this is a full account (from my pov, at least) of the things that occurred between dec. 2017 - june 2018 because i need to hold myself accountable.
i created dan in dec. 2017, like very close to the new year, i canโt remember exactly when his blog went live (the url was @/roseaetes or something very close, i canโt recall the exact spelling). in jan 2018 (or maybe early feb. 2018) i did a revamp of his dossier / information pages, and posted some metas to the dash. nothing really new; pieces of information thatโd been part of his character since the beginning, just expanded upon. i was then vagued about on the dash by two separate people whose names i really canโt remember -- they both wrote characters from the narnia series, one also wrote bucky barnes. the posts were very clearly aimed at me, because they were about jewish characters having tattoos -- which was a fact iโd only a few minutes earlier posted about, reminding people about tattoos that dan had. (i knew that tattoos were forbidden in judaism, but iโd. looked at it the same way some christian people look at it; because some think itโs not allowed while some do. it isnโt my place to say either way, but i didnโt see it that way at the time, which was wrong). this obviously caught my attention, and i messaged one of the people on discord apologizing to them for hurting them, saying that iโd correct it (by taking them away) and doing what i could to make it Better. they ended up blocking me on both tumblr and discord, which i understood. i made a post stating that dan no longer had tattoos but after a few days i ended up deleting him anyway because i felt i needed to reconsider some things and iโd bring him back when i felt it was โokay.โ
a few weeks later, i messaged heavenly, because i knew they were jewish and so i wanted their opinion on the situation. i asked if they thought it was okay for me to bring back dan, and they expressed confusion as to why iโd deleted him in the first place. i explained the situation, and they made the point that i had to be respectful, which i agreed with. i said iโd already removed his tattoos, and that theyโd stay gone if i were to write him again. i did express some frustration at this because from his initial development some of the tattoos had been important aspects of his character -- but it was just some minor venting, i wasnโt going to re-implement them into his character. heavenly suggested i make another non-jewish character and give them the tattoos but i dismissed it because i couldnโt do that; they were tied to heavily to him. then i asked them why theyโd never said anything about it -- not because i expected them (or anyone else) to hold me accountable, i was just curious. maybe i was looking for justification, that it wasnโt as big a deal as it felt. i was looking for comfort. heavenly then told me that they didnโt know he was jewish, and that did hurt me -- i was using a jewish fc, i frequently spoke about how important his religion was, i implemented it in threads/conversations about him. iโd spoken to them about it. i was hurt, and my hurt got the better of me; i ended up deleting them from discord because i felt like maybe they never actually paid attention to anything iโd done -- i felt vastly unimportant, which is so fucking dramatic and dumb. i didnโt realize it at the time but i was splitting on them, which i shouldโve recognized and overcame. i shouldnโt have let my emotions get the best of me. i should have been bigger than i was, but i wasnโt.
i did end up sending them an apology over tumblr for deleting them so unexpectedly - i said i wanted things to end on a more amicable note, because i still didnโt want to be friends with them. i thought that thatโd be enough -- that it would be Okay so long as i apologized for ending things so abruptly.
a few months later, maybe two or three, i found out that iโd gotten namedropped by her. and heavenly, i did lie about this part when you and your friends (at the time) confronted me. i knew what the namedrop was about - but i just didnโt want to deal with it. i was cowardly and i lied, pretending i didnโt know what it was about. i didnโt want the confrontation then. i wanted to just forget about it because iโd felt that it was unfair -- iโd felt like the interaction wasnโt antisemitic at all. to me, all iโd done was block you, and that was so fucking ignorant of me.
after the namedrop, i ignored it, tried to pretend like it was done with. i felt horrible but i didnโt know how to actually react -- i didnโt know how to apologise. i wanted to defend myself to a certain degree, because like i said, i felt it was unfair -- but i didnโt want to lose my friends. i valued my feelings over yours. that was fucking horrible. that was the worst thing i could do.
then in the summer, when heavenly had made a blog for elsa, they were on my dash frequently - we had some mutual friends, and i didnโt feel too good about seeing them on my dash. iโd blacklisted their url but they still showed up in mutualsโ notes, and so i ended up blocking them, too. they were rightfully angry. it was after this that they confronted me, via a third party at the time - i dismissed it, because it was just a block and like before, i didnโt know how to deal with it. i didnโt know just how hurt they were, how much damage iโd done, how fucking disgusting my actions were. i used aave during that conversation as well -- although it was unknowingly, that was also supremely fucked, and i apologise again for that. two different people messaged me on their behalf and thatโs when it really hit me that it wasnโt just a block. so i did end up sending heavenly another apology -- but i know it only felt faked and forced. i didnโt do it for forgiveness, or to save my ass; i did it because i genuinely felt awful, and i still do.
this is a short version of everything that happened but it deserves to be out there. people deserve to know. i did horrible things. i hurt people. and iโve felt guilty about it for the longest time, and i think i always will. this isnโt a plea for forgiveness - for the slate to be wiped clean - itโs because everyone deserves to know the full truth. and heavenly deserves to know that i lied to them. i wonโt pretend itโs entirely selfless, though, because this is an attempt for me to be able to live with myself by coming clean with everything.
to everyone iโve hurt - iโm sorry. to heavenly, especially, i know iโll never be able to fully understand the pain iโve put you through. i know iโll never be able to make things better. i know that you are a wonderful person full of light who brings joy to your friends, and i hope you all the happiness and luck in the world. i hope your life is absolutely wonderful.