aldersprig | Entries tagged with character: regine

The problem with half-breeds, the document read, is that they are ill-equipped to the longevity of the fae. Humanity are meant to be short-lived, and their minds and their spirits thus best survive in a more natural lifespan — sixty to eighty years, perhaps a hundred at the outside. The half-breeds are similarly equipped, being closer to humanity than to the gods who are our ancestors. At a certain point, the half-breeds simply stop forming memories correctly; their brains are full and they can no longer process new information.

It had been hailed as a piece of scientific truth for over two centuries among the Grigori, but to Regine, it read no more accurately than any other piece of pseudo-science racism of its era. Why were human brains and half-breed brains ill-equipped to longevity? What, other than the same grasp of genetics that called a panda a bear because it was roly-poly and shared a certain similarity of shape with Ursus, suggested that half-breeds were further from the ancestor-fae? And for that matter, who had reference that told anyone what the ancestor-fae were, or how specific traits which came to be equated with each of the pure-blood breeds were related to those ancestor-fae?

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Mirrored from Alder's Grove Fiction.

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Addergoole, after year 9 but before year 13 (2004-2006), early in the school year.

I, uh, might have been watching a lot of Glee recently?

♪♪

“Why would you ever want something like that? Not you, Kairos.” Director Aconmorea’s gesture was dismissive. “I know that you’re interested in anything musical at all. But you… Rose… why ‘Glee’?”

“I want to be a Broadway star.” Rose, who had been named Rusiko but refused to be known by that, lifted her chin and stared evenly at the Director. “I need extracurriculars to have a chance at a good arts school and, more than that, I need practice.”

“But there are so many more productive things you could be doing. You are…” The Director trailed off, then caught herself. “You are Ellehemaei, fae. You have an amazing repertoire of possibilities at your disposal, and your Word selection could point you at any number of very useful and lucrative careers. So why – singing?” She did not bother to hide the distaste in her voice.

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Mirrored from Alder's Grove Fiction.

This is a dream, and thus its relevance to canon is, as always, questionable. :-)

🎃

Regine was having a lovely dream where the gathered Grigori scholars were praising her genetic studies of half-breeds.

“Fascinating,” one murmured, and

“Brilliant. To get such done in such a short scope

read on…

Crossposts: https://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1442147.html

The meme is here: Give me the names of two characters and I will tell you why character A loves character B.

Here is clare_dragonfly's third prompt. Reid and Regine are from Addergoole. This was a wee bit tricky~
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Want More?

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1327203.html

Two-plus generations after the end of the world. Probably Canon.

“Very good. Now, let’s find Leia, daughter of Pavarti.”

“You’re stunting his growth, you know.” Cya strode into the conference room as if she belonged there. The three people around the conference table looked up at her with variations on surprise and annoyance.

“How do you keep getting past the wards?” Regine fussed. The Director looked as if she was half-curious, half-irritated.

Cya didn’t blame her, but she wasn’t going to explain, either. Not that I Found a teleporter who can sneak past your wards without a whisper would have been that helpful an explanation, either, since Cya had not intent of letting Regine anywhere near her teleporter.

“I Found a way,” she said, instead. “Luke.” She nodded respectfully at the smirking-and-trying-not-to Mara. “And you must be their pet Finder.”

The boy — man, he had a beard and everything — shifted uncomfortably. “I’m not anyone’s pet. And what was that crack about my height?”
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John-Wayne can be found at his own tag; he's Pellinore's son.

Orlaith (Cya's half-sister) can be found here; her son Hunter-Hale can be found here.

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1288572.html

After This Story from earlier today, which read first, because Au.

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Next: White Knight

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1276524.html

This fic is set a couple years into Yoshi's attendance at Addergoole (Yoshi being Cynara's oldest son; Ruki/Sigruko mentioned below is Leo's older daughter, by Aelfgifu). I'm not 100% happy with Regine's voice in this, but I wrote this for fun, so... here's Regine losing an argument.

"I did not anticipate this." Regine glared at the notes in front of her as if they were personally responsible for her current predicament.

"You should have." Laurel Valerian was pulling no punches today. "It's what you wanted, after all."

