And that's volume 2 down. Another 7 volumes before we catch up to JP.

I'm probably dropping off here. I legitimately don't understand what the audience for this is.

That's not to say it's "bad", but... when you're writing an overpowered protagonist story, you generally lack the ability to create tension in the story through the fear of any kind of direct harm to them (because they're overpowered). That's why these stories generally need something else to keep the audience invested, whether it's a charismatic and compelling main character, an enjoyable cast chemistry, humorous hijinks, overarching mysteries, villains willing to go after their loved ones, longer term tension of the "the protagonist is only overpowered relative to their surroundings, and there are much more powerful people out there whose attention needs to be avoided" nature, etc. Sometimes, depending on the story setup, you'll need to layer more than one of these in order to keep people hooked.

I don't get what the "something else" is for this story:

There's not much in the way of comedy in here, and certainly not enough to carry the whole thing. There's no overarching mystery at all; we know exactly what's happening and why. The protagonist has no "loved ones" in any traditional sense, and even if he acquires any: As demonstrated in the "climax" of this novel, he can literally appear next to them anytime they're in trouble; and He can just make them into very-powerful-but-not-as-powerful-as-he-is vampires at seemingly no cost to himself. Our protagonist certainly doesn't seem to care about drawing attention all that much, nor is there any mention of greater beings to be wary of. The cast is standard harem fare; and the kicker: This is a supremely uncharismatic main character. "Bragging about being powerful and smart" barely counts as a personality, and it certainly doesn't work as a central draw. It says something that our vampy boy needs to literally cause mind-bending pleasure when sucking blood for us to buy his ability to put together a harem, since he's otherwise so flat as a character that there's nothing for someone to be attracted to.

Hopefully those who stick around can find something to recommend here, but I think I'll leave Kelly Ignacius's Wild Adventures for them.

@Gamen @Zakrhune Ah I see, thank you both for the replies

@Xix7 It has been confirmed that it'll happen, but hasn't been announced when. The Japanese publisher's schedule is announced up to September without it being on it, so I'd expect not before October.

@Yolech said in Fan-fiction: Tearmoon Empire short story: Starting at the Guillotine—Again and Again and Again…:

@jazzyjeoff cool story. It feels complete as is imo.

Oh my, she's The Diary?! Or the biography in the later iterations?

Did you plan to expand on the imperfect futures Mia read about?

Thanks for reading!
I did start a new volume with this, but I hit a block and now there are two stories ahead of it (A Citrina story and an original work that I am trying to write in time for the J-Novel contest).

I am not going to pull out the semi-complete chapters, but the plot is as follows (I will probably delete this at some point).

