Archive | June 2013

Bracken, her first year

Jun13

Fourth in a series of character-building vignettes following a bunch of characters through their time at Addergoole & beyond.

Fafnir shows up in Addergoole: Year 9 in Æowyn’s chapter. We have seen Bracken once before, many years later in her life – Amends.

Addergoole, Year 11, early October
“I need to meet D.J.” Bracken braced herself, head down, looking at Fafnir’s chest instead of his face. When she had to, she could do non-confrontational. She had enough practice at it.

“D.J.? Why?” Fafnir, on the other hand, had never had to be non-confrontational in his life, and it showed. “I’ll have to take you out to the Village; I don’t think it’s keeping regular office hours right now.”

Bracken wondered at the it but didn’t ask. “Professor Akatil thought D.J. would be a good Mentor for me.” Every other Mentor-possibility had gone badly so far; even Professor Valerian didn’t really want to deal with her. Everyone had suggested Doug or Akatil. She couldn’t stand to get near the former, and the latter… he’d taken one look at her, asked her five pointed questions, and said “D.J. The Procurer will be able to help you.”

The Procurer seemed like a good bet. Now, all she needed was to be able to get out the door and meet this mysterious person.

“All right.” Fafnir came to whatever decision he was coming to. “Get your shoes on and grab a coat. It can get cold outside.”

Coat? Outside? She followed her orders without question, took Fafnir’s hand when it was offered, and followed him silently outside. He was in a hurry, dragging her along, so she had little time to marvel at the orchard, or the meadow, or the tiny imitation town that was, apparently, the Village. He pulled her down the pretty garden path to the fairy-tale cottage and pounded on the door.

A skinny woman? man? person opened the door. Behind them, a toddler appeared to be holding on to its tail. Fairies, Bracken reminded herself. Fairies. Magical Fairies. “Fafnir?”

“D.J. This is Bracken, she’s my Kept. She needs a Mentor. Can you bring her back when you’re done?”

“Tchah. Yes, of course. Come on in, Bracken, pleased to meet you. Go on, Fafnir, be somewhere else. He’s not all that comfortable with the Daeva-blooded.” D.J. said the last in an aside to Bracken, but before the door was closed. “I think he likes people in nice binary boxes, and, between you and I, I’m really not like that.”

“I can hear you.”

“Two, three hours. Four at the most. Go on, now, the child needs a Mentor and you’ve brought her to me.” With that, D.J. shut the door in Fafnir’s face. When he… she… maybe that’s why they said it… when D.J. turned to look at Bracken, it was with a completely different expression, far more piercing. “Well, then. You need a Mentor and you’ve come to me. Let’s see what we’ve got, shall we?”

This might work out after all. Bracken cleared her throat and began to explain her position.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/540960.html. You can comment here or there.

Rohanna, her first year

Jun12

Third in a series of character-building vignettes following a bunch of characters through their time at Addergoole & beyond.

I haven’t written about Rohanna before, but Dyfri shows up here, as well as here/.

Late December, Year 10 of the Addergoole School.

“Seriously?” Rohanna flopped back down in her chair, making as much noise as she could with the sitting.

“Seriously. Ro, I want to talk about the way you’ve been acting.” Dyfri looked at her with big, green eyes, somehow managing to make it seem like he was looking up at her, despite the fact that he was standing and she was sitting.

“What about it?” She kicked her feet out, taking up as much space as possible. He might have said sit, but he hadn’t said sit nicely. Yet. Dyfri was weird with orders, really. He’d dance around giving her any orders at all, and then suddenly pop out with a whole bunch of ridiculous orders out of nowhere. “I’ve been acting like me.”

“Really?” He pulled up the second chair and sat down, backwards, like he was trying to be casual. Like he was trying to be her friend. “It looks to me like you’re trying to cause as much trouble for me as you possibly can.”

Rohanna felt a surge of guilt. Bad girl. Troublesome Kept. She pushed it down ruthlessly. “Maybe you should let me go, then. Since, you know, I’m so much trouble.”

“We both know I’m not going to do that. If I let you go, someone else will just grab you. And you’ve been doing pretty well at making yourself all the enemies, Ro. You don’t want one of them to grab you, believe me.”

