TW: Mention of ab*se, SA and toxic relationships
I hate seeing Espresseleine portrayed as toxic.
NO, Madeleine Cookie is not a horrible person who would harm Espresso for the fun of it or because he doesn’t care if he says no, and NO, Espresso is not a horrible, mean, cruel bastard to Madeleine Cookie who would try to kill him or who would straight up verbally abuse him, or worse, freaking hit him?!
They would never harm each other. They just wouldn’t.
Madeleine wouldn’t hurt a fly and even though sometimes he doesn’t understand boundaries when it comes to Espresso because he’s not used to hearing the word “no” from others, that doesn’t mean he would straight up assault him. Despite his arrogance, behind that suit of armour, he still has a heart of gold. He’s Espresso’s biggest fan. He supports him. And yes, he’s conceited sometimes and he does need a reality check sometimes so he doesn’t go overboard with it, but never would that get to his head so much that he would think he had the right to harm another person for his own benefit. Especially not Espresso Cookie, who’s probably his favorite person ever outside of his family tree.
As for Espresso, while capable of sass and anger if provoked, he truly is a well-intentioned, kind-hearted person who cares a lot about other’s well-beings. He only had a bias towards Madeleine because of their completely different upbringings. Madeleine was simply handed everything while Espresso struggled to climb the mountain of class to get to where he was now. Madeleine was pampered and spoiled and never knew poverty while Espresso struggled to get by and continue having a roof over his head. That must suck, right? Perhaps Madeleine’s privilege initially irritated him. But that bias never turned into violence or outright abuse towards Madeleine. Sure, he was mean sometimes. He had his outbursts. He found him annoying and vain initially. But hurting Madeleine was off the table. And later on, when they became closer and even began opening up to each other (see Cookie Odyssey ending), he begins to even tolerate Madeleine. See his kindness. His love for culture and travel and chivalry. When Madeleine told him he wished to travel the world, he seemed supportive of him. Proud! Like he was so happy to see him figure out for himself what he wanted to do. He seemed genuinely excited for him. Soon enough, he started humoring him more! That’s character growth, baby! And Madeleine had his fair share, too. He became a lot more down-to-earth and understanding with people and began to want to understand cultures outside of the Creme Republic’s borders. He also began to understand Espresso Cookie more: his research, his schedule, etc. Madeleine seems to care a lot for him.
They both care a lot about each other.
They’re perfect for each other.
And seeing others portray them in such a toxic and one-sided way makes me angry.
Some people make fics or fanart where Espresso’s being an absolute D*CK to Madeleine and just treats him poorly because “it’s funny.” Showing Madeleine just wanting his attention and Espresso just… not caring. Or Espresso slapping him “as a joke” because he did something wrong. Like, no. That’s abusive. Many fools also portray Madeleine as taking advantage of Espresso, seeing him as a mere object for intimacy rather than his own person and constantly ab*sing him and even assaulting him. That is not okay.
You people are sick. Do better. Espresseleine deserves proper representation.