Completely silent, the faceless, acid-dripping beast above me prepares another spray of caustic fluid. I know I’ve been trying not to panic again so soon but holy shit I’m on an alien planet and it’s trying to kill me and eat me I’m going to die. This acid sloth thing is twenty pounds of nope in a ten pound sack and I am out of here.
It’s not long into my second panicked sprint of the day that I realize the acid isn’t stopping on its own. ...
2021-07-18 06:03:42 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to the first chapter of my new story, Hive Minds Give Good Hugs. Thank you so much for your patronage. Vigor Mortis's update schedule will not change. Enjoy!
“SAIL!”
Flailing like a beached fish, I tear myself out from under the covers and scramble over to my alarm clock, slapping it into silence. At some point I had the genius idea of making the alarm absolutely blast my favorite song from the other side of the ro...
2021-07-18 05:59:55 +0000 UTC
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“Woo-hoo!”
I can’t help but whoop out a cheer as I leap up above the branches, power flowing through my body feeling like a warm fire after a rainstorm. A bone-deep chill leaks out of me, replaced more and more by the beautiful strength in my limbs. The core of my soul churns out energy as I fall back to the ground, landing with a thump and a stagger, my startled teammates staring at me with a wide mix of expressions as I fail to stick the landing and fall on ...
2021-07-16 19:54:03 +0000 UTC
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“Ready to go, Lark?” August asks, smiling my way. I nod, reaching up to grasp his outstretched hand as we walk together.
I gave into hunger and hunted last night. But… I didn’t hunt humans. I never sought a target, never followed someone home. I almost did, but flashes of memory stopped me dead in my tracks whenever I tried. Sharif’s sobbing face. The words I spoke to make it worse. The look of utter hatred in his father’s eyes as I ...
2021-07-14 17:45:41 +0000 UTC
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Another screech shakes the forest as I watch a torn-off chunk of Mateo's soul disappear down the vrothizo's gullet. With him and Netta dead, our ability to strike back at the flying monster is next to nil. Orville is still unconscious, and from my brief glimpse at the monster's absurdly tough hide, I don't know if he would be able to hurt it with one of his arrows anyway.
Mateo's soul is pretty fucked up; Netta was killed by one of the wings, dead because she was a little too slow to du...
2021-07-12 20:03:11 +0000 UTC
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"There you two are!"
Norah runs our way as soon as Penelope and I enter the guild hall, giving us a friendly wave.
"Everyone else is with the boss already! It looks like our mission this time is going to be real big."
"Of course it's big," Penelope scoffs. "Every mission is going to be big with a third of the guild dead."
"The singing lady told me we're going after that talking Hiverock monster we let get away last time," I say. "I sure hope if that's true, we ar...
2021-07-09 23:56:40 +0000 UTC
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My eyes… are blue?
“How are the pupils?” I ask immediately.
"Pupils?" Penelope mutters, pulling my face in closer. "They seem normal… perhaps slightly vertically ovoid, but not enough that anyone will notice. Why? What do you know about this?"
"My soul is a big blue eye with a vertical slit pupil," I explain. "So if my real eyes are becoming blue too... that's my first guess as to what's happening. My eyes used to be green, right? Do you think people will notice?"
2021-07-07 22:10:59 +0000 UTC
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Breathe in, breathe out. I've heard it before, as a mantra to assist focus. There is apparently something about breathing that really seems to help people with that. Perhaps it's the intentional stepping away from the distractions of the world to focus entirely on one's self, particularly the aspects which are so commonly taken for granted. Something like that, anyway. I can only speculate, because I find the practice horribly distracting.
I seem to focus far better when I don't breathe...
2021-07-05 20:31:11 +0000 UTC
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"Rowan?" I call out. "Hey, Rowan?"
I scowl, looking over the battlefield where I recently fought Capita. Six corpses lie in the road, a shallow crater behind them where Capita's implosion spell annihilated part of the ground. There's no sign of Rowan around, but that means I don't feel his soul hanging around either so he's probably not dead. He didn't run after me to help with Capita anymore, so there's only one other place he'd have gone: the shack. Unless he’s an idiot, but w...
2021-07-02 16:46:42 +0000 UTC
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“I thought you weren’t supposed to play with me.”
