Chapter Eighty-Three -
The backstage area was buzzing with energy. Trainers and Pokémon alike bustled about, preparing for the next stage of the contest. Some were practising last-minute adjustments to their routines, while others sat quietly, recharging for the next big performance. Choco stood in the middle of it all, trying not to let his paws tremble.
"Okay, Choco, breathe," Broccoli said, crouching down to meet his gaze. Her voice...
2024-11-23 06:03:15 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Forty-Six
It took them the morning to get to the main road. First a few detours, around a street blocked by a large, angry anomaly where the air was rent and shifting and felt like it was straining to hold back a wave of magic that stank of hate, then through a few buildings where they had to knock down walls in order to get through.
The city being abandoned for so long was turning it into a ruin. In some places nature h...
2024-11-22 05:06:08 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Seventy-Six -
***
I checked up on the newbies, just to be sure, but they really didn’t need the help.
The team had grouped up atop one of the defensive structures around the Big Gun compound and were pretty much just having a blast messing up the antithesis whenever they came into range.
Someone had given Princess a rocket launcher. Gros Baton was helping her load it up between shots, then she...
2024-11-22 02:43:47 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Eighty-Four
They returned to the Sappho. The ship was sitting, waiting for them, and even before they arrived, Ivil knew that Sonic was Spectre was by the entrance way, reading from a datapad and Aurora was in her room, doing much the same but cuter.
Interestingly, Missy wasn’t there, and it seemed like the corner she’d marked out for herself had been mostly cleaned out.
Interesting. Something to lo...
2024-11-21 01:17:31 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Thirty-Six -
“Are you sure you don’t want to take the Cheezeburger perk?” Sharp asked.
“I’m positive,” I said.
We were currently both making our way across the city. Fenway was relatively safe now that we both knew it better, and most of the north-western parts of Boston Two were... is not secure, then at least not actively dangerous.
The gangs and police forces in these are...
2024-11-20 03:23:18 +0000 UTC
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Hi!
Check this out! This has been literally months in the making, with tons of help from JTB and Madix. We've been setting up a small merch store and prepping a few items!
The story should be going live on Friday the 29th of November! Just in time to buy a cool shirt for Christmas or whatever!
We'll be adding more items as we go, but the big ticket item are the shirts. A shirt for every one of my main characters should be up and running eventually, with new ones hopefully...
2024-11-19 23:11:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Five Hundred and Seventeen -
I looked up, then ‘ooohed’ as a second firework went off.
It was a rather sad looking firework, to be honest. Just a little streak of light that flew up and then popped, sending sparks out every which way.
And then the dragons at the back shifted their necks back and the sky filled with draconic roars.
You have heard the proud call of a dragon...
2024-11-19 21:57:29 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Seventy-Five
***
“Alright, you good?” I asked as Shy landed on the ground.
She patted her knees clear of dust, then shifted the hood of her cloak back up and over her head. Her clothes were... a bit of a mess, to be honest, but that’s what happened when you were flung into a tree.
At least she was partially armoured. She had a padded undersuit beneath that poncho, with some harder looking ...
2024-11-19 05:09:50 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Seventy-Four
***
I tried to be somewhat subtle as I moved through the woods. Shy was ahead of me, and she caught one soon enough that my mech was on the wider side of things. That meant that she mostly picked out a route with fewer trees, or at least more room between them whenever possible.
I was still crashing through the woods, rustling branches and breaking young trees with loud snaps. There was subtle, then...
2024-11-16 02:55:05 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Thirty-Five
It was a good thing that Sharp was a heavy sleeper, because otherwise she might have heard me pacing the room as I scanned through the list of options I had.
It hadn’t truly struck me at the time, but Sharp’s level five perk for Anima was... strong, wasn’t it? Summoning a knowledgeable expert in the from of a living animal with their own growth ability? That wasn’t anything to scoff at as far as powers went.
...
2024-11-15 03:47:02 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Eighty-Three
There were very few people who could stand up to her.
Nominally, the leaders of Mars could tell her no. At least on paper. They knew better than to try, however, because no amount of written rules would stop her mild annoyance from turning their bodies into clouds of disparate atoms.
Then there were the two Emperors.
When people charted out powers--as humans were wont to do--t...
2024-11-15 00:43:18 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Seventy-Three
***
“You good?” I asked before checking my mech’s scanners. There were a few living antithesis around, but they were flopped onto the ground, with hefty chunks of their bodies missing, and I figured that the whole ‘living’ thing would rectify itself soon enough.
I refocused on Shy. My guns were relatively silent...ish, all things considered, but they had shot right next to the samurai and I did...
2024-11-14 01:35:20 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Thirty-Four
We returned to the Bloody Bat just a few minutes before opening. Sharp clutched her hands together as she asked to talk to Paris, then she stuttered though an explanation that basically boiled down to ‘thank you for the job and the room, but I’m heading out not.’
“Well, can’t say I’m surprised,” Paris said. “I’ll have the room cleaned out. Fold the sheets up on the bed, if you could.”
...
2024-11-13 02:56:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Five Hundred and Sixteen -
Content Warning: Contains... a kiss... at the marriage altar. Very lewd. Cover your eyes!
“Are you ready?” I asked.
Booksie nodded, then straightened out her back and raised the bouquet of flowers she held onto closer to her chest. “I’m ready,” she said.
I smiled, then peeked out of the carriage.
It was... kind of contri...
2024-11-12 21:55:08 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Seventy-Two
***
The next twenty minutes were kind of boring. Even the constant drumming and thumps of multiple AA guns turning the sky into pin-cushion land was something I could get used to.
And then, on the twenty-first minute, things stopped being boring, but in the bad way.
I got a call. It was flagged as urgent, and it was coming from Grasshopper.
“Where’s the fire?” I aske...
