Why Was There No Truck?
Added 2025-04-26 03:54:16 +0000 UTCHey everyone! So, I know I mentioned a couple of times that there might be a bit of an extra this month, due to me getting writer's block working on Pokémon Adventure. In truth, there's a bit more to it than that! So...where in the imminently smackable buttocks of superheroines everywhere did this monstrosity really come from, you might ask? You know, aside from Novus's deranged mind. In truth, it actually has its roots as a solution to a problem with another possible new story.
So. No shit. There I was. It was early February of this year, and I had to itch to write something new despite being on a time crunch. Sacrificing some sleep over a few days to deal with a writing bug was nothing new, and I knocked out around 8,000 words of a potential My Hero Academia/Cyberpunk 2077 crossover. Yeah, weird combination, I know. But aren't most of my fics?
Anway, it was at that point that I realized I'd made an tactical error. Looking back over my attempt to create a fusion reality...I realized that what I'd written didn't resemble either source material. There was only a single character, not even the MC in this case, that had come from MHA. While Cyberpunk 2077 had mostly just donated a lot of slang terms and a few basics of aesthetics. At that point I was presented with two paths. One, keep writing and integrate more content from one world or the other. This had actually been the original plan. The MC was going to attend a fusion version of UA, where a number of familiar faces would have been present.
OR
Or...I could pivot and turn what I had into a fully original work. (Not this one! I'll get to that in a bit). Almost nothing, even from the one character I was using, was the same. A few corp names and specific cyber-augments from Cyberpunk 2077. A knock off UA and a single named character (who was radically different from MHA canon) from MHA. I'm not afraid of writing original works. I'm actually better at it, in my opnion, than I am at fanfiction. So, I had a choice and I puzzled over it for hours.
It may or may not have finally resulted in decision via coin toss.
However I decided, I made the call to turn it into an original work. I did the conversions needed and wrote a bit more, only to realize I had another problem. Yep, we're looping back to my opening statements here about this fic. The problem? Two fold. One, I've never written a grim setting. Not ever. Mind you, even what I planned wasn't actually all that grim. I hate grimdark stuff. The world I was building was/is actually a little bit lighter than the Cyberpunk series. Still very dystopian, but a bit less dark. Even so, it's definitely the 'grimmest' world I've ever created, and I've never made one like it before.
Two? If you haven't clued in on it yet, all of my fanfiction stories start as experimental ideas I want to play with. Each of them has something a little different I want to play with the concept of. From attempting a lighthearted version of the 'What is human?' question with 2B in A Very Confused Pokémon Adventure, to attempting a Gamer/Gamelit style story in One Piece: Halfway Broken. In the case of the tentatively named Cyberpunk Hero, I'd decided to toy with more than just a slightly grimmer setting. I'd picked up an old, old thought of mine about what 'identity' would mean to someone born with shapeshifting powers. Someone who's body is very fluid and basically always was from birth.
It's not too shocking that I ended up making the character a Futa-by-choice. It was a way to help explore that concept, even if Futa's aren't actually really a major interest of mine. They are popular enough on the vastness of the internet, and it was one vehicle I could use to explore the character concept. All well and good with an experimental fanfiction story! But, uh...a bit less good when I'm doing an original work? Because I've never written a serious go at a futa character. I've written some erotica content with them, but I've never written such a character in a serious way.
Between these two issues, the project ended up stalling out through all of March. Which frustrated the heck out of me.
So, when I had a bit of an issue where I needed to get the itch for something less fluffy that Pokémon Adventure out of my system this month? I picked up one of the many random ass challenge ideas I frequently come up with but never really use. They're thought experiments for me that help me refine how things like a Gamer System could be made less horribly broken. This one...well, I'll let you read about it in the fic.
Regardless, it gave me an easy starting point for a quick dive into a story that would be doubly useful. First, to get on track with Pokémon Adventure by getting rid of the itch to write something darker. Second, to address the problems I'd run into with Cyberpunk Hero. A quick-and-dirty story that would let me grind some proverbial XP in a grimmish setting with a futa character.
Then...it sort of got away from me?
Oops?
