Seersucker

Ch 53: Any chance that could be a deluxe bath?

Dantes smiled and stood, meeting Vera for a big open armed hug. She smelled of roses and vanilla, her taste in perfume hadn’t changed. The scent immediately brought a flood of memories to the surface of him playing as Vera and his mother chatted, cooked, and played cards.

She released her...

Ch 52: It's been a while

The first mile or so that Dantes walked was nothing, but empty alleyways filled with trash and rats. Even with the mile of space between the Maw and the wall that sealed the space off, people still preferred to live as far from it as possible. Dantes couldn’t blame them, he hadn’t particularl...

Ch 51: Watch out below, fu-

As Dantes rose up, clinging desperately to the first branch the Mother’s Reach had sprouted he realized very quickly that it was starting to widen. He threw himself up so that he could switch to standing on it, but was soon forced to dodge as two more branches began to sprout nearby and nearly ...

Ch 50: Ten copper on the big one!

Dantes stood in the center of the Maw, feeling the sun warm his skin. It was a feeling he missed, though that hadn’t made him seek out the Maw in the past. Putting yourself in the center of a beam of light was something one should typically avoid in prison. Still, he hadn’t exactly been smart...

Ch 49: None of that’s your blood, is it?

Jacopo crawled in Dantes’ jacket and settled into a pocket towards his back.

“This is a much better method of travel,” he said, burrowing as far into the pocket as he could.

“Really? You seemed to move much more quickly when we were running through the tunnels together.”

Announcement

Hey everyone,

I've officially reached the back-end of my backlog, and so will be moving to the planned 3 updates a week rather than 1 a day.  The schedule is going to be Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Once I build the backlog back up a bit, I'll be expanding the number ...

Ch 48: Meet me in the Maw

Dantes and Jacopo crawled through the tunnels, leading a horde of rats and roaches. Dantes had almost no difficulty adjusting to being a rat, but in spite of that he had a bit of trouble keeping up as Jacopo led them through the quickest and most efficient route to Orc territory. It was what amou...

Ch 47: Are there any you would want me to spare?

They all sat there in silence for some time, then Dantes stood, and began putting his hands under Tel’s body, attempting to lift him.

“What’re you doing?” asked Merle, though he didn’t move to stop him.

“I know a place where I can actually bury him. In real dirt. Unless yo...

Ch 46: And then nothing

Through the roach he could feel that a number of people were moving about, and sense that there was a lot of blood, and screaming. He attempted to move closer, but the movement of people was too dangerous, and when the roach's leg was crushed by a Collared rushing by, he broke the connection. He ...

Ch 45: Your surprises are no longer surprising

Dantes gently placed a small candle down on the floor of the wide cavern. He took out a small burnstick, lit it, and gently placed it against the wick of the candle. It lit easily, and then he moved a few yards down and lit another one. He repeated this process until there were a half dozen candl...

Ch 44: It seems it's always 'the hard way'

By the time Dantes was done, his hand was sore from the reverberation of the cane. He stopped just short of killing Grimald, he had a feeling that the Executive would find some way to charge him for the death if he went too far. He tossed the cane to the side and stretched. A small crowd had gath...

Ch 43: How can I help you?

The Shadow Cats eyed the weapons, Jayson with curiosity, Jayk with suspicion, and Zak with obvious desire.

Dantes ate another spoonful of stew from his bowl, it was surprisingly good, Jayson was a talented cook. He gestured to the weapons, “Take whichever you want. They’re elven make, g...

Ch 42: Those aren't to eat, they're to bargain

Dantes watched the corpse disposal with mild fascination. He was no stranger to rot and decay, not in midtown, and certainly not down in the Pit. Still, seeing it sped up by the frenzy of rats and roaches, while the roots of the nearby plants dug into the corpses, their roots finding fresh blood ...

Ch 41: Gorge yourself

Dantes moved through the corridors at his usual pace so that he wouldn’t warn his followers that he knew of them tracking his movements just a few chambers behind him. He started to have individual roaches and rats cross their paths, or make loud noises. At one point he even had a few roaches f...

Ch 40: Shouldn't have been such an unrepentant-

Dantes placed a small pouch of weed, and a handful of blood-red grapes onto the raised stone in front of him that acted as a table.

Wane shook his head. “I’m out.”

Tel reached into his pocket and put a handful of copper coins down.

