somehow I sense that I will have to rephrase these for the actual paper

I do not even know what it says about me that my notes for my Machiavelli essay include the following sentences:

"chance, but not JUST chance -- not nearly so neutral: she does what she does to get her rocks off."
"sometimes she just fucks around to see what people will do -- bend or break, triumph or fall"
"'better to be rash than timid' (p. 69) = "don't be Fortune's bitch"
"'them's the breaks, kid, whatcha gonna do?' what you do when Fortune's NOT watching (p. 71)"
"virtu's the ability to use what you got (shake what yo mama gave ya)"

In other news, thank you, brain, for dropping the first few lines of Dust 13 on me. Hi, Jill. Hi, random Narnians. Hi, of course your timing sucks. (Actually, to be fair, I've known both ways I could start this chapter for a while now, whether I go back to Arn Abedin or stay in Cair Paravel, it's just that Jill suddenly spoke up and went, "HI, ME AND MY TRAUMA AND WHAT I HAVE LEARNED IN FIVE YEARS." My main concern is how this lines up with the Cair Paravel subplot timewise; the Eustace (or possibly Tirian, but I'm pretty sure it would be Eustace) chapter would take up immediately after Dust 12, but the timing on what's going on back at Arn Abedin is slightly more fluid.)

In yet more news, I despise April Fool's Day. I just want to put that out there.

no, seriously, somebody smack me

You know, part of my brain is saying, "Lucy in Dust! Looking at everything completely differently than the rest of her siblings! Must get into that!" and dropping another Dust 13 scene on me (of all the things for Jill to overhear), and part of my brain is saying, "OH MY GOD YOU HAVE DONE NO STUDYING AND YOU HAVE A TEST TOMORROW", and part of my brain is saying, "THIS IS WHY SOLITAIRE MUST GO" (no, really, Solitaire has to go), and part of my brain is saying, "OH MY GOD YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING AND YOU HAVE TO GO TO CLASS NOW."

The Solitaire really does have to go, that or I have to hide it in some remote corner of my computer where I'll never be able to find it. Once I get started I cannot stop. Forget homework, do you know how many hours of writing have been killed by that thing? I managed to stop for about three months, and then I picked it up again over break. OH THANKS.

Okay, somebody smack me. I have to leave for class in about five minutes, and THEN THERE WILL BE STUDYING. And then possibly writing. A wee bit. For my sanity!

I blame Sarah Connor and Nancy Botwin

...the colonial fantasy novel is now going to include Lady Lucy Loring (oh god, I know), the single mother of the four siblings who raised them and was completely kickass awesome after her noble husband Colonel Richard Loring died/went missing only a few years after the penal colony he was governing was abandoned by the government.

( Cut for original babbling )

So, clearly, research for Lucy Loring's personality is going to involve me watching more Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and Weeds. Strangely, I am perfectly okay with this. I'm not sure how much of a role she's going to play in the story, but it's going to be interesting.