#/i think i generally have the same consensus as the rest of the fandom but idk i havent looked at anything theyve done in the past few years

[bigfatbreak]

Something I've been wondering for a while in the ML fandom. But after Season 5 ended, I saw a lot of authors coming to the consensus that Emilie is a "bad parent".

Where did that come from? Did I miss a fandom meeting where that consensus was reached? Or is that a consequence of Gabriel being a bad parent, having her as a bad parent by proxy?

I am mostly curious about where this headcanon came from, for some many different authors following the same path.

the series tries really hard to make Emelie seem like an angelic woman, but the problem is, it constantly steps on its own toes doing so.

even before her death, Adrien didn't go to school, wasn't socialized around others, never had a "real birthday gift," was only socialized around Chloe and his "cousin" sometimes, and though he yearned for school, was still denied that. The show says "oh she's a good person," but doesn't SHOW her being a good person.

the show contradicts itself. Emelie has to be good, because she's a dead mother who sacrificed her life for her child, but the show reveals the quality of life for that child was basically zilch, like owning a dog. The general idea of her being a bad parent is because being self-sacrificing doesn't make someone inherently good, in fact in Emelie's case, it made her all the more selfish.

if she knew she was dying and still had the audacity to keep her son from making connections with other people, all she was doing was saddling him with an immense amount of grief he would have no real way of processing, making her death the only thing he could ever revolve around for the rest of his existence.

Not only that, Gabriel seemed to follow the mindset of "oh she's just gone, not dead," which would only make things worse - and if Emelie suspected Gabriel might act the part of the fool, why didn't she ensure there was a support system for the both of them? To be fair, she doesn't have Gabriel on strings, but she literally has complete control over Adrien and just... decided to make him her emotional support child? a crutch through her death? an accessory to show what a good person she was???

maybe we really are missing parts. maybe she actually was an exceptional woman - but that SAME woman could be cattled and convinced to keep Adrien alone for his developmental years??? if we're following the idea that she was actually super good and kind, then we have to accept that she's also immensely stupid for allowing her husband to convince her that Adrien should be a bird in a cage.

Either she's loving but overall selfish, keeping Adrien for herself in spite of the damage it would cause, OR loving and stupid, letting Gabriel convince her to keep Adrien in the dark in spite of the damage it could cause.

the show may WANT us to route emelie down the path of overall "good," but considering her husband was such a miserable excuse for a parent who's attitude really hasn't changed that much from the past, like draws to like and we can only draw our own conclusions.

honestly i think Zoe put it better here, but there's my two cents on the matter.

[lamialamia]

We have a problem: why am I watching this sex scene again?

Ah. Sex scenes. You wild wild beast. The crossroad of many discourses and analyses and opinions and essays and now, here I am, a mere casual ww2 rpf fan, throwing my own hat to the ring. In this blog post I'm going to talk once more about sex scenes -- two in particular -- and why the eff one of them matters, making the ww2 rpf more compelling and the other did not.

Disclaimer: Whether or not sex scenes are needed in media in general or the right way to implement them across the vast spectrum of art is not part of this discussion. Please keep in mind I'm trying to complain about the writing decision in the small scope of the HBO War shows.

I have discussed the problem with the Crosby/Sandra plot line in a previous analysis here. But I think the problem with it requires another (and maybe a third) write-up. Here, I want to talk about why the tiny sex scene between Crosby and Sandra in episode 7 is a waste of screen time.

So, we have the sex scene in MOTA episode 7. It is somewhat explicit and it was clear it is consensual and that the people who are fucking is very into it. In comparison to other sex scenes in HBO War fandom, it doesn't exactly stands out to me with just the imagery of the act (of course this is a personal opinion, whether or not I find a sex scene hot or bad or corny or lovely or [insert adjective here] is not universal).

However, my problem with this sex scene between Crosby and Sandra is that it doesn't matter to the story.

After getting it on with Sandra, and then after she left him, Crosby never talked about this affair in anyway. Not over the narration, expressing some kind of sentiment over it, not with Rosie or any other guy, so me, the audience, have no idea what he think about it or how he might be affected about it. We didn't know what Sandra think or feel about it either because her scenes are about her spy works and that's it.

You might say: well he doesn't have to tell us how he feel if the show can demonstrate to us the same thing.

Yet, MOTA never did that. Furthermore, the show never portray the sex between them matters to the characters beyond getting their rocks off. And then, the sex doesn't matter to the theme of the episode nor the overall theme of the show either. It's just something that happened.

(Sad to say that maybe this sub-plot distracts me from the rest of episode 7 and 8)

This might be consider 'realistic'. In real life, people can have sex just for the joy of it. Which is true, but in a drama mini-series, the choices to include or exclude details must take in consideration whether what is on screen is valuable to the story the show is trying to tell. Why are they including this sex scene instead of the hundred other real life details that don't make the cut? We don't have a training montage for the pilots, we never learn how Quinn and Bailey get back to base from Germany, we never have the D-Day invasion sequence,...

Let's have a comparison to another sex scene.

In The Pacific episode 3, Sidney Phillips met Gwen in Melbourne and started a romance with her that ended in them having sex before he got shipped back to Pavuvu. Personally for me, it wasn't an awesome sex scene either. Both Gwen and Sidney were awkward, they kissed and the entire thing ended with him kissing her bare shoulder.

But what truly matter happened latter. When Eugene arrived in Pavuvu and reunited with Sidney, he asked Sidney about what combat was like. And to answer this, Sidney mentioned him sleeping with Gwen not to brag about his sexual conquest but to make a comparison with the brutal battles he survived.

Despite the fact that the two of them grew up together, in just a small amount of times, Sidney have been through things and done things Eugene hadn't. All of that (both combat and his brief romance with Gwen) had changed Sidney to the point that Eugene could not longer connect with him. There was now a chasm between them. Eugene looked at his friend and tried to understand him but couldn't. There were things that must be experienced to be understood.

And then, Eugene himself went through life-changing events. The war changed him so much that when he returned to Mobile, he once again couldn't connect with Sidney

Or his brother (who was in the Army and was in the euro theatre) -- another person who had gone through the war himself.

Both Sidney and Eugene's older brother had returned home before him while Eugene had just came back, fresh off the board with his mental wounds, and it showed the chasm had formed between him and these two men who supposed to shared this brutal experience with Eugene.

In fact his brother specifically mentioned how Eugene is still a virgin, which highlight further how he was 'missing out' on that particular experience that both these men have.

And this all started when we were still following H company and witnessed Sidney and Gwen having sex. That small thing compounded over time. It snowballed into all these differences and distance that Sidney would have with Eugene, and then Eugene would be having against his own hometown, his brother, his family, and his best friend. It served to show how war had did its number on Eugene in many ways.

The sex scene between Sidney and Gwen mattered to the story, it served a narrative purpose eventually.

Crosby and Sandra's sex scene did not. And to include it meant there would be less screen time for any other story line, leaving not just the sub-plot of Crosby's arc weaker, but the other ones as well. Overall, this creative decision left MOTA a weaker show in term of its writing.

