Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #19 · 5:00pm Jul 11th, 2022
It completely slipped my mind that last week I crossed the coveted mark of having reviewed 100 fics. I can’t say for certain how long I thought I’d be doing this when I started, though I was pretty certain I’d keep it going for the rest of 2022 anyway. The surprise is that I gained decent traction and a not-half-bad following, given I didn’t even have 40 followers before I started this, and now I have double that. Truly, this is a great community, and I love that you folks enjoy my review ramblings and have good faith in my takes. It means a lot. And this week makes 107 fics, and just over 500,000 words reviewed too. The slight increase over what five fics a week would add up to by now can be accounted for by the early weeks when I often reviewed seven or six, before settling in at five to allow it to not be purely short one-shots.
A few housekeeping things: from now on, fic info boxes will also state if they’re a sequel or officially linked to a prior fic, and link to it. I’ve reviewed very few sequels so far, and always as a pair with the original fic in the same week, so until now it wasn’t necessary. But it’s nice for that info to be there with the rest, and will be handy in the future for when I read sequels apart from the original fic. Otherwise, I’ve also added the month(s) of publication, as it’s just nice to have as extra context for the fic’s age, over me stating it in the body of the review when I feel it's relevant. Plus, it’s nice to see on this page, without clicking links, the age of fics, that a range of stuff is cropping up. It’s a range that is tipped a bit towards more recent fics, thanks to site algorithms, of course, but what can you do, sure. I’ll add these publish dates retroactively to the prior 18 blogs in my spare moments before next Monday’s batch of reviews.
Anyway, this week: I’d planned to have this be my first Author Spotlight, but for the author I was planning on featuring, I had trouble deciding on which of the reviewed-and-in-waiting fics to use. Instead, I’ve gone with another author for whom I have five stories reviewed, moving them up the queue. That author would be Jinzou. Though they’ve been on the website since June 2013, just over nine years ago, their 15 published stories range from April to December 2020, with one ongoing longfic from June 2021 being the lone exception. As it happens, I’d actually read all but one of the five below fics before. We’ve got us a decent genre mix here, with two serious-minded Apple Bloom fics, one cute Filly Twilight slice of life fic, and two short n’ absurd comedies. Let’s jump in!
This Week’s Spectral Stories:
Anamnesis by Jinzou
A Smartypants for a Little Sister by Jinzou
As the Spring Bloom Withers by Jinzou
The Many Deaths of Twilight Sparkle by Jinzou
Flat-Earth Fluttershy by Jinzou
Weekly Word Count: 28,106 Words
Apple Bloom has grown close enough to her friends over time that, come a certain day, she feels it’s right to ask them to meet her parents. In doing so, their bond will be tested, and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo will be made aware of a side of Apple history they didn’t know about.
For better or for worse, this is one of those fics set years before it was written, yet which is heavily informed by writer and viewer knowledge of later events, such that it cannot feel like a 2015 fic. Beyond the names and minimal show context of the Apple parents, that is. Spoilers forbid much in the way of details beyond the other CMCs supporting a grief-stricken Apple Bloom at their parents’ grave, but it’s probably no surprise this is a story transparently looking to elicit a sad-yet-not-depressing emotional reaction from the viewer. And… I guess it’s there? I’ll be frank, it all felt a bit repetitive and checklist-y, and not in a dissimilar manner to a Scootaloo abuse story (for what it’s worth, author Jinzou is, I gather, most known for Adopt Scootaloo stories), just with the focal CMC swapped.
The spoiler-heavy details of the grief in the fic’s back half do give it some flavour (though I heavily disagree with the context for Bright Mac), as do the minor moments from the other Apple siblings (a statement by Big Mac also timeline locks this as right between Brotherhooves Social and Crusaders of the Lost Mark; how often is a fic’s timeline position specified that specifically?). It’s enough to make it worthwhile; it would have been far more so if the main plot and emotional thrust didn’t come across as so nakedly, transparently and mechanically manipulative. But the intent and layers to the details within are reasonably well conceived, if not necessarily executed.
Rating: Passable
A Smartypants for a Little Sister by Jinzou
Genre: Slice of Life
Twilight, Cadance, Shining Armor
1,480 Words
December 2020Reread
Listened to via StraightToThePointStudio's reading
Twilight is already struggling to cope with leaving home and moving to Canterlot Castle as the Princess’ newest student. When Shining Armor comes home with news that he’d been accepted into royal guard training, it’s too much to bear for the little filly. It falls on Twilight’s foalsitter to get her to see reason.
