#Apologies for using fandom tags but this is relevant to the fandom seeing as how it's about a member of the fandom

[a-voice-for-the-victims]

Sexual Predators In DCA and TSAMS Fandom

It has come to our attention that there have been serious and troubling allegations against Shattered-Sparks. Specifically, Shattered-Sparks has been accused of harming minors within this community. This behavior is completely unacceptable.

Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of all members in this fandom, especially younger individuals who are particularly vulnerable. We are working closely with the victims to ensure appropriate measures are taken regarding their safety.

Despite Lux's claims that the victims are traumatized by each other instead of him, it's important to highlight the reality of the situation. All parties involved were actively engaged in a group chat where we not only discussed the issues at hand but also shared less serious topics like art, hobbies, and interests. This ongoing interaction demonstrates that the victims are not traumatized by each other, as Lux suggests. Instead, they have maintained open and supportive communication, contradicting his narrative.

Even though Lux hasn’t reoffended yet, recent behavior has raised serious concerns about the potential for future harm. Lux has made statements implying they expect to be on a document like this again, which suggests they have no real intention of changing their behavior. It's important to note that true change takes time—usually more than a year—and the last instance of grooming occurred less than a year ago. This short timeframe, combined with their concerning behavior, indicates that the risk of reoffense is still very real.

[thepersonperson]

Oooh I'm really interested in your opinions on the flaming trainwreck that is gojo's relationship with women!

I wanted to respond to this topic in this ask, but then I realized it would be better as a part of something else. So I will link you to my yapfest that happens to delve into what I think are Gojo's woman issues.

So thanks for sending me into a mini crisis within a crisis! It gave me that nice little missing piece to pull apart Gojo even more.

I'm also shoehorning your tags on this post into this ask since they contributed to that analysis.

#fjddjdjs hiiii I apologize right back for subjecting you to my yelling in your tags almost all the time fjdjfjd #but WHAT a time for you to post this bc I literally just typed out a whole rant on gojo's sexuality that I bravely chose to not post djdjfjf hj

Post the rant anyways. Or whenever you feel brave enough. The perspective unique to you is valuable even if the topic has already been discussed.

#but you absolutely hit the nail on the head on why satosugu was and is n will always be doomed bc of COURSE gojo would never act on anything #like his whole thing in this story is witnessing human rights violations and only acting when the consequences are fatal

#hes absolutely my favorite jjk character but hes so very full of his own prejudices that I think the fandom doesnt acknowledge bc hes fruity #like we see him let a LOT of shit slip by bc to him (one of the most privileged cogs in the machine) they aren't real problems #which reminds me of cis white gays whose complections and even the random bouts of misogyny and mild racism he matches up with #he has a lil bit of that 'I can't be shitty to women I'm literally gay kinda' vibes and we see how he talks to utahime #and how he doesn't stand up for maki like you mentioned

That's usually my biggest complaint with fan culture in general. They shave off the yucky parts to make characters more palatable. Gojo's racist reveal post-mortem made me love him even more. He's my favorite character in JJK too and he has also unseated my most favorite fictional racist: Oliver Fire Emblem. (Yes, I have a fictional racists tier list. I'm giving myself a pass to have one as a person with a unique skeletal structure and muscles as Mr. Gojo Satoru would say.)

I think the reason people try to ignore these things is because of how subtle/realistic it is. Gojo's unsavory behaviors are the kinds people are most likely to have themselves. He kind of forces you to look at those flaws and that can be a deeply uncomfortable experience.

Also I think Gojo would be more like "I can't be a misogynist, I'm not a Zenin."

(Cough more on my racists tier list. It's more of "Were they written well? Was the racism properly condemned by the narrative? Is the racism relevant to themes? If they try to get better, is the racism properly addressed? Is it funny in the pathetic loser way?")

#but I also have this different vibe that he. despite how much he says so and maybe wants to. does NOT care about 'the weak' beyond his job #we see him literally step on people in shibuya to get to where he needs to quicker #he doesn't even bother remembering the names of the kyoto kids besides maybe todo and mechamaru (strong)

Well the thing is teen Gojo definitely didn't care about the weak. Post-Geto break up and after he started mimicking all of Geto's moral teachings? No idea. Gojo treats people he loves poorly so it's hard to tell when he really hates or doesn't care about someone. And he does posture about those things like with Megumi's body being used by Sukuna.

During the Shibuya incident, he does step on all those people's heads and let them be thrown against his Infinity like objects. But he doesn't hurt them. This is a guy who stepped on ants and made sure his Infinity prevented them from being crushed.

Kenjaku's group uses his love for other people against him here. Gojo tries to posture during it, but his composure breaks a few times when they start killing a lot of them. He also checked in on their survival after he UV'd them.

That being said, he probably cares more about them as living things than as equals. He has a very clear bias for the strong when it comes to putting in time and effort. ...But also Ijichi is so weak and Gojo trusts him the most. Gojo went out of his way to care for him when he was suffering. ...And he also relentlessly bullies him. (As you can see Gojo's true feelings on the topic are iffy as fudge.)

#imo the only reason he cares enough to correct nanamis language when talking abt yuuji is that he simply has a lot of potential to be strong #he took maki in hoping to make another toji out of her but bc he doesn't know how a toji is made he basically gives up #which is why I think he didn't even think to call suguru out for the way he talks to her

That would be really fudged up if he was trying to make another Toji and I wouldn't put it past him. He does put his students in really questionable predicaments in the name of growth. That might also explain why he corrected Nanami with Yuji. Someone with his power experiencing immense discrimination could churn out another Geto.

#like gojo has really lofty goals but his day to day consists of ignoring it all until there's a problem or he needs to talk about his goals #he's very much running around aimlessly like a headless chicken mostly bc of the higher ups so it's understandable that he doesn't have time #to even think about let alone try to unlearn all that internalized shit stopping him from achieving his goals #also everything about your tags YES TO ALL OF IT YOU'RE SO RIGHT AND BIG BRAINED

So true! Gojo is stretched so thin that I think he defaults to "cold logic" as Mahito puts it. If he's going to change things for the better, he has to invest in strong people, so they get all his attention and time. All the little systemic issues can be ignored because he was raised to only care about the big things.

It's such a frustrating predicament because I want to be mad at him for this, but it's also [Joker Voice] Society. I've settled on calling it out as a character flaw that can be explained (not excused) by circumstances.

#also uwu thank you 4 talking about kirara shes my everything and gojos an idiot for losing that entire years worth of students (2 whole ppl) #anyway I am sorry for clogging your tags yet again your posts make the gears in my brain turn very fast

Thank you as well. Clogging my tags makes me reexamine things more. I think after reading this response you'll be able to see the parts of your tags that influenced certain parts of the Ok Dad Gojo Analysis.

[svsss-fanon-exposed]

I really appreciate your continued emphasis on people being free to enjoy canon and fanon as they want while providing accurate canon information! All the asks and PSAs you've shared on that recently reminded me of a fic where sj actually WAS innocent, even wrt abuse. They had to make an a/n how it was their spin deviant from canon so it'd be great if they could stop getting nasty messages pls. I just think we should all foster a nicer fandom environment, so I love what you're doing~!

Yeah, I personally might be a book-canon purist, but I can certainly recognize that not everyone feels the same way-- and at the end of the day, it is fiction, what people want to do with canon and fanon is up to them and really has little to do with them as a person. I hold authorial intent in really high regard, but no need to bully those who don't, and who want to rearrange things.

Of course, for something like you mention, I would advise using some kind of tag to indicate that it's off-script. Especially since SJ's abuse of LBH is an integral part of the story the novel is telling, changing things like that changes the entire tone of things.

If a fic where the characters are intentionally OOC gets popular, then people will inevitably start going to that fic's portrayal and mixing that up with canon details (this is, probably, why there is so much apologism and denial of SJ's canonical abuse of LBH in this fandom, though it certainly wouldn't be the specific fic you're referencing alone and is probably a combination of many different factors). I personally don't like portrayals like this, but if a writer is changing it for their story, then who am I to judge or harrass them over it? The only issue comes when it spills over into the wider fandom perception, and you have people swearing left and right that SJ had nothing to do with the fake manual (he did) or didn't actually mean to abuse LBH or want him dead (he also did, and this can't just be contriubted to unreliable narrator since it comes from his own perspective in the extras). So I think an a/n at the beginning is a good idea in situations like these. If writers don't want to spoil things, just simply tag that the character is OOC compared to canon-- no need to go into specifics, and readers will know going in that the portrayal isn't meant to be a take on canon or aligning with it.

No one knows how popular their fic will become, after all, and if it gets into the wider fandom space without proper context, things like "Shen Jiu was just treating LBH normally for the time period, he wasn't abusive, LBH was just a self-obsessed person trying to demonize him" become mainstream, widely held beliefs.

