Archive | November 2014

Put me on a dollar cause I’m who they trust in, Doomsday/Addergoole (@inventrix)

Nov30

I can’t seem to quite put these in smooth sequence, but here by request is a piece after She’s a good sport I can spring her/for a Fin or even a sawbuck.

Bonus points if you can name the sources of lyrics for all three pieces in this series.

“They… they’re certainly doing well for themselves.” Luke flopped into one of Mike’s overstuffed armchairs, for once happy for the ridiculous luxury of his friend’s office. “The school seems stable. They seem to have thought of everything.”

He thought about Nehara saying If there’s one thing everyone knows about Red Doomsday, it’s that she’s prepared for everything and found himself smirking. “Mike, do you know why Drake named her Doomsday?”

“Red Doomsday? Cynara? I always figured she was the calm at the heart of the storm that was Boom. Is Boom.” Mike grimaced. “Who would’ve thought they’d last decades?”

“We’re still together, the three of us.”

“You two are too stubborn to change, and I like you both too much to leave. Besides, there’s the school.” Mike shrugged. “So, they’re doing okay?”

“They’re doing phenomenally. They grew up while we weren’t looking, Mike.”

“Kids do that.” Mike paused in the middle of a flippant hand gesture to study Luke’s face. “You mean it, don’t you? You really expected them to be the same?”

“Some people… some people really don’t change much. Like me.”

“Look, bird brain, if you think you haven’t changed, it’s only because you haven’t been paying attention. And the same thing with the kids – with any of the Students. They grow up after they leave here. All kids do.”

Luke flapped his wings. “When did you become so smart?”

“Somewhere while you were becoming a curmudgeon.”

There was nothing Luke could say that wouldn’t just prove Mike right, so, instead, he passed her crewmate the stack of bills. “They made currency.”

“Hey, they put you on the fifty.”

“Keep going.”

“That’s a good likeness of Howard on the twenty.”

“Keep going.” He found he was grinning. If he was going to be completely knocked off his feet by Boom and Cloverleaf, maybe he could at least get a smirk out of Mike.

“And… ah. Heh.” Mike snorted, then giggled, then guffawed. “The girl has balls, I’ll give her that.”

“I’d say it’s a good likeness of you.”

“And it’s on a booze bill, too. Lookit that.” Mike flipped over the Three-clover bill bearing his likeness to look at the depiction of a foaming mug of beer on the back. “Maybe I’ll have to go spend it.”

“I’m sure they’d be… pleased… to see you.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/856519.html. You can comment here or there.

She’s a good sport I can spring her/for a Fin or even a sawbuck (Doomsday, Luke, @inventrix)

Nov30

Directly after Similar Features, with longer hair. Notes:
We finally named the town. It’s Cloverleaf. That makes a lot more things make sense.
The mention of Regine comes from I Have This School
Leofric’s Change is… antlers,etc.

Luke shifted uncomfortably. He was, he noted, doing a lot of that on this visit. It made him feel young again, like he was dealing with Mike, back before he’d hit his first century. “It seems,” he said, trying to sound dry instead of nervous, “like you’re going out of your way to let me know that this place is a threat.”

“A threat?” Cynara raised both her eyebrows. “No. Sir, if we’d wanted to threaten Addergoole, we would have threatened Addergoole. But, as Director Regine so kindly pointed out, our great-grandchildren, and theirs, and so on, are still promised to that place.”

“You’ve made it clear you have no fondness for the place.” He found himself sitting very still, pressing down on the balls of his feet.

“I’ve made it clear that there are people who would rather have children that weren’t promised before they were born to a place they didn’t particularly enjoy.” Cynara was still smiling. Luke found that particularly discomfiting. “Remember, every one of us who went there, our parents – or grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on – signed us up. Not one of us had a choice.”

Luke relaxed fractionally. “I’ve heard that before. It – well, there are reasons, and there are excuses.”

“And those don’t change the facts. There are a good number of students who had a particularly shitty time at Addergoole, and I’ve met a good number that had a pleasant time, even good. Many of your cy’ree, for one.”

HE felt as if he was being thrown a bone, and couldn’t bring himself to pick it up. “And yet you’re populating your school with the children of those who didn’t like Addergoole.”

“Partially, partially. And, really.” She smiled brightly at him. “The ones who did like it send all their kids to Addergoole, or to Addergoole East. Look.” She reached into her desk drawer. Luke tensed again. He could take Cynara Red Doomsday, he was certain of it. But the cost would likely be astronomical.

She pulled out a small piece of paper and slid it across the desk to him. It was blue, about the size of an old American dollar bill… it looked a lot like paper currency, actually, with a complex engraved border. The denomination, he noted, was 50. Fifty whats?

