Mecanimus

The Calamitous Bob 223: The Ascenders

Celerin crossed the portal into the heart of the camp, his mind keeping the construct open behind him so the others could follow. He would have to close a few of the more distant ones. The burden was starting to tax him.

Rows of royal guards from half a dozen different houses formed a mighty path to the largest tent, like so many statues esconced in heavy armor. They were like elaborate statues and just as useful, for Nero could not be killed. It was a show, one for the numbe...

Announcement: break and Bob news.

Hello hello! As some may have noticed I'm slowing down a bit. I will be taking December off after the first week to plan and rest.

In related news, Soundbooth is producing the first Bob audiobook which will be out early next year if everything goes well. They've invested a lot of time and effort into it, and it's also my job to make sure it succeeds. As such, Bob is going to Kindle Unlimited to increase its visibility. What does it mean? It means that Bob books will be taken off RR and...

Part 67

Sashimi showed up as the squad progressed through the forest, pressing through brambles and ferns under the distant canopy. The damn shark immediately started to circle the group with lazy, predatory grace and though the others didn’t seem to mind, Nestra knew exactly what was going on. A last glance towards Valerian actually proved that, although he did look back as ordered, he hadn’t realized they were being stalked. Nestra had no idea how he could miss the three meter long abyssal Grea...

The Calamitous Bob 222: Setting the Board

The Sandsong moved quickly, quicker than Viv could imagine especially in such a hostile place as a desert. Their men didn’t advanced in tight ranks but in columns of elusive soldiers jogging at the top of dunes, or on the naked rock that their absence reveals. It took only half a day to return to Barrier with the scouts confirming that the preparations could begin. Word came that the Sheem were a little farther than expected, but had come in great numbers. It made Viv wonder how ...

Changeling Part 66

It was raining. Nestra looked out the window of the hover limo towards the reflective walls of Central’s skyscrapers. Some Varang guild elites flew past on their way to the Beacon, a show of strength, no doubt. Her own side had opted for limos, which was a show in itself. She wondered if she would ever get used to flying in those. By her side, Ulysses pressed a button, and a bottle of cold water emerged from the armrest with a disturbing ‘schlorp’. He took a sip.

The li...

The Calamitous Bob 221: Diplomatic BBQ

No triumph awaited Viv upon her return. There was no fanfare, no explosions of joy and relief at the end of a scourge that had plagued the Sandsong with fire and death. No one sang her name. No one rejoiced. Instead, she was met by a mix of utter disbelief tinged with terror. The soldiers didn’t even approach her. Instead, they followed the procession in baffled silence, and at a distance no less. Even if Viv had put the necklace back on.

She didn’t take umbrage. She gues...

Changeling Part 65

War, technology, ethics, religions, all those had experienced deep changes as mankind dodged out of the way of extinction, but politics sure as fuck had stayed the same. Nestra turned half her brain off while politicians on either side of Threshold’s complicated spectrum rehashed the same sophistries and half-truths their ilk had done for centuries. Members of the ruling party defended their results in preparation for the imminent vote while the opposition called for change. Both sides were...

The Calamitous Bob 220: Karmic Adjustment

[Aspect of the Guardian]

Viv blocked a hasty claw strike. The massive talons clicked against her aegis with an ear-splitting screech but it was designed to stop Solar. They failed to penetrate. The next tail strike triggered a shockwave that raised the sand in a wide circle without any more success. 

The dragon was off her game, for now. Viv could feel her surprise and confusion in the erratic pulse of her mana. It made her aggressive but uncommitted, an...

Changeling Part 64

AN: BaiHe vs BaiHua. As many of you noticed, BaiHua (white flower) has been replaced by BaiHe (Lily) because baihua sucked as a name (it should be baise de hua). That is all. 

Nestra checked her helmet status. The air was technically breathable if one thought tear gas was an acceptable fragrance. By her side, Miu’s head was encased in a transparent bubble that made her look like a vintage cosmonaut. She slowed down as the tunnel she was in widened into...

The Calamitous Bob 219: Mercy's Prerequisite

The descent towards the ravaged city of Barrier was a long and quiet affair. Viv’s gaze kept lingering on the marks of devastation off the path to her right. Most of them were burn tracks but here and there, claws scarred the walls where the town’s butcher had landed for a better angle. The smell was next. Now, Viv knew the town had been killed less than two weeks before from the way the wind carried ash, and, beyond it, something burnt and rotten. Her acute mana senses picked presences l...

