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Shards of a Broken Sun [Deprecated; see link in final post for remake]

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OH MY GOD A PING...

(It's not a revival--yet)

The dreeeeammmmm (Soul escapes)
 
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Baughn said:
Wow it's been a while. Let's see...

Sorry, this isn't the (long-awaited?) update, but recent events (people making cat noises at me) have convinced me that I need to make some sort of decision about the story. It's been kind of difficult; Shards was the first story I ever wrote that didn't immediately collapse, and all things considered I think I did pretty well. That's not to say I actually did well, on an absolute scale, but there are definitely bits of the story I can look back on and say they're actually good.

It isn't a story I think I can recommend to friends, but that's okay. I never really wrote it for the like counts.

...and now you probably think I'm telling you it's dead. Well, not quite, so please stop panicking. (Was anyone panicking? I kinda hope someone was... er, sorry about that. ;))

I've made several abortive starts over the last year at getting back into it. They've all failed, largely because one or two days isn't enough. I need to-reread large parts of it, I need to reconsider elements of the underlying plot that frankly suck, and then I need to somehow work that back in without producing any glaring inconsistencies. All of which takes more time than I've been able to dedicate in one blob, and has been demotivating when I end up with nothing to show for it; then, the next time I try, I've forgotten too much and have to start over. Fortunately it seems there are still people willing to poke me about it--you can thank Skelm, Twei and others that I haven't given up entirely. So, here's the plan.

I recently switched jobs[1], and as part of that I'm taking an extended vacation.

Six weeks of time, five of it without anything[2] planned other than writing, please, you will do that now, should be enough to work out all the issues and get back on the horse in a proper manner. Or, else, to work out that it's never going to happen. I therefore commit to, before those six weeks are out, get this quest out of its goddamned grave. In a less zombie-like fashion than the previous two attempts. I'll need to retcon parts of the Utau mini-arc to do that, but that should be fine; you never voted on it anyway. (So don't bother re-reading those just yet.)

Hopefully there'll be plenty of reading material to come, well before the end of that deadline. If not... then we can at least have a final Q&A, should anyone be interested.

This is melting candle girl, signing off for now.


[1] I'm now on the search machine-learning team, still at Google. It's been... interesting. Don't worry that I'll be too busy after the vacation to continue things, though; the hours remain normal.

[2] And photography, as below.

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Now that I've got my own stupidly large narrative moving I can pretty much understand how you feel about wanting to get a clusterfuck going.

I think an important thing that should help is looking at the plot from a fresh perspective. Take a look at a relevant NPC, and then imagine things developing from their perspective as if it were a Quest. Ironically, plotting things out in that fashion makes developing a consistent narrative a lot easier for me.

Hoping for all the best, even if I stopped actively participating lol
 
... Yay. :)

I was just re-reading this last week or so. Haha, what the fuck? Why does that happen to me. I begin rereading something and then "Oh, hai guys! Starting this up again, kay? Kay. Lol."

Also, Utau best girl!
 
ShadowAngelBeta said:
... Yay. :)

I was just re-reading this last week or so. Haha, what the fuck? Why does that happen to me. I begin rereading something and then "Oh, hai guys! Starting this up again, kay? Kay. Lol."

Also, Utau best girl!
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This happens with me an manga. Read something, a week later an anime is announced for it. Feels good mate.

AND OH GOD I WAS THINKING ABOUT THIS NOT TOO LONG AGO ALL HAIL
 
WWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
About a two months ago I went on a spree saving fanart of Shugo Chara, and debated if trying to draw our Amu would work out. I ended up not doing it and now regret it. The idea of how to deal with her current hair color was too painful tho.
 
Lilithium said:
About a two months ago I went on a spree saving fanart of Shugo Chara, and debated if trying to draw our Amu would work out. I ended up not doing it and now regret it. The idea of how to deal with her current hair color was too painful tho.
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What color are we up to right now? Originally brown, dyed pink, started going blue and got some blue highlights (that honestly looked pretty cool), then she went brown in the... thing, and then... I think she went rainbow for a little while while the world was ending? I have no idea what she is right now beyond "A mess."
 
ShadowAngelBeta said:
What color are we up to right now? Originally brown, dyed pink, started going blue and got some blue highlights (that honestly looked pretty cool), then she went brown in the... thing, and then... I think she went rainbow for a little while while the world was ending? I have no idea what she is right now beyond "A mess."
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Which, in hindsight, is a perfectly accurate representation of Amu's headspace, her circumstances and the state of the world in general.

Amu's hair is the universe's mood ring.
 
Highwind said:
Which, in hindsight, is a perfectly accurate representation of Amu's headspace, her circumstances and the state of the world in general.

Amu's hair is the universe's mood ring.
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ShadowAngelBeta said:
... That makes a lot more sense than I want it to.
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That's the exact rule I've been using for it. :p

(Although it's more a mood ring for Amu than the universe, those just happen to be correlated.)

Let's see, she hasn't been paying attention recently, but I think right at the moment it'd be a cutely clashing mix of brown and blonde. The pink is on its way out; if she got in the right headspace for that, it'd more likely go Ran-colored red. Her hair isn't physical anyway, not in the usual sense.

(In which case they'd look like identical twins... which is roughly accurate, and also why.)
 
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Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

*rolls around on the floor*

I am filled with happy that this continues
 
Just remembereed to share this

it's older amu no wait it's Not! It's a draft of the P3 FeMC.

BUT GOD IF IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE AMU!
 
Status update:
On schedule, or slightly ahead. I'm doing what I should have done years ago, and actually writing plot notes. I used to keep it all in my head, which worked quite well so long as the plot was relatively simple... and failed horribly once it started becoming too much for that. It's going quite well.

I expect I'll be updating Mato's side-story first. Maybe sometime next week? We'll see. After that...

Vanguard mentioned wanting a recap, and I was already thinking along those lines, but that means a plot-relevant vote for you. In short... once Amu gets back then Hotsuin will want to have a talk with her, as well as vice-versa. I can either do a purely-narrative recap with no in-story implications... or I can have them go over everything that's happened so far. That would mean Amu being up-front about everything she's done.

Which doesn't include much he doesn't already know, mind.

[ ] Narrative recap
[ ] In-story recap
 
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