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The Simulacrum - Chapter 125 - Part 1

"I'm sooo pooped…" whined a certain Celestial girl as she fell onto the bed like a sack of potatoes.

"Tell me about it," his boyfriend muttered with overplayed trepidation as he removed his helmet and placed it onto the nightstand.

"Boo! You only had to stand around!"

"Precisely! I've been standing all day!" Josh argued back and sat down on the bed as well. "My legs are killing me…"

"At least you didn't have to play nice with all of those creepy bureaucrats," Angie...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 124 - Part 3

The home of Lord Amadeus Endymonion of Timaeus was pretty big. Not nearly as humongous or lavish as the Dracis estate, but to be fair, few private buildings were. Nevertheless, it still had its fair share of shady nooks and crannies, seemingly purpose-built to have hushed discussions about private, secretive, or even borderline clandestine topics.

Yet, the class rep chose to cross-examine me in the middle of a well-lit hallway. Go figure.

"Do you mean the big box with all the reco...

The Simulacrum - Volume 6 Extra 5: The Rumour Mill Keeps Grinding Away

(This chapter takes place after Ch.123. Major spoilers for the $1 patrons. Proceed with caution.)

The life of a Praetorian Guard wasn't glamorous. As the honour guards of a certain Second True Archon, they received plenty of respect from your average Celestial, yet at the end of the day, they were still soldiers. It was a post with great responsibility and prestige, yet as members of a brand new branch of the Celestial military, their position in the hierarchy was shaky at best, and b...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 124 - Part 2

I had to say, at the risk of sounding clichéd, that the next two days flew by in the blink of an eye. Between the preparations to take Angie on her Grand Elysium Tour (not my title for the event; in fact, it was invented by the Directorate), pushing away all the bootlickers trying to get into her good graces, and keeping an eye on the two lovebirds to make sure they don't cause another Deus overload, I could barely surface long enough to catch a breath. At least things on Critias were procee...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 124 - Part 1

"Aaah! I'm burning! I'm gonna die!"

Sighing, I turned to the girl lying on her belly on the bed. She had her head buried into a pillow, and her muffled cries were barely legible under all the muffling and the noise of her feet hammering against the mattress like she was pretending to be swimming.

"The cringe! It burns!"

Oh. And now she started rolling around while firmly holding the pillow against her face. Left and right, left and right.

"Agck!"

Then she almost ...

The Simulacrum - Volume 6 Extra 4: Cohabitation

Sometimes, life was unpredictable.

…

That was about as banal as a truism could get, wasn't it? Let's try again.

Sometimes, life was like a housecat. Generally agreeable, but the moment you didn't pay attention to it, it would shit on the carpet, destroy your furniture, and eat all your petunias.

…

No, that didn't sound right either, and the whole analogy kind of ran off the rails at the end. Okay, let's give this one another try. Third time's the charm.

The Simulacrum - Chapter 123 - Part 3

"So you do have bottled water…"

Angie's whispers turned a few heads in the hallway, though even more eyes were drawn to the supremely smug woman grinning by our side. She was the vice director of something or the other who brought me a drink after I got out of Teeny's magic cocoon thing. Her name was Advanced Tire… or something along those lines. I didn't care enough to make a mental note of her, but it sounded about right.

On the flip side, she looked like her delive...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 123 - Part 2

After what, to the unaffiliated eye, appeared to be a very intense round-robin-style Celestial roshambo tournament (pretty much the same rules, but with different finger gestures), it was decided that sci-fi-guy would serve as Josh's first opponent on the training field.

"I don't know, man… I don't like this…" my friend griped in a low voice, so I patted him on the back for encouragement.

"Don't stress it. Consider this an opportunity to get used to combat as a Celestial."

Status Update

Hello, dear readers.

Long story short, I ran into some technical difficulties. I decided to upgrade my PC a little (namely the CPU and the memory), and it caused me quite some headache. Just to give you the basic beats:

-Install new CPU.
-System doesn't start.
-Turns out, despite what the shop said when I originally bought this machine two years ago, they didn't update the mobo's BIOS, so it wasn't compatible with the new CPU.
-Take out the new CPU and put the old one ba...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 123 - Part 1

As our tour of the settlement came to an unceremonious end, we relaxedly made our way back to the tower at the head of our unnecessarily large processions of guards. I rationally knew why they thought this was necessary; they were keeping a close eye on us because everyone was still afraid of Bel and his mysterious ability to freely invade the Elysium. Of course, I also knew that it was a moot concern, and it made all the mother henning all the more tiresome.

