#but also people looking for streamer AUs need the tags etc

[n7punk]

I don't know whether to expect something esoteric and gig economy based for Catra's job in SYE or whether she's a Vtuber and I'm kind of here for it.

so like. good job i guess LMAO

[antimony-medusa]

*I emerge from several weeks of talking about conceptualizing my cubitos and who else populates their world and what the precise nature of the character is* Hello. Hi. It's time for my twice-yearly thoughts on RPF.

Okay so I was one of the people who was emailing Ao3 about it when we had all of MCYT wrangled into VBRPF going please please please please can we have our own server tags pleeeeeeease I promise it's not just video blogging rpf pleeeeeeease my streamer doesn't have wings in real life pleasssssseeee— and my general stance is that writing about Dream SMP characters is writing about characters, it's not RPF.

Not quite. It's not quite RPF. There is a meaningful distinction there, but it's not a really huge one. That distinction exists and is important to me in how I conceptualize those characters and whether I'm mentally going "okay I need to study lore streams for vocal patterns" for voice research or if I'm going "okay I need to pull up technocord logs " to get techno voice right. What I consider the authoritative canon "character" is a rp guy who spawns withers, not a real streamer in california with a little white dog.

But like I do multifandom exchanges and I wander into them with my cubitos clutched tight in my palms, and I see what other fandoms look like— and importantly, I see what other rpf fandoms look like— and guys, I think that line is legitimately blurry and I think that's literally fine. If I walk into a mulltfandom space with my guys they're going to squint at me and go "rpf fandom— kinda, I think" and I can go "hahaha, not quite", but also I do not blame other people for thinking this is RPF cause like— there are a lot of similarities!

What MCYT tends to classify as "RPF" is directly stories operating in a world where the characters are streamers, they post on twitter, they have lunch with the CEO of twitch. And anyone not writing that, is obviously not writing RPF. And that is not untrue, up to a point, but there is a broad category of fics that tend WAY harder into the pure fictional that are still considered RPF fandoms, if you actually check what other RPF fandoms are doing. There are 599 works in "Demon Shane Madej", many of which are in AUs that have no connection to the real world other than the character relationships, and they're still officially considered RPF.

I have a friend who's in a c-drama rpf fandom that has a rpf ship they really like, and a really popular thing is to take the various characters these actors have played (totally fictional characters from various media) and ship them together. And that's just a crossover of two fictional mediums, but because the thread connecting them is two guys in real life, that's considered RPF.

The banddom tags are absolutely COMPLETELY full of aus that are not set in the real world at all, no connection to the music industry, and what the people in those fandoms will say is like yeah, I have no idea about the real guy, I'm working with a character/persona who's put on for the stage and interviews and personas, and that guy is not REAL, who knows what the real guy is like, but like, I like the persona, I deal with the persona, and then they put that persona in an au where he kisses other personas— and this gets considered RPF.

Wrestler RPF is directly dealing with invented characters who are beating the bloody snot out of each other (hot), they have names like "the undertaker", dealing with scripted storylines, but it still get considered RPF.

And like, I look at myself as I am entering my third year of writing Technoblade most of the time, and what I'm doing here and— there are a lot of similarities in what I'm doing to what other RPF fandoms are doing. I'm a fan of the DSMP character but I'm also a fan of the guy, so I want to play in this extended universe, so I want to include nods to his other stuff. So I will pepper in a cheeky nod to the potato war here, I'll mention hypixel there, etc, kind of make an extended Technoblade universe. And I think that's not RPF (quite) because I'm working from a fictional canon that includes references to the potato war and hypixel etc, I'm just expanding on it, but like, this is literally what my friend in c-drama rpf does as well when she's writing aus about her guy. It's kind of close to RPF. That line is not really obvious to the casual viewer.

So I do not blame anyone else if they look at what we're doing and they go ah, nods wisely, you are a rpf fandom, I've seen this before, and we go um actually, hahah, you'd think that, but no, and then they nod and clearly do not understand how it's not a RPF fandom.

But the thing is it's literally fine if people think that, I think. RPF is not the end of the world. It's just a bunch of people working with people's various performancesonas and worksonas and having fun with it. Spoilers for mythbusters in the real world, but we now know that by the end of mythbusters adam and jamie were not really friends, but most of the mythbusters rpf keeps them as friends because that was the professional persona they provided for the camera, and that was the fictional world the writers wanted to live in. I don't think it's a problem if someone wants to write straight up streamer fic, you do you, and that's unequivocally RPF, but once you start getting into AUs and extended universes and bringing emduo content into qsmp and writing fic based on GIGS streams, the line legitimately gets WAY more blurry.

