Lidarion: Chapter 13

With the sun set in Lidarion, the lamplighters were making their way around the city. They moved in pairs one for each side of a street. Alex watched at the pair assigned to the street outside passed by the windows of the bar, bathing the street in soft yellow lamplight. She walked back to the table with fresh drinks. And rejoined the others. “So Alex, how did you come to be responsible for everyone’s favorite man child?” She asked.

Lisa accepted her next drink from Lisa as she explained. “We met in the early years of the war. He and Bernard had been training together before they were placed in the same unit. A unit that would be placed on the front lines of the Tarsands offensive.” Alex and Squints flinched. The Tarsands offensive was the bloodiest battle of the war by far. The humans had tried to assault the orc’s coastal infrastructure in broad daylight. The Lidarion military’s chief strategist had assumed that as a nocturnal species the orcs would be less prepared to defend during a full frontal assault at high noon. It turned out to be a mistake that cost nearly uncountable lives. “They barely survived, Trent arrived in Saintcitia in a coma, and Bernard had several deep slashes on his arms and back. Three weeks into Bernard’s recovery Trent finally woke up, by that time I had already fallen for Bernard.” She explained.

“And where is Brandon?" Squints asked.

Lisa reached down and picked the sword sheath up. “By my side, where he’ll be for the rest of my life, as he promised.” She set the sheath down.

Squints stared deeply into his drink. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” He stumbled over the apology.

Lisa shook her head. “There’s no way you could have.” She admitted. “But our plans were meant for us, and now that he’s gone it’s time for me to figure out where I’m going to go and what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.” She started to cheer up.

Through the window Alex saw a shadow cross over the window. She stood and crossed over to the hallway entrance on the back wall of the bar. “I’ll be right back but I want to know what brings you to Lidarion? And how did you get Trent to come with you.” She asked.

Lisa turned to watch Alex as she got up and moved to the hallway entrance on the far side of the bar. Alex turned down the hall and stopped at her back door. The knock at the back door was so faint that she would have missed it if she wasn’t actively listening for it. She opened the door to a figure in a robe with its hood up. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get word to you. This isn’t a good time. In fact it’s probably the worst possible time.” She said.

Back in the main area of the Bar Trent and Lisa were listening to Squints talk about the state of the library district when Alex called from down the hallway. “Trent can you come here please?” She asked.

Trent got up from the table and left Lisa and squints. He quickly disappeared around the corner of the hallway. It wasn’t long after that Lisa and Squints heard the sound of a slap echo back into the bar. They both jumped up from the table and ran to the back hall. Alex was pinching her nose with her thumb and forefingers, Trent was holding his cheek and there was a beautiful brunette in a cloak who was absolutely furious. “Trent what’s going on?” Lisa asked.

Trent turned to look at Lisa. “Lisa I’d like you to meet her Royal majesty Princess Brooke.”

Squints face palmed and Lisa’s jaw dropped. 

The XP: Chapter 13

The park had nearly cleared of players. After the event fireworks they had cleared out to go run content until their matches began, The End of the World Club was oblivious to the fact that they were standing in the middle of the empty area, desperately trying to come up with some kind of plan.

Blackout was pacing back and forth while talking to himself like a crazy person. “Hey Cypherion, it’s Blackout, it’s been a while, have an opportunity for you, hit me back when you get this.”

Stygian and Bob watched him pace back and forth. “Jesus Bob please tell me I wasn’t part of one of these desperate telethons.” He looked at her.

She shrugged her shoulders. “I’d remember how eager you were to comeback before you define desperate for me.” She snapped, then caught herself. “Sorry, I’m sorry. That was really bitchy. “She turned to face Stygian. “We only ever thought of you, if you hadn’t come back it wouldn’t have been right to call anyone else.” She said in an awkward attempt at making amends.

Stygian looked down at her. “If that’s the case then why not call Torcano.” He asked.

She looked like she had been slapped and took a step back in shock. “I, He, That’s not the same thing.” She stuttered.

Blackout stopped pacing. “Cypherion isn’t answering his phone, Galtir is in the middle of a pretty nasty divorce and Vehbune is in prison for the next 15 to life, which makes us the mayors of scewedsville. Also when this is over, so like, right now, we should really re-evaluate our social connections.” Blackout looked around the empty park. “Where’d Trart go?” He asked, causing Bob and Stygian to look around as well.

Back at the Front entrance sign Trart approached The Matriarch who was alone now, still sitting and knitting. “Miss, uh, misses, um, The Matriarch?” He asked finally. “I just wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier.” He offered.

