Today’s prompt is “getting your feet wet”.
Now accepting up to three prompts for this theme. Closed!
Bonus points if they dovetail with a square of my OrigFic bingo card
Take the first Step, or don’t.
Even your Knees are wet
Getting everything wet
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To ![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kelkyag‘s prompt for here, my ![[community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
dailyprompt prompt “doomed from the start.”
Zenobia is the post-American-Civil-War Aunt in the Aunt Family; her tag is here and the family landing page is here.
The Aunt is a hereditary title with some magical power in this family, and is always a woman who has nieces.
The Icon (in DW) is of another Aunt, Ruan. I don’t have one for Zenobia yet.
Her older relatives did not like Zenobia.
Her relatives did not like Zenobia, with very few exceptions. She was, to quote one particularly annoyed relative – her grandmother, Festia – a most recalcitrant and difficult child.
She was not supposed to become the Aunt. Her own Aunt Beulah had tagged her as one of five hopefuls, back when they were young (Zenobia had been twelve; the others had been between ten and fifteen), but her grandmother and the others of that generation had opinions on the matters. It would be Giselle. It would be Bernadette. It would be Mary, even, or Claudette, but it would not be Zenobia.
Bernadette had been the easiest to eliminate, because Bernadette did not want to be the Aunt. She wanted out of the little backwater town, out of the influence of the women of the family, out of the planned everything.
Zenobia sent her postcards three times a year, and got back lovely pictures of Paris.
Mary had been trickier. Mary liked the taste of power, she liked the whispers of knowledge, she liked the reputation that one got.
She was also an immensely good dancer, sinful as it was supposed to be. Zenobia talked to a boy who knew a boy who knew a man, and Mary had become The Flying Marionette, the headlining act in a famous circus, with a reputation for being a bit of a witch.
The farmer’s son from down the road had gotten Giselle pregnant when she was eighteen. A shotgun marriage and a family-quick house-raising had taken her out of the running.
And now the Grannies and aunts and cousins were starting to look askance at Zenobia, and Aunt Beulah was not ready to pass over the mantle to anyone.
It was likely Claudette would take herself out of the running in the next three or four years, but in the meantime, Zenobia had to shift their attention from her. She would be Aunt, but the family didn’t know yet that their attempts had been doomed from the start.
“Do you, Zenobia, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and health, in poverty and wealth, so long as you both shall live?”
“I do.”
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/635229.html. You can comment here or there.
To rix_scaedu‘s prompt for here, my dailyprompt prompt “doomed from the start.
Luke and Doug are characters from Addergoole, which in addition to the two webserials, has a landing page here.
Context for those not familiar with the universe: “Addergoole” is an underground boarding school for fae children in a dystopic modern-fantasy setting.
This is set in about year Nineteen of the Addergoole school; the war began at the end of Year Seventeen (2011) when the Departed Gods returned. There is a war on, a war that gives the overarching setting the name “Fae Apoc.”
Luke is the head of security (and PE teacher) for the school; Doug is his son, co-security, and combat teacher.
“Don’t they know there’s a war on?”
Doug’s father was irritable.
Doug’s father was always, as long as Doug could remember, irritable – angry, cranky, grumpy. Only one person in the world had succesfully noticed that the reason Doug seemed so grumpy all the time was at least fifty percent a flat imitation of his father (two people, but really, his mother didn’t count).
This was different. It had begun around year sixteen, and had just gotten worse over the last three years. Too many former cy’Luke had died in the war. Too many old friends of both of theirs, too, and too many students all around.
And now there was a team of nedetakai or returned gods attempting to slip through the eastern wards. They were slick, sure, but they were still trying to sneak around some of the best wards in the world – for no reason, as far as their intel could determine, except that the ward was there, and shiny.
Luke had his swords out, steel and rowan. He had his wings unfurled, and an expression on his face that Doug had rarely seen. He took to the air with a wordless snarl.
Doug took to the road by Harley. The look on his father’s face… he almost felt bad for the intruders.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/635124.html. You can comment here or there.
This is to anke‘s prompt (on twitter) to my December OrigFic Bingo Card. This fills (for the second time) the “Knowledge” square.