She didn’t need the order. She knew that. “I know what I’m getting into now. They won’t be able to sneak up on me and grab me like you did. Trick me into it.”

“They won’t need to. The guys – and girls – you’ve pissed off, they’ll just go straight for the Control Mind and you’ll find yourself saying the words anyway.”

“Like being Kept.”

“And then you will be Kept. By someone not as nice as me. So, tell me, what do I need to do to get you to stop acting out so much?”

The order – whether he’d meant it or not – forced the truth out of her, when she hadn’t decided yet what she was going to tell him. “Order me not to.”

“Seriously?” It was his turn to look incredulous.

She yanked on the necklace he’d given her – seashells! – in lieu of a collar. “I’m yours. You won’t let me go. I Belong to you. Act like it.”

“Ro…” He looked like a sad kicked-puppy, and Ro felt even worse. “I don’t want to be that guy.”

“You’re responsible for me.” She fought through the rising guilt to be as firm as she could. “Be responsible.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/540611.html. You can comment here or there.

Visit (Footnotes), a continuation of the Aunt Family for the Giraffe Call

Jun11

For [personal profile] kelkyag‘s prompt. After Genre, most recently. Yes, there will be more: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/543285.html

Aunt Rosaria had declaimed her declamation, and then she had fallen silent. Not just quiet – silent. Eva had to check three times to be sure her elderly relative was still breathing.

She’d tried to ask questions a few times, but Rosaria stopped her with a raised hand each time. Finally, Eva fell silent as well, focusing on the road. “Drive straight” was an easy enough direction to follow, after all. So she drove straight, and worried at the feeling “archetypes” left in her mind.

“Left at the stop sign.” Rosaria’s voice broke the silence. Eva jerked the wheel but caught herself quickly. “And then the first left. Stop at the gate.”

Left, left, stop. Eva didn’t answer. It didn’t seem the time for unnecessary words, and, besides, her heart was in her throat. Left, at a stop sign holding down three cornfields and a wheat field. Left, into a gravel driveway that went two car-lengths before stopping at a high iron gate.

Iron. Eva stopped the car, turned it off, and tilted her head to Rosaria. Now what?

“Use your words, Evangaline. Now we wait. Willard will either come get us, or he won’t. If he doesn’t, we leave him a message. If he does – well, then, you are educated further on what it means to be of this family. Something Asta sorely neglect-“

The gate swung open.

“Very good. We walk, of course. Don’t bother locking the car.” Rosaria swung out of her seat. “Well? Come on.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/540379.html. You can comment here or there.

Deaths in the Faerie Apocalypse, Part III

Jun10

A discussion in several parts of the near-extinction of humanity in my Faerie Apocalypse Setting.
The Gods’ Return: here
The Terms Used: here.

The returned gods killed a large number of people by direct or indirect smiting; in the process of claiming the cities, they killed an exponentially larger number with collateral damage.

When those Ellehemaei who had been here on Earth all along (or been born on Earth since the gods departed) got in on the act, fighting back against the returned gods, the collateral damage only got worse.

This is important, because what the humans tended to see was simply two freaks of nature tearing down buildings in their fight (flooding rivers, changing the course of storms, lighting city blocks on fire, and so on). They had – history, at least, had – no patience for divisions of “protecting humanity” vs. “enslaving humanity,” because all of these creatures were causing damage in their fighting.

The U.S. National Guard* had begun to mobilize as the first major damage occurred, but it was not until months later, when Los Angeles fell entirely under the sway of The Green Man, that Congress declared war on the invading army of gods.

At this point, the collateral damage numbers skyrocketed once again. War is a messy thing; war on your home territory is a horrible thing. Soldiers were sent unprepared into battle against gods (and there was only so well they could be prepared, even with advisers who knew what the Ellehemaei were and how to fight them); they died by the hundreds, and then by the thousands.

Then some genius discovered that you could kill an Ellehemaei if you dropped a big enough bomb on its head.

* Now with asterisk! – I am familiar enough with the U.S. response to be able to hazard a guess what they would do; I am far less familiar with the threat/disaster response in other countries. If those with familiarity there would like to lend a hand, I’d be appreciative.

