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i don't understand. the Kindle app helpfully shows me upcoming books from authors I like. And it's smart enough to know that just means ones I've read more than one book from, because I don't rate anything ever. Who the gently caress has a personal time limit for the next book before they never read that author again? This all sounds like... A very niche problem for a very niche audience
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Aug 18, 2022 22:09
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Plorkyeran posted:I see the patreon model as being much less transactional than buying books. Patreon is set up around the idea that you're giving the creator money so that they can afford to keep doing the thing they're doing, and the pricing makes zero sense if that's not what you're looking to do. Buying a book doesn't require giving a gently caress about if the author will ever write another book, but paying a monthly fee in exchange for effectively nothing after the first month requires caring quite a lot. i pay the patreon for the advance chapters and if i don't get any for a month you better believe that shits getting canceled except for extreme circumstances. in a way it's even more transactional.
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Aug 18, 2022 22:12
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Larry Parrish posted:i don't understand. the Kindle app helpfully shows me upcoming books from authors I like. And it's smart enough to know that just means ones I've read more than one book from, because I don't rate anything ever. Who the gently caress has a personal time limit for the next book before they never read that author again? This all sounds like... A very niche problem for a very niche audience I actually hate this feature of the Kindle app so much, because it is constantly baiting me by thinking new books in series I like are out when they aren’t. Pure evil!
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Aug 18, 2022 22:34
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nrook posted:I actually hate this feature of the Kindle app so much, because it is constantly baiting me by thinking new books in series I like are out when they aren’t. Pure evil! Also because even if I read the first chapter of a book and immediately bail, sucks to be me, kindle is now gonna show me that authors books until the day I die
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Aug 18, 2022 22:40
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awesmoe posted:Also because even if I read the first chapter of a book and immediately bail, sucks to be me, kindle is now gonna show me that authors books until the day I die my personal favorite is when i bought and fully read a book and it keeps recommending it to me. dude you know I read it even.
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Aug 18, 2022 22:50
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I'm inclined to agree with the conclusion (the faster you publish books on kindle unlimited the more you retain your existing audience) while disagreeing with the premise (the viewers literally understand their own reading habits, and have a hard limit of when they'll stop reading an author). I firmly suspect that the things actually rewarding fast publishing on KU are: 1. Amazon's algorithms 2. Your audience over time naturally forgetting about your work.
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Aug 18, 2022 23:04
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I wish I could tell kindle to never show me an author ever again. It would be helpful for not having recommendations flooded with the now obvious ghost writer farm because I read one of their books years ago.
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Aug 18, 2022 23:33
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awesmoe posted:Also because even if I read the first chapter of a book and immediately bail, sucks to be me, kindle is now gonna show me that authors books until the day I die O Amazon does not even care if you have read it, did you glance at a title before deciding it was not for you? Well now you get to see 9 other books just like it but somehow even worse .
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Aug 18, 2022 23:47
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If releases are rapid enough, readers don't have the opportunity to think "Oh, I read one of those. I don't remember what happened though, so I guess it wasn't very good." which is perhaps the most common reason to drop something.
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Aug 18, 2022 23:50
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Cicero posted:TUTBAD 129: Literally just speedrunning the roguelike at this point.
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Aug 19, 2022 00:36
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Larry Parrish posted:i don't understand. the Kindle app helpfully shows me upcoming books from authors I like. And it's smart enough to know that just means ones I've read more than one book from, because I don't rate anything ever. Who the gently caress has a personal time limit for the next book before they never read that author again? This all sounds like... A very niche problem for a very niche audience I have a calender specifically for keeping track of this. When an author's deadline passes, I stop following them. I helpfully send warnings in advance, but they are rarely heeded. Deeply unprofessional, if you ask me!
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Aug 19, 2022 01:37
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GlassElephant posted:https://www.theverge.com/c/23194235/ai-fiction-writing-amazon-kindle-sudowrite-jasper The AI-generated pull quotes are wild. quote:I don’t know if it’s a suggestion or if it’s just them coming at me, but I’m finding myself drawing toward thoughts that seem like they were thrown out of me as they hit my brain. It was humbling, like God asking you what color light you would prefer for the end of the universe.
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Aug 19, 2022 03:14
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blastron posted:The AI-generated pull quotes are wild. This has the same characteristic of many AI-generated images, where each individual bit makes sense, but when your eyes follow it to the next bit it stops making sense.
