Archive | August 2014

Tweets: Planning a City

Aug4

I’ve been having fun plowing through ideas on Doomsday/Boom Town today, & I thought I’d share.

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I did some math, decided the circles need to be twice as big in radius, and also remembered apartment buildings, which I imagine will be in groupings near the center tower.

Still working on layout!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/763001.html. You can comment here or there.

Takes a Village to Build a City, a ficlet of Boom Town/Cynara

Aug4

It was a pretty story to say that she’d built the city alone, but Cya wasn’t – wasn’t insane in that manner.

Gaheris and Trenton helped her design the city, with books and plans spread out over her kitchen table. It was Trenton who reminded her to include places for worship, for those who had gods who weren’t murderous dead bastards.

It was Daveon she tracked down first – and it was remembering Daveon, in an old-home reminisce about The Old Days Before the War, that got her thinking about the city in the first place.

She’d met Daveon on the job, back when jobs were something she did to earn money and not to survive, spent a few very-very discreet evenings with him, and then, when the job moved on to another location, they’d remained friends. Finding fae out in the world, fae you could talk to, was rare and to be treasured; finding friends, even rarer.

Back before the world ended, Daveon had been a power plant engineer. When she’d found him, he’d been a bored farmer and a junkyard engineer. Getting him to come work for her was almost no effort at all. Getting back to the site where her city would be, that was trickier: Daveon had been living in Florida.

After she had the base wall up, after she’d built her first block of houses, the electrician was the second one she went looking for.

This time she stretched her power: Find me an electrician, who can do the work I need and is willing to relocate to do it. Find me someone who has the skills and inclination and personality I need.

More than four decades after the end of the world, that wasn’t the easiest thing to find. In the end, she found herself in Texas, making a deal with a fae on his third life since the war, or, rather, making the deal with his wife and their oldest daughter.

The third person she went looking for was a teleporter.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/762773.html. You can comment here or there.

June 22 – June 30 in the Apocalypse

Aug4

The Apoc

In the end of May, 2011, strange things started happening all over the world. Follow along with [personal profile] faeapoclive, [twitter.com profile] faeapoclive, and [tumblr.com profile] faeapoclive as the apocalypse unfolds

ACROPOLIS REBUILT

ATHENS, Greece(AP): The Acropolis of Athens, built in the fifth century B.C., is an ancient citadel located on a high rocky outcrop above the city of Athens. It encompasses the ruins of several famous buildings, including the well-known Parthenon.
However, in the past weeks, the citadel has gone from ruins to complete buildings. The stone and marble gleam. Tapestries hang from the walls. And in the center of the Parthenon, a throne is being occupied by an eight-foot-tall man.

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BIRDS GO MISSING

KUSHIRO, Hokkaido(AP): Residents first noticed a lack of birds over a week ago, but nobody was certain about the loss until yesterday, when scientists confirmed what people were saying.

According to ornithologists, there are no birds within a 20-mile circle of Kushiro, not flying in nor out nor around.

Scientists are baffled by this, but continue to work on theories. Many residents, fearing the worst, have already evacuated.

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PROPHECIES ON THE UN FLOOR?

United Nations Building, NYC(AP): Chasidy Royal, a translator for the Sudanese delegation to the UN, stood up today in the middle of a closed session and began shouting.

“All hail,” she is quoted as saying. “The almighty, the most beautiful, the powerful are coming. All hail she who is Queen of them all. All hail she who will lead the armies across the plains. Bow down now or be destroyed.”

Royal then proceeded to repeat the phrase in Sudanese, French, and Italian before she was removed from the room.

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SHOWDOWN IN VEGAS?

LAS VEGAS, Nevada(AP): The mayor of Las Vegas has ordered the woman calling herself Aphrodite – who has declared herself Queen of Las Vegas – removed from the city limits on pain of arrest. Although no formal charges were drawn up, police – and a number of non-uniformed self-appointed enforcers – have gathered to carry out the Mayor’s word.

Neither the Queen nor the Mayor could be reached for comment.

