#friend told me i looked like Pauline with silver hair

[the-blind-geisha]

Level up day! I promise Shadow is happy to be there. He just doesn't trust Dimentio is all. xD

[elkrisen]

frost, harvest, amber, spice, orchard, bonfire, cranberry, maize, quilt, pumpkin, ghost!! sorry, i know it's a lot, but i sent a bunch more so you can choose which ones you really wanna do rather than do all of them!!

I'll never not take the opportunity to talk in length about myself but I will make a read more to keep it tasteful on the feed. thank you for asking all of these starboy.

frost - if you could give some advice to your younger self, what would you say?

be careful about who you give yourself to. there are a lot of people in your inner circles that see you as an object to be used rather than a person to be loved. the anger you redirect at yourself so it doesn't hurt the people around you is rotting your own self esteem making you more susceptible to being taken advantage of. lash out at people who hurt you and cut connections that harm you. know that I love you dearly and don't judge you at all. we become something so much greater than anyone ever gave us credit for - including you. also cut your hair and don't be afraid of your own nature.

harvest - what fictional character do you most identify with? Why?

john silver from black sails because he's a charismatic storyteller who uses his charm as a form of survival and a way to engage with others without having people understand who and what he is - including to a degree, himself + the way he loves people and the way people love him. amanda from thoroughbreds for her final monologue. pauline rom excision for her erotic connection to dissection and violence. nell from the haunting of hill house book because she thinks she's playing the game right but it's because she doesn't see how the fates have her tied down. nancy from the craft for her expression and her rage and lack of shame in her desire for power and it's costs.

amber - share an unpopular opinion that you may have.

harassing male celebrities online like the cock jokes for john green and the omega jokes at misha collins are forms of sexual harassment and are just as disgusting and foul as any other form of online harassment done by men toward women. the fact that tumblr takes delight and humor in it is because we genuinely do not take male harassment seriously and/or there's an entitlement to objectify men when a parasocial relationship is involved. it's not funny and will always be super gross! point blank.

spice - have you ever encountered a house that you believed to be haunted?

the winchester mystery house, the stanley hotel, all abandoned highway houses, and my bedroom three weeks ago when a ghost came in and deadnamed me and wouldn't leave until I re-set my wards.

orchard - share one thing that you’d like to happen this autumn.

I want to get the equipment I need to start making noise/experimental music in my bedroom.

bonfire - describe your dream house.

a cabin the woods that I semi-built with my own hands. big windows that bring in lots of light. strange and comfortable furniture and furnishings. places for my rituals and my art and a basement dungeon that would scare anyone that broke into my home because I own an iron maiden or something.

cranberry - what’s one physical feature that you get complimented on?

lately it's been my green hair but usually it's either my freckles or the way that my eyes turn gold in the sun. one of my friend's in LA told me I looked like a supernatural creature under the right light and I'll always think about that.

maize - share the weirdest encounter you’ve had with a stranger on the street.

oh my god I have so many weird encounters with strangers. I think the weirdest to date is that when I was going into a crystal shop at an outdoor mall with my then partner a woman got on her knees and bowed to me several times because she found the way I spoke on the subject I was talking about well thought out and/or she thought that I looked cool. cannot fully remember due to the novelty of what was happening.

quilt - how do you take your tea (or coffee)?

usually black but if I have it I like adding heavy whipping cream (there are two wolves inside of me) I also love creamers and just finished an oat milk pumpkin spice for the season.

pumpkin - do you think that humans are inherently good or bad?

I don't think we're inherently good or bad but I do think that we are a community species with varying degrees of empathy and we don't want to see each other suffer if it's preventable.

ghost - is there someone that you miss having in your life?

when I burn a bridge I burn a bridge. you are never getting back in. that is to say - no. but I miss who they used to be to me.

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Ch. 32

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Thirty-Two Meeting JoJo Siwa! Rainbow-adical!

At lunch, the Baroness approached Lily. “Who is Jojo Siwa?” She asked after complimenting them on the cloud display in the stable. (She found it elegant and impactful.)

“She’s a pop singer who’s headlining the festivities in Moorland. She’s from the United States,” Lily told her. “Her songs are on J-Tube.”

The baroness tilted her head and slightly pursed her lips. “I would like to meet her. Invite her to dine with me tonight. I doubt she’ll have time once the festivities start. All of you are invited.”

Lily blinked. “I, yes, I’ll do that. Thank you, Baroness Silverglade.”

The Baroness smiled softly and left.

“I, um,” Lily looked at all the other girls. “Is she even in Jorvik yet?”

“She’s staying at Fort Pinta Inn,” one of the girl’s said. “She had the choice between that and Silverglade. The festival stand is halfway between pretty much. I think she’s hanging out at the Disco?” She checked her phone and Jorvikgram. “Yeah, she’s at the disco.”

“Then, um,” Lily finished her lunch and looked at her outfit. She didn’t think she wanted to see Jojo looking like this, not to invite her to see the Baroness over dinner! “I better change.”

“Right. You want to make a good impression.”

“I’m the Baroness’ lady,” Lily said mock seriously.

They giggled.

“And we’ll start on the balloons.”

“And get the bunting on the paddock.”

“And we’re going to put the little clouds and hearts through the Silver Glade track and all the trees on the side of the road across the bridge and towards Silverglade Village.”

“And the ones in the grape fields. Balloons too.”

“Get the fences. Can’t forget the fences.”

“Because you never know who is going to take a ride through the fields during the festivities.”

Lily just nodded.

“We’ve got this under control, boss.” Pauline grinned at her.

“You represent our stable!” Regina shook her fist in front of her face.

“This isn’t pokemon!” Several of them yelled at her.

Lily retreated as Regina started arguing that the stable was like a gym. She looked over her clothes and decided on the midriff baring Baroness bow blouse in lavender and grape with her pair of white baroness capri pants and silverglade clan sneakers in lavender with the mulberry stripe. It was a good balance between showing appreciation for Jojo Siwa (bow blouse) and pride in her club. On a whim, she kept the sparkly bow in her hair.

She took the transport to Fort Pinta and left her horse at the stable. She had to smile because the farmer’s cart near the stable had changed their awning for one with rainbow stripes. And well, the girls in Fort Pinta had the same ideas they had had on how to use the decorations around the stable area and in the huge courtyard with the fountain.

Saffi and Selma mobbed her before she got halfway across the courtyard to gush at her about wearing the bow and how great it looked.

Lily grinned. “Thanks. I think it’s fetching.” She touched it briefly. “We have a lot of girls interested in supporting Jojo over the next week.”

Saffi and Selma squealed. “Girl power!”

“Girl power,” Lily agreed with a grin and bumped their knuckles.

Her outfit changed was all for the good. Jojo was on the disco balcony, not quite looking bored. “Oh, you’re awesome!” She shouted and pointed at Lily.

Lily posed and pointed back. “No! You’re awesome!”

Jojo laughed.

Lily sauntered over to her. She held out her hand. “Lily, President of the Silver Drakes Riding Club.”

Jojo smacked it. “Jojo Siwa! But, err, you probably know that.” She tugged Lily closer. “Selfie!” She said holding up her phone and snapping a pic of both of them. She let Lily go after.

Lily grinned. “I do. I follow Jorvikgram like everyone else.”

Jojo waved her phone. “You’re part of my jorvikgram story now!” She said as she posted the picture.

“I’ll be sure to download it,” Lily promised. “My Club is looking forward to coming to watch the show.”

“Radical!” Jojo looked excited. Her eyes darted back and forth. “You want a dance lesson first. Just so you can be on the edge of coolness.”

“Sure,” Lily agreed.

Jojo led her through some of her signature moves. “You’ve got it!”

Lily laughed. “I’ll teach the other girls and we’ll do a show.”

“Maybe if you’re good enough you can get up behind me and be my, like, back up dancers.”

“That’d be great.” Lily wrinkled her nose. To her, Jojo seemed a bit lonely. It had to be tough being alone on Jorvik. “Say, I have an invite for you. Actually, it’s not an invite. It’s more like an order to appear. Baroness Silverglade wants you to join her for dinner. It’s kind of like,” Lily paused. “Okay, not the mayor, since the mayor of this town is a pony, but more like the President of the area asking. She owns a lot of land around here and she wants to know more about you.” Lily made finger guns at Jojo.

Jojo’s eyes widened. “Really. Um, wow.”

“I don’t think you’re really getting the option to refuse.”

“What should I wear?”

“Well, the Baroness likes roses and purple. If you have a nice dress, tonight would be the time.”

“I have, like, the perfect thing! This is going to be so cool. What is she like?”

“Ice queen, but she does have a soft heart. She cares a lot about this area and her people. I hope you like Greek food. If you don’t, um, Antonia, her chef, makes this apple smothered pork chop that’s to die for, not literally, but it’s delicious.”

“I am down with the Greek food.” Jojo fiddled with her sequin dress. “Um, Lily, I’m supposed to go meet someone named Loretta at this festival site. But the only transportation they have around here is horses.”

“Haven’t been on them much?”

“Not really. Come with.”

“Absolutely,” Lily agreed without reservation. She should check on what the Bobcat girls were doing for decorating the area anyways. One never knew with Loretta. “I think Tan is a mega Siwa fan. She’s Loretta’s right hand girl. If it’s not right, Tan will get it fixed. Come on, you can meet my horse, and we’ll find you a nice pony.”

“A pony?”

“They aren’t so far from the ground,” Lily winked. She actually liked Jojo. She didn’t want to intimidate her like she’d intimidated James.

Jojo relaxed slightly. “Sweet.”

They went to the stable and after making sure Jojo met Mayor Peanut, who through James, had greetings for her. She took selfies with him. Lily introduced Jojo to her horse. More pictures of Lily and the horse together mostly. And then, they found her a nice steady Jorvik Starter Pony to ride. Jojo took a self of her and the horse together.

On the ride, Jojo was full of questions about how long Lily had been in Jorvik and was it all so rural and did she like it and so on and so forth. Lily answered freely enough. She didn’t mind telling Jojo about herself. She made it a point to point out special things about the parade route. The Bobcat Girls and the Ponies had worked the rainbow and sequin streamers into the ivy, and put rainbow sequin swag bunting and the big bows both inside and outside of the archways. There were huge bunches of ombre rainbow balloons too.

