If you could leave the school, what’s the first place you would visit?
I would like to go to the beach. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been exposed to direct sunlight, or put my toes in the ocean.
Were you from a mage family?
Yes. I...
2022-10-08 12:00:33 +0000 UTC View Post“Max?” I said.
“I know, I know; you’re mad at me for running off, and I’m really sorry, but can you be mad at me later? I said I’d find the answer, didn’t I? This solves everything! Come look!”
“Max, you’re, um, bleeding a lot.”
He glanced down at his hands...
2022-10-07 13:48:57 +0000 UTC View PostWe take shifts talking to Denish. He dozes off a few times, but we always manage to rouse him. I start thinking, maybe it would be better to just let him sleep, and try to rouse him when it’s nearing time to take the helmet off – but what if we can’t? You’d think the lack of oxygen would ...
2022-10-04 14:31:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Okay,” I said, jiggling a bit and breathing quickly and definitely NOT panicking. “Okay. So, maybe he left that coat here, and just went back – ”
“He’s been gone for several hours. This is all set up for a descent, including a rope. And Max doesn’t just leave his coat somew...
2022-10-03 14:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe Faith of Fionnrath heard the commotion outside, sighed, and put his book away. He called up his power, letting it trickle into his mind, until his teeth began to itch. Correctly channelling the Faith, so that it could speak its wisdom through him while allowing him to remain aware and in cont...
2022-10-01 09:32:32 +0000 UTC View Post“Destroy magic?” I asked. “How?”
“Modern enchantments are designed so that a spell trapped in an object is freed if the runic circle is destroyed beyond repair. But there are other runic languages that have other ways of doing things. You know how to empower water, yes?”
...
2022-09-30 15:05:31 +0000 UTC View PostWe have a crew of six, now. Five of us are in the safety of the back three quarters of the ship, with a nice livable atmosphere. Denish is locked in Chronostasis Ring 1 and Recreation and Medical Ring 1. He’s between two sets of locked airlocks that I can’t open. We have comms for as long as ...
2022-09-27 14:52:35 +0000 UTC View PostSaina got out of the hospital the next day. Despite my fears, she wasn’t pulled out of school. (There were probably political reasons, I supposed, why the leader of Refujeyo pulling their child out of the school and showing a lack of faith in an entire third of the Refujeyo government might be ...
2022-09-27 01:44:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Will it work?” I asked. “Will going down that well get us where we need to be?”
The spellthing watched me from across the table, and sipped its tea. “I don’t know any more than you do.”
“Yeah, but did you, the real you, tell us anything we’ve forgotten about – ”...
2022-09-23 22:08:07 +0000 UTC View PostThis month, we're looking at the development of Alania Miratova and Malas Aksoy, and the role they play in the story
2022-09-21 15:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“He died in here?” I ask. “That can’t… I mean, the computer said he succumbed to his infection a few days after his rampage.”
“Did it say where?” the doctor asks. “It looks like he was trapped in here. He wouldn’t have been able to seek treatment.” The body is face dow...
2022-09-20 15:31:00 +0000 UTC View Post“I don’t see how this is supposed to help,” Kylie said.
We were on Agreabla Insulo, looking back into the portal that led to the school. Max rubbed his hands in excitement, for a moment living up to the supervillain image that his gangly frame, tailored clothes and ridiculous goatee s...
2022-09-19 21:52:42 +0000 UTC View Post“Speak gently and quietly,” Malas instructed, “and if she gets worn out, leave immediately. She has a severe concussion.”
“Is she going to be alright?” Hammond asked. (I’d run into him in the hallway. Apparently he couldn’t wait, either.)
“I don’t know. There are n...
2022-09-16 14:44:47 +0000 UTC View Post
When Aspen left for university, they took a photo album. Here are some of their photos.
2022-09-14 14:37:00 +0000 UTC View PostI sit back in my comfortable chair in Network and Engineering Ring 1, take a bite out of my tasty chocolate bar, and glance at the computer showing my crew hard at work. Denish lifts some kind of heavily modified piece of construction equipment in his bulky, uncomfortable space suit gloves, grunt...