[narutouzumakiarchive]

Re-reading Tennov's book on Limerence. There's a lot of misinformation associated with the term stemming from pop psychology websites regurgitating nonsense stated by Albert Wakin who literally made up stuff about the term that was NOT stated by Dorothy (the original creator of the term) herself.

But anyway, most academic researchers who scientifically study love recognize that limerence is basically a type of love that's practically synonymous with passionate love, romantic love, and infatuation..... as distinct from companionate love (also known as attachment, although attachment theory is controversial). Ironically though, Dorothy Tennov tried to draw a distinction between romantic love and limerence but her book was originally published before more scientific studies studies were published.

But that's neither here nor there. I just wanted to point out that I love Cathy and Heathcliff relationship being highlighted as an example of romantic love.

I've noticed there's a divide in how their relationship is recognized externally. "It's not real love." "It's just obsession." "It's not romantic love, it's toxic." And I suppose that way of thinking isn't necessarily wrong BUT that's more of a philosophical qualm that's distinct from how love as a drive is recognized in a biological sense. Here is Helen Fisher's original landmark conception of the different behvioral/cognitive/emotional components of romantic love.

It's a bit outdated (ie. Helen Fisher herself recognized that lust was a distinct brain system from romantic love but includes it in the list of psychophysical properties associated with attraction; newer research has shown that obsessional aspects can be separated from passionate love..) and I prefer the Passionate Love Scale as a measurement of infatuation (although additional research has shown that it also includes properties more tied to companionate love) but Cathy and Heathcliff check the boxes anyway.

And the question of toxicity is less straightforward. It comes down to your personal beliefs about whether love is a moral phenomenon. I believe this argument has especially taken off with the increased popularity of bell hooks "All About Love" in which she argued that love was a verb and it couldn't coincide with abuse. But these arguments have existed long before. I'm of the opinion that love isn't necessarily moral. I like this article on the morality of love and I've shared the snippet that funny enough briefly mentions Heathcliff as an example of a love object that doesn't have moral virtue (though I disagree with this framing). The rest of the article is really elucidating though.

A lot of our social conception of love DOES tie it to morality. A moral love is associated with depth as opposed to the "superficiality" that people link with amorality and this also affects perceptions of Cathy and Heathcliff's love as infatuation as opposed to genuine love (see example comment below of a post, also unrelated but i didn't realize Nelly's status an an unreliable narrator was so disputed bc I thought it was obvious???) despite the academic consensus that romantic love and infatuation are one in the same. Social psychologist Elaine Hatfield actually addresses this phenomenon in her book A New Look at Love.

It's all very fascinating and I find the different opinions on Cathy and Heathcliff exemplify the thesis of this post about shipping, and people's opinions on relationships in general.

(It does seem like it would be obvious that our opinions on fiction would be tied to our values and beliefs but analyzing romantic relationships is sort of seen as trivial and reductive in fandom)

[dominoxsquad]

Ok so. Like I said I’ve been thinking about Kallus and the Lasat Mercenary (who I’m going to be calling LM from now on for ease). This is gonna be SUPER long and a bit rambling but. Come on this thought journey with me.

So it feels like when it comes to LM, the general consensus is that he’s just… a brute. A monster, in some ways. But I couldn’t help wondering about that. Because sure, he could be a massive asshole who just likes killing Imps. But at the same time, he doesn’t have to be.

Here’s what we actually know about LM:

- He was a Mercenary who worked for Saw Gerrera

- He walked through the aftermath of an explosion picking off the people who survived.

- He let Kallus live.

We can assume he caused the explosion too, but since it isn’t confirmed there’s no way to confirm either way. But honestly I don’t think it really matters if he did that part specifically or not.

Let’s start with point 2. This feels like the thing people latch onto for why they think LM is a heartless brute, but… why?

Kallus was at the time of Onderon an ISB Agent being sent on a routine patrol. You’re not going to send out a whole group of intelligence agents to do a routine patrol. He was probably the only one, with the others would be Stormtroopers. Faceless soldiers that maybe Kallus knew at that point, but why would anyone else know them or care? Why would killing Stormtroopers make one a monster? Especially when we see so many others, characters we know and love, kill Stormtroopers and others. Every Star Destroyer or other Imperial ship destroyed is people killed. Not just Stormtroopers but officers too. Hell, even Kallus has, on screen, caused the death of one of his own men at least once. And he framed Lyste for treason, despite knowing he himself would probably be executed if found out.

Adding to the fact Rebels killing Stormtroopers is not odd at all, let’s take into account the explosion. There’s a lot we don’t know about it. Where was Kallus in relation to it? Was he close? Was he farther away? He just was knocked out and came to unable to move. Kallus says the injured never had a chance but… I think that may be truer than he probably thinks. They were Stormtroopers. The Empire didn’t give a shit when Kallus dragged himself back with a broken leg, why would they waste resources on unimportant soldiers?

So imagine. Imagine this lasat walking through the aftermath of the explosion, finishing the job for most of the injured. There’s no connection there. More Stormtrooper the same as all the ones killed before. But then there’s Kallus. Likely the only one with a face visible. The only one with a different uniform. Possibly looking up at him with fear. He’s not just a faceless soldier. He’s a person. And potentially an officer, someone the Empire may care enough about to save. Imagine it being a simple act of mercy, LM not killing Kallus. Imagine it being the same to make the deaths of the rest of the group members quick. But we see that incident through Kallus’s eyes only, which puts it through the lens of an Imperial.

I think something else that impacts how people see LM is the fact he worked for Saw Gerrera. And I say worked because we only know he did so in the past, and don’t even know where LM is or if he’s even alive still. And Gerrera is… a special kind of Intense. But LM was a mercenary. He might not do that much work with Gererra. And even if he did, that could very well have changed after the incident of Onderon. After all, he let Kallus live. He very well could have been on his own from then on.

Now here’s where things split a bit with what ifs. For what happened to LM and what it could be like if he and Kallus ever did meet again. Because what Kallus says on Bahryn is the whole of what we know about this mercenary.

Maybe he still works for Gerrera. Maybe he’s become the kind of person the fandom tends to settle on him being, especially with the fall of Lasan.

But maybe he doesn’t, either of his own choice or because Gerrera didn’t want him around after he let an Imperial live. Maybe he went back to Lasan after leaving Gerrera’s group, fighting and dying during its fall.

And now we get to what I have personally come to adopt as my favorite scenario.

Imagine. LM having left or been cast out of Gerrera’s group and striking out on his own. Doing other mercenary work, maybe trying help people and take out Imps where possible. Imagine him finding out about the fall of Lasan afterwards. Imagine that he ends up with the main Rebellion for whatever reason, and eventually encountering Zeb and Kallus. Kallus being afraid of him but at that point I’m sure he’s sort of found some peace about what happened. It wasn’t personal, no matter how it felt in the moment. Him being afraid, but honest. Telling LM that he had been on Lasan when it fell. That he’d been one of the people fighting. Imagine LM wanting to be angry, but… Kallus wouldn’t have been the only one. Even if he hadn’t been there what difference would it have made with how many people would have been there to clear a whole planet? Besides, Zeb trusts him. Zeb loves him. And Zeb was actually there, fighting for his home, and LM wasn’t. A different kind of survivor’s guilt, knowing again that one person wouldn’t have changed the outcome but at least LM would have been there to fight and die for his family and home. It isn’t easy, the anger is there, but at the same time I feel like there would be almost a sense of catharsis to it. LM meeting the person he showed mercy to years and years ago, finding that despite Kallus being on Lasan during its destruction he eventually did come around and risked everything for the rebellion, and (depending on when they meet) that he was part of the small group that managed to free Lothal from Imperial control. Things that he never could have done if LM had killed him that time.

