Okay, I rewrote a part in the middle. Cut out a particularly awkward conversation between Teddy and Nyx. It really didn't fit their relationship at all.
Unfortunately it made the chapter a little shorter than usual, but it also made it better overall.
After that the simulation ramped up in a predictable way.
The small groups of Model Threes tur...
2025-08-12 16:11:55 +0000 UTC View Post“I almost had her! I demand a rematch!” Kass yelled through my tablet.
“You literally just finished fighting,” Bella giggled. “Maybe you should wait until we finish the match, before you demand a rematch.”
“I can’t believe I got so close, and I couldn’t finish the job,” Kass whined as she slowly lowered her head to the table. “I managed to stab her with ...
Don't think I'm going to drag this out to a full combat arc. Now that we've seen Jennifer and Teddy bonding I'll probably try and wrap it up in the next chapter or two... Unless you think there's a reason to extend it.
I slipped down the stairs and surveyed the wrecked storage room. There were half a dozen Model Threes clumsily climbing over the shelves, sniffin...
“Now I don’t want to take up too much of your time today, it is your first day after all, but I did want to ask you something important,” Dr. Michaels said once everyone had calmed down. “Do you remember anything strange happening during the rift? Anything out of the ordinary?”
“Ummm… can you be more specific?” Olivia asked, shifting in her chair. “I don’t think eithe...
While Jennifer took up a position at the top of the stairs, behind the makeshift barrier, I stood off to the side watching the stairs through the thin metal railings.
“Do you even know how to use that?” I asked as Jennifer raised her tiny semi-automatic pistol.
“I know the basics. Make sure I keep the safety on, the weapon pointed away from everyone, and my finger off the trig...
2025-08-08 15:29:43 +0000 UTC View PostHey all,
Just wanted to let you know I've created new chat... channels? Threads? Whatever they are for my stories. I haven't used the until this point, but I thought I'd open a few topics to see if anyone would like to chat about the stories.
I've set channel permissions to match the stories, so non-sub members will be able to read SS, UG, and Imaginary, while subs will have acces...
2025-08-07 21:10:07 +0000 UTC View PostNot super happy wiht the last line, I feel like it should be something like that... but couldnt think of what to put!
Camille zipped around the room, sticking her nose into every closet and corner as I slowly sunk into the heavy chair, behind the massive hard wood desk in my new office.
Even though I knew my mother was correct, that I needed to stop t...
2025-08-07 20:39:00 +0000 UTC View PostI glanced up at the sky, trying to determine how fucked we actually were.
Most of the rifts appeared to have opened over the factories, and were dropping their seed pods in that general area. That was good, they weren’t close enough to instantly overwhelm us with a full pod worth of antithesis, and the first wave was almost certainly going to come from that direction.
“Why...
2025-08-07 15:55:30 +0000 UTC View PostHmmmm... I wasn't a fan of this chapter at first. It felt like it was going to be a continuation of the panic attack of a few chapters ago, but I like where it went in the end.
As Pam reached out to knock, the door was yanked open, revealing an excited looking brunette woman wearing glasses and scrubs.
“Pam, you’re here! And you brought the stude...
2025-08-07 01:01:23 +0000 UTC View PostNot sure if I like the way this flows, will look at it again later.
Also, have a doctor's appointment later, so I can't guarentee the second chapter will get done today.
We took the time to unpack the wagons, and get my brother settled, before finally taking the time to investigate the strange construct. Once we were done, I took the little maid back t...
Come on... you know that if anyone was going to stand up to Teddy is was going to be Kass
“STOP…” I screamed as another pillar of water rose out of the water and slammed down on me, washing me a meter or so away from where I was standing.
“Splashing me,” I finished, muttering under my breath. The smaller, child-like humanoids laughed and sw...
2025-08-05 19:41:01 +0000 UTC View Post“You don’t know how to use a mesh rig?” Jennifer asked in disbelief. “Really?”
“I can get all the information I need from either the city networks, or through Nyx,” I grumbled. “Why would I want to use a total immersion system to find the information I wanted?”
“The city information networks are biased, heavily filtered by the companies that control the infrast...
I picked up the strange crystal tablet sitting on the table in the middle of the room and ran my finger across the front of it experimentally. Even though it appeared to just be a large slab of crystal, with no external hardware or power source, it worked just like the tablets from back home.
There wasn’t much on the tablet, just a single question: Which teammate would you like to respa...
2025-08-05 00:59:11 +0000 UTC View PostJennifer dragged me towards the back of the park. The crowds thinned out once we passed the main plaza, the facades slowly changed from the colorful cartoony versions we saw at the entrance to something more gritty and realistic.
We ended up in a section that looked like a run down industrial district. I briefly thought that we might have wandered into a backstage, or employee only area, ...
2025-08-04 15:45:24 +0000 UTC View PostThis took me soooo long. I ended up rewriting large sections of it, and I'm still not super happy with it. Still better than it was. Hope you enjoy.
An entire squad of security guards showed up, each one armed with a shotgun. While the team slowly swept all the rooms connected to the hallway, the leader came over to Pam. Although I couldn’t hear what they were ...
