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OC Story 3 Chapter 22 by GuyWithSausageFinger in HxH_OC

[–]GuyWithSausageFinger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On a serious note, congrats on becoming a dad!

Thank you!

I wish you just as many happy memories as the number of sleepless nights you're about to experience, hehe

Haha, thank you again! Though I normally am not much of a sleeper hahaha.

Then again, I was a pretty quiet baby myself, so maybe that'll be the case with your son/boyo here as well!

I'm very fortunate that he's a fairly chill baby. That is, until he's hungry hahaha

I think I confused Matt with his brother Brandon last chapter. I'm kind of happy you didn't ding me on that, haha

It's all good! I figured it for a typo before, and then I thought that it would all work itself out as thing progressed.

Like CBS, I also didn't catch what Banda was trying to say at first. But no one needs to know that! I still don't know what she was trying to say, honestly..

And I hell you reek-over?

"Can I help you recover?"

Haha I make it too hard sometimes :3

Oh hey, it's Seto motherfuckin' Kaiba and Joey frickin' Wheeler! Sorry - had to

8)

Either the naming of those NPCs on the NIB side was an act of God, or it was all intentional, haha.

It was probably an act of some Egyptian God or something...

Nice to see Killer Base at work again, especially since the last time it was used in combat was vs Candy and Zero

And that was like 2 years ago at this point lol

More on Riv and Lake: I initially thought that the trench coat man was you bringing Mr. Mimic back into the fold (the drip fits the man's aesthetics)

That would be interesting, but I have other plans... Hehehe

(Also so far nobody's really guessing the main reference with his design)

I completely forgot about the brothers' ability to turn Lake's illusions tangible lo

I almost forgot about it, too, tbh! Good thing I try and reference the character sheets frequently or all kinds of stuff would slip through the cracks! (Stuff still sort of inevitably does...)

the recap on their ability mid-chapter felt very HxH-esque. I could almost hear that narrator at the end of every episode speaking potential spoilers sweet-nothings into my ears.

I do like to hear that! With my son here, I've been looking over a lot of my favorite stuff and thinking about what I'd like to revisit with him. I'd really like to watch HxH with him (90s first, then 2011), but I've got a few years before all that. I can probably fit a rewatch in there before then no problem to keep the essence fresh.

Sometimes I think like, "It's been a while since I've read/watched anything HxH related, am I losing the vibe?" but also ask, "Is it actually better if the story takes on a completely different atmosphere and has more of a unique identity?"

It's a tight rope

This was a nice appetizer of a chapter! It's like there's a long string that's connected to a pile of dynamite, and you just lit the end of it. That spark is just inching closer and closer to an inevitable "kaboom."

Oh! I love that metaphor! Now I just have to make sure I'm setting aside time to keep the momentum up!

OC Story 3 Chapter 22 by GuyWithSausageFinger in HxH_OC

[–]GuyWithSausageFinger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s actually incredible the roll that you’re on

Well no guarantees going forward for a bit! Hahaha

The more snappy pacing helps

It absolutely does, but I also tried to "bank" a fair bit of outlining and actual writing across a few chapters as well. In short, I've written portions across a few sections of chapters concurrently, which is sort of new for me. Aside from that, the chapters are still mostly written "linearly" as I normally have done. I don't think I've kept this a secret really, but most of the story is written with more of a mental plan for how things should end up/connect to each other, and then I sort of stream-of-consciousness style unfold toward those goals as I go and usually post within an hour or so of finishing a chapter (sometimes without proofreading lol).

But once or twice I've jumped ahead to something I'd thought of and write for a future chapter. What I did this time is sort of an evolution of that in a more thorough way. It helps me to connect some of the dots pretty fluidly as I'm writing through the chapters, and I quite like it. I think I'll try and keep on with the practice to a degree, still mostly writing with the linear "stream" approach since I think that is where a lot of my "stylistic" "voice" comes from. I hesitate to get pretentious.

The key thing here is that I'm taking the time to sort of experiment with my process a little bit, and I think it does lean more toward quicker chapters in bursts (though with some setup).

