Felis U

Dec10

Um. 

🏛️

“Okay, I have to admit that was fun.” Samaya glanced back at their History classroom and then looked over at Reggie with a hopeful smile. 

“Mmm.  Fun.” He was definitely not smiling. 

“What do you think they’ll do next?” she tried. 

Reg – who she’d met yesterday at orientation – was so far less enamored of Felis U’s idiosyncrasies than Samaya was. 

Then again – They’re willing to give you a full ride, and they’re accredited and they’re decently known.  You know we can’t afford to pay for college for you, not with your father being ill…

Samaya had just been glad it hadn’t turned out to be some sort of thin veneer over a work camp or something even worse. But she sort of wanted someone else to be enthusiastic with her. 

“Mm.  Maybe a dog?” Reggie shrugged, still unimpressed. How he could be unimpressed was beyond her, but maybe he was made of rock.  Continue reading →

Impromptu Prompt Call

Dec10

Hello!  Yesterday, in a bid to finish a time-limited quest in 4TheWords1, I asked for prompts on Mastodon2 and Twitter.

And then I posted the first bunch of stories on Ko-Fi as I wrote them.

These are those stories. (Dun-dunn3).

A Light in the Dark – The nights were long and dark and the days were cold and grey.

The Real World – “Stand and Present arms!”

The Two Kings – “There isn’t meant to be a thief king!”

D.F. Claudine Davenport & other authors – “I do have one question.  The fact that you credited your cat as a co-author.  Is this a nod to F. D. C. Willard?  If not-”

Atsidasauron Minimus – Every ship that went into space, every one since the first to leave the solar system, the Virginia of Sagadahoc, had one thing in common: they all carried at least two cats.

 

  1. 4thewords.com – a writing game where writing words fights monsters – my referral code is ZUZXW97294 – your first month is free & if you use my code, both you & I get goodies & I can send you more!
  2. tootplanet.space; JoinMastodon.org – Mastodon is a twitter-like social media site with no ads.
  3. (law and order sound)

71st day

Dec10

A story of holidays! 

Yesterday, I was trying to finish a quest in 4theWords (and I did!) and I asked for prompts – here on Mastodon and here on Twitter. (Still open if something strikes your fancy; I’m having fun with writing prompt stories right now). 

🎃

She’d done so well.

It was nearly dawn on the tenth of December and Xamira was sitting on her porch, watching the world and, perhaps, gloating a little bit.

Moving it earlier had been the easy part.

The pumpkin spice had been a boon, she had to admit. Xamira sipped her latte and licked the slightly-cinnamon-flavoured whipped cream off of her lip. She owed her sister in the coffee industry a favor for that one — now, even if they had never tasted a proper pumpkin pie or carved a jack-o-lantern, people started thinking Pumpkin as soon as the first chilly night came.

The crafts industry had been a big plus, too. Xamira had three blogs where she talked about autumnal crafts, autumnal cooking, and costume-making. Her Gluten, Nut, and Dairy-Free Ladyfingers (shaped like real fingers and with only natural food colorings!!) were such a hit that at least once a year her server crashed. Ditto the $10 Costumes that look like $100+ and Beyond the Sexy Everything: looking Hot on Halloween without Fishnet.

There were even posts up now on r/HotHalloween — Started to plan next year’s costumes (yes plural). What do you think about the librarian from the Mummy?

This year, Xamira hadn’t even had to start the planning-for-next-year posts; they’d just popped up organically.

That part — and Seven Spooky Wreaths You Can Make in a Weekend, and then My Husband Decorated My House for the Holiday, Can You Top It? — those were all her, no favors to a sister or cousin needed, and Xamira  was pleased. The cinnamon on her tongue tasted like victory, like that PTA meeting where she’d first suggested they hold Practice Trick or Treating the week or two weeks before in the school, so kids “knew what to expect.” (which turned out to be mostly more candy). Xamira had done a lot on her own.

Of course, she did have a cousin in inflatables who had pushed the first “spooky” lawn decorations for the season — Xamira smiled across the street at the neighbors’ yard, where a dragon taller than their first floor puffed menacingly at passers-by. And once you got people to decorate, especially outside, then inertia would help everything along and those decorations would stay up longer, and longer…

Xamira had managed to take a small holiday whose influence lasted a few days at best to a season-long extravaganza of pumpkins, candy, and being someone else for a while.

She sipped her latte again as the sun crested the horizon, and sighed as a sort of pepperminty swirl touched her tongue. 70 days. She had managed 70 days.

But on the 71st day, no matter what she did, Christmas reigned.

Across the street, the neighbors’ dragon became a giant tree. Xamira wrapped her shawl around herself and headed inside before the cold really came.

70 days was quite impressive, she told herself again. Nobody else had managed that much.