Somehow, I ended up with a Quasi-SI flung into an interesting-in-the-way-a-train-wreck-is amalgam world. So...that's where this story came from. I ended up with enough of it that I figured I could toss it out as an extra. But I have no idea if I'll keep working on it, and probably won't publish it outside the Patreon Page for a fair while, if ever.
A couple of other Quick Notes:
1) When I said Quasi-SI, I wasn't kidding. While the character in this story is based on me to an extent, the template of things I applied to them so I could grind that writing XP I mentioned drags them pretty far from a true SI. They think a lot like I do, have a similar background and skillset. Yet, there's as much different as there is the same. I wouldn't handle the world transfer nearly as well as they did, I just didn't want to get hung up on the drama. The power set they chose is not the one I would have gone with.
I'm a mastermind personality at heart, not someone whose idea of solving problems is to throw hands with a supervillain. (I honestly get more than a little annoyed when people assume Luffy from Halfway Broken is an insert, as I still consider him an idiot that chose the fun solution instead of the smart one). I needed a more action-oriented character, so there's a bit of a radical departure there. The Futa template was added to experiment for Cyberpunk Hero, so on, and so on. Someone who knows me really well might be able to look at the character, squint really hard, and see me in it. But...well...at best he/she is a Quasi-SI. In reality, by the time you get halfway through Chapter 2, he/she is really an OC who just shares some of my thought processes.
2) There isn't a grand plan for this story. The writing Quality might well not be quite what you're used to from me as a result. If it keeps going at all it will jump from conflict to conflict rather than weaving the huge and properly connected narrative I normally focus on. Part of the reason I made it an amalgam universe is so I can handwave away mistakes and randomly insert whatever bits I need rather than doing strict lore dives and research. Understand, this is a quick-and-dirty story, rather than the much more refined ones you've seen from be until now.
3) The method that was used for the character to create his new powerset? I actually did that. That was the challenge I'd thought up and decided to use. This comment won't make much sense until you read through the character creation chapter. Once you do, you'll see what I meant. I have, in fact, a compilation of the images the MC used to pick things from. The only additional things I did beyond exactly what it says? I removed a few characters that I literally couldn't ID from the images, and I weeded out maybe a half dozen images of 2B. I knew I'd be tempted to use her for her crazy powerset if she was an option, but she's already being explored in two other fics of mine. So...yeah. Removed those.
Anyway...have a hopefully fun read of this 27k starter for an unholy Amalgam of DC/Marvel/MHA/Worm/ProbablyOthersI'mForgetting! Yes, you read that right. I said it was a possibly-unholy amalgam, didn't I? I'll create some commentary for it in a bit...
Comments
I'm glad you liked it! It got such a positive response that I've been adding little bits to another entry in it, though between everything else I only have another chapters and a half or so of it at the moment. Still, hopefully it will get at least a small update in June. Yes, you were spot on with the powers. Momo's power is, in a lot of ways, bonkers broken. However, it's only a single power rather than a power set AND is has the same issue as Ahsoka's in that it requires quite a bit of training and knowledge to actually use it. Alyssa essentially got lucky that the person who's knowledge/skills she chose for her skills slot was someone from a high-tech setting with a eidetic memory and quite a bit of technical knowledge. Without that, it would have taken her months or years to build up to the point of making more than single elements like gold or simple structures like clothes, with Creation. Ahsoka's was average price for precisely the reason you said, that it's variety was counter by the years (decades even) of effort it will take to train up to it's full potential. Starfire was, of course, the one who was bordering on two slots. To be honest, I might have been too generous with Starfire NOT being two slots. The only reason I ultimately decided it was probably okay is because there are enough fairly major powers in this Amalgam that Alyssa still isn't that comparatively broken. Wonder Woman would currently curb stomp her in a fight, for example, with Alyssa's only chance to not be captured (if that was WW's intent) to be to bolt immediately. WW can fly, yes, but Alyssa got a higher-end Tamerean's flight speed from Starfire. Which means she can reach super-luminal velocity outside atmosphere. Pretty sure she could outrun Wonder Woman...but only if she ran immediately rather than letting WW anywhere close to her. As for which version of Starfire's power she got. I went mostly with the New Earth era comics version (https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Koriand%27r_(New_Earth)#Powers). Though, as you stated it, I've leveled it out a little with that just being the basic guideline, as DC is so inconsistent. In truth, since the powersets mixed, it's not exact anyway, but she can do most or all of what that version of Starfire can do. I actually haven't decided if Brockton Bay exists or not. If it does (I'm leaning towards that it probably does), it's actually not in as bad a way as the Worm version, as several of the events that made it so awful don't exist in this iteration. Without Japan getting utterly wrecked by Leviathan, for example, Lung and a lot of the Asian population just wouldn't be there. Yes, she got any language Motoko knew (which was probably quite a few, honestly. Major Kusangi was international black-ops before Section 9). It's almost irrelevant, though, since she also got Starfire's Linguistic Assimilation. That ability doesn't actually require a kiss, just physical contact. So she she can basically go around playing Pokemon with languages if she wants to. Got to Know 'em All.
