Tag Archive | prompt: origfic

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

Jan5

To [personal profile] 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.

Unwelcome Guests – a story of Baram’s House Elves/Addergoole for the Giraffe Bingo Call Card

Jan4

To [personal profile] clare_dragonfly‘s prompt to my Orig_fic Bingo card; this fills the “Unwelcome Guest” square.

Baram and his family are part of the “Baram’s House Elves” sub-series of the Addergoole ‘verse, which can be found here; Baram is also a background character in Addergoole.

There wasn’t so much a war anymore, as far as they could tell.

They didn’t get any TV anymore, local or cable or anything else. The radio they heard these days was sporadic at best, and there would be weeks where there wasn’t anything at all.

But they hadn’t seen a returned god in several months, they hadn’t seen an army soldier in the last month, and they hadn’t seen another Ellehemaei in a couple weeks. They had gotten a couple human refugees – they were a standing house with a standing wall and hedge, burning lights and smoke in the chimney – but the girls fed and equipped them and sent them on their way, if they were over eighteen, and added them to the child collection, otherwise.

Baram liked it that way. He liked the quiet, and he’d found that he didn’t mind all the kids around. Liked them, actually, if he was going to be honest… and he had space in his head to be honest, now.

(Which might have been because of the children, actually, something else he said only in his own head.)

There wasn’t so much of a war anymore… but there wans’t so much of a world anymore, either. That bothered the girls, Baram’s angels, and it bothered the children, but it didn’t really bug Baram all that much. He had his family, he had his house, and nobody bothered them here.

“Boss! Someone’s at the door!” Alkyone’s voice echoed through the house. “Trouble, I think.”

“Trouble.” Baram liked his armchair. It was soft, and comfortable, and normal. But he levered himself out of it before he was finished saying Trouble? “Kids?”

“Got ’em.” Viatrix slapped the Swish-boy on the ass. “Aloysius, get the kids and take them down to the safe room.”

“Yes ma’am.” Jaelie’s boy did have some use, at least in a pinch.

“Sword.” It wasn’t the first time they’d had unwanted guests. Baram took the sword from Viatrix’s hand. “Jacket.” He shrugged it on. He was tough, all the way through, but there were things, they’d found, for which it didn’t hurt to have an extra level of protection. “Stake.” They weren’t vampire hunters… but they’d hunted vampires. “Okay. Door.”

Via swung the door open… and Baram shifted the sword into a guard position.

“Oh, come on, is that any way to greet an old classmate?” Ardell and Delaney stood on his stoop, leaning on each other’s shoulders and looking like they’d stepped out of a leather magazine.

Barm shifted his feet a bit further apart. “Yes.”

Continued: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/675139.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/628825.html. You can comment here or there.

Time of Testing

Jan3

To @Dahob’s prompt to my origfic bingo card: this fills the [text/exam] square.

This may be in the “Space/Colonies” verse but I am uncertain.

“This is how we’ve tested since the dawn of time.”

Ruttiger’s mother, the Dame Anne Halloran, was adamant. Ruttiger himself was not quite as confident. “Are you sure it’s needed, mother? To test her for a witch…?” He was, after all, rather fond of the girl in question; he was also a pragmatic young man, and did not really wish to be tarred by association.

“I am certain.” Dame Halloran put down her booted foot with a thump. “She has shown all the signs.”

The girl in question was not in the room; that wouldn’t have been proper. Dame Halloran’s seven sisters had her in the back room of the chapel, going through the cleansing rituals that were nearly as old as the test.

“She’s still young. You could be mistaken.” Ruttiger really did want to be cautious. He was speaking hunched, shoulders forward; he was quite a bit taller than his mother, which was exactly what he didn’t want to remind her of at the moment.

“If she is so young as to be too young for the test, Ruttiger Mensen Halloran, then she is far too young for you to be stepping forward as her champion or her luger. You’re nearly a man grown.”

Nearly was both too close and good enough. Ruttiger sighed, and lowered his head in respect. “I worry about her, mother. I don’t want her hurt.”

“The test has been used since humankind was sprung here. It will be used until we are gone. It is the way things are, my son, and sooner or later you will have to accept it.” She patted his hand. “You will have daughters some day, and they will have to be tested, too, if they show the signs. They will have to stare at the fire, just as I did, just as Renia will. They will have to be tested for a witch. Don’t you want a wife who has passed the test herself?”

Ruttiger sighed. As always, his mother was right. She set the field of battle; it was easy for her to win. “Yes, mother.”

