Posted by Saftkeur 9 years ago Report

*spoiler*

Ah... and I probably shouldn't have gone and read that, Calina was perhaps my favorite character of yours. Didn't think things would actually go in that direction.
Still love your writing style! I just don't think I can keep up with this many endings... ^^;

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Thank you! And sorry about that. ;) I liked Calina too. This is actually the first time I've killed off one of my really long-established, "mainstream" characters, and as you can imagine I hesitated a bit before writing it.

She'll be missed. Not least by Milly, who had grown quite fond of her.

Posted by Saftkeur 9 years ago Report

Well as much as I hate to see it, I have to give you props for being able to write characters that can invoke these sorts of emotions. :) That's what I've always liked about your writing, even though it often goes into themes that I personally don't enjoy (such as fatal vore). I only hope I can someday write stories that carry the same weight!

Posted by Ty975 9 years ago Report

This turn of events literally had my in turmoil all morning. CALINA, NOOOOOO!!!! X'(
Nevertheless, you still tell a fantastic narrative with amazing style and flare. Keep it up, and don't kill anyone else anytime soon.....ok? @,n,@

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Thanks! Sorry about the turmoil, though I admit I'm glad if it had such an impact. We probably won't see any other long-established characters being killed off in the near future.

Posted by nap25 9 years ago Report

That was outstanding! I really liked Calina, but she picked on the wrong giantess. Lol. I wonder what it was like from her perspective all the way through. I loved the denial she was going through right before Elli gulped her down.

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Thanks.

Posted by nap25 9 years ago Report

You're welcome man. I know it's difficult to write the death of a character, especially one that you enjoy writing. But it helps to remind the readers the very real danger of being around giant preds. Calina got too comfortable and misread the situation. And she paid the price.

It also brings up the idea of other characters' tiny friends being in danger around Elli. If she was able to eat and rationalize away a mouthy neko, what would she do around someone like Lea, cursed to be especially appetizing to predators? Can she ever actually be trusted? I know this story was an idea you and Wiking discussed, but I'm really curious about what the future holds for Elli in your stories, and even her potential victims. I've read all of your stories so far, and will continue to do so. They are among the best I've ever read.

Posted by MrBennett 9 years ago Report

Hrmm... I suppose it's not my place to say it. Your story, your characters to do with as you wish, but this is far below what I see your writing to be.

Good characters die in vore stories, especially in Felarya. I get that, but this just feels, cheap. It feels more like Calina was used as a disposable plot device than it feels like a compelling encounter. I wish I could echo others' thoughts on the emotions and such, but I just can't. It was such a pointless, meaningless killoff, and with Roshan gone, it deprives your narratives of its only remaining human-sized character who ever really had anything interesting contribute.

You're well within your rights to do whatever you want with them, so I'm not gonna go all "boo change it" or anything unreasonable like that, but in all honesty, I really don't see myself reading any more of your stories after such an abrupt disappointment, and in my opinion, such a severe departure from your normally stellar writing quality.

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Well, thank you for the honesty, and I suppose I understand your reaction.

As you can imagine, I hesitated before writing this. I genuinely liked Calina; I had a similar sort of warm fondness for her as Milly does, I suppose. She took life as it came, with spirit and with boldness.

I've always tried to make it clear that my characters are not necessarily safe. I don't want readers to assume that they're always going to be okay, and that nothing is ever fundamentally going to change. It would take the tension and suspense out of the stories; and, perhaps even more to the point, Felarya is supposed to be a dangerous place. If everyone were always kept safe by some sort of "plot armour", it wouldn't be true or representative of what Felarya is. A place of beauty and wonder, but also of senseless death and casual cruelty.

I'll genuinely miss Calina. When I first created her, this isn't what I intended. On some level, it hurts to have done this. But on balance, I don't regret having written it.

