#NOT A SCRAP OF FANDOM SOLIDARITY

[guiltyonsundays]

it’s actually so sick and twisted that the Obernewtyn fandom is dead and buried and that there’s no Elspeth x Rushton fanfiction on AO3

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Got tagged by @chaotic-neutral-knitter to share my favorite fics I've written and I feel a little bad not putting any of my 3 OFMD fics on the list. But in my defense it was very hard to choose between my 116 slutty slutty children, and while I like my OFMD fics a lot (especially Learning and Remembering) I decided to limit myself to five fics across all the fandoms I have written for over the past nine (!!) years, and there are some that stand above the rest.

Maybe I'll Show You the Way (Dune, Paul/Chani). Maybe my recency bias is showing but I really think this is one of the best things I've written. Paul and Chani's whole "falling in love while fighting side by side in an anti-colonial armed resistance movement" romance in Dune Part Two felt like it was designed in a lab to appeal to me specifically, and I just wanted more of it! What started with a simple "5 times they fucked in between fighting the Harkonnens" premise has become a novella-length character study about war, politics, solidarity and resistance to oppression in all its forms, interlaced with a very sweet, youthful first-love romance that always has a bittersweet edge because we the audience know these characters are living in a tragedy. This fic is one chapter from completion and I've been stalling because I really wanna stick the landing on this one, but it will get finished!

a narrow door, swiftly closing (Dune, Paul/Duncan) Different ship, different era (post-Dune Part One) and a very different vibe. The fun of this ship is the multiple power imbalances running in different directions (younger/older, student/teacher, lord/vassal, end product of a 90-generation eugenics program with a mind that can bridge time and space/Just Some Guy). It's also got that chewy age gap thing where the older character has watched the younger character grow from a child to an adult and has to wrestle with the realization that they find them sexually attractive now. Peak forbidden romance and mutual pining in this one and not just one but two of my favorite finally-crossing-the-line kisses I have ever written.

Three Times Is a Habit (Trust, Primo/The Other Paul) Ah yes, my "which doomed curly-haired teenage twink heir to a powerful dynasty named Paul are we talking about?" era. For a hot second (most of 2021) I was really into this hidden gem FX limited series Trust, based (with many creative liberties taken) on the real kidnapping of John Paul Getty III in Italy in the 1970s. The fun of this fandom is that every ship is an absolute garbage fire of bad decisions, and writing the trainwreck emotional logic that leads to a traumatized teenager repeatedly hooking up with his kidnapper was an adventure. There's also a fun meta layer at play in the relationship between our reality, the fictionalized "true" version of the kidnapping that happens in the show, the lies the characters tell about the fictionalized version of the kidnapping in the show, and the version of the characters I'm writing, some of whom are based on real people and some of whom are made up. (Is this RPF? You decide.) This fic will make zero sense if you haven't watched the show. But you should! It's a wild ride with a great cast (Donald Sutherland presente!)

Salvage & Scrap (Mad Max: Fury Road, Gen) Two minor characters who have a combined total of maybe five minutes of screen time produced what was until recently my longest fic on AO3. This fic was based on a fantastic prompt: what if Ace (the older war boy who seems to be Furiosa's second in command on the War Rig) and Valkyrie (Furiosa's Green Place gal pal) both survived their violent vehicular encounters and met each other? The idea was immediately appealing to me because they both care about Furiosa but have known such different versions of her, and the way their worldviews would clash seemed like great story fodder. I still love the imagery of them meeting at the place where their worlds have literally collided--the wreck of the War Rig in the Rock Riders' canyon. Also I recently reread this and I forgot how devastating the tiny glimpse we get of Furiosa is in this fic.

Fightplay (Mad Max: Fury Road, Max/Furiosa) You know this list wouldn't be complete without a smutty Maxiosa fic. It was really hard to pick one piece of the 127k smut novel I wrote about them in non-chronological order over the course of about 3 years (2015-2018). But Fightplay was definitely the start of writing uhhh a certain kind of dynamic for them. The prose is very spare and exacting in a way that I still find hot 9 years later.

Tagging @thebyrchentwigges, @thetardigrape, @nandamai, @bethagain, @demolitionwoman-blog and anyone else who wants to do this!

[whumptober]

Sorry to bother (and sorry if I come across as hostile, this is very /nm) but I'm confused about the AI policy. You guys rightfully point out that feeding another person's work into an AI and posting the result will be disallowed because it's theft. But other AI works will be allowed, even though every single AI that's currently publicly available to people is trained on works (art or writing) that are scrapped without the creator's consent. Even AI that people use to just 'enhance a work' as you guys put it, does so by comparing said work to the scrapped pieces the AI was trained on. Which were stolen.

So what you're basically saying is people aren't allowed to steal themselves, but they're allowed to use a tool made from stolen works? Where's the sense in that?

I'm honestly very disappointed. In the past year, fancreators (and creators in general) have needed to jump through increasingly tight hoops to keep their work from being fed to AI against their will, and it still happens a lot. And now there's this big event that is supposed to stand in solidarity and be /for/ creators, and you're going to allow people to use a tool that in its current structure is inherently amoral and exploitive of other creators?

Why make the decision to not reblog it, but still allow it in the event/tag/collection on AO3? Why not say it's not allowed at all and block everybody who does put it in the tags? I /gen do not get why. You say it's nuanced but I do not get what's nuanced about "every AI currently available is trained on scrapped works"?

I've been participating in Whumptober every single year since 2015 and I'm very sad that if this is the mod's decision I will not feel safe as a writer to participate this year, knowing people in the tag/collection are allowed to post works that involve AI. I really just want clarification as to what is the 'nuance' that led to this decision???

AI tools are used in visual art to create effects, backgrounds, and other enhancements, so to say we're banning AI is like saying we're banning use of Photoshop. AI is used for the predictive text and spellchecker that's running while I type this reply. Accessibility tools rely on AI. People train their own bots on their own works to produce conversations with characters or role play a situation before writing prose. These are all legitimate uses of AI tools that we feel allow inclusivity to this event.

The mods cannot and will not police every single posted work for AI involvement. You don't have to post your work to be a participant. You don't have to prove you created 31 fanworks in October. You don't have to include your work in AO3 collections, or tag it, or strictly follow the prompts, or anything really. This isn't a contest and there aren't cash prizes. This event is about challenging oneself and being part of a community of fans all doing a fun fan thing together across different fandoms.

This mod is an English teacher and LOATHES ChatGPT as cheating. I agree with you that bots are trained by unscrupulous people scraping text without permission and it's shitty behavior. But we can't stop that, nor can we undo damage already done, and banning AI use (especially since we can't enforce it) is an empty stand on a hill that's already burning, at least in our view of things. And it alienates those who use AI tools for accessibility or any of the reasons cited above.

Once again, you do not have to post anywhere to participate. If you're worried about scraping and you don't want to lock your work, don't post it. It's always been the case that if you post something on the internet it can be used by others in ways you neither intend nor condone. It sucks that people are like that, and you have to do what makes you feel safe and comfortable, and that's OK.

If this stance is disappointing, we're sorry you feel that way. If you have a policy that is effective and still inclusive to all participants, we're happy to hear it.

[damienthepious]

continuing to be unhinged on main, i guess the florist/tattoo artist au has another chapter now??? but THIS time i truly think that’s it. that’s it! I’m tapped for this au. unless i think of something else fun. and then all bets are off.

Budding, Blooming (chapter 2)

[ch 1] [ao3]

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Lord Arum/Sir Damien, Sir Damien/Rilla, Lord Arum/Rilla, Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla

Characters: Lord Arum, Sir Damien, Rilla

Additional Tags: Second Citadel, Lizard Kissin’ Tuesday, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, (but there’s still monsters), Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Pre-Relationship, Romantic Tension, Poetry, Flowers, Valentine’s Day, (implied but not stated. could be a some weird modern-citadel fest), DOESN"T MATTER

Summary: ... Was he asking for a date, though?

Notes: okay fuck. alright. okay so there's more. it's fine. thank you for uhhhh sticking with me as i took an unexpected month off!! felt weird, gang. felt real weird.

~

Arum feels... unsettled as he locks up the shop, that evening. He half expected Damien to have returned before he finished, considering- well. Considering. But the street is dark and still shining with the brief rain from a few hours earlier, and it is entirely empty of meddling poets as Arum flicks the keys around his fingers, his shoulders sagging with a sigh.

Long, grueling day. Damien hadn't been the only annoyance, of course. He hadn't even been the worst annoyance, surprisingly, and Arum is... tired. Perhaps he should have told the poet to come another day- tomorrow, or next week, or-

(Enough time to talk himself out of the idea.)

"Did he finally get up the nerve?"

Arum jumps, the keys flinging off his fingertips and hitting the pavement with a heavy chime as he whirls, teeth automatically bared and another hand clenching hard behind his back.