Novus Peregrine
2025-05-30 22:17:55 +0000 UTCReally really enjoyed this, might be one of my favourite concepts of yours, together with Elysium dreams and Pokemon adventure. I assume Momo was slighly cheap for one power slot? Ahsoka pretty much bang on (held back by not being immediate and having to be learned). And Starfire was quite a bit over the allocation for one power slot and only barely possible? (As you said straining the allocation). I am wondering exactly which version of Starfire was used. Based upon comments I have seen from here in the author notes plus the mention of FTL I'm assuming the comic version (and thus most powerful). Remains an interesting question as there is a reason Starfire has 4 different articles on the VS Battles wiki and each of those have drastically different power levels. DC in General is weird with power levels, Wonder woman can lift a planet in some versions and struggles lifting a plane in others, it's ridiculously inconsistent. Marvel is also inconsistent with that but not nearly to the same extent. I assume you leveled it out to an extent over the different verses in the crossover? With such an extensive crossover there is just a massive amount of possible characters she could recruit for her own forming team. And the amount of possible OC's is endless. Really wondering if Brockton Bay is also a thing in this crossover and a similar shithole to Gotham? Also I'm assuming with who you picked for the Skill infusion that includes skills in languages. Which in this case would at minimum mean fluent Japanese? That could be interesting and potentially open up more MHA characters. Or even just be useful in solidifying the vague slighly part Asian background she used for both appearance and her Civilian ID.
Daemonioros
2025-05-30 19:23:35 +0000 UTCEdits made, thanks! Though *scowls* ONLY SI. None of my other stories have SIs. I WIIl find a way to smack you through the internet if you refer to Halfway Broken Luffy as an SI. I've said repeatedly he isn't, and even explained in the intro for this one that I still consider the Luffy OC insert sort of an idiot. Just less of one than canon Luffy. Seriously, I do not understand why people can't accept that. When I created him, I spent literally like, fifteen minutes giving 'Alex' a false backstory and a total of maybe three useful traits. He bares effectively no resemblance to me at all. The spacing doesn't matter much on the edits. Typically I don't use the page numbers, either. I just copy-paste parts of the error test to find it within the document. I'll likely publish at least some more of this, I've got a little bit more on the next chapter written, but it's done in fits and starts of moments where my brain needs a break from other projects. Enough people seem to like it that it may make its way into polls eventually. For now, it's a fun side project I don't need to worry about deadlines for.
