Teenagers Suck (Worm CYOA)

[Mizuki_Stone]

Prologue: We are all but actors on a stage

Have you ever felt like your life isn't your own? Like you're stuck in a role you weren't meant to play?

Welcome to my life.

My name is Dwight Underwood. Or rather now it is. And I'm fresh into my sixteenth year of life... while remembering being in my mid twenties not too long ago somewhere else.

Yeah I know, sounds crazy right? Not crazy 'haha' but crazy in the 'you should get some counselling for that', which I would except that I can't talk about it.

And I don't mean that I can't talk about it because I'm afraid of something bad happening on my record I mean I literally cannot talk about it. I open my mouth to say something and just... nothing comes out. A secret locked inside my head I can't tell anyone.

Which is creepy as fuck.

But then again, capes are supposed to be messed up right?

Oh, right, capes. Capes are... well people in capes. Well not literally capes. Costumes. Superheroes and supervillians. Some of the costumes have capes but those fell out of favor early. Crazy people with superpowers basically. Those are a thing.

Annnnd I am one of them. Minus the costume part anyway. Though my powers are kind of lame in the 'super' department. I mean they look cool, but... Not really that practical in the face of stuff like handguns and things, but they certainly had some cool presentation to them.

I mean, everyone wanted to be a blaster. Well if they couldn't be an Alexandria Package anyway. Super strength, invulnerability and Flight were a hard mix to beat.

But on the other hand, my powers could grow with time. That was an edge few could boast. And magic types were rare, even if most ended up mocked if they openly called themselves that. Give me some time and I could get one of those 'top of the line' powers, maybe fake another one, and hit hard in my own way by developing what I had. Legend was just as cool as Alexandria after all.

...Here I am talking about coolness like I really was a teenager. Well I guess in terms of glands and stuff I was. Or was I just a teenager with a lot of information downloaded into my brain?

This was really messed up. For now all I could do is play my part.

I was definitely going to try and test out of school though at least, regardless of anything else. Winslow sucked.

Or maybe I should really think about joining the Wards? I mean that was the heroic thing to do right? But at the same time I had to seriously think on how I wanted to approach that. Being a hero sounded awesome but... would I really be able to do that sort of thing? Walk around in spandex shooting fiddly little lasers?

It seemed... smarter to level up a bit first. Spend more time thinking on my options and trying to get up to the level of something useful.

Or maybe I was just procrastinating because the idea of entering combat with weak powers scared me.

Then again that was just another thing to think about wasn't it?

Adjusting my backpack I continued my trek to the hell that was highschool. At least I'd have a few more minutes before the glory that was the American Educational system went too work doing its best to scrub any semblance of thought from my brain.

Spoiler

Worm: CYOA

SkitterMode

Powers:
Apprentice: DND Warlock Magic (Plus Archive) (-3)
Perks:
Man of Mystery (-1)
A Brighter future
For Want of a Nail (-1)

Disadvantages
Reincarnation (Uncontrolled) (+2)
Geas (Stay In Character) (+1)
Wildbow What's a Wildbow? (+2)

 

[Amberion]

Wow, with Wildbow, What's a Wildbow and Geas, he's not much more than a typical OC.

 

[CabooseNooo]

GOD DAMMIT MIZUKI!!!

*subscribes to yet ANOTHER thread*

 

[Kolarthecool]

Yeah, this seems like it might be a boring waste of time. Of couse that only applies if you know nothing of Mizuki and his works, looking forward to seeing where thiz goes

 

[Mr Trickman]

Wow, with Wildbow, What's a Wildbow and Geas, he's not much more than a typical OC.

Click to shrink...

He's a little more than a typical OC. If he has memories of another world and life then he knows this isn't his world, he knows this isn't his body, home, family, and he knows he can't talk about or tell anyone. Added with Wildbow he'll have no intimate knowledge of the world like us, and if he doesn't remember Worm he probably doesn't remember the CYOA. It adds a psychological aspect a lot of other CYOA fics don't usually have. How did I get here? Why am I here? We're did these powers come from? Looking forward to more!

 

[Mizuki_Stone]

I felt like going at it as one last approach. Namely by going full circle and approaching this from the level it started at.

Street level.

Also as Mr. Trickman pointed out one of the big underlining questions Mr. Underhill has here is... how the fuck did this happen? Exploring the mysteries of his powers, trying to figure out their nature, where the hell they came from, where he comes from, and if it was real or not.

