Thanks for the wonderful story!

@gentlyfloating I get you, this very complex relationship with the setting is exactly what drove me to write this. And there’s no offense taken at your opinion, to be honest I share it as well. I guess I just needed some way to vent out this frustration is all.

I quite liked this, I think, I am not sure like is the correct word, and I do not mean that in a negative sense. It is kind of the… Well, I am not quite sure how to describe it.

Trying anyway: I do not think that I like it, but I don’t mean that in the “not for me” or the “bad quality” senses that people often mean? I mean it in the way that you don’t “like” a sad part of a book, or a harm-causing part of a universe, while still appreciating it and its part in the whole? I find myself mirroring the thoughts of @SleepyTessa in places.

That isn’t even to say that the darker side of the setting is something I would rather avoid reading. It’s kinda one of those “I have issues with it while at the same time…” Well, I’m at a repeated loss for words writing this whole comment words such as “like” and “dislike” don’t really do justice to the whole way I feel about any of these things.

This is important, it acknowledges the… Quite frankly scary parts of the setting- at least, the scary parts that the affini can cause- in a serious and healthy manner (satire can be healthy, but isn’t series), which is… Important. I would be absolutely terrified of being… I suppose the word might be “adopted”, before I was ready, because, nothing could possibly break me (/neg) more than not getting the chance and time to make the decision, even if it the choice is painfully obvious.

I guess that is another part of why it is all complicated to me, I find myself in these character’s headspaces a lot.

Anyway, this update was appreciated, as previously mentioned, even if my thoughts about it are struggling to find their way onto text.

@SleepyTessa To be honest… yeah. I have no qualms against people who do address the darker side of the setting, of course. This is, at the end of the day, a kink website where people write erotica, to tell someone that what they’re writing is morally wrong misses the point of writing erotica for some in the first place.

But… I guess sometimes, I read something that makes me feel more empathy than any hotness in the situation, and it hurts. I’m not going to project that hurt on anyone, it’s my hurt to bear and mine to process and deal with. But… It’s hurt all the same, and I guess I needed a way to vent it out without actually pointing fingers at anyone or saying they’re bad for writing something that they enjoy writing.

I was surprised to see this story update, but I’m glad it did. This chapter is really, really good. The affini are certainly a positive influence on the universe, but their influence still does destroy. Not as much as it builds, heals, and improves, but it does.

There’s a reason HDG is so closely paired with the dom:internalized_imperialism tag. The affini are imperialist. They are explicitly supremacists - they consider themselves superior, and all other life lesser. The vast majority of the Compact’s population sees it as pure good, but it isn’t. It’s better - better than the Accord, and probably better than any other large interstellar society in the history of the setting - but there is still injustice within it. There is still suffering. There are still those whom the system neglects, and leaves behind. Who fall through the cracks.

Sophonts who could have been happily independent, but were swept into a wardship due to circumstances and allowed, or forced, to bond with their affini guardian. Affini who don’t fit their culture’s ideals of confident, dominant caretakers, who struggle with insecurity about their faults and an expectation of flawlessness. Florets who end up with a suboptimal owner, when a better one would have been available if circumstances had been different.

The affini compact is Good, but it could be better, and in some ways it may be a culture that will not ever improve itself, and which is backed by too much might to ever be changed from without.

It makes one appreciate the importance of always striving to imagine, and make real, a better world. Every problem - no matter how large - can be solved, but you need to be willing to face them before you can even begin doing so.

beeautiful conversation