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Haunted House 48: Nice Guy

May18

First: A story featuring a male keeper and a female Kept.
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They rode on for a while before Jasper broke the strange silence again – not with anything related to their previous conversation, but just to tell MĂ©lanie more about what he’d found and who he’d spoken to while at the market.  After a few minutes, MĂ©lanie realized that he was giving her notes on his business – the people that he knew to talk to, the ones that he avoided, the ways that he tried to drum up more business. She found herself snorting.

“Networking.  It’s the end of the world – as we know it – and you’re networking.” Continue reading →

Running in the Bear Empire 44: Tricks

May17

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous:43: Trapped
Next: 45: By The Numbers
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The boulder jutted into the path, cutting it off until someone had carved their own path around it.  From the looks of the trees growing in and around it, it had fallen over a hundred years ago, but Deline could still see how the path had been warped.  It meant that until they came to the sharp edge of the stone, they couldn’t see anything ahead of them.

Carrone stepped ahead of her and she let him, her slingshot ready.  He hissed and took a step back, an arrow flying over his shoulder.

Deline grabbed a handful of components from her hip pack and began a spell under her breath.  Just as she was starting to speak, a voice boomed from the far side of the boulder. Continue reading →

Thimbleful Thursday: Here and There

May16

“But who are you?” The woman at the gate was staring at the interloper. “What is your name and what are you doing here?”

“What I am doing here, I have already told you.” The woman popped up her umbrella as an unseasonable and unexpected rain began. “I am here to speak to Madam Thare Oliphant.”

“The current mistress of the house is not Thare Oliphant, and hasn’t been in two hundred and seventy-two years.”

“You’re remarkably well-informed for a gate guard.” Continue reading →

Hidden Mall 67: Dormant Malls đŸ’€

May13

Yadira offered them a place to sleep but seemed not in the least surprised when they didn’t take her up on her offer.  She showed them a doorway after that – and seemed more than a bit surprised that they did take that.

“I’m starting to think that it doesn’t matter which door we take,” Abby admitted.  “I think it’s more about our, uh, our mindset or something like that. The way we go through the door.  Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there’s a formula. But -“

“But maybe we oughta just talk to the malls,” Olly finished. “Because maybe the malls can tell us where we have to go.”

“Or kill us,” ‘Via countered.  “Or send us in circles. The malls are not our friends.  I don’t know why anyone thinks they are! The malls are-“

“The malls, you heard her,” Liv huffed.  “The malls, they used to be benign-“ Continue reading →

Haunted House 47: Spurious Reasoning

May11

First: A story featuring a male keeper and a female Kept.
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MĂ©lanie brought both hands to her neck.  “Obviously-” she started slowly, not sure how anything she wanted to say would be taken, “I can’t be considered to be on the wrong side of a collar, since I’m not on any side of it.  Though I think you owe me a piercing of some sort, sir.”  She cleared her throat. “And, ah. I want to be here, remember that?  Please remember that?”

“Only if you call me Jasper again.”  He brushed his knuckles very lightly against the side of her neck, just over her hand.  “I haven’t upset you, then?”

“No, sir – Jasper.  No, not at all.”

“You’re sure?” Continue reading →

Thimbleful Thursday: Envelope

May9

“What…. what is it?”

Esuyp had been locked up in the old building for months on end, emerging only to do her required part of the settlement’s labor and fix the things that needed fixing, sometimes to eat and even more rarely to sleep.  Qiameth had been running back and forth between Esuyp’s workshop — so they all assumed it was — and the old school buildings, muttering to herself.

Now the thing — the result of every minute of leisure time for two people for over half a year in a settlement where everyone was working steadily — was out in the middle of the Green and the whole settlement was staring at it.

“What is it?” repeated the Eldest.   Continue reading →

Visa

May9
Originally posted on Patreon in May 2019 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

“Excuse me, citizen.”

These border checks were getting ridiculous.

Karyk huffed and presented the gold-and-circuitry bracelet that everyone in Reldienne — or what had been Reldienne three weeks ago, at least — was required to have on their person at all times when crossing, or across, a border. “I’m going to the grocery store.” It wasn’t much of a protest, because protesting only upset the border guards, and when they got upset, they started asking for blood samples and stool samples and — it got rather unpleasant.

“You’re crossing over the border into South-west Reldienne.  That’s a new nation and, as such, requires a border check,” the guard explained. Continue reading →

The Shore Awakes

May7

After When the Hills Quake and The Hills Sleep
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(Planetary Date 5 Years 6 months)

We’ve had several more close encounters with the terrain moving, enough that, unfortunately, I don’t think that we can justify staying here.  There’s just too much living under our feet.

We agreed not to move our settlement, in large part because it doesn’t seem to matter where we move it, since every bit of land appears to be alive.  We’ve been more careful with what we put where, although the large terrain-creatures appear to have very tough skins with very few nerve endings.  Continue reading →

The Hills Sleep

May2

After When the Hills Quake.
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(Planetary Date 5 Years 4 months)

From the looks of things, the wolf-hills have a rather long cycle of waking and sleeping.

We have been debating for some time – since “our” wolf went back to sleep – if we should move down to the land that doesn’t move or stay where we are.

Three things stay on the side of staying where we are: Continue reading →