#RL meets Online

[xannerz]

you ever see a callout post for a user you've never heard of, and so many of the listed issues consist of the most sensationalized 'ok, yes... and-?' bullet points so you just keep scrolling like

[starwolfie]

I mean violence isn’t my thing but… I made a lot of friends online

"You can't make friends onli-" I would defend any of my Tumblr mutuals to the death with only a pocket knife and random rock, you heathen.

[cha-faile]

babes. darlings. wot series readers.

I get it. I've read the books more than twenty times through. I was on theoryland. I was on dragonmount. I was am on tarvalon.net. I was on the grey-tower rp site. I was on irc with multiple registered wot usernames. I've gone to RL wot parties to meet wot fans I'd only hung out with online. I'm such a fucking wot nerd that I've visited wot fans on three continents to hang out with them in person. I have a Badali officially licensed Aes Sedai ring I wear most days, and I have had multiple Aes Sedai shawls. I've written wiki pages and articles for online WoT newspapers. I've literally taught WoT classes. I put the fanatic back in fan!

The show is different. the show has problems. the show has idiosyncracies and fuck-ups.

just. like. THE BOOKS!

fuck, I love it. I'm having such a good time loving it. I can love it and have criticisms. All I've done for over 15 yrs is lovingly critique the books! Why would the show be any different!

We are so lucky. Our showrunners love the source material! We don't see headlines like the Witcher, where the writers and directors literally hated the source material. We have real, handmade costumes and handmade sets like the much-lauded LotR movies, and unlike the much-maligned Rings of Power.

It's so much fun loving WoT. It's so delightful having theorizing back!! I get to make crackpot theories about the Wheel of Time again! how cool is that?! is the show perfect? Certainly not! but we're WoT fans! Since when have we needed perfection??

[inthemaelstrom]

So we're about six weeks out from another "most important election of my lifetime" and it's predictably making me literally sick to my stomach. When Trumpacabra got elected in 2016, I threw myself into politics in a way I never had in my lifetime and it almost wrecked me. I was one of those people who never voted for religious reasons (long, separate story) and I felt I had to make up for lost time. By the time 2020 rolled around, I was an unhealthy mess. I had stopped reading. Everything. When I wasn't watching MSNBC and political commentators obsessively, I started consuming absolute junk TV: home improvement shows, crack paranormal ghost hunter crap, etc. Things with no plot, no emotional investment, no danger. No fear.

Right before the 2020 election, old fanfic friends from my days in the Master and Apprentice Star Wars listserv found me and saved me.

They dragged me back into fandom, introduced me to Discord, and got me writing again. I updated a story I hadn't touched in 5 years. I made new friends online and in RL. I got some great fiction and fic recs from those friends and discovered a subgenre called Hopepunk—low stakes fiction with very little if any violence and fear and with happy endings. (Becky Chambers writes a lot of what I read, and Amy Crook has also become a favorite.)

One morning, I had one of those really vivid, realistic, linear plot dreams that literally dragged me out of bed to the keyboard. It was a meet-cute modern au of The Phantom Menace's characters, set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I cranked out about 2000 words the first day. Then another 2000. Then another 2000. Then another 2000. And so on every damn day for the next four years until I had four novels, about 668k words, several timestamps written by three other collaborators who've come on board, some beautiful art I've been allowed to use, and now a fifth book in the works.

This is the Yooperverse.

It's not just The Fic That Saved Me, it's the place where I'm writing a vision of what the world could be like into being. A place where people with fucking obscene amounts of money don't spend it on themselves, or hoard it, or exploit other people to get more, but use it to help other people. It's a place where people who are bigoted dicks either get their comeuppance and crawl back under their rocks, or learn better and do better. It's a place where abused kids get rescued, everybody gets therapy and healthcare and is paid a living wage, people learn to value themselves and each other, and protect each other and defend each other. It's kinky and queer (although I'm neither) and above all, if not entirely safe to be both, I'm trying to write both things as just being another setting on the dryer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's not a utopia, by any means, because there are still assholes and the government is still ... the government, and capitalism is still a thing. There's some danger, especially in the first book, and there are accidents and illnesses and the vagaries of life. In the middle of the series, I had spinal surgery and was out of commission for a few months and that made me start thinking more about my main character dealing with aging and the limitations thereof. There's a LOT of mental health issues and the working through thereof, and a lot of ongoing process. Nobody's perfect. The world outside is still pretty much what it is. But in the little corners where my characters dwell, life is pretty dang good, sometimes great.

