“We let them into our systems,” Beta Batrix sel Gezbil stated. “That’s how they were able to hide not just their approach, but them breaching the hull and moving about the Bane. They took control of our sensors and showed us only what they wanted us to see.”
“Within limits,” Kergirik Dromitoura Virisos added. “Trying to tailor every detail would have been too data intensive to go unnoticed. They used a masking program to target a transponder. Anything around it within a ...
2025-07-24 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Tibs stepped into Karliak’s influence, holding the animal to his chest, and amused at the mishmash of parts of trees, bushes, grass, rocks and earth that turned it into something of an obstacle course.
It might make for an efficient first floor room.
It looked like the dungeon had taken his comment about making them look inconspicuous and done their best.
“What are you holding?” Simtor asked.
“Part of today’s demonstration and exercise. Karliak, can you absor...
2025-07-23 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Jeremy remained still once he realized he was awake. He didn’t want to let them know he was going to—
A hand squeezed his. “It’s me, Jer” Gralgiran said.
He cracked an eye open, and the tension left him on seeing his Heart at his side. “You rescued me again.” Beyond him, fuzzy Kelsirians moved about a large room. He blinked to clear his sight, and that was painful, but didn’t help.
“It was a group effort, started by your clever thinking.”
He was abo...
2025-07-22 13:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Lian dropped in the seat opposite Tibs and smiled, resting his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. “I have a secret.” He
Lian dropped in the seat opposite Tibs and smiled, resting his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. “I have a secret.” He sing-sang quietly.
Tibs raised an eyebrow and continued to eat.
“Do you want to hear it?”
“Secrets don’t remain that if you tell them.”
“It’s not mine.” The glint in the young man...
2025-07-21 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
People. LRK had forgotten how many people were out there. Not just in towns and cities, but on the roads going to them. His sense of water extended twenty-five kilometers around him, which was only a fraction of the forest he’d lived in, so he’d left his sense extended. Knowing where the animals were was useful, as was getting warning someone was wandering into his territory.
But out here?
People thought 5 kilometer was on the other side of the world, but for LRK it was all cr...
2025-07-20 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Helen and Silver are stunned when we exit the forest with our prisoner. Helen is pissed at Brandon when I let slip he knew well before the bounty hunter struck. It’s petty, I know, but he deserves it.
The story is now that he thought it was something I needed to get out of my system. That he followed me in case I couldn’t deal with it, but didn’t have to help. She takes him away while I secure the prisoner. Then Silver asks if I’m okay.
I know she means well, but fuck am I...
2025-07-20 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Captain,” the comm officer said, bypassing the usual wait for his acknowledgment. “There’s a fire in officer lodging, it’s—”
“Have Emergency deal with it,” he cut them off, annoyed that a seasoned officer acted like this merited overriding his approving the incoming call.
“They’s on their way, Captain. The fire is in your apartment.”
He disconnected her. “Jer?” he called, by passing his Heart’s waiting system. “Jer, are you alright?”
...
2025-07-19 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
“There you are,” the dungeon said as Tibs stepped towards the room he sensed under the ground ahead of him. There was clear impatience in the tone.
He’d walked until the sun was almost to its zenith, from where he thought the dungeon had been before. It had covered its tracks well enough Tibs couldn’t be certain where its previous location had been. He’d run on the canopy in the direction and for about as long as the previous time, then headed toward where he’d pointed Karli...
2025-07-18 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Jeremy tasted the filling and made a face. Still too sour. He added more sugar and heated it some more. While it cooled, he rolled out the dough. His attempts were getting better. This one was holding together. He sent a message to Xenial for his friend to see about getting him some Jorinik fat. With preparing more of his own meals, he’d noticed every time he printed the same food; the taste was slightly off, and he wondered if that extended to ingredients. If the taste was off, could their...
2025-07-17 13:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Tibs sat at a far table, facing the door, enjoying the seared meat and vegetables, and studying the people in the tavern.
He hadn’t returned to it on arriving in the village. He’d spent time helping the refugees. Both because they needed help, and so there would be people to support his claim of having spent the day helping, if Darna, or more likely Rachel, asked what he’d been up to.
She knew about Karliak, if not about them being a dungeon. It was where the arrowheads came...
