Two peeks at Doug

Dec19

Year One:

Doug watched the new students coming in to the brand new school. They were fresh-faced, some of them, while others were already bitter and untrusting. They were so young, all of them, and so human-seeming.

His son was among them, Donegal, who he hadn’t gotten to raise. He watched the boy moving through the crowd, and found himself fading into the background. Now was not the time to try to raise the kid; now was the time to do his job.

Two tall, dark boys – brothers, Doug thought, but not twins – moved their way through the crowd as if they were pushing aside brush. Doug watched the way they moved, the shorter one aping the taller one’s movements. They were going to be trouble.

“First day of school.” The woman standing next to him finally spoke up. Laurel, Doug thought her name was. “This’ll be interesting.”

Doug cleared his throat, and found he had nothing to say. He settled for “yeah.”

Year Fourteen:

Ana was pregnant, and Doug was doing everything in his power not to glower, hover, growl, and in general act like (as more than one woman had called him) a royal pain in the ass.

He was fairly certain that he would have been a hovering, miserable, overprotective dinosaur (as Ana gently teased him) even if she hadn’t been carrying his child, his child, as well as the boy Teal’s, but he couldn’t guarantee it. Doug was in love, and it messed everything up.

He watched the fresh-faced new Cohort, just a month into the year and still looking so very young, so very human. A short, stocky irish boy – notable in that he was shorter than either Doug or his father – met Doug’s eyes and grinned, arrogant and insouciant.

“They’re shaping up to be interesting.” Laurel Valerian laid fingers on Doug’s arm in a way that would have, from another woman, seemed possessive. “I think this is going to be a good year.”

Doug shifted his weight onto his heels. The Irish kid was looking at Ana. Looking was fine. Looking was fine. He cleared his throat and made himself look at Laurel. “Yeah.”

I’m not really sure what to put in for context here…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/869070.html. You can comment here or there.

December Meme – Day Nineteen – Knitting

Dec19

The Meme

Today’s prompt is from [personal profile] kelkyag: Knitting

Oh, man, I haven’t knitted in so long. Children are walking and talking who I had Big Plans to knit baby clothes for.

And it’s a pity, and something I ought to rectify, because knitting is very soothing. It calms me down, gives me something to do with my hands, and takes some of my attention so that I can spend the rest of it focusing.

On my list of things I really want to knit:

Shahin’s wristwarmers, in large part because I want to use them in the Kickstarter.

A girl-stuff pouch for my purse, because, well, girl stuff. <.<

Something for a friend’s kid before said kid heads off to college.

The two hats I have planned for other friends, before they’re 80.

And, in the dream-big realm, I really want to knit myself a Douglas Adams/Dr. Who homage towel shawl blanket.

Maybe start small? I think I have a dishcloth on the needles, or there’s always the 13-foot scarf I was knitting for a friend. I got through 6 feet of it…

*flexes fingers* I’m allergic to wool, so knitting for me is almost always cotton or linen. I’m just beginning to get a feel for bamboo, but it is so different from cotton…

Maybe I’ll knit myself a set of pulse warmers first.

🙂

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/868862.html. You can comment here or there.

More thoughts on Mellama’s IconDay6

Dec18

http://itsamellama.dreamwidth.org/96968.html

Okay, so I was thinking – the last giraffe call (http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/819607.html) made enough for an art!

And Mel has art options in her tipping thresholds.

Sooo… there’s a lot of “more please” stories that came out of this Call. Ideas? I was thinking either the young princeling/his older Mentor; the ace prince & his ace rescuer, or the princess with her Very Very Angry Captive

http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/tag/giraffecall

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/868538.html. You can comment here or there.

Solstice, 50 words, @dahob

Dec17

The longest night of the year. They stood, outside their prefab barracks, and stared at an alien sky.

The world was different, the stars, even the weather. But they lit candles made from alien fat and held them up to the dark night, to the black skies. And they sang.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/868139.html. You can comment here or there.

