Hello again. Not a lot happened today.

No pirates, no navies, no disasters, or boredom fueled ideas. It was a nice slow easy day.

Like, if you were a fish, constantly fighting your way upstream to wherever fish go, to do whatever it is fish do. Its been a long trip. You've been dodging bears, climbing waterfalls, and avoiding awkward eye contact with strangers. Days and days pass, filled with tension and stress. And then, suddenly, you find yourself in calm waters, no rushing current, no dangers, no strangers. Just gently flowing sunwarmed waters and you.

So you relax. You savor the quiet, the stillness, the peace. Because it is something rare and beautiful to you.

That was today. The still pool, the calm water, the breath before the dive.

I needed this. More than I care to admit. I've been go, go, going for a long time now.

This is why its nice to have people like Onica around. They do all the panicking, all the freaking out. They deal with the details, and people like me just keep on coasting. 'Course, you have to be careful about not pushing them too far. Because if you do they might just up and leave, and then you'd have to do their job.

And I for one am terrible at it.

So It is of the utmost importance that you don't slack off directly in front them. They really hate that.

There's an art to it really, and a skill. There is a, flow, I guess you could call it. There is a flow to a group. Patterns and movements that let someone who knows them kind of discern how things are gonna play out. What will make someone laugh, what will make someone cry, what will make someone angry.

The actions, interactions, and reactions are always moving. Trying to focus on them is like trying to watch the wind. Pretty useless.

For example. Onica had a very large breakfast this morning. So she wasn't hungry yet when lunch came around. She is also one of those who feel a complusion to clear their plate. So when we were eating lunch she was focusing on making herself eat and finish a dish she didn't particularily want or care for.

Which made her grumpy. Which is the perfect time to try a few jokes on her.

Sure enough, she punched me in the throat.

Exactly as I had predicted.

Why did I do it if I knew I'd be getting punched in the throat?

Simple, I can heal easily enough, and I love how her tail moves when she gets pissed.

Now, going back to our first example, Onica absolutely hates it when she feels like she is the only one doing any work, so she'll try to find others, and then give them work to do. Nothing bad, just stuff like clean this, cook that, go bathe, feed Julius, find Fen, the usual kind of chores.

But for today, I just wanted to not do much of anything at all. So I tuned in to the flow. I managed to always look busy when she was on the prowl, but never actually got much of anything done. She normally projects this air of tension and focus around her, so its pretty easy to figure out when she is about to come around the corner and pick up a bit of sewing or start cleaning a fish or something.

Of course, thats only when she's not in her killer mood. Once she decides to end some lives, shes gone. No sign, no sound, nothing.

The BAM!!! She strikes. End of a story.

Luckily she wasn't all assassiny today, she gets super intense when she wants to go hunting but can't.

This one time, she stalked me for hours. I had no idea, everytime she could have cut my throat she would gently drag a dyed feather across my neck. I didn't notice at all until Lena pointed it out to me at dinner, and by then I had dozens of stripes all over my neck. The dye didn't even wash off well, so I had those marks for days.

I think this was back when we were all cooped up on the Ivers Dream in those underwater tunnels. Everyone was acting out a bit back them.

Well, this was a nice quiet day in comparison, and now its a nice quiet night.

I wager things will go off tomorrow.

Wish me luck.

Goodnight.