RE: Metastasis, Part 10: Miss Meta
(Now I must immediately preface this that I come from a lingual tradition that’s more associated with Eastern European and of the Global Periphery (Non-Western) than Western Works of literature. Albeit I have a double preface that I stopped reading Western works beyond 1980s with rare few occasions (thus meaning I know my damn Beowulf along with my Knights of the Round Table along to my GWF Hegel and Langston Hughes). But this should be enough prefacing and making sense of what I shall get into when I type my response below.)
So let’s start with the story and keep in my mind that I have jumped into part ten without reading the parts before. So I inderstand enough and like the conflict of philosophies (and attitudes that imply a deeper sense of urgencies) all along the entry here. From the spouse relationship, to the Meta just waiting for humans to just shut up to then herself(?) having not the words to speak (very much a Freudian slip of the Tongue here of wanting something but not knowing how to respond to achieving something) to the random inclusion of the child flying off. No biggie, we got an example of world building interwoven with the progress of the story. (Now I know not if everyone’s on the same page, but following the grandfather clause I purposefully employ here, I shall believe what they know up to this point due to finally possessing it or in the process to do so.) Of course, I dunno how often the conspiracy was stressed before this point, but I did get the feeling of urgency and accept the eventual reveal of why the Meta even interacted with these two to begin with.
Unto the structure of the story: very much dialogue-bounded, good way to avoid the show and don’t tell rule. Though I would love my levels of telling on occasions, just so the reader can relax (but dunno if you’ve done it before this point). Withal (Even so), the dialouge seems appropriate but can’t be sure to be quite honest. Moving on, this definitely, despite a move inside the story and a set-down narrative builder episode, felt like a convenient world-building episode. Yet I shan’t remark because it might be justified at this point and may make sense to build the World now so as to repaint earlier scenes and give options for the writer to exploit as they tell the story. Regardless, since (as I say this like a broken record) I haven’t read before I shall accept the underlying World-building stratum and it does feel appropriate with how it’s being developed (and thankfully not used as a tool to tell a story this earlier on). To make a side derail on the characters, I get that the Meta aspect but I do wonder if the story is focused on Mira/Meta or the humans; while I might not mind as long as the humans do get to be coupled with the Metas, I feel this story is appropriate for the Metas to see these two humans and lement having to deal with children of species. Especially when they have to deal witn a darned conspiracy that sounds like an extinction-level event.
Thanks for the feedback! This indeed was a bit more of a world-building episode, as the previous chapter was rather action focused. You have some interesting ideas on what the Meta actually are, so I will go through a quick explainer.
In this fictional world, Meta is mainly just a last name, but for a specific family. All Metas can use something called infinity casting, an ability that they pass down through the generations... hence, why all Metas can use it. There other types of infinity casting that work much differently and have nothing to do with time travel, and the second part("casting") is a reference to the larger and more common system of casting that Metas also use, but this is a working knowledge for our purposes within the story.
While there are non-human races in this world, the Metas are largely human(I actually hadn't thought much about including non-human Metas, due to some undisclosed restrictions I had in my notes... I'll keep that in mind as an idea, though. Sounds like it could be interesting). Mira is the daughter of Victor and Janet Meta, so she is a full fledged Meta by birthright. Because all Metas are descended from other Meta, they pretty much universally marry non-Metas, so there is nothing really unusual about this.
I do indeed try to be very dialogue and character interaction focused in my stories. I don't particularly like lengthy descriptions of things awkwardly crammed into place, and when they are unavoidable I will have them either exist as a character's train of thought, or by having a knowledgeable character explain them to an uninformed character.
I had someone previously suggest a summary be added to each new chapter, so people can pick up at the most recent chapter and have a decent idea of what is going on. Since you are not the first to be generally confused by certain aspects, and don't have the time to go back and read the increasing number of previous parts, I will try to start including a running summary on each new chapter. Even if I have to be extremely general on various plot points and I would definitely recommend reading the whole series from the start, it seems like it will benefit a growing number of people.
But again, thank you so much for the feedback. I love getting lengthier comments like this, as I feel they provide so much more insight into how other people view my writing. Have a fantastic day!
Now do I say welcome for the comment since you wrote that yourself and deserve a mini curie on this comment! ~^^~
Anywho, thanks for this lengthy response (probably the first I've seen in the rabbit hole of curated content) as it pretty much repaints what I see in the text now. (I probably should mention I wrote that drunk and have sobered up at this point, even still I understood it and understand it way better now. Oh the grand folly of the internet and Steemit not giving incentives to read serialized content...)
Anyhow, have a great day/night/evening/afternoon/noon now!~