IdeasGuy

Gacha God: Painting the Town (ch. 11)

"I don't want you going anywhere near that kid, MJ. He's dangerous," Mary Jane's mom stressed to her, sitting her down in their living room. Her mom was covering her bruises up with makeup. She had gotten pretty good at it, Mary Jane reflected. The foundation matched her skin tone, and it covered the black eye up pretty well. However, the swelling gave away that it was still there. The same for the bruise on her jaw.

When she was younger, Mary Jane loved helping her mom put on her makeu...

Gacha God: Unforeseen Developments (ch. 10)

"We lost him," Clint informed Natasha as she stalked the room that was the focal point for all of Audacity's henchmen and the last known location of the man himself. "We aren't the only ones trained in the disappearing act -- seems like Audacity blended in with his men, and the moment we lost eyes on them, they disappeared."

Natasha came to a stop in front of a hole that led down into the sewers. A wide-open network of tunnels that had next to no cameras, that also protected Audacity fr...

From the Ashes: Glimmers of Light (ch. 24)

"Tell Durian I want our people out of Edgehall. The whole alienage," I told the runners. "It's located outside the city and it's right fuckin' dead in the hordes’ path. Get them all out. Kicking and screaming if you have to," I continued, sitting on a stump of a tree. A number had been felled to build up fortifications around Lothering. They wouldn't do much, but I suppose it was better than nothing. "Same for South Reach and Gwaren -- they're lost. They just don't know it yet." Alim would ...

From the Ashes: Catching Flame (ch. 23)

“Fuck me,” I moaned, really wishing that I could remain asleep, but my brain wouldn’t turn off the moment everything clicked into place for me to wake up. I was on a rough hay bed and the cloth over it was itchy, so was the blanket that covered me. Those were far more distance concerns because I’m pretty sure that I was naked and my last memory was falling face into some muck. Unless the darkspawn decided to strip me and tuck me in, I clearly wasn’t with them. Meaning that I could s...

From the Ashes: Sparks of Defeat (ch. 22)

“Thank you,” Elissa told me after the meeting was done and the sky was darkening once again. The camp was in a tizzy with preparing the finishing touches for the battle to become. From pits to barricades, all to blunten the darkspawns’ charge. I made my own arrangements -- speaking to the Rabbits with the orders to fuck off to Lothering as fast as possible the moment the battle looked like it was going to turn against us, giving the kennel master the flower I had found, and learning wha...

From the Ashes: Sparks of the Future (ch. 21)

There were many types of fear, and over the course of my life I had become familiar with most of them. Anxiety and nervousness had been constant companions for me until the past two years -- constantly second-guessing myself, worried about what-ifs and could bes. The idea that something could happen was every bit as terrifying as the event actually happening itself -- What if Kallian rejected me? What if we were caught doing whatever she had dragged me into? What if, what if, what if.

T...

Legends Never Die: Yule (ch. 27)

Despite the siege, it was decided by King Widukind that we would celebrate Yule to honor the gods, as thanks for the victories we had enjoyed so far. While we couldn't make wreaths, we had everything else we needed to celebrate -- animals to sacrifice, and Yule logs that were carved out of buildings that had been torn down. The decision wasn't just to honor the gods, I suspected, as I overlooked Frankfurt from one of the watchtowers. I wasn't sure who spoke of it, but word had spread about th...

Legends Never Die: Reunions (ch. 26)

The meeting concluded not long after the reveal that we were dealing with an entirely separate Frankish Army. King Widukind acted composed, but there was an edge of franticness in his actions that betrayed how flatfooted he was caught. How off guard all of us were taken. We were sworn to secrecy before he would ‘allow’ us to leave to avoid panicking the troops, and any reservations that I felt about the lies of omission were reassured by Thorkell voicing his agreement to the plan.

W...

Legends Never Die: Glorious in the eyes of the Aesir

The charge was absolutely devastating. There was simply no other word that could hope to convey the effect that the cavalry charge had on the unprepared back of the army. Spears broke as they tore through men like an axe through cloth, shattering into splinters while the horses knocked men over and trampled them under a tide of hooves. Some horsemen weren't so lucky. The wall of people proved to be too thick in some places, either halting the charge or flipping a horse over and sending the ri...

Legends Never Die: Berserker (ch. 24)

Grimar was the second eldest of Horrik’s five sons, born to him across three wives and other concubines. Growing up, I heard of them from my father and brothers, who did meet them. That they were likable. Good men. Strong fighters and so on. However, only Thorfinn had remained in Alabu for any length of time. Horrik sent his children out to be fostered elsewhere. With who, I didn't know, but in hindsight, what he was doing was rather obvious. His daughters were all married for alliances, an...

Never Fade Away: I Saw In You What Life Was Missing (ch. 14)

“You fucking fucks!” Subject Zero snarled at me as I collapsed into a heap on the ground, purple energy surging around her hands. It felt like a massive weight was crushing down on me until I was completely flat on the ground, unable to even take in a breath of air because my lungs didn’t have the strength to expand. The metal underneath me groaned ever so slightly, every muscle in my body straining against the weight. “You pieces of fucking shit! I’m gonna kill every single one of ...