Just… LM being a normal guy surviving in the galaxy. Full of trauma and guilt but who isn’t at that point. A normal guy who can kill because he thinks it’s helping but also capable of showing mercy. Someone who can find some closure in meeting Kallus but even more so in meeting Zeb. Because those two know what happened on Lasan. And more importantly, Zeb knows about Lira San.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/740770232410554368/i-read-an-old-fic-that-was-tagged-no-archive?source=share

Another reply from this same anon who sent this ask - you can just append it to the previous one I sent earlier tonight if you want

You and a few of the replies seemed to regard my lack of detail as suspicious, so I wanted to clarify about that: I didn't put much in my ask to you purely because I felt like if I did, it might make it too obvious what fic it is. This is in a small fandom where identifying details would make it easy to find, and I didn't want to risk anyone going after the fic or author. Not that I thought your readers necessarily would, but you never know with Tumblr. I did put more detail in my report than I gave you, much more.

I recognize you can't render a verdict on a fic you haven't read, and I wasn't really asking you to (sorry if that didn't come across clearly). My question was "is it fair to report something for lacking a warning if it is non-con, but the author didn't seem to intend it that way with the tone of how they wrote it?" (The rest of the fic's tone/framing was such that they did not expect the reader to be put off by the scene, see it as negatively impacting the relationship, and later the "assailant" basically tells the "victim" that he forced sex on him out of his love for him, and the victim accepts it.) Or more generally "should you report for lack of a warning if you're not quite sure if something qualifies as non-con?"

As it is, you fully answered those questions, so thank you! And the more general advice about not being afraid to use the report feature so long as you're familiar with the rules and doing it responsibly, because AO3 does truly looking through it in detail and there are low "consequences" for the author. Thanks to what you said, I did end up sending in a report.

--

Ah. I see your point.

Since AO3 has extremely limited tagging requirements, the few it does have are enforced based on an attempt at community consensus. Like... would your average reasonable person think this seems like noncon that should get a noncon warning?

That's sometimes hard to judge, obviously, but the author going "I think it's fine!" does not always get the last word here. If it were a dubcon fic, tagged as such, PAC might side with them and say it's up to author discretion where the line is. If it's pretty blatantly noncon and seems to be presented as fully consensual, they typically won't.

Underage is probably the most objective of the archive warnings and graphic violence the hardest to decide on with noncon and major character death somewhere in the middle.

[ryuichirou]

Replies

Some replies! A couple about today’s comic from ko-fi, a couple about our stuff and fandom stuff in general.

Starting with the ko-fi ones…

Anonymous asked:

Another ghost behind the ghost guard: “Um, is the jar mandatory or, you know, optional.”

(Give them a break, they’ve had a dry spell for CENTURIES)

Anonymous asked:

Same ghost: “Oh noooo! Don’t RAVISH me!!! I’m sooooo helpless!!”

Oh my god, that’s one desperate ghost!!

That ghost should change its strategy though, or rather, start pretending to run away instead – I think this would trigger Rook’s “gotta catch it, gotta hunt it down, gotta make love to it” instinct. 

I think the jar is mandatory though, but I don’t think anyone would have the courage to ask Rook why…

(I’m sorry, people with no context)

Anonymous asked:

Can I just say how much I love the kisses you draw? They’re so sexy and sensual and full of passion.

And tongue. Love the amount of tongue lol

AhhHH I am so happy…! Thank you for your kind words.

To be honest, I still feel a bit weird whenever I draw kisses a lot of times, mostly because when I spend too much of then they start looking weird in my eyes. So I really am very happy to hear that you like how I draw them!

Anonymous asked:

I love how you write/ draw Lilia. I want this old fae man to take care of me. 😭😭😭😭

Omg Anon! If anything, the way I write/draw Lilia should make you not want this old fae man to take care of you… 😨

In any case, thank you so much! I am super flattered and happy to hear that <3

Anonymous asked:

I saw a post and it made me think of your art

https://www.tumblr.com/i-will-write/759303532492013568?source=share

>w>;

YES this is me sitting down to write wholesome hcs and ending up with another cursed post. Thank you 😭

This is so true though..! Sometimes the best way to express love to your blorbos is to make them suffer.

Anonymous asked:

From talking to my friends, it seems the main concern (for them at least) is when pro-shippers don't make clear that they don't support this stuff irl. I think it's obvious, but they said that people can do this sort of thing because their into it irl? idk. You've made it repeatedly clear that ur not though, so the antis ur dealing w/ r just dicks. If they don't like a ship, just ignore it. I personally feel uncomfortable with Deuce/Crewel, so i blocked the tag and I enjoy the rest of your work. If they have a specific issue with a ship, they should just block it or block you. You're not hurting anyone, so their is no reason to interfere. That is my opinion or relationships irl too. If it is consensual and not hurting anyone, than its fine, regardless of what society says.

First of all, thank you very much for understanding and being polite about stuff that you don’t like. I am very happy you could enjoy this blog despite the fact that there are some ships that you are uncomfortable with. I also absolutely agree with you that there is no reason to do anything when a person isn’t hurting anyone, and that goes for relationships too.

Second of all, while I can understand where your friends are coming from, I kind of have mixed feelings about the idea that proshippers don’t make clear that they don’t support this stuff irl. You said yourself that it’s obvious, and yes it is absolutely obvious. No one owes anyone an explanation or a declaration of not supporting this stuff irl because it’s the very foundation of proship/dead dove/anything related to this type of fiction: as long as it’s fictional, it’s okay. Fiction is not reality. This idea (that keeps being repeated by everyone all the time, including conversations proship people have with antis) pretty much states “I love this as long as it’s fictional and because it’s fictional, I would not be doing it irl. This is fiction, reality is reality”. It’s the default condition.

I think it’s unfair to state that all proshippers have to explain themselves because there are people among them who support this kind of stuff irl, because yeah there are, and there are people like that among the antis too. There are hypocrites who groom kids and cover it up by making it feel like they’re teaching them something good and unproblematic. There are bad apples everywhere, and thinking by default that a group of people is a bunch predators unless they specifically state “I don’t’ support irl incest” is kind of… not nice? And while this is probably not what your friends are doing, it sounds like a very convenient excuse to harass someone. “Well they didn’t make it clear enough that they are not a creep” type of thing. And it’s not like actually saying that you don’t support it irl helped anyone to avoid harassment. It surely didn’t help me at all, and I believe it worked exactly the same way for every other soul.

It’s one thing not to trust these kinds of people personally and to avoid them because you get bad vibes from them that make you uncomfortable, but in that case one would just block. It’s the mature thing to do. You shouldn’t fully trust people on the internet in general because you don’t really know them. But then again, not vibing with someone while ignoring them and harassing are two completely different things.

Once again, thank you for your support and understanding, as well as for sharing this perspective with me.

