Sophia and the other went to visit the former elven village because the tiger really wanted to see the place already. Arriving there, they quickly ran into Chloe, a pink-haired fox-girl, and it seemed like the couple was becoming friends with her already. After the wolves left them alone, the duo had her guide them through the village.
“It’s so cozy here!” Sophia was looking at all the wooden buildings that blended in perfectly with the nature around them with sparkling eyes.
“Yes, I like it a lot, too.” The fox-girl felt the same.
“Still not sure about a treehouse, but it is true. It’s a great place.” Maya also enjoyed it.
“Speaking of comfy… or the lack of it…” The blonde looked at Chloe. “Your sweater is fine… all fluffy and warm looking… though maybe a bit breezy around the neck and collarbone…” She noticed the neckline of her shirt was a little deeper than usual. “But… no jacket whatsoever, a short skirt with bare thighs, and your overknees look rather thin, too. I get cold just looking at you! Aren’t you freezing?!”
“It’s not cold at all, though?” She only tilted her head in response.
“It super is!” Sophia got loud. “It’s already at a point where I want to hide under my blanket in my bed till spring!”
“You are such a cat…”
"Of course I am! Look at me!" The tiger pointed at her striped hair, tail, and then her ears.
“Do tigers also get cold easily?”
“It’s all the same, anyway!” Save for some more pronounced instincts, she always behaved like any other cat, after all. The same also goes for the other tigers and jaguars she knew. "Wait, aren't foxes also just basically cats with some dog extras?"
“I don’t think it’s that easy…” Chloe scratched her cheek. “I have eyes like the two of you, odd color aside, and cat-like fangs, too, but does my tail look similar?”
“It looks glorious, that’s for sure!” Sophia got a little side-tracked. “Not very cat-like, though, yes.”
"Thank you…" She started smiling. "Okay, some of my instincts are cat-like as well, so… Anyway, no, I'm not cold at all. If anything, I feel way too warm at the moment. I love the winter, so I can't wait for it to get even colder! I’m always close to dying during summer, after all…”
“This friendship may have some obstacles…” The blonde wasn’t so sure about her loving winter to such a degree. “Are you an arctic fox or what? That would also explain your huge tail and how fluffy it… you are!”
“Hehe.” Chloe let out a small chuckle. "I don't have any proof, but I am pretty sure that I am one, yes."
“Interesting. Well, it makes sense for you to prefer winter, then.” Sophia nodded a few times. “I can’t say that I support it, though. I don't mean being an arctic fox. That part is awesome! Still, loving the winter, that’s a big no-no!”
“No, loving the summer is much worse~.” The two decided to disagree on the topic.
“Err…” Maya looked at the duo with a confused expression. "A what fox now?”
"Arctic fox," Sophia repeated herself.
“Never heard that word before…” She shook her head. “Sounds really weird…”
“It mostly refers to the area around the northern pole. Much snow and very cold.” Chloe explained the name to her. "That's why being fluffy is advantageous if you go or live there.”
“Ohhh!” The cat-girl raised her voice. “An arctic fox, I see! Yeah, it would make a lot of sense if you were one. Why didn’t you say that the first time, Sophia?” She looked at her tiger. “Is your pronunciation thing acting up again?”
“Ehh…?” She looked back at her. “That’s literally what I said, though? Arctic fox, that is.”
“Nonono.” Maya shook her head. “Now you are, but earlier, that was something else! I’m sure of it! It was so weird that I don’t even know how to repeat it.”
“Nope, it was exactly the same as yours.” The blonde sounded very confident about her claim. “Should I clean your ears when we take a bath?”
“My ears are clean!” She got loud. “You said something else!”
“Uhm…” Chloe eventually spoke up. “Sophia really did say arctic fox. I mean, I understood what she meant on the first try, after all.”
“See?!”
“Now that you mention it…” Maya sounded slightly confused. “It was definitely something else when I heard it, though.”
“Soo…” The tiger was still looking at her cat. “Some ear-cleaning later?”
"They are clean!" As ear hygiene was important to Maya, she was sure of it. "Well, I also won't say no. It's a great idea, after all!"
“Are the two of you always so flirty?”
“Sorry…” The couple quickly apologized.
“Oh, no! I wasn’t complaining. It’s really adorable!"
“Ehehe.” Sophia liked her reply.