“Very good. Now go take your seat, young man. The testing is just about to begin.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/628251.html. You can comment here or there.

Bingo: Row (technically a column)

Dec31

This is a fill for my Dec 12 2013 card. I’ve been using the card as a prompt call; one of the stories has been posting.

Column O Prompts (five stories) – Magic, Home, Promises Broken, Under Pressure, Knowledge

Title: An Argument of Magic
Series: The Aunt Family
Prompt: Magic
Rating: G
Notes: Evangaline and her relatives have different ideas about teaching magic

Title: Making a Home
Series: Colonies/Space Verse
Prompt: Home
Rating: PG-13
Notes: There was no coming back from Alken Five, but perhaps there was a going forward

Title: Promises Broken
Series: Planners
Prompt: Promises Broken
Rating: G
Notes: The Elder of the family and the head of household have made promises. One of them is going to have to break a promise

Title: Under Pressure
Series: Dragons Next Door
Prompt: Under Pressure
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Notes: Jin needs to make plans for his future. His first step? Getting his parents on board

Title: Passing Knowledge
Series: Planners
Prompt: Knowledge
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Notes: Adeline needs to pass knowledge along to future generations; that’s part of being a Planner. She believes in redundancy in that knowledge, too.

Four Three of these stories are still open to buy. Buy all three at a discount:

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/624526.html. You can comment here or there.

Passing Knowledge

Dec31

Story: Passing Knowledge
Prompt: Knowledge – to Orgfic Bingo
Series: Planners
Summary: With the same characters as Promises Broken

Knowledge, the various ways the Planners pass it down

Teaching

Adeline stood in the kitchen, surrounded by children of a certain age – old enough to learn, and not so old as to feel the need to pretend boredom. Today, she was teaching them how to bake a loaf of bread.

“…and that’s how we grind the wheat. Now, we will do a little more in the manual grinder, there, Penelope, take your turn, but we have the electric grinder available here, too, for when there’s power.”

“There’s power today.” Darren might end up being a problem-child, but right now he was just a child.

“There is.” Adeline kept her voice calm and level. “And when we’ve each practiced with the manual grinder, we’ll do the rest in the electric grinder.”

“Some people buy flour in the store.” Hilary was already on her way to being more than just a problem.

“And so do we. But today, we are baking bread from scratch Carl-Sagan style.”

“‘If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.'” Several of the kids quoted it at Adeline, and she smiled. They might not care to learn how to grind wheat, but they learned nonetheless.

Storage

“What are you doing, Adeline?”

Elder Brice was bored, and a bored elder is never a helpful elder.

“I’m taking inventory.” They were down in the sub-basement, the LED lights burning eerily over their shelves of supplies.

“Don’t you note everything down as it comes out of storage?” He picked up a can and put it back in what Adeline was going to assume he believed was the right spot. “Why would you need to waste time on an inventory?”

She took three deep breaths. “First, my time is not subject to audit, Elder Brice.”

“I’m not being formal here! I’m just asking questions.”

“Second, there is always human error involved in everything.” She very carefully put the can he’d moved back where it belonged. “I am not always the person taking things out of storage. Products get moves. Things do, sometimes, go bad.” She shifted a bin of grain.

“Hey, what’s this?” The old man took the bin of grain and read the careful notes and diagrams written on the side. “‘Carl Sagan bread recipe. First, plant the grain…’ What, you forget?”

He was sneering. She hated it more than most things when her grandfather sneered.

“I am not always going to be the person pulling grain out of this storage facility, Elder Brice.” She took the bin back from him and put it on the shelf where it belonged. “And if I am not, someone else may need a refresher.”

“‘First, grow the grain?'”

“A very thorough refresher.”

Books

“What are you doing, Aunt Adeline?” Penelope crawled up on the stool to watch her aunt. “I thought we sealed up all the dried fruit last week.”

“We did. One moment.” The vacuum-sealer ran with a sucking whirr noise for a moment, and then stopped. Adeline trimmed the package and put it next to several others that looked similar. “I’m storing books.”

“Books?” Penelope peered through the plastic packaging. “‘Good to the Grain,’ that’s funny. Tas…'”

“Tassajara Bread Book. That’s the one we used last week. A different copy, of course.”

“But your copy has all the notes you and everyone else made.”

“And I copied every single one of those notes. One moment.” The machine whirred and stopped again.

“‘Flour Power: A Guide To Modern Home Grain Milling.’ These all have funny names.”

“They do.” She added the last book to the stack.

“Why didn’t you just seal up.., oh, then you wouldn’t have it.”

