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Aphelli

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Status Updates posted by Aphelli

  1. Today is The Odd One Out's first "anniversary"! (insane stats below)

     

    It's almost unbelievable how much has happened since I started posting it. 

     

    To celebrate it, I thought it funniest to find out some stats... so I copy-pasted everything into Word, used some formatting magic to remove the pictures and make the presentation more uniform... 

     

    The result can't be trusted too much, but the order of magnitude is... well... 

     

    36 chapters

    210 pages

    109 820 words (reportedly)

    Some 350 KB in memory.

     

    It's so big that Word starts to struggle with elaborate search queries... and we've only just passed Shade!  Next year, to do the same task, I will have no choice but use command line tools. 🤣

     

    (Also, I should start revising the earliest chapters at some point, but I'd rather keep going on, given that we're getting closer to one of my earliest motivators for the story, in less than ten chapters...)

  2. Remember the first time you played Reborn?

     

    How a charming, enthusiastic, somewhat not-quite-down-to-earth young girl encouraged you to go to her "really nice" friend Mr. Shadow because there was a door he could open? And then, you found yourself in the Power Plant? 

     

    Imagine that happening to you in real life. What would happen then? 

     

    [Ominous music background with lots of tense pauses]

     

    A new chapter of The Odd One Out is online.

     

     

     

    And we're still respecting the Candy-approved guideline of a Gym battle every at most five chapters, I didn't think it was possible. 🤣

  3. Have you ever wondered what Shade was doing in its free time? When it's not terrorizing people? Foreseeing future disasters? Being randomly cryptic at mysteriously glowing Trainers from nowhere? 

     

    The new chapter of The Odd One Out might provide you with an answer! 

     

     

    1. Show previous comments  8 more
    2. DelRad

      DelRad

      But really though trying to document more than 8.7 million animals for the encyclopedia is just

      torture

    3. DelRad

      DelRad

      My computer lagged and sent an extra message sorry

    4. Aphelli

      Aphelli

      I’m aware you were joking. I’m just really bad at answering that kind of joke. 
       

      But that’s a very good idea you were suggesting, it would go a long way towards explaining why Shade became, well, Shade... 

  4. The Odd One Out's new chapter is online! We're closing the Orphanage arc -- and re-instituting character ratings, and chronological order as well.  

     

     

  5. I've been trying out Zumi's Rejuv character sorter. I had 68 characters, after removing Rifts and PCs. But when looking at the results, the only thing I can think of is how it took over 320 ~ log_2(68!) comparisons to sort the list. Truly, you can feel the difference between O(nlog(n)) (minimal average number of comparisons for a list-sorting algorithm) and n when you have to specify each comparison by hand (Volta or Florin? Jolene or Alexandra?...)

     

     

    1. Show previous comments  2 more
    2. SilverAngelus

      SilverAngelus

      Melia, although before taking this sorter my top 3 were (and still is) Erin, Tesla, and Risa!

    3. Aphelli

      Aphelli

      Yes, it's strange how the sorter doesn't always do what you think it would do (I hadn't even thought of Tesla when I started, I then realized I perferred her to almost everyone).

      Spoiler

      So I take it you don't support the "Risa is Freya" theory?

       

    4. SilverAngelus

      SilverAngelus

      The sorter is good for helping you realize characters that might not come to mind right way, yup!

      Spoiler

      I don't 😛 

       

  6. I recently found out that my Reborn story's title (The Odd One Out -- there's a new chapter just available btw) was almost the name of a (entirely unrelated) YT channel with millions of subscribers. People (including me) are weird, I guess?

  7. Time spent procrastinating the Shade fight because I feared I would get so wrecked: a couple of weeks. 

    Time spent preparing for said battle: a few hours. 

    Final score after first battle: 6-0. 

     

     

    Maybe, just maybe, counting the number of times I fail makes me overthink stuff? Or am I just getting better?

  8. Over 4,300 views for The Odd One Out, that’s amazing! Thank you to all (human) viewers! 
     

    The next chapter is coming as soon as I can get a good Wifi spot – a dozen days at latest. 

     

    On a not-too-unrelated note: I used to be stuck on some soon-to-come part (chapters 35-ish). I couldn’t write it satisfactorily – it felt poor, eventless, almost a waste of words, among others. A couple of days ago, I had a, er, great idea and I finished to write it entirely. Now it’s much more epic (and, I’m confident, more original), but... kind of weird at the same time.

     

    Spoiler

    There’s poetry from two different languages (one which I translated myself into English, so I’m not sure how it actually sounds), for crying out loud!


    I guess we’ll wait and see... 

  9. A survivor from study, summer and a bit of manual work, The Odd One Out is back for a historical chapter. 

     

    For the first time...

    A Gym Battle happens...

    Only 5 chapters after the previous one!  

     

    There is also an important plot deviation which you will see more about in the next chapters.

  10. Chapter 30 of "The Odd One Out" (my Reborn story) is now online. Enjoy! 

     

    I've also been trying to write out that Rejuv idea I kept in mind -- but I'm not that convinced by the beginning.

    It's supposed to be more interesting later, but, the issue with the later parts is that it's really hard to assess a likely result if I deviate from the original plot, because so much is unknown...

     

  11. Chapter 29 of "The Odd One Out" is online! Still not quite satisfied, but since I can't find what annoys me...  

     

    There are many things in this chapter, but mostly I think it's a transition... And there's a significant divergence from the game plot approaching. 

  12. @&~€%$£#*!

