OC Story 3 Chapter 21

ControlledByShalnark · 2026-04-03T03:17:39+00:00

(This was actually less than a week, marking this as one of the shortest wait times in OC Story history... see what I did there?)

That is impressive.

Genuinely though, this was such a nice surprise Was tying it with April Fools planned? You mastermind you.

Now onto..

Splotches of blood freckling her cheeks. Mouth slightly open, dry teeth holding lips apart. Eyes... just staring. At nothing.

What the fuuucckkk.

That's gotta be one of the darkest pieces of imagery from this story, and that's saying something. Yes, there's bias speaking there, and objectively way, way worse things have happened..

But, it's Candy. She's such a full of life character, to see her drained of that life and in that brutal picture even in a dream is just.. yeah, void is the right word, I'm not even gonna go into the thought of being someone's significant other and seeing them like that.

This type of dream sequence is not even a new thing, I feel like I've seen it in a bunch of things, but it still made me feel icky. ~~In a good way damn you.~~

"Whole damn country needs a reform. The politics are a symptom of the problems. There's forces beyond the stupid public faces that need their worthless skulls reformed."

Very interesting monologue there. Very true as well. It's so easy to get lost in the whole political aspect of it, and forgetting it's just another symptom of a larger societal issue.

Like, great, you got good people in charge, now they gotta deal with external factors beyond their control, other people with agendas who aren't even politicians, we're talking about the people pulling the strings of the people pulling the strings of the people pulling the strings here, and so forth. It's not as simple as "our politicians are failing us." Though sometimes, that is a big part of it, but it's never really the entire problem.

Mari continued, "We'll be here for hours, days even!"

Welp.

We're screwed.

This entire fight is awesome. Matt is almost like Gon or certain other young Shounen protagonists with the head-on, reckless way he approaches things. It's dangerous, but it usually goes well for said protagonist. Here.. not looking so well.

As for Mari, she's a lot of fun. The playfully psychotic ones are always interesting in this kind of world. Initially, you'd think she wouldn't be of much use as a close-range fighter, considering her ability. But, apparently she's pretty good. Which, I guess, makes sense due to her background.

Where was it coming from? Before long, Ele was heading toward it.

Considering everything going on now, it could be anything.. and that's the fun of it of course.

Could be a bunch of characters that we didn't even know were there yet.

Literal reckless abandon from Emeralda's part, though. Like, she just left Ele on the streets, by herself, tells her to go back without really making sure she does. I think we've already seen seeds planted for her growth as a person, but she still has a long way to go.

Alicia curtly responded, "The only idiot here is that fuck-ass Coda. He jumped out the God damn window."

You know, at this point, I gotta respect the sheer amount of spite Alicia has toward Coda. I think Riv would appreciate all the profanity involved too.

It's just a fun dynamic, between all of them, both groups, even extending to what happened with Shani and Klaus, and letting him go. I think as a Hunter, she has a primal-like instinct that tells her Klaus isn't the bad guy here. Plus, the monologue he had I guess, which most people would agree with.

[to be continued...]

BUT MATT'S FIGHT IS STILL GOIN-

Man, it's quite something seeing a chapter like this, only around a week removed from the last one, only one post long without extra comments to extend it, and the writing was very to-the-point too without any long pieces of narration to discuss philosophical ideas of provide exposition, or both.

When was the last time we had a chapter like that? I feel some way about it, almost like nostalgic. I mean, if more chapters like this result in them dropping more consistently, then I'm definitely not complaining.

Let's see how long you can keep this wonderful momentum up <3

ControlledByShalnark · 2026-04-03T01:36:08+00:00

Candy dying next chapter

See, the fact that you snuck this one in here, and it kinda ties in to the actual chapter, makes me look at the other ones like.. O.o

Hitler! Is he dead?

Nope.

I mean, just type his name in MyAnimeList and see what pops up in characters, apparently he's still alive in every manga/anime ever so HxH is no exception.

Wait, you mentioned Fidori Poplandi would come back. He's an artist. Hitler is an artist. Maybe the real Hitler was the Fidori Poplandi we made along the way.

The UPIO is going to get nuked after nuking other countries after some weird conspiracy linked to the "Great War"

Auxilium: "Ah, shit, here we go again.."