"This - this violence is not what I wanted!" Regine frowned at the notes again. They'd had no fewer than four instances where students had come far too close to being expelled - and in one case, the only reason that nobody had been expelled had been that the boy hadn't been trying to kill anyone. He'd left them hung upside-down in full view of a camera, but the story his victim was telling was that the boy had held a knife to their throat and whispered "If I wanted you dead, you'd be gone."

The other instances, Luke, Agmund, or Shou had caught before it had turned into murder. That one, nobody had noticed until it was done - and that worried Regine.
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Other students mentioned:
Adorlee is Magnolia's oldest, by Mike. Mags lives at the Ranch, with Boom (mostly with Howard), raising her children and Shiva's (Shiva vanished in the war) (Shiva is also Magnolia's half-sister, and her crew).

Eryk is Shiva's oldest son (by Ty).

Kishmish is Shiva's youngest daughter (by Nikita)

Viðrou is Cynara's and Leo's son, the second child for both of them.

cy'ree is "my students, those I Mentor."

sh' is "daughter of the mother." Yes. Mother.

Think that's everyone.

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1271390.html

Written for my ladiesbingo card.

2030, approximately 19 years after the end of the world.

Cya had maps.

She had a lot more than maps, actually, enough that she’d ended up building herself another room to store it all. She had reports and charts, headcounts and vulnerability assessments, crop yields and even religious and linguistic demographics, assessing everything she could of their ruined world.

But most of all, she had one big map, and on that map was a circle labelled Addergoole and a carefully-shaded area labelled as Addergoole influence. Outside of that was a rough 50-mile circle that she’d labelled DMZ.

That was where her information stopped. She would walk herself right up to that line — and did, both literally and figuratively — find every piece of information she could, and make sure that she left with a positive relationship whenever possible. She fought monsters — rarely — fed people — far more frequently — and cleaned up roads and fallen buildings right up to two inches shy of that line.

The other side of the line was Regine’s territory, and there she would not tread, not now.

Regine had agents.

Some were former students; some were people she or her crew had helped out in the past, who owed her favors, formal or informal. Some were those who didn’t know who or what they were working for, but liked the steady pay of food, shelter, and barter goods, all rare to find in the disaster of their crumbled world.

Her agents went out into the world, looking for people and things, bringing back information and goods. They brought reports of the ruins of civilization: some places had fallen into disarray and barbarism and even two decades later had not settled into peace. Some had formed tiny city-states, boarded up and unwilling to talk to outsiders, even outsiders bearing rare trade goods. Some had turned their city-states into trade hubs, or into despotic mini-empires, or into quiet imitations of Eden, some more successful than others.

And in Wyoming, the group called Boom and the woman called Cynara were doing a little bit of all of that.

Regine sent only her best agents in that direction — the cleverest, the most subtle, the ones with the best escape abilities. She assumed Cynara did the same. She was not ready to go to war with Boom nor with Cynara herself; if her agent was caught on Boom’s territory, the volatile, explosive group might take it in their heads to start that war prematurely. Thus she drew out a three-quarter circle where she was very nearly blatant, and towards Wyoming she stayed subtle, sneaky… surreptitious.

———

Regine had agents, Cya knew. Every time she found one of them, she marked their position on a map. Some of them were obvious, the sort of people you only sent into territory you were certain of. Some tried to be sneaky. Some… Some Cya found only because she already knew Regine had agents. She was known for her ability to find things and people, after all. Regine should have known better.

When she caught one a mile from the Ranch where her crew lived, Cya decided polite ignoring was no longer the order of the day. She sat down with the woman for a pleasant conversation over scrounged tea and did a series of long and complicated Workings on the woman’s mind, the sort that left nearly no trace and would not be noticed until a specific person — perhaps, the person who had taught Cya Mind magic in the first place — went looking.

Then she sent the woman back to Regine with a very polite note.

I found this. I thought you might want it back.

———

Regine stared at the woman. She stared at the note. She stared back at the woman. “How were you detected?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The woman could no more lie to Regine than she could fly — and flying was not her particular magic skill. “Nobody detected me. I got in, I got out, I came back to report.”

The paper note was proof enough. The fact that the agent was staring at the note with no realization that she had just handed it to Regine was, as the saying went, icing on the cake. Nevertheless, Regine engaged in an invasive search of her agent’s mind.

