“So, tell me,” Ulysses began, but his neighbor took a step forward.
Without hesitation, Ulysses’ gauntleted hand slammed on the armored raider’s wrist. The masked assailant hesitated, mostly because a B-class electricity gleam could kill on contact.
“Do you mind?” Nestra’s brother hissed.
The other three hes...
2025-06-25 16:18:14 +0000 UTC View Post
So if you remember I owe everyone some art for helping with the Bob audiobook. Well, the polls came back and the winner was pinup Nestra. Which is fine! But it's not Bob which we were supposed to celebrate so... I went ahead and decided to give both the pinup Nestra poster AND the most asked for scene from Bob. Both images should be in very high...
2025-06-21 13:04:30 +0000 UTC View PostNestra was shocked. Utterly shocked.
“Are you completely fucking stupid? Kidnapping a kid in Threshold?” she growled.
“You will regret touching our youths,” Ashjay added, her voice deathly cold.
“She will not be hurt, if she truly is human,” Alexander said in a dismissive tone. “I merely needed an incenti...
2025-06-18 18:11:59 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a matter of minutes for Nestra to hurry back to her roadster to fetch her gear. By law, she was obligated to haul all of her stuff around. It was one of the Threshold regulations written in blood after a group of raiders had been forced to fight a breach bare-handed, back in ‘47. It also meant doing a silly dance putting on her Bellerop...
2025-06-12 00:00:52 +0000 UTC View PostBy the time Nestra drove by the Burning House, the sun had long set and the few diners hurrying inside wore thick coats. Neon flames licked the building entrance, providing no heat.
There was a metaphor there but Nestra was not a poet.
Parking wasn’t an issue. Getting in either. It didn’t matter that she was a little underd...
2025-06-05 01:52:44 +0000 UTC View PostTo start with, I have good and bad news. There is no Changeling chapter. I didn't write it... because I was set ablaze by the fires of inspiration. Starting Saturday, I wrote the beginning of what might be my next story (not certain yet) which I'll upload in a couple minutes. 16 k words in 4 days is usually a sign I was... motivated.
Third...
2025-05-28 16:25:33 +0000 UTC View PostNo visor meant no way of contact. It also meant no way to call her side. A tiny wave of cold crept into Nestra’s chest when a full security team burst out from the warehouse gate, blue armor and guns on full display. It was washed away by the heat of pure outrage. When a grizzled anglo approached her with severe eyes, she stood her ground. He ...
2025-05-21 23:55:43 +0000 UTC View PostThe Beacon was a familiar ground for Nestra now. She had walked its many halls as a baseline, as a gleam, and as Crescent. While the gazes changed, the labyrinthine corridors of Threshold’s heart hadn’t. The Beacon was a jewel and gate, the pulsating core of the city as well as its most dangerous spot. Her destination this time wasn’t the ...
2025-05-14 16:23:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe Voyager emerged from the fog like a bird of prey before sputtering to a sad halt in a spray of foam and nasty swear words. Sails hung limp from the two main masts while, on the deck, the circuits tasked with keeping the gardens alive fell dark. Sailors and soldiers rushed to the railings to look around now that visibility had been restored.<...
2025-05-12 04:45:52 +0000 UTC View PostAN 1: This is made available to absolutely every patron so if you're only here for Changeling sorry but there is no option to exclude you! Just skip it.
AN 2: I will write more short articles or reply to your comments if you want to know what happened to certain characters I missed.
Newspapers extracts from the ...
2025-05-12 04:30:40 +0000 UTC View PostIt's not that I forgot... well it was low priority but a deal's a deal. I still owe you free artwork for the audible success. Here are the most upvoted proposals . I WILL pick the most upvoted one this time no questions asked. Multiple picks are possible.
2025-05-12 04:26:56 +0000 UTC View Post
That's it, the saga is complete. US link below! I remembered to get the paperback ready at the same time this time too.
Amazon.com: Three Parts Ascension: A Journey of Black and Red Final Book eBook : Gilbert,...
2025-05-08 10:54:07 +0000 UTC View PostNestra’s early foray into a portal world for the sake of cooking was tolerated for nutrition reasons, but not encouraged. She was technically healed. but there was a persistent stiffness and background pain in her poor chest that left her uncomfortable, another sign it was time to slow down. Mazingwe had threatened bodily harm if she t...
2025-05-08 04:44:38 +0000 UTC View PostIt made a peculiar sound, to have every last bit of air pushed out of her lungs all at once. Nestra had been engrossed in the fight. It had been so much fun, being the eye and the hurricane the others were using to strike that the sudden stop just didn’t register at first. She was fighting, then she was punted by something heavy, then ...
