rebeccathornewrites

[rebeccathornewrites]

Episode Parallels - Arcane S1 & S2

I am positive someone else noticed this but I was all excited because rhyming narratives please my brain.

SPOILERS.

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Did anyone else notice how Act 1 of Season 1 and Act 2 of Season 2 parallel each other? How Vi has a semblance of a family in both, and at the end of each, that is ripped away?

And then how Episode 4 of both seasons, Vi isn't in the episode literally at all? Like each time her family is torn from her, she has to take ages to get her head on straight--how everyone else keeps moving, but for Vi, it's like she's in a standstill?

And then the parallels diverge, because in S1, Powder / Jinx was the reason Vi left--and Caitlyn rescued her. And then S2, Caitlyn is the reason Vi left--and Jinx rescues her.

And then there's Vander, creating a circle of a narrative by exiting in S1 and returning in S2, right when Vi needed him most.

I love plot analysis, and this was just... so beautifully well done.

[rebeccathornewrites]

After reading your book the Gilded Abyss, I fell in love. I want to praise you on how great you construct world building. Might be because I would watch my father play Bioshock as a kid or being a warhammer 40k fan, you do an amazing job of creating a horror/grimdark sci-fi world.

I was very upset that the second book wasn’t out when I finished the first. I’m someone who likes to read completed series over one that’s just starting because I hate waiting. Don’t feel bad about my suffering btw.

Also I had to stop reading the book at work when I got to chapter 23. You write amazing smut. That being said, my copy is still at work because I’m letting my coworker read it and I’ve warned her about that chapter.

Keep writing!!!!

Haha!! I’m so glad you loved Gilded Abyss!! I’m pleased to report that book 2 is well in the works, and is almost 3/4 finished. I’m hoping to knock it out this week or over early October. (I wanted it done earlier, but other deadlines got in the way, and I had to pivot from it for a few weeks.)

Right now, I’m aiming for a mid-December / early January release. We’ll see!! I definitely want to make sure the book is as good as I can make it, and will push back publication accordingly. But hopefully, that won’t take long. :D

[rebeccathornewrites]

Ahhh, thank you!!! Also that bookmark is SO CUTE oh my gosh!!!

I finished reading @rebeccathornewrites ‘s Can’t Spell Treason without Tea! I definitely recommend this book

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[rebeccathornewrites]

I loved Hazbin, and I'm obsessed with this analysis. Thank you so much for the shoutout!

Content. Warning. (Poison)

Hazbin Hotel has a predicament that I haven’t really come across anywhere else. The episode that I would use to recommend this series is also the episode that I would use to recommend people away.

I would recommend another tale for the characters and the storyline and how the writers weaved in a dissection of subject matter more nuanced than I expected. But Hazbin Hotel is, in my opinion, at its best when it deals with that material front and centre.

There’s a reason I have titled this post what I have. Episode four of this series isn’t shy about what it’s talking about. But there’s an interesting difference between the idea of something being subtle and something being nuanced, and there’s also another weird thing about this episode and especially the first song contained therein.

Masquerade feels like it is written by a comedian, and I mean that in the most straight faced, complimentary way possible.

Let me explain.

CONTENT WARNING: (Mention of Abuse, Mental Health, Sexual Assault, Addiction, Bodily Harm)

SPOILERS AHEAD: (Hazbin Hotel, Six)

I am an absolutely awful judge of the cultural zeitgeist, but I have observed that the music I like rarely gets described as “pop”. Partially, this is because I see a bunch of people liking a specific thing and I walk in the opposite direction, but partially this is because my musical taste isn’t limited to any specific genre.

My main musical tastes are centred around the emotionality of the song, rather than the musical distinctions. I will look at Harry Styles’ Watermelon Sugar and think it’s nice to listen to, but I will gravitate towards Olivia Rodrigo’s Vampire because of the emotional journey that song takes me on. The former of those two makes you want to dance; the latter makes you want to shout your rage at the sky.

Naturally, this leads me to ballads, songs that tell a story. The Crane Wives are particularly good at these, Curses is the archetypical example of a tale of personal guilt. But, for the sake of a constant thematic, let’s talk about Bitter Medicine for a moment.

“I bite my tongue to keep the worst of the words in So they don’t hurt nobody but me Swallow the poison I wanna spit Bitter medicine I think it’s making me sick Don’t look up to me I’m not as tall as you think You see, I talk a big game But it’s bullshit”

Bitter medicine is about bad coping mechanisms, kind of. The Crane Wives excels at exploring powerful emotions but leaves the scenarios open to interpretation. It’s not how you got here that matters, but where “here” is.

