Tag Archive | prompter: Cal

Unless you see the Body, a story for the Giraffe Call (@InspectrCaracal)

May19

Written to [personal profile] inventrix‘s prompt here to my Giraffe Call!

This is at least in part due to watching Far Too Much Venture Brothers and contemplating a semi-Venture-Brothers-style webserial recently.

“Well?” Dragonfly looked around her minions. “Did you do it right this time?”

One of the more nervous minions stepped forward. Faceless in her smooth mask, featureless in her robe-and-loose-pants, the minion’s glove held her only identification. Seventy-two.

It had been a very bad year for henchwomen.

“She fell off the edge of Tanaron Cliff, ma’am. She doesn’t have flight powers, she doesn’t have super-science. She’s dead.”

Dragonfly sighed. “Take me there.” When they hesitated, she raised her voice. “Take me there!” The problem with henchwomen was that you either ended up with smart ones that betrayed you or loyal ones that just weren’t fast enough. “Come on. Let me see the place where she fell off the cliff.”

She was going to have to run Henchwoman Training School again, she could see. If this particular group survived their own mistakes.

~

“She’s gone! That blight on the face of femininity is dead!” The Matriarch did not often engage in ranting or raving, but she felt the situation deserved it this time. “She will never survive the death trap; nobody ever has.”

“Um, ma’am?” One of her perfectly-clad minions bowed cautiously. “The death trap is empty, ma’am.”

The Matriarch hissed. “Well, then, fix the problem! What happened to her?“

“I, ah, I’m not certain, ma’am. But we did find three of your Techniors naked and unconscious in the observation room by the death trap.”

The Matriarch hissed. “Next time, next time I’m going to put a bullet through her myself. No matter how male that might be.”

~

The Firebrand brought up the giant fireball that was her namesake power and most favorite trick. She flooded the room – the room which had one exit, which she was blocking – with her superheated flame.

When the flames died away, the room was empty, without even a charred bone remaining. She was gone. Dead. Eliminated.

~

“Well.” She pulled another, identical, super-suit from the closet and dusted off the charred remains of her last one. “Note to self,” she called to her computer. “Check up on the Matriarch next week. That death trap has to be completely dismantled before some other schmoe falls into it. And then send Dragonfly a sympathy card. She really ought to have better henchwomen.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/943402.html. You can comment here or there.

Dungeons, a story for fun (Fae Apoc)

Jan30

Fae apoc, forced imprisonment, dungeon.

The apocalypse had its advantages.

Oh, the first ten years had been a mess, and the next ten had been pretty dire, but Asymptote had some good Words and some really good luck, and she’d been able to hold tight through the worst of it.

And then she’d lucked – again, she had great luck – on this lovely house that was nearly a castle, all empty, sitting up on the hill. And its basement had been perfect.

After that, it was just a matter of plucking the right people as they happened by, like a trap-door spider, but so much more elegant. Asy headed down to the basement, where the chains were once again rattling.

“Oh, come now.” There were three occupants of her dungeon right now. The first had only been there a day, the second, a week. But the third…

“I think you’re about ripe, don’t you?” She stood just outside the reach of his chains. He was a handsome one, or he would be again when she got him cleaned up. He had demon horns and a tail, and had possessed washboard abs a month ago.

Right now, he was on his knees, because he had learned the hard way that he was only fed while kneeling. His hair had grown shaggy. But his back was unbowed.

“I know I stink,” he told her. His voice was raw; he’d been shouting again while she was out. “But you’re the rotten one.”

“Oh, dear. A day, a week, a month… I suppose I’ll have to leave you in here a year.”

He said nothing, didn’t look at her, didn’t move. It wasn’t until Asy was on the stairs heading away from him that he let out the softest choked whimper.

Yep. She had him. The fun would begin in another week.

next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1086958.html

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Answering, a continuation of Luke/Doomsday

Jan18

First: Visiting Doomsday
Previous: Some Perspective

Contains discussion of rape in the context of Addergoole..

It had been a good class. Leo’s kids had a lot of good questions, and Luke found that he really enjoyed answering them. It made him want to teach – not gym, not combat, not the earnest questions about the Right that some of his Students had, but an actual class.