Novus Peregrine
2025-05-03 00:29:36 +0000 UTC...WOW... :O I'm actually a little speechless after I've read this monster of a starting point for your new story Novus. Another SI of yours that is also well built, smart while also still avoiding the usual cliches of SI's and Isekai's is always a delicious treat to partake in. I tip my hat to you Novus, excellent as always. Now though... *Claps hands together while rubbing them together.* It was rough doing this on my phone rather then laptop and while I was at work to boot but I'm done reading and editing! Now to put it here! *Snaps Fingers* Chapter 1 Page 2: It needs someone who’s “mine” was expanded how yours has been… Edit: It needs someone who’s “mind” was expanded how yours has been… Page 6: …and having to drop them ink the power slot to figure out “why” they were and what they could do. Edit: …and having to drop them ink the power slot to figure out “who” they were and what they could do. Page 7: Jasmine of “Aladin fame”, for example… Edit: Jasmine of “Aladdin”, for example… No “Pheonix” Force levels of powers for him. Edit: No “Phoenix” Force levels of powers for him. Quite a longer list “were” rapidly piled into… Edit: Quite a longer list “was” rapidly piled into… Page 10: Let “along” when they were. Edit: Let “alone” when they were. Chapter 2 Page 17 Congratulations! You’ve “arrival”! Edit: Congratulations! You’ve “arrived”! Chapter 3 Page 25 …she didn’t break anything breaking her new body in… Edit: …she didn’t break anything “while” breaking her new body in… Chapter 5 Page 36 With this world “have” a Deep Net that required Netrunning gear… Edit: With this world “having” a Deep Net that required Netrunning gear… Chapter 7 Page 46: …damn near 20,000 square foot of space, but built into hill that made it look like it… Edit: damn near 20,000 square foot of space, but built into “a” hill that made it look like it… She “procced” to cut the ‘surface’ off from the bottom… Edit: She “then proceeded” to cut the ‘surface’ off from the bottom… …she could have just played with creation a bit more and made a “tone” of the… Edit: …she could have just played with Creation a bit more and made a “ton” of the… Page 47: Still, it had taken “too” full weeks to do everything… Edit: Still, it had taken “two” full weeks to do everything… Page 48: Yet, hitting the wrong “wold” cause an abrupt vacuum… Edit: Yet, hitting the wrong “one would” cause an abrupt vacuum… More people died yearly to the gangs in Gotham than “would die rooting them out…” Edit: The chaos of rooting out the gangs would actually cause less(italic) deaths then those who have already died yearly due to said gangs of Gotham. (My tired mind couldn’t figure a way forward for this sentence so it decided, without my permission, to just remake it. To it's credit, It DID try to remake it in your flavor brand of word structure though…) Leaving them be just so that “didn’t do worse” was killing more people in the long run. Edit: Leaving them be just so that “things didn’t get worse short term” was killing more people in the long run. Chapter 8 Page 48: …had been something that turned her off of games. Edit: ...had been something that turned her off "from such" games. End of Edits And VIOLA! ...Nice that, even tired as I am, I was still smart enough to just email myself the edits from my phone then copy and paste. Saved me SO much time and effort. Might just read and edit at the same time from here just to make things easier on myself. Didn't think it would look like this though. Question: Would more space like this between each sentence then edit technically be easier on the eyes rather them being so close together? Wouldn't mind doing things like this going forward but it's up to you since I'm cool either way. With that now out of the way... Novus Fanfiction Works. What I want from you now is as simple as it can get: MMMMMOOOOORRRRREEEEE. This story has now captivated and enthralled me in a way that not even Half-Broken has managed to. The unholy amalgam world you've created is FASCINATNG and I want to see more of it to be frank. You've combined so many worlds together in this that they work together in ways that make an "unholy" amount of sense. Congratulations are in order. ...I really hope this story does well and that, one day, you'll put it on the Voting Polls. Cause I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. Pleasant night and dreams Novus!
The Foreign Traveler
2025-05-02 10:32:44 +0000 UTCAwesome! :-)
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-28 07:19:43 +0000 UTCYeah, that 'No Kill' policy on modern version of DC is...stupid, frankly. As it happens, Marvel doesn't have such a policy as a general rule. Specific teams might try to avoid it, but characters like Captain America or Wolverine, despite being heroes, have never hesitated to kill. Same with agents like Black Widow of Hawkeye who have official connections to groups like Shield. Likewise, the Protectorate in Worm have the Kill List, as well as specific circumstances in which killing is justified. (As I understand it, at least, I've never actually read Worm. My exposure is entirely through fanfiction there). As such, I decided it made more sense for an amalgam world to fall on the practical/realistic side of the argument, instead of the very strange and impractical DC side. Star Labs. No, there won't be any issues with Star Labs, assuming they exist. Remember, DC had Starfire, Star Sapphire, Stargirl, and mostly likely other Star named characters I can't think of immediately. I did do quick searches of MHA, DC, and Marvel to make sure there