My eyes roll in random directions, not listening to any of my commands. The rest of my body is suffering from the same affliction as well, but those aren't nearly as important as my eyes.
I want to see again.
A pair of footsteps and their accompanying voices reach my ears as they begin to work. “You didn’t see what I saw, Director. What she needs is help, and sending her into th...
2024-01-08 02:21:03 +0000 UTC
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Had an unfortunate workplace accident involving my skull and a metal ladder, and have found myself unable to think well enough to write. It should only be a minor concussion, but I'm still waiting for the symptoms to disappear. Will keep everyone posted, expect a chapter next week unless I say otherwise!
Thank you to all of you, and stay hydrated!
2023-12-08 14:34:33 +0000 UTC
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“What’s your name?” I ask, trying my hardest to keep a straight face.
Surprise turns to blankness, and then in turn to a face so judgmental, I’m upset to see it on my own face. She points a clawed finger at me and then back at herself, slow enough that it toes the line between miming and insulting.
“No, I get that, but we can’t both be Brooke, right? We may have started ...
2023-12-01 13:06:29 +0000 UTC
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That’s… fair. Priorities are important, especially when the person you want to help has you held hostage inside your own noggin. Is hostage the right word? It probably doesn’t matter.
The shattered glass of the tank Roosevelt's massive form slushed out of is visibly regenerating, but not even a tenth of the missing glass is filled in yet.
“I don’t really want to know the c...
2023-11-17 16:52:05 +0000 UTC
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My back crashes into the barrier, though the only real effect it has on my body is a series of muscle spasms that I can’t even feel. The fog demands more from me, pulling at the threads of my consciousness that allow me to spectate, but I can tell that that’s a bad idea. A line that shouldn’t be crossed.
I close myself off, restricting its vague intelligence from drawing from me fur...
2023-11-11 01:01:50 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for the delay, everyone! Life got in the way, and burnout hit me like a truck every time I opened up my Google Doc. I should be back on schedule now, but if not, I'll make sure to let you all know ahead of time. Thanks for reading! Stay hydrated!
Four pillars rise from the stage’s floor, marking an all-too-familiar rectangle of clear, buzzing barriers. The sk...
2023-11-04 05:03:03 +0000 UTC
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I comb my brain for answers to questions I have no way of knowing. How’d you get your powers? I don’t think that’s public knowledge; how much trouble would I get in for accidentally revealing state secrets? I’m also pretty confident I’m not supposed to mention Silo at all, since they haven’t announced his death yet.
“There are thirty seconds left if anyone needs...
2023-10-20 21:18:06 +0000 UTC
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I idly manipulate my hair, flattening it and weaving it into a basket-like pattern. It’s been fourteen or so years since I learned this at a Girl Scout outing, but the skill evidently remains. Are the Girl Scouts still around? Of all the organizations to survive an apocalypse, I figured it would be the ones that taught survival skills that would make the cut, but I haven’t seen hide or tail...
2023-10-14 02:26:32 +0000 UTC
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I was playing around a bit with a pixel tool and made this guy. I also attempted Brooke, but that was a massacre I am unwilling to share.
2023-10-08 22:00:31 +0000 UTC
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Standing almost a foot and a half taller than me, the woman who announced my name gives me a sly wink before addressing the crowd once again. “What! An! Entrance! Can we get another round of applause for our lovely Vanguard, Amalgam?”
The crowd feels a little less like one giant creature now that I’m able to pick out some of the faces as I scan through it. My brother and hi...
2023-10-07 01:23:04 +0000 UTC
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I look over at the side of Revisions face, his entire focus locked onto the task of driving. I know he can’t hear anything from my conversation with Roosevelt, as it’s constrained entirely within my own mind, but my anxiety wants me to obsessively check regardless.
“Sorry, I got a little distracted. You said that you had to help defend the city from some kind of psychic assault?...
2023-09-29 17:00:44 +0000 UTC
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My dream, one I can no longer remember, pops like a bubble as someone rapps their knuckle three times on my door. I drag my eyes open, rubbing the gunk out of them after finding myself unable to see the first time.
Opening them once again, I’m greeted by a second obstacle: my hair, which has plastered itself to my face in the night. I pull it away as I sit up groggily, several strands w...
2023-09-22 16:54:40 +0000 UTC
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Hello! As you can see I have reacquired internet access and an un-fried computer. That said, it is a very old and slow one so it's only marginally better than trying to type on my phone. I will try to maintain my one chapter a week schedule I had before, but things are hectic and only go to plan when I don't need them to.
So my question for all of you is this: Would you be inte...
2023-09-13 22:53:55 +0000 UTC
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“...Dad? Why are you here?” I ask, my breathing growing faster as I begin to hyperventilate. “Is this some kind of bit you guys are doing?”
I look around at Revision and Menagerie, panic taking over when their expressions remain still. They said the were going to introduce me to one of the Crafting Vanguard, that he might have some insight into my situation, not that he IS the sit...
