Mere Mortals

[Chadicus]

Introducing my new online serial, Mere Mortals (http://meremortals.wordpress.com). It's NOT fanfic, but superhero fiction set in my own world. But not about superheroes, per se.

It's about the sidekicks, the spouses, the kid brothers, the normal people in a very strange world. And what happens when the superheroes are gone.

But their enemies aren't.

Anyway, I'd love for you to check it out. It will be updated every two weeks. I take deadlines seriously, and have worked a little bit ahead. Right now the first episode has just been posted. But start with Ep 0.

Thanks, C.E. Grayson

[Chadicus]

Episode 2 is now up (2 days ahead of schedule)

Here's an excerpt:

I decided that no matter what happened, I wasn’t going to close my eyes. There was a theory that at the moment of death, the retinas recorded the last image that slammed against the back of the eyeballs, and I wasn’t going to have that image be the dark insides of my eyelids. I mean, I know that whole theory is just debunked bullshit, but I liked the thought. And I was sure that if it did turn out to be actually true, one of Dan’s friends would be able to find some way to develop the film.

So I looked at Dr. Dillard, I stared at her face as she snarled and spit, animated by that green fire inside her eyes, the fire, I knew, that had burned out her soul.

I couple of low, shattering crunches exploded in from the side—gunshots?—and the hands that had held me released their pressure on my shoulders even as I felt a burst of heat at the back of my head.

I took the opportunity to fall back, but as I had been kicking out anyway, I ended up doing some awkward back-roll that was only barely more survivable than it was dignified, and the zombie doctor was on top of me.

I heard the shot again as the top of her head came off and erupted, a green supernova consuming her head. The rest of her body fell on top of me, splattering me with blood and other, pulpier, fluids.

What. The. Hell.


check out the rest at meremortals.wordpress.com (http://meremortals.wordpress.com)

[Chadicus]

Episode 2 is now up (2 days ahead of schedule)

Here's an excerpt:

I decided that no matter what happened, I wasn’t going to close my eyes. There was a theory that at the moment of death, the retinas recorded the last image that slammed against the back of the eyeballs, and I wasn’t going to have that image be the dark insides of my eyelids. I mean, I know that whole theory is just debunked bullshit, but I liked the thought. And I was sure that if it did turn out to be actually true, one of Dan’s friends would be able to find some way to develop the film.

So I looked at Dr. Dillard, I stared at her face as she snarled and spit, animated by that green fire inside her eyes, the fire, I knew, that had burned out her soul.

I couple of low, shattering crunches exploded in from the side—gunshots?—and the hands that had held me released their pressure on my shoulders even as I felt a burst of heat at the back of my head.

I took the opportunity to fall back, but as I had been kicking out anyway, I ended up doing some awkward back-roll that was only barely more survivable than it was dignified, and the zombie doctor was on top of me.

I heard the shot again as the top of her head came off and erupted, a green supernova consuming her head. The rest of her body fell on top of me, splattering me with blood and other, pulpier, fluids.

What. The. Hell.


check out the rest at meremortals.wordpress.com (http://meremortals.wordpress.com)

[Chadicus]

Episode 2 is now up (2 days ahead of schedule)

Here's an excerpt:

I decided that no matter what happened, I wasn’t going to close my eyes. There was a theory that at the moment of death, the retinas recorded the last image that slammed against the back of the eyeballs, and I wasn’t going to have that image be the dark insides of my eyelids. I mean, I know that whole theory is just debunked bullshit, but I liked the thought. And I was sure that if it did turn out to be actually true, one of Dan’s friends would be able to find some way to develop the film.

So I looked at Dr. Dillard, I stared at her face as she snarled and spit, animated by that green fire inside her eyes, the fire, I knew, that had burned out her soul.

I couple of low, shattering crunches exploded in from the side—gunshots?—and the hands that had held me released their pressure on my shoulders even as I felt a burst of heat at the back of my head.

I took the opportunity to fall back, but as I had been kicking out anyway, I ended up doing some awkward back-roll that was only barely more survivable than it was dignified, and the zombie doctor was on top of me.

I heard the shot again as the top of her head came off and erupted, a green supernova consuming her head. The rest of her body fell on top of me, splattering me with blood and other, pulpier, fluids.

What. The. Hell.


check out the rest at meremortals.wordpress.com (http://meremortals.wordpress.com)

[Chadicus]

sorry about the triple post. something times out on me and I responded like a typical adhd'r and hit the button too many times.

[Chadicus]

Episode 3 is now up, entitled "Hell's Waiting Room," which turned out to be a more accurate description than I thought. Meet another mortal, see what happens when a goddess falls from the sky, and find out just how self-absorbed Wes Callahan can be.

In his defense, if he doesn't get the pics in, he doesn't get paid, so ... what would you obsess about when the seventeenth apocalypse of a scheduled twenty-five comes along?

it's up at meremortals.wordpress.com

[Chadicus]

Episode 05 (http://meremortals.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/episode-5-a-wound-in-the-world/)is now up (still on time!) Here's a snippet

Pegasus whinnied and his face was suddenly at Derek’s shoulder. Michael reached up to stroke the horse’s mane, and said, “Whatever’s happened, Peg survived it. So that has to mean something.”

“I don’t suppose this horse talks, does it?” I said. “Because otherwise, I don’t know how this is exactly helpful.”

The XDF agents shouted something to Derek and the monster took a long sudden lurch toward us.

Pegasus danced on his graceful white feet, forming a wall in front of us. Michael did the same, stepping to the side to help shelter Alice and me, until Derek forced his way through to do that job himself. I looked up at the beast, framing the shot even though I didn’t have the cheap little camera in my hand. It hung around my neck, but it would have hurt too much to use it.

Yes, I am that much of a wimp.

The creature leaned in toward us and I thought that I was about to live that old horror movie cliché of inhaling the monster’s hot, rotten breath and looking up into its teeth just before it devoured me. But this thing … it had two huge, stomping legs, like those of a giant elephant, but no real mouth to speak of, and within the locus of those tentacles erupting from its midsection—some tentacles spreading and branching out into their own network of tentacles—was threaded a necklace of gently spinning purple and white lights.

Also, if any artists are interested, I'm looking for someone to do some character design work for the sight. You know, the heroes in the light brigade, others, even "covers" if anyone is interested. I couldn't pay anything, but anything I put up I would defenitely credit and give you the exposure.

private me through cbr or email chad.grayson@sbcglobal.net if you're interested.

[Chadicus]

a little later than normal (still not late!) episode 6 is up now.

check it out and let me know what you think!

[NOD]

This is probably going to make me sound like an idiot but I have a real problem getting into large tracts of text on a monitor. I can hunker down with a book for hours but put that text on a screen and I'm falling into a coma within about thirty seconds.

That said I'll try to get through at least a few episodes as something you've put this much time into deserves some feedback.

[Chadicus]

Episode 10 is now live, bringing us closer to the ending of "season 1" with episode 12.

am hunkering down to try to get it done before life attacks this fall.

also ... understand about the text on a monitor thing. Should soon to be able to post artwork along with so it's at least broken up.

This is an experiment, so we're still working out the formatting kinks. Next season will probably be shorter, more frequent eps.