Brightpine Discussion Thread

[jalapeno_dude]

(Posting this in Links because that's where the Minipyre and Pixiethreads threads are, but it also seems like this could go in Storytime (where the Effulgence and Incandescence discussion threads are) or Creations (where the Index of Glowfics was posted). Feel free to recategorize as appropriate.)

So, as of yesterday there is a new glowfic by kappa and Benedict, Brightpine. First thread, currently threading, is the most predictable place in the world, set in Narnia and featuring Winter + Max (Benedict OC, I think?). Discuss!

I am enjoying this muchly. Max seems to be the most explicitly HPMOR-style rationalist character we've met so far. Sample quote: "Maxwell is going to be very upset if he has to go through the tedium of doing science to this place."

There is a member of this forum named Benedict, who has no posts. If this is the same person, and you're still reading the forums, want to delurk and tell us about your character?

[Benedict]

Our cover is blown!

So, the story is, I was reading Effulgence, and I observed how good Bells were at taking huge, earth-shaking revelations completely in stride and immediately getting to thinking about how to use what they now have to get what they want. Like, you know the beginning of HPMOR, where Harry sees McGonagall turn into a cat, and it's this total paradigm shift that he spends a moment getting to grips with. And what I observed was like, Effulgence lacked these "cat moments", and I wanted to play someone who would not accept things as they came along, and instead spend a good long while completely freaking out about the existence of magic or alternate universes or whatnot. Maxwell is that! (He is an OC, yes.) And Brightpine is Cat Moments: The Glowfic.

WRT being the most explicitly rationalist- I wouldn't really describe Maxwell as rationalist, really. He wants to know things, slightly more than he wants to be correct about things. He values having a dependable understanding of the world, and rationality is sorta-generally-useful because being correct is a useful safeguard against having to change your model of the world frequently. This Maxwell is in modern times and has the free time to browse the internet and has encountered Less Wrong, but as just a thing he read one time rather than as a group membership.

And he's not quite as smart or luminous as he should be- he hasn't trained his mental reflexes, and is too quick to build a picture of what's happening, failing to take effective steps to make sure he's doing it right. He comes up with stories and flips his lid when they're contradicted- because he's actively stressed when he's confused by things and wants to fix the confusion problem as soon as possible. He's very, very Ravenclaw, but not in necessarily the most effective way.

Other details: He's kinda old (late 30s), he's non-sex-averse asexual, he typically works in education, he used to smoke or still smokes (depending on how much stress an alt of him is under), and he tends to have an ex-spouse and kids from whom he's estranged.

ALSO: Hi I'm Benedict and I'm itsbenedict on Tumblr, I'm a little less than half of the way through Effulgence (currently just finished with the first enchanted forest bit, 28), read Luminosity but not Radiance and the first few chapters of Elcenia, so I'm sorta midway-through on like everything. Hence why I'm not that active, because spoilers. I'm working on it!

Kappa and I are starting with Narnia and also apparently something called Avalon, neither of which I'm all that familiar with. Which is the point, because I want to feel out how Max reacts to the genuinely unexpected. After that we might do something more planned? We'll see how it goes. It's fun! Glowficcing is fun.

[Tamien]

Nicolas Cage is the perfect PB for Maxwell, I am so endlessly amused by the conjunction of those faces with his sputtering.

[cbhacking]

Hooray, fun new glowfic and new character and new author! I am excited about all of these things.

Benedict: Just in case nobody told you: the huge Wham Episode at the end of Luminosity does *not* mean you shouldn't read Radiance. Quite the opposite, in fact! I think Alicorn did a great job of balancing the impact of the scene with the "is there even any reason to keep reading?" feeling, but I'll admit I got that feeling. If I hadn't already read, and loved, Elcenia... well, friends would certainly have convinced me to read Radiance anyhow (these being the same friends who convinced me to read a Twilight fanfic{/I] in the first place), but I'm not sure I'd have done it on my own. As it is, Alicorn had juuuust enough credit with me that I started Radiance on my own after a day or so... and the only bad idea part of that was the wait (and the fact that it was a work night)! I should have known better. Anyhow, just wanted to drop you that tip. Maybe you like being in the middle of a ton of stories all at once and are consciously avoiding reading Radiance for now, but I strongly recommend jumping into it. Of course, if you're that far in Effulgence, a number of major plot points have already been spoiled... but seeing how they are reached is nonetheless excellent.

[PlainDealingVillain]

Second this recommendation. Also, personal opinion, but I considered Radiance significantly better. (Mostly I like Elspeth better than the-artist-futurely-known-as-Golden.)

[Bluelantern]

Max as Juliets watcher is golden :D

[jalapeno_dude]

[Not Brightpine, but this seems to have become the place to talk about Maxes in general...]

I'm really enjoying the current scene of Max experimenting with language in Milliways! The stuff about grammar/syntax is neat, especially since I'm a linguistics nerd. :)