Corrupting Power posts
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Neon Stonehenge - Ch. 14 (alpha)
Chapter Fourteen – “Is it all over?”At that point, I didn’t have much left but the cleanup. Still, more often than not, that work’s even harder than the actual sleuthing, because you’re trying to make people whole again who you know are never going to be fully right. You know that far better than they do. They’re still hoping that at some point in the near future, they’ll have forgotten all about the ordeal, and life will be simple, like they remember it before everything got so fucked up that they couldn’t tell which way was ...
Neon Stonehenge - Ch. 13 (all)
Chapter Thirteen – “That Kind Of Story”Dueling is terrible business.It’s not a skill you can spend that much time polishing. Sure, if you wanted to, you could spend day in and out focusing on combat, but the problem with duels is that they’re custom tailored to the combatants, so if you spend all your time, say, practicing your swordsmanship, and if your opponent chooses pistols, well, all that training won’t do you a lick of good.Duels are typically chosen between one of four major paths – firearms, blades, magic and unarmed – ...
Weekly Update - 2/19/25
So I'm not immune to writer's block, as much as I wish that I was. It's just a pitfall you learn to deal with as a professional creator, but there's no easy way out of it, not even for those of us who've dealt with it on and off for decades. Typically, when that happens, I go clean, and I cleaned up the mess that is my desk area over the last few days while trying to hen peck at getting chapters into a state that I liked. That said, I felt like every bit of cleaning I did was pulling away at blockage. I took an entire box of...
Quaranteam: Book 2, Cast of Characters (midpoint)
(Author's Note: We're well over halfway through Book 2, but I realized I haven't posted a Cast of Characters for a good long while, and that's on me. So, if you needed a refresher, here's the current Cast of Characters for Quaranteam. As always, don't read this if you're not caught up, as inadvertent spoilers will abound. But many of you who are caught up have been asking for a refresher, so here it is, in both post/PDF format. My apologies for not having it up around the halfway mark.)Character Guide(Author's No...
Quaranteam: Book 2, Ch. 36
Chapter Thirty-SixJune 24th, 2021Maya panted heavily, reaching up to wipe sweat off her forehead, her legs still shaking as Andy squeezed his arms around her while she giggled. “I know I’m supposed to be getting used to that, but even almost a year later, you still totally take my fucking breath away each and every time, Mr. Rook,” she said to him, turning to kiss him on the lips. “And I appreciate you coming down here to set to take care of my needs. I know it’s only an hour and change away, but the studio’s on my ass to get the fi...
What's Up Friday?
As my way of saying thank you for everyone's patience while I've been getting better, I'm going to do a poll for about the next day or so, on what I should write for Friday, 2/14/22! You have three options to choose from, as pointed out in the newspost from today - the next QT2chapter, the next Neon Stonehengechapter or a new Silversmithone-off.You have until noon PST on 2/13 to cast your votes, so no sleeping in! And this vote's open to anyone who's a paid subscriber, so I want to see a big-ass turnout for this! Make your o...
Weekly Update - 2/12/25
Here comes the rain again, falling on my head like a memory, falling on my head like a new emotion...I'm feeling myself again, which is good, and I'm starting to make progress on getting caught up. I lost a good portion of today editing and proofreading other people's copy, but, on the plus side, I can tell you there's another great QTstory coming from another new writer in the very near future. That said, for a while I think we're going to ask that nobody submit additional QT stories set in the UK - Agathon and LL, who are ...
Quaranteam: Book 2 - Intermission 7
Intermission Seven – Pete/Alex/Louise/OnyxJune 17th, 2021 – Los Angeles, California“Put some pants on, Louise,” Pete said as he glanced out the window. “They’re here a few minutes early, and the last thing I want is us talking to the government without pants on.”“So, I’m getting up late,” Louise grumbled. “Since when did we start caring about what some government hotheads think about us? They’ve constantly had a flood of people coming over to poke and prod—”“It’s Dr. McKenna and Dr. Marcos, come to do the checkup...
Weekly Update - 2/5/25
Well, it isn't Walking Pneumonia, thank the heavens. Friday morning of last week, I woke up with a hacking cough and a sense of complete exhaustion. It wasn't a complete surprise to me - I'd bailed on poker night a few days earlier, and had been trying to get as much sleep as I could to make myself feel better, but that wasn't happening. So I went and saw the doctor, who x-rayed me just to be sure, because Walking Pneumonia is apparently going aroundright now, and there was a chance I could've contracted it, but no, it's...
Captains' Days - Ch. 5
Chapter FiveThe next on Tommy’s list to get prepped was Eduardo Sanchez, or as he was more commonly known, Reckless Eddie. And as chaotic as he was, Reckless Eddie was never that hard to track down. If he wasn’t somewhere else, he was usually in Rio De Janeiro.Reckless Eddie had a legend a couple miles long and was the sort of character known for his wild unpredictability and devil-may-care attitude that he brought with him into any job that he took on. He was also a hell of a warrior and a mercenary. In fact, if Tommy had put together a li...
