Homestuck and Some Other Things

There’s been a marked improvement on visitors since Monday! Yay! I hope my readers, new and old, continue to read and feel free to make comments or send me messages! Please, read on!

Tuesday

Today I read a lot of pages of the online mspaint story I mentioned earlier – Homestuck. After you get a hundred or so pages in (very short pages with some videos) it becomes a lot more interesting (and convoluted. It has not stopped getting more so, so far). I ended the on the page 522 for that one today (with no end in sight).

Other than that, I read some more chapters of Viridescent and read some manga chapters of the anime I previously mentioned, Black Lagoon. In doing so, I was surprised to see that the hiatus it was on (since 2014) ended long enough last year to finish the current story act (though it is now back on hiatus).

I forgot to mention, but I also started rereading a fanfiction called ‘Desperately Seeking Ranma’ by PixelWriter1 a day or two ago. It is a Ranma ½ fic with many OCs (Original Characters) that is set after the main storyline (of both the anime and manga) where many things go wrong right afterwards and Ranma and Kasumi leave Nerima. The story starts after said event (but the event in question is in a short story by the same author called ‘Aftermath’ with a one-shot direct sequel called ‘The Fugitives’) and is mostly centered on Nabiki as the main character. It has ‘magical girls’, ‘demons’ (both the more traditional ‘kill everything’ ones and ones that are more ‘nice aliens’ who just want ice cream and chocolate), portals to other realities and much, much more. It even has a crossover with “Sailor Moon” (although the author didn’t plan on it at first. Also, not a good read for fans of Sailor Moon). The link to the main story is here – https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9916589/1/Desperately-Seeking-Ranma. The link to Aftermath is here – https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9710573/1/Aftermath. Finally, the link to The Fugitives is here – https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10886943/1/The-Fugitives.

I like this story very much and reread it many times. Sadly the author has not updated in two years. This doesn’t mean we haven’t heard from them, just that they have confessed to being stuck and not having much time to write. I hope they get the time to write and post soon!

For those who do not know, Sailor Moon is one of the oldie, but goodie animes (as long as you watch the Japanese sub version, the English Dub is horrible because they cut out a lot to make it a kids show. Like the lesbian characters in a later season, making one of them male. On a slightly related note, did you guys know the that the English version of Pokemon cut out an episode in the original series [Around the Safari Zone], where there is a gun and Ash gets shot?). There is a newer remake of it that is condensed from the original and more closely follows the manga called, “Sailor Moon Crystal”. I haven’t really seen it, but it looks okay. The series is about a girl named Usagi (Yes, it means rabbit) Tsukino who encounters a talking cat (named Luna, really original) that gives her the means to transform in Sailor Moon (making her a Moon Rabbit). She and her fellow Sailor Scouts fight against the dark forces while trying to find their princess. Like I said, check it out (just not the dub).

The last thing I did was read a new chapter of a story called ‘A Sith’s Second Chance’ by VFSNAKE (a really good and fairly prolific writer, I mean 96 stories!). It is a Star Wars fic that has Darth Vader being transported to Naboo at the beginning of Episode I after he dies in Episode VI. He has a younger (non-cybernetic) body and a desire to correct all the wrongs that happened in the universe while setting things up to eventually face his younger self. I quite like this one as well, along with many of VFSNAKE’s fics. The link the fic is – https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12856644/1/A-Sith-s-Second-Chance and the link to VFSNAKE’s profile is here – https://www.fanfiction.net/u/979159/VFSNAKE.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow’s only a line away!

Wednesday

I’ll start off with Seerking’s normal Wednesday story update. This one is called ‘Ashikabi of Thunder and Lightning’. It is a Sekirei fanfiction. In this one, the main character’s (Minato) mother, Takami decides that there is no way to stop her son (Unlike the original) from becoming an Ashikabi (a mate of the Sekirei) and sends twin Sekirei to help him in the hopes he will wing them. He does and this leads to many things good and bad to happen. Look it up if it seems interesting! The link to the story is – https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10973901/1/Ashikabi-of-Thunder-and-Lightning.