And there it was. The work was so tidy Regine doubted anyone else could have found it. The girl, she had to admit, was skilled. She’d written in dots and dashes of missing time and changed memories:

Stay off my lawn and I’ll stay off yours

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1257927.html

Kai frowned at the charts in front of her: genealogies, descriptions, birth dates and years. You could follow patterns easily enough down any given genealogy, but that wasn’t what was making her frown.

Read on: http://www.addergoole.com/TOS/archives/1301

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1247744.html

Part I - http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082356.html
Part II - http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082751.html
Part III - http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1091513.html
Part IV - http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1095923.html

Regine pulled up the computer program that kept all of her student data, glad once again that she had upgraded her machines just before the catastrophe. You could still buy computer parts in a few select enclaves, but their methods left something to be desired and they almost always included as much spyware as actual computer.

She performed a search on extant and incoming students into the school, and then performed the search two more times. “That…” She stared at the screen with a decidedly unpleasant feeling before finally raising her voice. “Hayley!”

“Yes, Director Regine?”

“Call in Luca Hunting Hawk and Michael VanderLinden. Now.”

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Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1196697.html

Part I - http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082356.html
Part II - http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082751.html
Part III: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1091513.html

Cya was not smiling. It was very important for some reason that she was not smiling.

Regine had lived with Michael and Luke as her crew for quite some time, and she could predict with some accuracy what they might say in this situation.

“She’s not playing a game.” Luke had said that on more than one occasion. “Even when she is laughing, she is not playing, any more than you are. It’s important to remember that.”

Michael did not like to talk about Boom quite so much, although he seemed quite fond of Cloverleaf and several of their other projects. When he’d been advising Regine about this trip, he had said a few pertinent things, including “Remember you’re talking about her children and descendants. Remember how biased even you can be about your own blood.” and “If she smiles, she’s comfortable, confident. If she stops smiling, you might do well to be worried.”
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Epilogue - http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1097360.html

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1195086.html

Part I - http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082356.html
Part II - http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082751.html

Regine barely managed not to gape at Cya like a fish. But the fiend was still going. “In addition, I want access to all of the data you access in this manner.”

Regine could not help a supercilious eyebrow raise, no matter how many times Mike had told her Do not raise your eyebrows at her. Do not. “Do you think you can follow the genetic data?”

“Well, if I can’t, my house geneticist can.” Cya shrugged as if a lifetime of studying genetics was nothing.

Regine cleared her throat. “Well. Be that as it may, I’m not going to allow your descendants to skip out on the Addergoole school. That might be as much as half of my population by this point.”

“Skip out?” Cya laughed. “No, I can’t imagine you’d agree to that. No. Just an agreement that, while attending Addergoole, each and every one of Boom’s descendants gets a pass. One time, when they’re in over their heads — bad Keeper, bad promise, the current big-bad-wolf — you, the staff, will help them out of it. The Keepings aren’t real, the promises aren’t real, you’re not damaging the Law by doing so.”

“But what lesson do we teach them, if they can get out of trouble at the first drop of a hat?” Regine had conducted this argument several times over the decades. She didn’t flinch.

And neither did Cya. The smile grew, as a matter of fact, and got sharp. Her voice was edgy now. “You’d be teaching them that the adults who Mentor them are their backup, are there to protect and guide them. You’d be teaching them to have allies.”

“We teach them to have crews, to find help and allies in their cy’ree, to be friends with their former Keepers and Kept.”

“After their first year. You isolate them from other first-year students, do not push the idea of a Mentor until they are either already collared or soon to be, and sometimes allow the interference of the Keeper in Mentor choice. The staff generally frowns on the idea of first-year students finding crews, and, while you may pretend to like and encourage them, you discourage crews actively standing up for one another.” Cya was still lounging against her couch, but her words were anything but casual.

And they were accurate. “It’s proven beneficial to encouraging the Keeper-Kept relationship…”

“Which you encourage, I assume, to ‘encourage’ the production of more little babies for your project. A point which is pretty moot when you do not allow students to leave until they’ve provided you with those babies.”

“Students also need to understand the dangers of Keeping and the problems inherent in both sides of the relationship before they are out in the world,” Regine insisted. Now Cya was no longer smiling. Regine was not sure that was an improvement.

