Simone and I have been acquaintances for a long time now and the other day, she gave me a story of hers to read over and enjoy. I did and now that she's officially published it on her blog, I'm uploading it here as well.
Hope you guys enjoy Simone as much as I do!
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Carnivale Dreams: Spirit of the Festival
A Bella & Honey Fantasy written by Miss Simone
Chapter 1
You sit on your balcony, listening to the rhythm of the drums as people dance in the streets. The thump of the music is hypnotic, forcing you to sway, even when you aren't in the thick of it yourself. All your life you've dreamed of Carnivale and you have finally make the pilgrimage to enjoy the warm weather and bawdy sights. You've only been in your hotel an hour, but excitement and curiosity are urging you to get out and explore. The music and party atmosphere down below your balcony tugs at your soul despite your exhaustion - And nothing tugs greater than the glorious Carnivale queens who strut down the streets like painted goddesses for all the world to see.
Finally, the watching and listening become too much. You grab your camera and head downstairs into the streets to get a closer look of the beautiful creatures and their fantastically elaborate costumes.
The dancers strut to the beat of the make-shift bands, calypso music like an infectious indulgence. One of them walks by you, favoring you with a wink as you snap her picture, then blowing you a kiss as she dances away with the parade. You laugh and wave, entranced by her lust for life and joy of the celebration. After snapping a few more pictures you walk along to catch some of the sights, your steps in time to the beat of the heavy drums thundering away. Your favorite dancers have expressions of rapture on their face, clad in gold and silver jewelry as well as bright peacock-like feathers. They even seem to have the proud posture of the alluring birds, always ready to receive the attention of onlookers.
Many people pass by you and they are decked out in costumes as well. They wave at you and you wave back, enjoying the spectacle. Most of the vendors are also in costume and the exotic scents of their foods lure you to sample the local edibles. The trinkets and other wares are just as rich and exotic as the foods to you, all of it becoming a kaleidoscope of culture you’ve never experienced before.
A little girl smiles at you as she walks by, motioning for you to come closer. When you bend to her level, she bestows a shiny novelty necklace upon your neck. The symbol on the pendant looks like some sort of glyph you don’t recognize but you thank her by giving her a few coins for candy. As she skips off down the street, you glance down at the glyph pendant again. It is a stylized B that you assume stands for Brazil. Despite feeling cheap, the look of the detail in the design shows some true artistic work. The dazzling emerald color twinkles in the light of the setting sun.
You decide to hunt around and find out more about it - perhaps it is a symbol of Carnivale you aren’t familiar with. As you continue walking around, you fail to see it on any banners, yet someone grips it and turns you to them as you stumble around the market.
"Ah, so you've come to Carnivale," an older woman says as she inspects your necklace. The glyph on your pendant is tattooed upon the rich creamy caramel skin of her lower arm. Age has given her laugh lines around her eyes and mouth and her hazel eyes twinkle with good humor. Behind her confident smile, light wrinkles and eyes full of wisdom, you can see glimpses of a young beauty who once haunted men's dreams. You glance at the sign above her little table and see the third eye symbol. She is obviously some sort of medium.
"Oh yes!" You tell her enthusiastically. "The dancing and music are very beautiful!”
“Carnivale is a magical time,” she whispers to you, eyes glancing sideways as if she’s sharing a fabulous secret. “It brings out everyone’s true self and unshackles fantasies so they can be made real.” Her words hang heavy in the air like the notes of the music of the parade a few streets away.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013
Hunt and Seek
By Christopher Leeson
"That's the one!" the plain woman said to her blonde companion. The latter, Mara, was already looking where the other was nodding, at a twenty-something, fair-haired male lounging on a bar stool.
She frowned thoughtfully. "If you say so, Clara."
Clara smiled. Mara Carnovon, as her colleague called herself on this world, never could see what was always so obvious to her.
Mara, though she didn't have the same talent, admired Clara's expertise. As chief Hunter for the Ludnican mission, Carnovon appreciated talent, and Clara was the best seeker she had on call. But her subordinate was an insecure type that had to be handled carefully.
On Vedar, most slavers were male; women mainly served the Guild as support staff -- as clerks and office managers, and, of course, whip-trainers. That was still mostly true of the work on Earth, but here the basic idea of male and female was all mixed up. The reality-shift between Vedar and Earth had turned everything on its head.
Mara had been born male -- Marar C'jarnovaun, scion of a traditional slaving clan. In such a household, a young person couldn't help but develop an admiration for the slavers' calling. Young C'jarnovaun could barely have conceived of working at any other trade. Right after completing basic education, Marar had been taken on by a prestige House, the Ludnican.
Early on, he had excelled as a hunter. Always on the lookout for slave catchers who could work effectively on Terra, the House saw to it that all their most promising people were checked out. This was done by skilled seekers that periodically reviewed the newer staff members to discover those suitable for assignment to Earth.
A seeker had a talent for envisioning what a man of Vedar would look like as a woman on Earth (and vice versa). Few men welcomed the prospect of living and working as a woman on an alien planet, but such an appointment would qualify a slaving agent for large and frequent bonuses. Accelerated income would allow a slaver's early retirement in comfort, a prospect that appealed to a great many. It was mostly the ambitious who went to Earth.
On Terra, the hunter and seeker roles were pivotal. They were the specialists who found and brought in the prey. The seekers' talent was so rare that most of those serving the Guild had to be recruited from outside the members of the traditional slaving clans. But not every good hunter on Vedar made a good hunter on Terra. Violent abduction was to be avoided; it was a messy business that attracted official attention from Terran authorities. Sexual allure was a better way to entice and capture a potential victim.
For the Guild houses, this meant finding hunters who would translate into attractive women one Earth, and training them to perform seductively. Their aim was to meet and fascinate Terran males, with the intention of leading them into easy and safe captures. The prey was almost always Earth males, since there was very little market for captured women who would become men on Vedar. Slave males were largely used for manual labor, and modern engineering had made unskilled labor secondary in the economy. The small market that existed for erotic male slaves could be satisfied with local men, mostly those taken in war or born as the children of slaves.
Vedaran males lived for status, and they gained it in many ways, including through sexual conquest, and though monogamy was widespread, the institution of pillow-slavery got around it. The more supernally beautiful women that could be brought into the market, the better for business. But stealing other city-states' women, either slave or free, could lead to war. It was better to acquire stock from Terra. Mara's team was one of many posted across the face of the Earth to supply that luxury market.
While the feminine face looking back at Mara from the mirror no longer awed her, contemplating the mysteries of multiplanar existence always did. Ordinary biology or physics couldn't explain the results observed when the dimensional barrier between Earth and Vedar was pierced.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Apologies:(
Nothing good lately, unfortunately. Everything showing up is some CD/TV/sentimental/etc junk. No full TFs lately:(
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