Broken Adventure

[theaceoffire]

Man, I'm enjoying this bit, won't lie, but it can really drag the Soul down.

Shadow has to go somewhere light hearted and silly next, Darkness doesn't HAVE to equal endless torture and suffering, right?

Sheesh. Better pick one that can handle a bit of adult humor too, I've noticed anything related to Adam has a tendency to get a bit perverted even when it isn't planned...

Not that we are leaving just yet, or anything. But sheesh, there is SO MUCH ANGST! And horrific fridge horror stuff! And depressing genocides! Like five or six!

I don't remember Bleach in my heart having so much UGH in it, just awesome fights and conceptual world bending swords and self discovery powering up Shōnen stuff, not to mention the fan service.

Ugh.

 

[theaceoffire]

*Grumble*, There are a LOT of people in other countries writing lots of stories, but the low level sexism and racism and anti-LGBT and other such stuff is really hard to push though.

Not the obvious stuff, that's easy enough to spot and avoid.

No, the subtle shit. Random comments like how someone is 'as weak as a woman' or not as 'powerful as a man' or some of the 'comedy' where the joke is 'This person isn't straight' or 'I implied they are not heterosexual' or 'They old thus dumb' or 'Young be stupid' or 'Jews be {etc}' or whatever.

You can go a thousand chapters into a story about going into the woods and eating monsters alive (good stuff! Chew your way to power!), then suddenly get blindsided when they decide to rape some woman because they were too attractive. Or a crowd of 'good guys' randomly comment during a tournament about 'of COURSE she's losing, she's a girl!', or when somebody suddenly gets called a slur or something.

No warning, just: BAM! Have some hate!

Oh, and that rape issue happens a LOT for some reason when reading literature from some countries.

Someone gets drugged, or two people get locked away and only sex can save the day, or one of the two is confused/tricked/blackmailed/blah. Even the reverse can be frustrating, like when I found a story where a guy was like "She totally wants to bang me, despite being drugged and telling me she hates it, but I managed to say no!" as if NOT raping a woman deserves a mountain of praise. Like, you can have relationships with people, fine. You can find them hot or not, cool. It's a bit harsh to imply that beautiful women are the cause of all problems... But when every guy is a sexist asshole I guess you might have found a pattern, even if you are blaming the victims instead of the instigators.

SOME stories have a woman who can only attack with a musical instrument and she still comes off as BADASS! She can literally mind wammy you with illusions to death, it was hard core!

But half the damned time, it is either 'New hot lady, banged her, now I move on' or 'Hot lady laments she cant has meburger, move on' or 'I collect them all! Gathered my harem, never mention them again, move on.' If you want one night stands, and your culture doesn't accept that, then 'marrying a woman' just to sex her up for one time before NEVER MENTIONING HER AGAIN is NOT the solution!

Sometimes you bounce into opposite tropes of this, like a fun story where the guy or gal didn't want to have any relationships. Dude just wanted to become the worlds most powerful supernatural mechanic and build armies of ships and robots and stuff. THAT story has a running joke where he tells a girl "I'm not into girls." "I'm not into guys." and so forth, and ends up accidentally convincing most of society that he is into necrophilia. As far as I know, the MC of that story still doesn't KNOW that he has that reputation, but I chuckled because they are all trying to be 'understanding' and 'accepting' and he still has no clue what is up with them.

Am I for/against any of those topics? Meh. I've always been a 'live and let live' kind of guy.

But when a story decides to have huge chapters about a MC 'about to throw up' because someone MIGHT be homosexual, or when women get crapped on by an entire section? I want a warning about that crap so I can 'nope' out of the story EARLY.

Even when I depict other orientations/religions/beliefs/etc in my story, I try to do so in a way that the character him/her/theirself would approve of, even if I would not. This applies to everything: Drug use, Nazism, all the bits of society that pop up in literature.

If I must cover the topic, I try to do so in a way that is true to the character being portrayed from their perspective. I'm sure I've failed in the past, or have many unconscious biases that are blatantly obvious to other people, but at least at no point did Adam suddenly pause the story to start insulting some random nationality or whatever.

Seriously, you read a few million words into a story and suddenly it goes rotten. Damn it.

 

[theaceoffire]

Uh, quick question, if nobody had asked it before. How would this yami-yami no mi react to Gecko Moira? How would their fruits interact? Can the heartless steal Moira's shadows?

Click to shrink...

It is never technically covered in cannon.

There is only a small mention of how some Devil Fruits trump other ones in a few circumstances... Like the Lava Lava fruit able to overwhelm the Fire Fire fruit.

