Chương 119: Q&A + Author's Retrospective

I've split this whole thing into two great parts: first the Q&A, and then my personal reflections. Read whatever you want to read, and don't read what you don't want to read about. That's just good advice in general, I think. THE PART WHERE I ANSWER QUESTIONS Sam-I, Sam-II, Sam Prime, Irja and the Machine?

(this one's partly for clarity purposes) Sam Prime is in essence the uninterrupted consciousness of both Sam-I and pre-blacking out Sam II, while Irja is Sam II plus the surviving bits of the Machine, which didn't have that strong a sense of self or personhood, so whatever remains of it personality-wise was not that impactful. There are some fun (or rather, not so fun) philosophical implications to all this regarding memory, personhood, one's 'soul', dying, etc.

which I left out of the story proper for people to figure out on their own. Of course you don't have to (any story should always be good on the face of it), but some of you did figure some of those questions out and worked through them, so I wanted to say: good job on them and any other readers that did! I do gotta ask: will Sam and Amber be a thing in the future? Like there wasn't anything explicit but I just feel like they're so coded.

I know Sam II was likely asexual/romantic but I figure with the new merging into Sam prime, that's possibly opened up. Never really thought about it. And tbh, never really thought much about how Sam Prime's story would continue after the Epilogue, aside from being a comparatively normal girl with a comparatively (to Irja) limited span of heroic dreams and powers to achieve them.

The emphasized closeness between Sam Prime and Amber was for a large part a functional thing to drive home the difference between Sam and Irja, but I see no reason why it could not develop into something more than a friendship. Bonus: Also funny, for a long time I had the idea to give Irja (when she was still our Sam I) a boyfriend starting from chapter 5 onwards. It would be Casper (Amber's more melancholic friend if you recall) with Prince Enmon being his masked identity.

But with all the drama going around and Sam I/Irja already having encountered a bit too many masked in her civilian identity, and with Sam I/Irja being who she was personality-wise, and her own ongoing struggles with who she was, it just wasn't a good idea. Was there ever a transformation you wanted to explore for Sam that you thought would be too silly?

There is none I think that was too silly (the sillier the better imo), but there used to be the plan to have Sam transform into a self-guided missile and fighting a samurai robot with a hive of laser-shooting drones. Alas, I could find no good way to include the samurai robot. do you have a favourite form sam took? (mine is water!!!) Crows are cool, which is why I kinda made it her default. Otter-Sam was fun too, as was ostrich-Sam. was space travel ever widespread in this setting?

with the background of the dark age/unification, it seems like it really wouldntve been a priority for anyone so im curious! Yes and no. Upper atmosphere activity is higher and more populated (I once mentioned the Atmospheric Guard part of the Guardians, I think?) but it isn't even like Cyperpunk 2077 levels of colonialization. No permanent habitation outside a very select few hermit villains, research stations and small 'safehouses/waysations' for the Atmospheric Guard.

There is, however, a new sort of 'space race' starting, except without the race. There is also some far off idea of a sci-fi sequel where powered and non-powered individuals start space colonies etc., but I honestly don't expect to write it anywhere in the near future. Where do you get your ideas for masked group / individual names? Do you have a process to find them or do they just pop into your mind? Many of them (and especially of the less important ones) just sounded cool and came to me when I took a walk.

Others are mythology inspired (Lugal and the other guy I can't quite remember the name of) or from books I read (Rostam and Tahmina from the Persian Shahnameh), or from songs (Endoida from Gaby Ameratos Rock Doido album), etcetera. The more important and special ones, as you might've noticed, are more descriptive/appropriate for their powers, personality and situation.

Eskaton Geranos is very roughly Greek for 'Crane of Endings' iirc, and names like Peakstar are the kind of informative, yet brand-name generic thing that feel real and appropriate for a setting like this. 7. Also who's "Triumphant Ruaumoko"? I assume one of those top mega-powerful heroes that enforce the Treaty. Yep, he's one of the current roster of the Twelve Triumphants. A very powerful manipulator of all solid non-biological matter.

Ruaumoko is, iirc, a name for a New Zealand/Maori earthquake god (he is not very popular in his homeland due to him naming himself as such). I guess I would like to ask how did you come up with this story? Very strange story. First, ever since I played a game called Caves of Qud I wanted to write a story about an android. Then I saw both Blade Runners and subsequently read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and I wanted to write something about an android that wasn't an android.

And then I played the Morrowind mod Tamriel Rebuilt where in one faction questline (the Ja-Natta Syndicate, sound familiar? Though Jannacht as a name already existed because the guy who sank Europe was supposed to be called Jan Nacht, but that kind of fell through) where you play as the most evil kind of thief/assassin/mobster and kick a guy off the roof.

