Archive | April 2016

Wild Card, a story of Aunt Family for a very old Ladies_bingo card (@wyld_dandelyon)

Apr29

This is written to [personal profile] wyld_dandelyon‘s prompt to my “Wild Card” square of this [community profile] ladiesbingo card from 2014.

Aunt family, rather early on in Eva’s story, I think.

It was a quiet evening, a Friday on the edge between autumn and winter. There was a fire roaring in the wood stove – their family liked to do things old-school when they could – and the lanterns were all filled and ready. Nights like this, the power liked to go out, and if there was one thing the family as a whole agreed on, it was that being prepared was far better than cursing the darkness.

Especially considering the darkness had a tendency of cursing back people like them.

Eva was playing cards – gin rummy, a relatively safe pursuit – with one of her older aunts. Aunt Karaleen had celebrated her hundred-and-third birthday just a few months ago, and while nobody would ever say one of their family was going senile, she did tend to forget what decade it was now, and she had a habit of wandering combined with the family’s trademark stubbornness. About the only way to keep her in one place for any length of time was to entertain her, and tonight was Eva’s turn.

Eva pulled a card from the pile and glanced at it. “Oh, this isn’t supposed to be here.” The joker on an ancient wild card grinned back at her. “I don’t even think it’s from this deck.” She dropped it into the discard pile.

Aunt Karaleen chuckled throatily. “Oh, him? He never shows up when he’s supposed to. But now you’ve seen him, you’ll be seeing him again.”

The lights flickered and popped as the neighborhood went dark. Karaleen laughed again. “See? And now we’ve called him. It will be a long winter, mark you, and fruitful, but not one of us will forget it.” Something strange and sad took over her voice. “Not even me,” she whispered.

Is there more
Aunt Family
in the cards?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1098032.html. You can comment here or there.

The Baroness and the Pauper, a story of Tír na Cali, posted for Patreon patrons

Apr28

The Baroness and the Pauper


A story of Tír na Cali

Nora shifted from foot to foot. She felt awkward and uncomfortable; standing here, in the manor house, she felt grubby, her skin itchy. “Look, if this is about the thing with the overseer…” She’d only been a slave for six months. She’d spent most of it getting in trouble, and most of that annoying the overseer. Who worked for this woman, this… Baroness.

Inside her shower, the Baroness… (read on…)

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This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1097913.html. You can comment here or there.

FDomme stories – one of these to be continued for a bit.

Apr28

Okay, I have a lot of “male captive” stories (for a reason), all of ’em hanging around unfinished.

(please feel free to suggest others, this is just off the top of my head):

Reynard and Elle
Mieve and Amrit*
Daxton and Esha ***
Arisse and Chress **
Jahnan And Yira…

Which one should I focus on for the next, say 5000-10000 words of entertaining not-currently-for-profit fic?

(These may turn into books of the self-pub variety at some point…)

(*s mark “votes”, since I didn’t feel like making this a poll and I won’t treat it as binding, more like recommendations)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1097491.html. You can comment here or there.

A Deal is Made, Epilogue

Apr28

Part I – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082356.html
Part II – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082751.html
Part III – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1091513.html
Part IV – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1095923.html

Regine pulled up the computer program that kept all of her student data, glad once again that she had upgraded her machines just before the catastrophe. You could still buy computer parts in a few select enclaves, but their methods left something to be desired and they almost always included as much spyware as actual computer.

She performed a search on extant and incoming students into the school, and then performed the search two more times. “That…” She stared at the screen with a decidedly unpleasant feeling before finally raising her voice. “Hayley!”

“Yes, Director Regine?”

“Call in Luca Hunting Hawk and Michael VanderLinden. Now.”

~
Regine was gone, the door was closed, and her footsteps had faded away. Slowly, Cya let herself grin.

“That took her longer than I’d expected,” she admitted to Leo. She turned to look at him, a little concerned about his reaction. After all, they were his children too.

He was still watching the door, looking thoughtful and uncharacteristically somber. “This was the thing you told me about a while ago, isn’t it?”

“It is,” she agreed quietly. ”Twenty, thirty years ago would have been nice. But now… well…” Her grin had faded in the face of Leo’s solemnity. ”I wish we could do more, but I still haven’t found a way to break the oath.”

