Alder's Grove

Lightning in Autumn

Thu, 06 Jun 2019 14:52:53 GMT

Written to Inspector Caracal‘s prompt.

Set after Addergoole Year 10 but before the 2011 apocalypse.

🦌

There were tourists in the bar again, the sort of people that made what was normally a pleasant place feel like the back of the locker room. Nathan felt his shoulders tensing, felt his grip on his drink getting tighter. “Another?” he asked Patti.

The bartender shook her head. “Not yet, son. Nurse that ice a little longer, and then I’ll pour you another.” Then she was gone, tending to the New People at the other end and the other regulars in between.

“Shit.” How Patti did that and kept in business, he never knew. He turned slowly on his stool, taking in the tourists at the pool table, the regulars at tables further and further away from the tourists, Liza the bouncer at the front door…

He turned back around in time to see Leo strutting up to the tourists and getting in the tallest one’s face. Nathan’s heart did a little twist. Leo. That blonde hair, that arrogant, playful smirk, that – that body. It wasn’t just Nathan’s heart that was twisting.

The tourist took a step back. His friends were jeering. Leo didn’t seem to notice, stepping back in to the tourist’s personal space, running a hand over the man’s cheek. Nathan felt a stab of jealousy. My cheek is right here!

“There’s a reason they call him Lightning, you know.”

He hasn’t heard anyone sit down next to him, but now there was someone there, sipping a drink and watching the same scene Nathan was. “I’ve never heard anyone call him that.”

“Yeah?” The guy was, unfortunately, undeterred. “They call him Lightning because he never strikes the same place – or the same person – twice.”

“I’m not the same person.” Nathan chewed on his ice and watched Leo work. He was louder than he normally was, and he seemed to be – from the words that wafted over the music and the conversation – suggesting that the tourist ought to come back to his place and show him exactly what his sort was worth.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve changed,” the peanut gallery continued. “He doesn’t care. He just hits once and he’s gone.”

Nathan glanced over. His helpful new friend looked, in a general sense, kind of similar to Nathan: dark hair, dark eyes, not all that tall. “Not what I meant – ooooh!” Leo had somehow ducked a punch the now-beset tourist had thrown and instead tossed the tourist on to the floor. “You saw it, Patti, you saw it! The asshole threw the first punch!”

“That’s not gonna save my furniture, now is it? Liza!”

The fight was in full swing, as it were, when Liza waded in and hauled the tourist out of it, and then hauled his friends out. “Parking lot! All of you! You, too!” She glared at Leo. It might have been Nathan’s imagination, but he thought Leo looked a little sheepish for a moment.

They allowed themselves to be herded – tourists, Leo, two other regulars who had gotten involved – out past the pile of broken furniture they’d left in their wake and through the side door, but the swinging door showed the tourist spinning around with a punch the minute his feet hit the asphalt.

“Looks like he’s going to hit someone more than once,” Nathan muttered, not particularly generously.

“Ha. Good one. Yeah, he’s plenty violent, isn’t he? But he don’t come back, kid. Like I said. Never the same person twice.”

“But I’m not the -” Nathan gave up. He didn’t want to explain to this stranger. Hell, he didn’t even want to explain to Leo, who would probably scoff and walk away, no matter how different this could be, Nathan could be.

The front door swung again and a redheaded woman walked in. Another tourist, Nathan thought, noting the dyed-crimson of her hair and the clothes that wouldn’t have fit in here even if she were male. Then she kissed Liza with an intensity that suggested comfortable familiarity and an intimacy that said maybe she wasn’t all that out of place in a gay bar after all and plopped herself down at the bar next to Nathan’s new buddy.

“Telling the same old lies, Trev?” she teased. “Don’t listen to him, kid, whatever he says. Patti, my love. The usual and one of whatever these nice boys are having for them, too.”

Maybe that was supposed to cover exactly HOW big the wad of money she was passing over the counter was, or how two of those top bills would probably cover the furniture damages.

“They’re not lies, and anyway, how would you know? You’re not exactly his type!” Trev – if that was New Friend’s name – looked put out. The woman just laughed.

“I know because I know Leo. And I know you. Like I know I’m not your type but I might… sometimes… be this guy’s type.” She sipped her whisky – neat – and grinned at them, a grin that looked more hungry than cheerful and, Nathan had a feeling, was covering over a seething kettle of pain.

She saw through him, he knew that much. “Doesn’t matter. Lightning never strikes the same place twice.” He finished the drink Patti passed him in one gulp and laid his money on the counter. “I gotta go.”

The redhead’s voice followed him out the door. “Don’t believe that old lie, kid. Lightning strikes wherever he damn well pleases.”

🦌

See stories about Leofric/Leo (that have been migrated) here.

See stories about Cya(the redheaded woman) here.

🦌

Want more?

