“...This condition being brought to the forefront by exposure to artificial protein GX-33.841, hereafter referred to as P-G33. Undiluted dosages of P-G33 of any quantity being lethal in 95% of cases over a two month period, the protein must be paired with an appropriate retroviral agent in order to…”
I stop reading.
I slide down in the chair I’m sitting on, leaving the medical lab’s projection screen running. The power cost is negligible, and I fear that if I...
2021-11-14 08:40:07 +0000 UTC
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I'm not sure how happy I am with this one. Maybe I just got used to writing relaxed character stuff, who knows. Anyway, as may be obvious, this is part of a small string of dungeon-y chapters, and I hope ya'll enjoy.
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“You’re a genius! Like a human astronaut!” - Friday Nights, The Masters -
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Six people blipped into existence in an abandoned campsite outside of Alice Springs, Australia.
Technically - okay, not even ...
2021-11-13 04:47:00 +0000 UTC
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You are all terrifying. Literally while I was writing this, two more people added themselves to the list of people giving me money!
I want to reiterate that, at least for now, KCKS will remain a *side project*, despite my commitment to building up a backlog. That said, for a side project, I find it rather refreshing to write as a way to take a break, and the shorter chapters and easier flow make it fairly likely there will be at minimum one patreon chapter a week from now on...
2021-11-10 08:13:21 +0000 UTC
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First patron post!
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For the first time in a long while, I am in a hurry and it isn’t rushing toward a weapons console.
I have an AR window up next to my head with a countdown ticking away on it, because I work best under pressure and it is hard to lose focus when you have a bright red doomsday clock in the corner of your vision. I mean, I think it’s red. I *set* it to red. I can’t really tell it apart from, like, a dark purple, or maybe an orange...
2021-11-08 08:19:05 +0000 UTC
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This will be the last public post here, before Patreon rewards kick in.
Going forward, every chapter will be posted here, and will be available for $3 and up patrons. Every time I post two chapters here, the next chapter will become public for everyone and be posted over on RoyalRoad as well. This will continue until there is a backlog of between five and ten chapters, which may take *some time*, because I still intend to keep writing The Daily Grind, and Kitty Cat Kill Sat ...
2021-11-08 08:17:19 +0000 UTC
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“Left!” I shout, realizing finally that there is a limitation to my impossible new voice, and it is that I cannot actually shout that well. “Farther left! Leffffffffft!”
I watch with dismay as the magnetic tether drags one of the newly fabricated drone shells straight into exactly the right spot to get a hole melted in it by an automated welding machine. The uncharitable part of whatever ethereal construct counts as my soul has a brief conflict of interes...
2021-11-06 05:56:52 +0000 UTC
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Next week, a mountain. This week, feelings and stuff I guess?
You know, it's weird - and we're going on a slight tangent here that I wasn't really planning on - but when I started writing The Daily Grind, it was mostly an ironic, sort of sarcastic backlash to all the really overly aggressive and macho litRPGs out there. I wanted something that was a little more fun, but also where the worldbuilding could explore in ways beyond just "the characters recognize what a goblin is ...
2021-11-06 01:36:32 +0000 UTC
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This one's a little shorter, and a little low stakes. We'll be back to dungeoning fun next week!
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“You’re a genius! Like a human astronaut!” - Friday Nights, The Masters -
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James’ hand moved steadily over his latest project. The smooth knife he was holding dripped a steady stream of liquid, the material hardening already as it contacted a cold surface. Perfect patterns emerged as he dipped the knife again, and...
2021-10-29 17:34:19 +0000 UTC
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Every review that complains about the gay stuff only makes the story even gayer. I'm powered by spite and too powerful to stop now!
Also enjoy the chapter!
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“Unseen in the background, Fate was quietly slipping lead into the boxing glove.” - P.G. Wodehouse, Very Good Jeeves! -
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James rolled over in bed, pulling the blankets around himself like a cocoon. They’d gotten new blankets recently - recently, to him, meaning somet...
2021-10-22 17:14:38 +0000 UTC
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It's weird having conversations in this story now. I dunno how I feel about it. Leave a comment if you have feelings about it!
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I have never seen
Unblocked golden lightening
Stifled solar well
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“Wrong circuit.” The AI speaks over my shoulder. Well, ‘over’ is relative. It’s everywhere, technically. And nowhere. Also ‘shoulder’ is relative. My shoulders technically exist, I think? B...
2021-10-22 16:14:03 +0000 UTC
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This one was mostly done for a while, and then I got real depressed for no damn reason, and now it's all the way done!
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You have gone silent
I will forever wait, but,
Please do not be gone
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Waking up and being told that you’re about to die in a furious collision isn’t the best way to start a day.
Honestly, I’m not used to being woken up and told things in the first place. The station VI doesn’t really...
2021-10-17 06:22:49 +0000 UTC
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For mental health reasons, there will be no chapter this week. Regular schedule should resume next week, and depending on how things go, there may be a short chapter or two of KCKS or another short story or something in the mix. But this week's deadline I do not think I will make.
Apologies to everyone.
2021-10-14 14:53:16 +0000 UTC
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I somehow forgot to post this one here. Whoops! So, for the sake of completeness, here's chapter ten.
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Standing silent watch
Empty winter sentinel
Hiding and screaming
I feel like I have inadequately explained just how much of a hazard it is to just exist in the orbital lanes around Earth.
There is *so much* stuff up here. From communications buoys to custom manufactured summer homes, labs that were cutting ...
2021-10-08 22:31:57 +0000 UTC
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Some quiet time.
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“I have never once had narritively appropriate sex. Nor has a loved one’s death been a metaphor for something greater. Sometimes, things just happen. That is life, and our stories should reflect that.” - Cameron Lauder -
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Monsters and domains, small gods and big responsibilities, new faces and new attempts. The Order spent a lot of its time, day to day, being *busy*. It wasn’t just as an o...
