Archive | December 23, 2014

Free and Clear

Prolly nigh on 50 years after Addergoole: Year 5

She wasn’t really sure why her last owners released her.

She’d done (almost) everything right, and had been (relatively) docile and obedient. She’d been trying to learn, and Owners Number Three had taught her quite a bit. But ‘why they released her’ wasn’t part of it.

They’d given her a nice big pack of stuff, too. The girl who had once been Delaney looked at it for the third time. There was enough in here to survive for a month, if she decided to wander. There was enough to trade for… well, a whole bunch of booze, if she felt like that, instead.

She wasn’t really sure what she felt like. She’d been under the collar for what she thought was probably a decade, and before that… before that, she’d been insane, cracked, and, if the stories and her vague memories were true, psychotic and sadistic.

That person had a string of homes and wealth scattered across the country. The person she was now wasn’t sure where any of it was – or if any of it was still where she’d left it. She’d shared everything with a partner, after all. And that partner was gone.

She stared down the road. It curved through wasteland and farmland, through places she didn’t remember being and places she might never have been. And it was all hers. She could do whatever she wanted.

The horse-drawn wagon clomped up beside her. “Going west, Miss?”

“I am.” At least, that was the direction she was pointed in. “I could give you..” she touched her pocket. “Twenty dollars Sondaran for a ride.”

“Ten will do. Hop on in.”

The man in the driver’s seat reminded her of Amish, long ago – beard and straw hat, plain shirt and plain pants. She wondered if the Amish had survived. “Thanks.” She passed over the money, first.

“My pleasure. My name’s Amos, by the by.”

She’d prepared for this. She had more than enough reasons to leave that old name behind her. But she’d needed a new one. “Ellery.” She smiled brightly. “You can call me El.”

She had a fresh start, and she was going to take it.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/870681.html. You can comment here or there.

A beginning of a story which obnoxiously cuts off just before the description

The problem with the settlements was the rules. Shit, the problem with other people was the rules. The last three crews Amrit had run with had enforced rules that were stifling, terrifying, and ridiculous, in order. Better, he’d decided, to run on his own. It wasn’t like anything could hurt him, at least not permanently.

The slavers had taken him while he was asleep, enough of them that they could tie him down even when he started fighting, and fae-savvy enough that they knew to gag him before he got out more than one Working. One of them sat on him as they attached the collar – wooden and spiked on inside and out, and the spikes burned where they brushed his skin – and informed Amrit that he now Belonged to them.

Amrit had made “fuck you” understandable through the gag, with effort. It had gotten him a bigger gag for his trouble.

And now he was chained to a platform, between two other guys, one of them in a plain metal collar and the other one wearing more wood and more chains than Amrit himself. Clearly he needed to fight harder.

And people were standing in front of them, bidding, ever so politely, like this was fucking Christie’s or something. And they were bidding on him. Amrit glared at them all. People.

It had been boring as well as irritating, watching them go back and forth about the other two, but now they were down to him. It looked like a fop sort, long hair, long nails, long mustache, was winning out over this big muscular guy wearing rawhide. They were using a form of shorthand Amrit didn’t quite get, but it sounded like he was up to 2 head of cattle or seven barrels of fish.

Suddenly, the men quieted. A woman in the back stood up and waved her number. She rolled off a series of words, all of them new to the debate.

There was a pause, while everyone discussed the relative values of… whatever. Honey, maybe? Amrit took the moment to study this new bidder.

more

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/870596.html. You can comment here or there.

Unicorn/Factory Landing Page Updated

I have updated the Unicorn/Factory Landing Page here: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/143643.html

In honor of that, I am now taking 2 Unicorn/factory prompts.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/870177.html. You can comment here or there.

Bug Invasion

The world wasn’t expecting the Bugs to invade.

But the Bugs weren’t expecting the humans, either.

A Week of Settings

From the moment they breathed our air (Lj) after: Staying in the City (LJ) and Spooks vs. Bugs (DW)
It’s all in your Head (LJ)
Out of Their Minds
Voices – After All in Your Head and Out of Their Minds.

Poison (LJ)
Beyond (after Poison)

Icon Flash: The Bug Rebellion

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/391028.html. You can comment here or there.