Chapter Five Hundred and Twenty -
“Do you have any idea how little mana I have left?” the man asked.
Sometimes it wasn’t hard to sense that someone didn’t want to be very helpful. Like this man we had met just outside the very same city building that Booksie and I had been waiting in before the wedding started. Apparently it was the nearest and best place to store all of the presents and so a few desks had been shoved aside to clear out some floor space wh...
2024-12-10 03:07:23 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Eighty-Two
***
The next day was... quiet.
It wasn’t like I could afford to do nothing, but nothing is exactly what I did. I think I slept a solid ten hours, grabbing Lucy close and not letting her go, even when she complained sleepily about having to get up.
I couldn’t sleep without her close, and... I didn’t want to admit it, but maybe that close call had rattled me a little. Having Lucy so close reminded me that I was alive. As lo...
2024-12-09 18:56:40 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Forty-Three
“Okay!” Sharp said the moment we were back home. She raised her arms over her head and stretched hard until her limbs shook. “That was kind of fun! Plus now, I’m basically a gun expert, right?”
I snorted. “Hardly,” I said. Then I was distracted as I had to greet my cats. Cyanide ran up for nuzzles and Mercury skittered into the room only to linger by the entrance to stare, wide-eyed, as if he’d never seen any...
2024-12-08 22:38:40 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Eighty-Eight
“We’re ready to go, captain!” Twenty-Six said. Her face was displayed on a little screen currently capturing the inside of the engineering room at the back of the Sappho. She grinned and gave them a wave before falling back onto a seat and buckling herself in.
The bridge was pretty quiet at the moment. Ivil was in the captain’s seat, legs crossed while she ignored the little flashing light that was reminding her to put on...
2024-12-08 18:45:08 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Forty-Eight
When her magic pushed into an area, there was always a slight bit of feedback. It would take over the dark, making it her own.
There were few circumstances where shadows were owned by someone else. Most people didn’t think of their own shadow, and if asked, wouldn’t place much importance on it. It had happened that monsters and powerful entities that they’d fought had claimed ownership of their own shadows, but those were rare and far bet...
2024-12-07 17:44:54 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Forty-Two
“So, my range is the best around, it’s single-proprietor, and I take a great deal of pride in keeping it clean and in toi-top,” Clemus said as he walked Sharp and I towards the main shooting gallery. “Which leads me to being a smidge urious, you see?”
“Curious about what, Mister Clemus?” Sharp asked. She was walking next to the older gentleman. He wasn’t moving fast, relying on an old wooden cane to help with every step.
“...
2024-12-06 18:34:54 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Eighty-One
***
I ended up asking the Family if they could spare a ride back to the Big Gun. My mech was loaded onto the carrier, with a bit of difficulty, and sent off towards home. I’d given the carrier instructions to park itself out on the porch, for ease of access later. I would move the mech into the garage when I got home and could supervise it a little. Maybe it was time I bought a mechanic’s catalogue and a few jacks and... those big fork thing...
2024-12-05 13:38:19 +0000 UTC
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Hi!
Just got a discount code thing working for the merch!
Code: Birbo
It's just a 5% off code, but hey... 5% off baby!
https://litrpgforge.com/
2024-12-04 20:56:48 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Eighty-Seven
Ivil was in the sanctuary provided by her captain’s quarters, alone except for Sonic Spectre who stood at attention a step and a half away from the door.
She was carrying herself with all of the poise and dignity afforded to her by being the Empress of Mars.
That is to say... Ivil squealed and did a tippy-tap dance in the middle of her room. “I did it! I did it! We kissed, Sonic Spectre! Lips on lips!...
2024-12-04 14:54:52 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Forty-One
I was right, Sharp’s taste in clothes was questionable at best.
It wasn’t so much that she picked poor pieces. She found some nice pieces. A blouse here, some nice pants there. She had a good eye for what fit, though she did lean more towards the baggy side of things, and had a clear preference for things with many pockets, which was fine.
Techware was always in, just like jeans and black in gen...
2024-12-04 04:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Five Hundred and Nineteen -
I kept moving around the reception while keeping an eye on Booksie and Rhawr. There were a few awkward moments where people with more guts than common sense overstayed their welcome around the couple. And of course, Booksie and Rhawr eventually approached his mom.
There was a lot of wailing and the huge dragoness started to pamper her ‘little baby,’ which had Booksie giggling and Rhawr flushing so...
2024-12-03 12:57:11 +0000 UTC
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Vasilisa the Brave - Chapter Fourteen
She was home, in a sense.
They were in the streets of Pripyat, the city she’d grown up in, or so her memories said, sometimes. It was a familiar place, a city she knew, only as she looked around now, this place here felt more familiar, more like home.
Did that make any sense? She was quite sure it didn’t.
There was no ash in Pripyat, and yet what s...
2024-12-03 05:13:47 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Eighty -
***
“Myalis, is that thing dead?” I asked.
Death confirmed. Points deposited.
“How many?” I asked even as I allowed myself to slump back. There was some crap on my seat that dug into my back. Oh, and I could see the sunlight through the walls of my mech, which meant that shit had been way closer than I liked.
You received two thousand points for the...
2024-12-02 13:30:03 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Forty
“This is the plan,” I said.
We were in the living room, and I was standing on the coffee table while Sharp sat on the edge of one of the sofas. Before me was my tablet, fully charged and laid out for me to use. It’s had to have Sharp go into t he settings and adjust it so that it used the ‘poor eyesight’ mode. Which did add to my monthly subscription, but whatever.
It was worth it for the...
