#@niche-pastiche

[augment-techs]

Send me a △ and ask a really invasive question aimed at my character

This one's for World of the Coinless Skull.... You get Drakkon alone and depowered in a room with no exits... No judgement or consequences... how would you tear that ass up? Or would you take a 'higher' road as you have in other story lines?

@ajgrey9647

[rad-roche]

Is your fic posted on AO3? o: I'd love to read it!

you certainly can, and it is!!

[asymmetryestablished]

pspsps hey Perona and/or Mihawk enjoyers, I finally posted chapter 4 of my how-many-gothic-romance-tropes-can-I-make-platonic fic (and you should go read it)

it’s got everything — platonic post-timeskip Mihawk-and-Perona dynamic, spooky weather, a haunted-ass gothic castle, the works. I just posted chapter 4 of 6, and the next chapter is where things pop off, so now’s a great time to get invested

(and if you like it feel free to check out some of my other works bc I have a platonic MiRona problem and too much time on my hands)

[artbyblastweave]

Spider-Verse, and fanmade spider-sonas in particular, reinvent the same issue you run into whenever you're trying to come up with a name for a Superman pastiche, which is that in the absence of the character they're derived from, in a universe where they're the first to ever do it, every single one of those guys would most likely just name themselves Spider-Man or Spider-Woman. And even if they do try and come up with something more creative than that, they're gonna stop well before they get to any of the extremely specific niche Spider subspecies. You'd have like two billion people calling themselves The Tarantula

[drarryspecificrecsdaily]

2025.02.02

Complete fics posted on AO3 this day

1. A Day in the Loop by Craftybadger1234 [M, 13k]

Draco is stuck in a time loop and wants to spend the day with Harry.

2. Harry Potter and Malfoy’s Suspicious New Interest by @niche-pastiche & @wisteria-lodge [T, 38k]

Harry is worried about the inter-house Quidditch Cup being cancelled, Sirius being on the run, and the fact that Draco Malfoy has suddenly, suspiciously, become strangely supportive of werewolves.

3. Just a Ring by BeigeSocks [T, 200k]

Summer before fifth year, Kreacher gives Draco a ring containing Regulus Black’s soul. Draco learns a lot because of it, namely how to befriend a Potter.

4. A Study in Secrecy (5+1) by @edestyles [T, 6k]

Harry and Draco are very bad at keeping secrets. A series of stolen kisses, near-misses, and one catastrophic exposure prove that, despite their best efforts, Hogwarts is not the place for subtlety. Featuring bad excuses, Filch’s terrible timing, and an unfortunate encounter with Pansy Parkinson.

5. The Tale of the Dragon by HedgehogWrites [E, 43k]

Draco has been cursed by a powerful wizard. He has to guard the Island in his dragon form. The Island, where the Kingdom sends their convicts to. It's a death sentence, because he has to eat them. Only an act out of true love can set Draco free. Harry is a proud prostitute, good at what he does. He also is a fierce protector of dragons, saving them wherever he can. Unfortunately, this puts him right on Wizard Supreme Riddle's radar. The wizard will leave no stone unturned to sentence him to the Island.

---

Fest/Exchange

1. Blueberry Muffins by @hoko-onchi-writes [E, 2k]

Draco comes home to find Harry fast asleep. He takes advantage of the situation. ★ Kinkuary 2025 | @kinkuary

2. Short Fuse by @anxiousm3ss [T, 1k]

Aurors Harry and Draco are sent on a stakeout where everyone is convinced nothing will happen - until something does. ★ HP Fanfic Writers' Guild's Comfort Zone Fest 2025 | @hpffwritersguild

[wisteria-lodge]

Do you have a favorite drarry moment in the series?

I always screenshot funny Drarry content to bug my co-writer @niche-pastiche, (since they were historically not a drarry girlie.) I'll share some. :D

First we have Harry being really, really focused on how Draco looks at any given time:

oh you like the robes he's wearing, Harry? he's looking good?

(Harry likes these robes better then the high-necked black velvet ones Draco wears to the yule ball btw. thinks those ones make him look "like a vicar.")

harry, you might maybe want to consider that MAYBE you're projecting a little, with that interior monolog you're giving pansy? You have also, historically, been pretty focused on Draco's hair.