Of course, this is what my blog is for, hopefully rerouting some of those ideas, pointing back to the sources where the divergence happened, so that people can see that while they may enjoy this canon-divergent depiction, that they shouldn't bring it into canon-based analysis. I think sourcing fanon is very important for this reason-- better than just saying "you're wrong" is being able to say "this is where the idea came from."

At the end of the day, a deliberately off-script, ooc portrayal should be tagged as such and AO3 provides those tags for a reason. There's nothing inherently wrong with writing characters OOC to change a story. People can write what they want! It's the writer's job to make relevant information known, and the reader's job to filter it out and just not read things they don't like. I'm so particular that I put down probably 80 percent of fics I read before I even get through the first few chapters. That's just me though! I'm a canon snob! Other people have no issues and that's fine.

As long as things aren't skewing into abuse apologism in regards to the canon-universe, there's literally no reason I can't just ignore things I don't like, and there's no reason other people can't do the same with things they don't like.

Anyway, don't harrass artists and writers in the fandom. If you feel it absolutely necessary to leave a comment in regards to an OOC character portrayal, don't be mean about it, just say something like "<Character Name> seems to be a bit OOC here, is this intentional?" but even then, it's really not necessary to come into someone else's space like that. Make your own posts, write your own fics.

There is no reason to assume malice when there are other explanations. This is hard with topics like abuse apologism, but people also need to remember that this is fiction. SJ was abusive in canon, but he's still not a real person, and if someone wants to write a version of him where he's not abusive, then that portrayal can easily be treated as a version from an alternate universe where things were different. This is not the same as saying a person in real life isn't abusive, because in this case, it's not apologism-- it's literally a different universe where the rules of the original canon don't apply. In fictional and fandom spaces, it's a lot easier and better off to just give people the benefit of the doubt.

As long as you're not claiming that his canon behavior wasn't abusive (since that's about behaviors now, and not just a fictional story), it literally doesn't matter what people write in fanfic.

Authors, tag your fics with everything you'd like your readers to be aware of, because when a reader opens up a fic they're probably expecting the characters to follow canon unless stated otherwise.

Readers, read the portrayals and stories you like. Don't read the ones you don't. If something isn't tagged correctly, and you find out you don't like it after reading, just close the fic and stop reading.

No one should ever be harassing anyone else over fandom for any reason.

[freddie-77-ao3]

sup yall we're vibing here

anyway. hey, my name's freddie, and i'm finally trying to write an actual intro/master post which... we'll see how this goes.

important stuff is highlighted in orange.

so, basic stuff:

as I said, my name's freddie. he/him pronouns. i'm a college student (majoring in accounting, might add a psych minor). not gonna say which college but i'm currently in california.

i've been on tumblr since 2019 i think? not under this account, this started as a fandom account and then spiralled out of control... really fast. um, my regular tumblr which i've not actually opened in ages is @chronicchthonic14 so. yeah.

not particularly relevant to this blog, but i might mention it at some point so, i have autism and adhd. and some other things but. like. that list is very long and those are the two most relevant because i promise if i come off wrong/mean, i didn't mean to, i just forget to make my words normal. but. those are the two most referenced. if for whatever reason someone wants to know more or has questions you can send an ask ig?

i'm scottish, born there. moved to US when I was four. finishing uni and moving back.

some quick warnings

this blog definitely contains cursing/vulgar language, whatever you want to call it, so if you're not comfortable with that, probably not the blog for you, as i don't tag cursing or anything for you to filter out.

if, for whatever reason, if i ever reblog something that contains a slur (against racial minorities, queer people, anything) i will ABSOLUTELY tag that though.

also if anyone has any trigger warnings they think any content needs, please let me know-- asks, dms, comments, reblogs

the cursing thing also applies for sort of dirty jokes? think that only applies to like. two posts and very not explicit. those aren't currently tagged but if they get any more explicit they certainly will be.

queer identity because the explicit reminded me, i'm asexual, and probably straight. maybe bi? dunno, don't particularly care. and i'm trans. ftm. this isn't the blog i talk about that on usually though, unless it relates to a specific ask or a fandom thing.

which, getting into what this blog is for because i can't think of anything else i need to add here (guys let me know if i forgot important stuff, please, i'm an idiot!!! i will forget the important stuff and write random shit instead!! i've already deleted three tangents from this!!)

sooooo

fandoms!! ones i write and/or post about or will potentially post about

percy jackson extending to hoo, toa, tkc (definitely post way less about this), mcga (again, way less). haven't read TSATS or COTG yet, but spoilers are fine. i post way more about minor characters. write fanfiction for and have some posted (both on here and ao3) and a bunch of snippets.

dcu-- films, comics, animated shows, all of it. personally, my favorites are young justice (the comics, not show version), new teen titans, and batman inc (batgirls, nightwing, and red robin esp). late 90s yj run is my favorite, and i loved the DCeased event. favorite batman comic is definitely court of owls run. no fanfics posted, but some on docs.

mcu-- way less so, but have a stucky oneshot. slowly making my way through in timeline order.

throne of glass. i'm an aedion and chaol apologizer because they do a bunch of dumb shit but then WHO DOESN'T in this series. fanfics in doc, not posted.

this would go on for ages if i listed everything so instead, here's an ask i answered on my fandoms/genres and everything. feel free to send me asks about anyone. if you send me something about radium girls i may cry though (tears of joy) so there's your advanced warning.

main things you'll see on my blog are incorrect quotes, snippets, and the occasional fic

this^^

my... idk, contact policy? seriously what do i word this

asks are always open, anon is on.

if you send hate... whatever. i'll probably delete it.

unless i find it funny. then I'll post it. there's really little you could say to me that would hurt.

when i say asks are always open, you can drop anything you want.

literally anything

you need to vent? want advice? want to request headcanons? request a fic? give me a prompt? ask random things about me? something else I've forgotten? go right ahead

if you want to ask me to update my fics? go right ahead. sometimes i forget i didn't post something.

send as many asks as you want, i don't care if it might be spam

i can't promise i'll respond to asks in a timely manner, sometimes i open my inbox and forget they exist for months, i'm sorry. if it's something you really want answered you can send another one

dm's are alright? if you want to be friends or something, go right ahead.

anyone can reblog any of my posts/comment/heart, i don't care. you want to heart 50 things in a row? i adore you. if i had kids, you would get my firstborn

if we're mutuals you can ask for my insta/give me yours.

now, other accounts:

anyway, i think that's it?

[voids-ideas]

Hi, this is my main blog. Where I throw (reblog) almost anything I see

Below the "read more" you can find a lot of information that may or may not be important

Here I just want to say:

Hi again, please do not insult anyone in my posts or where I can see it, or in general, idk. Respect everyone, It's not that hard

Warnings

One of the things I must warn you is that I am often on the phone and just give fast reblog, so many things are not usually tagged.

I think it's worth mentioning that I occasionally reblog things that are sexual content or +18 in general… in my defense, I'm over 18.

I hope it doesn't happen, but I do occasionally enter debates. I apologize but it's a guilty pleasure. I know they serve no purpose, but I like to argue with people

Interactions

I love any interaction that happens on any of my accounts, reblogs, messages, likes, asks, if you do any of those things I probably screamed with excitement when I saw it

In the case of asks and messages, there is the possibility that I am slow to respond, I tend to panic in social interactions

Also I recently remembered that I've always liked to give advice, I don't know if I'm too good at it, but if at some point you want to try asking an internet random stranger…. you have my permission to talk to me, as long as I feel comfortable giving advice on the subject, I will give you some advice or idk

Blogs (Why the fuck is there no yellow I wanted to make the damn flag)

Good omens obsession here, good omens obsession there: @im-the-j-in-anthony-j-crowley

Helluva boss and Hazbin hotel over here: @mrfancytalkcreepyvoice

If you don't know anything about aftg I really ask you to find out about the trigger warning first, but this is my aftg blog: @neiljostenmakesmyday

Blog where I sometimes share things about disability: @all-the-things-i

And this is my main blog. I define it as: Chaos

Fandoms

Things you may (or may not) see on this blog:

Good omens

Our flag means death

Interview with the vampire

Percy Jackson

Grishaverse

House MD

She-ra and the princesses of power

All for the game

The hunger games

Willow

Heartstopper

Heartbreak High

Hannibal

Prodigal son

Hazbin Hotel

Helluva Boss

Marvel

Star wars

Nimona

The magnus archives

Doctor who

Dead boy detectives

The sandman

Tags

I don't remember all the tags I've used, but I remember some of them (I'll add the link to them as soon as I get my pc and remember to do it):

Jay attempts to draw possibly there are drawings here, warning: I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRAW

Jay and... Jay what are you doing? You figure out what I was doing here, because I definitely didn't know.

