Montage a Trois Part 3
Congratulations on surviving to another
2025-10-30 20:39:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Spessgot posts
Montage a Trois 2
In the beginning, there was chaos, an unholy cacophony, a mockery of Dharmic practices. In place of a prayer wheel, there hung a bell, a brutal bell, that emptied the mind with every swing. The noise was palpable. Your teeth clenched. Your vision vibrated. Your stomach turned. It was not a wave but a whirlpool. It was not a song but a crisis. There was no pattern to grow accustomed to, just constant, frantic CLANG-ing and an increasingly worrisome wheezing from the studs and joists of the bui...
2025-08-22 18:51:16 +0000 UTC View PostMontage a Trois 1
“Oh, so that’s what it was,” said Maki through a yawn. I’d expected more of a reaction to learning about the rest of the party. “Just friends? No family or lovers?”
We were standing around in the kitchen waiting on the eggs for the Korean street toast Annie requested to finish baking. Maki had arrived just as dawn was breaking with two heavy bags full of everything she’d need for the rest of the week and our trip to Missouri.
“Er, yeah. You…knew?”
“It w...
2025-07-07 23:19:06 +0000 UTC View PostNew Cthonic 9.3
The smell in Best Breakfast was thick with grease from food dunked in oil long months past its change date. Today’s raucous atmosphere had the kitchen churning, belching forth waves of hot air unaffected by the ancient and rattling HVAC system. Clinking cutlery and clashing conversations bounced off the classic steel and checkered-tile aesthetic, blending together into unintelligible noise that rose and fell in irregular waves as more and more came to fill the booths and tables. The dusty j...
2025-06-16 03:07:54 +0000 UTC View PostNew Cthonic 9.2
Did she ask him out on a date?
Nah. That'd be crazy. It was probably a common thing among supers, a sort of 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours.' Women like that were not interested in men like him, especially not when they were fresh from the kennels. Though, she apparently smoked like a chimney, so she may not have noticed the smell. Still, it was wishful thinking – typical small-town behavior; the limited selection made you hot for any new face. She'd have had every man in tow...
2025-06-16 03:06:54 +0000 UTC View PostGrief
Sorry, folks, having a hard time of it. But the good news is I only have so many old friends left and, surely, I won't outlive all of them, so I can't imagine this will happen often.
Been trying to write but it's been, well, you know
I think it's the screen. The screen is too bright. Everything is too bright. If I could turn the dimmer switch down on the world, I think my brain would be much more cooperative.
I never felt such crystalline hope as I did with him. Every dream...
2025-06-09 07:30:15 +0000 UTC View PostNew Cthonic 9.1
IX
Oak Crescent Hunting Lodge stood to the west of Dudlin, stretched palatial across a long ridge overlooking town, such that when the sun set upon the residents, its black silhouette outlined in the dying red light might be the last thing a man saw before dark. Rooms upon rooms, pens and barns for horses, long sloping lawns, tennis courts, carriage houses, and detached farm homes all placed upon their master the burden of a considerable staff. To live here was to defy modesty. To own i...
2025-05-31 19:25:52 +0000 UTC View PostNew Cthonic 8 (full chapter)
VIII: Bridges
“I'm goin' out on the highway
Listen to them big trucks whine
I'm goin' out on the highway
Listen to them big trucks whine
White freight liner
Won't you steal away my mind?”
Marina toe-tapped along to the music despite herself. It was country music, a genre she associated with her childhood bullies, and a live performance at that, complete with a room full of drunks clapping off-beat. But the musician's resigned melancholy enth...
2025-05-23 22:13:44 +0000 UTC View PostWorld of Our Own 3
The gulls were relentless, divebombing her again and again with a single-minded obsession rarely seen in humans. Their hunger could not and would not be tempered by failure or strain. They would keep at their pursuit until they were fed, or their plaque-laden arteries finally gave way. I had to hope it wouldn’t last that long. Annie’s last workout of the day was fun viewing at the moment – it would be considerably less so when she was surrounded by the gory spectacle of seagulls ghoulis...
2025-05-13 01:42:36 +0000 UTC View PostWorld of Our Own 2
I hopped over the ledge onto one of Harbor Hill’s finest spots from a rusted-out fire escape. Wind swept the ragged top of the building in gusts, kicking up gravel and decayed slivers of tar paper over a narrow ledge, and rattling the bolts and dangling supports of an ancient water tower like chimes. It was chilly, and the gulls were making an awful racket, but nothing could dampen my spirits. Below, the streets were defined by grim, industrial brutalism, brick and concrete structures tower...
