Archive | July 2019

Spoils of War 15 – Rest Stop

Jul31

First: Spoils of War I: Surrender

Content warning for this chapter: Clumsy field medicine on rat-induced wounds. 

~*~

They were far enough from the Mountain that nobody looked too worried at soldiers riding into town, but close enough that people were cautious. 

“We need clean water, preferably some alcohol for our wounds, grain for the horses, and a sheltered place to sleep,” Nikol told the townsfolk (for a generous definition of “town”), when they were asked what their business was.  “We made a bad choice of resting places, and the rat-things in the factory back there—”

The bigger of the cats made a spitting noise and a very indignant face.  The four people — three women, one man, all armed — laughed. 

“That cat is right.  They’re not good eating, I can tell you that, for man nor beast, but they think you’re a pretty decent dinner.” The four of them shared a look.  “Toby’s barn on the edge of town is clear right now, there’s a little grain and a clear-water pump.  You have something to pay with?” Continue reading →

Landing Page (in Progress): Faerie Apocalypse

Jul31

The gods left this world thousands of years ago, but they left many of their descendants here on Earth.

Those children mated with humanity and with each other, hid in plain sight, and learned to use Ftheir magic without being found out,

In 2011, many of their children come crashing through the gates onto Earth and all of the rules changed again.

This setting is urban fantasy, apocalypse, post-apocalypse, and then rebuilding, depending on the era of the story.

Work in progress: This is my biggest setting, hands-down, and I expect the landing page to take quite a while to work out.

Content Warning: While not all stories in this setting involve any of these, it is important to know that the magical/metaphysical Law of this setting includes:

  • The Law of Belonging (Keeping) – includes magical emotional control and forced obedience. 
  • The Laws of Sanctity – Including sanctity of one’s word; I.e., when a fae makes a promise, they are bound to it unless released.

In addition, the magic of this setting involves mind and emotional control. 


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Collected Stories

This is a work in progress.  Volume I Stories should be readable with no knowledge of the setting, Volume II with some knowledge, and so on.  

This is an anthology; each collection will bring you further into the world.

Volume I

Volume II

The Stories

Continue reading →

A Blog Post: On Health

Jul30

 I don’t talk about my health a lot, well… on this blog, at least.  But it’s been, uh, on my mind a bit so I thought I’d sort of talk stuff out

The below: warnings for mental health, physical health, some dark humor, probably, and weight issues.  And Parental/family issues.

Continue reading →

Hidden Mall 77: Afterwards?

Jul29

“Security office.” Abby nodded slowly.  “Right. Stick with the left hand rule? Anyone got paper to write down where we’re going?”

“Oh, I do!” 

While Liv rustled in her bag, Olly patted Abby’s shoulder.  “It wouldn’t be our home,” she murmured, “yours or mine. It might not even be a home.  And if this world’s Abby and Liv came back…”

“I know…” She did know, that was the thing.  She knew — but it would still be out. “It’s just…”

“Got it!” Liv produced a notebook with a magenta-and-lime unicorn on the front.  “Okay, here’s bed, bath, beyond, B-B-B, and then, oh no, Hot Topic… and we’re going this way and… all good!”

Abby found herself smiling.  Liv really was a good friend – a great friend.  It was hard to remember how close they’d been, back before they’d gotten trapped in an endless set of malls, but maybe that was just – just because they were both closer and strangely further apart now.  Continue reading →

Haunted House 57: Home Again

Jul27

First: A story featuring a male keeper and a female Kept.
🌳

The House was waiting for them. 

The wagon ride back had been – well, strange. The former slaves had spent a lot of time looking at Jasper — and then at Mélanie — as if they were some sort of strange creature.  Which, Mélanie supposed, was not all that unfair. 

“So…” one woman had asked, maybe twenty minutes before they reached the house, “what’s going to happen to us?”

They really had been slaves for a while.   Continue reading →

Running in the Bear Empire 51: Lady

Jul26

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous:50: Inn
Next: 52: Tales
🐻

“Oh! Your ladyship!”

Deline blinked at the woman in front of her, digging quickly for a name.  “Pallar. I didn’t think we’d gotten that close to the capital…” Had she gotten that turned around? Or that thrown off by the attack? 

“It’s a mess out there,  isn’t it? I could get lost in my own yard, storming like that.  No, no, we branched out. Pennit took the capital bar, I moved out here,  and Pollo went east. Anywhere you go, your road lead to us!”

Deline relaxed.  “Good to hear business is going well.   I… have a situation.” Continue reading →

Haunted House 56: Sparkle

Jul20

First: A story featuring a male keeper and a female Kept.
🌳

The whole barn seemed to be holding their breath — even the slaver, who had stopped wiggling in his captors’ arms.  Do you understand what I am doing?

You’re turning things on their head, and it’s impressive.  Mélanie stayed quiet; she was holding her breath, too. 

The woman nodded, cleared her throat, and nodded again.  She tried one more time; Jasper handed her the water again.  Continue reading →

Electives

Jul16
Originally posted on Patreon in July 2019 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

Bellamy is a niece of Evangeline and a close cousin of Chalcedony, Beryl’s older sister.

🎨

Every member of Bellamy’s family took at least one extra Art Class and one extra shop class.  They’d have taken more Home Ec, too, if it was offered as an elective, but their school distract seemed to think basic sewing and cooking could be handled in two quarter-year classes in Junior High.

That was fine, because by that point, every member of the family already knew how to do basic cooking, canning, sewing, cleaning, and budgeting, as well as a little bit of animal husbandry, farming, and weather-reading.  Bellamy had once overheard one teacher saying to another Oh, those kids?  Their family has a reputation for being witches, but that’s just the fact that they know the land and have some basic knowledge of just about everything.  You know, it’s all from the root of “wise” for a reason.

Bellamy’d had trouble not laughing in the teacher’s face for weeks. Continue reading →

Bear Empire Landing Page

Jul16

In the far North of a continent lives the Bear Empire, an arctic (late Middle English: via Old French from Latin arcticus, articus, from Greek arktikos, from arktos ‘bear, Ursa Major, pole star’, yes, this is a pun nation) empire; in this empire and many of the adjacent ones (although the Bear Empire, being expansionist, does not get along great with its neighbors), magery is, if not common, existent, marriages and most other things are a village or town affair and are rarely monogamous, and people pay homage to not only Mama Bear but several other of the spirit-gods who make up the nationalities within the empire.

Born from a Seventh Sanctum prompt for a story often called Row-Mance.

Running in the Bear Empire
Content Warnings: violence, dubious consent, magically forced obedience, implied sexual activity, nudity

Cyberpunk Bears

Old Bear

Arctic World Building