It's a vision of a life we all deserve. It's the thing I loved about Star Trek's universe, where people's basic needs are cared for and the obstacles to them developing their best selves removed. It's what I've loved about science fiction in general, especially Ursula LeGuin's: that opportunity to explore possibilities that are better than the present. It's modeled on the MacArthur Genius grants, but you don't have to prove your worthiness first. My main character invests in people's potential, young or old, with scholarships and grants and a steadying hand. His partner builds low or no-cost housing for people in need. There's an informal network of queer and straight kid rescuing going on under the noses of unfriendly governments and failed social service safety nets. The main characters build refuges, literal and emotional. They love each other fiercely and respectfully.

Right now, we're living in a country that is almost the antithesis of these ideas, for far too many of us. People are being manipulated by their fears, which are stoked by unscrupulous, lying shitbag politicians whose all too real evil would never make it past the pitch if you were going to try to sell it as a TV show or movie. They're consciously turning us on each other with lies about our common humanity, about the state of our country, about who and what's responsible for many of its faults, sewing suspicion and hate. And though the Yooperverse started as my personal comfort fic, I'm trying in my very small way to counteract what's happening in the world right now.

I've always believed in the power of story to change people's minds and lives, and I've experienced it myself. When I talk about story, I don't just mean fiction, though. I mean the narratives we tell ourselves and others about our own lives as a whole and day by day or moment by moment. I mean the stories we tell about each other when we're together, at the bar, at wakes, at a party. I mean the stories we invest in as fans in whatever kind of media we consume. I mean the stories we spin for ourselves and others to explain what the everloving fuck is wrong with the world.

Stories aren't separate from the world, they are the world. They tell it into being. They give it shape and purpose and meaning and a sense of possibility. Whatever stories we tell ourselves or each other about how things should be or how we should act as human beings (also called our "beliefs" or "morals" or "ethics"), they shape us, and we shape society. We are society, both together and as individuals. One person with a big voice and a story can tip a mass of people into either violence or solidarity.

I have no illusions that the Yooperverse will ever have that kind of power. It has a tiny audience on AO3 and Discord and it's mostly written for me to explore the things I feel deeply about, and wish I could do, and to teach myself to be a better person and live up to my own ideals. It's a world I'd like to manifest, to call into being, even in a small way. Even if it's just a story.

[lonewolflupe]

I thought it would be fun to write a little bit about myself, so come over and get to know me! (As far as I know myself because I didn't come with a manual so I'm still figuring myself out..) If you have any more questions, feel absolutely free to ask them!

Expect a karkload of ramblings below the cut, this turned out so much longer than I intended I am so sorry, no one is probably going to read this but I'm just leaving this here anyway because I don't really have people to share my ramblings with

PERSONAL

My name's Julie (she/her)

Lupe is actually my OCs name, but I adopted it as a nickname here on Tumblr when I first started posting and I kinda stuck with it

Quickly approaching my 30s help

I'm from the Netherlands 🇳🇱 so my first language is Dutch

That obviously means English isn't my first language, so please excuse any errors in my writing

I am Dutch, therefore I love cheese 🧀 (like Gouda, NOT cheddar)

I am an archaeologist! I've been a history nerd all my life

I work in a museum (obviously one with a history collection)

My #1 all-time favourite animals are wolves

In RL, I am super introverted and people scare the kark out of me

I never got any diagnosises, but I'm pretty sure I'm neurodivergent

I prefer the internet over meeting people IRL, because I feel way more comfortable to be myself and ramble about the things I love online than IRL

I tend to switch between my several hyperfixations from time to time, but I really hope to stick around the Star Wars fandom for a long time <3

HOBBIES

Star Wars obviously ahahahaha what are you doing here otherwise?

Drawing, writing, photography, gaming, history, nature, collecting, listening to music

Drawing: has always been one of my favourite pastime activities. I used to draw wolves almost non-stop, until life happened I guess? I only recently picked up drawing again. Drawing humans is a struggle, but it's so much fun practicing with clones <3

Drawing: I'm currently drawing with my ergonomically irresponsible mouse in Photoshop CS6 (I've been using the same software for over 10 years now and I am too afraid to switch to something newer)

Writing: I used to write stories about wolves (shocker) but same as with drawing, life happened. Until I recently picked up writing again! I started writing fanfiction for the first time when I started posting on Tumblr around June 2024

Writing: publishing a book has been on my bucketlist for a long time but I'm not sure that's ever going to happen, so let's keep it with fanfiction for now (which I am REALLY enjoying)

Gaming: I prefer gaming on my PlayStation 3 and 4, but I occasionally play PC and Nintendo Switch games. I mostly play single-player games. Assassin's Creed got me into gaming and is still my favourite series. I also really enjoy The Witcher III, Red Dead Redemption I + II, LA Noire and Far Cry Primal. And others, obviously

Gaming: I play Pokémon GO! If you're a player as well, shoot me your friend code and I'll add you (:

Music: I'm a metalhead; metal is my favourite genre! But I also like (hard) rock and (folk) punk. My favourite metal subgenres are power metal and folk metal. But I can listen to movie/game soundtracks for weeks as well!

