Archive | August 2011

30 Days Second Sem, Waiting Uncomfortably, Tir Na Cali Harem

Aug29

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “21) Roll a d20 twice. Combine the themes of the two previous stories for those numbers.” I got #14 & #17; this follows after #14, Preparing the Stage.

Tir Na Cali, in the Harem sub-setting – landing page here (and on LJ)

Content warning: bondage and mild violence

Stephan squirmed uncomfortably against his bindings, wondering what he’d done this time. He and Lady Ursula had, he thought, been getting along relatively well this week. He’d been trying – his pride squirmed, too, at how much he’d been trying, but she was the boss – to live up to her occasionally-cryptic and frequently-foreign expectations, had been sure to only mouth off in private, and had a long notebook of orders she’d given him, which he did his best to obey (although their sometimes-conflicting nature made that tricky).

But he still found himself strapped to a St. Andrew’s Cross (not what they called it here, but what he knew it as, and damned if he needed another word for “thing he got tied to when they wanted to whip him”), his toes barely touching the ground, more weight than was comfortable hanging from his shoulders, facing the plain white wall while, behind him, the sadist who took care of the leather gear tested her whips, cracking them in the air.

“I…” he tried, even though he knew it was stupid. Bettie casually flicked the end of the flogger against his inner thigh: a warning that left his skin stinging. He fell silent. What had he done wrong? If he was going to be punished, it would be nice to know why. “Please,” he said hurriedly, before she could hit him again, “do you know why I’m here today?”

Bettie patted his shoulder. “Sometimes,” she said gently, “they’re just having a bad day.”

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)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/121268.html. You can comment here or there.

Redo/furniture/question

Aug28

Okay!

This blog has motivated me, and I am going to, sometime probably-this-winter, redo our old dresser (a hand-me-down from when I was a kid.)

It needs new feets, need knobs (doesn’t NEED those) and, I think, a two-tone effect to go with the bedroom-that-will-be.

My big issue: right now there is a bookshelf atop it. This shelf was made by Fatherman and I, but it needs to be re-re-done at this point into something more fitting. I’m thinking re-building it, with a back, into a basic bookcase the same size as the top of the dresser…

…then painting everything offwhite with darkbrown trim.

Yes, because gutting a house wasn’t a big enough project.

Fun link for bonus – http://www.slashgear.com/cave-the-bookcase-with-built-in-seat-094690/ A “cave” bookcase with built in seat!

And some really funky bookcases (some, clearly, for people who do not have books the way we have books).

dresser & shelf

>dresser

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/121024.html. You can comment here or there.

Belated rescue

Aug28

This is to Dulcinbradbury‘s commissioned prompt “A rescue that happens long after the physical need for it has passed. (But it’s just as necessary all the same.)”

Author’s note: This is set in Addergoole, my webserial, which in turn is set in my Fae Apoc setting (Landing Page (LJ Link)) – the Year 8/9 stuff happens several years after the serial’s main timeline.

In this setting, a twist of magic allows people to Own (“Keep”) other people in a mind-control manner, which often is imposed on new students via trickery their first year. Also, Dyfri is a merman of sorts.

Dyfri hadn’t been able to help Evie last year. He’d done everything he could to get to her first, but Calvin had grabbed her, Owned her, and that was, as they say, all she wrote. Calvin being what he was, she’d soon been forbidden to talk to him at all, and he’d stayed away so as to not make life harder on her. He couldn’t, he knew, take Calvin on in a flat-out challenge. He’d struggled with a way to make it happen, but the bigger boy wasn’t stupid enough to come into the water, where the bias in the fight would have swung the other way. So he waited, and swore a lot, and plotted.

Calvin, like most Keepers in Addergoole, wouldn’t hold on to a girl more than a year. The teachers got really unhappy about it, and so did the other students. So on the last day of classes, Dyfri waited, and was there when the asshat kicked Evie out of his room with two garbage bags of stuff.

“Let me help you carry that?” he asked, as gently as he could.