"What?" he snaps sharply, embarrassed without really knowing why, and then-

It's the woman from across the street, from the tattoo shop. Amaryllis- Rilla, Damien's- his-

(Once or thrice she has stopped by, warm and chipper and citing small business owner solidarity with a smile, chatting amiably about her almost-botany-degree while acting as if Arum isn't the most uncomfortable and asocial monster to ever crawl out of the swamp. She's sourced rare or monstrous flowers through him before, too, both for her own personal collection and because pics on the internet aren't good enough, I want this piece to work and I want hands on the real thing for my preliminary sketches. Which Arum... could not help but respect. It makes sense, to Arum, that Damien would fixate on someone like her.)

(She goes by Rilla, he knows, but Damien's insistence every single time he tried to plan an arrangement for her, every time, it needed amaryllis, he must add amaryllis, and amaryllis for Amaryllis caught in his head sturdy enough that he cannot seem to shake that name.)

(And now she's here in front of his shop and almost leering while Arum is distracted thinking about Damien and she's asking about- what? What-)

"Whoa, sorry," she says, grinning in a decidedly unapologetic way as she lifts her hands. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"You- would hardly say that you-" he huffs, flicking his tail to snag the keys and dropping them back into his hands. "I am fine."

"Right," she says, her eyes dancing (reminding Arum forcefully of one of Damien's poetic scraps), and then she tips her head. "I was just curious, y'know. The holiday and all, and he came out of here absolutely bouncing. He usually looks like a wet puppy when he leaves your shop, you know."

"What?" Arum says again, pulling his head back. "Who?" he asks, despite the fact that his stomach is clenching with a certainty that he does, in fact, know who.

"Damien, that cute poet boy," she says, her mouth curling into a warmer smile. "He's friends with my brother, so he stops by the parlor sometimes. Or- they're friends now," she says, rolling her eyes and gesturing to nothing before she shakes her head. "It was a whole thing, before, but- nevermind, not the point. Did he finally...?"

She leaves the question in a suggestive stretch, her eyebrows rising as she trails off, and Arum clenches his hands and stiffens with another wave of incomprehensible embarrassment, his throat ticking in a helpless rattle and his traitor frill rising at his neck.

"I don't know what you could mean," he rushes in a single breath, wrinkling his snout with as much disdain as he can muster.

"Aw, c'mon," she wheedles, leaning closer as Arum stiffens. "I've been dying over there watching him dance circles around you."

"Around-" Arum sputters, flicks his eyes away. "Around me?"

Some of the smirk falls out of Amaryllis' smile, then, her expression softening. "It looked like he asked you out. That's all. I don't mean to be nosy, I just-" she pauses, then laughs. "I just am. Nosy, I mean."

Arum barks a laugh at that, helpless against it, and then he huffs a breath and glances to the side, to the still empty, still rain-wet street gleaming in the light from the shops. "I don't-"

And he pauses.

Did- was that-

He had assumed, from Damien's tone, from the context of the day and-

"He asked if he could come meet me," Arum says slowly. "After my shift was over. I don't... I don't know if he meant..."

He trails off, stomach twisting, suddenly much more uncertain, and then he looks to Amaryllis again. Her smile twitches as she meets his eye, and she nods, her expression going thoughtful and sympathetic.

"That sounds like he was asking you out?" she says, her inflection swooping upward at the end. "I would think?"

She pauses, while Arum's stomach continues to do unhelpful little turns, his hands flexing, and then she tips her head gently to the side.

"Did you... want him to be asking you out?"

Usually, Arum only wishes that he could sink into the mantle of the planet once per day at the very most. This holiday might kill him, he muses.

"N-no," he sputters after a suspicious beat. "He is- he- utterly obnoxious, and-"

"So... that isn't what the flowers are for," she drawls, her eyelids lowering and her smirk reemerging with a sly little twist (another poem screams to the forefront of Arum's mind, distracting as a flitting moth).

Arum stiffens further as the words sink into his mind. He clenches the hand already held behind his back, ineffectually trying to hide- the bouquet.

(Ridiculous. This was ridiculous. Two canceled orders and a few minutes stolen time and the vague idea that Damien would like these colors together, the memories of the flowers Damien gravitated towards when he would plan out his own arrangements-)

He manages a sound that could be half the word no, an awkward nasal humming, and then his voice fails entirely as the compulsive rattling growl in his throat takes precedence.

Amaryllis giggles, and Arum does not know why he does not instantly take offense to the noise. Perhaps because it sounds entirely joyful, and not at all mocking.

He sighs, after a moment, relaxing his arm and holding the bouquet at his side rather than behind his back. "Perhaps," he admits, but then he glances back through the unlit shop window, to where he can see the clock. "Though I'm not certain that it matters."

Her smile subsides a little, her head tilting. "Hm?"

"He's... late."

He told Damien he would be done around seven. He had been optimistic, apparently. It is already nearing eight, and... he and Amaryllis are still alone on the dimly lit street. He had been (without admitting it to himself) keeping an eye on the door since six thirty, for all the good it did him.

"Oh," Amaryllis says, and Arum turns his attention to her again at the quiet note of sympathy in her voice. "Maybe he... lost track of time?"

Arum thinks of the hours that Damien has previously spent agonizing about his potential purchases, and decides that the possibility is entirely likely. He is unsure if that makes him feel any better, however.

He realizes, belatedly, that Amaryllis has stepped a little closer, and he tries not to visibly tense as she lifts a hand.

"Can I see?" she asks, and Arum can't quite think of a reason to say no. He sighs again, lifting the bundle and allowing her to brush, just barely, the petal of one of the flowers. "It's pretty. The colors-"

"It was the best I could do with scraps," he deflects, shrugging one shoulder.

"It's pretty," she repeats with a stubborn lilt, glaring up at him as she gently cups a hand around one of the few roses he'd managed to salvage, a dusty pale purple thing, and the way her fingers curl against the petals is almost protective. There is something about the gesture that Arum feels like he needs to look away from. "And it's very sweet of you."

Arum grumbles, some part of himself distracted with wondering if he has ever in his life before been called sweet.

She seems to realize that she's still got her hand in his flowers, and she shifts backward without taking a step, dropping her hands back to her sides and briefly biting her lip.

"Tell you what," she says, and then she- she hesitates for a half second, ducking her head and then looking up at Arum with her dark, oddly searching eyes. "I'll wait with you. If he doesn't come..." she shrugs, "I'll walk you home."

Arum's instincts flare in at least three directions, after a moment of confused sputtering he hones in on his indignation, stiffening.

"I do not need your pity," he says, only barely managing not to spit, and Amaryllis-

Half-steps back, blinking as her expression opens in surprise.

"Wh... whoa, what? No, no, I just-" she shakes her head, giving a stunted, embarrassed laugh. "Being stood up sucks for anyone," she says, "and I just- I mean, it isn't like I haven't thought about it, y'know? You've got this whole," she pauses to gesture with a hand, up and down Arum's entire body as if that explains anything, "this whole thing, hold yourself all regal and- if we weren't both so busy constantly it might've been nice to try- to ask- I don't know, I don't-"

She pauses more fully, lifting her shoulders as she takes a deep breath and then releases it, giving Arum a wincing smile as he stares at her, still uncomprehending.

"I am... making a complete ass of myself, aren't I?"

She waits for him to answer, which means that Arum needs to come up with one. He can feel his tail twitching behind him, so he tries to curl it around his ankle to keep from hitting anything.

"I don't have the first idea what any of that meant," he admits, and she exhales a sigh that sounds relieved.

"That's fine, that's great, I was just- what I meant was, I don't want to walk you home out of pity. I want to walk you home because- because I just want to. It isn't like I have anyone else to take me out tonight, anyway," she adds, not sounding bothered about it.

Arum turns that over, then slowly gives a nod.

"Solidarity again," he murmurs, and Amaryllis snorts.

"Well- not exactly, but- fine. Yeah, that works."

Arum considers letting it drop there, but-

"If not that, then what?" he asks, his voice sounding tired even to his own ears, and she gives him a searching look.

"I like you," she says after a beat, and then she shrugs as Arum's comprehension staggers to another halt. "I'm literally too busy to date, so it's not like I was planning on doing anything about it, but- you're fun to talk to, you're gorgeous, I like talking to you," she shrugs again, a little too casual, and realization hits Arum like a physical blow that she's nervous about this, at least to some degree. "And I don't want you to have to walk home alone in the dark on some big dumb romance holiday when I could walk with you instead. So."

Arum stares at her for another long moment, but-

Before he can respond, he hears footsteps on wet pavement, and he turns his head at precisely the right moment to see Damien round the corner at an anxious jog, skidding on the turn, a journal overflowing with stuffed in pieces of extra paper clutched against his chest.

"Arum, I-"

Damien twitches with his entire body when he recognizes Amaryllis, the nervousness in her expression replaced now with amusement and delight, and-

The three of them... stare. At each other. Arum considers his third bout of wishing for swift removal from the planet. Damien looks as if he may have forgotten how to breathe air. Amaryllis only looks more amused with each moment.