Cloverleaf, the bill read, fifty clovers.

And then he finally got to the picture in the center.

“I think our mint got a pretty good likeness, don’t you?”

Luke flipped the bill over. A lovely picture of a stack of clothing – shoes included – greeted him.

“We call it the jeans, or the pants. The one-clover is still a buck.” She was grinning so widely, she had to be near exploding from not laughing.

Luke turned the bill back to the obverse. There was no denying it was a portrait of him, wings and all. “You’re not hiding your fae blood at all, are you?”

“No. No we’re not.” She was suddenly serious. “Look. That’s you on the fifty. Here’s Drake on the five hundred. And here.” She passed him a rose-colored three-clover bill, from which Mike’s – Michelle’s – smiling face greeted him. “The thing is….” She waited politely while Luke stifled a chuckle at the Mike bill. “The thing is, we had some bad at Addergoole, some of us. But we get it, too. We survived the apocalypse in large part because of what you taught us. We were together because Addergoole put us together. And we want to teach others what we learned, everything that helped us get that far.”

She passed him a small stack of multi-colored bills. The gold-colored “buck,” he noticed, featured Leofric, complete with rack of antlers. “We’re just trying to avoid the rape and mind control, as much as possible. I’d say, building on what you taught us, not threatening it.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/856067.html. You can comment here or there.

Cure for Boredom

Nov27

As we work on filling in the later years of the AG Roster, I like to tall little stories of how x guy ended up with x girl to make xx baby. So here’s one of those stories.

JohnWayne, you’ve met plenty times before. Azariah is the daughter of two back-story characters: Abednego and Birgit. This is set in JohnWayne’s second year of school

“You look bored.”

JohnWayne sighed. The dance floor was full of beautiful girls. The brunette in the rose-pink dress? Had turned out to be his half sister. The one in royal blue? Could not be pinned down; she bent space and time.

That one over there – well, that had turned out to be a boy. Which was fine for some, but JohnWayne was, if nothing else, looking to fill his second grad requirement. And the 29th Cohort was smaller than many others, the ghosts of those who hadn’t made it as visible on the floor as the pretty girls.

“Bored would be one word for it,” he admitted.

“Here, I bought you a drink.” From behind him, a long-nailed hand pressed a glass into his hand. “John, right? Yoshi’s girl Kept you last year?”

“Dáirine. Yeah. And it’s JohnWayne.” He took the drink and turned to see who his mysterious benefactor was.

He had the drink to his lips when he turned, and had to make a quick assessment. She had her Mask up, but the eys were still the same. They flickered with electricity over the blue-sky color.

He swallowed a few sips of the drink, wondering if he’d regret it. “Azariah. Uh. Thanks for the drink.”

Her smile became more gentle. “I’m not going to drug you and drag you off the floor. But if you’re finding hunting frustrating this year…”

JohnWayne looked at her, really looked at her. “…I’m probably not the only one, am I?”

“Look, I know Pippa was rough. But that’s Pippa. We could work out a contract.”

JohnWayne swallowed. “You want to Keep me.”

“Well, it beats trying to Keep your sister, doesn’t it?”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/855981.html. You can comment here or there.

On Nano, and what I’m learning

Nov26

So, I’m 26 days into nanowrimo – by my chart, that’s 86.67% of the time by the end of the day, and 80.29%
done with the writing before I start today.

This month was an experiment – several experiments, actually.

* Writing 15K fiction pieces.
* Writing fiction-for-submission serially, i.e., one after another with no break.
* writing several pieces of different lengths for nano.

What I’ve learned already is that I have a process in writing for submission that is different from my process for writing for y’all or for serials, and that messing with it messes with my brain.

The process is:
* write 250-1000 words of a piece
* throw it out
* start again.
* finish that, then edit heavily.

skipping steps 1 & 2 totally messes with me. <.< Also, wastes time.

I’ve also learned that pacing for longer short pieces is totally foreign to me and I have no idea how to do it.

also, I need/want/crave/like distraction projects. See Doomsday.

that’s it so far. See you on the 1st!~

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/855189.html. You can comment here or there.

There’s been a lot of Addergoole/Doomsday Writing Lately…

Nov26

…and for good reason.

But, to be fair: Leave a prompt (or prompts) for any setting of mine not Addergoole/Fae Apoc, and, over the next month, I will try to write 100 words to each of at least 10 prompts.

Optional themes – holidays, family, winter/seasons’s turn, i.e., anything you can think of as a December sort of theme.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/854937.html. You can comment here or there.

Family & Coincidence

Nov26

This is what happens when I start trying to give people kids.
See JohnWayne here: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/tag/character:+johnwayne and more importantly here: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/254212.html
See Dai here – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/tag/character:+dairine – and I’ll have to go back and tag her elsewhere later.

