Archives

A Family Matter

Apr16

This Sort of went sideways, but it’s to [personal profile] anke‘s Prompts.

Addergoole has a landing page here.

I like this story a lot but I don’t think it’s canon.

“They try to split up siblings as much as they can, and they try to split up twins even more.”

Viktor had told Blanchfleur that, her first week of school. It hadn’t helped, much, except to know that it wasn’t something she or Florabella had done, it wasn’t a punishment, except in the way that everything at this school was a punishment. It helped, too, to know her Keeper was missing his twin as much as she was missing hers. Maybe more: Viktor was the younger twin.

She made it through her two years without Bell, and did her best to help her twin through her first years in turn. Then it was time to leave, again, leaving her sister to the very-well-protected prison that was Addergoole.

She did what she could to live her life while waiting for Bell, carving out a spot for them in a nearby town that would accept fae despite the raging war, raising her two children, and learning how to fight the monsters that littered their countryside. Everything she did, she did waiting for Bell.

Two years passed, and the note came instead of her sister. Waiting for something. Will be there as soon as I can.

Fleur worried, and prepared, and fought monsters. Addergoole had given her good practice at all three.

A year passed, with regular notes from Bell, notes, and no presence, a year, and then another year. It was July of the second year when her twin showed up, with six children and a lost-looking giant of a boy and a tiny elf of a girl, like a train of refugees.

“I promised them we’d go back for their twins when they graduated,” Bell explained, “but I had to wait this long. This is Basil. My second son is his, and the youngest is his second daughter. By Hestia, that’s her.”

Fleur looked over the motley crew. “Bell…”

“I’m not nuts, I promise.” Her twin smiled at her. Their faces were no longer identical, even if their Changes had been nearly so. It was disconcerting, looking into what had once been a mirror and a reflection. She shifted to their twin-speak, a language they hadn’t used now in four years. “Hestia and her twin are great with kids. And we’re going to need the help. And Basil and Clement… well, you’ll see. They’re good for us.”

Good for us. Relieved that Bell at least remembered that there were two of them, Fleur helped their guests settle in.

The next two years were wild, violent, and bloody. Hestia turned out to be a menace with an iron skillet, while cy’Luca Basil was a warrior through and through. They fought bigger and bigger monsters, keeping a wider and wider territory free of the returned-gods influence, always knowing the biggest foe was yet to come.

There was little time for lovemaking, little time for cuddling, but when there was, they cuddled together. Basil, Fleur found, was indeed good for them.

And, in two years, when Clement and Vesta came to join them, Fleur found there was more to “good for them” then she’d ever imagined. “You planned this, didn’t you?” she accused Bell. She was supposed to be the planner,not her sister.

“I did. We need the hearth girls. We need the boys’ strength. And, more than that…”

“You love them. And you hoped I’d love them too.”

“Yeah?” It was almost a relief to see Florabella nervous and uncertain again. “I did. Too far?”

“Just far enough, little sister. Just far enough.”

They would be wed in spring. But first, they had a monster to kill.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/323864.html. You can comment here or there.

Reunion

Apr14

For Friendly Anon’s Prompt.

Addergoole has a landing page here.

Addergoole, Year 16 – 10-year-Reunion for the Third Cohort

They’d left the kids at home, although the event had childcare. The longer it was until their children knew about Addergoole, the better.

Ayla would have preferred to wait five or six more years, until their oldest was called here, or, better yet, not ever return at all, but Io had classmates she missed, so they packed up, asked a favour of her brother, and headed for the damn reunion.

It was only when they were getting off the plane that Ayla realized that her unflappable wife was nervous, her hands shaking, her skin pale. “Io…?”

“Almost fifteen years ago,” she whispered. “I got off this plane with Callie. I made it out of there. She…”

“She’s walking towards you. Find a smile, honey.” She shone lightly on her beloved, helping her find her peace. “And with Rory, too!”

Her redheaded half-brother waved at her across the distance. “Look, Callie,” they could hear him trying to be quiet, “it’s Ayla and Io. It really is going to be a reunion.”

