Vista – Early Warning
Being able to manipulate something means being able to perceive it.
So, when the surface of the water of the Yang Tse river boils, I know it.
“Now!” I yell, prompting Dennis to try and jump up before he remembers he’s kneeling by my side for a reason, even if it’s not one we’ll ever talk about.
Ever.
“Acknowledged!” the infuriating Thinker in my ear says.
And...
2023-03-15 07:05:34 +0000 UTC View PostWell, just to show you that I can listen and seeing as the latest poll heavily encouraged me to go back to doing this, here’s this week’s schedule:
Don’t send another message, don’t send another message, don’t send another messa—
Darn it!
Okay, that’s… the third one? Since he last answered? Since he last answered yesterday, right before going to bed?
So, maybe, and this is just a maybe, he isn’t answering not because he’s suddenly fallen out of love with me but because he’s still sleeping.
Something that shouldn’t be hard to convince myself of given that I have to g...
2023-03-12 02:53:27 +0000 UTC View Post“I am a shadow, the true self,” I say.
No. Not me.
Her.
She… She dresses like I do. Same black leather jacket. Same plastic dog mask.
Same ripped jeans, same torn off-white shirt, same black boots.
But…
“You are… direct,” she says. “You don’t hide too much, do you?” she asks as she takes off the cheap mask and throws it to the side, the mists lapping at her feet swallowing it without a sound.
And she looks at me, silent in the chil...
2023-03-09 13:51:37 +0000 UTC View PostSo, as some of you may already be aware, it currently is March.
As in, the month.
And we’re already at a full quarter of it.
… You know, I’m starting to see why some people used to be so concerned with my inability to tell the date at any given time. Particularly when I inadvertently skipped a whole month of college, thinking it hadn’t started yet.
Anyway, my dark history aside, this is where I give you a monthly reminder that this literally co...
2023-03-08 16:31:04 +0000 UTC View PostVista – Thinkers Are Too Chatty
So.
Join the Wards, they said. See the world, they said.
…
I should reread my Asterix books. It’s been a while.
It’s also been a while since we got teleported in, which is, you know, kind of a first for an Endbringer battle. We’re usually rushing to ongoing crises, not taking our time to get assigned roles and positions.
In this case… Well, my (and Dennis’) position is… kinda scenic.<...
2023-03-07 05:03:59 +0000 UTC View PostWhile hentai is held by most to be just a subgenre of manga that barely introduces any innovation beyond people doing what many stories heavily imply they should already be doing—and even that is a poor distinguishing trait, given the current onslaught of ‘I can’t believe it’s not hentai!’ series—there still are a few things that manage to work in it that are very rarely seen out of genuine, ‘Of course I can believe it is hentai, much to my psychotherapist’s chagrin’ product...
2023-03-05 01:01:43 +0000 UTC View PostDo you know what kind of music I don’t enjoy?
Death Metal.
Heh, get it?
Look, I swear it makes sense: up until this very moment, I’ve been punching a metal, dead Nazi around about as hard and rhythmically as that song Carlos swore I would enjoy, and that just made me ask Amy to check whether I had lost any hearing after the tortuous experience.
So, Death Metal.
…
I may not share this one masterful pun out loud. You know, jus...
2023-03-02 03:35:14 +0000 UTC View PostSayaka – The Rookie Is Tired of You
2023-02-28 22:38:47 +0000 UTC View PostOkay, I've been trying to pull a marathon to give you at least something before the month's over, but it's 8:36 a.m. over here and I need to sleep before I finish anything worth reading. So far, the latest Puella Monstrum is about 12k words long, but in dire need of editing, and, as soon as I wake up, I'll finish that (well, I'll likely have lunch first) and get right on with Of Sisters and Shadows, that should be done before I drop dead tonight. Hopefully, but that is defin...
2023-02-28 07:40:51 +0000 UTC View PostThe world ended before I was born.