Jay cries about some misfortune that happened to them in minecraft self-explanatory

Jay watches shows and pretends they have something relevant to say about them

Jay listens to podcasts and demonstrates zero comprehension of what they hears

Jay makes nonsense comments about books they read

For a relatively organized list of the things I have discussed there is this post

About me

I like cats. That's all.

...

Well, no. I'm in my 20s, recently diagnosed with adhd and autism (before that I had self diagnosis), I am in evaluation for chronic pain and other things, I identify as greysexual, greyromantic, agender (sometimes non-binary), bi, among other things.

I have trouble explaining things, and I define myself as a joke, in the way that my life is full of comical situations in which I am at the centre

[tescheer]

Hello all!

TESCheer is back for its third year and this time, to make things a little less overwhelming, we're changing it up quite a bit! The last two years, we had 25 prompts, one for each day of December leading up until Christmas Day. It was decided upon between the two mods of this event to switch it up for ease and convenience!

So what's changed? This year, instead of starting on December 1st and ending on the 25th (or Christmas Day), we've decided to start the Sunday following the US holiday of Thanksgiving, or November 26th. Rather than doing 25 daily prompts, the prompt list has been narrowed down to just 20 and sorted into weeks. Each week will have five prompts to choose from and it's up to you which ones you want to do and how many, too! The exception is the final week of this, week five, which isn't actually a full week, but the days of December 24th & 25th, or Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Rather than prompts, it's considered a "free day" for you to come up with whatever you want!

The point of this event is to bring some holiday cheer to the TES fandom, be it through writing, art, screenshots, gifs, edits, mood boards, you name it! If you're creating something that fits one of the prompts, feel free to share it in the tag, #tescheer. We look forward to seeing what everyone has to share this year!

Rules:

As this is an event for the Elder Scrolls fandom, please keep your submissions mostly relevant to the Elder Scrolls universe.

AUs and crossovers involving Elder Scrolls characters or the Elder Scrolls universe are welcome, but please make sure it is TES-oriented. Additionally, we ask that you tag these submissions as "alternate universe" or "crossover."

You are under no obligation to participate in every week, nor do every prompt for a singular week. If you only feel like participating in a prompt or two that catches your eye, we're still happy to have you! You are more than welcome to pick and choose as you please.

Combining prompts is welcome and encouraged! We just ask that you tag appropriately for organization reasons.

Tag your post with the corresponding week/prompt (ex, if the prompt you're using is from week two, tag it as "week two: [prompt]").

Ping this blog (@tescheer) and tag your submission as #tescheer or #tescheer2023 so we can find you!

NSFW is welcome but please tag accordingly and use a read more break for any NSFW content (mobile users can use a read more by typing ": readmore :" without the spaces and quotations, then hitting enter).

Please use a read more for longer writing submissions, too. 5-6 paragraphs without is fine, but beyond that, use your best judgement.

Keep your submissions cheerful! The whole point of this event is to bring cheer to the fandom and it's hard to do that if entries are extremely dark and depressing. This is by no means saying darker themes can't be explored and are forbidden, but please ensure some good comes of it for your characters!

No harmful content. This should go without saying, but for clarity's sake, no racism, homo/transphobia, sexism (this includes misogyny AND misandry), ableism, rape/abuse apology, incest, NSFW content involving minor/underage characters, or otherwise hateful, bigoted, or toxic content allowed. Understand that the decision to include this rule in no way reflects the personal views of the mods, but was tailored with the best interests of the event in mind in order to keep it safe, fun, and cheerful for yourself, the mods, and everyone else!

Be considerate, polite, and respectful toward each other. It's easier to just ignore something you don't like than to make a stink about it.

The Prompts

Week One: November 26th - December 2nd - Cloak - Snow - Sparkle - Home - Music

Week Two: December 3rd - December 9th - Sled - Gray - Kiss - Party - Mountain

Week Three: December 10th - December 16th - Gift - Lantern - Hat -Snuggle - Night

Week Four: December 17th - December 23rd - Bells - Dance - Fur - Blizzard - Treat

Week Five: December 24th - December 25th - Free Day

Questions Answered:

Do I have to celebrate holidays to participate? Absolutely not! The point of the event is to bring cheer to tesblr, and that's doable even if you don't celebrate holidays! The timing of the event is simply because the mods themselves do love the holiday season, but don't expect everyone else to feel the same way. If you want to stick to a festive, holiday theme, feel free! If it's not your speed, that's okay too!

Who are the mods? The mods are @elfinismsarts, who created and operated this event during its first run in 2021, and @friend-of-giants, who took over for its second run in 2022!

Can I submit a post late? You sure can! However, we will stop checking the tag and responding to pings as of January 1st, 2024. So if you really want your submission to be seen, try to get it posted and tagged before then. We understand that for most people, the holidays are a busy time of year, so we will try to give you as much wiggle room as possible.

When does the event start and when does it end? It starts Sunday, Novemeber 26th, 2023 and ends on Monday, December 25th, 2023. The extension period for late submissions will close on Monday, January 1st, 2024.

Does my submission have to be festive or wintry? Nope! As long as it's relevant to the chosen week/prompt and remains within the rules, you can submit whatever you want. While some prompts are a little on the nose, they are all completely up to your interpretation.

My question wasn't here! That's okay! Our ask box is open to any other questions you may have!

[toxicanonymity]

Hey! Okay, so this is sort of out of the blue, and I apologize if it bothers you, feel free not to respond 😅

So anyways, I’ve recently started a fiction story that I was looking forwards to publishing, and it sort of made me realize that I really enjoy writing. Honestly though, I don’t have a clue as to where to start. And so I came to tumblr, and you (and your ADDICTING fics) were actually what sort of introduced me to tumblr? So I guess you’ve been something of an inspiration to me, i don’t know if that’s creepy or not but whatever.

Anyways, i was wondering if you could spare some tips on how to get started? Literally anything would be a huge help.

Hello! Thank you, I'm honored that you ask. Doesn't bother me at all of course. I wish I could be more helpful. I'm not sure if you're looking for writing tips or tumblr tips, so please feel free to follow with more detail. Btw I've been on tumblr less than a year and writing fic for less than a year so in some ways I am talking out of my ass :) but I'm honored you value my input. I have some writing tips here. And writing dark here. But writing is really personal and everyone has their own style so all i can really do is say what works for me.

I write what I want to write. I write best when I write what I feel like writing.

I draw inspiration from the source material as a starting point rather than characterization in other fics. I also don't go out of my way to try to be super different.

I try to describe what's happening in my my head and let it flow without worrying about "writing well."

I don't like to force my writing if it isn't flowing. sometimes i do try to force myself, but it rarely works, often wastes time, and can sometimes make things worse.

I don't tend to use outlines, but it seems to work very well for a lot of people and I wonder if it would help me. the most I do is post-it notes. but most of the time, not even that. for me before i start, if anything, normally it's just scraps and tidbits of word vomit.

For TUMBLR tips, I'd say:

look at the tags used by people who are posting similar content. explore those tags to see which are the most relevant and popular. only use tags that are relevant. put the most important ones at the front.

include warnings about anything explicit. it took me a minute to realize warnings are also used to entice/preview "the good stuff."

definitely use the "read more" function in your post, or people won't reblog it.

interact with other blogs in the fandom. you'll begin to see familiar usernames and might make friends.

If you write something and people beg for another part, that's a compliment, you don't have to take it as pressure, it's up to you what to do. I say this as someone who almost always folds but one of these days I might not feel like it.

Congratulations on writing! 💕

p.s. sorry I was slow, it's not personal I'm just way behind.

[unforth]

Alright instead of rageposting about white people perpetuating racism problems in cnovel/cdrama fandoms I've channeled my feels into cleaning up some shit I've been doing a bad job at maintaining and feeling horribly guilty about for months or even years. This is probably a healthier use of my current "fuck it." So, for reference, I've:

deleted the kink meme part of the DMBJ kink meme on AO3. This means that the prompts and sign ups and claims are now gone (I'm sorry I didn't give people time to save their prompts, but the reason I didn't do this months ago was that it had many steps and I was being useless about DOING those steps and as I said in the intro paragraph, I'm now at "fuck it" and like. if I can't do it "the right way" I'm today just breaking and doing it "the wrong way" and here we are). The collection and the ten stories in it still exists and anonymity and such are still maintained for people who wanted it, but new prompts and new fills cannot be submitted.

ditto the above for the kink meme part of the SPN kink meme on AO3. The prompts and sign ups and claims are now gone. I also removed myself administrating the Tumblr, though the other two people involved (fpwoper and envydean) do still have access. I realized belatedly that I really should have offered to just leave and let them have it but, again, today is apparently "fuck it" day which means I'm not thinking through the ramifications of my actions which has resulted in some bad fandom citizenry behavior on my part, and again, I truly do apologize. (I've offered to help them reconstruct the challenge part if either of them wants to run it; fpwoper has already said no, I'll see what envydean says and I'll apologize profusely even more and do what I can do fix things if envydean DOES want to take over and make it active again). The collection and the stories written for it still exist; that's about 40 works. Thanks to everyone who participated.

