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Pavlov posted:drat. I'll admit, Pact was kind of a slow burn getting there, but it's really starting to deliver. I feel like the first 7 arcs of Pact could be summarized into a quick 2 and start the story here. I'm really enjoying the story now where I was at the point of dropping it in the Conquest arc.
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Jul 29, 2014 15:48
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Getting a sort of Dark Souls vibe from the place where people who fall through the cracks go. This sense of hopelessness and misery, where letting yourself get used to it costs you a piece of your Self.
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Jul 29, 2014 21:19
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Is anyone else really, REALLY feeling the whole 'Johannes is Blake' thing from the latest chapter? There really feels like there's a lot pointing to it - except for the fact that time magic hasn't actually been shown to be a thing yet.
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Aug 2, 2014 09:10
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Nah, Johannes feels too amoral. If we know anything of Blake, it's that he has compunctions. If he gave that up, he'd lose.
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Aug 2, 2014 10:06
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9.3 > I was gonna say, "He's totally gonna take The Cracks as a Demesnes", but then I realised, that's kind of what Johannes has done, the escape Blake is looking for may be an escape into his domain. Getting the feel that they're similar and might get along, but not that they're the same person.
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Aug 2, 2014 13:50
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Clearly I am a bit of a dumb-dumb because I have no clue what is going on anymore. You need to face your (metaphorical) demons and a way out appears? This place is essentially where some of the more creepy Others (probably Corvidae and Tallowman etc.) chill until they are summoned by practicioners? I can totally buy the Blake/Rose thing being granny's plan though.
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Aug 2, 2014 14:39
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I'm just viewing it as a spiritual journey, the lost and broken need to make peace with themselves and reach enlightenment and this healing will be the process by which he escapes. Or something.
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Aug 2, 2014 15:16
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I'm ok with it being a spiritual journey, but that doesn't make sense in the context of things; being eaten by a demon. I'm not too concerned though; I have faith in wildbow that it'll all work out.
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Aug 2, 2014 16:17
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I didn't mean to say literally, he's obviously there I agree.
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Aug 2, 2014 16:19
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As far as I can tell, this place is all about destroying parts of people, which absolutely fits with being captured (not eaten) by a demon of the first choir. The things left over afterwards are the metaphorical rubble after the earthquake, and some of them become Erasur's "children". It might be a good idea to go re-read arc 7's Histories, actually - I'll go do that now.
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Aug 2, 2014 17:05
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Blake got most of his connections irrevocably destroyed and the ones that remained weren't enough to keep him in the material world. So he fell to where all of reality's flotsam accumulates and gets broken down. If you stay you probably get ground down to nothing or what remains of you gets absorbed into the place. Basically the place itself presses down on whoever gets stuck there and forces them to choose between relative comfort/a release from the pressure by giving up on a part of themselves, and staying more or less whole and human but having to deal with the pressure. There may be ways to get back to the normal world. For example, if you give up enough of yourself to become a monster you can go back or be summoned back to the material world. Blake's visions (and fears) of the past, present and future are things that keep him human, but are used by Limbo to put even more pressure on him. It's unlikely that if he gives up on them he'd be able to find a way back as a human, reducing his choices to either staying and being slowly worn away, or staying until he can leave as a monster. The only other option he has is to confront them, which is what he's trying to do with 'Carl'.
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Aug 2, 2014 17:41
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Also the "lawyers" really don't want Blake getting out but individual lawyers may be able to subvert their orders to an extent, of course Ms. Lewis may have also completely accidentally passed on good advice to Blake thanks to "karma" and reality having Blake's back (it really wants Rose dealt with) in a horribly tortured and round about way.
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Aug 2, 2014 17:49
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Carl:
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Aug 2, 2014 18:45
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NecroMonster posted:Also the "lawyers" really don't want Blake getting out but individual lawyers may be able to subvert their orders to an extent, of course Ms. Lewis may have also completely accidentally passed on good advice to Blake thanks to "karma" and reality having Blake's back (it really wants Rose dealt with) in a horribly tortured and round about way. Yeah, based on Ms. Lewis's conversation I feel like she did her best to subvert her own orders and help Blake out. She gave Blake a LOT of information he didn't have, like that Mags remembers him and that he can lie. She just can't blatantly do stuff like help him escape personally or she'll have to "bill" him for her time, as she said.