This… This little oasis of greenery is all that remains. All that could endure of a wilderness that once spawned an entire continent. The last thing that could be protected as the skies were torn open to allow radiation in, and the earth was poisoned by ill winds. It’s protected by a capsule of… something. Something I don’t quite understand, but that is meant to grow. To conquer back, inch by inch, everything that was lost.
And I’m mean...
2023-02-25 03:11:38 +0000 UTC View PostAs it turns out, and this may shock you all, February has twenty-eight days, which means I should have posted this poll two days ago.
…
Let’s pretend I have a sane relationship with the calendar for a minute and ignore all evidence otherwise, shall we?
Anyway! The end of the month is once more upon me, and I’m trying to get as much done as I can. This means that both Ginosko and Monstrum should get updated before the week’s over, that I’m still working on the lates...
2023-02-24 00:07:18 +0000 UTC View Post“Ask me,” Dinah’s tired, pained voice demands from the other end of the line.
Dinah Alcott’s need for perceived self-reliance—
I know. I know, but it’s still a shitty day to tackle this.
“Dinah, I—”
“Ask me!”
I close my eyes.
I close my eyes and try not to dwell on the ever-growing throbbing in my temples as I withdraw from the noise surrounding me. From noise in all the senses of the word, not just the auditory, as Colin, Dra...
2023-02-22 02:26:52 +0000 UTC View PostI am still… unsure about the mists.
I think my power is uniquely suited to navigate them, as I find myself in a dimly lit place that sings in emotion rather than sound, and I can… harmonize. I can hum along the chorus with my own aura tuned to reflect what is thrown at me, thrumming with every single one of the notes that the mists swirl with.
It would all be far easier if I wasn’t carrying Amy.
“Are we there yet?” she asks, knowing precisely what...
2023-02-21 03:51:18 +0000 UTC View PostAs much as we Japanese tend to have a certain… let’s just say reputation for an isolationist worldview, it is a fact that humanity shares a universal trait across all cultures, including that of otakudom: the unshakeable belief that foreign things are cool.
Just how many attacks in manga are just poorly pronounced English? How many times did Mami Tomoe embarrass herself with her (actually quite a mouthful) Italian attempts at a catchphrase? Why are so many JRPGs set in pseu...
2023-02-19 02:42:43 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor’s Note: This update should have gone up on February 14th, and so I thought that, given how pivotal romance is to the whole story, I could do something cute to commemorate the serendipity.
Of course, I got delayed writing my monstrous, 16.6k words-long actual Valentine’s Special for 2023-02-16 18:21:29 +0000 UTC View Post
And by "soon," I mean "in a few hours, but I need to sleep at least a tiny, teensie bit before editing, or this is going to be a disaster."
Also, current title is "Love Potion Number 1402," but I'm open to suggestions.
2023-02-14 14:17:25 +0000 UTC View PostAn unfamiliar ceiling—
‘Already did that one.’
The morning after—
‘That too.’
The sleeping sex tag—
‘Yup.’
All right! So, Shizu’s about to make me cum down her throat, my head’s still half-asleep, and I can’t come up with a good, original rant for the situation! Sue me!
‘I mean, I’m pretty sure that forcing me to read Zaimokuza’s drafts counted as cruel and unusual punishment, so I definitel...
2023-02-11 05:17:17 +0000 UTC View PostVista
“You are not going,” Dennis says, standing in the middle of the underground steel corridor with his arms crossed in what I think he believes to be an imposing way.
I arch my eyebrow.
He doesn’t move.
So I shrug, push outward the wall to my left to give me ample passage, and step around him.
“Hey!” he says with a panicked cry as he tries to grasp my shoulder.
…
“Really?” I tell him, right in his ...
2023-02-09 04:56:53 +0000 UTC View PostDanny Hebert – Those Who Failed
“Her name is Wordsworth,” Emma says on the laptop screen in front of me.
I take the mouse and rewind it.
“Her name is Wordsworth.”
No, it isn’t.
“Her name is Wordsworth.”
Her name is Taylor Hebert, and you know that, Emma.
I won’t let you take away even her name.
“Daniel?” Colin’s voice asks from the door to my office because, apparently, even knocking is now somet...
