#but also pro derek and stiles and everybody

[nyxelestia]

Racism in the Teen Wolf Fandom

[This post originally tagged several people I was directly addressing, as I was expecting it to mostly be reblogged by them and their followers, with maybe a small handful of people I asked to take a look at this post even bothering to read this behemoth, let alone share it. However, a lot more people than I expected paid attention to and shared this post, including a blog that dedicates itself to highlighting racism in fandom. In the interests of preventing "raiding"/dogpiling behavior against the people I addressed this post to, I have removed their handles.]

tl;dr - I don't actually believe any of you are racists, no more than I am, than we all are by virtue of being raised in a white-centric culture, internalizing the attitudes expressed by our media and community, and carrying those attitudes with us into fandom. But that is all the more reason we need to address bigotry in our communities, no matter how passive or benign or minor, because that is the only way to engender change in this fandom, in fandom in general, and in ourselves. I take issue with your guys' posts and meta not because I think everyone should worship Scott - hey, he's not my #1 fave either - or because I think he is perfect (no one is, perfect characters are boring). I take issue with the fact a lot of your logic, meta, and analyses rely on the same racist arguments that permeate mainstream media. I object to the casual dismissal of canonical events, and the way headcanons and assumptions are treated as canon when analyzing the show (especially when they are overwhelmingly skewed a certain direction). And I object to the fact every attempt by myself and many, many others to point all of this out is often met with little more than dismissing everything with the vague claim that we're "too sensitive" and "see racism everywhere" and "are only using buzzwords". I don't think any of you are racists, but I think all of you have utilized or enabled racist rhetoric when talking about Scott (and several other characters, but primarily Scott, for reasons I explain down below).

I'm temporarily disabling anon - either one of you, or one of your followers, constantly fills my inbox with misogynistic slurs every time I speak up against bigotry in fandom, and I just do not have the time to IP block each one. I just got this lovely one just yesterday:

(I and everyone else who talk about racism in Teen Wolf fandom are accused of "using buzzwords", while I'm getting anons who accuse me of misogyny while calling me a cunt. Yay irony.)

If you want to yell at me, do it under your own name. And yes, out of all the people circle-jerking on the original post, I blocked the one who used name-calling now, and has demonstrated some remarkably immature behavior in the past. If bhadpodcast is going to act and post like I blocked them, I might as well actually block them and save myself the headache. They can still relay messages to me through one of you. The rest of you have demonstrated yourself to be open-minded and willing to listen to logical arguments in the past (or I don't know you well enough to assume that you'll ignore my words and skip straight to the name-calling) which is why I've tagged you.

This is a rodeo I've ridden before, and while I can always hope for change, the reality is that I have already expressed all of this in meta before, and that I've spoken to most of you directly about all of this. I'm familiar with the arguments you make, and I'm tired. So it's going to take pretty much all of my self-control to do this, but no matter what you reblog, I am not going to respond. I'm not going to get caught up in the tactics of deflection and distraction, I'm not going to let you draw me into petty arguments on isolated comments and use that as an excuse to ignore the overwhelming majority of this post, and I'm not interested in rehashing arguments I've already had a dozen times over with almost all of you at one point or another.

If you actually read this entire thing and have an honest rebuttal to something I stated below, and its something that is based in the canonical source material, is not contradicted by other canonical source material, and is not contingent on a headcanon, my Messenger is open. Otherwise, it's been good talking to you, and I'm sure we'll be talking about all of this again, soon enough. But I am stating my piece and peacing out, because I need to save up my energy for the next time this wank comes around - and given the way fandom has shown itself to act in the past (and the fact racism has been around far, far longer than television, letalone fandom), that is not an 'if', but a 'when'.

Below the cut:

1.) Yes, Scott is a character of color, I don't care what country you're in.

2.) The fact that most of the racism in Teen Wolf fandom comes in microaggressions does not make it less racist.

3.) Actors and characters are held to tremendously disparate double standards and this is a huge problem, probably the biggest one.

4.) Racism of Teen Wolf fandom is highly reflective of racism offline/in the "real world".

On Scott actually being a character of color

Now, first and foremost - I don't really care what country you are from, Scott is a character of color. I get that some of you come from backgrounds where someone with his complexion is coded as white, but ignoring the fact that 1.) internalized racism is as much of a problem as external racism and 2.) most of ya'll have your own serious problems with colorism and race (where do you think America got it from?), the reality is that you are watching an American TV show, filmed using Amercian actors and and in a setting whose populace is designed to look American. On top of that, most of you have consumed plenty of American media before Teen Wolf, or media that reflects/contains the same problems with colorism and racism as American media.

Even if you did not perceive Scott as white on your first watch, the majority of the target audience did, a significant portion of your meta still used logic and arguments saturated in racist rhetorical history (American racism and otherwise), and many of your character delineations still fell along racial lines (i.e. which characters you headcanon as being secretly evil or having ulterior motives, and which ones you headcanon as secretly not being as evil as they act). As this article points out, the actual TV show has a pretty sketchy history when it comes to its treatment of non white, non male characters - granted, it's nothing new, most TV shows do this or something like this, as does most media in general. But "everyone else does it" and "it's always been this way" has never been an excuse before, and Teen Wolf doesn't get to start now.

On top of that, even if you personally came from a country with no ties to or influences from Western racism at all, you are still engaging in a fandom that is largely rooted in America, with American racial preconceptions, and dealing with American racial norms. Much of my issues with racism in your posts, meta, and reponses is not that an individual is immediately being racist, but rather are perpetuating racist misconstructions.

i.e. Stiles gets struggles on a test, and it's because he has ADHD, so/and he's still a genius, which is reinforced by all the times outside of school. Allison openly admits to having had to repeat a year before and failing a class now, and it's attributed to familial and superantural stress. But Scott gets a bad grade, he's an idiot, and the idea that he "never" does anything outside of school. You aren't going to call Scott stupid because of his ethnicity. But by taking away situations in which he has demonstrated intelligence and cunning and attributing it to someone else, you reinforce anti-Scott fans' rhetoric that Scott is an idiot who can't do anything, most of which traces back to racial stereotypes about Latino boys in the American education system. This is just one of many, many examples.

I understand why you feel like the fact you didn't code Scott as white on your first watch means you don't and can't possibly have racist attitudes towards him or express it in meta. But the thing is, bigotry is rarely about you individually, it's almost always about how you connect to and relate to a broader tradition of oppression and marginalization. There is not a single English-speaking or European country that does not currently have problems with racism and colorism, and while the nuances of how racism manifests varies from country to country, the traditions, media trends, and social habits do not - which is why the fact that people from different countries perceive characters' a little differently based on their appearances, the underlying rhetoric and logic is still the same.

Teen Wolf Fandom Racism

In the post this came clusterfuck from, the person I was responding to literally says, 'the hero is not a hero, and the villain IS the hero'. The fact that she didn't actually say their races doesn't change the fact all the positive attributes or successes of the character of color were projected onto white characters, while supporting the idea that the character of color is evil. She literally removed the character of color from the story, by claiming that the adult werewolf is actually the "teen wolf". AUs are fine and dandy and dark AUs are a lot of fun. But we call them AUs for a reason. The show itself is one created by people, not some documentary about real life events. The story presented is the story intended, and the post is one which undermines that story in order to demonize a character of color, while also deifying white characters, in a way that is contingent of separating the character of color from his own story and plastering his story onto white characters.

It's a not-so-micro microaggression. Just because you don't intend a certain bias, does not mean you are not acting it out or perpetuating it. Just because you are not intentionally judging someone on the basis of race, does not eliminate the fact you (and I) were raised in a very racist culture, and especially in a racist media environment, and express racialized judgments without intending it. We all do this - up until her library scene with Mason in Season 5, I was doing this with Kira all the time. And I've also fallen prey to the tendency to sideline Boyd. When I recognized that I ponder the stories of white characters who has as much screen time as him or even less so, I strove to change that.

