Tabitha Monki vs Marcus

"What are you saying?  That you don't care anymore?!  It can't be that simple!"  Tabitha couldn't hold back the tears.  Marcus simply looked at her indifferently.

"I had thought, for a time, that I could regain what I lost," he said.  "Regain my nobility.  Regain my purpose.  But I guess all it was delusion.  I let my love for you blind me to the fact that nothing really changed."

Tabitha forced back her tears.  "So... what?  Now you don't love me anymore, and you've given up?  Is that all I've been to you?  A distraction?"

Marcus shrugged.  "Call it what you will.  Distraction... a fling... maybe it was just one of those flashpan romances."

"So what will you do now?" said Tabitha.

"Whatever I want," he said.  "I no longer care about this world... but then, I'm not ready to just go back to sleep."  He smirked, turning to Tabitha.  "Maybe I'll treat myself to a bit of conquest.  These people really could use a strong, guiding hand, don't you think?"

Tabitha's gaze hardened.  Her sword materiallized in her hand.  "Do anything to this world, and I will stop you.  I don't care who you are... I haven't given up on them."

Marcus smirked.  "I know," he said, snapping his fingers.  Tabitha cursed as a pillar of fire erupted beneath her, searing away her skin almost faster than it could regenerate.  By the time to spell ended, and she got to her feet, Marcus was already beyond her reach, his emerald draconic form racing off beyond the horizon.

Sighing shakily, Tabitha sank to the ground, tears flowing again.  She was supposed to be the Defender of the Earth; why couldn't she have seen this coming?  She pulled her hand away and looked at her tear-stained glove.  It had been centuries since she had cried, centuries since she had gotten close enough to someone to let them hurt her that badly.

Standing, she composed herself.  Things would be harder now.  She was on her own.  But as ever, forever, she still had her mission.  She turned and trudged back to the airship.

"Hey!  Earth to Tabby!  Hello! ... If the Captain does not respond by the count of ten, I am going to walk over there and pants her.  One... two..."

Tabby casually snagged Monki's hand just as the fingers touched her belt and judo flipped the girl halfway across the deck of the airship without so much as turning around.

"About time I got your attention," said Monki, rebounding off the deck and leaping back towards the helm, perching on the railing just infront of Tabitha.  "What's up?  You thinking about some hot guy?"

Tabitha Cain frees Monki

At the end of the small cave, she saw a series of metal bars. Behind them, a tiny cell, housing what looked like little more than a set of rags hanging off some chains. Tabitha stepped closer, and it took a moment for her eyes to recognize the form of a girl within the cell. She was tiny, if Tabitha had to guess, barely four feet tall, and thin as a broomstick. The rags hung loose and filthy over her form, and the chains, though not particularly large, seemed oversized for her body.

Looks were deceiving, of course. The creature before her appeared as a girl of oriental decent, almond-shaped eyes, dark brown hair, olive skin. But there was so much more to her. Tabitha could tell just from the sheer aura of power she sensed emanating from her.

“Greetings, little one,” said Tabitha.

There was no response. The girl kneeled in her tiny cell, wrists chained to the rock wall behind her by rusted shackles. They appear as mere iron, but Tabitha sensed them hum with a mystic force. The girl hung limply in her bonds. The shackles also chained her legs which were folded haphazardly beneath her. And lying across her lap was a long, furry tail, like that of a monkey, the end of which was likewise shackled.

“Are you the one called Monki?”

Other Worldly Magic Systems

AUTHORS NOTE: This is an older document that I believe was part of a shared universe project that never really even got started. I found it buried in one of my back-up folders, and looking it over, I'm a little surprised at how familiar some of this stuff is. The Other World is clearly a prototype for later similar concepts of mine like the Fae Realm and the Roil. This isn't really a setting, but a power system that could be applied to different projects.

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THE OTHER WORLD

Everything we know of as “magic” is derived from the Other World. The Other World is another reality, closely touching the Physical World, but still operating on different laws. Those who are able to use magic simply draw upon the essence of the Other World and allow its laws to override those of the local area of the Physical World. Essentially, so long as the essence (call it a force or energy if you will) of the Other World is sustained, a person is able to essentially warp the Physical World’s reality by directing the effects of the Other World upon the Physical World. In a way, think of the Other World as a sort of fifth fundamental force or an often unseen state of quantum reality which some can directly utilize through their will.
 
Only those who have a connection to the Physical World, usually by means of possessing a “dual nature” through hybridization, Other mutation, or proper exposure to Other World forces and energies can properly wield magic.

Ethyrium Universe

For years, I've had the idea of making a sci-fi setting involving artificially created solar systems that join myriad worlds together, often existing in a pocket dimension. This would give me the option of a myriad different settings, even a cosmic-scale scope, yet not have to have the characters span galactic distances just to get to the next planet. I always kind of liked the idea that the characters could just look up into the sky and see all the worlds they could visit, and that technology didn't necessarily have to be Faster-Than-Light levels to go from world to world.

However, not really being into hard sci-fi or straight space opera, I never really got fully into the concept; it was fun to make up some alien races and some planets, but really, I didn't really come up with anything that really stood out to me. Likewise, this was more or less just a blown-up version of what's become my own personal cliche of an ideal adventurer setting: a bunch of different cities or small countries with vast wilderness scattered between, and I didn't necessarily want to depend on space ships for the characters to get places, when you could just set them all on a large planet instead. (We'll be coming back to this sort of thing later, I'm sure.)

