James_D_Fawkes

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter LXXXII: Towards the Ocean Blue

More Christmas celebrations to be had later on today and tonight, but for now, I managed to get at least some work done on this one.

Link.

[Hereafter] Chapter LXXXI: Oceanic Mystery

Probably the last chapter before Christmas, so... Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it, happy holidays for those who celebrate something else, and have a good weekend to everyone else.

So here's another fairly big chapter. I think Sagum Vocationis is still the longest chapter - or was that Engine of Destruction? - but this one did break 6K, which is a bit longer than usual but slowly becoming the norm.

There are some surprises this chapter. Some callbacks, some r...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter LXXXI: Oceanic Mystery

Okeanos approaches.

Link.

[Hereafter] Chapter LXXX: Manifest Fantasy

Some IRL drama has really cut into my writing time this last week, so this is later than I wanted it to be. Here you go, though.

So I'm sure a certain someone came as a pretty big surprise last week. This chapter is about the aftermath of that, because no, summoning your enemy into your home base is not necessarily a great idea. Letting them stay even less so.

But, well, some parts of that are simple, and some are quite a bit more complicated.

EDIT: Moving down.

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter LXXX: Manifest Fantasy

How do you treat someone who was once an enemy, but has no memory of it?

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(CiP)[Hereafter] Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part Eight

Had a teensy bit of trouble figuring something out for this chapter, but I resolved it, so even if it's a bit late, here.

Link.

[Hereafter] Interlude OMA(II): Fighting Demons

I really liked this chapter, in spite of how tough it is on our favorite director. It lets me show exactly how bad of a headspace she's in without making her look like a raving lunatic in front of the rest of the cast.

Also, check that surprise at the end. It was tempting to cut the chapter off a little earlier than that, but that last line at the very bottom? Too good. I just couldn't resist having the chapter end there.

And, of course, Taylor's stocked up on quite a bit of good ...

[Hereafter] Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part Seven

I hemmed and hawed a little bit about a certain part near the end, but it made sense to me, considering the circumstances. It's not something that's going to be happening often or in the main story, but just for this one time, Taylor can be that much of a badass.

I was also a little uncertain about Serenity's lesson on what it means to become a vampire, but I hope it's compelling enough to understand her character a little better.

(CiP)[Hereafter] Interlude OMA(II): Fighting Demons

It seemed like the right time for it.

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[Hereafter] Fleeting Lunar Phantasia

Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part One 

Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part Two 

Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part Three 

2022-11-28 18:41:17 +0000 UTC View Post

(CiP)[Hereafter] Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part Seven

I'm actually pretty deep into this one already.

Link here.

[Hereafter] Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part Six

For all Elizabeth Bathory has a terrible reputation as a serial killer, it really does need to be put into context that 600-ish people might be a lot, but there are plenty of men from much later in history that have way higher body counts and a much worse excuse for their atrocities than, "I was an aristocrat raised from the cradle to think of the peasantry as subhuman." 

I'm not saying it excuses her. Fate does enough whitewashing of some pretty terrible people from history, let a...

[Hereafter] Chapter LXXIX: Road to Recovery

This one gave me a little bit of trouble. I got to the second half and felt like I didn't really know what to do or where to go with it, but a little help from the editor got my mojo flowing again and I managed to finish out with something I liked.

Olga's facing a long, tough road, and it won't be easy, but it's still something she can do, and Taylor's going to be there the whole way. So are the twins and Mash, although she won't let them close enough just yet to know how much they're h...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter LXXIX: Road to Recovery

This one's going to be a bit more difficult than the last few. Going to have to get the balance right in the relationship between Taylor and Olga.

Link here.

[Hereafter] Chapter LXXVIII: Dreamcatcher

Somehow, this is 5000 words. How is it 5000 words? Got me, but it is.

So we've gotten through the major hurdles to the Director's most pressing issues, which means we can start to skip forward a little and ease into starting Okeanos, but that's still a few chapters off. It doesn't really feel like it, but we're already stretching as long as the post Orleans intermission, and I think it's about time we pick up the pace a little.

For now, though, a little bit of bonding, a little bi...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part Six

I remembered, this time!

Link.

[Hereafter] Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part Five

Somehow, I forgot to make a CiP for this one again, good grief.

Did I lay on the hints too hard this chapter? I'm a little bit worried about that. It's not like way too much of Under the Moonlight gets spoiled at any real point in this sidestory, but I don't want to be too obvious about everything that's revealed here either.

