James_D_Fawkes

[Hereafter] Third Anniversary Banner

The larger version for you guys.

[Hereafter] Third Anniversary "Cinematic"

A sprawling city. A bay stretching outwards to the horizon. A radiant sun casting light upon the towers of glass and steel beneath its gaze.

“Whoa! This place is…!”

“Familiar.”

“Hey, hey, this is like coming home, isn’t it?”

Cold gray eyes shining like steel. A naked blade. A coat woven of oaths and brotherhood. Beneath the light of the moon, she stands in opp...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Interlude RF: Once Upon a Dream

Finally got to that interlude.

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[Hereafter] Chapter CLI: Down in the Underground

So this wound up quite a bit bigger than usual. To be fair, I had a lot to cover for this, and I still didn't cover everything I wanted to cover originally, but when I think about where I intended this chapter to end when I first started writing it, I think that it's maybe a good thing I didn't. The cliffhanger I originally meant to leave everyone on would have been hanging for an extra week, because next chapter is an interlude, and that might not have felt particularly good. 2024-05-27 00:58:55 +0000 UTC View Post

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CLI: Down in the Underground

The investigation continues and the end approaches.

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[Hereafter] Chapter CL: Beneath the Surface

Not quite a whole day early, but pretty darn close this time.

This chapter was mostly setup for the next couple of chapters, although we did progress a few things in the meantime, too. I have a few ideas that may or may not get used next chapter, so paying attention to what Taylor says and narrates in this one may have some additional pay off next week.

The week after next will be the next interlude, tentatively titled, "Once Upon a Dream." That will kick off the end run of this S...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CL: Beneath the Surface

Not sure this title will stay. It was the only thing I could think of, but I might come up with something better later.

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[Hereafter] Chapter CXLIX: King of Steam

The natural consequences of the previous chapter.

A lot of stuff kinda gets brushed over in the canon FGO narrative sometimes, but it's been so long since I played through London originally that I've forgotten some of the things it actually does get right. Like the fact that Victorian London already had the famous London Underground.

I was surprised when the fight actually took up as much of the chapter as it did, all things considered. But yes. We're drawing closer to the end of ...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CXLIX: King of Steam

Time for the big guy to take center stage.

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[Hereafter] Chapter CXLVIII: Steampunk Fantasy

So I didn't get to go quite as far with this chapter as I intended to, but that's okay. I still got enough in to keep the name this time. And it lets me reference a certain someone even more directly with next chapter's title.

Anyway, I'm sure those of you who are paying close attention to my usual pattern will notice that we're due for an interlude. If you hadn't noticed, I like to do one per 10-ish chapters, so it's about time for another one. I have something very specific I want to ...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CXLVIII: Steampunk Fantasy

This time, for sure, the title is sticking.

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[Hereafter] Chapter CXLVII: Enemy in the Mist

One of these days, I'll keep the original title when I release the finished chapter, but that day is not today.

So I could have pushed this out a little bit further, because I originally intended to get the fight in at the end of the chapter instead of ending the chapter right before the fight, but that would have meant another 1-2k words, probably, and while that's not necessarily abnormal, 6.4k seemed big enough for me. The fight can just happen at the start of next chapter instead. 2024-04-29 02:13:41 +0000 UTC View Post

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CXLVII: Enemy in the Mist

I think I should be able to get as far as I want to, so hopefully, this one won't go through a name change the way the last one did.

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[Hereafter] Chapter CXLVI: Legacy of a Checkered Past

I should have expected that I wouldn't get quite as far as I originally thought I might when I started writing this chapter. That seems to be a problem I run into a lot, although I'm not sure how much of a "problem" it really is.

I really liked how this chapter turned out. There were some excellent moments here, and I got to include Andersen being a snarky little bastard a bit more than usual. Of course, I also got to call back to some other things that have been sitting on the back bur...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CXLVI: Legacy of a Checkered Past

Title might change if I can't get as far as I want to, which is sad, because I had a hard time coming up with one for this chapter.

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[Hereafter] Chapter CXLV: The Spy Who Loved Me

I couldn't resist. Rika had such a perfect moment here, I had to reference it in the title, too.

I'm not sure I can put a number on exactly how far into the Singularity we are now, but we're definitely closer to the end than the beginning. I've still got a few things up in the air that I need to pin down, and one of them is exactly how I want to handle a certain someone in the upcoming chapters.