Jumping Rings: A Story of the Circled Plain Chapter Thirteen (Choose)

Dec17

“Agree. Or don’t. You have to be agreeing to it, Taslin, you know that. They can’t force you to take a Patronage.”

“But they can make my life very difficult if I do not. They can make everything unpleasant. They can lean on the owners of the pit. They can Patronize someone else and encourage them to hurt me, or just hire people to attack me.”

“That’s illegal.”

Read On…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/867896.html. You can comment here or there.

Science & Getting Schooled, another part of Luke at Doomsday (@inventrix)

Dec17

First: Visiting Doomsday
Previous: About cy’Doomsday.

Luke found his wings flattened to his back. “What does my wife have to do with anything?”

Nehara held up both her hands. “Not your wife, sir. Gabriel. It’s just that, of course Mystral talks to her father, and of course the professor talks to the rest of the teachers…” She shook her head. “I just wanted to say, you’re not as much of a cipher, sir, as you might think. I did some studying.”

“I am beginning to guess that I should have expected that.” Mike would say he’d gotten his feathers ruffled. Luke took a breath and tried to smooth himself down. “What did you learn?”

“You know,” she changed the subject with a bright smile, “I think maybe there’s someone you need to see before you see Professor Lily’s class.”

“Not Gabriel? I see plenty of him.”

She chuckled politely. “No, sir-“

Luke coughed. “By this point, I think it’s probably politer if you call me by name.”

“Certainly, sa’Hunting Hawk.”

Luke flopped against the wall, acknowledging with a wry salute that she’d won that round. “You were saying?”

“I think you ought to see Professor Inazuma’s class. He’d be very disappointed if you traveled all this way and didn’t see him.” She took his hand and Luke, startled, let her. “This way, come on.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She was going to be a beautiful terror for someone or ones. When she was old enough. He resisted the urge to snatch his hand back. “Lead on.”

“Follow on, soldier.” There was something suddenly old about her voice. Luke focused on the school uniform, the red cloak and the plaid skirt. She was a kid. A student.

‘Fina had been a Student. Mystral had been a student.

Inazuma. Think of Leo. It was as good as thinking about baseball, and had the side effect of reminding Luke why he was here. “It’s been a while.”

She glanced back at him. “I imagine it has, sir.” She sounded as if she’d been through the wars. And Luke, of all people, knew what that would sound like. “I’ve heard some of the stories, of the war.” She glanced down at the ground.

“Yeah.” Luke let out a breath in a huff. “Yeah. His class is -” The school was quiet, the students already in their next class.

“Right here. First floor. Science building. Well, science and math, though sometimes we call it the Alchemy building.”

There was clearly a joke there, from her smile, but Luke had asked for more than enough explanation already. “Onward,” he said, hoping this wasn’t going to blow up in his face.

Nehara watched him for a moment, seemed to brace herself, and opened the door.

Luke was too busy paying attention to his guide’s body language – now, now she had to brace herself? – and thus almost missed where they were.

Leo’s enthusiastic “Luke!” brought him right back. “Luke! I didn’t know you were coming!”

“Surprise visit.” He couldn’t help but smile, and, at that, he noticed Nehara was smiling as well. He turned his attention on Leo. “So, I hear Professor Inazuma has a reputation around here.”

Stupid, stupid. He wasn’t here to challenge the kid. He folded his wings and kept talking before Leo could take too much offense. “It looks like you’ve done good things here.”

Mike would have been proud of him. Well, probably not, considering he’d made the mess in the first place, but Leo grinned. “Isn’t it awesome? Nehara’s been showing you around?”

“She has.” He nodded at Nehara. “It’s been quite the education.” He looked around the classroom. “Science, then?”

“Earth science! We’re studying climate and weather today. Do you want to sit in?”

Luke glanced at Nehara, who shrugged cheerfully. “Yeah. That sounds fun.” Much to his surprise, there was a chair waiting near the back that could comfortably accommodate his wings.

