Chapter One Hundred and Two
“Are we certain it’s not just a normal commercial fleet?” Aurora asked as she leaned forwards to stare at the pilot’s condole.
Pixie was sitting a little hunched, mostly to avoid bumping into Aurora who was definitely encroaching in her space. “That depends. Do you trust me?” she asked.
Aurora only paused for a moment be...
2025-02-24 09:47:21 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirty-Four
54th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
Viridian shifted so that she was holding her pike in both hands, the tip pointed towards the far end of the room and at the head priest behind his wooden pulpit. “Plan?” she asked.
“Run up and stab him a lot,...
2025-02-23 12:32:41 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixteen
***
I leaned back a little in my stool. “So, Doc, how have things been, besides the whole Phobos situation?”
Radikal blinked owlishly, then casually shrugged. “Things have generally been well. There’s always a slow return to some form of normalcy after such a big event. And the Phobos incident was one that the Nachtwächternetzwer...
2025-02-23 03:40:05 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirty-Three
(Cover WIP!)
54th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
They hadn’t yet arrived at Shorefarm that they knew that something was wrong.
The housed by the edg...
2025-02-21 23:04:49 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Seven -
“C’mon! We’re going for walkies!”
Trinity held the bunker’s door open while another of her ran ahead and opened the second door. On the ground, Broomba churned through whatever dust was by the entranceway, but he followed after the her that was holding his leash as she led him out.
Trinity had, after a few long talks with Emily,...
2025-02-21 08:00:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifteen
***
Wake up, Catherine.
I winced, then blinked my eyes open. It was dark, but I still recognized that I was in my bedroom. Lucy was pressed up next to me, and I’d recognize the feel of her anywhere.
I tilted my head up and tried to scan the room. My organic eye was adjusted to the dark, but I still couldn’t see mu...
2025-02-20 11:37:57 +0000 UTC View PostChapter One Hundred and One
“Hi!” Twenty-Six... chirped?
Ivil wasn’t sure if the sound that Twenty-Six produced could be rendered down to something as simple as ‘said’ it was too... much for that.
Unfortunately, the attention wasn’t directed towards Ivil herself. Instead, Twenty-Six had moved up to the front of the bridge where Pixie was sitt...
2025-02-19 10:42:28 +0000 UTC View PostA big thank you to everyone who participated in this month's Stray Cat Strut Fanart Contest! The creativity and talent on display is incredible, and it’s always exciting to see how different artists bring their own interpretations of the world to life!
Now, let’s get to the winners!
SCS Art Category
2025-02-19 08:23:41 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter Five Hundred and Twenty-Eight
I was never someone who was super interested in like... rigorous study. I mean, at school, I’d do what I could to pass, but I was usually working just hard enough to get the grades I needed to keep my teachers happy.
For the easier subjects I got good grades, for the harder ones I’d have to study a heap more and I usua...
2025-02-18 09:14:23 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirty-Two
54th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
“You want us to kill the priest?” Viridian asked.
“Yes,” the baron said. “I wouldn’t have taken puppets made by such a distinguished Magus to be hard of hearing.”
“Sorry,” Viridian replied. ...
2025-02-18 04:52:14 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fourteen -
***
“Yo,” I said as I walked up to the Bastion. Olivia had peeled off a while ago, almost as soon as I was within line of sight of the ship, and now the only stranger left was... that dude that was accompanying Lucy. Emmet? Easton? No, it was... Ethan?
“Cat!” Lucy said before she ran over and gave me a quick hug. “I...
2025-02-17 23:10:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter One Hundred
Ivil was no stranger to feeling powerful, but she was also aware that there were different kinds of powerful one could feel.
There was personal power, her ability to rip and tear anyone at will. There was that strange sort of social power that came from people bowing and scraping in fear at the mere sight of her. There was economic ...
2025-02-17 03:47:41 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirty-One
54th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
The mansion wasn’t far from town. It stood out, squatting atop a hillside where it could overlook most of Shorefarm, but the mansion was definitely not within the bounds of the town.
The walls encircling Shorefarm ...
2025-02-16 04:10:45 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirteen -
***
“Alright, sit down,” Professor Rogers said.
I didn’t need to be told twice. Over the last few minutes, while we were doing jumping jacks at one end of the room, the teacher’s assistants were moving the mats off the floor where the seats were. Now the desks had unfolded and were back in their neat little rows.
I floppe...
2025-02-15 22:37:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifty-Nine
Sharp held me by the collar, pinching it between forefinger and thumb as she carefully squeezed me through the hole they’d manage to make so far.
“Okay, you can let go,” I said.
Sharp opened her hand, and I fell into the almost complete darkness for a thrilling half-second before landing on all fours on the ground.
