#if meta

[bruisedconscience]

new muse: Dr. Elizabeth ‘Bea’ Chapman

origin: the movie if (2024) (just like Cal!)

occupation: pediatrician

verses: younger/movie (selective activity, please ask!) & grown-up (default)!

notes: friend & co-worker of my OC Charles Beck!

spoilers notes below the cut :-)

extra notes:

Cal doesn’t really show himself to Bea unless she’s feeling quite stressed out— which admittedly happens more often than she would like.

She still looks after the retirement home after Louis disappeared. There was a big party and a trip to the carnival one night, with a big feast on the boardwalk, and in the morning, his office chair was empty with a new resident log and his cane on top. RIP Louis Gossett Jr :( ❤️

She grew up keeping in touch with Benjamin (the kid who broke his coccyx among other bones), who grew up to work with very large or important numbers, I think, or maybe became a game developer somewhere for a strategy-intensive game…

[grapecaseschoices]

I agree with the fact that she has also improved on this and I'm glad that she's listening to fans and decided to get sensitivity readers. I love wayhaven, since it got me into IF so it has a special place in my heart, but anyways here are some of my thoughts. 😁

Disclaimer: I'm not attacking anyone or any author. I love IFs and I love Wayhaven, this is just some thoughts that I had, so please don't come for me.

🏃🏾‍♀️💨💨

Morgan/Mason

I wish that M's racial background was made clearer by the author, because it is clear that M is a POC due to their skin tone, but I don't remember the author ever clarifying more of M's background apart from the fact that they're Greek. Greece is a very diverse country, are they greek both nationality wise and ethnicity wise, do they have turkish roots? like idk how to explain and idk how old M is, but I hope that this gets at least clarified because before the skin tones were released the only description of M that I found was them being vaguely described as Greek with a Mediterranean skin tone if I recall correctly. I do think that this lack of clarification did in part contribute to the white-washing of M in the past but I am glad that M's skin tone has been clarified via the release of skin tone palettes. As a queer Mediterranean POC myself seeing M (who's also queer, poc and Mediterranean) get oversexualised both by the author and some of the fandom kind of makes me sad because they have more layers to them than just being interested in sex. If you play their route you get to see that there's a lot more to them than that.

Adam/Ava

I am also demi-romantic so seeing A's demi-sexuality being written as a second thought kind of just....idk. I just feel that their demi-sexuality is constantly being invalidated by the fans and at times in the game but maybe that's just me idk. I feel the same way since part of the fandom also dismisses A's demi-sexuality as this sexual-repression idea as if their demi-sexuality is an obstacle to overcome or something and it just makes me give a bit of a side-eye. I just feel that the author sometimes treats their sexuality as an after thought, but I hope that it gets a bit better.

Team Alpha and Sin

In terms of Team Alpha, I have seen and heard that some indigenous/Maori people have expressed discomfort at the portrayal of their ethnicity in Team Alpha being rooted in harmful stereotypes such as having them being werewolves, being portrayed as aggressive and hypersexualised. And Sin, an Assyrian man being trapped and enslaved is a thing that kind of makes me a bit sad since Assyrians don't have a lot of representation in the first place.

Felix/Farah

I absolutely adore F, they're an absolute delight. However, at times it feels like in some instances that F is infantilised by both the author, in-game and some individuals from the fandom. Sometimes it can feel like F is sometimes side-lined as the black best friend stereotype. At times it feels like F is not given as much thought as the other ROs in the asks answered. But the series hasn't finished so we shall see. I do think that her writing of F has improved to some extent though. I think this at times results in some fans categorising F into the black best friend stereotype rather than actually playing their route and finding out that they're actually such an interesting and layered character. I also feel that their character is not really taken as seriously as other best friend to lovers ROs who are white/ambiguously POC characters because of internalised racial stereotyping (is that what it's called in english? idk). I love F and they're my favourite RO so I hope that they will get more love as well as other black and darker-skinned ROs my beloveds.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I would also love to see more POC that aren't just East/Asian or a character who is made to be ambiguously brown with no thought of their ethnicity for the sole purpose of fulfilling some sort of checklist just because 2/8 or 1/5 ROs are POC. I do hope that authors list the characters ethnicity and nationality or at least state it because them mentioning that the character has golden/bronze skin does nothing for me. Are they black, are they south east asian, are they indigenous, like idk what its supposed to mean. Also ethnicity does not equal nationality and ethnicity is also as equally as important as race, so seeing some authors state that a character is South American or that a character is Asian and then leaving it at that also does nothing for me. Like are they Afro-Cuban, Asian-Argentinian/ Are they Han-Chinese or maybe Hui-Chinese? Are they Malay- Singaporean or maybe Indonesian? Every country is so diverse and have multiple ethnicities so saying that they're Latino and not explaining the characters' ethnicity or race at the very least just kind of leaves my head scratching at times.

