Shift Comments Thread

[Andromeda]

Chapter 294 is now available! This is where it happens, what I was talking about things getting dark. The last couple pages just descend so fast and hard into the darkness that you don't realize how deep your in anymore. I've sort of gotten you used to a little of it, since yeah bad things were happening before and I had that nightmare fuel with Yumi. But this goes to a completely different level.

As you read, it is still pretty tame in terms of details I provide. I could have easily gone so much worse, but there's not a lot of point since it's not that type of story. I had a point to drive home with the setting, it did it and I moved on. But it is still a very unsettling imagery.

And I of course pull the pronoun game for a little bit to push off the reveal of who is the mastermind until the cliffhanger surprise. This is one of those big surprises that I've been holding on to. I had all of that stuff with Eudokia that I built up over hundreds of chapters. This one I seeded all the way back in the second sub-arc in what you thought would be a completely inconsequential conclusion. I continued the thread with Saki visiting Takako, but then I shipped her off. And now she's back as the next big bad! I hadn't forgotten her and planned this whole thing out all the way back then. So you can imagine how excited I was to finally be able to talk about this big reveal.

The fun thing is that I end tie back to that story line just before the reveal with Saki thinking about to the mental scarring she took for that ordeal. And Takako came out even worse from it, since she was vegetable pretty much and largely no responsive. And now she's doing all this.

And unlike last time, I'm not holding out on the secrets as long. There's still obviously the big question of why still and even more why with Takako's reveal. But this is short arc relatively speaking. So I'm not holding down the secrets until the end. But this is probably the darkest chapter that I'll write few things are much darker than what I wrote there for what I have planned and anything potentially worse isn't coming for at least another hundred to two hundred chapters and a few arcs later.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now available for your reading pleasure is chapter 295! This is a little bit of a retread, but it helps to fill in a few more details on what happened the previous chapter. It was rather important to cover them since I skip over things as the chapter previously focused more on Saki. So it skipped ahead and this jumps back to answer what everyone else is doing.

A brief thing I brought up in the last chapter, Saki had tails on her and I explain that they are ones from Hiroshi's group. Which is something that would make sense as I have things explained in this chapter. He's not letting them out of his sight and plans to protect them from themselves.

As it's already started to develop, one of the important elements for this arc is picking sides. Hiroshi is very adamant about picking one, though Yuki naturally wants to be his own side. But it is not something that is really going to work out for him. It'll be something that he will realize soon enough that he can't remain neutral and still expect to do things his way. He'll have to make some tough choices coming up and this is going to be one of the big ones.

The other thing is that this settles up the conflict for the next chapter. Since while Saki was off doing her thing, others were also doing stuff as well and getting into trouble. It is actually a pretty busy chapter over all. A lot of fill in things. And there is the big cliffhanger at the end with Saki kneeling before Takako, making things even more complicated. You should see where things are going now.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now available is chapter 296 for reading! It may seem like it is going on forever, but we are finally getting close. There are only a few chapters left before we're finally fully caught up. The September Shift is closed out and you have now nearly gotten 30 chapters. I blew through so much of the story in that short period of time. So now it'll be going back to the weekly posting on Sunday.

This chapter returns things to what was going on with Yumi and Yori after they got cornered by Yumi's friends Kaede and Katsumi. I didn't really get to do much with either of them, but given the situation it was not going to be easy. Neither are prepared to fight for real against people that they know. Which is what makes the whole thing more difficult and darker. As you probably saw coming, Yumi gets taken as well along with Fumiko. And it is clear with the end of the chapter that Saki is sided with Takako now as well. The genre savvy probably know what's going on, the rest of you will learn in like 6 or 7 chapters.

I finally get to show off the powers of Kaede, Katsumi and Miyako. I gave Kaede and Katsumi powers a long time ago in prep for this. Like I said before, everyone was given powers. I just hadn't gotten to do anything with them. There are some in there that I gave some really silly powers to because I didn't want to be formulaic for all them. Kaede has some fun powers and Katsumi's aren't completely clear right now but will explain themselves in time. Miyako's power is the one that is actually different than what you think. It'll be something that will be explained later, but for now I'm intentionally painting in a misleading light.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now available to read is chapter 297! This chapter is more divided than the others as I had to put people into their locations. Yuki was the only one not accounted for from the group, so I needed to show his location. And then I worked in Seiji because it's important for a few things.

This is actually where the start of Seiji's focus on his character begins. It's going to be a while before his big moment, but this is all just pieces setting that up right now. His development and story is one of the longer stories to carry through due to the way things are. But it is nice to get the wheels in motion on it.

The rest is just set up for the cliffhanger really. Miyako had to return along with the others. Yori's still high on rage. Something that he hasn't be able to control and lost to the last time as well. When it involves his sister he goes nuts and now he has power to back up his emotions. Which makes him even more dangerous than normal. It lost a lot of his even composure due to his desire to protect Yumi and his feeling of failure and inadequacy. But as you can see most of the character changed quite a bit during their time in Atlantis with only Haruo really resisting any sort of change.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Available early for you, chapter 298! Getting close to that 300 number, I keep forgetting how close I am to it every time I write a chapter. Now I'm writing 300 for next week. But anyway, the blitz starts this chapter. It is a very sudden attack on their base, but there are reasons for it. One's that won't be clear for a while, but it is happening for a specific reason.

