For TheLadyisUgly’s prompt. This is set in the Addergoole ‘verse, whose landing page is here on DW & here on LJ.

Christmas Eve, Year 5 of the Addergoole School

The halls were quiet; it was, Yngvi mused, almost like the school was normal. Almost. He’d talked Ayla into an hour of hanging out, just the two of them, although it had been hard to pry her away from Io. The two were a beautiful couple; maybe some day…

He swallowed the sigh. Today should not be about angst, and there was enough to be happy about. “I’ve never had a sister before,” he told Ayla awkwardly, as they made their way into the tinsel-hung grotto.

“You have,” she teased. “From the sounds of it, lots and lots of sisters. And brothers.”

“And nieces and nephews,” he shook his head. “Our dear father seems to be both ancient and prolific.”

“Well, you’ll never be without family, then. Neither of us will. That’s kind of nice.”

“It is,” he agreed quietly. “That’s part of what I wanted to talk about.”

“Yeah?” She looked at him crookedly.

VI took a deep breath. “Okay, I have a feeling I’ll be making this promise a lot over the next four years, but here goes. I promise you, Ayla, that no matter happens, no matter who shows up in my life or yours, if you need me, all you have to do is tell me that, and I’ll help you out, whatever I can do.”

The air rippled and settled around them with the promise, and his sister blinked back tears. “Oh, Vi!” She hugged him tightly against her. “Vi… I promise the same. I’ll always be there for you!”

Christmas Eve, Year 25 of the Addergoole School (2019, 8 years after the apocalypse began)

“How do you think they’re doing?” Signy murmured, clutching her mug of cocoa.

“They’ll be fine,” Yngvi reassured her – reassured all of them, really, sitting around the café pretending their children weren’t all in prison for the holidays.

“I thought they’d come home for Christmas,” Ayla murmured. She’d been the one to make the call, this year, although usually it was Ein or Signy. It was always one of them, his Addergoole sisters, every Christmas Eve since 2003 (and they had quite a few to choose from).

“Even when they’re not Kept, they usually don’t,” Rory murmured; Callie’s kids were older than any of theirs, and so he’d gone through this before. “It gets weird, you remember, trying to shift between the real world and Addergoole.”

“But they’re my babies,” Ayla murmured. “Ni came home last year.”

“Only because your threatened to disown her if you didn’t get to meet your grandbaby,” Vi reminded her. “And it’s not that safe to travel anymore, Ay, you know that.”

“Yeah,” Signy murmured. “They’ll be fine.” She took a deep breath. “Think of it this way, guys. We always had each other. There was never a year when we didn’t have a brother or sister – or both – there to watch our backs. And our kids? Exponentially more family than we had.”

That got a smile from Aelgifu. “Indeed,” Yngvi smiled. “Our kids will always be there for each other, too.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/202705.html. You can comment here or there.

For jjhunter‘s prompt. This comes right after “You’d Better Watch Out,” and is a story of Addergoole/Fae Apoc (landing page here on DW and here on LJ).

The title is from the lyrics of this song, “He Can’t Even Bait a Hook.”

“What’s this?” Ahava stared at the contraption Constance was holding out.

“It’s a fishing pole. That’s a body of water with fish in it. Apply one to the other.”

“Why?”

“We’re teaching you to fish. This is part of my gift to you.”

“You stupid girl, that’s a figure of speech.”

She didn’t even wince. “And why shouldn’t it be a reality, too? You’ve never been good with either plant or animal Workings, Ahava. Without people to keep you fed, how will you eat?”

“I…” He stared at his former slave. He’d freed her as he graduated, and, in his mind, she’d always remained the same scared, easily-cowed crying girl he’d left behind. Looking at her now, he realized she’d grown up. Looking a the fishing pole she was holding out for him, he realized, a little shamefacedly, that he hadn’t.

“How do I even use this thing?” he asked angrily. Anger had always made her give in before.

“You put the worm on the hook, like so;” she picked up a second pole and demonstrated the disgusting-looking maneuver, “then you find a place where it looks like there are fish, and – back up, I haven’t done this in a few years -“

Prudently, Ahava backed up. Maybe if she couldn’t do it anymore, he wouldn’t have to, either?

