Shortfictionary

I hope that you find something here on this blog that entertains or intrigues you.

A list of links to help navigate topics of interest:

Dialogue Prompts (One to two sentence dialogue pieces to inspire or be used in a project)

Commentary (Both my own and those of others)

Fanfiction (Snippets, short stories, drabbles, and fandom worldbuilding)

Story Ideas (Concepts and premises that interest or intrigue me)

Original Writing (Shorts, snippets, stories not based on or inspired by an existing IP)

The Virtue Continuum

1: Integrity: (definition) firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: incorruptibility.

This Virtue is designed to show that your character has a framework of laws and morals that they govern themselves with and exemplify via their actions. Thusly, when this virtue is taken to the extreme via Legalism, your character refuses to change, seeking to engage in extreme observance and conformity to the exact letter of the law over its spirit. Conversely, being deficient in integrity makes your character susceptible to Corruption, either weaponising the framework to control a population or enriching yourself at the expense of others.

2: Discernment: (definition) the ability to see and understand people, things, or situations clearly and intelligently.

This Virtue is designed to show that your character has the experience and capacity to read the room, identify motives, and discern people's exact intentions with a sharp, clear mind. Judgmentalism takes this Virtue to the extreme by focusing on and emphasising extreme scrutiny, heavy accusations and extreme uncharitability based on your character's own personal or moral standards. Foolishness would be when your character/s are operating in an extremely naive, simple way, overly trusting, and entirely too easy to swindle or manipulate.

3: Love: (definition) affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests or warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion.

Love is a powerful Virtue that governs and guides the dynamics and relationships of your characters in your stories. Without Love, there are no daring escapes, fated reunions, or anguish at the loss of a loved one within a tragedy. The extremity of Love is Enabling/Enablement, where a character will bend over backward, handwaving, excusing, over-extending themselves to protect the enabled character from ever facing any kind of consequence. Whereas Selfishness is the complete absence of Love, where your character is cold, manipulative and driven exclusively by self-interest to the extreme disregard of others in all of their relationships.

4: Respect: (definition) a feeling or understanding that someone or something is important, serious, etc., and deserves appropriate treatment or regard

Respect is a Virtue often conveyed through the care and trust your characters will give one another in certain scenes or moments. Like a character respecting the talents of a wizened healer after they saved their lives, or the admiration and consideration two lifelong friends have for one another and their achievements. Idolatry is when admiration or a sense of how important someone or something becomes an overwhelming drive for your characters; everything they do would be to venerate a person, place, or object they value as greater than themselves. Whereas Disregard isn't even perceiving those people, places, or things as worthy of notice, to view that person, place, or thing as utterly without purpose or value.

5: Humility: (definition) freedom from pride or arrogance. The quality or state of being humble

Humility is very much a Virtue designed for more socially oriented characters. A state wherein your character needs to maintain a sense of measure to ensure they never overplay their hand or throw themselves into a conflict they're ill-equipped to handle. Degradation is an inflated and damaging extreme of this virtue, as it leads to your character viewing themselves, their talents, and all of their achievements as worthless and that they are a strain on everyone else because of how pathetic they are. The other extreme, lies Pride, wherein your character may view themselves as the centre of the universe, that everything they do is amazing and that nothing they scheme up could or would ever go wrong

6: Diligence: (definition) steady, earnest, and energetic effort: persistent and careful hard work

Diligence is a Virtue all about ensuring that everything goes according to plan by doing everything right, cleanly, and quickly. Any act or labour, job or task your character needs to do that is dangerous or requires planning is definitely the place where you would want your character to be at his most diligent, careful, and prepared. The excessive extreme is Workaholism, the practice and drive to obsessively overextend, overwork, and stress your character over every avenue and action they've taken to achieve their goal. The inverse of the Virtue is Slothfulness, complete indifference and apathetic indifference to the labour, action, mission or to the resolution of the aforementioned work.

