#I want to do something like many other content creators with the thing written big that is a link to the post where you find the stuff

[viky2318]

It is I, the usual trash seller! here to sell you my trash after WAY TOO MUCH TIME. Enjoy this third to last chapter (I think).

Whatever was going on, it was becoming all but what Sam imagined. They planned that game for months, making sure everything was in place. They thought about every possibility they could imagine, every action, every sentence, making sure that no matter what they would get to that one ending they choose. And yet… there they were. Grillby was out of the way after becoming an important member of the group, but Sam couldn't expect him either to be important for them as well and to die, especially in such a dramatic way; Maddy wanted them dead, but she also had the old man and Flowey by her side; Raehel was probably going to show up; Muffet was at the super cool important choice, but the stake was way higher than what Sam previously thought; Template died too soon in the story, and the human had to cut a whole part with other out-codes because of it and also because of the "meeting" Muffet had with the old man; Sam knew a lot of new things about themselves and their abilities; Fresh got in the way twice and made the trust-to-hate process, as they liked to call it, more quick. Sam had no idea of where this was going and, they had to admit it, it was exciting. It felt like playing directly with the creator, being at its same level, making it scared of their actions and in need to actually intervene. A stupid thought since the creator itself was the one to make them act, but they didn’t give too much weight to that detail. The human closed the editor screen of the little monster soul they were messing around with, then placed the latter back in the glass cylinder next to the other. Sam wanted Muffet (now alone in an isolated part of the Void they were in before) to make the choice they wanted, no matter what. They didn’t have another option. Grillby’s soul shattered when he died (something they didn’t expect even if they should have), so he had no way to bring the Grillby they knew back. They could only take the Grillby from that timeline out a half second before it disappears, and then bring him back to his timeline so that it would be as if they “brought him back and erased his memories”. Of course that new Grillby would be a little different from the original one because the two had two different lives, so with time it would become obvious that it wasn’t the truth, but our human didn’t care. 

“Soooooo… still messing around? Dontcha think you got enough reasons to just let them be for a little bit?”.

Of course, the guy had to show up again. The human gave Fresh an irked glare, before replying: “I know what I’m doing. I know the consequences of my actions, their effect on the multiverse, and most importantly, I know you shouldn’t be here”. The skeleton shrugged, his glasses switching to “IK&IDC”. “Ya should know by now I really don’t follow the rules. I tho don’t kill a buncha fellows just to feel cool”, he commented. Sam didn’t speak for a couple more seconds, before huffing in annoyance. “Get to the point and then go away. I’m not in the mood to deal with you”. Fresh took a few steps closer, his chilled smile not leaving his skeletal face. “I think I got to the point more than a few times, pal. What you’re doing is real unrad, and you should stop trying to be what you aren’t. Chill out! No one’s gonna judge ya if you aren’t some sorta godlike being, you know?”. The human raised a brow. “Who wants to be a god? Gods as we know them are as weak as us mortals compared to the creators. I want to have my little story, my small contribution to this wide multiverse. Once I finish, you’ll never hear about me again. Maybe a few times for something silly, but nothing as nice as this”. The skeleton just shrugged. “Eh, I doubt it. Yer mess is an itty bitty too big to just pass without consequences, yanno? After all, you killed around a half hundred fellas and still you got nowhere. The good old G wouldn’t really be happy to see what you did and-”. “Do you think I care about the opinion of an old man like him?” Sam cut him. “Did I end the lives of hundreds? Yeah. Did I lie, make others suffer, destroy families just to have fun? More or less, yes. Do I look like I care? Creators do it every time with us, everyday, every single time they write down our destiny, or paint it, or code it, or whatever they do to please their hunger of pain. I have no idea of what goes through their mind, but surely I am having enough fun creating my own story in the same way they do”. Fresh tilted their head a little, his glasses changing to “CHILL BRO”. “Yeah, got it. You’re just constantly slamming your head onto a wall. The thing’s always the same. Ya can’t keep doing that. It won’t end well for you if ya keep up this “game”, yanno? I think people are kinda getting tired of this messy thingie yer doing”. The human silently nodded, but they actually didn’t give too much weight to the skeleton’s words. “... so you’re planning to actually do something about it or just give me a scold and leave?” they quietly asked while thinking about a way to make him go away. Fresh shortly replied: “But I already did, my lil’ brotato chip. I already did. I’m just having fun hanging around for another little while”. Alright, that definitely meant there was no way to make him leave. And Sam had to wait for another while before Maddy and Muffet’s arrival. They decided to try to ignore the skeleton, and opened a small portal to take a look at how things were going.

Muffet took a deep breath as she sat down on the black floor of the Void, more thoughtful than she had ever been. She was in a truly bad position. She hated making big choices. She always did. Big choices often meant big changes, big limits, consequences damaging either her or others and a lot of possibilities getting cut off. She had enough of all that stuff when she was head of her clan. She either assured her friends a hopefully happy life and ended the ones of others, or… or what? That stupid human never specified what happened if she refused, as if they were sure it wasn’t a possibility. So she either accepted or had no idea of what could happen, and Muffet didn’t trust Sam enough to let them do anything. In all this she was closed in what seemed like an invisible cage in the middle of the void.

How. Wonderful.

She had to find a solution. A third option out of this mess. She couldn’t let things happen around her. Grillby was the one who usually did that and, apparently, he died. Muffet wasn’t planning to let herself or anyone she cared for die. She already tried teleporting or breaking the “walls” restraining her more than once, but to no avail. She could try tricking Sam somehow… no. That would have been too dangerous. Flowey commented something about Sam knowing that they did…

A sudden whistle, a sound similar to a portal opening, made the spider suddenly jump up, raising her gaze to the source of the noise. And the last thing she expected to see was Maddy getting out of an unknown portal followed by Flowey, wrapped around the arm of a tall smiling man. “Maddy?! What are you doing here?!” the spider exclaimed, both relieved and concerned to see the cat. Maddy extended a hand to Muffet, but the invisible wall blocked her. “What do you think I’m doing? We have a dumbass to kill”. She tried to punch the wall, only resulting with a bunch of glitches appearing all of the sudden, flickering quietly for a couple seconds before fading away. That thing didn't happen when Muffet tried to break the wall down. "... that stuff is all codes, almost nothing physical. Just a hitbox and some air. That dumbass didn't even try to make a nice work", Flowey commented as he slid down the stranger's arm and got close to Maddy. "Of course", the man started. "Their goal wasn't to keep her from escaping. They just needed her to stay here until our arrival". Muffet noticed how the man had a really familiar voice, but she couldn't figure out where she heard it. Maddy rolled her eyes at the man's words, debating a few things. "Yeah, whatever. It's not like it makes any difference at the moment", she commented quietly. The cat then raised her other hand and laid it on the invisible wall, then pressed hard on it. The flickering glitches came back, more and more loud, before stopping all of the sudden with the noise of something cracking. The wall disappeared, and Maddy smiled widely at the result. "Woah. This thing practically melts codes! I could almost feel them evaporating under my hand. You really must be one of a magician" she said, turning to the smiling man. He simply nodded in response, his smile getting a little wider. "And you never saw my greatest works", he replied with a slight pride. The cat then turned to Muffet, her grin turning more resolute. "Ok girl, we're going to kill our dear human idiot. You ready?" she asked. "Wait- killing Sam? … is that even possible? They always sounded awfully powerful with all those code things they can do'', Muffet asked in response, frowning a little in skepticism. "Yeah- well, I think so. I tried by myself and it didn't work too well, but this time I have you, a soulless flower and what could probably be a royal scientist, so I think we can do this". The man stepped closer to the others, smiling quietly as he glanced in an unspecified direction. "Now that we got everyone, I think we should get going".

Sam quickly closed the portal as they met the old man's gaze, a cold shiver going up their spine. They didn't like that quiet smile he had, that shine in his eyes that clearly showed Sam the man was furious. "So you do mind their opinion!" Fresh exclaimed, their glasses switching to "AWWW". "You better shut your mouth and get out of here. Now", the human replied, not willing to repeat themselves many more times. "Ok ok, chill out! I'll go away, but just because it's you. Cya!". With that said, the colorful skeleton disappeared in a colorful cloud of smoke. After a few seconds, Sam sighed quietly, then looked at the tall portal opening in front of them. “... let’s finish this silly little project”.

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[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

I got to be so real I kind of have mixed feelings about this post, and I'm not as mad rereading it as I was the first time I read it.

On one hand, I kind of agree that doing fucked up things to a fictional character doesn't necessarily mean that you're bad.

If I write a story in which a child is put to death, I'm not suddenly in favor of children dying. The person who wrote "the lottery" isn't in favor of people being stoned to death just because they wrote about it. I write stories all the time where characters are subject to homophobia or racism or general bigotry and I'm obviously not in favor of those things. However, there's a reason some stories that deal with the same subject matter are better received than others. There's a reason that even though "Avatar: the last Airbender" was written by two white men it's not called racist like some other works by white creators that handle POC.

I feel like the idea that how you approach fiction and fictional characters says absolutely nothing about you is insane.

If you watch a piece of media and then you go to write fanfiction about the media and you give all the white characters a good, happy ending but give all of the black characters sad ones where they're beaten to death, I absolutely think that says something about you! If you read/watch media with a fictional child and immediately want to write a story in which that child is raped by one of their parents, I absolutely think that says something about you and your character! The characters might be fictional, but you are not. Your choices do not exist in a vacuum. Why do you want to produce and see media where people of color end up unhappy and/or dead? Why do you want to write a lot of non-con? why do you want to see two siblings fuck?

Even though you didn't do anything to anybody in real life, I have to side eye why you're obsessed with seeing and writing that type of content. If you're writing a rape scene just because you like it (you don't comment on it or anything. In fact, it hardly ever comes up again) then yea, I do think you're probably a bit fucked up.

A white woman who writes all of her black male characters as "big" and "manly" and "dangerous" and "dominant" is absolutely revealing something about herself through her fiction! Maybe the fake black guy isn't being objectified since he's not real, but you can't seriously tell me that the white woman who wrote him has not revealed anything about how she views black men lmao. You can't tell me you'd seriously believe her when she says she's not racist.