I assume, that since Darkness Darkness fruit is more generic and overarching than Shadow Shadow fruit, then it is dominant. That it would have domain over the other, as well as any related topics that fall under Darkness.

And that is BEFORE we include the modifications that Shadow is making.

 

[theaceoffire]

Still aiming for a release today, but it won't be around my usual time.

My medications may only be refilled once every three months, but they still need to be picked up and it is NEVER fast. 45 minute wait time is expected, or worse if unlucky.

Some people have better luck going on odd days instead of Friday, like a good Tuesday trip, but I'm still hoping for the best.

Got the chapter itself done last night, mostly... Just some touch ups and stuff needed after I get off work, head to pick up pills, and get home.

***Edit***
Now that I think about it, Monday's dental thing and next Friday's blood work stuff might ALSO be an issue...

Meh, I'll get it done. And a late update still counts as an update. Shouldn't even be a full day delay, so... Meh.

Meh I say!

 

[theaceoffire]

May I ask when exactly chapter wise whole Wuxia/Xianxia arc (I hate those) finished?

Click to shrink...

Sure!

It's the literal entire arc. All of it. Every single chapter. Arc 2 is the Xianxia revolutionary arc.

Click to shrink...

True!

If you check the signature of my posts, you can see where arc 3 has been uploaded to a backup website.

If you want to read in the story itself with all the comments and so forth, head over to the front page and the first post! Every time there's a new arc I make sure to link both the actual posting where it started and the page needed if you're reading it in readers format.

 

[Sleepyfoo]

An Index

The Beginning! (Worm 1 Start!):
Hungry like the Wolf Tree House! (MLP Start!):
BAKU NAP! (Inuyahsha Start!):
Home Again! (Worm 1 part 2 Start!):
Living Forces! (Star Wars Start!):
Return! (Worm 1 part 3):
Fight Elephant Man! (RWBY Start!):
Stop over (2 Worm fusion):
Gotta put on a Show! (Pokemon Start!):
End of Arc 1 (Worm wrap up):
Xianxia Party! (Arc 2 start):
Tianshi Ganbate! (In sect research Start!):
Into the World! (Journey start):
Bogged Down! (Corpse Walker Bog start!):
Caravan! (Third Party Research!):
Back to the Sect (near the end of Arc 2):
Properly Awake! (End of Arc 2):
Jumping! (Start of Arc 3):
Under the Sea (Bioshock start):
Gaia Romance! (FF7 Start!):
Cloning around (Rick and Morty start):
Time keeps on slipping (FF8 Start!):
Twins! (DC Start!):
Hungry for Pain! (Arc 3 end start):
Heart in the Darkness (Arc 4 Start):
Soot Sprite (Spirited away start!):
We're all mad here (McGee Alice start!):
Hollow Libre (Bleach Start!):
Be the Snack! (One Piece Start!):
Black Blood(Soul Eater Start):

Formating may be weird. Let me know what you think. Also, If there is a specific sub arc or subtitle for the arc I can add those.

 

[theaceoffire]

Like I said before, Dental stuff. Hopefully not too bad, but my luck is terrible.

SO, onto a random topic!

Death warriors!

The concept exists in multiple stories, but show up more often in movies and shows where the censors don't want you to care about the bad guys.

Or when you need a plot explainable reason why a bunch of idiots would try and assassinate a god like martial artist or some random pedestrian or something.

Normally trained to care nothing about their life, to follow orders till death, and to know little to nothing about WHY they act... They are the 'blades in the dark' that allow 'good guys' to do bad things secretly.

In practice, it is flawed. Severely flawed.

Why?

It's %$#@ing expensive!

You got to collect/make orphans, raise them to be blindly loyal, prevent them from having fun/finding love/establishing goals, convince them to end their lives as their masters desire... And they are consumables.

In other words, you have a few options: Train them more to make them stronger, Use them, Discard them due to a connection being found.

Training them requires a LOT of resources, and secrecy triples or more the costs involved... But using them?

If you are LUCKY, then they are stronger than their target. Their battles, by their very nature, will be SUPER deadly and dangerous, and even if they succeed you may lose your asset.

If you are SUPER lucky, they are weaker than their target AND they somehow win. Probably die though in the process.

Obviously, over training these guys is a literal waste of money, because keeping them alive is risky, expensive, and dangerous.

Undertraining them means literally burning the money you had and watching the ashes float away.

