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26 August 2025 @ 05:29 pm

[ SECRET POST #6808 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6808 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 18 secrets from Secret Submission Post #972.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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26 August 2025 @ 12:24 am

Mississippi legal challenge: beginning 1 September, we will need to geoblock Mississippi IPs

I'll start with the tl;dr summary to make sure everyone sees it and then explain further: As of September 1, we will temporarily be forced to block access to Dreamwidth from all IP addresses that geolocate to Mississippi for legal reasons. This block will need to continue until we either win the legal case entirely, or the district court issues another injunction preventing Mississippi from enforcing their social media age verification and parental consent law against us.

Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don't want to do this, but the legal fight we and Netchoice have been fighting for you had a temporary setback last week. We genuinely and honestly believe that we're going to win it in the end, but the Fifth Circuit appellate court said that the district judge was wrong to issue the preliminary injunction back in June that would have maintained the status quo and prevented the state from enforcing the law requiring any social media website (which is very broadly defined, and which we definitely qualify as) to deanonymize and age-verify all users and obtain parental permission from the parent of anyone under 18 who wants to open an account.

Netchoice took that appellate ruling up to the Supreme Court, who declined to overrule the Fifth Circuit with no explanation -- except for Justice Kavanaugh agreeing that we are likely to win the fight in the end, but saying that it's no big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime.

Needless to say, it's a big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime. The Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who's under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users' parents to allow them to finish creating an account. It also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn't like it -- which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn't like, you're absolutely right.)

Needless to say, we don't want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can't: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity. You can read the sworn declaration I provided to the court for some examples of how unworkable these requirements are in practice. (That isn't even everything! The lawyers gave me a page limit!)

Unfortunately, the penalties for failing to comply with the Mississippi law are incredibly steep: fines of $10,000 per user from Mississippi who we don't have identity documents verifying age for, per incident -- which means every time someone from Mississippi loaded Dreamwidth, we'd potentially owe Mississippi $10,000. Even a single $10,000 fine would be rough for us, but the per-user, per-incident nature of the actual fine structure is an existential threat. And because we're part of the organization suing Mississippi over it, and were explicitly named in the now-overturned preliminary injunction, we think the risk of the state deciding to engage in retaliatory prosecution while the full legal challenge continues to work its way through the courts is a lot higher than we're comfortable with. Mississippi has been itching to issue those fines for a while, and while normally we wouldn't worry much because we're a small and obscure site, the fact that we've been yelling at them in court about the law being unconstitutional means the chance of them lumping us in with the big social media giants and trying to fine us is just too high for us to want to risk it. (The excellent lawyers we've been working with are Netchoice's lawyers, not ours!)

All of this means we've made the extremely painful decision that our only possible option for the time being is to block Mississippi IP addresses from accessing Dreamwidth, until we win the case. (And I repeat: I am absolutely incredibly confident we'll win the case. And apparently Justice Kavanaugh agrees!) I repeat: I am so, so sorry. This is the last thing we wanted to do, and I've been fighting my ass off for the last three years to prevent it. But, as everyone who follows the legal system knows, the Fifth Circuit is gonna do what it's gonna do, whether or not what they want to do has any relationship to the actual law.

We don't collect geolocation information ourselves, and we have no idea which of our users are residents of Mississippi. (We also don't want to know that, unless you choose to tell us.) Because of that, and because access to highly accurate geolocation databases is extremely expensive, our only option is to use our network provider's geolocation-based blocking to prevent connections from IP addresses they identify as being from Mississippi from even reaching Dreamwidth in the first place. I have no idea how accurate their geolocation is, and it's possible that some people not in Mississippi might also be affected by this block. (The inaccuracy of geolocation is only, like, the 27th most important reason on the list of "why this law is practically impossible for any site to comply with, much less a tiny site like us".)

If your IP address is identified as coming from Mississippi, beginning on September 1, you'll see a shorter, simpler version of this message and be unable to proceed to the site itself. If you would otherwise be affected, but you have a VPN or proxy service that masks your IP address and changes where your connection appears to come from, you won't get the block message, and you can keep using Dreamwidth the way you usually would.

