Shadowknight12

Hah, yeah, you're spot on. The apathy, specially. And the jab at her research! Gack, that's just so true. I can't be bothered to FINISH this book, with all the other things I have to do. Eh, maybe in the next few months when there's a lull in my writing or something.

What Robin said. Unless you're writing yourself, or mostly yourself, no need for that tag. Sounds like a funny story, though.

Oh, I'm always around to bounce ideas off! My issue with Beredir is that he actually doesn't come off as Vale's friend... much. Only as an acquaintance. Friendly acquaintance from long back, but still. And it's clearly stated Vale's been neglecting the relationship (which actually might not be that much from elven standards, but still, narratively we don't see the two interacting that much), so the "friendship" vibe doesn't come across that well. I definitely agree on being caught up in the middle of a breaking relationship, and it's portrayed... subtly. Having him bemoan a bit about the difficulty of his position would have worked well, I think. Hmmm. Well, since it was already a long chapter, you could have added more in the timeskip and split it into two. But really, wench, that was just a matter of personal preference. *I* would have gone for more detail because I like being thorough, even at the expense of clarity. If you want things to be more clear and easy to follow, that's a good thing! Especially if you say you didn't want it to turn into a fic within a fic. It's nothing! Really, I like being opinionated and you give me an outlet.

That saucy Alistair... Hah, I understand. I often scowl at FlashFics for being so unwieldy, limit-wise. I think it's easy to pull off a little backstory in the next prompt, since you'll have less lore taking up words. You can have Wraith reminisce about Alistair as they hold hands or something. It's very realistic to go "holy crap, I can't believe we got this far!" in a relationship, especially when there's a lot of stuff occupying the person's mind. And hah, your other descriptions are very nice. They give the fic the sweet flavour that makes it interesting to read. I don't doubt the head of a wench is a messy place! And I can't wait to read more.

Ahhh, I see. Normally I have a hard time processing WAFF, but in this case I knew it was supposed to be a children's show and went with it. Wasn't half bad! Yup, I have to commend you on that one, I could get an idea of the characters' personalities from the titles alone. Well done. Hahah, yes, I didn't have to use Wikipedia at all. Even if I felt I was missing out on in-jokes, it's what happens when you have never watched the show in question. The pacing is a bit hurried in one or two places, but it's a Flashfic and therefore perfectly understandable. Honestly, you shouldn't worry about pacing or the like when you have a word limit! It was good. It flowed, all in all, remarkably well. Glided, if you will, like a magical pony down a rainbow. I did enjoy it, actually. It was nice, mainly because it had a good balance of humour and sweetness. If it had been treated seriously, I might have bolted. But the jokes made it entertaining to read!

Elspeth: Hahah, glad I made you giggle, light-hearted fun is always a good entertainment. Yeah, I guess I have a strange mind. I'll just do the "one chapter per prompt" thing, just like you do, only with two separate paths. Should be fun!

My contribution to the topic: http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/capitalization-rules.html (thank you, BronxWench, for the page)

FairySlayer: Heheh, smart. Suddenly suspicious is a good attitude to have. Oh, the "prancing in armour" bit was aimed more at the weight of it and not its safety. It was a kind of subtle foreshadowing of Auran's strength, so that the "tackle-bash" doesn't seem completely out of the blue. Ohohoh, yes. Payback is definitely due. See? Now I have to find a way for the wyvern to follow these two around, making MST3K-style commentary... Hahah, I really like this idea! And every prompt would be another chapter in either of the two routes? If I were to do something like pittwitch's continuous thread and wanted to post two chapters at once (to continue both storylines), would they have to total 1000? Because I could just say "storyline A is continued in the even-numbered chapters and storyline B in the odd-numbered ones" and do one chapter per prompt, like pittwitch.

pittwitch: You got yourself some competition, woman! The wyvern is very fun to write because he's such a deadpan snarker. I wish I could keep him around longer! Heh, well, I guess I ain't as bad as I thought with the mushy stuff, lol. *ponders* Auran executes his master plan and pounces Jeddek or Jeddek has enough and finally pounces Auran? Gods, it's so sad I can't have it both ways...

Apollo: That is the first time anyone's called my writing mushy! Thank you for the deflowering. Techno-Ninja: Hahah, yeah, some people have never heard of subtlety. These two are on fire. Not literally, I hope.

BronxWench: Thank you for the awesome praise! I really do enjoy writing these two, and I'm glad you enjoy reading them. I think Jeddek's breaking point is merely inches away. ETA: imminent!

Pen Name: Shadow Knight. Story link: AFF Prompt - Gifts. Review replies link: Review Replies for AFF Prompt - Gifts. Type of fic: FlashFic. Rating: Adult. Fandom: World Of Warcraft. Pairing: N/A. Warnings: AFFO, ChallengeFic, COMPLETE, NoSex, OC.

Techno-Ninja: Hmmmmmm, perhaps a little of column A and a little of column B? Glad you like my writing!

Techno-Ninja: Thank you! It's always good when a reader unfamiliar with the fandom is still able to enjoy the story.

Yes. MPreg is a very controversial subject. Always add the warning. If you do not add it, expect angry reactions. It's just impolite, like forgetting the "death" tag and then gruesomely killing off the main character. Will it kill the surprise and the drama? Perhaps. But it is your duty as a writer to include it.

I only wish stories from here would span a movie or three...

Rain: Excellent rendition!

Now THAT is what I call awesome. :clap:

I fully agree and I have no further comments to make.

Actually, media is a reflection of a society's desires. It exists purely because there is people who will pay money to make it happen. The popularity of such reflection depends on the work's accuracy. So if the media exists, the desire must be there or else there will be no motivation for people to pay money for it. If the seme stereotype is so popular, then Japanese women must find him desirable in some level. Perhaps not desirable as a mate, but they must still derive some sort of enjoyment from seeing him in media works or else the law of offer and demand would take care of its extinction. Just because the culture states that such desires aren't meant to be displayed publicly doesn't mean they don't exist. Granted, I'd normally agree with you on it based on what you've just mentioned, but the fact that there is a demand for such characters means something. It's much like speaking about an individuals subconscious desires, if you will, only on a sociological level.

Wench: True! But I have come to the conclusion that views on sex are always fluctuating and have a tendency to cycle. So yeah, what you said is quite true. We need a facepalm icon. Ugh, that is EXACTLY what I have been trying to say all along. Thank you for taking my point and putting it forth with a few word changes. The rest of your post is also full of little eye-twitchers like that one. Protip: Reading a thread before posting is a good thing. Also, the "asshole exterior, mushy interior" makes me LAUGH whenever I see someone gushing about it. It's such a typical female fantasy. No wonder it works so well as a façade IRL. I really hope that you girls don't complain about unrealistic depictions of women in the media... I thought the same until I remembered the "seme" role in Yaoi, which is written for women. Though I suppose that since many of them have other types of Western qualities, one could argue it's something "exotic" to them. Or something. I am really not informed enough to say.

Good point, but my take on it is that it works because women are raised to think that way. I would very much like to interview a woman who has been raised in a radically different culture and see if it really does work on her. My prediction would be that culture dictates what people should look for in a sexual partner. If she was raised in a culture where subservience and meekness in males was a very desirable trait, and she had had no exposure to current Western culture, I would say that her body would NOT react sexually in the slightest to a man displaying asshole traits. But this is all speculation, of course, unlikely that with today's globalization we'll ever find out the truth. It's just interesting food for thought.

Very rarely will someone think of themselves as bad guys. Why? Because even a little genre savviness would tell them that their chances of success are pretty damn low. And this ruins morale like a frying pan to the face. Better to think off yourself as something that can be cast on a positive light, if only to fight less people on your way to the top. Me? Ripping on the site owner? Dear girl, I'm not that stupid... I wouldn't have a problem dissecting your reasoning to show you just how impractical it is to want something so rare, but if one removes the technical terms and adorns it a bit, you'll actually find yourself with the age-old speech of what women want in a man. Dissecting THAT would give me a headache and it's just too damn early in the day for me to hit the booze, Apollo. I will only say that I hope your search is fruitful. I'll comment on the side that "asshole" qualities might be all well and good for sex, but if you take that out of the equation, you get more problems in the relationship than the attitudes are worth. Social conditioning. It's far more acceptable for a man to be a total asshole than a woman to be a complete bitch. On the other hand, we have the apologists, who are more than willing to be guilt-tripped into accepting a bitch's bitchiness because of all the boohoohoo subjugation men have imposed on women for millennia. And this is about the SMART ones. The rest will just think "pussy = good, must have more" and take whatever she throws his way if she's sufficiently hot. In fact, one could say that a woman's Allowed Bitchiness is directly proportional to her hotness. And if she cultivates an image of being positively excellent in the sack but hard to get (and we assume she has the looks to pull this off), she's going to be allowed to disembowel a guy on the street before anyone objects. The problem with women is that very few of them are satisfied with sex the way a man their age is. Most women want a deeper connection, emotions and all that crap. Bitchiness sabotages relationships in the vast majority of cases. So a woman learns to exempt her loved one from her assholeness or become a master of subtlety. Men have no problem being assholes because this trait is very rarely an obstacle when it comes to getting sex. Look at Apollo and the way she so blatantly admits that this ridiculous behaviour actually has a positive effect on her. It is because of women like HER that this trait thrives (*points finger and glares* ). A woman who wants an emotional connection with her man will either have to settle for someone older (sacrificing looks) or keep trying until she finds the right person. Which, if one thinks about it, becomes highly ironic if a lot of time has passed and she has to settle for an older man... only now SHE is older too, and with a lot of baggage. So, to sum up: women aren't as prone to overt assholeness as men because they have different priorities and this trait usually becomes an obstacle in the path to achieving them. There are exceptions, of course, and I dare say the exceptions are slowly becoming the norm as time passes.

Perhaps it was "asinine dogs"?