On the fences, they’d put more bows, and swags of sequin bunting, and bracketed the places where they ended with balloons. At the base of the fence post, they’d put the lanterns. Lily took a picture and texted it to one of the girls.

Jojo bounced in the seat of her saddle and took pictures. Her fingers flew over the keys as she captioned them.

“On it!” She got a response to her text from Regina.

Tan met them as they entered the site, jumping up and down and waving. She was ecstatic to point out the decorations.

At the festival site, there was more of the same, lots of sequin swag bunting, lots of bows, tons of balloons. One of the carts with a rainbow awning had set up to sell merchandise. They had set up a photo wall with both pastel and bright color rainbow curtains behind it but they were all sequins. There were bows and gold beads too.

Jojo insisted on doing several selfies and included both of them.

Tan gestured at a tent with a rainbow awning.

“For the friendship bracelets and to make the bows,” Tan explained.

They’d left a large empty area in front of the stands.

“So everyone can dance,” Tan said as to why all the benches were further back. “We’re having our rainbow swirl sugar cookies and milk. The Farmer’s Market is just over the fence so we thought it’d be too much to have food.”

Jojo’s eyes widened. “There’s a farmer’s market.”

“Sure, it’s free for anyone to go to,” Lily said. “If you want to check it out.”

“Do I ever!”

Tan jumped in. “I can take you if you want! Linda sent over these program flyers for the craft tent with a map so everyone knows where to go.” She jogged off and came back. “Here. I hope you get some time to go to all the festivities between sets.”

Jojo read it over. “This is so awesome. I can’t believe you’re doing this much stuff. I’ll definitely have to get around. I don’t know if I’ll have time to see the other performers though. Bummer.”

“There’s a charm bracelet in it for you if you do,” Tan said. “I’ll come with you and we can collect the charms together.”

Jojo grinned. “I’m sure Selma and Saffi would like to come too. This will be great.”

Lily nodded at Jojo. “Well, I need to check in with Loretta then. You two have fun at the Farmer’s Market and I’ll see you tonight at dinner. I’ll make sure Godfrey comes to pick you up.”

“Godfrey?”

“The butler.”

“Butler. Got it.” Jojo nodded. She grinned at Lily. “Thanks for taking the time to come with me.”

“She’s renting a pony from Fort Pinta stables,” Lily said to Tan.

“I thought it looked like one of theirs. I mean, though, why would you be out to see the Welshies on South Hoof yet. Though you really got to do it. Have you ever ridden with a wild horse herd? It’s so totes amazing!” Tan beamed at Jojo.

Jojo looked a bit leery. “I’m down,” she said trying to be game.

Lily took off. “Dinner’s at six,” she called over her shoulder.

Lily rode down to Moorland Stable proper. There were tons of camper wearing Jojo bows and they grinned at hers pointing at their heads. Lily gave them a thumbs up.

They gave her thumbs up back.

Lily was quite relieved to see that the Bobcat girls had managed to use the rainbow decorations instead of the pink ones. She stopped by Julie next to one of the entrance gates. “Any problems?”

“Conrad won’t let us decorate the forge. We’re going to do it anyways,” Julie eyed her nails. “Do you think I should do a rainbow manicure? That’s the thing right?”

“If you want, maybe one gold nail, to be hip,” Lily advised. It wasn’t that the Bobcat Girls were bad people. They were just a bit vapid and shallow.

“I better wait until I don’t have any chores left to do.” Julie sighed. “We haven’t been able to recruit anyone else. They all want to run off and form new clubs.” She glowered at Lily.

“Viva la revolution.” Lily said blandly. She tipped an imaginary hat to Julie and trotted around the stable to check on Loretta.

Loretta widened her eyes at her. “You will not believe all the trouble putting up these decorations has caused. Josh is refusing to talk to me after I put hearts on his poles.”

“Poor baby,” Lily said. “It looks nice.”

She looked towards the Pole Bending track. Josh knelt next to his poles with his hat knocked back and a roll of tape meticulously taping down each heart. She wasn’t getting involved. Nope. Let Josh and Loretta sort it out between them.

“And I told him that it’s Rainbow Week. Unless the skulls were painted like rainbows, they had to go. Now he’s threatening to leave Moorland. I don’t know what his problem is? This is Rainbow Week and it has to go off perfectly. Tan’s so busy setting up the festival site making sure it’s perfect for Jojo that I’m not sure she’s going to get the parade outfits done in time.”

“Jojo seems pleased with the site.”

“Something’s going right then,” Loretta huffed. “I don’t know why she decided to come up with new parade outfits, last years were fine. I mean, they’re black with black.”

“I thought they were nice. They had the black vest with the black capris, right?”

“Yeah, but no, ‘the power of friendship compels me’ or something. I told her that it better not be anything like Daxton’s rainbow vest. It had better be fashionable or I’m not wearing it.”

“It can get rather loud very quickly,” Lily agreed. “That was the danger in the decorations too.”

Loretta wrinkled her nose. “That might be the first thing we’ve ever agreed on.”

“Well, as long as Tan hasn’t taken them apart, you still have last years if hers turn out to be not fashionable.”

“True,” Loretta chewed her lip.

Things looked under control enough. Lily rode through the stable area to check out all the different decorations. She breathed a sigh of relief. No one had tried to sneak the pink things in at all. A quick tour through the other courtyard revealed their photo wall set up in front of Moorland’s distinctive camp office.

Lily took the transport back to the winery and directly into some teasing about her adventures with Jojo.

“As Tan says, don’t be jelly,” Lily rolled her eyes. “Jojo’s an enthusiastic and sweet girl.”

They all giggled.

“You’ll meet her soon enough for dinner,” Lily sighed. “And you can get your selfies with her then.”

“I think we’re about done,” Pauline said.

“It looks great,” Lily said. There were bunches of balloons everywhere to fill up space. It really made the whole thing come together and not look tacked on. “Where is everyone else?”

“Decorating the pavilion and setting up our photo wall,” Pauline said. “We’ve got the supplies for the crafts locked up in the tack room right now. I think we can lock them up in the arena overnight.”

“That sounds like a good plan.”

“Make it so,” Pauline said and texted it out.

Lily rolled her eyes. “While you’re making me out like Captain Picard, Number One. Tell everyone to dress nicely for dinner. Dresses.”

Pauline nodded. “We better rotate shower time.”

Lily decided she better inspect everything. She wanted to have a good report for the Baroness.

--

Jojo Siwa slid out of the car in front of the huge Greek style manor and looked around, her eyes huge in her face. She smoothed her skirt.

Lily darted forward to greet her. “Jojo, glad you came.”

“You didn’t say it was so fancy,” Jojo whispered.

“Baroness implies fancy,” Lily implied. “You look great.” And Jojo did. She’d put an ombre purple sequin bow in her hair which was thankfully down instead of her signature ponytail. The top of her dress had a huge blown out rose done in smaller sequins on it. It covered her entire chest. The skirt was a darker purple large sequins and the sleeves matched the skirt. Her ballerina flats had bows on them too. Fortunately, only the bows had sequins.

Lily didn’t know what the Baroness felt about sequins. It didn’t matter. Jojo looked decent.

“You look nice too.”

Lily glanced down at her Winery Rose Evening dress. She didn’t think the white color made it any less formal but it matched Pauline’s lace dress she’d bought at the Jorvik Shopping mall color wise. “Francezka Ironsaddle, big Jorvik designer. She did all our outfits. The Silver Rose opens tomorrow,” Lily gestured at the building almost hidden now behind the trees in the reflecting pool. “Well, not all of our dresses, Francezka only designed three and it is difficult to find nice dresses here on Jorvik.” Lily tucked her arm around Jojo’s and led her up the stairs. “Try not to let her intimidate you.”

“Too late,” Jojo said.

The girls were waiting inside beaming brightly. Lily made introductions and Jojo kindly did pictures with all of them.

“Okay, phones away,” Lily said once they were done. “And on silent!”

They all tucked phones away.

Godfrey opened the doors of the dining room promptly at six. The Baroness stood up to greet them at the head of the table. There was gleaming crystal glasses, elegant china, and more silver flatware than most of them had ever seen.

Lily introduced Jojo to the Baroness.

“Ms. Siwa, please, take a seat on my right.” And a glance at Lily had Lily seated at her left. Linda sat next to Lily. In fact, everyone who worked at the Manor and even Anastasia and Aaron were in attendance. The girls took up the middle of the long table while Aaron ruled the other end with his sister. (Anastasia’s dog had its own chair.)

The Baroness asked Jojo about herself as the soup course came out, the lemon chicken soup Lily noted. Jojo was happy to talk about herself, her music and the messages she tried to sing about friendship, being kind, and supporting each other, and her v-log. Though Linda had to interrupt to tell the Baroness what a V-Log was.

“A visual diary for the public, how, interesting,” the Baroness said politely.

Pauline sat next to Jojo and with low voice prompts managed to get her to talk about Jorvik and meeting the Jorvik Starter Ponies and since Jojo phrased everything enthusiastically (like they figured she would) the Baroness didn’t get offended over anything. Jojo loved Silverglade Castle and raved about the food she’d had at the Farmer’s Market.

Anastasia managed to slip in a question about Jojo’s fashion style.

Lily had no idea what the Baroness was hoping to learn or Anastasia for that matter.

After one of Aaron’s sundaes, it was time for Jojo to leave.

The Baroness walked her out to Godfrey’s car. “Ms. Siwa, it’s a pleasure to see young people in this day with such passion and enthusiasm for what they do. You appear quite genuine rather than being an act. You’re always welcome to back to my part of Jorvik.”

Jojo brightened. “Thank you!” She gasped and got in the car.

Godfrey smiled at his employer nodding in approval before he got in the driver’s seat and took Jojo back to Fort Pinta.

Lily concluded that probably couldn’t have gone any better.

