so about a year ago i ranted a little on how demetrius is written in a stain that wont dissolve, and how both in the game and consequent fics his character is such a demeaning and detrimental stereotype about black dads and i vaguely remember you responded so nicely and maybe added an authors note to your fic (i don’t recall the details ).
I remember choosing to take a break because i didn’t really expect much. last night i opened your fic for the first time since then and i reread the entire thing from beginning to latest chapter and i want you to know how grateful I am for how you turned his character around so positively and gave him such a nice character arc. I don’t know if you did it because of my comment, I don’t know if this was always the intention for him. but either way doesn’t matter i’m just so grateful to you and i want you to know that you are an amazing person.
a 23yr old black woman <3
Yes I remember that conversation <3
At the time when I responded, Demetrius hadn't come close to turning around yet, and there were no other like, decent Black adult male characters to even "balance him out" to avoid negative tokenistic representation. And it's hard to say 'this is going to happen in the future' when I'm not writing to a chapter plan, so instead I decided to address it in the fic as-is at that time until something in the future changed. There was sort of no point defending like 'oh but I'm changing it in the future' if that's not the story you're actively reading, and I thought it was important to address that in the author's note too, knowing that for you (and likely others) stumbling into that stereotype in a fic of this length probably really sucks actually. D:
I knew we were getting Tim as a character, but that also wasn't really enough. Demetrius' dualities have always really interested me, he is a really complex character who often - like so many of the SDV characters - gets reduced to a worst (or best) version of themselves, and race is absolutely a part of that! So putting in the author's note at the beginning felt necessary.
I've since removed the author's warning at the beginning (around when I posted chapter 79) because now we have Tim and Demetrius, and Demetrius' character evolution with Alex felt - to me - very realistic to him, imho. Along with the concept that his relationship with Sebastian is very much "his relationship to Sebastian." And there's potential for growth on all sides. I also liked being able to reinforce that Alex's fear of older men happens regardless of race - we see it first with Lewis, learn it's because of his father, we see it in the way he thinks about Kent, the fact that he's best friends with Haley (who has an absent father and mother), and then we also see it with Tim, so they can talk about it where it comes from, and of course, we see it with Demetrius. And now Alex has the awareness to be like 'this is where this comes from' and apologise and also hold himself accountable for it.
Being able to write Alex moving through that, along with being able to give Demetrius a genuinely loving, caring family (something I know that is, unfortunately, not always a common trope re: depicting black families, especially black families of black fathers), felt a lot more important to the narrative than keeping Demetrius stuck as a villain! I also liked being able to keep Demetrius' neurodivergence, it's another iconic part of his character, along with his hyperfixations and interests. Him folding Alex into his love of surveying nature in order to understand it, and Alex realising he likes observing people much the same way that Demetrius does, even if he - like Demetrius - doesn't always understand what he's seeing for different reasons, made them like, I think one of my favourite relationships in the whole game. And, frankly, I think Demetrius really likes having a son-figure who looks up to him and cares about his opinion, vs. Mister 'you're not my real dad' Sebastian.
I've often wondered if you were still reading and/or if you'd like the storyline once it started to shift or get anything out of it! That conversation was really important to me, and I definitely held it in the forefront of my mind whenever I thought about all the directions Alex's relationship with Demetrius could go and how much weight to give it. So yeah, getting this anon made me incredibly happy, and I'm really grateful that you took the time to write the original comments you did, having no idea how I'd respond. It takes a lot of vulnerability tbh, and risk, to bring subjects like that up knowing that you might meet pure defensiveness and zero accountability, and I just really respect you took the time to share what you did. (And this too! It's made my day :D <3 You're amazing too, anon )
