“What do you think about this one?” asks Basil, coming out of the dressing room of the tailor’s shop.
Fresh looks up from the shelf that she’s browsing through. “It looks really great, Basil!”
Basil sighs, but smiles. “You said the same thing about the last three.”
“They all look great on you!” says Fresh, pulling out a dress to look at. By the time she looks back up, Basil has already vanished back into the dressing room....
2021-09-04 10:18:27 +0000 UTC
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As you can see, I am putting your generous donations to good use. I commissioned these three cute drawings for the different Patreon tiers! =)
2021-09-04 06:50:47 +0000 UTC
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Canta wakes up.
It hurts.
A mass of bodies lays on top of him. Soggy, damp flesh presses itself against his own, their dead-weight laying down on top of him. Their unmoving mouths are still full of the constantly regenerating flesh that they were tearing from him while he slept. They tore through his clothes, tore through his meat. Maggots crawl over them all, over the flesh that is both inside and outside of his body. Maggots crawl inside of his organs, insi...
2021-09-03 19:03:35 +0000 UTC
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“That’s the last of it,” says Jubilee, dusting their hands as the last of the water splashes out of Fresh’s open inventory. The four of them stand in the cleared out basement. “With all of these materials and our money, we’ll be up and running in a couple of days, when we get there.”
“It’s certainly nice to have some advance warning,” says Basil, nodding as she looks around the room. “But what are we going to do with the building now?” she asks. “Wit...
2021-09-03 09:15:02 +0000 UTC
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Jubilee draws a line down over the crude map on the table. “We’ll head down this way, we’re gonna have to dip into the south a little,” they explain. “But only about a day’s worth of walking, it’ll be fine.”
“Can’t we just go around the center, to the north?” asks Basil, a little worried about this proposition.
Jubilee shakes their head. “With our luck, some rider will be heading between the north and the center and end up recognizing ...
2021-09-02 13:00:39 +0000 UTC
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Everything goes white.
Annelida stares out of the window of their house, looking over the barren fields which stretch from before their door, out to as far as her eyes can see. She sighs, lowering her head to rest it down on top of her arms, which are crossed over the windowsill.
There hasn’t been any rain for weeks, the harvest isn’t going to make it if something doesn’t happen soon. But at least her husband is coming back from the city this week. She ...
2021-09-01 13:30:37 +0000 UTC
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“What do you mean ‘he left’?” asks Fresh, staring up at the familiar fairy, who looks out of the fairy-house hanging in the branches above the grave that she had dug.
The fairy from the tailor’s shop, Tarja, looks down at her from out of a small, open window. “He left,” she says again. “Flew right off the mountain.”
“Oh no…” says Fresh, looking distraught at her friends. Jubilee stands there with crossed arms, leaned back against a tre...
2021-09-01 11:56:11 +0000 UTC
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The four of them walk around town together, having decided to take a stroll to really see the sights one last time. Though, the ‘decision’ wasn’t exactly that for everyone. Fresh had to beg and plead with Jubilee, in order to convince them to go outside with the rest of them. Jubilee had joked that it was embarrassing to be seen out in public with them. Fresh cried.
After that, Jubilee had little choice but to give in. They really are getting soft.
“W...
2021-08-31 08:55:27 +0000 UTC
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Canta runs out of the door, stepping out of the buzzing house and out into the world. The moment he breaks out through the barrier, he stumbles. His eyes can’t keep up with his feet.
The dry, but fertile golden wheat that had surrounded them on all sides is now gray. The ruby-red, heartwarming sunshine which had painted the entire world with its joyful magnificence, is gray. Canta blinks, trying to decipher if he’s gone color-blind, but when he turns around, he sees that ...
2021-08-30 19:04:22 +0000 UTC
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Fresh rolls the boss-core back and forth over her workbench as she thinks, unsure of what to do. More aptly said, it’s not that she doesn’t know what she wants to do, it’s just that she isn’t sure if she should do it. This moment of quiet contemplation on her part, she realizes, would be considered a miracle by Jubilee, who would have no hesitation in telling her exactly that.
She sighs. But is it really her choice to make? She can make the item. There’s nothing wro...
