Amber sighed happily as she popped another tiny piece of dark chocolate into her mouth.
It was the little things she'd missed about Earth. She'd already secured a dozen cocoa seedlings, as well as half a dozen mango and papaya as well.
She'd had to google just exactly what sort of environment the trees liked and had been surprised to discover they grew under the shade of mangos and ...
2021-10-04 22:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostMy butchery of the Australian dialect continues, as well as a bit more of the USMC lovefest. I apologize for the former.
"He can come back over here; I don't want to go over there," Bob said as he leaned back in his chair.
"He's the Secretary of Defence, Bob," Mike sighed, "it's just a meet and greet so that you can answer a few questions that I'm not really eq...
2021-10-04 10:00:28 +0000 UTC View PostI apologize in advance to the Aussies in my audience. I'm butchering your lingo, using only conversations with friends over the years where I had to puzzle out what the fuck they were saying. I'll never forget the whole 'Brolly' conversation.
~-------------------------~
Jason watched Bob cast the first of two rituals that would shape the mana flows and ...
2021-10-03 22:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostAmber looked up at the bright blue sky as she stepped out of the Portal and into the Mojave. She was back.
"Here," Jack passed a cheap flip-style phone to her. "One of the prepaid burners we use to keep in touch when we're on supply runs," he explained, "it has hundreds of minutes we'll never use, so knock yourself out."
He moved over to a four-door truck with some sort ...
2021-10-03 03:23:56 +0000 UTC View PostSecretary of Defense Edward Heller was used to people demanding just a minute of his time. It came with the job, and one out of ten actually had something valid to bring to his attention. So when Brigadier General Thompson flew in from Pendleton, he cleared his schedule for half an hour. The medical report that had been pulled out of a bag of holding and the velociraptor that ...
2021-10-02 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostAmber's eyes opened wide as she heard an unfamiliar voice speaking English.
"You'll need to charge it every day, but you can do that at the Movie Theater, it should go from zero to full over the course of the movie, and then you'll have music again," A tall, handsome man was talking to Eddi, who has closely examining something that looked very much like an mp3 player.
"Awesome," Edd...
2021-09-27 11:30:15 +0000 UTC View PostBob was smiling as he followed the group of freshers from Holmstead up the stairs. They'd pushed themselves hard, twelve hours a day for three days, but they'd managed to reach level seven. He fought back a yawn as he dropped through a portal into his inventory. He desperately needed a few hours of sleep and a hot meal, both of which could be found there. Sliding Monroe ...
2021-09-25 22:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post"You're all probably wondering why I've gathered you here today," Dave's voice boomed out over the crowd.
"We're not all named Josh!" A voice called out from the crowd.
"No," Dave laughed, "but every single one of you has either played Dungeons and Dragons at our table, or you play with someone who has."
He was standing on the bed of one of the military trucks. Talima wa...
2021-09-21 08:43:17 +0000 UTC View PostBob looked around the tenth floor of the Dungeon sadly. He was feeling conflicted. It was going to require another five-fold ritual to complete, as it was just too large for him to create the entire thing in one sitting. However, by splitting it up, his matrix wasn't screaming nearly as loudly.
He'd decided to have the cooks and butchers take the Endless Swarm path. It would ultimately be...
2021-09-21 02:46:14 +0000 UTC View PostBob watched as the weary freshers staggered upstairs, eagerly seeking their bunks.
They'd been determined to succeed, and he had to wonder if things weren't getting a little bit desperate for the new arrivals in Holmstead. Maybe something to check on.
He was at an impasse regarding them. On the one hand, they really wouldn't be able to delve once the recruits from Earth ...
2021-09-20 10:00:34 +0000 UTC View PostBob stepped through the Gateway and was immediately ambushed by Mike.
"Ninth floor is finished?" Mike asked.
"Done, monsters should be spawning within the hour," Bob confirmed. He looked past Mike and could see that the tavern had quite a few people in it.
"I'll keep the same rotation going," Mike tapped at his tablet, "It turns out that scrapyards don't care how the cop...
2021-09-19 22:06:17 +0000 UTC View PostBob leaned forward as the ritual completed, his stomach spasming. He fought down the urge to vomit, forcing himself to take deep, calming breaths. The burning sensation was worse today, although he'd been able to push through the pain and complete the ritual.
"Trebor," Bob groaned, "Why the hell does it feel like my matrix is on fire?"
'You're performing a five-fold ritual, which is...
2021-09-19 10:49:05 +0000 UTC View PostBob didn't like Lt. Colonel Smith. The man had a right to be angry about being reincarnated without having the process explained to him, but that didn't excuse him for being a dick. Bob hadn't started the process of saving the Earth to deal with the same bullshit that had plagued him before.
"And he's a kitty hater, buddy," Bob murmured as he scratched under Monroe's chin, "can't trust so...
2021-09-18 22:23:09 +0000 UTC View PostNora watched as over a hundred men thundered by, running in unison as they called out some sort of song in Bob's language.
Glacier Valley was eye-opening. There were so many people, almost all of them middle-aged men, all wearing the same outfits. None of them spoke Thayland.
She was waiting around with nothing to do. She sighed.
She spotted one of the Endles...
2021-09-14 10:15:44 +0000 UTC View PostLeonard glared at the angel. It wasn't easy. Waves of kindness and peace quite literally poured off of her.
"What gives you the right to do this without asking me?" He growled. "I don't know who Vi'Radia is, but I do know that here in America, you don't perform medical procedures without informed consent."
