Archives

Cataloged (written for Patreon)

Apr12

“But it’s in the catalog!  See, right here. I can show you.”

“Just because it’s… all right, show me.”

“See?” He pointed at the computer screen.  “Right there under ‘other resources’.” He had such a cute puppy-dog expression that had he been looking for – asking for – anything else, Monica probably would have bent over backwards to find it for, him whether or not it was in regulations.

“I… you’re correct.  There it is.”

When the Neufield-Mason Library had been bought out by Outlanders, many of the library staff had quit in an indignant show protest – either over the Library being for sale, it being sold, or it being sold to Outlanders. Continue reading →

A New World: Taking Stock

Apr11

First: A New World
Previous: An Arrangement

⚗

Caron and Hallsey had left, leaving Kael alone in her tower again but with far more to think about.

She had, she realized, spoken more words to other people today than she probably had in a week back in her old life.

And she knew nothing about the world outside.  She was only managing as well as she did because of the translation potion, and when that failed her, she was going to be left looking blankly at people while they talked about matters that were ancient history to them and still far in the future for her.

She inventoried her ingredients slowly and began a list.  Some of these things were incorrectly labelled; she added a tiny notation to the bottom of each label in her own script.  Some of them were getting stale. A few were missing altogether. Continue reading →

Renovation Fics

Mar26

These are a few microfics, written to prompts for my Renovations Prompt Mini-Call (which is still open as long as I keep getting prompt).

Claim the Sun

The tree was ancient, the sort of monster that managed to live through a convergence of luck and good soil, best placement and the weakness of her neighbors.  She had sucked up all the sunlight for what seemed, to the younger trees, like miles. And she had, in turn, sucked up lightning blasts.

It had been the last one that killed her, cutting through old scar tissue and toppling her in a  crash louder than any thunder. Continue reading →

A New World: An Arrangement

Mar19

First: A New World
Previous: Experimenting with History

⚗

Kael looked between Caron and Hallsey, wondering exactly what she’d said that was getting her such strange looks from both of them.

“Are you offering… to teach us?  On something like a regular basis?”

“But not potions,” Hallsey added to her friend’s question.  “But like… how to find out history?”

“That depends.”  Kael was feeling out her answer as she went,  but she was pretty sure she was on the right track.  “Do you want to learn potions, history, or both?”

“Are you for real?” Caron stared at her.  “Are you really – I mean, what would you charge?” Continue reading →

BeePocalypse 4: Kids

Mar19

First: The Testers

Previous:  The More Things Change…

🐝

Mom Cara shed her white suit, revealing herself to be still rather like herself.  “Not everyone has extreme visible changes. I run a few degrees colder than I used to, and I tend to be a little quicker to fly off the handle if I don’t pay attention, but I still look much like myself.  And I’m still myself, Kelly-boop.  I promise.”

“I believe you.”  Nobody had called her Kelly-boop in years.  She found herself wrinkling her nose the same way she had back then, before she found out that it would end more quickly than she’d thought.   Continue reading →

A New World: Experimenting With History

Mar8

First: A New World
⚗

Kael cleared her throat.

“Assume for a moment that I am who I am pretending to be.”

They both turned their attention back to her.  It was Caron who spoke first.

“Okay.  So.” He hemmed uncertainly. “You want us to pretend that you’re Kaelingrade Torrent-Step.  And… that you lived for a thousand years?”

“No, no, that would be silly.” She smiled broadly at him.  “Let’s say that a potion went wrong and I suddenly landed here, in this tower, where I was, ah, pretending to be someone pretending to be myself.”

“Okay,” Hallsey leaned forward.  “This is a fun game. So you don’t know anything that happened in the last… oh.   Like the, um, colonization.”

“Conquest,” Caron offered. Continue reading →

Prodigal Hope, a story for Patreon

Feb27

🕯️

There had once been Nine Hopes.

They had been more than people and yet somehow less; they had been above the bustle and yet below it; they had been the absolute core of civilization and that which it aspired to above all else.

The first Hope to be lost had died in a long and ragged storm that ravaged the coast and destroyed cities.  With it went the whisper of the peaceful sea god.  With it went the trade treaties that had nearly been signed.  With it went thousands of lives.

The second died slowly, a wasting disease that took out a third of the country’s old and weak – wise and knowledgeable – skilled and clever.  With it went history and solidity.

The third and fourth Hope to go slipped away in the night.  Nobody was quite sure if they’d died or not.  Nobody really wanted to know.  The sunshine was a little less bright, the spring a little less pleasant, the winter a little more frightening.  There were rats in the grain silos and mice in the attics. Continue reading →

Light Stories for Patreon

Feb22


So, I was trying to beat a whole herd of tiny monsters on the 4theWords writing game, so I asked for a few prompts. Here are the words that stuck with the Light theme in some way.

💡

Regaining Light Powers

The world had been dark for weeks.

She hadn’t seen the dark since childhood.  The minute her powers began to assert themselves, she was surrounded with a world of brightness and color.  She saw sparkles between people who liked each other and could make the dreariest day light up like a summer noontime.

Then came the flu, and the sweats, and the days and nights of darkness.  She had recovered, the doctors said.  She was physically completely better.

But she hadn’t been able to see anything, had been as blind as she had been before her miraculous “recovery” at the age of eleven, since the flu first attacked her.

She moved awkwardly through the halls of her school, her stick once again sliding across the floor.  She hit someone’s foot, and then someone bumped into her.
Continue reading →

A New World: Building Potions

Feb9

First: A New World

⚗

“All right, all right.”  Halsey sighed.  “Let’s go on.  I think we have enough for the paper – I mean, we can’t write a paper on this place for Mr. Catalon, anyway.  He’s going to blow his top.”

“We at least have to see the rest of the museum.  Come on, maybe they’ll show us something interesting like where all the tools were or something.  And then we can work out what we’re going to write for class.  I mean.  We could do something on the conflicts between the displays and the book?  And then say, since we weren’t there, we can’t tell?” Continue reading →