But I've still got a handful of surprises in store. Guarantee none of you are going to...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CXLV: The Spy Who Loved Me

Not quite sure what to call this one yet. I'm sure I'll think of something.

Link.

[Hereafter] Chapter CXLIV: Wayward Student

In what seems to be Hereafter's most recent tradition, this one changed names at the very last moment. I realized that I have another chapter in this Singularity that may in fact need to have the "Legacy" title, so I'm saving it for that. Of course, I've done that before, and never wound up actually playing the card I held onto, but on the off chance...

Anyway. Alchemy battles are hard. FMA did such a damn good job — in no small part because Arakawa really did her resear...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CXLIV: Tainted Legacy

Title will probably wind up changed at some point. I know I want "Legacy" in the title, but I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with something that fits in all the ways I want.

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[Hereafter] Chapter CXLIII: Grand Ritual

So this is, in FGO canon, where the first hints are really laid about the existence of Grand Servants and what their purpose is, and also therefore the moment where FGO retcons the Servant Summoning Ritual into something that existed long before the Holy Grail War and for vastly different purposes.

First problem, here in Hereafter, Romani mentions Grand Servants when talking about King Solomon all the way back during the debrief after Fuyuki. So Chaldea has, in this story, long...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CXLIII: Grand Ritual

This time, I'm getting to the part I wanted to get to.

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[Hereafter] Chapter CXLII: Lost History

I love the idea that everyone is just completely flabbergasted every time Taylor is just the slightest bit motherly toward Jackie, and meanwhile, Taylor is internally scrambling for examples of what that even means. She just keeps coming back to her memories of her own mother, which has to be all kinds of bittersweet.

She's also kinda noticing that her enemies tend to monologue. At some point, I think Rika needs to comment about it, referencing The Incredibles, because...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CXLII: Lost History

Whether I keep this title will depend on whether I can get to the part that it's supposed to be referencing.

Link.

EDIT: I could not. We were getting very far up there in word count, and I couldn't see me finishing it on time and reaching the part I wanted for the "Grand Ritual" title, so I'm changing it.

[Hereafter] Chapter CXLI: Fixation

So I really did want to save the reveal for later, but Taylor just wasn't going to let that happen. The man himself even lampshades my original plans in-chapter, as a sort of inside joke about how things changed from my initial intentions.

Now that everyone has had a chance to freak out (or not) about Jackie, we can move onto advancing the plot a bit more next chapter. As much as I wanted to try and extend this Singularity out so that everything wasn't happening in a single week or less...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CXLI: Fixation

Not entirely sure what to call this one yet, so I'll just be leaving the title blank for the moment.

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[Hereafter] Chapter CXL: Merits of Mercy

I wound up changing the title from the original plan. The "Father" title was a play on both an FMA reference and Paracelsus's title as "father of modern alchemy," but that didn't work with how little the chapter wound up focusing on him.

The ending sequence might get a few raised eyebrows, especially considering who else was on Team A and all of their malfunctions, but I think there would still be a mechanism in place for situations like this. Plus, it lets me play with some other stuff...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CXL: Merits of Mercy

So I could have stretched it out further and waited another day or two to see if anyone else wanted to weigh in...but I think, even had I done that, everyone's already been loud and clear about it.

To be completely transparent, this was the way I was leaning to begin with. It's just that the answers to the poll gave me some more confidence in my decision.

2024-03-06 13:26:32 +0000 UTC View Post

[Hereafter] Chapter CXXXIX: Paracelsus

I'm faced with a bit of a conundrum. I got down to the very last part of the chapter and realized I could take the story two different ways. I was completely torn on which would be better for the story and couldn't make up my mind, so I wrote out both possibilities and decided I'd put it to you guys to get your opinion on the matter.

This moment in question is obviously a very pivotal moment, for all that the scene itself seems so small. It's going to change the direction of the story t...

(CiP)[Hereafter] Chapter CXXXIX: Paracelsus

I tried to think of a cleverer title...but at the end of it, a simple, one word title covers what I want to do with this chapter.

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Ver B Link.

[Hereafter] Chapter CXXXVIII: Murderer on the Misty Morn

I thought for sure I was going to get a little bit further than I did, but the section at the top wound up about twice or thrice as big as I was expecting it to be, so things stretched a little. Gives me a little more time to think about the fight that's going to happen next chapter, which is a convenient bonus.

Also, Taylor is quite paranoid, isn't she? Not that she doesn't have good reason to be. You guys can thank the editor for part of that, because he convinced me that she would be...