2024-12-01 08:37:26 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Thirty-Nine
I was sitting on the control board for my old fold-out treadmill. It was a little awkward, since the board was at a bit of an angle, and it was bouncing with each step Sharp took. “Come on, you’ll never hit that next level of Body if you don’t sweat a little more,” I said.
“I’m... sweating... plenty,” Sharp said.
She was. Her old shirt was covered in a layer of it, and I w...
2024-11-30 03:46:07 +0000 UTC
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It's here! At long last, after months of planning and trying things, the merch store is finally liiiive!
LINK: https://litrpgforge.com/collections/stray-cat-store
You can pick up SHIRTS! And MUGS! And... Stickers? Yeah, there's STICKERS!
Of course, the main d...
2024-11-30 00:01:24 +0000 UTC
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Author’s note: This is an interlewd. It’s lewd. There’s not just handholding, cuddles and sweet kisses... there’s sex.
This is NOT canon. This is a figment of Ivil’s overactive imagination.
This is meant for entertainment purposes. Don’t try this at home... I mean, do, if you can, but like, don’t come crying to me if porn logic doesn’t work out for you IRL.
This interlew...
2024-11-29 22:27:30 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Seventy-Nine
***
“Eyes open!” One snapped. It was the first time he sounded actually concerned. “Medic, check on Charlie Four.”
A soldier ran over to the dead man on the ground, but... yeah, there wasn’t much that could be done there. That dude was very dead. Then they surprised me by taking apart the upper chest section of Charlie Four’s armour. A few disconnected bits later, and the medic has Charlie Fou...
2024-11-29 04:58:52 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Forty-Seven
As they continued to walk forwards, the ash thickened and lessened. It really was less like snow than she’d initially imagined. It was more like sand.
She had visited Hypertense Breakpoint’s home in Egypt a few times, at least before the girl moved out of the region and further out into the Sahara where she could be left alone. In either case, the sand there had been annoying to deal with. It was thin and light a...
2024-11-28 07:09:32 +0000 UTC
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Basically... do you wanna see The Complicated Sex Life of Ivil Antagonist?
Just as a one-off thing, semi-canon, for fun? This probably won't interfere with any other writing stuff I do.
2024-11-28 05:51:40 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Eighty-Six
[Warning: Bit spicy]
Sometimes a discussion ended before it had truly ended. This was one of those moments.
Aurora insisted that regardless of what they did, being near Uranus was the first thing they should do. That meant preparing the Sappho for an immediate launch. That was, of course, easier said than done.
They needed permission from the dock, Pixie needed a...
2024-11-28 01:56:27 +0000 UTC
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Interlude One
She awoke feeling strangely... floaty. It was a novel sensation, like tipping over in a chair without going so far that she lost her balance. It was dancing on the knife’s edge of falling and not. It took her a moment of shifting around to realize what was going on.
It was the bed.
Fasmine had never slept on something so... cloudy before. She wasn’t resting on the mattress, she was sinking&nbs...
2024-11-27 03:49:13 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Five Hundred and Eighteen -
Awen’s mom looked between Awen, me, then Booksie and Rhawr above her. Her little tongue slipped out between her lips, wetting them like a mouse poking its head out of a hole only to notice a lion waiting for it. “Perhaps we can have this conversation somewhere a little more private?”
I was ready to jump in, but I saw the way Awen straightened out. She took a deep breath, and I could almost see t...
2024-11-27 02:26:22 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Seventy-Eight
***
Cavalier’s last known location was just ahead. There was a sort of... I think it might have been a resort? There was definitely a restaurant to one side, with a large patio that was partially covered, as well as a dining room within. To the side of that was a parking lot and then a fancy store that looked like it exclusively sold skiing gear. Both were connected at the rear to a long, low building with a covered wa...
2024-11-26 00:43:31 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Eighty-Five
Aurora really knew how to worry.
Ivil had to restrain herself from smiling as she watched the woman stand up from the comms console and start to pace the room. She did so while still holding onto a saucer and tea cup, so her every step trailed faint, tea-smelling vapours. “We need to take a step back and look at the wider picture here,” she said.
“Go on,” Ivil replied.
“The...
2024-11-25 05:01:12 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Forty-Two
Taylor clenched her fists as the shockwave from the explosion rippled through the air. The sight of the blast and its aftermath made her insides twist with a mix of frustration and fear. She had anticipated trouble, but this? Suicide bombers? It was worse than she’d imagined.
Asajj leaned forwards and was practically pressing her nose to the holoprojection Tattletale was throwing up in the air. Fortunately, Taylor didn’t...
2024-11-24 22:55:24 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Thirty-Seven
I got my Nine Lives before we made it to my place. Mostly, that came about because we had to switch from riding the train to taking a bus, and the bus was not going to show up for a solid half hour, and only if it was on time... which it wasn't going to be.
We were out of Boston Two, however, some smaller city to the north, mostly run by a triumvirate of corporations that kept the peace in this area and ensured a certain ...
2024-11-24 03:34:35 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Thirty-Eight
“Alright,” I said as tensions started to ramp up. “Let’s show Sharp the living room, and we’ll talk this out, shall we?”
The three cats before me considered it, but it was Arsenic, my loud baby, that spoke. “I suppose. Is ‘Sharp’ your pet?”
I glanced up to Sharp. “Can you understand them?”
“No?” she said. “I mean, he meowed a couple of times, bu...
2024-11-24 03:30:10 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Seventy-Seven -
***
The Family squad ahead of me landed in an open roadway. Three quadcopters coming down with military-grade precision in the centre of an intersection with their fronts turning so that they formed a sort of triangle.
I brought my mech carrier up and into the centre of that formation, then let the clamps go. There was a heavy thump as my mech landed, but I was strapped in well enough that I barely fel...
2024-11-24 00:29:22 +0000 UTC
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