elizabeth_oswald

CA Chapter Thirty-five

“Never. Again.”

Alpha and Tess were sitting in the stream near their original campsite. They had removed their acid-eaten gear, and were only wearing the non-removable underwear all Veritas avatars started with. She didn’t know about Tess, but Alpha was pretty sure her kit was damaged beyond repair, unles...

CA Chapter Thirty-four

The thing was enormous. From a distance, it was shaped something like a person, with a main ‘body’, and five protrusions that were generally arm, leg, and head-shaped. The ‘head’ even looked like it was wearing a hat. As it drew nearer, however, they saw that the face was completely smooth and featureless, and while i...

CA Chapter Thirty-three

Alpha and Tess were both grimy again, but Vexxx was so caked in putrescence that he developed a sort of crust which would crack and fall off as he moved or spoke. A fact which he constantly reminded them of even as he summoned lightning to zap each of the Porkcubes.

“I have a Filthy debuff. I didn’t even kn...

CA Chapter Thirty-two

Alpha had never particularly enjoyed fighting in Veritas Online. A long time ago, in a different life, she had played a support character, helping her friends and guild mates from the back, while they dove into battle. Once she was reborn as Alpha, she had had to be able to do everything herself, painfully aware that...

CA Chapter Thirty-One

“...pha! Alpha! Use [Turn Ally], or he’s going to die!” Myles’ voice drove through her consciousness, and she hazily became aware of her surroundings. First, she realized she could see again. Then she realized that the arm she held was too large to be Toggle’s, and the blood tasted of… guava? Passion frui...

CA Chapter Thirty

Three in-game days later, there was still no sign of Uncle George. Fortunately, there was plenty to do to keep busy, and Amy was improving by leaps and bounds now that she was aware and working with them. Tess and Vexxx had logged on, been amazed by Amy’s improvement, and logged out again once they’d been told about the g...

Anyone down for a convention?

I have some stickers, and I'm hoping to have magnets and buttons as well. And, y'know, books. Though honestly, I barely sell enough physical books to break even, so cons are all about handing out free bookmarks, and maybe a little merch? Whattaya think?

CA Chapter Twenty-nine

“Amy came up with the cube farm idea not long after they started development of Veritas,” Myles explained as they walked back toward the camp. “She heard someone call the cubicles on the second floor a ‘cube farm’, and she thought it would be hilarious to make a farm literally populated by cubes.” He roll...

CA Chapter Twenty-eight

The next morning, Alpha woke to find herself alone with Toggle. She sat up, rubbing her gritty eyes, and looked at the gnome, who had rekindled the fire and was cooking some kind of eggs on top of a thin, flat rock.

“Toggle?” she asked, her mind chugging slowly as she tried to figure out what was wrong. Vexxx and Te...

CA Chapter Twenty-seven

Three hours later, Alpha was thoroughly sick of songs about hats, barges, and absolutely anything involving horses or sunsets. Toggle attempted to teach them a tune about ‘Gnome Cooking’, and another where each verse detailed how to make a particular poison or trap, which he said all gnomelings learned when they were chil...

Grimalkin Cover Take 2

What do you think of this one? I know it's better, but in spite of the (many) hours I've spent working on it, I'm still not sure about it. I know that part of it is the difference between the cats and castle and the background overal...

Whoops! Time for a retcon

When I came up with the idea for Veronica's favorite show, 'Babble-On', I thought noir singing baby detectives were hilarious... but I forgot Ava's supposed to have some trauma around music, and there's no way she would have watched it. So, I'm still going with noir baby detectives, but sadly, it will no longer be a ...

CA Chapter Twenty-six

Thirty-one minutes and seventeen seconds later, Alpha stared at the wooden door that led to the final chamber. Myles, of course, had gotten to his door in less than ten minutes, which left Alpha as the ‘last man standing’. As she placed a hand on the cool metal handle, she paused and looked down at Toggle. The gnome’s s...

CA Chapter Twenty-five

Vexxx let out a horrible scream, and Alpha started to take a step toward him, but Myles put out his arm and stopped her. When she looked at him, there was a distinct smirk on his face. Tess, who was behind Alpha, couldn’t get past Alpha or Myles, so she, too, was left staring at the boy as he was lifted into the air clenche...

CA Chapter Twenty-four

In spite of the feeling of hope they’d experienced when they first logged on, nothing out of the ordinary happened the first day, or the second. Alpha had to remind herself that this was the downside of the time dilation players experienced in Veritas Online. While it seemed like it had been plenty of time for some...

