Happier and Prettier - a DNF story

Symbolism, Easter Eggs + Announcement

Hello my guys, gals and non-binary pals!

Well that was a ride, huh? I hope the ending made up for all the angst you endured, anyways!

If it didn't, here's some secrets behind writing this fic, and some extra pieces to the story to give you some more cute things (with some sadness sprinkled in) to recognise if you ever reread the story!

1 - George is autistic. Being neuro-divergent myself, I have a particularly favourite head-canon that George's canonical character has autism too! You can see this when he is given extra time during exams, and the reason why he is so responsive to certain sounds. It also explains his struggle to fit in with other people, and his hyper-fixation towards fairy-tale books in his youth. A subtle but strong representation of a person with autism, written by someone who is actually neuro-divergent!

(Oh! And this also explains why George became so distressed when Dream didn't stick to the routine they usually have, such as the movie nights, as it can spike anxiety in a few autistic people!)

2 - The professor that approaches George at the end of the exam is non-binary :)

3 - The silver locket necklace that George gifted Dream has a photo slot inside of it - Dream put a picture of them both as kids in there and never took it out, always keeping the charm with him, too (even after they had fallen out with each-other).

4 - When George talks of going out of his way to get Dream out of tight situations (chapter 1.5), he is referring to helping Dream move out of his parents house - this is because his parents were abusive. This explains why Dream was so easily convinced by Fundy's words in the first place - his parents have given him severe trust issues towards George before, and it only took a little push from Fundy to send him spiralling back.

5 - George's symptoms for his fever slowly progressed to symptoms of pneumonia throughout the entire story - the final severe symptom was the uncontrollable shivering that Dream witnessed when he went back to the dorms with a care-package.

6 - Dream had bought a stuffed animal of a cat for George's care package :)

7 - 143 (the room number George stays in at the hospital) means "I love you"

8 - I made Minx a doctor to fight the stereotype that doctors should be a male-dominated job :)

9 - October 4th, the day George wakes up in the hospital, represents a special meaning. "Lovers born on the 4th of October are romantic and loyal" - it is a good omen for their future together!

That's all of the symbolism and easter eggs that I had planned through whilst writing this story, I thought they would be interesting to share with you guys!

Oh! There's another thing I have to say, too!

Your dear writer has been working on a very special story since before I have been writing this one!

It's DNF (yes, they are my comfort couple) and it has been heavily inspired by Flowers from 1970 (by that, I mean it's going to be very very, extremely, super duperly emotional).

It is most likely going to be called Stereo-Hearts :3

I have had people asking about a playlist for this fic, and although I haven't planned a playlist for this story- I have one planned out for Stereo-Hearts!

I hope you will be interested when it comes out, I will be sure to publish the first chapter as soon as possible!

p.s. I would like to clarify that I write these fics completely unrelated to the actual content creators and base them purely around the canonical characters of the smp - I find it uncomfortable writing about real life people in these types of stories and prefer using characters where I can apply my own head-canons.

Anygays, as always - thank you for reading!