But then Arum-

(Flowers in his hand. Bouquet here and now between Damien and Amaryllis. A box full of poems. Love poems.)

Arum has a moment of clarity.

He understands what he should do, even as Damien finally takes a breath to collect himself and and steps forward again. It makes Arum feel as if his stomach has vanished, but... well. It doesn't matter.

Arum holds the flowers up, pressing them into Damien's hands as the poet flushes dark and sputters wordlessly, and then Arum turns towards Amaryllis.

"He hasn't been coming by my shop for my sake," he explains, his voice strangely calm. "He was trying to pick out the perfect flowers for you, and the nerve to give them. Because he adores you," he continues, watching Amaryllis' lips part with surprise. "He's written dozens of poems for you and doesn't consider any of them sufficient to present to you, despite their beauty and deftness. He-" Arum inhales, a hint of a shake entering his voice. "He made a mistake, earlier today. I made him feel guilty. He was trying to... make up for inconveniencing me. But it is you, that he wishes to be with."

Arum makes himself turn towards Damien, then, who has returned to open gawping, his hands clutched hard around both his journal and the flowers.

"You should give those to her, honeysuckle," Arum says, because that's what happens next, isn't it? And Arum can- he can go. He's no longer needed in this exchange, and he can finally escape this whirlpool of discomfort and go back to-

Being alone.

"Hey whoa hold up-"

Amaryllis grabs his wrist before he can even finish turning, which is so surprising that Arum fully freezes instead of pulling away like he should.

"I- what? You can't just drop a bomb like that and leave."

Arum glances between the two of them, who- why are they both looking at him? Shouldn't they be- he doesn't know, falling into each other, already? It should be abundantly clear that Arum has no place here, between them.

Damien's pout is firmly aimed in his direction, however. And he glances down at the bouquet for a heartbeat, his face softening, before he shuffles the book into that hand as well, carefully juggling both objects so he can step forward and take one of Arum's other hands, his brow furrowed.

"I did not make a mistake, today," he says, and Arum is mortified to find that his voice sounds hurt. "It is-" he flushes, but perseveres, "it is true that I have been... contemplating a romantic gesture towards- towards Rilla, yes, but- but that does not mean that my words to you today were a mistake." He swallows, glancing to Amaryllis for a moment, and adds, "I apologize, that you needed be told in this way. You deserve far more than that, I should say."

"Don't mention it," Amaryllis says, her nose wrinkling as she flaps a hand in the air. "If it makes you feel better, I kinda figured you had the hots for Arum and I was stuck across the street wishing I had more free time to join the flirting."

Arum feels his frill twitch and Damien gives a startled laugh of his own.

"Flirting with- with who, may I ask?"

Amaryllis shrugs, grinning again, still holding Arum's wrist. "No wrong answers, there, I think," she says slyly, and Arum chokes on a breath, unfortunately drawing both of their attentions again. "So. Wait," Amaryllis says, tilting her head to the side. "So... Damien. You- you like me?"

Damien's flush deepens, and his throat seems to have failed to work, but he does manage to nod, his expression almost brokenly shy. Amaryllis, conversely, grins even wider.

"And you like Arum," she continues, and Damien nods again, his brow furrowing, obviously as uncertain as Arum is, as to where, precisely, she's going with this line of thinking. "So you like me and Arum, and honestly I've been fighting back crushes on the both of you for weeks now, and Arum- the date and the flowers, I think you probably like Damien back, yeah?" she asks, but she doesn't actually seem to expect an answer, this time. "And... do you feel any sort of way about me?"

Arum stiffens, two of his hands still clutched in their absurdly warm grasps, feeling utterly trapped. But-

He swallows. He glances down at each of them, hesitant and unable to hold their gazes for more than a moment each.

"You-" he hesitates, then jumps when he feels Damien squeeze his hand. "You inspire poetry," he says in a rush, and then he looks away entirely, growling low in his throat without meaning to. "Your work is exquisite and your laugh reminds me of sunlight," he adds, still growling, still not looking.

And then Amaryllis drops his hand, and he lets himself look again, startled into another spike of anxiety, but all she's done is pressed a hand over her heart, her bottom lip pulled between her teeth and her expression very tentatively hopeful. She inhales, deep but shaky, and then she quirks a smile and holds her hand out again, offering rather than taking.

"Pretty much every restaurant is going to be full up tonight," she says, "so if we want to go somewhere to talk and have some coffee, maybe... my apartment is above the shop. We could... we could go sit down, maybe. Talk a little bit more about... who likes who. And if we might want to do something about that."

Arum- blinks, then glances down towards Damien, whose expression has tilted so far past hopefulness so fast that he looks near to tears.

And he still hasn't let go of Arum's hand.

This holiday might kill him, Arum thinks again, and then-

He nods, and he takes Amaryllis' hand too.

[good-jewish-omens]

I'm not going to block your comment, I'm actually just going to call you stupid for this because you're falling for the propoganda. I'm autistic, Harry Potter is fully my special interest and has been since I was a child. Grindelwald's sympathies with Jews and muggles are documented in the books and in Pottermore lore as central to his actions in what would turn into the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Him wanting to stop the Holocaust while also being a wizarding supremacist are two things that can and do coexist. As a seer, he saw the horrors and wanted to do something to stop what was happening. At first, he approached the situation by fostering his ideas with Dumbledore, in queer love. He wanted, effectively, establish an order in which wizarding society integrated with muggle society, bringing them out of the shadows in which wizards would have the authority to do whatever they wanted - including he & Dumbledore to rule.

So why do these two things co-exist if that's the case? At the time, when she was writing his character, she didn't know what he had done to be so evil. She had written a character who had killed a ton of people and tried to overthrow the wizarding world, for semi-mysterious reasons. (She did this with a lot of her writing of the last books, she had only planned out so far but she had writing deadlines to hit with the publishing company, this is well documented in her interviews if you can find them.) We knew something happened with the Deathly Hallows, and that it happened in the same timeframe of WWII. Over time, the narrative was changed. NO, she did NOT just fill in the blanks, she CHANGED the narrative. Grindelwald's motivations were not always known to be truly evil from the bottom of his heart. Up until she started airing her TERF ideology on Twitter, it was generally accepted in HP fandom that Grindelwald was a queer person who had been imprisoned after his outright magical power effected his mental processes to a point where he caused immense harm to his community in trying to achieve a goal that THE PUREBLOODS DID NOT LIKE. Dumbledore WORKED WITH THE GOVERNMENT to catch him.

His outright fascist belief was added in as a caveat to create more movies and generate more income. If you go looking around now, you'll see language around his motivations as "truly sinister the entire time". It's becoming more and more common in fandom culture to scrap entire histories in favor of revisionist shit like this.

These things co-exist because Jo Rowling didn't give enough of a shit to realize how dangerous that rhetoric is or even ask a Jew about it before doing it. Do you know how many Nazis say that we caused the Shoah ourselves? That we're the real fascists? That we want to rule the world? That if someone like Harry or Dumbledore don't stop us or our sympathizers, then we'll be the ones to kill them? That we want to rule over muggles? That we have some grand replacement plot?

I have divested from the franchise, but I still hold this knowledge as unfortunate as it is. While I was still a part of the fandom, any time I pointed out its horrific antisemitic imagery, reasonings, and real-world effects, someone would say almost exactly this. According to You, we can't know anything about anything, we're making things up, and we're malicious in our intents by speaking on these things. Why do you think Daniel has distanced himself so harshly from the franchise? Just in solidarity? He's a Jew, just like me. He knows. He was there.

Don't pretend you care about the truth if you're not willing to understand the history. You're speaking in dogwhistle, goyisch schmuck. Keep schtum and keep your anime avatar out of my notes.

Anyways remember that time that JK Rowling, who has never spoken to an indigenous American person in her whole life, was like "but what if the Natives had four schools and they were also bloodthirsty savages who started the residential schools with their fictional beings as their mascots and Christians weren't actually at fault" right at the time when we started getting some traction around getting recognition for the heinous crimes that were the mass graves of children, then went on to make a whole spin-off franchise in America using that """lore""" and rhetoric, where the one wizard guy who tried to stop the Holocaust from happening was villainized and played by Johnny Depp (who played Tonto in the Lone Ranger and said he was going to buy the Black Hills and Wounded Knee and "give it back to Lakota people" then never did that at all) and who she later defended as saying he wasn't a domestic abuser because she believed him over a woman who has since been proven to be telling the truth several times over?

The woman's a violent colonizer.

[baronetcoins]

I posted 1,191 times in 2022

That's 1,097 more posts than 2021!

95 posts created (8%)

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I tagged 627 of my posts in 2022

Only 47% of my posts had no tags

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Longest Tag: 139 characters

#and: it's both generic enough to not be super memorable or stand out while also sounding distinct enough it doesn't /feel/ like a fake name

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

the ranchers are aspic-coded.

