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The Daily Grind - Chapter 104

Sorry about the delay.  Again.  Life is hard, I am depressed, yadda yadda yadda.  Chapter is here now, hope ya'll enjoy it.

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Three people stood on a hill, overlooking a city.

James, Anesh, and Alanna.  They were on a rolling sand dune, ripples of grit spiraling around their feet.  The sand was the pure yellow-white of the great deserts of Earth, despite the fact that the sky overhead was a shocking red.  It gave the whole pla...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 103

I lost a few days to just being a lifeless mass over the last week, because someone I care about passed away.  I'm trying really hard to not let that sadness seep into my work, and I'm finding that writing in this world is doing a lot of good work helping me keep my head up.  It's hard for me to truly despair when  working on this nonsense of a story.

Also this one took a weirdly long time because it involves mass orb use, and those things are *hard* to think up in big c...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 102

Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.

Update

So hey, there's some kind of weird "outside" thing going on.  Now, I normally don't go outside, which is good, because it means I'm basically immune to spontaneous pandemics.  But it turns out, my partner *does* go outside.  And lately, life has gotten a hell of a lot more stressful what with quarantine procedures, hospital visits, and waiting for test results.  Basically, what I'm trying to say is, "chapter might be late."  But I also want you all to know the chapter...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 101

More words!

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There were, of course, *again*, things to take care of.  It wasn’t like delves into the Office had gotten less dangerous somehow, just because they’d managed to find a place that was more open about wanting to kill them all.  So they had plans to make, things to buy, and a roster to draw up.

“We really should have scheduled this two weeks out.”  James griped as he waited on a half dozen people to reply to his texts. &nb...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 100

Chapter one fucking hundred.
Man I'm tired.  Gonna keep writing, though.

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“James, *wait*!”  The shout echoed against the polished stone ramp of the high school’s lower level.  It echoed alongside heavy, wet bootsteps, as James stomped his way up to the ground floor, away from the door to the boiler room and its vile little pit of secrets.  Around him, Secret coiled like a gathering storm; a blue hurricane of equal parts fury and det...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 99

This is a long one.

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“

The Daily Grind - Chapter 98

So, for the first time in months, I was on track to have a chapter out in about five days, instead of twenty.  I was writing, I wasn't stressed, I felt good.

I got the flu.

Super.

Anyway, I'm finally starting to recover, so I finished up that chapter, and here it is now.

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Saturday.

Alanna was off with an Anesh, checking up on the high school, sussing out the boundaries of the breach.  Anesh had wanted to tag along, and James lost...

Daily Grind - Chapter 97

Let me tell you a story, before we get to the story.  Last month?  Last month sucked.  Utility bills went up, I ended up having to cover a lot of medical expenses for medications and appointments, I ate the cost of a bed, and also my car needed new break pads.  Yesterday, I had to beg a quarter off a co-worker to afford the bus to get home; I was literally broke.

Today, before leaving work, knowing I my bank account was on its last ergs, I checked my balance.  A...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 96

Took a while on this one, too.  Hope it's worth it.

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“Oh cool, those guys are playing Pokemon.”

James and Alanna were currently lurking - though both of them would object to the other using that word - around the campus of one of the several local high schools.  They would object to being called lurkers mostly because that was way more likely to get them arrested; although at this point, there was a general feeling shared between at least the ...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 95

NOT DEAD YET

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“Oh my god it's good to see you again!”  James greeted Anesh as he came through the door.  He threw his arms wide for a hug, waiting politely in a frozen pose for Anesh to set down his bag, slough off his coat and shoes, and toss his keys into the bowl on the counter.  After making a bit of a production of it, and also letting Secret roll off his shoulders to be greeted by the affectionate ball of fur that was their dog, Anesh f...

[Writing Prompt] No one has been able to disobey the crown over your head for the last ten years.

They say that power corrupts, and ultimate power corrupts ultimately.  I’m not sure which “they” said that originally, but I think these days, we all know it’s kind of a lie.

Power doesn’t corrupt.  It reveals.  It shows the world who you are, truly, when there’s less and less holding you back.  It amplifies your self, expounds on what you could be, would be, *should* be.  And then, no matter how careful you are, it inflicts you on the w...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 94

I would not trade away the last two weeks for anything, but let's not do that again anytime soon.

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James and Alanna made it back to the breach to find it more or less exactly as expected.   Kind of a chaotic mess, but otherwise fine.  JP gave them a wave as they walked up, standing up stiffly from his seat to greet them.  A few rows of low cubicle walls over, Dave was pointing off at different things on the horizon and regaleing Neil with tale...

[Writing Prompt] By the year 3000, immortality poses some problems

This was just something I threw together while in a coffee shop.  I'm not sure if I like it, honestly.  I feel like there's some more worldbuilding hidden here that I could have tapped into, but I mostly just wanted to give a reply to a prompt that seemed to be pushing a grimdark dystopia with something that was a bit less awful.

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The  world has changed dramatically since life became longer.  You would  think that people would value the...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 93

Mental health makes slow authors.  I'm trying to be better about not, like, specifically *apologizing* for things like my depression, but it's hard.  Especially when it feels like I have a responsibility to make cool art.  Also when I *want* to make cool art, but feel gated out of it by my own brain.

Anyway, here's a chapter that's three times as long as it was originally going to be.

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“Why is the building so empty?”  James asked ...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 92

“Okay, so, I didn’t make a powerpoint for this.”  James said, standing in front of a truck-sized whiteboard.  “For obvious reasons.  But I just wanted everyone to know that I thought about it, and chose not to, so you’re welcome.”