CA Chapter Twenty-three

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Amythyst asked as Ava walked down the hall toward the lab. She had asked the same question a hundred times since they realized that Quinn had probably slipped something into the reservoirs of Ava’s pod when he opened it to ‘check’ on them, and whatever he’d put in there had made...

CA Chapter Twenty-two

The rest of that day was spent throwing around what-ifs. Ava suggested ‘Uncle George’ just send in the Secret Service. Amythyst proposed that he use a spare set of keys to the UFO on top of the Space Needle in Seattle to come and beam them all out. Their plans became wilder and more ridiculous the longer they talked, unti...

CA Chapter Twenty-one

Surprisingly, the only things waiting for Ava on the screen in her suite were two words. EAT SOMETHING. As she read them, she felt her stomach growl, and shook her head. The pod fulfilled her nutritional requirements, but she hadn’t actually eaten anything solid in over a week, and her body knew it.

Crossing to the ha...

Chapter Twenty

Six days in real life was twelve in the game. Vexxx and Tess were there for up to sixteen hours out of every two game-days, and when they were on, the group explored the maze-like dungeon, encountering several more monsters, and disabling dozens of traps. By the end of Alpha’s first week of immersion as Amy’s caretaker, t...

Quick FYI

Clearing should now be reduced to $2.99 on Amazon, Google Play Books, and Barnes & Noble. All five of the ebooks will be available on all three platforms on April 15th. At that point, Amazon won't let me reduce the price any further, but B&N and Google Play will, so I may drop those to $1.99. I'm hoping that ...

CA Chapter Nineteen

After they ate, they chatted while they sat around, enjoying being together again in a relatively safe space. It turned out that Tessle needed to log out to get some sleep, and then had an early shift at VaVa Voom’s, the clothing store where she and Ava had both worked, before Ava quit to help Amythyst. Reluctantly, Vexxx a...

CA Chapter Eighteen

When Tessle heard about the encounter, and how close Alpha had come to losing, it was all Alpha could do to keep her friend from coming to find them. They were still arguing about it ten minutes after Alpha’s little group set out again.

::You’re in a completely different area,:: Alpha reminded the half-dwarf for the...

CA Chapter Seventeen

Summoning her longsword, Alpha swung out at the thing, which all but filled the corridor with its bulk. Her blade scraped on its rocky surface, spitting sparks into the darkness, but did no real damage.

“Toggle, pull Vexxx and Amy away!” she yelled over the grinding of rocks that sounded like an avalanche was advanc...

CA Chapter Sixteen

Of course, the first area they found looked like what Vexxx had described. Alpha felt her heart sink when the shapeless rock columns that peppered their path began to develop noticeable facial features, but she continued in spite of an urge to turn around and try the left-hand wall instead, leaving the boy to his own devices....

CA Chapter Fifteen

Vexxx and Tess both voted to turn right when they reached the mountains, while Alpha thought they should try climbing up and see if they could find a pattern to the sequence of biomes, or anything that looked like remnants of civilization. Toggle agreed with Alpha, and Myles abstained, of course, and so they ended up in a tie...

CA Chapter Fourteen

“Come on, Alpha!” Vexxx wheedled for the millionth time as they forged ahead through the lush grass of the broad, verdant meadow that lay beyond the jungle.

“No,” she said, firmly, ignoring Myles’ snicker as he strode along beside her.

“Come oooonnn,” the boy said again, batting at one of Al...

CA Chapter Thirteen

The entry room was the same as it had been the first time Alpha entered it, except that now most of the space was taken up by a tent which had been pitched squarely in the center of the open space surrounded by dense jungle-like foliage. As Alpha blinked around, letting her eyes adjust to the mock-daylight that filtered throu...

CA Chapter Twelve

The moons had vanished behind the trees and the sun was cresting the horizon by the time the last of Alpha’s debuffs vanished and she was able to stand without help. Opening her inventory, she pulled out a thick, purple cloak and wrapped it around herself, trying to protect herself from the first faint rays of sunlight. Bes...

CA Chapter Eleven

“You added me to her Friend list, right?” Alpha asked, stepping forward to stare down into Amy’s face as Myles nodded. Disconcertingly, the woman’s eyes were open, and she stared straight up at Alpha. She hadn’t protested or made a single sound during the escape, and Alpha had wondered if she was just sleeping throu...

Logos!

I'm trying to come up with something a little more eye-catching than just my name. Maybe even something I could put on some merch? What do you think of these?