Somehow you need to train them to EXACTLY the perfect level where they are strong enough to succeed, hopefully escape without leaving clues or getting caught and killing themselves, and if RNJesus is with you? They MIGHT be usable a second time.

But uh... That would establish a pattern, increase the chances for them to develop autonomy/goals/hopes/dreams/connections, etc.

And none of this takes into account how life itself can throw in unexpected circumstances. Unknown witnesses, etc.

But, and this is the important flaw and reason why 'Death Warriors' are stupid: If you can do all this, you have certain abilities!

• Can find/raise people to be loyal to you.
• Can train those people enough to be useful.
• Can find targets with enough intel to confidently send warriors to fight them... A good intelligence network.

In this case, WHY would you let a good fighter who is loyal to your cause kill themselves!? It's just pure waste!

It would be easier/cheaper/less risky to trick OTHER people into doing your work FOR you. Or training death warriors up to attack YOUR people, let them fail, then accuse your foes of doing it all + being evil brain washy jerks, etc.

The whole thing is like using mint condition Black Lotus cards to scrape dirt and mud off your shoes.

 

[theaceoffire]

Ha, someone wandered into the next chapter. Didn't see it coming, didn't expect it, but whatever.

Anyway, I noticed recently that at 4k a chapter 3x a week, I've been hitting over 12k in update sizes on a week to week basis...

O.O My story arcs are getting a bit longer with each one that comes along... Crazy stuff.

Also, I'm having a bit of an issue because SOME of the story lines I don't want to write. Because the Alice Realm wore me down back then, and I don't want to think about the darkest places and stories that happen here in THIS realm... So I won't.

Also, I tried to write Garp a few times, but he has been busy loudly eating snacks and bothering people. The guy barely visited Luffy anyway really, due to work or to avoid bringing down attention, and has always frustrated his coworkers... Maybe on purpose? As a mild form of protest against actions he disapproves of?

Plus, with all the crazy crap happening in the Grand Line right now... Well, leadership has been keeping Garp out of the way and out of hearing range from their VERY touchy bosses right now.

The old guy is not diplomatic. Ask his fists of love.

Some of the lines are also not being mentioned because they are being flavored by Bell-mère and her new Soul Fruit Buddy Shadow... They have different focus points than other people right now. Snacks and being a good parent for now, primarily. And as for the various villains?

It varies.

Seriously, half the bad guys in One Piece you see later on, in jail or whatever, and you get this 'Bro' feel to them. Or they join the crew, or become a fast food stall owner, or whatever.

But SOME of them, you just want to step on for a few years. Stab a bit. Maybe drown.

So yeah, a mixed bunch of people. Even Arlong had motivations that were understandable with a bit of background context, as he escaped slavery and global persecution... Sigh.

Also, the social issues are real. Like, serious crap. Not going to mention them here, but some hard core stuff goes down in this story.

It's why some bits are so jarring compared to others... One moment you are confused as there is a massive drunken party with wild wolves who just decide to dance with you for nearly no reason, the next something so sad happens that I won't even mention it here. Still freaking makes me tear up when I remember it.

No idea how long the intruder is going to hang around the next chapters either, should be interesting.

 

[theaceoffire]

Dental stuff didn't turn out amazing, but the blood work stuff worked out all right so far.

Not going to be an update today, but I should probably get it where I want it to be by Wednesday at the latest.

 

[theaceoffire]

Seriously this week sucks.

I was supposed to be going out to do my taxes at h&r today, scheduling an emergency dental thing to get my messed up tooth extracted, do work stuff, and in between all that mess get the next few chapters ironed out...

But I had a car tire pop and somehow the wheel is stuck to the hub and I had to fill it with air for long enough to drive to get it looked at and they still haven't given me back my car and I have the only car in my household and none of my family live in this state and...

Sigh.

I'm going to be doing a bunch of running around that I didn't expect to be doing and I need to be available to get stuff done instead of focusing on my writing. If things go way better than I expect there might be an update on Friday, but I'm going to focus on keeping my personal life a bit more stable first... Besides writing Corona is a bit frustrating to begin with at the best of times.

See in the anime I thought she was a girl and in the manga people refer to 'her' with a female reference sometimes, but when doing my research I found out that even the creator of the series doesn't know what gender they are and it was the translators and other people that didn't feel like it was respectful to refer Corona as a them instead...

So since I'm not used to writing gender neutral pronouns, that's a real struggle for me to make sure I don't slip in a 'her' or a 'she' somewhere. Which I try not to do because I respect their character and I like Crona as a person, so... Yeesh.