This article explains the way fandom treats characters of color and how erasure manifests in fandom, and very specifically #3 in to one of you whose meta I was responding to before. The article is primarily about shipping, but it also specifically addresses the demonization of Deaton, and other characters of color, in the Teen Wolf fandom, and puts these into the context of fandom racism in general, not just Teen Wolf. In particular:

When characters of color are distanced from their triumphs and relationships in canon via headcanon, photo manipulations/edits, or simply not being written or drawn into fanworks, it’s an attempt to minimize the importance of the character. Whether or not it’s a subconscious or conscious distancing, the fact of the matter is that fandom does this on the regular and it usually only benefits white characters (and largely white fans) because it takes importance away from the few characters of color that the canon gives us.

This is literally erasing a character of color and replacing him with a white character, who the fuck thought this was okay? I get that this was a Stiles-centric event, but if you can smoothly switch out heads and paste in characters, then you can damn well make your own banner pulling together all the characters independently, without erasing the character of color and pasting a white character over him.

On top of that, the post points out how much racism in fandom manifests as separating characters of color from their white friend.

Take a look at the finale of Season 2. We never once see Stiles' reaction to Gerard (he wasn't even there, yet). Only edited for size and brightness, here is Stiles' entrance to the scene - after Gerard has already collapsed from the mountain ash:

Incidentally, the show never explains how Stiles actually knew to go to this warehouse in the first place, and at the the beginning of the scene, it was Scott, Chris, and Isaac who arrived here first, setting the location for the finale. There are a lot of possible explanations for all of these. But fandom only treats one as if it were canon, while rarely or never mentioning the other, equally likely, possibility. Why? Because that creates a separation between Scott and Stiles (despite/especially because of the fact the season literally ends with the two of them goofing off together).

The very ending of the season is about Scott and Stiles playing lacrosse together after Scott respectfully walks away from Allison when she breaks up with him, but how many post-S2 fics start out with Stiles feeling lonely because Scott abandoned him for Allison? We see Stiles discovering the alpha symbol and learning about the alpha pack at the same time as Scott at the beginning of Season 3A - yet why do so many people talk about Stiles helping Derek look for them over the summer as if it were canon? (In the interest of demonstrating full disclosure about our own mistakes, even I used to think this, just because it appeared in fanfic so many times. It wasn't until my second watch of S3 that I realized Stiles hadn't canonically been helping Derek look for Erica and Boyd, or known about the alpha pack beforehand.)

(Sloppy gif is sloppy. Derek and Scott were talking about alphas, so Derek actually said "A pack of them." This conversation was interspersed with cuts from the Braeden and Alpha Pack fight scene, so the awkward jumps are from cutting those out.)

This unconscious racism also manifests in how fandom treats actors of color in the fandom, and in Teen Wolf fandom.

Dylan O'Brien made a joke about violating native law and taking advantage of sacred land for his own personal humor, and fandom largely forgot about it in a week. Tyler Posey makes a joke about being gay, and fandom still rails at him over it. Tyler and Dylan should be held accountable to the same standards. Both of them made a stupid, shitty joke, and both apologized pretty quickly. Only one of them is still being taken to task for it.

One Tyler calls Sterek twisted and bizarre, the other Tyler calls Sterek disrespectful. Only one is taken to task over it, and it's the one who was routinely harassed about this ship, whose character is almost systemically marginalized from his own TV show, and whose character's death was being advocated to make another character into the lead of the show.

For those who want more quantative evidence

The number of fanworks about Scott compared to Stiles and Derek is ridiculous. On its own, in the context of a fandom that wasn't so otherwise racist or engaging in racist rhetoric and behavior, I'd buy that it was because there are many reasons why someone could identify with Stiles and Derek more than Scott. But most of the reasons people profess for identifying with Stiles - complexity, mental illness, etc., - are also attributes that apply to Scott's character, which means if you eliminate the things that are same, the racial difference becomes much, MUCH more prominent.

This is before getting into the fact that if you go into the Scott McCall tag right now, most of the fics (based on other tags, and summaries) aren't even about him, but about Stiles and/or Derek. Out of the 10 results in the first page when I just checked, only 1 had a summary that wasn't about Stiles or Derek. And it's really hard to take "Scott is just not that interesting" too seriously when I see how many people have forgotten really engaging scenes and stories with him, and how often people think a scene between him and either Stiles or Derek was actually between Stiles and Derek - and not him - in the show. People erase Scott from his own story, then claim he has no story.

Other Prominent Examples and Points of Contention

We live in a culture that romanticizes white pain in media, and dismisses the experiences and pain of non-white characters. Western audiences are trained and predisposed to dismissing characters of color, their experiences, their pain, and their development - or to taking these experiences and projecting them onto white characters. People are culturally trained to romanticize white, male suffering (which they do with Derek and Stiles), and dismiss men of color or their needs or pain (which they do with Scott).

To put it more bluntly, people will make a hundred gifsets about Stiles crying in the waiting room, but barely a dozen of Scott crying into his mother's arms. There are a hundred gifsets of Stiles conning Derek into a striptease in the first season, but barely any of Scott admitting he'd made a mistake in accusing Derek of murder, and trying to fix it. Does anyone remember that while Stiles and Derek were paralyzed on the floor of the police station in Matt's rampage, Scott had been shot? I've seen hundreds of gifs and images made of Stiles and Derek's pool scene - but I can't remember ever seeing a gifset about Gerard torturing Scott after that, stabbing him and holding the knife in while threatening his mother. And oh, hey, do you remember what Scott was dealing with during the pool scene?

No one is actively racist against Scott, but the implications that he's never changed, that he's never suffered, that he has no story, etc. etc. that so much of the anti-Scott meta is built upon - those are because people just dismiss his experiences and his story, without ever once actually thinking about it. They dismiss it when they watch it, and then again when they make a million gifs about Stiles and Derek's experiences, yet only a fraction as many about Scott's experiences.

This post illustrates my point quite nicely.

It's a pair of gifs from the first season about the boys after Hunters show up at the school, with feel good tags about Stiles "swooping in to save Derek". But here's the thing, those gifs have been edited to cut out Scott from the scene. Scott was the one driving Derek's car to rescue them. *Scott was was saving Derek too.* They were BOTH saving Derek's ass in here, but the gifs are edited to only show Stiles, and the tags only talk about Stiles. If you didn't actually watch this scene yourself, you probably wouldn't know that Scott was even there, let alone the fact the scene was primarily between him and Derek, not Stiles and Derek. How often do we see characters of color in critical roles get dismissed as "support staff"? Scott is "just" the getaway driver, so he's not important anymore to this scene, he no longer exists, only Stiles does.

(This can be a cute Sterek moment, but it can also be a cute Scerek moment and McHaleinski moment. Stiles and Derek actually have the least interaction in this scene, and Stiles is literally in the backseat and mostly in the background of the scene, which is focused on Derek and Scott.)

So now a lot of people are seeing this gifset, and not just internalizing those feel-good tags - they are internalizing the idea that it was only Stiles saving Derek, conveniently forgetting that Scott was even there. On top of that, the ensuing dialogue involves Scott admitting he made a mistake in accusing Derek of murder when he thought Derek was dead, and trying to fix the problem - but how many meta accuse him of never changing, admitting his mistakes, or addressing problems that he caused?

And this is just one example, from the very first season.

On top of that, that scene was also where Stiles and Derek find out the symbol Derek was investigating was on Allison's pendant. The next scene is Stiles pushing Scott to ignore Allison's need for space, in order to get that necklace - but Scott is the one who is blamed for "emotionally abusing her/manipulating her" for trying to reach out to her. I'd bet money that if Scott had decided to respect Allison's space, fandom would be decrying him for not helping Stiles and Derek hunt down an actual killer just because he didn't want to make a teenaged girl he barely knew a little uncomfortable. :|

Other Double Standards

Scott is called an abuser for levels of interpersonal violence that Stiles and Derek are constantly excused for it. Scott lies, and is called manipulative, Stiles lies, and he's just trying to protect people. People in fandom say that Derek is "violent, but not abusive", despite recurring acts of violence against relatively vulnerable characters who are under his care, yet they call Scott an abuser for all of two instances of lashing out at Isaac over something stupid.