The original idea was to do a little bit of “Lion King 1 and 1/2” with part of it—having an arc that follows the original Tearmoon diary arc—with Mia’s mom communicating in Mia’s dreams in the diary. The empress gives Mia some very cold and calculating ideas on how to survive. Mia has no memory of these dreams each times she awakens—but has vague urges to do something related to what her mother suggests, but Mia takes on a completely different strategy (her mom knows that a plague is going to start in the New Moon district, so she tells Mia to chase out the residents and burn it down. She urges Mia to seduce Gain Remno to secure an army, etc.) At the end of the arc Mia changes her fate by doing essentially the exact opposite of what the empress directed Mia to do, The diary disappears and Mia’s mom magically appears behind Mia’s back. Realizing that Mia succeeded by essentially doing the opposite of everything that she instructed, Mia’s mom concludes that maybe her sanity is not so good and maybe she needs to work on that before she reveals herself to Mia. So she secretly runs away to Mathias (the emperor) who she tells everything to. Matthias says he will help the Empress recover and she can reveal herself to Mia when she’s ready. (there will be a scene in which the empress uses magic to disguise herself as a maid and brushes Mia’s hair as she talks to her.) While Mia begins the Remno Arc, the Empress feels recovered and tells Mathias that she is going to reveal herself to Mia when she returns. But then Matthias and the Empress are alerted that Mia has run off to Remno that’s in the middle of a revolution. The Empress panics and asks a crystal ball if Mia will be murdered. The CB says yes. She then uses one of her magic time-travel spells to take her to where Mia is located a week before Mia is to be murdered. Of course, the empress is assuming that she will be killed in Remno, but instead she Mia was to be murdered 40 years into the future into the timeline that would become Bel-Evil Rafina timeline—and once again she’s trapped in a book, The Saint Princess Mia Chronicles! Mia dies and the SPMC is passed on to Bel. The empress is able to talk to Bel in her dreams, the same way she talked to Mia—but this time the empress gives compassionate advice—when Bel’s heart begins to become poisoned with hatred ed towards Rafina—the Empress reminds her that she is Mia’s Granddaughter and that is not what she would want, etc. When Bel meets her apparent end she gives her impassioned speech to her pursuers—and a drop of her blood falls onto the SPMC which sends Bel back into time and frees the Empress. As that happens Bel’s hellscape Tearmoon is transformed into an utopian paradise. The newly released Empress is wandering around and runs into Bel’s father who is searching for Bel, whose horse had returned without her. The Empress asks to be taken to the the alive and healthy Mia—which he does eventfully. Mia recognizes her mom. Her mom tells her the whole story. Mia’s mom postulates that Bel must have gone back in time and stopped Rafina from destroying the continent. At first no one believes her because they have no memories of Bel in the past or an evil Rafina. But then everyone except Mia begins to smile—they have the taste of yummy cookies in their mouths—this taste is accompanied by them remembering some of their past adventures with Bel—a similar thing happens with Mia, but her mouth tastes like celery (this gag is continued through the arc —each time the crew recalls a new memory of Bel the flavor of increasingly wonderful pastries magically appear—while a jealous Mia tastes celery each time—Mia even begins to fake that she is getting the pastry taste, but is very unconvincing). The empress tells the crew that she can fix everything by using magic to switch places with Bel. Right before the empress is about to use her spell a 75 year old Mathias goes up to say goodbye to the only woman he ever loved—and kisses the 25 year old Empress—who immediately throws up. Matthias is crushed—and the Empress is taken to a doctor. When she returns it is revealed that the Empress was not really grossed out by the kiss—she is just pregnant and was having morning sickness. Bel’s little sister who is in attendance concludes that the Empress got pregnant from the kiss—Bel’s parents argue over who gets to explain to Bel’s sister why kissing can’t get a person pregnant. It turns out that when the Empress was first released from the diary forty years ago the Emperor and Empress decided to make up for lost time and made like bunnies. So the empress was pregnant even before she left Mia’s redemption timeline. Since she is now pregnant she thinks it’s better if she doesn’t try the magic thing—so stays in this timeline until the baby is born. So Bel has to stay a while longer in the redemption timeline. So everyone is remembering new adventures they had with Bel—which means they all get to taste sweets, while Mia tastes celery. The empress gives birth to a baby boy. Everyone is elated. Eventually the Empress and the young prince extit back to the redemption timeline and Bel returns to her parents (it is unclear how old Bel is).
Mia then has a new memory of her baby brother and mother’s return and it tastes like a wonderful strawberry shortcake. Bel finds her great-grandmother’s spellbook and then announces that she intends on becoming a time-traveler. She promises to visit often. Her mother demands that she be back in time for dinner. Bel recites a spell and disappears. Dinner time approaches. Her parents are sad. Bel re-appears in time for dinner but asks if a friend can stay over. Her parents say the more the merrier. The friend is Citrina, of course. The pair leave again to go on time-traveling adventures. The End!

@kuali hehehe it felt all nostalgic dropping by the forum so long after vol. 2 had ended! And I do feel a bit silly getting all excited about stuff that isn't coming out for another year or so......

@BlueButterfly-1uwohc3 Having finally caught up on the series... I totally expect at some point to see Yuna and Rinka sometime before their third year to get upset about a Makina antic and just back to back french kiss Yotsuba... Much to the total bewilderment to the class and the fan club.

@Paul-Nebeling said in Full Metal Panic! Short Stories Vol. 7 Discussion!:

@Terabyte I got the impression that this was the last volume of this series. Have we reached the final end of FMP?

I believe there are 10 (or was it 12?) short stories volumes. So we have at least 3 more volumes left.

I didn't know that this needed another volume, but it's not a continuation of the story but basically a volume's worth of side stories and extended epilogues, which is fine. More than fine. It's great!

I, for one, am happy to see the world's best tsundere princess once more; what's not to love about Lieselotte who'd ask others to have tea with her with "I challenge you! If you win, I will invite you for afternoon tea, and if you lose, you will have to have a practical lesson on tea party etiquette with me"? (-:

While it didn't rise to the heights of the previous volumes, several of the moments were genuinely touching, like how when Sieg loses his connection to Kobayashi and Endo, he genuinely misses them as friends who are now gone from his life and might not ever return; or our commentators pointing out that Fabian, despite his bad history and tendency towards mistrust, clearly feels safe with Cecilie and the Riefenstahls, and how all the sisters go and physically block off Baldur from coming closer because Fabian's not good with big men... You just feel the love they all have for each other coming off the pages.

