#but i'm just like okay but all of you?? when in every other fandom slash fans are so BLATANTLY misogynistic

[autumnrory]

and i wonder if it's at all possible they actually at least had that option open (because it's like how they seemed to hint at buckynat and then they never ended up interacting so it was like MAYBE we'll do something with that and then just didn't follow through) because of how she looks exactly like cynthia glass instead of comics peggy like maybe it started with that and then the bits of catws (the slight acknowledgement of wrongdoing when she says "we rather mucked it up", howard and peggy's pictures at that base, the fact that they worked with zola) like there originally WAS going to be an actual captain america 3 before they went with the civil war storyline like

they absolutely could have gone there if given the chance and maybe also with having aou and agent carter post-catws and all the "REMEMBER THEY WERE DEEPLY IN LOVE, VIEWERS! remember that peggy influenced steve's choices and his morals, he definitely wasn't already that person long before meeting her!" shit, it would've been too hard to turn things around but man it could've been so good

and like not only would it be steve feeling betrayed, but also sharon, who presumably looked up to and learn from her aunt, who had been working for shield and thinking she was on The Right Side, not only crushed by the reveal that hydra was in it all along, but that this woman she trusted had a hand in it! and not only that, but that could absolutely have been a thing that brought steve and sharon closer n a believable way instead of a dumb kiss after two years of not interacting and saying "that was late" lol ANYWAY

smarter people than me could explain more about why this could or could not have ever been possible but yeah man has ANYONE written that fic like i know fic writers almost entirely write it like they would've gotten married if they could've and steve loved her as much as he loved bucky and all that so it's like. you never really get an accurate portrayal as it is, but ugh, i just want a change of pace in that regard

keep thinking how interesting it would've been if instead of a vague acknowledgement of peggy letting hydra into shield they would've actually committed to it and revealed she had been helping them the entire time, maybe even that she had been a double agent during the war and nobody finding out till decades later in catws like i would at least love to see this in fic bc how horrifed would steve be not bc she was the "love of his life" but because he did to an extent know her and trust that they were on the same side so to find out otherwise would make the discovery that he hadn't in fact stopped hydra as he believed even more painful

[olderthannetfic]

Re: discourse about using outliers / the worst examples of a group to justify generalizations-- this is also a problem with the femslash wank asks

I'm one of those filthy f/f folks who actually does want to see more femslash relative to mascslash, but I'm not anti-fujo or a terf or telling ppl to change their own tastes. I'm proship / SALS and kinkmato and I think fujoshi are great; I appreciate their massive contribution to fandom culture including AO3's existence itself

But some ppl seem like they just hate f/f fandoms generally and want a reason to bitch about us? and I've felt super demoralized by it whenever I read your blog lately

Like the complaints about f/f being too wholesome and fluffy and that this is somehow bad?? tumblr is C O V E R E D with cutesey fluffy bubbly m/m art using That Artstyle we all know and nobody complains about it. But when sapphic art is like this suddenly its cause we're boring sexless puritans who dont know what pussy should look like? The huge amount of kinky weird depraved f/f thats out there gets totally erased and the wholesome stuff gets scapegoated as a symbol of regressiveness.

Or the constant lecturing to "JuSt CrEaTe It YoUrSeLf" as if nobody who says they want more f/f would actually be making it??? How do you KNOW they're not making it? Are you stalking the tumblr of every ao3 f/f author to make sure they never expressed the opinion you hate , and vice versa??

Yeah a few awful ppl have been super obnoxious, terfy, or puritanical bullies with how they talk about this topic. But when you constantly bring those people up to demonize talking about it at all it feels like you're creating a taboo around it because you want those annoying lesbian feminists to shut the fuck up. Cause how dare we, right? How dare we express desire for something in a way that reminds you patriarchy exists.

You won't even let us express that we're bitter or sad about feeling like a minority even amongst other queer women. You won't let us express simple jealousy without interpreting that jealousy in the most terfy antiship bad faith way possible!

I won't defend those who actually harass ppl or moralize over ships. I won't defend anti-fujos. But when you constantly lump me in with those people just because I looked at AO3 stats and went "Hmmm, it would be cool if this was more balanced :/" or whatever it feels like you just don't want me to say anything at all

--

Is this about me personally? Yes, I agree that topics that are repetitive start to feel like an attack.

But with regards to AO3 stats, this is my pet peeve, as you probably know if you read here often, and I'm unlikely to stop being angry about it.

AO3 is extremely unusual in the history of fandom for being a very big, very multifandom site that is not m/m-specific but where m/m outnumbers other things. There have been large-ish slash archives before. There have been and still are other large, multifandom archives, from FFN and Wattpad, which are in AO3's weight class, to medium size ones like MediaMiner. The spaces that aren't m/m-specific generally have f/m vastly outnumbering m/m. They also make it harder to get stats than AO3 does.

I don't have an issue with people looking at overall fandom stats and complaining that f/f has the short end of the stick when it comes to fanfic broadly. I do object to people pulling only AO3 stats and going "The one anomalous clubhouse that looks like this is the problem" and pointing at m/m.

It's the same problem you point out, just in another direction. After being told "Okay, but the amount of m/m..." constantly for years, people are fed up and never want to hear it again. Even if it's phrased nicely. Even if the person saying it is also hurting.

[fabuloustrash05]

My Top 5 Favorite TMNT 2012 Ships

5) Mikey x Renet

I feel we as a fandom has come to an unanimous agreement that all the canon romances/couples given to us in the 2012 series are bad/toxic/poorly written/inc3st/etc with THEM being the only exception (I'll talk about that ship soon), however I think Renetangelo is the other exception.

They’re certainly not perfect with their first problem being Mikey kinda “cheating” on Renet with Shinigami (they weren’t together or officially dating so it’s not cheating, but it still felt wrong that it was never acknowledged that Mikey was pretty much a skirt chaser, crushing on two girls at once), but I still really love their dynamic and relationship. Mikey and Renet are undoubtedly cute together, just two silly goofballs having a fun time and enjoying the other’s company with the occasional flirting and kiss on the cheek (which btw SO CUTE). Renetangelo is that couple that I feel works great both romantically and platonically. If you told me they’re best friends, I’d believe it, if you told me they’re a couple, I’d also believe it. That's how well they work off each other. I'm okay with them being a couple or just being friends.

Season 5 also practically confirms they’re together on two occasions with Mikey saying him and Renet are in a long distance relationship in the When Worlds Collide special, and Renet hinting during the Halloween arc that she and Mikey have some kind of future together.

Overall, I really like Renetangelo and I love seeing these two together. From Mikey's puppy love expressions when he sees her to their overall personalities clashing so well together. This ship is very underrated and needs more love.

4) Slash x Alopex

Btw this edit was made by @robins-treasure <33

Yes, this is a ship that exist and I take FULL CREDIT FOR THE CREATION OF THIS COUPLE! I AM THE REASON THIS SHIP IS ALIVE AND SAILING! YOU ARE WELCOME!!

Slash x Alopex (or what I like to call them Slaopex) is my rarepair of the 2012 series and I’m so happy that I’m slowly getting more and more people one board with it. It started off as just a random silly idea of mine, like "What if Slash got a gf?" and then I thought "Well, who could I ship him with?" and then my brain went "What if Slash and Alopex got together? That would be funny". I laughed at the idea, but the more I thought of it, the more I started to like it. I began coming up with headcanons and a story of their relationship, and the more I did that, the more I fell in love with this concept and the potential of this couple. So much that it placed 4th in my top 5!

I fell so in love with them I even ended up writing a short fanfic of how I headcanon they would first meet and the beginning of their blooming romance (you can read it HERE). But in short, Slash runs into Alopex during a late night patrol and helps her beat up some crooks who were attacking her. The two get to talking, sharing a tender moment before parting ways, with Alopex now being the only thing on Slash's mind <3

I also reference this ship a few times in my fanfic Courting a Salamandrian. Consider it a continuation of that little oneshot.

3) Leo x Casey

While everyone else was shipping Jonatello, I was shipping Caseynardo! I was never a fan of Jonatello, I don't hate it, just couldn't get on board nor understand the hype around it, but then one day I stumbled across fanart of Leo x Casey and I thought "Huh... these two actually look cute together!" and quickly sunk into the rabbit hole. Looking up every little bit of fanart, fanfics and edits I could find.

Liking this ship this much for it to be ranked 3rd in my Top 5 favorite TMNT 2012 ships says a lot. This ship really grew on me very quickly, so much so that I wrote a fanfiction on them! I wrote a Caseynardo fanfic before writing a Renetangelo one (you can read it HERE), which is funny cause I've been shipping Renetangelo since the show was airing, and I didn't start liking Caseynardo till long after the show ended! That says a lot about how much these boy effected me! LOL

My whole HC for this ship is that they bonding a lot in season 3 at the farmhouse which led to a mutual romantic attraction. Eventually they secretly date without telling anyone but due to the circumstances and problems going on in Leo’s life, he was unable to keep the relationship going. They agree to just be friends, which Casey promising to wait for him. It’s basically the “right person, wrong time” trope. But I like to headcanon that by season 5, Leo and Casey finally get together officially and made their relationship known to everyone else. The only one not surprised was Raphael who knew about those two since day one, cause he was stuck being their third wheel/wingman XD

2) Karai x Shinigami

I will NEVER forgive Nickelodeon for be too cowardly to make this happen. They'd rather ship inc3st and force Shini to be straight than give us our goth kunoichi lesbians. For shame, Nickelodeon... For shame...

