Date: September 19 2015 7:50 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Kelly on her way to the President, her plan to rule is clear now but I am surprised Lisa snapped that way but losing her husband and daughter ought to do that. I am hoping they prove to be alive because you could do a Side Effects 4 where the daughter inherited her mother's growth powers and finds her huge and now has to deal with that part of her past.
Author's Response:
I usually do not reveal what's going to happen, so I'm not going to say anything about Lisa's husband and daughter. I'll just say that whatever happened at the FSD wil lbe explained in more detail in a future chapter.
As for a continuation... Side Effects is a trilogy. This volume (which will be long) will close the series. Does this mean that this wil be the last story in the Side Effects world? I don't know. But, if there are, the story arcs will be brand new, not a continuation of the current series.
As usual, thanks for the feedback. I hope you are enjoying the story.
Cheers!
Date: September 19 2015 7:18 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Tell me, is there a reason that you're making the President so irrational? Aside from the obvious crap of super-sized strippers, he's only thinking of direct attacks. At least tell me he'll have the sense to stay far away from the battlefield.
I do like Casey returning to Henford to get revenge though. That makes sense.
And how Lisa now wants to kill Kelly more than anyone else, even Casey, who was initially her worst enemy. The change in goals and Lisa's realization that Kelly is no longer the same person she was, is excellent.
Also the part where she almost gets a 'growth' boost. Makes me wonder if she'll come on top, not Casey.
Author's Response:
Don't worry, the President is going to stay in Air Force One as long as there is a threat. As for the reason for him being irrational... the truth is I had some doubts about how it would received. I've watched many shows and read some books where a "not so great" President is not up to the task in hard moments (e.g. even if it's not the greatest book of all times and the author the greatest writer ever, I have to admit that I kind of enjoyed "The sum of all fears" from Tom Clancy). Having someone in the crisis team being blunt while other people, more rational and able to keep their calm pulled some strings on the back to follow the right course was a feasible enough possibility that will explain the development I have in mind for the story. I'm afraid you'll have to wait almost until the end to tell me if you liked the way I handled it or not...
In any case, the figure of a President completely overwhelmed by the situation, seeing thousands of his people being killed and unable to do anything for hours is not so unrealistic. And the fact that someone is so much in rage (and at the same time, so concerned by the reaction of the citizens in front of him doing nothing) to react in a way that looks irratonal is human enough. Also, it has to be considered that within the confusion generated by the situation, without proper scientific advice, it must be hard for a President to believe that there is nothing his armed forces, the most powerful in the world, can do to stop her.
Moving on to the next comments.
- Casey is back to Henford to get the formula that she believes will make her grow even more. Seeing her old town and thinking on the people she knows there makes her think on both revenge and indulgement. I will put some focus in this in the coming chapters.
- The change in Lisa's target and, more importantly, giving her purpose in the story, was something that I had to do. Otherwise, her character would have become too irrelevant, and I alredy feel too guilty that I have not use it well enough along the series (she has got less attention than Casey and Kelly). I'm happy that you liked the way I handled it.
As for what will happen to her... you'll have to wait :)
Cheers!
Date: September 19 2015 4:17 AM Title: Chapter 5. Decisions
Wow, I'm liking furious, "out for revenge" Lisa already! Of course, wanting to be bigger and actually accomplishing it are two different things altogether.
Author's Response:
Your last sentence is so good that there's nothing I can do to make it better :)
As for "Furious Lisa", she is furious with Kelly, but still kind and compassionate with everyone else (well, except for Casey). You'll love Chapter 7, I think.
As usual, thanks for the feedback!
Cheers!
Date: September 18 2015 5:57 AM Title: PROLOGUE
I gotta say, while I have been more interested in this series any other, I disagree with you associating Casey with the Joker of all people.
She does not, by any stretch of the imgaination, come even close to comparing. The only thing she has in common is the fact that's she's a pschyo and a murderer. But that applies to many other villains, Massacre, Deadshot, Ultimate Bruce Banner, Electro, Ultimate Green Goblin, Lex Luthor, and so on.
The Joker is not only crazy but extremely brilliant and completely unpredictable. See, he's not afraid to die, and will even be willing to if he can kill Batman. He also once tricked Mxyzptlk into giving up his power to him, and became 'Emperor Joker' ruler of the universe.