wasn't already a Star Knight. Which there doesn't appear to be. Though I didn't check extensively. So, most of the Superman vs Flash races are charity events where Flash intentionally holds back. It's made clear in the majority of them, usually when something goes wrong, that Flash is actually MUCH faster than Superman. Like, there's-no-comparison levels of Much Faster and Superman can't even SEE him moving at full speed. As for the Tamaranean vs Kryptonian thing. Most versions of Starfire have been shown to be capable of self-powered FTL flight between solar systems. Superman's speed, in comparison is INCREDIBLY inconsistent over the various versions. Only a very few sporadic versions (like the bullshit time travel nonsense one) have FTL capabilities. Both Post-Crisis and Modern Era Superman versions fall into this category, where he's FAST, but sub light speed only. (Same with his original Golden Age iteration, before power creep, actually). This marks the only purely physical advantage Tamaraneans have over their Kryptonian counterparts, so far as I know. Well, that and no needing a yellow sun specifically. Starfire has explicitly stated in a few comics that, while she is strong, she's nowhere close to Superman in that area. Same with durability. Tamaraneans ARE insanely energy resistant, so they might get the edge there, particularly against magic. I couldn't find any details on that, actually. Superman isn't actually weak to magic, he just has identical resistance to a normal human, so isn't particularly strong on that front either. Given Tamaraneans are a step closer to being energy beings that Kryptonians are, even if they still fall short of truly being so, it's at least possible they might be more resistant to magic. Alyssa specifically very much IS magic-resistant. But it comes from the Ashoka part of her power template. One overlooked thing is that, if Jedi/Sith didn't have a way to prevent casual Force usage on their own persons, every fight would end with a quick draw battle on who could telekinetically clamp down on the aorta artery fastest. Or, more ruthlessly, rip out organs. Presumably filling themselves with the Force for combat makes them hard to affect that way. So Alyssa has some level of Magic resistance from that. Though not super-legendry levels or anything. Quicksilver, I haven't decided on which version of him (if any) will be present. Some versions of him are much faster than others. I don't THINK any of them are FTL capable, though. So Alyssa would probably beat them...if she wasn't worried about utterly destroying her surroundings in the process at least. That last is why she stayed subsonic when exiting stage left on Iron Man.
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-28 07:19:00 +0000 UTCSo, I think one of my favorite aspects of this was that the "licensed" or "official" teams don't avoid lethal force against people like Joker (and the Endbringers, like Solomon Grundy, even though that is only temporary in their cases). Insane mass murdering clown committing terrorist attacks? Lethal force is justified, particularly if in a situation where they are actively attacking. Was very refreshing to have the other teams have dealt with the rogues that left Gotham. As a second point, is there going to be any suspicion/confusion/consequences for her calling herself Star Knight with regards to the possible existence of S.T.A.R. Labs in this Amalgam world (and/or will she actually get a sponsor/partnership offer from them? Or if there isn't a S.T.A.R. Labs in this world, will she potentially create it herself/have it be a backer for her Hero Team, kinda like Stark helps back the avengers)? It seems like it could become a possible plot point or it could easily be waved away. And one last point for clarification, I have seen a number of fics, and some actual versions of Canon where Superman and Flash race to see who is faster, and a non-zero number of them have them tie (or the race gets interrupted and they count it as a tie). Even to the point that both have been shown to have enough speed to alter time (though, Superman flying around the earth in reverse of its rotation so fast that he causes the earth to spin backwards and thus reverse time is complete nonsense, it still is part of *a* canon). You specify that Star Knight/Tamaraneans match up to Kryptonians in terms of speed/that Star Knight is faster than Superman would be. How then does she compare to the Flash, if there is a Flash in this world (and, tangentially, this loops back to previous topic of S.T.A.R. Labs, as Flash works with them). Furthermore I know the "Speed Force" is an external source of power (not sure if it can be taken/given to others or just some people can tap into it) but, especially with the "Force" bit in the name I now find myself wondering if Star Knight is going to draw even more attention due to her Speed, Hero Name, and -once it gets mentioned/comes out, if it does, the source of her powers being the "Force". Will she discover that the "Speed force" is just a highly specialized method of channeling the same source that powers her? Will she become somewhat a replacement for The Flash, with even broader abilities and more skills? If she is faster than Superman/comparable to Flash, how does that measure up to other Speedsters, Marvel's Quicksilver comes to mind (and I think DC or Marvel had one with the name Mercury after the roman counterpart to the Greek Hermes, thus avoiding the Greek pantheon connection Wonder Woman has if DC).
Keht Jelicho
2025-04-28 06:34:27 +0000 UTCJust got around to reading it. I like it.
