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Thresholder's started the new world, and I guess I'll stick around a little while to see how rude the local farmers are.
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Apr 5, 2023 21:01
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blastron posted:On the topic of dungeons, The Daily Grind just got real great again. I do like the explorations of personhood, the political intrigue, and the building of a brighter future, but I started reading this for the dungeon delves. The story is at its best when James finds himself in a weird, hostile pocket dimension with strange hazards and stranger rewards, and so far this newest dungeon is not disappointing. I especially love it when the team finds itself at a massive disadvantage due to being underprepared or caught off guard, so the current situation where James is without any gear or backup and is forced to take care of a room full of civilians is perfect. I haven't been this excited for the next chapter of something for a while. I'm also still really enjoying Bioshifter if anyone's reading that. I haven't seen it mentioned lately? Hoping the hints of the church not being all wankers work out.
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Apr 5, 2023 21:02
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Thresholder's started the new world, and I guess I'll stick around a little while to see how rude the local farmers are. Neat, I'll have to catch back up.
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Apr 5, 2023 21:40
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90s Cringe Rock posted:This is a much better story than Thresholder, read it instead. the author pulled the going-to-KU first chapters a month in advance of the actual release, so now I can't 
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Apr 5, 2023 21:54
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TWI: Vol 7 Having seen the Emperor of Sands now, I have to wonder how the stitch people reproduce. Do they make a cloth doll? How do they handle growing up? I don't think a child of their kind has been shown so maybe they start off with adult bodies? Also having an end of the world-like battle versus moths in the first 1/3 of the book is an odd choice. That seems like the sort of thing you lead up to in the climax. I'm still enjoying these Emperor chapters too. They've all been hits for me pretty much. The real stand out chapter in this book so far was "Mrsha, the Great and Terrible" though. One of the best in the series so far.
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Apr 6, 2023 00:28
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90s Cringe Rock posted:This is a much better story than Thresholder, read it instead. i'm reading it for the earth parts, they're way more interesting than the fantasy world. i think its a combination of the fantasy journey feeling very aimless since the big chaos fight and not liking the robot character. she feels too hk-47 meme-y.
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Apr 6, 2023 01:19
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Super Supportive updated, and it continues to own bones. Joe rules.
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Apr 6, 2023 01:50
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Wittgen posted:Super Supportive updated, and it continues to own bones. Joe rules. he is the physical embodiment of the happily vindictive apathy of a college professor denied tenure, and it's amazing. the story has spent a lot of time setting up the subtext of how the Artorans take advantage of their colonies and are not nearly as benign or caring as they make themselves appear, and then Joe shows up and it's "oh, you sleep with one senator's wife and now everyone suddenly cares about all this "warcrime" nonsense, anyway you want some bioweapons? got a bunch left over I'm not really doing anything with." bit sad to see it fully switching to weekly so there can be Patreon advance chapters, but can't fault them, they definitely deserve to get a paycheck for this.
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Apr 6, 2023 02:24
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Kyoujin posted:Jackal Among Snakes is fun when they are exploring or dungeon diving but the scheming and politic chapters are rough. He always gets his way despite lying and manipulating and in the latest chapter Diana was set up to be a shrewd negotiator set on getting the best benefit for her people. She barely gets one word in and Argrave just monologues over her to set the conditions then she agrees without adding anything. Interesting, I kind of felt the opposite about Memoirs. The protagonist is always "I know best for reasons, but my secrets are none of your business" and everyone just buys it to the point it infuriated me (and convinced me the author was just doing it because they were making stuff up as they went along and didn't want to have to provide reasons). I mean, it kind of makes sense for the people she hires, but everyone else just goes with it too. There was even a scene with the sister where the sister asked her to stop keeping secrets and the protagonist agrees, then just immediately goes back to it and gets away with it.
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Apr 6, 2023 02:39
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Wittgen posted:Super Supportive updated, and it continues to own bones. Joe rules. Yeah, I'm really curious where this is going.
