Enjoy!
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Rissa shook her head, but didn’t reply directly. “When can you come? The sooner the better.”
“I don’t have time off til the first full week in October. That’s fall break, I can come out then.”
Rissa shook her head again. “That’s two weeks. I think you really should try to get out here before that. A long weekend maybe? Or take some time?”
“I don’t know, I really don’t want to make them find a sub on short notice ...
2022-01-23 00:01:00 +0000 UTC
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While Red tried to convince Russ to take her with them to check out one of the shopping malls, Serenity went hunting for Rissa. He needed to talk to her about what Nightwitch had said, and it was a good excuse to escape Red.
Serenity found Rissa in their bedroom sitting on the bed, staring at the wall. “Rissa?”
“Serenity?” Rissa’s voice seemed strained. “I should get moving, shouldn’t I.”
Had she been here all morning? He’d ...
2022-01-21 23:59:05 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Red looked at Katya, then back at Serenity. “I think I’m beginning to see why Russ wouldn’t say much. All he told me was that you’re Rissa’s Guardian and fiancee, and that you’re not human. I didn’t think he’d ever trust a nonhuman that far.”
“Does Russ have an issue with nonhumans?” Serenity hadn’t noticed any issues at all, other than right after the Void incident. Serenity didn’t blame him for that one; he’d had cause, and...
2022-01-21 00:00:00 +0000 UTC
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If I do change the chapter end point, I'll be pulling the Katya chapter out of sequence and placing it as the first chapter in this arc. This would be chapter two.
Enjoy!
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“You do realize that you’re the reason I’ve been stuck behind a desk for weeks now, don’t you?” Nightwitch’s words were harsher than her tone of voice. “Couldn’t you have at least called a bit earlier?”
“Uh. I didn’t - I was busy.” Serenity wasn’t sure what wo...
2022-01-20 00:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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When Serenity arrived back in the normal time stream, he was hit with a wave of pain and anguish. His first thought was that something had gone wrong with Tek’s toy, but he almost immediately nixed that idea. It felt nothing like the static had.
No, somehow it reminded him of when Hegemon Worms were killed, except that it was pain instead of dying agony - and it seemed to affect all of them instead of only a few.
[Pain resistance increas...
2022-01-18 23:59:37 +0000 UTC
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There hasn't yet been a human society that didn't play games. I don't expect magical ones that have crossed space to be any different in that regard.
Enjoy!
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Delve Deeper’s first level was gathering equipment by rolling the dice and seeing what equipment they could choose between based on the die rolls. It was far more important for Sillon and Serenity, since they had to have armor and weapons in order to fight to their fullest, but Serenity made sure to gat...
2022-01-18 00:01:01 +0000 UTC
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There's an obvious place to go when Serenity needs time to do things!
...unfortunately, there are complications when part of what he needs to affect is in the "real world"...
Enjoy!
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After the interview, Serenity returned to releasing the people dominated by the Hegemon Worm Queen. By dinnertime, he had a raging headache and decided that a trip to the Tutorial was a good idea. He’d recovered enough to safely teach magic and if he could free people from ...
2022-01-17 00:00:03 +0000 UTC
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It's been an entire arc since we heard from Katya. It's time to find out what she's been up to.
Enjoy!
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Katya hated the language.
Katya was good at learning languages, but English made no sense. Why did you have to know someone’s gender in order to correctly address them? That wouldn’t even work for some species - it only had words for two genders!
The near-complete lack of Path-role designations was understandable, but the ones it d...
2022-01-16 00:06:00 +0000 UTC
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After they avoided the large cat, the group walked along the trail observing the wildlife. It was obvious that neither Nat nor Jeff knew that they were seeing a positively incredible amount of wildlife for a city park. Everything from small birds to deer wandered past them, and none of it seemed afraid of Man.
Serenity wasn’t sure how much or that was because of where they were; it was entirely likely that a good bit of it was because they...
2022-01-16 00:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Serenity nodded. “It’s generally split into physical, magic, and crafting, but there are a lot of Paths that really blur the lines. Writing could be crafting or magic, for example. Social Paths aren’t well represented in the standard Tutorial, but they do exist. The Path system is very flexible; there’s probably more than one Path that would be perfect for a middle manager, and a different one for an accountant. For that matter, I’m pretty sure ditc...
