Archive | August 2018

What The Rent?

Aug27

Written to Eseme’s prompt to my new “WTF?” Prompt Call.  Dragons Next Door ‘Verse, definition(s) at bottom. 

You heard things about this city, moving in.

People from nearby cities would whisper about the dragons and the ogres and other, darker creatures.

They’d talk about the pixies dive-bombing cars, or something their mother’s cousin’s wife told them about living near harpies.

All cities had some magical-creature presence.  But in most places, it was completely distinct from the human presence.

Sure, this city had Smokey Knoll, but there was no wall.  There was no dividing line, even, keeping the races separate.  There was just a hill you went up and then there were dragons.

Violet  hadn’t been worried. She’d never had a problem with magical beings – her best friend in high school had been half-dweomer, after all. She’d done her thesis on the integration of the magical with the mundane.  And the job paid really well. Continue reading →

What The… Doll?

Aug27

Written to Del’s prompt to my new “WTF?” Prompt Call.  This Miiiiiight be Science! or Dragons Next Door universes – what do you think?

I suppose I had nobody to blame but myself.

I’m one of those compulsive “clickers” that likes to play with online dollies, you know ‘dress up Soldier Sapphire!  Make a Fashion Doll!”

It’s not a habit I really admit to people in real life, but the online world has always been different.

So when “make your mini-mi!” came up in the advertisements for one of the sites I like a lot – they have wings!  And some pretty funky skin colors! – I couldn’t resist clicking.

And then I spent an hour playing – maybe two hours – it could have been three.  All I know is that when I was done, I had a nice little character that looked “just like me.”

I mean, if me had blue hair.  Continue reading →

What The Spell?

Aug27

Written to Victoria’s prompt to my new “WTF?” Prompt Call.  Set in the same world as Parts and Points, which itself is the same world as a cyberpunk-ish novel I’m working on. 

The book was old – ancient –  the sort of thing that people hoard and pass on to their descendants in their wills, and Jenivere had found it in the back of a flea market booth, hiding in a bargain bin.

She’d felt a little guilty about what she’d paid for it, so she’d done a little spell around the booth, one of her favorite easy ones that just made everything a little fresher without ruining the quality of something old or antique (although it sometimes had unfortunate effects on ‘shabby chic’ sorts of things).

Now that she’d read the whole thing three times, she was ready to start one of the spells in it.  It was a shield spell – it was listed as ‘defend and protect’ – and the ingredients were almost all supermarket-easy. Continue reading →

Giraffe Call: “WTF?!?”

Aug27

Short version:

The theme is “WTF??!??”.

Leave as many prompts as you want.

If you tip $3 or more, are a Patreon at the $3 or higher level, or if another prompter tells me they came here from your signal booster, I WILL write to at least 1 of your prompts.

All others will be written as mood, time, and inspiration permit.

In addition: for every $3 you tip, I will write 200-400 words continuing the prompt-call story of your choice.

The WTF?!? Prompt Call

Here at House Thorne, we are in the middle of renovations to the second floor (“attic”) of our cape cod-style farmhouse.

We’re turning what was two knee-walled attic spaces (unfinished) and two separate “rooms” into one large room, ripping out all of the insulation, and replacing it with blown-in closed-cell foam.

Which, because our house is 150 or so years old, will require adding in framing at almost every step!

This is looking – framing, insulation, drywall, and flooring –  to be approximately a $12,000 project.

My goal is to pay for 5% of that from Patreon funds and 5% from this prompt call.

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To that end, I am asking you to leave prompts to the theme “WTF”, and, if like what you read, to leave a little money in the WTF jar.

You don’t need to tip!  All prompts are welcome.  But tipping will guarantee that I write your prompt, AND get you more words.

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In addition:. The more tips we get, the more things EVERYONE gets:

$50 – Cat Picture, probably with dirty paws.

$75 – 1/8 of the way there! – I will post a picture of the author in her first home renovation project (age 5)

$100 — and every hundred thereafter — Mr. Thorne will write a piece on some portion of the “wtf” in the house.

$150 – 1/4 there! –  I will post a photo essay of some particular “wtf” area of the home & its renovation

$225 3/8 there! – I will find one more photo of the author in her first home renovation!

$300 – halfway there!  I will pick three tipping/Patreon readers to receive one 100-300-word continuation of their choice.

more rewards to come!

For “what is a prompt call?” or “Why Giraffe?” see here. 

Safety Lesson – a story for Patreon

Aug21

Originally posted on Patreon in August 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

It wouldn’t be a “Thunderstorms” month without a story about Leofric Lightning-Blade, my absolutely most favorite god (sometimes) of lightning.This is set in the Cloverleaf Era – i.e., more than 50 years after the 2011 apocalypse. 

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Azule watched from the shelter of a nearby tree, although that was less and less seeming like shelter and more like lightning rod.

The man she had been sent to scout was doing her a favor, although she was certain that he didn’t know it.  He was standing in a ragged circle of children and a few adults, all of them watching in rapt attention as he explained to them what lightning could do if you weren’t careful.

No, not lightning.  He was showing them electricity.

“Like this.”  He murmured a Working and turned towards the forest.  For a moment, Azule thought she’d been found.  But he headed off at an angle from her, all of the children following.  “Give me some distance,” he warned them.  “This might get messy.”

