Archive | September 2019

In Even Paris & Rome

I was listening to “Home” on the radio last night – turns out it’s originally Michael Bublé but I listen to country – and, not for the first time, it struck me that the narrator sounded a little cursed. 

So here we have this. 

🛬 ✈️ 🛫

The taxi smelled strongly of mould and smoke and seemed to hit every bump on the way from the airport to  the hotel. Blake tipped the driver $20 anyway. It was probably not the lady’s fault, after all.

The hotel was a nice one — they always were — but the building next door was undergoing demolition.   The banging followed Blake up the stairs — he’d learned, about elevators — to the tenth floor and into his room.

His next plane tickets and hotel reservations were waiting for him.  Only once in all his time had they not been there, and that time didn’t bear thinking about. 

He shook out his clothes from his carry-on — after losing checked luggage three times, he’d given up — and hung them in the bathroom, put a laundry bag put for Housekeeping, and sat down at the rickety table.

He picked up the room phone and dialed.  555-908-7857. He’d dialed that number so often he called it in his sleep.

In his dreams, someone picked up.  In the good dreams, she picked up.

“The number you have dialed is unavailable.   Please hang up.”

Blake hung up.  He pulled a tiny bourbon from the hotel minibar — legit Kentucky bourbon,  here in… he checked the hotel stationery — Rome. He drank it straight straight from the bottle, finishing it in two swallows, before he considered the hotel stationery again. 

He pulled the curtains open to look at the demolition,  opened the window, and let the dusty air wash over him.

The hotel-branded ballpoint pen worked.  He pulled over a clean sheet of paper and began.

Aug 12, 2011

Rome looks like dust today,  but the sky is bright blue, like the river down past Johnson’s where we used to fish.  

I want to come home.

I slept well on the plane, despite the crying baby.  I feel bad for the kid. It wasn’t her fault.

I want to come home.

All in all, it’s a good day.  I hope yours is going well, too.

I miss you,

Why won’t they let me go home?

Blake. 

 

He folded up the letter carefully, smoothing each crease.  He dug the box out of the bottom of his carry-on, a cookie tin he’d bought, sharing the cookies with the pigeons in — he thought it had been Paris, it might have been Versailles — until he had the perfect size for his rubber-banded stack of letters. 

He had to push the lid shut over the letters now.  It would be time for a second tin, soon. 

Just let me come home

“I want to travel the world.”  He tested the words. They sounded dirty, dusty now, now like they had when he was twenty and full of himself.  Forget this stupid town.

Who knew the elders of his hometown were quite so temperamental — or quite so magical?

According to his tickets — and they were never wrong — he’d be here for almost three whole days.  Blake changed his shirt and headed out for a drink, giving the tin of letters one last pat on the way out. 

 

Curating the Empire

Originally posted on Patreon in September 2019 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.
A Story of Things Unspoken.  I did not unlock this one solely for Kelkyag, no, of course not. 

🏺

It was called a Museum, and it served as such to the public in the Imperial Capital.

That is, people could visit and, for a nominal fee, they could peruse the items stored within.  They could awe at the sculptures, puzzle at the paintings, meander around the mosaics.

They could read portions of ancient texts, both in the original and in several translations.  They could learn from a trained and patient docent why a particular civilization had, for instance, created garments which were beaded over the entire (relatively skimpy) piece with shells and bits of shiny stones, or from another guide why the famed painter Kelizanie Patrischezch had chosen to use only five shades in her The Dawn Comes (Ukethetchesziezie)  series.

And, because it was available, because their were discounts for students, and because it insisted on a certain level of quiet but used firm barriers to keep small children from, say, climbing on the statue of The First Empress, it was well-attended, if perhaps not as well attented as it should have been.  It was, in terms of museums, quite a success.

All of which did a wonderful job of concealing the original mandate of the building and the organization which ran it.

Mayie Retoziven, lead curator for the Northeast Territories Section of the Imperial Museum of Arts and Culture, was up to her elbows in a box of trinkets and gizmos, objets d’art and fine embroidery when her alarm went off.

As she had both been trained in and then trained countless others in her decade as a lead curator, Mayie froze.  “Castellan!” she called to her assistant.  “There’s an issue.” Continue reading

What Next?

Hello!

You may have noticed that I have come to the end of Haunted House!

This leaves me with a slot for posting things and being uncertain what to work on next.

So I thought I’d ask you guys!

Options include:

  • Leave the slot open and work on getting Haunted House edited and ready for publication
  • Leave the slot open for rotating prompt calls of short stories
  • Pick up one of the following:
    • Beauty-Beast
    • Purchase Negotiation
    • BeeKeeper
    • Post-Scar City
    • Post-Scarcity Mystery
    • Catboys in Cages
  • Pick up something else (your suggestion)
    • Portal Closed has been suggested & seconded
    • Desmond’s Climb has been suggested & seconded
    • Bee-pocalypse has been suggested
    • Science! (the Chickens) has been suggested
    • Fairy Town: Whitney & the Crossroads Park, or Katydid’s series
    • Space Accountant
  • Start a new serial (your suggestion)
    • Dragons next Door
    • Aunt Family
    • Things Unspoken

Note: I have Kael’s Tower earmarked to work on when I finish Hidden Mall, and Funerary Rites was giving me a lot of trouble the last time I tried to work on it, thus why they’re not on the list.

 

Post-Scar City – continued

So … let me know what you think about this one?

The Earthers that greeted them as they disembarked were nothing like Adeline had expected. 

They were wearing clean, smooth skirted jumpsuits that were clearly some sort of uniform, little booties with flat heels, and masks covering their noses and mouths.  They immediately handed Adeline and the other Habitaters with her the same sort of masks. 

