(no subject)

Yes, I haven't written in too long. I consider myself fully excused.

To begin with, I'll start with Saturday. Saturday night, when the Haradas, Stephen, Irina, and I set out to get my mother's sword back, with Cat running drone patrol. I knew the evening was off to a terrible start when Don starts it out by putting Stephen in charge, practically. At least Stephen turned it over to me from there, but still, ouch. That rought spot aside, I got to see Sydney turn into a... panther, I think it was. And she and Don went off to do the ninja thing in the forest.

They run into this guy called Shadow (as I learned later), who tells them that they must prevent me from meeting the werewolf who stole my sword, because -- get this -- she's my sister. And if we meet, the werewolf nation will rise up and slaughter all mages. Of course, no sooner does he say this then said werewolf bursts out of the forest with insanity in her eyes and starts hurling lightning bolts at me! Meanwhile Stephen is pinned down by some fire-hurling guy, and the Haradas are in some big fight.

So here I am trying to kill my own sister, which would have sucked if she weren't trying to kill me just as hard. I lose track of things here until the point where that other werewolf Shadow bursts out of the forest and gets everyone to stop fighting. He starts to explain, but suddenly the Haradas pop out of the shadows and drive off without a word to me. Evidently Don got hurt, and now they're pissed at me for getting them into this mess.

Then I meet Andrea Knight, which was really cool. My little sister (by a matter of minutes). Our reunion is quick but happy, and she has to go off on werewolf business -- then out of nowhere Irina tosses me back the keys to her apartment. Oh, after the Haradas being angry and everything I'd been through, that was too much. I leaped onto B.S. and had her open the sunroof. I yelled at her for a bit, then hopped off, only to discover Stephen all but booting her out so I'd *have* to take her home and talk to her.

She made me so mad on the drive home, so mad I could scream. Whatever image she has of me, I can't and won't live up to it. I am me. The next night she left little presents or some crap for a halfhearted apology, and she hasn't spoken to me since.

Stephen, well, is loaded down with trouble as usual. There's a little girl named Revari who keeps poking into his dreams -- I met her in real life. She was very cryptic, but she didn't seem hostile at all. I don't know what she wants with Stephen but I hope I can make sense of it eventually. She disappeared before I could ask more questions.

Stephen's also started drinking and chain-smoking. What the fuck does HE have to worry about? The guy blows everything out of proportion and I don't know what to do. For a few days he'd been calling me, griping about how he didn't know what to do, he didn't know how to progress with Cat, waah waah. I told him exactly what we all KNEW and he just won't admit, that Cat likes him a lot and he has absolutely nothing to worry about, but he wouldn't listen. So I go to Cat, and I tell her the stuff that all three of us *know* -- that Stephen is nuts about her. She said he had nothing to worry about. I call up Stephen and tell him this, and -- again -- he goes off on me for invading his privacy and taking away his choices. Like I fucking told her anything she doesn't already know! I suppose if I told Cat the earth revolves around the sun, he'd go ballistic on me for depriving him of the option to teach Cat science!

Fucking bastard. So now he's basically shut down towards me. He'll still talk to me and be cordial and stuff but he's not *talking* to me. And I can't do anything about this, either. Nor do I even know if I want to. It's easier for me to lose my best friend, and he seems to want it that way too. Evidently I've (somehow) broken his trust one too many times.

Speaking of trust, I made the mistake of not being perfectly happy and cheerful around Cat and Jack, so they shoved me down on a whoopee cushion. They keep saying it was to cheer me up, but who was EVER cheered up by sitting on a whoopee cushion?

I dunno. Maybe I'm wrong about that, actually. Hold on.

Okay, Stephen seems to think that Cat and Jack really meant it. Maybe I was too hard on them, although, really, they weren't using much common sense. I guess I've put on a good enough showing regarding general cheer and sense of humor that they overestimate it, as far as I'm concerned. Well, I suppose I ought to forgive them, but really, I'm not in the mood to be messed with. I want them to understand that.

Andrea has been coming to visit me. She's actually spent the night with me a few times, curled up in wolf form. It's nice to have a sister, or it was. She's got a lot of issues, I'll say that much. (Why is everyone I know so utterly fucked up? Why can't I have a normal friend I can relate to on normal levels? Why can't I have a hot naive ninja girl?) I think she's finally sick of me, though. She wanted me to come to a dinner with Shadow and Nhairis (who, it turns out, are crazy-in-love and have been for years. Go figure.) . I made a crack about Nhairis kicking me under the table, and suddenly Andrea is going on about me needing an adult presence in my life. Bullshit! I don't, and I told her so, not thinking it would be a big deal. Suddenly she goes ballistic on me, yelling at me for wishing Mom and Dad were alive and with me, and basically telling me not to come.

Then the next day I get Nhairis telling me how she didn't *really* uninvite me. Bullshit again! Well, family was nice while it lasted, but I guess that's come to an end.

So far trusting anyone has proved to be a mistake. I guess whatever defines "me" preculdes successful association with other people. That's okay, though. I can get by alone.

Speaking of which, Rose -- Seamus's girlfriend -- cornered me in the Moon last night. I'm amazed she even knows I exist, but it turns out she only paid attention because I have money, and she wants some to fund a project of hers. I guess buying friendships works better than making them on my own.