“I’m certain you’re aware that you and I will never agree on that point. Be that as it may, there are other ways to encourage Keeping, and by encouraging good Keepings and allowing the possibility that the ‘trapped’ Kept could ask for a reprieve, you allow students to understand what a healthy Keeping should look like, before they go out in the world and perpetuate bad habits.”

Regine opened her mouth and closed it again, her lips curling into a frown. “Surely you’re not insinuating that Addergoole is responsible for the actions of its students once they’ve graduated?”

“No. I’m saying that you and your choices are responsible for a great deal of misery in the world. However,” Cya plowed on blithely, “that doesn’t matter. You’ve done some awful things, and now you want a favor from me. Does that about sum it up?”

Regine bit her tongue and counted to ten. “I come asking a favor of you, yes,” she answered levelly.

“Therefore, your justifications really don’t matter. The question is: will you agree to my terms?”

Part IV: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1095923.html

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1191250.html

Part I - http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082356.html

Regine sat uncomfortably on Cya’s rather-comfortable couch. She had brought papers; she ignored them. Instead, she cleared her throat. “You two have had several children together over a large span of years. This makes you not quite unique but very rare, not only among Addergoole graduates but among Ellehemaei couples in general. There are some emerging genetic theories about children born to Ellehemai early in their life vs. after a century or more of life, and your children…” Luke had told her not to do it. Mike, on the other hand, had advised her. Do not say test subjects. “If I could study their DNA, I might be able to better pursue these theories.”

Cya coughed. “Most of our children are Adults. You’ll have to ask them yourself — which I’m sure you knew. So I imagine you’re coming to ask about Tama.”

“Ljótama, yes. Although,” Regine cleared her throat, “if you would be willing to put in a good word for me with Viðrou, and possibly with Kouveig, it might make them more willing to speak with me.”

It looked as if Cya was trying hard not to laugh. She coughed again instead and nodded, at least trying to look solemn. “If we can reach an accord, it can include me encouraging — those two in specific?”

“I don’t expect you’d be willing to encourage all your children to cooperate with me. I’ve met both Viðrou and Kouveig, and as your first and third of five, they make for convenient data points,” Regine explained. She noted that Cya had not at any point numbered her children. She wondered if she’d given away too much information by admitting she knew the number.

Or if she was wrong about the number. Cya might be another step ahead of her in this case. It seemed to happen when Regine least expected it, especially in the last fifty years.

Either way, Cya was smirking. “Those two specifically. It’s possible you’d find one of the others more cooperative, but we do not tend to raise compliant children.”

“I can’t imagine you would.” Regine ahem’ed. “Nor was that my experience when your children, or your grandchildren, were in school.”

“I can’t imagine it would have been,” Cya echoed back at her, smiling. “So. You want a genetic sample from — or a genetic study of — Ljótama, and help coordinating such from two of our sons, as well.”

Regine nodded slowly. “Yes. Having access to such would allow me to delve deeper into the study of Ellehemaei genetics..”

“Which, as we all know, is your great love. Of course.” Cya’s interruption was dismissive, but Regine did not allow herself to show any irritation or anger. This data would be more than a little bit useful to her. It was worth a bit of irritation. “All right.” Cya leaned forward. “I’m willing to agree to this, under a couple conditions.”

“Of course. What are your conditions?”

Cya leaned back in her seat. Regine noted that her hand settled on Leo’s back possessively. “I want a ‘get out of jail free’ card for every single one of our descendants to attend Addergoole, from now until the school closes its doors permanently.”

Part Three: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1091513.html

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1183735.html

When Cya and Leofric’s fifth child together — their seventh in total — was a student at Doomsday, Regine finally swallowed her pride enough to visit and ask a favor.

The child — a daughter, Ljótama — was in her fourth year at Doomsday Academy, in a cy’ree Regine’s informant insisted on calling “cy’Goldie”, and proficient already in Hugr, Intinn, Jasfe, and Idu — her parents’ child, it seemed.

But weren’t they all? Regine had begun inserting informants in the school after Leo and Cya’s last child had graduated, when the pair left the academy in capable hands that were not their own, but she’d had informants in Cloverleaf for much longer, and everything said that their children were capable, a little bit wild, headstrong, and powerful: children of Boom all the way through.

Regine kept that in mind as she knocked on Cynara’s door. These were, as Luke had been pointing out to her for over half a century, not children anymore. Their children, the older ones, were powerful enough to be demigods in their own right — Viðrou in his forest, Yoshi and Sigruko wherever their travels took them.

