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New Year’s Prompt Story 1: Chrysalis

Dec31

3rd Generation; Phanessa is Eriko’s grandkid

Corbet wasn’t sure what to do when his Kept went into the closet after dinner and didn’t come out.

He’d been trying to be good to her, but Phanessa was from a protective enclave and even Addergoole was a bit rough for her fragile self. So he let her stay there, thinking she wanted some privacy.

When she hadn’t come out by bedtime, he peeked – only to find her wrapped in some sort of hard cocoon.

By the time she emerged – late in October – he’d given up on ever having a proper Kept and made other arrangements for his second child.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/873745.html. You can comment here or there.

In Which Amrit is Amazingly Eloquent

Dec26

First: A beginning of a story which obnoxiously cuts off just before the description,
Previous: Amrit Continues, including a description this time.
Fae Apoc, approx. now

Fineus the Whoremonger. Amrit gave it a few minutes of honest consideration. Would a whoremonger keep his slaves locked up around the clock? Would a – what was she, anyway? Beekeeper? What did a beekeeper need with a slave?

He couldn’t manage more than “Uh oo” with the gag they had on him, but he was getting very good at making his meaning known. She smiled, seeming to take that, somehow, as a yes.

“Good, good.” His hands were still shackled behind his back; she grabbed the short chain between them and pushed, leaving Amrit with the choices of stumble-and-fall or walk forward.

She couldn’t leave him chained up forever. And when she unlocked the chains, he’d be able to get away. Maybe exact a little revenge, maybe just run. And never ever sleep out in the open again.

She still had a car that ran; that was interesting. It would have been a piece of crap back before the collapse – a station wagon that was about thirty percent rust, with back doors a different color than the blue of the car body – but if it ran, it was gold now. No use asking where she got the gas – stolen, bartered, or just plain magicked it out of thin air. It didn’t matter. If she had a car, Amrit could steal it when he left. It would make leaving all that much quicker, and when the car ran out of gas, he could hoof it just fine.

“Watch your head. There.” She police-officer’d him into the back seat and buckled a seatbelt over his lap and shoulders. Inside, the car looked in far better shape. “Okay, and, since you don’t know your manners yet – “

Before Amrit could do anything – not that there was much he could do – a thick hood came down over his face. It smelled heavily of spices – cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, like a pumpkin pie – and, more importantly, it entirely blocked out light.

She fastened it firmly around his throat. “You should still be able to breath just fine. Grunt if you’re okay.”

“Uh Oo!”

“Very good. Now, try to relax. It’s a bit of a long drive.”

next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/885728.html

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Amrit Continues, including a description this time

Dec25

After A beginning of a story which obnoxiously cuts off just before the description, although I cut off the last line because it annoyed me. FAe Apoc, approx. now

Amrit didn’t care. He was going to go for some fish or some honey or some cattle, and he wasn’t sure which was more irritating.

This third bidder, though, she was interesting. She was thin – almost everyone was thin, these days, and there was nothing that raised more red flags than a fat person when everyone else was starving. She had features that looked good thin, though, with high cheekbones and wide eyes that made her look – ha – fey. Her hair – black or dark brown – was pulled back into a long braid, and she was wearing cargo pants and what looked like three shirts, all of them in shades of green.

And it looked like she was winning the bidding. Amrit tried futilely to fight against the chains, but that wasn’t getting him anywhere. He slumped. There would be a chance. He’d get away – and then he’d be more careful where he slept from now on.

“Sold, to the lady. Come collect your prize. He’s yours now.”

The auctioneer gestured grandly, and the woman came up onto the platform. She pulled the gag out of Amrit’s mouth and met his gaze. Her eyes, he noted, were so dark as to nearly be black. “You Belong to me now.”

He worked his mouth, getting the taste of wood and leather out. “Fuck you.”

She took a step back, frowning. Oh, had he offended her delicate sensibilities? Good.

“You’re going to be interesting.”

“Fuck you.” He managed to find a bit of spittle to add to that one. She wiped her face and, for a moment, Amrit thought she was gong to hit him. She’d learn fast enough that that didn’t do much to control him.