2021-08-30 15:42:59 +0000 UTC
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Their time together on the mountain is slowly coming to an end. And now, there is the potential to add a new, yet still somewhat unfamiliar, member to their party before they go.
Should Fresh try and find a way to allow Veli to travel with them, or are they better off keeping their circle tight-knit? =)
2021-08-30 10:17:59 +0000 UTC
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Canta sniffs the air. Something smells weird.
The tall yellow wheat-fields which seem to stretch on forever and ever, like the water of the boundless ocean that they had seen weeks before, billows from here to as far as Canta can see. The haze of the autumn sunshine covers the canvas of the world, which almost appears to be painted entirely out of two warm colors. Gold from the wheat and ruby-red from the sun.
It’s peaceful here and that peaceful sensation ...
2021-08-29 19:03:55 +0000 UTC
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Fresh lets out a pitiful yelp as her lower back painfully pops. Her fingers, touching her toes, twitch for a flash of a second as the jolt shoots through her. She hangs there for a moment, feeling the stretch run up through the back of her legs. She realizes that she can barely touch her toes. She feels like she should be able to, ideally.
Slowly rising back upright, she lifts her hands into the air and rises up onto the tips of her toes, stretching upwards towards the ceilin...
2021-08-29 08:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The far-west is different.
“Hold still!” says Canta, tugging on Alleluia’s shoulder to pull her head back straight. She spares him the noises and jokes this time as he fiddles around with her body.
“Sorry honey, I saw a cricket,” she explains. “I was hoping it would go ‘ie ie ie’,” says Alleluia, bending her index finger with each enunciation. Canta does his best not to laugh, but a huff of air escapes him anyways, as he pulls the f...
2021-08-28 18:02:26 +0000 UTC
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The magistrate looks at Fresh, sitting on the chair across from her in an unusual moment of quiet rest, as he swirls the bottle of coughee around in his hands, considering her request.
“It’s unusual,” he explains. “I don’t think anything like this has happened before.” His eyes wander up to the ceiling. His haggard, overworked face is covered by several days worth of stubble. “Are you sure about leaving? You guys were making a real splash here.”
...
2021-08-28 08:30:07 +0000 UTC
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Tufts of smoke loosely billow past them, the vapors of the cremation pushing past his nose, settling on his skin and further dirtying it with the destruction that they leave in their wake.
It’s been another day. Canta still hasn’t slept.
He pushes himself up off of the ground, sweat dripping down his shaking arms as he stares with wide eyes down at the dirt beneath himself. He breathes in, taking in a large amount of the loosely drifting particulate.
<...
2021-08-27 18:36:41 +0000 UTC
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Fresh and Basil stand there, holding a set of poles that they’ve submerged into the water of the river. Basil had asked if this was really a priority task right now. Her question received no more answer than the, perhaps, most venomous glare from Fresh that the priestess had ever received.
Obviously, this was a critical task that needed to be taken care of immediately. It was already long overdue.
Fresh pulls the hooked pole of the water, hoisting another w...
2021-08-27 07:24:52 +0000 UTC
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A raspy breathing fills the room. The air that the man inhales pushes through his throat releasing a sound akin to a metal file against rock. With every falling of his chest, another scratching exhalation leaves his nearly lipless mouth, pushing over his blackened teeth. He doesn’t scream. He doesn’t blink, not having eyelids anymore. His eyes are milky and ruined.
All he has, is the rising and the falling of his breast, which only ever does so in short, quick motions. An...
2021-08-26 19:15:16 +0000 UTC
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Fresh runs around the basement, gathering up everything that they could possibly need during their travels and in their new destination, leaving only the necessities of what they might need here for the coming days. She doesn’t know how long it will be, but Jubilee is right. They need to be ready this time.
Boxes of magic-crystals, ice-drake scales, snowman eyes, iron bars, copper bars, crystal-drakonium, tools, glass weapons. Literally anything that she can get her hands o...
2021-08-26 07:49:38 +0000 UTC
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Going to the village would offer a potential new ability for Canta if he consumes the sin there, but it also carries the inherent risk of them being found. Otherwise, they could avoid the settlement and keep traveling through the backlands until they find something else, it's wiser, but not as adventurous.
What do you think? =)
2021-08-25 15:04:44 +0000 UTC
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The two of them walk for a while, always sticking to the side-roads that lead through the forest and then ducking into the woods occasionally. In all honesty, Canta has no idea where they’re going.
