“Brendon’s power doesn’t seem to exist until the moment it’s activated.” Marigold mused, peering into the still-room. It was difficult pumping out essences and any other sort of supernatural influence, without also having a chilling effect on the room’s temperature.
I.E. subjecting Brendon to absolute zero.
Which, sadly, was not an option.
So instead they allowed very specific dimensional energies to pass through the room, and compensated for them i...
2024-06-05 16:43:23 +0000 UTC
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Claudette’s kid…he took Chicago. So there’s a chance I’ll track down that doll Professor Replica is wearing there.
Any sane person would take the professor to a remote, hidden location with no ties to either of them and wait for Solaris to get bored.
Sometimes that even worked.
Still, there was a chance they had taken the professor to Chicago, aiming to lean on the advanced infrastructure that Paradox had built into it to weather Solaris’s fu...
2024-06-03 15:11:38 +0000 UTC
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“Brick Eagle, you have eaten of the fruit of the tree, and slept in her boughs.” Spider Monkey said, putting the crown made of clumsily woven branches over Brendon’s head.
It poked in places, and the sap itched furiously, but hey, a crown’s a crown.
“You are now one of our tribe.” Spider Monkey intoned, tapping Brendon on either shoulder with a massive monkey wrench that Jay used to clear aggressive fauna off the trunk of the tree.
“Wherever you go, carry the k...
2024-05-29 17:14:27 +0000 UTC
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A golden beam of essence leapt from Gramma’s finger and struck the mimic in the chest. A moment later, it was reduced to ash. Perry’s rapier clattered to the ground, glowing red hot where it made contact with the oxygen in the air.
“Damnit.” Perry muttered, staring at the pile of ash, his stomach sinking.
I think I might throw up.
“Don’t be a child. My daughter’s soul resides in Elysium. I confirmed it myself. There’s no coming back from what the cre...
2024-05-24 15:09:33 +0000 UTC
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“You can…tell if someone is a mimic…,” Stacy Watt-powers said, forcing the words through gritted teeth. She could feel beads of sweat forming on her brow as she started another stack.
The Washington city soldier’s brows rose as Stacy spoke.
“You also have super speed and strength…” Stacy said, her heart hammering in her ears.
“Oh, wow.” The soldier had been instructed not to interrupt her, but it seemed the youn...
2024-05-21 16:19:06 +0000 UTC
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Okay, let’s think this over, Perry thought as the Mimic lunged away from the wall, charging at him while a swirl of essence coalesced into a potent spell designed to paralyze him entirely, rendering him insensate while the creature devoured him.
It was happening at a snail’s pace, all things considered.
It’s not really that odd considering I was just fighting the fastest super on earth.
The previous fight with Solaris had only taken...
2024-05-17 15:01:33 +0000 UTC
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“You’re starting to piss me off, kid,” Solaris said, raising a hand over Perry’s face. “You’ve given me almost as much trouble as John, but I think it’s about time you-”
“It’s Stacy now,” Perry corrected him.
“What?” Solaris asked, frowning. “What do you mean by that? Is Professor Replica still alive?”
Oops. Threw Stacy under the bus. It was hard to know what Solaris remembered, and what he didn’t.
Perry was carefu...
2024-05-14 17:14:33 +0000 UTC
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You may remember I posted a splash page art for ISM last month. here's the current iteration with rough color-work done.
I know Nat is maybe a bit too small, but my editor can probably fix that in post rather than bother the original artist.
I dunno if I like the mandrill nose colors or if we should go with something else.
Most everything else is great. I know Boomer isn't exactly as described in the series, but honestly I'm concerned his look might not translate well to ...
2024-05-13 17:16:00 +0000 UTC
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Chain Quest Advanced!
Establish a beach-head on Manita.
With Queen and Heirs present in the settlement, the foothold of your legacy in the land of Manita has been established.
Rewards: 10000XP, A stronger claim to the world Marigold Zauberer Abandoned.
ABOUT TIME! Perry thought, scowling as he slapped a hand down on the floor.
Gretchen...
2024-05-10 16:50:35 +0000 UTC
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Perry didn’t think he could get exhausted from a simple all-nighter anymore, being seven-hundred times more resistant to the after-effects.
Apparently he just needed the proper amount of stress.
Perry stifled a yawn as he drove the lead truck through the portal into the center of Franklin City, the robotic mac trucks following suit.
In the corner of his eye was a live feed of his family, which Perry had used as something of a barometer for how unnoticed his little changes ...