For a fic this short and focused on highlighting the difficult feeling of family separation of this ilk, it’s quite dense with incident. Which is to its benefit, because the side details and bits of lore are the only thing on offer here aside from being cute and capturing Young Twilight’s personality all too well as someone who’s smart but still not too mature and wise beyond her years quite yet (mostly; there’s a little overuse of complex verbs not fitting the first-person POV). Which, to be fair, those are both worthwhile things, and they’re done well here, but they would evaporate from the mind quickly. So it really is those bits that give this one flavour. In particular, there are added details to two different things in Twilight’s past that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, and while one’s bouncing off lore from late in the show’s runs, the other is very early, making it all the more surprising here.
It’s still a quick n’ harmless little cute fic, but the grounded basis for the emotions and a few ingenious ideas in the details help it stand somewhat taller than many of its brethren.
Rating: Decent
As the Spring Bloom Withers by Jinzou
Genre: Sad/Slice of Life
Apple Bloom, Applejack, CMCs
20,546 Words
October 2020(Standalone) Sequel to Anamnesis
Reread
Even if the CMCs had stopped objecting to their sisters taking charge for the derby race, they could never have expected, upon a crash right at the end of the race, that one of them would have their life forever changed as a result. Now, Apple Bloom, in addition to having to cope with what she’s lost and the constant emotional hurt, and learning to accept who she is now, has to see if she can live with the cause of the mistake.
Set in an alternate timeline where the Applewood Derby as depicted in The Cart Before the Ponies happened pre-Crusaders of the Lost Mark, this story depicts many stages of grief, anger and forgiveness as Apple Bloom does her best to come with terms with being permanently wheelchair bound. How does someone cope with being forever in need of assistance for basic activities? How do you make do with constant reminders of what you’ve lost? How are you supposed to feel about the pity others feel for you all the time? And how… How is Apple Bloom supposed to live in the same house, much less interact with, the one indirectly responsible for the state she’s in?
That’s a lot of weighty, dramatic content to handle for any story, especially one of this length. Rather than dismiss some of those issues, Jinzou elects to keep them all and really lean into the anguish Apple Bloom is feeling, making constant use of Unreliable Narrator. It’s a good choice: the 1st person POV sells what she’s feeling, and if it gets rather overcooked and melodramatic in repetitive ways… well, it does, but it works really well. Showing how Apple Bloom struggles with basic activities around the farm, making a familiar and homely place an oppressive threat, is an especially effective example of this.
However, this has the side effect of making most other characters feel like plot devices. Sometimes, this is fine, and works under the notion of Apple Bloom’s pain and anguish making her block out any nuances to them. Other times, it’s undercut by ways characters are written or things they say being transparent plot-prodding decisions, or feeling uncharacteristic for them. This is most notable for Diamond Tiara, Cheerilee and Nurse Redheart, but it happens for almost every character beyond the CMCs at some point or another.
There’s also severely lopsided pacing towards the end, as the story rushed out of a biting, hurtful character decision into an out-of-place climax that serves largely to facilitate a makeup that, character dialogue thereafter be darned, feels too transparently easy and mechanical in mending the wires (plus, said climax is motivated by a potential botanical solution that is never raised again). More striking to me was the use of short, choppy paragraphs, to emphasise either the passage of time of fragmented narration. It’s sometimes effective, but is overused so much, and often in places that don’t really make sense, that after a while even the well-timed use of it is numb and ineffective. Lastly, the story frequently summarises some events via recollection or exposition that would play out far better played in real time, or via narration. This is a mild annoyance for much of the story, but is especially problematic during an epilogue that re-contextualises the events of Crusaders of the Lost Mark into this AU.
Still, while the above issues do make it rather lumpy and ineffectual in places, the main drama and grief is handled well. The baseline characterisation for the CMCs help to distract from how wooden and plot-driven everyone else is (Scootaloo may well be the unsung hero here), and as much as sloppy prose, structure and pacing do let the story down quite a bit, there’s plenty of times when combine to make something effectively probing. It’s a singularly inconsistent work, though if you think you’ll get something out of it, you probably will. It mostly comes to its drama honestly (no mean feat given how contrived the setup for the accident is!), and that’s always respectable.
