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A Finely Honed Blade [Worm/Kara no Kyoukai | Garden of Sinners]

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Always good to find a good and well established MEoDP story.

But honestly, the only gripe I have with the story is that Ayame and Sayaka being raped felt entirely unnecessary to the story.

And not in the woe is me Worm is already grimmdark enough way, or even adding the realism of rape with two young girls being kidnapped. Because I'm not criticizing your descision to do that. More so that the whole situation just feels empty in the context that their characters didn't really feel all that important up to that point.

Yeah she was friends with them and they helped her get through a rough point, but that was only a small footnote of the story let alone the fact that they had very little screen time outside of...two(?) Scenes prior to their kidnapping.

We didn't even learn how much of a connection they had with Taylor or that they were just as emotionally invested in her as she was with them until after this.

Granted this is all coming from someone who only read the story via Direct Threadmarks of the chapters and who did not read the thread comments or any of the other supplementary materials.

So I don't know if their relationship was expanded upon further than What I've seen prior to this.
 
@DamienGale: It might be advisable for you to read some of the in-thread discussion immediately after that section, because there has been some discussion on that. That may clarify things, even if it doesn't satisfy you.
 
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There's no such thing as too many knives by ensou
  • Apocrypha
    • "So are you going to open it, or just stare at it all day?"

    I looked up from the present in front of me to stare flatly at the blonde across the room in the lounge chair. "Do I have to?"

    It wasn't like I didn't know what it was already, either.

    Lisa just nodded, a wide grin on her face and no attempt to hide the obvious schadenfreude she felt. "Of course. It's only proper for a gang leader to show interest and accept her subordinates' gifts."

    Aya snickered quietly from her place between James and Amy, but not quietly enough for me not to hear it. Sayaka frowned at her sister, who immediately fell silent, and I gave Saya a thankful look in turn, the feelings of happiness and loyalty and, and devotion swelling inside her and making me swallow.

    Right. I needed to do something about that. Soon.

    "Not to be a killjoy or anything, but can we just get this over with? Aunt Sarah has this thing about family Christmas dinners, and Carol and Vicky'll throw a fit if I'm not there," Amy commented, the green sprout between her hands she'd gotten from the twins flickering as it rapidly grew and regressed, almost looking like it was spelling out words every time it neared maturity. "Not that that really matters, but I do still have to live with Carol."

    "Yeah, Taylor, why don't you open it?" Lisa added, her grin not having slipped in the slightest. If anything, it had grown.

    I sighed and reached out to open the small wrapped object from Joo-Lee, not reacting at the slightest at what was revealed.

    "Oh look. Another knife. Oh boy."

    It was a beautifully-made, black balisong, but still.

    Amy rolled her eyes. "Well what did you expect when your first cape name is 'Switchblade', huh?"

    "I never chose that!" I countered.

    "I thought you liked knives, though, Taylor?" Lisa said accusingly, her smile suddenly gone.

    "I-I do!" I defended. And I did. It was just… "But when all you get are knives. Or things related to them… N-not that I don't appreciate your gifts, guys!"

    Lisa's lips twitched, as though she were trying to—

    "Hey!"

    She started laughing. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You make it so easy, though."

    This time, both the twins wore matching expressions of disapproval as I rolled my eyes at Lisa's antics, also checking the clock on the far wall. It was already past noon.

    "Why don't we just end it here. I'm pretty sure everybody has places to be," I said, nodding at Amy, who smiled at me thankfully as she immediately stood up and started gathering her gifts together.

    Everybody else moved a little slower, not in as much a rush, James leaving next with a quiet "Thanks, Taylor," and then the twins, who seemed to hover around indecisively, as though waiting for something —Saya, in particular— but eventually leaving after ten or so minutes as I finished stuffing the last remnants of wrapping paper into the trash-bin in the kitchen.

    When I looked up, Lisa was holding out my jacket for me. "You're going to have to do something about that sooner or later, you know."

    I didn't rise to her bait and just took the jacket to put on. "You're still coming over for dinner, right? 'Cause Dad's cooking as though you are." She nodded. "Alright, but first I—"

    "Want to swing by Mercy Hospital and check on Marissa and then go—" I glared at her, red lines flashing across my vision. "Right, shutting up."