Edit: To expand on the street level thing. The big thing here is that Dwight here is in the unique position of all my worm fics of being not being particularly powerful or willing/able to gain power quickly either. He's legit suited to the minor leagues.

 

[Vaermina]

Also as Mr. Trickman pointed out one of the big underlining questions Mr. Underhill has here is... how the fuck did this happen? Exploring the mysteries of his powers, trying to figure out their nature, where the hell they came from, where he comes from, and if it was real or not.

Click to shrink...

Couldn't Man of Mystery work against him finding out those things?

 

[Blade4]

So? Guessing could not get older version to work right so salvaged what you could and recycled?

 

[Mr Trickman]

I felt like going at it as one last approach. Namely by going full circle and approaching this from the level it started at.

Street level.

Also as Mr. Trickman pointed out one of the big underlining questions Mr. Underhill has here is... how the fuck did this happen? Exploring the mysteries of his powers, trying to figure out their nature, where the hell they came from, where he comes from, and if it was real or not.

Click to shrink...

I thought it was Underwood?

Couldn't Man of Mystery work against him finding out those things?

Click to shrink...

maybe and if he doesn't remember the CYOA like I think he'll have even more trouble. Poor guy...but this is Worm. At least depending on his Want of a Nail selection. Looking forward to that!

 

[Narf the Mouse]

Obligatory: No, Mizuki! Stahp!!!

Anyway, carry on.

 

[Duna]

another story?

 

[violetshadows]

another story?

Click to shrink...

You...don't know him very well, do you?

 

[Cherico]

it is not humanly possible to write this many stories

 

[Lalzparty]

Really. -_-

As I have said in your profile, may you finish a story this year.

Even though this year is like half way already over.

Have you ever thought of doing a one shot?

 

[al103]

Huh... This actually managed to ping me the way Shotaquest and Forgetting The Time did. Well, at least for now.

 

[ej190]

Mizuki, get a fox, no, a whole family, to live in your head. Them plotbunnies multiply like nothing i've ever seen.
Maybe invite Kurama to do some spring cleaning up there?

 

[Jet Long]

Is the For Want Of A Nail Scion related, like your other story?

 

[Brellin]

..Is there a reason for having three separate stories basically all about having the exact same power set? I mean I get it, it's supposed to be about contrast, but literally none of the stories so far have progressed far enough to actually have anything to contrast against. Like Lalzparty said, have you ever considered just, I dunno, making one shot stories instead of these huge multi-faceted stories that will inevitably never progress beyond their initial stage?

I ask because when you first started writing stories, especially the ones about that one shadow dragon SI that found itself in F/SN, I was really engaged with your stories. And then as time progressed it seemed like every week something different would get written that would, inevitably, never get finished in favor of some new project that would itself inevitably never get finished, ad nauseam. It's gotten so bad that I almost consider it a chore to click on story threads you make, because I know I'll end up reading (usually at best) a few chapters about an interesting idea that you will quickly abandon.

I know this isn't a terribly kosher thing to say, considering you're not being paid for writing stories and whatnot, but would it kill you to just focus on one or two stories and actually finish them?

 

[Mizuki_Stone]

Chapter 1: Setting the Stage
Part 1

To call Winslow a hellhole was an insult to hellholes everywhere. I'd known it was bad before getting powers, but now I actually had some basis for comparison.

The building itself wasn't in great shape, it wasn't exactly 'half a step from condemned', but it was understating things to say some of the rooms could use a coat of paint and the library held the firm and rustic smell of mildew to it like water in a sponge. The equipment wasn't exactly great either, the chairs were uncomfortable, the PA crackled, the textbooks were a decade old in the better cases, and the computers were old enough that they didn't need to worry about the gangs stealing them.

Actually now in hindsight, that last one might actually have been deliberate.

But those weren't the real problem.

No the real problem was the gangs.

Brockton Bay, among its many other notable titles, was the neo Nazi capital of the US. It wasn't bad enough that I could expect to see someone walking down the hallway with a red arm band but I wouldn't really be surprised by it.

Not that they would. Shaved heads, and 'subtle' display of the number eighty eight was one thing. Flying colors that blatant on the other hand was just asking someone to bust a cap in your ass. Probably by someone wearing a dragon.

