This one gave me some trouble. Blegh. I'm still not totally happy with how it all went, but I can't pore over it for the next six months, so I'll have to be satisfied with what's there.
The ending wasn't really where I wanted it to be, in terms of how far into the fight I wanted to be by the time this chapter was over, but that cliffhanger was simply too delicious to not use, so that's what decided things, in the end.
2020-12-03 05:45:28 +0000 UTC View PostBlank, for now, but the fight will keep going through here, too. We'll be getting closer to the end.
Link is here.
2020-11-27 15:43:21 +0000 UTC View PostThe fight continues. Not all the combatants might make it out alive.
Link is here.
2020-11-27 15:40:21 +0000 UTC View PostYour friendly reminder — Scion is scary powerful.
Generally, I have that policy of splitting up any chapter that breaks 6k. But this chapter just barely broke 6k, and I was too excited about that last line to break it off into another chapter.
Like I said before, we don't get immediately back to the fight, here, but the fight eventually does rejoin. Next chapter, the fight in the Garden will continue, and someone takes a major blow.
EDIT: Reworked the ending...
2020-11-24 13:13:11 +0000 UTC View PostSo, I was originally going to take this much farther into the fight, but I looked at where I was, where I was going, and how much was going to happen between those two points, and I decided that it would blow this chapter up to something monstrously huge. I'm not entirely sure it wouldn't've have hit 9K or more.
I split it up, instead. What was going to be the second half of this chapter will be going into 11.5, and although 11.4 ends on a bit of a weak note, 11.5's ending should have e...
2020-11-18 07:14:17 +0000 UTC View PostI was going to keep going. I had a frankly amazing spot picked out to end 11.4 on.
But then I got to the point I was at and realized that 11.4 would wind up absolutely behemoth in size if I tried to reach that amazing line in just one chapter, and I decided that it would be better to cut it off and put that line at the end of 11.5 instead.
Since there's still plenty of stuff that needs to happen, I think it works better that way.
MAJOR SPOILERS.
This was originally going to be part of the epilogue, but I decided it would make a good bookend and moved it to the end of Pyrite. There are some things that are going to be spoiled if you look in too early, but I'm putting the decision in you guys' hands.
Link is here.
2020-11-11 23:54:33 +0000 UTC View PostA twist in the action. It looks like the plan worked a little too well.
Link is here.
EDIT: Things you do when you're running on too little sleep — forget to set the post to specific tiers.
2020-11-11 23:48:40 +0000 UTC View PostAnd here we are with the next part of the fight. I honestly expected it to wind up a bit shorter, closer to last chapter in size, but it went and almost hit 5K somewhere along the line and now you can all enjoy that.
If you've been craving action for a while, here's 4.8K words worth of action. It's basically one long action scene, with just about nothing in the way of breaks or pauses. Remember how Arc 1 started? Basically like that.
That cliffhanger, though.
2020-11-08 22:35:23 +0000 UTC View PostLaplace’s Eye [Term]
Laplace’s Eye, the Eye of the Demon that Knows the Future. A long-range remote-viewing device that can see the near future with absolute clarity. A type of Clairvoyance device that grants sight of things that absolutely will occur within a limited time range and a specific space.
Sacrificing breadth, depth, and range, it is an almighty precognitive mechanism that allows the user to predict a specific event at a specific time in a specific ...
2020-11-03 11:18:47 +0000 UTC View PostThings get moving, now. Perhaps, Taylor might have underestimated exactly how effective her plan was.
Link is here.
2020-11-02 07:19:50 +0000 UTC View PostSo, this was sitting around, and I realized, "Huh. You know, that's a pretty good place to end it, so why not?" I could have extended it out, but I think it would have been mostly useless filler. This was as good a stopping point as any.
Taiga was a lot of fun to write, this chapter. I guess she's just a fun character in general, but sometimes, I feel like Yukio does - just watching her makes me tired. There's such a thing as too energetic.
2020-11-02 07:08:05 +0000 UTC View PostThis one is a little shorter than usual, at only about 3600 words. But, I mean, look at that cliffhanger. Look at it. Can you honestly tell me that wasn't the best place to stop to hype up the next chapter?
In any case, here you go. I hope you enjoy the start of the final battle.
As an aside, I think I need to see about getting the latest Microsoft Office suite. My copy of Word is about ten years out of date, and I'm not sure the "phonetic guide" function wouldn't be so much...
2020-11-02 07:02:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe beginning of the end, well and truly. It's still a bit hard to believe we're actually here, after all this time. We're on the final arc, and a part of me still thinks this is too impossible to be real.
But we're here. The final battle.
Link.
Lucky numbers, this time. CiP for 11.3 and 11.4 will be Knights ($13+) only.
2020-10-29 16:34:22 +0000 UTC View PostSo I've been trying to clear out my backlog, and this has been set aside for so long that I'm honestly kinda frustrated it took this long to get to. I'd like to think I would have finished it last year, but with everything that happened last October...
In any case, here it is. I'm sorry to say you all only get it a few days early, because I'll be opening it to the public for Halloween. I hope you all enjoy it anyway.
This chapter took a lot longer than I wanted, between Piggot refusing to work with me and the chaos of trying to get my mail-in ballot squared away. It is done, though, so here it is.
This is the reason why Piggot didn't have an interlude in arc 10. I was saving it to put it here.
Really wanted to use another "dog" reference to tie it in back to her interlude in arc 5, but the only thing I could think of was "Old Dog, New Tricks," and that didn't feel quite right. Neither...
2020-10-25 01:57:53 +0000 UTC View PostIt's a few days later than I wanted it to be, but it's here.
