Running in the Bear Empire 38: Loyalty

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“Like this place?”  Carrone shook his head.  “No, you weren’t. You were going stir-crazy staying in one place.  I can’t imagine what you’re like at — at home. Cooped up in a single building…”
“Well…” She let a smile linger on her lips for a moment. “It has its benefits.”
“I was trying to explain those to our friend here, but she didn’t want to hear it.  I mean, if she’d listened to me telling her it was an Imperial Cabin…”
“Well, then maybe she might have left when she had a chance.  Unless you were offering to show her exactly how nice the Imperial Bed is…?”
The woman squirmed but said nothing.
“Would you be jealous if I did?”

read on…

Haunted House 41: The Market

First: A story featuring a male keeper and a female Kept.
Previous:  Wants and Desires

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In retrospect, Mélanie thought perhaps she ought to have expected a question like that.  Dressing her in silk, treating her like a partner - she shouldn’t have been surprised that he asked her if she wanted anything.  Wanting her to want things, wanting to get her things, seemed on par with everything else that he’d done so far.

That it took her completely by surprise was a sign she wasn’t paying attention.

She blinked at him.

read on…

Hidden Mall 60: A Hero Dies But Once?

Abby took a step backwards, and another, until 'Via caught her. "Easy," 'Via murmured in her ear.  "It's okay."

She forced herself to look at - at herself.  Except dripping wet and dripping blood from what remained of a leg, leaning on a Liv who was dripping both water and blood, too.

"The - the sharks."  She worked her throat.  "Remember? And before that, the fire.  This is - this is all the deaths we could have died.  It can't be.  We can't have died this many times."

“We could have.” ‘Via shifted a little.  “I mean. It’s not — I mean.  We don’t know how many malls there are.  We don’t know how many of them anyone came through.  We don’t know if the mall just generated new versions.”

“Some of the malls were fake.  Who told us that?” Liv frowned.

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Effects

The battle against the Noknuxo had been raging for months.  The space-faring aliens had clearly superior tech - weapons that were huge and completely incomprehensible that made noises that could not be predicted and left swaths of damage in their wake.  Their lasers were precision-targeted and le

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