《Cultivine》Vines 12
Advertisement
They were now on a pirate ship.
Yep, it’s one of those story arcs where the cast are stuck on a boat that is sailing to some other location. Everyone hates these story arcs because it grinds the pace to a halt and forces at least three chapters of contrived character interaction scenes that serve mostly as obligatory introspection points or development to the awful romance subplots or, worse, more worldbuilding exposition, but in this story, the pirate ship scene would be so much better than anything else in generic fantasy.
You know why?
Because it was all three of those things wrapped up into one!
Here we are, with a scene that is not only a contrived character interaction scene, not only worldbuilding exposition, but unnecessary romantic development too!
I hope you’re really excited:
In the lower decks of the ship, sailing for two weeks from Alabaster and on its way to Chicken Coop, Xi Guo Lee and Nan Gua mopped the floor together for some reason that we will never be privy to.
“Mopping is fun,” said Xi Guo Lee. “Mopping, moppity, mopping. Don’t you like—“
“I love you,” said Nan Gua. She threw her mop aside, and stepped so close to Xi Guo Lee that her mask was nearly touching his face. “I’ve fallen so hard for you that I feel like a meteor.”
“Did you write that one down to prepare it or something?”
“No, it was off the top of my head.”
“I thought so.”
Xi Guo Lee set his mop aside, reluctantly, and placed one arm around Nan Gua’s hip, and one arm around the back of her head. “Well, I’d like to say that it’s very sweet of you to say that you love me,” he said. “Even if it feels like I’ve known you for about five minutes and don’t know even a single personality trait of you except that you are good at fighting. Even if I’m not particularly smitten with you yet.”
Advertisement
“Let’s make love,” Nan Gua said.
“You’ll reveal your full self to me that quickly?” Xi Guo Lee asked.
“All except the mask. I’ll leave the mask on.”
“You know, you totally took it off in front of me the first time I saw you. I know what your face looks like.”
“It’s about honor and respect. I cannot show you my mask, even in the most dire of circumstances. Even if we make love, even up until the day we walk down the altar together to be married, I will not show you my face. This mask is all that you will see.”
“You know, I was married once,” Xi Guo Lee said. “In a past life, before I was reincarnated here on Wuweizi. I was married to a woman named Tabitha Xi who I plucked from the year 1998 and brought to the cyber-present and helped train to become a warrior. She eventually became the Mayor of Atlanta until she was assassinated by the notorious Azarinth Anti-Healer.”
“I don’t know what any of that means.”
“That’s okay. I don’t know what any of that Vinist stuff means either.”
“Well, we’re a vine-based race of people. We came from the vines and now we are sentient beings, just like humans and elves and goblins and beavers.”
“A vine-based people group... It seems hard to imagine.”
Nan Gua grabbed his arm and let him feel the ropey plant-like texture of her palm. “Well, it’s real. I’m a vine, and you can swing on me all you want.”
“It’s just hard to imagine how a vine could evolve anthropomorphic features. Certainly the Babylon Sisters didn’t design you, so who did? Was it just natural? I’m so fascinated.
“I have no idea about any of that worldbuilding stuff, but I want to know if I have your permission to strip you and perform sexual acts.”
Advertisement
Xi Guo Lee turned his head and looked directly into the camera, or rather to the readers themselves. “Well, you heard the lady. What’ll it be? R-18 chapter, or leaving this woman jilted and probably pretty bitter for the rest of the trip? I’m of two minds about it myself, so I’ll let you decide.”
“Who are you talking to?”
“The readers.”
“Oh! Are they responding? Do they support our decision to become an official couple?”
“I think they’re pretty ambivalent about it, but I imagine some of them will want to read about us getting it on.”
“Oh, kinky.”
“You’re into that?” he asked. “Them... watching?”
“As long as it gets us the Patreon bucks.”
“Yeah, fair enough.”
