Archive | December 2014

Today’s prompt is from inventrix: Christmas plans!

Man, I was just thinking that I wanted to have enough money to fly all my friends to my place for New Year’s.

(For years, a friend hosted a holiday party on New Year’s Eve –> New Year’s Day where we all drank too much & opened presents. It was awesome. But he moved to CT, got married, & has 18 (4) kids.)

First: Christmas is more of a season than a day for me. In part because of things like the aforementioned New Year’s Eve party, in part because my Troy friends will show up sometime in… oh, maybe February or March to do Christmas, and in part because I’m so bad at this gift-buying/making thing that some of you will be getting presents in the mail well into early January!

That being said, I think I’m (we’re) (T’s plans are up in the air until about the morning of) going to visit my parents Christmas Eve morning, then probably (I should remember to send an e-mail) visiting Capriox at Tim Horton’s, as has become our new Christmas Eve tradition.

Every year I mean to find a church that does a candlelight ceremony on Christmas eve locally, and every year I forget. Maybe next year.

T. and I don’t really do “gift exchange;” so we’ve already given each other our gifts.

Oh! Christmas Day, we’re going to go see Hobbit III. We’ve seen a movie in the theatres almost every Christmas we’ve been together, some better than others. I’m hoping this counts as at least a decent one. 🙂

What about everyone else? What are your holiday plans?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/869161.html. You can comment here or there.

Two peeks at Doug

Dec19

Year One:

Doug watched the new students coming in to the brand new school. They were fresh-faced, some of them, while others were already bitter and untrusting. They were so young, all of them, and so human-seeming.

His son was among them, Donegal, who he hadn’t gotten to raise. He watched the boy moving through the crowd, and found himself fading into the background. Now was not the time to try to raise the kid; now was the time to do his job.

Two tall, dark boys – brothers, Doug thought, but not twins – moved their way through the crowd as if they were pushing aside brush. Doug watched the way they moved, the shorter one aping the taller one’s movements. They were going to be trouble.

“First day of school.” The woman standing next to him finally spoke up. Laurel, Doug thought her name was. “This’ll be interesting.”

Doug cleared his throat, and found he had nothing to say. He settled for “yeah.”

Year Fourteen:

Ana was pregnant, and Doug was doing everything in his power not to glower, hover, growl, and in general act like (as more than one woman had called him) a royal pain in the ass.

He was fairly certain that he would have been a hovering, miserable, overprotective dinosaur (as Ana gently teased him) even if she hadn’t been carrying his child, his child, as well as the boy Teal’s, but he couldn’t guarantee it. Doug was in love, and it messed everything up.

He watched the fresh-faced new Cohort, just a month into the year and still looking so very young, so very human. A short, stocky irish boy – notable in that he was shorter than either Doug or his father – met Doug’s eyes and grinned, arrogant and insouciant.

“They’re shaping up to be interesting.” Laurel Valerian laid fingers on Doug’s arm in a way that would have, from another woman, seemed possessive. “I think this is going to be a good year.”

Doug shifted his weight onto his heels. The Irish kid was looking at Ana. Looking was fine. Looking was fine. He cleared his throat and made himself look at Laurel. “Yeah.”

I’m not really sure what to put in for context here…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/869070.html. You can comment here or there.

December Meme – Day Nineteen – Knitting

Dec19

The Meme

Today’s prompt is from kelkyag: Knitting

Oh, man, I haven’t knitted in so long. Children are walking and talking who I had Big Plans to knit baby clothes for.

And it’s a pity, and something I ought to rectify, because knitting is very soothing. It calms me down, gives me something to do with my hands, and takes some of my attention so that I can spend the rest of it focusing.

On my list of things I really want to knit:

Shahin’s wristwarmers, in large part because I want to use them in the Kickstarter.

A girl-stuff pouch for my purse, because, well, girl stuff. <.<

Something for a friend’s kid before said kid heads off to college.

The two hats I have planned for other friends, before they’re 80.

And, in the dream-big realm, I really want to knit myself a Douglas Adams/Dr. Who homage towel shawl blanket.

Maybe start small? I think I have a dishcloth on the needles, or there’s always the 13-foot scarf I was knitting for a friend. I got through 6 feet of it…

*flexes fingers* I’m allergic to wool, so knitting for me is almost always cotton or linen. I’m just beginning to get a feel for bamboo, but it is so different from cotton…

Maybe I’ll knit myself a set of pulse warmers first.

🙂

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/868862.html. You can comment here or there.

More thoughts on Mellama’s IconDay6

Dec18

http://itsamellama.dreamwidth.org/96968.html

Okay, so I was thinking – the last giraffe call (http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/819607.html) made enough for an art!

And Mel has art options in her tipping thresholds.

Sooo… there’s a lot of “more please” stories that came out of this Call. Ideas? I was thinking either the young princeling/his older Mentor; the ace prince & his ace rescuer, or the princess with her Very Very Angry Captive

http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/tag/giraffecall

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/868538.html. You can comment here or there.