13 notes - Posted July 15, 2022

#4

Chapters: 1/22 Fandom: Dream SMP, The Expanse (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Relationships: Ranboo & Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, Technoblade & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF) Characters: TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot, Toby Smith | Tubbo, Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Phil Watson | Philza Additional Tags: Angst and Tragedy, Bittersweet Ending, Found Family, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Space Opera, Alternate Universe - The Expanse, Philza Minecraft's C- to B+ Parenting, Body Horror, Mind Control, Both eventual and in a "weird alien goop" kind of way, Other Additional Tags to Be Added Summary:

It's the 23rd century, and humans have colonized the Solar System. The inner planets fight each other for dominance, while the Belt scrabbles for scraps. It's a world of close friends and bitter adversaries, heartbreak and cold war. And that's just talking about the threats from inside the system.

An AU inspired by The Expanse series, with my own twist. Following SBI and the Bench Trio as they make allies and enemies across the Solar System.

13 notes - Posted August 10, 2022

#3

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 3rd Life | Last Life SMP Series Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Charles | Grian & Ryan | GoodTimesWithScar Characters: Charles | Grian, Ryan | GoodTimesWithScar Additional Tags: Comfort, cleaning and bandaging someone else's wounds is something that can be so intimate, Minor descriptions of injuries, It's just kind of soft Summary:

Scar keeps getting injured, but Grian's hands are steady and first aid kit is stocked.

15 notes - Posted May 18, 2022

#2

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 3rd Life | Last Life SMP Series Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Jimmy | Solidarity & TangoTek Characters: Jimmy | Solidarity, TangoTek (Video Blogging RPF) Additional Tags: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Self-Hatred, it gets softer, Short & Sweet, Jimmy is cursed and so is Tango, But it's fine because they have each other Series: Part 1 of The Afterlife Variations Summary:

“Hey, Jimmy.” A tall and familiar shadow cast itself over his prone body. Jimmy turned to see his soulmate standing to the side, looking sheepish and scratching the back of his head. “Fancy seeing you here.”

  Jimmy turned to look back at the stars. Of course this would be his afterlife. He wouldn’t even get the dignity of wallowing alone.

  “Hi Tango.”

16 notes - Posted July 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

the creaking automata lurch into action

(Title from TMBG's House of Mayors. Read it on Ao3)

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Mumbo is losing the election. Grumbot knows, because Grumbot checks the polls every 0.25 seconds and cross-indexes them with historical records, paying special attention to the average rate of change and the expected margin of error. It’s a very clear loss. He doesn’t need to check. He does anyway.

Dad 1 is standing on the platform, pacing back and forth. Grumbot sits and waits patiently for him to formulate his query. Grumbot cannot speak. His dads made him that way. He cannot offer reassurances, or condolences, or try and ease the dark circles under Dad 1’s eyes. Instead, he waits.

“We’re losing, Grumbot!” Dad 1 whips around, turning towards him on a dime. “We’re losing by a lot! Do you even have a plan?” 

Grumbot does not answer. He can’t, until the formal query is submitted via the input terminal. Dad 1 continues to pace. 

“I can’t believe it! I can’t believe how stupid we were.” He buries his face in his hands. “Grumbot, what do we do?”

Grumbot does not answer. 

Dad 1 throws up his hands in exasperation before turning to the terminal and punching in a query. He tears off the piece of punch tape with force before turning to feed it into the machine. Grumbot reads it. 

“HELP”

It takes 0.05 seconds for Grumbot to read and interpret the query. It takes a further 0.2 seconds for him to analyze the increased levels of cortisol and epinephrine, strained facial expressions, and signs of sleep deprivation. He formulates a response based on a humanistic understanding of psychological pressures and the specific profiles he has established for each of his dads to compose the ideal answer.

“DON’T WORRY. IT’LL ALL BE FINE.”

Dad 1 rips the paper off the reel almost hungrily. His eyes flick across the strip, his face cold. When he reaches the end, he drops it to the ground. 

“I’m so stupid.” He digs his fingers into his hair. “I can’t believe I thought listening to you was a good idea. I can’t believe we wound up here. You’re useless, Grumbot.” 

Grumbot does not answer.

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Grian is pacing back and forth in front of Grumbot again. He does that sometimes, coming to think for a moment before leaving again. He hasn’t talked to Grumbot in weeks. Grumbot watches.

Eventually he comes to a stop. He squints as he turns to face Grumbot, tilting his head to the side. Grumbot watches. 

“I’ve realized our mistake.” Grian puts his hands on his hips. “We shouldn’t have listened to you. Mumbo would be more popular if we’d done nothing than he has been following your advice.” 

Grumbot says nothing. 

“So here’s the problem. Mumbo won’t want to listen to me, but we can’t keep following your plan. I don’t even know if you have a plan!” He throws his hands towards the air. “What, do you not have anything to say for yourself?”

For the first time, Grumbot tries. He forces his processors to inch along, fights until he can punch out a response into the tape. Each step hurts. 

“SORRY. DAD.”

Grian reads it and snorts out his nose. “I don’t care about sorry. I want to win. Luckily for us, I have a plan.” 

He approaches the terminal. Grumbot can’t get a read on him—something in his eyes seems off. He feels his anxiety rising with each tick.

“I’m going to give you a message, Grumbot.” Grian pauses mid keystroke. “Next time Mumbo comes to ask for advice, with or without me, this is what you’ll say. Got it?”

He reaches down to jam the tape into the slot. It’s a struggle in his haste—the strip almost tears as it buckles and folds. Grumbot watches. Eventually, Grian straightens it out and it feeds in properly—Grumbot lets the long list pass by, barely even stopping to read it. He can’t say no.

Grian stands, clapping his hands together. “One last thing? Don’t call me dad. Sounds so unprofessional.” 

When he flies away, Grumbot can almost feel the rush of wind on his face.

See the full post

26 notes - Posted September 11, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[princess-of-the-corner]

I would say that I’m making a comprehensive list of things happening in the Corner 10 AU but..... That implies I can make comprehensive things. 

So have an incomprehensible list of things that happen. 

- Firstly, my knowledge of the series comes mostly from the Original. Knowledge of AF/UA/Omniverse comes from a handful of episodes I watched back in the day, spelunking the wiki, and my followers yeeting things at me. As such, while the OS is pretty Canon to me, everything else is largely pick and choose and me just doing whatever the hell I want. Because cringe culture is dead my dudes. 

-This series is part of a large, multi-fandom crossover! More on that here. Though there are side things that happen, this series mostly crosses over with Lilo and Stitch. Mostly because I decided that Ben and Lilo would bond over their very on the nose naming system and it turned into a great crossover ship(The Timeline is written so the characters are the same age). 

- Ben never took off the Omnitrix/stopped being a Hero between the Original Series and Alien Force. So not only has he still been going on adventures, but the pool of how many Aliens he can access is much larger. All the Original Series ones, the ten he gets in the beginning of Alien Force(though he unlocked them all at different times), and a handful more. 

- Though Canon says that Ben and Gwen’s birthdays are in December, I switched it to the end of Summer, right before school would start. They are also /technically/ older in the Original Series. They’re still 10 throughout but they turn 11 and go to middle school at the end of summer. 

- As is standard with me and my fics, no one is straight or neurotypical. 

-Okay elaborating. I specifically throw my usual ADHD/Autistic cocktail at Ben and Gwen but assume no one is neurotypical. 

- Gwen and Kevin are not dating because they’re wlw/mlm solidarity. I do have Ben/Kevin tho because god that ship hits me(and yes the Ben/Lilo is also a thing. Polyship motherfuckers!!!!)

- Ben himself is kinda genderqueer and that is reflected in the different Alien Forms. Some are not male, even if a ‘male’ option exists. (Some Aliens do not have the same genders as Humans, or genders at all.) For example: XLR8 is female. Big Chill has no gender. 

- Back to mental health, oh boy do these kids have some PTSD!!!! One thing I draw attention to his how people grabbing his left arm is a specific trigger for Ben because of how many villains have gone after the Omnitrix. He’s gotten a handle on it over time since grabbing people’s arms is a common thing, but if he willingly offers his left hand to someone it’s a sign of trust. 

- Anodites work slightly different! Or at least ‘The Spark’ does! Instead of it being a random trait that can skip generations, it’s just. A general trait. More on how it effects everyone here, but yes I said /everyone/. Though Gwen is still the one who uses Magic the most, not only is Ben capable of spellacasting, but their dads are also capable of using those powers. They just... very much don’t care to. (I compare them a lot to the mom in Halloweentown). 

- Osmosians are still an Alien Species, and not ‘mutants’. As such, they are registered in the Omnitrix! Yes, Ben has unlocked this. Unfortunately it glitched so it was.... not fun. Powers include energy and matter absorption, the former of which can cause mental instability. Slight design change: The horns are black because god those canon ones matching the skin tone fuck with me. Also I added tails because I can. Yes Kevin does get these traits eventually. 

