IdeasGuy

Ghastly Adventures: Cascade 2.3 (ch. 8)

“You boys did a good thing today, but I hope you understand how foolish it was,” a grizzled man said, his arms crossed. There were scars up his arms-- cuts, burns, and Lichtenberg scarring. He was heavily built like a strongman, with a bushy beard and a wide brimmed hat. A Ranger -- if Officer Jenny policed the cities, the Rangers policed the wild territories. From rampaging pokemon, to criminal trainers, to natural disasters. All of it fell under their umbrella.

“Team Rocket is a...

Ghastly Adventures: Cascade 2.2 (ch. 7)

“Poltergeist!” I called out, Litwick before me with her flame burning brightly as she grabbed hold of my opponent’s Butterfree. I didn’t need to say anything more before Litwick slammed the bug pokemon into the ground on the battle court. The guy across from me, who was a few years older, tensed as he sensed the conclusion of the battle rapidly approaching.

“Use Psybeam!” He countered, and the butterfree’s eyes glowed.

“Spin!” I shot back, making Litwick spin the...

The Good Life: Crawl Out Through The Fallout (ch. 39)

Taylor Hebert ran for her life, her lungs burning, her legs aching, each breath coming as a desperate gasp. A loud crack before the sound of something whizzing by her ear made her breathing hitch as a plume of dust from the sandy dirt went up a dozen feet ahead of her. It was nothing short of a miracle that she hadn't been hit. That the bullet hadn't hit someone else.

A dozen people moved with her, all running in the same general direction. Each one as exhausted as she felt. Men, women,...

The Good Life: He's a Demon, He's a Devil, He's a Doll (ch. 38)

You know, for a mostly desolate world that was inhabited by merciless raiders, it did have one redeeming feature. Monsters. The Gatorclaw zeroed in on me, his pupil becoming a slit before a low rumble escaped his throat. Then, with shocking speed, the miniature Godzilla raced forward, his tail swishing behind him, almost like a cat about to pounce.

This was exactly what I wanted, I thought with a smile, my diamond blade escaping its scabbard. A mutated monster warped by radiation like i...

The Good Life: Civilization (ch. 37)

In general, things weren’t looking so hot for the human race, I could admit that freely enough. We blew ourselves to hell and back, and our refuge from a world bathed in nuclear hellfire was another world that had experienced the same a few centuries in the past. To be perfectly honest, the human race was in some truly dire straits if I was the best candidate to save us all from a self-inflicted annihilation.

Personally speaking though, things weren’t so bad, I decided, wat...

The Good Life: Old World Blues (ch. 36) (Fallout Jump Start)

“This place kinda sucks,” I observed with Yoruichi by my side as we drank in the sights of a whole new world. The excitement was a little undercut by the fact that everything looked vaguely the same -- dilapidated, neglected, and weathered from about two hundred years of being exposed to the elements after a nuclear apocalypse. Dead trees stood in the sandy dirt, the asphalt crumbling to pieces, and the only thing of note standing in any direction was the entrance to a theme park.

I...

A Fun Time, Not A Long Time: Skull Island 1.4 (ch. 4)

"This will be our final battle, Ippo," I informed the gorilla, my arms crossed over my chest that was clad in a pink floral button down that made me look like a tourist on vacation. We stood on a white sandy beach, the very same one that I had woken up on nearly two weeks ago. Behind me was the ship that drew Ippo to us. I almost thought we wouldn't get a chance to say farewell given that he hadn't shown up for a fight the past few days.

Ippo stood across from me, the morning sun shinin...

LND Gamer Elements Poll

This poll is to get a little feedback on something that has been bugging me for a while now and that's the gamer elements in Legends Never Die. To preface this, the poll is purely for feedback to see which way people are leaning. 

I've always preferred that Gamer elements in a Gamer story be something in the backdrop -- a function of the story that serves the narrative in some way, rather than the story's narrative being 'look at the numbers go up.' However, I'm somewhat concerned ...

Legends Never Die: I See Fire (ch. 72)

Hadi's father couldn't have been more happy even if Allah himself parted the skies and proclaimed him Caliph. A royal advisor. A direct connection to the throne. A position of great influence, even if it was to the second son, as a prince was still a prince. It was more than father could have ever hoped for. Given how proud his father was… it was all the evidence that Hadi needed to understand that, at some point, he had taken a very wrong turn in life.

He never should have agreed to ...

Legends Never Die: The Price for Ambition (ch. 71)

Michalis had managed his task nicely, I would soon learn. Even if I was left with the question of who really sent the assassin after me. They had certainly taken a risk -- an arrow in the middle of a play with dancing elephants was far less subtle than poison. Which made me wonder if this was truly the first such attempt on my life while I was in the Roman Empire. Had there been other attempts and I simply hadn’t noticed? Iron Stomach would make me immune to poison, but I imagined I would a...