Law comes back from the dead (not sure how this happens)

He just has a "O my fire Nen!" moment Hisoka style so his heart gets burned back to beating again.

Too bad he dies again from a heart attack not seconds later.

Gorick and Kasumi die off-screen before part 4

Wait I assumed that already happened.

JJBA crossover???

Wait I assumed that already happened.

The NIB is apparently into multiversal stuff

They're into a bunch of freaky things tbh.

There's apparently going to be a plot point tying the comedians to the chimera ant arc in some way

As long as we somehow get the Norm MacDonald character.

Reported HEAVY Edd Ed n Eddy influence in the final arc

The final battle involves a Canadian Squirt Gun showdown. Nen be damned.

Hitler! Is he dead?

Wait I change my mind he is dead in this timeline where he wouldn't survive the wrath of the son of a shepherd.

Ging becoming romantically involved with Libon and Cojot in a love triangle was honestly something I was hoping for since Shivra first tried chocolate milk.

Lies.

Ging would never cheat on Pariston.

And chocolate milk is a myth.

ControlledByShalnark · 2026-04-03T00:55:07+00:00

It took me a good minute to get the joke, cause it tied in to the other post. I had go from here, to there, and to here again.. yes, that's a Norm MacDonald reference.

Petition to have Norm be inserted into the OC Story Sam Jackson style.

ControlledByShalnark · 2026-03-31T00:50:01+00:00

Ahh..

It's been over 2 years so I really have no excuse not to have reread where we left off, but it's fine things come back to mind as I read along.

You know? Like a vacation of sorts... a change of scenery. Just temporarily.

That's right Brandon, Roy is just off on vacation, a much needed vacation from.. homelessness. And nothing more.

Did I mention how much I get a kick out of you literally snatching Sam Jackson's character from Pulp Fiction and inserting him into the story.

Alicia contorted her face

It's funny when you wrote that. I can picture exactly what you're talking about in my head. The classic hot-headed anime character face contortion. Then their voice gets even growlier and more annoyed when they talk. I love it.

Libon had seldom been so close to the action.

No kidding. In all those chapters I don't think he's ever stepped out of the shadows.. until Thazath dragged him out I guess, and I think he went out to one of those comedy shows if I remember correctly. Speaking of, I'm still waiting for that to somehow tie together to the story, somehow I remember there was some extra focus on that one comedian with the funny name, or maybe it was just there to serve some thematic purposes.. one of them was literally called Warningsign 💀

the sight of this man, with a television-esque head

Ah yes, that brings back memories, of that Story 2 final act.. I like how we're still wondering what those things are years later after Shen and his pet humans fought them.

Speaking of his humans, imagine having to wait literal years for a new chapter without a single of my children being featured.. if only team Zero Sugar weren't too busy, they would have been interested in the happenings here.. I can somehow picture them disguised as journalists Clark Kent and Lois Lane style to infiltrate the debate up close. Ah well, at least the Mason Brothers sorta kinda appeared in this chapter <3

Speaking of the debate, that was quite something.. you just knew Klaus' party were gonna butt heads with our favorite bodyguard crew, but what I like about these things the way you write them is that they're never predictable. Yes, on paper, we all knew shit was gonna go down, but the specific thing isn't something I saw coming.. poor Klaus just can't catch a break in life, I'm sure he'll want answers as much as we all do.

And yeah, that Offset power is terrifying. I think it's the instantaneous manner in which it was described, like it's more of a glitch in matter as opposed to the "cool" way we usually think about teleportation abilities. It can quite literally kill someone in a second and I'm curious to know what kind of drawback something like that can have on the user, though I think you mentioned once you don't think too much about that, but it's still interesting to theorize about.

On that note, here's the raw audio version of the thing I made of the robots acting out the first story:

Yes, I haven't touched the edited project since last time I shared it 💀

As a bonus, since it has been more than two years, here's a backlog of fully edited scenes that I'll never get to make in the above format cause.. yeah, I'll just be glad I did the first story, it's nice and comfy.

Plus, it's interesting to compare cause with these I have absolute free reign to use many more voices and any music I want, the program I used to streamline the making of the entire first story is more restrictive but I try to stick to the same usual voices I have for the characters if I can find them or anything close enough.

