Vitaly S Alexius

Beware of Kittens. Day 4.3: The Night Revelations

A distant, eerie howl sounded from the woods, followed by another, then a chorus of them—deep, resonant calls that were neither wolf nor human, but something unsettlingly between. The sound raised the hair on the back of my neck.

The Sirin smirked, her golden eyes flashing. "The forest gr...

Beware of Kittens. Day 4.2 Radiation Therapy

My thoughts raced as I stared at the iron cage containing the pulsing emerald cocoon. The memory of the dragonfire's peculiar properties flashed through my mind—how it had selectively attacked organic matter, how it had lingered in the melted, warped structure of one of the village houses, how ...

Beware of Kittens. Day 4.1: Indestructible

The morning dawned with a sense of unease. Something felt wrong as I stepped outside the pub into the crisp winter air. Fresh snow had fallen overnight, but my eyes were drawn to a set of strange marks leading from the stone shed where I'd stored the Sirin's remains. The impressions were narrow a...

Beware of Kittens: 3.3: Microscopy

Previous chapter are at: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/112315/beware-of-kittens-scientific-sorcery

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Leaving the corpses in a snow-covered stone shed ...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. [ch 33, 34]

33: Slime-capture team

Krysanthea paced the length of the RV, her claws clicking with agitation against the crystalline-infused aluminum floor. Every few steps, she'd pause to glare at the expanded tree within the cracked container and the newly formed root pathway spreading up the wall o...

Announcement: Beware of Kittens - Scientific Sorcery Rewrite!

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/112315/beware-of-kittens-scientific-sorcery

<...

Somebody Stop Us: [Ch 13, 14]

Chapter 13: The Search for Thunder

The forest stirred around us as I finished the last edible bite of Spine Elk meat. My borrowed body, frail as it was, had accepted about as much sustenance as it could handle. A strange tingling sensation spread through my limbs—more than just the sati...

Where the Dead Things Bloom [30, 31, 32]

30: Domain Quest

I emerged from the bathroom to the view of Krysanthea and Nessy. The raptor was processing the husky’s rant-tale of our Mini-Mart bulbee summoning. 

The raptor-girl�...

Somebody Stop Us: [ch 11, 12]

Chapter 11: The Copy-paster

"SPLIT!" I barked, focusing all my will on creating not just any duplicate, but specifically on one containing my own soul. It was perhaps a bit of a gamble, but then again, thanks to Vespera I knew that my four-fold soul could move from body to body. Duplicati...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. 29: Morning Entanglement

Morning light filtered through the Airstream's small windows, casting warm rectangles across the aluminum interior. I opened my eyes slowly, consciousness returning in gradual waves as I stared...

Where the Dead Things Bloom [26-28]

26: Pack Power

"I don't recall inviting you to town, dog." Krysanthea added. “Hrmmmm. You look like you rolled in the dirt. Did you try to break into the restaurant?”

“I did,” Nessy growled. “Your damned sisters threw me out and threatened to slice me to bits if I came bac...

Where the Dead Things Bloom [23-25]

23: RV cleaning 

The towering firs and pines stood like silent sentinels at the edge of the campsite, their needled branches weaving a fractured quilt of shadow and light across the recently relocated Airstream. Dusk was approaching, painting the clearing with the burnt orange and de...

Where the Dead Things Bloom [20-22]

20: Raptored

As we arrived at the station I noticed a detail that I missed last night—two flags flew from poles near the entrance gate—the familiar American flag, and another I didn't recognize with a stylized image of various animal silhouettes arranged in a circle.

"Wait in th...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. [17, 18, 19]

17: Fort Bed 

I stepped into the loft apartment and paused, taking in the eclectic space before me. It was as if several designers with wildly different aesthetics had battled for dominance, each claiming territory in Nessy's home without a clear victor.

"Welcome to my abode!" ...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. [15-16]

15: The Possum

Death wasn't darkness. It wasn't light either. It was... something in between. Like looking through a shattered mirror where each shard reflected a different, broken piece of reality, a piece of me. I was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, adrift in a l...

Where the Dead Things Bloom 14: Unexpected girlfriend

 Her dino-beak filled with sharp teeth approached my face. I stepped back, not feeling like getting my face bit off.