I mean this site in particular talks all the time about the way certain groups are portrayed by certain authors. This site will be the first to cancel authors who write marginalized people in an unsavory light. If you think the fiction you consume doesn't matter, then you can never say anything about representation mattering ever again. A black child who only ever sees white characters cannot be influenced by that because fiction doesn't matter, right? You can't cancel an author for being racist. So what if all of their characters of color are portrayed as violent and evil? If what you write doesn't say anything about you, then that author is not racist at all!

I mean, seriously. How many authors have been canceled because they wrote black characters in a way that left the viewers with a bad taste in their mouths? How you choose to treat fictional characters absolutely says something about you!

I understand that fiction is how a lot of people deal with stuff. If something bad happened to you when you were a kid, you might want to see your favorite character go through that and overcome it, but the thing is: I feel like there's a line. I feel like too many of you use past trauma to justify what has honestly just become a paraphilia. Some of you don't read media about SA because you were SA'd and are trying to deal with it; you read it because you have a 'kink' for it. Too many of you hide under "healing" when you genuinely just get off on seeing fucked up things happen to characters. It's no secret that people who have experienced trauma sometimes go on to become abusive and perverse themselves.

The things that you enjoy and dedicate time to absolutely say something about you! Whether you think it says something good or bad doesn't matter, but the idea that it just exists in a vacuum and says absolutely nothing about your character and who you are as a person is quite frankly insane!

Even if you're writing it because you're trying to deal with trauma that happened to you or you're trying to create a safe space for people who have been through fucked up stuff, that says something about your character and who you are as a person. The stories you dedicate your time to reading and writing absolutely reveal who you are. We talk endlessly about the misogyny of male writers in the past and present. If posts like the one linked were true, then it wouldn't matter if a man spent all day writing stories where every single female character of his is treated like shit and assaulted. Media would be entirely unable to be criticized because the fictional characters aren't real and thus how you treat them says nothing. If a man with three daughters wrote a story where a fictional father SA'd all three of his children, that wouldn't be cause for concern at all? It'd say absolutely nothing about him? You wouldn't side eye him? You wouldn't be concerned if a primary school teacher spent all day writing stories where children are molested? You would send your child to a school with a teacher like that and be completely and utterly okay because "the fiction you write and consume says nothing"?

Of course there is nuance, but I don't like the way this post seems to absolve anyone into fucked up fictional stuff of guilt. No, reading and writing fucked up stuff does not *automatically* make you bad, but if you're doing it uncritically and because you get off on it, I'm not gonna pretend that's irrelevant to who you are as a person.

[admirxation]

˗ˏˋ admirxation's weekly fic recs ´ˎ˗

!! dark content ahead, please read the warnings the authors have provided, and then continue at your own discretion !!

5th may '24: here are some fics i've collected this week, obviously this is not every single fic but i wanted to give some more spotlight on the ones that literally had me bouncing off the walls lmao. if anyone wants to see more recommendations i have a 'admirxation fic recs' tag if you're ever wanting to read something, and i want to try and do this every Sunday to give some love to creators. i will try to limit this to 10-20, and some weeks might be shorter cuz i don't always have to time. thank you to these creators making these fics and please give them some love

resident evil fics

“If I gotta sin to see her again then I’m gonna lie.” [NSFW] {dad’s boss!Jack Krauser x fem!reader} ~ The reader ends up on their knees for the stranger allowed in their house; starting a fling with her fathers boss.

this was written by @mrswint3rs now i read this a bit ago but i just can’t forget about it. i love krauser content so much like there needs to be more content for this man, i love my pookie leon a feral amount but pookie bear needs to share some spotlight for the other RE guys. i am not embarrassed to admit that i keep rereading this fic, it does something to the brain chemistry. honestly the moment this girl posts more krauser fics im leaping like it’s my last meal cuz AHHHHHHH. the forceful but seductive characterisation that is written within krauser is so memorable and had me blushing and kicking my feet, and to expose myself further the secrecy tropes always get the meter going they are my guilty pleasure.

playing house [NSFW] {stepdad!Leon Kennedy x fem!reader} ~ the readers mother had passed away, leaving Leon and the reader to get closer.

this was written by @miss-oranje-disco-dancer now i always thought i wasn’t into the whole ddlg scene, before anyone things im hating i never gave hate to the concept i was just never apart of the craze if u get me, however, this fic has made me rlly rlly crave ddlg content to the point i’m wondering if the writer laced their words with crack cuz IM SO HOOKED. the gradual progression of the reader and leon is so hot, especially *spoilers for the rest of the fic* when they start sharing a bed dude the tingles i felt, and then the breeding when the reader acts so nonchalant about being bred by leon like YESSIR I NEED THIS MORE THAN ANYTHING.

Playground Love {older!Leon Kennedy x fem!reader} ~ age gap love between reader and Leon.

this was written by @j3llyd0nut . i might have a problem which how much older men fanfics i consume, like gurl its becoming a big problem… that i dont wanna fix oop- this fic doesn’t go into smut (ik what a shocker for me to be recommending something that is straight up porn lmao) but it does deal with age gaps, and i felt the way the writer portrayed it was so well written, especially with the readers’ mothers feelings to it. dating someone older comes with a mix of feelings, the envy was well encapsulated as well as the worry where it is often people try to warn. also the ending quote was such a killer (as an oscar wilde fan hehe… im an english student i love a reference).

Nerd Leon [NSFW] {nerdy!Leon Kennedy x nerdy!fem!reader} ~ Leon and the reader are both virgins who have had a crush on one another.

this was written by @nvoirs (it won’t let me tag them but you have the link to go show them some love). i love lil nerdy leon, he's so cute, especially with the pictures above the fic hehe. honestly the reader is so relatable, the idea of someone asking you out as a joke hahah ive been there too many times, no one can force me back into high school i will claw them. i quite liked the dynamic of them learning together, hehehe it's so so hot and cute at the same time and it deserves so much more love in my humble and very correct opinion.

the last of us fics

older Joel Miller [NSFW] {older!Joel Miller x afab!reader} ~ ft nervous Joel who hasn’t dated in a while and nervous to be with the reader who reassures she wants to be with him.

this was written by @pedroshotwifey and omfg i’m like the biggest simp for joel to the point it’s honestly embarrassing lmao, i feel like they wrote joel quite well and i would imagine if he was to become involved with someone again he would be nervous and be in his head about it; i found the writing of the transition back into sharing physical intimacy really well written and enjoyable, it’s not easy to do that but the author did it so well. my fav joel oneshot.

jujutsu kaisen fics

A proper send off [NSFW] {stepdad!Toji Fushiguro x fem!reader} ~ Toji puts his claim on the reader before she goes to college

this was written by @bratbby333. i feel like i died, like the author put the words on the screen and it make me curl up in a ball and squirming cuz i need toji biblically, and then i died, and then the words brought be back to heaven and then i was bonked and put into horny jail. i’m actually feral for this man. i’m feral for too many fictional men but toji is ughhhhh AHFJFKDKSKSKDDKEKSKW. i loved the descriptions of the reader almost being made for him, or more accurately, Toji making the reader made for him; the description of *SPOILERS* him moulding her pussy for his dick was YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM, i was salivating like fucking homer simpson I NEED IT.

Daddy Issues [NSFW] {stepdad!Toji Fushiguro x fem!reader} ~ reader is a brat whose stopped by her step father Toji

this was written by @nexysworld and my oh my does this girl cook, I AM THE BIGGEST NEXY FAN EVER HEHEHEHEHE. i am a new recruit to the toji fan club and boy oh boy was this the most exciting oneshot to first read after finding my love for this beautiful man. I gotta say the way nexy writes toji is honestly a game changer. like he’s such a jerk that u wanna slap, but i also am enticed by how much of a jerk he is… and perhaps wanna be slapped by him- WHO SAID THAT 👀 damn.

“well, we should probably fuck. Right?” [NSFW] {satoru gojo x fem!reader} ~ reader and gojo are trapped in the prison realm with nothing else to do.

this was written by @kingkonoha. now as we have all learnt about me liking something normally isn’t in my vocabulary; if i like a piece of media best believe im putting my whole soul into it. jjk is a new edition to my fandom endeavours and heheh gojo is my first love, im such a gojo girlie IF ANYONE COMES TO DETROY MY PEACE F OFF LMAO (gojo and toji girlie fr i am). okay if you’re a gojo girlie, kingkonoha’s writing is top tier. i loved the way they encapsulated gojo’s personality, he’s so cocky in this oneshot and ugh i just can’t help but see it so on brand for gojo; also the dirty talk in this fic is like toe curling afhdisosfheisidfhwowjwf I NEED HIM IN A WAY THAT IS CONCERNING TO FEMINISM.

The fanboy guide [NSFW] {satoru gojo x fem!reader} ~ gojo is the readers number one fan and manages to finally meet them in a meet and greet.

this was written by @kingkonoha . i love obsessing over fictional men BUT OH THIS FIC RLLY HAD THE TURNED TABLES. look i dont need anyone judging my likes, i like the idea of someone, especially gojo, obsessing over me and telling me he loves me while i ride him. girlhood = hearing i love you while riding gojo lmao. i love this creator to the point they’re probably fed up on me constantly liking their stuff haha. some bits i wanna point out, the dirty talk was like A* and the way he’s obsessed and basically babbles i love u like AFHFJSWISODODOWKWNEJ this has a chokehold on me and is like feral spray for the gojo girlies to get going lmao.