Aojae
2025-04-28 04:24:11 +0000 UTCWoah. Glad you enjoyed it! I'm definitely intending to lean into the netrunning and cybertech angle at least a little, as part of the reason I made this is to get used to mixing a setting like that with a Superhero setting. Alyssa herself doesn't need cyberization, but she'll do netrunning and some of her future teammates will lean into it a bit. Yes to the DC Order/Chaos magic split. That's what I based the 'Order' and 'Chaos' references off of. While Order and Chaos Lords (such as Doctor Fate and Klarion the Witch Boy) draw on Order and Chaos, Alyssa draws on the energy created by them repelling each other. It isn't actually a mix of Order and Chaos, so much as it is a rejection of both. The thin, but still technically necessary and infinite, space between Order and Chaos, sort of. She probably CAN use certain type of DC magic, though she doesn't have much real reason to. The version of the Force she has access to includes all the esoteric Legends abilities. Including things like Phasing, elemental manipulation, and even the sort of stuff normally only present in Sith Magic. Though she'll have to learn each individual power. Original Momo CAN'T reabsorb things she creates. That's a modification of her ability that I gave her after she got One for All in Automata.
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-28 02:21:02 +0000 UTCI'm glad you enjoyed it :-). I'll try not to picture people grinding up fanfiction and snorting it through dollar bills...even if that's what 'the good shit' brought to mind ;-).
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-28 02:08:58 +0000 UTCSo I finally got to read this one today and I must say I love it ..... For the blend of worlds it actually perfectly thought out from what was seen so far..... Our new Mc is also really well made with the character blend and seems like some interesting mix of izuku from displaced hero as well as momo and izumi from the my hero automata with the perfect amount added and removed..... In my personal ranking of your storys this just catapulted itself to place three just after one piece and automata for my interest into it.... So I would definitely want to see a lot more of this.... Now for some thoughts and ideas I had first I love the tech angle as well as possible hacking and net running ala cyberpunk and would definitely like to see more in that direction even if the MC will probably never really chrome herself up she could definitely help her possible team do so... Next the way the force is translated in this as order and chaos yet neither sounds like some of the bullshit mystical shit of DC which I kind of love which would theoretically let her besides all the force techniques (all the bullshit one of all the extended star wars franchise) probably learn some DC/marvel magic shit as well ... I don't know if kamartaj and/or lords of order and chaos(like doctor fate) exist in your continuity but that sounds like stuff she could learn..... Not to mention that her star bolts probably have a mythic energy leaning for both the positive and negative that can bring Also with eidetic memories and enhanced intellect she could learn a lot of things for her creation ability very fast Next she can only chanel and store so much of her energy but can train it with pretty much all of her abilities like creation for more volume she needs to channel more energy but that would probably let her channel more energy for her star bolts etc. that also reminds me original momo can reabsorb what she creates can our mc do that to or was that los in the ability merge if she can she would get more energy back could she train to store more energy like that or release energy back into the "force" ( now that I think about that original momo could make "real" things and later reapsorp that would that then not mean she and our mc coud absorb/disintegrate stuff with that ability||besides that one force ability that lets one destroy molecular/atomic bonds).... Mh I did have some other ideas but can't remember them now oh well still please 🙏🥺🙏🥺🙏 please more of this I beg you oh great and glorious Novus
Dominique Brassel
2025-04-28 00:44:09 +0000 UTCExtremely fun read. I'm still chomping at the bit for more Displaced Hero and Confused Adventure, but this is definitely going on my 'the good shit' list. <3
MadKingMidas
2025-04-27 01:12:44 +0000 UTCHigh praise my a new story's standard :-). I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-26 23:50:26 +0000 UTCAwesome :-). I'm glad people seem to like it!
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-26 23:40:27 +0000 UTCThat description of the Enbringers being nature saying 'no FU go die' cracked me up :-p. Accurate, in this case, though. I'm glad you enjoyed what there is of the story so far :-).
