The Expectant Wood, Chapter One: Trouble at the Stamen

Apr21

Chapter One: Trouble at the Stamen

“Mem! Pearl! Come onnn.” The nearer you got to the center of the island, the steeper the terrain got, the further ahead Nimbus’ mother and older sister got, and the more her little sister Billow complained about it….

Nimbus and her family are on an ordinary expedition to the Center of the island of Aereaxera when things start getting a bit noisy.

This fantasy adventure story takes place in and around the sky islands of The Aereaxerer archipelago. It will post once/month (although it will start at 2 posts/month to catch up) and is available to all Patreon patrons.

Supporting my fiction on Patreon costs as little as
$1/month and gives you access to stories above and beyond those posted here on Dreamwidth/Livejournal.

Interested? Check out The Expectant Wood and pledge today!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1093615.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

The Stranded Prompts Are Complete

Apr21

With the posting of a Summer story a moment ago, the Stranded prompts I opened to a tiny group of people (for reasons; I might try that again some time) are completed.

The list:
The “Festival” series:
A Wink…
Nothing Could Possib-lie Go Wrong (Summer)
Places One Doesn’t Go (Winter)
At Home (Spring)
Sight and Sense (Autumn)

The others:
The Thing About Tangling… (Spring)
The Words of Magic
A Drabble of Summer

I’ll offer continuations at the Giraffe Call rate of $1/100 words for the next week
Tip the Thorne-Author

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1093197.html. You can comment here or there.

A drabble of Summer

Apr21

More or less to [personal profile] eseme‘s prompt and a companion to Character Study: Melinda

Summer was always the last to go to sleep.

She liked the quiet moments at the end of the day, the way she could cuddle with a sleepy Bishop and Mellie until, one and then the other, they headed off to their giant cobbled-together bed. She liked stroking their hair and their backs while they watched TV or studied together – sometimes, despite all advice, both at once. She liked sleepy late-night kisses.

And then she strolled the house alone, listening to the noises the old place made, picking up this and that. Sometimes she would whisper charms for her family, charms for her lovers. Sometimes she’d just stay up studying.

Tonight, she wandered out to the back yard and stared up at the stars. It felt like they were watching, reminding her to be good.

Summer stuck her tongue out at them and went back inside, where the lights were warmer and less distant.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1093006.html. You can comment here or there.

Rivers and Lakes were made, but…

Apr20

…no pictures today because I made a muck up of trying to make the long rivers more curvy. <.<

Tomorrow I will trace the map and start clean with shiny new curvy rivers.

And some lakes, preferably ones that don’t look like a troll-head. Those old troll dolls with all the hair.

I keep forgetting you don’t need visible obvious rivers feeding into a lake (visible on a continent-scale map, that is). It could all be streams.

Pictures tomorrow!

(pre-curvied drawings can be shown here – https://twitter.com/lynthornealder/status/722939920877273088 – that at least decide placement of the rivers in broad scale)

Edit (again): Please ignore the awful scribbles that are the rivers. This is for basic city and border placement.

Image moved to http://wiki.lynthornealder.com/index.php?title=PortalBound_Maps 

Red is our story country, at least the beginning of it. Blue is Second Country and spills onto the large island below and 1/5 of the small islands. Third country is the other small islands and the last 2 largish islands. (Islands not visible on this map)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1092832.html. You can comment here or there.

A Reason, a continuation of Space Accountant

Apr20

This follows after: Taking Chances, Betting on it, Betting Time, Bunking Arrangements, and Accidental.

It is a partial answer to Kelkyag‘s question here and is only a year and a half in coming…

“Spill.” First Mate Cleonorayen Clyd flopped into the spare chair in Quatermaster Marist Irio’s bunk without asking or even knocking. She made up for it by thunking down a thick bottle filled with a bluish liquid.

Marist grabbed two heavy-bottomed glasses and poured generous shots. “You’re talking about the little accountant, right?”

“Bunk change. Bunk change, Marist, what on earth possessed you?”

“What? She wanted a bunk change, I gave her one. Pretty Marsey there is going to be a happy-if-confused young man for the next year.”

“But he could have been that without a marriage contract. What are you up to?”

“Pitmaster.” Marist threw back her drink in one swallow. “If the girl is in a marriage contract, she doesn’t go to the Pit. And none of us want her going to the Pit… do we?”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1092113.html. You can comment here or there.

Adding mountains to a fantasy map… with split peas~

Apr20

After the lentil map yesterday, I wanted to add mountains next.

So back to the pantry!

Peas! I played with a few different ranges before deciding that before a water-raising event some 1000 years ago, much of this island chain was one continent. So many of the peaks (on the left of the map) are the remains of a single mountain range.

And here’s the map with the mountain ranges roughed in. Frankly, I think they show up better as peas <.<

Next, according to every “draw your fantasy map” thing I’ve found, is supposed to be rivers. But I am sort of wanting to know what the rest of the elevation is doing!