“Go away, Dy,” she answered tiredly. “I don’t need this.”

“Just a bag, Evie,” he countered, and, raw from the crying she’d obviously been doing, she agreed.

A bag, that day. Dinner the next week. He treated her like a feral animal, plying her carefully with simple, innocuous things: food. A walk out in the Village. A sarong his mother had, inexplicably, sent from Hawaii. Every time, she’d tell him to go away. Every time, he’d coax her into one small thing.

It took half the summer for her to invite him into her room, cautiously, an invitation laden with assurances that he wouldn’t touch her without her permission, wouldn’t hurt her, wouldn’t work magic on her. The door had just closed when she turned on him, pounding her fists against his chest.

“You didn’t stop him. You just stood there. Just let him take me. Just let him…” Her words broken down into sobs as Dyfri took the punches and the accusations, knowing he deserved them all. “You…” another sob, and then, in a tiny voice they would both, later, pretend she hadn’t used, “hold me?”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/120691.html. You can comment here or there.

Puppies, continued, for Lilfluff

Aug28

I swear I posted the second half of this…

This is from @[personal profile] inventrix‘s prompt “finding out you have the wrong key,” and [personal profile] lilfluff‘s commissioned request for a continuation.

It had been a very clever idea.

Davyn stared at the cage door. It had been a decently clever idea, he supposed. His parents took the damn dog along everywhere, and left him at home with the nanny. Nevermind that sixteen was too old to need a nanny. Never mind that, unlike the dog, he’d never peed on the furniture or broken a priceless vase (just the one. The dog had broken three).

It had seemed like a clever idea. They threw a blanket over the dog kennel anyway, because the stupid thing was high-strung. This way, he could ride along, wherever it was they were going, and then show up at the end and get to have all the fun. It had seemed like a brilliant idea.

It had even worked. He’d locked himself in and curled up for a nice nap, comfortable by now with the sounds of animals all around (it wasn’t like the dog was even their only dog, just the one that got to come with them. He, on the other hand, was their only son). But they’d taken the kennel somewhere and gone off without a word, and here he was waiting for them to look for their precious dog and discover their son instead…

…It had been a pretty dumb idea. Since the key he was holding would have, he was pretty sure, opened the other kennel. The fancy one they used for road trips. Not this one, not the one he was locked in. Trapped in, that was the word.

“Help!” he called, feeling pretty stupid. His knees had cramped up, and his stomach was complaining. It had been a really long trip. “Help!”

“What the… ooh.” A pretty girl lifted the blanket and looked at him, smiling cheerfully. “Stuck, are you?” Her accent lilted in a way he’d never heard before, and she was really, really pretty. Stunning, really, and here he was…

“Yeah,” he admitted, more embarrassed than he’d ever been in her life. “Just a bit.”

“Locked in, is it? Well, then…” She dropped the blanket back over the kennel. “There’s a handcart around here somewhere…”

“Wait, what?”

“Hush, puppy,” she scolded, as the kennel tilted backwards precariously. “Good puppies don’t bark.”

—

Davyn skidded backwards in the kennel, yelping, startled. “What?” he repeated. “I’m not a puppy, I’m a boy.”

“Mm, if you don’t hush, I’m going to do something unpleasant. Now stay quiet, dear, and this will go easier.” He couldn’t see anything except the inside of his kennel, but it felt like she’d gotten the damn thing tilted back onto the handcart and started rolling it.

“Help!” he bayed, panic making his voice squeak. “Someone help me! Someone… ow ow owwww…” He lost his voice in a yowl of misery, as, inexplicably, his body lit up in jabbing pain.

“I warned you,” came the girl’s voice. “Good puppies are quiet. Now shush for me.”

He swallowed a whimper, curling as tightly as he could in the bottom of the cage. Pain wasn’t supposed to come out of nowhere. His brilliant plan was supposed to have worked.

It hadn’t been all that bad of a plan, anyway, if only he’d remembered the keys. He sighed softly and tried to get comfortable as the pain faded. What was going to happen to him now?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/120532.html. You can comment here or there.

