#temsen would be great honestly

[not-poignant]

Torn between wanting Luuk from Eversion, Gary from UtB, Pitch from TGAtNW, and Augus from… any which one 😩 why can’t fictional characters just be real?

I also very much want Temsen, Anton, and Flitmouse as friends.

Honestly yeah like some of these characters would drive me up the wall and then others are like 'actually... it'd be nice to make your literal acquaintance some day.'

Although I almost never want to meet Augus lol, I feel like he'd annoy me dslakfjsda *passes him to others*

[not-poignant]

Everyone can feel however they want about any character etc etc obligatory disclaimer... that said, I do wonder how people would feel about Temsen if he was white. It's the same thing I wondered when I saw some comment reactions to Kadek back when he was introduced in FFS.

I'm a big fan of Temsen, btw. The way he talked about both Efneisen and Gary's abusive actions was really responsible and useful, and I love characters who have both an upright moral core and the smarts to be able to take actions effectively.

Hi anon!

Yeah I do...sometimes have these moments as well. I also have the self-reflective 'am I writing POC too often as assholes' and then think about Eran and Leo and some of the other characters I've written and it's like okay, I don't think it's necessarily that specifically (though there's always room for improvement) and I really really do like writing hot assholes dsfjkaf

I also love Temsen, I love characters who are just really complicated but ultimately still doing their version of their best. And that anon might not have been thinking of the race factor at all, but it is something that also occasionally plays in the back of my mind because after 10 years of writing, there is a certain kind of 'he just rubs me the wrong way' that characters like Eran, Kadek, and Temsen have gotten just a little bit more than some of the other characters (and on the flipside, the 'oh I didn't know they were POC' which is...a whole...*sighs* - probably at its most painful when it's fanart so you know someone's put a lot of effort into something but also blanked the description of a character's skin colour and features at the same time) - I guess there's just an awareness? Also an awareness of my role in what I'm perpetuating as a white person because realistically I will unfortunately fuck it up too.

I am team 'give anon the benefit of the doubt' because I do canonically write Temsen to be unnerving and intimidating and I do think some readers will be a lot more receptive to / sensitive to that than others. But yeah, I also think this is a really understandable thing to wonder? It's a crunchy space to be in, because I also think Temsen's hitting the mark if he is unnerving some people as a character, just like Gary does. A sort of 'I like it when disabled / POC / queer people can all be hot assholes' lol

But in this instance like, in addition, Temsen has been one of the least directly harmful characters in the entire cast in terms of his actions and I do think about that a lot.

I think until society gets better about racism and decolonisation gets way way way way further it's just a normal thing to wonder about tbh.

(And on an aside, I am glad that the sentiment largely swung towards very positive towards Kadek by the end of FFS. He's one of my favourite side characters that I've written in a while, and I'm hoping to write more with him in side stories one day).

Also re: the talk he gave Efnisien, that has honestly helped Efnisien so much. Him stepping into his strength and consciously thinking about it has directly led to so much of the positive growth he's experienced in the last like 10 chapters. It was so needed, even if the timing wasn't great, Temsen really delivered on that front.

[not-poignant]

If Augus is going to be in the story, does that mean we'll be meeting Mosk soon??? Do you know which omega Efnisien is going to meet first? Also the latest chapter was SO GOOD I have reread it six times and I'm not exaggerating

Alas, no Mosk coming up!

This would be the worst time, honestly, for Efnisien to meet an omega.

Augus will be going to Efnisien, and then escorting him to Temsen's office (as stated in the excerpt), so there's no risk of him even seeing Mosk from a distance.

Do you know which omega Efnisien is going to meet first?

Yes! I've decided it's going to be Alois Flitmouse first. He's a great candidate because even though he can be snippy and easily aggravated, he can also be quite measured, and naturally quite empathetic towards other people.

He's also older, seen more of the world, and pretty stable as a person. Like, he has a lot more of a defined sense of self, and a defined personality, than say Nate, and Mosk frankly doesn't really want to meet strange alphas.

After that, I'm not sure who Efnisien will meet, whether he'll keep seeing folks like Faber and Flitmouse, or if Nate will potentially come into the picture as a long-timer at Hillview who is now a lot more stable. Nate can be quite caustic now, and I don't think any of the staff would think Efnisien and Nate meeting would be a good idea at this point.

But we are going to have a Flitmouse + Efnisien encounter coming :D

(Also thank you!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it :D :D )