This story was written to a Mini-Giraffe Call for Transitions back in 2013. It’s set in the furry sub-setting of Tír na Cali – "Cali Catpeople," as I usually call it and is meant to be light-hearted.

"Engage in some scientific experimentation," the Agency guy had said. "Earn your freedom," they’d said. "Just two years in our scientific facility, and you can go free," they’d promised.

They’d strapped Robert and Eric to tables, at which point they’d both started complaining.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1197607.html. You can comment here or there.

Protected: Training, Learning, a Patreon Story

Sep19

The Precedent – a story for Patreon Patrons

Aug26

Two lawyers and a judge bent over the paperwork,nearly-identical frowns on their faces.
Outside, in the waiting room, a red-haired manwaited with all appearance of patience. He was wearing a slim goldencollar beneath the open-necked shirt of his expensive suit and a much less slimring on his left ring finger.

“Is it legal?” the left-hand lawyer frowned.

read on…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1165236.html. You can comment here or there.

The Precedent – a Patreon story

Aug26

A story of Tír na Cali

Two lawyers and a judge bent over the paperwork, nearly-identical frowns on their faces.

Outside, in the waiting room, a red-haired man waited with all appearance of patience. He was wearing a slim golden collar beneath the open-necked shirt of his expensive suit and a much less slim ring on his left ring finger.

“Is it legal?” the left-hand lawyer frowned. She bore a familial resemblance to both of the other women in the room,but her hair was a slightly darker shade of red and it was beginning to be touched with white at the temples.

“She dotted every i and crossed every t,” the second lawyer — younger, her suit slightly better tailored — opined. “She has it signed by all the right people.”

“They have no children?” the judge checked. Continue reading →

Regarding Tír na Cali and Technology

Aug23

This month’s Patreon theme is Tír na Cali, which got me thinking…

One of the things that always gets me about Tír na Cali is the way it started out slightly sci-fi and, more and more, ends up being modern-era in terms of the technology.

When I started working on Cali, smartphones had not yet come into existence. I thought I was making somewhat magical technology:

Collars with a chip that could be read by any police officer with a reader (probably a smartphone ap now) and tracked by anyone with the right information. Collars with technology small enough to carry all of a slave’s “papers” in an easily-transferable format right on the collar. Electronic “keys” the size of a pen (micro-usb?) with a thumbprint reader and the ability to change a collar’s permissions, update or download the data therein, and so on.

And those permissions: collars that “knew” where a slave was allowed to go and, in one case, a “smart home” with doors that would not unlock if the collar approaching it didn’t have the right permissions.

Certainly, Cali still has a wide range of things that can’t be done by modern tech — changing someone into a cat-person hybrid, changing someone’s gender at the genetic level, complete rebuild of a limb, just for a few examples — but that is all covered under their magic, not under their tech.

Basically, in the time I’ve been playing with this setting, their tech has gone from being cutting-edge stuff that didn’t exist in the mainstream to being — if I hadn’t updated it as I went along — a little backwards. I mean, really, shouldn’t that collar be able to serve as a Bluetooth headset? What do you mean, you can’t text from your slave collar? No streaming videos?

…okay, now I’m wandering off on a whole new brainstorm. *wanders off, muttering about wi-fi hotspots*

*pops back in* New to Tír na Cali? I updated the landing page with a few suggestions for starting places.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1162884.html. You can comment here or there.

Intros to Tír na Cali, two story fragments from the past

Aug17

Rather than actually repost these two stories, because of the length, I am going to link to their beginnings.
They were meant for a Tír na Cali sourcebook, as fiction explaining setting. One takes the POV of a kidnappee, the other of a slave born into the life.

They’re old, but they give a good view of some of the bones of the setting.

Read On…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1158181.html. You can comment here or there.

the Wrong Kidnapping, a story of Tír na Cali for Patreon

Aug11

The collar clicking around Trey’s neck was supposed to be the culmination of months – years – of planning, the final realization of all his hopes and dreams.

It made the feeling all that much more sour. This collar wasn’t pretty, like the ones in the contraband romance novels. It wasn’t light and airy, it wasn’t comfortable, like the ones Trey had played with, in underground clubs and quiet swing parties. It didn’t come with nice words and a quiet understanding of his place in the world, a sense of comfortable inevitability, a sense of honored submission.

read on…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1155875.html. You can comment here or there.

the Wrong Kidnapping, a short fic of Tír na Cali for Patreon

Aug11

The collar clicking around Trey’s neck was supposed to be the culmination of months – years – of planning, the final realization of all his hopes and dreams.

The Baroness and the Pauper, a story of Tír na Cali, posted for Patreon patrons

Apr28

The Baroness and the Pauper

A story of Tír na Cali

Nora shifted from foot to foot. She felt awkward and uncomfortable; standing here, in the manor house, she felt grubby, her skin itchy. “Look, if this is about the thing with the overseer…” She’d only been a slave for six months. She’d spent most of it getting in trouble, and most of that annoying the overseer. Who worked for this woman, this… Baroness.

Inside her shower, the Baroness… (read on…)

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This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1097913.html. You can comment here or there.

Protected: The Baroness and the Pauper – a Patreon story