Agrippa

January's Extra Poll 1

Here it is! The extra 4k words I promise every month to those of you patient enough to keep checking when the Hell will I remember to post the poll!

(I'm sorry.)

Periodical Cicadas – Chapter 5

This can’t be happening.

“So… Taylor, tell me how do you feel?”

Definitely not happening.

“I… Ms. Lang—”

“I told you to call me Kristen,” the brown-haired woman says with a genial smile that screams practice, practice, practice.

And probably a dash of botox.

“I don’t really feel like…” I drift off, trying not to flail around and point at the various knick-knacks around her office that are carefully displayed to tell an...

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 28

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 28

There comes a point of no return in any serialized story that makes the author look at the flashbacks, filler episodes, beach episodes, hot springs episodes and think they no longer cut it. No, the plot has taken on a life of its own, an unstoppable momentum, and the end is approaching fast enough that even the most anti-Zaimokuzarial editor cannot complain. The end is nigh, the tension growing, the character arcs crestin...

Wake-up Call – Chapter 28

“Absolutely not,” Colin says, trying to set reasonable boundaries, discouraging me from taking unnecessary risks, and overall being on the verge of screaming in sheer frustration.

Sometimes, I think he takes the parenting stuff a smidge too far.

Lisa Wilbourn’s feeling of acceptance—

Let me snark in peace for once, will you?

Motorcycle rides said to induce relaxation—

You leave my baby out of this!

“We weren’t aski...

All Right! Fine! I’ll Take You! – Zaimokuza Gaiden – Chapter 8 – A Hotheaded Girl

Yoshiteru is warm, soft, and smells like he uses mint-scented shampoo.

These are three things I’m currently very aware of, because I’m hanging from his neck as I shove my tongue down his throat.

In front of our school.

…

I haven’t thought this through.

I mean, it’s not like I’d been waiting for him in front of his house for far too long, thinking about that teeth-rotting story of his that shows he’s quite a bit more than a chuuni with dre...

Wordsworth – Chapter 5 – Colors 2

I dodge to the right, my feet skidding on the floor as I dive behind the nearest concrete block, and the ground explodes in shards of cement along a line that follows my trajectory a split second too late, the penetrating smell of ozone signaling the nature of the bolts that just missed me.

Adrenaline pumps through my veins, or whatever it is that nowadays passes as that for me, and the light yellow with undercurrents of ever-present red grants me a speed I rarely have as I l...

Periodical Cicadas – Chapter 4

Seeing Dad taking notes on his stupid clipboard while he examines the latest victim of a superpowered serial killer shouldn’t be something I could get used to.

Good thing that, so far, I haven’t.

“So… Your dad’s working with my dad, and Emma’s mom switches departments whenever convenient?” I ask the pile of tanned muscles that’s slightly shorter than the other pile of tanned muscles.

Gustavo. I ask Gustavo.

The Hispanic guy nods and Emma (the...

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 27

Usually, if someone said something like ‘Heroism is a lie,’ we would be forgiven to assume the line-spouter is wearing a black cape, gigantic pauldrons, and probably sipping red wine like a pair of homoerotic mass-murderers (one of whom says actual Mass). It is a line that expresses contempt for high ideals, that sets one against the very heroes they decry, and that will probably get you punched in the mouth by a kid who yells ‘Plus ultra’ and behaves as if amphetamines are...

Wake-up Call – Chapter 27

Riding my bike through Brockton’s most deserted streets with Taylor hugging me from behind, feeling her sticking to my back as if we were cuddling in bed should have been a distant dream for the future.

A future where threats had been dealt with, where she could be free to relax, to rest.

A future earned.

We aren’t there. Not yet. We still are in the middle of it all, still dealing with enemies entrenched and those waiting in the wings, still… No. W...

All Right! Fine! I’ll Take You! – Zaimokuza Gaiden – Prologue – A (Formerly) Popular Girl

Life isn’t fair.

There, I said it. Any illusions about a perfectly ordered world where good things happen to good people are no more than lies we tell to children so they don’t cry even more at night, as if the annoying existence that a little brother already is could somehow become even more nightmarish when forced to confront cruel reality.

Growing up has as much to do with uncovering the comforting lies we used to believe in as with learning how to better lie to ...

Wordsworth – Chapter 4

Lisa’s apartment is as soothing as ever.

It may be the dredges of the memories from the time I spent here while she was still piecing me back together, or it may be just another perk of being a Thinker who can apply her power to interior design, but the warm tone of the eggshell white walls, the beech flooring, the thoroughly cushioned wooden sofa and chairs… They all are home in a way that a place with piles of dirty dishes and forgotten beer cans has stopped being.

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 26

Succubi.

Everybody knows what succubi are like in their anime incarnations, and some will even admit they know what they are like in their doujinshi versions. And what they are is an almost ideal example of how otaku culture processes Western myth.

You have a noble king that founded the most celebrated group of knights around the world? Prepare to have said king genderbent and ahegaoed. You have a fearsome dragon, the king of monsters (if we include Godzilla as a subspe...

Wake-up Call – Chapter 26 – Skitter

There’s a degree of separation between personas.

Take, for instance, the moment where an uncaring student brushes past me in the hallway, hitting my bag hard enough that I stumble.

Skitter automatically tags him. A fly on the back of his head to know where he’s looking, and then one on each shoulder, elbow, knee, wrist, and ankle. Lisa showed me a motion tracking rig for special effects, and it’s simple enough to extrapolate for the complete visualization of a per...