Alan Deaton gets headcanons painting him as evil because he withholds information from the main characters. Stiles withholds information from the other characters, and he's just traumatized and scared.

Marin Morrell said if no other solutions to the nogitsune problem was found, then she'd kill one teenager who they already have confirmed is the source/host of the villain, in order to protect the rest of the town from the definite threat. Derek nearly murdered an innocent teenager, hoped for and attempted to engineer the death of another teenager, and dragged three more teenagers into a violent situation which they had little understanding of because he needed a pack (the alpha pack didn't come until later). But he is not called a villain at nearly half the rate Morrell is, if at all outside of the anti-Derek fandom. (Side note: neither of them are villains. Both of them are stuck dealing with the actual villains who've forced them into shitty situations. My problem is that while neither of them are villains, only one of them is repeatedly called and portrayed as one in fanworks.)

Boyd probably fares best, by virtue of barely ever getting mentioned in fanfic or meta, even in comparison to Cora or Erica (who he had about as much screentime as).

Fandom compares Scott to a rapist for using Derek's body against his will in order to save Allison's life. But where were they when Liam tried to kill Scott for his girlfriend, and Scott takes a few weeks to feel safe around him again instead of welcoming him back with open arms right away?

By the way, wanna know why fandom rarely gifs the scene of Scott forcing Derek to Bite Gerard with the actual dialogue?

Because you can't compare Scott to a rapist for using Derek's body against him when we see that he's only doing it because the villain is holding someone hostage and threatening their life, and you can't claim that Scott never apologizes for anything if you see him literally apologizing for what he's doing to Derek. And I'd bet even more money that if the reverse had happened, fandom would have decried Scott for letting Allison die "just" so Derek wouldn't have had to Bite someone he didn't want to, and called him a murderer for it.

People castigate Scott for successfully setting a broken leg when it was technically illegal, but I don't see any posts castigating Stiles for interfering in police investigations, violating people's privacy and boundaries, or interfering with an active crime scene/body search.

People call Scott a murderer because Theo killed Tracy and Josh on another character's information - not even a suggestion, just information - yet Derek actively sought to violate a girl's bodily autonomy and got her killed as a result. (I don't think he is a murderer for it - I think that if he isn't a murderer for Paige's death, then it's as ridiculous or even more so to claim that Scott is responsible for Theo's victims.)

Scott isn't perfect, no one on this show is, because perfect characters are boring. But only Scott is considered evil and villainous for not being perfect, while white characters' flaws are celebrated. Scott is derided for not being held accountable, but not only are the instances where he is held accountable erased, white characters' actions are constantly excused or justified without anybody screaming about their lack of accountability. Fandom hates on Scott for not verbally apologizing for things, but no one makes hate posts about the fact Stiles and Derek never verbally apologize, either. Fandom holds Scott up to an impossible standard while having little to no standards for the white characters. They use "he's the main character/protagonist/hero!" to justify the double standard, but then try to claim he ISN'T the protagonist or hero to justify giving his story to a white character - in the instance at the beginning of this post, a white villain no less - and casting him as the villain.

Main Points

I like darkfic as much as the next person, but that doesn't erase the fact that the process of making Scott a villain (as in, claiming Scott is actually a villain in the context of canon) is contingent on the racist traditions of separating a character of color from their own story, wiping away that characters' story, and romanticizing the struggles and personal strifes of white characters (often in the process of "giving" the character of colors' stories to them).

This problem isn't unique to Teen Wolf. Just about every fandom is racist, and many (if not most) of their media sources are even more racist than Teen Wolf. If anything, one thing Teen Wolf fandom has going for it is that, while it still has a lot of sexism and misogyny, it seems to have less so than most other, similar fandoms. Though the biggest point of comparison is the Supernatural fandom, so that might not be saying much.

The difference is that in other fandoms, the main characters are white, and most of the surrounding characters are white, too. Characters of color are always secondary ones. A Netflix show was the first time an MCU production had a non-white character as its lead. But in Teen Wolf, the main character is a character of color, and he's still getting treated the same way as secondary characters of other fandoms, if not even worse so.

I don't think any of you, as individuals, are racist. But I do think that all of you, as individuals, never examine racial biases in your media consumption or analysis. This leads to you microaggressively expressing racist attitudes in your meta, passively perpetuating racist stereotypes and tropes, and - however unintentionally - enabling racism in fandom.

I was also asked if I admit to my own biases, so here it is: When it comes to analyzing Teen Wolf (and making judgments about the show and the characters therein), I don't care about people's headcanons, or fanons, just the source material. The show was written by written by over a dozen people alongside Jeff Davis and produced by MTV, it did not magically appear out of thin air, nor is it a skewed documentation of some "real" story or "real" events. I believe in holding the characters' to the same level of accountability, and the same standards, as each other. If this makes me biased, then yes, fine, I'm biased.

I also know that none of these problems are unique to Teen Wolf fandom, and that actual Scott stans have also justified his poor decisions, and hated on Stiles and Derek. Some of you might remember me getting blocked by some Sciles BNFs for saying "Derek's not a rapist", and I've lost track of the number of times I'd try to reblog a Stydia or Stalia gifset, only for it to turn out I can't, and most likely this comes from my past of pointing out misogyny in those fandoms.

Meanwhile, Sciles fandom slathers heteronormativity onto the pairing as much as Sterek fandom does, and the fact that it's being done on an interracial relationship actually makes it a little worse than when it's on the all-white Sterek ship (but that's a can of worms for another day). Female characters like Allison, Lydia, Malia, and Kira are constantly utilized as little more than talking plot-devices or fag-hags in fandom unless it's explicitly about them, and they are reduced to caricatures instead of characters even more than the most underserved male characters of color, like Boyd. For all of them, I went onto their character tags, and I didn't find a fic summary that was about them until I got the second page, which is worse than Scott having only 1 out of 10 in the first page.

But the sheer amount of Scott hate outpaces hate of all the other characters combined, and the sheer amount of fanworks about these secondary characters outpaces the fanworks about the main character. And yes, every ship and character's fandom sent rape and death threats to the cast and crew over their stupid ship or character. But the amount leveled at Tyler Posey from Sterek fans, even before he finally snapped and made an unprofessional comment about it, is tremendously higher than all the other kinds of hate - especially when compared to the fandom's reaction to the Tyler Hoechlin also saying a negative comments about Sterek.

Fandom does not exist in a vacuum.

The attitudes by which white characters' trauma and experiences are used to justify their violence while characters of colors' victimizations are dismissed, is the same logic used to defend cops who "just reacted" or "panicked", while blaming young children of color for "getting shot" by not behaving 100% correctly. The logic by which a white characters' abusive behavior and characters of colors' abuse are dismissed, while the white characters' abuse and the character of colors' abusive behaviors are exaggerated, is the same logic for which white rapists are painted as "merely making a mistake" while a black shoplifter is painted as a bankrobber in the making.

And the logic of calling someone who explains all this an "ableist troll" for pointing this out is the same logic used to pit marginalized peoples against each other in an effort to maintain the status quo - why do you think racism between racial minorities exists? And the logic of claiming someone is just "exploiting real tragedies" to talk about racism in fandom only makes sense if you assume all fans are white, and therefore none have ever been or will be touched by racism or racial violence in their real lives, and only bring up race to prop up fictional characters.  (Yes, these are why I blocked bhadpodcast.)

Some of you can choose to walk away from racism, you can talk about it in fandom and that is the only place it will ever affect you directly. Not all of us get that luxury. Some of us have to confront racism in our daily lives, and sometimes, the racism online and the racism offline start to look and sound the same.

