Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)

I know this delay probably won't help the current situation, where many people came away from the last chapter unhappy with the tone and apparent direction

I just want to say that you really shouldn't have to worry about what people think, writing is hard enough without trying to please everyone. It's your story with your versions of these characters.

If someone else wants things to go a certain way then they should write their own stories and build up their own characters and have them do what want them to do. I'm not just spouting bullshit here either, I've been writing my own stuff because what I want doesn't exist yet.

Last thing, I absolutely loved the last chapter, I get the some people wanted joe to do things differently but I just like seeing all the crazy stuff happening and being awesome. I'm really enjoying this story and was one of the reasons I started writing again, though I have no idea how you can manage to write over 30k words a week because I can only manage like 2k if I'm lucky.
 
Regrettably, I'm going to have to delay the next chapter for another week. I've been behind in my writing and had hoped to make up the time tonight. Unfortunately, commitments from my job are such I won't have the chance to get things wrapped up by the usual posting time. As such, the chapter will have to be pushed back until next week.

I want to clarify that this has nothing to do with the feedback on the last chapter. My job has been hectic lately and critical parts of three different projects are unfortunately hitting at the same time. That may have contributed to my lack of patience with the criticism from the last chapter, since I had put a lot of work into the story during a period when I had little free time and several other pressing commitments. It took significant effort to be able to get the chapter finished even with the week delay. I know that doesn't affect the issues people had with the chapter, but it did influence my reaction to them.

I know this delay probably won't help the current situation, where many people came away from the last chapter unhappy with the tone and apparent direction of the, but I really won't have time to finish this weeks installment. I want to thank everyone for their patience with this delay. At least this way I can make sure the next portion of the story is properly polished and have time to reply to comments, including the ones I missed from the previous chapter.

Thanks,
Roust
No problem Lord, take your time. Its better a good chapter rather than a rushed one. Good luck in your job.
 
Lord don´t worry, you write faster than any writer than i have ever seen, even if you delay it for 2 weeks you will have written more than 95% of all writers i read.
Take your time and don´t worry

I see you weren't around for Ryuugi's The games we Play, he posted every day and those weren't short chapters :p :)

Joking aside, take care of yorself first Lord, maybe with longer wait some people cool down a bit.
 
Please take your own time, my dude! The chapters you release are damn good every time. You don't owe anyone this. Hell take the month! Please, take care of yourself! Irl is a pain, totally understandable!
 
Take the time you need Roust, I'd prefer a late chapter to a burnt out author every single time. If you gotta take time take the time. Also thank you for letting us know when you're going to be late it's super classy that you care enough not to leave us hanging.
 
I know this delay probably won't help the current situation

I suspect it will, actually. It'll give people a chance to get over themselves. I happen to think your story is excellent, but I've never really felt I should comment too much since I have something of a lack of knowledge of the source (or many sources in this case).

you write faster than any writer than i have ever seen

@ShayneT on SB. Posts 5-7 3-5K chapters a week, currently on Intuition. But he's definitely an exception to the rule. @CmptrWz also posts Hybrid Hive every Wednesday as well, as well For Want of an Outfit every Friday. Not that I'm saying that Roust should post faster (except I'd really love to read more as soon as possible), but just sharing some other consistent authors. (Though some/most of the Fake Quotes from the discord are pretty hilarious and in-character for Joe.)
 
Hrm. You know it's a common trope that a summon equipment skill would count as a special attack or special skill, so wouldn't that mean when Joe summoned Trauma he should haveactivated his Calling Card Perk?

Also as to Joe's Zoenthrope form. Whew. I did a little research aaand it's not a dinosaur. It predates dinosaurs. It is also the very first Saber-toothed predator, was the apex predator of its time and was a mammal-like reptile. (not entirely sure what that means...exactly.) And. Well, here are some of the facts I dug up about it

Inostrancevia lived in Africa and Asia during the Late Permian period, from 260 to 248 million years ago, living alongside other creatures like Coelurosauravus, Diictodon, Rhinesuchus, and Scutosaurus. It was the apex predator of its time but died out before the Mesozoic.

Despite its size, Inostrancevia was a patient and implacable ambush predator and had a strong sense of smell, lurking behind natural cover before ambushing its prey, like Lystrosaurus and Scutosaurus. It would chase and catch up to them, galloping at a top speed of 50 km/h (30 mph), before inflicting wounds with its' saber-like teeth, causing the herbivores to die from blood loss and pain shock - and then it would eat. After eating a fill of food, Inostrancevia needed to drink water to wash down their food.

Once Inostrancevia smelled blood from its prey, it would relentlessly track and pursue its prey at all costs. After hunting down and killing their prey, Inostrancevia sometimes stored it in trees to eat later, in a manner that mirrored behavior displayed by modern-day leopards and bears.
 