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Aug 2, 2014 19:54
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I'm not convinced that Johannes is Blake yet, but the symbolic connections are definitely too strong for their connection to be a coincidence. Also, I don't think Johannes' previous interactions with Blake and Rose really seem consistent with a Johannes-is-Blake interpretation. On a different note, the Witch mentioned that she hasn't met anyone with three "anchors" before. With 3 being a magic number on top of being unusual, it looks like Blake is probably not going to be taking one of the usual routs out of the Compost. Hawkgirl posted:Yeah, based on Ms. Lewis's conversation I feel like she did her best to subvert her own orders and help Blake out. She gave Blake a LOT of information he didn't have, like that Mags remembers him and that he can lie. She just can't blatantly do stuff like help him escape personally or she'll have to "bill" him for her time, as she said. Also this. Ms. Lewis is an ancient and powerful diabolist. She knew exactly what she was telling him, and didn't let anything slip without a reason. That does mean though, that the Firm might still be trying to manipulate Blake, but that they're only interested if he manages to break out trial-by-fire style.
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Aug 2, 2014 20:02
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I really doubt the firm as an entity wants Blake out. He is and will be a lovely "diabolist" from their angle, while Rose is basically exactly what they want, and the chances of Blake not wrecking Rose's poo poo if he gets free are frankly low.
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Aug 2, 2014 20:07
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NecroMonster posted:I really doubt the firm as an entity wants Blake out. He is and will be a lovely "diabolist" from their angle, while Rose is basically exactly what they want, and the chances of Blake not wrecking Rose's poo poo if he gets free are frankly low. See that's kind of hard to tell. We still don't know what the Firm really wants, just a vague idea of what they do. They have the ability to take away someone's bad karma, something that Isadora, a powerful being of karmic balance, doesn't seem capable of. Hell, they can somehow work off that karma even while spending all their time helping diabolists and consorting with demons. None of the members of the Firm, even the ones in charge, want to work there, but they're still somehow forced to. I wouldn't be surprised if the Firm itself was actually some form of abstract demon. Its possible it removes their karma by severing all their connections, kind of in the same way Blake seems to be free of his bad Karma now. They don't want to mess up their deal with Rose Sr. because they're obviously under some sort of contract, but I doubt they really care about the outcome as long as they've held up their end of the bargain. I'm pretty sure they're playing a different game altogether, we just don't know exactly what that game is yet. Also notice the language Ms. Lewis uses when she turns Blake down. She says that he has served his purpose, he is spent, and that he's wasting her time right now. It leaves them perfectly open to the potential of dealing with him later, without being obvious that they may plan to. Whatever it is they're actually doing, it's still possible Blake could play a role in it.
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Aug 2, 2014 20:37
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Pavlov posted:They have the ability to take away someone's bad karma, something that Isadora, a powerful being of karmic balance, doesn't seem capable of. They don't remove someone's bad karma so much as they remove their name, and the karma is removed as a consequence.
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Aug 2, 2014 21:04
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TheRagamuffin posted:They don't remove someone's bad karma so much as they remove their name, and the karma is removed as a consequence. If you get changed to an other/demon, do you then lose all your karma?
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Aug 2, 2014 22:47
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TheRagamuffin posted:They don't remove someone's bad karma so much as they remove their name, and the karma is removed as a consequence.
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Aug 2, 2014 22:57
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The problem is that names have power, and abandoning your name is probably on par with just holding on to your negative karma as poor game plans go. Furthermore, the Firm seems to be able to pull your rear end from the fire into their frying pan at the drop of a hat. Sure, there may be better ways of achieving what they offer, but I'm sure none of those ways can be pulled off with anything approaching the alacrity of shouting three names three times and saying "I'll take your offer."
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Aug 3, 2014 02:09
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Tollymain posted:The problem is that names have power, and abandoning your name is probably on par with just holding on to your negative karma as poor game plans go. It could even be a self-replicating cycle, if the firm truly is able to do what they say. Send out offers and demonic know-how to their "targets" and hopeful clients, watch a few be successful and the rest go horribly awry, then the practitioners get to chose between being at the mercy of the demons they've summoned or getting their slate wiped clean (with centuries of servitude).
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Aug 3, 2014 02:56
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So let me get this straight. Blake is being haunted by three things: Carl (his past); visions of Rose and his friends (the present); and dreams of what he might become to escape (the future). Yeah, no way those three time periods aren't significant somehow. The only thing I'm left to wonder is if we are seeing the events in the present as they actually are, or if there is editing going on to maximize the grind-down effect on Blake.