“And there’s Richard and Caity.” Callista’s voice sounded brighter, more human, than the last time they’d seen her. “And…” She trailed off, and they all turned to look.

“It’s not him, Callie.” Io broke the silence.

They could understand why she was staring. The boy bore a stunning resemblance to the asshole who had tortured and ruined her – but he was a boy. Maybe 15, 16 at the outside. A kid.

And he was entirely lost. “Hey,” he asked, noticing the four – now six – adult staring at him. “Do you guys know where Addergoole is?”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/322274.html. You can comment here or there.

Love Meme Answers 5: Baram/Rozen, Ib/Baram, Fridmar/Delaney

Apr9

For the meme I posted Wednesday night here and here (feel free to leave pairings now if you want; I’m having fun.

“Come on, man.” Rozen grabbed Baram by the arm. “Party tonight.”

“Party? It’s Tues…” He shut up, but not before he saw the look the bigger guy shot him. “Right. Party. Whose place?”

“Ardell’s. His Keptie seems to like cuddling with you.”

“No-one likes cuddling with me.”

“Hey, man, Annie’s not bad, and everyone knows you’re not as rough as you look.” Rozen punched his shoulder. “You’ll do fine. You always do.”

more here: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/493490.html

(Year 2)
Shad and Meshach had Ib up against the wall and were doing their best to break every bone in his body one at a time. Every time he tried to get away, one of them muttered in his ear, and he found himself squirming in pain, his feet rooted to the ground.

“Say you’re hers and it’ll end,” the older of the two whispered. “All you gotta do is say you’re hers.”

“Luke ain’t gonna find you down here, and he hates you anyway, little bastard. Say you’re hers.”

“Trouble?” The rumbling voice was a new one – might be Baram. Ib couldn’t see.

“None of your concern, freak.”

Something happened. Ib was never sure what. But when he woke up, he was in the doctor’s office, Baram was looming in the doorway, and he didn’t belong to Liza.

(2040)

Agmund was hunting.

He’d been hunting for a long time. Other obligations kept getting in the way, but he came back to this one over and over again. This was his failure, this was his mistake. He would fix it.

Meshach had been his Student. Meshach had done this to his daughter. Everything since then – what Ardell had done, what being cy’Valerian had done, what being abandoned by the Thornes had done – came back to Fridmar’s failure as a Mentor and a father.

And now he would resolve that issue.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/318974.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Love Meme Answers 4: Junie/Jin, Carrot/Angua, Regine/Ambrus

Apr6

For the meme I posted Wednesday night here and here

I chewed over the Pratchett one for a while. Fanfic makes me nervous to write.

Having a big brother was sometimes a pain. He would mess up her hair and steal her dinner and pick her up and swing her when she was trying to be serious.

But when she looked at the mean girls the day after her ride with Jimmy in the parking lot, and not a single one of them would say so much as Boo to her – except to tell her they thought her shoes were poker, which meant cool this week – Junie thought having an older brother, having Jin for an older brother – was the most awesome thing ever.

Dear Mom, and Dad…

Carrot turned and looked at Angua, sleeping across his bed. The moon was new tonight, and she was sprawled in human form, but he could see, in her lines, the wolf she was sometimes. He thought about her running beside him, about the way she looked when she came in sweaty and filthy after a day Defending the Peace. He thought about the rare moments when she was out of uniform and not wearing fur. He thought about the moment when he thought that, perhaps, she had died.

He looked back at the paper, and thought about trying to put all that into words.

I am, in Love.

Ambrus was asleep, and Regine was not.

This was a common occurrence; she slept very little, and found often that a tlacatl Working would do her far better than actual sleep. She did not, as a rule, enjoy her dreams.

She did enjoy his, however. She enjoyed most of how her Kept’s brain worked, but his dreams, his mind unfettered and free to do as it would, were a fascinating place full of vivid, if unlikely, magic and sensuality.

She wondered, sometimes, watching his dreams, what it said that she enjoyed his unfettered mind the most.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/317370.html. You can comment here or there.

Love Meme Answers 3: Porter/Arudnel, Rozen/Kai, Rin/Girey

Apr5

For the meme I posted last night here and here

“I love you, man.”