Jin, Bianna, and the narrator (Aud) belong to the Dragons Next Door setting.
“There’s theoretical classes, of course.” Jin was talking fast. I tried not to smile; he liked to talk fast when he didn’t think his father was going to give him something. It worked on Sage, half because Sage didn’t notice it was happening, and then the other half because he noticed and was amused by it.
I was not Sage, but it amused me as well. I let him go on.
“There’s classes in everything, and Bianna’s already taking classes in the local college. And, being here, being so close to Smokey Knoll, you know that the college here is good in those things. But there’s all of those classes, and they only cover a small amount, and it’s all theory, you know, none of it is solid practice, and even the ones that do field work won’t let someone Bianna’s age – or mine – go on a field mission.”
“And you think I ought to know better than college professors?” I found it interesting that Bianna was simply listening. Her back was straight and she was watching me, not Jin. This was a girl to watch out for – or one to welcome into the family. Sage and I had been arguing that since we met her.
“I know you know better than the professors. The question is whether or not you’ll trust Bianna, not whether or not you’ll take a teenager on a field mission. After all, you’ve taken me and even Junie on trips.” He held up his hands. “I know it’s different. We’re your kids. You’ve been training us since we were born. but Bianna doesn’t have that. Her parents are human… as far as we can tell. She’d never even met a pixie until she came along with me on my birthday, much less a dragon. And the field is larger than you can handle on your own for a city, Mom, you’ve said it yourself, large and growing. You’ll need more than just me and Junie – if she wants to – and there’s going to be my time with the Tower.”
My boy knew how to talk. I nodded to Jin. Watch carefully, or welcome into the family. Possibly both. “And what does Bianna want?”
Bianna cleared her throat. “I want to learn, ma’am. I mean, I was considering social work for a career, but then Jin told me that the other races have almost no representation at all, and it occurred to me… maybe I could combine them. But I don’t know anything except what I’ve read in books.”
I knew everything the paperwork of a bureaucratic city could provide on Bianna, but that was not, by far, everything one could learn. “Perhaps we both could benefit from some hands-on learning.”
And if my son shot me a warning glance, well, that was his right. He was welcome to whatever relationships and loves he wanted, but when he introduced her to the family business… then it was time for some hands-on learning indeed.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/634766.html. You can comment here or there.
To ysabetwordsmith‘s prompt to my January OrigFic Card.
This fills the “Betrayal” square.
Content warning: suggested self-harm, vague.
“You weren’t supposed to know at all.”
“I’m glad I did! Tory, this isn’t the sort of thing you should keep to yourself. You’ll be better now.”
“Ty, you can’t just read people’s private things. That was password-protected for a reason.”
“Well, it wasn’t like it was hard…” Ty was faltering. The staff had said five minutes. Maybe five minutes was too long.
“You hacked my computer. You read my private things.” Tory was looking around the room. The window, no, no there was no way anyone could get out the window. Ty backed towards the door. There’d be no end of it if Tory got out.
“Tory, look at it! Look at you! I did this for your own good! Come on, you have to understand that.”
Sitting in a hospital bed, in a thin gown, Tory didn’t look understanding. If anything, Ty would have to call that expression “furious.” “Come on, Tory. You understand. I did this for your own good.”
“You violated me.”
“I read your computer.”
“And I ended up here.” Tory stood up. “No. I don’t understand, Ty. No, it’s not okay.”
The window was too small for anyone to fit out of. Wasn’t it?
“Tory… Tory, I was helping you.”
“That wasn’t the help I wanted. You can go off and help someone else. Or better yet… don’t help anyone at all.”
The window wasn’t too small for Tory.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/634335.html. You can comment here or there.
This is to anke‘s prompt (on twitter) to my December OrigFic Bingo Card. This fills (for the second time) the “Then and Now” square.
That Damned Cat (Radar) and his Kitten have their own tag here – Kitten Tag. They are part of the Aunt Family setting, which has a landing page here.
Radar had been a kitten once.
It was a distant memory, a fuzzy memory he didn’t often examine.
He had not been, as this kitten was now, a sentient kitten. He had not been a sentient anything back then.
