An ominous and thrilling announcement · 11:53pm Dec 18th, 2022
It's apparent I like adverb-comedy, but my first writing love has always been something a bit different: the murder mystery. Hell, here's an absolutely true fact about me: I partly learned to read with this delightful book one of my older siblings had lying around. (This may start to explain other things about me, too, come to think of it...)
I love the way they're like puzzles, how savvy readers need to use both their intuitive genre-informed meta-knowledge and close attention to text details to solve them. I love how they allow you to bring in the ludicrous and implausible are welcomed as long as it makes the game more fun. I love that they're perspective-taking challenges: you have to figure out how to lead people to the right answer without giving it away.
Y'all know Dewdrops on the Grass, right? Deservedly popular writer, got some killer one-shots but specializes in epics? Two years ago, she (dew)dropped a story I was pretty darn into: Danganronpa: In Harmony's Wake. She turned out to be a fan of stuff I had written, so we got to talking.
And well, I couldn't help myself. I proposed working together on a sequel.
Y'all.
It'll be starting this New Years Eve, up on Dewdrops's account. And it's gonna be a doozy.
Yeah, it's also a Danganronpa fanfic, but no knowledge of those games is necessary. It's mostly a framework for dropping our beloved MLP characters into a harrowing situation and serving up some murder mysteries. And it is a sequel, but Dewdrops will be writing a cliffs notes of the original In Harmony's Wake to catch anyone up who wants to jump in halfway. That said, I encourage anyone to read the original; it's a helluva wild ride.
Oh, and here's the story Dewdrops saw which led to our connection. See, I wrote a Danganronpa fic myself, and I realize I never hyped it up, here. So if you're into this sort of thing, I'm pretty darn proud of it (mysteries 2, 4, and 5 are the best, if you ask me): New Hope University: Major In Murder.
Yo, no way! I've read a few of Dewdrops' stories before and enjoyed them, but now I'm gonna have to read this one in preparation!
Ahh, thank you, JCarp, for announcing the story. Yes, I do intend to get those cliff notes written and soon. Been working out the best way to format them, you see.
(That, and many other things. It has been quite the busy month.)
That said, like JCarp I do encourage reading the first one. Cliff notes are all well and good, but there are nuances that may be missed otherwise, and I am quite proud of the story on the whole.
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That said, like JCarp I do encourage reading the first one. Cliff notes are all well and good, but there are nuances that may be missed otherwise, and I am quite proud of the story on the whole.
Can't reiterate enough!
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Ok, I just finished In Harmony's Wake, and I have to say, bravo. It was about as perfect as I could reasonably expect a crossover fic with Danganronpa to be.
That said, and this is for both of you, if you have time, you need to check out AI: the Somnium Files. In terms of murder mystery games, it and the sequel blow Danganronpa out of the water in basically every aspect:
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I played the first one (and pleeaaaase no spoiiiileerrrsss about the second) and thought it was MOSTLY excellent. Making the hero a pervert was a very bad choice, but the central relationships were great and the emotional payoffs totally earned.
I thought the central mystery was too dependent on the villain having magic evil convenience powers, being able to incapacitate anyone at any time and impersonate anyone perfectly... and it was disappointing they had this intriguing technology but the plot hinged around the bad guy using it exactly the same way over and over. The best Danganronpa mysteries are better. But in terms of tone and character relationships, yeah, AI told one of the best compact little stories I've run into in a long time.
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Fair enough, not everybody vibes with the type of crude humor Date brings. Good news for you regarding the sequel, though: Date is a minor supporting character there, with Mizuki and the new guy Ryuki taking over. Though you probably already knew that from the trailers.