egathentale

The Simulacrum - Chapter 61 - Part 1

There was an odd, tense silence in the dark trophy room, which lasted exactly until the knights outside rammed the barricaded door of the neighboring room for the umpteenth time. The dull sound of the impact made the large man in the middle twitch as if he just woke up and he hastily raised his heavy blade to assume a defensive stance. The squires, as the security guy called them, also overcame their momentary stupor at the same time and bunched together in the doorway. They all raised their ...

Tiny update

Sorry, dear readers. I really should have given you a heads-up sooner, but things are getting a little hectic over here. They just recently found a COVID patient in our neighborhood, with a couple of caretakers of the institute also living nearby and having interacted with her in the past. Because of this, a few people have already been put under quarantine, which in turn made the institute even more understaffed than it already was, so we are currently running emergency shifts again. Though,...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 60 - Part 3

"... and that's why it doesn't matter if you are flesh and blood or not; what really matters is th-ouch!" 

Whatever impassionate speech Josh was delivering came to a screeching halt after I, without sparing a single second for whys and wherefores, immediately slapped him on the back of his head the moment I arrived at the tattered warehouse roof inside the Purple Zone.

"We don't have time for this," I grumbled while gesturing towards the fembot down on one knee not far away f...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 60 - Part 2

When I arrived at the Dracis mansion, I was immediately thrown off-balance by a cacophony of voices. Also, it was pitch black all around me, though my eyes adapted to that one far quicker than my ears did to the noise.  I came over in a hurry and didn't really have the spare time to observe the situation before jumping into the middle of it, but I seriously didn't expect to see all of the household's maids, cooks, and other assorted personnel stuffed into a single room like sardines. The...

Small update

Just a bit of a heads-up: I planned to finish up the chapter by today, but our institute completely freaked out over CoVid once again, and so my workload exploded in the past week. Hopefully I will be able to write on Saturday (I'll have to work, but Saturdays are relatively easy-going, so I will probably be able to dedicate half my workday to typing), but even so, I'm afraid I can't promise anything until Monday-ish. 

That's all for now. Stay safe, and have a nice day, all of you....

The Simulacrum - Chapter 60 - Part 1

Okay Leo, deep breaths. Things are chaotic at the moment, but not unsalvageable. No need to panic. Panic is for horror movie heroines with obnoxiously high-pitched voices, and I sure as hell wasn't one. Let's just observe the situation for a moment before jumping in. As they say, look twice, act once, live considerably longer.

So, let's start with observation number one: Rinne somehow found the secret base, and she was currently wreaking merry havoc in the middle of it. Observation numb...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 59 - Part 2

"{Testing, testing. Can you hear me?}"

"Clear, though not particularly loud," I responded to the voice of Judy that felt like it was coming from right inside my head.

"{How about now?}"

"Much better."

My girlfriend let out an affirmative grunt and moved on to check the connection with the others. In the meantime, I checked the time, followed by a brief Far Glance at Armband Guy. It was already past seven in the evening, but he still didn't notice we have sneaked out of...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 59 - Part 1

 "... and that concludes my explanation of the current situation."

The moment Judy declared so, my living room burst into a mixture of surprised, excited, and occasionally indignant murmurs. On one side, Ammy and Angie were aghast. On the other side, Elly and Snowy were mildly perturbed by the news. Josh was… well, he was zoned out at the moment. Couldn't blame him, even I was a little exhausted after Judy's info-dump and snugly melted into my comfy chair like a deflated balloon....

The Simulacrum - Chapter 58 - Part 2

It's been a while since I've last visited Josh's place. To be precise, it was just before he was kidnapped and the whole school-incident with Crowey. It felt like it happened ages ago because of all the crap we had to deal with recently, but it's only been actually a little more than two weeks since that fateful night. I couldn't help but wonder; was my sense of time out of whack due to my lack of need for sleep? Or was this a normal reaction to shit hitting the fan over and over again? Maybe...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 58 - Part 1

I threw my curtains open to be greeted by the light of the morning sun... except not really, because the sky was still completely overcast. I opened the window as well and stuck a hand outside. 

"Oh great, it's still raining," I grumbled to myself before closing the window and wiping the drizzle off my hands onto the back of my pants. It was such a nice morning too, why couldn't the weather match my mood for once?