Not to mention that one of the writers of the show, Peter Di Cicco, shipped them! Calling them his "OTP" and referring to Shini as "Karai's girlfriend", and even pitching an alternate ending to the series where Splinter and Shredder make up but the only thing they fight over now is who gets to walk Karai down the aisle during her wedding to Shinigami XD

The moment I saw Shinigami, I instantly thought "Oh that's a lesbian and she and Karai are a thing". I really love their dynamic, their friendship and the potential they have in being a cute couple of childhood friends to lovers. You can see how much they care about each other. The fury in Shini's voice when she confronts Super Shredder, "I will destroy you, Monster! For everything you have done to Karai!". Shini is supportive of Karai and is always the one down to start chaos with you. Makes me wish we could've learned more about these two and their history. I like to think they've known each other since they were little, being childhood friends while training and growing up in The Foot Clan.

My personal headcanon is that Shinigami has had a crush on Karai since they were young, like preteens, and is so loyal to her and willing to help Karai not just because she is her best friend but also because she loves her. However, she is scared to tell Karai how she really feels because she's worried she won't reciprocate and it'll ruin their long time friendship. Luckily, Mikey is there for support!

Not to toot my own horn, but I did write a fanfic relating to this concept that you can read HERE

1) Raphael x Mona Lisa

What have I not already said about RaMona? If you follow me then you know full well that these two are my life. I’ve written multiple fanfics based on them on AO3 (LINK HERE) and have done a few analysis posts about them as well here on Tumblr. They have consumed my life. I love them so much!

Overall, I believe they are the healthiest ship the series offered us, and the best one in canon. I know some complain that they were rushed and how they got together too quickly, but in truth I can understand why Raph and Mona got into a relationship as quickly as they did. They are both warriors with the mindset of "I might die tomorrow" so it makes sense they'd be open and honest about their feelings right from the start just in case something happens to either one of them in battle. You only live once, you know? And I like how open Raph is when it comes to his feelings for Mona. From the very start, the moment he realized he liked her, never once did he deny it. Even when his brothers and friends laughed or scolded him, Raph proudly admitted he likes her with no ounce of shame. Mikey even points out that Mona is "bigger, stronger and a better fighter" than Raph and him responding by saying "Exactly! What a woman..." The boy does not care that she will be the pants in their relationship. He loves that she's stronger than him, bigger than him, a better fighter than him. We even see how excited he gets when she suggests training with him someday. Not to mention how we also learn in the show that these two have written love letters to each other during the course of the season 4 space adventures. Their personailties clash so well together. Both being strong willed warriors who put their loved ones first. Both can be stubborn and jump to conclusions quickly. We even see that Mona can have a short temper much like Raph. Both are ready to kick some ass with anyone who talks shit (Raph defending Mona but then Mona defending herself *chef's kiss*)

It's not talked about often among the fandom/shippers, but the fact that Mona is as much in love with Raph as he is with her is what truly makes this ship great. While the other 2012 ships make it unclear (writing wise) if the love interest truly feels the exact same way towards her Turtle she's shipped with, but for Mona her feelings are obvious. She's the one who makes the first move during all of their kisses/nose nuzzles, she's the one to say "I love you" first" and do I have to remind y'all of the push up scene? XD

These two are obsessed with one another. You can tell and see just how in love they are with one another. Even with only appearing in about 4-5 episodes, they truly left a major impact on shipping in this fandom. I feel it has come to a unanimous agreement that this ship is the best (canon) couple this show gave us. I love them, I love their relationship, I love what these two have done for the show and this fandom. They were able to bring back a classic ship from the 87 series and add so much more to them! I hope we get to see more of this couple in future generations. They certainly aren't a perfect couple, they got their flaws too, but overall they are truly the best couple in the 2012 series. <333

[splashstar01]

Love letter to Merthur (11 year anniversary🎉💐) TW: suicide, spoilers for end of the show

Okay so it's been 11 years since Merthur has been my OTP. Since they've entered my life I've literally felt like I've been in a relationship with their relationship if that makes sense. For a little while until I met my spouse, I even identified as aegosexual, which for me meant being asexual except for attraction to other people's relationships such as my OTPs. 

I came into the fandom end of 2013 and became interested because they were all over my tumblr dash. I know, the show ended at the end of 2012.. I'm not sure why Tumblr had a sudden influx of merthur content. Maybe due to the slash tourney?

But I kept seeing the final end scene all over my dash and I kept seeing a ton of articles celebrating that merthur was now canon (imagine my surprise when i found so many in the fandom don't see it that way even tho it was literally confirmed……………………..). 

I knew literally nothing about the show and assumed it was a serious adult show about the Arthurian legends. But I shipped them anyway due to the ending, particularly with Merlin waiting 1500 years (I didn't even realize Arthur was also waiting)!

At the time I had just got into shipping for half a year, so I was super new to all this slash stuff. My slash OTP at the time was very quickly replaced by merthur after I began watching the series bc merthur was just way more touchy-feely and had actual boyish fun around one another, not to mention waiting 1500 years for ea other! That is EPIC LOVE!!!! Their dynamic was the opposite of my previous OTP. 

With merthur I got really, really into my feelings. I've literally bled for them. Rest assured, I have never cut in my entire life. it's only due to me becoming so emotional and hyperventilating in joy that I bit my fingers and bled a little bit. Like, the amount of blood i lost was akin to literally a paper cut from my teeth lol. Because I cover my mouth when I hyperventilate… I think most people cover their mouths when they do this. Lol.

But when I hyperventilate over Merthur, it is EXTREME. like, i have almost out-of-body experiences. i’ve literally cried from being so happy thinking of them having sex. One time in the shower I was thinking about them and I was so happy I nearly blacked out and fell into the shower curtains. 😂 But even when I cry over Merthur/Arthur, im still having fun. Because I know it's not real, so it’s only a pseudo-grief but its NOT psuedo-joy!!! LOL. It's kinda like going on a roller coaster. You’re screaming but you dont actually fear for your life. It’s psuedo-fear. 

At the time, I was severely depressed in my non-fandom life, but Merthur never actually contributed to that hurt, because i could see the lines of reality vs real shit i had to be upset over. Merthur gave me an outlet. With merthur I felt free to cry and fall apart whilst at the same time, as I always tell my ppl, "they're not real, THANK GOODNESS!!" so I can grieve bc I'm not really crying for anyone!

At the time, I wasn’t seeing anyone for my severe depression/anxiety because I thought I could handle it and i was self-medicating with psychedelics since they've been proven to be able to heal mental health issues. LSD at parties healed my c-ptsd, since I had gone to see someone for my ADHD & ended up being diagnosed w c-ptsd! I thought it could heal my other issues too.

But then I took a 7-year break from merthur due to my attempted suicide.

My life was going so well too. I literally seemed like i had the perfect life while in college. Just landed a good-paying 1-yr temp job, I was majorly popular and partying every weekend, I had a long-term partner (we’re now married), I had a 4.7 GPA, was in 9 different school clubs. I seemed to be thriving. But I’d been battling severe anxiety/depression since I was 12.

How the fandom saved my life….. Literally. 

Before I was going to do it, I had to say goodbye to the fandom bc I always felt like the merthur fandom was like my family.

I wrote a goodbye post on Tumblr that I set to queue and I had assumed it would post much later. But ig i somehow miscalculated and it posted too early. So someone managed to find my Facebook which is just insane bc blogs are essentially anonymous. I didn't post any personal info on Tumblr. It should have been impossible but they alerted my sister and I was found 45 min away.

The doctors declared me brain dead and it was this huge thing. I had to relearn to feed myself, walk, etc. It took me 6 months just to have the strength to use a walker because my leg muscles had atrophied so much. 9 months later and I was able to walk again on my own. Now it's been 7 years and I'm still physically disabled but in a much better place emotionally. After my attempt, a limelight was cast on my mental health and all a sudden i was seeing all sorts of therapists. I was medicated for the very first time, and i felt so much better. I’m no longer actively suicidal.

So….. enough about my sob story. 

Merthur will most likely always be my OTP!! I did find book!Drarry 8 months ago, and boy did i go wild for them too. (Like, i stayed up 36 hours straight because i couldnt stop thinking about them and i’m the author of the Drarry Bible, a 98k doc of all the drarry book moments along with meta proving that in their universe, they are in love and soulmates lol. Drarry is such a huge ship that I was honestly so surprised that there wasnt already something similar to it!!)

But even with Drarry, I always knew Merthur was OTP!! I never once questioned that I loved Merthur more even during my Merthur hiatus. ^-^ I’m not sure why i took such a long hiatus after my suicide attempt. But I recently got back into Merthur just 6 months ago due to this video by imaginedragonlords: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4zDknYGf0s. The video reminded me of why Merthur was so amazingggggg. Like i always knew they were but ig the passion was gone after the suicide attempt. (Gone but not forgotten lol! :D)

I wont promise the passion will always be here. Like in any relationship, passion sometimes ebbs and flows (happening rn w my irl partner lol i mean, they’re great n all but they like to interrupt me when i write fanfic 😂), but I’ll always know that Merthur will never be replaced. Because at the end of the day, there will never be another love as epic and with as much chemistry as these two gayssssssss<33333 i did find another ship I love that i feel has a more healthy love for ea other than merthur and also waited a whole lifetime for one another, but they dont have AS much chemistry……………)

I love Merthur SO DAMN MUCH!!!!!! And i love my Merthur fandom. <3 I can always rely on fandom to give me my drug of choice: that MERTHUR DOPAMINE HIT!!! I’ve grieved Arthur’s death way longer & more intensely than any irl person/pet’s, & I blame the fandom for that! Each gifset or post will bring all the feelings of pseudo-grief back in full force, plus I cry EASY when it comes to fandom. I can smile a genuine smile after my grieving session is done, because thank SOURCE THEY’RE FICTIONAL! 

And anyway, they’re so obviously going to end up married with so much sex once Arthur finally returns from training with the Sidhe and being granted immortality so that Albion (Merlin) won’t ever be in such crisis (losing his mind from grief) ever again.

I’ve also cried from looking at a gifset of Leon just being Leon (this one literally tagged ‘literally crying’ & i only use that tag for stuff that has me actually crying with real tears).