Casey is not afraid, simply because she think's she can't die. And while you try your best to make her seem unpredictable, I'm afraid it doesn't work. Casey's mindset iss rather simple: get bigger, kill Kelly, trample and torture little people along the way.
Crazy or not, she has an agenda, something the Joker never has. That's why he's so unpredictable that even the Batman can't figure him out.
Casey is at best, Giganta on steroids. Not that that's a bad thing, but not the Joker.
Then there's Kelly using electricity to increase her size. Now it may not be the same as the way it happened in "Honey, I Blew Up The Kid" but did you watch that movie?And now that Kelly is seemingly unable to feeel pain, can she still use that method?
Finally, have the scientists actually found anything meaningful from their findings that they put together? If not... well then this story has already suffered. But I won't judge 'cause you're not there yet.
Cheers!
Author's Response:
You know what? I agree. I'm not sure how I put it exactly, when I mentioned the Joker. I was actually quoting a critique I received in GiantessCity and that I found especially well structured and written (and incredibly insightful). I'm actually still writing a worthy enough answer to post, after having thanked the author privately. If you are interested it's here: https://giantesscity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=117424&p=1169470#p1169470
The person writing it was trying to explain character types from the point of view of how they fit in a story, and there he classified the role of Casey in Side Effects as an agent of chaos, like the Joker. I don't think that he meant to compare her directly to the Joker in terms of behavior. As you, I don't think they are similar (I kind of agree with what you are saying).
I think that she is more unpredictable what you credit her for, though. She was in Volume 1, then, Volume 2 did not really let her show it, but I believe that she will surprise you at least a little in some points of Volume 3. It's true that she has an agenda now, because there is someone more powerful that she needs to get rid of, but once she does, her agenda is over. Anyway, let's talk about this again in a few chapters :)
As for Kelly's growth... I've seen "Honey I blew up the Kid". I'd like to think that Side Effects is "a little" more elaborate than that... she used electricity but, in the end, what she did was to kill herself, which is a little different than the movie :P
As for whether she can use the same method: probably not with electricity but the way the formula works in Kelly now is that anything that brings her near to death will make her grow. It's true that, at her size, bringing her near to death takes quite a lot. I won't say too much more ;)
AND, finally... even if it has been a few weeks in terms of publication time, in reality it has been about a couple hours in the Side Effects World since Kelly became massive. Ron is not even back in a lab. He will be, soon, and I will describe it in detail. The scientists, especially Ron, are very important. I'll get there. It will take a few chapters.
Hope that you will continue enjoying until then!
Cheers!
[Report This]Date: September 17 2015 5:40 AM Title: Chapter 4. Adaptation
I had some mixed feelings about this chapter. I had to really read it s couple times to kind of fully appreciate it. At first I thought this chapter was too similar to an earlier chapter. After reading it a couple more times I noticed a few things. You can kind of see Kelly changing and getting more annoyed with people. I'm a little surprised she doesn't have more people willing to worship her yet. What's the government planning to do since she's already caused mass casualties? I thought nuke was coming in last story, does itshow up here? Will Lisa be able to get edge over Casey again? Will either realize how to get bigger? Another great chapter. Can't wait for more!
Author's Response:
I had some other comments about this chapter feeling repetitive. I guess it's true. I wanted this chapter to show Kelly's continued evolution to someone that has stopped caring about people and sees herself way above them. Once I look at it in retrospective, I could have probably achieved the same objective with a chapter that had been a little different (I should probably have avoided having the cops shooting her, which is probably the part that felt more repetitive, and tried to find an alternative instead). Still, I think that I managed to achieve my objectives on character development (even if the chapter could have been funnier set in a different way). Anyway, I can guarantee you that what's coming will be more original :)
About your questions:
- Kelly is not that type of goddess. She does not want to be worshipped as a supernatural being. She "just" wants to rule and be respected. And, honestly, so early in her conquest, I had a hard time imagining the people who are being slaughtered by her doing anything other than fighting back or trying to get away.
- The government is still trying to decide how to react. More about this in tomorrow's chapter :)
- More to come about Lisa tomorrow as well!
You will only need to wait 24 more hours :)
Cheers!
