“Rave, slow down!”
Raven barely heard Garrus. She barely took a second to get her bearings. She barely heard Luna teleport away. She barely took a second to look around the new city she was in, a city she had never been to before. Raven was on autopilot mode, and when she saw Mareizona General Hospital in front of her, she was running for the door before she had a second to think about it.
The smell of antiseptics and disinfectants burned at Raven’s nose, immediately conjuring up bad memories. She remembered staying in the hospital only twice: once when she had her appendix removed, and once when Harpy was being treated for her overindulgences the night before. Raven shook her head, trying to loosen the thoughts of surgeries and stomach pumps from her mind, approaching the reception desk with a knot in her throat.
“How can I help you?” asked the receptionist. Raven opened her mouth, and nothing came out. She froze, her words unable to come together in any sensible way. Raven wasn’t sure if she could speak without falling apart, and so she just stopped in her tracks. “Ma’am? Is everything alright?”
“Rave!” Garrus hurried through the door, sliding to a stop next to his friend. To say he was concerned would be an understatement. He had never seen her like this. Raven was always strong, cool under pressure, able to keep her emotions in check for the most part.
“Sir? Is she with you?”
“I’m more with her, really. Her father was just admitted a day or two ago,” said Garrus. “Birch… Shoot, not Inkwell, right? Birch…”
“Burrow,” croaked Raven. “Birch Burrow.”
“Just one second.” The receptionist looked through her paperwork for a bit before finding the sheet she was looking for. “Room 136. That’s just down the hall.”
Raven was gone in a flash, and, after thanking the receptionist, Garrus was right behind her. She moved quicker than she had in some time, finally coming to a stop at room 136. Raven could feel her heart pounding in her chest, as if trying to burst through her ribs. Garrus stood beside her, gently nudging her on the shoulder.
“It’s okay. I got you,” said Garrus. “You ready?” Raven nodded, although she couldn’t recall telling a bigger lie in her life. She pushed open the door and strode into the hospital room, terrified by what could be on the other side of the door.
Her confusion upon seeing her father sitting in the hospital bed, casually strumming his guitar, was almost incalculable.
“Dad?” Raven was, understandably, dumbfounded. Birch was just playing as if nothing at all was wrong. But, before Raven could get too hopeful, she noticed something was off. Birch missed a few notes he wouldn’t otherwise, as if his mind was working just a few seconds too slow for his body. When Birch saw his daughter, he smiled, though it looked as if he was having a difficult time doing so. Raven was so focused on her father that she didn’t even notice Harpy until she stood up from her seat.
“Where were you?” she demanded. “I sent you that letter yesterday morning.”
“I… I didn’t see it. I’m sorry,” said Raven. “Dad… How are you doing?”
“Better now that you’re here, Birdie.” Birch clumsily set down his guitar, turning to grin at his daughter. His coat was a golden brown, contrasting with the stark white of Raven’s. His mane was similarly dark, thinning slightly near the top. “It’s good to see you.” He seemed to only just then notice Garrus. “Hello, there. You’re a friend of Raven’s?”
“Yes, sir. Garrus Oak of Canterlot’s Solar Guard,” said Garrus, saluting. Birch chuckled, returning his salute with a clumsy, uncoordinated hoof.
“As you were. I’m a former guard myself, Squadron Leader. Canterlot wasn’t hiring griffons when I was working there. Granted, we didn’t have an abundance of griffons applying…”
“I’m here for an exchange program, Raven has been teaching me the Equestrian way of life.” Garrus shot her a smile. “She’s been a very good friend.”
“That’s my Birdie.”
“Dad…” Raven buried her face in her hooves, unable to believe what she was seeing. “What happened?”
“You would know if you read the damn letter and got here on time,” said Harpy. Raven opened her mouth to retort, but Birch interjected first.
“Harpy, enough. This is plenty hard on everyone as is. No point in being upset,” said Birch calmly. “I’m sure Raven got here as soon as she could.”
“We bumped into Princess Luna, she teleported us here,” said Raven, cringing at even this slight embellishment of the facts. To say that they bumped into Luna wasn’t false, but it certainly wasn’t the whole story. “We got here as soon as we could.”
