As this title of the chapter says, I'm putting this fic on hiatus for a bit. The reason being? Well, frankly, I'm sick of someone not having the balls to make an account for me to respond to in DMs or report them, and dropping guest reviews flaming the story. It's only gotten worse with each new chapter posted the last month, and them filling the time between chapters with repeat flames because the first doesn't get approved. Today has been the worst- I've gotten three already, almost identical to one another in language, and it's barely 5pm.
Congrats, whoever you are- you've pissed me off enough to make me not want to work on this story right now. I've got enough things to deal with in real life, including continuing to recover from surgery, and don't have the mental energy to be consistently denying permission for the flood of insult filled rants being left.
In case people are wondering what's been said, and for me to finally respond to their bullshit- basically, I've been called lots of nasty names and the person thinks 1- Alucard has been overshadowed by Cerberus and there's no coming back from that grievous humiliation, 2- Alucard isn't being treated like the ultimate badass he is and how dare someone win any scenario with him in any fashion, 3- Alucard should have eviscerated Cerberus by now and then told Mercedes to take their son and fuck off, 4- "Mercedes is a raving bitch hopping from lover to lover when convenient to her uses" (latest flame is sitting there for me to see, about to be deleted, so I pulled a direct quote.)
Um... Gotta wonder if this reader took the option of skipping The Mad Hatter General and therefore is leaping to conclusions about motivations? Or are you just *really* pissed off because Alucard isn't getting his way right now? Are you the same jackass from a little over two years ago that said Alucard was being cucked and I publicly roasted for having such bad spelling in your tiny-dick caused rants? If so, I see you've taken my advice to get good with grammar. Bravo for that, at least.
I said character flaws and bad decisions would bite people in the ass. Mercedes has been dealing with being seriously injured, has had an avalanche of revelations coming down on her, her mind is finally clear of all compulsions from various vows she swore over different incarnations, and even if Alucard has mostly been on good behavior, things *have* been moving fast with him in just over a month's span of time and he does have some problematic traits she's worried about because she hasn't had long to know how everything balances out with him. Alucard *is* the canon Over Powered badass of near indestructible/godly levels, who also has sometimes questionable sanity, who has a canon habit that's carried over to this fic of rushing into situations headlong without full considerations to consequences and has a willingness to inflame situations with people he's not happy with, and those bad habits of his are flaring up right now because he's lost control of a situation he wants to keep handle on and he doesn't have the full skills/mental state to handle that loss of control without some missteps along the way. It's currently Alucard's turn to have to deal with some blowback. Cerberus will have his turn eventually when the plot calls for it; but, right now, Cerberus knows Alucard/Hades is the scary powerhouse he is and wrangling him in diplomatic fashions is best. Their form of "diplomatic" isn't traditional, to say the least, and it's not going to be rainbows and kittens all the time, especially when Cerberus needs to give some verbal sucker punches to make the Dragon King stop and think about things. Alucard would very much like to kill the wolf, but that would destroy his chances to fix things with his wife, and he does want to fix things. So he's not going to kill the wolf. But, last I checked, readers don't have access to my mind; making assumptions that Alucard will continue to grit his teeth about things is pretty audacious of you/ignoring various parts of the story that suggest otherwise. And Mercedes is not hopping from lover to lover; she's accepting comfort from one lover who she knows/trusts is safe because he lowkey took the years necessary to rebuild a rapport with her, while trying to temporarily slow things down with Alucard and properly work through the tangled up mess their lives have been. She's also been stripped of her autonomy in a number of ways, by a number of people, at different points of time, and she's tired of being herded into solutions that borderline (or blatantly are) entrapment because the other option is something much worse, usually potential death. That includes with Alucard, even if it was with good intentions, because of how he went about things. She agreed to the terms of their latest marriage and wrote the vows as best as she could conceive while under such stressful conditions, but it nonetheless caused complications, and now that has been nullified. She is (forcefully, yes,) setting down ground rules for what she can handle, and making it known there's things she can't deal with, especially after everything she's been through.
Personally, I think that's pretty fair. And while the Underworld Triad is in for a rocky transitional period as personalities clash and they rebuild understandings, I am planning for them to work their shit out and be a functioning trio again.
But apparently writing things in a realistic fashion, allowing all characters, including Alucard, to have their high and low points is intolerable and I'm a list of expletives for doing so. I should've left Mercedes, whose characterization is based heaviest on mythical Persephone and Stoker's Lucy Westenra, stuck as a doormat submissive who has stopped asserting herself because she's not as powerful in fight ways. Hans, Millennium's trump card who blatantly threw the fight with Seras that he could have easily won by giving her the ammunition to kill him and then let her actually use it, is supposed to be a complete pushover in all situations and never have any moments of coming out on top as the badass he also is, not even in a diplomatic scenario. Alucard should always be able to powerhouse his way through any scenario and never have to deal with his shit because fuck everyone, he's Alucard and he can wipe out the world if he really wanted to. Bow down before the unleashed Vamp King and kiss his shiny riding boots.
That's what I keep being harassed with. Almost daily. FF sucks at giving options to handle abusive guest reviewers. And I'm tired of it. Especially when there's almost no positivity balancing it out, when chapter after chapter gets posted and is almost invariably met with a silent reception. I'm tired of the abuse, I'm tired in general, and so I'm walking from the fic for a bit.
So, guest reviewer flaming me- again, bravo, you won. Hope you're happy your review siege worked. Now kindly go find another fic to obsess over in which Alucard gets away with whatever he wants and his lover is just a sentient blowup doll for smut to happen through. I promise you, they're out there. Go look and enjoy getting what you wanted. Or, here's an idea, go write your own fic so your ideas are entirely satisfied.
Everyone else- sorry, I guess? I see people log in to view, but for all I know you're hate-reading as well at this point and you'll be glad to see the train wreck end. I'm taking a break from writing, I'm going to go enjoy my weekend, and then I'll be working on my other fics as at least those don't draw so much vitriol.
