Love Meme Answers 5: Baram/Rozen, Ib/Baram, Fridmar/Delaney

Apr9

For the meme I posted Wednesday night here and here (feel free to leave pairings now if you want; I’m having fun.

“Come on, man.” Rozen grabbed Baram by the arm. “Party tonight.”

“Party? It’s Tues…” He shut up, but not before he saw the look the bigger guy shot him. “Right. Party. Whose place?”

“Ardell’s. His Keptie seems to like cuddling with you.”

“No-one likes cuddling with me.”

“Hey, man, Annie’s not bad, and everyone knows you’re not as rough as you look.” Rozen punched his shoulder. “You’ll do fine. You always do.”

more here: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/493490.html

(Year 2)
Shad and Meshach had Ib up against the wall and were doing their best to break every bone in his body one at a time. Every time he tried to get away, one of them muttered in his ear, and he found himself squirming in pain, his feet rooted to the ground.

“Say you’re hers and it’ll end,” the older of the two whispered. “All you gotta do is say you’re hers.”

“Luke ain’t gonna find you down here, and he hates you anyway, little bastard. Say you’re hers.”

“Trouble?” The rumbling voice was a new one – might be Baram. Ib couldn’t see.

“None of your concern, freak.”

Something happened. Ib was never sure what. But when he woke up, he was in the doctor’s office, Baram was looming in the doorway, and he didn’t belong to Liza.

(2040)

Agmund was hunting.

He’d been hunting for a long time. Other obligations kept getting in the way, but he came back to this one over and over again. This was his failure, this was his mistake. He would fix it.

Meshach had been his Student. Meshach had done this to his daughter. Everything since then – what Ardell had done, what being cy’Valerian had done, what being abandoned by the Thornes had done – came back to Fridmar’s failure as a Mentor and a father.

And now he would resolve that issue.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/318974.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Policing, a drabble for Monday Morning

Apr9

“And then I said… pow! That’s what I’m going to do!”

“Excuse me, miss. We’re the hand gesture police. I’m afraid that’s an illegal gesture.”

“What? You’ve got to be kidding me. That? That’s nothing but…”

“Miss, miss, please stop. I’m willing to let you off with a warning, but you’ve got to keep your body language in check.”

“My body language, not just my hand gestures now? What’s this world coming to?”

“Anne, just drop it, please. You’ve always been a bit… exuberant. Especially on Mondays.”

“Illegal touching, Miss, do you have a signed consent form?”

“What, wait, what?”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/318640.html. You can comment here or there.

Reminder: March Giraffe Continuation Poll

Apr8

The March Giraffe Continuation Poll is here – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/317893.html

Please feel free to vote in the comments if you don’t have a DW account.

The poll will remain open until this story comes up in my task list (it’s currently one of five, so it will come up between now and the end of tomorrow).

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/318267.html. You can comment here or there.

Sidekick

Apr6

For [personal profile] kelkyag‘s commissioned prompt.

The Aunt Family has a landing page here on DW and here on LJ.

“Were you taught about the archetypes?”

It wasn’t the question Evangaline had been expecting; it segued out of left field while she was still pondering the implications of someone leaving their family, of a son leaving the family.

“The tarot?” she offered, while she tried to remember things Asta and the others had mentioned to her. The archetypes, the archetypes… “No, no, not the tarot, but sometimes it seems similar. Something about the stories? Aunt Asta mentioned them, but she didn’t…”

“No, she wouldn’t have. I don’t believe she had the skill of seeing the stories. I wonder if you will.”

“I… don’t know. When Aunt Asta taught me about them, I had dreams…” Only Rosaria could make Eva feel this way, like she was being measured and judged against an invisible ruler. She shrugged, trying to shake off the elementary-school feeling. “In the Wizard of Oz, the way at the end Dorothy say ‘and you were there, and you, and you? That’s what it was like. Crazy dreams, with Uncle Arges as the Scarecrow.”

She gestured hurriedly with her free hand. “I don’t mean really the scarecrow. I mean, a sidekick, following another guy around. They were younger than I knew him, my age at the time, so late teens. I think I’d seen a picture of him at that age recently, one of the family shots? But this was much more vivid.”

