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The Hidden Mall 43 – Vic(tim)

Nov19

They looked at the map for a minute.  Well, Liv and Abby looked at the map, while Liv tried to explain Vic-French and Vic to each other, leading to Vic (Abby was mentally labelling her Vic-bitchy, but she’d probably be bitchy if she was left hanging to die from a freaking air mall, too) snapping, “Yes, there are many of us, I get that.  The question is, why is she here? We don’t even like you.”

“Because-” something in the tone suggested that the Liv answering questions was probably Skinny-Liv, but Abby barely checked anymore, “-we need as many of us as possibly.  We want to take on whatever’s killing Abbies.” Continue reading →

The Repair Team

Nov15

Originally posted on Patreon in November 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

 There was generally nothing Cara was afraid of.  She had lived through sentient roses and non-sentient grape-girls; she had lived through Smart Bombs and dumb scientists and pretty much everything in between.  She could look someone who was going to turn out to be a mad scientist in the eye and smile, because when it all went down, Cara would still be here and the scientist – whether in many pieces or still just the one – would probably not.

Cara wasn’t scared of much of anything.  Except the Repair Team.

They came striding through the Facility, their outfits smooth and black and altogether too tidy.  The Repair Team never had anything out of place.  Cara would hate them.  She would hate them *later*; right now she and Alex were hurrying towards Liam while trying to look like nothing was out of place at all.

“Boss-”  Alex asked.  It was his turn to ask this week.

Liam didn’t take his eyes off the Repair Team.  “Not us this time.” Continue reading →

Running in the Bear Empire 26: A Place

Nov9

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous: Magery
Next: 27: Climbing

🐻

Stupid Bears…  Deline found her hands clenching into fists.  “Don’t,” she warned Carrone.  “Don’t.  Don’t say that.  Not the Bear, not the Fox, not the Lynx.  Don’t.”

His head jerked up and his lips curled back in something that might have been meant to be a smile.  “Is there anything else my lady would like to demand of me?”

“It’s not a demand, you bull-headed git. It’s advice. It might be – there are living bears and foxes, living lynx and elk, and sometimes those make us very angry. Or kill us,” she added more quietly. “But we don’t insult them. We don’t insult them because this is the county of the Bear, and because The Bear, The Fox, The Lynx, The Elk, all of them, they are here, and they listen.” Continue reading →

Sapper – a story adjacent to Cloverleaf

Nov8

“Are you there yet?”

The only things George was currently happy about could be listed on two clawed fingers: he was underground, and when he was not digging, he was getting tolerable and semi-regular meals.

“You started me five miles away.  No, I’m not there yet. It’s only been three days and I’m not a miracle worker.”

He would have been politer – he HAD been politer the first sixteen times – but every time he had to answer, he had to stop digging.

“You’re an earth-Worker, though.  A mole. Shouldn’t this go fast for you?” Continue reading →

Funerary Rites 30: Adjustments

Nov7

🔑

Ezer cleared his throat. “How likely is this to interfere with our business?”

“I think,” Senga admitted quietly, “that it’s already doing so.  I think that whatever happened with that job the other day, it was probably family-related – my family.  I mean, unless you or Allayne have come up with enemies lately that you haven’t told me about.”

“What about Chitter?”  Erramun looked between the two of them, ignoring the staff for the moment.

Ezer snorted. “She just makes online enemies.  They’d hack the house – one of them made the icemaker spew ice all over the kitchen once – but they don’t generally sink to attempted murder.  They think it’s messy and sort of below them, I think.”

“Murder?”  Candavish leaned forward.  “You’re not speaking of Mirabella.” Continue reading →

Running in the Bear Empire 25 – Magery

Nov2

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous: The Bear
Next: 26: A Place

🐻

“I suggest,” Deline murmured, her voice as low and her body as still as she could manage,” that you try to stay relatively still until I move.  Also, if you are prone to praying, now would be a good time for it.”  Behind him, she move her hand very slowly towards the biggest cluster of berries.  “And when I move – hold your breath.  It would be a good idea to close your eyes, too.”

He grunted in the affirmative. She watched the bear, hungry and ponderous, shifting towards them as it sensed that they were actually prey.  She could hear Carrone’s heartbeat, his breath that he was struggling to keep even.  She got her hand as far as it would move under the cover of Carrone’s back.

Please, Mother Bear, she prayed again, and in one quick movement, she grabbed the berries, crushed them in her hand, and threw them at the bear’s eyes.

With her other hand she grabbed Carrone and hauled him backwards.  They tumbled back together, running before they got turned around, and dove into the cave. Continue reading →

NanoWrimo Counter

Nov1

~

“You think maybe Verve isn’t always going to be reading so maybe she can take a turn on dishes?”
“Afraid not,” Jenivere deadpanned back at him. “I am going to be reading until I die. That’s the problem with being a wizard — you literally can’t stop reading.”

~

She paused by the settee. One writer had spent a particularly long time describing this piece of furniture, in particular the way that is had cachobons set into the arms and three into the back of the piece. While the writer had not assumed they were magical in purpose or nature, such things had not been quite such common knowledge in the Harve i’s time.

~
She’d also ordered take-out from the one place willing to drive out to the middle of Nowhere and Cowsville, a pretty decent pizza-and-pub-food place in the nearest town. The pizza sat on the counter next to a soda; she wasn’t going to get pizza grease on Aunt Asta’s journals, even if she was subjecting them to heat, chemicals, and a light dabbing with distilled water.