Changeling Part 63

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

Nestra slammed the alarm and sat blearily. It was still dark as a shadowbeast’s asshole outside yet she had to stand up for a new day. Accursed drive to get stronger. Accursed time limit before someone inevitably discovered her secrets, despite Sereth preventing the Americans and Allfather from spilling what they’d learned. Accursed capitalism! Never had she worked harder in her entire life. It had come to the point where she was forced to stay and sleep i...

The Calamitous Bob 218: It's Aliens.

Viv had hoped the camp would be deserted since the patrol must have been most of the remaining guards. Unfortunately, she had underestimated the Sheem’s basic human needs.

“I’m an idiot,” she whispered to herself.

Of course most of their troops would still be out but it had been a day and they had chased after Viv’s convoy with little supply. Now, an entire squad was back, drinking water and resting. She surveyed the scene from behind a rock, other ...

Changeling Part 62

Nestra was faced with a small problem of logistics which happened to illustrate her large issue of leading a double life. The truth was, she was a bit of a musclehead and not prone to deception on a long term basis. It meant that her separation of life between Crescent and Nestra was getting paper thin, and it was a miracle it hadn’t broken already. Actually, no, it would have broken if it weren’t backed by Threshold’s two A-class gleams and a grumpy brother.

Neverthele...

The Calamitous Bob 217: E.T. comes home, or else

AN: reupload since the previous post had multiple issues

The expedition raced away at full speed and so did Viv’s mind. Right now, she had a gun problem, as in, the gun was in the enemy's hands, but also the gun existed. Futuristic guns were a wild card she neither needed nor wanted. It was a chaotic variable at an important juncture, and she wasn’t going to let the spark of luck fuck with the odds if she could help it. She needed that variable removed and preferably b...

Announcement: I have been blessed by Nurgle.

I will spare you the gruesome details but let's just say I've had fever for three days and I will definitely be losing some weight (siver linings amirite). It looks like Covid's revenge arc tbh. All chapters are delayed for a week. I will be using this opportunity to better plan what comes next since I have no choice but to be in bed anyway.

Cheers.

Changeling Part 61

“So this is the pit.”

Nestra looked around with curiosity. The Palladian clan often mentioned this repeating portal world as a cakewalk assignment, one that was both lucrative and easy, considering their power. It was a very strong D-class one, and it had the peculiarity of being circular with the exit portal in the middle. The path started up, right under a cliff of jagged rocks under a sky of perpetual yellow clouds. It led down in a clockwise path, sometimes over barre...

The Calamitous Bob part 216: Viv gets her just desert

Night fell over Ravinport, after what had been a remarkably bloodless battle. Once the two Sheem warships had been disabled and with their only mage punched to submission in the first minute of battle, the rest of the soldiers had quickly surrendered. To Viv’s surprise, they’d been offered proper treatment. Even the sailors had been promptly fished out of the bay!  Wars tended to get more cruel as time went on and each side went lower and lower to get the upper hand, in her limited e...

Changeling Part 60

The tourist guide said that the church had been built in the thirteenth century. That made it, well, close to a millennium old which was absolutely crazy to Nestra. People at that time didn’t even have electricity! They believed in magic! Then science had come and said magic wasn’t real, and then magic had returned and said ‘no u’. 

That was the extent of what she remembered from her formal education. Threshold’s history program was really focused on Incursion ...

The Calamitous Bob 215: Vizim

Disguised Viv leaned against the railing, studying the sailors as they climbed ropes and jumped deftly from the main deck to the secondary hulls. The catamaran she was on was fast, impressively so, though there wasn’t much cargo space if her cramped quarters were any indication. Despite the pleasant feeling of the wind whipping her hair and the overall sunny weather, her travel companions were not enjoying themselves. They wore grim expressions and talked in low voices, backs bent, h...

Changeling Part 59

Nestra pulled mana from her brand new, fully human, fully functional and ‘definitely here and not a figment of her imagination’ core. It was… difficult. Her experience pulling void mana helped, of course, but the human thing was different. This core was nebulous and immaterial like her true one used to be, a potential more than a real generator. It made the process slow and deliberate.