Music: Rammstein got me into the heavier stuff and is still an all-time favourite. I was a die-hard Volbeat fan for years, but I haven't felt drawn to their latest releases. My current favourite band is definitely Powerwolf (more wolves lol)! Other favourites are (among many others) Sabaton, Amon Amarth, Slipknot, Nightwish, Within Temptation, Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, The Real McKenzies, Heilung, Wardruna, Eluveitie, and some amazing older stuff like Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd and E.L.O.

STAR WARS

This is where the fun begins

I've been a Star Wars fan for as long as I can remember

My brother and me used to watch the OT and Ep I on VHS when we were kids and were lucky enough to see Ep II and III in cinemas

I missed watching EP I in cinemas this May (due to its 25th anniversary) because I was moving homes during that time and I am still crying about that, see you in 5 years I guess

What I like about the Prequels: everything? Obviously the clones ahahaha. But kinda everything. The setting, the plot, the characters, the tragedy. I know there's a lot of hate on the writing, but I grew up with them and I think they're awesome. Definitely not perfect, but (and please don't hate me) I would choose the Prequels over the OT anytime. Also the meme material coming from this?? Legendary.

What I like about the OT: the story and the characters! It felt less complicated back then, more about good and evil (there's a lot of grey area now, which is obviously more realistic; but as a kid growing up with the movies, good vs evil was less complicated)

What I like about the Sequels: BB-8, porgs, and the Somehow Palpatine Returns-meme, that's it. Maybe Poe Dameron, but that's probably because it's Oscar Isaac.

I also VERY MUCH like Rogue One; what a wonderful and sad story. I won't shut up about how much I love how this story blends into Ep IV/the OT; I think this was so well done, I- aaaaaaah I love it

What I like about the animated shows: CLONES. Clonesclonesclones. And Ahsoka. And a lot more, but at this time, the clone brainrot is real. I actually really like how some things are further explained in the animated shows (I think they're a real addition to the movies/story). And the angst and the tragedy, ugh my heart. Also the animation style of course! And clones, did I mention the clones?

Favourite characters (non-clones): Ahsoka Tano, Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi (prequel era), Plo Koon, Aayla Secura, probably Darth Maul too, Jyn Erso

Favourite clones: Hunter (he started it), Fives (I cannot put into words how much I love and feel for this man I just need to wrap my arms around him and tell him it's alright and that he and the clones deserve so much better and that I'm there to listen to him and it's going to be okay I'm going to make all his problems go away and also some adult stuff I'm not going to write here), Echo (my beloved), Wolffe (awooooooo), Cody (good man that Cody), Rex (obviously), Fox (you matter but please stop drinking caf and get some sleep), Vaughn (my love, my heart, my soul; I would die for you) (> I get obsessed over a different clone pretty often but it's safe to say I love all clones)

Favourite droids: R2-D2, Chopper, BB-8, Gonky, K-2SO, (also BD-1 is super cute), the droids helping out Ahsoka during Shattered/Victory and Death (R7-A7, CH-33P, RG-G1), mouse droids, (I haven't played Outlaws yet but I have normal feelings about ND-5)

Favourite animals: loth wolf (duh), tooka, massiff, varactyl, acklay

I used to collect Star Wars LEGO and Hasbro and I would love to put those on a shelf/into a cabinet one day

I would love to go to some sort of fan con one day but I'm afraid I won't survive all the stimuli/amount of people there

I did visit the Star Wars Exhibition in Brussels somewhere in the late 2000s/early 2010s; it was kriffing majestic

I used to play Star Wars Battlefront II (2005) with my brother all the time. We played it so much the disc got damaged by the PlayStation 2 itself and obviously we bought it again to keep playing

I played Jedi: Fallen Order (2019) and it was awesome! I really need to replay it so I can play Jedi: Survivor (2023) afterwards (haven't played it yet, I need to get myself a PlayStation 5 first, RIP)

Since we're talking about PlayStation 5, I'm dying to play Outlaws (2024) help (I need to know what is happening between Kay and ND-5??)