Tease [NSFW] {satoru gojo x fem!reader} ~ reader teases her sensei over text, and he later shows up at the readers door.

this was written by @dark-and-kawaii . oh look more gojo fics, are we surprised, no rlly cuz he's so hot and ugh i need him so much. i love dirty talk especially sexting it's so hot, but the fact he literally shows up at the door? i was shook but like in a horny way lmao. honestly the jealousy he feels it’s like kinda embarrassing how much i love to imagine someone all jealous over me like hehe tell me how much im in ur mind rent free HAHA. honestly i love this blog, i followed for the bg3 content and stayed for like the absolute talent in every one of their works, so much love <3

i will possess your heart [NSFW] {yandere!satoru gojo x fem!reader} ~ satoru thinks the reader belongs to him and will go any length to make that happen.

this was written by @bratbby333 . okay on this account we love a yandere, the idea of someone being so obsessed that it’s a danger to the lover, themselves and everyone around, A MUST!!!! honestly, it’s kinda baddddd how much i love these yandere oneshots but oh well it’s not like im gonna stop eating this up when everyone fr cooks. i honestly have to say this is the best yandere fic ive seen, like i was fangirling over the author over every word and punctuation they strung together, like huhhhhh it had me on a chokehold throughout it all. the journey of obsession and how far gojo went and his pathway to that was so well written, and the scene with the ex boyfriend and the heart ?!?!?!?! i was literally wide eyed like an owl going “WHAT OMFG”.

to be ex husband [NSFW] {satoru gojo x fem!reader} ~ ex bf gojo comes back in readers life and asks for a hand in marriage.

this was written by @arminsumi . lmao this fic made me have so many emotions. first of all, SHOKO MY BELOVED IS MY BESTIE I LOVE SHOKO. but the idea of gojo being an ex cuz he was a play boy i was like hmmm f u man, breaking my heart (like bruh i was so offended like i actually was the reader to the point i was like bruh i have to calm down) and then after when he’s getting all giggly with suguru im like hehehehe let the fucking commence i need me some gojo action. honestly this fic has an amazing balance of oooo this is sexy, to feelings of being a lil mad, but also comedic moments. it honestly encaptures gojo’s character so well, i was rlly impressed. also i didn’t know how much i needed someone to ask for marriage while fucking ahe

[who-is-page]

Digital Bloodsports and Inked Paws: What I Love About the Alterhuman Communities

This is an essay from my website that I wrote in 2021 for my alterhuman NaNoWriMo project, about the things I appreciate and adore in the alterhuman community. I wanted to post the edited, finalized version on here, too. It's a little over 1,600 words long and about an 8-minute read.

It’s easy to talk about what I find aggravating or difficult to deal with in the alterhuman communities—complaints are a dime a dozen, especially since I’m rapidly approaching my ten-year anniversary of activity (is that the barest hint of salt-and-pepper I spy in my muzzle?) But even with all my criticisms, there’s a lot I love about the various parts of the alterhuman communities. There are more wonderful quirks in these groups than I think we ever realize or genuinely acknowledge.

And if there’s one thing that I don’t think the alterhuman communities are given enough credit and love for, it’s our collective ability to never shut the fuck up.

In these spaces, people are always doing, or saying, or creating something. In some ways it reminds me of college, with something always happening somewhere, no matter the weather, time, or day. Whether dead of night or coldest winter day, you’d always be able to find a party, or a study group, or a sportsball match—and in the same way, wherever you are in the alterhuman communities, there’s always something going on: a debate or discussion, a convention (big or small), a newbie asking for help with their identity, a bunch of older alterhumans shooting the shit, a new term being banged out, art and games and comics being created and commented on, collaborative projects or surveys or groups being advertised. The list goes on and on—someone, somewhere, is always dipping their paws in ink, it seems.

Our community thrives off our interactions with one another, and that’s fundamentally shaped both the subcultural elements—such as the way we so highly value content creators and writers, and people who have been in the community for long periods of time and can share stories and experiences that we might otherwise have no knowledge of—and the bizarre forms of (n)etiquette and discourse that we constantly see evolving and changing. It’s a beautiful thing to witness in real-time, watching the customs and terminology and language we have change and shift over the years, and watching the wheels of discourse turn their spokes into previously uncharted waters, a new subject to be written and examined by an invested collective.

It’s a testament to the diversity and fluidity in alterhuman experiences and identity, the fact that so many people with so many different experiences and different explanations can come together time and time again; space and space again; all to hash out their ideas and their thoughts and their differences and their similarities. All to share in the beauty of being other with one another. It’s a sight to behold, like an ocean of a thousand different blues all forming wave after wave of colors, and I get to be a lucky painter who’s too stunned to even figure out where to look first.

Our community’s perchance for debate (or, more accurately, for digital bloodsports) is also something I absolutely adore. Maybe I’m just a young hooligan who’s ready to fistfight the first person who comes through my door at any given moment, with my Ye Olde Discourse days still singing through my veins, but I love the willingness of so many people and groups in this community to throw down over what they believe and their opinions. It’s an admirable fighting spirit that I see in so many alterhumans and, whatever the reason for it, it’s something I feel a deep kinship regarding.

People in these communities care with their whole chest. It gets us in trouble often, but I don’t think these groups and subcultures and identities would be the same without it: we’re loud. We’re stubborn. We inevitably butt heads, but it’s what makes us, us. But it’s more than just our tenacity that I’m talking about here. Being alterhuman, at least in the spaces that I personally find myself in, is about being unabashedly yourself, in whatever wacky, interesting, bizarre, wild, feral way that might translate to.

It’s reminiscent of the queer spaces I’ve been in previously, both in how it harnesses a sense of aggressive pride sometimes, with attitudes of “Yeah, I’m not human—if that’s a problem for you, get lost!” and in how it just purely makes me feel unafraid and unashamed to be nonhuman. This is something I’ve experienced especially at Howls and other in-person group meet-ups.

When I spend time in-person with other alterhumans, it’d be silly to say there’s outright some sort of spark on connection or feeling of family—but there is a feeling of recognition. Of not an “us vs. the world” spark, but of an “we can all be ourselves here,” understanding. It’s so much less dramatic than some accounts I’ve heard, but it’s still a powerful, comfortable, enjoyable feeling. It’s knowing that you can go chasing after a squirrel with reckless abandon without getting judged, or can stop to roll in a pile of especially crunchy leaves just for the sensation of it, and isn’t that its own form of freedom?

And then there’s the beauty of individual identity. One of my favorite parts about my archival work is getting to learn and hear about identities that I’ve never seen before, especially if someone’s written a lot about the “how”s and “why”s. I love getting to not only see how other people experience things differently than I, myself, do, but I love getting to watch the gears in their brain turn as they explain how they got to one conclusion, or other possibilities they’ve considered, or any number of detail-oriented information. Getting to hear about shifts, especially shifts from identities we don’t often see like species-specific fictionkin, conceptkin, machinekin, and phyanthropes, is always such a treat. Hearing how it feels to experience phantom shifts as Southern Live Oak tree, or getting to read about mental shifts from an Alolan Marowak, or any other number of things I’ve been lucky enough to learn about in these communities, is sincerely, genuinely just the absolute coolest. Group experiences and concepts are amazing, but individual experiences are just as, if not more, spectacular.

And speaking on individuals…as a young, teenage nonhuman, I probably would have included a section about how much I admire or value the efforts and works of older alterhumans who are still in the community, and how much I especially enjoy getting to see their content in the communities. How they’re such “inspirations” for me and other such cheesy words. But that feeling has grown and changed a lot as I’ve gotten older: while I still appreciate all the greymuzzles and oldfruits in the community (shoutout to all you grey-furred and grey-scaled rapscallions out there), I feel like the individual age group I particularly appreciate is a lot of the younger folks and ‘new blood’ I’ve seen pop up in the communities.

It’s such a strange feeling to look at someone and go, “Oh man, you’re going to be an absolute force to be reckoned with when you’re older!” but that’s something I’ve definitely experienced. It’s a strange mixture of wistfulness, thinking about my own budding years in the alterhuman communities with probably rose-glassed fondness, and of before-the-fact pride, watching how passionate people are and already being proud of them: for achievements they haven’t yet made, and goals they haven’t yet realized, and selves they’re just now discovering.  It’s genuinely great to see the new, uncharted directions that a lot of the older teenagers are starting to pull and shove the communities in, bringing up old ideas in new ways or just throwing out new perspectives entirely. It makes me feel excited, filled with anticipation for what the future holds and how everything will look like in ten, twenty years.

It also does make me feel a little left behind and out of the times, admittedly, but that’s not a wholly bad thing: times change. Communities change. Our communities are based almost entirely on evolution, where they either continuously change, or they stagnate and die out. The fact that I’m feeling a little out-of-place more and more these days just means I’m settling into the aspects of my identity and the language that I grew up with for describing it is falling more out of use—it just means that I’m getting older and taking on a different niche than I inhabited when I was younger. When I was still a teenager in the community, I was the teeth-bloodied, hot-headed discourser who was willing to shout down and fight anything with a pulse, who was always in the thick of it no matter what “it” was. Now, I think I’m a lot closer to a scholar; jokingly a warrior-scholar, like my patron, if you had to reference the way I came into these communities, but overall, I’m a lot more content to sit it out on the sidelines these days and focus more on my own research and creation.

I wouldn’t stick around these community spaces if I truly didn’t want to be in them, but there’s so much I love wrapped in them that I don’t want to go, anyways. For every physical shifter that drives me up the wall, there’s a million more things that make me want to keep interacting with other nonhumans and alterhumans and that makes me want to keep being a part of specific alterhuman spaces. I love getting to be here, getting to watch how these communities evolve, getting to hear everyone’s stories; I’m glad I get to be a piece of it all, and I count myself lucky for any positive changes I can help affect just by being here. I would do better to remind myself of that more often.

[bunnylovesani]

I know you said that you want to move on from this, but I have to tell you my thoughts because I can’t stop thinking about all of this.

I am a content creator as well, and I write for Anakin. I have been writing for various characters from various shows for years on here, and nothing - nothing - is more toxic than this fandom right now.

From everything I’ve witnessed, I can only attribute it to one person. Indy.

Unfortunately he cannot be helped because of how vain he is, which aren’t even my words. They are his. And it would be fine, if he just left other people alone.

But indy is a bully. A big bully. He polices this whole fandom like he’s got nothing better to do at all. And I’m so sick of it. It makes me and other creators feel like we have to walk on eggshells when we post on here (thus why I am anon. Because god forbid indy sees this, and his little squad of bitter rejects try to ‘cancel’ me too - which, don’t even get me started on cancel culture).

Indy has been called out for creating things before that other people don’t like. His advice? “Just block, don’t read, keep scrolling.” How fucking hard is it to practice what you preach, rather than dragging a new person through the mud each week?