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

[judgeredward]

Early Hours

The aroma of the coffee was perhaps one of the few welcome things in his life, especially this early in the morning. Shoulders hunched up, with his hazel brown hair flopping forward, as if it, along with the person it was attached to, could not be bothered to look presentable. The man let out a yawn, with his fingers circling the mahogany counter next to the cup of coffee. He reached down into his jacket, a heavy article with the logo of the door-to-door sales company he worked for, to pull out a checklist for that day. Needless to say, what with the dishevelled look on his face, that his job was, in essence, a piece of shit. That would be how he would put it, at the very least.

“Well, well, Travis,” said the voice of a man off to his right. “Don’t you look like the merriest sack of crap.”

The man, identified as Travis, lifted his deathly gaze from the muddy texture of the coffee to the one who spoke. It was the bartender, a sixty-odd year old man with greying hair and a fancy pompous moustache that made Travis think he came from the early nineteenth century. More than once he’d suggested for him to get a top hat. And, more than once, he would get the response to piss off.

“Oh shove i’, will ya?” Travis growled back, lifting the coffee to his lips and took a sip. After setting it back down, his elbow came to rest on the counter, and his palm pressed up into his eye, and that came with another scowl. “They had me in workin’ till three in the bloody mornin’. I’ve had two hours sleep!”

The bartender laughed a little at that. “As if that’s any excuse. Back when I was doing the cocktail bar, they had me in until four every day.” He grabbed a dirty pint glass from the sink behind the counter and idly cleaned the inside of any specks of dirt.

“When was that, a hundred years ago?”

Travis and the bartender turned to the left of him, looking down the bar counter towards another male, about twenty-three in age. A book was in his hand, and unlike the salesman, this young man was far more presentable; tucked in white shirt, plain red tie, glasses atop his nose and denim jeans with a black belt and black shoes. He was a student from the nearby university, but had been frequenting the small bar since he was seventeen. He finally decided to get his act together and go back to finish his degree.

“Watch your cheek, William.”

The student, William by the bartender and Bill to everyone else, adjusted his glasses and laughed. “Oh, you know I jest,” he said back, looking towards his glass of bourbon and took it in his hands. For a young man and one who seemed so eager to be well-dressed, both the bartender and Travis had to admit that the young man was a hard drinker, and one who could also keep it hidden remarkably well. So, against both of their better judgements, they allowed him to stick where he was on the counter every morning.

“How’s the coursework comin’ alon’, Bill?” Travis asked, rubbing at the bridge of his nose again. Wrinkles deepened on his brow as a result.

“It’s shit,” Bill answered, making a mental note of the page he was reading and closed his book, before giving Travis a quick look over and smirked. “If I had to put it one way? Imagine your sales work put into paperwork, and you’re about there.”

The bartender looked down at that, keeping his gaze averted but there was a sly grin on his lips. “If you imagine it like that, then you get bugger all done.”

Travis was silent for a little bit, digesting the bartender’s words, then narrowed his gaze and stuck his middle finger at the old man. “Ah, piss off, you old geezer. And get me anotha damn cup.” He pushed the teacup over the counter, sliding it down to the greying man. The bartender plucked it up with long, thin fingers and nodded.

“Would it kill you for manners?”

“Would it kill ya to just make the fuckin’ thing?”

The bartender grumbled at Travis’ foul mouth, but he knew Travis well enough that this early in the morning, nobody would get Travis to talk decently. He made the cup with a little more grumbling, then handed the man the cup and went back to cleaning the glasses.

Half an hour passed, with little more said than just idle chattering between the three. It was, after all, seven in the morning, so it was unsurprising that barely anyone was there. But, just as the clock ticked over half past, the bell above the entrance door chimed, and a woman walked in. Bill looked over, downing his bourbon and smirked a little, looking her over. “Good to see you’re as sober as ever, Pauline,” he said to her, the sarcasm in his voice not exactly subtle.

The woman, Pauline, looked like death warmed up. Staggering on her lithe legs, and her puffy red hair in all sorts of places, with part of what appeared to be lipstick smeared over her left cheek, and a distant look in her eyes told Bill that, like every other morning he was there, she had been drinking quite heavily throughout the night. How she afforded to get drunk every night on a weekday he would never know. How she was able to even stay in a job, either, was another thing.

Pauline nodded towards the trio there, then hurried off towards the bathroom beyond the counter, off to sort herself out and clean her face up a bit. Bill let out a scoff at that, thinking for a moment, with his eyes closed. “How old is she again?” he asked out to the duo.

Travis gave a shrug, silently sipping his coffee and slowly growing more awake. The bartender answered for him instead. “Mid-thirties, I think.”

“Christ. Mid-thirties, and drinking every night. Poor girl’s got her ass left out on the shelf.”

“That’s what being unmarried does to a woman,” the bartender stated.

“Aye, and it does the same to a married man at the same age,” Travis added, toying with the silver band of metal on his left ring finger.

“Ain’t that the truth,” the bartender said.

“Ohh, right ’en,” Travis said, finishing off his third cup of coffee and nodded towards the duo. “Another wonderful day to look forward to,” he added, before pulling himself away from the counter and stretched out his arms.

“On the tab?” asked the bartender, to which Travis nodded. “Jeez… gotta pay it someday, Travis.”

“I will,” Travis answered, adjusting his jacket and hair, smoothing it down, then grinned at the old man. “Eventually.” He looked towards the bathroom. “I’m off, Pauline!”

“You…” the woman yelled out. “I just got here!”

“Yes, well, unlike some people, I got a job to do.”

“Just… stay there, I’ll be done in a second!”

Travis rolled his eyes, with his hands on his hips, then sighed. “Fine, c’mon. Hurry it up.”

It didn’t take long for her to remerge from the bathrooms, looking a fair shade more presentable than previously. The lipstick had been fixed, her hair pulled back into a ponytail, and her attire changed from a black long skirt into a pair of skinny jeans and a cream blouse, giving her a more mature look than before.

“See?” said Bill, lifting a hand up and turning on his stool to look at Pauline. “Now that’s what a man likes to see. Not that slutty cocktail skirt you wear.”

Pauline rubbed at the back of her neck. “Y-You think it was slutty?” She knew it herself that what she wore wasn’t exactly decent clothing, but it was her desperation screaming out. When she wore that dress, she felt amazing, like she could go out and find a man whenever she wanted. But out of it, and in her day-to-day clothes, she turned into a meek, almost frighteningly shy woman.

The bartender gave daggers at Bill, who must have sensed the harsh gaze behind him, for he quickly shook his head and stumbled over his words to apologise. Pauline said over and over that it was alright, soon finding herself sitting next to the seat where Travis had been. She had given Travis a quick hug as she passed him, who was laughing at Bill and his attempts to speak to a woman. Travis and Pauline had been friends for longer than they would care to admit, having known each other since their school days together.

“Was there anything you wanted me for, Pauline?” he questioned, tapping his foot lightly. He knew that he was going to be late at this rate.

Pauline nodded, reaching into her pocket and pulled out a roll of film that was wrapped in cling film. Travis’ eyes widened at the sight of the film, then looked at Pauline. “Holy shit, you found it?!”

“What is it?” asked Bill, curious to find out.

Travis took it from Pauline, holding it in his palm. “It’s a nugget of purest Green,” he said. “…nah, it’s got all my family’s old pictures on there from the war.”

“My old man wanted to see them,” Pauline answered. “Said he wanted to show his veteran buddies, but he completely forgot to give it back to me. I found it last night when I was cleaning through his room. Stupid git let it roll under the bed.”

“How long ago was that?” Bill asked.

“…two months ago, weren’t it?”

Travis nodded to answer, a solemn look on his face. “With that, people, I… really need to leave.”

“Aww, I wanted to know more,” Bill said, tightening his lips into a pout.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow.” Travis nodded at the trio, before walking finally over to the entrance door and slipped out, ready to face another dreary day in the city.

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Ch. 30

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Thirty A Very Bad First Meeting... Twice

Alex Cloudmill, beanie cap and all, strolled into the temporary pavilion with a look of complete and utter awe on her face. Like, she couldn’t believe everything she was seeing.

Now, Lily didn’t have the best impression of Alex. She’d heard through Pia about the way Alex treated James once she found out about Token after the big meeting. While, Lily didn’t like James, Alex wasn’t helping matters with her attitude. James wasn’t the only Cloudmill with social and behavioral issues. So what if James had a plushie he cared for, a lot of teenagers had plushies they cared for, and he wanted to do something positive with it for Jorvik.

But no, she had to pick on him about it.

Alex had her fingers in her pockets. “So, you must be Lily,” she said as she sidled over towards her.

“I’ve seen you around Moorland, Alex Cloudmill, right?” Lily tried to keep her voice polite. She didn’t know what Alex wanted and she shouldn’t be Loretta.

Alex rubbed the back of her neck and chuckled. “There are so many campers, I can’t keep track of all of you.”

“We’re coming and going all the time,” Lily said, sarcasm rolling off of her in waves. Not that she expected Alex to remember her at all. It wasn’t like Alex even bothered to try. Maya had more of an excuse than Alex did. Or maybe it was less of one since she worked with the campers. Lily pushed it away for later. Alex wasn’t a camp counselor.

Alex missed the sarcasm. “Exactly.”

“What brings you out here, other than Linda,” Lily decided to cut to the chase.

“Well,” Alex scuffed her shoe on the ground. “I want you to come meet Elizabeth Sunbeam. I mean, you’ve been doing all this great stuff, and,” she trailed off.

“Being a good leader with a mild side of delegation and organizational skills doesn’t make me a candidate to be a, what is it again?” Lily said.

“Soul Rider,” Alex supplied. “I think Elizabeth could help clear up any misconceptions you have about it.”

“If she’s not going to work with Melissa, who, by the way, is the Club leader at her stables, then why is she going to work with me?” Lily crossed her arms. “I’m, for all intents and purposes, the Baroness’ lady.”

Alex shrugged. “I think you should meet her. She’s a power.”

Lily glanced around. The other girls had edged closer and were blatantly listening in. “What do you girls think?” She asked.

“Go,” Pauline said.

“Get it over with,” Regina nodded. “We’ve got our stable and we don’t want any problems with Melissa though.”

“Nope,” one of the other girls said popping the p.

“All right, I’ll go,” Lily said.

Alex grinned. “I’m sure this is all some miscommunication and a good chat will clear things up.”