Rating: Decent
The Many Deaths of Twilight Sparkle by Jinzou
Genre: Comedy/Dark/Random (w/Death)
Twilight, Starlight
2,100 Words
June 2020Reread
Listened to via StraightToThePointStudio's reading
It wasn’t enough to shock Twilight with the fact of alicorns being immortal. Oh no, Celestia just had to go a step further with the notion of how that immortality works. Once the shock has worn off, Twilight proceeds to go a little crazy with the possibilities in the name of research. As she is wont to do.
No need to worry, this isn’t yet another grim fic on Twilight realising how often she’s killed herself at the same time as duplicating herself, via teleportation or otherwise. You’ll notice the first genre is Comedy, and this is above all else, a silly bit of fun nonsense. A dark comedy it is, one where Celestia is unperturbed at Luna stabbing her in the neck with a spear, Twilight gingerly gives permission for her neck to be snapped, and soon is willfully throwing herself out her own window. The pace is rapid-quick, moving from the initial hesitancy to Starlight’s growing discomfort as Twilight goes crazy with research, before finishing off with some other choice reactions as the issue of the rotting corpses is tackled (though the Cupcakes reference closing the story out was… a poor choice).
It’s unconcerned with anything beyond dark comedy from the shock value, but it’s so good as wringing the right humour with great comedic timing that I see little reason to complain. I enjoyed this tremendously, no matter how frivolous and random it is.
Rating: Pretty Good
Flat-Earth Fluttershy by Jinzou
Genre: Comedy/Random/Slice of Life
Fluttershy, Twilight
1,461 Words
June 2020Listened to via StraightToThePointStudio's reading
In the midst of borrowing a book, Fluttershy lets slip that the earth is flat. Twilight doesn’t approve of this outlandish belief and instantly sets about disproving it to her friend. She didn’t expect Fluttershy to have scientifically sound rebuttals at hoof to each of her points.
Oh, but this was hilarious. If this is not an early-Aragon-fic-level of joke density, it’s still quite high. It gets in quick and easy, and glides calmly through several arguments by Twilight that swiftly get disproven by Fluttershy. Or at least they get enough of a spanner thrown in the works to leave Twilight stunned enough to move to a different point. The best part of all this is how in character Fluttershy in, still her timid self (this is a Season 4 story, though it feels like it would fit even better in Season 2 or 3), yet also stating her points in a meek way that carries strength. It works better than it sounds, mostly because Fluttershy’s counter arguments could be just as easily picked apart, but Twilight’s too caught unawares to think that rationally.
Then the fic’s last third comes along and… ah, but I shouldn’t say. Suffice to say it’s quite a turn, and might be objectionable in some character decisions were it not for the fic’s relaxed yet knowing tone to that point, and how Fluttershy was expressing her rebuttals, hadn’t been secretly priming us for it.
This is still a rather one-note story, but it’s smart enough and quick enough at using that as a merit to make the character-based absurdity of its comedy land harder. I laughed and shook my head. Can’t ask for much more sometimes!
Rating: Pretty Good
Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 0
Really Good: 0
Pretty Good: 2
Decent: 2
Passable: 1
Weak: 0
Bad: 0
Tell Your Tale: Commentary Corner
Having a Hitch Hitch lookalike in a cast on the thumbnail is an odd choice for a short titled “Queens for a Day”. Yep, we’ve got one of those stories. That FiM had an unused episode premise in Season 5 of the Mane 5 handling Twilight’s princess duties for a day, and the staff wised up and chucked it, should indicate the rote pablum we’re in for.
Zipp and Pipp (plus the others) are in Zephyr Heights to meet Haven on Mare’s Day (which is supposed to be Mother’s Day, fine, but that names just makes it seem comparable to International Women's Day; in any case, given Mother’s Day is on different days the world over – here, it was past before Tell Your Tale even started – and the plot makes more sense post-Make Your Mark, missing tying in to the US date is fine). Reclusive, evasive Zipp even made an appointment, one Haven misses due to overwork (here visualised through mountains of paperwork around her throne she’s frantically signing). Bada bing, bada boom, after initial anger, the royal sisters realise how busy their mom is and offer to manage her duties for the rest of the day. After clarifying the offer, Haven’s quick to depart.
