Well, if you have another tantrum I'll just have to come back and read it. There! That should scare you into silence! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!

*scampers off*

Well, I'll be sure to post a nice big warning for you at the beginning of the chapter when Caleb and Toushin explore the wonderful realms of smut. (That is, if you decide to keep up with Lagrimas.)

I personally like smut, but would agree there is definitely a way to.. *cringes* do it and many more ways not to. I always try to.. er.. write it right.

Anyway.. one more to go. You're almost free of me, I promise!

Oh God. I'm not even going to start on schizophrenia. All I'm going to say is kudos to you.

I'm a bad girl. I like rape.

Nonononono! I mean in stories! In *stories*!

I try to avoid it specifically because of that, because if I put it in whenever I wanted my characters would all be getting raped willy-nilly. (Which they basically are anyway.)

*goes off to punish self with wire whisk*

'Why anyone would write a fic based solely on an abusive relationship, just to have fight or rape scenes, totally escapes me...'

Um...

*raises hand*

'Scuse me? I think I did that. But I also think I'm making it work fairly well.

The awful truth about Lagrimas is that it all sprang from the first chapter, and that first chapter was written as a birthday present to a close friend. For some reason I decided to continue it and for some far stranger reason, people actually *like* it. I don't know how the hell... but hey, *I* like it too, so maybe I'm just twisted and wrong too.

Anyway, still agreeing with you. Let's bash the bad angsters.

'Rummy Gummies'? Okay . . .

*dances around the Maypole of Research*

All hail Rummy Gummies! We love Rummy Gummies! Woo-hoo! Kalee! Kaloo!

. . .Yeah, sorry, I think I'm on crack or something. And yes, I am one of those obnoxious people who reads something and reviews EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER, to the dismay of the afflicted author. PH3AR MEH!!

THANK YOU!

Speaking as a former cutter, and one who had to go to 'a place' to get treatment for it, I must agree with everything you say.

I especially loved this: "And no, Angsty!Fics do not count as research, sorry."

You are my new hero.

Research is necessarily, hard, and sometimes futile. Nothing sucks more than spending hours poring over the 'net trying to find the 'real' answer and not coming up with it, but on the other hand, when you FIND the facts, it just *feels* better to write what you know is true.

Must be hard to do a section that you don't want to research. Thought the message that you don't like it got through fine.

Good. Thinking about it - the wrong people are going to read it. Those who don't have an issue are likely to read it, and take it onboard. And those who do have a problem will assume they don't or feel that their's is alright, and not learn from it. Genius.

I feel like I'm being repremanded. So why am I still reading? ...

Intelligent. I don't mind self-harm but when it's done badly, I do. It makes me cringe and almost mocks the issue, with or without meaning to.

I wonder: Do you research to do these chapters, or are you just a walking [yet handy] textbook that's there for the people who need to research to do their chapters? Hmm ... I actually did not know that the Average Joe could be Stalker Extreme by night. That is incredibly disturbing and will keep me paranoid for a good 48 hours, after which point I'll be back to my uncareful ways ... "2.5 kids"? Haha ... Yeah, I'm easily amused. o_O Again, thanks for setting people straight on all this. I was actually thinking of starting a column with one chapter that dealt with all these subjects, but now I realize that they all really need to be separated in order to get the point across for each and every one of them, and you've done a good job of that from what I've read. Yup. Just wish that more people would actually see this ... -sigh-

What I really liked about this one was how you mentioned the importance of taking time to explore the actual abuser. When I read the chapter title I was so worried that you might leave that bit out and I'd have to ramble or something ... And you know, my ramblings kill. But nope. You said it all for me ... and more. I'm actually learning things from this column. Thank you very much. But yeah, I think that the background on the abuser in particular is just as important as the abusive content of the story itself, it really adds weight to the whole thing and should be included or at least touched upon in every piece that'll attempt to handle this topic.

No. I'm not even going to bother arguing with people about the suicide thing, and I'm amazed you've even gotten yourself to type up these paragraphs when there will always be wannabe writers who not only pen in a character that harms themself, but also gets so "deep into depression" that they eventually do themself in. And once again, their reasoning is totally unjustified. The characters around them are almost never affected the way they should be. If suicide's going to be used in any plot, it should be used as something that pulls the story in a direction that touches most everyone in the same story, and the audience as well. Even better, it should be the entire subject of the story, because then no other cruddy thing can get in the way of the would-be emotional impact.