And thus I wrote a story about a sociopathic not-android anti-hero (or anti-villain) vigilante that kicked some secret ruler of Charm's underworld from atop a sky-scraper… As you can see, a lot of it changed in the writing of the story, but the bones are there. For most of the ideas, themes, etc.

I focused mostly on common teenage experiences/coming-of-age stuff like relationships with family and friends, being open vs wanting privacy, forging one's own identity, and, of course, hopes and dreams (of greatness or otherwise). Combine all that with the setup of an not! android being told she's the daughter of someone she believes she is not and has pre-programmed dreams of heroic grandeur and you get… well, this. In my Q&A (especially in the 'the BAD' section) you can see how I ran into problems with that.

As for the superhero setting and worldbuilding in general, it was mostly a reaction to Wildbow's Worm webserial which (especially if you're reading this on spacebattles) you might already have recognized. Except I elected to focus more on the sociological/societal implications and requirements necessary for the Masquerade to make sense, rather than, well, as not to spoil things let's just call it the 'sci-fi Lovecraftian' elements of Worm' s world.

Also, would you revisit it in the future, the world is pretty cool and I wouldn't mind seeing more of it, like in other parts of the world too. Also I have a feeling that this masquerade won't last forever but it's such an interesting idea. Very cool story! There are basically four stories I'm still considering for this setting. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

A prequel set during the Dark Age, leading up to the Unification and the establishment of the Triumphants featuring a potentially very powerful precognitive that winds up either being convinced by Malcator, or by someone else into essentially 'creating' a Malcator. A prequel set in Raadsburg, the Last City of Europe, during the Dark Ages. It is more a cyberpunk story than a superhero story though, especially since it is pre-masquerade.

A sequel where the Masquerade is coming to an end, which follows on old thrillseeker yet generally not evil villain is trying to live out his final glory days while all government heroes are now simply powered police officers and the only other heroes that exist are equally-old vigilantes. Or something like that anyway. A sequel set long after where there are powereds and unpowereds exploring the galaxy, settling planets, etc. where the limits of the Unification are being stretched.

It might be some time before I write any of these. I need to at least finish the story I'm currently writing and I've got a lot of ideas still on the backburner (and of course I've just recently done a superhero story). And even then, at least for cases 2 and 4, I might just cannibalize them into another story. How did Michael react to getting the whole truth? & What's up with Michael in the future and is he chill with the new family dynamics? Have not put a great deal of thought into it.

Of course he's happy that Sam has her memory back and that his dad is alive again. Considering the distance between him and his family and not being as directly involved in events as Pierce and Kati were, he would probably feel somewhat awkward around Irja, not quite knowing how to deal with her. There is, however, definitely a resurgence in doubts regarding his 'sacrifice' and a vindication of his prior beliefs regarding the authorities w/ the whole reveal of Project PLUTO. Other than that, I have no clue.

Have fun making your own headcanon. Sooo, any power module thing the maker would have coded, would have just been actually using the powers from people stuck in the achronality yeah? Well, Trajan didn't really make any power modules. The Machine tried twisting Sam's shifting powers in the Achronality to copy parts of powered people's 'soul'/informationally-compressed selves and so have her incorporate multiple powers. But in essence, yes, you're correct.

It's all very jerry-rigged and doesn't quite work, which is why inanimate forms (bricks, trashcan, cars) have strange, barely-useful powers associated with them. With maker-tech the Machine was borrowing their powers to help stabilize their superpowered functions. Was the ending of the story always planned like this or were there any changes in between? Yes and no? Defenitely not right from the beginning, but from the chapters 2, maybe 3 onwards it was almost exactly like this barring the details of how.

Which sounds like a lot of it was already planned, but the 'how' is what really makes the story and reinforces Only Irja-Sam getting an android body was not planned at first, with her instead being able to communicate through regular-Sam at first, but once I got the idea (no idea when) of putting Irja-Sam in an android body I of course couldn't not do that. But them being split and co-existing was pretty quickly decided.

Fun fact: If you recall there was a scene where Sam got acquittanced with this world's equivalent of TikTok-style fake content, where she also talked (or thought) about some conspiracy-adjacent stuff. As a joke/easter egg, I wanted to mention Project PLUTO there. But I ultimately decided that wouldn't make sense.

THE PART WHERE I REFLECT Before I start off this section proper, there is a review by PumpkinFriend (over on RoyalRoad) that imo says everything that needs to be said about the good, the bad and the ugly of this story, and given from a reader's perspective to boot. Go give it a read! While this section is technically addressed to you, reader, this is more something for myself.

Basically, I'm writing this from me to me to put my thoughts in order, to reflect, to see what went well and what went not so well, etcetera (hence my call for you to read PumpkinFriend's review as well). The GOOD Interpersonal relationships and multiple believable characters were the strongest part of this story by far.