For a couple days, the Sharif avoided me. Not on purpose, I don’t think. The larger human with him, known as ‘Nana’ would always pull him away. Not a huge problem, I suppose. Playing is fun but I have other things that I need to do as well. Stuff like learning human facial expressions, and asking August questions.
“Well, um, I think maybe as long as I don’t get dirty it should be okay?” The Sharif answers. ...
2021-06-30 19:50:10 +0000 UTC
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I manage to land my attack before Capita can teleport away, but she doesn’t just stand there and take it. She dodges and I miss her heart, instead planting my spear into her shoulder. Glancing off bone, it carves the blood and muscle above her left arm. The shard in my spear drinks deep, pulling pieces from her poorly-cobbled soul and empowering itself with her waning strength. Unfortunately, her talent then activates. I swear internally, expecting her to teleport away, yet for ...
2021-06-28 19:19:25 +0000 UTC
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Someone's hand is in my hair.
It's an oddly nostalgic sensation. When weather gets bad, especially rain, sometimes all you can do is huddle up close to everyone you even kind of trust and hope that the collective pile of body heat will stop you from dying of cold through the night. On the mornings after, sometimes you get all sorts of body parts flopped over your head or your face or your everything else… it's usually not a super great time, but it's better than freezing to death.
...
2021-06-25 18:41:48 +0000 UTC
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"Wait, what?" I ask, staring incredulously. "A god?"
"Mana comes from the Mistwatcher," Margarette clarifies. "And only the Mistwatcher. Creating mana isn't possible for mortals like us."
“Superstitious bullshit,” Penelope argues, looking irritated. “It’s true that no one knows any method of creating mana, but that’s because there is almost no research in the subject. No one has tried. Why would anyone want or need to create more mana? We have a limitle...
2021-06-23 23:03:59 +0000 UTC
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This is a super neat thing that Tsuu put together after finishing my cover art: a time lapse of all the steps in the design process! I hope you all enjoy!
2021-06-23 21:50:45 +0000 UTC
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I have been amassing art commissions lately, and as a thank-you to the wonderful people that have been sitting in my $10 and up tier even though they don't have to, I'll be releasing commissioned art to them early. It will all eventually be public for everyone, but I thought it would be a neat treat for them. I've also added a $20 tier, because like one person asked for it and who am I to say no to that.
There is a chapter scheduled for today, but it will be out later. ...
2021-06-23 20:18:05 +0000 UTC
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Here's my first batch of treats for everyone! Thank you so much to all of you in the $10 and up range, I look forward to finding more ways to reward your generosity.
The lovely artist of these works is Tsuu, who you may also recognize from my story's cover. Thanks, Tsuu!
2021-06-23 20:11:04 +0000 UTC
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Agony dances through my entire body, a screaming pain reaching from scalp to toe. Pure and raw, there is nothing but me and the torture. Yet still, my body moves. My voice speaks clearly, and my hands continue their purpose. I do not flinch. Retreating within myself, I am simply content with the reassurance that the parts of me which actually matter are unaffected by the spell.
"You are… remarkably resistant to trauma," Penelope comments.
That line more than anything almost caus...
2021-06-21 22:12:08 +0000 UTC
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I feel it before I reach the exflow tunnel, and my fists clench so hard I nearly bleed myself with my nails. The revenant I made out of Grig’s son, that fucking murderer, is still functional after I told the damn thing to kill itself.
With tendril-strengthened arms I practically throw the cover to the sewer entrance open, jumping down with a wet splatter into a feces-filled tunnel, sinking knee deep. According to what I can feel, that asshole is down here, presumably having brought th...
2021-06-18 23:18:52 +0000 UTC
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I don't think that I’ll ever get used to being the center of attention.
Whenever people look at me, my instinct is to assume that something is wrong. Growing up on the streets, you quickly learn that most attention is dangerous. Kids out here can get abused, kidnapped, or worse without provocation. Until I am very sure that someone doesn't mean me harm, I don't want them to even know I'm here. Years and years of that habit aren't going to go away, no matter how much I’m intell...
2021-06-16 22:34:32 +0000 UTC
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With my wrist injury and such, I will be taking today off to heal. The good news: I have a working speech-to-text program I can use to continue writing. The break I'll be taking on Patreon updates will therefore be shorter than the RR update break, while I make up for the missed chapters on here. When exactly those chapters will come... we'll see. I am shooting for Friday. Thank you for your patience!
