Lidarion: Chapter 12

“Now are you going to give me a hug or do I need to get you drunk first?” Alex asked a huge smile crept across her face. Trent hugged her, the entire bar came back to exuberant life. Lisa breathed a sigh of relief. Alex moved them to the nearest empty table and sat down with Lisa and Trent. “So tell me everything, starting with your lady friend’s name.” Alex glanced at Lisa.

Lisa held out her hand. “I’m Lisa, I’d love to say I’m his big sister but something tells me that that particular job was taken long before I ever met him.” She smiled warmly.

Alex laughed and shook her head. “If he’s anything like he used to be as a kid he needs all the level headed oversight he can get, I appreciate you looking after him all these years.” They shook hands warmly. “Do you have anything to do with his banishment ending?” She asked.

Lisa looked confused and Trent’s head dropped into his hands. “Banishment?” Lisa said shooting a look at Trent.

Trent glared at Alex. “Yeah I hadn’t actually told her about that part.” He whispered in Alex’s direction.

Alex looked shocked for about half a second then stood without a word. Turned and addressed the entire establishment. “We’re closed. All your tabs are settled. If word of the last five minutes leaves this room I will find out where that word came from and they will be unwelcome in my house for the rest of their lives.” The patron’s didn’t need the threat, they were all in love with the establishment and most has at least a passing interest in Alex, none had an interest in loosing access to one of Lidarion’s best kept secrets.

When the bar was empty except for the trio Alex moved to the nearest window and pushed the curtain aside just enough to check the street and make sure her patrons where shuffling on about their lives. “That won’t buy you much cover, I can almost guarantee that at the very least one of the king’s spies noticed that you have returned.” She looked as far down the street as she could.

Lisa looked at Trent in shock. “Trent I’m sorry. When you said you couldn’t come here you really meant it, I shouldn’t have pressured you.”

Trent shook his head. “Lisa I can’t run away from this forever, and now that most of the cards are on the table I might as well show you the whole hand, the King’s reaction is the least of my worries.” He said seriously.

“He’s coming.” Alex said moving away from the window.

Lisa watched as she returned to the table and waved her arms to usher them behind the bar. “Who’s coming?” Lisa asked.

Trent got down on his knees behind the bar as Alex replied. “One of the only two people who employ better spies than the king.” She said, causing Lisa to scurry under the bar herself.

Alex disappeared from view and Lisa could hear her move around the room cleaning table after table brining the items from each back to the bar.

Lisa heard the front door open and a higher pitched voice asked “Where is he Alex?” The voice asked.

She heard Lisa turn to address the new person. “Where’s who?” She feigned ignorance poorly, even Lisa could hear the insincerity in her voice.

Lisa looked at Trent who returned her glance with extreme nervousness.

“He’s here Lisa, why is he hiding?” The voice asked. She then heard lighter heeled footsteps make their way toward the bar. Trent appeared to be vibrating he was so Nervous. Looked down the opposite end of the bar to see the wood wall that left no escape for them. Suddenly a gnome poked his head around the open corner of the bar. “Trent what are you doing hiding under the bar?” the gnome asked, then glanced at Lisa. “And who is your lady friend?” He asked with more personal interest and less general curiosity.

Trent stood up and Lisa followed suit. “Squints! Sorry about that, Alex and I were messing with Lisa.” Alex, Squints, and Trent smiled at her. “Squint's this is Lisa, and she is very gullible.”

Lisa glared at him. “I hate you. Be honest, is the banishment story even real?” she asked.

Trent nodded. “Very real. The king and I are not friends.”

Lisa moved back around the bar. “Then why not tell me that before we left Saintcitia? Why risk what I’m assuming is a severe punishment for me?”  She asked.

“Because we are friends.” Trent smiled.

The XP: Chapter 12

Stygian, Bob and Blackout are farming mobs in a zone called the Volcanic Wastes. Blackout casts a spell that causes the three fire imps charging him to fade out of existence. “How come we’re farming for cash here instead of the Temple Flats?” He asked.

Stygian easily finished off the last group of enemies with a single swing of his absolutely massive sword. “Did you not read the patch notes?” Blackout shook his head. “From now on your first death has a ten minute re-spawn timer and starts a one hour clock. If you die again in that hour your re-spawn is a half hour and the clock resets back to an hour. Third death earns you a twenty four hour re-spawn delay.” Stygian explained.