I think a bunch of fic (including my fic) can start to exist in a "both things are true" state where it's drawing from direct fiction but it's also drawing from a lot of stuff that other fandoms would consider RPF sources, and like, I don't mind this. I don't think it's bad if you're doing this too. We're not getting more DSMP content, the fandom police are not gonna turn up at your house if you want to pull strongly from minecraft monday for your fic. Do schlackity on QSMP. Do a DSMP extended future where tommy gets tubbo to marry him for a bit and then tubbo immediately demands a divorce. The canon of material we have to draw on is not something where big obvious lines exist between "rpf content" and "pure fiction" if you step at ALL outside of canon-compliant. Like fuck, in my very first DSMP longfic I included all these hermit cameos and mcc references which would make it RPF in any other canon, but also I was pulling mainly from the prison arc lore and beats and relationships for the core, which is NOT rpf, and at this point it is not worth the hassle in my head to draw a strong distinction between them.

It's kinda RPF. It's not quite RPF. It's fictional. It's based in the real world. It's all personas. it's drawing on off-lore-stream dynamics. It's drawing on scripted scenes where my streamer had his camera in lore mode. It's COMPLICATED to unpick and I legitimately think that's fine. RPF is literally fine, some people are gonna think we're writing RPF, it's not the end of the world. Just have fun with it.

[mmriesoftvat]

Verses I had for Chongyun before I moved him here. bonus: characters who also fall under these verses + more.

YAKSHA: chongyun is actually binarius, the missing cryo yaksha. sealed away by rex lapis in a moment of terror when all the other yaksha were falling apart/dying. the seals in place kept binarius alive, his power dormant. but it removed all his memories of being a yaksha. thousands of years later, the seals are breaking, and chongyun, is remembering his life as a yaksha. and doesn't know if he's chongyun or binarius anymore, or some mix of both. bonus: illuminated form is a huli jing, or a nine tailed fox.

ADEPTUS: chongyun took the trials to become an adeptus, a feet that hadn't happened in a long long time. with his own abode underneath mt aocang, chongyun's able to become an arctic fox. this verse is a little character specific. adopted officially by lapidex's rex lapis.

FATUI: chongyun went poking their nose into trouble because they thought the fatui would have some mystical magical cure for their yang energy. chongyun fell down a rabbit hole of lies and conspiracy and became one of them himself. now he's a fatuus with a code name (caesor) and takes orders from the harbingers. angsty verse, because chongyun is so completely dead inside and has lost all hope.

ABYSS: you thought chongyun is human? guess again. chongyun is actually a reincarnated bathysmal vishap who wants to go home. liyue is not home, they don't actually know where home is, aside from a strong desire to go back to inazuma. there's also that weird, bizarre sensation that the abyss order has things right, why are we fighting them?

SUMERU: nothing crazy, but chongyun moved to sumeru to pester their favorite people. cyno, tighnari, and more! lighthearted shenanigans afoot, including mysterious prank billboard notices. who'd ever suspect the innocent looking claymore user with the popsicle?

POPSTAR: chongyun is a heavily famous solo cpop artist. while chongyun loves the stage, loves to dance and sing, they also love their downtime, which includes lots of snacks and naps. wild on the stage, quiet in person. also, chongyun loves to collab with other artists. inspired by chongyun's drummer skin.

YANG DRUNK: just when the yang energy takes control, and chongyun is more unhinged/wild. chongyun tends to be more blunt and wild, gives zero shits about anything. though doesn't attack his friends, he's still slightly more ruthless. and he does remember his episodes when he comes out of it later on. much remorse is to be had.

MODERN: chongyun is a popular ghost hunter youtuber/streamer. ghosts are real, and he enjoys the spooks and delivering them to eager fans.

KAMI VERSION: kaminari works at a library and loves his job. he's a huge bookworm, and has recently started his own online career where he reviews books. turns out, people love that.

HSR: part of the xianzhou Alliance, divination section, chongyun prefers to stay behind the scenes and play video games. They take their job seriously of course, and help out if/when needed.

KAMI VERSION: kami is a hacker who's just as good as silver wolf. he found himself leaning toward kafka's ideals and sees her as the closest thing to an ally there is. there aren't many other options for a puppet on the run, especially when he's got encryptic information inside of him. at least the members of the express crew aren't bad.

