Tag Archive | character: vas

Perspective Shift – Vas’ World – for @sharontherose

Aug8

From my call for prompts and (LJ post); to @SharonTheRose’s prompt “a misogynist funds himself in a woman’s body, in a patriarchal system.”

Vas’ world, from the point of view of the McAliens.

a misogynist funds himself in a woman’s body, in a patriarchal system.

Seffie knew something was wrong the moment he woke up. He was in the wrong house, for one; the ceiling above him was painted in strange blue lines, not the red curlicues of the home he had built for the wife and children he had yet to find and make.

The blankets over him were wrong, woven in patterns he didn’t recognize, and they flowed strangely over his body, lumpy, incorrect.

“Woman!” Even the voice shouting in the next room sounded wrong, the accent twisted and barely intelligible. “Where is my food?”

Food sounded delicious. Seffie wondered where the woman was. He wondered, too, where he was. He levered himself up – his back hurt something fierce; had he been wounded in battle? He didn’t remember there being a battle – and he had to piss.

“Woman!” the hoarse voice came again, and a man in strange clothing stepped into the room. He was looking straight at Seffie. “By the holy seven, woman, what are you still doing in bed?”

“What by the nine are you talking about?” Seffie snapped – or started to. He got out “what,” in a high squeak, and finally got a glimpse of the body below the blanket. “What…?” he tried again. The voice that came out was a high, sweet, woman’s voice, which went with the swollen tits and round belly. He swung his feet to the ground, or tried to – he couldn’t see them over the belly, glaring at the man, who was even now crossing the room. “A hand?” he tried.

The brute cuffed him casually across the face. “Woman, if you are not in the kitchen before I get to the table, I will give you more than a hand.”

Seffie had taken worse, but never without dealing it back. He glanced at his fist – smaller than it should be, but still a fist – and slammed it into the man’s stomach.

As the man grabbed him by the hair, it occurred to Seffie that, just maybe, he shouldn’t have angered the village shaman.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/101133.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.

30daysmeme: Horseback (Vas’ World)

Jun22

Day 16 of 30 days of Fiction: “16) Write a scene on horseback.”

Vas’ World, and in sequence with the rest of the Vas cycle. See them all here (Lj Link)

“Can I call it a horse, at least?” Malia twitted Vas, not for the first time.

“It has blue hair,” Paz complained, “and a purple mane and tail. Mine at least is sort of natural-colored.”

“She, not it,” Suki interjected, “presuming mammalian biology. All three of them appear female. And considering the intelligence they showed, might not appreciate being spoken about as if they weren’t there.”

Vas, who was having a bit of trouble reconciling any number of things about the proto-horses, including the cotton-candy pink mane of the one he and Suki were riding, said nothing.

“Well, horses or not, they rescued us,” Andon pointed out, from the back of his blue-and-purple mount, “or, at the very least, got us out of the mess we were in. And they don’t appear to have thumbs, so I doubt they built the walls, or these saddles on their backs.”

“So,” Malia pondered, “that leaves us open to the possibility of three sentient species, for varying definitions of ‘sentient.’ Do you think the horses have language, Suki?” The appearance of their giant Clydesdale-like rescuers seemed to have reverted the already-silly researcher to about five standard years old.

“They might,” Suki allowed. “Although it’s of course impossible that they speak or understand Terran languages.”

“Well, of course.” Even when Andon was agreeing with him, Vas wanted to punch him. And then punch the psychologist who’d put together their team. “Conflict is good for exploratory committees.” Nyeah.

He wrinkled his nose, wondering if Malia wasn’t the only one the horse-thing was turning five.

“Of courrrrrse,” said his horse.

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This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/63420.html. You can comment here or there.

Siege, a story of Vas’ World

May18

This is a story of Vas’ World – see here for a complete description; it comes immediately in sequence with the Vas Cycle, after Contemplating the Wall

From [community profile] dailyprompt:

“Stand here, by me,” Vas ordered, and was gratified although not too surprised to see that his team obeyed him. In a crisis, he was still the leader. This, he reckoned, definitely counted as a crisis.

The tentacled tree-like-thing was holding his senior xenobiologist Suki about six feet off the ground, not moving her anymore but restraining her. Other branches were stretching towards their group, while Malia and Paz waved their axes threateningly. They were surrounded on three sides by the wriggling trees, while the fourth side was bordered by a long, clearly-sentient made wall. At least one of the sentient species here, Paz’s wounded leg could attest, used ranged weapons. Somebody built walls. And the trees seemed aware of the threat of the axe.

“They look like snakes,” Malia muttered. “Some sort of boa or anaconda…”

“Fiddleheads,” Andon countered. “See the feelers inside? I wonder if they’re edible…”

“Last time I checked,” Vas interrupted, before Andon could get too distracted with xeno-cusine, “we didn’t eat sentient species.”

It was the wrong thing to say, which he realized the moment the words were out of his mouth. Malia had a pet peeve about…

“That’s not what you said about the Anjou tigers,” she complained, right on cue.