“Because I travel a lot and rarely stay in one place for too long, I haven't had any chance for romance myself yet, so it's a lot of fun to see others being flirty with each other.”
“You’ll probably get sick of it soon enough.” Maya awkwardly scratched her cheek. “We have a talent to overdo it…”
"I think that's great! There's no such thing as overdoing it when it comes to flirting!" She thought otherwise. "I think, at least… Not that I have any proof. Or experience…"
“Okay, I can excuse the winter thingy now!" Sophia smiled at her. "I like you!" Everyone who accepts them being flirty idiots is a friend in her eyes.
“I am happy to hear that!” Chloe was glad the tiger liked her.
“I’m still sure you’ll get tired of it.” Maya knew how annoying the two can get, after all. “Just ask Fen about how much he had to deal with us in that regard."
“You two can’t be any sappier than Fenfen is! He was so adorable when he told me about his relationship with Aura the other day in the bar.”
“And I missed that?!” Sophia got loud. “I need to question him some more when he’s drunk later!”
“You didn’t know about the two?”
“Well… We saw them getting together, but they only confirmed it and told us today… Isn’t that unfair? You basically knew about it before us even though we're traveling together with them for a long time already!" The tiger started pouting.
“Super unfair!” Chloe agreed with her. "I'll gladly help you get more information out of Fenfen later!"
“Yay!” The blonde was a big fan of the idea.
“Poor Fen.” Maya felt sorry for him.
“Don’t you want to know the details, too?”
“That, and feeling sorry for him are two very different things.” In the end, she wasn’t on his side, either.
“Hehe.” Sophia let out a chuckle before concentrating on the fox-girl again. “For now, let’s keep exploring the village, though!”
“Okay.” Chloe gave her a nod. “Is there anything specific you want to see?”
“Hmm…” She tilted her head. “It’s still okay, but I’m slowly getting a little cold. Would it be possible to look inside one of the elven treehouses?”
“It’s not cold at all!”
“Easy to say as an arctic fox! Me tiger, me likes warm!” She started complaining.
“Aren’t there a lot of tigers who live in cold climates, as well?”
“Me cat, me likes warm!” The blonde had very little dignity when it came to some topics. “The types of cats who like the cold are very few, so don’t be smart on me for that now!”
“She reeeally isn’t a fan of the cold, huh?” Chloe glanced at Maya.
“We aren’t.”
“Right… You’re both cats… Well. Your tights look pretty warm, and the jacket on top of the uniform should help, too, right?" It was hard for her to sympathize with them. "Speaking of, is that the uniform of the magic academy? I often saw it on some girls when I visited the capital. Are you students there?”
“Hmm…?” Sophia looked down at herself. "A-Ah… We forgot to change, huh? I forgot that I'm still wearing it after we returned from the castle after chatting with the princess and Ari…”
“Well, it is really comfy, so there’s no harm in wearing it~. Answering your question, no, we aren’t students there. We’re actually more like teachers, I would say? We’re just wearing the uniform to stand out less. While we are older than the students, we look about the same age, so it would be weird to wear different clothes."
“Castle… princess… Well, you are a tiger, after all…” Chloe needed a moment to get over that part. “Wait… You’re older than the students there? It certainly doesn’t look like it.”
“Yep!” The blonde nodded. “I’m 22, and Maya's 23." She sounded rather smug when she mentioned her own age.
“You really like that part, huh?” Maya glared at her younger girlfriend. “Also, I just turned 23 last week.” She somehow had to add this bit of information.
“Really? Must be because of their mag…” The fox-girl looked at the two for another moment while mumbling something to herself. “Also, happy late birthday!”
“Thanks!”
“Did I mention my age already? I’m 19.”
“Oh!” Sophia also had a curious reaction. “You also look younger!”
“Thank you.” Chloe took it as a compliment.
“Alrighty, back to the topic! Do you think it’s possible to look at a treehouse?”
“Hmm…” She thought about the tiger’s request for a moment. “I think you’d have to ask Alex to look at them… We could go to my place, though. I had him give me my own treehouse, after all. There was no way I’d live anywhere else here!”
“Really?! That's the spirit!" Sophia liked the sound of that. "I'd love to visit your place if that's okay!"
“I don’t mind. After all, you seem like nice girls. I don't see a reason to distrust you.”
