anonymous-cats

[anonymous-cats]

ngl i dont think mc needed to watch reality tv shows when the devon harem drama is literally right there?? 👀🍿

[anonymous-cats]

Dan my beloved fuckin it lives MVP. The GOAT.

[anonymous-cats]

Hope you all are taking care of yourselves and not spreading yourselves thin with the remaining chapters! As a working adult, I’m seriously in awe of your efforts while adulting LOL

Anyway, as I was replaying the game, I noticed Dan is basically the only one of the ilitw childhood friend group to accept Noah (ghost or alive) aside from Devon. Did he forgive Noah? What did you guys think when writing their interactions?

Thank you!! We are taking care of ourselves as best we can 💗

I think that, because of Dan’s studies with trauma and psychology, he has the most empathy and understanding for Noah. What Noah did really hurt, especially if Devon is the ghost and some of the friends died, so it makes sense that a lot of the others would have a hard time getting over that. I imagine that, while Dan probably has his own hurt and issues to deal with, he’s simply the most equipped of the group to be able to be empathetic and understanding. I also see him as a really kind person so I imagine it would make him happy to see Noah doing well and in a good place, like he doesn’t desire Noah’s suffering or anything. He understands Noah has his own trauma to deal with that impacted his actions, and that’s why he tries to be kind and accepting of him.

[anonymous-cats]

DAN’S GIFT 🥹 the little crush that never was

[anonymous-cats]

That's right, folks, we finally have a date! Buckle up and prepare yourselves, because It Lives Within returns with its final three chapters the weekend of March 3!

Chapter 21: Vertigo Cave - Friday, March 3, 12 PM EST Chapter 22: Home At Last - Saturday, March 4, 12 PM EST Chapter 23: It Lives - Sunday, March 5, 12 PM EST

As part of the sendoff, the team has also decided to livestream a Q&A on our YouTube channel one week before release! That will be Saturday Feb 25 at 2 PM EST. We will post the link to the livestream when the time comes. You can start submitting questions HERE.

We can't wait to chat with you all, and we look forward to sharing the end of our journey with you. Thank you so much for your love and support along the way!

- The It Lives Project

[anonymous-cats]

I'm not a Jocelyn fan either. She's toxic and vile, but I find her more compelling in a lot of ways than say, Lily Ortiz – especially when the writers want the readers to see Lily as this pure as the driven snow angel who can do no wrong. Jocelyn is horrible, but she did put her life at personal risk to save others at Homecoming paid a steep price for it. She was also hit hard by Cody's death, so there's some humanity there too, even if it's just a drop.

There’s a lot to this ask so I’m going to tackle the littler bits first, starting with the ILITW cast and their weaknesses.

The It Lives characters are all incredibly flawed in their own ways. Their stans don’t think they’re innocent: they acknowledge and embrace those flaws because those are what make the characters so human.

Ava’s biggest flaws are that she’s kind of reckless, and that she’s sarcastic toward people who are easily angered which endangers her.

Andy’s biggest flaw is that he gets angered very quickly, though he has good reasons for it, he still does fly off the handle at times. Anger leads to rash and not very well thought out decisions, which can very easily get you hurt or killed, especially in a horror series.

Stacy’s biggest flaw (which we do see going away as the book goes on) is her fixation with appearance and status.

Lucas’s biggest flaws are unwillingness to ask for help and biting off more than he can chew, which are also behaviors that are dangerous enough in real life, but potentially deadly in horror series.

I can’t really say what Dan’s biggest flaws are because we get so little interaction with him in the series, and all of Noah’s flaws can be attributed to the trauma he’s faced throughout his life, as even before Jane died, his parents had a lot of issues with their marriage, which was something he was aware of and tried to shield his sister from.

If Noah dies and takes Jane’s place, the ILITW crew is shown and stated to be completely unaware of it, the MC being the only person who knows of Noah’s true fate. Given this, the same could probably be said if the MC dies and takes Jane’s place. It’s not that the ILITW crew used the MC: they simply aren’t aware of the true nature of their death.

