Sting Marydel and the Cliffs of Anterior, Part 5

Jan29

Part one: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1049125.html
Part two: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1049392.html
Part three: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1051270.html
Part four: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1054666.html

These people just did not give up. “Look.” Spike tried to sound reasonable. “I’m not a team player. I’m not a joiner. I like climbing rocks, not chasing down jocks, and I spend more time on video games than hanging out with my friends.”

“And when David Cominsky slipped on a wet rock last week…?”

Sting shifted his weight onto his heels. How did she know about that? Dave wasn’t going to tell anyone, Cari hadn’t seen what had happened, and he sure as hell hadn’t told a soul.

“I saved him. He’s my friend.” He’d grabbed for Dave’s hand, and everything had been wet. He’d seen the second Dave’s fingers slipped out of his, and then he’d been holding Dave’s wrist. It had been impossible.

But the alternative was Dave in pieces at the bottom of the gorge, and Dave dying wasn’t an acceptable option.

The NABU woman had her eyebrows raised. Sting took a step backwards. “That doesn’t make me army material!”

“I told you, we don’t pull from the same pool as the Army. We’re interested in talented people who are bright, clever, and, frankly, not sure what to do with themselves, and we’re interested in people who sometimes have strange things happen around them.”

“This is just not happening.” He stepped backwards, shaking his head. “Look, you’ve got to be gone before my parents get home. I don’t want to explain a whole bunch of uniformed people on the doorstep.”

“We’ll leave when we have your agreement to come in for testing at the local base.” She smiled, not a pleasant expression. “I imagine by now we’re already the source of quite a bit of gossip.”

Sting sighed. “You’re not going to budge, are you?”

“I am, as a matter of fact, renowned for my lack of budging.”

He could agree and then not show up. Of course, then they’d probably just come bug him again. Or drag him off. “Tomorrow fine? It’s supposed to be raining.”

“Tomorrow at ten.” She handed him a brochure. “We’ll see you there.”

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1064287.html

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Protected: Stress relief

Jan28

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77 words of Discovery

Jan28

Discovery
Discovery Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
I was aiming for exactly 77 words. 🙂

Getting two ships close enough to converse, especially warships of very different designs, was not a quick process, and it was based in part on trust.

Captain Titrian & the garishly-dressed foreign captain relied instead on mutual curiosity and a great deal of hand-waving, while their ruler stood at the bow, smiling, accompanied by a nervous-looking attendant.

Titrian didn’t blame the attendant. He had been listing the ways this could go wrong; he was up to thirty-seven.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1056871.html. You can comment here or there.

Languary Day 23: The Book (and questions)

Jan27

What will the reader do with the text?

(Do Text-with what reader?)

shufa, to do

Who, What, Where, When, Why:
Nen, nib, neath, nash, nom

Third person future tense: -alss

[cha, chea, choe, chi: for, of, at, in], chur, with

–Shufalls futheat sha – chur ssrussolss-

[personal profile] inventrix:Eat it.

Fifishart Futheat sha ssrussolss.

(the reader devours the book)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1056695.html. You can comment here or there.

When the Angels Came, a story of the Faerie Apocalypse, is available for Patreon patrons

Jan27

Ciarán Wiegand was the unfortunate soul that saw the first creature flying in.

Ciarán was so fresh out of Basic that the fact they were in a war really hadn’t quite sunk in, and he’d gotten sent out here, out to the ass end of nowhere, where there really wasn’t, yet, any sort of war.

There were creatures, he knew, taking over many of the major cities all over the world…

Read On for just $1/month.

Prompt on each month’s theme (including January’s!) for just $5/month.

Your patronage helps support all of the free material you see here on Dreamwidth/Livejournal, as well as webserials and all-new fiction on Patreon!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1056261.html. You can comment here or there.

Homesteading: Loaves and Lessons

Jan27

I have been learning things about bread!

If you are an experienced bread baker, most of these things will probably not be news to you. Some of them are not /recent/ news to me but I still find them interesting.

What I have been learning recently is about tenderness, crispness, and longevity.

My normal go-to loaf is Oatmeal Toasting and Sandwich Bread. It’s got milk and honey in it, it’s got whole wheat flour in it, it’s tender, it’s got a small, fine crust, and it’s great for toasting.

But I was making baked brie, and that needs a bread that can hold up to dipping.

(this, which I ended up using, is not really quite french bread. But it works).

Take away most of the sugar and all of the fat, and you end up with a crisper loaf. Increase hydration and reduce kneading in the proofing stage, and you end up with bubbles in the bread. These things I knew, but it was neat to see them in process.

What I didn’t know but learned fast was that if you take away all that fat, the bread goes stale much, much faster. That was a learning experience!

And it did, by the way, work great dipped in a drippy baked brie with fig spread. And just as great with fancy butter, toasted on top the wood stove.

Next up? Brioche!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1056183.html. You can comment here or there.

