Tag Archive | giraffecall: result

Fifty-Second, A story for the Giraffe Call

For rix_Scaedu‘s prompt

Fae Apoc has a landing page here.


The streets were less wild than it seemed like they ought to be.

Marietta and Dominic slipped through the crowds, as noticed as they felt like being, as always. There were fae on the TV, returned gods and calling themselves exactly that. It seemed like cities ought to be falling into the sea, like Atlantis, or going up in flames, like Pompeii. It shouldn’t feel like an ordinary Saturday night.

“…bunch of nutjobs. Bunch of crazies, that’s all.” The girl in too little too-bright clothing had too-loud opinions, and her companions seemed willing to agree to anything she said.
“Gods. Who do they think they are?”

Marietta and shared a look that was half disgust, half interest. She might be fun, if they washed the makeup off. If only she could be coaxed to shut up.

“Ugh, my mother’s calling again. A-GAIN.”

Too much trouble, and besides, they were on a mission tonight. O had sent them out in the streets, looking for something (or someone) he called Mandrake Mauve.

“What does Lute know, anyway?” The name caught their attention – not the too-bright girl but one of her friends, muttering to his bored-looking buddy. “Mandrakes. Just roots, after all. Might as well bring home a parsnip.”

If Lute was sending his people out, and O had sent them out, chances were Catnip had sent out her people, too. And the only clue they had was the fifty-second card.

“We’d better be getting on.” Dom did something complicated with the straps of his bondage pants. “The first Fifty-One await.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/390344.html. You can comment here or there.

Wake Up Where? A story for the Giraffe Call

For stryck‘s prompt

Fae Apoc has a landing page here.



All My Friends Say

You know I don’t remember a thing
But they say I sure was raisin’ some cain
I was a rock star, party hard
Gettin’ over you comeback kid
Hey I musta did
What all my friends say

Jordan woke slowly, with a dull, niggling headache that just wanted to tell him all its problems, a whining thing that suggested he’d drank too much last night.

Last night. Last night, he had gone to The 51 Cards, because even if the news wanted to scream about people who thought they were Athena and Thor, he didn’t think it was worth not drinking over. He’d sat down next to a lovely girl with the best tattoos he’d seen in a long time. He’d ordered a drink.

He opened his eyes. The light was dim, and he couldn’t see much, but the shapes of the shadows suggested it wasn’t his room at home. So far, no surprises. He reached out one arm, and found the edge of the bed. The other arm found a nightstand, and nobody in bed with him. That was a bit of a surprise, but not horrible. He sat up, and swung his feet over the edge of the bed.

Even in the faint light, he could see that something was wrong. His feet were fuzzy, blurry. Was his vision off? Drinking enough to kill his memory could do that. He reached for the nightstand, found no lamp, but there was something… yes, a flashlight.

The bright LED bulbs revealed the room to be tiny, more of a cube than a room, with no furniture but the bed and the nightstand, no windows, and no discernible door. More immediately important, they revealed that his feet were missing.

“The hell!” The shout didn’t make his head hurt more, but it did echo unpleasantly. He’d woken up missing clothes before (not this time), his wallet (still there), his pride and his virginity (still missing), but never before had he looked down and seen mist where his feet were supposed to be.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/389982.html. You can comment here or there.

Kitten Troubles, a story of the Aunt Family for the August Giraffe Call

For dahob‘s prompt

After Charming, Kitten Switch, and Boy Trouble

Aunt Family have a landing page here.

Beryl didn’t worry when Radar wandered off. He was a cat, for one, a tom cat (who would dare get a magical cat neutered? Besides, he knew better than to mark in the house), and he was a magical being on top of that.

When he’d been gone for a week, she started to get a bit concerned, and, although her necklace berated her for it, she started to miss him, too.

