Tangles and Knots, Snarls and Combs – Patreon

Apr27

This story includes portions originally posted http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/665445.html and http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/697268.html to make a complete story. 

❄️

There was something amiss with Winter’s sister.

With the oldest of Winter’s sisters and the most steady, the most easy-going, the least likely to have things go amiss.

Spring had warned him first, in that way that she did, a riddle tied up in a knot, the sonnets are slanting sideways and the seeds are falling all wrong. Then Summer, just something’s wrong with Autumn. 

When their mother had called Winter, do something, he had known things had gotten out of hand. But because it was not he who had seen the problem first but Spring, he went out of character for himself and did things indirectly, looking not for the tangle but for its cause.

He had been young and cocky when he’d taught Spring; it hadn’t occurred to him until much later how much she had taught him. Continue reading →

Hurt/Comfort Meme Answer 2: Injured, Esha/Daxton

Apr26

To Kelkyag‘s prompt to my H/C prompt here. After A Rescue in Hand.

There were people everywhere. There were courtiers and mercenaries, guards and generals and servants, all of them pushing as close to Daxton as they dared, all of them talking at once.

Esha was holding up, standing straight and answering questions. She was the hero of the day and she was rightfully proud, but she still had an arrow sticking out of her shoulder, and she was turning a bit grey.

Daxton met his father’s eyes over the crowd. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done that. From the raised eyebrows his father was showing, neither could he.

“Son?” He pitched his voice carefully, carrying over the crowd and aimed straight at Daxton.

“You offered my hand in marriage?” Daxton used the same trick. He wasn’t as good at it; the nearby crowd hushed.

“I did. If you-“

For the first time since he was two years old, he cut off his father in a public situation. “I’d like to take my betrothed to the palace doctor now, please. She’s injured, and she got injured saving my life.”

The Duke smiled at him. “Go right ahead, son. Captain Senner, Captain Iken, please escort Lady Esharina and Lord Daxton to the doctor. My son – I am very pleased to have you back.”

Lady. They were really going to do it. He bowed, as low as he could. “Thank you.” Before anything could sneak up on them, he wrapped a careful arm around Esha and led her to the doctor’s suite.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/928725.html. You can comment here or there.

Three Weeks For Dreamwidth: Three Weeks for Worldbuilding

Apr26

I missed Lexember and “February is World-building month” so this year I’m doing “Three Weeks for Worldbuilding.”

Starting yesterday, I will answer (on average) one world-building question a day for three weeks.

I have a lot of settings! Check out the Landing Page if you don’t already have a pet setting. Check out here for last year’s post.

4/25 – Something about the world of SCIENCE! beyond the laboratories.
4/26- How many psychics are there in other places in the world of Tir na Cali?
4/27- What do the Strands in Stranded World look like?
4/28-
4/29-
4/30-
5/1-

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/928485.html. You can comment here or there.

(S is for) Seeds in the Ground!

Apr26

Today I planted some Evergreen Bunching Onions – in the other half of the row in which I planted carrots yesterday. I also planted a few feet of Rossa Lunga di Firenze seeds. Both are “spring” or “green onion” or “Scallion” varieties, depending on how you ask – something eaten while the bulb is the size of a fingertip, the greens often used as garnish.

All of these seeds are old, although I’ve kept them all in the freezer, so I overplanted heavily. I mean, like carrots, you can eat the thinnings, too. And if they only sprout sporadically, I have enough seeds to fill in the gaps.

Then I hauled a little more dirt to the bed at the opposite corner of the garden (There are two rows of four 4×6 beds; the two right-hand beds on each side are 12″ deep and the others are 6″ deep), where I have a netting trellis set up. There I planted a row of peas: half Wando and half Freezonian (yes, really.)

Again, old seeds – two years ago, I think – this time I tried something different. I planted them at 2x the suggested distance. In two weeks, I can go in and plant half of the “gap” spaces, and in two weeks after that, the other “gap” spaces. That way, the trellis won’t be lopsided 🙂

…I really like planting things. I’m not so good at remembering to weed and such.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/927967.html. You can comment here or there.