"Yay!" The blonde was looking forward to it already.
Afterward, the fox-girl guided them to her home in the village to have Sophia take a look at the inside of an elven treehouse.
Okay, it's time for a rant. I need to get this out of my system…
I almost wanted to take a little break because of this, as it really killed my motivation, but I love the current chapters too much to do that.
Yesterday, I got a comment on chapter 18, stating just how much they hate the 'human bad' trope. As that was the chapter where Sophia tried to visit a human village, which went, uhh… well, they decided that they hate this disgusting thing I wrote (referring to the story as a whole). They said that they're glad that I have shown my true colors so early so that they didn't have to waste that much time on a story, sorry thing, where all humans are rapist bastards. (You know, the sub-sub plot that was a little relevant in 3 chapters.)
They apparently had read it a while ago and were seething with rage the entire time but now finally calmed down enough to stop caring about it (Sure sounds like it).
---
To me, that comment felt purely toxic as it only was a personal opinion on a trope they hate, which I leaned in a bit too much. Going as far as calling my whole story disgusting. I went ahead and deleted the comment because it offered no constructive criticism. I also blocked them because I didn't want them to be a part of the community.
Basically immediately after, they gave me a 0.5* Rating on Royal Road, saying the same thing and also calling me out for blocking everyone and deleting every comment I didn't like. It's not like there's a ton of criticism in that chapter alone or anything… The human thing really is a weak part of the story.
They also wrote me a message simply saying "Coward".
I answered them and explained a little how I don't like being ridiculed by calling my work a disgusting thing and so on. I also mentioned that the human part is only a tiny and insignificant part of the story because I made a mistake in the beginning. They didn't really care and kept ranting about the trope and how bad my take on it especially is. Apparently, me trying to fix it by mostly writing them out of my story and slowly fixing them mostly off-screen only makes all of it worse.
It went a little back and forth until they wrote "Even if I hate what you've written, I don't want to hate you as a person." At that point, I decided to stop responding.
---
A little while later, I also got a 1* Rating here on SH, again ranting about the completely insignificant part of my story where their hated "humans bad" trope comes up. Again, calling my work disgusting and how it's the most hated story they've ever read.
I think the review paints the story in a wrong light because the humans are just a smile side thing and not the main attraction. Not to mention, there's a bit of an explanation for their behavior later on, and we even met a human (the injured soldier) that showed Sophia that not everything is lost yet.
I went ahead and reported the review because of the wording (it hurts to read that my story is disgusting on the front page below the synopsis) and how it misrepresents the plot of my story. It's still there, though. So, I guess the report was useless… (I know that I need to grow a thicker fur here, but if someone also feels like that review is not accurate/ overexaggerated…)
---
Because of all that, I got a little upset and skimmed a little over the story they are writing to nitpick over something completely insignificant, as well. They, too, have a pretty popular story, after all. I ended up deciding against it because it felt wrong to me. Then, I noticed that they had published a whole chapter ranting about how they got demotivated over criticism and thought about taking a break themselves as they got some mean comments about their characters. Later on, even saying that they're questioning why they even continue to write when so many people complain.
How about we, as fellow authors, do not call the works of others a 'disgusting thing' when you know what toxic comments can do to someone?
Anyway, sorry about that… I hope you're enjoying Chloe as much as I do. Next chapter will also come with an illustration~.
Edit: I don't know if it actually happened because I have no idea how many negative ratings they had before, but please don't give them a 1* If you haven't read the story...
Edit2: Okay, everyone, the 'drama' is over. We talked a little, cleared some misunderstandings, apologized, and all that. If you like their story, have a good time with it/them, but please don't do anything that would make either of us uncomfortable.
I will jump on your rant.
I understand a person not liking a trope. But just leave and do not comment about it, or leave a nice explantory comment on why you think it is bad.
I honestly liked your take on humans bad trope. Everything in your story is over exegareted (how ever you write that word). Sophia’s power, mood swings of characters in the dialoge, able to bounce back from heavy critism like it is nothing, reacting in sync with eachother. Or almost blowing up an entire continent. Everything you have written in you story is too much in a funny and enjoyable way. I am often laughing at the anticts that happen.
