#Why and how doas this have this many sequals???!!!

[just-1-scorpio]

Reading Asterion by Alessa Thron, so you don't have to. Chapter 23, 24, and the epilogue.

This is a shared review, and discusion/dissing by me, and @wordsmithic

Finally we got to the end of this book. Finally. This review will include comments about the book as a whole.

The other positive beside that the book ended, is that this Ariadne, is not The Ariadne. My girl is somewhere drinking with her husbend, and not involved in the plot. :)

So chapter 23 starts after chapter 22. Ariadne went to the tample to inact her revenge. First she kills Lynx, then Belladona. Then she goas to Minos's bedroom, that for some reason doas not have any guards before it. We also learn that Minos have raped Lia in the past. She grabs Minos, who forget how to defend himself and doas not have any weapons in his room, takes him to the training arena. The other assasins come out from they rooms. Then Ariadne anti climacticly quickly kills him. After this the priest and the boys from the orphenige in chapter 4 come, and move in to the tample.

wordsmithic: The first paragraphs are going to fast on the plot, with Ariadne killing her enemy assassins and going after Minos. I usually don't like when the plot suddenly goes too fast, but here I'm just happy to be done one hour sooner with this book. Not a specific screenshot to show here, but getting to Minos' bedroom should be a hell of a task. Instead, we are not told of guards or other assassins in his house or outside his bedroom. Another time when Alessa didn't think shit out

scorpio: I agree. It's fast. Minos's death shouldn't be this fast, and easy.

wordsmithic: yes, I agree, Minos' death should not be just a few paragraphs

scorpio: he should have fought back too.

wordsmithic: true!! Isn't he larger, powerful and also trained? And why doesn't he have any guns or knives around him just in case?

scorpio: YES!

wordsmithic: no guards, no weapons... very realistic :P

scorpio: Logicaly speaking Minos should have one or more in his bedroom, with guards outside. He is powerfull, and has a lot of enemies.

wordsmithic: Ariadne was such a good assassin that the guards and the weapons magically disappeared as she walked past :P

scorpio: XD So good that Minos forget how to defend himself.

wordsmithic: 😂😂😂

wordsmithic: There must be some loyal assassins in the bunch. Why is nobody shooting Ariadne in the head? It's not that her gun is on his head. He's not in imminent danger if she gets shot. So anyone can shoot her!

scorpio: I have this question too. Why did she had to take him there?

wordsmithic: I don't know!! For the aesthetics, I guess? Also... For all these years Minos was surrounded by people who hated him and absolutely NO ONE thought to just shoot Ariadne? That makes no sense!

scorpio: I guest the only loyal ones were Lynx and Belladona

wordsmithic: speaking about this part:

wordsmithic: yeah he had just two people xD

scorpio: WHAT DOAS THIS MEAN? WHAT DOAS BEING THE HIGH PRIESTESS MEAN? ALESSA WE WANT ANSWEARS!

wordsmithic: trueeee!! I also have a comment later about the Temple, which.... we don't know why we call a Temple

scorpio: I don't get this eather.

wordsmithic: But for now Ariadne does sth even more stupid

scorpio: Wait! I don't get this eather. Was the temple originaly an orphenige?

wordsmithic: Ah the screenshot came late. Okay so where she says "this place is going to become what it is meant to be" I was thinking "so... it isn't a temple??" Yeah I think it's Just A Building xD

wordsmithic: We are in the final chapter and we still don't understand why they ever called this "Temple"!! Good job, Alessa xD

scorpio: I don't get why was this ever called a Temple. Why is Alessa so sceard to tell us anything?

wordsmithic: aesthetics babyyyyy

wordsmithic: That's such a stupid argument. I think I have no words for it. Trained or not, children deserve to live in a good environment and be protected. It was not their choice to learn those skills. And they didn't do any crimes!!

scorpio: Yes. It's a stupid argument. Those are just children, who did not even commit any crimes.

wordsmithic: The writer is not... that intelligent, if those are her thoughts :P Also, another scene: 1) why is Charon the bus driver...?? 2) Wh-why not letting the girls just stay there? Why do you bring new kids there, and take those girls elsewhere? That's so weird. The girls didn't say they wanted to leave!

wordsmithic: "let's swap those kids with other kids" xD

Then Ariadne goas to a garden that Asterion made for her at the top of a roof top. Here she spreads Lia's ashes. Who is finally free from this book. Honestly. Good for her.

