[ml1201]

IT'S STARTED!!!!!! WOOT!!!! *runs around like crazy* XD

[Coda]

Originally Posted by Illusion

I think we're like 3rd cousins twice removed or something. Didn't your great great great uncle FFMffufufFUFUFMHMFU fought in the great war against the barbers?

If you've read Wildbow's "Pact" then this is a horrifying suggestion.

[Illusion]

Originally Posted by Coda

If you've read Wildbow's "Pact" then this is a horrifying suggestion.

I never heard of it!

Why is this horrifying?

[Coda]

Because the Barber is an extremely powerful demon with the power to cut absolutely anything. Anything it separates can never be reunited whole; there will always be pieces missing. And it can make this cut in any way it wants to, even if the thing being cut is an abstract concept -- simply slicing an object in half effortlessly is the LEAST horrifying use of its power. It can cut the relationship between two people, for example, or it can even cut the wounds off of someone, leaving them uninjured (but with a permanent loss somewhere), et cetera -- I hesitate to explain too much lest I make very significant spoilers.

[ml1201]

That in and of itself sounds horrifying. o.o;

[Coda]

Oh, quite. The Barber is intended to not just be viscerally frightening from raw power, but psychologically frightening from what it can do with it beyond just simple destruction -- especially considering its LIMITATION: It can't KILL with its powers.

It has other powers, too, all related to blades and division. Reflective surfaces conceptually divide the world from the reflection within it, and he can manipulate that division with respect to himself: even if it's been bound and sealed by a powerful magician, it can manifest itself in ANY reflection of itself -- including the reflection in someone's EYES if they look at it. It can cut away part of someone's death, extending their lifespan (but since there's always something lost when it cuts, the smell of death remains).

And to make all of the above more frightening: It is creative, highly intelligent, utterly evil, and has no actual personality of its own -- it's like a primordial force. It doesn't do what it does because it enjoys it. It does these things because that's what it is.

[ml1201]

Yep, nope, not going to read that. XD

[Coda]

It's actually a really good story (although very, very long), but it's WAY darker than most things I usually prefer to read. If you like Game of Thrones' style of "develop good characters over the span of multiple books, make you feel invested in them, and then make you seriously uncertain over whether they're going to survive" then Pact is for you.

[Coda]

That story, by the way, is actually finished, and I promise you that the ending isn't going to be what you expected at any point leading up to it. The author has since moved on to a "biopunk" story, set in a world where Frankenstein is an instruction manual instead of just a story, following a group of biologically-engineered (except for one) kids that are actually black-ops weapons under the command of the Crown.

[ml1201]

o.O
I'm just going to pretend I know what you just said. ^^;

[Tohopekaliga]

Those books sound interesting. :O

[Coda]

In this world, there was no Industrial Revolution where powerful machines transformed how things were done.

In this world, instead medical science entered that role -- modifying beasts to do labor, stitching together different body parts to create a non-intelligent, obedient work force with increased strength and stamina, that kind of thing.

The protagonists are a boy undergoing a chemical treatment to let him learn new skills very fast, a girl grown in a vat with a totally rewritten DNA who looks innocent but is actually a lethal killer, a boy with a photographic memory that gets connected to a network of brains to create a gigantic organic database, a girl who was modified to be effective with throwing knives and concealed weapons, a boy who was engineered to be the perfect physical specimen -- tall, handsome, strong, agile, and a girl that's completely unmodified by science but happens to be a prodigy in the study of medicine. And they all work as a team for the government as spies and covert agents.

[Lawtan]

I like this idea...then again I am working on a "biological shapeshifting medieval-punk world, punk meaning 'romantic science fiction'" and "biocyber museum space ship crashes into an African/Victorian backwater alternative world, and the tech is being reverse engineered by an East India Trading Company equivalent into something like Shadowrun meets Diablo..."

[Coda]

I should mention: This one's called "Twig." It's the third story by this author. The aforementioned Pact was the second.

The first was Worm. Where Pact is a supernatural psychological-horror story and Twig is a mad-science monster-movie-ish story, Worm is a superhero/action story. Short version: Over the past several years, people have started developing superpowers when undergoing traumatic experiences. Some try to live normal lives. Some turn to supervillainy. Some turn to fighting supervillains. And then a monster appeared in Iran, dramatically more powerful than any superhero or supervillain ever, capable of breaking what was thought to be an inviolable rule of superpowers, until it's driven away, and the world moves on, and everyone tries to live their lives.

The story begins with a high school girl who developed the ability to control insects and arachnids trying to become an independent superhero with aspirations of working with the big-name heroes.

One thing that this author (J. C. McRae, a.k.a. Wildbow) does with all of his stories is that his characters are SMART. They don't know everything, they don't always make the best decisions, they're subject to emotional outbursts like anyone under stress would be... but they think. They're creative. They don't always try to solve all of their problems with brute application of the obvious uses of their abilities (whether superpowers in Worm, magical practice in Pact, or engineered abilities in Twig), but instead they apply them in other ways or even do things without relying on them. It makes the characters more deep and more human (even when they're not human), and it makes their flaws more relatable instead of leaving you asking "why would you DO that?" -- when they make mistakes, you can understand their limited information, or their emotional drives, or their reasoning.

[ml1201]

Okay, that explanation I understood better. XD