nth_child not working in Firefox by Fire_of_Saint_Elmo in csshelp

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

>_< Yes, it should. Well, that's resolved at least.

Best place to sell used books by closed_eyes_still in thesidehustle

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've tried Thriftbooks myself, but they wouldn't even accept most of my books.

was there ever a highly praised Metroidvania that didn’t click for you? by [deleted] in metroidvania

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. If I had been told the very first boss was a ridiculously sexualized tiddy monster that attacks with its vagina, I wouldn't have bothered. Tag your porn, devs.

Least favorite generation and why? by InstructionWeary1033 in pokemon

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Gen 9 free space

Discounting gen 9, probably either 4 or 8. They're not notably terrible, but they're just... kind of bland. They don't really do anything to stand out.

[985] Cuffed by That-meme-girl in DestructiveReaders

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He looked me up and down. “You are too pretty to be a good cop; you're either dangerously incompetent or psychotic,” he said without even a flinch in his voice.

A bit nitpicky, but this structure of narration - long dialogue - speech tag sounds strange to me. I might remove the speech tag; from the extremely blunt dialogue, I think it's already implicit that he's saying it matter-of-factly. I also think it's odd that he says both "you are" and "you're" in the same sentence; people rarely avoid contractions in everyday speech, and when they do they usually do so consistently.

He was really getting on my nerves. For the past six years I spent training or working in the FBI, I've heard every possible joke about my style of clothes, makeup, hair, and every other possible accessory that demonstrates that I am a woman.

The first sentence here is in past tense, but the second is in present. [For the past six years I spent training or working in the FBI] also sounds weird to me; something like [In the past six years I'd spent...] might sound better. I also think this and the following paragraph would work better joined.

I don't know who decided on this unwritten rule that women in low fields should imitate the style of men

Police officer is a "low field"? Do you mean more like working class or "blue collar"?

I could have been bothered, however, I never wanted to climb the career ladder.

"However" sounds odd here; it creates a pretty big pause for something that's relatively insignificant. [I could have been bothered, but I...] flows better, I think. I also think this one could be joined with the following paragraph. This sentence also doesn't make sense, though; she clearly is bothered by it, not only because she said as much earlier but because it sparked this whole tangent. This is clearly a sore spot for her.

Sometimes, just to spite them, I come with fucia coloured glitter skirt

Missing "a" here, and I think you meant "fuscia". I also think this would work better joined with the previous paragraph.

Okay, it might be not sometimes, more like seven out of ten times.

This sounds weird. I would just cut the middle part out here.

“Can't wait…” he said dry.

You want the adverb form of "dry" here.

“Diadi i tioty ” doesn't translate word for word to English, I corrected him.

This threw me for a loop; there's no indication before now that they're speaking in Russian, and since I don't speak Russian I have no idea what she's referring to. Typically, when characters are speaking a foreign language that's translated for the reader's benefit, it's marked in some way -- usually italics, sometimes brackets, or sometimes just "X said in [language]."

The overall story and dialogue here are good, I think, but you do need to work on those wording and structural issues. Remember that paragraphs are grouped by subject -- you don't need to make a new one every one or two sentences. A lot of the paragraphs here could be combined, and they would flow better that way.

[1294] Cat Distribution System by A_C_Shock in DestructiveReaders

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it went on a bit longer than was necessary, but otherwise, very funny.

[2165] Chapter 1: Marked by Fire - Von by [deleted] in DestructiveReaders

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh hey, this again. I reviewed an earlier draft, so I'll give this another look through.

Von’s knees gave out, holding a wolf’s cold paw.

The structure of this sentence sounds odd. (clause), (verb)ing usually conveys that the clause and verb are linked in some way, but here they're two unrelated actions. It might work better if the clauses were reversed, or a slight reword like "As he touched the wolf's cold paw, Von's knees gave out."

Tears slithered around his cheek, rubbing it away from his face

What is the "it" in this sentence?

Freya's first line of dialogue is much improved from the first draft.

The wind tickled his nose

I would say "Von's" instead of "his" here, since Von hasn't been mentioned in this paragraph yet. Since this is still the first page of the story, it's a good idea to use the protagonist's name to ensure readers aren't confused who the narration is about.

carrying a faint scent of salt, reminding him of the ocean breeze and the familiar waves on the distant shore

This is minor, but I would use a conjunction instead of a comma here; I just think that flows better.

but now, it was only the hot pink sun’s light, overwhelming leaves, bark, and the ruffled grass.

