Tag Archive | giraffecall
Bingo! Column One
This is a fill for my January 2nd card:
B1: A Favorite Place
Prompt: A Favorite Place
Verse: Stranded Universe
Summer knows her sister Autumn has a favorite place.
B2: Team D
Prompt: A Cunning Plan
Verse: Dragons Next Door
Whose brilliant idea was it to kidnap her?
B3: Time of Testing
Prompt: Test/Exam
Verse: n/a
“This is how we’ve tested since the dawn of time.”
B4: Unwelcome Guests
Prompt: Unwelcome Guest
Verse: Addergoole/Baram’s House Elves
In the middle of an apoc, most guests are unwelcome
B5: Victimization
Prompt: Victim
Verse: Dragons Next Door
Follows after Cunning Plan, above.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/636036.html. You can comment here or there.
Unforgivable, a story for the OrigFic Bingo
To ![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith‘s prompt to my January OrigFic Card.
This fills the “Betrayal” square.
Content warning: suggested self-harm, vague.
“You weren’t supposed to know at all.”
“I’m glad I did! Tory, this isn’t the sort of thing you should keep to yourself. You’ll be better now.”
“Ty, you can’t just read people’s private things. That was password-protected for a reason.”
“Well, it wasn’t like it was hard…” Ty was faltering. The staff had said five minutes. Maybe five minutes was too long.
“You hacked my computer. You read my private things.” Tory was looking around the room. The window, no, no there was no way anyone could get out the window. Ty backed towards the door. There’d be no end of it if Tory got out.
“Tory, look at it! Look at you! I did this for your own good! Come on, you have to understand that.”
Sitting in a hospital bed, in a thin gown, Tory didn’t look understanding. If anything, Ty would have to call that expression “furious.” “Come on, Tory. You understand. I did this for your own good.”
“You violated me.”
“I read your computer.”
“And I ended up here.” Tory stood up. “No. I don’t understand, Ty. No, it’s not okay.”
The window was too small for anyone to fit out of. Wasn’t it?
“Tory… Tory, I was helping you.”
“That wasn’t the help I wanted. You can go off and help someone else. Or better yet… don’t help anyone at all.”
The window wasn’t too small for Tory.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/634335.html. You can comment here or there.
Then and Now – a story of that Damned Cat and his kitten for the OrigFic Bingo
This is to anke‘s prompt (on twitter) to my December OrigFic Bingo Card. This fills (for the second time) the “Then and Now” square.
That Damned Cat (Radar) and his Kitten have their own tag here – Kitten Tag. They are part of the Aunt Family setting, which has a landing page here.
Radar had been a kitten once.
It was a distant memory, a fuzzy memory he didn’t often examine.
He had not been, as this kitten was now, a sentient kitten. He had not been a sentient anything back then.
He sat grooming the kit, holding her down with one paw while he cleaned her behind the ear. You know what it was like, Beryl had said. You can help her. Under that assumption, she’d convinced the mother cat to let Radar close to his daughter. Joint custody, she’d joked.
She must have gotten the idea from her friends at school. Her Family did not do divorce, and when they did, the family kept the children, no questions asked.
“Da-a-a-a-aad.” His Kitten mewled in complaint at him. Beryl had taken to calling the kitten Lam, for no reason that she would explain. There had been worse names. He had had worse names. “You’re thinking again.”
“This is a thing that happens with us, child. You will learn that in time.”
She rolled onto her back. “You were thinking about being a kitten.”
There was no use in denying it. “Who made you, kit?”
“I was born like this. I don’t remember any time I wasn’t like this.” She nuzzles against his chest. “Do you?”
“Then…” Radar chirruped and circled his daughter until he found a comfortable spot. “Then I was a cat. A kitten, a little pile of fluff, like your siblings. Now, now I am…”
“A Damned Cat. I’ve read the book.”
“That book was destroyed fifty years ago.”
The damn kitten purred. “That was then, Dad. This is now.”
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/634037.html. You can comment here or there.
Romance was never this convenient to handle
To Kelkyag’s prompt for here, my ![[community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
dailyprompt prompt “a clone,” and here, my OrigFic Bingo card, “Hallucinations/visions.”
