#also I'm glad Iris helped you remember love for SE

[marshmallowprotection]

KAAAAIT I just finished reading your fic Iris, and I just wanted to GUSH.

I absolutely loved how you handled the themes in the story. It felt so real and studied and had me completely wrapped up in it from start to end. The tension mixed with the tender moments had me hooked completely ahhhgg. I loved how the story explored different moments in the past interspersed with the present because it really do be like that when you're going through trauma omg. I also really loved seeing the exploration of all the loose ends that weren't really tied off in the secret endings, especially as they connected to the ways Another Story explored them.

Not gonna lie, goddd it got me thinking so hard about if MC in Another Story was actually Iris from your story... just if Ray had acted before they could join Mint Eye themself in the AS universe. Not me totally naming the in-game MC Iris moving forward because I am a huge sucker for the idea that they are soulmates that will find each other no matter the timeline...... ;_; 💞

Thank you for the incredible story!! I'm always excited to read your works, and I can't wait to go through more of them! I've been going through some rough stuff as of late, and your stories have been helping me a lot with that ❤️

Thank you for enjoying Iris! That story was an actual labor of love because ever since 2016, I wanted to write something about being Unknown's assistant, but I could never figure out how I wanted it to be. I'm glad I waited because I figured it out eventually, and I so very dearly love Unknown and SE Saeran as characters. I might be one of the resident Ray Stans, but make no mistake, I fell in love with those two at the beginning. I see myself in them. Which is why it was damn important to me to make sure I handled that situation right.

Iris is a reflection of what trauma does to you and to everyone around you. It's about what happens when you hurt people intentionally and unintentionally, and how you figure out just how to make something of your life after hitting rock bottom. Saeran's story is one that many can relate to, and I hope people see themselves in Iris when they're in the process of unpacking the story.

Shifting between the past and present was a very pointed plan. As Saeran remembers more and more of his past, the more he starts seeing what he did with Iris... the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beauty in it all. I do hope the little surprise with you know who at the end was worth it considering the story was building up to that from the get-go. I left little crumbs for that but I'm happy to hear someone liked that!

Iris is one of my favorite Reader-Insert characters.

Here, I'll give you a little fun fact from that story since you sent me a review. Did you know in the story I'm Saeran's therapist? Nobody has ever noticed that and I figured it's time to drop that fact.

[marshmallowprotection]

Would SE Saeran allow Mc to take photos with him. Similar to how GE loves taking pictures together with MC, I was wondering if SE would allow that too? I would love to just have a picture of me kissing his cheek while he looks at the phone camera, (like how MC kissed GE in the passport book) I’d save it as my Home Screen. Or even off guard photos of him staring at the sky or looking at flowers. But I would never want to do that, if he’s uncomfortable with it.

And idk if this makes sense bc this is slightly off topic, but although SE sees himself as someone tainted, I can image he looks at the sky and nature with childlike wonder and purity, that’s a sight I would love taking pictures of. I just never viewed him as someone corrupted, just a victim of a corrupted system yknow? I just think he’d look ethereal, admiring the nature around him. Or even the idea of making him fully laugh, not just chuckle, would probably be the end of me. Your Iris fanfic has dragged me into remembering my 2016 crush on this man, you can’t keep catching me Lackin like this. Reminding me why I love SE just as much as GE.

SE Saeran is wholeheartedly a victim of his environment. He struggles a lot to make sense of everything that he went through and there are the good days and bad days. There are times when he doesn't know what to do with himself. It's hard for him to be able to focus on what he's supposed to do when he never planned for anything to happen after he got his revenge. 

As it turned out, revenge isn't something that was going to make him happy. It also wasn't going to sustain him. Going through that realization and crisis definitely weighed on his shoulders. He tends to keep away from other people because he doesn't understand them and he doesn't want to repeat what he already went through.

He has a lot of trust issues. That doesn't mean everybody is out to get him or hurt him. It just means that he has a hard time believing that anybody has good intentions in their heart. Every time he got close to someone who promised him something good, it wound up blowing up in his face. 

He was tricked and used for everything that he was worth, and for nothing. You're the only person that he feels like he can be close to because you don't overwhelm him or pressure him to be someone that he isn't. You let him set the stage and the pace. He gets to decide what's okay for him and you always make sure to confirm his consent before anything happens. It works so well because you just know how to click with each other.

It's taken him a long time to be able to look in the mirror. He really doesn't like the way that he looks. 

There's a reason why he bleached his hair so aggressively that it took months for it to fade out. He has a hard time looking at himself because now all that he can see is somebody who did something that he can never take away or take back. 

That can be really difficult to stomach sometimes and it just reminds him of everything that he's trying to run away from. He is trying to move forward but it's hands are covered in blood every night that he wakes up from a nightmare. He is getting help with these things in therapy but it takes a lot of time and care.

He isn't even really around technology that much anymore if he can help it because it just isn't something that he wants to deal with. He just wants to go outside and look at the sky as much as he wants. That's all that he wants to do. It may not be exciting or overwhelming, but it's what makes him happy and really after everything he went through, it's what he deserves. You seem to understand that and support it.

So, take photos with him... he’s okay with it. It’s a reminder that he’s free and he can be happy with you. He doesn’t have many photos but he likes to take them of you more than anything. He has photos of what he loves and you’re in that, he only takes photos when you’re in them with him, or when you ask him. It’s just a gift for you since he knows that he has a lot of limitations that may make you sad to realize. 

A rare smile will appear on his lips when he sees your home screen is the two of you.