“…s where you want to be?” Cracked vinyl stuck to the back of his thighs, peeling away with a wet sound every single time the cab hit a pothole. “Kid?” Which, considering they were heading into the Narrows, meant that ugly little noise was pretty much its own soundtrack. “Kid!” “Huh?” Chance blinked up as…

Koda expected to wake up feeling like he had been run over by a carriage. The wooden club to the side of his skull yesterday had left his head scrambled like eggs, and the raw drain from whatever that ghost-snake had pulled from left him dead on his feet. Even after Tsunami had fed and…

Three weeks… Three weeks of mud sucking at the soles of his sandals, the old pair of Tazuna’s oddly comfortable. At least when they weren’t threatening to get lost in the marsh and muck of Wave Country, that is. Thick and greedy ground pulled at his feet with every step even now, the wet dirt…

Hn. Thwak! Hn. Thwak! Hn. Thwak! Chopping wood was…  Easy wasn’t the right word. Not if the sweat slicking his body and the ache in his arms had anything to say about it. No, it wasn’t easy, but it was definitely familiar. All the way down to how he knew how to hold it so…

Stolen bread pressed hot against his torn shirt, close to his ribs and held there with one hand. “Stop!”All sharp elbows and knobby knees, Kou’s sandals slapped a wet rhythm against the cobblestones. Alleys of the lower district blurred past, gray smears of soot-stained brick and overflowing gutters. A sharp whistle cut the air as…

Breath vanished as Renshu palmed his chest before he even saw the meaty hand. One second, he was firmly on the floor; feet flat, hands up, and ready to strike back. The next, all he knew was open air. Kou blinked as gray stone kissed the back of his skull, buzzing yellow bulbs smearing across…

“…hey b-boss.” His tongue fought him, a stutter forcing its way into his jaw as fear made his heart jump. Man up, bro. People respect strength. Sure, people did, but Chance didn’t really think the odds were good that someone who had already slapped him around was gonna have all that much respect anytime soon.…

The smell of salt and old wood brought him back to the world of the living. Nothing like the kind of salt that stung at the eyes, but the kind that had been ground into the same old wood of the floorboards for years, heavy and damp with years and years of seaside living. He…

The first thing he knew was water. Wetness everywhere; in him and on him and around him. It wasn’t anything unfamiliar, but the wet wasn’t right still. He knew wet; the sharp chlorine bite of a freshly cleaned pool or the heavy soak of a thunderstorm beating down on the pavement. This was none of…

That ass… Fucking insane, honestly. Niko doubted there were any doors in this whole city built with the dimensions of a six-foot-eight Icelandic Amazon in mind, so watching Dorio duck her head and angle her shoulders to get out of his shop just highlighted the ridiculous mechanics of her brick-shithouse build. That broad back took…