I think it's actually kinda sweet that Harry has noticed that Draco isn't looking as good as usual these days.

And of course, there's Harry's favorite Plan A: Spy on Malfoy Under the Invisibility Cloak.

I love how Mr. Weasley is just like, "Harry, why?" and harry is like ??????? malfoy was up to something????????

I mean... "he was rapidly becoming obsessed with Draco Malfoy" is a classic for a reason.

I also enjoy when Harry is just unable to shut up about Draco, to the degree that it's really starting to annoy people:

After a few DAYS? Harry that conversation was two minutes long. Ron and Hermione are being very patient with him.

But of course Draco does EXACTLY the same thing :

And Draco in general will try to like... show off?

that one just reads as incompetent flirting to me, I'm sorry.

draco that's not even an insult, what are you TALKING about.

and one last little bit where where Harry REALLY doesn't want to run into Draco when he's not looking good:

What can I say, It's all very relatable baby gay emotions.

[blueiscoool]

The Ancient Roman Statue of Athena Emerges After Nearly 300 Years in Hiding

After spending centuries on a British aristocrat’s estate in North Yorkshire, the marble masterpiece will be unveiled in Chicago’s Wrightwood 659 gallery later this weeks,

With an owl in the palm of her hand, a cloak adorned with a gorgon’s head and a warrior’s helmet upon her swept hair, Athena, as depicted in a Roman statue from the first century C.E., is a remarkable sight.

Now, for the first time in nearly 260 years, it will also be a widely accessible one.

This stunning marble depiction of the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare will go on public display in the atrium of the Wrightwood 659 gallery in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood starting on January 25.

William Weddell, the British artistocrat who purchased the statue of Athena on a Grand Tour of Rome

Before the Halsted A&A Foundation acquired the sculpture in 2023, it was tucked away in a rose-colored niche in Newby Hall, the North Yorkshire country house of William Weddell, a British landowner and politician who traveled to Rome to purchase it in the mid-1700s.

“By displaying the sculpture at Wrightwood 659, the foundation invites the public to see a work which has been largely out of general public view for nearly three centuries,” Karen Manchester, the curator of the Halsted A&A Foundation, says in a statement.

“Now, scholars, students and visitors will be able to study the statue of Athena closely and interpret it from many perspectives, including those of art history, restoration practices and gender studies,” she adds.

Among the most interesting features of this Athena is the 74.5-inch-tall statue’s hodgepodge provenance. Its head came from a sculpture carved during the time of the Roman emperor Augustus (31 B.C.E. to 14 C.E.). Meanwhile, its body was grafted from a statue dating to the reign of Claudius (41 to 54 C.E.), the ruler who conquered Britain, according to the statement.

The so-called "Halsted Athena" at its new home at Wrightwood 659, a gallery in Chicago

But this mishmash of marble wasn’t a scam to get the wealthy Weddell to purchase a seemingly intact statue of Athena. “Rather, many buyers preferred complete pieces, even if composed of unrelated parts,” Manchester explains.

When older parts weren’t available, sculptors would carve new ones, such as the so-called Halsted Athena’s left arm and a section between her jaw and chest. While these “pastiches” might confuse archaeologists attempting to trace an artwork’s origins, Manchester says they tell complex stories about art, taste and aesthetics throughout history, per the Observer’s Elisa Carollo.

The Halsted Athena emerges from the confines of Weddell’s Newby Hall at the same time that 58 pieces from the Torlonia Collection, a trove of ancient sculptures, travel to North America for the first time. They will go on view at the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Myth & Marble” exhibition, which opens on March 15.

Weddell’s own journey to Rome to purchase the statue reflects the practice of Grand Tours across the cities of the ancient world, popular among young British aristocrats. A painter who encountered Weddell on his Grand Tour of Rome once remarked that the collector had “[bought] such a quantity of pictures, marbles, etc. as will astonish the West Riding of Yorkshire.”

William Weddell and fellow British travelers as depicted by Nathaniel Dance-Holland, who remarked on the large number of antiquities that Weddell planned to bring home with him

Weddell and his fellow British travelers would have referred to the statue’s subject as Minerva, the Roman goddess, rather than Athena, “because they learned Latin in school, not ancient Greek, and therefore were familiar with the Latin names of deities,” Manchester tells Elena Goukassian of the Art Newspaper.

