What are you reading?

[Arakawa]

You ever remember reading a story in your youth and thinking MAN THIS IS GREAT STUFF and then you go back to read it and OH GOD WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH ME THIS IS SHIT

This just happened to me.

Still better than having that experience with something you wrote....

Which story was it? (If it's not a secret :-P)

[Brian]

Ah, the nostalgia goggles.

[Yuthirin]

Lovestruck by Jennifer Poulos. It's on the Florestica archive. Sorry no link, am mobile.

[Brian]

Presumably this:

http://florestica.com/jpoulos/lovestruck/

And possibly also this:

https://www.fictionpress.com/s/549329/1/LoveStruck-Book-One-Seven-Days

[Yuthirin]

Yes. Thank you.

[Jason_Miao]

Lovestruck by Jennifer Poulos. It's on the Florestica archive. Sorry no link, am mobile.

I remember that fic on the FFML.  I also remember thinking that while was not the best story I'd ever read but still a okay bit of fluff, way back when.  Guess I'd best avoid rereading that one.


-edit-
Oh, and MB's fic updated https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6880685/11/Well-in-Hand

[Empyrean]

I started reading Final Fantasy Tactics fanfic.

First was For Want of a War, mentioned already: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6789454/1/For-Want-of-a-War

It's funny. It's also got some good fight scenes, but they are largely unnecessary to the plot. Given the premise of FFT as a harem comedy, and Ramza's superhuman proficiency at unarmed combat, this story is Ramza 1/2. Has updated quite a bit after a 7 month hiatus, so if you read it a while ago, take another look. This story doesn't limit the harem to the girls you would expect.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3250660/1/Heart-of-Gold

Final Fantasy Tactics romance fanfic. I've only read the first five chapters, but I'm enjoying it a lot so far. The approach taken so far is to follow canon events exactly, except from Agrias' perspective, and only adding things where they could happen off-scene. It's a pretty slow pace; it doesn't just dump Ramza and Agrias into a relationship, taking the slow buildup route. Agrias isn't the type to just throw herself at a guy. She's a Holy Knight, and she thinks and acts like a professional fighter.

[Anastasia]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8162862/79/Bringer-of-Death

Bringer of Death updated.

[Anastasia]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9044833/18/My-Love-s-Flame

My Love's Flame updated. Not a whole lot happened here, wished more had. It felt like a transitory chapter the author struggled to get out.

[Rezantis]

http://parahumans.wordpress.com/

Worm finished last week, if anyone feels like reading a remarkably long but very well constructed web serial.

[Anastasia]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6789454/19/For-Want-of-a-War

For Want of a War updated. Plots are hatched and Ramza gets tired of the assassin's shenanigans.

[Anastasia]

NWS https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9342459/8/Miracle-of-Zero-Kingdom-of-the-Forsaken NWS

Miracle of Zero updated. As noted it's not work safe.

[spoiler]This does at least explain Shirou having routine delusions about Rin talking to him. You know, I'm okay with rape being used as a story element. I'm okay with some adult content. They can be used skillfully to enhance a story and provide shock value. I'm not sure if that chapter uses those elements successfully*, but whatever, not the point. But wow, way to turn a one off anime element into pure darkness as a thin excuse to make Shirou freak out.

I've never liked stories that took Mott that far out of context, it's always felt terrifically OOC and unfitting to the ZnT world. What the fuck sort of nobleman parades his recent victim around like a prize? That goes past SoD breaking and into flat fucking dumb. It's one thing to have your maids dress up provocatively and it's a whole fucking continent away to have one lying around like that. It's like inviting a guest over and having a dead hooker under the coffee table. Unless you know your guest is a serial killer it's going to get you in unbelievably deep shit.

What the fuck?

*I don't think it does beyond shock value, but I admit it hit that out of the park. I wasn't expecting this from that story.

[Grahf]

So, that latest Miracle of Zero chapter.

Yikes.

Spoiler: ShowHide

I realize that the note at the end was trying to dismiss some of what Anastasia brought up, because apparently some one else had the same thoughts, but to me it still came off as really just, ugh. I'm willing to see where the story will go from here (and indeed know at least some of those details from deviantART stuff, although not the forums), but man, this was a real swerve in a story that was going rather well until this point.

[Anastasia]

So, that latest Miracle of Zero chapter.

Yikes.

Spoiler: ShowHide

I realize that the note at the end was trying to dismiss some of what Anastasia brought up, because apparently some one else had the same thoughts, but to me it still came off as really just, ugh. I'm willing to see where the story will go from here (and indeed know at least some of those details from deviantART stuff, although not the forums), but man, this was a real swerve in a story that was going rather well until this point.

[spoiler]
The entire thing stands out like a sore thumb. It feels like something he forced to work in just the way he wanted rather than anything believable, really. Let's assume Mott really is a sadistic bastard a moment. There's still no reason he'd just have one of his conquests out when dealing with a noble he doesn't know. Noble politics is about character, power and influence. What the hell does that get you at all? What if Louise goes to mom and points out Mott is the type of person to have a freshly raped maid out when she visits? What if she mentions it to Henrietta? Let's assume he has the political pull to get away with it too. Even if we assume that, what the hell is the point?

The entire stunt gets him nothing. Is it so hard to have a pleasant sitting room that your guests can wait in, in case your main room is occupied by a violated maid? You'd think you'd have your guards up on that sort of thing. They're at least complicit with it, so it behooves them and Mott to have their ducks in a row in case things go south like this.

It makes absolutely zero sense for a nobleman to do. At best it's hurting his own political position by offending an up and coming noblewoman. At worst the offense to Louise gets back to Karin and she takes offense. You know, the Heavy Wind who's a teenage friend of Queen Marianne and who outranks Mott? Let's go a step further and assume that Mott's a monstrous psycho who would do that anyway.

I read his AN afterwards and it failed at basic making sense to me. It was like someone who belabored, squeezed and pushed logic into a tortured shape so that it could enable the story twist he wanted. It was supremely lazy writing (to borrow the phrase of another reviewer I just read) and piss-poor plotting of the highest caliber. I get the feeling he started from the premise of 'how I can get this to happen how I want it' rather than 'what would happen here'.

The premises involved could have worked, but they would need defter handling than what the author did here.

[Grahf]

It's not that it's simply dark - although it is very, very dark - it's that it mostly came off as hamfisted. Granted, this isn't the only psychotic portrayal of Mott I've seen, he was arguably a whole lot worse in the other fic I read (Unfamiliar for those interested, although do note that it's a somewhat graphic fiction, not to mention that it's also a dead fic as far as I can tell).

Still, it's like, let's take a guy who was undoubtedly a pervy skivvy kind of jackass in the canon, and crank the dial past 11. That's good drama, right? Right?!