Her lungs were burning. Her ears were popping. Her face felt like it was going to explode. Her throat felt like it was on fire. She couldn’t take it any longer.
Audrey held on to the weight and counted to twenty. She could do twenty more, maybe fifteen more, eleven-twelve-thirteen oh god. Four… teen, Fif-teen.
She popped up out of the water, trying not to scream.
It wasn’t working. Continue reading
Okay, so I was playing around with a roleplay with Cal and Cynara decided to build herself a castle. Well, a play castle, this is ~8×8 with a tower; it’s a shed-sized castle. But once I’d been thinking about it, I decided I wanted to map it. Well, chart it.
Stained glass would be prettier than that, but Excel has its limits.
And yes, that says “Secret Exit #1,” because Cynara always puts in back doors. Even when you can jump off the roof into the moat if you have to.
The tower would probably be rounded, now that I think of it.
Anyway! Floor plans. And then I fixed the first floor – well, the throne.
And then I did the back
And then check out this:
https://tootplanet.space/@InspectorCaracal/908740
and especially this:
https://tootplanet.space/@InspectorCaracal/909088
Cal made the castle in Minecraft!!!
…Now I need to write some stories of characters in and around this little castle.
“So, which one of you asked?” Tokugawa leaned forward over the table, gaze bobbing between Byzantium and Charon. Charon’s new collar was silver with a band of something that seemed to change in texture and color depending on the way the light hit it, and it matched four rings on Byzantium’s fingers.
They shared a look, new-Keeper and new-Kept, and a smile that was far too similar. They had that new-couple thing going on, where they seemed to echo each other in everything, despite or because of the fact that they’d been hanging out for most of their time in school together.
“Wellll….” Byzzie started, and then giggled. “Believe it or not, we were both going to ask the other one. On the same day.”
“You have got to be kidding me. To Tokugawa’s left, Rhine shook his head in mock-disgust. “Seriously? You two are too cute for words.”
“Oh, I think it’s sweet.” Nobody could miss the look Eire shot over Tokugawa’s shoulder at Rhine – well, nobody but Rhine. “They were so in sync about it. That’s how practice Keepings are supposed to be anyway, right?”
“What,” Rhine scoffed, “disgustingly cute?”
“No.” Eire sulked, which was also missed or ignored by Rhine, “mutual agreement. Like a real Keeping. Something they came to together and hashed out.”
“It’s sweet, sure,” Rhine grumbled, “but ‘like a real Keeping?’ Really?”
“Like a real Keeping ought to be,” Tokugawa interjected. Nobody wanted Rhine getting Eire all worked up again. “And I think it’s kind of disgustingly cute – but in a good way. Cheers, you two.”
“Thanks.” Charon leaned his head on Byzzie’s shoulder. “It’s going to be an interesting year.”
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1268887.html. You can comment here or there.
Acquiring Students
When my tablet runs out of battery…
The Crew Continues
Crew, Continued
The Day
A Pact
The Pact Slips, Part I
The Pact Slips, Part II
A Solution
Doomsday Academy, a couple weeks after “A Solution”
“Hey, Sunny. I was wondering, I mean, there’s that dance…” Ketil set his hand on Sunny’s arm, stepping close to her. The unseasonably warm day had all the students outside, enjoying a few moments of sunshine.
“The holiday dance?” Sunny smiled encouragingly. Ketil had a shock of red hair and horns like a demon’s, a crooked smile and a scar across his nose that even Changing hadn’t healed. “I hear it’s coming up soon, yeah?”
“I was wondering…” He trailed off as Aron lifted his hand off Sunny’s arm and dropped it as if it were dirty. “…I guess you already have a date?”
“No, no, I don’t… I didn’t…” Sunny’s smile faded.
Ketil shook his head. “I can read the wind, Sunny. Enjoy your date.”
“…what?” Sunny stared at Ketil’s retreating back in distressed confusion.
Much later: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1158751.html
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1130259.html. You can comment here or there.
Acquiring Students
When my tablet runs out of battery…
The Crew Continues
Crew, Continued
The Day
A Pact
The Pact Slips, Part I
The Pact Slips, Part II
Doomsday Academy, a couple days after “The Pact Slips, Part II”
Content: implied sexual suggestion
They had devolved into shouting the minute Kerr walked in on Astarte and Sunny together, tangled up nude and very engrossed in each other’s company; Aron had followed a moment later.
There was plenty of blame to go around. The volume rose and rose, Sunny’s cy’ra finding other places to be as the tight-knit crew threatened to dissolve.
Finally Sunny held up her hands. She and Astarte had not bothered to dress, and in the gesture, she dropped her sheet. “Okay! I have a solution.”
Everyone looked at her. Sunny was fine with that.
“So. I slept with Star. Star slept with Aron. Kerr and I slept together…”
Kerr cleared his throat, but it was Aron who answered. “Him and me, too.”
“So the solution, clearly, is for me to sleep with Aron, and Star with Kerr. And then maybe all four of us together, just to wrap things up.”
They had gone from looking at her to staring at her. “But the pact…” Astarte offered.
“Well,” Sunny smiled crookedly. “Let’s try something we can actually stick to.”
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This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1128450.html. You can comment here or there.
