Tag Archive | giraffecall

Getting close to the Second Donation Level: Take-out (#Promptcall)


At $25, T. & I get take-out. Thai, I think, though it may be Indian. Reached!

at $40, I will commission a piece of character art from a crowdfunded artist

At $50, I will write an extra fic for everyone.

At $75, three prompters chosen at random will get an extra 500-word story written to their prompt

At $80, I will commission another piece of character art from a crowdfunded artist

Remember, every Giraffe Call tip not only gets you MORE WORDS – 100 words/$1 – it also gets you a second story written to your prompt AND moves the ticker along towards that $50 mark, where you’ll get YET ANOTHER fic (and so will everyone else).


(Happy kitties like tips;
click on the kitten to go to paypal)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/793825.html. You can comment here or there.

Wildlife Refuge, a story of Fae Apoc for the Giraffe Call

To [personal profile] rix_scaedu‘s prompt


“Let me see.”

The gate-keeper had four legs, which wasn’t the weirdest things Capri had seen on this trip. The fact that they were giraffe legs was kind of interesting, at least.

“See?” Capri made the nothing-to-hide gesture, jacket held wide open. “I left my weapons at the front gate, as instructed.” And if that wasn’t an uncomfortably vulnerable feeling, Capri didn’t know what was.

“Drop your pants and your Mask.”

Oh, that was.

“Excuse me?”

“You saw the sign on the front gate, didn’t you?”

It had been written in Old Tongue. Capri had gotten maybe one word out of seven. “Yes.” One of the words had been half-man or maybe half-human. That could mean a lot of things, all of which applied to Capri.

“So, it’s a wildlife refuge.” The… centaur? pawed the ground with one hoof. “Satyrs, fauns, minotaurs, centuars, griffins… you get the idea. Gotta be half-human, half animal, to walk in here. Or fly.”

“Ah.” Now that was a meaning Capri hadn’t thought of. “Right. So, you want me to drop my pants…”

“Well, if your upper half is animal, taking your shirt off will work, too.”

“I don’t suppose you’d settle for just seeing my ankles…”

“What, are you shy? Everyone drops trou. I mean, everyone who wears pants. I, obviously, didn’t have that problem.”

Shy. “Well. It’s just that… yeah. I’m shy.” Capri gave up and dropped Mask and trou both. “Also, faun.”

At least the fur covered almost everything.

More: Safety

Want more words, or just really like this post? Drop some money in the tip jar!


(the tip jar is a kitty for reasons)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/792954.html. You can comment here or there.

Did You KNOW… (Giraffe Call Commissions)

…Giraffe Call commission rates are significantly lower than my standard rate?

PLUS Giraffe Call commissions get you

* a second fic written to your prompts
* Movement towards group goals, such as more stories.

Giraffe Call rates ($1/100 words) are available until I finish this round of stories:


(the tip jar is a kitty for reasons)

Request a continuation of any giraffe story & help me support other artists.


At $25, T. & I get take-out. Thai, I think, though it may be Indian.

at $40, I will commission a piece of character art from a crowdfunded artist

At $50, I will write an extra fic for everyone.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/792790.html. You can comment here or there.

With the Goats

To wispfox‘s prompt

Morning came, and Lazhman slipped out of the house and into the herd. When he could, he slept among the goats, too, but the census-counter was in town, and everyone had been pressuring him, act normal, Lazhman. Act like a person and not a goat.

Lazhman had no interest in such things, but he did sometimes like bread and stew and, to be fair, didn’t have the stomach the goats did. So he spent most his time among the herd, let his beard grow like a goat’s and his hair as well, twisted two braids to look something like goat-horns when nobody was looking, and spent just enough time in town to convince people to keep selling him bread and stew.

He’d done that, last night. Now he could sit out on the hill near Copper and Counter and the other goat, watch the clouds and the river move by, and have no cares except the wildcats and the occasional bandit.

“Hello there.”

What? Words? Lazhman snorted and looked around.

“Hello.” She’d snuck up behind him, how had she done that? “I’m Liegya.” The census-taker, that’s who she was. “I’d like to talk to you.”


more

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/792013.html. You can comment here or there.

Seasons’ Change, a story for the Giraffe Call.

To [personal profile] ellenmillion‘s prompt.

It was going to be Autumn soon.

Cameron could feel the shedding, even in human form, the tail changing, the teeth trying to rearrange in a jaw that wasn’t even, technically, there. Season changes were always like this, and it would just get worse until the first full moon of autumn.

It was time to move from the lake cabin up the mountain to the cold-is-coming place. When the change had first started happening – just as high school was ending – Cameron had tried to live with people. There was, rumor went, such a thing as a extrovert shapeshifter, a social-creature creature-feature.

That had lasted exactly one year, one cycle of the changes, three hundred sixty-five days of trying to be two things at once while the second thing kept changing. There might be extrovert ‘shifters, but they were not like Cameron.

Packing bags didn’t take too long. Longer was fighting the urge – two sets of urges. The dam wasn’t perfect, but, then again, it didn’t need to be. It wasn’t like Cameron was leaving behind a beaver family here.

(The bear had wanted a family. Then again, the bear got spring).

If the dam was gone when summer came again, well, the beaver could rebuild it. Right now, the wildcat wanted something else. Wanted to chase a mouse, the cabin had mice. The lake cabin almost always had mice (the mountain cabin wouldn’t dare).