Only one new chapter today and it was from Warlock. I finished off Viridescent and read a few more chapters of Desperately Seeking Ranma. Other than that I read many more pages of Homestuck today, getting to page 1931. Wondering when the end was, I looked it up and found that it had over 8000 pages before the end! It’s too bad it wasn’t over 9000, but some things can’t be helped. Things are making a lot more sense, in a twisted sort of way. Also, the character John has an obsession with the movie Con-Air’s ending (not that I don’t like it myself), as shown on the page I ended on. I really am emotionally on the same page as the troll on this one.

No more for today, tomorrow is now today (look down!)

Thursday

I was busy today, so there’s not much I read today. I got to page 1994 of Homestuck, where we finally are about to learn more about the trolls. Reread all of the 7 chapters of A Sith’s Second Chance. The only new story I read was ‘I Aim to Misbehave’ by White Squirrel.

It’s a Harry Potter and Firefly crossover with the prologue showing Harry and his friends helping the evacuation of Earth (very pre-Firefly) and Harry finally leaving too in a sleep pod on a ship. He wakes up in very distant future and is looking to find his descendants. It’s been a while since I watched Firefly (Sadly), so I don’t know where it converges with it. However, I think it is a divergent timeline anyway. It’s only a prologue and the first chapter so far, but looks interesting. The fic can be found here – https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12435331/1/I-Aim-to-Misbehave.

In the absence of more things I’ve read today, I’ll talk about another book series I’m a fan of – the Pendragon Series by D. J. MacHale. The series is about a young boy named Bobby Pendragon who is taken by his Uncle Press on an adventure to other dimensions to save all the dimensions from Saint Dane, who is trying to them down. He has to do this because he is a ‘Traveler’, one of 10 chosen to protect the dimensions. He records his journey on journals that he sends back to his friends back home. The series has 10 books in the main story and 3 ‘origin story’ compilations on the other Travelers. Look it up, it’s really good!

Also on PoGo, there are a now many Kanto (Gen 1) Pokemon available. In addition to that the three legendary birds will be in raid (with a chance for Shiny) until the 20th. After that for a month and few days until Oct. 23rd, Mewtwo will be a regular raid boss (maybe in preparation for Deoxys being the new EX raid boss). Finally the Gen 1 regionals will be available in 7 km eggs, though I don’t know the stats for that happening. This is through the end of the month. Good luck to everyone!

That’s it for this post. See you after the Weekend. Hope everyone has a good one!

The New Normal

Hello everyone! As the title indicates, after today’s post things are going to change. After reading some of The Art of Blogging’s posts since my post yesterday, I decided that I needed to have more time between my posts to allow each post time to be the top post. Since I proved that I can post every day for a week, I’m going to change it to posting twice a week. This doesn’t mean I won’t be writing each day for the blog, just that I will only post what I’ve written twice weekly. This means I will have multiple days posts in one post, so be warned they may be a bit longer than my posts have been so far.

I read a few chapters of Ashes of the Past today, but the main fanfiction that I’ve read since the last post is ‘Heroes Assemble!’ a Harry Potter/Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) & Marvel Universe (MU) crossover by Stargon1. Anyone who does not know about the MCU can look it up and watch the movies, there’s way too much there to try and cover in this post (I mean there have been ten years worth of movies with more to come). I mention the MU because characters and situations in the story are not or have not yet been shown in the MCU (like Squirrel Girl and the fact that they use the second set of Spiderman movies not the one in the MCU).

The premise of Heroes Assemble! is that after a few years as an auror, Harry decided everything was too much (he’s not with Ginny in this one and she’s one of the reasons he leaves, there is no pairing for him yet) and left to travel the world for 5ish years. The last inhabited continent he goes to is North Amercia and decides to by a place in New York City to use as staging place. It ends up turning into a pub and Harry is around during the attack of the Chitauri and puts on dragonhide clock to help out and ends up an Avenger. Watch as his presence changes the MCU in fun and interesting ways. I would definitely recommend all 66 of the current chapters. It hasn’t gotten to Avengers 2 yet, but it’s getting closer. Here is the link – https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12307781/1/Heroes-Assemble.

