So here's the situation.
As I type this, it's 3 AM.
I have yet to do my mafia obligations which I need to do given my weekend neglect.
Tomorrow, I am set to do college damage control, starting fairly early in the morning with me driving myself there, getting a parking pass, hopefully having the lab to use or if not then *a* lab to use, doing the work and whatnot.
I have also yet to send out the email I desperately need to about work.
I am still behind on webcomics.
My mail is hopelessly out of date. (4,000+ unread.)
I didn't talk about Easter in spite of how much of a fun tradition it is.
And now, here I am wanting to talk.
I'm an idiot.
A self-destructive moron.
Since I'm here, I might as well give the briefest of rundowns of our Easter tradition. See, we have our eggs hidden, originally by our parents but now by my sisters, albeit sometimes with the input of other members of the family. We dye them the night before. I have a blue, orange, and green pattern. My brother has his eggs dyed for him, and each year, they read a pattern. (This year, it was "*His Name*, You Have Lost The Game".) My sisters both take the time to fancy-up their eggs with actual patterns.
Then on the day of Easter, the festivities begin. Breakfast is Cinnamon rolls, originally after our eggs until finding eggs became more of a late-morning-through-mid-afternoon activity, so now well before. Anyway, the eggs are hidden, with their locations written down. (We've had an...incident...where an egg was hidden and nobody could find it, and without remembering where it was, it got left for...well, uh...let's just say "long enough".)
This is done inside our household. Each of us has six eggs to find.
As of recently, we've gained a few bonus traditions, among them being fake-eggs being hidden as red herrings, mostly occupying "easy" spots that make us feel triumphant...until we realize it's not ours, and then we look in confusion as we try to figure out whose it is until the realization sinks in that it's a dud.
Real eggs are absolutely brutal to find. Let me tell you something. We instituted a new rule this year: not below the waist. In previous years, it could be at any height, so we could crawl into any space and find an egg at any time. This year, things got easier with the implication of that rule. Let me tell you how long it took the hunt to end, though: three and a half hours. That's with things made EASIER by the height restriction. Dumbed down, it took half our afternoon to find our eggs and our baskets.
For the record, I have a methodical search method that put me in the lead for the majority of the game. I'm also capable of making reasonable deductions, such as, "they know me to be destructive, so they would NOT hide the egg where I could make a mess". Regrettably, both of these worked against me in the home stretch when it was down to two eggs. My sister hid one egg where I WOULD have to make a mess to get it (I got it IMMEDIATELY once she removed the potential mess when I pointed out she wouldn't hide an egg where I could make one), and the last, easy egg to find I knew the most probable location of, but used my methodical search method instead of just checking it. The result? By exactly one minute (if that), I got second place. My older sister (the one who hid my eggs this year) won by one. minute.
There were other bits of hilarity, of course. My sisters both individually came up with the same idea: hide an egg in a deflated balloon leftover from the celebration of my mother's birthday, and they used different balloons. That they shared the same idea was funny enough. Conversations in the middle of the hunt made it all the more hilarious, as at one point, my sister said, "sooner or later, we're going to have the same idea". My brother and I (knowing that it had already happened) held back our laughter. Then there was the fact that my brother suggested a hiding spot for my younger sister's egg, and my younger sister hid his eggs, so it came to a final showdown between the two of them to find their final egg, both having in effect hid the others' egg, even if my older sister was technically the person who hid it.
My brother eventually beat my sister, finding his in our old coffee pot. My sister continued searching. Her last egg was hidden inside her water bottle in an airtight plastic bag. To give her the hint, I started drinking water, my brother started drinking water, and my older sister was drinking water as well. Though she had the area narrowed down to the kitchen or the dining room (where the water bottle was), she first tried the sink, but was perplexed when we eliminated the kitchen. It took a series of hints for her to finally figure it out.
Now, I can't state enough how devious some of the hiding spots can be. This isn't from this year, but we've had eggs hidden under the heating vents, inside our clock, hidden inside our Easter Basket, taped to our skylight, hidden above our ceiling fan, hidden via tape to the top of our table, and that's only the tip of the dirty tricks iceberg. There's a reason that we have to receive hints in order to find them. Three and a half hours. With hints. And restrictions. Never underestimate the devious cunning of sibling rivalry.
...But as for TODAY (well, technically, yesterday, given that it's 3:30 as I type this section, the above having taken half an hour to write), I worked of course. You know what that means. I got time to think. On one note, THE tune may have a tie to a couple of Black Keys songs, perhaps Gold On The Ceiling, and the single that was a hit before GOTC, their second big hit if I recall. I heard that one (and I remember GOTC having similar; given that they're almost certainly the same album, it makes sense), and the bass in it sounded like, while not quite a match, pretty dang similar. So definitely worth investigating. (I was on the guard stand, busy guarding, so I didn't have my attention focused on the music. I do actually do my JOB when I'm there, shocking as that may be given how much you see me ramble about things I thought up while working in here.)