And I will apologize for one thing on the post that started this: my tags in my initial response were needlessly aggressive. I had to deal with racism in my real life, and then I came home, and see echoes of that exact same racism in a fandom post, and I over-reacted in the tags.

The logic by which a character of color is erased from his own narrative, derided as a villain, and replaced by a white character, is the same logic that is used in professional environments to judge who has "worked hard" and who hasn't (and thus, who gets promoted and who doesn't). Maybe, if you've never experienced racial bias in the work place, these seem like problems worlds away from each other, but they are not, these are two different manifestations of the same subconscious bias. When I came into fandom and saw someone I consider close to a friend regurgitating the exact same illogic as one of my workplace superiors, I snapped.

When I say that fandom doesn't exist in a vacuum, this is what I mean. The same attitudes and judgments of people that exist in offline life - based on their physical appearance, their skin tone, their heritage, etc. - follow us into fandom, whether we like it or not.

I acknowledge I should've been a lot calmer about expressing my frustrations with that post. I probably shouldn't have answered so soon after work-life problems and just before I was supposed to go to bed. I tell people all the time to hold back on topics which are personal to them and wait until they are calmer to address it, and here I went and ignored that. I took out my anger on athena via those tags, and for that, I am sorry.

But it's also the only thing I'm sorry about. I still stand by my notion that the post I was responding to was very racist, and the fact that the characters' races were never brought up in the post itself does not change that.

[robins-egg-bindery]

Stilinski & Associates by ebjameston

(Stiles is a political fixer. Derek is the president's son. I've been watching too much Scandal.)

series by @ebjameston 568 pages / 148,497 words

Title Font: Gotham

Body Fonts: Adobe Caslon Pro, Permanent Marker, FELL Great Primer, Special Elite, Eurostile, Times New Roman, Kirana Script, Sun Valley, Dark Twenty, Please Write Me A Song

Volume One | Volume Two | Volume Three | Boxed Set

Read more on the process below the cut!

OKAY - let's get into it.

I knew I wanted to do these as separate volumes, since the length was decent enough to warrant it, and with this particular series, each fic ends off at a very good place for a volume break (don't get me started on the beautiful timeline design the author did, it's a class act in story construction & I highly recommend everybody go read this series YESTERDAY).

I did a lot of research on political books (boring) and ended up on the guidelines page for Joe Biden's branding (shoutout to good ol' Joey boy!) From there, the color scheme was easy! Got myself some Biden Blue & Delaware Bay and we were off (did you know Jill Biden has her own special palette?)

I ended up with these matching pattern papers in red, white, and blue, and I couldn't have gotten luckier. I think the geometric shape is creative, but not too distracting - since it is a political thriller. I also alternated the colors of the headbands, so the second volume has a blue headband while the first and third have a red - I think it just makes them look nice when they're all lined up together.

I used Obama's campaign font (Biden's is behind a paywall) for the Titles, and ended up with some antique/typewriter-esque fonts for the subtitles and timeline headers (to make it feel more government-official!) Overall, I'm very pleased with the cohesive look. I chose different government buildings for the title pages based on the content of each fic, and - yes, I'm very proud. I'm really not much of a graphic designer!

Now - onto the slipcase!

This is my first time making a slipcase, and while it wasn't very pretty during the construction, the paper covered up any mistakes I made. I watched a tutorial and then...just sort of winged it, with davey board and the same scrapbooking paper I used for the end pages (and what else was I supposed to do other than stars & stripes?) I think I'll only do this again for special occasions, but it was a fun experiment.

Six books & two slipcases later - onto the next project!

[quietlysatan]

Hear The Wheels As They Roll - crossroadswrite, AO3

Link: Here!!

Rating: T

Favorite Quote(s): God this hurts, my ex-stepdad was like this

Two people want to have a baby, they want to have a cute little thing to show off and call theirs but they don’t want a person. They don't want something that has opinions and talks back and doesn’t thread the thin line they set out for them. 

This reminds me of Actual BDSM, not like, anything sexual, because that’s not what BDSM usually IS, but more the aftercare and borderline codependency thing. I just really wish people actually knew what BDSM was about... It’s not nearly as sexual as media portrays, and 50 shades is an insult to the community.

For however much of a jackass Jackson acts like, all he’s ever really wanted was people who would look after them, he has a need to be supported and support and just be acknowledged and appreciated that might bother on codependency and there’s no bigger codependent relationship than that of a pack.

God I love the way people think when they fall in love

Blue flashing momentarily over his features, his chin tilted up into the night sky so he can watch, mouth a little open in awe with his bunny teeth peeking out, eyes wide and expression lax and unmarred by frowns.

I love kids, and I want absolutely no more than three of them.

“You said we could get curly fries. Mom said I could get curly fries ‘cause I got the best grade in Math after Lydia. When are we getting curly fri- doggy!” he coos, lunging across the back seat so he can smash his face against the window and coo at the labradoodle waltzing down the street.

“Don’t lick the window.”

“I’m not!”

“Stiles.”

“I’m not! I was seeing the doggy.

Gods, children are shitheads

“I need you to be quiet and stay in the car, okay Stiles,” he starts, “sit on the passenger side and don’t get out of the car no matter what. If you do there’s a world of pain waiting for you, get it.”

Stiles bobs his head vehemently, little hands clutching at the bars separating the backseat from the front.

“Scout’s honor.”

The Sheriff turns the siren off when they get close to the house. It just wouldn’t do for Mr. Martin to straighten things up before he could even catch him at it.

“You were never a scout.”

“And whose fault is that,” Stiles counters

How to make friends according to the McCall half of the Hale-McCall pack

Boyd gives him a bro nod before walking away.

Stiles squints after him before turning to Danny with a raised eyebrow. 

An hour later, Danny’s knocking on his door with everything there is to know about Vernon Boyd.

“Stiles! This is not how you make friends,” Scott complains from his place stretched out on Stiles’ bed and while he eats Stiles’ food. 

Stiles thinks that he has no ground to stand on.

“We’re just making sure he’s not a psycho killer, right Danny?”

“Yeah. It’s still pretty fucked up,” Danny concedes, the traitor.

Stiles makes an outraged noise, “Not my fault that Lydia basically trained us to be criminal masterminds.

Words & Chapter(s): 44,919 words and 2  chapters finished, but sadly no sequel coming, at least not for a while...

Summary: “You can’t be here. This is private property,” someone calls out and for some reason, that voice sounds painfully familiar.

When it hits him why, Stiles almost chokes with the realization, “Derek Hale,” he says, unbelievably happy because he remembers Derek when they were young.

Derek looks grumpier, sadder, angrier. Stiles can’t really fault him for that. He also looks surprised that Stiles knows who he is. He squints/glares suspiciously at him, his nostrils flare for a second before he widens his eyes almost dramatically.

“Stiles,” he says quietly like he can’t really believe it.

Stiles beams, “Yeah, you remember me!”

Score: 13

Pairing(s): Pre-slash Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin/Jackson Whittemore, Allison Argent/Scott McCall, background Sheriff Stilinski/Claudia Stilinski

Warning(s): Season one canon compliance technically, as in the bus driver dies, The Hale Fire happens, Peter loses his mind, etc.

Isaac’s dad is a bitchass, but he goes to jail and Stiles saves Isaac so it’s fine.

Jackson’s parents are dick ass cunts that don’t deserve him and casually neglect him like canon.

Lydia’s abusive dad is dealt with. He lives sadly tho. He’s not mentioned again as of this fic.

Scott’s dad is still a dick.

Mentions of Erica’s seizures, and the youtube incident. It’s handled though.

Kate Argent is a creepy fucking pedophile and I’m almost happier that she’s in a coma hopefully slowly descending into a creeping lingering sort of madness never to be truly seen again. Hopefully, she dies. 

Derek, the martyr, gets shot but is nearly immediately fine.