“Boo!”  Alanna called from the back of the crowd.

Crowd was increasingly becoming an applicable term to what James had thought would be a pretty quick briefing and strategy meeting.  The parking lot i...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 91

This one is a bit long, which is why it's a bit late.  My hands hurt.

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“I bet you ten bucks that it’s just a raccoon.”  Alanna said as James followed behind Fredrick’s car.  She hadn’t really paid attention to this before their mild chase scene earlier today, but now that she knew, she couldn’t help but notice that almost every move he made on the wheel was precise.  No wobble in the car, no sudden starts or stops, it was just kind...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 90

Now?  Personal moments.  Next time?  How to fight a ghost with a stick.

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“Alright.”  James announced his presence as he strode through the loading dock door to the building they were leasing as a glorified clubhouse.  “We’re back. Let's solve problems.”

“You can't just say that every time you walk into a room.”  Alanna's chiding was done with a smile, but she still rolled her eyes.  “Besides, we’re not ex...

[Writing Prompt] There are dragons now. It's fine.

There will be an actual chapter of TDG later tonight.  I just got distracted, which should surprise no one.

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"Okay,  look."  I open with, rolling the words in my mouth along with the  cigarette, trying to figure out how to explain this and also putting a  lot of effort into not drawing my service weapon.  "Have you considered,  maybe, that what you are doing is a crime?"

"The laws of an unjust tyrant are no laws at all, ...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 89

 Thank you all for your patience on slow updates while I moved.  It has been... unpleasant.  But it's done now, mostly.

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“Got it.”  James slipped his phone back into his pocket, thumbing the button to end the call.  He looked up at Sarah who was staring at him with raised eyebrows.  “I’ve gotta go.”  He told her, confidently.  And then, repeating it as if to convince himself, in a much shakier voice, “Oh shit, I’ve gotta *...

Update

Normally by this point, I would have posted another chapter, and begun work on the next.  But the astute patron may have noticed that hasn't happened.  In fact, I do have one half-done.  But for the next week or two, I'm in the process of finding a place to move to, moving there, and getting a new job, so I've been a little frantic as of late.

This is mostly just a notice to inform everyone that while production for a bit may slow down, it won't stop, and to thank you for...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 88

 Eleanor sat in a booth at a fast food joint that hadn’t been cleaned in a week. She looked down at the burger in her hands, and tried to find the words to describe it.  As a whole, El thought to herself, she was an artist; she didn’t deal with words that often.  When she spoke, she liked to use dumb slang, rambling and uncouth sentences, and not a whole lot of words like ‘rambling’ or ‘uncouth’.  Which made the task of describing the uniquely awful burger quit...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 87

This one delayed slightly due to a sudden onset of road trip.

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It was a cold night.  No stars overhead; the layer of dark clouds saw to that.  Not much wind, but the low temperature and the smattering of rain made sure that everyone knew that winter had arrived.  There hadn’t been much warning of it this year; to James it felt like they’d gone straight from a late summer to the middle of winter almost overnight, and he’d been caught off guard steppi...

[Writing Prompt] How do you wish for world peace?

Turns out trashy pulp isekai stories had it right all along.  Who knew?

Well, me, of course.  I knew a lot of stuff, after reaching the wishmaker.  It took the better part of a lifetime, and the combined efforts of fifty of the best that humanity had to offer to get there, but we finally did it.  Well, I did it.  A lot of us died along the way, and of the five that actually made it to the summit...

Well, I didn't actually think any of...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 86

“I am almost positive we took a wrong turn somewhere.”  Anesh commented, sounding a lot less worried than someone should be when they were potentially trapped in a dungeon.  “James, do you have the map we were drawing?”

‘Drawing’, in James opinion, was absolutely the wrong word for how they kept maps when they were first exploring.  It wasn’t anything so impressive as a sketch of hallway and room dimensions with marked points of interest.  ...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 85

“Alright, before we go in there, does anyone new have any questions?”  James asked the group.  Naturally, Anesh raised a hand.  “No, man, I mean the actual new people.  Unless… are you the original Anesh or the copy Anesh?”

“That’s kind of a rude question.”  Alanna slyly inserted.  She was crouched on the ground, reshuffling her backpack after having pulled out a rolled bandage earlier for Momo’s sprained wrist.

Both Ane...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 84

“Wellll fuck.”  James was the first one to speak after the group made its way through the door.  Slightly different people than last week, but the composition was roughly the same.

Daniel wasn’t here, but the other member of the Guardsman faction, Tyrone, was. And apparently, Pathfinder had tagged along with him.  He and Daniel were friends outside of work, or had *become* friends outside of work, or some permutation of friendship that made them close e...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 83

Lorian Bulregard was, above all else, a bit of a prick.  At least, that was what James had decided about the Phi Delta Theta brother seated across the table from him.  He was almost a comical stereotype of a prick, really; slicked back hair that was a little too greasy, a generic tough-guy tattoo visible on his arm, a weasel grin that made James think the dude was constant mocking everyone else in the room.  He’d insisted everyone call him ‘Tyr’, and claimed ...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 82

“James!”  The call went out through the home.  Alanna’s voice startled Anesh and Ganesh who were absorbed in some project on the table, woke up Sarah, woke up *Secret* who apparently slept now, and then made its way to James.  Sarah just rolled over and pulled the blankets over her head like a cocoon, while Anesh blinked twice, realized he wasn’t implicated in this, and went back to work.  Which left only a dog that didn’t care, and an oblivious boyf...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 81

First floor.

James and Anesh went