991 i hav emerjenci
Wow, what an absolute dumpster fire, right? *gestures broadly* ↓Below the cut↓ are some specific things as a reader/mutual/friend/etc you can do that will make things a little better.
You come across someone posting/using someone else's work without express permission to do so:
INFORM THE ORIGINAL CREATOR/POSTER (OP) DIRECTLY
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✧ Let OP know BEFORE you attempt to engage with the person on their behalf.
✧ OP will probably want to lay eyes on the situation, and, if the person stealing their work is tipped off, they might proactively block OP and/or remove posts before they can be verified as stolen.
✧ Do not harass the person who stole the work. It might be coming from a place of wanting to stick up for OP, but it ultimately doesn't help the situation.
OP is experiencing a hate brigade, nasty anons, or trolling over their fic:
PRIORITIZE ACTIONS AND BEHAVIORS THAT KEEP THE FOCUS ON SUPPORT FOR OP
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✧ Reblog the fic in question with a glowing recommendation or just leave a comment under it expressing your appreciation for it. Both actions will boost the work in question as well as show direct support for OP.
✧ Reach out privately through DMs if you have that sort of relationship, or send a supportive message through asks. Keep it simple and short as they are probably overwhelmed with the shitstorm at certain points.
✧ Speaking up with a supportive comment or post for OP isn't necessarily a bad thing, but arguing back and forth with the trolls/hate brigade/etc. - even if you are doing it with intention to support OP - only fuels the fire, and some of them are doing it for the attention anyway.
OP seems down / isn't motivated to write / is expressing considerations of leaving fic writing altogether because of the current climate on this hellsite:
GIVE THEM THE SPACE OR TIME THEY NEED, BUT ALSO LET THEM KNOW THAT THEY ARE VALUED
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✧ For the love of god please don't bombard them with asks about when xyz is going to be posted. This is a hobby for them, and they have jobs, families, and other life responsibilities that come first. Many would love nothing more than to sit and write all day, but that just isn't the reality for 99% of fic writers.
✧ Show their older works love, too. Many fic writers take the time to curate an organized masterlist of their works, and many have been writing for a while. There is a trove of wonderful content that can be read or re-read while you patiently wait for your fave to update.
✧ If you're waiting for an update on a specific fic, go back through the older chapters/updates and leave a comment saying you love it so much that you're coming back to visit older chapters while you wait to see what happens next in the story. I guarantee it will give them a boost of motivation for that story in particular.
✧ REBLOG AND COMMENT. Yes, do both of those things. I want you open up a fic you love and scroll down to the bottom where you can see likes, comments, and reblogs. I want you to look at the disparity between likes and comments/reblogs. Clicking a heart button is pretty much zero effort, and it comes across as such to many writers. It's not how Tumblr operates. This is a REBLOG site. That is how things make their way around. That is how posts get engagement. That is how other people can discover the fic writers you enjoy. Look, I even made a meme to show you what it feels like when after hours and hours of writing and editing you finally post a fic and then somebody only hearts it:
Even a simple "I loved this so much and can't wait to read more!" does wonders. A quick reblog that mentions your favorite part in the story is like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow for writers.
You come across people trashing a writer you like:
CONSIDER IF IT'S HELPFUL OR NOT TO ADDRESS IT
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✧ People are allowed to have negative/differing opinions about things. If they are expressing their dislike, even in a nasty way, they are allowed to do so.
✧ If it is a genuinely harmful/disparaging conversation, look to see what sort of traction the conversation has. Sometimes it's better to just let something die down before it can even take off. Examples of genuinely harmful/disparaging conversation include but aren't limited to: accusing OP of something egregious without any evidence to support it, framing rumors/gossip they've seen about OP as factual, deeming them criminally or morally corrupt based off a personal opinion they have of OP/their works.
✧ Remember that while serious concerns (like the above point) might be good to share with OP, not every instance of negativity or hate needs to be brought to their attention. If it's just some random jerk on a different platform talking about how much OP's writing is amateur hour, you should probably just leave it be. OP is a person at the end of the day, and sometimes things can be more hurtful than helpful for them to see.