Paige waved at Mark Faine, although he didn’t see her, or at least didn’t respond – he never did, but being Mark Faine, he already had a girlfriend and hadn’t, as far as Paige could tell, been single for more than a day of their high school career. Which was a pity, ’cause Paige had more than made up for it by being single for their entire high school career, except that one day with Eilan Saffron, and boy had that been a mistake. It would be nice if there were two or three or maybe four Mark Faines. Maybe then she’d have a chance.
She should really get to lunch. She got a little Snickers-commercial when she didn’t eat on time, and this stupid Senior-year schedule had her lunch nearly right before she got on the bus. She headed away from where Mark Faine was totes ignoring her, around the corner, stepped away from the punks and sidled sideways around the jocks – no need to upset anyone, everyone had been on edge since the principal quit like that, all of a sudden. The new rules weren’t helping things either, and the punks all looked sad and funny without their metal.
She rounded another corner – Marmal High was full of corners, and somehow it seemed like there were more around lunch time – and ran into Mark Faine.
She was feeling fainter than she ought to be. This was just one of the demetaled punks, it had to be, Sid and Nancy T-shirt and an extra hole in the nose. She stepped away. “Sorry, didn’t mean to…”
“Hey, no worries.” The voice was Mark Faine’s. Paige knew that voice like she knew the latest Enhydra Lutris CD.
“Hey.” That was Mark Faine’s voice again, coming from the other side of her. She was hearing things. She was seeing things. Paige leaned against the wall and tried not to act totally disjoined from reality.
Standing in front of her, however, were three Mark Faines. She had to be losing it.
“Hey, you’re kinda cute.”
Nope, she was totes gone; she’d already lost all there was to lose.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/632920.html. You can comment here or there.
Victimization, a story of Dragons Next Door for the Giraffe Bingo Call
To kelkyag‘s prompt to my orig-fic card. This fills the “Cunning Plan” slot.
Juniper, Kelkathian, and Azdekious are part of my Dragons Next Door setting; its landing page is here.
This story is directly after Team D.
“What’s the big deal? She’s a rich kid.”
Kelkathian stood on kel’s toes and shot Azdekious a glance. The driver still wasn’t getting it. This could be a problem. They had an unconscious kid they’d contracted to protect, an immensely important unconscious kid, a panicking backup guy, and a dumb driver.
The situation could be a lot worse, of course; any of them in the front could know what they were doing.
“The big deal.” The backup guy coughed. “The big deal? The big deal?”
“Stop saying that!”
“The big deal is that this is a kid from Smokey Knoll!”
“It’s a human kid from Smokey Knoll. Only rich humans live up on that hill.”
Kelkathian counted silently. One, two, three.
Four, five, six, seven. Wow, the passenger really was angry – or stunned. Possibly both.
“There are no humans living on Smokey Knoll.”
And now there was another silent count. Looking at Azdekious, he was doing the same thing. One, two, three…
“Say that again?” The driver’s voice had changed.
“There are no humans living on Smokey Knoll.” So had the passenger’s voice. They were both using very careful, measured tones.
And now, now it was time to make sure the driver understood. Kelkathian reached out with kel’s othersense, grabbed the electricity, and shorted out several fuses. The car went dead.
“There aren’t… but… the heck?” The driver turned the key a few times. Nothing happened, of course… and then the glue holding the cloth to the roof failed over the driver’s side.
The seat brackets failed. Something in the radio began to pop and hiss. A spring in the seat popped out and jabbed the driver in the posterior. Kelkathian had to stifle a giggle.
The passenger got out of the van. Fleeing? No, the back door opened.
The passenger, a slim man in his late twenties, was holding both of his hands in the air. “I am going to take the girl out of the van. I am going to carry her to this bus stop. I am going to call her parents and wait there, protecting her, until someone arrives to pick her up who can prove parentage.”
“The heck are you doing?” The driver was trying to extricate himself from his seat, but not having much luck.
The man appeared to be looking at Junie, who was still laying motionless. “I do not wish to be the victim of this child’s allies’ rage. I am going to do everything I can to get her back to her parents before I am.”
Kelkathian studied the man. She didn’t generally have much use for humans, but this one was showing promise.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/632365.html. You can comment here or there.
Taking Chances
This is to kelkyag‘s prompt to my December Origfic Bingo Card.
Genique is the protagonist of the Space-Accountant series.
This follows after Tradeoffs.