"Why do we have to walk?" A...

Fantasy Economics 101 - Chapter 11

When in doubt, ask an expert

"Ah! Welcome home, Mister Raol!"

The skeleton froze momentarily, just as he was about to step through the threshold of the familiar cottage in the woods.

Home. Was Elkayla's hermitage his home, he wondered as he belatedly entered. It was certainly the closest thing he had to such a thing at the moment, and returning from New Reedcourt certainly made him feel relieved. In a sense, just the fact that he considered it 'returning' should have been ...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 122 - Part 4

"This is insanity!"

For the sake of punctuation, the bespectacled chief director slammed his fist on the table. The sound of the impact echoed impotently in the familiar meeting room, and the other man sitting across the table soon cleared his throat. It was a familiar scene, a clandestine congregation between Mensah and Tsephanyah, with the only exception of foregoing those ridiculous cowls for once.

The silence following the younger man's outburst lasted remarkably long, but at ...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 122 - Part 3

"Uaaah! Look, Josh! Look! It's so pretty!"

Josh followed the direction Angie was pointing with her arm fully extended, and let out an ambivalent grunt.

"It's… something, all right," he responded, sounding profoundly unenthusiastic, but his girlfriend didn't seem to mind.

I had to give it to her though; the white tower dominating the horizon looked impressive indeed in the light of the morning sun. Or sun-simulation, but let's not get bogged down in that topic again.

...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 122 - Part 2

Gazing through the large windows in front of me, I watched the sun slowly rise above the horizon of the Elysium. It wasn't just the beginning of a new day, but a new month as well. If I wanted to be cheeky, I could've even added 'a new era' to that list, lampooning this whole Deus situation, but I was way too tired for that. My eyes lazily swept the landscape in front of me, and I let my mind wander and ask obvious questions. Such as, was that a real Sun?

For all intents and purposes, i...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 122 - Part 1

I'd had many hectic days in the past, but this one was easily in the top three. I had to fight a stupid off-brand Chimera, rescue Josh and Angie, the latter turned out to be the reincarnation of the Celestials' long-deceased cult leader, and I even had to participate in a parade! All in all, I was feeling sick and tired, so I felt like I entirely deserved a bit of downtime.

Case in point, a pleased breath escaped my mouth, entirely involuntarily, as I was lying on the princess's bed wit...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 121 - Part 3

The air in the living room of my Celestial suite felt heavy. Borderline suffocating. Just not for me.

Despite her initial bravado, Director Savir's demeanour went through a radical shift once she sat down, no doubt thanks to Mountain Girl. Even now, her glare could be felt through her featureless helmet. Was this that 'killing intent' thing lots of martial arts stories liked to make into a supernatural power, I wondered?

"Could we discuss things in private?" Savir asked the moment...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 121 - Part 2

My mind was still a mess by the time I returned to my quarters, using the tried and true 'Phase out of the elevator' method to speed things up and to avoid any prying eyes. Since I had Josh in the apartment, I could arrive directly without having to manually Phase across the tower one storey at a time.

"Josh!"

"What!?" my friend yelped in surprise and poked his head through the walk-in wardrobe's door, only to freeze the moment he laid his eyes on us. "Holy crap! What happened?" 2023-08-18 15:07:24 +0000 UTC View Post

The Simulacrum - Chapter 121 - Part 1

"… Goddamit, man! Couldn't you do that without giving me a heart attack!?" the guy griped the moment I took my hand off his mouth.

"Just answer the question," I urged him, and after circling his head around, Josh's whole body shook as if he just made a realization and he grabbed my shoulder.

"Right! We don't have time for this! We need to find Angie!"

"Wait, she's here too?" I was just about to Far Glance at him, but he shook me. "Cut that out!"

"No, you don't unders...

Fantasy Economics 101 - Chapter 10

If Knowledge is Power, Then Does That Make a Library a Battery?

In the end, it took well over two days for Raol to gain access to the town library of New Reedcourt. The process was much more involved than his adventurous acquaintances first implied and required explicit permission from both the leader of the Adventurers' Guild, the major of the town, and even the captain of the guards. Fortunately, all of that seemed to be nothing more than the remnants of an old bureaucratic process,...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 120 - Part 4

"This is insanity!" Director Mensah hissed, holding his head in his hands, much to his co-conspirators' annoyance. "That was an antique, second-generation Colossus, in mint condition!"