OP isn't acting / responding in a way that you like:
REMIND YOURSELF THAT THEY ARE JUST ANOTHER PERSON IN THE FANDOM AND ARE NOT AN INFLUENCER
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✧ OP isn't in this fandom to be put on a pedestal (of course there are always exceptions, but I'm not talking about those people) and treated like an influencer.
✧ OP creates works in the fandom because that is how they choose to engage with the fandom. It is one of many ways that people can come together in a community and celebrate an actor/movie/series/etc.
✧ OP is not a content farm. They are writing and sharing because they genuinely enjoy it. They are not being compensated. They are not being endorsed by anybody or any company. They are a normal person trying to take part in a fandom they enjoy.
✧ OP is not obligated to address or comment on a situation, an interaction, discourse, etc. They are not an influencer and aren't equivalent to the parasocial relationships that influencers (aka people who make a living off the internet) have with their followers. OP is not required to "use their platform" for something. It's not a platform. It is OP's personal account where they engage and post in fandom. That is why it exists. OP is not some mega entity that has to speak on something because you demand or expect it.
OP blocked me:
THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE
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✧ Listen, I know it can be hurtful/confusing if you are blocked, especially if it is a writer you really like. I guarantee you that it was not done out of spite and for no reason.
✧ Take a look at the circles you run in, the posts you like, the sort of comments you leave, etc. Many writers are quick to block these days because the climate of this hellsite is very charged and exhausting. If OP sees your username cropping up again and again in fandom drama or you liked a discourse post with a shitty take or your chummy mutual is going off the rails with some bullshit, you might just get caught up in the Block Party.
✧ Don't go through another channel/account to ask why you've been blocked. No, you aren't entitled to a reason. OP is allowed to protect their mental health and peace, and they don't owe anyone an explanation of why and how they choose to curate their experience on this hellsite.
✧ If you believe you were blocked by mistake (which, again, is very unlikely), just take the L, homie. I know that's not what you want to hear, but that's just how it is.
If you took the time to read this, share it, or just in general intend to apply it to your interactions, ✨thank you✨!
Here is a Pedro gif tax for your time and attention. 💜
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WIP excerpt for Mango Bat; obligatory sugar baby Kon.
Tim, unintentionally, ends up in the Justice Cave Thursday night. Well–Robin does, anyway. There's some hard files Bruce needs that he left here last weekend, because Bruce never tells anyone he needs anything until he is literally physically incapable of avoiding it and so he didn't know not to leave them here.
Tim didn't get into being an emotional support sidekick expecting much aside from a less-vengeful Batman out of it, obviously, but it'd still be nice to occasionally get communicated with. Like, just for the novelty factor, if nothing else.
He collects the files, and while he's double-checking that he's got them all, a cloud of beige smoke spills into the room and materializes into Suzie before he can grab his rebreather. Tim knows, factually, that Suzie is gaseous and therefore not always in an obviously human shape, but after growing up in Gotham, land of fear gas and Joker gas, there's some instincts that are a little hard to shake.
“Robin!” she says delightedly while he's calming his heart rate, flying over to him with a surprisingly excited expression. He feels a brief flash of guilt remembering that she's probably been alone most of the week. Really, Suzie isn't in an ideal living situation either, but she also doesn't have any physical needs and can't pass for a normal human and is being actively hunted by a dubiously moral government organization, so . . .
Fuck, Tim thinks.
. . . maybe he can move Suzie into Kon's future cul-de-sac later, if he gets him one in a quiet enough area. Or maybe it'll be time to burn down the world as a supervillain before that and she can just live wherever she likes. Just–she's on his to-do list now, either way. And now that he’s thinking about it, maybe Cissie would be better off with a place to live that wasn’t either a boarding school or her mother, and–
Maybe he can just buy a whole neighborhood and move everyone he knows into it. Maybe that's an option.
He'll start some soft plans and go from there, Tim figures. Once he’s got things settled with Kon, at least, since he’s the one currently in the shitty cloning lab. At least Suzie’s not in a lab anymore.
God, why is this a concern in their lives, whether or not any of them are in labs or not? Also why was he not more concerned by this sooner, all things considered?