But then, a year or two back, I discovered a Savage Worlds RPG called Slipstream. A Flash-Gordon inspired pulp sci-fi universe with a familiar twist: a universe within a pocket dimension, where the properties of space and planets aren't quite the same as we know them. Intrigued by this setting, I was inspired to go back and refine my "pocket universe system" concept some more with a more out-of-the-box approach, and I came up with this little gem. While as usual I don't really know if anything will come of this, I rather like the basic concept.

ETHYRIUM UNIVERSE

The Ethyrium Universe is an artificially constructed pocket dimension left behind by the destruction of an old solar system. A rough sphere 150 million kilometers across (approximately one astronomical unit), the universe is host to 1000 planets, most of which are claimed as the home world of at least one intelligent species. The Ethyrium Universe is built around physical laws that simulate our own, but use a different mechanical baseline.

MothFlip, a hastily slapped together PC-RPG

Would you believe I also make video games? Well, I did that one time, anyway! Here's a little JRPG I made using RPG Maker VX Ace, about an alien (Moth) crashing on a planet and having to collect the parts of his ship from the minions of an evil wizard. Along the way, he joins forces with a magical swordsman (Flip).

This is thus far my only video game project, and it ended up being a one-and-done situation. For whatever reason, once I put this game together, I guess the itch was scratched, and I've just never dipped back into the well. Maybe I'll give it a swing again in the future, but I guess as much as I like video games, I just don't really have the design since for them.

Anyway, this game isn't especially difficult (there's even a level up cheat you can exploit if you just want to rush through it), but hopefully it will be entertaining, regardless. If you don't use the level up cheat, and fight every monster and do everything, the game should take only about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to get through. With the cheat, and ignoring non-boss monsters, you can probably do it in 15 minutes. As with any good RPG, a little exploration is needed to find everything.

The game also lacks music, since I didn't like my available options, and this was just a test run anyway. The sounds of the game are still present, though, so careful on the volume. I did do a couple of original sprites, namely Moth, Flip, Moth's portrait, and the space ship. Otherwise, everything else is entirely assets from the Maker.

EDIT: You can now download the game, or watch a comment-less playthrough video if you don't feel like playing (might want to lower your volume for the sound effects) from my google drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_rRZMlbJABj2i0VNUASQ1AHKolQETpCq?usp=sharing

World of Barson/Therus

As well as writing stories, I also enjoy building up settings and super-power systems. Some of these were intended for possible story settings, but others were ideas for role playing games I never got around to doing. While I've only played a few Table Top or Forum RPGs myself, I nonetheless have always loved reading RPG books for the awesome worlds and concepts therein. As such, sometimes I like to just start building worlds and see what I can come up with. You could consider these to be sort of "systemless settings" or "series bibles" of a sort.

And without further adieu, here's the first of many such worlds:

BARSON/THERUS

THE SETTING

The setting is Earth, nearly 250 million years into the future. By now, the moon is almost 30% farther from Earth, resulting in weaker tides, and the continents have re-merged into two main land mass. One is a Pangaea-like super-continent formed from the merging of the Americas with Africa and Eurasia, creating the great land of Barson. The second is a “regular” sized continent formed from the merger of Australia and Antarctica. The game takes place on this smaller continent, known to the natives as Therus (pronounced Thay-russ).

Humanity either died out or left Earth so long ago that nothing of their civilization remains. Even the numerous satellites and space stations fell to Earth and crumbled to dust millions of years ago. In their absence, millions of new species evolved and died out. And eventually, new sapient races emerged, and built new civilizations. The game begins in an era when technology is in the earlier stages of steam power and gun powder.

Natural Forces #0

“Cripes are they here yet?”

Jin looked to his impatient partner and put a finger to his lips. Jin was himself a patient man by nature, but Raul’s mood could be infectious. Raul just sighed with exasperation, rather loudly at that, and tried his best to sit still. Jin peeked through the hole in the wall and resumed watching the darkened parking lot almost a block away. This area of town was pretty well abandoned this time of night, many of the old warehouses and shops condemned after a monster rampage a few months back nearly leveled the whole area. It had taken this long just to clear the rubble, and the city had simply condemned the area and not gotten around to fixing it up. Such was unfortunate, but what could one do with resources spread so thin? The city had other areas that needed fixing, after all.

Five minutes later, Jin was almost relieved to see the cargo truck pulling into the darkened lot. Raul’s sniffing about had apparently been accurate. Some sort of deal was going down tonight.

“This is it,” said Jin.

Raul grinned and said, “Finally!” His fist was already flaring up with flames.

“Not yet!” said Jin. Raul, however, was already gone. Jin turned. He saw the men in the truck step out just before a streak of fire tore out the entire engine block. The now half-slagged piece of metal smashed to the ground a few dozen feet away, and the streak of fire had halted, now standing menacingly in front of the men. The flames writhed around the form of Raul, burning a bright orange.

Jin joined him in a flash, covering the five hundred feet between their hiding place and the parking lot in two seconds. “Why are you so damned reckless?” said Jin, as he appeared next to Raul.