Round 18 is afoot!

[Tricia]

Yay!
HIM's back!
HIM's back!

One more day please... I'm half way there!

[RedneckDiva]

I wondered where HIM had run off to! Thought we might've scared him a bit, what with all the debauchery and skirt climbing and what have ya. Ya gotta be pretty tough to be the only HIM in a crowd of girls like us!

Yeah one more day... that'd be great. I wasn't about to ask, nuh uh, no way. But since Tricia did....I'll second that. I'm such a wuss.

[HIM]

Yes I’m back; I hope I can hang around more consistently. Things have been um . . . difficult, lately and it’s going to get worse before it gets better at the old job. No sooner do I get things squared away at the ol’ homestead and the workplace goes to hell. The new boss is looking like he’s going to be a lot tougher than the last one and I’m now under censure (and a fucking microscope).

As far as it being tough being the only Him in a crowd of girls, well; I can’t think of a place I’d rather be. :-P My chin has been dry for far too long.

Now for the important part . . . skirt chasing and such. I am indeed terribly disappointed to have missed it all. I peeked in that cloakroom after you left and I can only say I’m glad I don’t have to clean it. Y’all should maybe try not to make such a mess when you… ahhhhh … well you know what you did. :->

That story is actually my second attempt. The first one sucked so much it had an event horizon so I decided that I wouldn’t rip the space-time continuum by presenting it. It was completely irreparable so I started over from scratch. Oh and just in case you were wondering, no; the story I submitted is total fiction and doesn’t resemble any of my real situation at all despite the way in which I wrote it.

[sidra]

well i for one am glad that we did not scare all the mens away. or indeed everyone. where aaaaarre you guys? why do you not come to plaaay?

tricia, you said you were going to clean up the coatroom! jeez, i gotta do everything around here!

unless... RD, you haven't been in there, have you?

you guys ARE writing stories, right? no fair getting up to shenanigans in the coatroom unless it's story research!

[Tricia]

Okay... give me 1 hour to finish my story...

I'm writing like a wild woman!

Then tonight we open for voting...

Everybody gets 1 vote each... yeah... stiff competition... my favorite kind!


Voting will close Tuesday night at 10pm (my time).


I spoke with Wicked Wench... she's not getting email notifications either... it just gets weirder and weirder...

[Tricia]

TW1

Elizabeth awoke in the morning.

The sun had just begun to peek through her bedroom curtains.
The house was still except for the perpetuity of the grandfather clock ticking it's incessant countdown until the moment when she would belong to Captain Drake.

Her eyes fluttered open and she glanced around her quarters. Obviously no expense had been spared in preparing for her arrival from America. The room was ornate, but very executive and it made her homesick for her own warm room back in the colonies.

She couldn't wait to have this whole wedding over with and get back to her home.

Her father had worked the land around their plantation with his own bare hands and had turned it into one of the largest cotton mills in the south. Last winter he had caught a virus and, although her mother had begged him to slow down and give himself time to recuperate, he had continued to work the land until the day before he died. He was a man of conviction and honor. He didn't think it right for a man to lay in bed all day and let others carry his burden.

Her mother had been devastated by the loss of her husband.

Then to add to her misery, her only son, Howard had been wounded in a duel for the affections of one of the Harrison girls. Stupid really... Elizabeth's mother couldn't stand the Harrison's and would never allowed her brother to marry the little trollop anyway.

So that is what had led to the hasty trip across dark waters and her impending marriage to Captain Drake.

Her mother knew it would take a man of financial means to keep the family in the lifestyle her husband had intended... and if it meant that Elizabeth would have to give up her infatuation with Ethan Myers, the handsome but poor son of the local blacksmith, then so be it! It was every girls duty to marry whomever her parents thought was fitting... love wasn't part of the equation.

Elizabeth pushed the heavy damask comforter off of her and walked towards the window. Although the morning sun had not completely risen she heard the hustle and bustle of workers on the front lawn.

She looked down as the cooks brought her wedding cake.
A confection of too-sweet white icing covered with red roses.
It seemed like such a fraud... so beautiful and so inappropriate.
It should have been black and adorned with no roses... only the thorny stems.
That is how she felt in her heart.

She thought of Ethan... of the day she had said goodbye to him on the pier.
He had a forlorn look in his eyes that said more than any words could have conveyed.

She had locked herself in her cabin and cried brokenheartedly for the first three hours they were at sea. It did no good... the dye was cast... her fate was sealed.

Elizabeth walked across the room and pulled on her dressing gown.
She sat at the vanity and began slowly brushing the night's tangles from her long auburn hair.

She could smell the sweet breads and coffee that Clarissa, her personal maid, and Captain Drake's cook were preparing for her, but the thought of food just turned her already queazy stomach.

She closed her eyes and counted out slowly each of the one hundred strokes as she brushed her thick hair.

She could feel a migraine beginnning to throb behind her strained eyes.
Wonderful, she thought... another blessing on her dreaded wedding day...

She turned in her seat as her bedroom door was thrown open and a big cart of breakfast fare was wheeled into her room.

[Tricia]

OKAY!

Vote dammit VOTE!

one vote each closing tuesday night at 10 pm!

[sidra]

only one... here it is before i get goofy and change my mind.

Wench1

there. done. whew.

[RedneckDiva]

Shit, I was just telling my husband and sister on the way home from town that I needed to get in here and write my story. Teach me to procrastinate. Damn, I hate writer's block and busy schedules.

Okay, so my vote is for HIM.

[Faerie Queen]

Wench 1 ;D

[ThatWickedWench]

My vote goes to SG1

It's me, ThatWickedWench, by the way. Just tryin on a new identity for size.. Hell who knows I might decide I hate it and go back to the old me.

[RedneckDiva]

Wenchie, the quote under your pic is awesome!

I think we're soulmates. I think I love you. Can I stalk you?

[Chaos]

Oh, wow. Queenie, what are you tryin' to do to me? Do you not know the turmoil that the voting process always sends me into? The darkest, deepest pits of despair known to man cannot compare with the...

Oh, nevermind. You get the picture, anyway, don't you? I hate the voting. Especially when I have to choose one story out of them all. That is just evil. Bad Demon Queen. Bad.

Blegh...ok, my vote goes to.......

Wench1

Although I must say that I loved Sid's story (shoulda killed that bastard Roland, though...) and HIM's story was so diabolical...I loved it, too!

This was one of the hardest rounds to vote on so far! Way to go, gang!

[ThatWickedWench]

My dear Diva! I must say I enjoy your flattery! I am proud to say that the quote under my pic is mine and mine alone... at least I never heard of it before until the moment when I jotted it down the other night. So YAY I have become quotable! And as for you stalking me... correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't having one's PERMISSION to be stalked kinda defeat the whole purpose? I mean I can sit idly by minding my own business and PRETEND that I don't know that you are stalking me... or I could say "YES, you can stalk me," wherein the YES I speak of indeed means NO (as it so often does in bad romance novels).. oh dear lord I've given myself a migraine.. So do as you will with me and please don't be gentle. LMAO
And thank you Chaos, Fae and Sid for your votes so far! I will excuse Diva for not voting for me since she was obviously blinded by her lust at the moment of the voting and was not aware of that which she was doing.

[HIM]

OK, I'll toss in another vote for Wench1.

Looks like you need to start picking some words girl.