I really want to play Republic Commando (2005) (I even have a PS4 copy laying around) but haven't found the time yet

LASTLY

So one of my other hyperfixations is Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), the 2D-animated movie by DreamWorks. (I know, I'm super weird; I'm a metalhead switching between Star Wars and an animated movie about horses (and some other hyperfixations but let's not go there).) I even created a fansite, if anyone's interested (which has still lots of WIP-pages I'm sorry I'm into Star Wars at the moment)

Alright that was a lot of super random information no one asked about. If you've come this far, holy kark my utmost respect to you, please leave a comment so I can send over some cookies because you kriffing deserved them?? I might consider writing a ficlet for you.

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[wooteena]

oh my god i just realized it's been literally years since you've been active. how the hell are you?? :O

helaurr anon omg lets do like a wooteena roundup ❕

still 16 (going on 17) (actually 33 /ref)

still australian (might change if plans go well because CRINGE TW:)

still dating the tumblr boyfriend. remember when i e-begged for a date 3 years ago? snagged dutch fanartist @onlygayminecraftstuff ? still going strong babes. froot for life i tell you.

hopefully going to- 🫣 to🫣 meet up🫣 sometime soon🫣🫣 face reveal for the meetcute when it happens promise

thatll happen once highschool slows down or finishes though. im a 'senior' so to speak ! year/grade 11 or 12, you guess ^_^

graduation might be late or happen differently because im💚 still disabled! trying to fix that too, sorry about the canon disability rep erasure guys my bad /sar

on the srs though? im winning. thriving, even. as much as tumblr was (and is, considering that i check in every 6months 😭) a space that i couldnt have lived without, there is definitely smth unfort to be said that this was the only place i could socialize because of how little capacity for anything i had from ages 12-14 because of chronic pain. being able to say that im full time at school and are finally, fully 'in' that rl friend group and show them the weird shit that happens on tumblr is probably the best, and most unbelievable thing i could tell chronically online, preteen wooteena.

i will never ever stop returning and reminiscing on this stupid minecraft blog is because i got to be an annoying kid with (mostly!) no repercussion and socialised during probably formative years while i was hurting. tumblr gets to be the place for the disabled, queer, and weird, always.

tldr wooteena cringefailed all over the screen about how tumblr saved their life probably. i love the blr because it loved me

get dogged on

[3liza]

i think the part of A Rape In Cyberspace that caught my attention the most on this read-through a few days ago was the part where they are convening the meeting of the MOO users to discuss what to do about the rapist and he finally shows up and they ask him what the fuck is his problem. and he says it was a social experiment. and the description of the reaction of the crowd is really interesting

“Asshole,” spat Karl Porcupine, “creep.” But the harshest of the MOO’s hostility toward him had already been vented, and the attention he drew now was motivated more, it seemed, by the opportunity to probe the rapist’s mind, to find out what made it tick and if possible how to get it to tick differently. In short, they wanted to know why he’d done it. So they asked him. And Mr. Bungle thought about it. And as eddies of discussion and debate continued to swirl around him, he thought about it some more. And then he said this: “I engaged in a bit of a psychological device that is called thought-polarization, the fact that this is not RL simply added to heighten the affect of the device. It was purely a sequence of events with no consequence on my RL existence.” They might have known. Stilted though its diction was, the gist of the answer was simple, and something many in the room had probably already surmised: Mr. Bungle was a psycho. Not, perhaps, in real life — but then in real life it’s possible for reasonable people to assume, as Bungle clearly did, that what transpires between word-costumed characters within the boundaries of a make-believe world is, if not mere play, then at most some kind of emotional laboratory experiment. Inside the MOO, however, such thinking marked a person as one of two basically subcompetent types. The first was the newbie, in which case the confusion was understandable, since there were few MOOers who had not, upon their first visits as anonymous “guest” characters, mistaken the place for a vast playpen in which they might act out their wildest fantasies without fear of censure. Only with time and the acquisition of a fixed character do players tend to make the critical passage from anonymity to pseudonymity, developing the concern for their character’s reputation that marks the attainment of virtual adulthood. But while Mr. Bungle hadn’t been around as long as most MOOers, he’d been around long enough to leave his newbie status behind, and his delusional statement therefore placed him among the second type: the sociopath. And as there is but small percentage in arguing with a head case, the room’s attention gradually abandoned Mr. Bungle and returned to the discussions that had previously occupied it.

it's the idiot vs villain dichotomy spelled out very clearly, one we still deal with on a daily basis online. poe's law, and before that, hanlon's razor. it stuck out to me a lot this time, im not sure why

edit; i also completely forgot about the twist. i forgot there even was one, but its a doozy

