On Giraffes and such

I will leave the June Mini-Giraffe Call (LJ) open until 11 EST this morning!

Don't know anything about Reiassan? The setting spans 1500 years, from a dark-and-gritty war-torn pre-medieval society to a high fantasy setting to a steampunk era. Two warring nations inhabit a continent, the constrained and conservative Bitrani to the south, the warlike goat-herding former nomadic Callenians to the North, warring over territory, religion, and the magic-carrying síra they mine from the earth.

Many aspects of fantasy, steampunk, and Roman-era living are present here, although possibly in different forms than that you're used to

~

The Linkback Story (LJ) has been updated with most, but not all, of the current linkbacks, donations, and prompts.

Every Gift, a story of Steam!Callenia for the Giraffe Call

To fflox's prompt

Some time after Road Map



If there was one situation in everyday life where everyone seemed to have a need to get involved it was weddings.

And the problem was, in this case, Katyebah and Larzhal couldn't find a way to deny any of them.

They were providing the land for their house - not traditional, but when Katyebah and Onton had, with Larzhal's help, designed a plan to widen Lannamer's worst traffic intersections, they had necessitated the semi-demolition of several buildings. One of those lots - now holding half of a former Education Bureau facility - had been deeded to Katyebah and Onton for their service.

Onton, in a rare move of complete generosity, had gifted his half to Katyebah and Larzhal as a wedding gift (until then, they hadn't realized they were getting married, although everyone around them knew it). And the Education Bureau, grateful for the excuse to rebuild, had donated the services of their builder for a week of time.
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The Goat-Bride, a story of Reiassan pre-history, for the Giraffe call

For clare_dragonfly's prompt.

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Long ago and far away, when the Callanthe people had a different name and roamed far different hills, there lived the woman who was mother to the women and men who would not marry. She was called the Goat-Bride, and in her honor, every year, there are those who stand before the gods and swear their troth to their goats.

They will bear or seed no children, save those born to the festivals. Their home is the goat-pasture and the goat-tent. They stand with the herds when everyone else must stand with their family, and they sleep with their spear and their blade.

They serve as the first to fight and the last to fall, they serve as the spine of the people. There is no shame in standing as Goat-Bride or Goat-Groom. But when the first to do so stood there, the times were different.
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more here

Goatless, a story of Steam!Reiassan for the Giraffe Call (@dahob)

For imaginaryfiend's prompt and @dahob's prompt

"It's a prototype, of course." Diryid ran his hands over the long shafts of his new machine. "And I still believe the river-boat was more practical. Our rivers and canals, after all, are smoother than our roads. But this will go, and if you stack the wood properly in the back by the boiler, and if you keep this little pocket here loaded with the proper fire-aether, it will go nearly as long as my river boat. Which is to say, it will get you easily from city to city in less time than a conventional carriage."

He tightened a nut and burnished a shining piece of brass, smiling all the time at his audience. Finally, Syadaia cleared her throat.

"But what is it? I thought you were working on a dirigible?"

"Oh, that." The engineer waved his hand in the air. "That is much easier, although its distance is, at the moment, more limited. We do not have a proper way, yet, to contain the most flammable aether. And wood weighs it down, you see. But it will go."
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Terms of Surrender, a kinkbingo warm-up for @kissofJudas

Content warning: Control, Ownership, punishment. No sex, no penetration. Some nudity.

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