2024-05-07 15:29:13 +0000 UTC
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Chemestro couldn’t get out.
Wherever…whatever he was stuck in, he couldn’t get back.
He floated outside of reality itself like a ghost, sensing the humming vibrations that were Solaris moving back and forth across the entire city, leaving no stone unturned in his search for the remaining Anchors.
It took several subjective hours before Chemestro even figured out how to move. Time, speed and distance were…ephemeral concepts. Moving was a result of intent more than any...
2024-05-02 16:30:18 +0000 UTC
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Gretchen’s Idyllic Manifestation.exe
Another enormous segment of the factory went up in the amount of time it took Perry to blink.
Now another.
Gretchen’s Idyllic Manifestation.exe
While Perry worked, he mulled over his priorities.
So, our primary goal is: Keep family alive.
Secondary goal: Survive.
Tertiary goal: Save the world from Solaris, who seems to have gone ...
2024-04-30 15:34:42 +0000 UTC
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“Behold!” Perry said, holding up the new-and-improved Mimic Litmus Test 9000. It had been a serious pain in the ass marrying both a mild sedative and a variant of Astra’s mending to the regular test to prevent extreme pain, seizures, and keep the subject safe.
And most importantly: not Trigger them.
If 5% of people who got tested went on Trigger Rampages, way more than a few people would die.
And it still worked on mimics!
Nice.
“Yes, I saw it th...
2024-04-25 16:26:24 +0000 UTC
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Okay, so for a long time now, I've been trying to nudge Solaris and Perry into conflict, and took a huge step forward towards that end today.
Insomuch as it's still 'Solaris' I guess.
The 3 primary concerns as they were relayed to me in the comments were:
#1 It seemed rushed.
#2 a deus ex that she got her hands on the serum at all/got past security.
#3 Wasted previous chapters
I'm going to try to spend tomorrow massaging the chapter and adding more context...
2024-04-23 21:15:43 +0000 UTC
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“Here it is,” Guile said, handing Truthslayer the medicine.
“How’d you get these?” the black-haired superheroine murmured, opening the case and peering inside.
Inside were four vials of the stuff Paradox had used to ‘cure’ Solaris, although the jury was still out on that. The important part was that it made a god mortal, however temporarily.
I hid inside Paradox’s incinerator in my subspace and caught a few of them as they were disposed of. Kid might be a...
2024-04-23 17:12:47 +0000 UTC
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So I figured the team's fight with Karth would make for a good splash page. Here's the 1st draft sketch. I was like, 'damn! 99% there already!
Thoughts?
2024-04-19 16:52:57 +0000 UTC
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“So what now?” Heather asked.
“Now…we pray one of the venoms we acquired will do what we need it to do,” Perry muttered. He already knew which one he was banking on, but it was best not to say anything until after they’d performed extensive tests.
“Check up on the twins?” Heather said.
“Mm.” Perry nodded and opened a portal.
“Mommy!” Sera shrieked and barreled through the portal, nearly knocking Heather over.
The brass-haired mother swept ...
2024-04-19 16:01:55 +0000 UTC
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“That seems like the last of ‘em.” Australia Man said, cleaning off his bloody boomerang, a simple piece of lacquered wood that shouldn’t have been able to hold up to the punishment it had been subjected to. “If I’m still alive this evening, me and Lucy are going to have words.”
Perry shrugged. There was a fair amount of plausible deniability at play there, so it probably wouldn’t go anywhere, but she’d definitely hurt her credibility in the future.
“Looks like...
2024-04-16 16:24:21 +0000 UTC
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So I've been learning to use Google Ads, trying to figure out how advertising works and grow my skills as a self-employed author, and I came across this intriguing option that they have.
It's called Customer Match Lists.
I feed them a selection of people, they build a demographic profile based on that, and target my ad more specifically to people who largely match that demographic.
Where the Privacy Concerns come in:
In order to do that, I need to give Google a l...
2024-04-14 19:58:06 +0000 UTC
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Perry hit Lam at the same time as he finished casting Gretchen’s Idyllic Manifestation.
Gretchen’s Idyllic Manifestation.exe
Rather than get fancy with it, Perry created a massive pit directly underneath them where once had been solid rock. Together they plummeted down, gravity doing the work of pulling them out of the optic spider’s line of sight.
Seraphine’s ouchie corrector.exe
Perry hadn’t tried it on mu...
2024-04-12 15:55:01 +0000 UTC
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“That we are,” Australia Man said, nodding. “If Australia is shrinking, then you know I’m going to have an opinion on that.”
