"I'm sooo pooped…" whined a certain Celestial girl as she fell onto the bed like a sack of potatoes.
"Tell me about it," his boyfriend muttered with overplayed trepidation as he removed his helmet and placed it onto the nightstand.
"Boo! You only had to stand around!"
"Precisely! I've been standing all day!" Josh argued back ...
2023-09-29 14:24:59 +0000 UTC View PostThe home of Lord Amadeus Endymonion of Timaeus was pretty big. Not nearly as humongous or lavish as the Dracis estate, but to be fair, few private buildings were. Nevertheless, it still had its fair share of shady nooks and crannies, seemingly purpose-built to have hushed discussions about private, secretive, or even borderline clandestine topic...
2023-09-25 16:39:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe life of a Praetorian Guard wasn't glamorous. As the honour guards of a certain Second True Archon, they received plenty of respect from your average Celestial, yet at the end of the day, they were still soldiers. It was a post with great...
2023-09-22 21:40:02 +0000 UTC View PostI had to say, at the risk of sounding clichéd, that the next two days flew by in the blink of an eye. Between the preparations to take Angie on her Grand Elysium Tour (not my title for the event; in fact, it was invented by the Directorate), pushing away all the bootlickers trying to get into her good graces, and keeping an eye on the two loveb...
2023-09-22 15:41:34 +0000 UTC View Post"Aaah! I'm burning! I'm gonna die!"
Sighing, I turned to the girl lying on her belly on the bed. She had her head buried into a pillow, and her muffled cries were barely legible under all the muffling and the noise of her feet hammering against the mattress like she was pretending to be swimming.
"The cringe! It burns!"
Oh. And...
2023-09-18 19:09:34 +0000 UTC View PostSometimes, life was unpredictable.
…
That was about as banal as a truism could get, wasn't it? Let's try again.
Sometimes, life was like a housecat. Generally agreeable, but the moment you didn't pay attention to it, it would shit on the carpet, destroy your furniture, and eat all your petunias.
…
No, that didn'...
2023-09-17 17:21:17 +0000 UTC View Post"So you do have bottled water…"
Angie's whispers turned a few heads in the hallway, though even more eyes were drawn to the supremely smug woman grinning by our side. She was the vice director of something or the other who brought me a drink after I got out of Teeny's magic cocoon thing. Her name was Advanced Tire… or somethin...
2023-09-15 14:43:39 +0000 UTC View PostAfter what, to the unaffiliated eye, appeared to be a very intense round-robin-style Celestial roshambo tournament (pretty much the same rules, but with different finger gestures), it was decided that sci-fi-guy would serve as Josh's first opponent on the training field.
"I don't know, man… I don't like this…" my friend griped in a low...
2023-09-13 13:59:08 +0000 UTC View PostHello, dear readers.
Long story short, I ran into some technical difficulties. I decided to upgrade my PC a little (namely the CPU and the memory), and it caused me quite some headache. Just to give you the basic beats:
-Install new CPU.
-System doesn't start.
-Turns out, despite what the shop said when I originally bought thi...
As our tour of the settlement came to an unceremonious end, we relaxedly made our way back to the tower at the head of our unnecessarily large processions of guards. I rationally knew why they thought this was necessary; they were keeping a close eye on us because everyone was still afraid of Bel and his mysterious ability to freely invade the E...
2023-09-08 18:56:52 +0000 UTC View Post"Ah! Welcome home, Mister Raol!"
The skeleton froze momentarily, just as he was about to step through the threshold of the familiar cottage in the woods.
Home. Was Elkayla's hermitage his home, he wondered as he belatedly entered. It was certainly the closest thing he had to such a thing at the mo...
2023-09-07 17:31:44 +0000 UTC View Post"This is insanity!"
For the sake of punctuation, the bespectacled chief director slammed his fist on the table. The sound of the impact echoed impotently in the familiar meeting room, and the other man sitting across the table soon cleared his throat. It was a familiar scene, a clandestine congregation between Mensah and Tsephanyah, with t...
2023-09-04 15:58:28 +0000 UTC View Post"Uaaah! Look, Josh! Look! It's so pretty!"
Josh followed the direction Angie was pointing with her arm fully extended, and let out an ambivalent grunt.
"It's… something, all right," he responded, sounding profoundly unenthusiastic, but his girlfriend didn't seem to mind.
I had to give it to her though; the white tower dominat...
2023-09-01 18:56:09 +0000 UTC View PostGazing through the large windows in front of me, I watched the sun slowly rise above the horizon of the Elysium. It wasn't just the beginning of a new day, but a new month as well. If I wanted to be cheeky, I could've even added 'a new era' to that list, lampooning this whole Deus situation, but I was way too tired for that. My eyes lazily swept...
2023-08-28 10:52:01 +0000 UTC View PostI'd had many hectic days in the past, but this one was easily in the top three. I had to fight a stupid off-brand Chimera, rescue Josh and Angie, the latter turned out to be the reincarnation of the Celestials' long-deceased cult leader, and I even had to participate in a parade! All in all, I was feeling sick and tired, so I felt like I entirel...
