I’m trying to decide how I feel about the email I just received… check out these two paragraphs of it, and tell me what you think:

” I’ve been on a binge (‘orgy?’) of reading RK fiction recently – very likely brought on by the fact that I’m currently beta-ing a piece for someone – and stumbled over one of your fics courtesy of the RK awards site. Thus far I’ve read through most of the ‘FaeryFic’ column on your site. In general, I’ve found the level of writing to be good, and the characterizations enjoyable. However, I must say that ‘Wild Cat’ is my current favorite. Why? Not because I am a Misao fan (although I do appreciate seeing her behave with a *little* more maturity!), but because it evidences the most plot. I do enjoy a good sex scene, and have nothing against yaoi, but I simply am *not* a romance for its own sake reader. I hope that you will continue ‘Wild Cat,’ and that it will prove to live up to the chapters posted thus far.

” ‘Condition of Learned Helplessness,’ however, I find… disturbing. I simply cannot see how you are going to get yourself out this plot. For one thing, it seems heart-breakingly sad that Himura desires punishment so much that he is willing to allow Saitou’s treatment of him, and it is not something that he is likely to be healed from without substantially changing his character. As for Saitou, I suppose I can see his behavior as being in character. I know someone whose rigidity of his personal moral code is such that while he is completely honorable in those areas that the code encompasses, he is incapable of extrapolating it to new situations. *He* is certainly capable of rape or murder under the right circumstances. If Saitou is such a person, then his treatment of Himura might be completely acceptable in his own eyes. (And, the real Shinsengumi *did* have a reputation for violent and often lawless behavior). “