2023-09-13 22:39:06 +0000 UTC
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Hello all! I have a bit of terrible news to report. As a Florida resident, I have endured some of the effects of the hurricane meandering through our state.
Specifically, almost every electronic appliance in my house was fried by a bolt of lightning. Both me and my fiance's computers, our playstations, and our AC are currently polymorphed into bricks.
I do not know when these things...
2023-09-03 03:55:46 +0000 UTC
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A part of me wonders if I should have stayed out in the rain as a horror just slightly beyond my comprehension barrels towards me. It’s mouth splits vertically rather than horizontally, which lets it’s absolutely revulsive tongue loll out the bottom and flop as it runs.
“Correct me if my assumptions are off base, but you are troubled by your parents reaction to your Vanguard status,...
2023-08-30 03:34:16 +0000 UTC
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The radio host's voice is background noise to me at this point, and my buttocks are numb from the half hour it’s taken to approach the bubble's southern border. I’d like to say I used that time to reflect on my predicament with my parents, but that would be a pointless lie to myself.
Instead of that, though, I’ve been puzzling out how Menagerie could have an ‘estate’ when we liv...
2023-08-25 23:46:36 +0000 UTC
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It’s raining again.
My foot splashes through a recently formed puddle, the water soaking through my mostly cloth shoe and dampening my sock.
I don’t really care.
I keep running.
I’m not sure where I’m going, or even the full reason I left to begin with. They didn’t shout at me or seem particularly upset at my revelation, but the genuine acceptance they had when...
2023-08-11 17:59:13 +0000 UTC
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I pour my french fries onto my tray, picking out the crunchy ones to save them for last. It’s probably a little weird, but the difference in texture is a big enough deal to me that they’re worth separating, especially right now.
“I can’t believe they did me like that,” I say hollowly.
“I thought you didn’t want to talk about it.” Sydney snarks between bites, her eyes...
2023-08-05 03:10:55 +0000 UTC
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A wave of sensation sinks through my body, with pleasure and itchiness working equal parts through my various abrasions. The nail on my left middle finger loses its shine and falls off; its replacement pushing it out of the way to reveal a healthy new one. Reaching my hips, the feeling makes its way to the pair of horrible bruises on my inner thigh and I audibly sigh as they disappear.
I ...
2023-07-28 22:58:01 +0000 UTC
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Seeing the projectile coming, I arch my spine backward and drop to my knees, expecting myself to slide underneath it. Instead of that, though, friction brings its might to bear, stopping me in place and flinging the rest of me forward, directly into the ball of solidified smoke.
Thwack
I let myself fall backwards, allowing the additional shots thud painfully against my shin...
2023-07-20 22:43:23 +0000 UTC
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“What?” Sydney says, vocalizing my dumbfoundedness for me.
Catherine summons an almost coffee table shaped structure out of green energy, setting the box on top of it. “Look at the glass box and tell me what’s inside.”
Her wording makes me feel like we’re being punked, though with how urgent Chassis implied things were, there’s no way that’s true. I generate a few te...
2023-07-07 20:32:32 +0000 UTC
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“What does ‘I don’t know how to put it into words yet’ even mean here, Brooke? The words are: ‘I’m a Vanguard, mom.’” Sydney says, turning right at the red light. “You spent ages working yourself up to tell her, what was the issue?”
I let the motion of the car tilt me, lightly bonking my head against the glass window as I groan in response. “I don’t knooow, I just ...
2023-07-02 18:30:06 +0000 UTC
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I study the floral designs swirled around the outer edge of my empty plate, the dark blue pattern repeating its leafy spirals until the ends meet like some sort of photosynthesizing ouroboros. I can’t say it’s the most interesting thing to look at, though I do find it hard to tear my gaze away from it.
“It’s the funniest thing, Barbara! Up until I saw Sydney at the market, I was u...
2023-06-24 06:00:33 +0000 UTC
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Naomi's POV: part-2
My heart settles into my throat, rather comfortable in its new home. I watch as black blood drips from the fathom’s chin, a look of ecstatic apprehension on its vaguely human-esque face.
“What’s the phrase, frogs got your tongue?” it says, childishly.
My frozen thoughts kick into overdrive, desperately clawing for a way out. I raise...
2023-06-05 14:38:43 +0000 UTC
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Naomi’s POV:
My sweat-slicked hair sticks to my neck as I follow the ruptured earth the worm-like Fathom leaves behind. It’s not a hard path to follow now that it’s traveling above ground, but I’m not sure I’ll manage to catch up to them if I have to keep vaulting over mulched trees and rent houses.
My power muffles the tinkling sound of glass shards as I step through the ...
2023-05-29 17:16:17 +0000 UTC
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A leaf from a large oak tree crunches beneath my shoe, a liberating satisfaction running up my spine at the destructive action. On my walk home from the Vanguard installation, I decided to take a longer path—one that takes me through the city's center and the park located there. This choice was only partially motivated by my need to think of an excuse for my mother, since I was gone overnight...
2023-05-20 01:27:03 +0000 UTC
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