On a completely unrelated note while I have you all here, have I mentioned lately that I really like ProtonVPN's service, privacy practices, and pricing? They also have a free tier available that, although limited to one device, has no ads or data caps and doesn't log your activity, unlike most of the free VPN services out there. VPNs are an excellent privacy and security tool that every user of the internet should be familiar with! We aren't affiliated with Proton and we don't get any kickbacks if you sign up with them, but I'm a satisfied customer and I wanted to take this chance to let you know that.

Again, we're so incredibly sorry to have to make this announcement, and I personally promise you that I will continue to fight this law, and all of the others like it that various states are passing, with every inch of the New Jersey-bred stubborn fightiness you've come to know and love over the last 16 years. The instant we think it's less legally risky for us to allow connections from Mississippi IP addresses, we'll undo the block and let you know.

337 comments | Leave a comment

25 August 2025 @ 04:13 pm

Dear Fic-In-A-Box Letter (Yes this is long - don't @ me lolsob)

Dear Fic-In-A-Box Writer,

You are amazing. I want to tell you that up front, because you are.

Please don’t stress about this assignment. Just the fact that you are writing for any of these fandoms in the first place will make me ridiculously happy. Also, I love gifts in general, so I’ll be chuffed to get a prize of any of the available shapes and sizes in any mix and match of fandoms. I think last time I entered this exchange in 2023, I completed 3-4 gifts for my assignment of different types and lengths, so if you feel led to run amok in a way other than a 10k fanfic, you definitely have free range to do so if you wish! I know this letter is ridiculously long as it’s the most fandoms I think I’ve ever signed up for – I think my reading muse’s ADHD is hitting HARD y’all LOLSOB. But again I love these fandoms and tend to babble about prompts and such, but don’t let that scare you off. And yes, some have more prompts than others, but that really does not mean anything preference wise – I would NOT have requested these fandoms if I didn’t want them. But honestly, I just wanted to give you as much detail as possible to hopefully help get your inspiration flowing since holy crap you signed up to write a LOT of words (or create a prize equivalent to a lot of words LOL) for me! Seriously: A. Maze. Ing.

The only thing I do ask is that my DNW list be avoided.

DNW: Infertility/miscarriage, prostitution, noncon, dubcon, requested character/pairing death, infidelity, love triangles/jealousy focus (I am far more fond of OT3ing it up), Hanahaki, characters de-aged/aged back up during the story, A/B/O, gangster/mob, noir settings, Modern AUs that remove canon SFF or historical elements, amnesia, loss of limb/amputations, mpreg, underage/adult, gender swap, teacher/student, drug abuse/alcoholism, or incest. Please no 2nd person or 1st person POVs unless in epistolary/letters format.

For M-rated fics, please no knife/blood/gun play in a sexual context (canon level plot/action violence is fine), humiliation in a D/S dynamic, age or pet play, scat, watersports, rape-as-fantasy-scenes, anal for M/F pairings, and any kind of direct blow in a sexual situation, including spanking/flogging.

Yes Please: Post-apocalypse, slice of life/domestic/curtainfic, epistolary stories, found family, crossovers with characters ending up at the Gertrude Hunt of Ilona Andrews’ Innkeeper Chronicles series, AUs (particularly zombie apocalypse, Black Jewels verse, Sentinel/Guide, Old West, and Pacific Rim fusion), outsider POVs, soul mark verses, supernatural elements like hauntings/werewolves/fae/etc., competency kink, fixit fics, stranded together/huddling together for warmth, X Reader fics esp in fandoms with few femme love interests and/or solo requested characters, and 5 and 1 style fics.

For M-rating fics, I particularly love dirty talk, Dom/Sub dynamic (service Dom and/or service Sub a plus), that Dom ordering their Sub around, restraint i.e.: shibari/handcuffs/holding partner down, wall sex, shower sex, cramped vehicular sex, biting/marking (without major blood being drawn), mate bonds and/or soul bonds needing consummation, “OMG we didn’t die” sex, and “sharing body heat” leading to sex.