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Aug 19, 2022 07:08
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GlassElephant posted:https://www.theverge.com/c/23194235/ai-fiction-writing-amazon-kindle-sudowrite-jasper quote:Rollins now co-runs a workshop teaching others to do the same. Most of his students are not attending out of a desire to start literary careers; they are e-commerce consultants like himself or realtors or financial advisers or self-help gurus interested primarily in what having written a book will do for their business. In his workshop, Rollins uses the phrase “minimum viable book.” jesus christ 
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Aug 19, 2022 09:24
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it's like those marketing guides on the royal road forums but even more cursed. god i hate that everything slowly gets consumed by marketing freaks
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Aug 19, 2022 09:28
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The modern wave of AI generated text is mostly a legal innovation rather than a technological one; the tools automate and launder plagiarism. Those words it comes up with? Their built upon a huge database of other people's words, stolen without permission by cannibalistic tech start-ups, and spun through a by-design impenetrable algorithm to hide the theft. I hateeeee it.
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Aug 19, 2022 10:15
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Rob Filter posted:Those words it comes up with? Their built upon a huge database of other people's words, stolen without permission by cannibalistic tech start-ups, and spun through a by-design impenetrable algorithm to hide the theft. I hateeeee it. Technically speaking, all of human art is pretty much that, but formed and generated on much slower hardware. I see artists complaining on Twitter about "oh it's just mashing together a bunch of different influences, warped somewhat into individuality by the quirks of its neural net" and I think "as opposed to you, who've come into your art style entirely sui generis?"
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Aug 19, 2022 10:22
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cg tools are bad because they reduce the value of labor, yes. it helps that they're also just straight up bad and promoted by the most annoying people on the planet though. a guy in the Ar'Kendrythist discord showed an ad for people selling dall-e prompts lol.
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Aug 19, 2022 10:28
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Rob Filter posted:The modern wave of AI generated text is mostly a legal innovation rather than a technological one; the tools automate and launder plagiarism.
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Aug 19, 2022 12:55
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Books for now aren't really the bigger issue since generated stories can't really remain coherent over the long term, and I'm not sure how solvable that is, especially for subtler things. Eventually sure, but how long will that take? Art pieces though, holy poo poo I feel bad for digital artists. The new models are very very close to production ready, so to speak.
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Aug 19, 2022 12:58
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I continued my Rising Stars binge by checking out Immortality Starts With Generosity. It's a combination of several classic xianxia setups. The MC wakes up in the body of a despicable black sheep young master and discovers that he lives in an exile far away from the main clan, feared and despised by his servants and, as he discovers by the end of the first chapter, is a part of a conspiracy which involves marrying a badass, beautiful, totally-the-actual-MC-of-this-story cultivatrix to his villainous rear end in a plan to humiliate and, eventually, destroy her. Obviously, now that he's a different person, he doesn't go along with it and manages to convince her to become allies and continue their sham marriage, while working together to deal with their perspective issues. Now this is where some of you ask "oh and do they slowly start realize that their fictitious relationship is slowly turning into a real one and there's smooches?" Well... not quite yet. BUT THEY'D loving BETTER, YOU HEAR ME, AUTHOR?! Also, since this is xianxia, the MC gets the mandatory cheat power- whatever he gifts to someone who actually doesn't hate him (so, pretty much just his wife so far) returns to him 100x fold, so he pretty much goes full Gomez Addams on her. Seems a bit too abusable a power to me, but it didn't cause any story issues so far. Whatever you've imagined reading this description, it's exactly this and a very well executed (so far) version of it. I like the characters, I like the writing, I like the plot. Check it out.
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Aug 19, 2022 13:57
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Cicero posted:Books for now aren't really the bigger issue since generated stories can't really remain coherent over the long term, and I'm not sure how solvable that is, especially for subtler things. Eventually sure, but how long will that take? The implication being that most webserials remain coherent over the long term, which, well... book intro posted:Meet Peter ‘Horn’ Kowalsky – The champion! The prodigy! The winner of the ToN master league in 2032! chapter 3 posted:In a panic, Horn backpaddled, almost dropping on his rear end. A wild swing nicked the rat in the air...
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Aug 19, 2022 14:23
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Megazver posted:so he pretty much goes full Gomez Addams on her. i have to be honest, now i just want a xianxia addams family book
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Aug 19, 2022 18:02
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Jazerus posted:i have to be honest, now i just want a xianxia addams family book who'd be transmigrating into what?
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Aug 19, 2022 18:16
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Megazver posted:who'd be transmigrating into what? none of that stuff. they just get picked up by the hand of god and plopped down as neighbors to an extremely stereotypical sect
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Aug 19, 2022 18:25
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Cicero posted:TUTBAD 129: Literally just speedrunning the roguelike at this point. One man with a ridiculous weapon? It reminded me more of a Devil May Cry or Dynasty Warriors.