Instead, she shoved the gag back in his mouth. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out. Leave him chained, please.” The last was to the slavers, who’d come over to wrap Amrit for travel, or whatever they did. “I’m sure what I paid for him can cover a couple shackles… and this gag.”

“Yes, ma’am.” They unlocked the two pins holding Amrit’s chains to the sales floor. “He’s all yours, then.”

“Yes, yes he is.” She hauled Amrit to his feet. “Come on, then… unless you’d rather stay here and try your luck with Fineus the Whoremonger? I hear his bid came in second.”

Next: In Which Amrit is Amazingly Eloquent

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/871001.html. You can comment here or there.

Free and Clear

Dec23

Prolly nigh on 50 years after Addergoole: Year 5

She wasn’t really sure why her last owners released her.

She’d done (almost) everything right, and had been (relatively) docile and obedient. She’d been trying to learn, and Owners Number Three had taught her quite a bit. But ‘why they released her’ wasn’t part of it.

They’d given her a nice big pack of stuff, too. The girl who had once been Delaney looked at it for the third time. There was enough in here to survive for a month, if she decided to wander. There was enough to trade for… well, a whole bunch of booze, if she felt like that, instead.

She wasn’t really sure what she felt like. She’d been under the collar for what she thought was probably a decade, and before that… before that, she’d been insane, cracked, and, if the stories and her vague memories were true, psychotic and sadistic.

That person had a string of homes and wealth scattered across the country. The person she was now wasn’t sure where any of it was – or if any of it was still where she’d left it. She’d shared everything with a partner, after all. And that partner was gone.

She stared down the road. It curved through wasteland and farmland, through places she didn’t remember being and places she might never have been. And it was all hers. She could do whatever she wanted.

The horse-drawn wagon clomped up beside her. “Going west, Miss?”

“I am.” At least, that was the direction she was pointed in. “I could give you..” she touched her pocket. “Twenty dollars Sondaran for a ride.”

“Ten will do. Hop on in.”

The man in the driver’s seat reminded her of Amish, long ago – beard and straw hat, plain shirt and plain pants. She wondered if the Amish had survived. “Thanks.” She passed over the money, first.

“My pleasure. My name’s Amos, by the by.”

She’d prepared for this. She had more than enough reasons to leave that old name behind her. But she’d needed a new one. “Ellery.” She smiled brightly. “You can call me El.”

She had a fresh start, and she was going to take it.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/870681.html. You can comment here or there.

A beginning of a story which obnoxiously cuts off just before the description

Dec23

The problem with the settlements was the rules. Shit, the problem with other people was the rules. The last three crews Amrit had run with had enforced rules that were stifling, terrifying, and ridiculous, in order. Better, he’d decided, to run on his own. It wasn’t like anything could hurt him, at least not permanently.

The slavers had taken him while he was asleep, enough of them that they could tie him down even when he started fighting, and fae-savvy enough that they knew to gag him before he got out more than one Working. One of them sat on him as they attached the collar – wooden and spiked on inside and out, and the spikes burned where they brushed his skin – and informed Amrit that he now Belonged to them.

Amrit had made “fuck you” understandable through the gag, with effort. It had gotten him a bigger gag for his trouble.

And now he was chained to a platform, between two other guys, one of them in a plain metal collar and the other one wearing more wood and more chains than Amrit himself. Clearly he needed to fight harder.

And people were standing in front of them, bidding, ever so politely, like this was fucking Christie’s or something. And they were bidding on him. Amrit glared at them all. People.

It had been boring as well as irritating, watching them go back and forth about the other two, but now they were down to him. It looked like a fop sort, long hair, long nails, long mustache, was winning out over this big muscular guy wearing rawhide. They were using a form of shorthand Amrit didn’t quite get, but it sounded like he was up to 2 head of cattle or seven barrels of fish.

Suddenly, the men quieted. A woman in the back stood up and waved her number. She rolled off a series of words, all of them new to the debate.