I left @saawek's Star of Solitude event, which I helped run a year and a half ago. Saawek hasn't really been active on Tumblr, but hun if you see this it's nothing at all about you or TGCF I'm just pulling back from things that even seeing them in my blog list has been causing me stress on the daily.

I formally announced that I'll be consolidating @zhenhunartreblogs and @dmbjartreblogs in @cnovelartreblogs, and I've posted to that effect in all three blogs. If you want Zhenhun/Guardian and DMBJ art content from my sideblogs, unfollow the old blogs and follow at cnovelartreblogs, and just black list fandoms you're not interested in - that's the whole reason I tag everything.

I deleted another side blog I haven't been using.

I'm considering deleting @memesforwriters, which I only update maybe once a month, and honestly just typing all this up has I think tipped me over into "fuck it" and I'm going to delete that too. I expect I'll instead reblog relevant memes to the @duckprintspress account, since I have to maintain that regardless.

My last remaining completely inactive Tumblr sideblog is where I'd posted on translated chapter the 2ha manhua. I really would like to be doing more work like that, though hell if I know when I'll have time; I renamed that blog to @unforthfantranslations, and I have vague hopes to translate more of 2ha and to tackle Lie Huo Jiao Chou (which I've never read any version of and would like to). But tbh I probably won't manage any progress on any of that until the fall.

Nothing like a pile of grief to make me say "I'm done feeling guilty about this stuff, like is too short, fuck it I'm gonna make these changes I've been waffling about for ages."

P. S. I opened another window to check how exactly I'd renamed the translation blog and while I had it opened I decided on a compromise with memesforwriters, which is that I'm exporting it, and THEN I'll delete it. And I DMed the Destiel Harlequin mods that I'm done and think we should shut it down. And I spotted a couple Discord servers I'm going to leave.

So yeah. that's the mood today in a (rather large and overly wordy) nutshell.

Apparently when I said yesterday that I'd be quiet, I failed to take into account how I ACTUALLY process grief. In my defense, this is only the...fourth?...time someone I really care about has died in my entire life. (counts of...Arthur, Gil, my grandfather, yeah that's three...of course other people I've cared about have died but no one who I loved and who I felt "I wish I had more time with this person." Like...I wish I'd had more time with Belle but I didn't love her...yeah I'm just babbling now I'm sorry I'm like this today.)

ETA: okay I just left like 6 Discord servers I haven't been using, too. There's only one I'm still like "maybe I shouldn't..." but I know a lot of people in that server and if I really want back in I can ask for invite.

[ragnarokproofing]

author ask tag game

Thank you for the tag, @catchingbigfish! I'm tagging @sarahlizziewrites, @moonandris, and @sam-glade with no pressure, and with an open tag for anyone else who is interested. Apologies if you've already done it, this has been sitting in my drafts for like a month.

All of these answers are in regards to my thesis, which is a large-scale dark fantasy novel with an alternating third-person PoV.

(1) What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

I don't like to conceptualize my fiction as having "lessons." It's not so much that it's inherently inaccurate as that it's not constructive, or conducive to deep and resonating fiction; I have found that this presentation lends itself to moral absolutism. Furthermore, I don't tend to have my characters learn objective moral lessons, but rather learn or decide something about themselves or the world, and make a choice about how they are going to act in the future.

So to phrase it in that way, "what does your main character realize or decide about himself," my main character Fasenil decides that there is enough in the world that makes it worth saving even though it's largely hostile to his existence, and that he is willing to sacrifice himself in order to save it.

(2) What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

I am very aware that the first thing that any of my readers think of when they read my drafts are Skyrim. While it is an inspiration to some extent, my world is far more inspired by real-life cultures, primarily real-life Viking Age Scandinavia. I take historical research very seriously, and I take great pains to maintain historical accuracy when relevant. I have a frankly massive number of sources that I'm not going to cite here.

That's the main inspiration for the area of my map where the novel takes place; inspirations for the larger world include the Holy Roman Empire, 20th century fascist movements, and more.

(3) What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?

I think that this question runs up against the same problems as the first. I don't desire to teach readers any sort of specific lesson with my fiction. If they take lessons away, that's nice, but it's not something that I concern myself with.

To answer a related but separate question, I hope that some small fraction of readers who feel the same things as I do feel on some level seen; not the shallow "validation" that is so often talked about in online art and fandom spaces, but with the sort of universe-reordering forcefulness and urgency that I've felt so few times in my life. Not saying "you are a market that it is advantageous to target," but "you exist, I see you, and I know." I am writing, in that sense, to my younger self.

My characters both are in an abstract sense seeking to transcend their pasts, and to find belonging. At the beginning, Fasenil is at first balancing his desire for "success" and accolades with the growing threat that visibility presents to him. Hallbjorn is trying desperately to carve out a life that is free from the obligation of violence, but can't seem to do it. I don't consider it my job to pretend that any of these struggles have objectively correct or moral answers. I can only have my characters make decisions, and do their best to forge a way forward.

(4) How many chapters is your story going to have?

I mean, there are thirty in my outline, but that is extremely fluid. It is possible that it will eventually be divided up into a duology.

(5) Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

It's an original fiction novel, also functioning as my MFA thesis. I don't plan on posting anything more than snippets and supplemental content (art, memes, etc) anywhere; it will be traditionally published.

(6) When and why did you start writing?

I've been writing since I was a little kid. I've only been taking it seriously as a craft and as a career path for about a year and a half.

(7) Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?

I follow many, many writers of tumblr, too many to name here.

The piece of advice that I repeat to myself most often is, "good prose is a renewable resource." What this means is that you must trust in your ability to be able to generate good prose in the future, and not stay married to ineffectual passages just because they are well-written or you are fond of them. My first priority is the function of a paragraph/passage/scene within context, because that is much more difficult to revise than prose itself, which can always be improved.

Also, participate. Write weird essays and post them. Read more. Pick a topic that interests you and read half a dozen papers about it on jstor. Ask questions and offer to workshop people's stuff for them, and then get good at workshopping. Form your own opinions instead of just absorbing whatever's popular in the social media-sphere that you're in.

[viklikesfic]

omg HALP.

"I can totally handle a Tumblr in 2023," zie said. "I'm sure I can figure this out," zie said.

So, uh, gen Z folks, anyone wanna write a meta about "how the fuck to use Tumblr for fandom" to help the olds? 😂 Or has someone done this already?

Things I'm confused about, specifically:

if I want to see when a writer I like posts headcanons and drabbles and such, but don't want to have to read their entire blog, is there some way to like, flag specific tags?

or generally, are there strategies for keeping your feed more manageable? I found 15 or so writers I like ao3 and followed, but my feed is now about 100 posts from a single person, and I can't figure out why, but it kind of gave me a panic attack thinking about how hard it'll be to get to content that's relevant to me.

are there specific expectations for how to tag here that I should learn... somewhere? for example, I noticed that it seems the convention is to tag things like "bucky x steve" instead of, say, stucky.

what is a masterlist and a taglist? are those the same thing? should I be creating them?

if I would like to have a way to answer people's questions about AUs I've built or have characters answer questions etc., is there an established way of doing that?

Gosh, I'm very autistic, friends, thank you for coming to my TED talk. 😂 ps I apologize to every adult I rolled my eyes at in 1998 about not being able to find things on a computer.

[alphaofdarkness]

Hi!

Just wanted to say that youre an amazing artist! You're really inspiring ❤️

Maybe you have some tips for an artist (who draws a lot of oc content) about how to develop his account or such?

Omg howdy there! I admit I was taken aback when I saw this this weekend (°ヮ°) I was admittedly very busy as family and friends were over to see me graduate with my masters! Still so,,, much in befuddlement but am extremely happy and proud of myself for making it! (◕‿◕✿) 🎓 I've gone and done it y'all! ✨

Me? Inspiring? (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀) imposible ah （〃▽〃）

I went off on a ramble just based off information that came to mind, I hope this helps. My advice is always so scattered and everywhere, I do apologize if I have missed anything! Everyone does these things differently and this is just based off my own experiences and what I've seen over the years!

As for your question my friend, first of all! Amazing to know a fellow artist, I hope I have a chance to see your artwork and oc content some of these days ahead! ^^

Second of all, I had to think a lot about this because I've essentially had random bursts and moments when it comes to trying to focus on my personal stories and oc content. I have many Oc's and self inserts in different fandoms that kind of boost me in some relevance within those areas of interest and followers too.