And he’s not even one of my fave knights!! This gifset wasn't meant to be sad either. lol. I dont know why i cried. It just be like that on Tumblr.

Back before my hiatus, I literally had a Kleeenix box next to me whenever i went on tumblr bc I’d cry over every little thing. This was bc i was bound to see some sad merthur gifset/post/etc, cry, and after i cried once, anything else made me cry……..

Even gifsets of Leon just being Leon lool. x’D I would get soooooo overly emotional. 

My spouse once said, “All you ever talk about with ur fandoms is ‘they’re so gay.’” YES. THAT IS THE MAIN POINT, WHAT ABOUT IT 😂 like im now in the Harry Potter book fandom & i literally dont give a shit about the book plotlines [I barely remember them], but i can write up a whole Bible about Drarry……. It’s PRIORITIES! I have a very 1-track mind with my ships lol.

Ok this was way longer than intended. 

Tldr;

merthur (fandom) literally saved my life during my suicide attempt by alerting my family,

grieving Arthur’s death is a safe outlet bc i know he’s not real so none of my grief is real.

I dont cut, never have, never will—I just hyperventilate way too hard in fits of joy, usually crying “they’re SO GAY!!!” & bite my fingers a tad too hard on accident at times..... i get really super emotional and i love it becos that free dopamine hit is on another lvl fr lol def up there w real drugs, like my out-of-body experience sometimes xD

I feel like im dating them due to being partly aegosexual. and i love them <3 :D So my 11 yr anniversary fr feels like my 11 yr anniversary w an IRL lover lol XD

[marys-little-cringes]

Let me start with a clean slate Pt.1

Pt.2 - Pt.3

Fandom: Smallville

Relationship: Clark Kent/Lex Luthor

Additional Tags: Bromance, Bromance to Romance, AU, Curtain Fic, Pre-Slash

Summary:

[4s17ep "Onyx"] An alternate ending in which the Lexs didn't reunite, instead Alexander is captured by Lex.

A/N:

I finished watching season 7, I am sad and frustrated. Starting with Belle Reve, it became vital for me that everything would be fine, because I can see perfectly well how everything is f*cked up. This series has become some sort of guide for me to the world where these two have a chance. The thing is, English isn't my native language and this is my first ff in English, so my also not-native-speaker-editor @nigthwingsleftbuttcheek and me did our best.  Anyway feel free to mark my typos or other errors if you find any. I would be most grateful!

 “Clark! Are you there?”  

 “Lex!” Clark jumped up on the couch and almost flew to the railing.

 Luthor was standing in the barn’s doorway.

 “What happened?” Clark asked anxiously. First of all, of course, he was worried about whether Lex had the opportunity to talk to him. Alexander found out his secret. “The second one—”

 “No.” Lex hastened to reassure him and went to the stairs. “The second... me is taken care of.”

 “What did you do to him?” Clark would never admit even to himself what kind of answer he really wanted to hear right now.

 “My specialists have put him in a medically induced coma. It will be safer for everyone. Including him.” Lex smiled tightly, putting his hands in his pockets.

 “Lex—”

 «Clark, before you say anything, let me say it first: you're right.”

 Lex strode up the steps, not taking his gaze off the young man.

 “«I have to merge with him eventually, we were and we are to remain connected. We have existed together for as long as I can remember, and therefore it is fair to say that even longer than that.” He chuckled mirthlessly. “I just need some time.”

 Finally, Luthor caught up with Clark and smiled, looking into his eyes.

 “What are you going to do?” Kent asked suspiciously.

 “You see, Clark...” Lex turned on his heel and moved to the window. “As I was saying, we’ve always been together, and we always fought. A lot has changed in my life since I settled in Smallville. You appeared, your parents, Lana — so many good people. Suddenly I found myself stronger. Suddenly I realized that I could fight back against him. I began to see the world differently next to you. You were always there for me, even when I pushed you away. You've always miraculously helped me out in the last moment! Clark, you...” Lex turned to him swiftly. “You became my personal hero, my savior, in so many ways — you can't even imagine it.”

 Kent smiled awkwardly, still standing by the railing.

 “Being friends with you gave me the strength to fight him. At some point, it seemed to me that I could start with a clean slate, leaving my past under his rule behind.”

 “But?” Clark looked at Luthor, and he turned away, leaning his weight against the windowsill.

 “Yeah, this everliving "but"... No matter what happened to me in Belle Reve,” his voice hoarse, “no matter what was done to me at my father's behest, I felt that he became stronger than ever before. It was getting harder to resist him every day. He was crushing me. Under his rule, I have distanced myself from everyone, from you. He knew that this was what helped me resist. It was like he cut me off from oxygen and just waited for me to finally suffocate!”

 “Lex, I couldn't even imagine—”

 Luthor stopped him with a hand gesture.

 “It's okay, no one could. I didn't always understand it myself while whole. I see many things much more clearly now than I could before with him . It’s sad, yes... I know it can't ever be fixed. I also know that I can't get rid of him for good. As much as I hate to admit it, it's because of him that I'm still alive. He is too stubborn and angry to accept his fate and die. I just want to... I just want to find a way to weaken him, at least to the level that he was before Belle Reve. Anyway, at that time it seemed to me that I could hold him back.”

 “What kind of help do you need?”

 “What? Why are you—?” Lex looked around, confused, and then his gaze filled with understanding. “Right, I came here. You know, Clark, it always seemed to me that this problem of ours started from the very beginning.”

 Lex patted the windowsill with his palm, inviting. Clark looked at him blankly, but approached.

 “The only way I know how to be… friends is to be mutually beneficial. You give me, I give you. Only this way was communication clear to me, it is advisable. So now, I'd like to take the opportunity to fix this. Of course, you can always count on my help, but I would be glad to have informal meetings from time to time. Visits without a clear reason. In the Talon or… You said you like to watch the sunset from here. Perhaps you would like to watch it with me from the highest tower of the mansion? I'm sure this new experience will be no worse.”

 Clark stared at him in disbelief, not even trying to hide his feelings in any way.

 “Of course, if you have other plans—”

 “No! I mean, no, I don’t!” the young man started. “You… Er… You're right, this is something… new for... us. But… Yeah, why not, let's go. Now? I’ll let my parents know.”

 “Now. I know that this will not erase our recent past. I've undermined your trust, it's true,” Lex looked straight into his eyes. “All I'm asking for is another chance. I hope, Clark, that we can use this time while I'm here to get to know each other again.”

[antimony-medusa]

this is mars creatchure i just don't want this tied to my main because the batman fandom Scares Me

found family is SUCH a way to condition yourself into kinks. it's not exclusive to mcyt. i jumped right from dsmp and sbi (even though you know, was always more of an emduo guy, i got to see the sbi fics as well) to dc and batfam and the shit people will write and slap on "they're brothers" to. it makes me a tad insane.

i'm not gonna talk about the obvious issues in the fandom, and like. i guess at least some people are honest about it, writing slash ships of the batboys and all (whole other separate issue) but like. some of the people with 'batcest dni' in their ao3 tag write the most borderline shit i've ever read.

i don't have concrete thoughts on it or like. a commentary abt what it means or whatever, just that the phenomenon seems to be present in found family fandoms as a whole, not just mcyt

Oh yeah I've seen hints of the batfandom in action, that seems FAIR. I do not want you to get swarmed.

Honestly the found family space being very similar in batfam to what it is in dsmp doesn't surprise me, especially when I know that a lot of people transitioned from DSMP/SBI to the batfam. (I also saw signs of people going to stranger things, and a bunch of other fandoms, and the part where I went Oh Good Luck was seeing some people trying to do kpop band boys as a found family. Go with god.)

You have people who really like the strong bonds between people in fiction, but they aren't quite mentally comfortable with writing or consuming sex or romance. And while some of them are doing this because they're sex-repulsed or really like platonic relationships, a bunch of them are just young or they've unwittingly bought into some cultural messages about how Sex Is Bad Actually. So in their fandom, they end up either picking up or creating a family dynamic for them to work with. And then if anything was to happen romantically with their new blorbos, it would be both underage and incest, so absolutely they've made sure nothing can happen because it would be horrible, so they're safe to continue with family dynamic, celebrating the strong bonds that brought them there. But then you have this little community of people, and I'd say while they know that they SHOULDN"T do anything romantic with the characters, the coding for romance and sex is in the head of a good like 99% of humanity, so when a romance or kink trope gets floated in this fictional context, falling through the mindscape in the shape of a hypothetical story, about half or more of these people don't go "ugh" (because they're romance-repulsed), they go "oh I can use that, that's a fun way to celebrate the bonds between people, I just have to clean it up a bit" (because most of humanity is fine with romance actually), and then they strip the blatant romance or sex out of it to make it Okay To Use, and then they write a story using, like romeo and juliet crimeboys (platonic), or cuddle pollen batfam. To grab an example of a glaringly romantic trope and a blatant kink trope that I've seen repurposed into platonic spaces.

And then in this community of people, every time someone does that, the temperature of the water in the pot they are all in ticks a little higher, because these tropes that someone grabbed from a romance novel or a kink page are now circulating in this platonic space as normal tropes that we all use, and other people use the tropes without really thinking about their origins, and that's how, like, hypnokink gets normalized. Or non-consentual cuddling (extended edition). Or smelling each other on each other's skin. Or fated mates platonic soulmates. All these things that if you're not in the fandom and enviroment, you read out of context and go "this CANNOT be platonic"— but they mean it to be!