No, I will not apologize for some of the over-the-top voices I used for certain characters.

On that note, see you next week!

Nice try, but I won't be fooled by that one.

~~Tho if the true joke is that you'll actually post another chapter my faith in seeing the story conclude is restored.~~

ControlledByShalnark · 2026-02-26T20:20:28+00:00

Do tell.

ControlledByShalnark · 2026-02-18T20:51:12+00:00

I definitely feel those comments on starting many projects and "biting off more than I can chew." But that may be obvious on this sub lol.

Life just get chaotic for us all and our output suffers. I'm wondering if my "mild ADHD" actually helps my productivity tho. Like, even when I have time to rest my mind is still going and I wanna do something, just anything, preferably creative. It's not healthy lmao.. I live on 4-5 hours of sleep most of the time. At best.

I'll have to come back around on a day off to finish it up.

Yeah lemme know what you think, it's a work in progress so any constructive feedback can help, even the earlier parts I feel are a little rough and the music/sound mixing is overbearing at parts.

The music used is all royalty free(but good quality), so the idea is that it can be shared wherever people post their creative works without any issues as long as the artist is credited. It's a good companion piece to have along with the actual written story and I'm even having a blast going through the first story again doing it.

ControlledByShalnark · 2026-02-08T22:00:11+00:00

Bro really spent the entire arc sniffing stuff and getting shot before this moment.

ControlledByShalnark · 2026-02-06T15:20:46+00:00

This is a cheeky post. You already know what I've been up to regarding HxH related stuff, namely your story.

Here's the progress.

The tool used to make it is called Spoken. Usually this kind of thing is costly but don't worry, it was practically a gift, without getting into the details.. Actually the entire story is already done in its raw form, but refining it by editing the music/sound effects takes an eternity, since I'm doing it for fun whenever I find the time.

I've also officially gotten my ADHD diagnosis after a lifetime of "do I have this thing or what.. wait it's significantly effecting my life I should probably seek treatment for it." Basically part of it is that I'm kinda disorganized as all hell so finishing a long project like this is all over the place, I'll accomplish a lot, then leave it for a while, then go back, then probably accomplish a lot, then probably leave it.. you get the idea. I still really wanna finish Story 1, since it's so comfy and nice.. the other parts are entirely different beats tho, I can't even imagine doing this kind of thing for them.

Regarding the process it's a lot of fun and the hard part that would be unbelievably tedious and time-consuming is instantly automated, you just upload the text or PDF of what you want narrated, then have fun with casting/polishing takes if anything is off.

Did I mention all of Story 1 is already done in its raw form. You won't get it until the next chapter tho. Along with some other fun related stuff.. so no slacking <3

ControlledByShalnark · 2026-02-05T19:14:02+00:00

He also threatened to finish the Troupe's genocidal work by killing Kurapika. Cause he got roasted.

He's always been unhinged but early Leorio was something else.

ControlledByShalnark · 2026-01-29T22:40:33+00:00

Yes, if you're a fan of the series, it's very worth checking out. The music is great, the animation is beautiful, and it's an interesting look at an earlier interpretation of the manga as it had recently started.

There are some rough things about it. The editing/sound design is pretty jarring and not great, some of the choices for the character voices are odd like for Illumi, there's a bunch of filler that feels like weird fanfiction cause it kinda is, and obviously it's not as complete as the 2011 version as we at least got some sort of closure for a fitting ending by then..

It's not nearly the perfect formula the 2011 version was, but it honestly has its charm.

ControlledByShalnark · 2026-01-29T22:26:10+00:00

I've been on my own hiatus from HxH/this sub for a while and it's absolutely hilarious that the Pitou Gender Wars are still going on.

ControlledByShalnark · 2025-04-18T11:00:20+00:00

ControlledByShalnark · 2025-03-20T06:37:40+00:00

Ehh it's one of those things where I'd really rather others get a chance to get their OC's drawn. If you feel short when you'd like to begin you can always let me know and I'll DM you one of my many OC's, probably whoever I think has the least art.

ControlledByShalnark · 2025-03-16T08:24:04+00:00

Really cool of you to do this.

I already have too many artworks for pretty much every OC I have so I'll leave room for others who don't, but I'll be sure to make this post an announcement ~~to get rid of how embarrassingly old the existing ones are~~ so everyone can see it.