Not to mention, that shit indy was spewing a few weeks back about “not liking how other creators are writing about Anakin because it’s not correct” ? “Be careful with my toy?” “I’m taking him back until you can learn how to handle him correctly?” What kind of entitlement let’s him believe Anakin is HIS to write for only. Anakin is not his idea. He is not his toy. He is George Lucas’s idea that EVERYONE can enjoy, and play with.

And his opinion is not the only correct one out there. I don’t care how much “character studying” he’s done, he can be wrong. Other people can “character study” and come up with completely different conclusions about Anakin. And he can also just let people write what they want to write. Don’t like it? Block, don’t read, keep scrolling. Stop fucking posting about it and laying claim to something that was never his to begin with.

I tried to support indy, because again, he is a phenomenal writer. but he’s way too problematic. It makes me sick seeing his name pop up on my feed, cause that blog literally emits toxic energy.

I am sorry he sunk his claws into you.

Anyways, this isn’t about indy. He was told it was a private matter so he had no reason to butt his big head in anyway. This is about you and Ava.

While Ava may have written an Anakin stalker au, she DOES NOT own it. Nobody own that. Cause nobody owns the ideas of stalkers, and nobody owns the idea of Anakin except GL and Disney. Your work does not resemble hers even slightly. And whose to say someone else hasn’t already written that au in the past? Maybe it’s buried somewhere in tumblr’s vaults. Do they own that idea? Should you dig through years of posts and credit them somehow?

The whole idea is ridiculous. You credit people for their original ideas if you are inspired by them and have permission to use it. You do not need to ask permission or credit something that belongs to everyone.

I could start writing about, I don’t know, firefighter!anakin right now - do I then OWN that au?

Fuck no!

We are all here for the same reason. To write fake scenarios about fake people. Of course, don’t blatantly steal peoples words and ORIGINAL ideas, but the fact that people are spouting all this bullshit about OWNING these common au-ideas now is crazy. Unless you’ve done some kind of world-building or OC-creating, that shit is not original. It’s been done before and it will be done again. Cry about it.

Now let’s bring the linecook Anakin au into consideration. How is it fair that Tilly can write about it, not credit anyone, and get away scotch free? Why didn’t she get called out like you did?

Granted she took it down, but I still think it’s horseshit. Nobody owns that idea. I’ve seen it used for so many different characters on various platforms. She did not have to take it down for some bullshit law indy place on this fandom.

I really am saddened that so many people got dragged into this. Ava left; an amazing content creator. Tilly deleted her work; also an amazing creator. And indy continues to show his true colors; an entitled asshole who can’t let anyone breathe on here.

I want to go back to when this shit was enjoyable. Now all I see on my feed is people throwing each other around because no one can play nice anymore.

Don’t steal peoples ideas. But don’t claim ideas as your own if they are NOT original.

I am on your side bunny. I think you’ve made some very good points, and I commend you for keeping your work up and for standing up for yourself.

At the end of the day, you are a victim of circumstance. I truly just think people need to stop dick riding indy. And I know if he ever sees this, he’ll try to make some witty comeback that only halfway makes sense. he always sounds so defensive when he tries too hard to make it seem like he doesn’t care. He probably cries himself to sleep over these things. I think he needs that.

DAMN ANON. Wish I knew who you were so I could kiss you.

I second everything you’ve said. Blocking me without giving me the chance to respond or explain to a public post made about me was very high and mighty as well as cowardly of him.

I don’t have much more to add since I said I was done talking but I’m gonna post this masterpiece so others can read it.

Seriously thank you for taking the time to write this out and share your valuable thoughts, much love ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

[suga-kookiemonster]

Don't worry, there are still people who want amazingly written stories and complex characters!! I much prefer stories that aren't pwp because I love being able to feel for the characters 🥰 Whether the stories are fluffy, funny, angsty... it doesn't matter. Everything you write is pure ✨️gold✨️ You can take all the time you need, I'll still be waiting patiently for your next fics~~

that is truly so great to hear that 🥹💜 i've been super busy with life this summer (and year, for that matter), and so i haven't been logging on as frequently. but i've also been finding that i don't necessarily miss it? like, every time i log on, i'm just reminded at how the bts fanfic space on this site has taken a turn i don't particularly like. i've been on this site for a looooooooong time (and in multiple fandoms), and the thing i've always loved about tumblr is that it always felt like you were part of a community. people would actually interact with each other and share each other's content and fangirl together and it really felt like you were part of something, and not just a content creator-consumer relationship, like on all other sites. once that tiktok mentality of liking but never sharing hit over here, and once people only bothered to give attention to poorly-written big dick jk fics, it's kinda like...what's the point of putting in all the effort if i don't get the sense of community that i've been doing this for? and i'm clearly not the only writer who has felt this shift, as you can see how many long-standing writers in our fandom have finally decided to move on during the bts hiatus. the fandom over here has started to feel like it feels on twitter--mean, immature, and doing everything for clout and popularity instead of purely for the love of enjoying the company of others who share your interest.

as of now, i'm still mulling over how much more i want to put into this blog. i have so much i still want to share, and i know there are wonderful people like you still hanging in there and keeping up the sense of community that i so love! 💜💜 i've also been considering finally starting to work on some original fiction, so i think i'll do that this year. but i definitely have some ideas that i want to exist in the world that i can only see as bts fanfiction, so i guess a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do 🤣💪🏾

anyways, sorry for rambling, but thank you so much again for always being so supportive and for making this hellsite a fun place to be!!! you really lifted my spirits today and motivated me to get some writing done. so hopefully i'll have something to share with you soon! 💜 hope you've been well~

[yallemagne]

This year, I'm not doing Dr*cula D*ily

Or any other substack but DD is the biggest. I have numerous reasons for this decision that none of y'all are gonna particularly care for, but ya know, just so we got our expectations in order: I'm not gonna participate in DD this year (maybe never again), I'm probably not gonna reblog many posts related to it (doing so would be counterintuitive), but I am holding myself to finishing Orice (at LEAST the base fic).

Now, why?

TL;DR: Mental health crisis brought on by internet harassment and overprioritizing social media. It's not fun anymore, folks.

DD just... it completely ruined the novel for me.

It was a nice phenomenon, but it took a wrecking ball to my mental health and self-worth. Now, I'm not saying DD's creator personally did something to spite me (or maybe I am, he knows what he did /j), but this whole thing? It wasn't good for me. It was never good. It was sometimes fun, but most of the time it made me want to end it because of thumblr notes.

That's fucking stupid. My life is not worth internet validation. My art is not worthless just because my numbers are not as big as the biggest big shots in the fandom. I'm not a horrible person when other people handle personal disagreements regarding headcanon with defaming rumours and impersonation. But hell! My view of reality was horribly skewed.

A while back, I unfollowed all the gothlit tags I previously followed because 1) Some people (active and popular members of the fandom, mind you, not bots or trolls) were posting honest-to-god name-dropping harassment in the tag because "it's a popular tag so more people will see my callout post" and 2) I reached a point where seeing anything related to the novel on my dash just set me off. It didn't even need to be drama-related anymore. Mentions of the characters, mentions of popular AUs, just the very content of this book became triggering to me, and I really didn't miss the content when it was gone, as sad as that is.

And the kicker? I've come to realize that I probably dislike more things about the novel than I actually like about it. Not only is it tied to some of my darkest moments in recent memory, but it's also just... a book with many flaws that I could go on and on and on about. Sometimes, it straight-up made me furious, like seething mad, and I think I'd rather just be happy. But even when I would try to channel that energy into being happy, I always felt I had to over-clarify or else I’d get bombarded with anonymous messages. If you’ve seen any of my posts from during that time… chances are there is a passive aggressive “btw people can have opposing opinions from you about an old book and it doesn’t give you leave to stone them” or several tags of “#this is a joke #a jooooooke #for the love of god #if y’all don’t stop”. I bet it was as annoying for y’all as it was for me.

P.S. Mutuals/friends, do not worry. Y'all keep doing y'all. I can and will block tags if seeing your posts triggers me. So, I suppose my only request is to properly tag, but I've been saying that from the very start.

I just want to move on to other things.

I took a break for Lent. I needed it terribly. And... not gonna lie? I almost didn't want to return. I never got an itching to just log on and "check in". I very successfully avoided tumb altogether. I came back because "I gotta come back eventually" and also like, this is my main hub where I update when I've written a fic, and ya know... I'm not gonna let toxic fandom bs rule my shit.

During my break, I got back into gaming. More specifically, I started playing Hades again. And listening to Epic the Musical. Aaaand boyyy did that bring me back to my Greek mythology phase. I have a Greek mythos/Hades sideblog btw: @areopagusimp. It's cringe, if you can't tell by the blog name.

Back when I was into Hades game and general Greek mythos, my expectations were so much smaller, but yet, my goals and will to create seemed so much bigger. I made art that no one gave a single solitary shit about (except for my friend), but I was happy. Maybe I'm wearing rose-tinted glasses, but... even if I wasn't as happy then as I remember being... haha at least I wasn't receiving threats and insults in my inbox back then :))). That was the most fun thing about the gothlit fandom. I hope every single chickenhearted angry anon is proud of their behaviour.

But yeah, whatever I end up doing, I’m striving to not let it run me into the ground.

But... What do I do now?

I have so many WIPs (art and writing) for the novel, and it's very disappointing that I didn't get to finish them before it all turned sour. Hopefully, I can still finish them, it just won't be with the same distress I worked with before. Hopefully, I can post that stuff and fully manage my expectations, not crash and burn when only a few people like it. Because hell! A few people liking my stuff? That's amazing, really. I shouldn't take that for granted. At the same time, I'm setting a boundary for myself. Placing my self-worth into the hands of people who I don't know, who don't know me, and who aren't even paying for the art? I need to stop that. Who the hell is that gonna serve? Absolutely no one.

My number one goal is to finish Orice. It is somehow untouched by my aversion to the novel; it is my safe space. I want to honour it and honour the longtime readers who have stuck with me. It's gonna be hard, but it's gonna be worth it for me.

