Jeb eyed the window, a bit of cold sweat forming on the back of his neck. He could try to make a run for it, but he was fairly sure this lady would take that as an admission of guilt. Not to mention, Jeb didn’t see himself winning any kind of footrace, the inch of hardwood between them notwithstanding.
Jeb took his magic finger off the magic lump and reoriented his attention. It probably wasn’t going anywhere, and he had prettier fish to fry at the moment.
“Yeah?”...
2020-12-27 19:52:24 +0000 UTC
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I often find myself intensely curious about this kind of thing. Partly because it's related to my job, and partly because I enjoy interpreting data.
So, where did you come from?
2020-12-26 18:42:50 +0000 UTC
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Jeb scanned the room.
As far as ambushes went, it was a pretty decent one. Jeb was curious how Garland had brought an imperial enforcer into the office, but the how didn’t matter a whole lot right now.
The enforcer was the major hurdle here. Zlesk was…agreeable, to an extent. The biggest problem was that Jeb had already spilled the beans about being in the Impossible tutorial, which wasn’t something he wanted to make known to the government just yet.
And yet, ...
2020-12-25 16:38:45 +0000 UTC
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People in the streets of Kalfath moved out of the way as a one-legged man limped down the street, caked in dried blood. Over his shoulder was a rope lashed to a sled chock full of weapons and overstuffed burlap sacks that rang with a metallic chime every time they shifted.
Some might have been tempted to steal from the sled, were it not for the dozen or so severed heads that rested on top of the pile of booty.
*** Zlesk Frantel, Sheriff of Kalfath ***
“No, you don...
2020-12-20 20:23:49 +0000 UTC
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Jeb opened his mouth to speak.
“Before you say anything,” Svek said, motioning to his rather large gold earring, “I have ways of knowing if you’re telling the truth. If you lie to me, I will kill you and toss your body down the mountainside. Understood?”
Jeb tried and failed to choke down a giggle.
“What’s funny?”
“I never had any intention of lying to you from the start,” Jeb said, chuckling.
“Interesting. What are you doing here?”
...
2020-12-20 19:50:05 +0000 UTC
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“He’s the sheriff,” Jeb blurted, pointing at Zlesk.
Boney Pete glanced over at the skinny keegan while reaching for the bones in his hair.
Jeb took the opportunity to slip under the table.
Whoosh!
A monstrous femur longer than Jeb was tall swept through the back of his seat, treating the heavy wood like Styrofoam. Shrapnel clattered across the surface of the table above him, some of it sprinkling under the lip and peppering his clothes with sharp splinte...
2020-12-20 19:48:07 +0000 UTC
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An in-law is in the hospital for a heart attack this morning and it doesn’t look good. Unlikely to get any work done today.
I have been working the last three days, putting words on the page for the next chapters of GSA2. those should be released Sunday ish.
ive been on something of a hot streak, and was considering putting down WotR until the end of the month, then switching back come January when I do the mass public release.
this doesn’t mean less overall w...
2020-12-17 16:56:15 +0000 UTC
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“You wanna run that by me again?” Zlesk asked, twiddling his battered pen between his fingers.
“I said, do you have any dangerous jobs that you outsource to civilian contractors? This is like the wild west isn’t it? Where are the dead or alive posters?” Jeb asked, glancing around the alien’s office.
“If you don’t have anything relevant to say, I haven’t had breakfast yet and I’ve got shit to do, sooo…”
“So give me something to do…” Jeb thought f...
2020-12-13 16:50:09 +0000 UTC
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***Calvin***
The situation of Ming’nai was much the same as it had been the last time they’d visited. Two armies surrounded the agricultural heart of Boles, while a third lined the massive walls, flying the flag of Tzen’s third brother.
The Hapain clan, however, were nowhere to be seen.Probably regrouping since we smashed their home.
Now it was just the three half-brothers staring each other down.
Calvin stared at the armies of the first, second, and thi...
2020-12-13 16:48:36 +0000 UTC
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***Elaine Trudeau***
Elaine sat in a chair worth more than her entire home, terrified that a wrong shift might cause the gold-inlayed wood to snap, and she would be executed for treason.
Or maybe she would get oil from her skin on the tableware. And be executed for treason.
Or maybe…
Elaine’s terrified mind concocted a thousand ways she could suffer a terrible fate in the halls of the king. Beheading, soul-removal, or simply taking her daddy’s land all c...