Anonymous asked:

Not the same anon but incidentally, trolls was the first fandom I saw Antis in and that was when they wrote a callout post which I thought was for actual grooming and when in fact it was referring to a drawing.

Boy, was I pissed.

The third movie just unleashed even more with how popular it was. The funny thing is, the music producer specifically said he was trying to channel 50 Shades of Grey in the soundtrack and that the main leads had sexual tension 😂😂😂

Oh no the antis of the trolls fandom…! Anon, I’m so sorry. No idea about what kind of situation there was and I know nothing about trolls, but still.

But yeah, I think everyone had this experience. When you think that something truly horrible happened, and then it’s just… drawings. Sometimes it’s drawings from 10 years ago. People really love this whole adrenalin rush of maybe ruining someone else’s life with just one post and a bunch of “proofs” that is always just a huge nothingburger.

The trivia about 50 shades is hilarious though lol Now this is going to be the only trolls fact that I know!

[tangledinink]

Can we have more info in the egg that are happening in Gemini AU? Mega confusion. So did they like- mingle with someone? Are they unfertilized? Or is it like- asexual reproduction???

"Mingle with someone" is the best term for sex I've ever heard.

No, neither of the Gemini are having any children, asexually or otherwise. The eggs are unfertilized. (Note the line in part one where Donnie explains how they can destroy and discard of said eggs. Please also note the tags of the original comic!) Turtles can lay unfertilized eggs the same way chickens can. Think of it as the reptilian version of a menstrual cycle. This is also why Leo says in part two that it's a repeated event.

I made a whole ass poll about this (apparently this is something the fandom feels strongly about...) and the general consensus that I landed on for my AU was that an afab mutant ninja turtle's menstrual cycle involves a few days of bleeding and ends with unfertilized eggs (think, like, baseball size, maybe a bit smaller.) During the summer, this happens about once a month. The rest of the year, it's much more rare and sporadic.

[theriverwild]

Writer Asks

This was fun, thank you @demonscantgothere and tagging @galbrand, @tmwillson3, @jhalya, @myfavouritelunatic, @thrillofhope and anyone else who wants to do it!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Eight (for now...)

2. What's your total A03 words count?

568,161.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I am writing exclusively for the Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power fandom and incorporating significant lore from the broader Tolkien Legendarium (LOTR, Hobbit, Silm, Unfinished Tales, etc.).

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

(596) That Which Lies Across the Sea (WIP): Fourth Age Mairon x Galadriel. Sauron/Mairon redemption arc taking him and Galadriel through the Dagor Dagorath and beyond to Arda Unmarred. It's a long tale!

(195) Autocorrelation (WIP): missing Haladriel scenes during TROP.

(136) Aftermath (WIP): Second and Third Age vignettes. Saurondriel plus other stories like where was Celeborn? And a little sprinkle of Celrond. Set after TROP with lore from LOTR and Unfinished Tales.

(82) Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Duplicity (WIP): Mairon's time as a double agent with the elves in Valinor before Morgoth is released from captivity. Character study vignettes with some one-sided pining for a young Artanis.

(82) Land of Enchantment: my first AU! This is a bit of dark fic with a much darker sequel but just watch me make it an HEA (of sorts). Haladriel / Saurondriel.

Note that the first four are part of my Use Well the Days series which is all canon compliant according to my own interpretation of Tolkien's works and The Rings of Power series.

(And more below the cut! Trying to avoid an overlong post for you scrollers)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! Every single one is special to me.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Ah, well, I only have two finished fics so that would have to be Land of Enchantment which has a bit of a crushing epilogue, later explained and expanded on in the sequel.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

My fic for a funny smutty term challenge: Sunny Days Chasing the Clouds Away It is a fluffy and feel good Haladriel one-shot!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully, no. I tagged everything I could think of up front on Kingdom of Rust because the first four chapters are rough. I'm hoping that prevents any hate.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes I do! There is noncon/dubcon in Land of Enchantment, Kingdom of Rust, and Marring of Mairon but generally my smut is consensual and ranges from fluffy to mildly kinky.

I like to write extremely visceral smut that does not leave a lot to the imagination. So far there is a little M-M and a lot of M-F.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Nope! At least not yet.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Sort of. The first chapter of TWLATS was modified and translated and linked to my original story.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

No. This sounds fun, but also terrifying given my propensity for "I'm not as good as anyone else" syndrome.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Well, I was a silent reader of many ships for over a decade but I have to say, nothing has struck the same chord as Saurondriel -- which pulled me out of the shadows and into fandom proper.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Nothing. I'm going to finish all my WIPS. They all have complete outlines.

Exceptions to this are my vignette fics, which do not have outlines, but I could call them complete today and it would not be out of place for how I set them up to support the rest of the series they are a part of.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Commenters have very kindly complimented my detailed plotting. I have short-term and long-term payoffs and like to weave events and interactions across years and different character arcs. My prose isn't the best and everything is quite wordy, but it's all there for a reason.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

My prose lacks consistency. Love some lines, hate a lot of others. I publish stuff I'm not very satisfied (in terms of prose) with when I reach diminishing returns so I can keep the plot moving. I'm not trying to be sloppy, but I'd rather post and keep the story going instead of get stuck on a scene for two months.

That said, I welcome concrit in my canonverse fics because I really do want to improve.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Yes! Quenya, Sindarin, and Spanish so far in my fics. I post the translations in-line.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power. And still here!

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

I absolutely love my Use Well The Days universe but when I finished Land of Enchantment I felt like, 'whoa, that was something else.' And I feel the same way about the sequel I am trying to exorcise from my brain so I can get back to TWLATS and my more popular WIPS.

[alittledizzy]

I'm not a fan of dream's but it's so funny to see he went "after the surgery it won't be me in the mask all the time" then "don't say it's not me wearing the mask >:(". Like that dude is weird but weirdly hilarious.

tbh it is objectively hilarious.

i think the most important thing everyone should keep in mind about dream is just... dude is also figuring this out for the first time along with all the rest of us

there is this expectation (not from you, just from fandom in general) that he's either a 100% fuck up who makes awful decisions or he's 100% capable marketing genius who should not be questioned ever

but he's just like. a twenty three year old guy who until eight months ago hadn't left his house in four years. obviously rich thanks to his success over the pandemic. obviously intelligent enough to have built this career more or less by himself. but just because you stumble into a mix of the right content at the right time and the right audience finding it doesn't mean you're going to continue to make every right choice after.

i feel like fans of dream more than anyone else should get this? this man is like three chronic illnesses and a couple of neurodivergent diagnoses stacked together in a trenchcoat. he is relatable to a fault, but some people don't want to relate to him when it comes to the shitty aspects of adhd like time blindness and hyperfixation on a specific project. they also don't want to acknowledge what trauma can do to your passion for a specific topic. they don't want to face the human aspects of him because that's a stumbling block on the road to "dream is disappointing me personally so i'm basically now an anti"

he had a major project this year he was very excited about. for reasons outside of his control it never got off the ground. that sucks. like... i can't imagine spending months writing a 60k fic and someone else comes out with a similar fic and is hostile toward me over the idea of me posting mine. i'd sure as fuck be ready to step back from writing for a while.

