Time Limit: 10 Hours, Forty-Eight Minutes
By the time we got back to Lake Station, Tori and I were both exhausted and covered in dust and dried blood. We’d been walking along the tracks for the better part of two hours, and we’d also re-checked Chicago and Grand for rug...
2025-02-15 21:03:47 +0000 UTC View PostTori gasped as she used Shockwave to throw the monster off of her. Her head spun, and her chest and stomach felt like a giant had squeezed her in its fist. She tried to crawl away, but her lungs screamed and burned as air poured into them.
Everything had happened so fast.
The last sta...
2025-02-15 21:00:52 +0000 UTC View PostSomething about Monroe Station was off.
It wasn’t that it was a small station, though it only had one blocked exit, a ticket kiosk, and a pair of restrooms. It reminded me a little of Chicago Station, though that had felt empty even before I’d killed the Rat Men who’d camped there. Bu...
2025-02-15 20:59:21 +0000 UTC View PostCongratulations! You’ve found a Magical Item. Magical Items are powerful tools that can shift the balance of a fight, pushing you beyond what your level and race should be able to accomplish. From flaming weapons to unbreakable armor, the possibilities are limitless—but beware. Once y...
2025-02-15 20:57:23 +0000 UTC View PostBy the time morning came—or what felt like morning based on the fifty-six hours we had left, anyway—I was as ready as I’d ever be. We’d stuffed my backpack full of battery bombs, each wrapped in paper screw bags filled with bits of hardware. I had twenty or thirty of them; we hadn’t bot...
2025-02-15 20:55:25 +0000 UTC View PostI wanted to check out the Tunnel Lord’s lair right away, but I’d been pushing all day, and my gear wasn’t ready for it, so I couldn’t exactly commit to a tough fight. Besides, I was Level Three. That was a lot for fighting a Rat Man, but if the Redline Wyrm was Level Twenty, the Tunnel Lo...
2025-02-15 20:53:35 +0000 UTC View PostThe next station south was Grand.
I rarely went farther south on the Red Line than Chicago Station. There wasn’t much need to since everything I needed was in Andersonville, and my job was a station north of here, but Grand was one of the larger stations, and I figured that if I was going...
2025-02-15 20:51:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe subway station-turned cave ended in two tunnels where the bathrooms had been, just beyond the turnstileagmites. If I remembered right, there wasn’t much space in the men’s room, so there shouldn’t be much danger in checking it out first.
As I got closer to the two cave entrances, ...
2025-02-15 20:48:59 +0000 UTC View PostAs I looked around, I realized that I wasn’t standing in a subway tunnel. The walls weren’t tile or concrete, for one thing. They looked like they’d been hacked out of the stone around them with a pickaxe—or scraped clean by a giant armored snake. For another, the light was way too unifor...
2025-02-15 20:46:59 +0000 UTC View PostMy headlamp panned around the guts of an old Ford Explorer. My sore, oil-soaked fingers worked across the half-disassembled transmission---everything else under the hood was pitch black. I’d been working on it for almost ten hours over two days. This was my third time taking it apart. And it ju...
2025-02-15 20:44:33 +0000 UTC View PostMy last Parent/Teacher Conference was in sixth grade. At least, the last one Dad went to.
He didn’t pay much attention. I’m not sure he was even sober. But that didn’t matter, because Alice came with us. The teachers at Lansdowne gave her a few funny looks; she was a freshman in high ...
2025-02-14 14:26:32 +0000 UTC View PostAlexander is a broken man.
He sits in his cell, and I watch him, searching his hopeless eyes for the truth I need to understand. Who he is. But a broken man isn’t the answer. That’s who this Alexander is. I want to know who the one I’m fighting right now is and what he w...
2025-02-10 14:27:53 +0000 UTC View PostAlmost every knight is one of a few roles in Knights of the Apocalypse.
They all have different names and movesets, but almost every one of them is a tank, healer, or DPS. Occasionally, there’s a non-healing support class, but they’re not very common, and people usually figure out how t...
2025-02-07 14:15:57 +0000 UTC View PostThe most frustrating part of Knights of the Apocalypse is when my teammates disconnect.
When I disconnect, that’s fine. The game’s done—unless I want to try soloing max difficulty runs with a Tank Knight and no healers or damage dealers. I can reconnect if I hurry, or I can wait and t...
2025-02-03 14:24:29 +0000 UTC View PostSHOCKS Olympia Administrative Wing: Tram Platform, Washington, USA - June 19, 2043, 2:53 PM
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Sora did her best to swallow the anger welling inside her chest.
