Posted by Astronommy 4 years ago Report

One disadvantage of always drowning creators in praise is when I stumble upon something truly great, I find myself short on appropriately rapturous language, so I'll simply say the argument in this chapterette is written frighteningly well. Ostensibly a minor fandom celebrity having a tiff with her partner, the depth and intensity of psychological -- and cultural, even! -- contentions, the tactical complexity of it here could match that of a major international conflict. Green-eyed is my usual mode of reading your works, but times like these I just have to let go of it all and drink in the excellence.

And even though I'm fully braced for future sensations of amazement, and will be happy to be proven a presumptuous fool on this, but I think I can see the inkling of how the vore theme is woven into the ostensibly realistic setting in the novel: not the relevant analogy Claire uses while delivering her coup de grace, but the earlier juxtaposition of those painfully self-acknowleded assertive particular tastes and sadistic responses to defiance or inadequacy, with the predator-prey character chemistry commonly found in vore settings. The semi-public humiliation and shredding the personal space bubble aspect seen just before and during the spectacular, Batman-catalyzed breakup is likewise a perfect pattern match for the predators' tormenting their prey.

That was a decent breakdown of Batman, too! And calling the character "Bats" is such and endearing mark of authenticity for the story, there's no way an outsider could have reproduced the hive-mind nicknaming logic of fandoms.

(This is not a sign of my full attention finally being diverted this way, just a little window of opportunity, and I'd been more than a little spurred by how excellent this chapter is.)

Posted by 4ofSwords 4 years ago Report

Thank you! I figured this for the least interesting of chapters, which was a pain since it came so near the beginning. But if it does a good job of characterizing Claire, then excellent!

Posted by Astronommy 4 years ago Report

I see it more of an early preview of the kind of sparkly emotional intensity that would be found in the thick of the plot, and the scene change to a well-aired, expansive and remote environment after this hot and heavy engagement comes very naturally.

Whatever your second-guessing rationality may be telling you now, your creative intuition must have known exactly what it was doing with this chapter.

Posted by Sauvegarde 3 years ago Report

I really love Claire's rant about how she wants to be the Night and not the Heart ^^

Posted by 4ofSwords 3 years ago Report

She came too early to say, *I am Vengeance!*