Meet, Greet, and Startlement (part 1 of 1, complete)
Nov. 18th, 2025 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dialecticdreamerMeet, Greet, and Startlement
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1380
:: Marise Hazelton is a mentor for a private care system, and today, she is meeting a woman and four children who have cobbled together an impromptu family of refugees. Part of the Polychrome Heroics universe, this story was suggested bymama_kestrel for the November of 2025 Magpie Monday, with my thanks. ::
:: Author’s notes: 1. The :: words :: in the story indicate telepathic communication. Also, 2. The last story with these characters (the Clowder Connections story arc) was Feline Negotiations. ::
Marise Hazelton paused to straighten the cuffs of her burgundy blazer, worn over a simple gray knit dress with a boat neck. Then she raised a hand to ring the doorbell.
Somewhere inside the house, cats began to yowl. It wasn’t chaos; they seemed to be repeating the noise deeper and deeper into the house. Someone opened the door. An older woman smiled, offering a hand. “Hi. I’m Jackie.”
“I’m Marise Hazelton. I represent Sedna Connections. I coordinate the needs of children and young people who need… safe adults,” the woman with fading red hair explained. “I’ve been told that you’ve taken responsibility for three girls and a younger boy? We can offer support specific to each child’s needs, and I can explain the resources offered to you, but… It’s a fairly long conversation.”
“You’re not from DFS?” Jackie asked, her grip tightening on the doorknob.
( Read more... )
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1380
:: Marise Hazelton is a mentor for a private care system, and today, she is meeting a woman and four children who have cobbled together an impromptu family of refugees. Part of the Polychrome Heroics universe, this story was suggested by
mama_kestrel for the November of 2025 Magpie Monday, with my thanks. :: :: Author’s notes: 1. The :: words :: in the story indicate telepathic communication. Also, 2. The last story with these characters (the Clowder Connections story arc) was Feline Negotiations. ::
Marise Hazelton paused to straighten the cuffs of her burgundy blazer, worn over a simple gray knit dress with a boat neck. Then she raised a hand to ring the doorbell.
Somewhere inside the house, cats began to yowl. It wasn’t chaos; they seemed to be repeating the noise deeper and deeper into the house. Someone opened the door. An older woman smiled, offering a hand. “Hi. I’m Jackie.”
“I’m Marise Hazelton. I represent Sedna Connections. I coordinate the needs of children and young people who need… safe adults,” the woman with fading red hair explained. “I’ve been told that you’ve taken responsibility for three girls and a younger boy? We can offer support specific to each child’s needs, and I can explain the resources offered to you, but… It’s a fairly long conversation.”
“You’re not from DFS?” Jackie asked, her grip tightening on the doorknob.
( Read more... )
[film] Hotel Transylvania 4
Nov. 18th, 2025 05:48 pmmaluretteTitle: Hotel Transylvania 4 Transformania
By:
Language: English
Type: 3D animation
Genre:
Length: 1h34
Release date: 2022
Where: on Prime
(but the download on the app kept freezing and bugging so i had to finish by streaming, bah!!)
Dracula is finally thinking of retiring and leaving the Hotel in Mavis' hands but he's reluctant where Johnny's concerned. Shenanigans happen and a transforming ray turns Johnny into a dragon, which he loves, and Drac into a human, which he hates. They have to undo it pronto; Mavis Erica and the gang team up to help them.
Heh. Not bad not great once again.
By:
Language: English
Type: 3D animation
Genre:
Length: 1h34
Release date: 2022
Where: on Prime
(but the download on the app kept freezing and bugging so i had to finish by streaming, bah!!)
Dracula is finally thinking of retiring and leaving the Hotel in Mavis' hands but he's reluctant where Johnny's concerned. Shenanigans happen and a transforming ray turns Johnny into a dragon, which he loves, and Drac into a human, which he hates. They have to undo it pronto; Mavis Erica and the gang team up to help them.
Heh. Not bad not great once again.
The Silent Hill Mental Health QR Code.
Nov. 18th, 2025 03:23 pmrionaleonhartI've started playing the Silent Hill 2 PS5 remake! I picked it up in a used electronics shop.
Cashier: Oh, great choice.
Riona: Thank you! I went insane about the original when I was sixteen.