Mirrored from Alder's Grove Fiction.

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Back from Talen Hall

Tue, 03 Oct 2017 17:23:24 GMT

Written to Thnidu’s commissioned continuation of Down to Talen Hall.

Do not go by the TalenHall
Where ruined Talen’s Holdings Lie

My sisters dance by Talen Hall
Where ruined Talen’s Holdings lie.
My aunts and cousins, once in thrall,
Sing taunting songs to pale moonlight.

They were not my sisters, and yet they were.

My sister stood off to the side, an iron firepoker in her hand. She’d grown while I was gone, and grown again in the time I’d been back. She was a woman.

read on...

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A Different Stripe

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 13:03:19 GMT

Written to Anke's prompt.

🐉

When you spend your time trying to learn as much as possible about the other people around you and working on finding the best in all of them - sometimes by viewing them by your cultural standards, sometimes by theirs, sometimes by some neutral third party - and then you find them using a kind of casual racism against creatures you think of as being the same as them, you tend to find yourself a little shocked or, if you are like me, a little stupefied.

read on...

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Lightning in Autumn

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 16:57:21 GMT

My Giraffe (Zebra) Call is open!

Written to Inspector Caracal‘s prompt.

Set after Addergoole Year 10 but before the 2011 apocalypse.

🦌

There were tourists in the bar again, the sort of people that made what was normally a pleasant place feel like the back of the locker room. Nathan

read on…

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This Emperor’s Son, a surprise continuation

Tue, 12 Sep 2017 12:27:43 GMT

This was meant to be a comment fic like thus after this comment by Kelkyag, but it turned out a wee bit long. So... bonus ficlet?

After (Before) The Empire Falls, the Emperor Stands.

👑

The young son-of-the-Emperor (they were all sons of the Emperor, although their fathers were all several years dead) waited until two of his cousins were making an appropriate fuss and two more seemed to have decided to climb the bookshelves all the way to the top.

There were seven nursemaids for the lot of them, but, from the things the nurses said when they thought their young charges weren’t listening, there were more of them, the sons, then there had been in recent memory — “recent” in Hildeh’s case and Galleh’s, at least, being a number that stretched back quite some time — and the bureaucracy that funded their employment did not seem inclined to send them any more help.

This particular son — whose name, like easily half of his brothers, was Eranodi, after Eroni, the first Emperor — was glad for the overwork and the subsequent distraction, because it gave him a freedom he was fairly certain young Emperor’s-sons were not supposed to have.

read on…

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Early for Snow

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 14:47:14 GMT

My Giraffe (Zebra) Call is open!

Written to sauergeek ‘s prompt.

❄️

It seemed like summer had left the door open and autumn was sneaking in. Xarissa threw on a coat and went outside to pull in her plants. The weather ap was calling for a hard frost tonight - never mind that it was

read on…

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Happy Monday! Giraffing Will Continue Until Morale Improves!

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 12:48:16 GMT

Happy Monday, guys! My Giraffe (Zebra) Call is still going strong:

Here on Wordpress and Here on Dreamwidth.

Tell your friends! Tell your enemies, especially if they like fiction! Tell your dog, especially if he has a Paypal account :-)

Speaking of telling people, the Signal Boost

read on…

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Rabbit Hole

Sun, 10 Sep 2017 18:05:31 GMT

My Giraffe (Zebra) Call is open!

Written to kelkyag‘s prompt.

🐇

At forty, Gemma considered herself to be relatively practical.

She’d put aside the ridiculousness of her teens and the experimentation of her twenties. She had staid hobbies and a staid job and, to be quite honest, staid

read on…

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Falling Out Of The Noose

Fri, 08 Sep 2017 19:30:13 GMT

This story is part of the Addergoole: The Original Series backstory/Sidestory

It comes after Loose Ends and Tying Off; if you are following Addergoole: a Ghost Story, Shad and Meesh are Abednego's older brothers, Eris and Joff's former Keepers, and all around bad guys.

It is written to chanter_greenie's prompt.

🔒

Shadrach had last track of how many times they’d gone through this. Keeper, Kept, Keeper, Kept. They went through whole months where they were both as gentle as they knew how, hoping the next month would be kind back to them. They went through seasons where they were rough, violent, nasty. He’d almost died at least four times. He’d almost killed Meshach at least twice.

Once, Professor VanderLinden, Professor Solomon, and Professor Pelletier had taken turns living with them for two months. It had made those two months very tense, but it hadn’t fixed anything.

read on…

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The Seasons Turn?

Fri, 08 Sep 2017 15:08:00 GMT

My Giraffe (Zebra) Call Is Open!

Written to lilfluff‘s prompt. Definitely a beginning.

🍁

“I don’t see why I should step down. Everyone knows Winter is evil.”