“The Sidekick.” Rosaria made her “thinking” noise. “That would be Argie at that age. I don’t have the paintings with me, nor could you give them a proper look while you were driving, but the Sidekick is one of the archetypes we see a lot in our family. The Buddy. The support. That was Argie to Willard, every inch of the way. It’s what’s so tragic about the whole thing.”

More: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/534069.html
The whole story: http://lynthornealder.com/fiction/aunt-family

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/317663.html. You can comment here or there.

Love Meme Answers 4: Junie/Jin, Carrot/Angua, Regine/Ambrus

Apr6

For the meme I posted Wednesday night here and here

I chewed over the Pratchett one for a while. Fanfic makes me nervous to write.

Having a big brother was sometimes a pain. He would mess up her hair and steal her dinner and pick her up and swing her when she was trying to be serious.

But when she looked at the mean girls the day after her ride with Jimmy in the parking lot, and not a single one of them would say so much as Boo to her – except to tell her they thought her shoes were poker, which meant cool this week – Junie thought having an older brother, having Jin for an older brother – was the most awesome thing ever.

Dear Mom, and Dad…

Carrot turned and looked at Angua, sleeping across his bed. The moon was new tonight, and she was sprawled in human form, but he could see, in her lines, the wolf she was sometimes. He thought about her running beside him, about the way she looked when she came in sweaty and filthy after a day Defending the Peace. He thought about the rare moments when she was out of uniform and not wearing fur. He thought about the moment when he thought that, perhaps, she had died.

He looked back at the paper, and thought about trying to put all that into words.

I am, in Love.

Ambrus was asleep, and Regine was not.

This was a common occurrence; she slept very little, and found often that a tlacatl Working would do her far better than actual sleep. She did not, as a rule, enjoy her dreams.

She did enjoy his, however. She enjoyed most of how her Kept’s brain worked, but his dreams, his mind unfettered and free to do as it would, were a fascinating place full of vivid, if unlikely, magic and sensuality.

She wondered, sometimes, watching his dreams, what it said that she enjoyed his unfettered mind the most.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/317370.html. You can comment here or there.

First Rose

Apr5

For Friendly Anon’s commissioned continuation of Twelve Roses and One

She’d heard the story her whole life. The rosebushes, the crazy Aunt that nobody wanted to admit was theirs, the twelve pink blossoms that got brighter for each daughter, the “true gift” they were supposed to receive on their sixteenth birthday.

She knew, too, that her parents had planned on stopping at four kids, or stopping after Harold, or stopping at any point that wasn’t almost-to-thirteen-children. She was fairly certain the gift had power… and she had known from a very young age that one ignore fairy gifts at one’s own peril.

So it was no surprise to her, or to the next three sisters down, when, on the dawn of her birthday, Alicia walked out to the rosebush and snipped the rose that her parents had always called “her rose.”

Her parents had been dithering. They were worried about what a “true gift” would be. They were concerned that there would be sort of booby trap. They were, she was pretty sure, concerned they might end up with a hundred and sixty-nine grandchildren spaced over thirty-something years.

None of that mattered. Alicia had decided as soon as she was old enough to remember making decisions that she would do what Aunt Edith had bade. She had planned to go out there, laid out the pruning shears…

..and then woke in the kitchen, silver blade in one hand and the rose in the other, as she placed it in the vase.

“Well.” Brandy, Celia, and Darla were watching her. “Did I…”

“Yup.” Darla looked a little spooked. “Do you remember…”

“Nothing.” She frowned at the flower. “I wonder what’s going to happen now.”

She watched the flower – they all did, including their rather-miffed parents – every day, staring for the first signs of roots. She ran her fingers over the stem every night before bed, wondering what was coming. It seemed as if she was waiting, holding her breath, like her birthday had been delayed for a flower.

The day her mother found out she was pregnant again, two months after Alicia’s birthday, the rose suddenly popped out roots all over the place.