2022-01-15 17:42:50 +0000 UTC
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Long day today. Was hoping to get this out earlier but it was not to be.
Enjoy!
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Jeff Rosenthal shook his head. “I’ve seen that video. I’m really not sure what to say, she shouldn’t have-”
“It’s fine.” Rissa was smiling as she spoke. “We know it wasn’t really her. If we planned to be difficult, we wouldn’t have accepted meeting you here. We’re going to get some of those questions eventually. I just wasn’t ready.” She seemed al...
2022-01-13 23:57:06 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to Arc 5!
This arc starts off slowly and quietly, completely unlike the last arc. I probably could have included the next few chapters at the end of the previous arc, but I think cutting it after the win against Frank was a better stopping point.
Enjoy!
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“Two hours.” Rissa spoke into her phone as she came down the hallway, “Two hours is all we can spare. Unless you have a crew that wants to do the interview at Pelham Bay Park? We’ll be the...
2022-01-13 00:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Pulled from a hopeless (if powerful) future back to the moment of Earth’s integration to try to improve the outcome, Serenity has met unexpected threats and unexpected allies - even friends. Everything is different this time.
Serenity’s back on Earth, and he’s even managed to close the first invasion portal far ahead of schedule. It wasn’t without consequences, but it’s a good beginning. On top of that, the threat to Rissa seems to be gone; Frank Smith is in jail and unlikely ...
2022-01-12 00:11:00 +0000 UTC
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Well, that was a ride, wasn’t it? It reminded me a bit of a rollercoaster.
This arc did a (generally) better job of following the original plan than Braving the Necropolis (recently renamed to Shadows of the Necropolis) did. The one big thing I missed was that I wanted to spend some more time with Katya, but there was never a good point to jump over to her perspective; things were always frantic and jumping around as it was.
The biggest goal was to resolve the ...
2022-01-12 00:05:00 +0000 UTC
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This time I've added a Quest List at the end. It's only the formal Voice-assigned Quests (at least for now).
I'm debating if that will be a permanent part of the Status or if I'll just keep it for the end of each arc.
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Character List of Down to Earth
This list includes people mentioned in all Arcs to date.
Aki - Crystal Raz removed from the dungeon below the Sunrise Clan holdings
2022-01-12 00:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Looks like this one also went public early; this is the second chapter for Pathed for 1/22.
Enjoy!
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Serenity glared at the man in the circle. “Did you deliberately wait until everyone was gone?”
“Of course. I don’t need a repeat of what happened the first time. The ward meant Lessi couldn’t enter the building; a mistake might mean a real fight, but at the least it would mean another ward. Everything might even be moved! So I had Lessi...
2022-01-10 23:53:22 +0000 UTC
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Car-destroyer strikes again!
A dozen rusted-out cars were found by their owners in a mall parking lot in Worcester, Massachusetts today. This follows a string of similar occurrences at other malls along I-95. The first reported incident was in New York City less than a week ago, where…
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Serenity swept the room, then started pulling the fake apparatus out of the bag. He hadn’t had a chance to look over it, but it...
2022-01-10 00:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Serenity read the rest of the description for the Hegemon Worm Queen’s Breed skill. It was very detailed and after reading it and Dominate, it made far more sense. This apartment complex must be the Hegemon Worm Queen’s breeding ground. Most of the residents were likely Dominated; if it needed a body for the brood to hatch and grow as larvae, it would kill a resident and use the body.
When it had enough of a brood ready, it would bring a living bein...
2022-01-09 00:05:59 +0000 UTC
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I really should have mentioned it earlier, but since I didn’t - the correct pronoun for a Hegemon Worm (such as the Queen) is “it.” More than one Hegemon Worm (such as an “individual colony” is “they”. Hegemon Worms are not gendered; despite the use of the word Queen (as an analogy to the breeding female of insect colonies), “he” and “she” do not apply.
Serenity’s been using the pronoun correctly, because I know what it should be and I decided not to have him mak...
2022-01-09 00:01:00 +0000 UTC
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The problem this time isn’t really his opponent (though his opponent thinks it’s a problem); no, it’s the restrictions Serenity is under for the fight, which tilt the battlefield towards the more experienced Sovereign.
…I don’t think I’m spoiling much if I say that the Voice still expects Serenity to win. It’s pretty sure it knows how, too.
Enjoy!