JohnWayne had been at the Ranch for a week when he heard a woman’s exasperated voice call out “Storm! Breeze! Rain!”

It wasn’t Dáirine’s voice. Even four years later, he knew his first Keeper’s voice.

But it didn’t quite sound like a weather forecast, either, and it sounded a little too much like the names he’d given his triplet daughters. He looked around, casually, while doing the stack of chores he’d been assured Howard gave to every new Kept.

He caught the flash of black curls before he saw anyone, and then the tall figure of a woman who was definitely not Dáirine, despite having similar coloration and hair. For one, this woman had spots, which Dáirine did not. For another, she had almost a foot on Dai.

“Storm, what did I tell you? Wait till I tell Dái what you’ve done, you naughty thing, you. Come on.” The drawl was thick and southern as the woman scooped up a little girl.

From this distance, it was hard to tell. But she had her mother’s curls and his complexion.

JohnWayne swallowed. If his former Keeper – and the daughters he’d fathered on her – was living on the Ranch, his time under Cynara’s collar had just gotten a lot weirder.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/854700.html. You can comment here or there.

Mother-Daughter Shopping, a ficlet of Addergoole/Doomsday (@inventrix)

Nov26

Cynara (Cya) is a long-running character in my Addergoole/Doomsday series.
It is a trope of the series that she picks up a new Kept every year on Addergoole graduation/send-home-for-summer-vacation day.
Lady Maureen runs the creche where children of Ag students spend time until or unless their parents claim them on graduation.
Yoshi is Cynara’s son; Howard is her crew-mate, Kishmish is Howard’s adopted daughter and Nibibizhiw is his blood son.
Phew!

It didn’t surprise Luke to find Cynara leaning against Lady Maureen’s fence; by this time, the surprise was the few years she didn’t show up.

It did, however, surprise him to see her with another woman. The girl looked to be about the same age as Addergoole students, although he had spent enough time around fae to doubt appearance. She was blonde, with freckles sprinkled across her nose – the current partner of one of Cya’s sons or grandsons, maybe? Luke moved in a little closer.

“Mo-o-om.” The girl sighed with clearly long-suffering patience. Luke, recognizing the sound from his own children, smiled. The smile died quickly, however – mom? Cya had given two sons to Addergoole.

And told him about others having third children, fourth, fifth to have kids they didn’t have to give away to Luke’s school. She’d as much as told him.

But who was the father? Luke studied them, muttering a Working to let him eavesdrop from a safe distance. Blonde, well, that was likely an Aelf-get, but considering Cynara’s taste in Kept, that didn’t narrow it down. The freckles were Cynara’s; both her sons had them.

“…No. I don’t want a maid. I mean, I probably do want a maid, but it’s not like we can’t just hire a maid. I don’t need a house-Kept.”

Interesting. Shopping. Well, from the looks of Yoshi & his occasional visits to the same fence where his mother was now sitting, it ran in the family.

“Well, what about a-“

“No. I am not talking about that with you.”

“Well, what do you want?” It was both interesting and a bit reassuring to find Cya sounding every bit as frustrated as any other parent of a teenager.

“I don’t know, why don’t you just find someone?”

“I thought you’d never ask. Look, it helps if you drop the Mask. Then they don’t worry you might be a lost human.” Cynara dropped her own Mask.

The girl did the same. Pronghorn antlers poked from her blonde hair. That – did not actually help.

Cynara had only once given a Kept a child, Luke remembered. And she’d been in love with Howard, even if neither of them would ever admit it.

Well, the kid had good genes, and Howard – well, Howard spoiled them rotten, which would explain a lot. But he’d raise them well, too. He’d done well with Kishmish and Nibibizhiw, at least.

“Now. Who would be good for my daughter…” Cya’s eyes landed on Luke, and, very deliberately, she winked.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/854511.html. You can comment here or there.

Partners, a drabble of Yoshi & Dáirine

Nov24

Set at the end of Yoshi’s second year & Dairine’s first year of Addergoole.

“We could be…” Yoshi waved his hands around. “…Partners.”

“What’s…” Dáirine imitated the hand-waving… “partners?”

“Like my mother and Viddie’s dad, or like your father and Ciara.”

“Those sound like two completely different things.”

Yoshi huffed. “You know what I mean.”

She huffed right back at him, unbothered. “No, Yoshi, I don’t.”

“I mean – partners. People who have each other’s backs. People who watch out for each other.”

She wrinkled her brow at him. “That doesn’t sound like either your mom and – Leo, or my dad and Ciara.” The hesitation before Leo was strange, but she talked over it. “That sounds like crew. Which, I might point out, we already are.”