Blackout grimaced. “Lemmie guess, the next day they hour timer resets and if you die a fourth time they send someone to your home to kick you in the balls?” He said as he and Stygian fist bumped.

Torcano appeared in the zone and ran over to his friends. “I made it! I’m a GM!” He shouted.

Blackout and Stygian met Torcano halfway. Bob finished off the mob’s she was fighting and joined them. “Grats. You’re ‘the man’ now dog.” She deadpanned.

Torcano looked a little down. “Come on Bob this is a good thing, don’t be like that. I’m gonna get paid to play the game!” Torcano leapt into the air, unable to control his excitement.

Bob was still unimpressed. “And police the player base.” She reminded him.

Torcano nodded. “You have to admit, most of the players could you some policing. If I see another 'SukmeyeByall’s' I’m gonna scream.”

Stygian pointed at Torcano while talking to Bob. “Man’s got a point.”

Bob shook her head. “Whatever.” She replied turning and walking away.

“When do you start?” She heard Stygian ask.

“And what do you do when you’re not actively helping players?” Blackout asked before she was out of earshot.

She looked around the empty Volcanic Wastelands waiting for a mob to spawn. Volnado appeared instead. “So your brother made it, he’s a full time tool now.” She nearly spat at him.

Volando looks out in the same direction as Bob. “Guess you wouldn’t be happy for me if I told you that I made it as well.” He replied.

Bob shrugged her shoulders “I should be happy for you, it’s what you both wanted.”

Volnado nodded. “And your only annoyed with Torcano, It’s totally fine if I become a tool?” He asked.

Bob sat down on the ground. “Yeah, no, I don’t know. Look, why don’t you go celebrate with the others?” She sighed.

Volnado shook his head. “We were supposed to tell everyone together, but he couldn’t wait.” Volnado looked back at his brother horsing around the Stygian and Blackout. “Just another example of him being an attention whore.”

Bob looked back over her shoulder at Torcano. “Don’t take it personally. His awareness of the world doesn’t extend much past his own nose.” She turned away from her friends.

Volnado nodded. “Trust me, I’ve noticed.”

“Go steal some of his thunder. You deserve to celebrate with them just as much as he does.” She said just before fading out of the game.

Volnado looked back at the trio in the distance. “Yeah, thanks.” He said to the wastes.

University of Console Heroics: Chapter 12

With the sun just setting Clay and Faith are walking back to the dorm together. Clay wearing a classy button up dress shirt and a suit jacket. Faith in a nice floral Sunday dress. They are holding hands and grinning like idiots.

“I have to say, this is easily the weirdest and most fun date I have ever been on.” Clay explained.

Faith nodded. “You can admit it. It’s because I’m awesome.” She fake curtsied, making clay laugh.

The wind picked up a bit and she wrapped her arms around herself. Clay noticed, took off his jacket and put it over her shoulders. “You made me eat sushi and play Skee Ball.” He said.

She slid her arms into the sleeves. “What’s wrong with that?” She asked.

“Nothing.” Clay shook his head. “That’s the cool part. I never thought an evening at Super Fun Palace, playing games in the middle of a river of kids would be nearly as much fun as we had.”

Faith nodded and laced her arms around Clay’s. “Well you are better at Skee Ball than pool, that’s for sure.” She giggled.

Clay shrugged his shoulders.

Faith moved in closer to Clay as they walked. The temperature was dropping and it was a decent excuse for bodily contact. Still he noticed it when she shivered as a gust of wind came to life. “It’s going to be a cold night.” She commented.

Clay stopped walking and watched the cars making their way down the main street in front of the campus. It wasn’t long before a suitably stylish car came down the drag and Clay politely disengaged from Faith. “I’ll be right back.” He assured her before jogging out into the middle of the street, he calmly walked up to the car he wanted, opened the driver’s side door and almost gently yanked the driver out of the car. He pointed down the street. “Go on, get.” He said without raising his voice. The Driver scrambled away from the car without further resistance. Faith walked over to the car. Clay put it in park long enough to come around to the passenger side, open her door and hold her hand as she sat down into the car. He then made his way back to the driver’s side, ducked into the car and shut the door.

He flipped the heat on and Faith held her left hand over a vent spewing hot air. He put the car in drive and made his way toward the dormitory parking lot. “It was getting too cold to walk the rest of the way back, this seemed easier.” He was trying not to brag. 

