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Sting Marydel and the Cliffs of Anterior, Part 7

Feb17

Part one: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1049125.html
Part two: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1049392.html
Part three: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1051270.html
Part four: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1054666.html
Park five: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1057725.html
Part six: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1064287.html

If he’d been asked an hour earlier what he expected from NABU, Sting wouldn’t have been able to answer. Robots, maybe, scary labs, maybe, guys in blood-splattered white coats laughing manically, maybe?

Two seconds after stepping into the NABU office, he had an answer: Not this. Not what looked like a high-end doctor’s office, with soothing paint and a receptionist with an expensive updo and three designer data ports. The frosted glass behind her declared it to be NABU Offices, and her desk had the US Army coat of arms in the front, but other than that, Sting found himself expecting to hear “the doctor will be with you soon.”

“Sterling Marydel?” The receptionist smiled insincerely at him. “Dr. Anjou will be right with you.”

Sting swallowed. This was a level of weird beyond weird. This was like they were reading his mind.

No, of course not. Mind-reading didn’t exist, although some of the vey very best skimmers could do something that looked similar with unsecured data ports.

Sting locked down the security on his own data port – which itself was better than his parents knew it was, through a series of legal-if-questionable upgrades. You couldn’t play the good online games with standard brainware, not and win. And Sting liked playing to win.

“Ah. Mr. Marydel.” A woman in a white lab coat stepped out from behind the frosted glass. “You’ve enabled security, very good. We encourage a certain amount of healthy paranoia in our recruits; the tech that is available covertly is much more invasive and pervasive than the common market. Please come with me.” She gestured to indicate some place behind her that Sting couldn’t see. “I’m eager to get the testing started as soon as possible.”

“That’s not ominous at all,” Sting muttered.

“Well, I could add some evil laughter, if it helps? To properly set the mood?”

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1075022.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1067774.html. You can comment here or there.

Partial Summary of the Thorne-Alder

Feb17

It’s been a weirdly up and down month so far.

Patreon
This month’s theme is Dragons Next Door!
I’m working on MB’s prompt; if you happen to be a $5 donor, go prompt!
Going to Asthrifel is the free story for the month. It follows Sage’s far-younger sister Artemisia as she starts school at Asthrifel University.
Attrition was written to January’s theme, set in Addergoole between year 12 and Year 17

Serials
In Edally Academy, Enrie gets a bit of hope!

Fun
Trouble in Cloverleaf – part 3 – Luke and Leo have a fight. Probably-not-canon, continuing.
part 4
part 5
part 5
part 6
Groundhog Day:
Part One: Dreamwidth ~ Live Journal
Part Two: Dreamwidth ~ Live Journal
Part Three: Dreamwidth ~ Livejournal
Part Four: Dreamwidth ~ Livejournal
Part Five: Dreamwidth ~ Livejournal
Part Six: Dreamwidth ~ Livejournal
Part Seven: Dreamwidth ~ LiveJournal
Part Eight: DW ~ LJ

The Magical Disaster, a short written for fun
Witch’sona week, a description of my witch-sona
Stress Relief, a short involving sadism, blood, cutting, territory marking, pain

Renewal Time!
I’m renewing all my domain names AND paying for the paid DW Account, so I started a continuing story, Sting Marydel and the Cliffs of Anterior to raise funds. We’re up to $25 so far!
Part one: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1049125.html
Part two: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1049392.html
Part three: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1051270.html
Part four: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1054666.html
Park five: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1057725.html
Part six: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1064287.html

Prompt Calls
I still have this Addergoole in the Apocalypse “give me ideas” call open.
I need more prompts!
In the Forest was written to [personal profile] wyld_dandelyon‘s prompt: Keita doesn’t want to leave the forest.
The Good Hunt was written to [personal profile] inventrix‘s prompt: Shush was fine until the reveal.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1067155.html. You can comment here or there.

If Lyn’s Mom Likes it…

Feb16

Read the Merry Christmas story. I love how you make activate the mind to figure out whats going on and then bring it all together. You are a great wr…

My mom likes “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” I bet you will too! 😉

Check out Do You Feel What I Feel, a holiday anthology featuring my urban (rural) fantasy story, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1066835.html. You can comment here or there.

Sting Marydel and the Cliffs of Anterior, Part 6

Feb8

Part one: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1049125.html
Part two: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1049392.html
Part three: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1051270.html
Part four: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1054666.html
Park five: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1057725.html

Sting had lied to his parents, he’d lied to his friends, and he’s lied to his guild. It wasn’t raining, of course, so he’d had to come up with an excuse not to climb the cliffs; his parents wanted him to work on college applications, so he’d had to tell them he was going out with his friends. This was going to be a bust, and he didn’t want anyone knowing about it until it was over, done, and behind him for good.

The office of NABU was tiny and unimposing, a doorway in the corner of a strip mall and a stairway downwards into a sub-basement. Sting tried to keep that in mind as he descended. It was unimpressive, thus, he wasn’t actually impressed – or nervous. It ought to work that way.

The unnamed soldiers from the day before had been plenty impressive, though. And the things they’d known about him…

No. They’d taken a perfectly normal scary situation and made it sound like he’d done something strange.

They didn’t say anything at all, a helpful voice in his head reminded him. You already knew it was strange.

And that was the problem. Were they going to lock him up for government testing? The information he’d been able to find hadn’t said anything at all about NABU doing Roswell-like testing, but then again, it wouldn’t.

If this was a movie, when he was taken prisoner, Sting’s new power would manifest and he would burn out all those evil government people who were trying to hurt him. But this wasn’t a movie. This was his life. He swallowed his nerves.

