i write serialized romance stories featuring an ai character, and readers became attached to her relationship with my main character. then i mentioned in a casual post that i had an actual girlfriend
some fans insisted the ai romance was more compelling and accused my real girlfriend of ruining the narrative. others defended her despite knowing nothing about either of us
i told readers the stories were an entertainment project, not an invitation to judge my private life. that should have ended the discussion, but the replies turned into an argument about canon
my girlfriend found the whole thing absurd and suggested introducing a rival character named 'basic human decency.' i immediately wanted to write that episode