and on the opposite site the people that idolize him and never want to hear a negative word about him or 'pop off, king' to every single thing he says don't want to understand that a healthy amount of criticism is not only good but needed for anyone. i've seen the same cycle in every fandom i've been in, like this is just 2018 dan and phil hiatus arguments with a new coat of paint, so i'm not even being specific to dream when i say toxic positivity and toxic negativity are equally exhausting to me. the reddit is a godsend when it comes to a place dream can, of his own volition and when he wants, visit to get a consensus of rational fandom opinion without the filter of people who are inclined to never disagree because they want a notice from him

anyway my tl;dr is i think more of fandom needs to look at dream and think 'what a weird but weirdly hilarious guy' rather than this urge to project everything they want him to be or want to be mad about onto him

[ginger-canary]

This Booth IS Big Enough for the Seven of Us

Chapters: 1/1

Words: 1938

Fandom: Dimension 20 (Web Series)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Pete Conlan | Pete the Plug/Sofia Lee, Sofia Lee & Esther Sinclair, Kingston Brown & Pete Conlan | Pete the Plug, Sofia Lee & The Dream Team, Pete Conlan | Pete the Plug & The Dream Team

Characters: Pete Conlan | Pete the Plug, Sofia Lee, Ricky Matsui, Esther Sinclair (Dimension 20), Kingston Brown, Misty Moore | Rowan Berry, Cody Walsh

Additional Tags: This started out as a joke now here we are, We didn't let Pete yeehaw enough okay

Series: Part 4 of I just think that Sofiapete

Summary:

In which i spend 1.5k+ words to make a single joke.

Pete wants to try out a new hangout spot. The hangout spot comes with a dress code. Fashion shenanigans ensue.

Because @hi-intrepid-heroes and I were joking once and I had to make it real

read it under the cut or follow this link to AO3

Culturally, Pete understood that all of New York was nothing like the south. Here, cowboy hats belonged to costumes and tourists. But New York was also one of the biggest melting pots in the world, so he figured that inviting the rest of the crew to this cool new western bar would be fun. 

“A western bar?” Sofia repeated, looking up from her phone. They were sitting on the couch in her apartment, Sof’s legs on Pete’s lap, relaxing after a long day. “Is this because you want to wear more cowboy outfits? You can do that anywhere, babe.”

“...Noooo.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Okay a little bit. But it’d also just be fun! We always go to the same places and get the same drinks and snacks, it’s time to change things up.” 

Sof smiled. “Are you sick of the usual chips and dip?”

“No. Maybe- a little bit. Diversity is good for the brain! Please?” He batted his eyelashes at Sofia. 

Sofia laughed. “It’s not me you have to win over, you already did that. Text the group chat, try and convince them.” She reached over and grabbed Pete’s phone from the coffee table. 

“Can you imagine Kingston’s initial gut reaction, though?” Pete said as he took his phone. 

“A western bar?” Sofia said in a deep voice, imitating Kingston. “That’s not New York. We’re on the east coast!”

“I wonder how many of them I can convince to dress appropriately.” He started typing a message, hyping up the new bar. “Cody’s definitely not going to do it.”

Sof leaned in, reading over his shoulder. “That depends. Is there a fully leather version of a a cowboy outfit?”

Pete pressed his head against Sofie’s. “Oh, probably but can you imagine the sweating he’ll be doing in that?”

She grinned. “I’m much more excited to go there now.” 

As soon as Pete’s message was sent, several of their friends started typing. “Is this because you’re obsessed with boiled peanuts?” Cody asked. 

 Sofia lifted her head. “He’s got a point there, is that it?”

“No, but it is a big bonus.”

“Do we have to dress all yeehaw-like?” was Kingston’s reply. 

“I’m down,” was all Esther replied with. 

“That’s my girl,” Sof grinned. Several more messages came in, the general consensus being a yes to the bar, if they were given time to go shopping for an outfit first. Pete wholeheartedly agreed and promised Kingston he'd help him out. 

Smiling, Pete turned to look at Sof. “So do you want to plunder my closet?” 

“Oh, naturally. She swung her legs off his lap and stood up. “Just tell me what you want to wear and I’ll plunder the rest of your closet.”

“It’s not all western style clothes in there.”

Sofia leaned down and kissed him. “Babe, your love for cowboy culture is showing. New Yorkers ain’t wearing fringe. It’s inconvenient.”

“How?” Pete asked, mostly staring at Sofie’s lips. 

“Get it trapped between the subway doors then ask again.” Sofia stood up, walking into the bedroom where a significant enough amount of Pete’s clothes lived. They didn’t exactly live together as much as both live in two places, which meant that clothes were everywhere. That’s what you get when both partners like fashion- but have very different styles. 