2023-02-07 02:50:10 +0000 UTC View PostDisclaimer: So that this story fits inside of Patreon’s Community Guidelines, it’s been revised so that it occurs in an AU where all the characters are legal adults. This includes the characters not involved in sexual events. Everybody is an adult, without a single exception. Sorry about the inconvenience.
Aerial Is a Good Sister
Suletta is a good girl.
“I… Aerial, everything’s happening so f...
2023-02-06 03:14:02 +0000 UTC View PostWhen I open my eyes, he’s still there.
It… It takes me a moment just to take it in. To watch his peaceful face as he rests under me, eyes closed, his lips barely open, just enough for his breath to pass through my hair and fill me with a warmth I hadn’t felt in far too long that redoubles when I feel his arm possessively wrapped around my waist.
I can barely see him. He’s… shades of grey, harsh lines only hinted at by the slight morning light filtering under my bedroom...
2023-02-03 10:19:51 +0000 UTC View PostSo, to start with, allow me to yet again state my gratitude to all of you. Thank you for your support, monetary and otherwise, and for letting me know there’s an actual point to me sharing all these worlds and people living inside my head. This, rather literally, wouldn’t be possible without you all.
I’m also grateful that, yet again, the “Chef’s Choice” option has won… both polls (okay, it tied with Wordsworth on the Extra 3k Or Chapter Poll, but Wordsworth’s already be...
2023-02-02 20:59:08 +0000 UTC View PostTaylor’s arm is tightly clutched around my waist, her body flush against my back.
It doesn’t matter.
The wind roars around my helmet, the road blurring below my bike as the engine overheats between my legs.
It doesn’t matter.
The Rig is getting closer.
That matters.
I swerve around a car moving far too slow for my tastes, the dirty white sedan frantically honking at me when I suddenly pull right in front of it to avoid the red truck coming at...
2023-02-01 00:24:53 +0000 UTC View PostSaying that Piggot is furious would be like saying I have some trouble managing my emotions: an understatement bordering on outright falsehood.
You know, like most of my life so far.
“I’ve been thinking,” the pale woman sitting in front of me says. “I’ve been trying to come up with some reason for you two to behave in such a way as to outright tell the entire world that I should get fired or transferred as far away from underage parahumans as the lack of a space program ...
2023-01-30 23:23:55 +0000 UTC View PostRPG economics are, at the best of times, a joke. You’ll waltz through each new area, slaying monsters who seem to always carry an adequate amount of pocket change for their threat rating, and then go to the nearest population center to buy the newest upgrade to your weaponry and armor that seems to always escalate in power in a way that coincides with how far you are from the ruined, burning remains of everything you grew to love as a child.
No wonder that the burning hazard ...
2023-01-29 05:11:39 +0000 UTC View PostStop me if you have heard this one before.
‘Pretty sure I have.’
Not you, Brain-chan. You don’t count.
‘I’m equally sure that many people have thought that your brain doesn’t count.’
That is both likely and irrelevant, as those people aren’t inside my head and thus don’t get to complain about me repeating my thought processes.
‘Fine. Rant away.’
Thank you, I always intended to.
Anyway…
Stop me i...
2023-01-27 09:05:43 +0000 UTC View PostFirst of all, I would like to state my gratitude for the “Take a darn break” options in the polls winning and letting me try to at least catch up. It’s been a bit of a mixed bag because I’ve far too many things still on the to-do list, but the She-Ra one-shot is done, and so is one of the Tales from a Lewd Fantasy World (the next one is already written inside my brain, now it’s just a matter to either transcribe it or invent a brain-machine interface, whichever sounds easier).
…
I am never gonna live down having written something as obnoxious as the title of this post. Irony can only protect me so much from the horror of my own actions.
At least it only has one exclamation point.
Anyway! The thing is that, as you all already know, the month is quickly coming to an end, and I have yet to write a few of the things I mean to post before such an ominous event occurs. I’m in the middle of the next A Pure Knight’s Natural Enemy (“in the...
2023-01-26 01:23:56 +0000 UTC View Post