as title

at 11 pages long!

and what to say? We have a relationship with kachiko, a good fight and political shenanigans.

plus confirmation of fortnightly fictions interspersed with clan descriptions on the alternate weeks.

Yoritomo leading pirates! MANTIS CONFIRMED!

I honestly loved this fiction, the little details that make the setting do beautiful. The fact that Kachiko maintains her On while also viewinget the ikebana and giving just that beautiful tease. The balance of duty and personal interest. Well done all around.

It one more thing gets minutely or fractionally adjusted, I'm going to lose my mind.

I'm somewhat torn on this fiction, largely just because of the faux pas with the pillow fight comment from the AMA.

Part of me is excited that a company that has the helm is willing to actually use homosexual storylines. Part of me is worried that this might just be some weird fan service.

The rest of the story was well done, and I think this topic is going to be handled tactfully. But part of me is still a little worried.

20 minutes ago, Matrim said:

and what to say? We have a relationship with kachiko, a good fight and political shenanigans.

Pillow Fight scene was deleted though.

9 minutes ago, Yoritomo Kazuto said:

Yoritomo leading pirates! MANTIS CONFIRMED!

As existing in Rokugan. A pity not starting as mercenaries. Naval is quite land-locked.

So no references to Phoenix and Unicorn. Man, they must be lucky clans when Hotaru does not waste a single thought on them!

Its a poor story IMO. It lacked creativity as its basically Hoturi's story replacing the man with Hotaru. The only thing different is Hoturi wouldn't have gotten cut by the bandit because he was the best duelist in the Empire.

One of my favorites character (and go to NPC back in 1st edition) is now dead. It is weird that I got actual tears reading that?

I liked it. Solid start.

19 minutes ago, Yoritomo Kazuto said:

Yoritomo leading pirates! MANTIS CONFIRMED!

If Mantis is confirmed, wouldn't that mean ? is possible too?

30 minutes ago, profparm said:

I'm somewhat torn on this fiction, largely just because of the faux pas with the pillow fight comment from the AMA.

Part of me is excited that a company that has the helm is willing to actually use homosexual storylines. Part of me is worried that this might just be some weird fan service.

The rest of the story was well done, and I think this topic is going to be handled tactfully. But part of me is still a little worried.

I thought it was handled quite tastefully. Perhaps a bit heavy-handed given that it was told from a very close third-person perspective, but still nothing that I would view as fanservice beyond the simple idea of two beautiful women being in love.

I liked the story up until Kachiko showed up. Then it felt like Hotaru went from interesting character to hormonal teenager with the thoughts of most beautiful woman in the empire and wanting to kiss her etc. I felt like a jump cut from a samurai political drama into Twilight. Also, it may be due to the fact that you don't get kachiko's thoughts, but the relationship felt very one sided. To me it felt like Hotaru was fawning over Kachiko and Kachiko was playing Hotaru like a fiddle.

I think you're right, it's more just a fear of how badly things COULD be handled.

But that is the very definition of a slippery slope argument, so maybe I should just be content with the lovely story we have here.

Well, playing people like fiddles is a Scorpion specialty...

2 minutes ago, JRosen9 said:

I liked the story up until Kachiko showed up. Then it felt like Hotaru went from interesting character to hormonal teenager with the thoughts of most beautiful woman in the empire and wanting to kiss her etc. I felt like a jump cut from a samurai political drama into Twilight. Also, it may be due to the fact that you don't get kachiko's thoughts, but the relationship felt very one sided. To me it felt like Hotaru was fawning over Kachiko and Kachiko was playing Hotaru like a fiddle.

I actually liked that. It showed that Hotaru is still quite inexperienced. And knowing Kachiko, she may very well just toy with Hotaru.

I like this fic, though 14 megs for 11 pages is a strange kind of formatting .

My only real problem with this - and it's nitpicky, I'll grant - was the issue of the Daidoji warrior viewing Hotaru as his lord, rather than his lady . In a setting with far more gender parity than the cultures that inspire it, I don't buy that we need to defer to the masculine pronoun as a form of respect.

3 minutes ago, JRosen9 said:

I liked the story up until Kachiko showed up. Then it felt like Hotaru went from interesting character to hormonal teenager with the thoughts of most beautiful woman in the empire and wanting to kiss her etc. I felt like a jump cut from a samurai political drama into Twilight. Also, it may be due to the fact that you don't get kachiko's thoughts, but the relationship felt very one sided. To me it felt like Hotaru was fawning over Kachiko and Kachiko was playing Hotaru like a fiddle.

That feeling probably will be one of the pillars of the relationship, and of Kachiko herself.

I wonder if we'll see the Emerald Championship as our first storyline event.

22 minutes ago, LordBlunt said:

If Mantis is confirmed, wouldn't that mean ? is possible too?

Anything is possible, but Yoritomo's presence is at least timeline appropriate, even if he is only leading a group of pirates around.

They would need to make a new face for the Spider in this timeline, since Daigotsu wasn't around in this era as a leader. Could have them tied directly to Fu Leng though, but that still makes them very shadowlands-oriented if they're sticking with that canon. As Kazuto below mentions the other monks, it's possible they could turn into a second villainous clan.

20 minutes ago, LordBlunt said:

If Mantis is confirmed, wouldn't that mean ? is possible too?

Well they do talk about a heretical movement among the Dragon, they could have this lead to perhaps my favorite aspect of the Spider, the Spider Monks. At the very least this could help lead to some sort of reformation of a Spider clan that could potentially fit better in the Empire than the previous version did, no matter how much I loved their employment of Shourido.

From this fiction if they are going to do a coup, a candidate for who will be couping clan is the Crane.

Just now, HidaYama said:

From this fiction if they are going to do a coup, a candidate for who will be couping clan is the Crane.

At least it wouldn't go against their key virtue, as it did for the Scorpion. The Crane would be doing the Empire a great Courtesy by making it theirs.

The phrasing of the Yoritomo name-drop makes it seem like the Mantis do not actually exist yet. The Crane Champion would know very well who the daimyo of a minor clan is. Might just be poor wording, though.

Somewhere, wherever it is that de-canoned characters go, Doji Natsuyo and Bayushi Fuyuko are looking down at this fiction and smiling.