K.S. Morgan

This is going to be a pinned post: all updates, replies and reblogs will take place below) Just wanted to tackle some common questions & requests I get. 

Blog readability 

My blog has long since become a multi-fandom space. If you want to see posts about specific fandoms and you don’t want me to clutter your dash with discussions you aren’t interested in, please block the corresponding tags.

For Hannibal fandom: hannigram, hannibal

For Black Butler: sebaciel, black butler, kuroshitsuji

For Harry Potter: tomarry, harrymort

For Batman: batman, batjokes

Asks & support

I welcome practically all kinds of asks, the only problem I have is with antis. I’d rather not explain why fiction preferences have no relevant impact on reality, so if you think about asking these questions, please don’t)

Also, if you want to justify Ruzzian aggression against my country, Ukraine, then I’d appreciate not seeing this. I won’t reply to such asks. 

Sometimes it takes me a really long time to reply, but please rest assured that I read and care about every ask I receive. If you suspect that Tumblr might have eaten your question, you can send me a follow-up message with a reminder, I don’t mind!

If you can and want to support me financially and/or you’d like to read 10 chapters of my original dark romance novel: here’s my Patreon. I set it up as a version of Buy-me-a-coffee because PayPal wasn’t accessible in Ukraine. You can contribute $1 or change it to any amount you want & cancel the subscription or keep it up for whatever period of time you prefer.

Now I also have PayPal: [email protected]

An important note to this: I’m doing more or less okay at the moment, so there is nothing urgent happening. However, war has brought many negative changes into my life, and I deeply appreciate any help I get. 

Fic recs & TV series recs 

(I’ll keep updating these posts when I can)

Original books that I loved

Fic recs based on a fandom 

Devil Judge and To My Shore: some of my most favorite series

A list of TV shows that some of you recommended and which I watched: Stranger Things, What We Do in the Shadows, Succession, Wednesday, Luther, Interview with the Vampire, Versailles

Another list with mostly Asian series I watched: ABO Desire, Pit Babe, Revenged Love, My Stubborn, The Next Prince, My Stand-In

I was hoping to respond to all the lovely and fascinating asks I've gotten, but my vacation is coming up in a few days, so the work is extremely busy right now! I'll try to do what I was planning tomorrow; meanwhile, here is the snippet for the next chapter of ATLWETD. If everything goes well, the chapter itself should be posted in about 2 weeks.

I have one :D

I've read some of your responses, and I might be saying something completely nonsensical right now, but just hear me out!

We're getting closer to the middle of the story… (it will probably fall around the end of seventh year i guess). I think this is where Tom's betrayal will happen. I feel like it will be connected to just one thing: Tom ends up using Legilimency on Harry. Judging by your little spoilers, he finds out about the prophecy in some way (and even about Dudley Dursley! ahaha). And the only source of this information is Harry himself.

Sorry if this is outright nonsense, I just sometimes like to think about your stories — they are beautifully written. Thank you so much for every single one you have shared with us ❤️

Oh yes, I do! :D

---

A note: those who don't want to see even small ATLWETD spoilers shouldn't read my response.

---

I love your theory! Tom will indeed learn about the prophecy, and it will be one of the key reasons that will push him to react even more strongly than he would otherwise. Legilimency should also play its role: it won't be how Tom finds out the truth, but it will contribute to the betrayal.

Hi! Do you mean the difference between how Tom felt for Harry in WHGTB vs. how he feels about him at the current stage of ATLWETD?

If so: in both stories, it takes about two years for Tom to fully decide that Harry is his person and that he will never let him go. However, this period of indecision is described briefly in WHGTB, so we spend most of the story watching how obsessed Tom is with Harry and how he worships the ground he walks on.

In ATLWETD, a big part of the story focuses on the slow burn. We're watching all the stages of how Tom's feelings develop, from fascination, possessiveness, attraction, and obsession to love, tenderness, and worship. Right now, we are in the stage of attraction and obsession.

The main difference is that in WHGTB, for the most part, Tom adored Harry and would never let him come to any physical harm. In ATLWETD, Tom hurts Harry himself repeatedly; I'd say his feelings are more physically abusive, and attraction plays a big role here. In this story, Harry started breaking through his walls after they had been carefully constructed and cultivated for years; Tom is unsettled by his own feelings, so while he's fascinated, he also resents Harry for throwing his mind into chaos.

He wants to dominate him, to overwhelm him; he thinks about Harry nearly all the time now, and he despises him for it. So there is always a touch of cruelty in his actions. He's also completely clueless about love and how to express it. In WHGTB, Harry raised Tom, so he learned what love is, even though his idea of it was still twisted; in ATLWETD, Tom is way more detached from this concept.