“Great! All right, class, this is Luca Hunting-Hawk. He was my Mentor back in school…”

“In Addergoole?” A dark-skinned girl in the front row turned to stare at him. Luke didn’t see any Changes – but that could mean anything. “You teach at Addergoole?“

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/881337.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/867593.html. You can comment here or there.

Landing Page: Vas’ World

Dec17

Vas’ World
They had trained for this scouting mission for over a year; they’d trained in the space service for years before that. But they were still unprepared for everything they found on the new planet.

Vas’ World is a soft sci-fi story of planetary exploration; like the exploration, this setting is still in the nascent stages.

Icon by [personal profile] meeks.

Best places to start:
Naming Names
The Sea and Sky

Stories include:
(The Vas Cycle)
Naming Names
Observe and Report
By the Wall (LJ [Donor Perk]
Contemplating the Wall
Siege
Horseback
Fighting for Dominance
Elevator
Coming Up (LJ)
Wound (LJ) (Donor Perk)
Greetings (LJ), to [personal profile] eseme‘s prompt
Harvest (LJ)
Further Exploration Reveals… (LJ)
“I said, Further Exploration reVEALS,” (LJ)
Reveal SOMETHING? (LJ)
Dream (LJ) Malia’s Vision Quest

(The Becky Cycle)
Care Package
Rescue?
Kisses
Introductions
all four available in Tales for the Sugar Cat e-book!

The Sea and Sky (no xpost), of the origins of this planet.
Vinting Love (LJ), after Sea & Sky
Harvest (LJ)

The Planet Called “Oh, Fuck, We’re Screwed.”
Holy Fuck, It’s Snowing
First Thanksgiving

Read my short story “Xenonegotiation,” set in the pre-history of Vas’ World, in the April Issue of EMG-Zine!

Worldbuilding
February Worldbuilding Q5
February Worldbuilding q21 (LJ)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/23712.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

December Meme Day Seventeen – The Cats! (@inventrix)

Dec17

The Meme

Today’s prompt is from [personal profile] inventrix: the cats

Oh, twist my arm!

Kitties kitties kitties!

T & I have three cats right now – Oligarchy, Theocracy, and Meritocracy. We got Oli & Theo about a month after Drake died, in June of 2012.

Drake was our Sugar Cat, my diabetic flesh-eating fluffy happy monster for whom I wrote Tales for the Sugar Cat (a fund-raiser). He was with us for about twelve years – not nearly long enough – and died two years after his foster-brother, the first cat Sam & I had together, Gatsby. They are both still keenly missed.

But I made it about a month before I started looking for a new cat. I wanted siblings, I wanted boys. Siblings because Gatters and Drake, not related, had never gotten along great, boys because the girl cats we’d encountered – roommates’ girlfriends’ cats – had been miserable.

The Humane Society had no sibling pairs and wanted $150/kitten.

The next shelter over had a lovely pair of marmalade brothers with extra toes, but they adopted them out while we were filling out the paperwork.

We ended up finding our boys on Criagslist, just 4 blocks away. Little poofballs – we’d been looking for shorthaired marmalade kitties; these were longhaired grey-and-white. But they were friendly, they liked being handled. And I didn’t want to live any longer without cats in the house. Home they came!! We tossed around a bunch of names for them; for a week they were Thing One and Thing Two, or Lefty and Righty (Each has one white sleeve).

They were born in March; they came home in June. A year later, T. found three kittens in our hedgerow.

A while later, the three – who wandered and came back, wandered and came back – were down to one, who liked to stand in the hedgerow and yell at T. We started feeding her kibble, and T would move a little closer every day. Eventually, she would tolerate being petted.

We named her Sullivan, because my dad had a yard cat named Gilbert who was all white, and she was all black. But as I found myself cooking meat scraps before we put them in the compost bin (which she was eating out of), we realized we were keeping her. She needed a name in trend.

Sullivan became Meritocracy o’Sullivan. And as she started getting friendlier – as it started getting colder – we very politely shoved her in a cat carrier and left her at the vets for three days before bringing her inside.

And that’s the story of my kitties.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/867065.html. You can comment here or there.