::He’ll be back when he’s ready,:: necklace-Joseph reassured her. ::He’ll come slinking back and slide into your life like he’d never left, like that boy.::

“Enough about the boy.” She wanted to glare at the necklace, but what good would that do. “Radar…”

“I have a problem.” Never was her cat’s ability to talk without moving his mouth more clear; he walked in with a kitten scruffed in his mouth, a siamese-looking kitten who was mewling unhappily. Behind him, a black cat Beryl recognized from Crazy Aunt Beatrix’s collection followed, yowling angrily at him.

“You stole a kitten?”

::I told you he was no good.::

“I did not steal her. I fathered her. And she has been getting in no end of trouble.”

“You’re a tom cat, isn’t that what you do?” She ignored Joseph’s inveigling, letting it fade to the buzzing of bees in her mind. The mother cat was harder to ignore. “Can you let her have her kitten back?”

“It’s too late for that.” This was a new voice, a lavender-and-tea voice, young, female, and very prissy. The kitten in Radar’s mouth was staring at her. “I’m here now.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/389887.html. You can comment here or there.

Coffee Break, a story of the Black House for the May Giraffe Call (@Rix_Scaedu)

From [personal profile] rix_scaedu‘s commissioned prompt. This comes directly in order with the rest of the Black House story (see tag), the same day as First Day of Work.

Content warnings: d/s and sexual content.

If her Master gave her a reference when her time with him was through, Pretty/Yaminah would have more than earned it. Being his executive assistant was an exhausting and exhaustive position, as much so, if not more, than any position she’d taken for him in his private rooms. Doing it backwards and in heels, the bones of her corset and the tightness of her skirt never letting her forget who she was, that almost made it easier. At least the armor and the prison of her suit kept her upright, never faltering, never flinching. She needed that.

Her Kraken, her Master, treasured her, and, even if she had not arrived in the same car as him, that was quickly apparent to all others in the office. That, of course, came with at least three flavors of jealousy from all sides: those who wanted to be in her Master’s bed (or had been), those who would not go that far but envied her the status it clearly gave her (without understanding, of course, what it took her to earn it) and wanted the Master’s eye for more professional pursuits, and those who envied her Master because he had her.

“Enjoy it while it lasts.” Lydia from Accounts Receivable was a lovely, svelte woman whose beauty was entirely covered by her poison attitude. “He gets bored quickly.”

And she would still be his, until her two years had passed. Yaminah smiled at Linda and thanked her for the advice.

“Does he put you up in that mansion of his, or is he pretending to be virtuous and paying for an apartment?” That was Greg in Legal, who was still very young and very eager. Yaminah leaned close to his ear, knowing that gave him full view of her cleavage.

“I will pretend you did not ask that question, and not tell Mr. Krake you’re asking about his personal life, how’s that?”

The bobbing of his Adam’s apple was something to behold. “Uh…”

“But I need help with this contract. Something smells fishy about it.”

“Fishy?” He found footing, and it was in a genteel smirk. “Is that the legal term?” Her cleavage was still at eye level though, both tempting him and reminding him that he’d overstepped. He looked over the contract, and found the fishiness she’d been worried about.

“It’s a pity he resorts to nepotism instead of hiring internally. Still, welcome to the company.” One look at Carrie in Marketing told Yaminah/Pretty why she wasn’t the Master’s assistant. She was prettier than Pretty, dressed much the same (although Pretty doubted there was steel surrounding her; she didn’t need it. Her spine was solid iron), even made up much the same, as if the Master had been taunting her by dressing his assistant, and perhaps he had.

“Thank you, ma’am.” Carrie, it was clear, was a control freak. “Please let me know if I can assist you in any manner.” The Master might enjoy taking a control freak to bed, but she served him better being unbroken, in the position she currently held.

She would have said, or thought, that dealing with people was even harder than being Mr. Krake’s assistant, except that dealing with people was why he had brought her on. So she smiled at everyone, sweetheart or jerk or miserable waste of space, and spent a few minutes socializing with every person she was sent to speak with.

Her employer, more than any before him, understood what she could do, and what she needed. He wouldn’t expect miracles until he’d given her the tools to perform them; the tool she needed most was to know people, so he made sure that she spent her first morning on the job getting to know as many of his employees as possible.