Another good part were the excerpts from Lieselotte's diary, covering the entire time of the original volumes, and how its tone is changing as Kobayashi and Endo's efforts take effect.

I also liked how nobody, including our gods, has any idea what profesor Leon's deal is. The Fae Princess and her protegé are just too secretive to let their secrets show up anywhere, including in the game. (:

I don't comment on pictures much, but the illustration of the Lieselotte and Baldur's (training) duel is just the best. Though the pic accompanying Liese's diary, and how calm and content she looks, is also great.

@Terabyte And given that Sheera's mom is "Tari Ruu" and not "Tari ____ Ruu", she was already part of the Ruu clan, so they seem fine with cousin marriages. Though, I guess with a group of only 500 people, that's kind of inevitable.

@Soopking Unfortunately, the website displays a lot of information using formulas, and since Blade & Bastard doesn't follow our typical "stream, then release, then expire" process, the formula for the expiration doesn't reflect the proper expiration date.

The streaming expiration for Blade & Bastard Vol. 2 will be August 15, 2023.

I know I'm a little late on picking this up... But as a Indie Vtuber myself some of this feels all to true. Especially at the beginning when she's a 'normal' vtuber worrying about numbers and feeling that the world is ending when viewership is down. I'm still in that place as most people don't go viral. Heck as an Indie vtuber someone doing the kinds of streams she does later wouldn't even be unusual.

It does feel a bit strange for a agency vtuber from Japan... Most of them are nearly ruthless about keeping their vtubers seiso idols. xD

@22144418 said in Min-Maxing My TRPG Build Vol. 2 Discussion!:

but surely there is some technical explanation to why I do not enjoy the way this story is progressing that is not simply a contradiction to my personal beliefs.

I don't think it's that strange to be miffed by what's happened. The story looked like it had a trajectory and then she waltzes in and completely derails that. While I enjoy how things happen I wouldn't expect everyone to do so. On the plus side, as Shaun said, this does open some new doors and allows Erich to meet some cast he otherwise could never have plausibly met. IMO volume 2 is the weakest of the series and picks back up once he's in the capital and meets new peers.

@Mark-Logue said in Stuck in a Time Loop Vol. 1 Discussion!:

So the young king has an elder brother (Dier), but he also has an elder sister who functions as his advisor. I have questions:

Did the sister also remember Dier?

Dier only mentions missing his little brother. Was he not close to his sister?

After the dragon battle, the brothers reconnected but what about the sister?

The king remembers dier because of his power (supposedly). But you do raise an interesting question with the sister. Perhaps she is pulling the strings somehow or came into existence because dier was the only one trained in becoming king and the creation of a regent was necessary in order to fully eliminate his percieved existence.

@lucaslp5 said in Grieving Soul Vol. 2 Discussion!:

@anony-mouse99 I was going to say "at least she only does that to bad people, but early in the volume we hear that children go missing in the area close to the ice cream lab/hideout and on this part we see Sitri talking about "weak materials that don't work well for her research", so... I'll just hope she isn't THAT unhinged.

The way I see it, even if she personally didn't kill the kids, she enthusiastically cooperated with whoever did it, participated in the experiments, and most likely used the "parts" left behind for her own research too. So yes, THAT unhinged.

Volume 13 (Premium Edition): 3 Bonus Short Stories Sylvia's Wrath Ema's Heart-Pounding Cooking Serge's Touchy-Feely Swordsmanship Lessons

I had gotten behind so I just finished reading this volume. One thing that blows my mind that I never saw anyone discuss in this thread was Akatsuki carrying an unconscious Kawanami around school ... and nobody questioning it. a) what the hell did she do to him (we never got an answer) and b) why did nobody care? And c) he's been described as a decent-sized guy, so we're getting more hints dropped that she's really strong, which they keep doing every so often.

In any case, she's annoying as hell, so it was actually nice to see less of her than usual in this volume.

EDIT TO ADD: I just saw the cover of Volume 8, and Kawanami and Akatsuki are on the cover, and he, indeed, is huge compared to her. That must have been quite the sight seeing her hauling him around like that.

Volume 16 (Premium Edition): 3 Bonus Short Stories Together So Long They Don't Worry About Being Seen Colleagues Are Not Necessarily Friends Misunderstanding the Black Cat and a Headache

The first color insert in this volume broke me in every conceivable way.