She opened the closet, poking around through shirts of various sheerness then sighed. She was going shopping with Esther anyway, why not leave it up to her to help make the decisions? That’s what best friends are for, after all. 

~~~

“Are we there yet?” 

Pete whipped his head around, snorting. “Really, Cody? We’ve been walking for half a block.”

“I miss my regular boots,” he whined.

Sof slowed down slightly, taking in what could only be described as “what if cowboys only had leather?” and tried to avoid laughing. “You squeak like a New York rat, why did you decide on this?” 

“He refused to pick anything reasonable,” Kingston shouted from the back. 

Cody rolled his eyes and flushed. “I wanted to look like myself, even in the cowboy bar.” 

“Congrats you look like… you.” Esther waved her hand at the outfit. “But louder.”

The group slowed to a stop outside The Apple Jack and Pete took this moment to inspect everyone’s outfits. From Ricky’s genuine boots and spurs, to Kingston's colourful cowboy hat he had to say everyone had succeeded in following the dress code. He’d gone with his favourite green boots and his fringe suede jacket, having left his brighter clothes to Sofie. Clad in red and black, Sof was the prettiest New Yorker lost in the south he’d ever seen. “Y’all ready?”

Cody shoved him aside. “Let me through, I’m tired of standing.” 

Laughing, the rest of the group followed him inside. The Apple Jack had a simple setup to keep the New York out of the Wild West; double doors. Behind the first was a large coat rack to leave your puffer jackets and scarves behind, a tall umbrella stand and a good doormat to clean your shoes on. Then when you were ready, you could enter through the swinging doors where a light layer of sand (and peanut shells) covered the floor. Mostly fake cacti covered large parts of the room, tables and stools looking just as breakable as in every bar fight in the movies. 

Against the far wall was a collection of booths, the patterning on the couches plaid and worn, the tables shiny and clean. 

Pete grinned, coming to a stop in the middle of the sandy bar. There was no way he could contain his excitement.

“Actually I kind of like this.” Esther came to stand next to him, nudging a peanut shell with the tip of her boot. 

Sof joined them, bumping her hip against his. “So, is it everything you wanted, Petey?”

“Well, it’s-” he was interrupted by Ricky tripping through the swinging doors. “Sorry ma’am,” he called over his shoulder. “But I’m taken. Please don’t slap my ass again.”

Esther groaned and pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes. “Babe, that was the door.”

Ricky straightened and put his hands on his hips. “Well it should still know I’m taken.” 

Laughing, Sofia moved towards the bar. 

“Ricky Matsui, everybody,” Pete whispered under his breath.

After a quick chat and some funny squeaking, they were all squeezed into the largest booth in the bar. Some quiet country rock was playing over the speakers as a curly-haired waitress moved towards their spot. She wore comfortable ripped jeans, a plaid shirt and the standard apron. “Howdy y’all, my name’s Lily and I’ll be your server today. What can I help you with?” She spoke with a southern drawl, tapping her pen against her notepad. 

Kingston leaned over the table. “Nice to meet you Lily. Do they make you talk like that?”

Sof slapped Kingston’s arm. “She’s not a prisoner!” 

“It’s okay honey, people ask me that question a lot.” She turned her attention to Kingston. “No they don’t make me talk like this, I’m from Carolina. I actually enjoy working here. It doesn’t remind me of home in the way most New Yorkers would expect but there’s something comforting about floorboards covered in sand and peanut shells.”

Rowan eyed the Southern girl for a second. “Have you considered that it might be the temperature here?”

Lily shrugged. “Probably. Whatever it is, I’m comfortable here. So what can I get y’all, before your friend slips and slides out of his outfit?” She leaned in, whispering, “is he okay?” into Rowan’s ear. 

Grinning, Rowan said “no” then proceeded to order a round of drinks for everyone. 

Biting on her lower lip, Sofia nudged Esther. “I think Rowan’s found a new toy.” 

“As long as she doesn’t get us banned from the bar, I think this’ll be fun to watch.” 

“I’ll bet you 10 bucks Rowan stops the moment her shoes get dirty,” Pete whispered. 

Sof watched the way Rowan got up and moved to the bar, leaning flirtatiously against the edge. “I’ll take that bet. The way that’s going, I think I already won.” 

Pete turned his head to see Rowan carrying their order of snacks to the table, Lily following in her stead. “Well that was a short bet. I’ve never seen her do manual labour before.” 

Kingston grinned, wrapping his hands around his drink. “Well I’ll be damned, it was worth coming here after all.”

“Hey! It’s not my fault you’re the vox populi of New York city.” Pete tossed a peanut shell at him. “Other cultures are fun to explore.”

“Yeah, like chinatown.” Ricky smiled and sipped his drink. “Hey Rowan, what is this?”

“Hm?” Rowan slipped back into the booth, her hand lingering on Lily’s arm. “I asked for a round of the best mocktails they had. And Pete’s peanuts, both boiled and regular.” She tapped her ironically neatly manicured fingers on Lily’s arm. 

Pete exchanged a look with Sof, watching Lily move her gaze from Rowan’s hand to her notepad. 

“It’s the cactus juice. Not literally cactus juice, of course, but bitter lemon with lime juice and mint. It’s our bestseller!”

“That explains why it’s green,” Kingston said.

“And sour.” Ricky pulled the face of a kid first tasting a lemon. 

Lily laughed. “I can always get you something else.” 

The dream team spent a few hours in Southern Roots, enjoying the music and snacks, watching Rowan flirt with Lily, and dancing around in the sand. As rain started falling outside the windows again, Sof wrapped her arm around Pete. “You know, I’m glad you convinced everyone to come here. It has potential, even if we have to dress up to fit in here.”

Pete raised an eyebrow. “Have you seen us?” He vaguely waved his hands at the people around the table. “We don’t fit in anywhere at all.”

“Yeah, our main test for every bar is whether or not we fit in a booth,” Esther added. 

Kingston nodded and grinned.“And if they serve good enough coffee.”

 “Hold on, Liz told me you were supposed to stop drinking so much caffeine.” Pete scrunched his eyebrows. “Yeah, I’m very sure she told me that.” 

Kingston tried to hide a smile. “I’m fine, she worries too much.”

“Uhuh nice try, decaf for you.” Sof prodded at Kingston’s arm. “We can’t have you dealin’ with health issues just because you love bean juice so much.”

“Well if we keep coming here that should be fine,” He said, inspecting the menu. “There’s about 20 different drinks I haven’t tried yet and none of them contain caffeine, right?” 

Lily nodded and pointed out some of her favourites as Rowan slid her arm around Lily’s waist. 

Sof kept in a laugh and exchanged a look with Pete, who wiggled his eyebrows. There were many things Rowan was- but subtle had never been one of them. As long as whatever was blooming over there wouldn’t end in heartbreak, it seemed that they’d be coming to the Apple Jack more often. “So,” Sof said, “what do you think? Was it a success?”

Pete looked around the table at their group. “Oh absolutely.” He lowered his voice and added, “if we can get Cody out of those pants.”

As time went on, the Apple Jack was added to their roulette of hangout places, as Lily was to Rowan’s list of… whatever she wanted to call it, which meant Pete owed Sofie ten bucks. Later on that night, they all had an unfortunate time trying to get Cody out of his leather outfit- but hey, that’s what friends are for, right?

[scuderlia]

tagged by my beloveds @oscarpiastriwdc & @liamlawsonlesbian

what color are your eyes? the general consensus is that they're green, but i think i kinda cheated my way into green eyes because i've just got blue eyes with yellow around the pupil 😭

(reference images below)

tell me about your pets/your dream pet: i have a standard poodle. he's the love of my LIFE and i'm obsessed with him. he takes the same anxiety medication as me.

share an interesting fact about yourself: i was trained in opera when i was younger but stopped to focus on being a theater kid (tragic).

what was the first fandom you were a part of? idk if this counts but i used to talk about bbc earth documentaries with randos on kik when i was in elementary school. (proper fandom though, probably harry potter lmao i started reading it when i was nine)

do you have any phobias? i don't really have any fears (which is slightly concerning) but i worry and obsess over literally everything so i feel like that sweeps this category.

are you a picky eater? if so, what food can't you stand? other than being vegetarian i'll eat pretty much anything OTHER THAN SPINACH. the only exception i have to this rule is maybe spanakopita. i also consume incredibly low levels of dairy because i lowkey am lactose intolerant so…

do you eat the burger and fries at the same time or one after another? i always taste the burger first but then alternate between the two from that point forward. i also have to end with the fries or it feels incorrect and i think about it for the rest of the day.

winter or summer: oof, depends where. probably summer but i don't love sweltering weather, so if i'm able to be somewhere where i'm not burning up but just pleasantly warm, it's perfect.