The rest of the short writes itself, and I mean that near-literally; there’s virtually none of the eyebrow-raising writing decisions common to these, but neither is there even a spark of inspiration in the plotting, dialogue or jokes. The Mane 5 have trouble getting babies to pose for a foal portrait, they can’t cut a ribbon at a ribbon-opening (surely the writers, in having a watching pegasus go “This is hard to watch…”, knew they’d birthed a meme ready to application to the webseries itself), we get a montage with photographers snapping everything from Pipp dropping her phone on a hospital patient to Zipp unloading dirt onto her sister. The exhausted Mane 5 return to Haven, admit that even as a quintet they couldn’t finish it all, Zipp and Pipp are in awe of their mother, who offers her thanks and has dinner ready to serve. The seven sit down to eat (Cloudpuff appears from nowhere in a chair) while Zoom hangs up the failed baby portrait of chaos on the wall of pictures of the royal sister throughout the years.
And I mean, look, this short was functional, it was competent, it didn’t make any obvious mistakes (unless Hitch getting the worst side treatment counts; he got a black eye from an infant, after all). But even a rote “ah, Haven’s a really efficient ruler” ending plus daughters->mother appreciation didn’t disguise how boring this was. Boring enough that even while watching it, my head wandered to thinking how ill-fitting G5’s royal governance is; the writers copied the portrayal of Canterlot Castle and Celestia here, but the background contest of this place and Haven is so totally different, with none of the earned weight of a millennium-plus old sovereign who built the realm from the ground up. Perhaps this wouldn’t have stuck out as much without echoing that plot element from A Royal Problem played without the dual setup (not that I like that episode much, but FiM’s technical and writing benefits make that still captivating in a way this could never dream of). Presumably they’re assuming the past generation will earn the weight of this, because this generation sure ain’t.
A few stray observations. The writers weren’t interested in getting deeper material or emotions out of the royal family triangle here, because a little extra screentime there would have been a much better use then the fake-out opening of the Mane 5 throwing fireworks for Fifi by mistake. Even the two minutes spent on the stressful duties is so, so boring. Virtually every pegasus background pony consistently in Maretime Bay appears here; it makes Minuette and co teleporting between Ponyville and Canterlot feel homespun in comparison. And it’s quite a contrast, how well fitting Haven’s replacement VA is (she’s akin to Sunny or Pipp, in that she’s not a perfect match but the take is right enough that you don’t dwell on it, within her gross simplification from the film), put next to Zoom here, who has a high raspy squeak so different from her prior deep bass she doesn’t register as the same character at all.
TOLERABLE
- Alicorn Issues (Ep. 14)
- Foal Me Once (Ep. 7)
- The Game Is Ahoof (Ep. 12)
Queens for a Day (Ep. 17) NEW
"NORMAL"-LEVEL BAD
- Mane Melody (Ep. 5)
- The Unboxing of Izzy (Ep. 6)
- Zipp Gets Her Wings (Ep. 3) * Originally titled Zipp’s Flight School.
- Neighfever (Ep. 16)
- MARETIME BAY DAY 2.0 [sic] (Ep. 11)
Making a Foal of Me (Ep. 15)
BROKEN WRITING IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT
- Sisters Take Flight (Ep. 1)
- IT’S T.U.E.S. DAY [sic] (Ep. 9)
- A Home to Share (Ep. 2)
- Sunny-Day Dinners (Ep. 10)
Nightmare Roomate [sic] (Ep. 4)
VILE WEED
- Dumpster Diving (Ep. 13)
- Clip Trot (Ep. 8)
Jinzou, hmm? I can't say I've read anything by them. I have to admit, that Fluttershy one has my curiosity.
Congrats on getting to 100. I think you'll find that the more you produce, the more attention you'll get. Leaving behind your calling card on every story, then reviewing hundreds of stories? People start to notice.
I should get back to watching the Tell Your Tale series. I kinda stopped because I wanted to binge watch it at some point, and I think there's more than enough out there now for that kind of thing.
5671657
As a quick li'l 1.5K snack in between bigger fics (exactly how I consumed in), it gets the job done more then fine.
Oh, I'm aware. But I was never doing this to gain attention or traffic; if I was, there are much quicker ways! Regardless, yes; given time, that calling card will become more and more of a common mainstay around, to the point where most people will notice it offhand.