“-and like this, you flick it out and let out some slack as you go, using this lever. See?”

“Wouldn’t it be easier,” he grumbled, as he reached for one of the nasty worms, “to teach me how to hunt? More practical, too.”

She leveled a cold gaze on him. “I don’t trust you with a weapon, Ahava. I promised to give you what you deserved and needed. I didn’t promise to make it easy.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/200557.html. You can comment here or there.

For lilfluff‘ prompt. This is set in the Addergoole ‘verse, whose landing page is here on DW & here on LJ.

He hadn’t been easy to find.

Constance had a feeling Ahava wanted it that way. If she had been him (which, clearly, she was not), if there were three people she would want not finding her after school, it would be herself, Quintin, and Luhanna, and not just because they were a sharp and effective crew.

But she had made him a promise – three promises, because Constance always did things in threes – and she was going to keep it, despite the world ending, despite what he had done to her (and to their daughter, and to the girl that came after her, and to her friends), despite the complete waste of space he could be. Despite that, or because of it, or superseding it.

Between the three of them, three years out of school, they had resources that, she thought, Ahava probably hadn’t planned on. Not that Ahava really planned on much – not yet. It might be that he would, when they were done with him. They called on every friend and every owed favor, every family member they could find, sent out feelers to every network they knew, bribed those they could and blackmailed those they couldn’t bribe. It took another three years, but Constance had nearly expected that.

They found in him the ruins of Vegas, in Aphrodite’s temple, stoned to the gills, giggling, a blond girl face-down in his crotch and a redheaded slave-boy oiling his shoulders. His Mask was down, his blue skin and green hair showing, his eyes luminescent. He wore nothing except a piece of beefcake armour, probably something he’d made himself.

“The hunters are coming,” Constance greeted him.

“They won’t get in here,” he yawned, not yet realizing who she was, who they were. “They never do. The guards stop them.”

“And when the guards are gone?” Quintin asked. “Then what will you do?”

“Find more guards? I don’t know, this is Aphrodite’s temple. Let her deal with it.”

“Aphrodite has been dead for three years, Ahava,” Luhanna murmured. “Her temple is in ruins, all but this little nook. Your slaves keep it for you, but your slaves are human. Eventually, they’ll get bored, or the food will run out.”

It was, Constance noted, Luhanna’s voice that got his attention. Somewhere in the back of her mind, that bothered her. She put that aside for later, as her former Keeper looked up at them.

“Connie? Lu? Quint? What are you guys doing here?” She was pleased to note that fear, at least, got through his haze.

“We came to bring you a present.” She spoke now, because this was her quest.

“A present?” He pushed the slaves away and stared at her, a little needle of comprehension sinking into him. “Con… Con, that bullshit promise you made?”

“That bullshit promise I made,” she agreed. “You have twenty-five minutes to pack up anything you can carry, and anyone who wants to come with you. You’re leaving with us.”

“Where?” He didn’t, she note, argue that he was coming. He’d never been stupid, at least.

She smiled grimly. “Out into the real world.” Or what was left of it.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/199839.html. You can comment here or there.

For inventrix‘ prompt. This might be Addergoole, whose landing page is here on DW & here on LJ.

The class of 2014 was having problems. Cadfan woke in the morning to find his bed shredded, and it seemed every time he gestured, he shot knives from his hands, cutting up everything around him.

Aesara’s gift of being able to see everything that might happen, everything that could have happened, meant that even walking down the hall was nearly impossible, as she saw every path everyone might take. She had locked herself in her room because there, at least, the paths seemed to mostly lead to her dying quietly.

Chang didn’t mind things that much at first, until it turned out that having no friction really made, well, everything harder. Walking down the hall was nearly as impossible for him as it was for Aesara, and holding things required special concentration.

Merial might have been said to have it the worst, but nobody got a chance to ask her. Gills are not a fun power to have on dry land.

And in the middle of this walked Kyme, smoothly but not without friction, sharply but only of temper, with no more ability to see than any human, no more ability to breathe water than any mammal, no more beauty than any pretty girl, no more intelligence than any good student, no more strength than any athlete. In short, in walked Kyme, who was blessedly normal, who was blessedly quiet, and with her walked a small null zone, where, for a few moments, everyone else could have peace as well.

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