Why Swords, a setting drabble of Faerie Apoc post-apoc, for the Giraffe Call

Apr10

After:
Toy Soldiers
With Friends Like These…,
Cleaning Up and
this scrap (http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/398701.html)

“Why swords?” Ty lounged – there was nothing else to call it – on Shahin’s bed, watching her as she prepared herself for battle once again. “It’s not like you don’t know what guns are. It’s not like you couldn’t get someone to Meen… damnit… to create them for you.” It pressed both hands to its forehead as the pain of nearly disobeying an order hit.

Shahin took a moment from her preparations to stroke Ty’s hair until the pained look went away. “Supply chain, primarily. And not getting jumped by other people who would like guns and don’t have someone to Meentik them up.”

“Supply chain?”

“If you have a gun, you need bullets. You need someone who can repair it. You need someone who can make guns, or find them, either magically or through old tech – and that takes parts, and materials, and machinery. Supply chain. A sword takes a hot enough forge and a guy with a good arm and some practice.”

She made tiny circles with the tip of her weapon. “Besides, it’s in my Name.”

Ty laughed, although its eyes were tracking the point of the blade. “That’s a good reason. You could have just said ‘style,’ you know.”

“I have been accused of being the world’s vainest warrior.” Fairly, she had to admit. “But this isn’t just vanity. People have guns, sure. But people have more pointed things. This sword is pushing it, really. A pitchfork would be more normal, or a machete.” She tilted her head at her weapons rack, where she had examples of both. “The world is a lot more obviously violent than it used to be, and a lot more poor in manufacturing.”

“I do live in the same world you do, you know.” Now its pride was pricked. Shahin couldn’t help but smile.

“Now you do. But until we captured you – no, I don’t think you did.”

Monsters

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/508553.html. You can comment here or there.

Djinni Icon Days!

Apr10

Djinni finished up the most recent batch of icons!


Oligarchy!


Kyle, from Addergoole: Year 9


Ce’Rilla and Vidrou, children of Ag:9 (and therafter) characters.
Also Addergoole’s Cutest Couple Ever.
Vidrou is mostly @inventrix’s character.

So!

Djinni has Another Free Icon Day Open!

Go ahead and go request yours. I’ll wait.

Done? Cool. Don’t forget to tip if you have a little to spare. I’ll wait.

Tipped? Cool. NOW. Who should I request?

My thought is: one Addergoole character (Probably Eluned, Jovanna, or Akaterina),

one currently-active fiction character for another ‘verse,

and one… I dunno, just-for-fun?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/508189.html. You can comment here or there.

The Black Tower and its Council – a setting piece of Dragons Next Door

Apr9

“What is the Black Tower?” The dragon cocked its head to the side, narrowly missing knocking over the fence.

I blinked. The Tower has such a reputation among our people that it’s hard to remember it’s not that well known outside of the community. Even most other humans wouldn’t know what I was talking about – and I imagine the dragons handled such things in their own way. “The Black Tower is…” I resisted the impulse to end that with “…the Black Tower.” “It’s an academy of magic, considered highly prestigious but also highly dangerous. Sage attended there.”

“Ah, the Sandborn.” Zizny nodded. “We have heard of that place. On rare occasion, a young dragon will study there.”

“Yes, the Sandborn.” I’d forgotten it had a proper name.

–The Black Tower

The Sandborn Academy, the Black Tower, is a spire sticking into the sky, a nightmare against the night-time, the whisper lazy parents use to threaten naughty children. “If you’re not good, the Black Tower will send someone to get you.”

The Black Tower has no interest in naughty children. The Black Tower has very little interest in children at all, except as a necessary step in getting to the next generation of magi.

That is, of course, only as much as the Black Tower has a self to exhibit any interest at all. Regardless of rumor, conjecture, or fear, the buildings of the Black Tower do not, themselves, have sentience (yet).

The sentience of Sandborn Academy resides in its Head and its Council of Elders – seven magi who rule over the school with an iron fist and a steel-belted will. How they determine things within the confines of their Council chamber is a mystery; their dictates are handed down without explanation and with very little chance for appeal, and, in public, the Council presents a united front.

Their dictates rule everything in the Black Tower: who is admitted, and when; what the uniforms look like, and when they change; what is taught on the curriculum, and in the special independent study classes; what is served for dinner in the Dining Halls. Their dictates also determine when a member of the Council retires or is promoted to Head, and who joins the Council, and when.

