The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 69 · 2:50am Jan 5th, 2019

I'm back from the holidays and ready to finally put the last nails on the coffin of Project Horizons, it's important for me to go through it to the bitter end ! Jokes aside, for the few that follows those BP, thanks for keeping up and I'll make sure to talk about the last chapters with a bit more focus on the diverse aspects that made them what they are. Just be warned that the two parts of chapter 75 are likely to be skipped for a very simple reason but I'll explain it when I'll get there. For now...

Let's go !

So at the end of chapter 68, we were left with a pissed off Glory that believed the BJ in front of her to be nothing but a sham since it's now common for copycats to roam the Wasteland. I'll save you the usual diatribe I usually give that kind of strange joke to focus a bit more on what this scene could have given us. Here, the whole scene focus on how hurt Glory is to have her feelings played with both by Cognitum who's still BJ in Glory's eyes and the many copycats. We could analyze this as Glory at her lowest point in the fiction (or second lowest if you want to count the part where Glory believed BJ to be dead) and yet this scene doesn't carry any sort of weight. Why ? Because it's just there for the sake of a quick misunderstanding. The concept of copycats is barely interesting as is but it isn't even used properly to give us a truly powerful scene. Boo resolved the situation instead of Glory and Blackjack trying to understand one another. Hell, it could have been used to isolate BJ for the last part of the fiction and making the copycats aspect of the story truly meaningful. In its current state, it's just a time waster.

In fact, I'll even go as far as to saying that the story is lost within itself at this point : once Boo cleared up the misunderstanding we learn that Glory slept with an impersonator and that she feels really bad about it but that doesn't serve anything. The story is lost in its focus and tries to juggle with too many things at once. It is not interesting to focus on sex in that kind of situation : the point about sexual culture difference has already been made and I honestly think it doesn't bring anything more to the table to dwell on it again. As you'll see the romantic subplot will be... all kind of stupid later on.

Amusingly enough, the discussion around not killing Cognitum since she carries a baby is something I find to be... interesting. BJ tries to say that she shouldn't be selfish about it and push the decision of keeping the baby onto P-21's lap. I honestly am fascinated by this moment because of what it says about P-21, Blackjack's happiness is more important to him than the world and honestly, it feels like a genuine moment between BJ and P-21 but again, I am not a fan of P-21 being romantically involved with BJ. Yes, she shouldn't sacrifice her kid if she can help it but what I am curious about is... Why does Cognitum still has the baby ?

I'm sure you could answer me that she has better things to do than casting a surrogacy spell onto the convenient cousin but she also wants the kid to live, to the point of threatening Steel Rain for daring to suggest she could use it as leverage. So, shouldn't have she done that when she got the time instead of going into space with a couple of three-month old fetuses in her belly ? (Yes, they are twins inside of her, I'm spoiling you ahead of time). I'm not particularly an expert on the size of horse fetus after three months but I assume it must be pretty inconvenient to have them around, especially when you're a delusional AI with the Soul of Luna thinking to rule the world. Honestly, I don't know why she kept the babies. At least, P-21 had a genuine moment even though him being forced into a romantic relationship with BJ still means that he's dead to me. Being Blackjacksexual because of common pain when she BRUTALLY MURDERED YOUR LOVER IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES will never be okay with me.

Somber, you didn't need to add that fucking murder to try and make P-21 more justified in his hatred because now you've chosen to ignore it. Everything you've written so far doesn't even care about the murder of this unnamed lover so why putting him in at all ? So many things could have been made smoother if not for this retarded decision.

And he's doubly dead to me when we follow Glory breaking up with BJ (choosing the best of time to do this, focusing on how unhappy she feels to be left behind rather than the fact the world could be ending tomorrow but since she'll get yelled at later, I'll skip it.), he fucks her and when I say he fucks her, I mean he FUCKS her. After being fucked, BJ realizes she's in front of her friends covered in semen leaking out of her and covering her as she is completely sweaty. It's the kind of scene this fiction doesn't need. We could have faded to black and do that in a tasteful manner. We could have understandood that after seeing a break-up happening in front of us, a break-up between two characters that readers that aren't me are sure to be invested in, being a bit respectful would be welcome.

