{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/posts/atzi",
  "path": "/posts/posts/atzi",
  "publishedAt": "2025-05-08T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "Here's something that I read yesterday and liked:\nAtzi.  Lesbian lizard\ngirl scraping by with little pick-pocketing and buglary.  Oh, and\nshe's about to wind up in a time loop.\n\nIt's been a minute since I read something as fun and smooth to read as\nthis.  Quick pacing, compelling characterization, and continually\namusing internal narration --- so far, it makes for a satisfying\nafternoon read.\n\nSomething I found really refreshing about this story is how...\nchipper the main character is.  In my experience, web fiction is\nfull of protagonists somewhere on the spectra of mopey, anxious, and\nanalytical --- and Atzi is entirely the opposite.\n\nShe's not the brightest, nor the luckiest, but she's not only willing\nto try anyway, but she earnestly believes she deserves to succeed.\nIt's odd reading about a protagonist who's simultaneously so\nopinionated yet manages to be so endearing.\n\nAs someone who's quite sensitive to dramatic irony and the crawling\ncringe-anxiety it can evoke, I'm astonished and how this story walks\nthe tightrope of making it clear the protagonist is making bad\ndecisions without leaving me so stricken with secondhand embarrassment\nI need to stop reading.\n\nIt helps, I think, she's just downright cute!  While the story goes\nout of its way to say \"lizard\" and never \"kobold\", I find it hard to\nlisten to this girl's internal narration and not think the author\nnailed the vibe.^[(But of course, I'm hardly an expert on lizardfolk,\nmaybe I'm just the guy who's only seen Boss Baby here.)]\n\n(She's also hilariously horny, too --- I swear every other woman she\nencounters has her swooning, but I mean. same tbh.  Despite this, the\nstory seems almost chaste with the fade-to-blacks.)\n\nI saw this mentioned offhandedly in a discord, and I was the first\nperson to jump on reading it, mostly for the above reasons. Naturally,\nthe promise of pretty women piqued me (and it delivered), but the\nbigger reason was the protagonist's species.\n\nI'm a fan of nonhuman characters, and I enjoy this story's approach of\nmaking the protagonist casually nonhuman.  It's never focused on as if\nwe should be dazzled by a character who isn't human (a personal pet\npeeve), but it's also woven into the structure of the scenes and\nnarration (what I'm personally interested in).\n\nI love the venomous spit so potent Atzi needs to be careful even\nletting it drip onto a bar table, and I love little things like\ntailbags or scales letting her (almost!) shrug off bramble-based\nsecurity during infiltration.\n\nSo far, I can't recommend the story on xenofiction merits alone, but\nit's clear there's more to be learned about the culture and clans of\nthe lizards.\n\nBut that mention of infiltration may have raised an eyebrow.  Yes, the\nmain character is a thief --- pickpocketing and looting and taking\nbigger jobs when she can. It's a pretty big point to its credit that\nfirst proper \"job\" she undertakes had me on the edge of my seat as she\nsneaks around and worries about guards.\n\nAt the point where I'm writing this review, the main plot of sorts\nseems to have finally come into view, and already the intrigue and\ndrama is ratcheting up.  We're still laying the groundwork for the\ntime loop, leaving me eager to see what form it takes.\n\nOverall, I'm quite interested in seeing where the story goes from here,\nthere's enough to enjoy if not quite enough to impress.  Any\nrecommendation I might give would be very speculative.  Keeping my eye\non it.\n\n> Atzi is the last person who should be stuck in a timeloop.\n> \n> But a timeloop means pretty women to seduce! Wealth to spend! Magic\n> power to steal! This lizard may be easily distracted, talentless,\n> and lonely, but she's still a looper.\n> \n> A shame she must contend with selfish gods warring, mad mages\n> casting apocalyptic spells, skeletons, demons, and a hole in the\n> sky. The world destroyed, again and again, when all she wants to\n> know… is why her crush killed her.\n\nRead it here: <https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/111187/atzi>",
  "title": "Quick Thoughts on Atzi"
}