Hmm… Never judge a book by its cover, maybe? Not tryin’ to sound terribly racist or nuthin, but most a’ y’all book-folks look about the same to the rest of us. I figured that was why book-folk wear their titles out in the open like that – so other folks could tell y’all apart. >.>
So the blood was indeed only in Yabalcio’s perception of reality. I feared that hypothesis was too naïve for this story but I am quite happy to be proven wrong.
I know everyone is very fond of the Cio-Alison ship, and I hate to be an iceberg, but I personally hope it’s permanently sunk after this.
I don’t care if Cio regrets this, I don’t care if they stay friends afterward or whatever, but I just don’t think it’s right to ship two characters when one of them brutalized the other like this, even if she just “lost herself” for a minute. That’s exactly what abusive relationships in real life are like. “Oh, I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I just lost control!”
And that’s not to say Alison hasn’t also wronged Cio. Alison’s working out her own issues, with being a god now and all. I think she and Cio should just give each other some space.
Let the ship sink all the way to the bottom of the ocean. They can be friends together on the lifeboat.
And no, I just do not see Yab as analogous to anger management issues, nor do I see Cio and Allison’s relationship being abusive. In a fantasy story like this, you need more than an event like this, bloody as it was, to describe two characters as having an abusive, dysfunctional relationship.
An abusive relationship needs to be a far more prevalent aspect of the characters’ interactions, and Cio and Allison do not otherwise have a relationship colored by abuse.
Compare it to, say, Twilight, or its fanfiction offspring Fifty Shades of Grey. Those relationships are thoroughly dysfunctional and abusive, and it colors every aspect of the characters’ relationships even outside of the literally violent encounters. (tons of stalking, frequent privacy invasion, romantic coercion, severe jealousy and mistrust, etc)
Mistrust and suspicion has been the biggest wedge between Allison and Cio, and it’s basically gone now. They’ll be actual friends now regardless because of it, and I do not see this event as a ship sinker either. If it was, it wouldn’t even make sense for them to be friends.
Friendships can be abusive just like romantic relationships, and both are absolute nonos.
Denying possible positive romantic development yet accepting the forging of an actual friendship after this event would be hypocrisy and cherry-picking.
This story seems to be the kind where happily ever after type romance wouldn’t even happen, and I don’t think anybody really seriously ships these two. At least I personally don’t. I think they’d be cute together outside the context of this story in like a normal life situations and stuff, and that’s it.
I find it difficult to liken it to an abusive relationship.
Until recently Alison pretty much had a different part of herself driving, one that pretty much left Cio for dead. And who knows where things might have gone if the explosives hadn’t cut that conversation short.
Upon waking in the rubble Cio seemed to have another part of herself driving as well.
It just feels similar to me. Neither wanted what happened, and both alternates are pretty bad. This is just a setting where that is actually a thing, unlike real life.
Making Cio attacking Alison out like it similar to a common abusive relationship is nonsense. If this “ship sinks” it’s not because Cio is abusive, if anything it is the other way around.
It’s not like Alison’s wrong to her is a small thing, she intentionally left her to die under a pile of rubble (and with the way things were going in that scene if the explosion hadn’t done it for her she probably would have attacked her). Both Cio’s attacking Alison here and Alison leaving Cio to die could maybe be excused as them “under the influence” but Alison has also been treating Cio like trash before this.
Friends can be abusive, too, and Allison was at least as “abusive” as Cio earlier. Neither of them were themselves. This whole chapter has been about exploring the characters’ worst selves, and I’m inclined to forgive them their jaunt into evil.
Most abusive relationships don’t involve getting taken over by a bitchy part of yourself enhanced by the power of a God. Nor do they involve one member of the relationship slipping into a literal beastial demonic state and lose all control after getting betrayed and crushed under falling rubble
Having been in abusive, toxic relationships — both friendships and romantic — and on both sides of the abuse (I have gotten actual, professional therapy on this matter, and I know that I’m not ready for romance again yet… but that’s another story. And I am MUCH better than I was)… this isn’t an abusive relationship. Far, far from it. And as someone who has lived through the genuine article, I’m a bit insulted at the comparison. This feels more like an accusation by someone who dislikes the ship for other reasons to try to throw dirt on other people’s ships than a genuine expression of concern — something I see far too often in certain fan communities these days.
Up until Incubus’ meddling, Cio and Allison’s relationship was about as normal as could be expected in the bizarro-world circumstances of the Seven-Part World. Cio was a little bit fangirlish, but neither one was taking advantage of the other’s good faith, and (from what I can tell) Cio’s fangirling had never crossed the line into outright *stalking*. Neither was using violence (physical OR emotional) as a tool to control the other. I do not recall any incidents of gaslighting or even dishonesty — they were pretty up-front and open with each other. And they tried to help each other to the best of their confused, fish-out-of-water wow-wtf-is-happening abilities.
