I miss your hospital au a lot. I wish you talked about it more! I loved fucked up Shadow Milk and a fucked up sm and pv dynamic. I love the idea that, even in some idealistic 'good end' for this au, it'll likely never truly be a healthy relationship at all- and you can take that romantically or platonically. I am so intrigued by them
While I know a lot of people want them to end up together, I’ve always wanted to keep this AU as realistic as possible.so from the very beginning, I never really saw them becoming a couple. I do draw ShadowMilk as very obsessive and attached to Pure Vanilla, but it’s important to remember that a lot of the “silly SMC comics” are from ShadowMilk’s perspective. Those moments are exaggerated, biased, and sometimes even a little delusional, they reflect how he interprets Pure Vanilla’s actions, not necessarily what’s actually happening.
The more serious pieces, though, are 100% grounded in Pure Vanilla’s perspective (like the first long comic, and old short comics of mine) . That’s where you see the reality of their dynamic. PV caring, trying to help, but also keeping boundaries and not feeding into ShadowMilk’s behavior. And because of that, Pure Vanilla wouldn’t love ShadowMilk in the way ShadowMilk wants him to. Not because he doesn’t care, but because the kind of love ShadowMilk is seeking, obsessive, allconsuming, exclusive, isn’t something PV would ever give. It wouldn’t be healthy, and he *knows* that itwouldn’t be right for either of them.
Even in a “good ending,” their relationship would still be complicated. There is care there, and there is connection, but it wouldn’t turn into a typical romantic or even fully healthy dynamic. NIf anything, the closest thing to a “good ending” I imagine isn’t them ending up together, but ShadowMilk eventually finding some form of peace within himself. Not quickly, not easily,but maybe,much later on, after a long time, he reaches a point where he isn’t constantly hurting or chasing something he believes he can’t have.
