Archive | August 2019

Post-Scarcity Mystery

Aug31

This story started after a binge-listen of Isaac Arthur’s Science & Futurism videos. With Post-Scar City, it’s one of those I-might-continue sorts of things.

~*~

The coffee shop was Teri’s favorite part of the arcology, and that was saying something. 

It had a prime location, by some ways of looking at things – it overlooked one of the farm quadrants, so it had sunlight for most of the day through its broad windows.  Looking that way, you could almost forget you were hundreds of feet above ground. You could almost forget that out the front door was a hallway and a slidewalk that would take you where you wanted to go, instead of a road. 

That wasn’t really why Teri liked it, nor that the barista who worked there most weekdays had stunningly blue eyes and a generous smile, nor the adorable foam art that always seemed inspired by something “outside” in the fields. 

There was this corner table that looked out over the field but was half-hidden by the cream-and-sugar station, and, sitting there, Teri could decide how much people was a good amount for the day.  And, sitting there, tablet and stylus and coffee and scone, Teri could spend hours floating, drawing whatever came to mind, and go back to Residential Ring Three with something done that sparked that amazing feeling of I did something good today. 

The bright smile and the way the blue-eyed barista would sometimes wink helped, too.  Continue reading →

Running in the Bear Empire 54: This Means W-

Aug30

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous: 53: the Swan
Next:55: Coming Home
🐻

Deline was trying to pretend that she wasn’t tense, and she wasn’t doing that good of a job. 

She walked by Carrone and near Ranger Learone, wishing for the casual conversation they’d had the day before.  The rain had held off while they camped, at least, but now, with the capital city looming on the horizon like a monster peeking out through the Bear Mountains, the rain, too, was looming.  It suited her mood, and the tenseness in Carrone’s shoulders, and the worry on the Ranger’s face and in the set of Lord Eigeran’s pace, stomping as if he could kick away his concern.  Continue reading →

Spoils of War 17 – The Doors

Aug28

First: Spoils of War I: Surrender

The door.  The door.  Nikol slipped out of bed – Aran wasn’t there anymore; of course he wasn’t there anymore, the door had just closed – and peered out the window.  There he was, walking down the street. Walking, which was odd. She’d imagined if he was going to run away, he’d take a horse. And one, no, both cats were following him, but he didn’t seem to notice them at all.

She ran down the stairs and slipped out the side door, hurrying to follow him. He was moving deliberately, not slowly, but not running. Where was he going?

The remnants of her nightmare stuck with her, making his movement seem sinister. If he was running away, she was going to feel rather stupid about following him. Hadn’t she more or less said that she’d let him get it out of his system? And then she was trailing him like she didn’t trust him.

But it wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, it was that her dream was still screaming in the back of her mind and something seemed off, wrong.   Continue reading →

Blog Post: Four is Too Many

Aug27

Yesterday, I did not bring a cat home.

This was… tricky.

One of my co-workers brought four kittens into work.  They were *tiny*, and my only picture is pretty blurry, but they’d been abandoned under her porch and she was taking them to the SPCA.

You could hear them (down the hall, around the corner) in my office, and their little squeaks and cries just hit me in the gut.

They weren’t cuddly; they were scared and crying and altogether not interested in bonding, and that was probably the best thing, because, well.

We have three cats. Continue reading →

Hidden Mall 80: Abbies

Aug26

There were people in the mall.  That was the weirdest part; this mall had been empty as long as they’d been using it as a base.  From the sounds of things, it had always been empty. 

But right now there were nearly thirty people standing in front of the central fountain – well, one of them was sitting, looking definitely unconscious.  Four were unidentifiable in white suits much like the mall with the robots had provided. A bunch looked ragged and dirty, too thin and too hungry. Some of them had satyr hooves and one of them was definitely a centaur.  Abby heard Liv whimper and wondered if she was whimpering about the centaur or something else. 

To the right, a handful were dressed like SWAT, face masks down and weapons pointed at Abby.  And then, in the middle, were seven different Kevins, all of them in chains.  Continue reading →

Seeking Help: The Fae Apoc landing page

Aug24

You might have noticed that I’ve been working on the Fae Apoc Landing Page, and you may have noticed it’s a bit of a bear.

It occurred to me that I could actually have some help with this!

The biggest part of doing the landing page is:

  1. identifying series stories or groups that are in a lump together (generally at least 3 stories)
  2. Determining if they have a unique tag or category
  3. If not, adding a tag

How you could help

Steps one and two require no access to the backend!  If you post here with stories that need that –

i.e.,

No tag in common.

(Short titles are fine, but I just copy/pasted this from the landing page)

(Either in the main The Stories header or within the Addergoole header)

(Bonus: Doing this made me realize that one story had failed to crosspost!  So if you notice that, say, Deep Shit refers to “Up Shit Creek” and you can’t find that – mention that please.  It might just not be in the Fae Apoc category, or it might fall in that 4-month period where things didn’t quite crosspost right.  Find one of those and I’ll add 3 minutes to the reward below.)

What you get

for every two sets found for me , I will write 15 minutes (or 6 minutes for one set) and post on any story or prompt (within my normal limits, i.e., if it squicks me I don’t do it) you request!

Cheers,

Lyn

 

 

 

Toilet Troubles, Grilled Cheese, and Garlic

Aug20

 It’s possible that I mentioned that we got a water softener a little while ago. 

And by that, I mean my mother, sick of me putting it off, found a plumber in Ithaca, picked out a softener, had it installed, (SCHEDULED the installation), and paid for the whole thing. 

Um. 

Sometimes I manage to stop Mom from getting carried away.  Sometimes. 

Not always, clearly. 

So, the problem was, before that we’d installed a toilet. 

And hard water – and our water was both orange and REALLY HARD – and toilets are a bad combination, it seems.  Our toilet wasn’t really flushing the way it oughta anymore. 

So we took the tank off the toilet and scrubbed iron residue off of every bit we could find, put it back together – nope . Still not working. 

That means, as far as we can tell, that the problem is in the bowl, probably in the interior bit where the water swooshes around before shooting into the bowl proper. 

Thus, tomorrow or Saturday I’m buying a new toilet.  Le Sigh. (by the time this posts, I may have already bought one.  Still Sigh) Continue reading →

Hidden Mall 79: Roar

Aug19

EVERY MALL HAS ITS OWN POWERS.  EVEN A NORMAL MALL LIKE THIS ONE HAS SOME MAGIC TO IT.

“So a mall could give someone the power to mind-control someone else?”

IF SOMEONE IMAGINED IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA FOR A MALL, THEN YES. ANY MALL SOMEONE IMAGINED CAN EXIST.

Abby swallowed. “I really, really want to say nobody would say that was a good idea for a mall to be able to control your mind, but shit, Shit, I can think of so many ways that might happen.  People wanting to stop violence, so they start with ‘the mall doesn’t allow violent thoughts.'” Continue reading →