Porter had been drinking. At least, Arundel hoped he’d been drinking – there’d been a dance. There were lots of things at Addergoole and more things at Addergoole dances that could make someone slur and wobble like that.

“I know you do.” Sylvia was already back in the suite; Arundel had gone looking for his friend.

“That girl, she said I should love her, but I said, don’t be silly. I’m not into… you know.”

“I know, buddy.” Yep, something other than booze. He’d have to tell Sylvia the succubi were trying again.

“But you’re my best friend.”

“Always will be. Here, open a Door?”

Later, he thought perhaps that hadn’t been the best thing to ask a soused and besotted Porter.

“It’s the Bond, you know.”

“I know.” She was humoring him, he was sure of it. He didn’t remember her doing that when they were younger. “The Bond re-writes your brain pathways and rewards and punishes behavior based on a very limited set of parameters. It can imitate love rather effectively.”

“I’m not in love with you. I want to fuck you, always have. I want to see what it takes to make you scream.”

“But you don’t love me.” She shrugged, and turned, finally, from her project to look at him directly. “This information is important to me why?”

Fifty years ago, he would have thought it was an exasperating side effect of her charming naivete. Now… now she was smirking at him. She knew he was full of shit.

“I wouldn’t want you to get your hopes up.” He wouldn’t want to get his own hopes up, either, would he?

Girey swung the toddler up in the air and back down to the ground like he’d been handling small children his whole life. “And wheeeeee! There goes the little child-one, there she goes.” He’d thickened his accent to a nearly incomprehensible mix of Bitrani grammar with Callenian vocabulary, and the children loved it, and him.

Rin scooped up one too small to know what was going on, and studied her captive, hiding her smile behind the baby. He was wonderful with children. He was, when he made the effort, generally wonderful with people.

Now if only she could get him to be wonderful with her.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/316702.html. You can comment here or there.

Kiss-Kisses

Apr5

For Rix_Scaedu‘s commissioned continuation of Damn List (LJ), All You Can Be (LJ), and Detente (LJ)

Addergoole has a landing page here.

Does anyone have any suggestions for Ahouva’s Changes? Or, for that matter, Jovanna’s?
“So.” Aeowyn and Jovanna sat down to either side of Ahouva in English class. “Kendon looks miserable.” Her snakelike friend was showing way too much tooth for comfort.

“More importantly.” Jovanna closed in Ahouva in a flurry of excess skirt. “You look happy. Smiling, for real. Your color’s back. You’re smiling again.”

“Your shoulders aren’t hunched. You’re wearing better clothes.” Aeowyn plucked at the sleeve of Ahouva’s sweater. “I love this colour on you. What, did Kendon not approve?”

“Guyyyys.” She folded her arms across her chest and tried not to smile at them. “So you’re saying I was dumpy, grumpy, lumpy and dull when Kendon was Keeping me?” She kept her voice down out of habit, not wanting him – or his friends – to overhear her talking about him. Even now.

“We’re saying… well, yes. You were miserable, misdrawn, and misadvised. Possibly misfiled as well.” Jovanna patted her shoulder. “But nobody was blaming you, Who. We’re all happy to see you away from him.”

“And happier to see that Basalt isn’t horrible.” Aeowyn had a skill for bluntness. “You’re not bruised, you’re sleeping, and you’re eating. All good signs.”

“I’m not a prize horse,” she muttered, but the smile wouldn’t stay down. “Guys, he’s pretty awesome.”

“That’s not what you were saying at first.” Jovanna sat back and muttered under her breath – some sort of Working. “Are you sure you’re really happy?”

“Stop it, Jo. Tuapeka Intinn Ahouva oro’Basalt a Jovanna cy’Solomon. You just said I looked happier.”

“So what did he do?” Aeowyn leaned over Ahouva to thwap Jovanna. “Friends do not read friends’ minds.”

Ahouva found her cheeks warming. She bit her lip. “He kissed me,” she whispered.

“Kendon did a lot more than…” It was Jo’s turn to hit Aowyn. “I’m just saying.”

“He asked first.”

“Aaaaah.”