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Apr 6, 2023 03:46
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Bremen posted:Interesting, I kind of felt the opposite about Memoirs. The protagonist is always "I know best for reasons, but my secrets are none of your business" and everyone just buys it to the point it infuriated me (and convinced me the author was just doing it because they were making stuff up as they went along and didn't want to have to provide reasons). I mean, it kind of makes sense for the people she hires, but everyone else just goes with it too. There was even a scene with the sister where the sister asked her to stop keeping secrets and the protagonist agrees, then just immediately goes back to it and gets away with it. Funnily enough that secretive nature ends up loving her in regards to not communicating with the minions later on. Though I think the author keeping things close to the chest is a boon in my mind because the end-game is not nearly as revealed as in Jackal. There is some internal ruminations about it as well where she thinks it may be the original soul's shittiness leaking through that i vaguely recall. Anyways, the story is entertaining enough to keep reading at the moment for me. Dropped Jackal when A grave got crowned since it felt like that role...constrained the story into something I wasn't interested in, although my interest had been flagging for a little while before that.
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Apr 6, 2023 04:23
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Yeah the secretive stuff was annoying early on and do like that trying to keep all her cards close to her chest burned her hard during a big political event where she accidentally made herself a target and turned away even allied nobles. Which lead to her realizing she goofed and opening up to Evelyn. IIRC Leon also calls her out on not properly briefing her group since he is used to the way knights work. Scarlet and Rosa are slowly opening up to each other and that cliched interruption recently was pretty lame. Rosa is just the best and I hope we see Leon again soon so she can rip on both of them again.
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Apr 6, 2023 06:40
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shirunei posted:Dropped Jackal when A grave got crowned since it felt like that role...constrained the story into something I wasn't interested in, although my interest had been flagging for a little while before that.
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Apr 6, 2023 07:08
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Any other good villainess ones? I'm following Memoirs, Woes, and Villainess Wants to Make Money; my standards are not too high but the others I've found went below them because of their style/prose. Tori ended pretty unsatisfyingly, especially if you wanted to see her knock some sense into Alessa and have them become vaguely amiable acquaintances instead of... what happened. Agenda is still the best of them but is pretty much dead.
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Apr 6, 2023 07:24
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Wittgen posted:Super Supportive updated, and it continues to own bones. Joe rules. Yeah, I love how he basically goes "Yeah our colonialism is probably going to kill us all eventually, but whatever, not my problem"
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Apr 6, 2023 10:10
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Argue posted:Any other good villainess ones? I'm following Memoirs, Woes, and Villainess Wants to Make Money; my standards are not too high but the others I've found went below them because of their style/prose. I started reading "The Villainess Is An SS+ Rank Adventurer", is is kinda funny but I am not sure if it will keep up. It also moves away from the traditional villainess plot to adventure. "Be The Icy Beauty" started updating again, too. If you have really low standards.
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Apr 6, 2023 11:55
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All of your recs are making me want to check out super supportive
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Apr 6, 2023 14:11
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VictualSquid posted:I started reading "The Villainess Is An SS+ Rank Adventurer", is is kinda funny but I am not sure if it will keep up. It also moves away from the traditional villainess plot to adventure. I started the SS+ rank adventurer one but it was instantly obvious it was going to be a story about a naive royal being clueless about what was going on around her while making waves with her OP-ness and that just didn't interest me, so I dropped it. But I've mentioned that my preferred power fantasy is "making well reasoned choices" before. Other that the ones mentioned I can't think of any noteworthy villainess style stories. Pity because I think those are often pretty fun.
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Apr 6, 2023 16:14
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Selkie Myth posted:All of your recs are making me want to check out super supportive what's stopping you?
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Apr 6, 2023 16:21
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Super Supportive is so great. I've been thinking about how the last few chapters have really been examining how critical support networks are at every power level. The subtle thematic coherence of the story really adds a lot. We have seen the elite avowed and how they maintain their position by grouping together. We have seen the bottom of the barrel avowed and how they tread water by grouping together in boaters. Now we have seen how a colonizing super scientist needs the support of his contracted hires, some of who he is now sending our protagonist to save. So many superhero stories are about the power of the individual. Some people getting super powers lends itself to that theme. This story is eschewing that brilliantly while still making it clear that the protagonist is a good and heroic kid.