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Lancaster’s phone rang shortly after he reached the car.
“Rissa? What do you need?”...
2022-01-07 23:52:48 +0000 UTC
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Once he was certain Lancaster was gone, Serenity shifted and tried the door.
It was strange. All the thought it took was moving up to the door and trying to keep going, but he could see as he slipped through the various cracks and holes that he wasn’t just phasing through the door; he was actually fitting through the spaces. There was no sense of constriction or limit, though; he was apparently smaller than even the small holes.
The strange thing ...
2022-01-07 00:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Raz came with them. Serenity got the impression that more than a day with only Aki made him eager for more company, but he also had some specific things he wanted to buy for the dungeon. Serenity wasn’t sure why he wanted wildflower seeds and some small plants; the cookware and bedding at least made sense.
Lancaster was waiting outside the hospital on a bench when they got there. “I can’t take all of you. One or maybe two people, as a ride-along, ...
2022-01-05 23:58:45 +0000 UTC
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New Land Discovered?
The latest images returned from space reveal new island chains in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans! DigitalGlobe CEO Ron Stefanopolis has refused to comment, but many users of Google Earth have noticed that even on land, the same coordinates do not always map to the old location. Google has suspended automatic map updates until the cause of the fault is found.
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New York City Parks Update<...
2022-01-05 00:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Serenity stood on a completely flat surface that stretched as far as he could see with no variation, surrounded by people who didn’t pay him any attention as he stared at the spot where Death vanished. He didn’t even remember what happened; he’d been unconscious due to drugged darts. How was he supposed to be more cautious?
Well, perhaps he shouldn’t get into that position in the first place. Definitely he shouldn’t. Still, he’d had no reason ...
2022-01-04 00:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Serenity hopped down the slight rise into the water. If the thing was only a few inches down, there should be something that would hold him, as long as he stayed next to the bank. He was right; there were some rocks there, and he’d have to be extremely careful about his footing since he couldn’t see through the water.
“No choice, old man. We tried the usual. It wouldn’t break. I don’t know what was done to-”
“It’s a Death-based stabilit...
2022-01-03 00:01:00 +0000 UTC
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It's always interesting to talk to someone with a different knowledge base. The magma dude has some assumptions that Serenity will hopefully eventually wonder about, but for now he's so interested in helping he hasn't asked why he believes what he does.
Enjoy!
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“What do you mean?” Serenity didn’t think of Order’s Voice as being a problem in and of itself. When the protection was lost in ten years, yes, there was a problem, but the Voice itsel...
2022-01-02 00:05:00 +0000 UTC
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I thought about writing up the ritual itself, but Serenity doesn’t take it entirely seriously, so I figured that giving you his breakdown of what he thought about it would fit better. This is what he’ll really remember later, rather than the ceremony itself.
Enjoy!
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Serenity watched as Russ gathered the things he needed from around Liam’s house. It took a while, but Liam did seem to have pretty much everything Russ needed.
“Where does he keep the n...
2022-01-02 00:00:02 +0000 UTC
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When a quest changes because the world doesn’t exactly conform to the Voice’s guesses, the Voice doesn’t usually let you know unless you go check. It generally lets you find out the “normal” way; it’s not intended as an omniscient information source, and doesn’t want to be one.
There are some things that are important enough that it chooses to announce them. Of course, that doesn’t mean it has to say what they mean - in fact, it rarely does so. Part of the point, after a...
2022-01-01 00:00:04 +0000 UTC
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We're currently at 21 chapters ahead for Chimera and 9 ahead for Pathed.
The end of the year brought me a little extra time to write (when I wasn't with family, of course), and I am back to having something approaching a healthy chapter backlog. It's not (even close to) as large as I'd like, but it's enough to continue releasing extra chapters at the same rate I have been.
There are five Saturdays this January, so Chimera will get bonus chapters on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, ...
2021-12-31 23:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Apologies for the late drop; I thought I'd already released it, but I don't see it.
Enjoy!
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Fear. Pain.
Rissa was afraid and hurt.
It burned through the haze shrouding Serenity’s mind. He was angry. He didn’t know what he was angry at, other than whatever caused the fear.
He started to turn towards Rissa only to have his arm stop. He pulled harder and could faintly hear a squeal of overstressed metal, followed by a ping. Serenity...
2021-12-31 01:55:32 +0000 UTC
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