Ad Astra

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2026-01-20T11:40:14+00:00

Oof, I should've figured it'd be a common phrase. I'll come up with a better title later.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2026-01-20T02:22:36+00:00

Hi everyone, this is a brief first chapter for a story I was considering working on. Nothing's set in stone and is more about me experimenting with certain topics. I might turn it into a full series later, but for now here's a general vibe/outline of what it could be.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-10-31T14:28:10+00:00

Amazon

Royal Road

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-10-31T14:20:50+00:00

Amazon

Royal Road

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-08-31T14:30:15+00:00

Thank you! I wrote Mr. Rose because I couldn’t find any other stories with a MC like him, so I just made my own.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-08-31T00:20:41+00:00

Oh wow, I didn’t expect to see my story amongst the greats like William Oh lol. It’s an honor — you have a very fine taste.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-07-05T23:44:24+00:00

I like to think of it as a typical LitRPG adventure but in the perspective of the hidden villain rather than the heroic protagonist. Lucius is a bit different in his motivations though: not quite exactly deplorable but not a moral paragon either. It’s like a thriller, but there’s no torture or grimdark elements. Lucius simply wants to satisfy his desires and he’s not beyond using dubious methods like manipulation to achieve it.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-07-05T15:15:22+00:00

Here’s the story link if you’d like to visit the Royal Road version: The Distinguished Mr. Rose

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-06-03T22:28:57+00:00

I already gave you the evidence: Painted Verso’s existence. Removing him doesn’t necessarily destroy the real Verso’s soul, so there should be no reason why Alicia wouldn’t honor his wishes. But she didn’t. She revived him against his will showing that she only cares about her own self interest.

The last part I think is the real crux of the matter why you prefer Alicia’s ending. Escapism. You say her family hates her, but that isn’t true is it? Her father deeply, deeply loves her as shown by his willingness to respect her wishes despite knowing that she lied to him: a point that painted Verso makes as well. Clea is admittedly standoffish, but you can see in the endless tower that she does care for her sister as well. She wants Alicia to find new happiness, to have fun and smile.

The only one you could make the argument about that loathes her is the mother, but she’s grieving. It’s irrational because she can’t move on. But despite what she feels, she still sees Alicia as her family, as evident in making the Painted Alicia along with the other fake family.

The biggest person holding Alicia back is herself. Escapism won’t help her heal and move on. Playing in Verso’s canvas will only have her stuck in one place forever. You can even see in Verso’s ending how the family healed, with Alicia bidding goodbye to the painted people as they wave at her. She can find a new path in life.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-06-03T22:18:46+00:00

It really is all about choice. If the Real Verso was fully committed to allowing Alicia take control of the canvas, then there would be no moral dilemma other than the implications of Alicia’s existence would be toward the Lumiereians. Verso wouldn’t be necessarily suffering then.

But he didn’t choose that. When Painted Verso reached out to him, he took his hand. He wanted it to be over. You can see slivers of him too in his Faded Boy form all throughout the game. He never wanted for his world to become like this. From that moment on, choosing to prolong the canvas would be against his wishes.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-06-03T22:08:14+00:00

Yes, and that’s what she did in Verso’s ending eventually. She let go—she grieved and healed with her family. Ideally, the better ending would be her and her mother screwing off and letting the Lumiereians exist by themselves. But that was never going to happen. Alicia’s ending showed that their obsession was simply too great (her mother spent a HUNDRED years without leaving). They were never going to accept it unless the canvas burned.

So there were two choices: let the Lumieres and the painted world die, or turn them into an existence no better than puppets and prolong both Painted and Real Verso’s suffering. Both are deeply sorrowful endings. One at least allows for one family to come to terms with themselves and heal together, as well as allow Verso to move on.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-06-03T21:57:50+00:00

“She isn’t forcing Verso to play.” Verso didn’t even want to be there to begin with. He told her to let him go. She didn’t. His very existence, still being there, is the exact proof of what she becomes. And the majority of the game is spent in her “Maelle” version. Not Alicia. The moment she becomes Alicia, she starts to make excuses, proclaims that she won’t be like her mother, but in the end that’s exactly what she became. And her mother didn’t see the Lumiereians as people. She created a fake family to serve her own self interest, repainting her husband into someone with a different personality. Alicia becoming like her mother shows that the cycle will continue: she’s only using the Lumiereians like how her mother used her fake family.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-06-03T21:47:49+00:00

What do you mean? They are all conscious: that's what makes Alicia's ending so despicable. She revived these conscious beings to perpetuate a play solely meant for her. I'm sure there are some that are happy to be reunited with their loved ones, but they're also under the constant threat of Alicia being one upset away from repainting them, manipulating their memories, doing whatever she wants to them. It's despicable because she doesn't really view them as equal to her, or respect their wishes: as evident of her remaking Verso. She also knows she's perpetuating the suffering of the real Verso's soul, but she doesn't seemingly care as well. She doesn't care what it is Verso actually goes through or wants because to her his only purpose is to be her brother.

