February is World Building Month; March is Catch-Up Day 27: Unicorn/Factory

Mar5

[personal profile] piratekitten has declared February world-building month.

And now I’m catching up in March!

The question post is here, please feel free to add more questions!

The twenty-seventh question comes from [personal profile] wispfox and is for Unicorn/Factory

here did the unicorns originally come from?
Nobody knows, and everyone has theories.

The people who live in the Villages, the ones who used to sometimes lose a daughter or possibly just misplace her for a while to the unicorns, they say that the creatures were born out of the deep canyon that lies four day’s journey east of Easton.

Certainly the first that the people in the Villages can remember when there were very few unicorns, and those were sighted only in the easternmost parts of the country, only near that horrible canyon or the deep and impassible river that shoots out of it.

The Administrators and those who come from Centon City, the “Enlightened” and “Educated” folk, believe that the unicorns are a natural environmental response to changing factors; that something like a goat was pressed into service by nature itself to be a sort of cleaning service as well as a check on human population growth.

(There are, from that, two opinions stemming outwards: that that’s a useful and reasonable thing for nature to do, and that nature ought not dare mess with mankind and its growth and creation – the second factor being that which has sought the eradication of the unicorns.)

There is a third point of view, a very quietly whispered one, that says that the mysterious and never-spoken-of, never-seen Governors created the unicorns for some unknown purpose.

My theory, as the author and world-creator, is a bit of all three. Certainly the Governors created the situation in which unicorns were needed; they may have evolved to fit a niche, but considering their relatively unique form of species propagation, natural evolution seems unlikely.

But they did come to the land in which these stories are set from the east, from the canyon, and they did come to fill a need both the land and the people had.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/686867.html. You can comment here or there.

Food Log 3/3 and 3/4

Mar5

(whoops)

3/3/2014
Coffee, 1/4c 2% milk, 1t sugar
Cheerios, 1/2 cup
tiny apples
egg salad w/ lettuce
Coco multigrain pop cake, x4
Puffed grain cake x2
Peanut Butter, 1T&1t
Risotto
Chocolate Chip Cookies

That was an indulgence because I was feeling cranky, and put me a bit over for the evening. Whoops.

3/4/2014
Coffee, 1/4c 2% milk, 1t sugar
Cardio grocery shopping
Cheerios, 1/2 cup
tiny apples
Pad Thai Tofu
Puffed grain cake x2
Peanut Butter, 1T
Gym, treadmill, intense, 1/2 hour
2 pancakes w/ syrup

much better day!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/686614.html. You can comment here or there.

Broad Universe Wikipedia Project – a signal boost

Mar3

I think this will be relevant to the interests of several of the people who read my blog.

http://kalaity.com/2014/03/01/broad-universe-wikipedia-project/

Women artists made a concerted effort recently to get more of them written into history. More people turn to Wikipedia than to any other source. Women are still largely missing unless they are the few really big names in history…
Only 2% of the users edit Wikipedia. A huge percentage of them are male. And as time goes on fewer people are doing any editing, so diversity is bound to be an issue.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/686286.html. You can comment here or there.

Weight loss blog: I’m not talking to my scale.

Mar3

Stayed well within points all week. Ate veggies, drank plenty of fluids, went to the gym three times. I’m being healthy and proper and everything.

I am not currently on speaking terms with my scale.

We’ll see if I am again in a couple days.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/685897.html. You can comment here or there.

Food Log 3/2/14

Mar2

Bread pudding with banana (Small batch)
Cereal (Fiber One stuff, not very tasty)
Egg salad
Butternut Soup
Biscuits (Cheese biscuits, even)
Ice Cream

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/685589.html. You can comment here or there.

Potential submissions – mostly a list for my own reference

Mar2

Tim House, tribes, <10,000, April 15th http://www.tinhouse.com/magazine/submission-guidelines.html

Fiction magazine, April 5, http://www.fictioninc.com/submissions.html

Riptide http://riptidepublishing.com/call-for-submissions (several themes, several deadline)

Inscription, 500-9000, http://www.inscriptionmagazine.com/submissions/

Fantasy Scroll, microfiction on up, http://fantasyscrollmag.com/submissions/

Pulp Literature http://pulpliterature.com/submission-guidelines/ up to 75 pages “Any genre or between-genre work of literature or visual art “

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/685375.html. You can comment here or there.

The Collar Job, Part VIII

Mar2

Part I (and on LJ)

Part II (and on LJ)

Part III (and on LJ)

Part IV (and on LJ)

Part V (and on LJ)

Part VI (and on LJ)

Part VII (and on LJ)

This is … what happens when you let me watch an entire season of Leverage in a week and a half. *cough* Tír na Cali/Leverage fanfiction crossover.

It’s written in an experimental style for me, and, well, it’s fanfic, so pls. be kind.

(There are a lot of commercials. It’s being played on one of those syndicated-show channels, I suppose, TNT or Spike or something.)