The Angel's serene expression faltered. 2021-09-14 08:00:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Lieutenant Colonel Leonard Smith, United States Marine Corps, Retired, had lived a long, full life. He'd joined the Marines straight out of High School, and the Corps had become his touchstone. He'd come of age fighting in one war, then bucked the system to become an officer, leading men in another. He'd married a wonderful woman, and they'd had two great children. His w...
2021-09-13 12:20:35 +0000 UTC View PostAnnisa stepped through the portal, winced as a wall of heat washed over her.
"Yeah, sorry about that, ought to have warned you, I guess," the man named Waters said, "we've been transferring out here in the Mojave, which as you can see is a desert."
He motioned for her to follow him to a long, low metal cart of some sort. It was beautiful, lines flowing smoothly together, paint...
2021-09-12 07:55:47 +0000 UTC View PostBob stood up carefully. Five-fold rituals were much more efficient, but they required him to remain seated and still while channeling the mana out of the crystals, through his matrix, and into the ritual. The size of the ritual mattered as well, as increasing the size of the ritual also increased the number of crystals required, which increased the amount of time needed.
It ha...
2021-09-12 03:39:36 +0000 UTC View PostBob wasn't hiding. He was carefully excavating the seventh floor of his Dungeon. It just happened to be inaccessible to anyone else.
The day before had been grueling. It had started off slowly but had quickly snowballed. He'd ended up in the Mojave desert, casting regenerate over and over again, as more and more Marines had poured in.
Someone had gotten their...
2021-09-07 12:03:07 +0000 UTC View PostHuron gestured, and the Gateway activated, a rich golden sheet of light strewn with streaks of rose and amber. A dozen novices preceded him through the event Horizon, and he smiled as he left Harbordeep behind.
He loved getting away from the endless paperwork and tedium that came with administration. While introducing the novices he'd assigned to Glacier Valley could have been...
2021-09-07 09:22:15 +0000 UTC View Post"Oh, these are good," Eddi was eating his french fries one by one.
"You should try dipping them in ketchup," Eric advised, "but not in the car," he added.
Their trip through the drive-through had been painless, with Bob ordering a large order of fries for himself and a large vanilla milkshake for Monroe. That particular event, Bob knew from past experience, was best conducted in an ...
2021-09-06 12:02:06 +0000 UTC View PostRogard opened the box with trepidation. In his experience, it was a rare thing to receive good news via courier. He ignored the smaller box inside, choosing to read the letter first.
Lord Rogard Wallenstair,
A new settlement has been built within Greenwold. It lies just over two hundred miles to the Northwest and should be easily found at t...
2021-09-06 06:16:50 +0000 UTC View PostBob watched the gaming group tear through the monsters on the second floor, which looked like the unholy love child of a millipede and a mouse. It had hundreds of mouse legs that carried a body that alternated segments between chitin, and fur, a whip-like tail that ended in a scythe-like claw, and the head of a mouse, if the mouse in question had six faceted eyes and mandibles in addition to it...
2021-09-05 11:54:41 +0000 UTC View PostBob watched as Huron started pulling curved pieces of metal out of his backpack.
He was having a bit of trouble reconciling what he's just felt with how he cast ritual magic.
'Trebor,' Bob mentally projected, closing his eyes, 'why was that ritual so much different than mine? I use Divine magic while building the Dungeon.'
'The Divine magic you have used has been provide...
2021-09-05 06:01:09 +0000 UTC View PostEric Waters and Andy O'Neal pulled up to the address their old squad member had texted them. It was in a nicer neighborhood than Eric thought Hanson could afford on a Detective's salary.
"This is it," Andy confirmed, looking up from his phone.
They got out of the sedan, Andy hauling himself into his wheelchair. They started up the driveway when Eric paused. "Isn't that Jaun's van?"<...
2021-09-01 04:25:59 +0000 UTC View PostBob walked out of Dave and Amanda's house and turned towards the garage. Vera's van was there, with a trailer hitched to it. Vera was tugging on the garage door handle in front of the van.
"I just bet there's a fucking box of some shit leaning against it," she growled, stepping away and giving the handle an angry look. "Give it a pull; you've got to be stronger than me," Vera instructed.<...
2021-09-01 04:21:31 +0000 UTC View Post"Hey, Vera, what's up?" Amanda answered her phone as Dave was pulling into the driveway.
"I don't know," she replied to Vera's unheard question, "he's probably in the house, hold on, and I'll ask him. We're just pulling in."
She stuffed her phone in her pocket as Dave parked the car, and got out, opening the door for her Mom, then going around to the trunk to grab their bags.
...
2021-09-01 04:17:34 +0000 UTC View Post"Oh sweetie, it's so good to see you," Helen gushed as she pulled Amanda into a hug. "And you brought Dave as well, and on a weekday!" Amanda's mother snaked an arm around Dave as well, hugging both of them. "Your father will be so pleased to see you; it's been almost a month," Helen said as she guided them both into the kitchen and seated them at the counter.
Dave squeezed Amanda's hand ...
2021-09-01 04:13:12 +0000 UTC View Post"I'd have to know who was chasing me to try and guess why," Bob replied hesitantly.
Mike shook his head, "Did you piss off anyone during the time you were gone that you won't talk about?"
"Mike, for all practical purposes, I was on another planet," Bob said carefully, "I can promise you that no one I interacted with during the time that I was off the grid could have come looking for...
2021-09-01 03:48:45 +0000 UTC View Post"So we aren't limited to regular animals then," Dave noted as they all took their seats again, Bob having dismissed Jake.
"Nope," Bob replied, "I was trying to think of the perfect predator, and I couldn't bear to summon a feline of any sort," he reached up and ran his hands through Monroe's ruff, "so I decided to summon a UtahRaptor, although" he nodded to Jack, "There is a kid ...
2021-09-01 03:43:38 +0000 UTC View Post