“Of course,” Mom muttered, and pulled out a lovely pot and a bag of potting soil. “Come on, Alicia. Let’s get her planted.”

The rose went into the dirt like it was helping, grabbing at the dirt, sinking in as if relieved, even if Mom was glaring at it. They were all staring at it, Alicia, Dad, all ten of her sisters and her spoiled little brother. Waiting. Holding their breaths.

“What do you think…?” Ida whispered, but just at that moment, Alicia knew.

“Oh…” She reached out and let the thorns, the two thorns this rose had kept, near the bloom, pierce her fingers.

“Alicia!” Mom had gone from angry to horrified. “What have I told you about fairy gifts?”

“It’s okay, Mom.” Everything was going… well, not everything. But enough was going to be okay. “I understand now. I see it all now.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/317092.html. You can comment here or there.

Love Meme Answers 3: Porter/Arudnel, Rozen/Kai, Rin/Girey

Apr5

For the meme I posted last night here and here

“I love you, man.”

Porter had been drinking. At least, Arundel hoped he’d been drinking – there’d been a dance. There were lots of things at Addergoole and more things at Addergoole dances that could make someone slur and wobble like that.

“I know you do.” Sylvia was already back in the suite; Arundel had gone looking for his friend.

“That girl, she said I should love her, but I said, don’t be silly. I’m not into… you know.”

“I know, buddy.” Yep, something other than booze. He’d have to tell Sylvia the succubi were trying again.

“But you’re my best friend.”

“Always will be. Here, open a Door?”

Later, he thought perhaps that hadn’t been the best thing to ask a soused and besotted Porter.

“It’s the Bond, you know.”

“I know.” She was humoring him, he was sure of it. He didn’t remember her doing that when they were younger. “The Bond re-writes your brain pathways and rewards and punishes behavior based on a very limited set of parameters. It can imitate love rather effectively.”

“I’m not in love with you. I want to fuck you, always have. I want to see what it takes to make you scream.”

“But you don’t love me.” She shrugged, and turned, finally, from her project to look at him directly. “This information is important to me why?”

Fifty years ago, he would have thought it was an exasperating side effect of her charming naivete. Now… now she was smirking at him. She knew he was full of shit.

“I wouldn’t want you to get your hopes up.” He wouldn’t want to get his own hopes up, either, would he?

Girey swung the toddler up in the air and back down to the ground like he’d been handling small children his whole life. “And wheeeeee! There goes the little child-one, there she goes.” He’d thickened his accent to a nearly incomprehensible mix of Bitrani grammar with Callenian vocabulary, and the children loved it, and him.

Rin scooped up one too small to know what was going on, and studied her captive, hiding her smile behind the baby. He was wonderful with children. He was, when he made the effort, generally wonderful with people.

Now if only she could get him to be wonderful with her.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/316702.html. You can comment here or there.

Kiss-Kisses

Apr5

For Rix_Scaedu‘s commissioned continuation of Damn List (LJ), All You Can Be (LJ), and Detente (LJ)

Addergoole has a landing page here.

Does anyone have any suggestions for Ahouva’s Changes? Or, for that matter, Jovanna’s?
“So.” Aeowyn and Jovanna sat down to either side of Ahouva in English class. “Kendon looks miserable.” Her snakelike friend was showing way too much tooth for comfort.

“More importantly.” Jovanna closed in Ahouva in a flurry of excess skirt. “You look happy. Smiling, for real. Your color’s back. You’re smiling again.”

“Your shoulders aren’t hunched. You’re wearing better clothes.” Aeowyn plucked at the sleeve of Ahouva’s sweater. “I love this colour on you. What, did Kendon not approve?”

“Guyyyys.” She folded her arms across her chest and tried not to smile at them. “So you’re saying I was dumpy, grumpy, lumpy and dull when Kendon was Keeping me?” She kept her voice down out of habit, not wanting him – or his friends – to overhear her talking about him. Even now.

“We’re saying… well, yes. You were miserable, misdrawn, and misadvised. Possibly misfiled as well.” Jovanna patted her shoulder. “But nobody was blaming you, Who. We’re all happy to see you away from him.”