Cashier: Me too. But I wasn't sixteen; I was, er, eleven.
Riona: Wow, that is not the right age to go insane about Silent Hill 2.
I'm a little over an hour in! I can already tell I'm going to regret this, but in an 'I'm so bad with horror' way rather than a 'why did they remake this?' one; the remake itself seems pretty great so far. It's clear that it was made by people who love the original, which makes such a big difference.
Playing through the opening was an absolutely insane experience. I know that sequence so well, and suddenly it had been completely transformed while still feeling like the same place. Seeing that familiar car park in modern graphics! The long walk down to Silent Hill! So pretty and unsettling!
Regrettably, I thought it was cute when James was leaning on the barrier at the start of the game. There's no hope for me at all. I'm so much fonder of James Sunderland than I should be.
(Although not quite as fond as half of Tumblr, which, it turns out, is startlingly horny for remake James.)
The first thing I did, when I gained control of James, was turn around and try to leave Silent Hill. Unsurprisingly, James did not allow me to do this, but I was delighted when I got a trophy for the attempt.
I was concerned that the remake's voice acting might feel too good, but so far it's working for me! They've taken the interesting and clever approach of hiring people who can act, but directing them extremely weirdly, with a lot of strange awkward pauses. Even if the voices and the line delivery aren't the same as the original game, the dialogue has the same feel to it. The creators of the remake evidently understand how the limitations of the original, like its restricted visibility and bizarre voice acting, ultimately contributed to the atmosphere.
After James and Angela's first meeting, I spoke to Angela a couple of times to see if she had any more dialogue, but I felt very bad about it. Angela's a severely traumatised young woman with no capacity for trust, and an unknown man lingering to talk to her a little too long is probably going to make her uncomfortable!
I like how violent and frantic James's fighting feels. No finesse to it; he's just desperate and terrified. You can just keep stamping and stamping on the enemies once you've knocked them down; he doesn't know when it's safe to stop!
Every blow feels like it has a real weight to it, both the ones James lands on enemies and the ones they land on you. I very much feel in danger from even the most basic enemies, despite playing on easy mode. It's stressful!
I initially thought I'd be fine with the stresses of this game after my experience with Little Hope, the most stressful game I have ever played. In a Silent Hill game, if you get the character you're playing killed, at least you can just reload and try again; Supermassive games are considerably more stressful because character deaths can't be undone!
But I'd failed to consider the stress of Silent Hill 2's ending system. My actions during the game determine how this story ends! I'm trying to keep James in good health, because that's one of the details that impact the ending, but how can I look after him when I'm bad at the combat and I keep burning through my very limited healing items?
I'll try my best. Come on, James; we can get through this together.
Cashier: Oh, great choice.
Riona: Thank you! I went insane about the original when I was sixteen.
Cashier: Me too. But I wasn't sixteen; I was, er, eleven.
Riona: Wow, that is not the right age to go insane about Silent Hill 2.
I'm a little over an hour in! I can already tell I'm going to regret this, but in an 'I'm so bad with horror' way rather than a 'why did they remake this?' one; the remake itself seems pretty great so far. It's clear that it was made by people who love the original, which makes such a big difference.
Playing through the opening was an absolutely insane experience. I know that sequence so well, and suddenly it had been completely transformed while still feeling like the same place. Seeing that familiar car park in modern graphics! The long walk down to Silent Hill! So pretty and unsettling!
Regrettably, I thought it was cute when James was leaning on the barrier at the start of the game. There's no hope for me at all. I'm so much fonder of James Sunderland than I should be.
(Although not quite as fond as half of Tumblr, which, it turns out, is startlingly horny for remake James.)
The first thing I did, when I gained control of James, was turn around and try to leave Silent Hill. Unsurprisingly, James did not allow me to do this, but I was delighted when I got a trophy for the attempt.
I was concerned that the remake's voice acting might feel too good, but so far it's working for me! They've taken the interesting and clever approach of hiring people who can act, but directing them extremely weirdly, with a lot of strange awkward pauses. Even if the voices and the line delivery aren't the same as the original game, the dialogue has the same feel to it. The creators of the remake evidently understand how the limitations of the original, like its restricted visibility and bizarre voice acting, ultimately contributed to the atmosphere.
