"Jelisaveta, are you sure you should be doing this alone with her?"
I look away from the notes and ideas I've been collecting, glancing up towards the voice. Then I twist my neck to glance even further up, because Lady Vesuvius is absolutely ridiculously tall. Her radiant scales pulse with blob-like collections of color—'chromatophores,' she called them—each too small for anyone else to see. Packed tightly together in beautiful collections of different colors, they expand and bloom ...
2022-08-06 07:55:49 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Hello, everyone! I'm starting another break. There will not be a chapter on Friday, and there will not be a chapter on Wednesday. There also won't be a Bioshifter chapter on Monday. The next chapter will be on Friday the 5th! Thank you for your patience!
It takes a split-second to reorient myself once my soul slots back into place, albeit for two drastically different reasons. Conflicting sets of memories slam into each other, and though they were only se...
2022-07-29 01:31:36 +0000 UTC
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A freak. An outcast. A pariah. That's the core of my fear, isn't it? Sure, there are people who will accept me for what I am. There are people that already do. But society as a whole? No. Definitely not.
It's similar to being gay, really. I do not live in what I would describe as a queer-friendly community, so I keep my mouth shut about it. Does that mean that the average person on the street would attack me if they saw me kissing a girl? No, almost certainly not. It's not like I live i...
2022-07-26 09:11:24 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Hey everyone! Thundamoo here. This was supposed to be yesterday's chapter, but I was late and struggling to write it so I wanted to finish it today and then also start tomorrow's chapter, but... well, now it's almost 11pm and I haven't even started tomorrow's chapter, so I'll probably end up missing tomorrow. Sorry! But I promise, the extra wait is going towards higher quality! And on that note, enjoy the chapter!
I guess I'm going to be adding 'optimize P...
2022-07-22 04:43:10 +0000 UTC
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I wake up, and it hardly feels like I've slept at all. Because, y'know, I sort of haven't.
A quick limb check gets me out of bed sooner than usual. I know to expect six in my Earth body now, though I'm hoping to get up to ten. And isn’t that a weird thing to think? 'I sure hope I grow more horrific bug limbs!' In my defense, I've been waking up feeling like I don't have enough for my entire life, so the prospect of finally fixing that is undeniably exciting. Not exciting enou...
2022-07-19 06:36:00 +0000 UTC
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I curl my tail in irritation, then immediately become even more irritated at the unconscious movement. Flexing the spine of my tail doesn't have a negative affect on my ability to cast with the many tendrils lining its underside, of course, but both the involuntary movement and the involuntary emotion are unwanted. Annoyance is a frustratingly difficult emotion to suppress, due to the nature of emotional suppression, and my dislike for allowing myself to have thoughtless phy...
2022-07-16 08:34:55 +0000 UTC
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Out of all the secret bases Ars could have been hiding in, I can't decide whether or not I very much should have or very much should not have expected the state capital of Baldone. Hundreds of souls, then thousands, then tens of thousands all enter my sensory radius in short order, an almost-blinding density to it all that not even Skyhope can compare to. It's weirdly layered in the same way the city Jelisa scouted is: walkways on top of walkways, bridges on top of bridges, ways to g...
2022-07-14 07:34:10 +0000 UTC
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So Hannah, Teboho asks me as we trudge away from camp, exactly how much experience do you have, in terms of hunting and fighting?
I squirm slightly, firmly attached to his fuzzy shoulder as he walks. When we get closer to our destination I'll get off and walk myself, but until then it's more efficient to hitch a ride.
Uh… well, remember those cultists we fought? I ask.
I'll never forget it, he assures me solemnly.
That's it,
2022-07-12 07:15:48 +0000 UTC
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I have been informed by my roommates that "announcing a break in which you actually just do a bunch of work on Bioshifter instead of Vigor Mortis" does not count as taking a break, and "having a mental health problem serious enough to prevent you from working for a day" also does not count as taking a break, and while these things make some amount of sense when spelled out to me they are the type of thing that struggles immensely to get through my skull. So I've mostly been ignoring them.
2022-07-05 05:13:09 +0000 UTC
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"Well that's just fucking disturbing," Jelisa mutters.
"Language," I reply automatically.
Jelisa glances at me briefly and smirks, her face a disturbing mutation of what she looked like before. Had I not been told it was her, I'm not sure I would have guessed it. Her dark skin, her long white hair, the rounder configuration of her face, even her clothes are nothing like I'm used to. It's funny; it reminds me of back when I first went to New Talsi and I didn't understand t...