And as you say, this is a perfect enviroment for conditioning yourself into certain kinks, because on the one hand you're moving in this space where there's a lot of non-sexual kink around touch and consent and restraints altered states and dehumanization (and sometimes more) happening ALL THE TIME, and you start to get the warm and tinglies at the climax of the story even if the climax of the story is someone getting tied up, and at the same time knowing that you shouldn't think about the blorbos kissing doesn't mean it's not gonna happen. It just means that it's super ilicit and illegal in your brain when it happens. But boy is it happening now, and these characters are so important to you and their bond matters so much to you, and—

Cause you are here cause you like thinking about the bonds between blorbos, and romance and sex and associated tropes are really compelling because as a society we've had about 11,000 years to refine our storytellling about them, so you just keep sinking further and further into the bonds between the characters, using all these tropes, and as it turns out, you're doing it in a space that means you're gonna come out of it with some kinks.

So. Yeah.

Saluting you over in the batfam mines. I hope the babies come out of it okay.

[monty-glasses-roxy]

24 (What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?) for Roxy

Thanks for copying the question here buddy I appreciate that a lot (I can't load the post on my phone or my own blogs at all still)

Uhhhh honestly, Roxy's pretty different to a lot of my usual other blorbos. I could compare her to Labrys from Persona 4 Arena in a sense that they're both robots with horrible trauma that have been forced to do things they wouldn't dream of doing otherwise, but that doesn't feel like a great comparison ngl

I could compare her to a lot of blorbos though. Like Bracken from Ni No Kuni 2, Unit #024 and Labrys from Persona 4 Arena, for being chronically underutilized by the devs. Maybe PURL from Kuni 2 but PURL feels more... Like an opposite to Mimic? The first attempt at sentient AI in that world, determined to answer the question of what colour is the sky for herself... Only knows a few things, a child her closest friend, and accidentally takes over the wholeass factory in her attempts to see the sky again after like a decade of being deactivated. And also because the devs couldn't think of anything interesting for a new Broadleaf area so they wanted to make sure you did the wholeass factory again for some fucking reason.

Ohhh then again, I was watching those clips last night and Toothless and Hiccup made me think of Roxy and Cassie in an AU kind of way. Mostly because of the dogisms I like to give Roxy and because of several AUs that are more in line with How to Train Your D/ragon... (Put a slash in it to make extra sure I don't end up in any searches for that) So maybe Toothless? Maybe not?

Honestly I don't think I've ever liked a character that has shown much interest in their appearance before. Maybe Erza from Fairy T/ail? Looks cool and could kill you but has zero braincells whatsoever? Also very traumatised? Koromaru from P3 cause his persona is Cerberus and Roxy is the Cerberus to Mimic? And I can see her running around with a knife in her teeth? I dunno man that's a tough question

Ohhh there was also Blaze from the Sonic games! Not because of Roxy specifically, but because in coming up with a horse for her, many of the ideas for it was giving my Blaze vibes lmao. She has a horse in the Olympic games and it's pure white with light purple tack and possibly eyes I don't remember so yeah that kept popping to mind in coming up with a horse nsjsdj

And I suppose my OC Zephyr somewhat reminds me of her. That whole universe I made was started when I got so deep into a Pupcakes/Roxica Pirates AU that I decided to make it a whole thing and Zephyr is who Roxy in the story became. I like Zephyr she's very cool and has become very distinct from Roxy, but her roots are still there, ya know? I'll always remember where she started.

Jsisjsi I could associate Roxy with Disney's Bolt too just cause he's a superhero dog and a funny lil guy. And for some reason one of the OST tracks for the DS game will plague my mind for the rest of my days. Even though I'm thinking of every track but that one right now. It's the one for Bolt's part of the... Something Temple level. Bolivia? Belize??? I think it has a B in it... But anyway yeah Superdog! Hooray!

P03 from Inscryption too but mostly because it's tech themed, and I had that old AU where I drew her as the Scrybe of Technology. Inscryption is incredible btw I fucking love it. I suck at it apparently though. I got to Act 2 and played a fucking beefed up Ouroborus in the first stage of P03's fight like "oh I've got this fucker now!!" No I did not. I absolutely did that. Stoatal misplay. Could not have fucked that up more lmao anyone that's played or seen this game will know exactly what ended up happening there nsjdjdi I FORGOT okay?? I forgot!!!

BACK ON TOPIC yeah Roxy's a pretty different character to the norm for me. Genuinely can't think of anyone that might be similar to her enough for them to remind me of her if I saw them again. Maybe if I went back and watched the old My Little Pony from the fucking 70s or whatever, but it would just be the standard stereotype of "all girls care lots about their appearance and gasp in horror if you dirty a pretty dress" probably. You know the one. I do my best not to humour that shit in my own Roxy interpretation but it's hard to forget that's absolutely where her written personality stems from :/

[doodler-jpeg]

[Probably unwanted] TF2 x reader content because i havent been feeding y'all too much YO I THINK I FIGURED OUT HOW TO DO THE READ MORE THING YES.

RANDOM HEADCANONS FOR THE MERCS + MISS PAULING + SAXTON HALE BUT THEYRE ALL PROBABLY REALLY BAD

CW// alcohol, piss kink mention, spy slander, probably ooc because i havent visited the fandom since 2020 and i only remembered it because of a tiktok someone made showing off red flag characters they've simped for, they/them used for pyro

SCOUT:

Scout's the type of guy to learn his s/o-slash-crush's first language [if their first language isn't English]. He tries not to let you know until you start finding "[insert language] for Beginners" books around the base. Do you tease him? Slightly. Do you think it's sweet? Absolutely.

He also probably draws you and gets flustered if and when you find out he does so. You're flattered. He made all your sides look great.

SNIPER:

This dude has a piss kink.

I'm just joshing. Or am I?

Sniper tells his parents about his s/o-slash-crush so much so to the point his parents, given he visits them with the other mercenaries, tease him. He just groans, covers his face, and has to bear the jokes and teasing that the mercs throw at him.

SOLDIER:

He is indifferent around his crush-slash-s/o. Or so he thinks. He somehow gets louder and that gets on everyone's nerves do they're like "damn, poor you" and then they just have you deal with him from there because he's your problem now. If you catch him in the nude covered in honey while fighting the enemy, expect to be forced to join.

SPY:

He doesn't deserve love. His balaclava stinks so much that it's used as a repellent for all potential mates.

ENGINEER:

SWEETHEART. He has so many endearing nicknames that he subconsciously says. If and when his crush-slash-s/o points it out, he just goes "oh yeah, I guess I do that. Does it bother you?" and you're probably like "NO IT DOESN'T, SHAWTY" and he just keeps calling you things like darlin', sweet pea, honey, and more even more than he already does.

PYRO:

They draw their s/o-slash-crush so much it's not even funny. The team was forced to make several refrigerator cutouts that are now shrines filled with doodles of both you and Pyro. It's not even funny. Like, they'll draw you and them at any given moment. And they talk to Balloonicorn about you a lot so, like, it's cute.

DEMOMAN:

He relies on being drunk to be able to talk with his crush. Like, he starts to overthink his actions in certain situations when he's sober so much that he will physically malfunction the moment you go near him.

And then he gets drunk and goes over to you to start conversation and since Scottish people are hilarious [and I'm saying this seriously. Scottish people have some type of humor that i don't understand but i laugh anyway] you're brought to tears by the middle of your conversation and he's so proud of himself.

Okay, but if he's overwhelmed with glee, he'd probably just give you a smooch and then scream in victory. It happens after every win.

HEAVY:

Heavy is gentle. He's the type of man to guard your drink with his life and expects absolutely nothing in return. He was raised right.

The second you look uncomfortable, he's going to go up to you, look directly at the threat, and just stares. Menacingly.

MEDIC [i almost forgot about this guy. I made a list with all of their names on it and somehow forgot about medic]:

He gets excited to see his crush-slash-s/o in the medbay. He'll make conversation with you while he's [quite literally] rearranging your guts.

"Ja, Archimedes nearly died and since then I've been- Archimedes! Get out of there right now!"

He shows off every single god damn dove he owns and is so proud. He probably made them all bird-sized sweaters in his free time.

MISS PAULING:

She is a professional. She has standards. She takes her job seriously and has made a vow to never let any sort of emotion get in the way of her work. HOWEVER. She drops that all out a window and gushes to herself about her s/o-slash-crush.

SAXTON HALE:

He depends on money, his body, and his power to get love. I don't take criticism.

That is all.

[olderthannetfic]

Hi! Anon here who asked you to clarify what the post meant: thank you so much! I really appreciate it. English isn't my first/native language so when I was reading the post I was just like "okay.. i know what all these words mean on their own :S but what is the point of the post". So once I read your explanation, it clicked.

And if I think about it, ultimately, I think I was getting confused because even though I was getting it somewhat (when reading the original op), I was already thinking with your 2 points in mind you listed that are missing and I was mostly just "what is this person on about? why can't we just exist and enjoy our porn in peace knowing it's porn and fantasy and stuff." Things along those lines.

"Plenty of actual fic content is regressive twaddle. That’s not the thing that’s special about fic at all! Many of the early acafans who waxed lyrical about how slash fandom was feminism or whatever literally just meant that women writing badwrong horny art and not apologizing was a big deal."

Yes, I agree. To me, fandom, fic and such things were always a place where I could go and be myself. Like I never felt bad about my fandom and fic stuff (or my kink stuff in general) personally but I knew that internet wise and IRL wise my experience of existence as a human being (I'm a cis female) was just different. On the internet, in fandoms especially, people just treated me like a person and I was listened to. And we could talk, exchange ideas/tropes and overall connect. In real life however, I would either be met with "you're being weird" or "hurdur it's always the quiet ones ;) ;) ;)" depending on the context, and with the first I can be like "ah whatever" but with the second one I gag every time. Let me just exist and vibe goddammit!

"But I will grant that I’ve seen plenty of idiots claiming fic is more woke than other types of iddy writing or calling fandom progressive or feminist or subversive without making it clear why they think it qualifies, and this post is a reasonable critique of those claims."

And I agree with this too. I've seen plenty of folks saying how sometimes fic is better than published novels for example, and while sure... someone could write a fic that reads better than some published novels... I recognize the fact that there's gonna be shitty (or whatever) writing both in fic and novels and it's nothing special. Shitty writing is shitty writing and good writing is good writing, whether it's in fic or novels.