But the Roman statue distinctly depicts the Greek goddess, with her signature helmet and aegis, or sash-like cloak, draped across her chest.

“At the time these pieces were carved, the classical style was in vogue. In other words, ancient Roman customers wanted sculptures that reflected the look of ancient Greek and Hellenistic Greek,” Manchester adds.

Even in the first century C.E., when the statue took its complete form, Romans were harking back to an immemorial Greece. Now, the Halsted Athena’s voyage to the leafy avenues and art galleries of well-to-do Lincoln Park adds another chapter to its rich and complex backstory, stretching from Greece to Rome and from Yorkshire to Chicago.

By Eli Wizevich.

[ewingstan]

If you had a chance to recommend (real-world) superhero comics to the Undersiders, which comics would you recommend and why?

Oh, good question. Its been a minute since I was really into comics (I gotta figure out how to reactivate my Marvel Unlimited account), but I think I have enough background to come up with some good picks.

Lotta good options for Taylor. My first thought is to give her Ewing's X-Men Red (aka "the main reason I need to catch up on Marvel comics"), since a superhero story that focuses a lot on gaining and maintaining societal power and the work of governing as a leader in a super-community seems like it would appeal to the Warlord of the Boardwalk. Plus a lot of it is "kill the previous leader in a way that ensures you have a popular mandate," which I'm sure she'd be a fan of.

If we're talking Taylor at the start of the story or younger—well, I don't know if it makes sense to give her runs of the character she's most a pastiche of, but maybe something that fits the Spider-Man niche could still be appealing for a young down-on-her-luck aspiring hero? I could see her getting something out of the Simone or Ahmed Ms. Marvel runs, for instance.

(While Watchmen might seem like the natural pick, I'm pretty sure she'd lose a lot of enjoyment just from picking out all the ways Veidt's plan was obviously gonna fail for x y z reasons. Also dark deconstructions of superhero worlds would probably seem too familiar to her world for her to enjoy it.)

If Taylor would be interested in comics statecraft, Lisa would probably be more interested in comics spycraft and intrigue. Ewing's S.W.O.R.D. would probably scratch the same itch for her that X-Men Red would for Taylor (and Storm dramatically blowing off Doom would probably satisfy her after all the ulcer-inducing negotiations with Accord.) I might also give her Ewings New Avengers and USAvengers runs (look this is gonna include a lot of Al Ewing recs, get used to it early) if only because I feel like she'd enjoy how Roberto gets characterized in those comics. Magnificent bastard solidarity.

If we're giving comics to Brian, we already need to work past his defensive avoidance of anything that seems too childish, so I don't think we're getting anything pre-dark ages. That said, he famously thinks "looking mature" means "sick-ass skulls and leather jackets," so his idea of maturity might skew a bit into McFarlane territory. Ultimately though I think he'd be most comfortable with something where he could plausibly say "this isn't just a comic, it's actually a well-respected piece of literature." I'd want that to mean Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing, but it'd probably actually mean The Dark Knight Returns.

As a dark horse pick, I'd give Brian some early New Warriors or Ewing's Contest of Champions, if only because Night Thrasher feels so close to what he wants his vibe to be (dramatic black leather ensemble with a very 90's idea of cool, unflappable expert strategist who pulls his weight despite a powerset with limited applicability, died horribly and came back much later for weirdly impersonal reasons) while also being just ridiculous enough to make me want to see his reaction.

Given Iota's commentary on Alec's pizza habits, I'd think Alec would most be a fan of something intense and bombastic and not mind if its often repetitive. I'd almost say Berserk would be a good match for him, but parts of that that might actually be triggering for him. Maybe some other ultra-violent longrunning work; I haven't read Fist of the North Star but it seems like a safe recommendation; various X-Force runs could work if we're sticking with Western comics.

Rachel really doesn't seem like someone who'd have much appreciation for any aspect of comics. The best bet would be something visually spectacular in a way that could be appreciated on its own, and a plot that's interesting taking issues on their own and not just as part of ongoing runs. I could see Ewing's Immortal Hulk as fitting those criteria; her power gives her an artist's appreciation for Bennett's horrific depictions of the Hulk's transformations (even if praising Bennett for anything feels in poor taste).

