Lessons in Magic 2: Dragon's Breath Matches

glad ya like glass eye! I’d you don’t mind me asking, what are your thoughts on it?

I did like it, I'm happy to see people writing stuff about Mithrun, and about Milsiril! I've already passed your fic around to all the people I know, so hopefully some of them will read it too :) I particularly enjoyed seeing Milsiril and her behavior being highlighted. Sometimes I run into hot takes that she isn't that bad, that she's a good mom to Kabru, but I think she's probably not a very healthy person to be around if you're unable to maintain boundaries... For example, if you're a child, or a disabled person who can't tell her no. (I don't think that she's actively, intentionally malicious, but I do think she's a bad parent...Even if she's a good teacher. Teaching and parenting are not always the same thing.) I think having her be the one to give Mithrun his glass eye, and showing her thinking of Mithrun like one of her dolls, is exactly spot-on, and a great bit of inspiration. Or course she thinks of him as a broken doll, and enjoys fixing him to look the way she wants, cutting his hair, dressing him up, etc. I particularly loved the way you described Mithrun barely acknowledging her, and how she kept talking to him, did things like force him to look at her, and said things like 'I can say whatever I want to you' and 'you should be grateful that the canaries need you'. I also liked the bit where she commented on preferring the ears of shorter-lived races, but how she knew better than to say anything out loud about it. And the bit where she briefly had Mithrun's attention, but then it immediately wandered away once she stopped talking about his obsession - or at least, seemed to wander away, obviously Milsiril's POV is going to be flawed. I don't think you explicitly say it in the fic, but I think your stance is that the elves are a deeply abelist society, and I agree with that. I think because they live so long, anything that reminds them that death and disability may one day come from them is considered the MOST socially taboo, and so they prefer to just not see or acknowledge that disability, disfigurement, or old age exist. I think a huge chunk of Milsiril's character is Ryoko Kui yelling at the top of her lungs into a megaphone "here's some red flags, but I'm not going to spell it out for you, connect the dots yourself"... Milsirl hates interacting with peers or people above her, prefers to play with dolls that she can completely control. The only people we know she willingly interacts with are children from short-lived races (so they have even fewer rights than elven children, she can do anything she wants with them and nobody will protest), Canary inmates (she's shown repeatedly with Helki, who has notched ears) and Mithrun, but only after Mithrun is catatonic. Writing about Mithrun when he's in a particularly limited state (deeply depressed? Partially catatonic? I'm not sure what the best words to describe it would be) is extremely challenging, and though you were writing about it from Milsiril's POV I think you did a great job, and offered some much-needed perspective! Honestly I'd love to read about Mithrun's POV from you, if you get inspired to write about something like that! And it made me think about what sort of interactions she must have had with Malthus (my version of Mithrun's brother, in my fics) because yes, she would have interacted with him for sure when she came to visit Mithrun! I can talk more about this if you (or anyone else) wants, just send me an ask - I don't want to hijack this one to talk about my own stuff though, lol.

Thank you for sharing your fic with the rest of the fandom, and thanks for writing to me! I don't know if you read my fic, but if you do, I hope you enjoyed it! I know abelism and learning to deal with it is a major theme.

it makes me happy to hear that you're into dungeon meshi now! what characters and ships or scenes do you like best from it? (basically just an excuse to let you talk about anything you enjoyed about the series lol)

Hi?? Omg?? I don't get random nice anons often on my personal account so this is a v pleasant surprise

But I rly like Chilaios and Mithrun/Kabru a lot,, they both scratch a very specific itch. (For chilaios I rly enjoy the dynamic as well as tormenting Chilchuck with gay feelings about the local freak) (For Mithrun/Kabru I love the trope of "I can fix him... Actually no he can fix himself if I just give him the right support, including but not limited to love and attention")

The way that ryoko kui tells the story is also extremely inspirational and I really love that we get to see a lot of stuff that gives the viewer a full picture but purposefully leaves characters in the dark. Also the pacing of "no wasted panels" in the manga is REALLY aspirational. I want to one day be able to write in such a way (my most recent fic I'm writing is an exercise in that principle. No wasted lines and no pointless filler to fluff the word count. Theres genuinely nothing wrong with doing that and I've definitely done it myself but it's something I want to hone in on better)

Tysm for the kind ask I don't know what prompted it but I appreciate it ;w;

(maybe it's sacrilegious to not be googoo gaga over the lesbians but like, I do like them! A lot! They're written very well and I care about them a lot! I'm just unfortunately yaoi-pilled, as is my curse)