Here's an interesting study. Apparently computers can detect when you are about to betray someone based on how polite you are and other stuff.

Cole grunted as he opened his eyes, waking up from what seemed like a weird dream. He was in a black void, like outer space, when this all-white, humanoid-looking thing started talking to him, something about him being pulled into some kind of world called the Omniverse. He remembered other details, but they were pushed to the back of his mind as he started to focus on his immediate surroundings.

“What the heck is this place?” Cole said as he sat up and started looking around confused. He saw a few different archways off in the distance, a fountain not far from where he was, and nothing else. Everything else was just a large expanse of white. He was inclined to think that he was just sleeping and this was just a dream within a dream or something like that. But, since when was he thinking this clearly in a dream? He didn’t really remember going to sleep recently. In fact, he didn’t remember much of what happened to him very recently.

Well, just sitting here won’t get me anywhere. Let’s ride this out and see where it goes. Cole thought.

As he stood up, Cole looked down to check himself. “Where’d my stuff go?” he asked. He saw that some of his equipment was missing. He still had some of it but everything else was gone. He looked around again and didn’t see anyone else near him. If anyone saw fit to steal some of his gear, they left a long time ago. Though, why they wouldn’t take all of it, he couldn’t guess to. He was grateful he still had what he did, but this didn’t help how confused he was at what was going on.

“First thing I need to do is get out of here… before all this nothing drives me crazy,” he said, looking at the almost completely blank area around him. He looked around at the archways again. From what he could tell, they looked like they led to different places, some looking more inviting than others. Eventually, he decided he would probably get the most help by walking to the steel-looking gate that looked like it had people in armor standing next to it. It looked like it was far away, all of the archways did, but the only other option was sitting by the fountain and doing nothing, so Cole started walking toward the chosen archway.

As he entered through the gates into the Ashen Steppes, Larry couldn't help but look around in awe. Wow, this really did look just like home, didn't it? Or, at least, it had a very large resemblance to it. The Koopa Kingdom had similarly dark, foreboding looking lands. Ones that could make some of the bravest trespassers tremble in their shoes. Well, except for maybe Mario. That plumber did seem pretty hard to scare, after all. Although, this place looked like it could potentially give even their old place a run for it's money. So much smoke, so much lava, so much ash. It seemed a wonder anyone could survive here at all. Well, he wasn't just anyone. He was the son of King Bowser himself. So, he was going to go through this ashy place, and, he was definitely going to survive it. Why wouldn't he? He was awesome, after all.

As he started walking through the ashen landscape, he wondered just what there was he could do here. Maybe he could find some monsters to thrash with his awesome skills? Although, lava regions usually tended to have some of the toughest monsters around. Could the same be said for this world in the Omniverse? Well, it might be best if he took a look around, anyway. But, first, he took the three minutes it required to summon a pair of a binoculars. He sighed. Why did this world have items that always seemed to require three minutes to summon? It was becoming a big pain in the neck for him. What if someone had tried to attack him while he was summoning them? Then he might keep getting distracted. But, fortunately for him this time, there were no distractions, and he managed to summon the binoculars, which he began to use to try and look around. "Well, doesn't look like there's anything interesting in the immediate area." However, suddenly, his binoculars caught a glimpse of a shape. A certain, familiar shape. "No way...It can't be him, can it?"

An unfamiliar world..
The sound of Human kids laughing..
The experience that was..

..why does it feel so familiar yet foreign?

The fact was that the albino had bit the bullet as Dredd had shot him..quite literally.

In plain sight, he had killed the poor simian out of an execution order while being hunted down trying to escape the law's stronghold and into the darkness of the city. Yeah, what great plan resisting arrest there, genius. Oh Specter, why are you so stubborn?

This was all over the incident that brought him here, some other things, a little brat, a nuisance and a general bad day.

Count it as a figure of him officially making Specter's special little mental list of individuals he despise or found annoying, next to two other individuals with one he bitterly swore revenge to in his time within Coruscant.