“And the grease stains and such in the book might damage its longevity.”

“Long…”

“Longevity. Long life.”

“So… these are for me, when I’m a grown-up?”

“Or your children, or their children, or so on. Yes. They’re for someone I can’t hand my grandmother’s books to myself.”

“And you’re sealing them to preserve them from moisture and air? Just like the apples?”

“Just like the apples, very good.” She patted Penelope’s shoulder. “That way, if there’s ever any question about anything in the storage vaults, there will be books there to explain everything.”

“Just don’t forget scissors to open the package.” Penelope grinned. “Like the can openers.”

“Exactly.” Adeline added a freshly-oiled pair of stainless steel scissors to the pile, finding herself smiling. Penelope may never need these books, but if she was quoting the unofficial house motto – <i>never forget a spare can opener</i> – she would do well in any crisis.

 

Under Pressure

Dec31

Story: Introductions
Prompt: Under Pressure – Orgfic Bingo
Series: Dragons Next Door
Summary: Directly after Now and Then.

“Mom, Dad… this is Bianna.”

There were a hundred things Jin wanted to say; there were at least fifty that Bianna wanted him to say, and probably forty-five of those overlapped. He could guess at a double dozen his parents wanted to hear from him, and twice that his siblings would want to hear.

But all of that had to wait on that sentence. Jin knew how this worked. He understood a thing or two about becoming an adult, and he understood more than that about his parents, and how you had to deal with them, especially if you were their child.

So simply: “Sorry I’m late… Insert excuse here… here’s the girl of my dreams.”

Which, when you were Audrey and Sage’s child, was a little more of a statement than it would be from a human.

There was a pause, a heartbeat, another heartbeat, another one. “Bianna, welcome. You’re just in time for Jin’s birthday party.” Jin’s mother stood up and greeted Bianna, both hands enclosing the younger woman’s hand in a warm greeting, while her eyes stayed on the girl’s face.

Jin found himself breathing again. “Bianna is in my class at school; we ended up spending the prom together, after the, ah, incident.”

“Pleased to meet you, Bianna.” Jin’s father stood up and bowed, deeply, the sort of thing he saved for formal occasions. “While I’m saddened to have not heard of you before, I’m very glad to have you here now. As Audrey said, it’s our Jin’s eighteenth birthday celebration.”

Jin was holding his breath again.

“So I heard.” Bianna had a winning smile, the sort of bright and sharp-toothed thing that had made her family line famous. “And I’m so excited to get to meet you finally. I think Jin was worried that you wouldn’t accept me.”

And, just like that, she dropped the bomb.

And, just as handily, Audrey caught it. “Nonsense. Of course Jin has reason to be worried – we’re his parents, and we fuss – but we’re happy he brought you home to meet us.” This time, her gaze was assessing, what Jin thought of as her professional glance. “Do you eat greenery, dear? Baked goods? If not, we have plenty of meat on the table as well. Please, do, pull up a chair.”

“I can murder the occasional salad.” Bianna’s teeth were, of course, meat-rending, but Jin had seen her eat vegetables and even sometimes a bagel. She took the seat Audrey indicated, waiting the half-heartbeat so that she and Jin sat at the same moment. “You’re both so kind.”

“I imagine,” Sage’s voice was quiet, “Jin wasn’t the only one worried that we’d accept you. Please don’t worry, Bianna. We do strive to be welcoming here.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/624054.html. You can comment here or there.

Promises Broken, Orig-Fic, Planners

Dec30

To kelkyag‘s prompt to my orig-fic card. This fills the “Promises Broken” slot.

This is set with new characters in my Planners setting; its landing page is here.

“There is a a reason we only have one Head for each House.” Adeline stood with her hands loose at her sides. Her chin was up and her lips were a firm line.

“And there is a reason I am an Elder.” Brice folded his hands in front of him and stared at Adeline’s forehead.

“We don’t have room for the Mason family, nor for the Stouts.”

They did not know if this was The End – no, not “the end;” the planners didn’t acknowledge that word. They didn’t know if it was The Cataclysmic Event. At the moment, it was just – just! – a long-running power failure with a side of some food and gas shortages. Family policy was to treat any disaster lasting longer than three days as if it could indeed be The Disaster.

“Make room.” Brice moved forward, just one step and a bit of a lean. He was no longer a young man – of course – but this particular branch of the family was a true farming household, and you did not retire from farming; Brice Whitehall was a large man with biceps like steel.

