Tag Archive | 30days

30DaysMeme, Second Semester, Sweet Iced Tea

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “12) prompt: sweet iced tea.”

This is more of the Reid/Cali crossover fanfic, directly after the last piece.

The stories before this:
Never Been Caught : First written, last in sequence.

Shots Fired: First in sequence

“Well, Crap, Where am I?”, after “Shots Fired” and before the story below.

“Excuse me,” their captive croaked. “Could I have some water?”

Morrigan turned in surprise, studying him. She hadn’t heard it when he woke, which shouldn’t have surprised her. She knew he was an Agent, even if not from their Agency.

“I’ve got some water here,” she answered levelly, and got the cup with the straw from the cooler. “We’ve also got some sweet iced tea, if you’d rather.” She pressed the straw to his lips anyway.

He drank slowly, buying himself some time, she guessed. “Thank you. I appreciate you taking such good care of me.”

Behind Morrigan, Cym choked out a laugh. “Shit,” she swore, “that’s her. The Lady of Kindness herself.”

Morrigan laughed quietly. “It’s a nice technique,” she told Reid. “They teach a similar one in our Academy.” He was looking a bit worried, so she offered again, “some tea? You were held captive for a few days, I bet you’re hungry, too.”

He licked his lips, contemplating that. “I didn’t know that Californians were fond of sweetened tea.”

“We’re not, generally,” she allowed, smirking at him. “We stopped at a gas station just before we… rescued… you, and that was all they had for drinks with caffeine.” She shook her head. “We are, whatever we are, not serial killers, Agent.”

“Could I have a little more water?” Stalling. She pressed the straw to his mouth and let him. He was a bright boy; he could tell he was trapped.

“You’re those Agents,” he said slowly.

“We are,” she agreed.

“I’ll have that tea now, please.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/110185.html. You can comment here or there.

30 Days Second Semester: 10, Coming Soon: Reiassan

Aug5

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “11) Write a movie trailer style trailer for a story, existing or not-yet-written.”

Reiassan/Rin & Girey – landing page here (and on LJ).

Pan over a rocky landscape, following a river that wends its way south, past a white-walled cliff city, past farms cut into the mountains. As we begin, the travel up the road, running Northwards, looks like a long, ragged snake.

Voiceover: The two nations on the continent of Reiassan have been at war as long as either of them can remember.

As we grow closer, the snake reveals itself as an army, slowly marching, tired, wounded, but proud. The almost-universally dark-haired and short figures wear bright colours, and we can hear, over the crescendos of the music, the thudding rhythm of a cheerful marching song. Their armor is Romanesque in feel, and their mounts, those that have them (Officers, better-dressed, no less tired, no less wounded) ride tall, husky goats.

Finally, after generations, one nation has emerged victorious.

We see, among the short, brightly-dressed soldiers, others, dressed in bland browns and tans, wearing chains, some male, some female, mostly taller, fairer people. The camera is still moving Northwards, picking out faces on the long train of people.

The war is over.

Cut to generals signing treaties in a tent, one dark-haired, one blonde, both tired-looking.

Pan out from the tent to the mess of the battlefield. Scavengers and medics tend to the wounded and bury the dead. Near the tent, a man in rich-looking robes is forced to his knees on a platform.

The Callanthe had defeated the Bitrani. They have killed their King.

We see the axe begin to fall, and the camera cuts away, again. A dark-haired woman in a bright green tunic looks down at a scruffy blonde soldier in the remains of expensive, if dull-colored, clothing and armor. His hands and ankles are shackled.

Now they must learn to live with them.

The List:
1a) the story starts with the words “It’s going down.” (LJ Link)
1b) the story starts with the words “It’s going down.” (LJ Link)
2) write a scene that takes place in a train station.
3) the story must involve a goblet and a set of three [somethings]
4) prompt: one for the road
5) write a story using an imaginary color
6) write the pitch for a new Final Fantasy styled RPG (LJ Link)
7) prompt: frigid (LJ Link)
8) write a scene in the middle of a novel called “The Long, Dirty Afterwards” (LJ)
9) prompt: mourning dead gods (LJ)
10) write a story set in three different time periods. (LJ)
11) Write a movie trailer style trailer for a story, existing or not-yet-written.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/99133.html. You can comment here or there.

30 Days Second Semester: 10, Planning a Family, Tír na Cali

Aug4

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “10) write a story set in three different time periods”

Tír na Cali – landing page here (and on LJ).

