elizabeth_oswald

CA Chapter Thirty-five

“Never. Again.”

Alpha and Tess were sitting in the stream near their original campsite. They had removed their acid-eaten gear, and were only wearing the non-removable underwear all Veritas avatars started with. She didn’t know about Tess, but Alpha was pretty sure her kit was damaged beyond repair, unless she could somehow find a Master-level Tailor and Leatherworker who were willing to work for next to nothing.

Tess laid her head back in the pleasantly cool water,...

CA Chapter Thirty-four

The thing was enormous. From a distance, it was shaped something like a person, with a main ‘body’, and five protrusions that were generally arm, leg, and head-shaped. The ‘head’ even looked like it was wearing a hat. As it drew nearer, however, they saw that the face was completely smooth and featureless, and while it had a pattern on its surface that was reminiscent of blue overalls, a long-sleeved red shirt, and brown boots, that was all it was… a pattern. It held a pitchfork tha...

CA Chapter Thirty-three

Alpha and Tess were both grimy again, but Vexxx was so caked in putrescence that he developed a sort of crust which would crack and fall off as he moved or spoke. A fact which he constantly reminded them of even as he summoned lightning to zap each of the Porkcubes.

“I have a Filthy debuff. I didn’t even know that was, like, a thing, man,” the mage whined as Alpha used yet another sword dipped in ash to slice open a ‘pig’. They’d discovered that Vexxx’s lightning ...

CA Chapter Thirty-two

Alpha had never particularly enjoyed fighting in Veritas Online. A long time ago, in a different life, she had played a support character, helping her friends and guild mates from the back, while they dove into battle. Once she was reborn as Alpha, she had had to be able to do everything herself, painfully aware that she couldn’t count on anyone else to be there for her. She had slogged through thousands of solo battles, all carefully calculated to allow her to level at the best po...

CA Chapter Thirty-One

“...pha! Alpha! Use [Turn Ally], or he’s going to die!” Myles’ voice drove through her consciousness, and she hazily became aware of her surroundings. First, she realized she could see again. Then she realized that the arm she held was too large to be Toggle’s, and the blood tasted of… guava? Passion fruit? Something tropical, but definitely not raspberry.

Pieces fell into place with an almost audible click, and she shoved Vexxx’s arm away. It flopped limply onto ...

CA Chapter Thirty

Three in-game days later, there was still no sign of Uncle George. Fortunately, there was plenty to do to keep busy, and Amy was improving by leaps and bounds now that she was aware and working with them. Tess and Vexxx had logged on, been amazed by Amy’s improvement, and logged out again once they’d been told about the gelatinous cubes and the plan to eradicate them, and realized there wasn’t much they could do to hurry it along. Fortunately, they each set the same instructions for the...

Anyone down for a convention?

I have some stickers, and I'm hoping to have magnets and buttons as well. And, y'know, books. Though honestly, I barely sell enough physical books to break even, so cons are all about handing out free bookmarks, and maybe a little merch? Whattaya think?

CA Chapter Twenty-nine

“Amy came up with the cube farm idea not long after they started development of Veritas,” Myles explained as they walked back toward the camp. “She heard someone call the cubicles on the second floor a ‘cube farm’, and she thought it would be hilarious to make a farm literally populated by cubes.” He rolled his eyes. “Bridge said it wasn’t realistic and didn’t fit with the ‘theme of the game’, but she always takes things too seriously.”

“So you decided...

CA Chapter Twenty-eight

The next morning, Alpha woke to find herself alone with Toggle. She sat up, rubbing her gritty eyes, and looked at the gnome, who had rekindled the fire and was cooking some kind of eggs on top of a thin, flat rock.

“Toggle?” she asked, her mind chugging slowly as she tried to figure out what was wrong. Vexxx and Tess had school and work. Amythyst was… probably furious, or hurt, or both. Still, there was something else bothering her. What was it?

Throwing back the c...

CA Chapter Twenty-seven

Three hours later, Alpha was thoroughly sick of songs about hats, barges, and absolutely anything involving horses or sunsets. Toggle attempted to teach them a tune about ‘Gnome Cooking’, and another where each verse detailed how to make a particular poison or trap, which he said all gnomelings learned when they were children. Unfortunately, gnomish music more closely resembled atonal chanting, and even Tess’ off-key attempts at singing were slightly better. Myles, of course, knew every...

