#LISTEN strip it down and I'm writing a fic about two trolls who are in a very healthy loving relationship. they communicate. they're in lov

[birchbow]

Thank you for PoF it literally rewired my brain a normal amount eons ago when I first read it. Every time I make a new character for anything and I start to worry maybe they're just a little too unhinged, I remember PoF, and know that I'm valid and so are my insane little horny characters 😌❤️

I am so excited that you say this because it's important to my heart! Insane little characters with strong wild opinions or reckless horniness or huge blind spots or weird personality quirks or frequent fuckups they often learn very little from are the heart of stories that keep my interest and provoke reaction from me as a reader!!!!

Let every character be a character!! I have never been more bored as a fanfiction reader than the other day, when I read a fic where only the villains were allowed to be rude or irrational or petty or angry without immediately apologizing in uniformly articulate and modern "I've learned what people are supposed to say in apologies" speak. Because they're a Main Character! They're a Good Guy! But sometimes good guys and main characters are going to fuck up!! Sometimes they're going to be bizarre! Sometimes they're going to be at odds with other characters who are Good Guy Main Characters, over things that may or may not be a big deal for their characters!

Listen!! Sometimes I write a character talking shit and I'm wincing the whole time, not just because they're being an asshole, but because I know they're going to double down on it later! Because they just,,, don't think or feel the same things as the person they're being an asshole to! Do I the author agree with one more? Probably! Do I necessarily have to resolve "and this one was right, so the other one apologized"? No! Characters conflict with the other characters! It's uncomfortable to write sometimes! But my level of comfort or discomfort with the uncomfortable is part of writing stories where THINGS HAPPEN and goddammit I am out here for things happening otherwise what is even the point. >8U

[thelifetimechannel]

Well, us lgbt peeps are getting our youth centers set on fire, we're being kicked out of the military, and the SCOTUS is just about to let businesses discriminate against us, but i'm glad we have people like you to erase what little positive representation we get! When only bigots are pissed about rosemary "Trying to make everyone happy" equals "Trying to make the bigots happy". You don't have to answer this, just think about it. Your work already has that reputation. Do you want it to stick?

Let’s assuage one concern right off the bat. Rosemary is going to be fine. Rose talks about backing off, but in the same conversation she admits she’s being silly and overreacting. Earlier in canon, she assumes Kanaya wants to break up with her and claims “my girlfriend thinks I’m an idiot”. With her insecure belief that Kanaya is disappointed in her, a brief consideration of following in her family’s footsteps and bailing seemed in character to me. But she knows that’s kneejerk and prompted by insecurity rather than reality, and instead, she’s going to talk to her about their issues. A truly revolutionary move, to be sure. 

I have those conversations written. I did research, to more confidently write about how addiction can strain relationships and hurt the people you love. I wanted to explore what their dynamic looks like now with all those stressors in play and give them a chance to talk it out and make their relationship stronger. So Rosemary will be fine. Don’t worry about them.

With that out of the way, I’m tucking the rest of our responses under a cut.

Pal. Anon. Buddy. 

Yes, these are scary fucking times right now. A lot of people are frightened and for very good reason. A lot of people feel powerless to do anything against the soulless wastes of skin in the US government. A lot of people are lashing out at things they think they can control instead. I understand turning to fiction when times are stressful; if someone finds solace in my work, even for an hour or two, that makes me more glad than words can properly express at 2 AM. 

However, what I’m not appreciating is taking that stress out on queer content creators themselves. Further more, I get the funny feeling - something I’ve been getting for a long time now - that your message was made less as a letter to the editor from a genuinely concerned reader. Because, you know, we’ve gotten messages like this before. Instead, it sounds like a blatant co-opting of these very real, very scary issues in order to moralize why you don’t like a fan fiction that has less than 250 favs on MSPFA. 

This is not the first time we’ve received a message like this on this blog and I suspect it won’t be the last. But I’m writing a draft response this time instead of Kat because I saw this first and it’s 2:30 AM and I am very, very, VERY tired of this goddamn concern trolling.  

Canon, Anon, is always going to be there, will always have Rosemary, and will literally always be fathoms more popular than my dorky fan comic. Rosemary will continue to be an extremely popular canon ship. Rosemary ain’t going anywhere because of one fanfic that doesn’t have as much of a focus on it. Emphasis: as much of a focus. It’s what we call a “gen fic”. Calm down. 

I get getting defensive about your ships when people are assholes about it. But if homophobic a-holes are drawn to my comic because we’re not heavy on gay ships because that’s where the story is right now, that is on them. And there are much better ways to deal with that problem than sending passive-aggressive notes to small fry like us because we’re not dropping everything and scrambling to get more shipping content onscreen. Yeah, we’re right there. Our inbox is open. I get it, it’s easy to take our your fear and your anger with messages like this because we are such small time members of the community. But will you please grab some patience? Holding off because it’s not the right moment for it to be in the story =/= erasure, we will get there, and we will get there after I get some freaking shut eye so I can wake up so I can draw the next flash and the next update. Rinse. Repeat. 

Also literally every time I have drawn Rose onscreen for months now she’s been in one of Kanaya’s shirts. If you’re going to criticize my comic, at least do me the decency of sounding like you’ve read it first. 

-Gill

For once, I’m going to be the crankier one. 

Simply, how dare you? How dare you waltz into our inbox pretending that any of this is new to us? Neither of us is cis or straight. I select nonbinary on anonymous surveys and then turn around to put female on official paperwork because my state doesn’t include sexual orientation or gender identity as protected categories for employees. I came home from rallying in front of my scumbag senator’s local office for health care and called him up about the military ban. I have poured so much mental time into this project partly because it’s a relief to have a distraction from the world falling down around me. And you pop in to compare two queer content creators to the people in power stripping their rights away. You even write that you’re not looking for a response. You’re not looking for a conversation. I’m 99% sure that you’re the same anon we’ve gotten over and over again claiming we have a “bad reputation” when you’re the one person who keeps yelling at us, and you completely ignore everything we say to you in favor of harassing us. Do you go through AO3 leaving these comments on everything that doesn’t meet your specifications? Is this fun for you?

I have tried many responses every time you reappear in our inbox. I have expressed sympathy toward your frustration. I have provided detailed explanations of why our project is the way it is. I pointed you in the direction of projects that might be more your speed. I’ve offered to write fic for you personally, for god’s sake. But I’m done. I’m tired. I get it - you’re scared. I’m scared. We’re all scared. And when it seems like no one’s listening and there’s nothing you can do, you want to hit out at something. You want to find an enemy and slay it so you stop feeling so powerless. I can relate. Take that impulse and do something constructive with it. Call a representative. Volunteer at a local activist group, if you’ve got the time, accessibility, spoons, etc. I know it feels like spitting into a wildfire, believe me, but it can help lift a little of the emotional weight of feeling entirely helpless. But us tearing each other apart isn’t going to help anything, and life is hard enough right now without me allowing myself to be your punching bag.

Further asks on this will go unanswered.

- Kat