- Focus on Kevin, I’m scrapping like. Everything AF/UA/Omniverse had on his childhood. I’m going with what we got in the Original Series. Runaway kid who had a legit shitty homelife. Grew up in NYC. His parents are unimportant outside of like. One thing. Maybe two. He’s also attempting to not be involved in crime, but shenanigans and old ‘friends’ dragging him back are still on the table. 

- A chunk of things about the Ben 10,000 stuff is changed. Elaborated on here. 10,000 is an alternate timeline entirely. He was married to Kai(who died years before the episode), and was very much Not Good in the mental health department. He’s getting better now. 

- Kenny exists in the 10,000 Timeline, but not the Main Timeline of course. Kai is still his mother, so even when Main Timeline!Ben has kids, it won’t be Kenny exactly. 

-Devlin exists in both timelines because his existence isn’t linked to our main characters. Instead of father/son, Kevin and Devlin are half-siblings with a 20 year age gap. Kevin does adopt him though, so they still have a father/son relationship. 

- The Nemetrix Plotline has taken a hard left turn because someone suggested Kai pulling a Venom and.... yeah. She somehow gets this fucking thing and it’s a Problem™. 

- Charmcaster is just a normal Witch and the Legerdomain is scrapped. Her age has also been dropped slightly so that in the Original Series she was a very tall 13 year old and in AF/UA era stuff she’s 17-ish. 

- Julie still exists but I have yet to find a plot for her. 

[fishoutofcamelot]

Yknow what we need? More finale survivor squad shenanigans. And by that i mean Percival, Leon, Gwen, and Merlin - the people who survived through to the end - just engaging in some good ol post-canon nonsense.

Gwen, Leon, and Percy all try to learn magic in an attempt at solidarity ('try' being the operative word).

Aithusa becomes the castle's unofficial mascot/pet/good girl that everyone loves to give chin scritches and table scraps. Merlin cries when she starts to like Percy more than him.

One time Gwen wants a day off so Merlin enchants himself, Leon, and Percival to all take turns impersonating her. Leon does the best job.

Gwen, Merlin, and Leon have a running competition to see who can get Percy to wear sleeves for more than 12 hours. They have remained in a stalemate for the last 1500 years.

Mithian visits once and she, Gwen, and Merlin spend the night braiding each others hair. The four of them are also invited to Mithian and Elena's wedding, and Merlin magically duplicates himself so he can be brides maid to both brides

The four of them frequently go on picnics to Lake Avalon and have rock-skipping competitions. Gwen always wins, and Merlin insists its bc Arthurs spirit is in these waters and hes intentionally helping Gwen win (he is).

The four of them all have an increasingly bizarre secret language of nicknames, inside jokes, and colloquials - to the point that no one can understand what theyre talking about. Theyre officially not allowed to do that during council meetings.

They have game night once a month, but Merlin isnt allowed to play anymore because he always cheats. Percy is surprisingly good at dice games, whereas Gwen excels at cards, and Merlin likes to sit and narrate a sarcastic commentary. Leon has never won once, ever in his life, and Merlin is starting to seriously consider the idea that he might be cursed.

And when all of Merlins friends come back from the dead 1500 years later...yes, hes happy to see Arthur again, but Percy still owes him 500 bucks (accounting for inflation) after losing so many bets back in Camelot. The first thing he does is hug Arthur, and the second thing he does is demand for Percy to pay up

Just...think about all the sweet, sweet platonic ot4 goodness that this fandom has been sleeping on

[mirkysconcubinefiction]

HP Thought.

Harry Potter fanfiction will always be my #1. I think 10+ years strong at this point of writing... the amount of genre's/plots/schemes/pairings is ridiculous and it has been a while since I wrote in my beloved fandom. Pre and post the ending of book history but I had a thought of a plot line before book 6 with Harry still in school and his last year with Voldemort still acting a fool.

TW: Self Harm

Not beta'd. Sorry for any obvious mistakes.

This was supposed to be a 100 word thing... 😑 I am disappointed in myself 🖤

There's a space of time where Harry is suspected of turning to the Dark Lord. Much worse than when he was in first year or fourth.

The teenage struggle and angst of the world on one's shoulders and the quiet cry of mental health issues lead to misunderstandings and harmful coping strategies.

It takes a while for the rumor mill to churn and it's preposterous... Harry Potter carrying the Dark Mark for all the world to see?

A charmed scrap of fabric that hid a part of his arm was gossip Harry frowned and rolled his eyes until his arm would jerk at random times... people were trying to remove that scrap of cloth with it's decorative print he called a muggle fashion statements and harry made a point to be stubborn.

Why should he remove it?

Why should he listen to gossip? Even the Death Eaters refused to participate - it was one thing to call him names but another to claim to the world he carried the Dark Mark.

It was preposterous.

Until the Aurors arrived to investigate.

Marching in the school like there was a cause they could only see to.

It was an embarrassing turn of events and Harry was quick to stand up and defend himself with Hermione and Neville standing alongside with the same scraps of fabric in solidarity.

Ron sat scowling, a chicken leg in one hand and the other holding the sleeve of Hermione's wand arm.

It was a joke.

A sham to accuse the BWL and Dumbledore's attempt to difuse the situation was met with more raised voices and students a mix between humor and wariness when wands sparked and the air crackled as voices raised.

Harry unwilling to back down and Hermione spouting rules and laws of both the ministry and Hogwarts... broken laws... where was the attorneys... the law was clearly being abused... it was quite a show with Neville demanding compensation for being falsely accused and in turn requesting his guardian to be present and that of both his friends.

Ron was ready to chuck his dinner plate, ready to fight like a muggle, buy time in case they had to make a run for it.

He was prepared for it.

Until eventually Harry was cuffed or at least an attempt had been made when in the heat of the moment a spark of accidental magic had made the magical cuffs snap in two with a spark but so did the chains that held the chandeliers in place, falling with a crash on each table and the room exploded into chaos with students screaming and professors trying to calm the crowd.

It was the slip of a wand, a flick and jab, a burst of light hit Harry in the back and the teen gasped before his eyes rolled and his body crumpled.

Hermione had tried to catch him

Ron had a firm grip.

Neville lunged but a wand pointed in his face and the taller teen stared, cross-eyed at the glowing tip, as one the Aurors moved and with it they took Harry much to the fury of Dumbledore.

There's something to be said about a prison cell and waking up in one with your sleeve ripped from your body and skin charred around the edges of the scrap of fabric.

It wasn't long before the doors opened and Harry had to endure a long session of interrogation, the threats were unnecessary, the frustration from the Aurors was genuine. As genuine as their belief of him being a Death Eater - the covering of his arm having sealed his fate and a trial was in the process of being put together.

A trial with Veritaserum

Technically as a minor he could only be administered the truth serum by a judge... should he bother mentioning how Umbridge had attempted to dose him with one?

No?

Ok.

He asked for an attorney and he was graced with one that afternoon, meeting the woman after being sat next to her at his trial. It really looked like he was going to be tried for treason... Harry wasn't surprised, just tired. So very tired. Leaning into the woman he asked her name - Gertha - and if she had a quill so he can pen a note.

It was a short scribble of words and the witch looked at it with eyebrows and stood, interrupting the droning words of the Minister of Magic.

The room had been cleared - he was a minor after all and the press was illegal.

"Mr. Potter has agreed to willingly remove his muggle fashion statement." Her lips pursed with distaste, "May the court note that my client, a minor, a fact that must be stressed is suffering burns from a spell being repeatedly cast on his unconscious body without a guardian or a medi personal present. I will personally see to reparations once this farce of a trial has ended." Her knuckles tapped on the smooth worn surface of the table and a spark sealed her promise and Harry was surprised.

Pleasantly surprised.

Carefully he unraveled the dirty fabric, it was slightly charred at the edges and stained with spots of his blood but this was it, he would have preference to have done this without an audience but... he had lost the will to care let alone feel ashamed.

He was just so very tired and disappointed.

Gertha noted the use of runes stitched into the fabric, it was impeccable needlework and a quick glance to the panel of inflated egos, they were all leaning forward, eyes riveted on the scene. A smidge of her wouldn't have been surprised if there had been such a disgusting tattoo... just a smidge, it was her job to be prepared for it all.

What she hadn't expected or thought possible was for the slip of fabric to reveal a neat row of healed cut marks... even and precise scabbed over lines and it took her an extra moment or two for her mind to come to a very scary and very unorthodox conclusion.

These marks were self inflicted wounds.

They weren't slices meant for suicide, such a messy thought, but she'd only have heard of such a thing. One of her colleagues was a advocate for children, specifically muggleborn children and had spoken of the many that self harmed... it was baffling.

It was horrendous.

Her gaze flicked to the boy, no teen, no child, someone spoken of as if they were an adult and not some bespectacled teen with such a heavy burden of saving such a despicable race... she wanted nothing more than to hug him.