A few moments later, as Azule shifted from tree branch to tree branch, the little group came upon a very, very large boar.  The thing was rooting up trees that were taller than the ones Azule was sitting in, and from the looks of things, it had been doing similar damage for a while.

“Not the sort of thing you want around?” The man seemed to be asking the children, but Azule could see several of the adults nodding their agreement. “All right, kids.  Now, the thing to remember is that these creatures, they are a lot bigger than you.  And they’re going to be able to take a lot more damage than you can.  Like-”  He moved out of the way of the children as the boar noticed him.  Azule could barely catch the Working he did that made the bystanders invisible to the boar, but the creature charged straight at him, ignoring the humans.

“This!”  In a move that was far showier than it needed to be, he sent lightning down into the creature, electrocuting it – and yet it still stumbled to its feet again.

“Now, it’s the size of all of you put together.  So maybe one bolt won’t do it.  But when -”  he zapped the creature with a much smaller-looking bolt  and took a step back, like a docent leading a tour.  “-you touch a wire, your muscles lock up, and all of that lightning is going to hit you all at once.  Got it?  And since none of you are nearly as tough as this boar…”

He finished off the boar with a last zzzap of lightning and a grin.  Azule took the moment to slip away.  She had the information she needed.

 

Want more?

Bad Things Happen Bingo: Thunder (III)

Aug20

Count: ~1500
Chara(s): A God of Thunder (OC)
Pairing(s): N/A
Fandom: Org Fic – Fae Apoc xover
Prompt: Hate Plague

This continues a series of stories taking place in my universe, Fae Apoc, at the time just before the aforementioned apoc.  Portals are opening up to one other world at that time, and in this story, well, they happen to open up into a whole BUNCH of worlds. 

And from those worlds, a bunch of poor soon-to-be-victims-of-bad-things who bear some resemblances to fandom characters happen to slip through some portals.  And then bad things happen to them, because that, after all, is the name of the Bingo.

Content warnings for the series: violence, death, bondage, capture, drugging, visions. For this story: violence, lost of choice, capture. 

A. Author’s Note

Author’s note: In the universe in which this is set (My Fae Apoc ‘verse), for fae, saying “I belong to you” ties one into a binding Belonging of obedience and affection.  Since Thunder below isn’t QUITE a fae, it doesn’t work quite the same for him, but he’s still dealing with the emotional parts of it as the universe tries to figure out what he is.  I.e. disobeying feels really bad; he really likes the woman he said I Belong to You to, and so on.

B. Thunder

All things considered, Thunder thought he’d come out all right.  He might have fallen through a strange portal that hadn’t been there when he started his jump and definitely had been there when he landed.  He might have been kidnapped and, as far as he could tell, enslaved. He might be without his weapons, weapons that had served him for aeons, in a strange land with no contact with home and no way to get there.

But he had been sold to a lovely woman — possibly a frost elf, but she didn’t seem to be trying to kill him, so probably not — who had taken one look at him and, with a smile that showed all of her teeth, declared “I am going to use you to destroy the gods.” Continue reading →

A New World 26: Differences

Aug20

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“Tomorrow night.”  Gemma had agreed to that much.  “Tomorrow, if you come by the museum after yours closes, I will take you to Jamhaier.  I don’t know why you want to go to that place, but I will take you.”

“Thank you.”  Kael wasn’t sure she needed a guide, per se, but she knew that she enjoyed Gemma’s company and that this city had far more to navigate than just the roads and other such things a map would show.

Like these very confusing relations between the Hoija and the others, and the way that almost nobody knew about any other nations.

Had the Hoija – who had not exactly been warlike, back in her time – wiped the rest of them out?  Or taken them all over and given them all their name? Continue reading →

Eighteen: Lies and Murder in the Bear Empire

Aug17

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous: Captive in the Bear Empire
Next: “Disputes” in the Bear Empire

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Carrone was eyeing Deline oddly.  “You don’t like killing. The Deklegion paper-pusher told us you were a mass-murderer.  Then you put a blade to me and offered to leave me in the cabin.”

“I have killed a grand total of… three people and seven animals in Dekleg, not this trip, in my life, and two of those people were actively trying to kill me at the time.  I don’t like killing people.”

“But you would have slit my throat.”

“Sometimes…”  She sat down on the edge of their makeshift bed cross-legged, “the mission is more important than what I want.  And if I don’t make it home, the mission fails.” Continue reading →

Catch the Rain – a story for Patreon

Aug16

Originally posted on Patreon in August 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

This story comes after  The Gardener, The Garden, and To the Garden.  It is part of the series with  First Garden.  It takes place in the Fae Apoc world during the apocalypse. ⛈️

Outside of her garden – their garden – the war was still raging.

Damkina and her people had done what they could.  They had pushed the borders of the little museum garden all the way to the edges of the city.  Now, every Welcome to Greenville sign was surrounded by greenery and flanked by a polite but closed cast-iron gate.

As good as Damkina was – and she was very good – she could not control the weather itself, and there was a drought sitting, not just over Greenville, but over much of the surrounding area.

And there was a five-god army coming towards the widest gate of the city. Continue reading →