Archive | August 14, 2014

A Week In Alder

Aug14

The Highlights

A Few Stories
Through the Blank Plains
Robot – both in the Clockwork Apoc.
Bad Reception – in the Faerie Apoc setting.
The Daily Grind – for [community profile] dailyprompt: Every day, the same ‘ol grind.

A Bit of My Life
The Hazards of Being Sick & Grown-Up
Spanish Rice (Recipe Blogpost)

My Webserials
Edally Academy: Interlude – The Dormitories
Jumping Rings: Chapter Four – Duck

Feedback Requested
A Meme! – Give me a line of a story I haven’t Written
Character Motivations – Name any character of mine

Other People: Book Launches
Toad Words by ursulav
Vinny the Armadillo Makes a Friend! by haikujaguar
Some Things Transcend and 2nd Edition Even the Wingless by haikujaguar

Other People: Prompt Calls
K Orion Fray has a Prompt Call open for fiction – the theme is revenge.
[personal profile] inventrix is looking for demifiction prompts for her Saeland (Invisible Dragons) setting.

Fiction

Clockwork Apocalypse
The Job – Three Word Wednesday
The Easy Way & Hard (for Three-Word Wednesday)

Addergoole & Post-Apoc
The Clean-Up (Post-Addergoole Apoc: Baram’s Elves)
Not All Bad (Blaecleah’s story, Yr 27)
Rick-(steam)Rolled by Loooove (songfic)
The Dead Gods Come Visiting
Reynard Spills His Story – Reynard’s story (post-apoc)
…Tied up With String♪♪

Reiassan – Steam
Character Meme – Tairiekie
Character Meme – Tairiekie

Reiassan Demifiction
Pieces of non-fiction written in a fictional fantasy setting
The Prompt Call
Shoes & Fashion
History Text
Notes from Sandrenno of Ferania
Book Review: The Ideztozhyuh Strode Out of the Mountain
Wanted Poster

Boom Town & Doomsday Academy
Center Street

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/776439.html. You can comment here or there.

The Daily Grind

Aug14

From [community profile] dailyprompt, 2014-08-14: “I’ve never met anyone like you.

She’d sit down. She’d buy a drink and then, after a moment’s consideration or an hour’s, she’d buy him one too.

She’d slowly lose the tension that held her shoulders stiff, as she even more slowly sipped her second drink, or her third.

And he’d wait until he saw that tilt of her head, and he’d wander over, nursing the drink she’d bought him. He’d slide into a seat, just so, letting her grope him with her eyes until she’d had her fill. He’d sip his drink like he was making love to it, until her eyes filled in the blanks.

“I’ve never met anyone like you,” she’d say, or “you’re nothing like the guys at home,” or “you’re new.”

And he’d smile, and blush prettily, and say something that said nothing, something that pulled the attention back to her.

And she’d bring the circle back to him again, sooner or later, another drink in or three.

“You’re a really good listener,” or “I haven’t met many guys as well-dressed as you,” or “you have really nice eyes.”

And he would smile, and blush prettily, and say something that said nothing, and they’d talk about her some more.

And she would invite him up to her room, or she wouldn’t, or she’d invite himself up to his room, or they’d end up in the Jacuzzi. She’d run her hands over his body, and she’d murmur words like “I could just eat you up” or “how are you even real?”

And he would smile, and blush prettily, and say something that said nothing, and then his mouth would be otherwise busy for a while.

And she’d make noises, little ones or loud ones or screaming, and she’d arch and pant or hold very still or yank his hair, and when the alcohol and the exercise had done its job, and she’d passed him over handfuls of money or passed out and left him to take it on his own, he’d slide back out the door, and take a long shower, and a long nap.

And then he’d do it again.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/776006.html. You can comment here or there.

Boom Town: Center Street

Aug14

I’ve been working on the map for Boom Town lately…

Boom Town has three Center Streets, down the center of each circle, wider and with broader sidewalks than the side streets.

Walk down any one of them within the first two years of the city’s founding, and it will be strangely Oz-like: here you are, walking down a broad boulevard, waving wheat to one side, then cotton, corn to the other, then hay. Ducks and chickens wander, their coops barely visible as little roofs above the grain.

And straight down the road, you can see the tower, twisting towards the sky, and a tiny cluster of buildings at its feet.

Walk down the roads four or five years after the city’s founding, and it will seem a bit more odd, perhaps. The road still goes straight to the tower, and the buildings near the center still rise up against the walls as if trying to reach that edifice. But the closer you get to the center, the more houses you can see, just a block away from Center Street, gathered in blocks amongst the grain.

An inn greets you at the gate and, across the street, a restaurant. Closer to the tower, merchants clamor for your business. It’s almost alive.

Six, seven years after the city’s founding, it’s harder to walk straight down Center Street. Wagons, horses, foot traffic, and the very rare automobile clog the road and the sidewalk.

Both sides of the road are lined with businesses – store fronts, restaurants, markets, and service providers (massage, hairdressing, sex…) – and down the side streets, one can see houses far more frequently, almost every other block.

Down the road towards the tower, the traffic is thicker, the storefronts fuller, and the noises and sounds of production, machines clanking, can be heard over the crowds. It’s turning into a city.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/775497.html. You can comment here or there.

Chewing on Character Motivations, Follow-Up

Aug14

I posted last week about character motivations and asked for character prompts, so that I could think about & discuss their driving forces.

So far I’ve posted:
* Rozen
* Maureen, Lady Foxglove
* Rin
* Caitrin
* Morrigan

And am certainly open to more.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/775254.html. You can comment here or there.

Notes from Sandrenno of Ferania (Reiassan Demifiction)

Aug14

Notes from Sandrenno of Ferania, Bitrani Ambassador to Lannamer in ~725 R – the paper has been chewed at, leaving us only some of his thoughts.

As found in the Lannamer Museum under “Bitrani and Calenyena Relations.”

[text obscured]
does not grow here with the ease that it grows at home, and thus they must find substitutes, poor as they are. I recommend any posted here to have a strong stomach and an iron constitution, or one will soon grow sick of parsnips and parsnips.

Their sweets, however – and they love sweets – are a curious and yet delicious [text obscured].

In short, be prepared and bring a supply of edible food with you.

Clothing
These people but an almost-superstitious amount of weight on their clothing, and thus, any ambassador here will have to pay close attention to every piece of garb they wear, no matter how it goes against the grain of our plain Bitrani souls.

And yet, even paying attention, we will stand out – they care which side your tunic is buttoned on, where we wear ours buttoned down the center. They care what colors are showing – or how many, or in what order.

Showing, you ask? Yes. They wear layer after layer after layer here – needed in their winters, but I do not know how they handle it in summer – and the fancier the dress, the more wealthy the person, the more the lower layers show and the more elaborate they are.

In addition to the tunics themselves, the accessories speak their own language. To begin with, there are bracelets that their “Bevvai” wear (nobody will explain to me what a “Bevvai” is), bangles that appear to lock on, patterned in the gods’ colors and run through with more sira than any piece of jewelry [text obscured]

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/775000.html. You can comment here or there.