help me not to respond to dS anon

[deputychairman]

I left a long rambling comment of incoherent love on Garonne's brilliant fic The Way the World is (I think there's a clue in that title, anon), and got a reply from an AO3 guest calling themselves "I just don't get it". I don't want to respond on AO3 because it's Bad Manners to have an argument in the comments to someone's fic, but it's late and I'

Comments

[deputychairman]

Firstly YES go read that fic! I love Garonne's stuff and this is as good as you might expect.

I'm glad you agree with my thinky paragraph, because that's the part that bothered me and that I know is not worth raising with the troll. I felt anon was being unfair and anon thinks I was being unfair so of course I rush here in search of people who will validate my point of view... But in writing out my thoughts I questioned where my assumptions were coming from and I'm pretty damn sure I'm not accusing all Catholics or Italians of being homophobic, and that nothing in my comment implies that. But sadly, the world being what it is, people who are brought up as Catholic and/or Italian (can you be brought up Italian or are you just Italian? IDK) are more likely to be taught homophobic attitudes than people from secular liberal families. But they can think for themselves and reject that! Like RayV does! The fic isn't about RayK so we don't know what attitudes he grew up with, but NOBODY says he's "perfect"! I can think of lots of stories where he has feelings for Fraser and has to struggle with his own internalised homophobia. And everyone else but Anon knows that so why am I even bothering to react? I'll stop now, because you are absolutely right that trolling back will not help although I totally recognise the urge to be rude back! (Who are they un-anoned? I have this uncomfortable feeling they approved of my RayV POV fic and we exchanged pleasant remarks and now I feel suspicious and uneasy that I don't know who they are)

[deputychairman]

Ah ok yes that's exactly who I thought it was. The tone and phrasing of the anon rants was familiar from comments I got approving of my fic a Thousand Colours of Water, but still criticising that I wrote Fraser as not telling RayV about his relationship with RayK right away. I went down a route of schmoop in my story but I really, really like Garonne's take and let's be honest, hers is probably more likely than my hearts-and-flowers AND THEN EVERYBODY LOVED EACH OTHER version. And I do love me some angst in a story, especially because I can't manage to write it very well myself.

I will avoid conflict with Tortiecat but it's nice to know who we're dealing with. I'm not hiding behind anon because I hope I can express disagreement respectfully and walk away if I know I can't, so I always mistrust people who feel they need to share opinions anonymously. Sure, if you're showing up to chime in to a conversation with an explicit sexual fantasy or some RL TMI you want to talk about, go anon all the way! But with your views on fictional characters from a 90s TV show? Hmmm. Suspicious. You ARE a troll, and I claim my £5.

ANYWAY. On happier things, before I read Garonne's fic I was coincidentally dusting off a story that I had to leave unfinished when I got to busy with my international move, which is an F/K from Stella's POV. Since I've already written a RayV POV (and WOAH do I love that too - why isn't there more fic like that? I WILL JUST HAVE TO WRITE MORE). The end has just trailed off because I never wrote my outline down and now can't remember where I wanted to go with it. Would you have time to read it sometime(only about 4k) and see which of my ineffective endings is less ineffective?