When he returned to the kitchen, he noticed Jess and Angela bustling around, preparing various items for consumption. There were reassuringly regular eggs, bacon, and toast, but also more exotic fare consisting of blue meats and glasses of purple drink that seemed to fizzle and pop of their own accord—and not merely in the way soda was prone to on Earth.
“I’m not a Prince,” Arcturus said into the silence with a growing sense of incredulity. “I figured out while you were all talking that my father was probably Terran, which, by the way, is still taking me a while to process. It’s easy to acknowledge this entire nightmare is real, but the actual gravity of that is a bit lost on me at the moment—which is probably to be expecte...
Angela was the first person he noticed fully, sitting at the head of a rectangular table that could seat six, her chair facing the wall to the left of the archway through which he’d entered. She was wearing a simple white shirt and a pair of blue breeches that matched her eyes, with her long brown hair tied back in an efficient bun. A look of deep amusement spread across her features as she s...
Arcturus awoke to the sound of voices, his eyes opening to take in the white-painted ceiling above.
A moment of grogginess had him blinking to dispel the lingering effects of weariness before he felt his ears twitch slightly, as if automatically adjusting to better hear the nearby voices exchanging tense words.
His body felt… good. Stronger. He felt as if his frame had gr...
Arcturus deliberately refocused on the task at hand, eyes once more locked on the primary attributes that defined the essence of his being with their deceptively simple mathematical values. If he focused on any of them hard enough, he would receive a list of hypothetical situations in which they were applicable, which essentially broke down how each correlated t...
Arcturus’ eyes opened to the familiar sight of his room on Earth, his mind once again submerged into the deepest recesses of his subconscious.
It was not a surprise that after falling unconscious, he’d once again found himself lucid dreaming within the safety of his own mind. The scene was somewhat different this time, though, with a light smatter of rain on the windows of the house a...
Arcturus’ gaze remained locked on his helpless foe, a dark thrill surging through him.
He knew this wasn’t the man who’d killed Angela, thanks to context clues, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to care. Holding the intruder in a crushing vise of telekinetic force, seeing the struggle—the sheer inability to resist the power killing him: it was catharsis for a young man who had b...
Arcturus spun at the sound of shattering glass, realizing a moment later that it meant someone had just smashed in the window of Angela’s store. He opened his mouth to speak, but was abruptly cut off by Angela pushing what seemed to be a pistol into his hand, eyes focused on his.
“Listen, Arcturus,” she said seriously, “this is a stand...
Arcturus vaguely noticed the light from outside the store dimming, but paid it no mind.
He was tired, tired of trying to pretend that everything was alright, that he didn’t miss his parents, that he wanted anything more than to see his father walk in and declare it was going to be alright. He had failed, failed utterly and completely, and with outstanding levels of ineptitude. ...
“This here is your standard aether rifle. Three hundred meter range, as opposed to the standard one hundred, single-shot accurate, and with limited but effective burst-fire capability in a pinch,” the enthusiastic brunette speaking to him said with a smile, her blue eyes twinkling with glee. “You’ll sacrifice accuracy for it, though, if you go that route.”
Arcturus reached the door without incident and placed his hand on the handle to open it, only to stagger as he did.
[Agility Check] successful!
Noise hammered his ears in a disorienting cacophony, forcing him to take a moment to adjust to the sudden change from what had been near-total silence. Thankful for the rapid adjustment his ears made in that moment, Arcturu...
Arcturus drifted in the void of his mind, vaguely aware of his physical body moving with outside impetus. It was not so much a sensation as it was an understanding, a comprehension of altered position that flitted across his mind in a mix of alarm and concern, before being relegated to the recesses of his thoughts. His focus was claimed instead by the pulsing, steady beat of power that welled u...
He had to be smart, and on top of that, he was losing blood, which meant that eventually the fatigue would catch up to him—slowing him down at a vital moment, and making him an easy target for the Dire Wolf.
You suffer 1 Damage from [Light Wound]!
Health at 91 / 100. You are [Bleeding]!
“Thanks for the reminder,” Arcturus muttered angrily, wracking his ...
Congratulations! Aether use unlocked! You are now able to make use of the mystical abilities tied to Aether manipulation, allowing you to cast and understand magic in all of its many fantastical and myriad forms.
[Dimensional Rift] uses 215 Mana!
Mana cost is nullified by [Soul Chrysalis]!
2026-01-04 09:31:45 +0000 UTCView Post
Arcturus shot bolt upright, panting, hands running over his naked body in panic.
He remembered everything: the alarm, the phone message, the kiss with Amélie—panic surged through him again, balanced with adrenaline and anger. The shooter was still at large.
Amélie! If that blue-eyed bitch had hurt his... what? His friend? Girlfriend?
Arcturus took a moment to compose himself and catch his breath, straightening his jacket and double-checking himself in the glass of the door. Vanity was the last thing on his mind, concerned as he was with making sure that Alanna wasn’t aware she’d made him sprint to arrive. Letting The Dictator see him flustered was unacceptable. Better to be late, though that was almost as bad—worse, i...
Arcturus’ back hit the mat with a shock of impact, compelling a groan of pain from his lips. A laugh from above drew his attention, and he turned to where his father was standing victoriously, arms folded across his black tank top and a pleased grin on his face.
“Still too predictable, junior!” his father, also named Arcturus—though in their house he was called ‘Senior...
Explosions and shouting voices followed as the corridor outside the fortified ritual chamber carried the sounds of conflict to the armored individuals within. The speaker was a woman attired for war, with elegant silvery plates layered over glinting chainmail. When she moved toward the figure at the center of the room, her steps belied no sense of diffic...
All Arcturus wanted was to officially ask out his long-term crush, hang out with his friends, and finish his year at college without managing to get on the bad side of the pr...
Leonidas strode through the streets of Dawnhaven with his left hand in his pocket and his right hand wrapped around the hilt of his [Archon’s Psiblade], while its blade rested on his right shoulder and the [Spatial Backpack] he wore. His blue eyes were idly surveilling the area as the party moved together through the Residential Quarter,...
“{You certainly seem prepared, Achilles. How do you feel?}”
Leonidas glanced at Ceruviel when she spoke, pausing in the process of latching the last of the straps on his [Spatial Backpack]. It had been a gift from the Duchess herself the night prior, after he’d spent the day meditating to better harmonize with the [Manastorm Pi...
Honor is worthless if you are too dead to revel in it.
The words of her mother thrummed in Xarina’s mind as she flowed through the motion of her forms, twin shortswords whining through the air with a lethal hum as her white hair fanned around her. The movements were technically perfect, she knew, but they lacked something s...
First, good news! I have the next 10 days off work so I can write to my heart's content and keep pumping those muddafukken numbers, SON. Very excited for that. I would like to finish Book 2 by Feb.
Second, bad news: I had a pretty horrendous night (australia) at work and the adrenaline rush from that is still keep...
Leonidas and Ceruviel arrived at her study minutes later, entered without ceremony, and proceeded immediately toward the hidden, psi-warded meditation chamber. Once inside, the pair separated, with Leonidas proceeding to the center of the room while Ceruviel took up position near the wall, arms folded as she leaned back against the dark...
I have reviewed all the comments sent in by various people here, and with gratitude at that. This new version of Chapter 16, truncated both for length reasons and for impact, is the Second Draft, with a large overhaul to the tone and language.
Please read through and tell me your thoughts. I greatly appreciate all of you taking the time for this, as stated, and I appreciate the contrib...
2025-12-31 11:26:36 +0000 UTCView Post