After her third time of being nearly directly called a slut and her fourth inappropriate touch, Yaminah/Pretty was getting a bit sick of knowing people. She kept it from her face while she walked back to Mr. Krake’s office, her chin high, her smile warm and friendly. Only when his door was closed did she allow herself to sag at all.

He took one look and knew. “I believe it’s time for a coffee break. Lock the door, Pretty Girl. I have no appointments for the next twenty minutes, is that correct?”

She glanced at his schedule for the look of the thing, although she already had today’s itinerary memorized. “Twenty-five, sir.” His office door locked with a double deadbolt. Nobody was getting in without breaking the door down. The windows, she had noted earlier, were curtained and mirrored as well. They were as private here as they were in his suite.

“Very good.” He nodded at her in approval. “Now kneel, lovely thing. “

The order was a shock to her system. She knelt, eyes half-closing chin up, throat with its tiny chain bared. “Sir?”

“This is your coffee break, Pretty Girl. This is, as well, my break. I’d say we’d both earned it, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course, sir.”

“Very, very good, Pretty. Take that jacket off, and the blouse. We’ll leave the rest on; this is just a break, after all.”

Her fingers fumbled on the first button, but by the third, she was moving smoothly again; she was Pretty again, and her goal in life was simply to please her master.

By the time she had the clothing off – he took shirt and jacket from her and draped them over a chair – he had his pants unbuttoned and down. “That’s my pretty girl. Hands at the small of your back. Perfect posture, my treasure, just like that.”

Just like that. She could do it, just like this, just like he wanted. “Yes, Master.”

“I love the way you sound when you say that. That’s my girl. Now, I believe you know what to do with this.”

She smiled, because he was smiling. “Yes, my Master. Of course I do.”

“Good girl. Show me.”

She did, putting her all in to it, keeping her posture perfect, her back straight, her hands clasped behind her back. He tasted, as he always did, clean, fresh, with the faintest suggestion of the sea. He smelled like himself, the sweetest scent she had ever known.

Her heels left small imprints in her ass, even through the skirt. The corset held her perfectly straight, and held her breath to small careful rhythms. The skirt held her knees close together, and the pose gave her no room to deal with the warmth between her legs. She had no concerns. He would give her release when he wanted her to have it.

She took him in, using every trick that he had taught her, and every trick she’d learned before him. She wanted his pleasure to be perfect. She wanted him to be perfectly pleased with her.

“That’s it. That’s it, lovely.” His groans were the reward she’d been asking for. “That’s it, yes. Yes. Perfect, Pretty.”

When he helped her to her feet, he was wearing a broader smile than she remembered seeing ever before. “You are truly a treasure, Pretty Girl.” His thumb brushed across her lip and chin, wiping off a small smear of his seed. “Did you enjoy your coffee break?”

The warmth between her legs was nearly unbearable. “Yes, Master.” And she was, as he’d known she’d be, relaxed and confident once again.

“Good girl. Go get us each a coffee, and we’ll talk about the Martinez meeting.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/389137.html. You can comment here or there.

Summertime Memories

For [personal profile] eseme‘s prompt

Jamian and Ty are characters in Addergoole


Summer between Years 5 & 6 of the Addergoole School

“I’ve been thinking about the kids.”

Tya’s hands wandered over Jamian’s body as he spoke, the conversation so out of tune with what his hands were doing that Jamian thought, maybe, that his lover wasn’t really paying attention to either.

“Our kids?” he offered, trying not to say my kids.

“Our kids. us as kids. Growing up in this world.”

“Heavy thoughts.” He moved Ty’s hand up to his shoulder.

“I try once in a while, you know. And I was thinking about this summer camp Regine runs…”

“Ty, they’re still breastfeeding. They can’t walk or talk yet.”

“Well, not this summer, but they’ll grow up, you know. And Mies is almost old enough…”

“And Anise has Mies well in hand. Besides, is a Regine summer camp the best idea?”

“Well, I mean, it would be your decision, of course.” It was clear that grated on Ty, even without empathy. “But it didn’t do me any harm.”

