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Tollymain posted:Get a turtle, they live for loving ever. Cat gave up the ghost with granny. Probably not subject to usual lifespans.
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Jan 2, 2014 21:00
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veekie posted:Cat gave up the ghost with granny. Probably not subject to usual lifespans. It's not about the reality of the animal's lifespan, it's about appearances. If somebody keeps a turtle all their life, not really a thing that sticks out you know?
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Jan 2, 2014 21:27
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Tollymain posted:Get a turtle, they live for loving ever. Honey badger! 
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Jan 2, 2014 22:17
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Yeah I like Urban Fantasy for the really awesome world building. I think it is my favorite part about the Dresden Files. I'm looking forward to this, though I would have read any of these with my least favorite being the Battle Royale style one.
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Jan 3, 2014 17:03
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Ok, I finally read pact 1.2-1.4, and I'm quite impressed. I think it will be a good read.
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Jan 3, 2014 19:30
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Lyon posted:Yeah I like Urban Fantasy for the really awesome world building. I think it is my favorite part about the Dresden Files. I'm looking forward to this, though I would have read any of these with my least favorite being the Battle Royale style one. I really loathed the Dresden Files. They were easy to read and went by fast but had absolutely no substance. I read a few on plane trips but nothing in them carried any weight. The world felt insubstantial because it felt like there were no characters to care about or even a particularly well thought out world to pit the high stakes against. I hope for more from Pact.
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Jan 4, 2014 03:29
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Neurosis posted:I really loathed the Dresden Files. They were easy to read and went by fast but had absolutely no substance. I read a few on plane trips but nothing in them carried any weight. The world felt insubstantial because it felt like there were no characters to care about or even a particularly well thought out world to pit the high stakes against. Dresden Files gets better around Book 4. Jim Butcher definitely has some weaknesses with characterization, though, which are even worse in his Codex Alera books (at least Harry Dresden himself is a pretty good character). He's fond of the trick of creating a character by combining a character archetype/trope from one genre with a character archetype/trope from another genre, which sometimes works but is often disastrous. For example, Tavi, the protagonist of Codex Alera, is simultaneously the competent-man hero of a straight-faced military/spy story and the main character of a Shonen Jump manga. (In other words, he's a Mary Sue.)
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Jan 4, 2014 05:04
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New website is here
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Jan 4, 2014 06:26
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Silver2195 posted:Dresden Files gets better around Book 4. Jim Butcher definitely has some weaknesses with characterization, though, which are even worse in his Codex Alera books (at least Harry Dresden himself is a pretty good character). He's fond of the trick of creating a character by combining a character archetype/trope from one genre with a character archetype/trope from another genre, which sometimes works but is often disastrous. For example, Tavi, the protagonist of Codex Alera, is simultaneously the competent-man hero of a straight-faced military/spy story and the main character of a Shonen Jump manga. (In other words, he's a Mary Sue.) I read to book 4 or 5 or something and realised it was going nowhere and was horrified that there were really kids in the setting that thought turning into dogs was a superpower so they would be crime fighters. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Jan 5, 2014 |
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Jan 4, 2014 09:24
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1.5 is also up and its good. Not great but good. Really liked the trap Laird set for him, clever and well written.
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Jan 4, 2014 11:18
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There's a link to Web Fiction Guide on the new site. Is WFG any good as a source for finding more decent stuff?
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Jan 4, 2014 20:57
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I'm halfway through 25.3 of Worm and holy poo poo is Taylor becoming unlikeable. Thrusting others into danger for her own sense of entitlement, being manipulative as gently caress and continually getting away with it. Making it hard to read at times.
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Jan 7, 2014 06:29
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Pact 1.5: hot drat, Wildbow continues to be a master at "things look like they can't get any worse (until they do)".
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Jan 7, 2014 15:13
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Why do the people of this podunk town have such a boner for property values? Was it something Laird explained and I missed? Also, if salt harms these Others, wouldn't Blake want to weaponize it, like with a shotgun firing rock salt?
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Jan 7, 2014 16:03
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Have you ever been in a town that was looking to become a city in the next decade or so? That aside, there's only one good candidate for releasing Barbatorem, and that's Molly. Which doesn't really jive with her death very well. Illusion? I guess we'll find out 
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Jan 7, 2014 16:12
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Tollymain posted:Have you ever been in a town that was looking to become a city in the next decade or so?
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Jan 7, 2014 18:30
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Tollymain posted:Have you ever been in a town that was looking to become a city in the next decade or so? I have not; I've lived in small towns and large cities, but not really anything in between. I always assumed going from a town to a city happened more or less organically as more people moved to an area.
