wanderingaddict

wanking in more of a figurative sense, I think, Apollo and not so much being like "grr!" at female authors, so much as "a lot of authors get off on different things, and not always what you expect." and, uh, I honestly can't deny that authors sometimes wank over their own characters, in the literal sense, from personal experience so...

that's assuming everyone has a logical, sensible head on their shoulders, Snight

you won't get badgered for sex. people might say they can't wait for it, but just 'cause this is AFF doesn't mean that story has to have sex. one of my stories doesn't even have any sex, is going on 60k words, and nobody's complained yet

okay, Snight, I want you to do something for me. will you? this is very, very important. I need you to look at your right hand (I don't care if it's not your dominant one, look at your right hand). I want you to line up your fingers, and then raise it up, palm outward. then I want you strike yourself with the back of your hand, perhaps with enough force to leave a light bruise. I know you may be all like "PFFT ADDICT DO YOU THINK I"MA BRUISE THIS PRETTY FACE THIS IS HOW I EARN MA LIVIN’" to which I have to reply "I only do this because I care, Snight" and then if I were actually there I'd raise my pimp hand and do again. guess why, Snight. go on, guess if you said "Gee Addict, is it because I totally ignored everything you just said?" then good job! geez dude, I said I liked it! It’s hardly “lousy” you fool! First off, there’s hardly any trick to making Aristan a blushing innocent, just to imply that it’s his first time. And I'm not saying that Rivandyr doesn’t need to enjoy his blowjob in order to imply that either- where you went way over the line is that Rivandyr is absolutely floored by Aristan’s expertness, rather than just really getting into/slash/being surprised and pulled along by Aristan’s own enthusiasm. I mean, there’s a lot to be said for an eager and willing, however untrained throat. Do you know what I mean? For Aristan, and for what you kind of what to do with him, I think, it would be so much easier to just emphasize that Riandyr’s enjoyment came from Aristan’s eager willingness, not so much the fact that Ari expertly handled his nuts. Like if Ari pulled too hard a couple times, scraped it between his teeth a couple times, gagged a little too much, but was so intense with his sucking and kissing and grasping that it more than made up for what he missed. And heck this is the first blowjob Rivandyr’s had in like, a hundred years right? The dude prolly thinks anything’ll do at this point, lawlz! It’s not about being “cute” and “coy,” but just about the lead up being uncertain, about Ari needing to pull Rivandyr out of that slinky carapace he uses to keep his feelings (and other people) distant. It may come across as cute and coy as a result, but that’s just because it’s what we normally associate with being cute and coy. Aristan shyly, slyly using a couple kisses to cover the placing of his hands on Rivandyr’s crotch would certainly fit the bill, but it’s not the point of the scene, you know? He doesn’t need to be a hesitant, blushing virgin because that’s not really who or what he is. I don’t know how you see him, but I see him as eager and ready, there’s just that uncomfortable moment that all first-timers, but also the fact that he is clearly supplicating Rivandyr for sex is what makes him hesitant. It’s a power issue, one that he should totally be aware of given that Rivandyr rejected him so easily last time. And as for wanting to keep it emotional/intellectual, then dude this is the wrong story, period. Coating a sex scene in emotional and intellectual dialogue rarely works with just any couple- you have to have two people that stand strong alone, and honestly the story needs to be about something *other* than their relationship. Like about their journey, or the overarching events, or about a series of characters. WoaL is solely about Rivandyr and Aristan, not about anything else. I’m not saying it in a bad way, or that there’s not interesting things happening and going on, or that there aren’t other events and subplots. The main plot, the main focus of the story however is the two of them getting together and how that pans out. Not really the type of story that can pull off glazing a sex scene with a coat of intellectual candy without dampening its overall “oomph.” And omg dude, seriously read what I type! Like, actually read it! Did I say “list cock size”? Did I say “tell me that aristan’s twelve inches! AROUND!” NO! there’s such a huge difference between getting a character’s personal thoughts and interspersing them with the occasional objectively descriptive comment and either just crudely saying “The elf’s fourteen-inch skinny dick was half the thickness of Aristan’s eight-incher but he didn’t mind” or just “gushing” or whatever about how massive and amazing Aristan’s cock is. Or, hell, making them “perfect” with six-pack abs and dangling balls and two long, excellent dicks. What you like to do for the majority of your sex scenes is glide about with flowing, elegant descriptors. I mean, the troll scene in Taint, the satyr scene, the majority of the SCN scene, and again, here. They’re airy, beautiful and well-crafted dude. Lawlz, like, listen to the words I’m typing right here: I’m NOT saying they’re bad. Heh, k? NOT BAD. I’m saying that’s the definite theme in your writing so far. I think that works very well for what you have in mind as ideal- as part of that story I mentioned above, one where the sex is not the point of the story, where you want to get across that it was awesome, it was hot, but there’s no need to dwell or get caught up in the details. It works for some of the scenes in Taint. It could definitely work better for some characters, at certain times, than others (like big D, if he ever is coaxed out of his shell by someone he loves, then that would work super well because the sex could be fumbling and the whole point of it would *be* that emotional part, not act of sex itself). Particular example- whatever line it is you have where you describe Aristan as stretched out, golden and muscled. That’s neither an objective descriptor, nor is it colored with Rivandyr’s thoughts (which can rock hard for conveying *why* a character is attractive and boneable too). There’s nothing specific about that line by itself, however. If anything it’s just as vague as not including it at all- it serves to remind us of two things: that Aristan is blonde, that he is muscled, and that’s it. How blond, how hairy, how muscled, none of that is conveyed. It is entirely upon the reader to fill in their own image, and like in my case, I glaze over it with the image of some Scottish broguish dude in front of a fireplace. It’s something that’s artful and flowing and works with the words around it, that serves as a means of rolling the eyes through the paragraph in a pleasing way, but doesn’t actually serve to make anything concrete. To bring the reader down to earth. That’s why I suggested occasionally peppering your sex scenes with more specific examples. They don’t need, at all, to be things like “Aristan’s big dick flopped about like a third leg!” or “Aristan gaped in amazement at the beautiful, cum-filled balls that he pulled from Riandyr’s pants.” What they honestly should be are simple things that you are doing already- that is, towards the end of every sex scene you write, where I swear you can’t help but get caught up in the moment and just dive into those descriptors yourself. The draenei’s gaping hole, for instance, or the surprising amount of semen Rivandyr had to gulp down. That stuff right there? That’s GOLD dude! Just add things like that *throughout* the sex scenes, instead of only getting into them at the end. Subjective things, sure, but the whole point is that they powerfully convey the emotion of the scene. It doesn’t matter whether Aristan barely came enough to fill a bucket or a spoon, just that it was enough to catch Rivandyr offguard. It doesn’t matter how much Iraavar’s anus gaped open, or whether or not some of Drathir’s semen seeped out, but the point is that it *did*. The details are left up to the reader, but the reason the characters noticed, and their emotional reactions, are clear. Honestly I think it’s an easy something you could do to really pull your scenes together. To grab the reader’s attention and *keep it* sooner, rather than later. I mean, with SCN the point that I actually sat up in my chair and paid attention was ‘cause Drathir fisted Iraavar (and it was good) and I can’t for the life of me remember anything about any descriptions at the start. I know they were in the Scryer’s Tier, but does that mean they were in a lush, marble, elven apartment? Or are Drathir’s quarters nothing but a few silk curtains draped about a ruined draenei hovel? And good god, their *ages* man! Is Iraavar grizzled and scarred and 25000 years old, while Drathir’s barely fifty and loving this domination? Or is it the other way around, and this embarrassed young Vindicator is teaching an older blood elf some brand new tricks? Hee, I’m going off on a tangent dude. Anyways. Point is, your sex scenes- do you get what I mean? What I’m fumbling to explain about how you write them? Again, I’m not saying it’s bad, in fact I think it’s a very strong suit and something that keeps them from just being some bad, quickie sex when they’re honestly *not*. Just, on the other hand, they can sometimes (usually towards the start of them) drift about in the air a little too long, passing along without any hooks or solid points for the reader to snag on to. Hence the need for those solid comments to remind us of what we're reading, to keep the reader's mind focused on the physicality of these scenes. you an drift off into philosophical discussions all you want when you have a scene where one (or both) characters are hardly into it, or where the sex has become practically rote-enjoyment, or something, but not when it's Rivandyr's first time in years, and Aristan's first time period, and not when it's precisely about an old elf in the end of life falling in love again and a young human being swept off his feet. Does that get towards what I’m trying to say? And you need to learn what an author wanks over, lawlz, first off most authors are women, so wanking isn’t even the right term, and second off do you have *any* idea what women wank over? Well, for example, take Serronas’s story about that uke night elf and the Alpha. You know how the uke elf just looks at the Alpha and feels his vagina clench? Do you really, honestly think that she’s not wanking right as she writes that right there? dude if you squick about authors wanking over a hot character, you’ll be appalled when you finally start recognizing what the author’s really getting off on. And I can appreciate it when an elf bottoms (heck, my most popular story’s about just that!) but honestly, it’s so rarely well done and so terribly common to have a uke elf that unless it really stand out it’s just kinda like /yawn. Another lady-boy elf submits to the manlier [anything] because lord knows that no elf has a shred of masculinity anywhere in his body Oh, and dude… how much I write is like, directly proportional to how close to perfection I think a story is. Honestly, the more effort I see a story need to be one of those “wow!” ones that needs to changes, no correction of plot or addition of scenes, the less I say (short of it reaching that “critical point” or whatever where it’s so close to perfection that all I can say is “great job!” and grin ). yeah, just wanted you to know that part too.