Lily strode past her to get to her horse. There was another horse next to hers, golden in color with a blonde mane. “Yours?”

“You should see him out in the wild.”

“Yeah, we haven’t been out far enough for that yet, I guess,” Lily said.

“You do know about it,” Alex blinked.

“It was brought to our attention that the Jorvik Warmblood Sports aren’t like other horses.”

“Well, this Tin Can.”

The horse whinnied.

“Nice to meet you too, Tin Can,” Lily said as she mounted her horse. “Transports okay with you, or would you like to get your hooves dirty?”

“Uh, he’s fine with a transport,” Alex said slowly, brow furrowed.

Lily nodded and urged her horse over to the transport. They rode in silence to Valedale. The transport slowed to a stop.

“I want to thank you for um, looking after my brother, and Justin,” Alex said abruptly. “I know he’s a pain in the ass.”

“James or Justin?” Lily asked.

“James,” Alex said quickly. “Look, I, I appreciate it. I mean, he told me how it was your plan to buy some of the Baroness’ horses for his stable and everything. We want him to succeed.”

“No one really wants anyone to fail. I mean, unless they’re a murderer or a fascist or something,” Lily blinked rapidly. “He’s got good ideas. He has really bad ways about executing said ideas.” She nudged her horse down the ramp.

Alex followed her. “Right.”

“Good people help other people,” Lily said. “So, you’re welcome.”

“And expect the same treatment?”

“Verily,” Lily nodded.

“I don’t know what that means,” Alex said.

Lily looked around. But what grabbed her attention first was the waterfall. It was neon green. It tumbled down the mountain and into the pool below with a great deal of mist and spray. If it was this bad at the head of the river, Lily couldn’t imagine what it was like over the mountain with the Lake that was placid in comparison. (She pondered if the Lake drained down into the river as well through underwater channels. The water had to go somewhere if it was constantly being filled.)

She tore her gaze away from the green water. She didn’t see any of the girls in their celtic uniforms.

Melissa and the others must be at the ruined summer house still. All for the best, she guessed. She stopped by a girl that had to be related to Jenna and Judy. “Morning, I’m Lily with the Silver Drakes Riding Club.”

“I’m Claire, Valedale Stable Master. Melissa’s told me a bit about you.” Claire grinned at her.

“All good I hope?” Lily’s lips twitched.

“Absolutely. Looking forward to Rainbow Week, it sounds like what you girls are putting together is going to be awesome. Going to have to take some days off to enjoy it all.” Claire nodded. “You might set an entirely new standard for holidays.”

“We hope so,” Lily said. “You have a lovely stable.”

“It’s quiet. We like it.”

“Nice meeting you, Claire,” Lily said.

Alex nodded at Claire. “Claire.”

“Alex.”

“She’s this way, cottage right next to the inn,” Alex said.

Lily noted a blonde woman sweeping her stoop wearing a dress with Celtic patterns on it.

“Elizabeth!” Alex called out as they got closer. “I brought someone to meet you.”

Elizabeth Sunbeam set her broom next to the door and brushed down her skirts. “How kind of you, Alex.”

Alex grinned. “Elizabeth, this is Lily. She’s the President of the Silver Drake’s Riding Club at the Manor.”

“Charmed,” Lily said.

Elizabeth peered at her. “Are you, are you really?”

“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t say so,” Lily said blandly.

“I suppose like Young Melissa you think you know everything.” Elizabeth pushed her hair back over one shoulder.

“I know nothing about the druids or your religion or much about Jorvik. I lead a group of girls that like horses and want to see our stable thrive. Hopefully, if we get to train, we can make it to the Claymore Challenge. However, as my friends and I go about our business in Jorvik, we keep running up against the G.E.D. and a group called Dark Core. These groups we understand are rivals to you. While in most circumstances this would make us allies for the enemy of the enemy is my friend,” Lily trailed off.

Alex stared at her with parted lips.

“The battle between light and darkness,” Elizabeth started.

“Your methods of fighting the darkness leave me questioning how light you actually are. The ends don’t justify the means, Ms. Sunbeam.” Lily shifted in her horse’s saddle. “Dark Core is trying to steal horses from South Hoof Peninsula. The Hightower family won’t listen. G.E.D. has drilled deep into the Greydew Mountains and has completely blocked off Old Hillcrest, yet, no one does anything. Dark Core is situated just up there,” Lily nodded at the mountain side above Valedale. “You can see their camp through a telescope or with a zoom lens. You’re happy to help sick horses. Are you going to help a sick land?”

Elizabeth frowned at her. “I must advise patience.”

“Patience? Lisa Peterson. Anne Von Blissen are missing without a trace. These are your people.” Lily squared her shoulders. “I came here willing to listen and thus far you have neither been welcoming nor said anything I care to hear. I judge you on your inaction. You allow the Silversong River to be tainted on your watch. First the fish near here will die. The plants on the banks will dry up and rot. The dirt will start falling into the stream choking the waters. Then it will spread to the ocean. It’s a ripple and it starts here in your sleepy mountain village.”

Elizabeth straightened. “You play with forces beyond your understanding.”

“And you seriously underestimate how much I don’t care,” Lily said in a tight voice. “Ms. Sunbeam, I don’t know who you work for or who you worship, but here’s my message. Lead. Follow. Or get the hell out of my way. Change is coming on swift wings to South New Jorvik County. So far, none of you have been part of it.”

“You overestimate what I can do.” Elizabeth’s voice turned harsh. “And what you can do, a teenager, and a stranger to Jorvik, her magic, and her ways.”

Lily leaned down. “You were all strangers to Jorvik once.”

Alex shivered.

Lily straightened up and gathered the reins in her hands. “I’m sorry that this didn’t go as you hoped, Alex. With great power comes great responsibility. Do keep an eye on Justin for us.” She nudged her horse with her heel and he turned and flicked his hoofs daintily as he went down the hill.

Lily rode off to the Summer House.

Melissa looked confused to see her coming North from Valedale instead of West from the Manor.

Lily opened up without any preamble. “The Druids have gotten complacent.”

“Wow,” Melissa said. “You met Elizabeth. What did you say?”

“I threw down the gauntlet, quoted Spider-Man, and departed before she could get over her shock at my audacity.” Lily let her gaze rove over the Summer House.

“You should have seen it before,” Melissa joked.

Lily grinned. She sobered. “I wanted to warn you because I’m sure Claire will tell you I showed up.”

“Yes, the famous Lily,” Melissa leaned against her shovel and peered at the fire they had going on what remained of the hearth.

“Infamous more like,” Lily said drolly. “I really don’t know what came over me. Maybe it was seeing the waterfall and the camp right there. How can she live with that every day and claim to be a druid?”

“I don’t think she’s a druid in the way that we think of druids,” one of Melissa’s girls said. “She worships this Aideen woman, rather than nature.”

“The problems with language being imprecise and terrible for nailing down ideas,” Lily shook her head.

“Well, I’m properly terrified,” one of the other girls said.

“Oh you,” Melissa snickered.

“See that you are,” Lily teased. This was going much better than meeting Elizabeth.

“Now that you’ve seen it, any ideas?” Melissa asked.

“Everything we’ve done before has been through proper channels making sure they had permits and all.” Lily shook her head.

“You know, those are probably supposed to be posted,” one of the girls said.

“There’s a Ranger station in Firgrove. Ingrid told me about it,” Melissa examined her nails. “It’s small.”

“Rangers take their duty of care to the pristine land of Jorvik seriously,” Lily said and almost managed a straight face. She sobered. “Just be careful.”

“We should have reconned better the first time,” Melissa fretted. “This could be over already.”

“You don’t have my club’s flair for skullduggery,” Lily wiggled her eyebrows.

“Next meeting, tips for skullduggery,” Melissa said solemnly.

They all burst into giggles.

Lily’s phone buzzed. She frowned. “It’s Sonja. What in the world?” She picked it up and put it in her ear. “Lily, champion of horses, at your service.”

“You’re in a mood already,” Sonja said. “I need your help. Luciana is having a run in with someone who I’m sure has lovely intentions and, I think she’s one of those druids.”

“I’m on my way,” Lily said and hung up. “Code red at Dundull,” she explained. Sensing her urgency, her horse spun on a dime and galloped back towards Valedale. She slowed him down long enough to enter the transport without running into anything, shouting “Dundull, ASAP,” at the driver.

The driver gave her a thumbs up and they were off.

Lily wondered what was going on the entire way. Last she had heard, G.E.D. had tried to bottle and sell the water of the spring at Dundull and in order to save the town or at least the lake water, Rania’s mother had become Mayor.

The trailer parked and Lily shouted her thanks as she got out. She texted Sonja about where they were.

“Stable,” the text read. “Turn right.”

So, Lily went right and found herself in a large stable yard. Rania and Luciana were squared off against a woman in a green vest over a green shirt and actual brown leather breaches.

Emma looked close to tears.

Horses stood in a circle around them. A big palomino draft horse with a strange blaze in the shape of a lightning bolt. Lily wasn’t sure of the breed.

“Harry Potter, much,” Lily muttered. Then she grinned. Her name was the name of the main character’s mother after all. “No relation,” she added under her breath.

Then there was Dellinger, Rania’s Commenara who was trained to help her with her blindness. Sirio, the black Lusitano that was Luciana’s main ride. Sonja’s white on white Jorvik Warmblood Sport. And lastly, a muddy colored palimino horse that looked to also have the lines of a Jorvik Starter Pony.

“Muddy is Emma’s horse,” Luciana said. “You can’t just take him away when she’s bought him fair and square from Kirsty.”

“They even had the proper bonding ceremony,” Rania added. “It was very beautiful. I cried.”

“I’m sorry girls,” Rhiannon said. “Muddy is a Starbreed.”

“You can’t take Starbreeds from people they’ve bonded to,” Rania argued. “I’ve lived here all my life and I know that much!

Sonja trotted over. “They’ve been going around in circles like this for close to twenty minutes.”

Lily rode over. “Excuse me,” she said.

“Lily,” Emma said and ran over. “You have to make this woman listen. I love Muddy. I bought him fair and square with my earnings. We’ve bonded. Muddy is my horse.”

“You have papers?”

Emma nodded.