Scott also gets shot and is immediately fine.

Derek goes through the Kate Argent torture thing.

Stiles shoots Kate sort of on accident but he’s fine, no worries.

Pros: The writing is fantastic, in character, and yet original, it’s technically canon compliant so-to-speak at times about like, the main storyline, see warnings.

It’s a fresh take on an old idea, and I love it, especially the little hints of Stiles magic here and there, I think OP was intending for this to be a mate!fic, but I don’t have confirmation of that.

I love everyone in this fic, and the way they’re written is fantastic really.

It’s just such a good story, and I really want everyone to see it.

Gif Aesthetic: It’s Stiles!! in a nutshell but Stiles none the less!!!

Everyone @ Derek and/or Boyd... Actually, Stiles and Lydia @ everybody

And also

[stereksecretsanta]

Merry Christmas, @heavy---cream!

Irresistibly Contagious

"I can't believe they roped you into this!"

Dang. He'd been aiming for sympathy, but that definitely came out way too gleeful.

Derek just glared as balefully as he could from under the Santa hat, perched jauntily on his head by a helpful elf.

"You could, at least, try to be supportive." He didn't so much speak, as his voice emerged from the bushy fake beard, like a deranged explorer stumbling out of the jungle. Which. Hilarious. And unfair!

"Dude, I am being supportive. It's literally my job description. Like, 'Santa's Helper' supportive." He gestured down at his adorable holly green elf costume. The movement sent all the little bells he'd painstakingly sewed onto his costume a-jingling, and a vein in Derek's forehead a-throbbing with every merry peal.

When the Red Vein's throbbin'

Get hop hop hoppin' along, aloooong.

Heh.

Hilarity, thy name is Stiles.

Not something Derek would probably appreciate right now. Though, it's not like he could resist humming a few more bars. And a little, bell enhanced spin.

"Man, where's Scott? I'm Christmas personified right now."

Derek's glower only deepened.

And, OK. It was a little corny. And, like the rest of the Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital's Christmas supplies, kind of well-used. And musty smelling. The pack had bitched so much.

Because, of course, if Derek had to be Santa, there was no way the rest of the pack wasn't going down with him.

But, hey. Christmas. Sick children. Who would say no to that?

A monster, that's who. And not the Creature of the Night variety, either.

(Except for, maybe, vampires. Because fuck vampires, those guys are assholes.)

"I guess I should be grateful you didn't inflict those things on anyone else."

Stiles gasped in not-entirely-fake outrage.

"What are you saying about my totally awesome costume  modifications? I spent hours adding these. Bells are hella Christmas. They bring Christmas joy, Derek."

"Christmas misery."

Stiles narrowed his eyes.

"I'll weave them into your beard, don't think I won't."

Derek probably smirked. It was hidden under the oodles of beard, but clearly audible.

"Too late! Santa comes but once a year. Too bad."

Stiles snorted and bit his lip. To go there or not to go there? Hmmm.

Derek's eyes promised murder. Festive murder.  Beaten to death with a giant candy cane kind of murder.

A sticky end.

Oh God.

Distraction! Use the words, Stiles!

"Yeah. And like you won't be right back here next year."  Good save.  "No one can resist the McCall Puppy eyes!"

"Scott - "

"I'm not talking about Scott. Hah! Scott! No, I'm talking about Melissa. Where do you think Scott gets them from? Lethal, dude. Trust me."

A nurse hustled by in pink shrubs. Right. Paediatric Ward.

"Not to mention the kids! Can you really say no to the kids, Derek? Nah. You'll be back. And I'll be ready. Seriously, Derek. You'll sound like a children's carol singing posse. On sugar.  Doing 'Jingle Bells.'"

Derek, being Derek, had to front.

"You wouldn't."

Ha!

"It's Christmas, dude. A  stressful time for everybody over five. Don't tempt me."

There must have been something extra manic in his eyes. Or maybe the opening strains of Walking in the Air cracked the facade, because Derek sighed deeply. Which was Derek for surrender. And yes! Definitely a good feeling! Big Bad Wolf: Zero. Christmas: Eleven. Santa's Elves for the win!

"Ha! Today's a great day! I'm marking it in my calendar!"

"You're insane." But there was fondness under the growling. For sure.

And Derek definitely carefully adjusted the stack of presents next to him for a better photographic angle.

"Awww, you love all this Christmas crap, really."

Strangely enough, he actually tensed, like he'd been caught doing something illicit. Which was a strange look on a guy who used to brazen his way through crime scenes, back when Stiles was still in high school.

"Awww, babe! You do!"

Derek growled. And, with all the beard, that was weird.

Although. How would wolfed-out Santa look? Like a Schnauzer, maybe? Except with less eyebrow action? A Bearded Collie?

He was about to ask Derek for his thoughts on it, but the sight of him clenching and unclenching his fist, while glaring a hole into the floor completely derailed that train of thought (Destination: Future Experimentation with Scott).

It was the classic Derek About To Talk About His Feelings pose, and always looked like he was giving himself hives.

But as the entire history of their acquaintanceship (and werewolves) had taught him, pain was gain. And Derek needed a little more gain.

So, Stiles slid himself onto Derek's lap, taking his hand as he did so.

"Hey, buddy, don't hurt yourself. C'mere."

Luckily, Derek relaxed his fist and let him thread their fingers together. Which was just as well, as the last time Stiles had tried alternative solutions to the Steely Tension of Tense it Did Not End Well.

(There had been tickling and broken furniture.)

"I do like Christmas," Derek announced eventually, low and guilty, like he was at confession.

And, figured Derek would feel guilty for enjoying Normal People Stuff.

Though, to be fair, their little Christmas grotto was, essentially, an enclosed psuedo-Christian booth. With the multicoloured lights blinking down on them, like the Eyes of God.

Or was that Dr. Eckleburg? Big Brother?

"My Dad," Derek began, saving Stiles from his literary angst. "My Dad - He, uh, used to dress up. As Santa. At Christmas."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

The beard hid most of his face, and the lights made weird, distracting patterns, like they were inside a kaleidoscope, but he was definitely smiling his Patented Derek smile which, unlike his daily stash of Poker Face, smirks and scowls, only came out to play on special occasions.

And something warm filled Stiles up, from his stomach to his chest. And it definitely wasn't the eggnog he had earlier.

"My Dad did the same," he admitted, in the Spirit of Shared Information. "My Mom too some years. 'Cause, you know, no sexism en Casa Stilinski."

Derek did his huffing-like-a-dog laugh, which always kind of made Stiles want to coo.

"I bet Melissa did too."

"Dude, did she ever! I swear, Scott used to get so confused with the Mall Santas. Like, who are these white dudes, and where is the True Hispanic Santa?"

"In drag."

"Well, duh."

Derek laughed quietly and Stiles grinned in triumph.

"You know," Derek said, because he was nothing if not abrupt. "My Dad used to say I'd do this one day -"

"Dude, living the dream!"

"Don't interrupt. He meant for the little brothers and sisters and cousins. And, uh, for my kids. One day."

The tip of his ear that Stiles could see peeking out from under the hat was burning red and he was glaring fixedly at the plastic Christmas tree in the corner, like it was about to commit a crime.

Stiles took a moment to process.

"Babe, are we having the Kids conversation while I'm sitting on Santa's knee?"

"No. God, Stiles."

He tried to growl, but it came out more like a terrier wheezing. It was the sound of the Commitement-loving-Werewolf-Dates-Fickle-Human Panic, familiar from their early dating history.

How it had not been missed.

"Because, you know, this is opportune, babe. If we're talking Christmas Wishes. Future Christmas Wishes, dude. Like Ghost of Christmas Future future. Except, I hope neither of us will be dead. Because I love my Dad, babe. He's awesome. And Melissa's basically a super hero. But I am not ready to be a single parent. Why am I talking about this? I'm still talking. Why am I still talking, Derek?"