    She knew I hated it when she did that.

    I went to the front door to lace my boots up, Lisa doing the same with her shoes before we finally left the flat to venture out into the cold, me locking the door behind us.

    When I turned back around, it was to the sight of a rosy-cheeked Lisa, breathing out in puffs beneath her purple beanie and matching jacket as she stood on the stairs down to the street. She only started speaking again once we were down to the ground and walking on the sidewalk.

    "Anyways, look at the bright side: at least you don't have to write thank you-cards for most of that stuff."

    "…You were holding onto that, weren't you?"

    "Maaaybe."
    A/N: Merry Christmas, you guys. I'll be back to this soon, been working on other non-fanfic stuff lately that's been taking up a lot of my time.
     
  • Apocrypha
    • Who's James, again? All I can think of is the author of An Essence of Silver and Steel.
     
    bissek said:
    You do know that for the ABB, giving someone be a knife could be an insult? Oriental cultures hold the gift of a blade to symbolize the severing of a relationship.
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    I'm pretty sure it's not just East Asian cultures that have that superstition; I've lived in a state that's more than 90% Caucasian, and I've encountered that belief from folks whose closest contact with the Far East is the General Tso's Chicken at China Buffet.
     
    Hell, in modern western culture there's a superstition that giving a knife as a gift will cause that knife to cut the relationship between the giver and the receiver. My family always does an exchange when knives are given as gifts where the receiver gives the giver a coin in order to represent that the knife is bought rather than gifted so that it won't cut their relationship like that.
     
    In some circumstances, I've also seen it that the gift of a knife is held that the recipient should kill themselves (to make up for some personal failing or to redress a wrong). :V
     
    Eh. In my family, the gift of a knife was seen as the expectation you'd use it in defense (pro-active defense, in some cases) of the family. Or even on some members of the family gone rogue. *shrugs*
     
    No. The 'Other' kind of Family give guns out not knives. Although my family has a tendency to be too empathic for our own good.

    Edit: I guess I should also have mentioned that my family would be persuaded to leave the military. By people raising valid concern after someone points out that we have a lot of Shamans in our background.
     
    Last edited:
    Bob Saget said:
    Is there a reason Taylor's bisexual? She's emphatically straight canonically. It's one thing to do an alt-power story, it's another to just change a core facet of a character because you prefer the character that way. It changes the story's basis to an AU.
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    Shards did it.

    Alternatively, people don't realize their actual sexuality all the fucking time because cultural conditioning.

    Alternatively, just leave it alone? It's kind of not all that important as details go?
     
    Spectral Waltz said:
    It's kind of not all that important as details go?
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    If it didn't have import, it wouldn't have important ramifications on the character. And sexual identity is pretty key to human characters.

    Anyway, already deleted it. There's an au tag, I just missed it. I find authors blatantly projecting their personal sexuality and personality onto established characters to be a terrible writing habit, or I wouldn't have lost my patience and double checked for it.

    Kind of a moot point anyway, now that I'm also looking at the time stamps of the last few updates.
     
    Last edited:
    Bob Saget said:
    If it didn't have import, it wouldn't have important ramifications on the character. And sexual identity is pretty key to human characters.
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    I suppose that can be important to a story, but ultimately subjective to both the author and readers.

    Bob Saget said:
    Anyway, already deleted it. There's an au tag, I just missed it. I find authors blatantly projecting their personal sexuality and personality onto established characters to be a terrible writing habit, or I wouldn't have lost my patience and double checked for it.
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    Click to shrink...

    I can see myself skipping tags, but sometimes they can be pretty silly. One of the more important things is that this is something to learn from and hopefully avoid making the same mistake. And I'm not saying that I'm above that sort of thing, because I'm just as guilty for assuming things without verifying.

    Bob Saget said:
    Kind of a moot point anyway, now that I'm also looking at the time stamps of the last few updates.
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    You know, I usually don't check time stamps. I just check when I'm notified.
     
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