A Tree Full of Birds

Brown-headed nuthatches, to be precise. The twittering could be heard fifty paces away. Probably further, if I hadn’t been distracted watching the turtles watch us walk along the edge of the pond. I suspect someone’s been feeding them….

Path of Lava Crossover Ficbit – Sword Hints

“My partner’s somewhere over there. Saitou doesn’t want your suspects knowing exactly how many of us there are.”

“Paranoid much?” Kohanek said under his breath.

Worldbuilding: Conquering the Map

Okay, someone needs to do a Grand Epic Fantasy where the Evil Overlord… has some trouble conquering exactly where he intends to, because he doesn’t have a good enough map.

No, really. This has happened. Probably multiple times through history. “Ramses invading Syria, that was an accident,” isn’t just a bit of dialogue from The Mummy.

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Path of Lava Crossover Ficbit – Shadewalker Luck

“You’re our Asian crime experts?” Uramura said neutrally.

“As long as your department wants us.” A shred of Okita’s attention lingered with by the fence with Chidarake where the bay now waited out of sight, ready for a chase. The rest was fixed on keeping his smile polite and friendly, trying not to laugh out loud at the carefully hidden panic on Toussaint’s face. Anda hearing had let Okita catch the gist of Cash’s tirade to the Ventrue detective; mauled street slang that had boiled down to, Julian still wants to talk to them, they slipped past security in the chaos, watch them like a hawk.

Path of Lava Crossover Ficbit – Fox Hunt

“Think what you will, but our mother Bai Mianxi loved humankind-”

“Loved tormenting them, you mean,” Saitou put in.

Worldbuilding: Soap, Taxes, Consequences

Way too many writers seem to create dirty, decrepit fantasy or historical settings, without giving much thought as to why things might be grimy. Or why not.

For example, Victorian England, specifically London, is infamous for being dark, with choking smogs and lower classes regarded as filthy. There is a fair amount of truth to this… but historically, we as writers should look deeper. There were a lot of factors involved in this grime, but three of the big ones were heating, the window tax, and the soap tax.

Path of Lava Crossover Ficbit – Wary

“What,” Saitou said warily, “are you up to, Battousai?”

Colors of Another Sky Ficbit – Virtuous Officials

A/N: A bit of Jason trying to feel his way through a situation. After a bit more research, turns out “yogoe” is the Korean version of “youkai”, i.e. undefined monsters. Some of this is rough script, so it goes….

“People. Would someone like to tell me where we’re going? And why me?” I lifted my left arm, sling and all. “If someone’s in real trouble, I’m not going to be much help.” Though if someone was in real trouble, the kind that made it worth tearing out on a horse at breakneck speed, why were the four of us just ambling through the gate with the crowd now?

Path of Lava Crossover Ficbit – Plotting

Kagemusha faded back into the shadows he loved before Saitou could ask. The black stallion stalked away from the front gate, silent as a panther, one ear cocked back to catch any word from Saitou as they followed the fence-line. While a ti-mei loved basking in ki as much as any Shade Walker, Kagemusha had a keen memory for what dragon nests were and weren’t allied with his partner. And this one wasn’t. Yet.

Path of Lava Crossover Ficbit – Suspicions

“You loaded the clip I gave you, right?” Sonny asked in an undertone as they headed for the remaining prisoner wagon. Uramura had let the uniforms cart off the rest of the bunch to jail or hospitals, but the two Hiruma brothers merited their own transport and shackles.