Late update again, by a little bit. I am really unproductive while on vacation. v_v
Fun chapter to post, though, and it ends another POV section (our fourth, sheesh!). During these past four chapters, things have gone downhill for just about everyone; Sprite's being plagued by nightmares that won't go away, Faun has become isolated and embittered, Riven's been beaten down (although who really feels bad for him at this point), and Trick's been forced to watch her best friend be maimed (and she's been blamed for turning Holly in). None of them are having a good time, not at all - and that is absolutely perfect, because it is precisely this sort of thing that promotes change. :)
@Pain: Hah, glad I was right about you being the guest (although it wasn't hard to narrow it down, since my reviewers are a pretty regular crowd xD). Reyes definitely has the same cockiness as Riven, but he's more practical; no need to get his paws dirty when he has Koulder to do it for him! Definitely not someone you want to cross. Same goes for Musk; I think he was a nice contrast to Toma in Riven's chapter. Toma sees the problems in Faun and wants to correct them, not for the sake of winning but for the sake of helping one of his trainees; Musk can see the issues in his own ranks pretty well, but he's too focused on the winners to really care about what happens to those who fall through the cracks, as Riven has. Also, Toma prolly wouldn't ever tell his trainees about him burying them. :P
@Bookworm: Riven's not exactly sympathetic, even in his sorry condition. He still has a pretty bad outlook on life; we'll have to see whether his musings about Faun near the end of the chapter actually amount to anything, in the end (or whether he realizes Faun is not exactly as put-together as he thinks, haha).
@Lynxeye: Fooling's what I do. :D I've prolly said it before, but I'll say it again: Riven's really fun to write for, simply because you do not get many honest-to-goodness douches when it comes to POVs. Usually they're the poor sweet beaten underdogs (Faun, at least initially), or the outsiders looking in (hello, Sprite), or characters with ulterior motives or plans that the narrative couldn't otherwise showcase (yo, Trick), but douchey "jock" types are very rarely on that list (we don't even really have a close approximation of that character type in Shattered, oddly enough). Very fun, although I do enjoy him getting his just desserts. More fun times ahead, too. c:
Again, happy New Year to you all. Hopefully 2014 will be grand. :D
See you next Sunday, maybe.