Date: September 15 2015 3:49 PM Title: PROLOGUE
Okay read all of it and you're planning definitely shows,the characters and stories are much better. Particularly Kelly who to me seems the most well developed because she wants to rule as giantess but wants to avoid the carnage of Casey although right now, it seems like she is slipping into that, in part thanks to her size.
She is also much smarter, discovering that pain triggers the growth and therefore electrocuted herself to achieve her new divine form.
Author's Response:
Yes, knowing where the characters were going helped me develop them much better. The character where this shows better is Kelly, since she is also the one that goes through the biggest evolution through the story. The last couple of chapters of Volume 2 and the first Chapters of Volume 3 are especially focused on that and on what goes on in Kelly's mind as she tries to rationalize the death and destruction she is now causing both by accident and on purpose.
I hope that you will enjoy Volume 3. If anything, I still tried to polish my writing a little more from Volume 2. Hopefully it shows (although the difference should not be as noticeable as with Volume 1).
Thanks for your continued feedback. I hope that you'll continue letting me know what you think as you keep reading.
Cheers!
Date: September 14 2015 6:41 PM Title: PROLOGUE
You definitely improved in the second story, not totally done yet but I think Casey and Kelly are pretty awesome giantesses.
Author's Response:
Thanks! The first Side Effects was written more as inspiration came. It was originally longer, but at some point I decided that in order to wrap the story up in a way that made sense and leave room for a series based on the same characters to evolve I had to get rid of some content and drive the story to an ending. Volumes 2 was planned from the beginning, so I could focus my writing on developping the characters and trying to improve my descriptions of the scenes. While the first story in a series always has a special place, Ive always felt significantly prouder of Volume 2.
I'm glad that you are enjoying the series, in any case. I tried to put care in describing Kelly and Casey and their evolution as characters, so I'm glad that you liked how they came out. Please, let me know what you think as you keep reading.
Cheers!
[Report This]Date: September 13 2015 7:21 PM Title: Chapter 3. Therapy
Casey is crazy and her attitude towards the humans is terrifying. Would any thing they did help their survival at all? Doesn't seem like it. Her chapters seem typical giantess story stuff (which I don't mind). What would Kelly think? Does she even care anymore? Love it can't wait for more!
Author's Response:
As someone who made a review of Volume 2 said, Casey is a character of the Joker type (I wish she could be a fraction as well done as the Joker, of course, but I'm happy enough that she can be classified in his type). She was remarkably bad to start with, and through what has happened to her along the first volume and the time between its end and Volume 2, she has become a sadist psycho-bitch. She truly enjoys using her power to cause death and destruction. As you say, there is not too much humans can do to ensure their survival. It depends, exclusively, on how Casey is feeling at a certain moment.
The question of what would Kelly think is a very good one. It's hard to say, seeing how Kelly has been evolving. Deep inside, she would probably not care, but most likely she would let appearances guide her reaction and she would chastize Casey for her attitude. In the end, it would be nothing more than a way to try to show that she is the only one in charge, and hence the only one that can decide when it's right to kill and when it's not.
I hope that you keen enjoying what's coming.
Cheers!
Date: September 13 2015 6:27 PM Title: PROLOGUE
I read the first one, enjoyed it and now I'm reading the second to learn more about the characters.
Author's Response:
I've always thought that in Volume 2 I managed to improve my storytelling quite a lot, so I hope that you'll enjoy it even more. Please, let me know what you think as you go.
Cheers!
Date: September 13 2015 1:25 PM Title: PROLOGUE
Is kelly still 1700ft tall in this story?
Author's Response:
Yes, she is still 1700 fett tall. Volume 3 picks up right after the end of Volume 2, so the three girls are exactly the same sizes they were.
Date: September 13 2015 8:07 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Loved what've you done so far, keep it up!
Author's Response:
Thank you very much! I'm glad that you are enjoying it. I hope that you will like what's coming. Please, keep letting me know what you think.
Cheers!
[Report This]Date: September 12 2015 3:50 PM Title: PROLOGUE
Wish I got here sooner, Kelly's descent into complete delusionality (making up words) is easily the best part. I'll stress again how too often in these truly giantess based stories how the subject instantly lose her humanity. The psychology of Kelly's character as her size increased and dwindling regard for human life has been masterfully handled. The god complex of her character is sensible, because unlike shrinking where a character only appears like God compared to the person shrunk, Kelly has transcended human limitations in terms of her size and strength on all levels. The disturbing part is that there's a nugget of truth in Kelly's madness in the fact that her killing hundreds of people unintentionally is inevitable now, so it's almost benign to be all that concerned about.