Grimalkin Cover Take 2

What do you think of this one? I know it's better, but in spite of the (many) hours I've spent working on it, I'm still not sure about it. I know that part of it is the difference between the cats and castle and the background overall, but I'm having to rely on AI art, and... I don't know.

Whoops! Time for a retcon

When I came up with the idea for Veronica's favorite show, 'Babble-On', I thought noir singing baby detectives were hilarious... but I forgot Ava's supposed to have some trauma around music, and there's no way she would have watched it. So, I'm still going with noir baby detectives, but sadly, it will no longer be a musical. This will be important in the next chapter, because otherwise you're going to go "Waaaaiiit..." I'll go fix those chapters now, but it should just be a matter of...

CA Chapter Twenty-six

Thirty-one minutes and seventeen seconds later, Alpha stared at the wooden door that led to the final chamber. Myles, of course, had gotten to his door in less than ten minutes, which left Alpha as the ‘last man standing’. As she placed a hand on the cool metal handle, she paused and looked down at Toggle. The gnome’s skills had been invaluable in getting her there so quickly, but now he was looking lost and a little forlorn.

Releasing the handle, she crouched down beside him, loo...

CA Chapter Twenty-five

Vexxx let out a horrible scream, and Alpha started to take a step toward him, but Myles put out his arm and stopped her. When she looked at him, there was a distinct smirk on his face. Tess, who was behind Alpha, couldn’t get past Alpha or Myles, so she, too, was left staring at the boy as he was lifted into the air clenched in a rocky, remorseless fist.

As Vexxx’s bloodcurdling howl faded into silence broken only by the grinding of stone, the boy’s expression shifted from terrifi...

CA Chapter Twenty-four

In spite of the feeling of hope they’d experienced when they first logged on, nothing out of the ordinary happened the first day, or the second. Alpha had to remind herself that this was the downside of the time dilation players experienced in Veritas Online. While it seemed like it had been plenty of time for something to have changed, it had barely been twenty-four hours in real life.

Tess and Vexxx, of course, had no idea that anything was supposed to happen, so they were ...

CA Chapter Twenty-three

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Amythyst asked as Ava walked down the hall toward the lab. She had asked the same question a hundred times since they realized that Quinn had probably slipped something into the reservoirs of Ava’s pod when he opened it to ‘check’ on them, and whatever he’d put in there had made Ava sick, at least for a little while.

No doubt his intention was to make sweet, innocent Ava Shaw believe she was allergic to something in the biogel, so she woul...

CA Chapter Twenty-two

The rest of that day was spent throwing around what-ifs. Ava suggested ‘Uncle George’ just send in the Secret Service. Amythyst proposed that he use a spare set of keys to the UFO on top of the Space Needle in Seattle to come and beam them all out. Their plans became wilder and more ridiculous the longer they talked, until they were even Ava was giggling madly and froze like deer in the headlights when a knock came at her front door.

Ava, who had been standing on the couch to illust...

CA Chapter Twenty-one

Surprisingly, the only things waiting for Ava on the screen in her suite were two words. EAT SOMETHING. As she read them, she felt her stomach growl, and shook her head. The pod fulfilled her nutritional requirements, but she hadn’t actually eaten anything solid in over a week, and her body knew it.

Crossing to the half-size refrigerator, Ava pulled out a TV dinner. She poked holes in the plastic, then popped it into the microwave. Honestly, she’d rather eat something fresh, but not...

Chapter Twenty

Six days in real life was twelve in the game. Vexxx and Tess were there for up to sixteen hours out of every two game-days, and when they were on, the group explored the maze-like dungeon, encountering several more monsters, and disabling dozens of traps. By the end of Alpha’s first week of immersion as Amy’s caretaker, they all had the [Detect Traps] skill, and they were no closer to figuring out how to escape this floor of the dungeon.

“Look,” Vexxx said, pointing to a section...

Quick FYI

Clearing should now be reduced to $2.99 on Amazon, Google Play Books, and Barnes & Noble. All five of the ebooks will be available on all three platforms on April 15th. At that point, Amazon won't let me reduce the price any further, but B&N and Google Play will, so I may drop those to $1.99. I'm hoping that more people will try it, and get sucked into the rest of the series. (I have a Cunning Plan!)

Just a quick note that since Amazon decided to be jerks and pull H...