Adeline did not budge nor flinch. “That is not family policy, nor is it your call. Tell them they’re going to have to make other arrangements.”

“Why don’t we have room?” Another step forward. Any closer, and Brice was going to be talking to her forehead. “We have those three cottages in the alder stand in the back. Plenty of room in this season.”

“I have an arrangement with three families from town. Two of them have children who are in classes with our kids.” Adeline held still, held her ground.

“You think kids…!” The step that took him to talking to her forehead. “When I made a promise man-to-man…!”

“Yes. Because if this is not The Disaster, then those kids’ friends will be resources, PR, understanding. Make another promise, Brice.”

“Elder Whitehall.”

“You’re in my office, Brice. You’re going to have to break your promise.” She turned her back on him before he could press the issue.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/623287.html. You can comment here or there.

OrigFic Bingo – Colonies/Space Verse

Dec28

Story: Making A Home
Prompt: Home
Series: Space
Summary: There was no coming back from Alken Five, and those who were sent there were not expected to thrive, hardly to survive. One ship declined to be thus punished, and chose instead to make hell a heaven.
Notes: 600 words buy-now

Click below to buy now!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/622893.html. You can comment here or there.

Orig_fic Bingo – Aunts Verse

Dec26

Story: An Argument of Magic
Prompt: Magic
Series: The Aunt Family
Summary: Evangaline and the Grannies are not in agreement about teaching magic to the next generation. Eva’s the Aunt, though…

Evangaline was having an argument with the Grannies.

She wasn’t having it directly, of course. One did not simply walk into Mordor; one didn’t simply confront the Grannies. At least, it wasn’t often done, and she hadn’t quite gotten up the nerve yet.

But she was doing things they were telling her not to, in ways that they were certain to find out about eventually.

“Let the children come to their magic naturally. The time for formal training is once they’re older, and once they’re more certain in their power.” That was the line every single one of the grannies – except Rosaria, who just smirked – had given. Implicit in the instruction were two things: that the “children” were female, and that learning either happened on one’s own or via formal instruction. Evangaline was kicking both of those assumptions in the teeth.

She’d started the “lessons” over something that nobody actually called “baby-sitting,” because the children were in their teens or tweens, and certainly old enough, by normal standards, to be left on their own. Beryl and Stone had started them, actually, by asking questions. It had taken Evangaline a couple visits to realize exactly how intent the kids were, and by the fourth lesson, she was prepared for them.

“Why do you think we save everything?”

She could tell by the way they looked at each other – five of them, Beryl and Stone first among them, but the rest no less magically-inclined or bright – that they hadn’t been expecting her to catch on so quickly.

“You can consider me practice for the Grannies. You need to work on your subtlety, but we can focus on that another time. Why do you think we save everything?”

Anessa answered, cautiously. “The grannies – that is, Grandma Karen – said it wasn’t time to teach us, yet.”

“And I’m just asking you questions. Why do you think we save everything?”

Anessa’s brother Matthias finally answered, every bit as cautious. “Because there’s a lesson in everything?”

“Exactly. And I need you five to help me clean out the storage room, so I have room for my own stores. Let’s go.”

She might be having an argument with the Grannies, but she was going to give herself plenty of wiggle room, until she was too far into this for them to call her off. She might be the Aunt, but she knew where the family power came from.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/621807.html. You can comment here or there.

BINGO: Row

Dec26

This is a fill for my Dec 12 2013 card. I’ve been using the card as a prompt call, so the first Bingo has been posted free.

Column G Prompts (five stories) – freedom, lost in translation, grace, now and then, change of pace

Title: Freedom
Series: Stranded World
Prompt: Freedom
Rating: G
Warnings: Supportive family
Notes: Two of the RoundTree siblings discuss freedom

Title: Lost in Translation
Series: Addergole (Fae Apoc)
Prompt: Lost in Translation
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Story – none. Setting – all
Notes: Addergoole is a long-running setting, including two web-serials and dozens of short pieces; the setting is dystopic. This story is set apart from much of the problems of the world, however.

Title: Falling from Grace
Series: New: Fall from Grace
Prompt: Grace
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: self-harm/body modification
Notes:

Title: Then and Now
Series: Dragons Next Door
Prompt: Then & Now
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Notes: none

Title: A Change of Pace
Series: Tír na Cali
Prompt: Change of Pace
Rating: G
Warnings: story – none. Setting – all
Notes: Tír na Cali is a long-running setting that involves kidnapping, slavery, and occasionally incest. This particular story involves absolutely none of that.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/621315.html. You can comment here or there.