elizabeth_oswald

CA Chapter Ten

“Good catch!” Amythyst said, shooting Aspen an approving grin. “Now, hold Amy out. Carefully.”

Aspen sent her a look that suggested he didn’t need the reminder, but he awkwardly pulled Amy’s limp body around until he could catch her under the arms when he released the sheet holding her up. As gently as if she were made of spun glass, he held the woman out to Amythyst, who stuck her hand into Amy’s chest, poked around for a second, and then pulled out a glowing orb.

�...

CA Chapter Nine

Ava peered around the corner of the building, saw nothing of interest, and sent a question to Silus. ::Do you see anyone?:: Instinctively, she kept her voice low, even though no one could overhear anything she said in party chat.

::Nobody,:: Silus answered, sounding like she wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. The little bat clearly disapproved of any adventure that had so little excitement in it. Ava, on the other hand, was thrilled.

Just before midnight, Aspen ...

CA Chapter Eight

After lunch, Ava took Amy out for another ‘walk’. Petunia’s mother, Florence, had offered to clean Ava’s filthy dress while they ate, so Ava was back in her relatively comfortable clothes. She knew she should go back and continue working with the clay, but she didn’t want to get so dirty again so soon. Fortunately, it seemed that Aspen had had a similar thought, and when Ava pushed the door open, he was waiting, though this time he was wielding a pair of long shears.

::Ah, goo...

CA Chapter Seven

When Ava was little, long before cancer came to steal her mother from her, she and Molly used to play in a stream near their house. In the spring there were tadpoles, and in the summer and fall, Ava would splash and squeal as she chased after frogs and tiny fish. Her mother, Molly, would sit on the bank, dangling her feet in the cool water, laughing at Ava’s antics.

Their stream was wild and overgrown. There was an air of mystery about it, as if pixies or dryads might emerge from the ...

CA Chapter Six

When Ava went into ‘her’ pod for the third time, she could see Quinn and Dean bustling around the other pod, getting it ready for Amy. LeeAn settled Ava’s mask into place, and for the first time, instead of leaving Ava in darkness until the game started, her view immediately switched to that of the mask’s external cameras.

“Why do we even need this?” Ava asked, reaching up and tapping the mask as LeeAn leaned into the pod to hook up the IV and other tubes leading from Ava’...

CA Chapter Five

The four days of Ava’s ‘test’ immersion passed quickly. At first she was worried that Veralt might be monitoring her in some way, and notice that she was using skills he hadn’t given her character. When he logged in on day two, however, he seemed just as dismissive as ever, and not suspicious at all, so for the last two days she just spent her time grinding her skills, exactly as Amythyst had asked her to.

Aspen and Silus were good companions, though Aspen had a definite tendenc...

CA Chapter Five

The four days of Ava’s ‘test’ immersion passed quickly. At first she was worried that Veralt might be monitoring her in some way, and notice that she was using skills he hadn’t given her character. When he logged in on day two, however, he seemed just as dismissive as ever, and not suspicious at all, so for the last two days she just spent her time grinding her skills, exactly as Amythyst had asked her to.

Aspen and Silus were good companions, though Aspen had a definite tendenc...

CA Chapter Four

The first thing Ava wanted was a haircut and some new clothes. Changing your hairstyle in game was as simple as selecting a new one from your settings, but first you had to go to a barber and buy it. The only style you got for ‘free’ was the one you selected at character creation. Once you purchased the new style or styles, you could change it whenever you wanted.

Aspen rejoined Ava as she walked back outside sporting her new, shorter cut. She’d gone with a sort of bob, so her hai...

CA Chapter Three

Getting ready to enter the pod was faster the second day. LeeAn applied the sticky electrodes, but otherwise she left getting into the suit up to Ava. The other woman did double check all the seals before she put a new IV in Ava’s left arm, since the right was still healing after the first one. After all that was done, she picked up a small vial from the table and hesitated.

Turning, she looked Ava in the eye. “This is a drug that reduces aggression and agitation. Just enough to mak...

CA Chapter Two

When Ava woke from her three week immersion in Amythyst’s pod, she’d only known that she’d been surrounded by fluid a minute before because her skin was damp, and there were lingering traces of gel in her nose and ears. Amythyst’s little robot, B.T., had been there with a towel, and Ava had wiped it all away easily, since the gel seemed to like to cling to itself.