At this point in the season change, it was a toss-up whether the cat or the beaver would get the skin. Cameron let go of the shape, and let them battle it out.

A wildcat padded into the cabin, sniffing out the trail of a mouse…

…and came nose to nose with another wildcat.

Want more words, or just really like something you read? Drop some money in the tip jar!


(the tip jar is a kitty for reasons)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/789679.html. You can comment here or there.

Aquilina at School – A Storybit of Doomsday Academy

Written to [personal profile] wyld_dandelyon‘s prompt, set in the Doomsday Academy, at least 4 years in.

The compound had always been full of kids – cousins, siblings, unknown-relations; Aquilina’s mom & her people made kids like it was going out of style.

The first three years here at Doomsday had been much the same – the First Years got put into a dorm room, all together, and they stayed together until they Changed or otherwise moved on to a Mentor.

And now… now Aquilina was cy’Law, having very politely and conveniently Changed over the summer break, and she had, for the very first time ever, a room to herself.

It made sense, of course. Her new wings took up a lot of space, and she was still getting used to not hitting things with them.

But it was quiet.

Her bed was big, and covered with soft plush comforters, and her dresser was bigger than the one she’d shared with a sister and two cousins at home. The mirror was almost big enough to get in all of her Change, which was something of a feat. She could sprawl out and not run into anyone at all; even though the room had little more than the dresser, the mirror, the bed, and the desk, it was still spacious.

And way too quiet. Aquilina hopped off the bed and opened the door.

~

For her first three years at Doomsday, Aquilina and the rest of her yearmates had cheerfully herded from class to class, splitting up only for clubs and not even for all of those.

It was strange to move now with her cy’ree instead – a small cluster of Law students with their bright green-and-orange silk ties and socks, murmuring in the code Aquilina was still learning. Stranger still to peel off from the group on her own and join the rest of the fourth-years in their first class of the day – Earth Science, with Professor Sweetflower. And it was downright odd to sit down in the midst of pink-and-green, blue-and-blue, gold-and-blue, red-and-red, and so on. They might not have all Changed, but they had all changed over the summer.

When Professor Sweetflower stood up, though, a wave of relief swept over Aquilina.

“Hello, students,” the Professor began, in her honey-and-wildflowers drawl, “and welcome to your first day of Earth Science.”

Some things might change – but some things never did. It was nice to know the teachers, at least, were constant.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/788775.html. You can comment here or there.

What is Closed can never Close

but rises again, weirder and stranger.

(With apologies to George RR Martin).

My Giraffe Call is closed,

but if you want more words, you can always donate!


(the tip jar is a kitty for reasons)

For every $1 you donate, I will write 75-100 words on the Giraffe story of your choice. Donate more than $1, and I’ll write a second fic to your prompts.

If I get to $25, I’ll get take-out. Current total: $5

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/788019.html. You can comment here or there.

Last Call for the August Giraffe #Promptcall!

My Giraffe Call for August is still open, but not for long!

It will close in just about 4 hours, at 1:24 EDT.

If you haven’t prompted, get your prompts in before then. Prompting is free; tips get you continuations.

The theme is Animalia.

Closed!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/787670.html. You can comment here or there.

How Do You Know it Won’t Work

For [personal profile] thebonesofferalletters‘ prompt, set in the Fae Apoc ‘verse.

“It doesn’t work like that, Esau.” Cinnabar looked out the window at her son and tried not to laugh. “I’m sorry, but it really doesn’t.”

“How do you know?” At nine years old, Esau had opinions on everything, and most of them ended or began with how do you know? “Have they researched how the genetics work for this sort of thing?”

“Well…” Cinnabar looked around. Her older three weren’t in earshot, the ones that were pledged to Addergoole. “The Director at Addergoole has done some research, at least through the last two generations.”

“Has she tried sympathetic links?”

“Well, there was the Bull-Dozer.” She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I don’t think any studies have been done on surrounding yourself with an animal to encourage a Change into that animal, genetics don’t work that way. Besides, Esau, where did you get all the red pandas?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/786991.html. You can comment here or there.

The Beast We Become

To [personal profile] clare_dragonfly‘s prompt.
Set in Year 6 of the Addergoole School, about halfway through the year.

Aelgifu (Ayla) and Callista (as well as the mentioned others) are Addergoole characters.

“You can’t ignore it forever, you know.”

When Ioanna said it, she was gentle. Callista hadn’t gotten the feeling of being gentle yet, so it came out, like so much of what she said, rough and raspy and cutting right to the bone.

There was no question what Callista thought Aelgifu was ignoring. For one, she was waving at Ayla with all six arms. For another, they’d been talking about this on and off for the six months since they’d crewed up.

“I’m very good at Masking.” It wasn’t quite an answer, but she didn’t want to give an answer.

“Can’t Mask your brain, little jackalope.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why not?” Callista leaned forward, mid-arms resting on her thighs. “I’m a spider, you’re a jackalope, your pretty girlfriend is a face-changer, and your brother is an antelope. It’s just the way things are.” Her smile twisted into something nasty and fierce. “And Ib is a demon.”

“Ib is a demon.” There was no argument there. “But a jackalope is a mythical creature.”

It was the wrong thing to say, and she knew it before she’d closed her mouth. Callista rattled out another laugh.

“Look around you, sweetheart. We’re all mythological here.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/786589.html. You can comment here or there.