Flash Fic Challenge: An Unusual Body

 An Unusual Body

It wasn't the first time I'd been called to a newly-unearthed body, but it was the first time that body had been the body of a car. A Model-T Ford, to be precise. Suffice to say, when the prison work farm called me to say they had found a body in one of their fields, a car was not what I expected.

Still, a body is a body, so I went to have a look.

It was in one of their newer fields, currently half ploughed - the plough was sitting off to the side with a piece of scrap metal wrapped around the blade - and now with a car sized hole in the middle of it. The car was in remarkably good shape for having been buried so long.

If it had in fact been buried so long. It was the first of April, after all.

Flash Fic Challenge: A Fine Match

 A Fine Match

It was a cold, blustery, day when the rival local teams were scheduled for a football match, but the stands were crowded with fans of both sides.

An older teenager accosted a slightly younger teen on his way up the steps. "Heyyy, why so glum, my friend? You'll get stuck looking like that if you aren't careful."

The younger teen sighed. "Rosamund broke up with me," he said. "I'll never be happy or in love again." He launched into a regretful torrent of words about how lovely his ex was, and how much he still loved her, even as the older teen pulled him over to join their group of friends. One of the friends had brought a thermos flask full of tea and was passing out cups to the rest, to help keep their hands warm.

Another commiserated with the younger teen over the breakup and tried to cheer him up.

A third threw an arm across the teen's shoulders. "Rosamund doesn't know what she's missing," he said cheerfully. "You know, Romeo, there's a dance tomorrow night. Why don't you come along, take your mind off things?"

Romeo nudged the latter back. "Oh, very well. As long as you don't expect me to fall for any of the girls there." He straightened as the players began to emerge. "Anyhow, we can talk later. Match is starting."

"Of course," his older friend replied, grinning and confident with all the extra experience of a few more years. "It'll be fine, you'll see."

And with that, they turned to watch the match.

Aro Week: Smith

 

It's Aro Week! I'm going to spend it talking about some of my published aromantic characters.

Today: Smith from

Catch the World's Desire (out later this year): Star-crossed lovers makes a grand tale, but when it's over, someone has to pick up the pieces. That 'someone' is usually Rhoda.

Smith (Sometimes called Hephaestus, Vulcan, or Weyland) is thoughtful, patient, determined, and hard-working. He is a crafter, and sees everything through that lense, whether it's crafting a relationship, a necklace, or the hinge for a door. Married to Rhoda, and foster parent to all the hurt, grieving, and traumatised kids that pass through their family, Smith is the calm centre of things. Demi-romantic and asexual, he's more interested in building relationships slowly and surely into something that lasts, than in falling in love at first sight.

A short sample: Smith barely looked up when Rhoda stalked into his forge. Instead, his focus remained on the fire as he worked the bellows and coaxed the coals to the temperature he wanted.

"I need to work off some frustration," she said, twisting her long hair up into a thoroughly practical, but no less beautiful, bun. She slipped a leather apron over her dress and looked up. "What can you offer?"

Aro Week: Emma Stone

 

It's Aro Week! I'm going to spend it talking about some of my published aromantic characters.

Today: Emma Stone from

Create My OwnPerfection: "It's not every day you get to put the fear of Medusa into a god."
Emma Stone, medusa, is the groundskeeper for Olson College of Extensive Education, a place where everyone is welcome, from the mythical to the magical. When her selkie best friend loses her skin in Fresher's week, the race is on to find it before someone uses it against her.
The search brings Emma face to face with her oldest enemy - and forces her to confront the worst nightmares of her past.

Create My Own Perfection is very much a case of 'If you can't find what you want to read, write it yourself'. Emma is something of a loner, fiercely independent, a survivor with a small group of close friends who do not hesitate to back her up. Nor does she hesitate to help them if they need it. Emma is aroace, with no interest in, or desire for, anything other than friendship, and she thrives in the life that she has built for herself.

A short sample: "Ok, Tara," I said, once we'd settled up what I owed her for the coffee. "Spill." Over my cup, I watched her rich brown eyes for clues. The first one, which I almost missed, was her coffee creeping up the side of the upright cup, trying to reach her to comfort her.

Tara's a selkie. Like me, she can almost pass for human, provided no-one looks too closely at the sleek silver-brown hair, or the seal's eyes, or the way that water truly adores her and acts that bit livelier around her. (It's a bonus for mopping floors, less so when she has to change a light bulb)

She glared her coffee into behaving, sipped, and swallowed. "I lost my skin," she whispered, just this side of a mourning keen.

