Posted by Karbo 14 years ago Report

Eh ben putain !
Quelles histoires ! Incroyable les émotion que tu arrives à y mettre o.o
J'ai particulièrement aimé celle d'Isham. J'ai tout lu d'une traite. Tu es arrivé à rendre Peana attachante si vite.. ça m'a fait mal de la voir se faire manger T_T

Vraiment passionnant ! Tu serais pas écrivain ? ^_^

Posted by French_snack 14 years ago Report

Merci! Ca me fait vraiment plaisir. Pour Peana, c'est exactement ce que je recherchais. Je voulais la rendre attachante rapidement, pour que, comme tu dis, ça fasse mal de la voir se faire manger... Mais sans présenter Milly comme un monstre sans coeur pour autant.

Et puis j'avais quelques doutes sur la manière dont j'écrivais les émotions, donc merci, j'apprécie le feedback!

Non, je ne suis pas écrivain. :p J'aime bien écrire, et je suis content simplement de pouvoir partager mes histoires ici. :)

On reverra Isham dans pas trop longtemps, je pense.

Posted by Jacquelope 14 years ago Report

Wow. Now Isham is definitely behaving like a normal person.

Was Jade planning on taking him to Negav city by any chance?

Posted by French_snack 14 years ago Report

That's how a normal person behaves, then? :)

I think Jade has her own special safe haven for humans.

Posted by Jacquelope 14 years ago Report

Normally, people freak out when they see someone else get swallowed, especially alive.

Felarya is an odd place in that humans who are spared by preds are raised to not mind seeing their own kind get eaten, but no one ever raises a human-friendly fairy (Rin and Cypress are the human-friendly Big Preds that I've seen yet). Very unbalanced and unreal.

Isham on the other hand is quite real. He panics and freaks out about it. Jade, on the other hand... what is her angle? Is she a Big Pred who protects humans or is there an ulterior motive? Yeah, I'm definitely waiting for 2b!

Posted by French_snack 14 years ago Report

Thanks for the comment on Isham, then. :) Both of these stories were, to a significant extent, about outsiders (Joanna and Isham) trying to cope with Felarya, on an emotional and ethical level as well as on the simple issue of survival.

I think the reason why there are more predator-friendly humans than human-friendly fairies (for example) is that fairies in Felarya are in their natural habitat, where there's little chance of them being raised that way, whereas humans are outsiders, adapting and assimilating.

There are a few human-friendly big preds. Anna doesn't eat humans, although I wouldn't call her "friendly". Katrika (Zoekin's character) didn't initially, but then developped a taste for them. Jade (who's Ravana3k's character, not mine) actually does attempt to protect humans, and doesn't eat them. He has a few stories about her on DA.

2b will be a couple of stories, one centred on Milly and one on a new character. This is the "flashes" series, so they won't be a direct continuation of 2a; they're all independent short stories. But I can tell you we will be seeing Isham again, in another story.

Posted by oldman40k2003 14 years ago Report

The second story was good, and a rather realistic portrayal of a very strange relationship.

Posted by French_snack 14 years ago Report

Thank you! That was the idea.

Posted by timing2 14 years ago Report

I enjoyed the story a great deal except for a couple small things. The Jade rescue seemed somewhat tacked on. It didn't really flow with the rest of the story. I can see where you were going with it, but in the end the story may have been better off without it.

Isham as a character is quite resilient, all things considered. But I think him forgiving Milly happened a bit too quickly. What she did to him was beyond monstrous and some things in life cannot be forgiven. Buried or shoved aside, even forgotten, perhaps but not forgiven. I also find it difficult to see Isham ever getting used to Milly eating people. If he did it would almost have to be something akin to a holocaust survivor who's seen so much horror they literally become dead inside. If that were to happen I think the spark of uniqueness about him would be extinguished and he would become but a shell of his former self.

Posted by French_snack 14 years ago Report

Thank you for your comment. Yes, the Jade rescue did sort of appear out of nowhere... It may have been a bit clumsy, but the sudden outside interruption entering a "closed world" was what I was aiming for. Also, it gave Isham the opportunity to choose to stay.

Your point on his forgiving Milly is interesting... and quite right, of course. I tried to show it as a 'natural' evolution, but I did feel it might have been a bit rushed. One thing I was trying to do is bring together characters who had completely different moral standpoints. Milly honestly considers herself as a rather nice, friendly person. The only way Isham could forgive her was by seeing that her perspective was completely different to a normal human one. As I see it, it's not a matter of him becoming "dead inside", but of becoming "Felaryan" in a sense (and to a limited extent). Shifting partway to another kind of "normalcy". I faced the problem of wanting him to be human, and hence horrified by what Milly does... and yet be able to see, gradually, that from her perspective she's not a monster, and that in her own way she's a nice person.

I played along the same lines with Tina and Joanna. Tina is Felaryan-born, and she just accepts the fact that Milly eats people. Joanna, an outsider, feels extremely uncomfortable about it, despite the fact that Milly saved her life. She's having trouble adapting. Her sense of morals is like ours, whereas Tina, in some ways, is my "coldest" character - although she's kind to her friends.

Posted by timing2 14 years ago Report

I figured the Jade incident was the opportunity for Isham to escape the horror that was being offered. You did a good job all things considered.

I guess my next question is this - you mention that gradually Isham begins to see things from Milly's perspective over time. That's acceptable as humans even in our world have shown themselves capable of adapting to truly heinous situations. They may not be completely intact on the other side, but they survive.

Well, shouldn't a friendship work both ways? Assuming Milly actually does care for Isham I would think at some point after a sufficient amount of time begin around and and begin exposed to his way of thinking she might actually start having reservations about what she's doing after seeing things from his perspective. Even if it's only through listening to his stories something tells me she should be moved ever so gradually.

Also, after reading the story where Isham was swallowed and partially digested by Vivian, I would really like to see how he acts towards Milly after that experience. Because then he will know first hand exactly what each of her victims goes through. I can't see him taking it very well in all honesty, even given her nice disposition.

Posted by French_snack 14 years ago Report

Thanks. And that's a very good point. I'm not entirely sure yet where I want to take their relationship, but what you suggest makes a lot of sense, and I'll certainly think about it.

Milly cares about Isham, but I don't think she herself is quite sure how she views him. Is he a sort of pet, or is he a friend, and therefore an equal? It would indeed make sense for Isham to make his objections clear to her, and I'll have to think about how she'd react to those. I'd never really considered having Milly stop eating people, but it's something I'll be giving some thought to. It would probably be a gradual process, starting with her "cutting down" a bit on her "human intake". The way I see it, Felaryan preds find humans so delicious that they're rather addictive, so it would take a lot of willpower to cut them out of her diet. But if her relationship with Isham does evolve into a solid friendship, I may take her in that direction.

Posted by timing2 14 years ago Report

Funny thing is I know real people who treat their pets better than they do their friends! Sad but true.

Posted by devilnaga 1 year ago Report

Never really liked Isham, and always hoped he would find a belly in the end. In remember always waiting for it to happen and being disappointed. The end of this story always made me feel like you intended that to be exactly what you planned for him from the start, the way he acted the effect he has on Milly, his crazy luck, and the foreboding foreshadowing at the end anout his portrait. I feel it would have been a masterful peace of written art if that foreshadowing came to pass after everyone came to know and love him as he became so important. But I know readers can become toxic and scary, and it can indeed true art. Just my opinion.