A Book of Rogues and Imposters

Title: bleh
'Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Isael, Aodh
Prompt: 043 "Square"
Word Count: 588
Rating: all ages
Notes: follows previous directly.


( He woke feeling )

'Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Isael
Prompt: 056 "Breakfast"
Word Count: 266
Rating: all ages
Notes: continues trend of one-after-the-other. This, the one previous and the one following will be edited to run together at some point.


( His stomach grumbled after a while )

Title: well.
'Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Isael, Ruadhan
Prompt: 064 "Fall"
Word Count: 427
Rating: PG
Notes: again with the direct progression.


( It didn't take long for the guitar to make an appearance )

Title: parent's child
'Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Isael, (Ruadhan)
Prompt: 006 "Hours"
Word Count: 350
Rating: PG
Notes: follows in the sequence established here.


( He spared a second )

Title: set up
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Isael
Prompt: 032 "Sunset"
Word Count: 647
Rating: G
Notes: follows this almost immediately.


(  After a long moment  )

Title: twilight
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Ruadhan
Prompt: 018 "Black"
Word Count: 117
Rating: G
Notes: very early stages of the first war; another experiment in first-person.


( Summer and the sun )

Title: sparks
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Aodh, Kickback
Prompt: 012 "Orange"
Word Count: 633
Rating: G
Notes: I kept thinking of a line Neil Gaiman wrote someplace--"and with the truth in mind/let me write lies" while working on this. After the second war by a few years. Larathia, please tell me if something sounds off? meheheheheee.



( Out, away--Elsewhere--had sounded like a fabulous idea. )

Title: oops?
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Sean, Aodh
Prompt: 081 "How?"
Word Count: 415
Rating: PG
Notes: Rose? That blond. I have no idea how Aodh managed to drag him off.


( The letter arrived with the afternoon's water-post )

Title: slip
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Évariste, (the Exile)
Prompt: 071 "Broken"
Word Count: 300
Rating: PG
Notes: long before the wars; the woman mentioned in the past tense was involved in a very early attempted coup (she was mostly involved/responsible for the ending thereof—she killed the person ringleading/responsible for the attempt. Unfortunately this meant the honestly responsible party could not be Asked about who else had been involved, and to what degree.) She ended up being banished from the home territories as a Gesture. The Sabaeys and the home world never heard from her again. Évariste, out on the very far edges of said territories, did.
First edit. Subject to sentence revision.
Also, first bit of writing since November of '06.



( Most of the time )

Title: willing
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Aodh
Prompt: 096 "Ritual"
Word Count: 562
Rating: PG for Roman-based sacrificial practices.
Notes: a folk tale, in a peculiar fashion. Un-tied to the main world. Sparked by the mental lines "One is not to burn down a cultural metropolis through judicious abuse of rituals associated with religious cults. . . Again. >.>"


( This year's sacrifices were harder to catch )

Title: four weeks
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Hernén, Belladonna
Prompt: 009 "Months"
Word Count: 367
Rating: G
Notes: Follows "Beginnings"; also, includes bribery, of a very peculiar sort. billradish is evil.


( It would have been a repeat of the first time they'd met )

Title: the past is laughing
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; the second Ian, Madeleine, Jasmine
Prompt: 045 "Moon"
Word Count: 458
Rating: PG
Notes: not too long before this.
klgaffney wanted more of Ian II. So. >.>


( it begins with a bird )

Title: in the wardrobe
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Conall, Hazel.
Prompt: 078 "Where?"
Word Count: 377
Rating: G
Notes: First war; she’s between three and four.



( The great black wolf )

Title: details
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Isael, Aodh
Prompt: 015 "Blue"
Word Count: 648
Rating: PG
Notes: continued from here; still several years after the wars.


( He let it go three days )

Title: bridge
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Isael, Aodh
Prompt: 079 "When?"
Word Count: 120
Rating: PG?
Notes: continues from here; post wars by several years.


( with tail end of previous piece attached )

Title: light
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Jared, Joshua
Prompt: 020 "Colourless"
Word Count: 114
Rating: G
Notes: It was, apparently, an artistic affront that ice and snow could not actually be painted in their nearly luminescent state, instead through the suggestion of light through the use of opaque highlights. Beware of determined artists.
Well before either of the wars; Jared is Ruadhan’s oldest child, a writer. Joshua is Fintain’s eldest, an artist.
Tail end of an argument I didn’t hear the beginning of.



( Alright, )

Title: to the victor
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Phoebe [leRoux] Sabaey, Isabeau leRoux
Prompt:022. “Enemies”
Word Count: 220
Rating: PG-13-R (depending on your sensitivity) for violence
Notes: First war, plot point. The two behind the cut tag below have been magically sparring for hours—probably closer to days—and one of them has just won. yet another crisis point with neither prologue nor aftermath attached.



( She could see, finally, )

Title: origin unknown
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Hazel
Prompt: 027 – "Parents"
Word Count: 340
Rating: G
Notes: before the second war; feels incomplete but nothing else is pinging.


( Security objects )

Title: breath and shadows
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses, Conall, Isael, Aodh
Prompt: 054 – "Air"
Word Count: 763
Rating: PG
Notes: some months after the as-yet unwritten events following the expansion of Summons; if a reminder's needed, Conall's a werewolf.



( A pinch of familiar tobacco )

Title: Sunlight
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses, Aodh
Prompt: 063. "Summer"
Word Count: 167
Rating: G
Notes: before the wars



( There was a breeze out of autumn into summer. )

Title: Next Time
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses, Hazel
Prompt: 019. “White”
Word Count: 210
Rating: PG
Notes: Second war, after this. I’m curious as to how old the narrator sounds, to the outside reader.



( Center of the group )

Title: For the attempt
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses, Niamh (teenage), Aodh (teenage)
Prompt: 055 “Spirit”
Word Count: 327
Rating: PG for hormonal teenagers
Notes: Lyrics here.



( Nyah! )

Title: What?
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses, Isael, Conall, Annaliese
Prompt: 077 “What?”
Word Count: 161
Rating: G
Notes: Annaliese, and Isael; She ran with the Trickwood’s children, given the choice, which is how Conall knows her. Beginning of first war.



( Wait, slow down. )

Title: Just Pieces
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses, Etienne Sabaey
Prompt: 041 “Shapes”
Word Count: 268
Rating: PG for offscreen deaths and an unflattering word.
Notes: First war.



( He had to change )

Title: the Red
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses, Phoebe leRoux, assorted others
Prompt: 011 “Red”
Word Count: 424
Rating: G
Notes: Okay, that wasn't a hundred words. OR Ian's POV.
Set waaaaay before the wars. Before the trick that made Ian famous, at that. Prehistory, as far as the rest of the story-so-far is concerned.
(I don't know who the other two leRouxs are--I can only assume they walked away with the world-walking trick, and didn't come back.)
(I'm not entirely happy with this--it feels like I'm sliding into that hypnotic disjointed style again, that makes it difficult to keep a grip on the people the story's being told about.)



( Soft echoes, in an empty room )