As Mike liked to point out, both parents and children had been using their powers actively, in life-and-death situations, far more in recent decades than Regine had.

She did not want to anger these people.

She knocked politely.

Leofric answered the door, shirtless and apparently completely comfortable with it. His face did something interesting as he saw her, a twitch of the lips and a raised eyebrow, before he turned — partially, Regine noted, not turning his back on her. “Cya? Director Avonmorea is here.”

Regine did not miss the implied insult. She kept a polite smile on her face as Cya walked over. She might have caught them at a bad time — Cya was wearing what looked to be one of Leo’s kimono, casually belted, and apparently with no other clothing. And she was frowning.

“Lady of the Lake, if you mean me and mine no harm today and on this trip to Cloverleaf, please enter.”

Regine found her eyebrows going up, although she knew better. She stepped inside, not bothering with pleasantries. If Cya hadn’t wanted her to come in, she would have sent her away. “Red Doomsday. Lightning Blade… oro’Doomsday.” He was, after all, still wearing Cya’s collar. “I came…” Regine bowed carefully. “I came to ask a favor of you.”

Cya smirked. It was an unpleasant expression, but Regine did her best not to react to it. “You might as well come sit down, then. I imagine this will be interesting.”

Just as a general timeline: Mai (their 2nd child) was a child when Cloverleaf was built. Their next child, Kovi, was an adult by the time Cya Kept Leo. The next child came soonish after, and Tama about 30 years after that child.

Part II: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1082751.html

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1183156.html

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Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1153459.html

It was 2111, and Regine was using Powerpoint.

She found that amusing.

Certainly, computer programming was not a skill in high circulation at the moment - it seemed limited to a few sad enclaves still trying to hold on to the old world - and so there were few new options. But more than that, it was such a Grigori thing to do, to use antiquated technology decades past its prime.

Regine hoped there were Grigori in the audience young enough - or flexible enough - to appreciate the humor in this. She was going to need every advantage she could get today.

She did not clear her throat; it would considered an unnecessary and thus useless gesture by this crowd. Instead she stilled her posture and waited for silence.

"I am here today to state unequivocally that the terms 'pure-blooded', 'half-breed', and 'Faded' are outdated terms based on an archaic understanding and, as such, should immediately be dropped out of usage by Grigori."
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Open to more properly scientific terms for "The Jamian Point" and "space-shapers and time-movers"

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1120773.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... )

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1101906.html

After Inflicting Change, beginning of Year 20 of Addergoole

"Director Regine doesn't ever take Students. My mother said she never has."

Jack punctuated his words with lazy sneers and casual touches, patting Senka's arm, shaking his head as if she was being foolish.

Senka pulled away. She had only been here for a week and a half, and she was already sick of Jack and the dozen others that were remarkably similar to Jack while looking nothing like him. "I did not say she had."

"Your mother was wrong, anyway." Perth was not like Jack. He was so completely not like Jack that Senka was unclear why he was friends with him, "crew" with the loud, obnoxious, self-satisfied, touching her again Jack. "She's taken one Student. It was when my mom was here. Maybe your mom missed it."

"Senka?" The Director's secretary showed up just in time to forestall yet another fight between Jack and Perth. Senka wondered if Perth had seen the woman coming and timed it that way. "Director Regine would like to see you in her office after your magic classes today."
( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://addergoole.livejournal.com/319464.html

Written to inventrix's and Kuro-Neko's request/commission after I Should Visit, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV and Part V; 2500 words

“...you might consider, in due time, why some people’s children seem to know so much more, coming to Addergoole, than others’.”

Regine watched the woman walk down the stairs, her mink tail bobbing. She watched her open the back door and head out into the back yard, where Feu Drake was telling the toddler some convoluted story.

It was a question she had not given too much thought, she was forced to admit, if only to herself. Some students came in with basic or no educational background; some came in nearly college-educated. Some knew what a Kept was, what a promise was, what hawthorn was. Some learned those things the hard was during the course of their time at Addergoole.

It did make it harder to shock them into Changing, but the tight, Ellehemaei-full environment did what surprise did not.
( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1085797.html

Written to inventrix's request/commission after I Should Visit, Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV; 1,425 words

Regine’s eyebrows went up. “You have an Addergoole student here?”

