What Comes Next?: Announcement Blog 20/08/2023

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W E L C O M E ! ! !

This is Nomad! I hope you all are feeling great! It's that time of the year again, folks. It's time for the Splat Force annual Announcement Blog!

As per usual, this post will be me going over what I'll be doing for the next year and the goals I'll be setting myself! I've got a few big things to announce, some small things, one of which being for something that I won't touch for a while, you'll understand when you see it.

That's all to it, really, so without further ado, let's get into this!

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A W O R D F R O M T H E A U T H O R

2023 has been an interesting year, for both my real life and my online life. I faced a lot of harsh challenges along the way this year. I'm not gonna go into it because I prefer to keep my irl problems as irl problems.

I will say this, however: writing Splat Force has always been, and will always be a pressure. These characters that I've made have connected to me now more then ever, even looking back at the earlier stories and seeing where they were at the start has given me some strong feelings.

Knowing that many of you have connected with these characters has been an amazing thing to have on my conscious. I genuinely don't know what I'd do without Splat Force in my life. So with that being said, thank you all for the over the years, truly!

That being said, it's time to get on with the announcements!

M O R E O N E - S H O T S

This year, I've had the pleasure of releasing Splat Force One-Shots for you all to enjoy in-between the stories. So far, they've been well received and I'm glad about that! So, I've decided to make some more! I still have one more planned for this year, a holiday special, but here are a few I'm cooking up for next year:

- Shauna May-Deacon's Full Origin

- The Story of the SF universe's Squidbeak Splatoon

- A Halloween Special

- King Nanaue II celebrating Thanksgiving

- An Elseworlds Holiday Special

These are the ones that I'll be doing next year. Some of the One-Shots I had planned (mainly that Harlow Pertch one) has been cancelled as I don't really plan on utilising the character in the future.

Anyway, onto the next headline!

R E M A S T E R S T A T U S

This has always been an interesting topic for me. Ever since the announcement blog of 2021(nearly two whole years ago), I've been working on remastering my older stories (particularly Splat Force: The Gifted and Cosmo: A Splat Force Story).

Splat Force: The Gifted's Remastered edit is slowly becoming closer and closer to completion, and I can finally guarantee that the remaster will finish during the Holiday season, maybe sooner if I can juggle it with What If...?: A Splat Force Story.

Cosmo: A Splat Force Story's Remastered edit has also been started, with me already done with the first Chapter. I can't guarantee it'll be done at the same time as SF:TG, but I certainly hope for it to be done by February 2024 at the latest.

The Remastered edits will be on Amino (in the form of post edits), alongside the whole of the story being ed on other sites, such as Wattpad and AO3. In addition, the rest of the Splat Force stories will be fully ported over to those cites by Summer 2024.

With that being said, let's get onto the next topic!

W H A T I F . . . ? S N E A K P E A K

The next story in the Splat Force Saga, What If...? A Splat Force Story will be among us in just a few weeks, I hope you are as pumped for it as I am! I didn't want to leave you all empty handed with news of the story, so I decided to copy and paste over a scene from the first Chapter for you lot to enjoy!

So without further ado, enjoy this sneak peak!

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Jamie ran around the stone-built village, trying to detain each of the ragdoll-like villagers. Jamie stayed on the lower left side dealing with a large chunk of the villagers. He tried to be less physical with villagers as it was clear to him that they weren't themselves and were under some spell.

The battlefield was lit up with flames, electricity, acid, ice, and many more gifts coming from the possessed villagers. By now, some of the Rookies had fallen, and some of the villagers had to be put down. What scared the team most was the lifeless, blank expression on the villagers' faces.

Quietly among the battlefield was the village leader herself, Kamala Sabrina, a powerful telepath capable of potentially destroying their minds if they were not careful. By now, she had already manipulated Chester, Henry Spence, and Oscar Rogue, among several Rookies, some of which fell to the manipulation. Alyssa was alone on the battlefield in the lower middle, blasting blue energy beams all around her, knocking back the possessed villagers.

Seeing Alyssa all alone, Kamala saw the chance to act and she took it without hesitation. She snuck up behind Alyssa whilst her fingers were pressed against her forehead to make her invisible to the eye. Once she was a step away, she let go of her forehead and pressed her hand against the back of Alyssa's head, making her scream in terror as she was forced to relive memories of the death of her mother.

As Alyssa fell to the ground screaming and shivering, Jamie glanced at Kamala and charged at her, letting out a powerful battle cry as he knocked her to the ground.

"Hands off, Kamala!"

Jamie screamed as he grabbed a Splattershot from one of the fallen Rookies and aimed it at her. He wasn't about to make the same mistake he made back at the cliffside, not again. Without hesitation, he opened fire.

B A N G , B A N G ! ! !

The attack surprised Kamala as she couldn't have predicted that Jamie of all people would be the one to go in for a kill, especially when she learned of what happened at the cliffside. Due to her empathic abilities, she sensed it quickly enough to hold back the fire with telepathy.

"LEAVE US ALONE!"

She screamed before deflecting the bullets away, one of which hit Frederick's lower hip.

Frederick let out a painful scream as he fell onto one knee and held onto his hip. It felt like he was on fire. He was unable to keep fighting.

"N-No... No!"

Jamie screamed. History was repeating itself only hours after the initial incident. Now, the other Commander was suffering because of him. Jamie was horrified. He began to shake violently. He slowly turned back to Kamala, who reached for him, grabbing his forehead and forcing him to relive his terrible memory.