This experience was nothing like that, however, and Ava spent several achingly long minutes coughing up faintly blue...

CA Chapter One

Ava opened her eyes to see a plain wooden ceiling overhead, then sat up sharply, feeling her hands ball into fists in the blanket under which she rested. Those bastards had actually forced her into the pod! Admittedly, she’d mostly been pretending she was afraid, but they didn’t know that! She’d expected them to give her a few minutes to settle her nerves, maybe lie and tell her that breathing liquid wouldn’t actually make her body think she was about to die, not no, they jus...

Chapter Forty-five (End of Lament!)

The orange juice was more like orange sludge, but Ava drank every drop of it before hurrying off to work. She left a full twenty minutes earlier than she had to because she didn’t want to take the chance that Dean would decide to turn up on her doorstep again. She wore simple black yoga pants and a bright green t-shirt, and Dr. Veralt nodded in approval when he saw her bare face.

“Good. And I see you’re on time today.” His pinched lips almost relaxed enough to smile, and Ava tri...

CL Chapter Forty-four

After her shift, Ava just had time to order her meal from the kitchen, then hurry back to her room to redo her hair and makeup before LeeAn sent her a message letting her know she was on the way. Ava walked down the long hall to the dining area, offering smiles to everyone she met, feeling like she was a new car people were considering taking for a ride. Fortunately, the food was excellent; a rich beef bourguignon, with freshly baked bread, and the first twenty minutes of the meal was silent ...

Chapter Forty-three

Dr. Veralt led Ava into the room directly in front of the nurse’s station. The room was a slightly more personalized version of the rooms Molly spent so much time in. The bed looked far more comfortable than the standard one, but it still had collapsible railings and motors to raise and lower it. The blanket was purple and blue, instead of white, and the curtains around the broad bay window were gauzy and colorful. The bed itself was empty, since the room’s occupant sat in a chair by the ...

CL Chapter Forty-two

Ava’s screen woke her at seven-thirty with a series of cheerful chimes. She groaned as she swiped at the screen. She’d gotten used to sleeping as long as she wanted and waking when she was rested, and returning to the life of a wage slave was going to be hard.

“Good morning!” Amythyst chirped in her ear. “I figured an hour should be about right to get ready and eat breakfast. You can probably do it in less time once you get a routine down, but-”

Ava wrapped her pillow ...

CD (actually CL) Chapter Forty-one

It took about two hours to run back to the city, enter the storage facility, transfer the twelve boxes in the storage unit to her new car, and hit a hardware store to buy a few house plants. It was a small detail, but if Liam ever entered Ava’s suite again, she wanted him to see some plants enjoying that east-facing window. She grabbed some groceries while she was at it, and by the time she returned to the walled compound where Carl Landon lived, it was well after dark.

The security g...

Chapter Forty

The suites were beautiful. They were modern, fully furnished, and had a few automated devices she could control through her screen or her implants. If she had been offered one without ever experiencing Amythyst’s magic house, Ava probably would have swooned. As it was, however, she had to force herself to look enthusiastic as Liam showed her around.

“-ake this one,” Amythyst muttered. It was getting harder to hear her, since the router bugs hadn’t yet had time to scatter through...

CD Chapter Thirty-nine

Carl Landon’s house had extra houses attached to each side. Ava supposed they were wings, and that meant this was actually a mansion, but all she could think of was how hard it must be to get from one end to the other in a hurry. What did you even do with all those rooms?

Amythyst was driving her today, though it was Ava with her hands on the wheel of the vehicle. Ava had technically learned to drive when she was in high school, but the only vehicle they’d had was her mothe...

CD Chapter Thirty-Eight

Ava swung her legs out of the car and stood, brushing at her fitted gray slacks, though their expensive fabric refused to wrinkle or crease. Turning back to the driver, she smiled politely and tapped her screen, adding a twenty percent tip to the bill. The girl, who looked to be barely old enough to drive, grinned and thanked her before driving off.

Ava turned to the square, unprepossessing building in front of her, wiping her sweaty palms on her slim suit jacket before frantically chec...