“I’m not asking you to give me, Muddy. I’m asking you to sell him to the druids.” The woman said. “He’s a special horse.”

“I don’t want to sell,” Emma said. “I just got him.” She flung her arms around the horse’s neck. “I’m not going to give you up, Muddy.”

“Not gonna let you down,” Sonja sang. “Not gonna run around and desert you.”

Lily glared at her.

“Sorry,” Sonja muttered.

“I didn’t come out here to be rick-rolled,” Lily hissed. “Look, Ms.,” she paused.

“Rhiannon,” the woman said.

“Rhiannon,” Lily repeated to put the name firmly in her mind. “If Emma has papers, the law is clear. The horse is hers. If she doesn’t want to sell Muddy, she doesn’t have to sell Muddy. Repeatedly asking when the answer doesn’t change is not only the definition of insanity. It’s harassment.”

“I’m afraid that Emma won’t be able to take care of Muddy properly. Muddy’s a Starbreed.”

“He’s a Jorvik Starter Pony,” Emma defended with her face in Muddy’s neck. “And his name is Mudskipper.”

“By what authority are you saying that he’s a Starbreed?”

“I’m a druid,” Rhiannon said.

Lily wanted to scream. Oh, she was not getting on a good start with these druids. “I’m sure druids understand property laws. I know the G.E.D. and Dark Core don’t seem to but surely an upstanding, are you even an organization, like the druids would,” Lily sighed. “What am I saying? I sound crazy. Fine. What is a Starbreed?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Rhiannon said. “You aren’t a druid. They’re special.”

Lily’s temper broke and sarcasm filled her voice. “And you used your mystic powers to determine this and now you want Emma to sell her special friend.”

“Essentially,” Rhiannon tried for a smile.

“Mudskipper,” Lily addressed the horse directly. “Are you happy with Emma? Is she your special rider?”

The horse nodded.

“There, it’s settled. The horse wants to stay with Emma.”

Rhiannon’s brow furrowed. “Can you talk to horses?”

“We can all talk to horses.”

“I mean, can you understand them when they talk back? Are you a druid?” Rhiannon asked.

“You couldn’t pay me at the moment to be a druid,” Lily’s voice turned icy. “I’m dedicated to getting things done in a prompt, efficient, and timely manner.”

Sonja ducked her head and smirked.

“Motivation that the druids seem to be lacking,” Lily finished.

Rhiannon’s eyes unfocussed. “Your horse is also a Starbreed.”

“And you’ll get my horse over my cold dead body,” Lily snapped. “You can’t just look at horses, wave your hands, and expect people to turn them over.”

Rhiannon shook her head and her eyes focused. “You aren’t from around here.”

“What gave it away? My accent or my attitude.”

“The druids,” Rhiannon began.

“Sorry. I already got into this with Elizabeth Sunbeam not thirty minutes ago.” Lily held up a hand. “People have more to fear from G.E.D. and Dark Core than they have to fear from you, and G.E.D. is barely competent at what they do.”

Rhiannon sucked her cheeks in. She nodded at them. “I’ll leave you to think it over.”

“There’s nothing to think over,” Emma wailed.

Rhiannon mounted her horse and took off.

They all watched her go, the other stable girls drifting from where they’d been watching.

“She’s off to chat with Elizabeth over how rude and disrespectful I am, I’m sure.” Lily said. “So, anyone have any idea what a Starbreed is?”

“The druids claim all the horses they ride are Starbreeds,” Sonja said. “They sweep in at foaling time, check out all the foals and come back for the ones they claim are Starbreeds when they’re weaned. No one is quite sure where they take them or what they do with them.”

“Are there enough druids to justify taking all these horses?” Lily asked. “I mean, that’s rather suspicious. And how did my horse get missed then?”

“The Baroness banned them from her paddocks. They might have missed Muddy by accident,” Sonja shrugged a shoulder.

“Good on the Baroness,” Lily murmured. She picked out her phone and texted all the other presidents that there were special horses called Starbreeds that could be found among the horses and if anyone knew anything about them, they should share.

Kelsey texted back that it sounded suspicious. What if Dark Core wanted a Starbreed horse?

It made sense to Lily. If the Starbreed horses were the horses of the druids and these dark riders were the druid’s opposites, then of course, they’d want a Starbreed horse for whatever they were doing. She didn’t and couldn’t text all of that to Kelsey. Linda hadn’t texted her druid business for a reason. Maybe Dark Core or G.E.D. was more tech savvy than they appeared. So, she texted back a confirmation. Though if only the druids like Rhiannon knew how to figure out which was which, she didn’t know how that would help Kelsey.

Or Dark Core.

If Dark Core couldn’t tell. They’d get a lot of horses before getting the one they wanted. Not that Lily wanted them to get their hands on any horses. She sighed. “I think I’ve done enough damage for today.”

“No. No. No. Don’t say that. Watching you stand up to that woman was empowering,” Sonja said.

Lily smiled tightly at her. “Last straw, I guess. I’ll see you guys before Rainbow Week I hope.”

--

She used the transport to get to the Manor. Tracking down Linda, she interrupted Alex rhapsodizing about her stand against Elizabeth.

Linda cleared her throat. “Lily.”

“Oh, I was going to tell you all about it,” Lily flushed. “I don’t want you feel forced to choose sides or anything.”

“No. No forcing here,” Linda reassured her.

“Yeah. It was excellent.” Alex said. “Like, I’ve been pushing for action ever since Lisa and Anne went missing!”

“Well, Rhiannon, another druid, I guess,” Lily explained the situation with Emma and Mudskipper. “Do you two know what a Starbreed is, and can you tell me?”

“Only in the way it related to Starshine,” Linda said. “His mane turns electric blue out in the wild. Herman thought it made him special, a Starbreed. I suppose by being our horses, they have to be Starbreeds. Though, Herman always said that Starshine, Meteor, Tin-Can, and Concorde were reincarnated versions of the original Starbreeds. Not that they remember their lives before, but that our souls have been together a long time.”

“You’re reincarnated too.”

“I guess?” Linda shrugged.

Alex sighed. “They really don’t like to explain unless you’re high up in the inner circles. We’ve only been at this a year.”

Linda gave Alex a chiding look.

“Not that we’re supposed to talk about it.” Alex waved her hands.

“All right, if you can’t, you can’t.” Lily said. “Be warned though. We can’t guard against people we don’t know about.” She left them there to get back to work. She’d been gone long enough.

She hoped those words wouldn’t come back to haunt her.

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Ch. 1

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter One

Thomas Moorland had been nice enough and extremely sympathetic when he’d regretfully told them that he couldn’t sell them the horses they were riding. They were the camp’s horses and if he sold every horse that one of his campers got attached to, there’d be none left. They’d pouted, but the man had held firm even though he’d had a twinkle in his eye.

The large group of girls talked among themselves a bit sadly. They did love riding and the horses at the stable.

It was Justin. Thomas’ dark haired son with the soulful eyes that half of the girls in the group had a crush on that saved the day.

Figuratively that is.

“Psst,” he hissed as he peered into the stables.

The girls looked up at him in different stages of untacking their horses.

He grinned at them and bounced in. Leaning against the wall, he crossed his arms. “Heard you ambushed dear old dad.”

“You don’t have to sound so chipper about it,” Abigail mock pouted.

“Happens every year,” Justin grinned. “A couple keep trying to buy Saga out from under me.”

“You should be complimented. He’s a good horse,” Jennifer said. She patted her horse’s nose.

“He’s my horse!” Justin made a face and stuck out his tongue.

Lily cocked her hip. “Justin Moorland, you either have a trick up your sleeve or you came to torment us.”

Justin smoothed his face. “Torment you. I would never do that.” He put his hand to his heart. “My honor.”

“Loretta does all the tormenting around here,” Melody muttered.

Justin flicked his fingers and held up a folded glossy square of paper. “Ladies, if you truly desire horses, the best in Jorvik, you need to go see old lady battle axe herself, Baroness Annabella Silverglade.”

The girls stopped untacking their horses.

Lily raised a brow. “And what must we do to get there?”

“Stop trying to buy my horse!” Justin flung the folded square at her.

Lily caught it.

The girls giggled.

Justin rubbed the back of his neck. “I heard a rumor that she really could use some help. A friend of mine, Linda, she’s been working for the Baroness, helping run the Equestrian Center. But I’m afraid she’s bit off more than she can chew. Plus, she’s so busy already. Alex isn’t helping much since she comes down here to hang out with Maya so much.”

Maya shouted. “I can hear you!”

“Judy, Tyra, and Pauline are trying to keep things under control, but you know.” Justin shrugged. “Linn is stuck at the Riding Arena, Sonja is supposed to be helping out but she’d rather be in Valedale. Sabine is a bitch.”

“Justin!” Abigail gasped.

Justin smirked at them. “Well? If you want to get there and back before dark, you better be going now.” He waved at them cheekily and trotted off.

Grace huffed. “The nerve of him.”

“Utter cheek!” Melody agreed.

Lily opened the square of paper. It was a map. And Justin had helpfully drawn a red line from Moorland Stables to Silverglade Manor. There was also a few notes written in white ink. One read ‘Grape Mountain,’ and the other, “Loose Paddock.” Grape Mountain was south of the manor and Loose Paddock was north of it. Justin had included a note with an arrow at a broken line also in white. “The Baroness’ personal territory.”

Lily nodded. Justin was right. If they wanted to go out to the manor and get back before dark, they’d better leave now. At least the route seemed mostly clear. Though one bit looked disturbingly off the roads.

The horses seemed a bit astonished that the girls were putting the saddles and bridles back on them. But they were generally good spirited animals and were more than willing to leave the stables again, as long as it was at a placid trot.

The girls weren’t willing to push them either. They chattered at each other about what type of horses the Baroness might have. Some thought Arabians, others English Thoroughbreds, and others droned on about the merits of Hanoverians.

Justin’s route took them up the cliff to Nilmer’s Highland and a sharp right to the north towards Silverglade Village, a place they hadn’t yet explored. But the map said that off to their left, under the disturbing red line, there should be a path near the castle. Well, relatively near the castle. There was a lot of lawn between them and the huge yellow limestone castle on a cliff.

Regina saw it first. “Found it!” She said loudly enough so all could hear but not so loudly it’d spook the horses. They turned off the cobbled road and followed what was little more than a dirt track between some hills.

In the distance, up on a hill, had to be the manor. But it was really far into the distance. Between them and it was lots and lots of green.

“It looks rather impressive,” Lily said.

Their talk drifted to who they should approach. Annabella Silverglade herself? Or this Linda person? Or Judy? They didn’t want to be too much of a bother especially so late in the day.

The track led them to another road, they emerged on it between two birch trees, as the map showed it would. Off to their left and thus, to the south and across the road to the west were rows and rows and rows of grape vines. They grew along the flat parts of the mountain too.

“Oh, I get it,” one of the girls said.

“That can’t be the real name.” Abigail wrinkled her nose.

They turned up the road and noticed that the grapes continued despite the terrain. The road continued skirting a hillock and they came to a bridge. Far to the east they could see the village and realized it must be tucked right up next to the old castle walls. As they crossed the bridge, a dot off to the east (their right) looked like a rather quaint farm. They thought or speculated. There was a silo at least.

The road turned and for a little bit the road was lined with birch trees and grape vines. It was a long way up. They grew nearer to the manor and details emerged. A white stone wall with an iron wrought gate overgrown with weeds. To their left was a terrace also gone to weeds. Ahead of them though, the classical Greek inspired white stoned manor with its large windows and stately columns shaded by birches was impressive. The frieze on the tryptic above the door satyrs frolicking among the grapes and playing harps and pipes.

But overall, to either side of them were large, no huge, gardens gone to seed populated by yet more birch trees.

To the north the stable, or they assumed it was the stable, mimicked the manor house. It was large and long and off center was a columned archway over the roadway with another tryptic with a triangular frieze displaying horses rearing, cantering and trotting. Through this archway they could see a stone bridge. The stable had small individual doors that the top part opened individually on the lower floor and on the upper floor with the flat roof were more open windows showing where the hay was stored.

They assumed they could get into the stable proper through that doorway.

In front of it was a large parade ground with a rather odd symbol tiled into it.

And, to the south, the other large building was a large rectangular thing with a triangular roof instead of a flat one. It reminded them of what the Parthenon was supposed to look like with the long columns down the side of it.

Despite the run down appearance, the place was remarkably busy. Now, they didn’t want to bother the Baroness at all. That wouldn’t be proper. She was no doubt a busy woman. So, instead, they looked for Linda.

However, the first person they found was a girl with black hair that reminded them a lot of the stable manager of Moorland Stables, Jenna. She introduced herself as Judy.

They explained their mission. They wanted to buy horses and Thomas refused to sell them the camp horses and Justin had sent them this way.

Judy shook her head. “Happens every year. Well, you’re in luck. We have a fresh batch of three year olds looking for forever owners. They’re broken enough to ride and all, but they’ll need a great deal of training before you’ll be able to win any championships.

That was fine with the girls.

“Now, I’m going to warn you. These horses are special. They won’t be accepted by just anyone.” Judy said.

The six girls nodded.

“All right, they’re in the stables. May Aideen smile on you,” Judy grinned at them. She waved them towards the long structure.

There was a fence around the parade ground. But no one wanted to tie their horses to it. That wasn’t done. Plus there was nothing for the horses to eat near the parade ground. The girl’s dismounted and loosely tied the camp horses up in the area overrun by the weeds.

They all gasped as they went under the rotunda. It was actually stained glass and parts of it was faceted to throw off rainbows. The stained glass was of course, grape bunches and vines. They went into the shorter section of the stables first.

Inside the stables reflected the outside of the stables. There was cool white stone under their feet and the walls of the stable had been bleached white and had a silver sheen where the pattern of the wood was. Each stable wall topped with the delicate iron work like the gates.

But inside these pretty stalls were the prettiest horses the girls had ever seen. They had delicate heads and long flowing wavy manes and tails.

No one could restrain their squeals.

They didn’t run. They didn’t want to scare the beautiful creatures. But they certainly all walked quickly to the different stalls fishing out cubes of sugar and holding out hands to try and make friends.

A dark brown girl in a bright orchid t-shirt that read Knights of Unistria and black shorts laughed. “You must be new here. These are Jorvik Warmblood Sports, Jorvik’s best kept secret. I’m Linda.” She seemed friendly enough.

Lily was the leader. “Oh, we heard you worked here. I’m Lily and these are my friends Abigail, Grace, Regina, Melody, and Jennifer.” She gestured at each of the girls. “We’re, um, campers.”

“Obviously,” Regina rolled her eyes. They all wore the camp uniform after all, red t-shirt, grey fingerless gloves, brown riding pants, black riding boots and a black helmet. It was dreadfully unstylish.

Linda smiled at them and pushed her glasses up her nose. A bay horse with a white blaze down his nose and a white mane and tail huffed into her hair. She reached up to pet his neck absentmindedly. “And this is Meteor, the constantly starving.”

Meteor had the same nose shape and body structure as the horses in the stables. Though he was bigger and his hair wasn’t nearly as long.

“He’s handsome,” Grace said. “Is he yours?”

“More like, I’m his,” Linda wrinkled her nose.

“Oh, like cats,” Melody giggled.

“We’re here to become owned too, or something,” Jennifer waved her hand around.

Linda sighed. “Did Justin send you?”

“He gave us a map and everything.”

“Is it really Grape Mountain?”

“No. That’s him being cheeky.” Linda huffed. She tugged on her pony tail. “All the horses here are for sale, it’s true. In fact, if we don’t sell them. We’ll have to cull them. We simply don’t have the resources right now to look after them all. They’re in here for their final checkups.” Her face fell. “And it’s not really fair to release them into the wild. I mean, maybe they’d be all right.” She bit her lip. “So, they’re really cheap, three hundred shillings each. The Baroness is simply at her wits end and so am I.”

The girls looked at each other and looked around the barn. It seemed clean enough, but it probably could be cleaner.

“Thanks Linda,” Lily said before anyone else could. “That’s, a lot better of a deal than we expected.”

Linda twiddled her fingers. “Look, I have to run. If you have any questions, talk to Judy or Tyra. They know everything there is to know about the stables and Jorvik Warmblood Sports.”

“Not Sabine,” Grace said shrewdly.

Linda blinked. “Sabine’s a boarder. She doesn’t work here. She likes to make everyone think she does.”

“Good to know. We’ll be on our guard.” Lily saluted.

Linda smiled again. “All right. Good luck!” She said and trotted out.

“Huddle,” Jennifer said.

The girls gathered into a circle.

“Okay, something is definitely going on here.” Lily rubbed her chin.

Abigail groaned. “I’d do anything, and I do mean, anything, to get away from Loretta.”

“But, but, camp,” Grace hissed.

“Look, if this Baroness is as important as Justin implied she is,” Regina murmured. “I don’t think Old Man Thomas is going to mind us coming to help her out.”

“He might reward us,” Abigail bounced on her toes.

Jennifer sighed. “And riding around the cavaletti in a circle is so dull.”

Grace wrinkled her nose. “And the Bobcat race is, look, okay, Tan and Loretta are full of it and the other girls don’t want to lift a finger if it involves actually doing anything that might scuff their nails. They want us to be Bobcats to do their dirty work.”

Lily held up a finger. She jogged out of the stable and flagged down Judy who had a clipboard. “Judy, I have a question. It might seem odd.”

Judy widened her eyes. “Ohkay?”

“Does this stable have a dedicated riding club?”

Judy opened and shut her mouth. “No. If we did, we probably wouldn’t be in this state.”

Lily beamed at her. “Thanks, Judy.” She turned around and jogged off leaving a very bemused and confused Judy behind her.

Lily returned to the huddle. “Good news. No riding club!”

The girls jaw dropped.

“No club? Really? This gorgeous stable is ripe for the taking.” Regina’s voice turned fervent.

“This is not Pokemon Go!” Jennifer glared at her.

Lily tossed her hair. “Girls. I have an idea.”

Abigail pounded her fist into her hand. “Let’s show up Loretta.”

Grace’s lips parted. “Form our own riding club,” she breathed.

“And claim the SEC for our own and rule!” Regina pumped her fist into the air.

Lily smirked. “Exactly. So, let’s get some horses, recruit Tyra, Pauline, and Linn. The map says the Riding Hall is behind the manor, recruit more if we need to back in Moorland, and take Loretta and her Bobcat girls down.”

“Break,” Jennifer said.

They girls moved apart and scattered across the stables to look at the different horses. There were plain horses without markings, and those with; appaloosas, dapples, paint horses. There were those with the fancy coat genes too, cremellos, buckskins, and roans.

It wasn’t like they fell in love with the horses, because they did. But it was also like the horses fell in love with them.

With their shillings in hand they tracked down Judy and handed it all over.

Judy beamed at them. “Oh, thank you, thank you so much.”

“No. Thank you,” Lily said with a smile.

A/N: If you read this, I’ll be surprised. This story is a practice project for my portfolio and my own Horse MMORPG called Mystic Riders. I wanted to prove to myself and my dev partner that I could in essence design a section of game. I’m a fashion designer and a writer who loves games. I don’t expect (or want) SSO to implement ideas into the game (mostly.) This is for my own education and entertainment.

Writing story is the way I organize my thoughts and world build. So, this story may be a little salty, and a little shady in places. I care about Star Stable, horse games, and actual MMORPGS so much that the wasted potential grinds my gears. I chose the Silverglade Manor area because so much of that potential felt untapped to me and there were so many story lines that touched the Manor. If you want to see my take on anywhere else in the game, then, I’d have to work for the game. (There is only so much free labor I’m willing to do.)

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Ch. 20

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Twenty Work. Work. Fashion Baby.

When Agnetha heard they were going to Jorvik City (they told her as they rushed through chores. They wouldn’t have time for weeding and were dropping of chipmunks on the way to Fort Pinta’s bus station) she insisted that they were going to bring back some flowers for the main gardens. She had them on order and they could get whatever was there. It was past time they started on the first terrace rose garden. That apparently was simply an extension of the front yard rose gardens.

“Yes, Agnetha!” They said in unison as they mounted their horses and trotted off towards Fort Pinta in their Silverglade Clan Riding outfits.