2025-04-30 06:38:39 +0000 UTC View PostNestra spent the better part of the next few days hunting and gathering with Argent. The portal world didn’t have that much food, or rather, the lizards were overhunting it. Even mana fungi took time to regrow. The village’s surroundings were fully barren by now, and the small fields were not large enough to sustain their population....
2025-04-23 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe thoughts would have tortured Nestra in her depression-prone human form, but Mlemra was built differently, she guessed. When thoughts threatened to drown her, she could find refuge in routine and detailed tasks. Using her patience and the small obsidian carver she’d brought, Nestra decided to start with the enchantments since she wasn’t s...
2025-04-16 16:53:56 +0000 UTC View PostArgent led Nestra through the camp at a good speed. In a weird way, his scale pattern matched hers in the way they alternated dark and almost white colors, so the sibling allegations made sense to her. Many of the women watched Argent pass with… quiet consideration. They also gave her a curious glance although that faded once she did t...
2025-04-09 16:25:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe Beacon’s lobby was packed with gleams running errands. With portal clearing slowed to a bare minimum and no money to be made, raiders and companies were using the down time to do administrative work they would normally spread out over slow days. Typical of Threshold, that, Nestra thought. Every moment of freedom was sacrificed on t...
2025-04-04 05:40:04 +0000 UTC View PostSorry the end of Bob is kicking my ass. Productivity lowered. Chapter tomorrow I promise.
2025-04-02 10:10:30 +0000 UTC View PostNA: THIS IS AN APRIL FOOL CHAPTER FEATURING ARIANE. OKAY? OKAY.
Link to the first part (this is the third one). I'll link part 4 soon.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/36299/benea...
The Calamitous Bob is complete after 238 chapters, 4 years, and, I’m guessing, around 1.2 million words. It has been a WILD journey and I can only thank you for sticking with me to the end. I started Bob as a comedy and a commentary on tropes even with darker moments and I’d like to think it ended as a coherent epic although I did ke...
2025-03-28 14:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostAvarice crashed through the roof of Maranor’s temple. There was a time to respect her as a (nominally) light goddess and a time to disrespect brutalist architecture. Viv didn’t need a guide to feel the sickly emanations of mana coming from the complex’s sanctum. The only reason why she didn’t crash there on the spot was the fear ...
2025-03-28 13:55:26 +0000 UTC View Post“You can’t do this! I was following legal orders!”
The dragoon pilot activated some sort of manacle collar that made the tall woman wince. An augment suppressor, which worked on any legal augs within Threshold. Also why Nestra wasn’t sure she would have installed any even if she wanted to.
As for illega...
2025-03-26 16:09:42 +0000 UTC View PostAragan approached her death with resignation, but also with relief. After fighting for so long, her fate and the fate of the world were now out of her hands. It was finished. Everything was over. She could fail no further. Each of her steps felt lighter than the last despite the fear of her imminent demise, and the expectation of a quarr...
2025-03-22 15:23:13 +0000 UTC View PostNo stars. There were no stars here. The implications sent a shiver of panic in the recess of human Nestra’s mind deep in the pocket where she rested. What eons must have passed not for a star to die but for all of them to do so? But that wasn’t the strange part.
True Nestra liked it. She liked it very much. She felt go...
2025-03-20 05:40:21 +0000 UTC View PostViv felt her daughter’s worries gnawing at her through their sympathetic bond.
They will be fine!
It was not a lie, just a wish. Viv parried another series of attacks without too much fear. It had grown easier lately because Oleander had patterns he rarely deviated from, and also because [A Light that Never Dims] had been ...
2025-03-14 16:05:47 +0000 UTC View PostThe news reel was wilder and more active than it had been in baseline memory. Not even the great kaiju breach of 62 rivalled the absolute shitshow birthed by the guilds’ decision. Nestra watched it all unfold like a cow witnessing a derailing train because, as hard as she tried, she still couldn’t see herself as a guilder.
It was silly...
2025-03-11 15:41:35 +0000 UTC View Post[High sequence: astra swarm.]
[Wind Vortice]
Viv’s spell mixed with Arthur’s own to form a spray of exploding orbs. Winds dragged Nero towards the attack but he managed to dodge away, avoiding most of those he couldn't detonate. Viv didn’t go after him, instead casting again.
He was playing for time now. The initial assau...
2025-03-08 17:16:36 +0000 UTC View PostChangeling chapter delayed to next week due to keyboard damage. Why is the keyboard damaged? Because I forced it while cleaning it like a total idiot. Anyway, writing on the phone doesn't do it for me so I'm afraid I'm going to ask for time.
2025-03-04 06:34:10 +0000 UTC View Post