Unexpected Family

Feb10

This is written to Rix_Scaedu‘s commissioned prompt.

“I think you should know that I’m going to hate you forever.” Sullivan shot off an Abatu working, one that had taken some practice to perfect. The collar he’d been wearing for a year vanished in a spray of fireworks.

“You’re more than welcome to hate me for as long as you want.” Vilhemina’s voice displayed irritation for the first time in the entire year. “I, for one, am not going to miss our relationship at all.”

“That’s two of us.” They shared a child. That would make things awkward, anywhere but Addergoole. Anyone but the fae. Being in Addergoole, being fae, they had a creche and the Law to handle that.

What did make things awkward for them, however, was that their parents, Sullivan’s mother and Vilhemina’s father, were chatting, chatting, as if they didn’t have a care in the world. As if they didn’t now share a grandchild. As if they hadn’t set their kids up for this awkward situation.

“Mom?” Sullivan called. It sounded a little bit pitiful, and they both knew it. In a moment of tired camaraderie, Vilhemina called out, just as sadly.

“Dad? My summer’s burning up.”

“Coming, coming.” Vilhemina’s father bore the guilty look of a parent putting themselves first. It was a look Vilhemina already knew from the inside.

“Sorry.” The little abashed mutter could have been to Vilhemina, or it could have been to the parents hurrying over. “It’s just, this place…”

“Oh, is this your son, Allana?” Vilhemina’s father was suddenly smiling. “Well, I guess we’ll have cause to see each other again, then, won’t we? What Cohort?”

“Fifteenth.” Sullivan muttered it uncomfortably, shoulders hunched. “Three more years.”

“And my Vilhemina has two more. Wonderful.”

“Yeah. Wonderful.” They shared a glance. This had potential to get very, very awkward.

~

“And maybe we can see your little friend Sullivan’s mother again when we drop you off.”

“Dad, did you seriously call Sullivan ‘my little friend?”

“Well. He’s rather little. And he’s your friend, right?”

“I’m really not sure what world you live in, Dad, but if you could ship some of its drugs over to this plane, it would be awesome.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Do you have any idea what kind of school you’re sending me to?”

“It’s an elite boarding school.”

“Not the bullshit answers, Dad. The real ones. The truth about Addergoole.”

“Well. Um.” Yeah, no answers were coming out there.

“Right. So, let’s not talk about my little friend anymore, okay? Not that little. Not my friend.”

“You two seemed close enough when we picked you up.”

Vilhemina shook her head. There were some situations where it really just wasn’t worth it, trying to talk to her father. “Look. I just… don’t want to be involved, okay?”

“I know you think your old man can’t still get it on…”

“No, no, it’s not that at all!” Not with Mike VanderLinden as a professor, it certainly wasn’t. “It’s just… look, Dad, can you trust me for once?”

“Well, I think you’re being silly, but all right. Whatever Allana and I do, we’ll leave you out of it.”

That was the best she was going to get. “Thanks. Thanks.” It would have to do.

~

A school year is a long time to ignore someone. It’s longer when you share a child, even if neither of you really quite want to admit that you have that kid. Sullivan kept running into things that just screamed Vilhemina, in places that should have been safe. He Kept someone for three weeks, thinking that that would help, somehow, like washing the taste of her out of her mouth. All it did was make things worse.

A school year is a long time. The wait for your parents can seem even longer, especially when it’s you and your former Keeper waiting at the end. Especially when those parents show up in a car together.

Sullivan and Vilhemina shared a glance.

Sullivan sighed. “This is going to be bad, isn’t it?”

“Well… yeah. Yeah, it is. Have you told them yet?”

“No.” Sullivan shook his head. “Have you?”

“No. I didn’t want to admit…”

“Yeah, that too. And they seemed so happy together.”

“Kids! Good news!” Vilhemina’s father bore a smile that could only lead to badness. “Allana and I have had a long talk, and she’s agreed to marry me. We’ll be moving in together this summer, as soon as we get you two settled in.”

“…what?”

They wanted to be surprised, they really did. Somehow, however, neither of them could manage it. The two of them shared another glance.

“We should go to Maureen’s, first, shouldn’t we?” They’d been doing a good job of pretending they didn’t have a daughter together. But if they were going to have to pretend they were family…

“Yeah.” Vilhemina sighed. “Yeah, we should.”

“What?” Vilhemina’s father looked very perplexed. Sullivan almost felt bad for him. Especially when Vilhemina began.

“You see, Dad, when a Keeper and a Kept don’t like each other very much…”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/472369.html. You can comment here or there.

Side Story Saturday: Shahin in College

Feb9

This is a drabble of Shahin, from Addergoole: TOS, during the time of Chapter Two of Addergoole: Year 9

“…and that’s why I think that interpretation is ridiculous.”

Shahin would never be a brilliant student, but college – even college while juggling four children – was so much easier than Addergoole that she couldn’t help but play around a bit.