Cynara, curse her, smirked. “We have several. However, Deimos was conceived and born outside of Addergoole.”

Regine twisted her lips. Definitely a student of Feu Drake, this one. “He is on our rolls to attend Addergoole next year.”

“His mother didn’t contact you?” Cynara raised her eyebrows. “Perhaps she was waiting until her first two children graduated.”

Regine held Cynara’s gaze. “Why do you think she would do something like that?”
( Read more... )

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/961728.html

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1083839.html

Written to inventrix's request/commission after I Should Visit, Part I, Part II and Part III; 1,676 words

Kurt bowed low, with an overdone flourish. “Welcome to Doomsday, lady and gentleman.” Never had those words been spoken so cheerfully. “I do hope you enjoy your stay.”

He sounded like a movie. Regine raised her eyebrows at him in the gesture that had quelled so many Addergoole students. This child, however, had no common sense, and was unconcerned. He winked at her playfully and turned back to the sidewalk, moving forward with a hop and a skip.

“First up is the dining hall and otherwise gathering-around place.” Kurt gestured negligently at the building.

“A church?” Regine was honestly shocked, enough that it showed in her voice. The building was tall, pale, and had a steeple -- every bit like an old country church.
( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1081434.html

Written to inventrix's request/commission after I Should Visit, Part I, and Part II; 1,785 words

"...we will see you to the gate and bar your entrance.”

Regine raised her eyebrows. “You think you can?”

Cynara smiled back at her. “I think it would be a very interesting exercise for all of us. I also remember, very clearly, something that Luke taught us a long time ago: individually, a single fae may be stronger than another. In a group... it is rare that you will find a single fae stronger than fifty fae.” She folded her hands and smiled. “You can sign the paper. Or you can leave.”

Regine a second look at the paper. It was a short contract, agreeing to much the same items that Drake had sworn -- that she would came in with no desire to seek military knowledge or advantage, that she would do no harm to the staff or to the children, that she would leave if asked to leave. “Do you seriously believe that I am a danger to students?”
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Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1076904.html

Written to inventrix's request/commission after I Should Visit and Part I; 1,431 words

The buildings were almost entirely stone, or, at least, things that would qualify as Eperu; according to Regine’s records, that was one of Cynara’s best Words, although Meentik had not been one of her Words at all. They were made with skill and grace, not generally more than three stories tall, and their architecture echoed both Hopi buildings and northeastern brownstones. Bright banners and signs hung from many walls, and the shops lining Main Street seemed to be doing a brisk business. Regine noticed three clothing vendors, each with their own specific niche market; a yarn-and-thread-and-cloth store with three people spinning in the center of the store and one weaving in the back; a baker, a butcher, a candlestick-maker; a cheese store with the fragrant odors of ripe cheese wafting out. The list went on. Nothing was particularly high-tech, but everything that one needed to live somewhat comfortably seemed represented.

“It seems to be a thriving town,” Regine allowed carefully. “I do, ah, see some people who appear poor.”
( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1073185.html

Written to inventrix's request/commission after I Should Visit; 1,447 words

“I’m impressed.” Regine snorted dryly. “She’s managed to reinvent bureaucracy.”

“Just a few more forms, ma’am, sir.” The guard - human, Regine was nearly certain - smiled a tight, efficient bureaucrat’s smile and brought forth another ream of paper. Where had Cynara even found a papermill? “Now, are you bringing any animals into the city?”

“This is a short visit to see an old student. We’re not immigrating.” Next to her, Feu Drake said nothing, only smirked inscrutably as he’d been doing for hours. “No, there are no animals with us. Tempero Intinn Rodger--”

She had quite a bit of practice sliding Workings such as this into conversation, but utterly none at doing so when a klaxon started blaring. She faltered, frowning; the door to the tiny waiting room thumped open.

This guard was openly displaying her Change: sharp, short horns and very large wings. She was also wearing Captain’s stripes and a frown. She hit a button, and the klaxon silenced.
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Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1072538.html

The one date reference in this currently sets it in 2053, year 59 of the Addergoole School and 11 of Doomsday Academy. However, I may move it a little later, to coincide with a project Inventrix & I are considering, one said Inventrix wakes up to consult. :-)

Regine had a tendency to come to decisions slowly - not because she was in any way stupid, but because she liked to consider all angles of an issue and, on non-critical matters, saw no reason to go quickly. (In that, she was much like the old Grigori that had raised her, a fact Luke would not mention out loud or even think loudly where anyone might overhear it.)

