[Fanfic] 0ff104d : Q & A

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cidjen
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[Fanfic] 0ff104d : Q & A

Post by cidjen » Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:12 am

Welcome to 0ff10ad Q & A! Where I cidjen come up with dreamed up answers to made-up questions nobody really has.

Who are you and why are you spamming our forum?

I go by the handle of cidjen. Writing this little piece of (not)art(not), was a way to ekm... offload some imagination. Managing a stack overflow.

Wait so are you going to tell us who you are ?

No.

Buh... ok then where did the idea come from?
It came from the little glitch of mind I had when I wrote one of my responses on the Story forum, in ([1504] It wasn't for me - specifically, viewtopic.php?f=6&t=111&start=25#p1805. (edited: found the acutal post))
Some of it came from reading Madbadger's articles (paarfi linked to them), some from the really insightful posts by iffy and Sareth. Then I had a mad idea to fast forward and come up with what would happen if ALL the current cast survived and what would they do in the present day... The idea was so strong it wouldn't let go if I just wrote it 'to the drawers'. Besides, I did not want it physically anywhere attributable to myself.

Wait. this thing, has no other copies than here on the forum ?
No, maybe apart from, if the Wayback Machine has done any.

Mods! burn this abomination with fire!
... Next question, please ?...

Seriously though, where do I begin, it's rubbish... did you take writing classes or anything?
No... I never had any sort of writing classes, apart from a tech dissertation and a UT thesis, and years of reading technical articles, and Internet news.

Wait. so that's why we did not hear about you before... you don't exist... this thing be your debut?
Yeah pretty much so.

We yawn at the thought of what did you ever read.
Well if you put it that way :P
As far as fantasy and science is fiction is the theme, I read through multiple copies of a sf magazine in the country where I'm from. I also read almost all s-f books of Stanislaw Lem (apart from the more philosophical ones, I'm sorry...) and the entire book saga of the Witcher. Also some (not all) Discworld and the Books of Nomes by Terry Pratchett. Recently I've mostly been reading my childrens' books (also David Walliams has some cool ones, also recently adapted for television). Harry Potter obviously (books and movies). Oh and the Chronicles of Elementia Minecraft fanfic... sigh (though the Modern Games chapter, is more of a joke and a purge of imagination than anything, I'm really sorry). Narnia in books and films; The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in books and films. Ben Aaronovich's wizard's tales (Rivers of London series) I like. The Long Mars (Pratchett, again) was cool. Online, I also liked (and still like to revisit sometimes) the BOFH stories. Although it seems to have stopped overpassing itself recently, still has some flair to itself. Also I like reading lwn.net (where most of my recent-computer-knowledge-related references come from)

Doesn't seem like you've been reading all that much.
Oh I did not mention the entire canon of school curriculum compulsory books, that my Original Country has... I vaguely remember not reading something those days ;)
It's cause I've been affected by watching too way too many cartoons, where the characters talk much more than they actually do... Disney, HB, WB, Lego Movie, Ninjago... You know what they say about the moving pictures generation? It's true... Let's just say, the mainstream kids' animations and the actored remakes of some older films (like Willy Wonka) of the last 10 years, I saw most them, eventually ;) But also : Breaking Bad. Mr Robot. Also Matrix, obviously. Can't wait for the feature length or series release of The Witcher saga :)
I don't find the Star Wars franchise particularly inspiring (however all I got hang of, are the movies).


Online comics?
Megatokyo (obviously), Three Panel Soul / MacHall, Questionable Content (sorry...), Alice Grove (slightly less sorry here, it has its moments), xkcd, Something Positive (always liked, never got the guts to participate in any forums), (the now deceased) Real Life Comics... I think that sums most of it up.

Any manga/anime background ?
Prfff... not really... apart from that recently can't help but sometimes watch glimpses of the Pokemons series when my offspring do... oh and waaayyyyy waaay back before I got any offspring, Sailor Moon (sic!), some Dragon Ball Z, General Daimos and Captain Tsubasa. All animated here of course.
I dabbed recently 'free manga' into my browser and after a few clicks ... Don't Bully Me Nagatoro came up... I brushed through that (whatever chapters were available at the time, I think up to chapter 5). Not particularly inspiring story tbh. Any more sins, I do not remember.
EDIT : I remembered one pretty important to me : Voice(s) of a Distant Star.