...
2025-02-15 02:58:38 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Six
Maple didn’t want to say it. The very idea was kind of embarrassing, and she knew that she’d somehow messed up, and admitting it to others would only make it worse. A thousand times worse, really.
It would be better if she could just stay in her room forever.
Maple didn’t mind talking with her sisters... much. It was kind of hard, because som...
2025-02-14 22:10:57 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirty -
They knew it was approaching morning when the pub started to get busy once more. There had been a lull. A few hours in the middle of the night where the last of the patrons had gone home and the lone barmaid had spent a few minutes cleaning up and then nothing had happened.
The fire died down, the last of the candles was snuffed, and the whole...
2025-02-14 02:38:06 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twelve -
***
Class was going down in the same room as last time, only the room itself had changed. The desks were all lowered, and a sort of matted floor was placed atop that half of the room. It was squishy underfoot, but still firm enough to walk on without too much difficulty. It would probably break a fall, a little, but not so much so that crashing onto...
2025-02-13 19:52:28 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty-Nine
The guard stood a little straighter and adjusted his cap. It was actually not so different than the leather and plate cap Viridian was wearing, though the guard’s gambeson was much longer, stopping around the knees. Otherwise, his only armour were a pair of complicated metal knee guards and some thick padding over his feet, all covered with a fine la...
2025-02-13 01:54:31 +0000 UTC View Post
LINK: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0DWZP5QLC
2025-02-13 01:18:08 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Ninety-Nine
“Oh, good, you’re back,” Ivil said as she greeted Aurora by the Sappho’s airlock.
The noble blinked slowly, then nodded. “I have returned, yes. Were you waiting for me?”
Ivil nodded. “I was. Though I was also keeping an eye on you. I hope that you don’t find that overbearing, I was just worried. This stat...
2025-02-12 19:10:03 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty-Eight
“I didn’t like him,” Viridian said.
They were halfway down the road, the mage tower barely visible against the stars in the background. Viridian’s little lamp was the only source of light they had, other than the sliver of moon hanging above. It was enough to travel with, as long as they kept to the roads.
She had as firm a g...
2025-02-12 01:11:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Five Hundred and Twenty-Seven
There were two grenoil ladies behind the counter at the entrance of the library, both of them chatting to each other in low, hushed tones. One was much older, with thick spectacles stuck to her face and a walking cane leaning on the counter next to her, and the other was a much younger woman, fresh-faced and bright eyed.
T...
2025-02-11 21:14:51 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Five
“Who stole my snacks?” Athena asked.
No one deigned to reply, so she put a little more oomph into it.
“I said; who stole my snacks?!” she shouted into the living room.
Unfortunately, the only person who looked up from what she was doing was Big Sister Emily, and that was just to shush her because she was in the mi...
2025-02-11 00:40:58 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Eleven -
***
“Cat! Nose stole my spatula and won’t give it back!” Lucy called out from the kitchen.
I blinked, trying to process all of that. It was... seven forty in the morning, which meant it was way too early to deal with anything strenuous. Last night had had me laying on our bed, downloading a few terabytes of kung fu straight into my brain...
2025-02-10 18:24:41 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty-Seven
The mage’s tower sprouted out of the hill ahead of them, a great black mark against the pattern of stars above.
Viridian’s light, still bouncing at her hip, wasn’t nearly strong enough to illuminate the tower from afar, especially not through the canopy of trees growing around the tower. They were thicker here, the trees. Old growths...
2025-02-09 22:01:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Ten
***
How come one afternoon of classes felt more tiring than a whole day of shooting aliens?
Actually, that was a flat lie, and a rather big exaggeration. A day spent hunting down antithesis, or holding a wall, was a lot more stressful, but the whole school thing was tiring too, in its own way.
“I need a nap,” Lucy said as I brought the
Chapter Twenty-Six
53rd Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
“Do you know any walking songs?” Viridian asked.
“No,” Lazur said.
“Should I?” Carnel asked.
They were walking along a well-trodden road leading up and away from the shore-side village. The ro...
2025-02-08 16:04:53 +0000 UTC View PostHi!
So, it's been a couple of weeks since I started writing No Strings Attached, and it's still proving to be pretty fun! I'm kinda curious about how you're all taking it, however?
Are there things you'd change? What do you like (so that I can focus more on that), what do you dislike (so that I can skip past it), what would you like to see more of?
I don't usually do... retro...
2025-02-08 14:38:24 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty-Five
53rd Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
There was much work to do, but very little of it involved his direct input.
By the time the town was scoured anc every building and room was checked, the puppets had taken off already and it was approaching ea...
2025-02-07 23:24:40 +0000 UTC View Post