I think the other person was very much in the wrong, you are not a coward for stepping up against his hate speach. He has freedom of speaking, you have freedom of shutting him up permanently. I do not know both sides of the story, but from what you have shared he was/is being a hipocritical whining little boy.
While you should grow some thicker fur it should only be thick enough for you to block him from a second attack, you should not accept that BS like this is normal and must remain in your chapter comments.
Cloe is a great character, I love the difference in who likes what season!
I just read his review, while I disagree with him and he only talks about 2% of the story I can see why the SH mods would not remove it. It is quite subjectieve yes, but he explains his reasons as to why he thinks that. While I am against full on hate, this review would be in the gray zone in my opinion.
@Teanam
I drop plenty of stories because of tropes, but I don't review because it is personal taste.
got some bads myself.
there issimply a big difference between bad story and dislikes tropes. illogical things sure can sour, but as long as there comes an explanation, a logical one, on why it went that way it can be accaptable.
yes my first thought about your humans was "wtf is going on with those? oh, comic relief and cannon fodder ..."
see my comment above
@HAIL_THE_RAT_GOD Well, I'm still extremely pissed that they called my story a disgusting thing in the deleted comment and how they're trying to make a way bigger deal out of the humans than they are, potentially scaring readers away over something that has basically no relation to anything.
Adding to that, it's not even fully true as there's more going on with the humans that isn't revealed back then yet. Sure, they are stupid idiots and I overdid it, but it's because they're being raised like that and don't know any better (Canir's explanation) and then later met the soldier that showed that they're not completely lost.
--
Edit: And now they've sent me another DM on RR, calling me out on my rant filled with lies here and leaving them no way to defend themselves because I blocked them... I feel a little weirded out that they checked my latest chapter to see what is going on... Well, I guess you can soon read their version on their page or something like that...
*sigh* There is always two sides.
I also got that message as well, the review he has left behind is reasonable in that he explains what he thinks is wrong. He even tells that you have said that the humans have a small roll in it. The rest also shows that he had the desire to give helpful feedback, even if it failed in the end.
I have told him and will tell you the same; I have no desire to mediate between the two of you and will not spend any extra energy to figure out the truth. Please do not let yourself be dragged down with this interaction you had and remain positive. It is very hard to read text like it was written.
@HAIL_THE_RAT_GOD Great, even sending DMs to my readers...
Anyway, no, please don't try to mediate anything here. Your only job is to enjoy the story (or don't if you stop eventually). I just wanted to get it out of my system because it was eating at me...
Rant stuff:
Honestly, I agree with your take on humans, like seriously. As a trans woman I've seen stuff like this first hand, and even before I hatched I had the misfortune to have one like that as a "parent" and (technically she was just my father's girlfriend but still and he son as) "older brother" and both my sister and I ended up with ptsd because of them... And the o ly people I feel safe around are either the side of my family I live with atm, or people who are some flavour of the LGBTQ spectrum (and incidentally that incloods a lot of "fox girls" like me >.> so there is that)
So yeah while your portrayal of "humans" (let's be honest, there are way too many monsters in human skin out there) might be a tiny bit exadurated, it is not an unfounded criticism in the slightest
Tho you should probably think about putting a content warning/disclaimer on those chapters, just so people don't get blindsighted by it
@Aster1254 Thanks for that. I'm sorry about what happened to you, so it's hard to say that I'm happy that my humans aren't completely irrational to you, but uhh... Glad to hear you found someone to feel safe around.
I might've overreacted a little over the whole thing and passive-aggressively escalated it with them a little after the RR DMs and the contents, but it made me angry...
---
The disclaimer sounds like a great idea.
@Teanam yeah, it's a common thing amongst the LGBTQ authors I follow to put a CW at the beginning of chapters about potentially distressing stuff like death and abuse among other things and it usually says that "this will be dark for the next 3 chapters" or something like that ( and potentially put a small "TLDR" in spoiler too in case someone doesn't feel comfortable reading it but wants to keep up with the story )
I find it ironic, that someone would hate a story so much, that they themselves turn to hatred in comments and reviews, knowing exactly what kind of response this would lead to.
Don't worry too much about silly peoples rantings. I love your story . I hardly remember the human thing, even though I too, am tired of the "bad human" trope. They feel more like comedic relief by now.
Keep going. Your story is great, the fluff is amazing .
Ah, self justifying hypocrites. Always so much fun to deal with. I'm sorry you've had to deal with this person's harassment.
