Archive | February 5, 2014

The Cat in the Window, a story for Wordless Wednesday #5

Feb5

This is written in response to Wordless Wednesday #5, from Roc Nano, a Nanowrimo writing group based in my hometown.

“It’s a snow cat.” Dorothy leaned on the windowsill, looking placidly at her creation. “See, there’s her tail, and her ears.”

“She has a very short tail.” Adam was less impressed. Adam was less impressed by most things, though.

“It’s a Manx snow cat. They exist, you know.”

“You just couldn’t make a tail properly, could you?”

“I didn’t make it.” She didn’t even bother looking at him when she said it. “It just appeared.”

It took her brother a moment to decide to ignore that. “What’s it doing in the window, anyway? Aren’t snowmen -“

“It’s a snow cat.”

“-snow creatures supposed to be out in the yard where people can see them?” Adam got the smug look that he always did when he’d made a point.

“I suppose it wants to come in.” Dorothy breathed on the window and drew cat ears in the condensation.

“It doesn’t even look like a cat.” Adam shook his head. “And now you think it wants to come in?“

“Well, it’s rubbing against the window, look.” The snow-thing seemed closer, now, the snowy globe that served as a head pressed against the glass. “I’m going to let it in.”

Adam’s lip wobbled. “I’m telling mom!”

He fled before Dorothy got the latch on the window open.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/658681.html. You can comment here or there.

Balancing Odds

Feb5

For [profile] kunama_wolf‘s prompt to my December Bingo Card – it fills the “evening the odds” square.

Addergoole has a landing page here on DW and here on LJ; the original series lives here.

1800, somewhere in England

Feu Drake eyed the woman in front of him over his tea. “You are an interesting woman.”

“Thank you.” She sipped her tea in turn, decorous despite the shackles on her wrists. “And you are an interesting young man… Ignazio, was it?”

“That’s as good a name as any.”

“‘Fire,’ jae’Fire-Drake. You are not interested in subtlety, are you?”

“I am not certain jae is appropriate here, Miss… Attwater, was it?”

“Du’Nicor.”

“Ah, yes. Maya Attwater, named the Nicor. You liked that better than knucker, or you were Named when the word was still nicor?“

“You’re a well-educated young man, aren’t you?”

“I endeavor to be. Although I would argue the young in any company but yours.” He sipped his tea again – it was a very nice blend – and smirked at the woman.

“Are you calling me old, Ignazio?”

“Far be it from me to impugn my elders.”

“At this rate, I’m going to believe you don’t actually like me.” Her shackles clattered as she sipped her tea. “You do get such good tea. however do you do it?”

“I own a tea room, Miss Attwater. It comes with the territory.”

“And such an interesting occupation that is for one of your lineage…”

“But you presume again.”

“I am known to be presumptuous. Now, tell me, are these silly shackles really necessary?”

“Miss Attwater, you are known to be several things. One of them is, indeed, presumptuous. Another is that you are almost universally fatal to the men you spend time with. And, as you have expressed some interest in spending some time with me, in, I believe you said, seeing what there was to see when you got this suit off of me, well, yes. I believe they are necessary.”

“They wouldn’t stop me, you know.”

“I am simply evening the odds, Miss Attwater.”

“Do you really have to call me that?” She set her tea down with a thump.

Finally, Feu Drake smiled. “Miss Attwater, there are any number of things I could call you. considering your situation, I think, if I were you, I would be satisfied with the niceties.”

Her shackled hand raised halfway to the collar around her neck – like the rest of the chains holding her, it was made of wood – and then dropped back to her lap as her chains pulled her short. “You are quite unfair.”

“That, my lovely Maya, is the point.”

See wiki here, for Nicor/knucker, and wiki here for tearoom.

Feu Drake teaches Law at Addergoole.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/658304.html. You can comment here or there.

Snowed In

Feb5

Technically, I might have been able to make it to work. It’s not a state of emergency, just a state of “Hrrm, might be inadvisable to travel.”

I stayed home.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/658165.html. You can comment here or there.

February is World Building Month. Day Five: Vas’ World

Feb5

[personal profile] piratekitten has declared February world-building month.

Every day in February, I will answer one question about any one of my settings.

The question post is here, please feel free to add more questions!

The fifth question comes from [personal profile] clare_dragonfly and is for Vas’ World

Are there other colonized planets in this universe?

Yes. 🙂

The feeling I have for Vas’ World is that the team comes from a densely settled grouping of worlds which is engaged in the slow and steady exploration and colonization of worlds further and further away, including engaging in diplomatic relations with other sentient species.

They have been working on colonizing worlds long enough that the original drop team that accidentally landed here has had time to adapt, evolve, and create a new society; at least a century, no matter what Lord of the Flies tells us.

(This might actually go along with my “colony” subcategory of Misc: Space stories).

Vas’ team’s job is to scout out the world for possible colonization; they are the preliminary team. Had everything been normal, a smoothing-and-starting team would have come in, and then, after that, the colonists. The organization they work for has this down to an artform, with procedures and rules for every experienced situation – this is part of the problem; they have never before experienced a lost colony (somehow).

In terms of extant sci-fi universes, this feels like Heinlein, Asimov, Star Trek – humanity started spreading out and just kept spreading out. Losses of a single colony ship here and there were, like losses of a wagon on the Oregon trail, sad but to be expected.

My feel is that Vas’ world is far enough off the beaten path that it was not slated to be explored until many closer planets had been colonized. How the original team ended up there is still a mystery (unless that story floating around about a planet that popped out of nowhere is in this world…)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/657588.html. You can comment here or there.