Rivals Are My Friends (YanSim Male Rivals)

{A/N} Recent YandereDev Allegations

Hello Everyone,

I'm sure the majority of everyone reading this is aware of the recent controversy with Alex Mahan aka YandereDev being exposed as a groomer. For those who don't know or are still foggy about the details, there's a 38-minute video from AllyMcC (YouTube) showcasing all receipts of his behavior and provides a better and in-depth explanation of the issue:

My 2 cents on the matter? I've always had a low opinion of YandereDev with his behavior--how he treats his fans, his poor handling of criticism, the blatant stealing, letting down his fans, etc.--and I'm even more disgusted and appalled by his current actions. I hope Jane gets all the support and help she needs to recover from this traumatic event. I hope YandereDev faces the full wrath of consequences of his poor choices. There's nothing more I can say about that.

To be honest I wasn't going to make an AN chapter on the issue mainly because...I genuinely didn't know there was a controversy going on. Now I can hear your question: "How could you not know about this?"

I'm a very casual fan of Yandere Simulator. I'm not on the official Discord or Reddit forums. Only last month did I start reading the official development blog and even then I haven't checked it in weeks. The only thing I consistently check is the YouTube channel and Wiki and, as you can guess, haven't checked those in a while either. School has started back up and I've got a full-load schedule. Homework, my work-study job, and sleep have been the only things on my mind.

I only just found out about the controversy on Tuesday when one of my readers messaged me about the future of RAMF with the recent events of YandereDev. They didn't explicitly mention the events so the first two questions in my head were: "Wait, what?" and "Oh, great. What Baskin Robbin flavor of controversy is YandereDev involved in now?" because this man's already got a dozen controversies under his belt.

Once I did a quick search and read around, my immediate thought was: "Oh, it's 'another indie game developer found inappropriately messaging and grooming minors' cotton candy swirl. Awesome flavor."

But back on a more serious note and to anyone who's wondering or worrying about the future of RAMF: Yes, I WILL continue this story. I've already invested much into this story and I've got so many ideas and plans that I wanna execute and am excited to execute. Plus, there are many of you who, despite YandereDev's abhorrent actions, still love the works other fans create surrounding the story of Yandere Simulator and my story falls into that range. I deeply appreciate that love and the least I can do is commit and finish this story to the end.

For YanSim fans who are choosing to separate themselves from the fandom entirely because you don't want to support YandereDev in any way, I respect your decision. For YanSim fans who are choosing to stay within the fandom but follow the code of Separating the Art from the Artist/Death of the Author, I respect your decision as well.

This work and any future works attached to it will continue and will be written from the place of a creator who likes the concepts and wants to experiment with those concepts, not as a devotee to YandereDev whom I condemn. (And honestly, I've been playing kind of loosey-goosey with lore, or lack thereof, from the beginning so that's getting jacked up to ten).

ALSO: It's striking how this incident came up right in the midst of Writer's Block having my ass in the chokehold. Seriously, this current chapter has me so stuck it's why this story hasn't been updated in a while. Whenever I get stuck I just step away from the story going, "You know what? Let me leave it alone for a bit and let my brain simmer on what to do next and I'll come back with a fresh brain."

....Cue to a couple of months of dead air.