DarkTechnomancer

My Own Worst Enemy 6 - One Spell at a Time

“Whatever you’re about to try, make it quick,” Draga insists, shielding his eyes as he watches the sun rise. “It’s time to go.”

Talla nods and turns back to me as I stand and brush myself off. “This shouldn’t take too long. I’ve already adjusted the carriage’s mana crystals back to their original settings...I think. It’ll run, but not for long unless we can manage the temperature.”

I raise my hands and sigh. “I can’t make any promises. We still don’t ...

My Own Worst Enemy 5 - I Know Better Than to Set Myself On Fire

Draga begrudgingly agrees to give Talla until the sun has fully risen to give me a crash course on basic thaumaturgy.

“Normally you’d have at least a few years of tutoring to prepare you for your first thaumaturgy skill,” Talla explains.

“‘Normally,’” Draga scoffs from nearby, keeping busy by sweeping dust out of the vehicle.

“Shush you!” Talla counters before turning back to me. “But since you already have one, it’ll be easier to take things f...

My Own Worst Enemy 4 - You Should Learn Too

While Talla is busy starting the car or whatever she’s up to, I practice heating up and cooling down a little ball of fire. I don’t have a specific goal in mind—I’m just cooling it down until it feels hard to go any further without pulling on other aspects, then go back the other way until the same thing happens, trying to push just a little bit further each time. I figure it’s like flexing a muscle—or maybe stretching? I dunno, Vi’s the gym nerd, she’d probably know better. 2025-06-18 17:26:41 +0000 UTC View Post

My Own Worst Enemy 3 - Make the Fire Less Hot

It’s still dark out when I groggily emerge from the tent with Nipper and begin the now-familiar work of disassembling it. It’s earlier than the rangers usually make me get up, but I suspect it’s later than they usually do on their own. As evidence of that, Talla and Draga are both already up and active, loading the last few things into the car. I still can’t get over the fact that they have a car.

Once the tent is all packed up, I head over to what’s left of the campfire to ge...

My Own Worst Enemy 2 - It's Just Words

I lie awake at night, staring up at the tent of a dead woman, lying in her bedding, wearing her clothes, and inhabiting the body of the ones who murdered her. Kiera Gaa Baanu—a priestess like me, and a noble—not like me at all. She was the kind of person I looked up to in my previous life—tried to model myself after. Then I was forced to watch through these very eyes as Violet plunged a dagger into her neck.

The image plagues me even as I try to roll onto my side and drive it from...

My Own Worst Enemy 1 - Start Smaller

“Alright Evie, let’s try this—let’s say the river is twenty five paces wide and twice as long. How many paces would it take to walk its entire length?”

It’s about as simple an algebra question as I can come up with. Now that we’ve put that awful dungeon and the mountain it’s hidden in behind us, I’ve decided to start catching Evelyn up on her education while we hike through the jungle-like oasis. Unfortunately, the ancient teenager whose ghost now lives in my head is a...

Interlude - Where We Stand

Hello again! Did you miss me? Welcome back to my world of maybes. The girls have made it through the first chapter of their trials, and now their suffering is over.

Pfft! Hahahaha! Nope, I couldn’t say it with a straight face. They’ve unlocked a whole new world of suffering, and I, for one, can’t wait to see what the fires of fate will forge them into. But first, let’s get a few numbers on the table, shall we? Our silly author keeps forgetting what we’re all ...

My Own Best Friend 79 - We Made It

It’s a little crazy how quickly everything went from bone dry and stiflingly hot to almost jungle-like. The riverbank is covered in tall grasses, shrubbery, and unfamiliar trees taking advantage of the local moisture. The ground is also a lot softer, and while there are still rocks and twigs to contend with, it's a welcome break for my poor abused feet.

This place is teeming with life, too. The mountains were almost eerily silent, apart from the occasional bird or lizard, and the only...