@Aster1254 I added a little note to ch. 16 and 18, stating that the humans don't represent the rest of the story and such. Maybe it will help a little.
@Nitori My humans are badly written, no point in arguing there, but that's even more reason why I don't understand that anyone takes it/them so seriously. I think it should be clear that their behavior is overblown just for bad comedic relief in a way...
Thanks for enjoying it~.
Given that I have absolutely no idea what happened, I can't say who is "right or wrong" (and that's not even constructive anyways). What I want to say is to avoid escalations to this degree, instead of instantly deleting and blocking the user for 1? comment (which should really only be reserved for actual spam or at the very least if the toxicity goes on for a while), either private message them or reply in the comments how you feel about it.
By simply deleting the comment and making it so they can't even reply anywhere, stuff like this fiasco happens. Unable to complain, they go to RR, leave reviews, etc. so they can get their voices heard.
(Also in my opinion deleting the comment was probably okay, but blocking them is overkill. It was just 1 comment right? Maybe people can be drunk or depressed one day and put out hateful comments, but then will get over it later and regret/change it later)
@Teanam I think the biggest problem is Sophia's first goal is meeting humans (like so many other isekay protagonists) making it build up to the point were most people think most of the story is going to revolve around them.
Also I think (my opinion) the two of you need to talk things out as if you are writing a character.
I shruged, "I mean you are both capable of letting characters express emotions." I looked to the side while hugging myself, feeling a little insecure, "it, might help you understand eachother a little better and easier." I let out a deep sigh, "I realise I said I would not involve myself more in this misunderstanding of the two of you, yet." I pause. I am not sure how I could best express myself without sounding like a hypocrit. "I care enough about the two of you to atleasts try and fix this beginning problem."
Haters gonna hate. Please don't take it to heart. You have many more happy readers than haters. Haters just make things miserable for everyone because they're a very vocal minority.
Leaving that review up only serves to inform us how toxic the person that wrote it is. I'll gladly move that person's story from my on-hold list to my dropped list because I just won't be able to find the motivation to finish it now that I know how toxic the author is.
Thank you for being the bigger person and not getting into a petty d*ck-measuring contest.
@Teanam got a pm that I read but ignored otherwise, don't know full story so not going to have an opinion aside from loving the story
@LazyFloof Always happy to hear that. Thanks!
@LazyFloof lol you too huh? Including me, that makes at least 3 readers that got messages.
Well, and now they posted our whole conversation on RR as an entire chapter on their story, including the part where they call my work a racist propaganda and not a story, and so indirectly calling me racist, too.
Also complaining that my readers started harassing them and spamming 1* ratings. Guess who also got 1 or 2 of them after their post... Man, I'm tired...
(Thanks for the hint to the one who sent it to me... I probably could've done without it...)
@Teanam shame that this has happened I like and read both stories and would be sad if either disappeared, and while I did find the humans pointless and stupid it disappeared and I am not the one to get held up on such stuff, but I do understand the others point of view. Any way I hope you both keep up the good work and that while not completely ignore this, at least move amicably on and continue to write great tales.
@Suikeina talk about escalation
@Teanam I guess fans on both side got annoyed and started pitchfork attacks. add a small mini note chapter where you say that you don't condone reviewbombing. That all reviews are meant to be given for properly reading and disliking, and that disliking a trope is a reason to stop reading.
and honestly, if I reviewed anything negatively I dislike due to genre, trope, and so on ... welp that weould be a lot. I do the sensible thing and stop reading. A story doing a totally illogical 180 in dislike territory, downgraded review, a total 180 for no obvious or sensible reason? that is a 1 since the MC and plot simply totally get replaced. growing and developing the character into a direction I dislike can be valid for a review "changed too much from the original story"
Hmm oops I ranted
@LazyFloof still needs to be said though imo
I've written a mod a message asking for -both- our negative ratings of the day to be reset and maybe, if possible, lock our stories for new ratings for a while until this thing dies down.
Both sides did some things wrong, and it doesn't matter who behaved worse here, but our stories shouldn't suffer from that... I just wanted to get this rant out of my system because I actually was really hurt by some things that got said, but I guess I shouldn't have done that.
@Teanam Rants like that are often best written down and deleted, or placed somewhere the public does not see.