After James and Angela's first meeting, I spoke to Angela a couple of times to see if she had any more dialogue, but I felt very bad about it. Angela's a severely traumatised young woman with no capacity for trust, and an unknown man lingering to talk to her a little too long is probably going to make her uncomfortable!
I like how violent and frantic James's fighting feels. No finesse to it; he's just desperate and terrified. You can just keep stamping and stamping on the enemies once you've knocked them down; he doesn't know when it's safe to stop!
Every blow feels like it has a real weight to it, both the ones James lands on enemies and the ones they land on you. I very much feel in danger from even the most basic enemies, despite playing on easy mode. It's stressful!
I initially thought I'd be fine with the stresses of this game after my experience with Little Hope, the most stressful game I have ever played. In a Silent Hill game, if you get the character you're playing killed, at least you can just reload and try again; Supermassive games are considerably more stressful because character deaths can't be undone!
But I'd failed to consider the stress of Silent Hill 2's ending system. My actions during the game determine how this story ends! I'm trying to keep James in good health, because that's one of the details that impact the ending, but how can I look after him when I'm bad at the combat and I keep burning through my very limited healing items?
I'll try my best. Come on, James; we can get through this together.
Femslash week in review: 2025-11-04 - 2025-11-10
Nov. 18th, 2025 09:34 amletzanHigh-level stats for week of 2025-11-04 - 2025-11-10
- Total works categorized F/F on AO3: 10137 (-1333 from last week)
- Works I classified F/F: 5619 (-823 from last week) (2425 new, 3194 continued)
- 0.59% of all 956571 AO3 works I've classified F/F were updated this week
A few callouts this week:
- KPop Demon Hunters celebrates 20 consecutive weeks on the chart, 15 of them at rank 1. So, that is certainly a thing.
- Uma Musume: Pretty Derby reaches a new best-ever rank of 11.
- Boku no Hero Academia returns after a couple of weeks off the chart. It replaces Hollow Knight.
- Other chart anniversaries: Coronation Street reaches 10 consecutive weeks in its latest chart run (out of 54 total appearances). Wicked reaches 50 consecutive weeks (out of 70 total appearances).
( Full top-20 table and description of methodology after the jump )
Interesting things from American Historical Review
Nov. 18th, 2025 08:05 ambrithistorianThis morning I was reading the September 2025 issue of American Historical Review and I happened across two things that struck me as particularly interesting.
The first thing was a typical graphical matter. A page in American Historical Review contains 21.5 cm of text, of which 1 cm is occupied by the divider separating the article text from the footnotes, so 20.5 cm of actual text. A typical page is divided up with somewhere in the nature of 13 cm of text and 7.5 cm of footnotes. However, this being history writing, footnotes are prone to swell up to take more of the page. But I had never, in all my reading of history, encountered a page like page 1044[^1] of this issue, which contained 3 cm of text and 17 cm of footnotes! To make matters even more extreme, when I started looking at the footnotes, I noticed that one of the footnotes continued over onto the next page, so that actual ratio was 3 cm of text to 22 cm of footnotes! This was in the section of a paper that detailed the background historiography of the matter being discussed, so more extensive footnotes are to be expected, but even so, I've never seen anything like this before.
The second thing was a historical matter. It was at the beginning of Giuliana Chamedes' paper "Unpaid Debts: Socialist Internationalism and Jamaica's Bid for a New International Economic Order" (which also contained the extensively footnoted page above). I was so amazed by the first paragraph of this paper that I'm going to type it out in its entirety in order to share it with you:
In 1973, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution calling for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) by an overwhelming majority. The initiative called for the literal and figurative settling of the debt between imperial and formerly colonized countries. Rather than just redistributing wealth within countries, the time had come to address wealth inequality on the world scale. To do so, the NIEO called for the reorganization of international trade, debt relief, the stabilization of commodity prices, and the institution of oversight for multinational corporations. It insisted on the protection of economic sovereignty for decolonized and decolonizing countries to "correct inequalities and redress existing injustices," suggesting that decolonization was an ongoing struggle. Many countries participated in the NIEO's drafting, including Jamaica, one of the founding members of the Group of 77 (G77). A "high point in the expression of a new internationalism, namely, that of countries emerging from colonialism," the NIEO represented a landmark in global history, as Sabrine Kott and others have argued. But by the early 1980s, the project was dead in the water.