“Girlfriend?!” Nessy growled. 

“Alec, what...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. 13: Escape

The building shuddered as something massive slammed against the outer wall. Dust and small fragments of ceiling tile rained down on us. The lights flickered, threatening to plunge us into darkness.

A wrench flew through the air, smashing against the wall. It too crawled upward, joined by do...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. 12: Celestorm

The back door opened onto what must have once been an employee smoking area—a wide concrete patio surrounded by a chain-link fence. But whatever mundane purpose it had served was now lost beneath Calvin's "garden"—though calling it a garden was like calling a hurricane a light breeze.

P...

Where the dead things Bloom [Chapters 10, 11]

10: Bandaid for your soul

Calvin led us to a shelf stocked with a few medical supplies—gauze, bandages, and a bunch of random pills arranged in neat rows. My limbs trembled slightly, adrenaline ebbing away to reveal the true extent of my injuries. The nipper bites, though small, burned ...

Where the dead things Bloom [Chapters 8, 9]

8 Basic Questing

Stepping from the storage room into the main shop, we discovered Calvin there standing by the counter. He wore an oversized forest-green backpack that made him look like a peculiar Santa Claus who'd wandered into the wrong holiday. His tinfoil hat gleamed under the flicke...

Where the dead things Bloom [Chapters 6, 7]

6 The Vice

"So, uhm..." I began, searching for something to say to make the mutual washing process less awkward. “Doesn’t this mess with your… hrmm,” I tried to recall what I knew about huskies. “Hydrophobic coating?”

“It kind of does,” she shrugged. “Normally, bat...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 10: The Phoenix of Duskfall

"Hey Jundy, What’s the cloak color of the Firstborns?" I asked, looking at the colorful robes milling about on various levels above me.

“Shining gold,” Jundar said.

"So… they're the original humans?"

"So they say," he shrugged. "Founders who found the fallen god's spine ...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 9: Quantum Leap

The shimmering triangle hovered between us, casting eerie patterns across our faces and the silver fox wallpapered walls and white stone ceiling of our tower room. I stared at it in fascination at Vee’s construct, my Understanding gradually digesting her creation while Cinder's expression grew ...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 8: The Key to Everywhere

The setting sun blazed across the ocean horizon, sending rays of fiery amber and deep crimson through our stained glass windows. The fox-patterns in the glass transformed the fading daylight into a kaleidoscope of colors that danced across our expanded bed and our bodies.

Hexagonal privacy ...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 7: Sanguinefeast

The empty space beside me suddenly erupted in shadow as Katherine burst from the Deep, a black railgun braced against her shoulder. Her emerald eyes blazed with fury.

"GET EFFED!" she roared, the weapon humming with a high-pitched whine as she pressed the trigger.

The marble-white man...

Somebody Stop Us. 6: Atomic Cafe

The day flew by, a whirlwind of classes, shenanigans, and adaptation to our new reality. 

During lunch, Vespera, in what she called "an absolutely necessary tactical maneuver," transferred herself into all of my and Cinder's classes.

"It's simply more efficient," she explained to...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 5: Wings of Sunset

Cinder’s smile was wide and mischievous, a spark of wild energy dancing in her eyes as she grabbed my hand. “Come on,” she said.

Before I could protest, she pulled the stained glass window open and yanked me out of the room to the balcony.

“Where are we—” My words were cut...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 4: Feelings

"Ah, sheet," I muttered under my breath as I braced myself for the inevitable explosion. It was like watching a slow-motion train wreck–you knew it was coming, you knew it was going to be messy, but you couldn't look away. 

Ember Stratos, my sister, a walking, talking, fire-breathing...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 3: Omniverse Dynamics

Dr. Greyfield paused, his gaze sweeping over the class, his expression serious now, all traces of his usual eccentric cheerfulness gone. “Now, These Numbers, aka Absolute Concepts are not gods or archangels in the traditional sense, even though many address them as such. They are more like forc...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 2: Metatron

Dr. Greyfield’s yell seemed to slightly dislodge me of my Cinder-wing caused stupor.

Digging deep into my soul, I reached for the tiny sliver of Stollwurm skill I’d absorbed, letting it seep into my being. The world around me seemed to dim, colors fading at the edges of my vision. I fel...