The true treat though is not the fact that she doesn't care (which deep down she doesn't) and not the fact she causes destruction because she enjoys it ( which she does), but the extent she goes to justify her behavior and make herself believe that she is in the right. Made even worse by the fact, that she doesn't realize the extent of her power, which when she shocks herself to how powerful she is gets enticed further.
All of this being a byproduct in her brain to prevent guilt because she knows she can't avoid killing people anymore whether she wants to or not. Essentially, on the surface she wants to have her cake and eat it too. Wanting to indulge in her power and superiority in the fullest, but at the same time not be recognized as a monster. Thus making her the same as Casey. Sadly though, Kelly doesn't want to face the truth that she is already Casey or at best VERY close to being her, arguably worse since she's larger, capable of more destruction, and hypocritical on a moral level.
Only thing seperating there mindsets now being that Casey is self-aware that she does what she does, simply because she likes to, not caring what resistance comes her way or opinions of her behavior. While Kelly ironically wants (for now) vindication from the very people she is slaughtering ( both advertently and inadvertently), to accept her power that can and will kill them in mass, but at the same time not be considered a monster. I think Kelly is going to realize soon that she can't have it both ways.
Bravo.
Author's Response:
Thank you very much for the positive and very encouraging feedback! I'm happy that you are enjoying the story so far.
One of the most interesting aspects of writing Side Effects (and probably what has been able to keep the story going for as much as it has) was the very noticeable differences between the three main characters. Differences that were only hinted when they were "normal sized" but that were stressed in a big way once the women grew.
In this set up, Lisa and Casey's cards are very soon on the table: Casey is a clear antagonist, a villain, an agent of chaos... whatever you want to call her. She was bad to start with and becomes worse as the story goes, turning into a sadist that enjoys using her power to cause death and destruction. Lisa, on the other hand, shows her good heart pretty much from the start, even if I'm afraid that she came out a little shallow as a character.
Kelly has been the wild card for a long time. She was the grayer character of the three and she has been continuously evolving through Volume 2. This evolution in her attitude has been especially abrupt after her growth at the end of Vol. 2 and her actions at the beginning of Vol. 3. For an author, this type of characters are definitely the most interesting to write, and I'd say that Kelly's evolution is probably one of the areas I paid more attention to when writing the story. So, it made me very happy to read that you thought I had managed to achieve my objective.
In general, I'm very much in agreement with your analysis. Kelly has a God complex since her last growth spurt that, in her case, does not entirely lack foundation, since she has actually become the most powerful person in the world and she knows it. The combination of this complex and her profigious size will end up having significantly worse consequences than anything Casey has done so far, which could lead to argue that she is actually worse than Casey, as you pointed out.
Of course, Kelly does not see it like this. Be it a defense mechanism of her brain or be it delusional behavior, Kelly is constantly making an effort to rationalize any act of destruction and mass killing she commits. her mind is always able to find justification for them and, in the end, Kelly always ends up convinced that what she did was right or, at least, not condemnable. The truth, though, is that in order to rationalize her acts Kelly is making up her morals as she goes, in a way where her morals adapt to her actions rather than the other way around.
How long is this sustainable? Will her mentality evolve even further? Well, you'll see it in the coming chapters :) Hopefully I did a good enough job to explain this. I hope you will continue to enjoy them.
Thank you again for your kind feedback. This type of comments and analyses are what encourages me to write.
Cheers!
PD: I recently got some very thorough reviews, especially this one from zen4life: https://giantesscity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=117424&p=1169470#p1169470, discussing the characters on the story in length. I found myself agreeing with the majority of what was said. Maybe you'll find it interesting.
Date: September 12 2015 3:05 PM Title: Chapter 4. Adaptation
Good Chapter. I saw that Kelly killed the cops with her foot but ended up killing a lot more people in process. If she really wanted to kill JUST the cops, couldn't she have crushed them with her fingertips instead of using such a broad limb like her foot? I mean I get it, she just doesn't care anymore about what her power destroys, but at the same time she DOES care about what people think of her.
