Spoils of War 20 – Aftermath

Sep25

First: Spoils of War I: Surrender

When Aran tapped her on the shoulder, Nikol hadn’t realized that she’d been asleep.  Asleep sitting in the middle of the road in a trapped town. She muttered a couple curses at her stupidity.

“Eat,” he insisted. “I’ve been standing guard.  You — I figure that’s the second time you saved my life.  Oh. And — I found this one. She says you’re an idiot.” He was holding up a cat. 

The cat.  A pressure Nikol had barely noticed lifted.  She took the grumbling cat from Arran and, very carefully, set about petting the beast.  Behind the ears, top of the head, shoulders, spine but not too far back, back to the shoulders.  

“I gave her a magical flea-and-tick treatment as a thank you and fixed her worms and the sore place in her left hip.  I figured that was the best I could do. The ones travelling with us — they’ll tolerate her, but they’re not going to share a saddle with her.”

“This is her home, anyway.”  She petted the cat behind the ears again.  “Thank you for paying my debt to her.” Continue reading →

Bright Lights, Small City (a blog post)

Sep24

I’m generally the sort of person that likes to have plans, well, planned out well in advance. 

But sometimes a friend drops a link in your chat box and says “do you guys want to go to Binghamton tomorrow?”

And… well.  It looked good  — the link, the hanging out with close friends, the relatively short drive (1-½ hour or so).  And we didn’t have anything urgent to do that Saturday, and…

So we drove to Binghamton. 

Binghamton is… well, let’s start.  NYState is in the Rust Belt, which I’m sure you know if you live around here.  It has a lot of remnants of former glory — for instance, I grew up in (near) Rochester, which is the birthplace of Kodak, Xerox, and Bauch and Lomb (film cameras, photocopiers, and eye care/vision enhancement).  You can see not only, say, the Eastman House (George Eastman founded Kodak) but the old Kodak building, the Xerox tower, the great mausoleums for all these people, then Gleason (works) and Strong… hold on I need to google… oh ha.  Henry Alvah Strong, first president of Kodak. Via Helen Strong Carter, his daughter, First Lady of Hawaii in the early 1900s, go Rochester. 

…Strong Museum of Play, it turns out, is a totally different Strong family.   Continue reading →

Landing Post: Space Colonies

Sep24

A series of loosely connected stories involving space colonies and all of the issues therein.

Hidden Mall 83: No. 1 With a Bullet

Sep23

“What if we put a bullet right in the back of your head?  You’re running, what’s going to stop us? Blam, and you’re dead, all your stupid followers are dead.”

“We?  Us?” She picked up her pace to a casual speed walk.  “What’s this we?” she called over her shoulder. “Last I checked, Abby, you don’t have a gun.  So you mean what if I tell these nice SWAT people to shoot you in the back? Don’t you?”

Talking to Evil Abby was surprisingly  — or perhaps not at all surprisingly — like talking to herself in the mirror.  The voice might’ve not been in her head, but it was still nasty and negative.  

“Coward!  Turn and face me!” Continue reading →

Purchase Negotiation 16: Broken

Sep21

First: Purchased: Negotiation
Previous: Owned

💰

“Well.” Mr. MacDiarmad considered Leander.  Leander, in turn, fought with panic. He was not getting sent back to that place.  He wasn’t! He’d… fuck, he’d grovel if he had to. 

“I see my daughter was right.”

It took Leander a moment to process the words — and the rueful tone. “I’m not broken. Sir.”

“No. No, I don’t think you are. But I do think that I might be screwing up… first things first. Leander, do not injure my daughter during sexual situations — with the one caveat to all of your orders that you may slap her and-or bruise her in removing her if she tries to push anything on you that you don’t want. All right?”

Leander felt tension leaving his shoulders. “Thank you, sir.” Continue reading →

Running in the Bear Empire 57 – Chief of the Claw of the Bear, Wife to the Emperor

Sep20

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous:56 – His Grace by the Claw of the Bear Herself
Next: 58 – Husband and Emperor
🐻

The way Carrone was holding his jaw, Deline wasn’t sure if he was afraid he might say something wrong or that he might vomit.  She held his hand anyway and led him into the Emperor’s bathing chamber. 

Unlike Pethiarrie, the two Claws standing guard didn’t give Deline any trouble.  She nodded very politely to them – Seliarre, an Eagle Talon, and Teran, a Fox-Claw – and led Carrone over the tub. 

You’d want me in your bed with the Emperor there., he’d asked, way back in the cabin, before things had gotten even more complicated. 

What are you doing to do? Glare him to death? she’d countered.  The way Carrone was looking now, she thought it might be a concern. 

The Emperor was up to his neck in water, one bath attendants in the tub, kneeling in front of him, while the other was massaging his scalp and his long white hair with a scented soap.  He opened his eyes as they entered.  Continue reading →

A Poll!

Sep20

After the commentary on “What’s Next?” here and here, I decided a poll was in order.

PLEASE NOTE: while at the moment, all of these options are something I’d like to write, I reserve the option to change my mind once the poll closes.

(Which it will do in one week or if I have a clear and decisive winner I like before that.)

 

Last to Die

Sep19

Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break
Who’ll be the last to die for a mistake

– Last to Die, Bruce Springsteen

~*~

There had always been battles.

Leander thought there were memories before the fighting, but times like this, they were hard to pull up.

He hadn’t expected this to blow up into a full blown war. He hadn’t thought the crew of soldiers, Aelfgar’s crew, would be standing shoulder to shoulder with the U.S Army.

At least not openly. He’d served, not army but Marines. So had much of Aelfgar’s crew, before they took on the job of fighting Nedetakaei who got out of hand.

Now there were monsters on both sides of the battlefield and Leander was doing his best not to side eye the Oath-Breaking assholes. Continue reading →