The Quartermaster, Marist Irio, had given Genique not only a well-tailored wardrobe but also some food for thought and some tips – and piles of bookkeeping.
She’d also given her references to several other people on the ship who had paperwork – the head Chef, for one, the head of Navigation, and the director of the Pit.
Everyone starts out in the Pit, but… Genique was under no illusions. Eventually, they would run out of paperwork that had been waiting, and she would go into the Pit. She’d given quite a bit of extra attention to the paperwork she did for the Pit. Drugs – sensation-enhancers, mostly, and contraceptives, some antibiotics. Drugs, and oil, and clothing – that last one surprised her. And cameras.
And, of course, people were skimming off the top, the sides, the bottom, and everywhere else. People were stealing from the pirate ship, and, if she hadn’t thrown her lot in with them, she’d have found it amusing.
As it was, she’d had to carefully ask the Master of the Pit, do you want me to note the places you’re stealing, or just make them less obvious? He’d patted her head and called her a good girl, which she really wanted to mind, but she’d noticed the way it had covered up a nervous surprise on the Pit director’s face.
That had been one sort of taking a chance (the second chance there had been in the way she’d not mentioned it directly to the First, and made sure when she did mention it, it was in a way that couldn’t be traced back to her, hopefully.
This was another kind of chance. She had dressed for dinner carefully, in the best of the jumpsuits that Marist Irio had tailored for her and the red silk Basi had gifted to her. She had done her hair, inasmuch as she could without spending money in the shop (the Head Chef had given her a wooden-handled brush that he’d pirated. Being bald, he had no need for it or the wooden barrettes he’d also given her), and used a tad of the cosmetics the Pit-Master had given her for her service. In short, she looked as good as she was going to get.
She strode into the lunch room and sat herself down, as if she belonged there, as if she had every belief that she was welcome. She smiled brightly and cheerfully, once sat, at the two young pirates already there. “Hello.” She offered them her hand. “I’m Genique. I’m the new bookkeeper.”
Next: Betting On It
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/629852.html. You can comment here or there.
Team D, a story of Dragons Next Door for the Giraffe Bingo Card Call
To ![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kelkyag‘s prompt to my orig-fic card. This fills the “Cunning Plan” slot.
Juniper, Kelkathian, and Azdekious are part of my Dragons Next Door setting; its landing page is here.
“What… what the seventeen different sparks?” Kelkathian and Azdekious stared at each other, and then at the van they had suddenly found themselves in. “This isn’t team C.”
“This isn’t Team B.” Kelkathian gave a headshake, and wormed out of the backpack. Juniper was unconscious, looking for all the world as if she was napping at home in her bed. “Can’t be team A.”
“You’re telling me we were guarding against three teams of kidnappers…”
“And a fourth one came out of nowhere. I am indeed telling you that.” Kelkathian dropped carefully to the floor. The back of the van was filled with plumbing supplies, all of it with the appropriate level of wear for an actual plumber, but something about it still felt wrong to Kel.
“Is she waking up back there?” The voice came from the driver’s seat; Kel ducked into Juniper’s jacket while the passenger turned around. “I thought I heard something.”
“Must be dreaming, then, ’cause she’s still out like a light.”
“Hunh. Thought a rich kid would be harder to grab than that.”
Kel peeked over Junie’s pocket and saw the driver’s face – nothing exciting, nothing important, and her othersight told her he was nothing but human. Very human, strong and tough and so normal it was almost painful, but this wasn’t a dweomer or an elf or an elkin or really anything but a normal human kidnapper…
…who thought Juniper was a rich kid.
“You’re sure her parents have money?” The passenger seemed to have the same qualms about this plan that Kelkathian did.
“They live in Smokey Knoll. You tell me a human that could afford a house there who wasn’t filthy rich.”
The car screeched to a halt. “This is a Smokey Knoll kid?” The passenger’s voice was a hiss. That was your cunning plan? To grab a kid from Smokey Knoll?”
Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/632365.html
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/629631.html. You can comment here or there.
A Favorite Place, a story of Stranded World for the Giraffe Bingo Card Call
To rix_scaedu‘s prompt to my Orig_fic Bingo card; this fills the “Favorite Place” square.
Autumn and Summer (and Bishop and Melinda) are characters in my Stranded World setting; this story is later in their lives than most of the stories.
“Let me show you this place.”