My mind was blown upon reading this paragraph. Despite having a master's degree in history and having done a lot of reading outside of school in matters of history and politics, all of this information was new to me. I'd never even heard of the Group of 77. I read this paragraph a couple of days ago, I've done a lot of thinking about it since then, and I'm still trying to puzzle out how different the world would be if the NIEO had proceeded as planned.[^2]
[^1] American Historical Review uses continuous numbering across a volume, so this issue actually started on page 1009.
[^2] The phrase "the early 1980s" should give you a clue: The Reagan and Thatcher governments played a large role in stopping the NIEO.
Book club
Nov. 17th, 2025 08:30 pmcosmolinguistA half dozen or so of us at work have started a book club. The first month I didn't get around to reading the book, which is fine because it was apparently terrible. This month we chose some literary fiction which is fine but I'm not used to it.
The audiobook is sixteen hours and forty-nine minutes long!
I've been using a perfectly good app to listen to audiobooks for a year or more but I bought the paid version because that was necessary to listen at higher speeds than 1x (normal).
All my library books (different app) get listened to at 1.5x or 1.75x.
It was a good decision, I'm 21% of the way through the book now.
No election
Nov. 17th, 2025 10:54 pmjames_davis_nicollNot over this budget, anyway.
It boggles me that Canada had to endure 13 days of ambiguity about the budget vote. What next, an election cycle that lasts five whole weeks? The suspense would be palpable.
It boggles me that Canada had to endure 13 days of ambiguity about the budget vote. What next, an election cycle that lasts five whole weeks? The suspense would be palpable.
Changing Plans (part 1 of 1, complete)
Nov. 17th, 2025 09:52 pmdialecticdreamerChanging Plans
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1226
[Mid-November 2016]
:: Casual, predictable plans get tossed out the (closed) window when Betty’s body reacts to the winter weather. Part of the Mercedes story arc in the Polychrome Heroics Universe. This story was written for the November of 2025 Feathering the Nest prompt call, from an idea suggested byreadera, and is posted with my deepest thanks! ::
Betty woke up to the sound of the furnace blower activating with a click-clack-’hummmmm’. Despite its eager chugging, cold air clung to her cheeks and the tip of her nose felt dull and cold. She tried to move her right foot, listening to the demanding, tight pressure of her bladder.
Pain screamed up her leg from toes to hip, then bounced backward, shattering into pins and needles that seemed to fall toward her foot, and fall through the mattress toward the center of the earth.
( Read more... )
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1226
[Mid-November 2016]
:: Casual, predictable plans get tossed out the (closed) window when Betty’s body reacts to the winter weather. Part of the Mercedes story arc in the Polychrome Heroics Universe. This story was written for the November of 2025 Feathering the Nest prompt call, from an idea suggested by
readera, and is posted with my deepest thanks! :: Betty woke up to the sound of the furnace blower activating with a click-clack-’hummmmm’. Despite its eager chugging, cold air clung to her cheeks and the tip of her nose felt dull and cold. She tried to move her right foot, listening to the demanding, tight pressure of her bladder.
Pain screamed up her leg from toes to hip, then bounced backward, shattering into pins and needles that seemed to fall toward her foot, and fall through the mattress toward the center of the earth.
( Read more... )
Giving the Business to the United Business Card
Nov. 17th, 2025 12:51 pmcanyonwalkerOne of my credit cards has just reached its anniversary, so it's time to check the score on how well I've done with it. This one's the Chase United Business Mileage Plus card, and I've owned it for one year— which means the tally of benefits from the past year should be pretty good, considering the lucrative sign-up bonus.
Now, you might be thinking, "Wait, didn't you used to have two United cards— and canceled both of them?" The answer is Yes and Yes. 😅 In 2022 I opened both personal and business cards with United/Chase and then closed both of them in 2023. But in 2024 and this year I opened both kinds of cards again. Yup, this is the credit card churning that my topic What's in YOUR wallet? is all about.
I opened this card last year under a fairly typical (for this card) offer of 75,000 bonus UA miles after $5,000 of spend in the first 3 months. I hit the spending target easily in the first two months then... didn't quite toss this card in the proverbial sock drawer for the remainder of the year. Instead I kept using it occasionally, taking advantage of various promotions it offered. At the end of 12 months I've charged a total of $6,700 on the card and earned 85,100 points.