I shook my head and put such irrational thoughts aside for the...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 57 - Part 3

Stone walls and eerie blue lights set in fancy wrought iron torch scones. As far as ambience was concerned, the School's private back-entrance got the whole 'medieval dungeon' aesthetic down pat. Well, except for the glowing green 'emergency exit' sign on the ceiling, but few things in this world are perfect. 

All of a sudden, there was a soft sound in the dark as a door opened up to the outside. There was no light coming in, which wasn't surprising, considering it was it ...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 57 - Part 2

"Be sure to rest well."

While saying so, Judy straightened my collar. It was already about as dark as it gets outside, and we both stood under the eaves of my house while she kept fiddling with my clothes, obviously reluctant to leave.

"Don't worry, Dormouse; I'll be fine," I told her as I cupped her outstretched hand in mine and gently squeezed it. "I already took some painkillers, and I don't have a fever yet, so I'll probably live."

"Nevertheless, make sure you take a hot...

Another small update

Hello, Dear Readers. 

In short, over the weekend we were hit by Torrential Rain 2: Electric Boogaloo, and it also resulted in the old (as in, think 150 years plus) enormous walnut tree in our backyard twisting out of the ground. Thankfully it didn't fall towards the house, but it still took down a fence, so I was quite busy taking care of all that over the past couple of days. 

TL;DR: second and third parts are going to be a little late, expect something tomor...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 57 - Part 1

"Oh great, and now it's raining too…" I mumbled under my breath as I held out my hand and felt another small droplet hit my palm. It was barely a drizzle, but considering how dark the clouds were before the sun went down, I had a feeling it was going to get worse. Normally I would have shaken my head in dismay at this point, but that would have only made my pounding headache even worse, so instead I hastened my steps on the sidewalk. 

I could certainly have Phased over to my dest...

Small update

Hello, Dear Readers.

Just a quick update for you: Last week I was on vacation in the mountains, so I didn't really write anything while I was there. Unfortunately, the day after I returned home, our county was hit by the worst torrential rainstorm in seventy years. It caused the local river to flood, which caused a dam to burst, which then took out the local water plant, so we didn't have tapwater for five days. On top of that, the rain also caused multiple lanslides, one of which also...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 56 - Part 3

Okay, calm down, me! So I screwed up. Big deal; wouldn't be the first time it happened. I just have to rely on plan B. So, what is the first step…? Coming up with a B-plan, I suppose.

First things first, let's observe the situation. This might have been wishful thinking, but there was always a chance that things would proceed in an unforeseen direction where I didn't even need to fight the Chimera. Say, it was possible that it wasn't hostile, or that Rinne would take it down in a sing...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 56 - Part 2

So, things were getting complicated. That's not new. No need to be flustered just yet. Let's just look at the situation objectively. 

First off, it looked like Labcoat Guy was laboring under some kind of misunderstanding about why we tricked Armband Guy into coming with our group. He didn't run away though, and he still went through with the ambush, so it's probably not a bad thing. 

As for his other misunderstanding, I can't say the same yet. I have momentarily wondered...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 56 - Part 1

My arrival to the park was as quiet and unceremonious as usual. Once I found my balance after the long-distance Phasing, I glanced around and quickly found my anchor silently trying to hide his considerable bulk behind two trees. I didn't know why he bothered, considering he was covered in the familiar thin film of magical camouflage, but I figured it might have been a habit. Anyhow, after making sure there was nobody else in the vicinity, I stepped up to him, and lightly tapped the cloaked B...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 55 - Part 4

"Goodbye. Dad. Have a safe… Trip!"

Said one wooden and completely unconvincing voice on my left, its owner continuing to hold onto me as if her life depended on it even while she was bidding a teary farewell to her father. On an unrelated note, I couldn't feel my left arm anymore. Was it a good or a bad thing that I was getting used to that?

"Thank you! My dear daughter! Daddy is going to be back! In a few weeks!"

Replied a much louder, yet at the same tim...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 55 - Part 3

Slowly. Very, very slowly. The trick was to move with deliberate, smooth movements and— Okay, that's one side done. Now, I just had to move this arm to the side a little aaaand...

"Finally..." I whispered under a breath of relief, and then I promptly slipped down the side of the bed. However, the moment my foot touched the floor, my whole body stiffened in alarm.

"Mmm..."

