>>37109031Thank you for reading my work! As much as I think there are other, better writers here, I still feel honoured to see others enjoying what I wrote.
>Ch. 1 to 3You are not wrong in that observation since that is about the time I start seriously writing it. The first two chapters are basically polished greentext I wrote based on some talks about /meat/ conspiracy in /kfp/. It was around the end of chapter 3 that I realised it is not something I can easily finish quickly.>Ch. 5 to 6I guess you can say I was indulging myself a little too much in that scene. Apparently the change in quality is quite noticeable if comfydant's feedback was of any indication. I was also trying to focus more on more intricate sensations and internal thoughts with that scene, since others told me that I was pretty bad at showing how my characters feel and think. For a while I toyed with the idea of presenting the possibility of Melisende actually dying there, but it would be ridiculous that a skilled detective would die somewhere named Rychenbach, eh?>Ch. 7 to 8I did have a lot of fun writing the action scene. Originally my approach was meant to parody the Film Noir genre but I ended up liking how that approach worked it basically became my default. While Melisende resisting and besting the deadbeat was important to the plot, I suppose I also wanted to throw her a bone given all the crap she had gone through that night.>Ch. 9 & EpilogueThe obfuscation was partly intentional, since there would be no fun in a mystery if everything was laid bare. Melisende's vocal deductions were supposed to be guides to let readers catch up to what had transpired but it was never the full picture. I did leave some details that were never pointed out in the story and some of you actually found out. That said, I do admit that the ending could be more refined.I think the confusion was a result of my not being very good at giving personal pronouns and descriptors varieties (the fact that most main characters are female did not help), and my persistent problem of not being very good at giving characters, well, characters, so they can blend together relatively easily.
As for the year, I do not really know, to be honest. It was written early enough that timeline was not really a thing back then, and everything was basically concurrent-ish (I think it was like ~1120 back in the vote?). I suppose it did not really matter that much as long as the elements at play (/meat/-/morig/ tension, /morig/-/kfp/ cooperation, and /kfp/-/meat/ under-the-table deals, and so forth) coincide.