This chapter is mostly setup. The final bits of "what needs to happen for the battle to make sense." There should be one more chapter of that - Piggot's interlude next chapter - and then we move on to the final battle.
Still feels a little surreal that we're actually here.
In any case, enjoy, everyone.
2020-10-14 02:47:43 +0000 UTC View Post
This week, it's back to work on Essence, so I decided to spend the weekend finishing off this character. It's been a while since she featured in the story, but I hope all of you like her anyway.
I actually did an art page (2, in fact) for Khepri and forgot to do one for Aífe and Nimue. I'll have to go back at some point in the near future and make some commentary on them, edit the pics into their corresponding posts.
Her proportions are a little different from Aífe. Arachne is p...
2020-10-05 14:08:57 +0000 UTC View PostI'm a bit iffy on what to title this. On the one hand, going for symmetry with her previous interlude should have me calling it "Black Dog" something or other. On the other, I'm not incredibly attached to that, and I spent a few hours last night trying to find ancient words for "warrior woman," only to come away with the idea that the ancient Celts were no-nonsense enough to just append "woman" to the beginning of traditionally male nouns. The word for "priestess" is quite literally just "wom...
2020-09-30 10:28:56 +0000 UTC View PostStill on hiatus for another week, but I'm getting started at least a little on this in the meantime.
The home stretch... It feels a little strange to think that we're so close to the end. Three and a half years, some of them incredibly rough, but we're here. What a wild ride.
Link is here.
2020-09-30 10:20:25 +0000 UTC View PostWith the end of An Essence of Silver and Steel now in sight and only an arc and an epilogue left to go, it's time to revisit a question I asked quite a while ago. What would you all like to see next?
Fate/Recursive Wisdom:
Tohsaka Yukio would do anything for his family. For his twin sister, Rin, for his estranged sister, Sakura, for the parents he lost ten years ago. For the friends he's made along the way. They'll survive the Fifth Holy Grail War, even i...
2020-09-28 11:33:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Feels really weird being on break. Awkward. Like I should be writing a chapter for this week, but I'm not.
So I finally sat down and finished this, instead.
A part of me still has trouble believing that I'm the one who drew Aífe like that. It feels like it should be way beyond my skill level.
Also, have a halfsized image of the original painting for good measure.
EDIT: Added the art page.
2020-09-17 23:16:58 +0000 UTC View PostAmy and Vicky didn't want to cooperate for a few days, so this is quite a bit later than I wanted it to be, but I did get them to sit down and at least talk a little in the end. Feels like there should still be more to their conversation, but I was a bit stumped on what they could talk about that didn't wind up just filler or rehashing the same arguments over and over.
Lisa also surprised me by showing up partway through the chapter and putting in her own two cents.
I rea...
2020-09-11 04:54:07 +0000 UTC View PostA little later than I wanted it. Danny wasn't super cooperative, but he pulled through in the end.
It took a little thought to figure out which Heroic Spirit Danny should pair with, and in the end, it came down to Sigurd, Odysseus, and Lancelot. The editors and I discussed it and decided, yeah, Odysseus works the best of the three, for what I was originally going for.
There's some fluff, here. Some no-stakes action. A little glimpse at how far along Danny and Taylor have come in r...
2020-09-03 01:24:21 +0000 UTC View PostThe final interlude of arc 10. Let's have another look at Amy and let everyone in on a little secret from two chapters ago.
Link is here.
2020-08-28 13:26:53 +0000 UTC View PostSo, I decided, "One extra interlude." I thought about adding a Lisa interlude, too, but I think I'm going to hold that in my back pocket for arc 11. We'll see. Arc 11 is still gestating in my head.
For now, we have a Danny interlude, because it's been a while since we had one of those.
Link is here.
Lucky numbers! 78. $3 & $7 patrons ge...
2020-08-28 13:22:34 +0000 UTC View PostOriginally, it was intended that there would be a total of ten interludes in arc 10, starting at the beginning of the timeskip with Dennis and ending at the end of the timeskip with Dwarf in the Flask. Now that Dwarf in the Flask is the next interlude, do you think there should be more in between Titania Metamorphose and Dwarf in the Flask? Offer suggestions in the comments, please!
2020-08-25 01:22:06 +0000 UTC View PostThis one was a lot of fun to write. A lot of fun, for all that it's almost entirely dialogue. It also feels much shorter than 4700 words.
And yes. In my headcanon, Glaistig Uaine is Irish. It might not be supported in canon, especially when Glaistig Uaine seems to have been a name that was given to her rather than one she chose for herself, but my logic was that the figure of the "Glaistig Uaine" is far more obscure to anyone outside of Scotland and Ireland than Titania or Quee...
2020-08-25 01:15:27 +0000 UTC View PostWanted to have this out last night, but the editing pass couldn't get finished before the editing team had to call it a day.
The first...third, really, of this chapter is mostly fluff. Catching up on some of the stuff that happened from a certain someone's PoV, and then switching to the action, as it were.
Also, again: Illusionism is hax. Stranger 10. Yikes.
Here's Interlude 10.h: Andvaranaut. Is it gauche to reference the reason for the title in the chapter itself so direct...
2020-08-18 17:21:49 +0000 UTC View PostSo I actually forgot I intended to do this one. I broached the subject with my editors some time ago, back before this arc started, and then forgot all about it and I was wracking my brain to come up with what to do for 10.i.
And then I remembered I wanted to do a GU interlude and have fun with that.
77! Lucky Numbers for $7 tier patrons. You guys get access to this CiP.