Exharks #5 - Drifters

 

Dogoro brought the Sky Shark to a halt about five hundred miles away from where Sustra was held captive. He could feel her now, sense her on the very edges of his mystical detection. Dogoro wasn’t tired, exactly, even after a several day binge of piloting the ship, but he still wished to gather his energies and make sure he was in top form. Meanwhile, they were still banking on finding some city where they could exchange Bobbi’s gems for credits or cash, and see if the Drifter Network was active out here. Fortunately, the Shard they were currently in, a large region of woods broken up by spots of farmland, looked familiar to Dogoro. He and Sustra had passed through it before taking the Drifter assignment to battle the very vampire they were hunting.

Exharks #4 - Ex-Positions

“Jeez, so he not only made his video game avatar a character, he made his own pennames into characters to do more stupid little adventures with? Jeez, what kinda cringe narco dweeb is this guy?”

Bobbi, Miner and Crafter Extraordinaire, was sitting on the edge of the bed, rolling her eyes after hearing Sharkerbob’s story of their quite similar origins. Sharkerbob came over with two bottles of water, handing her one as he sat down on the bed next to her. It was the only refreshment he could provide, and even the bottles had to come from Bobbi’s own inventory. For that matter, the bed was the only furniture to sit on.

He gave her a flat look. “We might not be him, but we’re what he’d be in our circumstances, and he’s what we’d be in his. So lay off him a little, won’t ya?”

Exharks #3 - Hat Tricks

He flew in a straight line from Brixity for an hour, heading Northwest, approximate to the sun’s path, carefully avoiding the three towns he spotted. He didn’t get close enough to see the details, but none of them had the same reddish hue to the buildings, so he had to wonder if the largely brick construction was unique to Brixity, and what the cultural or economic factors were to cause that.

Exharks #2 - Unequivalent Exchange

When Old Jaim had mentioned he’d been spotted a few days ago by “sentries”, Sharkerbob could have guessed they’d been spying on him the entire time since. He’d probably had a few tails following him or keeping track from a distance as soon as he entered the city. So he wasn’t too surprised to see two of the dark-skinned humans standing where he’d initially dropped down from his base. What did mildly surprise him was the fact they were dressed in somewhat outlandish costumes, distinct from the rest of the civilians.

Exharks #1 - New Horizons

Author’s Note: Exharks directly follows the short story Eprologue, which itself is a follow-up to the short story Imaginator.

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The dawn saw Sharkerbob leaning against the metal rail that surrounded the garden balcony off the stern of his hovering base. He stared down into the valley below, wondering if this would be the day he’d finally work up the nerve to actually leave his vessel. One would think three months of complete isolation would have made him eager to run towards civilization at the first opportunity, but when the moment of truth came, he’d found himself freezing up at the thought.

Eprologue: Not So Final, Perhaps

Author's Note: This story is a direct follow-up to Imaginator - The Final Story of Sharkerbob.

It began, as many profound and thought-provoking stories must surely do, with a guy sitting around doing nothing. Behold Salvador “Sharkerbob” Roberts, former writer, current prisoner, a penname incarnated into his own world of fantasies, in a most boring way: trapped on a floating island by one of his own characters, left with only his own morose thoughts to keep him company. Pity him, that he might feel validated in his malaise. Or don’t. Up to you.

Flower Knights: Hope Lies Past The Horizon

“Enjoying retirement?”

Yellow Rose looked up from her tea and book to see an imposingly tall woman giving her an amicable smile, and not-so-amicably blocking her sun. Blue Daisy was wearing her usual eponymous color scheme, hat and long coat and boots all a match broken only by her impractically long blonde hair. Unlike other Flower Knights, Daisy hadn’t bothered using Color Magic to change her hair to match her theme.

Well, neither did Rose, once her title was nullified. The once-brilliant-blonde had let her hair fade back to it’s natural coppery curls. The better to move on, or so she told herself.

“Not especially,” said the former Captain. She took a sip of her jasmine drink, then set the cup, and her book, down. She motioned to the empty seat next to her. “I’d intended to serve for my natural life span. Instead, I’m forced to quit early. A conqueror doesn’t particularly trust their new territory’s former knights. Fancy that.”

Daisy took the seat, folding herself into the chair. A stone circle with the thinnest of cushions, framed in painted metal, the exceptionally tall woman wondered how anyone could sit comfortably for long enough to read anything. But the fancily decorated tea-house was small to begin with; no doubt the idea was to keep traffic flowing rather than lingering. Good thing she didn’t intend for this to be an overlong meeting.

“What if I told you your early retirement was just a temporary leave?” said Daisy.

Leyline Shaman (Game Build)

 

Leyline Shaman was a proof-of-concept I made years ago, for a little action RPG idea I had, using RPG Maker MV. As you'll see in the video, the main gimmick was having to navigate labyrinths while having to strike different enemy types from specific directions. Had I pursued this idea, I would have made the combat way more robust, but this would have required a wholly different game engine and lot of skills I simply don't have. Still, I was reminded I made this during a recent conversation about alternative combat systems in indy games, so I figured I'd just go ahead and post a run of it.