Chapter 4 of The Heart's Landscape completed.

[tocryabout]

"The Ring of Gyges", voilà. Features a much-overhauled Snowbird (no, I am not writing a blond-haired Inuit demigoddess, actually), opera, status epilepticus, and a fucking soulpatch.

[Read from the beginning]

I'm hella glad to get this one done. For some reason it was absolutely exhausting.


P.S. In reading this entry on reader entitlement (linked on metafandom), I'm a little shocked at how many people have blanket "no WIPs" policies. I understand how frustrating it is to start reading and have someone stop writing, but still, I find WIPs and serials to be the most entertaining part of online fandom. I like the soapiness of following a story as it unfolds, rather than bingeing on it all at once. More to the point (for me), I like writing that way -- there is no accountability like other readers and the instant gratification of feedback. I doubt I'd have finished Aphanes if I hadn't been posting it chapter-by-chapter.

Anyway, a little discouraging to see that so many people are probably skipping my stuff out of hand because it's not finished yet.

Comments

[youngest-one.livejournal.com]

I can get why they don't like WIPs, but I don't understand why anyone would say that they won't read any WiPs, at all, ever. There are good works in any genre of fanfic.

[to-cry-about.livejournal.com]

Snowbird (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowbird_%28comics%29) in Alpha Flight, although I'm ignoring quite a lot of that. No elves, goddesses, or magical Indians in my fic, thank you.

I read WIPs whenever the story sounds promising, and in fact if a story's completed I tend to assume it's old and not bother feedbacking. Which is probably a Bad Thing, if so many people post all in one go rather than serially.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Life is a WIP, people. Get over yourselves. There are no guarantees for any last chapters.

I totally agree with you. It is, in a big way, the encouragement I received from chapter 1 of Days of Becoming (My current -- and just renamed -- X-novel) that has allowed me to complete chapter 2. People who won't read WIPs are, perhaps, shirking their duties as the bellows that keeps the fire hot.

[to-cry-about.livejournal.com]

I had missed that when you posted it, thanks for reminding me. It's fucking sweet.

I would feel incredibly guilty if I couldn't finish something I started, which is the main reason posting serially works for me. And I still think longingly of Minisinoo's Heyoka series -- I understand she used her material for Grail, but I love Gracie!

[youngest-one.livejournal.com]

And the plot continues to thicken....

I liked the way you presented Anne McKenzie and her point of view. She managed to come off as being sympathetic and thoughtful to a certain extent. However, she clearly sees Department H as the only possible solution to the mutant issue, and expects everyone to agree. Reading her dialog, I got the feeling that she started and ended the conversation in the firm belief that Joel would see it her way eventually.

The mutation situation in Canada as you've presented it is an interesting one. I'd say people do have some right to be worried about what mutants with destructive powers might do, but the current system seems to punish those without flashy mutations or the economic background to play the bureaucratic game. Joel has to compromise his morals twice, once when considering McKenzie's offer and again while accepting the expensive new surgery. The surgery makes me...suspicious. Maybe because of the whole "let go" bit at the end. Also, I have to ask - what is a fucking soulpatch?

Jeanne - Marie made me wonder if she hasn't slipped back into Aurora; I don' think she ever really criticized Madame DuPont before. Her origin story is wonderfully heartbreaking and plausible.

An exhausting chapter, perhaps, but a well done and fascinating one.

[to-cry-about.livejournal.com]

A soulpatch is facial hair between the lower lip and the chin that doesn't extend to a full goatee. This gentleman has a small soulpatch:


I'm not sure there is a just and democratic solution to the mutant problem that doesn't leave the human majority completely vulnerable. If mutants all had the same powers it might be feasible, but Magneto's plastic prison shows the difficulty and expense of keeping mutant criminals behind bars. (Never mind the logistics of arresting Joel or Nightcrawler or Kitty Pryde, and so on.)

I find the health care morality issue interesting too. I don't think I could blame somebody for paying for health care that other people can't afford--it's your life, your body that's at stake. In Joel's case, it's not even a matter of waiting lists and jumping the queue, since the procedure just isn't available in the public system. And yet I think the private health care system is very unjust and that people shouldn't support it. Is Joel actually guilty of something or is he just indulging himself by being politically fastidious? (Nobody with an iPod is really living in voluntary poverty, after all.)

Jeanne-Marie's origin is as described in the comics, more or less, so I can't take credit for that. ;)

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Feel free to use it!

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

LOL. "Any animal native to Canada."

Because we know that animals respect national borders. As do mutations.

[youngest-one.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't think her powers were mutations as much as magical powers. She was the offspring of an Inuit goddess, after all. Even if she was blond and blue eyed.