The other thing was of course--what else--Red Hood Rider notes. (I really, REALLY need to compile those, too. I can afford to not do them tonight, but I should have them compiled before I next go to work, as to allow my mind to better flow.) In this case, I mainly focused on vampire politics.
Particularly, some of the major players in the vampire council. The Dragul Coven owes their origin to Lord Vladimir Tepes, who eventually passed leadership to his daughter, Leah Tepes, AKA 'Lina'. (Don't call her that without her explicit permission, though: it is an affectionate nickname to those who're close, but to those who are not close, it is used as an insult to her lineage.) Officially, she is called 'Lord Tepes', having inherited the title from her father. She is part of the vampire council and the second-most influential/powerful coven leader there.
The only one moreso? The leader of the Darkblood Coven, as Vladimir was turned by the Lord of them as a gift: the Lord of the Darkblood Coven was the oldest living vampire (up until, via Ruby, circumstances led to his demise and Ruby taking his place), existing before civilization itself did, and basically has been the cause of several covens forming via him turning people and letting them loose, Vladimir and the Dragul Coven included.
Since his death, though, that power theoretically lies in his successor, who is in fact currently Ruby, who theoretically via her alter-ego has that power and respect. (This is one of the main reasons she's so heavily involved in vampire politics: though she doesn't have nearly as much respect as her Coven warrants, she still holds enough that the council listens when she speaks, and she's heavily involved in decision-making. To put it in other words, she might no longer be the uncontested ruler of the council, but she's now basically a co-leader of it. This speaks MASSIVE volumes to how much control her 'sire' had over them.)
Back to the Dragul, though, one of their members is Dale Valentine, and I'm thinking that he's the initial vampire antagonist who turns protagonist later-on with Hannah's assistance. This would make him one of its oldest members, and would make his motivation be to avenge the loss of his original Lord's sire and friend.
And again, Leah Tepes is the other major Dragul in the story. She has ties to another council member: Victor Zu of the Zu Coven is like a brother to Lina, being the only one who currently calls her that affectionately. Though they are technically married, neither one of them thinks "that" way about the other, similar to how Ruby and Dion see themselves as siblings (technically blood brothers) rather than as mates, but in this case a bit more official.
The Dragul and Zu clans arranged their political marriage, and eventually, the two will merge into a single Coven, dominated by the Dragul as per their arrangement. These being vampires, this has no set begin date, and the two not feeling obligated to enforce it in spite of both having since been promoted to the heads of their covens, it's not happening any time soon.
This does mean that, together, they are a force to be reckoned with, though: with their covens separate, they command two seats at the council rather than just one. (Though it's worth nothing that they would command two until a child of their progeny would succeed them anyway, it's just that having said child given vampiric genetics would mean that they'd lose their combined power fairly rapidly, which neither wants.) Victor is the third-most influential voice, behind Lina as the second, so combined they're able to surpass Ruby. It also allows them to have relationships with others of any type.
In this case, Victor is friends with Ruby, rather conveniently meaning that the three most dominant forces in the council are all close allies of each other. Though there are other powerful/influential members of the council, none quite rival this powerhouse. In spite of the Dragul Coven's closeness with the Darkblood Coven, though, it's not until after the magical girl traitor incident that Leah and Ruby meet outside the council chambers, where both can afford to be less official.
Basically, it goes like this, with Victor greeting "Rudy" ('Rudy' being preferable to 'Ryan', because saying Ruby's true name is initially too dangerous even in closed chambers--Victor doesn't know Ruby's full identity, but he has a fairly good idea), and introducing her to Lina. Lina asks to be called Leah, and the two enter into a very brief arm wrestle (with a blood exchange between them) to come to an understanding of one another.
...Basically, it's a vampiric tradition where their blood is exchanged, like in a blood oath, except it is a minor form of combat, and seeing things about one another allows them to intimately know the other. Leah is able to see through "Rudy" and the image of 'him' briefly shifts into the her she really is, and she in that moment comes to realize that the two of them will eventually grow to be like sisters, even though they currently are a bit too unacquainted with one another for that.
In short, the close relationship between the two covens is renewed for the current generation of Lords, and though they know they will not unite, their clans will continue to have that tight bond of friendship.
So that's my brief look into vampire politics.
It's 4 AM, now, so...got other stuff to be doing.
