"Ask me about anything" for the honesty hour: Why did you decide to write "ECR" and "Sentiment" in the second person? Also, why do you ship Eren/Levi? I mean, I have a billion reasons why I do, I'm just curious (/^▽^)/
i should actually add this to my ECR FAQ because the #1 thing i get comments/questions about, here and on AO3? the narrative voice.
honestly? the answer is pretty stupid lmfao and i’m so, so sorry.
it’s because of homestuck.
at the time i conceived the small brain fetus that would grow into the monster that is now Sentiment, i was co-writing a homestuck fic with my friend. and in the nature of the original homestuck narrative, we were writing in second person. i got so used to it that by the time i started writing Sentiment at last, i was writing second person without even thinking about it, and then i had published a couple chapters before someone pointed it out and i was like “fuck. well too late now”
so that’s why it’s in second person. literally no other reason.
as for why i ship it in the first place? uhh... i know when i started, but i can’t really remember why. i think it was something to the effect of “oh fuck, this might actually work”, but i don’t think i stopped to apply more brainpower to it than that. it just felt right.
of course, by now i could read off an entire ledger of reasons why, mostly revolving around the perpetual positive feedback cycle of hero worship > flattery > reacting protectively > reverence > hero worship > etc etc ad nauseum. by now i’ve cultivated a shit load of reasons why it works (confirmation bias, maybe, lol) but initially? it just kinda crept up on me out of the blue and i had no desire to fight it.
...actually my complete receptiveness to it probably has to do with kinfeels and kin memories, but. in terms of a “““rational sounding””” explanation most people will accept as viable and valid, then yeah, the perpetual positive feedback cycle.