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RED MOON OVER AFRICA

AFRICA: Reports from across the continent today all say similar things: anywhere in Africa and the Middle East last night, anyone looking at the sun saw instead a bloody orb, red and fiery, twice the size as the moon normally is.

Even satellites, if orbiting over Africa at the time, report the same images, and telescopes and film evidence rule out mass hallucination.

Scientists are, as they have been for several weeks, completely baffled.

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APHRODITE CLAIMS VEGAS; MAYOR, GOVERNOR, POLICE, DISAGREE

LAS VEGAS, Nevada: The woman calling herself Aphrodite, the Queen of Las Vegas, has issued a statement. In it she declares “I am the sovereign leader of the City of Las Vegas. All others who claim to be in charge are false idols and liars and will be removed as such.”

The Mayor of Las Vegas, in a separate statement, declared, once again, that Aphrodite was to be removed from Las Vegas; the Governor of Nevada seconded this and the Nevada State Police have issued a warrant for Aphrodite’s arrest.

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ZEUS’S DEMANDS ESCALATE

ATHENS, Greece(AP) The man calling himself Zeus has declared that all of Athens will be shut down to accommodate his wishes – not only virgins, as he first demanded, but feasts and luxuries “as befits the king of gods.”

In a country beset by austerity, crisis, and chaos, such things are hard to find, but the people of Athens seems to be doing their best to accommodate their new “god.”

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This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/762605.html. You can comment here or there.

Become a Patreon Patron and Vote for August’s Theme

Aug4

It’s just about that time: time to pick August’s theme.

The theme will determine:
* memes for the month
* the Giraffe Call for the month
* if we reach $75 of Patreons – the fiction prompt for the month

In addition, I will post at least a couple pieces on that theme, regardless of memes/Giraffe Call/Level of Patreon reached.

But in order to vote, you need to either be a Patron or a Donor!

Become a Patreon Patron at the $5 level or higher

OR

Donate via Paypal at least $5.

Deadline for the vote is midnight EST the 5th of August!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/762298.html. You can comment here or there.

Making Home

Aug4

This is a prelude to Private Space

The first thing Cedric noticed about the barracks was that they were co-ed; the woman changing by the doorway claimed his attention the moment he walked in.

The second thing he noticed was that the walls were awfully secure for a barracks, and the doors at both ends locked.

“This is your bunk.” The overseer pushed him at an empty bunk, about halfway down the row.

That’s when Cedric noticed exactly how homey each of the bunks seemed. They all had the standard issue: a metal-framed bunk bed with one mattress missing, a trunk at the foot of the bed, sheets, pillow, thin blanket.

But not a single bunk – except his – stopped there. Bed on top bunk, bed on bottom. Curtains, made of thin fabric patchworked together, pretty sticks and stones woven into decoration, a woven screen using the uprights of the bunk as the framework: every single bunk had been decorated, personalized, made home.

And no matter how bright and busy any bunk was, there seemed to be an invisible line between that bunk at the next; nobody’s space intruded onto the next tiny home.

He stood by his bunk, wondering how he’d ever make it as homey as the ones to either side.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/761910.html. You can comment here or there.

Doomsday Academy: First Day of Survival Class

Aug3

This is set in Cynara’s Doomsday Academy, several years after its founding. Kheper is a Year Nine Student.

Nine children were waiting in Cynara’s classroom. Nine Third-year students, twelve years old and fresh out of Ascha’s tender care.

Every year, Ascha said the same thing to her, don’t scare them, Aunt Cya.

And every year, Cya said back to her crewmate’s daughter, oh, come on, you know me.

Yes, I do. And they’d both laugh, and roll their eyes, and Cya would walk away wondering what, exactly, was so frightening about her.

Don’t scare them. She walked into the classroom and smiled at the children. “Hello, and welcome to Survival Level One.” She looked around at the children – bright-eyed kids, two years in and old hands at this whole school thing. “Over the next five years, I’m going to teach you how to survive in just about any circumstance.”

They shared looks amongst themselves. Cya could read in some faces all that in five years and in others that’s going to take five years?