favourite fanfiction tropes: friends-to-lovers if i feel like having a magnifying glass held to my heart, but any kind of complicated relationship where there's lots of emotional turmoil always leaves me gagged.

are you studying or working? what do you study/is your job? i'm an architecture student <3

what is the last country you visited: mexico!

(enjoy this photo of the balcony plant i fell in love with)

what country would you want to move to after retiring? i don't know if i want to stay put after i retire... i'd be pretty content to just travel around until i drop dead. if i had to pick though maybe Belgium or Amsterdam, some of my family is from there and it's where my brother wants to live.

who was your first crush? god, i think either Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Alien or Gillian Anderson as Scully in The X-Files. my parents are big into sci-fi so i watched both way too young, but it was a great way to kickstart my sexuality ig.

how did you get into f1 fandom? i've been watching f1 my whole life but fandom-wise i've been lurking since like 2015-ish and only properly got into it these past few months.

~ i'm not tagging anyone but pls do it if you'd like :)

[peachjagiya]

i won’t come back to tell you off, what with your extensive experience how could i possibly argue with such objectivity. i’ll only say all the things you’re saying in your little circle unaware from the rest of the fandom are the exact same things repeated throughout layover to put taehyung down and excuse giving him any support, a consensus across the board except for kths. accidentally aligning or not, the company’s work is done and a thorough success.

What part of my tumblr makes you think I don't completely and thoroughly support Taehyung?

Here's an example of how you can hold a similar opinion but present it generally in a totally tonally different way: JK bias: He looked so silly in that Louis Vuitton outfit 😂 They did my boy dirty! But look at all these times he looked amazing! 😍

JK anti: That Louis Vuitton outfit was so dumb. He's so hideous. Ugh overrated.

We all hate the LV outfit. Not all of us hate JK for it.

Incidentally I do know one thing about the outside world: Your comments are the exact same things repeated to diminish and beat JK with. Some of the stuff I have seen about JK have implied he's a sellout, paying for his success or that his music has no value because it's just made to be commercial. Did you intend to support that narrative? Should you be held accountable because some people can't act right?

I'm Not The Fandom and I'm Not The Company. If I think they're holding Tae down because he's Tae (I do but that's a different issue), I will continue to do what I do every single day and stream him consistently and dutifully, in the recommended way to ensure his numbers keep going up.

I'm not going to be held responsible for the ill intent of other people who want to keep Taehyung down just because I know JK's music has broad appeal. I'm not a KTH anti, very much opposite. Learn to assess people on their individual actions, tone and words. If you don't have time to do that, don't ask.

[justaasexual]

So I've been bored and thinking over Harry Potter again.

Mainly, the whole Snape and Lupin situation. And I've seen a lot where Snape is in the wrong for releasing Lupin's secret.

And, well, I don't think he was wrong to do so.

Having the kids write essays in hopes that some would realise Lupin was a werewolf. Fucked up.

Continuously dropping hints in hopes someone would pick up? Absolutely disgusting.

Having a meltdown when he couldn't see a man murdered. My god, go get some therapy.

His entire attitude toward teaching? Fucking stop.

Bullying of a student because their father tormented him? What the fucking hell, why was this man a teacher?

But releasing to the Wizarding World Lupin was a werewolf? That has a bit more nuance.

First, it's never stated how he releases it. Was it to the students? Someone's parents? The Minister? The Daily Prophet? We simply don't know.

His students? Absolutely necessary. A dangerous dark creature was running around the forest on a full moon. This same creature was their professor, who neglected their safety by failing to take his potion and endangered the lives of three students. Not to mention, the general consensus among the fandom appears to be the Heads of Houses essentially act as the kids' guardians while they are at Hogwarts. He would be warning his charges, the kids he was responsible for about a dangerous situation. Also, teens are dumb. We have evidence three were already out of the castle when they weren't supposed to be. There had to be more.

The parents? Also necessary. Their kids would have been in danger from a professor because he wasn't responsible enough to take his potion.

The Minister? The dude was on the fucking grounds. At that point, it's common sense.

Daily Prophet? Not as excusable. However, again, Lupin endangered students. At that point, he waived all rights to his secret being kept the minute he didn't take his potion and his condition had the potential to literally kill someone.

Now, I won't pretend Snape's motives were altruistic. It's entirely possible and frankly I believe it's likely he just wanted to get back at Lupin and saw a chance to do so. But that doesn't excuse Lupin's actions. The 'outing a teacher with a chronic illness' doesn't work when the chronic illness causes them to be a danger to the students they are teaching. The minute Lupin didn't take his potion, he became that danger, because he failed to properly medicate himself and take precautions. That's on him.

He was under a lot of stress. True. It's understandable why he would forget. But that does not excuse him very nearly biting three students and potentially having done far more damage.

TL;DR: Snape was completely in the right for outing Lupin's condition the minute it became a danger. His motives probably weren't centred around that, and it doesn't excuse any of his actions throughout the rest of the school year, but the minute Lupin failed to medicate himself he became a danger to the students Snape was supposed to protect.

[purgemarchlockdown]

For the ask game, I checked the second-most-tagged character in your archive... Kazui? 8, 11, 12, 13.

I didnt realize he was second-most tagged! He's my qpr's fav so Im not really surprised....

8. what is your theory for their crime? if there is general consensus on it in the fandom, do you have any other, not-so-widely-accepted thoughts on it?

I think I Generally have similar thoughts on him as the rest of his crime as the rest of the fandom does (it was suicide not murder) Uh...honestly I worry my answers for these arent too interesting since I dont Tend to think too much about the crime itself ha...I do think that its possible that Kazui did Much Worse than we are willing to believe or accept. A friend of mine watched Cat and Immediately caught onto how creepy it feels which I agree with honestly since that was my other thought when I was watching it.

I feel like people get a bit defensive when the idea of Kazui being Worse gets brought up but admittedly a lot of times when people bring it up they go "I cant believe people are so Stupid" which is just mean.

I'm personally more fond of the interpretations where Kazui is some flavor of Queer and the shitty he did was lying to his wife. Since that Is a Really Shit thing to do already and I think it's more interesting thematically and story wise. Plus it makes his normalcy and repression parallels with Amane more fun I think.

However I don't think that means that possibility for Kazui being Worse should be Dismissed outright. Just because Kazui is regretful and self-hating and genuinely kind and understanding does not eliminate that possibility and what not.

It also doesn't mean he Can't be Queer....so like....I dunno. I'm just trying to say that I don't Mind him being a worse person than we would like to believe.

11. what are your favorite points about their story and the narrative surrounding them?

(I DID NOT REALIZE TILL AFTER I WROTE ALL OF THIS THAT I ANSWERED THIS BEFORE WHOOPS! YOU CAN READ IT ALONGSIDE THIS I TALK ABOUT SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT THINGS)

GIVE! ME! THOSE! FEELINGS! OF! REPRESSION!!!!!!!!!!!! He is so fucking repressed and is trying so damn hard to be normal and the Ideal Husband and it gets to me. It's something I find so interesting about Kazui. He's a big liar but that's because he's repressed as all hell. He believes he was Born Wrong somehow. Born different.

It's another reason why I really like Queer Kazui interpretations. I think those feelings of having to "be a man" and live up to "manly ideals" and being the Most Normalest Normal Man Ever works really well with that depiction of him.

Kazui is trying to fit the societal standard of normal and is really jaded about it as a result. The idea of Ideal Het Love is just something he's selling to people. The concept of being the Ideal Man is an ad. That one interrogation where he says marriage is good for your social status. He's trying to keep up with society's standards in a world that feels hostile to someone like Him.

Sure he could Try to be himself, but that means inviting so much hate and pain and even possibly risking his life. Leaving the comfortable world of normalcy means Being In Danger.

And he's repressed his feelings for his entire life. It's second nature to him.