“Coin, eh? Where’d you get that?” a...

Ch 39: Free booze, women, and money

Jacopo watched as the orcs filtered in one by one. The smell of smoke and drink was heavy in the air. Dantes had given the weed he’d bought from Clay to the orcs so that they could get high as well as drunk while their deal with the changelings was completed. Jacopo watched as Dantes greeted ea...

Ch 38: Here's the gist

The Undermarket was full of the stench of booze and sweat. All of the various small bars scattered throughout it were full of cheerful drunken orcs, still high off their victory at the supply drop even weeks later and, most likely, fistfuls of dust and weed as well. Dantes didn’t attempt to kee...

Ch 37: The dainty wave of a highborn woman

Dantes awoke the next day with a splitting headache. He laid awake with his eyes closed for what must have been at least an hour, then he attempted to sit up. The moment he was upright, he vomited, narrowly missing his bed. He stayed still for a few moments, then wiped his mouth with his bare han...

Ch 36: Doing a bit of flexing

Dantes walked toward the Consortium’s undermarket bar. He felt good. He’d put on even more weight thanks to his climbing routine, easy access to food, and the whey tip he’d gotten from Merle. On top of that coin jangled in his pockets from the last two deliveries of what Mez had begun calli...

CH 35: Mating yes. Also murder.

Dantes stayed off the main paths, but from he could see through the rats he had watching behind him the Orc’s had ceased their assault in the Maw itself and started consolidating all of the goods, beating the new prisoners, and generally asserting their newfound dominance. Still, he stayed caut...

Ch 34: Violent doesn't mean stupid

Dantes made his way into Collared chambers, exchanging nods and hellos with those he recognized as he made his way toward the usual location of the dice game near Tel’s room. The game wasn’t happening, but Wane, who he was looking for anyway, was leaning against the wall thumbing through an o...

Ch 33: What would you say is the largest kind of tree?

Dantes moved out of the brothel and out onto the narrow ‘streets’ of the undermarket. Unlike in Collared territory where everyone knew who he was and their behavior toward him had changed, in the undermarket he was nondescript enough that no one seemed to recognize him. There were a few glanc...

Ch 32: A Fey's sense of honor

Dantes and Televor moved through the tunnels between the Collared and the undermarket. It was busy, but not unusually so. It was common for the undermarket to be more active immediately before and immediately after a delivery from the Maw. Prisoners were placing bets as to what they thought would...

Ch 31: Antennae tickled his lips

Dantes was in a darkness so black that his darkvision couldn’t pierce it. He could hear the sounds of skittering in the dark all around him. He could feel the small steps of a million legs all across his body, his arms, his eyelids. Normally the sensation would make him flail in disgust and ter...

Ch 30: I'm no rat

After they’d finished an hour of nitty gritty discussions, everyone shook hands and felt that solid mix of satisfied and dissatisfied that always came with business agreements. Dantes feigned a frown, letting all parties feel that they got the best of him, even though he’d just turned the abi...

Ch 29: You're not here to kill me, I presume?

Had Dantes been focused on something other than the dice game, he may have placed some rats in the tunnels between the Undermarket and the Collared, so that he could keep a closer eye on when the Consortium had arrived, seen the elves and prepared for them, but he had no such foresight, and found...

Ch 28: I did it very carefully

By the time he reached the edges of collared territory Dantes’ legs were screaming at him. He had considered, roughly halfway there, seeing how much favor and how many rats it would take to move the small cask for him. He decided against it of course, it was just the impractical thought of an e...

Ch 27: Tempt the gods to ruin your day

Dantes slid his hand into the next divot in the wall and pulled himself up, resting his feet between a narrow crack. He looked up, seeing another small divot and sliding his hand into it, he pulled himself another half a foot. He was about fifteen feet off of the ground now, but still felt steady...

Ch 26: Brazen and bold

The blunderbus fired and Jacopo was launched with it to the far side of the room, slamming against the wall. A man screamed, though whether it was Iron or his paramore, Jacopo was in no state to determine. His ears were ringing as he took several stumbling steps away from the wall he’d slammed ...

Ch 25: Too many are born with the sun on their faces

Jacopo moved through the tight dwarven halls quickly and quietly. There were no cracks in the walls for him to slink through, so instead he had to rely on the shadows in order to make his way through. Dwarven darkvision may have made that a problem, but because they lined their halls with brazier...