Shift Comments Thread

[Andromeda]

Coming in a little on the later side, I finished Chapter 193 for everyone. As you are going to be quick to realize, the cliffhanger I left on for the last chapter is not resolved in this chapter. I'm mean like that. ^^; I'm moving on to Ayumi/Eudokia's fight. This is mostly because the fighting with Yuki is over and Yuki and Saki's uncertain fate are things to be address in the resolution rather than now, which is about resolving the four fights. Ayumi's is the last fight in the series of fights here, which has been going on for 15 chapters now, or almost 4 months. Not too bad, considering how long I spent on the others.

I'm pretty sure this is going to be a shorter fight just from what I have planned, but who knows I've said that before. Anyway, when I approached this fight and writing the chapter I realized a couple of things. One I haven't done a fight with Ayumi in it in like 150 chapters, which actually surprised me. When I realized that fact it left me a little dumbfounded for a moment. One of the primary characters hadn't had a fight since Fumiko was introduced. That's a long time. The second thing I realized was that I had not really showed off Ayumi in a fight. Sure, she's been in a fight, but I largely glossed over her parts and a lot of her remained very mysterious. Which meant that this was the first time she actually got a proper fight with no interruptions and no one else in the fight giving her aid.

When I realized those things I knew I had to do something really special for her fight. It really works out well that she is fighting Chariton, who's very nontraditional. It makes for a very interesting visual fight. I took a lot of cues from the first fight in Soul Eater, which I thought was nicely intense and quickly paced. I imagined these two really going at it in close range and with a lot of quick very skillful moves.

This is also the first time I really got to show off two skilled MP users actually fighting. Ayumi is the only skilled fighter in this type of fight and she had past fights, but it never was really something to showcase her abilities. It was to showcase what the powers could do. So this is the first chance to see to highly skilled fighters in an intense fight.

Chariton's method of fighting make for a lot of fun things I can do in the fight. One thing I wanted him to do provide was the more unusual nature of their powers. The truth of their powers is that they can make anything they want to be a weapon or deadly. They can do anything, so long as their imagination can dream it up. With Chariton I really wanted to show that off, since everything so off up to this point has been very normal. I wanted things to be largely normal for the time being while you got used to things. But I'm going to be starting to throw in more unusual things in future fights. Chariton is the first taste of that. The Omega Division is going to be the big bar for just weird stuff, because they are the most powerful MP users and that allows them to be highly unconventional while still being extremely deadly.

There are a couple of other things in this fight that I'm wondering if anyone will pick up on. I'm doing some very intentional things that are going to be hints to the future. Chariton's dialogue is the one clue that I'm giving away for free. I've been building up hints of distrust, but Chariton is making it very clear that Ayumi is hiding some things. There's a lot going on in the fight that is not about the fight, so it is important to pay attention.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Alright, the next chapter in the fight is now available, Chapter 194 is up. This continues the fight with Eudokia and Chariton. It is hardly much of a surprise that Eudokia was able to escape, but it did allow the stage to be set to up the power. Before both were not taking things very seriously, now Chariton steps up to change the balance and Eudokia is forced to respond.

I've had others in other fights have less direct means of fighting, but I think Chariton's "technicolor" outfit is one of the more interesting ones and one of the more problematic ones. As Eudokia already knew and discovered again, it makes fighting him very difficult as you're misjudging things. Not to mention it plays with your own balance leaving you feeling uneasy. It reminded a little of the opponent in Kenshin with the stripped shirt that used it to throw off your sense of distance. However, this is a more direct method and far more crippling one. If you can look at your opponent it is very difficult to fight and if you do you get sick.

This puts Eudokia in a terrible position and it is not something that is easily overpowered as it is what he is wearing. So it is the closest to his core and the strongest part of his power. So Eudokia will have to figure out way to deal with him. Plus she is going to be showing off something new that has not been seen before. I'm quite excited for the next chapter. It is going to be a very interesting and clever end to the fight I think. Which I think will be the best for two so skilled.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Doing better on time this week. Chapter 195 is now available! This chapter concludes the battle between Chariton and Eudokia, though it does leave things on a cliffhanger. But it is very clear that Eudokia is no longer in a suitable position to fight with the injuries she's sustained. And with everyone else out of commission, how will she get out of this situation? Sound a bit like the narrator at the end of a Dragonball Z episode? ^^

I got to show off some more of Eudokia's powers. The beast like form she has is something I've been holding in reserve for a while. It uses some similar principles as Yuki's does for the bursts of speed. Eudokia just has a more trained body to be able deal with the sudden acceleration on her body. However, it does still leave her hurting pretty badly just the same. Yuki is also a little out of practice. He hasn't been "training" for more than a year. So he's a little light on the physical condition needed.