However, for my own personal stories Ocs, I love posting and putting my content out there and I have been doing it for a fair amount of time since I started using tumblr; posting most, if not a lot of it, on this main blog of mine. I later started a side blog specifically made for that content to post and to look through aesthetics and inspiration for my characters and world building -> @wewillbelegendary. I will say it has been hard to keep up with posting directly there as it is like starting a blog from scratch and love using my main blog. Honestly, I tend to alternate a lot it just depends, I reblog it on there at as I have more traction on my main.

But I do highly recommend you at least considering having a separate oc blog, if you are still growing a blog in general, I highly recommend it as it will be a nice concentrated area for all of your art on oc content. That can grow into world building, character inspirations, art development, so on and so forth! Also using appropriate tagging system to help guide others to your content and so people can see it in those specific tags! There are plenty out there especially those like #digital art #artist on tumblr #original content #original characters, etc. I am sure there are many more that I have used or others have and it just depends on the subject of the content entailed.

You may have to reblog several times through your main blog to gain traction from your followers or audience, engage with other posts and other people content to gain some relevancy with them too! Follow other content creators like them too!

If you have been drawing them for a long time, post artist development of your characters over the years to show their initial concept to where they are at now! Post your sketches in all their bare bones (I fail at this sometimes~ but I highly encourage you!), you can be direct with your wording or give a hand full of sentences to explain the post to give others insight. Post about what inspired you to make that specific content for your ocs like song or quote inspiration.

Overall, a lot of it relies you posting consistently, if you really want to gain attention to your work! It won't all happen in a day or a week, even months. I don’t think there is a set time people post on here, I tend to do so in the mornings during the week to Saturday and tend to spread my posting after two days when I have a handful of art to post! Also double or triple reblogs in the afternoon or following day depending on interation!

You have to motivate yourself to post about your work and gain others attention to notice you! I have since calmed myself down from such a mindset though (sometimes I get anxious because I haven’t posted or done art and that’s okay, don’t stress or push yourself over if you haven’t!). I post my oc content because I am proud of it, if it gets noticed then I am happy, even by a few or handful of people. I am giddy when people reblog, more so when small tags are added in 🤍 sometimes my content isn't always liked or reblog and that is okay! There is no shame or worry about deleting and reposting again another time too. Hell, I know some people often tweet or repost on instagram their works again so others don't have to search all the way down to the initial post!

I also recommend posting on other socials as well! Instagram is such a good place for that! With similar tagging systems! Maybe on twitter too, but it just depends and you are also limited on the tags and characters you use. Everything kind of cumulates when you have more at hand!

Honestly, it has been a while since I have posted oc content in general, I had some burst inspirations earlier in July and recall rambling about it to my fellow mutual on here about it 🥺 she is such a dear friend and love rambling about each other's ocs, self inserts, and f/os. Make friends who will indulge in your creations and in theirs!

I sincerely hope that this information helps you some! Again, I have always been more of a self insert and shipping fandom artist with a healthy handful of oc content posted over the last,,, 12 years overall,,, oof (；・∀・) and more or less 4 years for self shipping content.. I, personally, have always just safeguarded my ocs because I wasn't the best at talking about it/them? I suppose? Gradually, overtime, got out of that mindset and became more confident about showing my characters and bits of information about them, at least in main story. Especially, with the encouragement of others I consider good friends here on Tumblr 😌

I hope you have a wonderful and blessed day and that you steadily grow your content overtime! I hope to see some of your oc content one day! 🤍✨

[identityarchitect]

going by collective memory which is a spotty thing at the best of times, i think part of it was the move of fandom off of Livejournal. A lot of non-fandom content either had already abandoned it bc it was going downhill, or didn't leave until well after, and either way didn't migrate alongside the fandom migrations. I lost track of it, and while I knew some other multiples in Ye Olde Dreamwidth RP after the migration, there wasn't really a community anymore. The best way I think to get an idea what it was like is to find old archived sites and blogs that were live in like 2001-2004ish? I know scrapes-and-bruises [dot] neocities [dot] org has a pretty extensive list of archived plural/multiplicity-related sites and blogs, I found it looking for something else but it looks pretty good and I recognize some of the sites. But it was just... idk people WOULD introduce individual system members sometimes, but it was just as common for a system to just run their site/blog AS a system and you wouldn't know much about individuals, there wasn't really a pressure to disclose that, or your trauma, or what-have-you. There was definitely some drama, some folks were very against the idea of "naturally occurring" multiplicity, but large swaths of the community were supportive of it so it didn't feel too pervasive. it's hard to put a finger on exactly why, but the current community feels more like a content mill than a community. Like everyone's expected to Perform Plurality For Their Audience or some shit, you know what I mean? I didn't used to feel like I had to perform it correctly in order to be multiple. 🎆

That makes sense, tbh. If the community moved to newer sites there'd be disparity between the existing community as they tried to get set up again, archive important things, and whatever existing community may have been on the sites they migrated to.

I agree that it feels kind of content-mill-ish. This happens in other tags where people post in the tag because they have xyz identity and not because the post is actually super relevant or needs to be in the tag, but like... I go into the pluralgang tag and I see people posting updates about specific internal things in their system, posting about how they got a new headmate 3 seconds ago and want to introduce them, posting apologies for things, and it's like. I don't know how to describe it, but it's uncomfortable. I really don't need to know about the internal happenings in your system, and neither does the rest of the pluralgang tag.

We post about stuff going on in our system, but that's more because this is our personal blog where we blog about whatever we want, including IRL stuff, and not because we... idk, feel the need to meet a quota of posting about headmates before we're a Real Valid System. (I have no idea why people feel the need to post about every single thing that happens to them in every single plural tag.)

I also definitely think there's influence from young people joining the plural community? No fault on their part but for a lot of like, newly discovered 13-14yo systems, they're not really in a position to speak to their family or friends about plurality, y'know. But (and I think this is a thing most new systems do, not just young ones) they really want to be validated in their identity as plural, especially if they've tried to gauge how family or friends might feel and gotten a resounding "even if it were real, you're not plural". They discover that they're real, and they want to keep being real: they want other people to tell them they're real, because so far other people have told them they're not real, or that being real means being someone else entirely. (This happens in the queer community too, and seems to manifest as people only being able to tell other queers that they're 'valid', and seemingly unable to make any other positive comment.)

And so you end up with people wanting to talk about every single headmate in excruciating detail, and every conversation between those headmates and every headspace discovery, but more than that they want to be part of a community where they can talk about everything and everything is acknowledged, validated, and loved on a personal level. I don't think plural tags are a great place for that. Best of luck to them, of course, but in my experience trying to make a community that is like that just ends up being even more gatekeepy, presumptuous, and toxic. (Speaking from experience.)

[shinakazami1]

I am reblogging this from myself instead of Indigo as I want this to be a closure to this whole situation, as different things from the original post were brought up and I do think they deserve a response.

This will, however, be the last post I make on this matter. 

TSPCC has become a semi-public server (as the link was shared multiple times publicly on Twitter) and a huge part - 300+ people - of the fandom is there. If this were done in private, I would not come out either. 

However, as I have been harassed and asked about it by people, I do consider making a public statement myself was appropriate, especially when I was banned from the server on 28.07 of this year and assumed that it was no longer relevant. 

I shared the link to my original post with Indigo and asked for clarification that I am not a groomer, but I have not received a private response from them. 

But I am not looking for an apology anymore. I want to only state my clarifications about the newly mentioned parts.

1. Sharing NSFW Fic Online (cont.)

Had I made mistakes? YES. I stated that in my previous statement and said, I am sorry and I want to change.

But I also have proof of me already acting upon it.

With the Twitter response - while it might seem obvious with their "school era" in the name - I use a mobile phone typically (as many people know I am mostly a phone artist) and this is how I see their username:

I simply did not think about checking their full username or bio. I will try my best to check that better in the future.

However, I did so when someone pointed it out to me, and I acted on it immediately and deleted the message I planned on doing before it. 

The same thing happened with the under-tagged fic. 

The talk in the screenshots below happened a bit before I was notified by a friend that Indigo made the TSPCC announcement about me. 

I posted a link to the fic with the same TW in another server and a user informed me of my mistake. I planned on deleting the public links after my study session but before I could do that, I was told about the announcement and tried to read all the messages I'd received first at the time. 

This is how that talk went:

I have already admitted in the first statement that I had incorrectly tagged the fic and shouldn't have posted the links on my socials. But I changed the tags after this and added a warning later as I thought that a tag were enough - but all that was needed was someone directly telling me it wasn’t. 

2. Filk (cont.)

I had not sent the actual Filk draft anywhere besides a private server.

EDIT: I've decided to let adult people read the unfinished draft to see what it really is though but more on it in this post:

It was only ever an inside joke between my friends and while sentences from an unfinished draft have been taken out of context.