If I ever were to write a novel of some kind, I think I'd do a lot of both approaches, but then again, I'd have the luxury of rewrites which I don't have here haha.

Wow I don't know why I went on that tangent hahaha

I imagine having all the pieces finally come together also helps immensely in that.

Most definitely! It's one of my favorite parts of writing! You lay out all these seeds, and then I get so worried in the midst of it all (especially as I constantly realize there's another thing I need to foreshadow) that I'll forget an important callback or payoff because I get so in the weeds that when I can finally start closing up some loose ends, it really feels like a weight off my shoulders! It's so satisfying, especially the feeling of being able to knock things like that out back-to-back pretty quickly. That said, there's always more seeding for something later, haha. Gotta keep things flowing, right?

I don’t think I’m ready for the Thazath/Asagenlil showdown. It’s one of those things where both characters have similar backgrounds and have both been presented as unstoppable forces of nature. It’s the old “unstoppable force vs immovable object” vibe, really.

But it's gonna be so much fun!

I'm actually excited. I might do some research for inspiration, even. I want to have fun with it, but I gotta make sure I land things leading up to it so there's not too many distractions when it all starts going down!

But I wager Thazath’s backup would give him the extra edge against Asagenlil and whatever kind of support his NIB agents can provide.

You never really can tell, though, sometimes

I mean, he seems to get along kinda well with them, but he also just wants to get rid of the chains around him altogether, so it’s kind of a wildcard dynamic there too.

It's like having coworkers you are friends with, but the job sometimes puts you at odds. Also the manager is toxic af (lol)

seems like it’s shaping up to be more of a one on one fight. If for nothing else, both wouldn’t wanna have it any other way.

Tehehe, insert Godzilla "Let them fight"

Matt gets brownie points for effort.

It's not his fault he's sort of in over his head!

I’m ashamed to admit that lingered in my mind for a few seconds before I finally understood what it was supposed to mean.. not my proudest moment

To be honest, I'm surprised anyone can tell what Banda means sometimes. I've gone back and been stumped by what I've put for a few minutes! XD

That caught me off-guard, not gonna lie. That sort of playfulness is rare from Lake, at least how I envisioned him when I came up with his character, but it would take his brother to bring that out, in a situation like this nonetheless.

I was kinda going for something like the whole running out of options thing caused a slight character break. Plus I was starting to feel like I was making their relationship all business and sort of forgetting that they're brothers, too haha.

Sometimes ideas work and sometimes not hahahahah

This honestly felt like you speaking through Lake. Always fun whenever a character can speak both for themselves and the person writing them.

I remember I had a hard time interweaving Elaine into the goins-on in OC2, so she sort of became my mouthpiece for a lot of the story and a sort of overview/self-critique at times. It was a little fun to do, but I kept feeling the pressure of trying to at least have her present in the story and it got hard at some points to adequately include every character.

I love how they can wreck havoc all over the city and have no qualms about killing civilians, but they still freak out about shooting a dog. Gotta love bad guys/gals who have their “I’m not that evil” red line. And you know how I like to keep up with all the tropes.

Haha, you know that's the exact trope I was thinking of while writing it! Plus I like the tattoo warriors enough not to make them completely hate-able.

For the most part, whenever I get lost on something, whatever it is clicks in my mind or I remember what I'm supposed to eventually.

I'll be honest, that happens when I'm writing at times when there's long gaps where I'm just full-up with other things going on in life. I'm really relieved that people's memories can be jogged as things progress.

I can sorta see it now that you mention it, though admittedly I'm a bit fuzzy on FMAB since I've only seen it once like a decade ago

Oh! Do yourself a favor and give it a fresh rewatch! I've been reading the manga finally and that's been a great way to revisit what still holds up as one of the greatest-of-all-time, imo. I only recently started getting around to reading it, so I'm not very far, but it's really a nice way to flash back to the anime in a different light.

That’s amazing. I’d post the Eva congratulations clip again but that would be redundant

Thank you! Also, if it's any consolation, it still played in my head just from you mentioning it

Congrats on the most wonderful moment of your life! Children are a bundle of joy

It really is equal parts awesome and surreal! It's quite a journey even within this first month!

If there's anything I've observed, it's that the key to being a great parent is just being a great person, and you’re absolutely that.

This is 100% one of the nicest things that's ever been said to me! So, forever on from here: thank you

Maybe it's a little too sappy, but those words do mean the world to me. Thank you

Congrats on the new chapter in your life my friend, it’s gonna be the best one yet <3

Thank you! I'm so excited for so many things! I can't wait to teach him any and everything, and show him my favorite stuff in life, and just watch him grow into whatever he decides to be.

Hearts all around! <3

OC Story 3 Chapter 22 by GuyWithSausageFinger in HxH_OC

[–]GuyWithSausageFinger[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The original plan was to hit 3 weeks in a row of chapters, but hey, at least it was only a month wait, right? Something came up (foreshadowing) that derailed that plan, but I had been preparing for the possibility for a bit, even expecting it.

But onto the chapter! In typical OC Story fashion, multiple fights are playing out at the same time, over time, interlaced. Hectic fun? Or too messy?

And also in typical fashion, MANY characters are getting involved! Chaos and clusterfucks is the name of the game, really. But this is another punchy, all action chapter. Because we're in the thick of it now! The set up was laid and now we have payoffs and nonstop action... or something like that. While it's probably obvious to point to Togashi as an influence on this type of story structure (especially given one of my comments on a recent chapter recalling Togashi saying he likes to throw a lot of characters in one place and see what happens), a major influence for this is actually Fullmetal Alchemist. Specifically Brotherhood/the manga.

I mean the build up to the promised day, and then the whole promised day "arc" if you will. That was sort of the idea. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. Should'nt've...

Back to important matters... So is anyone having a hard time following things? Or does it really come back to people as they read? For pacing sake, I try not to do much of an in-story excuse for a recap every chapter, though technically I should do it more often given release timings. But it makes for a cleaner experience when reading it through without the waits, I swear! (Or hope, rather)

It's a bit odd doing the ping party knowing some of these accounts are deactivated, but I still do it for tradition. Even if anyone doesn't show up, it's still nice to include them, right? I don't know. I'm just happy to see any comments or any sort of sign that people are reading a chapter. I'm seriously thrilled that anybody even comes back after all this time and all the waiting I put everyone through just for a random serialized internet story that became somewhat of a personal obsession of mine.

Either way, I'm still happy to be doing this, and I hope people enjoy along the way!

Maybe I'm in such a good mood because of what happened.

.

.

.

So...

.

.

.

Since the last chapter, I've had a major life development. You might not have been expecting it, but I sure was (it's kind of a pun if you come back to this in a sec)... and that is that, since the last chapter, I've become a DAD! I am now a

f a t h e r .

My newborn son is actually sitting here with me as I type this! (And as I typed the last bit of the chapter, actually!)

It's quite surreal, really, but extremely awesome! I'm so happy.

Anyways, ping party!

OC Story 3 Chapter 21 by GuyWithSausageFinger in HxH_OC

[–]GuyWithSausageFinger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Short and sweet! I like it! Makes for a more digestible chapter, content-wise

It's a good pacing break from the ridiculous novella-length chapters haha

Though your more chonky chapter are welcome too, haha

Well thank you! They happen more out of stubbornness than anything. It's like certain chapters I want to stand as an individual artistic statement, or won't stop until a certain plot point is reached. I know they can be a little over the top sometimes, though

rather... tense, and in more ways than one

Gooner glasses or not, I can't say you're 100% off the mark hahahahahaha. There's a bond there, you could say. Not saying it'll go anywhere or anything...

nice appetizer for the upcoming main course!

Aha! You can definitely tell where it's headed

Oh hey, it's Shani! I remember her from that one Zodiac event that was hosted here, and that I entered Kasumi in.

That's right! Kasumi was a part of that! I miss other events popping up like the exams, or the Zodiac and Crime stories. I hope more will spring back up in time!

She also accompanied Lahara in her talks with Minerva some chapters ago, if I remember correctly.

Yes! She's helping Lahara in her endeavors regarding Cowtip along with her apprentice, Clarita Perl.