Author’s note: the Cali royalty trace their lineage back through three clever pioneers (Istvia, Imogen, and Gwydion) to so-called witches who came over from Ireland to settle the west coast of North America.

Ireland, 1685

The witch looked over the table at her cousin, a pretty young thing that, until now, everyone had assumed was just daft. The girl was floating the dishes in the air, all of the dishes, weaving them in and out in a series of loops that looked like a Maypole dance.

The witch stood, pondering her dim-witted cousin, and nodded at her brother. ::James, Alice’s son with the lovely eyes,:: she murmured into his head. :: He’ll make a good groom. He’s always thought she was fetching.:: And he could lift more than a man ought to, and carry it for nearly ever.

Sacramento,California 1849
Istvia and Imogen studied each other over a game of chess, although both were minding Imogen’s youngest daughter, playing patty-cake with the dark-haired boy Istvia used as a fetch-and-carry page.

“She’s already showing signs,” Imogen murmured under her breath. “She has a bear that follows her everywhere, even if she forgets to pick him up. It upsets the help.”

Istvia, who already knew this, nodded sagely. “He,” she tilted her head at the boy, still feet short of his adult height, “gets things off tall shelves.”

“Mmm. Worth a try, then.”

Hillsboro, Oregon, 2011
Catherine ni Johanna ó Imogen studied her teenaged niece. The girl was playing checkers with a slave boy, a handsome teenager who, like many of the slaves on Catherine’s estate, bore a striking resemblance to Catherine’s family. This one, however, though he had the eyes and the nose, was a good head taller than the free men in the bloodline, and, on brief observation, rather more clever, too.

Catherine had carefully discouraged her niece’s friendship with the boy, disapproving in an over-the-top way only teenagers believed. With luck, there’d be a child before Yule.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/98205.html. You can comment here or there.

30 Days Second Semester: 9, Mourning Lost Gods, Fae-Apoc, Apoc Era

Aug3

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “9) prompt: mourning dead gods.”

Fae Apoc, in the time of the apoc.

December, 2011

They fell from the sky, one, then another, then another. I watched on the roof, silently standing vigil. I had been there, with twenty or so of my fellow just-plain-humans, since the battle began. Yesterday, I think it was, though by then it could have been two or three days. We ate, we drank, we caught what sleep we could, and we watched the creatures destroy what was left of our city.

Jason and Mandy had shotguns, and Carrie had a bokken; we could keep our building free of them, or at least chase them off. But we weren’t there, really, to fight them. We’d already learned that that took a mob, fire, iron, rowan, and a willingness to lose three-quarters of your people to death or severe injury to take down one of those. We had the first four, but no longer (there had been five hundred of us, a while ago) had the last and most important factor. So we watched, and if we could still believe in a loving god, we prayed.

And they fell. We couldn’t tell, from our vantage, which of the monsters claimed to be on our side, and which were the invaders. They shifted shapes, they twisted forms, and they twisted the world, smashing into buildings. Knocking out what was left of our power grid. Destroying parks and gardens it had taken a century to grow.

We buried their dead, when we were sure they were dead, and cried, not for them, but for the time when we’d believed in benevolent, distant deities.

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/714468.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/96954.html. You can comment here or there.

30 Days Second Semester: 8, Going In, Misc Apoc

Aug2

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “8) write a scene in the middle of a novel called ‘The Long, Dirty Afterwards.'”

Actually random apoc. In re. wordcount, the actual “excerpt” is 250 words. 😉
.

They had defeated the alien invasion and won back their planet.

…Now all they had to do is clean up the mess.

The All-Counter* read clean on all immediate threats to life and mostly clean on the long-term threats. Becker’s ears and nose told him the ship was most likely empty of slightly-less immediate threats as well, but he still moved in like clearing a building, shooter at the ready and taking one room at a time, his team behind him guarding his flank.

The Rat† ships stank; you never got over the smell, the way you could acclimate to horse shit or even things like capsaicin. It set your teeth on edge and made some people’s extremities go numb; Hazmat gear dulled the effects, but blocked line of sight. A lot of otherwise brave contractors wouldn’t go near the Ratties, so that left the salvage to people like Becker’s team, who used masks and gloves and a lot of scented soap.