2022-06-30 08:44:41 +0000 UTC
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I'm so friggin' hungry that even when I finish off the last of the egg carton I still need to microwave up some frozen sausages and eat those as well. Geez, they taste good now, all savory, salty, umami heaven. They're not even like, high-quality sausages, they're the kind you're supposed to cook in the microwave, nothing but fat and sodium and once-meat. But once-meat is, apparently, good enough for my newly carnivorous taste buds. My teeth slice through the tubes of indust...
2022-06-28 04:02:59 +0000 UTC
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"All right! Well Jelisa, while Penelope's making you produce more melanin, I'm gonna inject a new language into your soul, if that's okay?"
I take a deep, quick breath, a sharp inhale and exhale. Slower breaths tend to hit me with too many unpleasant smells and tastes, and I think I'm close enough to being overwhelmed that the little minimizations matter a lot. I'm sitting in my underwear in Lady Vesuvius' horribly sterile home-slash-research-facility-slash-medical-ward, trying my best ...
2022-06-26 06:31:52 +0000 UTC
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I really, really, really want to rush over to where some dumbfuck splice thinks they can mess with my town and relish in the resulting slaughter, but unfortunately I am fighting an opponent with teleportation abilities in a defensive battle. I can't risk fighting like a soldier. It is my duty to fight as a Queen.
Pulling a huge shard of my soul free for use, I stuff it with as much of my mana as I can pack in and put it into a nearby toy, grabbing it and handing it to ...
2022-06-23 07:37:29 +0000 UTC
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Since everyone has apparently agreed to collectively ignore the fact that the world is ending, our journey resumes with only moderate urgency. We are, on one hand, chasing a dangerous, murderous criminal who needs to be stopped as soon as possible. On the other hand, Sindri is already confident that we have them cornered. They're here on this branch, which means we're between them and the trunk. It's only a matter of time before we either catch up or drive them to the edge of the branch where...
2022-06-21 06:43:54 +0000 UTC
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The simple act of trying to eat breakfast is enough to alert me that something a bit more fundamental has changed than just my teeth. I eat cereal for breakfast every day, unless my mom decides to cook something on the weekend. I mean that. Every single day, I wake up, I shower, and I chow down on a bowl or two of sugary, oaty, wheaty goodness drenched in milk. I like cereal; it's simple and easy and tasty and quick. It's a great meal all around, yet the mere thought of eating it now makes my...
2022-06-19 06:23:17 +0000 UTC
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The rest of my day is startlingly normal. No secret organizations kidnap me for using magic in the middle of a street, no body parts form or fall off of me, and no one else learns of my freakish mutations. Ida, unfortunately, seems to have blocked Brendan and I's phone numbers, or at the very least she's pretending she has, so my inquiries into her experience with me accidentally drawing a divine entity's attention go unanswered. I hope she's okay, but as Brendan pointed out we can't...
2022-06-15 22:22:55 +0000 UTC
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"What the fuck!" Ida screams, slamming the emergency lights button in her car and pulling over to the side of the road. "What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck!"
I can't respond, of course, since I'm too busy pressing both hands against my mouth and trying to pull my claws back up through the gouges I just dug into my shoes. I'm such an idiot! What the heck was I thinking, trying to cast magic in a moving car? With my friends around? With the verbal incantation I can app...
2022-06-14 00:50:26 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone! Between a doctor's appointment yesterday, a nasty bout of mania today, and a bunch of extra work I have to do for the ebook and audiobook versions of Hive Minds Give Good Hugs and Vigor Mortis Volume 3... today's chapter just isn't happening. I'm way too far behind, and frankly I've been so busy I don't even have enough planned for a Vigor Mortis chapter right now. I've gotta get my head back in the game, let ideas percolate, and take care of a bunch of obligations...
2022-06-11 01:58:16 +0000 UTC
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"Hello, second favorite mom!" I call out, greeting Altrix cheerfully.
The twisty-toothed woman turns to me and glowers, though I can tell there's a jolt of joy in it.
"You cheeky little shit," she greets me back.
"Ooh, that sounds like Sano!" I decide. "Hi Sano! I'm a cheeky little Princess now, actually."
"So it would seem," my original birth mother agrees, looking me up and down. "The new species seems to agree with you."
I chuckle with mild embarrassment, scra...
2022-06-09 07:49:21 +0000 UTC
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I do not have the supplies and tools I'd like to have for cleaning up this much blood, but I suppose I'll have to make due.
I should probably try to stop producing more blood first, though. Or… well, I mean, I'm going to need to produce blood to make up for all the blood that's falling out of my face, but I need that blood to not fall out of my face, so… god, what am I even thinking about? Am I still having a panic attack?