April A-Z Blogging Challenge: P is for Poinsettias (a microfic)

Apr25

The Meme Master Post

P is for for posturing, and peacocks, and poinsettias

This is a sibling piece with N is for Nereid and O is for Octopi.

If Scheffenon, high on the Northern Sea, was the strange step-child of the nation, then Orschëst, down by the southern border, was its misbehaving youngest child. Scheffenon talked to strangers because they had money and trade goods. Orschëst talked to them because they were fun.

The woman of Orschëst were known across the world for being elegant. Fashions that would end up in Scheffenon in fifteen or fifty years began with a woman’s whim in Orschëst. And not just Scheffenon; Orschëst fashions traveled the known world.

If Orschëst women were fashion-setters, their young men were something else indeed. In that age when they were no longer children but had not yet learned the wisdom of adulthood, they preened and postured like peacocks. “The Orschëst Poinsettias.”

They competed: who could wear the brightest colors, the most colors at once. Whose boots could sport the most extreme cut, whose doublets could have the most buttons. They competed for their hair – wearing it longest, shorted, most braids or highest styling. There was not a young man in Orschëst who looked what the rest of the country would call normal, not from the time he was given his first belt-blade to the time he first convinced a woman to keep his calling card.

“It’s like they are continually drunk on the show,” more than one tourist from the midlands has been overheard saying. “Like they’re afraid what happens if, for one minute, they stop showing off.”

The more astute tourists have noticed, that while every city in the nation has their statues, Orschëst has only one. The Faceless Lady, as she is called by those who do not know her name – and nobody speaks her name aloud – stands in the center of Orschëst. And every young Orschëst Peacock in his feathers will stop by her statue, showing off his brilliant plumage. “Dancing for the Lady,” the tourists call it, and never wonder why the boys look so frightened when they dance.

In the same universe as Around Elephants and The Club, which is probably the same setting as Edora & Rodegard (here & here), and which now DEFINITELY needs a setting name…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/927331.html. You can comment here or there.

Hurt/Comfort Meme Answer 1: Drunk, Admund/Doug

Apr25

To Rix_Scaedu‘s prompt to my H/C prompt here. After Into the History of Addergoole.

When he wanted to really, really get shit-faced, when he wanted to puke until his stomach was empty and then drink more, Doug didn’t go to Maureen and he didn’t go to his father.

He and Luke emerged from the sub-basement of the school quietly, and just as quietly went their separate ways. Doug scrubbed quickly, washing the ichor and gore off his skin, threw on the first thing that came to hand, and went to Agmund’s.

The Bear opened the door without question. He took in Doug’s expression and poured two glasses of vodka. “Sit,” he said, tilting his head at the big leather couch. “Sit, I will get the bottle and the bucket.”

Agmund never asked questions, and he never told Doug it was time to stop. And when it finally came to drunk tears, when Doug sat leaning over a bucket of mostly-clear vomit, sobbing shamelessly, Agmund passed him water and patted his back.

“…They were kept alive,” Doug muttered. “Alive down there. And we never knew.”

“We never knew,” Agmund reiterated, and passed Doug another glass of vodka.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/927174.html. You can comment here or there.

(P is for) Planted! First things in the garden

Apr25

3 feet of carrots – the first of many in succession planting – half Red-cored Chantenay, half Short n’ Sweet. They’ll be ready at the end of June/beginning of July!

I’ve got a 4’x6′ bed, and plan to plant a half-row every two weeks.

If I plant the rows 6″ apart, that’s 16 half-rows. /Does the math/ I’d be planting until November… that won’t work (First frost is around October 15th here).

Okay, maybe I want to make some of those half-rows something else. Any suggestions?

Planting more at a time seems counter-productive, but I could space things every week instead.