“And happier to see that Basalt isn’t horrible.” Aeowyn had a skill for bluntness. “You’re not bruised, you’re sleeping, and you’re eating. All good signs.”

“I’m not a prize horse,” she muttered, but the smile wouldn’t stay down. “Guys, he’s pretty awesome.”

“That’s not what you were saying at first.” Jovanna sat back and muttered under her breath – some sort of Working. “Are you sure you’re really happy?”

“Stop it, Jo. Tuapeka Intinn Ahouva oro’Basalt a Jovanna cy’Solomon. You just said I looked happier.”

“So what did he do?” Aeowyn leaned over Ahouva to thwap Jovanna. “Friends do not read friends’ minds.”

Ahouva found her cheeks warming. She bit her lip. “He kissed me,” she whispered.

“Kendon did a lot more than…” It was Jo’s turn to hit Aowyn. “I’m just saying.”

“He asked first.”

“Aaaaah.”

“Was it a good one?” Jo looked like she wanted to take notes. “Was it just a kiss, or a kiss-kiss, or…”

“What, we’re categorizing these things scientifically now?”

“It was a kiss-kiss. A really good kiss-kiss-kiss.”

“Three kisses.” Aeowyn’s laugh made Ahouva cringe a little bit. “Oh, relax, I’m happy for you. Do you think you two will move past just kissing, however many kissies you add to it?”

“Welllll…” She really didn’t want to admit she’d been thinking about that almost constantly since the first kiss. “I’d like to. But I’m worried he’s going to, you know…”

From the look on Aeowyn’s face, she did know. From the tch’ Jovanna made, she knew, too. “Who, this is Addergoole. High school rules don’t apply.”

“Exactly. If he’s respecting you enough to make it a choice, I think you’re fine.” Aeowyn didn’t talk about her Keeper. She’d made that abundantly clear – Jovanna still had the bite-mark scars. This was as close as talking about being Kept as she would get, analyzing Ahouva’s relationships. For the first time, Ahouva didn’t really mind.

“He’s really nice, when he relaxes.” She thought about the way he held her, when he wasn’t worrying about her broken windows. “I think he could be a lot of fun… all the way relaxed.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/316567.html. You can comment here or there.

Love Meme Answers 2: Autumm/Weylan, Audrey/Sage, Taro/Kailani

Apr5

For the meme I posted last night here and here

Autumn loved Weylan the way she’d never loved a guy trying to sleep with her.

Not just because she could relax around him, because there was none of the aggression of me-you-fuck-now or the competition she sometimes got with women. Not just because he told great jokes on the road, or because he’d saved her life more than once.

Not just because he was so clearly and utterly devoted to his family and still able to make room for friends.

But because, on top of all that, unlike the men she slept with, he seemed like an actually nice guy.

The night was dark as a coal cellar, and the power had gone out. Aud woke first, to the quite, panicked beeping of their electronics bereft of their lifeline, to the sleepy grumbles of their youngest, who could not sleep without his lullaby recording.

Sage woke moments later, lifting their son in his arms, and singing to him, a soft chanting that would have, in other circumstances, perhaps sounded ominous. But to Aud and to the sleepy boy, it sounded like heaven.

First week of Year 5:
“She’s gorgeous,” Taro told Conrad, who had heard it all already at least a hundred times. “Those eyes. Those legs. That hair. Gods, Con, I’ve got to have her.”

Second week of November, Year 5:
“She’s always questioning everything,” he muttered to Vlad, who didn’t really want to be listening. “And her kisses are like liquid gold. Was I really that much of an idiot? Did I really..?”

“You did. You were. Love the one you’re with, man.”

Last week of February, Year 5:
“She’s gorgeous,” Mea murmured, gesturing at Kai in her bridesmaid’s getup. “I can see why you’re in love with her.”

“I’m…”

“Honey, I’m cy’Linden. Love where you will, as long as you love me too.”

“I…”

Her kiss shut him up before he could come up with an answer that didn’t make him an idiot again.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/316181.html. You can comment here or there.