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Jan 7, 2014 18:54
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quote:He exists in a more abstract capacity, whatever physical forms he takes, and if his image is cast in a surface, he will exist in that surface, allowing him to step free of that surface and the confines of the circle Got my suspicions on where he is, Rose only manifested at the approximate time that Barbatorem must have been released, and his form is malleable.
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Jan 7, 2014 19:03
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Oh. Haha. Barbatorem roughly translates to beard, and is part of the etymology of the word barber. Seeing as the name is Granny Thorburn's idea of a joke, I'm guessing that the shears are a visual manifestation of the demon testing the circle. Alternatively, somebody knew about the demon, and took them out? Seems highly unlikely considering the placement of the shears and the sheer hiddenness of the whole affair.
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Jan 7, 2014 19:20
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^ I don't get wizard humor.  What's the joke? ^veekie posted:Got my suspicions on where he is, Rose only manifested at the approximate time that Barbatorem must have been released, and his form is malleable. If that's true, then someone must have ignored (intentionally, I suppose) the warnings about not bringing anything reflective into the room. There's also the question of how Rose can transfer from mirror to mirror with ease, as that doesn't fit with the quote you included.
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Jan 7, 2014 21:43
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Grundulum posted:If that's true, then someone must have ignored (intentionally, I suppose) the warnings about not bringing anything reflective into the room. There's also the question of how Rose can transfer from mirror to mirror with ease, as that doesn't fit with the quote you included.
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Jan 8, 2014 00:49
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Algid posted:It could just be that she's stuck inside Blake's eyes. I took that warning to be about him getting possessed.
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Jan 8, 2014 01:26
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NinjaDebugger posted:I took that warning to be about him getting possessed. That seemed incredibly obvious to me too 
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Jan 8, 2014 07:52
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NinjaDebugger posted:I took that warning to be about him getting possessed. Algid fucked around with this message at 08:22 on Jan 8, 2014 |
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Jan 8, 2014 08:18
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So why is this extremely abstract Other masquerading as a human with a consistent if anomalous history, accurately mimicking human emotions, and generally acting generally in the better interests of their would-be captor? Even their attempts to prevent Blake from going upstairs could simply be human fear for him and themselves. I think that possession in this case would be complete, utterly unmistakeable, and that Blake would not be the viewpoint character that he's been. Tollymain fucked around with this message at 08:35 on Jan 8, 2014 |
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Jan 8, 2014 08:33
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It's been brought up that Others can be extremely subtle if they want to be, so I expect we'll find out soon enough.
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Jan 8, 2014 08:50
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So I've held off on reading any of what Wildbow had done after Worm until tonight. I'd been rooting for Pact to be the next work based purely on liking urban fantasy, and not liking the other stuff so much as far as genre goes I just read Pact 1.1 and that's quite a thing. I really feel like you can see Wildbow's growth as an author in this, when compared to Worm 1.1. This had way more happening and I feel we get a better grasp of characters, and the dynamics between them.
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Jan 8, 2014 11:02
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Neurosis posted:I'm halfway through 25.3 of Worm and holy poo poo is Taylor becoming unlikeable. Thrusting others into danger for her own sense of entitlement, being manipulative as gently caress and continually getting away with it. Making it hard to read at times. If it makes any difference, Tecton agrees with you. In the end, Golem is the only one on the team that appreciates being pushed like this.
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Jan 10, 2014 18:54
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Lord_Pigeonbane posted:If it makes any difference, Tecton agrees with you. In the end, Golem is the only one on the team that appreciates being pushed like this. I have read on. I'm up to 26.5. I shed a tear for Dragon. Saint had no particular right to be the policeman of the world's best AI. He probably stopped a technological singularity which might create a Utopia. Taylor is getting a little bit more understandable but she's still a bit of a megalomaniac who I think will turn into another Doctor Mother in 20 years if she survives this. Theo seems like a decent guy... Although I get the impression he probably wants to gently caress Weaver. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Jan 10, 2014 |
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Jan 10, 2014 19:08
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Pact 1.7 is up. It seems the person who began the "process of elimination two thousand and six hundred years in the making" was Solomon, not Zoroaster. Apparently Wildbow made a mistake; Solomon lived almost 3000 years ago.
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Jan 11, 2014 06:22
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I'm so close to the end of worm. I hope there's a happy ending :3 29.4.
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Jan 11, 2014 06:33
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Silver2195 posted:Pact 1.7 is up. Current bet, bind Rose as the familiar.