It's obvious, otherwise she wouldn't be so excited about being able to hear them... So how is anyone supposed to like her when she behaves like this? Aren't gods/goddesses supposed to be loved and worshipped not hated? And then she wonders why people run away. Anyway, I can't wait for the next one!
Author's Response:
As usual, thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you liked the chapter.
Kelly is a gray character that is very quickly evolving, especially since she became massive. One knows what to expect from Lisa and Casey (for the good and for the bad), but Kelly is still unpredictable. Right now, the only predictable thing about her is that she will do whatever is needed to keep her power and defent her position.
I think that, as you mentioned in some previous reviews, it's obvious that Kelly has let the power get into her head in a big way. Megalomania is a very strong driving force behind Kelly now. This does not explain her entire behavior, though. Here's an attempt at being more complete without being too exhaustive:
Kelly's main objective is too keep her status and her ultimate goal is to use her power to take over the world, which she has now convinced herself is her natural position. At the same time, she has convinced herself that, in the end, it's for the greater good (you'll get more on this in future chapters). Because of this, she needs to rationalize her acts of massive destruction. The way she rationalizes hers are by thinking that she is not killing on purpose, that accidents are unavoidable and hence she cannot be blamed and, ultimately, that she is not an evil sadist like Casey and that the world is much better off with her than with Casey around.
Taking over the world, on the other hand, implies interacting with the people she is conquering. Otherwise she would not be taking power, she would only be bringing destruction. That is why she is excited at being able to communicate. At the same time, it helps her rationalization process to convince herself that all she is doing is really for the greater good.
Even if she is, up to some point, deceiving herself, Kelly is still a very smart person. So, she really does not expect to be loved (at least immediately) and she certainly does not expect to be worshipped. She is more pragmatical in the sense that she only expects respect and obedience.
This is the reason why she looses control every time she is attacked. Ever since she grew to her current size none of the attacks on her have been able to harm her in the slightest way. Still, they have bothered her enormously, since she takes them as a total lack of respect and obedience. And she has reacted harshly.
In the case of the small town, the attack on her has caused hundreds of collateral victims around the cops and in the city hall. But her mind has quickly worked on rationalizing them as necessary collateral damage, to be blamed to the ones that had attacked her.
Another way of explaining the same thing is that while Kelly is still convinced that, unlike Casey, her behavior is still guided by morals, the fact is that she is making her own morals as she goes (and unfortunately, there is no one that can tell her that she's wrong).
Anyway, I hope you'll like the next chapter. Also, let me tell you that I'd bet that you'll love Chapter 7. You'll tell me in a few weeks :)
Cheers!
Date: September 12 2015 9:54 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Agghh! There you again with that fantasy 'bull' and complete lack of scientific reasoning. There's no way a woman even at 17'000 ft feet could travel faster than the speed of sound, what with the pendulum-like momentum her legs move at.
And when she jumped she should have gone through the crust of the Earth, with her force and her mass being far greater than they should be. I HATE PARADOXES!
I thought we'd been through this already. Well, nothing's perfect. Ignore my rants and keep writing!
"Cheers!"
Author's Response:
Well, I knew this would come when this chapter was posted...
Look, I know about the pendulum-like momentum of the walking movement. And while I did not bother on researching what should have been the exact effects of her mass/force on the ground as she jumped, I'm quite sure that I did not guess them right. In my favor, you'll admit that I got the relative scale of the earthquake pretty nailed down :P (the Giantess Converter definitely came in handy).
In the end, I'm being consistent with what I already did at the end of Volume 2 and that you did not like it already... I was not going to change the way the world works from one Volume to the next. So, having been through this already (as you say), I guess that the only thing I can do is to approach some of these elements with suspension fo disbelief. At least, you'll admit that even if this is not sci-fi but fantasy, I did try to make quite a lot of elements as realisting according to the laws of physics as possible. In any case, since a giant women would never be possible according to these same laws of physics, I don't have so much of a problem if I need to skip them from time to time for other things...
And don't worry, I'm writing like crazy :P
Have fun! (I thought I'd change the "Cheers!" just this time... :P)
Date: September 06 2015 5:46 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Just read your latest chapter and I have to say, if you're trying to make Casey more hateful than ever, you couldn't have done a better job.
Reminds me why she's currently Lisa's top priority.
Seems like that was simply a workout for her. Letting off steam, taking it out on the "Lilliputians" because she's not ready to fight Kelly yet. Probably gonna go through a lot more small towns before she is.