Also I do have gifts enabled and welcome treats if someone who isn’t assigned me gets inspired by my requests!

Optional Re Crossovers: I also wanted to specifically mention that crossovers between any of my requested fandoms would be awesome if that’s your thing just so long as the fic is still focused on my requested characters/pairings. I know some of these are VERY different, but others I think could definitely lend themselves to some interesting combinations if that inspires you!

MEDIUM OPT-INS: Just FYI, I opted-in to the Medium Opt-Ins below for each of my fandom requests. I have no preference and will be thrilled to see any of them, but please note, I’m totally game for the standard fanfiction sign up offer, as well. Don’t feel like these are a requirement – consider them more of a bonus option:

Medium Opt-In: Writing - Recursive Fic of Any of the Recip's Works In This Fandom
Medium Opt-In: Writing - Remix - Fic Remix of my Fic
Medium Opt-In: Writing - Sequel To Previous Gift To Me By The Same Author
Medium Opt-In: Writing - Epistolary
Medium Opt-In: Writing - Non-Linear Narrative
Medium Opt-In: Video - Fanvid
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Typeset of a Recipient's Fanfiction
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules – Cross Stitch Pattern
Medium Opt-In: Illustrated Text (Art & Writing) - Excerpts from a Journal/Notebook/Sketchbook
Medium Opt-In: Illustrated Text (Art & Writing) - In-Universe Academic Publication
Medium Opt-In: Illustrated Text (Art & Writing) - In-Universe Scientific Documents
Medium Opt-In: Art - Tapestry
Medium Opt-In: Art - Tarot Card
Medium Opt-In: Art - Remix - Art Remix of my Fic
Medium Opt-In: Art - Stained Glass
Medium Opt-In: Art - Fanart Cover/Illustration of Recipient's Fic
Medium Opt-In: Art - Book Cover
Medium Opt-In: Art – Medieval Illumination-Style Art
Medium Opt-In: Art – Remix – Art Remix of my Fic
Medium Opt-In: Audio – Fanmix/FST (Fan Soundtrack)

Crossover Fandom:
Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)/Colonel Fitzwilliam (Pride and Prejudice)
Jane Bennet (Pride & Prejudice)/Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensibility)
Charlotte Lucas (Pride & Prejudice)/Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensibility)
Jane Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) & Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)
I really REALLY love crossovers for Jane Austen stories. Especially for the rare pairs and side characters above. Something about Colonel Brandon and Colonel Fitzwilliam just appeals to me on both fronts, and the quiet sisters of both canons, Jane, and Elinor, seem to me to have deserved better than the fates they were given by the text, as does the other “less” desirable miss, Charlotte Lucas. So, if the canon doesn’t supply a proper pairing – find another canon! Seriously, here I’m just all about mutual respect and “hearth like” loves instead of “raging fire” passions and competency kinks abounding! I don’t have a lot of specific prompts for these requests, but if you like the style, I would particularly love me an epistolary love story or even society/gossip pages about how the couples fall in love ala Bridgerton’s Lady Whistledown for an added crossover detail LOL!

Richard B. Riddick (Chronicles of Riddick Series)/River Tam (Firefly)
Oof, this is legit a mashup of two of my fave SF fandoms. Pitch Black is a STUNNING movie fight me! And honestly I even like Chronicles and Riddick (though the latter almost felt a little too much like Pitch Black – I really would have liked to see Furya. Oh well). And Firefly (and Serenity) had SO MUCH POTENTIAL, though yes in retrospect, it had a fair number of Whedon-esque issues (oof the sex work slurs left and right). Still, both are some of my happy places, and putting them together, and in particular these two characters together? So much yes please! I don’t know how to articulate what it is that is so fantastic about these two, but man, it just WORKS for me. I do want River to be of adult age, just FYI, but beyond that, feel free to run wild! Does Riddick escape the Necros and end up getting a ride aboard Serenity? Does River somehow end up crash-landed with the others aboard the Hunter-Gratzner? Are we pre or post Big Damn Movie? Honestly, any of these will make me thrilled. Seriously! BTW, this one is my one exception to my DNW of no sexual blood play, but only when it comes to biting/marking. I still am not game for blades against skin or any kind of dubcon/non-con; I just appreciate Riddick being a bit possessive with his River!