“Which very easily could’ve been too slow.” Harpy stood up, making a beeline for the door. “I’ve been here for two whole days, scared out of my wits. You needed to be here, Raven. When are you going to learn that your actions have consequences? One day, shirking your responsibilities like this is going to bite you on the ass.” Harpy shook her head, exhausted, irate, and disgusted in equal measure. “I’ll be back in the morning. I need a drink.” Raven felt her jaw clench and, just like earlier, her body moved on its own, stepping directly into Harpy’s path.
“You’re kidding, right?” said Raven. “Dad is sitting in the hospital and you want a drink?”
“I’m not asking your permission, missy. Out of my way.”
“You're going to do this to us? Again? Sit—” Harpy didn’t even let Raven finish her sentence before she pushed past her, slamming the door closed on her way out. "Mom! You can’t keep doing this! Get back here!"
"I'll see if I can talk her down," said Garrus, rushing out after Harpy. Raven sighed, trudging across the room and taking Harpy's seat beside the hospital bed. She glanced over to her father, who had long since been used to this sort of behavior.
"I would've thought you'd know better than to argue with her by now," sighed Birch. "When she gets like this, there's not much that can stop her."
"Yeah… Still, though. Right now?" grumbled Raven. "You need her now, more than ever."
"To be honest, I'm surprised she even showed up."
"Yeah, how did that happen, anyway?" asked Raven. "She told me that you haven't spoken in years." Birch chuckled slightly, scratching a hoof through his hair sheepishly.
"See… Thing is, she's still my emergency contact…" Birch laughed weakly at the look of aghast confusion his daughter displayed. "Never got sick before now, never needed to change it."
"Dad… What if she didn't come?" asked Raven. "What if she decided to be petty and vindictive and just stayed in Canterlot?"
"I knew she'd come. Despite our issues over the years, she's a good woman. She always has been. I knew she'd come through when I needed her." Birch clumsily grabbed up his guitar, casually strumming a slow, mellow tune. "Just like I knew you'd come. Wasn't expecting your friend, though."
"Sorry. I heard you were in the hospital and I just lost it. He made sure I got here okay." Raven still couldn't grasp how calm her father was, seemingly unphased by the situation he found himself in.
"Don't be sorry. I'm glad you're meeting people you can depend on, and he seems like a good griffon. Just a friend, though. Right?" Birch narrowed his gaze at his daughter, earning only a roll of the eyes and a nod of the head. "You sure? He's not bad looking…"
"Dad!"
"Fine, I'll leave you alone. Let you get where you're going on your own." The two fell silent for a bit, save for Birch's song. "You seem upset, Birdie. What's on your mind?"
"You just had a stroke, Dad. You're on my mind. Mom is on my mind. Everything is on my mind." Raven shook her head in a futile attempt to fight off her oncoming headache. "I just… I can't believe she's like this. I can't believe she's still doing this to you. You've been so good to her all these years, better than she deserves and still…"
"Harpy is… a troubled soul," said Birch carefully. "Like I said, there's a good mare in here. She just needs some course correction every now and then."
"I just don't know what you saw in her." Birch chewed on his tongue for a second, clearly absorbed in thought. Raven couldn't blame him for that. He had been through so much already, and now here he was in his sickbed, his ex-wife and daughter fighting like cats and dogs. Raven wished things could be different, but Harpy made that impossible. Instead of a typical response, Birch strummed a more discernible melody, a song Raven recognized. It was the song Birch wrote for Harpy, all those years ago.
"Do you believe in destiny?" he asked. Slowly, uncertainty, Raven gave a nod. “A little birdie flew into my life and mine was plain to see. I think everyone in life has their own special route. And how can you ignore your destiny when it's right in front of you?”
“That’s not how the song used to go,” noted Raven. Birch smirked, but just kept on strumming his guitar. Raven frowned at the missed notes and unsteady playing. Birch himself swore under his breath, then quickly adjusted his hooves on his instrument. “In fact, I don’t think it had words at all when you wrote it.”
“Felt fitting. I hope you were listening to them.” Birch muted the strings with his hoof, taking a moment to tune the guitar before returning to his song. “You only see Harpy when she’s at her worst. I met her at her best. The Harpy I know is strong, smart, determined. When she set her mind on something, it would take nothing short of divine intervention to stop her.” Birch smirked, finally setting his guitar back down beside his bed. “Reminds me a lot of you.”