I don't understand why you have this separate, as opposed to integrated with your big-fic if there's so much that's been intertwined. I mean, honestly, when I opened the first chapter of this I had no idea who Sand was. I assumed he was like, a 15 year old street waif! heh, I mean, later a vague memory of some sorta Elrond-looking guy started to pop up, but... yeah, why don't you have this as some side chapters in your big story? or submitted beside it?

I agree with Snight, about how I honestly can't see an elf being long-term attracted to a human. I mean, loving a pet dog for all its life is easy, because you don't really see it get wrinkly and fat and tumor-y (and if you do, it doesn't really matter since you're not having sex with it). in just ten years a human will be radically different though, wheras an elf will be pretty much at the exact same point in their life still. so *shrug*. sorry DG I'd talk about vampires, but I honestly have no idea about anything in the buffy-verse. I stopped watching the show back when Cordelia was still the silly popular girl-rival Age differences can be neat, even really cool (for both genders) when they're portrayed in an appropriate light. Too often though authors make the older woman come off as "desperate" or "lucky" (as though she shouldn't normally be getting some fine young tail) whereas the older guy almost always comes off as a playboy or a sexy tiger. an unfair dichotomy to be sure

partially my fault? I wrote an NwN story about a tiefling demon dicking a little elf-sorcerer, I hardly see how I'm to blame for you writing an NwN story about an elven wizard dicking a little elf-sorcer- er... oh. haha, lawlz, I kid. that's awesome though, I'm glad could inspire someone to write more NwN elf-dicking fiction and I'm glad you dig Valen! he's pretty bomb, but so few people make him into the troubled soul that I see. the nervous guy that's uncertain and crazy and so delicious with big white pecs *nomnomnom* oops, er, I mean, it's been too long since I've written him. I really enjoy NwN fic though, I was surprised that all the dudes here were npcs from NwN2! I'd completely forgotten about like, all of them!

pfft dude! they have ONE massive ziggurat, made of stone, that gets covered in vines and moss and plants AND ANIMALS! the trolls are just like, all buddy-buddy with them just fine! they don't care! it's like they just went and built the Ziggurat under them and the lions and bats and whatnot don't even care! the tauren though?? have you seen their fences! like, a bajillion plainstriders died to make the fence around crossroads, and don't even get me started about the forest they chopped down to make that dumb fence around their starting zone, just so their idiot kids don't run off the cliff! their individual huts may be low impact, but what's *around* those huts is like, a slaughterfest of nature! and yeah, I know it's not the case objectively, but there's no reason to believe otherwise either (which to me was the entire value of the original druid-magi article, because that's pretty much the gist of what it said). I do kind of like the idea of the two sides having a vague aversion to each other (or at least, the leaders of the two sides). what with the archmages high in their ivory towers, valuing discourse on arcane knowledge, whereas the ranger-commanders exalt crawling through the woods and experiencing nature and combat first-hand or something. and their troops get caught in the middle, as is the way of things it's a neat idea, and delves into that societal change and division/unification stuff that I dig so much. this was fun dude! now to write my reply to your story post.