First, she had to select one type out of two, which was already a headache because sh...

The Calamitous Bob 214: Last Preparations

The train track from Kazar to Frostway had taken four years to complete. It relied on five portal jumps, and was the second most vulnerable logistical hub on the continent. First, Viv traveled south along what used to be the fertile strip, now well-protected farmlands expanding to a large temple of Neriad, then full west through reclaimed fertile plains at the edge of the southern wildlands. It was a lush place, rich, but left at the mercy of ravenous tribes who had raided it without pause fo...

Changeling Part 58

Part 58

The fateful day had come. Nestra’s plane was set to depart at 2PM but for some inane reason, the private company in charge of transport insisted that she came at 10, which meant catching the tail end of rush hour. Not only that, but the small airport’s admin staff spent most of the time triple checking that her passport and visa were in order. Maybe it had something to do with last minute calls or maybe it was standard fare. She’d never traveled to Europe before...

The Calamitous Bob 213: The Tour

“Pack it up, boys and girls. We’re heading back.”

Ban Junior gave Viv a confused look. The green zone wasn’t a permanent base. Rather, Viv led the One Hundred, recovery crew, and two other elites there a couple of months every year to recover valuables and necrarch cores. It came with the ‘reveal’ of how the yries war machines were powered.

For centuries, the yries had used the physical cores of their eldest and greatest shamans as power sources f...

Changeling Collection 5: 52 - 57 AND ERRATA

I made a series of mistake that needed corrections so here they are lised.

Ragnarok called Nestra's Aszhii form her true form in the sword king arc. This was a mistake.

The list of people who know what Nestra is has two mistakes: 1, Camille was forgotten in the 'knows she's a gleam' category. 2, Shinran knows she's an Aszhii.

I elaborated that Ragnarok lets Nestra go to Zurich because she knows there is a core problem with her since normal transformation gleams are stil...

Changeling Collection 4: 42 - 51

For your readinf convenience.

Changeling Part 57

Nobody bothered the truck as it made its way slow to Shangri-La, to Nestra’s complete lack of surprise. Vassily was keeping an eye on the freed slaves who were still high on something, while Aunt Clecle kept chugging various medicines, half wrapped up in blankets. Nestra’s paranoid nature kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. It didn’t. The universe was vexing her by being on her side.

In the calm moment and with Aunt Claire within arm’s reach, Nestra finally allow...

The Calamitous Bob 212: A World At Peace

Three years before.

The celebrations started with the farewell to the heroes. In the green plains before Sinur’s Gate, pyres were raised to embrace the remains of those who had died stopping the undead horde. Fifty lives for Harrak in only a couple hours of one-directional slaughter. The heaviest casualties they’d had so far, yet the mood was still good. Flags were raised, and bottles were opened to speak of the departed and send them on their way. Priests of Neriad and Enttiku came...

Changeling Part 56

There were no immediate bloodbaths, thankfully. Nestra’s mom would have probably fried the villagers where they stood if she were alone, but this was a diplomatic mission and so they let Tian handle it, and would probably keep doing it so long as things moved forward at a sufficient pace. Nestra hoped they would.

The first thing Tian did was gather and interrogate the villagers in a separate shed. She returned ten minutes later with a detailed map of where they would find t...

The Calamitous Bob 211: They Who Killed an Empire

Storm Rider wasn’t the largest dragon, though she was certainly close, yet it was she who approached Viv near the remote peak where they had made their den. They lounged on platforms and terraces carved into the rock by the raw strength of their dominion over magic. What had been a simple pile of rocks was now a garden of carved statues, elegant promontories, and rare flowers. It was also a fragile one, as glassy expanses and claw marks attested. Dragons were not meant to gather and stay to...

Changeling Part 55

Nestra’s parry flowed into a slice, then a thrust immediately after. Her footwork was a blur, each step preparing the next in a chain of mighty blows. She was on edge. A counter would come any time.

Shinran’s training facility had an uncanny ability to give her exactly what she asked for, and then make her regret every last second of it. The foe facing her was the defensive duelist she’d asked, yes, and he was technically C-rank yes, but he must have been some genius wh...