...it will have to wait.

About my anniversary with my wife.
About what happened two years ago.
What I want to do.
Events in my life.
Etc.

But for now.

What I came to share was the result of a dream last night. (The other dream I had involved a parody-horror film where a shark was in a WWE wrestling ring eating wrestlers and having it be valid matches, with the shark eventually defeated by the satire-friendly version of Cody Rhodes. But I couldn't really build upon that dream. This dream, on the other hand...)

​So last night I had a really vivid dream which led to the creation of a new manga shounen (or, well, seinen more accurately) idea. I'll never have the free time to make it, but I wanted to lay out the basic idea.

The story would begin at the traditional half-way point in a story. Instead of following a rookie 16-year-old teenaged boy, this would start with the protagonist at 26--a full ten years after he began his hero's journey. All of the advanced concepts that a hero is exposed to (and, through the naive hero, us the audience get to learn about), he already knows and has mastered.

The story would begin after a tragedy which killed/scattered his crew. Think akin to the likes of One Piece heading into the timeskip, Andromeda season 5, etc. He, as well as all the heroes and protagonists, lost--big time. His ship was damaged and broken almost entirely beyond repair, hanging on by a thread. He lost almost everyone on his crew and who he cared about. All his allies gone, and a bounty placed upon his head and the head of his two remaining companions. Everyone is thought either dead or with a bounty high enough to guarantee they soon will be.

And that's just where things begin.

To explain some of the mechanics involved, this would be basically a cross of stories like One Piece, Cowboy Bebop, and Star Wars, along with some other shounen stories. A large portion of the populace can tap into "The Magic Field", which grants them a lot of the abilities of Force-Sensitive users, crossed with Haki users. They have universal access to telekinesis including strong push/pull, enhanced physical abilities particularly jumping, agility, nimbleness, etc., they have a form of clairvoyance which senses danger, they have a minor ability to cause incoming bullets (not blasters because this setting still uses kinetic weaponry aside from stun guns which are energy, but these bullets are more magitek in being big blasts) to miss, as well as enhanced accuracy in their shots, the ability to plant suggestions in their opponent's mind as a minor form of hypnosis, enhanced strength and toughness, increased endurance and rapid healing, etc.

Advanced users of these can elevate these abilities further, to actually sense incoming attacks well before they happen, to have an aura that suppresses opponents and encourages allies, virtual immunity to most forms of harm, the ability to inflict harm on otherwise immune targets, etc.

And these universal tools are aided by the equivalent of lightsabers, called "artifact weapons". Usually taking the form of augment gloves, but some can be customized into other forms, too. These artifact weapons have as a universal power generating a shield which absorbs incoming attacks and, on a narrow band approximately the size of a curved broadsword, deflecting projectiles towards a location.

But this is all standard equipment and powers.

Characters have powers beyond tapping into The Magic Field, called their Star Power. These powers are entirely separate and entirely unique to the individual. Think devil fruits, or bloodline powers from Naruto, or the unique powers of every individual in most shounen. You get the idea. These powers take training to use and unlock, but are innate and nearly limitless in potential.

Those who have mastered their Star Power unlock a second, stronger ability. This stronger ability can be something entirely different, and is loosely called their "Spatial Magic Sphere". It requires both a strong connection to The Magic Field, and a strong mastery of Star Power. The downside to this is all users of Spatial Magic Spheres have some ability to detect other Spatial Magic Sphere users even when the Spatial Magic Sphere user is just using their base power or Magic Field power. In short, once one accesses Spatial Magic Spheres, their usage of Star Power and The Magic Field innately channels their Spatial Magic Sphere, and because every Spatial Magic Sphere on some level can detect the presence of another Spatial Magic Sphere, tapping Spatial Magic Sphere for the first time causes it to passively always be there on some level.

The protagonist, his first mate and longest traveling companion, and his wife (again--experienced veteran protagonist, the love interest had a relationship upgrade over five years ago before the story begins) all have access to Spatial Magic Spheres, artifact weapons, and advanced Magic Field powers.