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Aug 19, 2022 19:03
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Jazerus posted:none of that stuff. they just get picked up by the hand of god and plopped down as neighbors to an extremely stereotypical sect No No No. The Adams Family insists that they never moved. The world moved around them. They just continue on with whatever insane assumptions this flavor of their story operates under, while the various xianxians show up and are poleaxed.
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Aug 19, 2022 19:50
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Megazver posted:Also, since this is xianxia, the MC gets the mandatory cheat power- whatever he gifts to someone who actually doesn't hate him (so, pretty much just his wife so far) returns to him 100x fold, so he pretty much goes full Gomez Addams on her. Seems a bit too abusable a power to me, but it didn't cause any story issues so far. So, I've recently been reading a history book, The Cult of the Fox: Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China by one Xiaofei Kang. It is, as you might expect, about fox worship in China and particularly how myths surrounding foxes reflected contemporary social dynamics and anxieties. It's honestly been a really great read so far, one of the snappiest and most readable history books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. I bring it up because, in the second chapter ("Huxian and the spread of the fox cult"), it discusses at length the concepts of xian- immortals- and neidan- "interior alchemy"; daoist cultivation- which as it turns out foxes were closely tied to. I've never seen any of this discussed in an academic context before, so a lot of it was interesting- particularly the revelation that, uh, xian have wings? All my sword wizards are angels or something?   But I was particularly struck by the note that, initially at least, neidan was first and principally a form of sex magic (majick~):   Now, obviously the Royal Road version of this is some grody harem stuff or w/e, but I was immediately captivated by the idea of a xianxia world where, like, dual cultivation is mandatory. You can't cultivate at all without a partner. And so instead of a story that's like 24/7 sword fights and theft and intergenerational blood feuds, it's just 100% romance drama? The messiest love polygons you have ever seen in your life stretched out across eons? Cultivator sects as the university dating scene on a celestial scale? Potentially very funny imo.
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Aug 19, 2022 19:57
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In the meantime, I checked out one more Rising Star on RR: [Psychokinetic] Eyeball Pulling - A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG. A typical blue boxes & numbers go up litrpg by someone writing a story for the first time. Extremely rough everything, even the positive reviews are all like "i luv this its a graet Mc is an badas". The cover is the best thing about it. KOGAHAZAN!! posted:Now, obviously the Royal Road version of this is some grody harem stuff or w/e, but I was immediately captivated by the idea of a xianxia world where, like, dual cultivation is mandatory. You can't cultivate at all without a partner. And so instead of a story that's like 24/7 sword fights and theft and intergenerational blood feuds, it's just 100% romance drama? The messiest love polygons you have ever seen in your life stretched out across eons? Cultivator sects as the university dating scene on a celestial scale? Dual cultivation does get mentioned a fair bit in Chinese xianxia and there are some (fairly chaste tbh) harem novels where the MC DCs his way to success, but the Chinese government cracks down on the really sexy stuff, unfortunately. Also, there was a thread about this on /r/fantasy: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/vmcw4d/are_there_fantasy_books_with_s3xual_based_world/ From the titles I've taken a look at on Amazon, this might be close-ish: https://www.amazon.com/Initiation-Sex-Wizards-Book-1-ebook/dp/B09J98KB99/ Megazver fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Aug 19, 2022 |
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Aug 19, 2022 20:55
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KOGAHAZAN!! posted:So, I've recently been reading a history book, The Cult of the Fox: Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China by one Xiaofei Kang. It is, as you might expect, about fox worship in China and particularly how myths surrounding foxes reflected contemporary social dynamics and anxieties. It's honestly been a really great read so far, one of the snappiest and most readable history books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. I'd read it if it wasn't creepy. An awful lot of romance books are at least as creepy as cultivation serials so I'm not sure it's possible. Maybe if someone like Hungry wrote it. Someone already wrote it - the title is Beware of Chicken.
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Aug 19, 2022 22:36
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Megazver posted:I continued my Rising Stars binge by checking out Immortality Starts With Generosity. Thanks for this. I've been enjoying it and laughed out loud when (chapter 18) the MC plays himself by firing Lin to see how Song reacts so Song decides to take on the manager role himself It's pretty great so far although not sure how the author will keep his ability from spiraling out of control with hundredfold rewards. Edit: it just gets better... Song Yuelin is such a troll. Kyoujin fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Aug 20, 2022 |
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Aug 19, 2022 23:44
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Megazver posted:I continued my Rising Stars binge by checking out Immortality Starts With Generosity. I tried this out and 12 chapters, in it hasn't hooked me. The MC has yet to do anything to show he isn't a jerk while consistently "pretending" to be a jerk. There is no meaningful difference between pretending to be a jerk and being a jerk. At this point, it's been an entire month. You can be a jerk and not rape your wife. It's a very low bar to clear.