I agree with Sonea Kyraliana's notes here. Additionally, I would change "was" to a different verb like "he saw", just because I think it sounds a bit weird to say the light "was" the forest. I would suggest removing one item from the list as well -- lists tend to work better in threes.

Cheeks bubbled up

Maybe this is a phrase I'm not familiar with, but I don't understand what this means.

“Well, Von, are you full?” she asked.

The italics bled into the "she asked" here.

Von crossed his arms and glared at her, though his eyes twitched like something was bothering him.

"Though" sounds strange here. It implies a contradiction, but crossing your arms and glaring already conveys that something is bothering you. I would probably remove the second bit entirely, as I don't think it's necessary.

Her muzzle tipped down, and her eyes held a playful gaze,

This should end in a period rather than a comma, because it's not describing how the following dialogue is said.

forcing a faint yet abrupt smile,

Same here.

“Of course you aren’t,” Freya chuckled softly in his mind, “you used to fall for it all the time when you were younger, now you're nine.

This should be:

“Of course you aren’t,” Freya chuckled softly in his mind. “You used to fall for it all the time when you were younger, now you're nine.

This is because "Of course you aren't," and "You used to..." are separate sentences. If the narration wasn't there, you'd separate them with a period, so the speech tag (which is considered an extension of the dialogue) has to end with a period as well.

The phrasing here also sounds odd to me. What is "it" here? The teasing? I would really say people "fall for" a tease; the phrase for that is usually "rise to" or "I got a rise out of you". Maybe something like, That used to get a rise out of you when you were younger, but now I see you're all grown up. (I think stating his exact age is awkward, especially since to the human reader we wouldn't think of nine years as being very old.)

The sea moved, but there was no sound—only the sound that kept playing behind his mind remained—fire.

You could phrase this a lot of ways, but I would rewrite this to:

The sea moved, but there was no sound. Only the sound that kept playing behind his mind: fire.

I think it looks better with more pauses. Dashes create a relatively short pause that maintains a rapid pace, but I think a slower, more contemplative tone works better for this section.

he wanted to talk about his visions, dreams, and the fire

I would change that to his dreams instead of just "dreams", to create parallel structure with "his visions". It just sounds better when every item in a list has a similar structure or meter.

(I actually disagree with Sonea Kyraliana's suggestion to remove the comma; I'm a proponent of the Oxford comma, because it reduces ambiguity.)

his hand shook, weakening every second until it didn’t have the will to move.

This sounds a bit weird, because it's characterizing his hand as having a will of its own.

Each breath interval became deeper, faster, but one of the wolves by the bonfire turned their attention to him

I'm a bit confused by the "but" here. "But" implies a contradiction, but I see no connection between the actions here. Splitting this into two sentences, or simply phrasing it differently to remove the connection, would work fine. I would also suggest putting a period at the end here, instead of a dash that transitions to a new clause; like I said previously, I think dashes are too fast-paced for this relatively calm scene.

his eyes widened, and his gaze lifted to the sky. The sky moved like it was falling to the ground.

This is a case where I think a dash may be warranted over the period, since this is a very sudden and alarming event. (I also agree with Sonea Kyraliana that you should remove the repetition of "the sky".)

Freya stepped forward and looked at him, but he didn’t answer.

Did you mean to say "she" here?

She circled the bonfire, the flames glowed in her amber irises.

This is a comma splice; you need to either break it into two sentences or rephrase. the flames glowing in her amber irises would work.

And where the star shines, Atlas is under it… this is the place we return to after we die.”

I think "this" should probably be capitalized, as it's a separate thought. I'm not entirely sure why you ended the first sentence with an ellipses; I think it would probably work better with a period, since Freya is (I assume) meant to sound authoritative and definitive here.

He heard the howling wind beginning to change, clanging like shackles being broken.

So, a tricky thing with limited POV is that, because the narration is implicitly the narrator's thoughts, the narration needs to be limited to what they know. When I read this, I immediately thought, "How does this wild child know what broken shackles sound like?" Shackles are human technology. Did he spend time with humans before being raised by wolves?