    I’m usually fine with the chapters I write, but I’m really struggling with the upcoming one. 
    Each time I read it, it feels so somehow wrong. And I don’t really understand what causes this feeling. 

    I guess I’ll give it another try tomorrow. 

  13. All in all, such a downer evening. 
     

    First, there’s this TV show which is even bleaker than usual, showing several meltdowns by very relatable characters.

     

    Then, thinking afterwards, I realized some unexpected implications of my fanfiction’s premises. It’s not relevant to the chapters currently online, but... it sheds some future plot points in different (and darker) lights. 
     

    Now I think I’m going to sleep before it gets even sadder. At least it’s not about anything really important. 

    1. Candy

      Candy

      Oof and it doesn’t help that the FEtR episode I posted was Devon Corp 😢

    2. Aphelli

      Aphelli

      That too, even though I almost forgot it -- tbh it had been earlier in the day. But now I'm thoroughly demotivated for whatever I could have done today.

       

      ...

       

      Well, it felt surprisingly better just writing it. I think I'm back to my studies now.^^

  14. Chapter 28 of my Reborn story "The Odd One Out" is now online.

    I will neither confirm nor deny that the entire chapter is mostly a paranoid Gabriel freaking out about the voice-activated lights in the ruins. 

    I will neither confirm nor deny that the chapter title is a voluntary pun on the iconic sentence of some famous Orson Scott Card novel.  

     

    There is a rambling madman in the ruins... But a very dangerous one. Very, very dangerous. 

     

  15. Part 2 of "The Odd One Out" has finally started. It's been a long break, but I hope it'll be worth it! 

  16. It turns out it's not a good idea to go try and play Reborn late at night, when you're not very good at the game, with a frail early game team and against an updated AI. 

    Who would have guessed?

     

     

    Anyway, there are now pictures (and, alas, an updated death count) for the latest (i.e. month old) chapter of my Reborn story, "The Odd One Out". It's likely (yet not certain) that the next chapter (and beginning of Part 2) will be released this week-end.  

  17. The final chapter of the first part of my Reborn story is out! Will Gabriel survive Corey's death trap?

     

    (There's going to be a break of maybe two or three weeks before part 2 starts)

     

    Second, more of an idle remark -- it's surprising the amount of questions you get to write down about a yet-incomplete plot when you try to fan-fiction/AU your way through/around/inside it. 

    (Yes, it's again about that Rejuv story idea. I don't know if I'll have the time to write it but it's rather cathartic to plan the highlights). 

  18. You know what's a fine way to procrastinate? Searching for anagrams.

    Spoiler

    Thus, "Meet Existentialists whom harten" is an anagram of

    Spoiler

    It whose limits Team Xen threatens

    Team Xen threatens me with its silo

    Team Xen threatens me with its soil

    Team Xen is the threat to smile wins.

    So threaten Team Xen with its slime.

    SOS. Threaten Team Xen with elitism.

     

    The conclusion of the story, of course, is that 29-letter sentences have way too many possible anagrams.

  19. Chapter 25 of my Reborn story is out!

     

    I get significantly more views for my story now. Looks like global lockdown somehow gives people more time to glance at stuff. I kind of wish I knew the proportion of people who actually read, but then again maybe I wouldn't like the result. 

     

    Also, I have a horrific idea for a Rejuv story. It's so bad it might be funny to plot out, maybe cathartic to write at some points, but perhaps not very entertaining to read. So I don't know if I'm going to pursue it. 

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. Aphelli

      Aphelli

      Thank you for the comment! 

       

      But I'm afraid it wouldn't be the same thing, actually... 

       

      I thought of my Reborn story when I realized that a lot of protagonists I had read had a lot of certainties -- who they are, what they want, what they're going to do, why, how and how much they fight, the fact that they're (as per canon) outstanding Trainers. And I wanted to challenge all of that while still remaining in the framework of the Reborn story.  

       

      But that idea for Rejuv, it's not really about love (I've got a much more complicated relationship with the plot, I guess). It's more like... (warning, terrible metaphor ahead) 

      A blindfolded team that tries to thoroughly redecorate the ground floor of a skyscraper.

      It may become something entirely different, and, well... it may collapse.  

       

      But I'll certainly be thinking on about this. If I think it holds, if I have enough time, maybe I'll give it a go. 

       

    3. Bunni Blair

      Bunni Blair

      Yeah, I realized that too. That's why I wanted to write Melanie as unsure and nervous at first, instead of the "outstanding trainer" at first. I wanted her to be different.

       

      Also, to tell you the truth - I kind of have complicated feelings about Rejuvenation's plot too. So, it's ok. It's also ok to be different with your story. Not everyone has to do a long retelling of game's plot, for ether games.

    4. Candy

      Candy

      I’d say if you have time and the ability to keep two stories afloat, you should write it. Whether or not people read it, you’d have fun bringing your imagination to life. As for me, I realized early on that I can’t do two Pokémon stories at once (lol I barely can do one) so won’t be writing a Rejuv story until Vanini’s story is complete. By that time I’m sure Rejuv will also be complete 🤣

  20. Editing being the most important part of the writing, is a well-known piece of advice. Stories have to be cut as short as possible, keeping only what is necessary.

     

    It may be right, but it's heartbreaking! 

  21. The issue when you plan climactic endings to your story arcs is that they often end up way longer than you would like. The end of Part 1 may well take some 30 pages... 

  22. I'm not too fond of doctoring screenshots for story purposes. 

    I like it even less when it's noticeably clumsy and I know I can't do any better. 

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