“Ty… love, lover, you grew up with no idea of what the outside world was like.”

“And you grew up out there, and spend your childhood thinking you were a freak.”

“Well, I’m not exactly normal.”

“And it worries me, you going around thinking that, with our babies both the same as we are.”

“And it worries me you thinking half-breed is somehow inferior, around our half-breed babies.” Jamian propped himself up on an elbow, no longer feeling like being petted. “Ty, what’s this really about?”

Ty sighed. “I keep putting my foot in it about the kids, don’t I? I miss them, Jame’. I miss you.”

“You’re welcome to visit any time you want.”

“But it’s not… they were mine, and then they weren’t.” He sulked lightly. “You don’t even remember summer camp, do you?”

“Kinda? I mean, I went to camp a couple summers.”

“So did I. Same camp, Jame’. I remembered you the first time I saw you, here.”

Same camp… Jamian blinked at Ty. “That was… oh, wow, that was you. I had such a crush on him… uh. You!” He’d tried to forget that, all these years.

And it was the right thing to say. Ty grinned, his hands sliding down between Jamian’s legs. “You do remember. I’m glad.”

Jamian surrendered control once again. It seemed to make Ty happy, and it cost him nothing, here, in bed. As he ran his fingers through Ty’s curls, though, he remembered, faintly, the golden curls he’d tried for so long to forget.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/375653.html. You can comment here or there.

Three Summers

For Imaginary’s prompt. Warning, the middle bit with Shad has suggestions of abuse and overuse of the word “pussy.”

Sharach, Meshach, Agatha, and Acacia are characters in Addergoole

Nine years before Addergoole Year 5

“And then we’ll head to Italy, and you’ll go to the college prep summer camp.”

“Mom, I want to go to Italy with you and Dad.” Ten-year-old Agatha frowned at her mother, not pouting: pouting was unattractive. “The camp has bugs.” And everyone was bigger than her there. Everyone was bigger than her everywhere, but it was worse at summer camp.

“Agatha, you went with us to France and Spain. We need some alone time, and you need to starting thinking about college.”

“But I don’t like it there.”

“I suggest you learn, young lady.”

Two weeks later, Agatha tucked the last of her belongings into her billet – the worst bunk, in the back of the cabin, but the other girls had gotten there first – and headed out into the well-manicured grounds. Perhaps she could find a place to hide, before the other kids got settled in.

She stopped just short of running into a tall, broad-shouldered boy. A bully-sort, but he wasn’t smiling meanly. “Hello,” she offered.

“Hi.” His smile looked real. If he liked her, everyone else would leave her alone.

“I’m Agatha.” She offered him a hand. “Do you want to be my friend?”

Eight years before Addergoole Year 5

“Come on, Shad, don’t be a pussy.” His older brother Meshach was halfway up the edge of the gorge. Shad glanced back behind him, then back up at the wall of rock. He cleared his throat, and called back.

“Come on, Neg, don’t be a pussy.” He reached out an arm for their little brother Abednego. “We’re going up the wall, there.”

“It looks awfully high, Shad.” Trust Abed to voice it, so that Shad had to think about the damn thing. He punched the little whiner in the arm.

“It’s not that high. Maybe as tall as our house. We jumped off that last year.” He wished his voice would stop squeaking. It made him sound like a pussy. Meshach’s didn’t to that.

“You broke your leg doing that.” And then their dad had broken his arm, for good measure, for being stupid enough to jump off the roof.

“Look, just shut up and let’s climb the damn thing, okay, before Meshach has to come back down and get us.” He grabbed his little brother’s arm, and hoisted him to the first ledge. “Hold on tight, and don’t let go. We can do this.”

“We can.” It killed him, sometimes, how much Abednego trusted him. But he trusted Meshach… and Meesh trusted Dad. He wasn’t sure any of it made sense.

Seven years before Addergoole Year 5

“I’ll be home by dark.” Acacia threw the lie over her shoulder as she ducked out the screen door.

