I can't believe I managed to wade my way through the comments. I know that the only reason that I bothered was in case someone had posted a good o-make. There were 2 brief ones. They weren't worth going through the 20 pages though.
I stayed up that first night until 3 am finishing the fic. I'm never sure how many people on this site are speed readers, skim the bulk of it, or just have their own reading superpowers.
It took me until now to get caught up with what folks have been saying. Whoa. Now, I remember why I don't bother reading the comments to some fics and only the posts that make it into a thread mark.
I stayed up that first night until 3 am finishing the fic. I'm never sure how many people on this site are speed readers, skim the bulk of it, or just have their own reading superpowers.
It took me until now to get caught up with what folks have been saying. Whoa. Now, I remember why I don't bother reading the comments to some fics and only the posts that make it into a thread mark.
I never realized that there was so much raw March hate on this site. Lord's done well with her. She's been fleshed out a bit and due to her presence, the locals have managed to step up and keep things engaging. Lord's told us from day one that Joe found out about March that he'd have issues with her striker power and the only thing he could do is dodge it.
I actually enjoyed things.
It felt like Joe had taken down the bulk of baseline humans of the ABB before Oni Lee showed up. At that point, the capes would have basically needed to create/recruit an entire new gang of minions to work for them. They didn't have anyone left.
Let's admit that Joe has an unnamed power. Whenever he gets any power, he gets 5-10 minutes to mentally explain that perk and what he could do or how it would apply to his life or things. It must be part of the Forge as Joe has had it from day one. It royally screws with the pacing though.
Some of these should be blazing fast and Joe gets a perk and suddenly it seems like he stops to think about it and explain it to us. Let's admit it we are all guilty of thinking that he mentally spends like 30 minutes going over each new perk whenever he gets one rather than paying attention to the mess he is in.
I never knew March from Ward. I only knew her from this fic. I actually wanted more slice of life background bits with her. I also wanted her to entirely miss the Apeiron and Joe thing. From her POV, she may have missed many things. We only really get one good scene of showing off her POV.
It would be so ironic when Joe recovers the motoroid that he finds a new exsphere with March's soul in it.
I'm glad that Uber and Leet weren't involved with that mess. They've been presenting themselves as Apeiron's rivals. They've lost every encounter, but still. Now, they've seen just how high the bar is. Folks are going to get inspired.
Lung is going to MIA and not thought KIA. I can see that being used to keep the gang as still intact as possible. They'd likely split into a few competing groups only remotely allied due to the E88. Let's be honest, the ABB will be around for the next week or two. They'll mainly be playing a holding action against all the other groups as well as the Asian community actually striking back a bit.
Joe just played xianxia wandering cultivator gifting crap to Chen.
Folks seem to have totally missed Chen's POV. He wasn't irked at the ABB capes. He was irked at their regular gang members. It was them that made life utterly hell for his community. Now, if the PRT and the local national guard acts quickly enough, there won't be many existing ABB gang members left.
They'd all be arrested and processed just in case they had bombs in them. The government might just be happy to arrest them all and move them out of the state or the worst holding cells of the entire state if possible.
Chen will be the first of the new breed of local Asian capes. It would be funny if his platform was family and community values.
I hope he won't be in too much trouble over March. She was underage and all that. Then again she did plan out his murder as well as what she was doing with Bakuda to the locals. Most locals won't care about her. They'll be thankful that she is gone.
Bakuda is still around for a bit. She's actually the only interesting one left of the ABB. She has a short time frame before her functional arms become obviously body horrors. I doubt she'll spend that time trying to heal herself though. I can see one last bomb from her. Even if its only a going out in style bomb, which might be even worse.
What am I waiting for after the interlude? The Aisha training montage of doom. O.k. there may be a tiny part of me that wants Joe to recruit Chen as Mister Miyagi. Can you just see it? Aisha this is just a totally random elder Asian guy that owes me a slight favor. He has agreed to avoid overseeing your training montage. Also, Chen might get one as well in aura use by the clones. Chen and Aisha quickly come to agreements over tea.
I can't wait for what folks think of the Minovsky particles. I actually don't want all the ezzo, dust, Minovsky particles, and anything else to just be auto recovered. I don't mind the items he makes being repaired. I just don't like the idea of the major mess just needing 48 hours and instant clean up.