Part IV – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/546168.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/540099.html. You can comment here or there.

Orlaith, Her First Year

Jun10

Second in a series of character-building vignettes following a bunch of characters through their time at Addergoole & beyond. Orlaith we’ve seen much later in her life, in the series with her son Hunter-Hale and her later Kept Adder.

(Ora tag here)
(Adder tag here)
(Hunter-Hale tag here)

The Dreamwidth icon is Orlaith’s daughter Ce’Rilla.

Content warning: Hell Night

Hell Night, Year 10 of the Addergoole School

“Come on, come on, be mine and all the pain will stop.” Someone – she couldn’t see who – had Orlaith bent backwards until she felt like her spine would snap, another hand on her ankles like he was trying to turn her into a wheel. Orlaith made a little noise of pain, and then did the thing she did best.

“Come on,” she echoed back at him, but her tone was coaxing, harmless. “You don’t really want me, do you? You want a prettier girl. Someone stronger, someone more obedient? I’m not really your type of girl, am I?”

She didn’t know what was going on, but she was pretty sure if it involved having your spine nearly snapped to get there, she didn’t want any of it.

“Yeah, I probably don’t want you. Hurry up, get out of here.”

And like that, he let her go. Orlaith wasted no time at all in getting out of there. Sometimes, they listened when she did that. A lot of the time, after she stopped talking, they changed her mind.

“That was impressive.” The voice came out of nowhere – smooth, slick. Ora felt an urge to trust the speaker; she turned around to look at him and the urge was overwhelming. Skinny, short for a guy but still taller than her, with dyed-red hair – but all of that was almost a memory, someone she’d seen in the halls. All she could see, now, looking at him, were his eyes, amber as a cat’s and every bit as creepy.

“Thank you?”

“Of course. And now, pretty little liar… now you’re going to be mine. Tempero Intinn Orlaith cy’Valerian. Say that you’re mine.“

“I’m yours.” She couldn’t have said no if she’d wanted to, but she didn’t find herself really wanting to, either.

“Good. Now, Orlaith oro’Accalon, you and I are going to have a talk about judicious use of powers.”

His stern tone sent a strange tingling down to her toes. “What? Powers?” She looked as innocent as she could. I wasn’t doing anything wrong, really. Was I?

He tapped her nose with two fingers. “First, do not use your power on me. Secondly, if you do not learn to corral it on your own, I will corral it for you. And, so you know I’m serious… sit down.”

Orlaith found herself sitting on the carpeted hall, feeling miserably like she’d let down this complete stranger. “What…?” Judicious use of your powers.

“I think this is going to be an educational year for you, Orlaith.”

She was suddenly worried that it would be.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/539729.html. You can comment here or there.

Recipes I want to Try, an ongoing list

Jun8

Ski House Cookbook
Curried Red Lentil Soup (p. 58)
Sautéed Peas with Mushrooms and Bacon (p. 137)

Cook it Quick
Chilaly (p. 46)

Reader’s Digest 30-Minute Cookbook
Baked Cod Plaki (p. 111)
Arabian-Style Beef w/ Flat Bread (p.145)
Leek and Cheddar Cheese tart (p. 237)
Dahl (p. 252)

“Favorite Brand Name” Great Garlic Recipes
Hearty Cassoulet (p. 48)
Crab & Corn Enchilada Casserole (p. 66)
Spicy-Sweet Lamb Tangine with Saffron Couscous (p. 76)
Fajitas (p. 86)

Cooking with Spirits

First trial here: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/542969.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/539276.html. You can comment here or there.

Early June Giraffe Call Open: Finish It!

Jun6

I have opened a Prompt Call!

The theme is Loose Ends; that is, pick an unfinished piece of mine, anywhere in my archives, and I will write approx. 250 more words on that piece.

Prompt as many times as you want; I will write one prompt per person, more as donation/prompter/signal boost incentive allow.

As always, prompting is free; donations will get you 500 more words per $5 donated, on the piece of your choice.

Prompt Away!


Donations go towards summer renovations: still working on the foyer! I want to make a new bench, a storage area, and a slippers-for-guests arrangement. It’s an 8×4 space; budget is $300.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/538875.html. You can comment here or there.