And given all the chaos and trauma that took place in the book, it’s perfectly understandable why the ILITW crew would want to move on in their lives without revisiting the ordeal more than they need to. I’d probably do the same. However, they’re more than willing to help out in ILB, and they still meet for pizza every year so they never fall out of touch and never forget what happened and those they lost.

It also makes sense why the MC can’t and won’t let go of their supernatural experience. Jane, their best friend, died right before their very eyes, was stuck as a shadow monster for a decade, and then Jane’s brother Noah (who arguably becomes MC’s closest friend as a result of their shared loss) dies and takes her place. The MC probably feels some survivor’s guilt and feels as if they’re to blame for what happened, and wants to make it right by “fixing��� things if they can, which is why they’re devoted to becoming a monster hunter/tracker.

None of these characters are perfect. Absolutely none of them. But what person is? To have a flawless, completely innocent character who has done absolutely no wrong is completely unrealistic.

Moving onto Lily, who I’ll admit isn’t my favorite of the bunch.

It is true that the ILITW crew is dealing with some heavy shit. Abuse, blackmail, estrangement, familial neglect, PTSD, struggles with identity, struggles with ostracism. That is very true.

However.

Lily’s big life-or-death issue isn’t merely that her crush doesn’t like her back, that’s kind of an oversimplification. She’s mercilessly bullied because she’s fat (and maybe there’s a bit of homophobia thrown in there too, I’m not actually 100% sure) and she’s preyed upon by her crush and her crush’s friend who think manipulating Lily and humiliating her on homecoming night is funny.

Lily is not a physically strong character. She can’t fight, she runs away, and is generally no help in a fight. But not every character can realistically be an action hero and badass. She also suffers from low self-esteem from the bullying (which she mentions occurred throughout her childhood as well) and has little to no confidence.

To be frank, to say she thrives off of playing the victim comes across as victim-blaming.

Lily does shove Ava and yell at her for almost killing Jocelyn in the fight, and I’m not trying to excuse that because that’s pretty harsh, but I’d probably chalk her reaction up more to adrenaline and fear than trying to pin all the blame onto her. Lily did foreshadow early on in the book that the monster could enthrall Ava using her powers and was probably aware that the monster had some form of control over her during the fight.

Additionally, she doesn’t seem to give Jocelyn a free pass either: she was visibly scared and upset during the fight where Jocelyn had the upper hand and after all is said and done, the principal is the one who tells her (and Stacy) to help Jocelyn to the nurse’s office.

Lily doesn’t blame Ava and doesn’t hold any rancor over the fight after everything has settled down. Her reaction is pretty much on par with everyone else’s emotions in the ILITW crew after the fight: fear, helplessness, and guilt. I mean, she almost watched someone get strangled to death in front of her.

She does acknowledge the possibility that Britney changed and began treating her better because of Redfield, but doesn’t want it to be true. She acknowledges it and probably deep down knows it’s true, but still wants to give Britney a chance because they used to be close in childhood. She even states at one point that Britney used to defend her from bullying when they were young. Lily wants to give Britney a chance to change because she remembers all those fond memories as kids, but also, her confidence is so depleted from the years of bullying that she just wants someone, anyone to show some semblance of care for her, even if it isn’t completely genuine.

Hell. I’ve been bullied throughout my whole life, and I’ve dated people who treated me like absolute shit just because they paid attention to me. Lily is absolutely the type to do the same. I empathize.

Should Lily survive the events of ILITW, she goes on to create a successful indie video game with a sequel in the works. That didn’t surprise me because she mentions having gone to a coding camp, and she also had a 4.5 GPA in high school. She’s used her wildly smart brain and incredible drive to find her own success and further her own life, just like everyone else from the ILITW crew.

Which is why your statement about everyone else bettering their lives “while she gorges on pizza” comes across as incredibly and unapologetically fatphobic.