I AM somewhat surprise by the fact that the town was not evacuated. Didn't the whole world hear the news? BTW, think you could mention a couple guys trying to catch a plane heading for Antarctica or Russia? (Just a thought...)
Good story, so far. No idea what'll happen next!
Author's Response:
Thank you. I'm glad that you don't know what's going to happen. While this story will definitely go through many giantess cliches given its nature, I did not want it to become just a predictable sequence of giantess action scenes.
Let's go to Casey: while she is not the most dangerous giantess around right now, she is by far the most hateable. She is a sociopath that needs no reason to kill. As a matter of fact, she just kills and destroys because she enjoys it. In a recent very well done critique that was posted in another site, someone said that, using a Batman analogy, she was a Joker type of character. I could not agree more. Of course, I cannot fool myself thinking that I will ever be able to write a character which is 10% as good as the Joker, but if I had to fit her in a category, I think that would be hers. As such, it's impossible to like her as a person.
I will not elaborate much more on what Casey will do in the coming chapters. But I can say this: she is mentally unstable, but she is smart and she has a plan.
Regarding your comment on evacuations: there is more about it in coming chapters. There is an evacuation ongoing. But in the end, Side Effects Vol. 2 happened in the course of a little more than half a day, and since the government and the army did not take the threat seriously enough until it became painfully evident that they had been mistaken, everything started very late. This, together with the fact that the women can move very quickly when they set their mind to it, made this town, along with many others, to be unprepared for Casey suddenly emerging on its beach.
I hope you will continue enjoying the rest.
Cheers!
Date: September 05 2015 4:20 PM Title: Chapter 3. Therapy
Nice chapter! Would have liked a bit more Lisa but that's just me. Casey focusing on torturing single individuals might actually be a good thing since it means a lower number of people dying to her.
Author's Response:
Thanks!
Casey is a sociopath. She is definitely the "worst person" of the three giantesses, but the truth is that if one looks at the number of victims alone, Kelly's presence has had much worse consequences so far. And her current size, one can imagine that things will keep getting even worse...
Having said this, and while she focused on some individual people during her rampage, Casey has jut razed an entire coastal town just for the sake of it...
As for Lisa, I can promise you this: she will appear more as the story progresses. And, in very few chapters you will have an entire long chapter devoted to her that I think you will enjoy.
Cheers!
[Report This]Date: September 05 2015 2:54 PM Title: Chapter 2. New World
Wow. First off thanks for putting in the recap and for introducing some of the president's advisors. Even though the president seemed clueless. And these two chapters were phenomenal. Can't wait to see what happens next.
The first chapter was great because we got to see Kelly's omnipotence through Lisa/Casey's eyes and that was quite the eye opener. I really like that Lisa is still trying to do good but is fighting a losing battle especially with no apparent way to stop Kelly. The distraction that Casey did by obliterating the bridge then waiting for poor Lisa to invariably help those in need was genius. Then picking her up like a wrestler was kinda sexy. You also have a way of writing where we fill sympathetic towards those we just met, such as the woman in the building that Casey destroyed with Lisa's body.
I really hope that Casey is gonna look for her former boyfriend but I honestly have no idea what she's about to do. Oh yeah, the jealousy Casey feels towards Kelly and her betrayal/hatred seem totally justified the way you wrote it.
In the next chapter I was amazed that I was enjoying Kelly's newfound size. I like how you gave reasons why it would be more beneficial to her. Then she try's to interact with her subjects just to see what the results were and I was astonished by the detail you put forth. Everytime she moved or spoke or did pretty much anything effected the people in some way. You did a really nice job conveying her overall complete goddess mentality. She really is a goddess now and with that college crushed under her giant foot I don't think there's a way to shrink her back down(I'm not complaining mind you hahaha).
aaron
PS would it be possible to add some foot/toe scenes with a giantess forcing some tinies to clean her feet? I know its not your thing but thought id ask.
Author's Response:
Thank you very much once more for your support and your feedback on this series. I'm glad that you like how Volume 3 is starting.