As I type this, it's 3 AM.
I have yet to do my mafia obligations which I need to do given my weekend neglect.
Tomorrow, I am set to do college damage control, starting fairly early in the morning with me driving myself there, getting a parking pass, hopefully having the lab to use or if not then *a* lab to use, doing the work and whatnot.
I have also yet to send out the email I desperately need to about work.
I am still behind on webcomics.
My mail is hopelessly out of date. (4,000+ unread.)
I didn't talk about Easter in spite of how much of a fun tradition it is.
And now, here I am wanting to talk.
I'm an idiot.
A self-destructive moron.
Since I'm here, I might as well give the briefest of rundowns of our Easter tradition. See, we have our eggs hidden, originally by our parents but now by my sisters, albeit sometimes with the input of other members of the family. We dye them the night before. I have a blue, orange, and green pattern. My brother has his eggs dyed for him, and each year, they read a pattern. (This year, it was "*His Name*, You Have Lost The Game".) My sisters both take the time to fancy-up their eggs with actual patterns.
Then on the day of Easter, the festivities begin. Breakfast is Cinnamon rolls, originally after our eggs until finding eggs became more of a late-morning-through-mid-afternoon activity, so now well before. Anyway, the eggs are hidden, with their locations written down. (We've had an...incident...where an egg was hidden and nobody could find it, and without remembering where it was, it got left for...well, uh...let's just say "long enough".)
This is done inside our household. Each of us has six eggs to find.
As of recently, we've gained a few bonus traditions, among them being fake-eggs being hidden as red herrings, mostly occupying "easy" spots that make us feel triumphant...until we realize it's not ours, and then we look in confusion as we try to figure out whose it is until the realization sinks in that it's a dud.
Real eggs are absolutely brutal to find. Let me tell you something. We instituted a new rule this year: not below the waist. In previous years, it could be at any height, so we could crawl into any space and find an egg at any time. This year, things got easier with the implication of that rule. Let me tell you how long it took the hunt to end, though: three and a half hours. That's with things made EASIER by the height restriction. Dumbed down, it took half our afternoon to find our eggs and our baskets.
For the record, I have a methodical search method that put me in the lead for the majority of the game. I'm also capable of making reasonable deductions, such as, "they know me to be destructive, so they would NOT hide the egg where I could make a mess". Regrettably, both of these worked against me in the home stretch when it was down to two eggs. My sister hid one egg where I WOULD have to make a mess to get it (I got it IMMEDIATELY once she removed the potential mess when I pointed out she wouldn't hide an egg where I could make one), and the last, easy egg to find I knew the most probable location of, but used my methodical search method instead of just checking it. The result? By exactly one minute (if that), I got second place. My older sister (the one who hid my eggs this year) won by one. minute.
There were other bits of hilarity, of course. My sisters both individually came up with the same idea: hide an egg in a deflated balloon leftover from the celebration of my mother's birthday, and they used different balloons. That they shared the same idea was funny enough. Conversations in the middle of the hunt made it all the more hilarious, as at one point, my sister said, "sooner or later, we're going to have the same idea". My brother and I (knowing that it had already happened) held back our laughter. Then there was the fact that my brother suggested a hiding spot for my younger sister's egg, and my younger sister hid his eggs, so it came to a final showdown between the two of them to find their final egg, both having in effect hid the others' egg, even if my older sister was technically the person who hid it.
My brother eventually beat my sister, finding his in our old coffee pot. My sister continued searching. Her last egg was hidden inside her water bottle in an airtight plastic bag. To give her the hint, I started drinking water, my brother started drinking water, and my older sister was drinking water as well. Though she had the area narrowed down to the kitchen or the dining room (where the water bottle was), she first tried the sink, but was perplexed when we eliminated the kitchen. It took a series of hints for her to finally figure it out.
Now, I can't state enough how devious some of the hiding spots can be. This isn't from this year, but we've had eggs hidden under the heating vents, inside our clock, hidden inside our Easter Basket, taped to our skylight, hidden above our ceiling fan, hidden via tape to the top of our table, and that's only the tip of the dirty tricks iceberg. There's a reason that we have to receive hints in order to find them. Three and a half hours. With hints. And restrictions. Never underestimate the devious cunning of sibling rivalry.
...But as for TODAY (well, technically, yesterday, given that it's 3:30 as I type this section, the above having taken half an hour to write), I worked of course. You know what that means. I got time to think. On one note, THE tune may have a tie to a couple of Black Keys songs, perhaps Gold On The Ceiling, and the single that was a hit before GOTC, their second big hit if I recall. I heard that one (and I remember GOTC having similar; given that they're almost certainly the same album, it makes sense), and the bass in it sounded like, while not quite a match, pretty dang similar. So definitely worth investigating. (I was on the guard stand, busy guarding, so I didn't have my attention focused on the music. I do actually do my JOB when I'm there, shocking as that may be given how much you see me ramble about things I thought up while working in here.)