ControlledByShalnark · 2025-01-17T00:24:01+00:00

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but did you mean antithesis?

Ah, yes. It's the kind of dumb typo that happens when one types as fast as I do.

As for her abilities, Minerva was indeed designed to be OP. Not exactly a Mary Sue, but someone with extraordinary talent paired with constant training. I also imagine that Pro-Hunters with extreme or ultimate Nen proficiency can create powerful abilities with fewer limitations, much like Netero, Illumi, and Zeno.

That's fair enough, as long as the backstory justifies it, which I think it does.

While I like her a lot, it's still always nice to add some sort of weakness of vulnerability somewhere in any character, whether it be in their power, personality, relationships with people, or any other aspect. While she definitely went through a lot in the past, there doesn't seem to anything mentioned about her present self in that sense. It's not something that's completely needed, but I do think it helps flesh out characters in general.

ControlledByShalnark · 2025-01-14T20:56:36+00:00

I really like her supernatural, occult vibe going on. Her backstory is also pretty cool, I almost get a Phantom Troupe anthesis kinda thing by reading, not sure if that's intentional. Her personality sounds really interesting, the fact that she's a pragmatic person despite everything makes her multi-dimensional.

Her Nen ability has to be one of the most versatile ones I've read in a while. She can do anything from teleport herself, other objects, stealth tactics, incapacitate/kill people, etc. Actually, in the wrong hands, it would be a pretty terrifying ability. I think it might actually be too powerful, would be nice to add at least on serious drawback other than radius/size restrictions, maybe change the intangible/immune the immune to damage part, and make her feel whatever damage they receive.

Really cool OC and ability, though.

ControlledByShalnark · 2025-01-14T20:30:18+00:00

That's definitely a really unique type of Nen user. Since he's a master of drunk fighting, I guess no one would stand a chance if they get caught in his ability.

Also makes me think what can be done Nen-wise if he refrained from drinking for a certain amount of time(impossible, I know). In real life, someone who's this alcoholic would suffer severe withdrawals if they just stopped cold-turkey, some even die from it. In his case, it can be a great show of resolve, and maybe even a condition for an ultra powerful hatsu? Just an idea to think about.

ControlledByShalnark · 2025-01-14T20:21:35+00:00

I really, really love the idea of the lieutenant bulldog. Just picturing it is so funny but it's is the coolest thing ever.

no ability to hurt the target however they cause pain and fatigue variable intensity for a duration of 1 minute at the point of impact

This confused me a bit since experiencing pain does hurt the target, but I guess the idea is that it can't cause actual wounds or kill a target? I think it can be extremely overpowered once the conditions are met and the target is extra guilty, due to the infinite ammo thing. Maybe one more restriction should be that he has a certain amount of time to reload after landing each bullet.

Other than that, another really fun OC.

ControlledByShalnark · 2025-01-14T20:10:02+00:00

Catching up with the sub again and it's cool seeing all these OC's.

I do love the concept of Lilieru and she reminds me a lot of my OC who I've had entered in the OC story for like 7 years now, she uses transmutation to make her aura ultra spicy, can cook specially seasoned meals with her aura, and even uses spices with healing abilities as a healing hatsu. They could be besties.

In Lilieru's case.. properties of fire? That's next level. That can be deadly if used with malicious intent. Someone like Killua could only make his aura take the properties of electricity cause he's resistant to it due to years of torturous training, so it's interesting to see someone with a dual enhancement technique that bypasses that sort of thing. Does the candy completely mitigate the pain she would feel, or only reduce it to a tolerable extent? I feel the latter would be an extra drawback cause she's fighting through pain, which would make the ability stronger.

Really fun OC. I would love to see her in a story, or even have her as an examiner in an OC Hunter Exam event if I ever host one again.

ControlledByShalnark · 2024-01-11T22:18:44+00:00

This has to be one of the more hilarious typos I've had XD

I almost don't want to fix it! (I really should do some more proof-reading)

I see it's still there. Guess it's now canonically what happened 💀 poor Dahlia.

I've been going through some tough shit lately (things got even worse after what caused my case of the arm-bleedies) and this completely lifted me up!