2024-11-12 02:39:33 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Forty-One
Asajj had never been one for art.
Pretty paintings, little sculptures. She had no use for these sorts of things.
She could appreciate some, of course. The tattoos of the Dathomiri were art, but they were art because they were expressions of the self. The best were guided by the force. The large statues and corporate advertisements plastered across Antar IV weren’t worthy of any appreciation.&nb...
2024-11-11 22:49:53 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Thirty-Three
We woke up early enough the next morning for Sharp to confirm with Mark that he didn’t need Sharp to come in that morning. He seemed used to his couriers being the sorts of people that dropped in and out of the job. We did get news that Derek was back on the job properly, though he was taking things slow and keeping to safer, less burdensome deliveries and was also helping Mark in the office with paperwork.
He was recov...
2024-11-11 20:11:33 +0000 UTC
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Epilogue
Things were nice and quiet in the Wright household.
Emily had spent a week expecting... something to happen, but no. Things were calm.
Well, things were relatively calm. She was trying very hard to do some homework, legs up on an ottoman that had just appeared in their living room one fine day and her laptop on her lap. The girls were being themselves all over the place, but it was no louder than ...
2024-11-11 00:36:36 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Seventy-One
***
“Myalis, what in the fuck is that?” I asked.
My mech’s targeting software had no issues locking onto the big flyer above, probably because it was the size of a literal barn with nothing between us and it except for zipping tracer fire. I watched as lines of light machine gun fire stitched themselves across the alien's underside.
That is a Model Thirty-One. It’s a spac...
2024-11-10 23:26:02 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Thirty-Two
Jenny led Alyssa into a doctor’s office of a sort at the back of the building. It reminded me a little of the surgery room I’d just been in within the mega building the cult occupied, but this one had more posters of scantily clad women on the walls and LED lighting. It was also, notably, cleaner.
The doctor who came out was shrugging on a pristine white coat as Jenny entered and helped Alyssa onto the surgery bed...
2024-11-09 20:53:10 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Seventy -
***
I never considered it before, but the sky being on fire really was quite pretty. I think it was the red and oranges contrasting well with all of the deep blues. Then there were suddenly long streaks ripping through the boiling balls of fire above. Tiny black forms that unfurled into massive antithesis forms.
I zoomed into one of them, trying to take in as many details as I could. It looked like a m...
2024-11-09 17:21:28 +0000 UTC
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Hi!
So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to set up a Stray Cat Strut subreddit. I'm not a particularly huge fan of Reddit, but it is a really good aggregator, and... well, let me explain!
Stray Cat Strut now has fanfiction! A lot of fanfiction, actually! This is, objectively, an awesome thing. The only problem is that the fandom is mostly spread out on sites like Royal Road, Scribble Hu...
2024-11-08 20:58:32 +0000 UTC
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The time to vote is here!
Time to vote on your coziest short!
Stray Kittens by Aliapanacea
Isabelle...
2024-11-08 20:51:58 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Thirty-One
“Y-you can let us out here,” Sharp said.
Jenny didn’t let up on the peddle, and we roared past one of the main entrances into Fenway. I sat up a little straighter, having relocated myself to Sharp’s arms... or more accurately, having allowed her to grab a hold of me. She was hugging me close, so it saved me from bumping around too much as Jenny climbed her van onto the curbside and continued to rush forwards past th...
2024-11-06 11:45:42 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Sixty-Nine
***
For all that Gomorrah wanted me to show up at the crack of dawn, and for all that I showed up... past that. There were still several hours to wait before anything actually happened.
I ended up sitting over with the others in the main space next to the Big Gun’s little command bunker. It was comfortable enough, and I got to chat with Gros Baton and Crackshot. The kid and I mostly double-teamed Cracksho...
2024-11-05 14:55:03 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Five Hundred and Fifteen -
It was the big day, and everything was going alright.
“This is terrible.”
Everything was in order.
“Why did I agree to this? This is going to be a disaster.”
The bride was looking pretty.
“I look like a marshmallow! Why did I stress eat so much? Why did I eat at all?”
The groom was likely just as ready.
...
2024-11-05 11:43:12 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Eighty-Two
Torture was ineffective. That didn’t mean it wasn’t fun.
At the moment, Ivil was enjoying torture quite a bit. She was sitting on a simple seat in a nice enough restaurant a floor above the arcade they’d been at. The place was nice enough. It wasn’t a high-end restaurant, exactly, but it wasn’t a franchise either. The sort of place where the cook was also the owner, and where while the decor wasn’t ...
2024-11-04 20:19:30 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Thirty -
The bear warlock moved out of the room while the others were still plotting and planning. He timed his exit to coincide with a pair of cultists walking past. It was probably for the best, because while the cultists were mind-addled and clearly confused, it was entirely possible that they’d notice the warlocks and raise the alarm.
The warlock ran out, grabbed a man by the head, and proceeded to smash said head into the...
2024-11-01 11:37:31 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Sixty-Eight
***
“Is it possible to be bored and stressed at the same time?” I asked the ceiling.
Lucy shifted next to me. Her nose pressed up against my arm, it was cold on the end. She pulled herself a little closer, as if she wanted to steal my warmth. “At the same time?” she asked. Her voice was husky and rough from having just woken up.
“Yeah,” I said. “Is there a wor...
2024-11-01 10:42:29 +0000 UTC
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Chapter Twenty-Nine
Explosions were fantastic. They were also sloppy, loud, and governments and corps feared the use of them more than just about any other type of targeted attack, with the possible exception of biological attacks.
It was simple, really. Bombs were indiscriminate. Inaccurate, loud, catastrophically messy, but most of all, indiscriminate.
They were the sign that things had gone horribly wrong with a job....
2024-10-31 11:38:59 +0000 UTC
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