He couldn't catch a break, could he? No, it was obey or death, that was it. No in-betweens.

Bah, he was sick of it!

Was this just a sick and twisted game that Omni put him in? He could swear that he was being toyed with even if he had left the Nexus and he hated that feeling even if he did leave the Nexus some time ago.

So much anger, so much sadness, the albino was all over the place that this was all a cruel, cruel joke by the childlike god. He just can't think anymore even in this state where he was apparently outside his own body; he was one unstable simian that you do NOT want to cross.

He sighed afterwards and truth to be told, he never had really died before. Just seriously injured, so guess it's a first time for everything, but the chains of death itself will not keep him down for long.

Hell no. This albino isn't going to drop it that easily!

The downside to this place is that he's stuck here for awhile, but the upside, he can premeditate plans without any annoying Human pests lingering in his dreams or thoughts or whatever, mucking around. See, now knowing Coruscant and it's law-enforcing layout of the first Tier, he would have to sneak back into the city, if he did, he would have to resort using a blind spot if you would.

However, remembering the whispers of the citizens in the top Tier, they had whispered about how dangerous the crime was in the lower tiers so that would be his best bet to blend in without the heavy presence of the law enforcement breathing down his neck again.

He swears that Judge Dredd is going to regret it harshly one day.

While wondering, he noticed that the Stormtroopers were weak to his powers. Under his influence, there were as toys to him despite of circumstances in the amount of destruction he caused, but even so, if he tampered with them again so soon, he would be risking it.

What a pity and he's the one that had the plans!

Quote:You wake up in a black void, and there is a grinning silhouette in the darkness. You find you cannot speak, but somehow it seems to know what questions you want to ask, even without you asking.

Quote:“My name is Omni. This is not the world you know. This is the Omniverse. You interest me, so I have made you part of it. The Omniverse is a place that reflects the wishes of those who are part of it. But! There are rules. I will explain them only once, so listen carefully."

Quote:Omni hands you a glimmering orb in which all the colors of the rainbow coalesce. “This is Omnilium. It’s what ties the Omniverse together. Without it, you are nothing. With it, anything you desire can be yours. But you will need more than this. If you desire it enough, you will find it. You will find that using it comes naturally. Just think of what you desire most."

Quote:“You will not be alone in the Omniverse. There are others. Of course, they, too desire Omnilium. Do not fear death. For as long as you interest me, you will be reborn."

Quote:“That’s all you need to know right now. You’ll figure out the rest soon enough. I’ll be watching … and waiting.”

The darkness fades away, and you find yourself in a vast, empty white landscape, in front of a fountain.

No Sun.

The paladin groaned into the dusty red earth and tried to wait through the ringing in his head. When he could finally lift his head without feeling as if it would explode, he saw that he wasn’t in Silent Hill anymore.

No… This was far worse.

With his knees planted into the barren soil, Argento Camarinos shifted into an upright position. Memories flashed into his mind—a lab, the sorcerer, and then …a terrible pain in his neck. Although he knew the vile truth, there was a part of him that would be unwilling to accept the fact that he may have been betrayed by one of his allies. What would motivate a man to stab his friend in the neck when his back was turned?

Metal fingers clenched and unclenched as Argento tried to wrap his mind around it. There was no world in which he could fathom allies betraying one another. His codex of morals had no space in it for betrayals of any sort.

But this wasn’t just any betrayal…

This was the Underverse.

“Sorcerer, what have you done?” Argento whispered as he looked up at the red skies. Black and gray clouds filled what would otherwise have been a sea of crimson. In the distance, a thunderstorm was brewing near what appeared to be a settlement of some sort. A naked fist reached behind his back and grasped only at air. The paladin was without shield or hammer, and most of his armor was gone, having been discarded after suffering gross damage at the hands of Tyrant.

Have I been forsaken? Argento thought to himself as he stared back up at the sky. There was no sun up there, yet the skies were not pitch-black. Would the paladin have to endure this trial without his beloved one?