[duckuwu]

i do think about how i resisted kpop for so long

and then the one group to snatch me is the princess one.

i dont remember if i've talked about how it happened here before (probably), but... i've had two really close friends (who are both online and semi in person friends) who've been into kpop for many years now. and they kept talking about it, and the specific groups they like, and they kept trying to bring me into it. (just like there's some of you tumblr buddies who were also trying to assist me in that) but i just wasnt vibing w anything they sent.

but they were trying for years, and also getting such genuine joy out of it too, that i felt bad that i couldnt join them on the journey.

so i went to pandora and had it play me a kpop playlist.

and most of the tracks were skips for me. but there were some songs that i really vibed with.

they were always IVE. (okay, sometimes le sserafim would sneak in with newjeans. (enhypen was there too, my boys [pets gently]) but their tracks were hit and miss, whereas every single IVE track that came on...)

so i went to the music videos. went with the track that i loved the most: love dive. and i was like: oh, i get it now.

like, listen, the track is a fuckin bopperino. it's been in the top 100 of korea charts since it was released (it just left this weekend). but there was just something about these young women's attitudes. they know their worth and dare you to like them. dare i say...they were cocky? and the hook of the song "narcissistic, my god I love it" (and how there is some humour in it, but also they're just being honest too). and yeah. that's just what i've been wanting from female pop for decades. confident, cheeky, intelligent, not pandering to the male gaze.

...but now that i've been in this for some time now (and have expanded my listening range). I think it was just simply that the right group hadn't found me yet.

i don't really know how to explain it to people who aren't in it, but all these different groups are put together with a certain style/vibe/personality/goal. like, especially once you get to know the personalities of the members of the various groups. so, like, whilst there might be some crossover with people liking various groups, there's going to be that ONE group that is THE GROUP for someone, the group that truly best suits someone's personality.

like, i'm IVE, and the way they are with each other and their personalities, senses of humour, confidence, the lyrics of their songs... are very much the exact fit for me. whereas one of my RL friends has aespa as their main group, and the personalities, sense of humor, attitudes etc, truly fit the personality of my friend too. the stray kids fans i've met vs ateez fans vs enhypen etc... like you meet them, you talk to them, it's very easy to see why that one group is their main group. and also why their bias is their bias. (bias = favourite group member). it's kinda wild to think about. and very much not at all ... you cant really find the same in western groups. 1D fans were all over the place, same for bsb & nsync, fifth harmony etc.

it's fascinating. obviously subversive marketing that really fucking works. lmao and yeah it's marketing, but it's also based on something real.

but i really do find it absolutely hilarious that it's the group with the princess aesthetic that snatched me. for years now people on tumblr have been like 'dreamcatcher is right up your alley' and aesthetically, i do get it. and yet here we are lmao i do love me my rich intelligent women with hearts of gold (hello lena luthor). we just dont really get to see it in media much. (but also, again, i do want to stress that auditorily and lyrically i was ensnared by them before i even saw the group and their personalities)

this was my first favourite track of theirs:

and this is my absolute favourite track of theirs:

i'll shut up now lmao. idek if anyone'll read this ramble but hey

and if there's any kpop fans (friends/long time followers etc) whove been in this for a minute, feel free to correct any of my wrong assumptions about how things are? i know i'm new. and i also know i've got a masters in IVE specifically, and that I've only glanced the surface of other groups. but when you've found your happy place, it's really hard to watch other things when you could be in your happy place. lmao

[thesmutgoddess]

As a terminally online weirdo I'm so relieved that I can still meet people in rl that don't know about 90% of the shit I mention. They are... free.

[stormyoceans]

tbh I'm not sure if we'll get gmmtv2025. js are so busy with their concerts that they just don't have time for it. I really want to see the actors. I started to stan for actors, not singers/dancers/players. I don't have the financial ability to ride them around the world, but I have the opportunity to watch their series day and night. Give me back the actors😭 and give them **ck rest. smt they are out of work for a whole year, then they can't catch their breath coz of the amount of work.