7: Temperance: (definition) moderation in action, thought, or feeling : restraint

Temperance is the Virtue of measured control. It is the way of structuring your responses to be even-handed and to avoid allowing outside influences to affect you. Specifically in avoiding short-sighted or irrational responses to major changes/events. Strictness is Temperance to an extreme degree, it is a natural state when experiencing Judgementalism, sticking to a routine of intense discipline and narrow scope to keep a sense of control via stress and implied/real punishment for failure. Whereas Licentiousness is the complete and total abandonment of restraint and Temperance of a person. Their morals are eroded due to prioritising their hedonistic desires or as an extension of moral or legal Corruption. Everything means nothing unless it serves the licentious figure and their desires.

8: Courage: (definition) mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty

I am excited for the release of the new SF 6 DLC characters (Arjun, Bosch, and Yasmine). But it feels like they added a lot of new plot-line/plot-line forwarding characters all at once and they feel kinda lopsided. So I am just here chewing on the idea of certain characters who could have/could be DLC-worthy in the future

Carlos Miyamoto: He has a unique design and fighting style. The fact we can't play as him or at least learn techniques from him seems odd. He is a person who venerates Mayor Haggar and operates as a Private Investigator, which can lead to him focusing on the M. Bison Shadaloo faction or the strange S.I.R.N stuff going on in Metro City

R.O.B.B.I.E: I mean, this could arguably be dismissed as just a simple, "This would be a repeat of Seth". But seeing as R.O.B.B.I.E is constantly improving and developing (and exists beyond his creator's control and design), it wouldn't be hard to assume R.O.B.B.I.E would develop inspired moves/supers based on fighter data uploaded into him

Watcher: This is a deep cut and probably never going to happen. Watcher is an NPC atop the rooftops of Metro City dressed as a superhero. You could have him be a Joke character whose moves are all references to a Capcom Game. He is someone who was inspired by videogames, comic books and Haggar to be a hero

Rudra: Rudra is the leader of the Crows and a former Student of Dhalsim's. I think, seeing that he is Nayshallan who seems less spiritually inclined than his master and is seeking out power to ensure that his family (the Crows) are safe and protected. His ending with Chandi in SF6 leads me to think me may come back either as an NPC or a Playable Character. His style would be faster and harsher than Dhalsim's trading zoning melee for mid-range control and increasing the damage but shortening the range of his yoga flame attacks. He could also be a very strong parallel and commentary on his view of JP, Nayshall, Bosch, Kalima and the Resistance

Chandi: See above but also because it would seem more out of place to just have Rudra and not him and his second-in-command as well

Thrasher Damnd: With S.I.R.N's experiments in cyber fighters (and them having a pet M Bison in the Basement) and the MadGear gang being associated (tangentially) to the unfolding plot with Shadaloo and JP, I can imagine Thrasher deciding that there are too many cooks with their eyes and hands on Metro City. So he is deciding to move to remove these threats creeping into HIS city. He'll deal with Cody and Haggar's memory later after Shadaloo and S.I.R.N's plots are duely foiled

Tropes

Starry-eyed lead: Eager, brimming with hope, joy, or optimism; seemingly unaware of the realities of action, adventure, or the threats lying in wait for them. There are siblings to this trope (Hot-headed lead, Stoic lead, and Oblivious lead)

Power System: a unique system (or systems) that can vary in complexity (Soft-Hard) that fuel the abilities and powers of the characters. Examples being Bending from Avatar as a semi-soft power system (requiring bender physical stamina as well as for the Bender to train their mind/emotions/spirit to deepen their power) to Nen a Hard System (Cost/investment is made abundantly clear as well as how each Hatsu is designed and tailored to each person).

Power-Ups: Every Shounen has a power-up moment or a place wherein the power system is changed or expanded (often times to prevent the Protagonist from overpowering everyone). This requires extreme balance and precision lest it dip deep into Power Creep really, really fast.

Eccentric Mentor: Either as the Protagonist's beginning teacher or as a master with the Your Story's Power System to deepen their understanding or awaken new powers (Power-Up) at a later stage of the story.

Foil: a character (usually a member of the main cast) that acts as a contrast to the protagonist and challenges them (in multiple ways) throughout the story. Examples being Vegeta, Sasuke Uchiha, Megumi Fushiguro, Uryuu Ishida.

Call to Adventure: An incredibly simple and basic trope. Merely have the Protagonist who yearns for more and decides either through their own actions, a Window of opportunity, or through an Eccentric Mentor, to pursue their goal of attaining more. Gon and Killua are great examples of this trope.

Trappings

Power of Friendship: either via teamwork, support, or an emotional moment leading to a Power-Up; the Protagonist snatches victory from the jaws of defeat thanks to the relationships and connections they forged on their journey.

Rival Good Guy: Foil. Sometimes they can start as a fellow good guy, go bad and become good again, other times, they start as a bad guy and become good after encountering the Protagonist.

Tournament Arc: this is a pressurised event with an easy-to-follow structure that allows you to show off the Power System to the Protagonist/reader, show off the Protagonist's Power-Up, or show how powerful the other characters/rivals/villains of your story are. They also tend to be good place to showcase character's personalities or drives.

Transformations: A Power-Up that causes a physical change or alteration to the user. Oftentimes, it can be minor like an increase in muscle and subtle changes (Super Sayain) or be an extreme change, opening new avenues and approaches to combat (literally any Freiza transformation)

Peanut Gallery/Internal Monologue: these two are here because they're basically the same thing. Effectively it is just reflections, shock, or commentary on the flow of a fight. Motobe from Baki is the perfect example of a Peanut Gallery with his commentary and remarks on fights during the Maxim Tournament Arc. Internal Monologue is simply just the Peanut Gallery but inside the head of the fighter. Kengan Ashura or Star! Strike It Rich or Kenichi History's Strongest Disciple are good examples of both Peanut Gallery & Internal Monologue

Redemptive Power of an Ass-Beating: When the Protagonist beats a guy and in turn, the defeated villain slowly begins to change his ways and becoming a good guy or at least an Anti-heroic character. Often this character will be a Foil and a Rival Good Guy of the story. Examples beinh Vegeta and Gajeel.

Flaws

Power Creep: This is when a Power System has received one too many Power-Ups to the point you are now struggling to write creative and engaging fights without them devolving to beam clashing slap fights.

Rule of Cool: Not necessarily a major flaw (if done correctly), but heavily relying on intense, over-the-top action can rob any sense of logic or understanding from the Power System. All flash no substance.

Over-Powered Protagonist: depending on the story, this can be a major flaw. As it robs a lot of weight from action scenes or stakes as nothing can thwart the main character. However, comedy/satire can use this flaw as a selling point. Often contrasting the main character against others and with an intense focus on character-driven tension and personal stakes. Mob Psycho 100, Mashle, and Onepunchman are great examples of effectively utilising this flaw as a selling point.

Overlooked, underutilised, and Wasted Female Characters: Shounen is a very action and "Guy-focused" genre, which means that more often than not, if a mangaka/writer doesn't put in an effort to flesh out, develop and utilise their female cast that they'll effectively just... fade into the background or be pressed into cloche, pre-approved boxes (Videl going from a hero of a city, working with spec ops forces to becoming a SAHM)

Talk-No-Jutsu: A unique deviation of the Redemption by Ass-Beating. Instead of the bad guy receiving his comeuppance and growing, the Protagonist just talks to them mid-fight and, through the act of talking, beats the character. The best example of this is Naruto. With him changing the heart of the mercenary assassin Zabuza and callous, emotionally dead terrorist Nagato with just words alone.

The similarities and differences between overlapping genres

This is a short think piece on these three genres (as well as the sub-genre of Isekai-Light/Adjacent fiction). Mostly because when you look at the works that cover the three genres, there is a lot of heavy crossover over narrative conventions, structure, and structural mechanisms. With the most immediate and identifiable aspect being a change of state. Through some way or form, the protagonist is shifted from reality and into another, though this process may not necessarily push them into a totally different reality at all (such as with Dungeon Crawler Carl and the Hideous Strength Triology) the state is changed due to a revelation of new truths. Though it is typical (especially in Isekai) for the protagonist to be summoned, stumble, be stolen away to, or otherwise die and reincarnate within this new reality.