“She’s also frigid, selfish, bitter, and toxic to everypony that she comes in contact with.” Raven sighed, burying her face in her hooves. “God, I am just like her, aren’t I? I could’ve been here sooner, but I was too much of a coward to face her. I should’ve just grit my teeth and dealt with her like an adult. And now… God, what if I was too late? What if you…”
"Raven, you've been blessed with a great many talents, but there is nothing you're better at than worrying yourself." Birch leaned over and grabbed a saddlebag he had laying beside him and began rustling through it. "I know this is scary, but worrying about ifs, buts, maybes, and probablys isn't going to make anything better."
"I know. You always said I took myself too seriously." Raven slumped slightly, her tank very quickly approaching empty. She was exhausted, stressed, terrified. "I can't help it. Between work and Mom butting her way back into my life, and now you're sick… I don't know how I'm gonna keep going."
"You'll keep going on because that's what you do. There's only one thing I've ever seen you attempt that you gave up on." Birch finally emerged from his bag, offering to Raven an old, hastily stapled stack of papers. The corners were tattered and dogged, the entire stack old and damaged by the elements and Father Time. "And for that… I'm sorry."
"What's this?" Raven took the stack and looked it over, tilting her head in curiosity. Her expression shifted a bit the longer she examined the papers. "This is my writing. Wait… Is this my play?" She flipped open the script, a wave of memories washing over her. It had been so long since she had last seen this script, even longer since she had actually read it. "Why do you have this? How do you have this? I threw this out years ago…"
"I snatched it up before it got tossed out for good. I was going to hold onto it until you came back to the project, but… You never did."
"I know. It flopped, bad," said Raven, tossing the script away. To her surprise and mild annoyance, her father picked it back up. "My first big failure. I don't know what I was thinking."
"No. This isn't your big failure, Birdie. It's mine," said Birch. Raven peered at him strangely, but her father didn't give her much time to speculate before he tossed the script right back at her. "I knew you were struggling. I knew you needed help. And I wasn't there for you."
"It's not your fault. Not even Mom's fault." Raven absolutely did not want to think about her failed play, then or ever. It was a mistake, it was embarrassing, and, most importantly, it was unfixable. There was nothing that she or anypony else could do about it, and therefore didn't warrant further discussion. "It's mine. Things got too hard and I cracked. Nopony should be sorry about it but me."
"Birdie… This play was all you talked about for weeks, months even. I had never seen you happier than when you were talking about your play. Still don't know if I have," said Birch. "You poured your heart and soul into this script. This… this was your destiny."
"My destiny was to follow in Mom's hoofsteps," said Raven, growing more and more frustrated. Her ire was mostly directed to herself, the thoughts of maybes and what-ifs grinding away at her mental barrier. "My play was a fun little distraction, but it wasn't to be. Inkwells aren't playwrights. Inkwells are Royal Advisors."
"Says who? Celestia? Harpy? What about you, Raven? When do your dreams come into the equation?"
Raven didn't have an answer for some time. Her eyes bounced from her script, the flawed story and direction almost driving her to tear it to shreds right then and there, to her father, sincere exhaustion and sadness in his eyes. She didn't know what to say, didn't know what the right answer was. It had been years since she had even given thought to her "dreams", or whatever remained of them. Even if she thought she had a place anywhere but at the throne's side, it didn't matter. She had missed her opportunity, and there was no diverting course now. Raven Inkwell was the Royal Advisor, for better or for worse, and there wasn't anything that could be done to change that.
"I'm too old for dreams, Dad. This is my reality," sighed Raven. "I've made peace with who I am and what I do. Like you said, worrying about ifs and maybes isn't going to change things. Time to move on." A knock at the door stole Raven's attention. She stood up to get it, cracking open the door to see Garrus waiting in the hallway.
"Hey, I got your mother checked into a hotel. I don't think she's in a good shape to be coming to a hospital," said Garrus carefully. He examined Raven's face for some sort of sign that she would flip, and he was surprised to see none. "And they're gonna kick me out in a few minutes. Visiting hours are over and they said only immediate family can stay overnight. I can send a letter to Canterlot to call in sick and stay here for you if you want."
"No, it's okay. I'm good," said Raven. "Thanks for getting me here. I know I was a mess earlier, but seeing Dad has calmed me down a bit." Raven glanced back to her father, who had resumed the slow, slightly clumsy strumming of his guitar. "It's good catching up like this. Just wish it was under different circumstances."