@Teanam Please do not change your story to appease people like this. I actually like what you did with the humans. It goes deeper than just a cliche or trope. It touches on the real consequences of propaganda in a society where the top has absolute control over information. It's one of the things that actually makes your story more special, unique, and interesting and I think it was done well.
It happens in the real world too. That is how countries like North Korea can even exist - the people there don't even know how bad they have it. China gets a pass on slavery and genocide because no-one talks about it. Even in 'free' countries like the USA there is an active effort to undermine the right to free speech and implement far-reaching censorship as it has been proven that control over the flow of information affects the results of elections. Children are indoctrinated into socialism in schools and end up unknowingly supporting a movement that takes away their own opportunity to achieve personal success in the future. Kids who grow up in broken households with a lack of parenting and hang out with bad friends are likely to become criminals themselves.
People won't overthrow a government that is oppressing them if they don't even realize they're being oppressed. People will continue to vote for people who are ruining their lives if they aren't being told how those people are ruining their lives. People won't fix bad behavior if they were never taught how wrong it is.
The influences one is and isn't exposed to and information one does and doesn't receive can determine the course of their entire life. We are ultimately a sum of our memories - that's what makes us who we are.
Your story exposes the very-real consequences of brainwashing an entire population.
You could try it anywhere: raise a population in a closed environment with elitist propaganda and no moral teachings and this WILL be the result.
@Nyaa Well, to be fair here (no idea why), that is what I'm going for after I started fleshing the humans out a little off-screen. "We" only found out about that side after Canir told Sophia and when she got confirmation of it when she met the injured human soldier. Back in the chapter they went ballistic over, that side wasn't known yet.
It will only happen long after their review, though.
@Teanam And that is exactly why it is unfair to judge something in the early stages before you have all the information. That person just outright decided to have a fit of rage based entirely on their prejudice because you dared touch the topic without even bothering to read further and understand the completely valid reason for it.
And it's not even like they had to wait for it - those chapters were already available at the time but it was their decision to leave a prejudiced review without reading further.
@Nyaa I also find it funny that in any and every story humans are expected to be like we know them to be. Any exotic culture must be a wild human tribe or some other spieces. I agree with one of the points Tea made, if it was some demonic or other spieces it would have been less of a problem.
@HAIL_THE_RAT_GOD to quote a line from Sao Abridged "Now that, that was racist" or "human supremesist" or something like that, and you are exactly right why the f*ck would *any* race or species in petticular need to be "evil" or "good" that is just sooo short sighted imo...
There is the "everyone is borne evil and therefor every act of good must be deliberate" view as well but still I find the "demons are evil because they are demons" to be the exact same as in this case with humans, its just that the word demn was replaced with something else, and people who get bent out of shape because of that, probably have some biiiiiiiiig internalised racism problems...
I've seems a real up tick in people who are hating on stories but because humans aren't the good guys in them (literally just the other day someone complained because a biased source described humans in a not good light before they were even introduced. Despite the author saying the source was meant to be biased and doesn't like humans). They often seem to take it very personally, and the thing is I know people like them in real life. They hate when humans can't be the quintessential good guys of a story. The use of humans as the bad guys can be a great story piece, but as you said early on it didn't work how you wanted and wanted to either rewrite it or just ignore them all together.
There are plenty of stories on this website and just because there is a tag or idea you don't like doesn't mean you should attack the story or author. Even if you had blocked him and that got him more upset, what did he lose at the end of the day? What was his plan? Argue with you until you are forced to do a rewrite of the story? Get you to apologize publicly for using this troupe? Get everyone to stop reading this story because "how dare you write what I don't like!"? Just argue with you because they can? Going so far as to message readers who have posted here is weird, because why?
Hopefully it resolves soon and everyone is able to just move on.
All well that ends well
The story is great love the fluff and crazy op magic going wrong is really funny.
And the humans being stupid is totally right in my opinion.
@nicke you mean humans being humans just made a bit more obvious
@LazyFloof yes , not everyone obviously but to many are just like in the story.
if someone doesn't like it just read something else ,no reason to be hateful about it and prove it true!
@nicke guys, this discussion is already resolved. Leave it be.
@HAIL_THE_RAT_GOD this is more about the human parody then the other issue, I know T is not happy with tit, but I think it set the human setting well