I can give more insight into something else though.

One of the TSPCC moderators (but not yet at the time of the screenshot) had messaged about it on the 8th of July. 

(I censored the minor's username as it's a different handle than in Indigo's post)

By 'knows the story', I meant only knowing the name and the general premise like from the previous statement.

In Indigo's post, the messages are from the same day as the notice I received, as I stopped messaging about Filk anywhere publicly as this message made me realise my crack fic could be seen in a different lighting than intended.

So, at the time I decided then to not discuss it publicly again nor did I really intend on finishing it. I also decided not to bring this up on the server to not bring more unwanted attention to it and since at the time, that user wasn't a mod, I also didn't think I had to mention that decision to them. 

3)  Conclusion

I am stating this publicly as I do not think staying silent about this would be appropriate, especially when I see my mistakes and have been trying to change them. While I wish this would have been dealt with privately and I understand the motivation behind the original announcement, I will not discuss this matter further.

I wanted only to respond to things that I felt were not mentioned before or out of context and state my position on them. 

Thank you for reading. 

I’ve received notice that there was a callout on me in the Stanley Parable Creator’s Club server and I would like to address it as I am a bit tired of people talking behind my back. I wasn't contacted by anyone from the server directly about the issue. 

The specific accusations were that I openly discussed a fic with NSFW themes to a minor, shared NSFW fic online without properly warning it for minors, and encouraged a self insert ship of one of my Narrator designs with a minor. 

These accusations are false, or blown entirely out of proportion. I have never intended to hurt people nor endanger minors and based on screenshots I've received, people have been spreading even more extreme misinformations, like me being a groomer. I want to tell the story with the mentioned earlier things, in hopes to clear up this matter and stop the harassment me and people received. 

1) Sharing NSFW Fic Online

I have been informed that I posted a link to my fic, "A broken promise", without a proper warning. 

I did put appropriate warning in the tags, however I did forget about archive warnings options and I misjudged that the T rating would suffice. I also had only mentioned the rape in tags and not in the ao3 warning. I will be more careful when publishing work in the future.

I've deleted the links on my posts and privated the work, as I do not want anyone else to get possibly harmed.

2) Filk

I was informed my never written fic was discussed in the discord as well with a completely incorrect premise and I would like to mention the idea to give people more insight into what it actually is supposed to be, despite the fact that it was never actually written. 

Filk (Fernator's milk) is based on a joke someone made from another fic of mine, "Bon appetit 1.5 - Chicken soup is served " where Stanley buys milk and pickles, and we called it pilk. Somebody made a joke that this is like a pregnancy craving and I decided that that would make a funny CRACK fic premise. Again, I never have written this fic, and the only place it ever existed was in a series of messages in a private discord.

The whole point of crack fics is that it has a stupid premise. In here, it was one of my Narrator's, Fernator, telling Stanley he would make him pregnant. I know that this sounds like the problem, but that was just a premise.

What really happens in the fic is that Fernator tells Stanley about human reproduction but after that, the majority of the fic is a sfw adventure on how viruses, bacteria, and plants reproduce. 

With bacteria, Stanley just gets copied, with viruses, Fernator creates a computer virus and it doesn't work so they move on, and with plant, the title filk comes in which is milk with fern spores in it. It ends up just in Stanley's foot. The end goal was for them to just get the cutout Baby as their child and then, the main fic that I talked about would end. After a while, they would realise they didn't really succeed and would try to make something, pouring filk onto Fernator and creating Pickle Rick.

The accusations of this being a non con confuse me as Stanley is happy to be brought onto this journey and there are no actual sexual activities involved in this not written project. 

3) Art with minor

One person was very supportive of one of my Narrators, Jester (they drew him a bit), and even started to call him their husband. Since they're my friend, I wanted to make them happy, so I drew something I deemed wholesome and platonic. They also took my drawing this way. 

In my eyes at the time, when I made the art, I never thought of this 'ship' as anything other than admiration for a design. 

However, that context got lost when they reposted my art on that server with my permission. 

I now see how people could think otherwise and I will be far more wary about this topic in the future.

However, while the announcement didn't use the exact word 'groomer', it highly implied it. I feel wronged for that as I received a lot of harassment in my direct messages. 

I would like a statement and an apology from the announcers because their words caused a lot of harm.

4) Conclusion

I want to finish this off with being honest about the mistakes I've made of not properly checking sfw spaces - which started all this - and talking about suggestive matters within them. The fanfiction link was certainly a slip up but I will be more careful in the future of what I post. 

However - I also want to say that it's not okay to harass people who got involved in this.

I myself have received false accusations already and seen my work be misinterpreted. I only learnt about this through buds giving me a notice and I do ask, if a similar situation would ever occur, which I don't plan on, to message me directly first about my mistake.

In the future, I will remember to double check where I discuss my fic ideas and I'll do everything in my power for this situation not to repeat. 

Thank you for reading.

[rosenecklaces]

Just so you know, i'm cackling because of your tags under that post about Lucien 🤣 the problem with Lucien fans is that they think Lucien is so relevant SJM is going to change everything she wrote and reduce elain and azriel's characters to Lucien's just because they think he's decent and therefore he deserves a prize (elain). Why makes them believe he's this important. Is he a secret Archeron? SJM barely talks about him.

No but is af we are at fault that SJM had given him nothing but "the best friend of tamlin, now best friend of feyre, uhhh son of helion- oh! now elain mate oh wait! and possible lover of vassa" like?? That redhead CAN'T drive a narrative alone and the autor herself has shown that, she needs to push him/relate him with bigger characters so he can do something and move him trought the situations just in case we needed a reminder that he's there... doing stuff. Because lucien having moments of himself existing isn't priority for her (as shown on his barely explored loyalty to tamlin and his ex gf murder, she served us that in the most "have this. Bye" way)

One thing that frustrated me about his character since the get go is that he doesn't pick a side, he doesn't want to it seems and why? because he wants to benefit of whoever and whatever keeps him in a position of power/stability where he can say "look! I'm in the winning side" and although i do think in the first book that'll make him a worthy character and i could even understand why he got fans for it, unfortunately SJM did him a 180° and decided he's...a saint now? The good guy all along? That doesn't matter how much he betrayed feyre and caused harm to her family hes a good friend 🥺 he wants to help the night court now 🥺 ( surprise surprise i wonder why) he's getting new friends! ( good for him honestly, why is he keeping contact with tamlin still tho) he's doing his best with elain and feyre 🥺 (he literally isn't and hasn't even apologized but okey)

And big part of this I would blame SJM of, because she was the one turning around what lucien was supposed to be and what actions he has taken, but also let's not pretend this fandom doesn't loves turning characters in something they aren't or caricatures of those. For me lucien has the potential of becoming a heavily morally grey character close to rhysand on the first books or even antagonistic like tamlin (lucien was literally his side kick and classist as hell so he already was an antagonist) but no miss ma'am decided to throw a half made redemption for him that didn't even worked because he's still asshole- ish and extremely doubtful as a loyal ally, acting as if him following anyone who keeps him in his high horse like a lost puppy is some breathtaking take on him...is not and had never been

and now the only important thing about his story is the undesirable mate bond with the next MC and his relationship with vassa + jurian 💀like listen I am a fan of a "barely there and unique" side character (azriel mi patrón) but atleast my fav basic men haves a background, interesting and brutal backstory, loyal to his characteristics, values and personality, you can see that sjm atleast has interest in him and is planning more for him. Even the little we know about Az sparks interests on exploring who he is, where he came from, what's his thoughts, his relationship with each character without sidelining him and make him seem less important than them (he even haves something related to koschei c'mon). He's a mystery and yes the autor gave us little but what we do have makes for a man that you can understand and follow his actions in anticipation without feeling like someone is pushing you into paying attention to him when there's nothing compelling to look at 🤷🏽‍♀️ (lucien has been since book one compared to az yet the one that makes me go "ohhh what would he do/say next?" Is the shadowsinger)

(Also "booo lucien/elucien I hate your pussy" is one of my most beloved creations thanks for the appreciation 💕)

[commander-yinello]

A Keeper - Part 5

Fandom: Guild Wars 2

Pairing: Zhou Yao x F!Commander (no specific name or race)

Chapter 5 [AO3 Link]

Word count: 1089

Genre: Toothrotting, cliché fluff, awkward silliness and good friends meddling

A/N: The last part! Thank you so much everyone, you've left me such sweet comments and tags that will fuel me for weeks <3 <3 <3 Can't wait for the next in-game patch with hopefully more Yao so I can write more fic 8D

“Aaaand? How did it go?” Taimi bounced straight towards the commander when she entered Joon’s lab the following morning.

The commander stayed completely calm, giving away no hint of emotion while she picked up the holopad. “You know how it went. Your lackeys were there. And you’re not off the hook by a long shot. Romantically stunted, how dare you.”