What’s going on RIGHT NOW is an extreme end of something that can happen in perfectly normal, even healthy relationships — there was a grave misunderstanding due to a lack of information (and illness, even, if we consider Allison’s mental split to be mental illness) and severe stress. Due to the nature of the actors involved (nascent god-king and former Black Devil) it escalated into severe physical violence, but that has more to do with the *nature of the world that this exists in* than any existence of abuse. Were this a slice of life high school AU, this would be Allison and Cio having planned a big prank on the SGA treasurer with the local school n’er do wells, said prank went super sideways, Cio and Allison’s egos both got in the way, and it ended with a vicious shouting match in which both said a lot of things neither should have which hurt each other very badly.
I digress with overwrought metaphors. The MAIN REASON this isn’t an example of an abusive relationship is the lack of antecedents to the abuse. UP UNTIL Incubus’ meddling & Cio feeling she needed to pull on her old self’s power, there was no manipulation, gaslighting, or abuse (physical or emotional). There really is a difference between an awful one-time fight and an ongoing problem of abuse. Now, if they CONTINUE to have this problem in the future, or if they resort to manipulative behavior, THAT’S abuse. But this incident in itself isn’t.
Avast Captain! There be a ship approaching!
Ah, the token of friendship served as a shield
Ah, another life saved by fanfiction
apparently getting stabbed in the book disintegrates your dress.
Hurray!
M-m-my heart!
Ingsvld, it appears your story is at an end.
Is it truly so difficult for humans to distinguish my kin? Have you taken aphorisms so deeply to heart that you do not even look at the book’s cover?
Hmm… Never judge a book by its cover, maybe? Not tryin’ to sound terribly racist or nuthin, but most a’ y’all book-folks look about the same to the rest of us. I figured that was why book-folk wear their titles out in the open like that – so other folks could tell y’all apart. >.>
Yeah! INGSVLD has a pretty blue eye!
Did she have a companion when she was at Yre the previous time? Her “…again?!” might refer to killing one.
So the blood was indeed only in Yabalcio’s perception of reality. I feared that hypothesis was too naïve for this story but I am quite happy to be proven wrong.
Why am I laughing and crying at the same time?
Reconciliation – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrG_x89Ke3g
What happened to her shirt, though? It was whole in the previous page.
You mean the one where she got thrown through a stone pillar at supersonic speeds?
Is she still Cio? Or Yabalchoath again? Or something else?
I know everyone is very fond of the Cio-Alison ship, and I hate to be an iceberg, but I personally hope it’s permanently sunk after this.
I don’t care if Cio regrets this, I don’t care if they stay friends afterward or whatever, but I just don’t think it’s right to ship two characters when one of them brutalized the other like this, even if she just “lost herself” for a minute. That’s exactly what abusive relationships in real life are like. “Oh, I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I just lost control!”
And that’s not to say Alison hasn’t also wronged Cio. Alison’s working out her own issues, with being a god now and all. I think she and Cio should just give each other some space.
Let the ship sink all the way to the bottom of the ocean. They can be friends together on the lifeboat.
Over my cold, dead body.
And no, I just do not see Yab as analogous to anger management issues, nor do I see Cio and Allison’s relationship being abusive. In a fantasy story like this, you need more than an event like this, bloody as it was, to describe two characters as having an abusive, dysfunctional relationship.
An abusive relationship needs to be a far more prevalent aspect of the characters’ interactions, and Cio and Allison do not otherwise have a relationship colored by abuse.
Compare it to, say, Twilight, or its fanfiction offspring Fifty Shades of Grey. Those relationships are thoroughly dysfunctional and abusive, and it colors every aspect of the characters’ relationships even outside of the literally violent encounters. (tons of stalking, frequent privacy invasion, romantic coercion, severe jealousy and mistrust, etc)
Mistrust and suspicion has been the biggest wedge between Allison and Cio, and it’s basically gone now. They’ll be actual friends now regardless because of it, and I do not see this event as a ship sinker either. If it was, it wouldn’t even make sense for them to be friends.
Friendships can be abusive just like romantic relationships, and both are absolute nonos.
Denying possible positive romantic development yet accepting the forging of an actual friendship after this event would be hypocrisy and cherry-picking.
This story seems to be the kind where happily ever after type romance wouldn’t even happen, and I don’t think anybody really seriously ships these two. At least I personally don’t. I think they’d be cute together outside the context of this story in like a normal life situations and stuff, and that’s it.