For the first time in a long while, the Champion of Darkshire felt entirely too human.

He felt afraid.

Character name: Casey Jones

Real name: Arnold Bernid Jones (Just never call him this.)

Character source: TMNT

Orion fell to his knees, sweat staining his face, chest heaving. He stared incredulously at his splayed fingers on the ground. Anxiety strangled his chest and stomach, barely allowing his lungs purchase to breathe. His mind swirled in a typhoon of confusion and misremembered moments, all congealing and whirling in one indistinguishable mass. He was a phantom, a mistake. He shouldn't exist.

He shouldn't exist.

Orion grabbed that ominous belief and hurled himself upon it like a piece of timber in the middle of the ocean. Slowly, lest he upheave the contents of his stomach, he climbed to one knee, breathed, then pushed himself the rest of the way to his feet.

He turned his hands in front of him, watching them shake. His single eye bore a hole in them, wet and stinging, but he did not blink. The shaking crawled into his wrists and scaled his arms, until balling his fists was all he could do to stem it.

An unseen wind rose from the white and pulsing ground. Clenching his teeth, the winds picked up, flapping the edges of his robe. A transparent blue aura kicked up around him, the edges flaring upwards like a fire.

Orion looked up and saw a macabre sight. A fountain of blood flowed freely before him, the bowl comprised of skulls joined together.

Where was he? Was he dead? He wanted to be, he yearned for it. The second that his life had been stolen from him, all he wanted to do was to die. It was what he deserved. What he was owed.

Instead, Orion was almost certain that he wasn't in Hell, despite the fountain of blood. Omni was no demon, and his speech didn't touch on the subject of eternal punishment and damnation. It was like this mischievous divine plucked him from his world and sucked him into this white nothingness. But why? To delay his end? To lengthen his suffering?

Orion looked at his clenched fist, shaking with rage and indignation. This cannot be his fate! He will not let it!

No! He wouldn't end like this! He was a saiyan, a warrior! The blood of his ancestors pulsed through his veins, the blood of a people who rose up and conquered a whole planet by themselves! Whoever this Omni was, whatever his sick and twisted game may be, Orion would hunt the gleeful sprite down and smear the contents of his skull across the ground!

He couldn't think straight. He didn't know where Omni was. He didn't know where he was. The anger filled his mind, pressed against the sides of his brain, engulfing everything.

Orion dropped to his knees, roared at the top of his lungs, and punched the glowing earth.

He froze, fist pressing against the ground, breath ragged. Enough sense penetrated his grief to make him realise he couldn't just moan and wail for eternity, but he knew he was in no condition to think rationally.

And so he waited on one knee, propped up on a fist, bleeding the excess fury from his mind. It wouldn't vanish entirely, but he needed a head clear enough to plot his next move.

But he already knew what that move would be.

Hunting Omni.

When it comes down to it, I just haven't been able to find a voice for Link. I've tried for two years, and the only real fun I have with him is with Ganondorf, and that's just not enough for my main. I've run into this problem about three times over the years, but always chose to persevere and see how I went, but now I know that Link (or any vision I seem to imagine) is not working for me. This is not a spur-of-the-moment change like my alts have been; I have thought this through.

I've spoken to Omni about making Link an NPC and he is fine with that.

Character name: Orion

Character source: Dragon Ball Z - Original Character (taken from DBZ, not the Chubbs alternate universe)

Character history:

Orion is a member of the saiyans, a powerful and ruthless warrior race. He was born on what was then Planet Plant, living in the rocky and barren wastelands while the other inhabitants, the Tuffles, enjoyed the many fruits of civilisation.

When Orion was twelve, the leader of the saiyans, Vegeta, led them in a war against the Tuffles to claim the planet for their own. While initially the saiyans were winning, despite their superior strength the Tuffles pushed them back with superior numbers and technology. However, a rare event took place on Planet Planet; a full moon. When the saiyans looked at it, they transformed into Oozarus, fifty foot apes with vaporising energy breath attacks.

Their newfound power was too much. The Oozaru army decimated the Tuffles in short time and claimed the planet for themselves, renaming it Planet Vegeta after their king.

Their freedom was short lived: a year later, Frieza, a galactic tyrant, came upon the warrior race and 'recruited' them into his army. In this new role, the saiyans invaded planets and wiped them clean of any resistance, so Frieza could sell these planets to other races for exorbitant sums.

Orion hated Frieza for the leash his race now wore, but couldn't do anything about it. The saiyans had won their planet, but so soon after their victory, they were slaves. For years he trained, sometimes intentionally bringing himself close to death during missions in order to boost his strength when he recovered. As the leader of a saiyan squadron, he proved why he belonged in the elite pantheon of his race, taking planet after planet, but it was all training for the day he would kill Frieza.

At twenty-eight, Orion and his squadron undertook a difficult mission to Serin. He heard that no one in Frieza's army had been successful at conquering the planet, and that provided the perfect opportunity to test his skills. However Orion's team failed and he almost died, having lost the left side of his skull in an explosion.

Orion was taken in secretly and experimented on. The lost brain and skull were replaced with a bio-technological computer; a NOVA unit. He was tested and prodded within an inch of his life, though he barely registered that he was alive. After three years, his surviving teammates of the failed assault on Serin found him, having previously thought he was dead, and rescued him.

Unfortunately, one of his rescuers was slain, and the other, badly injured, set a random course to escape the planet, but they didn't make it back to Planet Vegeta. Good thing too, because a few years later, Frieza destroyed it, and the vast majority of the saiyan race.

Orion and his ally Cabbis spent the next ten years on another planet. They had made their home there, until Orion's vision turned white and everything fell away ...

Physical Description:



Xiahou Dun - DW6

Orion is 6'3 and 110kgs. He wears black armour adorned with a silver plate that runs over his chest, along with fingerless gloves, metal bracers and flat pauldrons. A pair of mustard yellow pants are tucked into dark blue boots, and he wears a purple robe with golden trim and an elaborate design running down the sides, held together with a golden chain. He sports a moustache and goatee and wears an eyepatch over his left eye. Orion has a furry brown tail like all saiyans curled around his waist, hidden within his robe.

Stats:
ATK: 4
DEF: 3
SPD: 2
TEC: 2

Starting Proficiencies: Physical Prof (1000), Ranged Prof (1000), Area Attack Prof (600) (2600)

Starting Powers: Flight (1800), Enhanced Senses Master (2000), Master Acrobat (400), Burst Movement (800) (5000)

Starting Moves: Ki Blast (Ranged, Area Attack) (600):
The projection of Orion's ki in an explosive form. Generally, ki blasts are quickly produced, being a little larger than a baseball, and fired at opponents. On impact they explode, but are not very potent. Orion is capable of firing many blasts quickly, but extended use will tire him.

On the other hand, Orion can also charge the ki blasts to increase their size and strength. He can take up to ten seconds, wherein every second the ki ball expands 1.5x its previous size. When charged longer than five seconds, the ki blast will explode in a wider area, damaging anything in the radius.

Ki Beam (600) (Ranged, Area Attack)
Similar to Ki Blast, Ki Beam is a constant column of energy about three feet wide. Orion charges for two to three seconds and then launches the attack from either his hands, or in Oozaru form, his mouth. Orion can maintain the attack for about fifteen seconds, allowing him to put pressure on a target or engage in a defensive clash of powers.

Like Ki Blast, Orion can charge this attack, taking up to ten seconds to do so. Every second increases the width of the beam by 1.5x. When charged longer than five seconds, the ki beam will explode in a wider area, damaging anything in the radius.

Power-Ups: Oozaru (Tier 1 Powered Up Form) (1000)
ATK: 7
DEF: 5
SPD: 3
TEC: 1

Using the light of a full moon or his own False Moon energy ball, Orion succumbs to his saiyan ancestory and transforms into a fifty foot tall ape with glowing red eyes and the ability to shoot Ki Beams from his mouth. In this state his attack and defense increase significantly, while he loses some of his skill. However the Oozaru form is designed for overpowering a foe while being difficult to topple, and Orion rarely loses a fight when transformed.