This feels attention-seeking, and it kinda is. I'm not tagging the main subject and I'm not allowing reblogs because I want this to stay isolated (and hopefully prevent backlash/misunderstandings), but ya know, no matter how much I try to keep this small, I'm still posting it online. But I just feel like I needed to get this off my chest. I don't really owe everyone an explanation, but I want there to be one for my own sake... also it's much easier to generalize and make a post than contact each of my friends/mutuals on here and unload stuff onto them that I'm not sure is too personal or not.

For those of you who are reading: I love y'all. I love the good people I've met through all this mess. I want to keep the good apples, not throw out the whole harvest, alright? Dunno how much you'll care for my art when the subject is different, but... eh. If y'all are willing to try?

[snarkythewoecrow]

Truth or Dare Tag Game

Okay, I am totally avoiding all my wips right now, so doing this instead, thanks @underwaterninja13

Which friends/mutuals would you call to hide a body?

@buckybeardreams I feel they would help without too many questions, and probably those would only be where and when, and if I needed a shovel

How many user subscriptions do you have on Ao3?

eh, more than some, less than others, but it's in the 4 digits

Do you have a crush on someone? OR If you're with someone, tell us one thing you love about them.

my hubby cuz he's ride or die, and didn't get all cranky yesterday when informed him in had spilt an ice coffee on the spare clip to my gun, and then kinda forgot to tell him for two days, and it had like caramel in it, and yeah, it was sticky and gross, but he cleaned it all for me, and still loved me after, and my bestie denim cuz they know all the right things to say when shit is extra shitty

What does the last DM/text you sent say?

(we were discussing tommy/buck lol)

totally, like all his other relationships were shit shows waiting to crash and burn, and like it showed, hence needing to talk to bobby every time about them, but like, yeah, with tommy it's different, it's a whole different vibe, mature and safe, for once his relationship isn't chaos and built on some weird and unhealthy foundation, like what he has with Tommy is just so different because if you think about it, he is the first person that doesn't want Buck to be something he's not, doesn't want anything from him other than to be part of his company, Tommy is patient and just wants him, wants Evan, and like there is no drama attached to it, they are equals and meeting with mutual understanding of careers, like they can just be and Buck doesn't need to struggle against what he'd faced in the past, partners only seeing him as a hero or a slut or as an object of death to study, like he really can just be himself with tommy

List the three friends/mutuals with the best takes.

@kittyneedsbetterhobbies @buckybeardreams

Share one of your favorite fics of all time.

yeah, I just went and stared at my bookmarks and then closed the tab cuz got overwhelmed, seriously, it's so all mood related for me, but there are some that are memorial for me, for sure, so maybe a few randoms that i recall enjoying but might be lesser known:

Jar of Hearts by Cupcakemolotov -- Caroline/Klaus (Vampire Diaries)

Of Old Soldiers and Missing Wars by NonchalantxFish -- Steve Rogers & Tom Riddle (MCU and HP)

of stitches and first meetings by buckaroos -- Buck/Eddie (911 but kinda crossed with supernatural)

List three of your favorite content creators.

wrinkling my nose at "content creators" being used as a term here, but anyway, definitely @voxofthevoid and um, pretty sure I don't have any others that stick out

Write one thing you love about yourself.

that i'm getting much better at being myself, no matter how weird that may be to some

Which fandom of yours (past or present) has the best fics?

idk, depends what you want to read, some fandoms are smaller, some focus more on wholesome shit, some are more big enough to include a wide variety of fuckery, so best depends on what's best to you at the time, but the bigger and older the fandom, the more likely the writers have life experience and actually had anal before which, my god, unless you like a finger in your ass for foreplay, my god, what is with the one-two-three fingers, you're all stretched, now let's go, shit? like every time??? anyway, continuing on......

Which creation of your own are you the most proud of?

Came back to edit and scratch that answer out, I really like and maybe not the most proud of, but definitely up there:

a little dented (but definitely not broken) by snarkymuch --this was important to me for many reasons, but proud of how it turned it, and of the emotion it captured

uh... not me forgetting everything i've ever written rn, um, i like a lot of the self harm ones, with buck/eddie, the emotion was nice to write, the build and tension, tbh, i'm blanking--i mean, the pikachu one was cute, also can't remember what it's called rn though, something like, I choose you pikachu (and other ways two idiots say i love you) <--could be way off on title there

Have you ever read RPF?

not really, though kinda suppose that's what I do with my friend by accident all the time when talking fic ideas

Tag the mutual(s)/friend(s) most likely to get away with murder.

probably myself, or like me and @buckybeardreams

Tag the mutual(s)/friend(s) who know(s) the most about you.

@buckybeardreams and weirdly, pretty sure @plotbunnypettingzoo has picked up so many random facts from reading my posts and talking to me

Now tag some friends to play!

@plotbunnypettingzoo @buckybeardreams @kittyneedsbetterhobbies and anyone else interested

[rae-gar-targaryen]

I have a question about reblogging fics that I would love your opinion on as a writer… I admittedly rarely reblog fics, artwork or photos from the TGM fandom because it’s a side interest for me, and really doesn’t match the content on my blog. I hear you and many other fandom creators on this site talk about the importance of reblogging original content and I want to help by changing my behaviour. I’ve thought about creating a new blog to specifically support the TGM creators I love by reblogging their content, but worry that that isn’t a very helpful solution because the reblogs would probably go to a “dead end” and not be further shared past my blog. Does that seem like a reasonable solution to you, or is there a more helpful way I can take action? Thanks in advance for your guidance - I love your Mickey pieces and would hate to see you stop sharing your writing due to a perceived lack of interest!!

Hi, my darling! Thank you for this question, and for taking the time to write about this! I hope you didn't think I was ignoring you -- I've been thinking about how I want to answer and what I could suggest. I am by no means the premiere authority on this sort of thing, so I welcome my other writer friends to chime in. But here I go --

Firstly, thank you so much for your love of my content and wanting to help promote it/other writer's works. I also appreciate you being willing to step out of your comfort zone in order to benefit writers and creators on Tumblr. That's so kind and so important.

To some extent, I understand being known for certain content on your blog, and not wanting to disrupt your own content for your followers. I know some blogs are really fandom and aesthetically oriented. So I get that.

That said, one big point of reblogging is getting the material in front of new eyes, so if your OG blog has the numbers to help writers get seen, I can't express enough what that would mean to me, and to other writers to be shared to that forum.

It's no secret that one frustration I have with my own writing is that it never seems to "break through." I am fortunate to receive the positive feedback that I do, and one of the things I regularly hear is "this is so well-written!" And "why doesn't this have more notes?" I wish I knew -- the answer is that it could, if things didn't sit in the likes tab. And it sort of breaks my heart to read what is intended as a compliment that serves to remind me that my content is only reaching the eyes of whomever happens to be browsing the tag that day and few others.

That said, to your suggestion about creating a side blog/library blog and the concern that it would be a "dead end," you're right in that reblogging content into a dead blog or one that doesn't have many followers does not remediate the issue. So, my counter-question to you is -- are you willing to disrupt the flow/aesthetic of your main to either share fics, or to promote your side blog and encourage your followers to check it out/follow the writers you share to there? The latter may be more effort than you're willing to put in to the endeavor (and I certainly would never ask or expect anyone to bend over backward). And the former may not be what you're willing to do for the sake of what you're already sharing to your blog.

So -- if there's an answer, I'm not sure I have a clear one. I appreciate your willingness to share. And if you one day do, I know it would make that writer's day! It would certainly make mine.

And I'm not trying to guilt anything, but I can't tell you the number of times I've felt that looming cloud of discouragement because I look at the metrics and think, "well, that flopped." Because if people are silently reading and not saying anything, it may not be the case that my fics are flopping in that sense, but if that's true, I have no way of knowing. For me, an ask (I keep anon on for a reason), a comment reblog, tags, a comment, something that lets me know what someone enjoyed about my story?? Makes my entire day! I put so much thought into exactly how I want a sentence to sound. What I want the flow of a story to be. The vibe I want to convey. It's all intentional. And it can be heartbreaking when you feel like it resonated with no one.

If you're still reading this, thank you! Thank you for asking! Thank you for your patience and dedication to reading and hopefully sharing work! You have a few options, and I welcome others' suggestions. All my best to you, my love. And happy reading! I have so many fics planned for the coming months. 💜🌿☀️🌻✨

[coff-in]

you don’t need to apologize! it’s easy to feel burnt out specially with how many requests you get

do things on your own pace! i hope you feel better soon!! (ps: we’ll patiently wait for new i.i.i chapters!!🎉)

— Dungeon Anon

i hope i feel better too! everyone has been really nice towards me so far, i'm just not used to having an audience like this ^^; it's my first time actively participating in a fandom, i'm usually a consumer of content, so when i started making stuff i tried to live or keep up with the expectations i had for creators as a consumer and i'm realizing that the expectations i have are NOT forgiving :(

big vent talk (don't feel like you have to read it all)

i want to post something-- anything really-- to make sure that:

you guys know that i'm still active (my biggest fear is finding wonderful content made by wonderful creators and figuring out that they're inactive or on a undisclosed hiatus-- which is their right to do so, ofc! i don't say this to be intentionally rude or entitled)

to keep your attention (i like reading your asks and requests and they actively help me expand my own thoughts and ideas by introducing me to concepts i wouldn't have thought of before)

however, i think by keeping myself up to this "professional" standard i have in my head, i've sort of been taking the fun out of writing your requests little by little. i don't want to put blame on my audience and i entirely take blame or fault or burden for my feelings and thinking when approaching all this. like, i notice that i answer more conversational asks quicker than i do more formal one (ie i'll answer "hey coff-in! tell me your thoughs..." before i'll tackle "could i request...") it's also my fault for keeping my inbox open all/most of the time. i've gotten so used to the joy and happiness of getting an ask or request that i honestly get worried when i don't see a notification next to my inbox in the morning or before i go to bed.

i have a bad habit of getting really attached to fandoms and projects and then just... not finishing them. now that i have an audience, people who come to me (my blog), i fear about disappointing them when i have nothing to show. i've been working on other little side projects so i don't over-saturate on tcoaal and lose interest (i have new books to read, i'm working on a ren'py visual novel, i have dnd planned with online friends) and they bring me joy, but i'm constantly plagued with the thought that i'm doing something wrong by not working on something tcoaal related. and when i do answer requests or write for indulgence in isolation, i'm afraid that is isn't good enough. i know that it's a silly expectation to have-- i'm not a professional by any means, i'm a 19 year old student who barely goes outside-- but it just HAUNTS me. it makes me scared...

