Agrippa

October’s Poll Results and Objectives

First of all, I would like to thank you all for your patience as I continue to struggle with regaining what should be my regular writing pace. Said struggle would be a lot easier if things that I envision as easy, lighthearted diversions would stay that way when I sit down to write them.

Which means that, yes, the Tales series has done precisely what it always does, and the uncomplicated tale of a prideful elf being forced to confront her nature as an erofu now features a treac...

Wordsworth – Chapter 30 – Tenebrism 1

Taylor

I don’t trust Emma.

I can’t trust Emma.

I won’t trust Emma.

“But you trust me, don’t you, Sweetie?” Lisa’s voice asks from the earpiece hidden between my inky locks.

“That is not a fair question,” I answer as I keep focusing on the tale of three army surgeons and a daring bet so that the three gifted men can keep healing the wounded found in this little park.

A park near a school.

“Whoever ...

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 91

The Power of Friendship.

Yes, we’ve already tackled this subject in our lecture series, but, as pivotal as the matter is to the shounen genre as a whole, as central to otaku culture itself, I fear we may not have delved as deep as it deserves. You see, as we’ve already explained, the Power of Friendship consists, more often than not, in taking power from one’s friends.

It’s just natural for the author, of course. A way to make the narration revolve around the main characte...

October’s Plot Bunnies Poll

So, first of all, allow me to thank you once again for your continued support. I think I’ve managed to progress on some of my goals for this month, but I still need to hit some of them that I may need to delay for next week. I think that I can safely manage both the next Tales and the next A Pure Knight’s Natural Enemy by Sunday, but that will depend heavily on how things go today and tomorrow.

Also, I’ll need to devote Monday and a good part (if not all) of Tuesday to ca...

Wake-up Call – Chapter 98

Claire Wallis

“It’s all so different,” I say, looking at the phone in my hand.

I remember the bulkier ones, those that people with aggressive suits and sunglasses would flaunt when getting out of sports cars near Medhall.

Medhall.

That doesn’t exist anymore.

“I’m here to answer every question you have,” my son’s girlfriend—one of them, and isn’t that just another thing that changed too wildly—tells me as we...

Wordsworth – Chapter 29 – Colors – 10

Amy is broken.

She keeps looking at the two molten women at her feet.

Just… looking.

“It’s not your fault,” Vicky whispers in support, still wrapped around her sister’s shoulders like she’s been since I came back with Armsmaster.

I should move.

I should get away from here, look for the next disaster area, help.

But that’s just me wanting to run away. Because what else have I ever done?

So I look straight at Amy. At the best heal...

The Warring First Time of Geniuses [Kaguya-sama, NSFW]

The first time!

When couples finally come together, baring their innermost selves to one another, allowing their vulnerability to reach past the barrier of fear and apprehension so that two can become one. One of the milestones that young lovers anxiously yearn for, hope for, strive for.

But that is a lie!

Sex is not so easy, not so gentle. Thousands of young lovers are both eager to discover its mysteries and studiously indifferent about the subject lest they be condemned a...

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 90 – Iroha Isshiki Isn’t That Forgiving

Iroha Isshiki

Part of me is about to faint due to the sheer, heart-melting cuteness of his sleeping face lying atop my thighs. Another more cautious part is already cringing at his possible reaction to getting a ‘lap pillow’ or whatever terrible combination of mangled words he’ll call it.

Seriously. ‘Absolute territory.’

Otakus need to chill down.

“I should be going to work,” Mom says, her voice barely above a whisper from the ar...

Wake-up Call – Chapter 97 – Disarmed

Colin Wallis

“I’m so proud of you,” Mom says, sitting by the side of my bed, holding my hand, smiling down at me with tears held back in her eyes, doing… doing what I’ve been doing to her for years.

Since she started losing herself.

“I’m trying to establish a baseline here; stop throwing him for a loop,” Panacea says from the foot of my bed, touching both my bare ankle and the disturbing, oversized model of a white brain floating on ...

Wordsworth – Chapter 28 – Colors – 9

“I… I can…” Vista says.

And then falls.

I shoot toward her, as fast as I can with the last dredges of Amber I can keep a hold of despite everything that surrounds me, everything that would make it so easy for Red to take over just so that blinding rage could cover up all the horror.

All the pained cries, muffled screams, desperate pleas.

All the blood.

I reach her.

