#floriqly

[corpse-art]

Hello Corpse! This is sort of a random ask, I’ll be honest—but I just wanted to gush on about something I absolutely adore regarding Hush Now, which is just how human the characters feel. I feel as though with a lot of popular superhero-centric media, we only really get to see a surface-level view of the characters’ personal lives. As a result of that, I believe it’s difficult to become attached to the villains, especially. When stories do try and get you to sympathize with the villains, usually it’s done exclusively through appealing to the audience’s empathy—like providing reason(s) to understand their motivations, or why exactly they do what they do.

With Hush Now, though, we’re not made fond of the characters solely by how easy it is to empathize with their situations—we’re made fond of them on account of how intricate and utterly real they feel. (You briefly mentioned in one of your newer posts that you really like reflecting all sides of being human—the good and the complicated—so i just wanted to let you know you’re indeed doing a fantastic job of it!)

Despite how little we currently know about Wilbur’s past and mental health alike in Hush Now, I absolutely don’t doubt that as readers we’ll end up feeling empathy for him and his situation. However, something I absolutely love is how incredibly attached I am to Wil despite not even knowing enough of his situation to have empathy yet. The reason I feel so attached to him, as well as all of the other characters, is a result of the little, personal things we know about them—the things that make them feel so real, so layered and so darn lovable. We know that Wil likes collecting sand in little jars, and that he has an ancient t-shirt with a hole by the armpit; we know about Techno’s partiality towards portobello mushroom burgers and jewelry, and we know about Dream’s habit of snacking on apples. These details probably seem insignificant in the scheme of things, but I think they’re adorable, and really help the readers realize that hey, they’re just people, like you and me.

Additionally, because I get swept away in who these characters are as people, I oftentimes completely forget about the fact these characters are meant to play the roles of heroes and villains. Your ability to make them so endearing and interesting has managed to make me forget about the literal plot of the story, because I get so enamored with just the slice-of-life and relationship-building aspects of it. Arguably, the whole “superhero and supervillain” plot should be the most interesting thing about it, but I’m already completely enamored with the fic when we’ve yet to even get into the full swing of things. You don’t need to rely on the interesting setting of the AU to carry the story and keep people invested—the way you’ve built up the characters alone is enough to do so. I can’t even begin to touch on how incredibly awesome that is of you as an author to be able to pull off.

It makes it all the more exhilarating when I do remember their juxtapositions, because I realize, ‘oh my goodness, I’m so attached to them that the inevitable angst is going to hurt so, so bad’. (This is me begging to be spared, Tumblr-user corpseart my beloved… I love angst, and you write it terrifyingly well, but I am hoping so badly that there is a happy ending at the end of this all. I don’t expect a direct response to this specifically, since I very much respect your decision to completely avoid giving away anything plot-related—I am just merely planting the seed of mercy in your head, is all. Taking one for the team, as a brave solider should… and wishing I had Tommy’s canonical puppy-dog eyes right now.)

I sincerely apologize that this ended up so long; don’t feel pressured to respond to it at all! I tend to be a fiend when it comes to analysis, and usually end completely carried away. Just wanted to dote on your writing, since I and many others genuinely love the story you’ve created. Regardless, I do hope you’re having a fantastic night / morning! :D

It’s four am and you’ve rendered me completely and utterly speechless. 

I don’t know how I can even properly go about expressing how absolutely wonderfully happy you just made me. Don’t apologize, not for this, I’m eternally grateful you took the time to write out and share this with me. 

This is one of the loveliest compliments I’ve ever gotten.

Every single word is greatly treasured. Just-- thank you.

[angeloncewas]

oh goodness - I must legitimately be living under a rock, because I’m embarrassed to admit I really had no idea there was toxicity regarding mcc, haha. 😭 I knew there was some controversy regarding Hbomb’s glitching during HitW, and the hilarious (I’m so sorry, but I was in stitches) infamous Philza Ace Race misdirection - but other than that, I realize I’m kind of in the dark about it all.

