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Haunted House 50: Secrets of the House

Jun1

First: A story featuring a male keeper and a female Kept.
🌳

Washing the House with Jasper was surprisingly fun. It was also hard work, because the House had years of embedded grime in her shingles. “Did you somehow roll in the mud?” Mélanie found herself accusing the house at one point. “And… in a pine tree?”

The House bumped one set of shutters in her direction.

“I can’t tell if that’s a yes or a no,” Mélanie admitted. “But I need some sort of brush that can get up here under the shutters. Maybe a butter knife, actually. “

Jasper frowned at the scrub brush he was holding. “I could–“

A window opened and a butter knife slid out into Mélanie’s hand. Continue reading →

Council Meetings

May30

This is a ficlet of Cloverleaf, written to Eseme’s prompt to my current “third rail” prompt call. 

🚂

Sometimes, Cya seriously regretted having made Cloverleaf a semi-representative government.

Generally, those were council days, when she was sitting at a table with the chosen and voted-in representatives of all three circles.

Being a dictatorship would be so much easier.

She listened carefully to everyone’s arguments.  She asked the question she made sure to ask every time:

“Do we need a law for this, or is it a matter of personal choice?” Continue reading →

Mapping

May28

A ficlet of Fae Apoc and probably Addergoole East. 

🗺️

“What are you doing?”

Chlodovech looked up from his work to see a woman glaring at him.  “Surveying.” Wasn’t Amalasuintha supposed to be keeping people away?

“What for?”  The woman looked aggressive.  She was holding a pitchfork in a way that was clearly not ready to pitch any hay and her eyes were narrowed.

Chlodovech straightened up.  “It’s a school project,” he tried.  Truth, right? Truth was good? Useful?

“School project.”  She narrowed her eyes even more.  “You’re mapping my town for a school project.”

“Well, technically, we’re mapping all of former Pennsylvania.  It’s going very slowly,” he added ruefully. In part because of things like this. Continue reading →

Hidden Mall 69: L-Space 📚

May27

Abby shuddered.  We are in a horror movie.  “We – we really are.  Okay. This way, towards the security office, and let’s hope that it’s still there when we get there.”  She started walking, pulling her friends closer and wishing idly that she had more hands.

Better not wish that when I’m going through a door, she mused, or I might end up with four arms or something.

They walked straight down the middle of the hall.  Nothing in front of them was moving or changing, but they could hear something shifting behind them.   When they reached an intersection, Olly toed the line of tile between the two halls. “Look. It’s a slider.  The whole mall is like one of those puzzles.”

“Shopping in here must have been a challenge,” Abby mused.  “Imagine going in the changing room and coming out in a different store?”

“Heck, trying to find where your mom parked the car.” Liv snorted. “Or  — well, anything else. Where’s the food court?” Continue reading →

Running in the Bear Empire 45: By The Numbers

May24

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous:44: Tricks
Next: 46: The Nameless Claw
🐻

“So there were fifty of them,” Deline murmured.  They stood ready, weapons drawn, listening to the shouts and screams.  “How many do you think we’ve taken out?”

“Over half,” he murmured back.”  The shouting stopped; they fell silent.

Somewhere on the other side of the boulder there, a whole bunch of people were trying to kill them.  It should have probably frightened Deline. They’d already blooded her here, for one. She found she was smiling.  Carrone’s traps were nasty and amazing. The spell-work she’d been pulling out of nowhere was exhilarating. Continue reading →

Putting Out Fires (and Lighting Others)

May23

This one is just sort of silly.  Maybe an intro to something?

🚒

Perfect is the enemy of Good. 

That’s engraved on the lintel of our headquarters.

Well, it would be, but what’s really there is Firehouse 14.

It’s a good building, and the fire company has since moved somewhere else, bigger place, I think, more poles.

We moved in the way we do most things – quickly, efficiently, with a minimum of excess energy.

Which means, of course (of course) that I’m sleeping in an old firemen’s dormitory and so are the other seven of us.

We put out fires, after all.  Sort of. Sometimes we light them.

We’re the Cleaning Team, which is kind of a funny name for us, but it’s what we came up with while drinking vodka one night.  We get things done.

We don’t get them done cheaply.  We don’t get them done elegantly.  We get them done on time and well. (You know: on time, in budget, in scope, pick two.)

And we get them done – if not cleanly, then “cleanly.”

That is.  If it is illegal or questionably moral, It will never come back to us.  It will never come back to you.

If it is shining and bright and just needs to be done quickly, you will get all the lauds and we will be invisible.

Just don’t ask questions.

That, we actually have a sign for, on the front desk, next to the “Quick And Dirty, Done” sign that our secretary came up with.

(We do actually have a “don’t kill the client” clause in our (unwritten) contracts, but that one has its own escape clause (Our contracts are the one thing we didn’t do quick nor dirty).)

Perfect is the enemy of Good.

And let me tell you, you want it done, we can get it done Quick and really, really Good.

 

Written to May 16th’s Thimbleful Thursday Prompt.

Want more?

Hidden Mall 68: Sensible 🏷️

May20

For a heart-stopping moment, Abby thought they were back home.

The mall looked normal.  It looked right.  The signs were in the right places, the stores looked normal; even the music sounded right.

“Where is everyone?” Liv whispered.

Abby turned slowly in a circle, moving all of her friends with her.  “Where is everyone?” she repeated.  There was – there was literally nobody around.

“No corpses,” ‘Via pointed out.  “That’s a plus.”

“No anyone,” Olly added.  “Not sure that’s a plus or a minus.” Continue reading →