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Apr 6, 2023 16:32
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I liked when the professor was all “No, no. Let me think. I’m very good at [bribing people] usually.”
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Apr 6, 2023 16:42
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Lone Goat posted:what's stopping you? The daily quota of words and opening the mail in donations, presumably. Also the random house mango deliveries.
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Apr 6, 2023 16:45
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Only tangentially related to web serials but, is there a reason patreon will not show you how much a creator makes if you are subscribed to them? I subscribe to a few serial writers (as well as unrelated podcasts and stuff) on patreon, and for the smaller ones especially it's really annoying to not be able to see unless I open their pages on another browser where I am not logged in. Speaking of web serials, The Flower that Bloomed Nowhere just had a banger update a couple days ago reminding me to post that everyone should read it.
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Apr 6, 2023 18:03
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Insurrectionist posted:Only tangentially related to web serials but, is there a reason patreon will not show you how much a creator makes if you are subscribed to them? I subscribe to a few serial writers (as well as unrelated podcasts and stuff) on patreon, and for the smaller ones especially it's really annoying to not be able to see unless I open their pages on another browser where I am not logged in. They can choose to not show you their precise monthly income.
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Apr 6, 2023 18:10
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Megazver posted:They can choose to not show you their precise monthly income. But what's the point when it tells you the exact income if you are not subscribed (or just...logged out)? E: Also I know several of the creators I follow would have no interest in hiding how much they make at all so I doubt it's their doing, unless it's the default option. And literally everyone I've ever subbed to has been the same situation, visible when not subbed, can't find it anywhere after subbing while being logged in. Insurrectionist fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Apr 6, 2023 |
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Apr 6, 2023 18:20
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BadMedic posted:Yeah, I love how he basically goes "Yeah our colonialism is probably going to kill us all eventually, but whatever, not my problem" I feel like there's also some weirdness going on with the way Avowed are empowered that ties into the Chaos/demons/word-chain stuff (which likely all connect to the same metaphysics of the setting). There must be some reason that they don't seem to empower members of their own species in the same way they do vassal states. The main reason the colonialism analogy doesn't quite work is that, by all accounts, things aren't worse for humans as a result of the arrangement. The only people who can get hosed over are Avowed, and they still usually seem to think it's worth it. The only demand made of Earth/humans seems to be "let us recruit Avowed from a tiny percent of your population." I think it's possible that empowering the vassal species has some other negative effect tied into the story's metaphysics, though (which is also why they don't seemingly choose to empower themselves).
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Apr 6, 2023 18:33
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You're missing some big clues in the text, and some important information about colonialism in general if you think the colonialism stuff doesn't work. First and, there are humans who oppose the status quo relationship where Earth is a vassal state to the Artoans. Dissenters have been mentioned a few times. They are highly controversial, but they exist. Second, we don't know enough about the metaphysics to say with confidence how badly Earth is being exploited. Perhaps having the highest chaos potential members of your species automatically made into slaves is pretty crippling for magic using societies. Third, we know that what Earth as a whole is getting from the deal is not very good. The MC lists cell phones and the internet, technologies we do in fact have irl, as examples of the benefits Earth has reaped from this deal. The Artoans go out of their way to limit dissemination of information about magic. Finally and most crucially, you have to be careful before looking at a colonization situation and saying the colonized people are getting a good deal. Real colonial powers heavily leaned into the narrative that they were technologically and culturally superior, and they were helping the colonized people out. I'm sure we'll meet some alien that believes in the Artoan man's burden, but don't be that alien.
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Apr 6, 2023 19:15
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Ytlaya posted:I feel like there's also some weirdness going on with the way Avowed are empowered that ties into the Chaos/demons/word-chain stuff (which likely all connect to the same metaphysics of the setting). There must be some reason that they don't seem to empower members of their own species in the same way they do vassal states. My impression is that it ties in to the significant information divide that they explicitly maintain, and how that ties in the concept of "equivalent" exchange. If they were to hand someone like Joe these powers, he already knows what they can do and what they're worth, and would only agree if he knows he can handle the cost he'd have to pay. But you hand it to humanity who have no concept of it's true worth, and suddenly they've agreed to a massive amount of metaphysical debt the Artorans can quietly call on to do ???. Possibly multiple times - Joe implies they already gave us plans for flying cars (possibly written out on a single grain of rice that someone then ate), so at some point they could just give them to us again for a second hit. The ability of Chainers to somehow get more out of Wordchains than they put in probably ties into this as well - possibly the "resource" the Artorans are interested in is mostly just a sheer number of warm bodies to distribute their own consequences among.
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Apr 6, 2023 19:27
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Insurrectionist posted:But what's the point when it tells you the exact income if you are not subscribed (or just...logged out)? Sorry, I misread you. Yeah, weird.
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Apr 6, 2023 21:43
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Wittgen posted:You're missing some big clues in the text, and some important information about colonialism in general if you think the colonialism stuff doesn't work. It is colonialism for sure and I'm not implying that the Artonans are anything remotely resembling benevolent, but I don't think real-life colonialism works that well as a parallel to it (though there are still parallels in things like the attitudes of the colonizer towards their vassal states). In real-life colonialism, the colonizers are generally extracting wealth from the nations they colonize, while the Artonans are getting something different out of their particular form of colonialism. This is where I suspect the metaphysics comes into play. Also, in real life, arguments that countries are benefiting (or even just "not being harmed") by colonialism flat-out aren't true. In this one, you can compare it with our real world, and while (as you mention) you can conclude they they haven't reaped any notable benefits, you can also conclude from that same comparison that people aren't really worse off than they'd be otherwise (unless there's other information we haven't been given access to yet). The Artonans don't give much, but they also don't take much (at least in ways that are materially apparent, which is why I suspect they're actually taking more in some sort of magical/metaphysical sense). Earlier, I hypothesized that the nature of word-chains might play into this, where introducing that element of their culture to other "magically naive" civilizations effectively produces a bunch of ignorant counter-parties (and one of the few interactions we see between Artonans and Earth is the MC taking a class on word chains, plus knowing the Artonans only really respect the few humans who are skilled with word-chains and members of the Avowed ruling class). This would be sort of like a more magical version of the real-life attempts to make investing/trading easier for laypeople via tools like Robinhood (which is done with the intent of providing a bunch more counterparties for more institutional investors). Or something like making microloans accessible in developing nations. Basically magic might sorta be analogous to finance, with the form of exploitation being similar (and just like in the real world, you can end up with more "savvy" members of the native ruling class in the colonized area forming friendly relations with the colonizers) Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Apr 6, 2023 |
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Apr 6, 2023 22:56
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Ytlaya posted:It is colonialism for sure and I'm not implying that the Artonans are anything remotely resembling benevolent, but I don't think real-life colonialism works that well as a parallel to it (though there are still parallels in things like the attitudes of the colonizer towards their vassal states). In real-life colonialism, the colonizers are generally extracting wealth from the nations they colonize, while the Artonans are getting something different out of their particular form of colonialism. This is where I suspect the metaphysics comes into play. I agree that the main thing the Artonans are taking is probably metaphysical. Well, metaphysical and also slave-soldiers. I think there's a few clearcut cases of harm in addition to that though: I would consider inflicting supervillians on Earth a form of harm. Earth also has a yearly demon invasion thanks to the Artonans. So far, "Superheros" have been containing them, but Artonans don't organize or pay for that defense.
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Apr 6, 2023 23:15
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I bought a hard copy of The Last Tide comic by Pirateaba. It was a fun, short read, and I enjoyed seeing an artist come up with what Dullahans look like (kind like of freaky mannequins, since their parts are all scavenged, at least the ones in the story). I liked all the background about how Dullahans make great divers, since they can just leave their heads above water, and one of the characters uses a heavy, stone arm to sink herself, and a light, floaty driftwood arm to make herself rise (releasing the stone arm, when she wants to rise, and letting the Dullahan magic bring the arm up) I thought the MC had a bit of Erin-ness to her, in that she was gonna do what she is gonna do, no matter the consequences, but it wouldn't be much of a story, if the MC just followed common sense. That engine is gonna be crazy, world changing, if anyone from Wistram or an [Engineer] gets a hold of it. Also, why is every dwarf outside of their Terendia kingdoms have some kind of horrible, tragic story. Ok, maybe just Pelt, but I was thinking, dwarves need some kind of mental health assistance.
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Apr 6, 2023 23:20
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I'm having a lot of fun with the ad I got on Royal Road. Endless entertainment!
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Apr 7, 2023 06:03
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I'm actually quite enjoying The Villainess Is An SS+ Rank Adventurer that was mentioned earlier. It's a bit of a misname, it's not really a villainess story but it's simple and a comedy and a good short light read each daily chapter.
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Apr 7, 2023 07:21
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Ytlaya posted:It is colonialism for sure and I'm not implying that the Artonans are anything remotely resembling benevolent, but I don't think real-life colonialism works that well as a parallel to it (though there are still parallels in things like the attitudes of the colonizer towards their vassal states). In real-life colonialism, the colonizers are generally extracting wealth from the nations they colonize, while the Artonans are getting something different out of their particular form of colonialism. This is where I suspect the metaphysics comes into play. Yeah it's not an exact 1:1 comparison to IRL colonialism, but I disagree that they are not extracting wealth. My take is the Artonans are a nearly post-scarcity civ, so material wealth in general is worthless to them. That side bit where a Rabbit makes like what, $50k an hour folding napkins very much shows the wealth disparity between them. So they are extracting wealth, but in a more metaphysical sense with the Avowed. And if that's the point you were making uh whoops I guess I am aggressively agreeing with you? Also my take is the Artonans don't become Avowed because the Avowed system is just a controlled way to make use of your inherent magic power. So the vassal states get 'given' the system, while the Artonans learn to just outright use their magic power. Final bit is the story has shown how metaphysically 'important' a fair deal/trade is, but such a huge power/knowledge imbalance between Earth and the Artonans can make a 'fair' deal extremely unfair. I think the Artonans have made a science of extracting the most value out of a 'fair' trade in this setting. I get "natives selling their land for glass beads" vibes from the deals earth has made. also whoops holy CIA document batman
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Apr 7, 2023 14:04
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Finished Vol 7 of TWI. It's neat to see more and more people recognizing the personhood of the goblins. A few drakes and gnolls in Liscor realizing that the hobs there have been nothing but good. Selis finally getting her grandmother to approve them as adventurers. Even Sir Kerrig and (to a lesser extent) Lady Caveis have started to recognize them as not mere monsters but thinking people. That gives me some hope that Erin won't remain the only person willing to treat them with respect. Goblins continue to rule. Edit: Kind of funny how Niers has seen his chess friend now, he just doesn't know she was the one holding the inn in the defense of Liscor On to Vol 8. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Apr 7, 2023 |
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Apr 7, 2023 18:13
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Faldoncow posted:I'm actually quite enjoying The Villainess Is An SS+ Rank Adventurer that was mentioned earlier. It's a bit of a misname, it's not really a villainess story but it's simple and a comedy and a good short light read each daily chapter. Yeah I have no idea why it's titled that. It didn't even start as a Villainess story that pivoted away.
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Apr 7, 2023 20:24
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The writer of Millennial Mage is a right wing nut if anyone wasn’t aware
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Apr 7, 2023 21:03
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shades of blue posted:The writer of Millennial Mage is a right wing nut if anyone wasn’t aware That's really surprising if true. What'd they do? The initial story arc is pretty much just, "school debt is crazy and awful." The theme for the first 100+ chapters is, "hey, maybe workplace regulations exist for a reason and shouldn't be ignored." Although I guess all the "listen to your elders" stuff might have been a hint. LLSix fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Apr 7, 2023 |
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Apr 7, 2023 21:19
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edit: no wait, wrong serial I guess add them to the list along with Paranoid Mage
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Apr 7, 2023 21:46
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