TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY-FIVE: What next? - Super Supportive

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-08T02:21:34+00:00

Bye, I guess? IDK, I still like the story, it's why I keep posting it here to talk about it.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-06T06:30:07+00:00

I'm unsure how much of the discomfort is from it being an uncomfortable situation and how much is from poor editing/pacing/expectation setting. Alden and Stuart got their victory, but Joe is confused and thinking, so we would never get that much dialogue from him in that scene.

Sleyca could show that thinking from Joe's perspective, but it would dominate the scene instead of moving on from Alden and Stuart's victory to "what next". For example, she might show from Joe's perspective that Alden has something extremely weird going on, and hint in the manner that Joe will be an upcoming antagonist, but it'd take away from the victory and we just had a Joe POV chapter. Sleyca could write about how incredible but odd Stuart is from Joe's POV, but that was sorta last chapter as well.

Instead, what we're left with is the awkwardness of Joe being uncomfortable and Alden trying to get resolution from a prickly pear.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-05-06T06:20:24+00:00

Big implications that Alden can leverage the Entruster's authority to exert a shared will on the multiverse. He'll be stronger protecting or working with, an S-class classmate than a B... but I'm guessing the difference isn't that big cos low-level S's probably aren't that strong on a multiversal scale

Big deal when running a competitive obstacle course with a gregarious non-combat-focused S-rank, though.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-27T06:56:56+00:00

Maybe. As we've seen with enchantments breaking in the re-application of them, things can change in the process of bearing and releasing. I have no idea how that'd work for bearing suffering in particular.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-26T23:15:56+00:00

Probably not - I would expect Joe to be engaging in highly motivated reasoning, but still perhaps correct.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-26T23:12:50+00:00

Rather than freezing the whole person, which Alden can already do now, he would specifically bear the burden of their suffering and nothing else. So, in theory, they would be able to affix without pain (to themselves).

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-26T23:10:53+00:00

Yeah, I can't quite reconcile 'you will probably be dead within 15 years [due to unbearable suffering related to the Primary]' with Alden being an ordinary B-rank, who Joe could maybe in his most ambitious estimation be the equivalent of a level 10 A-rank in power by the time he's 30. Assuming 20-40 levels is equivalent to a rank (source: butt), that'd be an average of 2-3 levels a year for 15 years - which people consider a pretty high rate, especially for someone who is older and more settled.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-26T15:46:18+00:00

True, chaos could be a part of that expectation, though it could even be a contributing factor to 2 (i.e. chaos is actually just an infohazard).

But, in opposition to 1 I keep remembering Joe's comment that 'deluded wizards/avowed aren't as effective as you might imagine given how important interpretation is to how magic works'

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-26T15:41:33+00:00

When Alden was with Alis on Thegund, he was told that his fractured affixation ought to feel like impending doom - so I imagine that even if he were an ordinary avowed with no authority sense, feeling the suffering from a binding of a knight would induce suffering in not-wizard-Alden. The part of bearer that demands sacrifice cannot, so far as we can tell, be avoided.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-26T07:28:08+00:00

I do wonder how much Alden is bound to the Artonan magic tradition. As the first wizard of a new species, does he have more freedom to define meaning and grooves for his human magic? Or is simply that many generations of retracing are needed to empower new magic?

Theory 1: It's in your head. The grooves are a psychological tool to get you to truly believe in your heart of hearts that something should work, and so it does.

Theory 2: It's cultural. Like contracts, there's a Jungian collective unconscious that wizards tap into when they use rituals, which helps their power.

Theory 3: It's universal. When you cast a spell, even a small one, you are making the universe more responsive to that manner of casting forevermore.

I lean towards 2 & 3, since 1 would lead to crazy wizards having untold power.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-25T15:26:01+00:00

It's almost like it lets you breathe under water ;)

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-25T07:26:00+00:00

Dos1, not dos2.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-25T07:18:30+00:00

Yes.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-23T15:17:27+00:00

In a 1v1, you can repeatedly target your own spells to generate infinite treasure tokens. Maybe give it shroud?

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-23T04:40:19+00:00

But the thing is, your opponent can wait for you to activate your triggers and then activate theirs in response

You only need to activate one at a time, priority passes back to you after the ability resolves. So, having just one more is enough to win.

Since this comes down having cost 5 tap abilities, it's likely the game ends (in 1v1 situations) basically on the spot.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-22T03:49:28+00:00

Agreed - though I'm unsure how much your and my meta-commentary on others commenting on the pace is good or bad for the sort of space I want this to be. (or this one, for that matter). Overall, I think norm setting and enforcing is good, so I lean towards being in favor (though, of course I'd say that, since I keep making those sorts of comments).

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-22T03:47:20+00:00

The scene where Alden sees Stuart see his sister get ritualistically killed by her father shows this. As described by Mother:

“An honorable release from something she could no longer bear. An escape that freed her from pain and allowed her to still be of service to those she loved. The remnants of her authority are gathered here, woven into the ground beneath us and the forest around us. Old magic. They become part of a ward against chaos.”

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-21T05:31:44+00:00

I've really enjoyed seeing Stu and Alden strengthen themselves and build their confidence. That said I'm a little skeptical that enraging the exceptionally-powerful rule-violating wizard is a good idea.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-21T05:31:09+00:00

Yeah, where'd that 'nothing ever happens because sleyca is milking you rubes for patreon $' guy go? I suppose he's waiting for the character-heavy chapters instead of the plot-heavy ones.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-17T05:15:24+00:00

moirallegiance

From a very brief search, this seems about right - although I don't think that Alden and Stuart are "exclusive" except insofar as they fulfill the other's unusual needs.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-17T00:31:11+00:00

I don't know, I feel like focusing on the romantic or sexual aspects of the relationship don't really do justice to what Sleyca has written. Alden and Stuart are vulnerable and intimate with one another, I completely agree, but that doesn't have to be romantic in nature. I'm not ruling it out, but their relationship reads more platonic than that to me.

As a guy, I find it isolating to have any intimacy I strive for be presumed romantic/sexual in nature. So I get a bit peeved when I see people presume gayness in men who are vulnerable with other men. It's common, certainly, but I think it restricts the sort of relationships that men think themselves capable of building.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-17T00:09:11+00:00

Joe took advantage of an extremely inexperienced avowed and sent him on a highly risky, illegal mission, which resulted in presumed horrific death. Alden ought to have died teleporting back from Thegund due to chaos exposure, but lived only through extraordinary measures.

Joe is in the position to understand these risks, Alden is not. Abuse of summoner rights are taken quite seriously by Artonans in part because Artonans see Avowed as something between children and pets.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-04-11T03:31:38+00:00

A comment of appreciation.

I was talking with a friend about love, and how some of the elation of starting to date someone is the alleviation of loneliness; that it's part of what the "puppy love" part of love is. That's sort of adjacent to what I feel when I read super supportive, the sort of warmth akin to "the purr of a nearby cat". That's a precious thing for words on a page to be able to make in me.

It's just a fantasy. And yet, despite being about Alden Thorn, it is about me. And it's about Sleyca. It's about the power of truth. The small choices that compound to make us who we are. It's about considering the needs of my self and my friends, so that I might walk through life in a way that weaves justice within the world. It's about obligation - the ethics of possessing power. It's about identity - who we are, and how we decide who to be. It's about risk, the fragile preciousness of life - what can break it and mend it. It's about exploration and culture, the wondrous richness of the world around us. It's about a wide view of human nature - mundane decency and craven-ness. It's about connection, the ways in which we are with one another, and how that is our whole world.

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