I find it difficult to liken it to an abusive relationship.
Until recently Alison pretty much had a different part of herself driving, one that pretty much left Cio for dead. And who knows where things might have gone if the explosives hadn’t cut that conversation short.
Upon waking in the rubble Cio seemed to have another part of herself driving as well.
It just feels similar to me. Neither wanted what happened, and both alternates are pretty bad. This is just a setting where that is actually a thing, unlike real life.
This would be a legitimate perspective to hold if Cio wasn’t literally, in body and mind, a different person a moment ago.
Making Cio attacking Alison out like it similar to a common abusive relationship is nonsense. If this “ship sinks” it’s not because Cio is abusive, if anything it is the other way around.
It’s not like Alison’s wrong to her is a small thing, she intentionally left her to die under a pile of rubble (and with the way things were going in that scene if the explosion hadn’t done it for her she probably would have attacked her). Both Cio’s attacking Alison here and Alison leaving Cio to die could maybe be excused as them “under the influence” but Alison has also been treating Cio like trash before this.
It’s a cartoon.
Friends can be abusive, too, and Allison was at least as “abusive” as Cio earlier. Neither of them were themselves. This whole chapter has been about exploring the characters’ worst selves, and I’m inclined to forgive them their jaunt into evil.
sad but true, my friend
Most abusive relationships don’t involve getting taken over by a bitchy part of yourself enhanced by the power of a God. Nor do they involve one member of the relationship slipping into a literal beastial demonic state and lose all control after getting betrayed and crushed under falling rubble
Having been in abusive, toxic relationships — both friendships and romantic — and on both sides of the abuse (I have gotten actual, professional therapy on this matter, and I know that I’m not ready for romance again yet… but that’s another story. And I am MUCH better than I was)… this isn’t an abusive relationship. Far, far from it. And as someone who has lived through the genuine article, I’m a bit insulted at the comparison. This feels more like an accusation by someone who dislikes the ship for other reasons to try to throw dirt on other people’s ships than a genuine expression of concern — something I see far too often in certain fan communities these days.
Up until Incubus’ meddling, Cio and Allison’s relationship was about as normal as could be expected in the bizarro-world circumstances of the Seven-Part World. Cio was a little bit fangirlish, but neither one was taking advantage of the other’s good faith, and (from what I can tell) Cio’s fangirling had never crossed the line into outright *stalking*. Neither was using violence (physical OR emotional) as a tool to control the other. I do not recall any incidents of gaslighting or even dishonesty — they were pretty up-front and open with each other. And they tried to help each other to the best of their confused, fish-out-of-water wow-wtf-is-happening abilities.
What’s going on RIGHT NOW is an extreme end of something that can happen in perfectly normal, even healthy relationships — there was a grave misunderstanding due to a lack of information (and illness, even, if we consider Allison’s mental split to be mental illness) and severe stress. Due to the nature of the actors involved (nascent god-king and former Black Devil) it escalated into severe physical violence, but that has more to do with the *nature of the world that this exists in* than any existence of abuse. Were this a slice of life high school AU, this would be Allison and Cio having planned a big prank on the SGA treasurer with the local school n’er do wells, said prank went super sideways, Cio and Allison’s egos both got in the way, and it ended with a vicious shouting match in which both said a lot of things neither should have which hurt each other very badly.
I digress with overwrought metaphors. The MAIN REASON this isn’t an example of an abusive relationship is the lack of antecedents to the abuse. UP UNTIL Incubus’ meddling & Cio feeling she needed to pull on her old self’s power, there was no manipulation, gaslighting, or abuse (physical or emotional). There really is a difference between an awful one-time fight and an ongoing problem of abuse. Now, if they CONTINUE to have this problem in the future, or if they resort to manipulative behavior, THAT’S abuse. But this incident in itself isn’t.
/longwinded and incoherent rant over
first
Seems a bit abrupt, but I look forward to learning what happened with Cio before.
Whew. Was scared we’d have our first major character death.
I mean, I’m not the only one who thought that was YNGSVLD, right?
Finally! I’ve been waiting almost five years to see some nipple! I can finally stop pressing the remnants of my F5 key!
Honestly surprised me. I like it, The Father Mozgus way.
Woohoo! Saved by the book!
Alas, poor Ingsvald. I knew him, Cio. A book of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.
(Yes, I know it’s not really Ingsvald. Just making fun.)
cio crying makes me want to die
Devilgirl Crybaby
Amazing punch…ehm stabline there. ^^
When we get to the part of the story set in some sort of demonic library, I expect the book-keepers to be very cross.
😛