The corridors gleamed dully under his headlamp; to the left, a couple of their triangular status lights shone in its eerie purple black-light. “There’s still trickle power,” he called. “Watch for traps.” It had surprised no one that the Rats boobie-trapped their ships, but almost every cleanup team he knew had either lost a man or a limb to one of the nasty contraptions. Realizing these things were always on, you could almost feel sorry for the Rats. Almost‡‡.

“Bee, I’ve got something over here!” Thijs’ voice was thin and high and worried-sounding.

“Shit!” Ny’s voice followed fast on Thijs.’ “Bee, you’ve got to see this. I think it’s alive.”

* The All-Counter had begun life as a Geiger counter, but by the time the scavenge teams were done modifying it, it counted just about everything, including some things new to the planet since the invasion.

† The creatures only bore a superficial resemblance to rats, really. But the nickname had stuck.

‡‡ There was, after all, what remained of Dallas and Zurich, among other places, to remember.

The List:
1a) the story starts with the words “It’s going down.” (LJ Link)
1b) the story starts with the words “It’s going down.” (LJ Link)
2) write a scene that takes place in a train station.
3) the story must involve a goblet and a set of three [somethings]
4) prompt: one for the road
5) write a story using an imaginary color
6) write the pitch for a new Final Fantasy styled RPG (LJ Link)
7) prompt: frigid (LJ Link
8) write a scene in the middle of a novel called “The Long, Dirty Afterwards”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/95238.html. You can comment here or there.

30 Days Second Semester: 7, Colder Weather, Stranded/Autumn

Aug1

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “7) prompt: frigid.”

Stranded World, Autumn. Landing page here and on LJ
.

He said I wanna see you again
But I’m stuck in colder weather
Maybe tomorrow will be better
Can I call you then…

Autumn did not like cold weather, a contradiction to her name that some mistakenly found ironic (she’d given up explaining that she and her seasonal sib’s names were meant to be part of a complex allegory; it never helped). She planned her circuit of fests, fairs, and shows in a roving loop that left her in the North in the hottest parts of summer, and brought her to the South for winter. She spent the few really cold times staying with friends; her van had plenty of insulation, but it was still a van-RV, not really a cold-weather vehicle.

Sometimes the weather foiled her. Some nights, even in summer, or December in Texas, the weather dipped from cold to frigid, from extra-blanket to all-the blankets, and she found herself huddled for comfort in three layers of clothes, shivering and unable to sleep. Some nights like that, she found an all-night diner, and drew free sketches for the waitresses until the dawn came. Tonight, she huddled around a pile of letters and a cell phone, and tried to stay warm on memories and the sound of his voice.

“I want to see you again,” she murmured. Even calling was against their tradition; the request was out of bounds. But he (she hoped) understood. “I’m stuck in this snowstorm…”

“Soon, my beautiful tree,” he murmured back at her, his cadences made less lovely by the telephone, by the lack of body language or pen-flourish. “It will only be another month until our paths cross. And you’ll have a letter waiting for you in Arizona.”

Arizona, right now, seemed like a myth, a lie, a fairy tale a thousand miles away. She stared at the phone, knowing why they didn’t call. “I’ll look forward to it,” she said, feeling as if her voice was as cold as the air.

“I’ll see you in California,” he reminded her. “It’ll be warm there.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/94402.html. You can comment here or there.

30 Days Second Semester: 5, The Water Knot, Stranded World (Summer)

Aug1

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “5) write a story using an imaginary color.”

Stranded World, Summer & Winter, some time before she goes off to school. Landing page here and on LJ

I think Summer and Spring are very close in age. Does anyone remember her hair color?.

“Tell me what you see.”

“The water, the boat. The sky, and fish out in the distance.” Summer kicked her feet in the water. “Splashes.”

Her brother smiled indulgently at her, with that warning note in the cant of his eyebrow that said she should stop messing around soon. Stupid Spring, using up all the messing around. She obediently stared back out at the lake.

“The water moves the way it should. The strands are mostly blue, but there are a few lines of green, and some tangles of darker green. Algae blooms? And there’s sort of an… indiburple splotch there,” she pointed at a twisted triple-braid of color. “Someone did that on purpose; the strands don’t line up in celtic knots by themselves.”

“‘Indiburple?’” Her perfectly-orderly brother wrinkled his nose at her. “‘Indiburple?’” he repeated, incredulously.

“Yeah, indiburple. You know, that dark midnight color with too much red in it to be blue or indigo, and just a hint of absinthe and snow in the flavor?”