Come to think of it, most of the stuff that's going to be revealed in FLP is stuff that would be revealed within the first couple of chapters of UtM...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter LXXVIII: Dreamcatcher

I'm not married to the title of this chapter, but I couldn't think of anything better, so here it goes. 

Link.

[Hereafter] Chapter LXXVII: Resolution of the Final Regret II

Here it is, the conclusion. I get that not everyone was super happy about the guy in the second half of last chapter and won't be with him in this chapter, but the real payoff is supposed to be in the second half of this chapter, and I hope that makes up for any misgivings you might have had.

Of course, I doubt anyone is truly surprised by the "surprise guest" at the end, and I think I did a pretty good job of foreshadowing it, but...surprise? This is the biggest batch of devel...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter LXXVII: Resolution of the Final Regret II

The second half. 

Link. 

[Hereafter] Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part Four

Yes, I'm working on this alongside the regular story. I... Oh, crap, did I forget to post a CiP link for this? I think I did. No wonder no one was dropping comments in the GDoc. Blegh.

Anyway. I was trying to get a lot of exposition out of the way this chapter so that I can push the story along faster than I did in Septem. I don't want this sidestory to go much longer than maybe fifteen chapters, so I want to cover more ground quicker going forward.

For now, this lays out the stru...

[Hereafter] Chapter LXXVI: Resolution of the Final Regret I

It turns out that trying to keep a consistent output for Nanowrimo makes it easier to finish chapters sooner. Who knew?

This was supposed to be a single chapter, but there wasn't enough space to finish without pushing towards 8k, 9k, or more, and taking probably another day or two or four. It would also have made the chapter feel too crowded, so I split it in half.

Apropos of a certain someone appearing here in this chapter... Yeah, I'm still a little bit uncertain. It's not like ...

[Hereafter] Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part three

Remember this?

I'm going to try and work on this as part of Nanowrimo. It feels incredibly daunting to imagine writing an additional 40K+ on top of the 20K-25K that is going to go into the proper Hereafter story, but I can at least make a try at it. Ironically, if I just do a chapter of each per week, then I'll actually reach the goal of writing a total of 40k through November, and that might be a more realistic goal.

Well, we'll see how it goes.

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter LXXVI: Resolution of the Final Regret

Might wind up being more than a single chapter, honestly. There's a lot that I need to cover for her, and I have in mind exactly how it needs to go. I'm just not sure I can fit it all into one chapter.

Link. 

[Hereafter] Chapter LXXV: Difficult Adjustments

This one gave me a little bit of trouble, because it's been 65 chapters since Olga was last in the story, so it took a little bit more to get back into her headspace. Note: this isn't the end of our poor Director's struggles, though. There's still more in store for her.

For now, though, we're going to let those sleeping dogs lie. It's a thread that will get picked back up, I can assure you of that.

The way this chapter ends lets me transition pretty smoothly into...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter LXXV: Difficult Adjustments

Took a little bit longer to figure out where and how I wanted to start this, as well as what to call it. But in the interest of not suddenly changing directions, let's get the Director up to speed, shall we?

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[Hereafter] Chapter LXXIV: Lingering Shadows

The original plan was to move into Aife's "interlude" subplot, "The Resolution of the Final Regret," after this chapter, but I'm not sure if that's too abrupt a change of pace. I can off-screen the whole "let Olga know what's been going on while she was out" bit, but I think you guys would like it better if I didn't, right?

So I guess Resolution has to be pushed back so I can take a moment to deal with Olga's stuff a little more next chapter. 

Well, for now, here's s...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter LXXIV: Lingering Shadows

Trying to pace correctly for some upcoming stuff, so we start with some setup and then we'll move forward with poor Marie a little.

Link here.

[Hereafter] Chapter LXXIII: Invisible Scars

(Re)Birthmark was too much me trying to be too clever. I'm not sure this title is that much better, but it's much less me trying to be clever, so it has that going for it.

I had a clever idea here in this chapter that takes some of the lore we got in Mahoyo and plays with it. I'm trying not to pat myself on the back for being too clever, because pride cometh before the fall, and it's only a matter of the public release before someone somewhere goes, "Um, actually," and breaks d...

What did you think of Septem as a whole?

Now that the main story of Septem is over, let's take another temperature check. After voting, if there was anything in particular you had a strong opinion on, please leave your thoughts in the comments below.