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Doomsday Intro – The Birds, The Birds

Nov20

Nano project #5 is the first novella in a series of 8, following 8 students through their 8 years at Doomsday Academy.

That means, of course, I need to figure out 8 students. Three I had pregenerated: The Catboy Samurai and his best friends Sianna the dancer and Sweetbriar the prickly. The other five…

Here’s a little something about one.

I’m about to the point where I have to start deciding if these are 5 different characters or bits from the same people. Also, I could use more: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/977386.html on LJ or http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/849230.html on DW.

The birds were following you.

The birds had always been following you, as long as you could remember.

But you were leaving home, now. You were leaving everything you’d ever known, and the birds – the birds were still following.

The loud ones were yelling at you, which wasn’t the most fun in the world, but it was worse because you were on a wagon with other people, all of them heading towards Boom Town, Cynopolis, and they were starting to look at you funny.

A sparrow landed on your shoulder. “Oh,” the nice lady next to you exclaimed, “he must be hungry.”

You didn’t have the heart to point out that the dull coloration meant that the little bird was a girl. “Just lonely,” you said instead. “There aren’t that many sparrows around here.”

From the look on her face, it may not have been the safer answer.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/851712.html. You can comment here or there.

Doomsday Intro: Chaos and Madness (@lilfluff)

Nov19

Nano project #5 is the first novella in a series of 8, following 8 students through their 8 years at Doomsday Academy.

That means, of course, I need to figure out 8 students. Three I had pregenerated: The Catboy Samurai and his best friends Sianna the dancer and Sweetbriar the prickly. The other five…

Well, here’s a little something about one.

The school was big. It wasn’t big-big, not like the ruined city you’d seen once, but it was still big, and it was inside a city, a not-ruined city with walls and houses and animals.

And it was busy, everyone going here and there and everyone talking to everyone else. There didn’t seem to be any order. There didn’t seem to be anyone in charge.

There were people in collars, sure. Everywhere had people in collars. But you saw one of those people in collars telling someone not collared what to do – and the not-collared person went and did it!

You found a quiet place where you wouldn’t be in anyone’s way, a little platform up in a tree. It didn’t look like anyone had been using it recently, so you probably weren’t breaking any rules.

From here, you could watch the students and teachers – you assumed they were students and teachers, but it wasn’t like any school you’d ever seen – the strangers and the slaves, and try to figure out where everyone fit in.

It didn’t seem like anyone did, that was the thing. And, more than that, there didn’t seem to be any place for you to fit in.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/851113.html. You can comment here or there.

Doomsday Intro: I’ll Take This One

Nov18

This one’s a bit darker than the otherones. Probably because I came up with it myself. <.<)

“I’ll take that one.”

The red-haired woman strode into the shop where you were working and pointed right at you.

The foreman coughed, stuttered, and, rather than throwing her out, ran and got the boss.

You weren’t stupid. You kept working. This could be a test.

The woman stood there, not watching you, but watching the place. Her nostrils flared and she rolled her weight back onto her heels. You glanced at the exit, at the other workers in the shop, and back at the exit. If she decided to bring this place down on your heads, you thought you might be able to get out, but the littler kids on the other side would have trouble.

Maybe it wouldn’t come to that this time; this angry visitor could be different than the last one. Maybe the foreman had learned.

The boss hurried in. “Ah. I hear-“

“I want to buy this slave from you.” She was pointing at you again. Why did she keep pointing at you?”

The boss coughed. “Ah. We don’t sell the children-“

“-away from their mothers, of course you don’t, that would be wrong. I’ll buy the mother and any other children, too.”

You flinched. Your mother was one of the boss’s favorites right now. Would he…?

Of course he would. “Of course. She’s right over here.”

Brittanny had the same coloration as you, at least if you squinted. But she was not your mom, and her kid looked nothing like you.

The redheaded woman frowned. “No. No, and you wouldn’t be trying to separate a mother from her children, now would you?” Something about her posture suggested violence, although she had no visible weapons. You considered hiding under your workstation. You weren’t stupid, though. This could be a test. You kept working.

The boss took a moment to consider whether or not he was stupid. Or, at least, that’s what it looked like to you. “No. Of course not. One moment.”

It took many moments, during which you worked and the woman glared at the place as it if had personally offended her. You didn’t bother wondering why she wanted you. It still could be some sort of test.