All Right! Fine! I’ll Take You! – Yui’s Lily Garden – Chapter 3

Yukinon’s breath tickles.

It’s… It’s a silly thing to focus on when I have her this close, when she lies next to me, the heat of our bodies trapped beneath the sheets, her slightly cold feet touching mine, her closed eyes so peaceful, so restful just right beside me, her hand resting below my breasts and her breasts on my arm and—

Aaaaaahhhhh!

The breath! The tickling breath! Just think about that and not how (or why) she got into my futon in the middle ...

Wordsworth – Chapter 3

There are always three brothers.

It’s sometimes sad, and sometimes uplifting. Often the older fails, the second struggles, and the youngest succeeds, and it is their father who sets the challenge for them.

Be that as it may, for tragedy or comedy, with their inheritance on the line, or chasing after a princess… there are always three brothers.

But once upon a time, there were two sisters.

They were unusual, as they had between them two mothers and two fa...

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 25

Throughout anime history, there have always been iconic lines. Sequences of words so utterly perfect that the impact they leave on an impressionable mind can be still felt years after the fact—especially when said impressionable mind is an aspiring writer unable to stop spewing line after line in the most cliché manner imaginable while trying to capture even an ounce of the original’s power.

But let’s not talk about Boruto.

The iconic line is rarely something tha...

Wake-up Call – Chapter 25

“This is ridiculous,” I say to Brian. Unnecessarily, really, because he knows. He’s just decided to be a prick about it.

“The gun, Tattletale,” he insists once more, blocking the entrance to the Undersiders evil-lair-slash-teenage-shelter.

“Do you really think I need a weapon to get you on your knees and crying, Brian?” And that’s another thing that pisses me off. Codenames. Really? Really?

“It’s the principle of the ...

All Right! Fine! I’ll Take You! – Yui’s Lily Garden – Chapter 2

The ominous ringing of the phone… Is a bit boring, to be honest.

Or, well, it would be if—

“Yui? Is everything all right, sweetie?” Mama asks, her voice sending me into outright panic with the question.

“Yep! Of course! Why wouldn’t it be?” … Smooth, Yui. Reaaaaally smooth.

“Because you just answered a regular question like you are a teenager in a sitcom,” she answers, her tone almost as dry as one of Hikky’s… Never mind.

“…...

Wordsworth – Chapter 2 – Colors 1

“It was an accident, Amy,” I say for what feels like the hundredth time.

The sulky brunette looks at me, at Sophia still unconscious in my arms with her own bolt protruding from where an eye used to be, and arches an eyebrow that has been getting a workout since I managed to get her away from the hospital she was working in tonight.

Everybody knows Panacea. Panacea is the greatest healer in the world, the one who can fix anything that doesn’t have to do with brain...

Agrippa’s Christmas Special

Agrippa’s Christmas Special

Well, remember how I’ve hinted (or outright stated) through the whole week that I wanted to do a little something extra for Christmas? And that I wasn’t sure I would manage? The good news is that, depending on what part of the world you are in, I managed! The bad news is that I’m not in such a part of the world.

So, it is with my customary tardiness and lack of sleep that I present to you the following compilation. Most of these...

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 24

A mirrored situation is one of the most ham-fisted, direct ways for an author to establish that a moment is about to highlight a change in circumstances for the characters involved. Let’s say a shounen hero shrugs on the uniform left behind by his martial arts master who was murdered by a time-traveling cyborg (yes, this is still about martial marts, no I don’t know how), the next sequence will be guaranteed to involve the following: a two-page wide stretched panel of the maste...

Wake-up Call – Chapter 24

Waking up next to Taylor is both a familiar sensation, something I’ve horribly missed over the past few days, and an awful ordeal involving a cramped back, a cold, uncovered leg, and the terrible, dreadful certainty that I’m going to be renovating her whole bedroom’s furniture without her permission nor input.

Sleeping in a single bed is something best left to the young and healthy. I’m far too mature to be snuggling next to my lesbian girlfriend in a…

The gol...

December's Extra 4K Poll 1

My apologies for doing this one so late, I didn't want to get it out before I finished last month's Chef's Choice. So, here it finally is, I'll try to finish everything before the year's end this time around.

Tales from a Lewd Fantasy World – Tale 2 – The Hero from Another World

If you expect me to begin this by being run down by a runaway truck, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Because we all know how that shit goes, don’t we? A loser with a face so generic anyone can self-insert in it dies through some set of contrived circumstances, and some kind of deity (or Being X, if we’re feeling particularly spiteful) decides to give them a second chance at life. Except it is in a world so radically different from the original one, it’s a wonder how so...

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 23

For decades upon decades, romance manga has revolved around a single question: will they or won’t they?

It’s faintly ridiculous, seeing as, more often than not, said question revolves around the lead and the first person with a compatible sexual orientation they meet, who, just because of said chronological advantage, will be far more developed than any subsequent character who may try to challenge them for romance supremacy.

Yes, it is almost a law, and not even an...

Wake-up Call – Chapter 23

Taylor’s tongue wrestles mine into submission, which I’m pretty sure is a non-trivial part of the appeal that kissing me holds for her.

I would be offended if I didn’t enjoy the results so much.

Her legs are straddling me, her weight making sure I can’t get up from her bed, and her bed making sure I appreciate my memory foam mattress.

I know, the last thing isn’t that romantic, but seriously, the girl needs to splurge on some bare necessities if she insi...