This is why the same few of their songs have gained popularity in Asexual spaces as well as in spaces for those recovering from their own actions. Reformed abusers and aces don’t tend to share much, except for a feeling of guilt.

It’s an unfortunate part of the ace experience that the realising of who you are feels like a betrayal. It feels like you have strung someone along with promises you can’t keep. I’ve been there, and it feels awful.

I do want to stress that this isn’t betrayal in reality. Being ace does not make you a bad person, you haven’t actually strung someone along. You are valid, end of argument.

The issue is that the mind isn’t always a rational thing. Sometimes it internalises things in an unhealthy way. Odds are the partner who you think you betrayed wouldn’t agree with you on that. People that like you have a habit of supporting you.

Essentially, part of being ace is that self-imposed guilt. Not every ace goes through it, but for those who do, that feeling is difficult to overcome.

But that idea of being the reason a relationship fallen apart has a lot of other applicable situations, hence the diversity of popularity.

Bitter Medicine isn’t about that, its about guilt for feeling bad. Its about the type of trauma response that is selfishness masquerading as selflessness.

The emotion on display is pain, with a song about bottling up everything until it explodes. You can’t be angry, you can’t be sad, you can’t let people help you because "there’s nothing wrong". You just have to keep things tight to your chest and let other people suffer. This is a song about becoming distant from those who can see you hurting and can’t do anything to help you.

It's about how bad coping mechanisms act as a poison that can’t be escaped, almost like an addiction.

The music video centres around the idea of others getting caught up in the crossfire of internal emotions. It’s monochromatic so you can see the stains left behind even more starkly, and those stains get everywhere. The protagonist has to be rescued by these others, but she has to let them.

You will notice that ballads don’t usually tell you the events of their stories. Everything is a metaphor; everything is a symbol. Sometimes a song will tell you outright what’s going on. That’s a strength of the medium, not a plot hole.

Which leads me to a song called Poison, a ballad that is entirely centred around the metaphor of its title.

Poison was written by Alice Cooper (with help from Desmond Child and John McCurry) and released in 1989 as a single, and it is surreal.

It’s about Cooper’s alcohol and drug addictions, which is weird considering the lyrics are ostensibly about someone he’s in a relationship with, and that’s the point.

The song depicts Cooper’s addiction as an abusive relationship, dedicating the song to that part. It’s singing to “you”, as if he’s in conversation with it, telling it to its face all the damage that he has taken.

This is personification, ascribing a will to an inanimate object, although its more than that. In this case, it’s ascribing an attraction to the object, a seductiveness. He blames himself for falling for a trap and frames the song as his own realisation of his agency. He got himself into this situation, he recognises what the problem is, he decides where to go from here.

I want to highlight that the central metaphor is used differently in both songs mentioned above. That’s part of the fun of literary analysis. Everything works together to provide context for everything else.

Poison is a song about alcoholism, so it uses the titular concept to focus on the realisation and consequences. Bitter Medicine focuses on how the poison masquerades as a cure to emphasise its point about bad coping mechanisms being traps. Hazbin Hotel’s Poison is the opposite of all these things.

The song in Hazbin Hotel is about an abusive relationship, and it uses the poison to step in for the addictiveness of that. It’s a reverse of Alice Cooper’s song, comparing a person to a drug rather than the other way around.

It is also gloriously unsubtle in a way that is really difficult to explain, so I’m going to have to use another, wildly different example.

I recently read a book called This Gilded Abyss. It’s by Rebecca Thorne (@rebeccathornewrites), and it struck me as a book that was graceful in the same way that a person can be “cool”. It’s not pompously dancing around clever wordplay. The book feels like the art is in the tale, rather than the telling, and I mean that in the best way. It’s more art than form.

The reason I bring this up is because that is the same feeling I get from listening to Hazbin Hotel’s Poison. There are cool details in the presentation, sure, but they are outshone entirely by the emotion on display. I don’t listen to the song or read the book to dwell on the fine details, not because they aren’t there, but because the story has me in a death grip and I am too enthralled by it to pay attention.

I could talk about how Poison uses high notes to ground itself, I could talk about how the songs instruments imply a fakeness. But that doesn’t seem like the point to me. Instead, I want to elaborate on what I said earlier about this song and comedy writing.