Or, like, why don’t any of the adults in Kon’s damn life care about him in any way that is even remotely visible from an outsider perspective. Or that.
Tim’s pretty sure any relevant “caring” wouldn’t even be visible from Kon’s perspective, given the way he talks and how sure he was that Robin wouldn’t think there was anything weird or wrong or straight-up ethically appalling about him professionally risking his life for a shitty cloning lab for room and board and literally nothing else.
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I've been reading, but didn't have time to sit down and do this, so you're getting a bit of a mess in this one, sorry about that!
I want to clarify, before starting, that if I ask questions to the void in these posts, or if I wonder very loudly about something, I'm not really looking for answers immediately nor am I doubting that things will be explained later, I promise I trust the process. If something's going to be explained, somewhere in the books, I'll get there eventually, I promise I will. You have probably noticed by now but, if you give me a hint, I'm gonna grab onto it for dear life, so better not give me anything at all. Just leave me here to die, I beg you.
previously, in harrowberry the ninth:
this happened
currently, chapters 17-19:
I'm gonna start by the end, actually
which maybe is fitting for this book
but I'll start by the end because I have a new theory and I feel this one in my bones
(pun intended)
I might be totally off but I'm gonna say it anyway because I'm excited about this one
so much so that you'll get no memes while I explain it
it's about G and P
yes, I know, I'm fixated with that, but hear me out
I think Lyctortus isn't actually called Ortus
I think his name is Gideon
let me explain
at the end of chapter 19 (I'll get there, but I need this off my chest, I really do) harrow asks mercygirl why ortus the first wants her dead
to which mercygirl distractedly answers "who?"
that's the last thing I read so far, but it got my wheels turning so fast I came running to write it down
I thought "wait, what if, just like ortus is replacing gideon in the gideon-less re-telling, the name is also a replacement?"
so I went to the character list and lyctortus's cavalier was called pyrrha
so what if they're G and P
Gideon and Pyrrha the Second
and what if the Gideon in the paper was this guy
so this is not a case of Ortus 1 and 2 but of Gideon 1 and 2
not!dulcinea told our gideon "you're very brave—a bit like another Gideon I used to know. But you're prettier in the eyes"
which is, all things considered, actually funny, because it's a reversal of what mercygirl was saying, that yandere twin and harrow aren't as pretty as their predecessors
I'm gonna risk looking like a fool later and calling this now because I really feel this one
again, let me clarify, I'm not asking you to tell me whether I'm right or wrong or anything at all, I'm just placing my bets with myself
and I know starting by the end isn't really the best way to go about a recap, but I think I'm on to something
MOVING BACK, to chapter 17
harrow starts looking into mercygirl for her new and probably not improved diary, because she knows less things now
augustine the saint of annoyance tells harrow that mercygirl and him are the oldest lyctors in the band and that it took generations for these space planet destroyers to assemble
emperor john silver tells harrow that his stupid nicknames that don't fit were meant to represent the cavaliers and not the necros
of course augustine's brother was patient, he had to put up with augustine
mercygirl is also a body expert
an anatomist, if you will
which will come in handy later/earlier (later in the reading order, earlier in the timeline order)
augustine says that he didn't bother learning that because the only use for it would be to kill lyctors
tbh it'd come in handy right now that I want to kill him, but I digress
here, harrow again mentions that ortus the first (also known as lyctortus, also known as allegedly gideon the first, also known as I'm super super sure of this you guys) wants her dead
CHAPTER 18
we're back on canaan house in the gideon-less version
these are the chapters I'm having the most fun with, which wasn't what I expected
I don't know why, I really like this whole re-written mystery thing
the slasher film vibes have doubled this time
I keep drawing parallels and enjoying my time with these old and new friends
and, talking about old and new friends, judith is dead
remember judith? remember how she died?
it wasn't like this
in this gideon-less version, instead of becoming besties with the sixth, harrow and ortus have become besties with the fifth
because 1) the fifth didn't die and 2) the fifth is in a polycule with ortus
with gideon there, they befriended the sixth because gideon saw camilla fight 5 seconds and was like "she's friend shaped :)"
so, the fifth and the ninth are taking care of judith's corpse
she was shot repeatedly with a carbine rifle
harrow says "it would have been like being set upon by a ghost out of time"
gonna put that in the 3d model
martita is outside and she's the only pseudo witness to this situation
the gideon-less version of the deaths so far is being handled like this
martita says to harrowbean "why am I here?"
