Alder's Grove

This story is of questionable canonicalness - it probably happened, probably about 100 years after Cya & Leo graduate from Addergoole (or about 93 years after the end of the world) - but the exact date is up in the air, as well as some details.

It follows the Apollo/Boom stuff you can find on top on the Boom tag by about 2 years.

Mike was grinning, tanned, and dressed in new, strange clothes when he sashayed into Luke's office. In green and brown, he looked like he had stepped out of a Robin Hood film - or, knowing Mike, possibly the pornographic spoof of a Robin Hood film.

"Cloverleaf," Luke guessed. Mike had way too much fun on his little excursions, wherever he went, but only Cloverleaf left him grinning like that. They liked him in the bars there, it turned out, and probably the brothels, too.

(Luke wouldn't put it past Cynara to have put in brothels just for Mike).

"Cloverleaf. They have newspapers." He flopped the tri-folded paper down on Luke's desk.

"All the comforts of the modern age," Luke muttered. "Next thing we know, she'll have self-driving cars."

"Horses do that pretty well, actually. They say the press is pretty free, there. Only a couple rules, if my informant is to be believed."

"How drunk was your informant?" The paper was called The 'Leaf Leaves, and the first headline was something about Mayor Collapses? Luke picked up the paper.

"Faiiirly sober?" Mike hedged. "As sober as normal, at least. They like their papers. They like their city, turns out. I mean, nationalism and all, but it's nice to see people happy in their home. And, ah," he gestured at the paper. "With their Mayor."

Luke unfolded the paper and stared. "Mike, what is this?"

"They've redeveloped photography," Mike added helpfully.

"I can see that. What is this?"

"It's a photo of the Mayor collapsing, like the paper says." Mike was grinning, damn his soul.

"No." He stared at the photo. It was grainy and pixelated, printed in four colors with the offset slightly off on the red. But it was very clearly Leofric Lightning-blade carrying Cya Red Doomsday. They were smiling. They were happy. And Leo was wearing a golden collar around his throat. "Mike..."

"Most of the rumors say it's her collar." Mike's smile had vanished, replaced by something strange and thoughtful. "And all of the rumors say they're happier now."

Cya Red Doomsday's best Words had always been Tempero and Intinn, Control and Mind. And she'd always been balanced by Leo's absolute certainty that he was a good guy. Luke was already headed for the door.

---

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1057996.html

I felt like writing this, so I did. Year four was pretty awful for everyone.

---

End of Year Four of the Addergoole School

The students had all walked across the stage, had all been given their names and released from one set of obligations and oaths into another. Various bonds and promises had broken. The students milled around now in the Village, waiting for parents to pick them up, waiting for Luke's Jeep to take them to the airport.

Regine watched them from a distance, accompanied by Mike and Shira Pelletier. They bounced about, nervous energy making them louder than they normally would be. Students who had spent four years ignoring each other talked now, bonded by the feeling of "us against the world."

There was a chance they'd need it. Mike cleared his throat. "Well, there goes the First Cohort."

"Indeed." Regine's lip twitched. It wasn't a smile, not as normal people smiled. Mike wasn't even sure it counted as an expression for Regine.

"How do you think they'll do?" He snuck a look at Shira, but she was ignoring him. "Do you think they'll be okay, out in the world?"
( Read more... )

After Put me on a dollar cause I’m who they trust in.

Luca=Luke (Luca was what he was called when younger)

Mike/Michelle/VanderLinden/Meckil are all the same person.

Akatil Yixox teaches tinkering and "unutu," worked objects (artifacts?) at Addergoole.

---

It was just too tempting. Mike left the 3-clover bill on his desk for a week, turning it over and over.

Regine refused to acknowledge that Cloverleaf or Doomsday Academy were anything but the pitiful games of angry children; when DJ had suggested trading with them for goods, the Director had actually thrown the Procurer (and the school's buying agent; DJ was good at the job) out of her office.

But the currency sitting on Mike's desk spoke far more loudly than Regine's chill, snipped answers. It was well-done, for one, with at least three Workings embedded it in. Akatil Yixox had raised both eyebrows, and then said, with some consternation, "this is not the work of my Students. But it's not the work of yours either, is it?"

It was a good question, and not one Luca had been thinking of, clearly. Luca, bless the bird-brain's heart, had been too busy flailing his hands and wondering how the children grew up so big.

Considering his wife was the daughter of one of those children, Mike thought perhaps Luca needed to think out his reactions a little bit better. Then again, Luca had a bit of a thing for those far too young for him.

That was far, far beside the point, maddening as it was. The point was, the currency was fascinating. Having a bill with one's own face on it was absolutely delicious. And having a fifty with Luca's face on it... Mike slept with that bill under his pillow, but only when he slept alone.

He had to do it. He had to see this city.

This came about because of a box of tea my roommate just showed me. ;-)
It helps to know that Mike is Mike VanderLinden, whose original use-name is Linden-Flower.
Shira is Professor Pelletier; Maureen is Lady Maureen Foxglove. All three are staff at Addergoole.


It had started as a dirty joke between Shira and Maureen, shared over their third or fourth beer one late night in Mau's Tavern.

"Well," Shira had been laughing, "if all else fails, there's Linden Flower tea for what ails you."

"Unless it's lindens that ail you, of course." Maureen had smirked over her beer and they had moved on to more tree metaphors.

Shira had forgotten the whole thing until Christmastime, when a box of linden-flower tea had shown up under her tree. Once that had been done, though, the gauntlet had been thrown and it was on.
( Read more... )

After Present.

Um, this was supposed to be kink but turned out to be a little disturbing.

Post-apoc Addergoole, Mike VanderLinden

"Kneel."

The boy fell to his knees, looking at the floor. His face wasn't so much slack as it was carefully without expression. The only way Mike could find anything in him was to read his emotions.
( Read more... )

After Love. Approx. year 30 of the Addergoole School.

Shira had turned down the first four people Mike had brought to her.

Two of them had been older students, the other two late late entries into Regine's breeding project - with the war making a mess of their lives, Regine had started bringing in whatever new blood she could find, and Mike was happily helping her repopulate the world. One of the students had been male, the other female; one of the Project ones had been female, the other hermaphroditic.

And Shira had said - later and in private - "No. Good try, but no."

And Luke was still obnoxiously in love, and even more obnoxiously entirely oblivious to that fact.

"Professor?"

Mike glanced up at the voice. There was unsurprisingly, a student standing there. Skylla. Mike taught her, of course, in a Literature class - American Lit, this semester - where she was quiet unless prompted but eloquent and off-beat when questioned. She was also, so far, a scruffy tomboy who hadn't yet decided what she would be as an adult. No the sort Mike normally pursued. He'd assumed she'd end up Laurel's or Doug's, or possibly Sang Ki's.

But she was standing in his doorway, radiating concern and need so badly that Mike didn't need to focus on his empathy to understand it.

"Come on, Skylla. How can I help you?"