AsheJunius

Chapter18 will be up at 12pm EST today.
          	
          	There will be one more chapter after that, and that is the conclusion to Act 1. Afterwards, I need to take a break.

AsheJunius

Chapter 18 of Duality Striker will be posted later than usual. Instead of 10:00 AM tomorrow, it should be done over the weekend. Sorry for the delay.
          
          After that will be the conclusion to Act 1. Once Act 1 ends, I'll be going on hiatus for a few weeks as I catch up on a lot of things IRL while outlining the events of Act 2.
          
          As some of you might know, I draw quite a bit of inspiration from the Final Fantasy series, sprinkled with the occasional FGC reference.
          
          Our heroes have already vanquished two of the fiends, Valis Barbariccia and Justinio Cagnazzo. Those familiar with the source would know that there are Four Fiends. What would this story's version of Scarmiglione and Rubicante look like? Stay tuned!

AsheJunius

So a bit of news for the second Revelers book:
          
          * The next book focuses on Mathilde — two versions of her. The real-life version of her that Ari knows as her sister, and an alternate version whom Ari confronts while in the Dream.
          
          * I finished the Prologue and the first 4 chapters. I'll establish a weekly release  once I finish one more chapter.
          
          * I have yet to get a cover done with it. The story might have a temporary image until I can get an official one from my artist. Artists are expensive, and I really don't want to use AI.
          
          * Much of it will draw inspiration from Final Fantasy, especially the Eikons summoned by Samza and some locations and characters. However, Samza's version of the same Eikons might draw inspiration from elsewhere. Samza explains this to another summoner when she confronts one in the Dream. So in some ways, it's like a Final Fantasy fan-fiction, but isn't.
          
          * Speaking of Fantasy, while the first book was more Sci-Fi with Fantasy elements, the second book will be more Fantasy with some Sci-Fi elements.
          
          * I have up to the end of Act 2 outlined but I find a lot of stuff changes course when I'm actually writing the story. For example, I outlined a boss encounter for the beginning, but ended up changing it when I wrote the chapter.
          
          * While the first Revelers book had two chapters per week, this one will only have one per week. The flip side to this is that the chapters will be longer (about 4~5k words). There might be exceptions to this if I end up writing a half-chapter. Half-chapters will be because I'll have to shift PoVs mid-chapter.
          
          * Just like the first book, this will also have multi-PoVs, but I don't intend to get too wild with it. The primary narrators are Ari and the two versions of Mathilde.
          
          * While I have written the first book for YA audiences in mind, the second book may contain scenes and situations that could be considered "New Adult" in nature. It also has more profanity -- Samza is not the only character dropping the F-bomb.

AsheJunius

I removed the header banners from all the chapters of The Revelers for the time being. 
          
          The reason — since those images were made using AI, I'd like to wait on further guidance regarding their use from the ongoing court cases involving AI. I'd also keep an eye on Wattpad's terms of services of an updates regarding AI. 
          
          Since I want to enter The Revelers into The Wattys this year, I'd like to err on the side of caution regarding AI and not include them. If Wattpad makes some clear-cut policies in their ToS regarding the use of AI-generated images in our stories, then I can act accordingly.
          
          AI is a brilliant technology, but the ethics behind it have come under scrutiny. Plus, raw AI-generated images are not eligible for copyright unless the artist has done a significant amount of human authorship to change the image. How anyone can legally quantify that is anyone's guess, but I'm not taking any chances for now.
          
          So for now, it is what it is.
          
          In the meantime, if you want to look at some art made by humans, I'd like to give a shout-out to these people:
          
          * Angel Lewis: https://twitter.com/A4_Art_Stuff ... Angel made the PFP I use on most of my social media accounts.
          
          * Livia Narna: https://twitter.com/ArtByNarna ... Livia made me Discord/Twitch emotes of Ari, which I'll eventually use when I stream again.
          
          * Anne Luc: https://twitter.com/luc_opens ... Anne made the artwork featured on the cover of The Revelers. A wonderful piece and well worth it!

AsheJunius

Chapter 38 and 39 are up!
          
          Ari takes her time to visit someone she hasn't seen since childhood. Meanwhile, Samza prepares to make some noise!
          
          38: https://www.wattpad.com/1344553755-the-revelers-serial-1-act-3-chapter-38-ari
          
          39: https://www.wattpad.com/1345850915-the-revelers-serial-1-act-3-chapter-39-samza
          
          Also, with The Wattys around the corner, I'll be looking to enter The Revelers when the submission window opens. Checking on the release schedule for the remaining chapters, it looks like the story will enter Completed status by then. I'm excited about it and I wish the best of luck to all participants.

AsheJunius

Chapter 36 and 37 of The Revelers are up!
          
          Also, some good news! I have commissioned an artist to come up with a new cover for The Revelers. 
          
          In case some of you don't know, the current cover right now is AI-generated. I did not intend it to be the final cover — it's a placeholder. It was something I cobbled up overnight prior to releasing the first chapter of the book months ago.
          
          However, that will change in a couple weeks when I receive the final cover image from an actual human artist. I checked out their portfolio prior to commissioning, and they make some really awesome work, so I have high expectations of it.
          
          As for the banner images on top of every chapter, I'm not sure what do with them yet. Maybe I'll replace them with sketches or something.