"You sure you'll be okay?" Raven gave a small, almost taciturn nod. "Alright. Well, then, I'm gonna message Luna and hitch a ride back home. Luna said to let her know if you need anything, and that extends to me, too. I got your back, Rave. Just let me know if you need me.”
To Garrus’ surprise, Raven responded not with words, but with wrapping around him in a warm, tender hug. Raven had never been fond of physical contact, and Garrus couldn’t recall seeing her hug anypony, let alone him. After just a moment of hesitation, Garrus returned the affection, gently patting Raven on the back. He could feel Raven shuddering, just barely fighting back tears, and his heart snapped. He could hardly imagine how hard this was for the Inkwell family, Raven especially, but he vowed to do everything he could to help his friend through this tough spot.
“Thanks, Gary,” she whispered. “For dealing with my mother. For dealing with me. For everything. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it, Rave. Like I said, I’ve got your back whenever you need me.” Garrus gave Raven a firm pat on the back as they broke apart. “I gotta go. See you around.”
“Bye, Gary. Safe travels.” Raven watched as her friend left, taking a second to compose herself. She took in a deep breath and adjusted her glasses before turning back to face her father. Birch was smirking as he played his guitar, so amused with Raven that he didn’t even notice the notes he was missing. “What?”
“Just friends?” asked Birch with a grin.
“Dad!”
This chapter made me regret i liked this story at the start, because now i can't like it again. Amazing. Simply amazing.
9652560
Make a temporary second account, upvote it a second time, then delete the account.
Unless that's against site rules?
Fuck you, Harpy. You bitch and bitch about your daughter not being there then rush off to get a drink? Fucking hypocrite.
You and everyone else in this story keep bending over backwards to say Harpy's a good person deep down, really. I'm not seeing it. Birch claims Raven's only seen her at her worst? So she's been at her worst Raven's entire life? She's been at her worst the entire damn story? If there's a good pony deep down, I think it died long ago and this insufferable bitch is all that's left.
9652560
9652577
That is very much so against site rules. I appreciate the love, but don't get yourselves banned for me.
Drama overload! Nice work.
9652580
Your unjustified fury is apparently so intense that you don't even know which character you're yelling at. Raven doesn't have a daughter to bitch about. That would be Harpy.
And I promised myself I wouldn't do this anymore, but you know what, this story is getting done the way I want it regardless of what people say, so I'm gonna explain myself regardless. Starting with Birch's claim about Harpy at her worst.
I urge you to look a little closer. Birch doesn't claim that Raven has only known Harpy's worst, rather, that she only sees Harpy's worst. That doesn't mean that Harpy has been awful the whole time. It means that Raven only remembers the bad. That's one of the core differences between Raven and her father: he elects to remember the good, while Raven can't help but dwell on the bad.
Harpy is, by absolutely no means, a perfect person. In fact, she's probably objectively a rather poor mother. But she tries her best, genuinely believing herself to be acting out of her family's interests. Everybody has their moments in which they react less than stellarly to stressful situations. This is one such time for Harpy. Her husband is dying. Her daughter resents her so much that she almost didn't show up to see her own father because of her. Soon, Harpy will have nothing left. She will have no one left. She will be completely and utterly alone and that is absolutely horrific.
I'm gonna pull back the curtain a bit cause I'm starting not to care about spoiling future events; Birch divorced Harpy years ago. Raven was still a kid, really. Their divorce wasn't because of hate or infidelity or anything like that. In fact, Harpy still loves Birch to this very day. She was never able to truly move on, because she never stopped loving him. It tears her up inside that they can't be together, and doubly so because she knows she has no one to blame but herself. She knows that Raven blames her for the divorce. She knows that somewhere deep down, Raven hates her for ruining their family. And more so than that, she hates herself for it, more than Raven ever could. Harpy is a lonely, sad woman who has nothing to look forward to but her work, and it's starting to look like she's getting too old for that.
As you so delicately and understandingly put things, yes. Harpy is a hypocrite. Yes, she rushes off to get a drink. Harpy Inkwell is a struggling alcoholic. Alcoholism is a disease. Harpy is not a bitch. She is not an insufferable bitch. She is ill. She is not at her best. You have not seen her at her best. Raven is so bitter about the bad that she can't remember Harpy at her best. Harpy fucked up a lot over the years. She's made more mistakes than she cares to count, but she has never done anything intentionally to harm her family. Deep down, there's a good woman in her. Birch wouldn't have fallen in love with her if there wasn't. She is a troubled, tortured, unwell soul, but nowhere in her is there "bad".