Hmm.
Yep, chest still hurts, b...
2022-06-07 02:07:04 +0000 UTC
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Weird week, difficult chapter, brain not cooperating. Sorry, everyone, but I need a mental health break. Next VM chapter will be Wednesday. Bioshifter chapter should be Monday as usual. Thanks for your patience.
2022-06-03 20:21:41 +0000 UTC
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"Well," Penta sighs, brushing a goopy lock of faux-hair out from in front of her faux-eyes. "It would seem that Vita is back."
I have no idea why she does that. Her 'hair' is just the same substance as the rest of her, so she could move it with pure willpower. Of course, there's no need to, since her 'eyes' don't work anyway. There's probably a half-dozen other layers of pointlessness for that motion, but I still notice Penta doing weird things like that all the time.
"Finally...
2022-06-02 23:53:43 +0000 UTC
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We don't talk much for the rest of the day. Or… is it nighttime? I guess it probably is, considering our rude awakening, but it's impossible for anyone to tell inside this spatial tunnel up through the trunk of the Mother Tree, or Tree of Souls, or whatever a given culture wants to call this thing. My vote is 'Absolutely Massive Woody.'
Regardless of the time, we're all exhausted, frayed past our breaking points. My head is a constant anxious loop, replaying the moment I murdered a ma...
2022-05-31 01:28:06 +0000 UTC
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The purple spiderweb cracks erupt all around us, fractal tears in the face of reality which herald the imminent judgment of Interitus' unfathomable talent. It's hard to guess who the woman was before Ars broke her soul into pieces and forged her into a splice, but she must have been legendary even before it was twisted into the chaotic destruction she now wields. It's one of the few things on this island I still truly fear, yet Vita responds not with trying to avoid it, but by blocking it hea...
2022-05-28 07:57:38 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Sorry for the wait! This is yesterday's chapter; tomorrow will also have a chapter like normal. I was just a bit slow! Enjoy!
"That's quite a glare you have, little Princess," Dalakana muses. "You wouldn't happen to be holding a grudge, now would you?"
I flinch and look away, doing my best to ignore the squadron of soldiers dragging the many obarian corpses out of the plaza to be burned.
"...I'm not planning to take revenge against you, if th...
2022-05-26 21:32:10 +0000 UTC
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No, no no no. Oh god. We're going to die. We're all going to die. The cultists had weapons, they knocked us out, we're dead we're dead we're dead. Or maybe I'll be the only survivor. They probably wanted to capture me alive, they wanted me because I'm some sort of valuable monster so they're going to steal me and lock me up and kill my friends to remove the witnesses and—
"Hannah!" someone shrieks. "Hannah, is everything alright!?"
My mother b...
2022-05-24 06:20:39 +0000 UTC
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"I can't believe your idea of a vacation is to explore a literal, actual sewer system," Tala whines. "This is so disgusting."
"Oh, it's not so bad," I protest. "Honestly, this is probably the cleanest sewer I've ever skulked around in."
Besides, Tala and I are both flying. We don't even have to walk around in the sewage.
"Why am I not surprised that you have a wealth of comparisons ready?" Tala groans.
"I… I mean I wouldn't say a wealth...
2022-05-21 06:22:47 +0000 UTC
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"Wow," my mouth says, entirely of its own accord. "This is… unbelievably fucking wild."
Right? I think. My life is so messed up I didn't even realize how messed up it was until recently.
"Yeah, this is… a lot," my voice agrees. "I can definitely see why you broke up with me. And here I thought you'd just forgotten all the good times we've had."
Nope, I remember a lot of them. They're just… recontextualized.
"No kidding. This Penta chick...
2022-05-19 05:19:40 +0000 UTC
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Kagiso carefully cradles me in two hands, hand idly brushing the top of my carapace with a third as she carries me up to what will be our shared room. I, of course, am holding onto her with a death grip, wary of being dropped—or worse, thrown. I admit, I don't actually know if I'll be hurt if I fall, but I've heard that tarantulas can get seriously injured from being dropped and that's about the closest equivalent I have to my current leggy body. I don't intend to test it.
I ...
2022-05-17 05:24:31 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for the slight delay, I just passed out before I could finish editing this last night. Enjoy the chapter!
Dead bugs litter the streets. Not one of them so much as twitches anymore. Vesuvius the Inhuman has single-handedly ended the Hiverock invasion. For a while before the end, corpses were raining from the sky as Hiverock soldiers died before even touching the ground.
Of course my squad and I haven't been given the all-clear, so I'm stuc...
2022-05-14 20:36:00 +0000 UTC
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