Situation Archive Since the last time this happened, I’ve been more proactive and direct, and I’m documenting it rather than waiting to correct something someone says. My wing-language style—and more specifically, underwing feather-lift as a vulnerable invitation—was lifted by someone close to me and never credited, despite multiple conversations where they eagerly said they were doing this and acknowledged being directly influenced by unpublished writing I began in January. They even went so far as to edit the mechanic into previously published chapters after reading my writing. I only became fully aware of it when they published an update on 3/29. They told me it would be “just like their older chapter.” But not as I had known it, because they had changed that, too. They said things like: “I knew about and headcannoned underwing sensitivity before but I never thought about it quite as much til you explained it in your story.” “The concept of it overriding logical thought and spurring submission so easily - mmmmmmm yesssss” “Don’t mind if I let that sink into my brain” “It definitely is [uniquely yours]” “At least I’ve never heard anyone else explain it that way” “Considering it happens in this chapter so overtly, I definitely wil give you credits as well” [Of it being something I developed specifically for Kaskel] “This is true. I’d be more than happy to mention it.” Credit that I never received, by the way. They also lifted a scene from the intro of a smut fic I wrote years ago (The Games We Play). They deleted that accreditation after we fell out because I had asked for time to put together a reference for the language I use around wing mechanics, and they refused to give me any time to do so. A few days later, they told a friend they were aware of several other instances in which they had done this to others. Recently, they went through a creative identity shift. I assume because I’m no longer around to extract from. Wing sensitivity isn’t new. But the way I write wings—the behavioral logic, the sensory mechanics, the emotional grammar—comes from growing up breeding, raising, and rehabilitating all manner of birds. It’s not a trope I borrowed; it’s a lived experience and deeply immersive empathy in a maladaptive daydream that I translated into fiction. Knowing that this mechanic is now out there without attribution hits harder than I expected. It’s the reason I almost shelved Kaimono entirely. And the truth is: no one who sees it now will ever think it was the other way around. So no. I don’t share my thought process or early “just for fun” character-building drafts anymore. I don’t invite others into my creative process.