Ewing's scripts for each issue of Hulk are clever in a way that I feel Rachel could find entertaining; they don't require an attention she couldn't keep up, but also aren't simple to the point of being condescending. Plus, the thematic focus on "what can and can't be solved through unspeakable acts of destruction" would feel familiar in a way that's less frustrating than normal comic tut-tutting about how obviously we can't attack these guys (plus the greater willingness to say "oh yeah unspeakable destruction definitely is the best way forwards here" would be pretty satisfying).

I feel like Aisha would have more patience for comic tropes than a lot of the other undersiders, (I could see her enjoying the original Fantastic Four run), but at the same time she'd probably enjoy something a bit more complicated and out-there. Ewing's Rocket might be appealing as heist-focused mini, and I feel like the mix of melancholy and absurdity would appeal to her. Rosenberg's Hawkeye: Freefall would work for similar reasons, though replace "melancholy" with "simmering rage."

Morrison's Doom Patrol and The Invisibles both have characters Aisha might relate to for the whole "society largely ignoring or wanting to go away" thing. Plus they both have big weird ideas she'd appreciate, Richard Case's art works well with her aesthetics, and they're both seen as "respectable" series to the point that she might like peppering in references to them in alongside Jules Verne jokes.

Huh, I just realized that Aisha and Brian both ended up chasing an appearance of being mature and somewhat surface-level and off-putting ways. Brian "trust me I'm a normal adult man" and Aisha "I've compiled spider-man quips for every work in the Western Canon and will get frustrated when you don't get them" Laborn, the "something ain't right about that kid" siblings.

(I will say that Morrison's Doom Patrol has some weird black stereotypes so if anyone wants to pitch me on a similar work without Morrison's occasional racism I'd be curious).

I'd give Rowell's run on Runaways to Sabah, if only because "somewhat antivillanous found family group of teens that mostly don't have to worry about anything besides relationship drama" sounds like a nice escape for her. Closer to what she wants the Undersiders to be like. Also, I feel she'd enjoy Kris Anka's focus on fashion in his art.

I don't have a lot to go off for Lily. I could see some of the more recent Captain Marvel runs appealing to her sense of true-blue militant heroism. Ayala's New Mutants or Ahmed's Black Bolt might help combat her whole "villains are ontologically evil" thing, at least to a certain extent.

[grenade-maid]

Man, I think what makes me so sad about Guilty Gear is just knowing that there won't ever be anything quite like it. The cultural soup that spawned it just doesn't exist anymore. The edgy 90s counterculture boom can't really be replicated. Doom is something you run on thermostats and microwaves, Mortal Kombat is something your brother's friends played in college, spiked leather and heavy metal are things anyone might be into, arcades have been dead longer than they were alive, everyone is aware of JoJo. Everything that was shocking, transgressive, and exciting then is now pretty normal (if still beloved--nay, more beloved, even). They even made a new Matrix movie about this feeling. And the thing is, there were a lot of fighting games tapping into the same things as Guilty Gear was. They all died in obscurity, and Guilty Gear is the lone survivor, carrying the DNA of a cultural moment but unable to propagate, being the last of its species. Sol Badguy is a perfect protagonist for it, in that sense.

At the end of the day, there's just no real analogue. The genre of musclebound blood soaked anime it was drawing from like Fist of the North Star, Bastard! and Ninja Scroll don't really exist anymore. Rockstars of the hotel thrashing middle finger waving hard drinking hard partying variety don't really exist in the same way, either. Very few recent album covers would make for good stage backgrounds. There isn't really an "underground" subculture or counterculture--we're all just in different niches that are one online search away from each other. Nobody has to "introduce" you to metal, you don't have to know a guy, just look up a few whole discographies and listen on your commute. Fighting games themselves are a firmly established genre with it's own self selecting population--in the 90s it was pretty common for basically anyone to casually try a few rounds of Tekken or have some version of street fighter at home. That's not really the case anymore, and, as such, fighting games need to be designed differently and more thoughtfully than they used to be.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!None of these are bad things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But it does mean that any attempt to do something in the same vein as Guilty Gear will necessarily be a pastiche. Hell, even Guilty Gear itself was pastiche by the time of XX. This isn't a bad thing either--I'm loving Little Goody Two Shoes, for example, which is the most lavish and loving throwback to 90s shojo and 00s RPG Maker horror games. But it would still be different. Because even the most loving reference or recreation, even the ones that surpass the quality of the originals, can't replace the spirit of expressing something quintessential to your current moment, whatever that moment is.