Lord don´t worry, you write faster than any writer than i have ever seen, even if you delay it for 2 weeks you will have written more than 95% of all writers i read.
Take your time and don´t worry
The fastest I have seen is 50k-100k a week. The author of the story endless path infinite cosmos. And the quality is good. I absolutely hate the MC. And I mean he makes me cringe sometimes as I read him talk. But it fits the way the character was built at that point, so I can live with it. I just keep taking breaks from reading it. The author let the MC go way too far down that harem route which is one of the things that makes me hate the MC.

But anyway I digress. The author of that story writes full time. It's absolutely amazing that LordRoustAbout can keep a schedule of roughly 20k a week, while having a full time job. And the story is really good. It literally gets me through the week, looking forward to the next chapter. So while it saddens me that there is no new chapter this week. It's for the best. As this is a fanfic and if the author feels like releasing the chapters is a burden it will affect the quality since they won't enjoy writing it as much if at all. And at the end of the day that's what fanfic are about. Both the author and reader enjoying what is written.

I went on a number of tangents writing this that I don't even know if it's a proper reply anymore. But fuck it I'll post it anyway.
 
There always appears to be a large and vocal component in any writer's thread that is never satisfied with what an author writes.

Write what you want to write, what makes you have fun with it (and on this specific website, as long as it follows the rules of the website).

If other people do not have fun with it, that's not the writer's problem, because this is fanfiction.

It's free and writers do it because they have fun with it.

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; ..."
-Theodore Roosevelt

If they feel they can do better, they are welcome to pick up a pen and start writing their own story.
______________________
I now do not post stories or passages or whatever until I'm happy with it. I think it was Neil Gaiman who basically said something like the start of story is fragile, and Sabrina Carpenter said something like people at the start of a song can get into your mental space or something like that.

Also, now I don't really listen to anybody unless they have proven track records or experience or something like that(usually 10 years of being published or something like that if they are writers) and not random people on forums.
 
I really enjoy the story and I'm sure this has been said before but I think it's because the story is so popular and above average that it draws so much criticism.

I'm sure a bunch of it comes from a place of wanting to help the story improve but having so much of it can be overwhelming I'm sure. I hope all your irl stuff goes well
 
Regrettably, I'm going to have to delay the next chapter for another week. I've been behind in my writing and had hoped to make up the time tonight. Unfortunately, commitments from my job are such I won't have the chance to get things wrapped up by the usual posting time. As such, the chapter will have to be pushed back until next week.

I want to clarify that this has nothing to do with the feedback on the last chapter. My job has been hectic lately and critical parts of three different projects are unfortunately hitting at the same time. That may have contributed to my lack of patience with the criticism from the last chapter, since I had put a lot of work into the story during a period when I had little free time and several other pressing commitments. It took significant effort to be able to get the chapter finished even with the week delay. I know that doesn't affect the issues people had with the chapter, but it did influence my reaction to them.

I know this delay probably won't help the current situation, where many people came away from the last chapter unhappy with the tone and apparent direction of the, but I really won't have time to finish this weeks installment. I want to thank everyone for their patience with this delay. At least this way I can make sure the next portion of the story is properly polished and have time to reply to comments, including the ones I missed from the previous chapter.

Thanks,
Roust

Don't worry Roust, we understand, RL comes first.

And honestly, the fact that you can post good quality chapters with 20k words every week when some fics are shorter than 20k in it's whole stretched out over months is already astonishing.

Don't push yourself too hard, we understsnd you have other stuff you need to do.
 
Regrettably, I'm going to have to delay the next chapter for another week. I've been behind in my writing and had hoped to make up the time tonight. Unfortunately, commitments from my job are such I won't have the chance to get things wrapped up by the usual posting time. As such, the chapter will have to be pushed back until next week.

I want to clarify that this has nothing to do with the feedback on the last chapter. My job has been hectic lately and critical parts of three different projects are unfortunately hitting at the same time. That may have contributed to my lack of patience with the criticism from the last chapter, since I had put a lot of work into the story during a period when I had little free time and several other pressing commitments. It took significant effort to be able to get the chapter finished even with the week delay. I know that doesn't affect the issues people had with the chapter, but it did influence my reaction to them.

I know this delay probably won't help the current situation, where many people came away from the last chapter unhappy with the tone and apparent direction of the, but I really won't have time to finish this weeks installment. I want to thank everyone for their patience with this delay. At least this way I can make sure the next portion of the story is properly polished and have time to reply to comments, including the ones I missed from the previous chapter.

