I wake up with a chill on the cold, stone ground. Simultaneously, I also wake up on soft grass, on a Mooshi shell, in the ocean, perched in a tree, and dozens of other places. I'd hoped… I'd really, really hoped that I would somehow get some insight on what to do from my memories of Tara. Instead, I just feel numb. Betrayed. It always comes back to force, doesn't it? The response to violence is always more violence. I hate it. I don't want to be like that.
I thought she didn't either....
2022-03-01 08:46:59 +0000 UTC
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Staring down at the calm water of the bath, I find Melik's face staring back up at me, wearing my blank expression. It's both familiar and surreal, as while I've seen this face many times before in two different sets of memories, I don't really see it as mine anymore. It also reminds me a lot of that time years ago when Penta-as-Penelope brought me to that fancy bathhouse and I saw my old body's face for the first time I could remember. How odd it looked. How… not quite me. Familiar and sur...
2022-02-26 05:24:06 +0000 UTC
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I wake up with an annoying crick in my back, my face resting on the foot of a medical cot soaked with my own drool. It takes a moment to blink the incomprehensible mess of dreams I was having out of my eyes before I can remember how I got here and what I was doing yesterday. Oh, fuck, that's right. I was fighting that big battle against Vita-Templars with-against Lark and my-her team and—
I jerk upright, but not in time to stop the bile from rising up my throat and ending up all over ...
2022-02-23 22:43:11 +0000 UTC
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Helpless. That's the emotion that has defined my life for as long as I can remember. Even the beginning, the single most pivotal moment of my life—getting my talent—was just helplessness magnified a thousandfold. Every day I wake up helpless, paralyzed by my own mind. And so I worked as hard as I could, I pushed my mind as far as it could go, I trained myself and became one of the strongest people in the world so I could join the Templars… just to once again find myself helpless when my...
2022-02-19 04:22:49 +0000 UTC
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A scream sounds out across the battlefield, the first audible break in the battle-hardened professionalism of the Templar forces. Blood is everywhere, spilling across enough of the ground that even my dulled senses feel the sharp smell clawing up my nostrils. My dragon, weathering countless arrows and spells despite its invisibility, turns anyone not protected by treecover into paste. My ozoid-wight carves through those trees with just as much ease as it carves through people, enemy swords fl...
2022-02-17 07:34:08 +0000 UTC
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Hey, everyone. Quick update.
Firstly, I'm going to take a short break. Next Vigor Mortis chapter will be Wednesday the 16th. Apologies for the short notice. Also apologies for taking a break on like, the worst possible chapter for that, but life just punched me in the face and that's just how it be sometimes. I promise, things are about to get really good! ^.^
To those of you here for Hive Minds Give Good Hugs, you may have noticed I've been missing a lot of...
2022-02-11 01:12:41 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Okay! This is another one of those chapters I didn't expect to be as horrifying as it ended up being, so... content warning on this one for mind control.
"Well then, everyone!" I announce, drawing attention to myself with a single clap of my hands. "Are we all ready to purge some heretics?"
Sky and Capita level unamused looks at me, presumably out of some combination of stress and stupidity. My joke is hilarious, obviously, because the three of us are going...
2022-02-10 03:17:33 +0000 UTC
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I can't help but bounce excitedly a little in my seat as I wait for lunch to be served. Penelope sent us a ton of spices via teleportation, and even commissioned guides from the Hunter's guild on where most of the spices could be gathered in the forest. I'm normally not much for flavor; food is food, and as long as it fills me up, I'm happy with it. This is compounded by my body's universally dulled sensations ever since I became a living pseudo-Revenant all the way back when Norah was still ...
2022-02-04 22:56:53 +0000 UTC
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"Okay, so, that's close, but you need to remember that these movements don't exist in a vacuum," I patiently remind Bently. "Remember, we're not just making hand signs there, we're practicing for when we'll use these movements to physically shape a mana structure. So every single gesture you perform is relative to the gesture you performed before it. That's why steps eight and nineteen end with your hand in the same configuration but require different movements to reach that point."
"I...
2022-02-03 05:59:15 +0000 UTC
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I resist the urge to hum happily to myself as I step deftly around some noisy fallen branches, hands moving carefully forward to cup around an adorable beetle that caught my eye. He's a beautiful, herbivorous little fella, so I drop him into the container I'm carrying that already has the most friends in it. He'll get along well with the others.
Today is a mental health day, which means it's a 'lose myself in the woods for about six hours and catch every single cutie I find...