Fortunately, Derek was a pro at ploughing though bewildering nonsense with a mostly straight face. It was why they worked so well together.

(Plus, a big part of why he was still alive. Stiles liked to think he helped hone that Cutting Through the Crap life skill, like a viruoso's daily practice on their violin.)

(Play me like a fiddle, Derek)

"Stop talking, Stiles," he said reflexively, a defence mechanism for the both of them.

Stiles stopped.

"But, really. You want them. One day?"

"Well, I also want my two front teeth and a new engine for the jeep, but yeah."

Derek didn't say anything. Instead, he leaned in to nuzzle at Stiles' neck, which would have been awesome except -

"Dude, beard!"

He tried to squirm away, but Derek held on, and this was payback for the Great Tickling Fiasco of '21, wasn't it?

But Christmas Spirit smiled on Stiles and Melissa arrived with a jingle.

Awesome, she had attached a bell to her hat.

"You're still the most awesome Santa," Stiles blurted.

She raised a sardonic eyebrow.

"It looks like you've replaced me."

"Oh, no," Derek said from over Stiles' shoulder. "You're still the One True Santa."

She quirked a smile at that, then clapped her hands, suddenly businesslike.

"Right, well. Get up, Stiles. The kids will be arriving soon."

"Hey, starting early?  Kinky. Do I get a turn?" Erica smirked at them, appearing silently behind Melissa. Because she was a heathen and had forsworn the little package of bells Stiles had left her for costume edification purposes.

Stiles scowled and flung his arms around Derek's neck. Not that he was bitter about the bells, or anything.

"Back off Reyes! This is a one Elf-Santa! Nobody rings his bell but me!"

"And that's one phrase I never needed to hear in any context, ever." Scott complained, arriving in Erica's wake. He stared hard at Derek for a second, then glanced at Stiles, who nodded slightly.

White Santa. Weird.

"Seriously, Stiles. Get to work. The children are arriving."

So he did, and they did.

And it was fun, and sad.

Most of the kids were visiting patients or staff in the hospital, or were, at least, mobile. Santa Derek and his Faithful Helpers, Elves Stiles, Erica and Scott would be touring the wards later.

And it was weird to see Derek talking to the kids. Adorable, yet surprising. Adorably surprising, like a koala attack.

Case in point.

"So what do you want for Christmas?" Derek asked for the nth time.

The little boy sighed loudly and looked away, even kicked his legs a bit from where he was sitting stiffly on the edge of Derek's knee.

"It's stupid. You won't care," he muttured eventually.

Derek glanced at them for help, and this was it, the heartbreaking moment a child asked for a miracle cure for Mommy. Stiles had been bracing for it all afternoon.

"Santa always cares!" He said, a little too loudly and passionately.

"That's right," Derek agreed solemnly, like they were conferring on the fundamental laws of the universe.

The little boy mumbled something.

"Could you say that again, please?" Derek asked patiently.

The boy - "Calumn", a nurse had whispered loudly - glared at Stiles, like he was eavesdropping on a nuclear code exchange, then turned to cup his hand around Derek's ear.

"I like Transformers." He whispered, the loud and ticklish whisper of a preschooler, judging by Derek's face. He looked embarrassed to admit it, and, hey, Mini Derek.

Adult Derek was inscrutable for a second, then he bent his head and said, very seriously:

"I like Transformers too."

The kid gasped loudly.

"Really?" His face lit up, and he turned, scooting up Derek's lap to get closer. "Who's your favourite? I like Optimus Prime!"

Derek appeared deep in thought, like the fate of the world hung on his answer. It was his default thinking expression, and, man, was it having its time to shine.

"I like Optimus Prime too," he said eventually. "But my favourite's Bumblebee."

The kid nodded, like this was a respectable answer, despite said Transformer's obvious inferiority.

"Bumblebee's OK, he has nice colours," he said patronisingly.  "But Optimus Prime makes this RAAWW noise and he's the bravest and he can be a tanker truck! And a dump truck!"

"Bumblebee can be a camaro though," Derek argued. "That's a sports car."

"And a Chevrowllay," Calumn agreed, dismissing Derek with an enthusiastic wave of his fist. "But! But! Optimus Prime can be a sports car too!" he practically shouted. "He can be a lamborheenee Deeablow!"

Derek appeared blindsided by this display of geek knowledge, and Erica took the opportunity to lean right into Stiles' space.

"Wow, he's like a Mini-Derek mixed with a Mini-you," she breathed, and Stiles nodded jerkily, not trusting himself to speak. If he did, there'd be tears, probably in the shapes of tiny little candy canes.

Scott patted his back with an amused expression.

"Like looking into the future, huh, bro?"

So he'd definitely been eavesdropping. Creepy werewolves.

But still.

Stiles nodded.

It totally was.

[colethewolf]

The many times Jeff Davis has stolen from Sterek & The Sterek Fandom:

1. The “I missed you” scene:

Back in 2013, Dylan told us that he pitched an idea to Jeff Davis about a future Sterek scene, specifically for the fans, that would take place after the whole Alpha Pack situation was done and over. The scene he pitched detailed a moment where Stiles and Derek take a moment after all of the drama, where Stiles says, “I missed you” to Derek, after an entire season of not having that much interaction with him.

“There aren’t any Stereky scenes so far, but I had an idea for Jeff, that when we do finally meet, and if we have a scene that’s very expositional—like if we come together and something’s going on we have to converge and discuss something—then we should kind of stop at the end of it and before we walk away, Stiles should just say, ‘I missed you.’ Just to acknowledge it for the fans in little, funny ways.” [source]

Well, Jeff Davis refused to go with that idea for Sterek, but he must have thought it was a good idea, because in episode 304, he rewrote Dylan’s idea into a scene between Danny & Ethan (Dethan). Apparently, the scene would have been too much for Sterek, and was only acceptable for the show’s token gay couple.

2. Punching Bag:

Back in 2014 at AlphaCon, during the Hobrien panel, Hoechlin explained that he too had pitched a Sterek scene to Jeff Davis. The scene that Hoechlin pitched involved Derek allowing Stiles to punch out his emotions regarding his father being kidnapped, and to be that momentary punching bag, because Derek understands what it means to release anger, and since he’s a werewolf, he would be able to heal afterwards.

“There is a scene that I always wanted with Derek and Stiles, that we never did. [...] I always saw a scene at one point, there was a time in the show where [Sheriff] Stilinski was very much in danger and [Stiles] was always really worried about him. And I kind of always envisioned this scene once [Sheriff] gets taken by the Darach in season 3, I was imagining in a future season, or even in that season, that Stiles would really freak out because that’s his dad. That’s the time you really see Stiles lose it. [...] I really, really wanted a scene where it was Derek and Stiles in the jeep, going out and trying to find [Sheriff], and Derek’s always the one that dealt with his anger--that’s been a huge part of him, and he really understands that. And I thought it would be really great to have a scene where Stiles is so upset and so anger about what’s going on, that he needs to get that anger out. And Derek would basically let [Stiles] beat the crap out of him, and let [Stiles] hit him over and over again, to be that punching bag because Derek’s a werewolf and he can heal and he can take it. I thought it was a really great scene where [Derek’s] just like, ‘it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay’ [...].” 

and then Dylan chimes in with: 

“It would be a really sweet moment between the two characters. I’m serious, too. Like, in a really cool way like that. [...] Eventually, Stiles is all exhausted with the motion and then eventually, like, y’know, [Derek] puts the hand on the shoulder.”

[video source]

Although, just like the other Sterek scenes that Dylan & Hoechlin pitched to Jeff Davis, they never made it on-screen. However, Jeff reworked the idea into a scene between Stiles & Scott in S5 following Sheriff Stilinski’s hospitalization. Albeit...the sentiment didn’t actually transfer from script to screen. In Jeff’s version of the scene, it’s not heartfelt. Rather, Stiles’ wrath is directed towards Scott for his insolence. Not because Scott understand Stiles’ feelings.