The protagonist is a former-prodigy genius mechanic, inventor, and the captain of a cube-shaped spaceship (which is not spaceworthy at the story's beginning, trapped roaming a single planet initially where all the action happens at first), officially called The Cube, and affectionately nicknamed 'Cubie'.
He was notable in how he actually got access to multiple artifact weapons (protagonist privileges!). He's got a key that allows him to unlock just about anything and interface with anything (effectively both a key and a usb stick), that also serves as a sword (lightsaber, not keyblade). He also has gloves, as well as a staff-gun (can take the form of a staff, or the form of a gun, and in its compact form is basically a lightsaber-shaped handle, or a compact-force-lance from Andromeda if you prefer).

He discovered The Cube and retrofitted it, a la a Millenium Falcon/Lagann style encounter, although this wasn't his start to his adventuring life and took place a little down the line.

His Star Power is an augmented form of Sigil Casting. Sigil Casting is technically a form of harvesting Space Magic, but rather, channeling it to do things which normal Space Magic practitioners can't achieve. The downside is it requires writing out sigils, onto a surface, in order to cast the effect. (Think FMA alchemy.) However, the upside is a level of versatility and customability. This is a pretty weak power in terms of Star Powers (especially considering this is one of the strongest Magic Field users in the setting by the time of the story's start), but he makes it seem a lot less so because of how he customizes it, and passively channels it, and how he uses it to augment his natural mechanical and invention skills. Because he can fuse his inventions with his Star Power's Sigil Casting, and he can create Sigils other Sigil Casters can't, he's the ultimate master of rune magic, earning his Star Power the name "Rune Master".

As of accessing his Spatial Magic Sphere, he can create elemental variants on his Sigil Casting. When he has white hair he can channel Ice. Red hair, fire. Black hair, pure darkness. Golden hair, pure light. Blueish-purple hair, pure energy. And his default state, brown hair, is technically both air and earth, because he is a bridge between the two innately.

But where he's truly broken is in his Spatial Magic Sphere ability, "Sphere of Influence": it allows him to vastly augment all Magic Field users, all artifact weapons, all Star Power users, and all Spatial Magic Sphere users, within his influence range (which is the size of a sizeable starship, think about the size of a modern battleship but in 3 dimensions), and critically...he can also do the inverse, vastly weakening or even completely negating all of those. His ability allows him to be able to negate a potential fleet full of opponents to some extent, while creating an entire fleet of people under his influence.

So, his title has changed to reflect that. It went from "The Artificer" to "The Stacked Deck" to "The Spirit of Stars".


His first mate, longest companion, is a cat furry, and she's technically stronger than her captain. She's a master markswoman, master swordswoman, and really shines in hand-to-hand combat in particular. She, too, has an artifact weapon of gloves (again, pretty standard), with hers having the unique ability to morph forms into swords, guns, or gauntlets depending on her need. Personality-wise, as well as power-wise, she's basically combining Vi from League of Legends, Revy from Black Lagoon, and Yang from RWBY.

She's hotheaded, antagonistic, highly abrasive, highly combative, a bruiser who loves a good fight, heavy drinker, etc. But she's also a genius commander, both in terms of strategy and tactics, is good at logistics, understands the ins and outs of storage, picks up on subtleties in others most miss, has a way of reading people beyond that afforded to most Magic Field users, etc. She's not dumb, she's actually arguably the smartest member of the crew, and she has the talents to match. She's ridiculously good at analyzing.

She is capable of detecting and deducing the powers of combatants to an uncanny level, including being the first to notice the presence of even the most stealthy of Spatial Magic Sphere users.

My dream didn't show me her powers, but presumably they involve her abilities. Guns, blades, movement, etc. Presumably, she has teleportation powers among other skills.


His wife, promoted from love interest, who he's been married to for about five years or so (young love, adventure, etc.), is the navigator, negotiator, and banker of the group (yes basically Nami), and she also is the one in charge of plants and the air circulation in the ship. She makes it so that the crew doesn't suffocate or starve, and has a skill for disabling enemy ships in specific ways to inflict that on them. While her husband and their first mate are known to be global threats, she's the scariest member of the crew.