She shook her head without taking her eyes off her knitting. “No worries.” She replied warmly.

Tart stood there in awkward silence, something on his mind. When she realized he was still there she smiled. “What’s on your mind son?” She asked.

“I have a question but I don’t want to sound rude.” He explained.

“Why did I choose to look like an an old woman?” She asked.

Trart looked even more embarrassed but nodded.

The Matriarch put her knitting away. “You ever seen a movie called “The Soalarbabies?” She asked. Trart shook his head. “Put in in your queue, you’ll like it. Basic idea is that if I look like this and can earn the reputation I have earned than everything I have done, I did because of my genuine skills and abilities. There is no intimidation factor to my avatar. I am an old, fat, woman. The only intimidation I possess is the power of my reputation.” She explained.

Trart nodded. “Then why not play in the games?” He asked.

She smiled sadly. “Because my reputation is powerful enough now that even in this avatar a fair fight is impossible. My name causes analysis paralysis even in the best of fighters. So after the games The Matriarch will disappear and I will be just another name in a sea of scrambling players. Free to once again to find the only real challenge that exists in any game, a fair and honest fight.”

“You’re trying to grab smoke.” Trart blurted out.

The Matriarch looked confused. “I’m what?” She asked.

Trart worked his way through an explanation. “You can do whatever you please, but changing your name and creating a new avatar won’t get you any closer to a ‘fair’ fight because you’re still the one at the computer. Changing your name isn’t going to magically increase the skill level of the player base, it will just convince people who never stood a chance against the real you in the first place to unknowingly feed your ego, what’s fair about that?” He asked. The Matriarch was stunned. Trart suddenly realized just how bluntly he had spoken his piece and it caused him to flinch. “Please don’t kill me, I’m pretty sure I’m soul bound like twenty five zones away.”

The Matriarch stood up. “With Torano gone your guild is short a member yeah?” She asked.

Trart dropped his pathetic defensive stance and stood upright again. “Um, yeah.” He replied.

She smiled. “You’re not short anymore.” She held out her hand. Trart looked at it and then smiled at the Matriarch as he eagerly shook her hand.

University of Console Heroics: Chapter 13

The intro to energy midterm is over. The class is awkwardly sitting around Foster who is proudly sitting in the rest of the room. Electric red fire rising up from his shoulders.  He is sitting with his legs crossed but he has a predatory shit eating grin spread across his face. He was staring at Cynthia who was staring right back, somewhat less than pleased.

She uncrossed her legs and stood up. “Class dismissed.” She didn’t have to say anything else. Everyone else in the class scrambled to get their things and quickly vacate the room. Not a single one of them looking back in Fosters direction. Foster uncrossed his legs and the fire on his shoulders was snuffed out. He leaned back assured of himself. Cynthia sat in front of him but further back than normal. “Well, I guess he felt like talking.”

Foster looked at his right hand “Not exactly.” He replied.

Cynthia waved her hand referencing the red flames. “He must have helped you in some way.” She said.

Foster walked a red flame up and down the tips of his fingers in the same way that Thompson had. “I wouldn’t call it helping, it was more of an awakening.” He said closing his fist and snuffing out the flame. Giving his best attempt at a disarming smile. “Cynthia, there is nothing to worry about, everything is under control.”

His overeager assurance pushed her over the line into worry and concern. “Under the control of what Foster?” She asked while getting to her feet.

Foster joined her in standing. “This was your idea, remember?” He accused.

Cynthia turned away from him to grab her bag. “Then I was wrong for sending you to him.”

Foster held out his hands at his sides. “How can you say that this,” Foster exploded in full body flame. “Is wrong!”  

Cynthia felt the heat and turned to face him, backing up against the front wall.  She glanced at the open classroom door and Foster brought the fire back under control. She angrily grabbed her back and walked over to the door.

Foster killed his flame and grabbed his shoes. “He wants to see you…You know that right?” He offered.

Cynthia stopped packing her bag. “He is welcome to see me whenever he likes.” She spat her answer over her shoulder.

Foster pulled his second shoe on. “How about tonight? He asked me to pass along an invite to dinner at his place.”

She shouldered her bag and turned to face him. “He could have just called me.” She said.

Foster shook his head. “Fear of rejection turns every man into a coward.”

Cynthia moved forward until she was aggressively in Fosters space, and even though he was taller than she was, she stared him down. “And power turns every man into a liar.” She growled, leading Foster to look away in submission.