Posted by Littledude 9 years ago Report

Much as I loved Calina, who is probably my favorite of your Felaryan characters, I don't think you should snap your fingers and remove the whole story and pretend it didn't mean anything. You wrote this for a reason, and if your audience is having an emotional reaction then it means you did your job as a writer.

A good story makes the reader care for the characters and care whether they live or die. The lifeblood of a story is change, and characters' lives should not be serial

Felarya as a whole is a wonderful part of the vore community and has produced a great amount of art and stories from many talented writers while inspiring more than its fair share of original characters and universes.

That said, most of its material is also stagnant to the point of boring with characters who, due to the immense popularity and frequent borrowing, never really grow or change much. In my opinion, more events like this need to happen because it is such events that upset the status quo and knocks the audience out of his safety zone so they're left wondering what will happen next.

Your characters have had their views challenged at several points and have had to at least try to change even if they failed. What you've done over the years is create characters who grow and change and I would hate to see you shrink from that because you're worried about causing others emotional pain.

Anyway, do what you feel is best, it's your work after all, but I would caution you not to shrink from adversity and change.

Finally, killing off old characters means you get to write in new ones, so it's not like this would be the end of everything or that you'll never write another character that will be liked as much as this one.

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Thank you very much for your comment. As a matter of principle, I agree: the story should, ideally, have remained as it was. For the reasons that you've just mentioned. I'm not at all happy with having had to remove it. But the reactions had reached such an extreme, and people were telling they were downright suffering from this story.

Posted by Krauser 9 years ago Report

I read this story earlier and was surprised to come back and see it was retconned by you. To be honest, this story made me feel disturbed. It was an extremely dark theme from you executed marvelously, and I liked that a lot. I felt very anxious and powerless knowing that Calina was inside Ellis stomach, so close to Milly yet unable to call out for help as she was being digested. Obviously, that's great because it means you are an excellent writer. On the other hand; despite the nature of stories set in felarya, what Elli did felt more like straight up murder than the usual vore for three reasons. 1: The fact, that it was someone she knew. 2: The fact that she did it out of anger and not hunger. 3: Lastly, the fact that Elli is a human from a world like ours, and not a native predator. These reasons are what I believe gave that darker impression. I found myself wishing it was some other character that was not as well established; although, the fact that she was well established is what gave the story it's power. Calina along with Tan are my two favorite creations of yours, so I am glad to see she is back. I believe I started reading your stories around the time you finished Story 5, if you can remember any of my comments from way back then.

If you don't mind my asking, what exactly inspired you to write her demise like this? It seems like a very drastic move. Calina taunting Elli, and Elli getting mad could be seen as foreshadowing, but I did not pick up on that at all until I read this.

Posted by Krauser 9 years ago Report

P.S. Are you going to eventually delete this story? I would definitely still enjoy reading it some time again.

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

No, I think I'll leave it online, biffed as it is.

Thank you very much for your comment. Much appreciated, and I'm pleased and interested to hear feedback from readers who *didn't* simply feel sickened.

I've been interested in Elli's character development for a little while, and when it occurred to me that Elli might actually do something like this, I talked it through briefly with Wiking, to sort out the circumstances in which it could realistically happen. For one thing, I wanted to create a reminder of how dangerous Felarya actually is. A problem we have is that all the established characters of all the main Felaryan writers generally *are* safe, due to plot armour. Despite living on such a dangerous world where, in principle, they're highly vulnerable to sudden and unexpected death. Calina's death would have re-emphasised a key element of the setting, with ripples down throughout the stories that would follow, since readers would be more keenly aware that all characters are at risk.

Second, it says something about Elli. We all knew, on some level, what kind of person she is, but we hadn't seen such a blunt and striking example before. It would have established something in how she behaves towards Milly and others in future, and in how we view her relations with other characters.