“It’ll help.” He looked over at her and smiled. “More than I could’ve managed.”

“There’s a bonus, too.” She felt her smile coming back. “As of five years ago… every student entering Addergoole is descended from Boom.”

Leo stared at her for a moment. Cya didn’t let the smile slip from her face, just watched him. She saw the surprise on his face slowly give way to amusement, and that give way to outright laughter.

“Of course they are.”

Cya let herself laugh when he laughed. ”It took a bit of doing and, uh, quite a bit of being pushy with some descendants,” she admitted. ”But Aunt Cya – grandma Cya – can always pay back favors.”

“Great Ancestor Doomsday.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. She felt heat coming to her face. All these years, and she still felt a blush coming on every time he did that.

She grinned widely. She’d been a little worried he’d be angry… ”It was a long shot… but it worked. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when she finds out.” Which she would, and soon.

“Mm. I think I can come up with an excuse to go see my old Mentor.”

“…brilliant.” Cya’s grin grew even wider. ”Yes. I want to see how this falls out.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1097360.html. You can comment here or there.

“I don’t believe…” a ficlet for the (long-over) Impossible Situations mini-call

Apr27

E-mail box clean out continues!
This is to a combination of LIlfluff‘s and rix_Scaedu‘s prompts here

“I don’t believe in aliens.” The elf lord stuck his chin out and glared at the gathered others. “There is life aplenty on this planet, for one. For another, the stars are gods-lights trailing across the ceiling of the world. There is no place for these ‘alien beings’ to come from.”

Others on the council nodded their heads. “There are the gods, but they do not visit this planet except in cases of extreme emergency.” A grey-haired elf ticked off points on her long fingers. “There are us, the fae of Underhill and the Hidden Vale. There are humans. There are the water-borne, who are neither fae nor human. That is more than enough for anyone to deal with.”

The messenger cleared his throat uncomfortably. Up until a week ago, he hadn’t believed in aliens either – and until half an hour ago, he hadn’t believed in elves. “Be that as it may, ma’am, sir, everyone… but the aliens want a breeding pair of unicorns, and you are our last hope of finding any.”

Tip Box 😉

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1097021.html. You can comment here or there.

Kuro-Neko?

Apr27

 Hey, has anyone heard from [personal profile] kuro_neko00 ?  I realized I hadn’t heard from them for a while….

If they’ve just stopped reading my work, that’s fine, but I worry when people vanish.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1096941.html. You can comment here or there.

Buffy goes to Addergoole, a crossover fic in need of a name, Part I

Apr27

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ~ Addergoole

“Hey Giles.” Buffy strode into the library at Sunnydale High and dropped an envelope in front of her Watcher. “Got some weird mail. Figure you can do the research on it and get all Watcher-y or something.”

“I am certain I can be all… Watcher.. y.” Giles held the envelope by one corner and stared at it. “Buffy, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I need to look at this in private.”

“Whatevs. Just let me know if something needs slayage. I’m going to go work on my tan.” She pivoted on her heel towards the door, only to stop inches short of the swinging door. “Ooor not. Hi, Will.”

“Oh, hi, Buffy.” Willow barely seemed to notice her. “Giles? I got some totally weird piece of mail, and I’m having concerns.” Willow stuck her head and one hand in the library door, displaying an envelope hanging in a plastic sheet protector. “I looked this place up, and their web site is totally legit, but it’s spooky, in the ‘maybe too legit’ sort of way, if you know what I mean, which I bet you totally don’t, but that’s okay, because… oh. Could you see if maybe I missed something?”

Giles frowned at the letters. ”Addergoole, Addergoole, where have I heard that before? Willow, could you hand me Anforth’s Red Pages, please?”

“Sounds like someone’s really creepy little black book.” Buffy perched on the edge of the table. ”So you’re totes gonna help me get out of this, right?”

“Mm. I’m certainly going to try.” He frowned at the large, reddish book that Willow handed him. ”Anforth was not, technically, a Watcher, but he certainly had interesting things to say about… well, just about everyone. And he wrote down quite a bit of it in these books.”