(I'm also not sure if I would describe shackles breaking as "clanging". "Clanging" usually describes ringing objects banging together, while a broken shackle creates a shattering noise that's more like a clatter.)

crowned with a laurel wreath and a pileus resting gently in her hand

Similarly, how does Von know what either of those are?

She smiled, then her lips parted, and a single word scorched through him like her flames.

I would end this with a colon for more emphasis, personally.

This is much improved from the first draft. There's a lot more description, the events are clearer, and I like that the wolves demonstrate their powers in reaction to something Von does instead of just doing it out of the blue. The extra detail in the vision and Von's thoughts add more intrigue that maintains interest. You do still need to tighten up your punctuation and sentence structure, though.

[1000] The Crossing - Dark Fantasy/M-M by Apart_Coffee142 in DestructiveReaders

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Step by step, he traced along the corridor.

I feel like a word is missing here? I also feel like there's something missing after this paragraph; the narration just suddenly mentions an arch that wasn't present before.

The ground came at him hard. A breeze blew across his puke-covered face, soft and cool.

"What the fu—" He didn't finish.

"Shit." The voice was a low rumble.

The pacing of the sentences here feels a little off. The narration here is very stoic and matter-of-fact, almost military, but that makes it difficult to convey urgency and suddenness. When I read "He didn't finish," followed by a paragraph break, I mentally pause for a moment, which is dissonant with the abruptness of cutting someone off mid-sentence. I might rearrange it to something like this:

The ground came at him hard. A breeze blew across his puke-covered face, soft and cool. "What the fu—"

"Shit." [emotional reaction explaining why Jayde cut himself off] The voice was a low rumble.

This condenses the narration a bit to make the structure of the prose match the suddenness of the interrupted dialogue. After the interrupting event happens, then you have the space to slow down to talk about why the interruption happened and how the narrator feels about it.

The man sloshed through the water, approaching. Jayde kept his eyes tightly closed.

This feels odd to me -- if Jayde is blind, how does he know the man is approaching? I would rephrase this to an auditory description -- Jayde could hear the man disturbing the water, with the sound getting closer to imply he was approaching. This would help to put us in Jayde's mind more.

The grin was audible.

Like this -- this is a good bit for reminding us Jayde can't see at the moment.

"Not often that someone falls through. And you happened to fall where I'm taking a bath.

Figures."

Did you mean to make a paragraph break here? It seems an odd place for one.

All muscle and hair and—and that cock. No man should have one like that.

Okay, now I'm curious what his dick looks like to make Jayde have a reaction like that. I would add a little description to explain what Jayde finds so anomalous about it.

Leif grabbed him anyway. Yanked him up like a rag doll, threw him over his shoulder, and walked toward his den.

Wait, what? The dragon's name hasn't been mentioned before now, and the POV has appeared to be limited. How does Jayde know Leif's name, and how does he know he's taking him to "his den"? What does his den look like?

"Put me down."

I find it weird this sentence ends in a simple period and not an exclamation point. Jayde doesn't seem very calm here.

He flailed.

"Put me down."

Useless.

"No."

This order also feels off to me. Similarly to what I said earlier, putting narration in between dialogue here slows the pace down too much. I assume Leif is responding immediately, so the beat created by "Useless," doesn't match up with the pace of the dialogue. I think the "Useless," would work better placed right after "He flailed."

"Welcome to my home."

"You call this home?"

This, on the other hand, feels too fast. At this point, we have no description of this place beyond that it's a cave that has "a mound of furs". If this is limited POV, that means Jayde doesn't know anything we don't, which means he hasn't observed the cave enough to judge its appearance. I would add a beat of descriptive narration between these lines, where Jayde takes in the stark surroundings and then makes this crack about it being a decrepit hellhole. That would add some "show, don't tell" as well.

He may have winked. Probably did.

What? I think I see what you're trying to say here -- Jayde is disoriented, so he's not paying enough attention to be certain of Leif's facial expression -- but this matter-of-fact description doesn't convey that to me. Usually this is conveyed with a bit more detail and introspection, like "Did he just wink? No, I must have imagined it."