Aro Week: Cavallan

 

It's Aro Week! I'm going to spend it talking about some of my published aromantic characters.

Today: Cavallan (aka. Val or Dog) from Testing Grounds and Birthday Landscapes

Cavallan is a battered, disabled, warrior-mage (also known as a sense-twister for the way they can twist both their own senses and those of other people). He is both aromantic and asexual, though the aromantic side tends to dominate. He was originally a mentor character in a now trunked early novel, but has grown and developed along with my own writing skills and now carries stories on his own. He has a dislike for bards who pile unearned fame on his head, or give him sole credit for something that it took a whole group of people to achieve, a kind heart, a queerplatonic partner, and twin children.

A short sample (from Birthday Landscapes): “We want landscapes, please, Da,” Lusi proclaimed, and held out the chalk she had fetched.

“Very well,” Val replied. He nudged a chair up to the end of the table and took the chalk pouch. “What kind of landscape do you want to start with?” He sat down and fished out one of the pieces of chalk.

“Plains,” Emlan piped up. “With grass and flowers, not all mud and sand and stone!”

Lusi scowled. “I wanted hills. Can I have them second?”

“Of course.” Val breathed slowly and gathered himself, then racked his memory until a suitable plains landscape came to mind. He visualised it, took up the chalk, and sketched it out in map form on the table. He ran his finger around the edge of the map to mark a boundary, then fed out a trickle of power. The map flowed upward into a miniature illusion of the real landscape and the twins bounded up to flank him at the table.

Aro Week: Cal and Evvi

 

It's Aro Week! I'm going to spend it talking about some of my published aromantic characters.

Today: Steve/Steph/Evvi and Cal from

Holding Onto Day: Half a lifetime after the Split, when a world of myth and legend took over the night, grieving aro-ace widower Cal winds up snowed in at a waystation with post-breakup aro-allo Evvi. Proximity and patience draw them closer, both in the day when they are human, and at night, when they become vampire and werewolf.

Holding Onto Day was born out of a discussion on disabled werewolves. It was also a tale where I let all my weirdness and queerness hang out together. The result is hard to categorize, but has regularly been described as comfort fiction for rough times.

It contains two aromantic characters. The first is Cal, a fat (and comfortable with that) vampire, pushed to the edges of society and grieving the recent loss of his partner. He is grayromantic and greysexual, closer to the rare end of the rare-to-never scale of aspec attraction.

The other is a disabled, genderqueer, genderfluid, werewolf who shifts names along with pronouns and gender, going by Steph, Steve, or Evvi. They are weary and wary of strangers, but not hostile, aromantic, but not asexual.

A short sample: She tapped her she/her pin. "As long as I'm wearing this one, it's Steph. If I switch to him/him, it's Steve, and if I switch to ey/em, it's Evvi." She tilted her grey head on one side. "Still Cal?"

"I'm always Cal. Is there... How do you like people to refer to you when you aren't there?"

"Please use whatever name I was using when last you saw me, and indefinite they as a pronoun."

"Right." Cal chewed his way thoughtfully through his cheese and washed it down with water. "I guess I'd better get my game board out. Do you play geese and foxes?"

Steph's mouth twisted in a wicked grin. "Oh no," she said with blatantly false innocence," but I'd love to learn!"

Cal laughed, and snagged a piece of sausage. "About as much as I have then. As soon as I've eaten, I'll get it. Perhaps when you're ready we can both try out our long gamed strategies."

Steph's grin only widened.

Aro Week: Robin

 

It's Aro Week! I'm going to spend it talking about some of my published aromantic characters.

Today: Robin from

Would You LikeCharms With That?: Two retired adventurers help a younger friend figure out what he wants in a relationship.

Robin is a nonbinary person who uses she/her pronouns and gender-neutral nouns. She's a wizard, now retired, who runs a magic shop with her queer platonic fighter partner, Callie, and has trouble telling her anxiety from her magical foresight. As a result, she tends to be quiet, thoughtful, and cautious. She and Callie are mentors for a lot of the younger adventurers and queer folk in their town.

A short sample: I went on, "After I finished my training, I was looking for somewhere to live, and she had an advert up for a room-mate."

Callie laughed. "I didn't realise Robin was the kid-next-door until after I approved her application."

Kit said, "Sounds like something out of a bard's tale!"

"Sure," Callie agreed, "except the bards would mess up and get romance all over it."