The song isn’t funny, per say. If you were insincere, you could point out that this is about a spider singing to a moth, so haha jokey joke joke. But that’s the key. Sincerity.

The golden rule of comedy is “commit to the bit”. It’s less funny to draw back and undercut yourself than it is to subvert expectations or do something dumb and go for it, despite seeing it coming a mile away.

I was a theatre kid (if you are shocked by this, welcome to the blog), and I remember being told by the theatre sports coach that for a joke to be funny, it can never be acknowledged as such. I don't know how much I agree with this, but it's a useful idea.

Hazbin Hotel does this in a big way with its entire design. It’s set in hell, and the main character is the most optimistic person you will ever meet. Pentious is a villain, and also a goober, and the show does not acknowledge the inherent silliness of this for a moment.

As such, the punchline of Poison is the final verse, which is a tour de force of Blake Roman’s acting skill. Everything cuts away and you get the emotional centre of the entire song. It’s like the dick joke you can see coming, but instead of making you laugh, it destroys you.

This is how the final scream in All You Wanna Do works. The song part of the musical Six, which I hope to cover on this blog at some point and follows the breaking down of Katherine Howard. She is seeking a kinship without any preconceptions, but everyone around her views her as nothing more than a vehicle for sex.

At the end of the song, she screams out into the stage:

"Bite my lip and pull my hair as you tell me I'm the fairest of the fair."

Six is a tragedy that has already happened. The characters know their fates, but the audience gets to learn them in real time, and is powerless but to watch with joy that turns rapidly into horror.

In this case, Howard hasn't been allowed to complain. She's been something pretty for people to look upon, and she has to be happy, right? She's married to the king. But she isn't, because nobody has at any point asked what it is that she wants.

So, she screams, letting all that rage and frustration out, letting the audience know how she really feels, and displaying her complete vulnerability in the face of history, and then she is gone, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Poison also does this with each chorus. There are mini punchlines, mini beats that make you react and keep you interested.

“What’s the worst part of this hell? I can only blame myself.”

This forms a bridge to the chorus, drawing you back like an arrow in a bowstring to send you rocketing forwards into an aggressively upbeat flurry of music. The same thing happens later on in the song.

“So far beyond difficult, To resist another gulp.”

This is use of the titular metaphor, but its also ascribing blame. Angel has been abused and sexually assaulted by Valentino, and this is the song about how he has internalised that. Namely, through condemning himself.

There are two things to note here, and I think the series disagrees with Angel on both accounts.

First up, there is the importance of proportionality. Falling for someone with more red flags than a beach in shark season wasn’t a good decision, I think we can all agree on that, but it doesn’t condemn someone to abuse.

Especially since this is the internet for Pete's sake. You only have to imply that a character is attractive, and you will have a collection of people who will defend their every move. Part of this is the "I can fix him" mentality and the fact that fictional characters aren't real, but still. Come on.

Second up, is Angel really to blame? More to blame than, say, Valentino? The victim is blaming himself for his victimhood, in order to deflect from the person who has put himself in that situation.

Episode four has one scene in it that is both my favourite and my least favourite, the one in which Charlie sets fire to the set.

This was a scene that made me reflect on the difference between something being good craft and something being enjoyable, as Valentino’s switch in tone when moving between Angel and Charlie is so viscerally uncomfortable that it made me pause the episode to sit back and take it in. It’s intentionally jarring, and it's not trying to present this character as benevolent.

What it is trying to do is present Valentino as seductive, someone who has two modes that he can switch between. Angel fell for the nice Valentino who got the gifts and was kind and charming and was blindsided by the more aggressive version of this character.

In other words, the highs were what he was drawn in by, the lows caught him off guard. Valentino is like a drug.

This truly is the opposite of Alice Cooper’s song. Where that personified the drug to give it agency, Angel dehumanises Valentino to place the agency on himself and take the blame.

“Because I know you’re poison, you’re feeding me poison. Addicted to this feeling I can’t help but swallow up your poison. I made my choice and every night I’m living like there’s no tomorrow.”

If we focus on the line I put in bold, there’s some similarity to another song, previously in the musical.

“Hell is forever, whether you like it or not. Had their chance to behave better now they boil in a pot”

The idea that choices are final and that everyone gets one chance that they must then commit to is a key antagonistic force in the series. The show is about hope, and the desire for things to get better, but Heaven and Angel say that if you make a decision, the rest of your life must be dedicated to the follow up of that.