2020-12-11 11:39:52 +0000 UTC
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“What in the Abyss have you done!” Tzen demanded, finding his voice as the last wisps of smoke rose above the former Hapain clan leader’s body.
“Huh?” Calvin glanced at the Bolesian prince.
“That was the Hapain clan leader! He had valuable information! We might have been able to end the civil war with him in our possession!”
Calvin saw the veins in Tzen’s temple begin to throb ominously.
Whoops. I need a good excuse.
Thinking on ...
2020-12-08 16:07:25 +0000 UTC
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Holy fuck! I made a thing! It's a...booky thing.
Whew, let me catch my breath here...
APOCALYPSE: GENERIC SYSTEM IS A BOOK NOW!
(fanfare)
This is officially my first work to make it onto Kindle, and it needs reviews! every minute it languishes on the Kind...
2020-12-08 06:22:14 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 1: Old Habits
Chris Acker whistled as his machete popped in his hand, transferring that exact sensation of cutting through a vertebra through his wrist and into his arm.
The mob’s head rolled off, into the street. The stump shifted its roll and wobbled in front of one of the men in a similar kneeling posture, held there by the supernaturally strong hands of Chris’s demons.
The man alternated between sobbing and babbling pitifully.
You...
2020-12-06 20:47:43 +0000 UTC
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Is it strange I carry a bit of the substance that could end my life on my person? Calvin wondered as he squished the bit of beeswax onto the end of the metal pokey stick, wearing watertight leather gloves.
It wasn’t directly on his person, it was in his ingredient wagon, but still. He carried that around on his person.
In front of him were four shallow dishes with fluids of varying colors. There was a red one, a blue one, a clear one, and one filled with a shim...
2020-12-04 11:44:17 +0000 UTC
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Calvin’s internal clock warned him that his Avatar would be expiring soon, in the next half hour or so.
Let’s see where our little buddy is,Calvin thought, closing his eyes.
Calvin’s little buddy, as it turned out, was still over the ocean somewhere, chasing the sun with every ounce it’s tiny little body could muster. Sadly, one of the weaknesses of the Avatar ability was the fact he couldn’t ‘size up’ his summons to allow them to travel faster.
The wa...
2020-11-30 02:46:09 +0000 UTC
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***Calvin***
The sun was going down again when Calvin finally caught up with Tzen. Calvin’s mutant palanquin carriers almost got a faceful of sage totems for their troubles until Calvin stuck his head out and de-escalated the situation.
He almost laughed when he got a good look at them. Over the course of the night, it had become apparent that the sages didn’t have the speed nor the endurance to keep up over the course of two days of solid running, and so they had been seated ...
2020-11-28 01:59:12 +0000 UTC
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Elaine Trudeau tugged on Tommy’s wrist, dragging him away from the weeping boys.
Okay, so Tommy is possessed by a demon, no big deal. We’ll just get him a ride to the big city and find a sorcerer to perform an exorcism. Then he’ll be back to himself, right as rain.
“That seems disrespectful to your friend’s wishes,” Tommy said, unresisting as he stumbled away from the massacre, a bright smile stretching from ear to ear. “He’s had more fun the last fifteen ...
2020-11-25 00:11:29 +0000 UTC
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Calvin was resting in the palanquin, doing math problems from Elliot as they hurtled through the dark of night. Everyone else was sleeping while Calvin pondering how screwed he was, on a scale from one to ten.
I’m thinking an eight, probably? Maybe more. Even if Kala lets this slide, I’m still looking at a near-guarantee that Ella got knocked up. I have a freaking mutation for it. Should be less of a chance with Learner, given her total control over her own body and my awesome p...
2020-11-22 00:48:34 +0000 UTC
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Learner’s notes: [Redacted to protect silly human privacy]
[Redacted] feels amazing. I thought I understood the parasympathetic nervous system and how it enhances the senses in preparation for copulation, but experiencing it?
I was way off.
When [Redacted], it sent shivers all the way up my arms and into my spine, a cascading response to being touched. The ...
2020-11-20 00:39:18 +0000 UTC
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In front of Calvin, there was a glass figurine of Ella, skin smooth against his fingertips. Her muscular body exquisitely detailed in full detail, without any clothes to conceal her perfection.
The glass was completely transparent, and in the very center of her chest, he could see a tiny whorl of glowing pale mist, reminding him of the haze that he’d witnessed in the abyss, hovering directly above the Siphon. There was a strange hunger, a compulsion to get closer to that whirling subs...