“Don’t do anything wild and reckless.” It was her mother’s joke, although it had never been quite a joke.

“Nothing tooooo wild.” She grinned at the door and then took off running. She would have to hurry to be back before Mom started to worry, even if that was long after dark.

Several hours later, on top of the abandoned Terrance Building (Rumor had it, it had once been a psych warn, but too many people had died), she grinned at her friends. “We did it. Now all we have to do is get down without getting caught.”

“That might be problematic. I think I see a police car in the distance. Get down.” Geoff grabbed her neck and pulled her down under the low saftey wall; Acacia rolled and kicked him in the nuts in a move she’d been practicing for months.

As the cop circled the base of the building, 15 stories down, and Geoff rolled in pain, she grinned. “Nothing too wild.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/374410.html. You can comment here or there.

Monster Camp

For @DaHob’s Prompt

Finnegan is a character in Addergoole

Efrosin, Niassa, and Arna are characters in Addergoole Year Nine.

After Ghost story (LJ) and Seeing Ghosts (LJ).

Doug was waiting at the gates when the last campers had been packed off.

“Did good,” he told them, in a rough grunt. Finnegan and Efrosin shared a glance, and then looked back at the man.

“Thanks,” Finnegan offered. “Even…”

“Very good.” He nodded sharply. “So. How long before college?”

“Three years.” Efrosin was, Finnegan had noticed, a bit of a smartass. Then again, being Shiva’s brother, he supposed that made sense.

“Three weeks. I go back just before Eff goes back to Addergoole.”

“Got more camp for you two.”

“I was kinda hoping for a vacation…” He wasn’t sure what the younger kid had been hoping for. Maye more camp was perfect for him.

Doug shrugged. “Don’t want to kill monsters? Fine with me.”

“Oh,wait!” He stepped forward, almost reaching for the man. “Monster hunting? Like…”

“Yeah. Like them. Running a training session, you two, couple others. Figure you know all the book stuff already, considering.”

“Yeah. Considering.” Considering his first-year Keeper and her sisters had been Addergoole’s primary monster hunters while they were in the school. Efrosin, he wasn’t so sure about, but the kid had potential. “Who else?”

“You’ll see. You in or out?”

Efrosin was, he realized, looking at him to answer first. Finnegan weighed the idea in his head, comparing spend three weeks monster hunting to spend three weeks reading bad books and playing in the water.

“Yeah, I’m in.” He’d have his whole life to play in the water.

“Me, too.” The way Efrosin moved closer to him made him wonder if the boy had a crush on him. He’d Kept another guy last year, after all, thanks to his sister’s interference. “Shiva…”

“She’ll be there. Come on, you’re all packed.”

~

Efrosin hadn’t realized how out of shape he was until he was put up against Doug’s training camp. Leo would love this; maybe next year he’d talk Doug into letting Boom – or part of Boom, maybe one at a time? – attend. Efrosin… well, he was a lazy tomcat, to quote his mother, his sisters, and anyone else who knew him. And compared to the rest of the people here, he was a scrawny out-of-shape runt.

“Come on, midget, keep running.” Niassa grabbed his arm and urged him over the obstacle course. “Look, once you get through Dad’s Basic Training, nothing will ever look like a real challenge again.”

“I’ll be dead, I won’t need challenges.” He let her haul him over one hurdle, and then, pride pricked, took the next two on his own. “I don’t think I belong here.”

“Move your feet, Arna!” Doug’s shout echoed over the course. “Finnegan, it doesn’t care if it can’t see you!” He took his eyes off the course to stare at the others, or at where Finnegan ought to be, at least.

“Watch out!” Niassa gave him a shove; Efrosin jumped four feet in the air, missed the water trap, and landed on a tree branch, looking down at her, resisting the urge to hiss in indignation.

The lean girl only laughed. “We’ve got our skills and you’ve got yours. You’ll do fine, once you stop whining and pay attention. Come on, I’ll race you to the end.”

“No fair, you’ve got wings.” But he was already going, skittering down the tree branch. Maybe he’d manage to get another “did good” before the summer was over.