Posted by Krauser 9 years ago Report

You know, I never read any of the comments on the deviantart side until just now, and the majority of them are totally childish. People saying that they are gonna unsub? Just because of one story? What a joke. If one truly likes an author, they won't abandon them just because of one piece of work they didn't like. It's totally juvenile. Its like a betrayal. You have written over 100 stories, and they would turn their back on you that fast? It's infuriating. I myself was not sure I liked how to the story went, but rest assured I wouldn't have held anything against you for it and would have read on like I always do when you post something.

Had you not yourself had second thoughts about this story, I would have urged you to not bend to the people pushing you to change it. If you change a story, it should be your choice. It should be because YOU wanted to change it, not the readers.

I just want you to know I am not one of those people.

People hating on Elli because of this is is stupid. Hating on TheWiking is even more ridiculous. Elli has long been established as a bitch, that is how TheWiking wrote her. I think its fine to dislike a character's personality, some characters are SUPPOSED to be disliked, but you shouldn't hate a character as a whole if they are written competently, which I feel is the case with Elli. In fact, if you do hate a character, that usually does mean they are well written because they had an impact on you.

I'm sure you want this whole thing to blow over asap, so I won't bother entering a discussion with those people in the comments section, so don't worry about me stirring the pot. Having said that, I hope this comment doesn't spark any arguments here.

If anyone here doesn't like what I have said, remember its just my opinion.

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Thank you. I agree with you, of course (including about Elli), and all those reactions really took me by surprise.

Now I'm just waiting for it to finish blowing over…

Posted by necrohousin 9 years ago Report

I like your work man.

When i first read 'Life' I figured you were building something that involved Calina being out of her comfort zone at Milly's Hut since you had her interacting with more characters then ever before.
Possibly interacting with more of the world and ultimately meeting her end somewhere out there.

When this part of the story dropped I was surprised, and it was clear it was a bit different from your other works.
I think Krauser sums up what i was feeling and thinking during that initial read, and i would not know how to phrase it better than them.

Honestly, what i kinda expected was a set of short non-cannon stories of the very next morning featuring half asleep hungover predators encountering a neko that is also not at their best either.
Possibly even a few scenarios that involved her ignoring her survival instinct and sleeping on the table among the leftover food and refreshments and what comes of it.


I read the blog post you made. Don't worry about "completely shattering the sense that characters are not safe in Felarya," i read your 'Lost in Felarya' series and even though your works are a bit different from back then you still are very good at suspense in this little story setting

I hope this doesn't affect your ability to write in the future man

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Thank you. We'll see how it goes...

Posted by SputnikDX 9 years ago Report

I had a long comment planned explaining my feelings, but I'm going to summarize.

I liked it. A lot. Ever since Karbo's third manga, I've wanted something like this, though I'm glad it's non-canon. I don't think you should refrain from killing off core characters, especially in a world like Felarya, but I'll admit the method was unfulfilling in every way except erotic (of which it was very fulfilling).

I'd totally dig it if you made more non-canon spinoffs. You may feel like you've broken into a beehive, but you gotta work with that honey bro.

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Thank you; that's an interesting perspective.

Posted by SputnikDX 9 years ago Report

Also, could you be so kind as to remove the strikethroughs on the entire story? You have your warning right at the top, and I'd like to be able to read this without having to copy paste it somewhere else.

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

I'd rather not, sorry. It shouldn't be too difficult to copy / paste it and remove the strikethrough. :)

Posted by VonMori 9 years ago Report

I've no problem with Calina dying, as you'll guess from my previous comments I've been expecting it for quite a while.

My two issues with it aren't with the event itself but that the story isn't anywhere near your usual standard in terms of evoking mental images, something you're extremely good at.

The other is the speed with which you killed off Calina, though that's just a personal preference as I hate to see good minor characters given an irreverent send off.

The concept is perfectly fine, the only real issue was the execution; if you'll excuse the pun.

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Heh; that's okay. The "irreverent send-off" was deliberate, of course; it was supposed to be sudden.

Posted by VonMori 9 years ago Report

Sudden and irreverent needn't be mutually inclusive, though I agree it's hard to pull off, but in my opinion you'd be skilled enough to pull it off.