2020-11-18 00:48:33 +0000 UTC
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So I'm sitting here trying to brainstorm how Calvin's race can change during the Break in new and interesting ways, if at all possible. I find myself lacking in creativity sufficient to snatch the juiciest idea out of the ether, so I'm going to outsource it.
So here's the suggestion box:
Suggest new abilities, new weaknesses (If any) Changes in appearance, Etc. Preferably in line with what the race already does, but I'll read it anyway.
Any ideas for racial mutations due ...
2020-11-16 23:23:21 +0000 UTC
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Calvin’s awareness was spread across the field of battle, aware of every little detail, barely able to keep up with the speed of the Stalkers as they raced across the field, turning One’s troops into quivering chunks in an expanding circle from the center of the battlefield.
I’ve got to keep myself aware of the exact center of mass of my swarm, Calvin thought, tracking the center of the circle carefully.
Calvin’s crystal bombs tore One’s army apart at the edges,...
2020-11-14 23:23:38 +0000 UTC
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Some people need those numbers to feel whole. The question I'm asking is, whether the MC should get the system back, and if so, how?
I'm thinking the external device can be some kind of living charm that uses blood to show you your status with an old-timey magic feel to it.
2020-11-08 21:48:16 +0000 UTC
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“Oof!” Jeb was dashed against cold, hard ground, rolling over a couple times before coming to a halt. The floor was smooth under his skin. Matte, non-reflective black.
Still alive, Jeb thought, putting his shaking arms underneath him. Being capable of conscious thought was an excellent sign of still drawing breath.
Jeb’s stump ached like it hadn’t in weeks, his limbs were barely strong enough to pick him off the floor.
I should be stronger t...
2020-11-08 21:27:23 +0000 UTC
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The long and short of it: Earth’s landmass got quilted onto another planet. It had been torn into bite size chunks, and placed wherever the ‘gods’ deemed appropriate.
Meaning the U.S. and every other major human government had just been broken into pieces and redistributed.
Even if they wanted to launch the nukes, the people upstairs would have to find them first. That and no satellites had made the transition, so comms were down across the globe, even if some gen...
2020-11-08 21:24:51 +0000 UTC
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I wrote 1800 on GSA yesterday, and picked it up again this morning.
I don't have any intention of setting aside WOTR, despite the recent slowdown.
I'm actually just trying to put a fitting end on GSA, then edit the shit out of it so I can put it up on Kindle. It's one of the better standalone books I've written, and if I had a Kindle publication, I would feel one step closer to a 'real' author.
I know I already am a 'real' author, but feelings are hard to control. Anywa...
2020-11-04 21:51:23 +0000 UTC
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Calvin leapt over the side of the wall, and noticed the entire army of One flicker. Like a single twitching organism, every sprinting giant reoriented themselves on Calvin. Causing the entire mass of flesh to shift in a strange way he’d never seen from a human army.
Singularity of purpose.
The individual giants were nine feet tall each, and imposing, charging straight for Calvin with maddened eyes.
Range of Beli Ma is above ten feet, so this shouldn’t be too hard,
2020-11-03 00:20:10 +0000 UTC
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Tzen leapt over a fallen log, crushing a footprint in the side of the wood as he drove himself forward, putting on every ounce of speed he could possibly manage.
One simple trick to winning every battle was overlooked by ‘wise’ men since time immemorial, and mastered only by the truly brilliant savants of warfare, and yet it was outlandishly obvious:
Only fight the battles you know you can win.
From what Tzen had seen, those monsters had his veterans outnumbered a thousa...
2020-10-30 19:17:25 +0000 UTC
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“What can I do?” Ella asked, looking over the charging monsters, her fingers touching the handle of her weapon.
“For now, relax. You’ll be up when they start climbing the wall. When that happens, I want you to stay close and watch my back. I might need the extra security.”
“What wall?”
It took about seven seconds for the knick-knacks to free the nearby trees from their roots, liberating the logs from their leaves as they carried them to their intended destinati...
2020-10-27 23:53:17 +0000 UTC
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A leader is a dealer in hope.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
The sun was going down, Brett and Amanda had come back, but Jess and the squishy necromancer were still AWOL. The shadows were getting deep in the thick of the forest, and it was only a matter of time before they would have to start moving again, try to find somewhere safe from the Tortoise.
Jeb was still pestering the fairy.
“Is there a way to survive th...
2020-10-25 20:17:24 +0000 UTC
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