The moment that I cherish cause I grew up in its shadow is long gone. I don't know if there's anything in the current moment that could speak to me in the same way. Most of my favorite all time games, manga, anime, etc etc all came out in the last few years, so this isn't about old shit being better. I guess most of what I love that's currently being made just didn't lend itself well to riffing on in the same way. Unfortunately, high passion rock operas screaming your feelings just lend themselves perfectly to kickass games, and those aren't in vogue like they used to be. And, ultimately, on a strictly personal level, I'll never be 15 again, being shown the sickest shit I've ever seen before a D&D game for the first time.

[ineffableclassics]

Aziraphale was a bit of a bastard sometimes, true. But that was not what happened here. Not entirely. This was an account of the time he decided that no, he was not required to be the bigger person. Not today. Not after everything they had been through.

The following was not the work of an angel of the Lord. It was the work of a man shaped being who had been pushed that last bit too far and was willing to risk being slightly petty. After experiencing a few thousand years of micro aggressions, it was only a matter of time before he eventually reached a breaking point.

Words: 4,330

Status: Complete

Rating: Teen And Up

@niche-pastiche

This is a locked fic

[dynasoar5]

you're such a unique artist and i love all your work so much, it means everything to me as a furry. like these technically impressive digital paintings that are often spot-on pastiche of venerated art movements, focused entirely on overtly fetishistic (as in niche/erotic) subjects. its a combination that absolutely demolishes any shame i feel for my own interests. i think it's also the perfect demonstration of the collapse between high art/"low art" that is so vital to the furry fandom. sorry if this is a little weird to hear as the person who makes all this art, but i think about your portfolio this way all the time so i thought i might as well let you know, lol

thank you so much for the kind words. I love knowing what people think about my work and the context around it! 🦕💖💖

[mashamorevvna]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤️

(@femmeharel) thank youuuuu to the both of youuuu 🥺🥺🥺

also *voice of a person who has only written five fics* damn, however will i ever be able to select five fics, just five of my beautiful children while leaving the rest out in the cold. (unserious way to say i dont have to sophie's choice my children, so might as well rank them instead)

babygirl numero 1: "it would not be i any longer (it would be we, it would be us)" stricly speaking, my worst stats-wise and the most niche but i love it so dearly. will never not plug my minthara de winter fic bc it is everything i would want to read: crazy psychosexual drama; gothic pastiche; unwell people making ill adivsed decisions. one day it might even be finished too!

babygirl numero 2: "you've a gift for hating (you should know, you're the expert)" the lion in winter-esque adversarial relationship between my two strongest character fixations for bg3, how could i not love it dearly. also extremely proud of the fact that i do, after months, still think the setup and the chemistry just work and are believable. hardest part of writing for non-existant pairs

babygirl numero 3: "I wish the hand of god would come and relieve me of this way" just really love how well i pulled the selene&isobel simmetry here. sincerely incredible result on my part

babygirl numero 4: "the world is not enough (but it's a wonderful place to start)" triangulation of desire: the fic. love it very dearly, it was my first fanfic after something like three years and it still holds up. very bataillean.

babygirl numero 5: "Appel du Vide" really proud of how i challenged myself at writing smut, which im not super interested into and not very good at it besides, and to do it as fucked up as i wanted. incredibly offputting sex, love it tremendously

[goatsandgangsters]

Book rec: Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers, and lovers of eighteenth-century London. Yet no one knows the true story; their confessions have never been found. Until now. Reeling from heartbreak, a scholar named Dr. Voth discovers a long-lost manuscript—a gender-defying exposé of Jack and Bess’s adventures. Is Confessions of the Fox an authentic autobiography or a hoax? As Dr. Voth is drawn deeper into Jack and Bess’s tale of underworld resistance and gender transformation, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwined—and only a miracle will save them all.

