Title: finishing touches
'Verse/characters: Swallow's Tail; Lev Petrovich, Sascha, Helena, Taarstad
Prompt: 08C "release"
Word Count: 1220
Notes: After sunshine and oranges, includes a reference to the spark not wanting to move, for heat and humidityOne more scratched off the list of prompts that constitutes the outline for this story ( Read more... )

Title: Things that don't mix
'Verse/characters: Swallow's Tail; outside perspective on Sascha, Helena and Petrovich
Prompt: 92D "rape"
Word Count: 2261 2282
Notes: Follows not everyone's treat food; early stages of 3 (not that Helena would ever admit that). They arrived in Berezniki in exchange of politenesses; they appear to have been in ( Read more... )

Title: consequence
'Verse/characters: Swallow's Tail; Sascha, Petrovich, Helena, Taarstad
Prompt: 83D "heal"
Word Count: 754
Notes: Sascha wasn't kidding about the consequences of Helena needing stitches. Still 3+1.

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( It was nearly an hour before the engines went quiet, and the gravity coils stopped lurching around like a drunk Russian at six of the clock. )

Title: fishing for tools
'Verse/characters: Swallow's Tail; Sascha, Lev Petrovich
Prompt:96D "storm"
Word Count: 369
Notes: expanded from the spark "a sudden loud clatter". Between just your average afternoon riot and heartbeats in the dark; they're a pretty solid 3.

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( Sascha almost dropped the fine-point welding bit on his foot when the ceiling tried to convince him there'd been a massive ice malfunction and it would shortly be hailing on his head. )

Title: just another day in the life
'Verse/characters: Swallow's Tail; Sascha, Helena, Taarstad, Petrovich
Prompt: larathia: "transcendental olympics"
Word Count: 210
Notes: 3+1, between an attempt at percussive maintenance and whoops.

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( Sascha automatically shoved a foot up to brace himself against the opposite wall when the horse abruptly yawed to the side )

Title: first gifts
'Verse/characters: Swallow's Tail; Helena, Taarstad
Prompt: 96C "clay"
Word Count: 743
Notes: after they're together, before he meets any of her relations.

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( She was sprawled out across the narrow bed they shared, eyes half-closed in bliss as her lover's rider's fingers played on her scalp, scratched carefully through her loosened hair. )

Title: an attempt at percussive maintenance
'Verse/characters: Swallow's Tail; Taarstad, Sascha
Prompt: 41B "negative"
Word Count: 917
Notes: this concludes the 2+ pieces a day for a bit, though I still have a few more pieces to do before I call it good for the month. This is sometime after bathtime.

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( Sverre knew he was getting used to the horse and her crew when he walked in on Sascha smacking the frame of a mirror with a mallet and barely blinked. )

Title: bathtime
'Verse/characters: Swallow's Tail; Taarstad, Sascha
Prompt: 74A "scars"
Word Count: 940
Notes: slightly after necessities.

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( Reluctantly dragging himself towards the banya, Sverre tried to remember how it worked. )

Title: not everyone's treat food
'Verse/characters: Swallow's Tail; Sascha, Helena
Prompt: 41D "citric acid"
Word Count: 632
Notes: 2+1, roughly the same time as an exchange of politenesses.

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( As far as he knew, the Captain never mentioned the new boots to Helena, but she noticed quick, threw a very abbreviated doubletake the first time the Russian wore them, but didn't say a word. )

Title: exchange of politenesses
'Verse/characters: Swallow's Tail; Petrovich, Helena, Sascha (2+1)
Prompt: 98B "gamble"
Word Count: 1230
Notes: after offers, before that line. Berezniki is a town near the Russian-Siberian border; the nearest big city is Perm.

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( The free-stable in Berezniki's biggest terem was bustling, horses coming and going at all hours and crews making deals in the halls for spare parts as well as in the markets outside the stable. )