And, since I have you here, I want you to know that it's comments like yours and aggressive readers like yourself that pushed me to the point I am now, where I'm just teetering on the edge of canceling this story altogether. You're entitled to disagree with my decisions. You're entitled to dislike my characters. But try to remember that Harpy is my character. She represents a very personal, very difficult, very painful aspect of my life and it's not super easy for me to deal with the emotions that come with me putting the spirit of her character down on paper. A bit more tact and respect would be much appreciated.
I say that this story is about Raven Inkwell, and I may have originally intended for that to be the case, but that's not quite right anymore. Some way, somehow, over the course of writing this story, it has become about me, for better or for worse. Try to have some patience and understanding for me and my story.
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My apologies. I didn't realize this was a very personal matter for you. I'll try and stay out of things from now on.
9652733
It's alright, and I'm sorry for such a sharp, high-impact response. This has just been weighting on my mind for quite some time now, and I've been languishing over this story for longer than I care to admit.
Please, don't take my rant to mean that you shouldn't interact with the story or share your thoughts. My comment was less directed towards you and more towards the overall audience and anti-Harpy fanclub.
I've been silently enjoying this tale, but I'm a bit thrown by Raven in this chapter. And it's all due to my personal suspension of disbelief.
Do ponies have appendixes? I mean, I though that was a purely homo sapien thing, I could be wrong about that as I am not a medical scholar, but it threw me off slightly as I read and now I'm curious.
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They do, and it's actually not useless for them. I didn't know that when I wrote that line, and I was foolishly hoping no one would ask.
Well met, good sir
Let me guess, Harpy has cancer?
9653031
She's a struggling alcoholic.
If you don't like Harpy, there's an almost endless number of stories on this site alone that do not contain her. Do not feel obligated to continue reading this if you really dislike it so much.
9653049
I just thought that there had to be a reason, like her having a terminal disease, for her to butt in the life if her daughter.
Celestia is supposed to be good about social relationships, if only because she had a thousand years of guilt about being an awful sister and so she must have studied them.
Haven't yet had time to read the chapter, it's late here. Going to bed first, reading first thing tomorow.
But, since you are a fellow Raven Inkwell fan, I want to hear you on this question:
What do you think happend to Raven in that alternative timeline where Nightmare Moon rules Equestria? (Season 5 Finale)
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Executed, as was the rest of Celestia's staff for daring to oppose The Nightmare as Equestria's sovereign ruler
9652761
the problem is a very large lack of show don’t tell, if you were to say show a flashback from birche’s point of view of harpy when she was at her best or better it would do wonders for peoples view of her, all we really have seen of harpy (at least from what I remember, I don’t have time to reread this arc of the story) is ravens point of view and raven views her mother as a bitch and hypocrite who crushed her dream and makes her life miserable, without any other point of view the readers are just going to asume that it’s all there is too her and she ends up becoming a hate sink. you need that outside point of view to get the point across that harpy ISNT the bitch raven sees her as
9653218
That, my friend, is a very well worded, calmly written, valid criticism. Here's the thing, though.
This "Harpy is the worst" backlash has been going on since the very introduction of her into the story, before I could have even had the opportunity to do any showing. And, when I was able to take the opportunity to show Harpy's other side in The Royal Archives (the chapter were Harpy talks about how much she worries about Raven and inquires about Birch in the first place), that wasn't enough for people. I guess they wanted a chapter where Harpy sits down and grovels at her daughter's hooves for forgiveness, but that's not gonna happen.
I've committed to this path. There's no diverting Harpy's story now. Whether or not people are going to be happy with it remains to be seen (although I'm leaning towards "probably not"). That said, I thank you for giving an actually reasonable criticism that doesn't just boil down to "I don't like Harpy and therefore she is bad".
9653174
It was nice to read Raven admiting she is more like her mother than what she was willing to accept in chapters before. She is not her mother, but she is her daughter.
I hope she comes to understand that her dad's annoying boyfriend talks is just him thinking he is not gonna be around forever, and he wants to be sure his birdy is taken good care of. Parents are like that.
------
Yeah... That's what I thought too... Nightmare Moon would just not keep Celestia's old staff around.
(Unless she took some sort of sick pleasure in huminiating the old staff for personal amusement.)