Advertisement
Chosen Chaos
30 years have passed since first contact. Earth has now been accepted into the galactic community, is expanding its territory to other planets, and has begun to adopt the myriad advanced technologies found throughout the Milky Way Galaxy. But as the least advanced race in the galaxy, the Earthians are struggling to carve a niche for themselves, made all the more difficult by the fact that they are the only race in the entire galaxy incapable of developing supernatural powers. Until recently. Few know how or why, but small groups of Earthians have begun to display superhuman abilities — and the militaries of the galaxy have begun to display interest in them. Combined with the rise of an evil thought to have been vanquished two decades ago, these superpowered Earthians are forced to choose between the value of their own lives… and the value of the entire galaxy. Part 1: Chosen Few — A mundane visit to the local science museum starts off a series of worrying events for Austin Travis and his friends. They would like nothing more than to continue living their lives as they have, but the universe seems to have other plans… Part 2: Chosen Elite — CSF-1 and the Eximius Vir return to normal military operation and discover a clue to finding powerful ancient technology. However, they aren’t the only ones to discover this clue, and soon find themselves in a race against time to prevent the technology from falling into the wrong hands… Part 3: Chosen Hidden — As the summer comes to an end, Pierce Bradley and his friend prepare for their last few days studying abroad on an alien planet. Pierce would like nothing more than to return home and flaunt his new experiences in front of his friends and classmates, but the universe seems to have other plans… Chosen and its three parts begin the Key Saga, a new novel series that takes place 20 years after Rise — which tells the tale of the aforementioned evil. Reading Rise is not a prerequisite for reading Chosen, but it will help to understand the setting and the various conflicts within. Character art on cover by @quassihollic on twitter.
8 428The Bird and the Fool
Kesil is stranded very far indeed from his home. Despite a gift from the fair folk that allows him to understand and speak any language, he has very little idea of what’s going on around him (though he likes to pretend he does). But this doesn’t stop him from getting into trouble in the port city of Edazzo, in the ancient empire of Duri, and elsewhere, doing his best to find love, escape snares of ancient magic, and hopefully return home in the end.
8 71I. Galactic War
Follow General Rostov as he fights for the Galactic Federation against the Galactic Empire while carving a place out in this vast galaxy for him and continuously expands his power base to become a force to be reckoned with. Inspired by Star Wars.
8 199The Nameless Warrior *New Cover*
Since her father's suspicious death eight summers ago, Kindra has trained to become her tribe's first woman warrior. Although she completes the whipping ceremony to prove her strength and make a blood-bond with the tribe she fails to receive her warrior name. She's determined to earn her name in battle, but her plans change when the enemy Obsidian tribe claims her priestess sister as restitution for the war. To Kindra's surprise and horror the new chief allows them to take her sister. Rumors widespread at her father's death are whispered in her ear once more. It was the new chief who poisoned her father, they say. It was the new chief who sold her sister to the enemy. It was the new chief-not the War God-who refused to grant her a warrior name. Although she didn't believe the rumors in the past, Kindra begins to doubt the chief. When new evidence emerges it threatens to place the entire tribe in the hands of the Obsidians. As the last living descendant of the War God, Kindra's the only one who can depose the chief and save her tribe, but it will mean giving up the quest to rescue her sister, and the hope of ever becoming a named warrior.
8 222The Fate of The Summoned (being ReWritten)
The Fate of The Summoned In the world of Aethion things are vastly different than on Earth. There is Magic and Monsters, as well as Demons and Dragons. Throughout the history of the world there have been many wars, both between all the various nations and kingdoms and between those nations and kingdoms and the Demonic forces lead by a Demon King or Lord. There are times that the Demons gain so much more power than the other nations, or that the others are embroiled in a war against each other and the lone nation is targeted by the demons. It was during these occasions that the various Gods and Goddesses started giving two things to the races. The First of these things were the Blessings, magical blessings given to the worth for chosen things. The Second of these things were the Summoning rituals, magic rituals that could summon beings from somewhere else, that would be Chosen, by the gods. These beings have almost always come from our world, Earth. It has been centuries since this practice began and the countries of the world have almost always flourished for a time after a Chosen or group of them were Summoned. All of the countries treat the Summoned well, almost like kings or princes in their own right. Well, not all countries, there are some that have treated them almost like slaves, though those countries don’t usually last long. There is one though, that has lasted, for a long time due to their connection to their Patron Deity, the Goddess of Light. They only accept certain types of Summoned and they dote on certain members of the country more than others. Several years ago they performed a summoning, as they were being plagued by overflow from the dungeons. Now they, like the other countries of Aethion, have performed the ritual to fight against the current Demon King, who is said to possess a Blessing. This is a story about Fate, and those that fight against it and those who accept it. In this story the main character(s) do not fight their fate, like those in my other story, rather they embrace it and let it shape them, though that does not mean they are total slaves to it. While there will be similarities to most other Hero sumoning novels, i hope the Mcs abilities and such will make it unique.
8 272The Security Man. (Mike x Foxy)
8 85