My Own Best Friend 78 - The Truth Exists

With every moment I spend in this body, I discover something new to hate about it. The lack of fur makes me feel exposed, and offers no protection from the hot summer sun. At the same time, fur grows selectively in strange places that seems to exist for the sole purpose of rubbing up against this bizarrely tight clothing and constantly itching. The fingers are tipped with long nails—too fragile to be claws, yet hard enough to catch and pull painfully when climbing.

Yet all of it pales...

My Own Best Friend 77 - I Don't Want to Impose

Two hundred years. That’s a long time. It doesn’t sound like much, but empires have risen and fallen in far shorter spans. It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the world now is not the same world as the one from two hundred years ago. It’s a long enough time that on that scale, two hundred years is actually a very suspiciously specific number to come up in three different cases all centered on the same thing.

“This can’t be a coincidence,” Violet...

My Own Best Friend 76 - Sounds Like a Plan

Talla watches as I pace in a small circle around the spacious tent. The fact that fa’aun are so tall works out in my favor here, but I’m still a little dizzy from the magical strain, so I take it slow. I asked her to come back in to help us choose classes now that we’re done fighting.

...

Done actively fighting. Ugh. The fact that it’s Maggie, Evelyn, and me to coordinate our classes is already giving me a headache. I thought Maggie and Vi were a bad match, but th...

My Own Best Friend 75 - It's Her Body Too

As tempting as it may be to simply ignore these new options and pick Human, it does bear some consideration. Besides, it would be a huge betrayal to make a unilateral decision like that.

“There’s more than one option,” I admit. “Demi-human and Demi-fa’aun.”

“Really?!” Talla exclaims. “That’s incredibly rare!”

“What the heck is a demi-fa’aun?!” Allie asks.

Rather than waste time repeating myself, I just directly share the engine desc...

My Own Best Friend 74 - Everything's Gonna Be Okay

“Here, you can use Kiera’s tent,” Talla says, ushering me inside.

The inside of the large canvas tent is...maybe not quite luxurious, but it’s clearly making an effort to be. A plush futon in the center is surrounded by colorful pillows, cushions, and silk sheets. It’s also got a lived-in quality, with bits of discarded clothing littering the floor around open packs.

“She was a bit of a slob, huh?” Allison remarks.

“I don’t think it’s ap...

My Own Best Friend 73 - Everything Is Improved by Fire

“I don’t understand,” I say, frowning. “Why can I control our main class now?”

“Isn’t that a good thing, though?” Allie asks.

“Well, yes,” I concede. “I’m not complaining, but I don’t like it when the rules we’ve discovered change.”

“Usually, that just means that you need to reconsider your previous assumptions,” Talla interjects. “Contradictions like that are the heart of innovation and progress. Consider the variables—has anyt...

My Own Best Friend 72 - Discuss the Future

“Alright, now that we can all hear each other, let’s talk about how to progress,” I suggest.

Talla blinks and cocks her head at me. “Wait, did you just switch?”

“I—did we?” I ask, surprised by the question.

“That happens sometimes,” Allie giggles. “You get used to it.”

“How could you tell?” I ask Talla.

“Hm, I think it might be part of the spell,” she says. “Your words felt different. I don’t know, it’s a ne...

My Own Best Friend 71 - I'm a Scholar

Few things are certain in life. Death? High level individuals have been known to enjoy increased longevity, and with the right class, immortality isn’t out of the question. Sunrise? It’s shaded by the great wheel for a third of every year. Taxes? Some nations don’t even have currency.

But the [World Engine]? It’s not especially consistent. Class theory is a hugely troublesome field precisely because of how inconsistent it can be. The same progr...

My Own Best Friend 70 - No Interface

The world is a confusing, chaotic jumble of nonsense. I lie in my bed, surrounded by hooded cultists that all look like Saban. One steps forward and lowers her hood to reveal Violet, who plunges her knife into the neck of a laser gecko. Its lifeless body flops over and the dead eyes of the priestess Kiera stare back at me. A gunshot echoes through the cave, and Talla screams as she’s engulfed by fire.

Reyna charges me with his spear and I squint my eyes shut, covering my ...