I think that you're both forgetting that elves aren't "naturally" staid and set in their ways, but they are relative to the human pace of life. elves that grow up surrounded by other elves, where planning long-term means "sometime in the next 20 years" is the norm, are slow to change and set in their ways, whereas elves that grow up with a bunch of humans adjust to the much "quicker" pace of life. and I've always had a problem with the "adult" status of an elf. they reach sexual maturity at like, 20 or so right? to me it's really more of a "mark of status" so to speak. at 100 you're a full-fledged, "graduated college" out on your own independent adult. anything under that is the same way we'd view a high school student, or a college kid. they're mature in a lot of ways, but not quite at the right stage just yet.

well with ZG, ZA, Jintha'Alor, Zul'drak, and the Sandfury place being all the major troll cities, and with *all* of those being animal-infested, tree-filled, teeming-with-life and completely unspoiled wonderlands despite thousands of years of habitation, it's pretty clear (to me at least ) that the trolls are at the very top of the "low-impact civ" part of nature. and, really, they're actually willing to settle *anywhere* and, what's more, they don't meddle with the way things are! they hardly hunt, they don't chop down trees, they don't displace animals, they don't do jack shit! lawlz, they probably do have an incredibly unfair advantage in that they're really just lazy elves, so they have that body that can survive on a handful of twigs and a bird or two, but still got their primal roots and that regeneration, as well as that lazy, lazy attitude, so they're perfectly happy to sit in a stick hut and just ponder/meditate/get high all day. the tauren I'd say are similar, and definitely are very high up there in terms of respect and appreciation for all places and aspects of nature, but... they don't really have that drive to defend their lands the way that trolls do. as for night elves, well, I forgot to mention that little part where they don't bother doing jack shit about anyplace that's not a tree-infested forest. Desolace cursed for a thousand years? pfft, w/e. Azshara? pfft. Tanaris, Un'goro, Durotar? pfft to all those too. they like their forested mountains, and everything else can burn for all they seem to care. that's kinda what sets them down from trolls a little bit, to me, in terms of nature-loving respect. trolls'll settle anywhere and be perfectly content. nelves though, if it ain't got trees it ain't worth savin'. and yeah, heh, the high/blood elves are all about the hedonism, though I'd think of it as something more like vanity, or maybe just self-importance. they do respect nature, in that they care about all the trees, all the animals, all the plants in their domain, but it's one of those "so long as they bow to our will" kind of things, hah, you know? or maybe it's a "a natural forest is pretty, but in our hands it's gorgeous" kind of thing, where they're like "we merely keep it in a state of peak growth, peak prosperity, where every insect has a flower, no animal need starve, or freeze." and maybe it's just as natural to use one innate force to augment another? lawlz, who knows. it could be anything almost every area is sacred to the trolls for some reason though. they've had a lot of chances, being the oldest race on azeroth! heh, maybe the elves were even the peaceful ones, being like "hey you big, strong, limber guys, we wanna settle here and have sexy times with you" and the trolls were all like "eww no we're big gross forest trolls that look like inflated gorillas we're not cool at all" and then basically got what they deserved too.

hrmm, they don't have the original page about the druid magi though. the stuff about literally druidic mages. that's too bad, there was a lot of cool stuff there. anywho, this is actually something I've thought about too (in a discussion about what was the most nature-loving race, where for me I decided that it's really all about "approach"). trolls, night elves, b/h elves, and tauren, to me, are the single most nature-loving races, but they all have radically different approaches. for the night elves, it's that "overabundance" of life, you know, the Wailing Caverns type, where everything, every SINGLE SPACE is RIFE with growth. they exalt in the untarnished glory of life, the radical expansion of nature, but only of "good" nature, along with "controlled" "bad" aspects of nature (like the "necessary purging" of predatory animals). trolls are content to just live and let live- well content and/or unbelievably lazy, but tomato, tomato every troll civ so far has just built on top of, over, or around really dangerous animals, but they don't really seem to care either way. haha, like I said, live and let live, or something. the tauren worship it by imitating it, by hunting worthy kills and "respecting its power" (even as they kill the strongest ones >.>). the high/blood elves are different though- they love and respect nature, all of nature, much like their kaldorei origins, and like greenery and shit, but at the same time where their elf cousins accept and embrace that "primal flow" they instead assume absolute control over every single element. hah, thus the whole "eternal springtime enchantment" thing they got going on. you keep mentioning them as seeing nature and magic as two separate ideologies, but personally I don't see any reason for them to assume that idea. Cenarious and Malfurion believe that, definitely, but there's no reason to assume that the arcane is in any way, shape, or form unnatural when the titans that created the green dragonflight and the emerald dream of life also created the blue dragonflight and the forces of magic on Azeroth. the night elves are zealots, spitting on an entire aspect of creation because it can be abused, but druidism can be abused just as easily (lol I mean look at teldrassil). there's no reason to assume that, in a culture that reveres both magical prowess, as well as natural magic and druidism, that the two would be at odds, rather than intertwined (which is what the original druid-magi article was talking about, in relation to the creation of the Runestones. of course, this was also back when the Runestones warded and protected, instead of just doing... absolutely nothing at all, or whatever the fuck they thought shield elves from magic, when the rest of the world (i.e. the blue dragonflight, the naga (who actually want to summon demons) the humans, the goblins, the gnomes, and the Shen'dralar highbourne) is still practicing crazy amounts of arcane magic and the burning legion is still looking for a way in would do. haha, anyways. in thinking about it though, I mean, the context of the time is also believable, because, say, the magisters do frown upon those dirt-children playing out in the woods, when they could be becoming mages, and if this is before the first troll war then, you know, it's like 6000 years ago or whatever (lawlz) so the magisters are all full of themselves and don't see the hard lesson that they'll have to lean on the horizon, that being you need those ghosty rangers to control the woods, in addition to all the druids maintaining it and all the sorcerers enchanting it, and all the battlemages defending the city. I mean, it could even be some funny justice, in a sense, to an old elf who can look back and see that the wars with the Amani were pretty much ignited by the elves themselves, rather than looking at them as unprovoked and shit. but anyways, yeah, like, after the war there's a paradigm shift and the magisters have to suck some sour eggs, and that starts the change to what happens over the next 4,000 years or whatever, to raise rangers to the exalted place they have in high/blood elf stories and lore.