Taimi’s ears drooped a bit, then perked up. "I told Gorrik to stay quiet! I mean, I only wanted to help. I will take any punishment, but I have to know how it ended with Yao. Commander, tell me please?”

"Hmm, the commander simply responded. She tapped on a few buttons. "How’s the situation with the undead?"

"Noooo commander!" Taimi wailed as she understood that her punishment was happening now. She pulled at the commander’s clothes. "I’m sorry, I’m sorry sorry sorry, tell me pleeeeaaaseeee!"

The commander tried not to let slip a tiny grin as Taimi continued to beg and plead, pacing around her like a puppy desperate for treats.

“I promise I'll never do it again!”

"Do what again?" they heard behind them. It was Joon, with a new type of mech traipsing behind her. In her arms was a big stack of yellowed old documents.

"Oh Joon! Hi," Taimi chuckled nervously and let go of the commander.

“Hey Joon,” the commander greeted her with ease. Joon narrowed her eyes at the two of them with suspicion.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but Taimi, could you help me with these?”

Taimi gave the commander a look and walked away with Joon. The commander giggled to herself and leaned on the nearby counter, pretending to stare at her pad when she was deep inside her thoughts.

She’d tell Taimi soon enough. Yao had made no agreement with her to keep it quiet, though they both didn't feel like yelling about their date from the Kaineng rooftops. Their date, the commander repeated in her head, and it was still unbelievable even though she couldn't deny it. Even the kiss felt fresh. She pushed her face into the holopad to smother the tickly feeling that ran up her spine.

Her ear intercom rang. She held a finger against the device around her ear to activate it.

"Hey commander," she heard through her ear intercom.

“Rama?” she said, surprised. She hadn’t expected to hear from him this soon. “Sup?”

Ever since Rama joined the Best Friends Detective Agency (“Don’t call it that!”), he was part of their private network. Taimi had even set up one on one connections so that not everyone would have to hear every detail that wasn’t relevant for them.

"Hey… I want to apologize. In my head it was all fun and necessary but afterwards I considered that maybe it was a terrible idea. I’ve breached my trust with a good friend as well. Yao hasn’t responded to me all morning."

The commander smiled. Despite his don’t-care-eff-off attitude, Rama had a heart as big as his hat. She decided to cut him some slack.

“I don’t think they’re ignoring you. Probably sleeping off last night.” She knew she had said too much now.

His voice rose an octave from his usual timbre. “Wait, really?” She could hear him mutter congratulations to himself. Then he coughed and steadied his voice. “I mean, I’m really happy for you two.”

The commander rolled her eyes, even if Rama could not see it. “Please keep it to yourself."

"I would not dare spread this around town like a gossipy grandpa. I have standards. Some, that is."

"Good. And you can make it up to us by joining us at a sushi place Yao recommended.”

“Aw what? You know I hate that stuff. Can’t I buy you two a few drinks instead?”

“You’ll have to ask Yao that, not me,” the commander finished, all smug.

A loud sigh and Rama surrendered. The commander ended the call, knowing Yao would follow up and let Rama go on sushi-free. There was just something fun about holding your friends hostage after they pulled a stunt.

Truthfully, not much had happened. They had spent a long time making out and by the time they were able to disconnect from each other, it was really, really late. It was a bit embarrassing to discover how entangled their limbs were. Yao offered to make her more tea in one of their hip flasks so she could drink it and stay awake walking back. But there was no way she could sleep with all the adrenaline in her body.

She thought about how hard it was to leave, and so tempting to stay the night, were it not that both she and Yao needed to do important work in the morning. About how they both had wonky smiles when Yao didn't want to let go of her hand, and the promise to see each other soon.

She didn’t walk, she floated on a cloud of hearts all her way back to her apartment in Kaineng, courtesy of Navan. A trio of Brotherhood cronies interrupted her happy thoughts and they were lucky to live to regret it.

Last evening had been awkward because they were both so stubborn in their own way… but she’d do it all over again. It was worth it.

Like the devil, when Joon and Taimi returned, Yao entered the lab, wearing their usual gear. They hadn’t seen her yet and waved at Joon. Taimi’s ears flew up as she immediately locked her sight on the commander. The commander tried so hard to keep her facial reactions as passive as possible.

But there was no point. The second Yao looked her way, their whole face brightened with a smile and raised eyebrows. The commander could not stop the blood rushing to her cheeks or her eyes from darting away then quickly looking back. Nor could she fight the smile that crept onto her lips.

Taimi gasped, balled her fists and became a tiny siren, excited squealing underneath her breath.

“Taimi, are you okay?” Joon asked.

“Yep! Totally fine!” Taimi almost yelled, then she grabbed Yao’s wrist and forced the poor engineer to hobble along.

“You two are going to tell me everything!” Taimi grabbed the commander’s hand as well. The two of them were dragged by the tiny asura who was stronger when she was determined, leaving poor Joon alone and confused.

The commander made a note to let her know soon. After all, there were no secrets amongst friends, old and new.

THE END

[bookofmirth]

I saw your recent response to an anon where you mentioned the drama that occurred the other day based around bookprofessor’s post. Obviously you don’t have to respond to this or publish it if you do not wish but I just wanted to bring up that while it is important to focus on the real life issues at hand, the OP was hypocritical in her post which is why people were getting upset. She was preaching against ableism while simultaneously flaunting her IQ and degree which is a form of ableism. She was speaking out against racism while ending her post using the racial slur “cracker” when talking about the possibly Caucasian Twitter elriels.

Obviously she had some important points but it was completely overshadowed by her participation in the hate speech and prejudice that she was speaking out against.

This does not in any way justify the nasty messages she received but on the same hand, I do not blame anyone that called her out for her hypocrisy. I hope you can understand why her post was so negatively received and how flawed it was. My hope is that one day everyone can just ignore the negativity, report those who are being racist/prejudiced in any way, and block those who are just being loud and who you don’t wish to see content from. But unfortunately I do not see that happening any time soon.

There are a few things I want to address in this because I think it's a good moment for the fandom to step back and reflect on how we treat one another, how we react to such issues, and how we behave moving forward.

First off, thanks for explaining your point of view without being antagonistic. I do think that everyone's emotional reactions to the post were valid. I do NOT think their responses, in terms of words and actions, were valid. Now before I move forward, I want to clarify that when I use the word "you", I am referring to anyone who may have had the response I am describing - not you personally, anon. Also please don’t freak out about how long this is, as a majority of it is a response to the fandom in general, not you in particular.

What was - and wasn’t - said in the original post

In this post, there were completely valid criticisms of the way that people in this fandom behave, and it wasn’t “generalizing” a certain group, it was literal, actual proof of things that had been said, by multiple people. I’m not going to get too into what Alyssa argued because her critiques of those tweets was flawless. The original post had very valid criticisms of what was happening on Twitter. Alyssa exposed the actually racist, homophobic, and imperialistic underpinnings of those tweets.

However, a lot of people are stuck on the bits before and after those critiques. @bookprofessor apologized for different aspects of her post in a few different asks. There were perhaps better ways that some of those things could have been phrased, some things that could have been left out. And she apologized. People can accept that apology or not but we can’t act like it didn’t happen. Like she didn’t reflect and learn to do better.

However, the people she was calling out have not done the same thing, and if anything, comments that focus more on Alyssa’s tone than why she wrote the post in the first place lets those people off the hook.

On cracker - Using the word "cracker" is not racist in the same way that using racial slurs against POC is. Is it prejudiced? Yes. But you cannot say that it is the same thing when that is demonstrably untrue, given centuries of oppressive history. No one has been oppressed for being white. Those are not the same. Reverse racism is not a thing because a white person punching down on POC is NOT AT ALL the same thing as a POC punching up at white people. The actions look the same, but the impact is so unequal it’s not even funny.

Racism is a systemic, institutionalized problem. It is not defined by individual actions, though those actions can either support or challenge racism. When someone calls a white person a cracker, there isn’t centuries of oppression giving power to and reinforcing that statement. That is not a “gotcha” moment.

Saying “I have x IQ” or “I have X degrees” is not ableist. I’m sorry to whoever told you it was ableist (again, not you specifically anon but people who had read the “aw shucks guys” vagueblogs about it), but it’s not. Those are facts. I have no idea what my IQ is, but I have five degrees from institutions of higher education. Me saying that is in no way ableist. 

Often, people mention those things to be elitist, yes. Sometimes, they can be used to say “hey I know more about this than you”. They can be used in a way that tries to make themselves feel superior. I suspect that this is the impression that a lot of people got of the post. However, there is a fine line between saying “hey that’s elitist” and professing anti intellectualism. Which is perhaps a side issue so I’ll let that go for now.