(Also sending my teeny little bit of moral support over the internet!)

Thank you <3 Maybe I'll post the snippet about Amortentia next.

Hi! Oh, that was on purpose because I didn't want the supporting characters from WHGTB and ATLETD to have the same personalities. We know practically nothing about them from canon, so this gives us a chance to reimagine them time and time again.

I love all of your tomarry fics. They are so beautifully written. WHGTB changed my brain chemistry forever, I’ll always remember the joy and exhilaration the first time I’ve read it. Nothing will compare to it. Yesterday I was reading the new update for TLWETD and I literally cannot contain my excitement. Ohh how I love how you characterize Tom. Giggling and kicking my feet. Amazing writing! I have several working theories and I can’t wait to find out what happens next!

On a different note, do you think you will write an Harrymort one day? Your Tom is weirdly relatable (complimentary) even tho he’s a psychopath. The last few paragraph where he talked about war and how it frightens him made me teared up. His humanity shines through your words. So, circling back to Voldemort, I’m mostly curious how you would write him as a character?

Hope for safety for you and your family. ❤️❤️❤️

Hi! Thank you, I'm so glad that you've enjoyed both WHGTB and ATLWETD. Also, I'd love to hear your theories :D This always makes things so exciting to me.

Writing Tom is always a pleasure. I love psychopathic characters, and I especially love it when they fall in love. The more slowly Tom warms up to Harry, the harder he is going to fall, and once he finally does, his obsession will be unstoppable. He'll probably be willing to sell the remaining parts of his soul just to see Harry smile at him, and I highly anticipate getting to this point.

As for Harrymort: it's possible, but it would probably be something completely AU where Voldemort preserved his sanity and at least half of his looks :D Because to be honest, while I applaud the writers who write Harrymort convincingly with the canon version of Voldemort, that's not something I can see myself doing. I think Voldemort is too far gone, and that's the type of unpredictability and insanity that I'm not very interested in. I also really like for both partners to be equals - maybe not in every sense, but more or less so, and I can't see it happening between canon Harry and Voldemort.

If I were to write Harrymort, I would probably follow the trajectory of Train to Nowhere where Voldemort is really, really detached from humanity, but still pretty sane. He rules the world, and Harry grows up to be a highly interesting and unusual person who captures his attention.

Another ask from @bbchlow: Hi! I hope you're doing well ❤️❤️❤️

Another ask: Hello Katrin, praying you and your loved ones are unharmed after the latest horrific attack on Kiyv. Absolutely disgusting how Russia's trying to justify these strikes as "retaliatory" when they've been bombing Ukraine's civilian infrastructure since the beginning of the war. As always, you're a brilliant writer and your stories have been bringing me and countless others joy for many years. Your resilience and the ability to find strength to stick to your long-term projects in these circumstances is truly admirable. You're the strongest person I know. I hope you and your loved ones can make it through to the end of this hell.

----

Hi! Thank you so much for your support and your care <3 Yeah, Russia decided to break the record from two weeks ago, so this night my city was hit even harder. A lot of houses and people and animals suffered; some died.

Basically, this is how our night and morning started.

I won't lie, it's tough and infuriating to face this reality. But there are a lot of things holding me anchored, and my fandoms and my readers are a big part of it. I actually wrote a lot today!

I also want to use this chance to give a quick update on the situation with my harassing neighbor and to thank all the people who left me their words of support.

@lovely-lotus, @bbchlow, @heyooooookk, @eternemi, @luinehil, @sweetmoonbunny, @littlemissperfection813, @wonderxxlottie, @maryannjavier, @copeop, @nerthony, @thatknightwiththeoath, @cessly, and now @vitalhollow:

thank you so, so much for your care and compassion. I actually didn't expect to receive so many comforting notes, I just wanted to vent a bit, so it took me by surprise and it made me feel so warm and protected, even though you are all so far away.

And extra thanks to @holaolla1, @localkilljoy and @emeraldsea94, for your detailed advice and suggestions. I really appreciate them. My father used to be a police officer, so he instilled a strong sense of safety in me. In fact, I'm almost paranoid about it: I never go anywhere unarmed, and I'm wary of everyone unless I know them really well.

In this case, me being introverted and working from home helps. I rarely go outside, and since I'm extremely close with my family, I almost never do it alone. If no one is with me, I let my parents know where and when I'm going, and I often turn on a geo tracker to let them see me if they need it.