“Was it a good one?” Jo looked like she wanted to take notes. “Was it just a kiss, or a kiss-kiss, or…”

“What, we’re categorizing these things scientifically now?”

“It was a kiss-kiss. A really good kiss-kiss-kiss.”

“Three kisses.” Aeowyn’s laugh made Ahouva cringe a little bit. “Oh, relax, I’m happy for you. Do you think you two will move past just kissing, however many kissies you add to it?”

“Welllll…” She really didn’t want to admit she’d been thinking about that almost constantly since the first kiss. “I’d like to. But I’m worried he’s going to, you know…”

From the look on Aeowyn’s face, she did know. From the tch’ Jovanna made, she knew, too. “Who, this is Addergoole. High school rules don’t apply.”

“Exactly. If he’s respecting you enough to make it a choice, I think you’re fine.” Aeowyn didn’t talk about her Keeper. She’d made that abundantly clear – Jovanna still had the bite-mark scars. This was as close as talking about being Kept as she would get, analyzing Ahouva’s relationships. For the first time, Ahouva didn’t really mind.

“He’s really nice, when he relaxes.” She thought about the way he held her, when he wasn’t worrying about her broken windows. “I think he could be a lot of fun… all the way relaxed.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/316567.html. You can comment here or there.

Love Meme Answers 2: Autumm/Weylan, Audrey/Sage, Taro/Kailani

Apr5

For the meme I posted last night here and here

Autumn loved Weylan the way she’d never loved a guy trying to sleep with her.

Not just because she could relax around him, because there was none of the aggression of me-you-fuck-now or the competition she sometimes got with women. Not just because he told great jokes on the road, or because he’d saved her life more than once.

Not just because he was so clearly and utterly devoted to his family and still able to make room for friends.

But because, on top of all that, unlike the men she slept with, he seemed like an actually nice guy.

The night was dark as a coal cellar, and the power had gone out. Aud woke first, to the quite, panicked beeping of their electronics bereft of their lifeline, to the sleepy grumbles of their youngest, who could not sleep without his lullaby recording.

Sage woke moments later, lifting their son in his arms, and singing to him, a soft chanting that would have, in other circumstances, perhaps sounded ominous. But to Aud and to the sleepy boy, it sounded like heaven.

First week of Year 5:
“She’s gorgeous,” Taro told Conrad, who had heard it all already at least a hundred times. “Those eyes. Those legs. That hair. Gods, Con, I’ve got to have her.”

Second week of November, Year 5:
“She’s always questioning everything,” he muttered to Vlad, who didn’t really want to be listening. “And her kisses are like liquid gold. Was I really that much of an idiot? Did I really..?”

“You did. You were. Love the one you’re with, man.”

Last week of February, Year 5:
“She’s gorgeous,” Mea murmured, gesturing at Kai in her bridesmaid’s getup. “I can see why you’re in love with her.”

“I’m…”

“Honey, I’m cy’Linden. Love where you will, as long as you love me too.”

“I…”

Her kiss shut him up before he could come up with an answer that didn’t make him an idiot again.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/316181.html. You can comment here or there.

Good Bones

Apr5

For the February continuation poll, after Love and Hospitality (LJ) and Graduation Plans (LJ)

Addergoole has a landing page here.

There was a bouquet of flowers and a dead raccoon waiting for Wren and Nydia at their new apartment.

Nydia took care of the raccoon with a muttered Working, while Wren unpacked a vase and got the flowers set. Neither of them talked about the oddness of the gift; neither wanted to admit that they weren’t sure if it was a normal sort of thing, out in the world.

Out in the world. They moved their stuff into two of the three bedrooms and didn’t quite look at each other, didn’t quite admit that they both wanted to crawl into a closet and hide.

“Lady Maureen and DJ will bring the kids in a week,” Wren said. Nydia already knew this, of course, but it was more what Wren didn’t say, anyway: we have a week to get our shit together.

“Can we…”

“Of course we can.” Wren’s smile was bright and false. “Look. The job part, we know we can do. The mom part… we have practice at that. That’s not the problem.”

“No,” Nydia agreed. That wasn’t the problem.