DO NOT EVEN JOKE ABOUT THAT ANON IF WE DON’T GET A NEW JIMMYSEA SERIES FOR GMMTV 2025 IM AFRAID SAYING IM GONNA KMS ONLINE ISN’T GONNA BE ENOUGH ANYMORE I WILL ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO IT FR IN RL TOO

but seriously, i feel the exact same way, like i am sincerely happy for all the opportunities jimmysea got this year, especially because i remember a time when we could count on one hand the amount of jobs they had between fanmeets and other kind of events, and it wasn’t due to them being busy filming or studying, they out right stated in an interview that they simply had no work. so im obviously glad that they’re finally getting the recognition they deserve and doing lots of different activities and travelling the world to meet fans (sometimes i still can’t believe i actually saw them with my own two eyeballs), however, like you said, i fell in love with jimmysea as actors. it was their acting that eventually made me like and want to learn more about them as people, and whatever my feelings for last twilight may be, that didn’t change what i think of them, which is that they’re both incredible actors who are able to bring something really special on screen, especially when they’re working together, and i NEED that back. SO BADLY

and look, i don’t even need their next series to come out in the first half of 2025, okay, i know they’re really busy for the rest of the year and sea already has a concert scheduled for january, that’s still great, i just need THE HOPE THE PROSPECT THE PROMISE THE REASSURANCE of them having a new series in the near future, like i literally survived more than a year with only a mock trailer and a dream before I CAN DO IT AGAIN I DON’T NEED MUCH BUT I DO NEED SOMETHING

SO IMMA NEED EVERYONE TO PUT AS MANY POSITIVE SEXY ENERGIES OUT INTO THE UNIVERSE AS POSSIBLE WE’RE REARRANGING REALITY AND MAKING THIS HAPPEN WITH THE SHEER POWER OF CLOWNERY AND DELUSION

[h3artf3ltint3nt]

☮♦♣☀

Get to know the rper - RP related

-Send me a ☮ for me to describe an amazing rp experience: I don't think any rp experience can beat the one I discussed here

-Send me a ♦ for me to describe a plot that I’ve been wanting to do: oh jeez. There's so many. For Kexin specifically I do have two kind of specific ones. So the first has to do with A-Yao. So I couldn't decide if I wanted her to find out the truth or not before Huaisang revealed it at first but I finally decided that I didn't. Instead I figured it would be interesting for doubts to somewhat creep in but her desperately push those thoughts away because she didn't want to believe it and then everything coming to light and seeing that those doubts were valid. It's painful lol. The other is romance plot with JC (because she's a self insert and I love him lol). In my mind and the fanfic I'm writing they become close friends during the Gusu lectures and discuss the possibility of courting but then Sunshot happens and the rebuilding of Lotus Pier. Once things finally settle and the idea comes up again the stuff with WWX happens and she has a hard time accepting that everyone thinks it's best to get rid of him, which causes strife but eventually they come back around and finally get to lol. This one I know is very very specific xD

-Send me a ♣ for me to describe a favorite rp ship of someone else’s: Hmm. Well I don't focus a lot of other peoples' ships aside from "oh that's cute!" or huh interesting. But I am very invested in my friend's ship of her oc with Billy Hargrove from Stranger Things. Billy becomes a better person because of her and I really enjoy when that's a thing in ships. I also think that @adversitybloomed 's ship with Sizhui is super cute!

Send me a ☀ for me to talk about someone I’ve met through rp: Once again, SO MANY. The majority of my online friends are my friends because of role play. But it would be a disservice to not discuss my first ever online friend for this. In around 2009-2010 I got into the book series Vampire Academy. A year or so before that was when I started role-playing on the internet. My website of choice at the time was something called bebo that no longer exists. Well, one of my rl best friends and I loved Vampire Academy so much that we not only role played two main characters: Rose & Lissa but we also made ocs that were their children and shipped them together. We decided to make bebo accounts for them and one day I found an account that was a daughter of Rose, which would make her my oc's sibling. We started talking and decided to make them twins and my friend also became friends with her. We started talking more and more and eventually my irl friend and I video chatted with her. We had already become friends at the time and that just cemented it. We continued role playing together, coming up with new storylines for our original ocs, as well as role playing in different fandoms together such as Star Wars, Supernatural, Yu-Gi-Oh, Descendants, etc. And I'm talking almost a decade. At one point she and I got into a bit of a disagreement and stopped talking for a little while and I regret it a lot because shortly after we started talking again she unfortunately passed away, in 2019, before I got to meet her in person. I miss her a lot and haven't been able to write in the Vampire Academy verse since.

[trainsinanime]

For the ask game: Do you think RL railway enthusiasts are comparable to internet fandom?

Yeah absolutely. Now, it's not identical to say an anime or French TV show fandom, it has its own expressions and experiences and industry behind it; it's comparable to internet fandom in the same way that sports or car enthusiasts are comparable to internet fandom. Very different, and yet very much the same.

