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Mmkay, just a few RIP's for the folks out there.

RIP - My laptop, hard drive crashed along with a lot of work. 2007-2008.

RIP - Humanity on September 10th, 2008. Is it just me, or should we all have a say on whether or not we should go through with a scientific experiment in which the only two outcomes are furthered understanding of theoretic astrophysics that don't exist yet and the destruction of humanity and the solar system?

RIP - My favorite store, Games Workshop. 2002-2008. It was a good run.

Renais felt numb. Numb, like a horse had just rammed him and left him sprawled on the ground, struggling for breath. Eleanea had left him to his thoughts on that beach - that oh so familiar beach. He picked up the coin that had slipped out of his hand as the two of them had kissed. Brushing the sand off of it, he gazed at it warily, as if it could come to life in his hand and bite him. He tossed the coin in the air and caught it. Heads again. He turned it around, frowning slightly. The other side had the same head of Dath'Remar gleaming in the crimson sun's gaze.

Of course. He cursed himself for being such a coward and hiding behind his coin. It wasn't the same one that he had used when Eleanea and he had got back together, but it had been a source of gambling in the past. Glambing that often ended badly. But right now, he hated it more than anything else in the world.

He regretfully pocketed the coin, noting that it might come in handy later. He shuffled lazily to his feet, his robes covered in sand and soaked all the way through. His hair still dripped on the sand, to say nothing of the rest of his outfit.

Renais walked home that night. After the sun had shed it's last night on Eversong Woods, the world became silent. Only Renais' footsteps could be heard, save for the occasional hooting of an owl or the scurrying claws of a lynx as it hunted it's unwary prey. He was barely walking. His feet didn't feel like carrying him anywhere, and it was, once again, well past midnight before Renais came to his humble abode.

Walking in and closing the door quietly, he crept inside, careful not to wake Anoralei. Though he didn't like to admit it, Anoralei worried him. She had been hanging about farther and farther away from home, sometimes running off to Silvermoon without Sunrunner or Renais. He carefully sneaked upstairs, arriving at her door. He peeked his head in cautiously, eyeing Anoralei in her bed. She looked so peaceful; her brilliant white hair falling about her pillow and her face as her thin chest rose and fell with calibrated precision.

He shut the door quietly. He never really talked to Eleanea about Anoralei, though he knew they had met. Now that the two were engaged, he wondered what Anoralei would think of Eleanea, and visa versa. She's grown fond of Jandercia, Renais thought bitterly to himself. And by the way Jandercia talks, I don't think she fancies the idea of letting her alone. Renais proceeded back downstairs, feeling suddenly wary. The elation of the proposal was wearing off.

Eleanea and I love each other...and Anoralei is part of that. She may be my daughter, but I know that Eleanea will care for her like her own. Renais persisted to himself. He sat down in a chair with a good book and sighed in relaxation. After all, Jandercia isn't going to be a concern anymore. Trell and I are plenty capable...soon we'll be left alone, and Eleanea and I can live the rest of our lives together in solitude. For however many thousand years that will be. Renais smiled slightly. The elated feeling rose back up in his chest and he broke out in a full grin. "Yes, that'll be the way this story ends," he commented aloud. "And they lived happily ever after."

Renais flipped the coin into the air and, when it landed on his hand, Eleanea caught a glimpse of the head of Dath'Remar flash in the sunlight. Renais looked down at the coin morosely.

"You're very lucky, aren't you, Eleanea?" he asked dryly. She tilted her head to one side.

"Depends on what you're going to tell me," she said. He smirked and took the item from his pocket, though it remained clenched in his fist. 

"Don't say I didn't warn you, alright?" he asked. Eleanea nodded.

"Alright." Renais sighed and opened his fist; what Eleanea saw was a plain golden ring, very unlike the diamond he had given her so long ago. It glittered in the sunlight and engraved inside of it were the words: Love Eternal, Eleanea. As he revealed the ring, Renais's face turned bright red. Eleanea, however, smiled; her heart fluttered to her mouth and found herself having trouble speaking.

"Oh, Renais...It's...Oh. It's beautiful," she murmured. 
 
"Like I said...I don't want to live in fear of Jandercia, and I...I want you to be by my side for that," he said quietly.

"And I want to be there, Renais." He looked up at her, his face slowly changing from crimson to pink.

"I love you, Eleanea. Will you marry me?" he asked. Her face broke into a wide smile.

"Yes, Renais. A thousand times, yes." He leaned over and kissed her, sliding golden ring onto her finger. She smiled all the while. Bliss. Oh, wonderful, wonderful bliss. 
          After a few moments, Renais drew away from Eleanea.

"What do you think Trell is going to say about this?" he asked, grinning faintly. She tilted her head to one side, rather dazed. She looked down at the golden ring on her finger before speaking.

"She's going to think this is insane and mad, that we're making a mistake," she said. "But we'll be thinking differently." They spent the next few minutes discussing Trell and the proposal the Hunter from the Church of the Dark Mind had made. Eleanea's opinion was that he had 'been thrown into a fit of passion over our dear, tiny, nine-thousand year old Quel'dorei friend.' But all too soon, she had to depart.

"And, er...If you get any word from my brother about him wanting to 'talk to you,' just...ignore it," Eleanea said. Renais blinked, looking bemused at the comment.

"Alright...Have a good night, love," he said. With that, she left. When she reached home, she found it empty. Hurrying up to her room, she flopped down on the bed, smiling to herself.

"I'm going to get married," she said. She laughed out loud, happier than she had been in a very long time. "I'm getting married." In moments, she fell asleep, still smiling.

Development Goals and Basic Accounts

Last week we updated our development goals for 2008. Generally we noted a number of cool enhancements and investments to LiveJournal that we are working on, including improved search, usability, and site development.

We also wanted to let you know how we hope to accomplish all these things, and how we plan on paying for them. In order to accomplish our stated goals for this year and beyond, we need to increase the revenue gained from both groups of LiveJournal accounts: paid subscription accounts and ad-supported accounts.

As of August 28th, all users will be able to choose to downgrade their account to Basic through their Manage Account page. Additionally, we will start showing advertising to visitors who are not logged in to LiveJournal when they are looking at Basic Account journals and communities.

Basic Account users themselves will not see ads on any Basic journal or community while they are logged in to their account. If you want more information about this, take a look at our new post on lj_2008 where we outline our reasoning.

Indian Flash Fiction Contest

In other news, we are excited to tell you we've launched "Quick Tales" LiveJournal's first initiative for users in India, in celebration of India Independence day, August 15th. "Quick Tales" is a flash fiction writing contest in which we're partnering with Caferati.com, one of India's largest online literary communites. The contest's winners will receive some great prizes and it is open to anyone with a mailing address in India. We hope that users with an interest in Indian writing or just India will watch LiveJournal's india_writing community. That's where the finalists and winners will be announced, so keep an eye on it towards the end of September! If you're in India then enter the contest - if your story is slick and quick (under 500 words) then you could be the lucky winner!

Meanwhile, back at LiveJournal Inc.

We have updated and redesigned our corporate site. The goal of the redesign was twofold: first, to update the look and feel (Dystopia users will appreciate it!); second, we want to provide a destination for prospective employees, partners, and members of the press where they can access important information about the company. Kudos to our design team.