Subject: I totally didn't...
Author:
Posted on: 2016-11-07 13:45:00 UTC
Read this mission while waiting for the lecturer to get into something interesting, no siree.
The Good: I like the characterisation of Ix and Lottie. There is no Talking Heads, which is nice. The mission is... I'm not sure how to say it, but it was an easy, flowing read.
The Bad: there's a distinct lack of funny in the mission. Might just be me, though.
The Ugly: the Sue, who else?
In which Charlotte schemes, and Ix gets a shiny new gun to counter an Animorphs Sue.
I'm willing to bet that Ix and Charlotte weren't even at the halfway point of the badfic before they decided to do the Duty. Am I in the ballpark?
As for the usual SOH post-mission usual fare:
1) “This is why establishing the setting is important, people,” Charlotte said through gritted teeth. “Also, can we charge for showing thought-speech as bolded italics?”
Actually, that shouldn't be a charge. Unless things have changed on FFN, they actually have a problem with chevrons. An unfinished Animorphs goodfic that I ran across (the very first FFN fic that I ever read, IIRC), ran into this issue the hard way.
2) The chapter ended with the Animorphs agreeing that Ax and Tobias would watch the Sue, and the agents were thrown into the next, landing in the yard outside her house.
The next what? Obviously the answer is "chapter", but it takes a few moments' thought to figure that out. Please consider being a bit more specific; it only requires adding one more word.
3) So they followed the canons and Sue until they found the entrance to the Yeerk Pool inside the employees only room, though Ax was a bit too distracted by the Sue’s beauty to think about such silly things.
"employees only" should be hyphenated.
I'm still holding out for an appropriately god-awful crossover, preferably involving Ax or other Andalites, in case anybody happens to see one. The best I've got right now is this, which is maybe better MST material than mission material. The author's notes almost outweigh the story, if you can call it that. O.o
(Making Ilraen and Farilan MST it could be fun, though, come to think of it...)
Anyway, the mission! I enjoyed it, and I'm interested in this new take on fixing the problem of Ix and Lottie's different lifespans. Charlotte researching ways to de-vamp herself from various continua could be a fun exploration of different takes on the vampire myth, but even not getting into it in detail, it still provides some food for thought. It also shows how devoted she is to being with Ix, which is a great bit of characterization.
Speaking of showing over telling, the mission did a good job of highlighting how the Sue failed at it with regards to her angsting about her lack of friends while at the same time behaving in an obnoxiously standoffish way. And wow, the speshulness. Jeez. Good riddance to her.
I did have one moment of confusion here:
Ax and Tobias retreated to the bathrooms to morph cockroaches, and just as they were making their way back to the pool entrance, the scene changed again, dumping the agents behind the stack of hay bales.
It took me a minute to figure out that the scene had changed back to Cassie's barn rather than something new, so I struggled a bit trying to make sense of hay bales in a Yeerk pool, where I'd have expected the story to go next. Y'know, if the fic had actually bothered itself with detailing an important action like scouting enemy territory. {= P This could be easily fixed by the addition of a few words, either "the scene changed again back to Cassie's barn" or "behind the stack of hay bales in Cassie's barn." (Not both, of course.)
I feel bad for Lottie at the end. Unbridled hope and enthusiasm meets the cold steel wall of elitism and xenophobia. Ouch. Good to know Ilraen has been seeing her nice side so far. Guess he's in for a rude awakening when he finds out just how much work he has cut out for him.
~Neshomeh
I'm glad the new solution (which I have Hardric to thank for) is being much better recieved. ^^; Unfortunately, most continua I know of don't have cures for vampirism :P Apparently it tends to be a one-way trip.
Charlotte's devotion to Ix is... complicated. How much of it is her own personality, and how much of it is her home canon's influence? After all, at this point they've only been together for about a month.
And yeah, that Sue... ugh. Later chapters had her ripping straight from the books, only with her in place of the various Animorphs. She was quite delightful. Black tigers... *snicker*
Of course Ilraen's been seeing Farilan's nice side; he's an Andalite, after all, not some lowly human. Even if he has been hanging out with them for too long. ;)
Well, you mentioned TES, which I think does have a cure for vampirism. I know the Dragonborn can become one in a Skyrim expansion, and I'm pretty sure you can cure yourself, too. Whether it would work on an outsider, though, who knows?
The Buffyverse doesn't have a cure, but I wonder, do Twipires have souls, or not? I seem to recall Edward angsting about being a soulless monster, but since he never particularly acts like one, it's hard to tell if he's speaking the truth or not. But, I bring it up because the idea of Lottie going on a Buffy-style quest to get her soul back struck me as interesting. It wouldn't make her not a vampire anymore, but still, maybe it's something she would want anyway? Might help to clear up that confusion about obsession vs. love, which was a bit of a thing in the show.
And if you haven't seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it's worth a binge. Angel, too, if you've got time, though it doesn't quite reach Buffy's average level of quality. Contains an awesome musical episode, an apparent Sue-insert character, and an in-universe Gary Stu! All this plus ten thousande Elephantes!
~Neshomeh
Vampirism in TES is a result of a magical disease — Sanguinare Vampiris — or, in rare cases, rape by Molag Bal. There two ways to cure vampirism in Skyrim:
1) Turning into a werewolf purges your body of the disease (Skyrim werewolves are immune to disease); however, that has its own problems, such as the Daedric Prince Hircine claiming your soul after death.
2) There is a wizard named Falion that knows a ritual to purge vampirism. However, you need a filled Black Soul Gem for it — ie, you need to murder a sentient being; their soul is used as sacrifice to the Daedra so that they will cure your vampirism. This ritual can also cleanse the "pure" form of vampirism conferred by Molag Bal.
There's no reason why either of those won't work for someone that isn't the Dovahkiin, but each of those has its own downsides.
Sanguinary Vampiris may not be the only form of vampirism in the Elder Scrolls. It's called Porphyric Hemophilia in Oblivion and Morrowind, and while it's possible they're the same thing known by different names I think it's more likely separate strains of the disease. Especially given the broadly differing abilities of the various tribes.
Read this mission while waiting for the lecturer to get into something interesting, no siree.
The Good: I like the characterisation of Ix and Lottie. There is no Talking Heads, which is nice. The mission is... I'm not sure how to say it, but it was an easy, flowing read.
The Bad: there's a distinct lack of funny in the mission. Might just be me, though.
The Ugly: the Sue, who else?