The first pale threads of dawn crept through the curvy stained-glass arch above the bed, painting geometric patterns of amber and rose across the sleeping forms tangled in the sheets. Shady opened her eyes slowly, her vision instantaneously cutting through to the soft morning light with the power of a c...
I pointed a finger gun at Sillicia in the back of my mind, visualizing the targeting reticle appearing right at the end of it. I mimed a mental recoil. Bang.
Hook, line, and sinker.
My front mind maintained the Emperor's stoic mask, watching the Wendigo Commander practically vi...
As they moved toward the exit, the Datamancer, Emperor and Marshal followed.
Sillicia frowned at them.
“The cat has to stay close enough for my hooks to be in her head," Shady clarified. "The experiment I'm running requires me to stay mentally tethered to her. Otherwise the whole thing collapses...
"I lick things? Is that all?" The Nessies asked simultaneously and then giggled.
"Lick things n’ sing ‘bout em!" Candace nodded. "It's like your whole thing! Anyway, the point is—and yes there IS a point—we're all fragments of the same cosmic disaster, puppeteered by an infinite broken goddess who keeps r...
I once again admired the three fantastic, custom gun bodies fabricated by Kawathra. They looked human-ish, with a pitch of surreal, otherworldly quality, hopefully enough to bamboozle the Wendigo High Command into thinking that wizards were real.
Arachnids Man cracked jokes at Professor Doomsday. Baba Yaga...
The increasingly jagged-looking, labyrinthine crystal roots and branches parted as we approached, melting away like ice under hot water. Swarms of bulbees fluttered around us, humming dangerously, evaluating us with crystalline eyes, then flashing away.
"Start by helping! This house is a dump in dire need of a Hearth Keeper. You want to be the Baroness of Earth? Start by being the Baroness of this decrepit estate. Fix the damn water heater, for example. Make us noms from the truck that just delivered plentiful supplies. Stop treating Ash like he betrayed you when...
Sunlight broke through the ragged curtains, painting golden stripes across the tangled sheets. I cracked one eye open to discover a dark skull inches from my face.
"Morning, Ashy!" Shady announced. I flinched back slightly at the big, silver eyes and rows of large teeth, then relaxed...
Shady found a lush patch of moss near the crumbling edge of the rooftop, where the broken brick and concrete parapet came apart into colorful sand and met the endless dream-ocean.
She flopped down with a satisfied "oomph," the dream moss cushioning her massive frame like whimsical memory foam, rippling with ...
I wasn’t a big fan of my dreams, especially after the anti-psychotic meds twisted them into awful, nightmarish reflections of reality deprived of any sensible direction and logic.
Dreams of high school are the worst. They feature endless, liminal hallways, the urge to go somewhere, the nagging feeling that you...
"Yass! We definitely won," Nessy bounced giddily to where I stood. She was dripping, her sundress clinging to every curve. Without warning, she launched herself at me, wrapping her soaked body around mine.
"Ack! Nessy! You're getting me all—"
"Wet? Good!" She nuzzled into my neck. "You should've been in there with us.”
I looked at Shady, who was tilting her head curiously, then back at Nexxali. "Nexy, you're high on catnip. And Shady's... getting better but still not exactly herself right now. That's probably not the best combination for getting into a… polyamorous triangle relationship.”
The waves of Lake Quinault rushed up to meet me with all the hospitality of a concrete wall made of very cold water.
SPLASH.
I hit the surface hard enough to knock the wind out of me, then sank like a stone in my shirt, jeans and boots. The glacial mountain water was approximately three degrees above "instant d...
South pressed her face against the gas station window, watching Mount Olympus burn in the distance like the world's most fucked up bonfire. The orange glow painted the gloomy Pacific sky in apocalyptic hues that reminded her of the Terminator 2 movie poster she'd had on her bedroom wall before the leukemia ...
"I..." Kawathra trembled, mouth opening and closing.
The Emperor of Earth was here, finally in her grasp and yet she was utterly powerless to do anything about it. A single word from him to the Marshal would unmake her… permanently. A bullet to the head from a non-Crystalloid gun. Once she came to, t...
“Scale-bae, why must you be against fun things?” Candace asked.
“I’m not against fun things!” Kristi huffed. “I’m fine with beach dates and… Uhhh… Paragliding and whatever else normal this carnival offers! I’m against simulating the end of reality where fuck knows what’s going to happen to u...
"This human showed great interest in working for you, according to his own statement that Keiy just sent me. Eighty two percent desire to be a subordinate? You are lucky to have found such an early devotee,” the Wendigo smiled. “Rejoice!”
Galateya didn't rejoice, she looked quite sour at the ‘unexp...
"Nexy, can't you use your voice on yourself?” I hissed at the Serval through chattering teeth as the gun and dragon began their plan to undermine the local command structure. “Order yourself to be less high?"
Nexxali's eyes widened. "That's... Oh!" She cleared her throat, eyes lighting up. Her voic...
Brad's mop clattered to the floor as he stared at us. "What... what did you just do?" His voice cracked and warped, sounding less like tired-teenager-Brad and more like something pretending to be Brad, an eldritch thing wearing Brad's skin.