The Assignment, Part 5: Settling In
As optimistic as I'd been that night about making things work, it wasn't as though a switch had been flipped overnight, and suddenly I was absolutely okay with everything, with being touched and snuggled all the time - and as much as I did want to make...
The Assignment, Part 4: Getting Closer
"You... are kidding, right?" I looked back at Daledonne incredulously, gesturing with my hand at the long table and the dozens of Tiaileng already seated around it. Daledonne, though, only shook his head slightly. It wasn't the response I was looking...
The Wrong Anniversary
Sure, on the surface it had been just another date night: two young professionals carving out an evening in their busy lives to celebrate their growing love. This time, though, it had been less about the present, the dinner at the nice upscale...
Uprising and Aftermath
The Red Ones Crisis, or the "Penitent Uprising" as the government would eventually refer to it, did not start with a Red One somehow throwing off its yoke of oppression. Rather, it began with an all-too-typical anecdote from the existence of one...
Reconstructed Fragments
As your awareness and memory begin to fade back into focus, the first thing that flashes through your groggy mind is his face, the look of him above you while it was happening. The reason it sticks in your mind, you think, is because of how thoroughly...
The Boneheap, Part 4: Out of Control
As the day progressed, and certain things came surging back, Gianna came to a singular conclusion about heat: for the most part, it fucking sucked. Okay, sure, maybe there were some very, very small parts of it that, in a vacuum, could have been...
The Boneheap, Part 3: Preheating
Gianna hesitated for a moment, her hand a few inches away from the handle of the entrance door to Duda's, one of the city's more well-known drinking establishments. It wasn't her first choice, and had she still been Giancarlo, it wouldn't have even...
The Proceeding
_(Note: There are some fairly harrowing descriptions of rape in here. You have been warned.)_ Transcript #3465371 Respondent Hearings to Mediate Issues Surrounding the Penitent Uprising -- ARBITER: Welcome. Before we begin, let me explain to the...
The Boneheap, Part 2: Night and Day
As Gianna walked carefully along, keeping an eye out for danger and trying as hard as she could to make her footfalls sound as softly as possible, a note of anger began to creep in alongside the pervasive, ever-present fear that... thing had seen fit...
The Folks in the Woods, Part 8: Three Bullets, One Hit, Six Impacts
For all her determination and resolve, Elizabeth's plans for finally dealing with Frand were quickly derailed. The morning after she'd made her pledge, childbirth came on her surprisingly and abruptly, and she followed the instinctive urge to go back...
The Assignment, Part 2: Evening
_(Note: the story is essentially clean, but marked adult for scenes of arousal and discussion of sexuality)_ The strangest thing, sitting there, was probably the sense of scale. Up until literally the day before, I had been accustomed to the...
Shifter, Chapter 5: Testing
It was an odd scene, to be sure, the thoroughly normal setting of the kitchen occupied by two officious strangers in formal dress, and the normally steady Eloa seeming to flash between anger and genuine panic. The way she was acting was enough to set a...