Because of this, she often took long enough to reach a decision that Luke, having already gone through a much more blunt-object style of thought, was taken by surprise by the time she announced her results.

"I believe I should visit this 'Doomsday Academy', she announced, over a dinner shared between their crew.

Luke nearly choked on his beer. Regine raised her sculpted eyebrows at him.

"You have visited several times by now, haven't you? And Michael here has visited so often that they have named a new drink after him. It is a project by an Addergoole graduate, and thus I have a vested interest in visiting."
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Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1067946.html

To wyld_dandelyon's prompt to my H/C prompt here

Mid-Autumn Year 8 of the Addergoole School.

Regine looked at her files again, hoping for some other information than what she was reading. She flipped through, pulling older files, staring at the information before putting those files, too, aside.

"Auriel--" she began, and stopped herself. Her throat was tight.

Mike took her hand. "Auriel died young, Regine. We don't know what would have happened."

"He lived to be twenty." Her first son have lived long enough that they had known he would not Change.

"Maybe it comes with the Change." Mike fingered the folders gently. Liliandra was his daughter, too. And while Agatha was... something... there was absolutely no denying that the girl who called herself Lolly was insane. "What are you going to do?"

Auriel wasn't insane. But she couldn't hope her children wouldn't Change. "I don't know." Her voice cracked. "I don't know."

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1059635.html

Set c. 1829, written in response to cluudle's question on the last story.

It is possible Regine would never have noticed the woman.

She was a half-breed beggar, sitting in the halls of the mighty because the humans would not have her, or so Regine assumed. She was skinny, wretched, and here, here in the stronghold of the Grigori in America, she was un-Masked, her doggy ears flapping and her doggy tail twitching under her skirt.

Regine dropped her a dollar, because she could spare it, and then another dollar, for Falk, and would have thought nothing else of it, except that the wretched woman tugged at her skirt.

"Lady, there are things you must know."

"There are many things I must know." Her father was already walking on ahead. She knelt down to look at the woman, intrigued despite herself. The half-breed reached out and grabbed Regine's hand with both of her own. She blinked, and her eyes were white, with lightning in them.

"The storm is coming, Lady of the Lake. The waters will rise and all will be flooded out. All will burn, all will die. The storm is coming, Lady, the fathers are coming back. And everything will be destroyed."

"Regine! Regine, what are you doing? You are going to be late to the meeting."

"I am sorry, Father." She was thirty years old. She was married, with a young child of her own. She let her father take her hand as if she were a toddler, the storm in the half-breed's eyes still flashing in her mind.

"I don't know why we let those half-breed mutts in here anyway..." her father was muttering.

"Because the storm is coming, Father." The truth was as clear to her as day, as sudden as lightning. "And we will need them."

Her father did not listen, of course. But that was all right. She would find those who would.

Crossposts: http://addergoole.livejournal.com/311520.html http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1040085.html

Set ~1890, in response to a conversation with cluudle last night.

Content notes: this includes allusions to some of the most awful stuff in the Addergoole 'verse, but mostly in passing.
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Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/1039712.html

Posted here:

http://www.addergoole.com/9/2014/08/outtake-things-need-to-change/

( cut for excerpt )

http://www.addergoole.com/9/2014/08/outtake-things-need-to-change/

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://addergoole.livejournal.com/298895.html

“We already have monitoring in place...”

“Clearly is it not enough!” It was a roar. It needed to be more. Caitrin dropped her voice to a very quiet, calm, analytic tone. “This cannot happen again.”

(to @Kuro_Neko's commissioned request for the staff yelling at Regine.)

Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/921759.html http://addergoole.livejournal.com/298242.html

This takes place sometime during the "sign-up" phase of the Addergoole project - ~mid-to-late 1970's. It was written in response to clare_dragonfly's comments here and here

Addergoole has a landing page here

There were very few pure-bloods in Regine's Addergoole Project. She had very little interest in finding out what happened when you bred two pure bloods, for one - they had been finding that out, over and over again, since the gods first arrived. She wanted to know what you could get from paired half-breeds.