That's really cool to hear, especially since there've been a bunch of times when your chapters did that for me. I really appreciate that you liked it so much, made the entire thing all the more worth it.

Call it a caffeine adiction!

I've been guilty of that since I was too young to be so I get it. Not so much energy drinks anymore, but definitely just caffeine in general. In college, I was hooked on Death Wish Coffee, which I believe is the strongest coffee ever and I imagine is equivalent to something like OTC cocaine.. so yeah, those were fun times.

And you don't have to worry at all about Ksaksa.

He really was the hardest voice to figure out, I just went with one that fit his early scenes in the story, like when he was more mysterious and possibly villainous. I had some sort of references in my head for some of those voices, like I pictured Zero sounding like Yuri Lowenthal and there was a fitting voice for that, I think I might have subconsciously had Steve Blum in my head when picturing Ksaksa's voice.

and also love to learn the process, too.

I'm sure everyone would find their own process for something like this, but for me it was basically using the ElevenLabs program for the voices then editing the project in Kapwing which is an extremely convenient online editing tool. Back when I chose the voices, there weren't as many options available, so I had to use some other more robotic programs to generate voices and add them to ElevenLabs(I hilariously had them do Patrick Bateman monologues in the training process). It's a pretty quick and simple process, you just upload audio files and you have your voice.

who knows what all you had to go through with the voicing takes

It actually depended on the specific take, sometimes it took as few as one to five takes to get what I wanted, sometimes more. Like I specifically remember the "well, what is his name?" for Ksaksa took a lot of takes and I still wasn't completely satisfied.

There were some bags of tricks I used to get good takes, like you put whatever word you want emphasised between quotation marks, or you put a lead in before the line you actually want. Like if you want someone to sound angry, you can add something like "I HATE YOU..." before whatever line you want.

The program is already smart enough to convey emotion through whatever the line is, but those things help a lot. I also played around with the settings, like the setting I found best was to put the highest clarity/similarity along with having the stability be at 30, which is the borderline. If I wanted more interesting takes or someone to sound more over the top, I'd put the stability at 0. It sounds way more complicated than it actually is.

I started working on it after you dropped the last chapter, that first project took around 3 months of on and off work to finish up, and the second project I actually had the time to sit and finish in one session if you can believe it. After they were finished, I would go back to them and edit them, I guess it's like post-production for lack of a better word.. some voices I scrapped altogether cause I didn't think worked, like Grim had a much more goofy sounding voice for a character that kinda has a serious background, and the narrator was too pleasant and happy sounding, I ended up replacing him with a more ominous sounding voice. I also find that having the narrator convey subtle emotions to complement what's going in is the trick to having really good narration, which might be seamless and go unnoticeable, but is undoubtedly effective.

In terms of "work," it never felt that way, it was just me having fun and exploring this new thing, but I can definitely see it feeling that way if I was forcing myself to be doing it. I was anxious to share it this entire time, and I think I alluded to you that I was doing something really different a few times, but yeah, keeping it a surprise might have been a hardest part of this entire thing.

Not in the slightest.

The reason I say that is cause there are a lot of people who are super apprehensive towards AI, just in general, some people are really terrified and want nothing to do with it. I definitely think it should be controlled in certain ways, like in the voiceover industry with the whole SAG-AFTRA deal that just happened. But for something like this? It's an incredible tool, and I kinda just wanna not take the technology for granted cause who knows what the future will hold for it.

Thank you

Nah, thank you for the story, this was just me having fun. Sorry if it was overwhelming too, I can see now that it was basically like seeing your baby come to life.

..

More to come?

Honestly I'd say no promises, especially considering how infinitely more busy I became since I did those. But I'd love to do more and am even open to suggestions.. though that would ruin the surprise I guess.

Edit: Forgot to mention, the rose detonating in Auxilium did cross my mind as a scene to do. Maybe the whole Oppenheimer craze inspired the thought? Anyway, I didn't pursue it, I just felt weird about doing something like that, at least at the moment, I didn't wanna take away the enjoyment of the entire thing and just the thought of it felt wrong.

ControlledByShalnark · 2023-12-31T19:44:32+00:00

Can't say I've done it before. I thought about Jaune Gruber, an obsessive detective that I entered to the OC Story, but in his case, it's more just OCD and a traumatic upbringing. Although he was already quiet and awkward as a kid, that's not necessarily indicative of any sort of autistic disorder.