The way this book plays with narrative form is SUPER fascinating and incredibly impressive. Written as a pastiche of an 18th-century manuscript, it focuses on a trans reinterpretation of Jack Sheppard, with footnotes from a modern-day trans academic-character. This is a win for the metanarrative lovers.

The pastiche was absolutely spot-on with its use of spelling, capitalization, and stylization. The footnotes from the academic-character include both Hilarious anecdotes that had me laughing out loud as well as real citations of existing works of scholarship. Also throw in scoops of commentary about the violence of capitalism and its absurdity, linked across two periods of time. There was a real sense of purpose and unity to the parallel storylines of the manuscript and the footnotes.

You don't read this book to be entertained by a ripping, page-turner plot (it’s not that, nor is it trying to be). You read this book because you're a history nerd who gets enjoyment out of chewing over a thoughtful piece of historical meta-fiction that's in conversation with a very particular academic niche of queer theory/history. If you're pedantic enough to understand my distinction between enjoyable and entertaining, you are in the right place. I can't guarantee you'll be entertained, but I can promise that the chewiness of this book is SO enjoyable.

This book is not for everyone. However, as a trans person who loves academic writing, metanarrative, attention to historical detail, and incisive commentary on the Anxiety of Wanting Anything While Trans, it is at least for Me.

[princesscolumbia]

Ranma 1/2 Thoughts, Meta Edition

I have consumed...a lot of Ranma 1/2 content.

I mean, this is kinda what happens when you're a repressed transgirl who discovers the manga a year into a marriage that you got into to "fix" being trans and be "a real boy" in a desperate bid to fill the hole that you wouldn't learn for two decades could only be filled by living as your true self.

I've encountered precisely four (4) types of Ranma 1/2 fans in that time:

Transwomen who see Ranma as their idealized expression of the gender experience ("I'm not like this because I want to be, it's a curse. A curse that gives me a smokin' hot body and HUGE tits! But it's tooootally a curse, for realsies! I'll find a cure any day now, see how hard I'm looking? I'm trying sooooo hard to find a cure...")

Transmen who see Ranma as their perfect representation of their gender experience ("I'm a guy, damnit! This body...it's a curse! I hate it and I want nothing better than to be cured, but all sorts of Life Bullshit keeps getting in the way!")

Lesbians who kin either Ranma (butch NB lesbian) or one of their love interests (Akane - comphet closetted butch lesbian, Shampoo - Strong, smokin' hot bad bitch who goes after what she wants, Ukyo - transmasc coded genderfluid NB)

Completely clueless nimrods who miss the FUCKING POINT and are only into the show for the martial arts and think it would be better if Ranma got cured and they stopped having funny stuff happen.

(In case it's not obvious, IMHO the last group are the worst parts of the fandom and need to Go Away. Most of the toxic stuff that exists in R.5 fanspaces is because of this group of assholes which includes the incels that think everything would be better if Ranma just did stuff that's questionable from an ethics and morality perspective and chased after Shampoo because she's the closest thing to a Barbie-doll these closet fascists can allow themselves to fantasize about playing with, completely ignoring that she's a complex character that's a subversive pastiche to the Japanese racist stereotypes of the 1980s.)

I'm not kidding when I say that in the early days of the public Internet (before Facebook and Twitter ruined it for everyone), Ranma 1/2 was the SINGLE largest fandom by a MASSIVE stretch. I once checked my math on this by going to Fanfiction.net (before the massive purges) and brought up the Big List of All Fandoms and right there at the top with a MASSIVE number of fics was Ranma 1/2 by a HUGE margin. It took three fandoms (Star Trek, Doctor Who, and I believe Naruto if I'm recalling correctly) to have their combined total number of fics exceed the number of R.5 fics on FF.net...and that was JUST FF.net. There was an entire separate index (The Penultimate Ranma 1/2 Fanfic Index) that had the single task of listing, not even curating or reading or reviewing, ONLY Ranma 1/2 fanfics. Not fanart, not commentary, no RP blogs or chat transcripts or whatever, JUST fanfics. And only about half of those linked to FF.net, meaning that if you dig up the archives you'll find at least 60% of all fanfics that people had managed to index in the Ranma 1/2 fandom are missing because they were never properly archived and just...faded from the Internet as the public servers and places like Geocities started disappearing. You can find teasing, tantalizing hints of larger works that all we have left, like scraps of ancient papyri revealing a quote from a missing book of the Bible, are single chapters backed up on niche sites that managed to get spider-crawled by Archive.org, but many great works are just...lost. (There's an ero fic called "Playing with Water" that was SUPER hot and featured elements that we have tags for on porn sites but didn't really have proper words for back in the day...but even back when it was first being written finding the thing was hard...and today? Nearly impossible.)