After some discussion during the morning, they realize that they both have no idea where the demon-king actually, physically is. Canta does know however, that there are multiple towns and cities further away. Many of them are not associated with the church. But those would be the...
2021-08-25 14:27:44 +0000 UTC
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*NYAAAAH~!* shouts Mr. Mushroom, releasing his sonorous war-cry as he charges into battle. For some reason, he’s wearing a cape. Fresh sits on top of him, holding on to the leather reins as he charges through the dungeon, trampling through hordes of tiny, little wizards, all dressed in red, sending them flying in all directions. The ones that he misses, Fresh gets instead by lightly bonking them on the head with a white-wooden staff, adorned with a childishly crafted golden star, a...
2021-08-25 09:15:10 +0000 UTC
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The underground storm-runoff tunnels are entirely dark and light-less, save for the odd, sparse ray of light that somehow has managed to find its way down to the underground, often shining through a grate or a broken surface above. Other glows come from splashes of old potions that have disconcertingly started glowing for reasons unknown. Thankfully, they have the lantern to guide them through the rest of the darkness.
The two of them run through the sewer for a while. To Can...
2021-08-24 18:30:22 +0000 UTC
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Fresh darts around behind the counter, running past all of her friends as she works on carving the delivery-chute into the rock surface behind the wall. It’s an odd construction project, but Jubilee is right in their assessment that it will optimize their repair process. Plus, with the new deliveries of herbs coming in today from the first fairies, they needed a way to get the baskets out of the way quickly. The idea is simple enough.
A hole will go into the wall behind the...
2021-08-24 09:08:53 +0000 UTC
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“Hold still!” hisses Canta in a loud whisper, as he tugs on a piece of metal in her leg, trying to bend it back into place.
Alleluia holds her hands to her cheeks. “Honey! You’re so deep inside of me!”
“Will you cut it out!” snaps Canta, trying to fix the broken pieces of her body. “Somebody’s going to hear us!”
After escaping the cathedral, the two of them ran down alley after alley, most of which were thankfully empty th...
2021-08-23 18:58:35 +0000 UTC
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Fresh supposes that she has been afraid to use any of her curses for a while now. Not since the north. Maybe because of the mental connection to the somewhat traumatizing events that had taken place there, or maybe because she just doesn’t want to make any trouble for her friends or to upset this life of theirs any more than she already has.
But as she stands there on the balcony, during the early morning, looking through the telescope at the brightening sky spreading out o...
2021-08-23 09:19:24 +0000 UTC
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Canta stares out of the window of their bedroom, his hands behind his back as he looks down over the night-washed courtyard, which lies far below them.
It’s been two days since that breakfast. At first, he was convinced that this was some further layer of the odd dream that he had had the other night. But now, after this passing time, he is sure that this is reality. That troubles him even more than the alternative, as he now spends his sleepless nights racking his brain.
2021-08-22 19:15:45 +0000 UTC
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“A nest?” asks Veli after being asked by Fresh about the thing in the basement. It is past closing time, the last customers have left. Veli scratches his head, looking around the shop, clearly a little uncomfortable.
“Out with it,” snaps Jubilee, their fingers tapping against the counter in agitation. They seemed to have taken the news quietly at first, after Fresh had told them about it during the day. But now that everyone is gone, their tenseness seems to rise to t...
2021-08-22 11:02:57 +0000 UTC
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Sin-Eater 27 has been drastically rewritten from the original Patreon version =)
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/44330/sin-eater/chapter/742312/chapter-27-proclivity
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Canta stands in the candle-lit great-hall, staring up at bishop Zacaries Montero. It is dark outside. The doors of the hall are ...
2021-08-21 18:10:39 +0000 UTC
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Fresh cups her gloved hands, blowing another tuft of ash forward over the crystal marbles on the table. This doesn’t help the already dusty basement become any less of a nose-itching mess, but it does complete the process of enchanting the marbles.
It is late in the morning of the next day. The rains continue and business is just as slow as yesterday, so Fresh has snuck away to do some more crafting downstairs.
Shamrock has volunteered to sweep up the basem...
2021-08-21 08:37:01 +0000 UTC
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