We have Armsmaster needing a rebuild. He isn't in the best state to examine the motoroid. I could see him and Dragon looking over it as quickly/completely as they can for ideas for his upgrades. Worse comes to worse, I could see them sticking Armsmaster in it just for the mobility factor. Does the motoroid have a secure quantum com? If so, there is no reason that Joe would really need to recall it. He could actually let that copy of Fleet help out Armsmaster.
While Joe might know that he and Armsmaster could never work together, Armsmaster was always the tinker that he thought about while growing up and going through school. He'd love to be able to help the guy out in some way.
I actually enjoyed things.
It felt like Joe had taken down the bulk of baseline humans of the ABB before Oni Lee showed up. At that point, the capes would have basically needed to create/recruit an entire new gang of minions to work for them. They didn't have anyone left.
Let's admit that Joe has an unnamed power. Whenever he gets any power, he gets 5-10 minutes to mentally explain that perk and what he could do or how it would apply to his life or things. It must be part of the Forge as Joe has had it from day one. It royally screws with the pacing though.
Some of these should be blazing fast and Joe gets a perk and suddenly it seems like he stops to think about it and explain it to us. Let's admit it we are all guilty of thinking that he mentally spends like 30 minutes going over each new perk whenever he gets one rather than paying attention to the mess he is in.
I never knew March from Ward. I only knew her from this fic. I actually wanted more slice of life background bits with her. I also wanted her to entirely miss the Apeiron and Joe thing. From her POV, she may have missed many things. We only really get one good scene of showing off her POV.
It would be so ironic when Joe recovers the motoroid that he finds a new exsphere with March's soul in it.
I'm glad that Uber and Leet weren't involved with that mess. They've been presenting themselves as Apeiron's rivals. They've lost every encounter, but still. Now, they've seen just how high the bar is. Folks are going to get inspired.
Lung is going to MIA and not thought KIA. I can see that being used to keep the gang as still intact as possible. They'd likely split into a few competing groups only remotely allied due to the E88. Let's be honest, the ABB will be around for the next week or two. They'll mainly be playing a holding action against all the other groups as well as the Asian community actually striking back a bit.
Joe just played xianxia wandering cultivator gifting crap to Chen.
Folks seem to have totally missed Chen's POV. He wasn't irked at the ABB capes. He was irked at their regular gang members. It was them that made life utterly hell for his community. Now, if the PRT and the local national guard acts quickly enough, there won't be many existing ABB gang members left.
They'd all be arrested and processed just in case they had bombs in them. The government might just be happy to arrest them all and move them out of the state or the worst holding cells of the entire state if possible.
Chen will be the first of the new breed of local Asian capes. It would be funny if his platform was family and community values.
I hope he won't be in too much trouble over March. She was underage and all that. Then again she did plan out his murder as well as what she was doing with Bakuda to the locals. Most locals won't care about her. They'll be thankful that she is gone.
Bakuda is still around for a bit. She's actually the only interesting one left of the ABB. She has a short time frame before her functional arms become obviously body horrors. I doubt she'll spend that time trying to heal herself though. I can see one last bomb from her. Even if its only a going out in style bomb, which might be even worse.
What am I waiting for after the interlude? The Aisha training montage of doom. O.k. there may be a tiny part of me that wants Joe to recruit Chen as Mister Miyagi. Can you just see it? Aisha this is just a totally random elder Asian guy that owes me a slight favor. He has agreed to avoid overseeing your training montage. Also, Chen might get one as well in aura use by the clones. Chen and Aisha quickly come to agreements over tea.
I can't wait for what folks think of the Minovsky particles. I actually don't want all the ezzo, dust, Minovsky particles, and anything else to just be auto recovered. I don't mind the items he makes being repaired. I just don't like the idea of the major mess just needing 48 hours and instant clean up.
We have Armsmaster needing a rebuild. He isn't in the best state to examine the motoroid. I could see him and Dragon looking over it as quickly/completely as they can for ideas for his upgrades. Worse comes to worse, I could see them sticking Armsmaster in it just for the mobility factor. Does the motoroid have a secure quantum com? If so, there is no reason that Joe would really need to recall it. He could actually let that copy of Fleet help out Armsmaster.
While Joe might know that he and Armsmaster could never work together, Armsmaster was always the tinker that he thought about while growing up and going through school. He'd love to be able to help the guy out in some way.