(If you wonder why I'm such an absolute RABID advocate of AO3, this is why)

For me, Ranma will always be the transfemme coded genderfluid hero that we needed in the late 80s and early 90s. We were on the tail end of the AIDS pandemic, and just like COVID-19 there were a bunch of assholes who used it to ride to power and marginalize queer folk. It was easier to do with AIDS, of course, given the absolutely massive numbers of queer cis men and transwomen who contracted it and died. (Sidebar: the reason "L" comes first in "LGBTQIA+" is because it was the Lesbian nurses who were the caretakers of the Gay men who were dying in numbers large enough to be counted as a tragic statistic instead of a mere tragedy) and while the world was starting to acknowledge (again) that gay men was a thing that existed and they weren't actually trying to corrupt the youth, what we now call "transgender" was still listed in the DSM as a mental disorder that required treatment to "cure." According to the cultural majority in damn near every field you can imagine, the Gender Binary was the only way to exist and if you didn't fit neatly into one or the other then you were Damaged™ and had to be Fixed™ for The Good of All People™ (but specifically so cis-het-white folks, usually men, could feel comfy and not be confronted by things that made them feel icky and might have cooties). It's a truism that's treated as a joke that transwomen get into coding and wind up doing IT work in such massive numbers that between us and the furries we ARE the foundation of the modern Internet. And into the fanspaces packed to the brim with closetted AMAB transwomen who hadn't yet had their egg cracked came this plucky martial artist that gets to swap their gender with a splash of water but somehow still winds up the best of the best, the finest martial artist of their generation. (Goku can suck it, Ranma would turn the Kamea-meha right back on the over-muscled, braindead loser with a food fetish and still make it home in time for Kasumi's dinner)

I'm no sociologist, anthropologist, behaviorist, whatever, but I suspect that the reason Ranma Saotome spawned such a large fanbase so early in the modern Internet's history was specifically because the series created a safe space where people could talk about gender issues with a degree of separation that helped strip away the stigma surrounding feeling like you were in the wrong body.

I get why people like the martial arts aspect. I mean, Ranma kills a demigod. This is NOT something to sneeze at. I also understand the transmen who latch onto Ranma as a kin because I get the feeling like you have no control over what your body's doing and you're going through your days in existential dread of what might be dragging you further and further away from what you always knew was right and correct about yourself. It's a terrifying thing and here's someone who (esp. the anime version) IS a guy trapped in a girl's body.

For me, though, and for a LOT of transwomen out there, Ranma is transfemme. And, yes, canonically Ranma states right near the end of the manga that they're both and they kinda forgot about the 'cure' when they had to pick between that and the really important stuff and that they're okay with being fluid ('cause water, gettit?!) about their gender and it's a damn shame this was the 80s 'cause a continuation might wind up showing Ranma embracing being both...

BUT, and this is a transfemme thing, I know, if you continue the parabolic arc of Ranma's character development, the logical conclusion (for us) is that she eventually decides that she's a woman and just lives in her "cursed" form the majority (or all) of the time.

And yes, this is because that's the transfemme story arc. In the manga in some distant part of the multiverse that peers into our universe and for some reason decides to make me the MC (god, that must be a FUCKING BORING manga by our standards, I weep for those fans), my story arc is the gradual progression of uncracked, closetted transgirl to transitioned out and proud transbien mom. At one point I swapped back and forth between gender presentations because it was safer for me to appear in some spaces as the male that they thought I was. Now I would prefer to die before being forced to go back to pretending to be a man again.

Ranma has the choice, and good for them. Until the Kaisufuu is permanently destroyed, even if the "curse" is locked, they have the option of going one way or the other based solely on their own, personal desire. I can't say I'd be comfortable with that option being available. In that theoretical manga where there's a reboot that gives me a condition like Ranma's, I'd probably wind up destroying the equivalent to the Kaisufuu just because of the threat to my mental wellbeing it presents.