Now I see why your style consists of little more than dialogues.
What style ? Dialogues is where most of the things happen anyway... see the dab at the 'moving pictures generation'. It's hard to write a good description of action so that I or the reader won't fall asleep... But yeah I see what you mean.
Btw that is not entirely true, I add some substance / descriptives where I feel like...

Allright, I'll stab where it may hurt. Have you been in a hurry writing any of that?
Each chapter took 2-3 hours to write. That and sometimes I've been participating in the Story Discussion topics.

Just like that ? What about research ?
I think I went through most of Megatokyo repeatedly at least 5 times over the last month or so :) read all of it before getting into the forums... still can't get enough of chapters 10+

There are gross inconsistencies ... like, in one chapter, Yumi explains the virtual machine cyberspace looks like a balloon in space, and then you write a Minecraft fanfic chapter... wtf ?
I said that already... but I'll say that again - the Minecraft chapter is more of a joke and imagination offload than any other... I am sorry.

You seem to be inconsistent with the timeline in places.
That bit where I explained, that this fanfic doesn't exist anywhere else but on this forum, ring a bell? I did not write anything down in RL. It was all in my head and then I typed it in here.

Will you be revisiting the chapters and correcting the details?
Maybe... who knows... they say, a good writeup takes 8 iterations to perfect it out. This is version 1.
EDIT: I already did that with Chapter 1. More revisions MAY come.

What about your characters' names? They are ridiculous!
So... I tried to come up with good names for Piro's children... Yumi was going to be somehow of a cross-over between Yuki and Miho without magical powers; and Kirigashi, well... Kimiko, and Kobayashi... and 'ri' is again a bit of a joke. I don't know why ;) I do not speak any Japanese... just seemed to fit. Also easy to shorten down to Kiri.

[edited out one stupid plug]

1998 or 1999 did not have a solar storm ! WTF is it with your research!
There actually WAS a solar flare in 1999 ! W00t I just found out :)

Will there be any more bonus chapters?
I doubt it.
Edit : I really don't think so, but if I ever revise any, they will appear as the top post to that thread, keeping all the older versions as responses to the main one.

You have some representation of Largo, but no Erika. Why?
Short answer: Kimiko is now long standing on her own two feet as an actress ;) with support from her family, she's a lot less volatile.

(E)long(ated) answer : we never see Largo in person in my story. Only in history recall events. All we know, he is The Internet these days. But he is still human. I think he has been deported, and Erika went after him. This guess is as good as any.

So since you started about this, care to explain your premise ?
I got it probably better explained now in Chapter 1, but here it is :
- Fast forward to 17-18 years after the main story (remember it is still 2001 there)
- Piro and Kimiko have now kids of 16-17
- Miho lives on and enjoys life not scared of dying any more, she's happy living and a close friend to Piro's family
- Her story has been saved so that players never even once think of playing the bad ending, and put into a new book by Piro
- (we haven't seen the Necrowombicon for a long long time, but if that book was Miho's original story, then Piro's new book is a 'fitting replacement')
- but something has been omitted from the original script, and it is taking a huge toll on Piro's life
- do I have to point everything out here?

You write most of the characters by first name... you know that Kobayashi's first name is Yutaka?
Uhhh... will fix where I see it, in some subsequent edits.

You wrote chapters 1-6 first, then inserted the bonus chapters between ch5 and ch6. That seems excessive.
No, I only came to the idea of writing more chapters midway through writing chapter 6. Inserted as a sort of after-end-titles scenes like some cheesy movies do.

Any other questions? OK so that concludes the (auto)critics questions, over to you, audience.
Слава Україні!
🖕💩🥫🚽🖌️
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Translation to polish
and where it happens when I have time to stream

Blessed be those, who, having nothing to say, avoid trying to tell this to the world in their own words - J. Tuwim ( liberally translated )

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