But wait, there's more.
More in this case takes the form of various promotions Chase and United offered on the card. I put them into three groups:
There are other categories of credits Chase/United offer on this card but the remainder aren't worth it to me. (For example, there's $25 in United credit on two car rentals with Avis/Budget booked through United, but the rates at United are more expensive than I can get elsewhere with the same car providers.) With the three above, including the one-time double-dip, I nabbed $301 in cash and credits this year.
I'm thinking I will renew this card for a second year. The ride-sharing credits, if I can max them out, basically paying back the AF. If I do the 7x$100 purchases again I'll get another $125 credit... though that will be in the form of store credit with United, not cash-back on the credit card. I'll have to decide if I expect to spend that voucher before it expires after 12 months from issue. (The answer is most likely "Yes" but I want to wait until I have more visibility before buying.) Finally, I'll earn a 5,000 mile bonus, worth $55, by having this card together with the United Quest card I opened a few months ago. That bonus will be paid a month or two after the renewal.
Now, you might be thinking, "Wait, didn't you used to have two United cards— and canceled both of them?" The answer is Yes and Yes. 😅 In 2022 I opened both personal and business cards with United/Chase and then closed both of them in 2023. But in 2024 and this year I opened both kinds of cards again. Yup, this is the credit card churning that my topic What's in YOUR wallet? is all about.
I opened this card last year under a fairly typical (for this card) offer of 75,000 bonus UA miles after $5,000 of spend in the first 3 months. I hit the spending target easily in the first two months then... didn't quite toss this card in the proverbial sock drawer for the remainder of the year. Instead I kept using it occasionally, taking advantage of various promotions it offered. At the end of 12 months I've charged a total of $6,700 on the card and earned 85,100 points.Miles & More
At my current valuation of 1.1 cents per point (cpp) for UA miles, my haul of 85,100 miles is worth $936. The annual fee (AF) of $99 was waived the first year so I won't subtract that, but I will subtract the opportunity cost of not charging that $6,700 of spend to one of my 2% cash-back cards. This $134 is the cost of earning these miles. It brings the net win down to a still very respectable $802.But wait, there's more.
More in this case takes the form of various promotions Chase and United offered on the card. I put them into three groups:
- The card offered a $100 statement credit after charging 7 purchases of at least $100 at United. This was likely meant to encourage and reward people who regularly buy flights but I found I could game the system by purchasing United TravelBank credits of $100 each in 7 separate transactions. These triggered the reward— which was cash back— plus I had $700 of credits at United that wouldn't expire for 10 years.
- Partway through my membership year United/Chase changed the above benefit from a $100 statement credit to a bonus of $125 in United TravelBank funds. Changing it from a cash back bonus to a store credit bonus makes it less useful, generally speaking; and especially because the bonus credit expires in just 12 months. But the cool thing was Chase/United double-dipped me. They gave me both the original bonus and the new one for the same set of purchases I made. And I already spent the $125 voucher. So this year the 12 month expiry was not a problem.
- Along with revamping the purchase credit back in the April/May timeframe, United/Chase added a new benefit to the card: $8/month credit on ride-share purchases of at least $20, with a slightly larger credit of $12 in December. If you max out this credit across the year it's worth $100. I hit it for $48 in the months I had access to it.
- Chase offers a catalog of merchant specific bonuses, things like "5% back at ABC" or "$5 off one purchase of $25 or more at XYZ". Most of these are at merchants I don't care about, but over the past year there have been at least half a dozen I found worthwhile. I've redeemed cash-back offers worth $28.
There are other categories of credits Chase/United offer on this card but the remainder aren't worth it to me. (For example, there's $25 in United credit on two car rentals with Avis/Budget booked through United, but the rates at United are more expensive than I can get elsewhere with the same car providers.) With the three above, including the one-time double-dip, I nabbed $301 in cash and credits this year.
A Good Haul, But Do I Renew?
