note: i haven't yapped like this in awhile, have i? another note: i'm sorry i talk in this boring, monotonous, college-professor tone. for anyone who has trouble following, i'll be glad to explain it all to you. otherworldly odyssey is peak. to anyone who challenges this statement, we aren't friends anymore (joking) for context, otherworldly odyssey is a series (fanfiction?) created by @scorchingpheonix7293. basically what he did was take an oc of mine, nova, and then he gave them: a confirmed gender, a younger sister, and an unceremonious end at the hands of an underground train accident. ten years later, niko, (the sister and the only surviving member of her and nova's family) finds a usb, receives a message alleging that nova is alive but in serious danger, and goes off on this intergalactic adventure in hopes of saving him. "aw, this sounds like such a generic story," you say. "EVERY fictional story's inciting incident is the death of a family member. i'll pass." no, you will not pass. i'm not going to spoil much of the story for those who haven't yet read owo, but i will provide enough context to explain why i think it has such crazy potential. and, disclaimer: the scratch project versions (chapters?) of the story are undoubtedly not finalized, and they were made in a pretty early stage of the existence of owo. also, moderation exists, so it wouldn't have mentioned or even added in darker or more explicit topics or dialogue. (note: scorch actually confirmed himself in one of the project versions that a paragraph originally had swears in it. i checked) ahem. now: it's common knowledge that there are multiple factors that make a story "good": the plot, the characters, the dialogue, the mood and tone, the speed that the story moves along, et cetera. i'm not going to go into depth about literary devices and all the other nerd mess that you learn in high school english classes; owo does a pretty good job at implementing most of those. scratch-wise, the (unfinished) plot of owo is decently good, albeit somewhat messy. still, the amount of lore and the creativity of the setting, objects and characters more than make up for it. you've likely read stories about characters gallivanting off on adventures across space and time, and that's great. owo is as good as any of them, if not better. the characters are very well-executed, in my opinion. we obviously don't see much of scorch's nova, since he's dead or missing (well, possessed by a primordial god), but i'd assume that in a finalized version we'll see him or at least get some of him while he's being puppeteered by the absolute. niko, the 18-year-old main character, is also very well done. owo is narrated in the third person, but we still get a pretty good idea of how she feels and what goes on inside her head. she's basically the strong female protagonist of a story, if the strong female protagonist wasn't so generic (not to say that this is always the case in a story). she's stubborn and adventurous, but sensible and cares a lot about nova, letting literally nothing get in the way of her goal. you've got some side characters, like the weaver and ephries. you get some limited stuff about monova (i have no idea who this actually is despite scorch's multiple uses of the name and design in the past). you get a scene with this nightmarish scorpion that niko has to beat in order to get i think the tip of its tail if i remember correctly? the plot moves along nicely, not too sluggish but definitely not too quickly, either. a slow-moving plot is boring and makes you want to stop reading; a plot moving too quickly is going to leave everyone confused and angry. owo does neither. it isn't a "slow burn," nor does it move quickly as a sort of narrating device. it moves along at a pace that's easy to follow, and allows you to get familiar with and process what's happening, as well as the characters. the wording / narrating itself is a little scrambled and/or unrefined in the earliest versions, but as time passes scorch seems to get a really good grip on how owo is written. he describes things a lot more carefully, and the depth of the characters and the scenes improves noticeably (not that any of it was horrible at all in the beginning). the first project entry actually provides a surprising amount of context and description in a certain area, and is surprisingly well-written in my opinion. ("she wouldn’t have survived if her brother didn’t cradle her"... i kind of felt that ToT) i'm running out of time to actually write all of this and i doubt i'll remember the rest later, but all in all scorch did a really good job on what exists so far of otherworldly odyssey. from what i know from the last time we've spoken, he's writing the whole thing on a google doc, and he also sent me some sick art. i don't have it right now, nor do i have access to the platform currently, but, yeah. i'm going to leave off here, but below is an example of the dialogue.
[this is where owo left off dialogue-wise. provided for story context, read at your own risk as there may be spoilers] “You’re up early,” Ephries remarked, seeing Niko walk out of her ‘bedroom’ door. Niko rubbed her eyes. “Really? What time is it?” she said sleepily. Ephries chuckled to himself. “I don’t know,” “Where’s The Weaver?” “He went to the Arena. You should probably get changed,” Niko looked down. She was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday, the day before, and the day before. “Into what?” “There are some Artefacts you can wear.” Niko said, beginning to walk towards a single floating gateway. “Actually…” She spun around. “Could you teach me how to fully use this thing?” “Sure,” He says. A few minutes later, they are standing in the middle of The Arena while The Weaver watches from afar. “First,” Ephries starts, holding up a finger. “You need to know some things about Artefacts…” (i didn't pick the best passage, but if you read more of the whole thing i guess my exaggeration of how much potential this series has would make sense) (this whole entire project was pretty rushed)