2025-07-16 13:00:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
The male fell in step with Gralgiran, then leaned against him. “How much trouble am I in?” Toom asked. Gralgiran placed an arm around his
The male fell in step with Gralgiran, then leaned against him.
“How much trouble am I in?” Toom asked.
Gralgiran placed an arm around his friend’s waist. “None. Jer said we can have sex.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to come between you two.”
“We talked about it. He said he’s okay with it.”
“The...
2025-07-15 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
As Darna had mentioned, easily more than half the town was fine with so many city folks living there, even with the strain on their food it caused. Even Rachel handed cuts of her kills to other taverns to prepare and share.
Tibs wanted to do more to help, but short of going out on his own and bringing back enough meat for everyone, which would cause them to ask questions. The best he could do was the same as the hunter. Hand over some of the tubers he collected to those going hungry.
2025-07-14 13:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
I won’t say I’m fine by the time we reach the first town, but I’m better. I did consider, that first night, leaving before the others woke
I won’t say I’m fine by the time we reach the first town, but I’m better.
I did consider, that first night, leaving before the others woke and returning to Louisville to tell them I’m the one who killed the dungeon. They have a right to know.
But that would have my left friends undefended for my watch, and as I’d told Bran...
2025-07-13 13:00:32 +0000 UTC
View Post
/Author’s Notes
This chapter in LRK’s life is unfinished. This chapter is also the last of what I wrote for his life and I have no idea if I’ll return to it. At this point, all I have left if a vague sense of where the story should go. And I don’t know if I could recapture it.
There is an epilogue, which I will post, because it is independent of what is taking place in the chapters.
There are more stories in the World of Tiranis.
/End notes.
2025-07-13 13:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
Jeremy stared at the ceiling, trying to work out how this had happened. There had been screaming, insults, and accusations. He didn’t
Jeremy stared at the ceiling, trying to work out how this had happened.
There had been screaming, insults, and accusations. He didn’t remember when he’d grabbed the Kelsirian by the vest, and then slammed him against the wall. He’d been shoved, had sent him on his back, straddled him intent on…he hadn’t been thinking, he’d just had to ...
2025-07-12 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Autor's note
Starting with this chapter, and going on for a few, will be a brand new section to the story, effectively a draft 1, so it's going to be rougher around the edges.
Enjoy
Tibs was stopped by guards only hours from leaving the city, and questioned. The way they asked them, he worked out they were on the lookout for criminals who had escaped their punishments.
He affected a Urynian accent so thick as to be nearly incomprehensible and told them he was ...
2025-07-11 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Update? He tapped on his tablet, not paying attention to the Kersosterans arguing in front of the adjudicators.
He’s at a gym, talking with a pair there.
That was good. Him interacting with people on the ship would strengthen his position that Jeremy wasn’t suffering from anything, or being held against his will, which could have been brought up if, as Gralgiran had worried, his Heart decided to stay in their home, working on one of his projects.
What h...
2025-07-10 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Tibs caught sight of the occasional guard through the small window. He sensed four of them, plus her in his attic. The fabrics that made out
Tibs caught sight of the occasional guard through the small window. He sensed four of them, plus her in his attic. The fabrics that made out his costumes were no longer hanging from where he stored them. Their essence was pooled on the floor, ripped. That meant he wouldn’t be the Nimble Roamer until he remade the costume.
She stood before t...
2025-07-09 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
With a scream of frustration, Jeremy let go of the bar and sat. He couldn’t get his machine to increase the weights until he had to work at
With a scream of frustration, Jeremy let go of the bar and sat. He couldn’t get his machine to increase the weights until he had to work at it. The sensor adjusted everything to maintain his endurance. That was a flaw in the design he never saw coming. He didn’t want to work out for minutes before he felt the strain; he needed it immediately.<...
2025-07-08 13:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Tibs crouched on the roof, within the chimney’s stretching shadow, and looked over the plaza. The etching wrapped around him ensured none of the roof watchers looking his way could make him out.
He would have preferred pulling off this demonstration in a market, because those had more people to watch, and then talk about it. But with the caravan in the city, the only busy market was theirs, and he didn’t want to give the people in charge excuses to harass them, since it was how the ...