she explains that they were doing the two door test thingy and, while she was in the other room, judith was shot
now, here's the thing
I thought the Sleeper that had been mentioned was the construct thing but no, it's not
it's a new thing
I'm picturing sorta this
it very well could be a person though
it's person shaped
huh
it's in a coffin where it sleeps unless it's woken up, but they don't know how it wakes up, because martita went to town kicking and punching the coffin after judith was obliterated and nothing happened
and what keeps it contained, snow white style, isn't plex glass, plex or glass
ortus proceeds to say a eulogy
martita says "Is this really how it happens?" like we've been hearing all this time
harrowbean tries to make her feel better by telling her that, at least judith died quickly
mmm...about that
martita says "No. That's not...Don't know why I thought...No."
martita doesn't know judith died slowly and painfully and wrong about everything btw, she died first, it memory serves
but still, savage
harrow regrets not telling ortus to take the pledge of silence and says "but only a very obedient idiot of a cavalier would have stuck to that"
she's your obedient idiot, though, harrow
so, the rundown is this:
the sleeper can move
the sleeper can pass necromantic wards
the sleeper shouldn't be waken
people don't know what wakes it
it has a rifle
the sleeper is lying on top of sword that's a two-hander
me, having breakfast while reading this
I didn't mention this but
harrow and abby say that judith was killed by a deadly shot and then was subsequently used for target practice and left like a colander without any reason for it
judith disrespected camilla, so
that's what you get, bitch
CHAPTER 19
we travel in time, but in the timeline of the emperor's bolthole
because WHY NOT, AT THIS POINT
we're keeping track anyway *picks back up the timeline I keep discarding and re-using*
this one is 10 months before the emperor johnny boy is ended, so this is before what we've been reading
we are told the following essential info:
harrow has written a letter for yandere twin in case of harrow's death that says: "Get what joy you can from my corpse, you devious bitch"
filed under potential resignation letter drafts
apparently a lyctor can live without food but not without water
so harrowcita is getting herself a sopita
and then lyctortus also known as I'm sure he's gideon the first stabs her
this tiny baby kitten with her sopita
man has no heart
no decency
no decorum
not his real name, according to me
mercygirl helps harrow with a lot of skill (those anatomy skills we talked about) but not much empathy
she tells alleged gideon who goes by ortus, when he says "I do things face-to-face" that "that is what got you into trouble nineteen years ago"
HELLO TIMELINE
nineteen years ago takes us back to the whole leader of the BOE going missing and gideon's mom drifting into space and the person sent with the eggs and all that
well, the eggs thing isn't directly related yet but I'm relating it
especially since there were lies involved and somebody sent to placate another somebody
DUDE CAN YOU IMAGINE
IF HE WAS INVOLVED WITH GIDEON'S MOM IN SOME WAY
AND OUR GIDEON IS NAMED AFTER THIS GIDEON????
LIKE ON PURPOSE????
HELLO?????????
AGAIN, NOBODY TELL ME, I'M ASKING AT THE VOID
YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE IMPULSE OF TELLING ME BUT DON'T DO IT
I'm making up telenovela theories about how this gideon could be involved into our gideon's mom business and our gideon being named after him
and gideon's superpowers of being hercules having something to do with all this
I need to stop before I say too much and then feel embarrassed at my theories
ALSO
gideon ortus wants harrow's sword
harrowbean doesn't want to give it to him
it is at this point when mercygirl says "who?" at harrow's question about "ortus", so we end how we begun, because today it's that kind of day
also, another day without her coming home
I may be late but boy do I have theories. And yeah, nobody tell me any spoilers, please. Let me make a fool of myself.
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I wonder what are MC abilities as a vampire?
Alright alright, here's some vampire lore for you friendo!
SO, there'll be no zipping across a room faster than the eye can track or lifting a tree like it's a pencil! I always liked the idea of vampire abilities being more in the realm of human capabilities at their absolute limits.
