What are you reading?

[Anastasia]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7996113/2/Chaos-in-Postmeridiem

Cliche storm GO! All of these fragments have horrible fanon tendencies. They're so pure it's like being in 2000 again. Frankly, I liked them because it was so nostalgic.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7657235/19/Path-of-the-King

Path of the King updated. Fucking cliffhangers!

[Anastasia]

http://addventure.bast-enterprises.de/257272.html

DK:A updated. A nicely sized update, too. Glad to see the author's writing again.

[Jason_Miao]

The other BHOC updated.

Spoiler: Features Tsukune.

[Ebiris]

Unforseen Consequences updated.

[Dracos]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6556187/37/In-Flight

In Flight updated.  Kinda okay with the chapter, but still feels...missing something.

[Anastasia]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7657235/20/Path-of-the-King

Path of the King updated.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Awesome scenes all around, including the climax of Shirou and Caster making a contract. The bit at the end about Saber and Shirou managing not to make a contract really drove things home.

Dojima with the Uzis, giving Archer's signature weapons an origin, the contract scenes and everything just clicked. 10k words zoomed by.

[Dracos]

Echoes of the Void updated: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6442829/10/Echoes-of-the-Void.

  Not sure if I care anymore though.  Way too much political craziness on screen.  A lot of time in the last chapters have been given to Louise's treacherous fiancee (who apparently isn't one in this one?  I dunno.  Not clear) and he isn't an interesting character to listen to.  It basically ups the competence of all the villains and reduces the goodness of everyone.  It does provide some unique team-ups and routes, but it doesn't sort of ignore the complete ridiculousness of...

Spoiler: ShowHide

An open FAILED attack/kidnapping on Louise resulting in them needing to flee...not to their homeland but to Galla?  And there being at all a worry about stopping them or looking correct when there are literally dozens of royal special forces bodies all over the place in an area they have no business being?  It isn't "The school should be enraged that military ops are kidnapping their students out of their bedrooms" but "you might be in trouble for killing your kidnappers who are going after one of the mightiest families in the country's kid?"  Not "There's no reason that people that have the legitimate authority to walk in and arrest folks should be coming in and having an violent sneak attack in the dorms?"

Basically, I have trouble buying the wheels everything is rolling on.  So even though I kind of am cool with the character interactions, that they are like 20 percent of the fic and the rest is GRAND POLITICAL WHEELS YOU CANNOT STOP that involve successfully implicating a national hero as a villain and they both cannot and do not do anything to stop it?

It certainly isn't a democracy and mob rule gets you nowhere in a world where a powerful wizard can kill hundreds.  I'm not sure why the rumor mill even matters.

  Basically, it spends so much time on the villains mwa-ha-haing as their plans seem to succeed that I think it's forgotten to tell the story of the heroes almost at all.  It's also in a pretty messy spot of 'who is loyal to who' fic versus original canon.

[Dracos]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5054113/15/Superwomen-of-Eva-2-Emerald-Courage came out a little while ago.  Sorta neat.  Not sure the chapter moved anything though.

[Anastasia]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9046817/1/Random-Act-Of-Love

Ranma/Sekirei crossover. Basic premise is that while heading to the Tendo Dojo the first time, Ranma and Musubi cross paths. Musubi helps him avoid getting knocked out and taken to the Tendos. Turns out she reacts to him and shenanigans ensue. It's only one chapter so far but it looks promising. I do wish they'd started later in the series; for all the baggage starting at the beginning avoids, you still have all the Ranma stuff to set up and go through.

[Dracos]

mmm.

Yeah, I dunno.  It seems extra awkward to start it like that.

[Anastasia]

Agreed. It's possible the idea is to weave both together - in fact I suspect that's what the author's grand design is.

[Dracos]

I suspect that is...but that kind of makes me bleh.  I dunno, it tends to represent a fear to tell the own story instead of just covering a few choice implications.

It's one thing for Soun to wave off a curse.  It's another thing for him (or Genma) to wave off a wife on the arm or being hours more late (Did their side-trip just not happen or something?  Have they been sitting around all day instead of actually doing something?  I can't think of a fanfic that introduces a pre-akane fiancee and doesn't look very silly with them actually staying at the dojo.  Why doesn't Genma try and drive off the hanger-on before the prize reveal anyway?

[Jason_Miao]

I suspect that is...but that kind of makes me bleh.  I dunno, it tends to represent a fear to tell the own story instead of just covering a few choice implications.

The writer's profile lists a few other fics, all of which are crossovers. If you are so inclined, you could skim those to see if the writer is the sort who actually writes stories, or slaps together 10 vignettes and calls it a story.


Also, re: fic itself, too early for me to decide.  In short:

I liked the non-obnoxious flashback.  Multiple all-caps+bold+italics in multiple instances was irritating.  Was not too enthused by the Tendo Dojo scene, but having read that hundreds of times, that's not surprising, and the writer at least tried to change it up.  I'll probably read chapters 2 and 3 to see what happens before deciding whether I want to keep reading or not.

[Dracos]

I wandered over to Veiled Moon, the author's only big work.

I think I'm 120,000 words in?  Still kind of waiting for it to go...anywhere?  It's a weird thing.  It's not offensive, it just doesn't go anywhere.  It's like "Hey, we're introducing a potentially meaningful conflict.  Now... Slice of Life Unending."

It wouldn't make me blink if it was just slice of life, but the setup is weird.  Bleach?  Sekerei?  Two combat mangas crossing prior to Sekerei's combat arc for...slice of life storytelling?  I mean, sure there's spies going around but they're incredibly irrelevant.  And the fact that almost everyone has super-powers and is fighting ghosts things off camera?  Also, irrelevant.

So why bother to use them?  Really long setup.

Mmm...*hunts good fic*

[Dracos]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9048866/1/Reality-Ensues - I think this is now my favorite mock bleach fic I have ever encountered. It's like 3-4 pages tops. Basically 2 scenes.
Technically, it requires bleach knowledge, but at the same time... One could easily read between the lines and appreciate it as a mockery of the kind of ridiculous "Why did this event ever happen?" that is big in both Naruto and Bleach.
Background: Bleach just had two of its big characters spar to unlease someone's real power. One killed the other. This was just 'okay' with everybody.