I haven’t read anything else today, but I figured I’d mention a fun anime that only has one season so far, but will most likely have more eventually (the artist for the show was caught tracing the characters from other shows and production it stalled). It’s called No Game, No Life. It started off as a light novel series (that has been released in the United States), but became an anime and manga. It has a set of stepsiblings, Sora and Shiro, who are genius shut-ins that play and dominate games that play as the undefeated [] or Blank. They are challenged to a game by a mysterious entity and when they win, are transported to a world were every thing has to be decided by games (by the rule of the God that brought them there). They aim to defeat everyone and challenge said God. It’s funny and worth watching/reading, be sure to look it up.

That’s it for today, look for me to post on Monday and Thursdays from now on. If this is the first post of mine you’ve read, feel free to read the posts from my first week. In them I talk about many fanfictions and the stories they originate from. See you on Monday!

The Second Day

Hello everyone. You’ll be exited to know that I finished Black Sky and am going to move onto a new story! I’ve decided to reread a fanfiction that I haven’t been keeping up with recently called ‘Ashes of the Past’. It’s a time travel Pokemon fanfiction by Saphroneth. It’s another longer fanfiction that with the newest chapter today has 279 chapters. The premise is that the main bad guys from Diamond and Pearl [DP] (Team Galactic not Team Rocket because while the main trio was somewhat competent in Black & White or Best Wishes [BW], they’re basically a joke) fulfills their goal at the end of BW while Ash isn’t around and destroys the universe. Ash is chosen (as usual) to go back with his memories and stop their plans by Arceus (the Pokemon God that was not ‘Lord Helix’). He gets a crash course in aura (which was basically ignored after being introduced) and goes back to start of his journey. Luckily, aura allows him to remind his friends and Pokemon of their memories up to the end of BW (and allows him to understand Pokemon). It’s very silly and has only really gotten serious in the latest chapters now that it has gotten to the DP storyline. The link to it is – http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7262793/1/.

Before I talk about the rest of what I did today, I wanted to have a rant. Now I like Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn (KHR), but there are so many things wrong with the way the main character is brought up and treated that I was reminded of in Black Sky. Before people start going on about how it’s only a story, let me say this – kids read or watch these stories and are affected by how characters (especially the main one) act and are treated.

Tsunayoshi or Tsuna is the main character of KHR. When he activates his inherited ability at the age of five, his father convinces his boss (a mafia boss) to seal it because he doesn’t want his kid in the mafia (because the ability is only used by mafia). This is great because what father wants his kid in the mafia, never mind that said father is in the mafia himself, is never home, and tells his wife and kid that he’s off being ‘a star’. What a great example of a father, not!

Putting that aside, sealing what is considered his Will either made him clumsy and unable to concentrate or he had a disability and no one ever did anything about it. This leads to him being bullied by students and teachers and given the nickname “No-Good Tsuna.” What does his mother, the only parent he really knows, say to this? “What did I do to have such a no-good son.” Wow mom, what a job of parenting you’re doing. Then the other main character shows up, Reborn.

Reborn was sent to teach Tsuna how to become the next boss of an Italian mafia because the mafia boss that sealed him (which Tsuna didn’t know about and which isn’t even released until later in the series) three son’s have all gotten killed and he’s the only Heir left. This is ignoring that he’s a Japanese civilian who is thirteen years old that has been bullied and ignored by his father and looked down upon by his mother. Also, who would want to be the Heir of a mafia family that can’t even keep it’s own Heirs safe?

Now, knowing all this does Reborn (who looks like a baby and claims to be the “Greatest Hitman”) help him work through his problems? Yes, by shooting him with bullets that will kill him if he doesn’t have a regret in order to activate his ability through the seal, kicking and pushing him around, and ignoring the fact that Tsuna doesn’t want to be a mafia boss in the first place. Wow, what a great mafia boss he’ll be, being used to getting pushed around by someone else to get what they want and possibly hating the mafia because they ruined his life. I know I’d love for him to be the boss of the mafia I’m in! … (That was sarcasm, if you couldn’t tell).

Okay rant over, don’t get me started on Albus Dumbledore though. Moving on, over the past few days I have been working on finally getting the Ghost Pokemon medal on Pokemon Go (PoGo). There is a nest of Duskull nearby and today I finally got the medal! For those who don’t know, that means I’ve caught or hatched 200 ghost type pokemon on PoGo. The was the second to last pokemon type medal I’m missing. The last one is the dragon type medal and I’m only missing 19 dragon types until I get it.