That dumbass, Claire, was pushing her buttons, asking her to watch the government...
2025-01-31 14:03:08 +0000 UTC View PostSHOCKS Olympia Tunnel Network Northwest, Washington, USA - June 19, 2043, 2:41 PM
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That answers most of my questions about the spider. It’s not enough to solve the Inquiry, though, and as much as I’m ready to abandon it, I feel like I’m close. My only q...
2025-01-27 14:04:44 +0000 UTC View PostPizza sticks.
The cafeteria at Lansdowne served them all the time. They had options—the salad bar, pre-packaged sandwiches, and a couple of different hot lunch options. Pizza sticks came up more than they probably should have in the rotation.
I think it was just popular, but the sch...
2025-01-24 14:16:01 +0000 UTC View PostSora and I met in detention.
Because of course we did. I’ve mentioned that already.
The thing that sucked the most about middle school detention was that Dad was supposed to come get me. That was how you got out. Your parent came and picked you up. So, while Sora and I met in detent...
2025-01-20 14:30:26 +0000 UTC View PostDad always kept his drinks wherever they were handy.
Under the counter. In the fridge. Where Alice and I could get to them without any trouble. He told us not to take them. He threatened us, and for a while, we listened.
But I had my first beer at nine.
It was also my last one, ...
2025-01-17 14:09:34 +0000 UTC View PostThe Mindscape
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The first thing Sidney Alexander does in your Mindscape is a surprise, but also not shocking at all. He breaks down crying, right there in the grass and the rosebushes.
While he squats and rocks in place, you watch....
2025-01-13 14:45:47 +0000 UTC View PostMom always felt like she had eyes in the back of her head.
She noticed things. Like when I hadn’t brushed my hair, or when I hadn’t eaten all my prunes. Even when she wasn’t in the same room, and I threw the nasty things away, she’d track me down with another couple of...
2025-01-10 14:11:08 +0000 UTC View PostJames needed a connection.
He had plenty of contact with millions of devices both on Earth and in the space around it. Reality Zero was as well-watched as it could possibly be, and even though it was in danger, he wasn’t losing significant observational capacity there. Sure,...
2025-01-06 14:18:26 +0000 UTC View PostRealities stink.
That’s just a fact. But it’s not just roses and oil or daisies and rot. When I Mergewalk, the first few minutes are the worst—except in the diseased body reality. I usually get used to it. Nose blind. It’s a background smell, and even though it’s there, i...
2025-01-03 14:18:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe day we moved out of the hotel and into basic living was the day Dad started dying.
It’s been a long death, and it’s only recently—when he’s been forced—that he’s done anything to stop it. He used to be a rock. I’ve said that before. I know I have, but he really did.
...
2024-12-31 14:26:48 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone,
Due to a scheduling issue with my holiday trip, I'm going to delay today's The Halcyon System post until tomorrow morning (approximately 24 hours). I didn't have as much downtime during the holidays as I'd hoped, and the editing process slipped through the cracks. Thanks for yo...
2024-12-30 14:49:42 +0000 UTC View PostHey all. The holidays are upon us, and with them are more disruptions to my writing schedule. I have this chapter and one for next Monday written, but I may not have a Friday chapter this week. I'm going to get back on 2/week when January rolls around, but my mom's side of the family is assem...
2024-12-23 14:25:11 +0000 UTC View PostI got my planning done well enough to kick of Halcyon System 3 today. I'm hoping to wrap the story up in this book.
As Heath Ledger's Joker said, "And here. We. Go."
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My second merge started at 11:48 AM on the West End High soccer field, ...
2024-12-16 14:51:47 +0000 UTC View PostThis is the Epilogue for Book Two. Thank you all for reading. I'll try to get posts up next week as I plan Halcyon Three out in more detail and get started.
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South of Port Angeles, Washington, USA - June 17, 2043, 5:22 PM
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2024-12-13 14:22:56 +0000 UTC View PostThe only part of social studies I understood was learning about the Black Death.
There was something final about it. Something truthful. The percentages, the math, what that math meant for Europe. It was horrific, but it was honest.
I was fascinated by the art, too. The macabre Deaths...
2024-12-09 14:17:51 +0000 UTC View PostThis will be the last of the faster pace I've been maintaining for Writathon on Royal Road. I've met the goal with this post, and will be switching to a (hopefully) 2/week pace. That being said, Monday or Friday should be the last chapter of Book Two, and I may take a week to get Book Three p...
2024-12-04 14:29:17 +0000 UTC View Post