I like to imagine Raven in that timeline as kinda of a "Palace Cinderella" (with night maid Rarity filling the role of the evil stepmother, since she beneficted with Nightmare Moon's rise to power), but it's far more likely that if she was allowed to live and work in the palace she would just be locked up in the boiler room.
I'm fine... I'm fine...
9654118
I'm sorry. Full disclosure, the tone of this story may not get brighter for a few chapters.
I said this before and I really do mean this: I'm sorry to have upset you in any way. I don't imagine this sort of thing is easy for you to read, and I thank you for sticking with the story in spite of the unfortunate subject matter.
Forgive me if I've overstepped or made things weird, I'm bad at talking to people
9653245
Okay, I want to be careful about how I say this. People tend to be dicks when they offer criticism, because nothing inspires cruelty like the feeling that 'I'm' right and 'they' aren't. But I do feel as though there are a few objective problems with Harpy's (I know it's not written as Harpies, but I swear writing it like that makes inner proofreader want to hurt itself) presentation that are exacerbating the problem.
Firstly, double check that scene where Harpy is introduced. What was her first interaction with her daughter?
The problem isn't that she's mean; it's how cartoonishly mean she is. The first time we see a character generally works to inform the audience how to think of a character, and this
1) Does show her greeting her daughter
2) But then immediately has her judging that daughter without taking the time to learn why the mistake occurred
3) Dismissing her daughter entirely.
Most importantly, this scene does not show or imply any sort of a heart of gold that the character might have had or will have. And the problem is exacerbated by how its treated by the people in the story. Celestia especially, as the person responsible for hiring and managing the palace staff (I might be wrong about that) should have spoken to Harpy about things like the point system, because degrading your daughter in that manner in front of her boss is blatantly unprofessional. Berating anyone in front of their boss is unproffesional, and that goes double if she's also your Co-Worker. Triple since Raven doesn't work for Harpy directly, because that kind of rebuke is her bosses responsibility.
Moving on, the scene where Harpy shows depth is also very flawed. She's very aggressive for most of her scene, and while the part that's an actual conversation is nice:
She spends much more of the scene treating her daughter as an inferior. Harpy also spends a lot of the time complaining about how little regard Raven supposedly has for her job, which sends the signal to the audience that Harpy's a stage mom, and by extension that her concern is a front. The beginning of this scene is sabotaging the rest of it.
Her most recent appearance is probably the best; she's still just as aggressive as she was before
vs
But this time it's dealt with reasonably. She isn't yelled at but politely informed that her behavior isn't acceptable. And more importantly, while she's still angry she accepts that instead of dismissing those protests because she might has a point.
It's also worth noting that Raven hasn't demonstrated any real incompetence in her job. Harpy complains frequently about it, but Raven's actions have consistently been very reasonable, and it isn't apparent what should have done better.
Now, yes there are narrative justifications for this behavior, and they make sense. But that's not where your job as a writer stops. You are communicating ideas, and this idea is not communicated well. I know that backlash can be frustrating, especially when so much of it is emotionally charged. But this isn't a complicated idea to communicate.
This isn't The Archetypist or Triptych or something extremely complex. "Character X needs to accepts that Character Y isn't perfect, and forgive them of their mistakes while Character Y tries to grow as a person" is a common story. Harpy is presented as a very bad person, and then people talk about her good qualities much later. That's what you've shown the audience, and the problem isn't their lack of comprehension. Harpy hasn't had a scene that truly demonstrates her depth, we haven't seen her behave any nicer than a normal person is expected to act, and that's an objective flaw with the story.
Now, that hardly kills everything. If she's a recovering alcoholic, then there's a lot of potential to mine (I'm reminded of the most recent issue of Tony Stark: Iron Man) and besides Harpy there's a lot to like. Trollestia at her finest, New!Xander and Luna are a joy to spend time with, and Raven Inkwell is always a win.
But Harpy need a different approach to work within the story as its presented.
9654365
It's okay. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me.
It hurts to read these parts, but I know I can't wallow in grief.
I would also like to add that this is overall a good story, you are a good writer, and I hope I helped you instead of hurting your feelings. If you feel as though I crossed a line I'll delete what I wrote.
Really appreciate that we've got Gary Oak here. Doing my absolute best to avoid the jokes, but my brain keeps taking me there anyway.
10465918
God dammit, I never even thought about that
Hopefully I never will again xD