“What makes you say that?” He asked.

Cynthia moved to the door. “Dean knows that I would never turn him away. Therefor you are lying.” She accused.

Foster looked at his feet. “I thought it was what you wanted to hear.” He admitted.

She left her reply behind as she walked through the door and out into the hall. “Think again. Get your head on straight Foster, cause something in you isn’t right.”

Foster waited until he heard the front door of the building close behind her and punched the classroom wall.

Shades of Justice: Chapter 17

Blinding Light was losing the fight against the tentacles. They had completely wrapped around each of its limbs and its chest and were slowly dragging it back into the sea. The beach sand was scarred by the drag marks of Blinding Lights feet as it was pulled further into the water. As the ocean waves were crashing against its waist compartments all over the body opened to reveal lift off jets which fired, beginning to lift Blinding light out of the water as the tentacles pulled back. The output got brighter and larger. Again Blinding light make a little upward motion out of the water, until the jets ran out of fuel, the fires died and the compartments closed. The tentacles reaffirmed their grip and finished dragging blinding light beneath the waves.

In the command center shades were looking a long lists of internal and external damage from the tentacles. Now that they were beneath the surface of the ocean though they could see the entirety of the monstrosity that had defeated them.

It was an ancient squid so impossibly large that it did not seem proper for the earth itself to contain it. With its prize secured the leviathan made its way deeper into the depths of the ocean.

As Blinding light was dragged along the pressure of the water began to cause its own damage to the mecha. Warning lights flashed and alarms went off. The left arm elbow joint bucked and tore until all information coming from the systems it contained ceased and the status lights went dead. Everything in the giant mecha was on the verge of failure. The view screen flickered in and out and was beginning to crack.

The lights on the outside of Blinding light were the only sources of real light this deep in the ocean. As they began to fail, flicker and die the abyss filled with ancient nightmares once again returned to its mysteriously inky darkness.

Inside the command room a new alarm joined the cacophony. Blinding Lights onboard oxygen storage was damaged and they could see their air bubble out and upward toward the now impossibly distant surface.

The Leviathan settled on the ocean floor, pulled blinding light in close and closed it eyes.

Gordon pulled the Oxygen warning up on his console. “Sonya we’ve got about seven minutes of air left, what the hell do we do now?” He asked.

Sonya was looking through the depressingly small list of powers still available to use on Blinding Light. “I’m looking, give me a minute.” She answered.

Dante looked in her direction away from his screens “We don’t exactly have a lot of those left you know?” He was starting to panic.

“Electricity” Kelly blurted out.” The others looked her direction.

“What?” Sonya asked.

“Our left arm is damaged, that’s our primary sword arm, so we can’t summon the Blade of Blinding light, but it’s also the secondary power station, so maybe we could figure out a way to electrify the entire mecha and irritate the leviathan enough to let us go.” She explained.

Dante pulled up the status of the left arm. It showed the power station was still generating power but there was nothing in the left arm to use it for. “We’ve got the power but we need to access it. Somehow.” He enlarged the status window.

“And we’re going to have to figure it out on our own, because communications are down.” Warren added.

Everyone looked to Sonya. “All right kids, stay calm and start thinking of a plan, we’ve got less than seven minutes to make this happen.”

Blood and Profit: Chapter 40

With his sister found, Eamon turned back toward his ship. "Let's go, I can't guarantee the council is smart enough to realize attacking the forest is the stupidest course of action." 

Mew stayed where she was. "And the second stupidest is thinking that we can just walk away from this situation. I may have crashed but you came Willingly." 

Her point made Eamon turn back around. "This situation calls for more experience than either of us have." He said.

She nodded. "Entirely true. But until the rest of the planet makes up their mind, I'm not abandoning the Starseeds, not now."

Eamon pointed at the still silent line of Starseeds that had greeted him. "What could they possibly have done to earn your trust and loyalty this quickly?" He asked skeptically.

Mew looked annoyed. "You mean other than not kill me, bring me to you, and let us go freely after the one aboard my shuttle died? Nothing more than diverting from their journey to save this entire planet." She answered.

Eamon was frustrated now. "Save us from what Mew?" He almost yelled.

Mew shook her head. "It's very hard to describe," She started as the nearest Starseed in the greeting line moved forward to stand next to Mew. "Much easier to see it for yourself." She said as the Starseed reached out a limb of branches and vines with one tendril extending further than the rest which touched Eamon right between the eyes, which instantly clouded over as the rest of his face went slack.

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.