Tag Archive | character: summer

A Favorite Place, a story of Stranded World for the Giraffe Bingo Card Call

To rix_scaedu‘s prompt to my Orig_fic Bingo card; this fills the “Favorite Place” square.

Autumn and Summer (and Bishop and Melinda) are characters in my Stranded World setting; this story is later in their lives than most of the stories.

“Let me show you this place.”

Summer watched her sister. She had been watching her sister much of her life, it seemed; the way she moved, the way she smiled, the way she seemed to dance through life without a care. She watched the way Autumn smiled with her mouth without smiling with her body; she watched the way she flirted shamelessly and almost never carried through, and the way, when she carried through, it was a dance of the body, without the heart.

Summer had been watching Autumn and Winter forever, picking and choosing what parts she wanted to emulate, and then parts she wanted to throw away (On some level, she knew that Spring did the same with all three of them, though with Spring it looked as if she was throwing away everything, just to confuse and confound them all).

This year, she was spending the summer, or at least part of it, with her sister and her own lovers, which lent a certain color-commentary feel to the whole art of watching Autumn.

“Is she…” Bishop whispered it in Summer’s ear, which cause Mellie to squirm closer on the other side.

“Hssst. Wait and see.” Summer adjusted her bodice – this silly Ren stuff Autumn insisted on; maybe this year she’d splurge on one that fit properly. Two, one for her and Mellie would look lovely in a wench dress, maybe…

“A place?” The man had been hanging around Autumn’s booth for the entire weekend; he’d wander away to hang out with his friends and slowly gravitate back to admire the art, to admire Autumn’s ink, to admire Autumn herself when she wasn’t looking. “But your booth?”

“Well.” Autumn’s breath hitched, the cut of her vest making it obvious. “You could always come back after the Faire closed. It’s prettier by moonlight, after all.”

“Mmmmm, look at the way he watches her.” Mellie was nearly purring. “Good thing we brought our own tent.”

Summer was smiling, but inside she was cheering, albeit a bit nervously. In all the years she had been coming to this Faire with her sister, never had she known Autumn to show a lover – or anyone but kin, actually – her favorite place.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/629191.html. You can comment here or there.

Magic in Stranded World: Summer

Apr23

See also Magic in Stranded World.

As mentioned, most Strand-manipulators in the Stranded World fall into three categories: Strand-smoothers, Tanglers, and Connection-readers.

Autumn’s little sister Summer is one of those who falls in between.

What Summer does with the Strands is closer to witchery or charming than to the tangible geometry of her brother Winter or the kitten-tangles of her sister Spring. Summer tugs on the Strands by virtue of charms, hexes, a few muttered words and a few drawn symbols.

Those symbols have the power to hold the Strands into a position, to tug them later into that place, or to keep them from going somewhere: she can cause someone to fall away from good fortune, or to it. With effort, she can pull people together or push them apart.

Although Summer’s power is limited – she cannot use it easily, if at all, without her words and symbols, and it rarely has an immediate effect on anything – it can be immensely powerful as well.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/517156.html. You can comment here or there.

Summer off the Half-Shell, a continuation of Stranded World for the July Giraffe Call

Aug16

For eseme‘s free 500-word continuation of Summer on the Half-Shell

“And that’s the last touches. For real this time.”

He stepped away from the painting and caught Summer as she stumbled. “Hey, you’ve been a champ. You should do this for the art classes; they pay pretty well.”

She leaned in his arms, not minding the warm or the support, or even the silly-swooning-girl feeling of him catching her. “Petie, nobody but you could get me to hold still for that long. Nobody but you could get me to hold still for more than two minutes.”

He kissed her neck, just under her ear. “Normally, having you holding still while nearly-naked is the last thing on my mind.” His arms slid up her torso, but, on automatic pilot, she deflected them.

“Wash your hands first.” She blushed, as she channeled her mother, and tried to deflect that line of thought as well. “Do I get to see it now?”

“After I wash my hands.” He guided her up to her feet. “If you don’t want me to get paint marks all over you, maybe you want to put a shirt on?”

She tugged her strip of silk around her a little more tightly. “Maybe I want your fingers all over me?”

“Well…” He grinned crookedly. “You have been a good girl…”

And that ruined the mood. She slipped her shirt back on. “Can I see the painting now?”

He caught the change in tone even if he didn’t see her face. “Sum… shit.” He dried his hands on his pants. “You know…”

“That I am not your pet.”

“You know that’s not how I think of you.” He touched her shoulders, and frowned when she pulled away. “Sum…”

“I know what you say. And I know that, when you act like that, it belies everything you say.”

He sighed, clearly put-out and possibly a little guilty. “Do you still want to see the painting, at least?”

“Of course I do.” She mirrored his frown back at him. “Just because I don’t like it when you talk to me like that, doesn’t mean I don’t like you.”

