I finally finished reading Panacea Quest. Wow. Just wow. That was an experience. I liked it.

The amount of uproar about it on SpaceBattles was amusing, and I wonder how it would be received here.

 

My only real issue with Panacea quest is that well, it's a quest. It would be excellent as a stand alone piece, but doing a quest where you have a fairly preset and rigid characterization doesn't work out that well from a player perspective, as it often feels like you're being railroaded something fierce. Thus while it's damn well written I just read the story posts.

Spacebattles policy is pretty dumb, but hey, it's their site. I hope it doesn't get kicked out.

 

There was an update for "Walkabouts", now hosted on ff.net:

click!

Good stuff, although I got a bit confused about the chronology of the story.

Manager has some new installments too, it's getting quite good.

EDIT: Just read the newest update of Manager, the characterization of Emma's father was waaaay off.

 

As much as Emma's father is OOC, I don't really mind if only for the pleasure in seeing Emma get punished. If I ignore that much, I quite enjoy Manager.

 

Does anyone remember the name of the central Yangban member who could reallocate powers? Zero, perhaps. It honestly sounds like Taylor's been given that power in Manager, rather than having had the Administrator shard changed.

 

Ziggurat, I think.

 

Ziggurat was the terrakinetic.

 

It was Zero.

 

The law firm, the senior partners, Emma's dad, pretty much everything was off. I'll do my best to pretend that the interlude never happened. Hopefully future chapters are better.

That AU fic with Taylor reborn in a world where capes have been around since the 30s and some characters can remember events from the previous canon universe is rubbish. I'm sorry that I defended it. I thought the first chapter indicated great things and a well thought out universe; instead it's just a mess, with no reasonable departure point from the canon timeline. Taylor's characterisation could have saved it if it was any good. It isn't.

While I'm on a roll, The Asuran Option (inspired by Asuran Alternative) is terrible. Save yourself the pain. Taylor is an extreme Mary Sue. Forgiveness, being a moral crusader, and giving terrible speeches that inspire everyone who hears them and can shift the mood of a nation are her super powers and it's all in a day's work for Taylor.

The world revolves around Taylor. The main plot points look something like this: bullying bullying bullying super-forgiveness PRT-testing speech-to-nation you-so-awesome-Taylor anti-bullying-campaign because apparently no anti-bullying organisations existed before now.

There you go. That's the fic. No plot, no cool Asuran or Stargate stuff, it's all just a vehicle for a perfect Mary Sue Taylor fix-it fic.

 

Bullying is a serious issue, even considering super powered villains and world destroying monsters.

 

Speaking of Alteran Ascension, the author decided to do a rewrite. I'd link it, but Spacebattles is having a spaz for me right now.

There's bullying, and then there's being locked in a locker full of used tampons. I dunno, I might be sheltered cause I never got bullied in my life, but to me that's so much more severe to standard bullying it may as well be considered full on torture.

 

Legally, the locker incident as described in canon is at least 3 different felonies (unlawful imprisonment, assault, and reckless endangerment). If it had gone to court, and someone had provided testimony or evidence that identified the perpetrator, they'd be facing a minimum of 15-20 years in prison, if memory serves.

That said (and sadly enough), it's not that far outside known bullying events. It's significantly more extreme than any I've personally witnessed, but that doesn't say much. "Lock the nerd in their own locker" is a staple high school bully tactic. The only really extreme thing that happened to Taylor was the bloody tampons and the stupidly high risk of spreading a blood-borne disease.

 

Legalities aside, I'm getting sick of fics that focus so much on the bullying and everyone's horrified reactions to it as well as fics that focus on the PRT testing Taylor's abilities so that they can determine her rating numbers. They can work in moderation but please give me some good plot and characterisation too - not just the boring stuff which every other Worm fic contains. It feels like Indie Harry's Diagon Alley shopping trip.

 

Also getting quite sick of the Lung fight. It is okay in crack fics but not really in the more serious ones. Seen it too often that Taylor trashed Lung with her amazing new power set.

 

New Worm fanfiction law : Thou Shalt Not Rehash Lung vs. Taylor Round 1

Ryuugi Exception: Unless Taylor Posseseth Lung's Powerset And Whuppeth Stupid Amounts Of Ass

 

It's pretty much what the HP fandom did. I find it all pretty amusing, really.