Archives

Three and a Half Oaks

Sep22

Based on a prompt found here.

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Between the blink of an eye, in a heartbeat, in a breath, in things that stopped mattering, the world stopped – or at least we did.

People froze. I froze. Animals froze. Insects froze, I think. 

It was – when I thought about it clinically, it was fascinating.  My body didn’t hunger, didn’t ache, didn’t have any needs.  My eyes didn’t dry out.  I’d been sitting in the park.  The others in the park seemed the same – stuck in a single moment.  They didn’t fall over, even if in mid-jog.  The squirrel hung in mid-climb.  The ducks stopped in mid-nibble. 

Nothing moved.  Nothing but plants.  Nothing died, nothing rotted, nothing breathed, nothing but plants.  Continue reading →

The Bellamy, Chapter 21

Sep21

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The Fillion wasn’t as old as the Bellamy, or as big (assuming one could in any way actually gauge the size of a place like the Bellamy, which Veronika was beginning to believe that one – at least when one was her – could not), but it had its share of new-construction oddities, doors which led to tiny triangular closets which happened to have siding on one wall, because at one point that had been the outside, stairways which led nowhere and were used as, again, a closet, this one room in the basement which had once been a parlor on the first floor and now was used for the junior archivists’ break room – finding it two days in a row was one of the tests of actually being an archivist. 

It also had a couple ghosts, of course – any place that collected artifacts would end up with at least one eventually. 

Standing in the passageway with its ancient file cabinets and its dusty ghost, Veronika wasn’t sure if the whole scene made her feel more at home – she’d definitely made a place for herself when she was at the Fillion, after all – or even more outclassed.  Continue reading →

Saving the Cult (if not the World), Chapter Twenty-Eight

Sep18

Saving the Cult (If not the World) "It's time." Manfield Lee knew he was good at sounding authoritative even when he didn't know what he was talking about - he'd turned a fortune into a megafortune doing just that, after all, not to mention running the Organization - but right now, he DID know what he was talking about. After all, it was just a date, wasn't it? And if the date turned out to be wrong, well, then he knew exactly what to blame it on, and that blame would fall on the scholars and the psychics, not on him. The other thing Manfield Lee knew how to do was to place the blame in very specific ways that were not him.

I just want to, you know—

Save the world?

“Um.”  Lina cleared her throat.  “Something like that, yeah, I guess.  I mean, the city?”  She shrugged.  Someone grabbed her shoulder; she pressed them away with a shield and turned to glance.  “Mrs. Thomson?”  She was staring at her English Lit teacher from junior year.  “I didn’t know you were part of the Organization.”

“Catalina, you need to go to the training session.  You’re such a good student; why are you doing this?”  

Not her.  This was straight out of one of her weirder nightmares.  Lina was going to scream.  She was going to start throwing things. 

She didn’t have the time or luxury to do that.  Continue reading →

Malina and the Border Banners, Chapter 18 (A Story for B)

Sep16

Began here.
Landing page here.

In a castle that shouldn’t be, in a place that wasn’t, a girl named after too many things ran her hands over the carvings in the sandstone and tried to read them. 

She could tell they meant something, but what they meant – that was beyond her.  Wait. 

“Wait.”

She ran her fingers over it again.  “It’s – Oh, I can almost read it,” she murmured.  “I can almost feel the weave in it.  The – oh.”  She pulled her fingers away.  “It’s like reading a language that is close to one you know, but is just different enough to be obnoxious.” Continue reading →

The Bellamy, Chapter 20

Sep14

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They sat there, gazes locked, the trainee archivist and the – well, and the woman with horns who had been here quite a while, as awkward a descriptor as that was.

The moment held for a heartbeat, another, another.  Then Amanana chuckled and the mood broke, and Veronika allowed herself to look away.

“I believe – I believe of everyone who has come through here, perhaps you do actually see.  Very good.”  Amanana took an item from the case behind her, wrapped it up in a handkerchief, and slipped the package in a little box. She signed the outside of the box with her loopy signature.  “There.  That’s your item from here handled, and now let’s get you to the skeleton room.  I do believe that one is required on the first day.  Even coming from the Fillion as you do, they like to know that new people can handle the basics, like skeletons.”