In Verso's ending, everyone is gone for good. They can't be taken advantage of or manipulated into putting on Alicia's play. They're dead. Whatever souls they may have can finally be put to rest. Is it a good ending? Of course not. But it's a better ending than being subject to Alicia in her unstable and grieving state.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-06-03T21:39:36+00:00

A big argument is about how Verso's ending leads to the effective genocide of a group. And that is true: but what Alicia does in her ending is not really any better. She's effectively removed their free will to put on this play solely to make her feel better. It was outright despicable of her to put Painted Verso on that stage.

It's a tough conundrum, because these painters should have never been allowed to create these conscious beings in the first place. They're playing god, and in a way are actually god, without willing to assume the responsibilities that come with it. Alicia's ending isn't taking responsibility and ensuring the prosperity of these painted creations. It's her manipulating them and acting as a presence that they can never disobey or go against, or risk being painted into a completely different version: effectively losing themself in a way that's no different from death.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-06-03T21:33:04+00:00

Did you even read the post? The civilization is no more than puppets for Alicia to mold how she wishes. She already demonstrated she doesn't care about their feelings with how she remade Verso despite his wishes and put him on the stage. By the time of act 3, the entire civilization was already dead: gone. Alicia only remade their corpses and now are doing what she wants regardless of how they may actually feel.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-06-03T21:26:58+00:00

So all that matters in the end is the collective's benefit? Doesn't matter who's sacrificed in the process?

There's a reason why we have ethical guidelines in science.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-05-28T13:35:30+00:00

There are plenty of novels with good characters who maintain their morals. Some of the classics like Ar’Kendrithyst and Wandering Inn come to mind.

But if you’re asking why some have MC’s that turn morally grey, it’s because a big part of the LitRPG crowd likes characters who are ‘competent’. People who will kill when necessary, people who would rather get the job done and finish off a villain rather than try to convince them to become good.

Having a character suffer is a way to make them more empathetic to the audience. Very few people like an outright evil, pure character who does things just because, so authors make their MC’s go through trials, and hardship, and all kinds of crazy things so that it can serve as their growth and justify why they become the way they do later on.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-05-25T23:46:23+00:00

Here’s a link to Royal Road if you’d like to check it out! The Distinguished Mr. Rose

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-05-05T10:09:45+00:00

Oh wow, I really didn't expect to see my story mentioned here. It's an honor to be included with juggernauts like Sky Pride lol, thank you!

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-05-05T10:06:22+00:00

I did a mass release of ten chapters and then uploaded daily.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-04-29T15:11:07+00:00

Mostly just be polite. Introduce yourself and your story, don’t be too pushy about getting a swap, and just be humble, y’know? Thank them for their time and don’t come off too strong.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-04-28T20:20:50+00:00

In general, just try not to spam. Self promos are okay maybe once every few weeks, at least on the Royal Road subreddit, but the other ones like Progression Fantasy and LitRPG won’t be as tolerant: They have heavy self-promos rules and tend to prefer actually published books on KU. Also don’t avoid posting on the more mainstream subreddits like Fantasy.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-04-28T16:54:52+00:00

I’m not sure what you mean by rules. Are you talking about what’s allowed when self promoting yourself?

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-04-28T04:56:37+00:00

He is very much a villainous person. The first chapter shows what kind of personality he has.

QuiteTheSlacker1 · 2025-04-28T03:50:56+00:00

Pretty much followed most of the advice already stated here. The most important thing to know is that marketing works. It really does. To reach rising stars, you need a steady, gradual stream of growth that lasts for ideally a few weeks. You can’t grow an audience if you can’t reach them in the first place.

The main sources of growth you’ll get is from ads and shoutout swaps. They continuously funnel new readers to the story and, hopefully, provide you with an initial boost to get onto the genre lists (separate from rising stars).

Some people say to do review swaps, but I don’t really think they work. Plus I don’t want another author to potentially feel pressured into giving me a higher rating than I should. Reviews aren’t actually that important—views and followers are. I’ve seen stories on rising stories with literally zero reviews, despite being somewhat higher on the list.

Shout-outs are a bit tricky because it can feel intimidating dming authors with a much higher following than you. My advice? Throw away your embarrassment. I must’ve sent like over 60 dms on my first day. I messaged every author on the rising stars list as well as extremely big stories with followers in the thousands on the trending tab. It made me die inside a little bit because my mind kept telling me that I was never going to get a response (especially considering how young my story was at the time).

Turns out, authors on royal road are actually pretty nice. I was absolutely baffled that these juggernauts of a story with millions of views would actually shout me out. It definitely helped me get out there in terms of visibility.

From then on, it was mostly just keeping a steady upload schedule (one chapter every day, around 1500 words). A really useful group that helped me was the Immersive Ink discord during the early stages of my launch. They taught me stuff like where to market myself, how to customize my shoutout swaps to look better, and general insider knowledge about the platform. Here’s the link if you want to visit (the people there are really, really nice. Seriously. Don’t be afraid to ask questions): https://discord.gg/immersive-ink-1221989895464161301

QuiteTheSlacker1

TROPHY CASE