The more intellectual side of the fight came out near the end. It was like a puzzle needing to be solved. I really liked the way things worked out with it. A lot of the fights between two people like this are figuring the other person out before they figure you out. Most fights are something of keeping all of your secrets to yourself and don't explain anything to your enemy. If your enemy knows how your powers work then it means that they can use that knowledge against you. So it produces a different dynamic for the faces. The grandstanding and monologuing about abilities doesn't happen because it would put them into a worse situation. It's a fun a little breakdown of things are very common in this type of story. I still do the explanations, but it is when they've figured things out. So part of it up to the reader to figure things out and part is explained to them.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Keeping with my timing, I've got Chapter 196 available now! If you go by the title of the chapter it might be easy to think that I continued the fight with Chariton and Eudokia, but it was sort still tied into it. So I kept with the convention for the chapter. It does finally answer what happened to Yuki and Saki, since I did leave off on a pretty mean cliffhanger right there.

The scene turned out longer than I planned on it being, but worked out. I got to have a little Yuki and Saki time, which is rare these days. They only get angry at each other these days because of everything happening. So it is nice for them to have a moment alone. Then things speed back towards the previous cliffhanger.

I did indeed have Saki throw Yuki into a headbutt to disable Chariton. It was a bit of a call back to Dragonball for subtle little reference. We'll she how many people actually pick that one up. But either way, I end on a rather important note with Yuki and Ayumi. It has him making are rather important decision it seems and some progress between them.

There is a lot of small things that happen in the chapter. It is a bit of a breather from all of the fighting. Which is important since I'll be jumping on the drama train soon after this. So it is going to be about the only pit stop before more things start jumping out.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Back for another round of comments with Chapter 197 now available! Things get a little more serious this time around as promised. Not as serious as they'll get in time, but still Yuki is acting more serious than normal and you know that has to mean something. I do drop a couple of important things in the chapter though.

The group is back together finally and the fighting is over. Yuki gets to have a little bit of a cool moment where he intimidates the last two holds into not fighting and then acts cool by letting them go, having already understood the situation. I feel like he got some pretty good stuff in the chapter overall. He is showing himself to be more observant than before and smarter. They are all qualities that he has had before, but his more lighthearted nature blankets over them at times, making him seem more foolish than he actually is. It does not always mean a lot in real world situations, but Yuki's academics is actually better than Saki's. Yuki's not the smart in the group, but he is one of the smarter ones. Haruo is the smartest in the group.

And yes, I killed Vangelis. I killed him when Saki did her little finger flick on him. This is where things start to get serious again. The fun thing is if you notice, Saki knows she killed. She knew she killed from the moment she acted, but lied to Yuki about it. I plan on doing more with this development through the arc. It is something that is going to follow Saki.

I finally also explain what folding is in more detail. I left it up to the reader to figure out for a while, but I planned on getting to it eventually. If you didn't know what it is, you know now. It is a rather important deal as well, especially since the growth is not geometric. When you fold, you are reducing the radius of the field by half, but the amount of power is not doubled because is it not just surface area. It is volume. You're taking all of the volume and trying to fit into an even smaller volume. So the density increased dramatically, hence why you gain such power and why it is that most people can only do one fold. It takes a lot of mental concentration and control to force that much power into a tinier space. Yuki has a massive amount of reserves, so it takes a lot of focus to bring his power under control. He's currently only able to get around 50% of a single fold, which he peaked at during Vangelis' fight. It's not something he can do consciously.