Her professor was giving her the supposed-to-be-intimidating glare that she got such a kick out of. “While that’s an interesting theory, Miss…”

“Mrs.”

“Mrs. Morn, it fails to take into account the implications of the court case we’re actually discussing.”

“But those implications would not have been in place at the time of the theory’s penning.” Shahin smirked. Human teachers were so much fun.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/471969.html. You can comment here or there.

That Gal Thursday (Belated): Ellen

Feb8

Ellen cy’Akinobu
Seventh Cohort
Crew: Shandar and Ciara, [Amadeus]

Some people walk into Addergoole and decide that they are simply not going to engage in the drama, stress, and trouble that is part and parcel of the education.

Ellen is one of those people.

Her Keeping by Rory Year 7 (read about Rory here and here, 3rd section) was, by Addergoole standards, a good one, mild, gentle, marred only by the mark Callista had inadvertently left on Rory. But it was still supernatural mind-control, and left Ellen with a distaste for
All Things Magical. Her philosophy in life is essentially: Keep your Head Down and Don’t Make Waves.

Perhaps understandably, this clashes with Ciara’s personality quite a bit.

Ellen is a short, busty girl, standing 5’0″ with an hourglass figure reminiscent of Jamie from Girls with Slingshots. She wears her curly brown hair in a short pixie cut, and prefers flowing, simple, natural clothes. She has green eyes and honey-brown skin; her Change gives her hair the same color as her eyes, long pointed ears, and a faint metallic sheen to her skin.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/471521.html. You can comment here or there.

Totally Saturated Big Brother

Feb6

For [personal profile] rix_scaedu‘s commissioned continuation of Big Brother.

Ashele had to talk to Katina before she talked to Mr. Ankay.

She wasn’t sure how to broach her question: “did you see someone sitting next to you?” didn’t seem to cover it.

Jacque solved that dilemma for her, at least. “Did you see that totally saturated boy? The one sitting next to your kid sister?”

Saturated was better even than in-depth. Ashele tried not to smile and pretended not to know what Jacque was talking about. “You mean Mr. Pierson, my piano teacher? He’s maybe a little in-depth…”

“Oh, come on, he must be your cousin or something. Doesn’t your mother at least have a big brother?”

“No. But my dad has three.” Could it have been a cousin? Mr. Ankay had acted like there was something to talk about, but maybe, maybe it was nothing at all, just an older cousin showing up for no reason at all.

“You’ve utts got to introduce me. Me, first, before Bradelli or Miko. Promise it, Ashele. Data port swear it.”

“I don’t know who he is, Jacque.”

“But your kid sister does. And if your kid sister does, eventually you will. It’s the big brother rule.”

“I hate it when you do that.”

“I know. But it’s true. She’s your kid sister. Thus, you will get to glare at the boy, and then you will introduce me. Ergo Sum.”

“Ergo sum yourself. What if he’s dating my kid sister?”

“…oh. Well, if he’s not? Then you’re data-port swearing.”

Ashele couldn’t argue with her logic. “If he’s not dating Katina, I will introduce you to him before I introduce Bradelli or Miko. Data-port swear.”

Jacque was satisfied. And Ashele was mostly-comfortable with it. Mostly. She was pretty sure that she could manage not introducing her imaginary brother to anyone else before Jacque, but data-port swears were nothing to mess with. Everyone knew you could get a nasty virus that way.

Her friends dealt with, or at least one friend, Ashele tracked down Katina. She, in turn, was talking to dad.

“I told you we needed a big brother.”

“And I told you that you had a perfectly serviceable big sister. You shouldn’t be so bound by societal trends, Kattie.”

“Easy for you to say!” Katina was working up a good head of steam.

“Woah, woah, cowgirl.” Ashele stepped in and took the irritation on herself. “You know you’re right. I know you’re right. Deep in his sandbit heart, Dad knows you’re right. He’s still Dad, though, and that means we gotta pretend to respect him, especially in public, where all his friends can see.”

“Thank you, Ashele… I think.” Her father frowned at her. “So. Do you want to talk about it?”

Um.

She held up her diploma. “I graduated. High honors and everything.”

“You did, and I’m very proud of you. But, Ashele, people noticed that manifestation. And if you don’t work on controlling that, you’re going to have created a Solid. And then what will you do?”

“We’ll have a big brother, that’s what! If you’d just done things right…”

Ashele couldn’t bring herself to argue with Katina’s logic.

Their father looked like he was having trouble with it, too. “Girls. You know why we chose to do things the way we did…”

“No, actually.” Ashele was getting too wound up to be polite. “No. We know you had some worry about ‘societal norms,’ but all that meant is that I had to be big brother to Katina and not have one of my own, when all my friends did.”

“I…” Their father sat down, hard. “I would ask if it really meant that much to you, but you manifested a solid creation in the middle of a crowded theater. It certainly mattered to you.”

“Yeah.” She wasn’t sure how to deal with him agreeing with her. He’d never done that before, at least not over the brother issue. “Yeah. Look at my friends. Their brothers are all here, cheering them on. Their brothers pulled them out of messes. Their brothers helped them out and tutored them in math.”

