1. J

    Private Roots

    Dinner was trying to hurt the monster's feelings. Juniper would've scoffed had she not been busy brambling the dead foliage from her mouth. Wasn't even sure why she bothered – not like she needed a mouth for what came next. A silly, human notion. Pride and success still stuck together, much like...
  2. J

    Private Roots

    The oncebrother wheezed like the freshly ventilated in Third's work area. Whatever bond she felt they had got squeezed out with his sorry excuse for breath. Some people found purpose in their transformation. Others only found emotion. One was vastly superior. Poor, poor specimen. And then...
  3. J

    Private Roots

    The woodsnap was almost insulting, given who she was. Must be what gardeners felt when you plucked the wrong tomato. She remembered how she was starting to develop a soft spot for them before she had them all replaced. There was no room for soft in longevity – that was for young trees and lesser...
  4. J

    Private Roots

    „You really shouldn't talk about yourself like...“ And then she blinked, eyes going wider. „Oh. OH. Yes, of course.“ And she gave a weak smile as she patted the sad creature on the arm. Laugh never quite caught up. A few steps ahead, Juniper was standing beside the palanquin. Some of the...
  5. J

    Kindling

    Garth followed a different calendar. The new year did not come with moons and stars and whatever scholars agreed the solar trajectory was. No. They didn't celebrate the year of Khurun. They celebrated the anniversary of their own independence from the Arshakans who would have it otherwise. The...
  6. J

    Private Roots

    „There you go!“ She shook the stretcher before remembering that the other hand had work to do. Might as well change the carrier hand. Made for awkward walking, but it brought feeling back to her fingers. „Chomp! Chomp!“ Her eyes widened as the realization caught up. She wasn't tending to...
  7. J

    Private Roots

    The servant gave a start, but it ended at the neck. You were trained to endure bigger upsets in service. Your life and station both heavily depended on performing under pressure. After a time, the pressure became second nature. Much like good swimmers didn't seem bogged down by the liquid. Yet...
  8. J

    Open Big Tent of Horrors: Karn Evahl

    THE FREAK SHOW The engorged claws revealed the bird's repressed rage. The innocent and docile seemed to be the harshest judges once they no longer feared. Perhaps that's what they all needed, a bit of plague to fortify them. She should be flattered, really. That such a little thing would fight...
  9. J

    Private Roots

    The answer was refreshing. They normally pleaded. Promised great things. To be good and better the lives of others as well as their own. But that was a miscalculation on their part. Because she had too much to worry about to care about the plights of things passing by in the night. They were...
  10. J

    Open Big Tent of Horrors: Karn Evahl

    THE FREAK SHOW The bird was right, in a way. But being taken from wasn't life's true tragedy. Being given more than you were meant to bear was worse. You could only shoulder so much before your wings no longer remembered how to carry you. The gloom of her thoughts wouldn't do them any good, so...
  11. J

    Private Roots

    Cure. The word caught in her many eyes, face betraying the desire for it. Hope wasn't always a sliver, and this one stuck her like a splinter. What would that even do? She'd done too much to put her hopes back into flesh. Too much had been invested into outlasting the threat to leave room for...
  12. J

    Open Big Tent of Horrors: Karn Evahl

    THE FREAK SHOW More eyes opened, the bird deserving regard. But it wasn't a thing easily answered. People rarely got caught looking at Juniper. „I...they're normally too afraid.“ Because fear was correct. What a curious conversation – two creatures doing their best impressions of a person...
  13. J

    Private Roots

    The more she touched a thing, the more she became it – a curse of Juniper's existence. The slow flaw of redsalt gave her kinship with the creature's plight. But she was no more a Skin than she was a Birch. Perhaps life would've been simpler had she the willingness to relate to the humans...but...
  14. J

    Open Big Tent of Horrors: Karn Evahl

    The Freak Show Her branches shook. Worse than laughter, but not hard enough to shake the silly creature off. Her many treeeyes beheld the pigeon instead. Far as messengers went, this one had been found lacking. Didn't really tell her anything new. Stars were dumb, glittery things. What value...
  15. J

    Open Big Tent of Horrors: Karn Evahl

    The Freak Show Once again, she couldn't figure out how she'd gotten here. One moment she was turning to face the handler – Next, she was being....felt up by a moron. Well, at least it was an honest moron. Saying what everyone already thought. Because it really did feel like a tree, especially...
  16. J

    Private Roots

    Had anything huge, strong, or unstoppable made its way to Garth – she'd have known. Would've felt it. When something big enough walked the grounds, the soil remembered, and the roots were told in turn. People often thought them treefeet, but they were misinformed. They were nerves, and sure some...
  17. J

    Open Big Tent of Horrors: Karn Evahl

    The Freak Show Couldn't remember how she'd gotten here. Or how long it'd been. Only the sign overhanging the entrance, and the grass at her feet. It had grown a couple inches since she'd stopped moving. Two other freaks were talking and it seemed they believed the conversation included her...
  18. J

    Private Roots

    Hahahahahaha Last bits of girllaugh didn't even attempt quiet. Pitched and shrieky. Because she always knew Garth would one day take all of her. But she never expected it to mean the literal bark off her back. There was something soothing in that. That even when she stopped being a person, she...
  19. J

    Private Roots

    Sun had moved away from her, but the room didn't feel darker – only starved. How much time had passed? She maintained power enough to have others describe her absent mind as eccentric – instead of what it really was. Stumpwoman knew better than to try moving from her perch. Voice traveled...
  20. J

    Private Roots

    They laid the stranger on a cot three steps below the stump. Her 'throne' had started sprouting new leaves since she'd been sitting on it. Because everything grew from Juniper's touch. Physicians whispered below, carefully gathering the runoff blood in bowls. There was no medical benefit to it –...
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