“Yes. I’m sure I can guess your opinion…fairly accurately.” Lucy said. “And of course, you’re more than welcome to put a stop to it, Brian. I won’t interfere. Preserving my land is only beneficial for me and my kind.”
“You won’t?” Australia Man asked, cocking a brow.
“There are…factions among the optic spide...
2024-04-09 18:09:47 +0000 UTC
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Perry watched Heather’s confusion skyrocket as she glanced around the serious faces.
“Is someone going to explain to me what The Butthole is?” she asked, arms crossed.
“The Butthole is a…geological tumor,” Australia Man said, searching for the right words. “Discovered it back in nineteen eighty-two, before spiders had claimed the territory. From a distance, it looked like…”
He motioned to Heather.
“A butthole.” She supplied.
“Exactly. A my...
2024-04-05 16:30:41 +0000 UTC
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So, I'm getting older and trying to advance my craft with this whole self-publishing thing, and a problem I've run into several times now, is not owning enough art to satisfy amazon and Google in order to look professional.
I'm a professional, goddamnit!
That being said, do you guys have:
1: Suggestions for artists who could do the series justice? Preferably high quality, reliable. Not your cousin. Unless your cousin is making art for Magic The Gathering. That's the k...
2024-04-03 17:23:35 +0000 UTC
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“So those ant grenades you saw, they use those as both a weapon and a food source. The ants turn all the biomass in a certain area into dead ants, which the humpbacks can easily transport and digest. If a year’s not going well for them, they can drop one of those on the forest floor and convert a large swath of otherwise indigestible trees and plants into juicy ant meat.”
“Fascinating.”
“Odd they used the ants against us…suggests they were more interested in...
2024-04-02 18:08:58 +0000 UTC
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“Uugh…” Nat groaned into the sheets, a sticky, panting mess, her long black hair strewn across the bed and her shaking form.
“You’re welcome,” Perry said, tugging his pants back on. “And good night.
“Need…shower,” Natalie said, trying and failing to lever herself up on shaking arms, collapsing back down onto the drool spot she’d left there a moment ago.
“Love ya babe.” Perry murmured, leaning down to kiss her shoulder.
“U oo oo,” She groan...
2024-03-29 15:17:21 +0000 UTC
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“This is…” Darryl was at a loss for words to describe exactly how bad things were. Nobody knew who was a mimic and who wasn’t. The streets were rife with paranoia. Nobody went outside. Nobody let strangers into their house. Nobody even let friends and family in. Not if they were smart.
After the public service announcement pointing out that the mimic could copy vehicles and other nonliving material, it got even worse.
Public trust hadn’t been this bad since the ...
2024-03-26 16:23:39 +0000 UTC
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“Nobody move.” Natura whispered.
Everyone froze. Perry was knelt down with his armored hand partway down a hole in the ground with a spider in it. His ground scanner didn’t give him colors, so he’d have to pull it out to see if it was one of the species he was looking for.
Without moving, he shifted his gaze up to Natura, who was looking off into the distance.
“’Roos.”
Natura pointed up and away from the bush where the group had been collecting venomous c...
2024-03-22 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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What kind of power armor would be good for Wraith? Perry wondered, while picking out his armor for the trip. She needed something that could flow like a non-newtonian fluid, but harden up when necessary to accommodate shapeshifting. It needed to be able to render itself intangible without falling off of her…
And we’re probably at the stage in our relationship where I can build some magic spells into her suit, and don’t have to worry about her using them against me or ...
2024-03-20 16:33:36 +0000 UTC
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Bendigo was…fine.
It was nighttime on the west coast, so they stepped into mid-day on the other side of the Earth.
Perry stepped out onto the street and immediately felt the chill on his skin. It was currently transitioning to summer back home, so Bendigo was transitioning into winter. The trees were losing their leaves, littering the fields with bright orange.
Wait..fields? trees?
Perry did a mental reset as he watched a squirrel leap from branch to branch....
2024-03-18 18:47:56 +0000 UTC
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It was one thing to hear about sapient spiders living in Autralia. I was quite another to see one big enough to eat your kids.
“Do you have a spider-sign dictionary?” Perry asked, reluctantly dragging his attention away from Ryan the Pilot. “Also, we’re going to need to take samples from each of you.”
Perry glanced at Tyrannus, twitching his eyebrow.
Or do you have that infrastructure you mentioned earlier that could detect them?
Tyrannus sh...
2024-03-15 16:50:35 +0000 UTC
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