Never Fade Away: I'd Trade It All For Your Sweet Embrace (ch. 13)

I squeezed the trigger, the gun bucking in my hand as the bullet bounced off a sharply angled wall, striking the ground, and still ripped through the kneecap of a man that was taking cover behind a concrete barricade. I heard him cry out, but through a camera, I saw him fall to the ground, clutching his knee before his hands scrambled for an inhaler. He took a hit from it, breathing deeply before he jumped right back up on his feet, completely ignoring how his kneecap was missing. Bullets sla...

Never Fade Away: I'm Not One For Reminiscing (ch. 12)

My location was near perfect. Pacifica was the worst part of Night City according to anyone, enough so that the Mayor of Night City was doing everything short of sawing the district off of the city and shoving it in the ocean to get rid of it. It was sparsely populated, especially in comparison to the main city across the bridge, and the population that it did have was mostly concentrated in the main strip.

My building was on the fringe of the district, a stones through away from the Bi...

Never Fade Away: You're Like a Ghost How You're Everywhere (ch. 11)

“You talk to him?” David asked her, their butts parked on the couch in his and Lucy's penthouse and Rebecca really couldn’t get over how swanky the place was. It seemed like just yesterday that David was an adorable punk who didn’t know the first thing about edgerunning beyond that having a Sandy was one hell of a cheat code. Now he was living it up in a high-rise apartment with his cold, distant, and nerdy girlfriend. It was less than a year ago too.

So little time and so much ...

Castoff: Sweet Lies (ch. 11)

Radovid was the only other king that Guts had ever seen, and however begrudgingly, he could admit that he was more impressive than the king of Midland. The man had been so unimpressive that Guts didn't even know his name all these years later. But, that wasn't a particularly high bar. What Guts did notice, however, was the fact that Radovid walked like a soldier. There was a special kind of gait that people moved with when they martched more than they walked and Guts recognized it.

Ther...

From the Ashes: Catching Flame (ch. 23)

“Fuck me,” I moaned, really wishing that I could remain asleep, but my brain wouldn’t turn off the moment everything clicked into place for me to wake up. I was on a rough hay bed and the cloth over it was itchy, so was the blanket that covered me. Those were far more distance concerns because I’m pretty sure that I was naked and my last memory was falling face into some muck. Unless the darkspawn decided to strip me and tuck me in, I clearly wasn’t with them. Meaning that I could s...

From the Ashes: Sparks of Defeat (ch. 22)

“Thank you,” Elissa told me after the meeting was done and the sky was darkening once again. The camp was in a tizzy with preparing the finishing touches for the battle to become. From pits to barricades, all to blunten the darkspawns’ charge. I made my own arrangements -- speaking to the Rabbits with the orders to fuck off to Lothering as fast as possible the moment the battle looked like it was going to turn against us, giving the kennel master the flower I had found, and learning wha...

From the Ashes: Sparks of the Future (ch. 21)

There were many types of fear, and over the course of my life I had become familiar with most of them. Anxiety and nervousness had been constant companions for me until the past two years -- constantly second-guessing myself, worried about what-ifs and could bes. The idea that something could happen was every bit as terrifying as the event actually happening itself -- What if Kallian rejected me? What if we were caught doing whatever she had dragged me into? What if, what if, what if.

T...

From the Ashes: Sparks of Disaster (ch. 20)

“Ugly fuckers,” I muttered, a bow in hand as I was placed upon the bridge with the rest of the archers. My choice, really. Without my magic, I was a piss poor fighter that wouldn’t win a straight fight. And, I suspect, I wouldn’t get a fair fight against darkspawn -- especially not when I would be fighting shoulder to shoulder with a hodgepodge of soldiers. However, I also picked the position due to the fact that it gave me the ability to overlook the battle itself.

The darkspaw...

Legends Never Die: Reunions (ch. 26)

The meeting concluded not long after the reveal that we were dealing with an entirely separate Frankish Army. King Widukind acted composed, but there was an edge of franticness in his actions that betrayed how flatfooted he was caught. How off guard all of us were taken. We were sworn to secrecy before he would ‘allow’ us to leave to avoid panicking the troops, and any reservations that I felt about the lies of omission were reassured by Thorkell voicing his agreement to the plan.

W...

Legends Never Die: Glorious in the Eyes of the Aesir (ch. 25)

The charge was absolutely devastating. There was simply no other word that could hope to convey the effect that the cavalry charge had on the unprepared back of the army. Spears broke as they tore through men like an axe through cloth, shattering into splinters while the horses knocked men over and trampled them under a tide of hooves. Some horsemen weren't so lucky. The wall of people proved to be too thick in some places, either halting the charge or flipping a horse over and sending the ri...

Legends Never Die: Berserker (ch. 24)

Grimar was the second eldest of Horrik’s five sons, born to him across three wives and other concubines. Growing up, I heard of them from my father and brothers, who did meet them. That they were likable. Good men. Strong fighters and so on. However, only Thorfinn had remained in Alabu for any length of time. Horrik sent his children out to be fostered elsewhere. With who, I didn't know, but in hindsight, what he was doing was rather obvious. His daughters were all married for alliances, an...