Archive | November 2014

Beyond the ‘Basket, a story for #3ww

Nov12

Written to the Three-Word Wednesday Prompt: Crucial, malignant, yearning
Also written as a tiny character study for my next piece of my #nanowrimo: The Despot of Santa Roux Finds Love.

“Listen, it’s crucial that we get this shipment across the ‘basket.” Marie frowned at the steamboat driver, because she had yet to find that smiling did any good.

“And it’s ‘crucial’ that I get paid.” Marcus Wainwright grinned back at Marie, which he could get away with because he had the boat and what she had was a pile of fruit and wheat and a deadline.

“And we get paid at the other end of the ‘basket. Mar- Mr. Wainwright, we’ve been doing this for months. Years.”

“And that was all well and good, because you always paid. But then when my boat got attacked by bandits – well, I was out two good boat hands and the price of your shipment. I need to get paid, Miss Tanner.”

Marie took a breath. Marcus Wainwright was the most vile businessmen, the most malignant tumor on the face of the river, the most obnoxious handsome smile that she had ever seen. But he was the captain they had, the only captain that was willing to traverse the dangerous and bandit-and-slaver-ridden ‘Basket. Or, at the very least, he was the only one still alive. “If I can get you two more boat hands for this route, will you do it?”

“Where are you going to find two boat hands on this short of notice, Miss Tanner? I’ve combed every river town this side of the ‘basket. Have you been hiding them up your skirt?” He leered nastily in her direction.

She set her jaw. “In a manner of speaking. The boat hands I’m mentioning would be my brother – who I suppose people might think had hidden behind my skirts, although it’s a lie – and myself.”

If nothing else, it was worth it, whatever may come, for the stunned look on Marcus Wainwright’s face. And maybe a trip on a riverboat would solve this stupid yearning she could not seem to get rid of.

And it would, for all time, get her brother rid of the rumour that he hid behind her skirts.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/847047.html. You can comment here or there.

Just a fragment of Luke visiting Doomsday

Nov10

Please note I’m very tired and I’m not entirely sure about… like 9/10 of this piece. After Discoveries about Doomsday.

Luke leaned against the hallway wall for a minute, his wings splayed from a portrait of George Washington to one of Geronimo. He found his hand reaching for a weapon he’d politely not carried into town, and pressed his palms against his thighs instead.

Nehara’s gaze caught it all. “Sir?” She tilted her head, her voice softening. “Is… everything all right?”

Carefully, he folded his wings. Damnit, he had better control than this. “Learn something new every day.”

“As long as you live, my grandfather likes to say. And, being fae, that can be a long time and a lot of learning. Or so he says.” She bowed her head. “Sorry. I know, I’m just a kid.”

Luke know he wasn’t the most observant of guys – if nothing else, this new revelation rubbed that in – but he could tell that was out of as much character of Nehara’s as he’d been able to pick up already. “Hey.” He flapped his wings at her, just enough to get her attention. “I’ve been best friends with a succubus for centuries. I can notice a thing or two.”

Her lips curled, just a little bit. “We don’t have many, here. Succubi.”

“Jut you.”

“Well. Ah. You noticed.”

“I noticed.” He coughed. “I can notice something, once in a while. Even if I missed…”

“Something we’re pretty sure sa’Feu Drake meant everyone to miss?” She flashed him a bright smile. “Their crew is called ‘Boom’ for more than one reason, sir.”

“And we’ve been waiting for the explosion for decades.”

“Sonic boom, sir. I think that’s what it’s called.”

“Sonic…” He closed his wings tightly. “By the time we hear the sound, the explosion is already past.”

“Pretty sure you’re standing in the ‘pit’ sir.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/846578.html. You can comment here or there.

All Yours

Nov10

Priming the pump again. Writing a little non-Nano to get myself going.

Caroline swallowed. “You’re sure… sir?”

“I’m sure.” Jaden handed her the leash. “I promise you, I am certain about this, and no negative repercussions will come down on you for this.”

She took the leash as if it were a snake. “You said…”

“I said a lot of things, and most of them were wrong. I’m sorry for that, but this, I’m fairly certain you want this.”

“Well, a little bit, yeah…. but you’re in charge. You’re the Keeper.”

“And I’m still your Keeper. But for the next day, you’re in charge. As long as you keep to the rules-“

She found herself smiling. “I’m not very in charge if I have to keep to rules, am I?”

“Well…” It was interesting, to watch him smile. “All right. You have a point. It would be better if you kept any overt stuff inside the room, okay? It’s easier to protect you if people don’t think you’re topping from the bottom.”

She pondered that. Things were safer, being with him. “All right. So-“

“So, for the next twenty-four hours, I promise to do whatever you say, as if I were Kept. And for the next twenty-four hours, none of my orders hold sway over you.” He dropped to his knees. “In effect, I’m all yours.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/846286.html. You can comment here or there.