Holding my breath like my life depended on it, I warily glanced over to my left, towards the source of...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 55 - Part 2

""Welcome home, master!""

What can I say? The sight that greeted me when I arrived home was… new. Yes, let's go with that. I would be lying if I said I wasn't fully expecting this, yet I still had to stop and take a shallow breath to find my proverbial center before I resolved myself to step through the front door of my house.

"Hello, girls," I nonchalantly greeted the two french maids giving me deferential bows right in the middle of my entryway with. Needless to say, while I w...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 55 - Part 1

"All right, we patrolled the university district. Can I go now?"

Even though I just addressed her, Rinne paid no attention to me, and instead she continued to sniff the air like a bipedal bloodhound. 

At last, she looked at me and declared, "We must go that way. I smell something we have to investigate."

I followed her line of sight, and after a short beat, I glanced back at her without even trying to disguise my trepidation. "You mean, from the direction of the hot dog...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 54 - Part 3

I checked my phone one more time as I was waiting for Josh by the shoe lockers. It was a little after four, and I have been standing around while twiddling my thumbs for a little more than fifteen minutes at this point. Last I checked on him, Josh almost finished his customary verbal sparring session with Armband Guy, so I figured he should be coming my way soon. I wished he would hurry up a bit, but then again, I was also a bit of an aficionado when it came to the craft of heckling people I ...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 54 - Part 2

"This is such bullshit…" I grumbled under my breath as I made my way back to the man building. I was lucky that no one was around at this point, otherwise they might have thought I was some kind of weirdo mumbling to himself… but then again, the fact that I was doing that meant that maybe I was one? I left that conundrum to be solved by hindsight, and instead I continued to happily fume without being disturbed by anyone.

The reason behind my foul mood was naturally the tenn...

Further update and a little bonus

Hello, Dear Readers!

I know that you are probably waiting for the update really impatiently, but this is unfortunately not it. I promised something by last Sunday, but I was completely knocked out and spent most of the day sleeping, and didn't have any time to write in the last two days due to work being even more brutal than usual.

Fortunately my emergency shifts are over for the time being, and I will even have a break until next Wednesday, so hopefully can finally finish up t...

Status update and apologies

Hello, Dear Readers.

As you might have noticed, the chapter updates are late again. For that I sincerely apologize, but in my defense, things are batshit crazy over here right now.
In short, another colleague of mine got seriously sick, leading to emergency-shifts within the already emergency shift rotation, so right now I am on my fifth consecutive 12 hours shifts, and I have one more tomorrow, after which I get one single day off, followed by another three days of work.
On th...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 54 - Part 1

I never thought I would say this, but it was true: once exposed to enough strange things, it was the simple days of mundane, everyday life that would start feeling uncanny instead. Take this day for example. It was already after school, with most of the placeholder classmates well on their way home, yet absolutely nothing unusual happened till now. No sudden info dumps by random creeps, no unexpected knightly transfer students, no silly and yet extremely dramatic invasion by super-intelligent...

The Simulacrum - Volume 2 - Extra 3 - Contingency Plans

It was around five in the afternoon when the young scientist, still wearing his multicolored collar-armor-cum-shoulder-guard over his usual white lab coat, stormed into the commons room of the hidden Research Society workshop. It was a small, yet surprisingly cozy room, with a well-lit interior, several comfortable-looking navy-blue beanbag chairs arranged around a simple wooden coffee table, a water cooler in the corner, an honest to goodness antique cuckoo-clock on the wall, and even a siza...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 53 - Part 3

"[Ah? It is you, Blackcloak.]" The Faun ex-general immediately perked up the moment I arrived and, with the help of his usual spear, he rose up from his crouching position with slow, deliberate motions, shedding the orange film of light covering his body in the process. Once he stood straight, he raised a fist to his chest in the customary salute and added, "[Greetings to you.]"

"[I wish a delightful evening upon you as well, general,]" I returned the courtesy with a smile, and the ram-...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 53 - Part 2

"This... actually wasn't nearly as bad as I expected," Judy spoke up the moment the credits started rolling. She snuggled a little closer to me under the blanket covering us and added, "I want a refund."

"For what?" I asked while shifting my posture a little to accommodate her. My couch was big, but it was not quite large enough for three people with their legs tucked under them.

"For false advertising," my girlfriend answered with transparently fake indignation. "I was told we wo...