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Jan 11, 2014 09:44
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I'm not sure of the amount of crossover in fandom between cape comics and Worm readers, but reading Worm has reminded me a lot of a current ongoing comic called Suicide Risk by Mike Carey. There are some similarities in that the way the powers work is a bit unconventional and a little more creative than is the norm for cape books, that villains are as common if not more than superheroes, and that the focus is almost exclusively on the capes. Mike Carey has written some really good non-cape books so even though it's only a dozen issues in I have a lot of confidence in it.
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Jan 11, 2014 17:09
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veekie posted:Current bet, bind Rose as the familiar. poo poo. I bet that is right.
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Jan 11, 2014 22:34
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veekie posted:Current bet, bind Rose as the familiar. Man, Rose's situation sucks. Imagine how it would feel if everything you knew and remembered about your life, even the fact that you existed at all, if all evidence pointed to all of it just being magical fabrication. If you weren't real, basically.
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Jan 11, 2014 22:44
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Tollymain posted:Man, Rose's situation sucks. Imagine how it would feel if everything you knew and remembered about your life, even the fact that you existed at all, if all evidence pointed to all of it just being magical fabrication. If you weren't real, basically. All her attributes point to being some kind of Other from the start. Normal people don't live in reflections. Normal reflections can't punch and break images from the inside. Even magic capable humans can't do the things she do. But, an Other of Barbatorum's class might exist like she does, though it begs the question of if she was created whole cloth or something else bound into that image and memory.
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Jan 11, 2014 23:05
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veekie posted:All her attributes point to being some kind of Other from the start. Normal people don't live in reflections. Normal reflections can't punch and break images from the inside. Even magic capable humans can't do the things she do. But, an Other of Barbatorum's class might exist like she does, though it begs the question of if she was created whole cloth or something else bound into that image and memory. Whatever the case may be, it still makes pretty much everything she knows "not real".
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Jan 11, 2014 23:30
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veekie posted:Current bet, bind Rose as the familiar. Makes a lot of sense, in a way. I have to admit, I love the little hints as to whether Rose could be a manifestation of Barbatorum, or related to him in some fashion. The use of the young child in the ritual to bind him makes me think that it's being set up as a sort of escape route, especially with the familial connection and his apparent trickiness. There's also the element of Rose's freaking out whenever Blake tries to pull up more information on him, and this little point in the chapter. Pact, Chapter 1.7 posted:“I’m going to check on the barber again, if that’s okay? I won’t say or do anything. I just think it’s good to check.” This, especially considering that the first time Blake actually sees Barbatorum emerge from a reflective surface, reads like a hint that Barbatorum that they're related or are the same being. At the same time, there's enough contrary evidence, such as his inability to enter the home of a non-Practitioner uninvited, that shows she might not be. Right now, I'm gonna bet on "related Other who draws from his powers and existence by way of the small child who was involved in the ritual to bind him," because that would make the most sense. Or it might just be over-analysis - I'm just having fun trying to unwind the little hints he's tossing into the story. For those on the fence - Pact is shaping up really well, and the rules that he's set in the universe are going to be interesting as hell. Glad I read Worm, and even more glad that I was around to read the start of another web serial by Wildbow. First time I've ever donated to a web author, at least.
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Jan 12, 2014 06:43
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veekie posted:Current bet, bind Rose as the familiar. I think it's quite clear this is going to happen, simply because of how familiars are generally represented in urban fantasy. If he gets a normal familiar it'll be like having two familiars. Something that is in even more support of this is that Rose's life is already tied to his, or suspected to be tied to his, like a familiar. quote:Also, if salt harms these Others, wouldn't Blake want to weaponize it, like with a shotgun firing rock salt? Carry on my wayward sooooooon, there'll be peace when you are done, lay your weary head to reeeest, don't you cry no more. *guitar solo
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Jan 13, 2014 05:24
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So, Pact just what the hell is Rose, how could that old bitch have had the time to set "Rose" up in the little time she had. Anyway, it seems like granny expected Molly wasn't going to make it but couldn't just go with Blake as a first choice after the rules she set and thus could not break, so she put Blake second. This makes me believe that the order is likely more important that just Blake being second, in fact it makes me suspicious of Paige, very very suspicious of Paige. Even more suspicious is that, if Paige was really that wrong, why not just remove her from the list of possibles? If she can add Blake to that list surely she must have been able to out and out remove someone. Is Paige already "Awake" and involved in this supernatural poo poo maybe? I don't really have anything else to say we don't have enough information for me to really do any solid speculating at this point.
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Jan 13, 2014 10:12
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