So it's not a stretch to imagine Ranma making the same choice. She's a woman now, she has the life she never realized she wanted because she never had the choice so didn't know she was allowed to imagine it, but now she's happier than ever and why would she ever go back to that struggle of being a guy that only ever brought her pain and challenges and heartache?

[transgenderer]

"presumably people are still doing sculpture in the style of the ancient greeks, or the renaissance. like the skill isnt lost." The skill is kind of lost, though, isn't it? I mean, you have competent sculptors who work in the classical style, but are any of them remotely as talented as Bernini or Michelangelo? writing songs in the style of the Beatles doesn't mean you're as good as the Beatles, and even if you do write a good pastiche, the president won't give you $1,000,000 for it... It's niche

hmm. yeah this is a good point. except that like, we also display like, anonymous ancient greek sculptures in museums! even in really fancy museums, like the met! these COULD be made by supermasters i guess. but i feel like PROBABLY there are people making ancient greek style sculptures that are as well-made as those. theyre just not old. i mean. i guess said museums also display sculptures for which there is basically no claim of skill, just oldness. maybe my point is just "art musem" and "history museums" are not very distinct categories. which is. kind of obvious i guess

[wisteria-lodge]

Wait the wiki is bad? I use it all the time 😭 I thought the whole point is it's community-run so people should be able to fix any mistakes (and since it's a huge community that's been running for very long it seems quite robust and strict on verifying information) I do get that it has info from the videogames which most people don't regard as canon, though. But when it does it tends to note it as such, and they still consider the books/movies a higher "plane" of canon.

I love reading the wiki, but I do have to do a lot of follow up and sifting if I'm using it as reference. In tends to throw in the video games, JKR interviews, *actor* interviews, and Pottermore content, and sometimes it's organized and clearly marked, but a lot of times it isn't... and that has definitely slipped up my co-writer (whose knowledge of HP isn't as crazy as mine) a few times. Unless you already have a really solid grasp on everything, it's easy to get confused. Like here's someone who wrote into me, asking about a sentence in the Narcissa page that was 1) Poorly written 2) wrong.

The other problem with the wiki is that since it's community run, every page tends to be written by fans of that particular character. This is especially obvious with the villains. Like read through the Lucius Malfoy, or Severus Snape pages. There is so much there that's bending over backwards to give them a positive edit. There's a lot about Lucius' elegant dueling style (no source) and his skill with potions. Like the actual detail is 'Lucius Malfoy mentions having a potion collection in Book 2.' I don't want that extrapolated into 'Lucius Malfoy was a model student who got into the Slug Club because of his skill with potions.' Like let me write my own headcanons! It starts speculating that Lucius got Voldemort monologing on purpose in the graveyard to buy time for Harry!

Snape's page says that one of his skills is writing poetry. He wrote a rhyming logic puzzle in book one, which I would say is not the same thing. It also says he communicates with floriography, which is a reference to a fan theory about how the plants he lists in Book 1 are a coded message about Lily. Like *I* know that. But then the wiki just cites Book 1. That's not in Book 1.

This is actually so common that co-writer @niche-pastiche and I have an in-joke when we attribute any flattering/creative interpretation to Tom Saunders, Wasp Scientist.

Tom Saunders is a New Zealand biologist who named a species of wasp after Lucius Malfoy because:

"People see wasps as villains, as the 'bad guys.' But the truth is that the vast majority of wasp species are either neutral or beneficial, from a human standpoint. Just as Lucius Malfoy is pardoned after separating from Voldemort's allies, I'm asking people to pardon wasps in order to restore their reputation as interesting, important creatures."

Like I get that you like wasps, and Lucius Malfoy, I do too. But that's not info that's in the books.

(It is Pottermore stuff, but I honestly count Pottermore as tertiary canon at *best.* Like every once in a while it'll be a cool detail, but JKR is *not good* at worldbuilding, so most of the time, instead of explaining things... it just makes everything more confusing. And I think that all of this has the end result of accidentally gatekeeping newcomers who want to engage with the material. Like the person who sent that ask.)