She looked at the sparkle in his eyes and he watched the road. “You really like your major don’t you?” She asked.

Clay smiled and glanced at her when he answered.  “It has its advantages.”

The light turned green and the car turned off the main road toward the housing section of campus.

Later, in the hallway of Faith’s dorm they were holding hands and Clay noticed that her nails had been painted to match the color of her dress.

She smiled as he kissed the back of her hand. “So do all Thug Studies majors leave fifty bucks in the cars they steal?” She asked.

Clay smiled awkwardly. “You saw that?” He asked. She nodded. “Yeah I think it’s pretty obvious that I’m not the best Thug Studies major.” He admitted.

She shook her head. “Actually I think it shows character and a sense of honor.”

Clay smiled in spite of himself. “Both of which will get me nowhere in Thug Studies.” He sighed.

Faith gave a little shrug. “Maybe switch majors?” It was instantly clear that her suggestion made him uncomfortable. They finally reached her door and she decided to change the subject. “So, wanna watch a movie or something?” She asked casually.”

He kissed the back of her hand again to hide his reflexive smile. “Tempting, but I can’t” He tried to politely decline.

Faith stopped smiling and wasn’t hiding the fact that the rejection hurt. “Is something wrong?” She asked.

Clay shook his head. “Not in the least. I just don’t want you to wake up in the morning worried about what I’m going to tell my brothers about you.” He couldn’t take his eyes off his feet.

She touched the side of his face and he looked her in the eye. “I don’t think you’re the kind of person to kiss and tell.” She smiled at him and he smiled. Back.

“When you know I’m not, then I’ll spend the night.” He confirmed with a chaste kiss. 

She turned into a full blown kiss before she leaned a little further and whispered in his ear. “Clay, my roommate is gone for the weekend. Neither of us is an angel, but come in for a while, and have Faith.” She moved away, turned toward her door and led him inside.

Shades of Justice: Chapter 16

It was five twenty and Kelly was twenty seven laps into her morning mile swim. She had left the school but her coach worked at the Y.M.C.A and had given her access to the pool. Some kids swam because the team had a long history of victory. Others swam because no other sport appealed to them or their friends swam. Kelly swam because it gave her peace of mind. Following the line on the bottom of the pool had become a sort of mediation for her.

As she headed into the last half of her laps she began to feel like someone else was in the pool with her, while not uncommon she couldn’t shake the feeling of unease. She rebounded off the wall and tried to out swim the hysteria rising in her chest. She started to panic, the water had become too choppy to see where she was, she began to flail her arms trying to find the surface, she felt lost, scared and confused. Suddenly a single desire filled her mind. She needed to breathe. She dove for the surface in a panic, terrified that she might suffocate. Her head broke the surface of the water, she took big gulps of air, wiped the water from her face and looked around the pool. She was alone, standing in the four foot section of the pool. The panic was gone, the paranoia was nonexistent. She gave herself a few seconds to shake off what was left of the quickly receding panic off and dove back into the water.

By five fifty she had gone ten laps past the mile to cool down. When she could delay no longer she climbed out of the pool and grabbed her towel, revealing her flashing glasses. She threw them on to hear Technarious’ voice 

“Where have you been?” He asked.

“I was getting ready for school, just got out of the shower what’s up?” She asked.

“Something has refaced, off the coast of California, something that shouldn’t exist.” He said, “The others are waiting for you.”

She fished drying off gathered her things and ran into the empty girls locker room to change and teleport to California.

She arrived on the roof of a beach side hotel next to the other Shades. They were watching five impossibly large tentacles emerge from the ocean, flailing wildly creating chaos and destruction on the coast line. She felt the same exact panic from the pool well up inside her and she had no clue how but she knew she was feeling what this creature was feeling.

“Nice of you to drop by.” Sonya greeted her.

Kelly held up her middle finger. “I was in the shower, sue me.”

“How many laps you do in the shower every morning?” Sonya shot back.

Kelly’s advance on Sonya was stopped by Dante. “Hey! We’re all tired and stressed, this isn’t a prison sentence. She wasn’t neglecting her duties and I can guarantee she won’t be the last one of us that is going to miss a few calls. Life is unfair like that. Now, let’s call blinding light and get rid of whatever that thing is.”