There were four seasons and four courts. There had always been, as long as the words went back and before that

read on…

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Turning Leaves

Fri, 08 Sep 2017 13:25:40 GMT

Written to rix_scaedu‘s prompt.

🍁

The leaves were turning wrong.

When you lived in a wooded area for a while, you got so you could feel the rhythm of autumn. The leaves closest to the road, closest to the prevailing wind, closest to anything that chilled them down, turned first. The biggest trees turned slower. The middle of the woods turned slow and last.

But in the forest behind Erato’s house, there was an almost circular place where the leaves had starting turning quickly, almost before the little maple that faced the wind all alone to the west of her house.

read on…

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Down to Talen Hall

Fri, 08 Sep 2017 01:14:36 GMT

My Giraffe (Zebra) Call is open!

Written to clare_dragonfly's prompt. It wandered a bit from the prompt...

"Talen" is a (backhanded) homage to someone who will likely never read this... And obviously the poem/song in this is an homage to

O I forbid you, maidens all,
That wear gold in your hair,
To come or go by Carterhaugh,
For young Tam Lin is there.

🌕

Do not go by the TalenHall
Where ruined Talen's Holdings Lie

read on…

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Catalog People

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 23:52:08 GMT

My Giraffe (Zebra) Call is open!

Written to ysabetwordsmith‘s prompt.

🛋️

Every payday, Edrio very carefully opened the Sears catalog and very carefully placed an order.

It wasn't always Sears; it wasn't always a catalog. Sometimes it was Penny's, although their catalog wasn't as

read on…

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Giraffe-Zebra Linkback Story

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 19:32:55 GMT

Leave a comment here if you've signal boosted my Giraffe (Zebra) Call !

Each signal boost will get another 100 words.

🍁

It was the first day of the Faire, and it was, as luck would have it, a rainy day, chilly, and thus mostly attended by the locals, the die-hards, and people who had

read on…

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Mad Kings and Handmaidens

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 18:54:42 GMT

My Giraffe (Zebra) Call is open!

Written to alexseanchai's prompt.

👑

The problem with mad kings wasn’t so much the madness part, Iounia thought, as it was the shifting of the madness.

The only sign she’d had that she’d fallen out of favor with the king was a slight shift in his giggle. If she hadn’t watched Maia be dispensed with the month before after just such a slight shift - and before that Abri, and before that Martia - she might not have known it was time to leave.

But Iounia was known for her sharp eyes and her attention to detail, which was what had brought her to the mad king’s attention in the first place, what had sat her at his feet as his adviser, and what had led her to stop by Nueva’s room and suggest quietly that she might want to get while the getting was good.

Nueva made long-term plans. Nueva was really, really good at long-term plans. Dessie was really good at making do with almost nothing. Between the three of them - because Nueva’s plan had led to grabbing Dessie on the way out - they had gotten out of the palace without a hitch. They had gotten out of the city without a hitch.

And now, rather to Iounia’s surprise - although she should have seen it coming - they were planning a rebellion.

“Not exactly a rebellion,” Dessie demurred, as they sat in an abandoned barn, cooking rats over a fire. “More of a housecleaning. Let the Mad King keep his crown. We’re just going to - ah. Work around him.”

“Why let him keep his crown?” Nueva countered. “Why not let the crown sit on an empty throne?”

“An empty throne invites someone to sit on it. A madman on the throne invites people to stay away.”

“Let him give orders.” Iounia understood the plan now. “And let him believe his orders have been carried out. Meanwhile, the rest of the country can get on with - well, with being a country.”

Safe in his underground chamber, surrounded by his crowns, the Mad King never did learn that he had fallen out of favor.

And On Wordpress..

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The Empire Falls; The Emperor Stands

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 15:01:35 GMT

My Giraffe (Zebra) Call is open!

Written to @dahob's prompt.

It was the day past the Autumnal Equinox, and the Emperor wasn’t dead.

The Rothenkill Empire, a wide-spanning mass of bureaucrats, generals, courtiers, financiers, farmers, and clerks, waited with their collective breaths held.

The servants of the Emperor moved slowly and carefully, as if their heads might fall off if they went about their tasks too quickly, or if they said the wrong thing.

Everyone was waiting. Everyone was confused. And almost everyone was worried.

In the Rothenkill Empire, it was said that the Emperors fell with the leaves. And, like leaves, it was known that sometimes, the Emperors needed a little push, a helpful shove.

So where was the shove?

“This is nor normal,” complained the Chief Financier in charge of budgets. “What are we going to do? Someone should do something.”

“Someone has to do something,” complained the Head Bureaucrat in charge of law distribution, re-writing, and deletion.

“Won’t someone do something?” pleaded the General of the Imperial Armies. “He’s starting to give orders that make sense and can’t be ignored! What are we going to do if we can’t ignore him?”