Thank you for your patience...

yesterday, guys. I caught the stomach flu that's going around here and I was absolutely down yesterday. I'm going to try to get two chapters out today or tomorrow (let's be honest, it probably won't be today) to make up for it. If I don't make it, I should be able to get one in Saturday, if I sent the kiddo out with her dad 😏

Bits and pieces

I thought I'd give you higher tier patrons some of my working images for the cover. My plan is to use more of Ava's city background on the print book, and actually wrap it around the spine and onto the back.

I used Midjourney AI art generator, and these are my 'base' images. If you look closely, you can see I had to change Amythyst's face, because the AI face was just a little off. The fairy was altered to look a little more androgynous, too. I actually got some really fun, sli...

Cuckoo's Lament cover art

No chapter today because this is what I've been working on since last Friday, so I'm behind. I really need to get Cuckoo started on Royal Road. Obviously, they'll always be way behind you guys, but I really need some feedback (even though they'll make me cry and swear I'm never going to write again at some point). There will undoubtedly be changes to this cover, but given that it all came fr...

CD Chapter Thirty-seven

Even though Myles had assured her repeatedly that she would feel perfectly normal when she woke, Ava was still shocked to find that it was true. She had been in the pod for three weeks - a month and a half in the game - until she could name every organ, bone, and artery, as well as their primary functions and the most common signs that one of them wasn’t doing its job.

Partially as a result of all her studying, she knew what three weeks of complete inactivity should do to the human bo...

CD Chapter Thirty-six

Amythyst was there, looking worried. “How are you feeling? Do you need to lie down? Of course you need to lie down.” She bit her lip, looking conflicted.

Ava knew her well enough by now to read that as ‘I want something, but I don’t know how to tell you I want something without you getting mad at me’ and said, “Out with it.” Her words were slightly slurred, but Amythyst nodded.

“You need to go into full immersion until it’s time for the interview,” the AI blurt...

CD Chapter Thirty-five

The next few days flew by in the closest thing to happiness Ava had experienced in years. She ate good food, slept in a safe, comfortable bed, and played her favorite game using the best pod she’d ever heard of, much less seen. B.T. cleaned up after her, and brought her pain medicine to her, but she thought her hand - and her other injuries - were healing much more quickly than she would have expected.

Best of all, Amythyst was always there. They talked about recent movies, their favo...

CD Chapter Thirty-four

The jungle was horrible. Absolutely everything, including the plants, wanted to kill them. By the end of the day, they were lost, filthy, exhausted, and injured. It seemed like as soon as one battle ended, they were instantly embroiled in another, and they never had time to recover, so Tess had used up several expensive potions, while Alpha had had to stop three times to get a vial of blood from Toggle.

Worst of all, there were jungle fairies. In fact, there were all kinds of f...

CD Chapter Thirty-three

The tunnel was dark. In hindsight, this shouldn’t have been a surprise, since it wasn’t meant to be in use yet, but it was fortunate that vampires, dwarves, and whatever Myles was all had [DarkVision]. What did surprise Alpha was just how many monsters there were. The place was absolutely infested, though most of the mobs were such a low level that either Alpha or Tess could easily take them out alone. Myles, of course, just walked along with Toggle perched on his shoulder, being...

CD Chapter Thirty-two

When Alpha opened her eyes, Toggle was awake, staring into her face with worried blue eyes. As soon as he saw she was awake, he extended a vial filled with blood. “Mistress, Tess said you would be here soon, and to tell you she’d be right back,  so I made this for you.”

Switching so abruptly from one place to another was even more disorienting than usual, and Alpha took a moment to struggle to a sitting position before she accepted the vial. Tipping it back, she swallowed the...

Harvest Audiobook

Last one! Next week, we're back to our regularly scheduled chapters. We're actually getting pretty close to the end of Book One, believe it or not.  I'm trying to decide on series vs book titles. I'm thinking Cuckoo's Dream overall, while book one will be Cuckoo's Lament, and two will be Cuckoo's Aria. What do you think? (I swear, the cuckoo thing will be explained by the end of book one.)

*True story, Patreon thought I was a bot when I attached this many files. Oops? 😅

Cultivation audiobook

This one has Khor in it, so he got his own voice. Fun fact: Google gave all the American voices names that start with M, and the deepest male voice is 'Marcus'. Sadly, Motte never has his own chapter, so Khor got that one instead.