Archive | October 20, 2011

Spooks vs. Bugs – Giraffe Call

Oct20

For YsabetWordsmith‘s prompt.

After Staying in the City (LJ) – from last month’s Giraffe Call.

Commenters: 6

Warning: potential squick – referenced mind/body control

The bugs had a problem.

Paula knew, now, that they weren’t bugs, but the word they used for themselves, Tillalillathianin, twisted strangely in the human part of her brain, so in the parts that were still hers, she still thought of them as “bugs.” Her symbiote didn’t seem to object.

Symbiote. She was still getting used to the feeling of it, to the double-senses inside her and the loss of control of what still seemed like her own body… mostly. She was still getting used to the additions the symbiote had brought, and the echo of its feelings against hers. They all were, symbiotes and hosts, the bonded and those who were still Just Bugs.

But that wasn’t the problem – not quite, at least. The problem was, it seemed, that the Tillalillathianin’s home planet – not their home planet, really, but the one they had conquered the longest ago within their memory; when you asked a bug or a symbiote “what happened to your real home planet?” you got an hour-long headache and no good answers – well, anyway. Either none of the planets the Tillalillathianin had conquered before had an otherworld, or they had never before merged with a race that could see them.

This was causing them some issues, more because the bugs-proper could still not sense the other-beings, the fae and the restless undead and the monsters-under-bed sort of creatures, but those that had been bonded could, and it was freaking out the symbiotes. They kept giving up control of their human hosts every time they saw a ghost, which was, if disorienting, rather entertaining for both ghosts and hosts, and upsetting for the bugs-proper.

The fairies had already figured it out; Paula had a host of the tiny pixies following her around now. The ghosts were beginning to get it, and somebody, she’d been told, had sent the monsters a message.

The spooks were going to spook out the bugs. In the growing part of her brain that was still hers, Paula found this very pleasing indeed.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/154662.html. You can comment here or there.

Creeped

Oct20

For The Cluudle‘s prompt.

Faerie Apoc, Addergoole Year 9 – landing page here (or on LJ)

Commenters: 4

Hell Night, Year 9 of the Addergoole School

“Hey, pretty, pretty, whatcha doing out all alone?” The man against the wall – “man,” because she still hadn’t come up with words that fit for the weird creatures she’d found herself in school with – smirked unkindly at her, and waved his hand at the ground, causing it to buckle and warp under her feet. Ceinwen gritted her teeth and kept walking, trying not to show any fear. It was like getting off at the wrong bus stop – although the people in the numbered streets had been humans, and this guy with the yellowish wood-grain-looking skin and the hair like pine needles didn’t really seem to qualify.

What was she doing out all alone, indeed. She’d lost Ahouva right away – Kendon had grabbed her, told her he had something special for her, and off they’d gone. Jovanna and Æolind had gotten separated in a corner of the hall that had gone all black and inky, and turned Ceinwen and Kay around into a corridor they’d never seen before.

Kay had, as far as Ceinwen could tell, run off through a brick wall. She was still trying to figure out how that had worked, but right now, what she knew was that it left her alone, with creepy yellow guys taunting her, and the hall slowly filling with water.

Water? That was a new one. The stuff around her toes looked like brackish water, though, and it felt like the carpet was water-logged, although it was hard to see it through the greenish liquid. The call-it-water was rising, too, lapping around her ankles. Ceinwen hurried on, trying to get away from wood-boy without looking like she was trying to get away.

“Come on, honey. You don’t want to go swimming, come play with me instead.” He held out a branch – hand, it was a hand – to her, even leaned off the wall like he was going to walk her way. “I can be a lot of fun.”

“No, thanks,” she answered – no need to be rude, it’s possible he was just being friendly, friendly in a creepy way – just as her foot slipped down, down, down, pulling her underwater.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/154523.html. You can comment here or there.

Ghosts of Memory – Rin/Girey – Giraffe Call

Oct20

For kelkyag‘s prompt.

Reiassan. Reisassn has a landing page – here (or on LJ)

Probably after Bed-Warmer (LJ) but maybe after after Enemy, in which case the first paragraph will have to change.

Commenters: 5

Rin had gone, over the week after they left Ossulund, from whistling to thoughtful, with glances at Girey he was pretty sure she didn’t think he noticed. That suited him; he had his own thoughts to ponder.

Sarella, the pretty little blonde who had more than a little cause to remember him fondly and fair reason to expect him to rescue her, had gotten him thinking. The thoughts weren’t the most comfortable, either, chafing like his shirt no longer did, now that Rin had dressed him up like a Callanthe noble.

“So what’s the difference?” he asked her back, in a sunny moment of quiet on the trail.

“The difference?” She hadn’t even jumped, but she did frown back at him.

“You said that your people don’t keep slaves.” He jangled his chains at her. “But you take captives.”

“A slave is a possession, yes?” she asked, her Bitrani, as always, careful and stilted. “But a captive has a chance of being anything.”

“But you’re not going to take your prisoners of war and put them to work running your towns, for instance. You have war-brides like Sarella – the girl in Ossulund? In Bitrani, we’d call her a slave. And you have captives like me.” And he wasn’t going to think about the possibility that his position might be the same as Sarella’s. “What about the rest of them?” What were they doing with his countrymen? “You told that farmer he’d go back to his family. Is that common practice?”

Now, she turned to regard him with a strange look, one he hadn’t seen on her face before. On a Bitrani officer, he’d think it was respect, but from her, he couldn’t be certain. “Enlisted men, yes,” she answered carefully. “Farmers, workers, Their families and villages need them.”

“Good.” He paused, thinking about that for a moment, before he added “Thank you.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/154262.html. You can comment here or there.

Brief Apperance notes on Timora

Oct20

Timora, from Fae-Bane

Her photoref pre-change is this; I’m still chewing on her Change.

She’s on the part of the family tree that involves Smitty http://pics.livejournal.com/aldersprig/pic/00044hd5 – who is a kelpie – and several non-canon characters. I *know* her change involves water/water spirits – I’m thinking a semi-water-horse-faun thing?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/153952.html. You can comment here or there.

Very Quick Giraffe Call update

Oct20

Work & home stuff kept the writing short yesterday, but the donations have been filling my giraffey bank! We’ve reached the third donation incentive – if you only left one or two prompts, please feel free to go back and add a second/third!

DW – here

LJ – here

*dance*

Thank you all for all the support!!

(the original incentive was “write to all the prompts received in 24 hours,” but that’s not all that many more than the $65-level, soooooo….)

You can read all the giraffe call stories on this tag (or this one)


This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/153601.html. You can comment here or there.