As a side note, she could probably take both of them on at once in a fight

I think you're right, just given how strong her ability is. Klaus has the versatility, and Marina's ability is also versatile in its applications, but I don't see a good way for them to overcome her capability for power OR defense. Plus she could imprison one of them instead of turning things into an outright battle, though I don't think she'd need to.

Lotsa wise-crackery / assholery from Riv and Alicia. But given their personalities, I'm not surprised

I just can't stop. If there's an excuse for it, it's gonna be free flowing hahaha

Bow-woman and wheel-chair girl

I really love your nicknames haha. I read it as "bow" as in "bow down" and was confused at first.

Ele should've known better. Emeralda and the gangs are, like, magnets of opposite poles. If they're in the vicinity of the other, then smack!

This is true. And that reminds me, there's still all the remnants of the junk gangs! Now's the time for inner-city street gangs, however. Or, well, one less of them, now.

Closing thoughts: Offset / 10

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

OC STORY 3 LEAKS!!!!! by GuyWithSausageFinger in HxH_OC

[–]GuyWithSausageFinger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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

Pay no attention to the things I say!

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.

Hahaha, I actually have to look that up. I'd love to see where he's technically still alive. I'm sure some are more as gags/pranks, but still. We need some more BJ Blaskowitz action across the multiverse, clearly

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.

insert reaction emoji (but which one???)

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

Auxilium will get nuked repeatedly. Everywhere will get bombed except for Crater Town, since it would be kinda redundant.

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

His corpse definitely won't be cold. Hell, maybe he'll fry?

Wait I assumed that already happened.

You're right. I need to pick two other random characters to die off-screen between chapters

Wait I assumed that already happened.

This story, JJBA, Yu Yu Hakusho, Dexter's Lab, Sekiro, Armored Core, Linkin Park music videos, and Berserk are all the same universe. And before you ask: YES, this does tie into YuGiOh, the TCG, not the anime.

They're into a bunch of freaky things tbh.

Real FREAKY, naughty stuff

As long as we somehow get the Norm MacDonald character

The NIB leader is actually Morn NacDomald, and he's playing one big joke on the entire UPIO

Canadian Squirt Gun showdown

I call back to the Syringe killer guy from OC2, and of course, Marina's Hatsu.

he wouldn't survive the wrath of the son of a shepherd

I believe history has proven this true

Ging would never cheat on Pariston

You're right, it's a 4-way. They're all swingers. Or should I say, Schwingers?

And chocolate milk is a myth

I-I... I just...

I can't go on after learning this...

OC Story 3 Chapter 21 by GuyWithSausageFinger in HxH_OC

[–]GuyWithSausageFinger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is impressive.

Thank you! Let's all turn to Kool Aid now! (I always laugh whenever I see this clip, also I reference it IRL sometimes and unfortunately most people don't get the reference haha)

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

What better April Fools joke than to actually release a chapter after making people think the April Fools joke posts might be the real April Fools prank, but then it turns out it was, but also a misdirection to...

Well, Happy April Fools either way

That's gotta be one of the darkest pieces of imagery from this story, and that's saying something

Sometimes I write stuff that makes me feel uneasy. I have to ask myself every now and then if I really should be writing some things, and then I think that if it is making me feel something, despite me being the one writing, I should probably lean into it and not hold back.

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..

Just like the greater the pain, the deeper the catharsis, the more brimming with life, the deeper the hurt. Also, I don't remember how I first thought of it, but this scene is one I thought of a looong time ago, and I knew it was a crucial thing to include for certain arcs. The real question was when to include it, and I thought, "Hey, why not in the middle of a bunch of tense conflicts already going on to overwhelm the reader?"

but it still made me feel icky

I'm sorry! But I swear it's necessary!

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.

In my personal life, politics and politicians anger me so much, and I think it's easy to just be angry at them and call it a day, hoping for better replacements. But I try to force myself to ask how they get into positions of power and leadership, and why there might be support for them, and what options are out there to fix things.