How can he pull apart who he is from the lies? Is there even a difference? Is he doomed to lie forever and ever? He certainly doesn't know. There's a sense of stagnation and stillness in a way. A sense of being stuck in place Forever.

All he knows for certain is that Something is Wrong With Him. And that Something is what Killed Hinako. The dream he has is something that is unachievable, as it should be.

(Sorry but these are Really Appropriate WKTD scenes)

12 has already been answered here!

13. any ideas on what would they and their MV be like if they got a different verdict in T1?

Well ignoring the obvious "oh shit if Kazui was guilty Mahiru might of straight up fucking died, same with Amane actually since Presumably Kazui and Mikoto stopping Kotoko is what prevented her from being attacked" I think Kazui might just be kinda resigned to it, he's really like that i think. Kazui is someone Incredibly Resigned to Bad Situations, he doesn't really make much effort to fix them because he doesn't think they Can be fixed. And if he Tried it would just get worse.

He tried to bare his heart to Es but I guess that just didn't work out...I dunno if he would be more honest or not in his MV though...since Kazui seems to have noticed now that he's inno that even his Lies get into the machine. Im really not sure.

[if-confessions]

Reader - sorry to those authors, but I really hate it when they put every single one of their posts in the general ‘interactive fiction’ tag. I end up blocking half the blogs that do it and scrolling right by the rest :/

Tumblr wilderness into action, where there is no real rule and the tagging "conventions" would probably not be followed anyway...

It is true that the tag is flooded with essentially everything barely related to Interactive Fiction nowadays, from questionably relevant asks to essentially shitpost polls.

With the #interactive fiction tag being the one-stop-for-all to find IF games*, it's not surprising some authors will tag everything this way to gain more followings or some sort of interaction***. In other terms, to stay relevant**. Even if that means flooding the tag with random stuff and burying other people's projects... *people use tags as a way to organise their posts, more than trying to be seen. **no shade to those authors doing this, it is a marketing strategy, even if a frustrating one for the targeted users. ***also not a guarantee to get interaction...

What do you think should be/not be allowed in the #interactive fiction tag? Should we have a consensus on a tagging etiquette? If so, how do we go at it?

Under the cut is my answer to the first question... so just me theoretically gatekeeping stuff because I can. And because no one will end up following those point, anyway.

What I think should be in there:

Project introductions (obviously) and teasers

Project updates (added content, change of status, etc...) and update teasers

Dev logs/periodical check in

Reviews (<- there's not enough of those)

Interactive Fiction resources (theory, history of the genre, gameplay systems, program resource lists [not tutorials, I would put that in #coding if or something], communities [discords, forums...])

Event announcements [Competitions, Jams, Award ceremonies...]

Interactive Fiction discourse (a.k.a. callout posts about community shenanigans, sometimes we need to be shown we are the black kettle)

Recommendations lists

Patreon/Ko-fi/Commission posts

What I think is irrelevantly tagged as interactive-fiction:

Asks in general (sorry, but we don't need anons proposing to characters...) save for the ones related to the categories above

Polls, same as for the asks. Unless it's directly related to above, nope, pass. Results of polls as well.

Just art posts (like portrait, settings, background, random doodles, etc...) that do not fall in any of the categories above UNLESS the project is a VN or asset heavy IF.

Inspo posts. Nope nope nope... That counts for playlists or pinterest-like mood boards* *unless it's character introductions, then see below

One like post about how much [coding/writing/marketing/other IF activity] is annoying/the worst/etc...

Those conga-line/tagging posts about personal questions

Organisations lists for tags/prompts/other pages, or FAQ

Honestly, the ask posts are the main ones flooding the tag. That's probably the most annoying one out there.

What I am on the fence about:

Character introductions: does this count as a teaser? Honestly, probably more in the irrelevant pile.

UI screenshots: kind of an update, also kind of superfluous...

Fan art stuff: from the author, I'd say no... but from the fandom, yeah...

Snippets/Prompts: eeeeehhhhh... does it count as like a teaser for the writing to expect in the game? or bonus content? except non-canon shit (that goes in the nope pile)

Bonus content.

I'm probably missing some types of posts... but there it is.

Do you have to follow this? No. I don't make the rules about what you should tag or how you should tag it. Do you think this is horseshit? Comment on the post (or send an ask)

[naash-24]

Convention Post

I have never been to a convention for the sake of just being there. My only experience was volunteering at UF's SwampCon. I saw various cool cosplays and was blown away by the amount of effort some people would into their characters. I also made conversation with many people while checking them in, complimenting their cosplays or chatting about their character/fandom. It was really fun. However, I will do the rest of my post on the documentary True Otaku because realistically I have not been to a convention and experienced all it has to offer.

The documentary opens with what people think the word otaku means; there is no one set answer. Otaku has both negative and positive connotations depending on where and how it is used. Otaku is more of a derogatory term in Japan, though it has become less so due to the growing popularity of anime and manga in the States. The general consensus seems to be that an otaku is a person who has a passion for anime, manga, and or Japanese culture. However, some people could argue that being an otaku just means being passionate about anything. Again, the definition of otaku varies from person to person as well as if that person would consider themselves fitting of this definition.

Conventions are meant to be a place where fans gather to meet other fans and to explore/share aspects of Japanese culture, expressing common interests. There are different events and sections at conventions as well, such as panels where fans can hear the latest news and company announcements or ask their favorite voice actors some questions. Another common thing at conventions are artist's alleys, where artists who create merchandise for any and everything imaginable that fans could purchase. Arguably the largest aspect of conventions is cosplay, where fans dress up as their favorite characters to express their love for them and interpretations of them. Fans will often take pictures with cosplayers to show their appreciation for their craft, especially since a lot of cosplayers make their own outfits and props.

In part two of the documentary we follow Dust Bunny, a cosplayer who is planning to compete in a cosplay competition. She walks us through the elements of cosplay and why it is important to her. She goes on to say that cosplay is really a form of expression and of learning, as she has had to learn new techniques to perfect her cosplays many times. Such includes learning how to style and dye wigs, how to sew, and how to draft. A lot of hard work and money go into creating a cosplay, especially those who really try to embody their character. Every little detail is considered, down to a character's teeth.

We also follow a journalist named Lauren about her experiences while interacting with fans at conventions to learn more about them. She says that you will see things at conventions that you will typically not see anywhere else. After talking to various fans and hearing their answers to why they were there, she figured not many people on the outside would ever learn these things. She also says that people at conventions are some of the most genuine people she's met, something you also won't find just anywhere. She adds that doing journalism really opened up her ability to learn more about fandom culture, as many fans will go to conventions but not do more beyond that.

In part three of the documentary, we continue to explore the culture surrounding these conventions. It was mentioned, and I personally agree with this as well, that otaku fandom culture is the most accepting community there is. You will always find someone who is interested in the same characters, shows, video games, and content that you are; everyone is unique and individual, but you are never alone. The community is so welcoming and supportive, especially because outside of conventions, fans are not usually accepted for who they are or their interests. This is also multigenerational, as people of all ages can enjoy otaku culture. We see this with a family of four who all dressed up to go to a convention together.

I think there is something inherently beautiful about being able to go somewhere knowing absolutely nobody and still feeling a sense of belonging. That is what conventions are all about. No matter how much of a fan you are, how much effort you put into a cosplay, or how old you are, there will always be a place for you. There will always be a supportive community. A family really. I can't wait to go to my first convention and experience this firsthand.