Maybe next year she’d aim for a post-Labor-Day sale. Back to School with Pumpkins?

Dress Up for your First Day … as a cat!

She had time. Even redditor CostumeFreak only had two sketches and one costume prototype done yet.

Want more?

For non-USians, Labor Day is generally considered the end of summer in the US. 

It’s the first Monday in September & is one of our Federal Holidays.

Inflatable Dragon.

Inflatable Christmas Tree.

Ladies’ Fingers.

Pumpkin Spice Latte – now earlier than ever!

The Summer of Discontent

Dec10

This is a Summer story and it turned out a little… um.  Not quite dark, but with dark-adjacent bits. While nobody in the story is either depressed nor suicidal, there’s frank discussion of both in the story.

Summer is Autumn’s middle sister; Bishop and Melinda are her partners.  Add first appears here. This story is contemporary with Graduation… or Not. 

☀

“Summer’s sitting on the roof again.”

Add barely looked up from their homework. Med school was a bitch, and it left them impatient with dramatics of any sort.

“House roof or Bolsch Hall roof?” The house roof was lower but steeper and slicker, being the slate-shingled roof of an old Victorian in Collegetown.

“Bear Hall roof.” Melinda didn’t really have any more time than Add did, or than her partner Bishop did — he was at the library right now — or their other roommate, Carney. But it was her girlfriend, their girlfriend (but Bishop was busy) and something had gone weird with Summer in the last couple semesters. Continue reading →

Hidden Mall 94: One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach…

Dec9

They opened the door. 

The world got cold again. 

They stepped into the parking lot.  The first step, second step, seemed like walking through molasses. 

But there was Liv’s mom’s big SUV, and there was Liv’s mom, poking at her phone.  She looked up. 

If possible, the world got even colder.  Abseil held very still and tried not to panic.  They were leaving the mall. 

“Abby!  Olivia! You… found friends.”  Liv’s mom seemed to struggle with this a little more than Vic had.  “You went exploring, didn’t you?” She shook her head. “Like that one time when we were camping-“

“-and I ended up on the other side of the island up a tower,” Olly whispered. 

Liv stepped forward.  “Mom, this is Olly, and she’d like to stay with us.  This is ‘Via, and she’s just visiting. You know Abs – Abseil.  New nickname. It was, ah, a sort of soul-searching shopping trip.”

“I’ll say.”  Liv’s mom looked at the bags they were all carrying.  “I hope you didn’t max out that credit card. You’re supposed to pay that off with your babysitting money, you know.”

“I think we’ll be okay,” Liv told her sincerely.  “I found some really good deals. Ah, I don’t think the rest have sorted out nicknames.  Sand-“

“-Drea, if she’s ‘Via.”

“Drea isn’t staying, either.  This is Vic, Kevin, [], Sandy-”  She went through the whole list. “We haven’t figured out the details yet, of course…”

“Of course not, dear.” Liv’s mother patted her shoulder.  “We’ll work it out, though. Tonight, let’s call it a slumber party.  I think we can all fit if you’re willing to fudge a few traffic laws… come on, then, scoot in.  I’ve gotten more than this in a smaller car when I was your age.”

Abseil, squished in a back seat, shared a look between Olly and Liv.  “Did the mall-?” she whispered. 

Not quietly enough.  Liv’s mother turned to look at her.  “There’s a certain understanding that comes the first time your child wanders off and you have to find them.  And, beyond that – even your parents were young once. Once you’ve anchored yourself, once you’ve put your name in the book – it never really leaves you.

“Besides.”  She buckled her seat belt and started the SUV.  “Remember Martha and Marty at church? Did you really think they were twins with the same name?”

Want more?

 

Running in the Bear Empire 66: Father Snake

Dec6

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous: 65: An Emperor Indeed
Next: Target
🐻

She stuck her head carefully back into the door of the Emperor’s Waiting room, guiding three Claw who she was fairly certain were faithful.  Aucheria lowered the bow and nodded.  

“Any luck with information?”  She and Carrone had been searching side- compound from here for what seemed like hours, but they had only been attacked once, and that by a confused and worried kitchen staffer. 

“A few things.”  Aucheria gestured to the side, where a Fang of the Serpent was bound, gagged, and looking a bit green.  “The potion of tongue-loosening is brewing, but I had trouble getting Mesaruxenne to agree to it, and without his consent-“ Continue reading →

A Blog Post: NanoWrimo Wrap-Up

Dec6

 Hey all.

The last … um… Autumn has been a bit nuts.

New therapist! Tried three new ADHD drugs (#3 might be a winner). Got sick for most of October (probably drug #1). NaNaWriMo and a new wordcount record in November.

Then Wednesday my dad had surgery to clean plaque out of his carotid artery.