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-26 23:40:09 +0000 UTCI like it a lot. I would rate it above pandoras box, confused adventure, and eridium dreams but below hero automata, displaced hero, and halfway broken. Those last three have a lot of built up momentum though and no fresh series, no matter how strong a start, is going to top that much momentum. I'd love to see where this goes in the future
Mr Fox
2025-04-26 20:53:51 +0000 UTCThis was interesting. A lot of crossovers end up focusing on one or two settings they add to the story despite having like ten. You added five or six while giving them a nice blend. Like batgirl having a cyber deck, or the endbringers being closer to nature going 'no FU go die'. I would love to see more of this
Chaos Dude
2025-04-26 19:54:02 +0000 UTCThis was a fun read, and if the mood takes you I would be happy to read more. Thanks for sharing it.
Sequal
2025-04-26 19:40:33 +0000 UTCI'm glad you enjoyed it :-). There's a good chance I'll write at least SOME more for it, but there's no telling when, since I'm not intending to add it as a poll option.
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-26 08:49:52 +0000 UTCWhat makes you think she didn't spot it? She just has absolutely no reason to connect that extremely minor event to a new hero on the scene, double so when they happened weeks apart. As for the outside security system, she didn't come in from the same access point, and the skill template Alyssa is working with is honestly a bit better than Barbara. So she wasn't going to notice the daemons in the system, particularly without explicitly looking for them.
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-26 08:47:19 +0000 UTCKinda strange that Barbara didn’t notice the compromised security system at town hall, especially with the childish sketch of a bat symbol that nobody in the local scene would’ve gone through with
Matthew Robar
2025-04-26 07:17:14 +0000 UTCI will say I found this fun to read so thanks. If you ever felt like writing more to this I know I for one would enjoy it. Good luck overcoming your various troubles and thanks for writing.🙂
Mezo
2025-04-26 07:08:59 +0000 UTC*cracks knuckles* Knowingly or not, you've asked the right person! Early on in my writing career I had to dissect this, and I've talked about it with other writers since then. So, before ANYTHING ELSE, let me tell you something important: Virtually every writer uses slightly different means to pull it off. There is no 'one right way.' That's true of most things with fiction writing, but important enough for this bit that I'm actually going to walk you through 3 common methods, rather than just one. Two of them I use regularly, the third I HAVE used, but only once or twice. It, ironically, is the most common for other authors so far as I know. Hence the first warning ;-). Oh, and keep in mind, these are all methods I use my own names for. It's VERY possible official names for them exist, but if they do, I don't know them. Method 1) The Caricature/Personality Slider method: This method is one of the easiest to use, but can be extremely effective. Essentially, you DON'T try to escape your own thought process. Not entirely. Instead, what you do it manipulate it. You Amplify certain traits while Reducing others. This is what I named it for, as the end result often ends up being a Caricature of you, one that would be effectively unrecognizable to anyone but you. Picture, if you will, one of those nice, fancy sound-mixing boards. The ones with all the cool sliders that everyone loves to move and almost no one actually understands what they actually do. Now, imagine that above each slider, you labeled with a bit of tape all of your personality traits. Anything from 'Temper' to 'Engineering Nerd.' Now, to create your different thought-process character? You pick two or three traits that you're FAMILAR with, because they are part of you, and you push that slider All the Way Up. Then, you take a few other traits and you slide them down. You know these traits, they are part of you already. So it's pretty easy to get into the mindset of 'Well, what do I sound like/think like when I'm in full fanboy mode of XYZ topic.' You give the character one or two traits like that, then de-emphasize other aspects of yourself. In example, if one of your traits is 'Engineering Nerd' and another is 'Unassuming/Restrained' you amplify the hell out of the first and reduce the heck out of the second. Suddenly, it's not you talking anymore...it's Mei Hatsume. This method is pretty easy for most people to use. They are already familiar with the traits in question. However, it's also a bit limited, as it only allows you to create characters you're familiar with the traits of. Useful, great even if you only need one or two character perspectives. A fantastic starting point for most people. Now... Method 2) Stereotype Mixing/No-That-Isn't-Quite- Plagiarism! So, one of the most important lessons for any writer is that...there isn't any such thing as a new character or a new story. The world has been spinning a long time, and any character or world you write will always have similarities to other characters. This is why Tropes are a thing, Archetypes exist, and overused versions of either become Cliches and Stereotypes. The thing is...it can and does work in reverse, too. If you need a specific type of character? Find two or three examples of similar characters who tell a story from their perspective. Read the heck out of them, then mix and match their thought processes. Add your own flavor, of course. A straight up copy really is plagiarism. But using