Desmond’s Climb - Professor Smiff

This is written to a donation and request from [Bad username or unknown identity:  ]thnidu for Desmond from Professor Smiff's eyes. 

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Telanien Smiff walked around her classroom slowly, looking at all of the newest Blue students. She liked Blue the best, something all of her fellow teachers assumed and nobody would ever ask her about.

This year, Blue had the Last Person Up The Stairs, an honor that they were very quiet about – except in the upperclassmen dorms, where she was certain the Blues were crowing about it. And the student in question was not, to Telanien’s eyes, all that impressive – just another teenage child from one of the poor streets, well-fit into a uniform, presumably by a collar that cared about impressions, that was good, but still out of place here. If this Desmond knew how many of his fellow students were High Street, he’d probably be even more uncomfortable around them. Or around the teachers.

Your focus is lacking, Telanien’s collar scolded. It liked to scold, but Telanien never took any offense. After all, they were a team, and sometimes a little push was helpful.

Speaking of pushes, Desmond was holding up his shield and very carefully not pushing. Was he worried about hurting Talia? The student in question did not look too young or too delicate, but you never knew.

“Desmond. Why aren’t you pushing?”

“Because I pushed already. Now it’s her turn to figure out how to push.”

Telanien poked at the reasoning a little, to see if it had holes, to see if Desmond was really interested in being ‘fair’ or just fond of Talia. She left them, content that that pair, at least, had understood that teamwork was a vital part of being a Collared Person.

There were always going to be new students, there were always going to be new collars – even a collar eventually reached the end of its life, after all, and certain threats the Collared People got into could actually do more harm to the collar than to the wearer, were they not irrevocably linked – but Telanien watched them all, every year, for the sparks that would make truly notable collared people – or truly dangerous magi.

Sometimes, she feared, they were one and the same.

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If I had been made to make a list, back in the times Before, of people I would most like to be stranded on a desert island with, he would not have been on the list…

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Originally posted January 2013

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“There’s a problem with the second restriction.”

The country of Foros had a lot of gods, and, like any good nation with a lot of gods, it had a lot of priests.

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This is another recipe that is more than half technique, modified from an online recipe.

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Sometimes you want a few pancakes, sometimes you want a lot. Sometimes you want a Just Right Amount, right in the middle.

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Addergoole: A Ghost Story - Chapter 39: Abednego

Chapter 39: Abednego
by Lyn Thorne-Alder

Thursday, January 4, 2001

Abednego couldn’t help but notice the fuss on the other side of the dining hall.

He was pretty sure they noticed it in the next state (even if he was a little confused what state that might be, here underground).  Arna  - what had Arnbjörg been up to?  She’d stomped right up to that table with the six-armed girl and her friends, just like she stomped up everywhere.  Abednego had tried not to cringe, but he hadn’t bothered not watching.  She was glowering at the six-armed girl and the collared boy next to him.

“What does she think she’s up to?”  Eris sounded fascinated.  It was the first time Eris had sounded interested in anything since Zita left.  (Left.  Was taken.  Was “rescued”.  Was gone).  Abednego wasn’t sure that boded well for whatever she was interested in. 

read on...

DRINK ME

Written to clare_dragonfly's prompt.

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Caroline’s adviser liked to leave her notes.

She almost never saw Dr. Comey. There was the big lecture on Mondays and the team meeting on Wednesdays, of course, and then sometimes there was the all-department meetings, which Dr. Comey sometimes deigned to attend, but the Dr. - who was so old the legend said that when they’d rebuilt the faculty wing of Ivy Hall, they’d just picked up Dr. Comey’s office and built the new building around it - preferred to work in late nights and early mornings, and Caroline’s schedule was such that she worked in the lab generally late mornings and late afternoons.

But Dr. Comey would leave her notes: combine experiment A with experiment B. Note results. Ask Sally to enter request for life test subjects again.

All Dr. Comey’s administrative help were “Sally.” The current one - Crystal - confided that they took it like a title, “Current Sally for Dr. Comey,” and took no offense from it.
( Read more... )

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Cross posted here: http://www.lynthornealder.com/2017/08/22/drink-me/ on Wordpress