The Emperor, snug on his throne, pretended he could hear none of this. He hadn’t ascended to the Poison Throne by looking or acting particularly bright, after all. None of his predecessors had, either, not in decades, possibly not in centuries.

“The problem is,” muttered a person serving as a handmaiden, “nobody remembers how.” Her grandmother had once helped off three emperors in a row, but that had been when you got a class of emperor that sometimes needed a shove. “And with this one, I’m not going to risk it.”

And the Emperor smiled as the empire - the mass of functionaries that had killed his father, his grandfather, and countless of his various uncles and cousins - began to crumble under its own confusion.

and on wordpress...

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Autumn 2017 Giraffe (Zebra) Call: Autumn, Autumn (Roundtree)*, Fall, and Falling

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 13:11:55 GMT

It’s time for a Zebra Call, which is a special black-and-white and stripey version of a Giraffe Call.

**The theme for the month is Autumn, Autumn (Roundtree)*, Fall, and Falling**

There’s a longer post about what this call is for [here]. The short version is: We’re redoing our bathroom and the cabinets I really, really want cost $700 more than our budget.

If you’re interested in Giraffe Calls in general, check out the Giraffe Call: Call tag [here].

Leave a prompt (or several), get a short fic written.

Tip and get TWO fics written and 100 words/$1.50 tipped

Join my Patreon and get TWO fics written.

My goal is $500 between new Patreon Patrons and tips (Counting each $1 of Patreon-age as $3)

For every $50 in tips, I will choose a prompter at random and write another story to their prompts (so leave lots of prompts!)

For every multiple of 5 Patreon Patrons we reach (30, 35, 40…) I will do the same.

Milestones for this Call

$25 – Take-out! Which is useful, because we don’t have a kitchen sink right now.

$50 – Second fic written to a randomly-chosen prompter

$75 – We get the awesome zebra shower curtain instead of the pretty-neat shower curtain

$100 – Second fic written to a randomly-chosen prompter (and so on at every $X50)

$125 – New towels! All the new towels!

$150 – Second fic written to a randomly-chosen prompter

$200 – This fic is written to a randomly-chosen tipper or Patron.

$300 – we can get the slightly-less-cool second-choice cabinets

$400 – This fic is written to a randomly-chosen tipper or Patron.

$450 – Everyone who prompts can choose a story to add another 200 words to.

$500 – New Awesome Cabinets, thank you!

I encourage you to leave as many prompts as you feel like.

Prompts can be general (The Year Autumn Didn’t Come) or specific (Autumn Roundtree deals with Tattercoats); they can be in extant universes of mine (no fanfic please) or in something entirely new.

I also encourage – nay, request! – you to signal boost this far and wide, and to that end, for every signal boost, I will write 100 words of the signal boost story.

Prompt away!

* so Autumn Roundtree is a character in my Stranded World setting. I was originally going to use the runner-up in my Patreon Theme Poll as the theme for this Zebra Call, but there was no clear winner, just a 3-way tie between settings. But Stranded was one of those settings…

Want more?

And on Wordpress…

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Time for a (Zebra) Giraffe Call - Explanation

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 13:00:20 GMT

All right, it’s time for a Zebra Call!

When I first started my Giraffe Calls, they were to help defray the costs of the super-awesome giraffe carpet that I wanted – and got! – for the bedroom of our then-new(-to-us) house. The idea was that we would get the bedroom done “enough” to look finished, and then no matter what else we were working on, we could lay down at night and rest because the bedroom was done.

Hey, it worked, more or less.

Now we’re doing the bathroom! And it’s going to be black, grey, and white, mostly white, and since we already have a giraffe toilet paper holder (because giraffes), we want a zebra shower curtain…

No, I’m not holding a whole prompt call to finance a shower curtain. But it’s nicer than Cabinet Call.

You see, I have fallen in love with a certain door style and the nature of the bathroom dictates a certain (non-particle-board) carcass style and… that ends up $700 over our cabinet budget. I can cover $200 of that on current Patreon rates (3 months, or the length of this renovation).

We ripped out the “linen cabinet” that existed because

a) the face frame & doors went up to the former ceiling, 6’8″, and the cabinet itself went all the way up to the new/oldest ceiling, 8’4″

b) The doors were in bad shape, chipped, and worn.

c) the vent for the toilet was letting out in the top of the cabinet

d) the awful old drywall went under, over, and behind the old cabinet, and it was nailed to it.

And we removed the old (really ugly) vanity and replaced it with a pedestal sink last year, which opened up the place a huge amount, but poof, storage gone.

So we’re going to get two cabinets, one a linen cabinet (full height, to replace the one we ripped out) and one a wall cabinet above the toilet.

And I really, really want the pretty doors with a ( arch at the top to match the door we bought to put in as a bathroom entrance door – which is going to be a pocket door! – but the nice doors only come on the nicer cabinets.

So! Time for a Zebra Call.

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