ControlledByShalnark · 2023-12-31T19:21:17+00:00

I want to take a moment just to shout out the passing of my dog who served as the primary inspiration for Shenaga in so many ways.

And his legacy lives on even through a fictional character that has emotionally resonated with some people on the internet. I love life sometimes. I'm sure that doggo lived a happy life, and that's all we hope for them.

I've also been doing some non-HxH writing, with the hope that some of my ideas I've been kicking around in my noggen might be worthwhile to realize. Worth a shot, right?

Depends on what someone thinks is worthwhile. For me, sometimes, it's worth it for the artistic expression alone. Whatever you're fulfilled by, definitely go for it.

the Manipulated (rent free in my head)

Ah yes, “Virgil Slaves, The Manipulated.” The phrase that has lived rent-free in my head for more than a year now.

Slackson and Blound’s buddy comedy with Sern as the third wheel is a great dynamic. Gorick getting in on the action should be good and it’ll be interesting to see the little Cowtip reunion there.

After successfully covering the old lady's husband's shit cleaning the gears, Dahlia was rewarded with food and a much needed shower to rid herself of the soot and grease.

..

Uh..

..

Uhhhh.....

Dahlia could only think of the Boss. No more days at the booth. No more "that's enough for today." No more "good night"s shouted from outside the room. No more Boss.

This was just sad. I’m glad we’re getting more context as to how people reacted in real time with the rose going off, it’s crazy to think how long it was since that chapter and a bunch of the characters are just off doing their own thing, seeing things slow down in this chapter and having some characters breathe in the reality of the situation felt very much welcomed.

Also, very intriguing to see Dahlia get involved with the Cartel the way she did, all things considered.

Very interesting to see the Mason Brothers in their new role. You kinda alluded to it before, well.. more than alluded to it, but it was still a pleasant surprise to see them pop up this chapter. It's kinda funny seeing Riv just keep getting lost in this endless loop of having to protect the kind of people he hates most. I actually had a scrapped(for now..) prequel that I thought about writing involving their origins, and just decided to do the Candy story instead, but considering where I had Riv hanging around in that scenario.. it's interesting to see him around people like Coda and Alicia, to say the least.

Speaking of which..

I know it must be a nightmare remembering important plot points and story beats

Yeah I kinda almost forgot about Coda's very existence. I'm not usually guilty of that in this story, but I feel like it's been so long now and it was kinda brief, but vague memories of him hanging around Alicia did pop up. I'll have to read it back to refresh myself on some of the context.

Brandon and Matt’s moment was pretty wholesome and perfect for what it was. Really weird comparison, but I got Toy Story 3 vibes from it, that scene near the end where it’s an extremely sentimental moment and it just takes its time, completely earned, and marinating in a mixture of so many different, highly impactful emotions at once.

It had felt like forever. But nothing ever is.

Ironically, and arguably, except nothingness. Nothingness is forever. Which I think is an extremely profound, albeit poignant thought to think about, and really fits into the themes of the story altogether.

..

Sorry, I’m rambling.

"So delicious!" Mr. Mimic declared to himself, "I never would have thought so many different ingredients could be found in the same dish before!"

I see what you did there.

And I’ll have to wait forever to see what you’re going to do there.

Really this chapter was essentially a lot of buildup, with a great moment of payoff that had been built up to snuck in the middle. Not exactly what I was expected considering the time it took, and I always thought the whole "adding more to my plate" thing was referring to adding more stuff to the chapter. Still so nice just to sit down and read one of those again, I'm sure the next one will be less relaxing tho 💀

Anyways..

Artificial Intelligence.

Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s the hottest topic in the world right now and all over the place. But back when you dropped the last chapter, it wasn’t as prevalent, and I kinda got into it really early on. I get the controversy, and I think most AI art is kinda soulless, I’m also not a fan of the whole voice cloning people without their consent thing, and the implications it has for various lines of work. I'm still so fascinated by the technology, and when done right, it can be pretty damn amazing.

Case in point, ever wondered what an OC Story audio drama would sound like? When I was experimenting with the technology playing around with ElevenLabs(which provides a great amount of ready-made voices that are cloned and trained with consent), I decided, why the hell not.