“But more than crew. I mean.”

“Yoshi, you can say dating. Or fucking. The twins aren’t old enough to know either word.”

“But this is Addergoole, and those stupid rules mean we both need our second even though we have two.” He flopped into his chair, tail askew and ears crooked.

Dai leaned over and tousled his hair. “Honey, this is Addergoole. We can be a couple and still have babies with other people if we want.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/853353.html. You can comment here or there.

Here Again, a ficlet of Doomsday (@inventrix)

Nov24

This takes place before Luke’s visit to Doomsday by some time but after Doomsday begins. Links later, when awake..

“Here again?”

Cynara was early this year.

“I do that. When I don’t, people start to worry.”

She was perched on the fence outside of Lady Maureen’s; Luke had come around the side of the house.

“People get nervous when routines change.” He sat down on a nearby bench, his wings spread. “But you’re back.”

“Are you here to stop me?” She wondered idly what she’d do if he was. The Village was Addergoole property, after all.

“Nope.” She thought she might have surprised a smile on his face.

“I’ve wondered about that, you know. Why you haven’t.” She leaned forward, weight on her knees and her tail counterbalancing over the back of the fence.

“I’d have been disappointed with you if you didn’t wonder.”

“You – Addergoole – came to check on me the first few years.”

“They did.” Yes, Luke was smiling.

“And then you stopped. Of course, there was the end of the world-“

“The kids you Kept were fine. And we decided – I decided that it wasn’t our job to get between two consenting Adults and what they chose to do. Besides.” His wings twitched a bit. “If they got caught that easily, maybe they needed the lesson.”

Cya found herself smiling. “And sometimes they volunteer.”

“And sometimes they volunteer.” He smiled back, for a moment, but then his expression turned serious again. “Look. I’ve talked to the cy’Luca’s you’ve Kept, afterwards. Most of them seemed more thoughtful and more, mmm, adult than when they left me.”

“Some people just need a bit of a polish.” Cya shrugged. “You’re not stopping me now – when you know they’re going to Boom Town, to help Doomsday
Academy?”

“Still not our job to get between two consenting Adults and what they choose to do.” His wings twitched. “We argued about that, too.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you’re smart enough to figure out that Addergoole is not a monolith.”

She studied him for a moment. “When Regine turned me down…”

His wings were completely still. “Not everyone was happy with it. We’re not sure we trust you-“

“That’s all right.” Cya didn’t smile this time. “We’re pretty sure we don’t trust you.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/853123.html. You can comment here or there.

Intro to Doomsday: Thirds

Nov22

Cya leaned against the wall and stared blankly at her office. The principal’s office, ha, and how much time had she spent there growing up, a lifetime and a world and kids, grand-kids, and great-grandchildren ago.

“This is the year.”

The boy – man, give him that – at the desk didn’t look up. He was shuffling papers, and probably regretting ever talking to the redhead leaning on Maureen’s fence. “Which year? It’s the eighth year of an eight-grade school. It’s a full roster year.”

He might not even know. “It’s the year my granddaughter – mine and Leo’s – comes to school.”

That caught his attention. “You and Leo, err, Lightning-Blade? Inazuma?”

Cya didn’t mean to chuckle, but the look was so – so very. This one was so much more thoughtful than so many of the boys she’d Kept, so much more serious. And he still got that look.

It was different than the Howard look, she mused. But then again, she’d never had a child with Howard.

Yet. They were still young, as fae went. There were always possibilities.

The boy – man – her Kept recovered quickly. “I thought Leo was… I didn’t think you two had…”

“He is and we didn’t.” It had stopped hurting when she said that. Hell, she’s known that before she’d known she was in love with him. “But we’re fae. We have two children together, Viddie and Mai. And Viddie’s third child is Sweetbriar.”

“Oh!” He glanced at the roster. “Sweetbriar… sh’Ce’Rilla, that’s a mouthful.”

She couldn’t help but chuckle. “Orlaith – ‘Rilla’s mother – tells me when she & Silas had her third, she told him ‘no punctuation.’ Some people have strange ideas of appropriate names.”

“Like Cyndequil?”

“Like Cyndequil.” She patted his head. “How your father even- That’s another matter. Like that.”

Quill – he of the unfortunately Pokemon name – shrugged it off. “So – your granddaughter?” He did the math. “Your first one not promised to Addergoole.” He did some more math. He was good with math, after all. “It makes me wonder…”

Quill might look like so many of the other boys she had collared over the years, but she had chosen him for far different reasons. Cya let him think. He usually ended up somewhere interesting.

He shot her a look that was half guilty and half pensive. “…maybe I ought to start thinking about my own third.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/852946.html. You can comment here or there.