So those stories you hear about mothers being able to lift cars when their kids are trapped underneath because of the adrenaline? That's more along the lines of what we're looking at here: vampires being of normal strength but they have MUCH more active control over their bodies.
That means they can summon an adrenaline rush on command with enough concentration, they can push themselves faster and for much longer without needing to take a break, they can speed along the healing process, and they're so fucking tough to kill.
Their lives aren't theirs, it's the life they've taken from the blood of others, it's something they can manipulate in a way we can't. It isn't simply the blood that sustains them, it's the lifeforce within the blood.
MC in the facility has spent five years living on blood from tubes. That's something vampires in the wild can't do. They just can't live like that. It's literal torture. It's stagnant blood void of all but a droplet of life, JUST enough to keep the blood in a vampire's veins moving but ohmygod it's just not a life worth living. Vampires sipping blood from a glass in this world only happens if it's still warm from the veins, and even then you'd need more of it to get the same results.
In my intro post, the tagline is: They say every vampire has a choice when it's reborn. You did not.
That choice? It's literally if you're willing to do what it takes to live as a vampire. If you don't want that, you find the will to resist temptation and let yourself desiccate until you're in a state of torpor for eternity, or make the ultimate choice and find a way to end it all.
There are very few ways to be an ethically decent vampire, and it's soooo difficult to sustain that for the amount of blood they need. A lot of vampires start off that way and then just...accept what they are. They slip, and the things they thought they'd never do just become normal.
There's no hypnosis in this world either! So if you're feeding on a person you better make sure they're too blackout drunk to remember or you finish what you started and tie off loose ends. There are no vampire societies making laws but if you start causing shit for other supernaturals by being sloppy, they will hunt you down and kill you.
No other supernatural powers like flying or turning into a bat. Just plain ol' immortality. I've probably forgot some stuff but I'm not with my notes rn so! That's the gist anyway!!
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you have to go to work so you can pay for your doctor, who is not taking your insurance right now, and if you say i can't afford the doctor's you are told - get a better job. it is very sad that you are unwell, yes, but maybe you should have thought about that before not having a better job.
(where is the better job? who is giving out these better jobs? you are sick, you are hurting - how the hell are you supposed to be well enough for this better job?)
but you go to the doctor because you had the nerve to be hurt or sick or whatever else. and they tell you that it is because you have anxiety. you try your best. you are a self-advocate. you've done the reading (which sometimes pisses them off worse, honestly). you say it is actually adding to my anxiety, it is effecting my quality of life. so they say that you are fat. they say that all young people have this happen to them, isn't it a medical marvel! they say that you should eat more vegetables. they say that you probably just need to lose a little more weight, and that you are faking it for attention.
(what attention could this doctor possibly give? what validation? that's their fucking job, isn't it?)
there is always a hypochondriac, right. someone always tells you about a hypochondriac. or someone who is unnecessarily aggressive during the worst days of their life. or someone looking "for a quick fix". or some idiot who wasn't educated about how to properly care for themselves who just abandons their treatment. and again, the hypochondriac, the overly-cautious hysteric. these people don't deserve to be treated like humans (right), and since you might be one of these people, you also don't get treated like a human. because those people can really fuck with the system, you now have to pay for it. and besides. you're actually probably faking it.
(more often than not, you find a 2:1 ratio of these stories. for every "hypochondriac", there are 2 people who knew something was wrong, and yet nobody could fucking find it. the story often ends with pointless suffering. the story often ends with and now it's too late, and it's going to kill me.)
you are actually just making excuses. someone else got that procedure or that diagnosis and he's fine, you should be fine too. someone else said they watched a documentary about other inspirational people with your exact same condition, maybe you should be inspirational, too. you're just too morbid. your pain and your experience is probably just not statistically concerning. it is all self-reported anyway, and you're just being a baby.