And moving on to the next chapter. Ayumi's past is about to be revealed! I've been holding on to a lot of this stuff since the beginning. I won't be getting to a lot of the good stuff until later, but this is going to be the first of several flashbacks for Ayumi. You'll get to see her when she was younger and before things changed for her.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

A little on the later side, but I still managed it at a decent time. Chapter 198 is now available! I am now getting started on Ayumi's back story. I do bring back some old dialogue from a past chapter. So for those that remember the scene Yori had inside Athene's mind, this is actually a fun a little thing. I play things out more and you get to see things from Ayumi's point of view. Since everything before was played from Yori point of view of Athene's memories, seeing it from Ayumi's side makes it interesting and worth going back over. Plus it plays into developing things for Ayumi.

One of the things I established a while ago was the isolation and general prejudice that the MPs receive from the regular soldiers. I illustrated that a lot with past characters, so Ayumi's is not something new. But it will go a little deeper into the matters, since this is going to be an in depth look at her. I'll be covering a fair bit of a time for her at the South Gate, so things are going to be starting slow. The next chapter will see things pick up.

Another thing I address to some degree is the fact that is a very strange for a child to be out in the patrol. Anime/manga are something that is not one to ignore placing children or teenagers into situations where they should not be, by the standards of the world that they are in. Most times it just does not make sense. Something I understand well enough, I've already explained the situation that MPs find themselves in. All MPs serve in the military regardless of age, it is something required. However, they has to be cases for when children get pulled in. They generally stay in the Academy until they are old enough to move into the regular army or they stay in the capital if they graduate. Ayumi's case in unique in the fact that she finished the Academy at a very young age and even came out to the South Gate of her own accord. She request the transfer, something that'll be explained more in the next chapter. Her presence in the South Gate is something everyone thinks is strange and a place she does not belong, which only makes her efforts more difficult, but they were shaping times for her.

And since I've bee needing to do it for a while, here is the military rankings for the Atlantean military.

General of the Army
Captain General
Lieutenant General
Captain
Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Sergeant Commander
Captain Lieutenant
First Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Captain Sergeant
Lieutenant Sergeant
Sergeant
Corporal
Junior Corporal
Cadet

Things to keep in mind is that all MPs start out at Second Lieutenant regardless of how they do in the Academy, this is because of their special status. All regular soldiers start out as Junior Corporal, but most will likely make Corporal in the first year. The Junior rank is more of a status identifying them as first year soldiers, only the worst soldiers get stuck at Junior Corporal, which likely means that they will be discharged. All Academy soldiers are Cadets. The Captain General and Lieutenant General ranks are generally assistants to the General of the Army and hold command positions of different parts of the military. The Captain General is almost always in charge of the regular military and the Lieutenant General is almost always in charge of the Omega Division. Both report directly to the General of the Army. It is nearly unheard of that the General of the Army or Captain General positions are held by MPs. It is common, but no required that the Lieutenant General position is a MP, which is why it is lowest General position. This means that Demosthenes position as General of the Army is something of matter of contention within the military and even the council.

It is common for most MPs to be between First Lieutenant and Sergeant Commander, due to their advanced placement. Most of the Omega Division are ranked between Sergeant Commander and Commander, with a few Captain ranked MPs. It is generally very difficult for a MP to reach Captain and usually takes years to reach Commander. The Omega Division helps to accelerate the process, but it is still not easy for a MP to advance.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

A bit on the late side, but my overtime has begun at work. So now I'm having to squeeze in write to a near 60 hour week work. But I actually came in earlier than last week! Chapter 199 is now up, I'm so close to that 200 mark now! This chapter as you would expect, continues Ayumi/Eudokia's flashback during her time at the South Gate. This time without the interruption of Yuki.

This chapter explains a couple more things about the workings of the military. It is mostly about Eudokia settling into her new life. I did not want to spend a lot of time on it, but it was important that I show she is alone. She is considered a bit of a freak and an outsider. She is the target of many, but none of is direct. So she has to deal with a very unfamiliar environment for her. However, I also wanted to show that she is still a child inside as well. A lot of her is putting up a brave front so that she can get through each day.

Simonides presence here is near the start of his time as Captain at the South Gate since it was five years in the past. However, the bigger note is the cliffhanger I left out on. This should be a treat to those that remember, but this is Dareia's appearance. It means nothing to a lot probably, but she was the assassin from the Fumiko sub-arc that actually knew Eudokia. This is when they actually met for the first time. So the scene has a lot of importance story-wise, which is why it made for a nice little cliffhanger. She's back!

Enjoy!