them and their voice/cadence/thought process as an inspiration, a jumping off point to get into the head of your own new character? That's just good sense. Start writing while 'under the influence' of a character you've gotten in the head of, try to see everything from their perspective. But then start injecting the different bits that make it your own. If your inspiration was a female naval officer in a military sci-fi setting? Make it a male officer and change some of their views and perspectives to reflect that. Then change another little trait, and another, until you've reached a character whose very different both from you AND from the inspiration character. If you can't come up with the changes easily yourself, compare them to another character like them and blatantly mix a few traits until, again, the new character is unrecognizable even by the original authors of the ones inspiring them. Method 3) Copy People You Know! So, this is actually my LEAST used method, but it's among the most commonly used and cited throughout history. Everyone (or almost everyone) builds mental models of the people they know. Assuming you have a decent relationship with your family, you might have a really good idea how your Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Uncle or Aunt think. You can predict what their reaction to something you did would be, right? Based on what you know about them? Same thing with a Best Friend, a Favorite Professor, etc. etc. etc. Heck, even if you hate your family, you can still probably predict them, in a nicely villainous way to. Possibly complete with mental voices that are caricatures of theirs ;-). A famous example of this? Sherlock Holmes was actually based on a professor that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle knew, who did a toned-down version of Holmes' deduction trick with his students. Watson is based on Doyle himself, with Sherlock being based on that professor. Doyle asked himself: "Okay, how would HE figure this out?" to build Holme's thought process. There are almost certainly people you know, who you know them well enough to ask that question about. 'What would XYZ do in this situation?' With the answers to asking that question frequently and often eventually helping you build the thought process until it self-sustains. Note that...this can go wrong if someone who you based a character in a story on reads it and gets offended :-p. On the other hand, it can be fantastic revenge against someone you don't like, too. There are a few authors famous for writing their villains based off caricatures of real people who pissed them off ;-). ----------- One final piece of advice, that applies to all three of these methods? All of them are a bit like method acting. What you're really trying to do is warp your own thought process around to a new point of view. Getting 'into a role' like an actor would. Asking things like what the character's motivation is, or what/how their history would influence them towards. Ultimately, this is why authors often say that 'the character wrote' something. Because, in the state of mind where they got into that character's head? They wrote something different than their original native thought process would have come up with. It's usually the best stuff for that character, too, the most authentic feeling bits. Which means they almost never toss it out, even if it means rewriting around it...
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-26 05:26:24 +0000 UTCSo I haven’t even read this yet, but reading through your opening explanation of what this actually is something popped out at me. I’m actually thinking about MAYBE writing something of my own soon. I haven’t written almost any fiction other than a DnD campaign in like 8 years. And I always have problems writing characters that DON’T follow my thought process. You talked a lot about writing your characters so that they don’t reflect you. Any tips on how to do the same? I just struggle to get out of my mind and into the characters.
WhatAFungi
2025-04-26 04:47:32 +0000 UTCChapter 1: A/N 1: This is honestly the only portion of the story where the character is even mostly an SI. Even here, I've made some major personality tweaks, in order to get the sort of character I needed. But the thought process during character creation is at least mostly similar to my own. Albeit with some of the reasoning edited out for publication, as it got too rambly. A/N 2: As I said in the post, I really did do what the character did. I pulled the last 100 images I'd downloaded from various places off my phone (excluding 2B and the in-story inclusions) and used them as a pool of options to choose from. This was one of dozens of random ways to initiate a story that I'd had just floating around in my head. A story prompt really. One that could even include the world, if you wanted, by using a fourth slot to choose a character whose world you'd travel to. I can actually supply the pool of images I used, if people are curious, but it's not really important. A/N 3: I...honestly probably ended up overpowering the character? Starfire PROBABLY should have been a 2-slot character. But she was borderline. Given how many high-level characters there are in the Amalgam world, it's probably fine long-term, but Alyssa is going to be a bit OP in the short term.
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-26 04:03:03 +0000 UTCThis comment is for author's notes! Beware spoilers! And if you want to comment on one of them, please do so in a separate comment NOT nested here, in order to keep these orderly!
Novus Peregrine
2025-04-26 03:54:58 +0000 UTC