But here’s Posey’s quote regarding the scene:

You definitely see a different side of Scott and Stiles. Now you see them getting physical. Scott lets Stiles kick his ass a little bit because he can take it. [source]

3. Stiles/Cora:

Of course, it’s always something to look at when a gay pairing doesn’t happen, yet a heterosexual with the same dynamic as the gay pairing ends up getting put into the works. In this instance, Jeff Davis thought he was slick when he brought Cora (Derek’s mysterious younger sister) into the show and immediate worked to make Stiles/Cora romantically involved. 

Basically, Cora was the female-version of Derek. She’s his relative, has the same tragic backstory, has the same grumpy personality, shares similar scenes with Stiles, and even wears the same kinds of clothing as Derek. The only difference was that Derek is male & Cora is female. 

So, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that whilst Jeff Davis & the show baited for years about Stiles & Derek becoming romantically involved, Jeff decided to plan for Cora to be the one to take Stiles’ virginity in S3. In fact, Adelaide Cane--the actress that played Cora--confirmed at EYECON that Cora was supposed to “pop Stiles’ v-card”. [tweet] [tweet] [post]

4. Derek/Jennifer: 

Jeff Davis has actually pushed out a couple heterosexual versions of Sterek. Including: Stiles/Erica (originally planned), Stiles/Cora, Stiles/Malia. Even Derek/Paige--a sassy brunette with beauty marks, who didn’t take Derek’s bullshit, and coincidentally had a last name that derived partly from the Polish language....interesting. 

Especially since we know that Stiles is a sassy brunette with beauty marks, who didn’t take Derek’s bullshit, and had a first name that derived from the Polish language. 

But in S3A, Jeff Davis took multiple Sterek scenes and rewrote them into the Derek/Jennifer relationship. The parallels are glaringly obvious. Long ago, I actually made a post with side-by-side comparisons. There’s also a video showing the scenes to provide you with a better understanding about purposeful parallels. 

[Editor’s note]: Sorry, guys. I originally posted a link to the video that showed the parallels between original Sterek scenes & what Jeff rewrote to fit his Derek/Jennifer narrative.

Unfortunately, the creator of the video saw the post and made her video private so you guys couldn’t watch it. If you’re asking why, I don’t really know for certain. She used to actually be very active in bringing attention to the terrible way that Sterek shippers were treated, but she recently turned Pro-TW and has gotten somewhat salty towards me & other anti-TW bloggers.

Instead, I’ve decided to just show you the parallels I posted about years ago.

5. Everybody forgets Stiles:

This is actually the current plot of S6A, although if you’re a Sterek fan, then you might recognize the story from a fanfiction that was published back in 2014. The fanfiction is titled, “Tabula Rasa”, and it’s an amnesia fic with Sterek presented as the main relationship throughout. 

It seems hardly coincidental that the current season of Teen Wolf revolves around Stiles being forgotten, with blank spaces of his existence left behind in the minds of people he knew. The biggest difference in Jeff Davis’ “Sterek-less” reiteration of this 2 year old fanfiction, is that the whole thing is set up to promote Stydia (Stiles/Lydia), with Lydia being the only one to actually remember that Stiles existed. 

6.  Mieczyslaw “Stiles” Stilinski:

Everybody forgetting Stiles wasn’t the only thing that Jeff took from Sterek fanfiction. In the most recent episode of Teen Wolf’s 6th season, and after 6 years of not knowing Stiles’ real name, we find out that his first name is actually Mieczyslaw.

The only problem is that Mieczyslaw has actually been used as a headcanon first name for Stiles Stilinski in Sterek fanfiction for years and years, dating back to at least 2015 2012. Now, Mieczyslaw certainly isn’t a common name, and it’s definitely not one of the most common Polish names. So, why did Jeff Davis pick this name of all others? Pretty suspect.

[Editor’s note: New receipts for just how long this name has been used in Sterek Fanfiction]

[Mieczyslaw used in fanfic before Jeff put it into the show.]

And there you have it. Well...you have some of it. We’re not really going to touch base on some of the other familiar Sterek related things that have magically found their way into the actual show. *ahem*

De-aged!Derek

Werefoxes (kitsunes), especially with Stiles being one (Nogitsune).

Dark!stiles

Stiles’ main weapon being a baseball bat.

The suspiciously familiar dynamic between Theo/Stiles.

Stiles’ jeep originally being his mother’s.

Just saying.

[sterek-bingo]

            STEREK BINGO 2017 THEMES!

Here they are! Sterek Bingo 2017 themes! You can also see the list of themes here. ENJOY CREATING!!!!!!

Harry Potter: No matter Slytherin or Hufflepuff, Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, all houses are welcome in a Harry Potter AU! You don't even have to use houses, or Hogwarts at all! Perhaps branch out and use Beauxbatons or Ilvermorny, or maybe not even a school. Pro Quidditch player x Magical Creature instructor anyone?

Friends To Lovers: There's nothing more amazing in a relationship than being able to be best friends with your lover...except for when your best friend BECOMES your lover. From Monica and Chandler, to Scully and Mulder, the friends to lovers trope has been around for ages. And now it's time to give Sterek that treatment, no matter if it's canon or AU. Time to turn platonic snuggles into romantic snuggles!

Magic/Were!Stiles: Let's be honest here, this boy is something! Now it's time for you to decide what! Witch, werewolf, druid, werefox, raven, White Stag...the possibilities are so endless, and here's your outlet for choosing any one you want! The only thing Stiles can't be for this theme is human.

Top/Bottom: Top!Stiles/bottom!Derek, top!Derek/bottom!Stiles, or my personal favorite: Switches! No matter what you like, I think it's safe to say that the theme is pretty self-explanatory. Of course this theme doesn't have to relate to sex if you don't want it to- it could just as easily relate to bunk beds!

Kids: What's better than kids? From babies to teenagers, kids are what makes the world go round, and there's nothing cuter than Stiles and Derek with them. (Except maybe Stiles and Derek as kids themselves, but that's your choice to make!) No matter if it's baby!Sterek or Sterek with babies, if it includes kids, it's welcome for this theme!

Coffee Shop: Somehow, someway, Coffee Shop AUs are the single staple of the AU world. A fandom's not a fandom without a coffee shop AU! But there are always ways to make them unique...a coffee shop for the supernatural perhaps? Maybe Derek is allergic to coffee? A coffee shop that ran out of coffee? Put your creativity to the test by making a Coffee Shop AU as unique- or cliche'!- as you want!

Horror: From things that go bump in the night, to the morbid and macabre, horror is one of the great staple genres of media, and now it's time to add a dash of spooky to Sterek! It could be anything from a light Goosebumps-esque idea, or you could try to out horror American Horror Story. Bring your scares and something to cover your eyes, it's about to be Halloween in May!

Royalty: Kings and princes and knights, oh my! This is the thing that royalty AUs are made of! It could be set in the distant past, or you can modernize it. King!Stiles, prince!Derek, forbidden love or arranged marriages - there are a variety of different ways to do a royalty AU, all it has to include is, well, royalty!

Dark!Stiles: We all have a little darkness within us. And even before season 3B, so much of the fandom adored dark!Stiles. Now we're bringing him back from...the grave? Well now that depends on you, any reason for his darkness and in any way that he is, we want to see it! Villainous, evil, possessed, or morally gray, it doesn't matter. Bring ALL of the darkness to our cutest psychopath!

Derek Returns: What Sterek fan- hell, what DEREK fan- DIDN'T wish Derek had come back for season five? Or season six? Well there are probably some, but we aren't some of them! Derek coming back to Beacon Hills is the theme here, and it can be in season five, season six, or even post-canon. We just want to get him back by any means necessary, and you get to decide what those means are!