2025-08-01 22:41:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey all!
Just wanted to let you know that RavensDaggers webstore now has stickers! I've been bothering the big birb for them for months, and as soon as they became available I bought a set.
Honestly, I just wanted to show them off. Look how spiffy my laptop looks now!
If you do want some though, you can find the through the webstore link in the footer of my most recent live ch...
2025-08-01 16:45:02 +0000 UTC View Post“This is… a lot,” I muttered as I stood in front of the truck and waited for everyone to gather. Nimbleland was a riot of sights and sounds, flashing lights and screaming people.
And that was before we were even inside the gates.
The outer walls were covered in holo billboards which alternated between showcasing the various distractions and show...
2025-08-01 15:48:15 +0000 UTC View PostI spent most of the day running around the refugee camp making sure that all my new citizens were settled properly.
Since I hadn’t planned for a kitchen ahead of time, I needed to find not only a cook, but someone that we could trust with access to the food supply. Thankfully my mother had a couple of suggestions, including the former head chef from the Ashbourne manor. I figured ...
2025-07-31 19:01:33 +0000 UTC View PostSo I just wanted to ask, what does everyone think about TBoB book 5 so far? I was planning on making it a little more family based, but I've begun to worry that people will begin to lose interest with the lack of action. Even in the less combat intensive arcs there was SOME action, something that's missing here.
I could add a quick action bit in the incursion simulator... but I dunno if ...
Sooo... I dunno where this came from. It's a lot of background and worldbuilding that I somehow hadn't covered in the story this far. Will it be relevant? I dunno. It just kind of flowed out of me, and came together really quickly. It does explain why Teddy hasn't experienced the same problem Cat did with corporate recruiters... tell me what you think.
After a go...
2025-07-31 15:51:30 +0000 UTC View PostWhen we finally climbed to the top of the slope, and I got a look at the mass of humanity in front of me, a cold pit opened up in my stomach. I knew that my mother had planned on bringing as many people as she could, but as I looked out across the meadow, I started having serious concerns that we’d be able to support everyone.
“How many people did you bring?” I asked quietly.
...
2025-07-30 19:58:51 +0000 UTC View PostOne down!
“You know how I said my situation was kind of complicated?” I said slowly, trying to ignore the fight at the other end of the hallway. Pam wandered over to the girl, and quickly checked on her condition. Once she was convinced the girl was fine, she took a defensive position at the end of the hallway, right next to Angelica.
Even though ...
2025-07-30 15:48:06 +0000 UTC View Post“I’m sorry! I let my temper get the best of me, and I didn’t even manage to take even a single one of them down,” Chelsea cried, her mane of auburn hair flopping about. “I was so confident too!”
“It’s alright, you did your best,” I gently reassured the crying girl on the other side of the tablet. “I watched your match, you did an excellent job, considering the circums...
After lunch we spent a couple more hours at the seaside. This was not only the first time the rest of my family had seen the ocean in real life, but it was the first time they’d ever left the city.
I never really enjoyed going out into nature, I didn’t find rocks and trees all that interesting, and they had a habit of attracting the Antithesis. All my previous trips outside the ...
2025-07-29 15:43:22 +0000 UTC View PostWoo! Finally done, several hours later than I have the last few weeks....
Since I know my free members couldn't read the previous message I'm repeating here. Feeling a little sick today, that's why things took so long. Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow, but if I get worse I may end up taking the day off.
I haven't come ...
2025-07-28 21:05:26 +0000 UTC View PostHere it is!
So, I'm feeling a little sick today, but I'm going to try and get another chappy done this afternoon.
I haven't come up with a clear plan for the week, but it's going to be something like: 2UG, 1SS, 1IM.
I may start writing on Wednesdays again, and if I do I'll be doing SS and IM. Which brings the ...
Not many changes to this one... I did realize that I missed chapter 56-65 of Tbob book 4 and added them, but all of this weeks chappies went into existing files
2025-07-25 19:47:51 +0000 UTC View PostWe spent another hour or so at the aquatic garden, following the colorful holograms around the complex. A part of me still didn’t believe that there used to be such a variety and abundance of sea life in the oceans, I was so used to the world where wildlife was the exception, and not the norm. For the Antithesis to almost completely wipe out all these species, while humanity was still busy tr...
2025-07-25 19:32:44 +0000 UTC View Post“Is this what a greenhouse is supposed to look like?” I asked suspiciously as I wandered out of the rest room.
“A complete one to one replication of a jungle? Well, at least the Jungles before the Antithesis got to them,” Deadbeat replied. “No, I’m pretty sure most gardens don’t look like this.”
“Just checking,” I muttered.
The so-called greenhouse wa...
2025-07-25 15:46:28 +0000 UTC View PostSurprise! I did another chappy today. Bonus!
I stared at the gate for several long seconds, half expecting it to flare back to life any second and an army of gilded knights to come storming through. As soon as I was convinced that wasn’t going to happen I glanced back at my system window, looking for a way to lock the structure down.
It wasn't as easy as...
2025-07-24 22:07:18 +0000 UTC View Post