Thanks,
Roust
Hope thinks settle down IRL for you. Also look at it this way, another week will give people time to cool down and take the edge off their feelings for the last chapter. I know I shared many of the criticisms mentioned, though I didn't make a post about it, but as soon as I see an update for this story pop up in my alerts I'm going to happily dive into the next chapter. Really interested in seeing how everyone in the story reacts to what's happened so far!


P.s.
If the criticism ever seems to be really getting to you, just always remember that you're still a better writer than Frank Miller.
 
A Joe in Time (MangoFlan)
A Joe in Time

Joe was looking at the latest machine he made. The specifications were pretty vague and maybe even corrupted considering the chip Joe got the blueprints from was a severely damaged one. Why would the Celestial Forge give him something damaged?

Though the machine was quite barebones, it managed to be appealing. Machines like these should have looked like a total clunker of wires and metal spires, but his beautification perks somehow made it look like a beautifully alien machine. It resembled one of those gimbal machines that spun astronauts around.

From what he could glean from the data from the chip, the machine was some sort of teleporter. Things go in and go somewhere else. It could take things anywhere without the need of a receiving gate. There's supposed to be other effects, but there's only so much you could gather from incomplete documentation.

And that's why there's an egg sandwich (bugged to be detected wherever it may end up) on the machine: to test the true capabilities and safety of the machine. It wouldn't do to simply shove oneself inside an untested prototype teleportation device; that would only end with tears, possibly radioactive tears.

Before the test commenced, Aisha decided to intrude the observation chamber. In her hand was a glass of soft drink, glistening with condensation.

"Yo, Joe," Aisha began. "What're doing with that sandwich over there?"

"Testing," Joe replied. "It wouldn't do to go straight to live testing without testing whether or not the machine works at all."

Joe pulled the activation lever and the machine hummed to life. The center glowed like an welder's wand. Sparks and arcs flashed across the structure, occassionally jabbing the sandwich that lay the central platform. The sandwich slowly floated in the air, hoisted up by exotic forces.

"So far so good," Joe remarked.

It was then when everything went wrong.

The gimbal was spinning too fast. The center glowed too bright. While the machine's frame had been reinforced to withstand whatever disaster that would strike, but Joe had never foreseen that such thing could happen. The machine quaked like there's no tomorrow. Its shaking could be felt from the observation chamber. Bolts of lightning flew all around, striking and blackening the walls. It seemed like the machine was flying apart.

"J-Joe, what's going on?" Aisha asked. She held on to the control console. Her drink forgotten, spilt on the controls.

Joe frantically handled the console. Although it was wet, it was hardened against accidents such beverage spills. "I don't know. It seemed to be working alright until it proceeded displacing. The machine is not responding, voltage control is misaligned, and the displacement induction limiters are disabled."

"Meaning?"

Joe looked up to the machine. It was aglow with electrical sparks and heat. Joe reached out with his technopathy, and found the machine to be riddled with strange screaming fire. Joe could not impose his will to the glow, it wouldn't listen, it wouldn't acknowledge his authority. The main thing that's keeping the machine from simply flying apart was its own post-mortal durability, which, to its detriment, allowed it to accrue this glowy fire beyond what is possible with a machine of mortal make.

"It's going to blow," Joe answered.

Joe needed to act fast. Its going to blow at any moment now. He could jump through the observation window, but that would expose Aisha to highly dangerous and exotic radiation. The walls and glass was nicely holding back all the glow, but that soon wouldn't be enough.

Explosions, the walls could block. Radiation and exotic emissions, the walls could block. But not both at the same time.

Joe contacted all his duplicates. The machine was only seconds away from blowing up, and they needed to contain the brewing disaster posthaste.

Joe charged into the testing chamber. Joe rushed through the halls with the speed of flying lightning, and crashed through the air lock, breaking the apparatus in exchange for scant precious seconds.

The instant he found himself in the testing chamber, his body was buffeted by the radiation and glow. His body was burning and steaming in the environment, but he endured. He could handle the heat, but Aisha could not. He had to hurry.

Joe jumped for the machine, ready to stabilize the situation the moment he came in contact with the machine, but before his fingers could even touch it, it was then the machine impolitely decided to blow up.

Joe was caught up in the explosion. An electric glow permeated space. The world was white, black, and blue. It was silent and loud. His senses were overwhelmed. At the edges of his awareness he could sense the glow failing to pierce the walls; probably his duplicates successfully creating some shielding.

Joe felt himself being whisked to a direction that was like up but not quite. He was big, he was small; he was stretched, and he was squeezed. The world swirled as he spun aloft from the floor. Electric tingles caressed his form as he was carried across the spatial distortion. It lasted an infinitesimal eternity.

Eventually, the psychedelic glow dissolved, and the rest of the universe resolved once more. The blackness of space filled the panorama of his vision whilst a generous collection of dots floated in the distance. A wispy cloud of hot gas and a gathering of debris was teleported alongside him.