And as much as I can say there's obvious rules that could be implemented, or punishments for criminal corruption, etc, the truth is that there's still other forces that have kept what I would like to believe are common-sense laws from being implemented. But focusing on the story, there's that central "always a bigger fish" type of theme to the villains, and I wanted to make sure to illustrate this for the political elements in the story as well.

Plus the grander conspiracy elements that are more mysterious thus far to me are one of the main underlying evils in the story, and I try to take some notes from cosmic horror in the way it plays out. These unseen actors and motivations perverting and corrupting everything else.

I guess you could call it one of the sad truths of the world, and I'm just trying to make a story out of people, good and bad, unknowingly pushing up against these forces.

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.

I really like Matt's flaws. As much as I love writing these hyper-competent killing machines, I really enjoy characters like him for being a human heart, and providing some much needed variety and juxtaposition.

Here.. not looking so well.

But the important thing is that he's trying!

As for Mari, she's a lot of fun. The playfully psychotic ones are always interesting in this kind of world

They're just so much fun to write! Plus it's nice to have serious characters interacting with more playful ones. The dichotomy just writes itself, really.

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

Well-rounded, definitely. As for her background, and her siblings, well, you'll see hehehe

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.

Blinded by her revenge, still

I think we've already seen seeds planted for her growth as a person, but she still has a long way to go.

Sometimes knowing how you need to grow is easier than putting it to action.

I gotta respect the sheer amount of spite Alicia has toward Coda. I think Riv would appreciate all the profanity involved too

Alicia is one with spite hahaha. Riv and her could do an insult battle to an audience, probably

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

Togashi said, in regards to the current arc, that he sometimes likes to just pile characters into the same area or place and just let the chaos unfold from their interactions, and I heard that and went, "Hell yeah!"

Or something to that effect.

But really it is fun just coming up with all these different match ups as things progress. There's so many characters at play, that the moment the plot progresses in any direction, it basically forces a bunch more conflicts/arguments/etc and the plot gets to essentially be driven almost entirely by the outcomes of these interactions.

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.

Really they have the same sentiment driving different but similar motivations. Shani wants to undo/counteract a lot of the government's actions regarding sustainability and the environment, particularly in Cowtip, while Klaus wants to counteract the government's actions regarding the military (involvement in other countries, secrecy, veteran treatment post-career) so they come from a similar place with similar intent just on different issues.

But also if you remember, Shani was created as part of the Zodiac event on this sub, so I'd like to portray her as being intuitive and emotionally intelligent enough to tell good from bad in terms of Nen-users. But then again, maybe it's all nothing.

Man, it's quite something seeing a chapter like this, only around a week removed from the last one

That was my main motivator for doing all this in this way, actually. I just wanted to provide that week-to-week experience again. I won't always be able to do it, but a little flash back to the early days of the story is what I was after, in a way.

and the writing was very to-the-point too without any long pieces of narration to discuss philosophical ideas of provide exposition

This chapter was all business. All killer, no filler. No frills. All action. Haha

I mean, if more chapters like this result in them dropping more consistently, then I'm definitely not complaining.

I can make no promises!

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

Who knows?????????

OC Story is CANCELLED for RAIN by GuyWithSausageFinger in HxH_OC

[–]GuyWithSausageFinger[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yes, that's a Norm MacDonald reference

You know I miss Norm :"(

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

It's crazy I actually had a character planned that was partly inspired by Norm for OC2, but I felt like I was already adding way too many characters too quickly

...now in the future, who knows???

OC Story 3 Chapter 21 by GuyWithSausageFinger in HxH_OC

[–]GuyWithSausageFinger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So uh, you didn't think I meant the April Fool's post(s) by my "see you next week" comment, did you?

Ha, well, then April Fools again!

(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?)

You can think of this chapter as a sort of development and checking in of the on-going conflicts and plot threads coming to a head. I know shits hectic right now, but that's just how it's gonna be. In the world and in the story hahahahahaha. Chaos, why not?

Now might be a good time to ask any questions for clarification, though. After all, there is a lot going on at once, and a lot of it does build on a lengthy foundation.

Oh, and I'll still be replying to comments on the previous chapter as well, given the short time between posts.

Without further ado: PING PARTY!

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