dude I'm so glad you just have the brains to figure out for yourself that Arthas just made a freakin' surgical strike. I mean, the dude's on a goddamn timetable here, you know? he's got a motherfuckin' ARCHdaemon to summon, and he can't dick around in Silvermoon! much less, I mean, fucking A, it's the race of the oldest, wisest, most powerful magic users in the entire world (save for perhaps the friggen' naga and/or blue dragonflight). really? a bunch of bones and rotmonsters just steamrolled them all? ALL of them? much less the logistical fallout of having an ENTIRE RACE of the said most powerful magic users in the world suddenly at ones beck and call! I mean, god damn, NO ONE would have survived! every elf that dies gets risen, and even the ones that explode themselves or torch their bodies could just get called back as ghosts! I mean, geez, by that point they should have enough troops to just form a solid line and march through the woods and catch every single safehold and straggler left! no, I mean, to me the idea of a fast-ass surgical strike is just so cool. Sylvanas is floored by the traitors that opened the elfgates/gave Arthas the crystals, so instead of the guerrilla war she was planning she suddenly has to race her entire army ahead of a force that never needs to rest, never needs to stop or get tired. the elves simply aren't prepared to fight an enemy who's sole tactic is "just ball up and roll over everything" so Arthas is able to get right to the Sunwell, birth Kel'Thuzad, and then before the huge line of elves behind him closes ranks and cuts him off, he races back to Lorderan. sooo cool! so smart! so like, full of tactics and a BRAIN instead of "DERP A DERR, I'm AWthas, I'm a bwoody woooody bitch!" ugh yeah, you do have a point though. lawlz, blizz really is, well, stupidly fond of that kind of bullshit. and the fucking high elves, god. you know, I really wish they'd get someone, just anyone with a brain, to go back to the OLD stuff, where there were factions within factions, you know? like, back to that "we don't hate Theramore, they're alright, but we do hate Stormwind, and we don't like the night elves but the tauren do" kinda stuff. I was reaally disappointed with Quel'lithen though, dude. I loved that place when it was one little bit of green and sweetness in the gross blight-zone of EPL, but now everything else is greener, healthier, prettier than that place, and then to boot they fucked it up. and honestly, you know I was going to enter the writing contest this year, after seeing how fucking cool the one from last year was, but like... after seeing what they did to Quel'lithin, AFTER this person put such a fucking shitload of effort into make the place rock, it was... it just seemed to me like it was slap right across the face. you know what I mean? hah, for me, I'd be like "look, fuck your shitty collecter's Frostmourne sword and the tour, just don't shit on the creative effort I put forth for you guys." there's not bad blood between the elves and the dwarves, but it states like, everywhere, that the two races are not at all fond of each other. the elves like the wildhammer, because the wildhammer are naturalistic like they are, but for the most part the just don't particularly care for them (at least, the ironforge/dark iron ones, which are the ones that make up the alliance and alliance enemies, anyways). there's no first war enmity for the orcs, and while there should be a LOT of second war enmity, apparently it's all just "they burned some forests and attacked Windrunner Spire" now so like... ? who knows how much that deserves to still be around. and I really wish they'd show the huge number of elves that should be a part of the Forsaken too. like, actually using more banshee models, more male undead elves, for magic trainers, for... for well, everything appropriate! but especially for the forsaken in the Ghostlands, but that would just be bomb-all cool. it doesn't say anything like that about elven rangers though? not at that link. the first lines are even like "Many dark rangers are former banshees. The difference is dark rangers have regained their physical bodies, thus possessing greater powers" with the one "known" exception being Nathanos, who never entered that incorporeal state (maybe because he's human, and it's harder for the not-very-spiritual humans to become ghosts, compared to elves?). haha, anyways, a nitpicky point I think that there are "hunters" and there are "rangers" and a Ranger is a Hero Class, whereas a hunter is just a dude with a gun or a bow. they don't actually have any plant skills, no wilderness lore. they can survive well, and interact well with animals, and have an excellent shot, BUT they also have melee skills and can't like, say, glide through the forest with ease because every tree is telling them where to go and what to do. know what I mean? so then like, a ranger if they die, will become a dark ranger. a hunter is just a boring ol' hunter. or... yeah... haha anywho. yeah, the whole like the dreadlords say about "her heart is still elven" is SO COOL. I mean, like, god damn you know? she's smart. she's dead, not retarded. she can still think for herself. but, you know, sera sera. Blizz can't write a strong woman without turning her into a psychotic bitch so what do you expect. and Garrosh... *shudders in revulsion* ish. ish, ish, eww. god, his head looks like his shoulders blew a bubble dude. I can't imagine how anyone could possibly think that drooling nancyboy little bitch is at all attractive. you first meet him in Outlands and he's too busy suckin' dick to speak, and then you see him in Northrend where he has single-handedly failed the entire horde advance. and then he throws a tantrum about it! a little tantrum! where he runs all over his stupid little map and smashes the scourge figurines! gah. what a pussy. a sobbing, whiney pussy. he's honestly as gross to me as any of the whiney cuntboy ukes in the ten-thousand yaoi stories out there. blech. Thrall and Jaina needed to happen so freakin' badly though. and now it never will, because Blizz has their heads up their butts and thinks that people will take to this stupid orc bitch who wants Thrall to change his name because "that's his slave name" and they totally don't like each other but oh they come to like each other eventually. ugh. I hate it when they just introduce characters like that, you know, to like, tie up loose ends and shit. Lor'themer? coulda been badass, but no appearances in the game, doesn't do anything, and the one time he doesn't he acts like an absolute tard. or, at least is treated like one. pfft, god. and I really like to think of Satyrs as the slutty striperific version of those female-only races. a better idea would to be to make males as sexy, pretty, and interesting as the slutty females that are in the game already! anyways, actual point we were discussing: I can see what you mean too. to me it just reeks too much of that blood elf ideology bullshit, which I just toss out the window because it makes no sense (and i mean, really, mind control is a CHANNELED spell! it doesn't work like that!). to me, there's no reason to assume that there would be derision between the nature side of the elves and the magic side (just as there's no reason to assume that the Blood Knights, martial and militaristic, would look with derision on the ranks of their own army when the point is that they're at least serving as opposed to either not serving or else being wretched or something. I mean, there's a point where, when you have the rest of the world to look down upon because no other race is so pretty, so perfect, so enlightened as you, there's no real point in frowning at one of your own, you know? because at least they're an elf, and not a filthy, mongrel human/dwarf/goblin/troll/etc haha or not. whatever. anyways for the druidic thing, you should look up the article on the high-elf druid-magi. I dunno if it's still up, or where it is even (what with the split in the wowpedia versus wowwiki bullshit) but I thought that painted a much more appropriate picture of the high elf view, that being any force is just natural, acceptable part of the world, no better or worse than any other. and the whole point of the rangers having going and still staying with the high elves in the first place is that magic is an accepted, loved, and totally awesome part of their society. I dunno, I'm not saying scrap the idea I just like debating it with you!

haha, thanks. I've some satire in the archives, but I never really get why other people find what I write funny so I don't really do too much of it. lawlz. don't read circus of the damned, or the laughing corpse. seriously, just read Lunatic Cafe and if you can still stomach it, read Burnt Offerings. and if you really want to dive into the mechanics of the world, the killing dance is (maybe) alright? there's also very little smut in all of the earlier ones, which is good too, as I honestly can't recall Laura ever doing anything good. but then, honestly, the only sex scene I remember was from the one where Anita becomes a super whore, and is having a vampire threesome and is about to get did in the butt by this pretty cool vampire, when Jean-Claude suddenly gets remarkably insistent on the vampire (his boyfriend from ages past or some shit) not... doing her in the butt? lawlz I have no idea why. apparently it was just super important or something I dunno, it was stupid. it's funny, because reading this thread actually made me remember how just how little attention I paid to her. I mean, seriously, I was reading this, going like "wow I kinda remember all that. hey that's right, she was an annoying cunt! how the fuck did I not explode in rage every single page??" now I know though. haha, I just completely ignored everything she did and said, and instead imagined how much cooler everything I (or some other male character) would have been in that situation. it's funny how completely I've forgotten about her. like, all the cool side characters I can remember pretty clearly, and I can remember a lot of cool things about her powers, but the only things I remember he actually saying and doing that I can even come close to remembering are all the bitchy things she says and does and acts to people in completely unnecessary ways. like, I swear, there's only a million times that some monster offers her an olive branch of peace and she'll practically spit in their face, regardless if that monster is actually a fairly decent person. Laura doesn't really know how to write a strong female character without turning her into an absolute bitch. I stopped reading Narcissus in Chains (I think it's that one that has Anita do 20 guys in the first 100 pages) so I can't say anything about the sex, but honestly dude you can find better stuff from only a million other places so... yeah. I dunno, that was my biggest turn off for the future of the series, but the reason I hate all the other books is because a seriously ungodly amount of people die. I mean, like, seriously, fucking insane numbers of people explode and are torn apart and shit and it's just like holy fuck woman, learn to use some god damn discretion. I mean, this is supposed to be a "coherent world" set in modern america right? a kid shoots another kid in school and it makes the national news. you'd think people would wise up after a million and half stories about a fucking zombie getting into the maternity ward and eating all the nurses and babies (seriously, probably the squickiest moment I had, and probably the one that made me shut the door on the series for good. the sex in NiC was just an excuse). what's even stupider is, by and large, you see all the deaths of these other characters coming from a mile away, so it's not even particularly poignant. you (well me ) just read and are like "well fuck bitch maybe if you didn't have a sopping, quivering vagina and you were afraid of your own god damn power you could have done something about this mess." hah, anyways, yeah, I did come to like Jean-Claude. I think you're overattributing his fem-ness. I more pictured a slutty 17th century French Aristocrat. I mean, if you pay attention to the actual descriptors, he's still fairly built. what he wears would just be considered effeminate by today's standards, not anything attributable to his personality or character or actual demeanor. well, I may be interpreting my own shift too, but basically for me it was a surprise to realize I ended the series with the thought that he was actually pretty cool. but maybe he's just cool in comparison to everyone else's glaring incompetence. haha, ah well.

burnt offerings is my personal favorite. I think circus of the damned was decent, I dunno, basically whatever one has the Earthmover was acceptable. don't read any of the others. seriously, don't even bother. all they do is go into the fact that Anita blake is a stupid, empty-brained whore who could potentially be 1000 times more powerful if she actually fucking trained her magic instead of her stupid fucking guns, and then she sucks dick and is a racist, speciest, feminazi bitch for a good long time as an ungodly amount of people whose deaths you totally see coming die. okay no I lied, read the Lunatic Cafe and/or Burnt Offerings. only redeemable ones.

to be fair, Laura does somewhat remedy Anita's importance by delving into the fact that she's a necromancer, meaning she can control undead, meaning that she can control vampires should she ever get powerful enough. hence their interest. you should read like... maybe the circus of the damned, or perhaps burnt offerings if you want to actually see some of the cool "world" stuff she does (which I'd argue is worth it) but want to dump the other crap. it's funny, actually, because I more considered Anita as an empty vessel that conveys me to these cool characters and ideas, and I largely overlooked everything she says/does. particularly with Jean-Claude, who after a while *does* get to be kinda sexy, once you realize he's actually pretty muscular slash *incredibly* adept and competent. except, yeah, when it comes to freaking Anita. lawlz, I was just paging through my memory of these books from.... 6 or 8 years ago or whatever, and even back when I had a little more like for her I still had planned for Jean-Claude rolling his eyes at every bitchy, feminazi thing she said.