If you got into a bad relationship, sucks to suck, you’re stuck there. If you got into a bind and had to do dark things to stay alive, sorry, no redoes.

There's a word for this: "Damnation".

Committing to the bit here is making the bit your entire deal. The theme is the dichotomy between change and stagnation, and every source of conflict comes from that one concept. It’s milking the joke for all its worth, but again, repurposed.

Although, there is one other advantage that comedians have in storytelling, an advantage I like to call the “What’s My Mother’s Name?” Moment.

Sam Riegel is a voice actor and a regular cast member on Critical Role. He is famous for being incredibly funny, but also for his relationship with humour. Several times across the series’ three campaigns, it has become clear that Riegel was being fully serious, and neither the audience not the cast saw it coming until far too late.

There’s an obvious example here but let’s get topical and talk about the latest episode of the series, as of writing this.

“He had a perspective and a goal and he laid it out very clearly. He wanted to get his family back and assume power. He did not set out to kill a city, to destroy a city. He wanted to get back with his family. The others prevented him. He gave them a choice to sit down at a table and they said, ‘No, we'd rather kill a city.’”

Riegel is playing Braius Doomseed, a minotaur champion of an evil deity, and in episode 102, there is a discussion of what has gone before. Braius starts to make a case for one of the villainous deities, and the rest of the cast assumes he’s just joking and committing to the bit. Instead, Reigel commits to the bit so thoroughly that he bypasses humour and plays it straight. This is someone genuinely making a case for the lord of the hells.

The question isn’t about when Reigel started beings serious because he’s always been that. The question, is “when did he stop being funny?”

Hazbin Hotel does this with Poison, and it causes the audience to reflect on what has gone before. All of Angels’s actions up to this point have now been recontextualised, and it's far too late to do anything about it. Angel has always been serious, the show has always been aware of this character as a damaged person, but now the lighting is different, and you aren’t shielded by the joke.

The punchline is the commitment to the bit.

Final Thoughts

I’ve seen a lot of praise online for this song, and while I agree that this song’s grip on you is unbreakable, I think that it gets outdone by the very next number.

I also want to point out why, in my opinion, episode four is the best in the series.

The show has a pacing problem, it’s in a hurry to tell its story because it’s had artificial constraints put upon it. But Masquerade takes its time and gives you a story without compromises and without outside input. In my eyes, this is a flawless episode of television.

Next week, we will stick with the episode, and look at Loser Baby, and how hope becomes triumph. Stick around if that interests you.

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[rebeccathornewrites]

Hello!! I just wanted to say thank you for writing such a lovely tale as Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea :) My friend and I read it together and we both really love it!! Our favorite part is that Reyna + Kianthe are already in a healthy, established relationship and then they grow and flourish throughout the book - queer romance stories (and straight romance stories too honestly) are almost always about falling in love and eventually “getting the girl/guy/partner” so it was SO refreshing to see a lovely lesbian couple from the very beginning 💖 Although the Meet & Greet at the end was a sweet touch at the end too :)

Also, as a writer myself, I loved reading your thread about how hard publishing is. I’m so glad your book finally became popular after never giving up, and I’m definitely going to look into your other books too! 🤩 The last five or so years I’ve been writing about lesbian sky pirates, so wish me luck for trying to finish that and eventually publish it! Thank you for inspiring me to write further and to never give up when it comes to writing and publishing! 💖

Ahhh, thank you so much!!! I definitely wanted to write a story where we get to see everything *after* Happily Ever After, because I think reading all those HEA stories was somewhat damaging to me in my 20s. Like, I’d been told for years that once I secured the person, we’d be happy together, and it’s that easy. And instead, I learned in my 30s after a series of failed relationships that, oh no, it actually takes work to keep a good relationship. LOL. It’s really important for me to portray that in my fiction!

Also, LESBIAN SKY PIRATES SOUNDS SO COOL. Never ever stop writing (unless you need a break, but then get back to it when you feel better!) because holy shit, we need books like that in the world!! All the best pursuing publication when you’re done with it!!

[rebeccathornewrites]

omgg haiii i’m literally reading your book rn i’m like. fifty pages in but it’s so cute!!!!! i love your writing style would eat 10/10

AHH thank you!!! That’s so incredibly kind!! :D I had a great time writing that book, and the sequels only get better!

[rebeccathornewrites]

My book is coming out in 5 days and i am so so so excited!!!!

It has lesbians. Sword / magic-weilding lesbians who flee all job responsibilities to open a bookstore that serves tea. And they fight dragons. It's epic. And cozy AF.

