Saint
Dragon mourns.
It’s… an uncomfortable realization but an undeniable truth.
The artificial intelligence has been barely functional since the battle against Behemoth, her outburst of energy when trying to save Armsmaster something that seems… almost pitiful when looked back on.
If she was human, I would say she burned herself out. That she gave as much as she could give and is now trying to recover something that may very well be exh...
2023-05-10 01:10:49 +0000 UTC
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Shizu – Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner?
‘That’s not gonna happen,’ I told him with a teasing lilt.
This very morning.
Just this morning.
“Nice to meet you, Haruno,” Dad says as he grabs my incredibly persistent, nagging, stubborn girlfriend’s hand and pumps it up and down in an energic greeting that only ends when Haruno, with a full Yukinoshita, demure smile plastered over her face, twists her wrist just s...
2023-05-07 03:53:37 +0000 UTC
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A long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far away…
It is a period of strife. The Sith Order under Darth Sidious has met surviving Sith who don’t adhere to Darth Bane’s creed of Master and Apprentice.
The struggle for power, for the dominion over the Dark Side, can’t be solved by strength of arms. Not when Palpatine is still masquerading as the Emperor and suppressing any belief in the Force.
A compromise is met.
And so, the barren Sith world of Korriban once again is...
2023-05-05 16:02:24 +0000 UTC
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There is… not joy. Not joy, but something similar.
There is companionship in mourning.
Hannah has refused to leave Colin’s bedside since he was put into the hospital room assigned to him.
The one I paid for.
Because I’ll be damned if I let them stick him in a coma ward.
So, this is it. This is the best room available in Brockton Bay, a place where hospitals should be no more than waiting rooms for our local miracle worker to traipse through. A place that sh...
2023-05-04 05:03:55 +0000 UTC
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The poll winners are both kinda dull and immensely relieving: you guys told me to rest—which, for any of you new around these parts, means that I’ll do my best to catch up to the projects that have fallen behind.
Mostly because I’ve developed a very particular kind of insomnia: I wake up in the middle of the night to finish writing things.
Yup. That sounds healthy.
As a reminder, what I should be writing are Steve Rogers and Toni Stark’s meet cute (which will be a di...
2023-05-02 11:32:36 +0000 UTC
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Sometimes, stories try to be clever.
I don’t have any issues with cleverness. I enjoy it as much as anybody with a hint of mischievousness, with a love for Clever Foxes.
But I don’t enjoy it when it runs contrary to the tale.
Subversion, deconstruction, parody, and satire… They all have their place. I understand that.
I just don’t like it.
I… There’s something lacking, a pervasive trail of something disingenuous stomping around the tale, crus...
2023-05-02 04:18:19 +0000 UTC
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Madoka – Friends Before Femmes
Classes are about to be over.
Classes are about to be over, and I’ll finally have the chance to spend some time alone with Homura, and talk, and discuss things, and ask what she remembers, what I did, how she saw me, why she kept trying again and again just to save me…
And, maybe, I don’t know… hold hands?
…
I shouldn’t be blushing at the thought of holding Homura’s hand. I’ve alr...
2023-05-01 03:42:54 +0000 UTC
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Sometimes, anime and manga are relentlessly mocked for unfair reasons.
(Contrast that with when they are relentlessly mocked for fair reasons, a far more common occurrence.)
There are many instances of such a thing happening: from decrying as cliched and stale the stories that gave birth to the very cliches being criticized, to the overreliance on the male gaze in shows that are aimed entirely at males (for, often dual, obvious reasons), and to the wholly unjustified outr...
2023-04-28 07:55:14 +0000 UTC
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Hannah
“I think it’s… Fuck me sideways,” Minnie says as she warily lifts up the edge of the black signal-shielding cloak covering us before she dramatically throws it off.
In front of me, Behemoth’s head and shoulders rise above the wrecked homes, the shattered rubble, the lone, broken pillars of lacquered, red wood that no longer frame any doorways.
Alexandria is in front of it, poised to strike, her right hand cupped over her ear.
...
2023-04-26 08:39:20 +0000 UTC
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Well, here we go again: time for democracy to work.
For those of you new here (and thank you for coming), the way this works is that I list a few things that have been brewing on my mind for quite a while (and, by popular demand, the added option for me to try and take a break) and you pick all the things that you may be interested in. It’s multi-choice, and I’ll get to work on the winner as soon as I manage to write a couple of past winners that I keep delaying due to…
2023-04-24 23:20:45 +0000 UTC
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It’s actually an almond tree.