Anyway, when it comes to the last part.. I'm aware of breeding kink haha, but like I already said. I think it went over my head because again, like you- I'm of the opinion that it's not transphobic because I assumed/knew that that specific type of fic was written by horny trans people who want that sort of content. I remember reading the quote and thinking "...but who else would be writing this? where are you going with this?"

I think my overall confusion is because I feel like I'm reading a comparison between two different things as if they're the same thing? Like in my mind, meta analysis and introspection all that is one thing and then porn you get off to is a different thing. BUT I guess I GET IT NOW (at least I hope I do, I'm so sorry if I sound like a moron), if they think those fics were written by people who aren't horny trans folks aka cis people who would be then stereotyping.

I'm so sorry this ended up being so long. But I wanted to thank you again so much!! I really appreciate it. You're amazing. <3

--

Thanks, anon!

I don't know that poster, so they could mean plenty of things, but my guess about the meta vs. fic comparison is that they're thinking: "Man, people keep talking about fic like it can fix representation problems, only when I actually go to look for fic, all I find is porn I hate."

[jesslockwood]

Photo Opportunities

Word Count: 2.7k

Pairing(s): Tom Holland x Actress!Reader

Warnings: FLUFF with a slightly (barely) suggestive sentence towards the end 

A/n: damn I can't write anything except actress reader? smh but this is for @londonspidey ‘s sit-com Writing challenge (ik I'm early lol) but I was so excited I wrote the whole thing in one go lmao the prompt is bolded!

Calling yourself a fan was an understatement. You were obsessed with anything and everything marvel. And oddly enough, you could after today say you were in the club. It wasn’t a public fact yet, until later that day actually, at the Marvel panel at comic con that you were being announced as the actress for the character, Felica Hardy and no one else knew except for the people who cast you and your best friend who signed an NDA. You were technically still a known actress for your roles on television mainly as Thalia on the PJO Disney + series and a couple of still decently sized films. 

You were currently wrapping up signing autographs for fans of yours for today. Your team had planned it out so it wasn’t suspicious that you were at the con with a few of your castmates scattered doing other junkets and press so people wouldn’t guess who they were acting as the cast for new marvel projects. 

You had been planning to go meet your best friend, who wasn’t in the industry before getting a text that she bought you both a photo-op with someone and she wouldn’t tell you who. You couldn’t only assume it was a marvel actor that you would indeed, freak out. 

Y/b/n: btw I brought you a mask. I get the wig lol.

You: please tell me it doesn’t cover my full face. Also, how are we posing?

Y/b/n: I bought as many photo ops as I could so a lot of different ones, And if I tell you the poses it’ll spoil it.

You: is this with the money I pay you to be my assistant with? Lol fine I’m omw with security

Y/b/n: maybe… 

Y/b/n: and they’ll need more backup security for who we’re getting a photo op with than you do for your hellfire.

You roll your eyes before taking your stuff and exiting the booth, before heading out the backways with staff security and your detailed security for the day. You only had security because you wanted to explore the con when you weren’t needed.

Your best friend had also been your assistant for the con weekend, but you didn’t want her to be confined to you the whole three days so when she could, you would let her explore it, at least she could experience it as a fan, right?

When you made it to that part of the building, you wanted to wait in line with her, which your security didn’t agree to so she texted you when there were about five people ahead of her. She was one of the last in line, with you asking her to be kind, so others would get their chance to be first with whomever it was. 

When she texted you and your detailed exit, getting a few stares and others taking their phones out to either take photos or tweet, you wave at them before joining your best friend in line.

“Here,” she says before handing you none other than a black cat mask before she puts on a red wig. 

You glare at her slightly trying to not make a scene, before putting it on. 

“I’m assuming you're Mary Jane?” you laugh figuring out that it had to be someone from Spider-Man.

“How’d you- never mind.” She laughs with you.

She then explains how she’s going to pose for your five photo ops, joking in between how she should “get a raise for this”.

You catch sight of him before sucking in your breath. This was either going to go down amazingly or terribly, there was no in-between with you. 

“Excuse Me, are you Y/n Y/l/n?”

You turn around and are met by some fans who were standing in line behind you.

“I am! How’s your con going?” you ask politely to the two of them.

“It's going amazing! We love you as Thalia! Could we maybe get a picture? Only if it’s okay?”

“Of course! Thank you for supporting me!” your best friend grabs their phone to take the photo, before you take off the mask, and stand between the two fans, and your best friend snaps a few photos. 

“Thank you so much! And Are you fans of Tom?”

You start slowly walking back to catch up to the line. 

“Yeah, I love him as Spiderman, but I also enjoy his other roles. He's very talented, I'd love to work with him one day!” 

“Have you seen him in Uncharted?  We love Him as Nathan drake!”

“I have, he was amazing per usual! How are you two posing with him?”

They show you their innovative pose. You laugh and tell them it's great before you have to wish them goodbye before heading up for your turn for the photo op. 

“How do we want to pose- hang on, I recognize you!”

You freeze slightly before your friend mouths for you to flirt. You look down at the mask in your hand before getting into character and saying “Of course you do Spidey, I'm always causing you trouble.” you put on the mask and wink. 

He seems slightly stunned, laughing, feeling like he’s seen you somewhere, not only because he found you extremely gorgeous, while in his peripheral vision he sees his brother/ assistant, Harry waving like a madman on the side. 

Your friend directs you both through the poses, first, one both him putting “webs” onto you as she looks over his shoulder, the second one, both of you kissing his cheeks, the third, all jumping in the air in your best superhero poses, the fourth one she gets a photo op alone and the last one she gives to you,

“Seriously, who are you?”

“Your Wildest dreams, baby,” you say, taking off the mask. 

Your best friend yells “freestyle” from the sidelines before Tom dips you, gently, with you shocked, holding the mask out with your free arm and the photo captures that moment. 

 He gently helps you stand back up fully, not before you drop the mask.

“Nice moves Spider-Man.”

“Not so bad yourself, Black Cat.”

You laugh before, taking off with your best friend, well more her dragging you to the printing station leaving the mask behind. Tom picks it up before shoving it in his back pocket to hopefully give back if he could find you. 

-

`You were sitting in the green room, trending on Twitter before you were actually supposed to be trending on Twitter, and god knows where else.  

Someone had snuck a video of you and Tom, up till him dipping you, and a video of you interacting with the fans in the line.

Your Y/b/n was currently reading off some tweets out loud

“‘A kind queen we stan.’  I agree, I also agree with ‘Date her if you can't date me tom!!!’.

‘THALIA AND PETER PARKER??? My two fandoms have collided.’ same, same. Oo this one says, ‘if she ain’t playing black cat I will sue marvel.’ I'm dying at the reply ‘She needs to post the photos or I'll sue her!’. This one’s funny, ‘she could squash him like a bug in heels but he liked his queen like that.’.”

She pauses watching you texting.

“Y/n? Y/n?”

“What? Sorry I was only half listening. I was texting my publicist. She said to stay on the DL until tonight. 

“Well we should get food, you haven't eaten since this morning.”

“By the way, your show has shot to number one on Disney +. Also, you have like three times the followers you had before, probably cause you're trending on every platform, even Tumblr!”

“Wow you should just become my social media manager now.” you joke trying to ease the joy yet weirded out feeling in your stomach.

“Does that come with a raise? Because after today I've spent way too much of what I'm paid.” she jokes back.

-

After finishing his photo ops Tom asked Harry who she was and to find out. By the time he finished autographs for the day, Tom and Harry walked to the panel room in the back for announcements, one that included him for the new Avengers movie, while Harry gave him the rundown.

“So she’s an actress, she plays Thalia on Disney plus’ Percy Jackson series, and that's her most known project. The other girl with her is her assistant best friend, and now she's trending everywhere. People dug up some old photos of her being a marvel/Spider-Man fan, so there's that. And she's here at the con for the rest of the weekend. She's doing photo ops tomorrow at one, and yes she's single from what I gather since you were looking at her like this.” he makes a weird face before tom smacks him.

“And plus you have time in your schedule to get a photo op with her, that is if you eat lunch quickly.”

That gave Tom an idea. 

“Harry I’m going to need you to book me one, oh and help me find a Spider-Man costume!” He says, before leaving harry to do ‘assistant’ work. entering the green room for the announcements, watching them announce a new movie.

“We are so excited to announce to the Marvel Universe, and spider-verse-” that perked tom’s ears, “-directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, and today we are announcing our amazing Miss Felicia Hardy, please give a warm welcome to the stage, Your Black Cat!”

You suddenly emerged in an aisle way, dressed in all black with a leather jacket, black ankle boots, and of course black sunglasses indoors.

The music is marvel music until it suddenly changes after a recorded laugh from you into “I can’t be tamed by Miley Cyrus”.

You start owning the music while saying hi and touching fans’ hands. You decide to take off your sunglasses and throwing them to a fan, for them to keep, before getting on stage.

“What a Performance from the one the only Y/n Y/l/n!”

You laugh, being met with the loudest applause you had heard all con before being handed a Mic. 

“Thank you but I'm a terrible dancer.” You Joke.

Tom was staring at the screen stunned. You had been the black cat all along. You were in the marvel universe and spidey one,  so he'd definitely be seeing more of you. The hard part is that you seemed so genuine when you talked, interacted with fans and was no doubt, stunning. 

“Better close your mouth or the flies will get in.” Tom turns around to find the voice of none other than his friend slash bully, Sebastian Stan, along with Anthony Mackie.

“Looks like the kid has a crush!” Anthony laughs, pointing to the screen you were on.

“I-I don’t! I don’t even know her!” Tom tries to come to his own defense, hopelessly.

“She’s got you whipped already don’t even deny it.” Harry comes in, joining the teasing of one, Tom Holland.