He sat grooming the kit, holding her down with one paw while he cleaned her behind the ear. You know what it was like, Beryl had said. You can help her. Under that assumption, she’d convinced the mother cat to let Radar close to his daughter. Joint custody, she’d joked.
She must have gotten the idea from her friends at school. Her Family did not do divorce, and when they did, the family kept the children, no questions asked.
“Da-a-a-a-aad.” His Kitten mewled in complaint at him. Beryl had taken to calling the kitten Lam, for no reason that she would explain. There had been worse names. He had had worse names. “You’re thinking again.”
“This is a thing that happens with us, child. You will learn that in time.”
She rolled onto her back. “You were thinking about being a kitten.”
There was no use in denying it. “Who made you, kit?”
“I was born like this. I don’t remember any time I wasn’t like this.” She nuzzles against his chest. “Do you?”
“Then…” Radar chirruped and circled his daughter until he found a comfortable spot. “Then I was a cat. A kitten, a little pile of fluff, like your siblings. Now, now I am…”
“A Damned Cat. I’ve read the book.”
“That book was destroyed fifty years ago.”
The damn kitten purred. “That was then, Dad. This is now.”
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/634037.html. You can comment here or there.
This is mostly going to be a blather post.
The stove we installed is a free-standing woodburning stove, because what we had was a hole in the wall.
If you have an extant fireplace, however, you have a pretty hole in the wall that will vent smoke and let a little heat into the house; a woodburning stove insert will actually heat the house (And also give you a place to heat your tea)
How to install:
http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/install_insert
If you are installing it in the winter, you’re going to pay an arm and a leg for seasoned firewood, if you can find it.
Ecobricks http://ecobrick.net/ are compressed sawdust. They burn nicely, are available year-round, and come in shrinkwrapped packages.
More links coming!
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/633698.html. You can comment here or there.
(via @shutsumon)
This sounds like a fun idea, and I seem to be on a Bingo kick lately…
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/633357.html. You can comment here or there.
From: dailyprompt
Today’s prompt is “the end of an era.”
Now accepting up to three prompts (total) for this theme. Closed!
Bonus points if they dovetail with a square of my OrigFic bingo card
The end of the Goat era? Reiassan.
The exhaustion of a supply: New world.
The last day of the shop: Closing Up
An Aunt passes on: Exhaustion
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/633248.html. You can comment here or there.
To Kelkyag’s prompt for here, my dailyprompt prompt “a clone,” and here, my OrigFic Bingo card, “Hallucinations/visions.”
Paige waved at Mark Faine, although he didn’t see her, or at least didn’t respond – he never did, but being Mark Faine, he already had a girlfriend and hadn’t, as far as Paige could tell, been single for more than a day of their high school career. Which was a pity, ’cause Paige had more than made up for it by being single for their entire high school career, except that one day with Eilan Saffron, and boy had that been a mistake. It would be nice if there were two or three or maybe four Mark Faines. Maybe then she’d have a chance.
She should really get to lunch. She got a little Snickers-commercial when she didn’t eat on time, and this stupid Senior-year schedule had her lunch nearly right before she got on the bus. She headed away from where Mark Faine was totes ignoring her, around the corner, stepped away from the punks and sidled sideways around the jocks – no need to upset anyone, everyone had been on edge since the principal quit like that, all of a sudden. The new rules weren’t helping things either, and the punks all looked sad and funny without their metal.
She rounded another corner – Marmal High was full of corners, and somehow it seemed like there were more around lunch time – and ran into Mark Faine.
She was feeling fainter than she ought to be. This was just one of the demetaled punks, it had to be, Sid and Nancy T-shirt and an extra hole in the nose. She stepped away. “Sorry, didn’t mean to…”
“Hey, no worries.” The voice was Mark Faine’s. Paige knew that voice like she knew the latest Enhydra Lutris CD.
“Hey.” That was Mark Faine’s voice again, coming from the other side of her. She was hearing things. She was seeing things. Paige leaned against the wall and tried not to act totally disjoined from reality.
Standing in front of her, however, were three Mark Faines. She had to be losing it.
“Hey, you’re kinda cute.”
Nope, she was totes gone; she’d already lost all there was to lose.
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