Anastasia met them at the mall and counted noses. “And that’s thirteen, excellent. Lily, be a dear, and recruit us 7 more girls from around the mall.”

Lily blinked. “Seven?”

“Seven,” Anastasia confirmed. “Off with you.” She herded the other girls up the escalator to the second floor show room where they held fashion shows every spring and fall.

Confused, Lily ran around the mall and found 7 other girls who would be delighted to help out Anastasia Silverglade because that meant being on Jorvikgram and other social media.

They were let in by the fashion police. Commander Lacroix nodded at Lily.

What were they doing here?

In the back, the stylist from The Shield Maiden was staring at Linn, Tyra, and Pauline. “All right girls, I understand it’s easy, but this has got to end. Sit.” She gestured at the stools in front of the mirrors.

The three girls sat.

“I swear, you’d be triplets except one of you is blonde.”

Tyra and Linn had the grace to flush.

The stylist pulled out their pigtails to see how much hair she had to work with. She decided to leave Linn’s hair color alone and decided that Tyra’s hair was all wrong for her skin color.

Tyra shut her eyes and squeezed them shut as the stylist put up her hair into the aluminum foil wrappers, pasting it with dye before shutting them. As Tyra’s hair set, the stylist washed her hands and went around to every girl doing their hair into various styles that were elegant and some were downright vintage.

Her assistant was running around doing makeup in everything from classic fifties, to modern in purple, to goth evening raspberry.

Franceszka Ironsaddle was running around assigning each of the girls outfits based on their hairstyle and checking for dangling strings, missing buttons, or dropped hems. (She did ask the girls to help her.) There was shoes, jewelry, gloves and everything they would need to have a complete look, all in the shades of winery purple with white and black.

When the dye was done in Tyra’s hair, it was a vibrant orange red and wavy. Tyra flushed and admitted she used product to tame the waves. The stylist gave her a stern look. “No more.”

Everyone reassured her that she looked fabulous.

Francezka clapped her hands as they were getting finishing touches (a touch of blush or bronzer here, a bit of powder there, checking shoe laces and snaps.) “Ladies. Ladies. You are snowflakes. Take deep breath, pull your shoulders back and exhale leaving shoulders alone. No droopy puddles!”

She arranged them in the order she wanted them to go.

The music started. Lights turned on.

The first girl went.

Lily was a bundle of nerves by the time her time came. It was really hard to see with all the flashing lights, but she didn’t think that the event was very full. In fact, she thought there might be only a handful of people.

She turned at the end and walked back.

Francezka had them all walk out and stand on the catwalk once they were finished.

The lights went down.

The Silverglades were the only audience; Anastasia, her mother, Aaron, and the family butler, Godfrey. Antonia and Agnetha sat there too.

Anastasia turned to her mother. “Well, mother, what do you think?” She asked, voice very tight.

Lily wanted to gape. Was Anastasia actually nervous?

Annabella Silverglade got up and went around the back of the catwalk to use the stairs as if she owned the place. (Maybe she did.) The Fashion Police opened doors for her and helped her up. She walked down the catwalk examining the outfits in detail. Her face a mask of suppressed emotions.

There seemed to be an outfit for every occasion, different riding events, gardening, more elegant clothes for well, Lily wasn’t sure what, casual clothes for taking care of the stables, dresses and skirts for parties. The theme of course was the Silverglade Clan and their emblem and roses.

Annabella got to the end. “You designed these Francezka?”

“Yes, Baroness,” Francezka sounded like she was about to faint. (Francezka was one of the Baroness’ biggest fans even if she preferred black and the Baroness preferred white.) “I was very flattered that Anastasia asked me over Madame Asp.”

Anastasia waved a hand. “Our families have been friends for decades. I knew you would understand the gravitas and elegance required to outfit those who live and work at the Silverglade Manor.”

(What Anastasia wasn’t saying was that she was farming out outfits to every designer on Jorvik for the different clubs. Madame Asp was currently far too busy designing clothes for the Jorvik Stables Singing Swans to be able to commit to the Silver Drakes. She had the designers of Jollister working on things for the Firgrove Timber Wolves and Valedale Running Bulls. One thing Anastasia could do was delegate.)

The Baroness went down the line for another sweep. The girls looked ahead and kept their eyes focused on the far wall. Even those they recruited knew not to mess with Baroness Annabella!

Annabella stopped in front of Francezka. “I’m impressed,” she said simply. “Make sure that my girls are all outfitted properly with every outfit here.” She waved a hand. “And I believe there is a building you may stock to make a shop for tourists who desire a taste of Silverglade elegance.”

Anastasia looked like she was about to faint with relief.

It was beneath Francezka’s image to look giddy, but she definitely felt giddy. “Thank you, Baroness. I’ll see that it’s done,” she breathed.

“I believe I’ve seen enough,” the Baroness said and disappeared backstage. “Anastasia, we should adjourn for the lunch you promised me.”

“Of course, mother,” Anastasia said.

The Baroness smiled at her.

They left not talking to each other but for once Anastasia radiated real happiness.

“Wow,” Lily said.

“Selfies!” Theresa shouted.

They gathered around and took pictures together and with the Fashion Police giving obvious signs of approval. They took pictures with Francezka and the Shield Maiden stylist. They giggled a lot as they sent them to Linda to put up on JorvikGram. Linda texted that she was going to spread them out as sneak peeks, and they all looked incredibly stylish.

They changed back into their regular clothes and stopped by Iris before leaving.

The other passengers gave them odd looks with all the roses that they were cradling in their laps and by their feet on the way back to Fort Pinta. But no one expressly said anything, especially after they opened the windows.

“The gardener is a slave driver,” Elsa said in a dry tone to the bus driver.

He grinned.

They collected their horses and returned to the Manor chattering to each other about being part of a fashion show and Tyra’s new hair and whether or not the make-up and hair was going to show up at Style in Silverglade Village.

Of course, Agnetha made them plant the roses before they were done for the day. And they showed her a picture of the outfit they thought she’d look the best in and would be suitable for garden work. Somehow she’d returned the manor before they did. The perils of public transportation. (She had more roses for them to plant, so she must have taken the truck and formed a convoy with Antonia’s scooter and Godfrey in the family car.)

Agnetha grunted over it but didn’t seem displeased. (She agreed and was still flummoxed on how Anastasia had convinced her to attend a fashion show away from her beloved gardens.)

Now all they had to do was wait for the boxes with the clothes to arrive!

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Ch. 15

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Fifteen Nefarious Counter Plots

Antonia did call begging for help moving things. Bjorn offered up his truck and so while half the girls stayed behind to do the daily chores and check ups around the Manor, the rest went with Bjorn to New Hillcrest going through an empty farm in Epona.

Bjorn told them about the area as he drove slowly so they could keep up.

“But the Dews disappeared. Don’t know who owns the olive farm now,” Bjorn sucked on the stem of the edible flower he kept in his mouth.

“Then, who are we to pay to get the olives,” Melody asked.

“Isn’t Maya over in Moorland a Dew?” Regina added.

Pauline nodded. “She is!”

“Well, she’ll know what happened here with her family,” Lily said. “We can ask her on the way back.”

Bjorn muttered about the trees in the road in the Marsh and how the New Hillcrest mayor wouldn’t look beyond their own nose despite their whole “planned” town. “If no one can get to your town because of trees in the road, what good is it,” he said crankily as they dragged big logs out of the road with improvised rope hoists from his truck.

Antonia had a good portion of her things packed up but not all of it. And she’d run out of boxes. So, they ran over to Jamie Olivetree the local (and horrid) baker to see if she had any and if any of the other stores had boxes they could use. They came back with boxes from Jamie and the different clothing stores and were able to finish packing up Antonia’s stuff quickly, carefully packing all the items with newspaper.

“I know the cottage is smaller. I mean, I’m getting rid of a lot of stuff. I was so hopeful when I moved here that the Winterwells would want a restaurant other than Jamie and nothing opened up.” Antonia raked a hand through her hair.

“But the Baroness wants one and that’s even better,” Regina said as she wrapped up some lamps. They loaded her things into Bjorn’s truck and boxes onto the horses and Antonia locked her house for the last time. “Let me go drop this key off with the Mayor,” she said.

Lily accompanied her and they informed the Mayor about both the new Restaurant and Event area opening soon at the Manor but also the Farmer’s Market run by the Summer Chipmunks. The Mayor sounded pleased about it all.

Bjorn grumbled. “Now if she’d be pleased enough to clear the roads.”

They headed back at the same pace as before.

Lily promised to meet them at the Village after she went and talked to Maya. She trotted off to Moorland.

“Maya!” She called out and waved as she got close. “You probably don’t remember me, I’m Lily. I was a camper here.”

Maya leaned on her shovel. “You’re right. I don’t remember you.”

“There are a lot of campers, it’s no matter,” Lily said. “Say, Bjorn, the Silverglade Manor gardener says that big old farm in Eastern Epona belongs to your family. We’re opening a Mediterranean restaurant,”

Maya held up her hand. “Belonged,” she said dryly and a little bitterly. “The G.E.D. bankrupted us and bought us out.”

Lily bit her tongue as not to swear. “I’m so sorry, Maya.”

Maya slumped. “Yeah. What are you going to do?”

“We’re going to help, that’s what we’re going to do,” Lily put her hands on her hips. “We aren’t going to give G.E.D. and the likes of Mr. Kemball money. And it’s not like they’re guarding it or doing anything with it from the looks of it. We need the olives for the restaurant.”

“It’s too late,” Maya moaned.

“It isn’t. Look, where did your family go to?”

“There’s a farm in the Forgotten Fields. But forget it, they won’t deal with you. They hide every time someone comes along. We’re ashamed. That farm in Epona had been in our family for generations.”

“And we’re going to help you get it back.”

“How?”

“By paying you for materials for the Restaurants. Look, the Manor is opening a restaurant and doing events. The Forgotten Fields is right across the South Silver Waters, right? Then, we give orders to you. You give them to your family and we’ll pay you for it. And we’ll tell other restaurants that are going to be opening soon to also use your family’s farm with their orders.”

“We can’t supply all of it!”

