Archive | December 9, 2013

Be a Part of My World: An Auction for Edally Academy (my upcoming webserial)

Dec9

I have opened up an auction post for my upcoming webserial, Edally Academy.

Edally is a Steampunk Boarding School, set in a fictional semi-fantasy setting on a continent called Reiassan. It’s a setting I’ve used often for fantasy stories in earlier eras of the setting (see the Reiassan landing page), as well as exploring the steampunk era.

The auction offers up a wide range of people, buildings, and things within the setting and the story to name – the House of the school the protagonist is part of, the Head of her House, the classroom Hall she studies in, the food she has for dinner.

Proceeds from this auction will work as a start-up fund for the webserial – art, advertising, domain name, server space, and so on.

Even if you’re not interested in bidding, please boost the signal.

Thanks!

Being Wanted

Dec9

To rix_Scaedu‘s request to this call for Addergoole prompts.

The thing that students didn’t understand, Maureen mused, and then, in her mind, corrected herself. One of the things students didn’t understand is that a two-year-old was still plenty aware enough to notice things, and a three-year-old even more so.

One of the things two- and three-year-olds noticed was when some of their peers left the school, and others didn’t. They noticed when Adorlee and Aceline’s mother came to visit, and Harvey and Miliana’s mother didn’t. They noticed gifts and new clothes and special attention paid – and it gave them a standard against to measure the attention their own parents gave them.

Shiva’s three had packed up their belongings and cheerfully hopped into a car with their mother. Mea’s four had done the same. Mabina’s had never lived in the creche; Eriko and Callista took their children and fled.

Ivette’s children and Xaviera’s older two watched this with interest, never asking why they weren’t going, what was going to happen. And then Anwell came for Ivette’s Lidah, and then Adrian for her son (his son) Oliver, and that left of that year Harvey and Miliana.

They didn’t say anything that year. They went back to playing, and that was fine. They didn’t say anything the next year, when Wren and Rowan, Lydia and Eris, Genevieve and ‘Lisha all took their children, or the next year, when Manira left hers.

It was the end of year eleven, when Miliana was seven, that she crawled up into Maureen’s lap and asked the impossible question. “Lady Maureen?”

“Yes, sweetness?” She was a beautiful girl. Her parents were both lovely; it remained to see whether the poison in both of them would be carried in her as well.

“Condwiramur and Sprout’s mom, and Laima and Ama’s, they came and took them. But not everyone’s mom or dad takes them.”

“That is true.” Maureen had had this conversation before. Not many times, but she imagined the number would keep going up.

“My mom doesn’t love me, does she?”

“I do not know what is in the core of your mother’s heart, Miliana, and no-one but she can truly know that. What I know is that she and I spoke when she left, and the felt that you would be better served – safer, warmer, happier – here, where you had grown up. She wanted you and Harvey to be happy and safe, Miliana.”

Those weren’t the words that Xaviera had used, but they would do. Maureen finished with some that were entirely her own. “And we wanted you to be cherished, and warm, and safe. We wanted you here, in the creche, with us.” Maureen placed a careful kiss on the girl’s forehead. “We wanted you here.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/614646.html. You can comment here or there.

Santa

Dec9

To stryck‘s request to this call for Addergoole prompts.

Leithe first shows up here.

Christmas Morning, Year 10 of the Addergoole School

Leithe opened the door Christmas morning – Shang’s door, though he kept saying it was their door – to a stack of brightly-wrapped packages.

“Shang? Did you order… presents?” She tried not to sound hopeful. She tried not to feel hopeful. He wasn’t very good at this whole thing, and she still wasn’t sure he understood that he was supposed to be trying.

“Order? No, uh.” She heard something shuffling around in the room. “I didn’t order any. Why?”

“There’s a stack of presents out here. My name, your name.” She glanced down the hall. “Everyone has them.” In the other direction, she saw Orlaith picking up a stack from outside Accalon’s door. “Not all the same, I don’t think. But everyone has something.”

“Hunh. Well, it is… nope, no ticking. You can bring them in, if you want.”

“I wonder if they’re from my parents. The ones to me, I mean. My parents don’t really write or anything but maybe they sent presents…” She was doing that thing where she kept talking. She pressed her lips together, picked up the presents, and brought them back into the room.

She had to struggle with them – the presents were heavy, and bulky – and was surprised when she found Shang helping her, taking the bulkiest ones from her. “Here. Here, you didn’t say they were that big. What… Idu Unutu… hunh. No poison, no bombs. Over here.”

Over here surprised her again; there was a tiny fake tree on his desk, that hadn’t been there before, and four small presents underneath.

In the hallway, someone was shouting. “Someone got me the Supername CD I wanted. Santa got me the CD I wanted!”

Leithe looked at the presents in her arms, labelled From Santa. Then the looked at Shang.

“Are you smiling? Are you crying?” He looked nervous. That was new.

“Both?” She was pretty sure she was doing both.

“Is that good?”

“I… yes?” She rubbed at her eyes. “Yes. I think so.”

“Good…. that’s good. Merry Christmas, Leithe.”

Outside, another voice was shouting about a rare strand of black pearls. Leithe shut the door.

“Merry Christmas, Shang.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/614246.html. You can comment here or there.