#i guess i'm back to writing durarara fanfics

[rukazaya]

excuse me.🥺🥺 I am your fan from China. We absolutely love your drrr novels. Especially Blood Contract, I did a lot of illustrations for it. Will you continue to update the novels? They are really important to us😭😭😭😭💛🖤🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (;° ロ°) WHAT?!  (✿〇∀〇)  I’ve been your fan for many many MANY years. I didn’t even think you knew I existed!! I didn’t even know you drew for it!!!! (Now I want to go find it...) I really appreciate it. Do you guys translate it into Chinese? I didn’t know you guys read my stories.   The story is... 2/3 done. When the pandemic happened, a lot changed in my life. I couldn’t continue. I thought no one read it. Then I lost all my durara friends as they moved on. I didn’t have anyone to talk to anymore.

But you gave me hope. Since I’m back to writing fanfic again (although i write for genshin impact) I’ll try to continue ‘blood contract’ and finish it, since you are still drawing Durarara and Shizaya.  Thank you for your kind words. I would like to talk to you once in a while if that’s okay. Since talking to people helps me write. but I lost all my durarara friends save for maybe 3 or 4 friends.  Even if you don’t chat with me, thank you <3 You made me very happy.

#reply #eromkk #blood contract #i guess i'm back to writing durarara fanfics #it's been 84 years lol

[scripttorture]

This story probably won't actually get finished, so feel free to ignore if you have bigger priorities, I'm mostly just curious - I have a character who's a child soldier (around 12 years old) in organization A, and is captured/rescued by organization B. Org B makes a genuine attempt to help the kid recover both physically and mentally, but also presses them for information about org A. [1/3]

The character decides not to tell them anything (mostly out of fear for their younger sibling, who's still in org A's custody and would probably end up fighting if org B attacked), but they aren't sure what information is important or sensitive, so they resolve to interact with org B as little as possible to avoid accidentally telling them something important. [2/3] So my question is - is it possible for someone to isolate themself to the point where they start showing symptoms of solitary confinement, by refusing to respond to people who are actively trying to interact with them? Do you think someone in this situation would latch onto anyone outside of org B (or claiming to be) as a relatively "safe" person to talk to? (Thank you for everything you do, I hope you're feeling better!) [3/3]

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Ah the ‘how the hell will I ever finish this thing’ Work In Progress. Writer’s mood number 3. We’ve all been there. (Mine currently include two original fantasy series and a Durarara!!! fanfic. Because lockdown resulted in an anime binge, I have no regrets.)

 My instinct is ‘yes’ this is possible but I think it’s a lot less likely in a twelve year old child then an adult.

 We are capable of depriving ourselves of things we need to survive. People have/do starve themselves. We are capable of hurting ourselves in a lot of ways.

 However I question whether a twelve year old would be capable of consistently depriving themselves over a prolonged period.

 The comparison I’m drawing from here is food and the diet industry. My understanding is that most children of this sort of age group can’t consistently stick to this kind of self deprivation over a prolonged period. Unless there are other, outside factors at play.

 What I’m getting at here is that I think it’s a lot more likely a child would hold themselves apart and interact less, without it getting to the point of being like solitary confinement. I think that over days and weeks a child would be less capable of turning their backs on someone who is trying to talk them and staying consistently silent.

 Children are geared for survival and that means forming strong social bonds with adults.

 I guess what I’m asking is: given that solitary confinement has a much larger effect on children then adults (and that the effect might get bigger the younger the children are) is there a narrative benefit to this being severe enough to be solitary confinement? Do you get a better story by having the character struggle so much and do themselves so much lasting harm?

 Because in the situation you’ve outlined there is a lot of emotional potential in having the character interact a little bit with organisation B.

 They’re bored and they’re scared and they’re lonely and this lady brought a radio in. So they end up talking for three hours about the cricket and then the child spends the rest of the day panicked and guilty because what if there was something important in what they said?

 They think they only talked about the cricket and the cricket isn’t important surely- Unless org B doesn’t know that org A likes cricket. Unless there’s some way they can use the cricket radio channel to track every down. Unless they said something important and they forgot about it. Unless-

 You get the idea.

 May be they decide the best thing is to not talk but they end up interacting with people anyway. The nice man brings in a simple game like snakes and ladders and they play for ages and he talks and the child keeps biting their lip to not respond. They laugh at a joke he makes and feel bad about it for weeks.

 Because they’re not supposed to like these people. Why is it so hard for them to just do the ‘right thing’? Are they a bad person? Are they weak? Are they a coward? Why is niceness so hard to combat?

 And all of that could easily lead in to this character latching on to someone who is ‘safe’, who is an outsider to this conflict.

 Then it becomes about the child having an avenue for interaction that doesn’t have this backlash of fear and guilt and self doubt afterwards.

 Personally can see a lot more emotional mileage in a story that has the child interact then one that doesn’t. Because strained, costly interaction is generally more interesting to readers then a lack of interaction. It also gives you more chances to build up things about all of the characters while isolation puts all the focus on the child.

 And watching mental health problems develop isn’t always a good read.

 However that’s very much a personal writing choice. I don’t think there’s any unfortunate implications in you choosing to have this child character self isolate instead.

 Just be aware that everything I say about solitary confinement is based on adults or older children (generally 16-18). We think that younger children would be even more severely effected. So the ‘safe’ time frame could easily shrink from a week to a few days and the amount of healthy interaction needed daily could be much higher then two hours.

 Wrapping up I think you might actually get a lot from a fictional book I’m quite fond of.

 The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones is one of the best portrayals of grooming in children’s fiction I’ve ever seen. The villain goes out of his way to make himself the most important person in Christopher’s world and then systematically exploits Christopher’s magical talents. During the course of the story Christopher is rescued. And he sees his rescuers as the enemy, holding himself apart from them for a significant portion of the story. Because it takes him time to realise and accept that he was exploited.

 Fiction may not be a good source of information but looking at good fictional portrayals can be an excellent source of inspiration and a decent way to learn how to approach complex topics in stories.

 I hope that helps. :)

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