Well, they had experts in their subjects for that. Luke was mostly an expert in skull-breaking.

Too soon, the class bell rang. Luke braced himself and nodded at the young, angry girl, LaKeziah. “You wanted to speak with me?”

“You bet I did!” She stood up, not having to rise up on her toes much to look Luke in the eye, and poked at his chest with one aggressive finger. “You have a lot to answer for, Mister.”

By now he’d been looking at her long enough to take a guess at her ancestry. “You’re Ilta’s daughter.” He paused for a moment, pulling up the memories. She hadn’t been Kept her first year, that hadn’t been… ah. “Your mother had some bad experiences at school, and, I admit, we didn’t catch the problems as soon as we should have.” He sat down again. “We try hard, but-”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child!”

Despite himself, Luke smiled. “I’m nearly three hundred years old. The people who built and run this school, I saw them as infants. I’ve seen your mother, her parents, and her grandparents as infants…”

“And you let them be raped and tortured? How can you do that!?”

Luke let his wings flare. “Let me assure you, I’ve never ‘let’ anyone be tortured.”

“And what about raped? Are you going to tell me you don’t condone rape, either?”

Luke took a breath, and then let it out, thoughtful. Finally, he spoke more quietly, and very carefully. “First, I’m not saying this to treat you like a child – but because you are younger than me. You understand the difference?”

LaKeziah looked like she wanted to argue, but gave him the honor of thinking about it. “All right. Yes.”

“In order to answer your question – really answer it – I need you to have context you don’t have right now.”

“I understand rape just fine!”

“I hope that’s not true.” Luke searched for inner calm and found it with more than a little difficulty.

“Either way, the definition – even the way it’s been thought of – has changed a lot in the last three hundred years. So I’m going to ask you to do something unpleasant.” He leaned forward. “Research the way the definitions have changed during that time.”

“What, you think that will change my mind?”

“No, I hope it doesn’t. But if we’re going to talk about this, I want to talk about it right.” He found his wings flaring uncomfortably. “You deserve an honest, complete answer.”

She leaned back. “Hunh. Why? I’m just a kid.”

“You asked a valid question, and it deserves and answer.” Luke pulled his wings in. “Even if I don’t like it.”

“Okay.” She nodded abruptly. “I’ll do it. When’ll you be back?”

“Two months from now.” He was pretty sure Cynara would let him back in the door. “I’ll bring my own research, too.”

She’d been ready to turn around; her head snapped back to look at him. “You? What do you need to research?”

Luke gave her a grim smile. “The way the definitions of rape have changed since I was a young man.” He folded his wings close. “Also – some things about ends and means.”

“Hunh.” This time, her look was far less sharp. “You’re a weird one.”

“I know.” He nodded his head to her. “It helps if you think of me as being out of my century.”

“No, no, it’s not that. I’ve met old fae before – even older than you.” She shrugged, brushing it off. “I’ll figure it out.”

“I’m sure you will.” He made a note to ask the rest of the staff about Ilta, when he got home. Then again, he had a lot to talk to his fellow teachers about. Cynara. Doomsday. What else had he missed?

Nehara settled her hand on his arm. “Would you like to see the rest of the grounds?”

He stretched his wings. “I think I could use some time to clear my head,” he agreed. “But you’re missing all your classes.”

“Oh, I’ll be fine. Everyone misses a little time now and then.” She flapped her hand. “It’s almost required.”

“This place seems more and more like a reaction to Addergoole,” he muttered.

Nehara turned to look at him, a little startled. “Well, of course it is. Why would you think it wasn’t?”

That was a good question. “Regine,” he said, piecing it together as he spoke, “said that Cynara wanted to be part of the Addergoole system.”

“Well, if the first two of every generation of my children had to go somewhere, I’d want to be involved, too. Wouldn’t you?” The smile she shot him was, for once, not friendly. “Of course, you are.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/886350.html. You can comment here or there.

Some Perspective, another part of Luke at Doomsday (@inventrix)

Jan7

First: Visiting Doomsday
Previous: Science & Getting Schooled.