I started PoGo on the first day it came out and am only missing the regionals not in the US except Farfetch’d. I’m not a shiny hunter, but I do have some. I haven’t got Regirock, but since it only came out yesterday and I haven’t raided in the last few days. It’s fine, it’ll be around of another month anyway. My friend code is 1255 5332 9245, if you play PoGo. I’ll do my best to sent gifts, but don’t get enough most days to send to everyone I’m already friends with. However, I’ll do my best to raise our friendship if you do friend me. I’m looking forward to it!

Like yesterday, I read some new chapters of stories I’m following. The one I’m going to talk about is called ‘Mauling Snarks’ by CmptrWz. It’s another Worm story like Taylor Varga, but isn’t a crossover. In Mauling Snarks, one of the main bad guy groups is not really one, but pretends to be because their members have powers that lean towards destruction and are sent against those the good guys can’t go after for one reason or another. The leader of this group is the uncle of Taylor (only in this fiction) and visits when she is stuck in the locker. His power affects hers (because family have similar powers) and she gets a different one than the original story. Like Taylor Varga, chaos and amusement abound. It even has a crossover omake with Taylor Varga and the original storyline! The link to it is – https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/mauling-snarks-worm.41471/.

The last thing I’m going to mention is that I’m also going to start working through a collection of stories by H.P. Lovecraft because several things from them are mentioned in Taylor Varga and even though he’s a horror writer, I’m curious. By the way, I plan to post at least once a day, just to let people know. See you tomorrow!

The Second Post

Hello again! Thanks to everyone who has already liked, followed or posted, your response is appreciated. Shout out to Yomu for being the first to comment! To finish up a story I didn’t realize I hadn’t last time, after finding the “Cardcapter Sakura” manga I read the whole “Master of the Clow” series and didn’t realize that it was a sequel series to the original “Cardcaptor Sakura” series until afterwards. I can now look back on that and laugh. By the way, that series is by a group of authors called CLAMP. They’ve written many great series like Tsubasa RESERVior CHRoNiCLE, xxxHolic and Chobits to name a few. They also have another “Cardcaptor Sakura” series called “Clear Cards” which has an anime too. I can go into those series later.

In the time since I wrote my first post I read a few more chapters on Black Sky and am now at chapter 234. But I have read more than that though. I follow a great many stories on Fanfiction.net, Archive of Our Own (AO3), etc. Sadly many I am following are no longer posting or abandoned. However, one I am following who has just not been able to get the time to write has finally posted a chapter! The series is called ‘Taylor Varga’ and is a crossover between an online serial “Worm” and an short really old anime very few know called “Luna Varga.”

Worm is not a happy story, let me put it that way. When the main characters’ backstory includes getting locked in a school locker, that was full of fermenting female products left to rot over a winter break, for several hours and the school basically ignoring it (for a reason unknown to the character), yeah not a happy story. Worm involves the dark side of superpowers and how badass the power to control bugs really is, which the main character Taylor gets for being locked in the locker. I’ve probably only read the very first section of it, but I know a lot about it just from reading the fanfiction about it and looking up relevant information when I needed it. I enjoy reading the fanfictions because while they don’t (often) ignore the issues in the story, they do a better job in my opinion of solving them.

I still actually have not looked up Luna Varga to watch, I really should sometime, but the basics as I know it are that a princess merges with a lizard like demon to protect her people against another of his kind. ‘Taylor Varga’ has a power giving Taylor the Varga demon instead of her getting the bug control power in the locker. Chaos then ensues, humorous chaos and much confusion. I was directed to this fanfiction by another author, but spent days reading it a having a good laugh, including the omakes (side stories that don’t actually happen in the story or at a future time for those who don’t know) which have Harry Potter and Marvel miniseries. The story is on it’s 25th tab on the Sufficient Velocity (SV) reader mode (which only has the main story not the omakes or the comments). The author mp3.1415player has cross-posted it on Fanfiction.net and AO3, but mostly focuses on SV so the other’s aren’t caught up. The link to the start of it is – https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/taylor-varga-worm-luna-varga.32119/.