“Indiburple.” He shook his head. “You sense more colors than any of the rest of us, anyway; if you want to make up imaginary colors, I suppose that’s your right. Tell me about this celtic knot.”

“It’s not imaginary,” she retorted. Winter could be unbearable sometimes, holding his few years’ advantage over them. “It’s just not in the visual spectrum.”

That, as she knew it would, made him pause. He was always startled when she talked science, especially about the Strands. “All right,” he allowed. “It’s an indiburple knot.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/90593.html. You can comment here or there.

30 Days meme Second Semester: 1b “Witness,” Addergoole Year 9

Jul24

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “1) the story starts with the words ‘It’s going down.'”

Addergoole/Fae Apoc Year 9 has a landing page (LJ Link)

“It’s going down.” Curry was breathless when he pounded on Thornburn’s door, his words coming out in ragged gasps. Ceinwen tried to pretend she wasn’t hiding, back in the little corner of the room He allowed her. “Kendon and Jeremiah, over that little carrotty Ninthie. What’s her name… Hoover?”

“Ahouva.” It was somehow unsurprising and yet still displeasing that He knew the pretty girl’s name. He knew them all. “I thought Jeremiah had his hands full.” He was sliding on his shoes as he spoke; Ceinwen, hesitantly, looked for her own.

“I thought he did, too. I guess he’s going for the greed factor. Surprises me… Kendon is no sweetheart, but I didn’t think the Prophet was the White Knight sort, either. I mean, he’s turned his back on a lot of shit in his day.”

“And we’ve turned our back on his shit, too.” Thornburn turned his attention to Ceinwen. “Stay here… no, you might as well come with. You can see what a challenge is like. But stay close to m e, and if I tell you to hide, no arguments.”

If he told her to hide, she’d have no choice in the matter, just as with any other order he gave her. She nodded mutely anyway, and then, pushed by some order she couldn’t even remember properly, whispered out a reluctant “Yes, Sir.”

“Good.” He offered her his hand while she tried to ignore the giddy stupid pleasure his praise sent through her. “Let’s go witness this mess.”

The List:
1a) the story starts with the words “It’s going down.” (LJ Link)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/87150.html. You can comment here or there.

30 Days meme Second Semester: 1a, Alien Elevator, Vas’ World

Jul24

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “1) the story starts with the words ‘It’s going down.'”

Vas’ World has a landing page (LJ Link)

“It’s going down.” Vas watched the wicker cage slowly descend the cliff, shaking his head.

“Of course it’s going down,” Suki laughed. “It’s an elevator. What did you expect it to do? Swing back and forth wildly?”

“It’s not an elevator,” he grumbled, never mind the horse-creatures that could probably overhear him. “It’s a wicker basket and a pulley system.”

“Sounds like an elevator to me. And it sounds a lot safer than the path there… besides, it’s holding two horses and Malia, and it’s doing just fine. It can hold our weight.”

Vas was un-moved. “I’d still rather take the path.”

“With no spotter? No way in hell, Sparky. Mission parameters don’t allow it.”

“And where in the mission parameters is an alien-made wicker basket masquerading as an elevator?” The thing had stopped at the bottom of the cliff, its passengers (the third load) exiting safely. Slowly, it began creeping back up towards them. Another time, Vas would have been fascinated with its mechanism. Right now, he was too busy worrying about his impending ride down in the damn thing.

“You really don’t want me to quote chapter and verse at you, do you, Vassily? Trust me. The thing will get us down safely, and then we can continue our exploration.” She chose to ignore that their “exploration” had turned into a guided tour by giant telepathic horses; so did he.

“What I really want to know,” he muttered instead, “is who has the thumbs to build this thing.”

The List:
1) the story starts with the words “It’s going down.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/85631.html. You can comment here or there.

30 Days Meme – A selection of others’ work

Jul21

Unhappy Catgirl! lilfluff‘s Day 27 (orig. meme) story., Trapped.

kc_obrien has started the second meme; my favorite of his three so far is, unsurprisingly, The Price of Insolence .

rix-scaedu has already written the first 10 days of the new meme; I think this one is my favorite, but it’s hard to tell.

minor-architect is doing a 30 days of Haiku version; this one made me cry a bit, but in a good way.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/82926.html. You can comment here or there.

Alder's Grove Fiction

The Worlds of Lyn Thorne-Alder