Kelly relaxed and Sonya threw her hand in the air. The others followed her lead and together they called their giant Mecha. It appeared a ways into the surf as far away from fleeing beach goes as possible and the Shades teleported in to the command station.

Blinding light came to life and launched itself at the closest two tentacles grabbing one with each of its hands. Each of the tentacles wrapped itself around the arm of the hand that had grabbed it. The other three tentacles zeroed in on Blinding light and began to wrap themselves around its legs and chest as Blinding Light futilely tried to fight its way free.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 39

Eamon had landed his cruiser roughly a hundred yards from the edge of the forest. He cautiously approached the tree line on foot, looking for signs of life. If he had not seen the footage of the seed pods come out of the ring and crash into the planet he would have found it nearly impossible to believe this forest was less than a week old. There were uncountable trees that stretched hundreds of feet into the sky. The canopy above blocked much of the sunlight from reaching the ground and filtered the rest to tone down the ambient light by a drastic amount. The shade provided by the canopy extended about fifteen feet beyond the out most Trees and Eamon found himself stopping at the lights edge. He scanned the forest as far back as his sight could define anything other than darkness.

“Hello?” He nearly shouted his questioned greeting. And he listened as his voice seemed to ping pong off the trees as it echoed deep into the woods. He was met with silence and waited what he considered to be an overly long time for some kind of response. Finally he let himself consider the possibility of trying a different edge of the forest line and turned back to his ship. Before he could spin around the tree’s opened up and root people began to emerge from the trunks of the trees closest to the edge of the forest. Some even dropped down on ropes of vines from the canopy up above. In what felt like the blink of an eye Eamon was face to face with what he estimated to be a few dozen aliens all standing silently at the edge of the tree line.

To put it mildly Eamon was stunned. “I, I um, come in peace?” He stuttered and then tried to pick himself up. “That’s stupid. Um, this is my, our, my people’s planet. So um, on behalf of, my people, I guess, we, or I, for the most part, welcome you to, our planet.” He held out his arms as if he were about to try and hug the assembled group of tree people. “They had not moved during his awkward, bumbling speech and he also noticed that none of them were responding verbally either. ”I have every hope that our two races might learn to coexist with each other and thrive together.” He looked down the line of the alien greeting party. They just stood silently, staring at him. He let his arms drops back to his sides. “In the spirit of unity and cooperation, I would like to enquire about a shuttle that landed in your forest, and the status of anyone who may have been aboard.” He reached the end of the sentence feeling as lost as the aliens looked. With nothing else coming to mind to break the tension he felt he gave an exaggerated bow, hold his hands out again to make it as excessive, He didn’t know why he had decided to bow and he wasn’t even sure how long he should bow or even if the aliens had any idea what he was doing. He glanced up from his exaggerated position and saw that the entire group of alien tree people were copying his bow as closely as they could. Something was coming out of the darkness behind them and he lowered his eyes back to his feet.

“Why are you bowing?” A familiar voice came from the tree line.

Eamon righted himself with excitement to see his sister making her way through the alien’s toward him. The aliens returned to their upright positions as she passed them.

Mew had a few visible bruises on her neck but they did nothing to distract from the huge smile on her face as she charged her brother for a hug. “What were you babbling about? How the heck did you get elected when you can’t even give a simple speech without tripping over your own tongue?” She asked after they separated. “Seriously please tell you are paying Kepi a reasonable amount to put up with you, because, just, damn.” She exaggerated her disappointment as she shook her head.

“Actually she just took over my seat so she’s free of me and I’m free of the senate.” He replied.

Mew nodded. “Probably best for all involved really.”

Eamon agreed vigorously. “So what’s with the root people?” He asked. 

Lidarion: Chapter 11

The line at the front gates of Lidarion city seemed to stretch on for miles. In the time since Brandon’s death the war had officially ended and there were hundreds if not thousands of people looking to transition back to their peacetime lives as quickly as possible. They had gotten in line sometime in mid-morning and shared lunch together as they moved forward little by little. They traded what news they had with the people ahead of and behind them in line and none of them missed the large number of families and other travelers leaving the city throughout the day.

It was late afternoon by the time they arrived at the front gate. The guards looked each of them over, glancing in their saddlebags and one of the guards took a nice long look at Trent deciding not to make anything of it. The guards signaled for the gate to open and the giant doors opened letting Trent and Lisa into the western most side of the central market district. Lisa was immediately stunned by the level activity, the density of the buildings. She couldn’t help but browse each of the road side carts piled high with fresh fruits, sweet breads, low quality jewelry and trinkets that lined the cobblestone street.