But no.

We needed to see BJ get fucked and covered in semen the very second she got dumped by Glory. Do you see what I meant by "the story has lost focus of itself" ? Why the fuck should I care about that break-up right now when the world is doom tomorrow ? Why the fuck should I want to see a childish comedic scene of BJ being covered in semen and being the butt of a joke from her friends and acquaintances ? This is unnecessary, tacky and uselessly bloating a story that doesn't need that kind of bloating...

The following has BJ interrogating herself about how she will be remembered and the kind of relationship Calamity and Velvet have to show exactly what Glory needed but what BJ could never give her since she's acting like Ms Hero all the time. Honestly, while the latter makes sense, the former feels a bit strange. She's down in the dumps so now she's asking herself question about how people would remember her and her name ? I mean, I can see why she would do that but it doesn't really mesh well with the break-up. Again, the focus is all over the place and it feels like Somber wanted to put this existentialist scene in his fiction despite the scene being strange in the scenario. It's one of the first sign of the rushed ending that'll last far too long.

It sounds contradictory but it isn't, you'll see what I mean.

Then we see that everyone that heard about BJ coming back gathered around the Blueblood's mansion, symbolizing the help she gave them uniting them around her. It's quite a nice scene even if I am quite skeptic about the execution. BJ almost killed as much as she helped so this overwhelming support while symbolic for the story feels... exagerrated.

Oh, and we learn that Rampage is Deus' rape daughter with Twist and the reason he went mad was that Vanity refused to let Deus talk to his daughter essentially.

You know I'm tired of getting angry at this fiction so I'll try to be clear about this : I don't care. Rampage could be the daughter of a fucking rhino for all I care. Deus isn't and won't be a character I'll like. He is an idiot that raped his friend because he was dumb as a brick and became a mindless killer because no one wanted his daughter to meet the one that forced himself onto her mother and who CHOSE to never visit him in prison. Doof/Deus is pathetic but I won't have any sympathy for him. I am not BJ : I don't get teary eyed and all-forgiving as soon as I hear a sob story, especially such a stupid one.

I'll skip the discussion about love and P-21 yelling at Glory. This romantic subplot is boring me even more now that I know what happens later. Just know that P-21 romantically love BJ and that I can't help for him to find his demise to release his character from the shackles of living.

As for the rest of the chapter ? A lot of congratulating BJ for what she did because of her mantra of "Trying to do better". It's unfortunately something I can't get behind for obvious reasons since we all know how destructive our BJ actually is. I understand what Somber means with that philosophy of life but he didn't show BJ doing something constructive and her way of convincing people were usually unrealistic (with some "Speech 100" moments) or simply resolved through gunning everyone down and hoping the survivors would naturally be good people. She also put Goldenblood at the head of the Resistance Army to deal with the Brood.

The logic is that he's a very effective and intelligent stallion so he could lead the army. Personally, I wouldn't put someone with so little care for individual lives in a position of power again, especially when it's made clear he is responsible for the state of the world today. On top of that, wasn't the whole point about GB that he was a puppeteer because he needed people to inspire people and lead them while he made the decisions ? Isn't it completely backwards to put him in a leadership position and not, say, a councilor one if you are to use his skills at all ? Besides, a leader that will offer plans that favors efficiency over keeping people alive seem... ridiculous. However, I suppose that GB can do it all : motivational speeches, precise plan that can adapt to every situation, a good morning coffee, etc.

A Gary-Stu only fails when the narrative wants to make the failure something grandiloquent after all.

The chapter ends with BJ needing some reinforcements and going directly to meet them in the next chapter.

Closing thoughts : Chapter 69 = Trashy Sex, unrequested padding through romantic subplots with a love triangle. All around a boring chapter that just does nothing for me but put butter on a far too long piece of bread.

PS : Do not hesitate to tell me if you prefer me going through chapters one at a time like I did back in the days. It's easier to write but I can also go for more chapters per BP. I want this to end as quickly as you do but if you find individual BP to be more digest, I'll make it so :)