The other thing was of course--what else--Red Hood Rider notes. (I really, REALLY need to compile those, too. I can afford to not do them tonight, but I should have them compiled before I next go to work, as to allow my mind to better flow.) In this case, I mainly focused on vampire politics.
Particularly, some of the major players in the vampire council. The Dragul Coven owes their origin to Lord Vladimir Tepes, who eventually passed leadership to his daughter, Leah Tepes, AKA 'Lina'. (Don't call her that without her explicit permission, though: it is an affectionate nickname to those who're close, but to those who are not close, it is used as an insult to her lineage.) Officially, she is called 'Lord Tepes', having inherited the title from her father. She is part of the vampire council and the second-most influential/powerful coven leader there.
The only one moreso? The leader of the Darkblood Coven, as Vladimir was turned by the Lord of them as a gift: the Lord of the Darkblood Coven was the oldest living vampire (up until, via Ruby, circumstances led to his demise and Ruby taking his place), existing before civilization itself did, and basically has been the cause of several covens forming via him turning people and letting them loose, Vladimir and the Dragul Coven included.
Since his death, though, that power theoretically lies in his successor, who is in fact currently Ruby, who theoretically via her alter-ego has that power and respect. (This is one of the main reasons she's so heavily involved in vampire politics: though she doesn't have nearly as much respect as her Coven warrants, she still holds enough that the council listens when she speaks, and she's heavily involved in decision-making. To put it in other words, she might no longer be the uncontested ruler of the council, but she's now basically a co-leader of it. This speaks MASSIVE volumes to how much control her 'sire' had over them.)
Back to the Dragul, though, one of their members is Dale Valentine, and I'm thinking that he's the initial vampire antagonist who turns protagonist later-on with Hannah's assistance. This would make him one of its oldest members, and would make his motivation be to avenge the loss of his original Lord's sire and friend.
And again, Leah Tepes is the other major Dragul in the story. She has ties to another council member: Victor Zu of the Zu Coven is like a brother to Lina, being the only one who currently calls her that affectionately. Though they are technically married, neither one of them thinks "that" way about the other, similar to how Ruby and Dion see themselves as siblings (technically blood brothers) rather than as mates, but in this case a bit more official.
The Dragul and Zu clans arranged their political marriage, and eventually, the two will merge into a single Coven, dominated by the Dragul as per their arrangement. These being vampires, this has no set begin date, and the two not feeling obligated to enforce it in spite of both having since been promoted to the heads of their covens, it's not happening any time soon.
This does mean that, together, they are a force to be reckoned with, though: with their covens separate, they command two seats at the council rather than just one. (Though it's worth nothing that they would command two until a child of their progeny would succeed them anyway, it's just that having said child given vampiric genetics would mean that they'd lose their combined power fairly rapidly, which neither wants.) Victor is the third-most influential voice, behind Lina as the second, so combined they're able to surpass Ruby. It also allows them to have relationships with others of any type.
In this case, Victor is friends with Ruby, rather conveniently meaning that the three most dominant forces in the council are all close allies of each other. Though there are other powerful/influential members of the council, none quite rival this powerhouse. In spite of the Dragul Coven's closeness with the Darkblood Coven, though, it's not until after the magical girl traitor incident that Leah and Ruby meet outside the council chambers, where both can afford to be less official.
Basically, it goes like this, with Victor greeting "Rudy" ('Rudy' being preferable to 'Ryan', because saying Ruby's true name is initially too dangerous even in closed chambers--Victor doesn't know Ruby's full identity, but he has a fairly good idea), and introducing her to Lina. Lina asks to be called Leah, and the two enter into a very brief arm wrestle (with a blood exchange between them) to come to an understanding of one another.
...Basically, it's a vampiric tradition where their blood is exchanged, like in a blood oath, except it is a minor form of combat, and seeing things about one another allows them to intimately know the other. Leah is able to see through "Rudy" and the image of 'him' briefly shifts into the her she really is, and she in that moment comes to realize that the two of them will eventually grow to be like sisters, even though they currently are a bit too unacquainted with one another for that.
In short, the close relationship between the two covens is renewed for the current generation of Lords, and though they know they will not unite, their clans will continue to have that tight bond of friendship.
So that's my brief look into vampire politics.
It's 4 AM, now, so...got other stuff to be doing.
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