Shift Comments Thread

[Andromeda]

Chapter 240 is now up! It is the last flashback for Ayumi in the arc. I can't promise it's the last flashback of the arc. I have too many more battles ahead not to have more flashbacks. But Ayumi's had heavy character focus in the last part of the arc. So this will be closing things up.

Because of the previous chapter, I was able to focus completely on her rather than the history of the city as well. This is important to the defining moments in her life and how she was with the King in the end. I did end up leaving a little bit behind for a later date if I so wish. But I have fun addressing the fun issue of how a flashback can have other points of view and things unknown to the character, especially for her age. It happens too often that you hear more than you should in a flashback, even if it is important for the story.

Leading into the last bit of the flashback I get to have the King again. This time he's a bit younger and a little different. He acts differently when he was older and so I wanted to show how much of a change he does go through as Ayum/Eudokia grows older. Part of it is because of her and for her.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

It's pretty late even though I finished it in advance, too much of Lightning Returns, but Chapter 241 is present. Things wrap up with the flashback as promised and end into the final stretch of things. The end is just a setup for the next chapter. But it gets the tension rising for sure.

I did have to be careful with the flashback. I wanted to do more than I could because I had to keep the events to things only Ayumi knew about. The things that do fall outside of her being present are based on things she learned after the fact. But the shadows of things moving which I teased in a previous chapter I wanted to bring up again, but it was out of her knowledge. I'll get to those pieces in time.

But I did get to do a little more with the King and her and Demosthenes. Their first meeting was something I had a lot of fun with. It seemed like the perfect way to work with Demosthenes and his stiff personality. He's very easy to play with at that point. The changes that he underwent over the years makes how he is now and where he was much most noticeable.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now back on a proper time, I have Chapter 242 up. It's mostly a build up chapter, but it sets all of the pieces in motion now. You know who's going to be fighting who and you get a little good preview of things to come. The excitement takes a jump up here with all of the Titans that I've been teasing finally making a move. Since I have all of the fights broken out now, next week will mean that I can get down to the first fight.

One of the things I wanted to do with the chapter and as with Saki, was really show someone that could be an equal to her. Like she even said in her internal thoughts, everyone fought her from a distance, but Rheia is up close. It's going to be a very different fight from what she is used to dealing with and Rheia is a very unusual MP user. The nature of her powers will not be very clear for a while. But she'll be able to keep Saki busy like no one else has been able to do.

The other part that I wanted to do was finally awaken Yori. He's already been teased to have powers all the way back in the first arc, but as a running gag I always had someone interrupt him before it could happen. During the second arc, his powers manifested, but it an unusual means being something that was mental and clearly subconscious. He primary power, his attack powers had not revealed themselves. So finally getting him to show them off was something that I was waiting for the moment. It only made sense to do so at the end of the arc.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 243 is now up. It keeps surprising me that I'm in the 240s, I keep thinking somewhere lower than that, but I'm not. I'm almost halfway through the 200s. Which reminds me that I'm still in the second arc of the story. Fortunately, things are coming to a climax now. I was able to start the next fight in the series of long fights to break out. The weird thing is that there are seven fights all happening at the same time right now, which is more than before. But I've got a bar that will keep their place in the timeline all together.

It is a slight bait and switch. Yori finally gets to have his powers accessed to him, but he is not fighting the one he wanted. However, with the way things were building up, it should be pretty obvious that since Athene was tracking them, she'd be the one that he'd have to fight. But it is not the full focus of the chapter. He takes up a good amount of the chapter, but it is the resuming of Yumi's fight with Ourias. She is the more important part given the reveal.

I finally break the seal that's been on Yumi for the last 100 or so chapters. Which will get to result in another personality showing up and taking stage. It is all building blocks for figuring out what is going on with Yumi. She's got a lot of complicated things going on. So I plan to give a few more hints about things. Though it still all just setup for later arcs.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 244 is now available. The continuation of the Yumi and Ourias fight. More than just the fight, it's an important chapter for Yumi's character and her power. I've continued to leave hints and a lot of mystery surrounding the others that seem to be living inside Yumi as well. There has not been a clear answer to who they are or what. This chapter doesn't given clear answers to that yet, but the answers provided do start to color things.

The latest of the people inside Yumi, Sumiko provided some new answers to who they are. She clearly avoids a direct answer when Ourias asked. I'm not about to spill everything about Yumi just yet. Like everyone else, her growth has long term plans. This is just another stage in her growth. But it's a very important one since it does start exposing things about Yumi. The hints that I gave should be enough to start developing ideas about what they are. More fuel for the fire.

The other part is naturally on the fight. This is battle of intelligence, planning and deduction. Sumiko made herself very clearly before as something that is very tactical. And Ourias' power has a vast amount of flexibility and threat to them. Originally presented, they seemed pretty flat, but there is a good amount of complexity to his power. It requires a lot of thought and planning to execute them. It makes for a good match up.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 245 is now up! This is the big tease to the big reveal. Yeah, I'm super mean right now. I build up the reveal to the truth and it even looks like I might finally tell you what the truth is, but then I just tease it. Hopefully, it's not confusing, but all of the fights are happening at the same time. Yori's fight concluded at the same time as when Sumiko's fight with Ourias ended. Which is when he learned the truth. So you can expect to learn what the truth is when I get to Yori's fight.

However, it's still a big chapter. The reaction from Yumi alone is enough for the chapter as the implications from what she learned is enough to make her angry like she's never been before. Which will make it a lot of fun to finish out the rest of things with her. I make it clear that Ourias' still alive, he only got knocked out, but he's determined to keep fighting. That should make things pretty clear the rest is not going to be easy when you think about what it'll mean.

I also managed to put in more of Ourias' backstory. He's been one of the more developed characters on the Titans, so I've wanting to get into more of his story. It's heavily spliced, but you should be able to get the sense of things from everything that I tossed out.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

I'm a bit on the late side, but it's still decent time. Chapter 246 is up now. Yes, more than just being a tease, I'm a horrible tease. I'm moving on to Fumiko's fight now. So you won't get to see the conclusion to Yumi's fight for a while. There's a point to it, which will reveal itself in the next couple of chapters.

The fight is a bit of a setup still with Fumiko, but there is an important factor with her. Something that I'll be revealing in the next chapter. It's rather important to her character and her motives. Fighting Glykeria is a perfect opponent for Fumiko because of it. It'll help bring out what she's been holding in the whole time. So I'm glad to finally be able to start addressing one of the complexes that Fumiko has. Part of it has been made clear, though it's a little farther reaching.

Glykeria's going to be a fun one, especially with what I've been hinting at in the past. The cliffhanger at the end shouldn't be a huge surprise, but confirmation of suspicions, still it's a big reveal which plays into the next chapter. She's a very complicated person, more so than initially appearing, which makes it exciting to finally get to touch on her as well.

Enjoy!