The Winter Lady [Lyrics]

A song to the spirit of winter, traditionally sung during the winter solstice.

The winter is coming so we'll sing out sweetly
With toes and hands frozen we'll be of good cheer
The blanket of darkness falls o'er us completely
On darkest of nights the White Maiden is here

O light all the candles to chase away darkness
And deck yourselves all up in crimson and gold
The finest of dresses and tunics of satin
Will make ourselves shimmer like heroes of old

Let the Great Night fall
As we gather by the fire
With our songs we'll call
The Winter Lady here

Her countenance shines like the first rays of morning
Her eyes are aglow with the moon's gentle light
Forgiveness she grants with the touch of her mantle
That kings' hearts and beggars' be as one this night

With houses bedecked all with bay and with laurel
We'll open our doors up to all who come near
Now pass round the cup and let's start up a carol
And sing we so sweet the White Maiden will hear

Let the Great Night fall
As we gather by the fire
With our songs we'll call
The Winter Lady here

Each winter she strikes through the whirling of blizzards
Each winter she comes with the sun in her wake
To dance in the moonlight of deep winter solstice
Until the first sunlight of morning does break

Come down from your palace and make us all joyful
O dance here among us as we hail the sun
Unconquered this winter, for now and forever
Upon each year's ending 'till all years are done

Let the Great Night fall
As we gather by the fire
With our songs we'll call
The Winter Lady here

Fore the new sunrise
She'll feast and dance and caper
O both fool and wise
Fear the Winter Lady's court

Galatea

A body-sculptor sets her eyes on improving a young coyote by way of turning him into a woman. Explicit.

While the beat rumbled away above them, Mel's hands grazed over a gazelle's clay-thick ass. Her fingers stayed in constant motion, like a potter's hands spinning a terracotta vase.

"Like a brick house, yeah?" the gazelle asked. She knew she looked great.

She thought she knew, at least. She'd been breathing in Mel's smoke for a good half hour, and Mel had been telling her she looked great, so she had to look good. If Mel told her that she knew French, she'd know for certain that she was fluent, even if the closest thing she knew to French was that 'si' meant yes.

||||||||

Null drones convert a hapless photographer poking around an abandoned hospital. Explicit.

Eight clicks echoed through the dead hospital.

Thomas raised his head. His ears rose too, stretching to hear the sound again. To him, rusted gurneys and rubble-strewn beds were photogenic, not eerie, and an odd noise was cause for investigation, not panic.

He pulled his camera off of his tripod. He thought it might be a wild animal, or some sort of scavenger. Whatever it was, he was going to get a picture of it.

He walked back across the ground floor of Bellvue Hospital, closed down and left to steep in its own formaldehyde for the last thirty years. There had been a quarantine then, a panic—but it was all before Thomas's time. The hospital had never been sealed up airtight. If there were any pathogens left, simply going inside couldn't hurt.

Marian

Robin Hood fanfic, oh no! Sir Hiss hypno-corrupts Maid Marian. Mature.

Prince John had a gallows grip on the gold coins between his fingers. One wrinkle creased his brow just above his snout. His lip curled, just a little. With each breath, an uneven whine left his throat, like a wet log steaming in a hot fire.

Sir Hiss grinned as ingratiatingly as he could.

"Sssire, you've counted that gold twice already. I think it'sss time sssomeone went to bed," he said.

Prince John didn't look at him. Hiss peeled back the corners of his mouth harder.

"Come now, sssir, you need your beauty sssleep," Hiss said.

Hiss's tail draped across the line of gold rings that Prince John held. He hooked the coins against his tail and tugged. Prince John held on tightly. His mouth stayed closed, though his lip had started to wobble.

Hiss had hoped the prince would have taken rejection better, but there was nothing the lion reacted to pleasantly.

The Snow-Black Fortress

Instead of studying barbarians, a fantasy anthropologist winds up joining them instead. Explicit.

Footsteps dented the snow without any feet to make them. The falling snow and gusts of wind would cover them up within minutes, and then there would be no sign that anyone had been there.

Edward paused, and the footsteps stood still. He crouched down, digging two gloved fingers into the snow and putting a clump of it onto his tongue. He was loath to chill himself any more than he already was, but he'd read in a book that it kept your breath from fogging up.

Ahead of Edward loomed the fortress, built out of greying stone, perched on the side of a mountain. Behind him was the less perilous peak he'd climbed. And beneath him, beyond the thick stone bridge, were thousands of feet of nothingness down to a rocky cleft between the two peaks.. Edward's heart hammered in his chest.

The tracks began to move again, dotting the snow with dark spots where the gray-black flagstones showed through. Edward grabbed the edges of his cloak and pulled them closer together against the cold. On his chest, sitting above his traveling robe, was an unevenly round disc of lead. Stamped on it in a puffy, bulbous way was the image of a half-closed eye.

Operative Lost

A government operative is captured, implanted with a parasite, and remodeled into a more profitable form. Explicit.

DATALINKS ACCESS

Authorization key accepted at 0x94f2ee

Enter search term: triple a_

TRIPLE A: Colloquial term referring to Aegis Systems, AeroTech, and Atmos as a single entity. While these companies prefer to be called by their official branding, little effort is made to correct citizens of Canis who use this term. Often used as a stand-in for 'the government', as the government of Canis is run via corporate enterprise. Aegis, AeroTech and Atmos have owned controlling stock in Canis government since 2151 and have provided over five centuries of fair, continuous rule.