Comfort: I think it's safe to say that Derek and Stiles have both had rough lives, surrounded with death and misery and pain...now it's time for you to make that right! No matter if it's hurt/comfort or all comfort, if it's a heavy, emotional piece, or if it's just Derek wrapped in a blanket and making a blanket fort for Stiles, the idea is to be warm, happy, and most of all- comfortable!

Soulmates: Ahh, soulmate Aus...one of the best things that fandom has to offer that you don't really see in mass media. Worlds where you're born with a soul mark on your skin, or a clock counting down to the moment you'll meet your soulmate, or see only black and white until you meet them...soulmate AUs have the potential to be incredibly fluffy, comical, angsty, or tragic as you'd like. There are essentially no rules here! We always knew these two were destined for each other...

Alive Hales: There's so much to mourn with the Hale family. Laura, Talia, and all of the Hales we didn't know...so it's time to bring them back to life! Be it canon-divergent or AU, entire family or just Laura, it doesn't matter. It's time to put your spin on Derek's family! Let us meet your version of the Hales- after they meet Stiles, of course!

Meet-Cute: "Meet-cute" is, of course, a relative term. From the cliche rom-com meetings, to the sort of Munster-esque anarchy that only Stiles could consider cute, the goal is to create a meeting for these two lovable losers that's- well, CUTE! AU? Probably, but boy would it be interesting to see how you could interpret it for canon! Let us see your ideal cuteness level, sprinkled, of course, over Sterek!

Enemies To Lovers: Like friends to lovers, enemies to lovers is one of the staples of fandom. There's just something so incredible about watching two people who want to kill each other transform into two people who love each other unconditionally, and that's exactly what this theme is about! They can be merely at odds, or full out on opposite sides of a war, all that matters is that getting along comes later on for these two frenemies (loverenemies?)

BAMF!Stiles: Stiles Stilinski is a badass. We all know that. Now it's time to highlight it! BAMF!Stiles can be any shade of morality and have any kind of power (or even lack there of) that you want, The only guideline is that he does something that makes everyone else stand back, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, wondering how they got lucky enough to witness such a display of BAMF!

Werewolf Culture: Courting rituals and Alpha symposiums abound, it's time for a lesson in Werewolf Culture! It could be werewolves are known, A/B/O, Teen Wolf canon, or really any universe wherein werewolves exist and have their own communities and social constructs. What matters is that there's something about werewolves that's very different from humans- and it doesn't all come down to the full moon and turning into a wolf.

Little Red Riding Hood: Ahh, the fandom wide favorite fairytale, telling of a red-hood and a wolf... and those are the only requirements! Little Red could be innocent or evil, the wolf could be bad or good, and you don't even have to stick to canon! Little Red Riding Hood Derek x Wolf Stiles? Yes please! As long as those elements are included, it can be as close to or as far from the fairytale as you desire.

Switched Roles: Werewolf!Stiles/human!Derek? Age differences? Alpha!Stiles? Possessed!Derek? Why... this must be a role reversal!! No matter if it's a full on canon rewrite, a reversal of one season, or even just one specific trait (Alpha!Stiles/human!Derek for example) it doesn't matter. As long as something noticeably Derek is now Stiles, and something noticeably Stiles is now Derek. (It might have just been easier for them to switch clothes...)

Mythology: Ahh, mythology. One of the world's greatest- and most diverse- treasures. Every culture has such a vast and rich mythology that it's impossible not to find any to your liking, as it doesn't have to just stick to the average Greek and Roman mythos. Mythology has some of the greatest tales and some of the easiest to adapt. Old world or modern, closely following the story or deeply diverting from it, as long as it has a root in mythology or somewhere, it's welcome here!

Shifted Derek: Who doesn't LOVE a full-shifted wolf!Derek? We certainly love it here! Both in canon and AU, werewolf!Derek just seems to work, and what works possibly best is when he shifts into a real wolf! No matter if it's the freedom he gets from running through the woods, or just the peace of sleeping in the middle of a sunbeam, let Derek's spirit be in it's truest form by letting him be a wolf!

Crossover: There's nothing like a good old fashioned crossover. Be it another TV show, a movie, an anime, a book, or even a musical, all that matters is that it's another source of media that bleeds together with Teen Wolf! Maybe Derek and Stiles meet Dean and Cas, maybe there's an AU where anxious figure-skater!Stiles drunkenly asks superstar figure-skater!Derek to coach him. It doesn't matter as long as there's a second source material involved in your work!

Everybody Lives-Nobody Dies: I bet everyone has at least one person they wish HADN'T died in Teen Wolf. Even if it's pre-canon, now is your chance to bring them back from the grave! Anyone you want, as many people as you want. Let the events of canon slide right off and have an AU or canon-divergence where everyone is alive and happy!

A/B/O: Knotting, heats, scenting, bonding - all of the most well known cliche's of A/B/O (AKA: Omegaverse), One of the most unique concepts fanfiction has ever offered, almost certainly AU (almost), A/B/O is that great theme where you can really build a universe. Create an entirely new world with different laws and social structures and biology. Or you could just have the incredibly fun Alpha/Omega dynamics and call it a day - it's totally up to you! And what's even better, you can take the terms as loosely or as fittingly as you want! Keep them to a very general sense of pack structure, or create an entirely new world order with vastly different biologies and social requirements- it's all up to you!

Superhero: Ever since Tyler Hoechlin literally became Superman, superhero AUs have exploded in the Sterek community! From canon superheros like Superman and Batman, to totally new OC superheros like Black Wolf and Red Bat (or, you know, names that make sense), the superhero genre is one that can be easily explored and is certainly one of the most fun to do. It can be as lighthearted as Supergirl, as dark as Gotham, or something pleasantly in between- it's all up to you to decide!

Pack Mom Stiles: Pack Mom Stiles is one of the earliest staples of the Teen Wolf fandom, and one of my personal favorites. Because you know Stiles is "the mom friend". He doesn't bake cookies and help the kids with his homework, but he does defend his pack at all costs and is liable to take a bat to the head of anyone who breaks one of his friend's hearts! No matter if it's domestic or at war, Pack Mom Stiles is one of the cutest tropes around, and this is the time and place to dedicate a little time to the glue keeping the pack together!

Feral: Ah, feral AUs...no matter if it's Derek or Stiles, one of them is bound to spend just a little bit too much time in the wild, until the wild won't leave them. Perhaps the scariest thing about feral AUs is that they don't actually have to be AU at all. In fact, they can fit in very easily with canon. Maybe Derek comes back from his trip with Braeden, unable to shift out of his wolf form. Maybe Stiles, in trying to escape from the hunt, ended up getting stuck in the woods for a few years. Not to mention the full bounty of possibilities if you make it AU! Bring on the heartache! This is bound to hurt.

Canon Divergent: With only one half season left of Teen Wolf and Derek having been gone for a season and a half already, the chances of Sterek becoming canon- although still possible- are pretty slim. If canon is the one universe where they don't end up together, then it's our job as fans to create millions of universes where they DO! Find the perfect place in canon where you can save the relationship and ensure that whenever this mystical time in the universe is that these two don't end up together, it's NOT today! Not today Satan, not today.

Alpha!Derek/Stiles: There once was a time when Alpha!Derek was canon...and you could re-establish that time now! Miss the Hale pack? Want to create a new one? Just want those pretty red eyes back? Here's your chance to give Derek his power back! Oooor...your chance to allow Derek a time to rest and give that power to Stiles! Because who doesn't love Alpha!Stiles with beta!Derek? Of course, since this is Alpha Derek/Stiles, it could just as easily be both of them. Would they join their packs together? Be at odds with each other? It's your time to decide! Take those red eyes and stick them in whoever you want! As long as it's Derek or Stiles, that is

Wild Card: This is the obligatory bingo square in the very middle where you can do absolutely anything you want! That's right. There's no restriction, no guideline, no THEME! It's your freebie to do anything you may have been wanting to do, but haven't really had the time or inspiration to do until now- here's your chance. Now go forth and create Sterek!