"Don't be so melodramatic, Dolion," Director Savir scoffed at him and would've probably said more if not for a small hitch in the road causing their ride to shake.

In keeping with the stupidly anachronistic theme of the Elysium, the three head directors were riding a simple horse-drawn carriage righ...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 120 - Part 3

So, first things first, let's assess the current situation.

My honour guard fell back, as instructed, and formed a perimeter that enclosed me and this Colossus thing. According to Mike's father, the elite Seraphic Safeguard needed some time to prepare a specialized weapon or tool or something to take down the big fella. Let's say, fifteen minutes. I was in good condition, with two legendary weapons and a reasonably optimized suit of physical enhancements powering me up, plus thanks to t...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 120 - Part 2

The tension in the overlook was… nowhere to be found.

I mean, was that it? Really?

My eyes narrowed on their own as I scrutinized Director Savir's face, but her expression remained perfectly still, locked in a cordial smile and pretending she was perfectly innocent. At most, she looked a little smug, as if she blindsided me by this development… which she admittedly did, but… I was expecting more.

Was this really all she was planning? Thinking so, I glanced at ...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 120 - Part 1

Despite the very ominous super-secret conspiracy of the Celestial top brass brewing in the background, the next couple of days were fairly uneventful. While I would've liked to uproot them ASAP, there was still a lot of groundwork to be done, and I had no idea how the Narrative would react to any attempt to overthrow the three scheming faction heads. In the best-case scenario, it would've led to general chaos and a new plot development sucker-punching me in the gut for my trouble. In the wors...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 119 - Part 4

The turmoil on the island, caused by my initial disappearance, calmed down remarkably fast once I revealed myself to my inner circle about a week ago. Over time, things returned to business as usual, Blue Cherry High opened its gates again, and after I put Sir Percival in custody, I let my sisters return home and attend as usual, though not without doubling the Kage ninjas on shift around the district, to make sure no ne'er-do-well would bother them while I was away.

There was no shorta...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 119 - Part 3

"I'm really not cut out for this…"

My silent grumbles were hidden under the noise of the door to my quarters opening, and as soon as I stepped through, I could hear a shuffling noise. Glancing over, I found Mountain Girl standing ramrod straight by the couch. When our eyes met (presumably, as she was wearing her helmet), her posture immediately loosened and she greeted me with a hint of relief.

"Oh, it's Leonard-dono this time. Welcome back."

"This time?" I echoed her as I...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 119 - Part 2

"So, you created a scene, scared everyone, and threatened five arch-mages of the Assembly into submission. At the same time," Judy nonchalantly noted while resting her head in my lap.

After that previous stunt, I decided to take a break before heading back to the Elysium, and we were in Elly's room at the moment. I was sitting on her bed, Judy was lying on her back with her head on my thigh, and the princess was currently draped over me, hugging me from behind. It was pretty cosy, but I...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 119 - Part 1

"As you can tell, I'm perfectly fine," my holographic display version explained, followed by a sigh. "I originally wished to let you know in a more controlled manner, but thanks to a certain someone, I guess it's a public announcement now."

I counted to three in my head, and then did a theatrical scraping bow, and held the pose while my face over the crystal ball rolled its eyes and added, "That wasn't a compliment!"

Chuckling, I straightened my back, and my coat, and pre...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 118 - Part 4

Over the last couple of months, I've developed a deep and profound respect for stage magicians.

It was an impressive art form, and on this point, I believe most would readily agree with me. Yet, at the same time, it wasn't viewed with the same kind of prestige as, say, a Broadway actor or a ballet dancer was. Maybe because the profession was simultaneously associated with Las Vegas casinos and children's birthday parties at the same time, I wondered?

Whatever the case might have b...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 118 - Part 3

No matter how I looked at it, our makeshift dungeon was living up to its namesake quite admirably. The air of the chamber was stale and smelling faintly of urine, thanks to the authentic wooden bucket latrine in the corner of the only 'cell' in use.

Unfortunately, the torches had to go, as while they really helped to tie the ambience of the place together, without any windows to the outside and only a single vent, carbon-dioxide buildup became an issue. As such, while it didn't really f...

The Simulacrum - Volume 6 Extra 3: The Calm Before the Storm

I often liked to use the proverb, ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’. It’s short, snappy, and adequately profound, and served me until this day… but I had a feeling its time in the limelight was slowly but surely coming to an end.

Looking back at the past half year, things have definitely changed in non-insignificant ways. Even if I ignored all the political turmoil I may or may not have sparked, there was still a lot to talk about. I started out with a blank ...