Did you only watch the initial four? In any case the Hasbro themselves are encouraging this by constantly posting themed compilations of past shorts, though obviously the best way to watch them afresh is in sequential order. Or just skip the not-worthwhile ones. Or just not bother altogether. They are very, very trivial fluff, after all.
Odd that Jinzou is one of those fanfic writers who I'm aware of, and whose stories have been reviewed by the group I'm in before, but I've never actually gone and read their work. That always feels almost criminal to say!
As for TYT, I agree it was definitely super light and predictable... but I thought the short was probably the funniest one out of the whole bunch. One thing that stuck out to me, though, was the use of Pachelbel's Canon in D during the foal... hunting? That sequence - there's literally a harpsichord playing the main melody to it. That threw me for a loop - there's nothing inherently wrong with it, since it's long been in the domain of free use, but... well, if it's used usually in weddings, and now it's used here... it's just strange, really.
Congrats on the 100 stories, though! That's always an accomplishment.
As someone with a heavy interest in the cosmology of the MLP world, I am going to have to check out that Fluttershy story. I get that it's probably not actually about the cosmology so much as the characters' debates of same, but the arguments should be interesting to read through regardless.
I think there is actually the seed of something really interesting in here: it could be used to show, in-universe, that Zephyr Heights is a shallow copy of Canterlot's government system that ritualistically steps through ceremonies and administrative procedures despite having utterly forgotten the context in which those processes were originally enacted. But that requires more nuance and context than these short, cheap, gag-heavy videos can put together.
After watching the original G5 movie, I was treating it the same way I treated the early seasons of G4. I thought it was rough but it had potential; that there were all these implications of a more serious and complex world shining through the one-off gags. G4 managed to bring those out in the open and really capitalize on them, but I am becoming more and more pessimistic about whether G5 has the money, time, executive encouragement, and care put into it to ever do that.
Congrats on the 100! I'm sure there'll be many more; I hope so, anyway.
I must admit I don't know Jinzou either, but I'm all in favour of new(ish) writers around here so I shall have to rectify that. The last two you reviewed are going on the RiL list, even though I suspect the Fluttershy one may not end up being to my taste.
Only one I've read is "As the Spring Bloom Withers," and I agree with a decent rating. It had lots of editing problems, and the emotional tenor, while a nice topic to handle, went for the bombastic and hyper-dramatic. It also felt like it didn't know what delivery method to use. Is it a standard narrative? Is it Apple Bloom herself telling someone the story? There's evidence for either one.
The new TYT was fine, I guess, but I found it lazy to reuse the same "chasing foals around" bit so soon after the last one.
5671661
Well, I did say it has virtually nothing annoying. For me, the the dialogue and visual timing of this series and its jokes are so rote and uninspired that very rarely does a joke feel organic or full of life. Still, you'll notice it barely cracked my top tier.
And yes, it was an odd choice of music, and one I probably would have noted were I still doing a play-by-play, as I'd forgotten that by the end.
5671663
Eh…
You might still be disappointed. Or you might not be. Just bear in mind that it is a comedy, and while there is some clever layering to said comedy, that's still all it really is.
Fair point. It goes without saying that when I take the Mickey out of something like this, it's in the context of the show and what it would ever actually do. Obviously anything's possible in fanfiction if there's even the barest hint of something to work off in the canon material, but it has to be presented in an manner that invites wanting to expand on it. Compare the lore of the early seasons to the lands and character in the 2017 film. It's no surprise the latter has barely been touched on in fanfiction even a little.
Oh, your favourite seasons are the middle bracket compromising Seasons 3-5 then? Me, I'll grant that those seasons do delve into the lore and world building a bit more directly then the first two, kind of going hand-in-hand with having more serious status quo changes every season, and that's a perfect valid reason to prefer them. And I am a lore and world building aficionado ghost myself, make no mistake. But a) the early seasons still do a great job, in my eye, of having just enough interesting lore that you're not super-desperate for more in the experience of watching it, and indeed that's what prompted so much fanfiction exploration of it (in that, it's miles removed from the start of G5, which feels like a self-contained Hundred Acre Wood-sized world, which wouldn't bother if it wasn't trying to do stories incompatible with that), and b) the quality of the dialogue and visual comic timing is stronger enough that I'll always find them, on average, a little more satisfying to watch. Relatively speaking, it's not that big a difference.
Course, that's just my take, and given you were motivated to do this Expanded Cut series, your opinions makes sense.
