Interview With The Vampire | 2.02

Flip Side might be coming to an end but Kuno's world will be coming right back with Don't Fear the Reaper where we jump into Reaper's point of view. A hunt gone awry leaves the half vampire with an injured... something and he just can't bring himself to hurt them.

A writer friend told me something that broke my heart a little bit today; they're going to quit publishing their fanfic.

My instant thought was that they had been trolled or attacked or that something terrible had happened in their life because this person is so passionate about their writing. It wasn't any of that. Engagement with their works has been going down, as it has for many of us. Comments are like gold dust a lot of the time, and just looking through the historical comment counts on old fics on ao3 demonstrates this trend very clearly. It was not simply the comments dropping off which caused them to decide to stop posting, however.

My friend came across a discord server for their fandom (I should point out here that their fandom interest and mine diverged a couple of years ago, we stay in touch but don't currently read each other's posts because I'm not into their fandom and they would rather gouge their eyes out with a wooden spoon than read anything Star Wars) and specifically to share fic in that fandom. They joined, because we all love a good fic rec, only to discover that their latest multichapter fic, which has almost no comments and very few kudos, is being hotly discussed in this server as one of the best stories ever. Not one of these people has bothered to say this to them on the fic. When they asked, none of participants could see the point in telling the author of the fic they apparently loved so much that they love it.

This discovery has absolutely destroyed my friend's love of sharing fic. They share because they love seeing other people's enjoyment, and fic writers do that through comments and kudos/reblogs/likes because we don't get paid. There is no literary critic writing a blog post/article about how amazing the story is for us to copy and keep/frame. There is no money from royalties. All we have are the words of the people reading our works.

Those people on that server could have taken five minutes of the time they spent gushing about how amazing my friend's story was to other people and used it to tell the one person guaranteed to want to hear that praise how much they loved it. They could have taken a moment to express their opinion to the person who spent hours upon hours plotting, writing, editing, and posting those chapters. Instead, they deprived my friend of thing that keeps them sharing their writing, and in the process have killed their love of it. My friend now feels used and unmotivated.

I won't be sharing a link to their fic, they said I could share their experience but not their identity. I know they plan to post one final chapter. I know they intend to express their hurt at being excluded from the praise for the thing they created, and I know they intend to announce that as a consequence they will not be posting for a long while, if at all.

So please, I beg you, don't hide your love of a story from the writer. It's just about the only thing we have.

250 likes!

Flip Side

I'm hoping to get chapter 12 up tonight but I may have drank too much wine with dinner so my focus is not the best right now. If not I promise you'll get two chapters tomorrow at least.

Here's once of the songs for the chapter to keep you interested!

When I'm hyperfixating on a movie that came out a decade before I was born and just doesn't have the fandom it should and I have to write it myself!

Dont know if this actually works still, haven’t tried it but ya know…if it does then you're welcome 😂

to those of you who are moving here from tiktok, from someone whos used both tiktok and tumbr for years...

1. DO NOT censor your posts

dont censor sex, abuse, suicide, dont censor it. we dont have censors like tiktok does, you wont be banned for talking about these things and tagging them properly helps people avoid them (also, we dont have shadowbanning here)

2. we dont really have an algorithm

you follow who you follow, and you see posts from who you follow or what you search. the 'for you page' is basically useless here. this also brings me to my next two points

3. dont crosstag

we get it, on tiktok you have to crosstag for reach, but thats not really a thing here. just tag your posts properly (also posters often leave more info about the post in the tags!! and when you reblog stuff you can leave your own notes in the tags, kind of like the old "repost comments" on tiktok)

4. dont expect to go viral/be famous

"viral" isnt really a thing on here (at least not for the average blogger). your posts will probably get 2-10 likes and you wont get nearly as many followers than on tiktok. thats just how tumblr is

5. blocking is your best friend

tiktok is VERY discussion based, and while tumblr is much more discussion based than other social medias, its still not a good place for ragebait/discourse. dont interact, itll make your experience worse in the end, just block and move on

6. you cant go into someone elses house and start rearranging their furniture

this is tumblr, not tiktok. dont diss old tumblr users for how they use the site or try to change them, thats like going into someone elses house and trying to rearrange their furniture. we've been here longer and we're familiar with the site and its culture, either find your niche, adapt, or find a different app

Me going doordash delivering cuz I couldn't update or read anything. XD:

the rations are low, the troops are starving, we pray for rain to come and the drought to end

Matching Marks

The Badminton story-arc finally catches up with Stede in 109 and he is forced to sign the Act of Grace. Ed is caught up also, and chooses to sign the Act partly to save Stede’s life. We know it’s a pseudo marriage contract, making their individual marks of commitment for ten-years, a lifetime then. Ed does so willingly; but later, Stede feels the guilt of Ed’s perceived sacrifice.

As a mirror to 109, the Ned Low story-arc finally catches up with Ed in 206. This time, Stede is caught up in Ed’s mess. We see matching marks again, this time by way of torture-branding. It’s a subversion of the face-slashing during matelotage. A more painful and dangerous mirroring of 109. This time Ed feels the guilt; but we know Stede would remain by Ed’s side here even given a choice, just as Ed remained committed to Stede in Act of Grace.

Both blame themselves for the other’s sacrifice and the subsequent fallout. They have marked or blemished their loved one with their faults.

The ‘ruined’ one interestingly is the catalyst for moving the relationship forward each time. It’s as if the development in their character allows them to be braver, truer to who they are and what they want.

The ‘ruinee’ is the one to run subsequently; partly because of the belief they’ve destroyed their loved one, but also because the change causes them to run smack into their own unresolved trauma. They appropriate the other’s personal journey as a commentary on their own perceived flaws:

I am soft, and have therefore made him soft

I am violent, and he is violent now because of me

None of this is true. Ed was attracted to softness before he met Stede. Stede was drawn to aspects of violence before he met Ed. And neither of them is wholly soft or particularly violent, nor are they responsible for the other’s moving towards one aspect or the other.

They realise finally the influences they have on each other is, for the most part, positive. They’re good for each other. They don’t need to be whole or fully-healed to be together. Healing takes a lifetime, and they can do so alongside their developing relationship. They need also to recognise the other has agency over their own character growth, and to learn to not talk past each other. It won’t always be an easy straight road, but they love each other enough to succeed.

They’re both soft, gentle men who will commit violence to protect those they love. And it’s meeting the other which has allowed them to go on a journey of self-discovery; not through imposed changes, but by giving each the room to grow. The only lasting mark, the only mark that is true, is the mark of love they’ve left on the other. A mark that gives them space to breathe and grow, mess up and try again. That’s the real mark. That’s the permanent ink.