Others: +1 ATK (1000)

Total Spent OM: 10,800
Available OM: 10,911.855 (see calcs below)

I confirm that I have read and agreed to the Rules of Conduct.

Current OM: 16823.71
-5000 (starting OM)
=11823.71
/2 (change character rule)
=5911.855
+5000 (starting OM)
=10911.855 (OM TO USE)

Hello! I'm Nealaphh! You know this!

uh...

Anyway, I was thinking about how authors (or writers, if you wanna be humble) all have their own quirks that truly identify their work as their own; both specialties and their personal writing vices. So I made this thread where people can self-examine and learn more about their own and other authors' styles. Just to compare. There's no specific amount you need to write; just be honest!

So...something like this!

-------

Name: Aaron W.
Characters: Nealaphh, Kopaka
Writing Experience: 13 years, Avocational



Is there an author that influences you?

Yes, though they wouldn't get along at a dinner table. Robert Heinlein, Howard Lovecraft, Alan Steele and Iaian Banks have all contributed to my written voice. They all have a penchant for realism and realistic dialogue. Three out of four of them also wrote female protagonists to a few novels! To me they embody dedication to immersion and the thrill of a a desperate struggle.

Is there a genre you emulate?

Not in particular. Strange Fiction definitely permeates my writing as Nealaphh, but otherwise I adapt my tone and themes to the situation and character.

What do you feel defines your work?

To me, the world is a harsh and unpredictable place, so when I'm writing I always try to make it seem that a situation can go from good to bad, or vice versa, at the drop of a hat. I adore action sequences, and I try to capture the sweaty sort of panic that accompanies such scenes. As such, I like to beat my characters up. Though they usually succeed initially, hubris and complacency often come back to bite them.

Attention to realism and detail is another thing I tend to focus on. Being of a scientific mind, I try to maintain awareness of my own written environment. If something doesn't seem like it would make sense, I don't rely on suspension of disbelief to hand wave the issue. I explain the hows and whys in the story, usually through a character's internal monologue, to make sure the read understands my own logic.

What are your five main rules when you write?

1. Describe everything. We all have powerful minds eyes, but the more effort you put into setting a scene, the easier it is for the reader to follow the ensuing action. Use all of the senses to describe it: Taste, Touch, Smell, Sound, Color, Luminosity, Feeling of Paranoia, etc.

2. Don't repeat words. Obviously, words used to pull sentences together such as 'is' or 'the' are hard to avoid, but I always try to make sure I use consistently different adjectives and nouns, at least within a paragraph, in order to bring depth to the description...even if I'm describing the same thing over and over.

3. Give your character an inner voice. This doesn't mean to write constant soliloquys, but short interjections such as 'Of course' or 'Dammit' can really help a read bond with a character.

4. Be clever! Life (and writing) is not a videogame. We don't have to follow specific patterns or push specific buttons to get specific results. If there's a problem to solve, don't force your character to solve it a certain way when you yourself can think of a better one.

5. Don't be academic. We aren't writing for our teachers here. It's fine to break the mold of proper formatting and sentence structure if it benefits the emotional impact of a scene. One of my favorite things to do is have a flow of dialogue without always saying who said what. This can't be done for long conversations, but for short exchanges, it brings a sense of realism.

Do you have any recurring issues you work on?

I hardly ever proof read anything, so my work tends to be rife with typos. This is only exacerbated when I'm on my phone.

Sometimes I also dwindle too long on certain scenes, and pad out things that might be interesting to me but not the average reader. In turn, I also occasionally gloss over things that should be explained more in detail.

Do you have a few posts you're particularly proud of?

Leviathan is born:
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Nealaphh kills its first dragon:
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Nealaphh dreams of past conquests:
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