Luck of the draw pulled it up twice on my list in a day, after being off rotation for over a week!

Fade back in from commercial. Sophie is wielding a folded piece of paper. “We are not Americans.”

“Because of your…” Parker squints. “Your take-out menu?”

Sophie seems to deflate. “Well, it’s supposed to be my passport, but I don’t exactly carry it around with me, do I?”

“Anyway, you might not be American, but I was born here, and so was Alec… Hardisson. So was Hardisson.”

“It’s cool, Parker, I’ve got this.” Hardisson held up both hands. “We can be English. We can be anything that we want. I’m just that cool. Going in as the Duchess, then? You don’t like her, do you?”

“I don’t like her.” Sophie’s smile is small and tight. “But the Californians love her.”

~

“Here, sit down here.” Lady Anastasia still has her arm around Eliot’s waist; she guides him to an overstuffed armchair in what looks like an expensive but rather spartan bedroom. He sits heavily, shifting and trying to get comfortable while still cuffed hand and foot.

“You really think I’m here to kill you?”

“You’re really not?” She falls into a cross-legged seat at his feet. “Here, hold still.”

“I don’t want to be here at all, lady.” He falls still. “What are you doing?”

She pulls the keys Alessia gave her from her pocket. “Unlocking you.”

Eliot stares down at her, angry all over again. “Why?” Pause. “My lady.”

She looks up at him, her expression serious – a mirror of the face he often wears, albeit in a more gamine face. “Considering the training you’ve likely had, if you’re going to kill me, the shackles will only irritate you. If you’re not going to kill me, there’s no reason to cause you further discomfort.”

“I never said I really was black ops.”

“You never said you weren’t, either. And besides -”

“Takes one to know one.”

“Something like that.” She scoots back, holding the shackles in one hand. “Wrists.”

He shifts so that she can reach the handcuffs, his back to her. “So, now what?”

“Well, first I’m going to get that monstrosity off of you. And then… then we can talk.”

“Look, I’ve got a team back home. Friends. Is there any way I could call them, send them an e-mail?”

She stills. The cuffs come off. “A brief call. But first, I want to talk about a couple things.”

He rubs his wrists. “You’re in charge.”

“Here.” She moves him with a couple light pushes. “One more piece of jewelry to deal with.”

Eliot’s hands go to the collar. “You’ll get this thing off of me?”

She reaches into her drawer and fiddles around for a few minutes. “There has to be a collar. But there doesn’t have to be that thing.”

He stills. “Do it.”

An estate in California

“These… these stepford slaves are creeping me out.” Hardisson closes the door. “We’d better get Eliot soon. I’m going to go postal here.”

Cut, once again, to commercial.

Part IX – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/688747.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/685164.html. You can comment here or there.

Food Log 3/1/14

Mar2

Yesterday wasn’t too hard, because for once I ate in chunks.

Steel Cut Oats with butternut squash, sweetened
Fried egg with onions on toast
Clementines (x2)
Misc house/yard work
Butternut Soup
Chocolate Cake, small batch

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/684850.html. You can comment here or there.

Wrong Door, a story of Facets of Dusk for the Giraffe Call

Mar1

Written to slinkslowdown‘s prompt to the January Giraffe call; they prompted with their OC, Ashe.

Facets of Dusk has a landing page here; a team of explorers are searching out new worlds via inter-dimensional Doors that only one person seems to have the ability to open.

When they open their doors on the wrong world…

“What… what is that thing?”

Cole stared at the… thing. Creature. It looked a bit like a dog, a bit like a wolf, if you ignored the radioactive-yellow eyes and paw pads.

And mouth, you couldn’t forget the mouth. Because the thing was opening its mouth at them, and, oh, my, it was terrifyingly yellow.

“I believe.” Aerich coughed faintly, “that it is safe to assume that it is a demon-canine hybrid.”

“That’s your safe assumption?” Cole took two steps backwards and drew his gun.

“…and that it may be sentient. As such, it might recognize….”

It was too late; the beast was already leaping. Cole shoved Aerich behind him, made sure the mage was in front of their Door-opener, and drew a cudgel from it sheath, all in the second it took the thing to jump.

“Ashe!” Aerich coughed the word out as the beast landed, teeth almost making it to Cole’s throat. “Its – his – name is Ashe. And this is his territory.”

The demon-dog paused, one paw lifted, ready to slice Cole’s face open. It was entirely unclear whether he spoke or used telepathy, but mine came across clear as day.

“Yours,” Cole agreed. He holstered the fun. “We were just leaving.”

“Good.” Ashe grinned at them, or, at least, his mouth opened and he showed a bunch of teeth. “Stay gone.”

Alexa had gotten the Door open again. “Leaving?”

“Leaving,” Cole agreed. They backed slowly through the door. “Mark this one on the do-not-visit-if-we-can-help-it.”

“Good idea.” The demon-dog’s laugh followed them back through the dimensions.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/684666.html. You can comment here or there.