(once, while sitting down in the middle of making coffee, you had the sudden, horrible thought - i could kill myself to make the pain stop. you had to call your best friend after that. had to pet your dog. had to cry about it in the shower. you won't, but that moment - god, fuck. the pain just goes on and on.)
you know someone who went in for routine surgery and said i still feel everything. they told her to just relax. it took her kicking and screaming before they figured out she wasn't lying - the anesthetic drip hadn't been working. you know someone who went in for severe migraines who was told drink water and lose weight. you know someone who was actively bleeding out and throwing up in the ER and was told you're just having a bad period.
in the ER there are always these little posters saying things like "don't wait! get checked today!" and you think about how often you do wait. how often the days spool out. you once waited a full week before seeing the doctor for what you thought was a sprained wrist. it had actually been broken - they had to rebreak it to set it.
but you go into the doctor. the problem you're having is immediate. the person behind the counter frowns and says we're not taking your insurance. you will be paying for this out-of-pocket.
they send you home with tylenol and a little health packet about weight loss or anxiety or attention deficit. on the front it has your birthday and diagnosis. you think about crying, and the words swim. it might as well say go fuck yourself. it might as well say you're a fucking idiot. it might as well say light your money on fire and lie down in it. and the entire fucking time - the problem persists.
it's okay. it's okay, it's just another thing, you think. it's just another thing i have to learn to live with.
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Hey, Horrormaster Sims. I have a wildly different question that barely relates to TMA (Sorry about that) but its about your own process. Please, if you could, can you tell me how your first drafts made you feel? I'm on the fence about writing my own thing (not a podcast, and again, not Magnus related, though I have a million little aus for that delightful tragedy you wrote, thank you for that!) But I'm discouraged by the collective notion that first drafts are always terrible, because there's no ... examples I can solidly use to help the dumb anxiety beast in my brain that tells me everyone who is in any way popular popped out a golden turd and not, well, you know. One of my friends said 'Oh I bet Jonathan Sims's first draft was nothing like what he wanted' and I got the bright idea to just. Send you an ask, since you're trapped on this hellsite like I am. Anyway, thanks for reading this (if you do) and if you'd rather ask it privately, I am cool with that. Alternatively, you're a hella busy man with Protocol (you and Alex are making me rabid, i hope you know) and you can just ignore this! Cheers, man, and good words.
To my mind all writing advice, especially stuff that's dispensed as truisms (like "first drafts are always garbage") are only useful inasmuch as such advice prompts you to pay attention to how you write best: what helps your workflow, what inspires you, what keeps you going through the rough bits. There are as many different ways to write (and write well) as there are people who write and so always consider this sort of thing a jumping off point to try out or keep in mind as you gradually figure out your own ways of writing.
On first drafts specifically, I think the wisdom "all first drafts are bad" is a bit of unhelpful oversimplification of the fact that, deadlines notwithstanding, no piece of writing goes out until you decide its ready, so don't get too hung up on your first draft of a thing, because a lot of writers find it much easier to edit a complete work than to try and redraft as they go. It's also important to not let perfectionism or the fact your initial draft isn't coming out exactly how you want stop you from actually finishing the thing, as it's always better to have something decent and done than to have something perfect and abandoned.
But the idea of a "first draft" is also kind of a fluid one. The "first draft" you submit to someone who's commissioned you will probably be one you've already done a bunch of tweaks and edits to, as opposed to the "first draft" you pump out in a frenzy in an over-caffeinated weekend. For my part, my first drafts tend to end up a bit more polished than most, because I'm in the habit of reading my sentences out loud as I write them (a habit picked up from years of audio writing) so I'll often write and re-write a particular sentence or paragraph a few times to get the rhythm right before moving to the next one. This means my first drafts tend to take longer, but are a bit less messy. I'm also a big-time planner and pretty good at sticking to the structures I lay out so, again, tend to front load a lot of stuff so I get a better but slower first draft.
At the end of the day, though, the important thing is to get in your head about it in a good way (How do I write best? what helps me make writing I enjoy and value? What keeps me motivated?) and not in a bad way (What if it's not good enough? What if everyone hates it? What if it doesn't make sense?) so that you actually get it done.
As for how my first drafts made me feel? Terrible, every one of 'em No idea if that's reflective of their quality, though, tbh - I hate reading my own writing until I've had a chance to forget it's mine (I can only ever see the flaws). I suppose there's theoretically a none-zero chance they were pure fragments of True Art and creative perfection, but Alex's editing notes make that seem unlikely.
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