It's funny, you'd think an organization the Empire Eighty Eight (said neo Nazis) would all but own this town. They had like a dozen supervillians, money, borderline military level munitions and resources. Once you added it all together, the local Protectorate were just plain out numbered and out muscled, even if you factored in independent heroes like New Wave helping them.

And honestly they would. It's a freaking terrifying thought. Particularly for someone who could remember listening to horror stories about the original flavor of Nazis, but by all rights Kaiser, leader of the Empire Eighty Eight should have taken over at this point.

But he didn't.

Because there was a scarier monster in town.

Lung was everything the Empire was and worse. He was one man. One cape. And he basically walked into town, picked out a spot he liked and said that it was his now.

And whenever someone objected he crushed them like a bug. Normal person, cop, soldier, superhuman, team of superhumans, it didn't matter. He just... walked in one day, picked a fight with the entire local Protectorate and sent them running. He did the same to the empire, and to everyone else stupid enough to face him.

And then he claimed his spot, and ruled it like a tyrant.

The Azn Bad Boyz better known as the ABB. A paradoxical pan-Asian supremacist gang, that gave no care about the wildly diverging and often traditionally conflicting cultures scooped up under the term 'Asian' ruled by a freaking dragon.

Drugs, protection rackets, kidnapping and exportation, outright human trafficking... they did it all, and not a single person alive could stop it. The most the government and its affiliate heroes could do was stake out hunks of turf that they wouldn't budge on. Certain rules that they abided by.

It was probably those exact rules that were the only reason a place like Winslow could still stand with members of both gangs openly operating inside with anything resembling peace and order.

Scary shit huh?

Even two days ago the best I could do was hunker down, keep quiet and hope to whatever gods might be listening that no one drew their attention towards me.

But now... now I had power. Not a lot of it, but...

Was this what it felt like to own a gun maybe? The heady feeling of being able to fight back, to know that if someone went after you that you didn't just have to stand there and take it.

Not that fighting would get me far. My powers sucked. If I fought back openly that'd just get attention that would crush me like a bug. At least with what powers I currently had available. All that aside if I just busted out the arcane asskicking bullshit on a hares breath then how was I different from the gangs in the first place?

But... maybe with some practice that could change? I was already one link higher on the food chain. If I just kept climbing higher then eventually I might be able to make a real difference. With great power comes great responsibility and all that right?

I had to figure out how to strike a good balance. Find some point between where I could live with myself and just plain live.

The bell rang.

I blinked.

Of course that could wait until after class!

 

[Beyogi]

Well... I think that is the most horrible thing about this. Having to go to class in highschool again. So fucking horribly boring.

 

[Nervaqus987]

You seem to be on something of a Warlock kick recently, Mizuki.

Also, I kinda have to agree with Brellin.

You're writing for yourself and deciding to share it with the rest of us, for which I'm grateful. That said, the way you keep bouncing off to one new idea after the other makes......kinda hard to get invested. Particularly with your most recent stories, this one, Wanna Make a Deal, and The World is Saved, all of which seem like variations on the same concept. I get that it's supposed to be part of the point of them and that's supposed to change, but for now they all feel pretty much the same with a different coat of paint.

Compare that to some of your other stuff, Undeserving Legacy, Forgetting the Time, Campfire Stories, I Didn't Ask for This, Origns Rewritten, etc. Those all have distinct stories and distinct tones. Even though they're all SIs, each one still feels different in a way that I can pick out.

Malfean has a mixture of a sort of relaxed confidence mixed with a sense of regret and feelings that someone else could have better benefited from the power he now has which combine into a work ethic to keep going so he doesn't have to dwell on it.

Meggido now that he has his feet under him somewhat is developing into a fast talking trader, gathering power and influence, trying to work out what happened, how to fix it, how to stay alive, and how to do good while he's at it.

Aku is still developing, but so far he's turning into someone with enough of a grasp of where he stands on totem pole to be able to leverage it to bluff like hell when he needs it.

Lancer has a sort of reckless, fascinated, glee in what he's become mixed with a desire to protect those around him along with a sense of defiance towards the overwhelmingly fuck huge odds he sees against him.

Charis is the first one to be a riff on an old concept, yet he feels distinctly different from Lev. He's not quite as comfortable with what he is as Lev is, but at the same time is more open about it. The contrast between his human and draconic mindsets comes together to form a relatable, but inhuman mindset.

