Hey all! I know I said it before, but 60+ chapters in 18 days... it feels surreal, yet there it is. Forever on the internet. For everyone to read.

  I cannot thank you guys enough for not only reading my work, but for those who commented and pointed out my mistakes. It's crazy to think that a little over 100 people have read what I wrote all the way through.

  I also cannot help but thank the other authors on the fan fic discord server that exists. I will link it below, but they have helped me solidify certain concepts and are a very nice community. I do invite any of you to come on by and shoot me a message, either with your own thoughts character ideas, or plot holes that you have seen.

  I will also set up a PayPal for this next book cause, well... I am broke, and I need money for food to write more... even a couple dollars would help, but that is for future me to worry about.

  Onto the story Reflections!

  The first major change in my plans came in the form of the AIs. I always knew I wanted them to be a part of the story, to have their own unique personalities and be nods to certain properties. The change came with Morrigan, as when I was writing the chapter she appears in, she just appeard fully formed in my head. I was going to base her off of Dr.Tannis from B2, but it just didn't feel right, and so Morrigan replaced her.

  And I am very happy with how she has played out as the science officer. I know it seemed like a lot to have her be so much more, acting as a litteral Deus ex, at times, but everything she did and said makes sense with her concept.

  She is scary smart, with enough blockers on her to make a warship little more than a wave break, but because she is a scientist type she sees the problems that others see, and knows they are problems, so she works to solve those problems. It didn't help that her core directive was "Help Victor make things, protect him." With such a simple core, nudged by Synaptic, it makes sense that the best way to protect him was to make him leader of the city, maybe the world.

  Yet I had Victor put a stop to those ambitions because I didn't want the plot to go that way. In other stories, the plot naturally progresses to the hero taking over from the evil government, or making them subserviant to him. Victor doesn't want that kind of power, and I don't want to write a civ Sim.

  Sigh.

  I keep saying I write in a fugue state, and I suppose I should elaborate on that. I have read a ton of fiction in my life. Sci-fi, fantasy, hidden society, isekai, more recently magical girls, and every combination of those genre. I like to read stories because I see those stories in my head, yet I always have problems with them, the contrivance of the villains, the literal deus ex machine that some authors have a tendency to use because they are strapped for time or something. And I hated those, so I would rant alone or to friends about how things could and should have been different.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  And then I ran into Magical Girl Gunslinger, and everything changed. It is derived from Stray Cats Strut, and is intact how I found this world, but what got me writing was seeing fan fic for the first time. I know, what do you mean? I mean I knew it existed, and I knew others wrote it, but I have never read any before, never read any from a world I enjoyed. So when I read MGG, (Go read it) and cried during the most heartfelt and horrible situation in it (you will know), I then saw others writing in something called Apocrypha, and they had been labeled cannon!

  I read all of them, and I fell in love even more with the world. And I wrote a few chapters I liked, but felt that something was off. The world was too small, too short, not enough details about the world at large and too many mysteries. So I felt... stuck. The only concrete information is that there are seven alien made cities plopped into the world that a majority of the surviving humans moved to, and that the system felt nice to work within. But there is no history, no knowing what's going on in the rest of the world, not really enough to know what's going on in the city.

  Then I read SCS, knowing there was a thriving fan fic community, and I found this world was... more. The community, while staying non cannon, fleshed out the world within the confines of Ravensdagger's rules. We theory craft, story craft, offer ideas and cameo other MCs or side characters.

  It feels as though you are apart of an actually, living community. Something that I am now realizing I needed, and am very happy to be apart of. I love reading everyone's stories, hating their villains and indulging in the software moments. I love that we rjoke with each other, encourage each other, and how so many of their stories tie into one another.

  All this to say that when I write, I see the story unfolding in front of me. I know what the road should be, and where problems should arise per plot conventions of past stories I have read.

  Doing some rote farming? Nope, throw a bigger problem. Doing a social thing, well there needs to be a complication, maybe even an antagonist. Want to do some good for the world? There needs to be a some problem that they need to overcome to do it. And I realize this as I write, so I move to do things that I would find interesting or something I haven't seen. Not looking to "subverted expectations" or be M. Knight. Shamaladingdog, just doing things my way.

  Man, I really just wrote 500 words of rambling nonsense, didn't I?

  Uhhhh. Oops?

  Man I really do need therapy. Or someone to rant to, but social anxiety is a bitch... so the typed word it is!

  I have a few interludes planned, maybe a time skip? No, too early for that, plus the big event in 4 months in world, but if I write that then I can't ask to interact with other stories... maybe teddy? Nah, I really want to interact with the other Goo Samurai, and if Leman met Bob, they would fight and he would lose. Currently. At least.

  I'm going to stop here, because I will just jeep going other wise. Have a good day, and go read the other guys work. It's all so good.