“It feels like it when you beat up on me like that.” He stuck his hands in his pocket, stuck his lip out, and looked at her through his lashes.

She withstood the look for a heartbeat, another, another. She had a younger sister. She’d dealt with the sad-puppy look before.

But her sister wasn’t Petie. She gave in, laughing, a little chuckle at first, until he started laughing, too, and then she was guffawing, and then he was hugging her, and everything was resolved.

“I’m sorry.” If he muttered it into her hair, well, at least he said it.

“It’s all right.” If it were a lie, at least it wasn’t I’m sorry too.

“The painting?”

“Yes, please.” She took his hand, as if everything was going to be fine. For a few moments, it could be.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/387349.html. You can comment here or there.

Summer on the half-shell, a story of Stranded World

Jul20

“Just pose for me, Sum, it’ll be fine.”

“Pete, no. You don’t want me to pose naked. I don’t want me to be posted naked all over campus.”

“Not naked, then, tastefully draped. Like Venus on the half-shell, we use a long piece of fabric and I paint it as hair, all the way down to your ankles. I’ve got a few pieces here…” He pulled a long strip of silk, golden yellow, from his box of painting props. “Summer, please? I’ve been wanting to paint you for ages.”

“We’ve been dating for three months, Petie.” She knew she was going to give in. He was doing the puppy-dog eyes thing. She always gave in to the puppy-dog eyes. “You’ve been wanting to paint me for ages?”

“Longer than we’ve been dating. Please? I promise nothing bad, nothing you’ll be embarrassed for your friends to see.”

“I’m not worried about my friends. I’m worried about my brother. And you should be, too.”

“I don’t see him here.”

“That’s because you haven’t upset him yet.” She wrinkled her nose at him. “Look, hon, I like you. But nothing that will make my brother raise an eyebrow.”

“Why do you let him run your life like this?”

“Because he’s family.”

At her glare, Pete held up both hands. “Okay, okay. Tasteful, right? Summer, I can do tasteful. I just want a chance to paint you.”

He held out the drape of fabric again. “Summer on the half-shell. When I’m done, you’ll be able to hang it in church.”

She took the silk from him. Winter couldn’t frown at her for art. “All right, Petie. Summer on the half-shell.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/375475.html. You can comment here or there.

Icon Flash: Summer

May20

Continuing flash series! I’m going to write one flash for every Icon I have, over 4 LJ accounts, 1 DW, and a whole bunch of not-currently-in-use, until I get bored or run out of icons.

Today’s icon:

Summer, from Stranded World.

Icon & Art by Djinni

“So what are you going to do about it?” Summer had stolen away from her boyfriend and girlfriend for a few minutes; she liked having them, liked them a lot, but she missed Basil. And, as it turned out, Basil had missed her, too.

“I don’t know.” He threw his shoe into his laundry hamper, the second one following soon afterward, and huffed out air. “I didn’t think this was going to be the hard part of dating.”

“Yeah. It always is.”

“You date assholes, Summer.”

“Hey!”

“Okay, current datees excepted. For now. Bishop seems like a nice guy, and your girl is pretty… for a girl.”

She barks out a laugh. “I thought you were sick of hearing about my love life.”

“I am. But I’m sick of talking about my … can’t call it a love life.”

“If you didn’t like him, it wouldn’t be this hard, hon.” She reached over and hugged Basil as tightly as she could, breathing in his smell. She missed that – and he gave really good hug, getting his whole body into it, making her feel warm and loved and safe.

She tried to give that back to him, now, and thought about painful deaths for Basil’s current problem. “I dunno, Baz. Maybe, just mayyybe, he’s just not getting it. It’s possible he’s not an asshole.”

“Did he date you?” If he was feeling well enough about it to tease, it might work out all right.

She grinned back at him. “Nah, I’m not his type. So? See, there’s hope for him. Ask him about it?”

“I will.” Basil tightened the hug for a minute. “You should come around more, Sum.”

“I know.” She patted his back apologetically, drawing a good-luck charm in the process. “I act as an asshole magnet, so you don’t have to deal with them.”

“Ex-actly.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/344268.html. You can comment here or there.

Roses, a story of Stranded World for the Giraffe Call (@inventrix)

Mar8

For inventrix‘s prompt.

This comes after South Like Medea’s Toga and Horse’s Mouth and before Fishing.

Stranded World has a landing page here.

“Well, according to Wikipedia, a violet rose means love at first sight. The other websites seem to agree.” Kirstin frowned at her laptop, and then back at the flower. “You got a love at first sight rose from a secret admirer.”

“What’s going on?” Basil stuck his head in the door. “Ooh, nice flower, Sum. Finally over Brigit?”

“Someone thinks I am,” Summer answers. “Or thinks I ought to be, since they clearly have an intention.”