The recent Warlock ones are.....sort of generic.

Again, I'm grateful for the writing you do and share with us, but I'm offering my two cents.

 

[Mizuki_Stone]

I was originally going to go with a Dragonfire Adept for this one actually. Would have had a neat little sub-plot in how the abilities are somewhat reminiscent of Lung. Not anywhere near identical, but both have the 'dragon man' thing going on.

But well, that wasn't an option on the CYOA. So I flipped a coin to see where it fell, and it came up warlock.

Honestly, the only reason I went with Warlock was that it was less paperwork to keep track of stuff. That I'd already done a warlock in Worm was one of the biggest reasons I had against using one.

But I wanted to explore Worm from the street level. Explore things with someone who was a genuine little fish in this messed up pond. Who didn't have huge advantages like massive metaknowlage, limitless money to throw at problems, immense personal power, or some of the world's most powerful Thinker's backing their ascension to power. Underwood was my answer.

Basically it's not about the character. What powers they have exactly don't really matter. It's the situation and the struggle that interest me as a writer, and I hope in time for you as readers.

 

[Cytokinesis]

Honestly I don't care about the specifics, it's all fun, but in general people seem to be saying the problem is with the erratic updates.

Again we have no real say in what you write other than to comment on how engaging it is to the reader.

For example you asked a little while ago in the Origins Rewritten thread why people weren't commenting. The reason for that can probably be explained by not having really moved the story forward meaningfully in a while, so people just don't gather up the enthusiasm.

I love your stuff and I'm happy to be getting anything at all so I don't think we have room to complain, but if you want more audience participation you should really pick a few stories and stick to them for a while.

 

[Brellin]

Right. But the problem with that is that is basically the exact same premise as the other two, near virtually identical, stories about the exact same thing that you've already started.

One of your other big problems, as I see it, is that you tend to get bogged down in the minutiae of stories and never really go anywhere with them. Most of your stories end up going on for months (sometimes years) of real time but end up describing events that might take place over the course of a few short *days* in story. Shit gets so bogged down in the day-to-day stuff that nothing ever ends up progressing anywhere, or stuff ends up progressing so fast that readers have to seriously strain their SoD that such rapid changes could be happening over the course of what, in story, tends to be a few days/weeks at best.

edit- There's also problem with what might be best described as 'selling a product that isn't what it says it is'. Several of your current stories (or at least I think they're still current, I've no idea if you stopped writing them) for example have tags like 'multiverse-hopping' or something equivalent *in their title* to hint at what readers can expect .. and then the stories literally never involve anything of the sort. Undeserving Legacy is a prime example, as is that one Touhou story. In fact the only ones that I can say for certain deliver on that particular tag-line are Forgetting the Time and that one where the SI is a planeswalker that largely hangs around in Spira (the world from FFX).

 

[Mizuki_Stone]

You know, I get what you're saying, I really do, but here is the problem.

You ask 'Can't you just focus on one project?' The answer is... No. No I cannot.

I've actually said this before. Repeatedly, to many of the same people crying out about this exact same issue. This is basically the thing. I write when the mood takes me, mostly as a hobby to relax, or just as something to have fun with. My head has a lot of ideas in it, so I write a lot of stuff, but it is at the end of the day, just about relaxing and having a good time for me.

And frankly if I'm not writing something that my mood has stricken me on, that doesn't mean I'll be writing something else. Instead my interest will poke me to go do other things. So if I wasn't writing, say, I Didn't Ask For This, a story taking place in the game Devil May Cry, I'd probably actually be playing one of the games about Devil May Cry. If I wasn't writing Campfire Stories I'd be continuing my search for a D&D group in my area (which, let me tell you, is like trying to find a needle in a pile of twigs that may or may not conain any s siuch item in the first place).

So you guys get a lot of little stuff, or a tiny, tiny trickle of the same stuff. Those are your options. Me cutting off writing other things will not make me write the thing you want any faster.

Sometimes I get lucky and really catch on a role in a story, in which case I can cover a lot of ground fast. This most often starts with new stories, but happens on occasion with older ones as well.

Likewise I can force myself to write stuff, but that sharply decreases the fun I have with it, enough that those alternate to writing activities jump up in priority as I honestly only have so much free time a day to be doing such stuff. So unless someone starts paying me to write stuff, that's just not happening.

Sorry, but that's how it goes.