(07-21-2024, 01:24 AM)Norgarth Wrote: Beware of Chicken (original flavour)
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/beware-of-chicken-xianxia.910799/page-1963?post=103325037#post-103325037

Yrsillar Wrote:When the men of the Golden Fields had come here, chasing tales of the gathering Dead, they had found them surely enough. Great mobs of ashen hunger, lashing out at all within reach. And yet, they had found something else as well. Towers, towers built all across the rolling hills of the furthest east, of white and blue mortared stone and brick, blooming with life and braziers of smokeless white fire.

There had been confusion. Words shouted between high walls manned by stern and dusky men and the fish scaled giants which walked among them, and the suspicious horse-borne lords of the Fields and their glittering banners.

But the Dead abounded, and so contact was brief. The lords wheeled their steeds and charged down the mobs of the Dead, the men of the towers descended on wings of fire and light and reaped great tolls with sun-fletched arrows.

And yet where men are, quarrels emerge. Once, twice, thrice, and more they clashed, scouts captured, fire exchanged, rituals interrupted and besmirched.

Behind towers, in warded camps, men spoke in two different tongues of expelling the barbarians.

But the Dead hunger. Always, they hunger. They are empty, and what remains to them is no patient thing.

For that all must be thankful.

For the legion which marched from the Grave of the Sun cared not for petty squabbles, and underneath the tread of countless millions of the Dead, all thoughts of living enemies were erased.

The next day, Yrsillar Wrote:Cai Renxiang's brush made its final flourish as she completed her signature and straightened up. It was the second time she had laid her mark to paper, each of them marking a copy of the treaty. Jaromila finished her signatures a moment later.

"To everyone who has been part of this, I offer my most effusive thanks," Cai Renxiang addressed. "What we have set in motion here today is momentous. This, I promise."

Jaromila stepped up beside her. "The fate of the mountains, north and south, has been written here. We have set a precedent here that the Polar Nation and the Celestial Empire may coexist and live well as neighbors."

Ling Qi did not begrudge Cai Renxiang her role. She was the face of their efforts, and Ling Qi, for all her own work, was happy enough for it to be so. She was coming to terms with being a leader of sorts, the head of her clan, but this was where Cai Renxiang shone.

"Despite setbacks and disagreement, we have forged forward. Today, we show that the Emerald Seas is a united province, a strong province, one which may stand beside all others. In war and peace, I am proud of the foresight and wisdom of my people in supporting this effort. With our new neighbors, I look forward to a future of peace in the south and an end to the days of raiding and ruin."

"And we look forward to the peaceful exchange between our peoples." Jaromila made her speech in turn. "Knowledge is sharpened by knowledge. Plenty averts strife. We will see these mountains at peace, through our projects and efforts."

One way or the other, the old status quo was gone. In the flying palace city, under imperial boots, or in the warcamps of the Twelve Stars, the tribes of the mountains would change, too. The old way of endless war, tribes raiding and killing and burning settlements, armies marching out to retaliate and exterminate tribes… This, too, was ending. She would reduce the pain of it where she could, to deny the vision of the nightmares she had seen in her liminal adventure with Xuan Shi to the White Sky, but she would not stop.

(07-23-2024, 04:47 AM)Norgarth Wrote: Beware of Chicken (original flavour)
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/beware-of-chicken-xianxia.910799/page-1965?post=103384485#post-103384485

tealruby Wrote:He’s not Hermione Granger’s arch enemy; Hermione already has an arch enemy. This one is Green Lantern’s. And he’s tired of non-lethal tactics.

“She threatens our rightful moment. This cannot be allowed.”

Quote:He’s not Hermione Granger’s arch enemy; Hermione already has an arch enemy. This one is Green Lantern’s. And he’s tired of non-lethal tactics.

“She threatens our rightful moment. This cannot be allowed.”

tealruby Wrote:We broke 10,000 hits! Huzzah!

Thank you all so much for supporting the story. Sincerely. If you like the series, there’s lots more to come as we fly towards the big hundredth issue of First Times, and then on to the graphic novels!

Avrjoe Wrote:

Cauldron Headquarters

“(...)I'll save you some time on denials, you handle Cauldron's money so you can contact them.”

“I handle a lot of people's money. I don't take side however so if this is some attack-”

“No - no nothing like that. I want to buy one of their power vials to be administered to a person of my choosing no if, and, or buts. They can administer it themselves but I want to be there when it happens.”

(...)

---***---

PRT HQ

(...)

”You know the cooler has the Gatorade logo on it but I’m pretty sure this is generic sports drink powder they are mixing up.” Clockblocker complained.

Grateful for the change of subject Weild (sicer) shook his head “No they get it at cost as long as they use these coolers the company uses it as free publicity. I couldn’t tell you why the taste is off.”

“I can.” Shadow Stalker started. She stopped and thought about something. “Hey, as far as you can remember you’ve never tasted anything.”

“That’s right,” Wield (sic) admitted.

“So if someone made some tinker tech that lets you taste things and you found them familiar it would be things you had tasted before you lost your memories”

(...)

---***---

Sudan Near

Bir Tawil

(...)

Dust was examining the body. Her power would be the issue. Dust had the power to manipulate fine particles with a form of telekinesis. She made loose clouds of any light particles that might serve as camouflage. It was worlds less useful than Grue's effect back in the Bay. It was the secondary effect they wanted. Anytime she touched a parahuman corpse her dust would replay the events of their death.

Echo's power to provide the sound that properly accompanied any video she watched. It would give them a transcript. It would be rough Dust’s low resolution would make Echo's audio off in some way. It would be garbled, static-filled, or have a weird reverberation.

(07-26-2024, 05:11 AM)Norgarth Wrote: Beware of Chicken (original flavour)
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/beware-of-chicken-xianxia.910799/page-1967?post=103469436#post-103469436
T minus 3...2...1...

tealruby Wrote:Betsy Taylor of Minnesota, self-styled Queen of Fashion, has blunt sartorial advice for Green Lantern.

---

Alive and Dishing

What can I say? I discovered the toothsome Betsy while researching for the Minnesota State Fair. She can’t be Queen of the Vampires in this setting, but she can still be Betsy.