They are quite common in the region of Spain I am from, and I saw this one just a few blocks away from my home, so I decided to take a picture to share with you.
The thing is, they are kinda symbolic of the coming of spring as well, and, while there are no flower-viewing parties here, it’s also not uncommon to just admire them when they bloom. Honestly, I planned to share the picture when I finally finished the Easter Special, but that’s somethi...
2023-04-24 22:18:31 +0000 UTC
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Stories rhyme.
It’s an old truth. Endings that echo beginnings, middles that resonate somewhere in between. Patterns that reemerge time and again.
There’re dragons to slay, princesses to save, old homes to leave behind.
Because stories rhyme.
So I find myself standing on a rooftop, contemplating a villain’s gathering. Like I did when I set out to fight the ugly man with a nice smile, and I discovered that the Knight of the Sad Countenance could fell giants still....
2023-04-24 16:48:53 +0000 UTC
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The princess’s fingers languidly glide down the window, their paleness uneven due to a light distorted by the waving surface of the glass.
“My Lady.”
I announce my presence and await a reaction, but her gaze remains lost in the distance, beyond the horizon, beyond the castle’s walls.
She’s been like this since the incident, and nobody blames her. The memory of the beast is too fresh, and I, a simple servant, can’t begin to imagine what she must feel. So I wait in...
2023-04-23 20:17:44 +0000 UTC
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A kiss.
Just a kiss.
He thinks he can make things right with a kiss.
Damn him for being almost right.
I surround his waist with my right thigh, his hair glides beneath my fingers, and his tongue pushes mine down, making a small sound come out of me that I’m too worked up to regret.
His hands are on my waist, pulling me up, toward him, until I can only move against his body, pressing myself that much closer to the warmth under his clothes, the hard muscle I keep...
2023-04-22 02:30:06 +0000 UTC
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Thirteen
Hold.
We stand together, my field replicated and layered a thousand times over, the green light emitted from the interlocked planes only shifting when we perceive another cape being under threat of attack.
Between the monster and the river it is set on returning to, we stand.
We are not to strike. Not to draw its attention.
We merely have to stand.
Together.
Like we were always told to be.
Except, this time, we...
2023-04-19 13:01:46 +0000 UTC
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Okay, I forgot to write one of these last week, what with trying to recover from the writing rush of the April’s Fools Special and the stupid flu/cold thingy I caught in its aftermath. I think we’ll be able to go back to a regular schedule for both Wake-up Call and All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! this week, so, fingers crossed.
As to what should happen if I manage to keep my current momentum going and don’t get stuck on anything like, I don’t know, the climax of my fi...
2023-04-18 02:08:58 +0000 UTC
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The glass with a black frame shows a beautiful woman reading inside of it.
“The PRT still hasn’t disclosed an official statement regarding the earlier incident, though anonymous sources indicate a Master’s power to be the cause of Gallant’s—”
It’s always a beautiful woman or a handsome man, as if beauty and truth were cousins, as if the bearers of news had to portray both.
Except when they aren’t.
It’s always beauty, except when it’s ugliness.
2023-04-17 11:35:46 +0000 UTC
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In this lecture series, one of the very few aspects of storytelling that has, so far, been not thoroughly explored to the most exacting and rigorous of academic standards is the original soundtrack.
It is a somewhat forgivable oversight, given that we’ve covered both light novels and manga, which are forms of narrative that don’t supply any music save what the readers themselves may provide, yet is also an unfairness given how pivotal and iconic this aspect of media can be.
Wh...
2023-04-15 10:08:04 +0000 UTC
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Eidolon
“Evacuate! Everyone, back away from Behemoth!” Dragon yells in my ear.
Immediately, my time perception shifts.
It’s a minor Thinker ability, one that doesn’t affect my body, just my thought processes.
Just the way I see the world.
Below me, in front of me, the beast goes still. The attackers are still processing the order.
Purity is right above him, her enhanced reflexes letting her do nothing but look around in con...
2023-04-13 00:02:13 +0000 UTC
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When it comes to not only anime but fiction in general, there’s something that no author can evade. Something all readers, players, and viewers know is waiting for them.
The Status Quo.
Yes. It deserves the uppercase.