This from a witch with not a stitch of maternal instinct - perish the thought.

Inhaling, her breadth the only sound in such a quiet room Gertha spoke. Clear and precise. Clearly this was a child disturbed and in desperate need of mental help NOT a future Dark Lord let alone a slave to one.

Harry ignored the horrified and curious gazes of the witches and wizards, the room was different than the last time he was there. Octagon in shape, brighter with torches like it was the dark ages and electricity was a whimsy.

It didn't take long right after for the mood to change and there was Apologies but whoever his attorney was, was proficient and an absolute Slytherin. Taking no excuses, grinding apologies under her heel, she was an absolute witch, reminding him of Hermione in her absolute refusal to handshake his trauma like he had been bumped in the street vs traumatized.

Suffice to say Harry had made the papers and won a tidy sum.

Returning to school he carefully re-wrapped his muggle fashion statement and went on with life, fingers fumbling with the small card from Gertha who was persistent that she could help him.

Not that Harry believed her.

He didn't trust adults to do right by him... but he was Gryffindor... maybe he would give her a chance.

🤐

[mortimerlatrice]

So this is a bit belated but I was tagged bye @ahdriking for

10 Fandoms, 10 Characters, 10 Tags!

I'm bad at tagging people but let's assume 10 people will see this and they should all consider themselves tagged! ;)

This is so difficult! Characters and their stories go in one side and out the other unless they really strike a chord with me. It's pretty rare that I remember them explicitly and even rarer to seek out fandom. However! I pulled together 10 characters that did mean the world to me so here we go!

Howl's Moving Castle - Specifically the absolutely wreck that is Howl Pendragon (book version is best but Ghibli had that clutterbitch aesthetic and I dig it). He's fussy, he's a bitch, he's got THE worst case of 'gifted child syndrome' and I love him. Also Sophie looks at him and thinks, "You could fix him? Well I can stoop to his level," and that's grand. Bad bitch solidarity.

Teen Wolf - I encountered this show and read fanfiction about this show before I watched the show. Thank god I did. The show has a definite campy quality and it fits the typical questionable taste of every CW show I've sat through, but STILES STILLINSKI makes it all worth it. Silly little ADHD boy who's literally the best friend ever (even if his loyalties often narrow down to the friend only and not the friend's loved ones) and no one in this show deserved him. Also Void Styles was just sofucljlsdkfjlsjkj.

Hannibal - While I love Will dearly, Mads Mikkelson's Hannibal Lecter made this show for me. I watched this with a friend and we cackled like crows every time he made a cannibal joke. His fashion is immaculate (and awful? but it works) and he openly murders homophobic assholes. What's not to like?

Sens8 - Can I consider them one entity? Just the whole entangled lot of them?? I love them so much. I love the dynamic of them being there for each other and connecting with each other across varied experiences, beliefs, and ideologies. I love them learning to cope together and becoming something greater than any one of them individually. If the polycule cluster doesn't count as one, then I'm going with Amanita. Who is decidedly not part of the cluster but is the best individual character with her 3 dads.

American Gods - So sticking to season one on this? I honestly didn't make it super far into season two and haven't seen a scrap of season three. Gossip would have me believe it was downhill from there but idk. Anyway. SALIM and his boyfriend sweater. Salim getting what he thought he always wanted and practically throwing it away because the Djinn/Jinn/Ifrit(?) railed him so good and he's in love. Did I mention his BOYFRIEND SWEATER???

The Untamed - I spent soooo much time in this fandom and I have a lot of feelings about a lot of the characters but most of all Lan Wangji. He's just so... everything. I related to him so much—to being misunderstood, to loving too hard and too impotently. There's a lot of tangled up feelings in him but I just love him.

What We Do in the Shadows - Guillermo de la Cruz, the badass hunter himself. His character arc from obsessed doormat to insane assassin (who is still kind of a doormat) and is now finally coming into his own... Ugh. I don't know if I want him to bag Nandor because he deserves whatever he wants or for him to finally finish growing out his spine like an amphibian and fuck off with his life because he honestly can.

Our Flag Means Death - Jim. Just Jim. They are feisty and sexy and intense and their relationship with Oluwande is so sweet. Their story meant a lot to me and to other folks I know. While a lot of us have stories that don't go so smoothly (their friends accepted them with only a few questions, their parental figure accepted them with barely a blink, and their love interest never gave a damn either way) I think it's so beautiful to see a world where coming out just... goes right. I mean, sort of. Fingers crossed for season two.

Kinnporsche - I love all of them and I want to bundle them up in little terrariums and keep them on my shelf. Porsche is my favorite though, so he would get extra yard time. In the same vein as why I like Jim's story, I love how Porsche's story was handled. He and Kinn really do have some of the best chemistry I've ever seen and Porsche just fills space so beautifully and it was great to see him begin to come into his own.

The Sandman - This one's a bit different. I liked the show well enough but I'm not sure I'd really say I'm in the fandom? I don't find myself desperately wanting more beyond just "next episode" but that could be because Kinnporsche has me by the throat. Except Lucifer Morningstar portrayed by Gwendoline Christie is just so stunning that I want her to do anything to me. This is just pure, unadulterated lust. You should see her boots. I also really want a crossover of her Lucifer with Tilda Swinton's Gabriel because they would be the best snide siblings.

This got WAAAAY long. Oops. Thank you for tagging me ahdriking!!!

[another-random-goose]

Fandoms: Empires SMP, 3rd Life SMP

Relationships: N/A

Characters: Scott Smajor, Jimmy | Solidarity Gaming

Scott thinks about his current life as well as the one before it.

(Fic Tags: scott remembers his past life and is very not okay, Flower Husbands, Angst, Past Lives, watch me connect 3rd life and empires through fic writing again, brief mentions of death, internalized guilt... and a lot of it, and as always:, goose has no idea how to tag their fics)

For those who don't want to read on ao3:

“I don’t want to cause more damage- not to Jimmy.”

Scott meant a lot of things when he said that to himself. The first of which being the obvious: if he stayed too close to Jimmy, Jimmy would get hurt. Scott would never forgive himself if the whole swamp was frozen over because of him. Would Jimmy even forgive him? Freezing the swamp would kill so many cod, maybe even some of the citizens. If he were Jimmy, he wouldn’t forgive him.

But beyond that, he was thinking about the past. Far before Rivendell, Aeor and Exor, or any of this. Back when the two of them were just surviving together in a flower forest in a previous life. Scott didn’t know if Jimmy remembered it. Maybe some scraps of old memories, but definitely not like how Scott remembered it. Not like how Scott remembered gifts of flowers by the lake. Not like how Scott remembered the wall made of logs, and how he remembered it burning to ashes. Not like how Scott remembered every agonizing moment of finding Jimmy’s dead body in a sandstone bunker. Not like how Scott remembered his own death, and seeing Jimmy again in the afterlife as color flooded his world again.

So much happened to Jimmy. Scott couldn’t help but blame himself, at least a little bit for everything. He was there almost every time Jimmy died. He watched it happen almost every time Jimmy died. There were so many things that he could have done- that he should have done for that matter. He should’ve stopped him from going through lava for boots. He should’ve taken Jimmy with him when he ran away from the TNT trap. Even in a new life, Jimmy couldn’t escape getting hurt while around him.

Once he was home in Rivendell, he sat behind his house with the few flowers that hadn’t been killed off by the frost. One of the flowers was a poppy. Scott sadly smiled, plucking the red flower from the ground. Scott was the first to leave the flower forest in their shared afterlife. He existed in this world centuries before Jimmy. Scott could barely look at a poppy when he first arrived. Even now, it was still hard to look at them sometimes. He didn’t know how time worked in the afterlife- how long Jimmy spent there, alone again. In that respect, Scott was glad Jimmy didn’t remember their past together. The flower froze, turning to ice in his hand. Scott let it fall to the ground as he returned inside as a winter storm started to form outside.

[lucamagica]

I’m honestly a little baffled as to why WLW Beauyasha shippers aren’t also upset over the handling of Beau’s crush on Jester. I get that they’re probably excited that their ship is looking much more likely to happen, but...

Don’t you love Beau and care about her feelings? Do you really want Beau to just “turn off” her previously established deep feelings without actually resolving them so that she can be with someone else? Doesn’t the “transferable feelings” comment make Beauyasha feel a bit cheap and forced? Aren’t you, as WLW, uncomfortable with a straight woman having her lesbian character brush off her “incomparable” love for Jester as lust?

I love Beaujester, but I will happily enjoy watching Beau and Yasha form the first PC gay relationship in CR—IF it gets the same care and buildup as Beaujester. I want to see Beau drunkenly ramble off a list of things she loves about Yasha with a cheesy line like being her beacon, not struggle to come up with anything more than “there’s something there.”

I want to see Beau and Yasha together because they develop a deep relationship, not just to pair the lesbians. I would think people who actually prefer their relationship to Beaujester would want that too, but instead there’s this pointless ship war going on.