“Maybe we can invite her out for drinks tonight, then fanboy over here can meet her, and then probably scare her off!” Anthony mentions.

“You haven’t looked on the internet? They’ve already met.” Seb says, before showing Anthony twitter. 

Anthony stands there slightly shocked before bursting into laughter.

“Well, she’s damn well a keeper for Tom since she obviously likes him.”

A staff member peaks their head in the green room to tell Tom he’s up next.

“Well, that’s my cue to leave you two!”

On the other hand, you were on an adrenaline high from being on stage, and seeing all the fans. You knew tomorrow was going to be crazy, as you expected people to book your photo op left and right since the announcement. 

You had decided to decline an offer from your fellow marvel universe castmates, Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie, which they so graciously told you that whenever you’re free, the offer still stood. 

You had gotten to your hotel room seeing your phone blowing up on the social media apps for the second time that day. 

You responded to the important stuff, before heading to bed, knowing it was going to be hectic.

-

You had been right, it was absolutely insane, the number of people who showed up. You had fully booked all your time slots for photo ops. You had seen so many people dressed up in marvel cosplay, ranging from Loki to Ironman, even some people dressed up as your character, which was wildly insane to see.

You had been nearing the end of the line and had enjoyed every moment with the fans, and you couldn’t wait for your autographing session later that day, to truly get a chance to talk to the fans and connect with them and how they felt about you being their beloved Black Cat. 

After a few more photos, posing how they wanted, you see a fully dressed, head to toe, mask and all, Spider-Man. You had seen some spider-mans but most took off their masks to snap a picture. The person was the last in line. 

“Hey Black Cat.” The southern American accented voice tells you, seeming very familiar. 

“Hey, Spider, what poses do you have up your sleeve?” you ask kindly.

“I bought a few, Cat.” they laugh.

“Okay, You can do whatever a spider can right?” you pull out a line out of the comics jokingly.

“I can do flips if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Is that some kind of nerd pick-up line? Because it’s only kind of working.” you laugh. 

“I really can, but this is one.”

He gets down on one knee, holding a black cat mask instead of a ring. The photographer captures the shocked expression on your face.

“I- Don’t- What- Spider I-” 

“Ow My feelings…” Suddenly their voice changes into a British accent before they pull off the mask to reveal-

“Tom?”

“I guess you don’t have a spidey sense darling?” The photographer captures the moment without warning eating the moment up. 

You laugh at that. 

“I guess you found out my true identity Spider. And it’s nice to officially meet you, Tom.”

He laughs, just as nervous as you, he notices he has gotten closer to you and a strand of hair loosely is blowing in your face, so naturally, he pushes it behind your ear. Another snap of the camera can be heard. 

“NOW KISS!” a voice belonging to your best friend yells from the side, mid-eating a churro.

You both laugh really hard at that.

The both of you calm down, slowly leaning lost in the moment. The camera snaps again. You both look at the photographer weirded out, and they just shrug.

“Wait can you actually do a flip?” you ask, pulling away, not wanting prying eyes aka the photographer, to pry in your business. 

“I can, though I’d show you later, maybe in the greenroom?”

“That sounds naughty, but, sure.” you joke around. 

He laughs before, you both take off from the area going to grab the photos.

-

After spending most of the day together when you could, you get Tom’s number, before heading back to your hotel room. He texts you as soon as you get back. 

Spider: I had fun today, minus finding our assistants making out.

You: we should ‘snog’ too, it’ll gross them out ;)

You: I had fun too btw. Are you leaving tomorrow?

Spider: lol we should. And yeah an early flight, 6 am to be exact. Hbu?

You: Yeah me too... another day another dollar lol

Spider: ill miss you, Cat.

You: stop talking like we’ll never see each other again lol. As a matter of fact, come to my room, we’re watching a movie!

Spider: alright, I’ll order snacks. 

  You sigh smiling at your phone. You haven’t felt this giddy in a long time.

Your phone pings with a few Instagram notifications.

Tomholland2013 has started following you.

Tomholland2013 has tagged you in a photo.

You open Instagram to find the photo of him “proposing” to you posted.

“Ow, my leg, my- feelings...Welcome to the Universe, Cat.” the photo is captioned. You decide to post, the photo of him dipping you.

“So what do you say, Spider? Wanna help me pull off the Heist of the Heist of the Century?” you caption it, Before getting comfortable to watch a movie. 

What an opportunity ;)

Tags:

@lolooo22 @webmeupspiderdaddy @harryhollandsgirlfriend @spideyspeaches @greenorangevioletgrass @queenofthepouges @sheranatic111 @keithseabrook27

[ailendolin]

Whump Wednesday - 6 - Loki

Fandom: Loki

Characters: Mobius, Loki, Sylvie

Pairing: Lokius pre-slash

Prompt: "Look at me. Hey - I'm right here. You're not alone." (x)

Warnings: implied torture, non-consensual enchantment, panic attack

A/N: Inspired by a discussion with @bluejaneaustenwritingtaco about Mobius only knowing almost everything about Loki’s life. Loki's torture at the hand of Thanos is one of those moments he’s never seen.

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Mobius knew something was wrong the moment he saw Loki standing in the middle of the mall, wide-eyed and seemingly frozen in place. The variant they’d been hunting stood in front of him, her arms raised so her fingers could touch Loki’s temples, and Mobius’s stomach dropped. He started running, driven by an unstoppable force to get to Loki, to get him away from her, to keep him safe.

The variant turned her head to look at him and laughed. As if she had all the time in the world, she slowly dropped her hands from Loki’s face and opened a time door. She didn’t walk though, though. No, she waited until Mobius had almost caught up with them before she gave him a little wave, still with that insufferable smirk on her face, and vanished with a happy, “Until next time!”

Mobius couldn’t have cared less. She wasn’t his priority, not anymore, not with Loki gasping and crumbling to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut the second the time door closed behind her.

Mobius dropped to his knees beside him, looked him over for injuries, his hands hovering over shaking arms but Loki didn’t even acknowledge his presence. He just kept staring at the floor with wide, unseeing eyes – and he kept gasping for breath.

Desperate. Helpless.

“Loki,” Mobius said, trying to keep his voice deliberately soft and calm even though he could feel his own heart racing a mile a minute. “Your breathing’s a little fast there, partner. I need you to slow down, alright?”

Loki shook his head. “I – I can’t.”

“Look at me, Loki,” Mobius said. Loki’s glassy eyes met his and Mobius forced himself to smile as if nothing was wrong. “Hey – I’m right here, okay? You’re not alone. Just breathe.”

Loki tried; Mobius could see that. He did his best to be encouraging and optimistic, went through every variation of, “You’re doing good, Loki. Well done,” he could think of but it wasn’t enough. Not knowing what else to do, he took Loki’s cold hand into his and pressed Loki’s fingers against the pulse point of his wrist.

“Do you feel this?” he asked. Loki nodded shakily. “Good. Just concentrate on that. Steady. In and out. You are safe.”

It seemed to help. Slowly, the tension drained from Loki’s body and his breathing became less erratic and frantic. Mobius waited until Loki’s eyes were clear and alert once more before he placed his other hand on Loki’s shoulder and asked, “What happened?”

Loki sucked in a shuddering breath. “She was in my head.”

Just like Hunter B-15, Mobius thought grimly.

“Did she hurt you?”

Loki shook his head – too hesitant for Mobius’s liking. “I … no. I don’t think so. It just – it felt like before.”

Mobius frowned. “Before?”

Loki swallowed hard and averted his eyes. “When I was with the titan.”

A hundred alarm bells started ringing in Mobius’s head, terrible and clamouring. He knew Loki had been with Thanos after his fall from the Bifrost – everyone knew that – but he’d never found out what exactly had happened between the fall and Loki’s reappearance in New York. TVA records of that time were … sparse. Mobius had no doubt they existed but no matter how often he’d asked to see them, he’d always been denied access.

At the time, he’d chalked it up to the footage not being important for his work. Loki and Thanos had probably spent their time plotting Earth’s downfall and Mobius would be the first to admit that he had better things to do than listen to two crazy wannabe-gods talking about world domination. But now he wondered if it hadn’t been about something else entirely, something that would have painted a very different picture. Because what if Loki hadn’t been as willing a participant in the invasion of New York as Mobius and everyone else had always been led to believe? What if he wasn’t the villain of the story after all but merely a lost soul who had just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time?

His heart felt heavy at the thought.

“Did … did Thanos dig around in your mind, too?” he asked tentatively.

Loki scoffed – a wet, angry sound that failed to hide the pain it was meant to cover. “Don’t pretend you don’t know what he did to me.”

Mobius faltered. “I … I don’t, Loki. That part of your life – I never got to see it.”

That brought Loki up short. His eyes, wide and damp and awfully young and old at the same time, met Mobius’s beneath the flickering lights. The world seemed to stop for a moment, existing out of time like everything else in their lives. Then Loki lowered his head and looked away, his shoulders dropping.

“Perhaps that’s for the better,” he murmured.

Without thinking, Mobius pulled him close.

“No,” he whispered fiercely against Loki’s hair. “It’s not for the better, not if it’s hurting you.”

Loki made a soft noise in the back of his throat. Tentative hands curled into the damp fabric of Mobius’s jacket.

Mobius tightened his hold.

“You don’t have to tell me,” he said quietly. “But I’m here, Loki, alright? I’m here. Today, tomorrow, in a week, a month, a year – I promise I will listen if you ever want to talk.”

For a heartbeat or two, the only sounds around them were the raging storm, the low current of electricity thrumming above them and their breathing – one slow and steady, the other still frayed at the edges. Then Mobius felt Loki’s fingers digging into his back, returning the hug with a desperation he hadn’t expected, followed by two soft words.

“Thank you.”