Railway enthusiasts have their own unofficial fan lingo. If I talk about a shed, a Ludmilla, a Quietschie (squeaky), a Hamster, Taurus, Ferkeltaxi (piglet cab), Swiss crocodile, or similar, those are all trains and many rail fans will know exactly which ones I mean (I have all of those on my model railroad, except for a "shed" because those are just ugly).

Rail fans also have fan art, most famously in the form of model railroads which can be anything from fun toys to intricate pieces of artistic expression, but also drawings, paintings, classical music (thanks Arthur Honegger) and so on. Train photography is also a huge field. I used to do lots of that.

And these subcultures intersect, but aren't identical. There are plenty of model railroaders who don't care about actual railroads at all, and vice versa. In model railroading, it's also divided by which scale or scales you have. I use N gauge, the smallest practical one (Z heads you know I'm right), and someone who models European 0 gauge - I really have almost no point of contact with them. Let alone American O gauge (yes, one's the number, the other is the letter), with their Lionel and third rail, that's a part of the hobby that is a complete mystery to me.

You also absolutely get big fan events. I sat out the ones in Friedrichshafen and Leipzig, but I was at the one in Göppingen this year, which was simultaneously massive and one of the smaller ones I've seen. It's not the same as a "fandom con", there is nobody there cosplaying a Czech freight car (well, except for me), and there are no autograph sessions for famous creators (except for Hagen von Ortloff sometimes), but you do see (invited) clubs bring their model railroads. There are also a lot of shops around for model railroad stuff and railroad memorabilia. My personal favorite: The bin at the Lemke stand. I got some really fun stuff there, including e.g. the Quietschie.

Compared to internet fandoms, the whole thing tends to skew older; the median rail fan is a retired white man. There are also more classic infrastructures, like official clubs with official meeting hours and so on. Not really my style, to be honest, but it exists. It's also a field where classic printed publications still hold a lot of sway, some aimed at fans of the real thing, some aimed at model railroaders, some at both, some at specific sections of any of these groups.

That being said, there is also a huge internet component. I'm not really active there, because e.g. the Drehscheibe-Online forum is incredibly interesting but also every other thread devolves into a flame war immediately. But it is a huge thing.

Rail fan culture doesn't necessarily look like the thing that came out of Star Trek fanzines to bulletin boards to eventually Tumblr pipeline, it has its own distinct history and expressions. But at the end of the day it is the same thing: We narrativise the things we're interested in, and we identify with them, and we seek others who we can share that with. And that sparks creativity, and it sparks people who try to make money off of it, and it absolutely sparks flame wars and people identifying with certain teams and so on. It's fun!

[rayadraws]

Finding people online who share your interests, your kind of humour and general outlook on life is so cool. Just, that we have that opportunity nowadays. A downside is that often these people may live far away. On the opposite side of the planet, as the case may be.

I've been incredibly privilegied to have not one but two online friends visiting me this year (and making a third new friend in the progress), one during the height of sunmer and one(/two) this last week. It's so much fun to hang out with these people. Friends to draw with, to explore your little corner of the world with, to laugh over memes and jokes that most people you usually hang out with in RL just wouldn't get. To finally meet up in RL after more or less talking daily for years.

The downside of course is that eventually you reach the end of their visit. Not going to lie, I shed some tears after driving my visitors back to the airport today. I'm so happy to have these friendships, even if it feels a bit bittersweet when you think about the massive physical distance between you.

Well, there's only one thing for it. Next time it's me travelling across the world so we can meet up again!

[sotwk]

If this is too personal you obviously don't have to answer but how did you and your husband meet?

Hello Anon! It's not too personal to ask this question, and I appreciate your interest! :) I try to put some limits on the info I disclose about my RL family, including dear ol' Hubs, but I do like sharing certain stories if my experiences can encourage others in their own life challenges.

ONLINE DATING, this was us. This was before dating apps started taking off, so it was one of those old-fashioned websites with exhaustive profiles. Timeline went something like, chatted/emailed for a month then met up in person, instantly clicked, dated for a glorious couple of years, got engaged. BOOM married. BOOM kids. And now here we are.

Life can move and change super fast once the ball gets rolling on you. If anyone reading this is single, or has been single/dateless for a while, do not lose heart. I WAS THE SAME. I'm pretty sure my mother already wrote me off as "never gonna find anyone", because I was just too shy and hated going out. Even I was already losing hope and then extrovert Hubs was just kinda dropped into my path. Miracles just happen! XD

[kitkatt0430]

so I had the 'what if Iris got car-wrecked into a visual novel' fic idea, but.......