“And you got through math without a tutor, taught Katina, and bloodied enough noses that the teachers had us in their top emergency call file. You’re a strong, lovely young woman, and you did it without the help of a big brother.”

“Are you saying I wouldn’t have been strong with one? How would you know? Maybe I could have learned to hoverblade sooner. Maybe I could have passed that Ivy admittance exam.”

Their father sighed. “Well, what will you do with one now?”

“What will I… what?”

“You created him, Ashele. He exists now, even if he’s not solid at the moment. You’ve made the big brother you always wanted. So what are you going to do with him?”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/470615.html. You can comment here or there.

Little Fears and Little Hopes

Feb6

This is a continuation of The Darkness in the Shadows (LJ) to [personal profile] kc_obrien‘s commissioned continuation.

Dawn was threatening, waving its red flag of war at the edge of the horizon.

Up aboveground, the good people of the world would be waking up, cleaning off their dreams, putting on their day-skins.

Down on the streets, the monsters were slipping back into the cracks, back into their basement caves. They cradled the last few night-time whispers, gathering them like grain before the storm, like fruit before the frost. The days could be so very long, down in the gutter.

It was a clear night, the sort where dawn would burn its way clear of the night time faster than expected. There were no clouds to shroud the world, to protect it for a few precious moments. And that sort of dawn would burn the creatures who thrived on the night.

Still, they lingered. It had been a lean night, too cold, too bleak for many passers-by, too deep into winter for much hope, for many shining dreams. They would be hungry through the day. They would start nibbling on what little they could see through the grates, if they went to their caves hungry.

And that way lay trouble. That way lay madness. One nibble, then another. One daytime theft, and then you were slipping out during the rain storms. One early riser grabbing too much, and then everyone was whispering in the ears of the nine-to-fivers.

There was a place for the monsters, and that place was in the gutters. Everyone had to remember that for the world to work properly.

They knew that.

And yet this little monster lingered, peeking out from under the stairs, waiting. It was a hungry troll, near to starving, for the big fears often eat first, and the little ones eat what’s left.

A girl stumbled down the street, feet sore, body exhausted, her short dress no coverage at all against the cold. Somewhere, someone made a noise like a wolf-whistle. Somewhere else, someone made a noise like a gunshot.

The little troll licked his lips. She was bright, and shiny, and full of hope, but the fear was beginning to overwhelm her. He could taste the tiniest hopes, and he licked at them, like a creature might lick at moss.

It scooted out of the darkness a little. She stumbled on a piece of ice and fell forward. The trolls, the monsters, the nightmares, all inched forward hungrily. If she fell…

The little troll snuck out a little further. If she fell, she would fall nearest its hole.

Fear surged in the woman, and hope. She could see the bus. If she could only make it to the bus on time, she could get home in time. If she could get home in time…

The little troll ate up the hope. Yes, yes. Wish for the bus to slow down. It’s always late, it’s always slow. Wish a little more. Run a little faster.

Run a little faster in those silly shoes. The road is smoother than you think. The road is fine.

The sun was rising, but she was right there, right there. The little troll reached out… just as the girl tripped and fell.

Dawn was the time for pushing things. The time for hope, and the time for fear. Dawn was the time when some people just vanished. Just fell into holes, the people said. Fell between the cracks.

Dawn was a lean time, but sometimes, the creatures underground got fat as the sun snuck through the clouds.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/470276.html. You can comment here or there.

Tasty Tuesday: Baked Apple Steel-Cut Oats

Feb5

On weekends when we’re feeling like taking the time, we like to eat steel cut oats. They’re chewier and earthier tasting than rolled oats, but they can be very time-consuming (and really irritating to do in the microwave. Boil-overs everywhere!)

This is one of our go-to recipes, modified from The Kitchn‘s Baked Pumpkin Steel-Cut Oats.

The recipe claims to serve 4 to 6. This is a heavy breakfast for 3 to 4 for us.

1 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 1/2 cups steel cut oats
1 cup unsweetened applesauce or apple butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
(we use fresh ground spices for all but the ginger)
4 cups warm water
(Sometimes I use apple cider for part of it, or I put in 1/4c powdered milk.)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Pre-heat oven to 375F

Use an oven-safe pot on the stovetop on medium to medium-high.

Melt half the butter.

Add the oats, and toast them, stirring frequently, until they change color and smell toasty.

Move the oats to one side of the pan. Melt the second half of the butter, then add the applesauce and cook until it starts to stick to the bottom.

Add spices and water/milk/cider, and stir until everything is combined. Lid your pan, and put it in the oven.

Cook for 35 minutes. Let sit on the stove for approx. 5 minutes to thicken and cool to edibility.

Garnish with chopped walnuts, if you wish, drizzle on a bit of milk, and sweeten to taste. It doesn’t take much!

And now you, too, can enjoy a Thorne Family Saturday morning!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/470108.html. You can comment here or there.