It was only when they had finished bickering over the price, only when she had said the words to your mother, your sister, and you, only when you were in her wagon and on the road, that you thought this might be real.

Whoops, note. “said the words.” The kid doesn’t really know quite what’s going on there, but that’s the transference of Belonging of zir mother to the redheaded lady.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/850110.html. You can comment here or there.

Doomsday Intro: Pick a Card (@vundablog)

Nov17

Nano project #5 is the first novella in a series of 8, following 8 students through their 8 years at Doomsday Academy.

That means, of course, I need to figure out 8 students. Three I had pregenerated: The Catboy Samurai and his best friends Sianna the dancer and Sweetbriar the prickly. The other five…

Well, here’s a little something about one.

“Okay, pick a card.”

The caravan driver was being very patient, and you could tell. Then again, you’d been dropped on the caravan with two bags and a crossbow, and you were pretty sure that she felt bad for you.

And, really, you’d been dropped on a caravan with two bags and a half-sized crossbow, you were (you were pretty sure) just a few weeks away from your 10th birthday, and, while you didn’t really count the people that had just dumped you as parents, they were the only family you could remember. If you were going to take advantage of the fact the caravan driver was tolerating you, well, who could really blame you?

Besides, when you did particularly good magic tricks, she gave you an extra treat. You were a growing kid, right? Hopefully. You needed all the food you could get.

“All right, you’ve got your card in your mind, now put it right back in here, and I’ll just shuffle these up, just like this.” The guy you’d once thought was your father had taught you to shuffle, as well as several other card tricks. “And there we go. Is this your wallet?”

The cute smile was the trick. If you got that wrong, then you weren’t doing adorable magic tricks, you were a pickpocket. It was a thin line.

You held your breath. Slowly, the caravan driver smiled.

Today, you got to be a cute kid doing cute tricks.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/849667.html. You can comment here or there.

Doomsday Intro: Leaving Home (@inventrix)

Nov17

Written this way so I don’t have to put specific characters w/ specific intros until I’m ready

“All right.” Mom was being more cautious than normal, which was saying something. Three holstered weapons showing, never mind how many were hidden. Behind her, Uncle Tedd had the rifle out of the holster and his free hand on the gate.

Until today, the gate had been the end of the world. Until today, the world had consisted of two hundred acres of woodland and pasture and garden, fenced in with 10-foot-tall wire fencing and then with a wall twenty feet inside that and something magic and weird inside that. Until today, the world had been ten people, fifteen during the wintertime. Until today, the world had been very small.

Today, a woman in a wagon was waiting by the gate, and Mom and Uncle Tedd were checking all their weapons. Today, Uncle Tedd was staying home – which never happened – and Mom was leaving. Mom, and you. Leaving the farm. That never happened. That was never supposed to happen.

You clung to the bag Mom had handed you, and tried not to stare at the lady driving the wagon.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/849591.html. You can comment here or there.

Doomsday Academy: Sianna Intro

Nov16

“What should I wear? What should I pack? Do you think they’ll like me? What do you think they’ll be like? Do you think I’ll get to dance?”

Sianna wasn’t really asking the questions. They were popping out of her mouth far too quickly to really expect anyone to follow them. But she had to get them out. There were so many questions, so many things she didn’t know. “Is it warm there, like the time we spent a year down south? Is it cold, like when we spent time in Uncle Martin’s cabin? What’s it like? What are the people like? Are they going to be mean, like those people…”

Sianna’s family traveled, they had always traveled. But they traveled together. And when they had been summering in a nice place on the outskirts of a really really big wheatfield, a spotted redheaded lady and a dark-haired man with the same nose and spots as the lady had shown up to talk to Sianna’s parents.

It had been one of those kids-go-play conversations, all hushed tones and some flailing of hands on her Mama’s part (and a bit more angry flailing of hands on her Daddy’s part, and that had been the weird part. Daddy didn’t get angry. Sometimes he got furious, but furious was an entirely different sort of thing from angry. Mama got angry).

But when it was over, Mama and Daddy, the redheaded spotted lady and the dark spotted boy had all been polite smiles, but polite-and-real smiles, not the weird fake ones. And Sianna had been going off to Doomsday Academy in the fall.

“Why do you think they call it ‘Doomsday;’ it sounds kind of mean. And why can’t you guys come with me?”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/848500.html. You can comment here or there.

All Yours

Nov10

Priming the pump again. Writing a little non-Nano to get myself going.

Caroline swallowed. “You’re sure… sir?”

“I’m sure.” Jaden handed her the leash. “I promise you, I am certain about this, and no negative repercussions will come down on you for this.”

She took the leash as if it were a snake. “You said…”

“I said a lot of things, and most of them were wrong. I’m sorry for that, but this, I’m fairly certain you want this.”

“Well, a little bit, yeah…. but you’re in charge. You’re the Keeper.”

“And I’m still your Keeper. But for the next day, you’re in charge. As long as you keep to the rules-“

She found herself smiling. “I’m not very in charge if I have to keep to rules, am I?”

“Well…” It was interesting, to watch him smile. “All right. You have a point. It would be better if you kept any overt stuff inside the room, okay? It’s easier to protect you if people don’t think you’re topping from the bottom.”

She pondered that. Things were safer, being with him. “All right. So-“

“So, for the next twenty-four hours, I promise to do whatever you say, as if I were Kept. And for the next twenty-four hours, none of my orders hold sway over you.” He dropped to his knees. “In effect, I’m all yours.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/846286.html. You can comment here or there.

Waking Up In Cali, a ficlet xover (@inventrix)

Nov9

This is a break from Nano, essentially: Kyle, Lady Maureen, and his succubus half-sister (Ivette) are Addergoole characters; the setting is Tír na Cali..

Kyle woke up in a small concrete room, on a small, hard bed, wearing nothing but his skin – his Masked skin, he checked – and with the familiar feeling of a collar heavy on his neck.

And it was heavy, the sort of thing only sadistic or control-freak Keepers put on their Kept. He touched it; it felt plasticy and thick, hard and not giving at all. And locked on.

Okay. Memories. He needed some of those. He’d been out at a bar – well, that sort of thing happened when you were in college, and he didn’t want to be that strange. And then there’d been the weird rainfall, and he and Dave and Jerry had hopped through it to a bar none of them could remember seeing before. And then… then there’d been a redhead.

He tried not to think too much about how much redheads did him in. He knew more about his mother than he ought to, and he knew more about himself than he ought to, and that being said, she hadn’t looked anything like either his mother or his succubus half-sister, except that she’d had flaming red hair.

So bar, alcohol, redhead… “Fuck.” He ran his hand over the collar again. “Fuck, fuck, shit.” Well, once he could get to a phone – assuming he didn’t have orders not to – he could probably get in touch with his mother, and Lady Maureen could probably make this go away.

He didn’t feel guilty about that. He ought to feel guilty… shouldn’t he?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/845825.html. You can comment here or there.

Dead Gods Bleeding, a continuation of Fae Apoc

Oct29

This story is set in the late apoc of fae apoc, and follows
Mourning Lost Gods and
The Destruction of the Gods
and The Dead Gods Come Visiting
.
We’d gotten ourselves as settled as we were going to be, gotten ourselves a little more comfortable with the end of the world, and, most importantly, we’d gotten comfortable with the lack of godlets everywhere. Then a godlet walked into what served us as a house and fell down half-dead.

We were all looking at each other when Kingfisher pulled out his filleting knife. Then it went from a cautious twelve-pointed look to a panicked 11-pointed look. The question was half what is Kingfisher going to do and half what do we want him to do?

“She’s a human being…” Kingfisher looked at his knife, then at the stone-skinned girl lying on the floor. “Well, she’s a being, and one that isn’t trying to kill us. And someone was clearly trying to kill her. Makes her, if not an ally, then not our enemy right now.”

There was another look around the room. Finally, it ended up being me that had to speak up.

“It’s logic, I guess.” I looked down at the elf on the floor. She looked so harmless. Then again, they often did. “But when she wakes up, we’re gonna need promises of no-harm and no-brain-fuckery from her. First thing, no hedging.”

“I agree totally.” Kingfisher leaned over to speak to to her, although I’m not sure she could hear him. “I’m going to cut the arrow out, miss. This is going to hurt a lot.”

She didn’t answer, but, then again, when the knife went in, she didn’t moan, either. She didn’t make any sound at all, not when he cut around the arrow-head, not when he pulled it out.

“Did you kill her?” Jason leaned forward. Worried or relieved? I couldn’t tell.

“With this?” Kingfisher waved his steel knife around. “Hardly. They might have, though.”

“I..” The elf groaned. “You want… promises.”

Somehow, the elf levered herself onto an elbow. Her color was better, I think: how do you tell on someone made of marble? She looked less ashy, at least.

“Lay down, lay down. You’re injured.” Paramedic training won for Marie again.

The elf shook her head. “Had worse. A promise.” She looked around, her eyes settling on every one of us. She looked so young. Then again, their ancient ones sometimes did. “You twelve. I swear I mean you no harm, and will do you no intentional harm, save in active self-defense.” She fell back to the floor with a small thump.

Marie tugged a blanket up to the girl’s hips, and began bandaging the hole the arrow and Kingfisher had left. “It would have waited,” she muttered, but the girl was back beyond listening.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/839925.html. You can comment here or there.

Getting Into the Arrangement, a continuation for the Dungeon & Cave Call

Oct24

“Now.” Miss Valeta’s hand stroked over Ivor’s butt. “I thought you wanted to be a good boy.”

Ivor made a noise around the gag. It wasn’t talking – he wasn’t allowed talking, but, then again, he couldn’t talk with this thing in his mouth, anyway. But she still landed a slap hard on his ass. “And yet you keep fighting me. Don’t you want to be good for me, Ivor?”

He wanted to say yes. He wanted to nod. He wanted to, in some way, assure her that he was really a good boy, as good as she wanted him to be, and he would do anything she wanted, if only she would let him down from this thing.

But his neck was held in a collar that was more brace than neckwear, and the rest of him was hung upside-down and backwards from something way too much like a trapeze for his comfort. And the flogger was coming again, god, not the flogger. Ivor whined.

She paused, her hand in mid-air. “Do you know what you did wrong? Answer?”

“oo?” he tried, around his gag.

“Don’t lie to me, Ivor.”

“..eeeh?”

“Were you pushing your limits on purpose?” She took his face in both hands, looking him eye-to-eye, if backwards and upside down.

“…eeeh?” He really had been. He’d wanted to know.

“And did you like what you discovered?”

That was too complex for an answer around a gag. He made a noise that was mostly whine. How to answer, how to not lie, how to… the sound changed from a whine to a sob.

“Easy, easy.” Her fingers were working at the buckles on the gag immediately. “There you go. All right. You can answer, and then I’ll let you down.”

Ivor swallowed. “I like… I like, Miss Valeta, I like being pushed around. And I like knowing the limits. But, um.” He turned his head and coughed, hoping to cover the hot blush he felt trying to come to his already-flushed cheeks. “Um.”

“But you’re not sure you like this particular kind of being pushed around?”

“Um. Yes. Sorry.”

“Surely you didn’t think that you’d like everything?”

“No! No, of course not. I mean… no. That’s part of the thing, isn’t it? I don’t have to like it all, as long as I don’t hate it. And even if I do – I know it ends.”

“Exactly.” She ran her fingers through his hair. “Why didn’t you like this part, Ivor?”

Ivor gulped. “I signed up for whatever you want to do to me on the weekends.”

“You did.” Her hand went from petting to gripping. “But I want an answer.”

“I don’t like…” He tried for a shrug. “Being upside down? I didn’t like doing things I didn’t know were wrong.”

She chuckled softly. “You’re a natural sub. Tell me, are you worried that every weekend will be like this, or worried that it won’t?”

“I. Um… Neither?” He wriggled against the belts and straps holding him in mid-air. “What happens happens. When it’s done, I know if I can handle it or not.”

“And if you can’t?” She still had his hair in one hand, but now her other hand was caressing his ass.

“Then… then I don’t do it again.” He craned to look at her. “Miss Valeta – I know this is a year contract. I signed up. I’m not going to complain unless you order me to. I’m not going to try to get out of it.”

“Even if you’re miserable?” Both of her hands went still. Ivor swallowed. “Answer me!”

“That’s what I agreed to, Miss Valeta. I don’t want to try to back out.”

She pushed air out through closed lips. “All right. I’m going to get you down from that contraption, Ivor.” She released his hair and started moving ropes and pulleys. “And then… and then you and I are going to have a talk about safe words and their importance.”

Written to Hob’s commissioned continuation of An Unusual Arrangement and Learning the Arrangement

If you’d like to see more of this story, there is definitely more to be written! Just drop a tip in the the tip handcuffs:

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/834956.html. You can comment here or there.