There's also the 'reincarnated as the villainess' sub genre there and just. Caitlin. She's a medical student who is very much suffering from burn out and has been trying to stave it off by obsessing over this otome game where the main character is this really adorable girl called Iris West and of course there's the usual four guys with a fifth hidden route and Caitlin has played three routes so far. Ronnie/Iris, Eddie/Iris, and Cisco/Iris... and she knows there's also Julian/Iris and the final 'true' path of Barry/Iris, which only unlocks when all four base paths are completed.

But then Caitlin (if that was really her name in the RL, usually they're original lives go nameless in this genre) gets hit by a car and dies. On Earth. In the world of An Iris for the Heroes, Killer Frost wakes up after a pre-game fight with the Flash where she hit her head and barely got away... and remembers being Caitlin Snow.

It's a super hero/high school AU with secret identities and so no one knows that mild mannered Barry Allen is the brash hero the Flash, who has a particular soft spot for his childhood friend and reporter for the school newspaper, Iris West. Caitlin Snow, whose identity as Killer Frost was also a secret until the end of some of the routes where she's either arrested or killed, was the villain. A school bully towards Iris by day and pain in the ass for the Flash and Vibe and toxic friend for Alchemy by night. She features little in the Cobalt Blue path and is a love rival in the FIRESTORM path - though Caitlin only knows some of the details.

She also knows now that Caitlin Snow of the An Iris for Heroes world had an abusive home life until her powers manifested and accidentally killed her parents. She decided that must make her a horrible person, which was why Killer Frost chose to become a villain. Feeling like her parents deaths at her hands, no matter how they treated her, made her irredeemable. But now this new personality is in charge and she had a relatively stable, if somewhat neglected, home life and she doesn't think being a villainess is all she deserves. She wants to survive, become a doctor, and save lives in turn.

So obviously the first life she has to save is her own. She's living on her own, the previous version of her having already been emancipated from her Aunt over the summer. And so she would be starting as a new student at the same school as the rest of the main cast from the game in a week. Which gives her some time to write down all the events she remembers either from playing the game itself or from reading spoilers online.

She stops going out as Killer Frost, but learns that if she doesn't use her powers once a day, she suffers side effects. Once school starts, Caitlin figures that all she needs to do is not team up with Alchemy - Julian - and not bully Iris and she'll be golden. Unless this really is a game world and it might be harder.

She winds up paired as lab partners with Julian and does find she likes him but quickly notes that he, uh... likes her more than she likes him. Thankfully she also meets Cisco and they become fast friends and it's very definitely a platonic besties deal. Except Cisco is also besties with Barry and Caitlin is wary 'cause... the Flash. But also the closer she gets to Iris' circle the more she worries about some kind of fate shoving her into the villainess role no matter what she does.

Except Barry's kinda cool and fun and Caitlin winds up friends with him anyway. And then she meets Iris and Iris is every bit as cool as Caitlin remembers her being from the game. Truth was, Caitlin liked to imagine she was the one Iris was romancing every time she played the game and now... but of course, Iris is clearly straight. Having five male love interests and no flirtations with the ladies makes that pretty clear. The only real F/F ship in the fandom was Iris/Linda and, in universe, Iris sets her best friend Linda up with her younger brother Wally.

Except, one night, in her new 'definitely not Killer Frost' outfit, working out some of her ice power build up from the day, Caitlin kinda... rescues the Flash from Alchemy. He shouldn't need her help, but then in the game this fight was Flash vs Killer Frost and Alchemy and he managed to win by causing Killer Frost to accidentally freeze Alchemy and she had to run off to safely defrost him. Just Alchemy vs the Flash, however, allowed Alchemy to really let loose and the Flash is knocked out and almost unmasked. Caitlin manages to scare Alchemy off and then freaks out because she doesn't know where to take Barry for safety. In her panic, the only place Caitlin can think of is... Iris West's home.

I'm thinking this would be... Snowestallen + Cisco/Ronnie + Wallinda + Julian/Hartley (who was, of course, a minor antagonist in the game for Vibe's path) + some overarching villain that is probably Eobard since Barry's path is the 'true path' from the game

[ashtraythief]

wait, what the fuck? you and all those spn writers are like friends in real life? how did that happen? how did you all meet up? that is super cool!!!!!

Yeah, we are! We kinda "met" in comments and challenges and started chatting on twitter. The guys also knew each other already from cons and old fandom days and then during the pandemic in the early lockdown days we did spn inspired online game nights. I've met a few of them before when I was in their respective areas and now we did an official weekend getaway. I actually know a fair amount of fans who know each other in reality life. Some of them through cons but also other people who like each other and just meet up. Fandom friends to rl friends ftw 💜