Maybe even from Finnegan.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/373270.html. You can comment here or there.

Seeing Ghosts

For wyld_dandelyon‘s prompt

Finnegan is a characters in Addergoole

After Ghost Story (LJ)

Finnegan was woken in the middle of the night by a hand on his shoulder. For a brief moment, he forgot where he was, who he was, everything but the sensation of a midnight wake-up. He expected to hear Allyse’s purr in his ear: Trouble. Back later. Stay here; waiting orders.

Instead, it was a soft whisper, gentler than his Keeper had ever been. “Finn? Finnegan, wake up. I can’t find Brenna.” That was Aimee’s voice. Aimee, not Allyse. A world apart and then some.

He blinked into wakefulness, hoping he hadn’t gone invisible, or, if he had, that the other counselor hadn’t noticed. “I’m awake.” He tilted his head towards the cabin exit, counted his own campers – six, good. Six heads, six beds, and a heat signature to match each head. Brenna had been getting friendly with his camper Jose; that’s probably why the other counselor had come for him.

She was waiting outside for him. Barely older than the campers herself; last year, she’d been a camper, making wide flirty eyes at Finnegan. He’d been too broken last year, to even contemplate it; this year, they were too busy to have time to flirt. Funny how life did that.

“She was there when I checked at ten, but when I woke up at midnight, she was gone. The rest of my girls are sound asleep, but I thought maybe she’d gone off with Jose.”

“He’s still in his bed. Doesn’t mean he didn’t set her up, though.” Finnegan felt like a heel, especially at the hurt look on Aimee’s face. “It’s not the first time one of them’s done something like that – tell the other girl or guy they’d meet them somewhere at midnight, and then blow them off or forget all about it. I can see Jose doing it.”

“They’re just kids, Finnegan.”

“Trust me, fourteen isn’t a kid anymore. Not when it comes to sheer manipulation and cynicism.” He decided not to mention how barely past that she was herself. “I’d try up at the top of the hill.”

“By the fence?” She was scared, bless her heart. Finnegan sighed.

“There’s not really a heart-eating monster up there, you know.”

“I know! It’s just…”

“Come on. I’ll hold your hand.” He’d been kidding, but was unsurprised when she clung to the hand he offered like it was a lifeboat. “This happens all the time, Aimee. Didn’t you used to wander off at night?”

“I know what I was doing, too.” He could see her blush even in the moonlight; the Kwxe Working he had up meant he could feel it, too.

“So let’s see who she’s doing it with.”

The hike up the hill was treacherous even in daytime, miserable at night, but the moon was full, and clever Aimee had brought a flashlight. It didn’t stop her from leaning on his arm, but, then again, he hadn’t expected it to. He didn’t mind; she had a sort of softness and neediness that seemed even more appealing when compared to his nightmares of Allyse and her sisters.

“Oh, god, oh, help…” the voice was thin and reedy, panicked sounding but as if the speaker was trying not to be too long. Whispering for help? “Someone, please…”

“That’s Brenna.” Aimee pulled ahead, turning to make sure Finnegan was keeping up. He followed dutifully, muttering a whole series of Workings under his breath as he went there.

He didn’t need to have bothered. The girl was there, all right, in just the place where generations of campers before her had found a loose spot in the fence and made it bigger, right on the other side from the foundation of the old cottage. She was crouched low to the ground, her heat signature way higher than it ought to be. And she seemed to have done something very weird with her hair…

No. Finnegan stopped, staring carefully at the girl. No. That wasn’t a weird hair-do, that was a crest. Three rows of crest, as a matter of fact, like some sort of fish. And she wasn’t whispering, she was gasping for air.

“No,” he groaned. How was he going to explain this to Aimee? She was as mundane as you could get; all she was going to see was an unhappy girl, not one drowning on dry land.

Explain later, he decided. He scooped up the girl. “We have to get her into the water. Tub in the counselor’s bathroom is closer than the lake. Move!”