Because, as you all already know, the Status Quo is a character in and of itself, one more powerful than Super Saiyajin Rainbow Goku, Sage Mode Nine-tailed Naruko, or Miscegenation Actually Works Pretty Well Ichigo Kurosaki. Status Quo can warp the v...
2023-04-11 01:21:40 +0000 UTC
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Chevalier
Uncountable figures of light and shadow move around me, their many-jointed limbs reaching beyond my power’s sight, bringing out thunder, flame, light, and a thousand things I don’t have the words for so that their bearers can wield them.
My blood roars.
And my sword sings.
Light in my hand like the fencing saber it is, heavy on Behemoth’s shoulders like the engineering project it also is, the blade I’ve finally been ...
2023-04-09 02:28:48 +0000 UTC
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If someone ever asked me to tell them what meet
2023-04-05 05:46:00 +0000 UTC
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Welp, I’m sorry to say that the latest A Pure Knight’s Natural Enemy chapter just… didn’t cooperate, so my last attempt at a schedule just became a garbled mess. I’m rather (if not entirely) happy with the quality of my output, if not the quantity, so let’s try to have both this week, shall we?
As I mentioned (and consulted you on) I was hesitating on writing a Seasonal Special for April’s Fools, but while I was stuck on Konosuba my aggressively pushy brain provided me wit...
2023-03-27 22:13:40 +0000 UTC
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There’s a usual misconception in those animes both Shizuka and Hachiman seem to love so much (and isn’t that an understatement, given I’m pretty sure Iroha would get unhealthily jealous of the way those two treat their respective libraries of consumerist escapism), and that’s how geniuses work.
As in, they don’t.
A genius character will show their much-vaunted intelligence by learning about a subject seemingly through sheer osmosis, barely putting in any effort,...
2023-03-27 09:56:53 +0000 UTC
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It’s yet again that wonderful time of the month—insert obvious joke about menstrual pads’ insane commercials here—in which I race to do at least a portion of what I set out to do at the start and give you all the chance to vote upon what I’ll try to get done (and get stressed at) next month.
Also, in which I take the chance to… well, to tell you how much I appreciate you all being here. Really, as trite as it may sound, this wouldn’t be possible without your support. Heck,...
2023-03-26 20:40:11 +0000 UTC
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Hannah
Do you know what used to give me nightmares, even if only figurative ones?
Grey goo.
I was living in a new country, a new world, and I was under no illusions that I’d been brought here to do anything other than fight, but I still… I still was allowed to be a kid in ways I’d never been back home.
So I…
It took time. Adjusting. Effort.
But I managed it.
I managed to have friends, to date, to… to lead t...
2023-03-26 02:19:33 +0000 UTC
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Quite often, the isekai genre gets conflated with the LitRPG genre. They are both quite distinct in their characteristics, yet close enough in their true essence that it’s easy for those unfamiliar with the deepest nuances of both to make such a mistake.
That is, both genres rely on having a main character that we are told is painfully average to avoid having any character trait interfere with the seamless self-insertion being given a quick way to become god-like both in martial and m...
2023-03-24 05:18:48 +0000 UTC
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All right, this is me posting this despite my own shame at my failing to uphold last week’s compromise.
… Remind me not to freak out when starting pivotal arcs. Again.
(Seriously, All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! took an ungodly amount of time and mental effort, given the mediocre result it ended up in. I’m sorry my own little hang-ups interfere with what I should be giving you all.)
The good news is that I’ve got a lot of things half-finished, so this week shou...
2023-03-20 21:31:16 +0000 UTC
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Principal Inoue is…
Precisely what one would expect him to be.
On the wrong side of middle-aged, hair graying and balding, with sunken cheeks and square glasses that play up to his image as a stern schoolmaster that will allow Sobu High to retain its prestige. He’s the kind of man one would choose to keep things as they are, neither to allow them to deteriorate nor to risk them in an attempt at improvement.
He’s… not a bad man. Maybe not a good one.
I wish he w...
2023-03-20 00:51:55 +0000 UTC
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This is… manageable.
I mean, yes, Hellhound’s dogs pack a punch, and I feel guilty about now realizing that they have been actual dogs all along rather than projections like I always assumed, but between Amy and me, we should be able to handle this without any issue.
Other than, you know, the actual issue.
“What do you hope to accomplish here?” Hellhound’s shadow says, uncharacteristically normal, unlike all the other distorted versions of capes we’ve fa...
2023-03-17 05:15:24 +0000 UTC
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