This finally gets down to one of those classic what if sorts of things. If they had to fight each other who would win. Though admitted it is pretty unfair and not really fully committed to it. Yori gets just destroyed by Saki, which is to be expected. She has a lot of things working in her favor that make her very difficult to deal with. However, as you can see, Tatsuya actually seems to be able to keep up with her. The way his powers work is actually very interesting and works out well for fighting Saki. You'll get to learn what his power is later and it'll make sense.

I've been spending a little time on Hiroshi whenever I can. He was a side character that got more development back in the first arc. I sort of did the bait and switch then, where I gave a somewhat random side character more back story as though I was going to kill them, but then had it be Kazuhiro instead. However, the back story for Hiroshi is important since he becomes a critical character now and I needed that setup. Despite his modesty, he is actually a good leader and people naturally want to follow him, which I made clear in the back story. So the people here are all willing to follow him. He cares about everyone and even unfortunately those that are his enemy. He accepts his responsibility as painful as it is. He is nicely complicated, since he seems simple, but is not really. He is actually pretty self-sacrificing.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

And now the last chapter to catch up on, chapter 299! Just one chapter before 300! Another milestone is quickly approaching. This chapter runs the conclusion of the blitz attack. Yeah things are moving really fast with this arc. It was what I planned on. It was never going to be a massive arc like the ones before it. Though tonight as I was reading through it I was re-evaluating some of the things I was doing. Everything feels a little too rush in places. I'm wondering if I want to do more character development for these people that I'm killing off. Because I'm just offing people left and right with little regard to who they. But I haven't really built them up, so you can't really get attached to them. Though it is also not really that sort of thing. This is a brutal and merciless arc where lots of people die. So I don't really have time for everyone. I'm going to think over things.

One other thing that I was mulling over was if I wanted to do a full out fight with Fumiko and Haruo and Saki and Tatsuya here or not. Most of the big fights aren't planned until the end of the arc. None of these fights really have a huge point than that they are setup for later. As I've said before I don't do anything without a reason. So I don't like dragging out fights that have little point. Which is why a lot of these are short, because their point isn't to showcase something new just to set up things in the plot. So they happen and then they're over. It's pretty fast.

Despite the brisk pace things have been moving right now, things are going to be slowing down now that the blitz is over. Things are going to move at a slower pace through to the end. The only thing is that I don't know how big the fights here are going to be yet. I'm still ironing them out.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

It's here! The 300th chapter celebration finally! As you should expect by now, I do completely separate chapters that are following a different arc as it were. These back story chapters are really fun to write, but also good to help flesh out some things. This one is probably more packed with details and things than the past two chapters. I also rewind further back on this. Chapter 100 and 200 are linked together and take place when Yuki is seven, meaning eight years in the past. While chapter 300 is before Yuki was even born, set 17 years to the present.

I leave things a little vague at the start, though given the focus of the chapters/arc here it should be obvious that it is Yuki's parents. When I was planning on this chapter I didn't know if I wanted to do this chapter or do the one where his father dies. The important thing about these chapters is that they tie in closely with the related events surrounding them. While a little off, since the current arc focus is on Takako and what's up with her in the city. One of the important things Yuki just learned is that his parents are tied with Atlantis on some level, what that level is unknown to him. So it made more sense to do it here. I have more chapters planned for this arc that doing when his father dies would be more fitting later to help add more to what's going on then.

But this chapter as I said brings out a lot of new details that expand the characters you already know. The initial bit is dealing with Isamu and Tomiko. Not about how they met, but that they work together. It explains what they do, which was never stated. However, due to the work that they have, it is the reason for the lifestyle they have, noteably that the house is fully paid for. It's not a large house or expensive area, but it is fully paid for. So all Momoko has to do is maintain it and deal with utilities. Which is why they can live where they can. I'm pretty sure I stated that somewhere else, but that's something I established day one.

Also it explains that they both very smart and Isamu even more so as he finished university before Tomiko. While they said she's a prodigy for having gotten into the company without his help, that's not the case. Isamu would deny the claim that he is a prodigy, but it is very intelligent and she is as well. Additionally, the four of them have known each other before even their kids. Tomiko is the reason for them being together Kiku and Hachiro. The other thing which I never pointed out because it never really mattered on the story I was telling at the time, but Kiku is American in race, but she's born in Japan. Her parents were stationed in Japan and had her in Japan and stayed after their service. Kiku has a Japanese name as their hope that she'd fit in more despite being American in appearance, but more Japanese in upbringing. This is how Saki is Japanese-American and why she was bullied when she was younger, besides the whole thing with Hachiro being a teacher. She was bullied on both issues.

So lots of different answers and details coming out of this chapter. Also, this is the first meeting that they have with the King of Atlantis, Yuki's real father. Though naturally, they don't know it since he was pretending to be British. They'll have their real face-to-face meeting later though. All very important details. But this is just fleshing out and setup for those future chapters.

Enjoy!