He floated idly, but when he tried to breathe in, his lungs were filled with nothing and threatened to collapse on itself. There was no air to breathe in. It appeared that he really was in space.

Joe decided to look down, and witnessed the Earth from high above. The planet loomed before him grandly, displaying its curves and valleys before his very eyes. The continents visible on the globe were similar to what he was familiar with but with oddities. The world below his feet was decidedly wetter than how the world should be and the continents were slightly out of place. Evidence of human civilization was nowhere to be seen.

'Probably an alternate Earth,' Joe thought. It was no time to gawk.

And it was growing distressing larger in his field of vision.

It seems that Joe wasn't truly floating in the void. Though he was being pulled towards the Earth by its gravity, there was little that indicated motion in space. The celestial bodies were awful references of relative motion, and there was very little stagnant air to buffet against his falling form.

There was little Joe could do. He wasn't exactly clothed for action. The radiation and dimensional travel had played havoc to the lab coat that wore mostly for the style factor as well as the rest of his clothes, rendering him semi-naked. Aside from the shin guard and work boots, there was little he had to stop himself from falling. He doubted that he would go splat on impact thanks to the little piece of spacecraft-grade armor he was wearing, but he wouldn't exactly appreciate being buried deep underground by consequence of that impact.

Joe was surrounded by a halo of fire as he fell through the atmosphere. He easily controlled the blazing halo around him with his pyrokinesis, and used it to not become a little fireball from the heavens with his sight obscured by flames. He continued to plummet, grazed by friction and air resistance, but that wasn't enough to reduce his velocity significantly. Producing counterforce is difficult when all you could touch was shapeless air. He could have made a parachute from his clothes, but he'd been stripped naked by the nature of his method of travel.

Joe judged that he was plummeting to impact towards somewhere offshore of Mexico, a somewhat favorable impact site; the water would absorb the impact. Being injected into the sea was way more pleasant than being injected into the earth.

Joe transformed into his zoanthrope form. He had a plan. While he would be fine on the deepest ocean, it would still be best for him to be near the surface. He decided that it was best for him to do this in his zoanthrope form. It was stronger and tougher than his human form.

As the water's surface approached, Joe readied his legs to strike. Once the sea was within reach, he moved his legs to a mighty kick, a monstrous jump off the surface of the azure ocean.

And that's where everything went wrong, again.

While work boots had survived the jaunt in the space in between, it hadn't truly survived the passage without nicks. The radiation had penetrated the hull that would normally have protected the delicate mechanisms within. Circuits were damaged but still functional. However, one of the damages that had been inflicted had been to the circuits that instances where the user intended to use it. As such, the faulty circuit had thought that the kick on the water's surface. While under normal circumstances, that would have been something Joe could fix and live behind, but it was one of the other damages that had blown the normal effect over the water.

The circuit that would have managed power had partially melted, causing power to be continuously built up when it shouldn't have. By the time Joe made contact with the ocean's surface, the boots were brimming with inordinate power. Before Joe could even react, the boot exploded with a great flash of light.

Milliseconds upon impact, Joe was surrounded by a sphere of light kilometers in diameter. A devastating shockwave swept the Earth, sweeping the atmosphere with a wall of banshee screams. The sea did not boil, it straight vaporised, turned to gas and vapor. The despite the distance from the kick, the sea floor was not spared by the devastation that was Joe's kick; force bulldozed a large amount of dirt and rock and formed a crater kilometers deep and more than a hundred kilometers in diameter with an epicenter centered under Joe.

Dry land was not spared. The earth within the sphere of light was raked and grazed by the immense force, and upturned earth was pushed to boundaries and formed the walls of a crater. Dirt and rock were thrown in the air filling the sky with dust and debris, and the ground below visibly quaked. The shockwave created raced across the land, felling trees and animals caught in its wake. Even creatures barely bearing witness to the devastation created in the distance could feel the effects of great disaster.

And that was how Apeiron (accidentally) killed the dinosaurs.
 
Take care of yourself, Lord.
Also, no chapter this week maybe means a bigger chapter later! Who knows, maybe an interlude from different people. Maybe even a biiiig PHO segment.
 
Lord, your every chapter is a gift and a delight. Of course you can take your time! As much as you need! No matter how much we love your story, where would it be without you? Just take your time! We'll still be here next week, ready to tell you how awesome you are!
 
I'm going through the chapter to see what tech he's upgraded/just showcased during the latest chapter, but I probably missed some things. If anyone would like to list some stuff, it'd be a massive help.
 
Did anyone else notice that the beast form thing will also feed into rumors about him being a C53. Especially when he reverted to it after having to regenerate most of his body.
 
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