... i try to keep pushing though. i know that my characterizations of andrew and ashley aren't anything close to canon or as good as canon but that's to be expected, no? i'm not nemlei and these aren't my characters so i'm not going to feel as comfortable writing for them as i do my ocs and orginal characters.

i'm mostly just fighting myself these days.

i'm happy that you guys get that though! you guys don't force or demand me to write or answer requests... i just, i'm just so grateful to have you guys here to stumble upon my little blog. i've gone from posting little ficlets i've written in my notebook to nobody to answering requests and writing multi chapter fanfiction and drawing oc art to about 110 people (and those who lurk) in about two months. i have to remind myself that it's reasonable to get stressed and feel overwhelmed and to overwork myself, it's my FIRST TIME doing this!! there's no real study guide to handling fame (and i've never been good at studying anything ^^;)

i'll try to get writing out but it's probably won't be daily anymore (unless it's questions about my ocs, since i'm the most comfortable writing for my own characters) but it'll try to post something everyday. again, i'll also be writing for indulgence in isolation behind the scenes, too. i wanted to have longer chapters (about 3k-5k words) but i struggle producing 1.5k-2k words in about three days, so those updates may be a bit longer... i like writing, i'm just not good at it

i'm sorry for the long vent and all it's messiness. it felt nice typing it all out though. i've always felt like i had to explain my feelings somehow and it's nice to tell it to people instead of my empty bedroom aloud. it gives me a feeling of closure.

thank you all for listening and reading :) and thank you for your continued support

----

coff-in

[eyenaku]

YOU SAID SEND ASKS EVEN IF THEY'RE DUMB SO I'M GONNA SEND ONE.

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE DAYCARE ATTENDANT WHEN SAW THEM FOR THE FIRST TIME (IN GAME AND IN FANDOM) AND WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOU REALLY, REALLY LIKED THEM?

okokokok so basically i was avoiding fnaf like the plague bc i am terrified of animatronics and horrible with jumpscares in particular! but my best friend is a long time big time fnaf fan and so since like 2017 i was consuming fnaf content passively through them, and even since the game came out i was seeing stuff about it i just never got into it bc it wasn't super appealing

i was really invested in afton family lore n such so i got into fnaf because of that but was avoiding most animatronic content bc weee big fear (a few exceptions of animatronics though i.e. ballora) I could not figure out why i was so scared of them but I FIGURED IT OUT!! more on that later-

so fnaf sb came out n ofc I was watching playthroughs on call w/ my friend (before i played it, i played it soon after) and when sun showed up i was very much,,,, not scared of em?? i could not figure out why?? but i didn't really *focus* on them cuz i wasn't super into fnaf outside of afton family stuff

my friend kept sending me sun and moon fanart bc I did not have an upset reaction to them which was abnormal up until that point, and so i started to actively think they were neat! not super into them to the extent i came to be though- but i did figure out that the reason i have no issue with them and do have an issue with outer animatronics is because of their eyes! even moon who has "pupils" doesnt have the horrible doll-like "realistic" eyes most of the animatronics have- which is what was so unnerving about them to me. absolutely hate dolls and stuffed animals with eyes i have no idea why but one day they were just BAD and as a kidd i threw all the ones i had away and never looked back for the most part,,, but anyways sun and moon's designs were very appealing to me as i've always loved clown/jester type designs, celestial designs, pantomime-esque designs, marionette/bjd type designs (every time i draw them they have ball joints even now), etc. i also love love play structures and i've also always lowkey wanted to work in early education or in a daycare so the very environment was appealing! the designs really hit all of my interests AND were free of what was terrifying about the other animatronics

ANYWAYS i think the turning point (like it was for a lot of people in this fandom) was bamsara's work/solar lunacy! up until that point i had specifically avoided and never touched self insert fics + art, but it's so well written it changed my initial views about the whole category entirely ! because of that i was able to appreciate/consume more of the dca fandom content, which has so many talented creators! aside from that i remember being really really invested in 8um8ble8ee's dca work!

the designs being so appealing to my interests is likely one of the main reasons though aya!! jesters! bells! glow in the dark! stars! sun and moon motif! they remind me of those porcelain pierrots- one of my interests is the history of pantomime/commedia dell arte! i really don't think there's one thing about them or one moment i can remember that i was like YOOOOOOOOO!!!! it kinda just took over my brain hdsjkhsad

anyways i do remember distinctly sometime last year going wait- wtf?? because i'd thought this was a small time interest! something small i'd only taken casual interest in for a month or so, like so many other things, but then realizing i'd been making ART (not just consuming media) of them since at least december of 2021??? which is kinda insane to me!! (/pos ofc) before that time i was going through a really messy and just bad point in my life, and one of the ways I was tracking time was by the way my hair looked- i'd gotten obsessed with mykull afton after all the bad stuff and impulse cut my hair into a mullet and re-dyed it my natural colour after having bleached it brown, but this "first" drawing of sun was BEFORE my hair changed?? which i had not realized at all?? somehow in my head it was bad thing->mykull->dca but it looks like i was consuming and creating dca content through it all

anyways hsjhsjakjas i forgot what i was saying but i think i just really really liked them since i first saw em- i just didn't realize how much they had infiltrated my life until later somehow?? so ~may 2022 was when but really it was more like ~dec 2021? they make me so so happy i have no idea what it is to be honest

so ye in-game wise it was sorta on sight, fandom wise it was bc of solar lunacy + 8um8ble8ee !!

i still think its really funny that i like em so much, considering some of my biggest fears are Animatronics, Jumpscares, and The Dark BAHAHAHA

[lizzybeth1986]

(I'm so sorry this is so late, I was going nuts keeping track of the links. How do you guys do it!!!)

I honestly love the idea of a week to appreciate both content creators and content promoters in the fandom - and I know I'm a little late coz of RL stuff but I'd still like to show my love to so many people who have made my time in the Choices fandom such a beautiful experience!! Thank you so much @choicesfandomappreciation for this incredible week and I hope it gets the best response.

Over the years I've been in the Choices fandom, I've been blown away by the transformative power of fanfic itself - I know so many writers who explore facets of characters that I hadn't even thought of, placed them in different universes...and sometimes even wrote fics that attempted to improve on things that canon either left hanging or that canon did wrong. My reading had gone down in the past few years and there's a whole bunch of fics I've bookmarked hoping I'll do full justice to reading them...but here are the ones I really wanted to give a shoutout to:

Fics and Meta:

@callmetippytumbles - Shoutout to one of my oldest friends in the fandom. While she is no longer active in the Choices fandom, I have to say her work changed the way I looked at fanwork in big ways. Tippy's fics are the best because she has an exquisite way of exploring her characters and making them come alive, and a fantastic sense of humour which she injects into a lot of her work. She incorporated themes and discussions that she experienced and/or researched on, in ways that flowed seamlessly into her narratives. Her series Home, and her fics Wash Day and Juneteenth (among many others) was a great example of this. She also wrote one of the few Drake x Kiara fics I liked (of course this was kind of before canon itself crapped itself all over that possibility) called Bold. Metawise, she was no stranger to essays and often did reviews that made people laugh their lungs out and think deeply about stuff at the same time. I miss her presence in fandom immensely but I feel great joy seeing her post about all the things she loves 🥰

@thefirstcourtesan - Also an old friend whose fanfic I was a big fan of when I first became part of the fandom in 2018. She has written on a range of books, but I tend to stick to books and pairings I know really well so my favourites always wind up being her Eleanor x Liam fics, as well as her friendship fics that feature her Drake MC Amelia with Hana. Amelia and Hana are two very different people with different responses to similar family environments, and therein lies the beauty of that relationship. A lot of her transformative fic re: Hana was done with this MC's PoV (Eleanor, her Liam MC, was closer to Olivia and - in a AU/rewrite - Kiara). My favourites were The Perfect Gift which rewrote the gift-choosing scene in TRR3, and her fics featuring Hana and Amelia supporting each other during labour (The Best Laid Plans & Support). The second in that pair - Support - is more recent and I love it especially for how Misha isn't afraid to explore Amelia's flaws and where she can do better in her friendship with Hana (plus Kiara gets to go off about it to Amelia's face, which I highly appreciate).

@cassiopeiacorvus - I'm absolutely in love with Cassi's meta and hcs!! She has some of the most creative ones, and I love how she (and this is something I see in @thecapturedafrique too) incorporates details from canon and tries to integrate fresher perspectives. Among her meta I would highly recommend the essays that explore what being single in Choices books look like, her absolutely brilliant essay on Xanthe...and her Liam, Hana and Kiara HCs! (My absolute favourite is the hc that Liam and Hana regularly fight over whether vanilla or chocolate is better 😄). Her fic, A Lesson in Sources, is a sumptuous treat of humour, familial bonding and lore and I would highly recommend it to all TRR fans. She's also an incredible artist...but that's a post better suited for tomorrow!

@thecapturedafrique - Listen if there is one reason you haven't seen a lot of Nikki's fanfic, it's because she's super-detail-oriented and has a whole incredible UNIVERSE for her TRR characters! It's why I honestly cannot wait for her fics to come out, but for now she has plenty of amazing headcanons that explore so much about the characters and give them so much depth. You can see how her consummate worldbuilding has made her fics incredible, from her Liam fanfic Silver Spoons. It highlights the tension between Liam and Constantine after the reveal in Book 2, Regina maintaining the peace between the two and acting as the reasoning factor, hints of her MC Ally's background and of course, a whiff of jasmine perfume that is a reminder of Liam's mother 🥺 Nikki also recently put out an excerpt of her beautiful fic based on Kiara's Cotillion, and I hope to see it in full soon 🥰

@mand-delemonde - If you're a Kiara stan you HAVE to read Midterms! It's a sweet, subtly humourous fic that looks at a Kiara who is privileged but happy to use that privilege for good. In an ocean of fics that simply insult and tear her down, this was a realistic and fun depiction of her that didn't try to make her out to be picture-perfect yet explored how great of a friend she was. He is also writing "Favourites" (here's 1 and 2) which is an ongoing series exploring Liam's (referred to as Philip) relationship with each of his four children.