Lily is not my personal favorite. She’s actually my least favorite of the ILITW crew. But every character brings something to the group. Lily is timid, meek, and suffers from a lack of confidence. She’s not a fighter and she’s frequently terrified throughout the book.

But she still helps the group. She helps research, she helps obtain the hospital records when the group visits Dan, she risks life and limb to go into the woods and perform the binding ritual, and she does it again to save Andy. She faces her fears time after time after time.

So in a way, though Lily is fearful and afraid throughout the book, she’s actually the bravest character of them all.

[anonymous-cats]

It makes me so sad to see people turn on Connor for being a horror...come on it's entirely not his fault. No one blamed Dan or Tom when they turned into monsters who said/did nasty things in the first book!

So true anon! Connor’s having a really rough life to be honest, and y’all are turning on him for getting magic water poisoned smh

But in all seriousness, I do think it’s important to remember that Connor’s not himself. None of the horrors are. Connor’s hurt, but he’s not evil, and he never has been

[anonymous-cats]

Based on the picture Romeo and Julie by Frank Bernard Dicksee

[anonymous-cats]

the scene with alive!devon and dan on the dream sequence(Not really sure if it’s called ”dream sequence” ??? but it’s in the newest chapter) had me giggling for 5 minutes and my parents are ✨concerned✨

“Looking for any excuse to touch me, Pierce?”

Dan laughs, his eyes sparkling with fondness

Like WHAT?? They’re so adorable, I can’t even-😭😭 this is why I stay anonymous, can’t let my parents know I’m giggling over two nonexistent characters🥲

P.S. Before I end this long ask, I just wanna say how great the story is and its writing. Not just the romance part, but the story as a whole. Don’t get me started on that twist because that was just AMAZING👏👏

There's nothing to be ashamed of for giggling over pixels, we all do it all the time ;)

And thank you so much! Dan x MC are adorable. So glad you're enjoying the romance routes and the game as a whole <3

[anonymous-cats]

Dan, Tom and Abel are THE standard (or my standard I guess)

Someone has a thing for sweet nerds, it seems...

[anonymous-cats]

Facts🖐️😌

you were SO right when you said “because dan x mc >>>>> !!!” truly genius

Dan is best boy and I will go down with this ship.

[anonymous-cats]

Any fanfic recommendations of dan x mc??? I know I've just been fed, BUT I'M HUNGRY AGAIN AJSKSJJAKAJJS🥲

[anonymous-cats]

I know you've done these for Abel, but do you have any protective Lincoln headcanons?

Of course!

Lincoln would not hesitate to get into a fight for you. If someone intends to hurt you, or someone threatened you, he would storm right up to them, grab them by the collar, slam them against the wall, and tell them to never come near you again.

Likewise, if someone was being a jerk to you, calling rude things out to you, or insulting you, he wouldn't just ignore and go on your way together. he would tell that person to shut the hell up and go bother someone else and take your hand, drag you away, and give you hugs and kisses to feel better <3

When he sees something that could be potentially dangerous or harmful to you, he takes immediate notice and will make sure to keep you out of harms way (for example if a lamp were to break and get glass everywhere heehee)

He's a big fan of you putting yourself first. He's not here for this self-sacrificing bullshit, so if you were trying to make a decision to put yourself at risk for other people, he would not be noble about it and let you do it, he would be very protective and do whatever he could to stop you from doing it

He loves taking you for rides on his motorcycle but don't even THINK about getting on without a helmet

[anonymous-cats]

aaaaaaaaaAA [incoherent screaming]. From cap. 5 to cap. 16. I– 😔 this dudes and dudettes is peak character development. i love him :(

[anonymous-cats]

MY HEART😭😭

dan x mc reunion

[anonymous-cats]

I AM SO SO EXCITED!!!

[anonymous-cats]

abel: *listing off his many traumatic injuries*

my last remaining brain cell: