Busy Couple Days! Poll Still open

My August Theme Poll is still open!

As of this moment, Fae Apoc (Setting) and cats (motif) are neck & neck!


If you haven't already read it, the last installment of Regine visits Doomsday is up, as is the next installment of the Narnia/Valdamar "Pevensies Visit Valdemar" fanfic.

And when you're done with that, check out inventrix's new serial, Red Crow Company and lilfluff's Unused Trope Bingo Card Revival Prompt Call!

Cloverleaf: A Basic Write-up of the City

Cloverleaf is built approx 50 years after the apocalypse, or about (plus or minus 7 years) 2061.

Notably, it was built almost entirely by magic, and as such the walls show no block marks, no seams.

Built about 14 miles (23 km) northeast of Helena, Montana - to take advantage of the prewar hydroelectric dam there - Cloverleaf takes the shape of three large (approx. 1 mile diameter) walled circles, touching at one edge.

Two of these circles hold farmland; the third holds the city of Cloverleaf, itself taking the shape of three overlapping walled circles with a very tall tower in the center (where the three circles overlap). Three gates pierce the outer wall, one for each inner circle, and from those gates to the Tower in each circle runs a wide "Main Street."

Each Main street is lined with inns and restaurants close to the gates, stores and shops and light industry (home crafts) in the middle of the circles, and apartment buildings then factories (still rather light industrial - think fabric, grain mills, stuff I haven't quite figured out yet) closest to the Tower.

On the wide sidewalks on Main Street, street vendors abound, often taking over much of the street as well.

Most traffic is foot or horse-and-carriage; cars are rare although jury-rigged car-to-carriage/wagon set-ups are not uncommon, esp. in traders coming from the outside.

Fae are common, welcome, and visible here. Guards are visible at the front gate -- they check in all guests with a level of interest that ranges from "casual hello" to "three-hour interrogation." They also patrol the city, and so, while there is crime, it is not rampant.

Off Main Street, streets branch to either side in a very regular pattern. There are quite a few parks and green spaces, punctuating neighborhoods of houses, many of which have a certain sameness to them and a very pointedly stone construction: stone buildings with slate roofs, many painted or tinted in brilliant colors. Yards are big by pre-War city standards, big enough that you could, if you want, subdivide each yard and put a second house on it. Houses are small by pre-war Suburban standards but large enough to comfortably house large families.

Every house has running water and electricity; phone is not a thing and neither is TV but there are radios and radio programs. The library is huge and full of a very random, completely un-curated selection of "anything we can find." There is also an art gallery - similar collection style - and a history museum.

Much of what is available is industrial-era technology, and there are a lot of scrounged and repurposed items, especially metal things.

Fashion is driven by a few very visible people, and has a sort of Turkish-meets-bazaar-meets-medieval feel much of the time. Cotton, linen, and wool are produced in/near Cloverleaf; the dyes are still mostly natural, except those things Meentiked up magically.

The Clover is the unit of currency; a 100-C bill is approx one day's salary for a basic job.

The political system is a representative democracy under an unelected benign dictator; each circle has (at the beginning) 2 representatives into a council. There is also an appointed Administrator who works much like a VP/Speaker of the House. Economy is lightly taxed capitalism with basic needs for all citizens, the guard system, and maintenance of the city paid for by tax revenue.

Citizens are provided free basic hotel-style housing; there are no homeless in Cloverleaf (unless they want to be. Still working on that). Very basic food/clothing needs are also provided.

Cloverleaf does not, as far as I know, have an army.

It does have a Leo.

edits: Within ~20 years of its founding, Cloverleaf has a weather-moderation system intact. It does not entirely eliminate weather in the city, but what it does is raises the wintertime temperature sufficiently that longer-season crops can be grown, and that the punitive northern winters aren't nearly as punitive.

Also, a mile away from the city or so on the non-river side, there is a hundred-acre forest butting up against and climbing the side of the foothills. Its trees are arranged in a disturbingly regular grid pattern, but it otherwise gives off the feeling of a very natural forest - plenty of plant diversity, wildlife diversity, undergrowth and such.

As the years go on, the forest is expanded by about a acre a year, with trees that are speed-grown up to the ~40-year-age mark and then allowed to go wild. There are probably also more naturally planted trees, as Cloverleaf citizens are allowed to hunt and farm this woods, but encouraged to maintain it as a long-term resource.

Doomsday Academy Setting Notes

to go with Cloverleaf: a basic write-up of the city

Doomsday Academy is an 8-year educational institution covering from ages 10 to 18.

The classes cover a spectrum of traditional and modern class subjects, including Math, Survival, Literature, Law, and Science. In addition, a variety of extracurricular clubs cover subjects from Theatre Arts to Fiber Arts to Martial Arts. Sometimes, students who are Addergoole-bound attend Doomsday until they are called to Addergoole; often, Addergoole students will send their non-Addergoole-promised children to Doomsday.

Each fae student learns magic from their Mentors and from other teachers who are proficient in the student's best Words. The school is primarily for fae students, but they do occasionally have a human student. There are three additional schools in Cloverleaf for human students, one per circle.

Doomsday Academy is housed in a series of buildings built to look like Victorian houses (and church), including three classroom buildings, a dining-and-gathering hall, the dojo, the greenhouse, and the Library. Young students live in a single dormitory; older students live in houses with their cy'ree. Students in their last few years at Doomsday can choose to live in apartment-style housing with their crew. Buildings run along either side of a narrow foot-road, crossing a wider foot-road, in a block of Cloverleaf off to one side of the main road and near a park. There is plenty of green space.

Uniforms are grey, black, and white, with grey-black-and-white plaid; students can choose between pants, skirts, or kilts, sweaters, button-up shirts, and vests (in any combination), with kimono as an alternative option.

Each Mentor's cy'ree has their own color combination and an accessory they add to the uniform, replacing tie and socks with the cy'ree color.

Professors and their cy'ree colors, when known, are listed below
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Clubs are as follows:
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