Where Redcrown (the story I'd written before this one) was mostly meant as proof that I could write a well enough story, Incognito was meant to have many characters interacting with one another meaningfully. I do think the pacing was pretty good despite Incognito's (imo) overgrown length. Though there was some downtime, I felt like it never slumped except in, perhaps, the 'prepare for combat' sections, but maybe that's just me.

Ultimately, I do like the ending, though mostly in the sense that it is finished and that it is not bad. See point 5 in 'The BAD' for what I felt didn't work. The popularity of it. It might seem strange to you, dear reader, for me to say as much, but for me it is exceptionally motivating to see so many people reading it.

Redcrown could be dreadful and dispiriting at times since it was not at all a popular story, and while I love writing, I find it completely purposeless for me to write something and not have someone read it or comment on it. Writing solely for oneself is not art, it is… another word I'm not going to put here. God, I love the cover way more than I should.

I don't know if it's a good cover exactly, but I like that putting this little thing I got from my parents in my childhood on top of a piece of wrapping paper I got by pure coincidence, and then snapping a few pictures of it could lead to this. I mean, look at the way the fishy stares up at you with those beady, innocent little eyes. Adorable. The MIXED The drama was a bit too dense in parts, I felt. Maybe even too dense in general; too many spinning plates and things and people to keep track off.

But ultimately, the drama did succeed imo. Sam's superpowers somewhat underexplored in action sequences. Feel like someone with more knowledge and/or interest in animals would've done a lot more, and the non-animal and maker-tech forms were always meant as somewhat of a plot device, but could've been expounded upon. Also, action sequences in general. Some of them hit, others felt like busywork in hindsight.

'Downtime' chapters where little to nothing happens. But then, these are often friendship-focused chapters about character interactions, which I felt were the best parts of it all. Somewhat poor interlacing between the macro of the masquerade and Charm, and the micro of Sam's more internal struggles. It was there, it was felt, but it never quite glued themselves into a single whole. The BAD Dragged out the android-or-achronally-displaced plot waaaaaaaayyyyy too long.

That has, at least in my mind, a lot to do with both the planning of my story, the format of my story (chapters limited all but entirely to 1 day) and with the way I had to write it due to the general nature of RoyalRoad/Spacebattles/Scribblehub where chapters are updated weekly. Might've worked in a conventional book and with a lot of editing passes, but not in a serialized fic spanning nearly a year. The whole android-or-achronally displaced thing in general I should've handled differently.

I can't quite put my finger on how else I should've done it, but it felt less engaging then it should've been? Or maybe it felt a bit 'too much' for something meant as a purely misdirection. But then, I don't quite know what else I could've picked. (See also point 5 below) I believe I got sloppier in my editing as time went by. Though this is somewhat counteracted by me (hopefully) being a better writer throughout the months as well, it got bad toward the end with my own impatience of finishing the story.

I just really, really don't like editing though I also know how important it is, which results in me being sloppy and simultaneously doing too much. Millie's role wound up way more diminished from the initial planning, and the setups I wrote for it wasted and left kinda dangling. She was supposed to be way more of an 'anchor' for Sam to react to along with Kati and Amber, but that fell by the wayside as more characters and more vectors for drama got introduced. First-draftiness and poor theming.

It was haphazard, scattershot and whatever other word synonymous for poorly planned out. I'm also not a good theme-knower. I just pick an idea that I have lots of thoughts about and explore it through the characters and story in general, without having a conclusion on the topic in mind. I don't know if that is a strange way to write or not. Genre, comedy, drama, and ambiguity.

Part of the idea was also that Incognito would be a lot lighter in tone than Redcrown and while a lot of it is, large parts of it also distinctly are not light at all. Now, light and dark elements combined in one story isn't rare, but it is a delicate balancing act, and in the case of the ending I think the 'lightness' paved over the somewhat hidden 'darkness' lying underneath the outcome of story.

I've seen multiple people stating that I either wasn't aware of the implications or comments saying that 'the author wrote it like this, and thus it is this, neither of which tells me I did I proper job both explaining that I do see it, and that Sam/Irja are not my mouthpieces. Conclusion Ehhhhhh… I'm happy with Incognito? At least I look back at it far more fondly than I do Redcrown. Not only did I accomplish what I set out to do regarding characters, but I think the work overall is pretty enjoyable.

With the Doom of the Red Saber, whose (first? only?) book I've already finished, I put more effort into plot, action, staying on topic and consistency of both atmosphere and story, so I'll see what people have to say about that once I've finished posting it. The next one after will either be a second book in the Doom of the Red Saber (tentatively called The Life of the Red Saber) or a book with the tentative tile A little star's journey through space, time and humanity.

To conclude the conclusion: thanks for reading, and if I ever have a sequel/prequel going up, I'll be posting an update about it here. So until then: goodbye!