[rebeccathornewrites]

Please buy this queer AF book so I can munch on my girlfriend's home-baked bread EVERY DAY instead of watching her leave at 6am to work 10 hours at an engineering company k thx bye

This advertisement is for Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne, a cozy fantasy steeped in sapphic romance about one of the Queen’s private guards and a powerful mage who want to open a bookshop and live happily ever after…if only the world would let them. Cover art by Irene Huang.

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

All Reyna and Kianthe want is to open a bookshop that serves tea. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters…all complemented by love and good company. Thing is, Reyna works as one of the Queen’s private guards, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence. Leaving their lives isn’t so easy.

But after an assassin takes Reyna hostage, she decides she’s thoroughly done risking her life for a self-centered queen. What follows is a cozy tale of mishaps, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum.

[rebeccathornewrites]

I am obsessed with this list.

Can I have a smutty dictionary? Or a list of smutty words?

Sure! Now, this is definitely incomplete; these are the ones I use most often. If you have any to add, please do!

“The Smut Writer’s Dictionary”

Arousal/Anticipation

hot

warm

burn

ache

heat

swell

red/pink flush

roil

dizzy

foggy

rush of [heat, for example]

heavy

heady

intoxicating

thick [air/atmosphere]

thrum

ignite

desire

pulse quickened

tempt

tantalizing

throb

excite

prickle

tingle

turn on

What People Look Like

disheveled

blissed out

eyes glazed over

eyes rolled back in head

flushed

sweaty

glistening

mouth open

eyes closed

General Movement

clutch

crawl

slap

swat

smack

nuzzle

fidget

squirm

fast

slow

lift

fold

embrace

melt into/against

bend

shove

wiggle

wriggle

tuck

glide

clenching/unclenching

General Touching

caress

graze

brush

stimulate

flick

massage

skim

drag

shiver

goosebumps

flutter

grope

fondle

pet

pleasure [as in: pleasured himself]

nudge

stroke

feather-light

tease

probe

wander

knead

capture

grip

Kissing/Rimming

suck

bite 

nibble

lick

slide

wet

flick tongue at/against

bite

bury [his face] in

ravish

dip [tongue into]

weave lips together

capture [his] lips

press a kiss against

drop a kiss to [body part]

Noises

grunt

growl

moan

groan

sigh

breath hitching

gasp

sharp intake of breath

exhale

cry

keen

whimper

whine

hoarse

ragged

garbled

strangled

croak

shout

Verbs for Speaking

breathe

whisper

sigh

gasp

groan

moan

grunt

growl

order

snap

spat

cry

murmur

mumble

beg

whimper

whine

croak

Preparation

finger

open [himself] up

work [himself] open

pump [fingers/toy] in and out

spread

shove

slick/slicken

lubed [himself] up

Blow Job

lick

suck

envelop

wet

mouth at [something]

slobber

dripping

flick tongue at/against

blow

drool

Hand Job/Masturbation

pump

twist

squeeze

rub

fondle

cup

stroke

palm

tap

grip

Dry Humping

grind

rub

rock

hump

roll hips together/against

Fucking

push in

press in/against

slide in

breach

pop in

bury [himself] in/into/inside

in to the hilt

penetrate

sink down on

split open

tight

fill

roll

thrust

drive

pound

rock

bounce

buck

slam

meld

frantic

fuse

pace [fast or slow, for example]

clench

grind

Orgasm/Words for Feeling Pleasure

come/cum

climax

peak

topple over

fall over

tumble over

let go

spill

contract

convulse

writhe

quiver

shiver

shudder

shoot

tremble

ejaculate

pulse

pulsate

twitch

arch [his back]

blissed out

spasm

burst

reeling

throb

tremor

ecstasy

swallow

shockwaves

release

spurt

jerk

Taste

tangy

sweet

bitter

salty

Smell

musky

heady

intoxicating

tangy

sweet

Cooldown/Cleanup

sticky

sweaty

glistening

chest heaving

wipe

dab

wash

spent

soften

flagged [as in: his cock flagged]

fulfilled

satisfied

left reeling

cuddle

snuggle

plaster [as in: plastered themselves together OR plastered to each other’s side]