…the tiger-like ruminant creatures from Anjou Three, whose sentience was not up for debate by anyone other than a few rabid cat-lovers, and Malia.

Vas was saved from yet another discussion on comparative intelligence and the ethics of eating cows with stripes by Suki’s worried scream. Ah, yes. They still had to get her down. He didn’t want to lose yet another team member, even an obnoxious one.

“Guys…” Suki choked out. Apparently the tree-like tentacle creatures were, indeed, also constrictors. “Guys,” she tried again, coughing. And pointing behind them. “The grass…”

“I can hear the grass,” Paz muttered nervously. “It’s growing.”

Prompts included: Stand By Me, I can hear the grass grow, and anaconda

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/43601.html. You can comment here or there.

Worldbuilding: Population Bottlenecks, Founder Effect

May10

[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posted an interesting discussion on population bottlenecks.

While the article is rather interesting (“North America was populated by no more than 70 people 14,000 years ago, claims stunning new DNA research”), I find the links to Minimum Viable Population and Population Bottleneck more interesting.

World-building-wise, when discussing the exodus that landed people on Reiassan (as well as in contemplating the blue-haired McAliens in Vas’ World), I’ve had to keep in mind such concepts to be sure the populations are viable. But the Founder Effect gives me some fun grist for my mill…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/42137.html. You can comment here or there.

15 minute Ficlet in Vas’ World – Contemplating the Wall

Mar26

Originally posted here in response to a photoprompt

“What. Is that?” Andon stared at the long stretch of stacked stone, his jaw dropping.

“We told you,” Paz answered patiently. “Walls.”

“Are you sure they’re not natural occurrences?” Suki tried. “Some sort of land coral-like thing or…?”

“Not unless coral grows with integral mortar.” Malia and Suki were getting along, Vas noticed, worse and worse since Becky’s disappearance. Since they’d barely been able to be in a cabin together beforehand, he did his best to keep them separated. The walls, though, changed everything.

“So there’s really a sentient species here?” Andon looked so disappointed. He’d been hoping, Vas thought, for a colonial mayorship or something. Not that he couldn’t still have it, but…

“Sentience could be arguable,” Paz grumbled. He was still unhappy about the attack, and so inclined to be less than charitable about their hosts. “But the have tool-using capability and weapons. And something built the walls.”

“Walls, plural,” Suki snapped. “This isn’t the first one?”

“We were a little busy getting shot at,” Malia snapped. “You may have noticed?”

“Well, you’ll have to show me the other one, too.”

“Only if you want to get shot at,” Vas pointed out. He didn’t like Suki’s tone any more than Malia did.

“It’s still science, and it still needs to be observed and recorded,” she answered primly.

“I’ll observe and record…” Malia mumbled. Ezra, finally, chose that minute to get involved, in, of course, exactly the wrong way.

“Now girls…”

For a moment, both women were united in the venom they turned on him. “We are you fucking colleagues, Ezra,” Malia snarled…

“Not children in a classroom,” Suki added. And then, before Ezra could retort, she screamed.

Every man there turned, hand on his weapon, in time to see the branches of the tree-like vegetation, the twisted branches that had looked a bit like tentacles, a bit like arms, twist around the senior xenobotanist’s waist, pulling her off the ground and up into the air. Another tentacle wrapped around Malia’s waist.

“I have a hatchet,” she snapped. “Don’t even think about it.”

Pronunciation note: “Vas” is pronounced like a fine-art vase, vos.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/28263.html. You can comment here or there.

15 Minute Ficlet in Vas’ World: Observe and Report

Mar16

Originally posted here in response to the quote prompt “If it bleeds, we can kill it.”

“If it bleeds, we can kill it.” Paz muttered.

“And if it farts, we can smell it. Lovely science there, Paz,” Malia snorted softly. “You’re all getting pretty creepy about this.” Still, she kept her voice soft, and watched the sides of their path carefully. She’d done her time in the space service, after all; she’d done basic training.

“The planet was supposed to be uninhabited,” Ezra complained; he, too, kept his voice quiet, but what she could hear in the tone suggested he felt betrayed. They all acted that way, like wall-building creatures had somehow done it just to thwart them. Like they were thwarted at all, just by a little ancient construction. And now they were tracking… what? They still didn’t know.

“Well, from all the satellites, it is,” she answered reasonably. “It’s not as if there’s any major cities here, no radio traffic. We know the planet has no wide-spread civilization.”

“But it has sentient life,” Vas grumbled. “And sentient life-forms cannot share a planet comfortably.”

That, of course, was completely subjective, but Vas liked to make blanket statements like that. It was easier to just let him make them. Except…

“…no, it won’t be very comfortable if we go by the ‘it’s bleeding, let’s kill it’ philosophy, will it?” She narrowly avoided slapping her hand over her mouth to keep in the words she’d already said. She’d done it now.

“Malia, don’t be stupid. It took a shot at us.”

“And we took a shot at it. And now we’re… what? Tracking it back to its lair? What happened to observe and record?”

“I’m perfectly fine,” Paz grumbled, setting one big hand over the wound where the arrow had grazed flesh, “observing and recording this thing dying.”

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