All Comments on 'There and Back Again Ch. 159'

My issue wasn't with Alistair, but with Sierra.

How she went from being a geek bumbling idiot, with awesome uncontrollable powers - to a competent fighter, Warden, Templar, wife, counsel to the King, and administrator.

Then, she regresses into an incompetent tool, completely defined by her weaknesses.

Sure, it's your story - and just a story. Here's my problem.

I know this girl. I worked with a hopeless geek, lost in D&D/Minecraft/WoW and FanFic stuff. I'm 30 years older than her, and she's now, 9 years older than we met. She's still a hopeless geek, associating with hopeless geeks - however that's a social choice - much the same as getting a tattoo or twenty, and motorcycle.

Her COMPETENCY increases and doesn't waiver.

We no longer work together, but she calls/texts/emails when faced with a new challenge... usually when she's two tries into a situation where three fails is game-over. You're locked out of the server, or program:

"Whoa... there was a backdoor access that you never told me about?"

You weren't ready.

"What's the password?"

Your name. Use 1 for I, 3 for E, Caps where required and bob's yer uncle.

"Wait whut?"

I set it up that way before I left.

"Why didn't you tell the boss?"

Are you stupid? He'd give Owner-level control to some passing idiot he hired for his tight pants, and everything would be gone in a key click.

NEVER give this out.

One "end" not "suspend" and it's all gone - poof.

"Whoa... you could have crashed everything with a click? Does he know that?"

Nope. Or else he'd believe EVERYTHING is a one click fix.

"Yah, I know. No shit. I owe ya."

Rule of the internet kid... Tits, or GTFO.

She then sends me an animated gif of titmice birds.

Young.

Competent.

Geeky.

Awesome.

I expected the same growth from Sierra.

I'm not even sure what you're trying to say, Anonymous, and the fact that you're anonymous makes it hard to have the discussion. But from what I can gather, you're equating Sierra's competence at fighting with her emotional resilience, and saying that because her emotional baggage and recent stress caused her to react poorly to a personal situation, she's no longer competent at her work?

You can choose to take it any way you like, and whether you find it realistic or not is up to you. But here's where I was coming from:

I wrote this conflict as a Sierra-at-fault situation. She reacted poorly and did stupid things. That was the plan - and it's quite consistent with her personality and past trauma, especially when exacerbated by a miscarriage, a terror demon, a week of sleep deprivation, and a healer who is giving vastly different advice to her husband than to her. If you've never seen anyone who's completely competent at their job totally mess up their personal life, then you don't know very many people. Under stress many people revert to maladaptive coping mechanisms from their childhood, especially in personal and intimate relationships with the people who are close enough to hurt them the worst. Growing up in foster care, Sierra learned to avoid conflict, run away, hide, make herself small, and never get her hopes up, to always assume the worst. She has had only a year and a bit to overcome this lifetime of conditioning, and most of that time has been under severe stress. If she didn't mess up now and then, I'd think that would be far more unrealistic.

I know nothing about Dragonage ,but I am an opd school tabletop gamer from back in the day. I have been sucked in by yhe story and very much enjoying it. So why the sadz? Because I caught up and have to WAIT FOR MORE!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Hi Elyssa

Any news on when the next chapter will be. Looking forward to it.

TK

Thank you very much for the feedback, I never realized you're writing a side story to this one even though I'm pretty sure you mentioned it in the comments.

I'll be reading those 2 stories and whichever ones you write till you continue this one.

Looking forward to your new stories.

TK

I cannot wait for chapter 160 now that you're done with"Strings Attached". I really enjoyed that side story to this one, anyone following this story should read that side story as well.

Thanks for the good stories you've given us so far.

TK