Like, are there gorges? (I live in NYS, we have a lot of gorges). Is there a broad bread-basket plain there along the bottom of the main continent? I originally imagined a N-S cross-continental river; where would that go?

Also, considering the scale, are my mountains too wide? I should look into mountains a bit more.

(ETA: from wikipedia: “The Rockies vary in width from 70 to 300 miles” Mine edge out about 200 miles wide, so I’m okay!)

(ETA: BIOMES I need to figure out BIOMES. Well, “need to.”)
(more editing: Rough Biome Map)

Images all moved to http://wiki.lynthornealder.com/index.php?title=PortalBound_Maps

So many things to think about!

Advice?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1091857.html. You can comment here or there.

Cali, Femdom, Catgirls, Part III (@dahob)

Apr19

After Cali, Femdom, Catgirlsand Part II.

“So.” The cat-girl, the woman who owned him, Lady Sharanna (all of that in a petite and terrifying package), slipped behind the wheel of the car and started the engine with a button-push. “Why did you fight them?”

Daniel swallowed his first response, and then decided maybe it was the best answer. “They kidnapped me. They took my clothes. They stuck a collar on me.”

After a moment that had gone on long enough that Daniel had begun to worry, “Those are,” she said thoughtfully, “rather good reasons to fight. But it got you…”

“Bruised. Chained.” Daniel shrugged defensively. “It made a point.”

“Ah.” She let the silence drag on again. “So… what point are you making now?”

“Now?” It was his turn to hesitate, giving it more thought than he’d thought he’d have to. “Now… I guess I’m proving that if you treat me like a person, I can act like a reasonable hu- a reasonable being, too.”

She pulled the car out of the parking garage, a smile growing on her face. “Good.” It was still a very sharp smile, but this time Daniel actually felt a little reassured. “I like that point.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1091621.html. You can comment here or there.

A Deal is Made, Part III (finally)

Apr19

Part I – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082356.html
Part II – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082751.html

Regine barely managed not to gape at Cya like a fish. But the fiend was still going. “In addition, I want access to all of the data you access in this manner.”

Regine could not help a supercilious eyebrow raise, no matter how many times Mike had told her Do not raise your eyebrows at her. Do not. “Do you think you can follow the genetic data?”

“Well, if I can’t, my house geneticist can.” Cya shrugged as if a lifetime of studying genetics was nothing.

Regine cleared her throat. “Well. Be that as it may, I’m not going to allow your descendants to skip out on the Addergoole school. That might be as much as half of my population by this point.”

“Skip out?” Cya laughed. “No, I can’t imagine you’d agree to that. No. Just an agreement that, while attending Addergoole, each and every one of Boom’s descendants gets a pass. One time, when they’re in over their heads — bad Keeper, bad promise, the current big-bad-wolf — you, the staff, will help them out of it. The Keepings aren’t real, the promises aren’t real, you’re not damaging the Law by doing so.”

“But what lesson do we teach them, if they can get out of trouble at the first drop of a hat?” Regine had conducted this argument several times over the decades. She didn’t flinch.

And neither did Cya. The smile grew, as a matter of fact, and got sharp. Her voice was edgy now. “You’d be teaching them that the adults who Mentor them are their backup, are there to protect and guide them. You’d be teaching them to have allies.”

“We teach them to have crews, to find help and allies in their cy’ree, to be friends with their former Keepers and Kept.”

“After their first year. You isolate them from other first-year students, do not push the idea of a Mentor until they are either already collared or soon to be, and sometimes allow the interference of the Keeper in Mentor choice. The staff generally frowns on the idea of first-year students finding crews, and, while you may pretend to like and encourage them, you discourage crews actively standing up for one another.” Cya was still lounging against her couch, but her words were anything but casual.

And they were accurate. “It’s proven beneficial to encouraging the Keeper-Kept relationship…”

“Which you encourage, I assume, to ‘encourage’ the production of more little babies for your project. A point which is pretty moot when you do not allow students to leave until they’ve provided you with those babies.”

“Students also need to understand the dangers of Keeping and the problems inherent in both sides of the relationship before they are out in the world,” Regine insisted. Now Cya was no longer smiling. Regine was not sure that was an improvement.

“I’m certain you’re aware that you and I will never agree on that point. Be that as it may, there are other ways to encourage Keeping, and by encouraging good Keepings and allowing the possibility that the ‘trapped’ Kept could ask for a reprieve, you allow students to understand what a healthy Keeping should look like, before they go out in the world and perpetuate bad habits.”

Regine opened her mouth and closed it again, her lips curling into a frown. “Surely you’re not insinuating that Addergoole is responsible for the actions of its students once they’ve graduated?”

“No. I’m saying that you and your choices are responsible for a great deal of misery in the world. However,” Cya plowed on blithely, “that doesn’t matter. You’ve done some awful things, and now you want a favor from me. Does that about sum it up?”

Regine bit her tongue and counted to ten. “I come asking a favor of you, yes,” she answered levelly.

“Therefore, your justifications really don’t matter. The question is: will you agree to my terms?”

Part IV: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1095923.html

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