Reid's new pet healer walked in front of him, motivated on by the bone knife pressed against his back. Ahead, a group of men milled about in the dirt, chatting away with one another. A few held guns in their hands, but most had firearms slung over shoulders or on their backs. Unlike the group Rei...
2024-11-21 17:44:42 +0000 UTC View Post~ Marlene ~
(Ten Minutes After Reid's Breakout)
The pickup hit another rock with a loud clang, which sent the bed- and everyone in it - bouncing into the air. She winced when one young man nearly fell out the side. He held onto the bed rail - while the two closest to him grab...
2024-11-21 17:43:24 +0000 UTC View PostDawn cast a red-orange glow over the clouds in the sky - washing out the luminescence from the torches all around him. The grass and churned mud was cool on Reid's bare left foot.
Reid's face and body were dotted with red patches in early signs of bruising - but it was hard to see those und...
2024-11-21 17:43:03 +0000 UTC View Post~= Louis =~
(Three Hours Before Reid Broke Out)
Louis couldn't scream, and he couldn't move. Bertrand had his nose pressed against Louis's own - and madness danced in the dark of his eyes.
Terror and helplessness held him just as tightly as Bertrand's skill, and he stru...
2024-11-21 17:42:45 +0000 UTC View PostReid reveled in the feeling of the cool air, and spoke the words aloud.
"I'm Free."
He swept his eyes over his surroundings. The tent was large, and boasted a sleeping area, some stands where clothing and a bent sword lay, odd supplies, and even a few boxes of firearms. Two chairs wer...
2024-11-21 17:42:26 +0000 UTC View Post~; Lowell ;~
Lowell grimaced. He'd managed to stress his back earlier while he and Toby carried the dirtbike through the woods, and every heavy impact sent jolts of pain from his tailbone up to his neck. A part of him wished he'd let Toby take the ride instead of him - but this was Lowell's...
2024-11-21 17:41:56 +0000 UTC View PostReid looked out at the man, standing proudly victorious amongst the three dead salamanders. He smiled and walked forward towards the wall, not bothering to retrieve his grieves or his damaged sword. The familiar sign of glowing healing magic lit up from different parts of the group, and ...
2024-11-21 17:41:41 +0000 UTC View Post\.,., Bertrand ,.,./
It had been two days since the RV convoy had left through the wooden fortress's front gate.
Bertrand wanted to approach the fortress then, but instinct told him the timing wasn't right.
Bertrand was an accomplished man. He had escaped the mediocrity of his f...
2024-11-21 17:41:27 +0000 UTC View Post+ Reid +
Reid spat out a mouthful of sand.
He snarled, and rose to his feet. His anger hadn't been an issue in recent battles - they were all too easy to draw his rage. But this training was making him simmer and tested the limits of his self-control.
"I can't beli...
2024-11-21 17:41:15 +0000 UTC View Post+ Reid +
It had been three weeks since Marlene made her promise. The private conversation between the two of them had been followed by a very public, very loud reunion with Sara. His daughter had, unsurprisingly, refused to leave his side for the next few days. He even missed participating ...
2024-11-21 17:41:00 +0000 UTC View PostReid held the adult diaper against the end of the catheter in a small, dark room. He wanted to scream. He wanted to kill something. He wanted to be rid of the menace in his mind. And the thing had only spoken three sentences to him. That quickly changed.
Reid, now that you are a...
2024-11-21 17:40:47 +0000 UTC View PostReid stared at the beacon.
It was a large, yellow crystal that emitted a faint glow that was visible, even in the daylight. The crystal spun above a floating geodesic silver bowl, and pulsed a small shockwave every few seconds, like a heartbeat. No matter how he stared, though - he couldn't...
2024-11-21 17:40:35 +0000 UTC View Post+ Reid +
Sanctuary's wooden battlement was alive with shouts and violence. Three dozen defenders shot bows, threw spears, and fired magic projectiles out of their hands at the wave's salamanders. One was even using some sort of sonic skill by shouting down at the beasts. Their hail of attac...
2024-11-21 17:40:13 +0000 UTC View PostSusan gave Reid a playful slap on the arm. "What's up, doc? Really? I don't see you for weeks, and that was what you decided to go with?"
Did she say weeks? Didn't she mean days? Eh, it didn't matter. Reid grabbed her and pulled her into his lap, squeezing her tight. "I'll have you...
2024-11-21 17:39:56 +0000 UTC View PostReid did his best to keep his rapidly-growing anger in check.
He stood in front of the Rec Hall's double doors, staring down the pair of young men 'guarding' the entrance. They both wore homemade 'badges' that doubled as name tags. The badges and their outfits reminded him of Sara's attempt...