Summary of the last 2 weeks!

Aug27

…and the stuff I did that WASN’T my call for prompts….

I pondered What Basalt Looks Like
and
what Ceinwen & Thorburn’s changes are (LJ)for Year Nine
and
What the Wild Tribes Wear (LJ), for the Planners
(because I won another icon (LJ) from [personal profile] meeks)
and linked some
IRL Planners (LJ)

We discussed Strong Female Characters (LJ) (please weigh in)

I asked for help (LJ) finding a new WYSIWYG HTML Editor

[personal profile] morrigans_eve wrote me a kissing fic! REID/HERMIONE!

I started thinking about house things. (LJ)

Um. I wrote some, too. 🙂

The Purple Bag (LJ) is a Misc-world adventure

Thorburn and Ceinwen (LJ)had it out, a little

Rin & Girey didn’t (LJ) [donor perk]

and Bettie got ready to. (LJ)

I rebooted (LJ) an old setting
And another one (LJ)

And, as always, I linked some art (LJ) and some more (LJ).

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/119825.html. You can comment here or there.

Summary – Call for Prompts round-up!

Aug27

A week ago, I put out a call for prompts about abduction.

I got a number of prompts, and have written all through the week.

Unsurprisingly, Addergoole got its share:
Three-Way (LJ) – Year 9
June Again (LJ) – from the roleplay Timeline,
an Addergoole student who didn’t want to go home, from sometime in the future of Addergoole

I also wrote:
Scent (LJ), from the Generation Ship,
Two people, both abducting the other,
a warrior, who grows fond of her captor, and
an abduction by air,
a rescue into slavery,
an escape aided all unwitting,
a rescue, too late,
a clever idea gone wrong,
a road trip gone awry,
a captive who didn’t give in to Stockholm,
a captive being rescued,
a captor caught in her own trap,
a crack kidnapping team beating the BAU to the punch,
a puppy rescued from an untenable situation, and a
college boy with ropeburn.

I believe I will stick to a schedule after this: I’ll put out a call the second Saturday after the first Tuesday of every month.

I have two more stories left to write to donations-for-continuations.

Because the money in the jar exceeded $30, I will be posting a poll for which story I should continue into a 1-2K-word story.

Cheers!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/119602.html. You can comment here or there.

Three-Way

Aug26

To Rix_scadeau”s commissioned prompt in my Call for Prompts: “an Addergoole student being rescued or assisted in rescuing someone by a teacher or another student whom they fear with good reason.”

Year 9, after “It’s Going Down.”
“This is ridiculous.” Ahouva, pressed between Jovanna and Aeowyn on the lounge couch, shook her head again, staring at the upperclassmen. They had pushed all the furniture to the walls, clearing a wide space in the center of the room, and now Kendon and Jeremiah were talking, quietly and intently, in the middle of the space. To one side, Jeremiah’s creepy little girlfriend, Lolly, bounced up and down like a kid

“It seems kind of romantic to me,” Jovanna sighed.

“It has that façade, doesn’t it?” Aeowyn shook her head. “You’re right, Who, it’s creepy.”

“Kendon and I are fine,” Ahouva continued, too aggrieved to be sidetracked. “There’s nothing wrong with us, and this creep with his creepy girlfriend has to go and get medieval like I’m some sort of possession..”

“Well, technically..”

“Oh, stop that, Aeowyn,” Jovanna snapped. “It’s just as creepy as the upperclassmen when you get into that.”

“I’m just saying…”

“I know, I know,” Ahouva handwaved unhappily. “But do they have to get all medieval?”

“There was that one time…” Jovanna began hesitantly. “At the dance?”

“Just a misunderstanding,” she insisted firmly, rubbing her shoulders. “He had a bit too much to drink, and I was being a bit loud…”

“Well, maybe he’ll win, then,” Aeowyn interrupted pragmatically. “He seems very strong, and the other guy seems kind of like a beanpole.”

“But he wants her enough to challenge for her.”