2025-04-29 02:02:07 +0000 UTC View PostWorld of Our Own 1
The camera hung motionless outside a fogged window forty feet above the cracked sidewalk. Below was blemished and broken concrete, free of any unwilling or unknowing extras. People avoided my block when they could, and when they couldn't, they preferred to cross on the other side of the street. Fear or respect pushed most away, a psychic bubble around my gym and the two trap houses to either side of me. It was fine by me. I was just glad not to have gawkers by the windows; I still hadn't inst...
2025-04-11 15:48:13 +0000 UTC View PostMaster and Apprentice 2
I smirked. “Here?” I was game, but I wanted to be sure.
My influencer student kept a tight control over her online image. She presented herself as a lover of exercise but tried to differentiate herself from most fitness models. Annie didn't offer her body or the way it made her feel physically as the reason to work out, but instead used her personality as an example. Exercise was fun; you didn't need a reason or a goal to do it – movement and challenging yourself made you feel bet...
2025-03-28 17:59:39 +0000 UTC View PostMaster and Apprentice 1
“I’m going to light myself on fire!” I said, ecstatic. This was one of my best ideas yet. “You’ll have to use the blanket to put me out. Each time you’re successful, we’ll cut it in half and sew the two halves together. Once it’s down to the width of my sash, I’ll start to do more than just dodge and poke your openings” I tapped my temple, “Pretty clever, right? A natural progression.”
Annie gave me an exasperated expression, her face poking out from where the fi...
2025-03-28 17:57:44 +0000 UTC View PostNew Cthonic 7
AN: Feeling creatively refreshed recently. I want to do one to two more chapters of this for sure before any potential hiatus. After that, I might try to do both stories for a little before transitioning back full-time to Play Test, or I might take a break to mentally switch back to that world. Will play it by ear.
VII
The chalk sigils made his stones tingle. Not in a puerile way – he barely felt lust anymore – but quite literally. Each arcane rune the ...
2025-03-03 02:14:24 +0000 UTC View PostNew Cthonic 6
VI
The Mountain Prophet was the only station broadcasting from close enough to be listenable these days. The Forestry Service’s horseshit radar grid rendered everything else static from dusk to dawn and scratchy at best during the day. Not that Moose minded; the music was to his taste, and Walton Ennis’s voice was like comfort food for the ears, smooth, rich, and reliable – just what you needed when times got rough.
Moose took a series of deep breaths and weighed the medicin...
2025-02-22 18:35:07 +0000 UTC View PostNew Cthonic 5
V
The world tore asunder to a deafening orchestra of gales foreign to the skies above Pennsylvania. From the low, mournful howls of the Mojave to the humming of Saharan dunes and the relentless fury of the North Sea, a thousand winds sang together to presage the coming of glory of their champion. Hark! They said, Hark and bear witness! She comes!
Marina wobbled her way through the hole in reality at a jogging pace, her shoulders slumped with exhaustion. Addi...
2025-02-17 14:44:34 +0000 UTC View PostNew Cthonic 4
Jake Quigley and his father walked in a tight single file, their headlamps dim and pointed down at the dew-covered ground. A Code Orange hung heavy over the pair, spoiling what would have otherwise been an ideal Friday morning hunting trip. Less than forty miles away, a National Guard drone had spotted a Helcat stalking through the canopy last night, about eight hours ago. That could mean nothing or everything; the beast could be in New York by now, or, it could be here, prowling silently amo...
2025-02-08 19:34:50 +0000 UTC View PostThe First Day of the Rest of Your Week
[Hot Patch]
2025-01-29 02:11:30 +0000 UTC View Post
-Your NPC students can gain a maximum of 10XP times your total Dice in the Attribute or Skill you are using to train them in a day. You can stack different means of training to surpass an individual Attribute or Skill limit, but the Dice Pools must be completely different.
-The longer unspent XP stays in an NPC's reserves, the greater the likelihood that it is reprocessed into organic gains during their sleep.
-You may on...
Interlude: Dr. Nathaniel West, PhD. 2
Forty minutes later, he and Tilde were standing in front of a single cab Ford Ranger, the truck already loaded with equipment for the dive. Victor had brought his pride and joy, a long, heavy walnut staff with three Artifact Tokens invested into it. Why a staff? Because he was a wizard, and wizards had staffs. Granted, he was one of maybe a dozen still rocking the classic staff look, but he was a purist, damn it. Wizards were meant to have staffs. Period.
“Cool stick, bro,” said Rya...
2025-01-15 19:41:25 +0000 UTC View PostInterlude: Dr. Nathaniel West, PhD. 1
AN: This is the first 'main story' Interlude. I wanted to make sure that it came out now at the start of the training week for everyone.
