All Comments on 'Subclasses Ch. 03'

I love it

Me too!!!

Me too! It was a total stroke of luck that it just came to me at 2:30am during a bout of insomnia. I thought "That would be cool" with just the two basic rules (free will and consent), and then the more I explored the idea, the more perfect I realized it was. I almost feel like I can't take credit for it. 😅

I understand this is an upbeat romance with magic in play, but I can't help but feel that Sarah's reaction is a bit ... unrealistic. I would be utterly *devastated* if I got a taste of everything I was supposed to have, and, just a few hours later, lost it all. The euphoria + dysphoria wombo combo would have me ugly sobbing for hours. Moreover, there's a base level of trust here that doesn't quite make sense, given the character development so far. If Beatrix can give me everything I ever wanted, she can take it away immediately. Perhaps it's cynical, but I could never stop worrying that if there's ever a time I do something wrong or if we break up, she could take it away with the intent to cause me harm. Because she only needs consent to perform the changes. She doesn't need consent to take it all away. That would literally break me. I have to be 1000% certain that Beatrix is altruistic to a point where causing harm to another person isn't even in the realm of consideration.

All that being said, I love the story so far. It's awesome. And the magic system is terrific. I wish you had explored Sarah's synesthesia more when Beatrix had inverted the colors. Wouldn't that mean that all of the tastes, smells, and touches have also been inverted for Sarah?

I'm also curious if you consider memory rewriting. With consent, I don't see why Beatrix would be prevented from erasing or creating new memories.

That's an interesting point about Sarah's reaction. I think your reaction is perfectly realistic for some people, but I also think Sarah's is accurate for her. Sarah is rather autobiographical so I'm thinking about how *I* would react.

Beatrix's magic is a literary shortcut for suped up hypnosis with some added utility (like teleportation). I've been hypnotized many times before, and found that when I'm high (pot's legal in my state), the effect is amplified many times over. I had listened to a YT video called "Male to Female Transformation Hypnosis" probably a couple dozen time, and it never worked because it was too complex of a suggestion. I'd feel girlier in personality, but my body felt unchanged. Then once when I was high, I listened to it again, and the effect did work, at least about 80% of it. It was a HUGE relief; even though I will never have the complete body transformation that Sarah got, the fact that believing I had a vagina and "seeing" it (I could still see my penis, but my brain refused to believe it was there and interpreted the image as a vagina) caused me to feel so *right* gave me such profound hope that bottom surgery will make me feel significantly better. I don't know if this is universal of trans people, but I imagine it is: there's always been a smidgen of fear that "they" were right, that surgery won't magically make me feel any better. This was confirmation that I am right for pursuing surgery, and while I should probably touch up the language, that is what Sarah is feeling.

You are right, though, that she would feel extra dysphoric after it was taken away. I did. I should probably add a bit about it. Good catch!

I see what you mean about how quickly Sarah trusts Beatrix. Sarah tends to trust her gut--which, has gotten her (or me) into trouble before--but the times I have ignored my gut in favor of logic/hope have been far worse than the times I trusted my gut and been wrong. Sarah trusts Beatrix for three reasons: she's a generally trusting person in general, her gut is (correctly) telling her that Beatrix is a safe person, and Beatrix is an impossible dream come true--she *wants* to trust Beatrix. As for trusting Beatrix's altruism, Beatrix has told her that she can't harm Sarah or do anything without Sarah's consent. (This isn't actually the case--the inner workings of the system are slightly different, and in most cases stronger, than not harming Sarah, but saying more would be a spoiler.) Since Sarah trusts Beatrix's explanation about the limits of her ability, she doesn't need to know that Beatrix *won't* get vindictive later; she knows she *can't* get vindictive later.

As I know you've read at least through Chapter 15, you know that memory manipulation is on the way.

Thanks so much for all your feedback! <3 I promise that I'm still working on Chapter 20. Life (and Palworld) has gotten in the way of my writing, but I am making progress.