“No name?” Basil shrugged. “Stick it in a vase and call it good. If they want you to know, they’ll tell you eventually.”

“When did you turn into a pragmatist?” Kirstin complained.

“After Kim,” he answered shortly. They changed the subject, Summer dropped the rose in a vase, and they moved on with their day.

…until the blue rose showed up the next day, and Kirstin opened up her laptop again.

“Mystery. No, really? And the unattainable? So he’s in love with you but can’t have you? Well, not if he doesn’t say anything.”

“He will,” Basil grumbled. “Dinner?”

By the third day, Basil was glaring daggers at the flower. “He wants to take you to St. Patty’s day? He’s a bit early.”

“Green, green. Abundance, fertility, and envy. I’m not sure I like this guy, Sum,” Kirstin complained.

“I think it’s sort of sweet.” She added the green one to the vase with the blue and purple, and moved on with her day.

None of them were surprised by the yellow rose on Friday – wealth and success, Kirstin read, which Basil snorted at.

“He loves you, can’t have you, wants to knock you up and make you rich. Sounds like every sweet-talker everywhere, but this one can’t even be arsed to write you a poem.”

Summer silently vowed to kick Kim’s perfect ass, and went to dinner.

Saturday’s orange rose appeared to mean “desire and passion,” which, as Kirstin pointed out, they’d probably already figured out by now. Summer came up with a bigger vase, and arrayed the flowers in order.

She didn’t leave her room Sunday morning, but a red rose still mysteriously appeared, hanging in a bag on her doorknob. As they studied the array of flowers, Basil laughed shortly.

“She loves you gayly, maybe?”

Staring at the rainbow, and the pride flag hung behind it, Summer had to laugh.

“I guess she does. Okay, that wins.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/295616.html. You can comment here or there.

Character description and signal Boost

Feb8

djinni is hosting ICON DAY 21!!

And for an icon request, #1 was Summer. Here’s her description:

Summer is younger, a sunny blonde; her hair is generally pulled back in a loose ponytail, strands falling in her face: http://www.my-hair-style.com/2010/08/23/the-sleek-ponytail-in-its-various-different-avatars-for-fall/

She prefers bright colors for her clothes, especially yellow, orange, and that bright colour in between those two. Simple clothes, probably a T-shirt like this – http://images.footballfanatics.com/FFImage/thumb.aspx?i=%2FproductImages%2F_619000%2Fff_619717_xl.jpg&w=400 saying something clever- I like “Yes, and?” or, if smaller, “try.”

Like her siblings, her face shape is most like this picture here: http://www.edinburghpastoralcounselling.com/resources/coupleiStock_000008560478Small.jpg; her skin is tan but not deeply so.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/263782.html. You can comment here or there.

Thicker Than… A story of Stranded World, for the Giraffe Call

Nov13

For rix_scaedu‘s prompt, combined with ankewehner‘s prompt

This is in the Stranded World Setting, which has a landing page here (and on LJ).

Mellie’s roommate was fighting with her mother again. They could hear it from the other side of the room, easily, so the three of them had headed into the hallway.

“I’d say it gets worse around the holidays,” Mellie murmured, “but it’s hard to tell. I’d need a decibel meter to get an accurate read.”

“That’s…. pretty awful,” Bishop frowned. “How long has it been going on?”

“As far as I can tell, since the first week of school. I’m not sure what’s going on, exactly, but it seems like her mom has a new complaint every week.”

“Damn.” Bishop shook his head. “My roommate fights with his folks, too, but it’s not that bad.”

Summer pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I have an idea.”

“You always have ideas.”

“Callie’s a nice girl. And Jacob has been really patient with us all year long. I know we’re going to Melinda’s family’s house for Christmas – but the rest of the vacation. Let’s make a holiday here for them. Jacob and Callie, my roommate doesn’t really like me, but I know Basil’s having a hard time, and the Californian twins.”

“What about their families?” Melinda offered cautiously. “Won’t they be mad they’re not coming home? Family’s important.”

“Blood’s thicker than water, etc,” Bishop murmured.

“Well, they can be mad all they want. What it comes down to is that we like these people, we’re nice to them, and they like us, or at least they’re nice to us. Let’s give them a family dinner the way we know it ought to be.”

Bishop nodded, slowly, Melinda echoed it. “We can do that.”

“Yeah. The dorm kitchens should be pretty empty. We can make this work.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/173138.html. You can comment here or there.

Fishing

Sep8

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “28) write a story set in a laundromat “

From dailyprompt: “choose again”

Stranded World.

“Go Fish.” Summer sprawled across the laundry-room table, staring at the cards in her hand, watching Mellie and Bishop over the edges.

“Really? You don’t have a green nine?” Bishop took a card from the pool. “Are you charming your hand again, Sum?”