flop around

boneless

limp

Words to Describe Cock

cock

dick

shaft

tip

ridge

hard

firm

glisten

thick

length

red

flushed

engorged

throbbing

quivering

twitching

Words to Describe Feelings/Touches/Movements/Sensations

gentle

soft

rough

hard

fervid 

feverish

fervor

passionate

vulnerable

exposed

sensual

silky

fleeting

prickle

tingle

tender

warm

electric

spark

Misc. Smutty Words and Phrases

with abandon

need

want

overcome

erupt in [goosebumps, for example]

pliant

viscous

erotic

long for

yearn

yield

urge

bloom [as in: color bloomed across his cheeks]

intimate

relax

vigorous

thrill

[rebeccathornewrites]

not so much an ask so much as it is a comment, but i started the audiobook for 'this gilded abyss' last night and whenever natalie naudus read any of kessandra's lines i'm like "teehee" and kicking my feet like a teenage girl writing about her crush in her diary. she was such a good choice for the audiobook, omg. (also, i'm really enjoying the book so far!!)

RIGHT?? I listened to her reading Kessandra and just... swooned. She nailed that character. O.O

[rebeccathornewrites]

cozy wintery spidey-headcanon/maybe-prompt?: it‘s around christmas + peter is covering all the patrols for miles so that he can be with his mother but there are many things to be done in the parker household as well like day job work, gifts, decorations, christmas tree, planning christmas dinner etc and peter has been overworked for days + now he’s a bit beat up as well + when one evening he keeps falling asleep instead of/while doing stuff a pregnant mj calls miles for backup. spidey family ftw

Ooooh, I love this. O.O

I’m playing Spider-Man 2 right now, so my brain is whirling on fanfiction ideas. Issue is, I do this full-time now, so it’d have to be squeezed in between the other books I’m on deadline with...

Still.... very interested in this idea. >.> Hmm.....

[rebeccathornewrites]

I love Can't Spell Treason Without Tea and was very excited for A Pirate's Life for Tea, is there a reason I can't find it for purchase in print anywhere?

Ah, thank you so much!!

The Tomes & Tea quartet was actually purchased by a major publisher, and will be reprinted for a re-release in May 2024. Once they took over the books, they stopped printing the indie copies (the paperbacks currently in existence) to prepare for the reprint.

Basically, in a year, it’ll be in every Barnes and Noble... but for now, we’re in the famine phase. T.T

You CAN still get a hold of the ebook on Amazon, if you like to read that way! Or you can keep an eye on Ebay--sometimes used copies appear. I’m anticipating Pirates will be re-released in late summer 2024, so hopefully it won’t be too long to wait. :)

I hope that helps!!

[rebeccathornewrites]

That would be so, so weird, wouldn't it. >.>

thinking about whale falls

(inspired by the work of @catadromously )

[rebeccathornewrites]

do u have an offical ship name for nix and kess? i NEED to make content of them

The joke between my girlfriend and I is “Kix,” since that entire book feels like a kick in the chest. But I’m also partial to Kessix, because it sounds cool.

So, no. Up to you guys! Haha!

[rebeccathornewrites]

whos taller nix or kess? i would love a visual representation

Kess, hands-down. Nix is probably 3 or 4 inches shorter, and absolutely loathes it. XD

[rebeccathornewrites]

i know you don’t post spider-man content anymore but i just wanted to let you know that with the release of the new insomniac spider-man sequel trailers coming out i’ve been thinking a lot about ur fics!!! they inspired me a lot to write and publish stuff to ao3 all those years ago and since then ive grown so much as a writer!!! thank you so much for the inspiration, keep up the great work!!

AH.

AHHH.

The way I *screamed* reading this. Holy shit, thank you SO MUCH.

I still adore Spider-Man, and am SO STOKED for the new game. I'm sure I'll dive back into the fandom for a bit after I play it, just because game-MJ is such a badass and other iterations don't do her justice. And Peter is so cute. They feel like my best friends. XD

The fact that I inspired you to write, and you're noticing improvement is legit what makes me SO HAPPY though. Writing has been such a wonderful retreat for me, and I'm so excited to hear you're watching yourself improve in real time!!

Keep writing!! You're killing it! :D :D

[rebeccathornewrites]

This Gilded Abyss is fabulous!!! I haven’t been this hooked on a book in months, it’s hard to put down! I even read a few chapters during work hours when my boss was in a closed door meeting, ssshhh, don’t tell on me! 😝 Heading into the last 100 pages, can’t wait to finish it!

HA! Oh my gosh, I'm so, so excited to hear it!! That book took me a while, because I wanted to make sure the twists hit home. This makes me so happy! :D Enjoy that ending! >.>