2022-02-01 18:40:29 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Hey everyone! So, Lark's chapters have had suicidal ideation as an undertone for a while now, but I want to specifically tag this chapter because it pretty explicitly discusses suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in detail. If that sounds like it's not going to be healthy for you to read, please don't. Thank you all so much for supporting me!
Without consciously thinking about it, I sit down on the floor. My mind is an empty buzz, incapable of compreh...
2022-01-28 19:09:01 +0000 UTC
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Training starts in an hour, so I rise from torpor and make my way to the courtyard, bringing along my armor but not yet putting it on. It's still nighttime, the island overhead blotting out the light of the sky, but I have never and still don't possess any issue seeing clearly regardless. Of course, not every human is asleep at this time of night, especially not in the barracks, but I still thankfully don't run into anyone before I can get down on my hands and feet in the courtyard and start ...
2022-01-27 01:35:10 +0000 UTC
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"Evelyn, Evelyn look!" Tara laughs happily, turning her newly-bought laptop around so I could see the screen. "I made a website!"
I glance at it and find my eyes immediately assaulted by a terrifyingly 1998-esque website that would cause me to immediately close the tab and run my virus scanner if I ever saw it crawl its way onto my browser. The title of the page reads 'Jane Doe Emergency Squad 😁' and is filled with watermarked stock photos, heart emojis, and a f...
2022-01-24 20:54:05 +0000 UTC
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"Evelyn, you can't take a Weaver on a diplomatic mission," Priestess Saslitak whines.
I put my hands on my hips, turning to scowl at her.
"Why the heck not?" I ask.
"B-because she's a Weaver, Evelyn," Saslitak explains incredulously.
"Well that doesn't sound like an actual reason to me," I grunt. "What makes a weaver any less suited to diplomacy than all the warriors you want to bring?"
The time has finally come. I have the food production and stockpiles necessar...
2022-01-23 00:44:49 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Sorry about the delay! This is Friday's chapter. Enjoy!
"So," Penelope says about twenty minutes later. "About what you said regarding getting up and talking to other people…?"
"But you're just so comfy, though!" I whine.
Okay, so maybe my resolution towards productivity and self-control isn't quite so easily achieved as simply deciding that I'm going to do it. But Penelope is very warm, and she's very squeezable, and I love
2022-01-22 18:30:12 +0000 UTC
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"I need a large tail because I'm looking to store more casting organs," Penelope explains. "Among other things. But I didn't like the idea of a tail that I had to drag everywhere. It's unappealingly crude, solution-wise."
I nestle my face deeper into her chest, because it's soft and I'm tired and I expect she's about to talk more than enough for both of us. Penelope certainly values elegance in design, something that I think rubbed off on Margarette. I'm not sure I understand t...
2022-01-19 21:31:27 +0000 UTC
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"So... that's it, then?" Sasha asks. "You're just going to let him be?"
"Yes," a grumpy Tara responds. "'That's it.' I'll watch him and stop him if he tries to hurt anyone. What else would you have me do?"
Sasha, Alex, Sam, Thomas, Tara, and of course myself are all on our way out of the forest, the sun having started to set. The group has been talking for hours, asking Tara about what she is, where she came from, and all sorts of other things. Inevitably, ho...
2022-01-16 00:08:37 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Sorry for the delay, everyone! Here's the chapter for Friday.
I did not expect it to be this damn difficult to find a dragon. It's like they don't want to be murdered, or something.
"How long have we been out here again, Norah?" I ask, my tentacles ficking outward to intercept a furious swarm of disintegration wasps (which are basically like normal wasps, except their bites inject some kind of magically-charged chemical that rapidly dissolves ev...
2022-01-15 19:29:04 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Per request, I'm placing a content warning on this chapter for Brainwashing.
I hum a slow song to myself as I move through the upper floor of my home, touching up every last speck of dust. I'm always trying to keep busy, but unfortunately there's just not much cleaning to do when the house is empty. Theodora, Margarette, and precious Vitamin all left to live in the forest with their true love, and I hardly blame them for it. I'm jealous, actually. But all three of...
2022-01-12 23:11:11 +0000 UTC
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"What do you think, Mr. Mooshi?" I ask, leaning against my friend's adorable shell. "Am I just being paranoid?"
"No," he answers. "But not in the sense that being correct justifies paranoia, merely in the sense that you aren't harmfully impacting your life in order to try and justify your beliefs or assuage your worries. Paranoia is a serious mental condition, and while you shouldn't trust my diagnosis considering I'm just an aspect of your psyche that you project onto a large alien bug...
2022-01-10 19:40:31 +0000 UTC
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Damn it, I thought I was being real fucking smart when I let Lark leave with that other woman. How do I keep fucking these things up!? It was obvious that Gina was just distracting me so Lark could head off alone with what was almost certainly Fulvia. Unlike Site 4, documentation on Lark is thorough, and I'm well aware that two of her victims are alive in the city, and that one of them is a hunter, and that Gina was a hunter before joining the Templar training progr...
2022-01-08 01:45:09 +0000 UTC
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"He said yes!" Xavier squeals delightedly, half-tackling me with a sudden hug from nowhere. My whole body goes stiff at the impact, my mind completely focused on halting all my natural responses to the unexpected contact. Don't bite, don't claw, don't fight, don't move.
I'm absolutely terrified that one of these days, Xavier is going to surprise me and I'll kill him on accident. Or… or maybe on purpose, insofar as it's possible to separate things I know I shouldn't do from th...
2022-01-05 19:09:10 +0000 UTC
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Time sure flies when I'm not under constant, life-threatening stress.
I introduced Hsthressis to the Resonant Gems as two things: an exile from another clan (which is accurate) and as my apprentice (which I guess became accurate when I said so). She's taken my advice so far and not made a ruckus about religion or being the daughter of the True People's chieftain, which I'm grateful for. And, admittedly, a bit surprised by. I guess she just doesn't have much time, since I've been keeping...
2022-01-01 06:20:10 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone! I'm going on a holiday break until January 5th. You might get a surprise chapter during that time (particularly a HMGGH chapter, because I'm still behind on that...) but other than that I'm taking another rest.
Have a wonderful holiday everyone! See you in a couple weeks!
2021-12-23 05:37:05 +0000 UTC
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Considering how hard I'm struggling to not be violent, I really would have appreciated it if violence didn't cleanly solve my problems. Yet after establishing dominance on Melik and Gina, I was barely even reprimanded.
I was reprimanded, at least a little. Not because I shattered multiple ribs in two of my fellow trainees and damaged their lungs enough that they might have died without biomantic support, though. No, I just got a slap on the wrist for that (which is a s...
2021-12-23 05:34:20 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Hey everyone! You may recall I missed Saturday's chapter last week. This is a bonus chapter to get things back on track! Expect another chapter tomorrow!
This chapter might have some formatting issues; Patreon is freezing up and generally being a butt to me right now. Apologies if things are a bit off!
Fire.
My legs are on fire. A burning pain flows up from my screaming feet, cracking through the rest of my body. I gasp for air, unable to...
2021-12-19 19:44:23 +0000 UTC
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A volatile silence descends on the chamber, Hsthressis and her mother furiously locked in a mutual emotional clash. Chlrehistra's overwhelming sadness is palpable, but hardened by a determination to do what she firmly believes is right. A laudable trait, perhaps, if what she thought was right didn't involve exiling her daughter from her only home for not believing in their bullshit religion. Ugh, it reminds me of cults from back home.
Hsthressis, however, has clearly inherited her mothe...
2021-12-19 00:08:59 +0000 UTC
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Remus has entered my body.
I feel it through her nerves, see it through her senses as the soul of my former partner-in-possession swims down Remus's arm and into my body's neck. Gah, I mean Vita's body. She's in control in every way that matters; I've trained myself to recognize her soul's command signals and repeat them perfectly after interception, letting her control herself in the same way she would have if I were not diffused through the inside of her brain, my ex...
2021-12-17 20:06:25 +0000 UTC
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The first words out of my mouth more or less sum up my thoughts on the matter.
"That's stupid," I grunt.
Altrix gives me an irritated glare.
"We assure you, it is the truth," she insists. "For six years, you were our son. You most likely died, then possessed your current body."
"I know I forgot a lot, but I find it difficult to believe I'd forget having a dick," I grumble.
Altrix sighs.
"Do you really find the idea so detestable, compared to that of being a...
2021-12-15 20:04:01 +0000 UTC
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Blood is on the floor.
Two strangers lay in an unfamiliar kitchen, Tara pinning one as she snarls in fury. The man under her is just as wrathful, one of his arms broken and the other bent painfully in her grasp. They spit curses at each other.
A woman lies to my right, propped in a barely-sitting position against her kitchen counter. Bruises line her neck, more still welling up beneath the skin as I watch. She wears long sleeves despite the hot weather. Despe...
2021-12-14 00:03:13 +0000 UTC
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