#mark jones

Orc Shaman

Asset for The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

Happy Juneteenth y'all! :D

But yeah. He gets it…sort of. It’s still weird to him, though, that everyone’s all worried. He lived through it once, and right now it’s not even that bad; no brand, no gunshot. Okay, so the broken ankle is a problem, and yeah, there’s…a lot…of burns and slashes and bruises and he’s definitely underweight and dehydrated, but it could be worse. It was worse! Later. Later it was worse. But he lived anyway, so there.

He does feel like shit, though. He’s sick and everything hurts and deep down, he’s…glad…he doesn’t have to try and get down from here.

Although Ages is being kind of an asshole about it.

“Goddamn, you were a shrimp.”

“Shut up.”

“Just saying. Okay, Princess Leia, hang on.”

On one hand, Leia is a badass. On the other hand, choke.

The trip down jostles everything, but at least it’s quick. Unfortunately, Jones isn’t happy, and he’s less happy when he goes to check for concussion.

“Fucking fever?” he seethes. “Are you kidding me? What else. What else do I need to know about.”

He shouldn’t. He really, really shouldn’t, he knows that. But there’s lots of things he shouldn’t do, and that’s okay.

He grins, slumps back against the arm bracing his back.

“Now’s probably a bad time to mention the cracked ribs, huh?”

Saner people would see the pulsing vein and the odd flush and think, DANGER, DANGER. Jason blames the fever for thinking it’s a little funny.

“Oh, no, now’s a great time,” Jones forces out. “We’re going straight home and you’re going to stay in bed on pain of death, do you understand?”

“Oh, no, death. The worst possible thing to happen to me.”

“Get him out of here before I kill him,” Jones snarls. “It might not even stick, who knows.”

“Pretty sure there was a resuscitation at one point, but I gotta be honest…”

Jones makes a Noise somewhere between a growl and a screech. Sounds kinda like a velociraptor. 

“Move,” he says again. “I’ll deal with this back at base.”

“Yah, mule,” Jason says, flailing lightly at Ages’ arm. He regrets this immediately when he jostles a finger that he’d honestly forgotten was half-broken. “Ow.”

Ages sighs.

“I hate this already.”

“I can crawl on my own.”

Don't Open Till Christmas (1984) Edmund Purdom and Alan Birkinshaw

SONG OF THE WEEK “It’s Going to be Different Today” https://johnnyjblairsingeratlarge.bandcamp.com/track/its-going-to-be-different-today This is the opening track from my new album, WE’RE GETTING CLOSER TO THE SUN*, with a theme of science fiction, time travel, and childlike faith. The lyrics for this song were written from a 12-Step Recovery perspective. Verses 1 and 2 describe people mired in the despair of acting out and compulsive behavior, but a breakthrough comes in the chorus—they’ve surrendered their burdens to God and life is going to finally be different! The "Book of Hours" in verse 2 is a reference to a medieval prayer book, name-checked by David Bowie on his 1999 album 'hours...' (Bowie was a voracious reader). Verse 3 describes a child with strong faith, prescient to seeing miracles when others can't. Musically I was influenced by Badfinger, Bowie, Neil Finn, and Paul McCartney. This was recorded at Tape Vault Studios in San Francisco, under the wand of Chris von Sneidern. My friend Mark Jones played drums. *Available now on CD, LP, or stream. https://johnnyjblairsingeratlarge.bandcamp.com/track/its-going-to-be-different-today