#reflingthefox

*How* long has he been in the water?

The earliest "he is surely in the water now" mention I can see is Etho stepping backwards after the splash - he's stepping through the water that's why it's hard. The Bdubs hug feels like "not yet" cause Etho shouldn't be up to his shoulders then - but it might be the starting to lead in point, 'm unsure? And the singing moment might indicate the start of charming?

Honestly, I love everything about this. I love everything about every your text, the way you manipulate details and atmosphere. When I'm trying to remember my first read, it's. A lot of suspence. I know something will come, it might be Bdubs - it surely is Bdubs, and I expect him to catch Etho unaware. The murder talk, the danger that I anticipate - it's not there yet, but I'm waiting for it, and the tune, the hug, the splash, the buckle - all of them feel like fakeouts to keep the pressure. And the bells are ringing, the hints are all there, but they're so carefully weaved into everything else they might be just words.

And then the question sounds, and the horror hits.

With frantic scrolling up, re-reading, getting even more terrified, and begging for Etho to do something.

It's high mastery, imo.

Oh man, thank you so much for the kind words :D I'm glad you liked the fic, and that the suspense/horror came together so well! I don't write straight horror too terribly often? And I was trying to really stretch some muscles with this one, to see what I could do.

For when exactly Etho gets in the water: I didn't really define that for myself. I wanted him in the water to happen in the space between cues in the story. But I can talk about the things that happen around that.

When Etho sees the stone on the still water, he is getting his first glimpse of the creature. Something is watching him from across the unnatural stillness of the river. When he thinks to himself, "I'm on the dock and I'm safe," the siren song has started and he's been charmed. Up until this point, he's shown some amount of caution [walking quietly on the dock, making sure he isn't wearing anything heavy besides his sword, prioritizing what activities he does first] but when he suddenly and overtly drops caution for "I'm safe on the dock", he's being lied to by something else. And, after emphasizing that nothing can drag him into the water against his will, he reaches over the side of the dock and touches the water willingly.

The rest of the story after that is, to me, the siren justifying sounds and sensations that would break the spell. Etho hears himself shuffling on the dock -- that's just BDubs walking up behind him, nothing to worry about. Etho feels a sense of danger and unease -- well, BDubs is talking about killing Grian. Etho hears the creature moving towards him in the water -- BDubs has his legs over the side of the dock and is kicking around. BDub's eyes are the wrong color -- well, the sunset is reflecting off them, making them red.

Somewhere in these cues, Etho starts shivering, because the water is cold, and he's standing in it.

I also tried to weave in a little bit, the idea that Etho knows he's being charmed? Mostly to do with the end, when he finally gives us the reason why he came to the water in the first place: he wants to see and hear his friend again, and the monster's illusion is the only way he can. But he knows enough to be cautious. He doesn't want BDubs to touch him -- it could be the monster, keep your distance. He feels fear at the idea of deep water, something that nearly scares him out of the illusion, but when he's given the chance to break it [checking his heartbeat to see if it's unnaturally calm], it's knowing he'll stop seeing BDubs that makes him decide not to check.

Etho's flaw in this is he thinks he has more control than he does. He hasn't "come to the water" until he's stepped in. But the truth of the matter is, as soon as he decided he wanted to see BDubs again, he was already willing to be deceived, and someone can't be dragged in against their will.

"How long have I been in the water, BDubs?" [When did I fall for the charm?]

"Does it matter?" [The minute you missed hearing my voice.]

There are other little things I had fun with: the start and end of the illusion both have to do with armor, something that should protect him, but is useless when it isn't worn. Every time Etho makes the mistake of feeling safe, he can see the creature [in the river at the start, when it's trying actively to drown him at the end]. The fact that, when BDubs jumps in the water, Etho shouts "Keep your distance!" and Tango mentioned they would be listening for his scream, to come rescue him. The fact that BDubs straight up says "You're not scared of me, the monster, you're scared of the deep water. But people drown in shallow water all the time."

C; D for BAYAB, vampire fic and fabriz fic; G; H; L; N; R; S; T; Z

Now suffer :3

Putting this under the cut because it's Long

Your Tango's a smart, determined little fella, even when he's being difficult and not at his best. He doesn't know what "self-care" means, and can be kinda selfish in his social behavior (otherwise Tanguish wouldn't be there), but he can and will do things for his friends when he has a specific goal in mind.

So, if someone tells him "Go talk to your friends, it will help you feel better"? Not happening, and rare attempts aren't paying off the effort.

But if someone went "Hey, you know your friend Impulse's helsmet is getting stronger. His helsmet's name? The Demon. You know, the one who's been a huge scary pain in the ass for Tanguish. So maybe if you went to Impulse and tried to help with whatever his struggles, two of your friends would have less mortal danger looming overhead"?

Might work, maybe? Both in the stated way and in Tango getting out of his mind way? Could have an unintended side effect of Tanguish getting whacked with weakening if he hasn't sanctificated hard enough (which is. 50/50 with how recent chapters went?) but overall net positive, I guess? And it's kind of in line with Tanguish's manipulative streak?

Not saying this is something that Will happen, but. Sounds like something that theoretically could, I thing?

Ref also has amazing art and writing skills, I love their fics on ao3, and it was super fun to have met them through the soulmate sweepstakes event!

(also special shoutout to their microtang fic it’s fantastic and yall should go read it 🫵)

could you show any recent photo/picture that you want to show and talk about it?

behold , a slice of the Best Fucking Birthday Cake I've Ever Had .

it was SO GOOD. It's got strawberries and you can really taste the subtle sweetness of it, it's far from sickeningly sweet and i fucking loved it