Glimpse of the Past

[tirepanted3]

Well, I'm not saying it's always a bad thing. Personally, I can recall several occasions when I modified things after I received a negative feedback (such as Catalina's character - which in hindsight allowed me to imagine one of my favorite group dynamidc in my stories, a democratic team of uniform stealers - in hindsight I regret not having used them more). And had I the time or the motivation to rewrite some parts of Pakal, I'd know exactly what I'd want to do to improve Tsuki's character arc.

Yes, precisely. Sometimes negative feedback can be good and constructive. It has definitely helped inspire me to develop some characters to be more sympathetic (including some of the characters who were initially cold villains, like Toshiko or Meredith & Lucinda).

I guess it's actually sometimes easier to be the one who receives the feedback rather than the one who gives it... I mean, we're not professional writers or critics, we're between people who share, in-between friends so to speak. The point of our comments are first and foremost to share our passion, and to encourage each other. So I sometimes feel awkward when I criticize the work of someone who did something for free on their free time... Especially when it comes to characters' personalities, since it's often very subjective.

Yes, certainly a lot of it is subjective, but that's part of what makes the different reactions interesting. Especially since there are certain baseline storytelling concepts which everyone here can agree on finding objectively entertaining (specifically, the mugging of women for their clothes ). It's interesting to build off that and see how different people respond to different USB archetypes and personalities. For example, I tend to gravitate toward characters who are renegade villains - those who often act as an obstruction to the heroes, but have clear motivations of their own - which is partly why I gravitated to characters like Reka, Lizéa, Safiye and their respective crews (in addition to their entertaining banter and interactions).

I usually share your opinion about reading stories as they're hot off the press, but lately I seem to have some sort of blocking . I guess I need to give myself a kick in the backside, so to speak. Usually, starting to read is the hardest part - once I have started, it's easier. I'll try to grab a bit of time during that couple of weeks.

I have the exact reaction with writing these stories. Once I start a new chapter, it becomes easier to continue, but it can be difficult to work up the motivation. I have a few chapters outlined, it's all a matter of finding the time and motivation. But once I start, hopefully it can get back on track.

[Trackman281]

I have missed this. The great introductions and all the great little pieces of detail that really set the scene, you know something is coming, but it's the initial stage of where you've just jumped straight into the world and you're taking it all in.

This entire segment is one giant USB scene and it's brilliant, I loved the takedowns between Lara and Amaryllis, slick, efficient, professional and all round bad arse.

“Looks like your good-luck charm didn’t work out tonight.” Lara commented when she saw the clover-patterns.

Aaaahhh the classic little quips that I know and love from your stories. I guess it just goes to show that sentries will try and rely on any luck they can get these days haha.

I see that in the next scene we have the classic "special" or so called "elite" combatants getting taken down, which I love! It always make me smile whenever I see these so called "cream of the crop" soldiers getting taken down, I'm so used to seeing it in virtually everything that I wonder what truly does make a so called elite guard anyway.

Love the idea of them just going from barrack to barrack, swiftly taking down group after group of unsuspecting soldiers. Brilliant work!

Loved the takedown of the officer scene, I was getting massive shades of Vikings2win's series the "kinky wars". A truly magnificent scene, and that little quip about the officer "donating her uniform to the cause", was just the cherry on top for me, what a segment!

BRILLIANT scene at the end! I like the idea of the soldiers thinking "yeah stuff this", and going AWOL because they don't want to suffer the same potential fates as their comrades, yet it seems that they too clearly have no problems mugging a group of ordinary women walking by so they can use their clothes to escape effectively, it's all round genius!

I must admit, it always takes me by surprise whenever I read a short story of yours. Over the years I've gotten used to your amazing stories being afternoon consumers, I even got myself a massive latte to casually sip while I read your tales, so it genuinely confused me for a second when I got to the end so quickly.

Despite the fact that you had me craving more (surprise, surprise), this does change the fact that this short story was an absolute delight to read through. I noticed that even though this is a nice, straight forward infiltration and has a "defeated army" trope, you still managed to squeeze in some snippets of lore and history in regards to the world and it's soldiers. Couple this alongside your amazing characters and it just screams "typical Rufus talent". This was absolutely amazing and it felt great to finally sit back, relax and enjoy it.