For another, she knew that the pure bloods would eventually become distressed, when they learned of her project. It had not been all that long that half-breeds were in any way considered part of Shenera Endraae, and to go about deliberately making hundreds more half-breeds - all with the aim of educating and arming them - she had not needed Michael and Luca to tell her that somebody would be angry when they found out.
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Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/848651.html

March is Women's History Month, and so for March I'm doing vignettes about or questions regarding any of my female characters, one/day from the 10th-31st.

The prompt post is here; please add more prompts ;-)

This one comes from thnidu, who asked "How come Regine is so... so Regine-ish?"

Regine Avonmorea is the cold and analytic Director of the Addergoole School - in Addergoole, which also has a landing page here. (Stay tuned for the entirely-new rewrite of Book One of Addergoole, coming soon!)
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Crossposts: http://addergoole.livejournal.com/288057.html

This takes place sometime during the "sign-up" phase of the Addergoole project - ~mid-to-late 1970's. It was written in response to clare_dragonfly's comment here.

Addergoole has a landing page here

"Take part in a Grigori breeding project? What are you, nuts?"

Regine had been anticipating responses like that; it was one reason (although not in any way close to her primary reason - they were her crew, and the closest thing to friends she had) that her team consisted of not just a Grigori, but a Mara and a Daeva as well.

She had not truly been anticipating the next rejection she received.
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Crossposts: http://addergoole.livejournal.com/287709.html

This is to clare_dragonfly's prompt to this January card for origfic_bingo.

It fills the "promises made" slot, and is in Addergoole, which has a landing page here

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Crossposts: http://addergoole.livejournal.com/287010.html

This is a continuation of Planning and
Microbit One, set in Year 43 of the Addergoole School, for rix_scaedu's commission.

Regine had practice remaining calm in the face of volatile personalities. She had plenty of practice, in fact, with this particular volatile personality; she and Luca had been working together, alongside Michael, for centuries.
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Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/809764.html

So, I was looking at ysabetwordsmith's prompt here, and I asked Twitter for some ideas and then um you ended up with four microficlets.

One is Canon, Two could be, Three Might be, and Four is a definite AU.

All are Addergoole.
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Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/801387.html http://addergoole.livejournal.com/285642.html

This is to rix_scaedu's prompt here to my February Giraffe Call.

Regine and Luca are characters in Addergoole.

Warning: cold bitch

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Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/798791.html

To Sky's request to this call for Addergoole prompts.

Between Years 19 and 20 of the Addergoole School

Luke's voice still wasn't up to par, but he had gone to the wedding, of course. His Student had invited him - and she and Hayden deserved this, more than Luke had words for, even when his voice was properly working.

When he came back, Mike was waiting for him. "I've been thinking."

It had been the years for it. Regine had been meddling more than normal; she had pushed them to meddle more than normal. What had resulted was a cluster fuck that, if they were lucky, the students affected would eventually forgive them for.

"Me, too. I've got an idea."
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Crossposts: http://addergoole.livejournal.com/270013.html

This takes place some time (2 years or so) after The Year Cya Didn't Keep Anyone.

She cleaned the dust of two years of hard labor off of herself before she went back to school; she re-dyed her hair the brilliant red it had been for most of her life and found clean, nice clothes. When she walked up to the wards and knocked, she didn't look like the scruffy girl who had been pulling a city out of the earth by the force of her mind. She looked like a responsible adult.

She didn't think it would help enough, but she thought that, considering the Administration, to not put on the facade would hurt too much.

She gained an audience with the Queen of Addergoole, Director Regine Avonmorea, by the simple expedient of asking. That was, Cynara had a feeling, the last easy part of this mission.
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Crossposts: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/656829.html

March 7, 1810

Regine studied her son - her only son, her only child. She studied his Change, the echo of her father, all those years ago, muttering in the back of her mind.

She took three measured breaths, and then a fourth. "You are my son."
She affirmed this truth, in case anyone had any doubt. "We will find an appropriate Mentor for you, who can teach you what I have not."

"If there is anything you have not taught me."

"I am certain I have missed, perhaps, one or two things." Regine did not touch easily, but she made herself touch the fluted, fin-like ears that his Change had brought. "You are my son." She did not know if she was reassuring him, or herself.