“For some reason…” She’d seen the look in his eyes. She shook her head. “It’s not romance, Jo. It’s… I don’t know, but it scares me.”

“After Kendon, I wouldn’t think a skinny nerd would scare you.”

She glared at Jo. “He’s not scary. He’s just enthusiastic.”

“Mm…”

“Hush, you two, they’re starting.” Aeowyn leaned forward in her seat as the upperclassmen began formal-sounding proclamations.

“If I lose this challenge, I promise that I will immediately transfer to you my Ownership of the Ninth Cohort Ahouva sh’Ruth,” Kendon said, the words formal but his body posture suggesting he had no fear of losing.

“If I lose,” Jeremiah picked up, just as certain-seeming, “I promise that I will immediately transfer to you my Ownership of the Eight Cohort Liliandra cy’Linden, called Lolly.”

What? Only Kendon’s order kept her in her seat. She glared knives at his back, suddenly wishing his failure. That weird little doll… why would he want her? Why was he risking losing what he already had?

“The terms of the challenge,” Kendon began, to be interrupted by the arrival of another group: Thorburn, with his girlfriend Ceinwen and his cronies, Curry and Basalt.

“We’re just here to witness,” the big man said easily, when Kendon and Jeremiah looked askance at him.

“What are the terms of the challenge?” Basalt asked. As the two explained it – again – Ahouva studied him nervously. She didn’t trust him or his friends; she’d seen them on Hell Night, stomping around like monsters, and she’d seen Ceinwen crying in the girls’ room. They were thugs, straight-out. Why were they interfering.

“Interesting.” Basalt was grinning in a way she definitely didn’t like. “What if I win? Do I get both girls?”

Kendon and Jeremiah started talking at once, shouting, arguing, until little creepy Lolly murmured, “if he challenges you both…”

“Stop helping,” Jeremiah snapped.

The tiny blonde fell silent, as Basalt, pleased, declared, “then I add myself to this challenge, challenging you both for your Kept.”

“And what are you putting up, if you lose?” Kendon snapped, while Ahouva tried to become part of the couch. No, no, not him. Jeremiah would be better…

“Myself,” the big man grinned.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/119485.html. You can comment here or there.

30 Days Second Semester: 20, The End of The Purple Bag, Misc-misc

Aug26

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “20) Write the end of the story ‘The Purple Bag.'”

misc-misc, no setting

Almost there. Although the temptation was strong to just end her trip here, in the dusty, beautiful bazaar, she’d come too far to stop before the end. Sorrell reached into the bag, wiggling her fingers around. When she’d started this trip, there’d barely been room to get her fingertips through the opening. Now, she had to reach all the way past her elbow into the netherspace.

The trinket that came to her hand was tiny; no wonder it had gotten pushed to the bottom. She pulled it out carefully, studying it.

A puzzle ring, nine interlocking rings twisted carefully together, held by a single bronze pin. A ring. Sorrell stared at it, wondering what its story would be, wondering where it would take her. She had been so many places, on so many worlds, finishing so many lost quests. To have it all come down to a ring…

…no Elvish writing, thank God…. Still.

“Excuse me.” The man’s voice sounded familiar; she turned slowly, hoping he wasn’t an enemy left over from some quest.

Stunning golden eyes looked down at her. “You have my ring.”

“Your…” she looked at the ring in her hands. She knew those eyes. “I found your lamp.”

“You did, thank you. And allowed me to return to my home.” He gestured grandly at the bazaar and the city beyond. “And now you have found my ring, and given it a home.”

She glanced down at her finger, where she’d absently set the puzzle ring.

“…oh.”

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.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/118872.html. You can comment here or there.

Strong Female Characters

Aug26

[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith has posted here (and on LJ) a discussion on this article on “What Do You Mean When You Say You Want ‘Strong Female Characters’?”

I had strong feelings about it reading Ysabet’s post, stronger ones having read the article, but… putting those aside for a moment, what do YOU think? What makes a strong character?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/118694.html. You can comment here or there.