“And we have this list. See? And that takes care of the rest.”

“Are we…” Nydia gestured incoherently. Wren smiled, seeming to understand. Of course, that’s why they were friends.

“Of course we are. We graduated from Addergoole. But, come on, don’t you think our former Keepers are, too?”

Nydia found herself squirming, but smiling at the same time. “Vampire,” she pointed out. “I always wondered… but I didn’t really want to think about it.”

“Control freak.” Wren picked up a box of cooking things and began unpacking, lining things up in a line against the back of the tiny kitchen’s counter. “And no, I didn’t consider adding either of them to the list.”

“Good.” Nydia knew she was lying every bit as much as Wren was, but there were some lies their friendship was balanced carefully on, and that was one of the big ones. “So who do we have to interview?”

“Eight men.” Wren tilted her head at the pink file folder. “One probably-just-human, three Faded, and four half-breed Ellehemaei. No Addergoole grads, but one of the Faded is a relative. Cousin of Kendra and Callista’s.”

“How many arms. How man… you said Faded.” Nydia smiled. “Okay, that sounds do-able. When do we start?”

“Tomorrow at noon. Lady Maureen set up the first appointment.”

There was a dead squirrel and three dead roses waiting outside the apartment the next moment. The squirrel went the way of the raccoon, the roses got hung in the entryway, and Nydia and Wren began setting up a life for themselves.

Storefronts were easy. The realtors that tried to sell said storefronts weren’t quite as easy, but Wren and Nydia knew exactly what they wanted, and they weren’t as easy to bully as they looked. Whenever the men started getting pushy, Nydia pictured Rozen and Baram, and the balding, middle-aged guy in the sweater vest didn’t seem scary at all.

“No,” she explained, again, “we’re looking for something with more space. The windows we can fix. The kitchen can be rebuilt. But this looks like you could, maybe, do a cookie shoppe out of here, if you didn’t ever want to expand.”

“Space like that is going to cost you. It might be better to start small and work up to a big place.” This one wanted to be paternal. Nydia had Opinions about that.

“We need a place that will suit our needs now. If you’re not capable of giving us what we want, we’re more than willing to take our money elsewhere.”

He looked like she had slapped him. “I just don’t want you girls to get in over your heads.”

“Girls. Are we girls, Nydia?” Wren was smiling. That was not a good sign.

“Five children between us, Wren, I’d say we probably deserve ‘woman,'” she agreed happily. “When’s our next appointment?”

“About… twenty minutes. If we leave now, we can get coffee first.”

“Coffee sounds delicious.” And like that, they were gone. Nydia felt a little bad – but just a little bad, over a thrill of naughtiness and empowerment that was completely new.

“What’s his name?” she asked, when the surge of pleasure wore off and she remembered what, exactly, their next appointment was.

“Oh, good question. James maybe, Jack? Jared?”

Nydia flipped through the paperwork. “Tate.” She giggles a bit. “We’re meeting with a Tater Tot?”

“Be nice, Nydia, he looks like a nice guy.”

“I’m pretty sure nice guys are not what we’re looking for.” They’d interview him anyway, of course. He deserved the chance and, really, he could be just what they needed. Or he could be a dud-spud.

Tate wasn’t quite a dud-spud, but he had all the personality of a french fry. Nice, handsome, strong… boring.

That was the order of operations for the whole day. Nice place, no foundation. Nice guy, no spine. Creepy place with great lighting. Jerk with a winning smile.

“It’s only day one.” Wren sounded as if she was trying to convince herself as much as, if not more than, she was trying to cheer up Nydia. “We have three more places and two more guys tomorrow. And two and three the day after that. We’ll find someone, and someplace.”

“I know.” By this point, Nydia wasn’t remotely surprised by the dead blackbird at their doorstep, or the box of chocolates next to it. “We have weird neighbors, Wren.”

“We’re only in the lease for three months. We can find a better place once we have everything else settled.”

“I hope so.” She glanced around to be sure they were alone, and dealt with the bird the way she’d handled the other two “gifts.” “I’m a little wary of those chocolates.”

“Sealed box,” Wren pointed out. “From the chocolatier next to the almost-good-place.”