Her basic Star Power abilities are growing and controlling plants out of nothing. What she's capable of beyond that, my dream didn't show--only that it mortified their starter villain for the series to immediately surrender despite his own broken powerset.


The story begins by showing the captain and his first mate trying to repair Cubie, heavily snarking and trying not to mention the disasters they just lived through. Then, the first mate notices the presence of a Spatial Magic User on the ship, disturbing things. A saboteur/assassin named Zeb, who has the Star Power of a total invisibility cloak making him immune to detection to even Spatial Magic Users most of the time. When he is dangled thousands of feet above the air about to be pushed to his doom (because the ship, while not capable of traveling the stars, is still airborne), activates his Spatial Magic Sphere ability, a time-rewind ability.

His time-rewind ability is two-fold. He retains perfect knowledge from a loop he initiates a rewind on, and if he dies he automatically returns to the point he began the loop on, with the knowledge he died but none of the memories for the loops since the last time he died. Encountering the protagonist's wife repeatedly and unavoidably keeps triggering his death, not giving him the ability to rewind and find out why. And no matter how many loops he goes through, he can't win.

So the end of the first chapter is him surrendering to the crew, and in a panic, begging and pleading to join them, because his failure will make him just as much as a target, and once marked as a target he knows he won't ever be given a chance to not be one. The crew, understanding that his offer is sincere, genuine, and that he legitimately has no other opportunities, accepts. They might not remember killing him or his thousands upon thousands of times rewinding to attempt to kill them, but they retained at least a sense of his honor, integrity, and genuine skill, so Zeb becomes their first new recruit and first new member of the crew, joining them on their adventure to rebuild their crew.


Potential future crewmates include an actual rookie (likely a native of the planet The Cube Crew are stuck on), who the crew would explain the mechanics of the world in, requiring heavy protection but being an investment;
Cubie, made into a hologram (a la Cortana from Halo, or Andromeda from Andromeda);
And potentially one or two children of the protagonist and his wife.

Among many others.

Any surviving crew members would likely be encountered and eventually rejoin after The Cube becomes spaceworthy again and begins traveling the stars, trying to fight back.

They'd be called The Cube Crew, which might be the name of the series altogether since the heart of the series is The Cube Crew recovering after barely surviving the worst events in their lives where they suffer a near-total defeat. (To give a scope of how bad this level of defeat is, it's basically a Whitebeard Pirates level of defeat. They lost a war and got hunted down after. Many died in the conflict. Even those who lived, many were killed after by multiple entities wanting their demise. Which also gives a scope for the protagonist's level of influence. By the time of his fall, he was one of the four strongest figures of interest in the setting, essentially, with the scope of influence that would entail.)

That's about as far as I got in the dream. But I really enjoyed the setting generated from it and the uniqueness of the starting point.

The goal of The Cube Crew isn't so much to get vengeance, or to start a resistance, or to fight back, as much as it is to survive, and rebuild, and recover, and regather, and to leave a path for future generations to have a better life, to not let the futures of the next generation be crushed. They're more looking for people to pass the torch onto than they are to finish the job.

Of course, part of this would involve them actually failing to pass on the torch, tragically so, in multiple occasions. Young people being killed, invoking their rage. Young people being brainwashed. Young people fighting against them, and them being forced to defend themselves to lethal results. Etc. But their goal, throughout it all, remains the same:
Track down all of the survivors of their crew,
Re-unite the crew, taking all who wish to rejoin and leaving those who have moved on in peace, to attain closure,
Talking to the loved ones of all those who perished, to help them obtain that same level of closure,
Inspiring hope,
Encouraging action,
Imparting lessons into those who follow,
Rebuilding, restarting, and continuing families, to have (more) kids, and raise those children. (The wife of the protagonist rambles on and on about having 12 kids, and goes into Marinette from Miraculous Ladybug levels of tangents about that plan, how it will be, etc. And she's been doing this since before the two were even married. It's a quirk of hers, part of her extensive planning capabilities and her own ruthless nature, essentially.)

I would love to make it, but alas. Because of how many projects have higher priority, I likely never will. Still going to note the idea though!