lawlz, I'm glad you're someone who just already agrees with the bullshit blood elf magic addiction crap. I mean, aside from everything else, even just calling it "addiction" is bullshit, as if they could possibly be "weaned" off it or something. I mean, what the fuck? "only the very young and very old die without it, everyone else can handle it." so like, all newborns, and all of the oldest and wisest die. yeah, okay, that's tooootally something that they can handle right? pfft, they don't need to find a replacement or anything. oh, you mean all elves experience debilitating headaches for the rest of their life? pfft! they just need to sweat it out! gah. and the overnight change from "stalwart, honorable denizens of nature" to "bloodthirsty psychos" is bullshit too. so much bullshit all around! haha I mean, I think the biggest piece that I have trouble swallowing is the absolutely retarded idea Blizz had to just like... what, wipe out the entire race with Arthas's undead campaign? I mean, it's one fucking line of "and not a single elf survived" and it... what? what purpose did it serve? to erase one of the most iconic of the Warcraft races? much less instead of just retconning it themselves to be like "oh not a single elf that faced Arthas at the Sunwell survived" they're instead like "oh only 10% of the entire race survived!" which is just like, insanely low! I mean jesus christ! you'd think that, after that, they'd be even more batshit-crazy protective of every single elf left, regardless of whether they were Alliance or Horde. much less the high elves cutting ties and shit. some places make sense- I mean, the Quel'Lithin elves are all super-buds with the wildhammer, and they're two infested plaguelands away from Quel'thalas so really they'd stay neutral. the EPL lodge though? what the hell blizz? why too lazy to just change their models? to make up 1 or 2 new quests, or even turn it into a cool quest hub that actually explores the entire zone right before Strath? ah well. anyways. the bullshit with Garithos, fuck, let's not forget that either. everyone all writes about how the blood elves "betrayed" the alliance, but I mean, FUCK COME ON. the humans were going to execute Prince Kael'thas, the only leader left. the human prince lead an assault on their kingdom, after the humans failed to do absolutely anything to stop it. and I mean, seriously, god damn! if anything, the elves had to choose between two bowls of shit for their alliance, and honestly, it makes a shit-ton more sense for them to be like "well okay, at least this side has a powerful hero that likes us slash actually does something to try and help us rather than just piss and moan and be a little bitch like Varien Wrynn." hah, I mean, I was a little "erm" about them joining the Horde too, but really, if you think about it, their animosity of the dwarves and night elves, hatred of the humans, irritation with the whole group and then utter horror at them all for allying with "blue-skinned demons" would make them be like "well, okay, the orcs were bad, but they at least were possessed by evil. we don't like trolls, but these aren't stupid forest trolls, so meh on them, and at least the tauren seem cool so whatever." haha or at least that's how it makes sense to me. the forsaken, if don't right, to me would actually make the most sense for being buddy-buddy with the elves, as like, fucking half of them SHOULD BE ELVES. you know, what with Sylvanas being an elf, and "her heart is still elven" or whatever, so you know... yeah. Sylvanas. character derailment. but, (speaking of dark rangers) a dark ranger IS a banshee dude, it's just one with a corpse attached and yeah, I know that dudes can be banshees, but even if they couldn't, dudes can still be shades, which is basically a banshee anyways so it totally stands to reason that there could be a male dark ranger. and I wouldn't even mind losing Kael'thas and Illidan (which I can't believe they didn't just make gay for each other, that woulda netted them some attention) if they had just done cool things with them you know? like, instead of just being all like WOOO I"MA CAAAARAAAZZY NOW MOODLE DOODLE DOO! they could have done, oh I dunno, like fucking anything else. gah. anyways, enough about elves. on to the parts actually related to your fic! edit okay actually the other thing could go better here. this is just for fun debate. so like, I'd argue that nothing the high elves do is a rejection of nature (and by extension, of rangers). it seems to me that, based on the plethora of "the high elves love nature" stuff that's pretty much everywhere, there wouldn't be any particular animosity between the mages and rangers. if anything, the high elf approach of "if it's useful and gives power, pursue it" to training would have them simply be as open and accepting of ranger/druidic approaches as they would be to just about anything else. part of it to me stems from the fact that they'd essentially be doing what their kaldorei cousins did to them before, i.e. being smarmy bitches for no reason, but another part of me is like "well what the fuck happened to all the druids who went with those exiled elves?" I mean, there were brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, parents and children who had druidic training/talent/spark who would have left with their loved ones when the exile came. druids should exist among high/blood elves, though with exceptional rarity perhaps (certainly not enough to just be an "adventurer class). anyways. yeah, I can see what you mean in that the mages of Silvermoon would look down on rangers in the walls, while the reverse would be true outside. it just seems to me that the whole threat of annihilation from the trolls, the "unity in the face of adversity" thing, (the ability to look down on all other races ) would serve as a powerful uniting factor for the elves, by and large preventing "animosity" from developing, especially when the rangers provide such a basic and necessary function (i.e. keeping back the angry, angry, angry trolls!). I mean, it's just something that strikes me as a little bit truer to their new blood elf ideology (and I'm not saying that's anything that should be included, blech) and since you seem to actually a thought or two in your head I'd like to hear some more of your thinking is all.

haha oops, pretend that dumb sunglasses smilie is a B and a ). and also apparently I just went off on a rant about how much I hate the Blizz Lore rather than talk about WoaL. anyways. it's kinda neat that you went with Rivandyr being crazy old. I was actually kind of intrigued by that, good job man. it's very subtle, in that first chapter, when you first introduce him, but there is something of a sense that there's a lot more to him than meets the eye. mostly because it feels pointless to introduce a super placid guy and then be like "he was exiled for his views!" when in reality, they wouldn't really give a shit, unless it actually was someone prominent, someone important, someone with a voice. being the oldest ranger alive probably foots that bill pretty well. if I have one critique about his backstory, it's that his daughter was mad at him (ages ago) for being a ranger? when rangers were revered at that point? I get what you're going at, but it could just be tweaked a little better to make it more of a personal issue for her, rather than a frown on the corps (at that time). it was a fun read though. personally I would have liked to have seen a little more coaxing of Rivandyr on Aristan's part, meaning like physical seduction tactics (kissing his way down to his breeches, instead of just going for the gold like Ari did ), but then I may be thinking that Aristan's a little more innocent than he actually is so hey. if anything though, more description damnit! I wanna see Aristan flush at the sight of Rivandyr's cock, I wanna see him feel his loins stir and tremble and play with the elf's balls and stomach and look desperately up Rivandyr for encouragement and have the elf maybe slap his cockhead against the human's lips a couple times. hahaha, okay, maybe that was TOO specific. I've approached this story with the idea that Ari's just a desperate bottom waiting to have Rivandyr tear him apart and just leave him a broken wreck, but then, like I said, I may have just been colored by SCN a little too much. haha, lawlz. anyways, it was cool to see them 69, that's used way too little imo nowadays. but again, use more description! little things like the elf slapping his balls against the human's forehead- so awesome! do more of that! only spread out too, because I mean, I know next to nothing about their junk save for that the elf is "slender" and the human is "thick," but what are we comparing that to? like, Ari, looking at the elf, is like "hmm, judging by my own dick, he's kinda thin," which means the elf is still thick enough for any mortal man, with enough length to make him the envy of the entire town, or is it something else? and the biting and savaging of Ari's stomach man, coooome oooon! I mean, I could picture it- that being Ari's shirt twisted up above some fair-sized pecs, a nice bulging six-pack from all that farm work+training+wanting to look pretty for some man (unknown to him? ) and sightless, tear-filled eyes because he doesn't know what to do, but where is that in the stooory dude!! like, don't get me wrong. I like what's there! it's just that you kinda dive straight into the emotional/intellectual aspect of the sex, rather than just slapping me across the face with raw carnality. and I mean, again, I like what's there! and it's not like you're *not* getting some specifics in, I mean the whole "He was uncovering that expanse of hard muscle and golden fuzz, hands groping harshly and freely. He was leaving red marks behind, and the blond wasn’t fighting back, he was just arching his back and moaning, nipples hard against nimble fingers" is bananas-awesome, and I'm just saying "toss in some specific physical description in there too, stuff that's not colored by perspective but more like simple fact." know what I mean? yes/no? aah, whateves, it was fun reading it. I really wanna see Rivandyr cockslap Ari across the face a couple times though, lawlz. I'm actually really surprised dude, I'm normally not into such domination kinda stuff (and I mean simply like, pure term of domination, not S&M). I really do wonder how different my reactions would be if I hadn't read SCN first. that kinda stuff is usually something I don't glance twice at, but for that it worked, and so for this I'm colored in that same "raw carnality" vein. of course, I really mean it when I say I like elves topping (elves topping non-elves). in terms of critiquing, it caught my attention last time and I didn't say anything, but I thought I would bring it up now. the shortened names they have for each other are... or maybe could... could either be changed to imply a more personal touch, or else have a little bit of mention for exactly why they're there. do you know what I mean? like, Rivandyr is a positively ancient dude you know, steeped in wisdom and age, and is also someone Aristan really respects right? so the initial gut reaction is that Aristan, who's super conscious of his place compared to the elf, should be calling him by his full given name (unless of course, the elf is positively insistent, or invites the human otherwise). something to consider would be to show that happening, back in the first chapter (and if you did, heh, sorry. I can remember everything I read, unless I actually need it ). it's mostly notable because they're both doing it to each other. it makes sense for Aristan to just always be called "Ari" you know? like the way Andrew is Andy. it's just his informal name. Rivandyr, not being a young farmboy, just seems a little different, and could use some explanation is all. also, I am super convinced now that Rivandyr needs to come back as a Dark Ranger. lawlz, and maybe since DKs are kinda overdone (I mean they went from Hero class to basic melee unit for crying out loud) you could just have Ari be one of those super preserved undeads ala the "induction" route or whatever, where they're turned before they die? I dunno the reasoning behind it. I was just musing about if you didn't want to give Ari a bunch of unholy dk abilities when even right now he's just a footman. that way it can be even more of a one-sided battle when Rivandyr goes to rip him from the lich king's grasp! and Ari can maintain his innocence for eternity! or not, whateves. haha, anyways my point I wanna see Rivandyr plow him a few more times