All I will say on this, is that my hopes that anything worthwhile on this, or just quality character or joke writing in general, to come out of the following content beyond small dribs and drabs, is… miniscule.
5671691
As I say, I'm committed to keep these going for at least the rest of the year. That's 24 weeks, meaning 116 more stories if the five-a-week sticks (which is almost certainly will). So the current output will be just about doubled, at the bare minimum. I'd consider that to be many more!
My past impression is that dark comedy isn't as big a thing for you as it is for some folk, and while the way you suspect the Fluttershy one may rub you wrong isn't quite true, I can see it rubbing you wrong, yes. Just bear in mind, it is a quick n' simple little comedy, and I can see some folk saying my Pretty Good rating was generous. But eh, it got a good few laughs out of me. What can I say?
5671728
Indeed; I think for me it had just enough moments done really well that it scraped into that rating. Otherwise, the singularly inconsistent nature would probably have kept it down in Passable. But I think that for a fic like that, the kind of people likely to read it will have the stronger points stick far more than the weaker ones. So Decent felt right. Reviewing's never an exact science, as you know! Some might even say it's barely a science at all.
And knowing how much importance you place on consistent narrative delivery and tense, yeah, not remotely surprised that you brought up the juxtaposition between the standard past tense retelling and narration-after-the-fact sections.
That was actually two shorts ago, though the fact you misremembered it as one short ago is far more telling to how these vignettes blur together. And yeah, fine ≈ tolerable. It was just so uninspired for me that even the fine ideas, like the <I>A Royal Problem</I>-esque ideas, royal family bonding, Zipp not hiding from her mother, etc. only registered in a "neat idea, but you gotta do more then just have it happen blandly" way.
Many Deaths was a lot of fun. :D
wow, boring as hell but it ends up at the bottom of "Tolerable"? That really says a lot about what's under it. c.c
5671757
I didn't mean last as in the previous episode, just that the last time they used the same joke was quite recent.
5671752
Guilty as charged, and you do make a good point that the early seasons were trailblazers: they started out with zero expectations and established the show as something quite unique. I did think that the very earliest episodes had some serious issues with strange-sounding dialogue and rough animation, but that got for the most part resolved within the first half of Season 1.
5671963
Oh for sure; even comparing the two pilot episodes to Winter Wrap Up just ten episodes later is a stark difference. Bless Jayson Thiessen for spearheading such a solid model and set rigging infrastructure, such that it started looking so much smoother once the animators got a little practice with the models under their belt.
In fact, combined with the usual "feeling out the writing kinks" of the first handful of episodes, that has often let me to state that FiM in 2011 (so, the back half of Season 1 and the first half of Season 2) was easily the best period, or at least the most consistent in great episode quality (for my money, Season 2's second half is maybe just a little softer then the first half on the whole, though there's still many top episodes like Hurricane Fluttershy).
All old news, of course. You don't want to hear me rattle on about that anymore! Regardless, I do honestly feel it's quite alright to prefer one era of a show for the ideas there, even if the writing and episode quality and entertainment value in the other is superior. Well, to a degree: it still has to be good and enjoyable, which that era is. We're a ways off from the mess of the last few years there!
Mike's got a century! Woo-hoo!
I've already read The Many Deaths of Twilight Sparkle and I liked it quite a lot!
Oh, so this is why I logged in and got thirty sudden notifications. Thanks for reviewing my stuff. I agree, some of that is... Could be better.
But nonetheless, I appreciate you taking the time to not only read my crap, but review five of my stories! Thank you.
5672178
You're welcome! A bit of context; four of these I'd read before, before I started rating fics, and as I can't remember most fics I read back that far, they're part of my lengthy "read again" backlog. As mentioned above, I needed an emergency replacement for my first solo author spotlight, and since I already had four fics from you, it was no feat to pick a fifth!
And while I did find the drama pieces a bit lacking, I found parts of them worked, and found the comedy pieces quite satisfying! Course, that could just as easily be my own preferences, coupled with seams in non-comedy genres showing more easily. In any case, a quick glance at the rest of your stories actually turns up actually produces 6 I could see myself reading. Mostly short comedies, but not all.
Anyway, not that you need the boost, being a 2020-onward writer with 300+ followers from just 15 stories, but you're a fine writer. Plus, any 2021 fic that can get over 9K views, as your current one has, has to be from a writer that is doing something right.