The creepy neighbor has forgotten about even a superficial sense of property: last time, he groped me right in front of my Mom, which prompted me to make that post. I haven't seen him since then, though, and hopefully, the number of our run-ins will be minimal. His brother returned, too, just a few days ago, so I'm relieved because he's a really good guy. I hope he'll be able to keep the creep in check, this is how it usually worked.

A few years back, before the war started, the creepy neighbor was on drugs and tried to break into my apartment. Fortunately, I heard the noise, so I held the door manually, tried to calm his ranting down, and called his brother. He came and took him away. Now that he's here, too, I feel a bit safer.

We lived through one of the biggest attacks on my city on May 14, and one of the Russian missiles hit the apartment building in my neighborhood. 24 people died, and some more are considered missing because there is nothing left to identify them from.

I actually did a short recording of myself during that night, as I sat in the hallway and tried to read a book. I don't like to do videos like these, but I still wanted to have a physical reminder of the times we go through.

It doesn't reflect the real volume of explosions, but it's really, really terrifying because you know your life might end every single moment. It's one big, endless, deadly lottery.

And there is another deeply unpleasant problem I've run into. I'm being sexually harassed by my neighbor. He always had a thing for me, but when the war started, he left to fight. Now he came back, and his harassment became really extreme.

I'm wary of snapping at him the way I want to because I consider him unstable and dangerous, and he lives literally next door and has a ton of equally suspicious friends. However, allowing myself to be harassed is also not an option, especially since it's clearly progressing at abnormal rates. This is grating on my nerves and making me feel unsafe.

Hope you are doing well. Hope you're safe and sound.

A lifetime of praises won't be enough to express my love, gratitude and regard for you.

Yes! Oh, I don't even know where to start with it. To My Shore is one of the best love stories I have ever watched; the book it's based on, Four-Faced Buddha, is also one of the best romances I've read. I have so much endless praise for both of them, I find myself getting incoherent with it, lol. So, if you find my babbling below confusing, this is why!

To My Shore is the pinnacle of obsession, love, angst, redemption, and worshipping the ground one's partner walks on. Both actors are amazing. This level of acting has rendered me entirely speechless; I genuinely cried with them, my heart kept getting broken, and my anxiety kept skyrocketing to the point where I had to hit pause time and time again to calm down and get myself in order. I don't even remember the last time I felt so affected. Chemistry and passion are also magnificent here, they are so palpable, wow.

Fan Xiao, to me, is a character with clear psychopathic and BPD traits. Manipulation is in his blood; he's cold, indifferent, cruel, and toxic in every way you look at him. What amazed me is that he's actually someone on the aro-ace spectrum! Gray-romantic and graysexual. Until You Shu Lang, he never felt sexual or romantic attraction to anyone. I've never seen it depicted in fiction, so I found it fascinating.

You Shu Lang himself is the perfection of a character. Very often, even if obsession is depicted well in some series, I remain skeptical of the reasons for it. The objects of other characters' obsession tend to be so ordinary that I just don't get what's so special about them to warrant this crazy level of devotion and adoration. With You Shu Lang, I totally get it, and I understand why Fan Xiao grows to worship him.

He's not perfect; he's really not the divine being Fan Xiao sees him as, but he's so deep and so fascinating. He's endlessly good, but he's the opposite of a pushover. He protects himself fiercely and he maintains very strong boundaries. He's unyielding in his decisions: using Fan Xiao's words from the book, if You Shu Lang says no, then it's a no. Hard stop.

You Shu Lang always wants to help people, but if he can't, he's not going to suffer or beat himself up over it. He'll accept it calmly because he understands how life works, and that sometimes we are hopeless in our effort to change something.

He loves his brother, but while he's willing to sacrifice a lot for him, he's not going to let him walk over him even if the price of this decision is high. You Shu Lang has so much dignity and quiet power that you can't help but admire him.

If he feels something is wrong, then he trusts his intuition. If he has difficulties, if he is beaten down, he gets up and carries on. If he is in a relationship, he's entirely devoted: I was amazed at how loyal he stayed to Lu Zhen (his initial boyfriend) even despite being clearly attracted to Fan Xiao at the start of the show. And then… he loved Fan Xiao so much. He took care of him in so many ways - only to get his heart broken and spat on and burned to ashes.

E8 killed me, I was so floored by the level of heartbreak and emotion in it… And Fan Xiao didn't stop after this; he didn't understand he was in love until it was way too late, and then he just couldn't let go because You Shu Lang became the center of his world. Threatening You Shu Lang, ruining his career, forcing him to have sex with him when he's clearly unwilling, all but keeping him hostage - all because Fan Xiao can't imagine how to live without him, and he can't bear to let him go. It was excruciating to watch.

