Neviara

Cycle 34-4: Patch Notes

Kaitlyn's heart beat a little faster as she stared at the screen. A windowed version of Ian's game played across it, the polygonal background populated with low-res blobs that moved and attacked. Ian tapped away at the keyboard, sending the main character through a complicated series of dodges and strikes to take down the enemies.

There were clear differences between this version of the game and the one she'd seen before. Compared to later in the loop, this one seemed far less fleshed o...

For the Glory of Rome Chapter 3

///It's been a looooong time. Whoda thought we'd take this long?

So yeah, between Alone, Armageddon, publishing, and personal life, Legion fell behind a little bit. Sorry about that! I should hopefully be able to start posting it more regularly coming up soon. It won't be too frequent, maybe once a week if we're lucky, but it will be happening. I think. Fingers crossed. Collabs are hard alright?

Alright, anyway, enjoy!

///

Marcus prided himself on his wit and eloquence...

Cycle 34-3: A Welcome Distraction

The sound of Kaitlyn's footsteps echoed through the dorm stairwell as she climbed. Her legs were still sore from the morning's run, sending twinges of pain through her calves and thighs with every step.

It's only one floor. I don't need to use the elevator for something like this. I'm not that lazy.

Today was a big day. It was finally time to study with Ian. Their first Intro to Programming assignment was out, meaning they had a perfect opportunity to work together on it....

Cycle 34-2: Picking Up

The lecture hall buzzed with activity and conversation. A steady stream of students poured in through each entrance, branching off into tributaries as they broke off to find seats among the already-crowded aisles. There were still three minutes to go until the Intro to Programming lecture began, and yet the hall was already packed.

Geez. I'm glad it doesn't stay like this.

A quick glance across the assembled crowd revealed Ian's figure in the back corner, just where she'd...

Cycle 34-1: Speedrun Strats

The drone of conversation and music filled Kaitlyn's ears as she stepped into the crowded atmosphere of Cappy's. Since so many people were still moving in, the cafeteria wasn't nearly as crowded as it could get. Still, at this hour, the mass of students was dense enough to fill up every table in the building.

All according to plan. Perfect.

She scanned her phone at the cashier to pay and stepped toward the tables in question. In her hands sat a tray bearing a fai...

Cycle 33-3: Round Two

The rest of the loop passed by in a blur of reflection, sore muscles, and activity. Now that Kaitlyn had a better lead on what had gone wrong last time, she had to adjust her approach to compensate. It wasn't an easy task, though. Without more information, the best she could do was make a rough draft and keep an open mindset going forward.

Still, she had a suspicion that Ian's game would be important. For that reason, she kept learning D-Flat and educating herself on basic game design p...

Cycle 33-2: The Problem

Kaitlyn came away from the tournament with a skip in her step. For the first time ever, she'd managed the impossible: she'd actually won the whole thing.

I did it! Finally! After all this time, I finally, finally won!

The achievement felt like a real milestone to her. It was no Bara Bash, and it was against the most inexperienced versions of everyone that she'd ever meet. But regardless, none of that dimmed her excitement or the pride welling up in her chest.

Cycle 33-1: A Measured Response

Over the next few weeks, Kaitlyn went through the practically automatic motions of establishing her early-loop routine. Kate's Kitchen, Chella's, and Professor Adams's lab all slotted themselves back into her daily schedule, with music practice filling in some of the empty space. It kept her busy enough that the loop still felt like forward progress, even if she wasn't actively working on an ending.

Most importantly though, she made plenty of time to simply think about the Ian ...

Cycle 32-16: The Road to Hell

Kaitlyn could do little more than stare, completely thunderstruck. The orange-yellow sky still hung in the background, the last traces of blue slowly disappearing as the sun continued its slow descent. A chill breeze blew past, ruffling her hair lightly. But all of those were secondary details compared to the main one—Ian was still sitting there.

The sound of her own pulse filled her ears, blocking out everything else. Her thoughts came to a screeching halt. It felt like someone had t...