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Aug 3, 2014 04:27
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Something I just thought of, I'm betting now that the whole reason the firm wanted Blake to read Black Lamb's Blood was specifically so that he would try to be a "good" diabolist and get himself killed off that much faster.
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Aug 3, 2014 21:07
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Hawkgirl posted:Something I just thought of, I'm betting now that the whole reason the firm wanted Blake to read Black Lamb's Blood was specif fically so that he would try to be a "good" diabolist and get himself killed off that much faster. Wasn't it Lewis that gave him that condition? After the last update, it's equally possible that the Firm's still got Plans for him or that she's running her own game. If she has her own plans, then she may legitimately want him to escape and continue trying to be a good diabolist... Of course, it's still possible she doesn't actually want him to succeed.
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Aug 3, 2014 22:03
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Tollymain posted:On a completely different subject, has anybody else read Hero Historia? It seems interesting, but I haven't formed anything more of an opinion on it yet. Whatever else its flaws, it appears to update quickly. This is mine. I've managed to update it regularly so far on a single 2-3k episode/week schedule. It's got a shorter episodic format - arcs of 12 episodes that have few common elements - but there's always the possibility of revisiting past arcs and expanding upon them with sequels. psychopomp fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Aug 4, 2014 |
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Aug 4, 2014 06:25
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Oh hey, another writer of serials! How do you get word out to people that you're writing one? Muse's Success seems to be taking an awfully long time to list anything and WFG is even worse for speed.
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Aug 4, 2014 17:07
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I just waited for WFG and Muse. I also have some stuff up on Wattpad... one of my stories was picked up and featured and has gotten 15k views, but that hasn't turned into any increase in views on anything else. There's also http://tuesdayserial.com/
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Aug 4, 2014 17:45
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Question for you and for readers, too, I guess: how do you guys feel about daily or almost daily releases of 1k-3k words each? I write fast and I'm impatient to get the story out but is releasing scene by scene rather than chapter by chapter a bad idea?
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Aug 4, 2014 18:38
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Personally I prefer longer updates with more time in between. Preferably per scene yes.
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Aug 4, 2014 19:36
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Namarrgon posted:Personally I prefer longer updates with more time in between. Preferably per scene yes. +1. If I had to try and keep up with reading once a day I wouldn't be interested. 2 or 3 updates a week is pretty good pacing.
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Aug 4, 2014 20:13
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Fair enough! Thank you for the feedback.  Out of interest, is 5k words per twice-weekly update too much?
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Aug 4, 2014 20:23
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That depends on you really and how much you can keep up, I don't find Pact too much or too long, but I'm used to his style of writing and I'm interested in the story enough to read through it every week.
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Aug 4, 2014 20:30
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chthonic bell posted:Fair enough! Thank you for the feedback. Whenever Pact updates I find a nice dark warm corner of the house, curl up and start reading so there really is no such thing as 'too long' as far as I'm concerned.
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Aug 4, 2014 20:42
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I think it really comes down to how smooth your prose is and how used to your prose the readers are. We're all used to Wildbow by now and he also tends to write very smoothly, so big updates are fine. I think it was very smart of him to start Worm with smaller updates though because it allowed readers to ease in to the way he writes.
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Aug 4, 2014 20:57
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Hawkgirl posted:I think it really comes down to how smooth your prose is and how used to your prose the readers are. We're all used to Wildbow by now and he also tends to write very smoothly, so big updates are fine. I think it was very smart of him to start Worm with smaller updates though because it allowed readers to ease in to the way he writes. Agreed. If his early chapters were as long as the later ones I don't know if I would have powered through it.
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Aug 4, 2014 21:38
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Well I didnt really expect that wild guess to be true but here we are.
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Aug 5, 2014 05:53
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..holy gently caress, the twist in that last chapter was something I literally did not see coming in the slightest bit. drat.
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Aug 5, 2014 06:18
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By the way, I bit the bullet and re-started my serial. The first update, circa 4k words, is up. Next chapter's gonna be up Friday. I know I'm no Wildbow, but I hope it's worth a look. It's up on Celestial Abyss.
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Aug 5, 2014 06:38
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OmniBeer posted:..holy gently caress, the twist in that last chapter was something I literally did not see coming in the slightest bit. Me either, I don't read the comments too much so I didn't encounter the idea that way either. Nice misdirection on Wildbow's part.
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Aug 5, 2014 07:10
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