Solstice, 50 words, @dahob

Dec17

The longest night of the year. They stood, outside their prefab barracks, and stared at an alien sky.

The world was different, the stars, even the weather. But they lit candles made from alien fat and held them up to the dark night, to the black skies. And they sang.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/868139.html. You can comment here or there.

Jumping Rings: A Story of the Circled Plain Chapter Thirteen (Choose)

Dec17

“Agree. Or don’t. You have to be agreeing to it, Taslin, you know that. They can’t force you to take a Patronage.”

“But they can make my life very difficult if I do not. They can make everything unpleasant. They can lean on the owners of the pit. They can Patronize someone else and encourage them to hurt me, or just hire people to attack me.”

“That’s illegal.”

Read On…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/867896.html. You can comment here or there.

Science & Getting Schooled, another part of Luke at Doomsday (@inventrix)

Dec17

First: Visiting Doomsday
Previous: About cy’Doomsday.

Luke found his wings flattened to his back. “What does my wife have to do with anything?”

Nehara held up both her hands. “Not your wife, sir. Gabriel. It’s just that, of course Mystral talks to her father, and of course the professor talks to the rest of the teachers…” She shook her head. “I just wanted to say, you’re not as much of a cipher, sir, as you might think. I did some studying.”

“I am beginning to guess that I should have expected that.” Mike would say he’d gotten his feathers ruffled. Luke took a breath and tried to smooth himself down. “What did you learn?”

“You know,” she changed the subject with a bright smile, “I think maybe there’s someone you need to see before you see Professor Lily’s class.”

“Not Gabriel? I see plenty of him.”

She chuckled politely. “No, sir-“

Luke coughed. “By this point, I think it’s probably politer if you call me by name.”

“Certainly, sa’Hunting Hawk.”

Luke flopped against the wall, acknowledging with a wry salute that she’d won that round. “You were saying?”

“I think you ought to see Professor Inazuma’s class. He’d be very disappointed if you traveled all this way and didn’t see him.” She took his hand and Luke, startled, let her. “This way, come on.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She was going to be a beautiful terror for someone or ones. When she was old enough. He resisted the urge to snatch his hand back. “Lead on.”

“Follow on, soldier.” There was something suddenly old about her voice. Luke focused on the school uniform, the red cloak and the plaid skirt. She was a kid. A student.

‘Fina had been a Student. Mystral had been a student.

Inazuma. Think of Leo. It was as good as thinking about baseball, and had the side effect of reminding Luke why he was here. “It’s been a while.”

She glanced back at him. “I imagine it has, sir.” She sounded as if she’d been through the wars. And Luke, of all people, knew what that would sound like. “I’ve heard some of the stories, of the war.” She glanced down at the ground.

“Yeah.” Luke let out a breath in a huff. “Yeah. His class is -” The school was quiet, the students already in their next class.

“Right here. First floor. Science building. Well, science and math, though sometimes we call it the Alchemy building.”

There was clearly a joke there, from her smile, but Luke had asked for more than enough explanation already. “Onward,” he said, hoping this wasn’t going to blow up in his face.

Nehara watched him for a moment, seemed to brace herself, and opened the door.

Luke was too busy paying attention to his guide’s body language – now, now she had to brace herself? – and thus almost missed where they were.

Leo’s enthusiastic “Luke!” brought him right back. “Luke! I didn’t know you were coming!”

“Surprise visit.” He couldn’t help but smile, and, at that, he noticed Nehara was smiling as well. He turned his attention on Leo. “So, I hear Professor Inazuma has a reputation around here.”

Stupid, stupid. He wasn’t here to challenge the kid. He folded his wings and kept talking before Leo could take too much offense. “It looks like you’ve done good things here.”

Mike would have been proud of him. Well, probably not, considering he’d made the mess in the first place, but Leo grinned. “Isn’t it awesome? Nehara’s been showing you around?”

“She has.” He nodded at Nehara. “It’s been quite the education.” He looked around the classroom. “Science, then?”

“Earth science! We’re studying climate and weather today. Do you want to sit in?”

Luke glanced at Nehara, who shrugged cheerfully. “Yeah. That sounds fun.” Much to his surprise, there was a chair waiting near the back that could comfortably accommodate his wings.

“Great! All right, class, this is Luca Hunting-Hawk. He was my Mentor back in school…”

“In Addergoole?” A dark-skinned girl in the front row turned to stare at him. Luke didn’t see any Changes – but that could mean anything. “You teach at Addergoole?“

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/881337.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/867593.html. You can comment here or there.

Vas’ World Landing Page Updated, taking prompts

Dec17

I have updated the Vas’ World landing page and, in honor, am taking 2 prompts on Vas’ World.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/867498.html. You can comment here or there.

Landing Page: Vas’ World

Dec17

Vas’ World
They had trained for this scouting mission for over a year; they’d trained in the space service for years before that. But they were still unprepared for everything they found on the new planet.

Vas’ World is a soft sci-fi story of planetary exploration; like the exploration, this setting is still in the nascent stages.

Icon by meeks.