Weekly Update - 1/29/25
Things were actually going well up until yesterday. I'd made progress in some stuff I was working on, I knocked out the QT:Phil's Talechapter in almost record time for me, and I felt like just maybe I could get caught up. Then this morning I woke up with a super scratchy voice and a throat full of phlegm, so that put a kibosh on the energy. That said, I'm still going to keep pushing forward as best I can, although I'm definitely going to be sleeping a lot. I was in bed until nearly 2 pm. and then ran out to get a late lunch. I&#...
A Pack Of His Own - Ch. 17 (alpha)
Chapter SeventeenLess than two days later, Will was at the Crossroads Diner, the cold winter weather keeping all but the most determined of students out and away for the night, but it was good, because it had let Will spend the time healing up from his duel at the gathering. He hadn’t had any damage to his human form, but he felt like the damage to his werewolf form being repaired exhausted him a little bit more than he’d thought that it might, even if it was all happening in some other world he didn’t directly see. He’d felt like he wa...
A Pack Of His Own - Ch. 16 (all)
Chapter Sixteen“Oh what the actualfuck,” Will grumbled beneath his breath, as he glanced over at Silversmith. “Is this guy for real?”“Capparelli! Do you accept or are you just as much of a coward as your father was?” Nathan snarled, clearly trying to get Will’s temper up.“Hey!” Will said suddenly, pointing the younger werewolf’s direction. “How about you sit the fuck down and give me half a goddamned second to figure out what’s going on and what this is all about, so I can make an educated decision about it?”The young ...
Quaranteam: Phil's Tale - Ch. 23
Chapter 23November 18th, 2020One of the things Phil had learned was completely inescapable in his life was that if Linda had something he needed to do, he’d better get used to the plan that he was just going to have to do it, and the less questions he asked in advance, the better off he’d probably be, because she rarely gave him tasks to do, and whenever she did, they were important enough to set everything else aside and make them a top priority. Especially since she was going to be off base for most of the day, and Violet would be making ...
Breakpoint - Part 17
Part SeventeenHarry“I’m starting to get worried,” Harry said to Stella. “Like, maybe they fell into a time hole level of worried. We should’ve heard back from Rin and Mick by now.”“If they did, they’ll find their way back,” Stella told him as she stroked his chest in bed, the cool light from the neon outside a contrast to the sniping pitter-pater of the rain fall. They were sleeping together naked because the heat was far more brutal than either of them had anticipated, even with the rainfall outside. “Len’s proof that som...
Weekly Update - 1/22/25
It's not been a great week, so for those of you who just want to know what's happening (and get angry when I talk my personal life and/or politics), there'll be a Breakpointchapter up as soon as I can get it finished, and Quaranteam: Phil's Talefor probably Saturday or maybe even Sunday, as I'm going to need a little bit of help in proofing it (especially since it's going to set the tone for some upcoming stuff). The What Am I Writing poll for this month currently has Captains' Daysone vote ahead of Amor Ex Machinaan...
Weekly Update - 1/15/25
You know, when I talked in Quaranteamabout the US invading Canada, it was sort of done as a tongue-in-cheek joke between writers, but the longer both the real world goes and the QT-verse goes, it seems like the joke gets less funny as the potential for it actually happening goes up. If it happens, I'm sorry. That said, I dropped QT2:35last night before I went to bed. We were doing some tinkering with it up to the last minute. I'd hoped to have it up a few minutes before midnight, but it needed a bit more editing before I wanted to turn ...
Quaranteam: Book 2, Ch. 35
Chapter Thirty-FiveMay 14th, 2021As happy as he was to have his two daughters delivered safely into the world, Andy wanted nothing so much at that moment as to go home and take a shower. It was late afternoon, and Andy was planning on heading back to the house in a few hours, but he was exhausted. Aisling’s labor had been prolonged, with one of his daughters almost refusing to come out, even after her sister had almost popped right out at the start.Unlike with little Matty, picking the twins’ names had been a long and ongoing process that h...
Quaranteam: Unbroken Mold - Ch. 7 (alpha)
Chapter SevenJuly 18th, 2020Joe had wanted to complain when the text message had sprung to his phone saying that their usual 9 AM morning meeting had been postponed to 3 PM instead, but his frustration quickly dissipated once he realized that meant he could sleep in instead, and so he, Liv, Tori and Clara decided to spend the morning in bed relaxing, enjoying the extra rest time. They would let the problems for later be the problems of later, and instead spent the morning cuddled against one another, enjoying the laid-back morning of rest.Getti...
Quaranteam: Unbroken Mold - Ch. 6 (all)
Chapter SixJuly 17th, 2020“Good to see you Tims, Tom,” the General said, looking between the various windows of the conference call. He was a man in his early fifties who’d spent much of his career in Pararescue, the special ops division of the Air Force. His hair had gone from red to silver over the last several years, but it was still thick and lustrous, with a sharp, angular face and a nose that had been broken a couple of times over a career of dangerous and challenging missions before he’d slowly started to drift backward onto the ...