I had some mixed feelings about the scenes with the President, but since Kelly has now become a very real national threat, it made a lot of sense to have her treated as such. Of course, I could have just shown the reactions of the governmnet, without getting into the details on how the decisions were made, but I thought that showing how puzzled the ones making decisions were by the very unexpected situation could work well. So, I will use that a couple of three times in the story. Hope that by the end of it, people can say that it really worked well. The risk here is that while some advisors are shown as competent, it's clear that the President is not up to the task of making the right decisions for this crisis. I know that this may not be to the liking of some people, but in the end, fiction is full of this type of scenarios (while I would not put it in the list of my 100 favorite books, I read "The sum of all fears" by Tom Clancy many years ago... I think it would be fair to say that the character of the President is vaguely inspired in Clancy's president in that book).
Chapter 1 had precisely the purpose of showing Kelly's omnipotence through some other people's eyes and then to set the stage for what Casey and Lisa were going to do, trying to react to the new situation. I'm glad that you liked the set up I used for that. I'm also happy to see you describing what you felt was going through Casey's mind, since that was precisely what I wanted to convey during the chapter.
And finally, I'm very happy to read what you thougth of Chapter 2. My challenge in Volume 3 was to write about a size that it's not my cup of tea and I'm not so familiar with. And even more so, for a character that is not the typical rampaging mega giantess but that, while destructive, has more detailed intentions in mind that require interacting with the population. Chapter 2 was the first real test for this and it is, by far, the chapter I spent more time at while writing Vol. 3. It was actually the first chapter I wrote and I did not decide to go ahead with the rest of the story until I was happy that I could write about Kelly's size in a way I liked.
So, thanks again. Your comments really help me see that I'm achieving some of the things I wanted to achieve and that readers like the way it's coming out.
Cheers!
PS Volume 3 is written (I'm just polishing chapters on a weekly basis to post them). I'm afriad that I will not invest a whole lot of time to foot worshiping... but, without giving you any details, I can assure you that there will be a couple of chapters that you will enjoy a lot :)
Date: September 04 2015 7:22 PM Title: Chapter 2. New World
Oh wow I'm in love with Kelley right now. <3. Her power and the way she uses it in a kind of naive but starting to realize how much power she actually has. Ahh so glad this series is still going! Thank u for continuing this! Keep the awesome chapters coming!
Author's Response:
Thank you very much for the feedback and the encouragement. You can be sure that Kelly is starting to become very aware of just how powerful she is. Don't worry, there is still plenty left of this series!
Cheers!
Date: August 29 2015 4:32 PM Title: Chapter 2. New World
Don't know what to say except good chapter! It's becoming apparant that Kelly just wants to do whatever the hell she pleases and doesn't care about the consequnces at all. However, I wonder if she will react differently if her actions end up killing children? I'm sure plenty of kids have already been killed by her unknowingly but what if she saw them die in front of her due to her actions? It's one thing to assume people die when you can't see it, it's another thing altogether to see it with your own eyes...Then again at this point Kelly's god complex is so bloated that she may see anyone she kills, including children as merely a part of fate.
Author's Response:
Thank you!
Kelly is definitely the character that has evolved the most in the entire series, and she will keep on evolving in Volume 3. She has always been fond of power, but at her new size she is lost to megalomania.
Casey is a sadistic that enjoys causing death. Kelly is not like that; however, as she has become bigger it could be said that she has stopped valuing life. At her size, unfortunately, this means that plenty of people will die. Of course, it would have been worse if it had been Casey the one to grow so massive, but it's bad enough, anyway.
If I managed to achieve my objective and did half a decent job in writing them, you will see more about this in the coming chapters with Kelly.
Your point about the god complex is pretty much spot on. It could also be said, though, up to a certain point, that her gradual loss of empathy for the rest of humanity is a defense mechanism of her mind. In the end, one could consider that her behavior is a combination of both things (or that both things are actually two sides of the same coin).
Anyway, I hope you will continue enjoying it.
Cheers!
Date: August 27 2015 8:02 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Oh and another thing. Redundancy. You spoiled the prologue and mentioned that "she was heading for Washington" two paragraphs before the last.
Author's Response:
Very true! Thanks for pointing out. I cannot undertand how I missed it (I typically proof read the chapters more than once...). The truth is that the prologue is probably one of the chapters in the story that went through less iterations, since I added it after most of the story was written and I reused some content that I actually had further down in the story.
Anyway, I fixed it. New readers will not have the last two paragraph spoiled.
Cheers!