Trouble in Cloverleaf? A Storylet of Mike and Luke for @InspectrCaracal

Jan26

This story is of questionable canonicalness – it probably happened, probably about 100 years after Cya & Leo graduate from Addergoole (or about 93 years after the end of the world) – but the exact date is up in the air, as well as some details.

It follows the Apollo/Boom stuff you can find on top on the Boom tag by about 2 years.

Mike was grinning, tanned, and dressed in new, strange clothes when he sashayed into Luke’s office. In green and brown, he looked like he had stepped out of a Robin Hood film – or, knowing Mike, possibly the pornographic spoof of a Robin Hood film.

“Cloverleaf,” Luke guessed. Mike had way too much fun on his little excursions, wherever he went, but only Cloverleaf left him grinning like that. They liked him in the bars there, it turned out, and probably the brothels, too.

(Luke wouldn’t put it past Cynara to have put in brothels just for Mike).

“Cloverleaf. They have newspapers.” He flopped the tri-folded paper down on Luke’s desk.

“All the comforts of the modern age,” Luke muttered. “Next thing we know, she’ll have self-driving cars.”

“Horses do that pretty well, actually. They say the press is pretty free, there. Only a couple rules, if my informant is to be believed.”

“How drunk was your informant?” The paper was called The ‘Leaf Leaves, and the first headline was something about Mayor Collapses? Luke picked up the paper.

“Faiiirly sober?” Mike hedged. “As sober as normal, at least. They like their papers. They like their city, turns out. I mean, nationalism and all, but it’s nice to see people happy in their home. And, ah,” he gestured at the paper. “With their Mayor.”

Luke unfolded the paper and stared. “Mike, what is this?”

“They’ve redeveloped photography,” Mike added helpfully.

“I can see that. What is this?”

“It’s a photo of the Mayor collapsing, like the paper says.” Mike was grinning, damn his soul.

“No.” He stared at the photo. It was grainy and pixelated, printed in four colors with the offset slightly off on the red. But it was very clearly Leofric Lightning-blade carrying Cya Red Doomsday. They were smiling. They were happy. And Leo was wearing a golden collar around his throat. “Mike…”

“Most of the rumors say it’s her collar.” Mike’s smile had vanished, replaced by something strange and thoughtful. “And all of the rumors say they’re happier now.”

Cya Red Doomsday’s best Words had always been Tempero and Intinn, Control and Mind. And she’d always been balanced by Leo’s absolute certainty that he was a good guy. Luke was already headed for the door.

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1057996.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1055765.html. You can comment here or there.

Languary Day 22: A bit of a worldbuilding story beginning, with vocabulary

Jan26

haph-Tachie and haph-Fota1 were sixteen years old when the Place found the next pair of twins. They were already past their age of peak usefulness and had been training as acolytes in the Institution for almost a decade, but the arrival of a new set of twin infants meant –

Well, for Fota, it meant freedom. They could go out in the world now. They could explore, they could learn what life was like outside of the Place. Fota couldn’t wait to leave.

Tachie, on the other hand, liked the safety of the place and the comfort of an acolyte’s rituals. She wanted to know what the world outside was like – but she didn’t want to leave the Place, not permanently.

“The Institution will always support you,” the Head Reader of the Place reminded them. “You can do whatever you want with your life.”

“But what I want is to be here,” Tachie insisted. She felt guilty, going against her twin… but the freedom Fota might find outside, she thought she might find in a little bit of separation. The chosen twins were always together, waking and sleeping. And Fota had always been the stronger twin.

1. one-Left, one-Right.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1055678.html. You can comment here or there.

A Week in Alder! (and a few days…)

Jan26

Jan 17th Summary

I took a couple days off for sickness; feeling better now.

Patreon
This month’s theme is Addergoole!
I’m working on Hob’s prompt; if you happen to be a $5 donor, go prompt!

Conlang
I’ve been making sentences in Whispers Drop, my conlang for Languary

Serials
In Edally Academy, Enrie’s troubles just keep going.

Renewal Time!
I’m renewing all my domain names AND paying for the paid DW Account, so I started a continuing story, Sting Marydel and the Cliffs of Anterior to raise funds. We’re up to $20 so far!

Fun
Building the Apiary – Cya builds things
On the Hunt, or not, One of Cya’s descendants, in Addergoole.

Prompt Calls
My December Prompt Call is going to stay open until it stops being fun 😉
The theme is “Prompt something fun for me or fun for you.” Go ahead and prompt something
Stories since the seventeenth are:
Changes and Adjustments, Rozen & Kai post-Apoc Addergoole/Fae-Apoc
Tangled and Tied, a continuation paid for by Rix
Lessons Learned in School, Dragons Next Door

I also still have this Addergoole in the Apocalypse “give me ideas” call open.
I need more prompts!

Coming to School

I reviewed 2015

Offline
I also:
Wrote 450 words on an fdom cyberpunk paranormal romance novella
Wrote 820 words on a secret project
Wrote 50 words of submissions, was paid for a story, and signed a contract for another

I wrote a grand total of 6600 words from Jan 17th-26th!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1055334.html. You can comment here or there.