wordsmithic: These words are said while Ariadne is prepared to throw Lia's ashes. I don't know how would Lia be in peace after she witnessed the stupidity of this book tbh . Fly away, Lia! Be free of this plot!!!

scorpio: Goodbye Lia! Your are free from this badly writen plot! Fly!

wordsmithic: 😂😂😂

scorpio: I know that this chapter is supposed to be emotional, and climactic. But it fails. Everything is too fast. And we just learn about stuff as we go.

wordsmithic: Yes :/ there are ways to incorporate info as you go, but in this book this incorporation felt clanky and empty

scorpio: It feels as if Alessa forget to write this down, so instead of going back, she just puts it here.

wordsmithic: This is worse-than-a-first-draft work >.<

scorpio: The news that Minos raped Lia (the reason why he summed her to his room in the night) come out of nowhere, and just feels like it's there to shock value.

wordsmithic: ooooh yes! that was another detail out of nowhere!! we just get sad details and rapes for the shock value. I hate that

And chapter 23 ends, whaile failing being both emotional, and climectic.

Chapter 24 starts with a meeting. Medusa is happy that Ariadne joind. They talk a bit. And happy ending, especially for us, but then we rememberd this book has 6 sequalls.

wordsmithic: So, in chapter 24, not much happens. Asterion, Medusa and Ariadne discuss Ariadne's prospects. I have a sole comment because once again we see Alessa's flawed logic

wordsmithic: Another weird conversation. The whole point of women working is to be able to have their own money and be independent. Ariadne, though, I suspect has lots of money already OR she will get her hands on money if she continues living with Asterion and then save it or use to expand her wealth. She could even work for a little bit but it WOULD be absurd for her to work in order to survive while brushing shoulders with billionaires. Now, if she LIKES doing the assassin/mercenary job and cannot imagine her life without it, that's another discussion. But the argument here was "if she doesn't work for Medusa she would end up being an agreeable wife whose only role would be to fuck Asterion." Again, someone tell Alessa reality doesn't work like that.

scorpio: YES! She is buddy buddy with billionaires, 4 of wich are literall gods. She doas not have to work to survive.

wordsmithic: The book tells us all the time "Ariadne is cool and badass, she's not like the OTHER GIRLS who are meek and never argue and want to be doormats! She's so special!" The author will make her work even when she doesn't need to xD and the reason is "but she's just so badass!"

scorpio: YES! Ariadne just screams "I'm not like other girls".

wordsmithic: The book is so full with it I didn't bother with screenshots etc

scorpio: It's full of it.

wordsmithic: she always has this attitude of "I am a WOMAN but I'm still capable and I will do better than MEN" ARIADNE, SHHHHHHHHH

scorpio: I'm sorry for saying this. But Ariadne is a Marry Sue

wordsmithic: 100% She always knows everything, she's scared of nothing, and nothing goes wrong for her except one time she was abducted

wordsmithic: OH! also we should mention that Ariadne is not The Ariadne. Thank fuck. Imagine Asterion being like "hey.. my sister had the same name as you" xDD

scorpio: YEs.

wordsmithic: we have a word for that in Greek "synonomatos", means sth like "co-named"

scorpio: I'm just glad she is not that Ariadne. Asterion saying "Hey... my sister had the same name as you" would have been funny. Similarly Hades saying "My nephew's wife has the same name as you".

wordsmithic: ahahahahah yess! I'll write a whole Asterion AU just to make it awkward with this information 😂😂😂

scorpio: Reading this book just makes me want to fix it.

wordsmithic: Yesss Who heard the story of Ariadne and the Minotaur and was like "hey...what if they fucked??" Alessa Thorn, apparently

scorpio: She defenetly did

wordsmithic: Dionysus is RIGHT THERE in the myths! Why would she end up with the Minotaur??

So chapter 24 ends. Then the epilouge starts.

In the epilouge we see Pithos's leader going into a cave and meeting with an old man who is making stomething. They talk a bit, then we get a teaser for a sequal.

wordsmithic: I don't have much to comment for the Epilogue. The crafter could be Daidalos and the premise looks kinda interesting but, like this book, I think it's all going to go downhill.

scorpio: It's defently going downhill.

wordsmithic: I don't believe the book got worse as it went on :'( Usually they're getting better as the stakes raise but here it was a disaster

scorpio: This book is like a trainwrack, that we can't look away from. Even when we want to.

wordsmithic: We're god's bravest soldiers for finishing it 💪 I'm so proud of us 😂

So over all the book is really bad.

-It's to rushed, and too short for it's own good.