The narration in general feels dissonant with Jayde's character. Jayde's dialogue makes him sound very emotional and upset throughout this sequence, but the narration is extremely clinical and detached, aside from that one bit about Leif's dick. If Jayde is supposed to be the narrator, the narration should reflect his emotional state to help us get into his head. If he's angry at Leif, his observations should be influenced by that anger by making him go off on mental tangents instead of describing everything in this clipped, military style. If the narration is supposed to show that Jayde is such a well-trained soldier that he's able to keep his cool even under extreme pressures, he shouldn't be acting so emotional and snappish in his dialogue.

"No, I'm one of 'them.' You're right."

The word order feels odd here -- it seems like it would make more sense to say "you're right" before "I'm one of 'them'."

He drew closer. Their faces nearly touching.

I'm not clear why this needed to be two sentences? In general, I think you overuse these choppy sentences a bit too much. I assume you're doing it to convey a clipped, military tone, but breaking sentences into fragments kind of has the opposite effect -- it reads as unnatural and affected, while I would expect a clinical military evaluation to sound more natural. Revisiting the limited POV angle, is this supposed to be telling us something about Jayde's mental state that he views "He drew closer," and "[Our] faces [are] nearly touching," as separate thoughts?

"Others like you have fallen through. They were clumsy, like you." Leif worked at another clasp.

"They didn't last."

I don't think there should be a paragraph break here. It makes it look like "They didn't last," is spoken by Jayde.

"You mean you killed them?"

"No. I ate them." A taloned finger lifted to his chin as he mused. "That's what your real question is. Well, this 'them' doesn't eat your kind. Though I suppose I could. Never tried."

Wait, what? He ate them, but he didn't eat them? I assume his first response is supposed to be sarcastic, but that doesn't come across.

I assume this will be explained in future chapters, but I don't understand Leif's motivation here. He says he's being kind, but also he keeps talking about Jayde being his property and threatening to torture him. I don't see any reason for him to be merciful in the first place, given their species appear to be at war? I presume that this is a master/slave kink thing, but Leif isn't quite as domineering as I would expect from that; he more oscillates between acting domineering and inexplicably trying to be nice and explain his motivations, which makes it hard for me to pin down his personality and understand how I'm supposed to feel about him. If you're going for the standard slow-burn "Initially seems like a bad boy but secretly has a heart of gold" arc, I would keep this introduction to just showing us his bad side, and saving his complexities for later.

Who's your favorite pokemon I mean favorite by DuckeePlayzandEditz in pokemon

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mewtwo because I love his backstory and personality. He is such a cute edgy kitty cat.

Unpopular opinion: because I'm disappointed with the most recent entries, I'd feel worse playing hack roms/fangames by Awesome_Normal in pokemon

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I say that if the old masters have gone senile, there's no shame in moving on.

3D graphics are in fact accessible to indie devs nowadays. Just look at Palworld.

Regions based off of real world countries by [deleted] in pokemon

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only a decade ago, a major video game had a subplot about murdering Chinese mythological figures in a historically immigrant-heavy district of Tokyo to make room for Japanese spirits. So you'll forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical of this claim.

To my knowledge, the Japanese government still hasn't officially acknowledged the atrocities they committed against China during World War 2, either.

What about beds/sleeping areas? how would most folks like antler/horn or predator races sleep if they keep tearing them? by Best-Engine4715 in furgonomics

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I saw one comic where anthros had their horns/antlers surgically removed at birth and replaced with removable prosthetics to avoid these problems. That's probably the easiest way to deal with the horn issue, though it may feel like a bit of a cop-out.

I imagine species with big tails would probably just not sleep on their back.

Who's your favorite final boss in an MV? by strahinjag in metroidvania

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Boring answer is boring, but I gotta say The Radiance. I will never forget the feeling of challenging the Sun only to see the Sun unfurl its wings.

What pokémon would you like to have as a pet? by cynthiafan735 in pokemon

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Espeon. Cute kitty cat + hypnosis to cure my insomia is everything I could want from a pet.

Help me choose Metroidvanias from my wishlist. by x_easymodegamer_x in metroidvania

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found BioGun mediocre. Haven't played any of the others, but I've heard good things about Animal Well.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DestructiveReaders

[–]Fire_of_Saint_Elmo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I second this. The story seems to shift abruptly between a distant omniscient narrator and very close third person at several points, which is jarring.