“Maybe, maybe not, there are a lot of farms in the area and they aren’t going to have everything we need either. But if all the families and tenant farmers got together and worked together so that everyone was growing different things with enough overlap there’s enough, everyone will benefit and your family will be making money again. You can get your farm back. Especially, since you’re the only family that does olives and we’re going to need a lot of those.”

Maya looked skeptical.

“Look, the Summer Chipmunks are putting together a Farmer’s Market.” Lily got out her phone and scribbled down the President’s number. “You take your family’s goods there and we can figure out what your family needs to plant in order to make money while they work to get their Olive Farm back. And, hey, if we do it right. Your family will have two thriving farms instead of one. It’s a traditional Greek menu this summer, we’re going to need olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We’re going to need milk for yoghurt and the different cheeses. We’re going to need chicken, beef, and lamb. I’m not sure about eggs because she might be using the duck eggs from all the ducks at the Manor.”

Maya looked dazed.

“Antonia, the head chef, is moving into Silverglade today. She’s going to want to talk to all her local suppliers. You want your family to be on that list.”

Maya burst into tears and then latched onto Lily. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. No one has had any ideas, any good ideas.”

“Hey,” Lily patted her back. “This area is about to see a revival. You’ll see.”

Maya nodded, let her go, and wiped her eyes. “Thanks.”

“I’ll talk to the President of the Summer Chipmunks about encouraging Steve and the others to come up with a farmer’s collective. I know the Sunfields have a creamery and that the Goldspurs and Will have flour mills.”

Maya nodded again. “Most of the farmers barely talk to each other. Jasper has a Pumpkin Farm in the Golden Hills.”

“Pumpkin is more of a fall thing,” Lily murmured. “I’ll go tell him about it. He can’t be as cranky as he was before.”

Maya wiped her eyes. “I hope not.”

Justin jogged over. “Hey, no upsetting the help.”

“Happy tears, Justin, happy tears!”

“Oh,” Justin rocked on his heels. “Things going okay over there in Silverglade.”

“We’re going to make a huge difference. You’ll see. Things are going grand,” Lily assured him.

Justin glanced at Maya who had composed herself.

“If you’re sure,” Justin said. “Since, you’re making Maya cry and all.”

“It is classified information, Moorland,” Lily said. “You aren’t authorized to know.”

Justin pouted. “Be that way.”

Lily winked at Maya.

Maya bit her lip.

“We don’t want G.E.D. to get wind of our nefarious counter plots,” Lily whispered.

Maya nodded rapidly.

Lily looked down her nose at Justin. “Well, I best be off, much counter insurgency to attend to.”

Justin scoffed.

Maya gave her a thumbs up.

Reassured that she’d made someone’s day better, Lily went to help Antonia finish unpacking and tell her about the fate of the Dew’s farm. Antonia was flabbergasted. “How could they do that? No. You’re right. I’m not giving G.E.D. any money. Not after the things they’ve done. We’ll get the money to the proper owners of the farm.”

“I don’t want to scare them by going to explore their farm now,” Lily fretted.

“Hopefully, someone will turn up at the first Farmer’s Market,” Linn said. “Even if it is only Maya. She can relay the news to her family. If they don’t want to be seen, then Maya can be their public face.”

“And she’s cute, people will be sympathetic since she’s cute.”

“Well, she mentioned Jasper has a bigger farm in the Golden Hills. He grows Pumpkins.”

“I don’t need pumpkins until at least October.” Antonia made a face.

“We can tell him that,” Lily grinned.

Once Antonia was settled, Lily and the other girls decided to check out the Golden Hills. “We used the transports, I only really saw the village,” Lily said to Abigail.

“We were on a timed schedule,” Pauline told her. “There are a lot of villages!”

They all laughed.

They rode down the road instead of winding through the dead gardens.

Jennifer sighed. “That is going to be a lot of work.”

“I don’t think Agnetha cares.”

They went past the Riding Arena. Sabine still practiced inside, though she’d hired someone else to time her.

The road led to a large iron gate and on the other side was the Golden Hills.

“So,” Lily asked slowly, “are the Golden Hills, golden?”

There was some giggling.

“I mean, this isn’t like the Golden Fields that used to be canola flower fields.”

“You think they’ll do anything about that,” Melody mused, meaning the Summer Chipmunks.

“Not our area,” Elsa said.

“Oh thank goodness,” a couple said together.

The Golden Hills were indeed golden. And they’d be more golden in the fall, Lily observed. However, now it was high summer so it a soothing blend of green and eye catching yellows. The Birch Trees continued on the other side of the gate. Their leaves would turn gold in the fall.

But among the Birch Trees were trees with green leaves and long chains of yellow flowers.

“What are these?” Lily asked Linn.

“Golden Chain Trees,” Linn said.

“Pretty,” Lily said.

Now, the girls from other places weren’t sure if it was accident or by design, but the many different bushes and flowers of the Golden Hills area that they noticed as they rode down the road to get to Jasper’s Pumpkin Farm were some color of yellow.

There were three bushes that were yellow that no one knew the names of. Though one had bunches of white flowers.

For flowers, Lily recognized goldenrod, though it was more of a weed than a flower. There were black eyed susans, yellow pansies and yellow daylilies. Grace, who knew more about flowers, pointed out yellow primroses, yarrow and of course, there were buttercups and some yellow snap dragons. There were also yellow impatiens.

This was fun according to Grace, because snap dragon seed pods looked like skulls and impatiens seed pods exploded when you touched them. There was a funny looking round flower that was called a Billy Button. The Garden Tickseed had bright yellow flowers with burgundy centers.

Elsa wanted to know if the people of the Golden Hills went out and just ripped out anything that wasn’t yellow. That made Linn and Tyra laugh. There were Mums and Marigolds for the fall of course. Right now they were growing as green plants and shrubs not yet flowering. And in Spring, among the birches, Linn said there were yellow daffodils as far as the eye could see.

“Those are bulbs,” Grace said looking down.

“They push out the tulips,” Linn said.

“Well, tulips aren’t currency anymore,” Grace sniffed.

There were some giggles.

They explored a bit before actually going to Jasper’s farm. The Golden Hill’s forest was a huge Birch forest and there was a race there run by a girl named Emma. The race itself had jumps and such of fallen trees and big rocks. The pumpkins were trying to take over the forest around Jasper’s farm. The pumpkins were still small and not at all ready to be picked yet. They told Jasper about the Farmer’s Market and that in the Fall, the chef of the Silver Glade was planning on using Pumpkin for something.

“Pumpkin and Pumpkin Spice is all the rage in fall,” Jasper agreed. He thanked them for the information.

They returned to Silverglade feeling they’d done their part to help out the Summer Chipmunks.

--

The next day the decorator arrived. He’d seen the pictures. He’d seen the ideas. He wanted to get his own take on the space. And, he wanted hard numbers. He needed to know exactly how many people they could sit in there because that was going to help determine how much money they could make for the floor space and how much each seat was going to cost.

Antonia nodded along and talked about food pricing and how she wanted to keep it low by sourcing from local vendors.

Linda hung off to the side and had the girls help her take pictures of the goings ons as a couple of the other girls were given measuring tapes and told what needed to be measured.

“For a nice modern space, we do want it to be something neutral, but not taupe,” the decorator raved. “We’re calling it the Silver Glade, then grey, grey that actually says something. French grey, dove grey, something warm so it’s not cold and then if we use more classical furniture in darker colors it will stand out like the dark slashes on the paper birch trees.”

“He’s making this up, right?” Stacy asked Theresa in a low voice.

Theresa shrugged.

“French paneling, definitely, Le George has that right,” the decorator nodded. “And these windows are spectacular. We don’t want to draw away from them and this gorgeous view of this amazing reflecting pool with curtains. “No. No. No.”

Agnetha presented him with a board of the different flowers she expected to put into the back gardens and the array of roses.

“Brilliant,” he said. “And you said the Baroness loves purple?”

“It’s a Winery, she adores purple,” Elsa said dryly.

“All right, we’ll have the Wedgewood intaglio vases and they’re smaller and then we can also have large purple glass vases to put the roses into and I know an artist who can make us purple and clear glassware for the tables. Let the purple of the glassware and the flowers be the only colors in the room to draw the eyes to exactly where you want them. Otherwise, use greys and silvers. There’s a plaster artist I know that can do a plaster bas relief above the doors like at the Le George if we want.”

“That sounds great,” Antonia said. “Anything to make this place seem posh and upscale and reflect the Mediterranean but still be classic.”

“Fresh and young,” Lily reminded them.

“That will be the purple glass,” the decorator said. “I think I have a handle on it. Up the stairs we go.”

He raved of the view from the roof. “All right, here is my thinking. We’re definitely going to want the same chairs. Though the ones in the dining room will be cushioned better. But I saw these antique roman style chairs like you wanted with something similar to the Silverglade Clan swirl on the back. We can have them up here and down there with grey or silver cushions. No grannie is going to want to come all the way up these stairs for a meal, so downstairs will be much more comfortable with back support cushions too. Otherwise, Ms. Agnetha, plant your roses everywhere for a romantic look and don’t worry about vases overly much. We can put some lights on the pillars here and along the walls if necessary among the flower boxes and call it a day.”

Everyone looked relieved that this probably wasn’t going to be a huge deal.

“We can get the flowers and lights in before the furniture arrives,” Agnetha reassured him.

“And I’ll be off to hire some workers to do the walls of down below and get my artist friend on the line.” He beamed at them. “We’ll need a chandelier in the same style as the rest,” he murmured making notes as he went.

“He seems to know what he’s doing at least,” Lily said.

“Relief,” Grace wiped her forehead. “I was worried he would call the place hopeless.”

“It’s a big empty room,” Elsa said.

Antonia leaned against a pillar. “This doesn’t quite feel real.”

“It will soon enough,” Lily told her.

Agnetha dusted her hands together. “Better get the lights order in then for up here.”

“Anastasia might have already.”

“Pish, she might have put in an order for designs, but she doesn’t know how many we need,” Agnetha said.

Lily decided to let Agnetha, the decorator, Anastasia, and the lighting artist sort it out. It sounded way to dizzying for her to do. The other girls agreed with her. But it looked like things were going to pick back up again very quickly.

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.