“You teach there?” The girl was staring at him. Luke twitched his wings and met her gaze. She was maybe thirteen or fourteen, a bit of baby chub on her cheeks, and a face shape he’d seen before.

Addergoole had had something like two thousand students; he’d seen any number of faces, even if a tenth of them had looked like Aelfgar and another tenth like Ambrus. He couldn’t place the face. But the glare was definite and right here in front of him.

He flapped his wings again. “I helped found Addergoole.” There was no point in denying it.

“You made that – that – that torture-hole, and they let you walk around like a person?”

“LaKeziah.” Leo cut in, sounding adult and stern. “You can talk to sa’Hunting Hawk after class.”

“Oh, I’ll talk to him.” She gave him a nice long glare before turning back into her seat, muttering things about torturers and baby factories.

Luke pulled his wings in tight. At the front of the classroom, Leo shifted his posture. “As I was saying, Luke sa’Hunting Hawk was my Mentor, back in the Dark Ages when I was a student.” He smiled at the class, inviting them to take part in the joke.

Some of them chuckled. Some were staring at LaKeziah. One of them, a ginger boy with wide, blue eyes, was staring at Luke. He nodded politely at the boy and turned his attention back to Leo.

“He taught me how to fight.”

Leo nodded at Luke. Luke nodded back again, feeling like a bobble-head.

This was not putting on a good show. Mike would glare at him. Luke cleared his throat. “Ah. Yeah. I teach martial arts, physical education, self-defense, and basic weapons training at Addergoole. Your professor Inazuma was my student, back before the…” the world ended. But it hadn’t, had it? Not for these kids, who could have grandparents born after the conflict. Luke coughed. “Back before the Collapse.”

One of the kids, the ginger one, saved him. “What was it like? Back then?”

“Well – if it’s okay with Professor Inzuma?”

“Sure, of course.” Leofric pulled up a chair. “Chemistry will still be here tomorrow – probably.”

“Probably.” Luke took a chair from an empty desk and sat backwards in it. “You all know that fae – Ellehemaei – live a long time, right?” He saw nods, even from the angry girl. LaKeziah. He needed to remember that name. “So I was born over two hundred years before the Collapse, and my friend Mike was born more than two hundred years before that.”

The ginger boy was counting on his fingers. “So… before the discovery of America?”

“Before the white man discovered America, yes.” Luke grinned. “I think Nehara’s people – and some of mine – would say it had already been plenty discovered.”

The ginger kid coughed. “Sorry, sir. Just – that’s a long time.”

“Maybe if he’s very good, I’ll have Mike visit you.”

“Don’t you mean ‘if we’re very good?”

Luke found his grin stretching. “Nope. Not when it comes to Mike.”

“That one’s never good,” LaKeziah grumbled. Luke ignored her, in part because it too close for comfort. He nodded at the ginger kid instead. “So… what was your name?”

“Rueben, sir.”

“So, Rueben, it really is a long time. And it’s a really long time when you’re looking at the way civilizations rise and fall.” He looked around the room, both at the students and at the room itself. “I was born in a longhouse, before telephone, television, running water, or electricity. And here we are, where most places don’t have any of those things again.”

One of the other children shifted in her seat. Luke nodded at her. She had deep green eyes and dark brown hair. “You have a question, Miss?”

“Banyan, sir. It’s… was there really a time when everyone had telephones and running water? I mean, in the enclave where I grew up, they said those things had always been rationed.”

“I’m beginning to think the enclaves teach a lot of bad history.” Luke tried not to grumble it; it wasn’t the girl’s fault. “But the truth is, there was never a time when everyone in the world had electricity or running water. But when the collapse came – when the Old Gods came back through the rifts from Ellehem – there were something like seven billion people on the planet.”

He watched their faces. They hadn’t flinched at Old Gods, although some of them made various gestures of protection. One girl even crossed herself. But at seven billion people, they balked.

“No way.” Reuben shook his head. “Seven billion? Professor Lily said three hundred million.”