Acquiring Students
When my tablet runs out of battery…
The Crew Continues
Crew, Continued
The Day
A Pact
The Pact Slips, Part I
Doomsday Academy, a couple weeks after “The Pact Slips, Part I”
Content: implied sexual suggestion
“I… I want to know. And I don’t trust anyone else.”
For Kerr, that was a speech. Still, Aron had to ask. “Anyone?”
“Any other guys,” Kerr grumbled. “And you…”
His shirt was already off. His roommates were already gone for the weekend, heading off on some trip Kerr had begged off of. Aron swallowed.
Kerr shifted backwards. “Unless you don’t like guys…?”
“No, no…” Aron leaned in for the most gentle kiss he could manage. “I like you just fine.”
~
“I want to know,” Astarte demanded. “I want to know what’s so hot about you.”
“So hot?” Sunny would have been worried, she thought, if it had been anyone but Astarte. “What do you…?”
“Why Kerr would have broken the pact. Why you? Why…?”
“I could ask Aron the same thing, couldn’t I?” Sunny raised her eyebrows. Not that she’d have to ask Aron… Astarte was gorgeous in an entirely different way than Kerr was. “Or you could just try and find out.”
“Try?” The anger that had rushed Astarte in like a storm faded away, and she sat down, looking stunned. “You mean…”
“Well,” Sunny smirked, “It’s not like we’re really holding to the pact anymore…”
Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1128450.html
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1126134.html. You can comment here or there.
Acquiring Students
When my tablet runs out of battery…
The Crew Continues
Crew, Continued
The Day
A Pact
Doomsday Academy, a couple months after “the Pact,” above
Content: implied sexual suggestion
“Kerr is all wrapped up with that girlfriend, and, well, it’s not really sex if we…” Astarte’s gestures left no doubt what she had in mind, and Aron’s body left no room for argument about its opinions on the matter.
“But we…”
“It’s not really sex. It’s fine.”
~
“I really loved her, you know.” Kerr stared at his empty mug; Sunny had taken away the bottle he’d been using to refill it. “I really…”
“I know, honey.” Sunny petted his hair and tried to soothe her crewmate. “It sucks. I know.” It’d only been two weeks before that her short-lived first relationship had seemed to fade away into the ether.
“You get me. Why do you get me?”
Sunny swallowed. The look in Kerr’s eyes, she ‘got’ that all right. She knew where this was going. “Because I listen, love,” she murmured, throaty and maybe a bit inviting. “That’s all. I listen.”
Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1126134.html
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Acquiring Students
When my tablet runs out of battery…
The Crew Continues
Crew, Continued
The Day
Doomsday Academy, a few years under a decade before Cya Keeps Leo.
“It’s not that it’s gross…” Aron spoke carefully, his eyes darting between his three crewmates. “It’s just that it seems wrong when they’re just…” His hands lifted as if ready to make a gesture, then flopped to the bed, and his cheeks colored.
Today they were in Sunny’s cy’Red dorm, stacked on her bed, because one of Aron’s cy’ra were… engaged… with a cy’Sweetflower. Loudly.
“And I mean, sure, they’re having fun, but then there’s going to be that loud mess like there was with the last one, with Silva, and with Kit before that. At this rate, he’s not going to be able to talk to anyone in the school by the time he graduates.”
“We’re not going to do that. Right?” Sunny looked between the three of them, her crew. “We’re best friends. We’re crew. We’re not going to get all… all sexy and start fighting with each other, right? Right?”
“No sex,” Astarte agreed with a sharp nod.
“Sex is for outside the crew,” Kerr agreed, very quietly.
“It’s a deal.” They put their hands together and shook, all for one, one for all.
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Acquiring Students
When my tablet runs out of battery…
The Crew Continues
Crew, Continued
Doomsday Academy, a few years under a decade before Cya Keeps Leo.
“We’re a day, you know.” They were on Aron’s bed again, cy’Lightning having proven the best at dealing with the nascent crew. Sunny was laying over the foot of the bed, staring at the ceiling. “Sunshine and darnkess,” she gestured at Kerr. “Stars,” she flopped a hand at Astarte, “and if we bend your name we get Aroon, and that’s a dawn.”
Aron raised his eyebrows. “That’s a day,” he agreed slowly. “Is that what we are?”
Sunny propped herself up to look at Astarte. The smaller girl looked back, twitched an eyebrow. Sunny shrugged one shoulder.
“Yeah,” Astarte answered. “I guess we are.”
Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1121822.html
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Acquiring Students
When my tablet runs out of battery…
The Crew Continues
Doomsday Academy, a little over a decade before Cya Keeps Leo.
“So what do we do about cy’rees?” The four of them were flopped in the fourth-year students’ dorm all on Aron’s bed. He, in turn, was studying the long tail Kerr had recently grown.
“Do?” Astarte peeked up at him through a fringe of hair. “We pick them, right?”
“But we’re not all going to pick the same one, are we? I mean, we could… ’cause if we don’t, they’re going to split us up.” One hand went protectively over Astarte and the other over Kerr, leaving Sunny to snuggle into his arm on her own.
“Well…” Sunny mused… “it’s a small school. It’s not like they can actually separate us.”
Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1118332.html
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