I also read some new chapters from other stories. Two were from the author sakurademonalchemist on Fanfiction.net and are the latest in a long line of stories the author has started, posted some chapters on, then started a new story. They’ll occasionally post a new chapter to an old story, but not often. sakurademonalchemist if you ever read this, I’m sorry, but it’s true. I still enjoy your stories, but I wish you would finish them. Having said that, they do finish some stories. One such is Memories of Nobody, a great Harry Potter and Kingdom Hearts crossover that involves Xion, one of the saddest characters in the Kingdom Hearts series, taking Harry’s place after he is killed to save him and his parent’s hearts after her story ends in Kingdom Hearts. The link is here – http://www.fanfiction.net/s/11898187/1/. And the link to sakurademonalchemist’s page is – https://www.fanfiction.net/u/912889/sakurademonalchemist.

I’m gonna talk a little about Kingdom Hearts since it’s been mentioned. I’ve played Kingdom Hearts since I was in middle school and next to Pokemon it is my favorite game series. I am ecstatic that Kingdom Hearts III is finally coming out early next year and sad that they moved it from this year. I don’t have much time to replay the series, but I’ve been watching a youtuber called SkywardWing play through ‘the games’ (insert Phil from Hercules voice here). He’s a laugh and is one of the first people to play part of Kingdom Hearts III. If you want to watch his videos, here is a link to his Youtube channel – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt4qeayu0d0Yo5NHx_3xY9A.

Well, the end of the day approaches and I want to read a few more chapters of Black Sky and finish the daily missions on the mobile game – Kingdom Hearts Union x. Good night and talk to y’all tomorrow!

Hello & Welcome

Hello, I’m Matt. I decided to start this blog in order to write more and share what I’m reading and watching and my thoughts on them. I’ve been reading a lot of fanfiction lately, but am looking to read or reread books more often. I’ll also be posting about the movies, TV shows & anime that I’m watching as well.

I’ve been a reader since I was young. I’ll read most genres except Gore, but I’m not a huge horror fan. I’ve been interested in Japanese animation since I was very young, when my brother gave me Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro and I watched shows such as Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and Dragon Ball Z. Even though I read a lot when I was younger, it wasn’t until I was in middle school that I found manga. I was in a Barnes & Noble looking through book titles when I found a book titled, “Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow Vol. 1.” I was interested because I’d seen the show on TV and so I bought it. When I got home and started to read it I learned that it read backwards and had to learn a new way to read. It took me a few weeks to get used to it and now I can switch between the two reading styles with no effort.

Switching topics, I was an avid fan of Pokemon from the beginning. I played Red and Blue, played the card game and went to card events where you could earn badges and special cards. I followed the handheld games until they switched over to the DS, which I didn’t get until much later, and I stopped really following it. Later in late 2013, when I didn’t have much to do I picked up X and Y. I then spent a lot of my time collecting all the Pokemon out and have continued this into Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon along with Pokemon Go. I’ll probably talk about what’s happening on PoGo on here as well with the release of Celebi and hopefully Smeargle next week along with the Regirock’s introduction to raid that happened today.

I’ve been rereading the fanfiction ‘Black Sky’ by the author Umei no Mei on Fanfiction.net for the last few days. Here is a link to the story – http://www.fanfiction.net/s/10727911/1/. It is an interesting crossover story between Harry Potter and Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn (KHR). It features a female Harry and currently has 295 chapters, but the author is on a break from the story right now. Umei no Mei also has several other stories, so be sure to check them out if Black Sky interests you.

Black Sky is an interesting story because it starts from young female Harry’s, named Dorea, birth and has several chapters showing her growing up before she goes to Hogwarts (thankfully not at the Dursleys). It also starts long before the start of KHR and doesn’t even mention the main character of KHR in the story until well into the 100’s. I enjoy this story because it doesn’t let itself get caught up on following the events of the ‘Harry Potter’ series and actually wraps the main content of that series within 75 chapters.

I will freely admit that I ‘ship’ Harry and Ginny and that I enjoy reading those stories that have that as a pairing. People can say how he belongs with someone else, such as Hermione or Luna, but I have my reasons that I can go into later if anyone is interested. However, I am willing to read a story that does not have that as pairing as long as it keeps my interest, is well written with minimal spelling errors and being a long story helps. Black Sky fits all those categories and more.

I’ll stop here for now, but will post again either today or tomorrow. Thanks for Reading!

-Matt