But then the redemption arc began, and I believed it. I think it was done very masterfully. And the way Fan Xiao becomes by the end of the series… he's still psychopathic, he's still an obsessed stalker, but he'd also rather die than hurt You Shu Lang now. He's content to just stare at him for days and days; he forces himself to stay sane time and time again for the price of seeing You Shu Lang happy, even if it's not with him.

And You Shu Lang… being forced into cruelty, something alien to him; understanding he loves Fan Xiao and that Fan Xiao definitely loves him, but still being unable to forgive him… There are so many emotional struggles in To My Shore, and they are all so painful.

The show's ending, despite being happy, still feels a little bittersweet, so I can't wait for the special episodes! And I'm so grateful for the book because it expands on everything and shows what happens next.

Afterwards, I found the AO3 website and finally found the article. I was almost as thirsty as a traveler in the desert, reading all the chapters crazily. I saw that you updated the new chapter on Black Butler, and interestingly, my friend happens to be a loyal fan of Sebastian and Charles, so I immediately recommended you to her. I was hoping that you would update on their birthdays or Christmas, but my hopes fell through. I kept talking about this to my friends, which almost annoyed them, hahaha. 

After going through long and cruel exams and studies, I finally waited for the new chapter of your annual update. When I saw it in the computer class at school, I almost cried and scared my classmates around me. I cannot describe how many times I have tasted your words repeatedly. Perhaps you don’t know that it’s not possible to log in to the Tumblr software in China, so after going through a lot of trouble, I was finally able to write this paragraph late at night. I am extremely anxious for the following chapters, wishing I could finish reading them all in one day, but of course, this is impossible. I don’t want to cause you any form of pressure, I just hope you can receive my love and support. 

At the same time, I am also paying attention to the Russia Ukraine war, and I am really worried about your situation. I hope you are doing well, taking care of your health, and perhaps considering immigrating to a safer country. I don’t know if you can see my message, but please keep going anyway. If you are willing, I hope you can come to my country for tourism or settlement. Also, I am really curious about what books you usually read to have such strong writing and expression abilities, or any music or film works.

------------------------

Response

Hi there! Oh, I can't even tell you how much your message touched me. Considering how difficult it was for you to even find a way to drop me a line, I'm completely in awe, and I appreciate the effort you went to so much.

Hearing how much you enjoyed my works makes me so, so happy. I experienced these situations by myself: reading a story and then seeing the translation ending at the worst possible moment, with no hope of being updated. Eventually, my fervent need to read everything made me learn English, and I'm so grateful that this is where I ended up. So knowing that my story became the reason for someone to go looking for the original, too, and then getting in touch despite the website not being easily accessible, is really the highest form of praise.

I love both my Tom/Harry and Ciel/Sebastian stories, so rest assured, the updates will keep coming!  

Funnily, lately, Chinese novels and series have completely stolen my heart, with Word of Honor and To My Shore taking a very prominent space there. I even began to learn some basics of the Chinese language just out of my fascination. In fact, I just had a situation similar to what you described: I wanted to read the extra stories from the original novel that aren't translated into English yet, but the official Chinese website doesn't let people from Ukraine in, so I could only fume and obsess over it! These restrictions are so maddening, ugh.

If the world gets a little kinder, I would absolutely love to go to China one day. Relocating to another country is impossible for now due to my parents and our financial situation, but for now, everything is not bad as it could be.

As for my general reading/watching lists... Honestly, I think it's about quantity and practice :D I've been reading and writing practically since I remember myself; improving bit by bit is inevitable in this case. If you're interested in more specific recs, I have some at the bottom of this pinned post. It doesn't have everything, not at all, but it lists some books and shows I like and re-read/re-watch often. I really need to update it, though! Will try to do it soon.

it seems pretty unavoidable for them to not have sex bc wdym they’re alone 😭 in a small bedroom 😭 and Tom’s going to be so stressed and pent up from the bombs 😭 and i remember you saying that they’d be super close after the summer? after that snippet you shared of them gearing up to kiss i literally cannot see them avoiding it afterwards. anyways, sorry for my ramblings! i’m super excited for the next chapter if you couldn’t tell, and i’m so ready for their orphanage arc

Haha, you are right, these characters did get way too intimate too fast, to the point where I have no choice but to give them what they want. I didn't plan on this at all, they were supposed to kiss around next Christmas for the first time, but here we are instead! They are already unable to keep their hands off each other, and it's just summer.