The Halcyon System [Stubbed]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The truth’s a thin line. Claire’s about to cross it.

Claire Pendleton’s seen the thin spots between dimensions since she was five, when another reality merged into her family’s apartment and killed her mom. No matter what herperfectsister and deadbeat dad say, she knows the truth about that night ten years ago–-and about Vancouver Island’s other thin places.

Those weak spots start opening during her sister’s graduation, and the boundaries between realities collapse. Claire’s trapped in a global disaster, and a powerful system’s granting her skills and power-ups. Worse, a shadowy agency resisting the anomalous apocalypse takes interest in her.

Now, Claire must fight unknowable horrors, answer inexplicable inquiries, and reckon with globe-spanning organizations to discover the truth about the apocalypse, her family, and who—and what—she’s becoming.

What to Expect:

- SCP-Inspired (XK End of the World Scenario)

- Slow-Burn System

- Weak to Strong MC

- 3/week posting schedule through Writathon, then back to 1 or 2/week after. I hope. We'll see if I can maintain it.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2024
Author: Aest Belequa

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 3,587
Views: 155,679

Chapters(13 total)

What readers say about The Halcyon System [Stubbed]

“Interesting start to an interesting story. A young and somewhat cynical MC, with an obsession with truth (and also The Truth.) A dash of technobabble, some superstitions coming true, and an incomprehensible government naming scheme, as any good SCP story sh…”
lordnikelasRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“SCP is one of the best pieces of media I've ever engaged with. Paranormal stuff way too dangerous for anyone captured, analysed and documented by people with way too many black marker pens and little sense for the idea of sharing information. This story is…”
AxisArkRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

lordnikelasRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Interesting start to an interesting story. A young and somewhat cynical MC, with an obsession with truth (and also The Truth.) A dash of technobabble, some superstitions coming true, and an incomprehensible government naming scheme, as any good SCP story should.
I'll be keeping an eye on this for sure.
AxisArkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
SCP is one of the best pieces of media I've ever engaged with. Paranormal stuff way too dangerous for anyone captured, analysed and documented by people with way too many black marker pens and little sense for the idea of sharing information.
This story is some divergent SCP. Close enough, you can recognise it but different enough it leaves me with anticipation for what comes next.
The MC is a savant with her own quirks. I love her overall but some of her traits annoy me a bit. More specifically part of her reaction to truth. She's still growing so I'm looking forward to that.
I love the story and here's to hoping for more chapters in the future and the good health and prosperity of the author. 🍷
ButlerianHereticRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've read quite a few magic apocalypse stories. While most are a fun (or in at least one case artfully horiffic) way to replace the world with a magical realm, very few feel like an actual apocalypse happening in the real world or a world much like ours. Halcyon System feels like an apocalypse. The SCP-like secret organization trying to manage it feels grounded and plausible. The justification for the MC's powers fits the world and balances usefulness without getting overpowered. As the story evolves, the unfolding mystery keeps it compelling. And the personal relationships are well-written and relatable. The earlier version is fun as well, but this version is a big upgrade. Reading both its fun seeing how story elements evolved. Great work!
Cutie DarkFaeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The prior story had a great concept. Here we see the same world through a different, younger, possibly more broken viewpoint, and I'm loving it. The world is one I don't dare risk to live in, and it makes for a great setting. The MC feels realistic and detailed, the other characters are getting filled out, I want more.
WyrddsmithRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This initially felt like it would be a magical girl story, but it's better. It's almost a dark, dystopian version with the anomalous creatures and humans often being neither black nor white. It's a bit slow moving, but is developing nicely and I'm really enjoying the main character as she's trying to figure out what is going on.
AdAstridPerAsperaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've followed this story from it's inception, and I have to say, I *love* it and what it's becoming.
Claire, at her core, is a girl who reacted to childhood trauma by latching onto what she knows is real, despite what everyone else says. She grew up noticing things others didn't, watched by the boogeymen who wanted her to forget, but watching them in return.
And now, as the world around her starts to crumble and change, something else that believes in Truth finds her. Reality might be changing. She might be changing. But the Truth? It never does!
RabiatorRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
As a (significantly different) rewrite of Halcyon Nightmares, this story improves on a wide number of issues.
The horror-mystery theme reminds me a lot of the SCP series, but in a long format that gives it more continuity. The complete paranoia of the SCP foundation along with the disregard for people's civil rights is there, which makes for a lot of tension but also a somewhat darker story. Which surprises ma a bit as Aest's stated reason for bringing Halcyon Nightmares to an end was "too dark". So far that would be five points, but the story also has one of my pet peeves in cyberpunk, namely shitty augs. Why, oh why, would someone have the sort of crap augs Claire has implanted in the first place? That costs half a point and leaves us with 4.5 in the story department.
The writing style is pretty intense and meshes with the character of the story well, good job there.
The MC is well fleshed out and has an unique "voice", and I also like Li Mei. But the SHOCKS employees tend to come across as faceless robots. This is part of their orders I guess, but even so I would expect a bit more personality in them. A minor flaw in an otherwise well done characterization.
TheUnderdogRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I stumbled upon this little gem by pure chance one random night when I was going through enough novel binging to make your literature teacher blush.
My expectations were low and my desire for trash-tier brain rot numbers go up was at an all time high. I blame sleep deprivation on that one.
Suffice to say, I am happy to admit that from start to finish this novel exceeded and delivered more than I could have anticipated.
Interesting characters. Cool fight scenes and really interesting power system. Highly recommend.
If Aest Belequa's future works hold themselves anywhere near as close to this one's. I personally will be looking quite forward to such projects.
VolkatorRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is just a basic review with my thoughts on this.
I'm hooked !
I've been having an itch these past few weeks after reading books like Library at Mount Char or House of Leaves, or games like control. Mystery, intrigue, I would use the term SCP-like because I don't know how to describe it. But this novel scratches it perfectly, I'm very excited to follow along the author and see how far deep the rabit hole we'll go
GrampsGevaudanRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
So far, the story has really great potential. It starts off incredibly strong and it’s building a good plot line. It’s currently in the “transition” phase, from exposition to helping us really see how the action is going to go.
It can keep going to awesome heights or it may fall, but it does seem to be on a strong upward mobility so far.
Only critique is we jumped in to codenames quickly and it’s hard keeping track of certain individuals. The author does work to alleviate that issue.