Summer watched her sister. She had been watching her sister much of her life, it seemed; the way she moved, the way she smiled, the way she seemed to dance through life without a care. She watched the way Autumn smiled with her mouth without smiling with her body; she watched the way she flirted shamelessly and almost never carried through, and the way, when she carried through, it was a dance of the body, without the heart.
Summer had been watching Autumn and Winter forever, picking and choosing what parts she wanted to emulate, and then parts she wanted to throw away (On some level, she knew that Spring did the same with all three of them, though with Spring it looked as if she was throwing away everything, just to confuse and confound them all).
This year, she was spending the summer, or at least part of it, with her sister and her own lovers, which lent a certain color-commentary feel to the whole art of watching Autumn.
“Is she…” Bishop whispered it in Summer’s ear, which cause Mellie to squirm closer on the other side.
“Hssst. Wait and see.” Summer adjusted her bodice – this silly Ren stuff Autumn insisted on; maybe this year she’d splurge on one that fit properly. Two, one for her and Mellie would look lovely in a wench dress, maybe…
“A place?” The man had been hanging around Autumn’s booth for the entire weekend; he’d wander away to hang out with his friends and slowly gravitate back to admire the art, to admire Autumn’s ink, to admire Autumn herself when she wasn’t looking. “But your booth?”
“Well.” Autumn’s breath hitched, the cut of her vest making it obvious. “You could always come back after the Faire closed. It’s prettier by moonlight, after all.”
“Mmmmm, look at the way he watches her.” Mellie was nearly purring. “Good thing we brought our own tent.”
Summer was smiling, but inside she was cheering, albeit a bit nervously. In all the years she had been coming to this Faire with her sister, never had she known Autumn to show a lover – or anyone but kin, actually – her favorite place.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/629191.html. You can comment here or there.
Unwelcome Guests – a story of Baram’s House Elves/Addergoole for the Giraffe Bingo Call Card
To clare_dragonfly‘s prompt to my Orig_fic Bingo card; this fills the “Unwelcome Guest” square.
Baram and his family are part of the “Baram’s House Elves” sub-series of the Addergoole ‘verse, which can be found here; Baram is also a background character in Addergoole.
There wasn’t so much a war anymore, as far as they could tell.
They didn’t get any TV anymore, local or cable or anything else. The radio they heard these days was sporadic at best, and there would be weeks where there wasn’t anything at all.
But they hadn’t seen a returned god in several months, they hadn’t seen an army soldier in the last month, and they hadn’t seen another Ellehemaei in a couple weeks. They had gotten a couple human refugees – they were a standing house with a standing wall and hedge, burning lights and smoke in the chimney – but the girls fed and equipped them and sent them on their way, if they were over eighteen, and added them to the child collection, otherwise.
Baram liked it that way. He liked the quiet, and he’d found that he didn’t mind all the kids around. Liked them, actually, if he was going to be honest… and he had space in his head to be honest, now.
(Which might have been because of the children, actually, something else he said only in his own head.)
There wasn’t so much of a war anymore… but there wans’t so much of a world anymore, either. That bothered the girls, Baram’s angels, and it bothered the children, but it didn’t really bug Baram all that much. He had his family, he had his house, and nobody bothered them here.
“Boss! Someone’s at the door!” Alkyone’s voice echoed through the house. “Trouble, I think.”
“Trouble.” Baram liked his armchair. It was soft, and comfortable, and normal. But he levered himself out of it before he was finished saying Trouble? “Kids?”
“Got ’em.” Viatrix slapped the Swish-boy on the ass. “Aloysius, get the kids and take them down to the safe room.”
“Yes ma’am.” Jaelie’s boy did have some use, at least in a pinch.
“Sword.” It wasn’t the first time they’d had unwanted guests. Baram took the sword from Viatrix’s hand. “Jacket.” He shrugged it on. He was tough, all the way through, but there were things, they’d found, for which it didn’t hurt to have an extra level of protection. “Stake.” They weren’t vampire hunters… but they’d hunted vampires. “Okay. Door.”
Via swung the door open… and Baram shifted the sword into a guard position.
“Oh, come on, is that any way to greet an old classmate?” Ardell and Delaney stood on his stoop, leaning on each other’s shoulders and looking like they’d stepped out of a leather magazine.
Barm shifted his feet a bit further apart. “Yes.”
Continued: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/675139.html
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