She moved, running faster than he’d thought possible, especially in those stupid flip-flops. She jetted down the hill, Finnegan muttering desperate little Meentik Yaku Working at the girl, wishing he could handle more than an alpha-level when it came to Create.

And then she was in the tub, and they were pouring water over her, and then, only then, bless her heart, did Aimee ask, in a shaking voice, “does she have…gills?”

Brenna is a character in Addergoole Year Nine!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/373141.html. You can comment here or there.

A cy’Linden Summer

For rix_scaedu‘s prompt

Jamian and Manira are characters in Addergoole


Summer between Years 5 and 6 of the Addergoole School

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Jamian had to admit, the situation was a bit surreal: him coaxing Manira out with those words?

They had been hanging around the Village for a month, spending time near each other – at first by accident, and then, as he realized how despondent Manira was getting, on purpose, at least from Jamian’s end.

“I should stay here with Caprice.”

“You should get out, before you go all post-partum depression on me. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

This time, at least, he got a small smile. “Isn’t that my line?”

“So use it. Manira, I love my kids, but if I spend every minute of the day staring at them, I’m going to go bonkers.”

“I… what if I do something wrong? I haven’t… I mean, I… damnit.”

He’d figured out that there was something strange about Manira, something she couldn’t or wouldn’t tell, but he still hadn’t figured out what. Right now, it didn’t matter. “Look, I’m the same Cohort as you, so I’ll be around for the next three years. You’ve got me to help – and you’ve got our Mento… okay, never mind that. But you’ve got Maureen, and Caitrin, and Mendosa, and together, we can figure this out.”

“Really? You’d help me?”

He grinned at her, finally feeling like he was doing something right. “You helped me, didn’t you? Come on, the daycare is expecting Caprice – and Dommie and Carey.”

“You nicknamed your kid Dommie?”

He couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah. Wishful thinking, maybe? Look, the rest of the cy’ree – Mags and Anwell, Mea, Joff, and ‘Vette, they’re all waiting for us.”

“Well, all right. But what is there to do around here?”

Now his grin was stretched wide. “They put in a water park the next town over.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/372923.html. You can comment here or there.

The Ropes

For [personal profile] clare_dragonfly‘s prompt

Rozen is a character in Addergoole

Warning: bondage, but no sex

“And to think, I nearly went to the Police Academy.” Rozen tied another knot, immobilizing the slim, naked girl hanging in front of him. She could still wiggle, and she was doing quite a bit of that, but the most she could do would be to set herself to swinging, as she was, swaying lightly back and forth. “Plenty of time for that in the fall; this is so much more fun.” He grabbed her by her raven hair. Raven, sadly, not red. But there would be redheads later. “This is a lot more fun.”

He had gagged the girl with another knot of rope, so she couldn’t answer coherently, but she mumbled something around the gag anyway, sounding deliciously stuck. There were benefits to playing with humans; one of those was that he really had no concern she’d ever come gunning for him.

Of course, she had walked into this willingly, which was another plus.

He pulled her face around until she was looking up at him, her scalp at his navel. “You are loads of fun.” He meant it, too, although he missed the drunk look that the bond could give a girl when you praised her. Maybe he needed a Kept.

Maybe he needed a bullet to the skull.

She mumbled up at him, and he pinched her nipples happily. “Comfortable? I could really get into this, you know.” He fiddled with the ropes around her ankles, changing the angle of her suspension, dropping her head down a couple more inches. “This is really the best thing I could have done with my summer.” He reached for his belt, and watched her eyes widen.

“We’ll see how you feel about that tomorrow, why don’t we?” The voice behind him stopped him dead.

“Tomorrow?” He turned around, the raven-haired girl suddenly forgotten for another dark girl. Annissa, the woman who’d invited him here. And she was smiling. For a moment, he thought he saw fangs flicker as if she’d let a Mask slip.

“You have to take your turn in the ropes, too, Rozen. It’s in the contract.” This time, he was sure her teeth were inhumanly sharp. “You should really learn to read things before you sign them.”

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