There was a pause, while everyone discussed the relative values of… whatever. Honey, maybe? Amrit took the moment to study this new bidder.

more

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Two peeks at Doug

Dec19

Year One:

Doug watched the new students coming in to the brand new school. They were fresh-faced, some of them, while others were already bitter and untrusting. They were so young, all of them, and so human-seeming.

His son was among them, Donegal, who he hadn’t gotten to raise. He watched the boy moving through the crowd, and found himself fading into the background. Now was not the time to try to raise the kid; now was the time to do his job.

Two tall, dark boys – brothers, Doug thought, but not twins – moved their way through the crowd as if they were pushing aside brush. Doug watched the way they moved, the shorter one aping the taller one’s movements. They were going to be trouble.

“First day of school.” The woman standing next to him finally spoke up. Laurel, Doug thought her name was. “This’ll be interesting.”

Doug cleared his throat, and found he had nothing to say. He settled for “yeah.”

Year Fourteen:

Ana was pregnant, and Doug was doing everything in his power not to glower, hover, growl, and in general act like (as more than one woman had called him) a royal pain in the ass.

He was fairly certain that he would have been a hovering, miserable, overprotective dinosaur (as Ana gently teased him) even if she hadn’t been carrying his child, his child, as well as the boy Teal’s, but he couldn’t guarantee it. Doug was in love, and it messed everything up.

He watched the fresh-faced new Cohort, just a month into the year and still looking so very young, so very human. A short, stocky irish boy – notable in that he was shorter than either Doug or his father – met Doug’s eyes and grinned, arrogant and insouciant.

“They’re shaping up to be interesting.” Laurel Valerian laid fingers on Doug’s arm in a way that would have, from another woman, seemed possessive. “I think this is going to be a good year.”

Doug shifted his weight onto his heels. The Irish kid was looking at Ana. Looking was fine. Looking was fine. He cleared his throat and made himself look at Laurel. “Yeah.”

I’m not really sure what to put in for context here…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/869070.html. You can comment here or there.

Science & Getting Schooled, another part of Luke at Doomsday (@inventrix)

Dec17

First: Visiting Doomsday
Previous: About cy’Doomsday.

Luke found his wings flattened to his back. “What does my wife have to do with anything?”

Nehara held up both her hands. “Not your wife, sir. Gabriel. It’s just that, of course Mystral talks to her father, and of course the professor talks to the rest of the teachers…” She shook her head. “I just wanted to say, you’re not as much of a cipher, sir, as you might think. I did some studying.”

“I am beginning to guess that I should have expected that.” Mike would say he’d gotten his feathers ruffled. Luke took a breath and tried to smooth himself down. “What did you learn?”

“You know,” she changed the subject with a bright smile, “I think maybe there’s someone you need to see before you see Professor Lily’s class.”

“Not Gabriel? I see plenty of him.”

She chuckled politely. “No, sir-“

Luke coughed. “By this point, I think it’s probably politer if you call me by name.”

“Certainly, sa’Hunting Hawk.”

Luke flopped against the wall, acknowledging with a wry salute that she’d won that round. “You were saying?”

“I think you ought to see Professor Inazuma’s class. He’d be very disappointed if you traveled all this way and didn’t see him.” She took his hand and Luke, startled, let her. “This way, come on.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She was going to be a beautiful terror for someone or ones. When she was old enough. He resisted the urge to snatch his hand back. “Lead on.”

“Follow on, soldier.” There was something suddenly old about her voice. Luke focused on the school uniform, the red cloak and the plaid skirt. She was a kid. A student.

‘Fina had been a Student. Mystral had been a student.

Inazuma. Think of Leo. It was as good as thinking about baseball, and had the side effect of reminding Luke why he was here. “It’s been a while.”

She glanced back at him. “I imagine it has, sir.” She sounded as if she’d been through the wars. And Luke, of all people, knew what that would sound like. “I’ve heard some of the stories, of the war.” She glanced down at the ground.