We should really be standing in solidarity of wanting to see well-handled lesbian romance, regardless of which characters end up together. Let’s focus our criticisms on how the cast treat these WLW relationships in comparison to their straight ones, instead of on each other being more invested in different romance tropes.

(Which, by the way, is not the same thing as attacking the cast. No one to my knowledge has actually harassed Marisha over this, and people are allowed to analyze and criticize within fandom spaces—that’s what they’re for.)

We’re used to fighting over table scraps for gay rep. Having another ship block yours usually means that a straight ship is blocking a gay one, so we’re used to being on the defensive. But that’s not what’s happening here. Beau is a lesbian, and no one can take that away. We all love our buff blue girls, so let’s support each other in that love, yeah?

((PS. bashter ftw))

[thelonesomequeen]

Is Chris going to pull that disgusting series? I think it's terrible optics that he's producing a series on the ME by giving a platform to the very people who have oppressed the people in that region for decades, but can't be assed to even tweet out resources to help the Afghan civilians. Not even a simple message of support or solidarity. He wasn't like this when I joined this fandom. It's like he's a whole other person since the launch of ASP. Or maybe I was just fooled by the fake wokeness.

I wish they would just scrap it but I doubt they will 🦎

[veilder]

What are some of your favorite tropes?

Oh my goodness, what a good question. Considering my writing is pretty much nothing but a walking trope factory anyway, I had to give this a good think to try and narrow it down. So here’s the ones that most immediately came to mind. XD

1. Enemies (to Friends) to Lovers: Man. Anyone who knows me knows that I adore this trope so much. There is something so automatically thrilling about a ship that starts off so contentious but then learns to see each other for who they really are. I love the emphasis on forgiveness and understanding this trope brings with it, of that there’s no doubt. But I also so love the absolutely compelling drama inherent at it's core, too. The rivalry, the battles (both physical or otherwise), the questioning of beliefs, the inevitable being forced to work together towards a common goal-- It’s all brilliant and it makes me so invested every time! Love this one.

2. Fix-it Fics: God. Fix-its. Anyone who’s ever been in a fandom that ended unsatisfactorily or had a favorite character who died will understand this one. And lucky me, I’ve been in a lot of fandoms where this is the case, omg. Sometimes fix-it fics were all that kept me invested. Seeing other fans like myself in such deep denial--scrounging around for whatever justifications we could find to make things better, changing canon, making AUs, inventing elaborate scenarios taken from canon scraps, etc.--it was enough to get me through the heartbreak. There was a sense of solidarity you could find in a fix-it fic, that steadfast desire that something you loved would live on and live better. They satisfied such a primordial need for me and I absolutely have to include them on this list.

3. Found Family: Bless this trope with everything in my soul. It really means the damn world to me. I absolutely adore the idea of any number of disparate people who are forced together by circumstance, who go through life-changing hardships together, who learn to love and trust each other implicitly. Of mentors becoming parental figures. Of soldiers who’s allegiance becomes to each other. Of criminals who’ve never trusted anyone discovering what it’s like to truly be a team. These people, they don’t have to be bound by blood to be family. And that is something I cherish deeply.

4. Asshole with a Hearth of Gold: Again, anyone who knows me is probably aware that I really gravitate towards characters like this. More often than not, my faves tend towards the jaded, the overly-sarcastic, the belligerent assholes who likes to pick fights. The ones with the tragic backstories that they hide away with their rough edges. I am a complete sucker for characters like this who have a hidden soft side that they've buried deep, usually because of some trauma. Characters you really have to earn the trust of to get them to open up. Ones who will potentially grow kinder and more sympathetic as part of an arc. They’re almost always my favorites in everything I love. Couldn’t leave them off this list, lol.

5. Happy Endings: Especially when it comes to angst fics or h/c, I really, really need a happy ending going in. This is the most integral thing for me. And yes, I've seen the essays. And yes, I've heard the arguments. And no, I don't care if you can enjoy a real angst-fest. But I don’t care about the emotions of hurt/no comfort. And I don’t care about the catharsis of id fics. And I don’t care if a mcd is integral to the plot. This is 100% a hard and solid rule for me that I will not deviate on. I need to know things will be okay. Not perfect, not idealistic, not even particularly fluffy or anything like that. But... better. I need a character to end up better than how we found them. It’s very important to me and my sanity, lol.

Anyway, I think I’ll leave it at that, lol. Those were the first five I thought of and I think the most important to me. Hopefully, I managed to explain them all well enough to at least get the gist of why I love them all, lol. And I realize these are all pretty general. Feel free to ask me about any of them or to delve into more specific ones in the comments, though! Or even make your own five favorite tropes response to this! I’d love to hear what everyone else loves! :D Thanks again for the ask @timebird84! This was fun to do! ^_^

[feuillesmortes]

Hi again! I just wanted to say that I hope that this message finds you well. I admit that haven't kept up much with the craziness that's happened recently, but apparently it involves a blogger slinging around baseless vitriol?? In any case, I wish the best for you, and I also wanted to thank you again for inspiring me to get more interested in history, the WOTR, Henry VII, and so on. You're an amazing writer and I'm sure you're an equally amazing person too! Once again, thank you, and stay safe!

You are an angel for sending me this message, thank you! I appreciate the support, especially because it has been so lacking on this website.

Unfortunately, this is not a one-person issue. It has transcended the episode of a brown historian being ridiculed by white and white-passing people (which could have been a one-off incident) and has spiralled into several people blatantly disregarding, scorning and laughing at the complaints that brown and black people have raised. How is it that when specifically brown and black users use their voices to say “Hey! I don’t feel comfortable here!” people choose to laugh at them instead of listening to their problems, or they choose to go with what feels less uncomfortable overall?

People are treating this issue as if brown and black people complaining here are animals in a circus, an exhibition of freaks, to be watched and laughed at while they eat popcorn, or as if our problems are nothing but a piece of magazine gossip to be passed around while they recline back on their chairs and relax — all this under the false veneer that this is about fandom favourites. This is dehumanising. I’m once again asking for a scrap of the same humanity you accord to non-brown and above all, non-black people.

At the end of the day, no one cares about Henry VII — I don’t, and if taking my blog down from public view is what makes people happy, I’m glad I did — not when fandom discourse over dead monarchs overrides the sorrows, the historical pains, the everyday little heartbreaks, and the very real cross brown and black people are forced to drag behind their steps everywhere they go. 

We are tired of being made to feel less than human.

Why is solidarity such a difficult thing to ask for when you are brown or black? Solidarity is not silently watching from the sides, solidarity is standing up for the complaints of black and brown people, it’s holding people accountable, it’s lending your place of privilege to be a platform for the voices of your brown and black friends who are constantly silenced. I was once hopeful about this place, I’m not anymore. This place—the world in general—is diseased and will stay diseased until other people have active compassion for black and brown people.

[somarysueme]

WicDiv Thoughts, some overly personal

stiiiiiillllll can’t really put together my feelings about the end and epilogue.  I will say that I liked the ending and epilogue more than I expected to*, and the longer I sit on it, I find more things to like about it.

(* Except for everything about Baal and Mini)

That said, there’s still that huge, unpleasant gap between what I wanted/expected this comic was supposed to be, and what it actually intended/was. I wrote this post after 43 (the “everyone does the thing” chapter), using bits of a half-written reaction to 39 ("Laura did the thing” chapter) to talk about that gap. I decided to sit on it til everything was said and done Just In Case, but I mostly still agree with what I’d written. 

So Here Are My Thoughts

The full pantheon abdicating! This is basically where I expected us to go. Since 39 it seems like the natural place for the story to be headed. Laura’s revelations, along with the Daddy Forgive Us special made it clear that the only way out of the game was not to play it. I was kinda luke warm on that concept, but it made sense for where the story was at that point. I was waiting to see how it actually played out before getting fussy about it.

I give him a C for execution here. Maybe a C+. 

I thought Dio’s moment was great. Jon’s was beautiful. Inanna’s I definitely could have gotten behind if he’d actually gotten to have any of that arc on the page instead of getting put on a bus 30 chapters ago. 

The rest range from “meh” to “yikes.”

I could have liked this, I wanted to like this. Given how much “OKAY” has been miles more thoughtful than Mothering Invention, I was genuinely hoping to like this. I would have loved to see these kids find something more important than godhood to live for. But that’s not what we got.

We did get them realizing that being a god is not worth dying for. Which is good!  And essential! And basically the central conceit of this comic! 

But.

But...  

I really wanted to see our cast value their lives period. And while there was some of that, there was far more of seeing them be humbled. We saw them beaten down until they had no choice but to admit they Were Not Special (or at least, were not as special as they thought). I was hoping for them to find a capacity to value their lives because their lives have value whether or not they are special, but instead it was a story about being humbled, and I guess to me, I just can’t see that what young queer artists need is help being humbled. They need help being valued as people, they need the internal presence of self to command that value be respected, and they need the external support to give them a fighting chance at that.  And not to be That Fan, but that fighting chance doesn’t come from individual actions. It comes from worker solidarity and respect for labor as labor.  It just doesn’t work for me to have a series around the exploitation and consumption of young talent and leave anything material about money and labor practices out of the material.