“Great bones, no personality? That one had potential.”

“So did the boy right after that. We can refurbish the building…”

“But we don’t want to refurbish a boy,” Nydia agreed. “Not the sort of thing we’re looking for.”

“There’s always tomorrow.” Wren opened the box of chocolate and muttered a complex Idu charm. “Try the ones with pink.”

“Tomorrow,” Nydia agreed. She popped the pink candy in her mouth and wondered how you gave a boy a coat of paint.

Next: Moving Foread (LJ)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/316053.html. You can comment here or there.

Love Meme Answers 1: Morrigan/Reid, Luke/Regine, Linden/Luke

Apr5

For the meme I posted last night here and here, though I just realized I flipped the third one. Guess it’s a freebie!

Morrigan lay in bed, pressed up against Reid’s body, watching him sleep. When he slept, he didn’t pull away from her. When he truly slept, sometimes helped along by a nudge from their doctor, his body relaxed, and she could see how young he was.

She was going to keep him. She’d already known that when she hauled him into her van. She was going to keep him, because he was so strong, so brilliant, and so utterly vulnerable.

He made her want to take responsibility. He made her want to be a grown-up.

Shira watched them together, pouring over the new student lists. She wondered if Luke knew how his wings curled protectively over Regine. She wondered if Regine knew how she looked up to the older Ellehemaei, even when his opinion hurt, even when she stubbornly ignored everything he said.

Shira could see the echos of them, a hundred years past, a hundred years hence. She could see the moment Luke bent to comfort Regine, and the moment Regine learned how to be human for long enough to comfort Luke.

She wished her students, the ones who didn’t always understand friendship, could see this.

Summer. Finally. Mike saw the last of his Students off on vacation, spent one last evening with his favorite non-Mentored student, and braced herself to visit Luke.

He would glower, of course, and grumble. He’d invite her into his home because they were crew, and friends. He’d pour her a drink and have none himself, like he didn’t trust her. He’d refuse to touch her.

But in the end, he would hold out an arm, and hug her, and yell at her for an hour about being a better person. And when he was done, when she’d cried in apology and grumbled and yelled back at him, Mike always felt like she could be better, could be a nicer, more responsible person. Like he made her better.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/315437.html. You can comment here or there.

Vacation, a story of Boom-Apoc (@inventrix)

Apr4

This takes place a little bit after the apoc begins, ~ August or so 2011.

“Come on.” Cya took Yoshi’s hand in her left and Viddie’s in her right, trusting that Gaheris would tag along afterwards. Unsurprisingly, it was Yoshi that dug in his heels.

“Where are we going? We can’t be moving again and you said everything was fine with Uncle Leo for a bit.”

“We’re not and he is. Everything’s fine, Yoshi.”

“Then where are we going?”

“On a vacation.”

Her oldest son looked at her in blatant, complete disbelief. “Mom, the world is ending. There’s gods floating New York City. And Uncle Leo…” He fell quiet, likely not wanting to upset Viddie.

“The world is ending,” Cya agreed. “But we’re safe here, and… I think we need a little family time.” Because her oldest son was also not stupid, she added, a bit more honestly, “and there are several places I want to go scout.”

“Should we be just running off?” He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. “I mean, RV, sure, but are we telling anyone where we’re going?”

“I told Magnolia.” Because Mags owed her a favor, and because she trusted her to wait until someone noticed to explain.

“We’re sneaking out!” Viddie laughed. “That’s awesome. Except the part where you yell at anyone else who does that.”

She grinned proudly. “When you’re the mom, you can make the rules.” It wasn’t completely impossible. Leo was Legally Ruki’s mom, after all.

“When I’m the mom,” Yoshi declared, “we’ll do stuff like this all the time.”

“I hope you’ll bring me along once in a while,” she teased, ignoring the stab in her heart. They were growing up. Sooner or later, they’d be Adults, and they’d leave her. Sooner or later, they wouldn’t belong to her anymore.

But right now, she had a loaded RV, two kids, and her favorite (and only current) Kept. “Let’s go. Quick, before anyone else notices.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/314727.html. You can comment here or there.