“You know I don’t do that.” When she was playing with them, at least. “Mel, do you have a blue seven?”

“I do.” Her lovely girlfriend passed over the seven of rain. “This deck makes this so much more fun… ooh, there goes the dryer.” She set down her hand carefully and bounced off the table.

Stalled on her, Bishop and Summer shared a moment of watching the way Mel’s body moved. Under cover of the slamming of doors, he murmured to her. “Sometimes I can’t figure you out.”

“What’s to figure?” she shrugged, trying to keep the little pit of panic down. Lines of conversation like that never ended well for her.

“There’s this,” he gestured at the deck, hand-drawn for her by her sister, “yet you say you don’t ‘do’ that sort of thing. There’s the charms you don’t ever admit to and yet never deny, and that necklace you won’t explain that goes on display when we’re visiting your family. There’s you, acting like you want to be your big sister and your big brother all at once, theatre-business dual major. And you could have had anyone, couldn’t you have?”

“What, voodoo someone into dating me?” She laughed, trying to make a joke of it. “No. Fishing in the wrong pool there, Bish.” Mostly.

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. (LJ)
12) prompt: sweet iced tea (LJ)
13) re-write a story that everyone knows (LJ)
14) write a vanilla story dealing with kinky subject matter (LJ)
15) prompt: ascension (LJ)
16) write a scene that takes place at the end of a long road trip. (LJ)
17) write an uncomfortable story (LJ)
18) prompt: a step too far (LJ
19) write a story in which something goes BOOM. )LJ)
20) Write the end of the story ‘The Purple Bag. (LJ)
21) Roll a d20 twice. Combine the themes of the two previous stories for those numbers. (LJ)
22) Prompt: White Knight (LJ)
23) write a scene that takes place in a place that is war-torn (LJ)
24) prompt: founding fathers (LJ)
25) write a story set in a library LJ
26) Prompt: Elemental LJ
27) write a story using only one period. (LJ)
28) write a story set in a laundromat

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/126621.html. You can comment here or there.

Variations on a Theme – Genderfunky Giraffes of Two Varieties

Aug9

This is for twisted_times‘s prompt in my call for prompts (posted here:
Most media depictions of bisexuals are that they are:

1. always promiscuous
2. sexually greedy
2a. necessarily dating persons of both genders simultaneously
3. just going “through a phase”
4. actually going to end up reverting to just being gay/straight (delete as applicable) by the end of the story.

I’d like to see writing that deals with bisexuality without managing to make use any of the above incorrect tropes.

*throws down the metaphorical gauntlet*

This was trickier to pull off in 150 words than you’d imagine, so I took two stabs at it.

Shiva and Nikita are from my webserial Addergoole, and the icon is of her.

Basil is from Stranded World ((and on LJ); he’s in the theatre club with the guys from 14th Shot and, of course Summer, from Meet the Parents

Story One:

“Do you miss being with a girl?” Niki curled up against Shiva’s side, nuzzling sleepily at her shoulder. He’d been peaceful, quiet lately, and today he couldn’t keep his hands off her.

She rubbed his back sleepily. It had been a busy, stressful week and she’d been grateful for his quiet. Now she wondered if it had been on purpose. “Miss being with a girl? That’s… well, that’s an odd question.” She shrugged, and kissed him behind the ear. “I’m with you, now.”

“Yeah… but do you ever wish I was a girl?”

She propped herself up on an elbow to study him, and wondered what had brought on this rash of insecurity.

“No, my darling dear. You’re plenty of handful as it is,” she teased, and then, seeing his expression fall, hurried to reassure him, first with a kiss, and then with a hand wandering down his body. “I’m with you, now, and you’re all I need.”

Story Two:

“So.” Alex sat on the prop couch Basil was busily staple-upholstering. “Straight now?”

“Nope.” Basil resisted the urge to staple Alex’s pants to the couch. He was a bad enough actor to start with.

“I heard you and Summer…”

“Nope.” Thanks, in part, to Alex, but Basil liked being Summer’s friend.

“Damn. And she’s damn hot, too. So still gay.”

Maybe he could staple his leg to the couch instead. “Nope.”

“So that rumor about you and Caleb the Green…”

“Depends on the rumor.”

“You know, you two were…”

“In a long-term monogamous relationship?” He placed a staple precariously close to the actor’s calf. “We were.”

“And you’re not with Summer.”

“She’s kinda busy.”

“And you’re not gay.”

“Does this involve ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ somehow?”

“Well, the blonde playing Abby is pretty hot, but I heard you and she…”

“Amber? No.”

“No, not her, um… Krista.”

“She’s playing Elaine Harper. And yes, we are. Since the close of Much Ado.”

“So like months. And still gay?”

“Nope.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/103207.html. You can comment here or there.

Alder's Grove Fiction

The Worlds of Lyn Thorne-Alder