Mobius squeezed his eyes shut, moved by the honest and heartfelt gratitude he heard in Loki’s voice. It was more than what he had hoped for and more than he deserved at this still fragile stage of their acquaintance? Friendship? Partnership? Whatever it was, whatever they might one day become he knew it didn’t mean Loki would ever speak to him about what had happened when he was with Thanos. And that was alright. Mobius didn’t need him to talk. He just needed Loki to know that he wasn’t alone.

“You’re welcome,” he whispered, holding him closer.

For now, that was enough.

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

TwoSet. That's It, That's the Post.

This blog is mostly going to orbit around the long 18th, but as I'm too lazy to start yet another social media account I should also warn you there will be occasional TwoSet and Watcher posts which I will make a valiant attempt to somehow tie back to history but look I just stan them okay? Their fanbases have a pretty prominent presence here so it's gonna come up sometimes.

I finally got to watch some of TwoSet's World Tour footage and I really appreciate them refusing to shy away from talking about Tchaikovsky being gay. I'm old enough to remember when that was still a fairly taboo thing to mention in the mainstream, and the only people who ever dared say it out loud were queer musicians. The fact that they're willing to portray that onstage with such tenderness gives me some hope for the future, you know? And I appreciate that they do it despite all the RPS shippers going nuts over it. I guess my one qualm is that I hope they're not doing it because of the RPSers. I didn't grow up with the BL industry so I don't know how that may influence media personalities' decisions to depict queer relationships these days. I know James Somerton is going to do a deep-dive video essay on that soon.

I am not a huge fan of RPS personally. I realize it's gonna happen and l can't magically make anyone stop. But I used to helm a fandom where every time the celebrity in question so much as sneezed in the direction of another person there would be intense speculation about their relationship and he did NOT enjoy that shit because he is an extremely private person. He's basically not on any social media under his own name anymore, he has his publicist handle his accounts. I used to put my foot down about wildly speculating about his private life and folks would get mad, but I wanted other fans to respect his boundaries. I'm a little touchy about that stuff so I don't like it when fans take it farther than the people in question are comfortable with. Even if the celebrities don't mind... like, at least don't send the slash to them!

Also happy that two nerdy Asians are reppin' the culture. Maybe it's different in Australia, but over here in the US there's pressure on Asian men/masculine folks to project a bro-ish flavor of masculinity to counteract anti-Asian stereotypes... so for me at least it's refreshing to see Brett and Eddy embraced as their whole, authentic, often vulnerable selves. I want that for all dudes generally, to have space for being vulnerable, to be emotionally intimate with other dudes, to form close bonds without being told "tHaTs gAy LOL". It's one of the things that motivates my research into how masculinity in the modern era was created. Oh hey, I tied it back into 18th century stuff after all! Okay enough talk, I have a cursed drawing to finish.

[phoenixcatch7]

Okay so world building details:

There are three realms in bayonetta - inferno, inhabited by demons. Paradiso, inhabited by angels (or laguna, as they're also called in game). And chaos, which contains both earthly reality and purgatorio, an overlaid dimension which is where all the supernatural fighting happens. It's invisible and untouchable to the earthly realm and vice versa unless the purgatorio visitor decides to scare the mortals (being as there's no inhabitants of the realm). Witches and sages can, with the right spell, slip right through between the two chaos realms. But stay in there too long and 'you'll really lose sight of things'. With spelled glasses, even humans can see through the veil.

The guy who made (?) chaos and brought order to it, aesir, is the guy who also made the eyes of the world and thus the sages/witches (there's got to be a combo name). His separating parts, loki and loptr (loki loving and protecting humanity, loptr hating it and wanting to destroy it with the weight of his massive superiority complex) use tarot cards as channels for their power. He's also REALLY blue.

In persona 5, there is the earthly reality and an over laid realm, the meta verse, formed by perception and humanity's subconscious. Inhabitants of either side cannot see or hear each other, but through metaphorical physics they can affect things both ways.

And though they don't appear in p5, the velvet room (and its ability to give/fuse persona via tarot cards, and presumably the confidante system in general) are the result of philemon, a masked man with a blue butterfly motif who loves humanity and wants to protect it. And his arch nemesis whatsisname, who is in fact a creation of lovecraft, who hates humanity and wants to destroy it. And has a black butterfly motif.

Do you see where I'm going with this.

Also Igor slash yalda (slash whatsit) gives joker the 'third eye' ability that lets him see things of interest in the meta verse, and see into the souls of his enemies to detect them and rank them by strength. Sorry did I say the meta verse I meant THE HUMAN WORLD TOO. In the actual game it's just a mechanic justification but it has been noted as weird many times by the fandom XD. How on earth is it supposed to work on the human world outside of the perception is reality world?? Anyway that's gonna be a plot point. Or sub plot. Or story arc. Maybe.

Rodin is the responsible uncle who has a really bad grasp on kid appropriate stuff. Luka is the fun uncle who can get kinda smothering because he knows if anything happens he's dead. Enzo is the weird uncle no one really likes but he's the only one with a wife and kids and they're cool.

Jeanne is the bug killing parent. Bayo is the table climbing one because shooting or stabbing them puts holes in your wallpaper.

By virtue of his upbringing, Akira has the WEIRDEST accent ever, but it sounds classy af. Gorgeous lilt in every language. He's also a budding fashionista and wears heels at every opportunity (witches don't get bad ligaments/backs like humans). He has pretty glasses chains. Ann and him gossip about fashion and he joins her in modelling.

Bayonetta is 8ft tall. I am going to decrease that slightly because 2.5m is insane and she wouldn't fit under a normal ceiling, but the family is still jaw droppingly tall and almost supernaturally pretty. Akira slouches a lot.

On the topic of design, Akira is androgynous af. In terms of fashion he has no shame dressing for his body type no matter the clothes themselves, which does not go down well with many people. When trying to blend in (when not in front of his parents) he slouches, shrinks away, doesn't wear heels or (much) jewellery, and generally tries to go unnoticed. He's got ear piercings, is considering a lip or nose piercing, wears mostly silver/platinum jewellery, has a sparkly silver glasses chain which is the only jewellery he can get in class, and knows how to put on makeup like a pro, though he doesn't use it himself. I wouldn't say he has self esteem issues but he does feel very much like an outsider.

Did I mention the two sets of pronouns? He him/they them. I love when gender is plot relevant in a good way. When writing it turned into a whole theme of identity as faceted masks which fits so nicely with the persona theme in general. I swear it's not on purpose but I did draw from my own experience so who knows!!

Also the fake gun seller (ibiki??? Or something??) has beef with him because he won't stop low key criticising his guns realism and also refuses to buy anything for himself which comes across so much worse (snubbing the guy he's in the shop of and not finding his quality worth his time, purposely getting his friends lower quality stuff, rich kid withholding monetary stuff from his friends that clearly look up to him) than joker means (not giving his friends live firearms).

I'd love for ibiki to notice joker's gun and be like why is that a real gun kid. And joker's like uhhhhh I have a permit (lying) (Jeanne taught him how to smuggle it through customs) (impossible for a minor to legally own a real gun in Japan anyway).

And what's her name the barkeep. She loves joker. Joker will gladly cross dress in the kimono. His parents visit there as a safe spot outside of supervision.

Because I'm getting back into the swing of writing (like I do every year *sigh*), and because I'm playing bayonetta rn, I'm thinking of restarting my 'joker from p5 is bayonetta's son' fic, because it is, in fact, a concept I was absolutely obsessed with.

Unfortunately I ran into trouble with my desire to discuss every single bit of lore both from the original games and the resulting fusion for the crossover and the impatience to actually... Progress the plot lmao. The end result meant I wasn't happy either way, having rushed or skipped parts I wanted to include and I still wasn't progressing at a speed to match my enthusiasm.

In hindsight, I needed a different writing method to my normal, and go back an forth within the story as the mood struck to better flesh out both sides, but I really struggle with non linear writing. I keep accidentally writing in minor plot holes or turning future events ooc :/. So eventually that got tabled out of frustration.

And I think keeping a formal timeline list would help IMMENSELY. And shortening scenes that frankly, didn't need to be that long. A training montage, of sorts. I could work with that. I had a rough idea, which was great for flexibility but it did add a lot of pressure to get it right first time.

Even at my most frustrated though I really loved the fic and just... The whole idea. Remember when bayonetta and joker were first in smash and people started joking that bayonetta was joker's mum? It was inspired by that. There were a few amazing fics! I just wish it had developed into a small but proper crossover fandom instead of petering out after a few months... There's so much potential lmao!

[mcrmadness]

Hhhhhhhhhh writing fanfiction is so difficult. I'm just overthinking all the time.

For example, I absolutely HATE it when in medias people are always lying and/or cheating. I hate it how in older slash fanfics being not-straight was always a huge problem, either internalized homophobia etc. or other people turning their backs to the main characters, in worst case scenarios it was friendships ruined because one had developed other feelings towards them. People ending up doing "gay things" and then regretting everything and becoming extremely cold towards the partner.

Like, it's so frustrating. Especially in one certain fandom of mine (*cough* dä *cough*). You don't need to go more than maybe 10-15 years back with fanfiction and you're already getting stories that are nothing but one or all of the above. Hell, even FAN VIDEOS were always some super sad angsty break-up stories like... why???

Already back then I started writing fanfiction myself because I wanted to read something nice, fluffy and lighthearted (without smut), and I couldn't find that anywhere so it was the old case of: I have to do everything here myself then.

And now every time I write my fanfics that still somewhat rebel against these, idk, gay-shaming fanfics filled with internalized homophobia, secret guilty pleasure relationships with cheating I just. I feel like I'm doing the right thing. But at the same time I think about my fanfics through the eyes of a reader and it's just... I'm wondering if my fanfics come across as me trying to moralize or something.

"Don't cheat, be who you are, don't be ashamed of who you are, don't hate on others for something they can't affect on..."