Another reason that people mention their degrees or qualifications is to establish their background knowledge and credibility. If I were to say “hey y’all I have two MA degrees” (which is true) I am not being ableist! It is a fact! It is factual! And I worked my ass off for those, I will be in student loan debt until I die for those, I have every right to mention them if I want to, and often I do so in order to establish my credibility, to explain the position I am coming from. And my prior knowledge of these topics is relevant when we are talking about literature since that’s what my degrees were on - literature and linguistics. That is why Alyssa mentioned her background, though she did pair it with comments about other people, for which she has apologized.

My final point about this is that I 1000% understand feeling insecure or less than because of educational attainment. I dropped out of high school. I had a complex about that for a long, long time. But I also know that if I took offense at someone else saying they had a PhD, then that offense is about me, not them. Someone else’s inferiority complex is not reason for people to pretend to be less than they are.

If those two comments are what overshadowed the bigger, more important issue for a lot of the readers of that post, then y’all allowed them to overshadow those more important issues. I am 99% sure that someone right now is reading this and thinking “but Leslie, it was the way that she said it!” Boy have I got some news for you!

How we react

This next section is not specific to this ask; instead, it is a discussion of how the fandom responded. If it were only one person who had said “but her tone” then I wouldn’t need to make this point. The fact that multiple people are exhibiting the behavior explained below is what makes this a cultural problem within the acotar fandom.

The main argument I saw on the post itself, and indeed any time I see people bring up how nasty Twitter can be, is that “it was a joke” and “that’s how stan Twitter works”.

No.

Those responses were quite useful for this post, though! So buckle up everyone, because I am going to talk about gaslighting, racism, respectability politics, and tone policing. While I understand that some people might have taken personal offense to what was said, there is a much bigger issue at stake that has nothing to do with individual feelings, and everything to do with ensuring that POC stay silenced and white supremacy is upheld. 

Back to the “but it’s a joke” thing. Thanks for gaslighting! Great example of that, person I’m not going to tag! Gaslighting is when you make someone question their experiences, when you try to make them think “wait, did I really feel that way? Is my feeling about that valid? Do I need to re-evaluate my response to this?? Am I blowing this out of proportion???” And saying “it’s just a joke” is a perfect way to do that. Did I say something accidentally sexist? It’s just a joke, nbd! Now you’re the problem, because you didn’t understand my joke and laugh!!! 

Saying “it’s a joke” or “oh they are old/young/ignorant, they will learn” is not a good response to... anything. It takes the responsibility off the people who are doing the harm, and putting it onto the people who were hurt. And in this case, anyone who read those tweets and found them harmful (which should be everyone?) is completely valid. You aren’t lesser for being angry or emotional or for seeing a problem where other people saw a joke. The people who see those things as acceptable jokes are the ones in the wrong.

This is a tactic that is used against women all the time. Any time a woman is sexually harassed at work or online, for example, and she gets upset about it, and someone chimes in with “oh they weren’t serious, can’t you take a joke?” So you can imagine what this is like for women of color.

It is a very, very common tactic for people of color to be silenced via tone policing and respectability politics. Tone policing and respectability politics are very closely related, especially in this context. The idea is that if Alyssa had just written that post in just the right way, it would have been more palatable to white people, and therefore okay to write. The idea that if she had tried to be “understanding” or “see it from their perspective” or understand that it’s “just a joke” are all ways to silence and de-legitimize any accurate, valid criticisms that were made of those tweets. It effectively re-routes the conversation away from the real issues, and to the person trying to bring them up. It’s essentially an ad hominem attack in disguise. 

We see respectability politics in media when people of color who act or dress or speak like white people are afforded more respect. Or any time that a person of color is pulled over and people say, “well if they had just done what the police officer asked...” There is a pervasive idea that if people just “act” properly, aka if you act white, then the police won’t feel antagonized and try to kill arrest you. If we are nice enough, meek enough, smile enough, etc. then we will be accepted.

When we tone police, we refuse to allow marginalized people the right to be angry. We say that "hey, we can only have this discussion if you leave emotion, which you rightfully feel, at the door, and we can only continue this discussion if you behave in a way that makes me feel comfortable." But guess what? It isn’t about you! These discussions are often highly uncomfortable. There is no nice way to tell someone they are being racist. And yet somehow, that is the ever-moving goalpost. It seems reasonable, right? “Just be civil, be nice, don’t insult each other!” And there is that. But those criteria change constantly, to the point where anyone (white) at any time can say “WHOA WHOA THIS IS MAKE ME UNCOMFORTABLE???” Then we find ourselves at zero, and suddenly the focus of attention has shifted away from the actual problem.

Before we go further, I want to say this: people have a right to be angry. They do not need to make their anger palatable or tasteful for the consumption of others (read: white people). 

We saw this last summer, and I’m not sure how the message didn’t get across. But people are rightfully angry about racism. They are angry about the murder of people of color by police, they are angry about lack of quality education, or clean water, of centuries of oppression that have led to this very moment when all of that ceases to matter because a white woman’s feelings got hurt one time. 

And that is what pisses me off so much. There is no way in this world that we could criticize tweets like those that everyone would agree with, and that everyone would “approve” of, that would be “nice” enough and yet still be impactful and make the authors of those tweets understand the gravity of what they have done. 

The least we can do is allow one another to express our anger, our outrage, because it’s highly likely that those people know exactly what the fuck they are doing, and they do not fucking care. By criticizing a woman of color for the way in which she chose to engage with this topic, we are avoiding the issue and letting the people in those tweets off the hook. 

There were many responses to that post that were positive, that agreed with Alyssa. There are a ton of people who disagree with those tweets, who find them disgusting, who understand exactly how and why they are problematic. That should be what we are talking about. Getting to the core of the argument, on that post or any about racism or other problematic behavior in fandom, requires getting past our own egos. It requires us to be able to step back, say “hm this thing is frustrating but there is a bigger picture here”. It’s not easy, and I recognize that. 

The fact that it is a common tactic though? To say “hey this hurt me personally and so I’m going to ignore any valid points you made?” That feeds directly into centuries of white supremacy because it, once again, silences POC and makes them try to play a losing game. And they will always lose, because no matter how hard they try to play the white game, the goalposts are constantly shifting. So you know what? Fuck the game, and fuck respectability politics, and fuck tone policing and “uwu be nice guys” because when it comes to things like racism and sexism, I don’t expect the people who deserve to be criticized to be nice. In fact, trying to be nice only serves to fuck POC over in the end.

Indeed, in response to that post, certain blogs have taken the opportunity to position themselves as “the nice ones” or “the ones who would never” or “uwu let’s be nice guys” while completely ignoring the fact that a woman of color was attacked for calling out racism. And yes - that was the point of her post. People getting hung up on mentions of her degree are (intentionally or not, it doesn’t matter) completely obfuscating the fact that that is not what her post was about, which was to call out disgusting behavior. idk how many words the post actually was, but essentially, people are focusing on 5% of it to the detriment of the 95% that was actually really important shit. These types of vagueblog posts about the issue fall into exactly what I am talking about - these are people who have decided to look at this issue, see how Alyssa (and anyone else who dares speak up) has approached it, and intentionally try to act like they are “better” because they can be “rational” and “kind”. Newsflash, if you don’t have something to be angry about, then being “nice” about racism isn’t that much of a flex. If it didn’t bother you, then congratulations. That doesn’t make you better than people it did bother. You just got lucky this time, and decided to use that to your advantage to look like the good guy.

I am not saying that all calls for peace are doing this. Obviously it’s what we all want. This is the worst I have seen this fandom in the 4+ years I’ve been here. But we cannot have that by ignoring the real problems and pretending that if we are all just nice to each other, then we will solve racism and sexism and all bullying in the fandom will stop. 

So combining all of this - the gaslighting, the tone policing, and what do you get? You get a fandom that refuses to actually engage critically with its own problems and take accountability for them. You get a fandom that decides that it’s easier to be distracted by this one mean comment over here than it is to engage in the fact that you know what, the culture in this fandom has actually turned incredibly disgusting and a lot of people are just okay with it. You’ve got a fandom that is using the tools of white supremacy to avoid the discussions that should actually be taking place. Maybe people don’t realize that that’s what they are doing. But if someone still thinks that after reading this post, then godspeed my friend, I hope you enjoy Twitter.

Okay so my last thing I want to say is that I didn’t come to all of this knowledge fresh from the womb. I do a lot of work, in my personal life and my professional life, to be better. So here is a list of books that I have found particularly helpful:

How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America also by Ibram X. Kendi

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (side note, I was kinda meh about this one but the chapter “White Women’s Tears” is particularly helpful)

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment by Patricia Hill Collins

I’m not going to talk specifically about Alyssa’s post anymore, but if anyone wants to continue talking about these broader issues going on in the fandom, I am game. (I really should be grading papers though, so it might take a bit.)