Just seconding what others have said. Some people bring their own baggage to any and all interactions and aren't good at parsing their own experiences from tangentially related fiction. I wouldn't give this interaction any more worry.

I think I'm a bit weird in that the ending is usually the first thing that I discover about my stories. Most of my work is figuring out how everyone ended up there.

Same - some shorts come out more or less finished, but longer work always gets more discovered in the writing process for me.

I'm gonna need that goose to come by and motivate me soon . . .

Thank you! It feels like a pretty big one. Fingers crossed the next big steps are coming soon ~

Thank you! It's a very exhilarating (yet anxious) experience for sure!

Thank you! I hope my little story resonates with anyone who finds it ~

Oh! Thank you! I've been trying to figure out what bird this is exactly because they're all over the place. Appreciate the correction.