So uh. It’s been a pretty nuts season. Continue reading →

Worldbuilding Wednesday: TIR Talk – Follow-up Questions

Dec5

Kunama asked:

How did the children of Danu become royalty?

Ah, an interesting question from the left there.  Okay.  The children of Danu are royalty because they declared themselves such.

And that is a documented fact, so I’m not risking myself in any way with this question.

The children of Danu came here – to California, to North America – when hundreds and thousands of other people were immigrating here, and they found a place where they could lay claim.

Their powers weren’t as strong back then as they are now, but “in the land of the blind” and all that.  There’s no indication in historical records of any specifics, but considering what Queen Larissa is known to be able to do, one can extrapolate backwards to what her ancestors may have been able to do, and a woman with the ability to, for instance, read her opponents’ minds or convince them to do what she says, convince them to love her, convince them that she is the proper person for a position or simply blackmail them very effectively.

Again – there is no proof or even written suggestions that the early Queens and Duchesses of Tír na Cali used any of those powers on anyone.  None of the contemporary histories mention anything of the sort – the women of Danu’s children of that era were immensely charismatic, and that is documented and also unsurprising. Many women of the Danu today are also very charismatic.

But they created the nation and, in doing so, they created the hierarchy and the positions and titles which made them royal.  And thus they are royalty.

And that is the story that the history books tell, and that is the story that I’m going to tell up here.

This is a follow-up to two weeks ago’s “TIR Talk” post – feel free to ask more questions on any of the Worldbuilding Wednesday posts! 

 

Worldbuilding Wednesday – the Aunt Family

Dec5

Last week I was taking questions on the Aunt Family and magic!  I got two.

Eseme asked: Much of their magic seems to be craft based, and involves imbuing magic in items. Does this only work on handmade objects?

I imagine if you were sitting at a mechanical knitting loom or fabric loom and putting all of your magic and will into it, you could probably imbue magic into its creation as well, but I think that’s not as easy — it takes more concentration & attention to the magic – than doing it the “old-fashioned” way. 

Imbuing an object that you haven’t made at all with magic – a trinket from the store – would require a lot more power, and thus would usually be part of some sort of ritual, generally involving several casters at once.

🍰 

@SamTTC on Twitter asked:  Is there any relationship between calorie cost to the caster relative to the energy output of a spell?

That’s a good question.  I’ve definitely done that in other settings – Fae Apoc, Tír na Cali for sure.

In Aunt Family, I’d say that there IS a relationship, but the ratio depends on the strength of the caster and the strength of the connections she has to pull on.

That is, the same spell and effect would take much more physical energy for a weak caster with no family (or family land) to draw on, than for one of the Aunts of a Family, especially if she was on family land – running a marathon vs. walking a mile, for a bit of an exaggeration. 

👩‍🌾

 

Meter Maid

Dec5

This story was written because Anke posted this toot and I had an idea. 

There’d been a time when Pat’s co-workers had snickered “meter maid” when Pat left for work, but that time – that had been before the city had managed to push through a very obscure translation of a caelo usque ad centrum and managed to make it stick by the sheer tenacity of the city’s lawyers.

Now – now Pat suited up, along with a brigade of other meter maids, grey ghosts, and they strapped onto their jet scooters.

Nobody parked illegally in the city anymore.  There’d been one case, a month ago.  The people nearby had physically moved the car out of the illegal spot and into a fountain several blocks away.  Nobody had listened to the illegal-parker’s complaints.

People fed the meters and the city allowed it, because someone was paying for that spot.  People went out of their way to park tidily.

And Pat and the grey ghosts jetted up into the sky, up out of the atmosphere, and into the parking spots around the asteroid belt and the city’s first space station.   It wasn’t a safe job, not with the Ih(oh)ill bombers still swooping down at seemingly random intervals to hit the stations or the miners, not with the Higun being, well, as Higun as possible in an attempt to counter rumors that them not attacking Earth was a sign of cowardice, not with some of the unknown aliens still trying to test out Earth’s strength on occasion instead of just ignoring their laws and, say, their parking regulations.

But when you could slap a parking ticket and a drive inhibitor on a Higun spacehopper and then very politely explain the city laws, when you dodged an Ih(oh)ill bomber and managed to hit it with an illegal-driving outside of accepted lanes ticket which came with not only the drive inhibitor but also an immediate impound order (self-reinforcing, of course, like the drive inhibitor), when you caught some alien equivalent of a teenager trying to park in the park (which would be “it is free space, no? Then free it should be for any activity.”) and slapped them with just a big enough fine to make them think about pranking some other city next time –

It still wasn’t a safe job, not by a very long shot.  But it was a fun job.

And Pat’s fellow officers saluted when the grey ghosts left and cheered when they came home, and that made it even more fun.

 

Want more?

 

Meter maid (and Wiktionary) and Grey Ghost.