteens in merchant season, buy [...]
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word torch 1 year, 12 months ago
Torches were a favoured ‘weapon’, particularly behind enemy lines. Even merchants could wield a flaming torch to great effect, and the wooden homes burned like the driest of kindle-wood. It wasn’t just one side or the other, either. The indiscriminate torching that went on during these civil wars of theirs might well have burned fully [...]
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word thief 1 year, 12 months ago
The thief crept back out the same way he got in, probably thinking he’d gotten away scot free. Thieves were common, sentences for punishment being very light in line with the general air of ‘forgiveness’ these people tried to portray, but this was taking the piss. I was willing to bet it was the same [...]
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word pretzel 1 year, 12 months ago
Pretzel, honestly? I can’t work with this -_-’ My special lady favours them, however.
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word wrath 2 years ago
Their wrath was legendary, but at the same time it was akin to a bright bonfire that would only last for hours, and then die as rapidly as it came. Sometimes entire legions seemed to give in to pure wrath after a particularly horrible slaughter elsewhere, and other times the legions were cheerfully going at [...]
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word domestic 2 years ago
The mercantile season was almost domestic in its atmosphere. People were always milling around, chatting here and there, buying and selling stuff nobody really needed. Wherever you went you were greeted with broad smiles and easy chatter. To me, knowing what the turn of the season would bring, it just looked ominous.
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word mole 2 years ago
Anyone could have been a mole. Heck, some of them were probably double-crossers. Triple-crossers, if they didn’t remember their original loyalties. Most didn’t. If you’d ask me if I could trust any of them, I would laugh. Trust? They don’t know the word, or what it represented.
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word tempted 2 years ago
Boys were always tempted of course. The lure of glory and honour didn’t match the horrible, gritty reality that was war, but that didn’t seem to matter. Funnily enough, none of the parents seemed to think there was anything wrong with it, either. And so the boys streamed in by the thousands, further compounding the [...]
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word curious 2 years ago
Sure, they were curious. But then, one moment’s curiosity would fade in the next, and something else would grab their attention. It was a curiosity of minutes, if that. Nothing would come of it.
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Ralyn Longs wrote about the word forgotten 2 years ago
Had these people already forgotten what’d happened 13 years ago? Were they really that fickle? All of them?
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