There is nobody living who has ever met someone who has turned down a seat on the Black Tower Council. They may be the deans of a secondary school, but their power stretches far further than that.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/507893.html. You can comment here or there.

Questioned, a story for the Giraffe Call (@Inventrix)

Apr9

For [personal profile] inventrix‘s prompt.

Mikary had heard the calling so loudly she had thought, for a moment, she was going deaf.

She had taken that calling and hitched her wagon to it, packed her whole life into two packs and gone questing.

“Why now?” her mother moaned. “The lovely boy down the street was just beginning to look at you properly.”

“Why there?” her father frowned. “There’s dangers on the road you can’t imagine, and monsters in the woods.”

“Why Andrung?” Everyone wanted to know that. “Why the Missing god, the lost god, the failed god?”

“Why Paladin?” The boy down the street was as lovely as Mikary’s mother said. “Why god-touched, why pure, why would you go adventuring at all?”

Mikary had no answers for them, so she gave none. The voice of Andrung was loud in her head, so loud she could barely hear the questions anyway. She packed up what few possessions she had, and she walked.

“Why now?” Villagers could see the godhead about her, and that was enough for them to give her sustenance and shelter, to ask her for blessings and prayers. It was enough for them to ask questions. “The roads will be wet with mud and thick with brigands, now.”

“Why there?” The other Paladins she passed were generally polite enough not to sneer at her choice of faith, but her choice of locations, on the other hand… “That forest has been blasted and useless for generations.’

“Why Andrung?” Even the Paladins asked that eventually. “Why the god that left, the god that does nothing, the god with no light?”

Mikary had no answers for them, so she gave none. She gave blessings – Andrung had no light, but there was warmth aplenty. Andrung may do nothing, but the gift of the god allowed Mikary to do plenty.

On the road, at least, nobody asked “Why Paladin.”

“Why now?” The forest was dark, and the voice of the god had left her head. The only voice was the traveler in front of her – tall, taller than the tallest man in Mikary’s village, and nearly as broad as the road. “Why do you travel now, when the farms need tending?”

“Why here?” His companion stepped from the forest. Only half as tall as the first one, he was twice as wide. “Why come to the depth of the world, where the monsters live”?

“Why a paladin of Andrung?” This one was a shadow on the other side of the road, with a voice like a granny. “Why the god the world bypassed? Why the god who was thrown off?”

For them, Mikary found she had answers.

“I come now because I was called. The roads are muddy, the crops need tending, and the man back home will have found another girl when I return. But now is when Andrung called me.

“And here is where he called. I answer the voice of my god, to the forest dark and blasted and perhaps full of monsters, because the god called me here. Where else would I walk?

“And who else would I choose? Andrung chose me, when naught else would satisfy. The forsaken god, the forsworn god, perhaps, but I come here, I came now, I came for Andrung. Because Andrung called me.”

“Then come to your god.” The three spoke as one, and Mikary understood, finally, why she had come.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/507478.html. You can comment here or there.

Veils, a story of the Giraffe Call for @Rix_Scaedu

Apr5

To Rix’s prompt: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/630713.html?thread=3925689#t3925689

“Why are we doing this?” Drakur tugged at the thin veils and whispy pants. “You’d look better in this than I would.”

“We both know that’s a lie.” Dortha was a stout woman, an earth-witch and a tree-wife, the strongest Drakur had ever met. She was handsome, but not lovely, not in the way that people at the auction would drool over.

Drakur. Drakur was. He looked down at himself. “Okay. I look okay, I guess.” He wasn’t big and bulky like some swords-slingers (or like some farmboys) were. He was just… skinny and rock-hard. And apparently looked really believable as a harem slave.

“You look delicious. I’d buy you myself.”

“Now just remember, the point is to not let me get bought by anyone. We just want to get in there, not to have me go off with some frighting old crone.”

“I can remember a plan. Especially one I thought up.”

“Just see that we stick to it.”

~

“Thirty-five gold, do I hear forty? Forty gold, do I hear forty-five? Forty five, do I hear fifty? Forty five, going once, going twice SOLD to the woods-witch. Come get him, lady, he’s a sharp one, isn’t he? Look at that chest, look how it shines, you’re going to have fun with him, aren’t you?”