At this point, Veronika couldn’t do anything but laugh a little helplessly. “The basics, yes.”  She considered matters. “Yes, those really would be some of the basics, wouldn’t they? Archaeology, paleontology – and those are only the ones that obviously hinge on skeletons, much less – oh dear.”  She put a hand to her mouth.  “I have really got to consider my habit of speaking before I think a little bit more, before it gets me in trouble.” Continue reading →

Landing Page: The Bellamy

Sep11

The Bellamy Manor Archival Library and Museum is one of the foremost in the nation, nay, in the world.  Its collections host an amazing depth and breadth of information, of historical artifacts, of documentation of life in thousands of different sorts. 

It also is rumored to be haunted – as all good archives are – to hold secrets – again, as all must – and to hide many more rooms in its historical halls than its exterior would suggest.  It’s rumored to have anything you might want, if only you know what to look for.

Darker rumors suggest that it eats new hires.

The Story

Veronika Bellamy (possibly no relation, possibly some) has been working for years to get to the Bellamy, and now she has her chance.  If she can make it through her first day, if she doesn’t spook or run away in anger or possibly just… vanish…., she will be in her dream job.

But first, she needs to get through that first day.

Breaking Out

Sep9

breaking out

This is a follow up to A Break?  from my Fishy Prompt Call here – anyone can prompt (if you haven’t already) and please do!

Science! is a longstanding setting of mad science; Jess, below, is from Quick Thinking, (and, of course, A Break?). Cara is from almost all the Science stories except that one… But her first appearance was here.  The two interns were unnamed in A Break? but this is the same vacation and same interns.

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“You know these woods really well.”  The shorter intern – Callum O’Neill – had been following Jess around since she had wandered down from the cabin loft bedroom sometime past sunrise but before noon. The other one – Lilian Win – had stayed back on the porch overlooking the gorge, taking photo after photo on her phone.  She seemed to have calmed down, however, so Jess wasn’t going to complain.  Continue reading →

Cleaning Up

Sep8

Cleaning Up

This is a follow up to Clean…? from my Fishy Prompt Call here – anyone can prompt (if you haven’t already) and please do!

This story is set in the same world & city as Saving the Cult (If Not the World). It’s even talking about the same power plant as in Saving the Cult. Warning: This one is a bit spoilery to things not yet revealed in Saving the Cult. 

🐟 Continue reading →

Robotic

Sep7

This is set in (one of ) the world(s) of the Hidden Mall – Abby and Liv have been travelling through a series of multiverse malls, many of them abandoned. Actually, many Abby-and-Livs, Sandy-and-Vics have been travelling – this is a different Abby & Liv than those in the main story. This is a direct sequel to Fountain Fishing.

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“Are you sure?”  Liv huffed quietly.  She was already packing up their gear. “No, I know you’re sure.  But this place – nothing is trying to kill us, nothing is trying to-” she stopped and twitched.

Abby paused long enough to hug her friend.  “The last place was bad, I know,” she murmured.  

“And the place before that.”  Liv’s voice was muffled by Abby’s shoulder, buit Abby knew what she was saying anyway.  “And the one two before that… I wish we knew how to go back to a place.  That one three ago, that was pretty nice.”

Abby ran through the malls in her mind.  Last had been the one that had clearly turned into the lair of a serial killer – this one not the sort that only killed Abbies, at least, except that meant the asshole had targeted Liv.  Before that had been the place on fire.  Before that had been…

“Liv.  Olivia.  That place wanted to put us each in a little pod and keep us there.” Continue reading →

Federated Worlds – Worldbuilding for Border Banner

Sep6

Written in February 2020, posted at https://ping.the-planet.space/notes/846zh97210 (and other posts), but I cannot find it posted here, so here it is!

Malina’s Border Banners World – Worldbuilding.

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Greetings, I’m Lyn, and I thought up #FediWorlds. 

And that being said, I’m not even sure how to answer this question. 

I did a poll as to what world I’d work on, and “Story for B” won.  This story, appropriately begun on this account, involves a princess of a very long name becoming lost in the desert. 

I think Rick and Evie from The Mummy (1990s) – early in the movie when they spend a lot of the time arguing – fit my feel for this story so far. 

This may be influenced by the fact that they are wandering through the desert, of course, or that the cat, one of the main characters, is obstinate and difficult.  Continue reading →