“Was? Past tense?” Buffy poked the book. “What happened to him?”

“He observed, ah, a demon rather more closely than he’d intended, or so the note from his assistant says. Talforth was not nearly as good a research as Anforth, but he certainly did try to follow. Yes, I’m going to need Talforth’s Beige Book please, Willow.”

“So what is this place? A Hellmouth? A cover for vampires? Some sort of demon recruiting scam? Government organization?”

Giles’ finger had settled on a name printed on a bland, beige page: Regine, called Lady of the Lake or Avonmorea, PhD, PhD, MD. ”I believe it is a school. Several other things as well, of course, but I do think it is a research facility with educational components.”

“I’m not liking that research bit.” Buffy frowned at the entry, picking out bits upside down. ”She’s a geneticist? Is that some sort of scientist? That never goes well. And what’s this bit here? It’s written in cuni-something.”

“Cuneiform? Let me see!” Willow crowded up against Giles’ side.

“Ah, actually…”

“This isn’t cuneiform! This is… I don’t know what this is.” Willow glared at Giles. ”You’ve been holding out.”

“Well, I am a Watcher, and there are some trade secrets we are required by oath to keep sacrosanct.”

“Hrrrmfh.” Willow mock-sulked at Giles before turning her attention back to buffy with a broader, more eager pout on her face. ”Besides, what’s wrong with research? I’m totally for the research. I am Research Girl. I can do the research. I love the research,”

“Not researching, Will, being the research. Think about it. They’re going to be all like “how come you can bench press a Volvo?’ and ‘where did you get those stylish and yet kickass boots?’ and ‘How are you dead and alive again?’” Buffy said the last in her Giles impression, a thick and stuffy-sounding faux-British accent.

“That is the concern, yes. I will do some research, but Buffy, Willow? We may end up needing to talk to your parents. Specifically, your mothers.”

“No way. Unh-uh. If my mother finds out a private school actually wants me, there’s going to be no turning back. I’ll be on the train before you can say ‘so what about the Hellmouth?’” Buffy shook her head adamantly.

“Well, I do understand the concern, but these people – if these are the people I think they are – are very concerned with formality.”

“Sounds like Watchers.” Willow tilted her head and read further down the page. ”This lady sounds like a Watcher for sure.”

“Not nearly that pleasant, I’m afraid.” Giles winced. ”She is, ah. She’s quite well-known in certain circles, but that is saying more about the circles than it is about her. Oh, dear. If she is involved, I might not be able to avoid…”

“If we have to go meet her, we go meet her.” Buffy smiled, an expression that was more predatory than friendly. ”Maybe if we explain everything all nice and in-person-like, she’ll get the picture. Since I’m not leaving Sunnydale. Hellmouth. Vampires. Major issues everywhere.”

“Well, why don’t you two go to class.” Giles looked back at Talforth’s Beige. ”I’ll see what I can dig up on this school – and on its principal.”

“At least this one hasn’t been eaten alive.” Willow shuddered theatrically.

“Class.” Buffy shook her head. ”And here I was going to tan.” She flounced out of the room, showing a sympathetic Willow her pale arms. “Look at me! I’m fading away!”

Part II: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1100922.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1096503.html. You can comment here or there.

Lilfluff has a prompt call open!

Apr27

Go check out [personal profile] lilfluff ‘s prompt call to the theme "alternatives."

He’s taking prompts to his last two bingo cards, as well as more general prompts and "more of xxx"

Go prompt!  

Edit: Fluff has a landing page of sorts here which serves as a good starting place for his work.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1096351.html. You can comment here or there.

Story repost for the “April Showers” Patreon Theme

Apr27

Don’t Cry, Baby 
a repost from 2013

Addergoole, beginning of Year 13 – originally posted here and slightly edited. (One of only two retro posts I could find involving rain/showers!)

“Don’t cry, baby. When you cry, the sky cries with you.”

Amaya’s daddy had said that to her, growing up. He’d point out the window at the encroaching clouds, or at the storm or the shower, and say the same thing, every time.

When she tripped and skinned her knee, “Don’t cry, baby…"

continue reading (free for everyone) on Patreon – here

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1096157.html. You can comment here or there.