“Yeah.” Luke let out a breath in a huff. “Yeah. His class is -” The school was quiet, the students already in their next class.

“Right here. First floor. Science building. Well, science and math, though sometimes we call it the Alchemy building.”

There was clearly a joke there, from her smile, but Luke had asked for more than enough explanation already. “Onward,” he said, hoping this wasn’t going to blow up in his face.

Nehara watched him for a moment, seemed to brace herself, and opened the door.

Luke was too busy paying attention to his guide’s body language – now, now she had to brace herself? – and thus almost missed where they were.

Leo’s enthusiastic “Luke!” brought him right back. “Luke! I didn’t know you were coming!”

“Surprise visit.” He couldn’t help but smile, and, at that, he noticed Nehara was smiling as well. He turned his attention on Leo. “So, I hear Professor Inazuma has a reputation around here.”

Stupid, stupid. He wasn’t here to challenge the kid. He folded his wings and kept talking before Leo could take too much offense. “It looks like you’ve done good things here.”

Mike would have been proud of him. Well, probably not, considering he’d made the mess in the first place, but Leo grinned. “Isn’t it awesome? Nehara’s been showing you around?”

“She has.” He nodded at Nehara. “It’s been quite the education.” He looked around the classroom. “Science, then?”

“Earth science! We’re studying climate and weather today. Do you want to sit in?”

Luke glanced at Nehara, who shrugged cheerfully. “Yeah. That sounds fun.” Much to his surprise, there was a chair waiting near the back that could comfortably accommodate his wings.

“Great! All right, class, this is Luca Hunting-Hawk. He was my Mentor back in school…”

“In Addergoole?” A dark-skinned girl in the front row turned to stare at him. Luke didn’t see any Changes – but that could mean anything. “You teach at Addergoole?“

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/881337.html

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Changes in Policy, a ficlet of Addergoole

Dec17

This one comes with a warning: If you already actively dislike the Addergoole staff, this is not the story for you.

I don’t usually say things like this, but I’m in a foul mood today, I wrote this for fun, and I don’t want it to turn into a discussion about how Regine et al are evil stupid horrible monsters, please.

That being said, story:

On occasion, the staff at Addergoole found themselves needing to implement a new policy.

Their school had been entirely experimental at the outset, and none of the three founders had all that much experience with teenagers. Their first policy changes had involved the sheer violence of teenagers – something they might have picked up from Lord of the Flies or Heathers but learned on their own quickly enough.

Their second policy major change came about because of the secondary purpose of the school – to ensure genetic diversity after the coming storm – and the quaternary, to allow Regine to study the genetics of half-breeds. They had not expected students forced together by pseudo-Keepings to form lasting bonds (although they had expected some of the Crews to last). For the most part, those couples formed by Keeping did not last – but some couples, however formed, stuck together through the four years of Addergoole and beyond.

A later policy change was implemented much more quietly, and very few students ever saw it in action. Once again, they had failed to allow for exactly how violent teenagers could be, and at the same time failed to realize how badly a former Kept might react to a Keeping that, by their new rules, was closely-monitored and carefully mentored.

The original Keeping had been skating the edges of acceptability: the boy had isolated his Kept, treated her like a pet, and controlled every aspect of her life for a school year. When a routine visit found her Keeping him post-school, however…

They had pulled in her Mentor, his Mentor, Solomon, and Mendosa, and just barely managed to talk her into releasing what was left of the boy. He had survived – but only just, and it would take Caitrin and Mendosa three years to put him back together.

The Addergoole staff had always encouraged their alumni to find each other. After that, however, they started asking more questions.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/866797.html. You can comment here or there.

Moving On To Number Eight…

Dec11

Yet another in “where did that kid come from” series.
Caprice is Phelen & Manira’s daughter.
Jack is Ib’s child.
Eryk is Shiva/Ty.
Adalbert’s Ciro/Amanada
Zahavi is a half-sibling of Cynara and a 1st generation student.

Christmas Break

“Well, you’re definitely pregnant.” Dr. Caitrin looked over her glasses at Caprice. “I don’t suppose you know who the father might be?”