I mean that if people read a fanfic where a subplot is to avoid cheating, does it feel like I'm talking to a child about how cheating is bad? Does the reader take is as a personal attack, even if they'd never even THINK about cheating, does it still make them feel like "yo don't you fucking tell me what to do or not to do!!!" when the core point of that is just that: I find cheating so awful tool in medias that I do not want it to my fanfics either. End of story.

I'm wondering if it sounds like I'm mocking those early 2000s style fanfics only because I never liked the way they handled things. In fact, I didn't even like the 2000s LGBT+ movies/series usually because why the fuck everything had to have a sad ending??? And nowadays medias are a bit better and I'm no longer interested because I grew out of that curious phase and now I'm just a boring aroace not interested in characters' preferences in relationships etc. anymore. I only write (and sometimes read) fanfiction about my OTP because my obsession is nowhere near healthy anymore but no can do.

Cos in a way I'm, I guess, venting out the experiences I got when I tried to find myself something to read or watch when I was an adolescent and a young adult, and couldn't find anything because everything was just, well like I explained above: filled with internalized homophobia or was nothing but smut. First one made me irrationally angry every time, and the second one eventually stopped interesting me after I grew out of the novelty of reading something "forbidden" when I was still a minor and realized that actually, I'm not enjoying these stories at all anymore, I'm not getting anything out of these, then I started skipping the smut parts and suddenly I was left with _nothing to read. Even with bigger fandoms I literally have nothing to read when I filter out stuff I don't want to read about. So, I don't read fanfiction because there ISN'T anything to read even if I would find some ship interesting to read about.

I'm derailing again but the main point was: when I kinda write my opinions about certains topics and things into my fics, I just hope that the readers don't think I'm scolding them of something they may or may have never even done.

And I'm not going to write them to cheat or be okay with cheating because I myself hate that. And I'm aromantic after all, and I still don't find it a nice plot tool.

[calumthoodshands]

Hey, it's meeeeeeee. So yeah, I totally understand what you're saying and I agree. Like these boys actually chose each other to become a part of their lives and they've always been more than colleagues from the very first day and that's the best thing. I guess if they weren't a band, they could've made vlogs and all and it'd still be that full of life and amazing haha.

But I've a question here, does this fandom has the ships? I meant of course there is, maybe, and if yes, is there any one like superior ship? I guess all ships relating to Luke and Mikey might be dead now? And I'm not talking about bromance ships haha. I just want to know the fd better.

Also, I think you can call me Kia, i don't really have a tag as such and infinity is a not-so-great name, I think 👀

Well then hello kia!!

No ur right tho they could be unironically very popular on YouTube if they had made vlogs or smth like… we all know they’re fucking hilarious when they’re together. It’s practically inevitable. But yes your question. This fandom does have ships! There are actually a bunch of fics on ao3 and i for one am one of the many contributors to it (see my pinned post for example. Or my masterlist). I’m not sure where your Luke/Michael assumption is coming from but quite the opposite actually! statistics wise it’s at the top of the ships! From what i’ve heard the ao3 fandom used to be more active, but there are definitely still a lot and definitely very good writers around now. The circle might be smaller, but the quality holds up. Now idk if you know about this, but you mentioned bromance, and that brings me to a different topic actually, bc 5sos is the first fandom i’m in that has, drum roll, bromance fics! And quite a few actually, even ot4 has been a bit more popular lately. There are some extremely cute ones inspired by the show or just simple cute every day situations, and they’re all worth a read i think. 5sos really are such close friends people said ‘yk what. Lemme just write abt that real quick’ and i think… that’s pretty cool.

One thing about this fandom is also — at least in this corner that i’m in (which is also restricted to slash) — that it’s very aware of the fact that slash is rpf. They’re real people. I know a lot of writers who sometimes struggle with that knowledge, bc many have read or heard that rpf is bad or wrong or whatever, but i really think that most writers here have found a good way to handle it, and know how to write them without… stripping them off their humanity and the fact that they’re actual people who deserve respect. It’s a nice thing to know that and be assured, bc i think it is indeed very important to remember that, especially in fic where you could theoretically write whatever. To me, really, it’s not even like i’m actively writing about them, to be honest. How could I really write about them? I don’t know them. Their fic versions to me are characters, i’m making up a character that is based on their irl person, but that’s… where i draw the line somehow. Fic is about creativity and writing stories and characters, and yes they are greatly based on the actual person, but you can never know if what you write what they’re doing is something they would actually do. Another thing in this aspect is also that 5sos straight up… seem to accept it exists? Idk where or in which interview it was. But they’ve never explicitly said that they think it’s dumb or weird or that fans should stop it. If they did say that, i would stop in a heartbeat. But they seem to be okay with it, and they don’t interact with it, so it’s not bothering them, and it’s very much only here on tumblr/ao3, so it’s like… who cares? And there really are some fucking amazing fics out there, no matter if it’s a hundred or two hundred thousand words. There are so many beautiful fics that handle the most interesting stories and issues and honestly, some of them are just straight up better than some books i’ve read. They make you cry and laugh and wish you could feel that feeling every day. If it wasn’t obvious yet, i love fic. So. Did this even answer your question i don’t know i’m sorry sojdlfjsjdl

I hope you have a nice day thank you for coming here i’m enjoying this!! 🧡

[sixteenthshen]

Hello. I read several of your posts about the word of honor. Very interesting and explains a lot. I'm from Russia. May I ask why Chinese authors and readers hate switching pairings? Thank you

Hi! Sorry it took me a while to reply to your question. (I had too much to say!) First, I've only ever discussed the switching issue with c-fans concerning fan works. So quite a bit of this is based on some assumptions. And I’m not speaking for everyone, just based on my limited circle of friends. The biggest chat group I’ve been in for Word of Honor only had 400 people, the group I chat in the most often really has only 15 or so very active members.

I used to have a very judgemental view of why some people don't like switching (not just the Chinese, but Asians in general, like in yaoi). Because it's related to female "fantasy". In almost every slash fandom you go to, the more popular character is usually the bottom (or bottoms most of the time). Of course, there are switching fics and flipped-around pairings, but by and large, you'll notice that there's always the same trend in all fandoms. The preference for a fixed gong/shou pairing isn't exclusive to just the Chinese; it's just a lot more noticeable when it comes to Asian fandoms, because they don’t care about being PC. 

(the post got too long, I’m putting the rest behind a cut)

All popular novels targeted at cishet women work the same way (helping them build a fantasy by placing themselves in the lead character's shoes, the female lead or the shou). For BG novels, I think Twilight is an excellent example of this; for danmei, MXTX (both for popularity and enabling fantasy). As a matter of fact, most danmei books have the shou as the main character (these novels are marked as "主受文" on jjwxc, meaning the shou is the #1 main character).

For readers, it's part of the reader-fantasy. Asia still has relatively rigid gender expectations compared to the West, and it translates into BL/slash/danmei/yaoi fandoms. If we use WoH as an example, how many bottom!WKX fics and art are created by fans whose favourite character is WKX? I'll bet it's a majority. Generally, danmei fans tend to prefer to have their favourite character as the "primary" shou.

Non-Chinese fans are just more willing to ignore canon and write what they like, while Chinese fans who don't like it tend just to give up and move to the next one. Neither method is wrong; we can't help what we prefer.

For writers, novels with a couple (CP) that switches tend to be less popular. So if you're an author, even if you don't mind switching, why would you minimize your possible success?

Priest's novel fandoms tend to "suffer" a bit in terms of popularity as both characters in her novels are always pretty strong/toppy. I've had Chinese friends tell me they gave up on finishing some books because they "supported" the wrong CP, even though Priest doesn't write explicit smut, and they can easily skip over the suggestive few lines of text!

When it comes to fan works, many people who hate switching or flipped CP say that by doing so, the characters become OOC. I don't think this view is necessarily correct as I can usually imagine specific circumstances where switching can happen in character. The novels I struggle with finding a scenario where switching happens in-character are Qiang Jin Jiu, Faraway Wanderers & SVSSS (the side pairing).

The unreasonable fans may even claim it's disrespectful to the original work (I don't think they really believe this, though).

Most groups, topics and CP-specific forums ban all talk of switching (互攻) or flipped-couples (逆cp). You'll often see stuff like "不拆不逆" (don't split the CP and don't flip them), "拆逆SI" (split/flip them and you die) in group rules. It’s also the same the other way, for example if you post WenZhou in a ZhouWen group, you’re also going to get scolded. 

Fans don't like it, and to be honest, people with agendas to snuff out Word of Honor's (and RPS) popularity in China have been posting a lot about GJ's role in a previous danmei adaptation to turn the fans off (it works), so I get why it’s not allowed. I heart WoH and the actors, I don’t want them to lose fans just because of something as silly as topping/bottoming.

I used to be quite bitchy (and judgmental) about the lack of switching in fic because it's not realistic. After immersing myself more in c-fandom (WoH forced me back into fandom!!), I've become less judgmental about it. Because I realized the fans know it's not realistic as well, and they're okay with that. Before, I thought they were just lying to themselves tbh.

I even prefer switching (or flipped around pairings) in some fandoms because sometimes the shou is often feminised. I hate that. If I'm going to read something like this, then I might as well be in an m/f fandom. I want both the characters to seem like men and have masculine traits.

If you've been reading gay romance novels (written for men) on Amazon from before m/m novels (written for women) became popular, you would know what I mean by the difference. (I’m not trying to sound like a dick, I just don’t know how to explain this difference well) Also, does this make me seem old?? LOL. I'm going to be in my mid-thirties this year. I like that m/m novels tend to have happier endings (since I am a woman), but I also find that feminisation of the bottom/shou happens far too often.

To me, a big part of the appeal of Word of Honor is the beautiful gong who's super shameless (美人攻 ) and the alpha!shou who thinks he's the top. If it were no longer the case (ZhouWen instead of WenZhou), honestly, WoH would just be like any other danmei novel/adaptation.