Putting the net value of the miles and bonuses together, I've made this card worth just over $1,100 in its first year. That's a solid score. But the question at hand now is Do I renew? It's a tough question because after the first year there's no big pile of miles from a sign-up bonus... oh, and the $99 AF kicks in.I'm thinking I will renew this card for a second year. The ride-sharing credits, if I can max them out, basically paying back the AF. If I do the 7x$100 purchases again I'll get another $125 credit... though that will be in the form of store credit with United, not cash-back on the credit card. I'll have to decide if I expect to spend that voucher before it expires after 12 months from issue. (The answer is most likely "Yes" but I want to wait until I have more visibility before buying.) Finally, I'll earn a 5,000 mile bonus, worth $55, by having this card together with the United Quest card I opened a few months ago. That bonus will be paid a month or two after the renewal.
something to look forward to
Nov. 17th, 2025 11:11 amsistawendyWho's got two thumbs and an officially first date next week? This girl! No, it's not Rubbermaid, it's someone else I met by being, you know, social. We have a lot in common. We shall see!
It's funny how you can get dates by asking women out. I hate to admit it, but I used an app to do the actual asking.
It's funny how you can get dates by asking women out. I hate to admit it, but I used an app to do the actual asking.
Five Reasons to Leave the House and Go Explore a Used Bookstore
Nov. 17th, 2025 12:22 pmjames_davis_nicoll
The sights, the smells... the savings!!!
Five Reasons to Leave the House and Go Explore a Used Bookstore
Clarke Award Finalists 2022
Nov. 17th, 2025 10:19 amjames_davis_nicoll2022: The British are heartened by Partygate revelations that the Tories celebrated in trust the gatherings barred to the rabble during Covid, the UK teaches the world a thing or two about political stability by going through three Prime Ministers in less than two months, and Queen Elizabeth II escapes the prospect of discovering how exactly the UK would continue its downward political arc.
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2022 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
A River Called Time by Courttia Newland
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley
Wergen: The Alien Love War by Mercurio D. Rivera
If I say I did not hear of something, it means that it is new to me. Did I not at least glance at the Clarkes in 2022?
Poll #33843 Clarke Award Finalists 2022
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31
Which 2022 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
View Answers
Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles
0 (0.0%)
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
30 (96.8%)
A River Called Time by Courttia Newland
0 (0.0%)
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
3 (9.7%)
Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley
2 (6.5%)
Wergen: The Alien Love War by Mercurio D. Rivera
0 (0.0%)
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2022 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
A River Called Time by Courttia Newland
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley
Wergen: The Alien Love War by Mercurio D. Rivera
If I say I did not hear of something, it means that it is new to me. Did I not at least glance at the Clarkes in 2022?
fic: Golden - Castle/Becket (T)
Nov. 17th, 2025 09:12 amrenfysTitle: Golden
Fandom: Castle
Rating: T
Pairing: Richard Castle/Kate Beckett
Summary: Gina is stuck in traffic and doesn't interrupt Kate at the end of 2.24 - A Deadly Game.
Notes: Written with Yellow in mind.
"You could have it all if you wanted
You could have it all if it mattered so much"
- Golden Touch - Razorlight
Safe Return (part 1 of 1, complete)
Nov. 16th, 2025 11:03 pmdialecticdreamerSafe Return
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1301
[last days of November/first days of December of 2016]
Herb sighed as the plastic bottle crinkled, draining the last bit of water from it. He heard a truck and patted Elisabeth on the shoulder. “Abe’s back. Probably alone, since he’s edging over the speed limit.”
Elisabeth turned to watch the truck approaching in the rear view mirror. “He’s determined to be a good example for his grandson?”
“That’s a good deduction,” Herb laughed. “It’s wrong, and funny to anyone who knows him, but a good deduction. He’s got a lead foot, and used to race out at the salt flats.”
( Read more... )
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1301
[last days of November/first days of December of 2016]
Herb sighed as the plastic bottle crinkled, draining the last bit of water from it. He heard a truck and patted Elisabeth on the shoulder. “Abe’s back. Probably alone, since he’s edging over the speed limit.”
Elisabeth turned to watch the truck approaching in the rear view mirror. “He’s determined to be a good example for his grandson?”
“That’s a good deduction,” Herb laughed. “It’s wrong, and funny to anyone who knows him, but a good deduction. He’s got a lead foot, and used to race out at the salt flats.”
( Read more... )