“It can take up to three weeks for the immune system boosters to completely kick-in,” one of the Eathers explained.  “Until then, you want to avoid as much fluid-to-fluid contact with new people as possible.”

Adeline shared a look with Geordi.  As if they didn’t know basic health protocols! Continue reading

Read Me Elsewhere

Hello! If you’re only reading me  here, you’re missing things!

Or at least some things. 

On Ko-Fi, free for anyone to read:

City Meeting – The Tinies are going to a meeting….
Lost & Found – In the city of Dragons next Door, the Tinies often find the lost. 
Ferry – If you arrived at the Landing, a ferry would be waiting. 
Checkpoint – Abby & Liv(s) weren’t the only ones trapped in the Mall

On Patreon – those that are free are marked with a * – This month is up for grabs
Last month was Holidays and Lazy days; July was Arts & Crafts. 
🅿️
Duck, Duck, Mall* Photos from my weekend
Postcards  –  Photos! Of my postcard collection
Going Somewhere….? “This year,” Gilda declared, “We’re going somewhere.”
A Much-Needed Break – “You,” Mike declared, “are taking a vacation.  All three of us are.” – Addergoole
🏖️
Bomb* – The “Gardener” series – the statue to Damkina’s husband was now wearing a kilt.
CurriculumAddergoole, Year 10: “I hate this place.”
Electives – Every member of Bellamy’s family took at least one extra Art Class and one extra shop class.

Snacks – If I  had thought Girl Scouts was difficult, I  had not remotely been prepared for summer camp. 

On Archive of Our Own – free to read and ongoing. (all Harry Potter ‘verse)
🗄️
Exchange Students – Harry is going to Addergoole. Porter is coming to Hogwarts. Nothing could possibly go wrong!
Reconstruction – The war is over, and yet Harry, Hermione, and Ron, Neville, Luna, and Ginny find they have another war on their hands. What’s more, Harry appears to have an enslaved Draco on his hands.
New on AO3:
Inherited – Severus was dying, and he was dying free.  Then everything went wrong. 
A Solution, of Sorts – my take on the Wedding Law & Harem tropes.

On Mastodon – free to read and fun to join; super short fics
Silver Rain – on Podka, it was said to rain silver.
Orange Sunset Parlay – The Imperial Captain wants to talk to Yonpler. 
Rooftop – Jasper and the House converse. (Haunted House)

On Sufficient Velocity – an interactive Fae Apoc Quest
Rhiannon was not expecting any of this.  But now she’s got to figure out what to do while a bunch of jerks keep attacking her city. 
This has continued on quite entertainingly!  Stop in and vote in the quest.

And while I’m having trouble keeping it updated:

http://www.edallyacademy.com/ 

Running in the Bear Empire 55: Coming Home

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous:54: This Means W-
Next: 56 – His Grace by the Claw of the Bear Herself
🐻

The capital city was one of those cities that didn’t so much as rise into sight on the horizon as pop up suddenly when you rounded a bend in the road.  Nestled in the middle of the Bear Mountains, the city had been stopped from expanding further by the need to keep the pass clear through the entire year, including the six to eight months a year where the pass might be covered in snow.  There were buildings carved into the sides of the pass, but by regulation and army enforcement, those buildings were forced to stay back from the edges of the track far enough that even the widest wagons could head through with no problems, even in the worst weather. 

Thus, they went from the vendors leaning over the edges of their balconies, calling down to them about their fine wares, better prices than in the city, of course, and better quality of manufacture as well, around a corner where no vendors had managed to carve homes, into the gates of the city with the buildings looming up above them.  Continue reading

Spoils of War 18 – Promise

First: Spoils of War I: Surrender

“Look…”  Nikol tried to twist to look at the cat on her shoulders without dislodging it. “Look, I’ve got to get Aran. I’m – I’m kind of fond of him, and, I mean, I have a responsibility to him. And — okay, look, if I promise?”

Why was she negotiating with a cat?  She twisted this way and that, scooped the beast up, and, mindful of its claws, held it so she could look it in the eye.  “I am going to go get my friend. But I promise you – I promise you – I will be back and I will pet you when I get back.” Continue reading

Blog Post: Eseme Visit (and Bullet Journals)

This weekend marked our new tradition of Eseme visiting me for a long weekend each year.  

(Last year was mid-July; the visit before that was several years before and I don’t remember quite when)

It was an awesome visit, of course!  Es and T and I went to Thai Thursday night in Watkins Glen because it was first day of classes for the Uni I work at and, well, that’s not a great day to be downtown in MY town, so we went the other way.   Then we hit one of my favorite ice cream places (also in Watkins Glen) and headed home to decompress (me) and not be driving (Eseme).

(Eseme lives nine hours away from me.  I cannot even IMAGINE driving nine hours on my own.  I don’t even really like driving FOUR hours on my own to see my friends in Troy.) Continue reading

Hidden Mall 81: Surely You’re Not Serious? I Am, and Don’t Call me Shirley (I’m Abseil)

“Attention mall Shoppers!  Our Sidewalk Sale starts at the Burlington Coat Factory wing and continues down to the Sears wing.  Hurry over to get the best sales!” The intercom continued to cheerfully advertise a sale to its “shoppers.”

A few of the people behind Abby-and-Vic jumped or shifted uncomfortably.  One of the ones with a gun aimed it at the intercom but didn’t fire. 

“You heard the – mall.”  Abby found she was grinning.  Why was she grinning? This was mad.  It was insane.  “There’s a sale going on.  Come on, ladies.” She turned and headed for the Burlington Coat Factory wing.  Continue reading