Clare-Dragonfly

Title: The Witches' Solution
World: other
Word count: 2,978
Rating: PG
Prompt: allbingo apocalypse theme: magical solution; rainbowfic Antique Brass 16, You guys sound excited! Did I solve it?!; Hills of Iowa 1, We walk in the world of safe people and at night we walk into our houses and burn.
Notes: This took a weird turn near the end that I did not expect. I guess that's what I get for not planning out the actual solution ahead of time!


The first house to go up in flames belonged, not to the president or to his family, or to the vice president or to one of the cabinet members, but to a minor functionary no one believed had anything to do with the scandal.

But his house still burned, and it burned hot and fast, with no time for him or his wife or children to escape. He and his family burned; only the dog made it out.

Immediately, most people assumed arson. The fire marshal promised what the president demanded: a full and thorough investigation. Their preliminary findings did not indicate human agency in the fire, but it had burned so precisely that it was difficult for anyone to believe it had been an accident.( Read more... )

Title: Jammin'
World: robot rights
Word count: 1,066
Rating: PG (for brief mention of past violence)
Prompt: rainbowfic Fire Opal 3, Impassioned; Hills of Iowa 9, Here's hoping that the days ahead won't be as bitter as the ones behind you.
Notes: I was also inspired by the Thimbleful Thursday prompt "vale of tears," but I think I went too far beyond the wordcount for it to qualify!


Mo dragged herself towards home. She was exhausted after another long day of job searching. But she wasn’t discouraged; two people had said they’d contact her if they had any openings, after she’d declared herself totally willing to do any kind of manual labor. She’d emphasized that there was absolutely nothing too disgusting for her to take on, without actually telling them how she knew that.( Read more... )

Title: Paris
World: The Wasteland
Word count: 1,566
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: rainbowfic Hills of Iowa 7, So if you want to see the world with me let's go.; Sulphur 16, fire; stayintheroom Paris will still be there when you're twenty.
Notes: Apocalypses! They have a lot of death.


It was a perfect day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Jala and Anden had finally graduated from high school.( Read more... )

Title: Fealty
World: Ursulan
Word count: 3,458
Rating: G
Notes: I knew I wanted to write this, but I didn't know whose perspective it should be in. So I wrote it in four perspectives.


The court never failed to fill by suppertime. Of course, that had been by design, in part; Ursula wanted many people to see her as the queen, to know that they could come to her for anything. She would need that trust when she called on them to fight—and that would be sooner than later. She needed each and every one of the people crowding into her hall right now.

That didn’t make it any easier to face. Especially today. Less than a full day after discovering the news about her daughter—about her own past. The day she had to hasten her life along, make things happen that she was not ready for, all for political reasons.
( Read more... )

Title: Lettered
World: The Ursulan Cycle
Word count: 1,262
Rating: G
Prompt: Crowdfunding creative jam: "The community of scholars/physicians, while Morgan is in school."
Notes: This is a rather quiet little story. It surprised me; I thought there was going to be a lot more dialogue. But I guess monks don't talk much.


Morgan did not want to go away to school. He hated the idea of being away from his daughter for that long—bad enough he was going to be away from everything else he’d ever known. But his mother insisted he learn to read and write Latin, and his master insisted, and eventually even Lot insisted, and he gave in.

His mother insisted on bringing him to the monastery in her finest carriage. He would have preferred to go alone, or with a servant or two, on ordinary horses, but she would have none of it. So he wasn’t surprised when the other boys, those few who were also studying at the monastery, gave him nasty or appraising looks.( Read more... )

Title: Fatherhood
World: The Ursulan Cycle
Word count: 1,227 (total: 2,357)
Rating: PG
Notes: To ysabetwordsmith's commission for more Ursulan stories. I love Morgan so much, I just keep writing about him. (Which is weird, because normally I prefer to write about female characters!)


Morgan wanted to carry the baby home in his own arms, but his mother insisted that the wet-nurse take her, even though she would be walking and they were riding and the road was all mud from storms. That should, perhaps, have been his first sign. But he was so focused on little Morwenna, her tiny pink toes, her silky dark hair, that he couldn’t think of anything else.

He rode beside her all the way home, making the wet-nurse walk by his stirrup. “Isn’t she sweet? Look at her, sleeping so peacefully. Is she the sweetest baby you’ve ever met, Eleanor?”

The wet-nurse shook her head, smiling. “I wouldn’t know, master. I’m my mother’s youngest and I never had a baby of my own. But she does seem awfully sweet. What does her name mean?”

Morgan frowned. “I’m not sure. But it’s lovely, isn’t it? Mother, what does Morwenna mean?”( Read more... )

Title: Morwenna
World: The Ursulan Cycle
Word count: 2,477
Rating: PG-13 for underage (by modern standards) sexuality and childbirth
Notes: Another story about Ursula! One of the things I'm asking myself about this series is, "what makes this different from just slapping different names and pronouns on Arthurian stories?" The first answer that came to mind was "pregnancy and childbirth."


Ursula did not want to get out of bed. This was not unusual, but what was strange was the reason she didn’t want to get out of bed. She felt as though the room was going to start swaying if she did. And she hadn’t had anything to drink last night. Not at all.

“Come on, Ursula, wake up,” her sister Kate urged her.

Ursula shook her head into the bedclothing. “Don’t want to.”

“Are you sick?”

“Yeah. Feel like the room’s spinning. Like I’m going to throw up all over the place if I move.”( Read more... )

Title: Acceptance
World: Extranormal Crimes
Word count: 1,186
Rating: PG for very mild violence
Prompt: rainbowfic Antique Brass 3, Yeah, my only pleasure left in life: concocting ways to embarrass you.
Notes: I had no idea that Maggie had started college a year early until I started writing this. Also, not sure it's actually canon as some things don't quite fit with other stuff I've written...


Maggie did not listen when her mother told her to start thinking about applying to colleges. She continued to not listen when her father lectured her that it was time to think about colleges. She also did not listen when her sister Grace called from her own college and told her to start worrying about college, for serious, because if you weren’t prepared your head would explode with stress and Maggie could hardly handle another problem getting in between her and her future.( Read more... )

Title: Girl Advice
World: Falling Into Light
Word count: 1,593
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: rainbowfic Antique Brass 10, John Adams was a farmer. Abraham Lincoln was a small-town lawyer. Plato, Socrates were teachers. Jesus was a carpenter. To equate judgment and wisdom with occupation is at best... insulting.
Notes: More backstory work. This time it's Dylan's turn!



“But, Mom, she doesn’t…”

“I know, honey,” his mom said. She sounded bored, even over the phone line, which just wasn’t fair. She should at least have the common courtesy to sound tired instead of bored, considering it was six hours later in London. “But not everyone is going to understand you, okay? You’re my special boy. Other people are just going to have to deal with the fact that you’re different.”( Read more... )

Title: Going Maying
World: Falling Into Light
Word count: 1,041
Rating: G
Prompt: rainbowfic Moonlight 16, Halcyon; We are all meant to shine, like children do; may day challenge
Notes: Backstory to a novel/duology I'm in the planning stages for. This story is probably really confusing because I tried to avoid spoilers--the stuff the mom is worrying about is a major part of the plot.


“Mama!” cried Sasha, running up from the school bus to the front step. Her mama was waiting there, as she always was, and scooped Sasha up in her warm, soft arms to give her a tight hug. Sasha shrieked with delight, hugged her mama back, and then wiggled to get down, clutching her drawing from school in her hand.( Read more... )