Do you have any favorite varieties of carrot? (Or any other root crop that takes up a small footprint?) Anything I should dedicate half a row to?)

…I have a LOT of green onion seeds still…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/926913.html. You can comment here or there.

Feeling Creative? Need Blogging/Microfic Prompts for U,V,W,X,Y, & Z

Apr24

My April A-Z blogging challenge is continuing! I’m a little behind (up through O), but I could use some more prompts for the last week, here: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/916817.html all set!

I’m down to U-Z, the tricky ones. Pls. feel free to prompt things about my writing, about my life, about the interwebs, about worldbuilding – have fun! If you guys don’t, I’m gonna have to come up with things on my own, and it’ll probably be somehow related to the worldbuilding I’m doing in my head.

…anyone know a bast fiber that starts with U?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/926589.html. You can comment here or there.

April A-Z Blogging Challenge: O is for Octopi (a microfic)

Apr24

The Meme Master Post

O is for octopi clinging to jetty-as

This is a sister piece with N is for Nereid

In all of the beautiful, clean city of Scheffenon, the Scheif Harbor was known as its jewel. The city was in a prime position, trains running day and night out to the rest of the continent, boats criss-crossing the Northern Sea to bring goods and people in. Tourists would come just to look at it, to bathe in the cold, clear blue waters. They were said – like the city itself – to have healing properties.

Torschi Contvallen went to Scheffenon after a riding accident left her with a bum hip. She found within a day that she could walk more steadily, within two that she could walk with less pain, and within three that she could move well enough to risk swimming. Anything to get away from the fountains, she told herself, as she boarded the quaint little rickshaw. Anything to get away from the murals, with their fish with the creepy eyes that seemed to follow one. Anything to get away from the innkeeper, who was so cheerful and so determined that Torschi should visit every fountain, every objet d’art, every folksy quaint museum in this bright, shining town.

She slipped into the water, her bathing costume the one provided by the so-helpful innkeeper. Back home, it would have been considered quaintly old-fashioned and miserably out of style. In the cold waters of Scheif Harbor, Torschi found that she appreciated the extra coverage – and almost every other bather was dressed similarly.

She had been a championship swimmer in her youth, and even with the bum hip, found she could still pull a decent stroke. She swam away from the doggie-paddling, gossiping crowds, out to where the tiny fish would tickle her toes.

It was lovely out here, far enough away that the noise of the city was quieted, far enough that the sea creatures were braver. Torschi found herself relaxing, even as she found the pain in her hip beginning to return. She looked back to the piers, gauging how long it would take her to swim back.

There were octopi clinging to the piers, climbing them. On every jetty she could see, stacked so thick they looked like walls of moving tentacles, the octopi reached for shore.

Torschi had never swum faster and she had never cared less if she hurt. She rolled out of the water like a gymnast and stopped only long enough to grab her clothing before grabbing the first rickshaw to her inn. And there, she stopped only long enough to dress before catching a train.

The octopi in the water had reached for shore as if their lives depended on it. But – and this is what had sent Torschi running for the train – the statues, every one of them she had seen on the way home, the murals, the friezes – they were all reaching for the sea.

In the same universe as Around Elephants and The Club, which is probably the same setting as Edora & Rodegard (here & here), and which now needs a setting name…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/926270.html. You can comment here or there.

Stolen Meme, what I’m in the mood for ATM

Apr24

Put a number and a character or two or three in comments, and get a hurt/comfort ficlet of some length (possibly v short).

1. injured
2. sick
3. drunk
4. cry
5. lonely
6. fight
7. afraid
8. humilated
9. bullied
10. sprain
11. disoriented
12. stressed
13. too much
14. not enough
15. death of loved one
16. ghosts from the past
17. delirious
18. headache
19. allergies
20. cut
21. PMS
22. The straw that broke the camels back
23. fever
24. throw up
25. worried
26. anxiety

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/925976.html. You can comment here or there.