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

It was deliberately irreverent, though. It tells us something about Elli's character.

Posted by VonMori 9 years ago Report

Character irreverence and author irreverence needn't be the same either, though the one thing I will say is that ultimately it's your setting and we as the readers shouldn't be the final arbiters of your setting.

Posted by mojo-2131285 9 years ago Report

It's fine that it's non-canon now, but can you un-cross-out everything?

I just found it and I'd still like to read it.

Sorry that the haters are hating. Are you going to be played by James Caan in the movie (Stephen King's Misery ref)?

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Heh. Thanks. But no, sorry; I'd rather leave it crossed-out. You can still copy-paste, 'select all' and remove the cross-out.

Posted by mojo-2131285 9 years ago Report

Yeah, sorry. I made this comment before reading your DA page, so I didn't know how much this had affected you. My bad. Do what you think is best.

Don't let this hurt your future as an artist and a writer or your desire to make tough choices or innovations when producing something. If people care when fictional characters die, you've done your job and should be able to rest easy.

You're honestly the most talented writer here and have given many, many people here hundreds of hours of entertainment for FREE (people often forget that).

You're also probably the most polite person I've ever encountered on the internet, so thanks for restoring at least some of my faith in humanity.

Also (and this is just a friendly suggestion; and forgive me for being a little ignorant of some of the Felarya universe), have you considered just adding a story in the Felaryan afterlife with Calina in it?

I know you've written at least one story (can't remember the number) where some succubi visit Heaven and everyone has their own little private island and lots of stuff to eat. I also remember there being a story where Milly mentions she visits Hell sometimes too. It may be a little Deus Ex Machina, but this could be a possible scenario for bringing Calina back and allowing you to keep the story canon.

Anyways, keep on keeping on. I'll always be a fan.

Noli illegitimi carborundum!

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Thanks. I genuinely appreciate it.

As for Calina in the afterlife: Restoring the story in any way would just stir things up again too much. At this stage, I just want to leave it aside and move on.

Posted by Luckless 9 years ago Report

Can't believe they booed at you until you changed your story.

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Yes, I didn't see it coming… I didn't realise so many people would be so upset. Not a pleasant experience.

Posted by Soloplayer 9 years ago Report

Jeez, I don't know which I love better, this story or Calina. It felt like a loss and a gain at the same time. As much as I like Calina, I hope you won't remove this story completely, that would be a shame.

Posted by French_snack 9 years ago Report

Thanks. I'll leave it online, as it is; it's simply not canon any more.

Posted by Soloplayer 9 years ago Report

Jeez, I don't know which I love better, this story or Calina. It felt like a loss and a gain at the same time. As much as I like Calina, I hope you won't remove this story completely, that would be a shame.

Posted by Amadaus 8 years ago Report

I know this is re-opening stuff... but I don't get why this got the flak it did. After who-knows-how-long of an unchanging status que, a kick in the nuts like this was actually kinda refreshing :)

And to be perfectly honest, looking over the DA version of it, it looks like about half the people there were rooting for this to be kept in spite of how big a downer Calina's death was - yeah everyone was heartbroken, but half, if not slightly the majority, were willing to see what came of it and... well, I ain't gonna name names cause that never turns out well, but those who whined about it really had some BS arguments :P

Truth be told... I'm surprised you're still part of the community after this. Don't take it the wrong way, I'm glad you're still writing for it... but I just don't think I'd have stayed after this; you had to change the whole scope of your plans over a few people who, from what I saw, didn't even represent the majority of the community. And, personally speaking... I think Felarya's kinda died ever since this happened; few people have actually added much to it since then, like it kinda killed the collective muse when people saw how vicious some of 'em were :(

Posted by French_snack 8 years ago Report

Ah, I… hope that isn't true. I'd hate for the consequences of this story to have been so drastic.

I can understand people having been upset, but I really didn't anticipate the intensity of it. I suppose I should see it as quite flattering that readers had become so attached to Calina… I sort of wrote her as the quintessential bold Felaryan neko.

I've broken the status quo by writing out several of my major characters, but admittedly without killing them off. (With one exception, quite a while ago, who wasn't anywhere near as well-established as Calina.)

Posted by Amadaus 8 years ago Report

Well... it wouldn't be your fault even if it was true. It'd be the fault of the people who couldn't stand change.

But that doesn't give people who aren't even major players the right to bully one into retconning it. They weren't even the majority of the community - just the ones screaming the loudest over it.

I know, but this was the first time it got broken in a way that reminded us the central characters themselves were dangerous, not to mention highlighting Milly's vulnerabilities in that she might have been trying too hard to befriend someone she shouldn't have (Elli) to prove a point to herself; that she didn't have to be afraid of other giants.

Posted by French_snack 8 years ago Report

Mainly, Milly just has a tendency to see the good in people. She's not totally naive about Elli: She knows that Elli uses her. But she doesn't really mind, because she feels that Elli's friendship towards her is genuine all the same.

Posted by Amadaus 8 years ago Report

Yeah, but this was proving how naive that viewpoint really is from Milly's standpoint - she assumes it's genuine because she's still running from the idea that other giants would violate the unspoken trust she's used to, be it getting seen as food by one like the naga or having them violate the 'do not eat my friends' rule like Elli did.

It sucks that this kind of lesson - something that happens every day (not the exact situation but the circumstances of getting used) - was something that had to get retconned just because, what, a dozen people in the community screamed loud enough about it.

Posted by sladearanzero 7 years ago Report

So I know I'm commenting on quite and old story and situation but the feelings this story evokes in me are strong enough to make me comment.
I've have been keeping up on your stories for a long while now 'I think I stopped a little after Isham moved to safe harbor' but I decided to catch up on your main storyline this past week. I initially skipped this story since it was no longer canon but decided to give it a read after I read your most recent Milly story. I've read most of the comments here and on deviantart and I personally like that Calina is still alive but I really like this story. It really stabs you in the heart, and I'm a fan of fatal vore and of characters not having plot armor. I do share the feelings of some that they way she died was too abrupt but for it was more about the fact that Calina's thoughts and experience after being swallowed were not explored. I think it would have been interesting to have her thoughts and feelings of being eaten/betrayed by Elli. Also I know that Elli is supposed to be a bitch but to me this seemed more evil than anything else. Those are just my thoughts on this after reading it and the comments I don't me to tell you what to do I just was moved enough by this story that I had to say something.

On a different note my curiosity has me wondering how much canceling this story changed you overall ark. Having seen how it has played out makes me wonder what would have happened in your original design. To me it seems it would have limited how often Milly could leave here hut since Calina would no longer be around to help watch the colony and how the tomthumds especially Tan would have reacted to her being gone.
If it's ok with you could you share some of what you originally had planned? If that's not possible just let me know, I don't want to put any stress on you.

Posted by French_snack 7 years ago Report

Quite honestly, I don't remember much of what I had in mind for afterwards. I put a lot of it out of my mind, and moved on. It would certainly have had an impact on Milly though, yes.

Thanks for the comment, in any case. I'm glad some readers did like the story for the most part.

Posted by sladearanzero 7 years ago Report

That's fine. I'm glad that it's no longer a concern for you. Thanks for responding.

Posted by devilnaga 5 years ago Report

Do you regret pulling this story? And what was your plans for what happened next?

Posted by French_snack 5 years ago Report

Sorry, but I prefer not to come back to this. :)

Posted by devilnaga 5 years ago Report

Fair enough

Posted by Gapemaw 2 years ago Report

To this day this specific Vore scenes remains one of my all time favorites.

I know it wasnt well received when it was released.
But boy did it do things to me.

Posted by French_snack 2 years ago Report

Ha! Thanks; I'm glad it was enjoyed. ;)