“Oh, yes I am.” Dortha grabbed the leash wrapped around Drakur’s neck. “Come on, boy.“

“What happened to the plan?” He hissed it out of the side of his mouth as he stumbled along. Dortha was a double handspan shorter than he was, and she was pulling down on the leash.

“The plan succeeded. We got what we needed.”

“Then let me go!”

“Oh, no, I spent forty-five gold on you. I’m going to have fuuun.

“…shit.”

“You do look really good in the veils.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/507302.html. You can comment here or there.

Summary of Recent Non-Giraffe Writing

Apr4

Addergoole

Fashion in Addergoole After the Apocalypse, a series of Vignettes (LJ)
Lazy Bidding (LJ)

That Guy/Girl/Squirrel
Tigg (LJ)
Reese (LJ)

Way-back Wednesday
Akatil Yixox (LJ)

Luke and Myst
Matters (by Rion)
Finale (LJ)
Finale, Turnabout (By Rion)
Yes (LJ)

Tír na Cali

Will That Be All? (LJ) Lord Tony and Miss Pepper

Aunt Family

Precedent (LJ) After Intimately Involved – F’locked

Non-Fiction

Thorne Thursdays
But We’re a Cat Family! (LJ) Visiting Newfoundlands

Tasty Tuesdays
Babka for Easter (LJ)

Magic Mondays
Dragons Next Door and Jin (LJ)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/506780.html. You can comment here or there.

March Giraffe Call: Summary

Apr4

The Call (LJ)

We reached $45 in donation from three donors; there were 12 prompters. No new prompters or donors.

Oh HEY! You guys, I still owe you two setting stories from last month. What settings would you like to see expanded on?

We reached this level of donations:
At $40 in donations, everyone who donated will get an additional microfic written to their prompts. I will choose 1 non-donater at random to receive an additional microfic as well.

[personal profile] thnidu! You will get a second story written. Do you have a new prompt or should I write again from the first one?

The stories so far:
Rin/Girey
Blade (LJ)

Reiassan Early
Sword (LJ)

Science!
In Theory (LJ)

Misc: Fantasy
The Toll (LJ)
The Tower Needs (LJ)
Into the Fire (LJ)
Clean (LJ)

Fae Apoc
Zelda and Solange in the post-apoc
Short/Cut (LJ)
Teamwork (LJ)

Stranded World
Ax Fight (LJ)

Facets of Dusk
The Sword/Sorcery World
Cloaked (did not xpost)
Deep in the Autumn Air (LJ)
Thick (LJ)
Changing (LJ)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/506497.html. You can comment here or there.

Changing, a continuation of Facets of Dusk for the Giraffe Call (@Lilfluff)

Apr4

Afer Thick, after Deep in the Autumn Air, after Cloaked. To [personal profile] lilfluff‘s prompt

“Change us.” Xenia hid a twitch in an adjustment of her absurd cloak. How anyone could shoot in this, she didn’t know. (How Aerich knew she had a title she really, really didn’t know. She’d pry that out of him later. In private.) “I do not wish to be changed.”

“Sometimes such things happen despite our will.” If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought that he sounded sympathetic.

“Would you say that’s something changing us?” Cole was pointing along the road with his staff.

What they’d thought was a small village around the base of the castle was, well, a small village around the base of the castle. But now that they were closer, they could see that the town didn’t suit the genre of the world they’d stepped into.

“Is that a saloon?”

“Complete with saloon girls.”

“Is that a knight?”

“Complete with shining armour.”

The team shared a glance. “There’s a wild west town.” Cole sounded tired. Xenia didn’t blame him.

“Surrounding a medieval-style castle.” Josie sounded worried. Xenia didn’t blame her, either.

“Are we on a movie set?” Alexa stepped forward. “This doesn’t seem thin enough for a movie set.”

“Most worlds with movies don’t have this much magic.” Aerich always had to contradict Alexa. Xenia wished they’d get back to fucking and stop all the arguing.

“So.” Peter stepped forward. Good, solid, boring, reliable Peter. “So what we have is either a very strange world, or a slip between worlds. Perhaps a Door that someone else opened?”

“I’d say it bears investigating.” Xenia stepped up next to him. “Come on, Cole. Lead on, Fearless Leader.”

“You guys are nuts.” Still, Cole stepped back to the front of the group.

“That’s why you hired us.” It felt good to be nuts. It felt good to be actually exploring.

The air might be thick with magic, but Xenia was full with adventure.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/506303.html. You can comment here or there.