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Otterly Ruddertail

Otterly Ruddertail

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Otterly Ruddertail posts

Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 62

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

Returning in cameo is Dev McTaggart, the character of Corrupting Power.

Chapter 62: Reaping What Was Sown

Jail cells are not meant to be comfortable. Bit of an obvious statement, though I hear so...

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Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 61

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

Chapter 61: Finding Out

The circle of enemies around us suddenly got much more menacing once I figured out who they were. Each person here had come close to killing me at least once, some more than others. Geor...

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Becoming Monsters: I'm Blue Ch. 32

Becoming Monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission.

The idea for this story comes from Amethyst Dragonfly. Quiverbow is the creation of Domochevsky (and the Hammerwald weapon is based on the foam flinger he engineered by the same name), Vox the Lich is the creation of QM-Vox (and the Witchlock pistol comes from a story he wrote, Dungeon Life Quest), Wilma is the creation of XelArtz, and Vyrlokar is the creation of… well, Vyrlokar. Al...

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Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 60

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

Anita and Iniki are the creations of XelArtz, used with permission. You may recognize Justin from Becoming Monsters: I’m Blue. He, as well as the other apprentices of Quiverbow, are using guns based on the Motortier, Hammerwald, and Rail Cleaner ...

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Crash Course On Heroism Ch. 05

The idea for this one comes from Moonwing.

Chapter 5: Passing Muster

More days passed, and with them more scouting. And more rescues. Frequent, often daily rescues.  Whatever The Enemy was, they were busy. Although I never saw them, I knew there had to be other spacecraft working around this place. They had other non-locals here recovering after all. And they’d rescued me. It was with a sense of unease that I noticed something during one ...

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Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 59

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

Chapter 59: Another Boomerang

The delay ended up lasting about 15 minutes. Long enough for me to make sure Whitney was done right. Short enough that I could get the coffee started with plenty of time to spare. ...

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Becoming Monsters: I'm Blue Ch. 31

Becoming Monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission.

The idea for this story comes from Amethyst Dragonfly.

Chapter 31: Pursuit of Happiness

“So… that all happened.” Abbey and Justin were sitting at the dinner table, and Abbey had a mug of chicken soup in her hands. Not exactly the heaviest or most complete dinner, but it felt right.

Justin breathed a deep breath of the steam from his own m...

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Otter Chat: September

As you may notice from the splash image today, it’s not going to be the greatest news. So, you all know I’m a veteran and work closely with the military on cybersecurity matters. Well, one drawback to that is now coming up. I’ll be taking a bit of a business trip coming up soon, precise dates and places not to be put up in a public venue.

What does this mean for the page? I’ll be trying to keep up with the writing, but it is secondary to the stuff that’s paying the bills. Incl...

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Becoming Monsters: One Shot Story 7

This is a short tale of the Becoming Monsters Universe by AiLovesToGrow.


The idea for this one comes from all of my patrons. I asked if they wanted to see me follow up on any of the one-shot or short appearance teams, and overwhelmingly Simha and Felix got the vote. You will see others pop up.



Story 7: Make (More Of) Your Own Luck


Late November, 5 years after the Change

<...

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Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 58

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

Chapter 58: Black and White

We ended up watching the video four times that evening, pausing frequently and talking while keeping our hands occupied by helping Sarah link chainmail together. I wish I could say t...

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Becoming Monsters: One Shot Stories 6

This is a short tale of the Becoming Monsters Universe by AiLovesToGrow.


The idea for this one comes from a commissioner. He wanted some of his characters introduced in a… let’s call it more unique way. Returning are the crew from Mission Impawsible, the OCs of my wife and used with permission.



Story 6: Smoke and Mirrors


Sometime before the Change


“I need you to listen, Sa...

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Crash Course On Heroism Ch. 04

The idea for this one comes from Moonwing.

Chapter 4: The Rescuer

“Pilot’s log, entry five of partnership, day four. Log entry to be included in reports.”

I was looking at the laptop screen. The one that was still a laptop, not the one that was wandering the halls of this incredibly-odd base in a half-nervous, half-overprotective manner. My habit of talking out what I was writing had been one that annoyed roommates whenever I had the...

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Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 57

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

The wedding scene is one that has existed in the notes of AiLovesToGrow since she started writing her second book, well before she suffered her stroke a year before I wrote this, and was set to occur at the end of Becoming Monsters Book 2. It is my...

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Becoming Monsters: I'm Blue Ch. 30

Becoming Monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission.

The idea for this story comes from Amethyst Dragonfly. Returning in cameo are both Rough Draft (the character of David Silver) and Vyrlokar (the character of… well, Vyrlokar).

Chapter 30: Who Comes After

One restful day would have to be enough. The next morning was Monday, and the world did not want to wait. Breakfast, coffee, shower, dress, and ou...

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Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 56

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

Chapter 56: History Repeats

The man in front of us was yelling something I couldn’t understand. “Ellen, since my healer seems to be busy, care to translate for us?”

The woman blinked, a departure fr...

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Ten Thousand Steps

Ten Thousand Steps

They say that a journey of ten thousand miles begins with a single step. Well, I’m pretty sure that whomever “they” are, it was meant to be more metaphorical and less literal than I found it to be.

In my case, the single step was at a train station. The single step led to a single slip, which in turn led to a single fall, which struck a single rail. Specifically, the center rail of an electric train track. It took a single second for my he...