Before the mid-afternoon light or the soft tapping against the reading room door, foreboding startled him awake.
Victor peeled his face off the library table, blinking through the white haze as his eyes adjusted to the waking world. Fear, his constant companion, gripped him, coming on fast and strong. What had the light bl...
2025-01-15 19:39:31 +0000 UTC View PostCharacter Sheet (End of Harbor Hill Lights)
Name: James Li
Archetype: Martial Arts Stunt Performer / Charming Rogue (Human)
Description: James Li is a skilled martial artist and stunt performer, known for his incredible acrobatics and charismatic personality. He combines the daring and physical prowess of Jackie Chan's characters with the wit and charm of a rogue. James is not only a master of martial arts but also a smooth-talker and expert in pulling off daring escapades.
Experience: 518
Health: 26 WP: 11 (Cor...
2025-01-10 03:36:45 +0000 UTC View PostSunday Funday 2
AN: I could have split this to get it out on time, but I thought it worked better as a whole. There's some smut towards the end.
In the background loomed a ruined brick building, the cracks on its face spelling in stylized hanzi ‘That Beast Inside You’. In the foreground stood a man who was twice identifiable as me, having both James’s broad facial features and body as well as Alan’s beard, barely groomed hair, and favorite sunglasses. His right hand was ...
2025-01-08 18:37:26 +0000 UTC View PostSunday Funday
The stairs to Maki’s second-floor University City apartment were marble – slanted, stained, badly lit, and covered in friable chips of peeling wallpaper, but marble all the same. The building was a callback to a time when higher education was reserved for the elites, adorned with Victorian bay windows, ornate gables, and even a tower for those on the top floor. It was a very Maki place for Maki to live, I thought. Although, ideally, she would have had the tower as her bedroom, but you cou...
2024-12-29 19:40:35 +0000 UTC View PostHarbor Hill Lights 4
AN: And without further ado, a return t
2024-12-16 03:09:34 +0000 UTC View PostHarbor Hill Lights 3
AN: No smut in this one, needed another bridge update. Smut in the next and last update for this chapter.
The unusually deep waters where the Beagle met the Atlantic affected atmospheric conditions in strange and unpredictable ways. A submarine canyon began where the river ended with minimal gradient, going from a few hundred feet deep at the mouth of the Beagle to a horrifying six thousand at the outermost boundary of the harbor, with mini-fissures branching out from t...
2024-11-25 18:02:56 +0000 UTC View PostHarbor Hill Lights 2
Chauncey Burn was in the middle of a long-panning shot of the English countryside when I entered the theater, the camera following an early twentieth-century steam train as the opening credits played. It was a hopeful start for the main character's journey with some excellent sound design. The rumble and rattle of a train rolling along the tracks, the clinking of tea cups and saucers, and the click of a cheap latch on a battered suitcase all served to transport you to a differen...
2024-11-18 23:02:14 +0000 UTC View PostSchedule News
Good news (kinda)! Four more weeks of my schedule being fucked and I'll have more time to devote to writing. I'm going to try and hit all four updates for these weeks, though they will probably be coming in irregularly. Thank you so much for your support and patience. As soon as my schedule opens I'm going to do it up big for you all.
2024-11-12 21:33:40 +0000 UTC View PostHarbor Hill Lights
Gunshots, an explosion, and the ensuing pungent cloud of smoke had chased all but the most suicidally unbothered locals inside. Many had sought shelter inside the theater and were now loitering around the lobby, sharing overpriced snacks, playing arcade games, and waffling between whether they wanted to actually watch a movie or not and, if so, which one. They joined the many who were here to enjoy one of the last Friday Evenings left in the year. The days were growing shorter as the season c...
2024-11-04 18:25:40 +0000 UTC View PostOctober Interlude Poll
Edit: After a tight race, Strongest in the World came from behind to take it by a healthy margin. Thanks for all the suggestions; I do still want to write the unnamed NPC POV at some point and will refer back to the comments here.
I was scratching my head over what I wanted to write for the next Interlude. As much as I like the character and world building of the past few Interludes, I want to break it up with a lighter affair both in terms of word count and tone.
Foreplay Noir
A face meant for movies stared back at me from the medicine cabinet mirror, striking and beautiful but with a hard look I recognized from the streets. This was the man whose gaze you avoided on the subway, the hardened triad killer on his way to work, the cop you prayed didn't show up to a call. Then, after an Acting roll, it transformed back into James Li; its eyes gaining a reassuring confidence, its lips quirking up with an easy smile.
“You’re alright,” I said to the refl...
2024-10-29 05:14:48 +0000 UTC View Post