The Dead Dove Locker -- "I don't know what I expected."

[Mamorien]

The Greenfield Family.

We're now kicking of the Gathering, a big weekend event for the Greenfields and all their nearest and dearest to come together for their own special kind of bonding activity. This is day one, where the participants will be split off into random groupings, just whomever with whomever is in the same group. Let's see what kind of roulette combinations we get.

In other news, the paid version of the story on ZBookStore has been updated, not only with a new round of editing, but it now includes an additional bonus story, "College Days," chronicling the ensuing year at college after the end of the story proper. It has been broken into multiple parts so as to chronologically wrap around the existing bonus story "A Greenfield Family Christmas" which takes place in the middle of it. If you've already purchased the book, you should be able to download the new version for free; if you still haven't, now's the perfect time!

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/49

Princess of the Void.

“No, hold on. Shit, gimme a second.” Ipqen pops the lid of her beer can and stomps with purpose to the console. “You know what I’mma play? Me and Ruaq been listening to some Maekyonite music.”

“Oh, shit.” Grant sits further back on the floor. “Whatcha got?”

“I got all kinds of stuff. Chief Engineer slipped me a download of the cultural immersion packet.” Ipqen pauses her scroll. “Was she not supposed to do that?”

“Dunno,” Grant says. “Probably not.”

“It is off to the brig with her,” Ajax says, solemnly, into his half-empty beer.

“Overruled,” Grant says. This is the fifth time they’ve done this stupid routine and it’s only getting funnier as he gets drunker.

Ipqen queues up a song. “This one. Fuck yeah.” She nods along earnestly to the ripping guitars on its intro. “Now lemme ask you, what is making that racket?”

We were meant to live for so much more.

“That’s an electric guitar,” Grant says. “With the distortion way up.”

“It sounds like a planet getting torn in half. It sounds fatidic. Right?” she demands of Ajax.

“Uh, yeah,” the Master Sergeant says. “Sounds good.”

“You’re such a flightless bird, man,” Ipqen says.

“Ipqen.” Grant tries to shut down the vibration of his held laugh. “This is Meant to Live by Switchfoot.”

“And that’s… is that a bad thing?” Ipqen’s heavy brow furrows as the distorted Christian post-grunge fills the cabin.

“It is off to the brig with Switchfoot,” Ajax says, solemnly.

“No. No, I love—I mean, it was kind of a one-hit wonder, I think, and it’s Christian rock, but yeah.” Grant bobs his head along to the crunchy breakdown. “I can fuck with some Switchfoot. Love the chorus.”

“Wiiiwur menta live for so much moooore,” Ipqen sings, in butchered English. “This shit has me on the peak.”

“What’s its brain effect?” Ajax asks.

Ipqen takes the space of a swig to check in with herself. “Makes me wanna—like—break something. And then put it back together with really colorful tape.”

“I fucking missed this,” Grant says. “I missed you guys. Oh, no. I’m getting maudlin.”

“Do it, man.” Ipqen turns the music down. “Maudle shit up. You want something slower?”

“No, I’m fine. I just want—I need to be Grant somewhere. You know? Not just with Sykora. I mean, I love her so goddamn much.”

Ipqen’s great big palm braces his back. “Course you do.”

”And my kids. Holy shit.” Grant’s eyes sting. Don’t cry in front of your servants, But his voice is starting to shake. ”But it’s not the same. Or I don’t know. But they can’t be the only ones. Batty can’t be the only one I feel normal around. That’s not fair to—to her. Or me. Or to anyone.”

“Who’s Batty?” Ipqen whispers to Ajax, who shushes her.

”I just need to feel normal sometimes,” Grant says. ”I need to feel like nobody’s scared of me. Like you’re hanging out with me because you want to and I’m one of you. And without it I came so, so close to turning into something horrible. Into someone I couldn’t bear to be. I’m so—it’s so stupid. Forget it. I’m out-of-practice on being drunk. I’m…” He laughs despairingly. “I’m out of practice on being Grant.”

“If you need to be Grant, Maj—uh—Grant.” Ajax is trying as hard as his unwaveringly loyal Taiikari brain will allow. “If you need that, then you can have it.”

“Can I…” Grant hiccups. “Can I be fucking scared, then, too?”

“Why, Grant?” Ajax raises his anticomps. His goldenrod eyes are heavy with concern. “You worried about your world?”

“I feel that,” Ipqen says. “I was pissing myself when you went for Eqtora. But it worked out. Yeah? You’ll find a way.”

“We have,” Grant says. “And I think… I mean, it’ll be hard as fuck, but it’ll work, I think.”

“It will,” Ajax says. “Your servants will ensure it.”

“That’s not what I’m scared of.”

Grant lifts his palm from his beer and rests it on his forehead, feels the condensation, tries to ground himself here and now in the company of his friends.

“I’m scared of what comes first,” he says.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/120617...nt-to-live
https://www.scribblehub.com/read/1419041...r/2579822/