Posted by Mourtzouphlos 9 months ago Report

Oh yes, this is a good one. Emotional drama is the best drama. I always love it when the vore is there for its impact on the story, as an integral part of it.

Some random short bits first: Haza and Vett are so cute together! They're just so sweet.
Is that all the siblings that have been mentioned so far, or are there more? (There's six: Haza, Beya, Preema, Korin, Etith, and Deniv)
An "old-style web forum". Say, circa 2005? :)
Is there a reason why you invented a new suite of names, but used the real-world geography and cultures? I would've thought it'd be both or neither.
Do shrews (or relevant cultural grouping) inherit the middle name of the same sex parent? We've now seen two daughters sharing their mother's middle name, and two sons with the same middle name (and nothing about the father).
What's the history behind reforming? Apparently vore's been around for a really long time, and it does seem to be treated like a well established practice, but the logistics of doing it without reforming are really difficult, and if the system nowadays is considered really expensive to run, and modern energy production and consumption has risen by many orders of magnitude compared to just two centuries ago, then something seems off somewhere. Is it purely the automation part or something?
In the club, the 'angels' are called that without first establishing why they're called that (I presume because the club has 'Heaven' in the name), but in a way that feels like it has (I had to go back and check because I thought I missed something).
I checked back on the other stories to look up a few details, and I got what you were referencing in that one comment now!
In the part where Vett's telling his memories of the party, after he's talking with the stallion, before he gest eaten, the sentence "it was the right choice" starts with a lowercase i.

I loved the way the two of them approached the family hobby, and how it fit in with their personalities and development. Haza didn't eat people during the normal growing up and finding yourself period, and, unable to discuss it maturely to figure out a responsible way to do it and aware of how badly it could go wrong, decided that the most responsible thing to do was to suppress his desires and refrain altogether, which, despite being rather redolent of 'ignore the problem and hope it goes away', still comes off better than his sister, who until now doesn't seem to have really matured from her teenage mentality of 'I like it, therefore it's good and I'll do it. Sorry, what effects on other people?'. I think it speaks to a sort of egocentricism, in that her sense of justice expresses itself as her thinking of herself as the hero, and she has a great deal of difficulty when that isn't the situation, hence her troubles with being a police officer (not the single hero and a lot of not very heroic duties) and the way she immediately dodges into cultural relativism and legalities when asked about the morality of her actions. 'It's not illegal' is not the same as 'it's a good idea' (poor Khajee, hearing that out of the blue).

Which brings us back to the impact of secrets on family members (that's becoming a theme in this series isn't it? On a related note, Goddamnit Suzan you're still not open with your children about what you do? I thought you and Preema talked about this). Both of them were shaped significantly by the unseen and unspoken but very much felt ethos of 'we don't talk about that'. It was that internalized taboo that kept Haza from dealing with his desires for so long, and then burying his guilt instead of confronting it. Beya, on the other hand, was so good at keeping secrets that she (in her formative years) never dealt with the long term consequences of her actions, while subconsciously learning that as long as there aren't immediately any big obvious red flags, everything is fine (sleeping with the producer? Really?). And while she mostly doesn't keep any secrets herself nowadays, the long practice of ignoring those subtle indications that something else is going on likely helped her develop that rather large blind spot about her own behavior (they exist to be eaten? Really?). Korin seems to have escaped that, for the most part, although I do wonder about Preema. She didn't seem as uptight in her story (though if she's all read in on the secrets but not able to talk about them, that might be stress). I do think it would be helpful to talk with her. Healthy and open communication: the world's best drama killer.

Posted by Mourtzouphlos 9 months ago Report

Two and a half hours. It's good to be back.

Posted by ObsidianSnake 9 months ago Report

"Haza, Beya, Preema, Korin, Etith, and Deniv" That's the complete set, yes! If you were curious about seniority, it goes Preema, Korin, Etith, Deniv, Beya, then Haza. Apparently, it's important for social dynamics and allocation of responsibilities...? Though not as much for adults.

Regarding the anthro-earth thing going on: I wanted these stories to be more grounded in the world that people know, so the inhabitants' activities and drama have heavy impact. It hits different if it's a room full of Californians the guy ate. Also, I don't get bonus points for over-working this kind of thing.

The reformation system is an international public work, and I think an outsider culture would correctly identify it as an "out of place artifact". The tech and social structure around it has its own arc, but it isn't a dramatic one. These aren't really science fiction stories, per se. These aren't About That.

But of course in Heaven's Black, there should be dark angels, no? It's a hardcore BDSM and adult playground in LA, you KNOW it's going to be on that pretentious bullshit. Maybe it isn't pretentious, though? The staff are provably competent, despite their eccentricity.

Regarding the typo: Thanks for letting me know. I've re-uploaded this story. Oh, no, I didn't fix the mistake; I've inserted another one in a different section. :)

Every single predator in these stories are intended to be different from one another. Even among the Antina siblings, with their extremely similar bodies, possess different drives, preferences, and feelings. Cheh Misuba, for instance, is entirely different in her relationship to what she does as Suzan, even though they appear from a third perspective to be the same kind of thing. I hope that it's part of the charm of this collection.

Beya's a free spirit and an absolute know-it-all. In the fullness of time, however, she is reasonable. She means it when she says that she's going to ensure her favorite eateries are backed by an ethical structure, at least as much as possible. She would be someone that could do so. Additionally, rather than just eating people, she's also accepting a nice helping of humble pie in this story. It's not heavily explored, but she's going through some stuff. It isn't a break-up, but rather it was a broken-up, an act done by other people, groups, acting in their own self-interest. Consider, also: Vett did a really similar thing. Worse, in terms of propriety. Beya's eyesight might be limited, because she's a shrew, but she sees that perfectly clearly, and we can obviously see what she thinks of it at the end of the story. So, what's Beya going to do, regarding her situation...? Well, I'm writing other things, so it's for interested parties to hypothesize about.

Excellent observation that Preema and Suzan agreed to lessen the secrecy in their family, yet Haza bears the brunt of it, still. And apparently, Haza doesn't know everything, after all. It's also possible that some of what Haza was hearing was from fallout of the conversations between Preema and Suzan, but it feels different from being so distant.

Some of those secrets might be more open than Haza believes. That's the thing about secrets and information in general: it doesn't come with a rarity indicator. Like, "ooh, a purple secret, only a select few people know this one." Haza has a couple of those, sure, but he doesn't know what they are. I mean, this is the same guy that ate the single most powerful person in the entertainment industry with his penis, after making her get down on the ground and grovel for it, and is basically unaware that he did that. (Big independent artist win!) He's a sharp guy but his vision of things isn't 100% reliable.

Posted by Mourtzouphlos 9 months ago Report

Naming your eldest child Preema - real creative there Suzan.

Fair enough! It's just that I wouldn't have come up with names in that case and I wondered if there was a specific reason for it.

That's true, but you bring up the concept of a matter printing machine in a society of extreme scarcity and my inner economic historian starts to get excited.

I thought this was a joke, but at the very end: "There as conflict in her eyes, but humility won." I don't remember that being there. Am I going mad? What is happening!?

It is! I could really tell that they are. Like I said, emotional vore is the best vore.

Oh, I could tell. I was speaking more of at the beginning (they both mature over the story). I don't doubt that now that her eyes are opened she's not going to ignore what she sees. Interestingly, while I did notice that it was corporate putting the kibosh on that relationship, I didn't connect it with her change in perspective. Did having her own life so irresistibly altered by those surrounding her in order to fit the accepted template help give her some empathy for those who have even less choice? Also, what did Vett do? He wasn't a predator at any point, only prey, and it's not like he had anything to do with getting the situation to that point. I'm not trying to disagree with you, I simply don't know what you're referring to.

I just suddenly had a vision of the band achieving a big career success, securing a meeting with one of the real movers and shakers, make or break careers with a single sentence types, and Haza walks into the room, takes one look, and says "Oh, so that's who you were." And Vett just starts rolling on the floor laughing, "Three fucking years I've been waiting for that payoff!"

Posted by ObsidianSnake 9 months ago Report

Yeah, in a world where multi-child births are commonly the norm, one would expect quite a few names like that. Actually, that's common of human names, too. First and second-born children often end up with those.

Regarding Vett's impropriety: he chased after his employer to put the moves on him. That is maybe a little questionable for a roadie to do, even if the tour was concluding. He shot his shot, anyway, and it turned out unimaginably well for both of them. That's extremely similar to what was going on with Beya.

Posted by Mourtzouphlos 9 months ago Report

Oooohhhhhhhhhh! That's what it was! I thought you were talking about her eating habits. No, I see it now. That makes a lot more sense. I would argue about it being more improper though, as their professional relationship had ended before anything romantic began, while Beya apparently had them coexisting.

Posted by Mourtzouphlos 9 months ago Report

/i not \i