I don’t go on twitter much, myself - only to boost artists I love on there when I see they’ve uploaded something new on other platforms, so that’s probably a reason I hadn’t seen the backlash. I’m wary of twitter in general, too. as far as tumblr goes, I only really follow analyses blogs, since I’m mostly interested in the dsmp storyline and not in mcyt as a whole.

oh! I digress - so sorry to ask you this, if you’re not particularly knowledgeable on it - but what exactly is it that causes the controversy? would you say it’s just fans’ competitive nature when it comes to rooting for their teams? (I’m honestly feeling a bit like Aang from atla right now - woke up from my 100-year nap to utter war and chaos among the nations. and, like Aang, I’m utterly confused and frantically looking back-and-forth trying to figure out what happened. it’s both incredibly funny and simultaneously anxiety-inducing.)

no pressure to respond to any of this, by the way! as I said, I’m not too knowledgeable on the situation, so if this is likely to open a can of worms definitely feel free to disregard the ask.

mm, regardless, I hope you’re having a great day / night! :D

WOW ! I mean good for you (/gen) but you definitely have been living under a rock lol. I hope it's been cozy. I used to be dsmp-only too, but then I got swept up in the cc world. Stay strong out there aifjedkf.

Anyway, yeah. I really can only speculate what the root of the issue is. While competitiveness surely plays a role, I honestly think it has less to do with that and more to do with the pre-existing animosity I mentioned. When fans of H talk about Dream, for example, they feel like it's fair and just retribution for what Dream said about H - which is significant enough on its own - but I actually think it goes deeper than that, because there has to be some reason why people pointed out Dream specifically and not the other ccs involved.

I'm always cautious about saying stuff like this since it's common knowledge that I like him, but Dream is easy to hate. When someone's already admitted to cheating in an event-thing and has a somewhat spotty past, no one bats an eye when you level more and more accusations against him. His fans get defensive, then get called crazy or stupid or blind sheep, and the cycle continues.

People have been arguing that Dream is too competitive and has ruined the event for other players, which to me feels like too much speculation of other ccs personal feelings. A little slash parasocial if you'll pardon my use of buzzwords. But that isn't to say that I don't understand the other side. They're the downtrodden, the underappreciated. Their ccs are overshadowed and their opinions are ignored. They feel like Dream gets away with everything while their ccs get neg tags trended every other day. It's infuriating, I get it.

I don't know if this makes any sense. I like most of the people (ccs and fans) involved and I don't think any of this is really important or worth arguing about, but it's already happening so that's that. The fandom is restless and finger-pointy and every time one side gets upset, the other side tries to defend themselves, and so on.

(Sorry if this doesn't make any sense :') am kinda out of it. I hope you're having a good day/night as well and that this isn't causing too much anxiety or anything - remember to take care of yourself !!)

[corpse-art]

This is sort of out of the blue, but I just wanted you to know I may have accidentally Pavlov’d myself into associating Hershey’s cookies & cream-flavored chocolate kisses with Hush Now. I’ve just happened to be coincidentally snacking on them at the same time the last two updates came out, so now I am haunted. I realized this when I had one yesterday and went, ‘hold on… did I miss an update, or am I tripping?’ I was indeed tripping. Then the realization set in.

I think the point of this it that I hope the next time you have cookies & cream or white chocolate, you think of this, and I successfully Pavlov you. Think of it as recompense for the angst I know you’re going to put us through. (/lh of course; I, unfortunately, eagerly await the heartache. Honestly, you’re writing the build-up so well, I can’t help but look forward to it. :D

…even though I am very, very scared.)

Sklfhs, I mean, if you're gonna accidentally Pavlov yourself Hershey's cookies and cream flavoured chocolate has to be a top choice. Not that I've ever had them, they don't sell 'em here, but ya know, I imagine they must be good.

Actually, I'm the kind of heathen who have never had any cookies and cream anything. Maybe I will try them one day, and my brain will subconsciously recall this ask and your plotting will all fall in place.

I'm glad you're enjoying the build-up because the hush train is picking up speeeed :)