2024-11-21 17:39:33 +0000 UTC View Post. James .
Wooden walls crackled and popped as screams and smoke filled the air. James lifted a wooden spear and hurled it forward at an approaching salamander. It sunk partway into the beast and dropped to the ground, wedging itself and keeping the beast from advancing further towards them....
2024-11-21 17:39:09 +0000 UTC View PostReid yawned and stretched, then winced. He'd collapsed from exhaustion without healing himself. His body and head ached, and all he had to show for it was three dead salamanders.
He stumbled to his feet, thankful for the clean bandages that had been wrapped around his wounds. Some stung - p...
2024-11-21 17:38:48 +0000 UTC View Post~ Marlene ~
Marlene took a sip of water and gave Oscar an appraising look. She hadn't expected the man to give her so much grief about... well anything, really. Reid had been staring at the ground for 15 minutes now. She needed an answer, and needed it soon. Oscar had actually stopped her f...
2024-11-21 17:38:29 +0000 UTC View PostMarlene slapped Reid across the face as hard as she could. When that didn't get a reaction, she poured half her canteen of water over his head. He sputtered a bit, then went back to snoring.
She looked at her watch. Reid had been asleep for almost 12 hours now, and the man simply wouldn't w...
2024-11-21 17:38:08 +0000 UTC View PostReid reached a hand to his back and pulled the salamander claws embedded there out with a series of grunts. Warm blood flowed slowly down his back and onto his pants from the now-open wounds. He was also still bleeding from his leg, shoulder, abdomen, and arm. The broken corpses of eleven small s...
2024-11-21 17:37:49 +0000 UTC View PostBone weapons.
When Reid thought about what a bone weapon should be, his mind ran away with ideas of barbarians holding bone clubs. But Reid was no barbarian, and while he had been using stones as projectiles to kill his foes, and he looked like a strongman - he wasn't some meathead. Or ...
2024-11-21 17:37:21 +0000 UTC View Post~ Marlene ~
Marlene realized Sara was waving a hand in front of her face.
"Sorry, what?"
The girl gave her a questioning look. "What happened? You just kinda zoned out. I've been waving at you for like, a loooong time."
Marlene set her face into a warm smile. "Nothing to w...
2024-11-21 17:36:56 +0000 UTC View PostReid awoke, coughing and sputtering as an unchewed piece of jerky slipped partway down his throat. Thankfully, it dislodged itself when he rolled over. He panted, looking at the small bit of meat on the ground.
He spent a long minute considering how awful it would be to survive the absolute...
2024-11-21 17:36:29 +0000 UTC View Post-{#-} Loz'ar {-#}-
Beams of red light danced along the white marble walls from a crimson chandelier. An arched ceiling twenty feet above was painted with angelic figures. The room offered no windows, and only a single door. An imposing grey oval table took up the middle of the room, surroun...
2024-11-21 17:36:03 +0000 UTC View Post+ Reid +
A roar shook the trees as the black bear batted away the smaller beast. It tumbled a few feet, righted itself, and came back screeching.
Reid watched from a distance, knife already in his hand. His journey had continued through the forest, still silent in the continued absenc...
2024-11-21 17:35:44 +0000 UTC View Post~- Mark -~
Mark wiped the sweat off his brow and looked down to his side. Twenty thick wooden stakes down, another thirty to go before he'd stop for the day. He looked out from his camping chair and let a proud smile grow. A palisade surrounded the bulk of the campground, each wooden stake ...
2024-11-21 17:35:22 +0000 UTC View PostReid groaned, fatigued and bleeding on his cushy bed of moss. Part of him - a large part - just wanted to sleep, and worry about all his problems later. He felt like his entire existence was fighting and traveling. He had no idea where the next threat would come from, and the enemies he was facin...
2024-11-21 17:34:34 +0000 UTC View PostReid's face was frozen in a look of terror. His points - HIS POINTS, that he'd earned through literal blood and sweat, were sitting in Control. All of his short-lived plans of an easy, Intelligence and Constitution supported journey slipped away from him and faded. His anger grew as he re-read th...
2024-11-21 17:34:14 +0000 UTC View Post+ Reid +
Reid felt his way through the status screen, focusing in on the statistics portion. Each item felt like it had its own path, or branch, formed off of a stable center. He could feel the skills waiting just above, their own paths foggy just outside the stable center his ...
2024-11-21 17:33:50 +0000 UTC View PostReid sat on a dry patch of dirt with elbows on his knees. Broken bodies lay all around him, blood soaking into the soil.
He could clearly remember the first few kills, right up until he ripped one's jaw off. Everything after that felt like a blur of impressions, just a sense of rage, the fe...
2024-11-21 17:33:26 +0000 UTC View Post