聖女の魔力は万能です | Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou Desu | The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent (Anime)
Albert Hawke/Takanashi Sei
This sweet little monster-filled anime was recommended in a blog from Ilona Andrews randomly enough – one featuring “comfort” animes to watch given The Everything. And this really was SUCH a comfort of a story. There are of course given it’s an isekai monsters to fight and chauvinistic elements to the world building (the prince is an ASS and arranged marriages are very much a thing and not always a great one) which is sort of a fantasy Regency vibe – but still all told - my jam LOL. Sei was a delight of a main character, and I loved that it got close to that typical “every handsome man in the vicinity falls desperately in love with her” shojo trope but JUST sidestepped it enough that it’s “every handsome man in the vicinity absolutely ships her and her love interest, Captain Hawke and does their best to get him to just MAKE A MOVE ALREADY.” I will say the slow pace of the anime got a bit overdone at times (2 seasons and a marriage proposal and they NEVER KISSED ON SCREEN), so I would not be opposed to romantic letters getting spicy between them on the road to marriage! Also, I loved all of Sei’s research and experimentation in everything from cooking to healing to monster-slaying, so books or articles from her featuring her academic mind would be a delight, as well. Really I just want these two sweetly shy, ridiculously brave kiddos to get to be romantic with each other.

The Borden Dispatches – Cherie Priest
Solo: Lizzie Borden
Lizzie Borden & Emma Borden
Lizzie Borden/Nance O’Neill
This is one of those fandoms that I’m honestly SHOCKED doesn’t have any fics for. It’s based on an infamous historical murder AND the Innsmouth story ala Lovecraft. Oh and THEN, it’s written completely in epistolary/found document style with letters, diary entries, snippets of the doctor’s findings, reports of an investigation… It’s so PERFECT for fandom y’all. Oh yeah, and it features women fighting monsters and chronic illness and a chronically ill woman masquerading as a male academic on paper and a self-taught scientist with an ax and a sapphic sunshine grump couple between Lizzie and her actress girlfriend, and and and. I just loved this concept so so much, and the first book did not disappoint! I would like any gift to be set around the Ravenscroft timeline as opposed to the second book Chapelwood as sadly the massive decades long time skip lost so much of the characters and location I loved so much from the first book! Prompt-wise, you honestly can go wild as long as it’s featuring these ladies, especially if you can manage some of the style of the book! Between their complicated relationships and the crazy circumstances, there really is SO MUCH potential!

Burn Notice
Victor Stecker-Epps
This show overall is such a blast, and I always enjoy the hell out of most of the ensemble cast, but my fave character – bonus played by one of my fave SG1 actors - only appeared on screen in 3 episodes before dying. WHAT. A. WASTE. There’s just so much that’s so damned tragic about Victor – in a single day he goes from what we can only assume is a skilled and successful spy with a loving family at the top of his game to losing that family in an explosion, being burned and blamed for it, and recruited by Karla, only to years later figure out Karla (and the entire organization) actually caused all of the destruction of his life. Is it any surprise it broke him? I mean really? Not to say he’s not a murderous bastard – ‘broken’ has definitely turned him into a murder happy Mad Hatter type of man who is unpredictable as hell in a delightfully attractive way (along with him being charming and ridiculously physically attractive). But there was clearly a good man in there for him to have been so dedicated to his job and family originally. He's like a shattered mirror of what Michael might have been had his own burn notice taken casualties with him. So, what do I want for this request? Just save Victor – keep him alive, of course, but also let Michael and the team start saving him little by little with the good they do despite some of the terrible ways they often get the good things accomplished. Throwing another wild card into the mix (as lord knows Fi already plays that role) could be SUCH fun. Oddly, I don’t actually ship Victor with anyone canon on the show or alternately, I’d have to ship him with EVERYONE indiscriminately, I think if that makes sense? So if you do want to write something shippy for him, I’d think I’d prefer either his canon wife or an OC lady – whether it's discovering his wife and child didn’t die after all but thought he died instead, or a client for Michael’s team keeps catching Victor’s attention though DAMN if he can figure out why, or he’s stuck playing babysitter to a client needing a close bodyguard until the job is finished and Victor’s pissed he’s missing all the fun (read violence) until things go very wrong and he gets to get very violent indeed. Hell, go full tropey with it and set them in the apocalypse or have Victor up and find a soul mark and that poor woman have NO IDEA what they’re in for when it comes to his entire luggage train worth of emotional baggage LOL. Just yeah, give me more of Victor among the living, please k thanks!