2021-06-09 19:13:40 +0000 UTC
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“What is a festival?” I ask the August.
I’ve been living with the old man (it turns out that’s why he’s wrinkly, that means a human is old) for a few days now. I’ve been very careful about it, and I haven’t bitten him even once.
After all, he’s kept every promise that he’s made. ...So far.
He doesn’t try to touch me or see under my disguise. He doesn’t order me around. He talks to me and teaches me things when I want to know, and...
2021-06-07 20:13:31 +0000 UTC
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Regarding Friday's chapter: I've somehow managed to fuck up my wrist. There's a good chance I will simply have to skip tomorrow's chapter as I recover. I'll keep you all posted. I apologize for the delay.
A barrier of tree and vine stands before me, a hundred feet tall. There’s a certain beauty to it. I’ve lived in the city my whole life, a world of beige, tan, and dun. Hardly a beautiful or safe place, but they’re co...
2021-06-03 23:08:42 +0000 UTC
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Wednesday the 2nd's chapter (i.e., tomorrow's) will either be very late that day or come out Thursday. I've spent the last 36 hours in a moving car or frustratingly non-moving airplane, and so haven't had the ability to write. Apologies for the delay!
2021-06-02 00:37:31 +0000 UTC
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Surprise! Early chapter. I'll be driving all day tomorrow so you get this one before I go to bed. Enjoy!
“Miss Vita?” a calm voice asks. “Miss Vita, you’ve stopped walking.”
I glance up at Lord Erebus’s face, blinking in shock. Right, yeah, I was leading him to… a place I don’t want him to go, like some kind of fucking moron. Lyn is rapidly approaching us, but before she gets in sight she stops, waiting around a...
2021-05-31 03:04:23 +0000 UTC
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I don’t know how long I kneel there, holding my sister’s corpse. I haven’t just failed to repay my debt. I got my family killed. Is a more inexcusable failure even possible? I should have killed them sooner. I should have killed those child-abusing bastards the moment I saw them. Damn it. Damn it!
Eventually I start to get my senses back, start to actually think again. I fucked up. This is just like Penta! Someon...
2021-05-28 23:44:44 +0000 UTC
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Returning to the streets without armor on is both extremely familiar and extremely weird. I never noticed how comfortable I got with people fearing me. Fear is the right word for it, too: people in full expedition gear don’t exactly frequent our part of town, and rarely do people wander around here as heavily armed as I do without being up to no good. Couple that with the fact that I’m less than five feet tall, and I’m like a glowing beacon that screams ‘deadly talen...
2021-05-26 18:50:29 +0000 UTC
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“Well,” Norah announces loudly, “fuck that whole mission three times up the ass.”
I glance up at her with a raised eyebrow.
“What?”
Skyhope is finally in sight, which more or less marks the end of our half-successful mission. Claretta sleeps fitfully on Bently’s shoulder and Penelope once again walks on her own, though her hand isn’t yet fully regenerated.
“I’m just saying, that mission was fucking awful! We nearly died like twe...
2021-05-19 18:18:12 +0000 UTC
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I forgot to mention last post, so I'll mention it here: I'll be taking a vacation break this weekend. This Friday and next Monday, there will be no chapter. Normal MWF releases will resume from then on out.
Humans. Humans everywhere. It’s terrifying.
I don’t think I’d normally be so worried. A bunch of humans had come to investigate after I captured and ate that one who screamed. They never entered the forest, t...
2021-05-18 01:53:32 +0000 UTC
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...Did you think I was joking? Anyway, sorry for the kind-of delay. Are these sorts of posts annoying, or helpful?
2021-05-17 19:44:39 +0000 UTC
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“Claretta! Claretta!”
I scream as loudly as I can, barely choking the name out between sobs. My blood drips on the earth and I know I have to run, I have to go eat something or I’ll die… but Claretta! They’re taking my Claretta! They’re taking her, and she’s helping them, and I don’t understand why!
I don’t understand any of it. Water pours from my eyes, just as it did for Claretta and the Fulvia so many ti...
2021-05-14 18:28:31 +0000 UTC
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