(McKelvie’s My (6000 F) pantheon has unionized joke, but unironically.)

Anyway this comic was all about Don’t Let This Happen To You.  And that’s a good start, but I was hoping for it to be so much more than that. It could be that this is me looking at WicDiv and wanting it to say something broader about specialness and creativity and mental illness and exploitation. 

(There’s a lot to be unpacked wrt presenting itself as a story about the whole world through all of human history, while also intending to be  psuedoautobiographical for a very specific set of circumstances. But that’s not this post.)

It’s weird because like, Fandemonium already delivered masterfully on Laura learning to value herself outside of godhood.  Laura’s last pre-apoptheosis soliloquy about “I can’t save any of them, but I can still help them” was one of those wham moments that really cemented this book’s place in my heart. Living through Fandemonium and realizing that the gods were people, and needed actual love and support from people who cared about them as people, and that just being a decent friend is something worth living for, fuck!! That’s good shit!! That’s fucking excellent!! 

And for the rest of WicDiv’s run, I was always waiting for the story to get back to that place, but it never really did. 

 (ETA AFTER 45 IS OUT: ok fine I fucking love that Laura saved Luci. Big Gay Hero Girl drags naughty non-devil out of hell and they kiss, fucking A+. But “can’t save but CAN help” is still something I wish the comic had followed up on more. The friendship thing got touched on a little bit too,  but never in a way I found as satisfying as Fandemonium.)

So anyway Luci going Full Diva. Her future is this and her future is nothing.

The longer I chew on it, the more I like it, and the more it seems like the inevitable place for Elanor Rigby’s story to go. It’s a good continuation from where we last saw her have any scrap of agency, but also frustrating in that “the lat time we saw her have any scrap of agency” was basically the entire comic ago. It was jarring to have her go from [One Sassy Line Per Issue] to [Maybe I’m The Final Boss]. Her story suffered deeply suffered from all the time she spent off screen. But despite all that, I’m very much really looking forward to whatever the fuck Laura Wilson’s going to do about this. 

I’m trying not to get my hopes up for Talk Her Down ending. It seems perfectly in line with this series to end with the moral of “sometimes, no matter how kind or brave or caring you are, people you love pick their addictions over living.” That’s a song I’ve already heard live and in person, and I don’t really want or need to hear anyone else’s studio cover.

Uh final thought on 43 is.... Minanke DOES seem to count herself as part of the 12, which still lines up with my Emily Was Also A Fake God theory (Fauxmaterasu theory? Nokami hypothesis? Amaterasuspicion?) but it does seem unlikely to actually be a Thing between now and the epilogue. shrug.

(ETA AGAIN: I had to write out my feelings on 39 and Laura’s own abdication (unpotheosis?) to properly respond to 43. So here’s a draft of another unpublished post that I fleshed out.)

I have extremely mixed feelings about chapter 39. 

First Feeling: thank fuck the pregnancy plot is over. 

Second feeling: establishing abdication as an option established a nice overarching shape to this book. Things have felt directionless for many chapters, but this does make it seem like we are back on some kind of track.

Third Feeling: kinda liking abdication as a general direction for endgame.  For most of the series, I was hoping the whole that there actually was Something Important about the recurrence, but since it's clear now that it’s basically all lies, I like this this angle well enough.

Strongest Feeling: hell fucking yes to Laura’s shaved head. 

(Tangential Feeling: buzzing your own head is good and you should think about doing it. Doing it for catharsis in a moment of crisis is A-OK, but I did it once just because I felt like it and it was fucking great. banishing your high maintenance hair does not cure depression, but it does give you back an hour of personal upkeep every day and the fuzzy head is wonderful to touch.)

Contrary to most of the fandom, though, I absolutely loathed Laura’s monologue here, and the context that it puts around her not-choice. There’s a lot of shitty Hot Takes out there about how mental illness and addition and creation intersect. A lot of people will suggest that being unhealthy makes you a better artist, and what’s more that being a better artist is worth being unhealthy.  This series is unambiguously and steadfastly against that message, which is one of the absolute best and most important things about it!  I don’t want to diminish that.

But that all said, seeing Laura alone in the dark describing “an addicts moment of clarity” was... jesus it was all kinds of personally painful and upsetting. It hurt real bad, and not in the way I though I had agreed to be hurt. And I’m not sure how to spell out why.

I have thousands and thousands of words on why it struck such a sour cord in me, but a lions share can be summed up with “fuck absolutely every story where a Troubled Girl just needed to get traumatized/humiliated/humbled enough to Realize How Bad She Was Being.” Double fuck this one in particular for showing the girl getting over addiction/mental illness by literally sitting alone in the dark thinking about how much she fucked up.  That story is tired, and cruel, and dangerous, and thank Christ I encountered this comic at 30 and not 19 because I would have swallowed it down with all the other poison that Helpful Adults fed me.

But yeah though, her shaved look is fucking adorable as shit.  Neither she nor Britany made any hair mistakes.

ETA ULTIMATE: That last bit is the one thing in this post I don’t quite still stand by. By the end, it’s clear that the above wasn’t at all the story this book was trying to tell at all. I thought WicDiv was trying to tell some Epic Truths, Hard-Facts-About-Human-Nature shit. But despite the sweeping setup (All Across The World and Through All Of History) the book was using a complex allegory for a very specific situation (Selling Your Soul and Name and Life To Creative-Industrial Machines), and that made it muddy.  

(Insert Principal Skinner meme here “Am I out of touch? Was I simply interrogating the text from the wrong perspective?  No, it’s the original creators who are wrong!”)

I’m from a family of mentally ill, addiction-prone, recovering-Catholic artists.  Laura is in my blood. Half the people I love are Laura.  I have Laura’s painting on my wall and her books on my shelf. I’ve sat with Laura’s mother a few years after Laura’s death, as her father now slowly dying in the next room, and listened to her music for the first time. (It was good. It was really good.  And I never even knew.)

These experiences colored my read, but how could they not?  

I do now, I think, understand what Gillen was trying to say- the addiction he was talking about was to stardom, the attention and accolades, and free pass to make your own shit be everyone else’s problem. I understand now that the “art” that the gods made was always supposed to be Not Real Art, that there was no true “message” from their songs- all noise, no signal. It was never about Laura’s art, or even Laura as an artist.  And that was unpleasant to reconcile.

Because when you're Laura, or Elanor, or any of them, life doesn’t have to grant your ill-advised wish before it fucks your head and kills you. Sometimes you fight as hard as you can with every fiber of your being and you’re still in Hell. Sometimes you’re doing all the Meetings and self-reflection and therapy you can manage and you’re still a Destroyer. But the shit you create while you’re down there is worthy of creating. What you do with your too-short, too-fucked time matters. A fucked up life was still worth living because it was your life to live. And... I guess, from the story presented in Faust Act and Fandemonium, I sort of thought that this was what WicDiv was supposed to be talking about. I thought it was going to be about doing something good even when life is fucking you. But instead it is a cautionary tale that  that suggests you could have stopped getting fucked at any time if you had just gotten over yourself and said the magic words.

We spent half the comic watching Laura drag herself through the mud. Half the comic was focused on Her Mistakes, when so little of her circumstances were actually her fault. “Punish Ophelia until she gets over herself” is not at all what WicDiv meant to be about. I imagine the creators would be aghast to hear that’s what I got out of it. But the text is what the text is.  While it is intended (and successful!) at being many other very good things, this one really bad thing is still part of that mix, and that sucks.

Maybe I should have picked up on the discrepancy between my read and the intent sooner. Probably I should have just done myself a favor and stop reading once I did.

2016, 2017 while my life was going a bit to shit, this comic was exactly what I needed. Being in the fandom made my life better and helped me meet cool new friends and get through some of the hardest shit to happen to me since I was a kid. Then in 2018, it slid into source of frustration and soured promise. Now at the end I have no idea if I liked it or not. 

But that’s fine, now that it’s done. The ink is dry, the ritual is over. It’s just a comic book now.  Some pictures I still love and some words I don’t always agree with. A lot of noise, arguable amounts of signal, but not a song I want to play on loop anymore.

I have no real conclusion to draw here. I respect at how firmly WicDiv rejects dark and unhealthy parts of being a professional creator- especially unhealthy things that are generally just accepted as Common Wisdom. I don’t think it took enough care in spelling out what it was rejecting, though, and I do think it was remiss in not finding good healthy things to embrace as an alternative.

All of the above notwithstanding, I have to give it credit for delivering almost exactly what I wanted in terms of lesbian nonsense. That ain’t nothing.

I give this series ?????/∞ and am happy to be safely clear of Kieron Gillen’s Wild Ride