@twinkleallnight - I met her last year and we bonded instantly over being Desi Choices fans! I've had the opportunity to see some really lovely stuff from her, including her series Once Upon a Time which follows different characters of the TRR series telling stories to their children. A lot of the pairings are new to me, but I really loved the overriding theme of translating your own story into a fairytale for kids. She also recently wrote two really good Kiara focused fics - Melting Moments explores her as a teen and All We Have Is One Another, where she has to let some of those teen dreams go, as an adult. Really loved the way she characterized Kiara there as both practical and a dreamer!

@lorirwritesfanfic - Lori writes for a range of characters, pairings and books, but I have a HUGE soft spot for the Hayden x MC fics!! Her Hayden and Natasha are wonderful and loving and incredibly sexy together. One of my favourite stories is Fate/Coincidences, which was written around the time of the first Hayden Young Appreciation Week. It was an incredible piece which looks at how Hayden perceives questions of having a soul and finding ones true love, even after he has left Eros. Recently she wrote the sweetest wedding proposal fic for the two as well!!

@zoey-wades - Her Liam x Lyra fics are amazing, and honestly her MC Lyra is so amazing and she explores them both in a canon-verse (one of the big gems is Picture Day, which I love especially for its adorable depiction of Liam doing a hairstyle his young daughter's curly hair (and is one of the best TRR fics I have seen exploring a black person's hair and their relationship to it) as well as another one, Start Spreading the News, that explores Lyra's homesickness for NY) and a Dark Liam x Lyra-verse named Honeymoon that takes place in a Crime Family AU. Very often a darker version of Liam is written as an unrelieved villain, but this series of fics explores him in a lot of depth.

@lilyoffandoms - I haven't been able to read a lot of her fic since I left Choices before BoLaS came out, but I was mesmerized by her drabbles and short pieces! I honestly can't get over how much emotion and subtle interactions she packs over a few hundred words...that's a skill in itself and she does it so well. A mood that would take me 1000 words to set up, Lily can set up in maybe 300 or less. Amazing. My favourite has to be the Game Night, which pairs Lily Spencer of BB and Chadley of RCD. They're very much their fun canon characters...and a pair I wouldn't have thought twice about...but she did make me as a reader connect to them 🥰 She's also done a super cute A Year of Kisses series that I'm slowly trying to read that is based on mainly Tyril x MC of Blades.

@missameliep - I've just begun reading some of their work and I love it! I recently read the mini-series Rainy Days and it touched me to see a depiction that focuses on what Liam went through when his father died, and his own doubts about his capabilities as a king. Canon often avoided this and it really makes my heart glad to see a fic that tries to center Liam in that exploration rather than the MC or anyone else. They've also done some really lovely D&D, Blades and RoD fics!

@noesapphic - I met and spoke to her while I was running an appreciation week but I'm certain I've known her before then! Recently she filled me in on what happened in D&D post Book 1, which made me a slight bit more confident about reading and understanding fics from that book! She seems to have a knack for very deep worldbyilding and crossing over universes, which I find very impressive, and she has done fics for ACoR, RoD and TRM. Very recently I've begun reading her epic Supernatural AU for D&D, The Cursed Heiress. It's still my early days of reading and I've been saving the chapters to comment on soon, but I've found it elaborate, intriguing and full of wonderful magical lore! I can't wait to read more!!

@ohsnapitzlovehacker - I know them more for their lovely hcs, cute MCs and riveting liveblogs, but they've also written one of my favourite meta series' - Being Black in Choices. The first essay explores the experience of playing with a Black MC (including talking about context and appearance) and the second about contextualizing LI treatment! Truly an amazing essay duo! I've also seen some amazing Sloane fic with her PM MC Aaron, and they're so cute and funny and wholesome together 💖

@feisty-mary - She was one of the first people I talked to in fandom and she did incredible work both with fandom and meta! Among her fanfic my favourites were her Chazz x Violet fic, The Beauty and Beast, as well as A Pawn's Gambit, where her MC Sabrina speaks to Bertrand, reiterating her belief in Liam after the events of Book 1. In Meta I think my all-time fave was her first essay on Liam, written immediately after the Book 1 finale which explained perfectly why Liam's reaction made sense (remember - this was at a time when he was receiving all sorts of hate for choosing Madeleine).

Along with these fantastic writers, are those whose work I've loved, and who I still miss because they are no longer a part of the fandom:

1. Pixieferry - Her Tale of Tales (a Hamid x MC fic that explores his story in the context of what the Ottoman Empire was like at the time) was so incredible and intricate. You could almost smell the roses and feel the pathos of Hamid's situation. She also had some really cute Liam x MC fics and was a Storyscape fan who did fics on Titanic as well!!

2. Violetflipflops - She had fics on an insane number of pairings but my favourites were always her fics with Liam and her MC at the time Allie Keswick. Especially the ones from Books 1 and 2.

3. Alicars: I still recall she had a one-shot fic where her MC was preparing to marry someone else while still having feelings for Liam...and it was so good and received such an incredible response that it developed into an 8-chapter (I think?) story. And it was such a beautiful one where Liam and Alex had lost and found each other.

4. The OC Lady Plays Choices: She quit PB a long time ago but I remember her fics with great fondness. She was also one of my first friends in the Choices fandom. She did a lot of Liam x MC fics - some smut, some fluff - but my fave was one where Liam was explaining his country's history (TCaTF, essentially) through stories to the MC. It was cute, fluffy and a slight bit sexy towards the end xD

[dimdiamond]

ok I just read y'all's comments and who says tintin is not popular in america or even tintin is considered unpopular ?girl wth that's not true at all,I can tell you literally more than 50% of tintin fanpages in Instagram is american,you just write his hashtag on insta and you'll see plenty of fanarts or books or videos related to him or even new written comics which have the herge's style about tintin that all are american,in Google says that tintin is literally in top 3 of most famous and successful comics in both 20 and 21 century so it's highly popular in every place of the world,as far as I know there are some tintin paintings in some places in america like museum or smth that's so huge and popular so I just wanted to make this clear buddy love you 🤏🏻

Glad to know that, nonnie! I am happy Americans love Tintin too and yes it's a fact The Adventures Of Tintin is considered a legend in the comic history worldwide, you have so many people writing essays about it and its creator or simply fans.

Our point, that has somehow been misunderstood, is that in America Tintin and other bande designee comics aren't that popular comparing to other comics, like the American ones of course and Japanese ones. Additionally, there has been no new content since Herge died so that would naturally lead to a comic being less famous. Yet, Tintin remains popular so that's a big thing and I'm glad the series keeps gaining more fans because, well, it deserves it and following Tintin other comics of this style and era can get more recognition too.

The Adventures Of Tintin is a unique case because, although, as you're saying, it is famous and has been recognized for its worth, at the same time you don't see people talking about it much or many haven't even heard of it. And if it was big in America, for sure it would rise its popularity all over the world (even though it is famous already in many parts of the world already but that's another issue about how the media and culture are American centric and anyway I'm not an expert to talk about it). Consider I am from a European country and it's hard to find the comics or products, despite the fact we had dubbed the cartoon series and many people grew up watching it.

It could be because of Tintinimaginatio's policy and tactics, it could be because there's no new Tintin content, it could be because of whatever but the fact remains that if you're fan of Tintin you have the feeling that there are a few of you, although there are many people who love Tintin all over the world. Maybe the tendency to treat the series like a museum exhibit or an old artwork has something to do with it. I can't say for sure why this happens.

Anyway I don't doubt there are American fans or that the series is recognized in America, I am just wondering how many people of the general audience there know the series and how much it is talked about when the topic of interest is comics in general.

[wahlpaper]

Radio Silence Review

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

CW: Suicidal Thoughts, Abusive Parent, Animal Death, Underage Drinking, School Stress, Depression, Arson, Death Theeats, Toxic Internet Culture, Stalking, Unhealthy Weight Loss, Positive References to Harry Potter and Scott Pilgrim, Anxiety, Racism, Queerphobia, Classism, Fire Injury

5/5

I've wanted to read Alice Oseman's Radio Silence for quite a while, but it was the most recent season of Heartstopper that motivated me to read it now. If you're familiar with Oseman, you might know that all of their stories are set in the same universe. You may also know that they don't always connect to each other. I had assumed that Aled (a character in the Heartstopper comic and Radio Silence) was renamed Issac for the show. When I realized his story was very different, I looked into why. Aled was left out in hopes that Radio Silence will get an adaptation. So, if you were wondering, you do not need to be familiar with Heartstopper to understand and enjoy Radio Silence. The story takes place after and is very much its own thing!

In Radio Silence, Frances Janvier is head girl of her school and achieving top grades. She's on track to go to Cambridge, but she's been missing out on a fulfilling social life because of it. The only two things she does in her free time are art and listen to a podcast called "Universe City". When she accidentally finds out that she knows the anonymous creator of the podcast, she starts to help with the show and get close to him. This is Aled Last, a depressed boy with an abusive mother and a missing twin sister. Time spent with Frances allowed both of them to embrace their true selves. Unfortunately, the problems in Aled's life may be too much for their friendship.

Being used to Heartstopper and Loveless, both by Oseman, I was unprepared for how dark Radio Silence was. While no main characters die, there are feelings of hopelessness and fear that can affect a reader. It's the first book I've needed a reading break from since Jennette McCurdy's memoir. In addition to the topics I've already mentioned, this book covers racism, single parent-hood, mental illness, flaws in the education system, suicidal thoughts, toxic internet culture, and stalking. The topics are all handled quite well, I just wish I had read a content warning going into it. For me, it helps to prepare for what I'm about to read instead of going in blind. All reading needs are valid!

The thing that drew me to Oseman in the first place was their inclusion of asexuality. While you do not need to be ace yourself to write ace characters, I do see it as a nice bonus. Being ace, Oseman tends to include that rep in most of their books. Over the course of Radio Silence, Aled discovers that he is on the asexual spectrum. It's something he's afraid to share as he doesn't know how others will react. I've had this same fear every time I've started being interested in someone new. Seeing realistic representation of my identity will always feel rewarding.

Oseman is great at writing varied and authentic queer identities. Aled is also into guys and potentially gender fluid. The podcast he creates often pulls from his own life and the main character of it is gender fluid. Frances knows she's bisexual before the book starts. She doesn't get a romance arc in this book, so it's not a big part of the plot, it's just a part of who she is. There's also a gay character and a lesbian character. Queer people flock together and it's clear that Oseman knows this.

I think that Radio Silence is mostly written very well! The pacing allowed the book to take up many months and feel like it. Every mysterious part of the story was revealed at the right time. The characters were all complex and interesting. The messages all got across. What I struggled with was how Frances was telling the story. Though it's all from her point of view at some time in the future, this feels uncertain and inconsistent. It's as if sometimes she was just describing it in the moment. She was also annoyingly repetitive at times. I think it would have worked better if she was either an unreliable narrator or if it was all in the present. It wouldn't need to be present tense, but lines like "I would always" or "I never saw [person] again" could be left out. There's always going to be something a book struggles with and that's okay.

Radio Silence is not just a must-read for Alice Oseman fans, but a great book for anyone upset with the school system, wanting a friendship love story, or looking for a serious read that turns out okay. If you decide to read it you'll be treated to bits of the fictional podcast, fashion ideas from the characters, and lots of queer rep! If this sounds like a book for you, trust your gut and pick it up!

[jcmarchi]

Aspects of the Early Web I'd Like to See Come Back – Speckyboy

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/aspects-of-the-early-web-id-like-to-see-come-back-speckyboy/

Aspects of the Early Web I'd Like to See Come Back – Speckyboy

The early web (we’ll define it as 1995 – 2005) was an adventurous place. The narrative was that anyone could participate in this new medium. Thus, it attracted an eclectic mix of creators.

We tend to look back to these days with some cringe. Yes, the design and technology of that era were lacking. And there were very few standards to speak of. But there were also plenty of positives.

I’m biased – my web design journey began in this era. Therefore, I have a lot of nostalgia. I’ve written about it a time or 10.

But there are things I miss about those days. Practices and ideas that defined the enthusiasm of the time. Things that have long since faded.

As such, here are some parts of the early web I’d like to see come back – even if only for a day!

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The Absence of Big Data

So-called big data wasn’t prevalent in the 90s. Google would plant those seeds in the decade. However, the web was yet to be controlled by trackers and algorithms.

Perhaps we didn’t have the same level of personalization. So what? The side benefit was a lack of manipulation.

We still saw this in the early days of Facebook and Twitter. Remember when your feeds were all in real time? It provided a sense of witnessing things as they happened.

Early search engines had similar perks. You were likely served the same results as someone on the other side of the world. Less convenient? Sure. But also less intrusive.

What we see now is ultimately controlled by companies. We don’t necessarily see the best search results. We see whatever Google’s algorithm deems appropriate.

Social media companies make it harder to view your feeds in chronological order. And advertisements are a little too personal, in my opinion.

It’s easy to understand why things have changed. Manipulating users is a profitable business. Plus, advertisers want to target specific audiences.

Still, I miss the days when the web had more randomness. Stumbling upon something new seems like a lost art.

The Simplicity of Website Design & Structure

“Things were simpler back then.” That’s a common refrain when adults talk about their childhood. I think it also applies to web design and structure.

There’s a good reason for that simplicity. HTML was basic. CSS didn’t even exist for part of this time. And there was only so much we could do with the day’s technology.

I can’t deny the prevalence of poor design. Web design was new. We were all amateurs in a sense. I played a role in making the place a bit unruly!

Even so, the limitations were often a good thing. The dangers of overcomplicating things became apparent. Designers eventually learned that simplicity was better for everyone.

On the other hand, we had very few standards or best practices. Things like performance, security, and accessibility received little consideration.

Today, we tend to overcomplicate things as a default. We use heavy content management systems (CMS) for brochure sites. We make a mess of security. And we use DIY tools without much thought about portability or ownership.

Perhaps the good parts of modern design can stay. But how about a resurgence of simplicity?

The Impact of the Solo Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship is still possible on the web. It’s the idea that an individual can make an impact with their creativity. That could be a product, service, or even great content.

I think it has become harder for individuals to succeed, though. There are too many mountains to climb.

Those algorithms make it harder to gain visibility. And there are so many people (and bots) competing for attention.

Not to say it was easy back in the day. But originality tended to shine through. Oddities like the Million Dollar Homepage are a prime example.

Early bloggers also had an opportunity to find a core audience. They built niche online communities dedicated to a shared interest.

Tools like WordPress make it easier to self-publish content. But reaching people has become a full-time job. Creators must often rely on sponsors and product placement to gain traction.

It used to be possible for content to spread organically. Search engines weren’t prioritizing big sites over small ones. Thus, anyone had a shot to be seen by potential followers.

What started as a side gig could turn into something more. That’s still possible in theory.

YouTube and TikTok are the flavors of the minute for this. But they are walled gardens. Doing something similar on an open platform is daunting.

The Freedom to Create and Connect

I love to think of the early web as uncharted territory. We couldn’t look to the past when populating this new medium. So, we made it up as we went along.

There were positives and negatives about this. Even then, some used the web for nefarious purposes. But they seemed like dark corners that were avoidable.

The bigger picture was all about freedom. Anyone could create and publish content. And the web would be a vehicle to make positive connections with others.

There was talk of the great potential it held for society. People without a voice suddenly gained one.

The biggest impediment at the time was access to technology. But that could be resolved through cheaper devices and widespread internet. The sky was the limit.

I believed in the web as a change agent. And that the world would be better for these newfound connections.

We haven’t quite gotten there. Repressive regimes have stifled free speech. Bot farms spread misinformation and create division. Large corporations make the rules with little oversight.

The web didn’t become a whole new world. It instead became a reflection of the one we already had.

Say it isn’t so, Tim Berners-Lee.

Letting the Past Guide Us

Here’s the good news: We now have a past era to look to. We can use it as a guide when building the web’s future.

I don’t expect Google, Facebook, or Twitter/X to change their ways. Not without the mandate of a governing body. But we also don’t have to follow their lead.

Those of us who build and publish can keep the ideals of the early web alive. Think of them as small pockets of resistance.

How do we do it? We can start by embracing open tools and platforms. Use a browser that focuses on user privacy. Publish with a CMS that gives you ownership. Support decentralized systems like the Fediverse.

Most of all, pass these lessons to the next generation. They haven’t experienced a truly open web. Show them why it’s worth having.

Perhaps the web was bound to be changed for the worse. But we can still use our little corner of it as a beacon of light.

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[dynamimight]

cw: THIS IS NOT A FIC, the internet is simply my diary lmao. just a lil thing to get stuff about tumblr rn out of my head. read if you please, i also rly want to talk about this w/ppl 😭😭 (readmore bc i put this in fandom tags)

i recently have been feeling a certain kind of way about reading fanfic; if i find myself scrolling (bored/looking for fun stories as always) i kinda just quickly scroll through the whole page and give?? up??? like im not as excited as i used to be. this is for a few reasons:

1. i feel like a lot of fics are the same now 👍🏼 not a terrible thing, but i really look back to the quarantine era of "forced creativity" (a different conversation) and think about just how much people were writing; not to "give out content," but to truly explore an online writing community and do something that was worthwhile. the resurgence if the "[as]" trend on tiktok really put that into perspective for me: quarantine forced ppl to explore creativity, created job opportunities based on that (influencers/content creators as we now know them), and really pushed artistry to the point of basic normalcy. even though this was a cool kind of thing (seeing so many ppl create), our level of understanding art and its brilliance was lowered. which brings me to point 2-

2. a good amount of the "creative era" of quarantine was simply ppl replicating other ppl's original ideas, or straight out stealing them to add an extra topping of fame, bc ofc "everybody wants to be famous." my best examples of this are the two sides of the tiktok coin: dancing & damelio.

dancing became a big thing, and it made sense to start dancing trends; a trend is just popularity + replication. but charli damelio becoming famous for creating one of those trends and it later being stated that a completely different girl, jalaiah harmon, created it and had no recognition until the news came out?

and yes, she was on ellen, but that pales in comparison to the millions of dollars that the damelio family made bc of one instance of improperly following a trend.

and that's what i see now with multiple online spaces; they've become boring bc everyone is doing the same thing w/o giving proper credit to anyone. before content creation & whatnot became huge, no one irl would go around seriously saying tht they created some huge, celebrity-reach trend without being checked.

now, the difference between tiktok and fanfic pertaining to "trends" is based on power imbalance. no one is gonna believe a middle schooler saying that they started the trend of wearing skirts over jeans when it was very obviously some a-list celeb. in writing, you look to your favorite authors, poets, etc. and formulate your own writing style. whether that's word choice, plot format, or anything else you can cultivate to your own writing experience.

while you can always put your own spin on new dance/fashion trend, writing is different. you wouldn't put a spin on a classic in the same way: it would be a modern retelling, or smth symbolic of the original. adding an extra move is is not equal to adding an extra sentence. and that is what leads me to my final point-

3. writing is becoming/has became very formulaic. a good amount of fics in the most popular fandoms here follow a similar style. we see this with the short cycle of complaints that went around when the fic format of "short blurb with a group of character names under it" came about. along with the fact that the format probably came from the notoriously unoriginal & wattpad-esque booktok, everyone who wanted activity in their notifs was using that format. and so now, with every new group of teens that comes here to enjoy stories and explore writing, the new "trend" isn't a fully fleshed out story: it's like pushing out content.

i'm not complaining, and i'm not saying that everyone lacks originality. i enjoy whatever ppl put out bc i know that any form of writing comes from some place within. i am simply making a written observation of something i've noticed happen over the last couple of years- being a younger teen when it started, and now growing into the basics of adulthood.

the internet is my diary lol