lavenderclavat

One of my favorite AUs of all time is a good werewolf AU. I'm working on one now where I'm tempted to go for the typically fluffy smutfest behavior I so enjoy not in moderation, but how much more satisfying could I make it without making bad choices based on stupid concepts like 'pure fluff is better without smut'? The easy peasy answer that took me forever is to lean into the loss of humanity and how much of someone's identity isn't actually rooted in it. I wrote a character dragging a bedroll into some cold ass forest because his partner decided to sleep in the woods due to guilt over his animalistic tendencies. There's acknowledgement that the madness of a beast would take over if they ran, resulting in their demise, too. The cure for lycanthropic depression ended up being a healthy dose of being loved for things that couldn't be taken away so easily and someone deciding they're worth being brave for. It's sweet and I'm glad I found a new way to enjoy my favorite trope.