2025-07-07 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Who are the United Supers? July 18th, 1951, Reuters July 15, 1951. All fighting between North and South Korea came to a stop when four figur
Who are the United Supers?
July 18th, 1951, Reuters
July 15, 1951. All fighting between North and South Korea came to a stop when four figures suddenly appeared among the fighters, subdued the involved parahumans on both sides, then carried them away.
On June 25th, 1950, North Korea entered South ...
2025-07-06 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
The return to Louisville is…odd. To me, at least. I don’t think the others feel the same. There’s just this…disconnect I can’t seem to
The return to Louisville is…odd. To me, at least.
I don’t think the others feel the same.
There’s just this…disconnect I can’t seem to resolve. I wonder if that’s what the world felt like before the system. I mean, it’s still there for me. I can call up the windows, I get answers to my queries.
But…it doesn’t...
2025-07-06 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Kal made sure Finn was comfortable before setting back on his way. He used the alleys to make his way around the temple. The doors were closed and guarded by far more guards than Kal expected were there under normal circumstance.
This confirmed whoever the Voice was, they would be in the temple. Fortunately for him, they couldn’t guard the entirety of the structure. Only the doors had stationary guards. The rest was patrolled by half a dozen of them.
He didn’t need to go insid...
2025-07-06 13:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Jeremy was happy the training uniform that had been made for him was so sturdy, because he was confident the violence with which he put it
Jeremy was happy the training uniform that had been made for him was so sturdy, because he was confident the violence with which he put it on would have ripped anything else.
He had lost count of the times he’d caught sight of Gralgiran’s friend glaring at him in the distance. Of course, he always seemed to do it when Jeremy was with his fr...
2025-07-05 13:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
The group’s leader walked among the other shoppers in the market, making it easy for Tibs to follow her. She was dressed as someone of
The group’s leader walked among the other shoppers in the market, making it easy for Tibs to follow her. She was dressed as someone of
The group’s leader walked among the other shoppers in the market, making it easy for Tibs to follow her. She was dressed as someone of means, although not of extensive wealth, and while he had intended on lear...
2025-07-04 13:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Captain,” the comms hunter said, looking at him. “The leadership is contacting us, demanding to speak with you.” Demanding did not bode
“Captain,” the comms hunter said, looking at him. “The leadership is contacting us, demanding to speak with you.” Demanding did not bode
“Captain,” the comms hunter said, looking at him. “The leadership is contacting us, demanding to speak with you.”
Demanding did not bode well. “I’ll take it in my office. Kergir...
2025-07-03 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
The woman sneaking through the alley wasn’t horrible. Tibs only had to prevent one guard from coming across her, and it wasn’t because she made a mistake, but on account of the guard breaking off from his team to take a piss. If Tibs hadn’t caused a disturbance in the opposite direction, he’d have been putting himself away as she walked by.
She, and her little group, had learned the guard routes and moved about unnoticed. They couldn’t move as freely as he could, but all they ...
2025-07-02 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
The cell block had to be uncomfortable for Kelsirians, Jeremy decided. While nowhere small, by his standard, the corridor leading to the
The cell block had to be uncomfortable for Kelsirians, Jeremy decided. While nowhere small, by his standard, the corridor leading to the cells was smaller than even the ‘crawlspace’ between the walls. The cells were divided into groups of seven, one to a cell, arranged in a circle so that the occupants would see each other. There was a strategy to ...
2025-07-01 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Tibs looked at the people among the crowd he followed, trying to identify those mistreated by the ruling class. In other cities, those
Tibs looked at the people among the crowd he followed, trying to identify those mistreated by the ruling class.
In other cities, those people were easier to find. Those abused by the city’s systems looked it. A family barely holding onto their lodging looked like it was where every coin went. Their clothing were in tatters, no matter how fine the...
2025-06-30 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
The tent village was nothing like Kal’s camp.
He used military rules to set up the tents in rows, with lanes on each side for easy movements. Rain barrels were set up by each other tent for collection and so everyone had access to it. Everything kept in mind they had limited resources.
The tents here were set up randomly, creating lanes and alleys that turned around and made it impossible to see more than three or four of them ahead. Every tent they encountered had a rain barre...
2025-06-29 13:00:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