Note for the next few requests: OK so if you have followed my fandomness at all, you know I tend to fixate on actors. Apparently that applies to voice actors as well… that or one particular English voice actor is just PAINFULLY typecast to play characters that are stupidly my type. BC yes, yes all three of the dude characters in the requests below are voiced by the same person. Whoops? Sorry not sorry?

Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Son Hak/Yona
Anyone who knew me when I started reading manga wayyyyyyyyyyy back when would recognize this one as SO my type. I had flashbacks to Fushigi Yuugi and Ceres Celestial Legend and SO MANY of the older Shojo Beat specials of my college days. I somehow missed the manga version of Yona appearing back then, but MAN am I thrilled I stumbled on the anime on Crunchie. And yes, yes Hak does, in fact, have my fave voice actor. Yes, I apparently have a shojo anime hero type rather similar to my shonen anime hero type. Whoops? Anyway, I do love this show and this pairing in particular, especially on the side of Hak and his absolute devotion to Yona, up to the point that he’d convinced himself he was perfectly happy to protect her AND her supposed future husband while never acting on his own feelings. I just, I can’t even with that type of dynamic, especially with the slight edge of “gah she annoys me so much wait where is she I cannot lose sight of her for an instant or my world collapses ok now I need to hold her and it definitely is still annoying I swear” vibe he’s got going on. Again I’ve only seen S1 of the anime, so I don’t know what’s to come, but anything on their journey in that season from canon AUs to missing scenes will make me super thrilled.

Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Yami Sukehiro
I recently marathoned this anime with my husbeast and MAN I enjoyed the hell out of this character. Part of it admittedly was the English voice actor, who was a delight, but part of it was just Yami in all his ridiculous contradictions. Harsh with his team but also secretly a damn teddy bear with a heart for the underdog; crude as hell but as a Captain probably considered the next thing to nobility. Considered a foreigner, but so expert with the magic and culture that he can mentor Asta. Just, yeah, I was super sucked into this character and want all the fic with him! Prompts: 1) Yami and his pet beasts. I’m a sucker for a big gruff guy adopting baby animals (even if he was forced to defeat their mother), ESPECIALLY when they turn out to be big and fierce but super loving to their adopter. Just all the cuddly and/or battle moments with Yami and his pets. 2) Shippy! I am not into M/M lately but I would love to see Yami either with an OC lady or with Captain Charlotte Roselei. I don’t have specific prompts for this but feel free to run wild as long as Yami gets his love life on (and yes smut is DEFINITELY welcome LOL). 3) Isekai/Portal fantasy AU Yami! I have only seen the anime of this and was hugely intrigued by the fact that (at least prior to the current season being aired) they basically only mention Yami’s past as him washing up on the shore as a “foreigner,” wielding the only Japanese style sword in the show, and then being chosen by a grimoire with pretty damned rare magic. He just SCREAMS isekai hero to me, and I’d love a look at his story from that perspective. I’d also love to see this prompt and the shippy OC prompt combined – is another person transported to the Clover kingdom from our world? How does he recognize her as such? Is she someone he knew there? Again, just lots of fun potential! 4) Finally, I’m all about the gen found family/adopted BDE (Big Dad Energy… tho uh the other BDE version also applies LOL) vibe Yami gives off with his team. Anything domestic and family like would be great.

나 혼자만 레벨업 | Solo Leveling (Webcomic)
Solo: Baek Yoon-Ho (Solo Leveling)
Finally, I think I can best sum up my feelings regarding this fandom and this side character when I say that every time I mention any of it to my friends, I inevitably start with either “so this asshole…” or “so I was watching for the plot when…” Yeah, of the 3 characters this voice actor portrays, this is the one that was probably the most bulletproof guaranteed to make me obsessed, and that’s even aside from the amount of fan service that proves the art director was THIRSTY for this character given how many more shirtless moments he has compared to literally ANY other character lol, which I respect them for. But seriously, y’all, Baek Yoon-Ho is that dedicated, heroic – he literally was a freaking firefighter BEFORE he became an S rank Hunter – painfully responsible, terribly loyal and protective to his people, heartthrob of a side character that part of me is already depressed because I KNOW the series will end up shifting attention away from him after S2 of the anime. And that just makes me sad damn it! So give me all the Yoon-Ho content please, whether is gen with him as Guildmaster leading and mentoring the other Hunters of the White Tiger Guild or doing a dungeon raid (since we actually don’t get to witness much of his freaking white tiger shifter transformation magic on screen as it were) or him awakening to his abilities and rank or being bros with Eun-Seok and Byung-Gyu to super shippy tropey delight with him having an OC soulmate or a X Reader fic even (if you don’t go for one of the canon characters I ship him with below which there of course are NO fics for him for either badass lady yet lolsob). I just want to see this man get good things and be a competent badass. That’s it. BTW, I do headcanon him and Choi being exes of the not-remotely-friends with benefits type and thus Yoon-Ho being bisexual, but while that can be backstory, I do prefer Choi not to be a focus in my gift please.

Baek Yoon-Ho/Cha Hae-In
Hello mutual competency kink! Not me yet again taking a blink and you miss it moment and starting to build a ship around it. Especially not yet another tol and smol ship (not that Hae-In is necessarily small – Yoon-Ho is just stupidly large in the best of ways). But honestly, I really have been sucked in by That Chest Glance moment during the sparring episode when (again bless that thirsty art director) Yoon-Ho steps up beside Hae-In and all of her eye level is Yoon-Ho’s pecs and then crossed arms. I know they were talking about Jin-Woo but SERIOUSLY who wouldn’t be distracted from the subject at eyeline? And then, if that moment wasn’t fanserviced enough, Yoon-Ho freaking WINKS AT HER. Your honors, I rest my shipping case. OTPs have definitely been based on far less evidence. And again, that’s even without considering how clearly he respects her as an S rank Hunter in their battle on Jeju Island. So yeah, slightly older man/younger woman, competency kink, tol and smol, it’s just so so many of my fave tropes and I wants it precious. Do with that what you will LOL.

Baek Yoon-Ho/Park Hee-Jin
My mental vibe for these two definitely has some of the similarities to the above ship as far as tropes, but with a side of boss/subordinate, Guildmaster/Guild member that I really think I could enjoy, especially with how respectful Yoon-Ho appears to be of his people from the little bit we get in the show. Hee-Jin would see a very different side of him in his Guild than even Hae-In might as a fellow S rank, and I think that push and pull between Yoon-Ho and Hee-Jin’s levels both power wise, profession, and age wise could be really interesting. Hee-Jin definitely seems to have her head on straight in the couple episodes we see, and I’d love to see her featured more and get with the handsome love interest. This one also could have all the logistical details I often love from the inner workings of the guild to how her training might have gone to even whether or not they somehow had crossed paths before she awakened. Is that part of why she joined the White Tigers in the first place? In canon, all the S ranks are celebrities, is there a chance for her being starstruck and having to change her expectations of him? Is she one of those folks who hates the tabloids and anyone they focus on just one principle and thus has to see him as a real person in that respect instead? Just give me these two lovelies being lovely together please k thanks.

Tags: dear author letter