#sorry phen

https://archiveofourown.org/works/86439036/chapters/231659316

Different tone this chapter, because Penny really needs to talk to Phen and it's pretty urgent.

Once again, I'm in awe of how many people have been reading/checking out my fics, especially with how heavy the subject matter is.

I was fully expecting people to skip over this because it's fairly different from Nothing Short of Everything, the romance is kinda in the background, and the focus is on the trauma of the past events of Area Zero and Mochi Mayhem. It was still something I wanted to write, because I felt like I wasn't doing Phen justice by glossing over the after-effects of those events, especially when she displays signs of trauma during NSoE.

Admittedly I was incredibly anxious about how I was portraying the trauma, the PTSD, the self-harm, and the future chapters where I've written about uglier sides of depression beyond the sadness, because there's the fear of being insensitive or glamorising it when that's not the intention. Having people speak positively about the portrayals has settled that anxiety somewhat, but it's still there because it's such a hard topic to discuss. I know healing isn't easy or straightforward, and glossing over the healing for future fics didn't feel right. Ultimately, I am really happy with how it's turned out.

I'll be posting Ch 17 on Tuesday, and this is a chapter that consistently makes me cry because remember that post where I said I gave the Meowscarada anxiety? ... Yeah. Sorry Gabbro.

I think this is the most spoiler-free excerpt I can find that shows the gravity of the chapter.