2022-09-13 15:19:20 +0000 UTC View PostMy scream sounded a lot louder in my ears than expected. It took me a moment to realise that it wasn’t just myself that I was hearing; the sound of at least a couple of dozen confused, panicking, upset people crowded the air. The ground beneath Saina was the flat, smooth stone of the Pit platfo...
2022-09-12 15:17:21 +0000 UTC View Post“Run!” Hammond bellowed.
“What – ?”
“Everyone just run!”
He wasn’t grabbing at her mandibles, I noticed dimly as I made for the exit; he was holding a long rope of white webbing. Was he going to try to entangle her? Did he really think he could win that way?
<... 2022-09-09 21:13:19 +0000 UTC View PostDo you pirate media? I feel like you wouldn’t but it would be funny if you did.
I’m not sure what that means. Give me a moment to… ah, I see. No, if I want to access media, I simply purchase it. Or trade favours for it, as necessary. I’ve never illegally copied thin...
2022-09-07 15:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“I have plan for Chronostasis Ring 1,” Denish announces, apropos of nothing. The three new crewmates have been awake for less than twenty four hours, and while the doctor doesn’t want them to move too far (‘sudden respiratory or heart failure are possible side effects for high-risk post-c...
2022-09-06 14:38:04 +0000 UTC View PostWe weren’t going to lose track of each other at the edge of a clearing. We let each other go, and Hammond pulled out the map again.
In shadows of oaks old and deep, among her children, mother sleeps.
To convince them that you belong, you must da...
2022-09-05 14:44:15 +0000 UTC View PostI was eating scrambled eggs when I found myself surrounded.
“Treasure hunt today,” Pete said, sitting to my right while Saina cut off my left. I automatically went to push my chair back, but Hammond was a veritable wall in a cheerful scarf back there.
“I know,” I said. “We...
2022-09-02 16:20:25 +0000 UTC View PostMax arrived for the second week, staying (once again) in much fancier accommodation than I was. I didn’t say so to anyone, but I found myself wishing that it’d been Kylie, not Max, who was dating one of my friends, so she’d be in range. I should’ve arranged to spend time with her family t...
2022-09-01 04:03:15 +0000 UTC View PostWe don’t really have a process for the whole crew revival thing. The doctor wants to administer Adin’s medical tests right away; I want to fill the other two medbay beds as quickly as possible. I think that the sooner we wake people, the better; the doctor thinks that the risk of leaving Adin...
2022-08-30 15:31:00 +0000 UTC View PostI spent the remaining time before the holidays training for the upcoming treasure hunt, doing the bare minimum of work in my classes, and researching contract spells. Specifically, researching ways to remove a geas. I probably could’ve saved a lot of time by just asking Max about them – not o...
2022-08-27 00:03:33 +0000 UTC View Post“Oh, no,” the doctor mutters, staring at the computer terminal.
I look up from my coffee. It’s been a full day since we finished purging the air filtration system (or at least the part in out part of the ship) and obsessively sterilising every surface to the doctor’s anti-fungal spe...
2022-08-23 15:30:59 +0000 UTC View PostThis month, we're talking about the creation of Melissa, Chelsea, and Kayden's parents. Have fun!
2022-08-21 15:31:01 +0000 UTC View PostI pulled my right hand away from the grater, swearing, and managed to catch myself before automatically sticking the bleeding wound in my mouth. I was only grating oak bark, but it was good practice to avoid sticking one’s hand in one’s mouth at all when making potions.
I was too distra...
2022-08-20 02:06:36 +0000 UTC View Post“Good morning, Captain Aspen.”
“Mmmn?” I open my eyes and blink blearily at the person standing over me.
The doctor looks a lot sharper without the drugs in its system. It’s cleaned up, shaved its matted hair a lot more neatly than I did to my own, and dressed in a white wra...
2022-08-16 15:31:00 +0000 UTC View Post
ID chips were implanted into colonists shortly before stasis for recognition aboard the ship and new colony, but during the training, accommodation and boarding process, it was more convenient to use these paper ID cards.
2022-08-14 15:30:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Are you looking at moving up a graduate level soon?” Max asked.
“Huh?” I sat cross-legged on the floor, scrawling a letter to my parents at a slightly awkward angle, hoping it wouldn’t affect my handwriting too much. “Not all of us are trying to speedrun out education, you know...
2022-08-12 22:18:27 +0000 UTC View Post