This varying by degrees continues throughout the genres. Portal Fantasy tends to exist the furthest away from the others due to the genre lacking the "gamified" aspects, conventions, and mechanisms of the others. Despite it having the connection with accidental/intentionally transportation (Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland) and/or being taken against one's will (Hideous Strength Triology, Keys to the Kingdom Septology), the genre tends to focus on moral lessons, exploration, and returning back to the mundane a changed and more aware person. While Portal Fantasy is the odd duck out, it often times connects with Isekai-Light and/or Adjacent stories/settings. As in settings like Goblin Slayer or DanMachi, while there is a focus on "gamified" aspects, they aren't nearly as central and as defining as when they're used in LitRPGs or property Isekai.

Some may present that an Isekai-Light setting or story is merely an Isekai that cut past the ordinary, mundane life and the (nominally) death and ressurection of the protagonist. But because there isn't a world before this one, the protagonist's development and success are squarely determined by their values, ideals, actions, flaws, and talents. This aspect, ironically, acts as a secondary tether between the genres Isekai-Light and Portal Fantasy. As Isekai tends to utilise mechanisms or narrative plot devices derived from a defining moment or aspect of the protagonist's life, philosophy, death, or ressurection during their time in the fantasy world. Whereas there are no such mechanisms in the world of Isekai-Light stories. But both genres do have a tendency to have overpowered protagonists either due to a genre convention, receiving a potent boon during reincarnation, or taking a modern-day item with them to the fantasy world.

Isekai is the catch-all genre for any and all fantastical "Sent to/taken/transported to another world" settings and stories. If you want the game systems to matter, you make them a firm and consistent focus. Log Horizon handles the usage, utility, and complications of the world's game mechanisms well. Overlord does it too, but the paths taken are in a slightly different direction and tone (seeing as the protagonist is extremely overlevelled and in charge of a guild full of high powered horrors. These tonal changes in how the game systems work is understandable). It is from the mould of the Isekai that we get Isekai-Light/Adjacent stories, so it does give rise to the mutable and derivable nature of the genre. Though, and this could very well be just my lack of greater engagement, I think outside of Log Horizon, Overlord, and SAO; most Isekai are predominantly fantasy settings. Though that may also be due to the fact that trying to take the Isekai tropes, mechanisms, and conventions and place them in a Sci-Fi setting may be difficult.

(Just an idea)

Considering Clark Kent's upbringing and home state (Smallville, Kansas) and raised by a set of aging parents, it really isn't beyond the pale to imagine Clark as a practising Christian. In a vein sort of similar to Marvel's Daredevil (Yet at the same time starkly different), I can imagine Clark's relationship with his faith, his being and heritage, as well as how the world views him would deeply and powerfully affect him.

Like, there are, of course, the INCREDIBLY on your nose jesus/messiah/saviour allusions and affections, as well as the damnations/projections/curses constantly levied and heaped upon his shoulders. Since Superman appeared, both groups of people have come to different conclusions about the same stimuli, and more and more dangerous supervillains and crazy events have occurred. Splitting the population into two groups, one that praises Superman as a modern-day messiah and the other that views him as either the engineer of these terrible events or as one whose mere existence attracts these terrors to him.

Leaving Superman (and Clark Kent) to grapple and wrestle with the dilemma of passively allowing a cult of personality and Modernistic idol worship of himself to occur, or to retreat from being a hero and staying his hand and allowing terrible things to happen that he could stop.

I can just see him either in his apartment or in a weathered church in Smallville, talking to a pastor or a bishop in full costume, just trying to navigate avoiding indulging and/or accidentally continuing to form a cult that worships him while dealing with the accountability and responsibility of being a protector of millions to billions of people every day. Walking the fine line of selfless action and tender charity without becoming biased, prejudiced, or clouded by ego, desire, or yearning that could corrupt his faith or the faith of others.