Cycle 32-15: The Wall

A few rounds of friendlies did help her mental state a bit. For a little while, Kaitlyn managed to lose herself in the combos and graceful movement she'd been honing even further in the past couple of weeks. By this point in the loop, she was well-known enough as a player that she felt comfortable sitting down with practically anyone. Even if she did sometimes have to pull out a secondary or play random characters to make things fair.

But as Ian arrived, all of that stress and anxiety c...

Cycle 32-14: Victory In Sight

With a long sigh, Kaitlyn plopped into one of the audience seats. At this point, they had filled up pretty significantly—a detail she'd been happily oblivious to during the match.

It makes sense. We're finally in grand finals, after all. But that does explain why they sounded a little louder when I was playing Ian…

She watched as Lelas stalked across the stage toward his opponent. Ian faced him down from his seat, staring the guy in the face with determination. Lelas ...

Cycle 32-13: Master and Student

Kaitlyn came out of the gate firing on all cylinders, hoping to catch her opponent off guard. Two Corgos faced each other down—her own in red and Zog's in blue. The pair hopped around the screen like caffeinated Australian shepherds, flinging out lasers and punches and kicks every which way.

Her plan was simple. She didn't need to waste any time feeling out Zog and his tactics—they'd played enough that it would only serve to give him more info. She also knew that Zog tended to play ...

Cycle 32-12: King of the Hill

/// Ok wow. I'm so sorry for the late posts yall -- life's been hectic! I should be getting back on track soon, fingers crossed, but it might be one or two more weeks of spottiness before I do. Here's hoping no more than that. I think I'm starting to figure it out though!

Thanks so much for being patient with me as I figure things out -- you don't know how much I appreciate it! And without further ado, here's your promised chappies to enjoy :)

///

As Kaitlyn carved her way t...

Cycle 32-11: The Rabbit, The Bird, and The Dog

The second game didn't end up quite so well, with their opponents finding a weakness in Kaitlyn's slightly more defensive plays and taking her out early. She didn't lose hope, though. It was too much to expect a quick 2-0 against a team like this. Still, with their lead gone, the third game felt even more tense.

Bit by bit, each player battled on and lost their lives until each only had one left. Kaitlyn felt her palms begin to sweat as the game came down to the wire. It wasn't the end ...

Cycle 32-10: The Tournament Arc

"Last round of friendlies! Bash Bros doubles is starting in five!"

Ian and Kaitlyn were already sitting at a setup when John's call sounded over the speakers. They'd long since finished exploring the rest of the venue and its various offerings and had claimed a PlaySphere of their own to warm up. Around them, a dense crowd of other Bash Bros players milled about, watching and playing games as they waited for the real event to start.

Most of them didn't r...

Cycle 32-9: Take Me Home

The weeks passed in a comfortable routine of study, work, and tournaments. On top of Ian's own successes with midterms, Esme also had reported some pretty impressive results of her own. As a result, both Kaitlyn and Elliot were rounded up more than a few times as her favorite repeat study partners.

Of course, Ian still took priority. As time went on, Kaitlyn made sure to put hanging out with the guy at the top of her list, even cutting back a bit on her other hobbies to do so. He still ...

Cycle 32-8: All Work, No Play

Cappy's Cafeteria buzzed with the steady din of conversation, clattering dishes, and ambient pop music. A sparse crowd filled the area, slowly growing in size as late risers stumbled out of bed in search of food. The sights and sounds served as little more than a backdrop as Kaitlyn ate her breakfast – a plate of chili-oil fried eggs.

At least, that's what it was supposed to be. In reality, they might be better described as eggs with some chili oil and other seasonin...

Cycle 32-7: The A Team

Kaitlyn learned a few things over the course of their study session. The first was that, as bad as her own Genetics class had been, she certainly didn't have the worst professor available. The second was that she'd internalized the material a lot better than expected.

Wollywocks are a triploid organism that reproduce sexually to produce triploid offspring. Offspring inherit two copies of each allele from one parent and one copy from the other. They have two dimorph...