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Quaranteam: Remote Work Ch. 21

The Quaranteam Universe is the creation of CorruptingPower, used with permission.

—-

Chapter 21: Accounting

7 December 2020

“You knew this email was coming, AJ. After that speech? I’m kind of surprised it only took two more weeks.” Callie was fixing Adam with a fairly serious glare, and given that he was sitting at his own computer in his room, that took some power to do.

“One, it was a week and a half. Two, I was hopi...

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Crash Course On Heroism Ch. 03

The idea for this one comes from Moonwing.

Chapter 3: Windless Wings

“Home Station, this is Explorer Three Five, status report following unexpected absence.”

I had to resist holding my breath. Even in ideal circumstances, it would be several minutes before any response could come. My voice was being converted to signal by my Computer, sent to my ship’s transmitters, shot at the nearest planetary array, and from there sent Home to do ...

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Becoming Monsters: I'm Blue Ch. 29

Becoming Monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission.

The idea for this story comes from Amethyst Dragonfly.

Chapter 29: Who Went Before

Todd’s crew came out of the guest room that morning to find Abbey and Justin already at the kitchen table with steaming mugs in hand. Both had fairly bemused looks on their faces to go with huge smiles and shy demeanors. May sniffed the air once and smiled just as br...

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Otter Chat: July Update

Welcome to another month!

So, starting with the bad news. My month got off to a really slow start writing-wise. I'm way behind on the word count, almost a chapter behind pace. Going to give it my best, but some of the chapter releases are going to be VERY close things this month. Since this is the case, and I have an ArtFight obligation, the bonus chapter featuring Felix and Simha will likely be coming out in August. Don't be surprised if you see Reina, Cara, and Lea in there, either. T...

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Becoming Monsters: Nine Lives Ch. 3

Becoming Monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission

This idea comes from RetroLeopard.

Chapter 3: Who is This?

Leo stood outside of the bathroom door, sounding concerned. “Come on, Amanda, I said I was sorry!”

“Not good enough!” Amanda, by contrast, sounded really, really angry.

“How was I supposed to know?”

“I’M A FREAKING CANINE, you furball-brained dunce!” This ex...

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Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 55

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

Also of note is that the zoo they are visiting is a real place. Point Defiance and Northwest Trek are awesome, and I’m happy I got to go to them several times while scouting ideas for this chapter, but it takes place at Woodland Park Zoo. View Post

Quaranteam: Remote Work Ch. 20.5

The Quaranteam Universe is the creation of CorruptingPower, used with permission.

I am an Army vet, this is not a secret, and I wanted to write a thing about some stuff I’m pretty sure would have happened. To be honest? I saw wilder stuff than this while I was in if you don’t count the plague. I’ll do my best to minimize the jargon and acronyms that pepper military speech and provide translations and explanations for others, but my apologies for how much remains. In c...

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Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 54

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

This is the first chapter of In The Mirror I have written in six months, since the death of Ai Loves. It is my hope that I continue to do the story justice. To answer the question, this chapter was planned well before her stroke, so the onscreen oc...

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Crash Course On Heroism Ch. 02

The idea for this one comes from Moonwing.

Chapter 2: Getting Back Into It

The hallways of the place I had been carried through bugged me, and it wasn’t because of the ant-like worker drones. Took almost an hour in that bed for me to figure out what it was, too. The walls. They were… not shaped right. You generally found walls that were rectangular or round, depending on how the builders like their aesthetics. Not so these. The floors were <...

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Otter Chat: June

Whew, another month down!

Okay, stuff to chat about. Going to have some opportunity to rush forward with stuff in the back half of this month, but trying to set up to take advantage of it. With luck, I'll be done writing CCOH 2 (2k/4k done), RW 20.5, and 9L 3. Hoping and praying I get the chance to do more forward writing, because I'm trying to get a few important scenes done for In The Mirror.

The next vote coming up (likely around July 4th) is going to be a very telling one. I'...

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Becoming Monsters: I'm Blue Ch. 28

Becoming Monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission.

The idea for this story comes from Amethyst Dragonfly. With special thanks to TheNyxianLily for help brainstorming this time around. Oh, and fans of Forged in Fire might recognize a reference or two in this chapter.

Chapter 28: Evaluation

Dinner wasn’t a particularly chatty affair after all that had gone on that day. Abbey forcing herself to watch ...

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AMA: All The World Ch 03

Chapter 3: Developments

Diane, once again, was as good as her word. She took me to bed, almost literally screwed me unconscious, then woke me up with a blow job the next morning. Her newly-enhanced lips changed the feel of it, much for the better. Her newly-enhanced boobs also felt way better after we had breakfast and she decided to give them a test drive. And her… you know what, you get the point. And the thing is? Every time she did, she got noticeably better at it...

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Quaranteam: Remote Work Ch. 20

The Quaranteam Universe is the creation of CorruptingPower, used with permission.

In addition, I want to issue a huge congratulations to robbygelwood, a regular reader of mine. He set off to quit smoking, and I made a bet with him that if he could go 90 days he could call one shot for my story. A death that happens this chapter was his choice. I’m not nearly invested enough in the particular sport to have made the choice myself.

The RPG appearing onscreen i...

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Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 53

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

“Humble and Kind,” by Tim McGraw, is the life lesson referenced here.

Chapter 53: What to Expect

Marshal Shapiro and Gloria were sitting next to each other on the bus stop bench, on that slig...

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