Legends Never Die: Unwanted Attention (ch. 70)

Hadi Husain never put much stock in hearsay. He knew people. How they thought. What entertained them. A story could never be interesting enough as they heard it -- it always needed a little embellishment. A touch here, a touch there, and before you knew it, the entire story couldn’t even be recognized. It was inherently dishonest, especially when it came to matters that people wanted to be true. Regardless of what the truth might actually be, it would twist itself into knots to bec...

Legends Never Die: The Cost of Secrets (ch. 69)

I had never seen so many people gathered in a single place. It wasn't the first time I had that thought. It wasn't the second or the third either. The very first time I thought it, I had been a boy fresh off the family farm and Alabu had struck me as the largest city in the world. Then, when we rebelled against Francia, when our armies marched together. And again, in the final battle where there had been tens of thousands of men on the same field.

Yet again, I had that thought as I gaze...

Ghastly Adventures: Cascade 2.4 (ch. 9)

There were a lot fewer people on the beach at night, making it perfect for me. I paddled out on my stomach, the waves rising and falling in a rhythm while the moon shone overhead. Light pollution thinned out the number of stars overhead, but they were still quite a sight, enough to distract me until I saw an incoming wave. “Ready?” I asked Mankey and Mimikyu, the former soaked to the bone but genuinely enjoying himself. Mimikyu held onto the board with a death grip.

He loved looking...

Ghastly Adventures: Cascade 2.3 (ch. 8)

“You boys did a good thing today, but I hope you understand how foolish it was,” a grizzled man said, his arms crossed. There were scars up his arms-- cuts, burns, and Lichtenberg scarring. He was heavily built like a strongman, with a bushy beard and a wide brimmed hat. A Ranger -- if Officer Jenny policed the cities, the Rangers policed the wild territories. From rampaging pokemon, to criminal trainers, to natural disasters. All of it fell under their umbrella.

“Team Rocket is a...

Ghastly Adventures: Cascade 2.2 (ch. 7)

“Poltergeist!” I called out, Litwick before me with her flame burning brightly as she grabbed hold of my opponent’s Butterfree. I didn’t need to say anything more before Litwick slammed the bug pokemon into the ground on the battle court. The guy across from me, who was a few years older, tensed as he sensed the conclusion of the battle rapidly approaching.

“Use Psybeam!” He countered, and the butterfree’s eyes glowed.

“Spin!” I shot back, making Litwick spin the...

Ghastly Adventures: Cascade 2.1 (ch. 6)

Dinner was nothing less than pure chaos. Nine children of various ages, two sets of twins, all seated at a long table that could barely house them all as it was. I would give Flint this -- his genes were unmatched because there wasn't a shadow of a doubt in my mind that he was the father of them all. Those eyes were too distinctive. And their mother had been nothing less than a trooper.

Getting nine siblings to behave would be a feat worthy of Hercules. Getting them to be calm when thei...

The Good Life: He's a Demon, He's a Devil, He's a Doll(ch. 38)

You know, for a mostly desolate world that was inhabited by merciless raiders, it did have one redeeming feature. Monsters. The Gatorclaw zeroed in on me, his pupil becoming a slit before a low rumble escaped his throat. Then, with shocking speed, the miniature Godzilla raced forward, his tail swishing behind him, almost like a cat about to pounce.

This was exactly what I wanted, I thought with a smile, my diamond blade escaping its scabbard. A mutated monster warped by radiation like i...

The Good Life: Civilization (ch. 37)

In general, things weren’t looking so hot for the human race, I could admit that freely enough. We blew ourselves to hell and back, and our refuge from a world bathed in nuclear hellfire was another world that had experienced the same a few centuries in the past. To be perfectly honest, the human race was in some truly dire straits if I was the best candidate to save us all from a self-inflicted annihilation.

Personally speaking though, things weren’t so bad, I decided, wat...

The Good Life: Old World Blues (ch. 36) (Fallout Jump Start)

“This place kinda sucks,” I observed with Yoruichi by my side as we drank in the sights of a whole new world. The excitement was a little undercut by the fact that everything looked vaguely the same -- dilapidated, neglected, and weathered from about two hundred years of being exposed to the elements after a nuclear apocalypse. Dead trees stood in the sandy dirt, the asphalt crumbling to pieces, and the only thing of note standing in any direction was the entrance to a theme park.

I...

The Good Life: I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire~! (ch. 35)

The world had gone kaput. The news couldn’t say as much due to the fact all the nukes going off had ended up frying any electronics with a circuit board, but everyone knew it was true. The nukes only rained down upon the world for around two hours total, starting with the nuke that went off in Berlin, but in that short amount of time, the world was bathed in hellfire and radiation.

As far as the movies had been concerned, that was it. GG. The only people that could possibly survive th...