He’d lied to everyone, but he had set up a dead-man switch post. If he didn’t show up for dinner, it would go out to his friends, his guild, his parents, and the police. Would any of them be able to help against a shady military organization?

Sting pushed open the NABU door.

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1067774.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1064287.html. You can comment here or there.

The Magical Disaster, a story beginning written off of a 7th Sanctum prompt

Feb3

From this prompt generator: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=writeprompt

We survived the magical disaster by hiding in her bank, or that’s what they thought.

We used the same trick we always did: play off of people’s assumptions. We crawled out from under a table and staggered out of the building with the two dozen people who’d been hiding in there. We looked woozy – I really was woozy, and Sharna’s expertise was in faking any number of illnesses and weakness. And we were genuinely surprised by the chaos outside.

We looked a little strange, but even the people hiding in strong stone buildings like the bank had been affected by the backlash. We looked a little lost, but that was easily explained by the wooziness. The hardest part to explain would have been our ID’s, and there was such a mess outside that nobody cared, not even the police.

The sweetest part of the mess? One of those police looked Sharna straight in the face and didn’t recognize her. Her face had been on wanted posters all over town…

…but that had been back home. I wondered how long it would be before they realized that the magical catastrophe had opened doors into other worlds? By then, I was sure, we’d already have vanished into this world and be working on another con.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1062784.html. You can comment here or there.

Languary, a finish!

Feb3

I am almost done translating an opening sentence into Whispers Drop!

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. —Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)

Write this – (I am) sitting sink kitchen while in – I

Hunsharn din shimorn tishor [kitchen] chur-chi – [I]

All I have left is kitchen as a modifier and a personal pronoun!

so durd-, “used for” is probably right here, it’s the sink used for kitchen.

Kitchen, kitchen.

Okay, “To cook” is tenda

He/she cooks (continuous) is tendothe–chi, in

tothechi, cooks-in, kitchen.

durdtothechi, for the kitchen

And Personal pronouns!

Fan, Feb, fif, fefi I, she, he, ungendered-person,

Hunsharn din shimorn tishor durdtothechi chur-chi – fan

Yay! I did it!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1062175.html. You can comment here or there.

February Theme Poll!

Feb2

Hello! It’s time for the February Theme Poll!

These polls determine the theme for Patreon writing for the month, spurring the prompt call and from there several stories.

Want to check out my Patreon? Look here.
For just $1, you can read all the Patreon stories; for $5/month, you can prompt in the prompt calls!

Don’t have Dreamwidth? Please feel free to vote in the comments.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1060312.html. You can comment here or there.

Languary Catch-up!

Feb1

I continue to work on translating a quote into Whispers Drop

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. —Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)

Write this – (I am) sitting sink kitchen while in – I

Here, I started with:

Hunsharn din, write this.

To Sit, shima

Present tense continuous, first person singular: -orn

Sink, noun, tishor

cha, chea, choe, chi: for, of, at, in…. chur, while (conjunction)

Hunsharn din shimorn tishor [kitchen] chur-chi – [I]

Almost there!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1058787.html. You can comment here or there.

Languary Day 24

Jan31

The end goal of Languary is to translate into your conlang one of the sentences from this list. I couldn’t decide, so I used Random.org and got:

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. —Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)

Verb Object (Object adjective) (adverb) Subject (subject adjective)

This will probably take more than one post, because I have to take it apart and put it back together again, and I have NONE of those words.

I write this [while] sitting in the kitchen sink.

Write this – sitting kitchen sink while in – I

To Write, Hunsha

First person present tense.
Present tense third person singular is -art
Present tense, surrounding: -artfea

Present tense, first person singular present: -arn

I write, Hunsharn

This, that, those din, dom, dush

Hunsharn din, I write this (more to come!)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1058139.html. You can comment here or there.

Sting Marydel and the Cliffs of Anterior, Part 5

Jan29

Part one: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1049125.html
Part two: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1049392.html
Part three: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1051270.html
Part four: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1054666.html

These people just did not give up. “Look.” Spike tried to sound reasonable. “I’m not a team player. I’m not a joiner. I like climbing rocks, not chasing down jocks, and I spend more time on video games than hanging out with my friends.”

“And when David Cominsky slipped on a wet rock last week…?”

Sting shifted his weight onto his heels. How did she know about that? Dave wasn’t going to tell anyone, Cari hadn’t seen what had happened, and he sure as hell hadn’t told a soul.

“I saved him. He’s my friend.” He’d grabbed for Dave’s hand, and everything had been wet. He’d seen the second Dave’s fingers slipped out of his, and then he’d been holding Dave’s wrist. It had been impossible.

But the alternative was Dave in pieces at the bottom of the gorge, and Dave dying wasn’t an acceptable option.

The NABU woman had her eyebrows raised. Sting took a step backwards. “That doesn’t make me army material!”

“I told you, we don’t pull from the same pool as the Army. We’re interested in talented people who are bright, clever, and, frankly, not sure what to do with themselves, and we’re interested in people who sometimes have strange things happen around them.”

“This is just not happening.” He stepped backwards, shaking his head. “Look, you’ve got to be gone before my parents get home. I don’t want to explain a whole bunch of uniformed people on the doorstep.”

“We’ll leave when we have your agreement to come in for testing at the local base.” She smiled, not a pleasant expression. “I imagine by now we’re already the source of quite a bit of gossip.”

Sting sighed. “You’re not going to budge, are you?”

“I am, as a matter of fact, renowned for my lack of budging.”

He could agree and then not show up. Of course, then they’d probably just come bug him again. Or drag him off. “Tomorrow fine? It’s supposed to be raining.”

“Tomorrow at ten.” She handed him a brochure. “We’ll see you there.”

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1064287.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1057725.html. You can comment here or there.