Subject: Re: mission
Author:
Posted on: 2014-10-16 19:04:00 UTC

Firstly, thank you for the kind words regarding the strong points of this mission! I'm happy that most it came through in the sense that it was coherent despite its length. I was originally going to analyze every single thing that went wrong with that fic in excruciating detail, but Des warned me against it as such would draw the mission out for far too long. I may release some "deleted scenes" detailing bits that I particularly liked but had to cut to save time, but there's no need to rush those since I'll likely spend my time doing more productive things. As for the script-fic, I also wrote the entire mission in that format initially, but Des advised against that as well because it would've made it unreadable. I'm glad you think the way I handled that was a good thing!

As for the gore in Acts 6 and 7, the way I handled it was to let it speak for itself, and then retaliate in kind to the original material. An eye for an eye, if you will. That said, though, looking back at this mission I found it hard to read Not!Ludlow's death scene explicitly myself, cathartic as it was back then, so in the context of the mission I'm not sure if it was such a good idea in hindsight. I also viewed V-Wrex's death in a similar light when I wrote the original draft, but you make a good point in that it doesn't counter the problem I'd originally wanted to rectify. Guh.
Given both of these sentiments, I've modified both scenes to make them more palatable, and the updated versions are listed below. Hope that helps!

Not!Ludlow's death:

"Falchion realized what was going to happen, and tried to force Rashida down, but she punched him in the face before he could touch her. He collapsed again, bleeding from his nose, but it was too late to shout a warning. Right then and there, in full view of the entire cast and the unfortunate agents, the baby T. rexes fell upon the terrified Replacement and ripped him to shreds.
Four excruciating paragraphs of horrifyingly graphic detail later, Not!Ludlow’s severed head, torn from his body, smashed into some kind of invisible screen, mere inches from Rashida’s face. His eyes, wide and unknowing, gazed blindly into her own, and the agents watched his wretched head fall to the ground with a sickening whump."

V-Wrex's death:

"And then the dinosaur exploded. It happened so suddenly that the Super teen had no time to make sense of it; all she knew was that she was momentarily blinded by a cross-shaped blast of light, heat, and death. When Sarah recovered her sight a few moments later, the only part of V-Wrex that remained intact was her head, which had smashed into the ground and skidded across the rail yard before stopping just inches away from her."

One last thing: I'm already making some progress into my next mission, though it may take a while due to working on a conference paper. Given the constructiveness of your feedback, may I ask if you could beta-read it directly once it's done? Thanks! :D

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