The first-year student rolled her eyes at Caitrin by way of answer.

The doctor sighed. “No, of course not. Do you think you were entirely fair with those young men, Caprice?”

The disdain turned into a playful pout. “They wanted a pretty target. I make a very, very pretty target.”

“Mmm. And still, do you think you were fair to them?”

The girl smiled broadly. “None of them asked. All they had to do was ask..

~

Week four.

“I don’t know what to do with her,” Jack complained. “I mean, she doesn’t do anything I want, she’s hot one minute and cold the next, and she bites.“

“Perhaps, if she is not doing what she is told, the fault is not in the Kept but in Keeper.”

Professor Fridmar had probably meant the advice to shame Jack into being authoritative with his Kept. He, however, took it as an excuse.

“Look, Zahavi, you’re a good guy. You’ve been chomping at the bit to rescue someone. Here. Rescue her.”

If he shoved Caprice a little roughly at his Cohort-mate, well, nobody was paying that much attention. “She’s Yours.”

~

“Well, now that you know, are you going to tell your current Keeper?”

Caprice smirked at the doctor. “Adalbert? Bird-boy’s gone home for the holidays. I think he’s done already.”

“And you didn’t want to go home?”

She shrugged fluently. “The world’s a mess out there, Doctor. And my father’s going to come visit me for a little while.”

“Your father?” Dr. Caitrin proved she didn’t know everything and raised both eyebrows at the girl. “Not your mother?”

“Daeva, I’m told,” she shrugged, “don’t deal well with children once they reach the ‘competition’ age. Dad raised me from eight to sixteen.”

“Aah. So Adalbert’s gone home. Do you want to track down the actual father?”

~

Week Seven

“Come on Eryk, you know you’ve been looking at her for weeks.” Zahavi was somewhere between wheedling and selling snake oil. “And now I’m offering her to you on a silver platter.”

“Not interested.” His blue furred ears, however, were pointed straight at Caprice.

“You know you are.”

“I know that she looks like a trap. What’s the problem?”

“Problem? It’s just that she’s… too compliant.”

Caprice pouted prettily.

“…Fine. I’ll take her.”

~

“I suppose I need to tell him, whichever him it is.” Caprice leaned back against the chair and studied the Doctor thoughtfully. “Do you think they’ve learned their lesson?”

“Frankly, dear, I think you weren’t quite hard enough on them.” Dr. Caitrin smirked. “But you’ve only made it through seven. Maybe one of them will manage to learn from the mistakes of the rest of them.”

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December Meme – Day Nine (@rix_scaedu)

Dec9

The Meme

Today’s prompt is from [personal profile] rix_scaedu: Doug

Ah, Doug.

For those of you going who? Doug is a character in Addergoole.

He started out as back-up porter and security guy, and looked like Luke, which led me to extrapolate that he was Luke’s son. The fact that he later turned out to be Mike VanderLinden’s grandson means that he probably doesn’t look THAT much like Luke – but that was later.

When I needed a dance teacher for a RP character (Kylie), he became the dance teacher; when I needed someone who Mentored monster-hunters (rather than the White Knights that were cy’Luca*), that became Doug. And when he had to show Kylie Masking – well, then I learned what his Change was.

Of all the background characters in Addergoole, I think he’s evolved the most. He is still definitely the Mentor for monster-hunters and riot grrls. He’s the dance instructor, and a later RP timeline gave him a love interest in another dance student.

(And yes, I love the conflict there between dance students and monster hunters and the one time I convinced Doug to take a male Student…)

Mike sleeps with students willy-nilly. Doug, who is as much his father’s son as he is his grandmother’s grandson, doesn’t refrain from teacher-student relationships, but he goes into them, like he goes into everything, slowly & deliberately. His Name is Brontosaurus for more than one reason, after all.

Doug is one of my favorite characters, & I should write more about him.

/Looks at queue/

Maybe someone ought to commission me to write more about him… <3

* cy’: of the cy’ree of, that is, one of the Students Mentored by.

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