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Now on Patreon: Patreon News and Sail Away

Mar1


📰
It’s the green month!

I gotta be honest with you (or, at least, I’m going to be honest with you), March can be a little dreary. It’s that place between winter and summer that usually seems a little too muddy and a little too grey.

In my yard, I brighten up March by planting crocus and chives — things that come up the moment they have a chance of surviving.
📰
<a href=https://www.patreon.com/posts/march-news-8270822Read on…


🌊
I tried three times before I got to the “seashore” story for January. This is the first try.

🌊
On the summer equinox of his fifteenth year, Farthian was given a boat.

There were three ways out of the Terribad Vale: you took a boat, and hoped for land; you climbed to the north peak of Glinimore, and dropped by glider down into the more shallow mountains in that direction, or you climbed to the pass at the South, and walked for days until you reached another valley.

Free for Patreon patrons!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1261371.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

MARKED – Follow that trail!

Feb28

MARKED – 4.6

“Now Nilien,” Professor Vaudelle frowned, “if there really is someone here who wants to harm you, you should let the adults handle it. We don’t want you to be hurt; Reinmonte is meant to be a safe place to learn, not a place to get into more danger.”

“I’ll be all right, professor.” Feeling a little guilty, Nilien added on a fib, “besides, it’s probably just another student pulling a prank, right? If I bring in a teacher for something like that, it will only make it worse.”

“You can go look,” the professor relented, “but if it turns out that it’s not another student, do come find me or one of the other teachers. Don’t try to take on another adult by yourself. Understand?”

read on…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1260699.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Walrus, a ficlet

Feb27

I asked for a prompt on twitter. [twitter.com profile] medicmsh3141 gave me: “Walruses, and AIs who enjoy LARPing in their free time.”

So… here.

They called him the Walrus, because they needed something to call him, and they were the sort of group that
liked nicknames.

They called him him because they weren’t the sort of people to whom gender ambiguity came comfortably, and because his vocal unit was low-pitched and he had no obvious secondary sexual characteristics.

(Once, once, someone had made the joke that he ran on logic, therefore he must be male. The women in this group were not something to be trifled with, neither the artists nor the engineers nor the waitresses.)

He had strolled into their Saturday-night LARP group and asked to join and they, never one to turn down a new member, had invited him in with open arms. Amy lent him a fedora. Carrie showed him how to make a character. Dylan gave him the walrus mustache that stuck so badly to human skin and so well to the Walrus’ polymer facade.

They were in the science building, after all (It had the best space for wide-spanning live-action games). None of them questioned why there was an AI in the building and, being LARPers through and through, none of them questioned why he’d want to play.

They called him the Walrus, and he played with them every Saturday now.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1259999.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

MARKED – Ohh, verbal slap down.

Feb27

MARKED – 4.5

Nilien stared down at Ember. “I’m sorry, you can what?”

I can find the person that marked you, Ember repeated patiently. I got the spell’s spoor before the teacher removed it. It’s not difficult.

Nilien blinked at her familiar. “You can — I didn’t know you could do that!”

You didn’t ask. Ember yawned again and put its head down, tail over its nose.

Nilien looked up at Professor Vaudelle. “Ember says that it can find the person who put the tracking mark on me. I didn’t know familiars could do magic.”

read on…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1259017.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

March is World-Building Month this Year

Feb27

…because why not?
🗺️
here’s a landing page with most of my universes on it.

Here is the 2014 World-Building post

here’s the 2015 post.
🌏
I’ll answer 23 questions – hopefully one/weekday but we’ll see – so ask away. Anything world-building, any of my worlds, ask as many questions as you want. (if, by some amazing luck, I have more than 23 questions, I’ll either choose what to answer or overflow into April).

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1259430.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

MARKED – The plot, er, well, this is plot, isn’t it?

Feb23

MARKED – 4.2

Nilien smiled uncertainly at Professor Vaudelle. “Actually, Professor, speaking of that…”

“Yes, dear? I imagine Hestinger didn’t bring you all the way down here to pick out a treatise to read, at least not this early in your studies, did he? And it’s unlikely he’s testing your ability to not get lost in this place; he’s not the sort to do that.”

“He pointed out landmarks…” Professor Vaudelle’s logic was leaving Nilien a little lost. “So I don’t think he was trying to get me lost. No, he said you might be able to help with something about magic sight.”

read on…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1257029.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

MARKED – Can’t someone just give her a map

Feb22

MARKED – 4.1

“Professor Vaudelle’s office is just down this hall. Now, when you come back, it helps if you use landmarks. See, here’s this door with the stripes of stone and metal in it.” Professor Hestinger pointed out a doorway. “That used to be Professor Marein’s office, and nobody wants to change it, so it stays that way. It helps tell you which way you’re going, though. And then here’s the old archway with the tiny gargoyles carved into it. It’s a little out of place back here, so it’s easy to recognize. And here’s Professor Vaudelle’s office.” He knocked on what looked like a plain, ordinary door.

“Hestinger! Come on in. And who’s the student?” A clear, high, cheerful-sounding voice came through the door as if it wasn’t there.

read on…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1256582.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

MARKED – A new skill?

Feb21

MARKED – 3.12

Nilien sighed. “It’s not working.”

“No?” Professor Hestinger leaned forward. “You said ‘oh.’ What was that?”

“Oh, that?” She wrinkled her nose. “I was trying to see the black stone, but I ended up seeing Ember and your familiar glowing, instead. And our runic marks.” She gestured with her marked hand. “They all glow.”

“Oh, very good. That’s magic sight.” Professor Hestinger smiled broadly at her. “That’s an excellent skill to learn; it can be very useful. So you saw the familiars and the marks, of course. They must have glowed rather brightly?”

read on…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1255757.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Marked News!

Feb21

We’re on Web Fiction Guide! If you’re enjoying the story, please stop in and leave a review.

AND THEN the easy one:

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Stop in at Twitter and tell us how you’re liking the story!

When you’re done with that, there’s a piece up on Patreon about the process Cal & I use for MARKED, as well as several pieces of patreon-only content.

Cheers~

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1256122.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

MARKED – Well darn.

Feb20

MARKED – 3.11

One more try. She could do it. She closed her eyes and reached out for the bowl, for the black pebble somewhere inside it.

Nothing. “Maybe…” She furrowed her brow and considered the bowl. If she could see the stone, she could find it without a problem.

So first, she needed to see it. She stared at the bowl. Focusing on seeing a thing, that’s what Lorque had said. So she just needed to focus on seeing a black stone.

She petted Ember a little bit and focused her power on vision. She had to be able to see it. It was there; it had to be a simple matter to find it, or Professor Hestinger wouldn’t have assigned it to her, would he have?

read on…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1255377.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable