astroguy

The next two weeks felt like a bit of a blur. I thought if someone were to ever make a movie of my life, they would wrap these up in a 30-second montage with some hit, up-beat song playing in the background. Certainly something faster than Vangelis from Chariots of Fire. But, this was real life, not a movie. I tried not to rely on gAI so much because I wanted to try to learn things on my own, despite the points I'd get if I used him for new things. I did ask him to help if I was looking

I did a partial move earlier this year. Some stuff from Ohio and Michigan to Colorado, from one house in Colorado to another ... did it all mostly myself except for about a dozen things that weighed upwards of 300–400 lbs, each. Movers for those dozen items from one town to another in Colorado cost $900. U-Haul across country was about $1500.

Would make things so much easier.

It's a hard-knock life, ain't it?

I have a friend from grade school on FB who swears there is always a Simpsons reference for anything.

As we got dressed, I saw several alerts pop up at the periphery of my vision: • +2: Second sex act of the day. • +3: Third sex act of the day. • +2: Brought same partner to penile orgasm second time today. • +3: Brought same partner to penile orgasm third time today. • +4: Brought same partner to penile orgasm fourth time today. • +1: First blowjob giving of the day. • +5: First blowjob giving of the month. • +5: First time bottoming in clothing store. •

Yup! Why ruin a good afterglow with unnecessary alerts?

After we ate, I followed Deng's lead on what to do with our trays, then followed him out the door. He pulled me from the door towards the path and offered, "If you really don't remember much, why don't I show you around? Maybe something will jog your memory." "That … that actually sounds like a really good idea," I admitted. "Great!" he replied. Then added in a low voice, "and we can find some place to try out that magic ass of yours again." I blushed, but I certainly wasn't ob

Glad you got the eerie vibe. Hopefully it wasn't TOO in-your-face, though. I'm still growing (hopefully) as a writer. And a literal "lol" from me upon reading that one. I had not thought of it that way, but ... yes. Yes indeed.

Sorry, have to ask: Does anyone know the song I wrote the first few lines to? It's been an obsession of mine for the last year or two, but it's a bit unknown. You can find it here: YouTube dot com / watch?v=JwmX3DzpXFM

Funny thing that. As I hinted at in the comments on the previous chapter, there actually is a legit plot point for him having sex that fits into my overall mythos. That is rooted in Science! You might also recall the analogy to a "cum vampire" from an earlier chapter.

After just a half hour, I made it to the food. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was somewhat relieved to see that Earth-15 wasn't too different from Earth-616 with respect to basic eateries. I used gAI to query several of the places when I couldn't quite tell what was what: They were different enough from what I was used to that I couldn't readily figure things out, but gAI highlighted each one and gave basic descriptors like "stir fry," or "pasta." I was mildly miffed when I saw no alert

Thanks! Glad you like the world building 'cause there's more of that coming. Shawn's about to venture out into the great yonder.

Addendum: I will also add that a major pet peeve of mine is when someone writes a story that involves "powers" of any sort (magical, technological, biological, etc.) and makes that person over-powered. At that point, in my opinion, it's just boring. Kill all the bad guys? Done with the wave of a hand. This form of geometric growth and not getting points for everything was my way to try to ensure that I don't fall into that trap. In the Marvel comics, for example, Thanos has gotten the Infinity Gauntlet and Stones many, many times. However, he always ends up losing. That's because he still has some critical flaw. It was hypothesized in one story line that he wanted to lose as an ultimate expression of nihilism, so ensured he left himself a weakness. In a more recent one, he was undone by his own self from earlier in his timeline, when that version of him refused to be led/guided by his all-powerful self in order to make sure he got all-powerful and close that time loop. Anywho, more random thoughts there which might (or might not!) make it into this story line as it evolves.

I have been trying to figure out just how much to do it versus not. Been trying to strike a balance. Also, the system is going to reward him more for sex (there is an underlying reason to that which we might get to by chapter 1,000) and using gAI to probe around, which is why I've been emphasizing that. On the other extreme, I don't want it to be like, "5 minutes spent exploring, +1; 5 more minutes spent exploring, +1; ... ." THAT said, the way I cast the system, he'll need >17 billion points to go all the way (16·2^30), and that's just for these three abilities. Unless I do some modifications later, such as resetting it each time he unlocks a new ability, or completes some madd quest that gets him a lot. Geometric growth's a bitch.

In other words, "let's get the plot moving, it's chapter 11 already!"

After my lean body was through the threshold, the door reappeared behind me. I guess I'll need to learn how to use doors, except the ones inside my house. Or for my dads to wonder what was going on. "Remember: All of this is perfectly normal to anyone from this reality," I tried to remind myself. Another deep breath, and I stepped forward onto a … path? Sure. There were the transport buildings, so maybe that's why I didn't see any evidence for a road system for wheeled vehicles. Were

Yeah, I've always wondered about this sort of thing in sci-fi vs if it were real. Star {Trek, Wars}, Andromeda, Babylon 5, Stargate, etc. all operate on the basic assumption that things are exactly the same EVERYWHERE in the universe unless we need them not to be for a plot point. I was furious on a Stargate: SG-1 episode where they are on a different planet and start talking about carbon dating -based ages. Problem is that you have to know how C-14 and C-13 have been modified environmentally (which we do for Earth) to get those ages. There was a poignant episode of ST:TNG in a scene that I doubt many remember where Troi picks up a mug and says some made up word and asks Picard what she meant. He guessed mug, or tea, or handle, but she pointed out that she might have meant hot, or liquid. And of course there's the famous "Darmok" episode of ST:TNG where the alien race speaks entirely in allegories from their own history. Even though the universal translator converted it to English, the lack of the shared history for the references meant they couldn't communicate. Obviously, many of those assumptions that "things just work the same" were practical ones for the TV audience and budgets, and I tried to pay some homage to that idea with Shawn's internal dialogue. Same with language: They all speak English! Or, we have the universal translator. But even with that, some words are still in the original language for emphasis? That's why I kept "Diablo Rojo" in Spanish, as a nod to a pet name in a different language that stays in that language despite the translation. It's also a very obscure reference to a 1990s sitcom Cybill episode. Anywho, there will be a little more of that in the next few chapters where Shawn people-watches to try to pick up on gestures and micro expressions, but overall I'm going to have to have y'all suspend disbelief and go with the idea that "everything's the same as you're used to except what I need to be different for plot purposes."

Indeed.

This chapter was completely re-written and re-posted on 05-May-2026. I'm sure my dads spent a long time planning this first meal back, and they probably went to a lot of trouble to execute it: Even the noodles looked fresh. Noodles. I couldn't stop looking at them, but also not looking at them. Noodles reminded me of … I couldn't look up. I couldn't hold what looked like a perfectly ordinary fork and spoon. Everything I'd done to fit into this world and my dad walks in my door

This chapter was completely re-written and re-posted on 05-May-2026. The sound surrounded me, but I saw no obvious origin: No holes in the wall, no speaker grilles on the desk. The sound just was there. "Uh … hi, Hal?" "Hello, Shawn. How can I assist you today?" "Are you an AI?" ("like the one in my head?" I wanted to add) "Not even fucking close, it's a glorified toaster," gAI muttered. "I am not an AI in the sense that I am not a thinking machine capable of sent

Thanks! I think the exposition makes sense, though I did rename the chapter from "Helpful Hal Has Exposition" to simply "Helpful Hal." We'll spend a few chapters getting acclimated with Shawn and then get the plot really going as he shoves off to school.

Yay! I had at least one surprise. The next chapter is scheduled to drop tomorrow evening, now that I am sorta out of purgatory on getting things in a queue, trying not to be a jerk and post <24 hrs apart. I'll admit: the next chapter has some more exposition, but that's IT for many more chapters (I've written through 17 so far).

This chapter was completely re-written and re-posted on 07-Apr-2026. Again a prisoner of this body's youth, I sat while the two doctors talked with my dads. I nodded at the appropriate times, smiled when I thought that was expected. The two doctors finally left. It was just over 52 hours – two days – since I woke up. "Here, Sport. I brought you some clothes." My dad handed me a folded pile of cloth, shoes, and a bracelet. I looked up while he and my other dad looked. "They e

Okay, I honestly lol'd on that. I hadn't thought of it that way, but yes, yes indeed. With all the different implications of what "f*ck the world" means.