the distracted boyfriend meme but it's sludge and starting new series without finishing his old ones
jokes aside, this is rad. love me some detective fiction, and wl provides the perrrfect setting for some magical urban fantasy.
Tldr: A warlock and a paladin are journalists. Hijinks will ensue.
Really though, I love this. Great job, as always
Ooooh, this was a really enjoyable read! Really well written too. The Miss J. part made me chuckle a lot. Cannot wait to know more about these two characters! ^^
Hm, conflicted about this one. It's a well written enjoyable read, but some of the things it implies about the Library are really discordant and unpleasant to me. Being a relatively safe and free place is a very core conceit of the Library. Planasthai needing to be separated from the general public by several thousand feet and coded teleporters for safety is very much at odds with that.
Not that an alternate interpretation of the Library as a grim noir urban fantasy setting can't work, but this doesn't really sell me on it. I'm less interested in what a version of the Library shifted to more easily accommodate this type of story looks like than I am in how this type of story would shift when set in the usual Library.
I feel that the article doesn't like… necessarily need to justify its vision of the Library, given that the only established canon is that there is no canon. The version of the Library this takes place in is one suited to the story, and I think that's alright - that it's unfair to expect justification for any given vision of the setting.
Being a relatively safe and free place is a very core conceit of the Library.
I'm also not sure where this comes from - it's never really codified anywhere. As far as I can make of it this is a totally personal thing - some people like it safe, some people like it with danger - but that basically ends up meaning that one's headcanon should not be the arbiter of judgement on an article.
Fair enough, I probably leaned a bit heavily on using my notion of what standard WL canon is to justify my opinion, when really it mostly comes down to what sort of setting I personally enjoy.
Still, I'm not sure I can remember a single portrayal of the Library that entirely discards the existence of the "No Violence" rule, even if the exact nature and enforcement of it varies. That feels like about as core a conceit as the existence of the pages, docents, and archivists.
But that's what it is, right? Ultimately, the no violence rules is as core a conceit as the existence of the pages, docents, and archivists - one that only extends as far as the article mentions it. In the end no canon does mean exactly that - nothing is canon. There can be stuff (like what you mentioned!) that are the assumptions we start a story with, but if the story directly tells us to throw those assumptions out (like it does here), that's what we should do! Elsewise we'd end up judging an article based off a headcanon it very specifically tries to avoid being part of.
And not feeling the setting is totally fine, don't get me wrong! We are subject to our own tastes and we can't help liking and disliking what we like and dislike. But I would say that comments based off a difference in headcanon aren't exactly actionable by the author, right?