aww look, it's gruffles! ooo who's a good boy gruffles who's a good doggy omg haha, sorry, I just do that whenever I see a dog. or any animal really. see, that link actually really frustrates me, because instead of just going with the obvious answer, people submit pure speculation. for instance, the Warcraft 2 manual says "the griffon riders hail from Northeron, where they live in a big stone griffon aviary. they only came because the Quel'thalas elves asked them to, and their loyalties lie with them." the mountains separating... silly plains area... from the Hinterlands have A) a giant stone aerie B) wildhammer dwarves C) elves. ergo, those peaks, which have got to have a name, are the Northeron range. even if "some other book" or whatever lists "Aerie Peak" as "something separate from Northeron," then that could mean anything! it could just mean that Aerie Peak is one part, that Aerie Peak is in an offshoot of the Alterac Mountains, that Aerie Peak is just considered its own special peak, while the rest of the range is the Northeron Range. haha, I mean, geez, if they really want to get into speculation, then why not list the huge mountain range separating Quel'thalas from Lorderan? or the range separating Arathi from the Hinterlands? according to their logic, either of those places are perfectly viable candidates for the name too, as they're "nearby" and "part of North Lorderan." heh, sorry if it seemed like I was just barking at you. the state of the lore just frustrates me to no end, especially when people do things like this (which happens way too often). I mean, it's fine and all to be just totally wrong out the ass if one day Blizz decides to name the unused zone Northeron and retcons some bullshit to make it fit, but until then, it's pretty clear that Northeron is either A) the Hinterlands range or B) not represented in the game at all! haha, I mean, hell, for all any of us know they might just decide to nuke the entire northern kingdoms and have everyone turn into demons or some shit. er, I mean... can you tell I'm bitter? I'd say it was the bullshit with Kael'thas that broke the camel's back, but honestly the first time I just decided to give the finger to lolore was with the retcon to make Lothar's unhonorable assassination during false parley into a "titanic battle between titans!" pfft, bitch please, I was there! I saw my knights get slaughtered outside Blackrock! you can't retcon the whole point of that battle and the reason for our final victory!

hee, well with anal stimulation, it kind of depends on what the guy likes, and where he's most sensitive. there are a lot of nerve endings in and around the anus opening, so some guys like the simple act of penetration by itself, or even just external touches (like the straight guy who appreciates a little rimming once in a while, but nothing more). some guys actually like the pressure-feel of having something inside them, and for them it's that whole "the bigger the better!" while other guys can't stand anything more than a finger because (and this is the most reasonable response I've ever heard) "they can feel their organs moving inside them." this can be true for gay or straight dudes, of course. anal stimulation is only gay by association oh, and if you ever look at an internal diagram of male anatomy in that area, you'll see exactly what the prostate does (and why it does it, lawls). the clenching a man experiences during orgasm stimulates it regardless, and for guys who focus on the feel of that versus the sensation they receive from their penis, simply striking it with any blunt object can be tantamount to that "clench" of orgasm, even when they're not actually climaxing. if the stimulation of the penis is the "external" half of climax, the prostate is pretty much what makes up the "internal" half. and, again, these aren't mutually exclusive. some guys love plowing a girl, and being penetrated in the middle of that is like a sudden short-circuit of the brain. as for like, physically being inside someone, well... haha, Snight got it right when he said it's different for everyone. well, maybe "different" in what they like, but that's a sort of too-broad preference question. what it actually *feels* like to be in someone is... lawlz, god... it's hard to describe! okay, if the dude is like, actually into having sex (and not resistant or resentful) then it just feels divine. like, the entirety of the conscious mind is suddenly engulfed, and there's nothing else in the world except for your dick and that person. like, it's easy to loose track of arms and legs and everything in/around your body. there's only the blood in your penis, the tightness in your balls, a warm, engulfing pleasure that makes you drool and want to just collapse. lawlz, of course it varies in degree and intensity. a blushing farmboy could be easily overwhelmed and feel just like I wrote above, while a hardcore demonlord or whatever would be able to handle it (lol prolly?). I honestly, again, can't think of a better analogy than the tongue. just imagine plunging your tongue into something that's warm- really warm- and moist and gooey. something you enjoy eating. that pleasure is somewhat akin to it, a little? only now imagine that magnified a thousandfold, and placed at the pulsing epicenter of your brain. that's what a good experience inside someone is like. heh, a bad one is.... well, for example, I heard one guy complaining about loose girls say it's like "being inside a warm swimming pool" which is probably just about the most boring thing a guy could possibly get from sex XD