SCI FI: part of a mysterious group known as ‘the exorcists’, codename demonbane is exceptionally skilled at tracking ‘ghosts’ or anyone who tries to hack/cause mayhem online. chongyun is the best there is and everyone knows his codename, but no one knows him. he likes it that way. to be changed with plotting.

TWINS: any verse where there are twins. chongyun/jiyu, kami/ren, kami/uzumaki, etc. if they are twins aus, they will be tagged here.

OTHER VERSES:

KHAENRI'AH: albedo centric. takes place back in khaenri'ah days. can also include events and characters that also happened around that time period, give or take a couple hundred years.

[heartate-aa]

care sharing some modern ahri hcs?

yes of course,  i would love to  !!!  and thank you so so so much for asking 🥺 please let me know if u would like anymore or more specific things,  i hope u enjoy these,  anon  !!

ahri,  as we know,  remains a gumiho in modern,  but she retains her league of legends’ spin in her specific magical abilities,  and thus the essence required to fuel her power.  this is something integral that i will never compromise.  and as such,  she still hunts and,  like her canon counterpart,  goes through the struggles with her shifting morality as she integrates and assimilates into human culture.  ahri has come a long way since then,  and is quite the good person,  now,  but her being a gumiho,  a girl’s gotta eat  !  she hunts as sparingly as possible,  and i’ve spoken extensively about her being respectful for her prey.  she freezes any leftover flesh she doesn’t plan to immediately consume,  because while she does take their essence,  she doesn’t like to be wasteful,  you know  ?  and i’ve also spoken extensively about ahri making human smoothies kjbfdgdg NOT ALWAYS HUMAN,  JUST . . . MOSTLY HUMAN.  these headcanons are somewhere in my tag dkjbfgdf.  she also takes animal bones and makes accessories out of them  !!  if u really want,  and she’s really good friends with you,  she’ll gift u a hand made bracelet  /  necklace  /  earrings djfkgdfg

ok.  i have the main one out of the way so,  here are some more fun ones  !!

ahri has several modern  -  based verses.  some of them may vaguely overlap or be vaguely separate,  but most of the traits  /  headcanons are shared across them.  that being said,  ahri is a prolific vlogger and social media starlet,  whether it’s a verse where she’s in k/da,  just an actress,  etc.,  any verse  !!  she loves making vlogs of her day to day life,  unboxing things,  mukbangs,  her pets,  her travels around the world,  shopping days,  visits to nature or museums,  etc  !!  it’s not that she’s doing it to put her life on blast,  but she just has so much fun sharing her life and loves to engage with people because she’s grown to love humans,  in spite of their ugliness,  and she wants to share the beauty of the world.

that being said,  ahri can often be glued to her phone.  she’s always texting someone,  taking pictures,  but sometimes,  she’ll set it down and just truly live in the moment.  even being an immortal creature,  it can be nice to feel like she’s paused the world and breathe and just feel the moment and live in the memory,  not just capture it.

ahri has a streamer au  !!  her social media presence  /  vlogging is about the same here,  but she focuses more on streaming and instagram modeling posts.  she’s a variety streamer and plays things like league of legends,  hades,  stardew,  animal crossing,  and any other game that comes and goes in popularity,  including console games.  ahri also plays ffxiv and uses a viera model that she made to look like herself  (  minus the height,  of course  )  and uses the viera mods that make them into a fox  !!  ahri likes playing with her fans and while she might have random days every now and then where she does community events,  playing with her is mostly a channel points reward.  sometimes she does just chatting streams where she just talks about life,  mukbangs,  does her makeup,  or she’ll have music  /  dance streams  !!

ahri loves plants and gardening,  but she is horrible at keeping them.  she can keep a plant alive in a pot for . . . not very long.  she tries to grow her own herb garden,  but everything just dies.  she insists she’s doing everything right,  and i am sure she is trying her best,  but she can’t grow anything to save her life.

ahri isn’t the best baker.  she is a decent cook,  having learned over time,  but baking is . . . another challenge that she struggles with horribly.  she just wants to make cute little animal shaped pastries but they come out all deformed and burnt  !!

k/da ahri spends quite a bit of time at the k/da house,  but she has her own personal residence.  it is a single  -  family home,  and it is quite spacious and secluded.  she purchased it far before she acquired her fame as a popstar,  because she’s built up quite a bit of wealth in her centuries of being alive.  it isn’t too far from the city,  but still a little distance away,  surrounded by quiet trees and few neighbors.  she likes to go there to get away from the busy life of fame,  especially when she needs time to herself in shifting moods depending on what kind of person she ate or you know,  any drama in her life.