don't worry, you're on anon, beloved. if they're gonna at anyone it will be me ;-P (jk. you're fine <3)

a follow up this. if anyone's following along ehheheh

i THINK she said M was white. Which wqereweq roflmao. LMAO.

But also DON'T QUOTE ME ON IT. There is so much back and forth about it, I genuniely don't remember. But IIIII DO FEEL M is stated to be a very 'tan' white person. M is spicy white. Still there are a lot of stereotypes, I agree (they're just worse if M was (is??) of color).

I always did find how she spoke about them vs how she wrote about them to be weird. (She does the same with F. In that the nuance in the text wasn't same in how she answered the asks) I think, in her defense, it might have just been lack of awareness of the stereotypes as well as a struggle in keeping things basic, thus falling back on them. But it was a problem, nevertheless. And I do feel she's been working on that. So there is that.

Still, it is good to bring up nonetheless, because it is a good thing to remember / keep in mind based 1. characters like M will always exist and like you stated the problem wasn't just Sera. (I have seen an improvement in fandom too tho, so I hope that translate in other avenues) and 2. I've seen a lot of growth in IF writers, so again people should keep that in mind for their future.

Nah, it's not just you. It's still a problem lmao. Hopefully again, things will change re: Sera (I will give credit - and I know I probably shouldn't but sadly so many DON'T - for LISTENING; and I also don't think A being demi-sexual was part of her plans, so maybe that's why it feels that way in the text. Not that it's an excuse, as I think if she was going to agree to that route the approach should have been changed earlier. But again, we shall see!)

It's funny that fandom treats it that way (funny because 1. boggling and 2. not funny at all) because A's hesitance isn't sexual at all. It's emotional and that STILL has nothing to do with them being demi. It feels like fandom has done less research than Sera -- when google is free. And more than that there are voices like yours explaining but fandom continues not to listen. I do think A's sexuality would have been better explored with different routes/tropes (than love at first sight/soulmates). But that's just me.

RE: Team Alpha - I haven't heard that but that tracks, and I can get why people would feel that way. I hope that when we see more of them, the depiction of them improves. I also think a lot of the hypersexualization/aggressive portrayal is more fandom. I felt they were more flirty and hyper in the text, but again I can see why people would be wary of their portrayal.

As for Sin, negl I did side-eye it. (Especially since I can't remember what the trapper who has him captured is.) And I am ready to side-eye fandom's approach to him.

I have nothing to add re: your thoughts on F Hauville. You're correct, lmao. Unfortunately.

Actually, I will say Sera's reactions might be in response to asks -- because I HAVE noticed that when she gets effusive F asks, she makes effusive and DETAILED responses. I've seen this at least twice. So, I feel she - and I've noticed with a lot of IF writers - react to what they're getting / the temperature of the fandom. More people care about A and N, then M, thus she reacts accordingly. HOWEVER, I feel it is the responsibility of the IF writer to cape for their ignored characters PARTICULARLY if they are an underepresented/ignored dynamic.

i legit cackled. roflmao. and let out a snort. RIGHT? like, what does this mean to me. And half the time they're just a white person with a tan (though I have come to learn that 'tan' skin and 'tanned' skin means different things. Apparently??? The things we learn to decode, I guess!!)ii

But you stated it very well, my dear! I very much often feel the same and I hope anyone else reading this takes this to heart.