hah, I've found that this pretty much takes place along gender lines. my pal Fawnheart, for instance, is an amazing writer. the characters she creates interact with each other the way real people would, not the way she wants them to or typical archetypes would, or anything else. she is, hands down, one of the best authors I have ever read in terms of character portrayal and development. but... she has horrible taste in reading (and Fawnikins, if you read this, I'm sorry, but frankly it's true!). I mean, a lot of the stories she recommends to me I just stare at, my face twitching with anger/rage at how much of an asshole the seme/male love interest is. see, the difference in the two genders is that women tend to look at problems from an emotional-relational perspective, and at the overall whole, whereas men walk into a story and look at the individual details and the individual persons first. to add to that, men and women tend (and I mean this simply as a general tendency) to view sex differently as well, with men "compartmentalizing" sex as a physical act (more often than not) and as something that's relatively separate from love. that's not to say that men do not ever associate sex with love, or use sex as an act of love, but just that they more readily separate the two than women do. women, on the other hand, for a thousand social, evolutionary, and biological reasons, have a tendency to view sex as- while perhaps not the ultimate act- but a very clear act of love and interest. again, that's not to say that they can't separate the two either, or not have casual sex or anything, but more that they will simply tend to associate sex with the implication of love, unlike men. so my dear friend Fawnikins walks into a story about some mean vampire guy having a lot of sex with his human/wereanimal/whatever slave, and is like "oh look! this ultra hot guy is boning the fuck outta his slave! the author has written several times that they're in love! they MUST be in love! this is awesome and cool!" but then I walk in, look at the story, and I'm just like "... this isn't love. the guy belittles the slave, clearly has no respect for him/her, doesn't care about his/her wishes, and generally is an all around unlikable douche (mostly to the slave, but often to the other characters of the story as well)." to me, looking at the specific details of the interactions in the story, it's clear that there's no love. there's nothing like mutual respect, or acceptance, or even interest. the asshole doesn't care to get to know the thoughts of the slave, appreciate the slave's nonsexual qualities, acknowledge the slave as an independent person, etc. the slave is nothing but a glorified cum receptacle. "now addict" you caw, shrieking in defense of your vampire story, "you're overgeneralizing! this slave is different! the vampire master knows that if the slave really wanted, the slave could totally win a fight with the vampire so he clearly has respect for the stronger slave here!" to which I would say "no" and maybe smack you across the face (lightly). the vampire doesn't respect the slave, he respects his strength. as in singular attribute, not the actual person who possesses that attribute. the same is generally true of all asshole stories- the asshole respects the person's looks/ability to turn into a slut once some cock is in them, but they don't actually respect the person themselves. female readers/writers, in my experience, rarely pull themselves out from the idea of the 'relationship' to examine the story in terms of the two individual characters. they don't realize that the hot guy, the totally super-awesome badass that they all lust over isn't interested in the slave for anything other than the slave's ability to suck his cock. they may try to justify their story later with things like "oooh, but nooo! the vampire totally LOVES the slave's mind and really values the slave's thoughts and opinions!" ... except they don't ever actually show that, so instead the story just goes on some more with lame asshole antics. so yeah. in my experience, it pretty much falls almost exclusively along gender lines. which is really too bad, because it can be devastating for a male reader who likes strong female characters to get to the end of a story, where the strong and powerful female lead meets the one guy, this one ultra asshole, who even though he's not as smart, interesting, or cool as she is, still sets her vagina afire and reduces her to a quivering mess for no reason other than that... he tells her what to do? haha, I dunno. women like to write about assholes dominating them (partly because it's taboo, etc.) and women like to read about it, which is why some very, very horribly-stupid-on-every-level stories get published. like Twilight. if anything, it's the equivalent of the way a lotta male stories inevitably involve one or more male characters falling for a utter bitch/gold digger because she's got a nice pair of tits and a cute face. it's just that the media has shown that trope a thousand times over and over and everyone knows that men are stupid and dumb, but it's sometimes jarring to see that women can fall prey to the same traps too.

hey yo wassup! shit dog, I got like, time now and all that what with my latest story piece done so like, I can reply to threads and all that jazz. fuck. hah, I hardly even remember where to pick up, so yeah I'll just go for what I can recall offhand. so like, the timeline stuff- I don't wanna be nitpicky or belabor a point or anything, but in my experience, every reader comes into the WoW archive set in a different "place" on the timeline, ya know? I mean, shit, I've been playing the Warcraft storyverse all my life, and WoW since launch day, but I'm still like, fucking 3 years back on the cusp of BC! or even in the middle of old vanilla! heh, so unless you give a clear time-point for the reader to use as a reference, they're probably just going to naturally revert to whatever time they associate WoW with (heh, one of the reasons that people forget that the forsaken, and the war with the Horde, would have been going on for 11 years now). so yeah! hah, even with just my own example, WotLK hasn't even happened, imo. it's actually jarring to read stories set in Northrend and with DKs and shit, because I'm all torn between like, reading about a potentially cool story and just being like naaaw, that can't happen! DKs are Scourge!

haha yeah I got the reference when you made it. I said it sounds cuter, not that it actually is! heh, I dunno, to me the consistency of a snickers bar, with the nuts and the mouse and the shape and the... gah! infinitely worse than any candy I can think of. sorry biped, I don't know how any of this helps you with M/M flirting

thanks DemonGoddess, this is unbelievably helpful stuff.

also, because I want to indent, I want to not use the standard web html format of skipping a line for every paragraph. how do I break/delete/remove this from the formatting?

hi again, I'm having a bugger of a time figuring out the coding to format the story. my new question is how to you command an indentation (or tab)? and why does <p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'>Chet trotted through the relatively civilized (at least, civilized for Xanth) forest that surrounded Castle Roogna. The flora and fauna found this far out from the castle were of a wilder variety than those found in the nearby orchards. Punwheels spun in nooks and crannies, wild butterflies (which were good on toast) fluttered about a field of tiger lilies, occasionally getting snarled at whenever they tickled a whisker or two. There were plenty of pie-trees, should he get hungry, and a grove of painful-looking dentist-trees, but he passed them all by, uninterested even in the tiny snap dragons that hissed and fanned tiny flames at his hooves when he wandered through their field. All of the greater dangers had long ago been driven off by the humans inhabiting the lands, and most of what was left could hardly be considered a nuisance, so the centaur was able to move through the woods with absent-minded ease.</p> not reformat into a tab when I paste the same command (below) either over or next to the one above? <p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-tab-count:1'> </span>In short, he was a perfectly normal, albeit rather handsome, young centaur, and the life he lived outside Castle Roogna was peaceful and idyllic and happy. </p> basically the whole story is just indented in the most random places, pretty much just wherever auto-formatting took care of the indents itself? how do I correct this?