“Don’t be a dork, Reuben.” One of the other boys in the year punched the ginger boy in the arm. “She said three hundred million in America.“

“Oh.” Reuben sank back down in his seat. “Sorry, sir.”

“That’s quite all right.” Luke couldn’t help but smirk. “Lots of people have made the mistake of thinking America is the world. But now – the giant nations are gone. And ‘America’ isn’t a bastion of technology anymore.”

“Do you think it ever will be again, sir?” Banyan was leaning forward in her seat. Luke took a breath and gave the question the consideration it deserved.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/881337.html. You can comment here or there.

Cage Match

Dec31

Content warning: implied possible rape

“If you want to fight so much,” Lady Glenora had clearly used up the last of her patience, “then by The Lady, you are going to fight.”

Tobias was uncertain of exactly what had happened next. It had involved at least three burly guards, four painful injections, five-point restraints, and possibly a partridge in a pear tree.

He was absolutely certain where he was now, though. He was naked – again, these Californians and nudity – and he was in a cage, maybe 10 feet on a side, with a guy a foot taller than him and a short girl wearing a terrifying strap-on.

All three of them were collared – he checked, yep, still wearing the damn thing – and slicked in oil.

“The object of the game,” the announcer called, “is not to get penetrated. Begin!”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Tobias began… and quickly thought better of that curse.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/876763.html. You can comment here or there.

December Meme Day Twenty-One: Christmas Plans

Dec22

The Meme

Today’s prompt is from [personal profile] inventrix: Christmas plans!

Man, I was just thinking that I wanted to have enough money to fly all my friends to my place for New Year’s.

(For years, a friend hosted a holiday party on New Year’s Eve –> New Year’s Day where we all drank too much & opened presents. It was awesome. But he moved to CT, got married, & has 18 (4) kids.)

First: Christmas is more of a season than a day for me. In part because of things like the aforementioned New Year’s Eve party, in part because my Troy friends will show up sometime in… oh, maybe February or March to do Christmas, and in part because I’m so bad at this gift-buying/making thing that some of you will be getting presents in the mail well into early January!

That being said, I think I’m (we’re) (T’s plans are up in the air until about the morning of) going to visit my parents Christmas Eve morning, then probably (I should remember to send an e-mail) visiting Capriox at Tim Horton’s, as has become our new Christmas Eve tradition.

Every year I mean to find a church that does a candlelight ceremony on Christmas eve locally, and every year I forget. Maybe next year.

T. and I don’t really do “gift exchange;” so we’ve already given each other our gifts.

Oh! Christmas Day, we’re going to go see Hobbit III. We’ve seen a movie in the theatres almost every Christmas we’ve been together, some better than others. I’m hoping this counts as at least a decent one. 🙂

What about everyone else? What are your holiday plans?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/869161.html. You can comment here or there.

Science & Getting Schooled, another part of Luke at Doomsday (@inventrix)

Dec17

First: Visiting Doomsday
Previous: About cy’Doomsday.

Luke found his wings flattened to his back. “What does my wife have to do with anything?”

Nehara held up both her hands. “Not your wife, sir. Gabriel. It’s just that, of course Mystral talks to her father, and of course the professor talks to the rest of the teachers…” She shook her head. “I just wanted to say, you’re not as much of a cipher, sir, as you might think. I did some studying.”

“I am beginning to guess that I should have expected that.” Mike would say he’d gotten his feathers ruffled. Luke took a breath and tried to smooth himself down. “What did you learn?”

“You know,” she changed the subject with a bright smile, “I think maybe there’s someone you need to see before you see Professor Lily’s class.”

“Not Gabriel? I see plenty of him.”

She chuckled politely. “No, sir-“

Luke coughed. “By this point, I think it’s probably politer if you call me by name.”

“Certainly, sa’Hunting Hawk.”

Luke flopped against the wall, acknowledging with a wry salute that she’d won that round. “You were saying?”

“I think you ought to see Professor Inazuma’s class. He’d be very disappointed if you traveled all this way and didn’t see him.” She took his hand and Luke, startled, let her. “This way, come on.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She was going to be a beautiful terror for someone or ones. When she was old enough. He resisted the urge to snatch his hand back. “Lead on.”

“Follow on, soldier.” There was something suddenly old about her voice. Luke focused on the school uniform, the red cloak and the plaid skirt. She was a kid. A student.

‘Fina had been a Student. Mystral had been a student.

Inazuma. Think of Leo. It was as good as thinking about baseball, and had the side effect of reminding Luke why he was here. “It’s been a while.”

She glanced back at him. “I imagine it has, sir.” She sounded as if she’d been through the wars. And Luke, of all people, knew what that would sound like. “I’ve heard some of the stories, of the war.” She glanced down at the ground.

“Yeah.” Luke let out a breath in a huff. “Yeah. His class is -” The school was quiet, the students already in their next class.

“Right here. First floor. Science building. Well, science and math, though sometimes we call it the Alchemy building.”

There was clearly a joke there, from her smile, but Luke had asked for more than enough explanation already. “Onward,” he said, hoping this wasn’t going to blow up in his face.

Nehara watched him for a moment, seemed to brace herself, and opened the door.

Luke was too busy paying attention to his guide’s body language – now, now she had to brace herself? – and thus almost missed where they were.

Leo’s enthusiastic “Luke!” brought him right back. “Luke! I didn’t know you were coming!”

“Surprise visit.” He couldn’t help but smile, and, at that, he noticed Nehara was smiling as well. He turned his attention on Leo. “So, I hear Professor Inazuma has a reputation around here.”

Stupid, stupid. He wasn’t here to challenge the kid. He folded his wings and kept talking before Leo could take too much offense. “It looks like you’ve done good things here.”

Mike would have been proud of him. Well, probably not, considering he’d made the mess in the first place, but Leo grinned. “Isn’t it awesome? Nehara’s been showing you around?”

“She has.” He nodded at Nehara. “It’s been quite the education.” He looked around the classroom. “Science, then?”

“Earth science! We’re studying climate and weather today. Do you want to sit in?”

Luke glanced at Nehara, who shrugged cheerfully. “Yeah. That sounds fun.” Much to his surprise, there was a chair waiting near the back that could comfortably accommodate his wings.

“Great! All right, class, this is Luca Hunting-Hawk. He was my Mentor back in school…”

“In Addergoole?” A dark-skinned girl in the front row turned to stare at him. Luke didn’t see any Changes – but that could mean anything. “You teach at Addergoole?“

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/881337.html

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December Meme Day Seventeen – The Cats! (@inventrix)

Dec17

The Meme

Today’s prompt is from [personal profile] inventrix: the cats

Oh, twist my arm!

Kitties kitties kitties!

T & I have three cats right now – Oligarchy, Theocracy, and Meritocracy. We got Oli & Theo about a month after Drake died, in June of 2012.

Drake was our Sugar Cat, my diabetic flesh-eating fluffy happy monster for whom I wrote Tales for the Sugar Cat (a fund-raiser). He was with us for about twelve years – not nearly long enough – and died two years after his foster-brother, the first cat Sam & I had together, Gatsby. They are both still keenly missed.

But I made it about a month before I started looking for a new cat. I wanted siblings, I wanted boys. Siblings because Gatters and Drake, not related, had never gotten along great, boys because the girl cats we’d encountered – roommates’ girlfriends’ cats – had been miserable.

The Humane Society had no sibling pairs and wanted $150/kitten.

The next shelter over had a lovely pair of marmalade brothers with extra toes, but they adopted them out while we were filling out the paperwork.

We ended up finding our boys on Criagslist, just 4 blocks away. Little poofballs – we’d been looking for shorthaired marmalade kitties; these were longhaired grey-and-white. But they were friendly, they liked being handled. And I didn’t want to live any longer without cats in the house. Home they came!! We tossed around a bunch of names for them; for a week they were Thing One and Thing Two, or Lefty and Righty (Each has one white sleeve).

They were born in March; they came home in June. A year later, T. found three kittens in our hedgerow.

A while later, the three – who wandered and came back, wandered and came back – were down to one, who liked to stand in the hedgerow and yell at T. We started feeding her kibble, and T would move a little closer every day. Eventually, she would tolerate being petted.

We named her Sullivan, because my dad had a yard cat named Gilbert who was all white, and she was all black. But as I found myself cooking meat scraps before we put them in the compost bin (which she was eating out of), we realized we were keeping her. She needed a name in trend.

Sullivan became Meritocracy o’Sullivan. And as she started getting friendlier – as it started getting colder – we very politely shoved her in a cat carrier and left her at the vets for three days before bringing her inside.

And that’s the story of my kitties.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/867065.html. You can comment here or there.

Discoveries on the Colony, a ficlet of Space/Colonies (@Inventrix)

Dec6

Written to [personal profile] inventrix‘s prompt as a warm-up for that other thing I’m working on for Ix.

“Mom! Uncle Toma! Aunt Jea! Come quick! The spear plants! They’re peeling!”

Bobeh and his sister came tearing across the central commons, skidding into the workshop where Branga and her family cooperative worked. She looked up, not particularly concerned; the kids were always finding something, and it was always a crisis. As long as it involved plants and not the local or imported fauna – or, all heavens forfend, the Renegades – there was probably not anything to be worried about.

In this case, her partner-wife Jea seemed to think differently. “The spear plants? The ones down by the clearwater pond?”

“Those! Seffie and I were going for water, we were being careful,but the plants, they’re all -” The six-year-old flailed his hands in some sort of dance. “Come on, come on, they were going one at a time but they’re probably doing more now!”

“Sorry, Branga.” Jea made a face. “I know we have to get this order out, but this could be important. The spear plants are on the list of Confusing Shit the Grandparents left us.”

Jea’s great-grandparents – as well as Branga’s, Toma’s, and every other adult’s on the planet, including the thrice-cursed Renegades – had been the survey-and-colonize team on this planet nearly a century ago. They had left detailed notes on everything – everything except the Renegades, who had systematically destroyed all references to themselves. And, for the most part, their notes were followed like job orders, or like the Word from On High.

Not that it made it any less sour to put down an order in the middle of the work, but it least it gave them a viable excuse. Branga followed her partner-spouses, who in turn were following their children, out to the clearwater pond.

The spear plants – 10-meter-tall spikes poking straight into the sky, which surrounded the north side of the pond and the north side of every other body of water they’d found – were, indeed, peeling.

“No.” Branga shook her head. The way the pieces were curling downwards, that wasn’t like bark peeling. It was more like a bud opening. “No. They’re flowering.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/861559.html. You can comment here or there.

About Cy’Doomsday, another piece of Luke at Doomsday (@inventrix, @kissofjudas)

Nov19

after but without smooth transition from A fragment of Luke at Doomsday; another thought that was on my mind.

Luke noticed his tour guide was looking at him strangely. “What?” He stretched out his wings.

She cleared her throat thoughtfully. “I’m cy’Doomsday, sir, you know that.”

“I know that.” It finally sank in. “Why is a succubus under Cynara Doomsday?”

She laughed at him, a cheerful guffaw as if he’d just made the best joke. “What, should she only have minks who find things? Should Professor Inazuma only have antlered people who throw lightning? At least we’d have a chance of filling out a cy’ree with that qualification.” She shook her head, still grinning. “I’ve never understood that idea. We pick our Mentors by common interests.”

Luke coughed and forced his wings closed. “Succubus powers…”

“I’m sorry, sir, but it’s a power, like strength, or setting things on fire, or making trees grow.” She shrugged, managing to actually look apologetic.

Luke decided it was time to change the subject. “You were saying… you’re cy’Doomsday?”

“Do you know what our motto is, sir… no, I’m sorry. Of course you don’t.”

Luke hadn’t known cy’rees to have mottos, at least, not official ones. “No.”

“It’s ‘be prepared.'”

“Of course.” He meant it dryly. She smiled and dimpled at him.

“Exactly. And so, sir. When I knew you were visiting, and I was going to be your tour guide… I prepared.”

She paused; it reminded Luke of Mike just before dropping a bombshell. “You do know, sir, that your wife’s parent is a professor at this school… right?”

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/867593.html

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