She’s… exhausted. She’s been warping us from one crisis to the next, Gallant an...

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 89

Among the many, many things that anime characters tend to do that may seem unremarkable at first blush (and, no, blushing doesn’t number among them; that could be another whole lecture entirely) are the… all-nighters.

We have all seen it in one way or another: from the fighter too filled with nervous energy before the big day who goes out at night to train with his bald, noseless childhood friend that he cares about more than his own future son (just compare how he reacts w...

Wake-up Call – Chapter 96

“I should melt your insides,” Amy says, arms crossed, her bulky robes doing a perfect job of not conveying her body language, her body shape, or anything at all other than poor fashion sense.

“Not on the first date,” I reflexively answer because, yes, I’m this much of a moron.

… Look, if there’s anything praiseworthy at all about New Wave’s no mask policy, it is that it makes it very straightforward to know when somebody is glaring hatefully at you rather than, I d...

Wordsworth – Chapter 27 – Prisms 2

Miss Militia

The streets are calmer than they should be.

So I don’t have to speed up toward the nearest crisis. I can go at my leisure, my motorcycle just a bit over the minimal speed for this avenue near the Boardwalk, as I wave at some of the fans taking pictures and pretend that I’m doing the PR part of my job while I just…

Enjoy myself.

Because Lung is behind bars, and Emma is starting to look like a human being after she and her fam...

Poll Winners, Goals for September, and a Bit of an Extra Poll

So, this time around, “Chef’s Choice” won handily the plot bunnies poll, with MonsterGrimmGirls coming a close second and Kyon’s life being suffering an immediate third. The extra chapter or 3k poll has a three-way tie between Chef’s Choice, Periodical Cicadas, and Komachi Points, which basically means that I have to choose between those three, so, however you slice it, that’s another Chef’s Choice.

Thank you, really.

Now, as to what that means…

I honestly th...

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 88 – Iroha Isshiki May Be Tired of This Shit

Iroha Isshiki

He’s a moron.

“Seriously?” I, most likely futilely, ask.

“Neither Yukino nor I have experience with this, and Haruno isn’t going to take care of it. For obvious reasons,” he says, just adding the little twist of emotional blackmail because why not.

“You’d better rephrase that in a way that doesn’t make me want to get Shizu to punch you, Senpai,” I tell him, crossing my arms and staring down at him, taking full...

Wake-up Call – Chapter 95

Days go by.

It’s an easy sentence, isn’t it? Three words. Three syllables. Three sounds. The bare minimum to say that life goes on, no matter how you feel about it doing so.

And… sometimes? It is that easy.

Bantering with Alec as Rachel steadily improves on her culinary pursuits. Helping Brian overcome the last bureaucratic hurdles he needs to pass before his sister becomes his official responsibility. Joining Taylor on a few walks when Rachel decides...

A Pure Knight’s Natural Enemy – Chapter 13

Missables.

The scourge of all RPG players

A Pure Knight’s Natural Enemy – Chapter 12 – Repost

Companion systems, party management, XP and loot sharing, perma-death,… There are many ways to have the mechanics of an RPG impress on a player that the secondary characters he’s fighting by the side of, courting, trying to get himself rid of, or a combination of all of the above, are, in fact, individual existences with a narrative weight beyond that of their bust—by which I, of course, mean the often gorgeously drawn busts of the characters that are used during dialogues and cutscenes...

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! – Chapter 87 – Repost

Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in the dungeon?

This, at first blush, seems not only to be a nonsensical question but one we’ve already answered with a resounding, ‘No, it isn’t, and do you even realize what kind of game you’re playing?’ in our ongoing lecture series.

Yet things aren’t that simple.

You see, the existence of dungeons themselves is somewhat suspect. They are, after all, more of an artifact of gameplay than story, and the way they’ve become an...

September's Plot Bunnies Poll - And What The Heck's Been Going On

So.

As most of you may be aware of, my page was suspended due to violating Patreon’s Community Safety Guidelines last week. I tried to send a mass message to inform you all about the whole thing, but I was cut off from the messaging system, and it looks like only some of you got an email notification with the whole rambling thing.

To sum it up, somebody reported the latest chapter of A Pure Knight’s Natural Enemy and the latest All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! and Patreon dem...

I Can’t See Your Scars [FMA, NSFW] [16k Words]

Synopsis: Roy Mustang survived the fina