2023-08-25 14:53:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe air in the living room of my Celestial suite felt heavy. Borderline suffocating. Just not for me.
Despite her initial bravado, Director Savir's demeanour went through a radical shift once she sat down, no doubt thanks to Mountain Girl. Even now, her glare could be felt through her featureless helmet. Was this that 'killing intent' thin...
2023-08-22 16:23:48 +0000 UTC View PostMy mind was still a mess by the time I returned to my quarters, using the tried and true 'Phase out of the elevator' method to speed things up and to avoid any prying eyes. Since I had Josh in the apartment, I could arrive directly without having to manually Phase across the tower one storey at a time.
"Josh!"
"What!?" my friend yelp...
2023-08-18 15:07:24 +0000 UTC View Post"… Goddamit, man! Couldn't you do that without giving me a heart attack!?" the guy griped the moment I took my hand off his mouth.
"Just answer the question," I urged him, and after circling his head around, Josh's whole body shook as if he just made a realization and he grabbed my shoulder.
"Right! We don't have time for this! We ...
2023-08-14 14:59:26 +0000 UTC View PostIn the end, it took well over two days for Raol to gain access to the town library of New Reedcourt. The process was much more involved than his adventurous acquaintances first implied and required explicit permission from both the leader of the Adventurers' Guild, the major...
2023-08-11 16:57:41 +0000 UTC View Post"This is insanity!" Director Mensah hissed, holding his head in his hands, much to his co-conspirators' annoyance. "That was an antique, second-generation Colossus, in mint condition!"
"Don't be so melodramatic, Dolion," Director Savir scoffed at him and would've probably said more if not for a small hitch in the road causing their ride to...
2023-08-11 15:32:40 +0000 UTC View PostSo, first things first, let's assess the current situation.
My honour guard fell back, as instructed, and formed a perimeter that enclosed me and this Colossus thing. According to Mike's father, the elite Seraphic Safeguard needed some time to prepare a specialized weapon or tool or something to take down the big fella. Let's say, fifteen ...
2023-08-11 15:31:28 +0000 UTC View PostThe tension in the overlook was… nowhere to be found.
I mean, was that it? Really?
My eyes narrowed on their own as I scrutinized Director Savir's face, but her expression remained perfectly still, locked in a cordial smile and pretending she was perfectly innocent. At most, she looked a little smug, as if she blindsided m...
2023-08-07 18:53:35 +0000 UTC View PostDespite the very ominous super-secret conspiracy of the Celestial top brass brewing in the background, the next couple of days were fairly uneventful. While I would've liked to uproot them ASAP, there was still a lot of groundwork to be done, and I had no idea how the Narrative would react to any attempt to overthrow the three scheming faction h...
2023-08-05 19:10:44 +0000 UTC View PostThe turmoil on the island, caused by my initial disappearance, calmed down remarkably fast once I revealed myself to my inner circle about a week ago. Over time, things returned to business as usual, Blue Cherry High opened its gates again, and after I put Sir Percival in custody, I let my sisters return home and attend as usual, though not with...
2023-08-02 17:59:29 +0000 UTC View Post"I'm really not cut out for this…"
My silent grumbles were hidden under the noise of the door to my quarters opening, and as soon as I stepped through, I could hear a shuffling noise. Glancing over, I found Mountain Girl standing ramrod straight by the couch. When our eyes met (presumably, as she was wearing her helmet), her posture imme...
2023-07-31 16:21:51 +0000 UTC View Post"So, you created a scene, scared everyone, and threatened five arch-mages of the Assembly into submission. At the same time," Judy nonchalantly noted while resting her head in my lap.
After that previous stunt, I decided to take a break before heading back to the Elysium, and we were in Elly's room at the moment. I was sitting on her bed, ...
2023-07-28 15:32:39 +0000 UTC View Post"As you can tell, I'm perfectly fine," my holographic display version explained, followed by a sigh. "I originally wished to let you know in a more controlled manner, but thanks to a certain someone, I guess it's a public announcement now."
I counted to three in my head, and then did a theatrical scraping bow, and held the pose wh...
2023-07-24 17:12:09 +0000 UTC View PostOver the last couple of months, I've developed a deep and profound respect for stage magicians.
It was an impressive art form, and on this point, I believe most would readily agree with me. Yet, at the same time, it wasn't viewed with the same kind of prestige as, say, a Broadway actor or a ballet dancer was. Maybe because the profession w...
2023-07-21 13:53:30 +0000 UTC View PostNo matter how I looked at it, our makeshift dungeon was living up to its namesake quite admirably. The air of the chamber was stale and smelling faintly of urine, thanks to the authentic wooden bucket latrine in the corner of the only 'cell' in use.
Unfortunately, the torches had to go, as while they really helped to tie the ambience of th...
2023-07-18 15:57:42 +0000 UTC View PostI often liked to use the proverb, ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’. It’s short, snappy, and adequately profound, and served me until this day… but I had a feeling its time in the limelight was slowly but surely coming to an end.
Looking back at the past half year, things have definitely changed in non-insignifi...
2023-07-16 12:35:55 +0000 UTC View Post