Legends Never Die: The Cost of Secrets (ch. 69)

I had never seen so many people gathered in a single place. It wasn't the first time I had that thought. It wasn't the second or the third either. The very first time I thought it, I had been a boy fresh off the family farm and Alabu had struck me as the largest city in the world. Then, when we rebelled against Francia, when our armies marched together. And again, in the final battle where there had been tens of thousands of men on the same field.

Yet again, I had that thought as I gaze...

Legends Never Die: The Price for Ambition (ch. 71)

Michalis had managed his task nicely, I would soon learn. Even if I was left with the question of who really sent the assassin after me. They had certainly taken a risk -- an arrow in the middle of a play with dancing elephants was far less subtle than poison. Which made me wonder if this was truly the first such attempt on my life while I was in the Roman Empire. Had there been other attempts and I simply hadn’t noticed? Iron Stomach would make me immune to poison, but I imagined I would a...

Legends Never Die: Unwanted Attention (ch. 70)

Hadi Husain never put much stock in hearsay. He knew people. How they thought. What entertained them. A story could never be interesting enough as they heard it -- it always needed a little embellishment. A touch here, a touch there, and before you knew it, the entire story couldn’t even be recognized. It was inherently dishonest, especially when it came to matters that people wanted to be true. Regardless of what the truth might actually be, it would twist itself into knots to bec...

Legends Never Die: The Nature of Intrigue (ch. 68)

Influence wasn't something that could truly be felt. It wasn't tangible. It didn't have a taste or a scent. It did, however, have a feeling and a sound, and almost immediately after the conversation with Dowager Irene, our change in influence had announced itself for all to hear. There was no announcement. There was no speech. Yet, all the same, when Morrigan and I returned to the party our presence went from something tolerated at best…

To us being so sought out that it felt as if &n...

Never Fade Away: Rite Of Passage (ch. 58)

This was going to be one hell of a test drive, I thought to myself as the Turian fleet began to move. Portions of the fleet that I'm guessing didn't have an army on them began to converge on my location. There were a thousand ships, and even if a hundred of them remained behind, that was still nine hundred to deal with. The leader of the fleet was the dreadnought under the command of Tacitus.

I was cautious. I had stacked the deck as much as I could in my favor -- the Swordfish was as c...

Never Fade Away: Code Red Initiated (ch. 57)

David knew he was faster. Probably stronger. But Biotics were one hell of an equalizer, he thought as missiles exploded around him and the surrounding area became nothing but fire, dust, and shrapnel. Kaiden and Panam would be okay -- nothing short of the wrath of God would be getting through that tank's armor, but the rest of the invasion sure wouldn't be. The plan was enacted under the impression that the Turians didn't have a solid answer to their ground forces. Or, to be more specific, to...

Never Fade Away: Extraction Action (ch. 56)

Kaiden was increasingly convinced that the very worst part of war was the waiting. Waiting when you knew something was going to happen, that within minutes or hours everything would become a chaotic mess in a life or death struggle. Time seemed to warp as seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours. Perhaps it would have been a good thing -- a calm before the storm, time to take a breath and prepare.

Some managed to. They talked, played games, some even prayed. Kaiden...

Never Fade Away: Trouble Finds Trouble (ch. 55)

Charges spent over timeskip:

Black boxing -- 5 (5)

Predator: Cloaking -- 4 (2)

Fallout: Energy Weapons -- 4 (2)

Fallout: Autodoc -- 5 (2)

Starfield: Grav Drive -- 5 (3)

…

“You've changed,” Kaiden accused me as I looked over the schematics I was developing for one of my many projects. We had gone to ground in the past month since I shot down the Turian ship. In a rather ironic twist, we ended up staying in the Arasaka Tower basement because it wa...

Ghastly Adventures: Cascade 2.3 (ch. 8)

“You boys did a good thing today, but I hope you understand how foolish it was,” a grizzled man said, his arms crossed. There were scars up his arms-- cuts, burns, and Lichtenberg scarring. He was heavily built like a strongman, with a bushy beard and a wide brimmed hat. A Ranger -- if Officer Jenny policed the cities, the Rangers policed the wild territories. From rampaging pokemon, to criminal trainers, to natural disasters. All of it fell under their umbrella.

“Team Rocket is a...

Ghastly Adventures: Cascade 2.2 (ch. 7)

“Poltergeist!” I called out, Litwick before me with her flame burning brightly as she grabbed hold of my opponent’s Butterfree. I didn’t need to say anything more before Litwick slammed the bug pokemon into the ground on the battle court. The guy across from me, who was a few years older, tensed as he sensed the conclusion of the battle rapidly approaching.

“Use Psybeam!” He countered, and the butterfree’s eyes glowed.

“Spin!” I shot back, making Litwick spin the...