Of course, the memory was of his failure to save Rex Allen. He was back on the cliffside, shaking in fear as he watched Bolton Vulcan prepare for his big attack. He watched as Rex was blasted off the cliff and into the icy water... then he relived the memory again, and again, and again. It was an endless nightmare.

Jamie screamed, falling onto his knees as he began crying hysterically. The memory of the cliffside incident was all he was thinking about. He tried his hardest to think of something else, anything, but his mind kept going back to the cliffside. He held his head in his hands.

Seeing his pain, and even feeling it, Kamala had to endure some of his pain. Of course, she felt the pain of everyone, from Chester's childhood abandonment to Henry's childhood trauma, but this pain was recent, only hours old. The screams, the ugly crying, it was too much. So, Kamala did something that she had never done before, she let go of Jamie's pain.

Jamie was panting on his hands and knees. He looked up to see tears forming in Kamala's eyes.

"I-I-I'm s-so..."

Kamala sobbed, covering her mouth as she whimpered. Her face was a bright red.

Jamie was left stunned. Like the rest of the main Splat Force team, he too had previous experiences involving Kamala Sabrina. From his eyes, she was a quiet, horrid woman who took advantage of the weak-minded. Whilst that would be true, what he saw that day was a side of fear, regret, and pain. It was a cry for help.

Jamie didn't know what to say, but his desire to help the woman in need was starting to come through. He moved closer to Kamala and touched her chin, moving her head up to face him. He grabbed one of her hands and held it gently whilst speaking to her calmly.

"We don't have to fight... there's been enough killing for today. You need to help, I-I can hel-"

S L A M ! ! !

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Now, with Jamie Stewart at the battle against Kamala Sabrina, and Rex Allen not being there, I wonder what might've happened here as Jamie had already died saving Rex before that battle in the main continuity. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks time when the first two Chapter drops on September 10th!

Now, without further ado, onto the big one!

S P L A T F O R C E I V

N O W I N P R O D U C T I O N

Yup! It's happening, folks! Splat Force IV is officially going through and will release next year! The full title won't be revealed until after I'm done with WI:ASFS, but it will follow on from the ending of Emmie: A Splat Force Story with Project ZM now on the loose.

Now, I wanna quickly talk about the last thing I just said. Yes, it follows on from both Redemption and Emmie, yes it will contain characters from those stories playing Majors roles. That being said, if you haven't read either of those stories, yet you've at least read the original trilogy (Splat Force: The Gifted, Splat Force II: Allegiance, and Splat Force III: Bolton's Reign), then you can roll into this one without any worry! However, if you've read Redemption and/or Emmie but not read the original trilogy, then you can still go on and read it without worry!

The events of the story will take place long after the devastating events of Splat Force III: Bolton's Reign. The gifted have been long cured, and those who remain have now adapted to the new world, or at least they've tried to. This story is probably the most grounded story in the saga, as well as being one of the darkest and most grim of them all. Because of this, a few Chapters will have a content warming. The age rating be somewhere between 14+ and 16+ because of it, though the final rating has not been decided.

Now, like with SFIII:BR, I will also be revealing the main cast of the story. Here they are:

- Magnus Lang

- Emily Rogue

- Project ZM

- Rex Allen

- Platinum Frida-Allen

- Shauna May-Deacon

- Samantha Stewart

- Vincent Fisk

- Cyrus Zagan

- William Swannack

The majority of these characters will be going through their bleakest hour, with some still feeling the heavy guilt of losing their loved ones at the end of the previous story. This story will be putting them in positions that you'll never expect them to be in, and I'm so excited for you all to see what I've been cooking up with them!

Splat Force IV will be the only Splat Force released next year. This'll be the end of my four year-long streak of posting two big stories a year. The reason for this is that it'll be a busy year for me, and when it comes to Splat Force, I want to put all my focus into Splat Force IV. Of course, there will be One-Shots releasing next year, but they'll be spread out throughout the year and only once in a month. I hope you all understand and I hope you all are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Splat Force IV!

Now, I have one final announcement to make! You may be wondering, "Nomad, you just announcement a big story. Wtf could you be also cooking up?!" Well, I have a little something that'll blow your socks off...

S P L A T F O R C E V

N O W I N P R O D U C T I O N

So... this is also happening. Yup! It's happening! As well as Splat Force IV, I also want to announce that I'll be working on Splat Forve V! Both SFIV and SFV will be worked on back-to-back as they are connected with each other. They are both different stories, tone and premise wise, but the ending of Splat Force IV will lead directly into Splat Force V.

I am not going to be revealing much about Splat Force V, as I'll be doing that when I'm done with SFV, but all I'll say is that it's a celebration of everything Splat Force. Of course, you can still read if you've read the original trilogy + SFIV, but Splat Force V will also be referencing and rewarding those who've read the other stories in the saga.

Another thing I'll say is that whilst Splat Force IV will follow the setting established by Redemption and Emmie in being a grounded storyline, Splat Force V will follow the setting of the original trilogy + Cosmo/Bolton + What If...? in being a mystical, sci-fi storyline.

Splat Force V is going to be a very bittersweet story, for me at least. The reason why is not something I'm ready to reveal. I'll reveal it during next year's announcement blog. It's gonna be a very special story, and I hope you all will love it when it does release.

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T H X  F O R  R E A D I N G ! ! !

Thx for checking out the annual announcement blog! I hope you all are excited for all the stories coming up! Next year definitely won't be as busy as the previous years, but I will be working hard on making sure that the big story is done to its greatest state, so stay tuned for that! Until next time, stay safe out there! ^^

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