-A lot of things, and concepts that needed explonetion are not given. Why was it called a Temple? Why was Ariadne a high pristess? What doas being the high priestess mean? What is Theseus's backstory? Ect.

-Dou to this the characters feel flat, or just easily forgetable.

-Because of how short, and rushed it is emotonally impactfull, or climectic moments faild being what they supposed to be.

-The romanc is severly rushed, and the two don't have any chemistry.

-Explotion is badly placed.

-Ariadne, and Asterion are just bad characters. One of them comes of as an idiot, whaile the other one doas not have any fears, and flaws. This just makes them boring any annyoing, which doas not help the case of they romanc.

-Alessa bearly done any reaserch

-The world building is not well thought out.

-Beta readers would have been needed

-Alessa had some good ideas, but rushed and bad execution ruind it.

And I'm confused about who is this book's target audienc. For those who want smut, there is just 4 sex screens. And for those who want the plot, it's badly writen.

This book feels like a trainwrack that you can't look away from, no matter how hard you want to, and somehow makes you feel like you want to fix the train, the rail, or both.

[zukkaoru]

fic writer interview

tagged by @marichild tysm for the tag !!

how many works do you have on ao3?

239. ish.

top five fics by kudos

1. plum blossom (zukka) 2. you clutched my brain and eased my ailing (zukka) 3. (just wanna be) somebody i'm proud of (jjk, gen ft. itfs, nbmk, qpr inok, & stsg) 4. my calamitous love & insurmountable grief (zukka) 5. five times ryan came out (and one time he couldn't) (..hsm) my honest confession is that i don't really like any of these. also why is my hsm fic back in my top five i thought i got rid of that thang‼️

do you respond to comments? why or why not?

sometimes, but i get overwhelmed by them very easily so i am bad at responding. i do read them all though and i appreciate them very much <3

what's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

snowfall

what's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

i'll say the dream that you wish since it's supposed to be fairytale-like with a and they all lived happily ever after vibe at the end

do you write crossovers?

somewhere in the depths of my history there is legend of a fic i wrote with a friend in middle school which we called The Megacrossover and included all of our fandoms at the time. other than that not usually, no

have you ever received hate on a fic?

yeah but not recently. i get hate for other things now :P

do you write smut? if so, what kind?

deep sigh. the problem with friends is that they will encourage you to do horrible, horrible, things (/lh /aff) anyway yeah i have two smut fics posted. possibly another one on the way but who can say for sure (<- i have an Idea but i may not have time for it). as for what kind.. whatever my enablerrrr friends encourage

have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i'm aware of

have you ever had a fic translated?

yes!

have you ever co-written a fic before?

i helped louie out with a margaret birthday fic, but beyond that it's mostly been coming up with AUs with other people rather than actually writing out fics

what's your all-time favorite ship?

i usually just say outlaw queen (regina x robin hood from ouat) for this one. they did irreversible damage to my psyche when i was a teenager. as for current favorite ships though, i'd say lucygin and any combination of kunichuuranzai excluding s.kk alone

what's a WIP you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

i don't like declaring that i'll never finish a wip if i genuinely like it but i do have several longfic ideas that i probably just won't ever get around to even starting. mostly atla fics (azula-centric tuvml sequal, emma au,,) but there are probably some others from other fandoms as well that are escaping my mind at the moment

what are your writing strengths?

characterization!

what are your writing weaknesses?

not liking the popular ships and fanon characterizations. <- JOKING. IM JOKING. in all actuality it's probably the fact that i have way too many ideas and get distracted before i can finish (or start) and then if i'm rushing to finish something i end up putting in less effort than i'd like and it doesn't turn out as well as i'd hoped.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

do whatever you want forever, as long as you're being respectful about it

what's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

i have like 100 bsd ships i want to write for and haven't yet. it's a problem. this is why all of my ships are rarepairs - because im not focusing on just one ship to churn out 1000 bad fics for--- ahem anyway. i'd love to write nikoran and tanitachihigulucygin polycule especially. i also want to write mizisua at some point but i don't have any ideas at the moment

what's your favorite fic you've written?

i'm supposed to choose?? i'll just throw out a couple i like

the body i'm in - 18.2k words, 3 chapters akutagawa siblings character study

alive & free (look at me!) - 22.4k words nikolai & kenji post-doa arc

(i am) the whisper of a memory - 13.5k megumi character study written in the wake of jjk 213

+ honorable mentions to where i am going (is right where i am) and make your heart remember me

idk who to tag so if you want to do it, i'm tagging you 🫶