(Dictated)

[tylendel]

(Let it not be said the castle is cruel. Yes, Tylendel lost his voice after making a wish for his lost (and beloved) Companion - Gala - yet he found a gift in the room he shares with Vanyel upon returning. She is tiny, delicate and adorably fuzzy.

That's right, a baby falcon.

What? Did you think she was something else?)

Gala returned to me after all. Just in an unexpected form. (There is the soft sound of a contented falcon in the background.) She shall never feel betrayed again.

(He chuckles.)

Does the castle think I'm a Tayledras?

♫22

[both_neither]

[Gren is running a little short on words today until he comes into the castle to find the lobby strewn with bright lanterns and paintings. He pauses a moment to examine one of the lanterns, touching it fondly and remembering his life before this, and suddenly he finds his inspiration.

A few hours later, he's back in his castle room with a stack of jazz cd's and a purpose. Sometime that evening he starts up a playlist and, after the first songs plays, he pauses to interject a little message]

It's hard to know how to start one of these when the castle has made one of it's usual attempts at putting some of us in the ground a little while. Which is pretty rude, if you ask me. It's not like we need the reminding that we're living on borrowed time here in a sense. For some of us, this really is our last gasp. This life is all we have.

And now that it looks like the castle is gearing up for lunar new year, I'm guessing that's maybe the point. Even if you have something to go back to, what happens here exists in a bubble all it's own. For those of you that don't know, lunar new year is about wiping the slate clean, and going into the new year with no baggage. Dust off those cobwebs, empty out those closets, settle those debts, and balance the books.

With that said, enjoy the music. The jazz is for you, Spike. But I owe you more than just a playlist. But it wouldn't seem right unless I said in person so...

[And that's all, really. He doesn't think Spike will really answer a summons, so he lets the music play on it's own, checks his pistol, and slips it into his waistband at his back as he goes searching for the bounty hunter. He isn't really thinking about it. It's just something he has to do...]

6th Arrow [written]

[threeweeksago]

[Ellie hasn't been seen much in the past week. After news of the bloater began to drift about, she'd holed up in her room for a few days. Bloaters were bad news, and it was hard to believe there was only one Infected roaming the castle's halls, so she wasn't taking any chances.

... But a week passed, and there wasn't any more panicking, so Ellie supposed it was time to start socializing again.]

Y'know, I get that the damn castle can be pretty dickish sometimes. I've been here long enough to understand that, and it'd be really fucking stupid to not be wary of this place just because you've been here for a while.

But randomly releasing Infected into the halls? And a fucking bloater? What the fuck is wrong with this place?

[Dictated] Backdated to January 16

[deductiongeek]

A murder has happened. Meg Masters is dead.

26. Making new resolutions a hundred times

[pompous_today]

吉慶有餘. I am glad to see the decorations for the new year around the castle, though I am wise enough by now to not touch them. They may seem harmless, but the castle has a way to make mundane things seem dangerous.

I hope that perhaps this year will be better than the last one has been for many of us, and that the victims of last week's attack make a speedy recovery.

[吉慶有餘 = Jíqìngyǒuyú = "May your happiness be without limit", which according to my thorough research at Wikipedia is a common New Year greeting. I figured that since the Firefly world is a mashup of Chinese and American culture, Simon would probably celebrate Chinese New Year to some extent.]