Weekly Update - 1/8/25
What a goddamn week. I spent the back half of last week fighting off a head cold that I'm still working on, and on Monday, I started a new diet/exercise regiment, because frankly, I haven't cared for the way I've looked in mirrors and photos for a while now. Nothing too extreme - I know how to ramp my body slowly back into shape, and going too hard too fast is an easy way to make me quit, but I'm on day three of that, and I'm definitely feeling more energy, which is good, even if I'm hungry literally all the goddamn time...
New Year, New You (one-shot)
New Year, New You(a Jonas Silversmith story)By Devin McTaggartDecember 29th, 2024I often tell you that many of the tales I’m having you commit to this journal for me have a moral baked into them, but this one might seem especially blunt in its message. Still, nevertheless, a tale has been requested of me, and so a tale I shall tell. This one begins with a warning I feel should need no repeating or even speaking aloud in the first place, and yet… here we are – never trust a djinn.On this particular night, I was having dinner in a nice quie...
Weekly Update - 1/1/25
I didn't die in the Midwest. Let's start there.For the most part, the Christmas holiday was actually generally nice, barring the asshole in the airport who decided he had to be smug to my t-shirt. (I flew back to the Mid wearing a shirt that says 'Make Orwell Fiction Again' and a guy said, 'we won, dipshit! Get over it!' Which... I mean, how do you even respond to that level of idiocy? I chose to just ignore him.) My nieces continue to remain adorable and are getting old enough now that they aren't terrified of me ev...
Captains' Days - Ch. 4
Chapter FourIt had mostly been a quiet month or so since he’d brought Kaya to see the Antiquarian, and he’d done his best to make sure nobody knew that he was snooping around, preparing for whenever the next Captain’s Day was, but also making sure he was doing his job, and that he was taking care of Kaya’s needs as well.She’d fallen into the role of spy very naturally, and they worked incredibly well as a team, able to communicate in public without so much as a word spoken or even more than a couple of quick glances. They’d worked h...
Weekly Update - 12/18/24
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go.This, of course, means I'm gearing up for my yearly voyage into the Arctic Circle, aka 'the Midwest.' I spent 5-6 days every year going back to The Old Country, where I will see my remaining living family, celebrate Christmas with them, see my last couple of friends who remained behind in my hometown and then return back to California, where nobody's pissing on my head and telling me it's sunshine.I'm midway into a new Breakpointchapter that I'll hope...
Neon Stonehenge - Ch. 13 (alphas)
Chapter Thirteen – “That Kind Of Story”Dueling is terrible business.It’s not a skill you can spend that much time polishing. Sure, if you wanted to, you could spend day in and out focusing on combat, but the problem with duels is that they’re custom tailored to the combatants, so if you spend all your time, say, practicing your swordsmanship, and if your opponent chooses pistols, well, all that training won’t do you a lick of good.Duels are typically chosen between one of four major paths – firearms, blades, magic and unarmed – ...
Neon Stonehenge - Ch. 12 (all)
Chapter Twelve – “Some of the Pieces”The amount of security we brought around the Dark Docks within the next few hours was, let’s be honest, borderline insane, but it was absolutely necessary, considering what we were dealing with. Charlotte had brought in several of her hunters to run extra defense, and I made sure she only invited the people she trusted the most. Of course, Charlotte being Charlotte, she insisted all her hunters could be trusted with her life, and me being me, I’d asked her to only bring the ones who Iwould trust wi...
Weekly Update - 12/11/24
Man, I had such a head of steam on me, and then a DayJob problem sprung up and knocked most of a day out of me. No matter. Ever tried, ever failed. Try again, fail again, fail better. I've just about got next month's Packoff to the commissioner (will do that before I leave tonight) and then we'll see what moods I'm in when I get up tomorrow and start in on writing. I'm off to see a band I've been listening to for a few years but never seen live called Dance With The Dead. They've got sort of an electronica/rock sound...
A Pack Of His Own - Ch. 16 (alpha)
Chapter Sixteen“Oh what the actualfuck,” Will grumbled beneath his breath, as he glanced over at Silversmith. “Is this guy for real?”“Capparelli! Do you accept or are you just as much of a coward as your father was?” Nathan snarled, clearly trying to get Will’s temper up.“Hey!” Will said suddenly, pointing the younger werewolf’s direction. “How about you sit the fuck down and give me half a goddamned second to figure out what’s going on and what this is all about, so I can make an educated decision about it?”The young ...
A Pack Of His Own - Ch. 15 (all)
Chapter Fifteen‘What the hell am I doinghere?’ Will asked himself, not for the first time since the Spring Gala started, and most likely not the last time before the night would be through. He wasn’t entirely surprised to see most of the people sitting at tables in tribal lines, although it wasn’t as widespread as he thought it might have been. It seemed like many of the tribes highly enjoyed comingling, and the groups seemed to almost form local circles or groups that were getting reacquainted because they weren’t local to one anothe...