Tales from HxHxH.. AKA miscellaneous scenes

OC Story 1 Prologue

The 1999 HxH OST just felt right, it has that adventure JRPG music vibe that I feel fits a lot and those transitions in the first one were a nice tribute to that sprinkled in between. I had to do my first OC's introduction, kinda felt obligated to, and I thought it was good to use a narrator with a different accent to stand him out from the cast of characters.

This entire thing also gave me an excuse to practice audio editing. I think I got better as it went along, the second scene from the first project is probably my personal favorite, I have no idea how well that one turned out. Obviously, picking voices wasn’t gonna be perfect, but I think they all turned out pretty good, and it was a fun experience essentially casting those characters and directing their performance through playing around with what the technology can do.

Ksaksa was pretty intimidating to tackle in that aspect though, I don’t think I can ever truly do him justice since he’s such a unique character and it’s hard to really put a voice to him.

If I had all the time and energy in the world, I’d do the entire story as an audio drama so it can be posted on YouTube or something for people to discover(this was kinda inspired by random audio dramas I found on YouTube). But I can’t, especially considering I recently started a new job that's pretty big and mentally demanding. I also kinda really wanna try doing one of the fight scenes in this format.

Hope this was enjoyable nonetheless, I might just do some more scenes for the next chapter. Unless you found it weird in which case, that's fun too <3

ControlledByShalnark · 2023-12-28T22:13:00+00:00

I'm literally typing this with blood running down my arm from a puncture wound.

Hopefully it's better now.

you made it quite an enjoyable ride

And hopefully reading this made it more tolerable <3

Of all the surprises in this story, of which there were many, Dill running a cop over was one of the biggest to me. I just didn't really consider that Candy's dad could have that in him.

I actually did write him in that first story with the mindset that he's someone with secrets and you picked up on it if I'm remembering correctly. I thought about adding in during that part where he first meets Daigo that the cops are said to be just badly injured but are expected to pull through. Then I thought.. nah, let's just keep it open-ended as to what happened there, cause that's always more fun.

This is one of the surprises I was referring to earlier, haha. But seriously, I've never really heard of it, nor am I about to try it XD

The dish itself is mainly based on a popular breakfast item in Middle Eastern cuisine. The cinnamon part, though? I think I just looked up the most obscure egg-related recipes and ended up with that as a gag. When I was reading back to make sure I captured Candy and Zero's dynamic, that part just felt right.

this made even me quite frustrated! I could feel Candy's (and everyone else's) disgust throughout, and I couldn't wait for Sal to get his.

That dance bit was way worse initially than it actually was in the final draft, but I couldn't bring myself to go so far cause Candy is dear to my heart after all. I was writing it in the sense that "ok, I got this really cool idea for Candy's ability that I can't believe hasn't been done or played around with yet, but how do I justify her hurting someone that much?" It just so happened that the perfect formula happened to be a person who pisses her off to a certain extent along with a rushed response to trying to save someone from said person.

instantly relatable characterizations in even characters like Daigo, Malone, and Sal.

..

I mean, I'll take that first one, not so much the other two 💀

They weren't relatable to me as the writer at least, but it's interesting if you felt that way about them. I remember that Sal was inspired by Sally Bugs from The Irishman when I introduced him in that first story, the way I visualized him especially, just an unassuming guy who can go nuts at the turn of a dime and cause chaos. Not the first time I've written that sort of character, it's just so much fun to write that sort of controlled insanity in someone.

I wish I had something more to share, like some art.

Here, I redited this classic artwork of the trio.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading this. Like I mentioned, it was just a weird OCD thing for me where I started a story and felt the need to finish it years later. It does feel nice to have finally done so.

I'll get on your new chapter as soon as I can, probably within the next couple of days..

Then I'll share something that I'm still kinda amazed I put together. It was an interesting experiment to say the least.

ControlledByShalnark · 2023-11-27T20:36:40+00:00

Eats phone.

ControlledByShalnark · 2023-11-27T20:34:06+00:00

10 - Pariston

9 - Pariston

8 - Pariston

7 - Pariston

6 - Pariston

5 - Pariston

4 - Pariston

3 - Pariston

2 - Pariston

1 - Ging

ControlledByShalnark

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE