Trouble in Paradise, a further continuation

A Change in Routine
inventrix's Let's Pretend
Class is in Session
A Brief Reunion
inventrix's Unexpected Visitor
Lessons in the Dojo
inventrix's from RP logs
Education and Collars
Much offscreen RP lies between that last post and this one. Summary: It's been a long time since Cya handled an unwilling Kept, and Apollo reminds her far too much of her crewmates when they were young and stupid reckless. Also, she didn't used to be running a school and a city. Leo can see how it's stressing her out and has offered to take Apollo off her hands.

Re. Olindo and Adeen; Olindo is a cy'Linden crewmate of Apollo's who, being as stupidly headstrong as Apollo, had managed to get himself caught by unsavory people of a handwavey sort. Adeen is their stabilizing force, but she's still in Addergoole.


Apollo looked both thoughtful and nervous as he walked back into Cya's house, a combination of expressions that made her nervous and told her he'd probably been talking to Leo.

She was mending a pair of pants - the hard way, because unutu had never been one of her good words - so she let him pace and hem and haw nervously for a few minutes before looking up. "Yes?"

"What do you want?" he demanded, and then winced and sat down with a thump on the floor. "I mean... I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I didn't know I was making you miserable -"

"Didn't care, you mean."

"Didn't know! But I didn't really care at first, either." He coughed and looked away. "Until we found Olindo. Then I started to get the point, I guess."

Nothing like a well-placed object lesson to hammer things into thick skulls. If only that had worked with Leo.

Leo had been insane. This kid was just young.

And very plaintive. "And I don't want to be Kept. I really... I still don't think I need a babysitter. But I don't want to be making you mad all year, either."

"That's the bond." Hell of a time for it to finally kick in.

"I mean, I've been Kept, I went to Addergoole. But if I've got to be Kept, I don't want to be a burden. And I don't know what you want!"

She studied him, hands up in frustration, tears unshed in his eyes. "I want..." Careful, careful. Phrasing was everything with a Kept. "What I'm hoping for is that you can take this opportunity to grow up a bit, and to look at life more carefully, so that when you leave here, you and Olindo and Adeen don't dive headlong into trouble." Which she would probably get them out of, if she noticed in time. But no need to let him know they had a safety net.

"But it's not like you can see me thinking! I.. You... You're just... unhappy with me all the time!"

Shit. Cya took a deep breath. She set down the pants she'd been mending and walked across the room so she could pet Apollo, carefully, mindful of his crown of horns. "I think it's time we go talk to Leo."

And your Little Friends Too, a story of Addergoole for @Rix_Scaedu

Written to rix_scaedu's prompt

Callis had finally gotten the last of the babies to sleep when someone knocked on the door.

He didn't so much sigh as slump with his entire body, and even that he only indulged in for a half a breath. He gestured to Mike, nearly as old as he was, and to Candace, who might only be twelve but was murder with a rifle. Odile would have to watch the babies, and then they'd have to go through the whole process of getting them to sleep again. But that was later. Right now, there was the threat at the door.

Callis leaned his body over from the side to peek out the view port. They’d learned that the hard way, in their last hide-out. They’d learned a lot of things the hard way.

A man was standing in front of the peephole, his hands up and empty. “Callis Avondale? I’m just here to talk.”

Callis looked back at Mike and Candace. They were frowning, worried. The babies were stirring. Colby, the youngest, had started crying. If he stood here and shouted through the door, the kids were just going to get worked up. “Stand back and keep your hands where I can see him.”

Candace stepped up into position. Callis might not survive this, but their attacker would last about three seconds after his first strike. He took a breath and another breath and steeled himself, then pushed the door open.

The man standing on the other side was shorter than Callis, but muscular like he’d never missed a meal. His t-shirt was clean and his jeans didn’t have any holes, and neither did his sneakers.

“Callis?”

“That’s me.” His skin was itching just standing here, looking at this clean guy with his perfect shoes.

“My name’s Luke Hunting-Hawk. We have a place for you in a school, a safe place with food and water.” His gaze clearly took in Callis’ ripped clothes.

“All of us?”

“All… Your friends?”
( Read more... )

Edally Academy Chapter 17B: History is Written by the Winners

It felt like dropping chains off of herself, walking off, leaving Olisama complaining and Kagnyaa commiserating.  Enrie found her back a little straighter as she headed off – in the direction of Biologic Systems, of course, at least until she was well out of sight – and a smile coming over her face

Read on:
http://www.edallyacademy.com/2016/01/04/14886-12/

Last Call: January Theme Poll

The January Theme Poll will close tomorrow evening (Eastern Time). Gender and Sex is currently in the lead, with Rebirth and Addergoole tied for second place!

!AU! The Hawk Comes to Doomsday !AU!

This came out of Education and Collars and is entirely in an alternate universe(henceforth AU). For one, the bet made would not come out with Luke losing. For another... Meep. WWIV.

(The assumption here is that Regine, for some reason, skewed the data, probably by using a very specific subset of years, to show that Cya's former Kept had a slightly LOWER survival rate than their classmates. About the only way this could happen.)

Luke had vacation time coming, and Regine had no reason to deny him a sabbatical, unlike the last time he'd asked - times, every year from 2011 through 2025. He got one of his surviving former students to cover his classes for a year, worked with his current students to place them with new mentors, and elicited a promise from Mike to not come looking for him for at least a year.

Then he flew to Cloverleaf and presented himself to Cynara Red Doomsday, in possibly the most awkward situation he had found himself in since he was a teenager, centuries and worlds ago.
( Read more... )