They walked by a bakery that smelled of countable flavors of fresh bread. Lisa turned to Trent. “Hey, are you hungry?” She asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, but trust me, we’re going to have dinner in the best restaurant in Lidarion.”

Lisa followed him as he snaked through the crowd. “If it’s still open.” She replied.

Trent laughed. “If Lidarion is still here, Lisa’s Bar is still here.” He took a turn off the central street and the crowd thinned greatly.

“You really loved growing up here didn’t you?” She asked.

He nodded. “It’s the greatest city on the planet, why wouldn’t I love it here?” He asked.

Lisa shrugged her shoulders. “Why haven’t you been back in almost fifteen years?” She asked.

Trent turned down another street and Lisa followed him. “Remember that whole war thing we just finished fighting?” He asked.

She shook her head. “You’ve had the same amount of time off as we did, we were able to get married and would have made it here if we hadn’t just gotten married. Not to mention I had to beg you to come with me even AFTER the war ended…So what happened?” She finally asked.

Trent nearly runs up to a very large building, He stops in front of the door, takes a deep breath and then opens the door to the Bar.

The restaurant is busy. There are more tables and chairs in the room than would be casually comfortable to maneuver around and all but one table are occupied by people eating, drinking, and socializing. A middle aged woman is maneuvering in between the tables so efficiently they might as well not even be there. She picks up empty glasses, drops of bread and fresh drinks, all the while she holds conversations with multiple conversations.

The door closes behind Trent and Lisa which grabs the woman’s attention. “Well I’ll be a red headed step child. Trent Coppersmith has finally returned.”

The entire establishment seems to freeze. Alex weaves around the tables toward Trent and Lisa. Trent smiles nervously. “Hey Alex, It’s been a long time.” He says.

She clears the tables and stops in front of him. “Over a decade.” She paused and stared him down as the entire establishment holds its breath. 

The XP: Chapter 11

Volnado is flanked by Wainwright and Shizaboom. Torcano moves to the front of the group. “I thought we were avoiding each other.” He asked.

Volnado smiled. ‘This is a special occasion.”

“Do tell.” Toracano requested.

“You violated the terms of your Game Master Employment contract.” Volnado accused. Torcano looks like he just got slapped. “You have repeatedly used your abilities and powers to grant advantages and favors to players that they haven’t earned. Mainly the players standing behind you.” 

Volnado gestured to the rest of the group.

Shizaboom took half a step forward. “After revie –“ Volnado held up his hand to silence Shizaboom. 

Shizaboom not only went silent but stepped back a full step.

Volnado waited a moment, dropped his hand and then continued. “After reviewing your activity logs the management team has decided to remove your status as a Game Master and deactivate your account.”

The entire group is shocked. Torcano moves to rebut but Volnado waves his hand and Torcano disappears. “Good bye brother.”

Bob gets into Volnado’s face. “What the hell is your problem Volnado?”

Volnado glares down at Bob. “Funny, I thought you of all people would have enjoyed watching that.”

“I didn’t want him turning into what you’ve clearly become.” Bob shot back.

The two groups have gathered a bit of a crowd. Volnado shook his head. “Torcano was never going to be as good at this as I am. It was only out of respect for our connection that I let him get away with as much as he did. He never really cared about the game, at least, not like we do Bob. He was always more concerned with Impressing his friends. And now without him I suspect your little club is lost, unable to compete. What will you do without a fifth member?”

A horn sounds and the crowd gathering turns their attention to the opening ceremonies of the clan wars. Volnado turns and moves forward through the crowd, the other two Game Master’s in tow. The gang looks at each other in complete shock.

Stygian clenches his fist. “Damn it.”

Blackout shakes his head. “There has to be someone who hasn’t joined a clan yet.”

“Any idea how we find them in the next ten minutes?” Bob asked.

The group watches the opening ceremonies, a huge digital fireworks show is lighting up the sky. The group is looking up and the light reflects off their faces.

“Well one thing is clear.” Trart says.

“What’s that?” Stygian asks?

“Begun the Clan Wars have.” Trart smiles at his own joke. Bob slaps him upside the back of his head. “Ow, right, sorry…sorry.” Trart apologized.