Waking Up In Cali, a ficlet xover (@inventrix)

Nov9

This is a break from Nano, essentially: Kyle, Lady Maureen, and his succubus half-sister (Ivette) are Addergoole characters; the setting is Tír na Cali..

Kyle woke up in a small concrete room, on a small, hard bed, wearing nothing but his skin – his Masked skin, he checked – and with the familiar feeling of a collar heavy on his neck.

And it was heavy, the sort of thing only sadistic or control-freak Keepers put on their Kept. He touched it; it felt plasticy and thick, hard and not giving at all. And locked on.

Okay. Memories. He needed some of those. He’d been out at a bar – well, that sort of thing happened when you were in college, and he didn’t want to be that strange. And then there’d been the weird rainfall, and he and Dave and Jerry had hopped through it to a bar none of them could remember seeing before. And then… then there’d been a redhead.

He tried not to think too much about how much redheads did him in. He knew more about his mother than he ought to, and he knew more about himself than he ought to, and that being said, she hadn’t looked anything like either his mother or his succubus half-sister, except that she’d had flaming red hair.

So bar, alcohol, redhead… “Fuck.” He ran his hand over the collar again. “Fuck, fuck, shit.” Well, once he could get to a phone – assuming he didn’t have orders not to – he could probably get in touch with his mother, and Lady Maureen could probably make this go away.

He didn’t feel guilty about that. He ought to feel guilty… shouldn’t he?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/845825.html. You can comment here or there.

Look, not a #Nano post! Things Learned about Gardening This Week/end

Nov9

Gardening – well, anything really, but today I’m talking about gardening – is a learning experience. Even harvesting.

This weekend, we learned:

Hot Peppers: The very tip of a hot pepper isn’t indicative of the rest of the pepper.

T. cut off the tip for me to taste, to gauge hotness so we knew how much to put in our enchiladas. Nothing. So he sliced off another tiny slice.

Burning, so much burning. Drinking milk, drinking cider, crying. Well, not quite crying. So much burning.

Turns out those were the ghost peppers. Whoops!

Hot Peppers, part II: When drying hot peppers in the oven, check the oven before turning it on to make cookies.

Then again, it’s not the first time we’ve learned that. You could smell the capsaicin all the way in the other end of the house.

Carrots: Can overwinter just fine in the garden, just mulched over a bit. Also, given a raised bed with fresh compost + peat, they go wild. These things are huge!

(Also purple. But that was on purpose).

Kale: a fitted queen bedsheet works great as a row cover on frosty mornings, esp. for a 4×6 foot raised bed. On the other hand, kale doesn’t give a shit about frost and the bed we didn’t cover was just fine.

Tomatillos: aren’t supposed to get ripe. Also, if you plant a tiny free tomatillo plant and let it go, it will take over a whole bed.

Broccoli: get huge! if you let it flower.

And, considering the tomato blight and the ridiculously sad squash harvest, we’re really glad we don’t depend on our garden for our food.

All in all, an educational week!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/845650.html. You can comment here or there.

An outtake from my story: 95 words about hair & shoes

Nov9

I challenged Capriox to write 25 words about hair as a warm-up and, um:

Avery didn’t think about her hair, more than you had to to keep it from falling off of your head. It was there. Brown, a little bit greasy when she ignored it too long. Hair. Kendra’s hair, on the other hand, was a thing of beauty, twists and turns, braids and beads and the whole thing looking like a modern art project. On the other hand, Kendra didn’t like her shoes, not at all, and Avery had bought every single pair of shoes in her size at the goodwill, the Salvo, and the Thrifty Shopper.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/845339.html. You can comment here or there.

Nano Day Five: First and Last lines of yesterday

Nov7

First Line of Yesterday: It was the goose they had to go after, though, no matter how wild.

Last Line of Yesterday: “…And then a storm came up.”

I wrote 2,540 words yesterday, for a total of 15,150.

This is where I was going to be done with this story. <.< I think I can wrap it up in about 1000 more words.

Par for yesterday (my style) is 12,500, so I’m still maintaining my one-day-ahead lead.

At this rate, I will finish on 11/24/14! (probably still won’t)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/844819.html. You can comment here or there.

Nano Day Five: First and Last lines of yesterday

Nov6

First Line of Yesterday: “You really hate her, don’t you?”

“You know why.”

Last Line of Yesterday: …no signs that anyone or anything had lived here since the buildings fell. Maybe they hadn’t. Maybe this was a wild goose chase.

I wrote 2,515 words yesterday, for a total of 12,612

Par for yesterday (my style) is 10,000, so I’m maintaining my one-day-ahead lead.

At this rate, I will finish on 11/23/14! (no I won’t.)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/844312.html. You can comment here or there.