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Aug 20, 2022 01:45
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Lunatic Sledge posted:to be clear my patrons are very cool, I just assumed it was a fluke and I am history's greatest monster for taking advantage of them Nah, it's not just you, not at all. My patrons are absolutely incredible; I had to take a week off last year when insomnia got the better of me, and a couple of months ago I got covid and wasn't sure if I'd be able to complete a chapter that week. Both times I was fully expecting readers to be disappointed and maybe consider cancelling and stuff, but instead I got kind messages and encouragement and even a few people suggesting I should consider taking a week off by choice. I've heard similar stories from other web serial authors who've run into problems or had to skip a chapter because of an emergency or something. I think with patreon, without the barrier of a publisher or a storefront like amazon, it's much easier to be seen as a human being, doing this writing thing. When somebody buys a book in a shop or on Amazon, they don't really know how much of that price goes back to the person who wrote it, it's rare to draw a direct line between sales and what happens to the author, unless you go look up their blog or something. But on patreon, all that money goes directly to food and keeping my lights on, which keeps me writing. The relationship is more direct and easier to see the results: increased patron support literally bought me time to get a second chapter out for patrons, and is currently buying me time to get a second serial up. LLSix posted:I'd read it if it wasn't creepy. An awful lot of romance books are at least as creepy as cultivation serials so I'm not sure it's possible. Maybe if someone like Hungry wrote it. Haha, thanks. That's quite the compliment! I do take some comfort in the ability to write non-creepy romance.
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Aug 20, 2022 04:30
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Megazver posted:I continued my Rising Stars binge by checking out Immortality Starts With Generosity. Thanks for the recommendation. This was pretty enjoyable. It is hard to tell where the main character's actual personality and his paranoia fueled play acting diverge. Hopefully that will come a bit more into focus. I do think the author does a good job of having an over the top powerful cheat power that nonetheless does not seem at all poised to run out of control. There's a lot of good balancing factors that have been thought through. Local treasures are only so good. He can't upgrade the gifts he gives by giving them again. His own mediocre body and limited aptitude cap how quickly he can benefit from the super drugs he's producing. 100 times as good is not actually enough of a leap to jump between realms in one go. And of course, being weak but having unlimited wealth is an extremely dangerous position to be in.
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Aug 20, 2022 04:39
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TWI Patreon: No spoilers, but that is a loving dark chapter.
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Aug 21, 2022 02:00
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Ar'Kendrythist Patreon: drat. drat that was a good chapter. I love all the god conversations, but especially the ducks. Phagar is so rad.
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Aug 21, 2022 04:02
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TWI: Was very sad when we left the world of frenemy Persua; it was fun to read the what-ifs, although I feel it hewed too closely to the real timeline. She's a huge sociopath but maybe that ending is a chance at character development? Love me some redemption arcs
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Aug 21, 2022 04:14
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Wittgen posted:Ar'Kendrythist Patreon: drat. drat that was a good chapter. I love all the god conversations, but especially the ducks. Phagar is so rad. Melemizargo is awesome and I enjoy every time he shows up. If you wanted to be a dragon I would not be opposed, Erick. I would actually like it if you could join me at my level of power. You’d certainly be more of a god than all the other phantoms running around in this tiny world. “You’d still be lesser than me, though. Let’s not kid ourselves.” Edit: lmao “You should probably become a dragon just so no crazy people can crawl out of the woods and kill you when you least expect it.” Melemizargo said, “Those are the ones you really have to watch out for. The crazies. I should know; I used to be one of them. Peachfart fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Aug 21, 2022 |
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Aug 21, 2022 07:31
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hello darkness, my old friend. But yeah what a sick chapter. Easy to see why ol' Mel went nuts, it wasn't as simple as the manasphere going from an entire infinite universe to one planet. I think he was mostly just broken by the complete impossibility of the Sundering. and if he's not wrong about how he should have known... what the hell happened? The Darkness is basically God- his universe shouldn't have been able to end without his command, how could his avatar not have known?!. I like that Arcs can make you empathize with anyone though small moments like that.
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Aug 21, 2022 07:35
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I do have to wonder if he meant to destroy Erick's amulet of non-detection.
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Aug 21, 2022 07:50
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