She’d been teaching this class for five years. She’d gotten used to both reactions.

She smiled at all of them again. “Pull out paper and a pencil. We’re going to start with an exercise.” She’d done this with her kids. She’d done this with her grandkids. If the fates were kind, she’d probably be teaching this to her great-grandkids in a few years. “Imagine that you are, say, building a small town for thirty-five people. List everything that you will need for their survival.” She held up a hand. “There are no wrong answers, and I full expect that every one of you will have different answers.” She looked over their faces again. “You’ve all come from very different places, after all.”

And there, there was the thing Ascha kept warning Cya about. Fear.

Cya swallowed the sigh and made the smile a little wider and, she hoped, a little more reassuring. Nineteen-year-old Addergoole graduates were easy. Why were thirteen-year-old students so hard?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/761679.html. You can comment here or there.

And a Bit More Reynard – a new story taking place in Fae Apoc/Addergoole ‘verse

Aug2

First: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/753621.html
Previous: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/758881.html

Reynard had, in his past, been in sticky situations. He’d earned his Name fairly – if humorously – and being caught in unfortunate circumstances had been a large part of earning that Name.

But he had not been, as far as he knew, in any situation quite as as uncomfortable, quite as strange, as this one. He tested his bonds again; the prick of thorns into his wrists reminded him quickly why he wasn’t doing that.

“They Named me Fox in the Henhouse.” He picked every word carefully – not as weapons, the way he did when he was on a hunt, but as shields. “My Mentor did.”

“VanderLinden.” The woman smirked at him. Reynard didn’t like that smile. “I remember how you earned it.”

He swallowed. “Ah?” He wiggled again, and, again, remembered why he wasn’t doing that.

She flicked her hand to the side, dismissing the train of thought. “So, how did you end up in a crate on my doorstep?”

“Ah.” He twitched again. “I…” He swallowed quietly. There had been a town, and some pretty girls, some pretty boys, and then…

Reynard shook his head, trying to clear it. “I pissed off the wrong people.”

“I guessed that.” She pulled a letter out of her pocket and read. “‘This statue is making a mess of my garden, but I know you go for this sort of thing.’ And then on the inside package, ‘there’s a fox making trouble in all my henhouses; do you have a fox coop?'”

“I wasn’t…” He swallowed. “I didn’t think I was making that much trouble…. Oh!” The memory forced its way to the front of his mind. “Damn. Ow.”

The woman slid into a chair and leaned her chin in her hands. “I’m listening.”

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/763771.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/761398.html. You can comment here or there.

Clockwork Apoc Test ficlet

Aug1

Because every good adventure should start in a tavern – although this is currently more fantasy/medieval than it is steampunk or apoc.

The dice rattled across the table and landed in a spray: 6, 8, 5, 3, 10, 3.

Anjzeny pushed the threes around with a desultory finger. The dice weren’t being kind tonight – perhaps it was all for the better that there was no-one here to throw against.

“If your dice mislike you, perhaps you should consider cards… if you are in the mood to gamble.”

He could pretend not to hear the voice, a melodic alto with a strange twist to the consonants. He could pretend to be drunk, or engrossed in his drink.

Anjzeny looked up, instead. “I am, in a general sense, in a mood to gamble.”

In a pub such as the Laughing Bull, it was more likely to see a stranger than a common face; this stranger’s face was both more strange and more welcome than most.

Blue eyes pinned Anjezeny to his chair; a blue scarf wrapped around the stranger’s head and face, covering everything except those eyes. Blue robes concealed everything else.

Anjezeny found himself swallowing. He recovered with a lazy smile. “I am almost always in a mood to gamble.”

The stranger fell gracefully into a seat. “This is what I have heard of you, yes. And so I ask you, Anjzeny Clever-Fingers: how much are you willing to bet?”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/761337.html. You can comment here or there.

New Serial by K Orion Fray!

Aug1

Quest to Karantiri begins today with Chapter One – here.

Rion’s new serial is set in a fantasy world, following young Celita as she learns new & exciting things about the world around her.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/761013.html. You can comment here or there.