2021-10-08 22:30:48 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to Sad Hour!
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Alone and afraid
Blossoming of springtime friends
So why do I hide?
Glitter has suggested to me that I may be experiencing an organic form of code conflict. It is, they say, an early warning sign of literalism, or rampancy, neither of which are desired.
The last three drones they’ve shot full of words and sent back my way have been focused on this. Which is frustrating, because I was trying...
2021-10-05 00:54:46 +0000 UTC
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Time for some shenanigans!
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2021-10-02 00:54:08 +0000 UTC
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Chapter time!
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“God has cu
2021-09-25 01:35:32 +0000 UTC
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Story mildly late due to depression. Not that I have a schedule for this anyway.
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Mouth throat lips lungs tongue
sentence syllables silent
Paws scrawl laser words
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Once, a long time ago, I had a plan. And in my opinion, it was a pretty damn good plan, too. Didn’t work, but that was only partially my fault. Most of my plans are like that.
To explain this plan, we’re going to need to go on...
2021-09-20 04:44:16 +0000 UTC
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Earlier than normal, even. Hope everyone enjoy
2021-09-17 02:50:24 +0000 UTC
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Somewhere overhead
I see them looking upward
This moon does not love
I am a genius.
I am an idiot.
I am a chaotic formation of problem solving power, wrapped up in an anxiety-ridden and possibly haunted body, suffering from an incomplete and possibly decaying uplift, using tools of unimaginable power to solve problems they weren’t built for.
Ahem.
Okay, it’s been about a week. Let me sum up.
I’ve unlocked a...
2021-09-11 01:44:42 +0000 UTC
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This one was more fun to write than I expected
2021-09-10 22:53:56 +0000 UTC
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And we're back. The week off was quite helpful, and thank you to the majority of people who tolerated my vacation.
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“As in choosing to surround ourselves with the people who use their freedom to celebrate and encourage us to embrace our own; we may not get to chose who we’re related to, or who we love. But we can always choose our family.” - Ian Martin, Buffy Episode Guide, Family -
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James took a bite of his apple, the snap of the f...
2021-09-03 17:21:41 +0000 UTC
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Over horizon
Mirrors swarm to lost tune
Under horizon
Time to make a stupid mistake.
I am, after another week of jury rigging the drone fabricator, catching up on nutritional supplements, and poking the Haze with a low powered laser, ready to try something dumb.
The isolation cell is right where I left it. I’d put myself back in a non-stationary orbit, so I could pick up my patrol patterns again. Just in case anyone who co...
2021-09-02 23:48:33 +0000 UTC
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My goal here is that every chapter be describable as "and then things got weird"
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In *general*, I would highly recommend being a cat.
I have a lot of comparative data on how humans move, due to a few years spent learning vacuum suit design, and while ya’ll have the eternal advantage of *thumbs*, it comes at a cost of maneuverability. I may be small, but I can get around even this fairly massive space station a lot faster than any human could. Mo...
2021-09-01 21:51:10 +0000 UTC
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It worked! I have made a friend!
Okay, so, that’s a bit of a lie. I say “it worked” as if my original plan was a success. What I was not telling you was that it has been over a week of failed attempts trying to communicate with the old weapons platform in orbit around the prime moon.
I did manage to figure out when it was built, and why. About a century ago, for the Worshiper Wars that destroyed most of the lunar surface cities. It’s called a ...
2021-08-28 17:17:11 +0000 UTC
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There’s an alarm going off again.
I am aware of the alarm going off, because for safety reasons, I am not allowed to disable alarms. If you’re thinking something along the lines of “But you shouldn’t disable alarms? That seems unsafe.” Then you’re correct. But I’m over four hundred years old, and you don’t really make it that far without building up at least a few reckless habits. And a hatred of alarms.
See, it’s entirely possible t...
2021-08-28 17:16:40 +0000 UTC
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Guess this is what I'm doing to relax this week.
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I’ve mentioned before - frequently, and I will continue to do so - that paws aren’t actually designed for micrometer control of orbital weaponry. I am now invoking my right to mention it again.
Paws are so bad for this.
There’s the usual things you can probably expect, like how feline forelegs don’t actually have the same range of motion that human arms do, or how I just don’t have the muscle streng...
2021-08-26 09:24:36 +0000 UTC
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More of this, I guess!
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Here is a fun fact! Human creativity mixed with the raw computing power of a variety of different information storage systems has, over the years, led to a lot of parallel solutions to the same problems.
The biggest example, from back when ‘information storage systems’ meant ‘paper, and if you were lucky, a *good* pen’, is guns. Plenty of cultures developed shovels in the absence of each other, and those shovels are, let’s b...
2021-08-23 06:22:59 +0000 UTC
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I'm gonna do that thing again where I say I might need to take next week off for mental health reasons, and then maybe ignore that and make a new chapter anyway.
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“When one of us says, “Look, there’s nothing out there,” what we are really saying is, “I cannot see.” - Terry Tempest Williams, Red : Passion and Patience in the Desert -
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“Too many turns.” Alanna growled as she took another corner at high speed, clipping a lamp...
2021-08-20 07:24:52 +0000 UTC
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This is a dumb idea I had, that now exists. This post is largely to gauge interest in me writing more of this, and also because I felt like it was a fun enough idea to share it anyway. Hope at least someone enjoys it!
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Would you like to hear a joke? It’s not one meant to be spoken, really, so it loses something in the telling. But here we go anyway:
Trying to manipulate late anthropocene era orbital technology with paws.
Did you laugh? I did. &...
2021-08-16 06:16:32 +0000 UTC
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